disregard of a positive threatening; because then no deeply moving lesson of the exceeding evil of sin, no grand moral influence to humble, to restrain, to regenerate and purify, such as now proceeds from the cross of Christ, could have been exhibited to the awed universe of moral beings; because the truth, the justice, the holiness of God, and the ends of moral government sternly forbade. More impressive was that spectacle, more eloquent its teachings of the nature of the Divine government, of the inviolability of law, and the immaculate purity of the Deity, than any other exhibition that ever had been or ever could be made. That "God spared not his own Son, but gave him up to die for sinners," gives me a new view of his infinite holiness that fills me with amazement and awe. Would he have adopted such peculiar methods, would he have required so costly a sacrifice, if sin had been a trivial evil in his empire, or if holiness had not demanded a most signal vindication? When I behold in the person and work of my Redeemer the glory of the Divine holiness, which, rather than sin should go unpunished, lays on him the iniquity of us all, deeply is my soul humbled before God. I shrink in my loathesomeness from the eye of omniscient purity, and exclaim with overwhelming emotion, Unclean, Unclean! Not so subduing to the Israelites were the thunders and lightnings of the terrible mount, as to the convinced sinner is the spectacle of the one offering on Calvary, in which he beholds in strange conjunction, the goodness, the justice, the holiness of God.

III. Wisdom is a glorious perfection of Deity, and it shines resplendent" in the face of Jesus Christ." It is the right application of knowledge to secure desirable or necessary ends. Sometimes it appears in simply seizing favorable junctures, or turning common incidents as they arise, to our purpose; sometimes in prudently avoiding difficulties; sometimes in the more admirable art of harmonizing opposite extremes and of converting apparently adverse circumstances into the instruments and means of our success. In each of these ways does the wisdom of Deity appear in most perfect development, in the mediation. by Christ. We may conceive-for the subject is thus graphically set forth in Scripture-we may conceive the Divine Being inquiring and meditating what he would do on man's revolt. Angels had rebelled and had been given over to hopeless destruction. Yet this had not arrested the course of sin. For now, under temptation it is true, man had transgressed and fallen from his high estate. Must then another race be consigned to remediless woe? Must the great God appear to be foiled by his own creation, in his work? Mercy cries, Spare, oh! spare! But how! How can I spare, and be a Sovereign, and retain dominion over mind and will! Mercy suggests

a ransom. Let "some other able and as willing pay the rigid satisfaction, death for death." But "whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" The great problem was to find a substitute who could stand for the guilty, being himself without stain; who should possess such a character that in the estimation of the intelligent universe, the law, by his death in place of the sinner, should not be evaded but magnified; the threatening not be annulled, but honored. In the person of the Son of God this problem is solved. We behold one free from all native and contracted guilt, who, by a wonderful constitution, uniting in himself the Divine and human nature, could perfectly sympa.. thize with each of the parties between whom he was to mediate; while the same fact qualified him to honor the law by the dignity of his person, and to satisfy its claims by suffering its penalty.

In like manner, we notice wonderful contrasts in the work to be performed. There is displayed the greatest hatred of sin and the greatest love to sinners. Infinite compassion executes infinite wrath. The ignominy and death of Christ procure honor, life and happiness, to those for whom he suffered. The aggravated guilt of man's contempt of the Mediator becomes the means of finishing transgression, and will at length destroy the usurped rule of Satan as the God of this world. Mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace embrace each other." Conflicting attributes are not only harmonized, but it is seen that their combined force more signally and effectually secures the final consummation.

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So, also, we might very profitably trace the wisdom of God in leaving so large a part of the world to human devices for 4000 years, thus proving beyond a cavil the weakness of man and the necessity of a Divine revelation, in the previous arrangements, under the ancient economy, for bringing about the advent of Messiah at the fitting juncture; in the condition of the world at the time of its occurrence; the people among whom it took place; the care with which all the singular facts of revelation were attested for the benefit of future ages; and in the choice of opportunities and instruments for its promulgation, by which Divine agency becomes more apparent and incontrovertible. Since the whole transaction was designed to produce a great moral effect upon men, it was so arranged in all its parts as to address itself most powerfully to their understandings and sympathies, their wants and desires, their hopes and fears through the whole range of their being. We see Divine wisdom selecting its field and addressing itself to its noblest work; not simply to create, but new-create; not to subdue chaotic matter, but rebellious mind; not only to vindicate, but to magnify the law; not merely to replace man in the position from which he fell, but to raise him to dignity and

felicity far higher than he had lost; to convert the rebel to a child-the heir of pollution unto angelic purity; to foil the adversary in the very moment of anticipated triumph; to add new strength to heaven's massive throne, and new lustre to the crown of heaven's King. All this is done in the cross of Christ. No subject that can engage the thoughts of men or angels displays such consummate wisdom as this; so perfect a conception of the end desired, and knowledge and skill in the choice and adjustment of means. Nor can we doubt that the final issue shall be the theme of lofty praise to holy beings while eternity. shall last. It will not be the wonders of the material frame, though worlds and systems that the best instruments of science cannot now descry will then be revealed to their gaze; it will not be the gorgeousness of that New Jerusalem, whose walls garnished with all manner of precious stones, and streets of pure gold, the beloved John so glowingly describes, that will chiefly occupy their powers. Redemption's story, we are told, is still their highest wonder. It is to Him that loved them and washed them from their sins in his own blood, their ecstasies of love go out. On a higher eminence than we now occupy, commanding a wider survey, and presenting ever varying points of vision; with capacities beyond thought enlarged, and with no solicitations of sense and temptations of Satan to divert or disturb their calm meditations, their knowledge will grow as the days of heaven roll on. And still, upon each fresh discovery of the recources of Divine wisdom manifested in the face of Jesus Christ, their rapt spirits will render the adoring anthem: "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

IV. In further illustration of our subject we are naturally led to speak of the testimony the mediation of Christ gives to the POWER and SOVEREIGNTY of God. This appears in enlisting all agencies needful to the work in a full co-operation; in bearing down all obstacles; in removing hindrances, and in securing that there should be no false movement, so to speak, no antag onist able to disconcert his plans, or defeat the predetermined end. In general our minds are more likely, I know, to be impressed with the idea of power, from the observed operations of physical causes upon matter, than from any more recondite influences which spirit may exert over spirit, or even spirit over matter. The appeal in the one case is more immediately to our senses than in the other; and as creatures of sensation we more readily appreciate it. Hence, undoubtedly, one reason for Christ's miracles-direct appeals to the senses of men; so that the proofs of Divine Revelation might be so various as to leave no part of our nature unaddressed, and we might have all the advantage of this accumulated evidence to confirm our faith.

Yet it by no means follows that such results are the highest exercise of power. Its seat, its source is still the thinking mind, the sympathetic heart. And the witchery of a tone, a word, an act, a look; the influence of the soul beaming through the countenance, thrilling in the voice, is often more really grand and potential than any application of brute force by which a change of matter is wrought. Immediately or remotely, spirit is the only real, energetic power in the universe. In the beginning, all lay dark and formless and inert, until the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and from the void abyss uprose the beautiful creation. Man was but a clod of earth, until the Spirit breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. Now, spiritual power God pre-eminently displays in redemption. To accomplish the fulfilment of his promise, that "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head;" to bring about his purpose in the birth and death of Christ, demanded infinite power as well as consummate knowledge. Over the minds of how many different agents, and through how long a period of time did this influence extend; how effective was it in shaping and controlling the volitions and designs of these unnumbered instruments, so that, without impairing his freedom in the least degree, each one was made unconsciously to do whatsoever God's hand and his counsel determined before to be done." What control, in like manner, over the actors in the final tragedy! What a literal fulfilling of minute and obscure predictions, by both Jews and Roman soldiers, when yet they thought not so, neither was it in their hearts ;" but they simply and freely acted out their own wicked inclinations. How did he make "the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder be restrained!" What less than Omnipotence could have raised Christ from the dead-the first fruits of that inconceivably glorious resurrection of all the dead, and their appearance in life and immortal vigor before the throne of God? And what less than a Divine power gives a converting agency to the simple utterance of the truth as it is in Jesus? After many means have been tried, and have failed; where the light of conviction has been long resisted, and indulgence in sensuality and worldliness seems to have closed every avenue to the mind, and so hardened the heart that all would say the case is hopeless, the man never will feel or yield-I say, in these cases of apparently conscience-seared transgressors, what is it that often startles them from their delusions, sets sin in array before their eyes, weighs down the soul with the terrors of the world to come, and makes it realize that none is beyond the grasp of Almighty power, that no sinner can be assured God has not ways of reaching him, or feel that he may sin on with immunity from present woe and future wrath? And what is it, that of such daring rebels often forms "the sons and daughters of the

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Lord Almighty;" what, but the mighty power of God applying this doctrine of Christ, and working effectually to renew and to save?

The diffusive influence of the gospel presents another view of God's glorious power in the face of Jesus Christ. It is destined finally to overspread the world; to subvert and root out every other religion, and to banish all those rites which are adverse to God's honor and man's happiness; to make the earth again, in piety to God and in integrity to man, what it was before the building of Babel-of one lip and of one speech. But what ages and what agencies seem requisite to such a consummation. Unbelief exclaims, "If the Lord should open windows in heaven, this thing might be." Infinite power, we know, by a word, in a moment, might accomplish it. But that has not been. God's method of procedure, and otherwise, how dreary the prospect. But antagonism, the conflict of light and darkness, and the gradual dispersion. of the latter the silent, steady diffusion of the former, has ever been his method in his spiritual kingdom. And so will it be now. Of old the truth was circumscribed within the narrow boundaries of Judea, and but dimly revealed in types and shadows even there. But at the advent of Messiah, light broke forth upon the world. The wise men, attracted by a new star, inquire, "Where is he that is born king of the Jews?" With better wisdom and a deeper fervor, they might have asked, Who is he? What his character and the design of his coming? What grand results to man, to God; to heaven, to earth; in time, and through eternity, are shadowed by this strange epiphany? From that moment began the work of demolition and a new erection. The vast fabric of superstition and misery, which, for ages, Satan had been building up, began even then to dissolve. And although, like some icy temple, it may, at times, assume more gorgeous hues, and glow with more resplendent beauty as it melts away, yet will it certainly and utterly vanish under the free air of heaven and the bright shining of the Sun of Righteousness. And in its place will succeed a more glorious vision; a scene more transporting shall burst upon the eye of faith;-"the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." What a condition of human things shall exist when this conquest of the Lamb is achieved! Over this entire earth the light of truth shall be displayed, and the influences of purity shall prevail. The victory shall be given to the saints of the Most High God, and they shall go up and possess the land in the length and the breadth of it. Nor is this all; nor is the blessing for this world alone. No! No! We shall be raised from the dust by the power of God. In virtue of Christ's mediation, these bodies shall be revived and re-united to glorified spirits; and in a countless retinue of redeemed ones in