and for the advancement of God's kingdom, may be done on a larger scale. And as members one of another, we may be warmed and stimulated to new and more successful efforts for Christian improvement in our more personal and private spheres.

The plan of this article has obliged us to omit all notice of some of the most noticeable matters, and some of the most valuable papers presented to the Conference, especially a paper by Rev. C. G. Ames, of Georgetown, Penn., which was, perhaps, with a single exception, the most brilliant essay of the occasion.

We cannot close this article without expressing our sense of the great obligations we were all under to Judge Hoar for the admirable manner in which he presided over us in our deliberations.

A POET'S EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY.

A memorable event in the history of American letters is the completion of his fourscore years by the patriarch of our literature, Mr. Bryant. It is a fitting reward for a life spent, to a rare degree, in the pursuit of high ends, and to which it has been given to cheer and elevate the minds of men by the poet's vision, while laboring for truth and justice in the burden and heat of the day, that it should be crowned by a long and serene sunset, with

"Honor, reverence, troops of friends,

And all that should accompany old age."

Born on the 3rd of November, 1794, William Cullen Bryant was still a mere lad when the star of his poetic genius rose in the morning of our nation's culture, among the earliest harbingers of the full day; and his active life covers the whole period during which American authors have produced anything worthy to be remembered. Irving and Cooper, Sparks, Everett, and Halleck were his contemporaries; and when his "wood-notes wild" first broke on the delighted ear of our fathers, Emerson and Whittier were babies, and Longfellow, Holmes, and Lowell were yet unborn. Since his fame was established, he has seen two generations of authors rise to fill the ranks where he was the pioneer; and still his eye is undimmed, and his latest are as sweet as his earliest lays. But the

"Poet, whose voice is of the winds and woods,

Whose calm verse flows as does the mountain rill,”

has not only been the tranquil interpreter of nature he has spent a full life-time in the political strife of a most eventful period, giving and taking blows not without scars; and as editor of one of the great newspapers of New York, he has wielded a potent influence for freedom and right, and for all high and generous causes, using one of the most influential positions in the land with unsullied loyalty to a pure, clear conscience. Now that journalism is fairly recognized as one of the educated professions, the example of such a Nestor is of incalculable value to its dignity; and the honor that his faithful service has earned should teach an always needed lesson to young men who are entering on the same career. Countless souls whom his verse has braced and comforted, besides all who know the worth of a life consecrated to true and righteous things, rejoice in the Indian Summer of our poet's days.

OF THINGS AT HOME.

"The Christian Union" is certainly a very valuable auxiliary to our denomination, without its readers perhaps suspecting it, in sowing the seeds of wise and liberal thought. We do not altogether like the expression which its distinguished editor used, when he spoke of its leadership as being the "proudest editorial chair in the country," because, although he may have had in his mind the quality and scope of the paper, there is too much tendency in this country on the part of readers to judge of the success of a journal or book by the number of its subscribers. A large circulation of a book indicates a certain kind of success. is brought before the eyes of a great many people, but if its contents are poor, and it has only been pushed by the determination of enterprising publishers, it is likely to be no more heard of after a short time. Where a paper is really so valuable as the one we mentioned, it cannot go too far or wide; but there is always danger that when so much energy is laid out to make a journal or magazine a great business investment, the quality of the periodical will not keep up to the mark from which it started. Far be it from us to prognosticate evil of any such good enterprise as the work of "The Christian Union." We were perhaps unconsciously thinking of the modest list of subscribers which our own Review pos

sesses, and hoping that, if our progress was slow, it might at least be secure in the heart and mind of our denomination.

We started with the intention of making a few extracts from the above mentioned paper, whose columns always contain something valuable and liberal. Here is a little cutting from the editorial staff:

"We confess that we seldom get through our weekly pile of religious exchanges without rubbing our eyes and wondering what time of the world we really are living in. It is simply astonishing to see what things men spend their time over who are honestly trying to build up the kingdom of heaven. When we look at men as they are, and at the evils they need to be saved from, the covetousness, the lusts, the cruelty, the falsehood, the selfishness in its thousand forms, out of which men need to be lifted into pure and Christ-like lives; and when then we see the kind of appliances which many good people in the church are carefully tinkering, and relying on to do this great work, we feel tempted to exclaim, 'Either these men are fools or we are!' Here, in the warm-hearted, earnest, practical Methodist Church, we find men debating whether one writer shall be tried for heresy, for making 'regeneration' identical with 'sanctification;' how far another brother must be put down for taking a Sabellian view of the Trinity; whether an old minister shall be allowed to go on preaching who has denied the literal resurrection of the material body! In the name of common sense and of the Scriptures, what vital relation have these heresy-huntings to the actual fitting men to live and to die? Seeing men toiling and fighting over these 'beggarly elements,' these husks of speculation, with human beings going to destruction all about them, we long for the Apostle Paul to come back to earth and speak such ringing words as he once spoke against the wisdom of the Greeks and the narrowness of the Jews. Yet if, having not only 'Moses and the prophets,' but Christ and the apostles, and the records of eighteen Christian centuries, men will still so misinterpret the gospel, perhaps they might not be persuaded though one rose from the dead."

It is very pleasant, too, to find that some of the most interesting articles come from our own ranks. A paper on the future life, by W. R. S. Mellen, has impressed us very much, especially as being directed to Orthodox thinkers and readers. It is refreshing to us also in these times, when, as "The Unitarian Herald" says of Comte, the Creator is politely bowed out of the universe, by the Founder of Positivism, who says, "Science conducts God with honor to its frontiers, thanking him for his provisional services." "The Herald" goes on to say,

"These are startling ideas, but they do not affright us, for they are but speculative opinions Their pretensions to the accuracy of scientific conclusions are beggarly in the extreme. Not being the acquisitions of experiment and demonstration, their scientific value is absolutely nil. They are simply confessions of personal faith; and, as such, are worth no more than the utterances of the Pope. And, even as such, they are, to a really scientific mind, made worthless by being pervaded with as real and dogmatic assumptions of infallibility as are the oracular deliverances of Pius the Ninth."

But we will now quote Mr. Mellen, whose words come upon the scientific, and also the sensual, materialism of to-day like a strong inspiring breath from heaven, to arouse us from our false conceptions of this life, from our apathy, and from our sorrows, and bring us into the daily presence of the beautiful and the eternal:

"For heaven is not place; and therefore is not specially above, or beneath, or around,-entrance upon which can be effected only after a certain period. It is peculiarly godlike condition, and is ever at our heart's door waiting for admission to us. So all the divine souls assure. For did not Jesus, dwelling in the bosom of the Father, while yet in the flesh, abide in heaven? In regard to the future, Samuel J. May said, 'I may have clearer vision, but not more confiding faith.' Dr. Tuckerman declared that his 'idea of eternal bliss was fully answered by his ministrations to the poor.' Another saint, reminded of Christ's agony for human deliverance, exclaimed, 'It is my privilege to think Jesus the happiest man that ever lived;' while still another avers, 'The world is so fair, I reserve my opinion if heaven be better. There are moments when life is unmixed blessing.' These, and such as these, have found what it is one great purpose of religion to teach; what almost every one has sometimes suspected; what all need to make one of the most vital truths of life that heaven lies partly on this side of the dark valley as well as partly on the other, and that whoso will may sing its songs and do its work here as well as there; as beyond question some are doing more acceptably and effectively on this side than many others have learned to do on that.

"Though involved in what has been already said, yet as needing stronger emphasis, let it be affirmed that Immortality likewise is. Like heaven, this is usually conceived as pertaining exclusively to the region beyond the vale. This, therefore-so runs the general speech-is the mortal realm; that the immortal. Here, abide mortal, dying men; there, immortal, deathless spirits. To go hence is to quit the mortal and enter upon the immortal. Immortality, accordingly, is somewhat-is a transcendent reality-to be anticipated. To be in actual possession of it, living it, enjoying it, is thought of only by the few, is inconceivable by

the many. Yet immortality, if not a conceit or an illusion, inheres in being. We cannot say spirit without supposing or implying it. Not that it is merely or mainly continuous existence. If it were, to how many minds would its value be seriously questionable? It is chiefly a consciousness of deepening, rising, enlarging life, informing more completely with trust, purity, love, and drawing into more intimate union with the Divine. Whoso has this consciousness has no need of, will not willingly be pestered by, any arguments for the immortal life. It is already his, or he is its; and the possibility of it ever being otherwise is inconceivable. It little matters in what form, the coarser or the finer; in what realm-the one this side or the other that side of the death-line--he is at any moment dwelling. Each in the great plan of Providence is equally good. So long as it is wise to stay in one, he is glad to stay. When it is wiser to pass on, he as cheerfully departs. But, staying or going, his is, and is evermore becoming, the immortal life of God.

"Spiritual realities-God, the Divine Law, Heaven, Immortalitythen, are. They depend on, they relate specially to, neither time nor place. They are absolute. They confront us, lay their obligations upon us, embosom us, offer themselves to us at every moment of existence; though no more at one moment than at another. They summon us, not as soulless clods, nor as sentient brutes, but as living spirits, not merely to anticipate their blessedness in some remote epoch and place, but to open our hearts to them at once, and just where we are, living in delightful consciousness of, and in inspiring communion with, them. They affirm, moreover, that all this is possible-that the life divine belongs here just as much as elsewhere, and is just as sweet and glorious now as it can be countless ages hence.

"And how greatly is a conviction of this grand truth of the absoluteness of spiritual realities-to my thinking the central truth of all religion-now needed in the world! I know of nothing, certainly, that is so much needed; that lies so close to the roots, or that does so powerfully influence the development of human character. How would a clear perception and adequate realization of it indefinitely widen the mental horizon, and elevate the spiritual plane! For, according to it, religion is not designed to ticket men safely through this world, and through the valley of death to an idle or rapturous elysium beyond, but to make men -to make them after the heavenly pattern, and to fill them with the Divine Spirit. According to it, also, religion is not an appendage, or an addition to human character, like a portico to a house, or a spire to a church. It is attitude and essential quality of the soul, of no more worth in one world than another, but of priceless worth everywhere.

"Finally, how would an adequate appreciation of it sanctify our present life; cooling our fevered blood, calming our raging passions, drawing forth our best affections, exalting our divinest powers. Down into the deeps of our being, then, is to be sunk, in our most inward experi