that he preached, whether he were not indeed the Christ, although dwelling in a despised city of proverbial disrepute. Others would allege the meanness of his parentage, and the persecution with which he met, as the motives of their unbelief. He would remind them, that it was written concerning him that he should be 'meek and lowly a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.' Few or none would be prepared to expect him as a prophet. He would tell them, that he was the light of the world, and that the words that he spake were spirit and life to them that believed. A very small remnant of Israel would be found looking for a spiritual kingdom which should be neither here nor there in a local and visible appearance, but in the hearts of his servants. He would tell them that his kingdom was not of this world, and that flesh and blood could not inherit it. Scarcely any would be waiting' like Simeon for the consolation of Israel.' He would declare himself as the salvation prepared before the face of all people. They would pride themselves upon

their respect for their lawgiver, and under the pretence of his authority would refuse to hearken to one greater than Moses, who taught amongst them. Christ would retort upon them, that there was one that accused their unbelief-even Moses in whom they trusted;-since had they believed Moses, they would have believed Christ; for he wrote of him 3.

In all these respects his province would rather be to show what the Jewish law was not, and what the prophet of the Gospel was not, than to expound in all their various ramifications the doctrines and duties of Christianity, and carry the new disciple through the several bearings of the system. The simple declaration of himself as the way, the truth, and the life, sufficed to overthrow the main principle on which the Mosaic covenant rested; and it will, therefore, appear to have been rarely our Lord's practice to dwell on any thing more than the general outline of his religion, which he left to be filled up at leisure by other hands, though

3 John, v. 45, 46.

still guided in every touch by his own practical teaching, and informed throughout by the never-failing aid of his inspiring spirit.

It was owing to these circumstances that the refutation of the prominent errors of his hearers was generally selected as the channel for communicating a knowledge of the truth.

If that hearer were a Pharisee, our Lord's discourses would commonly tend to lead him to a more spiritual apprehension of the promises of the Gospel by an exposure of the formal and hypocritical services of his sect.

If a Sadducee were to be converted, the mode of address would be changed, and a previous argument to convince him of the existence of a future state of retribution, would pave the way to his knowledge respecting our Lord's heavenly kingdom, and the way by which admission into it was offered.

With a Gentile, on the contrary, the first step would be to teach him to believe in the ex

tension of Jewish privileges to the heathen world, and to look for the dawn of the sun of righteousness on the benighted nations of Paganism, before he could sit as a disciple at the feet of Jesus, and acknowledge him in faith as the Lamb of God through whom was granted also to the Gentiles repentance unto life1. Thus wisely did the ministry of Christ vary with circumstances, and receive a peculiar tone from its adaptation to the errors of the time, which must not be overlooked when it is taken as a pattern for imitation.

And here a question arises, how far the situation of the Christian world at any time since the introduction of the Gospel, has resembled the state of things which prevailed at the advent of our Lord. Or, in other words, whether the Christian preacher, like our Saviour, has to combat error before he can establish truth-to destroy the bulwarks of Satan, before he can set up the ensign of Christ.

Acts, ii. 18.

A retrospective glance at the eighteen centuries which have elapsed since the birth of Christ, will, it is to be feared, afford abundant proof that no essential difference exists in this. respect between the task of the founder of the church, and that of his stewards and ministers in succeeding ages. Human nature, allowing for the modifications arising from the change of times, the progress of civilization, or the influence of a purer creed, is fundamentally the same under all circumstances. The resistance which the heart opposes to the doctrines of the Gospel, whether it be preoccupied or not with opinions contrary to the truth, is due as much to its natural tendency, as to disturbing causes of an accidental and temporary kind.

Doubtless this tendency derived additional strength in Judea, owing to the religious principles of the nation, which, from the nature of the Mosaic covenant, were little calculated to counteract it ;-but so long as man is not of himself inclined to yield a spontaneous acquiescence to the humbling doctrines of Christianity,