The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1843-07-17
THE CHARAC TER OF CHRIST.
ktract from lecture by r. d. II. Yeckley, o

Extract from a lecture by II. ID. ii. Ycckley, of
New York:
al must be about my fathers business" were the
emphatic words he first spoke, and well and truly
did he perform it, The world was the field of his
operations, and man the subject Of his labors. He
threw around him. wherever he went, the abundance
of the wisdom that his Father had given him--he
pointed out with unerrDg truth the character OF God
and the destiny of man, and opened up to the gaze Of
the world the beauties and riches, the peace and hap
piness, that spring up from the practice of virtue.
speak Of him he spoke Of himself, as +" the Son Of
Man"-as a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief" | NEEDLE not with the mysteries of Trim
y or interfere with the jargons Of the schools the
difference of creeds, the diversity of seats. i
speak of his character a man, and moral teacher
of his precepts and doctrines, and their influence
upon the mind and social condition of man. To him
outward pomp or circumstances, no splendid show
or ceremony gave delight, but failed to meet
his severest censure. The pompous rites OF the
Jews, from whom he sprang, met in every instance
his bitter rebuke and their saDguinary laws and idle
forms we're treated by him with scorn and contempt
The motive, the disposition of the heart, the inhu-
ence that dictated to action the unerring principles
Of Justice and benevolence the paramount yir-
tues in his creed. The world had before him, pro-
duced its moral teachers, its truly great philosophers
men who, by unremitting toll aud study, by disci-
pline of mind and body by restraint OF passions and
cultivation of moral powers, exhibited truly great
and virtuous characters but one of them display
ed that high moral courage that contempt of danger
and DEATH those personal sacrifices and self-denal,
that deep and earnest dsinteresedness, and that
bounded benevoIence and love- as the great Christian
Lawgiver
Plato mingled with his true and lofty conceptions
of the Deity, the gross forms Of dem gods and chi
meras dire Socrates had his familiar spirit, and dis
graced the last moments OF his life by requesting
friend 10 perform sacrifice in his behalf TO earth.
ly deity and Pythagoras, with all his great moral
and intellectual endowments yielded to the false end
popular theology OF his time and was found at the
temples payi ing alteration to heather gods. And what
after ALL were the sum and substance Of their doc
trines, but continual disputes about quiddties and
Donentities-about theories and forms and fances-
amounting in the end TO nothing tangible or certain
They had played with bubbles, and spent their time
in chasing shadows. Besides from them and their
teachings, the great masses of their fellow were
excluded and Plato observes, " II is difficult thing
discover the nature Of the Creator of the Universe
aud being discoveries 1t is impossible and would even
be impous TO expose the discovery TO vulgar under.
standings" The columns of the portico and the groves
fthe academy crowded with the wealthy and the
noble; but the poor and the low born mingled not
among them caught the lessons and inspirations
of the masters they spent their whole lives at one
location, aud those who desired their instructions
were compelled to visit their schools.
But IN striking contrast were the practice and
teachings Of Christ. He mingled with the crowd
he recognized man, wherever found as equal In the
temple at Jerusalem, among the doctors the streets
wherever lac went, he taught with the same simplic
~ and bodness. lie stood up in the annual festivals
when the nation assembled together and pro-
claimed his doctrines lie travelled from city to
city, from province TO provinces and on the highway
in the fields and groves, wherever found man, he
spoke the truths which his Father had taught him
No personal dangers deferred him-no difficulty too
great to surmount-no sacrifice too paramount TO Of
Ter, in the announcement Of that system of moral
grandeur he was destined to establish The ethics of
the ancient philosophers were the study of wears
for they drew only from the dimlight of nature and
were compelled to struggle through the dark forms of
matter, to trace from effect to separate and
compare; and after all, the little they brought 10
light remained the mere labor Of inference and doubt
Mystery too, lent their doctrine weight; and those
who studied Tor years the systems Of their philoso-
ply were alone allowed to approach the arcana con-
'nng the grand secret, and enjoy he fruiton Of
their labors. Not so with the doctrines of Christ
he threw the sunlight of his principles over all
equally alike upon the palace Of the great and the
cottage OF tn poor. fe simple maxms and pre- |
ceP, amounting almost to selfevident propositions
with a few forcible illustrations, convey the simple
truth TO the mind for they find ready answer in
The heart, and nature declares the evidence by her
own responsive feelings. He gathered up and con- |
centrated IN one simple yet burning sentence the |
whole wisdom of an,iquity "As ye would u,at Others
al INN do