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CHAPTER XXV.
PRESENT GOSPELS.
All countries have had their inspired chieftains, all dispensations
their prophets, and all recurring cycles their apostles.
Many evangelists besides those of the New Testament have
written gospels, — good messages of peace, love, and " good
will to men."
It is perfectly natural that R^nan, while traveling in
Palestine,
should exclaim, " I have before my eyes a fifth Gospel,
mutilated, but still legible."
Though the Ganges is sacred to the Hindoo, the Nile to
the Egyptian, and the Jordan to the Christian, the liberal
and the more inteUigent of this century, rising above the
special into the beautiful border-lands of the universal, see
in every flowing stream a Jordan, in every sunny vale a
Kedron, in every day a sabbath day, in every soul a temple
for prayer, in every tomb a forthcoming Savior, in
every healthy country a Mount of Transfiguration, and
in every heart an altar of religious devotion, where the
incense of aspiration is, ov should be, kept continually burning.
WHY JESUS WAS BAPTIZED IN THE JORDAN.
All the Oriental religions had their regenerating rites.
Egyptians were Avashed from then- iniquities in the Nile.
Upon sarcophagi and liieroglyphical scrolls Osiris is represented
pouring water upon cawdidates in a kneeling position.
The Avesta ceremonials of the Persians abound in directions
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