pathy with man which proved him to be a complete and perfect man, there was an entire sympathy and absolute unison with God which proved him to be very God; and that, too, without resting the argument chiefly, or at all, on his frequent assertions of equality and oneness with the Father -assertions so strangely at variance with his remarkable humility and modesty if he were a mere man, but which so befit his whole character and life on the supposition that he was also God. When a being of such marvellous humility and meekness, yet such matchless purity and dignity of character, claims to be at once the Son of man and the Son of God, and calls himself habitually by the one or the other of these names, according as he contemplates his relations to God on the one hand, or to man on the other, the presumption arising from this single circumstance is strong that he is both God and man. And if our former Article showed him to be in the truest and highest sense man, after the loftiest ideal of humanity, the considerations brought together in this should suffice to prove that he is in the truest and fullest sense God, according to the best conception we can form of divinity. If the only-begotten and well-beloved Son of God, who always was and is to be in the bosom of the Father, in the nearness and dearness of an eternal fellowship and an eternal sonship; who is the manifestation, the expression, the perfect image of God, such a reflection of his glory and express image of his person, that whoever has seen the Son has seen the Father also; who is the agent and representative of God in the creation and preservation of the material and the spiritual universe, in the redemption of the church and the reconciliation of the world and the government of both, in the general resurrection of the dead and the final judgment of men and angels, in all divine attributes and acts, so that he is manifestly the acting Deity of the universe, if he is not God, there is no actual or possible evidence that there is any God.

Behold, then, in conclusion of this whole discussion

behold our perfect type and pattern, the Son of man and also the Son of God, the Son of man and the Son of God in one person. Behold the true ideal of humanity, the Son of God as well as the Son of man, man reconciled and united to God, man on his own scale and in his own sphere the image and representative of his Maker. This is what Christ is, and what man was made to be. He who was originally the Son of God, in his infinite condescension became the Son of man, that they who are by nature the children of men might by grace become the children of God. This is what every man should aspire to be a true son of man in all his relations to man, a true son of God in unison and sympathy with the infinite Father. This is what every man who is united to Christ is destined to become. This is the paradise which was lost in Adam, and regained in Christ.

Behold also in the person and the religion of Christ the medium through which this ideal is to be realized, the means by which this end is to be accomplished. The idea of religion which is contained in the etymology of the word is, that it binds back, restores, reconciles, reunites, man to God. The religion of Christ answers exactly to that idea. That is its very definition. And that definition is fully expressed, that idea is embodied, in the person of Christ. He is himself the Son of man and the Son of God, the God-man, and thus, in nature as well as in office, the Mediator between God and man, the days-man for whom the nations and ages have so long sighed, who can lay his hand upon us both. He is the bond of union as between man and his fellow man, so also between man and his Maker, the blessed atone-ment whereby God is reconciling all things unto himself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, wherein especially men of all classes and conditions, nations and ages, who believe in Jesus, shall become one in Christ and God, agreeably to our Lord's intercessory prayer," that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us." He is the divine-human channel of communication between heaven and earth, reaching

up to the eternal throne, extending down to the lowest and remotest subject, through which every sigh of humanity may reach the ear and touch the heart of the infinite Father, and through which, in return, all heavenly and divine influences may flow down into the bodies and the souls of his earthly children. To deny either his human or his divine nature were to break up the communication, were to sever it in the very midst. The channel would then reach only half way from earth to heaven, or only half way from heaven. to earth. The religion of Christ manifestly is, what any religion must be to deserve the name, a divine-human religion. Its central idea is the reconciliation of man to God, and its central life and power is in the person of a divinehuman Redeemer,

Finally, behold in him the pledge of the ultimate realization of this grand idea, the final consummation of this blessed and glorious end: see divinity on the cross of reconciliation; see humanity on the throne of the universe. And is this stupendous sacrifice and this amazing exaltation all for nothing? Had it no object? Can it be of no avail? The Son of God has lived and died for men on earth; the Son of man lives and reigns for him in heaven. Heaven and earth are reconciled. God and man are united in one person, and that person reigns head over all things to the church, King of kings and Lord of lords, having all power in heaven and on earth at his disposal. Surely then the church is safe. The religion of Christ will triumph. The interests of humanity are secure. Mankind will yet be one in Christ and God. The golden rule will yet regulate the hearts and lives of men, for it governed the life of the Son of man. The will of God shall yet be done on earth as in heaven, for that is the Lord's prayer. Men and angels shall unite in singing the song: On earth, peace, good will to men, glory to God in the highest. That will be heaven begun on earth. And then to be with Christ where he is, in the bosom of the Father; to see him as he is in his mysterious person, absolute man, yet perfect God; to behold

his glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, Light of light, God of God, the perfect image of the Invisible, the Eternal, the Infinite One; to be like him, the purified and perfected children of men, and also the adopted and glorified sons of God; to be in him even as he is in the Father that will be the perfect blessedness of heaven.

ARTICLE V.

FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE.

BY REV. J. M. HOPPIN, PROFESSOR IN YALE COLLEGE.

FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE was born in the year 1805. He was educated at Cambridge University, entering Trinity College, but ending his course in the smaller college of Trinity Hall, which he joined in 1823, together with his future brother-in-law, John Sterling. Being at that time a dissenter he did not take a degree, although he had a fellowship offered him. Two years after leaving Cambridge, having then become a member of the Established church, he took a degree at Oxford. He was for a short time editor of the "Athenaeum," and since that period has been almost constantly before the public eye. He has written largely upon theological and practical subjects; has originated charitable and educational institutions for the working-classes; and for three years he held the chair of divinity at King's College, London, which he was compelled to resign for alleged heterodox views upon the doctrine of eternal punishment. At the present moment Mr. Maurice is rector of the church at Lincoln-in-fields, London, which is a peculiar ecclesiastical organization, holding a somewhat anomalous relationship to the Established church. As a preacher he is without action or any of the graces of delivery, and has a decidedly sing-song tone. He has nothing to

commend him in the pulpit but a spirit of simple earnestness, and now and then the flashing out of a striking thought, showing the scholar and thinker.

To describe Mr. Maurice's real position in the English church and world of thought is more difficult. To do this we will glance at the state of religion and of church parties in England. There is much of a pleasant social aspect in the religion of England. At Christmas-time especially, when the wind howls and the snow falls, there is a universal kindhearted entertainment of the poor, and abounding hospitality. The benevolence of English Christians, although often dispensed in a perfunctory way, handing down from the steps instead of coming down into the street to the poor, is an indisputable fact. A vast deal of the ample wealth of England flows in philanthropic channels, so that one's eye can turn in no direction without seeing the visible signs of this. There is also a marked reverence paid to religion. It has its recognized and supreme place in society and in the state. Mr. Gladstone, chancellor of the exchequer, addresses a meeting in the senate-house at Oxford on the duty of establishing a missionary college in Central Asia; and the lord mayor of London opens the Mansion-house to the Evangelical Alliance. Even the more devotional and spiritual duties of religion are engaged in with an apparent interest and sincerity by all classes. The duke of Wellington was a scrupulous communicant. Judges, leading members of the bar, and men in high official station, may be seen teaching in the Sabbath-schools, taking part in the prayer-meetings, and joining with the humblest and most ignorant in the services of the sanctuary. And in the sanctuary itself there is not wanting the delightful warmth of true worship, that spirit of common feeling and earnestness which is doubtless aided by the moving and majestic cultus of the church of England. There is also in English Christianity, or in its best aspects, a social refinement, a mixture of the free enjoyment of all that is truly good in nature and art with piety or the love of God, which is rarely found outside of the highest