THE SUPERIORITY OF THE 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 if 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 AUG 1 n 1915 
 
 PRESIDENT’S OFFICE 
 
THE SUPERIORITY OF THE 
 CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 A BACCALAUREATE SERMON, 
 
 By Wm. C. Roberts, d. d., l.l. d. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF LAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY. 
 
 DELIVERED AT LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS, 
 JUNE 23, 1S89. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
• Craig • |)re2b • 
 
 77 St 79 Jackson $ftvtet, 
 C§icaao 
 
THE SUPERIORITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.’’—Amos 5:8. 
 
 This exhortation suggests much that is interesting to the 
 historian, the astronomer and the Christian. The beauty of 
 the constellations here named has been celebrated in classic 
 myth and ancient legend. The risings and settings of the seven 
 stars are said to have been observed by the priests of Belus 
 more than thirty-five hundred years ago. The name Pleiades, 
 given them in the revised version, was formerly derived from a 
 word meaning “ to sail,” because they were supposed to mark 
 the safe time for ships to go out of port; and that of Vergiliae, 
 from “ ver,” the spring, because it was believed that they intro¬ 
 duced the mild, vernal season favorable to farming and other 
 pastoral employments. 
 
 Orion is the most magnificent group of stars known to the 
 astronomer. Its form is familiar to all who have studied the 
 appearance and relative positions of the heavenly bodies. It 
 was pictured by the ancients as a huge giant who had warred 
 against God, for which he was bound with adamantine chains 
 to a fixed point in the sky. This tradition has been associated 
 in some way with the history of Nimrod, who is supposed to 
 have instigated the descendants of Noah to build the Tower of 
 Babel. 
 
 The astronomical allusions in the text are full of interest. 
 The word Pleiades is derived from the Chaldee “Chimah,” 
 which means the hinge around which a body revolves. Not 
 supposing that Job had any astronomical knowledge, his use of 
 the term furnished no clew to the better understanding of the 
 stars. Still, in later years, astronomers, without reference to 
 the word “chimah,” have decided that the constellation known 
 
4 
 
 as the Pleiades is the veritable point round which the solar 
 system revolves. Within the memory of men still living, the 
 world was startled by the announcement of Professor Madler, 
 that Alcyone, the brightest of the seven stars, was the luminous 
 hinge round which our sun and his attendant planets revolve. 
 The correctness of this statement has been questioned, but it 
 has not yet been proved untrue. 
 
 These constellations have a still greater interest to the Christ¬ 
 ian. He sees in them the visible displays of his Father’s 
 power and godhead. It requires no special stretch of the imag¬ 
 ination to discover in the allusion to the Pleiades the germ of 
 one of the grandest astronomical discoveries of modern times— 
 a germ that had lain dormant for ages, but was at last brought 
 out of its long concealment by the efforts of astronomers. 
 u There are glories in the Bible,” says an eminent professor, 
 “on which the eye of man has not gazed sufficiently long to 
 admire them; there are difficulties, the depth and inwardness of 
 which require a measure of the same qualities in the interpreter 
 himself. There are notes struck in places, which, like some 
 discoveries of science, have sounded before their time, and only, 
 after many days, have been caught up and have found a response 
 on the earth.” If it be true that one of the group of stars 
 described in the text is the center of the solar system, we are 
 furnished with a striking example of the harmony existing 
 between the teachings of Scripture and the discoveries of science. 
 
 The theme to which I call your attention is, 
 
 THE SUPERIORITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 This is seen, first, in the character of its object of worship. 
 Setting aside nature, which is frequently deified, there have 
 been but ten great religions in the world. These have urged 
 upon men their different objects of worship. That known as 
 Fetichism offers almost every material thing, not because it 
 holds that everything is divine, but because it believes that a 
 supernatural influence proceeds from it. The old Egyptian 
 religion had for its object of worship a being which it regarded 
 
5 
 
 as supreme, but which is set forth as subject to hunger, thirst, 
 disease, and old age. It is of no importance what may have 
 been the object of the religion of Zoroaster, for it is dead; its 
 dualism, or two uncreated principles have long since passed 
 away. Brahminism, whilst it assures its votaries that their god 
 fills heaven and earth, describes him as far off—too distant to 
 be worshiped by the most favored of mortals. The funda¬ 
 mental principle of Buddhism is, that there is a supreme power, 
 but no Supreme Being. The mythology of the Greeks was 
 intended to meet the soul’s demand for an object of worship; 
 but the philosophers, pained with prying into a voiceless and 
 unwritten sky, turned the eyes of their countrymen to art and 
 the works of men’s hands. The gods of our Norsemen fore¬ 
 fathers became at last the personified powers and phenomena of 
 nature. The followers of Confucius pay their supreme homage 
 to the shades of their ancestors, and the devotees to the false 
 prophet bow to an apotheosis of pure will possessing neither 
 love nor sympathy. All these are vague abstractions and 
 intangible realities. The object of the Christian religion is set 
 forth in the text as the maker of “ the seven stars and Orion.” 
 Here is attributed to him personality. God is nowhere set 
 forth in the Bible as the mysterious, “ It,” but always as the 
 ever living “ He.” It brings him down from the clouds and 
 represents him as walking with men. Every page of Scripture 
 glows with the personality of the Supreme Being. This 
 causes the Christian to feel that he is walking up and down 
 life’s paths in company with his loving Lord. Without some 
 realization of God’s personality, the understanding can not 
 approach him as the object of worship, faith is compelled to 
 voyage in an objectless universe as in an infinite vacuity, and 
 piety is left to pine in an atmosphere too subtle and unsubstantial 
 for it to breathe in. 
 
 Conscience, also, tells us of the existence, not of a mysterious 
 u It,” but of a Supreme “ Him.” This is not a personal rule, a 
 generalization of experience, or an apprehension of con¬ 
 sequences. All of us are conscious of a personal authority to 
 
6 
 
 whom we owe obedience. Conscience itself is not this author¬ 
 ity, but the consciousness of it. Nor is this personal authority 
 our fellow-men, for we are as conscious of it in the heart of 
 the desert as in the streets of Lake Forest. It cannot be our¬ 
 selves, for that would be absurd, as is shown by Shakespeare 
 in the words,— 
 
 “ I had as lief not be, as live to be 
 In awe of such a thing as I myself.” 
 
 It is none other than the Supreme Ruler of the universe. 
 
 There is no foundation to any religion, however glowing its 
 doctrines, exalted its precepts, or sublime its promises, without 
 a recognition of the personality of the object of its worship. 
 This does away forever with the allegation, that natural 
 religion is satisfying to the soul. The Greeks had all that 
 nature could teach and human wisdom suggest, and yet they 
 were without hope and without God in the world. 
 
 This personal God is set forth in the text as the maker of the 
 stars, thus identifying the object of our religious worship with 
 the Creator of the ends of the earth. This is claiming for him 
 the highest prerogative of which the human mind is able to 
 form any conception. Creation so far transcends the grasp of 
 reason, that philosophy untaught by revelation has been com¬ 
 pelled in every age to postulate the eternity of matter. It can 
 be grasped only as an ultimate fact on God’s testimony. By 
 this, is not meant that it must not be accepted just as truly by 
 our science as by our religion. The former, no less than the 
 latter, is constrained to assume the original creation of that very 
 matter whose properties form its materials of research. 
 Science is indebted to religion for the primary fact which of 
 itself it cannot explore, and which forms the ring-bolt connect¬ 
 ing all phenomena with the first cause of their existence. 
 
 This Creator is represented as omnipotent and infinitely wise. 
 Power and wisdom are taught by many to be mere names for 
 two ideally distinguishable, but really inseparable, aspects of 
 one reality. This becomes evident, as we contemplate the 
 
7 
 
 vastness of the stars and the complexity of their motions. 
 Through Lord Ross’s telescope the astronomer discovers 
 numberless stars varying, in size, density, and motion. He 
 finds that some of them are hundreds of miles in extent, and 
 others hundreds of thousands of miles, and still others contain¬ 
 ing more than eight hundred times as much matter as all the 
 rest of the planetary system. These are more than great masses 
 of matter which bear their testimony to the Creator’s power. 
 They are also wisely grouped together for some wise purpose. 
 Many of them have atmospheres and seas and many have 
 neither. Some career through space, belted with equatorial 
 rings and accompanied by one or more satellites. They have 
 their different densities—one as lead, another as cork, and still 
 another as vapor. Alcyone, the center of the Pleiades, shines 
 with a force of twelve thousand suns. Even these suns are 
 combined again into systems of all sizes and shapes — 
 “ Systems,” says another, “ of two, of three, of many, of mill¬ 
 ions—firmaments which, under the name of nebulae, are the last 
 generalization and most stupendous variety of modern discovery ; 
 sometimes rolled up into spheres; sometimes gathered into 
 circular or ecliptic rings; now fan-shaped; now like an hour 
 glass; now broad wheels of compacted suns, large, glittering, 
 and sublime enough to under-roll the chariot of Jehovah.” 
 
 The object of the Christian religion is further set forth as 
 infinitely good. The reference made in the text to the Pleiades 
 and Orion was intended primarily to set forth in figures familiar 
 to the persons addressed this very goodness. The stars named 
 were supposed to exercise a powerful influence over the present 
 condition and future destiny of the nations. The one constella¬ 
 tion rising, as it did, in the spring of the year, when all nature 
 burst into life, emitting sweet influences from every blade, and 
 shrub, and tree; and the other rising in the fall, when nature 
 bound up the fountains of life and chilled the sweet fragrance of 
 ripening fruit in the cold hand of frost,—were regarded by the 
 ancients as having the government of these two important 
 seasons of the year—being the gods appointed to preside over 
 
8 
 
 them. Hence, the exhortation of the prophet, “Seek him that 
 maketh the seven stars and Orion.” 
 
 The superiority of the Christian religion is seen, secondly, in 
 the doctrines it offers for belief. An impartial examination will 
 convince any one that these are vastly superior to the noblest 
 doctrines of any other religion or of all other religions com¬ 
 bined. The first one, fundamental to every religion, is that 
 concerning the character of the Supreme Being. This casts 
 its hues over all the others. Of the false religions, that of 
 Zoroaster is supposed to present the most exalted view of the 
 Deity. It tells that he is the supporter of the universe and the 
 promoter of life; the creator of truth and the maker of the 
 stars; the begetter of light and darkness; and the caller forth 
 of mornings, noons, and nights. This contains, after all, only 
 what can be found in the teachings of natural religion. 
 
 The Christian religion teaches in addition to this, that the 
 Supreme Being is a pure spirit, thus lifting him above the 
 conceptions formed of every other object of worship. He is 
 said to be a spirit everywhere present—filling all space, pervad¬ 
 ing all minds, and penetrating all substances. The following 
 sentences from the pen of the Psalmist have no parallel in the 
 teachings of any heathen religion: “ Whither shall I go from 
 thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I 
 ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, 
 behold thou art there.” This pure and omnipresent spirit is 
 further set forth as subsisting in three persons; each one of 
 them holding a peculiar relation to the creation of the world, 
 the redemption of man, and the preparation of the heavenly 
 mansions. There is no resemblance between this doctrine and 
 the triad, or the personification of fire, storm, and sunlight of 
 Brahminism. The Trinity of the Christian religion constitutes 
 one great God who is actively engaged in all parts of the 
 universe, marking the pathways of planets and directing the fall 
 of a sparrow, accompanying the pilgrim in his journey and 
 guiding Arcturus with his sons. 
 
9 
 
 The second doctrine fundamental to all religions, is the 
 creature’s responsibility to the Creator. Upon this are depen¬ 
 dent all morals. Of the false religions, Brahminism may be 
 said to hold the highest views of personal responsibility, and yet 
 some of the figures it employs sweep it all away. They teach 
 that men’s souls are emanations from the universal, self-existent 
 soul, sparks from the great central fire—separated for a time, 
 but to be absorbed at last. They describe their lives and actions 
 as the illusory phantoms and appearances which a conjurer calls 
 up, and a gaping crowd, mistakes for realities. 
 
 All this sounds like the wild fancies of a dreamer by the side 
 of the Christian doctrine of personal responsibility. Through¬ 
 out the whole Bible, equity and sovereignty run in parallel 
 lines, each standing abreast of the other, and both indicating 
 the ways of God to man,—both forming a part of the adorn¬ 
 ment and the strength of the divine empire. Out of these 
 spring the truths that men are dependent, yet free; acting, yet 
 acted upon; fulfilling the divine purposes, yet responsible for 
 every thought, word, and action. 
 
 The third doctrine lying at the foundation of all religion, is 
 the way in which those who have violated God’s law can be 
 justified. Men everywhere feel that they are transgressors of 
 law and in need of being reconciled to God. The false religion 
 which has given the most satisfactory answer to this question, 
 is that of Zoroaster. It tells its adherents that, in order to 
 secure the good will of the offended deity, they must repent of 
 all wicked thoughts, words and deeds; of all sins against 
 kindred, superiors, and neighbors; and of all pride, haughtiness, 
 and anger. This, again, does not satisfy the demands of 
 conscience, for even unaided reason affirms that repentance, 
 however deep and full, is not able to replace things as they 
 were, repair wasted fortunes, recruit broken constitutions, or 
 raise the murdered dead. 
 
 That which natural religion could not do, Christianity has 
 accomplished. It not only demands penitence and reformation, 
 but it has also provided a ransom. It reveals a scheme of 
 
IO 
 
 redemption which human ingenuit}' has never been able to 
 discover. It tells us of God taking upon him the nature of the 
 violators of his law, in order to endure its malediction in their 
 behalf. This appearance of God in the flesh is not like the 
 vulgar incarnation of heathen deities, but one of the grandest 
 doctrines of the ages. The only begotten Son was spotless and 
 pure—a lamb without blemish. He was unlike any other being 
 seen by men or angels, and unlike every ideal ever conceived by 
 poets or philosophers. This holy and harmless one came not 
 to reign, not to be worshiped, but to suffer—to die! It was to 
 die the just for the unjust—the sinless for the sinful—the 
 substitution of the innocent for the guilty. He submitted 
 himself to the penalty which men had incurred, and “bore their 
 sins in his own body on the tree.” 
 
 The other great doctrine fundamental to all religions, is the 
 soul’s immortality. In spite of the loud cry of annihilation by 
 the followers of Sadoc and Epicurus, the millions of earth have 
 ever rejoiced in the hope of immortality. The reasoning of 
 the philosopher, the traditions of the historian, the fables of the 
 poet, and fancies of the mythologist, are full of the belief that 
 men shall live beyond the present world. They have founded 
 this belief on the spirituality of the soul, the excellency of its 
 powers, its capacity for continued progress, its natural desire 
 for an endless existence, the universal belief of mankind, and 
 the need of a future life to rectify the inequalities of earth. 
 Notwithstanding these strong intimations of a future life, the 
 nations have derived but little satisfaction from the teachings of 
 their religion in regard to its character. It is alleged that the 
 religion of the ancient Egyptians sheds the clearest light upon 
 this subject. “ The very architecture of the Pyramids,” says 
 some one, “had its creed; their massiveness produced the 
 conviction upon all who witnessed it, that their builders hoped 
 to live forever; the lotus flower opening with Ihe early sun, 
 and the sphinx rising from its ashes, taught more beautifully 
 than any formulated dogmas the resurrection of the body; the 
 embalming of their dead, carefully wrapped in spice to ward 
 
off the tooth of time, implied a belief in the reanimation of the 
 lifeless clay.” With all this, the greatest of the Greeks, with 
 the hemlock poison at his lips, said to his weeping friends, u I 
 take comfort in the hope that something remains of man after 
 death.” How sad! Even Socrates could take only comfort in 
 the hope that something remained after death. Poor comfort 
 for a dying man! The Prince of Denmark is represented as 
 reducing the doctrine of the soul’s destiny into a question that 
 cannot be answered,—“ To be or not to be, that is the question.” 
 Hadrian put it thus in his dying exclamation: u O my poor, 
 wandering soul, whither art thou going? Where must thou 
 lodge this night? Thou shalt never jest any more, nor be 
 merry any more.” Life and immortality were brought to light 
 by the Gospel. It alone has lifted the fogs of centuries, and 
 given to all true believers a glimpse of the land that is afar off. 
 It tells them of a light in the valley, of assistance in the struggle 
 with death, and of a welcome on the other shore by a multi¬ 
 tude which no man can number. 
 
 The superiority of the Christian religion is seen, thirdly, in 
 the transformation it produces in the character of its subjects. 
 As soon as its doctrines find lodgment in the heart, the most 
 depraved life becomes pure and elevated. Numberless ex¬ 
 amples of this may be cited, but one will suffice. Take that of 
 the poor man who was possessed with a devil—dwelling among 
 the tombs. Before he was touched by the power of the 
 Gospel, he was a terror to his family and a plague to the peo¬ 
 ple of Gadara. But under the benign influences of Christianity, 
 he broke away from the power of Satan, and came in his right 
 mind to the feet of Jesus. From that time forth, he who had 
 walked in lone places in the wilderness, a terror to his friends, 
 whom fetters could not bind nor dungeon restrain, whose 
 dwelling was in the tombs, and whose life was self-torture, 
 appeared a peaceful man of God. 
 
 The Christian religion not only transforms individual life, but 
 it also reconstructs the most disorderly households. It has 
 turned scenes of riot and dwelling-places of crime into asylums 
 
of love and circles of affection. It has converted many a father, 
 the fruit of whose toil has been laid on the altar of Bacchus 
 instead of being devoted to feeding and clothing the little 
 immortals committed to his care, and many a mother who has 
 borne a greater resemblance to a tigress than to one who is the 
 mother of children, into loving parents who have turned their 
 dwelling-place of revelry into a happy home in which dwell 
 order, peace, purity and thrift—monuments more telling than 
 sculptured statues of the superhuman power of the Gospel. 
 
 The power of the Christian religion is seen sometimes in the 
 elevation of a whole nation. “ Great Britain and the United 
 States have been made by it what they are,” in the words of 
 another, “ out of such unpromising stuff as the wild Norsemen 
 of a thousand years ago. It has filled these lands with schools 
 and colleges, with humane and charitable institutions, with public 
 economies and private good, to be found nowhere else on the 
 globe. Even heathen nations are beginning to shine under the 
 same mighty power. Christianity is commencing to do for 
 them what ages ago she did for the old Roman world. 
 She found that world a cancer. Its gods were personified 
 vices, its temples were brothels, its women were almost slaves, 
 its slaves were ill-used cattle, and its very amusements were 
 brutal cruelties. Christ’s religion changed it all. She renewed 
 to its center the standard of morals. Women rose in the scale 
 of being. Slavery disappeared. The vile deities, and their 
 viler worship were cast to the moles and the bats. The weak 
 and the oppressed found a friend able and willing to shield them 
 from the oppressor. Gladiatorial shows and Eleusinian 
 mysteries, and temples polluted with Bacchus and Venus, gave 
 way to pure sanctuaries, and a society based on the Decalogue 
 and the Sermon on the Mount.” 
 
 The power of the Christian religion is not limited to nations; 
 it is not confined to latitudes and longitudes, to mental states or 
 physical conditions. It is universal—exerting its influence over 
 the Laplander amid the gloom of Arctic winters; over the 
 luxuriant Asiatic, as he revels in his sensuous paradise; over the 
 
r 3 
 
 Brahmin and the Buddhist devotee ranked, in his own conceit, 
 among the gods; over the Jew still glorying in his ancestors^ 
 and over the Greek speculating to this day on the mysteries of 
 creation. Where is there another religion that has wrought 
 changes like these in individuals, in homes, and among nations?*' 
 
 The superiority of the Christian religion is seen, lastly, in the 
 position to which it lifts its subjects in the future. In this 
 regard, it differs from all other religions. Buddhism has its 
 heaven, which it names “The other side of the ocean of exis¬ 
 tence,” “ the eternal place,” and “ the harbor of never-ending 
 rest;” but underneath these sweet and almost scriptural terms, 
 lies the undeniable fact, that all of them combined imply no 
 more than non-existence. Its very founder pronounced the 
 eternity of the soul a great heresy, and it was not an unguarded 
 expression, but a necessary sequence of his philosophy. For in 
 it, he affirms that there is nothing in life but sorrow; that all of 
 it is void and perishable; that to be is pain, and that not to be is 
 everlasting rest. According to this, futurity is a blank, and 
 what is termed the looked-for rest of the soul in heaven, is 
 annihilation. 
 
 The religion of ancient Egypt also taught the immortality 
 of the soul, and the endless joy of men beyond the temptations 
 and trials of earth, but it has degraded both by depicting the 
 souls of the departed as eating and drinking, sowing and reap¬ 
 ing. Gathering their sheaves and laying them up in store¬ 
 houses. According to its teaching the mission of men in 
 heaven is to cultivate fields, and the life everlasting is to consist 
 in securing enough material good to meet the necessities of the 
 body. This falls infinitely short of answering the deep ques¬ 
 tions of man’s nature. 
 
 Brahminism, in like manner, holds to the immortality of the 
 soul, but not in ever-conscious being. It teaches that conscious¬ 
 ness ceases when the soul quits its clay. The highest hope 
 which the devotees of this religion are able to entertain is, that 
 they will be allowed to pass with all possible haste from one 
 form of life to another, until they are at length absorbed into 
 
H 
 
 / Y N 
 
 that infinite Nothing known as Brahm, or the all-pervading 
 spirit. This doctrine does violence to the strongest instincts of 
 the soul and blights all hope of happiness beyond the grave. 
 
 Other religions teach that, in the future, men are to be trans¬ 
 formed into gods. They represent them as being altogether 
 separated from their humble orign and earthly conflicts. They 
 are not allowed to cast a backward glance or to recall any of 
 their days of humiliation. This is an abolition of true immor¬ 
 tality, for it destroys the continuity of the soul’s experience with 
 its consciousness and memory. 
 
 How different is the teaching of the Christian religion! It 
 assures us that death is not the end of us; that the soul, after 
 leaving the body, is not absorbed into the Infinite, or changed 
 into a god; but that it is then on the eve of its highest attain¬ 
 ment, and in sight of the realization of its noblest hopes. Death 
 is the date of immortality, when it is permitted to lay hold of 
 faith’s fruition. The day that separates the soul from the body, 
 is the day that marks the former’s triumph. It is to partake in 
 no sense in the destruction of the body, but is to emerge from it. 
 It quits it in order to live and act separately. At death it enters 
 into new relations and higher joys. It is to continue to ascend 
 forever, but with full consciousness of being in all its changes 
 the same soul, and with a clear recollection of all the leagues it 
 has passed over. Thus, the present and the future are to be 
 linked together by consciousness, and the day of our humiliation 
 on earth is to be united by memory to the day of our exaltation 
 in heaven. We shall continue to be ourselves forever, and our 
 friends will remain our friends through all eternity. 
 
 Thus, according to the teaching of the Christian religion, the 
 life of heaven is a continuation of the higher life of the soul on 
 earth, but under clearer skies and amid more favorable circum¬ 
 stances. Instead of being made gods, the saints are to be 
 transformed intellectually into the image of him who maketh the 
 seven stars and Orion. Nothing can be higher than this 
 without destroying personal identity. Man is to grow forever 
 more and more like God in his intellectual grasp and power. 
 
His thoughts in heaven are to become as God’s thoughts— 
 true, not with respect to some end or standard which he does 
 not approve, but true with the absolute truthfulness which 
 conformity to his judgment involves. The affections occupy a 
 still more central place than the intellect. Hence the true man 
 in life as well as in God is not knowledge, but love. Infinite as 
 is the Divine heart, love fills it all. And, what a love it is—a 
 love that led him to give his only begotten Son to die for ust 
 Even that love is to be feebly reflected by the redeemed in 
 heaven. Man is also endowed with a will, which has power to 
 act from within in determining its course of conduct, and hence 
 to reflect the divine will in a way not possible to suns and stars. 
 The will of God may not be clearly reflected by that of man, 
 because it is infinitely superior to it in its power, freedom, and 
 sway. He is the source of all created existence, supporter and 
 ruler of all rational and irrational beings; it cannot be con¬ 
 strained or baffled, tempted or misled. It is its own law. Still 
 even the will of man will some day form at least a dim 
 reflection of the infinite will. 
 
 Saints in glory are to be assimilated to God, not only in 
 intellect, but also in character. They are to be transformed 
 into his blessed image. This has no reference to bodily 
 properties or to physical tendencies. Hence, we need not be 
 alarmed at the denial on the part of scientists of certain distinct¬ 
 ions hitherto supposed to exist between the bodies of men and 
 those of beasts. The transformation is to take place in our 
 spiritual nature. As the sun photographs itself on the sensitive 
 plate exposed to its light, and a likeness of it is secured by laying 
 the object in its beams, so the likeness of God is to be photo¬ 
 graphed upon the saints in heaven by their basking forever in 
 the light of his countenance. 
 
 The redeemed in heaven are once more to be made God’s 
 associates. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear 
 him.” In this sentence is found one of the most expressive 
 Bible figures. It is that of two or more persons sitting together 
 after the Oriental fashion. According to this they occupy the 
 
same divan, holding close council in regard to important 
 interests. Thus, the Creator of the stars, and sinful men are to 
 be seen sitting, apparently on equality, to consult concerning 
 the high interests of the heavenly kingdom. This might be 
 regarded as Oriental exaggeration, if the didactic system of the 
 New Testament did not agree with it. “ If a man love me, he 
 will keep my words: and my father will love him, and we will 
 come unto him and make our abode with him.” And, in 
 another place, u I will come in to him, and will sup with him, 
 and he with me.” No greater intimacy than this can be 
 conceived! 
 
 Officially, the saints are to be sharers of his kingly sway. 
 They are to be the judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. This 
 is high, we cannot attain unto it. The mind grows dizzy in its 
 contemplation! It is wrapped in mystery inpenetrable! We 
 are not told what these thrones are, or where they are to be 
 erected. Only the fact is revealed to us, that the redeemed are 
 some day to be partakers of God’s universal dominion. Even 
 on earth, they are princes nominated and anointed for immortal 
 regencies; palms and robes, crowns and sceptres, being re¬ 
 served for them in heaven. Now are they able to boast of 
 royal blood, and of ability to wield a power which all the 
 potencies of earth and hell cannot withstand. In heaven, this 
 power will be enlarged. To what extent, we are not told. 
 Upon what untried forms of happy being they are to enter, 
 in what cycles of revolving bliss they are to turn, what sceptres 
 they are to wield amid the sublimities of eternity, what 
 streams of ascending influence they are to originate, and what 
 authority they are to exercise over realms as yet unvisited by 
 men or angels, we know not now, but we shall know hereafter. 
 
 I wish to say a few words in conclusion to you, my young 
 friends, of the graduating classes. I have endeavored as I 
 advanced, to impress upon your minds the lessons of the text, 
 
l 7 
 
 and yet there are two or three inferences to be drawn from the 
 treatment of the subject to which I desire to call your further 
 attention. 
 
 First, the identity of the maker of the seven stars with the 
 giver of the Christian Revelation does away with all possible 
 conflict between the discoveries of science and the teachings of 
 revelation. If the Being who determined the form, the magni¬ 
 tude, and the motions of Orion, inspired Moses, Isaiah, and 
 Paul, to write the Pentateuch, the prophecies, and the evan¬ 
 gelical epistles, they must agree in their teachings. That there 
 is a seeming conflict between some of them, and that the 
 advocates of each have erred by hastiness, and zeal not 
 according to knowledge, no one will undertake to deny. 
 Scientists have often drawn their conclusions before they had 
 adequate data for so doing, and over zealous Bible-lovers have 
 at times confounded what is said in God’s Word with the con¬ 
 struction which commentators have put upon it. If both 
 parties had pursued their investigation on the presumption that 
 nature and revelation were equally the work of Jehovah, and 
 that he, as an all-wise being could not contradict himself, it 
 would have saved useless discussion and yielded richer results. 
 Let me urge upon you the doing of this very thing in your 
 future work. Assume at every step that the teachings of 
 nature and the principles of religion agree, though as yet the 
 harmony may not be clear. Aim at reaching that end, and not 
 as showing that they cannot be made to agree. As religion is 
 older than science, and its doctrines are better tested, rest in her 
 teachings, until they are actually overturned by well-established 
 truths of science. Do not come to the conclusion that the 
 Bible is wrong, until you have used all possible means to bring 
 them into harmony by a reconsideration of their connection and 
 meaning. 
 
 Secondly, the incomparable superiority of the Christian 
 religion to all others shows that it is not one of many, but the 
 only true one. That the others had many pure doctrines and 
 
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 precious precepts, no one will deny. It would be strange if it 
 were not so. For most of them are largely based upon the 
 teachings of nature and the principles implanted by God in the 
 human constitution. More than one has borrowed its sublimest 
 principles and purest precepts from the Divine revelation and 
 the history of God’s chosen people. This is true, perhaps, of 
 the Egyptian, the Greek, the Roman, and especially of the 
 Mahomedan, religions. It is unfair, therefore, to point to the 
 principles borrowed by the false religions from the true, as 
 evidence of their equality with those of Christianity. Enter 
 upon the world’s cares and duties with unshaken conviction 
 that there is but one true religion—one only that can meet 
 all your wants, aid you in all your trials, strengthen you in all 
 your hopes, satisfy all your longings, and assist you in bearing 
 all life’s burdens. 
 
 The fact, that the two revelations have been given for 
 man’s well-being, teaches, further, that there is no reason for 
 the discontinuance of the one more than there is for that of the 
 other. As long as man’s physical nature continues what it has 
 been from the beginning, the material world must remain 
 essentially the same. By parity of reasoning, religion must 
 continue as long as man’s moral and spiritual nature remains the 
 same. Human nature, in all its essential characteristics, is the 
 same as when man went out of Paradise. From aught we can 
 see, it is bound to continue the same. The sense of sin and guilt 
 will be felt in ages to come, as it has been felt in ages gone by. 
 In all his future history it will follow man like his shadow. 
 Not only the essential characteristics of human nature will con¬ 
 tinue the same, but the active busy mind will continue to ask the 
 same questions regarding the mysteries of life. In the future as 
 in the past, it will inquire, “ What manner of being is God? 
 Whence came man, and whither goes he when he is done with 
 earth?” Nothing will be able to answer these questions but the 
 Scriptures. Go forth, then, to your respective fields of labor, 
 with the determination to carry with you everywhere the scien- 
 
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 tific principles with which you have been made familiar, and 
 the fundamental doctrines of our holy religion in which you have 
 been drilled. Exhibit the former in the skill with which you 
 will perform the duties of your profession, and the latter in the 
 noble Christian life which you will lead. “ Let your light so 
 shine before men that they may see your good works, and 
 glorify your Father which is in heaven.” 
 

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