found only in the God-man, and the ineffable union thence secured between the soul of a believer and the Spirit of God a result accomplished by a reconciling and regenerating power on the part of Christ, by a penitent and confiding faith on the part of the Christian. "God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself."

How plain, then, the truth of our proposition, that Christ presents himself to us as an infinite central power, from which flows a spiritual influence to redeem the lost, and thus constitute a sacred organization, which may be the light and glory of the world!

All this is expressed by Christ in a few pregnant sentences, which he uttered in the form of supplication, just before his death. "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.”

The same great truth has been uttered in all ages by the church universal, in that prayer which Christ taught his disciples, the model and form of all true supplication: "Our Father who art in heaven-hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as

it is done in heaven." This, then, is the key note of our Savior's teaching.

True to this grand idea, which, even as a conception, is original and perfect, like the sun shining by its own light, Jesus Christ went forth "to teach and to preach" amid the hills and valleys, and in the cities and villages of Judea. He addressed himself chiefly to the common people, in language of marvellous simplicity and force. He spoke to them respecting God and the soul, sin and holiness, life and death, duty and immortality, as man had never before spoken. And not only so, but he looked all he said, acted all he said; so that he himself was a living Word, an embodied, eternal Discourse.

So striking and authoritative was his teaching, and yet so simple and clear, that all were compelled to acknowledge its force. Attracting to himself a few childlike souls, mostly fishermen, who longed for the coming of the kingdom, of which they cherished only dim conceptions, he made known to them gradually the design of his mission, and the principles of his kingdom. The terms used are so familiar and translucent, and yet so perfect and full, that while, from our familiarity with them, they seem the merest commonplaces, they yet contain the grandest and deepest verities. But they would never have become commonplaces, even to us, had they not pos

sessed, at first, the most complete originality, as well as the most touching simplicity. Like the unchanging stars, familiar to us from childhood, they are more than they seem. Their beauty is of the infinite. Back of these luminous points lie undiscovered worlds.

Indeed, the language of Christ is not that of the schools, far less of the rhetoricians. It is scarcely language at all. So transparent is it, you see the things rather than the words. In fact, it is only when you see the things rather than the words, that you understand him. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God." "There is joy in heaven, among the angels of God, over one sinner that repenteth." "Our Father." "Take no thought [care] for the morrow. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." "God is a spirit." “Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth to eternal life." "Two men went up unto the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The

Pharisee stood by himself and said, 'God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, unjust, extortioners, or even as this publican.' But the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, and cried, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

How simple all this, but how

full, how significant!

The teaching of Christ is that of inspiration, or, as we term it, of revelation, similar, yet far superior, to that of nature; new and strange, but simple and striking, like the well-known earth and sky, in which all forms are blended with a familiar, yet mystic beauty. Indeed, it is the utterance of that eternal Wisdom (Logos) from which are all things, natural and divine. "Never man spake like this man." Sometimes in the synagogues, but oftener in the open air, by the wayside or by the well, on the mountain or by the margin of the lake, in the shadow of the temple or in the depth of the wilderness, he uttered his words of life. Nothing could be more natural, nothing more thrilling and impressive.

The originality, completeness, and imaginative beauty of his parables, in which the highest, most abstract, spiritual truths are embodied in familiar forms, which have all the vividness of life, must have greatly struck the minds of the people. Containing unknown depths of spiritual

truth, they are yet simple and beautiful as the falling dew, or the blowing clover. God and the soul, in their mysterious relations, duty and happiness, sin and misery, the infinite and immortal state, regeneration and resurrection, the renovation of society, the restitution of all things, the everlasting life, the everlasting death, all are incarnated in these marvellous inspirations. The invisible world is made as patent as the visible; mysterious, indeed, as all things are mysterious, stretching away into the everlasting immensities, yet real, palpable, glowing. Every thing external and internal is set in motion; all around us, within us, and above us, trembles with life. The most delicate and affecting relations, the deepest feelings, the most amazing facts and changes in the realm of spirit, are bodied forth in shapes of grace and power.

Indeed, all outward things, in the parabolic and figurative language of Christ, are made to symbolize and describe invisible realities. The elder dispensations, the types and shadows of the Jewish worship, the temple with its mystic forms and magnificent ritual, all external changes and usages, earth and sky, mountains and streams, plants and animals, are made to range themselves, in figurative beauty, around his mar. vellous revelations.

But what is most peculiar in the teaching of