to truth and right and justice which seemed compatible with the most profuse outward ceremonies of worship-what were all these but a deification of wealth, and power, and selfish pleasure, and reckless ambition, an insolent defiance of the supreme majesty of Jehovah of hosts?" Man seemed to have forgotten his Maker. The indictment against Israel is summed up in these words: "Their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory." Had Israel recognized the majesty of Jehovah the excesses would have been impossible; but now Jehovah must vindicate his character, and he will do so by a terrible manifestation of his majesty: "Enter into the rock, and hide thyself in the earth from before the terror of Jehovah and from the glory of his majesty; the lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day." In that day he will prove to the trembling and astonished people his paramount supremacy; he will demonstrate that he is a jealous God who can tolerate no rival, who cannot be satisfied with a half-hearted allegiance. Still loftier and more comprehensive than the idea of Jehovah's majesty is the idea of his holiness. "Holy, holy, holy," was the cry which Isaiah heard from the lips of the adoring seraphim, and he chooses the title, "The Holy One of Israel," to describe the relation of Jehovah to his people. What, then, is the content of the divine attribute of holiness as Isaiah conceived it? Primarily the Hebrew root from which the word is derived seems to express the idea of separation. It represents God as separate, distinct from his creatures. Then, since all created things are limited, since man in his fallen state is imperfect and sinful, the term comes to be used to indicate the separation of God from everything that is limited, imperfect, and sinful. But it does not rest in a mere negative conception; it expands so as to include the positive moral attributes of God, his purity and his righteousness, his faithfulness and his truth, his mercy and his loving-kindness, nay, even his jealousy and his wrath, his zeal and his indignation: "these are the different rays which combine to make up the perfect light of holiness. It is the moral nature of God, which man's dull soul can but dimly imagine; for what does he know of absolute

truth and righteousness and love? what of the consuming indignation the sight of sin must stir in him whose nature is an intense zeal for truth and righteousness? what of the reconciliation of apparently opposing attributes in perfect unity of will and purpose?" This is the conception of Jehovah emphasized by Isaiah; and he believed that, if the people could be impressed strongly enough with a clear conception of the majesty and holiness of their God, they would cease their rebellion, for with the knowledge there would come the power to live a life that, in a measure at least, would reflect the holiness of God. Micah differed from his predecessors in that he emphasized no special phase of the character of Jehovah, yet his message also was, above everything else, an attempt to lead his hearers to meditate upon the character of his God. All the prophets announced the impending judgment as the result of sin; Micah's message is primarily a message of judgment. Jehovah comes forth out of his place amid awful convulsions of nature which express the terror of his advent. It is the transgression of Jacob and the sin of Israel that have called him forth. Samaria and Jerusalem are, as it were, the impersonation of the nation's guilt. On them the punishment must fall. Samaria must be utterly destroyed. With wild shrieks and piteous lamentations he bewails its fall. But the calamity does not stop there. It sweeps onward to the very gates of Jerusalem. The prediction of impending judgment is followed by an exposition of its causes. This exposition takes the form of a strong denunciation of the offenses that call forth this judgment: offenses against the fundamental laws of social ethics, breaches of elementary principles of justice and mercy.

Micah brings us to the opening of the seventh century. The message of the eighth century is before us, and for more than one reason is this message of peculiar value to-day. That "history repeats itself" is a trite saying, yet it is true that the twentieth century A. D. in America is not free from some of the dangers which threatened Israel and Judah in the eighth century B. C. For instance, in, first, territorial expansion. Never had the borders of the two kingdoms extended so far; never in the history of the United States have the stars and stripes been unfurled over

so large an area as to-day. Second, in commercial development. The commercial activity in Israel and Judah during the eighth century was without parallel in the nation's history, and the commercial activity in America at the opening of the twentieth century has never been equaled. Wherever there is an open door, or the possibility of securing an opening, there products of American industries may be seen. Third, in development of natural resources. The heavens above and the earth beneath, the waters under the earth and the very bowels of the earth give up their resources, their forces, and their treasures, in order that, in very deed, man may become the lord of creation. Fourth, the resulting material prosperity of our country has startled the world during the past few years. Panics have been predicted, yet prosperity still abides with us. But these material advances have had other results, one of them the accumulation of unprecedented wealth, resources, power, and influence in the hands of a few. Such a condition tends to luxury, extravagance, arrogance; to oppression, impoverishment, and cruelty toward those who assist in the accumulation of multiplied millions. Surely in this the twentieth century sees, only in an intensified form, the evils of the eighth century B. C. Nor in the effect of this process of accumulation on government and on the administration of justice are the conditions met by the prophets of God to-day essentially different from the conditions denounced by Amos and his successors. Religious conditions, too, are not altogether dissimilar. True, we have left behind the old covenant and are now under a covenant of grace; but that advance has not yet succeeded in driving from this world a cold, heartless formalism and in enthroning, once and forever, a deep, pure, spiritual heart religion. Other gods are still being worshiped with the greatest devotion even in our own land, while the God of heaven and earth must be satisfied with less than belongs to him.

This incomplete list may suffice to indicate a similarity in the social, moral, and religious conditions between the time of Jeroboam II and that of Theodore Roosevelt, and a message meeting the necessities of the former period should certainly contain some truths adapted to the latter. The religious and ethical teachings

585 of the prophets are again coming to be understood, and their value in the attempt to solve social problems is being recognized. Some there are who investigate modern conditions of life and attempt to solve these problems and to lift humanity nearer to the lofty ideals of a Christian civilization. In questioning the theorist and the socialist, the economist and the philosopher, the historian and the theologian, the educator and the preacher, in the pursuit of our investigation, let us not forget to question the ancient prophets of God; for they too have words of wisdom and life. Let us strive to know God as the prophets knew him, in his majesty and sovereignty, in his righteousness and justice, in his holiness and purity, and, above all, in his mercy and love. Such knowledge will in itself supply a constant motive to manifest, in a measure, at least, the same divine virtues; and if we add to this ancient message the revelation in Jesus the Christ, with its life-giving power, we will be in a position to meet present-day problems and solve them in a manner that will establish peace upon earth and good will among men.

In conclusion: Israel failed to listen to the words of the prophets, the judgment came, the people were dragged into exile, their crown of glory was taken from their brow. The America of the twentieth century may disregard the message of truth and righteousness, but her hour of reckoning shall surely come; if she fails to meet her opportunities her candlestick may be removed, and the glory of which at present she may be justly proud may pass to a nation more ready to do the bidding of her God. If, on the other hand, we acknowledge the Lord and follow his truth, then it may be said of our nation, as of Zion of old, "Look upon Zion, the city of our festal season: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken."

7. C. Eiselen

ART. VII.-AN OLD SCHOOL UNDER RULES AND
DISCIPLINE.

In a work published by the Book Concern in 1874, called History of the Revisions of the Disicipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by David Sherman, may be found as rare a collection of curios in Methodist evolution as might be desired by the most painstaking mental anatomist. It is a work that must have cost the writer much labor, and that of a Sisyphean order, and its perusal might well be set as a task for the driest plodder. Its value, however, is real, as enabling one to see by what tortuous mazes minds may be led in a search for possible cure-alls for the ills of men, and especially of those in the lands of ecclesiastical discipline.

Under Part IV, treating of the Educational and Benevolent Institutions of the Church, a section covering ten pages was devoted to the cause of Education, and contains a history of the first Methodist school in America, that at Abingdon in Maryland, near Baltimore, opened in 1787, with a dedicatory sermon by Bishop Asbury on Sunday, December 10, from 2 Kings iv, 40: “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot." That Asbury thought this an appropriate theme suggests some grave apprehensions on that good and great man's part touching the wisdom of Methodists engaging in educational work. And when it had twice been burned to the ground, after prodigious efforts for its maintenance, one is not surprised that the bishop felt confirmed in his first misgivings, and that the fate of Cokesbury College seemed to him a warning that too much attention to learning on the part of the Church might prove a rather dangerous thing. This view is more easily upheld after reading in this same book the "General Rules prepared for the Methodist Seminaries of Learning," notably and only tried, so far as I can learn, at that institution. That the college caught fire on the attempt to enforce some of the rules, not once but twice, is not strange, though possibly providential. I will here transcribe them-with personal comments—as a curious and instructive illustration of the mistakes in some points of good