that dropped from his lips! 'Two of the number shine among the rest with unrivalled splendor; and we may safely challenge the genius of antiquity to produce, from all his stores of eloquence and beauty, such specimens of pathetic, unlabored description, as the parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan.' Even an infidel could bear his testimony to the character of Jesus as a Teacher: 'What sweetness, what purity in his manners! What an affecting gracefulness in his delivery! What sublimity in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his discourses! What presence of mind in his replies! How great the command over his passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, that could so live and so die without weakness and without ostentation?' * * *

III. A teacher must practise the duties he recommends to others. There was not a single precept which the great Teacher enjoined which he did not exhibit in his own conduct. He enjoined meekness, humility, self-denial, temperance, gratitude, prudence, alms-giving, forgiveness, blessings, and prayers and acts of goodness, for execrations, hatred, and injuries. All these virtues shone forth in the life of this Teacher. He was not only pure and spotless on some occasions, but he passed through life without a single stain upon his character. None before the time of Jesus had seen a perfect man, but he exhibited a specimen of perfect humanity. Having these views, we feel that we can close the present number with great propriety in the very words of our motto: 'We know that thou art a Teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.'

LXXV. TRUTH.

'Jesus saith unto Thomas, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' John xiv. 6.

WHAT a commanding title! A thousand associations rush into the mind at the very mention of the word Truth. And how long has the world been in search of truth; how very few have found it. What penances and probations. The most remote regions have been traversed in search of the hidden treasure. The entrails of animals, the flight of birds, and the stars of heaven, have all been questioned. In the midst of this darkness and conjecture, the Truth appeared. 'It was in the most impressive form: he stood, a man among his fellow-men, telling what he had learned of God. It was in the most simple form: he used the language of common life; and, instead of the warning which banished the uninitiated, his inviting proclamation was, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." It was in the most affecting and influential form: the precept, the maxim, and the parable, fixing itself in the memory, and opening all the springs of emotion in the heart. It was in the most useful and exciting form: demanding no prostration of the intellect, nor fixing any impassable boundaries for its exertions, but appealing to reason, and stimulating reason to new efforts, to free and full exercise, to rapid and illimitable progress. The

world was in darkness, and here was the Light it needed.'*

'The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ.'t Standing before Pilate, Jesus says, 'To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.'I

This view does not

+ We like much the remark of an old writer on this subject. Speaking of the motto, he says Jesus meant, 'I am the Truth and substance of all the types and shadows of the law.' go far enough. We believe Jesus to be the great standard of all moral truth; the great test by which all moral questions are to be tried. In him centres all spiritual truth. He is the great spiritual Light of the moral world: the only infallible Teacher that has ever been upon our earth; the only one who had a perfect knowledge of God and of the human soul. Every word he uttered was truth. Every action was pure; every principle of conduct was from the fountain of truth itself. In fine, he was a being of unsullied purity. It was strictly true of him to the latest moment of his continuance on earth; with perfect sincerity it might have been shouted with triumph as he ascended to the throne of Heaven, 'He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.' With what propriety, then, might Jesus say to the world, 'I am the TRUTH!'

Before Jesus came, all was darkness and confusion. Cicero says it was almost impossible to enumerate

* Sermons on the Mission, Character, and Doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth. By W. J. Fox. Vol. i. p. 4. London.

† John i. 17.

Ib. xviii. 37.

the different sentiments of the ancient philosophers. The Stoics affirmed that virtue was the sole good, and its own reward. The Peripatetics rejected that notion in the case of virtue in distress, and made the good things of this life a necessary ingredient of happiness. The Epicureans set up pleasure, or, at least, indolence and freedom from pain, as the final good which men ought to propose to themselves. When we take into consideration these various and discordant views, we see how much the world needed a Teacher who could say at once, I am the TRUTH.' And such an one was Jesus of Nazareth. When he appeared, truth dropped upon the world in all its purity.

But it was not merely respecting the great points of morality that the world was ignorant, but men knew nothing of another state of being. They were groping their way in darkness and conjecture. Some believed in transmigration; others denied that man would survive the death of the body. On this point, let us hear Socrates, whose words seem to embody the views and feelings of the ancient world. Shortly before his death, he said, 'I hope I am now going to good men, though this I would not take upon me peremptorily to assert; but, that I shall go to the gods, lords that are absolutely good, this, if I can affirm anything of this kind, I would certainly affirm. And for this reason I do not take it ill that I am to die, as otherwise I should do; but I am in good hope that there is something remaining for those who are dead, and that it will then be much better for good than for bad men. * How much darkness and con

* Plato, Phædon. op. tom. i. p. 143. ed. Bipont.

jecture is expressed in these few words! How clearly do they prove the necessity of more light from heaven respecting the unseen world. In the midst of this darkness the TRUTH appeared. Jesus went down into the lone chambers of the grave; on the third day he burst its barriers, and appeared before the world, a living demonstration of the doctrine of life and immortality. With what propriety, then, might he style himself 'the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' But we cannot pursue this great subject.

The TRUTH, then, has dawned upon the world, yea, has arisen in its glory, and not only irradiated this dark world, but it has thrown a radiance into the world beyond. And now we know man will live forever. And how lovely is truth! It is the most beautiful object in the universe. It is powerful. It was never conquered, nor ever can be. It has the strength of the Almighty. Truth is the glory of time, and the daughter of eternity; she is the life of religion; the crown of wisdom; her essence is in God, and her dwelling with his servants.' 'She is the ministering spirit who sheds on man that bright and indestructible principle of life, which is given, by its mighty Author, to illuminate and inspire the immortal soul, and which, like himself, "is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." Well, then, might Jesus say, 'I am the TRUTH.' The world never saw truth before in all its purity and loveliness. She was upon the earth, for she has never wholly deserted man, though man has often deserted her. But her dwelling-place is with the pure and upright: 'Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.' Her residence is not in temples or in caverns,