The ascending grade of the ages is obvious, each having better secular and spiritual facilities than its predecessors. And--strange infatuation --each has been jealous of the next to come, insisting that it had exhausted infinite mercy, grace and skill. What a lift forward the brief visit of Messiah gave the world. Though so humble, what fertility and power of growth in his gospel, infusing inconceivable vigor in every field of human enterprise and all under hostile gentile authority. What may be expected in the next age, when government shall co-operate with grace? The cross and the crown; Jesus condemned as a felon, mocked, spit upon, and crucified, then crowned and adored King of all the earth, suggest the contrast.--Selected.

====================