Hard and exacting is the toil of the preacher. Especially so in these years when a cultured and enlightened pew demands the religious discourse presented in the best form and embellished with the adornments which modern art and literature supply. A preacher who yields to the extreme demands of modern thought, however, will soon find himself abandoning the true and best source of sermon material and will begin to forage in the desert fields of literature to find sustenance for an impoverished mind. Many such a preacher, tired and heartless, would find instant relief if he would but burn the human aids to the manufacture of artificial sermons and turn to the rich mines of truth which still lie unexplored in the sacred word. Back to Christ is the call of a starving world which is now shepherdless and unfed. For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. _Acts 4:11._ [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY FRED’K L. CHAPMAN & CO. BACK TO CHRIST.] [Illustration] AT THE CHURCH FAIR. The preachers are not alone guilty of levying tribute from the world in carrying on the work of the gospel. There are church organizations which might be numbered by the thousands, the wealth of whose membership would in each congregation exceed a million dollars, but they seem unable to buy a church organ or a pulpit bible without getting up a bazaar or a Church Fair. The same Jesus who drove the money changers from the house of prayer, sits in sad judgment upon the church which turns its sacred chamber into a market place or into a scene of rank levity and low grade amusement. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee. _Ezekiel 5:11._ [Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY FRED’K L. CHAPMAN & CO. AT THE CHURCH FAIR. Gentleman in Black:――I am not exactly a church member myself, but I am always glad to support this kind of enterprise most liberally.] [Illustration] A GIFT FOR THE ALTAR. There were but few gifts recorded in the bible which were large enough to attract the attention of Christ. They were not large but they all implied sacrifice, they represented the utmost that the giver could bestow. When the widow bashfully pushed her little mite into the collection box she little dreamed that her offering weighed more than all the gold and precious treasure that lay stacked in the safety deposit vaults of Jerusalem. If God has a cordial contempt for anybody in the world, we suspect it is for the man who, having made a fortune, gives ostentatiously a part which is insignificant in proportion to the amount which he retains to minister to his own comfort and ease. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. _Malachi 3:8._ [Illustration: