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Oh, how is the soul impressed, at thoughts like these, with a consciousness of her own. dignity! how does faith increase in vital energy, and confidence grow in firmness! until we feel the assurance of St. Peter, that "the trial of our faith shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Nay more: Having not seen Christ," how do we yet feel we "love" him! How, "though even now we see him not," yet, believing, we "rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory receiving the end of our faith," that faith which is the mother of earnest zeal, and the nurse of every virtue, "in the salvation of our souls!"

My Brethren, there is but one mode in which we can truly glorify God, who hath given his Son for us; and that is, by being Christians. But who is he, who may be truly called a 'Christian? It is he who, acknowledging his unworthiness and his manifold errors, flies, to the "GRACE" of his Saviour, and applies to his progress in sanctification the "TRUTH" whose

light the Saviour causes to shine out before his eyes. In the estimation of the true Christian, God's love to him is paramount to every other object. He shuns, with the utmost aversion, every thing which can enfeeble his faith, or prove injurious to his virtue; roots out every evil propensity; and, never allowing himself to be diverted by the current of the world, keeps his eye steadily and exclusively fixed on the end in view. That which he devotes to his Saviour, is far more than all that remains, of his time, of his affections, of his faculties: it is his entire being. He is spared the torment of passion and the remorse of sin; he abandons neither his true interests, nor the cause of the Gospel; he defers not, till it is too late, selfknowledge and self-correction; he deems all love unworthy of him, but the love of righteousness. "It was for me," he saith to himself, "that Christ evinced so much love,-for me he suffered: Oh, how shall I forbear to glorify him· in life and death? How forbear to make his love known, his sacrifice appreciated, his Gospel delighted in? How forbear to concur in the

promotion of the design for which he came to visit me, or to follow in his footsteps?"

"THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH;" nor did he ever utter an unholy expression, or one unworthy of the Deity. Let us apply this lesson in our own discourses,-never to let fall a word injurious to faith, to piety, to humility, to charity, to justice, to purity; never for the purpose of lying, or for disseminating discord or vice; never with the view of seducing others; never for the purpose of taking the Lord's name in vain; but always in order to glorify God, always to promote the good, temporal and spiritual, of our fellow-creatures: such is our duty.

"THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH."—Jesus, that he might extricate us from our misery, came to share it with us. Let us take this for a lesson of charity and brotherly tenderness: let us learn to share in the difficulties, the privations, the sufferings, and the dangers of our brethren. Not satisfied with sending them proofs of our beneficence, let us for a time leave our habitations, where comfort and elegance reign, in order to visit the sick and indi

gent in their mournful retreats, carrying, whereever we go, the charity which aids, and the truth which consoles; and thus let us distinguish this great festival, and every day of our lives, by exhibiting to the view of our suffering brethren, the image of God our Saviour, in which consists the glory of the Gospel. And let us at the same time not forget, while we are careful to guard against despising the poor, the menial, the weak, and the ignorant, that the piety of the poor sufferer, who prays to God for his benefactors, is a more grateful offering to heaven than all the easy virtues of prosperity.

"THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH."-He who was "in the form of God, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death," for our salvation. In this, we have a lesson of humility and selfdenial. He humbled himself: shall we be always striving to be exalted? He became poor: must we of necessity be rich? He lived in obscurity and neglect: cannot we dispense with men's honours, esteem, and regard? He voluntarily subjected himself to suffering: must we every day enjoy our pleasures, our luxuries,

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our feasts?

Alas! are we following Christ,

when humiliation offends us, when a single privation drives us to despair, when a trivial disappointment irritates us, when a retired life wearies us and we can live only for the world, when temptation renders us cruel or unjust ;— when, in fine, we submit, for the sake of our passions, our caprices, and our worldly inte rests, to sacrifices which we should refuse to make to our duty and to heaven? Where, in this case, is the resemblance to Christ in us? Where, when we suffer our affections to be entangled with earthly things, and we have cause to blush on account of the little care we take to encourage holy dispositions,—where is our preparation for heaven? where are the evidences of our treading in the path marked out for us by Christ?

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And yet, who could concentrate his meditations upon the life of his Saviour, and upon we owe to his sufferings and his instructions, and not feel his heart expand with glowing and tender emotions, his mind exalted and enlarged, his ardour awakened, his affections purified, his