is the pure in heart for he shall see God." What is the blessedness? It seems to me that it is the very thing that Jesus prayed for when he prayed that His Disciples might be one with God as he was one with them. According to our ability to receive them so God's blessings are developed in us; according to that, we are one with the Great Power, Wisdom and Holiness, which are the life and light of this universe in which we live. I can hardly conceive of a blessing greater than this. It is the great blessing of the man or woman who is holy of heart and righteous of life that he feels that he is one with the Great Power, Wisdom and Goodness which is in the universe, and the life and light of it. This is the great idea that struggles, no doubt, to get expression in the orthodox doctrine of the "atonement." At one with God; at one with the Central Power of the Universe; at one with the Infinite Holiness; at one with that which is absolutely right; then it seems to me that the blessedness of the pure in heart is something even more than moral fullness-it is a spiritual fullness. Oh, how we walk in this world with what I call spiritual emptiness, with no high, purifying, ennobling conceptions. But when our struggle is for righteousness of heart, for holiness of faith and purpose, there flows into us something divine, something high, something sacred. I was not bred in your school, but I suppose that was what the Quaker meant by Inner Light; when he cleansed his soul, when he sought to put out of it all that was evil and base and low, and there flowed in from the infinite centre of the universe, from the fountain of all moral and spiritual purity, the divine light and love, he was upheld with high aspirations and with genuine purpose, with a novel desire of fidelity. It is the blessedness of the pure in heart, that, just in proportion as we are capable of receiving this love, it is ready to flow into our souls. It seems to me that there is another thing in which the pure in heart are blessed, and that is in the sense of support and guidance. You and I go out into the world to use our powers to fill our places; it may be on the farm, it may be in the place of busi

ness, it may be in the work of a profession, and our success and our comfort are largely dependent upon what we are, and what we do; upon the wiseness of our plans, upon the faithfulness of our labor, upon the manly and womanly strength we throw into our vocations. And yet in life there is something else than that; there is something that works with us in our appointed place, in our earnest effort to perform faithfully our tasks. I call it the Divine purpose, the law and order that are in the Universe, that make up that Infinite counsel out of which this world has grown from little to more yet, and that is looking forward to a higher and better than man's eye has ever seen or man's heart has ever dreamed of. So there is a something in your life and mine that we cannot control. It may ship-wreck us, it may make our home desolate, it may take the very health out of our bodies and make us simply prisoners in our own chambers or upon our beds, and it is the blessedness of the pure in heart that brings us into some real union with that Infinite Highness and Goodness, where we rest upon that Infinite loving counsel, upon that Divine law and order at the bottom of which is purity, wisdom and love. So friends, to feel what we are in our best estate, is to feel the tie which binds us to the Higher; to feel that there is an Above of Power, of Wisdom and Order; and, especially, of moral and spiritual goodness and greatness. Therefore, religion is the greatest element in any human life, for it is not the element that binds us to this world on which we tread, but the element that makes us feel that the richest and purest love is yet the Above toward which we press forward forever and

ever.

After singing by LAURA E. JOHNSON, "He Giveth His Beloved Sleep," the subject was continued by

Mr. HARVEY who said :—I did hope that our Chester County friends would give this subject some attention, for I presume there is no question that has educated the public mind since man has become a thinking being, of more importance than that under consideration, and yet notwithstanding all this, it seems

to me that we are almost as ignorant of the real knowledge of the case as people were four thousand years ago. We are still harping away on the same old stringed instrument, the old harp that has been vibrating for thousands of years, and we are all very well satisfied in what we think we know. We are too well satisfied in the knowledge that has been worked up by our ancestors. We are satisfied to rest upon their thoughts; and the thoughts which they have promulgated to the world have become dogmas; and to-day it is a remarkable fact, but nevertheless demonstratively true, that religion is a system of dogmatism. It is that the Lord said so-and-so, and we are bound to accept the Lord's command.

It has not been universally tested in the crucible of intellectual investigation, whether such say-so is true or not. It may be true, I do not say it is not, and I have no issue with the gentlemen who have spoken, I simply say to investigate it is our business as intelligent beings, and perhaps,-I will not make the assertion-immortal beings. We are working along on a track like a steam-engine, a track which we were put upon by our ancestors, a track that will carry us to certain conclusions, whether they be right or wrong, and the world has been going on and saying we must take that track. Here is the track laid straight from one end of the world to the other, and all we have to do, is to put the child on it and give him a push and he goes straight on to Mecca. That is the religion of the Nineteenth Century. It is the religion of all the nations of the earth. Now what I propose to do to-day is to call your attention to this fact, that we don't know anything yet. We only know what can be demonstrated, and if a proposition can be demonstrated mathematically and logically, worked out conclusively on the premises, not assumed premises, not such premises as the Lord said so-and-so, but upon premises that have an inherent affinity in the nature of things, then we know it. If it can be worked out from that proposition then I will accept the conclusion. Now where do we look for evidence in any investigation? We hunt up the facts of the case, and what are the

facts in regard to religion? The thing itself must be true or it must be false, and we have no right to accept the supposition of any individual, whether he be a clergyman or something else. We have no right to accept it unless we can have some demonstration. What is theology? A system of speculation which rests upon, "The Lord said so," and nothing else. Is there anything in the universe besides this? Are there any facts of nature for us to rest upon? Is there no bed-rock upon which we can come down and say here is a truth? If man is not a thinking being, he will never know any more about this question than he does now. But if he is a thinking being he

must satisfy himself about it. We must come down to the bed-rock of facts and reason upon these facts before we can come to any logical conclusion. Now what does nature say in regard to this? Nature is the oldest God, and there have been many gods created in times past. There has been a god for the wind, a god for the waters, a god of education, a god for every moving effect on earth. The ancients thought that no motive effect could be produced without a god behind it to push it on. They found out there were too many gods, and by-and-by one god fell off, and then another, and now they have all fallen off but one God, and he has three heads. The Unitarians, I believe, have dropped off two of these heads and so have the Friends. We have got down to just one God, and we Unitarians can worship now our little one-headed God, and think it is all satisfactory to us. I never saw that God, and we are told by the prophets that we never can see God. We may talk about God, we may think about Him, but we don't really know what God is. What Christians now believe about God, is I find simply this: It is that moving force in nature by which all things are controlled. If that is what the Christian means by God, I am a Christian so far as the God idea is concerned; if He means anything else, then I am not a Christian. I have been asked the question, "What is your opinion of God?" I say simply this, God is a great combination of natural laws by which all things are controlled. Can you find anything

else than law in the universe? I will conclude by saying that this God is the great force of nature which working incessantly turns lower organizations of creatures into higher organizations of creatures by evolution. I don't think anything can be found outside of this great law, and I think the law as sacred as any idea promulgated by the theologians of the world.

Mr. LLOYD: I felt that when our friends had presented the subject of religion in such a pure and beautiful and noble and lofty aspect, as if I had no word to add. It matters little what is the idea of the shape or form of the Deity to be worshiped, so that the worship is enlightening and ennobling, and I rise to say to my friends, it matters little what may have been the worship of past ages, or the worship of the people who are around us now, but it does matter what is the idea of your soul and my soul. I feel assured that most of you have a real religion that is essentially our own and by that you must live, and if from it you can draw deeper and purer aspirations, call it by what name you may, I say hold fast to that. This is the simple fact that I want to hold up to you. It is not needful to be cleaning away forever the rubbish of the past, but it is needful that we have a sense of the infinite in our souls, that we shall feel there is an intuitive or interior consciousness of truth and light in our own souls. It is important that we shall come into oneness with the Eternal Good that is in the universe, until we can put that Deity into better form in our souls and in a more enlightened way bow down and worship. Never mind what is in the present. Only let us aspire to that which is yet higher and nobler.

J. WILLIAMS THORNE:-I think that true religion is that religion which teaches man to be wiser, and makes the world better and happier, here and now. That instead of religion teaching that we must flatter God and supplicate him in order to prevent some dreadful things which will happen to us if we do not worship him, it should teach man those things needful to the moral and intellectual advancement of civilization.