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bleed with inexpressible sorrow for those whose minds are lost in imbecility or mania. But what is bodily ruin, what is mental death, even if we think of this life alone, compared to that spiritual death, which seems to have fallen upon some men, consumed by hot lusts or burned to a cinder with the fires of greed, or hardened like the nether millstone by selfishness, or embruted and besotted by swinish appetites; or on the other hand encased and frozen in the ice of intellectual conceit or shrouded in the gloom of doubt and denial and despair? Who can minister to these souls diseased? Where are the hospitals for these wretched wrecks? Who can lay his hand on these dead natures and bid them live again? Thanks be to Him who has bared his arm for the salvation of men; we may not utterly despair here of the possibility of the stirring of life under these ribs of spiritual death. But humanly speaking, in many cases how improbable it seems! At any rate what a dreadful spiritual loss to themselves and to the world is this spiritual paralysis, which is a living death! What a fearful disaster it has been that they have neglected the spiritual gift, which was within them, till it seems so nearly if not utterly, to nave lost its power of even manifesting its existence!

What must we do to save ourselves from this dreadful fate? We must now and always earnestly strive to keep alive the flames of our spiritual life, to hold the windows of our souls open towards God, to welcome all gracious and heavenly influences, to stir up incessantly the moral and spiritual gift which is in us. We must live a spiritual life if we would retain the power of living a spiritual life. It is a universal law that life to be perpetuated must be continuous. Once absolutely extinguish the vital spark in any form of life, and who can rekindle it? We must not suppose that we can with impunity trifle with this spiritual gift which is bestowed upon us. We neglect it at our great peril. The spiritual powers, like the mental and the physical, decay by disease and grow by vigorous exercise.

Men recognize this law in its application to their minds and bodies, but strangely enough too often act as though it did not prevail in the spiritual realm. The simple rule for escaping spiritual paralysis is to have a vigorous spiritual life.

In living the spiritual life what is the ideal of attainment we are to set before us? Our Lord has given us the authoritative answer to that inquiry: "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." We are not to be content with any lower ultimate attainment, even though the whole community about us is content with the lower ideal. Our life is to be a constant striving after a higher and higher type of character. Philosophers have pictured a variety of ideals for mankind. All that is good in the manifold philosophies of men is comprehended in this ideal of moral perfection that reflects the image of the divine character. Is it said that this teaching is disheartening and depressing because we are so far from perfectness? But really there is no other ideal which can satisfy the cravings of the human soul in its best moments. If it were made certain to us that we could never reach that completeness of moral development for which in our loftier moods we sigh, that would indeed be depressing and existence might seem a mockery. We might well exclaim, "What mean these deep longings in our hearts for a purity and power not yet reached and these unquenched aspirations which sometimes stir our nature for spiritual elevations not yet attained, unless these longings and aspirations are blessed prophecies and promises of achievements possible for us somehow or somewhere? What signifies this hungering and thirsting of the soul for what this material world alone can not give, except that there is a bread of which if the sonl eat it shall never hunger more, and a water of which if it drink it shall never more thirst?" It is the perfectness of the ideal which makes it a perpetual inspiration. It is by looking upward to the perfect pattern and longing to attain to its likeness that the race is slowly lifting itself heavenward.

Every one of us must keep this pattern ever before him and strive to shape his life and character after it, if continual moral and spiritual growth is to be secured. If we take as our model the average man, with whom we associate in business, we may soon find that no stimulus is offered to our capacity for growth. We may shrink and shrivel in our moral powers instead of stirring up and expanding them. We have infinite capacity for moral development, but that development will be arrested unless we keep ever before us an unattained ideal. The scriptural ideal is therefore the truly philosophic and necessary ideal, if we are to be incited to reach out after that which is the best possible growth and development for us.

We have also the gracious assurance of God's word and the confirmation of it by human experience that in striving after this ideal we shall have all needed heavenly helps. The stars in their courses fight against him who seeks after the low ideal. But all the sweet influences of kindly Providences, all the illuminations and comforts and stimulations of the Holy Spirit are pledged to him who seeks with humble and loving and fervent heart after the true ideal.

My exhortation to you is therefore not to forsake the high and generous purposes with which you may now be animated, even if on plunging into the activities of life you find yourself in a depressing moral atmosphere. Do not accept conventional standards lower than your own, no matter how many others accept them. Cherish the ideals which come to you in the best and holiest hours. Keep fresh in your minds the stimulating examples of pure and noble men. Especially keep ever before you the story of the one perfect life, which lifted itself over all the false traditions of the elders and the pharisaic moralizings of its time up to the simple truth of God. Your devotion to the purest and most exalted ideals you may be cherishing will be speedily tested. Schiller tells us that when with his glowing ideals he plunged into actual life he felt at

first that he had a lump of ice in his arms. The experience of many men has enabled them to understand what he meant by that strong expression. You will be often tempted to think that your motives are not appreciated and hence to ask whether it is of any use to cling to your ideals. If at such a moment, you encounter those who ridicule your theories and purposes of unselfish living as impracticable and advise you to conform your life to the lower standards of men who are called successful, you will need all your firmness and courage and principle to prevent a serious weakening of your character. Then make the heroic effort to stir up the gift of God which is in you and strenuously strive to take a fresh step towards the goal which our Lord has set before you. Victory at such a crisis makes subsequent victories easier. What is at first an effort soon becomes a habit, which may be performed without serious difficulty. Open your heart to heavenly visitations of the spirit. Keep your eye ever fixed on the one perfect exemplar set before us, and seek for continuous growth in the intellectual and spiritual nature, until you all attain the stature of perfect manhood in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Address to the Literary Alumni.

THE FOURTH PROFESSION.

W. J. GIBSON, CINCINNATI, 0.

I propose to speak of journalism, and more particularly in its relations to institutions of learning. For centuries the world's learning was practically confined to the three professions of theology, law and medicine. Colleges were built for them, and undergraduates studied with reference to them. They monopolized the avenues to preferment, laws and custom gave them privileges and immunities, and a man had no standing in learned bodies, and scarcely in polite society, unless he belonged to the nobility, the military service or to one of the recognized professions. Now, however, the domain of knowledge has so rapidly expanded and the activities of life so multiplied that the student has, not three, but many pursuits from which to choose. Foremost among these stands journalism, which, after the three named, may be reckoned the fourth profession, not fourth in rank,-for in the republic of letters there are no privileged orders,-but fourth in the order of development. Whether considered in relation to its aims, the importance of its work, or the talent employed in its service, journalism is second to no profession new or old. It is not customary to speak of it as a learned profession, and yet no man, however learned, has ever entered it and found his learning adequate to the demands made upon it.

The newspaper-what is it and what has it done? News-gathering in one form or another is an art as old as human speech, but the daily newspaper in nearly all its essential features is the product of the present age. To

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