the circular of the 30th of August appointed the elections on the second Sunday of March, 1881. Now, the decree of the 18th of February said, specifically, in article first, that the elections should take place the 13th of March in all the churches of France, excepting in that of Paris; and, in article second, it deferred the elections of the Church of Paris to the 8th of May. It is evident that the minister has had a serious motive for postponing the elections of Paris two months. But, if the motive is the reorganization of the Church of Paris according to the law, the delay seems short. It is first necessary that the Council of State should pronounce upon the project of reorganization, because it is a question of administration; and therefore the Council of State is alone competent. Nevertheless, in two months, a man, animated with a disposition to do his best, can accomplish very much, if he does not meet with too many obstacles, or meeting them does not yield to them. Unfortunately, in the present circumstances, the efforts of the Minister of Worship will have to contend with all the base intrigues of the orthodox party, who are accustomed to mingle politics. with religion, and to transform all religious questions into political ones. Our Catholic clergy do not, generally, understand Protestant affairs. They only demand one thing,and that is to be left in tranquillity, that irritating questions shall not be too much agitated.

Now, the orthodox have for their tactics the custom of representing the liberals as disturbers of the peace; and sometimes political men listen to this language at the risk of being obliged, later, to acknowledge they have been duped. Can it be that the minister who received the liberal delegation so kindly in the month of September, when it requested of him the division of the Church of Paris into several parishes, has been circumvented? Has the Council of State not been impressed with the question during the two months' delay of the elections? From the beginning of the month of April there have been new rumors: of the convocation of a synod, of a new law which the Chamber of Deputies would be asked to enact before the elections could

take place. In all these reports, it was easy to perceive the action of the orthodox party, who were ready to move heaven and earth to cause the elections to be indefinitely postponed, and to continue to the Consistory the oppressive power which it exercises against all hope of right and justice. However it may be, on the 14th of April, a new decree from the Minister of Worship appeared, which annulled the decree of the 18th of February, and which, in article second, adjourned the elections of the Consistory of Paris "to an epoch which is to be determined by a later decree." The words of this new adjournment deserve to be given verbatim: "The delay of two months has been found insufficient for bringing to the reorganization of the Church of Paris all the modifications recognized to be necessary by the deliberation of the Central Council of the 20th of December, 1880, and of the 7th and 14th of January, 1881," etc.

Then, the minister recognizes the necessity of modifying the actual organization of the Reformed Church of Paris. It is well to note this remark of the minister. We shall see shortly if it amounts to a sincere desire, or if it is only a pretext for relegating to the future a question which embarrasses the present. D. CHARRUAUD.

J. F. W. WARE.*

I wish to say of the word which you have heard from this pulpit the last eight years that it was not theology, but religion; and it is the best possible thing to say about it, and the example is one to be studied and followed. "Add to your faith," writes an apostle, "virtue,"- that is, manhood, knowledge also, but manhood first. Philosophy is but the interpretation of common-sense, and one must have the common-sense before he can interpret it. Religion is something to be done before it is anything to be known; indeed,

Part of a Commemorative Sermon by Rev. Rufus Ellis, D.D., preached in the Arlington Street Church, March 15, 1881.

it can be known only in the doing, and must be brought into the most direct contact with every-day life, both for discipline and for embodiment. Its light is sweet and wholesome, and the Father's glory, not baleful and lurid, only when it shines in our works.

And I cannot help thinking that there was a provision for the simplicity and reality and natural beauty of this minister's preaching in the comparatively unscholastic and secular character of his early life, even in school, college, and seminary. I think that he can hardly have been looking forward to the office of a clergyman until very near the time when he commenced his theological studies. He came into the Divinity School, as it were, from the outside world. The son and grandson of a minister, he was, nevertheless, somewhat secular in his tastes and ways, not so likely as some of us, his fellow-students, to see men only at their best, and very sensible that much which preachers are in the habit of saying has a strange, far-off sound, and is totally uninteresting to the world's workers, sufferers, and, if you will, sinners. He knew very well how much of it had not touched him, or helped him to fight his life-battle, and to give to conscience the power as well as the right to rule.

And then he was a great realist, and had little taste for abstractions, eager to reach what was concrete and bound up with our every-day experiences. He was a learner in another school besides the Divinity School, studying the book of our life, as it lies open in the streets, even more diligently than he read the old quartos and folios.

As a student of theology, he awakened in us no great expectations. He was not dogmatic nor pronounced in the utterance of his opinions, as the manner of young men so often is, but rather retiring and reticent, then, indeed, what he was to the end, though many of you may not have found it out, a shy and distrustful man, sometimes all the more self-asserting on that account. But, when the years of pupilage were ended, only a few months passed before it was on the 3d of May, 1843- he became the ordained Pastor of the Unitarian Church in Fall River, which, I believe, has

never been a bed of roses, and from that day onward was earnestly engaged in his life-work. From that time until his one first and last vacation, he has preached the word, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, in season and out of season, never without hope from the beginning of his last illness to the very day of his death that he should be again at his post. After a successful ministry of three years, Mr. Ware passed from Fall River to Cambridgeport, November 29, 1846, already a preacher of acknowledged power, intelligent and intelligible, persuaded and persuasive, moderate and yet alive and in earnest, as moderate people sometimes are not, belonging rather to the centre than, to recur to the phraseology of that day, to either of what were called the wings of the denomination; a Unitarian, but a decidedly Scriptural Unitarian; simple and attractive in his style, with an earnestness which reminded his older hearers of his father, in those days of health which were as few for him as they promised to be many for his son. His preaching was free from the unpardonable sin of dulness, and at the same time, what all lively preaching is not, thoughtful and instructive, much of it addressed specially to different ages and classes, with abundant illustration and application, rather moral than theological, but always distinctively Christian. He was as welcome to other congregations as to his own people; and at home and abroad his ministry was, in the best sense, successful.

The last years at Cambridgeport were our war years, and the country with her brave soldiers was continually upon his heart. By word and work, and so far as possible by his personal presence, he sought to bring good out of evil, and to make camp, battle-field, hospital, and death-bed, redeeming and elevating opportunities. His eyes were constantly turned toward the scenes of our great conflict; and it seemed quite natural as the strife grew fiercer, and what we hoped would be the end drew on, that he should be attracted to a city which was sure for a long time to supply much work for the friends of the soldiers and the colored people, and be asked to speed to the front the still advanc

ing forces, or to meet the remnants of the regiments on their homeward way; for by this time the streets of Baltimore had become an undisputed thoroughfare for the nation, whether in peace or in war.

Called to the First Independent Church in that city, after a ministry of seventeen years and four months at Cambridgeport, Mr. Ware entered upon his new duties May 1, 1864.

Spite of the fidelity, liberality, patience, and faith of half a century, the First Independent Church was far from strong, and could not but be disturbed somewhat by the terrible turmoil of the war, and the divided sentiment of the community as to the burning questions of the hour. Their house of worship has to this date baffled the most painstaking attempts to make it a good auditorium, and yet to some of the congregation the thought of supplying its place with a new building seemed almost sacrilegious. Unitarianism has but a meagre constituency outside of New England, so far as any pronounced reception of its creed is concerned; and a little flock which is not steadily growing larger is almost sure to be becoming smaller. The minister set about his exacting work with characteristic earnestness, preaching altogether practical sermons upon religion in common life, in the church, and in the home. Those who have read Mr. Ware's admirable little book upon home life will understand what this preaching must have been; and we know that it met with a very appreciative welcome, not only from his own congregation, but also from many who had not before been interested in liberal Christianity.

In the evening, the church was crowded by those who came to hear practical lectures on Unitarianism. Priests and people, ministers and rabbis, orthodox and rationalists, colored people in large numbers, swelled the congregation. The leaven seemed at last to be finding its way into the lump; but, unhappily, Mr. Ware and the congregation could not reach an understanding as to the best means for advancing the work of the church, and the ministry which seemed to promise so much came to an end July 1, 1867, having continued a very little more than three years. The