YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the estate of
Mrs. Carrie A. Middleton
In Memory of
JAMES MIDDLETON
Class of '79

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" In him was life; and the life was the light
of men. And the light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not." — ¦
John, i., 4, 5-
TVTE have all read of princes walfc-
W ing among their subjects in dis
guise; and there is a certain suggestion
of contrast between the seeming and
the real, under such circumstances,
that touches the imagination of all
people. The ignorant and uncultured
are just as much delighted and ex
cited by such a scene as the most wise
and cultured.

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A disguise does not necessarily de
pend upon external raiment, or any
material or physical change. A man
may be incognito simply from his
superior quality, if he differs wholly
in his moral character from those
among whom he walks. For, al
though they that are superior can
understand the inferior, the inferior
cannot understand the superior, ex
cept so far as they have in themselves ^
some seeds and beginnings of that
which the superior nature possesses.
A fine artist, among rude lumbermen,
may work with them, eat with them,
sleep with them, and not seem to any
of them to be anything else than just
one of them; whereas he is utterly dis
guised to them, and has a life within
which they suspect not; he is as effect
ually disguised as a prince would be
who should exchange his robes for

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beggar's garments. Many a woman
of fine organization and delicate nature
has been reared to the coarsest offices
of labor, and has carried a hidden life
which no one besides her understood,
and which she herself scarcely under
stood; and, though she was superior,
her superiority was hidden, and she
walked unknown to those who knew
her best. Moral disguise is the most
impenetrable of all disguises.
Christ was a king in disguise; and
no being ever walked less known than
he. And now, although some eigh
teen hundred years have been turned
in scrutiny upon him, he is still but
little known.
It is a matter of profound interest
and of profit to look at Christ from
the stand-point of the intelligent Jew,
and from his own stand-point, and to
ask the question, Why was he not

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known among his own kindred, in his
own age, and among his own country
men? There are lessons to be de
rived from such a question. It is
also a matter of profound interest and
of profit to inquire what, judged from
his own stand-point, was the history
of Christ's life. Was it a success? or
was it a failure?
I propose to do two things, in two
discourses: to look at Christ's life from
the external point of view, and to look
at it from the internal point of view.
Who, then, was Christ, the anointed ?
A being that came down from heaven
into this world to shed the light of
moral truths upon it! The globe and
human society contain in themselves
the causes of development in every
thing except higher moral truths and
the facts of our future life. This
highest point requires some added

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help above that which is stored in the
provisions of nature. And to this
Christ's mission was confined — name
ly, bringing that higher moral light
which could not be developed except
by some divine inspiration. We shall
find, therefore, that Christ did not
touch one in ten thousand of the ques
tions that belong to ordinary life, and
that are proper in it, but that he left
them to be solved, as all other ques
tions are, by the process of consecu
tive evolution. He confined his teach
ing to the one department of higher
moral conditions and higher moral
relations. He came not to disturb,
nor to superimpose anything upon the
true course of nature, or of things
physical, secular, civil, and social.
He brought to light God's nature,
man's immortality, and the highest
elements of moral character.

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The facts of his career are very few.
He was born of humble parentage.
He became from childhood an exile,
returning after some years, incon
spicuously and unknown, to his native
land. Until he was thirty years old
he lived in such obscurity that, with
the exception of one single fact, we
are without a hint of knowledge con
cerning him. At the age of twelve
he held a memorable dispute with the
Jews in the temple, causing them to
marvel at his superiority. That mo
mentary glimpse we are permitted to
catch between the cradle and the
cross; but, aside from that, it may
be said that literally, from his child
hood until he was thirty years of age,
he lived in perfect obscurity.
When he reached the age appointed
for the priesthood — the age of thirty
— he entered upon a career of public

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teaching. He did not put himself
under the care of official teachers.
There is no evidehce that he was
appointed to teach by any regular
authority. By the right of the indi
vidual he began to be a public teach
er; not officially or ecclesiastically,
but morally and substantially, he was
a teacher among the Jews during the
three years that he pursued that work
which we have in part recorded in
the New Testament. Then he was
cut off as a malefactor, suffering the
indignity of the most ignominious
execution. But the things which he
taught in this brief period, caught up
and only in part reported as they were,
have since that time been the radical,
revolutionary forces of the world. A
man came into the world obscurely
and ignobly; he was unknown for
thirty years; then for three years he

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taught; and his teachings, not reduced
by himself to writing, and only in part
by his disciples, have from that time
to this been the marrow of thought,
and the source and fountain of moral
influence on the globe, and have revo
lutionized it.
Contrast this fact, for one single
moment, with the influence of other
men upon the world — for there have
been other teachers whose influence
has not died, and never will die.
Socrates was a man of great mental
endowment, of great common - sense,
and of great moral courage. He wrote
nothing; but his disciples recorded his
teachings, and they became a moral
force in the world. Plato, his disciple,
was second to no human teacher; he
wrote copiously and elaborately; he
never will be surpassed in the art of
thinking and writing; his works have

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never died. Though they were once
buried in medieval superstitions, they
have risen and come forth again; and
never were they so dominant as to
day. The force of that Greek mind
that lived thousands of years ago not
only is not spent, but does not seem
to be weakened. After him came
Aristotle, who was as great as Plato,
only his mind was turned towards
material and scientific truths, while
Plato's mind was turned towards so
cial and metaphysical truths.
All of these masters were morally
and intellectually great; but, unde
niable as their influence has been and
is, no man will pretend for one single
moment that their power would at
any time, or will now, at all compare
with the power of that Jew who only
lived three years as a teacher, who
wrote not a word, and who spoke his

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wisdom, not to scholars that would
make accurate registry of it, but to
ignorant fishermen that remembered
only a part of it, so that it was de
clared by one of them that the part
that was left unrecorded was so great
that, if it should be written, the world
would not hold the books that would
be required. If you take the com
bined moral influence of Aristotle, of
Plato, and of Socrates, and put it be
side the moral influence of Christ, it
will be found that the light of the
Jew is greater than all the illumina
tion of the Greeks.
As to the Romans, they were re
peaters and organizers, and not origi
nal teachers, and it is not worth
while to compare Christ with them.
What was the source of this mar
vellous power of Christ?
It was not the result of any mere

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intellectual attainments. It was not
his genius of thought that made him
what he was. The literary works
which hold their way from generation
to generation are almost invariably
finely and artistically finished. It is
not enough for a man to think wisely
and well. It is necessary that his
thoughts should take such shape in
literature that men shall be fascinated
with their form as well as their sub
stance. And the doctrines of the
Greeks were clothed in such a manner
as to be attractive. But in Christ's
teachings there was little that ap
pealed merely to the imagination or
the taste. And, although we are con
scious that the teachings of Christ are
exquisite in one way of looking at
them, yet they are without those quali
ties which usually give continuity of
influence to any literary fruit of the

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human mind. The power of Christ's
teachings has arisen from the mere
superiority of their moral character
istics. The secret of the power of Christ
did not lay in any subtle poetic or
philosophic views. His teachings were
fragmentary. They may be said, as
literary results, to have been mere
crumbs. Yet there was in them an
inherent power which gave them im
mortality upon the earth. In the
progress of years, all that was re
splendent in literature, all that was
stately in organized religion, and all
that was august in political power,
paled and went down before this rude,
homely Gospel.
Here, then, is a being that comes
down from heaven, and for three
years, after having attained the age
of thirty, walks among his country-

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men, teaching them not in science,
literature, or politics, but with regard
to moral relations and moral truth.
Now look at the other elements
in the picture. Among the ruling
Jews there were two sects — the Saddu-
cees and the Pharisees. Who were
the Sadducees? They were men who
were sceptics in religion. They were
men who disbelieved, therefore, in
penal moral government and moral
restraint. They were men who were
lenient towards human feelings; who
sought to make life agreeable; who
amiably took the side of their fellow-
men, and, assailing the ruling re
ligious faith and observances, broke
down also the superstitions of their
day. They labored with those around
about them, not for the sake of lifting
them higher, but for the sake of mak
ing them happier.

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There are many Sadducees in our
day. All that seek to content men
with merely a secular life; all that
seek to make the conscience quiet; all
that attempt to break the power of
divine government upon the con
science, are Sadducees.
And who were the Pharisees? They
were those who sought to lift men
above their ordinary condition, and
bring them under moral restraints,
and impose upon them spiritual du
ties. They were ignorant of the right
methods of doing these things, as we
shall see; but they were the men of
their day who sought to maintain
that which was right, to enlighten that
which was dark, and to reform that
which was abusive. They were men
that sought to introduce religion, such
as it was, and morality in the temple,
in the state, and in the household.

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They were not all to be despised.
The severe denunciations of Christ re
veal the corruptions of those who
were the leaders of the party at
Jerusalem. But it is often true that
the leaders are corrupt while the
body of the party is well-meaning.
They were men that we might per
haps pity and blame; but among the
Pharisees of the time of Christ were
some of the noblest specimens of men
who were at that time living in the
world. The Pharisee has been called
the Puritan of the Jews. He was.
If you contrast the Pharisee with the
Greek and the Roman, he seems
transcendently nobler than they in
moral aspirations and endeavors. If
you contrast the Pharisees with the
heathen, they shine like stars in the
firmament. It is only when you con
trast them with life immeasurably

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higher than theirs, and with moral
character transcendently purer than
theirs, that they suffer. The reason
that the Pharisee has come to be re
garded with such contempt is that we
have been accustomed to judge him
in contrast not with his times, not
with his fellows, but with the Master
whom he misunderstood and crucified,
and with the moral law as that Master
interpreted it. Relatively to other
men, the Pharisees were superior.
Relatively to Christ, they were low
and even despicable. Their chief sins
were selfishness, bigotry, and narrow
ness in religious duties and views. It
was not charged against them that
they were not religious or ethical.
They were denounced for rigor in the
externals of religion, and for the ab
sence of its merciful elements. Their
fault was on the side of excessive zeal.

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It was a zeal that scorned compassion
and kindness. It was a zeal that
sprang from a selfish and bigoted ad
hesion to religious views. They had
no true pity and humanity in their
religion. And there are thousands of
religionists yet that have no human
ity in them. They have worshipping
qualities, they have sentimentality,
but they are divested of humane
ethical emotions. A religion that does
not take hold of the life that now is,
is like a cloud that does not rain. A
cloud may roll in grandeur, and be an
object of admiration; but if it does
not rain, it is of little account so far
as utility is concerned. And a re
ligion that consists in the observance
of magnificent ceremonies, but that
does not touch the duties of daily life,
is a religion of show and of sham.
The religion of the Pharisees was a

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religion of ecclesiastics. They con
founded religion itself with the in
struments or institutions by which
the religious spirit or feeling acts.
They learned to regard religious forms
and religious ordinances as sacred,
forgetting that these are the mere
vehicle of feeling, and that, therefore,
they cannot be sacred, since nothing
that is material can be sacred. Sacred-
ness belongs to moral qualities, and
not to physical; to spirit, and not to
matter. There is no such thing as a
sacred foundation-stone, or a sacred
wall, or a sacred place, except in
poetic or popular language. That
which is sacred must inhere in the
living thing. It is mind-quality, soul
quality, that is sacred. They have
drifted far from the spirit of religion
who believe that the instruments of
religion are sacred, instead of religion

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itself. They who look upon days,
and ecclesiastical ceremonies, and gar
ments, and ordinances as holy, in the
modern sense of that word, and wor
ship them, are idolaters. They have
set up, right in the threshold of God's
church, the worship of forms and
ceremonies instead of the service of
true religion.
If it was the nature of the Pharisee
to be selfish, to leave humanity out of
his religion, and to worship the in
struments of religion, and not the
thing itself, you may be sure that
Phariseeism is not dead. You do
not need to go to the New Testament
to see where Pharisees are. They sit
in our churches. They are in all sects.
Phariseeism is a quality of human
nature. It is the way by which the
mind of a man with inferior illumina
tion develops itself. It is one of those

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methods in which the imperfections
of human nature manifest themselves
when it is acting in the direction of
religion. If this is a fair description of the
Pharisees, they were stern, earnest
men, seeking to reform and exalt
human society, in the main, by a
rigorous use of secular and ecclesias
tical forces. They were not without
many good qualities; they were not
without much that was praiseworthy;
but they failed in the essential points
of spirituality and love. And as these
were the foundation qualities of God's
nature and government, they failed
at the very pivotal point.
It was in the presence of these
rulers that Christ enacted the scenes
that are recorded as having passed
during the three official years of his
life.

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The question which I propose brief
ly to answer is, How must such a
being as Christ have appeared to
these men, such as they were? First,
taking his origin, how must Christ
have appeared to the Pharisees?
The Jews were probably the most
democratic people that ever lived.
We ourselves owe many of our demo
cratic forms to the law -giver of the
desert. Moses was the democrat of
the Jewish nation. And though the
Jews afterwards had a monarch, and
ran through various forms of absolute
rule, yet there was among them a
strong element of democracy. They
brought up their children to work;
and work is one of the most trans
forming of influences. They that re
spect work may not be religious, but
they are apt to be virtuous; and they
that despise it may not be in a techni-

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cal sense irreligious, but they are
tending in that direction. The Jews
believed in the fundamental idea of
work. They believed in the com
mon people. They believed that ev
ery man had a right to disclose and
to use any gift that he might possess.
They did not hesitate to follow a
woman with a timbrel, and permit
her to rule them in their rejoicings.
A woman judged the nation! And
the fact that a prophet sprang up
from among herdsmen did not deter
them from acknowledging him. They
were ready to accept a gift that was
a real gift, though it showed itself
among the common people. Never
theless, they had a feeling that the
presumptions were that God would
manifest himself through the upper
rather than through the lower classes.
There was a double element among

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the Jews. There was a feeling, not
that God would necessarily manifest
himself through the aristocratic por
tion of the community, or through
political organizations, or by a throne,
but as there is such a thing as a higher
class in morality, as an aristocracy of
virtue, or supposed virtue (and there
is no aristocracy that is more im
perious, more domineering, more ty
rannical than ecclesiastical aristoc
racy), so the Jew supposed that the
Messiah would spring from this class.
Now, among the good Jews, al
though they were democratic in their
feelings, and had regard for the com
mon people, the first question, when
Christ came among them with his new
doctrines, was, "Is he going to do any
thing for us?" They felt as you feel
when a moral principle that is incon
venient thrusts itself for the first time

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between you and your customs. They
said to themselves, "If God meant to
do anything for the world in this age,
do you suppose he would pass by the
Church, and do it through some other
channel?" The Jews felt about Christ
as many now do about any reforma
tion when it springs up in our midst —
that, if it is not in the Church, it is
not good, no matter what it is.
Therefore, the mere fact that Christ
was born in obscurity, though it was
not a final bar to his being accept
ed of the Jews, was an occasion of
prejudice against him. Yet, having
been leavened with true democratic
ideas, they perhaps suspended then-
judgment concerning him, and watch
ed him to see what he would do.
And Christ, in his ministering years,
passed through a probation. His mir
acles filled the whole land with won-

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der. His popular discourses drew
the common people, they knew not
why, to him, and swept them in his
train. As a ship in passing sweeps
the movable objects that are near it,
and sets them following in its wake,
so Christ, wherever he went, drew
men to him.
Now this was something for the
ruling class to look at. They said,
"There is a man of great power, and
we must see whether we can bring
him to our side and use him." The
question in their mind was not this:
"Is he truer than we are? Is he bet
ter than we are? Will his truth make
mankind better, and the world hap
pier?" Their thought was this — and
it is not very different from the
thoughts of men nowadays: "If this
man is with us, we are for him; if not,
we are against him." The syllogism

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was, "God has made us the instru
ment of enlightening this people;
therefore it is essential that we should
be kept in authority and power. And
if this man goes with us, he goes with
religion, and we accept him. If he
goes against us, he goes against re
ligion, and we reject him."
The president of a theological semi
nary says, "This seminary was en
dowed for the purpose of preaching
the true doctrine. If this seminary
is taken out of the way, the true doc
trine falls. Therefore, whatever op
poses this seminary opposes the true
doctrine." The president of a tract
society says, "This society is to diffuse
a pure Gospel; and anything that
breaks up this society is an obstacle
in the way of the diffusion of a pure
Gospel." If men do not say these
things in so many words, this is the

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syllogism which they employ prac
tically. The same is true in respect
to churches. Men say, "The Church
is the grand pillar of religion; and if
you destroy the Church, religion will
be destroyed; for then it will have no
means of propagating itself." They
therefore contend for what? Relig
ion? No; for the Church, the instru
ment of religion. There is the same
difference between the Church and
religion that there is between the
hand and the soul. The hand is im
portant, and I do not propose to cut
it off; but if it is a choice between the
hand and the soul, I know which I
should choose. Now, churches, and
seminaries, and Christian institutions
of all kinds are feet with which re
ligion walks. They are hands with
which it helps itself. They are in
struments which God employs in

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carrying it forward. But when a
comparison is made between institu
tions or ordinances and the things
which they serve, there is no question
which is superior.
But the Pharisees said of Christ,
"If he goes with our institutions, if
he goes with Jewry, he is right; if he
does not, he is wrong." And because
he did not go with them they turned
against him.
There is some evidence that there
was a disposition to secure him, even
by appointing him king; and on one
occasion the enthusiasm ran so high
that the people were about to rise
and make him king, and he had
himself to interfere to prevent such
a foolish enterprise. No doubt this
would have taken place with the
tacit consent of the Pharisees, who
cherished the hope that they might

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i
be a power behind the throne, and
that they might manage him. When
that hope was effectually destroyed,
all favor on their part towards Christ
was also destroyed. And it is not
strange that they turned against him.
They were totally ignorant of his real
nature and mission. They did not
and could not see what he saw, nor
know what he knew. And that, you
will observe, was the point which was
made between him and them, over
and over and over again. The light
came upon them in vain. They did
not understand it. God was present
ed to them as a Spirit, and they did
not accept him. He came to them
incarnated in Christ, and they rejected
the Son and the Father at the same
time. Often and often he attempted
to show them why they should accept
him, urging as reasons that his spir-

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itual elevation, his purity, and his
moral nobleness made him divine;
that divinity consisted in spiritual in
fluence, and not chiefly in physical
power; and that he had in his charac
ter all the signs and tokens of being
divine. He charged them with blind
ness — and rightly, too — because they
could not see these things.
But they did see and feel what to
them was more to the point — that
Christ's influence was against them;
that he stood in their path; that if he
increased they would decrease; and
that if the people were to be taught
by him they could no longer teach
them. In other words, they were
partisans. Here was an individual
that refused to join their party, and
did things which had a tendency to
disintegrate and destroy that party,
and they turned against him.

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How do men act under such cir
cumstances now? Is it strange to see
a party turn against a man because he
does not go with them, without any
consideration of his character, or of
what the result of his teachings will
be? The Pharisees were a party in
religion; and when they found that
Christ would not sustain them they
eschewed him.
Let us see, then, how, in some
points, Christ's independent spiritual
career traversed party considerations,
and how he went to his crucifixion.
In the first place, if you look at
Christ's manners and social traits, you
will observe that, while he was never
less than the greatest, the serene and
transcendent light which his words
and deeds shed was never so pure and
white as when he was in conversation
with the most eminent and cultured

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men of his time. When, however, he
was left to himself, it was not their
society that he sought. He liked to
go among the common people. And
notice the effects which resulted.
First, it is declared that it was a cause
of offence. The charge against him
was that he ate with publicans and
sinners, and that he sat down with
them. There" is a great difference,
you know, between preaching to peo
ple and going •with people. He might
have preached to publicans at ap
pointed times and places, and he
would have had small audiences; but
he went where the publicans and sin
ners were; he sat down with them, ate
with them, and they found him an
agreeable companion. He was pure
enough and noble enough to bear the
test to which he was subjected in so
doing. When he was charged with it

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as an offence contrary to the Jewish
customs, he declared, "I go as a
physician goes among the sick. They
need me, and I go to them because
they need me, not because I need
them." But this was very offensive
to the purest of the Pharisees.
More than that, he taught the com
mon people, not in rabbinical phrase,
but in the vernacular. You will take
notice that a minister who joins him
self to a sect, and avows that it is his
purpose to exalt that sect, is per
mitted by them to speak in any way
he pleases, so that all the benefit inures
to his party. But let a man refuse to
belong to any sect, let him claim
brotherhood with all sects so far as
they are Christ's, let him preach the
great truths of religion so that the
common people shall hear him gladly,
and what is the impression produced

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but this: that the man is an inno
vator; that he is leaving the old
paths; that he is seeking novelties;
that he sets his sail to the popular
breeze? Now Christ would not use rabbini
cal language in his teaching. He did
not speak as the Jews did. When he
taught the common people, all said,
"This man speaks with authority."
What does that mean? Weight. He
spoke right home to their consciences,
and that is always speaking with
weight. He brought the Gospel into
their houses, into their business, into
their dispositions, into their very
superstitions. He brought it into
their religion. That was a strange
place to bring it, it is true; but he
brought it there. It was his habit to
preach the Gospel, not professionally,
but personally, so as to make it a

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Gospel to the common people. And
this was offensive to the Pharisees.
More than that, the practical superi
ority which he gave to truth, or prin
ciple, over usages and institutions,
was offensive to them. It was an in
direct assault upon them; for the
Pharisees were men that believed in
regularity, and order, and subordina
tion, and discipline. The Pharisees
were superlatively the model con
servatives of the world. They did
not disdain growth; but, after all,
their sympathies and feelings, first
and mainly, inclined them to the
policy of taking care of what was al
ready obtained. They did not ignore
advancement, but the key-note of
their life was conservation. There
fore, when they saw a man of great
power and extraordinary gifts dis
seminating principles which did not

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belong to their theological system,
and raising moral tides which could
not but work mischief to them, they
felt that he was making not only a
personal, but an ecclesiastical attack
upon them; and, as conservative re
ligious men, they thought they were
bound to oppose him.
For example, was there anything
more sacred to them than sacrifice?
The idea of sacrifice was to them what
the idea of atonement is to orthodox
men now, who hold it to be the centre
of the Christian arch. Sacrifice was
never despised by Christ, but rela
tively he undervalued it. The idea
of sacrifice among the Jews had taken
precedence of humanity, justice, and
right. Christ said, "If thou bring
thy gift to the altar, and there remem
berest that thy brother hath aught
against thee, leave there thy gift be-

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fore the altar, and go thy way; first
be reconciled to thy brother, and then
come and offer thy gift." What does
it mean but this, Do not think that
sacrifice to God is the highest re
ligious duty? Sacrifice depends for
its value on preceding moral qualities.
A principle is higher than the ordi
nance which you take to exhibit that
principle. The life of religion in the
soul is first in importance; the instru
ments by which you develop that life
are of secondary consideration.
Which is the most important, your
boy or the arithmetic which he
studies? If there should arise in
your mind a superstitious worship of
the slate and pencil and book, and a
forgetfulness of the boy, you would
be in the same position that the
Pharisees were in, of reverencing the
instruments of religion instead of re-

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ligion itself, which these instruments
were meant to develop and elevate.
Christ selects the element of true re
ligion — namely, love — and says to
men, "If you bring your sacrificial
gift before God in the temple, in the
sight of God it is condemned and de
spised unless it is brought with a lov
ing heart behind it."
The same is true of his teaching
concerning the Sabbath day. It is
remarkable that almost every men
tion of the Sabbath day in which
Christ expresses any opinion respect
ing it was seemingly adverse to its
sacredness. Some have supposed that
Christ was opposed to the Sabbath
day; but he was not. The Sabbath
day had become an oppressive day to
the common people. It had lost its
peculiar fragrance and sweetness; and
Christ, meeting it at its oppressive

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point, put the duty of love in religion
higher than any ordinance. He only
undervalued the Sabbath as contrast
ed with the object for which it was
ordained. It was the outside ordi
nance as contrasted with the inside
spirit that led Christ to denounce the
Pharisaic observance of the Sabbath.
These are instances of Christ's cus
tomary teaching, that the truth is
higher than the ordinance or usage by
which that truth is expressed. The
result was, that those who felt them
selves condemned, those who felt
their methods of religious teaching
set aside, those who felt that there
was a tendency to unsettle the minds
of the Jewish hearers, did not hesitate
to declare that he was an infidel.
And thus we see how ecclesiastical
party-men, blinded by their selfishness,
came to regard Christ, first as an in-

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vader, then as an aggressor, and
finally as a criminal, upturning the
foundations of religion.
The whole course of Christ was so
influential that the Pharisees could
not let him alone. Such was the
power of his life and teaching that
they were in the condition of many
men of our day, who have said of re
formers that were laboring to correct
the evils of society, "Why will not
these men let these things alone?
Why are they always agitating the
people?" Christ made Jerusalem too
hot for the Pharisees. The public
mind had become filled with these
new-fangled notions of morality and
religion which he promulgated, and
the Pharisees wondered why, if he
was a minister of the true religion,
he would so stir up the people.
That is not all. Christ was the

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most impracticable man that ever
lived, and yet the most practical. He
could not be used by the Pharisees for
their purposes. He could not live
simply for the present, as they did.
They were living for immediate re
sults. He lived for results universal
and remote. They were a party. He
was the Saviour of the world. They
were Jews. He belonged to the hu
man kind. They sought immediate
success. He was establishing the
foundations of that kingdom in which
dwelleth righteousness. They were for
the present and the transient. He was
for the future and the stable. How
could they use such a man? He was
larger than they were; he saw some
thing more than their plans contem
plated; he was forever laboring for
a more resplendent end than they had
conceived of; they could not use him.

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Christ was, lastly, a sublime radical.
"How dare you," one will say to me,
"apply such a term to Christ?" Be
cause my glorious Master is one that
has got used to wearing ignominious
terms, and any term of ignominy that
is made such by contempt of the
higher classes against the lower I put
upon the brow of Christ. Another
thorn it may be, but it is one that
brings blood for salvation. And I de
clare that Christ was the first and the
sublime radical. "Now also," says
the New Testament, speaking of the
coming of Christ, "the axe is laid unto
the root of the trees." * What is rad-
* It is immaterial whether this is interpreted
to signify striking at the root, or, as is the
more accurate interpretation, lying at the
root in readiness for use. In either case it in
dicates the radical character of Christ's work.
He cot up fruitless growths, as we say, " root
and branch." Compare, also, Matt., vii., 33,

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teal but a word derived from radix,
which means root? He was a root-
man. He came right at the worm at
the root of the trees. A physician
that, instead of attempting to palliate
a difficulty, deals sharply with the or
ganic lesion, is a radical. In morals,
the man that does not attempt to
smooth over the surface, but asks
what is the fundamental cause of
wrong, and then attacks that cause,
is a radical. Christ, then, was de
clared to be a radical. The axe was
laid at the root of things. And from
the days of Christ to this, the men
that have been the most known and
felt, and the longest felt in the world,
have been men that, passing over
compromises and petty ways of set
tling difficulties, have struck the
a proverbial saying, apparently a favorite with
Christ.

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foundation causes of things, and in
sisted upon having health and right,
and refused partnership with men
that were in favor of letting matters
take their own course. They have
been, like their Master, radicals, and
therefore reformers; cursed while they
lived, and worshipped when they were
dead; thorns in the side of parties, and
crucified by them; but held up as the
martyrs and heroes of their age by
the next generation, who none the
less crucify the men of their age that
are just like them. So it is, and so I
suppose it will be as long as human
nature is what it is.
Is it possible, then, when you con
sider the foregoing facts, to suppose
that the Pharisees and Christ should
have been reconciled to each other?
They could not understand him,
though he could understand them.

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They knew half as much as he did,
for he declared to his disciples that
the wisdom of life was to be canning
as serpents and harmless as doves.
They had learned the first half, but
they had never learned the second.
And can one who is only cunning as a
serpent understand him who is harm
less as a dove? Is it strange that
men under the inspiration of worldly
ambitions; men in sympathy with
parties; men actuated by the feelings
which are most influential in the age
in which they live; men not taught in
the sanctuary, or enlightened on the
subject of their moral duty; men that
were living for the time being — is it
strange that they should not under
stand the pure spirit that refused to
identify itself with anything that was
merely secular or transient? Is it
strange that they who despised the

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poor should have despised him who
was the friend of the poor, and who
preached the Gospel to the poor? Is
it strange that a man who consorted
with publicans and sinners should
have been despised by men who
would not touch a sinner without
afterwards washing their hands, lest
they might be defiled? It does not
show that they were to an extraor
dinary degree depraved. They were
fair specimens of average human
nature. You can hew out such men
from the timber that we have to-day.
They acted exactly as you and I act;
as this nation has been acting; as
every nation acts. The men that
prove to be the regenerators of man
kind begin as Christ did, despised and
subjected to obloquy. All men that
hold in their hands the supposed
authorities of religion turn against

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these on-coming men of power, who,
though they are uncomely, shape the
foundations of the New Jerusalem,
which are to be laid, not as the
foundations of human institutions, of
hay, wood, clay, and stubble, but of
precious stones — which are immortal
principles of truth, never to pass
away. But as long as there is a God,
and a Providence in this world, you
never shall lay the foundations of any
party or sect in anything less than ab
solute justice and right, and have
them stand. Build your house on a
rock, and it will not be shaken to
pieces; build it on the sand, and the
first tide that flows and ebbs carries
it down. They that build on pu
rity and rectitude are steadfast and
safe, but they that build on arrange
ments, on nice and cunning devices,
on compromises, are liable at any

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moment to be overthrown and de
stroyed. We have been living for years in a
period in which men have sacrificed
principle for the sake of quieting the
community, for the sake of gaining
peace, for the sake of settling in an
easy manner questions which God
Almighty was determined should not
be settled till they were settled right.
We have been living for years in a
period in which men have exhausted
all their ingenuity to suppress those
Christian influences which have been
at work in the world. For a time the
religion of the churches was arrayed
against the Christ of Providence. We
have had the law against Christ.
Government and commerce have been
against Christ. And they have all
joined in the cry, "Crucify him! cru
cify him!" When justice was de-

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manded, men cried out, "Not justice,
but peace; give us peace!" But did
they get it? Did peace come either
to the church or to the state? God
threw wide open the doors of hell, and
out came the flames of war! They
burned up peace like chaff. Why?
Because for so many years men reso
lutely refused to come up to the
grounds of moral truth and moral
principle, and stand on them, and say,
"Here will we abide, and we will for
ever seek that which is just and good."
I summon the great leaders of our
past and crumbling parties, one by
one, laden with sin and burdened with
iniquity, to rise and come to judg
ment, that they may bear witness that
when truth and right are persecuted
there is no peace!
Now, having gone through five
bloody years, we come again to great

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questions which stand petitioning at
our doors, and God says, "Settle them
on principles of justice and rectitude,
and you shall have peace." But the
whole nation are asking, "Ought we
not, after so long a time, so to ar
range as to have peace?" And men
are saying, "Why insist upon such
radical ideas ? Why not accept
more temperate views?" Those views
which they call temperate, and which
they are urging us to adopt, are views
that have lies in them. I stand here
again to say, Truth has no revolution
in it. Right has no change in it.
Justice is always safe and sure. If
you must crucify Christ because he
will not join your party, your faction,
your church, your religion, then cru
cify him; but remember the eighteen
hundred years of darkness and revo
lution and turmoil that followed his

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first crucifixion. The great battle of
God Almighty is not fought out yet,
and you will have more of it in your
day. If you want peace, do right.
If you will not do right, remember
that God is the incendiary of the uni
verse, and that he will burn your
plans, and will by-and-by burn you
with unquenchable fire.
I point you this morning to him
who, when on earth, was mocked and
despised. See him, going from the
city where the prophets had been
persecuted. Behold him with that
very mob hooting at him and deriding
him that but the day before crowned
him and followed as he rode into
Jerusalem, shouting, "Hosanna! Ho-
sanna!" See him on the cross when
his disciples, afraid, had deserted him,
and there were only women to stand
near him. Behold how he died, and

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the earth lost its light! And see how
he came to life, and went up on high
again, to carry out those truths in
which is the life of nations, and in
which is the health of man's soul.
By that Christ, crucified but vic
torious, I bring you the truths of
righteousness, and of justice to the
poorest; and I say to you, Will you
do right? If you crucify Christ in his
poor and despised ones, be assured
there is blood yet; there is revolution
yet; there is war again! If ten years
ago I had told you that there would
be war, you would have laughed; but,
sobered by experience, you may not
now scorn the idea, and think it to be
wild. In rectitude there is safety,
and in unrighteousness there is always
the fire of hell.
Young men, take your ideal of
what is right not from the great of

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this world. Go not to presidents, or
secretaries, or generals, or merchants,
or ministers, nor to any man, for your
ideal. Even the highest and best men
are so sympathetic with their age, and
nation, and time, that they are not fit
to be models. Take your measure of
character and duty from him that
was despised. Imitate him that was
crowned with thorns. Follow him
that bore the cross. Bear Christ's
cross, and you shall be an heir of
Christ's throne.

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Uttfjtn
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a
corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. He that loveth his life
shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal." —
John, xii., 24, 25.
'-pHESE words — "he that loveth
X his life shall lose it ; and he that
hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal" — are in substance
the same, though in form varied, fre
quently repeated. They are several
times recorded in the evangelical his
tories,* showing that they made a deep
impression upon the disciples' minds ;
* Matt., x., 39? xvi., 25; Mark, viii., 35;
Luke, ix., 24; xvii., 33.

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and showing, also, that the Saviour,
after the manner of his countrymen
in the East, reduced his teachings to
proverbial forms. This epigrammatic
method favored the retention of truth
in the memory.
A seed carries with it the prepara
tion for a new structure. The great
est part of a seed is mere bulk, whose
office is to wrap up and protect the
vital principle or germ. It also is
food for the earliest life of that germ.
So the body carries a vital principle
which is hereafter to be developed;
and the body is a mere vehicle and
protection of this vital principle. The
seed cannot give forth the new plant
within it except by undergoing a
chemical decomposition and absorp
tion. Our Saviour teaches that this is
the law of the evolution of spiritual
life in man. Our physical life must

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expend itself, not necessarily in the
immediate act of death, but by min
istering to the spiritual element in us.
Of this doctrine of the subordina
tion of the outward to the inward, of
the material to the spiritual, Christ's
own life was the most illustrious ex
emplification. He threw away his
life. And yet no other life of which
we have any knowledge was ever so
successful, so powerful, and so glorious.
I propose to illustrate both of these
facts — that Christ utterly lost his life,
and that in so doing he saved and aug
mented it.
In one point of view, then, Christ's
life was an entire failure. Remark
able it was in its failure, whether you
measure it by the objects which men
ordinarily seek as the chief good of
life, or by the gratification of those
faculties which carry in them among

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men the principal motives of human
life, or by the productiveness of those
powers which he gave evidence of pos
sessing. In each of these three re
spects he lost the ends of life. He did
not get the things which men think to
be most valuable; neither did he de
rive much gratification in those fac
ulties which men live to gratify; nor,
though endowed with a wondrous
versatility of powers, did he employ
those powers in such a productive
manner as to make it appear that he
gained the object of life. You cannot
conceive of one endowed with such
opportunities who, measured by the
temporal and earthly standards, so
utterly squandered them, and was so
completely bankrupt of results.
This is the outside view. Let us
look at it a little.
Regarding our Saviour in his general

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relations, it would seem as though he
could scarcely have entered life at a
worse door than at the portal of Jew
ish nationality. For in that age of
the world it was a misfortune to be
born a Jew in the estimation of every
body except a Jew. That is not won
derful; for everybody thinks it unfor
tunate to be born anything but what
he is. Every nation thinks all other
nations are to be pitied, if not hated.
And in that age every nation despised
all other nations. But the Jew had a
special measure of contempt meted
out to him. However nations differed
in their likes and dislikes, they all
agreed in a common hatred of the Jew.
Nor can you imagine what this would
be in the history of the life of one like
Christ, unless you take some parallel
experience. Suppose, for instance, you had been

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born an African; what would have
been your opportunities of life, of
social intercourse, of entrance into the
great professions, of gaining political
distinction, of amassing wealth, or of
securing those enjoyments which are
within your reach now? Measure
your present chances in life with what
they would have been if you had been
born black instead of white.
Now it was very much, that, in
Christ's time, to have been born a
Jew. And Christ was born a Jew.
So far as worldly opportunity was
concerned, he might better have been
born a heathen or a barbarian. Al
though of noble lineage, yet, regard
ing him in his relations to his own
nation, he scarcely was better off than
he otherwise would have been; for his
parents were not in influential posi
tion, and they could not give him the

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privileges of education. He had but
few opportunities in youth; and he
was dependent for his training almost
entirely upon the natural evolution of
his own faculties. You recollect how
he was reproached as being illiterate,
or, rather, how people marvelled that
one who was illiterate should know so
much. "How knoweth this man let
ters, having never learned?" said his
adversaries and the spectators. He
had inherited neither name, place, nor
influence. Many men are dependent
for their standing upon the fact that
they have the capital of those who
went before them to begin upon.
Christ had nothing of the kind.
He never strove, either, to repair
these conditions of fortune. He was
born of parents both poor and low in
life, inconspicuous and uninfluential,
and he does not seem ever to have

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felt the sting of the deprivations
which he suffered, as many a man
does who is conscious all his life long
that the impulse and spur to exertion
is the narrow and pinched estate of
his youth.
Let us exclude the pleasure and the
vicious practices that were disallowed
by the morals of all nations, and con
template only those ends which are
laudable, and by which society is
built up and civilization advanced.
It may be said that Christ's life, in
connection with these laudable ends,
externally viewed, was a failure.
He secured no wealth — not even
enough to redeem himself from de
pendence. The food which he ate
was ministered to him by the hands
of those who loved him. He had not
where to lay his head. Only love re
deemed him from pauperism. This is

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the more remarkable in one who had
power, either by miracles or by an
easy use of his sagacity, to create
wealth. He did not deride it in
others. No word of his, justly con
strued, will be found to conflict with
the devine law of political economy.
He seemed like a scholar in an artifi
cer's shop, all about whom are tools,
good and useful to the artificer, but of
no use to the scholar. He does not
despise them, but he never touches
them. Wealth was a minor good to
some, and was to have its power and
history in the world's elevation; but
Christ walked in the midst of it al
most unconscious of its presence or of
the want of it.
Though he had great power of ex
citing enthusiasm, attention, and mo
mentary feeling, there is no evidence
that Christ ever gained or kept a

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steady influence over the common
people — not even over those among
whom he came, and with whom he
consorted. By discourse, by personal
bearing, and by his miracles, he at
tained great power over the imagina
tion and the enthusiasm of the people
with whom he associated. But never
did he seem to gain any particular in
fluence over their habits. He never
controlled their radical ideas, nor
changed the secret springs of their
life. In regard to the most of men, it
was effervescent enthusiasm, transient
admiration, that they felt in his pres
ence. A striking illustration of this
will be found in the history of his own
disciples. For three years they were
his intimate and private companions,
and had the benefit not only of his
conversations, but of his instructions,
based upon their ignorance and mis-

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takes; and yet, at his death, they had
not entered in any appreciable degree
into his ideas or into his career. They
seemed to have been almost untouch
ed except by a vague, blind attraction
towards him. They had not become
the partners of his intellectual or his
moral life. They saw, when he was
coming towards suffering and death,
only confusion and dismay. And after
he died all hope forsook them. They
thought the errand of his hfe had
utterly failed. Long after the very
Pentecost, long after the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost had begun its work
upon them, it was only spring, not
summer, of knowledge with them, for
they still felt that Jesus was the Jew's
God; and it was years before it ceased
to be a matter of amazement to them
that Christ was the Saviour of the
whole world.

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Now, if these men that were selected
by Christ could dwell with him, and
talk with him every day for three
years, with so little effect of his min
istry upon them, what must have
been the effect of his ministry upon
those men that never saw him except
occasionally, and never sustained any
intimate relations to him? If we
measure the power of Christ's hfe by
his immediate influence upon the
common people, it was a failure.
It scarcely needs to be said that he
failed even more, if it were possible, to
secure any personal or professional in
fluence on the minds that ruled his
age. There were political rulers of
great sagacity whom he seems never
to have fallen in with, except to stand
before them to be judged and con
demned. There is no evidence that
Christ ever turned his thoughts or his

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instructions to political questions, ex
cept so far as they traversed humanity
and morahty. If he found them in
his way as he travelled the great road
to morality and humanity, he trod
them under foot, or expounded them.
Otherwise he never seemed to touch
the dynastic questions of the day.
Neither did he secure any influence
over the literary and philosophical
minds of his time — not in his own
nation, and certainly not in any other.
Though he was sent to be the Saviour
of the world, his influence did not ex
tend beyond his own country. With
the exception of a journey to Egypt in
his infancy, he never was outside his
own native land. He never had a
place among men of letters, nor was
he a power in any philosophical circle.
But even more remarkable is it
that he did not produce any immedi-

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ate impression upon the rehgious
opinions and feelings of his age. And
after his resurrection there could be
discerned no change which he had
wrought in the rehgious ideas of the
Jews. If you measure Christ's influence,
therefore, upon the mass of his coun
trymen, it was null and void. If you
measure his influence upon the higher
minds that controlled the govern
ments, the philosophies, and the lit
erature of his day, there is no evidence
that when he died he had produced
any impression whatever upon them.
He had not. "The hght," it is de
clared, "shineth in the darkness, and
the darkness comprehended it not."
The light of Christ's presence shone
into the darkness of this world, but
the darkness did not comprehend it,
and it was just as dark during his

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hfe on earth as it had been be
fore. Neither did he found a family.
Men are born to love and marriage
by a decree broad as humanity; and
while each man has his own hberty,
and exercises his own choice of se
lection, yet underneath that volun
tary power of choice is a necessity of
selecting which, in relation to the
race, is as irresistible as fate itself.
But Christ, though he belonged to
mankind, was not carried in any such
stream to any such destiny. Upon no
one did he ever bestow his heart's
treasured affection. He never knew
the sweet relationships of husband
and father in the household. Among
the useful ambitions which men have,
none is more amiable than the wish to
found a family, to pour it f ull of noble
influences, and to rear in it a troop of

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children that shah carry forward the
family name, adorned with all the
priceless qualities of virtue and ser
vices worthily performed, down with
honor and power to remote times.
But no such ambition entered the
mind of Christ, or, if it did, there was
no result that answered to any such
thought or purpose.
Having, then, passed through hfe,
not concerned with wealth, and there
fore not connected with business;
without any important apparent re
lations to the common people among
whom he moved; failing to make any
impression upon the dominant minds
of his times in politics, hterature, and
rehgion; and not having, in any way
whatever, entered into the relation
ships of the family, what could his
life produce that should remain?
Nothing, apparently. What an arrow

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is that shoots quickly through the air,
and drops far off in the thicket, and is
lost, that Christ's hfe seemed to have
been. The air which is parted by the
passage of the arrow instantly rushes
together again, and nothing is left to
mark the course of the flying missile.
And Christ seemed to have been
hurtled through his time, and to have
fallen in death, without leaving the
shghtest trace, after a few weeks, of
his having been alive.
His arrest, trial, and condemnation
were more than ordinarily ignomini
ous, and apparently more than ordi
narily fruitless. There are men the
most glorious event of whose histo
ry is their trial and condemnation.
Where, for instance, some noble nature
makes his last hours the occasion of
defending a great principle of right,
and thus sows the seed for blessed re-

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suits in the future, his sunset into
death is more illustrious than any
common hfe could be. But no prin
ciple was set forth in the death of
Christ. It was the occasion of ad
vancing no great argument in favor of
the right. It brought to hght no im
portant truth. There was nothing re
markable about his trial. It was an
ordinary criminal sacrifice of justice
on the part of his judge. He was cru
cified as a criminal, ignominiously.
He died, and ah seemed utterly lost.
There was no prophecy in his cross.
There was no background of hght on
which that cross hfted itself. Dark
ness fell upon the earth, and the earth
trembled. Not even his mother, nor
the women that were with her, nor
the disciples, saw anything but eclipse,
disaster, and final confusion in his
death. He died, having left no trace

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behind. Neither in the act of his
dying was there any conspicuous
power, or the promise of power.
Nor, afterwards, when his resurrec
tion came, was there much allevia
tion, except in the case of a few, for
Christ never appeared publicly again.
He never appeared to any, subsequent
to that time, except his disciples, to
whom he appeared as to witnesses.
And when he had done this, he went
up on high. And that closes the
career of the Saviour.
Now, was there ever a hfe, when
you come to look at it in its details,
that seemed to be thrown away more
than Christ's? Considering what men
hve for, judging from the great ends
of human hfe that you see accom
plishing around you, if you were to
ask, "Did Christ gain anything by
hving?" would not the irresistible an-

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swer of every man be, "He threw his
life away?" He lost it. It was worth
nothing for common wealth. It earn
ed nothing of popular influence. It
did not change a law. It did not es
tablish a new principle. It did not
make a discovery. It did not put up
or put down one ruler. It did not
overturn one altar. It was irradiated
by not one single victory over out
ward circumstances; and, unless there
is some mysterious inward thing that
took place, something beyond the
reach of the ordinary historic senses,
then the hfe of Christ was one pro
longed suffering unto disaster and
unto death.
But what are the facts on the other
side? It is declared that he that will
save his life shall lose it, and that he
that will lose his hfe shall save it,
and save it unto eternal hfe. Did

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Christ lose his hfe? Did he not save
it by the losing?
Born a Jew, he belonged to the
most accursed and detested of nations;
and yet is it not a great fact that no
man ever thinks of Christ as a Jew?
So totally is this all changed, that it
never occurs to any man, except it
comes to us by historical research,
that he was of that scattered, de
spised people. All nations on the
globe are now followers of this Jew,
whom they never suspect of being a
Jew. There is victory in the fact
that that which hung about him as a
cloud of gloom in the early parts of
his life has been utterly dissipated.
He was born without opportunity
in his social relations; he had a par
entage that made him familiar with
the lowest characteristics of hfe; he
was without education or privilege;

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and yet, do you not know, to-day,
that in Christendom there is not a
household, not a potent body, not a
church, not a community, that is not
proud to call itself Christ-ian} He
had no family to fall back upon; he
received no important help from any
source; and yet, after the lapse of
a thousand years, there is scarce a
household that does not claim to be
Christ's, and that does not call its
children his. The very kings of the
earth bring their glory and baptize it
with his name; and all the world are
inheriting something that he earned.
Having no opportunities for learn
ing, he had to rely upon the use of
his unaided faculties. But where has
there been, for a thousand years, a
school, a university, or a system of
ethical philosophy that has not been
conscious that it derived its germ

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from this same Christ, who was never
a scholar, was never a man of litera
ture, who wrote not a line, and left
not a volume?
He seemed to be quite indifferent to
ordinary sources of wealth, and to its
power. And yet do not you know
that to-day wealth is more and more
known to have moral relations? Has
there not been growing an influence
interpenetrating all business and secu
lar pursuits, so that men recognize an
ethical principle that reigns and gov
erns in the great realms of mammon?
From out of the life of Christ has
there not issued an influence that is to
have control in wealth-making? All
over the world is there not more of
the Christian spirit in the use of
wealth? And though the world is not
regenerated, and is not Christian, ex
cept in a hmited degree, yet is not

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this work begun in it, and is not the
kingdom of wealth yet to own the
name of Christ?
He never gained much influence
with the common people — his own
people. And yet, now, is there any
name named under heaven which
arouses so much enthusiasm among
the common people as Christ's? If
you take Christendom through, is it
not understood more and more that,
if there is a name to hve by, if there
is any influence which can defend the
weaker classes from the injustice of
the stronger who are leagued against
them, it is the name and influence of
the Lord Jesus Christ?
He made little impression, in his
lifetime, upon the rulers of his own
people, and those who were versed in
learning and philosophy. But is there
now anything that is more influential

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than Christ? If I were to be asked,
What is the characteristic of the lit
erature of our time? I should say
that it was a searching after natural
justice, and the expression of every
form of humanity — and humanity is
only another word for love towards
the necessitous. Indeed, justice and
love were the two especial attributes
of Christ's spiritual hfe, though they
made httle impression on the time in
which he hved. But he has now
filled the channels of thought and
poetic sentiment with his pecuhar
nature; and more and more, since
Christ's day, do you find, even in
treatises of law, the principles of
Christian justice.
His hfe was thrown away, but it
was thrown away just as I throw
away my handful of grain when I
cast it into the soil. I lose it. It

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dies. But it dies that it may give
growth to another life. He took his
hfe and buried it, and there was noth
ing of it. It was disintegrated. But
it was given to another hfe that was
coming forward slowly and gradually
through long periods, but that, at
length, was to fill the world. A hand
ful of corn in the earth shall grow,
and shah wave like Lebanon, and like
the forest that covers the hills and
mountains, in the end.
In the body Christ was planted and
lost; but as soon as he had died he be
gan to bring forth fruit. Like some
plants, hke young trees, he bore fruit
in a small measure at first; but, hke
those same plants and trees, he has
grown and grown until now he bears
fruit in abundance. And Christ, that
lost everything, has gained every
thing. He has filled the world with

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his influence; he has revolutionized
its affairs; old political laws have been
taken away, and new political laws
have come into the ascendant; new
religious ideas have taken the place of
old and effete religious systems; old
philosophies have been laid aside as
antiquarian relics, and new philoso
phies have sprung up in their stead.
And all these new laws, and ideas, and
philosophies have sucked at the bosom
of Gospel truth. The world is full, in
every vein and channel, of the power
of that man who went down in dark
ness, and was lost, apparently, in
eclipse and final disaster.
Did not he throw his hfe away? and
did not he get it again? Was he not
sacrificed? and was he not saved?
Was he not utterly given up to ruin?
but out of that ruin has there not been
the building of a new heaven and a

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new earth, in which dwells righteous
ness? Looked at from an exterior point of
view, Christ's hfe was an utter failure;
but looked at from the interior, it was
a most illustrious victory.
You are to take notice, too, that
the gain which comes to a moral or
spiritual life is one which involves
in it time, and therefore faith. And
the fruit of Christ's life has shown it
self gradually. There was but httle
at first. Then there was more. It
has increased ever since. The hfe of
Christ became constructive and or
ganic. It was not an influence from
without imposed on the ordinary laws
of nature. It was part and parcel of
that economy of God which was es
tablished at the creation of the world.
He was as much a part of the or
ganic law of the human family and of

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history as any other element. And,
taking the natural course of its evolu
tion, the life of Christ has been a life
of ages. There never was conceiv
able a hfe that, being thrown away,
so reasserted itself, and so munifi
cently redeveloped itself.
In view of this enunciation of facts,
I ask you, first, to see how the same
thing is going on, in a small way, in
our time. Christ walked hke a shadow
in his day; and if you had asked at
that time, "Where are the secrets of
power in the world?" any Jew would
have pointed to the old temple, and
said, "There are the secrets of the
world's power." If, as he said it, you
had seen some Greek smiling, and you
had asked him, "Where is the secret
of power in the world ?" he would have
said, "Have you been in Athens?
Have you seen her temples and

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statues? Have you seen the Par
thenon? Have you seen her art and
read her literature? Have you en
tered into the depths of the learning
of her Plato and Aristotle? The
world's history is wrapped up in
Athenian art and literature." And
if, while he yet spoke, a disdaining
Roman had passed by, and you had
followed him and said, "Wherefore
that smile?" he would have said,
"The Jews and the Greeks are filled
with superstitions, and are bhnded as
to the true source of the world's
power. That power is centred in
Rome, whose greatness is unequalled
by that of any other nation on the
globe." And how would Jew and
Greek and Roman have joined in
mirthful derision if you had pointed
to that person, Jesus Christ, who was
to be crucified, and said, "In that

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man is the secret of the whole world's
power." But the Jews, the Greeks,
the Romans, with their philosophies,
their governments, and their power,
have gone down, while this shadow
has risen into greater and greater
power, until it fills the world.
This leads me to speak, next, of the
greatest truth that Christ enunciated
— namely, the superiority of the moral
over everything else. All the world
believed in the power of force. The
patrons of force are the passions and
desires of the human heart. The
Greek had learned to believe that the
secret of power was in the under
standing. But the apostle Paul, re
peating what the Master had taught,
declared that it was the spiritual
kingdom of righteousness in Christ
Jesus that was the dominant power.
Our Saviour, when he said, "Seek ye

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first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you," propound
ed the most original and the most
revolutionary principle of human life
that ever was made known. The
man that lives under the supreme in
fluence of moral elements is the man
that is victorious over all the ele
ments that are represented by those
faculties which are lower than the
moral. So that, if any one would
be great in wealth, literature, learn
ing, or any dynastic quality, the
secret of strength is not in money,
or knowledge, or understanding, or
political influence, but in the suprem
acy of the moral elements.
We are still repeating that at which
we smile in reading of the ambitious
mother who brought her two sons to
Christ, and said, "Grant that these

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my two sons may sit, one on thy right
hand, and the other on thy left, in
thy kingdom." We are every one of
us seeking greatness by outside meas
ures; and Christ is perpetually saying
to us, "Can ye drink of the cup that I
shall drink of? and be baptized with
the baptism that I am baptized with?
Can you throw away your life? Can
you mortify your pride? Can you
subdue your selfishness? Can you
lay aside the old man? Can you die
that you may hve ?" We are running
eagerly, one after wealth, another
after praise, another after honor.
One feels himself secure because the
golden foundations of his wealth are
so deep and broad; another because
his ideas are built into systems and
sciences. And we still are making
our manhood to lie in these external
elements, in which Christ had no hfe,

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and in which he desired to have none.
We are seeking to be Christians
by achieving worldly eminence and
power. We have not yet learned
that it is not by the outward and
physical, but by the inward and
spiritual, that men become true men,
and that manhood is to be measured.
Now, may we not learn from the
example of Christ and his history the
inevitable weakness of any course or
career that is founded in externals
merely? And may we not learn, also,
that there is immortahty and victory
in any course that is founded on the
divinely spiritual? We are living in
an age in which we are in danger of
having our senses overshadowed. We
are being impressed so much by phys
ical things that we are in danger of
forming our judgments of what is
right, and safe, and permanent from

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the fleshly side, and not from the
spiritual. There never was a time
when it was more needful for us to
recur to the reason of Christ's power
in the world than now; never a time
when we were more in danger of
throwing away true permanence for
barren change; never a time when
we were more in danger of missing
the secret of inevitable success. That
man who has the truth with him; who
has a principle higher than any that
has gone before; that man whose
pohcy, whose statesmanship, whose
legislation, whose faith involves the
highest reach possible of the human
understanding in the spiritual direc
tion — that man will endure, and is
bound to immortality. How many
there are who are throwing the corn
away and running after the husk and
cob, because these are more bulky!

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There are many who are not only do
ing this, but despising those who count
the exterior to be comparatively worth
less, and who insist upon a higher
standard. Just as soon as men are
willing to accept the truth in its
higher relationships, just so soon they
begin to grow strong. If they despise
it, and crucify it, and cast it out ut
terly unto death, nevertheless, it can
not be destroyed. It will come up
again, and again, and again; for the
hfe of God is in every particle of truth
and justice in this world.
Men may crucify their Christ again
in this law or that pohcy; may hustle
him out of Jerusalem to his Calvary,
and may shake their garments as the
Sanhedrim did, and say, "We have
got rid of the disturber"; may hft him
on the cross to ignominy, and say,
"He shah never again touch this law

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or that pohcy"; may bury him in the
rock, and put a stone there, and seal
it with official seals, confident that no
man can ever bring him out again;
and, after all, when three days have
gone by Christ will break open the
tomb, and men, on going to the spot,
shah find there angels of prophecy,
bright and radiant. Out of the tomb
of many and many a buried Christ-
truths have come angels of benefac
tion and mercy.
Our times are full of struggling
Christs — Christ in laws, in humanities,
in pohcies; and you are passing them
by, or casting them out, or treading
them under foot. But immortahty is
with every one of them. You will
perish, wealth will change, laws will
explode, pohcies will be scattered like
chaff from the summer's threshing-
floor; but that which is eternally right,

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and true, and just, and good, cannot
be pierced by sword or buried by the
ballot, since it has the decrees of God
behind it. And blessed be they that
have the wit and wisdom to know that
it is best to do right, to do it at once,
and so to abbreviate the labors of
society. To that army of ignominious and
profitless sufferers that work out by
the imagination fantastic troubles, to
be repeated over, and over, and over
again, I have nothing to say. But to
those who suffer for a good reason; to
those who are bearing their Geth
semane; to those who are carrying
their cross, and living as Christ lived
— and there are thousands of them —
I wish to address a word. Are there
not in this audience hundreds that,
when they turn their thoughts inward
and backward, think that if they

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could have consented to have done
such and such things they would have
been better off? Some persons are
said to stand in their own hght. Are
there not some of you that apparently
have stood in your own hght? Are
there not men whom you have known
from their youth up who were not
over-scrupulous in business affairs,
who went into craft and deceits, who
became millionaires, and rose to em
inence and power, and who now
stand high and are prospered? and do
you not say, "If I could have got
over some prejudices that I had, so as
not to have been afraid of departing a
hair's-breadth from the line of recti
tude, I might have been better off
than I am now; but I stood in my
own hght, and I have been struggling
against the current ever since, beat
en back at every step?" You have

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maintained your conscience, though,
have you not? "Oh yes, what there
was of it." And you have maintain
ed your love of truth? "Yes, I have
that yet." You have maintained,
also, your aspiration after higher man
hood? "Yes, that I have still; but,
then, I have no funds ; I have no
homestead; I have nothing before
me." Nothing before you ! You have
the kingdom of God Almighty before
you. You have all glory before you.
If you have saved truth and con
science and love and manhood and
faith, do not envy any one. The
wealth of the world will pass away
very soon, but what bankruptcy can
come over the exchequer of God?
And you are heirs of God. You did
not stand in your own hght when you
refused to yield to temptation.
Are there any young men here who

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think it is not profitable to serve God ?
Which will you take, the prosperous
Jew, or the despised Christ? See
what each of them was in his own
time — the one clothed in purple and
fine hnen, faring sumptuously every
day, flattered, feasted; the other poor,
neglected, cast out, persecuted. But
which would you rather be to-day?
In the long fight, which had the
strongest arm? Where is the Jew to
day? and where is Christ? Look up
for the Prince and Saviour! Look
down for his enemies!
Take heart, then. Do not think
that a man has thrown his life away
because he has not silver and gold.
You will get, perhaps, more of these
than you expect; but whether you
get a penny or not, you will get tran
scendently more in that life which is
near at the door. For you that life

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is nearer than you think. Many of
you will go before another year rolls
around, and will put to proof my
words in the kingdom of your Father.
But others still suffer. Are there
none here that suffer for their chil
dren? I stood in the pubhc burn
ing place at Oxford, where the old
reformers were burned, and with in
expressible feelings I went back in
thought and history to their time;
but I have seen cases of martyrs that
were burned at the stake which were
much more piteous than these. I
have seen many a woman who, be
cause she would not betray fealty, and
because she could not yield love, was
day and night burned at the stake of
an intemperate husband, bound to
him, suffering more than he suffered,
covering his shame, hiding his faults,
repairing his mistakes, studying his

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welfare, pouring out her life for his
worthless life. And if there are such
martyrs here to-day, I say to them,
Do not be discouraged. You are fol
lowing in the steps of the great Victor,
who by defeat was victorious. Re
member that Christ gained his victory
by patient waiting in suffering. Re
member what by his servant he said,
"No chastening for the present seem-
eth to be joyous, but grievous ; nev
ertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto
them which are exercised thereby."
Is there not here many a heart that
is sorrowing in family matters? Are
there not many of you who are con
scious that you are bound with bonds
and cords from which you could only
release yourself by rending what are
called the decencies and proprieties of
life? Are there not those here who

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are bearing the yoke and suffering for
a parent, a brother, a sister, an or
phan, some helpless or dependent one ?
You who are yielding your opportuni
ties, and joys, and life for another,
patiently, are carrying the cross of
Christ. Yes, and it is Christ in you
that is inspiring you to do that, and
saying to you, "Child, a httle while
longer lose your hfe. Do not be
afraid to be lavish of it. Pour it out.
Do not be economical. Lose it, lose
it, and you shall save it unto life
eternal." Who are they that I see triumphing
in the heavenly host? They that
hved in ceiled houses? They that
walked the earth with crowns upon
their heads? They that knew no sor
row? No. "These are they which
came out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes and made

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them white in the blood of the Lamb ";
they that cried from under the altar,
"How long, 0 Lord, how long?" —
these are they that stand highest in
the kingdom of God. Heaven is just
before you. And many of you that
seem to have a long and weary path
of suffering will soon be done with
your period of trial, and will rise to
honor and glory in Christ Jesus.
Oh, that I could pour in upon the
young the majesty and the sanctity
of hving for the invisible; that is to
say, for honor and truth and fidelity !
Oh, that I could make you feel how
essentially brittle, how friable, how
perishable are all material sources of
strength! God is the centre of life,
and spiritual reahties are the only
things that will endure. Stone and
iron and silver and gold and timber
and cities and nations, and outward

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101

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©he Slife of Christ

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things are but pictures, painted soon
to fade away; while truth, and love,
and fidehty, and purity shall last for
ever and forever. ,
May it please God, then, when we
rise in the morning of the resurrec
tion, to let shine upon us the hope of
our coming glory, that, when we enter
heaven, our faces may be as the stars
on the horizon, bright, and still rising
into greater beauty, so that we may
evermore shine as the brightness of
the firmament. THE END

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