In two respects Jesus Christ was a perfectly original teacher. First-He greatly excelled in those character istics which he possessed in common with his predecessors, and 2nd-He possessed new characteristics, as a teacher, which had never been possessed before him. Let us then notice:

I. Jesus Christ greatly excelled in all those characteristics as a teacher, which he possessed in common with his predecessors.

Christ was no ultraist, who looked upon the past as a mere blank. His system gathered up all the past that was worth preserving. He was willing to acknowledge his connection with Moses and the Prophets, and it was of a Gentile he spake when he said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." We do violence to the language of the New Testament writers, when we take their condemnation of all worldly knowledge in a superlative sense, making it amount to absolute foolishness. The vast amount of it was undoubtedly such, though we apprehend that the writers' intention was to intimate that compared with the superior system of Jesus, all others sunk into comparative insignificance or nothingness. Such strong expressions are quite natural, and they abound in all languages, and every candid person, acquainted with the true genius of language, has no difficulty in taking such expres sions, as they occur in the Bible, in a comparative sense. That the dispensation of Judaism was not all foolishness is evident from the fact that its law was holy, just and good; that the dispensation of nature was not absolute foolishness, is clear from the fact that under that dispensation, something might "be known of God," his "eternal power and

Godhead" could be seen from his creation, and "his judg ment" was known by evil doers. But the improvement men almost universally made, both under Judaism and nature, meets with the almost unqualified censure of the New Testament writers. All were concluded in unbelief and sin. A few men like Moses and the prophets had been redeemed under Judaism, and the feebler rays of nature had directed a Socrates to a spiritual worship, and to a life of virtue. But in accomplishing what they did, these systems had done their best. The example afforded by the latter system, especially, shows what was hardly possible, and not what was probable or to be expected, under such a dispensation. But just so far as Socrates followed the greatest light of his age, he was a true man, an apostle of nature, and his mission was, in an important sense, Divine. His teachings, just so far as they conform to the teachings of Jesus, substantiate the latter as emanating from the very God of nature. It will not be thought irrelevant, then, to compare Christ and Socrates. By such comparison we shall find many characteristics in which there is a striking resem blance, though, in every one of these features, Christ is infinitely the superior.

1. Socrates was a teacher of morals. Duty and virtue were his great themes. He taught the superiority of virtue over riches, and the importance of bringing the animal, under the subjection of the spiritual nature. "Temperance or self-control, in the government of the appetites and passions," he held, to be the "foundation of all personal excellence." But Socrates is ever confessing his ignor

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ance of the grand system he taught. He knew so little that he was accustomed to say he knew nothing.

Christ was also a moralist. His theme was also duty and virtue; but his ethical system, how deep, severe, searching and spiritual! With him, the thought was the essence of the act. Anger, was the germ of murder; and an unchaste desire, adultery; two mites, with purity of motive, were worth more than vast treasures, with ostentation; the broken cries of the publican, more valuable than the eloquent prayers of the pharisee; and a work of mercy, was of more importance than a strictly literal observance of religious forms. In short, all sin, however secret, and in whomsoever found, received his severest censure; and all virtue, however obscure the individual who practiced it, received his approbation; and the climax of his requisitions was, "Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

But with this high and severe standard of morality, how lenient, approachable, kind and forgiving was he to the repenting offender! With the Samaritan adultress, he could sit and converse, and proffer to her the living water; to another, who was the subject of pharasaic censure, he could say, "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more;" and his faithless disciples who forsook him in his great trial, he received again to his favor; and even Peter, who denied him with an oath, received only the rebuke of one kind look, and the question, repeated three times, "lovest thou me, more than these?" Neither in Socrates, or any of his disciples, do we find such an extensive and severe morality, at the same time, being mingled

with such a spirit of benignity and forgiveness towards the sinner.

2. Socrates was a teacher who aimed to keep the minds of his disciples in their own proper sphere. He would not attempt to teach what he knew to be unknowable. There were points which were not suitable for men, but only for the gods. In this respect, there was a great contrast be tween him and the sophists of his day. They professed to teach every thing, having discovered a royal road to all knowledge; and descending far beyond their depth, found themselves involved in such perplexities, as made them easy subjects for the ridicule of the great Grecian.

Jesus Christ was also a teacher who ever confined the minds of his disciples to their own appropriate sphere of action. How much he might have told them about heaven, but how little did he tell. Men had no need of tabernacles dedicated to Moses and Elias, or to any other saint. Let them hear one made like unto his brethren. Let them first believe earthly things, before they were told of heavenly things. That restless spirit that would be as God, and soar away into the heavens, he chastens, and reminds them that the word of wisdom which concerned them, and which their minds were capable of appreciating, was nigh them, even in their mouth and in their heart. How much we find in the teachings of Jesus about present duties, and how little in description of other worlds. It appears, in fact, to have been a great object with him to show his followers, that it was far more important to drink of the cup that he should drink, and to be baptised with the baptism that he should be baptised with, than to know with defin

iteness the seat they should occupy in heaven. As a moral teacher, it was not his to give celestial thrones and honors, but to teach men how to live; and when we consider that he came from heaven, and that the nature and end of his teaching was so spiritual, we must acknowledge that he did, in a most surprising manner, keep down the curiosity, so prone to bubble up from man's spiritual nature, keeping the human mind within its own legitimate limits.

3. To teach his disciples self-knowledge, or to know themselves, was one of the first objects of Socrates, and nobly did he succeed. Many an Athenian youth was, by the aid of this great master, enabled to look into his own mind, to clear away the rubbish of self-conceit, and afterwards, to lay a better foundation, building upon which rendered him more wise, virtuous and happy.

Jesus Christ taught this doctrine of self-knowledge with the greatest success. He who would become wise under his instructions, must first regard himself as a fool, that he might be wise. The first object of the Saviour was to correct the false notions of his disciples, which his most memorable sermon on the mount, was well calculated to do. He seizes upon every occasion, for the purpose of bringing them to a consideration of their own imperfections. When his disciples marvelled that he should talk with the woman of Samaria, and begged him to eat, he reproved their uncharitableness and sensuality, by saying "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." When he heard of their forbiding a man to cast out devils, because he saw not fit to become one of their party, they must have gained a clearer