the
jubilation in Dublin; by the gathering of noblemen in St. Petersburg;
and in the dawn of this new year. I could see a tendency in European
affairs to the unification of nations.

The German and the French languages had been struggling for the
supremacy of Europe. As I foresaw events then, the two would first
conquer Europe, and the stronger of the two would swallow the other.
Then the English language would devour that, and the world would have
but one language. Over a million people had already began the study of
Volapuek, a new language composed of all languages. This was an
indication of world nationalisation. Congresses of nations, meeting for
various purposes, were establishing brotherhood. It looked as though
those who were telling us again in 1888 that the second coming of Christ
was at hand were right. The divine significance of things was greater
than it had ever been.

There was some bigotry in religious affairs, of course. In our religion
we were as far from unity of feeling then as we had ever been. The
Presbyterian bigot could be recognised by his armful of Westminster
catechisms. The Methodist bigot could be easily identified by his
declaration that unless a man had been converted by sitting on the
anxious seat he was not eligible. The way to the church militant,
according to this bigot, was from the anxious seat, one of which he
always carried with him. The Episcopal bigot struggled under a great
load of liturgies. Without this man's prayer-books no one could be
saved, he said. The Baptist bigot was bent double with the burden of his
baptistry.

"It does not seem as if some of you had been properly washed," he said,
"and I shall proceed to put under the water all those who have neglected
their ablutions." Religion was being served in a kind of ecclesiastical
hash that, naturally enough, created controversy, as very properly it
should. In spite of these things, however, some creed of religious
faith, whichever it might be, was universally needed. I hope for a
church unity in the future. When all the branches in each denomination
have united, then the great denominations nearest akin will unite, and
this absorption will go on until there will be one great millennial
Church, divided only for geographical convenience into sections as of
old, when it was the Church of Laodicea, the Church of Philadelphia, the
Church of Thyatira. In the event of this religious evolution then there
will be the Church of