severity, torture, and death that they might but give utterance to their heavenly message of " Peace on earth, and good will toward men." Mohammedanism was the triumph of brute force, making men unprincipled fanatics, and women ignorant slaves of man's brutal will; Christianity was the triumph of light and liberty and moral suasion, lifting all humanity out of its deep degradation, renewing depraved hearts, constituting virtuous homes, and giving good cheer, hope, and peace in proportion as mankind have been willing to take it honestly to their souls. Mohammedanism exists as a paralyzing incubus and a gradual decay on all the nations and peoples over which it dominates; Christianity exists as a principle of growing life and a dispensary of the sublimest benefactions ever vouchsafed to man. Its presence is to-day the divinest benediction in our world.* "Mohammed established his kingdom killing others-Jesus Christ, by making his followers lay down their own lives; Mohammed, by forbidding his law to be read-Jesus Christ, by commanding us to read. In a word, the two were so opposite that if Mohammed took the way, in human probability, to succeed, Jesus Christ took the way, humanly speaking, to be disappointed. And hence, instead of concluding that because Mohammed succeeded Jesus Christ might in like manner have succeeded, we ought to infer that, since Mohammed succeeded, Christianity must have inevitably perished if it had not been supported by a power altogether divine."-Pascal's Thoughts on Religion, chap. xvii. Thus, then, we have propounded to us a Saviour worthy of our regard, confidence, and humble obedience-a Saviour who once walked this earth as man while yet the true and only Son of God-a Saviour whose unfathomable love induced Him to submit to the death of the cross that He might open to us the doors of paradise-a Saviour once dead and buried, but who broke all the bands of death and the grave, rose again from His rocky tomb, ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of eternal Majesty, glorified with the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, clothed with all authority and power as " Head over all things to the Church, and able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." It is to Him the congregations of His people have been singing for more than a thousand years, "Thou art the King of glory, O Christ; Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Nor can life be right or the true goal and blessedness of our being be secured except as we join in that song with living faith, station ourselves under the standard of His Name, and learn to live to Him and His kingdom. For "this is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." "He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God." LECTURE TENTH. The Supreme Demand. ACTS 17:30, 31: And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. T was in the famous city of Athens, then the IT chief centre of pagan culture, that these words were first spoken. Athens was not the seat of government, and had lost much of its earlier political importance, but it was still the boast of the world for its elegance and glory as a city of temples, philosophers, poets, orators, artists, wits, and sages. Rome itself went there for teachers, and was glad to copy after it in all matters of fashion, social life, and haughty extravagance. By a singular providence the great apostle Paul was brought to this city. Driven away from Beroa by a set of unprincipled ruffians, some friends conducted him hither, where he remained in waiting for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him. He occupied his leisure and loneness in examining what could be seen and learned of the place. He wandered among the temples, statues, colonnades, markets, groves, and public resorts, noting what he found, conversing with various persons and classes here and there, and posting himself for an intelligent estimate of the people and of the things of which they were most proud. He was not wanting in æsthetic taste or imagination, and could appreciate elegance, beauty, genius, and whatever was pleasing and excellent. Nor did he fail to observe the exuberance of religious devotion, the masterly art, and the sensuous splendor which everywhere appeared. But, like Luther in Rome nearly fifteen hundred years later, there was nothing in all this idle pomp and classic glory to kindle his admiration. It was to him but little more than the gilding and din of a devil's nest. He was moved indeed, and "his spirit was stirred within him," but it was not by the faultless Pentelican marble chiselled into so many exquisite forms and piled into such splendid structures, nor by the assemblage of the productions of human genius which there found place. He looked on things with a spiritual eye and weighed them in the balance of immortal truth, and only a profound melancholy came over him as he contemplated them. He saw mind, intelligence, and grand capacity, but all perverted, sen |