sacramental methods of organised salvation. The tenderness with which it has touched the austerity of the conventual life enriches the history of religion. The mystic appears in every real form of faith, discovering fresh tokens of the divine presence, and translating that hidden life into the practical affairs of the day. The salt and strength of Evangelicalism are found in this recognition of personal spiritual experience. Without this the Puritan theology would find it difficult to justify itself. We discover in true prayer a divine power manifesting itself through us, rather than a human approach of the soul to God. When wre ae in the outer courts of the Temple our desires sometimes tend to convert the House of Prayer into a House of Merchandise, but in approaching the inner shrine we lend ourselves to the divine inspiration, and learn what it is to pray "in the Holy Ghost." Prayer therefore begins in the heart of God, and in passing through our consciousness we only give the thought verbal expression, and return it again to God. But if God's kingdom is to come, and God's will to be done on earth as in heaven, we cannot suppose that a merely pious expression on the part of the worshipper will be of much service. God will certainly bring in His kingdom as we believe in the shortest period of time. The very fact that we pray for such a kingdom indicates our willingness to co-operate with God, and suggests that co-operation has a distinct value of its own. God must be always working at His highest. Nothing is left by Him undone, but the perfection of His nature is consistent with His limitation. Therefore it is to be inferred that our contributory forces properly directed lend additional strength to the process of the divine evolution. He has brought us into being with the intention of working through us, multiplying His powers through His creation of man. Virtually we ask Him to accept our efforts, and to organise them for the same end. We pray that we may be fellowworkers with God. Thus we are adding to the divine strength something of our own, however minute individually. Every prayer embodied in a life of service is an addition to the fighting forces of grace against Evil. The enrolment of individuals into His regiments and armies, societies and churches, is a mobilisation of the forces of God, a calling out of the reserves at His divine disposal. Therefore, men ought always to pray and not to faint. VI. Second Life or Immortality. THE interpretation of a providential dealing of God with man depends upon a moral government of this world. Are we limited to our present sphere of being, or do we require to construe one life through another? Is it possible that existence of an individual character can be prolonged beyond its earthly manifestation, or is it only a partial exhibition of a greater whole? Are we waves of a sea, lifted by the winds from its surface into crests that leap towards a heaven we can never reach, to sink back tired with the effort into a universal ocean from which they will never more be distinguished? If it be so, our birth expresses only a temporary individuality, our death a return to the parent whole. Second Life and Immortality contrasted. Immortality is a question quite distinct from that of a second existence which may be succeeded by others but in a terminable series. For, if we are immortal, we belong as much to the past as to the future. We assume antecedent life as well as future existence. But of that antecedent life we are not conscious. Memory gives us no help, unless, indeed, faint reminiscences, half realised intuitions, have any reference to an earlier experience. A modern metaphysician professes the |