'All thoughts, all passions, all delights, Whatever stirs this mortal frame,' Thrilled through the wildering harmonies That from the music came. All soothing sounds of nature blent, In wonderful accord, With pleadings, wild and passionate, From human hearts outpoured. The wailings of the world's sad heart, Oppressed with social wrongs, In mournful monotones were mixed With sounds of angel songs. The falling of a nation's tears O'er Freedom's prostrate form, Dew droppings sweet from starry spheres, Swift-rushing wings of storm. The voices of Time's children three-- Past, Present, Future, blent In that wild 'trio's' harmony, Thrilled each fine instrument. And, at the sound, my soul awoke, And saw the dawning clear Of Freedom's coming day illume Earth's clouded atmosphere! THE IDEAL MAN FOR UNIVERSAL IMITATION; OR, THE SINLESS PERFECTION OF JESUS. (A POSITIVE REPLY TO STRAUSS AND RENAN.) The first impression which we receive from the life of Jesus, is that of perfect innocency and sinlessness in the midst of a sinful world. He, and He alone, carried the spotless purity of childhood untarnished through his youth and manhood. Hence the lamb and the dove are his appropriate symbols. He was, indeed, tempted as we are, but he never yielded to temptation. His sinlessness was at first only the _relative_ sinlessness of Adam before the fall, which implies the necessity of trial and temptation, and the peccability, or the possibility of the fall. Had he been endowed with absolute impeccability from the start, he could not be a true man, nor our model for imitation; his holiness, instead of being his own self-acquired act and inherent merit, would be an accidental or outward gift, and his temptation an unreal show. As a true man, Christ must have been a free and responsible moral agent; freedom implies the power of choice between good and evil, and the power of disobedience as well as obedience, to the law of God. But here is the great fundamental difference between the first and the second Adam: the first Adam lost his innocence by the abuse of his freedom, and fell by his own act of disobedience into the dire necessity of sin; while the second Adam was innocent in the midst of sinners, and maintained his innocence against all and every temptation. Christ's _relative_ sinlessness became more and more _absolute_ sinlessness by his own moral act, or the right use of his freedom in the perfect active and passive obedience to God. In other words, Christ's original possibility of _not sinning_, which includes the opposite possibility of sinning, but excludes the actuality of sin, was unfolded into the _impossibility of sinning_, which _can_ not sin because it will not. This is the highest stage of freedom, where it becomes identical with moral necessity, or absolute and unchangeable self-determination for goodness and holiness. This is the freedom of God