ifying his own description of them that 'they are spirit, and they are life.'

His original hearers, be it remembered, enjoyed this advantage; whether or not they availed themselves of it is a distinct consideration; they often enjoyed the privilege of beholding his miracles of mercy: and, instantly on the same spot, they listened to the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; while yet they were under the arrest of some new display of majesty, his doctrine dropped as the rain, his speech distilled as the dew. It will not be irrelevant then, if, to place ourselves as nearly as possible in their position, we briefly advert to the excellencies of our Lord's character; especially to those which relate to the particular qualities of his teaching, now under consideration. We shall then point out some of his corresponding characteristics as a teacher; and, finally, present examples from his teaching illustrative of his tenderness, benignity and compassion.

I. In attempting to pourtray the moral perfection of Christ, we feel that we are contemplating one who is fairer than the children of men; standing in the presence of Him who is altogether lovely. O for the pen of that disciple whom Jesus loved; who selected his Lord's humility and love as things most congenial with his own taste; and leant on his sacred bosom till he became imbued with the heavenly love which dwelt there! O for the aid of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, to unveil his excellencies to our view; that, while we are beholding, we may be changed into the same image; may have our taste purified and exalted into sympathy with his transcendant character! Of the early history of Christ, indeed, we have but two or three slight incidental notices; but who can read even these notices, slender as they are, in the light of his after

If

life, without finding in them a warrant for the imagination to indulge itself with a picture of his early perfection. his youth and his early manhood corresponded with his subsequent life, how cloudless and blessed must have been the morning of such a day, and how happy they who stood in its light. Unlike the virtues of ordinary humanity, which are grafted, and stunted, and hardly preserved with incessant care; his nature contained in itself the seeds of all worth, and every seed became a fruit; every hour be held him put forth some additional bud of promise. Like the earth when first it was sown by the hand of God, and held in its bosom the germs of a universal paradise, his nature brought with it a. the elements of excellence. Goodness rejoiced in it as in its native soil. His life was as the garden of the Lord; for there grew in it every thing pleasant to the sight and good for food: obedience, which ran at the first call of duty; prudence rendering the present subservient to the future; sensibility, responding to the softest tones of nature, and the clear transparency of truth and native courtesy and love, that clasped every thing lovely to its soul, and became one with it. What wonder was it that, thus adorned and distinguished, he should have 'increased in favor with God and man,' have become the favorite of heaven and earth. Had the first probation been to be made again, one individual tried as the representative of all the race, and heaven proposed as the prize of success, who would not have thought of him? all eyes would have involuntarily turned to him, all hearts would have confided the great probation to his hands, and have looked on heaven as secure.

Emerging, at length, from the obscurity of his early life, 'he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath-day, and stood up for to read. And there was de

livered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And, when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.' Such, then, in his own estimation was the nature of his divine commission; and he fulfilled it. His whole life was a comment on this text.

If our subject permitted, we should love to linger on the purity of his character; for this, though by no means the most attractive feature to a sinful race, is one of the most remarkable. And here be it observed, he sought not to preserve his holiness unspotted, by avoiding contact with the world; he was not indebted for his purity to the privacy of a recluse. From the moment he became a public character, his field was the world; he domesticated himself, if I may say so, and desired to be numbered as one of the human family; he sought to become the heart of the world; and in the prosecution of that object, he turned not aside from a personal encounter with the Tempter himself. From every thing which the world contained of great and good, his nature selected and drew to itself aliment and life, while it rejected all the pernicious ingredients with which the purest elements on earth are defiled.

He passed through a scene in which, at every step he took, a thousand malignant influences were waiting to dart on him, Yet he did no sin, neither was guile found in his

mouth.

He uttered not a single sentence capable of being construed into a confession of guilt, or a consciousness of defilement. He often alluded to his poverty, rejection, and sufferings; and oftener still to the subject of sin, in a variety of forms; but he breathed not a word which could be construed into an intimation that he considered himself less than a being of unsullied purity. On the contrary, he challenged his enemies (and he had but few friends) to convict him of a single sin. The prince of this world came, and found nothing in him; no single thought or feeling which responded to temptation, or disposed him for a moment to yield to it. He lived for years, and was actively employed in a world in which every condition has its peculiar temptations, so that of all the myriads who have ever inhabited it, not one has escaped the polution of sin. But, like the sunbeam, which remains uncontaminated whatever the object on which it may shine, the Saviour emerged from this region of guilt, and re-entered the portals of heaven, as pure and unspotted as when he left the bosom of the Father. It was strictly true of him to the latest moment of his continuance on earth; with perfect sincerity it might have been inscribed on his tomb; it might have been shouted with triumph as he ascended to the throne of heaven, he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.'

Besides his purity, we might specify, not merely his superiority to the age in which he lived, but the absolute contrariety of his character to all existing and surrounding influences; the universality of his plans, which distinguished and left him alone in the earth: the reconciliation and union in his character of opposite excellencies, and which formed its perfection and finish. But that which sheds a prevailing hue over the whole character of Christ, and

forms its principal feature, is unquestionably, benevolence,

It is that transcendental attribute, which ran through all the rest, adapting, baptizing, and turning the whole into grace. What but this could have induced his purity to tabernacle in the midst of sin? it was by no means an indifferent act to him; he suffered, being tempted,' suffered in proportion to the perfection of his holiness, and the depth of his aversion to sin;' but though his residence in an atmosphere of sin was revolting to his purity, though the presence of depravity made his continuance here a perpetual sacrifice, his love induced him to submit, induced him so intimately to associate with the ungodly, that one of his characteristic names became, 'the friend of publicans and sinners.'

We have said that his character was not only superior to all existing and surrounding influences, but quite distinct from them. Others are more or less affected by the circumstances in which they are brought up; however superior to external influences they may appear, they cannot escape entirely the spirit of the age; they hold communion, and enjoy sympathy, with those around them. But the character of Christ had nothing in it local, temporary, or common. It appeared in the world entire, independent, and unique. It was formed for a world which had lost the original pattern of goodness, and had sunk into a state of universal selfishness; the whole of his history therefore is a history of the sacrifice of selfish feelings; his life was calculated and constructed on the principle of a laborious endeavorer to imbue the world with the lost spirit of benevolence, to baptize it afresh in the ele1 ment of love.

The universality of his plans, which left him without any contemporaneous sympathy, must also be resolved into the same principle. He loved man as man, he came to be the light and life of the world. His benevolence could not