CHRISTIAN CONNECTION-CHRISTIANITY. marshals and colonels of France; and by means famous. The manufactures of C. are cotton, oil, of it, many of those who had served their country paper, soap, and bricks. There are also numerous faithfully were enabled to spend the latter portion distilleries and corn-mills. It exports in consider of their lives in peace, and above want. The order able quantities wood, iron, anchovies, and glassformed the germ of that noble hospital the Invalides, wares. From 600 to 700 ships yearly enter the which was founded by Louis XIV., and which port (which, however, is covered with ice for four served as a model for our own hospitals of Chelsea months), and it has a regular steam-boat communiand Greenwich. When the Invalides was founded, cation with Gottenburg, Copenhagen, Kiel, and the order of C. C. was superseded. Hull. C., by means of its bay, is connected with Drammen (pop. 10,000), famous for its extensive trade in timber, &c. The scenery of the whole bay is unsurpassed in beauty. CHRISTIAN CONNECTION, a denomination of Christians which originated about the beginning of the 19th c. in the United States of America, and is diffused over all the states. The name was assumed in avowed dislike to the acknowledgment of any human authority and to sectarian distinctions, and all doctrinal terms of communion were rejected, the Bible being adopted as the only rule of faith, and personal piety made the test of qualification for membership. The Connection soon came to consist, however, almost exclusively of persons denying the divinity of Christ. CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING, one of the great religious associations connected with the Church of England, and the oldest of them all. It was founded in 1698, although it did not receive its present name till 1701; and had for its object: 1. To promote and encourage the erecting of charity schools in all parts of England and Wales. 2. To disperse, both at home and abroad, Bibles and tracts of religion; and, in general, to advance the honour of God, and the good of mankind, by promoting Christian knowledge, both at home and in other parts of the world, by the best methods that should offer.' These objects it has never ceased to pursue, chiefly directing its efforts to the British dominions; partaking at once of the nature of an educational association, a Missionary Society, a Bible Society, and a Religious Tract Society; and notwithstanding the operations of other great societies in these several departments of Christian benevolence, its revenue amounts to about £100,000 a year. The Protestant missionaries who laboured in the South of India in last century, were supported chiefly by this society, which has also contributed largely of its funds for the establishment of Christian schools in that country. CHRISTIAN NAME. See NAME. CHRISTIA'NIA, capital of Norway, is situated in the province of Aggerhuus, in a beautiful open valley on the northern side of the Christiania Fiord. Pop. 40,000. C. is the seat of the Norwegian government, the superior courts, and the Storthing. Besides the suburbs of Pipervigen, Hammarsborg, Vaterland, and Groenland, the town consists of C. properly so called (which was laid out by Christian IV. in 1614, in the form of a regular parallelogram of 1000 paces in length and breadth); the Old Town or Opslo, where the bishop resides; and the citadel Aggerhuus, from which the broad straight streets of the town can be fired upon. The most important public buildings are the royal palace, the bank and exchange, the house of representatives or Storthing, the governor's palace, and the cathedral. To these may be added the university, the only one in Norway, which was opened in 1813, and possesses a staff of 21 ordinary, and 9 extraordinary professors. About 650 students attend it annually. This institution contains, besides various scientific collections, a library of about 125,000 books, a botanical garden, and an observatory (in 59° 54′ 42′′ N. lat., and 10° 50′ E. long.). The latter was opened in 1833. C. has also some good schools and learned societies, of which the Society for Northern Antiquities' is CHRISTIANITY. It is proposed in the present article to give a very brief outline of the system of the Christian religion, and of the evidences by which its truth is established. The principal parts, both of the system and evidences of C., will be found noticed under separate heads. C. comes to us with a claim to be received as of divine origin. It is no product of the human mind, but has for its author the Being whom it sets before us as the object of worship. It is consequently altogether exclusive; it claims to be deemed the only true religion-'the truth'-and admits of no compromise or alliance with any other system. of the Jews and of the patriarchs; it is the same C. cannot be viewed as distinct from the religion has been a change of dispensation only. religion accommodated to new circumstances; there In studycompelled continually to revert from the New Testaing either the system or the evidences of C., we are ment to the Old, and must in some measure trace the history of the true or revealed religion through the previous and preparatory dispensations. ing its foundation in the doctrine of the Existence The whole system of C. may be regarded as havof one God. every See GOD, EXISTENCE AND ATTRIBUTES OF. Next to this may be placed the doctrine of the Fall (q. v.) of Man. Man is represented as involved in misery by sin (q. v.)-original and actual-and for the service and fellowship of God, obnoxious to individual of the human race as incapacitated the displeasure of God, and liable to punishment in a future and eternal state of being. See PUNISHdoctrine of the ATONEMENT (q. v.) as next claiming MENT, FUTURE. And here we may regard the our attention-a doctrine taught in all the sacrifices (see SACRIFICE) of the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, as well as by the words of inspired teachers. Man being utterly incapable of effecting his own deliverance from sin and misery, God sent his Son to save sinners, to deliver them from hell, to make them holy, and partakers of the eternal joy and glory of heaven. By those who regard Christ as a mere creature, atonement or reconciliation with God is made to depend on the repentance of man as its immediate cause; whilst the life and death of Christ are represented as merely an example to us of obedience, virtue, and piety in the most trying circumstances; the doctrines of a propitiatory sacrifice, a substitutionary obedience, and an imputed righteousness, with all that form part of the same system, falling completely and even necessarily to the ground These doctrines, however, are all consistently maintained in connection with the doctrine of the Trinity and the generally received doctrine as to the person of Christ. See CHRIST and TRINITY. The very incarnation (q. v.) of the Son of God is regarded as a glorious display of the divine condescension, and a wonderful exaltation of human nature: whilst a personal enjoyment of the highest dignity and bliss of which humanity is capable in the favour and fellowship of God for ever, is to be attained by faith in Jesus Christ. See FAITH and JUSTIFICATION The indissoluble connection between faith and CHRISTIANITY. salvation arises from the divine appointment, but secures a moral harmony, as it provides for bringing into operation-in accordance with the intellectual and moral nature of man-of most powerful and excellent motives for all that is morally good, the partakers of salvation being thus fitted for the tellowship of Him into whose favour they are received; and as it prevents the possibility of any of them taking to themselves, or giving to others, the glory of that salvation which they really owe to Christ, and which they must therefore ascribe to Christ, as God is a God of truth, and truth must reign in the kingdom of heaven. Salvation is ascribed by all Christians to the grace of God. The mission of Christ was an act of supreme grace; and all must be ascribed to grace for which we are indebted to Christ. The doctrine of grace, however, is a part of the system of C. on which important differences subsist, especially as to the relation of the grace of God to individual men. Such are the differences concerning ELECTION (q. v.), and concerning the origin of faith, and man's ability or inability to believe of himself. But by Christians generally, the personal relation of the believer to Christ, and his faith in Christ, are ascribed to the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God, the third person of the Godhead, and so to the grace of God. See ARMINIUS, CALVINISM, and PELAGIUS. In the view of all who hold the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrines concerning the Spirit of God form a very important part of the Christian system. To the agency of this person of the Godhead, besides all that is ascribed to Him concerning the human nature of Christ, we are indebted for all that is spiritually good in man; He, in the economy of grace, being sent by God, on the intercession of Christ, to communicate the blessings purchased by Christ in his obedience and death. See HOLY GHOST. the other, of the love of man, or of ourselves and We have endeavoured to sketch the outline of the system of C., as much as possible according to the general belief of Christians, merely indicating the points on which the chief differences of opinion exist. Some of the principal controversies will be found noticed under separate heads. The truth of C. is established by many different Evidences, distinct and independent, but mutually corroborative. It appeals to reason, and demands to have its claims examined and admitted. Nor is there any faith where there is not a mental conviction arrived at by a process of sound reasoning. by sufficient evidence at all. See REVELATION. The evidences of C. are very generally divided into two great classes, internal and external-the former consisting of those which are found in the nature of the Christian system itself, and in its adaptation to the nature and wants of man; the latter, of those which are derived from other sources. The boundary between the two classes, Salvation begins on earth; and whenever a man however, is by no means so distinct in reality as it believes in Christ, he is a partaker of it-is in a appears in the definition of the terms. Of the state of salvation. It forms an essential part of multitude of books which have been written on the the Calvinistic system, that he who is in a state of subject of the evidences of C., some are devoted salvation always remains so, and that the salvation mainly to one of these classes, and some to the begun on earth is in every case made perfect in other; whilst some are occupied with the developheaven. See PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. Thus ment of particular evidences or arguments, and salvation is viewed as beginning in REGENERA- some with the refutation of objections, and in partiTION (q. v.), and as carried on in SANCTIFICATION cular of what may be called a preliminary objection (q. v.), and all its joys as connected with the pro--that a divine revelation can never be established gress of sanctification. Faith in Jesus Christ cannot be unaccompanied with repentance, and repentance is always renewed when the exercise of faith is renewed. For although all believers are saints or holy, as set apart to God, and in contrast to what they previously were, yet there is none in this life free from temptation and sin; the successful tempter of our first parents, who assailed our Saviour with temptation and was defeated, being still the active enemy of men, against whom believers in Jesus Christ are called to contend, to watch, and to pray. See DEVIL The sense of responsibility belongs to human nature; and the doctrine of a Judgment (q. v.) to come may be considered as to a certain extent a doctrine of natural religion, as may also that of the Immortality (q. v.) of the Soul; but the clear and distinct enunciation of the doctrines belongs to the Christian revelation, to which belongs entirely the doctrine of the Resurrection (q. v.) of the Dead. Of the moral part of C., which has already been referred to, it may be sufficient here to state, that it is as harmonious with the doctrinal as it is inseparable from it; that it is founded upon the attributes of God, and is perfectly illustrated in the character of Jesus Christ; and that it is divisible into two great parts-one, of the love of God, and The evidence of Miracles (q. v.) and the evidence of Prophecy (q. v.), two of the principal branches of the external evidences of C., will be found noticed in separate articles. Another argument, which has been much elaborated-for example, in Paley's Eridences-is derived from the character and sufferings of the apostles and other first preachers of C.; their high moral worth, considered along with their great earnestness and devotedness; the absence of all possibility of selfish or base motives; and at the same time, their perfect opportunity of knowing the truth of the facts which they proclaimed. A subsidiary argument is found in the admission of the great facts regarding Jesus of Nazareth, by the early opponents of Christianity. A most important and valuable argument is found in the perfect ccher ence of all the parts of the Christian system. and in the agreement, as to the religion which they teach, of all the books of Scripture, notwithstanding the widely different dates of their composition, and their very different nature in other respects. See BIBLE. The relation of the Jewish ceremonies to the doctrines of C. supplies another argument of this kind, capable of being developed in a multitule of particulars. The minor coincidences between the different books of Scripture have been pointed CHRISTIANSAND-CHRISTMAS. out with happy effect in the Hora Pauling of Paley, and in other works. The character of our Saviour supplies an argument of great power: the impossibility of the invention of such a character, and of the history in which it is exhibited, by any effort of human genius, is also urged as corroborative; and the inconsistency of the morality displayed, with the supposition of imposture, has been dwelt upon with the same view. The excellency, both of the doctrinal and moral part of the system of C., its elevating and purifying tendency, the agreement of its doctrine with the facts of man's sinfulness and misery, and the suitable provision which it makes for his most deeply felt wants, are principal branches of the internal evidence of its truth. The effects of C., where it has prevailed, supply a confirmatory argument in its favour, which has formed the subject of works of great learning and interest. In and to this may in part be attributed the many eccentricities of her life. During her minority, the kingdom was governed by the five highest officers of the state, the principal being Chancellor Oxenstiern. In 1644, she assumed the reins of power, and, in 1650, was crowned with the title of king. She had previously declared her cousin, Charles Gustavus, her successor. For four years thereafter, she ruled the kingdom with vigour, and was remarkable for her patronage of learned and scientific men. 1654, however, at the age of 28, weary of the personal restraint which royalty imposed on her, she abdicated in favour of her cousin, reserving to herself sufficient revenues, entire independence, and supreme authority over her suite and household. Leaving Sweden, she proceeded to Brussels, where she embraced the Roman Catholic religion. She afterwards went to Rome, which she entered on horseback, in the costume of an Amazon, with CHRISTIANSAND, the principal town of the great pomp, Confirmed by Pope Alexander VII., province or stift of that name in Norway, is situated she adopted the surname of Alessandra. In 1656, at the mouth of the Torridalself, in the bay of she visited Paris; and the following year, on a Christiansand. Pop. about 12,000. C. is the residence second residence there, she caused her grand of a bishop and high-bailiff or stift-amtmand, and equerry, Monaldeschi, who had enjoyed her entire possesses a branch of the Norwegian Bank, a gym- confidence, to be executed in her own household nasium, and several charitable foundations. The for treason. In 1658 she returned to Rome, and, manufactures are leather, tobacco, cotton, &c. Ship- in 1660, the death of the king, her cousin, caused building forms also a considerable branch of its her to hasten to Sweden; but, failing in her industry. The town, which was built in 1641 by attempt to be re-instated on the throne, she again Christian IV., has an excellent harbour, divided left the country. In 1666, she aspired to the crown into two parts by the island of Oddern, upon which of Poland, but was unnoticed by the Poles. The are situated the quarantine hospital and custom- remainder of her life was spent at Rome in artistic house. C. exports wood, lobsters, and salmon in and scientific pursuits. Besides founding an acalarge quantities. The town and harbour are pro-demy, she collected valuable MSS., medals, and tected by several fortifications. To the west of C. paintings, and died April 19, 1689. Much of her lies the harbour of Ny-Hollesund. conduct favours the idea that at times she was scarcely sane. CHRISTIANSFELD, a settlement of Moravian brothers, in the northern part of Schleswig, was founded in 1772. It consists of 64 houses and about 700 inhabitants. The houses, which are well built, and cheerful in appearance, are arranged in two parallel streets, with the church upon a green plot in the middle. The settlement is represented by the inspectors or chiefs appointed by the directors of the fraternity, and the representatives elected by the members of the sect. The manufactures are linen, soap, cotton, leather, &c. CHRISTIANSTAD, the strongly fortified capital of a province of the same name in the south of Sweden. It is situated on the Helge, about 9 miles from the Baltic, and 265 south-west of Stockholm. C. is the residence of a governor, and the seat of a court of justice. It is a beautifully built town, and possesses an arsenal, a school, a magnificent church, and a senate-house. Pop. 5000, employed chiefly in the manufacture of woollen goods, leather, gloves, &c. There is also some trade in wood, pitch, potash, &c. The town, which was founded by Christian IV., has suffered many sieges during the wars between Denmark and Sweden. The province of Christianstad has an area of 2400 miles, and 209,000 inhabitants. CHRISTIANSTED, the chief town of the Danish island of St Croix, in the West Indies. It stands on the north-east coast of the island, and has an excellent harbour, which is defended by a fort and a battery. Here resides the governor-general of the Danish West Indies. In 1855, the population was 9521, of whom 1250 were slaves. CHRISTI'NA, queen of Sweden, only child of the great Gustavus Adolphus, was born December 1626, and succeeded her father in 1632, when only six years old. Distinguished equally by beauty and the possession of a lively imagination, a good memory, and uncommon intelligence, she received the education rather of a man than of a woman; CHRISTINA, queen of Spain. See MARIA CHRISTINA. After CHRI'STISON, ROBERT, an eminent Scottish physician, son of Alexander Christison, Professor of Humanity in the university of Edinburgh, was born at Edinburgh, July 18, 1797; was educated at the High School of his native place, and, in 1811, became a student at the university there. graduating in 1819, he proceeded to London and Paris; and, in the French capital, studied toxicology under the celebrated Orfila, a department of medical science in which in Britain his name has become eminent. Commencing the practice of medicine at Edinburgh, he was, in 1822, appointed Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the university of that city, and, in 1832, was promoted to the chair of Materia Medica. Besides contributing papers on various subjects to medical journals, C. is author of a Treatise on Poisons, published in 1829, recognised as a standard work on the subject; Biographical Sketch of Edward Turner, M.D., 1837, being an address delivered before the Harveian Society of Edinburgh; a treatise On Granular Degeneration of the Kidneys, 1839; and The Dispensatory, a Commentary on the Pharmacopoeias of Great Britain, 1842. Twice President of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, and Ordinary Physician to the Queen in Scotland, in 1859 he was appointed by the Chancellor of the university of Edinburgh one of the assessors of the University Court. CHRISTMAS, the day on which the nativity of the Saviour is observed. The institution of this festival is attributed by the spurious Decretals to Telesphorus, who flourished in the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161 A. D.), but the first certain traces of it are found about the time of the Emperor Commodus (180-192 A. D.). In the reign of Diocletian (284-305 A. D.), while that CHRISTMAS BOX-CHRISTMAS CAROLS. although, in England, dissenters as well as churchmen keep it as a social holiday, on which there is a complete cessation from all business. But within the last hundred years, the festivities once appropriate to C. have much fallen off. These at one ruler was keeping court at Nicomedia, he learned that a multitude of Christians were assembled in the city to celebrate the birthday of Jesus, and having ordered the church-doors to be closed, he set fire to the building, and all the worshippers perished in the flames. It does not appear, how-time lasted with more or less brilliancy till Candleever, that there was any uniformity in the period of observing the nativity among the early churches; some held the festival in the month of May or April, others in January. It is, nevertheless, almost certain that the 25th of December cannot be the nativity of the Saviour, for it is then the height of the rainy season in Judea, and shepherds could harlly be watching their flocks by night in the plains. C. not only became the parent of many later festivals, such as those of the Virgin, but especially from the 5th to the 8th c., gathered round it, as it were, several other festivals, partly old and partly new, so that what may be termed a Christmas Cycle sprang up, which surpassed all other groups of Christian holidays in the manifold richness of its festal usages, and furthered, more than any other, the completion of the orderly and systematic distribution of church festivals over the whole year. Not casually or arbitrarily was the festival of the Nativity celebrated on the 25th of December. Among the causes that co-operated in fixing this period as the proper one, perhaps the most powerful was, that almost all the heathen nations regarded the winter-solstice as a most important point of the year, as the beginning of the renewed life and activity of the powers of nature, and of the gods, who were originally merely the symbolical personifications of these. In more northerly countries, this fact must have made itself peculiarly palpablehence the Celts and Germans, from the oldest times, celebrated the season with the greatest festivities. At the winter-solstice, the Germans held their great Yule-feast (see YULE), in commemoration of the return of the fiery sun-wheel; and believed that, during the twelve nights reaching from the 25th December to the 6th January, they could trace the personal movements and interferences on earth of their great deities, Odin, Berchta, &c. Many of the beliefs and usages of the old Germans, and also of the Romans, relating to this matter, passed over from heathenism to Christianity, and have partly survived to the present day. But the church also sought to combat and banish-and it was to a large extent successfulthe deep-rooted heathen feeling, by adding for the purification of the heathen customs and feasts which it retained-its grandly devised liturgy, besides dramatic representations of the birth of Christ and the first events of his life. Honce sprang the socalled Manger-songs,' and a multitude of C. carols, as well as Č. dramas, which, at certain times and places, degenerated into farces or fools' festivals (q. v.). Hence also originated, at a later period, the Christ-trees, or C.-trees, adorned with lights and gifts, the custom of reciprocal presents, and of special C. meats and dishes, such as C. rolls, cakes, currantloaves, dumplings, &c. Thus, C. became a universal social festival for young and old, high and low, as no other Christian festival could have become. In the Roman Catholic Church, three masses are performed at C.-one at midnight, one at daybreak, and one in the morning. The day is also celebrated by the Anglo-Catholic Church-special psalms are sung, a special preface is made in the Communion Service, and the Athanasian Creed is said or sung. The Lutheran Church, on the continent, likewise observes C.; but the Presbyterian churches in Scotland, and the whole of the English dissenters, reject it, in its religious aspect, as a human invention, and as 'savouring of papistical will-worship,' mas, and with great spirit till Twelfth-day; but now a meeting in the evening, composed, when possible, of the various branches and members of a family, is all that distinguishes the day above others. CHRISTMAS BOX, a small money-gift to 'Gladly, the boy, with Christmas Box in hand, At length the C. B. system became such an intol interested. CHRISTMAS CAROLS. The word carol (Ital. carola, and Fr. carole, a round dance---probably from Lat. corolla; Welsh, coroli, to reel, to dance; the name is thence applied to the music or song accompanying such a dance: carillon is probably allied) signifies a song of joy. The practice of singing carols, or, at all events, sacred music, in celebration of the nativity of Christ as early as the 2d c., is considered as proved by the circumstance that a large sarcophagus belonging to that. period has sculptured upon it a representation of a. Christian family joining in choral praise for this purpose. A century or two after this, however. the C. C. seem to have sadly degenerated, and become, in fact, so indecent, that the clergy found it necessary to forbid them. Under the AngloSaxon kings, merriment and piety were pleasantly combined in English life, a peculiarity that affected the C. C. of that period not a little; but by the 13th c. the jocosity had unhappily lapsed into what would now be considered profanity. The CHRISTMAS ROSE-CHRISTOPHER. oldest printed collection of English C. C. bears the date of 1521. The majority of these, though written by men of learning-priests and teachers-exhibit a lamentable ignorance of the character of the two most prominent persons in the carols-Mary and Jesus. In 1525 was kept the still Christmas,' on account of the illness of King Henry; but with this exception, the sacred season appears to have been regularly celebrated with joyous music and songs during the Tudor period. In 1562, C. C. of a more solemn nature were introduced. By the Puritan parliament, Christmas was abolished altogether, and holly and ivy were made seditious badges; and in 1630 the Psalms, arranged as carols, were advertised. After the Restoration, the C. C. again exhibited a hearty, cheerful, and even a jovial character. Those with which the dawn of Christmas is now announced, in England are generally religious, though not universally so. In France, the carols at this season used to be much less sacred than gay. Often, indeed, they were grossly Bacchanalian. See an interesting paper in the Athenæum for December 20, 1856; also Sandys's Christmas Carols, 8vo, 1833. CHRISTMAS ROSE. See HELLEBORE. of those who had seen him even with the eye of faith, has induced many orthodox theologians to shrink from making any statement in regard to what may have been the doctrine of the Person of Christ among the ancient Jews. October 6, 1767, was at one period a slave and CHRISTOPHE, HENRI, king of Hayti, born tavern-cook in Cape Town, St Domingo, and afterwards overseer of a plantation. In 1790, he joined the black insurgents against the French, and, from his gigantic stature, energy, and courage, soon became a leader among them. By Toussaint Louverture, he was appointed brigadier-general, and Moyse, or Moses, his nephew. C. captured the latter, employed to suppress an insurrection headed by and on his execution, succeeded him as governor of the northern province of French St Domingo. In 1802, he gallantly defended Cape Town when General Leclerc arrived there with a French army destined for the reduction of the blacks, and effected his retreat with 3000 men, after having burned the of Toussaint, he amply revenged, and during the greater part of the town. The perfidious seizure short-lived government of Dessalines, who was slain by a military conspiracy in October 1806, C. was general-in-chief of the Haytian army. In February CHRISTO'LOGY is the doctrine of the Person 1807, he was appointed President of Hayti for life. of Christ. The word itself is to be found, once or A republic being, about the same time, organised at 80, in the divines of the 17th c. (see Dean Trench on Port-au-Prince, with Petion at its head, civil war the Study of Words), but the departinent of scientific commenced between them. On March 28, 1811, C. theology which it now represents is almost entirely was proclaimed king of Hayti, by the name of the growth of modern, and particularly of German Henri I., and solemnly crowned, June 2, 1812. In inquiry. As yet, it can hardly be said that the word 1814, he and Petion suspended hostilities, and by his C. is accredited in Great Britain, but the same power and skill, C. was enabled to counteract the differences of opinion which led to its adoption in attempts made by France to regain its authority in Germany, are beginning to manifest themselves the island. His avarice and cruelty led to an insurhere also. There are only three methods of appre-rection, which was aided by General Boyer, who had hending the doctrine of the Person of Christ. First, succeeded Petion in 1818; and the rebellion having there is the Rationalistic method. This consists in spread to Cape Town, C.'s deposition was prorepresenting the development of the Messianic idea claimed, at the head of the troops, by the Duke in Jewish history as purely natural, and conditioned of Marmalade, one of the first dignitaries in the by purely human and historical influences-in short, kingdom. Deserted by his body-guard and all as a subjective or self-originated notion, to which his nobles, he shot himself, October 8, 1820. there was no correspondent Divine Reality. Second, left a code of laws, which he called the Code there is, what, for want of a better word, we may Henri,' in imitation of the Code Napoleon. call the Spiritualistic method (that of theologians like Neander, Rothe, &c.). This consists in representing the development of the Messianic idea in Jewish history as both natural and supernatural; that is to say, it asserts the existence of a Divine Objective Reality (the Eternal Son of God') as the basis of the subjective idea in the minds of the Jews, and regards the growth of that idea, and the influence of historical circumstances, as the result of a supernatural Providence, which culminated in the revelation of the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.' Third, there is the Dogmatic >method, which is the one accepted by the common order of theologians. This consists in representing the doctrine of the Person of Christ as symbolically known to the spiritually-minded among God's people from the earliest ages. 'Abraham saw his (Christ's) day afar off.' This is interpreted to signify that, by the grace of prophetic illumination, the righteous men of old were enabled to foresee in a mysterious and inexplicable manner the atonement of Christ, as it happened in history. Admitting with the Spiritualistic theologians, that the Messianic idea among the Jews underwent, in some sense, a historical development, the dogmatic Christologists differ, in general, from the former by attributing to the higher minds such a knowledge of the work of Christ, as logically involves a knowledge of his person and character. The entire absence, however, of any personal traits of Christ in the Old Testament, such as might be expected CHRISTOPHER, HERB. See ACTEA. He CHRISTOPHER, ST, a saint of the Roman Catholic and Greek churches. He is supposed to have suffered martyrdom about the middle of the 3d century. According to vulgar legend, C., whose name was originally Adokimos (the Unrighteous), was a native of Palestine, Syria, or Lycia, and a person of prodigious bulk and strength. His height was 12 feet. So proud was he of his gigantic frame, that he would serve only the mightiest princes. Having attached himself to one, who went for the greatest of his day, C. stayed with him for a short time, but soon discovered that his master was terribly afraid of the devil, in consequence of which, C., with fearless consistency, passed into the service of he latter. One day, however, when the devil and he chanced to be walking through a wood, they came across an image of Christ. His new master exhibited such perturbation and alarm at the sight, that C. entirely lost confidence in him, and resolved to find out the Saviour, and follow him. For a long while he searched in vain, but finally he fell in with a hermit, who shewed him Christ, and baptized him. C. despised the customary penances, and in consequence, it was imposed on him to carry Christian pilgrims on his shoulders over a stream which had no bridge. One day, a little child came to the stream; C. took it on his shoulders, but soon began to sink under the weight of his burden. The chill was Christ himself, and to prove it, he commanded |