He has put in the possession of His few disciples. Is that new type of legislation a miracle or is it not? Does not that plan glorify the person? Is not the Godhead of the person necessary to solve the mystery of the plan? Brethren and fathers, we cannot but feel that the idea of such a work lifts the Saviour as far above the wisest and best of mankind as God himself is

above us.

But has this extraordinary plan been accomplished in whole or in part, or is it merely a Utopia whose brilliance first pleased and then deluded the credulity of men? The history of the church and the present condition of Christendom supply the answer. The annals of the Christian society are but the lengthened story of His power, and the "foundation of Christendom is Christ." It gives life, and life is always its own witness. It is above all logic, and free of all reasoning processes. Though its secrets answer no man's call, its reality all confess. Creation is alive, and the play of its life bathes the flowers with perfume and clothes them with grace, decks the green earth's sod and fills the air with the warbled song of merry choristers, gilds the crests of spreading landscapes with glory and floods their spaces with loveliness, beams out in the radiance of suns and flashes in the light of stars, tips the brow of the mountains with grandeur, and covers the vales with ears of corn, that golden at the bidding of the sun and rattle in the autumn breeze. Life is the electric fire which is so freely coursing around us, conducting messages of wisdom to our hearts, banishing our doubts by its intensity, and fitting us to praise Him who is its unfailing source. In its freshness and fulness is the charm of youth, the tranquil attractions of home, and the unfading pleasures of heaven. Verily, of all pleasant things, none is more so than for the eyes to behold the teeming abundance of life, and the heart to feel the impulses of its throbbing force; and of all useless acts none could surpass that of constructing arguments to prove its presence, and vindicate its reality.

In like manner the spiritual life bestowed by Christ is always its own competent proof. We may point to its sphere and describe its features, but not argue for its existence. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, and

mons of selfishness cast out of him, with a pure satisfa his daily feast, with the constraining love of Christ in art, and the Holy Ghost perfecting his fitness for the inh ce of the saints in light, he feels that he is a new creature arist Jesus, and in the new creation itself has an inving apon to ward off every assailant of the reality of his Di

rd.

And this individual is a specimen of what He is able to all men, and has been doing for thousands "since the day s showing unto Israel." The church at Jerusalem in the f ntury was full of His life, and though many defects and vi ve stained the annals of the universal church's history, e are warranted in saying that by means of that church Je still at the heart of all that is good, and true, and self-denyi the Christendom of to-day. Modern civilization, so far is virtuous, and philanthropic, and high-principled, was bo the stable at Bethlehem, and reared in the land of Palestin ne secondary consequences of the Christian religion have pen ated far beyond the boundaries prescribed by ecclesiastics, an t a few who reject the Christian name owe their best treasur the Nazarene's hand. Society, stricken with moral paraly , is touched by the Physician, and though made whole and re icing in the exhilarating pulsations of a newer life, is yet, lik e man at the pool of Bethesda, unaware from whence the heal g comes. Christianity is in the air, and men breathe it an e braced for duty and trial by it, unconsciously as children hale the oxygen of the atmosphere without knowing its rela

eradicated some vices and limited the growth and area of begotten new virtues and given to all virtue a grace and tion the disciples of Zeno and Seneca never saw. Is this a induction? Are we told to collect our facts? Give us tion!

We crave no more. By its results we will abid if anything under the sun can stand that test it is the gospel of the blessed God.

to come.

The plan of Christ is then largely an accomplished f not entirely so. The life spreads and multiplies, bu abounds notwithstanding. The golden age of Christiani The "world's future" will be more glorious t past or present. Redemption is not an isolated and inc act, but a continuous and ever-perfecting work of the R of Men. We are not orphaned, nor can we be. He is living Comforter. The Divine King is not dead, nor left the work of His hands. What He has been to His he will be for all coming time. He is the same to-day, day, and forever. Let us not fear, but hold fast the be of our confidence to the end. The leaven works secre surely. Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh morning. Though our enemies come in as a flood, an sad havoc with the church of the Lord Jesus, we will dare not, despair. The living Redeemer is our defence victory, and He will assuredly render all opposition cont to the more secure accomplishment of His final pur have seen the delicate and fragile flower called the No closing its blue and white tinted leaves amid the thickenin of evening, and I have found in the sparkling sunlight o ing a larger development and a softer beauty; so the ch

es more dark and chaotic than ever.

Accept the person ay His purpose, and the disorder is only less great.

E

de of viewing the subject which rejects either element is ed, illogical, and inconclusive. The historic portraiture i ng organism of which the supernatural is the spinal colu 1 the life-giving plan the direction along which it acts. I I and moral consistency compels us to refuse any rudiment tainty which eliminates either the nervous centre or unnels for its operations. The modern historians of Ch st be narrowly watched, for it is both unjust and uncriti analyze the gospels, precipitate the rudimentary ideas, a -n take hold of one and bear it aloft as though it were the sy -sis of the whole. Analysis is necessary and is useful, f never can have more than imperfect notions of Christ, an ese examinations will tend to make each notion more distinc when the process of uniting all the parts together begin s unscientific and base to leave behind even the least of th ncipal elements. But worse than this is the modern critica emistry. Obtaining a certain re-agent, its professors dra character of Christ they desire, having left in solution al - facts which testify to the supernatural. re we protest, as well in the name of reason as of Scripture these things were written, the whole of them, that we may ieve not only that there was a Jesus and that He was a sort Messiah, but also that He was the SON OF GOD, and that believwe may have life through His name.

Against this proce

We rejoice, therefore, to be assured again that the gospel

does not demand the death of reason in offering itself to the acceptance of man, but boldly appeals to his judgment, simply requiring that he shall judge righteously and with a desire to discover the will of God. Christianity is not the foster-mother of credulity. Christ is not the Lord of unreason. Intelligence confirms our faith and justifies our hope. Examination reveals the solidity of the rock on which we build, and shows that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Inquiry attests the validity of the gospel facts, and proves that we have not followed a cunningly-devised fable in trusting to the power and looking for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know whom we have believed, how divinely strong, how humanly tender, and we are persuaded that He is able and that He intends to keep those sacred interests we have committed to Him till the day of judgment.

Christ is our life, and the world's only hope of complete regeneration. No need of the sons of men at this moment is so pressing as that of spiritual life, and no want of the church so deplorable as that of more of the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. Revered fathers and brethren, must we not confess this? Sin abounds. Our Christian lives are poor and low and selfish, and in every way too much unlike our Lord's. Death is holding high carnival in the world, and secretly plucking some of the loveliest flowers of the church. Toiling in the towns and villages of our land, or groping in the dense darkness of heathenism abroad, are millions who are perishing for lack of the knowledge of Christ, and yet, you believe, I believe, there is an overflowing abundance of life for them in Him and only in Him. Material progress attains its climax without raising in the smallest degree the moral nature of man. Money rolls in upon us with unprecedented fulness, but does not drive out sin. Ritualism battens

upon the evils of a sensuous age, and yet men do not live. Theories of brotherhood, the direct offspring of Christianity, prove their utter powerlessness in heart-rending facts when without Christ. Wise as the age is, and no age ever was wiser, it cannot dispense with Jesus. Strong as men are in their unionand when were they stronger?—they are but chaff before the wind without His arm for their defence. Self-reliant as they are-and could they be more so ?-their valor and courage are a