It is an universal remedy against discord, an holy cement for mankind.

And, lastly, ’tis love to God and the brethren which raises the soul above all earthly considerations; and as it gives a taste of heaven upon earth, so ’tis heaven in the fulness of it hereafter to the truly charitable here.

This is the noblest sense charity has, after which all should press as being the more excellent way.

Would God this divine virtue were more implanted and diffused among mankind, the pretenders to Christianity especially; and then we should certainly mind piety more than controversy, and exercise love and compassion instead of censuring and persecuting one another in any manner whatsoever.

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ERNEST RENAN

LIFE OF JESUS

Ernest Renan, the most widely read writer of religious history in his day, was forty years old when the “Vie de Jesus,” his most popular book, appeared as the first volume of a “History of the Origins of Christianity.”  He was born at Treguier in Brittany, France, Feb. 27, 1823, a Breton through his father and a Gascon through his mother.  Educated for the Church, under priestly tutelage, he specialised in the study of Oriental languages, with the result that he found it impossible to accept the traditional view of Christian and Jewish history.  After holding an appointment in the Department of Manuscripts in the Bibliotheque Nationale, he became Professor of Hebrew in the College de France.  At the age of 55 he was elected a member of the French Academy.  His works include “A History of Semitic Languages,” a “History of the Origins of Christianity,” and a “History of the People of Israel,” besides many volumes of essays and criticism, and several autobiographical books of great charm.  Everybody read Renan, and disagreed with him.  The orthodox rejected his opinions, and the unorthodox his sentiment.  But his books marked an epoch in religious criticism.  “The Life of Jesus” was the outcome of a visit to Palestine in pursuance of research studies of Phoenician civilisation.  A feature is the importance given to scenic surroundings which he could so happily describe.  Renan died on October 2, 1892, widely admired, honoured, and also condemned, and was buried in the Pantheon.

THE HOUR AND THE MAN

The principal event in the history of the world is the revolution by which the noblest portions of humanity have forsaken the ancient religions of Paganism for a religion founded on the Divine Unity, the Trinity, and the Incarnation of the Son of God.  Nearly a thousand years were required to achieve this conversion.  The new religion itself took at least three hundred years in its formation.  But the origin of the revolution is a historical event which happened in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius.  At that time there lived a man of supreme personality, who, by his bold originality, and by the love which he was able to inspire, became the object, and settled the direction, of the future faith of mankind.