A Word By The Way

Several years since two merchants had :aken their seats in the morning train xr a eertain city. They were neighbors, dwelliüg in a contiguous suburb, and doiDg business in a large and populous towii. Although their residences were near together, and they saw each other daily, they were not intímate. They lad few sympathies in common. One lad been for many years a professed dieciple of Christ, loving God's house, and alive to all that pertained to the spread of the gospel. The other was a respectable and suceessful merohant, absorbed in business, and to all appearance indifferent to all beyond this life. !)n the morning in question these two neighbors happened to occupy the same seat in the railway carriage. They soon jecame earnestly engaged in conversation on business, its prospects, their own lans and suocesses. The worldly merchant, the eider of the two, said they had been very suceessful for the year past, and could now say he had a competence. "I do not care," said he, "to be worth any more." " Well," said lus friend, " this life is all provided for. That is all right. But how about the life beyond?" " Oh," was the reply, " I do not worry myself about that." " But ought you not to trouble yourself about it V' "No, I think nt. I have no doubt that it will be right." "But I would not thus trust without looking into the matter. The interests involved are moinentous." The train hadreached the station, and the two merchants separated, each taking his way to bis own place of business. A few months af terward the Christian merchant missed his neighbor f rom the morning train. On inquiry he learned that he was sick. Days and weeks passed, and he knew only that his neighbor was unable to be out. At length, as he was in his office in the city one day, he received a telegram that his neighbor was dying and was desirous to see him. He lost no time in hasteningto his bedside. There, surprised and delighted, he heard f rom the lips of the dying man this announcement: "I could not die without thanking you, sir, for what you said to me some months since in the railway train. It made an impression oa me at the time, and since I havo been shut up here it has come up to me again. I ani dying, but I trust all beyond. My hope is in Christ." Was not tíiat a rich roward for one act of Christian fidelity ? What opportunities for thus speaking a ' ' word by the way " are constantly occurring, and how glorious would be the resulta were they improved! Art and Religión. Bear ns witness, ye poets and actors, ye painters and sculptors, ye singers and players upon instruments, that your arts have not saved the most of you f rom becoming pettv,séllish men and women. You are jealous of one another. You are greedy of praise and of the gold it brings. You know that there is nothing in your art that enlarges and liberalizes you, that restrains you from drurikenness and vices that shall not be named, that gives you sobriety and solidity of charaoter, that enlarges your social sympathies, that naturally leads you into organizations for helping others outside of your own circle. Bear us witness, that you are not the men and women who are relied on for performing the duties of society. If all were like you - if all shirked the duties of social and civil life like you - if all were as much unfitted by their ideas and their employments as you are for carrying the great burdens of society, what do you suppose would beeome of the country, and what would beeome of the world ? Now, if there is anything in art that can take the place of religión, we should like to see it. If there is anything íd culture that can take the place of religión, it has not yet revealed itself. Culuire is centered in self. Self is the god and self is the model of all culture. Why should it not ultimate in selfishness ? Culture a? sumes that what is present in a man noeds only to be dcveloped and harmonized to lift character to its highest poinf and life to its highest issues. It carries no idea of self-siurender, which is the first f act in practical religión of any valuable sort, and the flrst fact in all good development. Greece and Borue had plenty of culture, and are still our teachers in art, but the beauty that looked upon them from every hul and gate and templo could not save them from their vices. By and by culture willjearn how powerless it is to make a man that shall be worth the making, and what poor instrnments science ard art are for uprooting the selflshness that rules the world. It is slowly learning this, and men who have bowed low to her havo been touohed, with that divine tentwhich nolliiug Lut religión can ailay. - Dr. J. O. Holland, in Scribner for July.