fication of the entire creed of the first age with the essence of Christianity. Now that God has shown us so much more, has tried the divine seed of the gospel on so various a soil of history, and enabled us to distinguish its fairest blossoms and its choicest fruits, a much larger meaning than was possible at first must be given to the purpose of his revelation. Even to Paul, Christ was mainly the great representative of a theocratic idea; and was in no other sense an object of spiritual belief than that he was not on earth and mortal, but in heaven and immortal. That faith in Christ, which then prominently denoted belief in his appointed return and allegiance to him as God's viceroy in this world, is now transformed into quite a different thing. It is altogether a moral and affectionate sentiment; an acknowledgment of him as the highest impersonation of divine excellence and inspired insight yet given to the world; a trust in him as the only realized type of perfection that can mediate for us between ourselves and God; a faithfulness to him, as making us conscious of what we are and what God and our conscience would have us to be. It is vain to pretend that revelation is a fixed and stereotyped gift. It was born, as the divinest things must be, among human conditions; and into it ever since human conditions have perpetually flowed. The elements of Hebrew thought surrounded the sacred centre at first, and have been erroneously identified with it by all Unitarian churches in every age. The Hellenic intellect afterwards streamed towards the fresh point of life and faith, and gathered around it the metaphysical system of Trinitarian dogma, in which orthodox communions of all times have, with parallel error, sought the essence of the Gospel. The true principle of the religion has been secreted in both, and consisted in neither; it has lain unnoticed in the midst, in the silent chamber of the heart, around which the clamor of the disputatious intellect whirls without entrance. The agency of Christ's mind as the expression of God's moral nature and providence, and as the realized ideal of beauty and excellence, this is the power of God and the wisdom of God, which has made vain the counsels of the world and baffled the foolishness of the church. This is the Gospel's centre of stability," Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." GARRISON W IAM LLOYD GARRISON, a famous American Abolitionist, was born 66 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, December 12, 1805, and began his career as a printer in the "Herald' office of his native town. He frequently contributed political articles to that and other journals, and in 1829 joined with Benjamin Lundy, a philanthropic Quaker, in editing at Baltimore The Genius of Universal Emancipation." Here his bold speaking in regard to slavery resulted in his being imprisoned for libel, but after a few months his fine was paid by Mr. Tappan, a New York merchant, and Garrison was set free. On January 1, 1831, he issued at Boston the first number of " The Liberator," a paper which he continued to edit for thirty-five years, until the close of the civil war. It at once aroused great opposition, and the Georgia legislature in December of that year offered five thousand dollars to any person who should arrest and prosecute its editor or publisher according to the laws of Georgia. The New England Anti-Slavery Society was founded in January, 1832, as a direct result of "The Liberator's " influence, and in 1843 Garrison founded the American Anti-Slavery Society, and was its president until 1865. In 1832 he published "Thoughts on African Colonization," in which he affirmed the colonization scheme to be an ally of slavery. In October, 1835, the "Liberator" office was broken into by a mob and its editor was dragged through the streets with a rope about his neck. His life was saved only by his being placed in jail for temporary protection. Garrison visited England several times in the interests of the abolition movement, and received a warm welcome from the English anti-slavery leaders. He died in New York city May 24, 1879. His "Sonnets and Poems " were issued in 1843 and "Selections from Writings and Speeches in 1852. I WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO OPPRESSED NEVER rise to address a colored audience without feel ing ashamed of my own color; ashamed of being identified with a race of men who have done you so much injustice and who yet retain so large a portion of your brethren in servile chains. To make atonement in part for this conduct I have solemnly dedicated my health and strength and life to your service. I love to plan and to work for your social, intellectual, and spiritual advancement. My happi ness is augmented with yours; in your sufferings I participate. Henceforth I am ready, on all days, on all convenient occasions, in all suitable places, before any sect or party, at whatever peril to my person, character or interest, to plead the cause of my colored countrymen in particular, or of human rights in general. For this purpose, there is no day too holy, no place improper, no body of men too inconsiderable to address. For this purpose I ask no church to grant me authority to speak-I require no ordination-I am not careful to consult Martin Luther, or John Calvin, or His Holiness the Pope. It is a duty which, as a lover of justice, I am bound to discharge; as a lover of my fellow men I ought not to shun; as a lover of Jesus Christ, and of his equalizing, republican and benevolent precepts, I rejoice to perform. Your condition, as a people, has long attracted my attention, secured my efforts, and awakened in my breast a flame of sympathy which neither the winds nor waves of opposition can ever extinguish. It is the lowness of your estate, in the estimation of the world, which exalts you in my eyes. It is the distance that separates you from the blessings and privileges of society which brings you so closely to my affections. It is the unmerited scorn, reproach, and persecution of your persons by those whose complexion is colored like my own which command for you my sympathy and respect. It is the fewness of your friends-the multitude of your enemiesthat induces me to stand forth in your defence. wish to gladden your hearts Be assured your cause is The signs of the times do glorious and sudden changes Countrymen and friends! I and to invigorate your hopes. going onward, right onward. indeed show forth great and in the condition of the oppressed. The whole firmament is tremulous with an excess of light; the earth is moved out of its place; the wave of revolution is dashing in pieces ancient and mighty empires; the hearts of tyrants are beginning to fail them for fear, and for looking forward to those things which are to come upon the earth. There is "A voice on every wave, A sound on every sea! The swelling sounds are heard, Of man to freeman calling, Of broken fetters falling And, like the carol of a cageless bird, The bursting shout of freedom's rallying word!" Let this be an occasion of joy. Why should it not be so? Is not the heaven over your heads, which has so long been clothed in sackcloth, beginning to disclose its starry principalities and illumine your pathway? Do you not see the pitiless storm which has so long been pouring its rage upon you breaking away, and a bow of promise as glorious as that which succeeded the ancient deluge spanning the sky,—a token that to the end of time the billows of prejudice and oppression shall no more cover the earth to the destruction of your race; but seedtime and harvest shall never fail, and the laborer shall eat the fruit of his hands? Is not your cause developing like the spring? Yours has been a long and rigorous winter. The chill of contempt, the frost of adversity, the blast of persecution, the storm of oppressionall have been yours. There was no substance to be foundno prospect to delight the eye or inspire the drooping heartno golden ray to dissipate the gloom. The waves of derision were stayed by no barrier, but made a clear breach over you. But now thanks be to God! that dreary winter is rapidly hastening away. The sun of humanity is going steadily up |