One able theological article in a month, if we can really secure it, is as much as most laymen will care to read and as much as most ministers will find time thoroughly to criticize and digest. For example, Mr. Calthrop's address, which we hope to give in our next number, may well furnish suggestions for at least a month's careful thought.

Still we shall aim to be mainly practical in our ministry. Short articles on Christian Living, in all its phases and directions, full of life and faith and spirit, are what we find it most difficult to get. The application of Christianity to the wants and duties of the hour is what we most desire as the characteristic of our journal.

MAY MEETINGS.

The Anniversary meetings were pretty well attended. But we cannot conceal the fact that they have lost something of their old significance and interest. The press is a formidable rival to the platform.

THE UNITARIAN COLLATION was got up with the generous hospitality for mind and body by which it has always been characterized. And there was as full an attendance as we have ever seen on the occasion. The speeches were good at least some of them were so. It was worth the while to be there, if it were only to witness the hearty welcome which was given to Mr. Charles Lowe on his return from Europe with health apparently improved and with heart and mind as much alive as ever to the great interests of Christian truth.

At the annual meeting of THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION an interesting report was read by the Secretary, showing something of what has been doing, the last year, for the advance of Christianity by this branch of the church. A few speeches were made, when business details in the form of constitutional ammendments were taken up. If an enemy should desire to have his worst notions of such an association confirmed, he has only to be present at a ministers' meeting where such matters are presented and discussed. Even the admirable conduct of the presiding officer, Judge Wells, was

not sufficient to make the meeting either profitable or agreeable. The details of business ought to be carefully examined and prepared beforehand by committees, and presented in matured forms.

The anniversary of THE CHILDREN'S MISSION is always interesting. The subject commends itself at once to the hearts of all Christian men and women. The presence and the singing of the children are more impressive than any speeches can be.

FINE SPEAKING. Upon the whole, for several years, one thing has been more and more impressing itself upon us at these anniversaries, as well as in other ways and times, and that is that our people are getting a little weary of fine speaking. The generation, which has willingly sacrificed half a million lives to establish a free government and secure equal rights to all, has shown itself too thoroughly in earnest to attach much value to mere talk. Rhetoric is cheap. Sensational speeches are of small account. Men wish not to be amused or entertained, but to get at the heart of the controversy. Mr. Calthrop's address before the Ministerial Conference was the one thing of the week which left a profound impression on all who heard it. Speakers must choose some great theme, and go thoroughly into it, and arriving at strong convictions speak from them, if they would be heard with earnest attention. Rhetoric does not answer the purpose. Our city fathers have given up the Fourth of July display in fire-works. And is there not a meaning in it?

We were very much struck with this same fact at a recent meeting of THE SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION to consider the question of the higher education of women. There was present an audience of men and women who are thoroughly in earnest in regard to this great and important subject. An address was given by Col. Higginson, well written and well spoken, filled up with answers to antiquated objections, pretty stories, smart repartees, but with only a few paragraphs that went to the heart of the subject and showed that he had any just appreciation of its substantial and vital im

portance. It was gracefully and pleasantly done. But except in a few short passages, we felt that the speaker had been trifling with us. It was an evident relief to the audience, when Mr. Agassiz follwed him, speaking in his earnest, straightforward manner on the points really at issue, and when Pres. Raymond bore his testimony to the character and greatness of the work which might be done for women in all the higher departments of education. A few words from Mrs. Dall and Mrs. Cheney were marked by the same spirit. A speech by Pres. Eliot on the education of young men and young women together in the same institutions, though aside from the main subject, was very interesting and instructive. We agree with him in his conclusions, at least, so far Harvard University is concerned, though when he stated what he thought was most needed for the education of women we felt that he did not comprehend the extent of the want which must in justice be supplied by our educational institutions. But Mrs. Howe in her excited, petulant assault on Pres. Eliot, and Mrs. Livermore in her egotistical remarks, failed to satisfy at all those who have the subject under discussion most at heart. Such addresses only injure the cause they profess to aid. Even Wendell Phillips, with all his powers as a rhetorician, produced no deep or favorable inpression on the thoughtful and serious part of his audience. Wisdom is more powerful than any graces of speech, and the vital truth which lies at the centre of a great practical subject is what an intelligent, earnest audience like that which Mr. Phillips then addressed, care most to learn from a public speaker.

With thoughtful, earnest men and women the age of rhetoric is evidently drawing to a close.

GEORGE MACDONALD.

No author who has ever visited this country has left behind a more delightful impression of himself than George Macdonald. In private, in his public lectures, especially his lecture on Hamlet, and most of all in his preaching, he has made a profound impression as a most kindly and genial companion, as an intelligent, thoughtful man, as a Christian

thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Jesus, and carrying into his daily life the best thought that we find in his writings. His preaching was very effective. We heard his last ser mon in Boston. He seemed to us all alive and glowing with his subject. Only one message, he said, there seemed to be for him to deliver, wherever he might go. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." The knowledge of God, the vital, practical knowledge of God, is the one great end of our being. This thought, filled out with intense earnestness and emotion, was the one thing which he endeavored to impress upon the minds of his hearers. Few of the great audience who heard him then will ever forget. His manner of preaching is thus described in "The Liberal Christian:"

"Mr. Macdonald's sermon seemed the converse of soul with soul, without any intervention of body. The passion, the intensity, the tenderness, the grandeur of his words, are indescribable. We have heard many other discourses more intellectually great than this, few that have possessed its peculiar power and effectiveness. It was only an entreaty, an urgent petition, a solemn warning that his hearers should trust God as revealed through Christ,nothing striking or new, but sent home with rare force and directOne of the most wonderful features of this service was Mr. Macdonald's reading of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, beginning with those sweet, restful words, 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.' His hearers held their breath to listen, feeling that here, indeed, was a new revelation."

ness.

VILLAGE LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. - KEENE, N.H.

HON. JOHN PRENTISS.

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Fifty years ago perhaps the most attractive features of society in New England were in its country villages. Worcester, for example, and the towns, about twenty miles apart from each other, from Hartford in Connecticut to Haverhill in New Hampshire, were fine specimens of the sort of life to which we allude. Some of the best examples of intelligence and social refinement were there. Some of the ablest men and most accomplished women in the land were in these vil

lages, which had indeed their limitations and their faults. But they were centres of life and influence. In them the best books were read and disscussed. The dominant questions in morals and theology were thoughtfully considered and keenly canvassed. The kindliest social intercourse was kept up. There was room for a very refined hospitality. The charities of life were gladly exercised. The helpfulness. of neighbors to one another, in the great emergencies of life and death, were extended with the readiest sympathy, and men and women and children knew how to comfort and strengthen one another. Over all was the light of Christian faith and the unfailing supply from the infinite fountain which is open alike to all. We love to think of these villages on which the sunshine of heaven seemed to rest sweetly.

These remarks have been suggested by the recent death of the Hon. John Prentiss, who for many years has been regarded as the patriarch of one of our most beautiful New England villages. He moved from Massachusetts to Keene, N.H., in his early manhood, and made the place his home for nearly three quarters of a century. During the greater part of that long period he was one of the leading citizens of the town. As the only bookseller in the place and the publisher and editor of the principal newspaper in the county, he exercised a great influence on the education and morals of the people.

Forty years ago Keene was not only a place of comparative wealth and business enterprise, but a centre of intelligence, of social refinement, and of moral and religious activity. James Wilson, father and son, with their interesting families, Dr. Adams, the beloved physician, and Dr. Barstow, for half a century the honored Orthodox minister of the place, Salma Hale, the learned lawyer, and his accomplished wife, Governors Samuel Dinsmore, father and son, with their near relatives, the Eliots and Appletons and Dorrs, Sumner Wheeler, a man whom all men trusted, and to whom widows and orphans looked up as to their natural protector and father, were among those who gave life and character to the village, and made it