The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1895-04-03

blinded; and after he has endured all possi-
| bic evil, he will at last be hanged
Cicero, in the Tusculan Disputations says
he had never seen a perfect man, and phi
losophers are all at variance "what sort of
man such an one would be, if ever he might
be expected to exist"
| Epictatus says: "No, it is impossible
The only thing possible is to be ever striving
TO be faultless."
Demosthenes, in his Grafton on the Crown,
says: " The quality of doing all that is
| right is attributed to the Gods alone.''
| No other founder of religion ever claimed
to be sinless. Moses sinned and failed to
enter the promisel land. John the Baptist
| felt his unworthiness in the presence of
| Christ. Mohammed is said to have won a
| battle that Allah might pardon his sins, past
and present. There is one man in history,
claimed to be sinless. 1t was Appollonius,
in the life written of him by Philostratus
| 1t was an eattempt to initiate the story of
Christ, and only shows the Impossbility of
portraying sinless character. The German
critic, Baur, says of him: In the place of
Him, whom Christianity sets before US, as
the actually manifested Redeemer of the
world we have here a sage, acting only by
precept and example. He is no living form,
but an image, wanting independent reality
| and actual existence a faint and shadowy
reflection of living original"
What impression did Christ make, with
His sinless claim, on his contemporaries?
Pilates wife said, Have nothing to do with
| that just man." The Centurion, standing at
~;
righteous man." Judas, who had been with
Him three years, was compelled to admit.
-" have betrayed the innocent blood" Peter,
standing in awe before Him, exclaimed,
Depart from me, o Lord, forI am a sinful
man." And Paul wrote, 90 He was made sin
| for us, who knew no sim"
His personal presence banished sin, and
compelled moral decision.
Consider :. few of the statements of Dr.
Bushnell, in his remarkable book on The
Character of Christ:
"He is the most unworldly of beings, hav-
ing no desire at all for what the earth can
give, impossible to be caught with any long
| ing for its benefits, impossible even to its
charms, and yet there is no ascetic sourness
or repugnance, no mISanthrOpic dlStaSte in
His manner, as if He were bracing himself
| against the world to keep il off. The more
closely he is drawn to other worlds the more
fresh and susceptible is he to the humanIties
of this. Men undertake to be spiritual, and
q liberal view of the comforts and pleasures
| of society, they are soon buried in the world,
and slaves to Its fashions or holding a Scru-
pulous watch to keep out every particular
sin, they become legal and fall out of liberty:
or, charmed with the noble and heavenly
liberty, they run to negligence and ire
spOnsIble living. So the earnest become
violent, the ferveLt fanatlcal and censorious
the gentle waIm, the firm turn bigots, the
liberal grow lax, the benevolent Oslen Latious,
Poor human lnhrmity can hold nothing
steady When the pivot of righteousness is
broken the scales must needs slide off their
balance. Indeed 1t is one of the most diff
cult things which a cultivated Christian Cali
attempt, only to sketch a theoretic view Ot
character, in its true business and PROPOSE
ton, SO that little more self-ex perience
will not require him to modify it.
And yet the character of Christ IS never
mod Ihed even by a shade of rectifcation. Ii
Is one and the same throughout. He makes
no improvements, prunes no eXtravagapces,
returns from no eccentricities. The balance
of His character is never disturbed, or re-
adjusted, and the astounding assumption on
which it is based is never shaken, even by
| a suspicion that he falters in it,"
Put by the side of Christ's life, His stu
pendOus clam /; imagine a human creature
| saying, aye are from beneath, L am from
above" An uninstructed youth, facing the
| worlds wisdom with "a greater than Solo,
| mon is here" Looking at the infinite maj
esty with, 81 have glorifed Thee on the
Earth" Saying to the human race, Come
unto me" and Follow me-" Putting his
hand on the dearest human affections and
req quiring greater love: He that loVeth
Father or Mother more than me is not worthy
of me-" classifying Himself with Jehovah,
make our abode;" or, at the last supper, say
ing, "This is my body" This do IN remem-
brance of me, ,'-centering the worlds reli-
gion in Himself.
Yet eighteen centuries have paid homage
to Him, detecting no disagreement be-
| tween His merits and pretensions offended
by no thought of His extravaganza, in which
we have proof that His character uphoIds
| the amazing assumptions. He has the merit
OF peculiar mOdesty, producing everywhere
the conviction of HIS loWllness and humility.
No sceptc has ever accused HIM of concelt.
Let amy other take on His assumptions and
| see how soon his glory will be Slfted from
hIm by the critical gaze of the public, and
| uarkeued by the contempt of mankind.
He has shown the glory of the passive vir
tues. The test OF life is III the common trials.
Men Will go to martyrdUm with heroic COM
pUSure, whom little WEAKNESS or opposition
VIII throw INTO d ut OF lll-nature. Great Oc
| casIonS will brace the mind and rally great
| principles, but small trials have no such III
| spIraLlUn, and show the goodness and beauty
vi the dIsposItIon. In these, as IN the greater
| Christ never taltered. Consider that He
prosecuted his work with great enthusiasm
| W hen men have important work on hauu
| enthusiasm runs to ImpatIence. The soul
| strikes hre at obstacles, trets against hind
| rances. Christ met them without fret or
| worry. He Is not d stole !; HIS sensitive Soul
| Ieels every III He Is invested everywhere
| with a sacred patience ; He is wronged and
seals his ups; He has what Thomas Hughs
| mas called :" HerUISm i'll kepOSe."
| Theodure Parke saId; e lie unites in Him
self the sublImest precepts and dlvIuesl
PRACTICES, thus more than realizing the dream
/ ot prophet anu sage. Eighteen centuries
| nave passed since lhe sun of humanity rose
| 81 hIgh III HIM. What man, what sect. has
/ mastered HIS thought, comprehended HIS
method, aud fully applied 1t to lite"
LhanuIug ~ believe Jesus Christ to be
more than a human being. We separate hIm
ny broad distinctions from other men VT
| consider Hum MS having exhibited a spolIess
purity, by HIS greatness and goodness. He
: throws all other human attachments into OBJ
I security.
| Bushnell "When has the world seen ii
| phenomenon like this? A lonely. unlu-
| structeu youth, coming forth amid the NORA
uarkuess OF Galllee, even more distinct from
his age than Plato, rising III some Wild tribe
| Ot the west, assuming position at the heau
| ut the world, anu maintaining 1t for eighteen
centuries, by the pure self-evldence of his
| LIte and uOCIrlue.
RUbt Browning =
| a. Morality to the uttermost,
Supreme i'll Christ, as we all confess.
Mnat ls the point, where himself lay stress
Does the precepu run, believe in God'
In Justice, IruLn, now understood
For the trst time, or believe In me.
Who lived and dled. yet essentially
Am Lord of Lite
| The life of Christ is the evidence of
Christianity. The perfect character, having
entered lite and history cannot be expelled.
/ IL were easier to uutwIst the beams OF light
and expunge one OF the cOlors, than to gel
/ the Ilte OF Christ, the real Gospel, out of the
| world He enters no VeXe0 question OF
ethics. He simply tells men, from God, how
| to 1--we, and the Htterance being the reality,
awakens the conscIenclOusness of the truth
| IN the bosom. While nothing has been Set
| tied by the critics that would compel the
| consent OF the race TOR single year, the
morality of Christ Is as fixed in the human
mind as the law OF graVItatlOn. He rests on
MS words with composure as majestic as II
de were 'sIttIng on the circle of the Heav-
| ens," and says: He that is of the truth,