peculiar contribution to the sum of human improvement: therefore, in view of these facts, and for the sake of historical impartiality, it is most correct to characterize the various modifications of the Christian religion as transformations, because this word does not imply prejudgment of their results, as the word deviation or development might seem to do.

The three great transformations of primitive Christianity are Roman Catholicism, the Greek or Russian Church, and Protestantism. But as these transformations cannot be understood without a survey of the work of the Founder of Christianity, and as even this was in some degree dependent on what preceded it, it will be necessary first to glance at the condition of the world before the coming of Christ.

No religion can properly be said to have been created by any individual, or by any body of men, or by any people. The religious sentiment is innate with every human being. There is an aspiration towards the infinite in every soul, and the conviction of its affinity with a superior power becomes stronger and more satisfactory with every new development of its own capacities. If this instinctive feeling be nurtured in a reasonable and healthful manner, it ennobles the whole nature; but, if it be perverted, it corrupts every thing: in any case it is the most powerful expansive force in the moral world, and must continually work either rapid progress or cruel devastation. Religion distorted and vitiated has always been the bane of true liberty; and it is on this account that many earnest men have revolted entirely from all acknowledgment of religious claims, and have declared themselves atheists.

Some religions have grown up, like languages, from the contributions of many souls for a long period of time: others bear the distinct impress of individual thought, the prevailing influence of some gifted man, wise enough to understand the wants of his time and strong enough to satisfy them. But in such a case the work of the Founder never remains precisely as he left it if he was too far in advance of his age, his followers necessarily retrograde to more comprehensible ideas; if he stood but little above the ordinary level, he is soon surpassed.

When a people has developed gradually and harmoniously, its religion will also unfold from low and coarse outlines to a form of symmetry and beauty. Such a religion was Grecian polytheism, particularly interesting to us from its direct influence upon the foundation of Christianity; while the religions of India and Scandinavia had no part in either the intellectual or spiritual agitations of that era. The natural development of the polytheism of the Greek is sufficiently and beautifully illustrated by tracing the course of one of their favorite divinities.

Far back in the legendary ages, the shores of Greece were settled by wanderers from the distant East. These brought with them the impulse — which is that of all infant and uncultivated minds-to worship those great powers of nature, so necessary to their existence, and yet so entirely beyond their control. One of these meteorological divinities, who was called Herakles, the "Glory of the Air," as the restorer of fine weather after storm, and therefore conqueror of the evil spirits of the tempest, became, in the modification of Greek thought, the divination of force in the human body,— Hercules, subduer of wild beasts and monsters; and, at a later day, after this noble race had discovered that moral strength is superior to physical energy, the same Hercules is chosen as the type of human struggles after perfection. Seated at the branching of two roads, he is invited by Wisdom on the one hand, and tempted by Pleasure on the other, and decides heroically for virtue, in spite of all the allurements of vice. This was the

highest idea of which polytheism was capable; and no effort of after-times to extend its provisions or deepen its influence by giving a symbolical meaning to mythological characters was able to attain more than a brief and spasmodic success.

But all this while philosophy had been developing its various systems, and had arrived at the same result with polytheistic religion, although by a different method. With reference to the origin of Christianity, it is commonly urged by Christians, that, when Christ came, the world was weary of vain imaginings, and fully realized a spiritual need which nothing but his scheme of redemption could satisfy. This is true; but the inference

generally drawn from the fact is not correct. It was not because the Pagans of Greece and Rome were sunk so low in ignorance and crime that a new salvation was demanded, but because they had reached such a point of intellectual culture and spiritual enlightenment, that the old religion, though modified and expanded to its utmost capacity, no longer possessed any purifying or elevating power. The human race will always be indebted to Greek philosophy for the early discovery of many important truths, and for the correct, though only partial, recognition of the capacities of the soul. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Zeno and Epicurus, with many others, gradually and successively approached the secret of moral life. and happiness; while a host of illustrious characters exemplified in their own conduct the best thought of their age.

And, to strengthen these ennobling influences, a kind of alliance was formed between the philosophy of the period and the highest form of the popular religion, which resulted in the celebration of the mysteries. These mysteries were a kind of dramatic representation, serving to veil the declaration, on the part of the initiated, of a belief in immortality and the resurrection; doctrines which were considered too subtile and lofty to be appreciated by the common people. Consequently, the masses were in no wise benefited by the secret contemplations and revelations of this select class, which was always a very small minority. Meantime a consciousness of the insufficiency of the existing religious system was universally felt; and the confusion was only increased by the intermingling of Roman superstitions with Grecian polytheism, in the vain hope of finding some cure for the wounds of awakened conscience. The idea of expiation was strengthened by the general despair. Animals of many kinds, and even human beings, were sacrificed, to atone for the crimes and errors of living men, and the common course of events was made gloomy and alarming through the cloud of signs and omens of evil that obscured the pathway of every individual.

Nor was the Jewish religion exempt from the modifying influences of time and experience. It is a common mistake to suppose, that the Jews have always kept their theology as

exclusive and intact as their national prejudices. On the contrary, it kept pace with the growth and culture of the people, beginning with the simple worship of Elohim or powers, and gradually rising to the lofty conception of one God. The successive names of Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews may serve as well to mark eras in faith as to record the modifications of national existence. Nor was the law of Moses able to resist entirely the progress of thought within the nation, and the pressure of antagonistic opinion from without. The captivity in Assyria weaned a great portion of the people from their reliance on a sacrificial service in the one Temple: their simplified worship became more spiritual; while the influence of surrounding Oriental ideas weakened considerably the materialistic tendency of the Mosaic law. But those who remained in Judea clung with only greater obstinacy to the letter of their code, believing firmly that they were the heavenappointed rulers of the human race, and that their triumph was soon to be assured to them under the sway of an heir to David's throne, the Messiah. Pharisee and Sadducee alike hated the colonized Jews for their tendency to assimilate to the opinions and customs of their uncircumcised neighbors, not knowing that these despised Hellenists, together with the small body of Essenes in Palestine, were alone destined to represent the children of Abraham in the new dispensation; while they themselves, for their blindness and hardness of heart, were to be left out.

Thus many causes combined to prepare the world for the new light which was near its dawning. The field was tilled before the sower a ppeared. The teachings of Christ would never have been listened to or remembered, had not souls been made ready, by a natural process of education, to welcome and respond. Nor was political preparation wanting. Roman unity was everywhere established, affording unusual facilities for intercourse among the various provinces of that vast empire; the prevalence of a common law had already given men a glimmering sense of the tie of human brotherhood; and peace reigned over all nations, making possible the proclamation of a gospel of peace.

It may seem impious to many persons to regard the mission of Christ as having been prepared for and assisted by these historical events; or, in the forcible words of our author, "to admit that Christianity did not fall from heaven like an ærolite;" but, to those who are disposed to judge rationally, this record of the gradual transformations of religious thought will at once throw light upon the past, and awaken hope and confidence for the future.

The whole burden of the message of Jesus Christ to the world was love: the love of God to man, which is shown in His free offer of pardon for sin; and the love due to God from man, which ought to prove itself by a constant endeavor after holiness, and by the tenderest sympathy between all the members of the human race.

This is all: the words and acts of the Founder of Christianity, throughout his whole life, were only exquisite changes rung upon this one perfect melody. This is the key to solve every purely ethical or religious problem. He left no written testimony of himself, no creed, no code, no rule of life, no church organization, no clerical investiture. He instituted only two simple and popular rites: one a sign of moral purification; the other, a memorial of his love. It is evident that a plan of salvation so pure and simple as his was altogether beyond the comprehension of his immediate followers. Accordingly, he had scarcely left the world before those misapprehensions and prejudiced distortions of his teaching, which are so apparent in the records of the evangelists, began to affect the management of the infant Church. The bondage of the law was again pressed upon recently enfranchised souls, by those of the believers who could not forget their early training under the Mosaic code. Fasts, distinction of meats and of sacred days, were soon an important feature of the new faith. The worship of angels, a superstition acquired by the Jews during the Assyrian captivity, also obtained favor. Nor was it long before a hierarchy was established, somewhat resembling the sacerdotal orders of the Mosaic dispensation; while the influence of both Judaism and Paganism conspired to bestow upon the death of Jesus a sacrificial character and

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