basis. It has reduced Hope to a science; for it would seem as if man could not prevent his ultimate redemption, nor the achievement of his higher destiny. But surely it is God who hath put it into our hearts to hasten the coming of the New Jerusalem. We still struggle for existence; but we are conscious of the struggle. The love of self still rules, the motive force of life; but conscience is at war with selfishness. The weak are still trampled under foot; but a sweet compassion sometimes lifts the helpless from the mire. Christianity is not obsolete; science has yet to deal with it.

Nay, time must come when the Wise Men of the world, whether of the East or West, will return to the manger of Bethlehem as the shrine of truth. For Christianity is true-true as life, as the pathos of life, as the heart's deep yearning after righteousness. It alone gives meaning or significance to anything. If science strips religion of her cerements, mocks our theologies to scorn-God be praised! For theology itself is a science, man-begotten. It is dialectics, glossology, verbosity, and little else. Because the Bible declares the Lord to be the Alpha and Omega, therefore, says theology, must we look to the Alphabet for man's redemption. It builds upon the letter rather than the spirit of the Word. Theology has all the arrogance of its rival sciences, and greater ignorance.

But how any science, physical or metaphysical, can dare to dogmatize, surpasses understanding; for the principal employment of science has ever been the correction of its own mistakes, and such must continue

to be its employment until all knowledge is absolute. Moses, the legislator, was a scientist; and Mr. Ingersoll has pointed out the mistakes of Moses. But Christ made no mistake. He formulated no creed, no Thirty-nine Articles, no theory, no theology. He simply lived! And what He lived was truth—not for yesterday and to-day, but forever and forever!

There, my fellow-citizens, was a social reformer, at once conservative and radical-for He went to the root of things. Reform the individual and society will reform itself, was His doctrine. Human law, which is merely the expression of a controlling sentiment, must await the development or evolution of that sentiment; it cannot precede it. Wherefore Jesus was tolerant of existing institutions, even the government of Cæsar; patient with ignorance; and went about to teach and do good to the individual. His words and His example He committed to the care of men, but they abandoned His example, and built out of His words a Theory of Salvation. To Him lovingkindness was the fulfilling of the Law. Can you define Love? Can you catalogue its duties, its offices, its rites and sacraments, its obligations? No; farther than to say that its first impulse is to serve, its second to teach. Now, God made woman to be man's first teacher, did He not? for He knew that the mother would teach of love. But woman's tutelage must not end with man's infancy, for love's curriculum never ends. Teach, therefore, teach us how to live! and learn that you may teach!

Your Hull House, your Social Settlements, your Bureau of Justice, your schools in jails and prisons,

your Temperance Unions, your hospitals, your many ministries of mercy in this great city are exponents of your power, but only an earnest, let us hope, of future purpose and accomplishment.

There is work to do; an obligation is upon you— remembering always that to reform the individual is to reform society. Is the task transcendent? Would you hesitate? Listen, and take courage:

"Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt!"

A.P.A.ISM *

My friends and fellow-citizens: At a banquet recently given by the Bar Association of Kansas, Mr. Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court of the United States delivered himself of this opinion: "I believe," said he, “that every full-blooded American boy has an ambition to become a statesman; that at some time in his life he feels sure that his future leads up into the line of political activity."

Now, men are only boys grown up, and this may account for the fact that the hallucination suggested by the eminent jurist as peculiar to American youth does not always disappear with advancing years; and the result is that every mother's son in America, young or old, expects before he dies to be a candidate for office; and if he may not become a statesman, why, it is easy to become a politician. For what is a politician? We have come to regard him as a something which shows from what direction the wind is blowing, and which adapts itself instanter to the atmospheric pressure. A politician is a partisan when there is no party issue involved except the party label. He is willing to be used, for he expects soon to require assistance. He sometimes confounds his conscience with his pocketbook-in common with the rest of us. In the last stages of degeneration, the politician develops a mania for office, and goes up and down *Coliseum, Omaha, Neb., November 1, 1895.

and to and fro, an ear-wigging, button-holing, legpulling, baby-kissing, pestiferous blatherskite.

Yes, the hope of political preferment held out to American ambition has made of us a race of politicians, and I sometimes fear that it has made of us a race of cowards. For surely it is political cowardice that has permitted to grow up in this nineteenth century, under our very eyes, an organized religious persecution. But that a secret political society, dedicated to religious ostracism, actually exists no one would venture to deny. Listen to this, from the Associated Press dispatches of October 15:

"St. Louis, Oct. 15.-The advisory board of the A.P.A., after a two days' session in this city, adjourned sine die to-night. Practically all the work of the meeting was done to-day, and it consisted almost wholly of the drafting of a report by a sub-committee and its adoption by the board. This report was in the nature of a declaration of principles, and may also be considered as a notice served on the political parties. . .

"To-day's session was held behind closed doors. Secretary Dunn stated that reports as to the condition of the order in the different states were received. These, he says, were very encouraging.

"In the addresses made the growth and present strength of the order was a topic to which reference was frequently made. The A.P.A. was declared to be the dominant and controlling power in many cities. It was claimed by the speakers that several states can now be swayed from one of the great political parties to the other through the writ of the A.P.A., which holds the balance of power and is able to dictate policies. Having captured many cities and gained recog