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Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3909, 9 July 1881, Page 4

as extraordinary bad been proved by 3 miracles which he was reluctantly \ persuaded to attempt in Alexandria, and, 1 which he bad succeeded in accomplishing. 1 A blind man was restored to sight, and a s man with a disabled hand had recovered ( the use of it under circumstances which 1 curiously resembled those of the gospel ] miracles.. His future greatness had been i foretold to him by a prophet on Mount ( Carmel. He was first saluted Emperor < by the legions of Caesarea. The race of ] the Caesars was gone, their glory and their ] crimesc alike ended, and a more modest; I era again commenced. The Temple of I Jupiter was rebuilt with peculiar solemnity. The impious rites were abolished, 1 sacrifices and litanies were offered I once more to the old accredited gods.and 1 goddesses, and a wet sponge was drawn t over the liedious past. Once more there 1 was decency and order, and men could live 1 and breathe with some shadow of self- i respect. But? this was not all. The dead sods could be replaced in the temples. The mythology was made endurable for a time by allegorical interpretations. But belief bad become impassible for ever. And again the question rose : Where was Providence? what signs could be found of a divine rale P Not in the emperors. After the experience of Nero, that illusion was no longer possible. To thinking minds; .therefore, the problem returned, " Where was the promise of His coining? " Why was it well with the wicked ? Why were the good allowed to suffer? What was the rule under which the universfr was governed after all? No real conviction could be based on obscure probabilities ; and the great Roman world went upon its way back into vice, back into madness and atheism, till the dead shell fell off, and a living Christian Church, grown to imperial stature, was found standing on the ruins of the constitution of the Csssars. . , Why was it well with the wicked ? The theology of paganism cduld give no' for the " *eaKh."\of~.paflanism< Iras thel" wealth "of the mbderm!E)aglish-inen—-money and broad lands and health to enjoy them—and the most pioas disposition to believe could not blind itself to thef pnncjpje on which wealth of this kind was distributed. Paganism bad allotted as the special dominion of the Gods, the natural forces which were beyond man's control. In the operation of these forces there was 110 tra^e of a moral Governor, and men who refused to He looked the truth in their face and acknowledged it. Moral governments, which openly and visibly rewarded merit and punished vice and crime, extended precisely as far as the authority of man and no further. The oracles, the legendary tales, the devout imaginations of what the Gods had done in the old times, the prophecies of what the Gods would do in the future, these would no longer satisfy;. The facts of experience were too stern to be trifled with. The struggling conscience had demanded reality, and had built temples to Divus Cesar. This, too, had not availed. A society constructed like that of the Csssars, on the policeman and economic laws, is a body without life ; and by an everlasting law of nature, which men may quarrel with, may deny to exist, yet from which they can no more escape than they can escape from their own dissolution, such a society, such a kingdom of this world, will become a kingdom of the devil."' 1' ■' >■ '"<.■-/. .'r\ ■'. ,%l- \■■ What was the truth, then ? . What was this inexorable sphinx which sat by the highway of humanity, propounding its enigma and devouring every one who could not divine the answer ? In the most despised of the Roman provinces, ' among groups of peasants and fishermen, on the shores of a Galilean lake, the answer had been given, and there in that remote and humbTe region a new life had begun for mankind. They bad looked for a union of God with man. " They thought they had found it in Caesar. Divided from Caesar by the whole diameter of society, they found it at last in the carpenter of Nazareth. The Kingdom of Csesar was a Kingdom over the world; the Kingdom of Christ was a Kingdom in the heart of man. I am a King, he said (if it may be permitted to'paraphrase his words). I bid you follow me and be my servants; but my kingdom is not such a kingdom : as'you look for. It is the kingdom of God. The philosophers of the world say there is no kingdom of God, because no justice can be found in the apportionment of good and evil. What the world calls good is not the fit reward of human virtue. What the world calls evil is not the punishment of sin. The Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with tlieir' sacrifices, were not sinners above other Galileans. Suffering, you say, if it be just; must, be a punjsluneut x fpr. sin, and yon ask where ; tae. sin lay- when; a man ■<was born blind ? '* Does ,' this 1 Derplex you? Do you say God is indifferent? I bid you find rather in this indifference an example for yourselves to imitate. Your Father in heaven makes his. rain to fall on the just and the unjust,- and is good to the unthankful and the evil. I will not make you great. I will n^t give you honours and land and gold and jewels. I will promise you no immunity from disease,; or .sufferingi or.death. To these things the Gentiles look, and when they are not awarded, on principles that they think just, they doubt if there, is any God in heaven. These are not the wages you will earn in my service. Corae to me and I will make you good men. I will make you rulers over your own selfishness, your own appetites and lusts. I will set you free from sin. Make this your object, to be free from sin, to lead pure and true and honourable lives. I will then be -with you. I will dwell in you. I will give you <■ peace of mind of which the world knows nothing. I will be a well of water in yon, springing up into everlasting life. You. wish for prosperity, yon wish for pleasure, yon wish for the world's good things; but prosperity will not help you in the con-. , quest of yourselves. It will rather be a hinderance Sorrow and Buffering are not evils. They are the school in which you .. may learn self-command. The empire to •which I bid you aspire is higher than the Chars'. It is the empire over your own hearts. The reward I offer you is greater than the purple. It is the redemption of your own character. This is - the Providence of God,, for which you .looked and failed, to find it; And it is just to the smallest fibre of it. External things obey the laws assigned to them. The moral Ruler whom you desire to know, is not to be found by looking at these. He is here: He is in the heart of man. He is in me who now speak to you. He will be in you if you struggle to obey Him and to do His will. To be happy is not the; purpose for which you are placed i iv this world. Examine your own hearts, i £gk your conscience, and it will answer