thropy. The church is to be kept from selfishness by sacrifice. This is Christ's method, as illustrated in particular cases by his great interpreter the apostle Paul. Christ gave his followers power to go everywhere, and to take up even deadly things without being hurt. He had no fear of them being corrupted, but gave them energy to save others from corruption; his own Word dwelling in them richly. He sent them as sheep among wolves, with wisdom and gentleness as their defence. They were to pursue evil persons in every direction, and to "torment" them "before the time," by the presence of an august yet genial purity. They were safe, because their Lord was with them. Their power was moral,-not the power of purse, or scrip, or sword, or many coats, which exercise so illegitimate an influence in the world. Not what was on, but what was in, was their strength. We look for the same self-repression to-day, the same moral majesty, producing the same startling contrast. Where is it? Hidden, no doubt, in some degree under the folds of an elaborate civilization, but still, we doubt not, in existence; not all in this sect or in that, but partly; widely scattered, yet not beyond the call of the Voice which brought order out of chaos. We cannot take so discouraging a view of human society as to believe that Christ's influence is diminishing. If it is less demonstrative, it may not be less vital. His church has not slipped out of the world into a secret and nameless grave, though its original compactness and accessibility are not what they were. The very inquiry which men are now pressing with unexampled urgency, is a good sign; when the anxiety is extreme, the satisfaction will not be long delayed. There may be a law of subsidence or

rest in the progression of the Christian society. The tide may be advancing, notwithstanding the refluent wave. There is, too, an intensive as well as an extensive operation of life; so that what is wanting in demonstrativeness, may be made up in penetration. Anyhow, Christ's vitality cannot be lost in the world; the seed of the second Adam shall be as the sand upon the sea-shore, innumerable.

CHAPTER XI.

CHRIST ADJUSTING HUMAN RELATIONS.

CHRIS

HRIST prayed that his disciples might be kept from evil, but he had also a work to accomplish on a larger scale; not only had he to keep the disciples who were called by himself personally, but to extend their numbers; and we propose now to consider how he intended to do this, grouping our suggestions under the general title given above. To say that Christ found human relations disorganized, would be to put human history into the tritest form of expression; yet that inclusive fact lies at the bottom of his mission and plan among men. The man who was made "upright," found out many "inventions," but among them all was not that of regaining the equilibrium which he had lost. If man had not destroyed his nature, he had disarranged his proportions. A very subtle thing is the equipoise. An extra handful of dust on the side of a planet might endanger the universe.

At the risk of violating a strictly logical progression (though not more so than Christ himself apparently did), it may be useful to look at once at the work which Christ accomplished in adjusting the relations between man and man; which will give us, from another point, Christ's view of human nature, and place something concrete

and immediately appreciable before us. It is of primary importance to remark that Christ never depreciated manhood in any of its forms or conditions, but, on the contrary, continually spoke of man with reverence and affection; not of the Jew as a Jew, or the Roman as a Roman, but strictly of man as man; thus incidentally illustrating the meaning and force of his own appellation, the Son of Man. In one of his most touching parables, he rebuked Jewish exclusiveness with great dignity, yet in a manner which must have been most galling to the haughty men who heard him. It was the priest who passed by, and the Levite; but it was a contemned Samaritan who stopped and proved himself a practical philanthropist. Would any other Jew but Christ have so introduced a Samaritan? And would Christ himself, if he had not been more than a Jew? On another occasion, he declared that the faith of a heathen woman was greater than he had ever seen in Israel; and as he cast his eye over the nations of the earth, taking in his comprehensive survey "regions Cæsar never knew," he boldly told the supposed favourites of heaven that men should come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and sit down in the kingdom of heaven. When his contemporaries called themselves the children of Abraham, John struck the boast off their vaunting lips, by telling them that God was able to raise up out of the very stones children to Abraham. In the same manner, Christ showed that manhood was not a geographical term, having one meaning on this coast and another on that, but that it was overflowing with moral significance, and stood in very intimate relation to God.

One of his longest discourses was delivered upon the subject of the relations between man and man, and man and his kingdom. The old and vexed question of gradation came up among the disciples, and was referred to the Master for decision. The disciples would soon have rent the new kingdom by this question of position, had their leader not quenched their carnal aspirations, and showed them that they were all equally wrong in their notions. Rulership has always been one of the hardest problems which society has had to solve, and to-day it lies at the root of all war. How can there be a kingdom without rulership? The disciples naturally pondered the inquiry, and entertained some exciting speculations on the point. When the matter so agitated them that they could no longer keep it to themselves, they abruptly laid it before Christ; whereupon he delivered a copious and impressive address on human nature. He called a little child unto him and set him in the midst, and said-You trouble yourselves a good deal about greatness in my kingdom; now let me tell you that except ye be converted that is to say, radically changed in your selfestimation and become as simple, trustful, and unconscious of your own importance as this little child, you shall not so much as even enter into that kingdom, much less have any distinguished position in it: great, swollen, self-idolising men cannot be admitted; the gate is strait; only childlike men may pass through.-Nothing could be more foreign to the spirit of carnal ambition than such an answer. It did not leave the subject open for discussion. No craft could wriggle out of so positive a doctrine. But the text was not exhausted. The little child was still there, and Christ continued in the most