The queen of England keeps her modesty and sweetness and charm of womanhood, though she occupies a throne. It is the spirit actuating the heart which gives the flavor of delicacy and refinement to the character and bearing. A woman may always move in private circles, and still be coarse and masculine and brazen-faced. One may glide before the eye of all the people, and still maintain the Christian woman in all its grace and loveliness, modesty and power being commingled. It is well said that woman, by seeking to display herself in public, is an unsightly object. Is it a sight more agreeable to see man flaunt his vanity and parade his gifts in public, showing off himself instead of lifting up the cross of Christ? In case of man or woman the exhibition is like lukewarm water in the mouth. Forgetting self, and sinking one's personality in Christ, there is comeliness, even with many native defects. When the Spirit of God moves woman in self-sacrificing service, all the finest qualities of her soul are preserved; and the power of Christian character working in her and radiant from her sets upon her the signet of Christly beauty. If publicity such as the New Testament permits may harm woman, and it may, without right ballast of character, seclusion from Christian work and fellowship may injure her as much. Woman is never repulsive, when her culture is truly and thoroughly Christian. Genuine piety "behaveth itself not unseemly."

I venture to mention another point, since this is the place to speak honest convictions and solve difficulties. Is it wise and expedient to organize permanently in the churches separate boards for women? If the question were, Shall boards be organized for men alone?" we should at once say, "No; men need Christian women with them in their work." Why is it not true of women? Can we profitably put upon each church and upon the churches all the network of two great organizations to do one common work, however important the work? We are fast getting what is, in effect, two foreign missionary boards. Is this the best thing, and does the example lead in the right direction? The Woman's Board was born of an earnest desire to serve Christ. The feeling which underlies it is sacred and worthy all esteem, and should be carefully fostered. The work of the Board has been good, and all motives and efforts connected with it have been in the highest degree worthy and honorable. It has a record written in the Book of Life. But the principle reaches widely. It is a point worthy of consideration whether there is substantial ground for two societies existing for the same end in the churches

for any Christian work, sundering Christian workers in spheres of effort where they may be together. We have a Woman's Board organized. Is the American Board a man's board? Does it decline to work in connection with women at home, or to send women as missionaries abroad? Not at all. For half a century men and women have worked successfully together in it. If the American Board is not a man's board, but knows neither male nor female in Christ, why have a Woman's Board to do over again what the American Board was created to do? Or if we may have, to advantage, two foreign missionary boards, may we not have two home missionary boards? Already that is being earnestly asked. Is our home work less deserving the special organized help of women? If it is best to have a Woman's Board for foreign work, why not for home work? And so on clear around the circle of our benevolent societies. But are two systems needed to cover the same ground, and can they work well together year after year? The tendency to multiply church boards is not good, and we are seeking to combine and unify rather than extend the number.

Creating organizations for one sex apart from the other, controlling large sums of money and great interests, without mutual co-operation, disturbs God's order in the house and in the church. It separates work that should be done together, and divides workers on the same field where they ought to glean in unison. Unless there is some corresponding benefit, we should look to see where we are going. But if there are great advantages in it, other causes require this help of women not less than the foreign work; and if a valuable point has been gained for this in the organization of the Woman's Board, let all boards share it.

What does the Woman's Board accomplish which the American Board ought not to do? The Woman's Board had its justification in the hope that it would increase missionary interest among ladies and add to the revenues of missions. That is certainly also one of the purposes of the American Board to be accomplished without adding to its present machinery. It is commissioned to use men and women in the churches, in Christian gatherings, and in all kinds of Christian effort, to stir up interest in community and gain recruits and means. There is now in some degree separation in all this. Is it successful? That is, does the Woman's Board increase the money raised for the foreign work, in proportion to the additional outlay of time and expense?

The Woman's Board divides the stream of benevolence. Does it

greatly enlarge it? Might we not consider whether the same earnest prayer and effort on the part of women, exercised over the whole ground, diffusing information and collecting funds from house to house and from each member of the family and throughout the entire church and neighborhood, might not effect more than both boards now do? The American Board was organized for men and women, and needs woman's help in it. If there is separation, must not one board eventually increase and the other decrease from the very nature of the case?

Women now go over the surface of the churches and gather up some money for their board. The conscience of the churches is in danger of being satisfied there. "We have done something for foreign missions through our women," they say, "and now we will pass on to do something for other objects that press upon us, and so divide our help around," when, had the one great board for the one great cause been presented with faithfulness for one united effort of all the church together, might not more be given?

We must not keep our eye on foreign missions alone in considering this principle, but look to the good of the entire cause of Christ. Do we desire to have women's boards extended to the other beneyolent organization? Yet without it they are, as it now is, cut off in a measure from woman's help. The symmetry and balance of woman's work is not kept. What God has joined together in mutual helpfulness is so far forth put asunder. These questions may be fully answered. If they are, the Woman's Board will be stronger than before. If they are not, it is not wrong to ask them.

This line of thought we have gone over may be summed up in a word: Christianity does not contract the sphere of woman, nor curtail the legitimate exercises of her powers and privileges. At creation she was made in her moral nature, one with man. God's image is alike on them both.

In the Jewish economy, the place she held and the influence she exerted in religious things was important. When the Jewish dispensation was superseded by Christianity, her influence was potent and pervasive. In the inauguration of the Messiah's work, woman appears as one of the most prominent figures. In the great movement which planted the Christian church, she is everywhere influential and helpful. And it is evident that in the development and unfolding of the kingdom of grace, her worth and work must be increasingly desirable, for the qualities most conspicuous in Christianity are those most in line with her character and endowments.

While the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them decrease, her realm in the world's regenerated life will increase. Christianity speaks to all that God has planted in her nature, and under its sway, she will gain all that is good and lose nothing that is evil.

Christianity has done away with ancient customs and prejudices, opening new doors of effort as society has advanced.

This age, through the constant raising of the standards of education, has secured benefits and privileges for her which no other age ever had, but to which they all contribute.

The extension of her influence in present moral and religious movements is the normal development of forces which have been working and waiting from St. Paul's day to this.

The world is riper than ever before, in its iron ages of war and lust, for her passive virtues and the sweet graces of her Christian womanhood. She brings her priceless gifts to a rising market. The old valuations of man as a fighting animal are passing away, and the gentler spiritual elements of the New Testament are coming to their place.

There are springs in some countries which, when the water rises to a certain point, begin to flow abundantly and do not cease.

The influence of woman in the world, the living water of Christianity having risen to the requisite height, is flowing out in service more beneficent than ever before, and, as the kingdom of God advances, will increase in volume and deepen in power unto the end.

FELLOWSHIP AND UNION MEETINGS.

BY REV. ARTHUR LITTLE, FOND DU LAC, WISCONSIN.

ONE sign of a vital, aggressive Christianity is its inventiveness. Eager for new conquests, intent on fresh victories, it will find new lines of march, discover new points of attack, forge new weapons, venture upon new combinations, try new experiments, cut out new channels, through which the healing waters may hasten on their blessed errand of cleansing and cure to the diseased millions of earth.

It is the glory of our gospel that, while it is essentially one and the same in its nature and adaptation to human needs in all ages, it is still flexible and free in its methods, dependent, for its extension and diffusion among men, upon no stereotyped methods, no particular form of visible organization.

In attitude expectant, in spirit untrammelled, in methods tentative, it is ever watchful for new opportunity, ready for fresh adaptations to new conditions.

Charged with the grand mission of universal prevalence, it waits for no other preparation than an open door before it goes, consents to take passage by steam or sail, to journey by land or sea, to enter city or town, palace or hut, is willing to be preached by an ordained minister or a layman, a Paul or a Philip, less intent upon the order of its going than upon the fact of going in some way. Vigorous, energetic life will always find appropriate modes of manifestation and expression, always make itself felt and multiply its power. A living gospel is no exception to this universal law. It is, therefore, a most hopeful sign, auspicious of the coming of the kingdom, where we find ourselves, as now, encompassed by so many new methods and developments of Christian activity, when we see this old gospel of power, so pronounced, self-asserting, and aggressive in spirit, as to be satisfied no longer with old ways and methods, though divinely sanctioned and well approved, but rather trying fresh experiments, originating and employing new agencies for the salvation of the lost.

It ought to fill our souls with unceasing joy and hope that we are brought face to face with so many unfamiliar forms of Christian activity, "devices of holy ingenuity," suited to arrest the thought