Architecture finds a suggestive model in the Temple of Solomon. We are scarcely out from the story of Eden before we read of “Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and organ"; and of "Tubal-cain an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." It was of Bezaleel, God spoke to Moses: "I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber-to work in all manner of workmanship." Malachi draws his vivid picture of the "refiner's fire" and "fuller's sope." The Book is all along making its appeals to earth and skies. It is the great Book of nature, and of art in nature. It stimulates the mental powers and at the same time prompts to the study of nature; the two great secrets of all successful inventions.

The knowledge of God incites to a knowledge of his laws. Between the rubbing together of two sticks of wood to generate fire, and a common lucifer match, there lies the immense stretch between the savage and civilized life. From the first needle a fish-bone perforated at one end-to

the modern sewing-machine, there is almost the difference between Paganism and Christianity. From the discovery of Galvini to the present day, the history of electricity seems a progress out of darkness itself into a light that almost rivals the shining of the sun. Between the humming spinning-wheel of the Grecian Helen, wife of Menelaus, and the whirrings of a thousand flying spindles, time itself seems out-distanced. The electric currents, the newest discovered for man's use, almost annihilate time and outrun space. It is impossible fairly to estimate the influence of inventions upon civilization.

In direct ratio as man rises above toil for its own sake, so does he accomplish his more legitimate work. In reality, labor-saving machinery is labor-making. Whatever saves man the necessity of drudgery increases his power. The steam power of the world is estimated to equal that of eight hundred million men, representing a population of workingmen larger than the globe contains. The steam and water power in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts alone, is equal to that of one million nine hundred thousand men; or what would employ the hand power of a population of seven million.

In our boot and shoe industries, the work of eighty out of every one hundred men is done by machinery. In the manufacture of carpets, one man can now turn out as much work as twenty could have done thirty years ago. In the manufacture of cotton goods, one person can now do what formerly took the time and strength of six. In the flour manufacture, there has been a displacement of seventy-five in every hundred men. The cotton gin now does the work that once required one thousand men. In the manufacturing districts of Great Britain three quarters of a million spinners produce by machinery what it would require thirty million hand spinners to produce.

Facts like these speak volumes. In the progress of Christianity opening up new continents, the Christian nations are taxed to supply the wants thus newly created. Our own commercial centres are a witness to the fact; the great industries and manufactories that supply the markets of the world are largely under the control of acknowledged Christian men. There is something nobler than what gold can buy; it is this Christian consciousness of power asserting itself in the grand uplifting of the race.

For centuries previous to the Reformation, the monks of the Papal Church were the leaders in agriculture. These monks were also the great teachers of handicraft. Lock-making was the parent of much of our machinery, but this was invented primarily for the use of cathedrals. The sand-glass as a timepiece was invented by a monk of Chartres. The first idea of a clock has been ascribed to the Archdeacon of Verona, in the ninth century. They who best appreciate eternity will be most careful of the value of time even in its passing moments.

The goldsmith and the silversmith were the skilled artisans giving their service largely to the Church. Greene, in his "History of the English People," speaks of the coming of Augustine, thus: "The civilization, art, letters, which had fled before the sword of the English Conquerors, returned with the Christian faith." The connection between Christianity and industrial art is close enough to count a Doctor of Divinity as the inventor of the loom. Bible lands have produced the arts of industry, and in every new field of the conquest of Christianity, these arts follow.

We have thus far considered two chief thoughts; namely, Christianity creates wants as illustrated in

all the peoples that receive it, thus demanding commerce; and this same super-sensual power incites to the supremacy of the immortal over the material, thus supplying the wants it creates. Another truth is identical in the demands of the Bible and of commerce; namely:

III. The Field for Religion as well as Commerce is the World. The one is a labor in self-sacrifice, and the other in self-interest. Self-sacrifice is bold; self-interest is timid. Self-sacrifice never counts life dear, while self-interest is afraid of malaria and pirates. Self-sacrifice makes martyrs; self-interest has none. There are thousands of islands in the Pacific where our merchantmen dared not land until the missionaries had been there. Commerce has never been safe until it has taken advantage of our Careys and Judsons and Moffats and Livingstones as its pioneers.

Commerce wishes a contact with all nations; the Bible compels such a contact. The gist of the Biblical teaching is in Christ's command to go "into all the world," and "disciple all nations." Christianity leaves no people out of its reach; Commerce selects its favorites. The reason for the difference it is clear to see. The Bible makes

the peoples of farthest remove our neighbors, and