of prayer, or of its privilege. In short they had but "the form of godliness while they denied the power thereof."

At the same time it must be confessed that their religion in its best days, was but an imperfect one. No one can read it without seeing that it was rather an outward than an inward institution, and, of course, that it did not go to the depths of the human heart. It had a tendency to make men religious not by persuasion and love, but by terror and force. It had many threatenings and outward punishments, and held an iron sway over the body, more than over the heart. This imperfection may be traced, if I mistake not, to the fact that it presented the divine character in a light better calculated to inspire fear than love. As has been well observed by Dr. Mangey, "The titles by which God chose to be called under the old law, being drawn from his power and superiority, carried some sort of diffidence along with them. The names God, Lord, Lord of Hosts, Jehovah, did in their natural import express his majesty distinct from his goodness, and were, therefore, only qualified to raise in the minds of his worshippers terror without hope, and reverence without comfort." It is true some of the Israelites attained to better conceptions of the Deity, and therefore loved as well as feared him. But to most of them he appeared great rather than good, and their obedience was secured more

by apprehensions of punishment, than by the gentler, but still surer motives of affection.

But from the lowly manger of Bethlehem there began to go out a new and a life-giving doctrine. There God appeared as a FATHER, whose goodness and love know no bounds, who embraces a world in his parental affection, and seeks the highest good of all his children. Men may think what they will of this doctrine; they may regard it as trifling; but I tell you, it lies at the basis of Christianity, and to it must be ascribed, at last, all the blessings that Christianity brings us. It is the grand, central truth of our holy religion; and without it the Christian would be but a Jew still. It is among the other doctrines of religion, what the Sun is among the heavenly bodies: it gives to many what light they have, and outshines, overwhelms with its flood of glory, all those that shine of themselves.

The great doctrine that God is our Father, was needed, and will ever be needed, to bring him near to us, and to make us feel that we may approach him with the boldness, and rely upon him with the confidence, of a child. We are apt to be overwhelmed with the idea of the divine greatness and majesty. The thought of God's omnipotence is terrible, if it be not softened down with the reflection that he is a father; and then his infinite power appears lovely, because it becomes in a moment the unfailing pledge of our protection.

and safety. The child-like soul can say, "My father is greater than all, and none can pluck me out of my father's hand."

I know this truth is not easily received by a sinful and unbelieving world. It is difficult to make the wicked understand and feel that God is a Father; their whole life, their conduct and thoughts, lead them to regard him in another light. They see in him nought but the threatening Governor, the frowning Judge, and the unfeeling Executioner. They love him not, and they know not how it is possible for him to love them.

And it needs not my declaration to make it evident that the church itself has found it difficult to look upon God as a Father. He who will, with an impartial mind, thoughtfully consider its history and its creeds, will ask no farther proof of the fact. Its blindness to spiritual beauty, its creeds of damnation, its history of persecution and blood, show with the clearness of demonstration, that it has not recognized God as a Father. Even to this very day it is so. This is one of the last truths that man is ready to receive, or if he believes it for himself, he denies it to all the world besides. He can not conceive how God can be a Father to the wicked, or love those who disobey him. The fact is, men forget God's parental character and relation, and ascribe to him motives, feelings and conduct, which are forever inconsistent with the idea of a father.

Still this truth is gradually gaining ground in the world. We need but compare the theology of the present day with that of any past age, in order to remark the progress that is being made in this respect. Creeds are being softened down, some harsh doctrines are already obsolete, and others are gradually becoming so. We ought not to be discouraged, for if the religion of Jesus Christ is true, God will yet be universally acknowledged as a father, and his fatherly love shall embrace all visibly, as it now does all really, and man shall be saved and happy.

2. But in the second place, I wish to call your attention to the blessings which Christianity confers in making us more intimately acquainted with God; and by this peculiar process: Christ is the image of God, the representative of his character. In Christ we see the Father. And without him, I cannot conceive how the Father could have been truly revealed. I have spoken of the influence of God's greatness and majesty upon the human mind; and I will now add that all the divine attributes, since they are infinite, are in a manner vast and incomprehensible to our thoughts. And I doubt not that much of all that is said in the world concerning the divine perfections is spoken, as we speak of what lies infinitely beyond our conception, and therefore makes but a feeble impression upon the mind of either speaker or hearer. The question has been often asked, How

do we know that goodness, or love, or justice, are in God what they are in ourselves ?—Now we needed some one to stand as a Mediator between us and God; some one who should bear our nature and with whom, therefore, we could sympathize, and in whom still the divine life should be manifested. This mediator we find in Christ Jesus. For he was the seed of the woman, and tabernacled in the flesh, and still he was Emanuel, God with us, or in other words, God was in him-the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily; so that he who sees Jesus, sees the Father. That is, in Christ's life we behold the attributes and character of the Deity himself; his love is the love of the Father; his goodness the Father's goodness; his compassion the Father's compassion. In one word, we see in Christ a perfect image of the Father. He spoke the Father's words; he did the Father's works; he is accomplishing the Father's will, and shall ultimately effect the great salvation that he devised. Christ illustrated, therefore, the doctrines which he taught, so that while he teaches us to call God our Father, he aids us at the same time to conceive aright of his divine character.

Nor can the attentive reader of the New Testament fail to observe how unlike he is to most of the ancient, and many of the modern, teachers of religion in this respect. They seem afraid that men will think too well of God, that they will