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and worldly glory, with others whom he knew would be very much offended if we made such fools of ourselves— that such lights as ours ought to be set on a very tall candlestick. To all these solicitations our uniform reply should be: "Before honor is humility." You recollect how once upon a time one of those pastors who thought he ought to be "set on a taller candlestick," wrote a letter to the late Dr. Austin Phelps, complaining that he was "throwing himself away in a shoe-town." Dr. Phelps remarks, "Very well; he could not probably make a better throw. he saves a shoe-town' morally he lifts it up intellectually to an immense altitude. In the process of doing that he lifts his own mind to a level of culture and of power which no conservatism of refinement ever rises high enough to overlook. Do not the first ten inches of an oak from the ground measure as much in height as the last ten of its topmost branch? When will the ministry learn that the place where' has very little concern with the intellectual worth of the work done? The uplifting anywhere is essentially the same, but with the chances of success all in favor of lifting low down. To the mind of Christ the whole world is a 'shoe-town' intellectually. If a man is swaying a promiscuous assembly every week, albeit they have waxed and grimy hands; if he is really moving them, educating them by the eternal thoughts of God up to the level of those thoughts-he is doing a grander literary work, with more power at both ends of it, than if he were penned in and held down by the elite of a city or the clique of a university. He is plowing a deeper furrow and subsoiling the field of all culture. The reflex influence of his work upon his own development is more masculine. He is nobler for it in intellectual being. There is more of him in the end. He has more to show

for his life work and more of himself to carry into eternity."

And now again, if any, dissatisfied with the general declaration that the reward of humility is exaltation, long for a more minute detail of what goes to make up that exaltation, I can only respond as did the shining ones who escorted Christian and his companion over the river and up to the city, that the beauty of the place is inexpressible. With the immortal dreamer we watch the two men as they enter the gate. We behold them immediately transfigured and clothed with raiment that shines like gold. Hark! We hear all the bells of the city ring for joy and the royal salutation, "Enter ye into the joy of the Lord." We even hear the pilgrims themselves singing with a loud voice, "Blessing, honor, glory, power be to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb forever." Eager to discover all we possibly can before those "portals thick with sparkling gems swing to again and obstruct our vision, we bend forward and peer through the "gates ajar" and see a city that shines like the sun-streets also that are paved with gold and in them walking many men with crowns of gold on their heads-with palms in their hands and golden harps to sing withal. Those are also of them that have wings and they answer one another without intermission saying, Holy Holy! is the Lord-and after that they shut the gates which, when we see, we wish ourselves among them and sigh, Oh, God! that we were there! "Then Peter said, Lo! We have left all and followed thee; what shall we have therefor?" What shall we have therefor? Ah, Peter! Peter! with thy lingering worldliness and visions of earthly pomp and glory! Thou shalt indeed be rewarded, but not in the way thy carnal heart doth expect. But not you disciples alonenot you disciples alone sitting upon your thrones judg

ing the twelve tribes of Israel; for hearken to thy mas ter: "Verily, verily! Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life."

THE CENTRAL FIGURE OF HISTORY.

BY REV. GEORGE F. HUNTING, D. D.,*

*

Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Marshal, Mich.

Text: "And sitting down, they watched him there." Matt. 27:36.

The place is Golgotha, or Calvary, a bald, skullshaped mound or hillock, a little outside the walls of Jerusalem. The persons brought into the foreground as the they" of the text, are the four Roman soldiers who acted as the executioners on the occasion to which the text refers. Three crosses bear three dying victims. Two are barely noticed by the historian, though one of them in most significant words, and then both are lost sight of. The third, the "him" of the text, is the central figure of that group, and not less the central figure of the world's history. Let those four Roman soldiers represent the four quarters of the earth and the text is still true. "And sitting down, they watched him there." That chief sufferer had said but a little

*George Field Hunting was born in West Milton, Vermont, April 24, 1836. Graduated at University of Vermont, 1860. Entered Third U. S. Artillery 1861, remaining as lieutenant till 1868. Pastor of Presbyterian church, Kilbourn City, Wis., 18701876; of Congregational church, Sparta, Wis., 1876-1878; of Presbyterian church, Beaver Dam, Wis., 1878-1881; of Presbyterian church, Kalamazoo, 1881-1887; president of Alma College and pastor of local church, 1887-1891; of Presbyterian church, Flint, 1891-1895; and at Marshall, 1895-. He received the degree of D. D. from the Kalamazoo Baptist College and from the University of Vermont.