have shown that He had faith in God, but only up to a certain point. He would have proved Himself in the battle with sin a brave soldier, but conquerable, and therefore unfitted to be the Captain of our salvation. But He persevered

even unto death. The cross has ever since been a symbol and synonym of all that Christ thought and did and was. And rightly so; for it was the summing up and completion of all.

"In the Cross of Christ we glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story

GATHERS round its head sublime."

Well, now, is He not perfect, this Man of Sorrows? Did He not unite in Himself all good qualities which in others are only found apart, and even then in an inferior degree? Do we not find in Him, for example, more than the tenderness of woman, combined with more than the strength of man? Has not the story of His self-sacrificing love purified many of the vilest hearts, and brought some of the most abandoned of the devil's votaries to the very feet of God? Did not everything good in the world before Christ point to something better far in Him? Does not everything that is best in the world to-day owe its origin to Him? How much of

what is sweetest in art, how much of what is noblest in life, would never have existed but for Christ! Must we not thank Him for all that is most beautiful in our social intercourse, in our friendships, in our homes? Can you not trace His influence wherever there is progress in right and freedom and toleration and joy? The thoughts of the Nazarene lie at the basis of modern civilisation, and are inextricably bound up with the future progress of the world.1

The glory of Christ has been seen and acknowledged not only by clergymen, not only by orthodox Trinitarians, not only by those who profess to be entirely consecrated to His service; but wherever He has been understood, He has been invariably admired, and more or less believed in, if not loved. Nearly all the greatest minds of the last two thousand years, though holding the most divergent religious opinions, and differing perhaps in regard to almost every other subject, have been unanimous in their praise of Christ. Milton, Shakespeare, Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, Newton, Spinoza, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, Herder, Goethe, Napoleon, Jean Paul Richter, Carlyle, Rousseau, Renan, John Stuart Mill, and a host of others, have been at one in lauding the beauty

1 See also p. 323.

of His life, the wisdom of His teaching, the blessedness of His work. For instance, Napoleon said, "Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne, and myself, founded great empires; but the creations of our genius depended upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this day millions would die for Him." Richter said, "Christ was the holiest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the holy. He lifted with His pierced hands empires off their hinges; He turned the stream of history, and still governs the ages." Rousseau said, "If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus were those of a God." Renan has said, "Thanks to Jesus, the dullest existence, the most absorbed by sad and humiliating duties, has had its glimpse of heaven:" and again, "To tear the name of Jesus from the world would be to shake it to its very foundations."

And there have been some who have conceived for Him a passionately enthusiastic devotion, that was a copy-and not a faint copy either-of His own self-sacrificing love. There have been some. who have surrendered for Christ pleasure, money, fame, health, family, friends, position, prospects, life; who for His sake have suffered the loss of all things. There have been some who, for Christ's

sake, were tortured, and had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, and bonds and imprisonment; who wandered over deserts and dwelt in caves; who were destitute, afflicted, tormented; who were stoned, or sawn asunder, or slain with the sword; and who not only endured these things, but gloried in them, counting it ALL JOY that they were thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ. And there have been many- -a vast multitude that no man can number, belonging to all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues -who, though coming short of this enthusiastic devotion, have yet loved and served Christ to the best of their ability, following Him sometimes closely, sometimes from afar off; sometimes forsaking Him, but always returning to Him again. They differ from one another in all conceivable respects; they agree in nothing save their love for Christ. And this love is no superficial sentimentalism, no transitory caprice. It is the deepest reality in their lives. It is slowly-very slowly, alas! but still surely and perceptiblytransforming their inclinations and aims, so that for them "old things are passing away, and all things are becoming new."

And Christ's influence is by no means restricted to those who professedly admire and love Him.

Many, unknown to themselves, have caught something of His divine spirit of self-abnegation. Of all the best and noblest men now living, whether they profess to be Christ's disciples or not, it may, without hesitation, be affirmed that they are ready to deny themselves for the welfare of others; and that, to a greater or less extent, they have merged their own life and wellbeing in the life and wellbeing of the race. From whom can they have learnt this enthusiasm for humanity if not from the crucified Nazarene ? Must He not then have been perfect, this Man of Sorrows, to have accomplished such effects as these?