vable logic, enveloped all things in that affection, and every dumb
brute of the street comes within the colored curtains of the sanctuary. The
Humane Society is a branch of God's Church, and we Christian church-members
are all members of all such associations, so far as we are intelligent
members of the Church of Christ. Love does not mean love of me or you, but
it means love always and for all.
PROF. SWING.
* * * * *
CHILDREN AT SCHOOL.
If children at school can be made to understand how it is just and noble to
be humane even to what we term inferior animals, it will do much to give
them a higher character and tone through life. There is nothing meaner than
barbarous and cruel treatment of the dumb creatures, who cannot answer us
or resent the misery which is so often needlessly inflicted upon them.
JOHN BRIGHT.
* * * * *
MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH.
Love and charity being the basis of Christianity, it is as much a question
for the Church to ask, when a person wishes to be admitted into her bosom,
"Are you kind to animals?" as it is to ask, "Do you believe in such or such
a doctrine?" Certainly the question would be pertinent to Christian life
and consonant with the fundamental and distinguishing principle of the
Christian religion; and the mere asking of it at so solemn a juncture could
not but do much to assimilate and draw closer the heart and life of the
novitiate to Him who sees every sparrow that falls.
E. HATHAWAY.
* * * * *
FEELING FOR ANIMALS.
The power of feeling for animals, realizing their wants and making their
pains our own, is one which is most irregularly shown by human beings. A
Timon may have it, and a Howard be devoid of it. A rough shepherd's heart
may overflow with it, and that of an exquisite fine gentleman and
distinguished man of science may be as utterly without it as the nether
millstone. One thing I think must be clear: till man has learnt to feel for
all his sentient fellow-creatures, whether in human or in brutal form, of
his own class and sex and country, or of another, he has not yet ascended
the first step towards true civilization nor applied the first lesson from
the love of God.
MISS F. P. COBBE.
* * * * *
HEROIC.
Nay, on the strength of that same element of self-sacrifice, I will not
grudge the epithet "heroic" which my
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