7. The approval of heaven on the sanity and rightness of the minister's mode of life is seen in the fulfillment to him, more than to other men, of the divine promise: "With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation." He is privileged and assisted not only to live better, but to live longer than others. The life insurance companies will insure him for a lower annual premium because his profession increases the expectation of longevity for him. The minister's insurance policy, issued at a reduced rate, is God's certificate of approval upon his way of life as being conformed to the divine laws of nature and to the habits of the normal, ideal man.

8. The ministry gives a man the finest opportunity to be recognized as the model gentleman of the community, known to be such, not by the token of soft hands, dainty tastes, self-indulgent spirit or superior airs, but by unfailing good behavior, by the proof of gentle manners, kindly words and considerate ways; by always manifesting concern for the comfort and claims of others rather than for his own; by sympathetic attention and tender ministry to the woes and wants and wishes of the needy and afflicted; and by superior self-control and composure in the presence of provocation. His very position and character will move men, women and children to show him their best side and their best manners, making their behavior toward him gentle, honorable and gracious; and this makes true gentlemanliness easy and almost inevitable in him. The unfailing and impartial courtesy of God's ministers is proverbial in every Christian community. No other class of men can show a larger proportion of true, gentle, chivalrous gentlemen, without fear and without reproach. The easy peers of Sir Philip Sidney, scarce on fierce battlefields, are numerous among the ministers of Christ.

9. The Christian minister ranks high among real patriots. He is a planter and a strengthener of those moralities which alone preserve the state and make nations great. No man on the Mayflower was of more conspicuous value to the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the free empire they were founding than Pastor Robinson, and even a casual reading of the history of our Republic will show that the debt of the American nation to its clergy from the beginning until now is indisputable and immeasurable. The book which calls them "Nationbuilders" does not err therein. The nation owes more to them than to its armies. But for the work of the clergy the soldiers on the battlefields would have had no country worth fighting for. No senator of

the United States did more for the preservation of the Union than did that splendid patriot, Bishop Matthew Simpson. As a class, the clergy are the purest of patriots-seeking no office, but promoting their country's welfare by fighting the sins which are a disgrace to any people and inculcating the righteousness which exalteth a nation. The minister's love of country is intelligent, disinterested; and, in patriotic service, not the President in the White House can make a contribution surpassing his in saving quality and perpetual potency.

10. The minister holds the proud position of universal benefactor. He lives among his fellows not as a suppliant for favors, but as a bestower of benefits; not as a beggar, but as a prince. If he receives from men temporal things, he ministers to them infinitely greater spiritual things. His life is one long largess to the weal and the wealth of the world. In numerous large particulars, and in life's grand totals, he makes many rich. There is no interest of human existence-intellectual, moral or physical-which he does not greatly serve. Nothing human is alien or inaccessible to him; the range of his services does not stop short of universal bounds. He purifies the air which all men breathe. The pulpit is built on the ridge-crest of the world and the vitalizing streams of its beneficent influence flow down all the slopes of life. The Christian minister stands without pride or self-consciousness in the superb attitude of benefactor to all mankind. His life and work are a clean asset on the balance sheet of the world, and in this he finds as much joy as the world finds profit. The new teaching in all our universities is that selfishness. is a colossal blunder. The philosophy of to-day coincides with that of Christ, "He that will save his life shall lose it." Browning sings exultingly the splendid magnanimity of the hero who holds his life out on his hand for all the world to take. That is Christlike.

11. If faithful, the minister will dwell in honor all his days. Wherever he lives and works he will be accorded a clear title to esteem

and reverence. In every community the true ambassador of Jesus Christ is clothed upon with public respect as with a robe of honor. He is looked up to as a teacher, exemplar and leader. His advice is sought and his words listened to. Men confide to him their most sacred affairs; they seek him as a wise, safe counsellor. In crises and exigencies they send for him and lay their hearts in his hand. When he walks the streets, men lay down their respect and confidence before him like a carpet for his feet.

12. The deep and lasting gratitude of many human hearts is also part of his reward. Men and women whom his ministry has blessed will gratefully acknowledge their indebtedness to him. Now and then someone will say to him: "You saved me in my time of perplexity and peril and despair; at the parting of the ways you showed me the path of life. You pointed me to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. I owe everything to you." Multitudes to whom he has ministered, during their lifetime and especially in their sickness and their dying, will go into eternity with a great love for him, and will wait to welcome him in heaven as their friend and guide and comforter.

13. The Christian minister has cosmic and divine alliances. He co-operates with the stars in their courses to help the coming of a kingdom which shall have no end. His work makes him a close coworker with God and brings him into intimate partnership with the Saviour of the world, the Lord of Life. Putting his hand under the burden which crushes humanity into the dust, to lift the load and let humanity up, he touches a Hand with nail-prints in it which was there before his was, and he feels the thrill of knowing himself to be in partnership with Christ and a fellow helper of those for whom the King of Glory died. And to hear the Master saying, "Lo, I am with you," is no sweeter than to hear him say, "You are with me in my most glorious plans and mightiest work." On earth there is no privilege comparable to that; honorable and lofty business it is, indeed!

These are a few of the rewards of life in the ministry. Virtually, all men, in proportion to their intelligence and moral sense, concede the ministerial calling to be the highest of all vocations. Why should not Christian young men pray that God may count them worthy to be called to this great work? Bunsen said Gladstone had heard higher tones than any other public man in England. For a young man to listen for the voice of the highest, to acquiesce in its call, to train his complex manhood up to fittest condition and to receive the spiritual empowering which is promised to go with his commission; and then, when good and ready, to fling all his faculty and force to the front of the fray, where God and his armies are setting themselves against Satan and his black legions-there can be nothing better, nobler or more rewarding for a man to do with his life than that. In time and in eternity it returns priceless profits, limitless emolu

ments.

Prosperous years are now planting our whole country, in cities, towns and villages, with noble edifices for Christian work. America is to be fuller and fuller continually of great churches, inviting young men to pulpits of commanding influence-pulpits which are offered as thrones of power to men who are capable of realizing the higher values of life; who are too manly to be ruled and ridden by mere things, and too noble for sordid aims:-thrones of power worthy of the splendid abilities of men like Beecher, and Phillips Brooks, and Maltbie Babcock, not to mention a host of living ministers equally sturdy and true, tender and brave; while beyond our national borders, in other lands, wide open mission fields invite the stalwart sons of God to come and conquer the whole world for Christ.

To-day God is choosing and calling the young men who are to be the world's great spiritual leaders up the morning slope of this wonderful twentieth century to its glorious high noon. We repeat the sentence we began with: To the virile, mettlesome, high-spirited young manhood in our churches, schools, and colleges, no other calling holds out such allurements as the ministry, none other offers such uncommon opportunities for power, influence, inestimable service, real honor, and high leadership, especially to the uncommon men, the superior men, the earnest, eager and forcible men.

There was nothing untrue or irreverent in that saying of the old Puritan: "God had only one son, and He made Him a minister."

THE ARENA

THE AGE OF THE AVESTA

In the year 1894 Professor James Darmesteter startled the world of scholars by announcing in the pages of the Journal Asiatique the novel notion that the authors of the Avestan scriptures betrayed a familiarity with the teachings of Philo of Alexandria, and consequently must have lived later than the opening of the Christian era. Though he was sufficiently answered by Professor A. V. W. Jackson, of New York, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xvii, students interested in historic and religious questions will be glad to know that the veteran of all English-speaking experts in this field, Professor Lawrence Hayworth Mills, of the University of Oxford, has now issued a work of more than two hundred octavo pages in which the arguments of Darmesteter are refuted in the most detailed and satisfactory manner. The title page reads as follows: "Zarathustra and the Greeks. A discussion of the relation existing between the Ameshaspentas and the Logos; being part first of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), Philo and Israel." To be had of F. A. Brockhaus in Leipsic. All Americans will feel the greater interest in the work from the fact that its author, Professor Mills, is an American by nativity and early education; the only one of our countrymen who has ever been honored with a call to a permanent chair in the ancient University of Oxford. WM. F. WARREN.

Boston University, Boston, Mass.

HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

IN Dr. Geo. P. Eckman's very able article on Thackeray in the Nov.Dec. Review occurs this sentence: "Thackeray desired to rebuke the nauseous sentimentality (Alas! that it should survive in our own day) which regards crime as an unfortunate degeneracy, and the criminal as the romantic victim of heredity or environment, who merits flowers instead of shackles, poetry in the place of penalty." I do not call this matter up in order to gratify any litigious propensity that I may have, but only to raise the question as to the correctness of the statement so far as "heredity and environment" are concerned. I am inclined to think that, so far as heredity is concerned, it has been considerably overworked as a factor in determining character and destiny, and in the present divided state of scientific opinion on that subject I will not venture any dogmatic utterances concerning it, but as to environment the case to me seems to be different. It would seem difficult, indeed, to overstate the influences of environment on both character and destiny. Let me put the case correctly. Making no account of heredity let us suppose Geo. P. Eckman, son of the mother who gave him birth, situated, trained, and surrounded