Strive to secure this harmony in the household. What a wonderful variety of character is presented by our children! We speak of a family likeness," yet that likeness is superficial indeed, compared with the striking dissimilarities which declare themselves in the tempers, tastes, and dispositions of our children; it seems incredible that such marked variations should exist in those who are the offspring of the same parents, and who dwell together so long in the same environment and atmosphere. Out of these differentiations what heart-burnings arise! Brothers and sisters fail to understand one another, to make mutual allowances, to remember the mystery, and energy of personality, and domestic quarrels frequently originate in physiological and psychical differences which have no voluntary or moral character. We need more thought and love. It is of the infinite goodness of God that families include these varieties of gifts and temperaments; He plants cypress, pine, and box together for their common enrichment; and if these grow in amity, their leaf shall be all the greener, their proportions nobler, their blossom fuller and more fragrant for the association. Brethren do not fail to see eye to eye out of sheer perversity and cursedness, but often purely in consequence of a constitutional bias and quality which exist in them to great ends, and which are ineffaceable. Let us ever be ready to recognize It is the "personal equation," and make due allowance for it. And let us love one another. truly a beautiful thing when husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, of sharply distinguished character, are maintained in a sweet fellowship by the magic of affection, as heliotropes and violets are said to discover a lively sympathy for each other, pansies and carnations to cultivate a warm friendship, and roses to flourish best when they are planted near flowers altogether unlike themselves. Let us carry the same spirit of wise discernment and tolerance into all society, remembering that in the infinitely varied and widely contrasted characters of men we have a revelation of the fullness of God, and that thus He seeks to secure the utmost perfection of humanity. In Church life by mutual comprehension and forbearance we must strive to secure consentaneousness and quietness. Something is seriously wrong with one whose individuality is so pronounced and aggressive that he cannot agree to identify himself with a religious community, or if he does become a church member forthwith wrecks its peace. These riotous personalities ought to take themselves seriously to task, and by an increase of wisdom, humility, and unselfishness to make it possible for them to cooperate with the brotherhood. The Church of Christ is built with all manner of precious stones," and no genuine character is so utterly strange that it cannot be incorporated in the living temple. The Church must be as wide as Nature, appropriating all its various wealth of faculty, and sanctifying it; the divine grace must hallow, harmonize, and glorify every temperament, endowment, and energy of mankind. "The glory of Lebanon shall come to thee." Not solitary palms, pines, or myrtles, but a crowded assemblage of all types of natural life raised into ideal fruitfulness and beauty by the Spirit of God. And, finally, we need to appreciate the differing genius of the several nations, for not one of them could perish without irreparable loss to universal civilization. The pine of the North, and the palm of the South, the cedar of the East, and the spruce of the West, the olive of Italy, the orange of Spain, the oak of England, the forests of Germany, the vine of France, and the willow of China, may suspect and hate one another, yet are they mutually essential; and when patriotism once becomes instructed and pure, it will see that "together they beautify God's vast sanctuary, and make the place of His feet glorious. " XVIII THE ONLY SAVIOUR And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.—Acts 4: 12. HUS Peter declares the astonishing doctrine that the common salvation is found in Christ, and in Him alone. And have not the centuries attested the truth of the apostle's startling teaching? The preaching of Christ was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; time, however, has vindicated the Crucified, and shown how entirely He is the Saviour of sinful men and the exclusive hope of the race. The Cross is mean in aspect, but sublime in essence; weak in philosophy, but strong in history; poor in logic, but grand in experience; incredible in theory, but irresistible in fact. To-day every suggested programme of salvation brings us back to Jesus Christ. "What must I do to be saved?" Where shall I find peace, purity, hope? What response do our thinkers and guides make to this pathetic appeal? Consider their schemes of salvation, and you find that often, without designing it, they bring us to the feet of the one divine Saviour. "We are saved by Reason." Now, there can be no doubt whatever of this. We are redeemed only by the great facts and laws of the eternal universe being understood and properly obeyed. There is no salvation except in knowledge, wisdom, and philosophy. But what reason? whose reason? You reply: "Human reason, of course." Let us not call this reason: call it opinion, speculation, conjecture; but do not mistake human reasonings for reason. He who builds on man's dim senses, faulty logic, and wavering conclusions can never be sure how far he is building on eternal truth. Christ is reason. "Reason became flesh, and dwelt among us." In Him we behold the knowledge, wisdom, and philosophy of God. The Epistles of St. Paul are full of the idea that in Christ Jesus is revealed the absolute, eternal reason; He is "the power of God, and the wisdom of God." "We are saved by Law." Our thinkers insist that if we are saved it must be by obedience to law. Keep the law, and in doing this you shall know peace and hope; keep the law, and it shall keep you. This also is indisputable. We shall never find salvation in breaking the law, only in keeping it through all its exceeding breadth. But we never can keep it except in the grace and indwelling of Jesus Christ. The cry, Keep the law, and you shall live! is an indirect call to our Sovereign Lord: "For Christ is the end of the |