words liable to misinterpretation-not only through dogmas addressed to the understanding, but also through the unmistakeable facts of its history. That great miracle, the life of Christ, is at once the most satisfactory voucher and the finest illustration of the possibility of a perfect union between the human Child and the heavenly Parent. Men have sought for evidences of his oneness with God in his possession of the same metaphysical nature, and in his exercise of like supernatural powers with the Most High. I do not stop to consider their value now; but I make bold to affirm that from the points in him that were most human, went forth the tendrils that bound him most closely to the divine, and that the highest evidences of the union of the Father and the Son are to be found in Christ's manifestation of God's holy spirit in all those deeds which the firmest believer in his deity would admit to be wholly human.

Look at Jesus as he is portrayed in the artless narratives of the evangelists. Behold him, as he moves among the tribes of Israel, marking his way with miracles of power, wisdom, love; and, by the nobility of his character, as well as by the sweetness of his dispositions, investing with more than a double sanctity every spot which patriarch and prophet had already solemnized! Is not the spirit which gives a halo to all the relations into which he entered, and to every deed which he performed there, identical with that which flows through God's eternal providence? Is it not a bond of closest union between the Son who wrought so holy a work in Judea, and the Father who continues His operations through fleeting centuries and recurring revolutions in the world's great history? Or draw somewhat nearer to this wonderful being. Follow him through his pilgrimages. See how near he comes to every helpless, suffering child of God. Mark how he ministers to the weary and the heavy-laden, and gives them joyous rest and tell me if his comforting sympathy, his more than woman's tenderness,

his willing, ready aid, be not identical with that infinite affection which daily seeks admission at the door of thy heart to stanch its wounds, and banish its despondency, and mitigate its trials, and comfort it amid the cares and anxieties of life? Yea, the tender compassion and deep sympathy of Christ, as they were manifested on earth, were spiritual links that bound him in one with the Great Spirit who, amid all our mortal griefs and terrible bereavements, whispers peace, and gives us the assurance that beneath His providence all is well. Visit with the Saviour the publicans and sinners of his day. Stand by him as his judgment is solicited on the fallen woman; and mark his compassion for the sinful; how all the earnestness of his soul, all the love of his heart, went forth toward those who had erred from the path of duty; and say, if the spirit that led him to welcome the humblest penitent to his bosom be not in entire harmony with that love and mercy with which the All-holy visits his erring, penitent children everywhere; whether the welcome which Christ proffered to the sinner who clung to his feet and washed them with her tears, be not one with the compassion which God vouchsafes to you and to me when, in fear and trembling, we seek His pardon and implore the gift of His own holy peace to our troubled consciences. Hearken to Christ's expostulations with Pharisees and Scribes ; open your ears to his denunciations of the false and the wrong; note his condemnation of every form of cherished sin; and tell me if these be not manifestations of the spirit of the living God which, sooner or later, in the intricacies of our daily life, unmasks the hypocrite, and covers with degradation the wrongdoer, and overwhelms with shame the mean and selfish, the sensual and cruel ways of men. I know not, indeed, to what quality in Christ's character to turn that does not strike me as coincident with some parallel attribute in God's character.. Its every trait constitutes some feature that goes to make up in him "the image of the invisible God." Viewed from the

point of either his temper or purpose, of either his breadth or holiness of aim, we cannot distinguish between him and God. Between his spirit and that of the All-holy Father we can draw no separating boundary-line, nor place our finger on a plan of grace, and mercy, and wisdom, that engaged his powers, in which we are not sure he had the harmonious co-operation of the Absolute and Eternal One. How poor, how imperfect must be any union arising out of identity of nature or equality of power, as compared with this union that arises out of identity of spiritual aim and equality of righteous purpose! The one might admit of conflicting rights, and sentiments, and feelings. Nay, how often have these been attributed to the Father and the Son by those who have most warmly advocated their identity of nature!--the other involves, or rather it necessitates, a union in holiness, goodness, justice, truth and love—a union in all those higher attributes, the possession of which constituted our Lord God's well-beloved Son.

Here, then, is demonstrated the possibility of a soul growing up in perfect purity; and, in virtue of that purity, attaining to perfect union with God. But what of those who, in the course of their spiritual development, have contracted imperfections, as you and I have done-who have dethroned reason, and disobeyed conscience, and violated the law of love, and submitted to the dominion of their appetites and passions? I turn to the facts of the New-Testament history again, and I find the beloved Son of God, when he entered on his ministry, gathering around him apostles and disciples who, whatever their excellences, and they were many, had also their defects; who were marked, in no small measure, by their impetuosity of temper, their violence of speech, their inconstancy to truth, their infidelity to friends, their subserviency to ambition, and their love of rule. Though brought into living contact with the Son of God, they had not power fully to discern the beauty of his life and character, much less to transplant it to their own

souls. Intimate as they became with him, there subsisted between them but little friendship and but little brotherhood of mind. His light shone in darkness, and was not comprehended; but no sooner had he vanished from their mortal vision, and they had turned to look on the path they had travelled beside him, than every incident of their previous connection with him started into life. Every word he had spoken to them flashed on their memory as truth; every suggestion he had made to them shone forth in the light of duty. His intrinsic greatness burst through every action that, before, had been but half observed. His disinterested goodness gleamed more and more distinctly through the mist which had obscured to their vision the beauty of his being; and the grandeur of his sacrifice, which, till now, had never dawned on their conceptions, rose before them with a clearness that overwhelmed them with wonder and filled them with awe. So was he nearer to them than ever before-nearer, now he had ascended on high, than when he sojourned in their midst; and the direct presence of his divine spirit infused new thoughts and new life into their souls. "Beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, they were changed into the same image." Retaining all the strik ing contrasts that existed between them, they found that, in the power of his presence, their moral natures triumphed over every opposition of feeling, every prejudice of the mind, every resistance of the will. Looking to Jesus, they found a new life passing into them,-not eradicating, but subordinating, their peculiarities-inducing in each a holiness that reigned supremely, though wearing an aspect modified by their peculiar temperaments. There was "a diversity of gifts, but the same spirit." Forsaking all selfish views, relinquishing all evil spirits, they became "followers of God" in Christ, "as dear children." Had the beloved Son, in the Father's power and spirit, unstopped the deaf ears, and caused those to whom the melodies of nature had been as though they were not, to

rejoice in them? They with a like love, in the same spirit, brought the symphonies of the spirit-world to myriads who, but for their labours, had never heard them nor rejoiced in their celestial strains. Had the Master caused the mortal

light to "revisit" the

66 eyes that rolled in vain

To find its piercing ray, and found no dawn"?

They, filled with his benignity, sought to diffuse the “celestial light" that

"Shone inward, and the mind through all her powers

Irradiated."

Had the Lord reanimated a few dead bodies with their spirits, summoned, at his bidding, even out of eternity and from the presence of God? They, partaking largely of his life and through the power of his truth, raised up the living bodies of whole races by that blessed spirit which regenerated the motives, the inclinations, yea, even the imaginations of their converts. But why illustrate? The grand results may be summed up in the statements, that they "put on the Lord Jesus Christ," and were "found in him," "not having their own righteousness," but "clothed" with his spirit of meekness and humility-filled with "the same mind that was also in him"-having him "formed within them the hope of glory." In fine, the moral and spiritual sympathy arising from their strong personal affection for Christ, reproduced within them his majesty and lowliness, his elevating virtue and undying love, and brought them, if not into as vital and entire a spiritual union with God as subsisted between the Father and the Son, yet into a harmony with both of these which marked them as God's approved children and Christ's regenerated disciples.

I might adduce the historical argument in support of my position; and, coming out of the realm of the miraculous, I might shew how disciples in all time have clung to Jesus