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His acts and all His life, and Jesus who shows it to the world 
declares, with the authority of a sovereign, that He is the In- 
carnation of God, and that he who sees Him sees the Father; 
and thus souls come to Him, drawn by an attraction irresistible. 
Ask them why the words of Jesus are of such sovereign 
authority. Why His cross, above all, the supreme exhibition of 
His love, sheds a light unparalleled on their own, or the world’s 
history. They could not perhaps tell you, but they feel it is 
because on this cross God had written His name, and has revealed 
by it the secret of His ways. Listen to what God says by it. 
“You ask My name. I am Justice, I am Holiness, I am 
Love. Oh ! human conscience, thou hast felt me without 
knowing me. Thou hast sought me, each time thou didst love 
the good, the just, the beautiful, and the true. I am Holiness, 
and Justice, and I could have reigned by crushing all resistance, 
for Mine is the power, and the sovereign dominion over ages, and 
ages ; but because I am Love, I would not have such a reign as 
this ; I would draw hearts to me by a free attachment, and ask 
of them a voluntary obedience. And thus My Son came to 
earth humbled, abased, but by this cross to which the world 
nailed Him, I draw, and will draw, all men to Myself. Thus 
shall come my reign, — not the reign of terror and of force, for, 
as in the desert of Horeb I taught my servant Elijah, I am neither 
in the devastating storm, nor in the devouring fire, nor in the 
heaving earthquake. No ! My voice is persuasive and sweet. 
I say, ‘ Come to Me ; I neither break the bruised reed nor quench 
the smoking torch while yet a spark remains.’ I call all men 
to Me, to this tend all the plans of My providence. This is the 
secret of history, the explanation of all my designs.” 
Is not this the language and teaching of the Cross, though 
the world does not understand it. I know it often repels it ; 
but, in spite of it, some ray of light Divine penetrates the 
darkness, and enlightens it. And we see this especially in 
one particular. Progress, the great law of our race, was not 
believed in, nor thought of till the Advent of Christianity. Now, 
what is progress in its highest sense ? (I do not mean re- 
finement of luxury, enjoyment, and comfort, which attest the 
decline quite as much as the civilization of nations.) What is 
progress if not the realization of a Providential plan in history ? 
It is a striking fact that people never believed in progress till 
the Cross. A Divine plan has only been believed in since 
God told us His name by writing it on Calvary. General faith 
in progress, which, while Pagan or Mahometan nations are 
stationary or reactionary, gives a future to Christian nations, 
and makes men try to win the world to their belief; this 
faith is a fruit of the Gospel. The world at large only believed 
