however infinitesimally small the vacuum distance may be. Therefore, though we can imagine that, possibly, the ether may be to hydrogen and oxygen a medium through which they act and react on each other; though to the ether we grant a finer ether, and so on, we only put the problem back one step further, and we must reach at last, and very soon, indeed, the finest ether atoms contained in the galaxy. Still they are atoms, still apart from each other. Still there must be something between them, or else force can act where it is not. But, by hypothesis, we are now dealing with the finest matter atoms that exist; that is, the finest form of discontinuous, divisible, separate substance. Now, unless all our experience, all our knowledge, all our mental power, is worthless here, we still must postulate something between those finest ether atoms.

But we have come to the end of matter,— that is, substance divisible, discontinuous: we have therefore reached substance indivisible, substance continuous. We have arrived at substance which is not matter. Continuous, indivisible substance, then, is at the foundation of all the movements and all the mutual relations of atoms. It is equally at the bottom of all the movements and relations of masses. The galaxy is one vast test experiment on this. The deepest mystery in gravitation is its independence of time. Now, all molecular motion is performed in time. It is, then, absolutely impossible that the force of gravitation can be conveyed by molecular motion. No material ether, however fine, can be the medium through which it passes. The phenomena of gravitation will never be solved, except on the hypothesis of perfect substance, absolutely continuous, and filling all space. What perfect substance is and what relation perfect substance bears to matter, we must now reverently yet firmly proceed to consider.

S. R. CALTHROP.

THE DUTY OF CHRISTIANS IN THE MATTER OF AMUSEMENTS.

One of the crying evils of this age is said to be the almost ceaseless pursuit of pleasure among the young. The object of life to these is often described, in American phrase, as "having a good time." There is more or less truth in this charge, and whose fault is it? If we have allowed our children to grow up without that education of conscience which puts duty before pleasure, whose fault is it? If we have ourselves been thinking more of the meat than the life, more of the raiment than the heart, more of the grace of body than of mind, more of worldly success than of immortal souls, whose fault is it if we have a self-indulgent, frivolous posterity?

It seems hardly fair, in fact there is a certain lack of honesty as well as a suspicion of cowardice, in the vehement denunciation of the faults of the young, common among their elders. The young are, after all, very much what their parents and the age they live in have made them, before some of whom many self-deluded and complacent parents might well stand aghast, as in the presence of their own incarnate sins.

The fond father flattered himself that the most earnest desire of his heart was that his son should be a good man, honorable, brave, self-denying, strong. He wakes up, one day, to discover that this has not been his controlling thought, and that he has really been caring more to gratify his own selfish pride and pleasure in seeing his boy always amused and everywhere triumphant. And now, behold! before his astonished eyes there stands an embodiment of frivolity, selfishness, and arrogance.

That the over-indulgence and over-amusing of children in this age and in this land is a crying evil, few thoughtful people doubt. A sort of craze for pleasure seems to have taken possession of our young people. There can be no more alarming proof of this than is found in the fact that some of

our very first institutions of learning are filled by young men, many, if not most of whom, not only show plainly by their course of life, but calmly confess, confident of an indulgent hearing, that they are there for the purpose of "having a good time." It would be a sorry look-out for this land, if the hope of the Republic were to be found only among such as these. Luckily, however, the hand of adversity is always leading along a more stalwart manhood; and in its ranks, with few and striking exceptions, this nation, like most other nations, has been accustomed to look for its strength.

Few and striking exceptions, however, there certainly are, - a fact as suggestive as it is pertinent to our subject; for here are to be found some of the best fruits of our best civilization, men of broad and generous cultivation, evenly developed on many sides, who, while they have been trained through the manly discipline of faithful work, both in the study of books and men, and have learned through precept and example the value and power of self-control, have nevertheless not been shut out from the flowery meads of God's world, wherein wise hands have led them, as they learned to discriminate between the rose and the nightshade. These have added to knowledge and to godliness that cheerful and generous temper which comes out of the fulness of a grateful, happy heart, and which manifests itself naturally, in a spontaneous love to God and man.

It is cause for thankfulness that there have been and still are parents, in this and in all lands, who, with every power to gratify their own and their children's love of amusement, have understood that amusement pursued as an end is among the most enfeebling and demoralizing of all influences. There is also cause for thankfulness that all parents have not been ignorant of the fact that the love of amusement is a Godgiven craving, and not to be ignored. In intelligent hands, it is a powerful factor in education, both moral and intellectual, often awakening and keeping awake a healthy enthusiasm, brightening the spirit, and so bracing the heart against a rainy day. The nature that is destitute of it is

A

almost sure to lack the best power of sympathy, while its value as a safety-valve and preserver of highly taxed mental powers can hardly be overestimated.

We have learned something since that day when all the natural instincts and impulses of human nature, as well of the body as the mind, were considered to be altogether devilish; and we shall all be likely to agree that amusement, under certain conditions, is both legitimate and innocent,nay, more, such are the cravings of humanity that we may as well call it a necessity. Is it doubted? Look then at the moral status of many of the smaller villages in the rural districts, where drunkenness and sensuality in its lowest forms are so often found to exist in proportion as amusements of an elevating character are wanting. It is a quite common mistake to take for granted the wickedness of large cities as contrasted with the primitive purity and innocence of rural communities, a very misleading generalization; and it is long since clearly proved that the entire absence of theatres, operas, dancing, and card-playing, fraught with certain dangers as we admit these to be, has not sufficed to insure a high moral standard in any community, or to deaden to any perceptible degree that omnivorous hunger and thirst for amusement, pure and simple, which gratifies itself, the world over, with whatever material it finds nearest at hand.

What, then, is the duty of Christians in the matter of amusements? Is it not, first, to realize that people should and will be amused; and, second, to see to it that the communities in which they dwell are well provided with the best possible means of amusement?

This is no easy task. The work is never finished; and it behooves Christians to remember that the field is a large one, and that, if they do not occupy it wholly, if they do not feed the sheep and the lambs given to their charge, a countless host stands ready to do so, and to offer often a poison where wholesome food would have been accepted and enjoyed, if it had been ready for the hungry crowd.

Of course, the condition of things hoped for by all lovers of their kind, is that, wherein the appetite is quite normal,

where only food of the most wholesome and most nutritious is relished. The way of the philanthropist would be easy indeed, if this could always be counted upon; but since it cannot, since all human appetites and tastes are not only susceptible to, but stand in almost constant need of, direction and cultivation, what is to be done?

Christians have need to remember that the world is full

of grown-up children. What is to be done, for instance,

with a child that will not drink clear milk? Shall we not put sugar in it at first? Every mother knows, or should know, how the taste must be led along by easy stages until the chosen meat and drink, both physical and spiritual, grows to be that which ministers only to the development of a perfect manhood; but she would be a dull mother who should leave out the sugar at first.

In dealing with the matter of amusements, many otherwise intelligent people seem strangely oblivious of the fact that an essential element of amusement is that it shall amuse. A pathetic picture of such a case was furnished not long ago by an earnest, conscientious Christian minister in a New England town where intemperance was increasing to an alarming extent. It seemed there and then, if that hydra-headed monster could but be once mastered, the whole moral atmosphere would be purified and uplifted; and so doubtless it would have been, not only there, but in innumerable other places where it has carried ruin and despair.

The whole heart and soul of this good minister of Christ was in the work of reforming his town. Early and late did he labor, he held meetings and encouraged "Unions," organized "Clubs" and inspired " Templars," until his strength was well-nigh spent in the hope of saving his young men, concluding at last by a course of lectures on "Natural Science," by what was called "home talent." There were no listeners. The young men were in the dram-shops and billiard-rooms, finding the amusement they blindly craved, and the only kind which an intelligent Christian community had provided for them. A sympathizing friend, both of the town and of the good man who was laboring so faithfully and