and miracles that you object to, these dark things you would have made plain, are what we should expect in a revelation if it is from God. To sweep them all away, would be to destroy the proofs that the Gospel was a revelation. And ponder this—if it be not a revelation from God its power is gone. The Christian world sinks back then to its old heathen level. So far from helping men to live better, this loss of faith in Christ as the Son of God takes away all their power. It is no help to me in my temptations to know that Socrates or any other sage, even Christ, if only a man, once lived well. But it is the very greatest help, if I am in earnest, to believe that 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that all that believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' to believe that He is watching me now, and that just in proportion as I conquer my sins in His name, and live in His faith, I shall be moulding my character for eternal happiness in the world to come. This is my one escape from the power of sin."

We see then what is meant by the necessity of faith, and why even St. Paul must say in the text, "We walk by faith, not by sight." God, we see, could have given us sight, i.e., a Gospel which should be so impressed upon men by constant miracles to-day, that none would have to doubt or to disobey. But God's plan is not merely to make men obedient as a machine is obedient, or to influence them by motives of selfishness and terror, to such an extent as to destroy the higher motives of lofty principle, love of duty, reverence and devotion, which alone ennoble us. Or, again, we see God might have given us sight by taking away all mystery, all faith, all tokens of divinity from Christ and His Gospel, and sending us only such a scheme of morality as any philosopher or professor could write out. And as the result of this, spiritual life and strength would largely disappear, as they have done in China, for the Chinese hold almost precisely the same opinion about religion which modern infidelity commends to us. The icy-hardness and indifference of the Chinese character is the absolute and logical result, as is their social system, of those principles which many worthy and well-meaning men are preaching among us to-day.

My dear Christian friends, let me ask you to ponder this sub

ject, if you would confirm your deepest convictions about the Gospel you are baptized into. Such a faith as is ours-what a glorious thing it is! God, we have seen, might have turned it into abject fear-or He might have hidden Himself from us altogether. In the one case we should have had only belief without freedom-in the other only freedom without belief. Do you not see then how divine and wonderful a problem it is which the Gospel of Jesus is called upon to solve? It tries to give us such a firm ground for our faith that faith shall not be mere credulity, yet not too firm ground, lest all our basest passions leap up to meet it, and so smother the lofty principles which it is the main end of religion to strengthen through faith. The effort of our Saviour was to give us sufficient promises to encourage us, but not to awaken our avarice-to show us a reason why we should follow Him, and yet not to compel us-to awaken our hope, and aspiration, and effort, and still not to arouse the selfish cunning of human nature, but to purify our hearts by a far-off and dimly-seen prize. And the result of this is the Gospel. It disappoints many men. They want something they can grasp with less trouble. They do not like, as a great preacher says, "to have their heart dealt with at all in the way of trial and discipline, they want to be spared the effort of being called on to love and trust in the midst of danger and difficulty." Either give us sight, or else do not trouble us at all, they cry. And it does seem at times as if God concealed Himself beyond the power of human patience to endure. But remember, at such times, that should God show Himself more clearly, no one of us could assert that the result would tend to real righteousness, real faith, free and healthy growth of such a type as brings men nearer to the God of holiness and love. For that to be genuine, men must have liberty of choice. That is the law of life-why, we cannot say. I do not really know why a plant must have light to be healthy-but so it is. We cannot say why a righteousness that is genuine must have liberty to be unrighteous if it chooses-but we are so made that any other conception is impossible. And in that we have the explanation why a religion to be genuine must be such as to leave the human will practically free to believe it or to disbelieve.

I close then by repeating the text, in the full meaning given by these thoughts, "We walk by faith, not by sight." "Without faith it is impossible to please God," says Holy Scripture again. You who are not Christians, will you not think of this? The Gospel appeals only to your higher side. It does offer you both warnings and promises, but they are designedly placed afar-off, so as not to compel, but to persuade and encourage. Do you not see, then, the glory, the beauty, nay, the necessity of faith? Your very freedom is your condemnation, if you refuse to believe. "For, only the love of Christ constraineth you." And God's invitation to trust Him should be to you irresistible, because He will not take a forced obedience, nor accept any fruit of the soul that has not ripened on the branches of a faith that freely turns to Him.

WOMAN'S WORK IN THE MODERN CHURCH.

[Delivered before the American Institute of Christian Philosophy.]

BY JANE M. BANCROFT, PH.D., NEW YORK.

IN all ages of the Church, the inf

N all ages of the Church, the influence of woman has been a po

tent factor in its development. Her voice has not been heard in Church councils, neither to her have belonged the dignities and honors that pertain to eminence of station; but she has shared largely in the burdens and responsibilities that rest upon the rank and file of the Church. She maintains this position at the present hour.

Take all of the Church communities, orthodox or unorthodox, Catholic or Protestant, rationalist or evangelical-are there any, the majority of whose members are not women?

Two-thirds of the great Presbyterian denomination are women; as large a proportion of the still larger Methodist denomination, while the adherents of the Catholic faith are in an overwhelming majority women. Upon the Continent of Europe, how could the Catholic Church maintain its high supremacy in the countries of the Latin race, were it not for the devoted attachment of the women of the Church? Every Saturday, as you pass along the streets of Paris, you may notice long processions of boys, going at the hour appointed to the parish church to obtain instruction in the catechism, and equally as long processions of girls in the hours appointed to them.

What does this mean? Just this. That a multitude of devoted mothers have prepared these children and sent them forth to receive what they believe to be instruction in the knowledge of divine things, and while there are such a multitude of devoted Catholic mothers, and such training is given to the vast majority of the children of France, Catholicism is not to lose its hold upon the people of the Republic as is popularly believed, but is keeping it intact and transmitting it to future generations. Why is

it that the missionaries of our Protestant denominations find Italy such sterile soil? For a like reason. The mothers of Italy are Catholic, and they bring up their children to share their faith. The boys grow up and go forth into the world where the reaction from the too exacting demands of their childhood's belief drives them into the arms of rationalism, but the girls remain at home to become in turn what their mothers are, the main bulwark of the Catholic religion, and to continue the same state of affairs. This is one form of woman's work in the Church so unnoticed, yet so pervasive, so insignificant, yet so potent, that some one generalizing from it has said "Give me the mothers of a country and I will determine the religious faith of the country."

Among the women of the Germanic races, woman's work in behalf of the Church has expanded into large proportions during the present century. Women have learned the power of organization and have applied it in many directions. Within the last twenty-five years in England, Scotland and America, great missionary societies for home and foreign work have originated, officered and directed by women, that have expended hundreds of thousands of dollars, and sent forth thousands of workers for God to heathen countries. The Church is benefiting by the increased facilities for higher education among women, the widened opportunities that are widening their lives, and the disciplined faculties that enable them to combine together to carry forward great enterprises. Just how far this onward movement is to extend and what part Christian women are to take in the interests of the future none can foresee.

The Revised Version tells us "the women that publish the tidings are a great host," and what commentary the future is to give us to that verse, no mortal voice can at present foretell. But I design to limit our consideration to one phase of woman's work in the modern Church, which lies quite apart from any of the forms of woman's activities that are so familiar to us. Apart, and yet again near, because all alike relate to woman's helpful service, and her interpretation of God's truth by god-like deeds. Yet this form of service has about it an old-time atmosphere that is in quaint contrast to the exceeding modernism of the age in which we live. In truth it reaches back to the days of St. Paul,