in the atmosphere we live. We are surrounded by it, saturated with it, wrapped up in it. The bird might say to his mate: "Where is the air?" The fish might ask in the lake: "Where is the water?" Man may say: "Where is God? I do not see Him, I can not touch Him, I can not feel Him with my fingers. Where is He?" And yet it is in Him that we live and move and have our being. His truth, holiness, goodness, love and mercy have neither material form nor visible color. But they are all about us and are as real as life itself. Paul says: "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever." The invisible can be seen only through the invisible, the eternal only through that in us, which is itself immortal. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The pure heart is the organ through which the invisible One may be seen. We are informed "that Dannecker, the German sculptor, who died a generation ago, left statues of Ariadne and Sappho and a colossal figure of Christ. His early fame he won for works connected with Greek and Roman mythology. When he had labored two years upon the statue of Christ, the marble was apparently finished. He called a little girl into his studio, and, pointing to the form of the Christ, he asked: 'Who is that?' 'A great man,' was the child's reply. 'Only a great man?' said the sculptor to himself.

For a time he was hopeless. He felt that he had failed. But finally taking courage, he began again to chisel the marble, and for six years he cut and carved. Again he called in a little girl and put her before the finished piece. 'Who is that?' he said. The immediate reply was: 'Suffer little children to come unto me.' It was the firm belief of the artist that, for this special task, God had given him a special vision of the Christ. After this he attracted the attention of Napoleon. 'Come to Paris,' said the Frenchman; 'make me a statue of Venus.' Dannecker's reply was this: 'A man who has seen Christ would commit sacrilege if he should employ his art in the carving of a pagan goddess. My art is henceforth consecrated.'"

The man who gets a clear vision of the invisible God, who feels the touch of the Holy Spirit, gains a wider prospect, breathes a more bracing atmosphere and lives a purer, nobler life. When the thinking, acting, aspiring man can rise above the material and light his candle at the altar of the covenant of the invisible Father, when he can see Him by faith on His throne and by his side, when he takes his daily observations from the light that falls upon his path, then grandeur invests his life, royalty impels and crowns his actions, sublimity inspires his thought, and, other things being equal, he successfully scales the

heights of intellectual and moral greatness. With good reason did William Faber say:

Thrice blest is he to whom is given

The instinct that can tell

That God is on the field,

When most invisible.

SOCIALISTIC SECULARISM,

OR, THE ORDER OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM REVERSED.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33.

S

OCIALISM is a subject that should be con

sidered with candor and care. It should not be discussed in a loose, indiscriminate manner, as it sometimes is.

Not All Socialists Are Violent Men.-Socialism is an attractive word. It has appealed to and attracted not only discontented, envious and lawless men, but noble-minded, philanthropic, selfsacrificing men as well. That there are Christians among Socialists there can be no doubt. Under proper limitations socialism is a New Testament conception, pleading for a more orderly and harmonious arrangement of the social relations of mankind. The spirit of the Gospel is that the strong should help the weak; that the rich should minister to the worthy poor, not, however, by compulsion. It is written: "Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." If the New Testament principles were only supreme in the affairs of the world, the so

cial condition of humanity would be greatly improved. The result would be less of separateness and more of unity, less of injustice and more of justice, less of competition and more of co-operation. Christ gave His life for men, and He teaches us that we should lay down our lives for our brethren.

In the early days of Christianity, the Christians in Jerusalem had all things common. But that community of goods was the result of voluntary action on the part of the disciples. The government did not compel them to bring their possessions and put them into the common fund; nor were they required to do so by the new religion. It was purely a free-will act and it was of short duration, probably because it was found to be impractical.

Josephus, in writing of the peculiarities of the Essenes, says: "Nor is there to be found any one among them who hath more than another; for it is a law among them that those who come to them must let what they have be common to the whole order, insomuch that among them all there is no appearance of poverty or excess of riches, but every one's possessions are intermingled with every other's possessions, and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the brethren."

An attempt was made in England in 1850 to establish what might be called Christian social