that upper sphere he ever viewed the world below, and conducted all his ministrations among men.

2. The forms of his consciousness. Christ's own statement respecting what He himself found and felt in his nature, involved his own personal perfection. He alone among men uniformly expressed a distinct sense of his faultlessness. He never uttered a word, either to man or to God, which indicated the consciousness of a single defect in his own life. Besides his personal perfection, he avowed in a most extraordinary sense his official greatness. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." "I and "I and my Father are one." And on this relation of nature to God, there was built up a conviction of the strict individuality, the solitary grandeur of his mission. "I am the bread of life." "I am the life of the world." "I am the way, the truth, and the life," &c. On several occasions, he uttered the awful words, "Thy sins be forgiven thee,' "The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." In his conception and consciousness, he stood between man and God, doing a work in which he could have no partner; he was alone in responsibility, in power, and in rank. The idea of injudicious influence of friends, or of vanity, or of ambition, or of enthusiasm, or of honest mistake, cannot be taken in this case. Could he be mistaken, who bestowed on mankind a body of living spiritual truth, which infinitely surpasses all the systems, taken together, before known? Could he be mistaken or misguided, who had revealed the deepest secrets of the nature of God, or the human soul, and of the future state? We can come only to one conclusion, that the words of Jesus in relation to his personal faultlessness, and the incomparable dignity and sacredness of his official position, were a faithful and genuine expression of his consciousness-a consciousness which creates an impassable distinction between him and all men.

3. The totality of his manifestation before the world. Christ's original and constant oneness with God prepares us to expect in him an extraordinary elevation and purity of character. His mysterious consciousness, also, is the proof of moral greatness which never belonged to man. But in addition to these, there is a proof of his spiritual individuality, which comes home more directly to the consciences and hearts of men, and is fitted to move them more powerfully. It is found in his life, as a whole, in the entire unfolding of his character before the world from first to last.

4. The motive of his life. Once, in all human history, we meet a being who never did an injury, and never resented one done to him, never uttered an untruth, never practised a deception, and never lost an opportunity of doing good; generous in the midst of the selfish, upright in the midst of the dishonest, pure in the midst of the sensual, and wise far above the wisest of earth's sages and prophets; loving and gentle, yet immovably resolute, and whose illimitable meekness and patience never once forsook him in a vexatious, ungrateful, and cruel world.

If the New Testament had contained only the character of Jesus, as it unfolded itself in his intercourse with men, it had deserved a place above all human productions; it had been a mine of spiritual wealth, and a fountain of holy influence yet unknown to every other region, and to all the ages of time.

The entire absence of selfishness, in any form, from the character of Christ, cannot be questioned, and not less undoubted was the active presence of pure and lofty motives. His life was not only negatively good, it was filled up with positive and matchless excellence, and was spent directly and wholly in blessing the world. A large portion of it was occupied with teaching, and both in its design and its native tendency, Christ's teaching was only restorative and healing, and itself at once reveals the motive in which it originated,—love of man, profound, unselfish love. This reigning spirit was yet more apparent, though not more really present, in another region of Christ's life. He lived not merely to announce spiritual truth, but to relieve and remove physical suffering. "He went about doing good." He wiped away many a tear; he made many human hearts glad; and many others connected with them felt the benignant and genial influence of his earthly ministry. He relieved and removed a great amount of physical suffering; he created and planted in the world a great amount of physical happiness. He devoted himself to the work of blessing man; and in both regions of his life, in his acts and in his words, in the healing spiritual truths which he imparted, and in the unnumbered material kindnesses which he bestowed, we discover one reigning motive,love of man, deep, enduring, redeeming love.

5. His faith in God, truth, and the redemption of man. This, then, is the state of the case, as a mere matter of history: A young man, destitute of resources, of patronage, and of influence, commits himself to an enterprise which, so long as he lives, is not appreciated or even understood. He is persecuted and scorned, deserted by his friends, betrayed by one of his disciples, falsely accused and condemned to a disgraceful and torturing death. But, alone, with death before him, and without one earthly support, he calmly believes that the enterprise shall triumph, and that he shall reign in the minds and hearts of men!

Can this have been only human? Was there ever a manifestation of mere humanity like to this? Can anything short of the union of Divinity with this humanity account for the acts and states of Christ's mind?

Was it ever heard of, before or since, that a person, in the position of a malefactor, took pains to preserve the memory of his disgraceful death? Jesus Christ, about to be crucified as a felon and a slave, commanded and provided that the fact should be remembered to the end of time-did so in the full confidence that he should at last triumph. And the fact has been remembered. This is the mystery-if he be not all that he claimed to be-this is truly

more miraculous than anything ever so called, more inexplicable on all natural principles. The fact has been remembered for eighteen hundred years; it is remembered at this day; and it has been and is remembered, not as a form, a time-honoured custom, but minds have been won to Christ-human hearts have been and are inviolably attached to him.

Christ's assurance of triumph is an historical fact; his actual triumph for nearly two thousand years is no less historically certain: the two combined lead to one conclusion only. It is this,— he was, as he claimed to be, Divine; his religion is Divine, the only religion which contains the indubitable proof, and presents to the world a real incarnation of divinity-God in man.

6. The argument from his character to his divinity. We here quote more at large from our author.

This question is met by the suggestion that Jesus needed and received for the mission with which he was charged, extraordinary protection from God—protection for his intellect, his conscience, and his heart; and not only protection, but extraordinary divine influence, in the illumination, invigoration, guidance, and entire culture of his spiritual nature. It is suggested that, by the holy power and under the sheltering care of God, his character was preserved faultless, and rose to the highest perfection of which humanity is capable. Certainly, special powers are demanded for special functions, and it is fitting that unusual honours should attend unusual responsibilities. It is obvious, also, that God has a right to withhold or bestow his own gifts, and to bestow them on whom and in what measure he pleaseth. But the question arises, if Jesus was no more than man, why have there not been other men like him? why has there not been one man like to him in the whole course of time? The question is unanswerable, we humbly maintain. If by the spiritual protection and influence of God, Jesus in his peculiar circumstances with his youth, his want of education, his poverty, and all his hinderances and exposures-reached moral perfection, it is unaccountable that, in far happier combinations of circumstances, such an attainment has never been approached. What God did for one man, God certainly could have done for other men. It is unaccountable that it has never been done, and that not a single individual known to history has risen to the glory of this youthful, untaught, unprivileged Galilean mechanic. The question here, it must be remembered, does not respect merely adaptation to an extraordinary sphere; it does not respect merely official qualifications and endowments; it relates to personal excellence, to moral education and culture, to inward goodness; and it is, therefore, vitally connected with the great cause of virtue and truth in the world. If Jesus was man only, and if, therefore, the invigorating and quickening influences of God bestowed on him, could have been bestowed on others, it is impossible, without deep injury to the divine character, without impeaching either the benignity, or the purity of God, to account for their being withheld in other cases. All is intelligible and consistent, if Jesus was essentially separate from men, separate in the very constitution of his person-a being raised up once in all time for a crisis which never could again arise, and for a work never to be repeated. But if not, if he was man only, we ask in the name of that holiness which is the life of the intelligent universe, and in the name of God, with whom the interests of holiness are paramount, how it has come to pass, that of all men he alone has risen to spiritual perfection? What God did for piety and virtue on the earth, at one time and in one case, God certainly could have done at other times and in other cases. If Jesus was man only, God could have raised up, in successive ages, many such living examples of sanctified humanity as he was, to correct, instruct, and quicken the world. But he did not; and the guilt of the moral condition of mankind is thus charged at once upon God; and the real cause of the continuance of moral evil, and of the limited success of holiness

and truth in the earth is thus declared to be in God-that cause is the withholding of his merciful influences.

Between him and all men there must have been a separation-though there was also as certainly a community-of nature; a separation not incidental and relative only, but constitutional and organic. Humanity in him must have existed under conditions, essentially distinct from those which belong to the universal humanity of the world. Incarnation, but incarnation alone, helps us to the solution of the overwhelming difficulties of this case. It is perceived at once that this involved access to God, and reception from him-involved illumination, protection, guidance, and power absolutely and necessarily incommunicable to all others. Man, Jesus certainly was, but not man merely, but God in man. The union of divinity with humanity is the only principle which harmonizes the outward facts and the moral aspects of the life of Jesus Christ. Disgusted by the absurdities, and shocked by the impurities and impieties of mythological incarnations, conscience and reason find rest in one incarnation for all time.

The mystery of incarnation, notwithstanding the considerations which have been advanced, remains as dark as ever. The union of divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus Christ, we cannot explain, cannot comprehend; but that such union existed, we must believe, because it rests on evidence which cannot be set aside; and some, at least, of the consequences that follow from the mysterious fact are perfectly intelligible to us. It is clear, for example, as we have sought to prove, that incarnation is sufficient to create, and alone can create, that amount of difference between Jesus Christ and all men, which the facts of his history, otherwise irreconcilable, demand for their solution. Humanity in him, existing under conditions which are found nowhere else, we do not wonder at moral peculiarities which would otherwise be confounding. His spiritual perfection, inexplicable on every other principle, on this principle is intelligible and

consistent.

In the personal character of Christ, then, we have the evidence not only of a higher office, but of a higher nature, than ever belonged to man; the evidence of an essential, constitutional separation from all men.

In him who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; in Jesus, the Son of Mary, the words of the ancient oracle received their beautiful fulfilment: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Conclusion. The following are extracts from the concluding chapter of this invaluable work: "If Jesus be the Incarnation of Divinity, it is no longer hard to believe that both his entrance into the world and his departure from it were supernatural. So far from being anomalous, this is altogether necessary and natural. Anything else would not have been in keeping with the history. His virgin-mother is a beautiful and simple reality. It would have been incongruous, even offensive, had he not been thus physically separated from all of human kind. His resurrection also, and his ascension to heaven, are transparencies as pure as his miraculous birth. It was most meet that, having lain in the grave and "tasted death for every man," he should rise again and pass into the skies. Thus has he become a glorious prophecy and type of the destiny of all good, which, though struggling hard with evil, and often seemingly overborne, shall ultimately exhibit and assert its indestructible vitality-a prophecy and type of the destiny of all the good, who, though despised, persecuted, and slain, shall rise again unhurt, emancipated, and glorified, to immortal life.

"Again, such an entrance into the world, and such a departure from it, could comport only with a life-course full of testimonies and tokens of Divinity. The miracles of Jesus are in strict harmony with the commencement and the close of his career, and, like them, have their ground in the unexampled constitution of his personality. They are, indeed, essential to that mysterious existence of his, in which both human and Divine perfections had their place.

"At such a crisis, it was meet, it was indispensable, that the hand of God should be made bare, and that the voice of God should be uttered, as it had never been before.

"The command to all ages and to all men is, listen and believe. That command was given of old in Palestine, from the opened sky, beneath which Jesus of Nazareth stood: "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him."

Bousehold Choughts.

MARY JOHNSON.

[The following interesting narrative was written by a pious young lady, whilst on a visit to Savannah, some years ago, and when she was seventeen years of age. The paper was found among her manuscripts, after her decease. Her Christian character had become developed and matured far beyond her years. Although brought up in the midst of wealth and worldly temptation, it was her constant habit, up to the week of her death, to visit the poor and the suffering. This single sketch, made by her in a land of strangers, shadowed forth the pious industry of her self-denying life-cut short by the will of her heavenly Father, and interrupted to put her in possession of the heavenly inheritance.-ED.]

"Why should the wonders he has wrought

Be lost in silence and forgot?"

MARY JOHNSON lived in an obscure part of Savannah. For many months she had been in a decline, and her youth and interesting appearance, together with the sad story of her life, excited the warmest sympathies in her behalf. When quite young, she had been left an orphan, and her childhood was passed in an asylum. As girlhood advanced, she was thrown upon the world, and having no mother's care to watch over and direct her in the narrow way, she went far astray from the fold of God.

Association with another, more abandoned than herself, cast a stain upon her character, and at last, covered with shame as with a mantle, and overwhelmed with the admonitions of the "still, small voice" within her, she sought to hide herself from all her former friends, and, if it were possible, from the presence of God himself.

She felt her misery and danger, but knew not where to flee for refuge, or upon whom to cast the burden of her sin and unworthi