every variety of habit, thought, and feeling, from the
cannibals of New Zealand and Madagascar to the most enlightened and
scientific minds in Christendom, one feeling, essentially homogeneous in
its character and results, has arisen in view of this cross. There is
something in it that strikes one of the great nerves of simple,
unsophisticated humanity, and meets its wants as nothing else will. Ages
ago, Paul declared to philosophizing Greek and scornful Roman that he
was not ashamed of this gospel, and alleged for his reason this very
adaptedness to humanity. _A priori_, many would have said that Paul
should have told of Christ living, Christ preaching, Christ working
miracles, not omitting also the pathetic history of how he sealed all
with his blood; but Paul declared that he determined to know nothing
else but Christ _crucified_. He said it was a stumbling block to the
Jew, an absurdity to the Greek; yet he was none the less positive in his
course. True, there was many then, as now, who looked on with the most
philosophic and cultivated indifference. The courtly Festus, as he
settled his purple tunic, declared he could make nothing of the matter,
only a dispute about one Jesus, who was dead, and whom Paul affirmed to
be alive; and perchance some Athenian, as he reclined on his ivory couch
at dinner, after the sermon on Mars Hill, may have disposed of the
matter very summarily, and passed on to criticisms on Samian wine and
marble vases. Yet in spite of their disbelief, this story of Christ has
outlived them, their age and nation, and is to this hour as fresh in
human hearts as if it were just published. This "one Jesus which was
dead, and whom Paul affirmed to be alive," is nominally, at least, the
object of religious homage in all the more cultivated portions of the
globe; and to hearts scattered through all regions of the earth this
same Jesus is now a sacred and living name, dearer than all household
sounds, all ties of blood, all sweetest and nearest affections of
humanity. "I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the name
of the Lord Jesus," are words that have found an echo in the bosoms of
thousands in every age since then; that would, if need were, find no
less echo in thousands now. Considering Christ as a man, and his death
as a mere pathetic story,--considering him as one of the great martyrs
for truth, who sealed it with his blood,--this result is wholly
unaccountable. Other martyrs have died,