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came as the centre of the whole system. The old Testament gives just such a record as we should expect. The old and the new Testaments complement each other; there is one Savior, one way, one object in both.

We remark in the third place, that in this religion, alone, God works, man, alone, cannot atone for sin; man, alone, cannot change and purify the heart, and the God who created this wonderful heart of man comes to the rescue and works with man. The great, central fact of Christianity is a divine Savior. God sees man sunk in sin, loving it, unable to rescue himself from it, and God, himself, leaves his throne of glory in the heavens, and in the person of Christ, empties himself, becomes man, and lives, suffers and dies here among men; he thus reveals God, and God's infinite love to men, he suffers instead of men, atones for their sins, ascends to heaven again to his former glory, and ever lives there to make intercession for men.

This redeemer, thus suffering for men,-this wonderful exhibition of love,-God loving man so much as to be willing to suffer and die in his stead,-arrests man's attention, leads him to think of God, to think of his own sin against this loving God, to repent of his sins and turn to God and love him. This divine atonement also makes such an exhibition of God's love and of the terrible nature of sin before all the beings in the universe, that they will not be likely to disobey God, but will rather be kept loyal to him forever. Sinful man too, can feel that God has made a sufficient atonement for sin; that God has done all that infinite power, wisdom and love can do, to repair the damage which his sin has done, and he can rest in this atonement and find peace and joy in forgiven sin.

But it is not alone in the person of Christ that God comes to help man; He comes in the person of the Holy Spirit also, and powerfully influences our spirits; he comes to commune with us, to show us our sins and God's love for us, to lead us to repent of our sins and turn from them; but this is not all; the Creator of this wonderful heart of ours comes to renew and cleanse and repair it. Man may help this erring heart a little, but only the Creator can fully change and cleanse it so that it will be right.

God does this great work in the person of his Spirit; the Spirit leads the soul to choose God, to love him, to love to commune with him, and then man continues to have this spiritual communion with God through the Spirit; God dwells with us and we with him; we have this divine Factor

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CHRISTIANITY CLEANSES THE HEART.

in our lives; a divine Spirit links himself with our spirit and cleanses and renews our heart, and then he abides with us as the life of the soul. See Gal. 2: 20.

We see, then, that in the Christian religion, man does not attempt to atone for his own sins, the divine Redeemer does that; he does not attempt to reform himself unaided, the divine Spirit helps him; he does not simply attempt to reform his bad habits, the heart itself is changed; from being a selfish heart, with the first thought for self and the gratification of self, it becomes an unselfish heart, choosing the good of all as its great object in life, God first, others next, and self last; hence there comes from this renewed heart only good thoughts, words and deeds.

To use an illustration: instead of filtering and cleansing the water which flows in streams out of a filthy spring, Christianity cleanses the fountain itself, and then all the springs which flow from it are pure and sweet.

Instead of simply restraining the evil influences of society by laws and prisons, Christianity goes to the root of all crime, and changes the heart and lifts the whole man up, so that in a society where all believe and follow Christianity, no prisons are needed. As examples of this, look at the island of Iceland, where, for many years at a time, not one person is found in a prison or jail; look at the town of Grinnell, Iowa, the seat of Iowa college, where, when the writer visited the place, there had not been a man sent to the jail, the penitentiary or the poor-house, since the town was started, a period of about twenty five years. There are many such examples of the power of Christianity to change the heart and reform society.

We remark in the fourth place, that Christianity, alone, is perfectly adapted to man. We should expect that a religion, prepared and given to man by his Creator would be adapted to man's needs and we find this in Christianity. It is in harmony with all the intuitions, instincts and proper desires of man. It does not ask him to give up the pleasures of home, society and knowledge and become an ascetic, living on poor and scanty food, without wife or children, and away from other men, as a recluse, as Buddhism does. It commands men to do just the opposite. Instead of requiring him to put down and extinguish as sinful, the strongest desires of his nature; it requires the proper enjoyment of them, and makes the very foundation of life and society dependent upon them. God makes the home the foundation of the church and of the state; he makes the rearing and

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training of children for Christian life, Christian work and an eternal home in heaven, one of the most important things which man can do. He does not say that any of our appetites or desires are sinful, but he commands us to gratify them all in a proper manner. Thus we see that Christianity is in perfect harmony with man's physical nature; there is not an appetite or desire of the body which is not to be gratified, and the proper gratification of these appetites and desires, according to the commands of Christianity, will give the greatest possible enjoyment from them all.

Again, Christianity is fitted to the mind or intellect of man, it does not dwarf or hinder the full use and expansion of the intellect.

The contemplation and study of the lofty themes of Christianity tend to elevate and expand the intellect and make the most of man. Many of the world's greatest scholars have been most earnest Christians. Most of the noted scholars in the civilised world to-day are Christian men. The peace, rest, harmony and hope which the Christian religion gives to the mind, are favorable to deep, earnest and continued study.

Then, again, as we saw under the preceding head, Christianity is exactly fitted to the heart of man. The highest being in the universe comes and makes an atonement for man's sin; man can rest in that; this same God comes and renews, cleanses and binds back the heart in love and fellowship to God, and then abides with it to help it and lead it on to eternal life in his own presence in heaven. No religion of human device satisfies this heart of man; but no soul, during all these ages, ever truly came to Jesus and remained unsatisfied. Millions of living witnesses bear testimony to the truth of Christ's promise given in Matt. xi. 28.

Again, Christianity is adapted to all men, of every race, age and condition. If this religion is from God, the Creator of man, we should expect that it would be thus universal in its adaptation to man; and thus we find it to be. It is not like Mohammedanism, which can only exist by the side of superstition and ignorance; it is not like Brahmanism which can only flourish in the one country where it started; it is not like Buddhism, which cannot pass the limits of Asia; it did not, like these other religions, have its origin thousands of years after man needed a religion; Christianity is not like all these other religions, one which shows signs of decay and death with advancing civilization and enlightenment. Christ

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THE MANNER OF ITS PROPAGATION.

ianity had its origin, as we have seen, with the beginning of the race of man; it began in Asia, but is not confined to Asia, it has gone over the whole world, it is found in every country, and on almost every island; it is adapted to people of every race, of every condition, and of every age; it has touched and lifted savage tribes to civilization, so that the whole world looks on in wonder; and, so far from showing signs of decay when and where civilization and enligtenment are greatest, Christianity is the strongest to-day in those nations which are the most civilized and enlightened, as, Prussia, England and the United States of America.

Lastly, we remark in the fifth place, that Christianity is different from all other religions in the manner of its propagation.

Mohammedanism was propagated by the sword; other religions change and modify their ritual and rules to meet the customs of the countries into which they are introduced. For example, Buddhism was introduced into Japan from India, through China and Corea. In China, Confucianism was engrafted upon it; in Japan, it has been modified by Shintoism; so that Buddhism in Japan to-day hardly resembles Buddhism as it originated in India. Christianity, on the other hand, is not thus changed to meet the manners, customs and religions of the countries into which it is introduced. Christianity acknowledges only one, living and true God, and it is in irreconcilable hostility to every other form of worship. Other religions allow the greatest freedom of worship. For example, a Chinaman worships at the shrines of Confucius, Buddha and Lao-tse indiscriminately. Japanese worships at the shrines of Buddha and Shinto in the same way; but the Christian cannot be thus cosmopolitan in religion. Millions of the early Christians were persecuted or put to death because they would not worship the statues of the Roman emperors.

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Again, other religions rely upon showy temples and rituals to impress the people. It is said that the temples in Japan cost as much as all the other buildings, put together,

Christianity relies principally upon the power of God through his truth to impress the heart, and it is propagated by the simple preaching, teaching and living of this truth. It has been true in most countries where it has been introduced, that its first followers have embraced it in spite of ridicule, loss of property, persection, and often of life itself.

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CHAPTER SECOND.

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' [Christ. John xii. 32.]

Second proof that Christianity is the true religion, from its History.

When we examine the wonderful history of Christianity during the last 1800 years, we find the clearest evidence that it must have had a divine Author.

Brahmanism had the scholars of India for its originators; Buddhism had its origin in Shaka-mouni, the highly educated son of an Indian prince; but Christianity, as known to the world in the prefect system which Jesus taught, originated with unlettered men. Christ was reared in the home of a poor carpenter, in the miserable little village of Nazareth, of Galilee. His disciples were fishermen and unlettered men ; and after three years of intercourse with them, Christ was put to an ignominious death, and his disciples were utterly disheartened and scattered. All their hopes were buried with the body of Jesus; Christianity, itself, was buried in the same tomb with this body; and if Christ had not come forth from that tomb, Christianity would never have been known in the world. The resurrection was necessary to the existence of Christianity, and the resurrection was a proof of Christ's divinity.

Again, when Christ ascended to heaven, the little company of a few hundred unlettered believers, had the whole world against them. No other religion was ever so widely hated and persecuted; for three hundred years the power of the whole Roman world was enlisted to crush it. Christianity taught that Christ's death was the great antitype of the old Jewish ceremonial service which the Jews had sacredly observed for fifteen hundred years. It taught that this sacred service was annuled and abrogated by that very death for which they were so wickedly responsible. This set the