was thrown into our door, in which the author proved to his own satisfaction and, we think, to that of many others, that the second advent of the Christ was to occur in 1873.

He maintains that Mr. Miller who placed it in 1843, was substantially correct, but made a little mistake of thirty years. We kept the pamphlet until 1874, and on the first Sunday of that year preached from the words, "Occupy till I come." In those days, when this doctrine was emphasized beyond all proper proportion, the correlated ideas advanced were simply abhorrent. The destruction of God's enemies root and branch, the hastening of the good time of his saints, and other similar ideas that savored too much of selfishness and revenge. Such contributions as that of Dr. Wallace's are a distinct gain to the literature of this subject of perennial interest. May more be forthcoming in the staunch old REVIEW! A. S. LADD.

Ogunquit, Me.

RIGID RELIGIOUS TESTS

At first thought one would imagine that any system of religion which should offer salvation to mankind on their own terms, without exacting humbleness, self-denial, the taking up of a cross, would speedily win the world to its banner; but such is not the fact. Indeed, the opposite is true. That system of religion which, appealing to thoughtful people, holds them to the most rigid rule of right, which requires as its test of discipleship the most unqualified self-denial, outstrips every get-saved-easy system in its growth and progress in the world. There are churches which one can join without subscribing to any creed, without professing to have experienced any change of heart, without consenting to any abridgment of his license to live without moral restraint-in a word, churches whose only test of membership is the payment of pew-rent. Then there are systems of religion, so-called, which do not even go so far as to crystalize into organizations, but whose adherents labor day and night to propagate their isms and win mankind over to their acceptance. To this class belongs that sum of all delusions, spiritualism. A few embrace it, the multitude do not. Christianity—that system of religion of which Christ was the founder-with its tests of repentance and faith, of self-denials, crosses, sacrifices, outstrips every one of these easy systems of religion and is steadily marching on to the conquest of the world by its divine Founder. For whatever else mankind may or may not be deceived in, they will not consent to be humbugged and fatally deceived in the matter of their eternal interests. The destiny of the immortal soul is too serious to be trifled with. Men may live "without God in the world," may be apparently indifferent to their eternal welfare-but once they resolve to lead a religious life they want the best there is in the overtures presented. Hence there is not only no reason for presenting an emasculated gospel to "the world lying in wickedness," but on the contrary the burden of the preacher's message should be Jesus' solemn note of warning, "Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." STEPHEN V. R. FORD.

New York.

VIKING AND LORELEI

Sometimes it's one, sometimes the other. When it's the Viking, I see him; when it's the Lorelei, I'm it.

Spiritual conditions aside, there are two states of supreme ecstasy in my life, the Viking state, and the Lorelei. When I am walking the deck of a vessel, when the waves roll high and white, when the ship tumbles and pitches, and when the glory that sets heart and brain athrob is the glory of the blue above and the blue below with the wonderful ship between, I see the Viking. The men and women of the colorless twentieth century fade away; ubiquitous porter and steward, harassed man of business and weary woman of fashion, all are gone, and I see on the deck only my brave old ancestor, the Viking. Life itself is no more real than he. In all the art galleries, is there no face as wonderful as his. Strength is there, and dignity, and beauty. His eyes shine with a blue-gray light of gentleness and firmness. His curling golden hair is such as poets see, and artists, but never mortal wears. He is my Apollo Belvidere. And how real he is! I watch him pace the deck with manner calm, yet eager. I feel the energy glowing, pulsating in his being. I hear him call his men above. I see them head the ship toward the foe, I hear the clang of swords and thud of wooden clubs as ship grips ship; I hear, not shrieks of pain, but exultant cries to Odin and Thor; I see the crimson on the decks, and then, in the midnight, I hear the dull swash of waves closing over a sinking vessel, while, like a god of the sea, my Viking strides exultingly up and down his deck, waves aloft his spear and club and sings in deep tones:

"Glory, glory be to Thor,

And glory be to Me

The son of Thor!"

I admire my Viking; he is more to me than many whom I see with my common eyes of flesh. Yet I am never one with him. I see him; I am not he. But, when I sit on a great brown rock on the coast of Sheepscot Bay, with the glory of the blue above, and the glory of the blue below, and me on the brown rock between the above and below, with the glory of immensity about me, I am a Lorelei. I am no human being. I know no human life. I pulsate with the rhythm of the sea; it is of me, I am of it, I am it. I sing, though man there is none to hear my song, which is well, for my song is death to man, but life to me. So I sing, and I sing, and I sing; the waves sing the wild, grand anthem of eternity, the sky answers to the sea, and the rock and the rich brown seaweed and I, we are all part of the harmony which musician has never felt or heard and lived to give to his kind.

You cannot tell me, my psychologist friend, whether this which I have told is a case of prenatal memory or of subliminal consciousness. Nor would I have you tell. It is glory. And it is real. Only at rare moments of exaltation, when sea and sky and self are tuned aright, is the marvel true. Then, sometimes, I see the Viking; and then sometimes I am the Lorelei. And always it is glory and ecstasy.

Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio.

GRACE LOUISE ROBINSON.

CONCERNING NICODEMUS

NICODEMUS was born again before he came to Jesus. This will appear upon close examination of the record.

The content and purpose of the gospel by Saint John are set forth in the last two verses of the twentieth chapter: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." The story of a certain number of selected signs-this is the content; that people who read of them may believe and believing have life— this is the purpose. The idea plainly is that they who saw and believed had life by believing, and are set before readers as examples of saving faith. In the last verse of the account of the miracle at Cana we read that "his disciples believed on him." This is certainly intended by John as an example of faith, incipient it is true, but genuine. If it is not saving faith what kind is it? And what does John mean by giving this and other instances of faith in the hope, avowedly, of inducing his readers to believe unto eternal life if the faith referred to is not of the proper kind? And if in some instances the faith spoken of in the gospel is valid, and in other instances valueless, and there is no means given us of distinguishing between them, of what value is the gospel? The fact seems to be that John has given us the record of a number of signs which resulted in onlookers believing or disbelieving. When he says they believed he means us to understand that they believed unto eternal life, and were born again. If they did not believe so much the worse for them. His object in telling the story is to induce his readers to believe also, and thus enter into life"these are written that ye might believe, and believing have life." In verse twenty-three of the second chapter John tells of many who believed when they saw his miracles. This faith was short-lived, or, it may be, was held by men not sturdy enough to bear the strain of publicity which would have been put upon them had Jesus committed himself unto them. He knew what was in them, and did not publicly acknowledge them either because they were so soon to surrender their faith, or were safer in the shadow of secret discipleship.

The faith of Nicodemus, by which he, too, had been born into a new relationship, is clearly expressed: “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him." It is faith unto eternal life. It is the next instance in the gospel, and is deliberately chosen by John.

A few explanatory remarks may be added:

1. The question of Nicodemus's personal relationship to the necessity of a new birth is not considered in the conversation with Jesus. The subject is discussed in its universal aspect. The pronoun is “ye,” not "thou," and the alternative expression is "a man." Jesus is saying to him that the kingdom of God is spiritual, not national; universal, not Israelitish; a thing into which one enters by virtue of spiritual birth, and not as a son of Abraham after the flesh. "That which is born of the flesh is

flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The kingdom of God is spiritual, and a man, any man, must be born spiritually as a condition and as a means of entrance into it. Nicodemus's case is not specifically considered.

2. How was it that Nicodemus was puzzled, if born? It was a new doctrine only, not a new truth. It was truth newly revealed. All men who were ever in a right relationship to God were so because they had been spiritually born, although, as they had not been instructed in the matter, they were unaware of the fact. It was not understood till Jesus taught it that when men enter into true relations with God it is birth they undergo and life they enjoy. Abraham, Jacob, and David were true sons of God, born of God. None of them had ever heard of spiritual birth, and they would have been as much puzzled as was Nicodemus when first confronted with that conception. To Nicodemus was assigned the honor of being the first to receive the new idea. It was, perhaps, as good as could be reasonably expected when Nicodemus did not deny, but only wondered.

Again, birth physical is something which no man remembers. So when the already-created personality is ushered by the Spirit of God into a new world of truth, it is not necessary that he should recollect the moment of his advance. It may be doubted whether any man ever yet was quite conscious of the exact time when he made his very first entrance into the realm of the spiritual. Generally speaking men are led by the Spirit of God into fellowship with new truth at a point of time anterior to that to which they themselves assign the transition. The first glimmer of the new light will be found to antedate the consciousness of that light. "Thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh."

3. Nicodemus did not yet believe in Jesus as the Christ or as the Son of God, but only as a teacher sent from God. That was sufficient as a beginning. It was, perhaps, as far as the disciples themselves could go at this time. The true thought, in this connection, is, the more belief the more life; they who have most insight into Jesus's character, and truest submission to his claims, have most abundant life. Eternal life is a very common thing, though the higher grades of it are rare. And men should be approached, not as spiritually destitute, but as possessing already a measure of life, small, perhaps, but exceeding precious, and as capable of adding thereto. The direct witness of the Holy Spirit is not an essential condition of spiritual birth, even as birth is not necessarily a coming into fellowship with the one who bears us, but rather the being ushered into a new world of relations by that one. Many a child has never known its own mother. JOHN J. FERGUSON.

Toronto, Canada.

THE ITINERANTS' CLUB

A WEEKLY OUTLOOK

FOR A METHODIST OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

[It is the purpose of this paper to suggest to pastors the importance of an increased sense of church obligation on the part of our people. It aims to give in a condensed form the grounds of denominational responsibility, to present a comprehensive view of the field our church covers and to show, especially to our young people, how large, how rich, how attractive the Christian horizon is when intelligently and conscientiously studied. The survey rightly directed becomes an educating process. It reveals large possibilities. Ritualistic loyalty is commonplace, barren and puerile when contrasted with the enthusiasm of intelligent Methodist devotion to the Church and its development.]

ONE may easily picture to himself an earnest and educated pastor who, believing in his Church as apostolic and divine, devotes himself to the work of training his young people to know, to love and to be enthusiastic over the Church; and whose constant aim is to make these young people as zealous in church study as they could ever be in any of the aims of academic, artistic or social life.

The pastor supplements the ideal which he has faithfully presented in conversations, sermons and addresses by a paper or circular as follows:

AN ADDRESS ON OUR CHURCH LIFE

You belong to a Church. Your Church is a part of the "one Church" of the Lord Jesus Christ-"the one family in heaven and on earth."

"Part of the host have crossed the flood

And part are crossing now."

We who read these lines are still here on earth. And we are here for service and for growth-to bless humanity and to honor God.

We rejoice in truth and seek it. We love all who love God. We approve the plan of separate states in our one Union of states-the United States. We approve the plan of separate homes with their respective family names throughout our country. But we are not any the less loyal to the one government of the United States because we are known as New Yorkers, Texans, or Indianians. Nor are we less loyal to the city we live in because we have (each family of us) our own house and are known to our neighbors by our respective family names—“Thompsons," "Smiths" or "Roosevelts." Nor are we at all lacking in reverence and affection for the one Church of God because we are called by denominational names-Baptists, Congregationalists, Christians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. The increase of separate houses for homes does not diminish the size or unity of the city, nor do denominational family names and meeting places affect the name, the theories, the ideals,