get their souls full of love-the spirit of God-then will goodness radiate rom them as light from the sun.

I can see no harm in admitting the truth that Jesus "grew in wisdom," accepting the good he found in the world.*

The ocean is no less grand because it is discovered that beautiul lakes empty their waters into it. So Christ is not the less our Great Teacher and example, because he received truth from sages and philosophers. The true idea of Christianity seems to me to be that it is the essence of all correct knowledge of God and moral duty. I love the teachings of Jesus all the more since I find them to be in harmony with the sublime teachings of all great minds of all time. How many, many thousands, yea, millions of devoted thinkers have lived, and studied, and labored to leave for posterity that which would make it the better, the wiser, and the happier. They have gone home to God. Their names are forgotten. Even the names of once enlightened and powerful nations are lost in antiquity. Wonderful ruins remain to mark the sites of a few of the great cities of the olden time, that were standing a thousand years before Abraham lived, but what remains for the good of man of the learning of that ancient day? I see Jesus, the "Carpenter's son," of humble parentage, but of mighty soul, the great idea possessing his mind of perfecting and giving birth to his sublime religion. Deeply devoted to study, nothing could exceed the ardor of his youthful mind in the pursuit of knowledge. Even at the age of twelve, he is able to answer the profound questions of learned Rabbis, questioning them in turn. He evidently became acquainted with the sacred literature of India and China. Yes, I will admit that he drank from many a fountain that is now dry-read works that we now know nothing of-works written, it may be, in Thebes, centuries before Moses was born, revealing a philosophy of highest beauty.

It is not to be believed that the great truths and maxims of life, that point out the duties of man to man, were discovered other than by the experiences of societies, and nations, and individuals, through many centuries and even ages, and he that collects those maxims

*Good people timorously ask: "Is it really true that Confucius gave the Golden Rule?" as if, if you answered "yes," it woud go far to shake the very foundation of their belief in all revelation. Imagine an astronomer becoming alarmed for the very foundations of astronomy, because a Chinese observer had made a true observation of the stars twenty-five hundred years ago! Now, it so happens that, not far from Confucius' time, a sharp Chinese eye was watching the heavens on a given night, and noticed that the planet Mercury was close to the star now called Scorpii. Now, when the observations discovered in the Chinese annals, were astronomers frightened? Nay! they were overjoyed. Forthwith they calculated backward the place of Mercury for more than two thousand years-say eight or ten thousand revolutions--and found that on that very night Mercury was within a degree of that very star! proving, by this one observation, that the orbit of Mercury had not materially changed in more than two thousand years.

So let us rejoice when any clear eye sees any atom of God's truth. One more witness added to the sacred band! One more testimony that God is not far from every one of us.

"Or look at it in another light," we might say to such; "there are, we are told, some four hundred million Chinese now living in China; that gives us one thousand two hundred million in a century; gives, we will say, "twenty-five billions of human souls since Confucius' time. Now, if it could be proved to you, that to no single soul of these twenty-five bilHons had God ever revealed Himself; that He had suffered that mighty multitude to live on in darkness and the shadow of death without one effort to send them light; that he had allowed them to sin and suffer, to hate and injure each other, without one attempt to teach them the divine law of life, would it not go far towards making you a believer in blank Atheism? "What sort of a God is this," you might justly say, "who allows his own children to wander generation after generation through the wilderness of life, without once troubling Himself to teach, guide and enlighten?"-Rev. S. R. Calthrop in Religious Magazine.

THE ETERNAL RELIGION.

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first and arranges them into connected laws or rules of life (like the Sermon on the Mount) is possessed of a vast fund of learning.

It is unnecessary for me to try to make out that Jesus was acquainted with all history and experiences of men by a divine instinct; for God does not bestow instinctive knowledge, when the same truths may be learned through the ordinary means of thought, books and experience. To be sure, Jesus, possessed of superior endowments, raised up expressly by God, for a peculiar and great work, went beyond all his schoolmasters-even the Essens.

What if the truths that have come down to us in the doctrines of Jesus were the accumulated wisdom of all antiquity-are they, therefore, the less valuable? Are they the less truly inspired? What, indeed, is inspiration?

When Watt by study came in possession of the idea that has since filled the rivers of the world and the ocean with magnificent steam vessels, and has brought commerce to every city and village by means of railroads, was this not inspiration? When Morse perfected the idea that has girded the world with metallic wire and carries thought more rapidly than the earth revolves, was that not inspiration? When was born in the minds of Pym, Hampden, Vane, and Milton, the glorious thought that has taken root and grown, upon this side of the water, and we behold it now our great and free republic, was it not inspiration?

By inspiration great thoughts are created. The inspired man takes the materials before him, as God took the "dust of the earth" and creates what did not before exist. The dust existed; God took it and made man in his own image. Mighty thoughts of myriad sages existed. Jesus took these and combining them with the sublime conceptions of his own soul, created the "eternal religion of humanity." Yet may not the Deity influence directly the thoughts of men? Or, may not man's nature be so exalted that under certain conditions he may instinctively (as it were) know what is for his highest good and the good of the race? May he not foresee events to come to pass ages in the future, if this knowledge is essential to the life of the race? Brute beasts anticipate the approaching storm and cold before scientific man with all his inventions can foresee it. What beasts must know for their protection and salvation God reveals to them. What man must know for his protection and salvation God reveals to him. 1st. In rude ages through the medium of seers or prophets. 2d. In enlightened ages through the medium of science. Though Jesus appeared in an age of light and learning, still I do not deny that he possessed the Seer's mantle. He was a prophet greater than Moses. Or, as Paul expresses it in his letter to the Hebrews:--"For this man was counted worthy of more glory than

Moses."

Jesus was sent. He came not accidentally. The "fullness of times" had come. He came when all had been accomplished that could be accomplished for the good of mankind by the old religions. They were the religions of particular communities or nations. Communities were broken up-nations were intermingled and united by the conquests of Rome. The old religions were adapted to the times of ignorance. A religion suited to a higher civilization was neededa religion suited to all peoples and all times. Jesus was sent, as all great souls are sent. When they are most needed behold them! God gave us Washington. The great and good are divinely sent-are commissioned by the Father to do His work-to educate and advance His children.

Discourse the Fifth.

THE CHURCH OF JERUSALEM.

(A Chapter of Jewish History.)

Acts 1st to 21st chapters give account of the rise of the first Christian church, the church of Jerusalem. These chapters contain almost the only references made to that church in the Scriptures. Enough is said to show that the church of Jerusalem was the true "mother church" the one to which appeals were made-certainly the one best calculated to understand and decide questions in reference to Christian doctrine. Time beheld this church driven from the city when Jerusalem was encompassed with the armies of Titus. Time beheld Rome arrogate to herself the right to decide all questions of difference among Christians in reference to doctrine and discipline. How natural it was that Rome should assume this authority-once the seat of empire-the source of all law and power-the mistress of the ancient world. As soon as Constantine, the first Christian emperor, took upon himself to establish Christianity by law, and crush out Paganism and heresy by force, then it was inevitable that the Church of Rome must rule. Jerusalem being subject to Rome, the church of Jerusalem must succumb to the Church of Rome. In the course of time, the Church of Rome had departed so far from the ground of doctrine occupied by the church of Jerusalem that the Jewish church was excommunicated by the Romish and anathamatized! Where was the departure from the true faith, in Rome or in Judea? 'In Rome," says Milton, "Christianity with large steps went down hill decaying." Who were more competent to judge of the meaning of the Jewish Scriptures than the Jewish Christian scholars? and who less competent than Europeans, to rightly understand and interpret the metaphorical Hebrew?

Jesus said to his disciples:

"When ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee unto the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let them not that are in the countries enter thereto."

Neander, in his "History of the Christian Religion and Church,"

says:

"The more genuine class of the Jewish Christians, who were at Jerusalem at the breaking out of the Roman war, could have no sympathy with the fanaticism which this war brought along with it, and when reminded of the admonitory warning and threatening words of Christ, could hardly fail to foresee, in the issue of this war the divine punishment of their perverse nation which he had predicted.

They removed from the midst of the ruined people, and repaired to one of the ten cities of the Pirea, on the eastern bank of Jordan, known under the collective name of Decapolis. A strictly Jewish christian church maintained its existence at Pella. down to the fifth century. They were called Ebionites. Origen was the first to give a correct definition of this name. It was derived from the Hebrew word signifying 'poor.'"

Schoff says, in his "Church History."

"The Ebionites were Christians of the School of James, the brother of Jesus. They were the company of Christians who fled to Pella from the destruction of Jerusalem. We find the sect scattered over Palestine and the surrounding regions, on the island of Cyrpus; in Asia Minor; and even in Rome. It continued to the fourth century." The same writer says:

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"The Ebionites possessed the Gospel of Matthew, written in Hebrew." I need not say to men of learning that there are no copies of the book of Matthew in the original Hebrew now extant. There remains only a Greek translation made by some one unknown. The book of Matthew was the first of the books of the New Testament written. The others were copies of it, with such recollections as the Apostles might draw from their own memories, or others, who had been with Christ, might impart to them. Especially is this true of the Gospel according to Luke. Whether the Greek text of Matthew, from which our English translation was made, is true to the original in Hebrew, who can tell? We find that great lierties were taken with the Catholic Bible, by the Protestants, after the Reformation. "The rest of the chapters of the Book of Esther, which are found neither in Hebrew, nor in Chadee"-seven chapters in all are omitted in the Protestant Bible. Also the "Song of the Three Holy Children-cut out of the Book of Daniel, not being found in the Hebrew;" the "History of Susanna, set apart from the beginning of Daniel, because it is not in the Hebrew; and the "History of Bel and the Dragon, cut off from the end of Daniel, because it is not in the Hebrew;" and there is much more considered "Apocryphal" by the Protestants, that is sacred to the Roman Catholic, as any portion of the Bible. The New Testament (King James' Translation), has in it many spurious texts, as is now conceded by all orthodox scholars. I recall especially to mind the text, 1 John, 5: 7. "For there are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost-and these three are one" which in the new translation made by the American Bible Society is omitted, with the remark in the margin, "The words omitted are wanting in all ancient copies."

Papias, bishop of Heriopolis, who lived in the first half of the second century, says:

"The book of Matthew is a collection of sayings of Jesus, written in Hebrew by Matthew, and which everybody has translated as best he could."

Irenaeus says:

"Matthew put forth his writings of the Gospel among the Hebrews in their dialect."

Jerome says:

"Matthew composed the Gospel of Christ in Hebrew letters and words."

So also say Eusebius, Epiphaneus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Ignatius, Pantaenus, and Cyril of Jerusalem. (These facts I gather mainly from Prof. Stowe's "History of the Books of the Bible.") From Neander's "Church History," I copy the following: "The Ebionites taught the idea of a more spiritual, primitive religion which had been corrupted at some later period by the importation of foreign elements. They explained the entire sacrificial worship as a thing foreign from primative Judaism, and as a corruption.* Christianity was considered by them as a restoration of original Judaism. From this sect proceeeds a book under the name of Jacob in which the patriarch is introduced, discoursing against the sacrificial and temple worship. The members of this sect were willing to call themselves "Ebionites, ('poor men') as the poor in spirit, and traced back their inherited name to the circumstance that their fathers renounced all private property, and lived in an unconditional community of goods. They claimed that the doctrine of Christ is altogether one with the pure and original doctrine of Moses."

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*Thou desireth not sacrifices else would I give it; thou delighteth not in burnt offering; the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a

Shedd, in his "History of Christian Doctrine," says.

"The Ebonite rejected the doctrine of Christ's Deity and of his miraculous birth, and held Him to be the son of Joseph and Mary. He regarded Jesus as the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, believing he was set apart for his work by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism by John. He made use of the Hebrew gospel, now lost, which was probably that of Matthew. which teach his miraculous birth were not in it."

The same author adds:

The portions

"The Ebionite contended: 1st. That the Christ of the Catholic Church was contrary to the representations of the Messiah contained in the Old Testament. The Old Testament Messiah was not in his opinion, an incarnation of the divine person; but only an inspired man. 2d. The Christ of the Catholic Church was contrary to the Old Testament conception of God. The divinity of Christ was incompatable with the one God of the Jewish Scriptures, and was a species of idolatry and Polytheism."

Schoff says:

"Their (the Ebionites) doctrine may be reduced to the following propositions:

"Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah, the son of David, and the Supreme law giver; yet a man like Moses and David sprung by natural generation from Joseph and Mary. The sense of his Messiac calling first arose in him at the time of his baptism by John, when a higher spirit joined itself to him."

And Neander:

"The Ebionites considered Jesus to be like unto Moses and the Prophets, and founders of other religions. Looking up to him as the supreme law giver, teacher and king, they did not feel themselves constrained to admit any higher views of Christ's person. To Jesus they sumply transferred the notion of the Messiah, which most widely prevailed among the Jews, and which most perfectely agreed with the common principles of the Jewish system-that he was a man distinguished above all others for legal piety, who for this very reason was deemed worthy of being chosen as the Messiah, who knew nothing at all of any special call to the Messiahship, as others, too, were far from divining any such thing of him, until Elias reappeared and revealed to him and to others his election to the high office, when he was filled with divine power, for the exercise of his mission as the Messiah, and thus enabled to work miracles. It was first when Jesus came with all the others to John to receive baptism from him that the miraculous phenomenon occurred by which the fact of his election to the Messiahship was revealed, and along with which the divine power which he required in order to fulfill his mission descended on him. The fact of Christ's supernatural birth was peculiarly opposed to his view of the matter; and indeed this fact was directly at variance with the Jewish ground of doctrine generally contrite heart. O God thou wilt not despise."-Ps. 51:16, 17.

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"Bring no more vain oblations, insense is an abomination to me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot; away with it, it is iniquity even the solemn meeting; your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them." "Wash you, make you clean."-Isaiah 1:13, 14.

"Is it such a fast that I have chosen?-a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bullrush and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will ye call this a fast and acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out of thy house? When thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?" -Isaiah 58:5, 7.