y the sublimest
doctrine, the purest ethics, the mightiest miracles, the grandest
spiritual kingdom, and are daily and hourly exhibited in the virtues and
graces of all who yield to the regenerating and sanctifying power of his
spirit and example. The historical Christ meets and satisfies our
deepest intellectual and moral wants. Our souls, if left to their
noblest impulses and aspirations, instinctively turn to him as the
needle to the magnet, as the flower to the sun, as the panting hart to
the fresh fountain. We are made for him, and 'our heart is without rest
until it rests in him.' He commands our assent, he wins our admiration,
he overwhelms us to humble adoration and worship. We cannot look upon
him without spiritual benefit. We cannot think of him without being
elevated above all that is low and mean, and encouraged to all that is
good and noble. The very hem of his garment is healing to the touch; one
hour spent in his communion outweighs all the pleasures of sin. He is
the most precious and indispensable gift of a merciful God to a fallen
world. In him are the treasures of true wisdom, in him the fountain of
pardon and peace, in him the only substantial hope and comfort of this
world and that which is to come. Mankind could better afford to lose the
whole literature of Greece and Rome, of Germany and France, of England
and America, than the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Without him, history
is a dreary waste, an inextricable enigma, a chaos of facts without
meaning, connection, and aim; with him it is a beautiful, harmonious
revelation, the slow but sure unfolding of a plan of infinite wisdom and
love: all ancient history converging to his coming, all modern history
receiving from him his higher life and impulse. He is the glory of the
past, the life of the present, the hope of the future. We cannot even
understand ourselves without him. According to an old Jewish proverb:
'The secret of man is the secret of the Messiah.' He is the great
central light of history as a whole, and at the same time the light of
every soul; he alone can solve the mystery of our being, and fulfil our
intellectual desires after truth, all our moral aspirations after
goodness and holiness, and the longing of our feelings after peace and
happiness.

Not for all the wealth and wisdom of this world would I weaken the faith
of the humblest Christian in his Divine Lord and Saviour; but if, by the
grace of God, I could convert a single scepti