The Life and Words of Christ #223144

N o apology is needed for the publication of another Life of Christ, for the subject, to use the words of Mr. Carlyle, is of quite perennial, infinite character, and its significance will ever demand to be anew inquired into, and anew made manifest. The freshness and interest of the name of Jesus, and its power as a great factor in the spiritual history of the world, increase with each generation. The influence of His life, His words, and His death, have, from the first, been like leaven cast into the mass of humanity. He made religion Spiritual instead of ceremonial and external; universal, in stead of local. He gave us the magnificent dowry of a faith in One Common Father of the Whole human race, and, thus, of a world-wide brotherhood of all mankind. He confirmed the doctrine of our immortality, and scattered abroad the germs of a heavenly life by His fundamental requirements of love to God and our neighbour. All reforms of individual and public life lie veiled in these principles, awaiting the advance of our moral sense, to apprehend and apply them. They have already given freedom to the slave; raised woman; purified morals; mitigated war; created liberty; and made humanity a growing force, in things private, civil.