broad and catholic. Its founder, the Rev. Charles Strong, D.D., is a very able and energetic man who has done a great work in Melbourne. In reply to my question he writes :-'We have, as you know, a pretty active church, and a congregation that sometimes numbers from 800 to 1,000, drawn from all churches and no church. I find earnest listeners, kind co-operators, and unselfish workers among the poor and in other departments of church work.

'I know men and women who are deeply interested in religion, and not merely as a speculative matter. I could tell you of members of Parliament to whom religion is a reality, of lawyers, business men, and working-men who think, read, and feel; and of ladies not a few who are intelligent, liberalminded, and devout.

'But my impression of religious life in Victoria as a whole is not very favourable. Church life seems to be at a low ebb, and what there is is not very high. The great burning questions of the day are ignored in the Church Assemblies, and poor petty matters, comparatively, seem to engross attention. One seldom meets with interest in the real religious questions on the part of the clergy. The laity in the Church Courts show little independence or living interest beyond business details of a denominational. character. The professors and teachers in the small divinity schools do not bring forth much fruit.

'I question if our young people know anything about theological questions, or if many of them could even tell you what Presbyterian, Unitarian,

Episcopalian, or even Roman Catholic really means. We have, as you know, a large number of Jews in Melbourne. As far as I can gather the synagogue is orthodox, and we have no reformed synagogue here.

'I come across sceptics as to the future, and sceptics as to God and religion, but I do not know that their number is greater here than elsewhere.

'The environment (which of course we partly make for ourselves) is not favourable to religious life and thought or to church-going and living working churches. We live in an atmosphere of excitement. Το use a vulgarism, we have always "something on "-a land-boom, or a murder, or a divorce suit, or a war. We are given up to money-making and pleasure-seeking, eating, drinking, and luxury. Horse-racing and speculation and gambling are rampant. Altogether the atmosphere is depressing and unfavourable to sober-minded religious progress. The people, meanwhile, do not seem to care about anything serious. They love a fashionable concert, or a social scandal which the press serves up for them, a horse-race, a cricket or a football match, and so on; but I question if Jesus Christ would get much of an audience.

'Spiritualism has, I think, a good many followers, though at present one does not hear so much of it as a few years ago, and in the churches are to be found quiet believers in spiritualistic phenomena. Theosophy was for a time very prominent. I cannot tell to what extent its tenets prevail, but some of my friends are theosophists.

'There does seem to be within the last few years a liberalising spirit at work, though it is vague. Members of different churches become more tolerant of each other, and change is going on. But there is at present no whole-hearted intelligent effort to bring the Church into harmony with the new circumstances and knowledge of to-day. All I can say is, that we seem to be drifting, and drifting on the whole towards change, whether for the worse or the better remains to be seen.'

Dr. Strong's description is depressing, but its truth cannot be questioned by any one who knows the circumstances. It is said specially of Melbourne and Victoria, but is probably equally true of all the other states, although some modification would be necessary in the case of New Zealand and Tasmania.

On the whole, the outlook is not very promising; but at any time a change for the better may set in. In the meantime, the friends of the Liberal movement must stand by their principles, and hearten each other as well as they can; and, above all, labour to bring about a revival of true religion.

R

THE THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES OF A LIBERAL RELIGIOUS THINKER AND WORKER IN RUSSIA.

BY MR. VLADIMIR TCHERTKOFF.

HAV

AVING availed myself of what I feel to be the great privilege so kindly offered me of addressing this meeting, I should like first of all to state why it is that I have the deepest sympathy, respect, and admiration for the work which is being accomplished for humanity by the so-called Unitarian movement. Being expected, as I understand, to communicate something about my personal life, I should, however, wish to allude to myself only in so far as my own experience has brought me in contact with the great cause of rational religion which has united us here on this occasion.

Brought up in the conventional orthodox creed of my country, as many of those present probably were in theirs, I felt, while yet almost a youth, the imperative necessity of carefully testing the authority upon which were based the beliefs inculcated into me from infancy. This, naturally, very soon