is true.

Authors are not over-clear on this subject, at least some are not; but we do not believe any author will be found asserting that there did not exist among all nations some traces, some vague memory of One True God.

But the most noteworthy feature of this universal tradition is that it all pointed to the coming of a Saviour or Messiah. This is the central figure around which are grouped all the others, the main fact to the sustaining of which all others contribute. All ancient tradition blends into one common voice, announcing the advent of a Christ, who was to renew the face of the earth. Whatever else was rejected, whatever else men forgot in the long lapse of ages, this coming of a Saviour was not rejected or forgotten. Everything pointed towards it, everything went to give it a firm basis in the minds of the people. The idea as scattered may have grown dim and misty, its boundary lines may have become less marked, its shape and form less distinct; but, instead of losing its hold on mankind as these its outward marks grew vague, it seemed rather to obtain a firmer grasp. So bound up with the destinies of the people and so intimate and present had it become to them that we may compare it to the pinnacle of a grand edifice, made up of varied and diverse materials, some of which were rough enough, but were growing into harmony as they approached the top, an edifice that had stood for thousands of years, around which during all this time had played the winds and storms, but without producing any other effect except to chip off the corners and gables and sombre the walls.

The expectation of a Messiah was the one bright star illuminating the firmament of the ancient world. It begot hope in the hearts of peoples sunk in the gloom and despondency of paganism, and cheered them to look forward to the coming of a brighter and better day. When overcome by desolation of spirit arising from the hollow forms that religion, as known to them, presented to their imaginations, this glowing picture of the future, when the earth was to be blessed and happy, rose up before them to comfort and console. The accomplishment of the reality was the bread the people were crying for, alas! how long crying for in vain, until, overcome by the disappointment of ever receiving a stone, the cry had settled down into one long, continuous wail, broken by but few faint notes of gladness. Amidst this wilderness of desolation and gloom we can understand, as the world grew old, what a source of joy must have been the thought of that promise made so many ages ago, whose fulfilment must be now near at hand. Ah, what a magic power must not its mention have had, especially for all oppressed and enthralled nations who looked to the Saviour's coming as the day of their deliverance! How must not old faces, grown long

with waiting, have beamed with joy, how must not heads bowed with cares and troubles have been lifted up, how must not the hearts of all bounded as they heard the Saviour spoken of! Possessing such a power to charm and such a potency to soothe, may we not in imagination look back through the years to the time when the Saviour's coming was, the thought that engrossed all minds, and thus looking back may we not see friends, as they gathered about the couch of the sufferer, whisper the Saviour's name, while the eyes of the sick one, as he heard it, beamed with strange light; or may we not see the mother, as bending o'er her little one to stop his infant cries, she told of the happy days that were to come, while, as if hushed by talismanic spell, the child dried his eyes and began to smile? The coming of a Saviour was an event ardently expected by all the ancient nations. In the east they pointed towards the west, in the west towards the east, as the place of His advent. The idea had so gained ground at the time of Cicero that we find it spoken of as an event certain and soon to be accomplished. Dionysius and his friend, Apollophanes, of the Areopagus, looked daily for its fulfilment.

We have said that the Messianic tradition was universal. We have not, however, as yet spoken of that people who, more than any other, treasured the hope of its fulfilment, and who, more than any other going forth to every land-caused the diffusion of this hope throughout the world. This was the Jewish people. From the time of Abraham we find the Jews, who were of Chaldæic origin, separating themselves from surrounding peoples, and asserting for themselves a special mission, the keeping alive of the knowledge of the One True God and of the Saviour's coming. The Jews possessed a number of books which were delivered to them. by Moses, the great law-giver. These books, the Jews claimed, were written under Divine inspiration. They contained an account of the origin of the world, of man, prescribed certain laws for government, etc. According to their account, man was created out of the slime of the earth, after God's own image and likeness, and after creation placed in Paradise, a garden of all delights. Man's original condition was that of pure innocence. Having sinned, he fell from his high estate, became deteriorated in body and mind, subject to concupiscence, sorrow, death, and forfeited his rights to Heaven, which, if he had been faithful, was to be his. Although displeased at man's sin, God, because of a great love He bore man, did not abandon him. Nay, He promised that, in time, a Saviour would be born, who would repair the ruin caused by Adam's, the first man's, sin, and re-establish harmony between earth and heaven. The Jews were God's chosen people. There was imposed on them as a binding obligation, the observance of ten commandments em

bracing all the natural law. These commandments, engraven in tablets of stone, were given by God Himself to Moses amid the lightnings and thunders of Sinai. As long as the Jews observed them, no harm would befall the Jews themselves; but if they departed from these laws, they-the Jews-were to be punished, or as Achior, in the book of Judith, so beautifully relates to Holofernes: "Wheresoever they went in, without bow and arrow, and without shield and sword, their God fought for them and overcame, and there was no one that triumphed over this people but when they departed from the worship of the Lord their God." Such in brief was the Jewish tradition. By comparison, we will find that, in its main features, it differed not essentially from what we have seen was the universal tradition of mankind. Rather may we say, both are in full accord, proving plainly the fact and the unity of a primitive revelation. The main points of agreement are: First, the assertion of a One God; secondly, the preservation of a remembrance of the fall; and thirdly, the central point of all revelation, a belief in the Messiah. The Messianic idea we trace, therefore, to a primitive revelation, and of it we predicate the same universality as of the revelation on which it rests.

But to what purpose have we established this? It may, perhaps, by some one be said: Granted the fact, what does it prove? Granted that the Messianic idea or belief in a Saviour has always and everywhere existed since the beginning of the world, that it is universal in time and space, what from this do you deduce? The name of the Messiah, His nation, the time of His coming,-of these all that has been said tells us nothing. On the contrary, because of the very vagueness, and, at the same time, universality of the idea, the confusion becomes denser, and the difficulty of locating the Saviour all the greater. The validity of the objection, as far as it concerns the failure of what has been said to tell us who or what the Saviour was, or whether or not he has come, we cheerfully concede. In order to locate the Saviour, we must proceed atter a different method. But to accomplish this end, we do not deem it necessary to go aside from the beaten path, despite the fact that the Jews, following it, with all their facilities for knowing the Saviour failed at His advent to recognize Him. Their failure, however, was not owing to ignorance or to the insufficiency of means which had been given for knowing the Saviour, but rather to their blind and stubborn prejudices. In order to locate the Messiah, it will be necessary merely to establish the divinity of Jesus Christ. The arguments by which this is done are familiar to all. We indicate but a few of the best known: That such a person as Jesus Christ existed, is a historical truth. To doubt it were to doubt all evidence. Of the existence of no other person have we so abundant

and irrefragable testimony. The life of Jesus may be narrated in a few words. He was born of a virgin, in a stable, at a village of Judea called Bethlehem. The circumstances surrounding his birth, though unknown to the world at large, were of a most extraordinary kind, clearly pointing to supernatural agency. After His birth, Jesus led a most retired life for thirty years, during which period we hear of Him but once, when, interrupting His usual quiet, He went to the temple where He disputed with and questioned the doctors of the law, at the same time surprising them by the acuteness of His intellect. For three years, after He had attained the age of thirty, He went about preaching, teaching, and continuing on a larger scale what had marked His whole life, the doing of good to all who came in His way. During His public life He proclaimed Himself the Son of God, the promised Messiah, whose coming the world had been so long waiting for, and, in confirmation of His assertion, wrought many signs and wonders. Although unable to explain the miracles He wrought, the Jews, who had expected the Messiah to come in pomp and glory, repudiated the claims of Jesus, whom they saw in the garb of humility, and culminated a most unholy and brutal torturing of Him by putting Him to death on a cross. Jesus accepted the death that He might manifest Himself master of death. This He did by coming forth. from the sepulchre, the third day after His burial, glorious and immortal. Having remained on the earth forty days, in the presence of many witnesses, He ascended into Heaven. Such was the life of Jesus Christ on earth.

He proclaimed Himself the Messiah! Were His claims true? The united voice of nineteen centuries answers, yes. True, here and there, there have always been some to deny, yet even these admit that, if the whole story about the long-promised Messiah be not a myth, then that Saviour came on earth in the person of Jesus Christ. The life of Jesus testifies He was the Messiah long spoken of and expected. The miracles He wrought, the virtues He practised, the wisdom He displayed,—all attest divinity. In the person of Jesus were fulfilled, also, all that the Sibyl had announced and the prophets foretold of the Messiah. The time, the place, the circumstances of the Saviour's coming, had all been accurately specified, notably by the prophets Jacob, Daniel, Aggeus and Malachy. In fact, every page of the Old Testament contains something in regard to the Messiah. Now, in no point does Jesus contradict anything, but, on the contrary, down to the minutest details, agrees with everything that had been foretold of the Messiah. The conversion of the whole world to Christ, the destruction of the synagogue which, up to Christ's time, though many times attacked, had never been completely overthrown; the substi

tution of the new for the old economy,-all are so many facts attesting the divinity of Jesus. These arguments, presented in their full force with all their wealth of details, give us more than a moral; they give us a metaphysical certainty of the identity of Jesus with the Messiah. This is sufficient for us to believe, in all confidence, that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Messianic idea, that He is the long desired of nations, the seed of Abraham in whom all peoples were to be blessed. "When John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples, they said to Him: 'Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another?"" No such question need we ask. We have the testimony of nigh two thousand years to assure us. We have seen the miracles and wonders Christ wrought, and in His person we have seen the prophecies fulfilled, the Sibylline oracles confirmed, the expectation of all antiquity answered. No, we look not for another, but in full confidence we believe that Jesus is the promised Saviour, the Son of God, as St. Augustine says, who, quitting the eternal mansions of His father, "appeared to men, to a world in the decline of old age and in the throes of death, that, while everything about them was rapidly going to decay, He might by His presence infuse into them new life and vigor." Therefore do we Christians, not only at Advent, but during the whole year, in expectation of His annual Christmas coming, sing the anthem of the prophet: "Drop down dew ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just; let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour!”

To sum up. We find that, by nature, man is not inclined to infidelity, but to religion. This universal religious idea points clearly to a primitive revelation, the central figure of which is the Messiah. We have shown that this Messiah is realized in the person of Christ. Christianity, therefore, or a belief in Christ, is as old and as wide as the world itself. Man is naturally not an infidel, but a Christian. This is the truth, that our partial and discursive consideration of Religion and the Messiah has brought Can the infidel refute it?

us.