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solves the great spiritual problem before which the heart of 
man trembles. Because it solves it for himself, and because 
it solves it wherever it is carried amongst all the diverse races 
of men. And because whilst it does this, nothing else ever 
has done it. Christ alone has ever really touched the woes of 
humanity, or given one true ray of divine light to shine athwart 
the spiritual and moral darkness of a sad and sorrowful world. 
And Christ alone holds out the hope of the removal of all 
that imperfection, and that dumb yearning after something 
better which characterizes all present existence. lhis old 
earth is now reeling onward in its progress, none know 
whither, the home of racked hearts and transitory joys— the 
scene of guesses, speculations, and partial discoveries— -en- 
cumbered with the wrecks and fragments of human wisdom. 
And this we believe shall pass away for ever. Better so : 
philosophy and the progress of human discovery have no hope 
for it. They may ameliorate some inconveniences, but they 
create others. They quicken the communications of men, but 
they multiply the mental burdens. They have no peace, no 
rest, no satisfaction, no love, no pause to the long agony ot 
the world. Death reigns; and philosophy brings to us no 
life. It is busied in darkening by doubt the light and the 
life we have, but itself is hopeless and helpless. hi or, 
excepting the facts of physical science, and all that appertains 
to them, can it tell us anything new. The Greek mind long- 
ago discussed all those questions of Providence, and order, 
and chance, amidst which philosophers are still wandering. 
And still it is true, as that Father wrote of old, “ I have read 
all that philosophers can tell me, but none of them ever said 
what Jesus alone has said, f Come unto me, all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest/ bo he came, 
and he found rest. And those who come now find rest. And 
this spiritual truth is as sure as all those physical truths, and 
the result of the spiritual experiment as certain, ihereiore 
we believe. . , r _ 
And looking on the tumults and strivings of the struggling 
world, we believe that “ the whole creation groaneth, and 
travaileth together in birth-pangs” (cruvwSi'ya) even unUinow, 
and that “we see but through a glass darkly ; and that the 
day will surely come when the veil shall be torn away tha. is 
between man and God, and there shall be “the new heaven 
and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. A grand 
belief-a holy belief-a purifying belief! Who would lose it 
and voluntarily descend from the brotherhood of angels to the 
fellowship of the brute ? 
