Of his childhood and boyhood we know scarcely anything: of his youth we know nothing. We have very little to show us how he acted as a son or a brother; we have no example in his life of a husband or a parent; no exact pattern for students or men of business, for artisans, domestic servants, village laborers, for professional men, soldiers, or statesmen. The duties of later middle life and of old age were not discharged by him; the lot of the noble, wealthy, and powerful was not experienced by him, nor that of the pauper in the poorhouse, of the prisoner immured for years in the dungeon of the oppressor, of the patient racked with pain, or worn with linger ing disease in the wards of the hospital. The example which he has actually given us in the Bible is chiefly that of an active ministry of almost three years in the prime of life, under circumstances which can never happen again in the history of the world. . .

How is it, then, that we are able at once to appeal to Christ's example as the perfect model of what human beings ought to be, or ought to do, under all circumstances? It is because we appeal to the spirit of his life, to the principle which ruled it; to that conformity to the perfect will of God, that desire to please his heavenly Father, that surrender of his own will to God's will, which he manifested on all occasions. And taught as we are ourselves by the divine Word, enlightened by the Light which is the life of men, we are able in our own minds to fill up that which is wanting for our actual guidance amid the duties of life, to say to ourselves, in different situations, "In this way Christ would act or would have acted.”

We are able to set before us an ideal Christ, a perfect image of the divine Man. That image of perfect beauty and holiness of the perfect Man which we thus by divine grace behold, each in our own mind, is not set before us at full

length in the gospels, nor could it possibly be; no record of his life could have supplied minutely all the details needed for this purpose for setting a mere copy of which we are closely to follow in all our different relations of life, even if our Lord had actually entered into human relationship more fully than he has done. It is, I repeat, to the spirit of his life to the principle which ruled it — that we must be appealing continually, day by day and hour by hour, if we would "put on Christ," put on the Christian spirit.

The example, then, of Christ is not less valuable to us because the details of his life are few and leave many and most important points of our lives without models of conduct. Our following of any model, to be true, to be of any worth, must not be an imitation of certain acts, of certain demeanor, appropriate to this or that situation or relation, in which as human beings we may be placed.

Christ is our great Example, because he came not to do his own will, but the will of the Father who sent him because he sought not his own glory, but in all that concerned him was simply obedient, leaving his cause in God's hands; because he bore witness for the truth on all occasions, regardless of consequences.

TILDEN

SAMU

AMUEL JONES TILDEN, a noted American statesman, was born in Lebanon, New York, February 9, 1814, and was educated at Yale University and the University of the City of New York. During his college course he wrote an able series of papers in defence of Van Buren's United States Bank policy, and in 1840 delivered a speech on currency and the history of the United States Bank which was greatly admired. He was at this time studying law, and in 1841 was admitted to the bar and began practice in New York city, where ere long he attained a high place in the profession and was employed in the management of many noted cases. From the first he had taken a keen interest in politics and in 1848 joined the Free-Soil wing of the Democratic party. During the Civil War period he contended that the struggle with the Confederacy could be conducted without resort to extra-constitutional methods, and after 1868 he was the acknowledged leader of the New York Democracy. In the proceedings against the Tweed "ring in New York, a few years later, Tilden took an active part. In 1874 he was elected governor of New York, and in 1876 was the Democratic candidate for the presidency, receiving a popular majority of 250,000. The votes, however, of Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida were claimed by both parties, and after much controversy the decision was left to an electoral commission of fifteen members, which by a vote of eight to seven accepted the returns of the three States and on March 2, 1877, reported a single vote in favor of the Republican candidate, Mr. Hayes. This decision was acquiesced in by the country, though not without more or less remonstrance. After this period Tilden declined all further nominations and resumed his professional practice, dying at his country seat of Greystone, near Yonkers, New York, August 4, 1886. His fortune of nearly $5,000,000 was bequeathed to found a free library for New York city, but the will was broken by his heirs, who gave a much smaller sum. "Writings and Speeches " were issued in 1885.

ADDRESS ON ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM

Tilden's

DELIVERED AT SYRACUSE ON HIS NOMINATION FOR GOVERNOR, SEPTEMBER 17, 1874

F

ELLOW CITIZENS,- I thank you for the honor you
do me.
I know it is the cause, more than its repre-
sentative, that in such a storm calls out this manifesta-

tion of interest and enthusiasm. And well it may!

A peaceful revolution in all government within the United

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States is going on to a sure consummation. Ideas of change pervade the political atmosphere. They spring up from the convictions of the people. The supporters of the administration have lost confidence in it and themselves. The Opposition become more intense in their convictions and in their action. Multitudes pass over from support to opposition, or sink into silent discontent.

Are we asked the causes? The answer is found in the condition of our country. The fruits of a false and delusive system of government finances are everywhere around us. All business is in a dry-rot. In every industry it is hard to make the two ends meet. Incomes are shrinking away, and many men hitherto affluent are becoming anxious about their means of livelihood. Workingmen are out of employment. The poor cannot look out upon the light or air of heaven but they see the wolf at the door.

Inflation no longer inflates. Even while paper money is swelling out a new emission, values sink. Bankers' balances in the monetary centres are increased, and call loans are cheaper; but those who need more capital can neither buy nor borrow any of the forty-four millions of new greenbacks. The truth is that our body politic has been over-drugged with stimulants. New stimulants no longer lift up the languid parts to a healthy activity, they merely carry more blood to the congested centres.

Only one thing remains in its integrity, that is our taxes. Amid general decay, taxation puts out new sprouts and grows luxuriantly. If I may borrow a figure from the greatest of our American poets,

"It seats itself upon the sepulchre,

And of the triumphs of its ghastly foe
Makes its own nourishment."

Vol. 18-B

national taxes, State taxes, county taxes, town taxes, municipal taxes! The collector is as inevitable as the grim messenger of death. Incomes, profits, wages, all these fall; but taxes rise.

Six years ago I had occasion to say that while values were ascending, and for some time after, it might be easy to pay these taxes out of the froth of our apparent wealth; but that when the reaction of an unsound system of government finance should set in, the enormous taxation which that system had created would not only consume our incomes and profits, but trench upon our capital. What was then prediction is now experience. Retrenchment in public expenditure; reform in public administration; simplification and reduction of tariffs and taxes; accountability of public officers, enforced by better civil and criminal remedies, the people must have these measures of present relief, measures of security for the future.

The federal government is drifting into greater dangers and greater evils. It is rushing onward in a career of centralism, absorbing all governmental powers and assuming to manage all the affairs of human society. It undertakes to direct the business of individuals by tariffs not intended for legitimate taxation, by granting special privileges, and by fostering monopolies at the expense of the people. It has acquired control of all banks. It has threatened to seize on all the telegraphs. It is claiming jurisdiction of all railroad corporations chartered by the States, and amenable to the just authority of the States. It is going on to usurp control of all our schools and colleges. Stretching its dragnet over the whole country, and forcing editors and publishers away from their distant homes into the courts of the District of Columbia, it is subjecting the free press of the whole United States, for criticism of the administration, to trial by creatures