in Nature which characterised the earlier poets. The taste for theological controversy and the religious bent of the Welsh mind generally have banished much of the old buoyancy and the naturalism of the Celt from amongst us. Not the least pleasing feature of the present revival of national sentiment in Wales to those who are interested in the literary advancement of the country is that the younger mind of Wales is eager to regain something of the spirit which has been lost, and is seeking once more to play on that lighter lyre which the finger of the Celt can touch as no other can. Mr. Lewis Jones then proceeded to inquire to what extent can the so-called poetry of Nature in England be traced to Celtic sources. The only poetry of nature worthy the name to be found in English literature before the 17th and 18th centuries is that of the Scottish poets of the 15th century, of whom the two chief are Gavin Douglas and William Dunbar. Of these Scottish poets Mr. Stopford Brooke says, "In the absence of any real cause that I can absolutely point to I am forced to conjecture that their love of Nature was a legacy left by the Celtic blood among the English of the Lowlands.

This Celtic element of natural love of the beauty of the world, this special power of seeing nature, and delight in observing her-which came so early to Scotland and so late to England-crept in from Strathclyde, mingled in the blood of the English of the Lowlands, and left behind it, when the Celtic race died away, its peculiar note in the Lowland mind." As bearing upon Mr. Brooke's conjecture the history of 18th century poetry betrays some remarkable facts. Of the poets who originated the return to Nature in English poetry in that century the following six stand out supreme--James Thomson, Allan

Ramsay, John Dyer, William Cowper, Robert Burns, and William Wordsworth. Of these six, four-Thomson, Ramsay, Burns, and Wordsworthwere born in the district embraced by the kingdom of Strathclyde. Of the remaining two, one. Dyer, was a Welshman born and bred. It was not without significance that there was without a doubt Celtic blood running strongly in the veins of the men who started the revolt against the conventionalism and false classicism of the 18th century. Another fact worth mentioning is that the two 17th century poets who gave evidence of the most delicate sensibility and fancy in their treatment of Nature were Welshmen-Henry Vaughan and George Herbert.

From these and other facts the lecturer inferred the initia ting and predominating influence of Celtic genius in the poetry of Nature as it is found in English literature.

A PASTOR'S CHARGE TO THE PEOPLE;

Or, the Responsibility of the Per.

BY REV. JAMES ROBERTS, DARBY, PA.

The pulpit and the pew are mutually dependent one upon the other. If the preaching of the gospel is to be a power in any community, it must be heard. If it is to be the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation, men and women must come within its reach. It is asked in Scripture, "How shall they hear without a preacher ?" Another suggests, "How shall they preach without a hearer?".

To be a hearer of the gospel is something more than to be bodily present. A man might as well preach in an empty church as to preach in a church where a thousand people were assembled who did not hear him. If they were all deaf, the preaching would do them little or no good. The same result would follow if they all

slept. If all were busy thinking of other things, he might almost as well speak to empty seats, so far as practir and permanent results are concerned. Thus you see the success of the sermon does not depend on the preacher alone. He must have hearers, not only people who are bodily present, but people who bave come to hear, and are bent on hearing the word of the living God preached. You personally encourage and help the pulpit ministrations of your pastor by being in the house of God. You do so by your mere presence, because he does not know for what you are before him, nor what you are thinking about while he preaches. Many there are in every congregation who, though present, are altogether indifferent to the worship and duty of the hour, and so the divine message is to them a failure. They are not the hearers that the true pastor craves. What he covets to make his message a success is, not merely people, but hearers who come to the house of God, not to sleep, but to keep wide awake to hear what God the Lord will say, through him, unto their

souls.

From time to time I see articles in newspapers and magazines, discussing the question, "Has the Pulpit Lost its Power?" I think we might profitably change the discussion and for a time at least ask, "Has the pew lost its power?" I am persuaded that, in most of our congregations, the pulpit is all right; the preparation is carefully made; the message is earnestly and faithfully delivered, but it fails of success because there is no preparation on the part of the pew to receive the word spoken.

The old Scotch and New England custom of beginning the preparation for the Sabbath on Saturday, was one worthy of perpetuation. In those bygone days the house was thoroughly

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cleaned on Saturday so as to look its best and brightest on the Sabbath. All necessary cooking was done and the boots and shoes of the household were blacked on Saturday. It was the aim of every well-ordered family to arrange the affairs of the home so as to keep the Sabbath free, as far as possible, from all physical toil and mental care and perplexity. If the pews of the church are to keep up their end of the success of the sermon, there must be something of the observance of this good old custom in in your homes. Not only so, but your business affairs must be so managed that they can be entirely laid aside from Saturday evening until Monday morning. Your social life must be so adjusted that you can avoid all associations that are calculated to distract the mind and fill it with thoughts. unbecoming the Lord's day. If you would be a good hearer, you should retire at an early hour on Saturday evening, so that mind and body shall be thoroughly rested and refreshed. Instead of rising later, as is the custom with many, on the morning of the Sabbath, than on the other days of the week, you should rise earlier, that you may have ample time to make all needed preparation for the duties and privileges of the Sabbath and the sanctuary. You should find some time in the early morning for a season of quiet meditation; for the careful and prayerful reading of the Bible; and for communion with God and with your own soul. Oh, what a spiritually-minded church would this. be, if every one of its members made some such preparation for the hearing of the sermons which are preached to you!

What a mutual blessing would people and pastor be to each other! What a center of influence and power you would be in this community.

On the other hand, consider to what a disadvantage you put your

pastor when you come to wait upon his ministry without preparation to hear the word at his mouth. What chance has the best sermon that he can possibly preach with one who keeps up the business and bustle of the week until a late hour on Saturday night; who, perhaps, spends the last hour of the week among the excitement of a political meeting, or in some place of worldly amusement, or over his accounts; who retires late, and rises just in time to dress, eat a hurried breakfast, run through the columns of the Sunday newspaper, that greatest of all foes to the success of the services of the day, and rush off to church, where he arrives sometime after the service has well begun! Such a man wonders what is the matter with the preacher. The sermon, the prayers, the praises, do not interest him. He feels that some thing is wrong with somebody, but he rarely recognizes that somebody as himself. People put all their mental faculties in a state of unfitness to receive the word of God as preached, and then blame the preacher because, the sermon does not reach down and bring them out of their restless wretchedness. What sermon could ever take hold of such a distracted mind, such a muddled brain? It is asking too much of most preachers to expect them to lift such dead weights to the throne of heavenly grace in one short hour, and then send them away encouraged and comforted by the sermon, which, perhaps, they have scarcely heard at all. If you think you can thoroughly secularize your mind until the very last thing on Saturday night, then take to the Sunday newspapers until church time, on Sabbath morning, and yet get out of the message that your pastor brings to you all that it has in store for you, you are much mistaken. God and mammon cannot be so served.

An

angel might come fresh from heaver, the Son of Man Himself might leave the throne of His glory, and preach to such an assembly of unprepared hearers, and yet produce no practical results. In order to the attainment of the highest success of the sermon as a winner of souls to Christ and as an upbuilder of believers in the truth as it is in Christ, I plead for a prepared pew as well as for a prepared pulpit. The preparation of the one is just as important as the prepa ration of the other.

You owe it to your pastor and to yourselves that you make preparation for the services and sermon of the sanctuary; that you join heartily with him in the praises and the prayers; in the reading of God's word; and in the presentation of His truth. A live church is a congregation that throws itself heartily into the worship of God. Without preparation you cannot be spiritually benefited by the service or the sermon.

If you would meet your responsibility for the success of the ministration of this pulpit you must hear with a view of putting into practice the things that are heard. Every hearer should be to others a preacher of the truth here spoken. In many homes there are those who cannot come to the house of God. You who come should carry home to them the message that has fallen into your own hearts. There are others who will not go where the gospel is preached, the pulpit cannot reach them, but you can lap up in your mind some illustration, some line of argument, which, when the suitable opportunity comes, you can kindly present to them.

Permit me to impress upon you, for your pastor's sake, 'for the sake of the church, and for your own sake, the importance of arranging your household, your business, your social affairs, on Saturday, so that when the Sab.

bath dawns upon you it will find you free from all excitement and bustle, and with some time at your disposal to make special preparation for the holy duties and sacred privileges of the public worship of God. See to it that your seat here is always filled, on the week-day as well as on the Sabbath, unless you are providentially detained. Come, joyfully, into these courts of the Lord, desiring to hear what God has to say unto you. Come hungering and thirsting for greater nearness to God, more conformity in your character and life to the perfect Christ; come seeking for more of the enlightening presence of the Holy Spirit that you may have a better understanding of the duties you owe to God and to your fellow men; come seeking for more of that grace and strength which God only can give that will enable you to perform all of these duties in such a way as to call forth the approving smile of Him whose you are, and whom you serve. Then will you welcome each return of the day of sacred rest and every new opportunity of meeting with God in His own appointed way and place, and of hearing the gospel preached. Then will your Sabbaths, with their sanctuary privileges, be to you times of joy and gladness; seasons of spiritual communion with God: days of delightful preparation for the services of the church triumphant in glory, and of sweet anticipation of the everlasting Sabbath, with its perfect and perpetual rest, and ceaseless enjoyment at the right hand of God.

THE SIN OF DOING NOTHING.

BY REV. THEODORE L. CUYLER.

"Neglect pierces the shell of a tortoise," is an old Spanish proverb. It certainly pierces our own hearts very often, for the most mortifying memories of neglected duties. "Leav

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ing undone what we ought to have done," makes quite as ugly a page in our life record as the doing of things that we ought not to have done. is not only the sin which we bring on ourselves, but the sorrow which we inflict on others that makes our neglect so culpable.

When our Lord told the matchless story of the Good Samaritan, He did not intend that we should look only at the noble hearted stranger from Samaria, who tenderly cared for the poor wounded Jew. He meant, also, that we should look at the two selfish sneaks who "passed by on the other side." Their sin was the old oft-repeated sin of doing nothing at all. I fear that they have quite as many imitators as the generous Samaritan. Who of us is so happy as never to have neglected to do just the right thing at the right time? Who of us cannot recall some friend who was as really an object of sympathy as was that luckless traveler on the road to Jericho? Perhaps we could not heal his sorrows, but we could pour in the oil of sympathy. We could not lift off all the loads from his back, but we could lift off a part of them from his heart. We tried to excuse ourselves with the old excuses, that we were very busy, and that some other time would answer, and so we sneaked off "on the other side," and have been ashamed of ourselves ever since. We ought to have known that nothing is so wonderful to a sensitive spirit as the cruelty of neglect. The two selfish scamps could not have done an unkinder thing to the suffering traveler than to come up and look at him and then sneak off without even offering him a drink of water. The bandits who stripped him and gashed him did not cut so deep as that.

The spectre that I am most afraid of at the last is the spectre of lost op

portunities. The keenest regrets that I feel to-day are born of neglected duties of neglect to do all that I might have done for the sick, the sad, the suffering and the sinning; above all, for immortal souls that are now beyond my reach. Many another minister may feel the same compunctions. Because the needed labors of love demanded a sacrifice of time and patience and put a sharp strain on our sensibilities, we excused ourselves and shirked away "on the other side." If we wronged others by this unChristlike conduct, we wronged our selves still worse. If nothing costs so much as a ministry of ceaseless sympathy with the suffering and with the sinning, nothing pays so well. The hours spent among poor, forlorn creatures in sick chambers, or in trying to win wandering souls to the Saviour, may not bring either salary or applause, yet they bring what is infinitely better. Shame on us that we ever forget that a single obscure soul is a great audience and our Master's smile is a great reward.

If the neglect of our own duty csuses keen self-reproach, so the neglect of our people to do theirs inflicts a wound no less sharp. The parishioner who comes to church every Sunday and goes home to criticise and scold, does not try me as sorely as the pew-owning tramp, who gads about "sampling the ministers," or the orthodox sluggard, who nurses his indolence at home. The surest way to kill a Christian minister's influence, is not to censure him, for censure often corrects faults and often breeds friends for him. The most effectual way is to play the Levite, and "pass him by on the other side." About the worst evil doers in our churches are those who do nothing. If any of your church members want to starve out all benevolent enterprises and all Christian charities, just

lock up your purse. If you want tokill the prayer meeting, stay away from it. The epitaph on more than one defunct prayer service might be, "Died of neglect, with only a handful present to close its eyes." Apathy has killed more than one good cause. It is not too much to say that the greatest obstacle to the progress of Christ's kingdom is not what the ungodly are doing, but what Christ's professed followers neglect to do. If any one wishes to know how the Lord Jesus estimates the sin of neglect, let him listen to that setence of condemnation recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew: "I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink; I inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me!” The retribution falls heaviest on those who knew their duty and failed to perform it.

Here lies the guilt and peril of every impenitent sinner. What you do not do, my unconverted friend, is as effectual to destroy your hope of heaven as any wilful transgressions. Repentance, faith, obedience bring salvation; leaving them undone, means perdition. The neglect to swing a signal lamp has doomed many a railway train, to the wreck of precious lives. How can you escape if you neglect so great a salvation as the loving Jesus is offering to you? you are treating Him now, so will He treat you in the final day of judg ment. While those who accepted and obeyed Him will be ranged on His right hand, the doom of those who refuse to serve Him, will be to stand condemned "on the other side"! The sin that is likely to send you to perdition is the sin of doing nothing.

We stand in our own light wherever we go, and fight our own shadows forever.-George Meredith.