every cell, every atomic arrangement which enables each of them to give us the sensation of red, or violet, or what colour lies between these, has been built up through means of the force or the forces of the sunshine. Nevertheless, this one original element has been modified by the tendency-I use a word which but expresses our ignorance-of each seed to assume a specialised form at a certain stage in its growth; to be modified by what one would call in mankind its character. So that we have two things: one simple source of vegetable life, infinite forms and modifications of form through which that force is conditioned.

It is a happy analogy by which to arrive at the idea of the one spirit of Christ's life, received and modified into a thousand forms by different characters of men, and different types of nations. Christianity is like the sunshine-not a given form, nor imposing a uniform system of growth-it is a force of spiritual heat and light, which expands, developes, and irradiates; a spiritual chemical force which destroys dead things, and quickens half-living things in the character. It is assimilated, but according to the original arrangement of the spiritual atoms of each character, so that it does not destroy, but enhances individuality; does not injure, but intensifies variety.

There has scarcely ever lived a single Christian man whose Christianity has been identical in form with that of another, though the species may have been the There is certainly no Christian nation which has produced a type of Christianity uniform with that of another. Look at the Apostolic Church, read the

same.

epistles which remain to us. The letters of S. James, of S. Peter, of S. Paul, of S. John, differ as the oak differs from the chestnut, as the fir differs from the ash-tree. These represent in various forms what the sunshine has done for them; the epistles represent, in various forms of Christian thought, what the spirit of Christ had wrought in their authors.

I venture to say that there never has existed a set of religious books which so manifestly despised outward consistency, and so boldly fell back upon an inner unity of spirit; which, though they systematised to a certain extent, showed more plainly, taken together, that there was no system in the source from whence they drew their inspiration; which dared more audaciously to vary their modes of expressing spiritual truths, relying on, and because of, their appeal to the primary instincts of mankind.

This was one of the elements which we saw last Sunday lay at the root of the success of Christianity. It left individual and national development free, and it appealed to a common humanity. And, having no system, it promoted liberty of growth in Mankind, and when that growth had passed a certain stage, and the character of the time changed, it changed its form in turn to suit the new ideas of men. But beneath all these varied representations there will be always a few clear principles, and a spirit which will remain the same. Whether Christianity exist as Calvinist or Ritualist, Roman Catholic or Lutheran, Wesleyan or Unitarian, all these forms will have taken their life and built up their being from the sunlight of Christ.

to west, be easily seen from this, how much I despise glo for uniformity, and how much I dread it ucocity anti-Christian. Unity of spirit we should deavour to seek for, and keep in the bond of peace; bat uniformity! Imagine a world in which all the trees were pines,

The effort to establish uniformity is not only the note of an uncultivated spirit-it is especially the mark of one who has not studied the teaching of Christ, nor the teaching of the Apostles. And Christianity has been especially unfortunate in the way in which for many ages its followers, foolishly dismayed by the cry of inconsistency, have made it almost a point to struggle against Christ's altogether divine conception of a spiritual universe of worshippers at one in the midst of a boundless variety. Yet, such is the vitality of Christianity, that it has resisted the very efforts of its own children to nullify its qualities, and remains as befire, a spirit of light and a spirit of life, capable of endless expansion, ready to alter its form in order to co operate with every human movement, and working out in every human soul who receives it some subtile. phase of its beauty, some delicate shade of its tenderness, some new manifestation of its graces.

We have spoken so far of the religion of Christ in contact with human character; let us look at it in contact with some great human interests.

Take politics. Other religions have laid down political systems, and bound themselves to ideas of caste, to imperialism, or to socialism. The latest religion has woven into its body a most cumbrous arrangement

Conse

of mankind and the nations of mankind. quently, these religions being tied to the transient, perished or will perish with the political systems to which they are bound.

Christianity never made this mistake. It refused to be mixed up with any political system, or to bind those who followed it down to any form of political union, as it had refused to bind them down to any particular form of religious union. Leaving itself perfectly free, it could therefore enter as a spirit of good into any form of government. And it did enter into all forms-patriarchal, military, feudal, monarchical, imperial, democratic as a spirit which modified the evils of each, and developed their good. It is objected to Christianity that it does not touch on great political questions, such as the limits of obedience to a ruler, or the duties of the State to the citizens, and therefore that it is not a religion for men; but it does not touch directly on these questions because its object was to penetrate them all as an insensible influence. Had it declared itself imperialist or democratic, it would have been excluded from the one or from the other. But, entering into the hearts of men as a spirit of love, of aspiration after perfection, of justice and forgiveness, it crept from man to man, till in every nation there existed a body of men who had absorbed the spirit of Christ, who slowly brought about political regeneration through spiritual regeneration.

But because it has prevailed in countries where feudal systems and the tyrannies of caste have ruled, it has been accused of having been on the side of

oppressors of the race. The objection is plausible, but it is unfair. Some distinction is surely to be made between a Church made into a political organ and Christianity itself. When the Church, as in France before the Revolution, became a mere adjunct to the throne and threw in its lot with tyrants, it forswore its Christianity. When it established itself at Rome as a tyranny over men's souls, it turned upon its Founder and re-crucified Him. Moreover, if Christianity has been accused as the handmaid of oppression, it is at least just to look on the other side and see if it has not been the inspirer of the noblest revolutions. All its fundamental ideas-the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of all men in Christ, the equality of all men before God, the individual responsibility of every human soul, the surrender of all things for others, the one necessity of salvation for all alike, emperor and peasant-are spiritual ideas which bear an easy translation into political ideas, and which, gathering strength, have proved the ruin of many tyrannies. If Christianity has any close relation with a distinct political idea, it is with the idea of a high democracy; and if, as some say, the world is irresistibly tending to democracy, there is nothing in Christianity to prevent its falling in with this political tendency. I see no limit to its expansion, should that take place; on the contrary, I think that it will take in democracy a further and a more brilliant, a freer and more devotional development than ever it has yet done. The atmosphere will be more congenial to it.

Again, take art. Greek religion lent itself to sculpture,