adjusted on this side of the grave. Then, still to persevere in such hope, would argue a superhuman effort of faith. . . . From beginning to end the Bible proclaims the accountability of rational beings for their actions, and the ever vigilant justice of God "who tries the hearts and reins." To admit "retributive justice and to limit its action to this life, is a proceeding so irrational that it may be considered impossible.

H, no! it is no flattering lure,

No fancy weak or fond,

When hope would bid us rest secure,
In the better life beyond.

Nor love, nor shame, nor grief, nor sin,
His promise may gainsay;

The voice divine hath spoke within,

And God cannot betray.

T. THEODORES.

XXIX.

The Chosen People.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.-Isaiah xliii. 10.

THE idea of a "Chosen People" has for us no other

meaning than that of a people placed into the

world to do God's work amongst men; it implies no inborn superiority of race or descent, least of all, any favoritism in heaven. "God is no respecter of persons;" that word came from a Hebrew mind thousands of years ago, and still forms one of the foundation truths of our creed. It is not contravened by our prayers, nor has it been falsified by Jewish feelings towards non-Jews at any time-save only when the non-Jews acted towards the Jews as non-men. And that other word, than which no greater has yet been uttered, and about the ownership of which religions still wrangle, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”— although the charter where it first appeared is in everybody's hand-forbids us to countenance the least restriction of human rights based solely on differences of race, station, culture or religion. And what has the distinction, claimed by Israel, been through these long centuries, aye, what is it to-day but a crown of thorns? What, but a faith, strong as fate, has kept him from tearing it from his head and chasing from his breast forever all Messianic dreams of a reign of righteousness and peace on earth?

CLOTHE us with Thy heavenly armor, Lord!

Thy trusty shield, Thy word of love divine;

Our inspiration be thy constant word;

We ask no victories that are not thine;

Give or withhold, let pain or pleasure be,
Enough to know that we are serving Thee.

G. G.

And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophecy in the camp. And Joshua, who ministered to Moses, one of his disciples said: My lord Moses, forbid them. But Moses said to him: Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His spirit upon them.-Numbers xi. 27, 29.

HE old question of the Messiah, that has proved so tragic to its first propounders, has at last ceased to be a question for many of the Jews of to-day; not, however, because they have found the person to whom the title appertains, but because they have eliminated from it the personal element altogether. They have transferred the idea from man to mankind, and thus put an end to all controversy, on that point, with other creeds and churches. Nor is their position an altogether new creation. Some of the Pharisees of old have at least hinted at it. What did they mean by saying: "The days of Messiah are from Adam until now," but this that the soul of the great hope lies in the gradual development of the latent powers of man towards that state of this world's happiness, which ravished the eyes and inspired the lips of the ancient seers? Rising from stage to stage, the vision assumed the expression consonant with the periods through which it passed, but

also left them behind when outgrown. Nothing can save the temporal from the tooth of time; and temporal are all history and all actors of history. Their influence alone endures, yet, not intact, but assimilated with all the other ideas that dominate the living generations. Who can separate the threads out of which our present faith has been woven? of a truth, the days of Messiah are from Adam till now, and the only legitimate problems connected with that conception, are the living problems of to-day; leave we, therefore, the past to the student, the dreamer, the artist, and the creed-builder.

G. G.