He has corrected, the many warnings, the many lessons, the much light, the abounding comfort which He has from time to time given. Let us dwell upon times and seasons, times of trouble, times of joy, times of trial, times of refreshment. How did He cherish us as children! How did He guide us in that dangerous time when the mind began to think for itself, and the heart to open to the world! How did He with His sweet discipline restrain our passions, mortify our hopes, calm our fears, enliven our heavinesses, sweeten our desolateness, and strengthen our infirmities! How did He gently guide us towards the strait gate; how did He allure us along His everlasting way, in spite of its strictness, in spite of its loneliness, in spite of the dim twilight in which it lay! He has been all things to us. He has been, as He was to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our God, our shield, and great reward, promising and performing, day by day. "Hitherto hath He helped us." "He hath been mindful of us, and He will bless us." He has not made us for nought; He has brought us thus far, in order to bring us further, in order to bring us on to the end. "He will never leave us nor forsake us; so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." We may "cast all our care upon Him, who careth for us." What is it to us how our future path lies, if it be but His path? What is it to us whither it leads us, so that in the end it leads to Him? What is it to us what VOL. V.

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He puts upon us, so that He enables us to undergo it with a pure conscience, a true heart, not desiring any thing of this world in comparison of Him? What is it to us what terror befals us, if He be but at hand to protect and strengthen us? "Thou, Israel," He says, "art My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend." "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." "Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour'."

1 Is. xli. 8. 14; xliii. 1-3.

SERMON VII.

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS.

HEBREWS ii. 11.

"Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren."

OUR Saviour's birth in the flesh is an earnest, and, as it were, beginning of our birth in the Spirit. It is a figure, promise, or pledge of our new birth, and it effects what it promises. As He was born, so are we born also; and since He was born, therefore we too are born. As He is the Son of God by nature, so are we sons of God by grace; and it is He who has made us such. This is what the text says, He is the "Sanctifier," we the "sanctified." Moreover, He and we, says the text, "are all of one." God sanctifies the Angels, but there the Creator and the creature are not of one. But the Son of God and we are of one; He has become "the

firstborn of every creature;" He has taken our nature, and in and through it He sanctifies us. He is our brother by virtue of His incarnation, and, as the text says, "He is not ashamed to call us brethren;" and, having sanctified our nature in Himself, He communicates it to us.

This is the wonderful economy of grace, or mystery of godliness, which should be before our minds at all times, but especially at this season', when the Most Holy took upon Him our flesh of "a pure Virgin," "by the operation of the Holy Ghost, without spot of sin, to make us clean from all sin." God" dwelleth in the Light which no man can approach unto;" He "is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all." "His garment," as described in the Prophet's Vision, is "white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool; His throne the fiery flame, and His wheels burning fire." And in like manner the Son of God, because He is the Son, is Light also. He is "the True Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." On His transfiguration "His face did shine as the sun," and "His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow," "white and glistering." And when He appeared to St. John, "His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burnt in a furnace; and

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His countenance was as the sun shineth in His strength 1." Such was our Lord's holiness because He was the Son of God from eternity. There was always the Father, always the Son; always the Father, therefore always the Son, for the Name of Father implies the Son, and never was there a time when the Father Almighty was not, and in the Father the Son also. He it is who is spoken of in the beginning of St. John's Gospel, when it is said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Soon after the same Apostle speaks of Him as "in the bosom of the Father." And He speaks Himself of "the glory which He had with the Father before the world was." And St. Paul calls Him "the Brightness of God's glory, and the express Image of His person." And elsewhere, "the Image of the Invisible God." Thus what our Lord is, that none other can be; He is the Only-begotten Son; He is of God's nature, and of one substance with the Father, which cannot be said of any creature. He is one with God, and His nature is secret and incommunicable. Hence St. Paul contrasts His dignity with that of Angels, the highest of all creatures, with a view of showing the infinite superiority of the Son. "Unto which of the Angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day

11 Tim. vi. 16. 1 John i. 5. Dan. vii. 9. John i. 9. Matt. xvii. 2. Mark ix. 3. Luke ix. 29. Rev. i. 14-16.