age, and every variety of form; he beheld the enmity o the carnal mind, true to its character, daily enacting afresh the ignominious scenes of Calvary down to the close of time. Yet, with all this infinite guilt lying distinctly like a map before him, he commended and sent his love to every creature. He remembered only that we were perishing, and felt only that he could save. He found himself in possession of the gift of eternal life, and he sent it in messages of grace over all the earth. By connecting this embassy with an act of special benediction on those whom he honored to fulfil it he significantly taught them that he set them apart to a work of blessing: that they were to go from under his uplifted hands to bless mankind as he had blessed them: to issue forth from under the canopy of his blessing, propagating and diffusing that blessing to the ends of the earth. And as they were the only agents he employed, he thus intentionally taught us that henceforth he devoted himself to the office of saving us; that he engaged no agency, owned no agency whatever, but for this purpose; that henceforth his only communication with man would be in streams of unmingled mercy, the ocean of his grace pouring its fulness into our emptiness; that while he needed no destructive agency whatever, he should require all the benevolent agency of heaven and earth to be put into motion, in order to do justice to the purposes of his love. Having died for the redemption of the world, he felt that he had made the world his own; and, embracing all its dearest interests, he pressed them to his heart.

But fascinating and enchaining as this subject is, we must now hasten to a close. Casting our eye back on the ground we have passed over, what a miracle of moral portraiture do we behold in the evangelical history of Christ! What transcendent wisdom! What divine

benevolence! What perfection! The character of Jesus stands alone; it has no archetype in history; no analogy in nature; no model in all the worlds of imagination; as pourtrayed in scripture, it could only have been drawn from a contemplation of the living reality. It was the conception of an infinite mind. It was the triumph of mercy aiming to condense in the same being the evidences of divinity, adequate illustrations of divine love and the power of winning the souls of men to salvation, and transforming them to holiness.

The character of Christ forms a distinct proof an invincible demonstration for the truth of the gospel. When we remember that it received a tribute of homage from fallen spirits, we shall the less wonder that it has extorted expressions of reverence from some of the worst specimens of fallen humanity. Men, who have sported with the sanctity of every thing else that religion owns, have passed by the character of Christ in respectful silence; this was conscience, recognizing in his perfection a likeness which it felt it ought to be familiar with and adore; such is the awful power of goodness on natures preconfigured to its image. Some have been entirely restrained from violating the sanctuary of truth, by the same guardian influence the character of Christ, like the presence of a shrine, protected it. As the house of Obed-edom was blessed for the sake of the residing ark, so religion has often escaped evil, and received homage from its foes, for the sake of the character of Christ. Men who have destroyed, in intention, every other part of the temple of truth, have paused when they came to this; have turned aside and desisted for a while from the work of demolition, to gaze and bow before it; have not merely left it standing as a column too majestic, or an altar too holy, for human saorilege to assail, but (it was the only redeeming act in their

history,) have even inscribed their names on its base, and have been heard to burst forth in admiring exclamations approaching to love.

The peculiar excellencies of the character of Christ, as an argument for the gospel, are that it tends to attract and invite inspection; for it is the perfection of moral beauty: it is level to the apprehension of all; for it makes a direct appeal to some of the first principles of our nature, to our natural perceptions of goodness, and our instinctive approval of it; and it not only convinces, but transforms; engaging and carrying with it at once the understanding and the heart. While some, who were in the last stages of depravity, have been allured by it to the pursuit of excellence: others, who have been sitting in despondency at the gates of perdition, have beheld it, and conceived hope. And though the best specimens of our race have, in every age since his appearance, been laboring to imitate, they have not been able to equal it. The character of Jesus challenges the affections of all intelligent beings, leaves the impression of its image on every object it touches, and is destined to collect around itself all the sanctified passions of the universe.

But, besides being an evidence for christianity, the character of our Lord is to be regarded as an example. '1 have given you an example,' said he, 'that ye should do as I have done unto you. Learn of me. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.' Thus he seeks to augment the value of his own character, regarded as an argument for the gospel, by multiplying the copies of his excellence in the lives of all his people: he would render each of his disciples like himself-a living demonstration for the truth. All the wealth of moral power which the wise and the good have ever possessed, is

summed up in him, and infinitely augmented, and brought to bear on the hearts of his people; that, by living as under the focus of all excellence, they might be transformed into the same image. Having turned all his infinite nature into grace, having dissolved into a fountain of healing mercy for the recovery of the world, he would now employ the hearts of his people as consecrated channels for the diffusion of its streams; he would have their natures, like his own, changed into tenderness and love. It is true, his example can never be equalled, for it embodies infinite goodness; but with so much the greater force does it oblige us, in our humble measure, to attempt the imitation. Having adopted our humanity, when it was only related to him, like other natures, by creation, he is surely entitled to expect that we should love our own flesh, that we should seek the welfare of the nature which is essentially our own, by diffusing the greatest possible happiness among those connatural with us. Having died for the good of man, the least he is authorized to expect is, that we should live for the same benevolent object. What do we behold in his history, but a whole life of humility, one continued act of condescension, a vast and unbroken descent from the heights of heaven to the form of a servant, the life of an outcast, the death of a malefactor? The least use then we can make of his example--we who have it not in our power, as sinners, to practice great condescension, since we are all on a level in the dust already-is to assist each other to arise, aiding the infirmities of the weak, and breathing a spirit of sympathetic tenderness for all. As far as religion is practical and relative to others, he has made benevolence its life and essence; not merely a part of the christian character, but the character itself.

And how eminently is the tender compassion of Christ calculated to encourage all to repair to him. When the

more prominent parts of his history are made to pass before our eyes, if we are not destitute of all sensibility, how softening and hallowing the effect they produce on the mind! How impossible is it for the most timid spirit to picture the serenity of that brow which no evil passions ever disturbed, to mark the benevolence which beamed from his eye, and to listen to the tones of that voice which soothed and cheered the most fearful and sorrowful, without feeling itself drawn gradually nearer and closer to his side. Wherever his grace is scripturally displayed, it secures the attention of the most thoughtless, it melts the hardest and subdues the proudest heart, and inspires the most fearful with hope. The apostle declares, that had the princes of this world known him, they would not have crucified him; had they known the principle of love which brought him from heaven, they would have been disarmed of their enmity against him, and instead of condemning him, they would have paid him homage as the prince of the kings of the earth. Had those who were most eager to hasten his crucifixion, and most delighted with his death, caught but a glipse of the love which dictated every action of his life, their cruel malignity must have yielded and given place to unfeigned penitence and love.

The character of Christ is the character of his dispensation; it is the dispensation of the still small voice; and the secret of its power is love. His ministers, therefore, are to win souls, to persuade men, to beseech them, to mingle their instructions with tears; and the more deeply they are imbued with the mind of Christ, the more tender will be their address, the more affectionate their message. They have only to consult their own experience to learn that the public exhibition of Christ, as the Saviour of sinners, constitutes the most welcome and profitable topic on which they can enlarge; that, whatever their subject may