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see the highest strength coming out of the lowest weakness.

This new struggle, it is so destined, had its grand battle-field on Mount Calvary. You may see it all acted on the cross which is raised high there, that it may draw all eyes towards it. You have there the writhings, the faintings, the cup of gall, the sponge filled with vinegar, the agony closing in death; and you perceive, at the same time, the confidence put in him by suffering and loving hearts, "Remem

ber me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Yes, that weakest, most forsaken of men is acknowledged as a king and as having a kingdom; and his answer is, To-day thou shalt be with me in this kingdom of paradise. This most defenceless of men, who uses no carnal weapons, who refuses to bring down fire from heaven to destroy his enemies, becomes the greatest conqueror which this world has seen, greater than the Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Greek, or the Roman, and subdues under him, not the mere bodies of men, but the loftiest intellects which have adorned our world, and hearts purified and burning with love. He rises. out of the grave, to become a victor whose triumphs know no end. Crucified as a slave by a Roman deputy, he conquers the Roman power; and the emperor who fought so long and fiercely against him has to exclaim with his dying breath, "Thou hast conquered me, O Galilean!" By suffering, he has accomplished ends which he could never have gained by prosperity and success. He has become

perfect through suffering, and has secured the means of gaining the heart of the sufferer and of elevating the fallen: the fallen man who clings to him; the fallen woman who bathes his feet with her tears, and pours forth the feelings of her heart more precious than the ointment from the alabaster box; the fallen nations, as seen in the once savage tribes of Germany and Britain, who have been raised by Christianity; and of exalting the fallen race of mankind, who have thereby risen from condemnation to justification, from alienation to reconciliation with God. This is a cause for the promotion of which, this is a lesson for the teaching of which, it was worthy of God to become flesh and tabernacle on the earth, and suffer and die. He has thereby shown that there is something greater in him than his almightiness. I have sometimes felt as if God could scarcely be regarded by us as thoroughly perfect, unless he were capable of submitting to suffering. I have felt at times that, if this were denied him, his creatures might reach a perfection which he has not, which he cannot have. I believe that the Word becoming flesh and tabernacling on the earth is an essential part of the plan which we see developing before our eyes; and it seems as if the transaction were placed in the very middle of the ages, as the keystone of the bridge which connects the two compartments of God's works, the physical, with its force and its struggle for existence, with the moral, with its sufferings and its triumphs. In earthly affairs, there may be a

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greater glory in suffering and sorrow than in prosperity and dazzling splendor: there may, for example, be a greater glory in the soldier's death than in his life; there was a greater glory in Samson's death than in all the achievements of his life. But speak not of the glory of the soldier bleeding in defence of a nation's rights; speak not of the glory of the patriot toiling and suffering and dying for his country's freedom; speak not of the glory of the martyr calm and rejoicing while tied to the burning stake: these have no glory because of the glory that excelleth, the glory of Christ's condescension and patience and love, in submitting to shame, to sorrow, and to death.

Now this is the era in which our lot is cast. This is the struggle in which we are required to take our part. It commenced at an early date: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The serpent is seen bruising the heel of the seed of the woman. The good have still to suffer, but in their suffering they show their goodness. We are in a dispensation in which the plant must be bruised before it yields its odors, in which the rose must wither before it yields its undying perfume. A good cause must have its martyrs before it triumphs. John Brown has to be put to death before the manacles are struck from the slave. Your Abraham Lincoln is shot in the midst of the shouts of victory. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of

wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."

Let us realize that our lot is cast in such a dispensation. There are strong men, and seemingly wise men, in our day who do not see it. I have set myself all my life against the doctrine taught in the works of Thomas Carlyle (or rather the impression left by them), and the writings of others who ape him, without his strength, and which would lead us to worship heroes and deify force. I repudiate the principle which underlies and runs through the whole of Buckle's "History of Civilization," that intellect has been, is, and ought to be the grand moving power in the world. True, intellect must always, in the end, be the main agent or instrument in helping forward the advancement of the race; but it is only in the sense in which steam is the agent in moving the railway cars. In contemplating the steam-engine, we rise beyond the steam to consider the mind which has constructed and is guiding the whole; so, in weighing the causes which have imparted progress to humanity, we must look beyond the intellectual force to the deeper moral power which has awakened it. Has not intelligence in many countries as in Switzerland, in Prussia, in Holland, in Scotland, in New England, and in other States of the Union - been called forth by the Reformation, by the Covenanting and

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Puritan faith? and nations which lose that faith may find that they have cut down the tree on which the fruit grew, on which fruit they can feed no longer.

Of all acts of cowardice, the meanest is that which leads us to abandon a good cause because it is weak, and join a bad cause because it is strong. The smitten deer is said to be avoided by the herd, it is the instinct of the brute; but in the higher law which reigns in the breast of mankind and womankind, you never saw the smitten son abandoned by the mother, who may be seen, instead, standing by him at the foot of the cross on which he is suspended, undeservedly or deservedly. I do fear that, in my past life, I have often been tempted to pay obeisance to false gods; but I thank the great God that I have always been kept from that prevalent form of idolatry - found not only in Persia and in the East, but in this Western world - which worships the rising sun. I confess that I might have been enticed to adore him in his setting splendors; that is, in some of those old grandeurs which have had their day, and are now disappearing in a soft radiance which they did not possess in their zenith. I am sure that there is nothing in my past life of which I am entitled to be proud; but if I could take credit for any thing, it would be for the fact, that,-descended from Covenanting forefathers, who, not contented with suffering as the Puritans did, went on to resist oppression on their heather hills, which always look to me as if they had