National Baptist world., 1894-09-14

and heard the high priest read the
prophecies of Daniel concerning him
self.
| He was told, according to the legend,
that he was the agent of Heaven to
humble the kingdoms of the east. The
revelation pleased him, but he consid-
cred himself divine person, and moth
ing less would salty his ambition than
the honor of this supreme claim
In Libya, the fattering shrine-keep-
ers OF Ammon We're made to hail him
as the son of a god, and as such he ever
atterward signed his name.
tie was a brave, brilliant, fortunate
soldier-and king. That was all.
His character was motley of virtues
and vices. He was by turns modest
and bombastic, noble and mean, Just
and unjust, kind and cruel, vindictive
and magnanimous, temperate and in
temperate The he-goat of Daniels vi
| sion was his emblem
Within thirteen years he made him.
self master of ten nations, and he
ended his life in early manhood be-
cause he could not make himself mas
ter of his own appetite. He died
drunkard. Men called him the ''con-
querOr of the world" but the world
could not well own him conqueror who
fell a victim to it's temptations.
More than three hundred years after
| AleXander's visit to Jerusalem Jesus
Christ stood there in the temple. No
one showed Him the phophecies that
foretold Him, though there were many
in the sacred books The scribes and
doctors were astonished at the under
standing of the marvellous boy, but
they did not know Him.
He went home with His mother. and
said nothing about Himself till He was
thirty years old. Then from the privacy
of His simple village life He went
forth to be preacher and teacher, and
to do good in a more public way.
His doctrines sank into mems hearts.
His miracles blessed the sick and the
poor. He needed no Libyan oracle to
declare Him the Son of God. He had
journeyed to Egypt in His childhood,
but He brought back no borrowed di-
vinity.
When His three years wonderful
ministry ended he was in Jerusalem
again; and there He died His words
to His friends were remembered, and
He had done enough to make them
true BE of good cheer; I have over
come the wOrld.''
1t would have been worth to Alexan-
der more than all his victories to be
able to say these words with the conf
dence of a saint and a martyr, rather
than with the bOaStfulneSS of a warrior
king. The great Macedonian was nat
urally thoughtful and humane, but he
had an insatia BILE lust for power and
glory, so that justice, gentleness,
TRUTH and the lives of men were moth
ing when they stood in his way. The
only shining virtue in him that this
passion could not kill was his love for
his mother.
The great Nazarene loved His mother,
and loved all mankind. In genuine
greatness Jesus was not only every
thing that Alexander was, but every
thing that he was not-unwarlil1e, un-
revengeful, unselfsh, unsordid, un-
carnal, unboastful, and to temptation
invincible. His power was not in
splendid strife and boundless spoil, but
in forgiveness, humility, purity and
peace. He taught men to love one an
other and overcome evil with good,
and He made plain the path of the per-
feet life.
Alexander and Jesus both died at the
age Of thirty-three. But the difference
Of fhni1. iS almost foo 10
for comparison. One was a destroyer,
the other a Saviour; and unlike the
empire of the man of blood that went
to pieces at his death, the empire of
Christ is greater to-day than ever, and /
is growing still. AS DR.. Felix Adler,
jew, says of His earthly work: In /
those three years He changed the cur
rent of the worlds history"
The son of Olympias, with his victo-
ries of violence and ambition, survives
only in the story of his time, as men,
DRY. The Son of Mary, with His victo-
ries of love, is a living influence among
living men.
If there were no higher lesson in this
contrast, it at least sets forth clearly
the kind of success that brings the no.
blest winnings. Goodness is contagious
as we'll as wickedness, and it is longer
lived, for it is nourished in affection
that initiates and gratitude that never
fOrgets. Every person has one or more
followers and he who purifes others
by being himself pure, secures a tri-
umph that is immortal. Youth's Com
panion.
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