and in prisons; in poor-houses and in palaces; in the drawing-rooms of
the wealthy, and in the hovels of the poor. The greatest scholars and
rarest geniuses devote their lives to the diffusion of their doctrines;
and there is no probability of a change. If Christianity be false, the
world is mad: if it be true, the case of the infidel is deplorable in
the extreme.

And that many portions of the Christian system _are_ true, is past
doubt. They carry the evidence of their truth on their very face. And
other portions admit of easy proof. The truth of many Christian
doctrines can be proved by experience. And the rest are probable enough.
There is nothing absurd, nothing irrational in Christianity. The
teachings of Christ are the perfection of goodness. They are the
perfection of wisdom and beauty. Even Goethe could say, "The human
race can never attain to anything higher than Christianity, as presented
in the life and teachings of its Founder." And again he says, "How much
soever spiritual culture may advance, the natural sciences broaden and
deepen, and the human mind enlarge, the world will never get beyond the
loftiness and moral culture of Christianity as it shines and glistens in
the Gospels."--_Farhenlehre_, iii. 37.

And nothing can be more true.

Look for a few moments at Christ and Christianity.

And, first, what is Christ as presented in the Gospels?

1. He is, first, holy, harmless, undefiled; a lamb without blemish and
without spot. This is the lowest trait in His character. Yet it is a
great thing for any one to remain innocent in a world like this, with a
nature like ours.

2. But He was, second, an example of the highest moral and spiritual
excellence. He was devout, pious, resigned, towards His Heavenly Father.
He was full of benevolence towards men. He did good. The happiness of
mankind was the end, and doing good the business, of His life. He had no
other object. He paid no regard to wealth, to power, to pleasure, or to
fame. He was so fixed and single in His aim, that there is no room for
mistake. To do good, to bless mankind, was His meat and drink.

3. And He did good to men's bodies as well as to their souls. While He
taught the ignorant, and reformed the bad, and comforted the penitent,
He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, bread
to the hungry, and life to the dead.

4. He enjoined the same way of life on His disciples. "Freely ye have
received," said He, "freely