The general effect of Christ's teaching and human development under its inspiration, says Dr. Lyman Abbott, "is to abolish the class distinction between capitalist and laborer, just as it has abolished other class distinctions."

"The wealth of the church," says Dr. Fairbairn, "lies in the souls it loves and teaches to love. Its function is to enrich their time with the ideals of eternity. Churches composed exclusively of rich or poor mean the reign of the conditions and categories of time within the realm of the eternal.” "A labor church," says the Doctor, "is a creation more of despair than hope; an attempt, as it were, to sanctify an evil rather than to cure it."

་་

The terms "Master and Servant, Capital and Labor, Capitalist and Workingman" denote relations the church ought not to know and should not recognize. To embody such distinctions in her very name is but to run up the flag of surrender. The church carries for all mankind the noblest inheritance of our race, the wealth of divine love and grace, of human faith and hope and devotion, of saintly memory and heroic achievement, and only as she makes the inheritance she carries the possession of all men does she fulfil the end for which she was created."

The following letter by Phillips Brooks to Rev. Reuben Kidner states an ideal for the church :

BOSTON, August 27, 1879.

I will be with you on the evening of the 17th. Please state the subject on which you wish me to speak, as you think best, only don't say anything in it about "workingmen." I like workingmen very much and care for their good, but I have nothing distinct or separate to say to them about religion; nor do I see how it will do any good to treat them as a separate class in this matter in which their needs and duties are just like other men's.”

What the Christian Church needs today is not a new system, but more of the fraternal spirit, a more fraternal religion.

A man in Christ ought always and everywhere to be a manly, brotherly, Godly man. Brotherhood is the crying

need of the hour.

A Russian philanthropist working on the street one day, was approached by a beggar who stretched out his gaunt hand and with blue lips asked for alms. Quickly the philanthropist felt in his pocket for a coin only to find that he was without purse or coin. Then he took the poor man's hand in his and said: "Do not be angry with me, my brother, I have nothing with me to give." The hungry man's face lighted up, the man raised his bloodshot eyes, the blue lips parted in a smile, as he said: "But you called me brother, that was a great gift," He had been cold, but brotherhood warmed his heart; hungry, but sympathy nourished his soul. And it is this divine relationship of brotherhood that Christ revealed and by it warmed the heart of humanity that the Christian ministry and the Christian Church must understand and practice, if the human race is to be saved and the Christian ideal realized.

"Then let me pray that come it may,

As come it will for a' that,

That sense and worth o'er all the earth,
May bear the grief and a' that,

For a' that and a' that

It's coming yet for a' that

That man to man the world o'er,

Shall brother be for a' that."

THE CHILDREN'S CHURCH.

ALMON R. HEWITT.

When I became pastor of the Weedsport church, forty years ago, there was a feeling that children should come to at least sixteen years old

the

age of understanding

before they were received into the church.

We had about one hundred members, with but one unmarthe Benjamin of my flock-and no children

ried man,

among them.

It was soon borne in upon me, that Christ knew this would often be the condition of the church, hence his command: Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." At the first communion children were received, and of the more than five hundred people admitted into the church on profession, while I was pastor, over two-thirds of the number were under eighteen years of age, some coming as young as seven and eight; and the strong men and women of the church today were nearly all received at an early age.

After a time I observed that those received very early in life did not understand the working of our church, nor how it differed from others, though they were genuine Christians; and the plan of the children's church came to me.

I invited all children to meet me at my home, and formed them into a church organization, for an object lesson. I had them elect all the church officers, explaining the duties of elders, deacons and trustees, and gave them careful instruction on the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper. I also taught them the relation of the individual church to the presbytery, synod and general assembly.

So real did the whole thing seem to them, that, (although I told them this was only a pattern) one of the boys asked me if we would administer the Lord's supper.

Quite a large number came week after week, showing intense interest, and nearly all united with the church, and are intelligent faithful members. My experience has taught me that we should at least stand out of the way of very young children and let them come to the Saviour; that when they have yielded to His claims, no more should be expected of them than we expect of grown people; that they should be encouraged to unite early with the church, careful instruction being given on Christian living, church relations and church government.

"I wish that His hand had been placed on my head
That His arms had been thrown around me;

And that I might have heard His kind voice when he said:
'Let the little ones come unto me.'"

Weedsport, N. Y.

*Written by request of the editors to suggest a method for dealing with one phase of the educational problem of the church.

EDWARD W. MILLER.

In the recent death of Professor Timothy Grenville Darling Auburn Seminary loses a much beloved instructor and the Church an efficient and devoted servant. The profession of the teacher is believed to be conducive to long life, but Dr. Darling and his predecessor in the Chair of Theology, Ransom B. Welch, and Auburn's late president, Henry M. Booth, all passed away while still in the possession of their full powers and long before they had reached the allotted span of threescore years and ten.

Like many another man of rather delicate constitution, Dr. Darling was able, by living carefully, to do an immense amount of work, and until the sudden illness that carried him off, had every prospect of another decade of useful service. He had but recently represented the Seminary at the conference in the interest of church federation and at a gathering in Philadelphia. Death interrupted him in the midst of his work, and he passed from his unfinished tasks here to what we must believe is a larger service to God in some other sphere.

Dr. Darling was born at Nassau in the Bahamas in 1843. His father, an American by birth, was one of the most influential men on the islands. For many years he was United States Consul, and on account of special services to the English government was decorated by Queen Victoria. He was one of the main supports of the Scotch church in Nassau, and for a score of years was superintendent of a Sundayschool.

Dr. Darling left his island home when a lad of twelve and came to this country to be educated. When his preparatory course was completed he entered Williams College. Here he fell under the potent spell of President Hopkins, and in after life often bore grateful testimony to the mental discipline and moral inspiration that he gained in his class-room. He was

graduated in 1864 and for a time lived in the Bahamas recovering his health. He then decided to enter the ministry, and took a theological course, two years of it at Princeton, one year at Union. His career in the pastorate consisted of two years' service as assistant to Dr. John Backus in Baltimore and fifteen years as successor to his brother, Trumbull Backus, in Schenectady. These years as pastor of the historic First church in the interesting old city of Schenectady were in some respects the happiest of his life,-honored and beloved by his people, his labor blessed by abundant fruitage, his influence felt throughout the city and the presbytery, his ability and promise recognized in the church at large. Beside carrying on the work of his large parish, for several years he taught in the philosophical department of Union College, and hundreds of students who attended his church or were in his classes recall gratefully his fraternal interest in them and the inspiration of his preaching and friendship. No pastor ever enjoyed more completely the confidence and affection of his people; and few have come so near making the whole city their parish.

It was with great reluctance both in pastor and people that this delightful relationship was terminated, that Dr. Darling might accept the Chair of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology in Auburn Seminary. This was in 1888. Three years later, he was called to the Chair of Theology at McCormick Seminary. He was about to accept, for he preferred to teach Systematic Theology, when the sudden death of Dr. Welch left the theological professorship vacant at Auburn, and as Dr. Darling was immediately offered the chair he decided to remain and teach theology here. Since then, for fifteen years, his ripe scholarship, his wide experience, his rare qualities of mind and heart have given him unusual success in teaching what is at once the most fascinating and most difficult of subjects.

No professor could be better fitted in temperament and character for the task of teaching theology. To depth and