Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

The heart of mankind ever yearning
For God; that longing, restless, deep,
Which oft o'erflowed in tears all burning
And as a prayer climbed heaven's steep.

That longing, which from heaven did listen
For the Redeemer stepping near-
Which from prophetic hearts oft sounded
Into this earth-forsaken, drear:

That longing-which so long went straying
To find the God-which it believed.
As tear, and hymn, complaint, or praying-
Was changed to Mary-and conceived.

Christ is therefore the end of the whole history of the world before himself, as well as of every individual human heart. And why? Be cause he, and he alone, is the God-man and Saviour of the world. According to his divine nature, as the Logos, the eternal reason and eternal Word; he is of the same essence as God, and the medium of the creation and preservation of the world, as well as of all preparatory revelation; according to his human nature, as Jesus of Nazareth, he is a product of history, the ripest blossom and fruit of the religious development of mankind; and has an earthly genealogy, which the jewishchristian, St. Matthew, traces back to Abraham, and the gentile-christian evangelist Luke, to Adam, the progenitor of all men. In him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily; and in him, at the same time, the ideal of human virtue and piety is realized. He himself is eternal truth and life, in personal union with our own nature; our Lord and our God, and yet at the same time, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone. In him the great problem of all religion, reconciliation and communion of man with God, has not merely been attempted, but solved; and we must not expect a higher revelation of God, nor a greater moral, religious perfection of man, than that which is already given and guaranteed in his person.

But as Christ thus represents the final result of the history of the development of ante-christian humanity, extending through four thous and years; so also, on the other hand, he is the starting point of an endless future, the cause of a new creation, the second Adam, the progenitor of a regenerated humanity, the head of the church, which is his body, the fullness of Him, in whom all fullness dwells. He is the pure and inexhaustible fountain of those streams of light and life, which have since then uninterruptedly flowed through nations and ages, and which will continue to flow, until the whole earth shall be filled with his glory, and all tongues shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The universal diffusion and unconditional supremacy of the spirit and the life of Christ, will, also at the same time, be the consummation of the human race, the end of temporal history, and the beginning of a glorious eternity.

Jesus Christ was born during the reign of the Emperor Augustus, of the Virgin Mary, the bride of the Holy Ghost, who belonged to the fallen royal house of David, in Bethlehem of Judea, at least four years prior to the beginning of our Dionysian mode of reckoning; for Herod the Great did not die so late as 754, but as early as 750 after the foun

dation of Rome. Angels of heaven announced the glad tidings with hymns of praise, and the Jewish shepherds from the fields, and heathen wise men from the East, full of believing adoration, first greeted the new-born King in the manger. Quietly and unobservedly he grew up in Nazareth, the despised little city of Galilee, under the eyes of his poor but godly parents, without enjoying any other means of cultivation than the secret communion of the soul with God, and the religion of the Old Covenant. He began his public ministry in the thirtieth year of his life, and from the midst of uneducated Galilean fishermen selected twelve apostles for Israel, and seventy evangelists for the Gentiles. Three years he went about Palestine doing good, uttering words of spirit and life, and performing miracles of merciful love. He had no earthly possessions, not even a place of his own where he might lay his head; a few pious women from time to time filled his purse, which was carried by a thief and traitor; he never sought the society or the favor of the great, but was hated and persecuted by them; he never flattered the prejudices of the aged, but rebuked vice and sin in all classes of society. He was neither a learned man nor an artist, nor an orator in the usual sense of the word; and yet he was wiser than all philosophers, spoke with greater authority than any orator, and made an impression upon his age, and upon all after ages, so deep and ineffaceable, such as has never been, nor ever can be, made by any man. He overcame the power of sin and death upon their own territory, and thus redeemed and sanctified human nature. In his private life and public conduct he exhibited the purest and deepest love of God and man, an unclouded harmony of all the powers of the soul, and of all virtues, an unexampled combination of dignity and humility, of self-control and self-sacrifice, of greatness and simplicity, in short, the ideal of moral perfection without the least admixture of sin and error. Finally he completed his active spirit by suffering obedience, in unrivalled patience and resignation to the holy will of God, and before he had reached the prime of life-the Saviour of the world a young man!-he died, condemned by the Jewish authorities, forsaken by the people, denied by Peter, betrayed by Judas, but surrrounded by his sorrowing mother, and his faithful disciples-male and female-by the shameful death upon the cross: he the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, a voluntary self-sacrifice of eternal love for the redemption of the world. On the third day he rose from the dead, a victor over the grave and hell, a prince of life and of the resurrection; he appeared to his disciples; he took possession of the heavenly throne, and, by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he formed the church, which he has protected, nourished, strengthened, and comforted since that time, and with which he has promised to be always, until he shall come again in his glory, to judge the quick and the dead.

This is a feeble outline of the life of the God-man upon earth, to which a human pen is as little able to do full justice as, to use the language of Lavater, one is able to paint the sun with a lead pencil and the dawn with a piece of charcoal. The entire history of the church, with its innumerable blossoms of the divine life, is but an incomplete commentary upon that delineation, which the evangelists have given us, in childlike simplicity, and yet also with unfathomable depth. No cata

logue of virtues, however perfect it might be, would be able to give us a correct conception of the intense peculiarity of the character of Christ, of the beautiful symmetry of all the moral powers, and of the wonderful harmony of a soul which was never darkened by a single cloud of passion and selfishness, and which never, even for a moment, permitted itself to be separated from the most intimate communion with the Father in heaven, and an unconditional surrender to the eternal welfare of mankind. Here we truly find the fountain of life; here is the highest union of piety and virtue, of the purest love to God, and the purest love to man that ever appeared upon the earth; here is the holy of holies of mankind, in whose presence even infidelity entertains some reverence and awe. For even a Rousseau was compelled to exclaim: "Socrates lived and died like a philosopher, but Christ lived and died like a God."

HUMBUG AGAIN.

BY THE EDITOR.

We have neither time nor space to expose one-half of the humbugs that come to our notice. Nor is this necessary. It is sufficient if we give our readers a specimen now and then. One of a class will always answer to set a whole host naked and in the light. If our young readers will closely examine these examples, they will soon be able to catch humbugs as easily as the Editor. It is only necessary to study their habits, notice carefully their colorings, and watch their movements, to know them afterwards at first sight.

It must be confessed, however, that we have a little the advantage of our readers; for humbugs find it necessary to swarm around Editors. Indeed, they can only live when the periodicals bless them, and help them to warm into life. Thus they cozy up to the editors, as naturally as a torpid snake crawls to the fire. Or, to use another illustration, they come to the Editor's chair like a moth to the candle-sometimes to be singed! The other day there was one came buzzing up to us, in the shape of a letter, swollen with credentials-the document itself, a letter of commendation, and two cards, that by the mouth of these two witnesses every word might be established. Let us open the precious budget, and we shall see him as he is. Here is the letter:

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 1856.

GENTLEMEN: Please insert the enclosed advertisement in your paper for three months Send me the full amount of the bill immediately, and at the termination of the first mouth I will forward you one-half the amount of the bill, and at the termination of the second month I will forward the remainder. Please insert the first three words in quite large type I trust you will charge me a moderate price. Allow me to say that Mr. Monroe has got something which is new, and is needed in every family in the United States, and it is everything that he advertises. I am good for the advertisement. I remain yours truly, A. L. BALDWIN.

Now for the Advertisement. The reader will please notice that the advertiser is not Mr. Baldwin, but another man. It must be true charity

that induces him to inform us "Mr. Monroe has got something which is new." In another document however he says: "Direct your communications to A. L. Baldwin." After all he must have some finger in the pie. It seems that Mr. Monroe "has got something" and Mr. Baldwin wishes to get something. So the reader, if he is green enough, will be sure to direct his two dollars to Mr. Baldwin! But here is the advertisement which the Editor of the Guardian is to "insert for three months." Hear, ye poor who are out of employment, how it jingles! Why the very first blast, is like music in one's pocket. Hear! Hear!

ONEY! MONEY! MONEY! WHY BE WITHOUT MONEY? when

only think so. I have got a new article, from which from five to twenty dollars a day can be made, either by male or female. It is highly respectable business, and an artice which is wanted in every family in the United States. Enclose me two dollars by mail, at my risk, and I will forward by return mail a Circular with full instructions in the art. The business is very easy.-Try it, if you are out of emloyment, and you will never regret it; for it will be better for you to ay the above sum, and insure a good business, than to pay twenty-five cents for a spurious advertisement. This is no humbug. TRY IT! TRY IT! TRY IT!

DWIGHT MONROE, New York.

I sent one of my Circulars to an Editor in Georgia, and he gave me a notice in his paper like the following: "Mr. Monroe sent me one of his Circulars, and I will just say to my readers that whoever of you are out of employment that Mr. Monroe's business is a good business and money can be made out of it by any one who engages in it, for it is no humbug."

99

His grammar is a little bad. It is as easy for "any one" to be "around" with a pocket full of money as not, if only "they think so. This "they" must mean Messrs. Baldwin & Monroe. "I have got an article" is decidedly unrhetorical. "It"-that is this article that he "has got"

-"is" a "highly respectable business." "Enclose me two dollars by mail" he evidently means in the mail. Otherwise the direction is clear enough. The closing sentence is decidedly emphathic: "Try it! Try it! Try it!" But the direction says, "Address your letters to Dwight Monroe, New York." This is a puzzle; for does not the other document say: "Direct to A. L. Baldwin?" Now I have it. The letter is for the Editors alone, sub rosa-We ought not to have published it. The advertisement is for you, gentle reader. The whole means: Mr. Editor send your bill for advertising to "A. L. Baldwin," and if there is such a man in existence you will get your money. Mr. Reader, send your $2 to me, for I "have got something" for you.

We forgot to inform the reader that the precious budget also contained two cards; on one of which Mr Baldwin is said to be "Proprietor of the Literary Journal," and on the other "Agent of the Mausoleum Daguerreotype Company." He says of this part of the business: "I inclose cards that you may know that I am good for the amount " Now, a Philadelphia lawyer may perhaps be able to tell how these cards prove that he is "good for the amount;" but it is too great a problem for us. Besides, if the grammar and rhetoric of the advertisement are from Mr. Baldwin, then we would love to see a copy of "The Literary Journal." Wonder what is the name of that Editor in Georgia, or, the name of his paper. Poor lone voice from the sunny land! Why do not other Editors join in, to tell the world "that Mr. Monroe has got something." Especially now, as winter is setting in and employment scarce. "Why

be without money? when it is just as easy for any one to be around with a pocket full as not, if he only thinks so." O, reader, why do you go about moneyless, sometimes even pondering in your heart whether you can afford to take your old friend The Guardian another year. Why do you not "just think so," send on $2, and have your pockets full? The editor in Georgia, says "Mr. Monroe's business is a good business.' We have no doubt of it, as there are no doubt many persons foolish enough to send him two dollars. It is perfectly easy for him to "be around with a pocket full," if there are only enough $2 victims to "think so."

He hopes Editors "will charge him a moderate price." As he is generous enough to leave the charge to us, we are generous enough to charge him nothing for this insertion, and our comments also shall be gratis. Any man that can fill the pockets of our readers with money, "just as well as not," ought to be aided. It is our interest to do so. For when the Circular is recived, and pockets are full, our list of subscribers will certainly increase.

The intelligent reader may suppose it almost impossible that any one could be humbugged by such schemes; be assured there are many who are drawn into the trick in the vain hope of making "from five to twenty dollars a-day." At this period of the year, when work is scarce in many places, how strong the temptation to one who lives retired in the country, and is himself too honest and innocent to believe that any one could be depraved enough to publish such a falsehood. Besides, is not the advertisement in "our newspaper?" The Editor is a "nice man," and he would not publish it if there was not something in it. We must again ask, how can an honorable editor, for the paltry price of an advertisement-which he may never get-aid these schemes of shameless imposition?

714

FEMALE CHARACTER.

DAUGHTERS should thoroughly acquaint themselves with the business and cares of a family. These are among the first objects of a woman's creation; they ought to be among the first branches of her education. They should learn neatness, economy, industry, and sobriety. These will constitute their ornaments. Nature will appear in all her loveliness of proportion, of beauty; and modesty, unaffected gentleness of manner, will render them amiable in the kitchen and dining-room, and ornaments in the sitting-room and parlor. Everything, domestic or social, depends on female character. As daughters and sisters, they decide the character of the family. As wives, they emphatically decide the character of their husbands, and their condition also, It has been not unmeaningly said, that the husband may ask the wife whether he may be respected. He certainly must inquire at the altar whether he may be prosperous and happy. As mothers, they decide the character of their children. Nature has constructed them the early guardians and instructor of their children, and clothed them with sympathies suited to this end.

« ForrigeFortsæt »