THE HERESY OF LIFE.

BY REV. GRAHAM TAYLOR.

MORE heresy is lived than is written or believed. Although less talked of and condemned, the heresy of life is more culpable and disastrous than that of opinion. The Gospel has suffered more from the underestimate of the one than from the overrated influence of the other. While the history of the truth shows the connection between false faith and false life to be so intimate as to preclude any comparison of their ultimate character and tendency, yet the inherent demerit and the immediate consequences of each may be justly and profitably compared. The guilt common to both is that of self-will.

In the force of the primary significance of the term, Coleridge defines a heresy to be a "principle or opinion taken up by the will for the will's sake, as a proof or a pledge to itself of its own determination, independent of all other motives." The guilt and consequences of this independent choice, however, are qualified and distinguished by the objects chosen, accordingly as they may be tenets of belief or acts of conduct.

The sin of dissent lies in the willful choice of one's own opinion in preference to the truth revealed by God and commonly believed by His people; in the arrogant rebellion of one human will against the will of God, and the faith and reason of the Church. But the heresy of life is more. It consists in the choice of actions which are not only in known opposition to the law of God and the practice of the Church, but also in conflict with one's own conscience and profession.

This choice is based upon a lower and weaker motive than the former. For pride may be weak and may lower one in the eyes of others, but indulgence is weaker, and involves the loss of self-respect

heaven. Whatever, therefore, we may call our theoretical belief, inconsistency between faith and life is practical skepticism.

"There are many," said St. Bernard, "who are catholic in their speaking and preaching who are very heretic in their actions, for what heretics do by their false doctrines these men do by their evil examples; they seduce the people and lead them into error of life, and they are so much worse than heretics as actions are stronger than words."

Worse it is to live heresy than to believe it, not only because the intrinsic wrong is greater, but because the resulting evils are more widespread and disastrous. For the tendency to promote the formal denial of and actual defection from the truth is more direct and immediate in a false life than in a false faith. Every violation of a dictum of conscience not only weakens its power of protest, but also blurs and finally effaces the principles of faith by which it

as well. The moral turpitude of the choice of such conduct is worse than that of erroneous opinions. For it gives the lie to self as well as to God and our brethren, and adds the sins of the violation of conscience and of hypocrisy to that of willfulness.

When orthodoxy of profession is opposed by heresy of life, the latter term rather than the former should designate the character in which they meet. For the principles upon which one habitually acts ever dominate, and should denominate those we profess. A selfish life hopelessly contradicts whatever acknowledgment we may make of the rights of our Maker and the claims of our Redeemer, as well as the profession that "we are not our own," however oft-repeated.

The broadest charity cannot call covetousness" Christian stewardship." It is idolatry. Unresisted and unrepentant sinning denies the power of the Cross of Christ, or the reality of the "judgment" to come. Fear casts out love. Foreboding challenges providence. Worldliness discards VOL. IV. No. 2.-16.

discerns and judges between right and wrong. Inconsistency of life surely and swiftly tends to sink the secret belief, and finally the open confession, to the lower level of the chosen course of conduct. As in self, so upon others, the influence of wrong-doing is most destructive to the belief and life of truth, because of the natural and ordained necessity of judging of the cause by its effect, of knowing the tree by its fruits. Christ distinctly declared the life of His people to be "the light" -the natural medium of vis. ion-through which the world should perceive His truth and see to live His life.

What artificial light is to sunlight, that is the theory of truth to the truth which is lived. The one but lights up the depth of the surrounding darkness, the other dispels it. "Soul," says Carlyle, "is kindled only by soul, and to teach religion the one thing needful is to find a man who has religion."

The spotless life of "the Son of Man" is the greatest and most convincing miracle of His Gospel. It was that, together with the Christ-like lives of the Apostles and early disciples, which attracted the attention, prompted the homage, and won the allegiance, of succeeding generations to the truth they preached by word and proved by deed.

The great human reason why the simple Gospel of the humble Jesus has survived the wrecks of all man's greatest and purest philosophies is because it aimed primarily at the elevation of the life instead of the culture of the intellect, and because it always has had in the world the life of those who lived it from which to appeal, and by which to commend itself to men. Vain is its appeal without this life. Useless is its utterance by the mouth of the hypocrite. Well-nigh futile is the preaching of the pulpit to sinners which is contradicted by the daily life of the membership in the pews. For fact will always outweigh profession, deed will always counterbalance word in the scales of human judgment. How can it be, why should it be, otherwise?

THE Ascension Day services in St. Ann's Church on | Brooklyn Heights, had much of the character of a jubilee on account of R. F. Cutting's gift of $70,000, which insures the freedom of the church from debt. It was also the eleventh anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Schenck's connection with the church. The church was richly decorated with banners and flowers, and a large congregation was in attendance. At the conclusion of the usual services of the day, Dr. Schenck said: "The prayers we have offered have been heard, and in a manner so signal as not only to give joy to the hearts of all connected with the church, but to disprove all sophistry that proclaims there is no power in prayer, and to show that God can save a sick church as well as a sick soul." The rector announced that he had had cards printed and distributed, which were headed: "The $15,000 contribution for the payment of the church debt," while across the face was printed the words, "Thank-offering." He urged every one to give something, even if only a penny, and impressed upon his hearers the necessity of asking others for contributions. A widow, who had given between $2,000 and $3,000, and who was now sick in bed, had given $1,000 more when she heard of the $70,000 gift. The wife of a workingman, who had given $25, increased her subscription by $25, although she had to give up the education of her children to do it. We trust that it will be handed back to her. She had no right to deprive her children of an education to pay off the debt of a gorgeous church edifice.

THE Methodist gives the following record of a Philadelphia church: "Seven years ago Arch Street Church entered its completed church, having paid on the same in the preceding nine years $180,790.23, besides giving in the time $50,000 to outside charity. In the past seven years it has paid $78,900 to wipe out the church debt, and contributed to the eight prescribed collections of the church $43,754,71— in no year more than in k.st-and to other outside benevolences, $13,210.13."

THE Congregational Publishing Society has had a very prosperous year under the new administration of Mr. George P. Smith. The sales have been only slightly less than for the year before, while the expenses have been reduced onethird; leaving the business condition of the Society better by 16 per cent. than it was at the beginning of the year. Hon. Charles Theodore Russell, who has been President of the Society for ten years, declined a re-election, and J. Russell Bradford was chosen in his place.

GOVERNOR COLQUITT, of Georgia, was a frequent attendant at the Methodist General Conference at Atlanta. He is a Sunday-school teacher, and is universally esteemed for his Christian character, as well as his eminent ability as a ruler and statesman.

GOOD HOPE LUTHERAN CHURCH, at Edgefield, S. C., was dedicated, free of debt, recently.

CHICAGO has twenty-nine Lutheran Churches: one English, one Danish, seventeen German, and the rest Norwegian and Swedish.

LETTERS from Paris describe the opening, May 8th, of the Salle Evangelique, the Hall erected for religious purposes, opposite the Trocadéro entrance to the Great Exposition. The hall was crowded by an audience representing many nationalities. Sir Harry Vernet presided, and addresses were delivered by Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Kin

naird, William Arthur, Signor Gavazzi, Drs. Pressense, Fisch, and Monod, Mr. McCall, and other eminent Christian ministers and workers. It is intended to hold a daily prayer-meeting in English in the morning, and a French service, led by Mr. McCall, in the afternoon. During the same week, the Prince of Wales laid the corner-stone of a Protestant church connected with the Mission Home and Orphanage established by Miss Ada Leigh. She began her Christian work for friendless English girls in Paris in 1861, starting a regular class for Bible-reading among them in 1868, which led to her opening a Home for them in 1872. This she has entirely paid for, having received £10,000 for it. The Home contains several separate institutions-a sanitarium, a home for little children, a room for girls who go out to work in the day, a home for unemployed governesses, a home for girls in shops, a crèche, and a mission hall. The success of her work was so apparent that she has been presented with an Orphan Home at Neuilly, by M. Galignani, free of cost, with a large donation for the work. The church, of which the corner-stone was laid by the Prince, will be a reminder to the working-girls who are earning their living in a strange land of the Sabbath influences under which they were trained in their English homes, and so may draw them to a saving faith in their fathers' God.

THE most remarkable results of evangelistic work among the Jews are found in Sweden. The Rev. Mr. Wilkinson, of England, and Mr. Adler are the instruments used. Great multitudes attended the public services at Gothenburg, the chief seaport of Sweden. Their time is literally crowded from morning to night. Upon the Sabbath 4,000 people, many of them Jews, filled a large Lutheran Church. Drawing-room meetings are also held with evident blessing.

Ar the recent meeting of the Protestant Episcopal Convention of South Carolina, Bishop Howe presiding, an amendment to the constitution and canons was offered, providing that at parish elections "none shall vote except male members of the age of twenty-one years." A long discussion ensued on the eligibility of women as voters. amendment was adopted by the unanimous vote of the clergy, and with only two dissenting votes of the laity.

The

DR. HENRY C. POTTER, of Grace Episcopal Church, New York, recently preached a sermon on the right observance of the Sabbath, and strongly condemned the loose way in which many people treat holy time, especially in our large cities. He censured the practice of Sunday dinners, concerts, beer-gardens, and advised his parishioners to walk to church rather than ride. The rector also said: "It is high time that our brethren of other lands and other races and other religions, or no religion at all, understand clearly and distinctly that, while we welcome them to assimilation to our national life, America is for Americans; and while we will hospitably receive every foreigner, Christian or Jew, Pagan or Positivist, in our lands, they are our lands, and not his; and are to be ruled by our traditions, and not by those of other people. It is as utter an impertinence for the German or the Frenchman, for the Jew or the Mohammedan, to come here demanding that we shall waive the customs and repeal the laws that hallow our Lord's day, as that we shall surrender our language for the dialect of the Black Forest, or our marriage relations for the domestic usages of the Sultan. No one comes here ignorant of American usage or traditions on these points."

ALL of us who have had college life know the regard which the boys have for the old servants of the Alma Mater. There are many distinguished graduates of Trinity College who will thank us for preserving this memorial of a man who was faithful in his generation: "James Williams, the venerable janitor of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., died at his home on Capitol Avenue, near the old college grounds, on Monday evening, May 20th, at the advanced age of 90 years. He was first connected with Trinity College in the capacity of janitor in 1832-3. He appeared in Hartford as early as 1821, when he acted in the capacity of waiter at the City Hotel, and when in the same year the late Bishop Brownell came with his family to reside in the city, Professor Jim became a trusted and valuable servant in the household, by whom he was much esteemed, and for whom he ever entertained the greatest affection. In the position of janitor, Professor Jim uninterruptedly held the place since his installment until five years ago, when, the infirmities of age having crept upon him and partially disabled him from the fulfillment of his duties, he was pensioned off by the college authorities. From an early day he was given the title of 'professor'; the students said that it was 'of dust and ashes,' or 'of tintinnabulations'; he said that it was of secrets,' because he did not let any one know of what they did. For years he carried a subscriptionpaper about the college just before Thanksgiving and received a generous gift for a turkey; and this custom was continued after he retired from office. So, also, was the custom that each graduating class should, on their class-day, make a public presentation to the Professor; this had been done by every class which has held literary exercises on classday since its establishment in 1855. The gift has been, usually, a purse of money,

chairing' on the shoulders of the students. He was always courtly and dignified in his bearing, not only on public occasions, but also as he walked about the streets or attended to his regular duties at the college, bowing to his many friends, and having a pleasant word for each. Professor Jim was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Hartford, where he was greatly beloved and respected, and in which for years he was a prominent figure."

REV. DR. ARMITAGE, of this city, closed the thirtieth year of his pastorate on Sunday, the 9th of June. Appropriate exercises were had morning, afternoon and evening. The pleasure of the occasion was increased by the presence of a number of ministers of neighboring churches and letters from those who were absent. Dr. Armitage is one

but the class of 1869 presented him with a watch, and an earlier class with a gold-headed cane. The Professor's speeches have been among the most amusing and interesting of the exercises of the day, combining, as was well said, 'exhortation, thanks and counsel, without the least regard to grammar, arrangement or punctuation, until he had had his say.' For some years past, on class-day, he walked arm-in-arm with the president of the class, and was treated in other ways with the greatest deference. He was always present at Commencement, and last year, though he was unable to pass the tray, full of tumblers of water, to the dignitaries on the stage, he brought on the roll of diplomas for the graduating-class, and was greeted with generous applause. When ground was broken for the new college buildings in 1875, he turned a sod next after the chancellor and the president; and at the conclusion of the exercises he was honored with a

REV. E. H. EVANS, of Wales, in an address at the Anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, ascribes to the extensive use of the Bible in that country the facts that infidel literature had not been translated into Welsh, and that Popery has scarcely made any progress there.

THE news from Rome is of an interesting character. The new Pope, as it appears, entered into office with a sincere desire for reform. It was plain that he did not agree with the Jesuits. Public sentiment applauded his independence, and hoped he would prevail. But what is one man against a system? The telegrams report that the Pope, after a desperate struggle, ill in body. and worn out in spirit by the plots and machinations of the Jesuits, has indicated a desire to abdicate. Should he determine to abdicate, the case will not be without precedent. One of the purest men that ever sat on the Papal throne, Celestin V., in similar circumstances, resolved on the same step. Horrified at the

corruption and cabals of the Papal court, he assured the Cardinals that if he remained Pope it would be at the peril of his soul. They informed him that he could not abdicate without first enacting a constitution authorizing a Pope to do so. He drafted one to meet the emergency, and consequently the present Pope has both law and precedent to sustain him, if he desires to lay aside such infallibility as he now possesses. Celestin V. was elected July 5, 1294, and abdicated on the 13th December of the same year. The declarations of his abdication are significant: "I, Celestin, Fifth of that name, declare that it is impossible for me to insure my salvation on the throne of St. Peter. Desiring, then, to lead a better life, and find again the consolation and repose of my past existence, I renounce the sovereign dignity of the Church, of which my predecessors have made a trade. I recognize myself as incapable of exercising the pontifical functions, and I now give to the Sacred College full and entire power to choose a chief to govern them."

A BIBLE-READING community of eighty souls has been found in the town of Corato, in the Neapolitan province of Italy. It is the outgrowth of the present of a single Bible in 1860 to an image-maker of the place, who, being converted by its perusal, added the work of Bible distribution to his own trade. By this course he so aroused the hostility of the priests that for a considerable time he was compelled to conceal himself. One old man, a native of the town, makes this simple testimony: "We are all determined to follow Jesus; we may be persecuted, but God will not forsake us."

OVER 15,000 persons, including Arabs, Turks, Chinese, and Japanese, besides Europeans, received portions of Scripture on the opening-day of the Paris Exposition from the kiosk of the Crystal Palace Bible-stand. The pressure of the eager crowd for copies was so great that the windows of the kiosk had to be closed over a dozen times.

REV. T. W. DOSH, D.D., President of Roanoke College, was elected to the second Professorship in the Theological Seminary at Salem, Va., at the late session of the Southern General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

THE First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, S. C., having called a pastor, "gratefully bear witness" in resolutions, to the "untiring labors" of Rev. Dr. Plumer, who has supplied their pulpit for several months.

REV. DR. JOHN MILLER, who was several months since tried by his Presbytery at New Brunswick, N. J., for preaching certain heresies, and deposed from the ministry, appealed to the Northern General Assembly. This body met recently at Pittsburgh, Pa., and, after a full hearing of the case, the Assembly declined to sustain Mr. Miller's appeal by a vote of 274 to 18. The case has excited great interest in the Presbyterian Church throughout the United States. Dr. Miller was for several years the pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church at Petersburg, Va.

Ar the recent Methodist Conference in Atlanta, the venerable Dr. Lovick Pierce, now 95 years of age, made an address which was listened to with the deepest interest. Dr. Pierce is the oldest minister in the United States. England, however, has a minister, whose name we do not remember at this moment, but who, if he lives two months more, will be 101 years of age.

THE Jewish Messenger suggests that one phase of the Eastern problem would be solved if the 250,000 Jews of Roumania would emigrate to Palestine and Syria to till its fertile soil.

Ar the Reformed Episcopal Council recently held in Newark, New Jersey, it was stated that $280,785 had been expended during the year for church buildings. The present value of the church property is $800,000. Thirteen new churches have been built, and seven others are in process of erection. The number of Church-members is 17,057, and the number of congregations sixty-six. The Church of the same name in England has two bishops, ten clergymen, and several congregations.

THE Southern Methodist Episcopal General Conference, which met at Atlanta, did not quite sit out the month, and by Sunday, May 26th, many of the delegates were at their homes. No addition was made to the number of the bishops. The Rev. Dr. A. W. Wilson, of Baltimore, was elected Missionary Secretary, and the Rev. Dr. J. B. M'Ferrin manager of the Publishing House at Nashville. A resolution was adopted to hold, in 1884, a centenary commemoration of the founding of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This event took place at Baltimore on Christmas of the year 1784. The centenary of the planting of Methodism in America was celebrated in 1866, but the Southern Methodists did not participate therein. It was unanimously agreed to take part in the Ecumenical Conference of all the Methodists in the world, and the bishops of the Church were authorized to appoint delegates thereto whenever it may be held.

Methodist General Conference, sitting in Atlanta, received On the tenth day of its session (May 10th), the Southern the report of the Commission appointed to establish fraternity with the Northern Methodist Church. It was ruled by the bishops that the report of the Commissioners was final, and this ruling was accepted by the Conference. Bishop Kavanaugh, who occupied the chair, said: "The Conference had but one thing to do, and that was to receive the papers. He did not want it done coldly. It was a most joyful event, and he recognized the hand of God in it." The papers were received, and a resolution of thanks to the Commissioners was unanimously adopted.

Ir is sometimes said that the distinctively Southern Churches of our country are not very zealous for the promotion of culture among the freedmen. The Southern Baptist Convention, at Nashville, gives on this subject no uncertain sound. The report adopted by the Convention says: "The colored people have a great ambition to secure an education for themselves and their children, and we should encourage it. They form an important factor in our political economy. They have the ballot. To cast it intelligently, they should be enlightened. They must be educated.” This declaration from the representatives of one of the most powerful of the Southern Churches augurs well for the future.

THE Rev. Dr. Gregg, in opening the first church in England connected with the Reformed Episcopal Church, at Southend, referred to the challenge published by the Bishop of Chichester, and said he was prepared to accept it, and should go to Littlehampton, armed with the truth, to meet his lordship. The English Church having become so infested with Romish error, it required to be reformed, and he and his colleagues would do what they could to forward this great work.

THE Russian Greek Church possesses 38,602 churches, including cathedrals; 12,860 chapels and oratories; 18,887 archpriests, priests, deacons and precentors, 56,500,000 members, of whom 29,000,000 are women and 27,000,000 The sums received by the Church during the year amounted to about $9,500,000.

men.