by this warlike theology they are helping the Prince of Peace. They declare themselves serving truth by this course. But we serve truth best, not by attacking error, but by positive statements; by showing truth itself in its majesty and power. This is difficult; while denial, criticism, and faultfinding are easy.

There is an opposite theology which I call Irenic, or peace-making, theology. It does not consist in compromises, or in ignoring differences, or even in making light of error; it does not say, "Peace," where there is no peace, but it seeks first for the truth in all opinions, and afterward for the error. The day will come in which this Irenic theology will prevail; when Christians will rejoice in all the truth which God has sent to man in other religions, rejoice to believe that mankind has always worshipped God, though under many different names, calling him Ormuzd or Bramah, Osiris or Zeus, or adoring the ineffable beauty and majesty of the universe without name or ritual or creed. The time must also come when Christian sects will lay aside their mutual hostility and jealousy, and rejoice to find that the points in which they agree are vastly more numerous and more important than those in which they differ. Then, at last, we shall have a true Catholic church, - many members in one body. Suppose, in a city like Boston, all the two hundred churches of different denominations should form one great organization, united in the

common work of purifying the city from its evils and sins, and bringing all souls to God, to truth, and to love. This will be done whenever each sect opens its mind to see the good and the truth and the love that there is in all the rest, instead of dwelling on their supposed errors.

In the same way the mistake of those who attack religion, Christianity, and the Bible, is, that they fix their mind on the errors and faults in all these, and not on what they are doing and have done for truth and goodness.

It is so easy to find fault! It is so easy to point out the errors of your neighbors, and stop there! But the question is, What are you to give us in the place of what you reject? The soul of man cries out for God, for the living God. It is too great to be satisfied with the things seen and temporal. Forever it looks beyond them to the things unseen and eternal. We, who believe in God, in the soul, in immortality, admit many of the errors and evils you assail; but we ask, "Can you give us something better, more true, more beautiful, than the faith you despise ?" Do not feed us with the husk of criticism and denial when we are longing for divine truth.

It is certain that a habit of fault-finding, negative criticism, and denial, tends to decay and death. It is easy to obtain the applause of a crowd by pulling down what men have been accustomed to revere. But such triumphs are ephemeral. Not

the destructive thinkers, but the creative thinkers, are honored through all time as the benefactors of their race.

Analogous to this destructive criticism which attacks institutions and creeds is the cynical habit which looks for evil rather than goodness in human nature and human life. There is a cheap kind of worldly wisdom which prides itself on its knowledge of human nature, when it is only looking on the dark side of things. This, also, is a path which leads nowhere.

The largeness of the apostle's mind is seen in this recommendation to look with interest on "whatsoever things" are true, beautiful, and good. Some persons devote themselves to truth alone. Many preachers seem to think it the only object of the Christian pulpit to expound and enforce their peculiar systems of theology and metaphysics. Others think that only what is beautiful in nature or life is valuable, forgetting that all beauty, even the beauty of holiness, has its roots in some law, some principle. Others tell us to be good, to do our duty, and imagine that ethical instruction and moral lectures are enough to help us. But these alone, without faith as their root, are lifeless. We need the living tree, with faith as its root, beauty as its bright consummate flower, and goodness as its fruit. The power of Christianity, as given us by Jesus, is that it combines, in a perfect harmony, the true, the beautiful, and the good.

In the passage quoted, the Apostle unites these elements, and tells us to think of them, to fix our minds on them all. 66 Whatsoever things are true," he says, think of them. No matter where they come from,—from heretic, infidel, pagan, atheist,—if they can teach you anything new which you have not already known, thankfully accept it. "Whatsoever things are honest." "Honest" is not exactly the proper word here. A better translation would be, "Whatsoever things are adorable or worthy of reverence." The habit of looking up with reverence to what is above us is one of the chief moral forces which elevate the soul. The soul which, consumed by egotism, vanity, jealousy, is unable to see nobleness and revere it, has lost a great motive to progThe greatest souls have been those most full of reverence. Shakspeare calls Reverence "the angel of the world." Dr. Spurzheim, one of the acutest of observers, long ago remarked that one of the chief defects of American character was the want of reverence. Without Reverence, life loses one of its chief charms, character becomes angular and hard, conduct grows wilful. Dignity, harmony, and the highest culture depend on reverence as their foundation. "Whatsoever things are adorable, noble, divine, reverence them." Reverence for these things opens the soul to what is heavenly, and brings down God into our hearts.

ress.

How mean is that life which has lost the power of seeing nobleness! Some persons by conceit, or

jealousy, or envy, close their hearts against the sight of what is excellent. They live in a fog of detraction, trying to lift themselves up by pulling others down.

The newspapers, with all the good they do, do us harm by continually showing us the dark side of life. The natural effect of reading them is to think the world made up of villains. Every morning they tell us of the evil acts done in the world since yesterday. We are told of every swindler, every knave, every man who has cheated and robbed, plundered his employers, deceived those who trusted him. We are apt to forget how small a part such men make of the great mass of society ; what multitudes of happy homes, good friends, true and kind hearts, conscientious and faithful workers, there are in the world.

Once when I was in Marietta, Georgia, I visited the United States cemetery where repose the Union soldiers killed in Sherman's campaign around Atlanta. There are ten thousand in all. On seven thousand headstones are the names of those who lie beneath. But on three thousand stones there is no name; no one knows who lie there. Nameless martyrs for Union and freedom, they are unmarked by man and only known to God.

So, in our human life, are thousands of nameless martyrs, who devote themselves to truth and duty, and bless those around them, but whose names are on no monument, and never appear in the columns