Saturday morning. Such is the force of this custom that during the two days from half-past eleven o'clock on Friday until the same hour on Saturday, the hand-bells used in hotels are silent.

In short, it may be said that in all papal lands and by all papal followers, Easter Week is crowded with services and ceremonies many of which are sadly superstitious, while in other lands there is a growth of sentiment on this line not wholly commendable.

THE CHRISTIAN USES OF EASTER.

We would not have this sacred festival abolished notwithstanding its secular observance by the unchristian, and its superstitious observance by many of the so-called Christian, It is a most impressive reminder of the most wonderful of all scenes transpiring in our earth history.

It serves to keep alive, before the old and young, before the religious and the irreligious, God's great redemptive work for this lost world. It holds up to view a suffering, dying, but rising Redeemer, and inevitably calls human attention to the deepest demands of the human soul.

What the Christian Church of our day ought to do is to make Easter a thoroughly Christian festival, using only

such decorations for churches and homes as will suggest that purity of life to which the Lord calls us and for which He has made provision. All our songs and services should remind us of the resurrection; should be of cheer and comfort and hope to mourners, and should inspire an overcoming faith.

Let" Easter lilies" adorn our meetinghouses and our homes. Let triumphal anthems echo in all our religious assemblies. Let the whole week be filled with Bible readings and Bible studies of our Lord's last days on the earth, so that every heart shall be led from Bethany to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Gethsemane, and on to Calvary; but shall linger especially by His conquered sepulchre; then pause at Olivet, where the disciples saw their Lord ascend through the air till a cloud received Him out of their sight, and where two angels in human form, clad in white robes, stood by them, saying, "This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come again in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven."

And let all who love the ascended Lord and wish His appearing say, "Amen! even so come, Lord Jesus." NEW HAVEN, CONN.

the idea prevailed that in some mysterious way this would insure the safe departure of the sufferer, who had never given any indication of a sense of sin or of the need of a Saviour. As I took my seat beside the dying one she began to speak in words of self-justification, declaring that she had always done what she thought right, had never consciously wronged any one, and so on. It was a repetition of an experience very familiar to every minister of the Gospel. With the caution ringing in my ears not to excite the sufferer, what was I to

do? Here was a soul in danger on the one side, and on the other, there was the danger of giving offence to those who had summoned me. Under the circum. stances but one thing seemed possible, and that was, as plainly and as tenderly as I could, to declare the truth that no one could fall back on his or her personal righteousness as an occasion of commendation to God; that, because we were all of us sinners in the sight of God, therefore every one of us, the dying one included, needed a Saviour; and that it was all-important that she, just as she was, cast herself upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. To have done aught else would have been to have endangered the eternal interests of a soul, and to have laid myself open to the charge of unfaithfulness as a minister of Christ-a charge I had not the hardihood to incur, whatever the displeasure that might have been awakened in those who asked my presence. It is coming to be an increasingly strong conviction with me that nowhere is there greater need of perfectly candid utterance than at the death-bed, excitement or no excitement, displeasure or no displeasure. The mandate of Christ must be more to the minister of Christ than the mandate of any other, though it be that of the physician. The Lord Christ knows more about the body, as well as the soul, than does any earthly physician. He is the Saviour of the body. When upon earth His first message to the sick, who came to Him for healing, was, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," thus indicating His desire as to those who should come after Him. And, what is of special interest, more than once have I noticed that where there has been the faithful ministration to the soul, there has been a quite remarkable effect upon the body; that where death has been looked for as a near experience, the incoming of peace through the knowledge of forgiveness has so affected the physical life-forces that there has resulted a manifest postponement of the day of death, and in some instances what seemed like a mir

aculous restoration to health. Every interest demands the most absolute frankness on the part of the minister. Fears of undue excitement are usually without ground. Truth can accommodate itself to every experience, for it is from Him who knows our feeble frame and remembers that we are dust, and utters all in full view of that familiar fact. E. O. E.

The Pulpit and Politics. RECENTLY after preaching upon the subject of "The Attitude of the Church to the Liquor Traffic," I received a letter from one of my honored officials, begging me for the sake of the unity of the church to keep out of the pulpit all reference to political matters. The writer was one whom I heartily loved, but as there had been nothing in the sermon referred to of a partisan character, I replied stating that I thought it one of the duties of the Christian minister to seek to educate his people to the highest point of conscientiousness in their exercise of their civic duties, and that I saw no reason to retract anything I had said, or to promise that I would abstain from a like presentation of what I regarded as the truth in the future. I believe it to be true, as Canon Wilberforce well says, in his reply to certain questions put by the Review of the Churches, that “if the clergy of all denominations abstain from influencing the political life of the nation, the mainsprings of national progress are likely to become unspiritualized." The idea that the Church exists for the sole pur pose of saving the souls of men, and that it has nothing to do directly with making them better citizens, or guiding them to decisions that in the most important way affect the national life, is to my mind not only erroneous but pernicious. The minister of the Gospel is the direct and lineal descent of the oldtime prophet who spoke for God in regard to all matters bearing upon the extension of the kingdom of righteousness-that is, rightness, in the world,

whether it was the encouragement of the good or the antagonism of the evil. Let our ministry lift up the voice against the vices that have the permission and protection of the State. Let them emphasize the unwisdom and the iniquity of all compromises and partnerships with evil-doers. Let them be ready to accept the consequences of standing out against the policies of those to whom expediency is more than principle. And particularly with reference to the liquor question, which is by all odds the burning question of today, let them stand as one against every recognition of the traffic as in any true sense legitimate. Of course it means obloquy; but better obloquy than obliquity. Never yet did any worthy effort for the uplifting of the race get under way without a measure of persecution, first in the word and then in the act. Jesus Christ was called a heretic and a demoniac before lifted upon the cross. Paul was called "mad" before he laid down his life at Rome. The earliest recipients of the Spirit of the ascended Lord were thought “drunk" by those who saw and heard them. The reformers were anathematized and cast out of the Church as members of the synagogue of Satan. The early Abolitionists were called " fanatics" and "fools" for their devotion to the very cause for which men were ready to lay down their lives by the hundreds of thousands in after time. Let our preachers, therefore, not be afraid to stand up for the right against the wrong in their pulpits, whoever may be touched or however they may be reproached. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, the king of rightness, blessed are ye.' So He Himself has said: "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and perse cute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake." Wendell Phillips told the truth in regard to the sphere of the pulpit when he said:

"The pulpit should use its opportunities for the training of the community

in the whole encyclopædia of morals— social questions, sanitary matters, temperance, labor, the condition of women, slavery, the nature of government, responsibility to law, the right of the majority, how far the minority may yield to the majority, health-the entire list. For all these are moral questions, living questions, not metaphysics, not dogmas. The pulpit is not built up of mahogany and paint. It is the life of earnest men, the example of the community, a forum to unfold, broaden, and help mankind. With such as the pulpit, men will be drawn to it as they are to the press, by felt want."

L. Y. S.

Simply a Suggestion.

THE papers bring us the news that some of the eminent representatives of the people of New York State in the Assembly are advocating the adoption of the license system with reference to "houses of ill-fame." Protests are being circulated by the officials of the Women's Christian Temperance Union for the signing of those who are opposed to the measure. But with what reason? Is not New York a State that believes in the licensing of evils? Do not many of those who are engaged in the work of the ministry uphold the system? Are not some of the readers of THE HOMILETIC REVIEW in favor of this method of suppressing the great crime of drunkard-making? Why, then, protest against this new expression of the popular faith? Why not rather impose the same conditions and restrictions upon those who engage in the business for which license is now sought that are imposed upon those who are permitted to sell liquor? Let us demand that those who take out these licenses shall give certificates of good moral character, signed by some of their respectable neighbors; that they shall close all their doors but the back ones on the Sabbath; that they shall not keep open house after 1 A.M. during the week days, etc. So we may hope in

time to see the evil which is known as the "social vice" eradicated, and a pure community rejoicing over freedom from that which has hitherto been its bane. This is only a suggestion, but I hope my brethren will see its eminent appropriateness. L. 0. 0.

Masonry and Its Critics.

IN two recent issues of THE HOMILETIC REVIEW misstatements have been made in regard to a great society, which I cannot allow to go unchallenged-e.g., "It would be in utter violation of the principles of Freemasonry to use in any of its prayers such an expression as this: For Christ's sake.'

In answer to this I will simply say that I acted as chaplain in a Masonic lodge for several years, and again and again closed my prayers with precisely those words.

To say that Freemasonry knows nothing of Christ is so palpably false, unless it be a mark of inexcusable ignorance, that the wonder is how a man can twist his conscience to utter it.

Masonry needs no defence, but every time these false statements are made some good, true soul is injured, and a word of simple statement of fact cannot be amiss.

If Jesus Christ is not referred to in the Masonic burial service, then most of those church-members who are Masons have not understood their own liturgy.

What does this language mean? "And having faithfully discharged the great duties we owe to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves, when at last it shall please the great Master of the universe to summon us into His presence, may the trestleboard of our whole lives pass such inspection, that it may be given unto us each to eat of the hidden manna' and receive the 'white stone' with the new name written that will ensure happiness at His right hand."

This language bears but one construc

tion. It was spoken by the Holy Spirit to St. John, the Revelator, and was addressed to all who exercise faith in a crucified Saviour.

The "white stone" was the ballot cast by Him alone whose prerogative it was to cast it, assuring justification and eternal life by His own will.

If this is not enough, I refer to another section of the burial service, as follows:

"In the beautiful spirit of the Christian theology, we dare say that He . . . the same benevolent Saviour who wept on earth, will fold His arms of love and protection about those who put their trust in Him."

If one reply that this section is not used in case deceased was a Jew, we answer that the Christian believer does not throw overboard the Old Testament nor fail to find Christ Jesus set forth in its references because the Jew will not see Christ there. Both use the same Scriptures, though not with the same light and fulness.

Every antagonist of Masonry should be so well informed, and then so fair, as to know and admit that the earlier degrees of this science antedate the incarnation, but have hints and prophecies of it, which are fully revealed and fulfilled in the Divine Christ, in one of the higher degrees.

Why, then, should false statements be made so recklessly? The doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the Christ runs through Masonry from the very beginning in the blue lodge.

In the name of simple justice and in the interests of truth let us know whereof we speak, or else possess our souls in the grace of silence. C. W. P. MIDDLEBURGH, N. Y.

A Cure for Drunkenness.

A RUSSIAN physician, in the city of Samurov, made known to the world about two years ago a cure for drunkenness-namely, nitrate of strychniaa remedy well known to the medical

profession, and even imagined to be the agent in Dr. Keeley's wonderful cures. The physician claimed that he had tried the remedy in seven hundred and sixtytwo cases with only three relapses, although the time was too short for a

complete test. It is to be hoped that the press will widely circulate this remedy. Of course a reputable physician should be consulted before using the remedy. E. S. C. CRETE, NEB.

The Gambling Evil.

Thou shalt not steal. . . . Thou shalt not covet... anything that is thy neighbor's. -Ex. xx. 15, 17.

THE attention which has been called to the lottery-we had almost written lootery-curse in Louisiana has caused thoughtful men to inquire whether the time is not ripe for beginning the agitation of the question concerning gambling in all its forms, Shall it not be suppressed? Steadily and rapidly it has grown to enormous proportions, until it may be said to have no rival as an evil unless it be the liquor traffic. In its relation to crimes of dishonesty it stands second to none other as a cause. No less an authority than Mr. Chauncey Depew declares that it is responsible for ninety per cent of the petty thefts, defalcations, and embezzlements of our day. It, therefore, seems as though it were high time for those who are preachers of righteousness to combine in their opposition to it, and in seeking to secure the awakening of a public sentiment, that shall issue in the enactment of such laws as shall secure the eradication of the evil, or at least in its treatment as a crime.

One thing seems certain, and that is that little if anything is to be hoped for from the secular press. There is hardly a journal in our land which, however it may declaim against the gambling evil in one of its columns, does not promote the very evil it pretends to decry by giving far more of its space to an elaborate description of the races that are

running in different parts of the land, and in some instances, at least, by giving "tips" to those who desire to stake their money on races yet to be run. This is true even of journals that profess to be highly moral, and that in some other directions are doing a good work in holding up a lofty standard of ethical action. This simply goes to show how insidious is the evil of which we are writing. It blinds the judg ment of even those who are the professed friends of goodness and purity.

Nor is much to be looked for from the present incumbents of political office. As Mr. Anthony Comstock says, in an article in the North American Review for February, "Political leaders in both the Republican and the Democratic Party, in localities where gambling is especially carried on, appear to be hand in glove with the principal 'boss' gamblers. The halls of legislatures are crowded with men intent upon amending liquor laws and gambling laws, so as to legislate away the rights and liberties of the people, and give the liquor traffic and the gambling fraternity the freest license to scatter their vicious influences. The hands of prosecuting attorneys are fettered by the command of political bosses' or corrupted by the 'hush-money' of those who grow rich by violating the laws of the land."

...

The pulpit has ever been a mighty agent in the creating of a public opinion in favor of that which is worthy. It stands for righteousness of heart and of life. There have been times, it is true,