established upon the earth; and the far off islands are waiting for her instruction. God makes Israel a lawgiver unto the nations, and peoples that know her not yet, shall in the future hasten to her. She shall lead the stranger to the holy mountain; for the House of God shall be called a House of Prayer for all peoples.

JAMES DARMSTETTER.

XIX.

ут

True Piety.

Wash

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; your new moons and sabbaths, and calling of assemblies I cannot away with. you, make you clean, cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice; relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow.-Isaiah

i. 13, 17.

is true that the horizon of modern humanity is not that of the Seers of Ephraim. Humanity now has an additional torment, which troubled the ancients but little, the scientific Torment, which no moral revelation can heal, and which the prophets do not speak of. It springs, not from the heart of man, the source of all certainty, but from his lack of heart. It comes down upon him from the stars, it ascends to him from the depths of the ages. The lights of science are cold, like those of a polar sun. It's balm is a narcotic or a poison, and it

will not become wholesome unless it shall lead men by way of their moral instinct, to a realizing faith in God as revealed in the consciousness of man.

Nineteen centuries have passed since the noblest spirit of Rome, in the face of the vileness of the gods and their priests, uttered the cry of outraged reason. "Nor does piety consist in bowing oneself constantly, with veiled face, before a stone and approaching all the altars, nor in prostrating oneself on the ground, and stretching out open hands towards the sanctuary, nor in sprinkling the altars with the blood of beasts; but in contemplating the Universe with a peaceful mind” And eight centuries before Lucretius, Amos, the Hebrew shepherd, proclaims in the name of his God: "I hate your feast days; your holocausts I despise; from your offerings of fat beasts I turn away my eyes. Away from me the noise of your songs, that I may not hear the sound of your lyres! But let righteousness gush forth as water, and justice as a never-failing stream."

t

HE offerings to Thy throne which rise,

Of mingled praise and prayer,

Are but a worthless sacrifice

Unless the heart is there.

My offerings will indeed be blest,

If sanctified by Thee,

If Thy pure spirit touch my breast
With its own purity.

JAMES DARMSTETTER.

XX.

A Time to Speak.

JT

And now, O Israel, what doth the Lord, Thy God require of thee? -Deut. x. 12.

'T is not good, either for the individual man, or for any class of men, to dwell with complacency upon their merits, or upon any success they have achieved; for, as a rule, such gratification breeds vanity, hinders further advancement, and, by over-estimation, lessens the value of our deserts. Man's progress in all good things should be continual and suffer no interruption. As soon as he has reached a step forward, he should ask himself at once: And now, what does the Lord, thy God, require of thee? He should bestir himself to use every achievement as a stepping stone for a still higher point in the line towards his ideals. But the wise king has told us, and surely not in vain, that "there is a time to keep silence and there is a time to speak." When our character is publicly assailed, and our good name questioned; when we are in danger of being discouraged by the reflection that our best endeavors are, after all, fruitless-then there is a time for us to ask ourselves: Have we merited it? And, if our conscience acquits us, this is a time to dwell, with gratitude to God, upon the bright side of our past; a time also, to speak and not keep silence; albeit, men accuse us of pride and vain glory; a time, I add, to ask ourselves, when our heart is writhing under our disappointment: And what does the Lord, thy God, require thee to do under this trial and what fruit of godliness is it to ripen in thee?

ADOLPH HUEBSCH.

IMPLE rule and safest guiding,

Inward peace and inward might,

Star upon our path abiding-
"Trust in God and do the right."

Some will hate thee, some will love thee,
Some will flatter, some will slight;
Cease from man and look above thee:

"Trust in God and do the right."

XXI.

The Blessing of Abraham.

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into rejoicing; Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.-Psalm xxx. 11.

IME is the best teacher of history, the most competent expounder of prophecies. We of this century are better able to understand the ways of God with Israel in permitting the downfall of the Jewish State and the destruction of the National Sanctuary, than were those who either witnessed, or suffered from, the effects of that great catastrophe. We now see how God links events one to the other, until His purpose is reached. Jewish religion began with the announcement that the descendants of Abraham should carry a certain blessing to mankind, and this mission has never been forgotten in Israel. Viewed in that light, the revelation on Sinaj becomes one of the greatest facts in history; it elevates the vicissitudes of our people far above the level of a mere national record. The idea of that mission assumed different forms according to the varying con

ditions of those who cherished it; through all of them went the sadness for the lost glory and the hope of its restoration in Palestine; until we have learned the lesson that human life must be complete in itself and cannot depend upon what is no longer or is not yet. We, too, are the offspring of Abraham and can spread, and are desirous to spread the blessing promised to our first father, among all men; being well assured, that it will redound to the peace and welfare of men and the Glory of God. ADOLPH HUEBSCH,

TERNAL Ruler of the ceaseless round

Of circling planets singing on their way,
Guide of the nations from the night profound
Into the glory of the perfect day.
Rule in our hearts, that we may ever be
Guided and strengthened and upheld by Thee.

(Abbreviated).

XXII.

The Silent, yet potent Teacher.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall share their lot.—Prov. xiii. 20.

Let thy house be a meeting-place of wise men. Cover thyself with the dust of their feet (i. e., sit at their feet like pupils) and drink in their words as the thirsty drink water.-Ethics of the Fathers.

HERE are two ways to win men to the fear of God and the love of virtue. We may enlighten them