not shrink from this new trial of strength, but should encourage rather than depreciate the study of comparative theology." Let, then, the claims of Buddha or Zoroaster, of Confucius or Manu, of Mohammed or Swedenborg, be they what they may, be decided upon the evidence which each presents. The mere claim which a man puts forth, whatever it be, is of no worth till proved to be well-founded. But if I reject, though on what I think ever so good grounds this claim, whatever it be, and substitute something less as the basis of my respect for him, or my opinions concerning him, it is plain that he cannot be to me either what he is to another who to the full admits his claim, or what he in fact professes himself to the world. Here is the important point. Nearly nineteen centuries. ago one in the form of man appeared in Palestine, putting forth extraordinary pretensions. To the Jews, among whom he was born, he claimed to fulfill the predictions of their ancient prophets, and to be their long-promised and expected Messiah; while at the same time, and in no obscure lan-. guage, he declared himself the friend and Saviour also, alike of the hated Samaritan and the despised Gentile, indeed of the whole race and world of mankind. To all men he professed to have been "sent," specially "sent" by God himself, the Universal Father. There was an air and tone of authority in his teaching, as those who heard him acknowledged, entirely distinguishing him from, and immeasurably elevating him above, the learned expounders of their ancient law. He uniformly represented himself as by eminence and peculiarly the Son of God,—as enjoying such nearness of communion with him as made him one with God, -as having received from God those superhuman powers by which he healed the sick, cured the lame, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead, and to which he constantly appealed as proofs of his divine commission. Always, through every difficulty, trial, obstacle, in the face of suffering, persecution and an ignominious and cruel death, he asserted and re-asserted those claims. To those claims I yield. I bow to the authority of Jesus as "sanctified and sent into the world" to "redeem" it from sin. I recognize in him the Christ and Holy One of God. I have perfect and complete confidence, trust and faith in him, as "the way, the truth, and the life," the living and true way, to lead me to happiness and heaven. Such is my understanding of the claims of Jesus. On the one hand I cannot find that he claims as much as fellowbelievers around me insist that he does, — namely, to be the supreme and very God; nor, on the other, only what others attribute to him, namely, the common and mere humanity. which we all share. I cannot consent to adore and worship him as my God, on the one hand, nor, on the other, to place him in the same category with Manu or Confucius or Plato. There was in him that fullness "without measure" of the Holy Spirit which made him a prophet mighty in word and in deed, when they in comparison were only seekers. We do not disparage them, or any of the founders of the "great religions" of the world, by thus elevating him. Theirs are great names, and well is it that the minds of each passing age should turn back with reverence to their track of light. But before Jesus they show but dimly; and he ascends to and holds the zenith in full-orbed and ever-increasing splendor. Yes, ever-increasing! We at times nowadays hear of a living and a dead Christ, and the distinction is often well taken, and by no means far-fetched or forced. To multitudes, even among those who most devoutly read the New Testament, there remains, alas! only a dead Christ. They pore over the page, and study and become familiar with the letter of the sacred narrative - but Christ dead, Christ crucified, is all they get, and this only as a barren and empty article of belief. To many souls, however, I would still trust, that Christ, though he hath died, yea, rather, hath risen again. He comes forth even now as they read and meditate, in all the glory of a fresh resurrection, breathing new life and moral strength into their souls, and leading them on and up, higher and higher. So that it becomes the simplest truth that Christ is reproduced to them, and made the daily, hourly companion of their thoughts and aspirations. To them, indeed, ever increasing must be the splendor of this great Sun of Righteousness; and rich and precious beyond words to express, the fruits of love, joy, peace, which it constantly ripens to perfection in the heart and life of the faithful disciple. Surely it must be a vital question to every seeker after truth, "What think ye of Christ?" Christ to be quickening and powerful in the soul's growth must have a fixed place in the soul's affections and faith. He claims the soul's affections and faith as the Sent of God. It is a lofty claim. That he makes it I can no more doubt than that I live. If he make it and fail to substantiate it, if he present himself to me and to the world as a divine messenger, a messenger from God, in the strict and unambiguous meaning of that designation, and yet fail to prove it, I must think him either a fanatic or an imposter. But if he satisfy me that the claim is just, if he bring to my mind either by his works or doctrine or life, or by all combined, the proof which compels conviction, how joyfully must I welcome him to my faith and trust! How gladly does my soul, amid the burden and weariness of trial, temptation, sin, leap to and find relief and rest with him! And yet we are not to think, we must not so dishonor Christ as to think, that nothing is left for us to do. Christ becomes the spring of joy and peace to each and every soul, just as he excites that soul to the most persistent and strenuous exertion of its loftiest powers in the pursuit of truth, piety, holiness. Only as I rise and approach his spotless purity, only as I become transfigured into that divine image by my contemplation and study of his life and teachings, only so far will Christ become in me "the hope of glory." He does not work upon me as dead matter, but as a living spirit. These affections so apt to grovel upon the earth, he would lift and lead to fasten on the holy and the eternal. These hopes and desires, always reaching forward and upward, never satisfied with what this world and this life present, he would wing for a higher flight towards the all-satisfying and the all-perfect. There have been, it is true, rapt seers, who have pierced the dim and distant future, and mounted on chariots of fire to the third heaven; bards who have wooed from the skies the genius of poetry to charm the imagination, or lift the devotions of the race; heroes, whose lives were consecrated to immortal freedom and truth; martyrs, who sealed their testimony in blood, and hugged their cross but the more firmly amid torture and flame; philosophers, who grappled with the great mysteries of life and of death; philanthropists, who labored and sacrificed for God and for man with an earnest and noble spirit caught from communion with Jesus; and saints, who have glorified human nature and inspired new faith in man by their love and practice of the pure and the holy. Yes, and God be thanked for them all! But the more and the better the life and character of the Saviour is appreciated and felt, the more entirely do we realize the fact how transcendent is the glory which encircles his brow as with a diadem, and though there have been many founders of religions, prophets and bards, heroes and martyrs, sages and philosophers, philanthropists and saints, that there has been but One Christ— the CHRist of GOD. AN INSTINCTIVE TRUST IN GOD. We never see a flock of wild geese passing over us in their long migrations from zone to zone through the trackless air, or hear the wild, strange cry which they utter in their flight, without feeling that there is a mysterious connection between God and his creatures, an example of faith without sight from which it would be wise and well for us to take a lesson. As they are passing beyond our reach, we gaze after them in wonder, and with Bryant, the poet, are ready to exclaim, "Thou art gone: the abyss of heaven "He who from zone to zone Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, Will lead my footsteps right." THE SPIRIT OF REFORM. BY ALICE MARLAND WELLINGTON. "To effect the blessedness for which he was intended, man must become a fellow-worker with God." Of all the exquisite pictures in Guild Court, perhaps none is more touching than that of the quaint, old tailor and quainter child sitting in their little den of a work-shop and speculating on the origin of evil. Mr. Spelt draws illustrations from his own experience. A new garment already cut does not give him half the satisfaction to make, that he finds in a worn-out coat needing repair, where he can exercise his ingenuity by "piecing a bit here and a bit toere, you know." It seems to him a reasonable view to take of the creation of the universe: God fashioned it well as far as he worked; "but I fancy perhaps, Mattie, he knew we should enjoy it better, if he left something for us to do." It is an original view of evil, certainly. From time immemorial, men have speculated whether God created good and evil simultaneously, or whether sin and misery are the gradual disarrangement of a once perfect whole, caused by man's long disobedience of law. In the tailor's theory we have a first suggestion that perhaps evil is only what God has left unfinished in the creation of the world. "I suppose," answered Mattie, "God could have made people all comfortable at once; but he thought he would give us a share in doing it." A theory tinged slightly, perhaps, with the cold philosophy that there is no absolute truth; that to believe in divine or moral intuitions is a delusion; that nothing is right or wrong, but thinking makes it so; and that ideas adopted first from expediency, gradually become a habit, and then, after generations of inheritance, suddenly arrogate to themselves the haughty titles of Right and Wrong, Truth and Falsity. Yet at its foundation lies the recognition of a profound fact that we are created, not merely to bend our heads and reverently |