tilence. We cannot take back our words, call in our sentiments, blot out our deeds, and so put an end to our moral being on earth. Many a dying man would give worlds if he could but do this. If he could drag with him into the darkness and oblivion of the grave, his infidelity, his wicked example, and all the evil influences which he has originated, that they might not live after him, to curse his memory, and blast the hopes of his family and friends, and entail misery on the world, he might die in peace. But no; the dying man cannot do it. He has no power over his influence; he cannot stay the waters which he has let out. He has sown the seed, and the harvest is sure to follow. The grave shall receive his body only, the living world will retain his character, example and principles. Death cannot arrest our influence; it may but augment and diffuse it. It will live and yield its fruit when our names have perished from the earth. It may speak for us in praise or blasphemy, in life or death, while time endures. It may go on producing impressions on the living world, which no man or angel can ever efface.

There is a thought here which the minister of Christ, the professional man, and the man of wealth, the Sabbath-school teacher, and above all, the parent, may bring home to his heart with salutary and impressive force. There is a light of warning and a light of encouragement in it. Each of us may so live as that our very grave shall bloom till the resurrection morn. The good we do is not to be measured by the length of our days, but by our stamp of character, the piety of our purposes, the grandeur of our aspirations and conceptions. Then up and be doing, ye children of light! Every prayer, every charity, every effort for Christ, every tear shed over sinners, will yield a revenue of reward and glory.

BY REV. THOMAS E. VERMILYE, D. D., NEW-YORK.

THE GREAT REVEALER.

"The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."--2 COR. 4: 6.

To the Scriptures are we indebted for all our practical knowledge of the being, and for all just conceptions respecting the perfections of the one, supreme God. For although his eternal power and Godhead may be so clearly understood by the things that are made, as to leave the atheistical rejector without excuse; yet we do know that, as a matter of fact, all men, of all places, in all ages, when deprived of the light of revelation, have overlooked these unquestionable traces of Deity, and have sunk into the abyss of polytheism and idolatry. With unanimous consent they have "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts and creeping things." The Bible, like the telescope, concentrates the scattered rays of Divinity which would otherwise escape our notice, and gives us the only true and perfect image of the Infinite One.

From the same source also do we derive any satisfactory notion concerning the origin of the material universe. It is impossible for the intelligent mind to look abroad upon the heavens, to survey this earth, to examine the varied forms of existence, animate and inanimate, with which both earth and sky are filled, and not ask, Whence came all these things? When, and from what cause did they spring forth; and how have they acquired their present modes of being? Accordingly, the sagacity of men has in all ages been tasked to its utmost at this point. Various schemes of the cosmogony, more or less ingenious and plausible, have been devised to remove the difficulties that surround the subject, and to silence, if not to satisfy, the curious inquirer. Hence we

hear of the eternity of inert matter; the eternal succession of the generations of men, each individual of whom, however, was finite; the creation of all things, and the reduction of the formless mass into well-defined shapes and proportions by chance, which is but a name for our ignorance of an intelligent Cause; -and hence, too, we are told that the wonderful adaptation of the several classes of beings to subserve obvious and important uses, arises out of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms. These are prominent suggestions among the thoughts of the wise on this subject which are vain. They relieve no obscurity; they satisfy no doubt; they give us no clue through this labyrinth; they do not really tell us when and why the beautiful "creation sprang exulting in its light and harmony from the dark bosom of the void abyss."-But when we open the Bible, all is plain. At the very first verse of the first chapter of Genesis, the mystery is cleared up by the simple utterance, "In the beginning, GOD CREATED." And elsewhere we are told, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." "By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water." An almighty and intelligent Cause appears, and his works praise him. He summoned matter into being, when as yet there was none of it. His Spirit brooded over the chaotic mass to give it life. He impressed upon the orbs that float through space their form, and place, and motion. He peopled earth and air with the countless tribes that dwell therein. All creation is the product of his simple fiat. "He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."

On another momentous topic, intimately connected with this, our resort must be the same. The Scriptures alone tell us with what intent, to secure what grand end, all things were made and are kept in being. The investigations of science disclose to us a thousand subordinate uses of beauty or utility to man or to the inferior creation, subserved by the various processes we behold. And when the philosophic mind has generalized to the extent of its capacity, it is very apt to conclude that it has reached the ultimate fact, the final cause of all things, and to rest satisfied that in some material result, or at the most some end by which the intellect of man is gratified and his nature aggrandized, it has laid open the great secret why all things exist as they are; it has discovered the true end for which they were originally made. The pride of the natural heart seems to render us incapable of imagining any nobler object of the vast universe, or of any part of it, than one which has relation chiefly to man's interests and man's enjoyment. Man, the creature, is the centre and the circumference of all existence.-But how different and how much more dignified the view the Bible gives

us of this subject. It tells us that "the Lord hath made all things for himself." He himself, and not his creatures, is the grand end of his works. To give scope and exercise to his intelligent and active nature, he essayed the task of creation. We may suppose a sort of necessity that the Divine Being should make some objective manifestation, such as the universe presents; and then his great idea would be to depict himself, so to speak, in sensible forms to the conception of his creatures. Each department of his works would be an exhibition of some grand characteristic of his nature; and the combined whole would set him forth," full-orbed, in the bright round of rays complete." That God should glorify himself by demonstrating his being, and illustrating his adorable perfections, that is an object worthy of his infinite power and skill; that is the highest and best end we can imagine in the creation and sustentation of all things.

This end, the Scriptures teach us, is pre-eminently subserved in the work of redemption. Some of the Divine attributes, partially represented in the material system, are more fully developed in the mediation by Jesus Christ. Hence the superiority of the latter over the former is seen, even where they come into direct comparison. But there are other, more exalted and endearing qualities, which, but for some such device as that revealed in the gospel, could never, so far as we can perceive, have had any manifestation whatever. There would have appeared for them neither occasion nor object. The character of God would have wanted its full illustration. And, however much we might have admired his natural attributes in creation, those higher excellences of a moral kind by which love is excited and duty prompted, would have been but faintly, if at all, revealed. In the gospel these are brought out into bold relief. And they are so enforced, that angels turn from other contemplations to look into this "mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh." If in creation, God appears majestic; in grace, transcendent. "The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" is "the glory that excelleth."

By the phrase "the glory of God," I think the apostle would evidently have us to understand, the most resplendent and impressive display of his nature God can give; or at least that our finite powers can receive. It is such a presentation of Divine excellence as fills both mind and heart; as leads our rapt spirits to wonder and adore. Now this is made to us, and, for aught we know, to all ranks of intelligent creatures, angels on high and devils in hell, as well as man upon the earth," in the face of Jesus Christ." Doubtless we are to interpret this of the Redeemer's person and acts as the Mediator of the New Covenant. To qualify him for that office, he who originally was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God,

took on him our nature, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He lived a life of great humiliation and sorrow, but of entire obedience to the Divine commands, and thus wrought out a righteousness fully equal to the demands of the law. He taught the will of God more perfectly than it had ever been taught before; wrought miracles in confirmation of his Divine commission and doctrine; and finally, by a death of expiation on the cross, made full atonement for the sins of those for whom he suffered. All this was voluntary on his part, yet by the ap pointment of the Father; and now, in virtue of his merit, God can freely pardon and save those who, though hell-deserving, rely by faith on this one, all-sufficient sacrifice in their behalf. Gou can now be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. This system, sometimes, with expressive brevity, styled "the doctrine of the cross," ," "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," is comprised in the person and work of Christ; and it is God's crowning achievement. When Moses descended from the terrible mount, at the giving of the law, his face did shine with so divine a lustre, that the children of Israel could not steadily look upon it; it seemed to shadow forth the glory of Jehovah in that dispensation. But more luminously did his glorious attributes shine forth through the New Testament economy, in the face of Jesus Christ; a more exalted Mediator of a better covenant, established upon better promises.

Let us then give our attention to this theme, and endeavor to realize the beauty and force of the apostle's idea.

I. We observe, that the provision of Christ as Mediator preeminently displays the GOODNESS of God. Goodness is a general name for all those kind, condescending, compassionate qualities of Deity, which are variously displayed in his providence towards our race, and are expressed by terms diversified mainly by the occasion or objects of their manifestation. It is bounty, as it leads him to create or to provide for the safety and enjoyment of intelligent beings. It is love, benevolence, as it prompts him to delight in and rejoice over them. It is grace when he does good to the undeserving; compassion, mercy, when he succors both the unworthy and miserable; patience, long suffering, when he forbears with those who provoke and insult his majesty and requite evil for his good. Now it must be apparent, that those exercises which are characterized as grace, mercy, compassion, patience, long-suffering, are a much higher display of the general affection of goodness, than those which pass under the distinctive names of bounty, or benevolence. The latter may be but the outflowing of a mild and generous nature; the former is apt to be contrary to every natural prompting of the heart. The one may arise without any forethought, as a mere instinctive act of mind seeking the gratification which kindness towards those we approve imparts to ourselves; the