r-flung that even an enemy could
not travel beyond its bounds. Other teachers sought to regulate the
lives of their followers by rule and formula, but Christ's plan was to
purify the heart and then to leave love to direct the footsteps.

What conclusion is to be drawn from the life, the teachings and the
death of this historic figure? Reared in a carpenter shop; with no
knowledge of literature, save Bible literature; with no acquaintance
with philosophers living or with the writings of sages dead, when only
about thirty years old He gathered disciples about Him, promulgated a
higher code of morals than the world had ever known before, and
proclaimed Himself the Messiah. He taught and performed miracles for a
few brief months and then was crucified; His disciples were scattered
and many of them put to death; His claims were disputed, His
resurrection denied and His followers persecuted; and yet from this
beginning His religion spread until hundreds of millions have taken His
name with reverence upon their lips and millions have been willing to
die rather than surrender the faith which He put into their hearts. How
shall we account for Him? Here is the greatest fact of history; here is
One who has with increasing power, for nineteen hundred years, moulded
the hearts, the thoughts and the lives of men, and He exerts more
influence to-day than ever before. "What think ye of Christ?" It is
easier to believe Him divine than to explain in any other way what he
said and did and was. And I have greater faith, even than before, since
I have visited the Orient and witnessed the successful contest which
Christianity is waging against the religions and philosophies of the
East.

I was thinking a few years ago of the Christmas which was then
approaching and of Him in whose honor the day is celebrated. I recalled
the message, "Peace on earth, good will to men," and then my thoughts
ran back to the prophecy uttered centuries before His birth, in which He
was described as the Prince of Peace. To reinforce my memory I re-read
the prophecy and I found immediately following a verse which I had
forgotten--a verse which declares that of the increase of His peace and
government there shall be no end, And, Isaiah adds, that He shall judge
His people with justice and with judgment. I had been reading of the
rise and fall of nations, and occasionally I had met a gloomy
philosopher who preached the doctrine that nations, like individuals,
must