haracter which all men whose moral sense is not
blunted recognise as the culminating point and perfection of humanity.
They may not themselves attempt to realise it, or they may deem it
unattainable, but nevertheless the idea of what constitutes a good
or perfect man is no sooner presented to their minds than conscience
accepts it as that which _ought_ to be. Now, it is admitted even by
the atheist that such an idea is embodied in the historical character
of Jesus Christ, and in the life, consequently, of every man just in
proportion as he possesses His Spirit, obeys His precepts, and walks
in His steps. But there are, and have been in every age, persons who
have done this, if not in a perfect, yet in a more perfect degree than
by any others among mankind. Or supposing it were admitted, for the
sake of argument, that, so far as we had the means of judging, there
has occasionally appeared, without faith in Christ, a certain product
of character, apparently as pure, lofty, self-denying, loving, and
devoted to God as any which ever professed to owe its origin to Jesus
Christ; yet, where has there been on earth such a _body_ of living
persons as those Christians who, within the bosom of the universal
Church, during eighteen centuries, have manifested that kind of
character which all men profess to admire and reverence? In vain one
tries to conceive the flowers of moral beauty and glory that have
sprung up within the garden of Christendom! Being rooted in the earth,
they may have been soiled, indeed, by its dust, but they yet expanded
in loveliness to the sky, and sent forth a fragrance to the air,
peculiar to the plants raised by the Great Husbandman. Number, if you
can, the saints of the Christian Church; the young and old, the poor
and rich, who in every age and clime have been truthful, simple,
sincere, patient, forgiving, and compassionate; who have enjoyed an
inward life of peace with God, maintained an outward conduct, and
possessed a reality of abiding love to their Father in heaven and to
their brethren on earth peculiar to themselves. Their lives have been
a blessing to the world, and a happiness to their own hearts;
their deathbed has been freed from the fears of a dark future, and
brightened by the pure prospect of continued life and joy. The
Christian Church, and the Christian Church _alone_, contains such
characters; and these are the lights of our homes, the salt of the
earth, and the only security of the world