but also its most desirable portion. Without these, indeed, Greatness were impossible. Through these alone can it be manifested. In every case, the Cross precedes the Crown, if the crown be worth the wearing. It is only by overcoming whatever evils lie in our way, that we prove those qualities which render man truly great, and establish any claim to the extraordinary regards of the world. In martial causes it is only the skillful veteran who is appointed to lead the battle-host, and to whom the eyes of the oppressed are turned, in confidence and hope. So in moral causes, it is only the Christian Champion, who has rendered himself invincible in many conflicts with Pride, and Interest, and Passion, whom we lean upon with firm assurance of his power, and grateful admiration of his character.

Therefore, let every soul abide its Ordeal, by holding in firm grasp its noble purposes. To falter, is to reveal some flaw in its Manhood-to yield, is to prove its unworthiness of the kingdom it would gain. I will wel

come Life's adversities-yes, its ingratitude and its injustice-if they prove my Rectitude before the Tribunal of Him, whose approval has disarmed the Rack of its torment, and the Cross of its shame,

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CHRISTIANITY AND PROGRESS.

PROGRESS is a term, which, in spite of its abuses by fanatics, is as essential to the purposes of true Philosophy, as is the Alphabet to written Language.

Progress is the Interpreter of both Civil and Ecclesiastical History. It re-produces the Past, threads the tangled mazes of the Present, and augurs the Future. It suggests alternate relations and dependencies throughout the world, and widens the focus of its Eras in comformity to the increasing demands of the expanding Intellect: it permits us to recognize a divine Purpose in every Event, and to cherish Respect for every Condition: it bids us wed History and Prophecy,

Experience and Anticipation, and, in their union, offers us a key, by which we may unlock much of the great temple of Human Mysteries. We are to judge the men and events of different Ages, severely or leniently, according to their relative distance from the Infinite Spirit of the Universe. In the Moral, as in the Physical World, we find Tropical regions, profusely clad with all the diversity and beauty prolific Nature can inspire; and Polar climes, where scanty Life essays its feeble expression, and is victim of the winter and the storm. Indicate to us the man, the sect, and the nation, in which high duties were neglected and low crimes perpetrated, and, ere we announce their sentence, we would know whether they dwelt near the great Spiritual Equator, or within the Arctic Circle.

Progress furnishes Wisdom with an eternal lamp, with which she traverses the World's dark, blood-stained Labyrinths with which she reads God's seal of ownership in Humanity, in defiance of its dread disguises; meditates amid the shrines of Materialism, and

prognosticates Reform; thrills the sensations of men with nobler convictions of Duty, and inscribes Hope even on the Gates of Hell.

Now Christianity, doubtless, in the conquest of the world, advances in the train of Progress-increasing the speed, or quickening the march, of the vast Army of Thought we indeed believe; but identifying herself with it, and preserving it in compactness and unity. It is no dishonor to the Christian Spirit to suppose it-after its miraculous establishment, and after its recognition by its Primal Age-adjusting itself to the law of human Development, and acting on the understanding and the heart through their ordi

nary avenues.

If we go back to the threshold of Modern History, and, making Palestine our observa ́tory, mark the introduction of Christianty into the Roman Empire, we shall behold the elements of more than a restored Paradise, cast abroad amid the time-shaken monuments of Paganism. For Christ bestowed on the world all that is essential to Thought and Devotion, to a Perfect Faith and a Divine Life. But,