and thence detecting through all his disguises the distant Satan on his way to corrupt a perfect system.

We come now to the second topic-the manifold sources of the great power which Christianity possesses.

These are so manifold that we can exhibit only a few of the more prominent. And indeed we shall not dwell on what most of us would consider the very chief of these, viz, the copious direct evidence of the divine origin of the system, and its indwelling Holy Ghost. Undoubtedly these are the great sources of its power in society. But, as already intimated, the plan of this discussion requires that it be carried forward solely from such points of view as are not peculiar to believers.

Accordingly we ask attention first to the great store of clear and important truth which Christianity contains. It gives us very many just and important views of the attributes and government of God, very many of the final cause, present character, and proper culture of man. Its practical code is of the best -very sound, very complete, very valuable-and the scriptures are starred with thousands of excellent precepts, each of which is based on a truth as valuable as itself. This is matter of general acknowledgment among persons of all creeds. Even bitter infidels say it. Of course truths so widely received and yet so largely distasteful must be exceedingly plain. They require for their comprehension no unusual faculty or learning. They ask no happy moments of even common minds. As soon as fair statements of them are made, they stand forth to view in sharp and pictorial definition and commend themselves to the universal conscience so eloquently as to compel in their favor promptest and unqualified verdict. Is such an element as this without great force? To suppose it, is to suppose that man is mismade; that there are no strong adaptations in his constitution to leading facts in nature. It is to suppose that conscience is no power in the world; the instinct of selfinterest and self-preservation no power. We have been told from our earliest years that truth is mighty; and surely such truth as we find incorporated in Christianity-so important, so voluminous, so easily and widely recognized by men at largesurely this is not likely to put the proverb to blush. It does not. It is a great unwasting water-head in the mountains; and

if one asks why it is that the vale below smiles with plenty, and swift-paced engines fill its warehouses with useful and beautiful fabrics, we point in part answer to the rivulets that stream down upon it from every quarter, and to the races whose fuller currents shoot steeply down from their perch among eternal snows and clouds through all the droughty year.

Another source of the power of Christianity we conceive to be its great simplicity. There are things attached to the system, and properly attached to it, which are very far from having this quality-witness the folios of Christian evidences and theological philosophies which hardly any besides professional scholars are expected to comprehend. There are things often called Christianity which, if possible, still less deserve to be called simple-witness the foundation, the edifice, and the finish of that great Babylon which under a glaring caption of Christianity covers the best of Europe. See Fathers, Popes, Councils, and Scriptures, brought together in one discordant motley as rule of faith; and this passes for Christianity in its foundation. See dreams, traditions, and Aristotles, dovetailed and patterned into each other with the most intricate ingenuity; and this passes for Christianity in its doctrine. See a vast ecclesiasticism with its thrones, principalities, and powers; its crosiers, miters, vestments, censers, or saint-days, ceremonies in almost endless patterns of tinsel, gaud, or magnificence; and this passes for Christianity in its order and worship. Heathendom itself could hardly turn out to us a more complex, intricate, ostentatious system than this for which is challenged so lofty a name. And even in that system which, as we think, really deserves the name as well as assumes it, there are some things hard to be understoodlet us not fear to say it-parables and riddles hard as any of Delphos or Theban Sphinx. Yet, after all, it is permitted us to speak of the great simplicity of Christianity. Though its adjuncts are not always simple, though the usurpers of its name are not simple, though particular features of it are not simple-yet, as a whole, the real religion of the New Testament is the simplest the world has ever seen. Nothing but scripture enters into its one rule of faith and practice. Nothing

but an honest effort to fulfill known duty is made necessary to secure faith in this rule. Its fundamentals of doctrine are few and easily understood; its principles of practice comprehensive and almost universally approved. It has but one sacred day; but one order of religious; but two ceremonies, and those in merest outline and of the most unpretending kind. There is nothing that can be called machinery; no diplomacy of manner; no sacred etiquette; no dramatic gild, scenery, costume, upholstery, illuminations, judicious dispositions of lights and shadows. Whether such things may, to a certain extent, be lawfully connected with the system in the responsibility of human liberty, is a point on which Christian people may differ; but it ought to be plain to all that they are no part of the prescribed system itself. Here the tenor of things is severely simple. We everywhere recognize the manner of one who, strong in birth and position and unmatched beauty, can afford to appear in the simplest drapery and leave to less fortunate dames the sheen of jewels and the triumphs of millinery.

Now to persons, not a few, such a severely simple system is every way more attractive than any other. And to such as form the bulk of mankind it is one which can be more thoroughly understood, vividly conceived, promptly recollected, and easily worked; and so one more influential with believers and in their hands. Of course the mind has a natural adaptation to be influenced by what seems to it to be a valuable truth. And the more vividly and easily this seeming truth is conceived, remembered, applied, the more influential is it likely to be. The more correctly also its features are apprehended, the more nearly must the influence exerted be that of its own proper self. A system whose essentials are so few and plain can be mastered very early in life as well as by the humblest classes-a system so capable of being thoroughly, generally, and early understood, has special security against corruption-a system so sparing of sacred days and trappings and ceremonials commends itself to the necessities of the masses; is cheaply received, cheaply supported, and cheaply propagated. It is, indeed, claimed that most men are attract

ed and impressed by numerous and showy forms, and so esthetically most inclined to the system to which such forms belong. It may be so. But the taste is only one thing among many to which the style of systems of religion appeals; and the resultant of its appeals to all the influential principles of the popular mind may show largely in favor of that system which is characterized by severe simplicity. It appears to do so in the case of Christianity. In a country where all'evangelical churches are on the same civil level, the most formal and showy of them all commands the least favor with the masses; and certainly its members cannot be considered more zealous and laborious and self-sacrificing in the practice and diffusion of Christian fundamentals than others.

Mark, also, the intense centralization of the Christian system. It not only vests absolute authority in religious matters in single scripture, but sends every one to it directly and personally for direction. And not only so, but the system of general government which it represents Christ as maintaining is of the same concentrated and direct character. He is shown to us as, in right and in fact, the one absolute monarch in the world of events-supervising and managing them all, whether inward or outward, religious or secular, great or small, with irresponsible and infinite power. Further, he does not govern by the spontaneity of accountable deputies, as other absolute monarchs are always compelled to do largely; but with a personal thought, decision, and-when the case demands it determining action in relation to everything that happens, down to the motion of the lifeless microscopic mote. And as to leading human affairs, what closer personal dealing could there be between subjects and sovereign! We are individually held responsible for all conduct directly to him. He hears our prayer in person, pardons our offenses in person, renews and sanctifies us in person, will finally judge us in person. Depart from that confessional, O monk Luther! Rise from before that picture of the virgin, Bohemian Huss as yet unread in Wickliffe! Ye poor men of Lyons, and kingdoms silent with interdicts-tremble not while vicar Rome refuses viaticums and clanks in your ear the power of

the keys! May it please the oppressed and oppressor, the duties of Jesus are not done by curate. If we are to credit the New Testament, none of the great functions of his government are trusted to the discretion, even the accountable discretion, of pontiff or council, laic or cleric, saint or angel. The Mediator is not himself intercepted by such mediators. He is his own parliament, and judiciary, and executive; his own prime minister, and cabinet, and constituency. Himself is the state. Everywhere he worketh all in all. Never was there centralization to match this.

Such is the Christian theory of the divine government. Whether true or not, it is evidently well fitted to take strong hold of the human mind. Naturalism, crowding God almost over the horizon by a thousand interposed second causes; Romanism, doing the same by its mediating saints and priests; Paganism, doing the same by its acolyth gods, greater and less-what are such proxy systems in respect to impressiveness compared with one which keeps ever glittering in its foreground and background and everywhere the majesty and terribleness of an infinite personal ruler! The idea of being always in direct contact with an almighty and irresponsible sovereignty, with not so much as a web of gossamer between to deaden its heavy pulsations upon us, is fitted to appeal bravely to our imaginations, venerations, and fears. It at once translates all the doctrines of Christ into the imperative-all the laws of Christ into the awfulness of life and death.

This intense centralization of the Christian System makes it, in regard to man, a system of great liberty. By vesting the sole authority in religious matters in the Bible and sending each man directly and personally to it to gather its meaning in the exercise of his own private judgment, it denies to all his fellows, individually and collectively, the right to dictate to him in religion either as original authority or as expounders of scripture. If they choose to advise him it is well. If they choose to argue with him it is better. If they are able in any way to give him light it is their duty to do it and his duty to allow it to be done. And in case their opportunities are great, their talents commanding, and their probity unques