urer, rose up from the back of the audience, and in a loud voice exclaimed, "The devil never uttered a bigger lie. I have organized more than thirty churches, and never had one of those books in my life." The colonel was nonplussed; he hadn't expected it. He hesitated, then said: "Well, if they want to deny it, let them deny it?"

For some time after the reformation was started, the men occupied one side of the house, and the women the other. No family pews.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the speakers poured forth a stream of thrilling eloquence that astonished the country. The pungent addresses and writings of those who opposed human creeds, sounded through the land, and from their very earnestness, compelled an audience; the question under discussion was the only one kept before the people; the reformers of those days, knew nothing but Christ Jesus and him crucified; self was hidden behind the cross and was never referred to. The religious literature of the latter half of the nineteenth century, differs thusly from that of the beginning of the century; in these latter days the speaker or writer keeps self before the people, and men ride into notoriety on subjects foreign to the

gospel.

From the city cushioned pulpit, to the log school-house, the effort is to show in boisterous declamation, how much knowledge is contained in one small head-the subject is hid behind the speaker. This distinction is not confined to Christian speakers; you can see it cropping out in all the denominations, from Talmage to Sam Jones, from the top to the bottom round of oratory. As a rule it is the speaker first, the subject last and least. The horse and cart both are there; what matters it if the horse is before the cart.

With men of seventy years ago, as Campbell, Stone, Purviance, Scott, Smith, Johnson, Rogers, Gano, P. S. Fall, and others, to think of these men screaming as though their auditors were deaf, or preaching sensational sermons, or referring to self, or making a display of learning, would never enter into the mind. In this respect the soi-disant giants of the present day differ toto colo; those were little great men, these are great little men. There are noble exceptions to this rule. But if there is a man living who can fill the place of the reformers above mentioned, I know him not. Now this may be considered a severe criticism as we have an army of men who could, or think they could improve on

those old fogies. The advanced criticism of the day has left Peter and Paul in the fog. Even now -A. D. 1891—in the full light of the nineteenth century, the writer was at a protracted meeting where sinners were called to the mourner's bench. In the ignorance and innocence of his heart, he inquired of the chief speaker: "Where do the scriptures speak of the mourner's bench?" The preacher got angry, and his audience caught the fury from him. Men will reason on almost every other subject except religion. The speaker said: "All the sinner has to do, is to believe." I inquired, "Where do the scriptures teach that? we have eleven or twelve cases given in the Acts of the Apostles, and in every one the sinner had to believe, repent, and be baptized, before he was pardoned." The meeting broke up in an unhealthy state of excitement, and why it should, I am unable to say, as I did not wish to create any disturbance, but only wished to elicit truth.

A RECAPITULATION.

PRESUME it would be difficult if not impossible, to estimate the full force and effects of the reformatory movement of the nineteenth century, for in doing so, we would have to view it from two distinct standpoints; first, its effects in building up a large organization or brotherhood known as the Christian church, and secondly, its influence in modifying the general current of religious thought and practice then existing in the various denominations of this country. At the commencement of this great movement, its advocates were few, with comparatively little influence and less wealth, with no church property, no schools, colleges or universities; it can to-day boast of something like a million of actual communicants scattered over the various states and territories of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific,over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and even over far off New Zealand and Australia. Schools, colleges, male and female universities, have been established,