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For Christ is "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." If you have in you the spirit of truth, and filial devotion and selfsacrifice, that is Christ. What is in a name? My Christ, my sweet Christ, the brightest jewel of my heart, the necklace of my soul,-for twenty years have I cherished him in this my miserable heart. Though often defiled and persecuted by the world, I have found sweetness and joy unutterable in my master Jesus. Jesus is to me not a hard doctrine. He never was to me a hard doctrine. I am thankful to say I never read anti-Christian books with delight, and never had to wage war with my Christ. The mighty artillery of his love he levelled against me, and I was vanquished, and I fell at his feet, saying,-Blessed child of God, when shall others see the light that is in thee? Therefore, I say, countrymen, be not as the unbelievers are, do not throw yourselves into the vortex of materialism and scepticism. Christ, your friend, is walking through the streets of this country, carrying the banners of God, the Most High. He exhorts you to renounce self. My countrymen, bravely throw off the scabbard, unsheath the sword, and cut down this abominable self, and establish the kingdom of heaven in your lives. When you have achieved the triumph ye shall rejoice, for the bridegroom cometh. Young men of India, who are so zealous in the cause of reformation and enlightenment, turn your attention to this point. Believe and remember what Christ has said, and be ready to receive him. He is coming, and in the fulness of time he will come to you. He will come to you as self-surrender, as asceticism, as Yoga, as the life of God in man, as obedient and humble sonship. For Christ is nothing else. The bridegroom cometh. Do not, like

the foolish virgins, fall asleep. But trim your lamps, put on your best apparel, and go forth with the enthusiasm and joy which all oriental nations display upon such occasions, to receive the bridegroom. Oh! the bridegroom is coming; there is no knowing when he cometh. Let India, beloved India, be decked in all her jewellery,-those "sparkling orient gems," for which this land is famous, so that at the time of the wedding we may find her a really happy and glorious bride. The bridegroom is coming. Let India be ready in due season. And you, my friends, rest assured that if there is any truth in Christ, it will overtake and conquer you. In your own hearts ye shall find testimony, the testimony of the Lord. For has not Christ himself said, "the Father which hath sent me hath borne witness of me?" The Father will reveal unto you His dear son. And who can be a better witness and guide, who can teach you better the mystery of the son's nature than the Father who sent him? In response to your anxious inquiry and earnest prayer the Lord will manifest unto you, in your individual and national consciousness, what truth there is in Christ. Seek then the true light of heaven humbly and prayerfully, and the Lord will vouchsafe it unto you in the fulness of time.

GOD-VISION IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.

AM here to-day to tell you the marvellous secrets of God-vision. I purpose to answer the pressing question of the age,-Is it possible in these days of outward refinement and growing materialism to see the very Living God of the universe?

And while I try to unravel this sacred mystery, do Thou, O Light of ages, O Eternal Reason, enlighten my heart and strengthen my soul, that I my bear witness unto Thy truth, and faint not.

Gentlemen, it is a matter of universal rejoicing that the dark age of dreams and visions has gone by. How grim and dismal was the time when the world was enveloped in superstition, and men readily swallowed the most absurd theories and doctrines which the imagination could invent and carnal interests suggest? As in the history of individuals so in the history of nations, night is the time to sleep. "To sleep, perchance to dream!" Yes, night is the time for strange dreams. The world has slept for many long ages, dreaming dreams and seeing visions. Night is the time when the magician waves his mysterious wand, and fascinates and enthralls the senses with fantastic tricks. Night is the time when interested priests and hierophants hold the human soul in hopeless intellectual bondage and spiritual servitude. But that night of darkness, that dismal and hideous night of superstition and priestcraft has gone by, never to return. The world of thought seems to have just awakened to the stern and sacred realities of truth. Behold the great luminary of the day appears in the East, riding in

his chariot of light, drawn by two splendid milkwhite horses-the science of mind and the science of matter! Verily this age is eminently an age of science. Everywhere science flourishes; it flourishes. most luxuriantly. Not one science alone, but all sciences are growing rapidly and steadily on all sides. The physical sciences, especially those which admit of proof and demonstration, are striking their roots deeper in men's minds, never to be eradicated. The greatest thinkers of the day are absorbed in science. It is their meat and drink, their study during the day, their joy at night. Nothing interests the mind so much now-a-days as science. The spirit of the age will not take things upon trust. Let them come hallowed by antiquity or sanctified by sacred associations of names and places, they are sure to be rejected and eschewed, if they cannot be proved. Prove all things and hold fast that which is true, this is the principle which is being fearlessly and fully carried out in all departments of thought and speculation. But it is not merely in the field of theory but in the field of practice too that we see the successful cultivation of science. Who does not rejoice to see the wonderful application of science to the varied wants and necessities of our daily life? In short, the signs of the times give unmistakeable evidence of the fact that the present age is thoroughly scientific and philosophical, and none is accounted wise in these days but the man of science. In an age so eminently scientific, why talk of God-vision? Is it not an anomaly and an anachronism in the nineteenth century? Has not enlightenment closed for ever the age of dreams and visions? Why drag out from their graves the qrotesque visions and the wild and delirious reveries of diseased brains, which have perished for

ever? Why resuscitate and revive the dead bones of decayed mysticism? Why call forth apparitions from the grave? Gentlemen, I mean to do no such thing. I am not going to indulge in dreamy speculations regarding the Godhead. I am going to present to you not a painted divinity, but the Real and Living God, as seen in sober philosophic vision. I will not soar into the ethereal regions of fairy dreams, nor spin out romantic fables and myths under the influence of morbid sentimentalism. By vision I mean not delusion, but perception, the perception of the stern realities of the spirit-world, the direct apprehension of God and Heaven in consciousness. Is such a vision possible in these days? I emphatically and readily say, yes, it is possible. It is surely possible for many in the nineteenth century to see the Living God with the naked eye. How this is so will appear to you when I tell you briefly the philosophy of spiritual perception. You will then be convinced that what I speak of is not the visionary's vision of God, but the philosopher's perception of God? Yes, perception. The task which devolves upon the modern priest in the Temple of Science is not to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream, nor to decipher the mysterious hand-writing upon the walls of Belshazzar's palace. No, it is a much easier task, and yet more marvellous, more philosophical, more sober and more scientific. Every believer in these days feels called upon, in the interests of truth and science, to read and decipher the handwriting of God upon the walls of His vast tabernacle, upon every object in the heavens above and the earth below. As apostles of nature and votaries of science, we are commissioned to interpret the soul's vision of Heaven, and explain and vindicate its perception in broad day-light of the True and Invisible

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