Emperor, not for his own good, but for the benefit of his fellow creatures. He stooped to relieve the wants of the meanest of his subjects, and would peril his life by visiting them when sick of infectious diseases; he prohibited, by law, masters from killing their slaves; gave to slaves legal trial, and exempted them from torture; yet, toward certain individuals and classes, he showed himself a monster of cruelty. He prided himself on his knowledge of architecture, and ordered to execution the most celebrated architect of Rome, because he had criticised one of the Emperor's designs. He banished all the Jews from their native land, and drove them to the ends of the earth; and unloosed the blood-hounds of persecution to rend in pieces his Christian subjects."

"Who has not heard of the Emperor Titus-so beloved for his mild virtues and compassionate regard for the suffering, that he was named, 'The delight of mankind;' so tender of the lives of his subjects that he took the office of high priest that his hands might never be defiled with blood; and was heard to declare, with tears, that he had rather die than put another to death. So intent upon making others happy, that when once about to retire to sleep, and not being able to recall any particular act of beneficence performed during the day, he cried out in anguish, Alas! I have lost a day!' And, finally, whom the learned Kennet, in his Roman Antiquities, characterizes as the only primier in the world that has the character of never doing an ill action. Yet, witnessing the mortal combats of the captives taken in war, killing each other in the amphitheatre, amidst the acclamations of the populace, was a favorite amusement with Titus. At one time, he exhibited shows

of gladiators, which lasted one hundred days, during which the amphitheatre was flooded with human blood. At another of his exhibitions, he caused five thousand wild beasts to be baited in the amphitheatre. During the seige of Jerusalem, he set ambushes to seize the famishing Jews, who stole out of the city by night to glean food in the valleys; these he would first dreadfully scourge, then torment them with all conceivable tortures, and, at last, crucify them before the wall of the city. According to Josephus, not less than five hundred a day were thus tormented. And when many of the Jews, frantic with famine, deserted to the Romans, Titus cut off their hands and drove them back. After the destruction of Jerusalem, he dragged to Rome, one hundred thousand captors, and sold them as slaves, and scattered them through every province of the empire."

From the following, it will be seen that this mixed character is not confined to heathen, but it is found in such as are reputed Christians :

"Theodocius the Great, was a member of a Christian Church, and in his zeal against paganism, and what he deemed heresy, surpassed all who were before him. The Christian writers of his time, speak of him as a most illustrious model of justice, generosity, benevolence and virtue. And yet, Theodocius denounced capital punishment against those who held heretical opinions, and commanded intermarriage between cousins, to be punished by burning alive. On hearing that the people of Antioch had demolished the statutes set up in that city, in honor to himself, and had threatened the governor, he flew into a transport of fury, ordered the city to be laid in ashes, and all the inhabitants to be slaughtered; and upon hearing of

a resistance to his authority in Thesolonica, in which one of his lieutenants was killed, he instantly ordered a great massacre of the inhabitants; and in obedience to his command, seven thousand men, women and children, were butchered in the space of three hours."

But what bearing has this subject on the truth of the Bible?

1. It certainly affords no trifling evidence of the truth of the Bible that its teachings, in so many particulars, agree with our own observations; and that too on a subject which is so apparently contradictory.

2. This characteristic of the Bible renders it essentially different from all the sacred books of the heathen. None of those pretended revelations know much of mixed characters. They have no positive or comparative degree, but all is superlative. Their saints are all perfect, and their wicked have no redeeming qualities. The Bible takes a medium ground, and the ground of common sense.

3. This characteristic of the Bible renders it essentially different from the reasoning of many religious metaphysicians. There is a strong tendency in the minds of religious men who are given to close metaphysical reasoning to make the human mind such a unity that it must be totally* right or totally wrong. Some maintain, that it is not only the privilege of the Christian to live free from sin, but that he must live free from sin, in order to be possessed

*In relation to the terms total depravity, we would refer the reader to certain excellent remarks in Dr. Wayland's University Sermons, page 33, with which we fully agree, and we understand them to express the sentiment of this discourse.

of the Christian character. On the other hand, others of an opposite school, while they hold the doctrine of sinless perfection to be a gross inconsistency, appear to reason from the same metaphysical principle, in denying all virtue to an unregenerate sinner. But reason as they please, numerous facts are constantly arising to contradict both parties, and to show that the human mind is such a wonderful structure that scores of contradictions can dwell in the same bosom with surprising harmony. Neither the sacred books of the heathen, the zeal of religious partizans, nor the disquisitions of metaphysicians, have ever taught us this doctrine. They are, at least to a great extent, opposed to it. But that common sense which looks at simple facts, teaches it to the most simple minds every day, and that Bible which deals in simple facts, and not in metaphysical reasonings, confirms the teachings. In spite of all opposing theories, the Bible finds this counterpart in the human mind, and hence must be TRUE.

LECTURE XIX.

THE CONSERVATISM OF THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE.

BEHOLD MY SERVANT SHALL DEAL

52: 13.

PRUDENTLY.--Isaiah

The religion of the Bible is a strong propelling power. Its aim is to revolutionize the world, and bring all powers under its own sway. But has it within itself a controling and directing, as well as propelling principle? If it possesses within itself great energies, are they restrained and directed by a wholesome conservatism?

The propelling and the conservative power of religion, are evidently as needful as the centrifugal and the centripetal forces of the planets. This is evidently the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, and it accords with the best judgment of all men.

In our remarks, we shall speak particularily of the conservatism of Christianity, as that is the highest type of the religion taught in the Bible.

The question we propose to discuss is this: in what do we discover the conservatism of Christianity.

1. The very manner in which it was introduced, affords a striking illustration of its conservative character. As