them all. Hence an explication which is perfectly reasonable and adequate in their case, is palpably insufficient, is unsatisfactory and useless, in his case. He stands unapproachably distant from all that ever were honoured with a divine mission; he is not a link in a chain of succession, but is absolutely alone, and has no predecessor and no successor. The multitude, the originality, the harmony, and the grandeur of his revelations, separate him, by an impassable line, from all that arose before his time, and the fact that in two thousand years not a single important contribution has been added to the body of spiritual truth which he left, cuts off all succession. He is alone in that work, immeasurably transcending all others in human history, which he achieved for the world; alone in the unexampled circumstances amid which he accomplished it—circumstances which, according to all human modes of judging, seemed to render the accomplishment absolutely impossible; and therefore alone in constitution of being, in attributes and in nature-organically, essentially alone."

"Among all concerned, the only individual to whose mind, with any show of reason, the teaching can be ascribed, is Jesus himself. Certainly he was the teacher, if there was a teacher at all; and no subtlety of criticism, and no mythical theory, and no modification of it can set aside this fact. He, being what we have seen he was, in his external circumstances and history, was the teacher; in other words, the work of Christ among men, and the outer conditions of his life, were combined in fact; and, therefore, it can admit of no question that they must be capable of being harmonized in principle. But we repeat, that on all ordinary and acceptable grounds they are utterly irreconcilable. No record of history, or of individual experience, and no law of the soul, lends us any assistance in this case; but what we have to interpret, though once realized and presented to the senses of men, is directly in the face of history, experience and psychology. Hence we maintain, and have no resource but to maintain, that the principle of harmony in this instance must be sought for, in a region altogether new and extraordinary -a region which ordinary history and experience, and psychology, do not include. There must be some profound mystery in the very constitution of this Unique Personality, to account for such teaching as his in such circumstances as his. He cannot be merely human, because human laws and human experience do not interpret the formation of his life. He must be essentially and organically separate from man, because the facts of his history transcend immeasurably all that mere man ever accomplished or attained."

"He was not a mere and almost passive channel of conveyance, from God to man. He was not an instrument employed on certain special occasions, which occasions having passed away the instrument remained the same as before, unpenetrated by any change arising from the temporary purposes to which it had been applied. He was not an occasional, spasmodic, or ecstatic utterer of divine messages; but, during his whole ministry, though its period was short, he was a free, intelligent, deliberate utterer of truth which was his own, howsoever it had come to him. If there be one thing more certain than another, it is that Jesus spoke from himself, out of the depths of his own being. Whoever was his teacher, whatever was the hidden process of instruction through which he had been conducted, and wherever might be the true source of his knowledge, that knowledge was his, truly his, dwelling in his understanding, his conscience, and his heart. That which he uttered to men had first become his own, inwoven with the very texture of his soul, identified with its truest possessions, its freest movements, its progressive developments. It was not imposed at the moment by another, it was not an immediate impartation to him from without, but a true creation from within, a produce of his own. His soul had risen to that truth which he announced, had mastered it, had verily become it; so that not merely the glory of proclaiming it fell to Jesus, but all the inward opulence and power, which the real knowledge of it supposed, belonged to his mind.

"We assert, without fear of contradiction by any competent and candid thinker, that under the conditions amid which Jesus was placed, such knowledge and such spiritual opulence and power were morally and even physically impossible to a mere human mind. God never acts in defiance of the nature and laws of the soul, but always in harmony with them: we speak with reverence;

VOL. VI. NO. 1.

2

*

God could not act in defiance of the laws of the soul which he has himself established. This is not the region of miracle, so called; and mere physical omnipotence has no place here. Mind is not to be forced. God could destroy the soul; but, continuing to be what it is, God can act upon it only in harmony with its laws. Now, the fact that a young man, only thirty-three, a poor mau, a Galilean carpenter, uneducated, unprivileged, and unpatronized, rose to a profound, farreaching, lofty wisdom, and to an illumination and wealth of soul which are without example in history, stands in direct contradiction to all other psychological experiences, and to all ascertained psychological laws. But it is a fact, neverthe less; and there must be some ground on which it can be explained. Jesus cannot have been merely what he seemed to be, and his mind cannot have been merely human, and in all respects constituted and conditioned as other human minds are. In sober reason, there is no choice left to us but to believe in an organic, an essential, a constitutional difference between him and all men; in other words, in an incarnation, in this unparalleled instance, of divinity in humanity. Admitting an original, an incomprehensible union between the mind of Christ and God-admitting a mysterious and constant access of Christ's mind to the infinite fountain of illumination, of excellence, and of power, such as was possible to no mere human being-then, but only then, we can account for spiritual phenomena which-all facts as they are-on no other ground are explicable or even believable. It is only by the admission of the real union of divinity with the human soul of Jesus Christ that a solution can be found of historical and psychological difficulties, which are otherwise as insurmountable as they are undeniable. The idea of incarnation in all its meaning is, indeed, incomprehensible; but we can very distinctly comprehend, that it must be true nevertheless, because, otherwise, facts of which we have the fullest evidence are absolutely unbelievable. The incarnation is a profound mystery; but intelligence and candour will allow that this is the very region where mystery was even to be looked for. We are compelled to believe that this mystery is a truth; because, if not, the marvelous phenomena of the life of Jesus, which we cannot deny, are not only a mystery, and one even more inscrutable and insupportable, but a direct contradiction.

"Our argument is to receive important confirmation from another region of the life of Jesus. But, even here, that life has supplied presumptive evidence amounting to the strongest proof, of a doctrine which, awfully deformed and corrupted indeed, has yet somehow found its way into most of the philosophies and religions of the world-the doctrine of Incarnation, God in man." They shall call his name Emanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us."

The third part of the argument for the divinity of Christ, which, relates to his SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUALITY, must be reserved for another number.

THE RUSSIAN WAR.

THE war in the East, waged by Russia and the Allied Powers, is among the great events of Providence. Its incidents and issues attract the attention of the civilized world.

*This is the only other position which merits consideration for a moment. The idea that Jesus was more than man, yet not God in man, that he pre-existed as an angel, or as the first of creatures, we believe, has now passed away from all sober minds. It is so purely fictitious, and so obviously encounters all the difficulties, without having the peculiar grounds, or any of the compensating advantages of the higher hypothesis, that we question if even a solitary supporter of it could be found in the present day. Few or none who are convinced that Jesus was not, and could not possibly be merely man, will hesitate to adopt the conclusion, that he must have been God in man.

War is a great evil; but in a world of sin, it is an inevitable evil. "It must needs be that offences come." The outbreaks of human depravity will agitate nations until the dawn of the millennium. "And when ye shall hear of wars, and of rumours of war, see that ye be not troubled; for such things must come to pass; for nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Matt. 24: 6, 7. As long as sin holds sway among men, the peace of nations will be liable to interruption.

War may be just and righteous. Under any circumstances, it is "the last resort of kings." The appeal to its decisions must not be made, until all the means of adjustment are exhausted within the reach of honest diplomacy. But when the counsels of peace fail, the injured party may lawfully take up arms in selfdefence. The perpetration of national wrongs, if submitted to in a spirit of passive non-resistance, would but provoke and embolden the unprincipled aggressor. War may be righteously undertaken. Our own revolutionary contest has been almost universally regarded by Americans as a just one. Resistance to tyrants-" sic semper tyrannis"-was deemed not only loyalty to liberty, but fidelity to God. If America had the right to resist the demands. of Great Britain, Turkey had no less clearly the right to repel the invasion of Russia. If America could lawfully accept aid from France in 1776, Turkey may no less lawfully accept aid from France and England in 1853. In co-operating to maintain the integrity of the Sultan's dominions, the Allies were no doubt influenced by considerations of self-defence, as well as by motives, of national sympathy and justice. The destiny of Europe was at stake. Russian aggrandizement, stimulated by traditional ambition, was pushing on its career of domination. Like the rock imbedded in the Alpine glacier, its movements obeyed a law of progression, developed by long periods of time, rather than by months and years. But the sudden and vast precipitation of its course, overspreading by a single impulse the boundaries of an empire, could not but awaken the attention of the most drowsy continental spectator, Lord Aberdeen himself. The recent imperial encroachments justly alarmed England and France. Defiant both in spirit and in form, they indicated a policy, whose end, if uninterrupted, would be certain as its aim.

War is under the control of Providence. God superintends the affairs of men, and of nations. Human proposals are divine disposals. "How can the sword be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it in charge against Askelon, and against the sea-shore. There hath he appointed it." Jer. 47:7. The present war, and all wars, are under providential direction. The Bible contains. a multitude of allusions to God's providence in commencing war, in directing its management, in restraining its operations, in raising up its leaders, in rewarding with victory, and in punishing with defeats. In short, whilst war is to be deprecated as a great

evil, and is a proof of human depravity, it must still be regarded as among the permitted things which are overruled for good, in the great campaign of the host of God's elect against the powers of darkness.

Let us briefly contemplate a few aspects of the providence of God in the Crimean struggle.

1. Behold the workings of providence in the circumstances of the origin of the Eastern war. The Czar, with the eager eye of a Russian prophet, had been watching the opportunity during his whole reign, to seize Constantinople. Its possession by Russia was considered a certain fact in the future of her history; and as a question of mere time, it involved nothing more than national patience and imperial prudence. When the "sick man" should be able to take medicine no longer, the anxious practitioner was to put him to death. The Emperor, at all times hopefully secure of Prussia and Austria, deemed the period of mutual alienation between England and France to be the signal for commencing aggressive operations with impunity. It was even hinted by the Slavonian to the Anglo-Saxon, that the spoils of the Mohammedan might be divided between them. Great Britain's honour was basely tampered with, and the insult unresented by Aberdeen's ministry; whilst France was haughtily ignored, as a nation whose opinion was not entitled to consideration. The crisis seemed to have arrived for Russian conquest. But, behold how Providence thwarts human counsels. In Turkey's extremity, the two great western nations of Europe become Allies in her defence. England and France, whose armies had not stood side by side for a long series of years, determine to employ their combined strength in resisting the Autocrat's aggressions. The ancient memories of Cressy and Agincourt, and the fresher memories of Waterloo, fade away from the horizon of France, like the glaring red from the cloud at sunset; whilst the two nations prepare for united action, like the mingling of two dark clouds of night, from whose threatening masses flash terrific lightnings. Nothing, scarcely, is more wonderful in modern history, than the recent alliance of the Western powers. Five years ago, its suggestion would have been an utterance of madness. What hath God wrought in this emergency of nations!

2. The incidents that accompany the progress of the war are equally marked in providence.

The massacre of Sinope was the knell of vengeance echoed over to Sebastopol. Had not the perpetration of that stern outrage signalized the Russian navy as a power to be destroyed, probably the war would have followed its natural line of direction through the Principalities and Bessarabia, and never have ventured into the dreaded and unknown Crimea. The inactivity of Admiral Dundas in the Black Sea-almost the derision of friend and foetempted the Russian fleet to come forth from its great harbour, to

engage in the work of destruction. Such an illustration of the advantages of Sebastopol, gave it at once a geographical prominence on the map of war. From that hour, it loomed up to the view of England and France, as a Russian stronghold, inviting vengeance and doomed to receive it. The affair of Sinope rallied the war spirit of the Allies more effectually than any other event, and by contributing to designate the Crimea as the theatre of military operations, worked infinite mischief to the cause of Russia. The slow operations of the campaign are worthy of notice, as part of its military history. If the Allies had conquered the fortress by the speedy assault, falsely rumoured through the telegraph, the exploit might have been followed by a diplomatic peace of little value and of short duration; or the war might have been transferred to a theatre less favourable to the Allies. But the hard struggle on the distant peninsula has cost Russia a larger amount of treasure and of men; and it is likely to be followed by more permanent results. The pride of England and of France, which longed for speedy and decisive victories, finds its ends far better secured in a protracted siege, in trenches pushed forward by inches, in the achievements of Inkermann and Tchernaya, in the capture of the Mamelon and the quarries, in the hand-in-hand contest of night after night, in the gradual approach of the batteries, and in the final success at the Malakoff. This protracted campaign, carried on at a position the most disadvantageous to Russia, is one that will be remembered at St. Petersburg.

Another of the marked providences of the struggle is the death of the Emperor Nicholas. This great man was a Romanoff, true to the spirit of Peter and Catharine, and the aim of his life was the consummation of ancestral schemes at the old Byzantine capital. The responsible author of the war, its campaigns finally besieged him to death in his palace. With a constitution enfeebled by the exposures of public duty, with a mind harassed by the perplexities of an empire in commotion, with an iron will rough and stubborn as the ore of the Ural mountains, he laid down his sceptre and his crown, and in company with multitudes of warrior serfs, passed through the valley of the shadow of death. The work of God in summoning Nicholas into eternity, filled continents with

awe.

The destruction of the fleet and of its admirals is among the memorable incidents of the campaign. There is at least a temporary end to the naval power of Russia in the Black Sea. The Vladimir and the Twelve Apostles, the Elboeuf and the Grossomotz, the steamers, liners, frigates, and vessels of every degree, that once ruled the waves of the Euxine, have been sunk in the ignominious depths of a captured harbour, with their masts standing high enough above water to give assurance of their doom. Their admirals, too, slain away from their decks, lie buried among the dead of the army, with the loss of naval caste and glory. Of the men