The churches are being invaded by this spirit of Jazz, to their very great loss. It has turned the church in many instances away from its mission. It is not the mission of the church of Jesus Christ to compete with the concert hall, the lecture platform, the social settlement, or the dance hall, in its parish houses: its God-given mission is to keep the thought of God, and Christ, and his power to forgive sins and redeem and save men's souls, before the people. Nothing in all this noisy, jangling, brassy generation of Jazz is able to compete with the church that sticks faithfully to its own business, and refuses to be drawn away after strange gods.

I was in a large Southern city some time ago to speak in a certain church. I will not give the name of it, or designate it farther than to say that is was not a church of the denomination to which I belong. The fame of this church as a crowded hive of Christian workers, and as a great spiritual power in the city, had met me long before I reached the city itself. On the Sunday morning when I spoke it was crowded to all its standing room, though the day was very cold and threatening. The great crowd was not especially drawn to hear me. I was informed that it was always crowded like that. I spoke on the great movement for world-wide prohibition of the liquor traffic, and at its close the people gladly gave several thousands of dollars to help on that great cause; and when I was through, and the collection, to which the pastor had urged the people to give liberally, was brought in, that brave, faithful Christian minister took the platform, and in a few apt

words connected the address of the morning to great business of that church in saving sinners. in a five-minute exhortation, hot out of his flan soul, he appealed to men and women, then and th to give themselves unreservedly to the Christian and to confess Christ then, before leaving the ho When the congregation stood to sing, a great gr of earnestly repenting, believing souls came forw to register their purpose to begin the Christian vice as soldiers of Jesus Christ. No one seer astonished at the pastor's conduct. It was the w worn ordinary in that church. It was the busin he and the church were there to do, and while ot churches that competed with the opera and the ture hall were thinly attended, this church crowded to overflowing, and the spiritual fragra of its saving grace filled the city and the state.

Do you ask me what is the cure for this Jazz sp that is filling the whole land with unrest and whole world with an artificial, unnatural life, t is as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, co pared with the sane and wholesome life men a women ought to lead? My answer is: cease buil ing on the sand and return to the solid foundati of rock. In Christ's parable, the man who built the rock did not escape the storm, or the flood, b he did not lose his home. It remained steadfast, b cause it was founded on a rock.

Many of these modern inventions that I have us with which to illustrate the artificial, noisy, an empty life that threatens us with such sad and te rible loss, are all right in themselves. The autom

bile, the telegraph, the telephone, and multitudes of modern inventions and conveniences should all be used for the blessing and not the degradation of the people. The pulpit, the press, the moving picture, and the school must work together to bring back the thoughtless multitudes to a saner, more sincere, more genuine and wholesome life. The home must again take its place as our social center. We must revive its deep fellowship of souls. Child life must know again its sweet quiet, and love, and worship, in which to grow strong bodies, sane minds, and pure hearts. The church must revive its deep Christ-given purpose to preach the Gospel to every creature, and call aloud until the whole world shall hear, above all the Jazz of the streets, of the power of Jesus Christ to save from sin and satisfy all the deep longings of man's soul. And in our personal characters we must make sure of the universal safety by holding ourselves to a genuinely simple and wholesome Christian life.

It is not easy to escape the spirit of the age in which we live, and, no doubt, we have all been tinctured more or less with this Jazz spirit. Let us determine that we will, day by day, hold ourselves to such genuineness of living that if all the people in our town live the same kind of lives as we do, this perilous artificial spirit of Jazz will disappear, and our town will become a city of God.

I have not spoken in this way of the dangerous spirit of our own time because I am discouraged as to God's final triumph. I am not discouraged. God is not taken by surprise. He goes forth steadily.

The ocean tide coming into the bay often eddies revolves here and there in whirlpools, and wave a wave seem beaten into failure on ledge and reef, after awhile the tide prevails, and fills the w harbour with its blessing. So shall it be in G great purpose of good to humanity. You may this Jazz manifestation of our own day an eddy a whirlpool, or a white reef, as you will, but G great purpose will go on to the triumph of Chri glorious mission to the lost, but ransomed and deemed world.

"On the far reef the breakers

Recoil in shattered foam,

While still the sea behind them
Urges the forces home.

Its song of triumph surges

O'er all the thund'rous din
The wave may break in failure,
But the tide is sure to win.

"The reef is strong and cruel;
Upon its jagged wall
One wave, a score, a hundred,
Broken and beaten fall,
Yet in defeat they conquer;
The sea comes flooding in;
Wave upon wave is routed,
But the tide is sure to win.
"O mighty sea, thy message

In clamoring spray is cast
Within God's plan of progress;
It matters not at last
How wide the shores of evil;
How strong the reefs of sin;
The wave may be defeated,

But the tide is sure to win."

X

THE FOLLY OF MEDDLING WITH GOD

"Forbear thee from meddling with God."—2 Chronicles

35:21.

Jo

OSIAH was king of Judah for thirty-one years, although he died before he was forty. He came to the throne when a child of only eight years. But he was a good boy, and began early to seek the will of God, and he was much above the average of his line as a king. He was famous for his public profession of piety. He made large display of tearing down false gods, and there never was in the history of Judah such displays of religion in keeping the annual Passover as there was under Josiah. But both his intellect and his piety seem to have lacked good steady balance. After he had been king for thirty years, Neco, the king of Egypt, came up to fight Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah took a hand in the fight. He had no call to do so. It was really none of his business. But Josiah liked Carchemish and he hated Neco, and so he mobilized his armies and got ready to interfere with Neco. When Neco heard of this action of the part of Josiah, he sent ambassadors to reason with him and said to him: "What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have