them as such? or will we let the spirit of aristocracy and caste, the spirit of pride and prejudice, nay, we must call it by the right name, the spirit of hatred to an oppressed race, prevail, and thrust them back into slavery, or thrust them down into a condition little better than slavery, when Christ is pleading, in almost bodily presence, for the rights and liberties of his brethren, and when God, as with an audible voice and the plagues of Egypt, is saying to us: "Let my people go." This is the vital question. All others are accidents and trifles, when compared with this. Oh how much we need a revival of the religion of charity, fraternity, and universal love; of the religion of Christ, as he taught it by his own lips and lived it in his own blessed life, through the length and breadth of our land, now tost as with a tempest and flowing with blood! "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," is the first and great commandment; but the second is like unto it: "Thou shalt love thy neigh bor as thyself." "This ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

Closely allied to this is the question, whether we give due prominence to the human side of the character, the human nature in the person, of Christ. It was this side, as we have seen, which he himself made prominent, by calling himself so frequently and so emphatically "the Son of Man." And, as we review the ideas which are involved in that chosen appellation, we cannot but feel that there are in his human nature the elements of the greatest moral power. The power of sympathy with men of all classes; the power of universal genius and universal love; the power of example, perfect and yet human; the power of representative man; the power of world-wide philanthropy these have always been the ruling and enduring powers in human history. What elements of moral power to move and win, to bless and save mankind, centre, then, in "the Son of Man" - in the human nature of him who is the perfect pattern of mankind, the representative of his race, and the embodiment of humanity. This is the moral power by which his teachings

and example have taken hold of men of all ranks and classes in every age and nation where his name is known, and through which his religion is advancing with steady and irresistible progress to be the religion of the world. And in these same elements of moral power, so wonderfully adapted to the nature and necessities of man, we see a pledge of the final and universal triumph of the religion of Christ. It is demonstrably a religion from God. But it is no less manifestly a religion for men-for all men of all ages and nationsand it will certainly prevail. Of course, we see in the progress of Christianity, and in the very perfection of the human nature of Christ, evidence of something supernatural and superhuman. But there is power, great power-power which has not been fully developed; power which has scarcely yet begun to be applied in the human elements themselves; and the perfection and the power of these human elements is the very channel through which the divine comes in contact with the hearts of men, touches their sympathies, moves their wills, and transforms their lives. This is one grand design, if it is not the chief purpose, of the incarnation; and to overlook it is to defeat the end of that "great mystery of godliness."

It may be that the Catholic church, and some of the Reformed churches, make too much of the human nature of Christ. Doubtless they misrepresent it in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and of the real presence of the very body and blood of Christ in the sacrament of the supper. We do not believe in the omnipresence or omnipotence of the human nature of Christ. We can hardly accept the doctrine of an "objective grace and power in the sacrament, independent of the moral and spiritual character of the communicant." But there is in the humanity of Christ a kind of moral omnipresence and omnipotence which it is not

1 See the very able Article on "The German Reformed Church," Bib. Sac., Jan. 1863. The doctrine of the Sacrament and of the Church in this Article we cannot but regard as extravagant and transcendental, too "mystical" to be embraced, or even comprehended, by the common mind. At the same time there

easy to exaggerate. Regeneration, sanctification, the res urrection of the body, and the life everlasting - all that deserves the name of life for the individual or the race, to the body or the soul, in time and in eternity—comes to men through the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Is not all this, and more than this, taught in those significant words of our Lord which we have already cited, but which we can hardly repeat too often; for the Master repeats them in various forms, and with all possible emphasis: "Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso cateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat, indeed, and my blood is drink, indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John vi. 53-57). These words are not to be limited to the sacrament of the supper. They doubtless have a far wider application to the entire person and life of "the Son of Man." They are not to be taken in any material or even "mystical" sense; but, interpreted in their obvious moral and spiritual significance, "they are spirit and they are life. Life can come to men dead in trespasses and sins only through the life of Christ; manhood, only by union with his humanity, and thus with his divinity.

3. In conclusion, we cannot but be impressed with the sacredness of that common humanity which was assumed by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which was impersonated in the Son of Man, and is still represented by him, though he now sits on the throne of the universe. How dare wehow can any one who has any belief in the divine-human personality of Christ—have the hardihood to injure or neglect any human being, when every human being, however lowly

is important truth in that direction, which the ministers and churches of New England might well seek and discover without much danger of imbibing the Mercersburg philosophy.

or degraded, stands in such sacred relations to so exalted a personage! Enslave a man! Buy and sell a man as if he were no better than a sheep; beat him with a cruelty which you would not inflict upon an ox or an ass; hunt him down with bloodhounds and shoot him with as much indifference as you would a wild beast! Despise a man because he is poor, or of low caste, or has a skin not colored like your own! Neglect a man when he is in sorrow and suffering, and let him die neglected and uncared for when he is sick! It is neglect and contempt of the Son of Man; a denial of the fundamental truth of his religion; an indignity to his sacred person. Every blow thus struck at the meanest member of the human family falls, as it were, upon his own blessed body. And when you stand before him in judgment, he will remember and recompense every wrong done to his brethren as a wrong done to himself, saying: "I was hungry and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger and ye took me not in; naked and ye clothed me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited me not."

In Christ as the Son of Man we see what man was made to be, and what, by reconciliation and union with God, he is capable of becoming-the true nobility of man's unfallen nature, and the exalted dignity and glory of humanity, as it will be when it is redeemed and regenerated. Christ represents the unity of the race-its solidarity, as philosopers are fond of saying in their speculations; its universal brotherhood, as it is revealed in the scriptures and as the Christian believes it will actually exist in the latter days, when every man will see in every other man a brother, and do to others, in some measure, at least, as he would that they should do to him, and the golden rule shall be the law of individuals, families, and nations; in one word, its regenerated and perfected manhood, when the ideal of humanity, as it is exhibited in the person and the life of Jesus, shall be realized so far, at least, on earth that it shall be a pledge and earnest of a perfect realization in heaven. And as in the

divine beauty of Christ's humiliation we see an image of man's proper rank and intended character on earth- of man like God and earth like heaven,-so in the divine glory of his exaltation we see at once the means and the security for the ultimate accomplishment of that high destiny. The Son of Man-humanity personified-sits at the right hand of the Almighty Father, and all power in heaven and on earth is given into his hands. And he is crowned with glory and honor as a sign and pledge of the future glory and honor of his race-not indeed of every individual in it, for some, alas! persist in rejecting the Son as well as the Fatherbut, we must believe, a sign and seal, a pledge and earnest, of the future elevation and final salvation of the great majority of the entire human family. Let, then, all who love their species, rejoice in the Son of Man as their sympathiz ing and almighty Redeemer, and await with undoubting confidence the day of redemption; but let all the incorrigible enemies of God and man tremble; for he comes, the Son of Man and the Son of God, to avenge the wrongs done to both. And if there is anything more dreadful than the wrath of a holy God, it will be the righteous indignation of the neglected and despised Son of Man-neglected in his own person and despised in the person of his poorer brethren

when he comes in his own glory and in the glory of his Father to judge the assembled nations.