say a firm word
concerning it: "The total meaning of it," he says, "was, and is, that the
God who made earth and its creatures, took, at a certain time upon the
earth, the flesh and form of man; in that flesh sustained the pain and
died the death of the creature He had made; rose again after death into
glorious human life, and when the date of the human race is ended, will
return in visible human form, and render to every mail according to his
work. _Christianity is the belief in, and love of, God thus manifested_.
Anything _less_ than this," he adds, "the mere acceptance of the sayings
of Christ, or assertion of any less than divine power in His Being, may
be, for aught I know, enough for virtue, peace, and safety; but they do
not make people Christians, or enable them to understand the heart of the
simplest believer in the old doctrine."

CHRISTIANSAND (12), a town and seaport in the extreme S. of Norway,
with a considerable trade.

CHRISTIE, WILLIAM HENRY MAHONEY, astronomer-royal, born at Woolwich,
of Trinity College, Cambridge; author of "Manual of Elementary
Astronomy"; _b_. 1845.

CHRISTINA, queen of Sweden, daughter and only child of Gustavus
Adolphus; received a masculine education, and was trained in manly
exercises; governed the country well, and filled her court with learned
men, but by-and-by her royal duties becoming irksome to her, she declared
her cousin as her successor, resigned the throne, and turned Catholic;
her cousin dying, she claimed back her crown, but her subjects would not
now have her; she stayed for a time in France, but was obliged to leave;
retired to Rome, where she spent 20 years of her life engaged in
scientific and artistic studies, and died (1628-1689).

CHRISTINA, MARIA, daughter of Francis I. of Naples, and wife of
Ferdinand VII. of Spain, on whose death she acted for four years as
regent, during the infancy of her daughter Isabella (1806-1878).

CHRISTISON, SIR ROBERT, toxicologist, born at Edinburgh, and
professor, first of Medical Jurisprudence and then of Materia Medica, in
his native city; wrote a "Treatise on Poison," a standard work
(1797-1882).

CHRISTMAS, the festival in celebration of the birth of Christ now
celebrated all over Christendom on 25th December, as coinciding with an
old heathen festival celebrated at the winter solstice, the day of the
return of the sun northward, and in jubilation of the prospect of the
renewal of life in the spring.