The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-22

not, and the details of that life may
be adjourned until the blue curtains
are folded back to admit us.
So it has been truly and strongly
said: "Jesus is my Saviour because
he shows me how man can live, not
how God can live. He shows me
with what fortitude and kindliness a
man can toll and teach. He shows
me how completely a man can resist
temptation, not how some interrupted
| superhuman creature can resist temp
tation. He shows me with what
magnificent heroism man can with
stand whole nation, in his convic
ton to preach the truth. He shows
me how nobly man can overcome
all his early prejudices and rise above
the narrowness of his creed and his
age and his friends. He shows me
with what grandeur of soul man can
endure the taunts the sneers, the in
suits of his own family and kinsmen,
when his mind is set on great task.
He shows me how man can broaden
out his heart till it encompass even
his foes, strangers, the human race.
He shows me how a man can be
hated, despised, slandered, by those
he most counted on for sympathy,
ana still keep the sweetness of his
thoughts, and the royal dignity of
his demeanor, and still push forward
in his work, trusting God and the flu
ture to vindicate him. Above all
things he shows me how man under
every encouragement, every failure,
every humiliation, every grief, en-
during every cruelty that other men
can inflict, can still believe sublimely
in human nature, and in the success
of truth and righteousness in this
world. o friends, when hundredth
part of his trouble has come upon us
how prone we are to lose confidence
in humanity and faith in God!"
We are told in medieval legend
that, when Christ hung on the cross,
angels collected from his side the
blood preserved in the Holy Grail,
and touched with his robe the earth
where drops of blood had fallen. I'm
mediately the cross was surrounded
by fragrant red flowers, growing up
ward, that their dying Master might
be strengthened by their perfume.
And, because the rose was thus pres
sent at the crucifixion, it became by
heavenly command the queen of
flowers. The legend suggests to us
that every drop of the blood of that
wonderful sacrifice, falling upon our
hearts, should call into life the rich
est flowers of love and devotion and
loyalty and truth!
2. We look to him, therefore, and
are comforted and helped by what he
has done.
AS another suggests: eff he could
shake off the thralldom of that bigot-
ed Jewish church, and reach out to
humanity, surely | can put aside my
foolish prejudices and become a
brotherly sort of man. If he could
find way, on those barren hills of
Judea, in that old time of ignorance,
to become a scholar, student and
master of the widest truth, teacher
of the nations and the centuries,
surely | can find way, in the light
of the present time, of doing some
thing wise and good. If he could
struggle through the dishonesties
and the deceitfulness and the de-
bauchery of that depraved age. and
keep his soul unspotted, surely can,
with all the advantages of my life,
live fairly pure and upright. If he
could rise above the world and the
flesh and walk daily in the serene
consciousness that God was his Fa-
Their and heaven his home, surely
| can draw near enough to him, in
some sublime moments, to feel the
beating of his heart, and feel the pull
sing of my thoughts and emotions
in harmony with his, and look with
his clear eyes upon the face of the
Eternal, of whom he says to me, My
God and your God, my Father and
your Father If he, while sinking
beneath the blows of earth could feel
that he was rising triumphant above
the power of earth to harm or hurt,
could enter death with an undimned
confdence-yea,w welcome it even with
JOY and rapture as the gateway to
higher and diviner life-surely then
/ should not be afraid to die. Thus
for what he does, by his everything
example, by the inspiration he daily
works in my soul, is he my Saviour"
There is another fower-legend that
runs like this: After the expulsion