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brought into being by Himself as part of Himself, who enters into the storm and conflict, and is subject to conditions as the Soul of it all; conditions not artificial and transitory, but inherent in the process of producing free and conscious beings, and essential to the full self-development even of Deity. It is a marvellous and bewildering thought, but whatever its value, and whether it be an ultimate revelation or not, it is the revelation of Christ. Whether it be considered blasphemous or not-and in his own day it was certainly considered blasphemous-this was the idea he grasped during those forty days of solitary communion, and never subsequently let go.

This is the truth which has been reverberating down the ages ever since; it has been the hidden inspiration of saint, apostle, prophet, martyr, and, in however dim and vague a form, has given hope and consolation to the unlettered and poverty-stricken millions: -A God that could understand, that could suffer, that could sympathize, that had felt the extremity of human anguish, the agony of bereavement, had submitted even to the brutal hopeless torture of the innocent, and had become acquainted with the pangs of death, this has been the chief consolation of the Christian religion. This is the extraordinary conception of Godhead to which we have thus far risen. "This is my beloved Son." The Christian God is revealed as the incarnate spirit of humanity, or rather the incarnate spirit of humanity is recognized as a real intrinsic part of God. "The

The Hibbert Journal.

Kingdom of Heaven is within you":surely one of the most inspired utterances of antiquity.

Infinitely patient the Universe has been while man has groped his way to this truth: so simple and consoling in one of its aspects, so inconceivable and incredible in another. Dimly and partially it has been seen by all the prophets, and doubtless by many of the pagan saints. Dimly and partially we see it now; but in the life-blood of Christianity this is the most vital element. It is not likely to be the attribute of any one religion alone, it may be the essence of truth in all terrestrial religions, but it is conspicuously Christian. Its boldest statement was when a child was placed in the midst and was regarded as a symbol of the Deity; but it was foreshadowed even in the early conceptions of Olympus, whose gods and goddesses were affected with the passions of men; it is the root fact underlying the superstitions of idolatry and all varieties of anthropomorphism. "Thou shalt have none other gods but me": and with dim eyes and dull ears and misunderstanding hearts men have sought to obey the commandment, seeking after God if haply they might find Him; while all the time their God was very nigh unto them, in their midst and of their fellowship, sympathizing with their struggles, rejoicing in their successes, and evoking even in their own poor nature some dim and broken image of Himself."

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THE NEW RUSSIAN CRISIS.

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Another stage seems to be just beginning in the break-up of the existing fabric of government in Russia. Duma continues to struggle against the fetters imposed on it by the new "fundamental laws" of the Empire, in violation of the spirit, if not of the letter, of the promises made last autumn by the Czar. It may be dissolved; it is determined, come what may, to sit throughout the summer, and to set itself to work out a vast and overwhelming programme of agrarian, political, and economic reforms. It tends more and more to assume the position of a Constituent Assembly, and to claim to exercise judicial, if not also executive, powers. The stopgap Ministry of bureaucrats, headed by M. Goremykin, has at last realized its own impotence, and seeks to give up the struggle; and the Czar is at the parting of the ways. He may temporize, and postpone his decision, but that can only make matters worse. He may yield to necessity, and accept a Ministry drawn from the Constitutional Democrats, and in full sympathy with the Duma, possibly with M. Muromtszeff, the President of that body, at its head. Or he may give way once more to the reactionary advisers with whom he has been surrounded from his youth, and who are now, apparently, recovering their influence. In that case he will appoint a Ministry of Combat, probably with General Trepoff at its head. This Ministry will accept the challenge of the Duma, and endeavor to reduce its activity or to get rid of it, and to restore the bureaucratic régime, but in vain. And then there will be the worst kind of civil war-disorganized, sporadic, impossible to suppress, and affected by all sorts of cross currents, which will

imperil the whole organization of Russian society, as well as the necessary elements of government.

Indeed, according to a consensus of testimony, that organization and those elements are already beginning to break up. The Bialystok massacre, which has shocked the civilized world, was originally described as the result of a Jewish outrage during the customary Corpus Christi procession. Successive corrections have substituted another explanation-that the massacre was favored, or actually arranged, by the local authorities and the police. Count Urussoff's revelations in the Duma on Thursday indicate that similar massacres may presently occur all over the Jewish Pale, from compulsory residence in which, by the way, the Jews have been released by a law which came into force only a week ago. The Jews have still too many social grievances, and their dull-witted Russian and Polish neighbors have too many grudges against them, for the two races to live at peace together during the present distress. It is generally believed in official circles in Russia that the recent revolutionary movements in Moscow, Odessa, and Poland have depended largely on the Jews both for funds and brains. The local authorities are only too ready to act on the belief, and a vast Jewish exodus has begun. The frontier towns of Galicia are said to be filling up with refugees; the Prussian Government has already been expelling an earlier influx; the Government of the German Empire is naturally concerned as to the possibility of a wholesale exodus. That will be a very grave matter for Germany and Austria-Hungary, for the United States, and, not least, for our

selves, for the Aliens Act will certainly not prove, or be allowed to prove, a barrier.

But it is not merely the massacre at Bialystok that is a sign of coming dangers. The agrarian trouble is becoming more and more acute, and famine, which is already threatened in many districts, is the only possible result. The peasants are becoming disorganized; the landowners of the regions round Moscow are flocking into that city, while its richer citizens are going abroad; there are ominous reports of complaints in the army as to pay and other grievances, and it is significant that they are always said to be met by concessions; there have been actual mutinies in several regiments, and it is even doubtful if the Cossacks can be trusted. They are stated to realize the hatred felt for them by the civilianswhich may mean, either that they will not act at all, or that they will at once get out of hand. The crisis is naturally reflected in the beginning of a panic on the Bourse, and the latest loan has defied all efforts to keep up its price. Indeed, it is a curious indication of the state of Russia that this fall should be regarded as offering hopes of a solution of the crisis, by affecting foreign opinion and Russian credit abroad. British investors must have got rid of most of their Russian stock; but of the 812 millions sterling, or thereabouts, of the Russian Debt, on January 1, 1906, German investors, according to semiofficial figures published last December, hold somewhere between 160 and 220 millions, France probably 400 millions, and very large amounts are certainly held in Holland, and possibly also in Belgium. Last month more than 89 millions sterling were added to the total, of which France took 48; and German and Belgian investments in Russian industries-mostly in the disturbed districts-are also very considerable. In view of the Jewish emigration, and

of the danger to German capital, andin the Baltic provinces and elsewhereto multitudes of Russian subjects of German race, it does not seem impossible that the German Government may eventually feel constrained to assist Russia in restoring order in her Western provinces, as Russia assisted Austria in Hungary in 1849, but with considerably better reasons. To avert that necessity, which would be a serious matter for the German Empire, and also to reduce the financial disaster which at present threatens Western Europe, the most likely means is to prevent a breach between the Reformers and the Czar. The Russian Government will assuredly maintain its credit as long as it can; the Duma will hardly care to alienate the sympathy it at present enjoys abroad. But, if its weight and that of its constituents is thrown on the side of revolution, the financial catastrophe so long predicted will come at once. In their own interests, the French and German Governments might well use their influence at St. Petersburg in favor of the Reformers. French sympathies, we know, are with them: German official sympathies, we fear, go the other way.

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It is not surprising that there should be indications in the House of Commons and the Press of a desire that our Government should make diplomatic representations in regard to the massacre at Bialystok, or should even cancel the impending visit to Cronstadt of a British fleet. But the British Government can only act officially on diplomatic information, and where the interests of its own subjects are directly involved, and the accounts of what happened at Bialystok, though the historian must do his best with them, are not exactly legal evidence. The visit of the Fleet is a matter in which, for more than one reason, Ministers are not free to act as they please. Friendly advice, unofficially given, such as we

have supposed might reach the Czar from France or Germany, is a very different thing from the open cancellation of a visit publicly announced. Such a step might easily be interpreted as a censure, and almost as a threat.

The Economist.

It is only to be hoped that the course of events in Russia will not make the visit an absurdity. But that result is highly probable unless the Czar and the Duma come to an understanding at once.

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MR. ROOSEVELT AND THE TRUSTS.

We note with annoyance tempered with amusement that certain not very wise people have been declaring that the indignation expressed in England over the tinned meat scandals is a sign of the inherent hostility of the British to the American people. It has been said, not impossibly by persons interested in the meat-canning business, that Britain has positively rejoiced over the Chicago revelations because they have done injury to America, and that the people here have thus shown their detestation of the hated Yankee. Nothing, of course, could possibly be further from the facts than these wild perversions. No doubt the British public, like the American public, though in a less degree, have been horrified by the investigations begun by Mr. Sinclair, and maintained by the President of the United States, his official inquirers, and virtually the whole Press of America. But, because the indignation aroused in America has been so largely reflected here, it is utterly ridiculous to speak of the exponents of that indignation as exulting in an American misfortune. It would be about as sensible to say that a man who denounces the wickedness of a clerk who has swindled his cousin's firm, and who joins his cousin in lamenting that he let this department of his business be so carelessly managed, is delighted at his cousin's misfortune. Thank heaven, the authors and maintainers of the Beef Trust scandals are not the American people, and we may surely continue to

denounce the men responsible for those scandals without giving any one just cause to say that we are denouncing the people of America. Not the most "touchy" of Americans can pretend that the Spectator is unfriendly to America, or delighted to see her in any form of trouble. Nevertheless, we shall continue to speak our mind as to the authors and aiders and abettors of the beef scandals, and in spite of the efforts of those who sympathize at heart with the Trusts and are trying to divert attention from their misdeeds by abusing the British people as hostile to America. That is, indeed, what this attack upon the British public for interesting themselves in the meat scandals comes to. It is an effort to cover up the traces of the evildoers.

In truth, there never was a time when the British people were more sympathetic to the Americans, or more anxious to see good influences triumph over bad in the United States. At this moment President Roosevelt is what he has been for many years,-one of the most popular figures in the Englishspeaking world. To our people he stands for whatever is honorable, highminded, courageous, wholesome, and sincere in the conduct of public affairs, and we do not hesitate to say that if he were to visit England he would have a reception which would rival that given to Garibaldi at the height of his popularity, and that it would be a reception in which every class in the community would join with equal

pleasure. Proof of this fact is afforded by the reception which has been accorded to President Roosevelt's daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Longworth. Mr. and Mrs. Longworth will, we are sure, pardon us and understand our meaning when we say that the interest shown in their visit to London is not due to the presence among us even of so charming and distinguished a young couple, but to the fact that they are the daughter and the sonin-law of Theodore Roosevelt. The warm-hearted tributes which have been paid to them, not merely by London society, but by people of all classes wherever they have been recognized, are due to the honor and respect, and in the best sense the popularity, enjoyed by the President here. It is not too much to say, indeed, that it is very difficult to find Englishmen or Englishwomen who have not a warm place in their hearts for the President of the United States. They feel, too, that at this moment he is engaged in something very like a life-and-death struggle with the most selfish elements in American commercial life, and that he is fighting for them, as well as for his own fellowcitizens, the battle of purity against corruption. Though they may not understand the details of the Trust question and of the political battle that is now raging in Washington, they realize fully the general nature of the struggle, -that a man who is neither a Socialist nor a revolutionary, but a friend of well-ordered government and moderate counsels (a Whig in the best sense, as we have ventured to call him), is fighting the battle of honest government. Unfortunately, owing to certain features of the Constitution of the United States, he is obliged to fight his formidable antagonist with one hand tied behind his back. That disability, however, makes us as a people all the keener and more interested in the great duel. If we may alter a phrase of

Chatham's, the attitude of the British people is like that which the great commoner declared was his own attitude towards the Great Rebellion. "There may have been rashness; there may have been over-confidence; there may have been exaggeration; but you shall never persuade us that it is not the cause of political honesty and righteousness on the one side, and of corruption and selfish monopoly on the other." There is a story in the "Morte d'Arthur" of a knight riding through a forest and seeing a combat between a snake and a lion. The knight had strictly no right to interfere in the conflict, for it was no quarrel of his. Yet we are told that he did not hesitate to take sides with the lion, for "he was the more natural beast of the twain." Here the public not only sympathize with the lion as the more natural beast, but they actually feel that he is fighting their battle both on the moral side and on the not unimportant side of securing a clean and wholesome foodsupply for the world. If we cannot rely upon the soundness of the meat that comes to us from America, our consumers are bound to suffer almost as greatly as the American public do. If, then, by his action President Roosevelt is ultimately able to give us an assurance that the meat sent out from Chicago has a clean bill of health, he will be doing no small service to the British people. We could not see so important a portion of our meat-supplies cut off without suffering a great and growing inconvenience.

We do not feel that it is necessary to address any words of caution to the British people as to their criticisms of the meat scandals, for we have seen no sort of indication that those criticisms have been unfair or unfriendly, or that they have been inspired by anything except the very natural desire to be protected from the consumption of tainted meat, and by the less personal,

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