erance
has in bringing him to indigence and misery. Criminality, we are
beginning to see, may be partly a vice, partly the result of bad
economic and social laws, and partly a disease inherited with life
itself. The same may be said of many forms of sin which do not,
perhaps, come within the scope of the law courts of the land. Not that
any conditions, or any personal history, abrogate responsibility in the
evil-doer. The _final consent_ lies ever with a man himself, but the
conditions of his life may explain how many things came to be, and a
knowledge of them may point the way to help. The physician of to-day
not only feels the pulse and uses the stethoscope; he asks questions as
to drainage and ventilation, as to supplies of water and of light.

Let us remember, then, that the preacher needs to be in a very
considerable and general degree acquainted with the life of the world
around him. He should know something about business; something about
industry; something of the every-day round of those sitting before him
in free seat and cushioned pew. Ignorance of the world is worse than
ignorance of letters, or sciences, or arts. A preacher ought, if
possible, to know something of ancient oriental manners and customs and
languages; but it is infinitely more important that he know something
of the actualities of his own time. History tells us of the great
French lady who, hearing the people clamour for bread, remarked that
surely they need not make so great a noise about bread. Was there not
beef to eat? How interesting are those articles, with which our
newspapers are sometimes enlivened, wherein duchesses take in hand to
teach the wives of working men how to keep house on thirty shillings a
week. We have seen "A Guide to Cookery" written by a countess for the
use of families of moderate means, and the book was very well worth
buying if only for the sake of a little mild amusement when the spirit
is in danger of growing too serious for mental health. A great chapter
in humorous literature is that in which Mark Twain places on record how
for a few brief but exciting days he edited an agricultural paper while
the editor was, perforce, absent from his chair. Good, it is to read
the answers he returned to rural inquirers who wished for counsel in
relation to the difficulties of farm or garden. This kind of thing in
a newspaper is ridiculous; in a cookery book or an article on domestic
economy it is amusing; but i