as something
to be avoided. Michelangelo's statue teaches the highest lesson of
religious faith,--the beauty of resigned sorrow and the sublimity of
sacrificing love.

VII

CHRIST TRIUMPHANT

(_Cristo Risorto_)

The character of Christ is so many-sided that when trying to fancy how
he looked while he lived in the world, everyone has probably a
different thought uppermost. The business man and the lawyer may
imagine the keen, searching glance which he turned upon those who
tried to entangle him with hard questions. A loving woman thinks
rather of the compassionate look with which he greeted the sisters of
Lazarus when they came to tell him that their brother was dead. The
physician may wonder how he looked when he spoke the commanding words
to those whom he healed.

Others dwell upon his sufferings as the Man of Sorrows, and often
think how sad he looked when he referred to the disciple who should
betray him. Lovers of nature like to imagine the look of pleasure on
his face in seeing the lilies growing in the field, or the expression
of eager inquiry with which he asked the fishermen what luck they had
had. Every boy and girl likes best to think of him smiling upon the
children, whom he called to him and took in his arms.

Now when an artist makes an ideal representation of Christ, he tries
to show us as many as possible of these elements of character combined
in one figure. So we may test the success of Michelangelo's statue of
Christ by searching out these various elements in it. We must also
know what incident the artist had in mind of which the work is an
illustration, so to speak.

The statue is called in Italian _Cristo Risorto_, that is, Christ
Risen or Triumphant, because the reference is to a circumstance not
recorded of his earthly career, but belonging to the time following
his resurrection. It is connected with a story told by St. Ambrose
about the apostle Peter. St. Peter, it is believed, spent the latter
part of his life in Rome, where the cruel emperor, Nero, was doing his
best to exterminate the Christians.

"After the burning of Rome, Nero threw upon the Christians the
accusation of having fired the city. This was the origin of the first
persecution, in which many perished by terrible and hitherto
unheard-of deaths. The Christian converts besought Peter not to expose
his life, which was dear and necessary to the well-being of all; and
at length he consented to depart from Rome. But as