ness

of an ass." "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in, behold He shall come saith the Lord of Hosts." While these holy men were searching "what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow," the Baptist arose, and, as with the blast of a trumpet, exclaimed, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. "I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." The twilight, which had been softening into brightness through succeeding ages, now disappeared, as the "Sun of Righteousrose upon the nations "with healing in His beams." Serene, thoughtful, majestic, the great Messiah opened His grand commission; "Before Abraham was, I am." "No man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in heaven." "I am the light of the world, whoso followeth me shall not walk in darkness." "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead; I am the living bread which came down from heaven, if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever." "On the last great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink." As He advances on His way, breathing a gentle spirit scattering the seeds of immortal truth, and dropping from His lips beautiful and imperishable precepts, disease and death obey His rebuke, the Prince of Darkness flies before Him, while from the portals of the skies a voice is heard, “This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him." Filled with the spirit of His mission, animated by the joy which was set before Him, and strengthening himself by communion with his divine Father, He prosecuted amidst obloquy and scorn His solitary but invincible way, until it was time to accomplish that decease which formed the theme of high discourse on the brilliant mount. Fully apprehending the solemnity of the hour, "He is sore amazed," and breaks out in a touching and pensive soliloquy," What shall I say ? Father save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." "The cup that my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?" In this temper, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God expires, in outward ignominy and inward agony, amidst opening graves and rending veils and shrouded skies, the derision of adversaries, and the tears of friends! But this Great Sufferer, who was the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person, magnified the law and fulfilled it for us as our gracious substitute, and " now the righteousness of God, without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe;" and in His awful death He endured its penalty, He bore the sins of His people in His own body on the tree, putting them away by the sacrifice of himself, that He who can by no means clear the guilty, might be "just, and the justifier of Him that believes." This vicarious element appears to me, my brethren, to be essential to the Christian sacrifice;—the historic, the personal, and the preceptive, are tributary

and secondary, as the scaffold is to the building, or language to the conveyance of thought; but the expiatory nature of our Saviour's death is the central truth of our religion,-its grand distinguishing characteristic,-its very soul and substance, towards it all the types of the ceremonial law and all the rays of prophecy, converge;-through it our knowledge of Elohim, of the mode of the Divine subsistence as Father, Son, and Spirit chiefly comes;-in it is wrapped the probable solution, by and by, of that great enigma, the permission of moral evil;-on it and its accompaniments all the moral perfections of Jehovah are inscribed:-into it the angels intently look;-on it the hopes of the world depend ;-from it, love, ineffable love and grace, stream forth as from an eternal fount. "Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Well might the Apostle talk of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God."

The triumph of the enemies of Jesus of Nazareth was short, and the sadness of His friends was soon exchanged for joy. Laid in the grave by reverent and affectionate hands, and surrounded by angelic guards, to whom the Roman sentinels were but as statues of clay, He found a temporary repose, then left the tomb, bearing in His hands the keys of death and of hell. Sojourning among men for a season for the confirmation of their faith, He led His disciples out as far as to Bethany and having given the memorable commission, "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world"---ascended to His Father and our Father to His God and our God. It would be pre

sumptuous to attempt to depict a theme on which it seems almost irreverent even to muse-the impression produced by the first appearance of Immanuel among the armies of Heaven. When we reflect on the advantageous position which these favoured beings occupy, living, as we are taught to believe they do, in the immediate presence of God; when we think on their, to us, dateless origin; the succession of ages through which they have passed, without consciousness of succession at all; their wonderful capabilities of thought, their vast and rich experience, the services in which they have engaged, and the scenes, both dark and bright, which have passed within the vast horizon of their vision-we can form no adequate idea of their intelligence. That they have not been strangers to the history of our race, we know from the testimony of unerring truth; that they were no uninterested spectators of the scenes of Judea, the inspired narrative assures us; they were not therefore unprepared for the august spectacle which awaited them. How often they had attended the Great Messenger of the Covenant on His anterior missions: what was the kind of subjection they were under to Him during their earlier visitations: how far the form assumed in compassion to human frailties in the appearances to holy men of old, resembled that which He permanently took when "he was made flesh and dwelt among us"-are questions we cannot solve;

but such reflections favour the conviction, that, when the Saviour of the world was enthroned in heaven, its bright inhabitants were not taken by surprise. Still, it must have been an epoch in their history of surpassing interest; have filled their capacious minds with high discourse; have attuned their quick and sensitive natures to loftier emotions and opened out before them new prospects of benevolent enterprise and ennobling ends. Oh, what prompt obedience would they give, as the Lord of Glory appeared among them, to the high command "Let all the angels of God worship Him;" what solemn silence would pervade their ranks, while from the ineffable and inaccessible presence a voice is heard-"Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thy foes thy footstool." Then, my brethren, with a joy all His own, a joy which partook of elements both human and divine, our blessed Redeemer put on His kingly robes, ascended His mediatorial throne, took the golden censer in His hand, and waving it in the heavenly places, once more cried, "Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory."

The widely diffused interest awakened by this event, centred supremely in the Father of spirits. His merciful counsels towards a rebellious part of His dominions being virtually accomplished He rested with infinite complacency in His Son, and seeing His own image reflected with unprecedented lustre from His finished work, committed all judgment to His hands. The whole scheme of Providence was recast; the wonted media through which His intercourse with mankind had been carried on, were suspended; heavenly messengers in human guise prepared to leave the long-frequented scene-miracles were no more to interpose and hold in temporary abeyance ordinary results-dreams and visions were no longer to be vouchsafed, either to perplex the conscience, or to supplement the reason-the charter of human freedom was enlarged, and secondary laws left to their free and unrestricted sway, the lamp of inspiration shed its last and most precious rays on a chosen band-inspired apostles were commissioned to draw from evangelical facts their innate treasures, to spread them out into great saving doctrines and to elicit from both, a code of precepts which will be the light and admiration of the nations to the end of time. But, above all, the Saviour being glorified, the time for the advent of the Holy Spirit had come and now, the third person in the adorable Trinity, one with the Father and the Son, descends in the plenitude of His wealth, and in the plastic and gentle influence of His grace, making the people willing in the day of His power, and constructing a living temple from the ruins of the fall. "Nevertheless, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." "And when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself." "He shall glorify me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you." The divine honour, which had been so variedly and condescendingly pledged on the Old Testament page, became in abounding compassion more deeply committed to the New Testament Church. Though the outward symbols of the Divine presence were to be withdrawn, that presence would descend in diviner ways; and though

pompous ceremonies, appealing to sense rather than to thought, were to case, a worship more in accordance with the claims of God and the dignity of man was to supervene. The outer court, the mysterious veil, the holy place, the shadows of good things to come, had passed away, and the great Christian propitiatory took their place, that through it both Jew and Gentile might "have access by one spirit unto the Father." The principles and doctrines of the new and holier faith had received an impetus, which, through all their varying fortune they would never lose. Exceeding great and precious promises, accompanied with assurances and oaths, attend the new dispensation; indeed, inspiration seemed to exhaust itself in the effort to convince the Church of the unchangeableness of the covenant it enjoyed. "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.'

But while the blessed God is prepared to sustain, so is He to defend the economy of His grace. A structure of truth so stately, so costly, and so pre-eminently divine, not only deserves, but demands the homage of men. The solidity of its base, laid with such exemplary deliberation and care; the gradual development of its beautiful proportions; the growing indications, as it proceeded, of more than finite wisdom; the evidence which gathered about it and which rests upon it, with the purity, the chasteness, the moral grandeur of the whole, leaves unbelief without excuse, and stamps the reviler with disgrace. It must be protected, then, from innovating footsteps and from traitorous hands. The invitations which proceed from it must not be met with levity or resentment, its privileges and immunities, must not, without rebuke, be postponed to the baubles of time, nor must the hallowed name so indelibly written upon it be sullied or defaced. Hence the sanctities which surround it, as essential as they are terrible, as merciful as they are judicial. Hence the unrelenting calamities which overtook the nations which would have prevented its rudimental existence, the burdens of the prophets and their crushing weight, and the overthrow of the once favoured nation. Hence the unfaltering denunciations of Him who was meek and lowly in heart;" hence "the wrath of the Lamb," "the worm that dieth not, and the fire which is not quenched." "If he who despised Moses' law died without mercy, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." A system, in conformity with which the blessed God moulds His Divine administration, with which He so emphatically identifies His honour, and with which are associated such unspeakably momentous issues, must in His own esteem be precious, and may well lay claim to the inspired enconium of the text.

While the gospel of Christ stands alone, self-contained, borrowing nothing from the philosophies of men, there is one feature in which it bears a resemblance to them, but resembles only to excel. It appeals, as they profess to do, to the intellect of man. Those who look at it through the medium of sentiment, emotion, or fear, indicate an incorrect and erroneous impression of it; for whatever relation it

may

bear to either or to all of these phases of our being, it does especial honour to the judgment; for of what possible permanent value can emotions be, in regard to this great theme, that are not the result of apprehension and of perception? The mental action, however, which it invites and awakens, is not curious, scientific or demonstrative, such as wearies and exhausts, while it may reward, the faculties,but is meditative, contemplative, regaling. It is not, happily, a voyage of discovery, which might conduct us amidst shoals, and icebergs, and maelstroms, to which we are summoned, but a journey of thoughtful observation, leading us to scenes of light and beauty, to peaceful recesses and to matchless views; inviting us indeed to rest in green pastures and beside still waters. Yet it is not a land of dreams, of aerial fancies and fading phantoms, but of solid and substantial realities, of vast and sweeping landscapes, of lofty and receding summits, clothed with heavenly verdure and glowing with roseate hues:-"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." The niceties of theological discussions, and the subtleties of the schools, are unavoidable accidents attendant on a system which challenges enquiry while it exacts belief; but the solution of the difficulties to which they give rise leaves the intrinsic charms of Christianity untouched;rubbish will collect in the purlieus of the stately palace as well as in the vicinity of the lowly cottage and the inmates of either are under lasting obligations to those who will analyze it and cart it away. All honour to those who by their learning, their acumen, and their pugilistic skill, have from time to time contended with the enemy in the gate. But the polemical and casuistic spirit is far from favourable to healthy Christian thought; while the habit of indulging it cramps and contracts mental freedom and play. The reason why men fail to realize the bearing of revealed truth on the intellectual part of our nature, is their want of sympathy with its spirit. The mind of an unregenerate man, however otherwise clear and strong, is shrouded in mists which are exhaled from the pride of reason and the corruptions of the heart. Till these be corrected, and the pestilential vapour be dispelled, the glorious gospel of Christ cannot shine upon it. And this is the rationale of the order which the gospel takes in its approaches to us. It is primarily remedial, seeks access to the conscience and the heart ;-does not obtrude, so to say, its mental stores, but commends its healing virtue; so that, a harmony being established between itself and the cherished preference of the breast, it might obtain legitimate access to the mind and set up its throne there. A heart much under the influence of true religion, quickens the intellect and induces it to expatiate amidst divine themes; while the thoughts returning from their sacred flight, provide for the affections a renewed repast. Put the soul in unison with the spirit and intentions of the gospel of Christ, and it will stretch its sinewy and buoyant pinions, and will now alight on its sun-lit peaks, and then nestle in its cool and shady glens. How boundless, my brethren, is the theme of redeeming love; how inexhaustibly rich the sacred parts of its harmonious whole; how bold and grand its central and specific truths; how unspeakably enchanting its incidental and collateral scenes! What avenues of thought, what enrapturing vistas opening out to a distance, through which a sanctified imagina