sublime, however, as such conduct would unquestionably be, it would fall infinitely short of that unparalleled instance of incomprehensible beneficence manifested by the world's Redeemer in the august mystery which we are now commemorating. For the captivity from which He, by the assumption of our flesh, rescued poor unfortunate mortals, was incomparably more severe, more dismal and degrading than the rudest state of thraldom in which the most barbarous and oppressive tyrants have ever been known to detain their miserable slaves. The prisoners whom He restored to liberty were not merely his Father's subjects. No. They were the creatures of his hand ;-they were debased, rebellious, sinful creatures;-they were branded objects of his high displeasure;-they were condemned culprits lying under sentence of death. They were culprits, that is to say, who, in the words of St. Paul, were condemned to "suffer eternal punishment from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." (2 THESSAL., c. i. v. 9.) And it was to deliver persons of this description—so infinitely below him in rank, so destitute of worth, so deserving of punishment-from the most galling and disastrous servitude possible to be endured, that He" the splendor of his Father's glory, the image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power," who was superlatively happy and glorious in himself, and incapable of receiving the smallest accession of felicity or honor, -condescended to leave his blissful abode, to enter

upon a stage of being so far beneath him, and to submit to all the afflictions and troubles incident to it.

What do I say? Not only did he emancipate them at so enormous an expense, from a yoke of slavery the most ignominious and painful, but he so improved and ennobled their condition as to qualify them for the glorious society of the blessed in the kingdom of his Heavenly Father. Nor is that all. For by taking to himself their nature, and thus uniting it in his own person with the majesty of the Godhead, he conferred upon it a distinction which it never before possessed even in its primeval state of innocence, when yet uncontaminated with guilt, and impressed with the divine image, it came forth untarnished and pure from the hand of its Creator. High indeed was the dignity to which the nature of man was raised in being formed to the image of the Eternal God; but higher still the character which it then assumed, when the merciful condescension of the Eternal God prompted him to be made after the image of man. Being made like unto us in all things." (HEB., c. ii. v. 17.). They who by creation were placed in a rank inferior to that of Angels, by this mysterious union, became in a manner their superiors, "for he took not the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham. And when God sent his first begotton into the world, he said, let all the Angels of God adore him." (HEB., c. i. v. 6.)

But to appreciate duly the importance of the

mystery of the Son of God "manifested in the flesh," which we this day commemorate, we must carry forward our thoughts to its subsequent and remote consequences recorded in the Sacred Scripture. We must follow,-under the direction of that unerring guide-the little babe of Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, as described in this day's Gospel, through the progressive stages of his mortal life, even to the present as well as to the future state of his immortal existence. We must view him in his early years a perfect model of filial obedience to parental authority, and manifesting, as he increased in age and stature, increasing proofs of heavenly wisdom, and of the favor which he experienced both from God and man: "And he went down with them, (his parents) and came to Nazareth; and was subject to them. And Jesus increased in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men." (LUKE, c. ii. v. 51, 52.) We must behold him inaugurated into his sacred ministry by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him, when a voice from heaven audibly proclaimed him to be the beloved Son of the Most High: "This

is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (MATT., c. iii. v. 17.) We must observe him in the discharge of the august functions of that sacred ministry, astonishing his hearers by the sublimity of his doctrines, and the purity of his moral precepts; confounding his enemies by the sagacity of his replies; and refuting their calumnies by his intrepid appeal to the uniform sanctity of his sinless.

life: "Which of you shall convince me of sin?” (JOHN, c. viii. v. 46.), whilst the winds and the waves obeyed his voice,-whilst death resigned his lifeless captives in compliance with his mandate,and even hell itself was compelled to acknowledge his supreme dominion, as was manifest from its inability to resist the exercise of his power in expelling devils from the souls of men. And we must see him closing that sacred ministry by the atoning sacrifice of himself upon the cross, by which he reconciled man with his offended Creator; and in so doing removed the obstacle, which, like the "Cherubim and the flaming sword placed before the garden of Eden, as related in the book of Genesis, precluded his admission into the heavenly paradise. We must descend with him into the tomb, where, "free among the dead," (PSALM lxxxvii. v. 5.)— having broken the bonds of death asunder,-we must contemplate him in his resurrection from that dreary abode, and gaze on him, like the Apostles after the lapse of forty days, ascending into heaven, where he is now seated at the right hand of God, our great High Priest, Mediator, and Advocate. Considering him, moreover, as the meritorious author of the divine influence of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of his faithful followers, by causing him, in compliance with his promise to his Apostles, to come down upon them, and to remain with them to the end of time, we are to regard him, in reality, as the sower in our hearts of that seminal principle of our regeneration to life and immortality,-as the

original source of all the means imparted to us, to enable us to repress the inordinate emotions of corrupt nature; to resist with fortitude the combined efforts of the enemies of our salvation; to fight, in short, manfully, a good fight, and thus to attain, at the close of our mortal campaign, "that crown of justice which the just judge has laid up for us" in his heavenly kingdom. We must anticipate his appearance on that awful day of general retribution, when, surrounded by myriads of Angelic Spirits, "he will be seen coming in the clouds of heaven, with great power and majesty" to judge the world. And, finally, we must endeavour to figure him to our minds on that solemn occasion, when, "having brought to nought all principality, and power, and strength,* and destroyed the last enemy, death, He shall deliver up his (mediatorial) kingdom to God, even the Father," (1 CORR., c. xv. v. 24, 25.) “to be thenceforth glorified by him with that glory which he had with him before the world was."

c. xvii. v. 5.

(JOHN,

Such, then, my friends, being the considerations with which it becomes you to approach in spirit to the stable of Bethlehem,-such the comprehensive view which it behoves you to take of the miraculous birth of the world's Redeemer, such the momentous circumstances connected with it, such the advantages of which it has been productive; let it be your earnest endeavour to cherish in your breasts a just sense of its transcendent importance, and to manifest in your lives a corresponding tenor * Δυναμιν.