The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1843-07-28
The Character of Christ.

Extract from Lecture by r. D. H. Yeckley,
Of New York.
81 must be about my Fathers bust
ness" were the emphatic words he first
spoke, and well and truly did he perform
it. The world was the field of his oper
atoms, 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 unerring truth the character of God
and the destiny of man, and opened up 10
the gaze Of thel world the beauties and
riches, the peace and happiness that
spring up from the practice of virtue.
| speak Of him as he spoke of himself, as
"the Son of Maj" as ga man of sor-
rows, and acquainted with grief '-l med
die not with the mysteries of Trinity,
or interfere with the jargons of the
schools, the difference of creeds, or the
diversity of sects. speak of his charac-
ter as man, and moral teachcr-of his
precepts and doctrines, ana their nhu-
ence upon the mind aud social condition
Of man. 70 him no outward pomp or
circumstance, no splendid show or cere-
mony gave delight, but never failed TO
meet his severest censure. The pom
pous rites of the Jews, from whom he
sprang, met in every instance his bitter
rebuke; and their sanguinary laws and
idle forms were treated by him with
scorn and contempt. The motive, the
disposition of the heart, the influence that
dictated to action the unerring principles
Of Justice and bencvolencc were the para
mount virtues in his creed. The world
had, before him, produced its moral teach
ers. its truly great philosophers-mcn
who by unremitting toll and study, by
discipline of mind and body, by restraint
of passions and civilizations Of moral pow
ers, exhibited truly great and vlrluous
characters; but no one of them displayed
that high moral courage, that contempt of
danger and death, those personal sacrifi-
ces and selG-denial, that deep and earnest
dsnterestedness aud that undoubied be-
nevolence and love, as the great Christian
| Lawgiver. Plato mingled with his true
and lofty conceptions of the Deity, the
gross forms of deml-gods and chimeras
dire. Socrates had his familiar spirit,
and disgraced the last moments of his life
by requesting friend to perform a sacri-
| flee in his behalf to an earthly deity; and
Pythagoras, with all his great moral and
intellectual endowments, yielded TO the
false and popular theology of his time,
and was found at the temples paying ador-
alton to heather gods. And what after al!
were the sum and substance of their doe
trines, but continual disputes about quid-
dities and nonentities--about theories and
forms and Understanding 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 mas
ses Of their fellow men were excluded /;
and Plato observes, at is difficult thing
to discover the nature of the Creator OF
the Universe, and being discovered, it is
impossible and would even be impious TO
expose the discovery TO vulgar understan.
dings." The columns Of the poriico and
the groves of the academy were crowded
with the wealthy and the noble; but the
poor and the low born mingled not among
them, nor caught IRE !essnrs and inspira
! tons OF the masters they spent thei