LECTURE.

Evening Star, Issue 3470, 7 April 1874, Page 2

LECTURE.

The last of a course of three lectures on ** Yhe Divine Authority of the Christian Religion,” was de ivered last .Sunday evening, by the Rev. Sir Roseby, in the Congregational Church, Moray place. The special subject of the lecture was “The Creat Evidence of th'-> Christian Faith—Christ Himself.” The lecturer began by deprecating the reducing (•f Christian Faith,fo a mere matter of lovfic. If Christianity was merely a matter of syllogising, it would be hard to say what greater virtue there would be in believing in Christ than in the multiplication table. But beyond the mere reasoning or discursive faculty In man, there was a faculty—call it by what name they chase, the conscience, the soul, the spiritual faculty—which gave man a standing in the sight of God, in the face of the moral law, and in the light of responsibility, which no merely logical faculty could pretend to touch. The lecturer pointed out the several forms in which this spiritual faculty displayed itself; the impulse which led man to prostrate himself in worship ; the idea of righteousness ; the sense of the beauty of holiness. Whence that stern feeling of the obligation of duty, a feeling so inflenith that they all felt that justice—the right thing—should be done, though the heavens fall; so inflenith that they deliberately assented to the doctrine that it wore better for the whole frame of the physical universe to be dissolved, than for a single act of wrong to be done ? The explanation of this feeling introduced them into the awful penetralia, the sublime, ineffable temple of the soul. This spiritual faculty was further illustrated in the lecture by references to the life and character of men eminent for unbending rectitude, keen sensitiveness to the higher impulses of the soul, tenderness, zeal, reverence, sain tliness. Tha oases of Wesley, Luther, and M‘Cheyne received special prominence. The subject was then illustrated from the oppoaite pole by the rage of remorse, the agony of shame. What kind of a being, continued the lecturer, must man be, viewed in the light of such facts as these ? He was not only a rational creature, “ with large discourse, looking before and after,” but he was a moral being, sensitive to duty; he was a spiritual being, with instincts making him

kindred with God. iSow it was from the consideration of this noblest function of man’s being that the great evidence emerged of the Divine authority of the religion of Jesus Christ. The rev. gentleman directed attention—first, to the wants of man as an individual soul, and as a member of society. The deepest want of the human spirit was communion with God. Another want, of man’s soul was light; another was seen to arise on taking account of the fact of sin. It needed expiation—a necessity so rooted in man’s moral nature, that every religious system, and even those modern philosophies which were intended to supersede religion, were compelied to recognize it, either by dedaring that man must bear his own sin, or that another must bear it—and, beyond expiation, the soul needed deliverances from its power and from its defilement. The cry of man was not onlj “Lord be merciful unto me,” but also, “Heal my soul.” Nay, there was a feeling in man of earnest long’ ing after the perfection of righteousness, the beauty of holiness. Another of man’s spiritual wants was a solace in all the manifold, some of them extreme and agonizing, forms of sorrow, and a hope in death’ Finally, it was a fact familiar alike to the economist, the moralist, and the theologian, that human society was in a state of disorder and unrest. Nothing seemed to be in its right place, or if it happened to stumble into it, to keep it long. I‘Jvery improvement that the statesman succeeded in effecting in the. state of society, seemed only to give rise to a fresh crop of grievances and mischief. Rescue the laborers from a life of penury and degradation, and they had now to provide against increased drunkenness, indolence, and unthrift. Organize a scheme of Government relief, of pauperism, and the remedy, suggested by benevolence and humanity, seemed only to aggravate the disease. Let generosity befriend and philanthropy elevate the degraded and downtrodden, and they would have to bear with what patience they could the ingratitude and insolence of the objects of their kindness. Persuade the drunkard to abandon his cups and they might find (be had himself often found) that the evil spirit of intemperance was only displaced by the evil spirit of avarice. There was an evil leaven at work in the heart of society. The times were out of joint—what should mend them? Let them now tqrn, said the lecturer, and see secondly, the full and perfect satisfaction ©f all these wants in the Being, Character, Life, Teaching. Work-in one word, in the Blessed Gospel of Jesus the Christ. The God of Christianity was neither so far removed by transcendental qualities from man as to be unapproachable, as was the case with some other religions, and with some modern philosophies. Be was neither Buddha, nor the personified fate of Mahommedauiam, nor To Pan, the Universal All, nor was Bis Incarnation of the unworthy, not to say revolting, character of the humanized duties of other religions. They could understand the fascination which so beautiful a mythology as that of the classic ages exercised over the minds of Greek and Roman,' but a moment’s reflection sufficed to show that deities clothed with sinful human passions must rather disgust than satisfy the religious nature of man. ; And if that mythology were unsatisfactory, they had certainly no need to examine the claims of any other. But the Christ o! the Gospel’s harmonized qualities never before seen, except in contradiction or in discord. The Divine element was there unimpaired, and the human element was there unexaggerated. Christ met man as man, He blessed man as Gocl Again, the light revealed in the gospel was net of such character as to he useless to men, for it came in conjunction with a quickening life. There was motive power enough in the gospel to render its law feasible. No service was diffi. i cult, of which, the impulse was love • and turning to the sad fact of sin. see how the gospel at once recognised thefaot in all itsenormity, and made fit and effective provision for its destruction. The sacrifice of Christ for sin and the renewing grace of God, supplied just those elements of which they were in search to counteract and subdue sin. That those elements were effective in doing this, the testimony of myriads of holy and useful lives gam abun lant assurance. In respect to the solace which man needs in sorrow, the lecturer remarked that the gospel did not harden the heart into stoicism. That was philosophy’s best anodyne; but it was not Lnnsts. Christ said to them, “endure, but your suffering shall be but the earnest of a far-exceeding joy. Some of you shall they cause to be put to death . . . and there shall not an hair of your head perish.” And as for death, the King of Terrors was iato;, a Jpipud. she gaajer dM not come to incarcerate a pneobbr in the

lonely cell uf death, but rather, with golden key, to unlock'the prison-houstfof life, to set free the soul into the" blessedness of heaven. Nor was there anything fanatical mthis. Far different this from the intoxicated and sensuous madness with which the Mahommedan rhshed upon' death, with a babblement of dark-eyed girls;■ caps of preeioiur stdnes, kerchiefs of silk, lie., in his paradise . What a contrast! ■ Yen, a contrast between a religion, wohderful in the possession of those characters which had commended it to the acceptance of hundreds of millions of our race, which yet was only of man, and a religion which was of God! In regard to the disorders of society, the lecturer pointed out that man’s efforts had always been directed to re-constrnotion and re-adjustment. All the inequalities of society would disappear, in the judgment of the mere economist, if only you could fitly adjust the circumstances of men. lienee the thousand and One schemes of socialism, from Owen to Brigham Young. Not such was Christ’s teaching. The only purgation of the state which Ho contemplated was the purgation of individual hearts—a principle which, under the pervasive power of Christianity, was at length beginning to dawn upon the minds of economists themselves. The lecturer having thus pointed out the special adaptations of Christ to the wants of the human ,soul, then proceeded to sketch the character of Christ Himself as being the great evidence of the Christian Faith.; and concluded by referring, as arising from the power of Christ, to the unexampled progress of His: religion among men. A Jewish peasant had effected snob a change in the religious life of the world that

the most highly cultured races were compelled by the voice of reason, and their spiritual instincts, to choose between His religion or none. A. quotation from a conversation between Count Montholon and Napoleon Bonaparte, wherein the latter contrasted the establishment of Christ's kingdom with that of other great empires, presented this fact in a striking light. And now, said the preacher, what Was the conclusion of the whole matter f Was it merely that the cogency of Christian evidence compelled assent? Rather he would say, the conclusion of the great argument was, u Kneel down, kneel down and wonder “ Thou art worthy “ Worthy is the laiab that was slain to secure power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honor and glory, and blessing.” •