their matin song, and unveils successively to the eye of man the towering mountain, the shady grove, the clear and winding river, the green field, and all the varied beauties of the landscape. It is this which, beaming on the silent city, first puts its slumbering multitudes into motion, awakens the hum of business in its streets, and accompanies its inhabitants in the prosecution of their various schemes of profit, pleasure or improvement. It cannot, then, be wondered at if, from its constant connection with these numerous and important benefits, mankind have been led to associate the idea of light with all that is animated, and cheerful, and happy and at the same time to regard it as an established metaphor for knowledge, virtue and religion.It shall be our object at present to illustrate the propriety of the title which our blessed Lord has here assumed;"I am the light of the world."

Our Lord Jesus Christ was entitled to the appellation of " the light of the world," from the important knowledge which he communicated. We are in the habit of calling those men who have contributed by their discoveries to enlarge the boundaries of science, or by their inventions to hasten the march of human improvement and civilization, the lights of the age in which they

lived. With how much greater justice, then, may the same honourable title be attributed to him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world; who was commissioned by God to make known amongst us truths, when compared with the practical influence of which, that of the most wonderful and sublime discoveries, as well as that of the most useful and ingenious inventions, is trifling in the extreme. That you may be the more fully convinced of this, allow me to remind you of a few of the most important particulars included in the information which our Lord was sent to communicate.

One important part of the information given by our Lord, concerned the existence and character of God, and the duties arising from them on the part of his creatures. His representations of the Divine character, taken as a whole, far surpass anything of the same kind that had been given to the world at any former period; and the duties incumbent upon us, as religious beings, have been delineated by him with a corresponding clearness. He has taught us to regard God as our father; and as such, ever ready to pardon our sins, upon sincere repentance, and to hear our prayers and grant them, so far as they are offered up unto him, with suitable humility, and earnestness, and faith, and so far as

they can be granted, consistently with our own best interests, and with the integrity of the plans by which he is gradually accomplishing his own allwise and gracious purposes with respect to his human family. He has instructed us to love God with all our heart, to trust in him, and to fear him; and to express these various feelings by sincere and spiritual worship, as well as by constant and cheerful obedience. Now, my Christian friends and brethren, consider, for one moment, seriously what effects the general diffusion of this view of God, accompanied by a suitable practice, must necessarily produce upon the condition of human society, and then say whether the teacher of it did not deserve the title of the "light of the world."

But further, as this view of the Divine character unquestionably forms the best foundation for pure morality, so, in the instructions of our blessed Lord, we find it to have been accompanied by the clearest and most satisfactory information with respect to our personal and social duties. The holiness of God, our father, who is in heaven, is held up to us as an object of imitation. Purity of heart is required of us, as the best, and, indeed, the only sure preparation for purity of conduct. We are instructed to regard all mankind as our brethren, not excepting

even our enemies, and to do to others, at all times, as we would that they should do to us in like circumstances. Surely, my Christian friends, "never man spake like this man." Is there not, in these plain and simple precepts, an internal evidence for the divinity of our Saviour's mission, that is irresistible? Whence had this man this wisdom, if not from heaven? Was not the preacher of these doctrines "the light of the world"?

Once more, if we were asked where, within the limits of this world, resides the blackest darkness, would not our answer be, in the grave? Resides, did I say? No, my friends, it did reside there once; but, blessed be God! it is there no longer! And to whom, under God, are we indebted for its removal? Who submitted to death, even the death of the cross, that he might the more effectually remove it? Who robbed the grave of its victory? Who poured upon its gloomy precincts, at his departure from them, such a stream of heavenly light as can never again be extinguished? Who pronounced the memorable words, "I am the resurrection and the life"; "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and

I will raise him up at the last day"? Was not this Divine teacher "the light of the world"?

But, after all, inestimable as we must acknowledge these truths to be, and clearly and indisputably as we have already established our blessed Lord's claim to the title which he assumes in the text, we shall be far from having done justice to the pre-eminence of that claim, if we do not consider a little more particularly the Divine authority with which his instructions were delivered. It was this which imparted to them their chief value, and which established, on his part, a peculiar and an irresistible claim to the title which he assumed. It was because "the Father, which sent him, bore witness of him"; it was because "he sought not his own will, but the will of the Father, which sent him"; it was because "he spake not of himself, but the Father, which sent him, he gave him a commandment what he should say and what he should speak"; it was because, in a word, he and his Father were one, in the scriptural sense of the expression, that he is peculiarly and preeminently entitled to the appellation of the

light of the world." It was because “ he was the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person"; because "the spirit