portunities, to surpass them in wisdom and knowledge, in the love of country, in public virtue, in all the honors and duties and the especial manliness of a true American citizenship.

My acquaintance with Brother Nightingale, though extending through many years professionally, was not of a sufficiently intimate character to warrant me to speak confidently of those more interior private traits which best "denote a man truly." I have pictured my friend as he appeared to me, and I find the picture is recognized by those who knew him best and loved him most. Of this I am glad.

"Servant of God, well done!

Rest from thy loved employ.
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy."

Divine Care.

TUESDAY.

Enough for me to feel and know
That He in whom the cause and end,
The past and future, meet and blend,-
Our vast and star-hung system sees,
Who, girt with his immensities,

Small as the clustered Pleiades,-
Moves not alone the heavenly quires,
But waves the springtime's grassy spires;
Guards not archangel feet alone,
But deigns to guide and keep my own;
Speaks not alone the words of fate
Which worlds destroy and worlds create,
But whispers in my spirit's ear,
In tones of love or warning fear,
A language none beside may hear.
To Him, from wanderings long and wild,
I come, an over-wearied child,
In cool and shade his peace to find,
Like dew-fall settling on my mind,
Assured that all I know is best,
And humbly trusting for the rest.

God in Nature.

WEDNESDAY.

Life's burdens fall, its discords cease, I lapse into the glad release

Of Nature's own exceeding peace.

Rocked on her breast, the pines and I
Alike on Nature's love rely;
And equal seems to live or die.

Assured that He whose presence fills
With light the spaces of the hills
No evil to his creatures wills,

The simple faith remains that He
Will do, whatever that may be,
The best alike for man and tree.

What mosses over one shall grow,
What light and life the other know,
Unanxious, leaving Him to show.

THURSDAY.

The Wish of To-day.

I ask not now for gold to gild
With mocking shine a weary frame;
The yearning of the mind is stilled,-
I ask not now for fame.

A rose-cloud, dimly seen above,

Melting in heaven's blue depths away,O sweet, fond dream of human love! For thee I may not pray.

But, bowed in lowliness of mind,

I make my humble wishes known,—

I only ask a will resigned,

O Father, to thine own!

For me the ocean lifts its solemn psalm,
To me the pine-woods whisper; and for me
Yon river, winding through its vales of calm,
By greenest banks, with asters purple-
starred,

And gentian bloom and golden-rod made gay,

Flows down in silent gladness to the sea,
Like a pure spirit to its great reward!

Nor lack I friends, long-tried and near and dear,

Whose love is round me like this atmosphere,

Warm, soft, and golden. For such gifts to

me

What shall I render, O my God, to thee?
Let me not dwell upon my lighter share
Of pain and ill that human life must bear ;
Save me from selfish pining; let my heart,
Drawn from itself in sympathy, forget
The bitter longings of a vain regret,
The anguish of its own peculiar smart.
Remembering others, as I have to-day,
In their great sorrow, let me live alway
Not for myself alone, but have a part,
Such as a frail and erring spirit may,
In love which is of thee, and which indeed
thou art!

True Prayer.

SATURDAY.

O strong upwelling prayers of faith,
From inmost founts of life ye start,-
The spirit's pulse, the vital breath
Of soul and heart!

"In things religious, Unitarians are great, earnest, strong believers. In finding our Bible in all great writings, we are not less, but more, believers in holy scripture; in ranking Jesus as only one in the succession of spiritual leaders, albeit in many ways the greatest one, we are not less, but more, believers in that light of wisdom which, entering into holy souls, maketh them sons of God and prophets; in utterly discarding the thought of a man-God, an ineffable presence localized in space, we are not less, but more, believers in an Indwelling Soul of the Universe, by whom and through whom and to whom are all things; and in rejecting the notion of special divine intervention, and holding to the belief in the unchangeableness of the laws of the universe, we are not less, but more, believers in prayer, because we believe that prayer, as aspiration toward what is holy, and as an expression of thankfulness and trust, is itself in obedience to one of the sublimest of all laws; in renouncing the thought of heaven as a gathering place of perfected souls, and hell as the herding place of damned souls, we are not less, but more, believers in the life everlast

ing, because we believe that the soul's fate for eternity cannot be dependent upon any deed done in this life, but must be fashioned to glory or to shame, to bliss or to misery, by all the deeds that may be wrought in æons yet to be; and in accepting reason as against tradition, in preferring the science of to-day as against the crude guesses of thousands of years ago, in seeking the aid of philosophy, and in welcoming the outcome of criticism, we are not less, but more, believers in revelation, because we believe that the whole of man and nature is revelation when interpreted in the light of the freest, truest, and best thought."

Good preaching is, in our judgment, far more common than good reading, or perhaps it would be more correct to say good sermons; for in most cases the weak point of the sermon, if there was a weak point, was in the delivery rather than the matter. Church Quarterly.

Though the venerable Dr. Newman Hall retired from the ministry recently after a service of fifty years, it is said that he lately preached seven sermons within one week,

an interesting exhibition of industry for a veteran of seventy-six years.

The soul never need wait for feeling before acting. Do the present duty: do not wait for a future light. Action is as often the parent of feeling as feeling of action. Lyman Abbott.

THE JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE PROFESSORSHIP.

The fund for the support of this memorial to one of our most useful and highly respected ministers has now reached $43,000. The amount needed for its completion, therefore, is but $7,000. This sum will insure for all time to come a fitting testimonial of the high regard in which that noble Christian preacher was held by the people whom he so long and faithfully served. And, besides, it will secure for that institution, which he helped to establish and always loved and cherished, great increase of efficiency in the education and training of our ministers. Already what has been raised for this object has greatly strengthened and improved the work of the school. It was never in so flourishing a condition; it never had so bright a future of usefulness opening before it. The committee appointed at the last meeting of the National Conference on the additional endowment of Meadville earnestly desire to make up at once the full amount of $50,000 for this fund. Will not all who revere the memory of this devoted servant of every good cause, and who believe in a thoroughly educated Christian ministry, come to our aid, and bring this portion of our work to a speedy close? Let those who have already given, many of whom have given liberally, add something more to their contributions, and all who have not given hasten to send in their gifts to the treasurer, that the fund may be completed, and this institution, which is rendering such important service to our churches, be able to do still better work in time to come. Let us give heartily and quickly small sums or large sums as we may be able. The Endowment Fund Committee also earnestly call for contributions for the Hedge Fund and the General Fund. All gifts to be forwarded to Rev. W. L. Chaffin, North Easton, Mass.

C. A. STAPLES,
W. L. CHAFFIN,

For the Endowment Committee.

A. U. A. APPEAL.

The time has come when the directors of the American Unitarian Association have

to appeal to the churches for their annual contribution for missionary work. There has never been a time when the directors could make that appeal so earnestly or with

such ample reasons. The work of the Association was never so large, the circulation of its literature never so great, while the churches which have come into existence in the last five years far surpass in number those which have been created in any equal period in the past. The demand for new churches and the call for our literature are sure steadily to increase. So in every direction the testimony is that the place and work, and with them the duty of the Unitarian body, must with the years enlarge.

But your directors have to report that the contributions heretofore made by the churches are altogether insufficient to do our present work. That work, as it now comes to us, must be seriously crippled and demands for more work declined, unless our churches are prepared to increase their gifts. The directors are satisfied, however, that, if societies and individuals really comprehended the condition of things, great additions would be made to our means. What they ask is that ministers and lay people shall study that work. They will then see that a call for a subscription doubly as large as the present is both reasonable and necessary.

In behalf of the Directors,

GRINDALL REYNOLDS.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

We give prominent place above to the appeal of the American Unitarian Association. Although none of us are so acutely experienced as Secretary Reynolds himself in those pains of the spirit that must accompany the inability to accept the most tempting opportunities of extending the influence of our faith, yet we have all suffered an occasional sting of regret that the darkness of doubt and the fog of barbarian dogma should still shut out so much of the light from the souls of our brethren. It would be very fitting now, while our hearts are throbbing with a grander response to the glowing tributes that have everywhere proclaimed the beauty of liberal faith and the sweetness of natural religion as shown in the lives of our heroes, Curtis and Whittier, if we could lead the spiritual force of that response to memorialize itself in a new and larger contribution to the practical re

sources of the American Unitarian Association.

It is time for plans to be forming for the Unitarian World's Congress, to be held in Chicago in connection with the World's Fair. What shall be the nature of that Congress? This is an important question, and one that can hardly fail of interest to every one who cares for liberal religion. Preparations cannot be delayed. Sugges

tions are in order. We think, therefore, our readers will not take it amiss if we devote our editorial space this month to this important matter. The suggestions we offer are the following:

The

I. It is plain that there will be too many distractions for those in attendance to be willing to give attention to much "business," or to listen with care or profit to "reports" of Our denominational work. Therefore, we hope there will be no thought of making the Congress in any sense a meeting of our National Conference. regular meeting of that body, it seems to us, should be simply postponed, by its Executive Council, for one year, thus leaving the Congress wholly free to carry out its own plans and serve its own purposes. the same time the Council of the national organization should of course have a large share in shaping the programme of the Congress, and either the president of the Conference or the chairman of its Council would naturally come first to mind as the proper president of the Congress.

At

II. It will evidently be a mistake to extend the Congress too long; and yet there will be so many interests to be represented and so many voices to be heard that it will be even a greater mistake to make it too short. We would suggest four days, with a morning and an evening session each day, one of the days to be Sunday. Would this not be both long enough and short enough?

III. The sermon of the Congress (and there ought to be at least one sermon) should be preached by Robert Collyer. Everything-his ability, his age, his fame at home and abroad, and his long connection with Chicago through the most crucial years of its history-mark him as the man beyond question who should be chosen for this service.

IV. As to men from abroad, of course our plans as to whom we would like to hear must be subordinated to the questions, Who are intending to come? who can be induced to come? Yet we should not forget that being invited to give an address or paper before the Congress would doubtless bring some who otherwise might remain at home. It would seem that we ought to plan for at least two of our most eminent English Unitarians-possibly Herford and two othersto take prominent parts, and one from Holland, one from France, one or two from Germany, one from Switzerland, etc. Cannot Prof. Pfleiderer of Berlin 'be brought over? and Stopford Brooke of London? Of course a prominent place will be given to Mozoomdar. We wonder if Tolstoi will not come. If he does, would it not be well to ask for a paper from him? We believe he speaks and writes English. He would not call himself a Unitarian, but is more in line with us in the general trend and spirit of his thought than with any form of Orthodoxy. Probably our difficulty will be embarrassment of riches.

V. It seems to us one of the main sessions of the Congress shoud be devoted to short addresses from representatives of liberal religion in all the various countries of the world where it is known and from which it is possible to get representatives. These addresses would have to be planned for carefully beforehand, and kept brief,in some cases, perhaps, very brief; but, this done, no session of the Congress would be more inspiring or important.

VI. As hardly less important, another main session might well be given to short, sharp speeches by representatives, not of different countries, but of different forms of faith within the liberal ranks. Let Universalism be represented by one of its leaders, as Rexford or Adams or Cone or Miner or Crowe; the Independent liberal churches by Thomas or Swing; liberal Congregationalism by Abbott or Gladden; Broad Church Episcopalianism by Heber Newton or Haweis or Prof. Momerie; Swedenborgianism by Barrett or some other; Reformed Judaism by Hirsch or Schindler or Krauskopf; Ethical Culture (if it cares to be represented among religious movements) by Adler or Salter; the Brahmo-Somaj of India by Mozoomdar; the liberal Protestant

Church of Holland or Germany by some representative; Unitarianism by Hale or Stebbins or Savage or any one of a dozen others whom it would be easy to name. Thus we should have ten speakers. If these were limited sharply to eight minutes each, that would give us an hour and twenty minutes of speaking; or, if each spoke ten minutes, we should have an hour and forty minutes of speaking. The first would be none too long: perhaps the second would not. Certainly, it would not if the session were held in the daytime. Such a meeting would be of great interest and value, and it could not fail to attract wide attention.

VII. As to women speakers there is one whom everybody will name as first: it is Mrs. Livermore. Her claim to a prominent place in the Congress is twofold: (1) she is by universal consent our most distinguished Unitarian woman speaker, having a fame over the world as a public orator such as no other American woman of any denomination possesses; (2) she was for so many years a Chicago woman, and the most honored and eminent of Chicago women, that it would seem a particular oversight for this Chicago World's Congress not to give her conspicuous recognition. As to foreign women speakers, the first place will of course be given to Mrs. Ormiston Chant. She will probably be at the World's Fair, and at the Congress. No speaker, woman or man, will be more attractive. We have other women who may well be heard, as there may be opportunity. From the pen of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe an important contribution may well be solicited. A poem from her pen would be eminently fitting. Cannot special musical setting be given her "Battle Hymn of the Republic" for the occasion?

VIII. As to men to speak as representatives of Unitarianism in this country, it need only be said that, with such laymen to choose from as Dorman B. Eaton, Senator Hoar, ex-Govs. Long, Robinson, and Blair, D. L. Shorey, Horace Davis, President Eliot, and scores of others, besides our whole force of ministers, of course the difficulty will be to select the very few to whom it will be possible to assign parts.

IX. We have spoken of a poem by Mrs. Howe. Why should not Dr. Holmes be invited to write an ode for the Congress? It