Christianity brings the Energising of the Soul--
(a) By its reference of everything to God--our powers and our circumstances and our activities.
(b) By its prominence given to Retribution. It speaks not merely of _vita brevis_--but of _vita brevis_ and an Eternity which grows out of it.
(c) By its great motive for work--love.
(d) By the freedom It brings from the weight that paralysed.
It takes away sin. Lifting that dreary load from our backs, it makes us joyful, strong, and agile.
The true view of Christianity is not, as some of its friends, and some of its foes, mistakenly concur in supposing, that it weakens interest in, and energy on, the Present, but that it heightens the power of action. A life plunged in that jar of oxygen will glow with redoubled brilliance.
III. Christ as the Restorer of Powers of Utterance.
The silence that broods over the world. It is dumb for all holy, thankful words; with no voice to sing, no utterance of joyful praise.
Think of the effect of Christianity on human speech, giving it new themes, refining words and crowding them with new meanings. Translate the Bible into any language, and that language is elevated and enriched.
Think of the effect on human praise. That great treasure of Christian poetry.
Think of the effect on human gladness. Christ fills the heart with such reasons for praise, and makes life one song of joy.
Thus Christ is the Healer.
To men seeking for knowledge, He offers a higher gift--healing. And as for true knowledge and culture, in Christ, and in Christ alone, will you find it.
Let your culture be rooted in Him. Let your Religion influence all your nature.
The effects of Christianity are its best evidence. What else does the like of that which it does? Let Jannes and Jambres 'do the same with their enchantments.' We may answer the question, 'Art Thou He that should come?' as Christ did, 'The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear.'
The perfect Restoration will be in heaven. Then, indeed, when our souls are freed from mortal grossness, and the thin veils of sense are rent and we behold Him as He is, then when they rest not day nor night, but with ever renewed strength run to His commandments, then when He has put into their lips a new song--'then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.'