and involving the most sacred human interests, she has committed to alien hands. Virtues that lie at the foundation of Christian life and character, she has resigned to the fostering care of strangers. The brightest jewels of her crown she has surrendered to other organizations. Yet thus naked, forlorn, imbecile, she still dreams of retaining the respect and affection of those whose hearts have been warmed into active life and generous charity by the spirit of the gospel. Never again can she reign supreme over the hearts of her children, or command, as of old, the respect and admiration of the world, till clothed again in the garments of holiness, and armed with her old, inflexible enmity to all sin.

Who then shall be the people, so signally blessed of the Lord, as to be made instrumental in reorganizing the church of Christ on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone? A glorious future will open before us as a denomination, when we resolve to devote all our energies to the accomplishment of this great work; when, with head and heart and hand, we labor to reconstruct the church in its early type; a church with a heart of compassion to sympathise with all suffering; with hands of beneficence to alleviate all distress, and arms of power to resist all wrong; a church that shall feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, reclaim the wandering, raise up the fallen, deliver the oppressed, and save the lost; a church that shall be a home. for the strong, a refuge for the weak, a shelter for the tempted, a defence for the wronged, a sanctuary of prayer and praise for the devout, a peaceful asylum for the weary and heavy laden, a fountain of divine consolation for the heartstricken and bereaved, a broad channel of philanthropy for the humane, and a house of the living God for all; a church that shall cultivate every virtue and cherish every grace that can adorn a Christian life, and dare to set itself, like a blazing wall of fire, across the track of any evil, even the most gigantic that ever set its brazen hoof upon a human heart; a church that shall be at once the true exponent of Christian doctrine, Christian holiness of heart and life, Christian benevolence, and Christian warfare against all evil.

This is what we need; it is what the holiest sentiment of

the present age demands, it is what the most devout and spiritually minded throughout christendom are vainly seeking, and what, if we are to continue a vital power in the world, we must have. Our churches, instead of owning only a set of plate for the communion table, should own the whole temple of worship and all that pertains to it. Instead of thirty or forty members in a congregation of a thousand, the church should include the great body of our worshippers. Instead of here and there a member scattered through the congregation, the church should gather in her protecting arms the strength and firmness of manhood with the grace and beauty of youth; the tenderness and innocence of childhood with the wisdom and decrepitude of age.

A church instituted for such purposes-not for mere ceremony; not for idleness and self-gratification; least of all, to minister to any sectarian vanity or ambition-but to be a living and working organism of the gospel; such a church, exerting, as it must, a sanctifying power over the lives of men, would command the respect and enlist the affections of those who would be the brightest ornaments of the church. If the Christian church were such a power, good men would no longer turn their backs upon it, and seek, through other organizations, opportunities and facilities to promote the most beautiful of Christian virtues, or to oppose the most monstrous of all evils. The lodge-room would no longer outshine the church in active and systematic benevolence; the division-room would no longer excel the church in restoring the inebriate brother to usefulness and honor in the community, or in suppressing that infernal traffic which has sown the land broad-cast with poverty, crime, disease and death; the fearless condemnation of war would no longer find its only utterance through the speeches and resolutions of peace conventions, and a manly and timely condemnation of that heaven-daring iniquitychattel slavery-would no longer, at the dictation of truckling demagogues, be excluded from the Christian pulpit.

Till we have such a church-one that stands before the world as the prompt and efficient promoter of every good word and work, and the unflinching foe of every wrong, the cause of religion must languish; die, it cannot, for it is the cause of God, and the pledge of human redemption. For nearly a century our denomination has taken the lead

in presenting to the world the great central truth of the gospel; in urging upon all who have consented to hear, the supreme and unchanging love of God, as the most powerful motive that can appeal to the human soul to win it away from its degradation and sin to the serene paths of holiness and peace. This labor we have performed with noble fidelity. We have despised the gilded bait of mammon, when that has been thrown to allure us from our glorious faith. We have borne unmoved the derision and contumely, the reproaches, gibes and sneers of those who have sought with such weapons to drive us from the fastness of our position. Calmly and triumphantly we have held on our course, till now, so generally has our distinctive doctrine been accepted, that our denomination includes but a small fraction of those who rejoice in the faith of universal salvation. This work is not to be abandoned or abated; but rather prosecuted with renewed energy and fervor. But we now find ourselves deficient in some of the instrumentalities necessary to the successful pursuit of our labor. As a denomination we are not now increasing; we have advanced but little for the last ten years, though our distinctive faith never before in all our history spread so rapidly. Never before were our tenets so generally accepted by the noblest and purest minds of the age, yet we do not increase as a distinct body of Christians. Those who embrace our faith do not gather with us; they remain in other churches, though holding opinions which those churches theoretically condemn as false and pernicious, but practically tolerate and tacitly approve. În thousands of instances, those who from infancy to maturity have been reared in our own faith, whose spiritual homes have been in our own temples of worship, who have thus been subject to all the spiritual influences which we have thought it necessary to throw around them-have left our denomination and united with others. Seldom, indeed, has this been the result of any change in religious opinions; very often, if not generally, it has been from a desire to enjoy the privileges of church membership, and to unite in the observance of those ordinances which the Saviour enjoined upon his followers. They have left us to enjoy Christian rites and privileges which we have neglected.

Thus we find that elements which we do not possess are

necessary to our progress. We are called to a new labor; God grant that we may be as earnest and faithful in this sphere as we have been in the promulgation and defence of our theological opinions. As we have been foremost in presenting God's infinite love as the central truth of the gospel, and insisting upon all its legitimate consequences, so may we be foremost in presenting a Christian church, not unworthy to be called by the name of those primitive exemplars that stood unmoved under the assault of the combined powers of the pagan world. There was once a Christian church which, in spite of the dungeon, the sword, the rack, the gibbet, and the martyr's fiery death-pile, still held her serene dominion over the hearts of her votaries; still, from her converted enemies, replenished her ranks faster than imperial power, with all the engines of persecu tion, could thin them; a church that for three hundred years drenched her footsteps in tears and blood, yet carried steadily and triumphantly forward the great work of evangelizing the world; leaving her way thick strown with the remains of martyrs, and sending down to all succeeding ages her glorious roll of sainted names. To-day we search Christendom in vain for such a church. Will the world ever see its like again? We may do but little; 'tis a stupendous work, to be accomplished by no desultory or fragmentary individual effort, but by the united and systematic labor of years-perhaps of ages. But, by the grace of God, we can begin the work, though it may require the cooperation of all Christian sects to complete it. We can, if we will, uplift again the banner of the Christian church, in all its primitive purity, integrity and power, though the work be not complete till all nations, families, and kindreds of the earth gather beneath its ample folds.

A. R. A.

ART. IV.

Mohammedanism and its Founder.

In the midst of the wilderness of Arabia, twelve hundred and eighty years ago, was born the man Mohammed, whose name has filled the world, and whose religion still inspires the prayers, and guides the worship of one hundred and fifty millions of mankind.

Met with derision at first, and then with persecution, often on the point of being crushed out by the success of conspiracy, the rapidity of pursuit, or the chances of battle, it still held on its way, gathering strength and numbers at every step, growing in zeal and ambition and boldness, till it swept down every thing in the path of its conquests, planted in some of the fairest portions of the earth, the crescent in the place of the cross, and lighted up the horizon of the world with the red glare of its fanaticism. Syria and the Caucasus, Persia, India, Egypt, Northern Africa and Spain, one after the other, saw their ancient glories swept away before the terrible storm, and they bowed their heads in the dust as they caught the gleam of the crescent from temple and tower, and beheld the half naked Arabs revelling in the halls of their ancient kings.

It is natural for us to ask, What is this Mahommedanism, this religion which wrought such wonders, inspired its followers with such fierce, indomitable zeal, and so suddenly built up an empire which paled even the splendors, and surpassed the triumphs, of imperial Rome? The Koran is our authority. In many of its leading facts this book is borrowed from the Old and New Testaments. We have in substance the accounts of the creation-Adam's sin, the deluge and the saving of Noah and his family, the history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Ishmael, the election of the Jewish nation, the history of Moses and his administration, the inspiration and authority of the Hebrew prophet, and the Psalms of David-and finally the promise of the Messiah. From the Gospels we have the narrative of Christ's birth, his title of the Word of God, his miracles, persecution, crucifixion and ascension, the story of John the Baptist, etc.