The Political Outlook at the Dawning of the Year

Is brighter, much brighter, than we could have anticipated a few weeks ago.

KARS has fallen, after a vigorous and well-sustained attack. PLEVNA is in the hands of the Russians. Russian generalship and courage have vindicated themselves at last by their triumphs over the desperate resistance of the Turks. The conquest of Armenia is likely to be completed before long. Constantinople itself is in terror, and the Sultan is asking for peace, and the Philo-Turks of England are attempting again to entangle us in the conflict on behalf of this country. It is more than ever manifest that the Turks would not have undertaken this war at all except for the anticipated help of the British Cabinet; and heavy as the censure of all righteous men is upon the Turk, it ought to be heavier still on that part of the Cabinet which fostered the Sultan's hope of English intervention.

We are glad that there is a prospect of mediation, but we must be on our guard. We may sleep when the Turk wins; but now fortune has favoured the Russian, we must bestir ourselves and strain every nerve to prevent our Tory Government from more flagrantly violating their professed neutrality than has already been the case. This is the hour and the power of darkness. The duel will become a melée if we do not hold the hand of our Political Leader. The menace of Guildhall will be accomplished if we are not wide awake, and vigorously resistant to all his machinations.__Vigilance, vigilance, and again vigilance, is our needed word. The safety of England is in the keeping of the people, and not of the Government. The triumph of righteousness will only be secured by the vigourous action of the best conscience of the nation.

In FRANCE, MacMahon has yielded-with a bad grace, it is true; but he has yielded, and the dark cloud has lifted from the horizon of the French people. The political crisis in France has passed through its most alarming stage. To speak in the language of the English constitution, the Commons have, by their self-control and patience, by their masterly and magnificent firmness and selfsuppression, beaten the Lords. Holding the purse-strings of the country, they refused to vote " supplies," and MacMahon has not repeated the folly of our Charles I. Hence, civil war is averted; the allies of "the Man of Sedan" have lost their chance; Clericalists are beaten back for awhile; France breathes more freely; and Europe starts the new year with a larger hope.

The

WE have not passed this way before,

Or fought on this new field; Our step is over trackless ground

To meet the unrevealed.

Then eyes be watchful to discern

Events but drawing nigh,
And early greet the coming good,
Or swift the evil fly.

New Year.

And hearts be brave betimes, prepared
For what men call the worst;
Remember sorrow is short-lived
Although it cometh first.

Both hands be strong to help the weak
In youth, or age, or grief;

For all who falter by the way
Our strength must mean relief.
Louth.

JOHN CLIFFORD.

When mystery, suffering, death shall fall,
And darken all the air,

The darkness hides us not from God,

And aye is pierced by prayer.

And Hope, serene unconquered Hope,
Must always with us go;

God's right is stronger than all wrong,
And will it overthrow.

The way grows grander while we march;
For to the throne of God
Our feet are nearer at this spot

Than all the way they trod.

And any moment it may be

The journey shall be done;
One step-and all the dazzling light,
The splendid goal be won

E. HALL JACKSON.

Elders: Their Place and Work.

BY A "LIVE" DEACON.

WHAT is an "elder ?" Deacons, we know well enough, "live" and not alive; pastors, too, are sufficiently familiar: but who and what is an "elder;" what is his place in a Christian church; where did he come from; and what is the work he is expected to do?

To cite a good case from present day practices will be my best reply. In Mr. Spurgeon's TABERNACLE, for example, elders are officers of the church, chosen by the people on the suggestion of the pastor, and set apart to assist him in watching over the spiritual life of the members of the church, and by vigilant pastoral care to secure the protection and growth of the young and inexperienced, the consolation of the afflicted, the direction of the inquiring, and to render sympathy and help in all the work of the church not directly and immediately of a financial character. Their province is definite; its broad aims are easily discovered; and their work is essential to the efficient management of a large and growing church like that at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. That is what writers call a fairly typical instance. For the office does not altogether depend upon the size of the church, although it does in part. The duties of an elder may be discharged amongst a few dozens as well as amongst thousands, and if well and faithfully done their beneficence will be proved in the one case as in the other.

I do not forget that in some churches the "supply" of really good men, or of men who will develope into efficient deacons and under-pastors, is pathetically scant; and that therefore it is impossible to have an "elder," as well as a "deacon." The two cannot be grown; and the work of deacon, elder, and pastor has, of necessity, to be done, or left only half-done, by a single individual; or it is divided between the minister and deacon, there being no chance of supplementing the services of these two by an additional labourer.

Admitted. But if there is to be only one office in a church besides that of pastor, I am strongly of opinion it would be better that such office should be the elderate rather than the diaconate. I know a large church where there are no deacons, and all affairs are managed by a body of "elders," one of their number being specially charged with affairs of finance. And this arrangement works admirably. It puts first what is first. It does this in name, which, after all, is worth something; it does it in reality, which is worth very much more. The care of the spiritual life of the church is made the supreme function and governing solicitude of all the official members of the church, and there is diffused throughout the community an earnest and glowing interest in all departments of Christian generosity and service. The force that more than another feeds free giving is constantly and abundantly nourished; and the society is vigorous, healthy, aggressive, and evangelising.

Of course, there is not much in a name. The man is everything. Call him "deacon," or "elder," or "younger," or aught else, if he be the man for the post, exactly fitted in spirit, temper, tact, spiritual insight, and sympathy, it matters little what we call him. The chief thing is to get the work done, and done efficiently. In many small churches the deacon does an elder's work; he cares for the sick and the young, and is to all intents and purposes, as he should be, an assistant pastor.

But in larger churches, where the division of labour may be wisely carried to its utmost limits, the office of an elder, as an addition to those of pastor and deacon, may be advantageously recognised. There are men who are not of the first rank for business ability, skill in managing finance, and of general directive force, who have large and tender sympathies, splendid capacity for helping the feeble, consoling the distressed, restoring the erring, and nourishing the young. The church could not safely use them in the diaconate. In the elderate they will be conspicuously useful.

As to the witness of experience, a pastor says, "It has been found necessary to divide the church into districts. Over each district an elder is appointed, who is supposed to exercise semi-pastoral supervision over all the members in that district, and if there is any case demanding the pastor's personal attention,

ELDERS: THEIR PLACE AND WORK.

27

he informs me of it. This arrangement hitherto has given me much satisfaction. It is an immense relief to me personally; it helps to the realising of the truth; if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; makes it as easy to work a church of seven hundred as if there were only a hundred. It sets the pastor free to be a more efficient teacher of the church; it sets the deacons free to administer more efficiently the finances of the church; and it calls out into active, useful work a number of men, making them a pastor's help and joy."

The Editor of this Magazine tells me that "the Praed Street church has adopted and worked the elderate system for years, with very gratifying results. The list of church members is divided according to the number of elders. Each elder takes his proportion of names, and at a monthly meeting of elders with the pastor, undertakes the work of visiting the sick, looking up the absent, and generally interesting himself in the welfare of his division. The elders have the management of the communion tickets,' and the registration of attendances at the Lord's Supper. Cases of discipline are dealt with, in the first instance by them and, if necessary, are carried through up to their final stage at the church meeting. Their work has been an immense relief to me, and a real help to the church."

"But have we any right to introduce this new-fangled arrangement? I have belonged to a church for forty years, and we have never had anybody but a deacon and as for elders,' I never heard of them."

"Very likely not; and there is much else you haven't heard of that would have done you good."

"New-fangled arrangement indeed! You should hear my learned friend Dr. Dryasdust talk on this subject for two minutes. I admit he is a little 'touched' on the matter of antiquity; for a thing only needs to be 'old and musty' to win his enthusiastic admiration. Indeed, he enjoys nothing till he knows its whole history, birthday, education, association; and all its ancestral relations to boot. People who came over with William the Conqueror are but as yesterday' to him. His ancestors never came over at all. They were here before the Druids, and were born of what is now called British Earth. He knows the genealogy of everything, and will know."

"Talk about new new-fangled notions! New! Humph! Elder, sir, is one of the most honourable words in the Queen's English. As an official term, it has a splendid antiquarian aroma about it. The Hebrews used it. Eliezer is described in Genesis as 'the old man of the house,' i.e., the director of the household, the steward. The Hebrews, did I say? Aye, and the Egyptians before them; and the Anthropopophagi before them; and the in fact, the first use of the word in its official signification is lost in the dim shades of the hoary and measureless past, and is one of the many witnesses to my great theory, that we do not know where the roots of these present things really are. Wherever you have the patriarchal system, the elderate is the keystone of the fabric. The elders of Israel formed the senate of Israel, the representatives of the people, the M.P.'s of those times; and the institution endured, and passed by a natural and easy transition into the Christian church, being the first word employed to describe those who had the oversight of their brethren; and holding its place alongside of, and equalling in meaning, the word 'bishop' in the New Testament. New-fangled! Humph!"

The objector collapses, of course, and vows he will not speak again-no, not on any account.

"But," says another, "it seems so odd to call a comparatively young man an 'elder.'"

The risk of that, I fear, is not great. The churches are mostly too much afraid of young deacons and young elders. They will have any amount of young pastors, even as young as twenty-two or twenty-five; but young men for the inferior offices of elder and deacon they carefully, but unwisely, in my judgment, avoid.

But even suppose a young man be chosen an elder, have ye never read that "We should count time by heart-throbs,

Not by figures on a dial. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest,

Acts the best."

You cannot estimate men by the almanack.

If I were a Boy Again.

FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS.

LET me tell you, my young friends, some of the things I would do if I were a boy again; some of the too often neglected acts I would strive to accomplish if it were in my power to begin all over anew.

I would learn the art of using tools of various sorts. I think I would insist on learning some trade, even if I knew there would be no occasion to follow it when I grew up. What a pleasure it is in after life to be able to make something, as the saying is; to construct a neat box to hold one's pen and paper; or a pretty cabinet for a sister's library; or to frame a favourite engraving for a Christmas present to a dear, kind mother. What a loss not to know how to mend a chair that refuses to stand up strong only because it needs a few tacks and a bit of leather here and there. Some of us cannot even drive a nail straight, and should we attempt to saw off an obtrusive piece of wood, ten to one we should lose a finger in the operation.

I think I would ask permission-if I had happened to be born in the city-to have the opportunity of passing all my vacations in the country, that I might learn the names of trees, and flowers, and birds. We are, as a people, sadly ignorant of all accurate rural knowledge. We guess at many country things, but we are certain of very few. It is inexcusable in a grown up person, like my amiable neighbour Simpkins, who lives from May to November on a farm of sixty acres, in a beautiful wooded country, not to know a maple from a beech, or a bobolink from a cat-bird. He once handed me a bunch of pansies, and called them violets, and on another occasion he mistook sweet peas for geraniums. What right has a human being, while the air is full of bird-music, to be wholly ignorant of the performer's name? When we go to the opera, we are fully posted up with regard to all the principal singers, and why should we know nothing of the owners of voices that far transcend the vocal powers of Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson.

A boy ought also to be at home in a barn, and learn how to harness a horse, tinker up a wagon, feed the animals, and do a hundred useful things, the experience of which may be of special service to him in after life as an explorer or a traveller, when unlooked for emergencies befall him.

If were a boy again, I would learn how to row a boat and handle a sail, and above all, how to become proof against sea-sickness. I would conquer that malady before I grew to be fifteen years old. It can be done, ond ought to be done in youth, for all of us are more or less inclined to visit foreign countries, either in the way of business or mental improvement, to say nothing of pleasure. Fight the sea-sick malady long enough, and in can be conquered at a very early age.

Of course every young person now-a-days, male or female, learns to swim, and so no advice on that score need be proffered; but, if I were a boy again, I would learn to float half a day, if necessary, in as rough a bit of water as I could find on our beautiful coast. A boy of fifteen who cannot keep his head and legs all right in a stiff sea ought to-try until he can. No lad in these days ought to drown,-if he can help it!

I would keep "better hours," if I were a boy again; that is, I would go to bed earlier than most boys do. Nothing gives us more mental and bodily vigour than sound rest, when properly applied. Sleep is our great replenisher, and if we neglect to take it naturally in childhood, all the worse for us when we grow up. If we go to bed early, we ripen; if we sit up late, we decay, and sooner or later we contract a disease called insomnia, allowing it to be permanently fixed upon us; and then we begin to decay, even in youth. Late hours are shadows from the grave.

If I were a boy again, I would have a blank book in which I could record, before going to bed, every day's events just as they happened to me personally. If I began by writing only two lines a day in my diary, I would start my little book and faithfully put down what happened to interest me. On its pages I would note down the habits of birds and animals as I saw them; and if the horse fell ill, down should go his malady in my book, and what cured him should go there too. If the cat or the dog showed any peculiar traits, they should all be chronicled in my diary, and nothing worth recording should escape me.

There are hundreds of things I would correct in my life, if I were a boy again, and among them is this especial one-I would be more careful of my teeth. Seeing,

SCRAPS FROM THE EDITOR'S WASTE BASKET.

since I have grown up, how much suffering is induced by the bad habit of constantly eating candies and other sweet nuisances, I would shut my mouth to all allurements of that sort. Very hot and very cold substances I would studiously avoid.

Toothache in our country is one of the national crimes. Half the people we meet have swelled faces. The dentist thrives here as he does in no other land on the planet, and it is because we begin to spoil our teeth at the age of five or six years. A child eight years old, asked me not long ago if I could recommend him to a dentist "who did'nt hurt!" I pitied him, but I was unacquainted with such such an artist. They all hurt, and they cannot help it, poor, hard-working gentlemen, charging as they do, like Chester.

Scraps from the Editor's laste-Basket.