on the scaffold, at the stake ; in its service the mightiest intellects and the most loving hearts of earth have toiled incessantly. The love of Jesus Christ and the acceptance of His religion are not dependent upon ignorance and superstition; for where Christianity has not found men educated it has laboured to make them so. More men have learned to read in order that they might read the Bible than for any other purpose or inducement. The only way by which we can account for the mighty hold which Jesus Christ has taken upon the world is, that His system meets a want of which the world stood in need. He came to save the world from sin and misery, and to elevate its moral and mental character.
When He was born into the world, the nation among whom He came were expecting the advent of a Saviour to deliver and to rule them. But He was born among the poor and lowly ones of earth, and the eyes of the people were looking towards the abodes of the rich and noble. Hence, when He grew up to manhood and began to preach and to teach and to work as the Christ, the people among whom He laboured refused to acknowledge Him as the promised one. "He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." He lived a life of poverty, and died a death of shame. But now, the mere mention of Him evokes in every land wherein His Gospel proclamation has been issued feelings of loving and admiring devotion; the heart of humanity is couched
