that is, by them showed that he was the Saviour foretold by the prophets.

St. John could have praised his holiness, his meekness, tenderness, and patience, but he speaks of him as God, known chiefly by grace and truth, by condescending to take on him our nature, to live and to die in order to redeem or deliver us from iniquity, to give us pardon, and to ensure to us immortal life.

Our Lord may be said to be full of truth for two reasons; first, because he. was the great object of those truths which taken together are called Christianity. They naturally arise out of his character as our mediator and lawgiver. And secondly, because he came to fulfil the promises made to the patriarchs, to David, and to the Jews. Thus we read in the service of this day: "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips I have sworn once by my holiness, that I will not fail David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his

seat is like as the sun before me. He shall stand fast for evermore, as the moon, and as the faithful witness in heaven." And, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." And again, in the 132nd Psalm "The Lord hath made a faithful oath unto David, and he shall not shrink from it of the fruit of thy body shall I I set upon thy seat." But the Word made flesh was the Son and Lord of David, was called David by the prophets; and being the everlasting King, thus performed the mercy promised to his and our forefathers, and remembered his holy covenant. Thus was the Son of God full of grace and truth.

We are met, therefore, to keep in memory the coming of our Lord and God in the nature of man; the coming of Emmanuel, that is, God with us, the mighty God, the Saviour, the Prince of peace. We are met to keep in memory the most wonderful work of almighty

wisdom that is revealed to us or to angels; to contemplate the exceeding and abundant love of him whose name is love; to unite, with all our heart, and with all our strength, and with all our mind, in giving glory to God for the mystery of his humiliation, who is the Word by whom he made the worlds, God with the Father and with the Holy Ghost. Where, then, are our thoughts this day? where but upon our own overwhelming distance from the Father and from the Son? where but upon our frequent ingratitude and forgetfulness of him who was made man for us? where but upon him who came to his own, and his own received him not; who has so frequently called us to return his love with the services of our lives, and who first loved us, nay, who is waiting now to be our friend and our peace?

Let us look back to the first occasion

of his coming. It was no other than this, that "sin entered into the world,

and death by sin, for that all have sinned." All have inevitably a weakened and corrupted nature from the first Adam. By sin he lost paradise, and was subjected to the displeasure of God. By sin he forfeited all. By sin, as many of his children as live to use their will with consciousness of good and evil, follow him in sin; for from him they derive strong passions and evil propensities; passions and propensities which instinctively incline the soul to evil, before it is so much as aware of the misery and guilt which they draw after them.

How is sin to be removed, and goodness confirmed? How is man to be renewed in the image of his Maker, and to be restored to the privileges of a child of God? How is a poor sinful mortal to hope for pardon, grace, and immortality?

Behold all the world unable to deserve. a condition in which they may look for this blessedness, and millions of our race

at enmity against God, forgetful of him, without God and without hope in the world! Behold, even in the renewed heart, what distrust of itself, what fear of falling, what jealousy over remaining weakness, what daily sorrow and condemning of itself!

Will God at once forgive without any one coming between ? He himself will provide a Saviour. Of himself he will provide an offering, an High Priest, an Intercessor; for so shall men be bound to leave their sins, at the same time that they may hope for their forgiveness; so shall that forgiveness be raised to an infinite value, for God hath provided for us. the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot or blemish: that Saviour shall be in our nature, that we may love him as man, whom we adore with trembling as God; nay, grace and immortality shall be given by him; all that we believe, do, or suffer, shall receive a recompense by his promise and for his