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before was there so strong an interest in, and so deep a sympathy for, the poor suffering and the wronged. Never before was the work of humanity so highly prized, so honored by the world. No characters are so revered and loved, and have so strong a hold upon the hearts of the people everywhere, as those who have toiled and sacrificed for the good of their fellowbeings. The world is fast opening its eyes to the fact that philanthropy is the other and larger half of piety, the visible human side of religion, and that without it there can be no healthy spirituality, no saving faith, no communion with him who spent his life in doing good and died for his fellow men, nor with Him who gives Himself to his children in the bounty of the world and in their every breath. The faith that does not blossom into love of man does not spring from the Christian vine; the form that does not kindle a flame of pure sympathy for mankind is a worse than encumbrance to true worship; the sect or church that does not forget itself in sheltering the homeless, befriending the outcast, saving the lost, and inciting and inspiring its members to noblest efforts in behalf of their fellows and for human good, has yet to prove its right to the Christian

name.

And evermore this new religion must increase in power and influence. Already it has invaded the sects, crept into the churches, put a new face upon the old beliefs and liturgies, and extemporized methods of activity that grate upon the old sanctities as secular and strange. It is this new religion-which works outside of churches, which makes churches of its own, calling them reforms, charities, hospitals, asylums, societies, com missions and clubs which is undermining the old faster than any of our modern infidelities, and supplanting it with a shorter, happier, holier, and more helpful faith. The church of the future will be the church of the Good Samaritan. The saints our children will canonize and enshrine in blessed memories, will be the helpers and healers of humanity. And whosoever giveth a cup of cold water to one athirst in the spirit of love, shall be counted a follower of the Son of Man. This religion,

which is piety and philanthropy both in one, is the only religion. that has inherent vitality enough to live, or is of any use in the world, or can give strength and inspiration.-Theodore Tilton.

THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE.

In the Buddhist "Path of Virtue," it is written: "If one mar conquer in battle a thousand times a thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors. This noble form of conquest is not taught by the sophistries of those who would bring "instantly the millennium" by removing all outward restraint, not only from "the higher love of the spirit," bu from the free impulses of passion. Vain effort! Freedom would at once degenerate from license and order, which is "Heaven's first law," into anarchy and chaos. Psyche must free herself from the dominion of Venus, before she can arise to the abode of celestial love. Let the soul gain a strong and steadfast mastery over sense, and the dwelling of the gods is reached, albeit hedged about by the sanctions of morality and law.

I grant that legislation on this subject is imperfect. The law-makers of the world have in some dim sense divined the "heart's ideal of monogamic marriage," and have endeavored tc make their enactments tally with this "higher law." But they have blundered: first, by creating a legal inequality between man and woman in marriage; and second, by affording too limited means of release from it to those unendurably oppressed by this inequality, or who find by bitter experience that they have wilfully or ignorantly made the fatal mistake of not conforming to the conditions of so intimate and sacred a relation. There should be a door of legal escape, and a city of refuge ir public opinion, for the wrongly mated whose loveless lives are daily embittered by a refinement of slow torture that leaves no outward scar, but wrings the heart with unspeakable anguish · for women who find themselves and their children subject to insult and injury from passionate and ferocious com

panions, and for women with husbands made savages and fiends by strong drink, who see their homes desolated and desecrated, their children cruelly assaulted, and are themselves exposed to brutal abuse, and the horrible fear of adding other helpless victims to the domestic holocaust. The political economist, and the patron of social science, should hold it an imperative duty to see that women have the means of escape from subjection to such besotted monsters, in order that society may be saved from the imbecile, discordant, vicious, and murderous product. For all the victims of false marriages, the hand of law should be stretched out in merciful deliverance. In view of their misery, how narrow and heartless is the effort on the part of respectable moralists to create a public sentiment against their lawful and honorable release—to emphasize the doctrine that "when once a marriage is made and consummated, it should be as fixed a fact as the laws of nature."

nent.

This sweeping assertion can be made only of conjugal unions based on and fostered by affection, and then we may say, not that they "should be," but that they are by nature permaThe trouble is, there is too little love in the world. In all the relations-between brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends and neighbors, husbands and wives-there is a dearth of pure affection. People do not even love themselves as they ought; if they did, they would not debase the temple of the spirit by sensual indulgence, but strive, "whether they eat or drink, or whatsoever they do," to have "the body sit lightly on the soul." Pythagoras controlled the instinct for physical gratification, aud rejected the temptation to personal aggrandizement, so as to live for the sake of wisdom, and his ear caught the music of the spheres. But too often self-love degenerates into selfishness, and the higher faculties are submerged. When this demon. presides over the conjugal relation, the angel of love is banished from the hearthstone. Love is unselfish ; it seeks the good and happiness of the beloved object. When this divine principle reigns in the hearts of the wedded, the supreme condition of a lasting union is attained. For love is

not a fleeting sentiment that comes and passes with the hour, buɩ an abiding presence that glorifies the object of affection, purifies, enlarges, and ennobles the heart in which it dwells, and gives its own evidence of constancy. Passion is variable, but love is steadfast. "Every heart prays and pines for that holy and protecting love which will not change." The spirit seeks the permanent, it lays hold on the eternal, the principles which are garnered in its essence are indestructible, and among them is holy love. When this is awakened the heart is at rest, Knowing that what is excellent, As God lives, is permanent."

On this changeless affection is based the true marriage. When the wedded are discordant and wretched, it is not because love is inconstant, but because they do not mutually possess this precious treasure. Let them put away selfishness, and invite and cheris the divine guest. People fancy that they love. Do they seek the happiness of the adored object, or their own gratification? Do they treat with tender consideration the bodies and souls of their chosen, or neglect the courtesies and amenities, and self-denying services, and cordial expressions of sympathy that link friends together outside of marriage, and ensure lasting fraternity? Let love reign, and discord and desire for change will cease. Le love reign, and marriage will be a holy and deathless bond between answering souls, like that of the dual force within the mighty undulations of matter, named by true religion "Our Father and Mother God."

For the man and woman who purely and truly love each other and are guided by the law of justice, marriage is not a state of bondage. Indeed, it is only when they become by this outward acknowledgment publicly avowed lovers, that freedom is realized by them in its full significance. Thereafter they can be openly devoted to each other's interests, and avowedly chosen and intimate friends. Together they can plan life's battle, and enter upon the path of progress that ends not with

life's eventide. Together they can seek the charmed avenues of culture, and strengthened by each other, can brave the world's frown in the rugged but heaven-lit path of reform. Home, with all that is dearest in the sacred name, is their peaceful and cherished retreat, within whose sanctuary blooms the virtues that make it a temple of beneficence.-Mary F. Davis.

THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM WITHIN Us.

This kingdom is not of the external world, neither does it belong exclusively to the spiritual regions. We have had the fair fields of the Summer Land pictured to us, and the laws of that spiritual realm partially revealed; we are told of the "Debateable Land;" but these wise teachers know well that not sun or earth or stars constitute the real spiritual kingdom. Its presence is within every human soul; its certain possession is in the everlasting now. This life is only a peninsula of this kingdom; its borders and avenues lead through the faculties of the human consciousness. * * *

There is the development of the kindly spirit, the gentle amenities of life, the friendships, the charities, that give us some glimpse of this inner kingdom; there is love that reveals the inner sense, and if these fail to reveal its presence, there comes death. That is only one of the avenues that lead to it. It is much more important to know what this spiritual kingdom shall do for you now, than to know how much that is called you goes to the spiritual realm. It is vastly more important to know what it is doing for the world to-day, than to know if you shall wear the same lineaments and think the same thoughts there. You will surely wear your own face there and none other.

The sun that shines in the Summer Land and through the doorways of the spiritual kingdom illumines while it does not burn, lights you through the darkened ways of life, and reveals to you the immortal possessions that are yours as a spiritual being.

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