Lamb," so that I say, we do not know to where the love of Chr st extends, but we may believe it embraces all, even as his blood took away the sin of all. I say, we do not know; the love of God in Christ passeth knowledge, anything of which we have any knowledge.

It is revealed to us from what we are redeemed: from sin, from this corruptible inheritance, from death, from the grave, from the penalty of sin, hell. "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction" (Hos. xiii. 14). "He will swallow up death in victory" (Is. xxv. 8). And in referring to this passage, St. Paul exclaimed, "O, death, where is thy sting? O, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin." O! how terrible would be the sting of sin in death if it had not been taken away. Who could endure the torment? "He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already." The love of Christ has taken away the sting of death, and the blessing to the creature is ineffable, it passeth knowledge. "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." This grand chapter should be read here, to see from what Christ has delivered us, and to what He has restored us. "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption: it is raised in incorruption :

"It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

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'It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body."

And so it is written, "the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit." The work of life is begun here, it is going on, but we do not know its end, its range; the love of Christ in this work of life, and of eternal life, "passeth knowledge." Never till we stand on the realm of light, and dwell in the light, in the ineffable glory, shall we know the love that brought us there. "The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."

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Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." The world we live in is a marvel of love, of the Creator's wisdom, power, and love; without the elements of sin, corruption, and defilement, it would be perfect; but whạt the love of Christ has prepared we do not know, "I go to prepare a place for you," and He hath said, it is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away; but we do not know all its glories. When we stand upon "the sea of glass, with the harps of God," we shall thrill with wonder and with joy; and heaven will resound with the praises of Him whose love surpassed our knowledge.

"Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. v. 2).

"God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ" (ii. 4).

"The Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Gal. ii. 20; 2 Thess. ii. 16).

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John iv. 10).

"Jesus Christ, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood" (Rev. i. 5).

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

"Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord" (Rom. viii. 35).

It is an ocean "We speak the hidden wisdom,

We read also of the love of the Spirit (Rom. xv. 30). "The fruit of the Spirit is love," so that God in His every relation to the creature is love. In Christ, and through Christ, His own nature love, has its eternal flow; towards man, has its eternal flow. without beginning and without end. wisdom of God in a mystery, the which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory" (1 Cor. ii. 7). This is just the difference between natural and spiritual religion, the one is self-taught, the princes of this world know it, the masses of the people know it; the other is taught by the Spirit of God, revealed by the Spirit of God; and applied savingly to each heart by the Spirit of God. And this is what the Apostle goes on to say, there has been no conception of the things that God has prepared for those who reciprocate the hidden love, but to the

spiritual vision they are revealed. "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." I repeat, this is the difference between natural, and spiritual religion; the one will perish in the wreck of nature; the other will survive the wreck, and the soul so quickened by the Spirit, will dwell eternally in "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."

Then to see Christ in this broad sense, in His relation to us as God, we must look back at Him in the beginning; and know that He who trod our earth, was indeed the One Eternal Being. "I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one" (John ii. 13-14).

"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was" (Prov. viii. 23). "I am the beginning and the ending" (Rev. i. 8; xxi. 6; xxii. 13). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in

the beginning with God" (John i.).

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. i. 1). These periods, or dates, are the same. The Word, Christ, "was God," or, as He Himself said, "the beginning of the Creation of God," (Rev. iii. 14). He was the Creator, "The world was made by Him" (John i. 10). created" (Col. i. 16). "He is before all things" (17th

verse.

"By Him were all things.

"Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold...But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1 Pet. i. 20).

"His goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Mic. v. 2). "The Christ of God" was in the beginning. In the unity of the Godhead, the Eternal Spirit; but the Trinity of the Persons, was a truth, a doctrine to be revealed in time. It is enough for us to know that Christ was God, that God was in Christ, knowing this, all is stability, all is safety; He determined to interfere to save the world, and what the Almighty proposed to do, must be done. "It is finished.” "It is done.'

But when I am writing of Christ in the beginning, we must define a period, and not think that it relates to any beginning relatively to Himself, but to the creature, for whose sake He, as "The Word," the eternal purpose, had a beginning. It was to this He referred when He gave Himself the title, "The beginning of the Creation of God." As God, He had no beginning, and will have no end, life is an everlasting circle; if we traverse the abyss of a past eternity, we shall be no nearer the point of a beginning than when we started from the shores of our little planet; the cycle is eternal, and will ever revolve, the same unending existence. Here, we not only see Christ as man, as "The Word" in the beginning, but as God, this One Eternal Being, "O, Father, glorify thou Me with thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." From that point He could look forward; and from the stage of this world He could look backward, "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John xvii. 5-24). With God all things are