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DEALINGS WITH THE DEAD.

this thought was, I looked upon the paper, and was surprised by observing a very curious phenomenon. The words written upon the paper were: "The ancients were far behind the moderns in general intelligence, but far, very far beyond them in isolated instances of mental power. Probably the simplicity of the lives of devout men of yore had a powerful influence in bringing out the concealed treasures, and in developing the extraordinary conceptive power which not a few of them undoubtedly possessed. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job and the great Cathayan have never been equaled, in their several specialties, by men of later times; it is extremely doubtful if they ever will be. Really great men are few and scarce in any age, but popular men are plentiful in all eras. It is only the sad-hearted man,—he who stands and walks alone in the crowded cities of the world, shunned, laughed at, derided, scorned and unsupported,—who succeeds in engraving a name upon the walls of Time; and of all that ever lived, Jesus, the Nazarene, looms up in such magnificent proportions, over the edges of the dead years, that we instinctively know that he was a real personage,—one who lived and loved, suffered and died with, for, and among men; and we reject the absurdities of Strauss and the Cavilers, and triumphantly proclaim that Jesus was not a myth. He sought to do good, and not to merit the plaudits of the mob, or of those who rule. A popular man is one who keeps just within the front ranks of the human army, leading it whither its fancy and whim may at the moment prompt; but a great man is one who volunteers to become the pioneer of the race, and is, at the same time, the Herald of the coming age of Goodness. He feels the pulse of God in his heart—