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ited in their field of labor; they touch and can touch only a prescribed number of the faculties which man possesses. They answer a multitude of questions which are presented to the human mind for solution; they untangle many threads that are strangely knotted together. But, when they have done their best, after they have reached the utmost limit, have answered all the questions which they are capable of answering, there still remains a vast, unexplored realm of inquiry, which they do not and cannot penetrate.

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Into this unseen realm of moral and spiritual life, Christianity takes the soul, and leads it onward and upward. At the point where every other teacher fails, with no key to the solution of life's mystery, Christianity comes forward, and with its revelation of God and immortality on the heavenward side, and its presentation of perfected manhood on the earthly side, it furnishes the answers which the inquiring soul most of all desires to know. After we have exhausted the resources of every other teacher, have listened to the vain and unsatisfactory attempts to solve the mighty problems of life that are daily becoming more serious, we turn our attention to this one great "Teacher sent from God," and say: "To whom shall we go, but to thee, for an answer to these profound and pressing questions? Thou alone, hast the words of eternal life."

In his recent article on the "Christian Religion" in the North American Review, Prof. Fisher makes the following just observations:

"Let a thoughtful man contemplate the prospects of inankind on the supposition that the Christian faith is to pass away. Civilization advances. Human science goes forward as far as it can in alleviating bodily pain. Provisions for living comfortably are multiplied in a degree at present incalculable and are diffused abroad. Knowledge increases more and more. Wars come to an end. Governments become equitable and beneficent. Mankind takes on a finer quality. Conceive that such a progress of mankind is possible, apart from the purifying and restraining influence of religion, an expectation for which neither human nature nor experience af

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fords the slightest warrant - what then? Are men who are thus advanced in the intellectual scale and in the affections of the heart to be satisfied with a merely mundane existence? Can they content themselves to live in this way, with no wider horizon, and then to pass out of being? Will they find a sufficient stimulus to labor for their race in the mere hope of rendering the earth a more comfortable abode for tenants who in swift succession rise into being and sink into the grave, as flowers blossom and then next day fall from their stems? The further civilization advances were a sure advance practicable without the inspiration and safeguards of religionthe more intolerable human life would become. Man would be less happy than the animals. The brutes have no thoughts or imaginations above the necessities of the hour; but man, with a nature too large to be satisfied with earthly good, is cut off from anything higher. The dignity of life, and its joy not less, are gone when there are no ties connecting this brief existence with a world unseen.”

It was for the sublime purpose of revealing to mankind those unseen ties which hold them to divine and immortal realities, that the world's Saviour lived, taught, suffered, died, and rose at length triumphant over death. By his teaching, his life, and his own glorious resurrection, he answers those deep and searching questions which are often pressed home to every earnest, thoughtful soul. "Whence came I?" "What should be the purpose of my life?" "And whither am I tending?" are the three solemn queries that confront intelligent beings at every turn in their earthly journey. Some give up these questions in despair, and declare that they are insoluble enigmas; others find partial relief in the revelations of science; and still more try to content themselves with stoical indifference concerning the whole matter. But only those who turn with full confidence to the words and experience of Jesus Christ, find a satisfactory solution of these perplexing problems. Accepting his words as authority; receiving his revelation as genuine and infallible truth; confiding in him as the human expression of God's glory, and the express image of the divine personality, the humble disciple of Jesus finds a condition of peace and rest which only such a faith can produce.

If the Christian religion does not become that practical force in human life which we here claim it is capable of becoming, certainly the fault is not with the religion. If the sun, which is capable of furnishing light to every creature upon the globe, fails to reach a few that are confined within opaque walls which his rays were never intended to penetrate, then the fault is not with the sun, that those creatures are not blessed by his cheering presence. The barrier which prevents his light from touching them must be removed, or they must come out of the dungeon which hides them from his dazzling face, if they would enjoy the glow and warmth which he is ever ready to bestow upon all who will receive it. Christianity is the sun of the moral world. It shines for all. It is capable of illuminating all moral natures. But it has not yet reached all, nor even one, to the extent of which it is capable. Barriers and obstacles stand in the way of its complete triumph in the mortal life of even a single individual, excepting in him who was its author and founder. These obstacles, however, are only allowed to remain because man does not choose to remove them. They can all be scattered to the four winds of heaven, if he but wills that it shall be so. Christ's truth and spirit are ready to come and take possession of every man; his light of life is waiting to light all souls; and as rapidly as man will permit the advance, this light will come and take up its abode within him.

Two

One of the chief obstacles that still hinders the growth of practical Christianity in the world, is a misconception which prevails concerning its power over the life of man. opposite and equally fatal errors have long held sway over men's minds, as to what the Christian religion can do, and what it is expected to do for man. The first of these errors has produced a class of fanatics, styling themselves "Perfec tionists." The substance of their belief is, that the power of Christ's spirit is so great over those who receive it in full measure, that it completely and radically changes their entire moral natures; lifting them forever out of all sin, and placing them beyond all desire to sin; putting them in a state of per6

NEW SERIES. VOL. XXI.

petual grace, where the lusts of the flesh and the evil influences of the world can have no more dominion over them. A clergyman once told the writer that he had not committed a sin for several years, and furthermore, that he believed that he could not commit another sin, because his sinful nature had been taken away from him. This claim has been made by many, who have egotistically proclaimed themselves as "perfect." Now, all such assumptions as these are a hindrance to the advance of Christian truth, for two reasons: 1. Because this claim of "perfection " through the regenerating power of Christ's spirit finds no justification in actual experience. Those who best know these "perfectionists," are aware that they do not prove their doctrine by their lives. Their conduct gives the lie to all such pretentions. 2. Because this is making a claim for the Christian religion, which Christ himself never made for it, and which none of his immediate followers ever made. The injunction "Be ye therefore perfect," did not imply even a supposition that perfection could be attained at short notice, or even that it could be fully realized in a lifetime. Paul, who was the great expounder of the Gospel, and who evidently comprehended its philosophy better than any teacher who followed Christ, never discovered that absolute human perfection in the flesh would follow the reception of the Gospel into men's hearts. His own life, we are informed through his epistles, was a perpetual struggle between the fleshly and the spiritual natures ; and so closely did he apply his reason to his own experience, that he said he had discovered a "law of the mind " which prompted him always to do good, but that there was "another law in his members" that was in continual warfare with the soul; and we do not learn from his language that he ever thought himself free from that conflict, during life. In his letter to the Philippians he sums up the whole matter, so far as his own experience was concerned, when he says, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not

myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

As a natural outgrowth of this error concerning Christianity which we have been considering, another mistaken view has become quite prevalent in certain quarters, which may be thus formulated:

Because the Christian religion does not produce perfection in its believers, therefore it is false, or at least, a failure. Because it does not free men completely from the influences of evil; because it does not take away all desire to sin; because its believers do not become angels in their nature, while in the flesh, therefore it cannot be relied upon as the true religion.

Let us consider, in as few words as possible, what Christianity proposes to do for man, and how it proposes to do it. So far as the final consummation is concerned, there is no doubt that the working of the Gospel will result in the perfection of humanity. But that must come in the "dispensation of the fulness of time." Here and now it works only in a partial sense toward making men perfect. It succeeds in reaching this result here, only in proportion as human character and life are lifted out of sin; in the ratio that evil is overcome of good in individual lives. This work of regeneration, however, does not result in removing a single faculty or passion of man's being; the nature which God gave man in the beginning, is not taken away; man is not at once lifted out of the presence of evil, neither is he brought suddenly into a state of holiness. But, in the presence of evil it gives him power to overcome it; confronted by temptation, it furnishes him with sufficient strength to resist it. In the conflict with passions and appetites that threaten to enslave and consume, it gives man the victory, and enables him to trample all moral enemies beneath his feet. Filled with its spirit, he can say with the Apostle, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."

It is a marked peculiarity of the Christian system of salva

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