Church was born again; the ministry sought a genuine Christian experience; revealed truth was preached as the all-vital source of salvation; infidelity was confined to books; formalism was superseded by piety; and vice literally surrendered to the popular demand for righteousness. With all the drawbacks to a progressive religious movement in the eighteenth century, it may be said that England owes its regeneration in that century to the activity of the Wesleyan reformation and its associate forces.

After fifty years of earnest Christian work-after the struggles and successes of half a century-the great leader, John Wesley, dies, and we are at once confronted with the new and last era of the eighteenth century. From 1791 to 1800, the short period of nine years, we see England under the influence of a different spirit, and again in the greatest moral danger.

The third period is the anti-religious, or post-Wesleyan, period in England's history. The French Revolution, aiming at the subversion of monarchical principles, was in progress and enlisted popular attention throughout Europe. England was soon affected by it. It at once disturbed her political quietude, turning the public mind from religion to politics, and finally absorbed the thought of the nation. Even the ministry engaged in pulpit discussions of the principles of the Revolution, exciting the people more and more with each succeeding discussion. Many dissenting clergymen and a few Churchmen hailed the revolution as the omen of good to the continent, and likewise to the world, and supported it, although it was antagonistic to English absolutism. At the same time the recent triumph of democratic principles in America had scarcely less effect in England in leading people to consider the propriety of the introduction of democratic ideas among themselves. The government was alarmed, for revolution was imminent.

A still more threatening influence visited England, attacking especially its moral basis and its religious life. At that time Thomas Paine was the most popular man of the age. He was popular in the United States as a patriot, popular in France as a statesman, popular in England as a scholar, and while his fame was at its maximum he corrupted the nations with his infidelity. It took root in France and ended in the Revolution; it grew in England, and almost precipitated a crisis. We do

not witness the revival of infidelity and the subversion of religion throughout the kingdom, but we do see the power of infidelity over the higher classes, and the effect of the French Revolution on the lower classes. These two forces-the Revolution a political force, Infidelity a quasi-moral force-each antagonistic to the other, seemed for the time to suspend, or at the least quiet, the influence of the higher political and moral forces in existence in England, and as a consequence spiritual activity diminished, and the Church engaged in no new enterprises. It had the effect of temporarily turning the public attention from religion to irreligion, which was ominous of the disturbance of the religious foundations of society. Paineism had its successes, creating the expectation of a speedy return to irreligion. The period of suspense, however, was fortunately of limited duration; in its sober moments the nation had no thought of returning to infidelity or plunging into irreligion; it therefore survived all attacks, resisted the threatened invasion of the infidelic spirit, and closed the century firm in the faith, and resolute in its loyalty to God.

The century began under Queen Anne with a condensed denial of religious faith; it closed under George III. illumined by gospel truth and walking in the Lord's ways. Under the former, Church ministers were public functionaries who drew their salaries and made light of religion; under the latter, they were the messengers of God who defended the Gospel and preached Christ to all the people. Marvelous change! Who but God could have breathed into the ministry the Spirit of life? Who but the Head of the Church could have conducted the new movement through obstructions so many and embarrassing to its consummation in a religious revolution?

The lessons that may be drawn from the eighteenth century will close the presentation of this subject.

1. The duty of the ministry in times of spiritual degeneracy, formalism, and indifference in the Church, is clearly indicated by the occurrences of the century herein considered. Without enterprise, without spirituality, without moral heroism and enthusiasm in the ministry, there will be a declension of all that is vital in the religious life. In the absence of religious enthusiasm and aggressiveness in the Church, the ministry must assume the defense of the truth, and inspire the gospel spirit

in the followers of Christ. Whatever the condition of the Church, the ministry as leaders must be heroes, enthusiasts, reformers, and prophets of the Lord, pure in their hearts, blameless in their lives, ethically sound in their teachings, and altogether inspiring in their activities. A pure ministry insures a pure Church.

2. The combination of religion and politics, as objects of pursuit or participation by the ministry, cannot be justified, except in national emergencies. In the non-religious period of England's history the ministry were Tories or Whigs, and the contests were political rather than religious, in the midst of which religion disappeared. In the last period of the century political principles absorbed the attention of the ministry, and the nation descended perilously near to an anti-religious condition. Governmental affairs belong to statesmen; the affairs of Christ's kingdom belong to the ministry. Except in war or great calamities, the ministry should not depart from a strict adherence to their functions as spiritual leaders of the people.

This position justifies the additional remark, that in civilized countries there is no need of a National or Established Church. Under the English Establishment England was ruined; under a non-national but independent religious organization it was regenerated. Political Churchism, or State religions, cannot and should not be much longer maintained. Disestablishment is the demand of the hour.

3. The darkest periods of the Church are usually succeeded by great awakenings and reformations. It was so in the time. of Jonah, who was commissioned to go to Nineveh and declare its destruction. That great city, whose cup of iniquity was nearly full, hearkening unto the prophet, turned unto the Lord and was saved. It was so in the time of Christ; the world itself was sunken in the depths of heathenism; then the Saviour appeared and the adversary for a time ceased his roaring. It was so in the time of Luther; the Roman Catholic Church was the nursery of vice and crime; then the light of the Reformation shone brightly on the darkness, and the people were saved. So was it in England when religion had almost expired and Wesley appeared. This teaches us that God will not suffer his Church to perish, but will revive it "in the midst of the years."

4. A maximum religious condition may be followed by reac tions. Belief may be followed by infidelity. The dragon may be let loose after the millennium. But the reaction that follows religion is never as great as the reaction from infidelity; the ebbing tide is always followed by an incoming wave greater than the receding, so that there is perpetual gain amid the reactions of religion.

5. The Church may flourish in an apparently divided state. There is room for denominationalism in the world. In those nations where the denominational spirit is strong, Christianity thrives the most, as in the United States and England; while in nations where the Church is an organic unit, as in Roman Catholic countries, there is neither civil nor moral progress. Wesleyanism may have suffered temporarily by its divisions, but Christianity on the whole has not been embarrassed by them, but rather flourished under them. Organic unity among all the branches of the Christian Church is perhaps not desirable; mutual love among them, however, is possible.

6. In most cases the remedy for wide spread apostasy is a new evangelical awakening. If existing religious institutions are unable to resist the advances of infidelity, or turn back the tide of immorality, then, in God's providence, the old must give way to the new, or the ruin becomes universal. On this principle we explain the Reformation and the rise of Methodism, and it will apply to the future. If the Christianity that is in custody of the Churches to-day will not save the nations, then it is probable that another religious organization will appear which will accomplish the tasks of the Gospel. This teaches us to be faithful.

7. The inspirer of all reformation is the Holy Spirit. In the central period of the eighteenth century, embracing fifty years, God's hand guided, and God's power preserved, the religion of the people. Without the supernatural presence, the spiritual illumination, and the directing supervision of the Church's everlasting Founder, religion is utterly vain, faith becomes a superstition, the ministry are without a mission, and the Church itself a lifeless form. Let it be ours to carry forward the purposes committed to us, to give redemption to the people and fill the world with the echoing joy of a universal salvation.

ART. IV.

RAILROADS AND CIVILIZATION.

MANY persons now living well remember when railroads were unknown. Their possibility had dawned upon the American mind quite early in the century. In 1804 Cadwallader D. Colden, probably a grandson of the first Surveyor-General of the Colonies, and himself a civil engineer, said: "The time will come when, on tramways, loaded carriages will be propelled by horses at a speed of not less than six miles an hour." His words were prophetic. Twenty-five years later cars were propelled by steam at a speed of twenty-five or thirty miles an hour. The tramways came later, but they are now of world-wide use.

Within half a century from their origin, railroads became the chief, almost the only, means of transporting passengers and freight overland, for long distances, in all civilized countries, and now the existing railroads have a mileage of nearly three hundred thousand miles, a distance equal to eleven and a half times the circuit of the world.

It is not generally known by the present generation that strong opposition displayed itself in the beginning against the building of railroads. It arose, in large part, from unwarranted apprehensions that somehow the new departure would work injury to existing material or social interests. These fears were long since proved to have been entirely groundless, yet for the time they were as effective as though well founded. The objections urged were various and remarkable. As we consider them now, they appear frivolous and amusing.

By superseding horse-power to a large degree, it was urged that railroads would depreciate the value of horses and destroy the market for them. As a matter of fact, the exact reverse has resulted. Good horses were slow sale then at from $100 to $150 each. The same style of horses now readily command from $250 to $500 each. It is true that money had then a higher purchasing power than now, but the uses and the value of the horse are certainly not less, relatively, than they were a half-century ago.

The railroad has relieved the horse from road transportation. of freight and passengers over long distances, leaving to him other and profitable work, in city and country, in hack and