himself dwelling in the human soul. Can any man think lightly of it because it has not grown up in a certain church, or exalt any church above it? My friends, one of the grandest truths of religion is, the supreme importance of character, of virtue, of that divine spirit which shone out in Christ. The grand heresy is, to substitute anything for this, whether creed, or form, or church. One of the greatest wrongs to Christ is, to despise his character, his virtue, in a disciple who happens to wear a different name from our own.

When I represent to myself true virtue or goodness-not that which is made up of outward proprieties and prudent calculations, but that which chooses duty for its own sake, and as the first concern; which respects impartially the rights of every human being; which labors and suffers with patient resolution for truth, and others' welfare; which blends energy and sweetness, deep humility and self-reverence; which places joyful faith in the perfection of God, communes with him intimately, and strives to subject to his pure will, all thought, imagination, and desire; which lays hold on the promise of everlasting life, and in the strength of this hope endures calmly and firmly the sorest evils of the present state-when I set before me this virtue, all the distinctions on which men value themselves fade away. Wealth is poor, worldly honor is mean, outward forms are beggarly elements. Condition, country, church, all sink into unimportance. Before this simple greatness I bow, I The robed priest, the gorgeous altar, the great assembly, the pealing organ, all the exteriors of religion, vanish from my sight as I look at the good and great man, the holy, disinterested soul. Even I, with vision so dim, with heart so cold, can see and feel the divinity, the grandeur of true goodness. How then must God regard it? To his pure eyes how lovely must it be! And can any of us turn from it, because some water has not been dropped on its forehead, or some bread put into its lips by a minister or priest; or because it has not learned to repeat some mysterious creed, which a church or human council has ordained?

revere.

My friends, reverence virtue, holiness, the upright will, which inflexibly cleaves to duty and the pure law of God. Reverence nothing in comparison with it. Regard this as the end, and all outward services as the means. Judge of men by this. Think no man the better, no man the worse, for the church he belongs to. Try him by his fruits. Expel from your breasts the demon of sectarianism, narrowness, bigotry, intolerance. This is not, as we are apt to think, a slight sin. It is a denial of the supremacy of goodness. It sets up something, whether a form or dogma, above the virtue of the heart and the life. Sectarianism immures itself in its particular church as in a dungeon, and is there cut off from the free air, the cheerful light, the goodly prospects, the celestial beauty of the church universal.

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We have grown up under different influences. We bear different names. But if we purpose solemnly to do God's will, and are following the precepts and example of Christ, we are one church, and let nothing divide us. Diversities of opinion may incline us to worship under different roofs; or diversities of tastes or habit to worship with different forms. But these varieties are not schisms; they do not break the unity of Christ's church. We may still honor, and love, and rejoice in one another's spiritual life and progress, as truly as if we were cast into one and the same unyielding form. God loves variety in nature and in the human soul, nor does he reject it in Christian worship. In many great truths, in those which are most quickening, purifying and consoling, we all, I hope, agree. There is, too, a common ground of practice, aloof from all controversy, on which we may all meet. We may all unite hearts and hands in doing good, in fulfilling God's purposes of love towards our race, in toiling and suffering for the cause of humanity, in spreading intelligence, freedom and virtue, in making God known for the reverence, love, and imitation of his creatures, in resisting the abuses and corruptions of past ages, in exploring and drying up the sources of poverty, in rescuing the fallen from intemperance, in succoring the orphan

and widow, in enlightening and elevating the depressed portions of the community, in breaking the yoke of the oppressed and enslaved, in exposing and withstanding the spirit and horrors of war, in sending God's word to the ends of the earth, in redeeming the world from sin and woe. The angels and pure spirits who visit our earth come not to join a sect, but to do good to all. May this universal charity descend on us, and possess our hearts; may our narrowness, exclusiveness, and bigotry melt away under this mild celestial fire. Thus we shall not only join ourselves to Christ's Universal Church on earth, but to the Invisible Church, to the innumerable company of the just made perfect, in the mansions of everlasting purity and peace. William E. Channing.

MAN'S DEMANDS, GOD'S Commands.

This

Man's natural demands are God's only commands. is a great and comprehensive proposition; and, in one sentence, answers all questions respecting arbitrary documentary Revelations, given to one or more chosen ones, to be communicated by them to the rest of mankind. The laws, or commands of God given to thee, or to me, or to any human being, are made known to us in the demands of our Nature. To know these demands is all we need to know, healthfully to supply them is all we need to do, in order that we may become all that we are designed to be and all that we are capable of being. He who most perfectly understands the demands of his Nature, body and soul, most perfectly understands the will of God; he who most perfectly supplies those demands, most perfectly obeys God. He walks with God, and he is the only man who is after God's own heart. *

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Does human nature respond approvingly to the spirit and practice of self-sacrifice for the good of others? Does it ever and without fail feel a conscious sense of well-doing and selfrespect in the feeling and the act? Is it a demand of our social nature? Can human beings associate in pairs, or in

millions, harmoniously and happily, on any other basis? Can we live in society, and maintain order and harmony, except on the principle that we are never to injure others for our benefit? The universal human heart accords its deepest and most earnest approval to the spirit and practice of self-sacrifice; and recognizes the self-abnegationist who, in all circumstances and relations, is true to his great idea, as the true hero or heroine of the race; as Earth's true King or Queen.-Henry C. Wright.

VALUE OF SELF-RESPECT.

There is one person whose respect and reverence I seek and prize more than the respect and reverence of any or all others; that person is HENRY C. WRIGHT.-H. C. Wright.

SACREDNESS OF PARENTAL SELF-ABNEGATION.

That Father-See that man, toiling without ceasing! Up early, and down late! Abroad to his daily labor, promptly and energetically! Work, work, work, and that with a will! Clouds and sunshine, calm and storm, heat and cold, light and darkness are alike to him. Plan and execute! Every power of body and mind are on the alert, regardless of his own comfort, health and life. He thinks not of self; he feels not for self; or if he does, it is as the stay of those who depend upon him. What is the secret of this daring, tireless energy? Enter his home, his nursery; there sleeps, creeps, or romps in joyous glee the inspiration and interpretation of his life. His child, his loving, gentle daughter, with arms encircling his neck, and in accents sweeter than tones of cherubs saying, "My father!" He lives for his child. Self-abnegation, a tender anxiety for the existence, the physical, intellectual, social and spiritual health and happiness of his child, controls him in all his actions and relations to her, from her conception to her present growth. In the relation in which she originated; in watching and guarding her development before

and after her birth; in every effort made to guard her tender life against discordant and diseased influences, and subject it to those that are healthy and happy, self-renunciation, not mere self-gratification-his child's life and happiness, and not self-indulgence, have controlled his actions. He feels a proud consciousness of this fact, and the out-gushing affections, and confidence, and the harmonious, joyous nature of his child, are his great reward. She is the gem in his crown of paternal glory, which his life of self-abnegation, in his relations to her, has placed there. As that daughter grows up to womanhood, and becomes assured that in all his relations to her, her existence, health and happiness, and not mere self-indulgence, controlled her father-will not her heart twine its tenderest affections around him, in grateful and joyous martyrdom? Between a father and daughter thus begotten, developed, born and matured under the influence of self-abnegation, rather than selfgratification, the relation can bring naught but heaven to both.

That Mother!—Think of the forebodings of her heart, her ever-present anxiety and care, during the pre-natal life of her child! Her plans, her sympathies, her actions, all relate to its welfare. She is aware, and ever acts on the conviction, that every action of her brain, and every pulsation of her heart, is making its impress on the body and soul of the new life that is developed within her organism. The air she breathes, the food she eats, the liquid she drinks, the home she lives in, the company she keeps, the pleasures indulged in, her conditions of body and soul, and all her surroundings-in a word, all the experiences of her interior and exterior life are momentarily stamping themselves on the organic conditions of her child, and embodying themselves in its character and destiny, in the eternity that lies before it, and must receive it. This she knows and regards as the one fact that should guide her life. In all these actions of her physical, intellectual and social life, the new immortal life being developed beneath her heart is her one thought, the controlling power of her life. Whether she eats or drinks, works or rests, sleeps or wakes, whatever she