As to the Christian ministry to-day, in its better and freer forms, it is easy to see that it answers thoroughly the three fundamental conditions of an attractive and noble calling: (1) the line of promotion in it is open indefinitely; (2) it gives an American a great opportunity; and (3) it compels a man to enlarge his life from year to year, even from day to day. Indeed, I should say in addition

to this that it seems to me there is no other calling open to a young man which combines in the preliminary studies by which one enters into its exercise so much of all those lines of study, thought, and forelook which are most interesting to young men of courage.-Edward Everett Hale, D.D.

Material well-being has wonderfully increased; but it was never plainer than it is at the present time that "man does not live by bread alone." The calling of the preacher is more difficult now than it ever was; but it is also loftier, and it ought to be more attractive.-President Charles W. Eliot.

I wish in a short series of articles to invite the attention of earnest, able, nobleminded young men to a calling which I believe is worthy of their careful attention, -a calling which, within a comparatively recent time, has risen into unwonted importance, attractiveness, and promise,-one which is not overcrowded, as most other callings are, while at the same time it offers to superior natures entering it possibilities of influence and noble usefulness in the world, unsurpassed, if not unequalled, as I believe, by any other profession whatever. It is the Liberal Christian ministry.

I say the Liberal Christian ministry rather than the Unitarian, because I wish to speak of the larger thing. Unitarians form only one division of the Liberal Christian army; but what I shall say will apply essentially as well to other divisions as Universalists, Liberal Friends, and Independents, and to some extent to the more progressive wing of some of the so-called orthodox bodies, as the Broad Church Episcopalians and the Andover Congregationalists.

I say Liberal Christian rather than simply Christian, because the Liberal ministry marks a new type of ministry, just as Liberal Christianity marks a new type of Christianity. So that entering the ministry in Liberal Christian churches is a very different thing from entering the ministry in the old bodies. Its credentials are different; its gospel is largely different; the motives to which it appeals are different; its theory of

life is different; its conception of its function is in important respects different.

Of course, it has much in common with the old; but it has much that is new and radically other than the old.

Hence objections that may exist in the minds of any against the ministry conceived of according to the old type do not necessarily hold as applied to the ministry of the new type, with its larger outlooks, its freer air, its broad and fearless applications of reason to religion, its nobler conceptions of God and human nature and human

destiny, its appeal from the inspirations of two or three thousand years ago to the inspirations of to-day, its larger and more rational views of the Church, of salvation, of life, and of the whole place and office of religion in the world.

I do not wonder that there are prejudices in the minds of many young men against entering the ministry under the old and still dominant ideas of the ministry and the church and religion. Every little while we hear the cry of mourning raised by the denominations around us because so many of their brightest young men prefer secular callings, because a smaller and smaller proportion of the graduates of the older and leading colleges of the country seem to be choosing the ministry. But there is nothing strange in all this. There are reasons for it. Some of these reasons are not very high or noble perhaps. As, for example, many young men who have in them possibilities of better things get carried away by the tide of practical materialism that runs so high in our day, and plunge into a life of eager, restless, selfish pursuit of money. Others are won by the less sordid allurements of letters, art, journalism, politics, pedagogy, law, medicine, science. These avenues of activity are powerful competitors of the ministry, and doubtless always will be. And yet, legitimately, they ought not to be so powerful competitors as they are to-day; or, rather, to-day the ministry, as compared with those other callings, stands at a disadvantage which it ought not to suffer and will not always suffer. This disadvantage grows out of the fact that it is generally associated in the thought of young men with the preaching and defence of the old creeds and theologies, which so large a proportion of the more intelligent

young men of the time have either thrown away or are growing increasingly doubtful about. Young men of any spirit want freedom, and not bondage. They believe in the enlightenment of the nineteenth century rather than the medievalism of the centuries when the creeds were made. And so they hesitate about entering a calling, noble and attractive though it be in many respects, in which they fear they cannot stand erect and be their full selves. And who shall say they are not right? The young man is to be honored who chooses literature or law or business rather than the ministry, if to enter the ministry he must subscribe to a single thing which he believes to be untrue or which he even seriously doubts. He does the more religious thing in choosing the so-called secular calling where he can be honest rather than the supposed "religious" one where in any degree he must be dishonest. So that the really thoughtful and earnest portions of the community ought not wholly to deprecate or even regret -rather ought they to have considerable sympathy with-the feelings and motives in the minds of many of the young men of our day which take them into other callings in preference to the Christian ministry.

But how lamentable it is that the noblest of all callings, which exists for the purpose of helping the world toward honesty and truth, should ever have associated with it any conditions whose influence could be to encourage pretence or to suppress that freedom of thought without which the attain ment of truth is impossible! How much to be regretted is it that the ministry should not be a calling which young men would recognize at once as the place where of all places they would find it most natural and most expected of them to be their largest, truest selves; where honesty and truthseeking would be most honored; where their best powers of reason would find full and unhindered scope; where no knowledge would be tabooed; where the largest possi. ble endowments of intellect and conscience and spirit would find employ and welcome in the work of lifting the world up to a nobler life! Just this is what the Christian ministry everywhere ought to be. This is what it is some day going to be.

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Nor is what I say solely prediction. transformation has already begun, at least

in the ministry of Protestant Christendom. That ministry is nowhere what it was fifty or even twenty years ago. An ideal more in harmony with the growing light of our modern age is rising before it. If, in general, the advance is not great, in some directions it is considerable. Indeed, in several quarters the new ideal is already the recog nized ideal. In several groups of churches the ministry is already understood to stand for essentially this. And here, therefore, of course young men, in being invited to enter the ministry, are invited to nothing less noble and free and high than all this. What groups of churches are these? I need hardly say they are those already named, which I class under the general name of Liberal Christian.

In a following article I shall state in brief what seem to me some of the more important inducements for young men to enter the Christian ministry. J. T. SUNDERLAND.

THE NATIONAL UNITARIAN

CONFERENCE.

FOURTEENTH BIENNIAL SESSION,
SEPTEMBER 21-24.

It was at Saratoga! To the initiated this is descriptive enough. To others no iconography can convey any adequate idea of the surrounding attractions and the social opportunities which create the peculiar charm of Saratoga. The weather throughout the entire Conference was bright, balmy, flawless. All outdoor attractions offered unusual temptation, and no clearer evidence is needed of the keen and living interest in the cause and work of Unitarian churches to-day than to note the determined manner in which the two thousand people attending the Conference turned their backs resolutely upon lake, park, sunshine, and cooling breeze, in order to struggle with a jostling crowd for admission to the unattractive, stuffy hall where the Conference met. Every day, and at every meeting through the day, all seats were occupied. In this persistency of attendance, and in the undisturbed harmony of hearty fellowship in which all extremes of opinion seemed for the time being smoothly blended, the Conference of 1891 has never been excelled. It also seems

probable that this Conference will have the credit of having effectually and finally dispelled the last lingering impression that Unitarians are opposed to organization and the methods of association, for almost every item on the programme covering the entire three days' Conference related directly to some definite denominational organization, taking the shape, not of timid proposals, suggestions, or discussions, but of definite reports of work already accomplished, with enlargements upon the positive necessity of doing more. Never has any Conference listened to such a solid presentation of organic results. If we are still to be distinguished for "independence of conviction and diversity of belief," we have, nevertheless, learned at last how to sink our individualities in one common denominational enterprise.

Hand in hand with the executive, however, Unitarianism claims the propelling power of the spirit, which cannot be tamped down into neat reports for file and reference, nor cut up into sections timed off by the secretary's bell. A fine flow of the richest of such spiritual currents was started at the preliminary service on Monday night, when, Rev. R. A. Armstrong of Liverpool, Eng., delivered a rousing sermon on the great central truths of Unitarianism. In summing up, he said: "This thought of thoughts is stealing over many a pure and generous mind that is not satisfied with the old arguments that do not go down and touch the marrow of the soul, -the fellowship of man with God in prayer and the reality of moral choice. If the communion with God be forgotten, the moral welfare is soon lost. If the moral welfare be relaxed, the communion with God will soon die out. If we cleave to both, the soul will come to a realization of the words of God when he said, Let us make man in our own image. ""

On Tuesday morning, after a touching service of communion administered by Rev. E. E. Hale, Hon. George William Curtis was introduced as presiding officer. The storm of applause that greeted his appearance was continued and renewed again and again. The Boston Herald well says that this

tremendously enthusiastic welcome "was the spontaneous outburst of admira

tion for a life that had incarnated the highest ideals of the Unitarian faith in flesh and blood." His inaugural address, which was delivered with all the sweet persuasiveness and winning charm that belong to Mr. Curtis, we print in full in another column. Then followed the council's luminous report read by Rev. Brooke Herford, D.D. Several points were loudly applauded,—notably, the statement that sixty-one new Unitarian societies had come into existence in the two years since the last meeting of the Conference at Philadelphia. The report for the American Unitarian Association was read by Secretary Grindall Reynolds; and this, with the report of the Women's National Alliance, will also be found upon another page.

Some adınirable reports from the various home missionary fields were then read by Rev. J. F. Moors, D.D., Rev. T. B. Forbush, and Hon. D. L. Shorey, President of the Western Conference.

Rev. R. A. Armstrong responded to the welcome to foreign delegates, though he put

in a demurrer to the use of the term "for

eign" in the case of Englishmen, saying he felt as perfectly at home among American Unitarians as he did in Liverpool or London.

The devotional meeting on Wednesday was led by Rev. Miss C. Bartlett in the absence of Rev. Miss Mary A. Safford.

Church extension was the chief subject for consideration at the morning session; and Rev. D. W. Morehouse, Rev. Horatio Stebbins, D.D., and Rev. George L. Chaney were the speakers. Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, Washington, D. C., then read an elaborate and forcible paper on "Marriage and Divorce," disclosing the results of a long series of statistics.

Thursday morning Rev. S. H. Camp conducted the devotional service. Reports were presented from the Meadville Theological School Fund Committee, the Liturgy Committee, and from the mission in Japan. It is expected that the Service Book now in preparation by the Liturgy Committee will be completed during the coming winter. Rev. W. W. Fenn read a paper upon "The Bible in Theology," which we have promised for our November number, and shall then print in full. The essay is one of the clearest and most forcible statements of the place occupied by the Bible in modern Uni

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tarianism that has yet been published. hope it will appear later in pamphlet form. The three evening meetings were given to popular presentation of the following subjects: Tuesday, "Our Young People," in the interest of Guilds, Christian Unions, Unity Clubs, Temperance Societies, and Sundayschools. Rev. Thomas R. Slicer, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, and Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones spoke. Wednesday, in the general interest of missionary work, Rev. S. J. Barrows, Rev. T. G. Milsted, Rev. T. R. Slicer, Rev. C. G. Ames, all made effective speeches. Thursday, "The Religious Outlook." Great regret was felt at this session by the announcement that the principal speaker for the evening, Rev. Horatio Stebbins, D.D., had been suddenly taken seriously ill, and was unable to be present. We have since learned that Dr. Stebbins was seized with a sudden chill, and it was found necessary to take him on to his brother's at Worcester, where, however, though confined to his bed, his condition is not considered critical. Rev. John Snyder, Rev. Albert Walkley, and Rev. Watari Kitashima spoke hopefully of "The Religious Outlook" in all its aspects. And then, after a few words of farewell from the retiring chairman of the Council, Rev. Brooke Herford, D.D., the large audience listened eagerly to the closing address delivered by the ever beloved and ever inspiring father of the King's Daughters and the King's Sons, Edward Everett Hale, who closed his glowing speech with these words:

A long time ago a carpenter in Galilee said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." The world will judge Unitarians by their fruits. It is in this feeling that we send this Conference home,-the delegates, kings and priests willing to undertake the work for the raising up of humanity.

Resolutions were heartily adopted as fol

lows:

Commending the work of the Tuskegee School under the presidency of B. T. Washington; Expressing satisfaction with Saratoga and recommending the building of a convention hall;

Commending to parents and guardians the ad

Condemning the liquor saloon; recommending that those who condemn the saloons abstain themselves from the use of alcoholic liquors; recommending everybody in general to abstain;

Eulogizing Hannibal Hamlin, ex-Vice-President of the United States.

Recommending the raising of $150,000 for further endowment, including the James Freeman Clarke Professorship of Meadville Theological Seminary: thanking the Endowment Committee that had raised $35,000 and discharging them;

Giving the appointment to the Council of a Committee on Revision of the Constitution.

The election of officers resulted as follows: President, George William Curtis. Vice-Presidents, Justin Morrill of Vermont, John D. Long of Hingham, Mass., D. B. Eaton of New York, Daniel L. Shorey of Chicago, Horace Davis of San Francisco, J. D. Clark of Worcester, Mass. General Secretary, William H. Lyon of Boston.

Treasurer, William H. Reed of Boston.

Members of the Council: clergymen, Edward Everett Hale of Boston, Thomas R. Slicer of Buffalo, Joseph H. Crooker of Madison, George Batchelor of Lowell, Frederick L. Hosmer of Cleveland; laymen, Mrs. Judith W. Andrews of Boston, John E. McKeighan of St. Louis, Mrs. George S. Hale of Boston, James A. Rumrill of Springfield, Mass.

Fellowship Committee: Eastern States, Rev. J. F. Moors, D.D., Rev. C. C. Everett, D.D., Rev. A. S. Garver: Middle and Southern States, Rev. D. W. Morehouse, Rev. S. H. Camp, Rev. H. A. Whitman: Western States, Rev. S. M. Crothers, Rev. John R. Effinger, Rev. T. B. Forbush; Pacific States, Rev. Thomas Van Ness, Rev. Horatio Stebbins, Rev. Thomas L. Eliot, D.D.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF UNITARIAN CHURCHES.

ADDRESS OF PRESIDING OFFICER, HON. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I confess some little diffidence in finding myself in this place; for, although I have had some experiences of political conventions in this hall, I fear that I must call myself too much a stranger to a religious assembly. The word "religious" may, however, be ill chosen; for I have heard that Unitarians are

will not be subject to proselyting influence;

Conveying to the Universalist Church assurance of regard and sympathy and desire for an increased acquaintance.

Favoring the admission of women to the National Commission of Divorce;

But I have not been dismayed by hearing it, for I know of no Church or State that has been harmed by it; aud it has sometimes seemed to me that both Church and State might be greatly benefited by a little more

mere morality. But I throw myself upon your charitable forbearance. Bred a Unitarian, I have been always accustomed to great freedom of thought and speech; and I am confident that the parliamentary rules of a Unitarian conference, however they may restrict in the interest of others the excursions of our speech in length, yet will never constrain what Roger Williams called soul liberty, which is the distinctive glory of the Unitarian name.

My first duty, after thanking you, as I most cordially do, for assigning me to this place and welcoming you to the opening of this auspicious and promising congress, is to recall your thoughts for a moment to the distinguished man in whose place I stand, the late President of this Conference, Mr. Justice Miller of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Every church gladly decorates itself with the names of its great confessors. Every party and every cause is strong in the genius, in the renown and the service of its representatives. And the liberal religious spirit of this country finds its happiest illustration in the good and great men who have borne its name, in the great movements of progress and reform, social, moral, religious, with which it is identified, and with that constant extension of the spirit of religious liberty which universally prevails. I know that these are facts of which it is constantly said that we are most aggressively conscious and most painfully unwilling to forget. Why should we forget them? England remembers always with pride that Alfred, Shakspere, Newton, Howard, were Englishmen. Never does American patriotism tire of telling the story of Washington, nor any land the traditions of its heroes and of its heroic days. Tell me why should not Unitarianism point to its illustrious confessors, and say, These are my interpreters, these are my children? Why should it not point to great public service, to noble character, to righteous lives, and say, If these are the fruits of heterodoxy, so much the worse for orthodoxy? I like to think that Mr. Justice Miller was a Unitarian, not because of any theological or ecclesiastical views that he may have held,- for I do not know what they were, nor for any sectarian or denominational pride that I feel,-for I am not conscious of any,-but the association of his

name, the association of the life, the character, and career of an eminent public magistrate and a constitutional jurist rivalled only by John Marshall, commends to public sympathy and intelligence the truth that Christianity is less to be considered an orthodox doctrine than a righteous life.

It is always an interesting question, and one upon which the reports and debates of this Conference will undoubtedly throw a great deal of light, whether the number of Unitarian societies in this country increases proportionately with the increase of population. I confess for myself that is a less important and less interesting question than the other: whether the spirit of Christianity, the spirit, that is to say, of love, of fraternity, of brotherhood, and religious liberty, is-as I think-constantly advancing. This last question is one which obviously cannot be answered in any very definite or detailed manner. It is not answered by counting all the churches and the communicants, all the preachers and the converts, of all the various denominations in the country, as indeed they are counted in the annual census. You may always enumerate in any community those who cry, "Lord, Lord"; but who shall estimate in numbers the great host of those who do the will of the Father? I am very sure that the increase in the number of Unitarian societies in the country is an indication of the deepening and extension of this spirit. For, although these societies may differ widely theologically and ecclesiastically, although they may not be bound by any common creed or profession, yet I suppose they do all cherish and faithfully inculcate the common faith at which I have hinted,-that the essential point of the teaching of Christ was less a theory of the divine nature, of the divine operation in the universe, than it is a body of rules for righteous living.

If conscience be the voice of God in our souls, I feel very sure, if I may judge your promptings by mine, that it does not exhort us to believe nine or thirty-nine or thirtynine hundred articles. It exhorts us to do this because it is right, and not to do that because it is wrong.

A great many years ago, when my kindly friend, the successor of your old Dr. Hopkins, in his pulpit said to me, "My friend, all that you need to make sure of heaven is