ultimates of rocks, soils, vegetables, forests, fruits and animals. He does not appropriate the primates as such. There's no affinity. These basic elements, taken up by the lower order of plants, and progressing upward through all the ascending grades, ultimate in man. As a physical being, then, he is related to all orders of existence below him, and, as a spiritual being, composed of original spirit substances and principles, he is connected not only with all the higher intelligences of the heavens, but with the Infinite himself, as a ray from a central sun, or stream proceeding from and sustained by an Infinite Fountain. A chemist, analyzing a drop of water from a thermal sulphur or sodium spring, will show by critical, chemical analysis that each drop not only partakes of, but contains, the identical elements and properties of the whole fountain. Well, man is the drop, and God the Eternal Fountain! And the divine chemistry of logical analysisintuition, reason and science-demonstrates that every essence attribute and principle of God exists finitely in man, and thus is he truly made in the divine image-a perfect structure a god "manifest in the flesh," imaging the eternal principles and properties of Father and Mother.

The divine out-pushing impulse to ask, implies intelligence somewhere to answer every natural inquiry. Denying the existence of the Asian Nazarene, is simply assertive negation and valueless to the thinker, besides exhibiting little scholarly attainment, and less historic research. If poesy needed a Homer-Sculptor a Phidias-jurisprudence a Lycurgus-morals a Confucius-philosophy a Plato-and oratory a Demosthenes-the Israelitish nations, given to religious contemplation, required just such an intuitive, loving, self-sacrificing character, as Jesus of Nazareth-the central personage of the gospels. His advent, heralded by angels, his mission was one of mercy, and "Peace on earth, good will to men."

It is difficult to disconnect countries from nations and nations from their inspired leaders, who tower up, as lofty columns, the glory of future eras. Goethe says:

"It is with nations as with families. When a family has lived a long time, it finally produces an individual who gathers up into himself the attributes of all his ancestors; rallies their scattered or half-developed qualities, and presents them incarnate in their full perfection. So the felicity of Providence will occasionally sum up in an individual the virtue of a nation."

The ascended John Pierpoint, reflecting upon oriental lands and their illumined seers, gives expression to his admiration for Syrian scenery in these rhythmic lines-" The airs of Palestine."

"Let a lonelier, lovelier path be mine,

Greece and her charms I'd leave for Palestine.
These purer streams thro' happier valleys flow,
And sweeter flowers on holier mountains blow.

I should love to breathe where Gilead sheds her balm,

I should love to walk on Jordan's banks of palm,

I should love to rest my feet in Hermon's dews;

I should love the promptings of Isaiah's muse;

In Carmel's holy grots I'd court repose,

And deck my mossy couch with Sharon's blooming rose."

Abraham went west and founded Israel; Cadmus went west and founded the second Thebes; Eneas went west and founded Rome; leaving Jerusalem, Jesus went west to seek and save "his people from their sins." It was not Israel, Judea, Carmel, nor Sharon, but representative men - the men of ideas gracing those ancient countries, who live in history so fadeless, and continue precious along the memories of many generations. Human nature in its best estate, rising above family, social relations, country, nation, is ever regardful of the great, and loyal to the good, whenever and whereever found.

Admitting the general tendency of the Asiatic mind to the dreamy exercise of a vivid imagination, coupled at times with exaggeration, still it is very clear to those read in the philosophy of history, that the more ancient parables and myths were not the empty fictions of an idle fancy; but rather the utterances of an immortal and ubiquitous intuition, whose substratum is truth.

To assume the absolute creation of such a personage from nonentity as Jesus of Nazareth, entitles the one thus affirming to the charity of imbecility. He was the child of the heavens, of prophecy, and of harmony. The wisdom of the angels threw him into an age of conservatism and stupid bigotry. The Mosaic law had degenerated into cold

formalisms; brotherly kindness into caste and currency, and principle into policy. Judaism, large mingling with the currents of history, had become divided into two branchesPalestine and that called the "dispersion." Such sectarists were they in their own Asian country, bordering Africa and Europe, that, pressing around one temple and one altar, the Rabbins cursed all Israelites who proved so recreant to the law of Moses, as to teach their children Greek.

The Sadducees were a sort of Epicureans; materialistic in tendency, denying the immortality of the soul and the existence of angels. The Pharisees were Separatists, cling ing to the letter of the law, and the traditional injunctions of Jehovah. The Essenians were the Shakers of that period. Jesus was in full sympathy with them.

War, commerce, the Assyrian captivity and nomadic tendencies, had scattered many of the Israelites throughout the world. These spoke the Greek tongue. This language, derived largely from the Sanscrit, had become, what Latin was at a much later period, the court language and medium of communication among all the more enlightened nations. In those prominent eastern cities, especially Alexandria and Antioch, flourishing capitals of Egypt and Syria, these scattered Jews formed numerous societies, placing at the head some rich, influential families. Their Palestinean brothers called them Hellenists They were not considered soundly Orthodox, even though they had succeeded in getting the Jewish Bible translated into Greek, under the Ptolemies.

At this initial point in the religious cycle of that era, we get a correct clue to those moral forces constituting the peculiarities of John - the disciple that "Jesus loved." Zebedee, his father, a wealthy Israelite, was a profound thinker of the school of Hillel, and exceedingly liberal in doctrinal tendencies. John, a natural genius, rich in the gift of a warm, sensitive love-nature, endowed with a fine delicate organization, highly mediumstic, a thorough trained scholar for that age of the world, and wonder gifted with a capacity for acquiring a knowledge of

languages, was just adapted for the constant companionship of Jesus. Literally, John was a Hellenistic Jew, thoroughly initiated into the civilization, literature, and philosophy of the Greeks. This accounts for the continually cropping out of Pythagoric doctrines in his gospel. John, our patron saint, is, in many respects, the ideal man of the New Testament. Holy and heavenly was the perpetual friendship existing between Jesus, John, and his brother James. Superior scholarship, coupled with a sweet-tender heart-fellowship, entitled John to the privilege of ever accompanying Jesus as lingual interpreter and counselor, which enabled him more fully to comprehend the scope and moral grandeur of Jesus mediatorial work; for, medium-like," he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him."

Dying a martyred death, Jesus committed to the care of John, his sainted Mother. Love and tenderness grow from the same stem. Budding on earth they unfold and bloom forever in the heavens. Enwrapt and emblazoned in the glory of fraternal affection, Jesus and the disciple he "loved," now together, traverse the celestial heavens, doing the will of the Eternal, by teaching in supernal spheres, and inspiring God's dear humanity.

Though the Church-Fathers may have manipulated the primative manuscripts-gospels and epistles-one giving to the Nazarene a certain attitude; another some peculiar expression of form or forehead; and others still, crowning him with plumes originally worn by Chrishna, Confucius, Plato, and Hillel-our belief in Jesus remains unshaken. We believe in him, not as the Infinite God, not as a supernatural being, not as a miracle-begotten specialty to patch up an inefficient "plan of salvation" and ward off divine wrath; but as a man-a mortal brother of the immortal gods and goddesses, who temperamentally helped fashion him, that, inspired by them and a "legion of angels," he might aid in uplifting and molding the future ages. He called himself the "Son of man." The Apostle termed him "our elder brother." He ate, drank, slept, hungered, thirsted, and, weary 'from