[3] A CALL TO THE MINISTRY

AT the Trinity Parish noon services, held daily in Wall Street, large numbers of young men are to be found in the crowds that listen to the preacher, the Rev. William Wilkinson. In the course of his talk one day this week Mr. Wilkinson said:

I have at this hour one solemn, serious, cheerful and, I will add, hopeful purpose. To you young men, who have your lives to live, I ask you, What do you intend to be? What do you plan to do? Some of you will go into the profession of the law, some into banking, some into mercantile life. Some will fill one important place, some another. I ask you to remember well that all honest work is useful, needful, noble. I remind you, as Ruskin did his readers, that the housing, the clothing, the feeding, and the teaching of the people are lordly occupations. It is a notable truth, which flames forth in the life of the Saviour, that He called men to these. It is the ministry I call your attention to, here in Wall Street, where the power of money is known, felt, honored, or feared. I ask you to consider well the need in this great republic of a ministry cultivated, wise, sane in its judgments, kind and gentle in its conduct in dealing with the children of sin, sorrow, sickness, need, and all other afflictions, a ministry which demands all the higher gifts of mind and heart.

[4] Ask yourself, "Am I called of God who made me, of Christ who redeemed me, of the Holy Spirit who is the Lord and Giver of life, to this work?" The ministry has to do with the queen of the sciences, theology, only, however, as it has to do with the duty and the good of man. In man we are to bring glory to God. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." I know, in all this wide world, and I have seen much of it near and far, by land and sea, no calling which has in it such glorious possibilities as are open to the ministers of Jesus. To stand and call men to repentance; to declare God's promised pardon; to tell of abiding grace for all human need; to stand in pulpit, on platform, in the jail, or in the street, and tell in the simplest way the love and the power of God; to be a painter of pictures of what God has promised, and of what He has done, and to hang them on the wall; to be an ambassador of Christ to beseech men to be reconciled to God—there are no words known to any man capable of telling in full this everlasting joy.

In all the vast expanse of sky, sea, and land there is nothing like this. Kingcraft and money and the things it can buy will be of no avail. When men, in their secular pursuits, have served their purpose, they shall pass, as all things temporal must pass; because of the earth, they are earthy. Not so the work of the ministry. Its [4/5] domain is in the soul, the mind, in that which has its roots deep in the heart of the living God. Its words will endure among the things known to men.

It is not a possibility of thought that the words of St. Paul on Mars Hill will ever be lost. No man of vision and of sane judgment will think or say that the words of Homer, or Milton, or of Patrick Henry will be lost. If this is true, and true it is, what must be the result of the minister of Christ, who in faithful words has been telling men the principles of the life, the grace, and the service of the Son of God? If this is not a surpassingly glorious work, then the words are vain.

There never was a day like this. The world of action was never so large for the Gospel teacher as now. The ends of the earth are being reached. The islands of the sea are near to us, and are open to our work. The night is passing; the day is dawning. The Church of God is learning the distinction between the faith, the essential things in religion, and the accidental, the doubtful, the discussable. The men in all churches are seeing that flagrant mistakes have been made, and that we need a better understanding, a clearer vision, a higher sense of the importance of the vital, the eternal things in the Church of God. The men who see this, who in a sympathetic ministry can show it, are needed in every part of the civilized world. To you young men I appeal. I am an old man; for more than sixty years I have lived, [5/6] and I have seen wondrous changes, but the evil of sin has not changed, its practice has not become extinct. The need of Christ is the same as in the days of my youth. With all the forces at work to bless men, none can take the place of the living Christ. And to show Him to the people, nothing can take the place of the ministry of the Word.

No sermon preached in Wall Street ever was heard with greater attention. The direct, individual, personal appeal commanded attention. At the closing prayer for a wise, holy, sympathetic ministry, which will bless the world, the whole congregation stood with bared heads.

Reprinted from the New York Evening Post.

[7] THE CHURCH IN THE JEWISH QUARTER

AT All Saints' Church, Scammel and Henry Streets, the Rev. William Wilkinson, of Trinity Parish, has been in charge of the services for three months. On Sunday, April 13th, he stood on the steps of the church and had a service before Morning Prayer in church. Five out of every six persons in the district are Hebrews. There was soon a crowd who hearkened with keenest interest. Mr. Wilkinson said:

"'Walk about Zion', and as you walk remember her past; think of her present power in the realm of thought and action amongst civilized men. This city of New York has over a million Hebrews, and the other dwellers are from every land. We have to live together, work together, suffer and joy together. Is it not of great importance to understand each other, to give credit to each other for whatever is good in race, history or service, so we may be useful one to another and to the whole people? With this object in sight as an end, there is no literature on the earth which can be read with as much possibility of good as your sacred Scriptures. They all were written, yes, and preserved and handed down to us by men of Hebrew race. Your books and places of devotion have filled countless hearts with delight, and ages with resounding joy. The moral law given by Moses is read in our service of Holy Communion [7/8] every day in the year. In church our service provides the daily reading of your Psalms, and we read the whole Psalter through twelve times every year. We read your law and prophets every day alike at Morning and Evening Prayer. The songs of your temple, the deeds of your heroes, the glowing words of your mighty leaders, thrill us with joy. The Christian world owes to the Hebrew people debts it can never pay.

"Now here, in this dense population, can we not all help in good works? You are interested in soberness, in chastity, in honesty, in truth, in all works of mercy; in honor to parents, in reverence for God, in the deep things of the law of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which were not voluntary creations but were and are eternal realities, and their unfailing practice would make a garden of beauty, moral, mental and material, of this world. No man knows what the temple on Zion stood for—peace, mercy, love, purity, justice, truth—who is not entranced by the single word Zion! In this place, from the front steps of this Christian church, I, with great plainness and sincerity, speak all this because I feel I owe you and your people so much. The hope and salvation of the world is in your Scriptures. I will not hide from you the fact that I am in every fibre of being a Christian man; but your God is my God; the love in Him whom you reverence is the love which makes my heart strong and my [8/9] work effective. I ask you calmly, quietly, lovingly, being where we are in this city, state and republic, Is it not worth our time and effort to try to understand each other, respect each other, and in all works of help to strengthen each other's hands? I say to you in this Hebrew district that yours is a great people. Your worship is, it has been, a great worship. I think I go forward where you stop, but if we here can in respect worship each in his own way the God of our fathers, the religious world would follow the example and join in the service of our fellow-men. I never saw services or meetings more orderly, or people more attentive, than the Hebrews at this and other open-air meetings.

"A noble line of work, not for making proselytes, but of a common respect and action in those desirable things all men allow to be needed—this is our duty now, and in it the Hebrew can and will join."

In Trinity Parish Church, at the head of Wall Street daily, all day, any man can find quiet rest, refreshment, and opportunity to worship God with a holy worship. The Rector, the Rev. Dr. Manning, and the Vestry of the church desire it known that with no ulterior purpose, and only one thing in view—to spread a spirit of reverence amongst all classes of people, so we may in purity, cleanness and kindness live and serve the City and Republic of which we all are part. Let me tell you with what gratitude and delight [9/10] I have, in the total, seen thousands of Hebrews as they, in Wall Street, listened as I spoke of the God of our fathers. Let us try to understand each other, and gladly give one another credit for sincerity and noble purpose.

Reprinted from The Great Commission, June 13, 1913.

[11] WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON
An Appreciation

IN a Memorial Service for The Reverend Doctor William Reed Huntington, in Wall Street, and on the Cathedral Grounds, Mr. Wilkinson said:

"In Dr. Huntington we had a tower of strength, and he helped, more than any one else, to make open-air preaching popular and successful in this city. These meetings have been held for seven years, a time sufficient to test the value of the work.

"Dr. Huntington was an American by birth, by education, by love of his home-land, and by such service in it and for it as few men ever gave or could give. He knew well upon what a nation's greatness and progress and continuance depend, and he told all men what he knew, in simple but always noble language. Law with him was not a thing to be played with, and human rights things to be set at naught. They were realities, and they had for him their rise in the very heart of the living God. This was the secret of Dr. Huntington's strength. He was a most reverent man, and saw that the world as it is in all realms of thought and action needed a head. In this way the Apostles' Creed became in his hands a wonderful thing. There he found the oneness of the race and all the duties of man to man which [11/12] spring out of family duty, sin, pardon, grace, and peace in believing on Jesus Christ. This gave tone, color, character and meaning to his life work from the first day of his ministry, and his power sprang from it.

"One of the remarkable developments in the history of the discussion of church unity must abide to all recorded time—that this man, then only known locally in Massachusetts, wrote down four things as essential in order to enable Christians to work as one united body. In his love for unity he did not forget principle, for he said: 'No pleasant words or exchange of platform courtesies can alter the everlasting fact that unity, in order to endure, must rest on truth.' He saw that acceptance of the Bible as divinely true, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the Apostles' Creed, and the historic episcopate adapted to local needs at least gave a just platform for discussion of the question of church unity. No other platform has yet been proposed, and forty years have passed since he said: 'Unity is not popular now; division is in the air. Fifty years will be a short time in which to test the principles now set forth.' All men now see the need, and most of them feel the need, of Christian unity.

"It was because, here in Wall Street, these principles could be set forth to great advantage and to all conditions of men that Dr. Huntington took such a deep interest in these services and [12/13] experienced such joy in their success. For him the study of the human soul was of thrilling interest—its origin, discipline, peace, pilgrimage, and the splendor of its destiny. To this study he brought all his powers. He talked of God's text-books—picture-books, nature, history, and prophecy; all stood at his service. The records of the past, from the beginning, rose before him—the formless, the formed, the wind, the air, the earth, the sea, the cloud, the sun, the moon, the stars, the garden, the field, the flowers and fruits, men and women, angels and the host of Heaven, the human struggle and victory, work and worship, life and death, cowardice and heroism, the silence of the valleys, the majesty of the mountains, the embroidery of the heavens as set forth in the one hundred and fourth Psalm, the new dispensation, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of Men, the Head over all blessed for evermore; the Incarnation, the self-abnegation, the moral splendor of the deeds of Christ; His death and Resurrection, His Ascension into Heaven, and His being there now. In Him the why and wherefore of our lives will one day be explained, when the book is opened, and we may see Jesus as He is and be satisfied.

"Before Dr. Huntington, in one vast, complex, orderly whole, stood the moral world. For him it had meaning and purpose which an astonished world, redeemed, saved, and forever blessed, should see and celebrate with high resounding [13/14] and eternal praise. For this man dominion was dissolution, and in the last analysis dissolution is death. In a time when war was in the air, Dr. Huntington was a man who preached peace. There was no living man, he said, but needed pardon, but he sought with all his might and main to know the will of God, and he tried to do it. God, for him, had a plan in all he said and did. Others might not see it; some did not believe it, but he did, most implicitly. In patience he possessed his soul and in calm quietness he did his work. At what time he was overwhelmed he said, 'I will trust, and not be afraid'; in the day of his joy, he said, 'We plant the cross of Jesus on the highest part of the world, and so the mountains shall bring peace.' I sing the saving supreme power of God in the life of this man, who said, on his last day—and he knew it to be his last—'I die in the faith of Christ I have preached to my people. It brings me peace at the last.'"

[15] REMINISCENCES

DURING the time the General Convention of the Church sat in New York City, Bishops Beecher, Winchester, Funsten, and Moreland gave each an address at the Wall Street Service; also the Rev. Dr. Wilmer, Archdeacon Dray, and Dean Purves—all appealed to men, wisely and well, to live holy and useful lives. The meeting sent to each Bishop and Clergyman a medal in silver, representing the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and a medal to the Governor of the State of Minnesota, who also had been a speaker at a service in the Street.

In our daily service we have set forth principles herein described:

"The Wall Street service has had many things in its favor. It is held in the centre of the commercial interests of our Republic, to which men from every nation on earth, representing large affairs, come. More than 9,600 ships docked in this port in the year just passed. The service being in the open air, the worshippers can come and go at will. The service explains a definite faith. We believe in dogma, even though President Eliot of Harvard says it is to have no place in the new religion. Daily we ring out plainly the Apostles' Creed. We say the Lord's Prayer. It was a comfort to our mothers. We believe in the Bible. We do not apologize for its teachings. [15/16] To us the old moral law, with all its 'Thou shalt' and 'Thou shalt not,' abides. In obedience to its mandates is great reward. In disobedience are aches, pain, death. We believe in sin—just plain sin, dark, deadly, disastrous.

"We have never discussed sin, whether it is or is not real. We name it, proclaim its existence, brand it as the abominable thing God doth hate. We tell its punishment. We believe in the forgiveness of sin, in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, whose coming was to be, to and for all men, good tidings of great joy, because He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Yes, to 'seek and to save the lost.' We are not for an instant ashamed of the old gospel of salvation by faith in our only King, Friend, Advocate, Saviour, in whom we have redemption. We believe in the Holy Ghost, the 'Lord and Giver of life.' We believe in the life of the world to come. This is a mighty power in our lives. To the plain, simple setting forth of these things as the Church hath received them no work is thought too great, no pains too many. The past of all historic time is passed in review as set forth by the great writers, and made known to us in the best literal translations.

"The world does not know how much it owes to the scholars who have through translations of the world's great books made us dwell in all lands where men have flourished. In them we can find what God Almighty is doing every day [16/17] in the heavens, and what man has been doing on the earth. We can see what man was thousands of years since, left to himself, to his interests, pride, passions. We can learn how in the light of even the noblest teachings of his most renowned teachers he fell into sad mistakes and never rose to the sweet purity, vision, service and state insisted upon in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

"Nine years Wall Street men and women have heard these things. From Trinity Parish these sounds go forth. The Rev. Dr. Manning always stands squarely back of the work. So does the vestry, and never once, in all the years, has a discordant note been heard. At prayer, hats are taken from the heads of the men. All through the service an attitude of reverence is maintained always. The workingmen hearken with intelligent interest to every word. The cabmen, the telegraph and messenger boys, the janitors, the book-keepers, cashiers, bankers, brokers, the presidents of railways, and, in short, all sorts and conditions of men show their zeal. Wall Street, when it knows him, has no use for a fool. And it has none for a knave. You say, But there are both on the Street, as we have known. Yes, that is true in all places where tens of thousands of men meet and do business, because self is ever present, and by many unhallowed gain is sought. This is true: I never have lowered the ideal standard of right or failed to brand and hurl the [17/18] threatenings of the God of Israel against wrong. And never once have I been condemned for so doing. I never have exalted the Lord in His holiness and called men to practise it that I have not been thanked for so doing. Men and women, not a few who have gone from us, have found the consolations of God great in these noon services. And the work with like results grows daily."

[19] HISTORY

IN beginning the tenth year of services in Wall Street, I place on record some things concerning the nine years last past. Before so doing I adopt the words of William Ewart Gladstone, to be found in his "Gleanings of Past Years," Vol. VI., page 144. "To uphold the integrity of Christian dogma, to trace its working and to exhibit its adaptation to human thought and human welfare in all the varying experience of the ages is in my view perhaps the noblest of all tasks which it is given to the human mind to pursue. This is the guardianship of the great fountain of human hope, happiness, and virtue. But with respect to the clothing which the Gospel may take to itself, my mind has a large indulgence, if not of laxity both ways." These words are full of hard common sense, and so are in harmony with all the principles of the Christian religion.

No minister of Jesus Christ needs to justify preaching in the open field, lane or street. Open the Bible at any page from Genesis to the Book of the Revelation of St. John the Divine, you may read on every page what God has done in the open. You may also read what prophet, saint, sage, apostle, martyr and Jesus preached under the sun or star-lit sky. Jesus sent the seventy disciples into every city and place [19/20] whither He Himself would come. That mighty champion of the Gospel of the Grace of God, St. Paul, made known, as he stood on Mars Hill, a truth we are only now beginning to understand, that all men are of one blood, and so all men, being one in kin, one in interest, one in service, are to be appealed to on common ground for universal good.

Athens was a cultivated city. In it were living the leaders of thought and action. St. Paul was not an enthusiastic, ignorant man, he was a man who was able to speak with the judges and the philosophers, the dialecticians and orators. He was a chosen man and minister, who set an example the Church will never forget. Following in the steps of Moses, Samuel, Jesus, St. Paul, Wesley and Whitfield, the service in Wall Street is held. The truth as it is received by the Church of which I am a minister is explained, proclaimed, and it is contrasted with teachings of other religions. The open-air preacher cannot assume that his audience are all of his opinion or hold his faith, nor can he condemn wholesale men who do not agree with him, or assume if they do not they are in the dark.

God has never left Himself without a witness in any land, at any time, and it is the prime business of the man who stands daily speaking to men gathered from all sorts and conditions of people, and often from many lands, to learn what has been taught in the name of religion.

[21] In all the past it never has been as easy to learn these things as it is to-day. The printing press is sending into the reading world the records of the past. The most acute minds in our great universities are at work upon the records of the past. Alike in time and space the distant is brought near and the records are read in the light of day.

There is not the slightest reason for a fairly well educated man saying: The Occident and the Orient are nothing to me. Outside the Bible I do not care what was taught. This is to talk as a foolish person would talk. God in His wisdom has been slowly educating the world. When St. Paul saw temple, statue, pillar, shrine, he did not denounce Greek curiosity, superstition, for he said, "I tell you of another God whom ye have said lives, for you have an altar to the Unknown God, so I make Him known to you." This is a luminous example for preachers of religion. Does any well-instructed person doubt this? Can it be possible that it was all mental, moral darkness, ignorance and uselessness in Egypt, in Persia, in China and in far-away places?

Does any man think that there is not any good in the teachings of the great religions of the world? The Vedas in all forms, Brahmanas, Upanishads or Sutros—all came singing as they came for millions upon millions of care-worn souls. Much is lost no doubt which was of priceless worth. But the translators [21/22] of what exists in literal translations have opened new worlds of thought and of reverence about and for the teachings of the past. A study of comparative religions as proved by men like Max Muller is of value to the open-air preacher above estimate.

To know the little and the unimportant things in other religions than the Christian is something. To know the great things they contained, taught, insisted upon and lived by—this is a greater thing. No teaching, all foolish, weak or ridiculous, could obtain large acceptance from age to age and command the love of care-worn men. All that was good in the philosophies of the ancient world, good for the mind, the body, the soul of man, is to be held up so men may see it, honor it, love it.

The Roman or the Greek in the days of old did act foolishly often, but their systems were not all foolish, weak or wicked. To know the systems of old time is a duty and should be a delight. To be able to show all men how God has been in His world educating it, and how the highest lessons and the most illustrious examples of this are to be found in the Hebrew literature, in the Bible, in Moses and the prophets, in Jesus and the apostles—this is the God-given work of every true Christian minister; he is the ambassador of Christ; his is a divine delegation. The day is past when enthusiasm can do duty for knowledge or knowledge for [22/23] consecrated purpose. To stand in Wall Street and teach the ways of God to man, to proclaim the great salvation, to tell men that by terrible things in righteousness God will answer us; that knowledge shall be the stability of our times and strength of salvation, might call forth joy in the life of an angel, and should call out all the powers of any man.

To thus illuminate the minds of men is a desirable thing only, however, as it is made a powerful appeal to the hearts and consciences of men to live for God in the world that now is in such a manner as Jesus taught us how to live, so that by obedience to His will and commandment in worship and in service we may be His disciples and at last come to His peace.

[24] THIRD ANNIVERSARY
OF
WORK IN WALL STREET SERVICE

BANQUET GIVEN TO WM. WILKINSON

ST. DENIS HOTEL
NEW YORK
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1907

[25] TOASTS

"THE NEW EVANGELISM"—Rev. Robt. Lewis Paddock
"PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY"—Charles Albert Adams, U. S. Navy
"AN APPRECIATION"—Rev. Henry Anstice, D.D.
"SERVICE"—Rev. Wm. Wilkinson

REV. H. P. LYMAN-WHEATON, D.D., Chaplain
FRANK J. PARSONS, Toastmaster
MISS MAY S. CONDIT, Pianist
MR. HENRY P. CONDIT, Bass
MR. A. D. JACKSON, Baritone

[26] LUNCHEON

A. F. SCHAUFFLER, D.D.—Grace
TOASTMASTER—Rev. William Wilkinson
"A WORD OF GREETING"—The Bishop
"THE PARSON AND HEALTH"—Dr. Darlington, Commissioner
"ENGLAND AND AMERICA"—Clive Bayley, British Consul General
"INTERNATIONAL RESPECT"—Hon. Nicholas Lodgensvinsky, Russian Imperial Consul
"WALL STREET AND ITS MEETING"—Frank J. Parsons
"THE NEED OF UNITY IN CHRISTIAN WORK"—George Alexander, D.D.

MISS MAY S. CONDIT, Pianist
MR. HENRY P. CONDIT, Bass
MR. A. D. JACKSON, Baritone

[27] Copy of letter from the Rev. W. R. Huntington
To Mr. Frank J. Parsons
September 9, 1907.

FRANK J. PARSONS, ESQ.

My DEAR SIR: Were I to be in New York on the 18th, few things could give me greater pleasure than to attend the dinner to which you have kindly invited me. Living, as I do, just across the way from the St. Denis, I should consider it a neighborly duty as well as a personal privilege to join you in the well-earned tribute you propose to pay "the Rector of Wall Street."

Circumstances, however, forbid my returning to New York before the end of the month, so that I must miss an opportunity of which I should have been only too glad to avail myself, and which I thank you and your friends for having put in my way. In my judgment, no minister of religion, pursuing his calling in the city of New York, has done it more effectively in these past three years than has William Wilkinson, your guest of honor. His plain talks on sacred subjects, free, as they have been from lurid rhetoric and hysterical appeal, have gone straight to the consciences of the listeners.

St. Matthew, as the Prayer Book puts it, was called "from the receipt of custom to be an apostle and evangelist." This man, on the other hand, already an evangelist, has felt himself [27/28] called, not from but to "the receipt of custom" and from the steps of the building devoted to that use has so spoken that many, I doubt not (to quote the Prayer Book again), have been given grace to "forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches," in order to pay supreme devotion no longer to Mammon but to God.

Believe me, my dear Mr. Parsons,
Faithfully yours, (Signed) W. R. HUNTINGTON.

 

52 Wall Street, New York,
September 13, 1907.

DEAR SIR: I beg to thank you, most cordially, for your kind invitation to attend a dinner to be given Dr. Wilkinson on Wednesday next, September 18, and regret extremely that, owing to a previous engagement, I am obliged to forego that pleasure.

Dr. Wilkinson has certainly done good work in this city during the past three years, and I am delighted to know that you and so many others are showing your appreciation of it and of him.

Yours very truly,
JAS. STILLMAN.
Mr. Frank J. Parsons,
55 Cedar Street, New York.

[29] BANQUET GIVEN TO
THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON

BISHOP INGRAM
ST. DENIS HOTEL.
NEW YORK
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1907

[30] To the Cosmopolitan Bishop! Long life and success!
He knows the joy of service and its needs.
Every man who has gifts has corresponding responsibilities.

Let every man stand in his place like a true soldier.
On the path of duty beacon lights always shine.
Read your chart, the Bible; serve your King, the Saviour, and His subjects, your fellow-men.
Death is near; Eternity long, and Heaven a happy place.

Be vigilant in doing your duty, not looking for earthly reward.
If we do God's work He will take care of us.
Street preaching in London as in Wall Street needs no man's vindication.
He who serves best is sometimes misunderstood.
On the Forum of God I stand, and ask myself and you, Have we the early faith left to-day?"
Prepare for the battles of life; fight them bravely.

On both sides of the Atlantic we need a revival of Christ's spirit.
For there is too much jealousy in the churches.

Life is stewardship; to stewards, accounting is inevitable.
On the battlefield of life, moral victories are its greatest victories.
No servant of sin is a free man; sin is slavery.
Do thy best and Christ will help thee.
On the other side of life there will be no sorrowful people for any of us to help.
No loving work is ever lost.

[31] To the man and his message! Long life and success!
He is glad to speak to anyone who is glad to speak to him.
Every man who succeeds must have faith in himself and faith in his fellows.
He who lacks faith lacks influence.

Perhaps we all know men who never do a useful thing for fear of losing caste.
A man's a man for all that, is his motto.
Street-preaching has been redeemed from its low estate.
To be sure precedent is in his favor: Christ spoke most often in the open air.
Oratory alone counts for nothing with thinking men; there must be a man behind the message.
Remember, too, that a laugh is worth a hundred groans on any market.

Order is Heaven's first law!
Happy is he who keeps his physical, mental and moral house in order.
Fighting sin is not as sensible as appealing to inherent virtue.

With the sky for a canopy and a stool for a pulpit,
he thunders forth the words of truth and righteousness.
All things are possible to the man of faith; he considered
Wall Street worthy and we strove to merit the opinion.
Let men of little minds preach a narrow gospel; his is a world-wide message.
Lo! the day of miracles has not passed; the bulls and the bears mingle daily and all is concord.

Some one has said, "There is nothing like the sun and the wind for driving the foolishness out of one."
It is apparent that he has been out of doors for a long time.
Three years he has been our "Stated Supply," and if the Bishop would permit we would give him a permanent call.
Rare wit, good judgment, common sense, sympathy, courage, faith, hope, love:
these are the qualities which endear him to us.
Every day is a judgment day.
Every man can, if he wishes, emphasize the things which divide men; not many are devoting themselves to the things which unite.
Till we meet again.

CHURCH UNITY

Rev. W. R. Huntington, D.D., when comparatively a young man, wrote the Quadrilateral. It was taken to Lambeth Palace, London, England, by Bishop Littlejohn, of Long Island, and there read to the assembled Bishops of the Church who set it forth as a basis of Christian Unity.

THE QUADRILATERAL

I

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.

II

The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

III

The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself,—Baptism and the Supper of the Lord,—ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.

IV

The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.

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