n is correct, save the added clause,
"the eternal felicity of the future life described." The holy city is
not heaven; it came down from God _out of heaven_. It does not denote
a final and fixed condition. It is four-square, and has three gates on
each side; and all of them open continually, to admit those who wish
to enter; and the invitation is sounded without ceasing, to the
outsiders from within, to "come and partake of the waters of life
freely." Neither in the New Jerusalem, nor the lake of fire, is there
any allusion to the eternal world of fixed and changeless conditions.

In those days, when books were not printed, but transcribed by the
hand, it was customary for the author to make a strong appeal to the
copyist or transcriber, not to make any alteration in the book, with
certain penalties, fictitious or otherwise. Hence the Revelation
closes with this admonition,--not to add to, nor take from, the book
(xxii. 18, 19.), the penalty being sufficiently severe, to which I
would commend the late revisers of the New Testament.

THE NEGRO QUESTION FROM THE NEGRO'S POINT OF VIEW.

BY PROF. W. S. SCARBOROUGH.

In the discussion of the so-called "Negro Problem," there is, as a
rule, a great deal of the sentimental and still more of the
sensational. By a series of _non sequitur_ arguments the average
disputant succeeds admirably in proving what is foreign to the
subject. This is true of writers of both sections of our
country--North as well as South--but especially true of those of the
South.

The recent symposium of Southern writers in the _Independent_ on the
Negro Question, as interesting as it was for novelty and variety of
view, is no exception to the rule. If the negro could be induced to
believe for a moment that he was thus actually destitute of all the
elements that go to make up a rational creature, his life would be
miserable beyond endurance. But he has not reached that point nor does
he care to reach it. Others may exclaim:--

"O wad some power the giftie gi'e us
To see oursel's as ithers see us;"

but not the negro, if the vision must always be so distorted. The
black man is naturally of a sanguine temperament, as has so often been
said; and the facts in the case bear him out in entertaining a hopeful
view of his own future and his ability to carve it out. I am sure that
they do not warrant even our Southern friends in taking such a
pessimistic view of the situation, so far as the