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which he was to receive for an inheritance." heard the call and he obeyed. So has every true pioneer gone into the undiscovered country obedient to the call that sent him thither. The call of God, of conscience, of duty, of obligation, of truth, of opportunity, of growth, and development has ever sounded the bugle note of obedience.

The first note of obedience for the pathfinder to the soul-country is that of obedience to God; the placing of the human heart and the human will in harmony with Christ.

The next note of obedience is that of obedience to the individuality of one's own soul. There never was a more serious mistake made by the Christian church than that of confusing unity of the spirit with uniformity of expression. Unity of the spirit is the mystic bond of life, uniformity of expression is the wrapping of the grave-cloths for one who shall soon be dead. How often seminaries and presbyteries in a dull insistence on uniformity of interpretation have turned into the ministry, or if they haven't, it is no fault of their method,-a continuous army of clerical leaders for the church as much alike as a box of shoe-pegs. Not theological fossils, not mere eclectic essayists, but glowing human spirits clothed upon with all the power of individual personality, shall lead mankind forward to moral and spiritual victory. If there is any choice possession given of God to any individual it is his own individuality. A man shall achieve the birthright of his own soul-country, just so far as he

shall make his bodily powers, his talents, his environment expressive of himself, of the master spirit, his soul which God has placed within. He shall do this just in so far as he is obedient to the call whatever the call may be, whether of ideals or of duty, or of opportunity, of habit or environment, which shall lead him out of the bondage into a land where he shall be free, to express himself. The thing that placed Abraham in the roll of immortals was that by faith he obeyed to go out-to go out-unto the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He was obedient to his own individuality, he obeyed to go out into the country of his soul's ideals, which he was to receive for himself and for the blessing of many. Photiades, who so brilliantly interpreted George Meredith to the French people, says: “I have no sweeter memory than this old man so passionately fond of France." When he had passed many days with Meredith at his home at Boxwood, though he grew into the spirit of the old man's life, still, as an interviewer, he appeared much as a literary hack, and the great novelist said to him one day, "But you, Sir, who honour me by presenting my works to the French public, why do you yoke yourself to this barren task? You appear to me to be imaginative, give us then some original work." So he spoke the secret that every master soul discovers for himself that he must be obedient to go out into his own promised land if he would achieve the soulcountry that was intended for him. George Borrow in "Lavengro" sounds the same trumpet note.

In

speaking of the failure of his brother, who was highly gifted in artistic lines, to arrive at the achievement that should have been his, he says: "O, ye gifted ones, follow your calling, for, however various your talents may be, ye can have but one calling capable of leading you to eminence and renown; follow resolutely the one straight path before you, it is that of your good angel. Let neither obstacles nor temptations induce you to leave it; bound along if you can; if not on hands and knees follow it, perish in it if need be; but ye need not fear for that; no one ever yet died in the true path of his calling before he had attained the pinnacle. Turn into other paths, and for a momentary advantage or gratification ye have sold your inheritance, your immortality. Ye will never be heard of after death."

The indomitable spirit of going out to claim the heritage of individuality, has given the church its richest development, as well as the most rare characters of its history. Saul of Tarsus would never have had a renown surpassing that of Gamaliel, had he not been obedient to the heavenly vision. Boldly bidding defiance to his Jewish persecutors, how splendidly he measures the unique power of his soul's individuality, when he gives the Magna Charta of theological liberty. "After the manner," says he, "which they call heresy, worship I, the God of my fathers."

Augustine in the fifth century was the father of many things. He is one of those extraordinary per

sons who have dominated the minds of men with a sway which makes the rôle of world conquerors look cheap and puny. He exemplified both the religion of authority and the religion of the spirit. No man has done more to construct an authoritative church than he. The architectural plan was already there when he joined the church, when his work was done the Roman Catholic Church was organized for its mighty task of making a new empire on the ruins of the old. Not less did he do in the development of theological doctrine. He gave his stamp to that high exaltation of the sovereignty of God, which made the doctrine of election preeminent doctrine, until the days when Calvin gave it a new accent. Though Augustine was such a mighty builder of the church as an institution, and so profound a theological thinker, yet he could tell in the tenderest and sweetest tones the mystical experience that marks him as the greatest saint of the ages. "Thou hast

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made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee," was his spirit's interpretation of the reality of God. Our whole work in this life is to heal the eye of the heart by which we see God," was the refrain by which he continued his anthem in innumerable forms. From his Carthaginian Capital, he could hear the reports of Rome being ground into dust by the Barbarians. In that hour he dreamed dreams, and saw visions of the city, a new city, that should be eternal, because it had foundations whose maker and builder is God. This threefold and mighty task could Augustine accomplish,

marking himself as one of the most remarkable men of all times, because he was obedient to the call to go forth into the realm of his own individuality.

Francis of Assisi left the home luxury in the beautiful vale of Umbria, forsook the wealth which his father had in store for him, because he had a vision that called him to give his life in loving service. Poor ragged beggars and unfortunate people, found themselves personally ministered to by him. He became the founder of the mighty order of the Franciscans, and gave to Christianity one of its most unique expressions, because he poured his soul forth through the channels of his own individuality. Martin Luther, the young monk, who entered with such simple loyalty into the ecstatic expression of pride, when he visited Rome, and its manifold memorials of martyrdom, did not remain an unquestioning Augustinian Monk to the end of his days, because he was obedient to the inner call that bade him to march forth into new realms. With as much pride as any other faithful son of the church, he climbed the Santa Scala in Rome on bended knee, but when he felt the power of the experience within his own heart that made him feel the just shall live by faith, he went forth to make the church something different from what it had ever been before, and became what Pfleiderer calls the founder of Protestant civilization.

The pathfinder of the soul-country shall come to the true appreciation of the riches of his realm, when he enters in through the imagination. The