our treasure things new and old." (St. Matt.xiii. 52.) Let us compare the promise and the type and the prophecy of ancient days with their fulfilment in these latter times by God the Son, "whom his Father hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Heb. i.)—Amen.

ST. MATT. iii. 16, 17; iv. 1.

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him; and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."

ONE great characteristic difference between the false religions of the ancient

world and the christian revelation, may be briefly stated thus. While the former made divinities of men, the latter brought God among men. According to the former, every human corruption was engrafted on an ideal divine perfection; while, according to the latter, divine perfection came to purify human corruption. The magnificent superstitions of ancient idolatry, as they existed in the national establishments of Greece and Rome, vainly attempted to dignify human nature by deifying its passions, and by raising to divine honours the men who had through life more particularly exhibited their most powerful influence. While the religion of the cross has invested human nature with true nobility, opening to it a holier source of perfection, by which the stream of divine grace descends to cleanse its corruption, and to impress upon those who resist not its sanctifying power, the mark of sons of God. The religions of Greece and Rome taught that the desires and passions of the human heart are to be

worshipped, and their votaries actually did adore them, personified by the beings whom they acknowledged as deities. While the religion of the cross teaches that instead of regarding the natural sentiments of the mind and feelings and passions of the heart as the voice of God within us, we are obliged to bring these under the yoke of that pure and holy law which the Almighty united his divinity with the human nature in order to promulgate, and to render man, exalted by that union, capable of obeying. And this law, by the influence of God's Spirit inspiring his church and blessing his word, is preserved in validity amid the oppositions and corruptions of the world.

The assumption of the human nature by God the Son had a twofold object, which may be resolved into one. He came at once to offer up a great atoning sacrifice, without which, man could not be admitted into divine favour, and to correct the faults by which man's nature was

vitiated, and which, if uncorrected, would have counteracted the beneficial effect of his atonement. The will of man is the great natural principle, and was the principle of the most polished religious systems of heathenism. The will of God is the great christian principle, and it is only in so far as the will of man can be thereunto subjected, that the benefits of salvation can reach him. The Son of God did not descend from the throne of heaven merely to astonish the world by a great act of love, and to excite the admiration of mankind by a system of religious belief of grand simplicity, and by a rule of moral practice so perfect as to be unattainable. He came to identify himself with us, to show us what is required of us in order that his atoning sacrifice may avail for our salvation, and to bestow on us the means of fulfilling these requirements. "It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of