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ARTICLE VII.

A Universal Religion.

CHRISTIANITY is peculiarly fitted to become the prevailing religion among mankind. It has within it elements which adapt themselves to all ages and conditions of human life. To the aged patriarch, bending beneath the heavy weight of years and infirmities; to the man in middle life, full of the energy and enterprise of the great busy world around him; to the youth, just emerging from the season of dependent childhood, and looking out eagerly into the unknown future just before him; to the little lisping child, just taking its first lessons in the great school of life, to all of these, in the variety of their conditions and needs, do the words and the spirit of Christ come with strength and meaning adapted to the necessities of each.

No other form of religion is so well calculated to become universal, as that which Jesus both taught and lived; because none other has been capable of adapting itself to the diversified wants of humanity. Other religions have been helpful only to certain races or classes of men. Beyond these, they have exercised little power. However well adapted they may have been to those special classes or conditions, outside of those they were useless. And even among their most ardent disciples, all those religions prove narrow and partial in their influence. There are only certain limited phases of human life upon which they can make any impression. They possess not the power to lift man into completeness; they do not have universal sway over the individual life, and in many respects fail at the exact points where weak human nature needs divine assistance.

The Christian religion, on the other hand, fits into every condition of earthly experience; is equally applicable to all races and nations of men. Unlike many other religions, it is not a cast-iron system, which can take in only such as have acquired a certain length or breadth, or who by their educa

tion and surroundings are adapted to its unyielding rules. Seeing men in their want, in their sinfulness, in their weakness, in their helpless and miserable conditions, it goes to them with the needed supply of strength and grace, which shall lift them out of their degradation, and bring them into their true and normal relations with the God who made them and with the world in which they live Christianity has something to say to each man, woman and child in the universe. It has remedies for all the diseases of the moral nature; has the healing balm for all the wounds of the heart; has the oil of consolation for the mourning, the staff of strength for the weak and doubting, the bread of life for those who are spiritually famishing, and the waters of everlasting life for those who thirst for the living God; and more than all, it furnishes the effective antidote for the terrible poison of sin. It touches and affects all this vast variety of human infirmities, because it was designed for man, adapted to his nature, fitted to his peculiar needs.

No religion but Christianity attempts to go down to human nature, in all its vileness and degradation, taking man just as he is, and then raising him to the highest possible condition that he is capable of reaching. No other religion takes man at his worst and brings him to his best. This adaptability of the words and spirit of Christ to all phases of human life, is one of the strong evidences of the divine origin of the Christian religion. To reveal and furnish such a truth and such a spirit as breathed through the lips and life of Jesus — a truth and spirit exactly fitted to the nature and needs of man, is exactly in accord with the divine procedure in other things, as we see them all about us. It is in precise harmony' with everything which God has done in supplying the physical needs of his children. Men are made with certain bodily wants. One of these is the necessity for food. His very existence depends (when in his normal relation to the laws of health) upon the nourishment which he daily receives into his physical system. The same being who created him with this need, has also placed within his reach that which will

supply it. By the use of the intelligence which man possesses, he is able to take the materials furnished him and convert them into nourishing food; or, where the original substance is adapted to his necessities, he can take that at first hand, without the aid of artificial means. What a blunder it would have been, if at certain stages in man's existence no food had been supplied for his body. Supposing the bodily nourishment of man were only suited to infancy; or suppose that nothing could be found in nature that would serve as food during sickness, that man's food was suited only to a condition of health and strength. These things would prove manifest inconsistencies on the part of the Creator; who hav ing made a creature with certain imperative needs, had failed to supply the material for satisfying those needs. But in no respect is this the case. Food for babe, for youth, for manhood, for old age; food for health, for strength, for sickness, for weakness, food for every conceivable condition of physi cal life is furnished, and every need is met by its corresponding supply.

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This law holds good all through the range of man's material nature. The eye was made for light; the ear was made for sound; the lungs were made for air; and forthwith light greets the eye sound breaks upon the ear-air is furnished for the lungs. Each faculty and power lives by that which supplies its need. What man requires for a healthy, vigorous existence in the body, is all about him in abundance; and he has but to open the organs of sight, hearing, respiration, and all the senses which bring him in contact with the outer world, and he at once finds all nature adapted to his wants.

God could undoubtedly have made a creature without any of these demands or needs, and he might have passed for a man; but God did not do so, and therefore, if a human creature is to be regarded as a man, in a physical sense, accord ing to the divine ideal, he must have these needs of his body, and they must be supplied if he comes to full development. So, we presume the Almighty could have made a being in the shape of a man, and yet not have put any of the

seeds of weakness and infirmity within him. He might have made him so that he could not sin; so that he could not suffer pain; so that sickness would be impossible to him; so that sorrow would be unknown to him; so that temptation would not beset him; so that burdens would not make him anxious and weary. Such a creature might have been introduced upon the earth as a substitute for the being we now call man. But such a creature has not been made and called or recognized as a man. Such a being might exist, but it would lack some of the essential characteristics of humanity. The divine ideal of a man, was a being with a moral nature, liable to sin, au because subject to moral law and having the power of free choice between good and evil, — and yet not necessarily sin fut; a being with a nervous system, liable to suffer pain, in consequence of some infringement upon physical law; a being with intelligence, capable of learning and understanding ou the laws and principles of the universe; a being with affections, passions, and appetites, which when not properly trained tean, it

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and directed, might lead to suffering in a variety of ways; a being in whose physical organism were sown the seeds of decay and death, but the essence of whose life is immortal and indestructible. This is, briefly, the description of the being that God has made, and which we call man. Whatever else might have been created and made to pass as a specimen of the human species, this is what actually was made, and which we find all about us in various stages of development.

Having, then, brought such a being into existence, as the divine ideal of a man, a creature who by the very necessities of his nature, is subject to temptation, and weaknesses and failings having brought this human creature into existence, with all this variety of needs in his moral make-up, why should not the necessary supply be furnished? Would it not have been as great a mistake on the part of the Creator, to have left man without moral and spiritual helps suited to his needs, as it would have been were he left without a suitable quality of food, at a certain stage of his physical life?

Christianity, as exemplified in the teachings and life of

Jesus, presents to man that sustenance which he needs for his moral nature, when temptations beset him; when evil passions seek to control him; when debasing appetites cry out. for those things that will prove destructive to his whole being. That divine power which enabled Jesus to resist the tempter; to banish Satan from his presence; to overcome evil with good, will enable any man to do the same, to the extent he is possessed of the Christ-like spirit. Whatever his condition of trial or need; whatever the burden which circumstances compel him to bear, he can find sufficient strength for each and every emergency, if he will but seek it from the one living source from which his divine Master constantly drew. It is not the province of the Christian religion to supplement, supersede, or complete the work of other forces in the unfolding of human character and life. It is an original, primary factor in man's upward development. It commences its operation upon him, when living under the proper influences, as soon as his childish mind can grasp a thought, or be made to understand the moral nature of an act. It grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength, filling a place which is unoccupied by the other forces which operate upon human nature, — or, if that place be occupied for a season, it is not filled with that which can satisfy the deepest longings of the soul. No matter how late in life the spirit of Christianity may begin its influence upon man's nature, it must always start from the very centre of life, and work upward and outward, modifying and changing the whole being. It cannot be tacked on or added to some other force that has been operating upon the mind and heart; it must go to the very fountain head, and send its cleansing waters coursing through every avenue of moral life.

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Science, in all its branches, has its office, and fills its place; philosophy, in the variety of its phases, meets certain requirements of a growing mind; education, in whatever direction it may send out its rays of light, fills and illumines the nature of man, helping to make him what he was intended to become by his Creator. But all these forces and influences are lim

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