of salvation appears, and that the glory of the Lord shines round about us. Let it find us in the house of God,-let the voice of the angel be heard again in all our congregations, proclaiming to us the tidings of great joy which are coming to us and to all people, and when that auspicious day arrives, let the hymn of praise arise from every corner of the earth, acknowledging, in the depth of thanksgiving and prayer, "This day a Saviour is born unto us, which is Christ the Lord." DISCOURSE VI. ON THE LOVE OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN THE MISSION OF CHRIST.* JOHN iii. 16.-For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ASSEMBLED, my brethren, as we now are, to commemorate the birth of our Saviour, we naturally recall, in thankfulness, the great purposes of his coming into the world, and that love of God which was the source of so precious a gift. It is a theme which ought to inspire us with the highest joy and gratitude, and it would invariably do so, did not the deadness and disorders of our hearts too often render us insensible to it. We are too constantly * Preached on Christmas Day. wedded to the world, satisfied with a little present ease or enjoyment, or having all our hopes awakened in pursuit of some transient object, while our affections are not raised to the attainment of a secure and permanent happiness, nor are kindled by the contemplation of those demonstrations of divine goodness and of love, which in these hours, more especially, so auspiciously encircle us. The world in which we live, and which too often possesses that degree of fascination over us as to prevent our affections from taking a higher flight, is in many important particulars, alas! at enmity with God; his laws are not those of which it is regularly observant, -of his providence it is forgetful,-it has its own rewards and prizes, and feels no deep interest in his promises. Yet, amidst all this carelessness and indifference on the part of the world, the apostle, in the text, represents its great Creator as any thing rather than indifferent. He tells us, in the first place, that "God loved the world," that whatever might be its deadness, its ingratitude, its criminality, the Maker would not yet abandon his workmanship, the Creator his creatures, the Father his children,—and not only by his constant providence did he support them in being, by the many beauties and bounties of nature call them to feeling and thankfulness,-but even amidst all their wanderings, and too often wilful debasement, did he still, in the fulness of time, come forth to visit them with more express overtures of reconciliation, and with the revelation of glories that were never to fade away. The world is still, indeed, but too inattentive to all this display of more than paternal, of divine love; but let not us, my brethren, though we are in the world, in this respect be of it,-let us not forget what the meditations of these hours have brought us, the song of "peace on earth and of good-will to men," no less than of "glory to God in the highest," which hovers over the cradle of the infant Saviour, and that blood of reconcilement which meets us at this altar, as the earnest of our deliverance from bondage, and of the beginning of our progress into the promised land. It is, in truth, a subject of deep thankfulness for creatures such as we are, and the inhabitants of such a world as ours, to be assured that they are the objects of the love of their God, and whatever may be the opposing circumstances or the appearances that may suggest any different conclusion, still to be fully persuaded that "God loved the world." But this sentiment must be infinitely increased, when, in the second place, we consider with the apostle, that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." This is distinctly the highest evidence of love which could possibly be given, and the one of all others the most beneficently and wisely adapted to the situation and character of mankind. We are sometimes, it may be, apt, in a careless or presumptuous habit of thought, to ask, Might not the world have been freed much more expeditiously and thoroughly from all evil either bodily or spiritual,―might not sin have been banished, and suffering and death removed by the mere will of the Creator, without any slow process of intervention and mediation? But all such ignorant conclusions are made from inattention to the character of our nature. Man cannot be happy till he become good, and goodness, according to the moral and intellectual constitution of the human mind, is not a thing to be produced in it by a direct act of power, but only by the influence of persuasion and by motives of reason. It is to such an |