a Father in heaven whose love was ready to burst forth, and that salvation was so nigh. Nevertheless, before that night's rest should have been ended, before the light of the stars should have been extinguished by the beams of the rising sun, one would have been born, greater than all the kings of the earth, a Savior whose name and power should be known and felt through all lands and all ages of the world!

But let us look in for a moment upon the scene we are now contemplating, and ask ourselves what lessons it teaches, and what hopes it is calculated to inspire. The past day had been a busy and exciting one in the little village of Bethlehem. For it was the season appointed by the Emperor's order for the general taxing; and “all went to be taxed, every one to his own city." And Bethlehem was full; its own citizens were there, and with them many of their families who had scattered away, and were dwelling in other parts of the land. And among these semi-strangers were to be seen a young man and his wife, who had come up from Nazareth in Galilee to register themselves in Bethlehem, because to this place did they originally belong, for they were of the house and lineage of David. But the vicissitudes of the world had deeply affected this family; for the crown and the sceptre, the wealth and luxury that once belonged to it, had passed away centuries before, and now these descendants of

that proud and powerful house were among the humblest of the land. Joseph was a carpenter, and in Nazareth he ate his bread in the sweat of his face. Night came on ere yet the business of the day was ended, and this young pair sought for lodgings; but alas, there was no room for them in the inn; friends, they seem to have had none, to take them under their roof; and compelled by necessity they, at last, betook themselves to a stable, resolved on there spending the night. But it was to be no night of rest to them; the hour had arrived for this young wife to become a mother, and the inspired historian tells us that she "brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger." Oh! poverty, thou art indeed a bitter evil; but thou hast been honored as no station of wealth and affluence ever was. That poor young mother, with her new-born babe lying in a manger-was there mother ever so blessed-was there mother whose name was ever so reverently spoken by half so many lips; whose mild image hath sunk into half so many hearts? Her form is that of the poet's and the artist's ideal of beauty, and her look the look of all matronly love and grace. And that poor child who entered the world under so untoward circumstances-was he not the Son of God and the Saviour of that world which so coldly received him, which offered him no cradle but the manger!

Wonderful indeed are God's ways, for it is his pleasure to choose "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, and things that are not, to bring to nought the things that are ;" and all this that no flesh should glory in his presence.

What mortal could have dreamed when looking upon this scene of poverty and suffering, that here in this stable was commencing a series of events the grandest, the most beneficent the world ever saw? Who could have imagined that from this manger was to go out an influence that was to spread over the whole earth, change the whole aspect of society, introduce new and unheard-of, unthought-of institutions, modify and reform all governments and laws, civilize the savage man, and make human life an infinitely higher and sweeter blessing? But so it was. And I pose in the remainder of this discourse to point out a few of the many benefits which have flowed from the birth of Christ which we are celebrating this evening. In doing this I must necessarily be brief, and may well be so, for the theme to which I invite your attention is familiar to all your

minds.

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1. I mention as the first, and perhaps the most important of all the present blessings which Christ

has conferred upon the world-the most important, because the source of all the rest-the clearer and better views of God which it reveals to the human mind, and which are being more and more widely diffused through the world.

Whatever may be regarded as the source of religion, it is still true that at the moment when Christ appeared there was great need universally of a more perfect, and, I may add, a more amiable representation of the Deity. Among the heathen there existed a strange medley of opinions, crude theories, dark superstitions, gross conceits, which generally terminated in doubt, and led to no good practical results whatever. It mattered little how they speculated, or what fine conceptions on individual points they sometimes expressed; if their dreams and reasonings did not actually result in evil, they seem very seldom to have done any good, and left the world little wiser and little better for their existence. It is observable in all the pagan writers in relation to the Deity, that they almost uniformly speak of him in a cold and formal manner, inconsistent with any deep feeling on the subject. They reasoned about the Deity as the mathematician reasons on a proposition in mathematics, only without his accuracy. There was no moral element in their theology. It did not speak to the human heart. It had no sympathy for our race, nor our race for it. According to its representations, God was a being

afar off, good perhaps, but idle and indifferent to human affairs, and too unconcerned for the welfare of his creatures, to excite any love or secure any obedience, except such as fear alone could produce. I speak now of the philosophic theology. There was among the people at large a gross, vulgar superstition, which was equally powerless to good, perhaps, but more mischievous in its tendencies.

"Fear made her Devils, and weak hope her Gods, Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, Whose attributes were rage, revenge or lust."

Among the children of Israel, there was of course a far more consistent Theology. They enjoyed the advantages of a revealed religion; but still they had succeeded, by ages of corruption and perversion, in virtually robbing it of its chief excellencies, and leaving it almost a dead letter. It was the testimony of Christ himself that they had "made void the law of God by their traditions." Indeed, it is obvious enough that the Mosaic religion among them had dwindled down to a mere system of trifling, of outward rites and ceremonies, and possessed little of a true lifegiving power. The Jews were punctillious in their tithing of mint, anise, and cummin, but neglected the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and fidelity. They prayed often and much, but rather to be seen of men and accounted religious, than from any sense of the duty