evidence, and bring it into the most logical order and force, but their work would be utterly worthless unless Christ Himself

is exhibited. The argument from prophecy of itself has never carried conviction, and is less able to do so to-day than ever. Nor has the argument from miracles been sufficient. Unless it could be proved that no being but God could perform what we call a miracle, and that He would never perform a miracle only in favour of truth-neither of which propositions can be

demonstrated-mira

cles have no convincing force. Thank God we want no proof but the manifestation of Christ. "Now we believe, not because of thy saying, but we have heard Him ourselves."

I. The VERY EXISTENCE of His character demonstrates the divinity of His religion. Look at His

character as pourtrayed in His four biographers, and as you look at it a two-fold conviction will be forced upon you.

First That it is a supernatural production. As in the material world, existing things are evolutions from the pre-existing, so in the moral. The moral character of one generation, as a law, grows out of the character of the preceding. To this the character of Christ was a signal exception. There was nothing in the characters of the men who preceded Him from which such a character as His could be evolved. There was nothing either in the Jewish or pagan mind, or both combined, to produce a character like His. The hero of fiction is organised, so to speak, out of elements existing in the mind of the author, but in what mind, in any age or land, are to be found the fundamental

elements of Christ's character? "What manner

of man is this?" His

character is not fiction.

There is no mind to create such a fiction, His character is historic fact, of which God Himself is the Author. You might as well attempt to convince me that the mystic pillar that guided the children of Israel through the wilderness for forty years, grew out of the Arabian sand, as that the character of Christ grew out of the human mind. Look at it, and you will say with the Centurion, "Truly, this man is the Son of God." Secondly Though a supernatural production, it is human. By this I mean, the character is that which belongs to human nature, which human nature must have in order to be perfectly developed. Human nature, alas, lost it in the fall, and has been hungering for it ever since, it is its

supreme want, the very bread of its life. Of no other character can we say this, no other character fits human nature, this is its all-satisfying, allfilling ideal, the summum bonum. Who, then, can look at His character as a super-human production, yet thoroughly human, without saying,

"Truly, this Man is the Son of God?"

II. The MIGHTY INFLUENCE of His character demonstrates the divinity of His religion. Taking all things into account no character in history has exerted such an influence as the character of Christ. It has created Christendom such as it is, and Christendom is destined in the very tendency of things to become the all dominant, and all formulating power of the whole This son of a poor Jewish peasant, in three years generated, so to speak, this mighty, moral

race.

force that has given Him "a name above every name, a name before which, one day, "every knee shall bow," and to which "every tongue shall confess." What are the names of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, or any of the old philosophers, the names of Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, or any of the founders of the religions of the world, to the name of Christ? Before that name they pale into dimness. Who can look at Him in history, then, without exclaiming with the

Centurion, "Truly this

Man is the Son of God?" CONCLUSION.-Brothers,

if your aim is to get your fellow-men to believe in Christ, your method is clear and simple. You need not spend your powers and time in dealing with what are called "evidences." You have to manifest Christ, manifestly set Him forth in all His spotless purity, invincible rectitude, unconquerable love and unique' moral majesty, and you will carry Him into their convictions.

stone that turns everything into gold. Look at Paul's" infirmities " as catalogued in the preceding verses. The text is a paradox, a startling one, too, one that on the principle of common experience is a glaring contradiction. Albeit, one that on the principle of Christly experience embodies a glorious truth. In the moral realm man ascends by descending, man conquers by yielding, man saves his life by losing it, man gets might by losing his strength.

in

I. A good man weakness becomes "strong" in the SYMPATHY OF OTHERS. Of all the members, of a large family who has most of the sympathies of the family? Not the strong in health, the successful in plan, the buoyant in heart, but the poor little writhing son or daughter on the couch. The infant sufferer is the moral king,

all hearts bow to its cries, all hands await its behests. So, in the larger circle of friends, the affiicted friend is the most thought of, felt for, and spoken about. James Garfield on his mortally suffering couch, swayed an influence for the time mightier, and deeper, than any king. The moral power of Christ Himself in the world, arose out of suffering, the cross is His power in the world, it is the "arm of the Lord" revealed.

II. A good man in weakness becomes "strong," in

HIS CONSCIOUSNESS OF DEPENDENCE ON THE ETERNAL.

The strength in worldly men such as it is, is in the material, and the material is shadowy, fluctuating, and fleeting. But the true strength of man is in conscious dependence on God. I see a man to-day rich in abundance of all temporal good, robust health,

In

Him,

enormous wealth, great popularity, his strength is in these. To-morrow he is bereft of the whole, all his possessions have vanished as a cloud, and he is shut up in the chamber, a pauper and a dying man. that condition Christ is brought before Him, he believes in accepts Him with an unquestioning faith, and hence he becomes possessed with the true power of a man, and he can say now, "When I am weak, then am I strong," strong in a power superior to the world. Conscious dependence on the Creator, and not on the creature, is the true strength. Having this, a man can be calm and triumphant amidst storms that shake the world "The Lord

is our refuge and

strength.

III. A good man in weakness becomes "strong" in the EXPER

66

IENCE OF DIVINE SUPPORT. God's rule is to fill the hungry with good things," and to send the "rich empty away." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." The profounder our sense of weakness, the more conscious we become of Divine supplies and trust in Him. When Paul and Silas lost their liberty, they became conscious of new strength, new supplies from God, and they sang praises. Never did the three Hebrew youths in Babylon have such manifestations of God to their souls as when in the burning fiery furnace. Was Daniel ever stronger than when he lost everything, when

a pauper and a prisoner in the lions' den? "When I am weak, then am I strong." Strong in the supplies of Divine succour and support.

IV. A

A good man in weakness becomes