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reach. You must have made the assertion that the Jews imitated 'the worst vices of the Romans, and strove to surpass the Persians for treachery,' for the sake of turning a period, aud filling up a line, without the slightest regard to truth, and with the consciousness that you were writing what was false; for how could they do either the one or the other if they had no connection with either nation? You do not tell us what was grandly pre-eminent in the character of the Sclavonians, so that our readers might be enabled to make the comparison between them and the Jews. It is rather too much to expect any one to take your mere word for it.

But suppose the Jews were as base, corrupt, and ignorant as you represent them, the difficulties of your position are not thereby diminished." You would have to account for the fact that a member of this despised nation, surrounded by such adverse and degrading influences, should exert the greatest and widest influence upon the most enlightened and civilized peoples of the present dayan influence which you vainly covet, and as vainly seek to destroy. Why, this is the greatest wonder in the history of the world, that an obscure and uneducated Jew should not only rally around him for eighteen centuries the wisest and noblest of men, but should transform some of the vilest and most selfish of beings into servants of God and of humanity as true, and pure, and disinterested as ever adorned and blessed the carth. The very name of Jesus has become a synonyme for all that is glorious and Godlike in our world; and if it was the name of a mere dreamer, an enthusiast, a charlatan,-it has been more pregnant of spiritual quickening, of moral aspiration, and of holy joy, than any other name. If the Jews were but copyists, how marvellous that so original a character rose among them! You will allege that they were narrow minded bigots: how then did a system of religion, perfect in its adaptations to universal man, which treated Jew and Gentile alike, arise among them? By what process were the deep and almost ineradicable prejudices of the apostles overthrown, till they became ainbassadors of salvation to the wide world? How were they led to throw away their magnificent ritual, venerable for its antiquity, and expressive in its symbolism for a simple, unadorned, and spiritual worship? How were thei gorgeous and long-cherished dreams of a temporal kingdom broken, with only an intenser, and more consistent clinging to the Christ, the spiritual king? These are questions that have only to be asked to refute your crude and inconsiderate statements.

You suppose Jesus to have brooded over one idea—the happiness of the race —an idea, sir, that I beg to recommend to you and your fellow-Secularists in preference to the wild vagaries, and incongruous dreams that generally occupy your attention. There is no doubt that the whole of his conduct was under the dominance of the idea of doing the greatest possible good to the whole race of man, and of bringing the highest glory to the great Creator. Would that you and your friends could be induced to devote yourselves to such an end! The admission that he lived for so noble and unselfish an object, is totally inconsistent with the charge of imposture; that charge, therefore, we may regard as definitively abandoned. His personal character, the broad aim of his mission, and the means by which he sought its attainment, as they stand out in unvarnished simplicity in the evangelic narrative, have only to be stated to sweep away your disingenuous surmises, and refute your unmanly slanders.

His moral character was without the shadow of a stain. His bitterest enemies could not prove that in anything he had violated the law of God, or neglected the well-being of man. Innumerable snares were laid for him, but he passed through the ordeal without betraying a weakness or a flaw. 'He knew no sin., In him there was 'no iniquity.' He was undefiled and separate from sinners. The moral law found in him its perfect embodiment-the principle of love its highest example. His life emphatically declared him to be the Son of God. But his character was as attractive as it was pure. With him there was no aus

terity of manners to repel, no exclusiveness of spirit, no forbiddingness of look, or of conversation, to discourage. Among his disciples, he showed that easy, unostentatious familiarity, which, in a public teacher, is so winning. He was ever as one of themselves, and stood pre-eminent only for his moral dignity and divine perfection. The angel of mercy, he visited the homes of the poor and broken-hearted. At his presence despair vanished and grief smiled. İle disregarded classes and casts, and only regarded man. All were alike welcome to his friendship and his aid. To the astonishment of the rich man at whose table he sat, the sinner's offering of penitence and gratitude was not spurned because she was poor. It was this sociality and gentleness-this deep unwearied kindness toward all, whatever might be the outward circumstances of their lot that drew down upon him the jealousy and hatred of the Scribes and Pharisees.

The object of his mission was harmonious with so exalted and loving a character. He came to bless the world by saving it from sin; to destroy the fear which sin had produced; to chase away the gloom which overhung the grave; to teach us that the glory of man is mind, and that the glory of mind is love; to reveal to us the responsibility of daily life, and the splendour of our future destiny; to show us that we can only attain greatness by self-sacrificing labour, and that he is the greatest man who serves the greatest number; to sweep away all class distinctions, and national animosities, and unite all men into one happy and glorious brotherhood. To confer such blessings not upon one class or nation, but upon the entire family of man. Such a conception had never entered the minds of the sages of Greece or Rome. The regeneration of the great masses of society was beyond the region of their highest thoughts. All the genius and mental energy of the nations, in whose superiority to the Jews you glory, had never given birth to such an idea. Such a sublime and divine mission was reserved for Jesus of Nazareth!

And the means by which he sought its attainment were alike worthy of his character and his mission. He made his appeal not to men's prejudices or passions, but to the sense of right, of duty, and of gratitude. He never sanctioned the use of constraint, of force, or of persecution for the propagation of his principles. When his disciples would have him to use such means, he rebuked them by saying, 'Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of; for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.' He would not drive men into his kingdom, but draws them by the moral magnetism of his love.

In face of the broad patent facts of Christ's history, our readers can have no difficulty in deciding upon your charge of enthusiasm. If there was enthusiasm, it was the enthusiasm of an omniscient and perfect mind contemplating the deep degradation of humanity, and putting forth the highest and most self-sacrificing efforts for its salvation. As to your suppositions that Christ had 'studied natural magic,' was acquainted with mesmerism, and 'practised animal magnetism,' they are mere suppositions, unsupported by a particle of evidence, and deserve

no attention whatever.

You have taken up the hackneyed charge that Christ sought temporal dominion among the Jews; and have feebly repeated F. W. Newman. How broadly did he himself declare that his kingdom was not of this world. How clearly did he instruct his disciples as to their mission to teach, to heal, and to preach repentance. His sermon on the mount gave the clearest representation of his objects and principles, and there is nothing there of a temporal reign. It is consistent in you to bring against Christ the accusation which the Jews brought against him! Pilate has witnessed for himself and refuted your calumny when he said,' I find no fault in him.' 'Let the dead bury thelr dead,' just means, You have more important work to do that is urgent, for the world needs light and salvation. And whatever you may say to the contrary Christ does give to those who follow him, even in this life, an hundredfold.'

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What is to be thought of a democrat of the first water, like W. H. Johnson, condemning Christ because the poor were his only followers,' and making riches and influence the standard of respectability? Christ thanked his Father, not that the gospel was hid from the men of power, but that its first principles were hid from them, for had they apprehended its power in overturning false systems they would have crushed it in the bud. God watched over it until it had germinated, taken root, and was able to bear the fiercest blasts of persecution. Then those blasts only bore the seed-germs of truth more widely to other lands. Was there not reason in this for gratitude to God?

It is true that we find many passages in the gospels in which 'Jesus taught the coming of the kingdom of God;' but if you had paid any attention to those passages, you would have discovered that Christ took care to correct the false impressions which prevailed in reference to that kingdom. He assured them that it was not temporal, but spiritual. He warned them that many would come saying in reference to it, 'Lo! here; and lo! there,' but they were not to heed them: for, said he, "The kingdom of God is within you.' He sought not to reign on the outer throne of a Jewish state, but over the inner empire of our affections, motives, and sympathies. The quotation from the 'able writer' will avail no more than the repetition of his unfounded objections, to injure the character of Christ, or overturn his religion. According to Christ's prediction, the twelve apostles do sit on twelve thrones, exerting a mightier and wider influence on the literature, the laws, the institutions, and the moral and spiritual cordition of the world, than any other mere men whatever. And therefore, the accusation of the Jewish priests, endorsed by the Secularist priests of the nineteenth century, is proved to be one of the vi'est calumnies which ever malignity conceived.

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BOOK-REVELATION.

THAT MAY BE POSSIBLE WITH MAN WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.

(Continued from our last.)

And you also admit that, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, or in a much larger proportion, taking all the nations of the world since time began, the said culture and education have been wanting, or ineffably bad?'

"Yes.'

'So that there have been very few, in point of fact, who have attained that'spiritual' religion for which you and our spiritualists contend; and those few chiefly, as Mr. Newman admits, amongst Jews and Christiaas, though they too have had their most grievous errors, which have deplorably obscured it.'

'Yes.'

It appears then, I think, that if we allow that the internal revelation, without a most happy external culture and development, will not form any religion at all worthy of the name, and that that happy culture and development (from whatsoever cause) are not the condition of our race; it appears, I say, rather odd to affirm that any divine aid in this absolutely necessary external education of humanity, is not only superfluous, but impossible.'

Another pause ensued, when Harrington said again, You will think me very pertinacious, perhaps, but I must say that, in my judgment, Mr. Newman's theory of progressive religion (for he also admits a doctrine of progress) favours the same sceptical doubts as to the impossibility of a book

No. 24, Vol. II.

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revelation. You do not deny, I suppose, that he does think the world needs enlightening?'

'Had he not believed that, he would not have written.'

I suppose not. However, how should the world need it, if your principles be true, and every man brings into the world his own particular lantern-enter moonshine'-I do not quite understand; or, if it is in need of such illumination notwithstanding, why it should not be possible for an external revelation to supply it still better than your illuminati, I am equally unable to understand. But let that pass. Mr. Newman concludes that the world does not stand in need of this illumination, and that it has had it at various times. It is his opinion, is it not, that men began by being polytheists and idolaters?'

'It is so; and surely all history bears out the theory.'

'Many doubt it. I will not venture to give any opinion, except that there are inexplicable difficulties, as usual, on both sides. Just now I am

quite willing to take his statement for granted, and suppose that man in the infancy of his race was, in spite of the aid of his very peculiar illumination which seems to have "rayed our darkness"-as very a Troglodyte in civilization and religion as you (for the special glory of his Creator, I suppose, and the honour of your species,) can wish him to have been. Well, man began by being a polytheist, and very gradually emerged 'out of that pleasant condition-or rather an infinitesimal portion of the race has emerged out of it into the better forms of idolatry-(poor wretch!), and from thence to monotheism; that, in short, his polytheism is not the corruption of his monotheism, but his monotheism an elevation of his polytheism. Yet it is, after all, a cheerless "progress," which often "advances backward." Mr. Newman says that "the law of God's moral universe, as `known to us, is that of progress; that we trace it from old barbarism to the methodized Egyptian idolatry, to the more flexible polytheism of Syria and Greece," and so forth; and so in Palestine, from the "image worship in Jacob's family to the rise of spiritual sentiment under David, and Hezekiah's prophets." Yet he also tells us, 66 ceremonialism more and more incrusted the restored nation, and Jesus was needed to spur and stab the consciences of his contemporaries, and recall them to more spiritual perceptions." Well, thus came Christ to "stab and spur;" and faith, I think, "stab and spur" were again needed by the end of the third century. Successive reformers are needed to "stab and spur" the thick hide of humanity, without which it will not, it seems, go forward, but perversely go backward; and even with this perpetual application of the gead of some spiritual mohout, man crawls on at an intolerably slow pace. However, stab and spur" are needed, which is all I am now intent upon.' 'Yes; but each of those great souls, who have stimulated the dull mind of ordinary humanity, derived from its own internal illumination that spiritual light which they have communicated to the rest of mankind!'

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'For themselves perhaps, my friend,' said Harrington, and if they kept it to themselves in many instances, probably the world would have been no loser. That they had it from within, is true-if your theory is true. But to others, to the bulk of mankind, they have imparted this light; it has -been to mankind an external revelation; it is from without, not from within, that this light has been received, and that the boasted "progress'

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