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ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." "Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." - 1 Pet. ii. 9, 12. "I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty: For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."-1 Tim. ii. 1-4. "All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit: that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."-2 Cor. v. 18, 19.

These and all similar passages, of which there are many scattered here and there through the New Testament, prove beyond all question the expansive and world-embracing nature of the religion of Christ and indicate the duty which it imposes upon his disciples, individually and in their church relations, of extending to the utmost its influence and power for good among men, and of helping in the work of bringing the whole world, all classes and conditions of men, in all lands and beneath all skies, under its holy and beneficent sway. To promote this sublime result by the wisest and most effective means must certainly be

one of the cardinal objects of a true Christian church.

So far as preaching is concerned, or the promulgating Christianity by the spoken word, all sections of the nominal church have been diligent and zealous enough, so far as regards their own respective theories and creeds; often, indeed, perverting the work of converting men to Christ and bringing them to the love and practice of righteousness into mere proselytism to a sect or party, often to a very narrow and bigoted one; one in which the belief or confession of certain dogmatic assumptions, or the observance of certain prescribed rites, or the pronouncing of some conventional shibboleth was made the chief thing - a matter of more importance manward and of surer acceptance Godward than obedience to the Christian law in the leading of a pure, noble, Christlike life. And not infrequently when the preaching has been comparatively and on the whole fairly good and for the most part above reproach, there has been lamentable failure in the matter of applying the truth proclaimed to daily conduct, to life in its various. relations, and especially to the habits, practices, customs of general society and to the laws, institutions, and established policies of organized civil government; of towns, cities, provinces, states, and nations. The rebuke of the Master has been justified again and again in the history of the church; nay, has been of almost constant applicability, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord"; why claim to be under my leadership and tuition, "and yet do not

the things I say?" The worldling looks upon the lives and characters of nominal disciples of Christ and finds them so much like those of the so-called unregenerate, the non-professing masses, that he either comes to despise religion and all profession of religion, or, what is worse, accepts them formally, without inward renewal or moral transformation, for the sake of some personal advantage or possibly through a superstitious belief that thereby he will be insured salvation in a future state of being, without renouncing any of the sordid, selfish ambitions, projects, pleasures, indulgences, however unchristlike, of the present state. In either case the real object of the church is lost sight of and it is made to minister to human degradation and woe, and so to hinder the evangelization of the world. instead of hastening it onward to its final completion. Hence the necessity of giving that object due prominence and assigning to it the importance which the nature of the case and the truth of Christianity demand.

DISCOURSE X.

EXPOSITION AND DEFENCE OF CARDINAL
OBJECTS CONCLUDED.

“There should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.". I Cor. xii. 25, 26.

"Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Rom. xii. 2.

Resuming the general subject under consideration in my last discourse, to wit: The Cardinal Objects of the true Christian Church, I take up the next in order.

OBJECT 3. "To insure to all its orderly members, dependents, and attached probationers, the comforts and necessaries of life, physical, intellectual, moral, social, and religious, without slavish and humiliating dependence on the part of any one upon the outside world." Orderly members, dependents, etc., of the church are those who, of themselves or through their parents or guardians, are voluntarily connected with the body in the relations indicated and are therefore supposed to

be properly subject to its teachings, requirements, regulations, and generally established discipline, duly provided for the edification and governance of all concerned. If any refuse to be thus subject and assume an attitude of resistance to what is regarded as wholesome order, the obligation to care for such and furnish them with the means of a comfortable subsistence in the particulars indicated does not exist. They are out of place and should be allowed to go to their own company and find there all real wants supplied.

But what may be included in the catalogue of life's comforts and necessaries in the several departments specified? A good home, food, clothing, shelter, care in sickness or infirmity, employment, education, moral training, religious culture, needful recreation, elevating companionship, salutary environment; whatever is requisite to the proper development of one's native capacities, to the supply of all his real needs, to the rendering of him useful, respectable, happy. This includes nothing for extravagant habits, for mere self-indulgence, for fashionable display, for demoralizing pleasure or anything of a similar nature. Slavish, humiliating dependence upon the outside world is that involving a surrender of personal independence, of the rights of conscience, or of any of the qualities and prerogatives of a manly or womanly character; thus not only degrading the subject but at the same time allowing the church to shirk some of its most sacred and vital responsibilities. It is that which is attended by some violation of princi