COLENSO

JOHN

OHN WILLIAM COLENSO, a distinguished English theologian, was born at St. Austell, Cornwall, January 24, 1814, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge University. After taking orders in the Established Church he was tutor at Cambridge for several years prior to becoming rector of Forncett Saint Mary, Norfolk, in 1846. He was by this time well known as a mathematician, and had published treatises on algebra and arithmetic which have been adopted as college text-books. In 1853 he was consecrated bishop of Natal in South Africa. In 1861 he published a Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans," which speedily aroused the heresy-hunters of the day, and when, the next year, he put forth the first volume of "The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined," an almost universal storm of theological abuse was at once directed against him. The subsequent controversy arising from this event proved most disastrous to the welfare of the South African Church and shook the Church of England to its centre. Colenso was thereupon deposed by the Bishop of Cape Town, but the English Privy Council overruled his action and decided that Bishop Colenso should receive the income of his see. The Bishop was inhibited from preaching in several English dioceses and continued for many years to be the target of theological hostility. He kept on, however, with his critical labors, completing the work on the Pentateuch in 1879. He was greatly beloved by the Zulus, and labored for years to secure just treatment for them. He died at Durban, Natal, June 20, 1883, and since his death much of the bitter feeling against his biblical studies has passed away. Beside a series of twelve mathematical works and a long list of books in the Zulu tongue for the instruction of the natives, Bishop Colenso was the author of " Village Sermons" (1854); "Ten Weeks in Natal" (1855); "Lectures on the Pentateuch and Moabite Stone;" "The Worship of Baalim in Israel," from the Dutch of R. Dozy; "First Lessons in Science;" and two series of "Natal Sermons."

WR

THE EXAMPLE OF OUR LORD

[From "Natal Sermons."]

And so,

E often say that our Lord's example is to be the guide to us in all our duties of life. indeed, it should be, yet not in the way that many seem to suppose, by his having actually shared in the performance of those duties and resisted the temptations more re especially connected with them.

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 lingering 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

AMUEL JONES TILDEN, a noted American statesman, was born in 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

ELLOW CITIZENS,— I thank you for the honor you do me. I know it is the cause, more than its representative, that in such a storm calls out this manifestation of interest and enthusiasm. And well it may!

A peaceful revolution in all government within the United