them upon the altar; Christians likewise brought gifts to the altar, but they were for the poor. Tertullian counted every needy one an altar, when he said: “Our compassion gives more in the streets than yours does in the temples." The early fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenæus and Clement of Alexandria insist upon these gifts as thankofferings to be given to the needy.

With the inception of Christianity every Christian home was opened to the poor and the sick. There were no hospitals; since every house was for charity. There was no orphanage; since every disciple was ready to adopt the friendless. There were of the poor alone in Antioch, some ten thousand dependent upon the charities of the churches. In the earlier church life, rich and poor met at the agapa or love feasts, where the poor were fed. Every blessing covered by the Saviour's words they sought; the hungry were fed; strangers, passing through the cities and towns, were given resting places and refreshments; the ready, willing hands gave garments to the destitute; they gave their own couches to the sick; and at great expense ministered to those in prison and paid large ransoms to release the captives. When taunted by the Arians as to this waste, Ambrose replied:

"It is far more useful to preserve souls for the

Lord than to keep gold. The church does not possess gold to hoard, but to distribute it, and to help with it in distress." Upon a single occasion the church ransomed twelve thousand prisoners at an immense sacrifice of about fifty thousand dollars. By special decree in A. D. 400, prison visitation was required of the bishops.

Out from such a Christian home life and atmosphere, in later days special organizations of charity for the helpless have been formed. The many sidedness of their charities is revealed in Justinian's legislation; houses for strangers; for the sick; for widows; for orphans; for the aged. The first public hospital upon which the sun ever shone was founded in the fourth century by the charity of a Christian woman. It was an outgrowth of the Christian faith, although late in appearing, when the first hospital for the insane was founded in the fifteenth century, — founded because of pity for the maniacs whom the hooting crowds followed through the streets of Valencia. Christianity is the religion that took earliest pity upon the blind in the founding of hospitals, shedding its light upon their midnight darkness. Seek out the helpless, and you have discovered the field

for Christian labor. There is not a weary one in reach of men whom Christ does not befriend. The sign of Christ's authority was evidenced in the message He sent back to John; "the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." Measured by human power, it is only as the Church shall do a similar work that it can be said to resemble its Master.

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"The silent revolution which Christianity wrought in social morality," says a recent writer in the Brittanica, “cannot be measured by legislation. It is to be traced in a purer literature, a higher moral life, a better public spirit, and, above all, in the establishment of buildings for the reception of strangers, almshouses for the poor, hospitals and orphan-houses for the sick and the forsaken, and houses of refuge for the support of helpless old men and women. All these were due to the church."

True discipleship is known by its humanity and its loving service, a service given to those who cannot repay. The command of Christ included "the poor, the mained, the halt and the blind." From our obligations to such helpless ones there

is no release.

There is something sublime in the help given the weak and the suffering, by the strong. The divine answer comes not often on the wings of the wind; but the cry to God is heard and felt in the sympathy of the human heart.

Not yet have we reached the limit of power wrought by the precepts unfolded in the Book of books; we are to witness its conflicts on sterner paths. We are to mark its progress by the clashing of armies, and hear its amen to truth in the roar of cannon. We have dwelt upon the silent sources of power, the right to life and the rights of the helpless as revealed in the work of Christian charity. We take the question and its answer by Theodore Parker for our own. "How much

has the Bible done for mankind? No abuse has deprived us of its blessings. You trace its path across the world from the day of Pentecost to this day. As a river springs up in the heart of a sandy continent having its father in the skies and its birthplace in distant unknown mountains; as the stream rolls on, enlarging itself, making in that arid waste a belt of verdure wherever it turns its way; creating palm groves and fertile plains where the smoke of the cottages curls up at even

tide, and marble cities send the gleam of their splendor far into the sky; such has been the course of the Bible on the earth. It has made a deeper mark on the world than the rich and beautiful literature of all the heathen.”

The pillars of civilization rest upon these two corner stones; the sacredness of life and the uplifting power of love, - these are the two fundamental truths that co-exist beneath all the pages of the Book of books. Upon these are builded whatever there is of progress in empires. The life that is sacred shall have its sacred rights. Without these there can be no liberty and no progress. Every vexing question of modern times is measured by its nearness to, or distance from, these great truths; questions of war and peace; freedom and slavery ; capital and labor; theology and bigotry.

By a logical inference, as the fruit reveals the nature of the tree, so the living power of these two principles will be seen in the daily life of Christian nations. The principle of the sacredness of life will be proven in a national progress surpassing other peoples, which is a recognized fact. Between Asia and Europe there can be no comparison. The same is true of the happiness that is a natural resultant of an inculcated benevolence.