of a social organization which shall cover the world as we know it to-day. The progress of mankind has through all channels-accidents, aspirations, natural effort for material welfare-gradually broken down the barriers between the races; gradually carried men's knowledge of each other forward; mingled men together; made them see what they so hated to acknowledge, that men are indeed of one nature, and is forcing them to realize that whether they will it so or not they must share with the men of all nations their own good things; that they must perforce accept their part in the human destiny, go forward with the race, and rise or fall with the great body of mankind. Still the old spirit of exclusiveness lingers on in all lands, but now it is with the less informed. The leaders of men everywhere recognize that it is as a world race we are moving forward, that the time of geographical barriers has gone by. Those barriers exist for the future but as marks of divisions in the great world country, no longer as the bounds of independent empires. The rulers of the nations, what are they? Mere instruments of a class that acts together understandingly without regard to place of birth, color of skin, or professions of faith: the class of wealth. And as the rulers of the world, the kings and queens and emperors, stand as the instruments of a universal class or caste whose members fraternize whatever may be their birthplace, so the great body of the common people in all countries are fast coming to know that they too have common interests, and that the old bogies which kept them apart are only scarecrows, better dispensed with. Differences there undoubtedly are between the men of different races; differences of color, of temperament, of inherited mental and physical qualities, but the nature of their aims is the same whatever their nationality. To one common end they all look, and in one common search are they all engagedthe search for the necessities to prolong life; and as the man ner in which this search is carried forward becomes more nearly the same in all countries the men of all races will become more similar in physical and mental characteristics. We are what we are mainly by virtue of the conditions under which we and our forefathers have existed. The establishment of similar conditions tends to lessen the peculiarities which mark and distinguish the men of different nations, so that, as time goes on, men will not only comprehend each other better, but will become more like each other. The dissemination of the machine system of industry, a process which is going rapidly and steadily forward, cannot but affect the conditions of life, and, as a secondary result, the habits and natures of the workers who operate the machines. Go into one of our large Eastern cities and note the crowd pouring out of a factory gate. You will see several nationalities represented, and, although you may be able to distinguish the men of one nationality from those of another, there is a general resemblance in dress, manner, and appearance which proclaims them all as "factory help.' You might be puzzled to tell whether an individual was a German, a Scandinavian, or a Russian, but you would be in no doubt as to whether he worked in the factory. That fact would be stamped upon him. An experienced observer can tell almost to a certainty in looking over a crowd of men and women, which individuals work at pick and shovel, which at clerkships, factory work, housework, skilled trades. Thus does the pursuit we follow mark us and in a few generations "make" us. With the general diffusion of wares and tools of production now being inaugurated, the rapid adoption of methods from one country to another, the general eagerness to learn and follow the most fruitful manner of employing labor, it cannot but be that wages will rapidly approach a level in all lands, and with the approximation of the wage must follow an adoption of a similar style of living. Disturbances of greater or less consequence may accompany this evolution, but they cannot be expected to hold it in check. The commercial world will come to resemble a great lake, whose waters by continual motion keep a surface level. Artificial differences of level can only be obtained by artificial restrictions, and against such restrictions we see arrayed the universal spirit of the age. We must expect a unity of aim and community of feeling which shall not depend upon the cultivation of philanthropic sentiment, but which shall be the inevitable accompaniment of common interest. The recognition of brotherhood will not be a sentimental but a practical one. Warfare will cease because it will be inexpedient, a waste of precious, wealth-producing energy. Past ages will appear utterly barbarous and lacking in wisdom. Industry, the arts, knowledge, and science will thrive as trees transplanted to congenial soil. At last man may be said to have come into his kingdom. IF pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.-Elbert Hubbard. We often do wrong; but there is a voice within, a voice of eternal right, speaking in the conscience, which never consents to our wrong. It is something higher than we are. It is God speaking to us as the eternal right.-Selected. We believe that true religion speaks in actions more than in words, and manifests itself chiefly in the common temper and life -in giving up the passions to God's authority, in inflexible uprightness and truth, in active and modest charity, in candid judgment, and in patience under trials and difficulties.-Channing. WE shall find that the love of nature, wherever it has existed, has been a faithful and sacred element of human feeling; that is to say, supposing all the circumstances, otherwise the same with respect to two individuals, the one who loves nature most will be always found to have more capacity for faith in God than the other.-Ruskin. EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. FREEDOM. 'REEDOM is an ideal which fascinates us, and yet it is a bless FR ing for which most men are loath to pay the price, for it costs all there is of a man. The Master once said, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Now the great question rises involuntarily to the lips: "What is truth?" It is no wonder Pilate asked the question, when men of his day were divided into various schools each exalting some great man or creed, and these authorities-personal and creedal-representing such contradictory ideas. But is the matter any simpler to-day? When we search diligently into the various modern sects or study the thought of the great philosophers and seers we oftentimes become utterly confused and discouraged, so conflicting are the different systems of truth. In very desperation the earnest seeker is driven to look within his own soul for light, and, lo, the path is so plain that even the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. It is not the acceptance of something received from another man that is going to free us and give us life; but it is the obeying of the word of Love which shall yet free us from all limitation. Truth is ever the same, but man's comprehension of it is constantly enlarging. As Lowell puts it: "Shall we make their truth our jailor, while our timid spirits flee, Another's vision of truth can help us only by stirring us to action, and action in its turn opens our eyes to the heavenly vision. "He that doeth the will (of God) shall know of the doctrine." The only truth that ever frees us is the truth that is lived out; to realize truth we must actualize it—that is, we must work it out concretely in this world. The more I look into these matters the more I appreciate the fact that material things are of value only as they express the life within us. A man may possess all earthly treasure and yet be only weakened and enslaved thereby; whereas another, who is freed from personal ambition and has renounced selfish activities, has all the wealth of the universe at his command. He that willeth to do the will of universal Love is king indeed; nothing can hamper or hold him, for he is freed from the bondage of self and serves only Love. The Jews placed all their dependence on what Abraham had been, or in what Moses said. Their question always was: "How is it written?" and so blind were they to the Word of God in their own souls that they actually could not see any incongruity in professing love to God while they devoured widows' houses; financially as well as ceremonially binding heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, on the children of God. All the saints, apostles, and prophets cannot take the place to any man of the Word written in his own soul; indeed, the inspired men of old themselves were great only in proportion to this same listening to the inward voice. It is by faithful response to the soul's intuitions that the world has gradually been lifted to higher and higher standards. As we climb the steep path of self-knowledge and self-unfolding, the things that used to seem so important-the little rules of life, and all its conventionalities-dwindle into nothingness in the grand panorama of universal life that spreads out before us. We soon come to see that it is only as we die to the things of |