their case must stand in bar to our conclusion. We would not say that there are not such cases. We would not say that there may not be men of deep sincerity, and even of spiritual earnestness, who can not find rest in Christianity in such a time as ours. We have no right to say such a thing. But we have right to say that such cases are rare, and are at the best of partial importance. They must be taken into account in forming our judgment; but they are not entitled to set aside the positive evidence with which they seem to conflict. It must be always difficult to estimate such cases, and understand their true importance.

The conclusion remains, that the awakened spiritual intelligence of man, in its highest and most developed forms, continues to find, as it has found in past ages, its truest satisfaction in the Gospel. It finds here a revelation of God,

and a revelation of itself such as it finds no where else a witness of perfection above coming down to meet imperfection on earth, and to raise it to its own blessed union and strength. It finds here a power to quicken and enlighten, to regenerate and sanctify-a power which brings the alienated soul back to God, and heals its anxieties, and kindles its torpor, and, from the darkness of sin, raises it to the light of heaven. It is impossible that a religion which

thus leads to God should not come from him-that our spiritual being should be quickened into life and righteousness by a falsehood. "Suppose, after all, that you are told that this religion is false; but meanwhile it has restored in you the image of God, re-established your original connection with that great Being, and put you in a condition to enjoy the bliss of heaven; by means of it you have become such that it is impossible God should not recognize you as his child, and own you at the last, and make you partaker of his glory. You are made fit for paradise, nay, paradise has begun in you. here for you live. This religion has done for you what all religions propose, but what no other has realized. Nevertheless, by this supposition, it is false--what more could it do if it were true? Nay, do you not rather see that this is a splendid proof of its truth? Do you not see that a religion which thus leads to God must come from God?" It has the witness in itself "the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, and which testifieth of the Son."

IX.

WHAT TO BELIEVE.

IT necessary not only to be able, out, der e

T is necessary not only to be able to render a

over, clearly to understand the objects presented to our faith in Christianity. The two states of mind are intimately connected. No one is in a position to appreciate the "evidences" of Christianity who does not understand what Christianity clearly is-and there are some who argue on the subject in our day do not really understand this-and no one can be said to understand Christianity as a subject of thought, who does not know something of its evidences.

The very extent to which Christianity has been made a subject of thought and argument, has a tendency to obscure its meaning to the young inquirer. It has been so elaborately systematized, and its various articles so minutely controverted, that it is difficult, amid the mass of speculation and discussion with which it has been invested, to discern its simple meaning. And yet, undoubtedly, its true meaning is very simple, and capable of being apprehended, quite

irrespective of the controversies which have traversed and complicated it. We have only to transport ourselves in imagination to the apostolic age, before any of these controversies had arisen-before the ages of dogma had yet come— in order to feel how possible it must be to understand Christianity fully, without plunging into the perilous war of words that has long raged around it. Do not all feel who have most studied it, that this is especially what they have to, do-to read its simple meaning in the crossed page of its history-to rise above its watchwords, as they reach us across the ages, bearing many confusing sounds, to the living heart of the cause which they symbolized and were meant to defend-instead of losing the reality in the words, and becoming enslaved to names which may have long lost their original strength and truthfulness?

Beyond all question the objects presented to our faith in the Gospel-what we are to believeare not primarily any set of propositions or number of articles. Such propositions or articles may be of the highest utility; they may serve admirably to express, in an expository form or outline, our faith; but, primarily, they are not matters of faith. The primary object of Christian faith, as of all faith, is a Person. Trust in me can only be created by character or

claims in another. I may assent to a proposition, but I do not properly believe it till the element of personality with which it is connected, or which it represents, comes into play. Faith, like love, is the appropriate exchange of one soul and spirit with another, or with Him. who is the Father of spirits, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing; and the word is emptied of its best meaning when-especially in religion-it is used in any lower sense.

The great and comprehending object of Christian faith is Christ. As St. Paul said to the Philippian jailer, when, pressed with his sudden burden of offense and danger, he cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." In Jesus Christ is summed up all that we have to believe the revelation of the Father-the redeeming sacrifice of the Son-the sanctifying of the Spirit, which proceedeth from the Father, and testifieth of the Son. In him, and in him alone, we truly see our sin and misery-our help and salvation-our death and our life-our selfish unrighteousness, and the "righteousness which is of God by faith of him."

I. THE REVELATION OF THE FATHER.

In believing in Jesus Christ we believe on the Father, revealed in and by him. He came "to