"God" is possessed of moral attributes, which no unconverted man understands and practically acknowledges. For He is holy, just and true.*

It is essential to salvation that God be known as "in Christ, reconciling the world unto Him"self." For when the moral perfections of God are exhibited to the mind, no hope can arise but from the appointment of a Divine Mediator. And no true knowledge of God can be derived to the soul, but in and through His incarnate Son. For His glory is only discernable as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ, who being "in the bosom of the Father reveals Him" to us. No where but under the atoning cross can any correct views of God, as holy just and good, be obtained. If the reader have never never stood where beloved John stood, and seen by faith what John saw with his corporeal organs, he is unacquainted with "the only true "God." For there only the evil of sin, the purity of the Divine nature, and the ineffable mercy of Jehovah are displayed. There the soul is laid prostrate in the dust, under a sense of its own guilt and vileness, and there the heart is captivated by the loving-kindness of the Lord.

"To know God is everlasting life." It is the foretaste of heavenly felicity, and the only and certain way which leads to it. O how seriously then should we inquire whether we know God or not; whether our knowledge be of that experimental and practical kind of which our collect speaks! whether it produce those effects, which constitute the incipient principle and evidential pledge of eternal life. These

See the Essay on the Second Collect in the Morning Service for Peace, vol. i. p. 133, &c.

questions cannot be too closely addressed to the conscience; for to be destitute of the true knowledge of God is everlasting death, since Divine vengeance will be executed on all "who' "know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thes. i. 8.)

The petition of our collect is founded on the declaration of our blessed Lord, (John xiv. 6) which occurred in a conversation with His disciples, to which we have before referred. Thereby He informed them, in answer to St. Philip's request that He would shew them the Father, that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that "No man cometh unto the Fa"ther but by Him." Guided by this information we beseech" Almighty God," that He would "grant us perfectly to know His Son "Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and "the life."

Christ is the way in which we are to walk, the truth which we are to believe, and the life which we are to receive and by which we are to be actuated. He is therefore "the alpha "and omega, the beginning and the ending" -the "ALL IN ALL," with respect to eternal salvation.

Christ is the way" in which we are to walk. A way is a road that leads from one place to another. Metaphorically, it is the mean of transition from one state to another, or of attaining some end which is proposed. It supposes a point from which it begins, or whence the traveller sets out on his journey, and a point at which it ends, or where the traveller arrives at the scope of his destination. Now if we inquire what is the point of destination implied in our Lord's figurative declaration,

considered as a place, it is heaven; or as a state, it is a state of acceptance with God, of conformity to Him, and of happiness in the enjoyment of Him. Surely the importance and value of a way to this goal cannot be disputed. Let us contemplate it, till we become so fully conscious of it as cordially to follow it. If we consider the point of departure, it is this present evil world which lies on the brink of destruction. It is a state of condemnation, pollution, and misery.

Our Lord says of Himself, "I am the way". not I am a way, as if there were other roads to heaven, and a man might choose which of them he liked best-but emphatically, "I am the "way." In the time of man's innocency indeed, before the fall, there was another way from a state of probation to a state of confirmation in holiness and happiness, even personal obedience. but when man became a sinner, this was for ever closed. God then graciously opened another, by faith in the atoning blood of His son Jesus Christ. This way was revealed to our first parents immediately after the fall, was illustrated and explained by sacrifical rites, was kept open by the preaching of successive prophets, and at length was more completely exhibited to a lost world by the gospel. Christ is a way in two respects, by the merit of His blood and by the purifying grace of His Spirit. For as the obstacles to our salvation were twofold, guilt and pollution, His mediation removes both the former by a satisfaction for sin, the latter by sanctification from it. (Comp. Eph. ii. 13, 16, 18. Heb. x. 19, 20.) Let the reader inquire whether he be walking in this way, Is he seriously concerned about reconciliation

with God, and anxious to obtain it? Is he convinced that "no man cometh unto the "Father but by Christ?" Is he seeking an interest in His blood, and the cleansing power of His grace?

Christ is moreover "the truth" in which we are to believe. Now truth, according to the meaning of the Hebrew term, is that which is worthy of dependence. Such is Christ. There is no danger of placing too much confidence in Him, for He is the Rock of ages. He is "the

truth," as all Divine truth has a relation to Him and centers in Him. In Him, as their point of concurrence, all the doctrines of Scrip

ture meet.

Christ is called "the truth" in opposition to shadows and to falsehood. The rites of the patriarchal and levitical dispensations were shadowy representations of Him who is the substance. All their value and importance arose from their relation to Him. They were of no use except as they were the means of conducting the minds of sinners to Him for salvation. But He is also "the truth" in opposition to falsehood under all its varied forms. Man, as a fallen creature, and having a greater or less degree of consciousness of being so, has foolishly employed his vain imagination from the earliest ages in contriving schemes of salvation for himself. From Cain, the first deist, to his disciples in the present day, innumerable errors have been broached on the subject of religion. The early heathens, however, were the least heterodox; for they knew the necessity of a mediator, and had recourse to vicarious means of atonement. The Greeks and Romans deviated more widely from the original creed than their predecessors.

But their modern imitators, whether Mohammedans, Hindoos, papists, or protestant selfjusticiaries, have diverged further still by setting themselves up for their own saviours. As the truth, however, is "the same yesterday, today, and for ever," error is likewise, under different modifications, essentially the same. It is a system of self-righteousness. In this its patrons have all agreed from the beginning. The true believer, while he renounces self, which, considered as a foundation for hope towards God is a lie, embraces "the truth;" for "Christ "is in him the hope of glory." The truth is therefore said to "dwell in him" and to "make "him free." (2 John ii. John viii. 32.)

Christ is also the life" which we are to receive, and by which we are to perform the functions of a living man. It is in vain that a way is set before us, and that truth is exhibited to our embrace, unless we are made alive from the dead. Now Christ, as our Creator and Preserver, is the author and supporter of corporeal life. "In Him" as God "we live, and move, "and have our being." -All life, vegetable.or animal, human or angelic, is His gift. But in a peculiar sense He is the life of the believing soul. This consists in its union with God, and both its comfort and activity proceed from free communion with Him. Christ is our life, as He is the medium of communion between us and God, by whom we are reconciled to Him, and through whom we receive all spiritual communications from Him, Christ is our life as He justifies by His blood, and quickens, sanctifies, and glorifies by the agency of His Spirit. (Comp. John xv. 5. Col. iii. 4. Col. iii. 4. John xi. 25. Gal. ii. 20.)