IN CHURCH HISTORY. 1 9 



The world could not be after Christ's advent, 

 what it had been before. 



It is true that clouds sometimes arise and sweep 

 across the sky, and hide the clear brilliance of the 

 sun after the day has come, but the sun shines on, 

 and bursts forth again and again with new splen- 

 dor. 



We will see, as we read further on, that there 

 have been times when the truths revealed at the in- 

 carnation have been obscured by human errors, and 

 for the time men have failed to see the beauty and 

 the grace of the life of the Son of God ; but there 

 never has been a time since that wondrous birth in 

 Bethlehem when the world could be as dark and as 

 full of mystery as it was before. 



What God is — what He is to us and what we are 

 to Him — why we are here, and what we may be 

 hereafter — how we may be at peace with Him now, 

 and dwell in His presence forever — these are the 

 points which are taught us in the earthly life of the 

 Christ. 



There is really no mystery so great in all the uni- 

 verse as the life of Jesus, unless we believe Him to 

 be God incarnate. If he were not what He 

 claimed to be, and what His followers declared Him 

 to be, there is but little value to be attached to all 

 of the history of the Christian Church. That history 

 is then mainly a succession of erroneous conclu- 

 sions, based upon mistaken premises. It would be 



