ever the living Father of his living children, that because he lives, we may live also ?

I might well doubt, however, whether nature would teach us this: for such notions of God seem peculiarly to flow from a revealed knowledge of him; and these seem to have been the considerations which urged good men, in some instances, under the Jewish dispensation, to hope, with whatever degree of assurance, for a life to come. • But now many men borrow knowledge from revelation, without being aware of it; and it is possible, I do not say that it is probable, perhaps it may never have occurred, but it is certainly possible for a man to persuade himself that he has, on these grounds, a sufficient hope of eternal life, and that he need not apply for it to the gospel. Now we must not dispute his general reasoning, for it is sound; and Christ himself and the whole scheme of Christianity, assumes it to be so. But the error of such a man as I am now imagining, consists in applying this general reasoning to his own case; in supposing that he himself is a child of God, loved by him, and loving him. This relation has been destroyed by sin, which has hindered love mutually; as a matter of experience, it has hindered us from loving God; as a matter of reason and revelation, it hinders God from loving us. And, therefore, the hope of eternal life, founded on our relation to God as children, reasonable and true as a matter of principle, becomes to us inapplicable without Christianity. It is the very object of the Christian scheme to enable us to apply this hope to ourselves; to tell us that we are reconciled to God, that we, through the Son of God, are made sons of God likewise, that God loves us, and that if we love him as our Father in return, we shall be his children for ever.

Thus, then, the hope of a Christian is a most reasonable hope in itself, inasmuch as it grows out of our knowledge of what fatherly love is, even amongst ourselves; and as God's love exceeds ours no less than his power exceeds our power, so a Father, almighty, and all-gracious, will not, we are sure, destroy his children, or suffer them to be destroyed. And whereas it is a matter of fact perfectly notorious, that, in the common course of things, this relation between God and man has become disordered, and that we do not feel towards him as loving children feel to a loving father, so it is manifest that something was wanted to restore this feeling in us, and to put us into such a situation, that we might safely apply to ourselves the hope derived from a source on God's part no less sure than the sureness of his two essential attributes, power and love.

Reason then tells us that the children of an eternal and all-gracious Father will keep their re

lationship to him for ever. Experience tells us that we do not stand naturally in this relation to God, because there is wanting in us its necessary sign, love to our Father, and a confidence in his love towards us. Revelation tells us that God has restored us to this relation, by giving so infinite a proof of his love towards us, as invites, nay, constrains us, if duly believed, to feel a full, confiding, grateful, in a word, childlike love, of him in return. And the proof appealed to by revelation is this; that God gave his own Son to die for us. Doubtless the proof is so great, that none can be greater. If God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, shall he not, with him, freely give us all things? Undoubtedly we are become the children of God, and heirs of all the hopes of God's children, if this be so. And if we have sufficient grounds to be satisfied of the fact, no sound mind can doubt the conclusion.

What grounds have we, then, for being satisfied of this great fact, that God has given his own Son to die for us? We have these grounds: that about eighteen hundred years ago there lived in Judæa, -in the only country, that is, in the world, where God was then truly known, a man who called himself the Son of God, and called upon all men to believe in him as the only way of coming to God. Now one calling himself the Son of God, yet being in form, and in the common habits of life, a man like the rest of us, needed certainly some witness to the truth of his words. And the witness to show that God is in man, the seal that declares the hand of God, is threefold; it must be made up of power, and wisdom, and goodness. Jesus of Nazareth had this seal; and of two parts of it we can ourselves be the judges: for his words which show his wisdom and his goodness are before us; to read them is the same thing as to hear them; time in no respect alters their nature or their force. The third part of the seal of God is power: and here certainly time does make some difference; we cannot see the divine power of Jesus as we can see his divine wisdom and goodness; we must receive this on the witness of others. But it is witnessed to us by those who did see it; it is witnessed to us, that He whom we ourselves know to have been divine in wisdom and goodness, was no less divine in power; that He hushed the winds, cured diseases by a word, created food in the same manner to feed five thousand people, and even raised up the dead. Yet, as He declared himself to be the Son of God, and came to assure us that we might become the sons of God through him, one thing more seemed required, that the power of God should be with him to the end; that death, that last enemy, before whom human power, and wisdom, and goodness, alike bow down to the dust together, should in him be swallowed up in

victory. Therefore it is witnessed to us, that he not only raised up others who, a few years afterwards, died again, but that he raised up himself also to triumph over death for ever. His power lived through death, and overcame it; he died because he was, like us, the Son of Man; he rose again, and ascended into heaven, because he was the Son of God.

This is witnessed to us, to speak of these only, by his beloved disciple, St. John, and the chief among his disciples, St. Peter; we have their witness in our hands, the witness of those who saw his power, even as we ourselves see his wisdom and his goodness. For I must again remind you, that these three parts of God's perfect seal are not to be separated; neither of them without the others being that seal. And this should particularly be remembered when we are considering the question of miracles. It is not every wonderful thing, contrary to the laws of nature so far as we already know them, that becomes immediately a sign of divine power. If we look through the records of past times we shall find many extraordinary facts not to be accounted for, nor yet therefore to be disbelieved, but still which are simply extraordinary; wonders, not miracles; things to excite surprise, but which lead to nothing. And in our own times the phenomena of animal magnetism have lately received an attestation which, in my judg->