Testament was substantially as we have it, and they perpetually quoted the Old Testament as of divine authority. Therefore, I accept the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, as a divine book, and the authorized standard of faith and practice.

"I have selected from the long catalogue of Christian evidences, as a reason why I am a believer in the Christian religion, the historical evidence that Christ rose from the dead. I have selected this because it may be briefly stated. I select another for the same reason. It is this: The Christian religion seeks the greatest good. Even our enemies being judges, if there be an everlasting life the honest, faithful Christian has good hope in his death; but the gospel has promise of the life that now is as well as that which is to come. Let any one conceive the best condition possible to man in his earthly life-best as to his physical, mental, moral, social being, best every way, and he will conceive precisely that condition which the Bible seeks to produce. Paint the brightest picture of human life that imagination can devise, then look into the Word of God, and you will find that inspiration has surpassed you. The picture there is perfect in outline, complete in finish, and all aglow with heavenly and divine truth.

"Religion seeks man's good. For seventy and more years it has done me good, and never ill. Not a bad thing has come of it, blessed be God! Good, and only good, I find at the feet of my Savior; and there are numberless souls who may say truthfully the same when speaking of themselves. They can truthfully say: Come, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for my soul. I waited patiently for the Lord; he heard my cry and brought me out of the horrible pit and the miry clay, and placed my feet upon a rock, and put a new song into my mouth, and established my going. I was blind, but now I see; I was deaf, but now I hear; I was wounded, but now I am whole; I was sick, but now I am in health; I was dead, but now I live; and the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God. Once I was in bondage through fear of death, without God, and without hope in the world; but now my soul hath daily sweet communion with the Invisible Spirit of life, my Heavenly Father.' Thou God of heaven and of eternal life, glory be to thee! Of the Christian religion I confidently say, there is something in it, and by the grace of God I propose to hold fast whereunto I have attained while I live."

The resurrection of Christ is the foundation-stone of Christian faith, and it is firmly laid. 'Ransack all history," says an able

writer, "and you can not find a single event more satisfactorily and clearly proved than the resurrection of Christ from the dead." And says another, a distinguished jurist: "If human evidence ever has proved, or ever can prove any thing, then the miracles of Christ are beyond the shadow of a doubt." And yet the miracles and resurrection of Christ prove his divinity; and as Napoleon said: "His divinity once admitted, Christianity appears with the precision and clearness of algebra; it has the connection and unity of a science."

CHRISTIANITY ITS OWN PROOF.

Christianity is its own proof. Its marvelous character proves its marvelous origin. If not in itself a miracle, it is more like a miracle than any thing else ever done or known on earth. Take into account its origin, its early history, its present prestige, and its flattering prospect of ultimate triumph over all opposition, and we have a gigantic fact that will be hard to account for except by acknowledg ment of the miraculous. "Is Christianity an inspired faith or not?" asks Wendell Phillips. "Shakespeare and Plato tower above the intellectual level of their times, like the peaks of Teneriffe and Mont Blanc. We look at them, and it seems impossible to measure the interval that separates them from the intellectual development around them. But if this Jewish boy, in that era of the world, in Palestine, with the Ganges on one side of him and the Olympus of Athens on the other, ever produced a religion with these four elements, he towers so far above Shakespeare and Plato that the difference between Shakespeare and Plato and their times, in the comparison, becomes an imperceptible wrinkle on the face of the earth. I have endeavored to measure its strength, to estimate its permanence, to analyze its elements; and if it ever came from the unassisted brain of one uneducated Jew, while Shakespeare is admirable, and Plato is admirable, this Jewish boy takes a higher level. He is marvelous, wonderful; he is in himself a miracle. The miracles he wrought are nothing to the miracle he was, if at that era and that condition of the world he invented Christianity. Whately says, 'To disbelieve is to believe.' I can not be so credulous as to believe that any mere' man invented Christianity. Until you show me some loving heart that has felt more profoundly, some strong brain that, even with the aid of his example, has thought further and added something important to religion, I must still use my common sense and say, No man did all this. I know Buddha's protest, and what he is said to have tried

to do. To all that my answer is, India, past and present. In testing ideas and elemental forces, if you give them centuries to work in, success is the only criterion. By their fruits' is an inspired rule, not yet half understood and appreciated."

How could Christianity even begin its work in the world without credentials that would silence the gainsayers? Men do not take kindly to new religions, especially to such as are unselfish and spiritual. A Frenchman, named Lapaux, thought he had discovered a new religion, and complained to Talleyrand of his trouble in introducing it. "I am not surprised," said Talleyrand, “at the difficulty you find your effort. It is no easy matter to introduce a new religion. But there is one thing I would advise you to do, and then, perhaps, you might succeed."

in

"What is it? what is it?" asked the other, with eagerness.

"It is this," said Talleyrand; "go and be crucified, and then be buried, and then rise again on the third day, and then go on working miracles, raising the dead, and healing all manner of diseases, and casting out devils, and then it is possible that you might accomplish your end!" And the philosopher, crestfallen and confounded, went away silent.

Theodore Parker considered himself the pioneer of a religion that would last a thousand years. He was possessed of one of the finest intellects of this century, and in many respects was fitted by nature to lead and teach. Living, he proclaimed himself equal to Christ, and dying, he referred to what he had done for mankind. But what had he done, and where are the fruits of his labors to-day? His congregation is scattered, and the men of thought, atheists, deists, pantheists, fatalists, spiritualists, skeptics, and secularists, who gathered around him and espoused his cause, have no organized following in the name of Parkerism. The truth is, religions that sweep the earth and bless mankind must carry with them indubitable proofs of divinity, else man in his progressive enlightenment spurns them from his presence, or crushes them down. That Christianity has, through the long centuries of its history, withstood this crucial test, is proof of its superhuman origin. That it has not only lived, but flourished, waxing great and strong with the roll of centuries, is evidence that behind it is the power of the living God. As an effect, Christendom is too large for mortal cause. Even without a written revelation, the Christian era requires belief in the Incarnation. Even without a Church or a creed or a clergyman, enough may be seen of the Christian element on earth to dumfound the adversaries. "Let a man

a reality, a solemn truth, The very bells that toll,

think what he will of Christians, there is behind all he sees, higher than he knows. tell of life, of death, of soul, and of God. Look over the world, and draw a line between the souls that pray and the souls that do not pray. On which side of the line would you rather be?" Search out all other religions, and combine their best features, and still they fall infinitely short of that one feature of Christianity which gives it power-its efficacy to save the soul. No other religion provides as this does for man's moral and spiritual nature. No other religion enables man to make the best use of the world, a success of his life, and "turn his little life's poem into a beautiful and interesting epic." No other religion enables him to meet the temptations of life when they come, and to rise superior to his surroundings. No other religion teaches him, as this does, to bear afflictions, endure hardness, and to bear the cross as a condition of discipleship. No other religion prepares him to meet grim death, and triumph over it, lying down, as it were, in quiet sleep, wrapping the drapery of his couch about him, and passing away in gentle dreams. And no other religion promises any thing after death. "None but Christ has penetrated the vale of death, though many have vainly tried to do so. The Christian faith illumines the future, and throws a mantle of splendor over it, satisfies the longings of our nature, and ennobles our present existence."

CHRISTIANITY A LIFE.

Christianity is a life. It is a life entirely distinct from the natural life. It is a life begotten of God in the new birth. It is a spiritual life, and those who receive it are subjects of a spiritual kingdom. "My kingdom," Christ himself said, "is not of this world." Its origin was not here. One of his disciples described it as "coming down from God out of heaven." John the Baptist called it the "kingdom of heaven." It is heavenly in its spirit and effects. It makes of the human heart a little heavenly temple, where God himself deigns to dwell. Men can not see it or find it. It cometh not with observation. "Behold," said Christ, "the kingdom of God is within you." It is God's rule, sway, and command over the human soul. Whosoever has this kingdom is free from the dominion of sin, is a recipient of grace, and an heir of glory. "And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." This record being proved, as Dr. Luther Lee has observed, "the whole Gospel must be true; therefore every believer has the witness in himself that the

Gospel is true. This witness is the sum total of Christian experience, the whole of which is in harmony with the teaching of the Gospel. "1. There is felt a conviction of sin, a sense of guilt and condemnation before God. All feel this in a greater or less degree. 2. There is a felt sense of pardon, and a removal of guilt and condemnation. 3. A felt peace of mind and heart-peace with God. 4. A joy that was never felt before-a joy which rises from a sense of the divine presence and favor. 5. A hope never before realized-a hope which reaches beyond the grave and anchors in the land of immortality. 6. A felt and known change of heart, which changes the direction of the desires and aspirations, and the whole moral tone of the life. 7. This whole experience is crowned with the witness of God's Spirit, bearing witness with the believer's spirit that he is a child of God.

"This testimony is rendered certain by the fact that it is all a matter of consciousness. This witness within testifies in consciousness. Consciousness is a knowledge of what passes in the mind, or the knowledge which the mind has of its own states and operations. When a person thinks, he knows that he thinks, and knows what he thinks; when a person feels, he knows that he feels, and knows what he feels; and when a person wills, he knows that he wills, and knows what he wills. This testimony is absolutely certain; it can not be disproved. No witness can get behind it to contradict it. To contradict this witness in any man is to tell him he does not think, feel, and will what he knoes he does think, feel, and will. It is to tell him he is not sorrowful when he knows he is sorrowful, and that he is not joyful when he knows he is joyful."

The argument places Christianity beyond the possibility of a doubt in the mind of a believer. He never thinks of denying it. He would as quickly deny the fact that he lives on earth as the better fact that he lives unto Christ. In attestation of this truth the martyrs died. They counted not their (natural) lives dear unto themselves, so that they might finish their (spiritual) course with joy. Infidelity and persecution have never shaken this citadel of the soul. It is the strong man armed. It is God in humanity, whom no power of earth or hell can dislodge. Every conflict which has raged around this central truth in ages past has ended in victory for Christ; it will always be so. The men do not live, and can not be brought into life, who can gainsay this fundamental principle of the Christian faith, or break its force upon the convictions of the race. All evangelical Churches are herein agreed, and this is what distinguishes them from the world. They know, and do testify, that Christ has power on