of the living things themselves, as they once moved in the grace and the power and the beauty of their life. Study if you will, nay, study because you oughtthose of you who have leisure or ability for the study-these historical or logical evidences, this skeleton of Christianity. Trace the symmetry of its form, the minute and marvellous articulations of all the joints and bones, as it were, of its doctrinal system; but, remember, when you have thus re-constructed its frame, you have not discovered its life, any more than the knife of the anatomist can lay bare for him the life of the frame he examines. That is to be seen in its actings only. For that, you must leave the dissecting-room of the apologist, and even the museum of the divine, and come out into the world, where Christianity lives, breathes, moves, and acts, a living thing. You must see it in the beauty, and the grace, and the might of its life. You must study the conditions of its existence, the laws of its being, the manner of sustenance; and then it may be that you may discover reasons for some of those peculiarities in its structure, which seemed to you in your study so utterly useless and superfluous.-Bishop Magee. CHRISTIANITY.—Mysteries in

There are mysteries in Christianity, as there are also in Nature, above human reason, and which reason itself would never have discovered; but that does not empower human reason to discard those things, unless a mere sparkle of intellect has become transcendent above the great Source of Wisdom whence it sprang.— Dr. Skinner.

CHRISTIANITY.—The Opponents of

Formerly all persons who rejected, or sought to invalidate, the statements of our Sacred Writers, used to profess themselves opponents of Christianity; but in these days, the same arguments—such as they are-are brought forward by persons professing themselves Christians, and proclaiming their high veneration for the Gospel. It is as if the assailants of some fortress should assume the garb of its defenders, and thus obtain admission within its walls, that they might batter them more easily than from without.-Archbishop Whately.

CHRISTIANITY.—The Original Promoters of

Those who are not convinced of the truth of the Gospel must at any rate admit that Christianity exists. How it came here, how it thrives, and how it works more than all other energies, are questions that no man has solved without assuming far more unlikely things than the existence of a Christ such as the Scriptures describe. The phenomenon appeared, they must allow, some eighteen centuries ago, and among a few fishermen upon Bethsaida beach. These simple folk carved out the only God-like image ever seen. These crafty conspirators arrayed it with a glory that eclipsed first of all themselves hopelessly and for ever. They devised the most novel and successful scheme of moral conduct, and kept on preaching doctrines that convicted every day their own falsehood and deception. They invented the very best plan for benefitting other people, but they utterly failed to get anything out of it themselves except weeping and loss. These simpletons, that could not see through the flimsy veil of fable, saw deeper into human hearts than any other men, and gave voice to yearnings that were felt everywhere, but were never understood before. These dupes exposed all other deceptions that had deceived the wisest of philosophers. These dullards conceived a system that outreached the loftiest fancies of the cleverest thinkers.— Macgregor.

CHRISTIANITY-a Paradox.

Christianity is the easiest and the hardest thing in the world. It is like a secret in arithmetic, infinitely hard till it be found out by a right operation, and then it is so plain we wonder we did not understand it earlier.—Bishop Taylor.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Preservation of

It has been buried in the floods, and it is not lost; it has been thrown into the fires, yet it is not burned; it has been exposed to the pestilential notes of a corrupt and superstitious faith, and yet it is not poisoned; and now, in the nineteenth century, does it come forth from all the opposition and persecution of eighteen centuries, to which it has been subjected in all its primitive integrityas virgin gold cast into the furnace, more bright and beautiful by far than when it entered.-Dr. Cumming.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Privileges of

Its privileges are great and extensive, allowing its votaries the most noble and refined pleasures in the present state, and opening before them a boundless prospect of immortality and glory in the future.-Buck.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Progress of

The Apostles cast the leaven into the corrupt mass of humanity. The fermentation began, and has never ceased, and shall never cease till the whole immense mass of this corrupt world shall be leavened. It has been a steady, silent, irresistible process; always onward though not always visible, and sometimes seemingly retrograde. It is pervading the whole lump; yet no marked effect shall appear till the process shall be complete. Kingdoms rise and fall; moral earthquakes shake the earth; commotions, unaccountable and terrific, follow on the heels of commotions; the leaven of Christianity seems lost in the fearful and general fermentation; the sun is darkened; the moon is covered in sackcloth; the stars fall from heaven; all human affairs are thrown into perturbation; and Christianity is, from time to time, scouted from the habitations of men; yet all this is but the silent, invisible, onward, restless workings of the leaven cast over the world from the hill of Calvary. Every revolution, commotion, war, oppression, persecution, famine, pestilence, the wrath of men, and the rage of the elements, are, under the mighty hand of God, but parts of the great fermenting process which the world is undergoing from the leaven of Christianity. And never will this terminate, until it has regenerated the world, and made it resemble heaven.-Read.

CHRISTIANITY.-Protestant

Protestant Christianity is as old as Paradise itself; and, like the precious diamond, it has been maturing in the secret caverns of the earth, whilst whole generations have passed away above it; and now it is coming forth to shine and sparkle in the risen sun; and soon it will emerge, yet more beautiful and brilliant, when Christ collects His jewels, and sets them in His own diadem-the glory of heaven, the beauty and riches of the earth.-Dr. Cumming.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Religion of

Christianity is the purest and most liberal religion in the world.-Byron.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Response of

For eighteen centuries Christianity has responded to the supreme necessity of the soul of man.-Canon Liddon.

CHRISTIANITY-the Social Religion.

Christianity has been emphatically termed-the social religion, and society is the proper sphere of all its duties, as the ecliptic is of the sun.-Colton.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Solace of

What a solace must Christianity be to one who has an undoubting conviction of its truth!-Napoleon I.

CHRISTIANITY.-Spreading

Spreading Christianity abroad is sometimes an excuse for not having it at home. A man may cut grafts from his tree till the tree itself has no top left with which to bear fruit. In the end, the power of Christian missions will be measured by the zeal of enlightened piety at home, as the circulation of blood at the extremities of the body will depend upon the soundness of the lungs and heart. I do not say that we should not send the Gospel abroad; but that we may do it, there must be more of it at home. We must deepen the wells of salvation, or drawing will run them dry.-H. W. Beecher.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Triumph of

I have seen the sun with a little ray of distant light challenge all the power of darkness, and without violence and noise climbing up the hill, hath made night so to retire, that its memory was lost in the joys and sprightfulness of morning; and Christianity, without violence or armies, without resistance and self-preservation, without strength or human eloquence, without challenging of privileges or fighting against tyranny, without alteration of government and scandal of princes, with its humility and meekness, with tolerations and patience, with obedience and charity; with praying and dying, did insensibly turn the world into Christian and persecution into victory!-Bishop Taylor.

CHRISTIANITY-a Vital Germ.

Men have treated Christianity as if it were but a system of logical dogmas. It is, however, a vital germ. A seed does not require you to give it an organization; the acorn does not ask you to give it trunk, branches, and form. No: give it soil, and sun, and dew, and it will build out of the elements about it a majestic structure for itself.-Dr. Thomas.

CHRISTIANITY.-The Voice of

Her voice is, without distinction, to people of every colour, and clime, and condition to the continent and the isles; to the man of the city, the man of the field, the man of the woods; to the sick and desperate; to the beggar and the slave. She impairs no faculty, interdicts no affection, infringes no relation; but, taking men as they are, with all their depravity and woes, she proffers them peaco and blessedness.-Dr. Mason..

CHRISTIANITY.-The Way to Learn

Christianity is rather learned by a loving heart than acquired by a studious head: and the appointed medium whereby the beams of scriptural knowledge are

to be poured into our mental darkness, is not the logical keenness of an inquiring intellect, but the saintliness of a submitting will that longs to imitate its Master's cross.-R. Montgomery.

CHRISTIANITY and INFIDELITY.

The more thoroughly an individual embraces infidelity, the more entirely does he become the slave of sin. The more perfectly he embraces the Gospel, the more perfectly does he become the example of whatever is lovely and of good report. Multitudes and the chief of infidels have, in the hour of death, abandoned their sentiments with horror. On the other hand no Christian ever regretted, when dying, that he had believed the Gospel; all have only wished they had followed it more diligently; and, in cases innumerable, disciples of Christ have risen to the most triumphant emotions of joy and praise, and the most exulting assurance of eternal life and glory, in the very act of departing for eternity. Is a tree to be known by its fruits? Then which of these is the Tree of Life? Which looks like truth? Which is to be cut down, and cast into the everlasting fire?—Bishop MacIlvaine.

CHRISTIANS.-The Bonds Uniting

Christians are united by a community of need,-by a community of interest and prospect: they are soldiers together; they are sailors together; they are servants and children together; and they shall soon shine as stars together.-J. H. Evans.

CHRISTIANS.-Desperate

We are afraid of being desperate Christians! Oh, let us be desperate! The Church needs extremity; a great tug out of the world.-Powerscourt.

CHRISTIANS.-Differences among

There are differences of character which, springing from constitutional peculiarities or early education, grace will modify, but never altogether eradicate on this side the grave. There are also differences among Christians which imply no defect; just as there are in countenances which are very unlike, and yet, be the complexion dark or fair, the hair of golden colour, or like the raven's wing, are very beautiful. We do not expect, or even wish, all good men to be alike, any more than I would have all the members of a family alike; all flowers alikenone but roses in the garden, or daisies in the field; the Church of Christ, like the meadows below, or the star-spangled heavens above, owing its beauty in part to that variety in unity which marks all the works of God, and mars none of them.-Dr. Guthrie.

CHRISTIANS-Divinely Made.

Christians are made, not born such.-Tertullian.

CHRISTIANS.-The Divinity of

The divinity of Christians consists not in a God the mere Author of geometrical truths and of elementary order: this is the religion of the Pagans. It consists not merely in a God who exercises a providence over the lives and estates of men, and bestows on His worshippers a happy course of temporal existence: this is the religion of the Jews. But the God of Christians is a God of love and consolation;

He is a God whose infinite mercy unites itself to the inmost soul of His faithful followers; who fills them with humility, joy, and love; who renders them incapable of any other end than of Himself alone.-Pascal.

CHRISTIANS.-The Earthly Lot of

By far the greater number are working with their hands. In fields and factories, in workshops and kitchens, in mines and fishing-boats, bending over the forge, feeding the blast-furnace, you find them: rising early, plying their monotonous task, the big drops often trickling down their brow, and youthful energy fast evaporating into a meagre and infirm old age. And others you will find whose task is partly manual or mechanic, partly or chiefly mental. One teaches the young-hires out his head and heart to enkindle intelligence, or transfuse his own refinement into minds which are often, alas! incapable, for employers who are often, alas! unthankful. Another grapples with disease. Through the bleak December night, with bleared eyes from broken slumber, he goes to throw away his own health in warding off the stroke of death, or mitigating the paroxysms of some excruciating malady. A third fights his country's battles. Away from wife and children, he marches through the putrid swamp, lodges on the frozen or the flooded field, associates with comrades rough, reckless, and uncongenial, and, his life in his hand, mounts the breach volcanic with destruction and quivering with gory swaths mown down in mortal agony. A fourth is a trader. A solitary adventurer, or a son of Zebedee in partnership with others, his property is afloat, and what with his dependence on others, what with the dangers of the deep and the tempests overhead, what with the fluctuations of the atmosphere, and the fickleness of the cunning prey he longs to capture, perhaps for a continuance his is as toilsome a lot as any, and in the storms which from time to time arise, it is often absolute agony.-Dr. J. Hamilton.

CHRISTIANS.-Excitable

There are certain minerals, such as quartz, fluor spar, and the diamond, which, when rubbed against each other, or exposed to a considerable degree of heat, will, when removed to a dark place, throw off very beautiful light, although before opaque. This is called phosphorescence. So there are some Christians, like these stones, who are cold and dark in themselves, but under the influence of eloquence, sympathy, etc., are excited to earnest glows of love, and zealous actions of good works.-Professor Hitchcock.

CHRISTIANS.-Inconsistent

If there are inconsistent Christians, it is that they are not yet Christian enough.—Professor Vinet.

CHRISTIANS Like the Moon.

Christians are like the moon, which increases her beauty till she is at the full. They have no desire to put off the robes of purity while they are on this side eternity. They wish to hold the sword of religion in their hands, till God sets the crown of glory on their heads.-W. Secker.

CHRISTIANS.-The Love of

Nothing in Christianity is more conspicuous than that Christians are to love each other unfeignedly as brethren.-I. Taylor.