able to tell. Thus it is that the living image of perfection set before us in the Gospel at once conveys to men what God is, and what man must endeavour to be. But it may be asked, -"Why, if God is always speaking to men through his works and the influences of his spirit, was it necessary to address them yet again? Is not the voice of nature clear enough, when it tells the glory of its God?" The defect is not there. St. Paul says distinctly, that from the things that are made, - that is, from the wonders and glories of nature, men might have known the power and divinity of God, might have known them if they had kept their minds open and their hearts undefiled by those passions which darken the clear vision of the soul. Doubtless it is also true, as our Saviour says, that the pure in heart can see God as he is not seen by the common eye. It was not the defect of God's previous communications, but the faithlessness of men to their destiny, their worldliness and corruption, which darkened their spiritual vision, and made it necessary to give new light from on high. That such light was really needed, who can doubt, if he considers what the world was when the Saviour came, and what men without him are now? It is true there were good men in the world before he came; but what then? Does a light shining here and there from a solitary window remove the darkness of the night? Praise the attainments of the world before the Saviour came as much as you will, — and high attainments in arts, in phi losophy, and even in freedom, they certainly did reach, the single fact, that there was no steady impulse of improvement, that, however men might be lifted up for a moment, they soon sank heavily down, proves their need of the support of a higher principle. The fact, that there was no force acting upon men or within them to produce moral reforms, to save them from prevailing sins, to make them better and bring them nearer heaven, this single fact of the utter absence of any steady impulse of improvement in all the ancient world shows incontestably that the world could never have accomplished the purpose for which God made it, if the dayspring of Christianity had not come. It was, as the Bible itself teaches, in concession to human sin, not on account of the want of other original means of light, that the Christian revelation was made. How well it supplies the hunger and thirst of the soul may be seen in the value which is attached to it by the spiritually disposed. Observe, it is of real wants, and not of tastes and fancies, that I speak. Those dreamy and imaginative minds, which have had little as yet to trouble and distress them, may find something more exciting elsewhere. To them it is as a lamp, unvalued in the thoughts of him that is at ease, though so welcome to the benighted stranger. To the sorrowful, to the heavyladen, to those who are fighting a life-long battle with human woe, to those who are stripped of other blessings and whose earthly crown is fallen from their head, to those whose minds are made intensely earnest by fear, anguish, and the presence of death, the Bible is a priceless treasure. They would not for worlds surrender it, for it speaks to them in tones of deep sympathy of that God who is the only dependence they have, and brings the glories of heaven in living brightness before their eyes. Thus the Bible, so often rejected by the vain and happy, is sure of a warm welcome wherever a suffering heart is found. When sorrow comes to the lordly mansion or the straw-built shed, when death is raging on the bleeding deck or the trampled field, when the light of life is sinking low in the chamber of the dying or the prisoner's dreary cell, · wherever man is called to deal with the stern realities of life, he clasps the Bible with both hands to his heart till its beating is still for ever. But it is not every one who understands how God communicates with us through the Scriptures. It is not by the letter alone. To this must be added the suggestions which they give, the trains of thought which they awaken, the active energy which they inspire, in the thoughtful mind. Reflect on some of our Saviour's words, and you are struck with their depth of wisdom; but you see not all at once. As you ponder, their meaning seems to spread itself out before you; it continually unfolds itself in new aspects and relations, showing how truly it was likened to a small seed containing all the parts and proportions of the tree which is to lift itself to the skies and give shade to many generations. It is by appealing to that which is within, by quickening the spiritual powers into life and action, by drawing out all the resources of the soul, and making it earnestly attentive to the teaching of nature and God's spirit, that the Bible fulfils its highest function in the upright and trusting heart. The direct information which the words convey to us, vast as it is, seems of little worth compared to this quickening and lifegiving power. This is their highest virtue and praise, which our Saviour himself alluded to when he said, "The words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” SERMON XVIII. THE APOSTLES. YE WHICH HAVE FOLLOWED ME, IN THE REGENERATION, WHEN THE By "the regeneration" is undoubtedly meant the time when the religion of Jesus shall have produced its effect in the world, making all things new, and in many respects reversing the moral judgments and feelings of men. When a single heart is regenerated, it sees all things, and particularly character, the most important of all things, differently from what it ever saw them before. And so the world, when it becomes Christian, shall despise much that it now admires, and venerate some things which it now holds in light esteem. The word "judging" is used in a peculiar Hebrew sense. It was applied by the Hebrews, not only to the administration of justice, but to all who held high civil station. Sometimes it was also used to describe that sort of preeminence which powerful character gives. Thus we find a time in their an |