less also true that it is under the complex conditions of the city that there is the greatest chance of the development of moral strength. The great men of the ages have lived with men and not alone, for the development of positive mind and positive intellect is possible only where man is associated with man. The country may produce, but can never develop, the genius. It is broad contact of man with man that brings intellectual powers into play, and the genius of the country must broaden his vision or he fails. A Gladstone is impossible in a small tribe. Lincoln was great only after he left the backwoods and assumed his relations with the millions of his fellow-men. An Indian chief may have the intellect to develop the statesman, if he lived among the nations, but as an Indian he can never become more than the warrior.

With these ideas in mind the great significance of the new law of nature is clear. In the development of the body one generation does not profit by the experience of another. In the development of mind, however, experience accumulates. In the development of the body it is the unit that must be preserved for advance; in the development of mind it is only by the advance of the race that growth is possible. Thus it is that the law of natural selection acting alone results in the development of body, or when acting upon mankind produces the many individual tribes at enmity with each other. The law of love when perfected will unite man into one brotherhood, in which the mental power will be the resultant of all, and hence in the long run will rise to the higher level. Union produces the advance of the whole race together, and not of a class or clique. The law of love produces the greatest good to the greatest number. Natural selection must be the law for the development of physical structure, for isolation and extermination of the weak are necessary factors in such an evolution; but to develop the mighty mind and soul the necessary condition is union, and for this nature's law is love. Every step toward the diffusion of knowledge, every incident that leads nations to a better knowledge of each other, every bit of missionary work that broadens human sympathies, everything that leads to closer union is a step toward advance, while everything that leads toward disintegration of nations is a step backward.

Thus it is, that man in his development comes under a new law and characterizes a new phase of evolution. The grand conception of the history of the universe shows us its threefold nature the evolution of worlds, the evolution of life, the evolution of mind. In each of these three phases of history a special law has been foremost. For the evolution of worlds chemical and physical forces sufficed. For the evolution of life there is necessary the law of selfishness, with the struggle for existence, and the natural selection to which it leads. For the development of mind and soul there is needed a new law still, and this we find to be the law of love for others, or altruism. World, life, soul—these are the phases of evolution. Law, strife, love-these are the laws under which nature has thus far developed.

It is only the last few years that have disclosed to us this result. It is only as we have learned of the evolution of animals as guided and controlled by the law of natural selection, and then as we have come to think of the development of man and the laws under which he has developed, that this grand conception of the universe has dawned upon our minds. Two thousand years ago it was announced to the world that the law under which man should live and develop was the law of altruism, but it was not understood. The followers of Christ failed entirely to comprehend it; the centuries that followed failed to understand it in the slightest degree; and century after century followed in which man was still controlled almost wholly by the principle of selfishness and strife. But altruism slowly made its way into the hearts of men. This lesson, that the law of man is the law of love, has been subjected to the test of the centuries. It has been tried by the fires of superstition, by the fires of persecution, by the fires of the wars of religion, and the fires of the Inquisition; and yet through them all it has retained its integrity and has come to the close of each century nobler and truer and clearer.

When a few years ago science turned its attention to the study of the evolution of life it was thought that the result would be the destruction of the principles of Christianity, and that this hope of the centuries would be laid low should the theory of evolution prove a fact. When the principle of natural selection was disclosed it was thought by some that this law, so

diametrically opposed to the doctrine of Christ, was a stigma upon Christianity. How could the same God be the author of the law of selfishness and the law of love? Little did it appear then that this same line of scientific study would in a short time teach that the doctrine of Christianity is the capstone of the arch which has been built by the history of the ages. For, however much we may have felt this law of love to be designed for us, it has been science itself that has disclosed its crowning position in the evolution of the universe. To science, then, Christianity owes a debt of gratitude deeper than it has fully conceived. While science has in past years been disclosing to us the evolution of worlds, while it has been explaining the evolution of life, it is now beginning to tell us of the evolution of mind. While it has found a sufficient cause for the evolution of worlds in the physical laws of nature, while it has found the efficient cause of the evolution of life in the laws of strife and the struggle for existence, it is beginning to recognize to-day that the only law under which is possible the evolution of mind and soul is the law which was disclosed to us two thousand years ago by the lowly Nazarene. Faith, hope, love, and the greatest of these is love. This is the teaching, not only handed down to us from the inspired writings of the fathers of Christianity, but it is also the teaching which is to-day becoming more and more clear as the result of our study of nature, guided by the thought of evolution.

ART. V.-THE NECESSITY OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. In order that the necessity of Church membership may be rightly understood, it will be well for us first to get some notion of what the New Testament Church is. It has been quite generally supposed that because Christ said to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my Church," he meant a new Church, or another body of peculiar people entirely separated from, and independent of, the peculiar people as instituted by the faith of Abraham. But he never spoke of making, erecting, or building another Church. The supposition that he did necessarily involves the setting aside of the plan of salvation which both Christ and the prophets taught, and supposes the introduction of a plan essentially different and independent. In this conversation with Peter the Lord spoke of "my Church," the company of the "called out," the "separated," the "community of believers," the "peculiar people." It was no new Church, no new plan, but "my" Church, instituted at the call of Abraham; and he declared that he was about to do something with it and for it. And that something was that he would build it on a rock. It is not necessary to discuss here who or what that rock was, for it is not relevant to our case; but it is well for us to know what he meant by building his Church.

Now, the term "build" is quite an elastic one, adapting its significance to the peculiar demands of the case in which it is used, such as to frame, construct, increase, strengthen, settle, establish, preserve, etc. And its Scripture significance is especially to increase, strengthen, settle, bless, preserve, knit together, edify, etc. In New Testament Greek it and its deriv atives occur about seventy times, and are rendered edify, edi fying, and edification some twenty times; and a careful analysis of all passages in which it occurs referable to the Almighty God as the actor will reveal the fact that it always refers to some well-known, existing thing to be improved and made better, and never to a new thing to be set up or erected, then or thereafter.

Now, there is one thing patent to all who are New Testament students-that at the time of Christ's conversation with Peter it was not a settled matter in the minds of all whether

Jesus was or was not the Christ. Another thing is self-evident -that, whatever he might do with the Church and for the Church must be done upon the supposition of the great, allcontrolling, and fundamental fact that he was the Christ. He says to Peter, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am ?" Peter answers, "Some say you are one, some that you are another." "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter says, "Thou art the Christ." "You," says Christ, "have said the truth." Now, giving any explanation he may choose to the rest of the conversation, no Christian can get away from the great fundamental truth and doctrine that then and thereafter, as indeed theretofore prospectively, the divine blessing, enlargement, and up-building of the Church-the then existing Church, God's community of believers, the body of the faithful—must grow out of and recognize this Christologic fact just uttered by Peter. There may be room for difference of belief as to some other elements in this conversation; but there is no room for difference as to the principles on which Christ would build up, bless, and enlarge his Church. Jesus is the Christ; therefore all Church enlargement, blessing, and strengthening must emanate from him and rest on him. Other foundation hath no man laid. This is the foundation on which the prophets built. And Paul, in speaking of the salvation of the Gentiles, says (Eph. iii, 5, 6), "Which in other ages [that is, in the times of the patriarchs and prophets] was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body." What body? Evidently the body of Christ. But what do the Scriptures teach us is the body of Christ? The Church. But in this same epistle Paul conveys the thought that the Church antedates even the age of the prophets; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times all things in Christ are to be gathered together in one, both those which are in heaven and those which are on earth; and that Christ is the Head over all things to the Church, which is his body.

From this we clearly infer that Christ was not intending to build another Church, but was merely affirming that a new and more blessed order of things was about to be introduced in the same Church. The Church which came into being under the call of Abraham and was built up, strengthened, and bound