h's coming is announced
to an expectant world. Whom will he side with--the crushed and
despairing millions, or the aristocratic and haughty few? Will he adopt
and develop the idea of equality found in Jewish law, or the principle
now ascendant,--"Might makes right,"--the Roman slave law? Let him
answer.

Standing in the synagogue at Nazareth, the home of his boyhood, amid his
expectant friends and relations, he reads (Luke 4:16-21) from Isaiah,
"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to
_preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord_. And he closed the book and sat down,
... and began to say to them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in
your ears." There is his commission and the constitution of his kingdom.
Can any thing be more explicit?

Christ himself comes with glad tidings for the poor, to destroy slavery
and oppression, and establish liberty. Rejoice, ye poor, taught hitherto
that ye were made only for the service of the rich; there is glad
tidings for you. Rejoice, captives and slaves, "bruised" with the lash
and fetter; _God_ comes "to preach deliverance to the captives, liberty
to them that are bruised, and the acceptable year (the Jubilee) of the
Lord."

How did he fulfill this commission and pledge? No code of laws and
dogmas, terse and dry, were issued by him for the government of his
kingdom; but the great principle was proclaimed of a common brotherhood
as children of God our Father, and of love to him as such. In his sermon
on the mount, the parables of the lost sheep and silver piece, the good
Samaritan, the prodigal son, the Pharisee and the publican; in his
private teachings to his disciples; and, above all, by his daily example
he taught and illustrated, as the leading characteristics of his
kingdom, love to God, the brotherhood of man, the rights of all, however
poor, degraded, or despised. More, he makes this idea of brotherhood
and equality even with himself, the great test in the judgment. Matt.
25:40, 45: "And the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me." What will those who now boast of
their large churches, composed almost entirely of slaves, Christian
ministers, and ch