The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1843-07-17
THE CHARAC TER OF CHRIST.

New York.
81 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 unerrng 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 s. the Son OF
Man"--as " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with
grief" NEEDLE not with the mysteries of Trim
ity or interfere with the argons of the schools the
difference Of creeds, or the diversity of seats.
speak of his character as man, and moral teacher
of his preceps and doctrines, and their influence
upon the mind and social condition Of man. To him
no outward pomp or circumstance, no splendid show
or ceremony gave delight, but never failed to meet
his seyerest censure. The pompous rites of the
Jews from whom he sprang, met in every instance
his bitter rebuke and their sangunary laws and idle
forms treated by him with scorn and contempt.
The motive, the disposition of the heart, the Dhu-
cnce that dictated to action, the unerrng principles
of Justice and benevoence were the paramount vir-
tues in his creed. The world had, before him, pro-
duced its moral teachers its truly great philosophers
men who, by unremittng toll ard study, by disci-
pline of mind and body, by restraint of passions and
cultivation Of moral powers, exhibited truly great
and virtuous characters but no of them display
ed that high moral courage that contempt of danger
and DEATH those personal sacrifices and selfdenial,
that deep and earnest disnterestedness and that
bounded benevoence and love, the great Christian
Lawgver
Plato mingled with his true and lofty conceptions
of the Deity the gross forms of demi 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 and
popular theology Of his time, and was found at the
temples pa ing alteration to heather gods. And what
after all, the and substance Of their doc
trines but continual disputes about quiddities aud
nonentties-about theories and forms and fances-
amounting in the end to nothing tangible 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
to discover the nature Of the Creator of the Universe
and being discovered, il is impossible and would
be impious to expose the discovery vulgar under.
standing The columns of the portco and the groves
Of the 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
location, and 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 he went, he taught with the same simplci-
ty and holiness. He stood up in the annual festivals
when the nation was assembled together, and pro.
claimed his doctrines. He travelled from city TO
city, from province to province; and on the highway
in the fields and groves, wherever c found man. he
spoke the truths which his Father had taught him
No personal dangers deferred hm-no difficulty too
great to surmount-Do sacrifice too paramount 10 of.
fer, in the announcement of that system of moral
grandeur he was destined to establish The ethics of
the ancient philosophers were the study Of years
for they drew only from the dimligh of nature, and
were compelled to struggle through the dark forms of
natter to trace from to effect to separate and
compare and after all, the little they brought 10
light remained the labor of inference and doubt
Mystery too, lent their doctrine weight; and those
who studied for years the systems Of their philoso
ply, were alone allowed TO approach the con-
Lining the grand secret, and enjoy The fruiton of
their labors. Not so with the doctrines Of Christ:
he threw the sun light Of his principles over all
equally alike upon the palace Of the great and the
cottage OF tn poor. A fe simple maxims and pre-
cepts, amounting almost TO sefevident propositions
with a few forcIbe illustrations, convey the simple
truth to the mind for they find a 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 anIlquity AS ye would t,at others
should do TO you, do you even so to them"