d to pulmonary maladies. My mother was dangerously
ill several times, but had a wiry constitution and lived to eighty-five.
That my own busy life has held out so long is owing, under a kind
Providence, to the careful observation of the primal laws of health. I
have eschewed all indigestible food, stimulants, and intoxicants;--have
taken a fair amount of exercise; have avoided too hard study or sermon
making in the evenings--and thus secured sound and sufficient sleep. In
keeping God's commandments written upon the body I have found great
reward. From the standpoint of four-score I propose in this chapter to
take a retrospect of some of the moral and religious movements that have
occurred within my memory--in several of which I have taken part--and I
shall note also the changes for better or worse that I have observed.
If as an optimist I may sometimes exaggerate the good, and minimize the
evil things, it is the curse of a pessimist that he can travel from Dan
to Beersheba and find nothing but barrenness.

The first change for the better that I shall speak of is the progress I
have seen in church fellowship. The division of the Christian church
into denominations is a fixed fact and likely to remain so for a long
time to come. Nor is it the serious evil that many imagine. The
efficiency of an army is not impaired by division into corps, brigades
and regiments, as long as they are united against the common enemy;
neither does the Church of Christ lose its efficiency by being organized
on denominational lines, as long as it is loyal to its Divine head, and
united in its efforts to overcome evil, and establish the Kingdom of
Heaven. Some Christians work all the better in harness that suits their
peculiar tastes and preferences. Denominationalism becomes an evil the
moment it degenerates into bitter and bigoted sectarianism. Conflicts
between a dozen regiments is suicide to an army. When a dozen
denominations strive to maintain their own feeble churches in a
community that requires only three or four churches, then sectarianism
becomes an unspeakable nuisance.

I could cite many instances to prove the great progress that has been
made in church fellowship. For example, my early ministry was in a town
in which the Society of Friends had a large meeting house, well filled
by a most intelligent, orthodox and devout congregation. But its members
never entered any other house of worship. I had the warmest personal
intimacy with