EWIS L. PINKERTON was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, January 28th, 1812. His paternal grandparents were Irish; his maternal, German. In the winter of 1821, when LEWIS was in his tenth year, his father settled in Brooke County, West Va., having previously moved from Maryland to Chester County, Penn., the place of his nativity. Ten years of the son's life were spent among the romantic hills of West Virginia. Those years, as he says himself, were full of "incessant, hard, ill-requited toil;" but they were useful in developing in him the virtue, self-reliance, and fidelity to principle which have ever since characterized him.

      He was trained in the Presbyterian faith, but becoming perplexed with the doctrine of "the Decrees" as taught in the "Shorter Catechism," and having carefully studied the Word of God, he was, in 1830, baptized under the personal ministry of Alexander Campbell.

      In 1831 he left West Virginia, and, after visiting several localities, settled in Trenton, Butler County, Ohio. Here he engaged in teaching a common school, and in the study and practice of medicine. He was married in 1833, and in 1835 attended a course of lectures in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati. In 1836 he removed to Carthage, Ohio, then, and for some years later, the place of residence of the lamented WALTER SCOTT. He continued to study and practice medicine till May, 1838, when he gave up his profession, in which he had been quite successful, and began to preach the Gospel.

      He at once entered upon his new calling, with energy and success. During the years 1838, 1839, and 1840, he traveled almost constantly, preaching the glad tidings to thousands, and witnessing the baptism of a great number of converts. In 1841, he removed to Lexington, Ky., and took charge of the Church in that city. During the winter of the same year he attended a course of lectures in the Medical Department of Transylvania University, and received the degree of M. D. He resigned his connection with the Church in Lexington in the fall of 1843, and spent the remainder of that year, and the greater part of the next, in [103] preaching and soliciting subscriptions for Bacon College, located at Harrodsburg, Ky. He removed to Midway, Ky., in the spring of 1845, where he caught a successful Female Academy, with only occasional and slight assistance, until the summer of 1851. Meantime he conceived the idea of a Female Orphan School, and communicated his plans to J. WARE PARISH, a noble Christian gentleman, who at once took hold of the enterprise with the warmest zeal. In the winter of 1846-47 a charter was obtained from the Legislature of Kentucky, and the Orphan School located at Midway was put into successful operation.

      The establishment of this school may be regarded as one of the most important events in Dr. Pinkerton's career. It was his own conception; and to him, more than to any other man, are the Disciples in Kentucky indebted for this magnificent monument of Christian liberality.

      From 1851 to 1860 he was principally engaged in preaching and teaching. The churches at Versailles, Paris, and Midway were those for which he labored most of this time, and at all these points he was eminently successful.

      In 1860 he removed to Harrodsburg, having been elected to the chair of Belles-Lettres and Political Science in Kentucky University. When the University was removed to Lexington, he removed also to that city, which is the place of his residence at this time. In February, 1866, he resigned his professorship in the University, and has since been preaching at various points. He delivered a course of lectures at Hiram the present year.

      Besides being a successful preacher and teacher, the Doctor is one of the most accomplished writers in the ranks of the Disciples. In 1848 he edited and published the "Christian Mirror." In 1851 he was senior editor of the "Ecclesiastic Reformer." In 1853-54 he edited the Kentucky Department of the "Christian Age;" and, in 1844-45 the "New Era," a weekly newspaper, the organ of the Sons of Temperance in Kentucky.

      During his life he has been offered the Presidency of several colleges, but has uniformly declined, because he never considered his scholarship equal to such a position. To use his own style, he is an educated man, but not a scholar. Nevertheless, his scholarship is quite respectable, such as a man of less modesty would regard sufficient for any of the places to which he has been called.

      Both as a writer and speaker, his style is very original. His imagination is chaste, though somewhat tinged with an autumn sadness. His logical powers are above mediocrity, and his thoughts always fresh and vigorous. He is distinguished for great independence of character, and, on this account, his actions are not always well understood. He is thoroughly conscientious, and possesses, in a high degree, a generous, sympathetic, and forgiving nature. [104]

HE science of Christianity, Theology, whether orthodox or heterodox, will not, at any time this side the Millennium, become the possession of any considerable number of those who "profess religion," not even of those whose lives are shaped and controlled by it. Ninety-nine of every hundred who are to be saved, if saved at all, "by the grace of God," shall not fully comprehend the methods of that grace. The very great majority of men and women are poor, and from all we can now see, are likely to remain so. They can not have time, therefore, for theological studies, nor can they possess the mental training which such studies must ever require. The minister of Christ strangely mistakes, then, who treats the men, women, and children that meet him in the house of prayer as though they were students of theology, before whom he is to discuss "doctrines"--doctrines which he himself but feebly apprehends, after years of careful study. He mistakes still more fatally, if he shall persuade himself that these doctrines are the matters of Christian faith, and that the salvation of sinners or of saints is involved in the understanding of [105] them. Jesus was, in all respects, pre-eminently the Teacher; but he was not a teacher of doctrines; he did not teach "systematic divinity." The poor people to whom Jesus spoke--the Marys and Marthas, the publicans and sinners, the rough men who caught fish in the sea of Galilee, and the plain women who sold the fish in the neighboring villages, the small artificers, the shepherds and the vine-dressers of Galilee--would have made nothing of the debatable doctrines of our modern Christianity. If a clear apprehension, not to say comprehension, of what are called "the doctrines of the Bible," is, indeed, essential to salvation, may we not pertinently and sorrowfully ask, Who, then, can be saved? It is strange that this quite radical mistake as to the real objects of Christian faith should have been perpetuated so long, seeing that those most devoted to the maintenance of "orthodox views," as being essential to "vital godliness," can not get forward in the work of the ministry without involving themselves in perpetual and practical contradictions. As thus: Grave and learned ministers, after years of patient and laborious preparation and study, will discuss before their congregations the most recondite principles of the Divine government, the most perplexing problems ever submitted to the contemplation of mankind, and earnestly, and even vehemently, insist that the conclusions they may have reached in regard to these difficult themes contain the truth of God; that these conclusions are necessary to "true and saving faith;" and yet these same ministers will receive into the Church men, women, and children--perhaps their own wives, and children, and servants--not one in fifty of whom has the slightest conception of the doctrines in question! Alas! one is tempted to exclaim, when will this great folly of [106] preaching philosophy, instead of preaching Jesus, come to an end? But few of God's people seem to be aware that the misapprehension as to the real objects of faith, from which this strangely inconsistent procedure springs, lies at the foundation of nearly all the divisions that now distract and alienate the Protestant families; in fact, that the Protestant parties, with few exceptions, were born of the misapprehension. These sad divisions will not be healed; nay, they must increase in number till this quite radical misconception is corrected. We are cheered and comforted by the hope that, even now, the much-needed correction is in the way of being effected; and our present discourse is designed to aid, in some small degree, to bring on the day of Renovation, when, as in the beginning, there shall be but one flock, as there is but one Shepherd. No objection ought to be raised against the discussion of any question that may fairly arise out of the Divine testimonies. Let these questions be discussed, then, by those who may have taste and talent for such discussions; discussed in books and periodicals, by the fire-side and in lyceums; but let us not elevate our reasonings into Divine oracles, and make them causes of strifes and divisions among the people of God--the foundations of warring, antagonistic sects.

      A knowledge of religion, as a science, is not more necessary to salvation than is a knowledge of geology, mineralogy, botany, physiology, and chemistry, to farming and gardening. As men manage, by a knowledge of simple facts, to cause the earth to yield her increase, and as they live without any knowledge of the processes of digestion and assimilation, even so may the poor and the uneducated hear, believe, and obey "the glorious Gospel of the blessed God," and rejoice in "the great salvation," [107] without having heard any thing whatever on the subject of Total Hereditary Depravity, Imputed Righteousness, Effectual Calling, the mode in which the Holy Spirit operates in conversion, the "doctrine" of the Trinity, or its opposite, or, indeed, on any other of the vexed questions that have originated and that perpetuate religious parties. Do we mistake utterly? If not, then is it true that an overwhelming majority of all who are brought to God by the preaching of the Gospel, even in the most enlightened communities, know only that they are sinners; that they ought to be holy in heart and in life; that they are helpless; that they are disquieted, and fearful, and miserable. They believe that God has pitied and loved them; that Jesus died for their sins; that God will forgive them for Christ's sake; that he will comfort and sustain them through life; and that he will take them to a glorious home in heaven finally, if they live and die in Jesus. And these, we may add, remain the chief articles of their creed through life; these and similar simple truths, apprehended with a clearness and force, varied by difference in temperament and culture.

      To pursue the train of thought we are in yet a little further. Let any one competent to do so, set himself to ascertain the amount and kind of "doctrinal" knowledge possessed by any congregation of Christians of average general intelligence and of average piety. Beginning with the creation, let him pass leisurely over the four thousand years of Old Testament history and prophesy. He will see what the merchants, farmers, mechanics, their wives and children, the clerks, shop-boys, and the women of the various handicrafts, know about "Cosmogony," the Science of the Deluge; what ideas are entertained of the wonderful and astounding providences of God, as [108] displayed in his dealings with the Patriarchs, with the Egyptians, with Israel during their journey to Canaan, with the same people under their judges and their kings, and with the idolatrous nations with which the people of Israel came into conflict. The examiner will, doubtless, find faith enough in all that is written, so far as the record has been read and remembered; but he will find, also, that to the vast majority, the things revealed have but a shadowy, misty existence, and that, except in rare instances, generalization has not been even so much as thought of; in no instance quite satisfactorily accomplished. Let the same course be pursued with New Testament revelations, the object being to determine with exactness the "views" entertained by the masses on the subjects of debate among Protestant Christians. He will find beautiful, all-conquering faith, triumphant, hope, and love and joy that pass understanding, but very little "Theology"--none, in fact. Decided partisans will have at hand a few "proof texts," which they will quote at random, and often incorrectly; a few will remember definitions and doctrines which they learned from catechisms in childhood, and of which they understood as much at ten years of age as they now understand at thirty. Ah, well, sinners are saved by grace, through faith, and this faith has for its objects persons and facts, not "doctrines," not dogmas, not scientific formulas.

      The knowledge absolutely essential to salvation takes its range far within the limits of the whole revelation of God, and yet we believe he has not spoken one word in vain. So we believe he has not made any thing in vain, although the wisest naturalist falls to apprehend the uses of thousands of objects that offer themselves to his contemplation. [109]

      In the attempt to unfold, in part, the theme of our present meditation, we shall assume that Jesus understood his own religion--that he knew in what respects the human race was wrong in the sight of God, and the means by which the wrong was to be corrected--that he knew, absolutely and completely, all that men ought to believe and to do in order to justification, regeneration, salvation--that he taught the essential truths of his religion, and illustrated its principles of action in his own life. We shall find that, in the apprehension of the Savior, the faith, love, and obedience which his religion requires, have respect to himself.

      I. Christianity meets us first, and, perhaps, at the last, not as a theory, not as a series of doctrines, not as truth expressed in scientific formulæ; but--and blessed be God that it is so--as a history, a biography--the history of a life and of a death, of a burial and of a resurrection, and of an ascension into heaven. To the hearer or reader of that most wonderful, simple, but sublime story, the single question is asked: "What think you of Christ?" Every thing, in the religion of Jesus, turns on the answer that may be given to this far-reaching inquiry. We need not stop to ask nor to answer the quite difficult questions that speculative and ingenious minds may raise concerning the freedom of the will, the decrees of God, the philosophy of the Atonement, the mode of the Divine existence, the plenary inspiration of Scriptures. On these, and similar subjects, good and great men have differed in opinion for sixteen hundred years, and are likely to differ for sixteen hundred more. "What think you of Christ?"

      II. The question which constitutes our text is, so to speak, a "fair question;" that is, it is one that every intelligent being to whom the story of Jesus is submitted, [110] ought to feel bound to answer. If the facts and statements of the four Gospels are taken together, and in their plain, most obvious import, no analysis or generalization is required. The essential truth lies on the surface. It has respect to a person, and not to a doctrine, we repeat, with emphasis. Multiplied thousands of the best men and women on earth this day, if asked, What do you think of the doctrine of predestination? of the Trinity? of Unitarianism? of election? would hesitate to answer--would feel themselves wholly unable to answer, but who would, nevertheless, even die for Jesus's sake, if challenged to do so. Shall Protestants evermore refuse to learn from the Word of God, from the history of religious controversy, and from their own observation, the folly--shall we say it?--of attempting to unite the people of God in the belief of "speculative divinity?"

      That we shall meet with mysteries in the New Testament, is cheerfully conceded. The central being in the whole revelation of God, even Jesus Christ, our Lord, is " a great mystery." And here we must be indulged in a passing remark on the controversies that for fifteen centuries have been waged between Trinitarians and Unitarians. These sad controversies seem to us to consist, for the most part, of unintelligible jargon, of a childish and absurd balancing of texts of Scripture, and of attempts to force from stubborn facts and plain declarations more than they contain, or to lessen their obvious signification. And, after all, do not the greatest and best men on both sides of the controversy admit that the relations of Jesus constitute a necessary and an effably glorious mystery? Why, then, make attempted explanations of that which is inexplicable, the basis of Christian fraternization? Why not admit the "great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the [111] flesh," and then affirm and teach all that the divine testimonies declare of the nature, relations, office, and work of the Lord Jesus? We so deal with other mysteries of revelation, why not with this, perhaps, the greatest mystery of them all?

      We would speak with caution and with unaffected diffidence, and yet it does appear to us that neither the Trinitarian nor the Unitarian formulæ can be made to include all the phenomena of the case. The earnest student of "the record that God has given of his Son," as he reads and ponders, will say of Jesus, "this is, indeed, 'the son of man,' my near kinsman, and yet he is 'Immanuel, God with us;' this is 'the Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of the world.' I can believe all this, and stake eternal issues on it, but I can not explain it. It is matter of faith, not of philosophy. I believe it because it is sustained by ample testimony, not because I am able to classify and so bring into scientific order all the facts and declarations that set forth the nature of One who, as the Word, 'was in the beginning with God, and who was God,' but 'became flesh and dwelt among us,' and who will, in the end, 'deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father, and himself be subject, that God may be all in all.' "Dogmatism on such a subject, what ought to be said of it? Nothing here and now. Few sadder things have occurred in the history of the human race, than the divisions and bitter strifes among Christ's disciples, that have grown out of futile attempts to explain an unspeakable mystery; and the controversy may, we think, be fitly and indefinitely postponed. Within the circle of our own human sympathies, Jesus meets us, and weeps with us, and is "a man of sorrows," but we immediately perceive that his nature passes on beyond our nature, and over into the Infinite, [112] and we not only trust without limit, but adore. "Who by searching can find out God? Who can know the Almighty to perfection?^*

      They who, by faith, dwell in Immanuel's land, are like those who would inhabit a small island far out in mid-ocean. They have the glorious heavens over them; they live amid beauty, and verdure, and bloom, and fragrance, and fruit; their groves are vocal, and their fields yield a hundred-fold; they have all things richly to enjoy. But they have no line with which to take the soundings of the deep sea that surrounds them, and they can see but a little way out over the heaving waters. Beyond the line that bounds their vision all is mystery. Balmy breezes come to them across the deep, they know not whence, but [113] they are full of health and fragrance. Shall they dwell together in peace and love, and enjoy together the varied beauties and bounties of their island home? or shall they quarrel and strive endlessly about what may be the depth of the surrounding sea, and what may be beyond it? It were well could God's people remember always that now we see through a glass darkly, that we know but in part, that we walk by faith. In religion, faith is philosophy; obedience, the perfection of science.

      I. We propose now, by citing a few of the declarations made by the Savior concerning himself, to determine what were his own conceptions of his relations to the race he came to save. We say a few of these declarations, for Jesus spoke very often of himself, a circumstance which seems not to have received the attention its deep significance demands.

      1. Jesus claimed to be the teacher, the leader, and the guide of mankind.

      "Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls." (Matt. xi.) In this declaration, this most affecting invitation, of the beauty and graciousness of which we are not able to speak, Jesus certainly makes himself the first and the last. Is it not singular that though the Savior so often speaks of himself, yet nothing he says has the appearance of egotism? "Never man spake as he spake." The sentences above quoted are every way most wonderful, if we well consider them. Here is a very poor and very friendless young man, who had been brought up in an obscure village of Galilee, proverbial for the meanness of its general circumstances, declaring that he had not where to lay his head, yet [114] proposing to give rest to the souls of the laboring and heavy laden, if they would come to him and learn of him. Let us try clearly to apprehend the peculiarity of the case. Suppose an uneducated, poor, and friendless young man, from one of our obscure, disreputable, out-of-the-way towns, were to come here to Lexington, Kentucky, in one of these passing weeks, and gathering about him some hundreds of poor men and women, should propose to give them rest to their weary, disquieted souls, what would be thought of him? He would be regarded as an amiable, sorrowful lunatic, and some humane person would have him placed in an asylum. But Jesus was not a lunatic. I defy you to think so. And if not, then is he all that he claimed to be; then is he "the Son of the living God," and we are all of us on our way to his judgment-seat. "If weak thy faith, why choose the harder side?" "What think you of Christ?"

      2. Jesus proposed himself as the object of the faith by which sinners are to be saved.

      "God gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. This is the work of God, that you believe on him, whom he hath sent. The Messiah cometh which is called Christ: Jesus said unto her, I that speak to thee am he. Jesus said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He it is that talketh with thee." There is something in this constant recurrence of the Great Teacher to himself that demands our closest attention. No one, as before observed, can regard this as egotism. Every reader of the New Testament feels that it behooved Jesus thus to press his claims. The world could not be saved by philosophers. It needed that One of infinite perfections [115] should dwell among us and show us the Father--one whom all can trust without limit, in whom they can believe "with all the heart." Though Jesus was, indeed, "meek and lowly of heart," and though he had not where to lay his head, yet, whenever he would win the heart of man to holiness and to God, he spoke of himself as being the object of faith.

      3. As Jesus proposes himself as the object of faith, so he constitutes himself the subject of the confession of faith.

      Under circumstances of extreme personal peril, Jesus "witnessed, a good confession," and he was himself the subject of it. "The high-priest asked him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus answered, I am." (Mark xiv.) Wonder not, then, that he requires the same confession from all who would hope in his mercy. "Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. x.) This makes the controversy which Jesus has with the human race not a doctrinal, but a personal controversy, so to speak, and it becomes infinitely serious. Men may not be obliged to accept any given interpretations of a chapter in the letter to the Romans, or in the Apocalypse. The primary question is not concerning doctrines, but concerning Jesus. "Who do you say that I the son of man am? Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon; on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." It is blessed, then, to confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; and on this all-comprehensive truth Jesus builds his Church. Thus do we see that in the apprehension of the Redeemer [116] he is the subject of the confession of Christian faith, and he has given us the form of words in which that confession is to be made. Should any one object that the "form of sound words" in which "the good confession" is appointed to be made, is susceptible of various interpretations, our reply is: So is any form of words, and especially any that the wisdom of man may devise. Indeed, from of old, on all the deeper things of God, theologians have found it needful to comment on their own commentaries, and to explain their own explanations. "What think you of Christ?" Is he, indeed, "the Son of the living God?"

      4. Jesus claimed for himself the supreme love of mankind.

      We are not here arguing that men ought to believe in Jesus, that they ought to confess and love him, but that he himself so taught. In all things he claims the pre-eminence. "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me." (Matt. x.) "If any man come to me, and (comparatively) hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he can not be my disciple." (Luke xiv.) This is decisive on this point. Jesus must be first in the heart's affections, or he will not be there at all. And in this appointment of God does not a Divine philosophy shine forth upon us? What so powerfully and constantly controls human life as the love of friends, living or dead? How hopeless would be the prospects of the human race if the duties of life were to be performed only under the guidance of moral philosophy! What philosophy could bind the mother, through days and nights of weariness, to the cradle of her helpless infant? What formula of duty would nerve the arm of [117] the poor father as he toils ceaselessly, through the heats of summer and the frosts of winter, that his home may be one of comfort? Love is more than dogma, more than philosophy. The wayward youth, far from the home of his innocent childhood, still remembers the tender accents of a mother's or a sister's voice, and weeps. They incessantly call him away from his follies and his crimes, and, from beyond the grave, they invite him to the Fountain opened for sin. These sad, sweet memories of the loved and lost are often more powerful for good than is the rhetoric or logic of the pulpit. The remembered wishes of friends that have passed the Jordan, how they wrap themselves about the heart! And what can be said of the remembered wishes (shall we say?) of the blessed Jesus? Shall not the consideration that he who has done every thing for us, directs and invites us to a given course of life, be omnipotent? Yes, if we love him, we will keep his commandments.

      Alas for us! we find it, perhaps, much easier to love our party, our church, and its forms and its policies, than to love the Lord that bought us. How many of those in all lands, who have professed to believe in Jesus, can go out under the starlit sky in the solemn night, and, looking up toward heaven, say with penitent Peter: "Lord Jesus, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee?"

      Men can do but little, except as mere partisans, under the influence of dogmas, whether religious, political, or moral; but the love of country, the love of mankind, the love of family, above all, the love of Jesus, what can not be achieved under its influence? Even an enemy can be forgiven, and fed, and clothed for Jesus's sake. His poor disciples can be sustained and comforted, because he asks it of us as if it were for himself. Men and women, too, [118] can go cheerfully to the very ends of the earth to seek the lost, and to tell them of God's great love for a sinful race, because Jesus commands it, and we can not deny him. Love is greater than faith, for the faith that overcomes the world must work by love. "Love is the fulfilling of the law, and he that dwells in love, dwells in God and God in him, for God is love." When love for Christ shall so possess the hearts of his people as to be ever the regulating influence of their lives, then will the day of millennial glory break, then will Zion rise and shine, then will the Church go forth to the speedy conquest of the world. Meanwhile, he who shall set himself to keep the commandments of God without being constrained thereto by the love of Christ, will surely fail. And is not Jesus, the meek and lowly One, is he not "the chief among the ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely?" What think you of Christ? Is he not worthy the adoring love of all hearts?

      5. Jesus claimed Divine honors.

      "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgments unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father who hath sent him." And should any poor sinner be staggered at this? If so, we remand him to "the testimony that God has given of his Son." True, indeed, the humiliation of Jesus was infinite. "He took not on himself the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham; for in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." But because of this humiliation, because, "being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be [119] equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," on this very account "God has highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. ii.) We need not fear to go where God directs, and if he has appointed all the angels to worship his Son, sinners for whom he died may "honor him, even as they honor the Father."

      6. Jesus required that mankind should serve and obey him.

      "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatever I command you. If ye love me, keep my commandments. He that has my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." These citations must suffice. In varied forms of words, Jesus claims to be a leader and commander of the people. The government i's on his shoulder, and he declares that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. His apostle declares that "he has become the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him."

      If we have rightly apprehended the import of the teaching of Jesus, then does he make himself the object of the faith that brings the sinner to God; he aims constantly to make men his own disciples; he requires men to confess, to honor, to love, and to obey him. This is religion--the religion of the New Testament--and nothing else is.

      And here we must close this very imperfect survey of these most fundamental and essential instructions. We [120] say imperfect, for much less than a tithe of what Jesus said of himself has been cited. Without any marked order, however, we quote a few additional sayings of the great Teacher, some metaphorical, some literal, but all of widest, deepest significance, and all illustrating and confirming our general proposition, namely, that, in the apprehension of Jesus, he was himself the beginning and the end of his religion, objectively considered.

      1. "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." 2. "I am the good Shepherd, and give my life for the sheep." 3. No man cometh to the Father but by me." 4. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." 5. "I am the resurrection and the life." 6. "All that are in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." 7. "The Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." But we desist. According to these most wonderful declarations, Jesus makes himself King, Priest, Sacrifice for sin, Guide of the world, Judge of all nations. What think ye of Christ?

      II. All that Jesus declared of himself, as to his nature, offices, and work, is, in various forms of words, reiterated by his inspired apostles and evangelists in both their preaching and teaching.

      1. "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Such was, in brief, the great commission under which the apostles went out from the presence of the Lord, "to call men from darkness to light, that they might be translated from the kingdom of Satan into the [121] kingdom of God's dear Son." Let the earnest inquirer after the "truth, as it is in Jesus," carefully read the inspired discourses recorded in the Acts of Apostles. Take, as specimens, the second, tenth, and thirteenth chapters. "Christ, and him crucified," buried, risen, ascended, and seated at the right hand of the Father, constitutes the burden of the apostolic proclamation. They "preached Jesus" to Jew and Gentile, and testified that "through his name whosoever believeth on him should receive the remission of sins." The "evolution of doctrines" had not then been begun; the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus were one; and "mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed." With the evolution of doctrines began the evolution of sects, and they must continue to evolve and to revolve till all shall have returned to the ancient paths, till all shall perceive that the truth concerning the Christ, practically accepted, is the sum of all truth essential to Christian life and Christian fraternization. When we shall have closed our examination of the "sermons" of the apostles, the great, primary, all-comprehending inquiry is still with us, "What think ye of Christ?"

      2. Our citations from the apostolic letters must be few. Indeed, were all that is there declared of the nature, dignity, offices, and work of Jesus taken away, a few shreds only would remain, and these would be meaningless.

      1. "Jesus must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet." 2. "We have a high-priest at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; his priesthood is unchangeable, everlasting. Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us, being the Mediator of the new covenant." 3. "He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, and by him we draw nigh to God." 4. "We are redeemed by the precious [122] blood of Christ, and he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him." 5. "The Church is the body of Christ, and if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 6. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema." 7. "He has left us an example that we should follow his steps." 8. "Jesus will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and kingdom." Thus by the hour might we repeat the declarations of apostles, in which they have exhausted the capacity of literal and metaphorical language to express the glory, the grandeur, the majesty of Christ. In their teaching, assuredly, he is the first, and the midst, and the last. Truly God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways; for it hath pleased him, through the foolishness of preaching [Jesus], to save them that believe. At the close of our readings of the apostles' letters, the question still returns, if possible, with increased force, "What think you of Christ?"

      III. The "ordinances" of the Christian religion--the Lord's Day, the Lord's Supper, and Baptism--declare the Gospel. They preach Jesus, and derive all their significance and value from their relations to him. Let us not suppose that this is accidental.

      1. What means the general stillness of the Lord's-day morning, as, in the round of the weeks, it breaks over Christian lands? The engine has ceased to puff, the rattle of machinery is stopped. No teams are being driven afield, but the unyoked cattle rest in the stalls, or repose at will in the green pastures. There is an unusual quiet in most households, for they feel that the day is hallowed. The places of merchandise are closed, and busy trade pauses to breathe. The poor man looks joyfully on the morning of this day, for he, too, may rest, and sing, and [123] be glad. The bells ring out at length, to tell that the hour of prayer has come; and the rich and the poor together, the father, and mother, and children, and servants pass quietly along the streets or the country highways to their chosen shrines. Touching and beautiful is this, but why is it? A voice comes down through the centuries--the voice of inspiration, the voice of angels, the voice of God,--saying, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." This oracle explains it all. As Jesus died for our sins, so did he rise for our justification. "The first day of the week" hath this inscription: "Sacred, evermore, to the memory of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from among the dead." It celebrates the triumph of the sinner's Friend over death and the grave, and thus preaches one great item of the Gospel of the grace of God. Ah, ye sorrowful ones, who, in garments of woe, and with heavy-laden hearts, go up on this day to the house of the Lord, cling to the faith of Christ's resurrection, for if he rose not, then all faith is vain, we are all in our sins, and our dear ones gone, whom we had hoped to see again, are perished forever. No speculations, no philosophy can help us here. If Jesus does not come again to this earth, the dead will never rise out of their graves. But the first day of every week proclaims to all the ages that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, as he himself said, and that the dead will one day hear his voice and come forth--that "spring shall yet visit the moldering urn, and the morning of an eternal day break, at last, on the darkness of the tomb." "O Death, where now thy sting? O Grave, where now thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." [124]

      2. "On the first day of the week the disciples came together to break bread--to eat the Lord's supper." The appointments are the simplest--a loaf of bread and a cup of wine, but they signify much, even this: "Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures." The "Man of Sorrows" ordained that his disciples should thus show forth his death, until he shall come. "The bread--is it not the communion of the body of Christ? The cup--is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?" (1 Cor. x.) "Do this," said the sorrow-laden Jesus, "do this in remembrance of me." Was there in his nature, too, what we find in our own--a desire not to be forgotten? However this may be, he knew how important it is that his disciples should keep in memory the great love wherewith he loved them, that they should often think of Gethsemane, of the agony and bloody sweat, of the crown of thorns, of Calvary and the Cross, and of that cry which was wrung from the breaking heart of the smitten Shepherd: "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" By means of the "Supper" we go back over the centuries, and look upon the "Lamb of God, as he bore our sins in his own body on the tree," and we say, it is enough--God has, indeed, loved the world, since Jesus died to save it. "O Lamb of God, was ever pain, was ever love like thine?"

      3. "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." In obedience to this commandment of Jesus, the apostles baptized all who yielded to their preaching. It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that baptism is the only act that can be performed, in which the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit may be called by Divine authority. It becomes, in view of this fact, a sublime, and even an awful solemnity. But what is its significance? Even this: [125] the believing penitent is "baptized into the death of Christ;" he is "buried with him by baptism into death;" he is "baptized into Christ, and thus puts on Christ." (Rom. vi.) We cite no other Scriptures; it were needless to do so. In this institution, whose very form sets forth a burial and a resurrection, the sinner puts on the Lord Jesus, and, through his name, obtains remission of sins. Thus do the ordinances of the Gospel preach Jesus crucified, buried, and risen, and derive all their significance and efficacy from their relations to him. "What think you of Christ?"

      Finally: God has placed before a sinful world, for its faith, its love, and its obedience, a person wearing human nature, and bearing its infirmities, yet possessing divine and infinite perfections and attributes. Jesus of Nazareth is a historic personage, whose individuality, so to speak, is marked with wonderful clearness. His manner of teaching--the things taught, as well as his beautiful life, are altogether peculiar, single, alone. The New Testament is the miracle of literature. In the person and claims of Jesus our faith is demanded; for his divinely-beautiful character our all-trusting, adoring love is asked. The commandments of Jesus are not doctrines, but plain rules of life, of action, to which submission is required. These three things: faith in Jesus, the love of Jesus, and obedience to Jesus, as Lord of all, constitute the Christian religion, and are possible to the poor and to the unlearned, as well as to the wealthy and the wise. Not so with theology, with scientific Christianity, about which most religious controversies arise, and which constitute the foundations of religious sects, regarded as such merely. Touching the commands of the blessed Redeemer, we may say, it is not easy for the honest-hearted seriously to mistake them. The general import of the whole is, as illustrated by his [126] own beautiful, Divine life, "to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God." This is orthopraxy, without which orthodoxy is but an impertinence and a cheat.

      Complainings, on all sides, of the want of earnest religious living have become chronic. The general tone of religious life will not be improved till God's people shall come to apprehend with greater clearness, and to feel with far deeper intensity, the claims of their Redeemer on their affections, until they shall love him more than they love wealth, and friends, and life--until the love of Christ shall constrain them. Religious partyism has long been the opprobrium of the Church. The Church will never be united in "doctrines" of any kind. She must be one in Christ Jesus, or divide still more, and remain divided till the Lord shall come.

      Jesus is with the sinner in his first faint glimmerings of faith; he is before him, the embodiment of infinite sorrow and of infinite love, when alone he heaves the first sigh of penitence; he is in his heart when, before men, he makes confession unto salvation; the penitent clings by faith to the Cross when he is buried with his Lord in baptism; when, as a child of God, he takes his seat at the table of the Lord, Jesus lifts up his bleeding hands before him, and says: "Do this in remembrance of me." When he bows the knee in prayer, he remembers that Jesus ever lives to intercede for him; in hours of calamity, he finds support in the words of Jesus: "Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me." When his heart sinks in view of death and the grave, he remembers the words of the Savior: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he live again;" and he remembers that Jesus will be his Judge in the last terrible solemnity in the history of the human race. From [127] the lips of Jesus shall fall a sentence that shall raise the redeemed to heights of inconceivable glory, and a sentence that shall banish his enemies, those that deny him, "into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." From these sentences there can be no appeal for evermore. The Lamb of God will lead his people to fountains of living water in the abodes of immortality, while his redeeming love shall forever constitute the theme of their loftiest anthems.

      The sum is this: Instead of abstract, scientific formulas, God has given us every thing in the concrete. He has embodied for us, so to speak, in the person and character of Jesus, his own idea of human life, rendered divine, and has revealed the divine through the human. Instead of "doctrines" he offers to us a mysterious person, who draws the hearts of men to him because he is their brother, and who, at the same time commands their devotion, because he is "the only-begotten Son of God." O, ineffable "mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh."

      Our controversy, then, if we have one, is not with "the Church," nor our chief concern with "doctrines" and religious philosophies, but with Him who is "the first and the last, who was dead, but is alive again for evermore, and who has the keys of hell and of death." What think ye of Christ? " Blessed are they who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Amen [128].

      ^* "He who dwells in infinity is at once a God who reveals and a God who conceals himself. We can know, but we can know only in part. The knowledge which we can attain is the clearest and yet the obscurest of all our knowledge. A child, a savage, can acquire a certain acquaintance with him, while neither sage nor angel can rise to a full comprehension of him. God may be truly described as the Being of whom we know the most, inasmuch as his works are ever pressing themselves upon our attention, and we behold more of his ways than of the ways of any other; and yet he is the Being of whom we know the least, inasmuch as we know comparatively less of his whole nature than we do of ourselves, or of our fellowmen, or of any object falling under our senses. They who know the least of him have, in this, the most valuable of all knowledge; they who know the most know but little, after all, of his glorious perceptions. Let us prize what knowledge we have, but feel, meanwhile, that our knowledge is comparative ignorance. They who know little of him may feel as if they knew much; they who know much will always feel that they know but little. The most limited knowledge of him should be felt to be precious, but this mainly as an encouragement to seek knowledge higher and yet higher, without limit and without end. They who in earth or heaven know the most, know that they know but little after all; but they know that they may know more and more of him throughout eternal ages."--McCosh, "Intuitions of the Mind."

[TLP 103-128]