As this method, therefore, would involve the adoption of supernatural, miraculous, and anomalous agency, where natural means might be employed, the only plan left for the universal extension of the gospel and kingdom of Christ, was the appointment of some one people, nation, or church, prepared for the purpose by proper training, provided with all necessary evidence, knowledge, gifts, and graces, and under the assurance of divine guidance, efficiency, and success-as witnesses, heralds, and instructors of their fellow-men. Such a plan is in perfect accordance with the whole analogy of the natural world, and with all the laws mentioned. It recognizes the unity of the human race, their common nature, their common origin, apostasy, and ruin, their participation in the same miseries and forebodings of that judgment which is after death, the common salvation and Saviour, and the one and only way in which any man can become a partaker of this "so great salvation." This plan is adapted, therefore, to the nature of man, as well as to the principles of God's government in the natural and moral world. There is also a perfect congruity between the plan and the agent who is to carry it out. Man is an active being, and finds all his powers developed by exertion, without which he is unhealthy, unhappy, useless. Man is a social being, and can find full play for his faculties, and perfect enjoyment for his desires and affections, only in companionship and association with his fellow men. Man is endowed with the gift of language and with intelligence to learn from others, and to communicate knowledge to them, and in doing so he is aided by the marvelous power of the human voice, with its accompanying tones, looks, sympathies, and gestures. Man is a fearless, enterprising being, fond of travel and of change, capable of endurance, and nerved by danger and exploits, and can thus roam the earth in search of adventure, and inhabit every climate. Man was designed, and ought, to be a benevolent being, capable of love and pity, generosity and disinterested philanthropy. He is sensitive to calamity, touched with woe, sympahtizing with distress, and impelled to acts of charity and labours of love, by the whole power of his affections, and the commanding authority of his conscience requiring this as his duty. Happiness, therefore, according to the very constitution of man's nature, is connected with activity in doing good to others; and a man might just as reasonably expect to be happy in the solitude of a desert, or to be in health without food, as to be happy in the indulgence of a selfish inactivity. Millions have tried the experiment, but with the same result. In proportion to their capacity to do good, and their devotion of that power to selfish purposes, they have destroyed their own true felicity, like Swift, one of the most selfish as he was one of the most talented of men, and of whom Archbishop King said that "he was the most unhappy man on earth." "And surely it is a striking testimony to the divine benevolence, that God so arranged the world that every generous impulse does as much for the giver as the receiver, while a man is never so happy as while intent on the happiness of others." Man is also a spiritual being, possessed not only of bodily powers, and senses, and appetites, but of mind and heart, by which he comes into contact with other minds and hearts. He finds that as face answereth to face in a glass, so does the heart of man to man, and that independently of all other means of communication, men can enter into each other's feelings, rejoice with each other when they rejoice, and weep with each other when they weep; and that through the medium of language spoken and written, they can convey to each other their ideas, their sentiments, and their convictions. Man is further a representative being. He is a type and model of his race. In himself he has all the essential laws and principles of humanity, personal and yet homogeneous-individual and distinct, and not a link in the chain, a drop in the ocean of life, a ray in the sunshine, a pulsation of the common heart. Everything common to man is his, and nothing strange. Bearing the stamp of the same original and the same degradation, he can therefore stand up among his fellow-men, and from the admitted principles of a common experience, tell them of their sins and sorrows, and need of salvation, by unfolding to them his own. To all this we would add, that man is a religious being, capable of knowing, loving, serving, and finding his supreme and only satisfying happiness in, God. As such, man cannot but admit that his relations to God are his highest, his obligations to God unspeakable, his duty to God paramount. He must feel that as God is the common Father of all men, all men are brethren, and that as it is his first and great commanded duty to love God with all his heart, and soul, and strength, and mind, so is it his second great duty to "love his neighbor as himself," to love the soul of his neighbour even as he loves and values his own soul, that is, as infinitely more important than anything that is merely temporal, and, by the communication of spiritual knowledge, to impart to the souls of his fellow-men, even as he would desire and feel it right, and kind, and merciful in others, to communicate to him, that spiritual good on which depends everlasting life. *See Note A. "He who needeth love, to love hath right; The common stock and heritage of all." SELF-DENIAL, AND LIVING FOR OTHERS, A UNIVERSAL LAW AMONG ALL HOLY BEINGS, AND RESTORED BY REDEMPTION. It has thus been shown that man is so constituted as to be not only adapted to the work of extending the kingdom of Christ, but to be capable of the full development of his nature and the full measure of his happiness, except in active exertion and self-denying charity, and prayer, and interest in this glorious end and aim of life. It was, therefore, necessary for the happiness and the moral elevation of man, that the fulfilment of this great purpose of God should be entrusted to his agency as a "steward of the manifold mercies of God," that in doing good to others he might himself be blessed, and find by experience that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." Man's chief end was that he might glorify and enjoy God. To enjoy God, however, he must glorify him. His will must be conformed to God's will, his life to God's law, his aim to God's purpose, and his whole heart to God's service. This was the spirit of Christ as our incarnate exemplar, and filled his heart. with joy, so that he counted it even as his meat and drink to do the will of God. This is the spirit of angels, and makes angels what they are-holy and happy. This is the spirit of heaven, and fills heaven with satisfying blessedness. This, too, was the spirit of primeval man, while as yet he was unacquainted with grief, and untainted with sin. Indeed, this spirit animates all the works of God. "For others and not for myself," is the life of all that lives, the growth of all that grows, the existence of all that exists. It is the utterance alike of animate and inanimate nature. In the light that enlivens us, the air that sustains us, the water that purifies us, the earth that nourishes us-in the deep mines that warm, and enrich, and garnish our persons and our habitations -in all the beauty, the grandeur, and the sublimity of naturein every flower that blooms and sheds its fragrance-in every tree that spreads its branches so as to delight the eye, and ripens its fruits so as to gratify the taste-in every shower that waters the earth, and every dew-drop that glistens in the morning ray—everywhere, and in everything, we find written, “not for myself but for others." Most surely, then, will this be true of man who was made in God's image, but a little lower than the angels, God's exemplar, representative, and almoner upon earth. "No man liveth unto himself" is the law impressed upon his nature, the condition of his being, the prerequisite of his well-being, the inflexible rule and measure of his worth, and the inexorable awarder of his proportionate recompense in present enjoyment and ever-abiding happiness. A man, therefore, who lives to himself, is an anomaly in the universe. He is the only being and the only thing, in all the creation of God, that so exists. He is a moral monster, ugly, misshapen, deformed, without natural affection, an abomination in the sight of God and of all holy beings-"earthly, sensual, devilish." Yes, selfishness is the law of Satan, not of God; of human corruption, not of human nature; of man fallen, not of man upright. It is sin, and guilt, and misery. It is the black and damning proof of man's rebellion against God, and subjection to the Evil One. It undermines man's nature, God's law, earth's happiness, heaven's holiness, the very throne and majesty of God. It has driven out legions of apostate angels from heaven, peopled earth with criminals, and hordes of beings more reckless and ruthless than the beasts of the forest; prepared hell for the devil, his angels, and ungodly men; and filled every breeze that blows with the sounds of weeping, and wailing, and bitter lamentations. In the plan of redemption we may be very sure, therefore, that as it is designed to remedy man's great calamity, renovate his corrupt nautre, and reinstate him in holiness and happiness in the service, glory, and enjoyment of God-man will become the instrument, in God's hand-made effective by God's working in him and with him-of proclaiming peace and good-will to men, the dominion of love, the reign of charity, and the universal brotherhood of the human family. Man will himself be made, by the power of God through the gospel of his Son, the pattern of renovated and redeemed humanity. Exorcised from the spirit of selfishness, and possessed of the spirit of love-love to God, love to Christ, and love to the souls of men, he is "compelled" to go forth among his fellows, proclaim to them "the unsearchable riches of Christ," tell them what God has done for his own soul, and as "the Spirit and the bride say, Come," to say "whosoever will may come, and take of the water of life freely." Man's individual good is thus promoted while securing the good of others. "Self-denial is made the cure of selfishness." Living for others invigorates and establishes the true life of man, and serving Christ, following him, enduring the cross, and counting all things but loss for the honour of his name and the advancement of his kingdom, fills the heart with peace and joy, and enables it to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. "This holy work, this heavenly task, THIS PRINCIPLE OF LOVE, AND LIVING FOR OTHERS, ILLUSTRIOUSLY EXEMPLIFIED IN GOD, AND IN CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR. Such, assuredly, is the nature and design of the gospel in its operation upon the heart of every individual believer of it. Salvation is so imparted as to create in every recipient the desire to impart salvation to others, and a spirit of self-denying charity, liberality, and effort to extend the gospel and the kingdom of Christ, according to his ability, to every creature. "The blessed God," whose "glorious gospel" it is, liveth not for himself. He is the parent of all good, "the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift." Ages before the creation of man he established the foundations of his future habitation, laid up in store-houses, all ready and prepared for his use, everything that was necessary for his future comfort, and beautified and adorned it with all that is rich, varied, and delightful to the most refined taste. And when man had plunged himself into the abyss of misery, God, who, had hitherto worked for his temporal comfort, "so loved him as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God has thus made himself known in the gospel as LOVE, that we may learn that love is the spirit by which he "brings us back unto God;" that "love is the fulfilling of the law;" that in loving him we will love also our fellow-men; and that if we are not actuated by a spirit of charity and benevolent exertion for them, the love of God cannot dwell in our hearts. Christ as the author and finisher of our faith, the subject and the spirit of the gospel, its altar-sacrifice and priest, its foundation, superstructure, and security, its life and power-Christ liveth not for himself. "He loved us and gave himself for us." He gave up the glory "which he had with the Father from before the foundation of the world," that he might come down to earth to "seek and to save those who were lost." He entered into our nature, assumed our earthly relations, trials and toils, endured our griefs and carried our sorrows, and was in all points tempted even as we are, that in this body of flesh, in this earthly life, and in this world of duty and of danger, he might set us an example, and induce us to walk in his steps. In a representative world, under a system of universal representation, in a nature eminently and in every way representative and represented, he became THE REPRESENTATIVE of humanity, "the second Adam," that "as in Adam all died, so in Christ |