Christ is the Sun of righteousness. When reason, conscience, affection, rule the world; when love and justice, and mild and tender views of life and humanity, of God and Christ, displace the cruel terrors and superstitions that have survived the social and political meliorations of the age, we shall begin to see that love is the fulfilling of the law, and liberty of thought the greatest friend of worship, the finest result of Christ's coming, and the throne from which he commands the whole human heart and history. A TRUE THEOLOGY THE BASIS OF HUMAN PROGRESS. By JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. The subject of the present lecture is "A True Theology the Basis of Human Progress." And, in order to strike the key-note, and to indicate the object at which I aim, I will read four or five passages from the New Testament, which describe such a Theology in its spirit and root. The Apostle Paul says:[1] "I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark." So he declares himself a Progressive Christian. [Footnote 1: Phil. iii. 13.] Again he says:[2] "We know in part, and we prophesy [or teach] in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." So he declares that all intellectual statements, his own included, are relative and provisional. He is here speaking, doubtless, not of rational insights, but of the insight when elaborated by the intellect into a statement; not of intuitional knowledge, but that which comes from reflection. In regard to all such propositions, he would accept the modern doctrine of the Relativity of Knowledge; thus cutting up by the roots the poisonous weed of Bigotry. [Footnote 2: 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10.] Again: "Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men."[3] He thus requires and authorizes a manly, intelligent Theology. [Footnote 3: 1 Cor. xiv. 20.] Again: "Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."[4] He here rejects the Theology of the letter, including the doctrine of Literal Inspiration. [Footnote 4: 2 Cor. iii. 6.] Again: "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."[5] [Footnote 5: 2 Tim. i. 7.]