The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-07

be best corrected by a deliberately mad
 and recognized apprehension of the re
 motest claims. think this is one goot reason for, and one great advantage from foreign missions. It is not merely that we may give something to them
 but that they give great deal to us
 because they stir in us the big effort tC take in all the redeemed race of man, as
 those for whom i've are put ill trust
 with the gospel.' It is very easy to say
 'I do not believe in foreign missions;
 but really and truly they are facts oi duty, not articles of belief Everybody l think is quite free-and I am sure they would give more freely if they req lized tito let their offerings run along
 the line of their special interests and attractions; but do not put that state ment in the negative way. Rather say l am going to give my money to domes-
 tic missions; and then think about the other, and remember at least the value
 that their distance has in forcing the stronger effort to larger missionary duty and zeal
 Deeper and more important is the de- mand for loyalty to the church, to the one Holy Catholic and apostolic church; that we maintain it's faith, stand by its principles, assert it's claims accept it's authority, without concern as to the popularity of our position. And this
 remember, means the church, not in Connecticut, nor even in America. nor the church of this century, but it means the church of Jesus Christ through all the world and in all time. There Is great need in our day for more reading and study among our lay people about the church. it's doctrines, it's discipline, its worship it's policy, it's history, its missions.
 And all these are only ways and means of recognizing and dischargins the laymans duty to the Master of us all to be His disciples, His followers, imitators of Him. That old cry of the Greeks, We would see Jesus' is the deep-down need of all our lives; and to- day, in His Scriptures, His sacraments, His promised presence; to-day, He says, as He did to the disciples of St.
 John the Baptist on that wonderful day of the call of the first five apostles,
 Rabbi, where dwellest thou?' Come and see.' Too sacred to be talked of much, the intimacy of this interior re- lation between the soul and Christ ought to be so real that it is never out of our own thoughts. or concealed from the Knowledge of men; not by that per- petual unstopping of talk, which tends to evaporation, in religious cant but only by the savor that clings to the jar in which His, name (which is as oint- ment poured forth) has once been put; and which in the sweet silence of per- sonal influence 0ike the spikenard oint- ment of the womans love) fills the house, the home. the neighborhood, the center places of life. When the Phari- sees wondered at the utterance of those two men, whom they called unlearned and ignorant, namely St. Peter and St. John, it is written that they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus" This is what ought to be the impression and the influence of the layman in the world I wish you knew how often our appeals to indifferent and iIreligious men, living clean lives, to asume their religious duties and con- fess Christ openly. are met by the an swer that they are living more correctly and carefully than many of the people who are avowedly religious men. The answer is of course inadmissible, as it is illogical. The sufficient reply to it is our Lords words to St. Peter about St John, What is that to thee; follow thou Me" But the lesson is of the untold harm of inconsistency, and of the nes- timable value of an earnest Christian life, Only the other day in little vil- lage in the diocese where Hive, plain man, ignorant and unlearned' in any but an ordinary way, was standing with a group of other railroad men, himself a locomotive engineer, while they were discussing religion: and when they had ended their talk with much in it that was on the side of nesation and denial, of indifference and doubt they suddenly turned to him and said, Charlie, what do you believe" He simply took off his hat and recited the Apostles creed and turned away. I make my last appeal to you, friends, that you will realize the enormous latent power of the layman's life. He can find "the soft times of speaking" which almost never offer themselves to those of us in the other orders of the ministry of Christ. The access of, the lawyer to the secrets of his client, the approach of the physician to the soul when it is stripped of all that covers and conceals it from anoth- CTS view, the confidential relation of the business man with those who look to him for counsel about their earthly pos sessions, the unbent freedom of inter- course between man and man in social friendships; every one of these is an opportunity for untold and eternal pow CT for righteousness and God
 I was not very long since staying with a dear friend, distinguished and be- loved physician. We were talking about books. And I spoke to him of that most striking and valuable work, the life and letters of George Romanes. And he pointed to a small bookcase in the corner of his library, and said T must get that and add it to my collec- tion of books which I lend to my pa- tients, many of whom," he said, q find slowly but surely dying with no clear or strong convictions of penitent faith and religion" And he added, q have been able to help many a poor fellow to die in peace, whose life I could not save here"
 What we call shyness is, think too often shamefacednesa When we speak of shrinking to expose to public view