ma, but quietly joining man at the most accessible point, and charming him into deeper companionship, until he who began as a needy client remained as a consecrated disciple. Christ's skill in adaptation is illustrated sharply by the answer which he returned to John's inquiry: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear," that is to say, every man found in Christ "the piece which was lost: " the deaf were not sharpened in vision, they received their hearing; the blind were not quickened in hearing, they received their sight; the leper was not heightened in stature, he was cleansed of his leprosy. By so working, it was indeed sometimes difficult to see the exact relation of the physical deed to the spiritual purpose of Christ's mission - viz., to reveal the Father. We are tempted to become impatient with Christ as he devotes so much attention to details: it seems almost a waste of time for a man who came to save a world to be lingering over a special case of disease. Could the blind man not have had his soul saved without first having his eyes open? If not, what becomes of the blind men of to-day? We think that we could have hastened Christ's movements, especially in the physical department of his service. Why not speak one healing word for all, so that throughout the land every sick-bed might have been vacated at the same hour? What a magnificent introduction to spiritual labor this would have been! How quickly he could thus have come to his main point—the revelation of God! Yet he lingers over individual cases with a calmness which baffles us, considering how much

How long a

And what a

work lies before him. But is it not the same with him whom we know as Creator? Does he not dally most vexatiously in physical processes? time he takes to mould an ear of corn! waste of power it appears, that the earth should bring forth but one harvest in the year! In his physical service Christ was strikingly like what we know of the Creator. The meaning of this slowness may come to us in the higher spheres. In the mean time, impatience is an infallible sign of weakness.

On the matter of setting man in a right relation to God something further will be said in another chapter: it is introduced here as completing the statement that Christ undertook the adjustment of human relations; and while it is thus before us it may be well to repeat that there is nothing revolting in Christ's representation of God, but everything that is pleasing and satisfying to the tenderest instincts of human nature. God is the Spirit; God is the Father; God is revealed by the Son, and there is no way but through the Son to the Father; God loved the world, and proved his love by the gift of his Son. This is Christ's theology. In Christ's God there is nothing to terrify the heart that yearns for him. He has no thirst for revenge, no bloody decree to execute. He is so tender that a heart-wish will move him; so generous, that he will withhold nothing from them that are reconciled to him. His anger with the wicked is only the recoil of his love of the good. This being so, Christ says - Come to him; be as he is; you misunderstand him if you think evil of him;

I know him better than any other being can ever know him, and I declare unto you that his power and wisdom are equalled by his love. A great speech to make to the human world! How sincere it was we may see when we come to study the Cross of Christ.

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CHAPTER XII.

CHRIST THE CONTEMPORARY OF ALL AGES.

HAS

AS the civilization of the nineteenth century rendered Christianity obsolete, or has Jesus Christ made any provision for the development of humanity? Was Christ's merely a day's work done in the usual order of things, or had he a reach over the ages, controlling and moulding them to the very end of the world? Is the New Testament to be shelved with "The Republic" or "The Nicomachean Ethics; or is it the life of the world that now is, with its ever-varying phases and attitudes, its storms of war, and its revolutions of thought? We may be able to gather an answer from Christ's own words.

Christ repeatedly spoke of his own "hereafter," and of the "hereafter " of the church. His criticisms and instructions were by no means confined to the past and the present; they were full of anticipation, overflowing the hour in which they were spoken and making for themselves a channel through all time. There were terms in his speech which denoted great purposes as to time, persons, and moral victories, such as "unto the end of the world," 66 forever," "every creature," "all nations,' east, west, north, and south." It seems to be necessary, therefore, to preserve the logical consistency of Christ's method,

that as it was "expedient" for the disciples that he should "go away," that some provision should be made for the expected development of human nature and the requirements of the attendant expansion and refinement of general civilization. The world would certainly become larger, could Christ occupy the extended space? The harvest would be great, was there root-room enough in Christ's heart? Christ entirely reversed what we should have considered the proper order of things, and thus gave another check to anything like presumptuous criticism of his method of redeeming and educating the world. The common plan would probably have assumed some such shape as this-Christ must abide personally among men until the redemptive purpose be fully accomplished, not only on his part, but also on the part of the world; it will be best for him to make short work, and to break up the present economy as soon as he has made clear what is meant by his having been given to save men; or, if he continue the present rude structure of society, his disciples will necessarily have many questions to ask and many difficulties to overcome, and he must be continually at hand, so that the reference may be instant and decisive: when the last man is safe in heaven, and every possible spoil has been recovered from the enemy, then let Christ himself abandon the earth, and take the headship of the glorified church. Instead of this, which looks so feasible and tempting on paper, Christ was actually the first to leave the scene of trial, and his disciples were consequently deprived of the inspiration and comfort of a visible Christ. The poor, simple men had been