relation to every part of the system. It must all stand or fall with him. Evidently, therefore, an examination of his character and conduct must constitute a very important branch of our proof."

"Yes, mother, so I should think," said James. "I am afraid we shall not have time to talk much about it this evening, it is so late now. I almost wish you would leave it, and take a whole evening for it."

"Very well, my dear, I have no objection: let it be so."

CHAPTER XV.

CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF CHRIST-TESTIMONY OF INFIDELS.

"MOTHER," said James, "I think I shall be more interested in our conversation to-night, because I have been reading the life of Mahomet lately."

Yes, very likely. Mahomet, as the founder of a religious system, is very naturally brought into comparison with Christ; and his character and conduct give us some notion of what we might expect from any mere man, who should

claim to originate a religion adapted to the wants of mankind. But, after all, the pretensions of Mahomet were so inferior to those of Christ, that he had a far easier part to play, on the supposition that both were impostors. Mahomet professed to be nothing more than a man, a mere prophet, to whom God had made a new revelation. Christ, on the other hand, professed to be God, and yet man-to unite in himself two natures, the union of which had never been heard of or conceived, and the very idea of whose union seemed to human reason incredible and contradictory. As a consequence of this double nature, he professed to be able to mediate between God and man, to make atonement in his own person for the sins of the whole human race, and to become the author of eternal salvation to all who should believe. Consider how infinitely superior were these claims to those ever put forth by Mahomet, or any other impostor."

"O yes; that is plain enough, though I never thought of it."

"Then, what various offices he had to fill, and what numerous and seemingly incompatible relations to sustain! In the words of

Wilson, an able English writer on this topic, 'He assumed the titles of the Saviour, the Redeemer, the great Prophet of the church, the King of Israel, the appointed Judge of quick and dead. He performed, moreover, miraculous works in support of his pretensions; he healed the sick, raised the dead, expelled demons, suspended the laws of nature, and exercised, in his own person, a creative power. Again, he assumed, as a consequence of all this, to be the Teacher of truth, the Light of the world, the Expounder and Vindicator of the moral law, the authoritative Legislator of mankind. Notwithstanding these exalted pretensions, his office as Messiah involved the most apparently contradictory characteristics. It required him to be the Son of man; the servant and messenger of his heavenly Father; subject to human infirmities and sorrows; obedient to all the ceremonial requirements and moral injunctions of the Mosaic law a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. All this, therefore, our Lord professed himself to be.""

"How strange it seems to me," said Fanny, "that I should never have thought of these things myself! But that is because we begin

to hear about Christ as soon as we are born, almost; and we get so used to it, that it seems like an old story. I wish the Bible could be as new to us as it is to the heathen!"

"It would be always new to us, I suppose, if our hearts were righ," said her mother. "You know the angels are represented as always looking, with intense and unabated curiosity, into the great mystery of God's love to man. And, no doubt, the glorified spirits of the redeemed will find the theme always new, throughout the ages of eternity."

"I never thought, before," said James, "how very different the claims and pretensions of Christ were from those of any other person who ever lived."

He

"Yes, and in acting out these various characters, and sustaining these relations, he was exposed to the view of men. He did not retire into a cave out of the way of temptation, but his whole life was public. shunned no opportunity of mingling with men; in the market-place, the synagogue, the street, the desert, at the table, by the well, and on the mountain, he was ever ready to teach, to counsel, and to warn. He was brought into the most various and the most

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trying circumstances; subjected to want, suffering, and ignominy, and yet tempted by urgent offers to make him a king; he was visited and questioned by all the different religious sects among the Jews; he was brought before a Jewish council and a Roman governor; he was finally tried, condemned and executed, all in public; yet never, for one moment, did he descend from the moral elevation which became the Son of God, and the friend and Redeemer of sinners. Never did he commit a single act which rendered him unworthy to be the example and model of the human race."

"If Christ had been an impostor, he would have wished to keep more out of the way of people, I should think," said James; "for, of course, the more he was seen and known, the more chances there were of his being discovered to be one."

"Yes, and, beside this, no impostor, no mere man who came with the pretensions of Christ, would have neglected the aid he might receive from outward pomp and splendour. He would have feared to be despised by the people, if he associated with them on terms of familiarity, and would have wished