was shaken wherein they were gathered together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake thè Word of God with boldness." ' There is great and peculiar need of this apostolic "boldness" today. The times imperatively demand the military attitude in the soul. The Christian character must be conspicuous for strength, intelligence, de- cisiveness, attack. Vyhatever may be allowed to lie in obscurity, or hidden away in secret and mystical depths, the masculinity of Christian discipleship must stand out in bold and flaming relief. I do not fear the serried hosts and hordes of organized deviltry, if only the temper of the Church is steeled for the fray. There is nothing in the might and majesty of the foe to make us dismayed, but we do need to fear a soft and limp and flaccid Christianty. How do we stand in the matter?. Can we say that the great char- acteristic- of our modern discipleship is its boldness, and that by the. very vim and pulse of our living we arrest the world in wonder? I must express my fèar that we are creating vast numbers of pulpy Christians, who are destitute of strong backbone. I regard with grave forboding the encroachment of an effeminate streak in Christian character, which is imperilling its robustness, The Need of Solid Food. Christian men and women of today do not sit down to the good, square, solid Biblical meals in which our fathers revelled in the genera- tions past. We have fallen upon the days of scraps, and snaps, and chips ; everything has to be reduced to the tit-bit, and we ignore the firm and solid loaf. How - can wè expect robustness from such diet? If the Christian Endeavor movement hàs a peril—and I speak not as one who looks in at its window, but as one who sits down at its table '<*—its peril Consists in the infrequency of the solid meal. When I look at the table T sometimes fear for thè muscle. I confess that I would sometimes like to see larger joints upon the table, and larger supplies of wholemeal bread, with a fine hard crust to ensure mastication. Depend upon it, our diet has much to do with our persistence ; the furnishing of our table determines the temper of the battlefield. One of the great cities of our island was recently concerned with the softness of the children's limbs. Their limbs were threaded with bending gristle rather than with firm and well-knit bone. And what is the explanation ? That the water they drink ip too soft, destitute of the harder elements, lacking; the lime which gòés to the making of bone. And in the Chris- tian life, when the bones are too soft and gristly, or when the backbone is altogether wanting, the cause may frequently be found in too soft a water supply, in the ignoring of the harder and severer elements of Christian truth. The water of Calvinism was hard, hard enough, but .it made bone, fine bone, bone tha.t would never bend, bone that could only be brokén ! We must see to it that our, water is not too.soft; that our diet be not too snipoety, that we acciuire. enough iron and lime to give strength and consistency to our character and to display naturally the unflinching. ^oMness which makes the world wonder.—From the Transfigured Church.
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