healthy Christian life should be, now admonishes all God's children. "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God througn Jesus Christ our Lord." Whilst great love constrain us to rise up, forsake all, and follow Him; that as we have been redeemed by His blood, so we may walk also in the light of His holy example, and be joined to Him evermore as the Shepherd and Bishop" in many things we all stumble," (" it of our souls." But, while the resurrection of Christ is a fact in human history, how much more is it? In the judgment of the earliest disciples, its crowning glory is that it is a principal spiritual energy in the human soul. For this reason Christians are said "to walk in newness of life," that they are "risen with Christ," that they are "quickened together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and n.uch more to the same import. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.' Wonderful declarations these are! Surpasing any that the human reason, in its most sublime flights, has ever imagined! But what is the simple design in them all, save to impress us with the solemn fact how real our holy religion is! As the resurrection of our blessed Lord, was the real rising of a body that had been really dead, so should our Christianity be a real power, in moulding our character and life. The old thoughts, the old associations, the old sources of our spiritual danger are the grave clothes, which should be left behind us forever in the tomb of sin. They are the bandages, which, too often alas! so surely and sadly fetter the liberty of our own risen life. And, moreover, in the resurrection of Jesus there is a further characteristic, which is also exemplified in every heartful Christian life. His resurrection lasted. It was not a movement from a lower to a higher point in the same sphere, not simply an elevation; but a transfer from one state to another, which continued, an exchange of the coldness and stillness of death for the warmth and undecayed energies of life eternal. He did not rise that, like Lazarus, He might die again. "Behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hades and death," was His message to John on Patmos. Sin was conquered then once for all. And, hence, His last and greatest apostle, recognizing in this fact the reflection of what a is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,") yet, surely we should take prayerful heed ever to keep ourselves" innocent of the great transgres sion" of relapsing into our old fallen state. Such a noble life-a harmonious and symmetrical growth in grace and knowledge, as it is so graphically depicted in the apostolic epistles, is surely not imaginary. When "the books shall be opened," in the world to come, and "the dead shall be judged," it will be then apparent that the church has enshrined the lives of many, who were once dead and lived again, who made every day of their lives here upon earth the round of a ladder, by which they have climbed into glory. The names of these, the Church militant has inscribe in her annals with the prefix "saint," and some she has not so distinguished. But no matter. "In that day," when the final sifting shall take place, the Good Shepherd will know all His sheep, whether they have been known to earthly fame or not, and shall say unto them: "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you!" Such are some of the lessons which the Holy Sepulcher, stripped of its prey, has to teach us for "the life that now is." But, has it anything to tell us of "that which is to come?" In trying to solve the problem of a future life, th wisdom of the world has been divided into the two schools of "materialism,” and "agnosticism." But, somehow, the common sense of men, to say nothing of the religious instinct impressed upon man's very being, has ever proteste l alike against the doctrines of both. We are creatures of hope by the very terms of our nature. Explain it, as we may, it is a fact beyond question that the human soul must to a large degree live in and for the future. And, " if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." But, it is only the resurrection of Jesus that fully reveals to us the precious truth that it is not merely, in this life that we have hope. "We believe in the life everlasting!" "Blessed be the God and Father of "new earth wherein dwelleth righteousour Lord Jesus Christ, who accord- ness." Then shall the problem of the ing to His great mercy begat us again ages, "If a man die shall he live unto a living hope, by the resurrection again?" be solved forever. The former of Jesus Christ from the dead!" things shall have passed away; and all Through heaven's gate left open when they who are "risen with Christ" shall Christ re-entered, the ear of faith may "be ever with the Lord!" hear those inspiring words, " Because I live ye shall live also?" To the Christian the grave is no longer the dark prisonhouse of despair, nor is death any longer the "king of terrors.' Since Christ is now "the first fruits," the one is the peaceful couch of all who sleep in Him, while the other is the gate of our existence which is life, untrammeled by the dark shadow of sin. Rich as are the manifold gifts of Christ to the Christian already in this world, His greatest gift is still to come. It is the glorified body of the resurrection, in which we shall be clothed for the great hereafter. He will gather up what death has left; He will transfigure it with the splendor of a new life; He will change our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. "The grovelling worm WINTER'S FLIGHT. BY THE EDITOR. Old Winter finds the days too long; Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and ben. free As his transfigured Lord, with lightning form And snowy vest. Such grace He won for thee, When from the grave He sprang at dawn of morn And led, through boundless air, thy conquering road, Leaving a glorious track where saints new born Might fearless follow to their blest abode,” In view, then, of the significance to humanity of our Lord's resurrection from the dead, it is not strange that the church fathers were wont to speak of the festival of Easter, in terms of such glowing affection. "The great day of the Lord," "the Lord's day of joy," "the queen of days," "the feast of feasts, and assembly of assemblies,"" the crown and head of festivals,"-these were some of the titles they made use of in its commemoration. Were they only the outbursts of an exuberant rhetoric? Far from it. Rather were they the glad notes of joy, as faith began to discern the dawning of that eterual morning, which is to break upon the THE MISTRESS OF AN HUNDRED ISLES. II. BY REV. EDWIN A. GERNANT, A. M. --Shelley. Much of the historic interest attaching to this ancient Republic is owing to the peculiarity and romance of its earlier government. The annals of the Doges prove conclusively that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Instances of the most terrible cruelty and deceit go hand in hand with examples of unparalleled royal magnificence. Is it to be wondered at that so many are disappointed with the mistress of a hundred isles? The majority of persons know far more of the Ocean-Queen as she was ten or twelve centuries ago, than as she has been more recently or is even now. They know that she rose like Aphrodite from the sea, and that at one time it seemed hardly an exaggeration to say that tablished; the name of Paulacius Ana- the Austrian yoke in 1848 will not soon festus begins the historic list of the be forgotten. In 1866 Venice again beDoges. The subsequent history of Ven- came an integral part of the united ice discloses a long era of unexampled kingdom of Italy. prosperity. In the direct highway of commerce between Europe and the East, ships from every trafficking nation under heaven were wont to resort in her sheltered harbors. Her influence and importance now steadily increased. Her greatness may to some extent atone for the cruelty of her government during the political crusades of the middle ages. It was then that she reached the zenith of her glory. Under Enrico Dandolo, probably the most valiant of all her doges, the republic in 1204 conquered Constantinople, divided the Byzantine Empire, and claimed for herself the shores of the Adriatic. This success was indeed dearly bought. The fierce opposition of Genoa, her most formidable rival, was productive of long and bitter wars, resulting, however, in the complete overthrow of the enemies of the proud queen of the sea. "Men built Rome-the gods Venice." And of this Venice the glory has long departed. That the city of to-day should suffer by comparison is only natural. Consider for a moment the pristine splen The close of the fifteenth century found Venice at the summit of her mag-dor of her navy. As late as the fifteenth nificence and power, with a population of more than two hundred thousand souls, the centre of the commerce of the civilized world, she was admired, respected and feared by all Europe. ; her daughters had their dowers From spoils of nations, and the exhaustless East Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers. In purple was she robed, and of her feast Monarchs partook, and deem'd their dignity increased." Vanitas Vanitatum! Venice declined and fell. century Venice had three hundred and thirty vessels of war manned by forty thousand seamen. And all this in addition to her merchant marine! No wonder that for many centuries she claimed the Adriatic as her own peculiar possession. What description has ever done nuptials of the Doge with the sea? justice to the probable splendors of the Then it was that the standard of St. Mark rolled out its purple folds over Candia, Cyprus and the Morea, and Venice was indeed undisputed mistress of half the eastern world. She claimed The discovery by the adventurous the Adriatic and counted not without Vasco da Gama, of the Cape of Good her host. " Every year," to use the lanHope route to India, transferred her guage of an enthusiastic historian, "on commerce into the hands of the Portu- the day of the Feast of the A-cension, guese. No longer the indispensable ally with surpassing pomp, in the presence of of the maritime passes of Europe, the all her nobles and people, and all the beginning of the sixteenth century saw ambassadors of foreign lands, who by the decay of her wealth and importance. their presence recognized the act, she Nor did her desire to maintain a friendly renewed that claim, by dropping a neutrality during European wars shield her from further humiliation. It was this very attitude that brought upon Venice the tyrannical dominion of Napoleon Bonaparte. Of her subsequent vicissitudes we need not speak. The heroic, though unsuccessful, revolt from nuptial ring into the bosom of the deep, repeating the formula: "Desponsamus te, mare, in signum veri perpetituique dominii." Nor was that perpetual dominion a mere affair of words. Woe unto those who affected to despise her claim. Her galleys were the keys to that stronghold, and her Captain of the Gulf the only warder." Let no one imagine the position of the Doge of Venice to have been desirable. At first, indeed, his power was almost absolute. But this was soon so curtailed that it seems marvellous to find that the office was only once refused. Nominally at the head of the state, his power and influence was no greater than that of any member of the council. "Powerless for good and passionless for evil, he was but a crowned puppet." Any ordinary citizen was far more free than the Doge. Practically he was a prisoner clothed in purple and exposed to view upon all state occasions. To all outward appearance he enjoyed the most regal prerogatives. Really his every movement was watched. Spies pried into the holiest of his family relations. He was allowed to read no letter privately nor to grant personal audience to any foreign ambassador, save in the presence of the councillors, nor to leave Venice without permission. Once a month his oath of office was solemnly read anew to him, and he was informed at the same time that upon his death his body would be publicly exposed for three days, and that then his relatives would be held responsible for all his failings and be obliged to satisfy all his creditors. Notwithstanding such careful espionage the poor Doge sometimes very nearly succeeded in eluding the cruel vigilance of the council. The conspiracy of Marino Faliero is a case in point, for it almost overturned the Republic. Almost, but because not altogether, among the medallion portraits of the Doges in the Ducal Palace, in the fifty-seventh frame, there hangs a black veil with this inscription: "Hic est locus Marini Falieri decapitati pro criminibus." grew out of a democratic legislature, All eye, all ear-no where and everywhere.' The records of this secret inquisition' are indeed terrible. And as we lingered in the shadows of the Bridge of Sighs, and peered into the cold and slimy duntened to our companion's graphic regeons of the adjoining prison, as we liscital of many of the most historic horrors of those cruel days, and seemed to see the columns of the Piazetta fille with the suspended, ghastly bodies of the Council's strangled victims, a feeling of awe, and perhaps, dread, made us hasten into the open air, glad to know that in Venice the ever-yawning "Lion's Mouth" no longer invited the secret denunciations of patriotism, of perfidy, of hate, of revenge. THE YOUNG MAN'S IDEAL. BY THOMAS A. FENSTERMAKER. To the young man who, for the first time in his life, awakens to a sense of his position in the world, one of the most important considerations is the prize which he has set before himself. Deny it, or simply ignore it, we cannot In the beginning the Doge was elect- rid ourselves of the influence which our ed by the people directly, subsequently aim in life has upon our actions, our by the council chosen by the citizens hopes, and our achievements. The ideal annually. But in 1297 occurred an of a man's life, is one of the most potent aristocratic coup d'etat, which is known formative principles. Therefore it is that as "The closing of the Council." Itwas youth is always directed to the deeds of then decided by the council itself that those who have earned a place in the only those who had previously been members of that body could henceforth have seats therein. In other words, the Senate was no longer to be chosen by the masses. Self-existent and self-perpetuating, hereditary aristocracy thus remembrance of their fellow-men, and admonished to emulate, and if possible to outdo, those who have gone before. Men will point you to Washington, that you may learn how to become a patriot. Clay and Webster are models for the but the boy who would grow up to equal or outdo any or all of these, needs to become acquainted with Jesus Christ, the dutiful son, the faithful carpenter, the earnest Rabbi, the loving healer, the God-man. young aspirant to the onerous duties of seek to rival Demosthenes; the patriot statesmanship. And for the last six may venerate the immortal Washington; months there has been no name oftener the philanthropist may study Lincoln; upon the lips of the instructor of youth than that of the late lamented President Garfield. All the virtues that can render a character lovable, and all the graces that produce a fragrant memory, are thought to cluster around the noble man whose too early death we can never sufficiently deplore. Press and pulpit have combined in effort to make this man the pattern for American youth; indeed, it has not been too much to assert that a realization of Garfield's life by any American lad is the highest position he can hope to attain. I would not be thought of as disparaging the noble, humble life of our late chief; I should be the last to undervalue the position which the heroes of the past have attained; but a somewhat cursory review of the lives of some of those to whom hero-worship has so unquestionably been paid, has made me rather skeptical as to the ultimate value of such human patterns for the youth of our country, and especially the young of the church. After all that can be said in praise of the departed worthies whose deeds we will do well to emulate, it will be found that there were defects of character, possibly downright vices, that blemish our ideal. The follower of any man, whoever he be, must study his model in the twilight which a gracious charity throws around the deficiencies of the dead. It will not do to examine our leader by the broad, all-revealing light of day; we dare not listen to even all the best (let alone the worst) that his enemies can say of him. We should turn away disgusted, and the question, Is there any truth in man? would haunt our lips ever after. But have you ever in sober moments reflected that there is a character whom you can imitate, with whom a closer communion will only reveal more and rarer beauties, and the development of whose life will furnish you the key to a perfect growth? Has it ever really taken hold of your inner life, that history gives us a pattern whose excellence is only height ened by contrast with the greatest and the best? The man of the world may set before his son the advice and practice of a Chesterfield; the orator may It is the fashion now-a-days, in some quarters, to look for patterns nearer home; it is said that the times demand a more cultured model than the reader in the synagogue who "never learned;" the culture-influence of art is thought to be more potent in moulding a man's life than the antiquated teachings of the Nazarene; and when in the wisdom of Providence a man is raised up head and shoulder above his fellows, he is pointed out as the proper one to pattern after. Ah, how blind is man! All along the pathway of human history stand the greatest and best of human kind as finger posts pointing to the land of promise as the favored country where He lived who is to draw all men unto Him; the brightest star in the galaxy of fame leads but to the cradle of Bethlehem. Why then look, as for your final goal, to the finger-post that but tells the way? Were it not better far to go to the fountain for refreshing than stop by the way and rest content with that which has itself been nourished by the central spring? No; it will not answer for a young man to set up for his ideal even the best and purest men of history; he may by doing so walk in the van of popular opinion, but his corps will hardly respond to the roll-call after the victory beyond. It is even thought in some quarters that it is a derogation of the dignity that resides in every boy, to think for one moment seriously of the question, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? A solemn moment must be enjoyed in secret; and the deep longings of the heart after something better and higher and holier must be indulged in as if the rousing of such aspirations and their confession was a thing to be ashamed of. It seems to me, especially in this age of the world, one of the grandest and most inspiring sights to see a young man step forward in the dignity of his manhood, though humbly and lowly, to |