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RECOMMEiNDATIONS 
 
 OP THE 
 
 GREAT TEACHER 
 
 From Rev. Dr. Hawes of Hartford, Ct. 
 
 Gen t. — I have read with much interest the volume 
 entitled the Great Teacher, or Characteristics of out 
 Lord's Ministry, which you put into my hands a few days 
 since. — Dr. Humphrey has done a good service by bring- 
 ing the work before American Christians. It is a book of 
 rare excellence, breathing an admirable spirit, abounding 
 in rich thoughts, expressed in an easy flowing style, and 
 well adapted to do good in these angry times, by calling 
 the disciples of the Savior away from contentious specula- 
 tions to learn of the 'Great Teacher ' himself 
 
 No Christian it seems to me, and especially no Minis- 
 ter, can rise from the reading of this volume without being 
 made better, both in mind and heart. — Its extensive circu- 
 lation could not fail to do great good. 
 
 Aflectionately yours, 
 
 J. HAWES. 
 
 From the Boston Recorder. 
 
 THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 This is a title of a work by the Rev. John Harris, pas- 
 tor of an independent church, in Epsom, England ; re- 
 published with an introductory essay, by Dr. Humphrey, 
 President of Amherst College. I have read but a part of it 
 yet ; but one needs only to taste of amelon to know whether 
 it is a fine one ; if a man take wine, he may be sure of its 
 flavor, without drinking off a whole cask; you need not 
 wait till you have chemically examined every particle of 
 the whole mass of ore in a new locality, before you pro- 
 nounce that it belongs to amine of precious metal. So I 
 do not hesitate to judge this new work, on the character- 
 
2 RECOMMENDATIONS, 
 
 istics of our Lord' s Ministry, to be a most valuable con- 
 tribution to the rich stores furnished in the present age to 
 the religious reader ; and to respond very sincerely to the 
 following remark of Dr. flumphrey, in his excellent intro- 
 duction, ' That disciple must have thought a great deal 
 more, or a great deal less, than nine tenths of his Chris- 
 tian brethren, of the striking peculiarities of our Lord's 
 preaching, who can read these highly original and finished 
 Essays, without having his mind enlightend, his heart 
 warmed, and his admiration of the Great Teacher in- 
 creased.' — A lover of good books. 
 
 Nothing seems to us to be more important, at the present 
 time, than the object of this volume, to turn the minds of 
 all Christians away from noise, controversy, and excite- 
 ment, to the meek and holy Jesus. Angels might look 
 into his character as well as into his redemption. 
 No study can exhaust its wonders; no investigation can 
 search to the depth of its mysteries ; no language can ad- 
 equately describe it. — Editor. 
 
 From the Hampshire Gazette — hy Rev. John Todd. 
 
 Such is the title of a book [The Great Teacher] just is- 
 sued from the press of the Adams' of Amherst. Having 
 heard of the stir which it made in England, we waited 
 with impatience for its appearance from our press. And 
 now that it is published, we proceed to say that is a very 
 neatly printed volume of 437 pages, 12mo. It consists of 
 five Essays: 1, The Authority of our Lords Teaching ; 
 2, the Origi?iality of our Lords ttaching, under seven 
 heads; 3, the Spirituality of our Lords teaching; 4, 
 on the Tenderness and Benevolence of our Lord s teaching ; 
 5, the Practicalness of our Lords Teaching. The intro- 
 ductory Essay by Dr. Humphrey, is characteristic of him- 
 self, neat, terse, short, rich, and original. 
 
 The book itself must have cost much meditation, much 
 communion on the bosom of Jesus, and much prayer. Its 
 style is like the country which gave it birth, beautiful, vari- 
 ed, finished, and every where delightful. An American 
 writer on the same subject, would have more resembled his 
 own country, rising now and then on lofty elevations, and 
 then again descending to the valley. But the English 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 3 
 
 writers carrj^ you on, like their own Mc'Adamized roads, 
 safely, rapidly, delighted and unfatigued.- But the style of 
 this work is its smallest excellence. It will be read. It 
 ought to be read. It will find its way to many parlors, 
 and add to the comforts of many a happy fire-side. The 
 reader will rise from each chapter, not able perhaps, to 
 carry with him many striking remarks, or apparent para- 
 doxes ; but he will have a sweet impression made upon his 
 soul like that which soft and touching music makes when 
 every thing about it is appropriate. The writer pours 
 forth a clear and beautiful light, like that of the evening 
 light-house, when it sheds its rays upon the sleeping waters 
 and covers them with a surface of gold. We can have 
 no sympathy with a heart which yields not to impressions 
 delicate and holy, which the perusal of this work will 
 naturally make. Let your readers judge for themselves. 
 
 From the Christian Secretary, Hartford, Ct. 
 
 The work entitled as above, we say from the fullness of 
 our heart is richly worth, and will well repay an attentive 
 and serious reading. We rejoice to see it re-printed in 
 America. If any Christian would counteract the influence 
 of icorldly reading upon his mind, let him throw by the 
 trash that bewilders, and substitute such reading as this 
 book supplies. To say all we wish to, and in the fewest 
 words, we give an extract from the Introduction of Presi- 
 dent Humphrey. 
 
 ' The author of the present work, is the pastor of an in- 
 dependent church in Epsom, Eng. ; and ' is well reported 
 of by his brethren.' It being his object in this volume, 
 to bring us directly to Christ, for divine instruction, he en- 
 titles it, The Great Teacher. The book contains five Es- 
 says, of considerable length, and on the following impor- 
 tant topics. 1. The Authority of our Lord's teaching, 
 2. The Originality of our hordes teaching, under seven 
 distinct heads. 3. The Spirituality of our hordes teach- 
 ing. 4. On the Tenderness and Bene t.wlence of our Lor d\^ 
 teaching. 5. The Praxticalness of our Lord'' s teaching. 
 In reading these Essays, I have been exceedingly interested 
 as I am sure every person must be, who is pleased to find 
 weighty and well digested thoughts, imbued with deep 
 
4 RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 christian feeling, and clothed in perspicuous and polished 
 language. Mr. Harris is a writer of much more than or- 
 dinary intellectual powers and cultivation. He writes 
 like one who has long been accustomed to ' sit at the feet 
 of Jesus,' and has eminently profited under his teaching. 
 Instead of asking what other men have thought of The 
 Great Ttacher, and borrowing their opinions, to help 
 make out a respectable volume, he has evidently heard 
 for himself; and he gives us his own impresions vividly 
 and forcibly, just as he received them. Such a book as 
 this, is not often written before the meridian of life, and 
 never either before or after, without deep and protracted 
 meditation. 
 
 I do not wonder at the avidity which is hastening its 
 wide circulation in England ; nor at the high terms, in 
 which it is commended, by so many of the best judges of 
 its merits in that country. lam sure, that it deserves an 
 equally rapid and wide circulation here.' 
 
 From the Connecticut Observer. 
 
 We learn, from the Introductory Essay, that the Author 
 of this work is 'the pastor of an independent church, in 
 Epsom, England; and is well reported of by the breth- 
 ren.' The work contains five essays on ' The Authority 
 — The Originality — The Spirituality — The Tenderness 
 and Benevolence — and The Practicalness, of our Lord's 
 Teaching.' President Humphrey has laid the American 
 churches under obligations, by bringing this work before 
 their notice, and urging it on their attention, in his inter- 
 esting Introductory Essay. He states that the work is 
 having a rapid and extensive circulation in England, as it 
 will have no doubt in this country, as soon as its merits 
 are known. We have not been more deeply interested, for 
 a long time, in any volume, than in this. It displays great 
 originality and richness of thought, and power of illustra- 
 tion and expression. Whoever reads the Preface, will 
 need no urging to read the whole work. It has reminded 
 us, in its turn of thought, and in the vividness of its im- 
 agery, of the poetry of Pollok. 
 
GREIAT TEACHER 
 
 CriARACTEKISTICS 
 
 LORD'S MINISTRY 
 
 REV. JOHN HARRIS 
 
 WITH AN LXTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 
 
 BY HEMAN HUMPHREY, D. D 
 
 PRESIDENT OF AMHERST COLLEUK. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 AMHERST: 
 
 J. S. AND C. ADAMS 
 
 1836. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction to the American Edition. ... ix 
 
 Preface. xix 
 
 ESSAY I. 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF OUR LORD'S TEACHING. 
 
 ' He spake as one having authority. ' 
 
 A Divine Teacher needed — Desired — Might have been 
 expected — Was predicted — His advent in the person of 
 Christ — His lowly condition--Herald — Installation to 
 office— Subject proposed— A very small portion of his 
 discourses recorded-Scope of his teaching—First char- 
 acteristic, authority. I. Authority of goodness— Invi- 
 tations--Beatitudes. II. Authority of greatness- 
 Claims universal audience— Superiority to Jonah, Sol- 
 omon, and all the great names of the Jewish Church — 
 Supremacy— Central object of the judgment day- 
 Impresses his name on every thing— Speaks of all 
 things awful and sublime, calmly, like one familiar 
 with them— Teaching, declarative and dogmatic. 
 III. Authority of solemnity--His peculiar formula— 
 His denunciations of woe. IV. Legislative authority 
 — Revises the Mosaic code — Asserts his superiority to 
 lavv— Repeals existing economy— Controls laws of na- 
 ture himself, and confers the power on others— ' I say 
 unto you, ' — His new commandment — Not only enacts 
 laws but ensurse obedience— Forgives sin— Reposed 
 on his own personal authority — Conclusion — His 
 teaching exempt from all supposable circumstances 
 unfavorable to authoratative teaching— Taught with 
 the perfect conviction of the truth of his doctrine— 
 His example enforced it— Cordial sympathy with it- 
 Knew the ultimate principles on which his doctrines 
 rested— And the supreme value of the truth he taught 
 — And the purity of his own motives— And the ulti- 
 mate triumph of his doctrine— All this must hav-e 
 clothed his teaching, especially when contrasted with 
 the prevailing mode of Jewish instruction, with com- 
 manding power'-His disciples should be distinguished 
 by reverence and docility — These dispositions to be 
 sought and found at the throne of grace. . . 41—79 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 ESSAY II. 
 
 THE ORIGINALITY OF OUR LORDS TEACHING. 
 
 Section I. — Of God the Father. 
 
 ' Never man spake like this man.' 
 
 'No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever tlie 
 Son will reveal him,' 
 
 Originality not valuable for its own sake — His praise 
 consists, partly, in not being more original — Deigned 
 to adopt familiar illustrations and sayings in order to 
 engage attention and affection — His highest claim to 
 originality consists in new disclosures of truth — To 
 have merely interpreted the book of nature, unavail- 
 ing — Is itself brought under the curse — The great 
 truth it attests is the existence of its Maker. I. Christ 
 taught his character — Prevailing ignorance on the sub- 
 ject — Even in Judea — Among tne heathens, the Epi- 
 curian system general. II. Christ taught the univer- 
 sal providence and paternal character of God. III. 
 His love to man, exemplified in the mission of Christ. 
 IV. This, only the means of mercv. V. The end — 
 Free gift of eternal life. VI. Offered to all. VII. 
 Character of Christ is the character of the Father. 
 VIII. Taught us to call him our Father — Summary of 
 our Lord's teaching on this subject— Life eternal to 
 know God through Christ. 80—113 
 
 Section II. — Concerning Himself. 
 
 ' No man knoweth the Son but the Father.' 
 
 His person unique— Not understood by his disciples till 
 after his ascension. I. The complexity of his person. 
 II. Object of his advent— Evinced the divine existence 
 — Embodied the Divine spirituality — But, chiefly, rep- 
 resented the Divine character. III. Mode of manifes- 
 tation—By sensible representation — Affirming that all 
 he did was only in fulfilment of the Father's commis- 
 sion—Ascending the f.ross-- Saving the outcast— Iden- 
 tifying his interest Avith ours— Sending salvation to 
 Jerusalem— Giving his own Spirit to his disciples — 
 Interceding— Personally— Allowing us to plead his 
 name— Engaging himself to answer prayer — Object of 
 the whole to demonstrate that 'God is love;' and to 
 make us the heirs of that love, .... 114 — 1G5 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Section III. — Of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 ' This spake he of the Spirit.' 
 
 Difficult to discriminate between originality and mere 
 novelty— New theological opinions sprung up between 
 the times of Malachi and of Christ— Though much is 
 taught of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, the 
 doctrine of his agency is one of the most original that 
 came from the lips of Christ. I. Mission of the Spirit 
 dependent on his own return to heaven — The reasons 
 why. 11. Object of the Spirit's advent — To convince 
 of sin. III. Means of his operation, IV, Necessity 
 of regeneration. V. Effects of it. VI. Glorifies 
 Christ. VII. To enhance our views and desires of 
 the Spirit, our Lord taught that to reject him is unpar- 
 donable — That his presence would compensate for his 
 own departure — Be a remedy for all the miseries of 
 earth — God's all-comprehending gift — Free for all. 165—203 
 
 Section IV. — Of the Doctrine of the Triyiity ; and of 
 a Spiritual Church. 
 
 The doctrine of the Trinity imperfectly known under the 
 Jewish economy— Taught by our Lord practically — 
 In the formula of christian baptism. I. The existence 
 of a spiritual church. II. Had been pre-figured — 
 The world contains nothing like it. III. Its simplicity, 
 IV. Its purpose. V. Its spirituality— Preached repent- 
 ance as a requisite for membership— Armed his church 
 with power to expel offenders— Denounced the Phari- 
 sees for ' teaching as doctrine the commandments of 
 men.'— The church his earthly kingdom. . . 203—218 
 
 Section V. — 0?i Satanic Agency. 
 
 'The devil and his angels.' 
 
 Satan the prince of devils — Numbers of his agents — His 
 apostacy, and ruin of man — His power on earth, a 
 kingdom — Organized — Long almost undisputed — 
 Christ came to dispute his authority — Took an affect- 
 ing view of human vassalage — Satan, aware of his 
 advent — Undertook to conduct his temptation — Made 
 his life an incessant confiict—Compassed his death — 
 
I CONTENTS. 
 
 Defeated — The defeat of Satan quite reconcileable 
 with his present prevalence— Called a spirit, to excite 
 our vigilance— An unclean spirit, to awaken our antip- 
 athy—His influence over the heart, great— But only- 
 exercised with our consent— The period of his reign 
 limited 218--236 
 
 Section VI. — Of the Immortality of the Soul ; 
 Resurrection of the Body, 
 
 'I am the resurrection and the life.' 
 
 The hope of immortality reasonable — The great instinct 
 of humanity— Revelation necessary to authenticate it 
 — It did so, partially, under the last economy— Full 
 revelation and proof of the doctrine reserved for 
 Christ. I. Taught the doctrine of an intermediate ex- 
 istence. II, Proved a resurrection. III. He himself 
 will raise the dead. IV. Resurrection, imiversal. V. 
 Bodies raised, identical with those intered. VI. Means 
 of a resurrection to eternal life, provided by Christ — 
 He possesses the power — By dying in our stead, has 
 acquired the right — Begins, even here, to make his 
 power and right available, by quickening dead souls — 
 The final extinction of death so certain, that he speaks 
 of it as already eifected. ...'... 230— 2Gi 
 
 Section VII. — Of the Final Judgment. 
 
 ' The Son of man shall come in his glory ; and before him shall be gath- 
 ered all nations.' 
 
 The judgment anticipated by the human mind. I. Its 
 publicity. II. Christ himself the judge. III. Its sol- 
 emn pomp. IV. Its rectitude— Hence, it will be uni- 
 versal — Take cognizance of every acl--A judgment 
 of comparison and proportion — And conducted accor- 
 ding to the known laws of the divine government. V. 
 Its division of all intelligent beings into good and bad 
 — This distribution commenced upon earth — Angels 
 will then be employed to complete it. VI. Its final 
 awards—These awards everlasting— The whole doc- 
 trine exibits the practical value of the gospel, and the 
 infinite importance of Christ. . ... . 263—289 
 
CONTENTS. Vn 
 
 ESSAY III. 
 
 SPIRITUALITY OF OUR LORD's TEACHING. 
 
 ' The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life.' 
 
 The spirituality of the Divine Nature. II. Of the mor- 
 al law. III. Of the worship of God— As opposed to 
 that which is local— Ceremonial — Prescribed by hu- 
 man authority — Formal and insincere. IV. Of his 
 kingdom — Denounced the temporal hopes of the Jews 
 — Called for spiritual subjects — Born from above — Dis- 
 claimed for his kingdom all resemblance to earthly 
 governments — Conclusion — The whole reminds us of 
 our proneness to repose in a form of piety to the ne- 
 glect of evangelical holiness — This has originated su- 
 perstition—Neutralized the Jewish economy— And ear- 
 ly began to vitiate Christianity itself— Importance of 
 exemplifying the spiritual nature of our vocation. . 290— S27 
 
 ESSAY IV. 
 
 ON THE TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE OF OUR 
 lord's TEACHING. 
 
 ' Learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto 
 
 your souls.' 
 
 'And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which 
 
 proceeded out of his mouth.' 
 
 The recollection of our Lord's character necessary, to 
 feel the pathos of his teaching, I. His exellences — 
 Loveliness of his youth — His gi"acious commission — 
 Purity— Siiperiority to the age in which he lived— In- 
 dependent of all surrounding influences— Universality 
 of his plans — dualities contrasted, but harmonized by 
 benevolence — Overflowing benignity. II. His benevo- 
 lence as a Teacher— Objection answered— Employed 
 parables— Chose to be poor— Taught gratuitously- 
 Simplified instruction— Teaching consolatorj'— Pla- 
 ces in which he preached, evinced condescension— Al- 
 ways accessible — Impressed unwelcome truths by em- 
 ploying affecting signs; the little child; washing the 
 disciples' feet; the last supper. III. Instances of the 
 tenderness and benevolence of his teaching— Predic- 
 ted his own death— Blessed the poor in spirit— Soothed 
 the anxious— Offered the weary rest— Parable of the 
 
Ill CONTEXTS. 
 
 prodigal— Identifies himself with all piety— Apostro- 
 phizes, and weeps over Jerusalem— His valedictory 
 discourse— His purposes of grace — Universality of his 
 offers — Expressions of his benevolence w^ent on in- 
 creasing to the last— Conclusion; character of Christ 
 regarded as an evidence for Christianity — An example 
 —And an encouragement— His expostulation with the 
 unbeliever 328—387 
 
 ESSAY V. 
 
 THE PRACTICALNESS OF OUR LORD S TEACHING. 
 
 ' Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven isperfect.' 
 
 I. Our Lord evinced his wisdom, as a practical teacher, 
 by limiting his revelations to the measure of our real 
 wants— By dispensing with a cumbrous riutal. II. His 
 favorite topics, humility and benevolence. III. Pre- 
 ferred comprehensive rules to a detailed enumeration 
 of duties. IV. His morality extends to the thoughts. 
 V. To motives— Love of God. VI. Prescribes for its 
 end, the glory of God. VII. For its standard, the char- 
 acter of God. VIII. Injunctions, simple and authori- 
 tative—Sanctions. IX. Not only commands, but en- 
 ables. X. Objections of the incompleteness of the Sa- 
 vior's code, answered— Happy effects of his gospel, 
 XI. Impiety of those who regard it as a dispensation 
 from holiness. XII. Supreme importance which he 
 ascribed to holiness. — Aimed to make earth resemble 
 heaven 388—43'; 
 
INTRODUCTIOX 
 
 TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 The seal which God put upon man, when he made him, 
 was nothing- less than his own bright image. What a 
 mysterious creation ! The stamp of the Divinity upon a 
 child of the dust ! What noble intellectual and moral 
 powers ! What a destiny ! And can this being, so ' fear- 
 fully and wonderfully made,' know himself and find out 
 the character of his fellows?- Is he capable of admiring 
 what is ^reat in them, and imitatino- what is grood? 
 
 These questions do not need a formal answer — for the 
 natural, as well as ' the proper study of mankind, is man.' 
 We are instinctively prompted to examine other copies of 
 this remarkable volume, not only to ascertain how far they 
 agree with our own, but to note down whatever strikes us 
 as peculiar in any of them. Especially are all eyes at- 
 tracted by intellectual and moral greatness, wherever it 
 appears. 
 
 Such men as Aristotle, Bacon, Pascal, Edwards, Milton, 
 Howard, Washington, and Napoleon, always have had a 
 multitude of admirers, and they always will have. It is 
 hardly necessary to add, that the constituent elements of 
 gjeatness in such extraordinary men, are capable of being 
 exhibited in a variety of interesting lights. They are like 
 those large bodies, which cannot be seen, on all sides, from 
 any one station : or those wide and deep waters, which 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cannot be effectually sounded, by heaving the lead once, 
 or twice, in the same place. The genius — the inspiration, 
 I was about to say, of a great Poet, or Philosopher, or 
 Reformer, requires much and deep reflection, to compre- 
 hend it. And in order to do justice to the master spirits 
 of the world, the soul must be stirred by kindred impulses. 
 Moreover, when the sublime and original conceptions of a 
 Milton, or the indomitable daring of a Luther, or John 
 Knox, is to be scanned, a single biography, or critique, 
 however ably drawn up, does not satisfy us. It just awa- 
 kens our admiration and curiosity. We inquire more ea- 
 gerly than ever, wherein their ' great strength lay.' We 
 dwell upon every incident of their lives, with new interest. 
 We read their works again and again, with increased sat- 
 isfaction, and eagerly catch every ray of light which is 
 cast upon their characters and writings by their most gifted 
 admirers. 
 
 Bat no mere human character, or work is perfect. The 
 profoundest depths of man's intellect can be fathomed. In 
 the loftiest flights of his imagination he can be followed. 
 None of his richest mines are inexhaustible. The time 
 must come, when all will have been said, that can be said, 
 to exalt the character of any individual of our race, however 
 great his talents, or illustrious his virtues. And this would 
 have been the case had sin never entered the world. Had 
 the men whom Ave most admire, been perfectly holy, it 
 would have been a limited perfection after all — r\oi finite, 
 merely, but the perfection of, probably, the lowest order of 
 God's intelligent creation. So that in due time, we might 
 have learned every thing that could be learned about them ; 
 might have exhausted our admiration upon every thing 
 that was worthy to be admired. 
 
 In like manner, were an angel to come down from heav- 
 en, and dwell among us, and unfold to us those sublime 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 mysteries of science and religion, which are too deep for 
 human discovery ; and were he at the same time, to exhibit 
 before our eyes, during a long course of years, a brilliant 
 example of angelic benevolence, what an atmosphere of 
 light and love would it throw around him. How eagerly 
 should we listen to his instructions — with what absorbing 
 interest should we study his character ; and with what 
 emotions of wonder and gratitude should we follow him, 
 as ' he went about doing good ! ' Such a heavenly sojourn- 
 er, might in due time withdraw from the world, to resume 
 his golden harp before the throne ; and were he to leave 
 behind him a single volume for our perusal, illustrative of 
 his character, and revealing more fully the high purpose 
 of his mission, with what intense interest would all his 
 disciples sit down to the study of that volume ; how many 
 commentaries would be written upon it ; and how much 
 more and deeper wisdom might it be expected to embody, 
 than any book of man's composing. It would not be 
 strange, if new views of truth, and of the exalted intellect 
 and benevolence of the writer should be elicited a hundred 
 years after his departure. But still, it would be the work 
 of a finite mind— of one of the lowest, perhaps, on the 
 scale of angelic gradation. The time might come, and 
 come soon, compared with the duration of this world, when 
 there would be nothing more for man to learn, from such 
 a volume. 
 
 Suppose, again, that Gabriel, or if there be one higher 
 than he, on the mighty scale — suppose that the first arch- 
 angel were to be sent down to us, to take our nature into 
 mysterious union with his own ; to become a man as well 
 as an angel ; suppose he were to initiate us still more 
 deeply into the mysteries of science and the knowledge of 
 God ; to set us a perfect example of holy obedience ; to 
 sympathize with us in all our afflictions ; and even to suf- 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fer for our crimes ; what a multitude of disciples and ad- 
 mirers would gather round him and hang upon his lips, 
 and tender him their most grateful acknowledgements. 
 And were he, in taking leave of us, that he might go up 
 and stand ' in the presence of God,' to put into our hands 
 a roll for us all to copy, containing a history of his own 
 life and sufferings, and rich in the sublimest revelations 
 which it would be in the power of an archangel to make, 
 how eagerly should we break the seal, and how uneasy 
 would every one be till he had obtained his copy. How 
 should we pore over such a document day and night ; and 
 how many ' heavenly things,' would in all probability be 
 left for other critics and commentators to open up to view, 
 after successive generations of admirers had passed away. 
 In so remarkable a case as this, we should not think it 
 overweaning presumption in any Avell-instructed disciple to 
 take the roll and search within the great seal for others, 
 which might possibly have been overlooked by all his 
 predecessors. It might require thousands of years, of 
 deep study, to bring out all the hidden wisdom of this 
 single angelic roll. And yet, it could not be inexhausti- 
 ble ; for it would be the wisdom, not of an infinite, but of 
 a finite mind. Though time itself should be too short to 
 open all the seals, there will surely be scope enough in 
 eternity. The period may arrive in the everlasting ages 
 of his future being, when man, child of the dust as he is, 
 will excel the highest seraph in his present knowledge of 
 God, and the plan of his government, and the glories of 
 his empire, as much as that seraph now excels the hum- 
 blest saint on earth. 
 
 But we have dwelt too long, perhaps, upon these suppo- 
 sitions. There are facts connected with the history of this 
 world, which must strike the mind at once, as infinitely 
 surpassing all that it would have ever entered into the 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlii 
 
 heart of man to suppose, or conceive.' Nearly two thou- 
 sand years ago, a voice of strange and mysterious import 
 was heard in heaven ; and the more mysterious, because 
 it issued from the throne itself ' Sacrifice and offerina: 
 thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Lo 
 I am come : in the volume of the book it is written of me, 
 I delight to do thy will, my God : yea thy law is within 
 my breast.' And who is it, that thus announces his pur- 
 pose to visit a guilty world, and become incarnate ? We 
 first ask the Prophet Isaiah, and he answers, ' Unto us a 
 child is born, unto us a son is given : and the government 
 shall be upon his shoulders : his name shall be called 
 Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting 
 Father, the Prince of peace.' We next enquire of John, 
 the beloved disciple, and he replies, ' In the beginning was 
 the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
 God. — All things were made by him, and without him was 
 not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and 
 the Life was the Light of men.' ' And the Word was 
 made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, 
 the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
 and truth.' Then we enquire of ' the man Christ Jesus ' 
 himself, ' who art thou 7 ' — and this is his remarkable an- 
 swer. ' Before Abraham was I am.' ' I and my Father 
 are one.' ' For as the Father raiseth up the dead and 
 quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he 
 will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath commit- 
 ted all judgment unto the Son : that all men should honor 
 the Son even as they honor the Father.' We next inter- 
 rogate the Apostle Paul — ' Who is this that cometh from 
 Edom, with dyed garments from Bazrah? This that is 
 glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his 
 strength ? ' And he breaks out in adoring transport, 
 ' Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen 
 of angels, preached unto the gentiles, believed on in the 
 world, received up into glory. ' Let this mind be in you 
 which was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, 
 thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made him- 
 self of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a 
 servant, and was made in the likeness of man ; and being 
 found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ; that at 
 the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in 
 heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; 
 and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is 
 the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' ' In whom we 
 have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of 
 sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn 
 of every creature. For by him were all things created 
 that are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, wheth- 
 er they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or pow- 
 ers : all things were created by him, and for him. And 
 he is before all things, and by him all things consist.' 
 
 Finally ; we turn to the beloved disciple once more, and 
 ask him what he saw and heard in the visions of Patmos, 
 and he answers, ' I beheld and heard the voice of many 
 angels round about the throne, and the living ones and the 
 elders ; and the number of them was ten thousand times 
 ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a 
 loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive 
 power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and 
 glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heav- 
 en and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are 
 in the sea and all that are in them, heard I, saying. Bless- 
 ing and honor and glory and power, be unto him that sit- 
 teth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. 
 And the four living ones said, Amen. And the four and 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth 
 forever and ever.' 
 
 And was the earth ever honored and blest with this di- 
 vine and glorious presence? If what we read in the 
 scriptures, of the incarnation, the miracles, the preaching, 
 the death, the resurrection of the Son of God be true, it is 
 the mystery of all mysteries. I do not expect ever to 
 comprehend it. The more I reflect upon it, the more amaz- 
 ing does it appear. What infinite opposites meet in the 
 person of Jesus Christ. ' The mighty Grod,' and yet a 
 helpless child ! The Creator of all worlds, and yet with- 
 out a place ' to lay his head ! ' ' God, manifest in the 
 flesh ! ' A man, and yet infinitely higher than the angels ! 
 Equal with the Father, in dignity and glory and blessed- 
 ness ; and yet at the same moment ' a man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief! ' A conqueror of the powers of 
 darkness, in the very hour that they prevailed against 
 him ! How can I believe it 1 Was the divine nature in 
 the person of Christ, transformed into the human nature of 
 the son of Mary ? And was the human nature of the 
 son of Mary changed into the divine nature? No — but 
 the two were mysteriously united, so as to become one 
 person. ' The man Christ Jesus,' was not ' the Lord from 
 heaven ; ' but ' in him dwelt all the fullness of the God- 
 head bodily.' The Deity did not suffer and sink under 
 the agonies of Calvary, and yet in the person of Jesus, 
 God there purchased the church with his own blood. A 
 great mystery, but no absurdity. Above reason, but not 
 contrary to it. There was the bloody cross. There were 
 the thorns, the nails, and the spear. There the plan of 
 redemption was more fully unfolded, than ever before, to 
 the admiring gaze of angels. There it was, that the meek 
 and holy suflTerer ' bore our sins and carried our sorrows ; ' 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and it was there, that ' mercy and truth met together, 
 righteousness and peace embraced each other.' 
 
 Here then, christian reader, is a theme worthy of an 
 angel's pen — yea, of morethan an angel's intellect. Here 
 is the grand radiant point, towards which all the infinities 
 converge: — infinite wisdom — infinite love — infinite jus- 
 tice — infinite mercy ! Depths, heights, length, breadth — 
 all passing knowledge ! Innumerable pens have been 
 employed upon the life, character, preaching and mediato- 
 rial work of Christ. Hundreds of commentaries, more 
 or less critical and extended, have been written upon the 
 four gospels. But have ' the seven seals ' all been opened? 
 Is there nothing left, to reward the toil of those who may 
 hereafter devote their best powers to the study and elucida- 
 tion of these sacred books ? 'Who by searching can find 
 out God, or the Almighty unto perfection ? ' The charac- 
 ter of Christ is an infinitely perfect character. The gos- 
 pels, in which he is exhibited, as the divine object of our 
 faith, and love, and adoration; and which contain the record 
 of his miracles, doctrines, suflferings, and final triumph, were 
 'given by inspiration of God,' and 'the treasures of wis- 
 dom and knowledge ' which they contain, are literally in- 
 exhaustible. After all the ' living water ' that has been 
 drawn from these ' wells of salvation,' there is no diminu- 
 tion of the supply. Were a thousand of the most gifted 
 and holy men now on earth, to ' set the Lord Jesus alwaj^s 
 before them,' and spend their whole lives in studying his 
 adorable character, they Avould be so far from exhausting 
 the theme, that other thousands more gifted and more holy 
 might find ample scope for the employment of their pow- 
 ers, down to the end of time. However great and good 
 the last writer, upon the life, character and teaching of 
 Christ may be, and with all the helps which he will be 
 able to command, he must leave the divine portraiture still 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVll 
 
 unfinished. Nor can it be doubted, that the mj^steries of 
 redemption, including the divine and mediatorial character, 
 the incarnation and atoning sacrifice of the Son of God, 
 will employ the minds, the hearts and the tongues of the Re- 
 deemed, through everlasting ages ; and that new develope- 
 ments of the perfections and ' glory of God, in the face of 
 Jesus Christ, will be made forever and ever.' 
 
 In this view of the subject, (and I am sure it must be 
 the right view,) however well any man, or number of men 
 may have written upon the preaching, miracles, or offices 
 of Christ, it affords no objection, or discouragement to 
 others, who may wish to occupy the same ground. No 
 one, indeed, should be encouraged to put forth the results 
 of his labors, unless he has something to say, which is 
 worthy of being presented to the christian public — for 
 time and money are too precious, to be thrown away upon 
 mere common place ink and paper. But when a man of 
 decided talents and piety, lays out his strength upon any 
 one of the great topics just alluded to, and is happy in his 
 method of treating it, he deserves our thanks, for putting 
 into our hands this new help to christian edification. 
 
 The author of the present work, is the pastor of an in- 
 dependant church, in Epsom, Eng. ; and is ' well reported, 
 of by the brethren.' It being his object in this volume, to 
 bring us directly to Christ, for divine instruction, he enti- 
 tles it, The Great Teacher. The book contains five 
 Essays, of considerable length, and on the following im- 
 portant topics. 1. The authority of our hordes teaching. 
 II. The originality of our hordes teaching, under seven 
 distinct heads. Ill, The spirituality of our Lord's teach- 
 ing. VI. On the tenderness and benevolence of our Lords 
 teaching. V. The practicalrtess of our Lords teaching. 
 In reading these Essays, I have been exceedingly interest- 
 ted, as I am sure every person must be, who is pleased to 
 B 
 
XVIU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 find weighty and well digested thoughts, imbued with 
 deep christian feeling, and clothed in perspicuous and pol- 
 ished language. Mr. Harris is a writer of much more 
 than ordinary intellectual powers and cultivation. He 
 writes like one, who has long been accustomed to ' sit at 
 the feet of Jesus,' and has eminently profited under his 
 teaching. Instead of asking what other men have thought 
 of The Great Teacher, and borrowing their opinions, to 
 help make out a respectable volume, he has evidently 
 heard for himself; and he gives us his own impressions 
 vividly and forcibly, just as he received them. Such a 
 book as this, is not often written before the meridian of life, 
 and never either before or after, without deep and pro- 
 tracted meditation. 
 
 I do not wonder at the avidity which is hastening its 
 wide circulation in England ; nor at the high terms, in 
 which it is recommended, by so many of the best judges 
 of its merits in that country. I am sure, that it deserves 
 an equally rapid and wide circulation here. That disciple 
 must have thought a great deal more, or a great deal less, 
 than nine tenths of his christian brethren, of the striking 
 peculiarities of our Lord's preaching, who can read these 
 highly original and finished Essays, without having his 
 mind enlightened, his heart warmed, and his admiration 
 of the Great Teacher very much increased. ' Blessed, 
 indeed, are those servants,' who ' hcarhis sayings, and do 
 them.' 
 
 Amherst College, Dec. 1, 1835. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 When the subject of the following Essays first engaged 
 my thoughts, as many as twelve or fifteen characteristics 
 of our Lord's Teaching presented themselves to notice, 
 all of which I hoped to be able to illustrate in a volume. 
 But the expansive nature of the subject soon warned me 
 of the necessity of selection. For this end, I divided the 
 series into two classes, of frimary and secondary impor- 
 tance ; intending to confine myself to the former. The 
 same cause, however, reduced me again to compound with 
 my intentions, and to omit some even of primary interest. 
 Of these I may be allowed to specify two : — the Evangel- 
 icalness of our Lord's Teaching, — and the striking pecu- 
 liarity that he was his own preA^ailing subject. These 
 topics, indeed, though not formally introduced, will be 
 found to be illustrated, to no inconsiderable extent, in vari- 
 ous parts of the volume. But on each of them I will here 
 take the opportunity of recording a few remarks. 
 
 If any are disposed to wonder why our Lord should 
 have said so much less, in the way of "direct assertion, con- 
 cerning his personal dignity, than his apostles, let it be 
 remembered — that it was not his object to give a full verbal 
 exposition of his personal claims ; that, during his earthly 
 ministry, it was his aim, and a part of his humiliation, 
 partially to conceal them; to observe a medium course be- 
 tween the extremes of a mean obscurity on the one hand, 
 and an overwhelming grandeur on the other; to provide 
 that human agency might be left free and unconstrained in 
 its conduct towards him on the one hand, and that his love 
 on the other, might move on to the cross, unthwarted and 
 undisturbed by man ; that the solemn oblation of himself, 
 which was the act to which all his ministry subserved, for 
 his whole life was only a preface to his death, might nei- 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 ther be prevented nor disregarded : that he left his dignity 
 to be inferred chiefly from his actions, and from a compar- 
 ison of his life with the writings of the prophets : that his 
 divine greatness having long been the subject of prophecj^ 
 it was not necessary for him to do more on this head than 
 to identify himself with the prophecy. And he did this, 
 — explicitly affirming that they wrote of him. Bringing 
 all the rays of prophetic light together, he w^reathed them 
 into a crown of glory for his own head. 
 
 But, as if to compensate himself for the arrangement 
 which required the temporary obscuration of his greatness 
 he was emphatically his own subject. He himself was 
 almost invariably the point from which he started, the theme 
 on which he enlarged, or the centre to which he returned. 
 If he adverted to the great elements of nature, it was only 
 to proclaim them emblems of himself If he spoke of the 
 greatness of persons and objects which his hearers rever- 
 enced next to the Deity, it was only to announce himself 
 as greater than they. If he displaced the types and rites 
 of the Jewish church, it was that he might occupy their 
 place himself; clearing the entire area of the church, to 
 fill it with his own glory. He turned all the great things 
 of nature, and of the ancient church, into so many mar- 
 ginal references to the all-absorbing theme, himself; and 
 he frequently did it in a manner which shewed that he 
 considered them dignified by being so employed. He 
 carried this same spirit of self-aggrandizement into the 
 presence of God ; he predicted that the Eternal Spirit him- 
 self should come and-wait on his glory. He is distin- 
 guished from every other teacher by this, that while he 
 spoke of lowliness as his chief characteristic, he seldom 
 released the attention of his hearers from him.self — and 
 yet the heart of the christian is sensible of no inconsisten- 
 cy here, for it feels, that while what he said of himself is 
 measurable, vf hat he left unsaid and unrevealed, is immeas- 
 urable. 
 
 On the other subject named — the evangelical nature of 
 our Lord's teaching — -perhaps, the first thought that occurs, 
 relates to the fact of our Lord's discourses containing less 
 of the peculiar doctrines of grace than the teaching of the 
 apostles. How is the striking contrast between the gos- 
 pels and epistles, in this important respect, to be accounted 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 for? The following- considerations may furnish a satisfac- 
 tory reply. 1. It was only in accordance with his own ar- 
 rang-ements and predictions that it should be so. Hence, 
 he foretold that his first disciples should do greater works 
 than he did ; that their success should be greater ; and that 
 it w^as reserved for the Spirit to lead them into all truth. 
 2. The very limited and gross apprehensions of the disci- 
 ples imposed a restraint on the teaching of Christ, and de- 
 termined the measure of his divine communications. 
 Though he had ' many things to say' to them, he pro- 
 nounced them unable to bear the disclosure. And what 
 Avould be the things which, under these circumstances, he 
 would necessarily withhold — what, but the more spiritual 
 truths and peculiar doctrines of salvation ? 3. The object 
 and limit of his instructions appear to have been, to incul- 
 cate the nature and necessity of that moral excellence 
 which God and heaven require; in order that he might 
 make us feel the want of it, preparatory to the offer of his 
 Holy Spirit to produce it. The full and explicit exposi- 
 tion of the evangelical system, therefore, did not come 
 within the pre-determined scope of his teaching. For, 4. 
 He came less to preach salvation than to procure it; to 
 make known redemption, not by a verbal and detailed an- 
 nouncement of its plan, but by the visible accomplishment 
 of its conditions ; to be the gospel, an^ to make it. He 
 came to supply the facts out of which the evangelical doc- 
 trines are deduced, and which must philosophically pre- 
 cede them. For what is the doctrinal part of the gospel 
 but the exposition of these facts ? their transplantation out 
 of the historical or external world, into the intellectual or 
 spiritual? 5. It might, however, be easily shown, that 
 whatever is essential to the christian system is to be found, 
 in semine, in our Lord's teaching. His divinity, his atone- 
 ment, the influence of his Spirit, and all the leading doc- 
 trines of grace are to be found there in a condensed state, 
 in a quintessence. If the principles of Christianity, as 
 taught by the apostles, form a chain of evangelical truth, 
 the first link, the very staple ring, is to be found in the 
 teaching of Christ. The humble incrustation cannot con- 
 ceal from the eye of the mineralogist the precious gem 
 that dwells within, and a single blow, properly given, will 
 lay bare its peculiar primitive or fundamental form : many 
 
XXll PREFACE. 
 
 of our Lord's sayings have a signification and a value far 
 beyond their unpretending appearance; nor is it difficuh 
 for the christian disciple to discover in them the first forms, 
 the simple elements of evangelical truth, of which the 
 teaching of the apostles was only the lamincE, the natural 
 accretions afterwards formed. His sayings are texts ; their 
 writings are only the necessary amplification and comment. 
 Their instructions are not so properly a new revelation, as 
 the result of the opening of their eyes to behold the won- 
 derful things contained in his teaching. 6. And, finally, 
 the uniform mode of divine revelation, in all ages, required 
 that the doctrines of grace should be gradually developed ; 
 proceeding from the obscurity of dawn in our Lord's teach- 
 ing, to the radiance of noon-day in that of the apostles. 
 
 Since writing the preceding paragraph, I have been sur- 
 prised at meeting with the following remarks, bearing on 
 the same subject : which, as they occur in a popular work 
 of the present day, Abbott's ' Corner Stone,' deserve a 
 moment's attention. 'Others are embarrassed when they 
 think on this subject : ' (that is, on the greater prominence 
 given to the object and efficacy of our Lord's death in the 
 epistles compared with the gospels :) ' they do not know 
 how to reconcile the seeming inconsistency, though they 
 endeavor to diminish it, as far as possible, hy exaggerating 
 and emphasizing tlie little which Jesus Christ did say, in 
 
 regard to his sufferings and death He who cannot 
 
 take the directions which Christ or John gave, for begin- 
 ning a life of piety by simple repentance for the past, with- 
 out adding something from his own theological stores, or 
 forcing the language to express what never could have been 
 understood by those ivho originally heard it, he cannot be 
 studying the gospel in the right spirit.^ To put a forced 
 and mystical construction on any part of the oracles of God, 
 is an act of irreverence which cannot be sufficiently dep- 
 recated. But it is one thing to put them to the torture, 
 compelling them to utter what they never meant ; to turn 
 from them, or to drown their voice with our own, before 
 they have uttered all the mind of the Spirit, is another. 
 
 The statements cited appear at least to be unconsidered 
 and unguarded ; and, on the principle which they seem to 
 involve, — namely, that the understanding of our Lord's 
 
PREFACE. Xxiil 
 
 original hearers was the measure of his meaning, — I will 
 venture to remark ; First, that, in direct contradiction to 
 this proposition, it is a well-known canon of scripture in- 
 terpretation, that ' the sayings of our Savior are to be ap- 
 prehended, not merely in that sense to which the views of 
 his hearers at the time could reach, but in the sense which 
 he himself attached to them.' Second, his own practice 
 contains a warrant for this canon ; for how often do we 
 find him applying it to the interpretation of the Old Testa- 
 ment : expounding some of its truths in a sense more spir- 
 itual and profound, than even the original propounders 
 themselves conceived. Third, his express declarations, 
 and the confessions of his apostles, harmonize with it. 
 They frankly acknowledge, that when he adverted to the 
 nature and necessity of his sufferings, they understood not 
 his meaning. He reproached them with their slowness of 
 apprehension. He promised his Spirit to recall his say- 
 ings to their minds as so many lost truths. He intimated 
 that he had left in their possession truths of which they 
 little suspected the value. And after his resurrection, 'he 
 said unto them, these are the things which I spake unto 
 
 you, while I was yet with you Then opened he their 
 
 understanding that they might understand the Scriptures ; ' 
 —obviously implying, that, up to that moment, they had 
 not understood his evangelical expositions of them. Fourth, 
 it seems to be necessary for the moral developement of our 
 nature, that the truth employed should be such as is itself 
 capable of constant expansion and new developements ; — 
 that, like its Divine original, it should brighten while we 
 are looking at it ; heighten while we are aspiring to reach 
 it ; and thus elevate us to itself, the standard of perfection. 
 Accordingly, all the first lessons set us by God in nature 
 and providence, appear to be constructed on this principle. 
 He \yho becomes a student of nature soon finds that he is 
 bending over a fountain which deepens beneath his gaze. 
 And what is the Jewish economy, if we desire to reach its 
 interior truths, but a vast, profound, elaborated enigma, — 
 to which the gospel indeed brings us the key,— but the 
 opening and exploration of which is yet incomplete ; ex- 
 cusing, if not justifying the opinion of Origen, that ' a 
 clear understanding of the reasons of the Israelitic econo- 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 my, and of all the Levitical laws, belongs to the privileges 
 of the future life-' And the teaching of Christ seems to 
 possess the same profound and comprehensive character. 
 Comparative anatomy informs us, not only that animated 
 nature forms an ascending series of beings, beginning 
 with few organs, and increasing in number, complexity, 
 and finish, up to man; but that in some of the earliest and 
 simplest links of the living chain, there is traceable a pro- 
 mise, a mute prophecy of all the rest, a rough outline of all 
 that is to follow; that many processes are sketched in the 
 lower animals, the completion of which is reserved for the 
 composition of man. In like manner, the entire system of 
 Judaism was one compacted prophecy of the gospel, a pre- 
 sentiment of Christianity ; in which the great doctrines 
 and virtues, which it is the province of the new dispensa- 
 tion to develope and mature, may be found in the embryos 
 and elements. And on the same principle, in the sayings 
 of Christ, the gospel may be found thrown out in its rudi- 
 ments. ' For Christ,' saith Milton, ' gives no full comments, 
 or continued discourses, but speaks oft in monosyllables, 
 like a master scattering the heavenly grain of his doctrine 
 like pearls here and there, which requires a skilful and la- 
 borious gatherer.' His teaching is the seed-plot in which 
 the great doctrines of grace were first sown, to be after- 
 Avards transplanted and cultivated in the inspired ministry 
 of the apostles, where they have room to luxuriate and 
 yield in perfection the fruit of life. 
 
 Considerations like these embolden us to suppose, not 
 merely that the whole evangelical sj^stem as developed by 
 the apostles, lies, in its germ, in the teaching of Christ, 
 out that such is the fullness, the seminal character of his 
 teaching, that even their epistles do not exhaust it. That 
 they have put us in possession of every essential truth, we 
 admit ; that any fundamental doctrine remains to be dis- 
 covered, cannot for a moment be imagined ; but it may be 
 suggested, that even with their inspired epistles in our 
 hand, and regarding those epistles in the light of commen- 
 taries on the sayings of our Lord, there ^^et remain to be 
 discovered in his teaching new aspects of some truths, the 
 immeasurable compass of others, and harmonies subsisting 
 between them all, beyond the perception of ordinary vi- 
 
PREFACE. XXV 
 
 sion ; and the developement of which is reserved to re- 
 ward the pious industry of the devout and vigorous mind. 
 
 The church of God has been too generally content v^ith 
 the great surface-truths of revelation, — those which we 
 have only to stoop for in order to possess, — but which ai'e 
 made so obvious and placed so near, not as a premium to 
 indolence, but in accommodation to our moral incurious- 
 ness and necessities ; not as a dispensation from diligent in- 
 vestigation, but as an allurement to it where it can be made, 
 and to render it unnecessary where it cannot. ' The king- 
 dom of heaven ' — in the sense of celestial truth — 'is like 
 treasure hid in a field ; the which when a man hath 
 found, he hideth; and, for joy thereof, goeth, and selleth 
 all that he hath, and buyeth that field;' and buyeth 
 it in order that he may ransack, and turn up every part of 
 it, and make himself master of all its treasures. And 
 further, it is as if the same man, while digging f(>r more 
 coins and concealed jewels, should unexpectedly happen 
 on a vein of precious ore. Hitherto, we have done little 
 more than collect, estimate, and classify the more accessi- 
 ble treasures. But let the shaft which is already begun, 
 be sunk deep enough, and the labors of the mine be prop- 
 erly conducted, and the discovery of many a rich and pre- 
 cious lode will demonstrate that the great globe itself is 
 not more interlaced with golden veins, and filled with pre- 
 cious things, than the held of revelation: the storehouse 
 of the unsearchable riches of Christ. 
 
 This, indeed, is predicable of every part of Scripture ; 
 but, for the reasons already glanced at, it applies especially 
 to the teaching of Christ; and if there be one part of his 
 teaching to which it applies more emphatically than to 
 another, I would venture to suggest that it is to what he 
 taught on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. ' He shall not 
 speak of himself,' said Christ; and, as if to supply the de- 
 ficiency, to reward and provide for that disinterested and 
 emphatic silence of the Divine Spirit concerning himself, 
 our Lord made him the great theme of his own last dis- 
 courses and promises. And when was he more original 
 and explicit than when dwelling on this subject ? What 
 a vast tract of new truth did he add to the domains of faith, 
 all fertilized and enriched with the effluence of the Spirit ! 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 On what topic was he more evangelical than on this? — 
 even antedating the style of the epistles, and leaving little 
 if any thing for them to add either in unction or in fulness. 
 What subject did he equally rely on to console his disci- 
 ples, and to fill them with expectation in the prospect of 
 his own departure 1 He was in search of the strongest 
 solace ; and he had an infinite variety of subjects to choose 
 from ; but out of all that multitude the topic on which he 
 chose chiefly to insist was the promise of the Holy Spirit. 
 And what lofty things did he predicate concerning him ! 
 What names of greatness and goodness did he bestow on 
 him ! He made him the great promise of his new dispen- 
 sation ! And yet, what doctrine, what leading doctrine at 
 least, is less insisted on in the church than the doctrine of 
 divine influence ? And, consequently, what promise is less 
 fulfilled to the church than the promise of the Spirit 1 It 
 is true, an occasional sermon is preached on the subject, 
 just to satisfy the sense of duty: and an occasional restless- 
 ness is observable in parts of the church; but, alas! it is 
 a starting z?i sleep, rather than an awaking out of it ; — like 
 the spasmodic motions of a person who is visited in sleep 
 by the reproachful remembrance of an important duty 
 w^hich he has consciously neglected ; it is the involuntary 
 agitations of the slumbering church, convulsively answer- 
 ing to the unwelcome reproaches of the unslumbering con- 
 science. Other prophecies are considered ; but the prom- 
 ise of the Spirit, the great unfulfilled prophecy of the gos- 
 pel, is doomed, by general consent, to sta7id over for future 
 consideration. Other blessings are desired ; but this, which 
 would bring all blessings in its train ; which is offered in 
 an abundance corresponding to its infinite plenitude, an 
 abundance of which the capacity of the recipient is to be 
 the only limit; of this we are satisfied with just so much 
 as will save our sleep from deepening into death. Each 
 falling shower — consecrated emblem of divine influence — 
 the scantiest that moistens the thirsty earth, descends more 
 copiously than the offered influences of the Holy Spirit, 
 and reproaches us with the spiritual drought of the church. 
 And so long have we accustomed ourselves to be content 
 with little things, that we have gone far in disqualifying 
 ourselves for the reception of great things ; the revivals 
 
PREFACE. XXVll 
 
 of the new world are still regarded by many ' as idle tales.' 
 The church itself requires conversion. We pray for the 
 conversion of the world ; but the church itself, though in 
 another, yet in a sober and substantial sense, needs a simi- 
 lar blessing. The object of conversion is two-fold ; per- 
 sonal, and relative ; to bless us, and to make us blessings. 
 Individual conversion accomplishes the first object, by pla- 
 cing us in a personal and evangelical relation to Christ ; 
 the second can only be scripturally effected by the collec- 
 tion and organization of those who are so related to Christ 
 into a church, and by that church advancing forwards and 
 placing itself in an evangelical relation to the Holy Spirit. 
 Now the prevailing sin of Christians is, that they are in- 
 clined to stop short at the first of these stages. They are, 
 perhaps, sufficiently alive to the importance of preaching 
 Christ as the author of redemption ; for they have their 
 own personal experience in evidence of its necessity ; but 
 they are not proportionally alive to the necessity of divine 
 influence as the means of usefulness ; for of that they have 
 not the same evidence. Their conversion to Christ as in- 
 dividuals, was scarcely more necessary to answer the first 
 aim of the gospel, in their own salvation, than their con- 
 version to the Spirit, in their collective capacity, is neces- 
 sary to answer the second, in the salvation of others. I 
 say their co?iversio7i to the Spirit ; — for the change neces- 
 sary has all the characteristics of conversion ; — conviction 
 of guilt in neglecting his agency, a perception of his ne- 
 cessity and suitableness, and earnest applications for his 
 heavenly influence. 
 
 That a doctrine of divine influence has a place in the 
 creed of the faithful we admit ; but it is one thing to assent 
 to its truth and importance, and a very different thing to 
 have a deep and practical persuasion of it. That the Ho- 
 ly Spirit is at present imparted to the church to a certain 
 degree, is evident from its existence. For every believer 
 is the production of the Spirit ; carries about in his own 
 person signatures and proofs of divine operations ; and 
 thus forms an epitome and pledge of the eventual conver- 
 sion of the world. But as to the measure in which his 
 divine influence is afforded — who has not deplored its sanc- 
 tiness ? From the earliest dawn of the reformation to the 
 
XXVlll PREFACE. 
 
 present hour, this has been the great burden of the church. 
 What writer, of even ordinary piety, has not bewailed and 
 recorded it as the standing reproach and grief of his day? 
 Look back — and what do you behold? — a procession of 
 mourners, nearly all the living and eminent piety of the 
 time, dressed in penitential sackcloth, moving through the 
 cemetery of the church as through a Golgotha, and ex- 
 claiming in tears, 'Come from the four winds, O breath, 
 and breathe upon these slain that they may live.' What 
 do you behold ? ' the priests, the ministers of the Lord, 
 sanctifying a fast, calling a solemn assembly,' lamenting 
 that so few attend the solemn call, and then advancing, a 
 mournful train, casting themselves down, and lying pros- 
 trate at the foot of the throne of grace, and as the repre- 
 sentatives of the church, exclaiming, ' Behold, O Lord, a 
 poor company of creatures gasping for life ! thy Spirit 
 is vital breath ; we are ready to die, if thy Spirit breathe 
 not. Pity thine own offspring, thou Father of mercies. 
 Take from, us, keep from us what thou Vvdlt, but. Oh, with- 
 hold not thine own Spirit.' Such were the actual terms in 
 which the great and pious Howe led the supplications of 
 a solemn assembly, in his day, convened to cry for the 
 Spirit. And has it not been on the lips of the mourners in 
 Zion, an unbroken procession, ever since? And does it not 
 express the sense of the church in the present day ? As 
 we have fallen into the train, and brought up the rear of 
 the mourning suppliants, have we not deplored the absence 
 of the Spirit as the great affliction of the church, and im- 
 plored his impartation as our great want, our only remedy? 
 But ' the Spirit wall be poured out from on high ' — 
 would that the importunity and loud cries of the church, 
 warranted the expectation that the event were near! And 
 when he does descend, amongthe many blessed effects which 
 will accrue, this doubtless will be one — that the teaching 
 of Christ, concerning him, will be hailed and studied as if 
 it were a new revelation ; will be traversed and explored 
 like a newly-discovered continent. The reasons of Christ 
 for amplifying the subject, and for laying so much stress 
 on it, will then be felt in the inmost soul ; each of his dec- 
 larations concerning it Avill seem to expand into a page, 
 and be consulted as a charter fresh from heaven ; promises 
 
PREFACE. XXIX 
 
 which we now repeat with freezing accents will then burn 
 on our lips, and be pleaded with an earnestness not to be 
 denied ; but which will open the windows of heaven for 
 the emission of still larger outpourings of the Spirit. 
 
 In that section of the Second Essay, which treats of 
 ' The Originality of our Lord's Teaching concerning the 
 Holy Spirit,' I have remarked in the introduction, that, ' du- 
 ring the long silence of the Divine Oracle, in the space 
 which intervened from the last words of Malachi to the 
 coming of Christ, we know not comparatively what opinions 
 grew up and prevailed. It is only reasoning on the known 
 principles of humanity to say, that when the living voice 
 01 inspiration had ceased to speak, the sacred volume was 
 much more likely to recieve the undivided attention of 
 the church than before. And, with a volume so seminal 
 of all truth, so constantly whispering in the ear of hope, 
 as the Bible, who can say what approaches Avere made to 
 many evangelical doctrines 1 what prophets of hope arose ? 
 And when once opinions, to which the wants or aspirations 
 of the soul respond, have been broached, who can say to 
 
 what consolidation and stability they may attain ? By 
 
 what process then shall we ascertain how much of the gos- 
 pel is an absolute origination : or how much is a mere 
 adoption and authorization of pre-existing opinons V 
 
 Having subsequently perused a translation of Tholuck's 
 * Hints on the Importance or the Study of the 
 Old Testament,' I have learned that it is a favorite hyp- 
 othesis of the neological school, that ' the Jewish religion 
 coalescing with the Persian doctrines, was brought to per- 
 fection, and thus served to lay the foundation for the new 
 order of things v/hich Christ introduced. This appears to 
 usto have been the true origin of these doctrines. Providence 
 designed that they should be disseminated, just before the 
 advent of Christ, in order that he, who was merely to bring 
 the new Spirit, and, by means of this, to destroy the veil 
 of the law, and to illustrate these doctrines, need furnish 
 no system of doctrines, but merely announce, by his pre- 
 cepts and his life, the one great doctrine ; God hath so lov- 
 ed the zvorld. Those post-Babylonian doctrines were il- 
 lustrated, however, by the instructions of Jesus and the 
 apostles, to such a degree, that they appear in an entirely 
 
XXX PREFACE. 
 
 new and spiritual light, as the pure and disembodied spir- 
 it, escaped from the lifeless body of the Rabbinical sys- 
 tem.' 
 
 Now the difference between these two quotations is so 
 essential, that to spend a moment in pointing it out, may 
 perhaps be considered superfluous. But lest my statement 
 should have the effect, in however small a degree, of pre- 
 paring the mind of an unwary reader for the reception of 
 the neology contained in the quotation with which it is 
 contrasted, I will take the liberty of remarking, that while 
 the tendency of the latter is to detract from the value both 
 of our Lord's teaching and of the Old Testament doctrines, 
 by admitting the philosophy of paganism to share the hon- 
 ors of divine revelation, the object of the former is to vin- 
 dicate to the Old Testament the claim of having suggested 
 the various evangelical phrases and opinions, which had 
 obtained about the time of our Lord's appearance, and to 
 assert for him the honor of having selected and authenti- 
 cated such of those opinions as were true, and of having 
 turned them into inspired doctrines. 
 
 The reader is probably aware that, during the interval 
 which elapsed between the cessation of the Old Testament 
 oracle, and the advent of Christ, many new terms came 
 into use ; especially new epithets for designating the ex- 
 pected Messiah and the Holy Spirit ; — such, for instance, 
 as the names, Logos and Paraclete : and, also, that va- 
 rious theological opinions prevailed ; which, while they 
 pleaded an Old Testament origin, were taught, if taught 
 there at all, only by inference and suggestion. Now 
 when a person first becomes aware of this fact, and discov- 
 ers also that some of these terms and opinions were adopt- 
 ed by Christ, and incorporated by him into his New Tes- 
 tament record, he may be tempted to depreciate in thought 
 the divinity and originality of these particular parts of our 
 Lord's teaching. 
 
 But let him reflect, first, that as to ihe divine origin of 
 these particular truths, — the persons who first announced 
 them, no doubt, derived the idea of them from the ancient 
 scriptures, and could have pointed to the precise passage 
 or passages which, in their opinion, warranted the idea. 
 And, secondly, as to our LorcCs claim to originality in 
 
PREFACE, XXXi 
 
 teaching these particular truths — this becomes a question 
 of mere words. For though originality was no longer 
 possible, in the sense of novelty, still his office was origi- 
 nal — he was the first to announce these truths as divine. 
 
 Suppose, for example, an inspired prophet were now to 
 appear in the church, to add a supplement to the canonical 
 books, — what a Babel of opinions would he find existing 
 on almost every theological subject ! — and how highly 
 probable is it that his ministry would consist, or seem to 
 consist, in the mere selection and ratification of such of 
 these opinions as accorded with the mind of God. Abso- 
 lute originality would seem to be almost impossible. The 
 inventive mind of man has already bodied forth specula- 
 tive opinions in almost every conceivable form ; forestalling 
 and robbing the future of its fair proportion of novelties ; 
 and leaving little more, even to a divine messenger, than 
 the office of taking some of these opinions, and impressing 
 them with the seal of heaven. Imagine him to choose for 
 his theme — that vinum dmmonum of the church in every 
 age — the subject of a millenium ; and may it not be con- 
 fidently affirmed, that whatever his doctrine might be, an 
 anticipation of it, if not the identical doctrine itself, has ap- 
 peared already among the thousand theories which the 
 church has heard on the subject ? Yet how important the 
 office which would still devolve on him, in evoking the 
 one truth, and dispersing the multiplied attendant errors ; 
 and how worthy of a teacher sent from God. Humanly 
 speaking, the task of the aged seer, in selecting from the 
 eleven sons of Jesse the future king of Israel, was easy, 
 compared with the task of him who has to choose from a 
 multitude of speculative opinions, all of which are specious, 
 and popular, and possessed of an apparent likeness, the 
 one heaven-born truth, and anoint it for the Lord. 
 
 Now such was the relation in which our Lord may be 
 said to have stood to some of the doctrines of the New Tes- 
 tament. Originality, in the sense of novelty, was, on these 
 particular subjects, impossible : for the teeming mind of 
 man, quickened to activity by some hint of scripture, had 
 already occupied the ground with theories of every grade 
 of merit, and opinions adapted to every taste. With these, 
 hypothetically speaking, the Savior might be acquainted, 
 
XXXll PREFACE. ' 
 
 or he might not. On the supposition that he did not know 
 them, the doctrine he taught on either of these subjects, 
 however familiar it might already have been to human 
 ears, was unborrowed, original, and emphatically his own : 
 it had no other channel in its descent from the celestial 
 throne to the human heart, but his own inspired lips. On 
 the supposition that he knew them, — his office, at least, 
 was original, and equally dignified : for still he proclaim- 
 ed the particular truth, not because man had patronized it, 
 but because he knew it to be the true saying of God. And 
 more than that, he redeemed it from the base companion- 
 ship of error, and made it free of the universe. He not 
 merely rescued it from the gloomy region of doubt, but en- 
 abled it to shine in its own right, and to illuminate the sur- 
 rounding darkness. If he found it one of the multitude, 
 he raised it to the throne. If he found it a guess, he left 
 it a doctrine — a living and incorporated member of the 
 immortal body of truth. If he found it an outcast, he 
 took it within the pale and royalty of truth, and surrounded 
 it with the awful sanctions of the God of truth. He proved 
 himself to be the Word and the Wisdom of God. 
 
 Had space permitted, it was my intention to have added 
 two sections to this second essay ; — one, on the Originality 
 of our Lord's teaching on Faith ; — and the other, on the 
 Originality of his teaching on the comparative claims of 
 Heaven and Earth. The former might easily be expan- 
 ded into a volume, and could scarcely be illustrated in less. 
 The latter requires only a specimen : which, as the pre- 
 face has alread}?- become so miscellaneous, I will take the 
 liberty of giving. 
 
 Much of the preaching of Jesus was occupied in adjus- 
 ting the claims ' between heaven and earth ; so frequently 
 did he return to this theme, and so conspicious a place did 
 he assign to it in his discourses, tliat it may be said to be 
 one of their distinguishing features. A prevailing charac- 
 teristic of man, as pourtrayed in scripture, is an inordinate 
 attachment to the world. Sin having expelled from his 
 heart the love of God, the love of the world has rushed 
 into the vaccuum, and made it impossible for any but om- 
 nipotence to dislodge it. Having lost that organ of spirit- 
 ual vision, which, by keeping another world in viev/ in 
 
PREFACE. XXXlll 
 
 rivalry Avith this, would have preserved the balance of his 
 affections even, the present is left to tyrannize over him 
 with all the advantage of a power Vv'hich is ever visible, 
 ever at hand, soliciting- him and making- itself necessary to 
 him in a thousand different ways ; while the only rival 
 which it has to dread is not only invisible, but incalculably 
 remote : and having thus sustained the loss of a world, 
 having thus become reduced in spiritual Avealth by the 
 loss of a whole order of ennobling objects, he not only 
 pours out his affections on the unworthiest things that 
 offer, but he has literally idolized the most contemptible. 
 Most graphically is he represented in the word of God as 
 bearing the image of the earthy ; his very mind has be- 
 come materialized : instead of being pictured over with 
 celestial imagery, it only contains the portraiture of the 
 world ; in all its chambers of imagery are depictured and 
 burnt in the debasing abominations of earth. The mind, 
 which with one sweep of its pinions should have reached 
 the stars, settles down in the dust ; his affections, which 
 were meant to rise and be diffused over an infinite circum- 
 ference of which God is the centre, let themselves down, 
 and labor to accommodate themselves to an indivisible point, 
 a fugitive atom. As if an anchor were fixed in the centre, 
 his bosom is enchained to the earth. The material parti- 
 cles of which the globe consists, do not obey the law by 
 which they cohere more constantly, than man endeavors 
 to accommodate himself to the world as his centre of moral 
 gravity. 
 
 Now the Savior addressed himself to the task of cor- 
 recting this evil. Entering the mart of the busy world, 
 where nothing is heard but the monotonous hum of the 
 traders in vanity, he lifts us his voice like the trump of 
 God, and seeks to break the spell which infatuates them, 
 while he exclaims, ' What shall it profit a man if he gain 
 the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall he 
 give in exchange for his soul ? Were all sublunary glory 
 laid at your feet, let a few years expire and death would 
 force you away from your world; and then a few years 
 more, and your world, and all that is in it, would be burnt 
 up ; but your soul, your immortal soul — what can com- 
 C 
 
XXXIV PREFACE. 
 
 pensate for the loss of that?' He calls for that nobler 
 world they had lost from their hemisphere, and brings it 
 again within the range of their vision. He takes them 
 to the threshold of the infinite, and shows it flushed in one 
 part with living glories, and in another burning with the 
 fiercest flames of wrath; while he assures them that in one 
 or the other of these states they will shortly be fixed for 
 ever. ' Watch therefore,' saith he, 'for ye knoAV not when 
 the time is.' 
 
 Having thrown open to view that interminable duration, 
 and compelled them to see that they are actually approach- 
 ing it, he proceeds to adjust its momentous claims in har- 
 mony with the duties of the life that now is. It might 
 have been apprehended that the vision of eternity, if once 
 beheld, would utterly incapacitate us for the affairs of time; 
 that the infinite grandeur of the future, having suffered so 
 total an obscuration from the littleness of the present, 
 would have taken revenge on that littleness, by henceforth 
 engrossing our every thought. But the Savior did not 
 come, as the avenging champion of eternity, to annihilate 
 time and its appropriate interests. Having deposed it from 
 its usurped supremacy, he takes it by the hand, and assigns 
 it its place and its duties as a subject. He aims to im- 
 pregnate every moment of life with endless results. Hav- 
 ing weeded life of its vanities, he commands us to cultivate 
 it with all that is useful and precious as fruit for the heaven- 
 ly garner. He would have every moment of life to be so 
 passed, as to fructify into an age of pleasant recollections. 
 
 That eternity might not be an object of mere barren 
 contemplation, he has so revealed it that its hallowing 
 light falls upon fields of activity and usefulness which 
 before were involved in darkness ; every thing conducive 
 to our real interest, in every relation of life, receives its 
 countenance, and rejoices in its sanction. If he finds us 
 lost in indolent musing on the future, he breaks up our va- 
 cant-eyed reverie by the startling monition, 'Why stand 
 ye here all the day idle ? Work while it is day, for the 
 night Cometh wherein no man can work.' That eternity 
 might not overwhelm us by its solemnities, he hasnotonly 
 softened its aspect, and made it welcome as the face of a 
 
PREFACE. XXXV 
 
 friend, he also engages our attentionto daily duties which 
 hold us in a state of healthful activit3^ Our life, in his 
 hands, is converted into a lamp, which, like the virgins of 
 the parable, or the priests of the temple, we are to keep 
 bright and burning. Our various endowments are so 
 many talents, which the Lord of all expects us to multiply 
 by constant use. He calls us to be the almoners and agents 
 of providence, to ' the poor who are always with us ; ' mo- 
 dels of correctness in all the relations of life ; and centres 
 of light and usefulness wherever we move. It is necessary 
 that celestial observations should be taken in order to con- 
 struct a terrestrial chart; and having a chart to consult 
 thus accurately formed, the skilful mariner is prepared to 
 navigate the wastes of ocean with tranquil confidence. If 
 the view we entertain of eternity disqualifies us for the 
 duties of life, it is not to be traced to the gospel of Christ ; 
 he meant not that it should haunt us as a terror, but accom- 
 pany us as a guide: nor will he accept the convulsive ser- 
 vice which it may occasionally extort from us, by alarming 
 us into a spasm of fear. He camly enquires, ' Are there 
 not twelve hours in the day? Does not the day of life, 
 short as it is, contrasted with eternity, contain time suffi- 
 cient, if properly employed, for all that is truly valuable ?' 
 And having engaged us in his service, and pointed out our 
 duty, he gives us a glimpse of eternity to quicken the 
 pulse of activity, and expects us to distribute our agency 
 as equally as possible over the remaining hours of time. 
 
 But the liability of eternity to paralyze the active duties 
 of time is not to be named, as a danger, compared with the 
 fatal and universal propensity of men to subordinate the 
 claims of the future to the affairs of the present. While 
 their enlightened judgment compels them to concede the 
 point of superiority to heaven, their depraved heart is for 
 giving the practical precedence to earth ; and the result of 
 this variance is an attempted compromise between the two 
 claimants. But against such an accommodation, the Re- 
 deemer enters his protest ; appealing to the tribunal of 
 common sense, he exclaims, ' No man can serve two mas- 
 ters, whose interests clash.' The experiment has been 
 made and repeated in every form, and in every age ; and 
 
XXXVl PREFACE. 
 
 he solemnly avers, with the confidence of one who knows 
 that it has failed as often as it has been made, and will 
 prove eternally impracticable, ' Ye cannot serve 'jod and 
 mammon.' Passing into the sanctuary, and marking the 
 worldliness of the assembled hearers, he shows how ne- 
 cessarily, in such soil, the seed of the kingdom must prove 
 unfruitful. Visiting the place of gain, and contrasting 
 the burden of thick clay Avhich the worshipper of mam- 
 mon carries, with the narrowness of the entrance to the 
 way of life, heexclaims, inaccentsof deep commiseration, 
 ' How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven! ' Penetrating into the inmost circle 
 of domestic life, and arresting the inmates in the midst of 
 their household cares, he calls them to his side, and turns 
 on them a look of pity as he remindsthem, that w'hile they 
 are careful and cumbered about many things, 'one thing 
 is needful.' He even lifts the curtain of eternity, and bids 
 us approach and listen, while the voice of Dives from the 
 deeps of hell, and the replies of Abraham from the realms 
 of light, pronounce the moral of the tale of life. And taking 
 his stand on the highw'ay of the world, and surveying the 
 busy crowds as they pass and repass, each one as eager 
 as if he had just discovered the secret of happiness after a 
 thousand failures, and w^ere about to give it an instant trial, 
 he points them upwards, and reminds them that the good 
 they seek is there ; that there is one thing to which every 
 thing else desirable is appended ; and that he exhorts them 
 to ' seek first.' 
 
 It is the misfortune of some to be afflicted with that kind 
 of defective sight, which prevents them from seeing to an 
 ordinary distance: they are unable to distinguish the most 
 towering and colossal object if placed at a short remove, 
 while the merest atom brought close to the eye is magni- 
 fied as with the powder of a microscope. An affliction 
 analogous to this in the moral sight, but pregnant with in- 
 comparably greater danger, is the universal malady of 
 mankind: and our Lord insists on the urgency of its re- 
 moval. He finds them mistaking phantoms for realities, 
 and realities for phantom ; calling an atom a world, and a 
 world an atom ; practising on themselves an endless sue- 
 
PREFACE. XXXVll 
 
 cession of delusions ; and he gives them the alternative of 
 a remedy or death. He finds them absorbed in providing 
 for the temporal future, and he urges them, as they respect 
 their own rationality, not to omit eternity from their reckon- 
 ing. He approaches them while gazing on the near per- 
 spective of time, and, by raising and extending the point of 
 sight, he adds eternity "to the view, and leaves ihem lost in 
 the contemplation of a boundless futurity. In all his ad- 
 dresses on the future, he does not forget that we are mortal; 
 but neither will he allow us in our attentions to the present 
 to forget that we are immortal. As the worshippers of 
 mammon make religion subservient to the world, so he re- 
 quires the worshippers of C4od to subordinate the Avorld to 
 religion. Instead of exhausting ourselves in efibrts after 
 the bread which perisheth, he reminds us that there is an- 
 gel's food, and urges us to put forth our chief endeavors 
 after that. He finds us as in the midst of a spacious re- 
 pository, croAvded with an infinhe variety of objects; some 
 of which are adapted to the body only, while others might 
 form a rich dowry for an immortal soul : some of them 
 things that perish in the using, and others of them things 
 that form the gold and currency of heaven, things on 
 which God has stamped his image and superscription, and 
 inscribed an infinite value. But however diversified their 
 character, he finds them each soliciting the first and high- 
 • est place in our esteem ; and aware that we are in danger 
 of lavishing our affections — those precious things which 
 if given to God would bring us heaven in return — of wast- 
 ing them on less than nothing and vanity, he draws near 
 and expostulates, and entreats us that we cheat not our 
 souls of eternal happiness by providing for them only an 
 earthly portion, but that we select for them a good spiritual 
 and immortal like themselves, suited to supply its impor- 
 tant wants, and to gratify all their large capacities. ' Lay 
 not up treasures on earth,' saith he, ' where moth and rust 
 doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal : 
 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither 
 moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break 
 through and steal.' 
 
 And by exhorting us to establish our principal interest 
 C* 
 
XXXVlll PREFACE. 
 
 in heaven, he actually consuhs our peace on earth ; ' For 
 where your treasure is,' he adds, ' there will your heart be 
 also.' By choosing a heavenly treasure, our character 
 and hopes, which are invariably modified by the object of 
 our paramount regard, will partake of its celestial attri- 
 butes ; for it is both ennobling in itself, and lodged in the 
 only part of the universe which is exempt from calamity 
 and change; so that, while others partake of the littleness, 
 agitation, and debasement, which belong to their earthly 
 gods, we shall receive, by an anticipation, an impress of 
 the greatness, and security, and stability of heaven ; while, 
 at the same time, our temporal mercies will be enjoyed 
 with a superior relish, since we should feel that the loss of 
 them v.'ould leave us still in the possession of cur real 
 treasure entire and secure. In the prospect of a national 
 convulsion, it is not uncommon for the wealthy to trans- 
 mit their property for security into other lands. And, O, 
 were there a countr}^ on earth perfectly exempt from all 
 the changes which endanger property, that would be the 
 envied land in which all would aim to invest their riches. 
 But that blessed region, not to be found on the face of the 
 wide earth, actually exists in the kingdom of God. Yes, 
 by throwing open to us the gates of a heavenly commerce, 
 he would give scope to our loftiest aims, security to our 
 choicest treasures, and objects to our most capacious de- 
 sires. Here, the affluent may embark their abundance : — 
 instead of living for themselves let them live for God, and 
 they will be remitting their property to a world where it 
 shall accumulate with abundant interest ; they will be lay- 
 ing up a store for the future, on which they may live splen- 
 didly and gloriously for ever ; they will be placing uncer- 
 tain riches in a safe repository, and transmuting them into 
 certain wealth. Let them acquit themselves as faithful 
 stewards of the great householder ; and as they dispense 
 their wealth, it will direct its fTight towards heaven, bear- 
 ing on its wings the prayers and benedictions of those 
 they have benefitted. Havmg made to themselves friends 
 with the mammon of unrighteousness, when they die, 
 those friends wi]] welcome them into everlasting habita- 
 tions. Here the humblest believer may employ his penu- 
 ry : — and he will find eventually that his single mite, his 
 
PREFACE. XXXIX 
 
 cup of cold water, or his one talent, consecrated to God, 
 has augmented into a treasure exceeding his powers of 
 computation. For every sacrifice we make in his service 
 he guarantees to requite us, — not indeed as of debt; this 
 the magnitude of the requital shows ; but of his own exu- 
 berant munificence, he promises to repay us a hundred-fold 
 in the present life, and in the world to come life everlasting. 
 Every struggle against sin, every effort in the cause of be- 
 nevolence, every holy principle exerted for God, he pro- 
 nounces an element of future blessedness, and constitutes 
 a claimant' on his grace at the recompense of the just. 
 Whatever is transmitted by the soul to the world above, is 
 placed under the guardianship of omnipotence, is laid up 
 securely by the throne of God. His seat is the centre of 
 a circumference, within which nothing that impairs or 
 destroys, can by any possibility intrude ; and which itself 
 remains unmoved and immutable while all besides is 
 fluctuation and change. 
 
 It is not easy to speak of the claims of heaven and earth 
 as needing adjustment, without seeming to countenance an 
 erroneous impression that they are naturally at variance. 
 But let it be borne in mind that originally they were one. 
 The only quarrel which eternity can have with time, is, 
 wdien it usurps an ascendancy which, by inverting all or- 
 der, and doing violence to the first principles of our nature, 
 renders the happiness of the soul impossible. Let the 
 present defer to the future, let it fall into its proper place 
 as the handmaid of immortality, and instantly they are one 
 again ; each is seen reciprocating its influence, and lend- 
 ing its aid to the other, to secure to us a blessed futurity, 
 and to prepare us for it. But though all hostile opposi- 
 tion terminates with this new adjustment, it is not to be de- 
 nied that difficulty still remains, — the natural and unavoid- 
 able difficulty of keeping the world from that dangerous 
 domination which, having once enjoyed, it is ever impa- 
 tient to regain. New habits are to be formed, powerful 
 propensities are to be held at bay, old and indulged inclin- 
 ations are to be denied, and enemies which we fondly 
 thought we had laid dead at our feet, suddenly starting 
 into hostility again, are again to be coped with and van- 
 
Xl PREFACE. 
 
 quished ; this is attended with a disheartening sense of 
 difficuhy which some have no sooner tasted, than they 
 have declined the contest, and surrendered themselves at 
 discretion. 
 
 Now, while our Lord, in various ways, takes cogniz- 
 ance of this struggle — for one of his great excellencies, as 
 the founder of a new religion, w^as the most transparent 
 simplicity and candor — while he even enlarges on the con- 
 flict, presents his followers with a plan of the battle, points 
 out its imminent hazards, and exhorts them before entering 
 on it, to ' count the cost,' he, at the same time assures them 
 of such supernatural succors as shall enable their weak- 
 ness to do the deeds of omnipotence, and make persever- 
 ance infallible success. While he takes them to an emin- 
 ence, and shows them the vast confederacy of evil arrayed 
 against them, he reminds them that they struggle for an 
 invisible w^orld, that they fight in fellowship with all the 
 children of the light, that more than angels are in their 
 ranks, for he promises them the abundant aid of the Etern- 
 al Spirit. Their infirmities may be numerous, their sins 
 may be mighty, their ignorance may seem invincible, but 
 an almighty agent is employed for the special purpose of 
 piercing that ignorance, overpowering that sinfulness, and 
 surrounding them with an element of light and holiness. 
 
 And even beyond this, as he leads them to the field he 
 proclaims, ' Be of good cheer, I have overcome the loorld ; 
 your leader is a conqueror, advance to victory.' The his- 
 tory of the first christians proves that he did not utter this 
 inspiring address in vain. By this sign they conquered. 
 Though the w^orld within and the world without were in 
 arms against them, they could not be depressed. They 
 fought in the presence of an invisible world. They sur- 
 veyed the whole array of evil, looked calmly in the face 
 of every foe, considered all that might happen, but to this 
 triumphant conclusion they came, ' because he lives, we 
 shall live also.' Like the earth on which they trod, and 
 which continuesto rollonin its orbit unimpeded bytheearth- 
 quakes which rend it, and carrying all its atmosphere of 
 storms along with it, so they, animated and impelled by 
 the love of Christ, advanced in the course he assigned 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 :li 
 
 them, as steadily and cheerfully as if no ills within, no 
 storms without, assailed them ; as if each step they took 
 were across the heavenly threshold, and in sight of their 
 appointed thrones. 
 
 Without intending or hoping to supply the defects of 
 the concluding Essay — On the Practicalness of our Lord's 
 Teaching — it may not be inappropriate to close this prefa- 
 tory miscellany with a few practical remarks. A variety 
 of circumstances seem to concur, in the present day, aus- 
 picious to the study of the gospel as a practical science, 
 Two or three of these circumstances may be named. 
 
 1. The great error of religious polemics, hitherto has 
 consisted in arguing from compound dependent truths, as 
 if they were ultimate. The application of the inductive 
 method of investigation, however, has taught us that, as in 
 philosophy so in theology, we as yet possess but few ulti- 
 mate truths ; — that principles on which parties have been 
 accustomed to rely with the greatest confidence, may be 
 easily carried to a point where they break down, and fail 
 us ; — that where two truths appear thus to clash, it is evi- 
 dent they cannot be uhimate ; — but that each of them hav- 
 ing been affirmed by the God of truth concerning the 
 same thing, there is no doubt whatever of their eventual 
 coincidence in one comprehensive and axiomatic truth. 
 In the mean time, we feel that we must wait patiently, pro- 
 nounce less confidently, inquire more difndently, look at 
 each other more charitably, and, leaving the polemics of 
 piety in which we differ, unite m the practice of piety in 
 which we agree. 
 
 2. Religion has been regarded as the great monopolist 
 of mystery; the popular ignorance of the wonders of nat- 
 ural philosophy has favored this error; and the conse- 
 quence has too commonly been that the neophyte has 
 brought to religion a speculative spirit, and has spent that 
 breath in disputing which might otherwise have been spent 
 in the race of holiness. It is a subject of congratulation, 
 however, that as natural science advances, she is throwing 
 a light on many of the dark things of scripture, and, at 
 the same time, multiplying her own incredihilia; so that 
 wonder and scepticism will have to transport their throne 
 
xlii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 from the region of religion into the province of science. 
 And thus much of the strength which would once have 
 been wasted in speculation and controversy, is now more 
 usefully employed in biblical criticism, and the enforce- 
 ment of piety, in acts of obedience to God, and in deeds of 
 benevolence to man. 
 
 3. The present day is pre-eminently distinguished, in 
 every department, social, national and universal ; civil, po* 
 litical, and philosophical, by practical activity. Religion, 
 also, is up and doing. In every thing proper to her pecu- 
 liar province, she leads the van. Once more she appears 
 before the world in her appropriate character, militant and 
 aggressive. Hushing their mutual feuds, she is leading 
 her followers forth to the conquest of a world. To fail in- 
 to her train, is to swear obedience to the laws of Christ. 
 
 4. Another characteristic of the present day, whether 
 for good or for evil we stay not to inquire, is its cui bono, 
 or utilitarian spirit. By this test, religion glories to be 
 examined. Godliness is profitable for all things. It can 
 call witnesses from all classes of the community ; bring 
 evidence from all parts of the earth; and constrain even its 
 enemies to speak well of it. 
 
 It is the boast of philosophy, that any accession to our 
 knowledge of nature is sure, sooner or later, to make itself 
 felt in some practical application and benefit. Every addi- 
 tional truth which the gospel has brought, is an additional 
 principle of holiness, a fresh element of virtue ; it is, in 
 effect, the addition of a new mechanical foioer for accelera- 
 ting the motion of the world towards God. It is the pride 
 of ph^^sical science, that it can lead the very elements cap- 
 tive, subduing the most powerful energies of nature to its 
 purposes, and employing them in a variety of useful ways. 
 Spiritual triumphs, analogous to this, are familiar to the 
 gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
 that belie veth. It gathers grapes from thorns, and figs 
 from thistles. It turns the wrath of man into a song of 
 praise worthy the harps of heaven. It takes the passions, 
 the most intractable and unapproachable human passions, 
 yokes them to the car of duty, and henceforth they run in 
 the way of obedience, proud to grace its triumphs. From 
 
PREFACE. Xliii 
 
 elements of vice and wretchedness the gospel forms a neio 
 creature, instinct with God. These are its ordinary effects ; 
 but not only does it retain all its original applicability and 
 power unimpaired, it only waits occasion to develope ener- 
 gies of unimagined value, and to fill ^the world with won- 
 ders of grace. 
 
 Do we admire its practical utility and power ? Then 
 the Savior turns on us a look of personal application, while 
 he repeats, ' Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and 
 doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man,' ' If ye 
 know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.' His sub- 
 limest doctrines were all practical. He would not have re- 
 vealed any one doctrine contained in his word but for its 
 moral effect. He measured beforehand the power of each 
 to sanctify, and according to its tendency to illustrate the 
 holiness of his divine nature, and to restore sanctity to our 
 human, he assigned it an appropriate place in the system 
 of truth. The moral of each separately, and of all com- 
 bined, is simply this, ' Sin no more.' Reader, such are the 
 beauty and excellence of the seal ; what is its impression 
 on your heart and life ? The character of the christian 
 should be monumental, commemorative of the great facts 
 and truths of the gospel ; how many of these facts and 
 truths could be learnt from your character or transcribed 
 from your life ? ' If ye love me keep my commandments.' 
 
 Epsovij May, 1835. 
 
THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 ESSAY I. 
 ON THE AUTHORITY OF OUR LORD'S TEACHING. 
 
 ' He spake as one having authority.' 
 
 When, in the fullness of time, the eternal Son came 
 forth from the bosom of the Father, he descended to a re- 
 gion of spiritual darkness. Ages of inquiry, conjecture, 
 and effort, had only served to demonstrate the fact — that 
 man, ' by searching, cannot find out God.' Legislators, 
 philosophers, and poets — the pride of their time, and 
 the boast of the species — had toiled to construct a system 
 whose top should reach unto heaven; but in vain; they 
 built only to the clouds. Reason, confident in her resour- 
 ces, had sent forth her sons under all auspices, and in every 
 direction : but they returned, defeated and disheartened; 
 the footsteps of truth could nowhere be found. In vain 
 had generation after generation asked, in its way to ob- 
 livion, ' What is truth ? ' The devotee had urged the in- 
 quiry at the shrine of his god: the priest, at his altar of 
 sacrifice ; the sage had repeated it as he walked amidst 
 the works and wonders of creation ; but nothing was heard 
 in reply; nothing, but the faint and bewildering echo^ 
 ' What is truth 1 ' Darkness covered the earth, and gross 
 darkness the minds of the people. 
 
 Nor can the state of Judea be regarded as an exception 
 3 
 
42 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 to the prevailing gloom. There, indeed, the ancient ora- 
 cles of Gfod were yet extant ; but their still small voice, 
 heard only, at any time, by the attentive listener, had been 
 long since overpowered and silenced by the dogmas of 
 their professed interpreters, and the clamours of rival sects. 
 The spiritual import of the sacred volume, like the seven- 
 sealed roll of the Apocal^^pse, had long been closed to the 
 Jew; and when the lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed to 
 open it, the aversion with which they turned from the sight, 
 showed how unaccustomed they were to gaze on the truth. 
 The darkness was universal and complete. It had settled 
 down, like a pall, over the face of the whole earth. Truth 
 looked down from heaven; but from no part could she be- 
 hold her image reflected. If she would relieve the gloom, 
 she must descend, and shine, and dissipate it with her actu- 
 al presence. All things proclaimed the urgent necessity 
 that the world should be visited by ' a teacher sent from 
 God.' 
 
 Not only did this awful exigence exist, it was extensive- 
 ly felt and acknowledged ; and, by many of the more en- 
 lightened heathens, a Divine Instructor was ardently de- 
 sired. In illustration of this, the language of Plato has 
 been often cited ; nor is it easy to conceive of any thing 
 more conclusive and striking than his picture of Socrates 
 advising his pupil to forego the usual sacrifices until a 
 teacher should be sent from on high. In another place, 
 speaking of such an inspired teacher, he represents, with 
 prophetic sagacity and precision, that ' he must be poor, 
 and void of all qualifications but those of virtue alone ; 
 that a wicked world would not bear his instructions and re- 
 proofs ; and therefore, within three or four years after he 
 began to preach, he would be persecuted, imprisoned, 
 scourged, and at last be put to death.' In this remarkable 
 passage, we behold the divine philosopher, rising from a 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 43 
 
 mournful survey of human ignorance, turning with an air 
 of despondency from every eai;thly resource, yet eagerly 
 thirsting for a knowledge of God, and virtue, and futurity, 
 till his thirst grows into a desire for celestial aid, and his 
 desire matures to an anticipation, and even a prediction, 
 Avhich God was actually intending to fulfil; perhaps, in- 
 deed, we err in not cordially recognising in his language 
 the presence of heavenly inspiration. And in uttering 
 the desire which his words disclose, we may take it for 
 granted, he was clothing the thoughts of a thousand bo- 
 soms, venting the secret and cherished longings of un- 
 numbered hearts. If we, though standing in the radiance 
 of the ' Sun,' which has since risen on the world, are yet 
 sometimes conscious of impatience, and complain of ob- 
 scurity, what must have been the wishes and aspirations of 
 those who, with a keen perception of their exigence, were 
 sitting in darkness and the shadow of death? 
 
 Now the appearance of a Divine Instructor, thus abso- 
 lutely necessary, and ardently desired, might have been 
 warrantably expected. Indubitable evidence existed that 
 God already had spoken to man, at sundry times, and in 
 divers manners ; and as the ignorance of th& world was 
 still unreclaimed, and there was no intimation that his voice 
 had been final, there was ground to anticipate that, in his 
 own time, he would break the silence again. Besides, the 
 very presence and nature of the Jewish economy was a 
 standing evidence that such was his gracious intention. 
 Bearing the marks of a celestial origin, and fraught with 
 important truth, it yet veiled its meaning in types and enig- 
 mas, the solution of which remained to be given. Here 
 were mysteries — where was the interpreter? Here were 
 shadows — the substance, ' the very things themselves,' 
 must be at hand. Here were proofs that, in a former age, 
 God had said, • Let there be spiritual light'— was it not 
 
44 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 likely that, in the process of his new creation, the time 
 would come when he would collect, and emhody, and aug- 
 ment this light into a glorious sun ? Here Avas a system 
 of divine intimations, an unfinished economy — was it like- 
 ly that he would leave it incomplete ? was it not more ac- 
 cordant with the character of a perfect heing, that, putting 
 his hand a second time to the work, he would bring it to 
 perfection ? 
 
 But, beyond this, the spirit of prophecy had distinctly 
 foretold that an inspired instructor should appear. ' For 
 Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord 
 your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto 
 me ; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall 
 say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, 
 which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from 
 among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, 
 and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have 
 likewise foretold of these days.' Thus a prediction was 
 to be found, at the very opening of the prophetic roll, an- 
 nouncing the advent of a distinguished teacher, whose 
 words would demand universal regard; while his author- 
 ity would be supreme, and his power invincible. Unfold- 
 ing it farther, we read, that he should preach the gospel tb 
 the poor, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord|; 
 that he should set judgment in the earth, and the isle? 
 should wait for his law ; that the Gentiles should come tb 
 his light, and kings to the brightness of his rising. An^ 
 as he was its earliest, so he was also its latest theme. For, ' 
 reading on to its closing lines, we find it predict him as 
 the Messenger of the covenant who was yet to come ; 
 and the Sun of Righteousness yet to arise. His name 
 was the first which prophecy had uttered ; as often as it 
 spoke, it resumed the inspiring theme ; and when at length 
 it expired, his name lingered on its lips. * When the ful- 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 45 
 
 ness of time was come, God sent forth his Son.' * Hear, 
 O heavens ; and be astonished, O earth ! ' the appointed 
 Instructor appears, and proves to be no less a being than 
 the Son of God himself It is true, the deep necessities of 
 man, the riches of the divine benevolence, and the glowing 
 colors of prophecy, might have kindled and justified the 
 expectation of a most illustrious teacher ; but that he should 
 have appeared in the person of the Eternal Word, exceeds 
 the highest flight of human hope ; that he should have 
 come from the bosom of the Father, was an excess of good- 
 ness, one of those splendid surprises of grace, by which 
 mercy delights to melt the obduracy, and to win the -confi- 
 dence of our guilty race. 
 
 The circumstances attending the advent of so illustrious 
 a Prophet, must be entitled to receive our profound atten- 
 tion. With the outlines of these we are all familiar. 
 The condescending object of his mission required that, for 
 a time, he should hold the essential glories of his nature in 
 abeyance : accordingly, he mysteriously allied himself to 
 our condition ; ' the Word was made flesh.' The strain 
 of prophecy had assigned the scene of his life and labors 
 to Judea ; and in that favored land he appeared. That he 
 should have grown in wisdom as he rose to maturity, was 
 only according to a law of our nature — an ordinance of 
 his own divine appointment — since it is only by a gradual 
 development that the faculties of man arrive at perfection ; 
 but the office he had come to assume, and the divine quali- 
 fications he brought to it, supposed him superior to human 
 tuition; and accordingly he sought it not. When, in 
 childhood, he mingled a moment with the doctors of the 
 temple, 'they were astonished at his understanding ;' his 
 inquiries were more instructive and replete with wisdom 
 than their replies. On an after occasion, their surprise at 
 his stores of sacred science was augmented by their 
 
46 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 knowledge of the fact, that he had ' never learned,' never 
 approached the schools of human instruction. He had 
 access to a tree of knowledge they knew not of As his 
 dignity was of an order distinct from earthly pomp, incap- 
 able of being diminished by its absence, or of being em- 
 bellished by its presence, he entirely dispensed with it. 
 The various gradations of human condition were all open 
 and free to his choice, but of these he selected the lowliest; 
 and however astonishing the selection may appear to those 
 who place distinction in opulence and rank, to him who 
 had already stooped from an infinite height in becoming 
 man the varieties of earthly rank were as nothing, were 
 only minute degrees of littleness. The place of his birth, 
 like a place constructed from the very wrecks of poverty, 
 was entirely swept of every trace of luxury, every vestige 
 of indulgence, and seemed sacred to humility alone. And 
 the lowliness of all his subsequent life strictly accorded 
 with the humbleness of his birth. Had he come in the 
 pomp of outward state, the multitude would have been de- 
 barred from his presence, and the regards of men would 
 have been divided between the attractions of his earthly 
 rank, and the claims of celestial truth ; but by choosing 
 the low condition of the great majority, and declining the 
 tinselled drapery which charms the eye, he graciously 
 made himself accessible to all, while he seemed to put for- 
 ward truth alone as the only object demanding their no- 
 tice — to challenge their ivhole attention to the native worth, 
 the intrinsic importance of the doctrines he announced. 
 
 But though, for the reasons assigned, he assumed the 
 most bare and unpretending simplicity, as the hour for 
 opening his divine commission drew nigh, the public mind 
 was apprized of the event by ' w^onders in heaven above, 
 and signs in the earth beneath.' A herald, preceding his 
 steps, aroused the nation, by the solemn announcement thai 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 4< 
 
 he was now at hand ; a herald, whose office was deemed 
 so important as the precursor of Christ, that even he had 
 been the subject of ancient prediction ; while, -to prepare 
 the minds, and to excite the expectations of those he ad- 
 dressed, the burden of his message was nothing less than 
 the stern necessity of immediate repentance, and the ap- 
 proaching erection of a heavenly kingdom : ' Repent ye, 
 for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' The voice came 
 pealing from the Judean desert, peopling its path w^herever 
 it swept with echoes of astonishment and alarm; and as it 
 passed over the banks of the Jordan, rung through the pal- 
 aces and streets of Jerusalem, and startled even the distant 
 shores ; the wondering land went out in crowds, the san- 
 guine, the envious, the devout, the anxious, the oppressed, 
 the curious — priest, politician, populace — all flocked and 
 thronged to the scene of this remarkable prodigy ; where, 
 having won their admiration and credence by the severe 
 sanctity of his life, and agitated their fears by the bold and 
 alarming tenor of his address, he awoke in them vague but 
 elevated anticipations of 'him that should come,' and took 
 from them a solemn pledge, by baptism, that as soon as 
 that Illustrious Personage appeared they would enrol 
 themselves among his disciples. ' Now when all the peo- 
 ple were baptized,' while the herald voice was yet ringing 
 in their ears, and their expectation was raised to the utmost 
 pitch, Jesus, the subject of prophecy, the object of hope, 
 the desire of nations, appeared, and with ineffable conde- 
 scension received, at the hands of John, the baptismal rite. 
 Having thus honored the ministry of his servant, and rat- 
 ified and obeyed existing laws, he ascended from the Ava- 
 ters, and prayed ; and as he prayed, ' Lo, the heavens were 
 opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending 
 like a dove, and lighting upon him : and, lo, a voice from 
 heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
 
48 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 well pleased.' Such was the splendid scene of his divine 
 inauguration to an office, to which we behold him appoint- 
 ed by the concurrent suffrages of the eternal Father and 
 the Hol}^ Spirit ; invested with the authority, and enjoying 
 the complacency of the one, anointed and endowed with 
 the unmeasured fulness of the other ; an office which was 
 destined to absorb all moral authority, distinction, and pow- 
 er, and in the discharge of which, whatever he uttered 
 was henceforth to be regarded as law and life. 
 
 In the following essays, I propose to point out the lead- 
 ing features of our Lord's instructions. My object, be it 
 remarked, is not to attempt a detailed and textual exposition 
 of the truths he taught, the words he uttered — though 
 these, of necessity, will be constantly before us, as our 
 only data and source of illustration — but to elicit and ex- 
 emplify the peculiar qualities by which these truths and 
 words, when viewed as a whole, are distinguished. With 
 the substance of what he taught we are all more or less 
 familiar; since, in common with the stupendous miracles 
 which marked his path, the purity and perfection of his 
 character, his amazing dea^h, and glorious resurrection, it 
 forms an important part of our scripture reading, and is 
 one of the ordinary topics of pulpit instruction : but, if I 
 mistake not, the impression which is generally entertained 
 of the claims of Christ as a teacher, is most disproportion- 
 ately inadequate ; owing, perhaps, partly to the absorbing 
 attractions which invest the subject of his atoning death, 
 and partly to that eclipsing flood of light which immediate- 
 ly afterwards burst on the church in the ministry of the 
 apostles; for, by a known principle, truth evolved and il- 
 lustrated will supplant and succeed in the mind the same 
 truth condensed and primitive, however superior its source, 
 and throw over it an air of undeserved disparagement. 
 Were it proposed to magnify his office as the great Proph- 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 49 
 
 et of the church, it would be important to remark that the 
 preaching of the apostles, subsequent to his ascension, 
 was virtually the mere continuation of his own preaching ; 
 that they were simply the organs and oracles through 
 which he spoke ; as much so as when he had sent them 
 forth, by two and two, to proclaim through Judea the king- 
 dom of God ; the only difference being, that he had now 
 removed the scene of his instructions from earth to heaven : 
 but, without recurring to this consideration, and confining 
 ourselves entirely to the specimens we possess of his per 
 sonal teaching, it may easily be made apparent that, in the 
 most literal and comprehensive sense of the expression, 
 ' never man spake like this man.' And in adopting the 
 plan contemplated, of exemplifying the peculiar character- 
 istics of his earthly teaching, I am principally moved by 
 the persuasion, that it is best adapted to exhibit an enlarged, 
 connected, and impressive view of the emphatic truth of 
 this declaration. 
 
 On meeting with an allusion to our Lord's discourses, 
 we naturally recur, in thought, to his sermon on the 
 mount, to his parables, his charge to his apostles, his more 
 lengthened vindicatory replies to the questions and impu- 
 tations of his adversaries, his terrible prophetic denuncia- 
 tion of the Jewish priesthood and nation, and his valedic- 
 tory address to his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. 
 These, when brought from their various detached positions 
 in the gospels, and grouped together in the mind, assume, 
 perhaps, a larger appearance than the cursory reader had 
 before attached to them. He must, however, be aware, 
 that we possess but a very small proportion of what Jesus 
 actually delivered. It is not to be imagined that he, who 
 went about doing good, and who turned every event into 
 an occasion of usefulness, would travel from place to place, 
 with his disciples, in silence. Rather, we infer from the 
 
50 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 characteristic inquisitiveness which some of them showed, 
 and his uniform readiness to reply, that the very scenes 
 through which he walked, if nothing else, would furnish 
 him with a perpetual occasion of instruction; that, in 
 traversing a land so often pressed by angels' feet, so rich 
 in the relics of miracle and devotion, that its very soil had 
 lost its gross materiality, and every object had acquired a 
 supernatural aspect, he would often advert to ancient times, 
 making them the text of hallowed remark, and thus turn 
 the very dust he trod into the gold of wisdom. And yet, 
 though so much of his time was necessarily occupied in 
 frequent, circuitous, and protracted journeys, a few frag- 
 ments, incidentally given, are all that we have of his di- 
 vine communications by the way. 
 
 But we are not left to mere conjecture as to the probable 
 occasions on which he taught. The scene of the first 
 discourse he is recorded to have uttered, appears to have 
 been Jerusalem ; but of that memorable unsealing of the 
 fountains of the waters of life, we only know that, in con- 
 junction Avith his miracles, it was the means of inducing 
 many to believe on him. To form an idea of the immense 
 proportion in which the amount of his teaching must have 
 exceeded what is on record, we have only to recall the 
 following expressions : ' And Jesus returned in the power 
 of the Spirit into Galilee ; and there went out a fame of 
 him through all the region round about. And he taught 
 in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came 
 to Nazareth, and preached there. And he came down to 
 Capernaum, and taught them on the sabbath days. And 
 he said, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities 
 also ; for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the 
 synagogues of Galilee.' These intimations are all to be 
 found in a single chapter, the 4th of Luke ; and only refer 
 to a single period, the opening of his ministry. But if we 
 
HIS AUTHORIfi". 51 
 
 bear ia mind that similar intimations are dispersed through 
 the gospels, and are equally applicable to all the subse- 
 quent stages of his life, we shall be vividly, impressed, 
 that what we read is merely a hint of what he delivered. 
 What synagogue in Galilee, if not in Judea, did not re- 
 sound to his gracious voice? What sabbath did not be- 
 hold him breaking the brI&H of life to famishing crowds ? 
 He held the key of all the treasures of wisdom, and he 
 distributed of its stores with the affluence and profusion of 
 unwearied beneficence. He had come to sow the earth 
 with truth, and wherever he went he scattered in abund- 
 ance the incorruptible seed. What has been transmitted 
 by the holy evangelists is all that is necessary to inforai 
 and to sanctify ; had all that he uttered in the course of 
 his laborious ministry been preserved — for he never pro- 
 nounced an idle word — the voluminous mass would have 
 been inaccessible to the great majority, and thus its design 
 would have been defeated ; 'for I suppose the world itself 
 would not have been able to receive the books that should 
 be written.' 
 
 We may, I think, warrantably suppose that, on com- 
 mencing his public ministry, the adorable Redeemer had 
 present to his comprehensive mind, an outline of the truths 
 which should form the scope of his teaching. The worth- 
 lessness of formal ceremonial obedience ; the spirituality 
 of the law and its eternal obligations ; the holy, benevo- 
 lent, and paternal character of God; the relations in 
 which we stand to God, and to each other ; the display of 
 his grace in the gift of his Son for human salvation ; the 
 spiritual nature of the gospel kingdom ; the necessity of 
 prayer, repentance, and holiness in those who belong to it ; 
 the agency of the Holy Spirit to enlighten, renew, and 
 sanctify the soul ; the sublime fact of his own divine ap- 
 pointment to be the Saviour and Judge of the world j these 
 
52 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 were the momentous truths on which he chiefly dwelt, and 
 to these, whatever the immediate occasion of his speaking, 
 he perpetually returned. Like some of the celestial bodies, 
 indeed, which refuse to come under any astronomical ar- 
 rangement of signs, some of the lights which he kindled 
 and placed in the great firmament of truth stand out in 
 isolated grandeur and shine apArt. But though this was 
 to be expected from the awful extent of that ignorance he 
 came to enlighten from the stores of. his wisdom, and the 
 variety of occasion which called it forth, the mass of his 
 divine instructions will be found to come under the enu- 
 meration Ave have specified. And it is from his discourses 
 and discoveries, on these topics, that we now proceed to 
 exhibit those distinguishing marks of his teaching on 
 which we propose to treat. 
 
 It is impossible to peruse the instructions of Christ with- 
 out remarking the tone of authority which pervades them : 
 this was the characteristic by which his hearers, on several 
 occasions, appear to have been chiefly impressed; and to 
 this, therefore, we think it natural to advert first. Of his 
 personal appearance, and general address, we are left in ig- 
 norance : nor is it necessary, that, in order to form an idea 
 of his teaching, we should be able to imagine them. For 
 this purpose we have only to suppose, what is surely allow- 
 able, that they were in no way unfriendly to useful efliect ; 
 and that, whatever the theme which engaged his tongue, his 
 voice, and words, and gestures accorded with it, being true 
 to nature, and to the eloquence of holy human feeling. 
 And hence, the authority with which he spoke was not of 
 one unvaried character, but was marked and modified by 
 the nature of his subject. There was authority in his in- 
 vitations and promises, not less than in his denunciations 
 and commands, for they were uttered in the language of 
 independent goodness and power ; but while we hear in the 
 
HIS ArTHORITY. 53 
 
 former the overflowings of paternal tenderness and love, 
 Ave recognise in the latter the tones of the lawgiver and 
 the judge. Availing myself of this variety, it may serve 
 to promote distinctness and easier recollection, if I classify 
 the quotations I intend to make accordingly. 
 
 I. There are passages which exhibit especially the au- 
 thority of goodness. ' Come unto me, all ye that labor 
 and are heavy laden ; and I will give you rest.' ' If any 
 man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink,' 'Him that 
 Cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' Who can 
 listen to these great and gracious announcements without 
 feeling himself standing in the presence of superior good- 
 ness? His first emotion may be that of admiring grati- 
 tude at the display of so much benignity and compassion j 
 but scarcely can it fail to be followed by the delightful yet 
 awhil impression, that he is occupying holy ground, stand- 
 ing near the fountain of mercy itself. What distinguished 
 dignity and grace do we recognise in sentences such as 
 these ; ' I am the light of the world ;' ' I am the bread of 
 life : ' ' I am the way, the truth, and the life : ' ' I am the 
 good shepherd, and give unto my sheep eternal life : ' ' I 
 am come that they might have life, and that they might 
 have it more abundantly.' When from the midst of the 
 burning bush Jehovah proclaimed himself, lam that I am^ 
 he announced his independent existence and self-sufficient 
 perfections ; in other words, he declared what he is in 
 himself. In these declarations of Jesus, we recognise the 
 same ineffable Being describing what he is to his people ; 
 laying open the resources of his infinite nature, appropria- 
 ting and applying them, with high complacency in the act, 
 to the wants of our guilty race : in each instance, the dig- 
 nity addressing us is the same, only that in the language of 
 the Incarnate Word, the av/ful is exchanged for the attrac- 
 
54 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 tive and gracious. He spoke like the soul of universal 
 goodness, conscious of a power of breathing into prostrate 
 humanity the breath of life ; of entering the vast capaci- 
 ties of the world, and filling them all with a fulness of joy. 
 And, as the only other illustration we shall adduce, think 
 of the opening of his divine discourse on the Mount of 
 Beatitudes. How like a cloud of goodness did he crown 
 the honored mount, and shower his benedictions with a 
 copiousness, which showed that it was at once his pleasure 
 and his prerogative to bless. In a w^ay w^hich evinced 
 that, while so employed, he was only engaged in his own 
 peculiar province ; that the treasures of eternity were at his 
 command ; that in the disposal of them he knew no con^ 
 trol ; that he thought it no robbery to enact the God ; he 
 rejected the minions and favorites of the world, and, calling 
 authoritatively on a peculiar people, he distributed them into 
 classes, assigned to each an appropriate award, and made 
 them free of the universal kingdom of God. Having 
 brought into the world the accumulated treasures of the 
 eternal God, thus publicly did he adopt his heirs, and 
 authoritatively assign to each his respective share. Turn- 
 ing to such as might suffer for his ' name's sake' last, he 
 declared that ' great should be their reward in heaven ;' 
 thus disclosing the dignity which attached to his name, 
 and the unlimited authority he possesses in heaven. 
 
 II. There were occasions when he spoke with the au- 
 thority of greatness. ' He that hath ears to hear,' said he, 
 ' let him hear ;' and in thus bespeaking universal and sub- 
 missive attention, he was only repeating the command 
 from the excellent glory which had summoned the world 
 .to listen while he spoke, and to receive every word he 
 might utter as law and life. In accordance with the spirit 
 of that command, he did not hesitate to compare himself 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 55 
 
 with the most distinguished lights of the Jewish church, 
 and to claim pre-eminence over them all. Jonah was one 
 of the most exaked names of which the Israelites could 
 boast. His voice, like a blast from the trump of God, had 
 pealed through the streets of Nineveh, and had made all 
 its palaces tremble : his preaching had humbled the mighti- 
 est nation of the east ; had instrumentally preserved an 
 empire from destruction ; had caused their religion and 
 their laws to be revered by the surrounding lands, and had 
 greatly exalted the God of Israel before the heathen. Yet 
 aware that all these impressions of Jonah's greatness were 
 vividly present to their minds, ' behold,' said he, ' a great- 
 er than Jonah is here !" Solomon with them was a name 
 for glory. As the founder of their magnificent temple, 
 as the instrument of raising their nation to the loftiest 
 point of prosperity, as the most highly endowed and wisest 
 of men, the depository and personification of wisdom, they 
 hallowed his name with a reverence which fell little short 
 of idolatry: so that to assert superiority to him was, in 
 their eyes, to claim to be considered as more than a man ; 
 as passing beyond the limits of humanity, and invading the 
 precincts of Deity. Yet aware that such was their high 
 and jealous regard for his fame, and while standing amidst 
 the splendid memorials of his greatness, ' Behold,' said 
 he, *a greater than Solomon is here!' Not only did he 
 claim to eclipse their brightest luminaries, he spoke of all 
 the flower and prime of their nation, as having longed to 
 complete their earthly distinctions by sitting at his feet,, 
 and following in his train. ' He turned unto his disciples, 
 and said. Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your 
 ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many 
 prophets, and kings, and righteous men, have desired to 
 see those things which ye see, and have not seen them ; 
 and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard 
 
56 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 them.' And, as though to extinguish with a breath, and 
 forever, all idea of rivalship with him, he distinctly as- 
 sumed and appropriated as his right, the title of authority 
 his followers had placed at his feet, and affirmed his claim 
 to the entire subjection and allegiance of their faith. ' Ye 
 call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am; 
 one is your master, even Christ.' Thus taking possession 
 of the sacred domain of conscience in his own name, he 
 erected a throne whose supremacy it is treason to question, 
 and blasphemy to attempt to usurp. 
 
 In his graphic and awful allusions to the last day, in 
 none of which he fails to make prominent the glorious 
 tribunal of the Son of man, what a voice of authority and 
 majesty is heard to speak ! While reading, for instance, 
 his parabolical representation of it, in the 25th of Matthew, 
 how imperceptibly but irresistibly is the attention engaged 
 and the heart subdued; till, having marked with conscious 
 concern the partition betwixt the sheep and the goats, and 
 intensely listened to his portentous addresses to each, and 
 trembled at the temerity evinced m the defence of the wick- 
 ed, and sympathised with the characteristic reply of the 
 righteous, we hang with breathless anxiety on the lips 
 which pronounce their respective awards, and feel at the 
 breaking up and departure of the vast assembly to their 
 separate states, as though we ourselves had been arraigned 
 in his august presence, how entirely we are in his hands, 
 and how insignificant we are there. Having amazed his 
 hearers by the announcement of that partial resurrection 
 which accompanied and adorned his own triumph over 
 the grave, he bade the':n reserve their wonder for the far 
 more impressive scenes of the last day ; ' Marvel not at 
 this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the 
 graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall 
 come forth.' If we would recognise the authority which 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 57 
 
 belongs to every part of his teaching, we have only to re- 
 alize the thought, that in listening to him, we are actually 
 listening to the voice which is soon to resound through all 
 the nations of the dead, and to which we ourselves shall 
 reply by awaking and leaving the chambers of the grave. 
 When all the universe shall be convened for judgment, the 
 only parties remaining will be He who judges and they 
 who are judged ; of all the multiplied relations which now 
 subsist, that which makes us accountable to God will alone 
 be felt : so that, were it possible in that awful juncture for 
 every order of created beings to disown and desert us, the 
 calamity would fail, from its comparative insignificance, to 
 attract our notice. Yet the Saviour unequivocally implies 
 that if he alone ' profess to be ashamed,' of us, our doom 
 will be sealed : that it will be only for him to disown us, 
 happiness and hope will instantly desert us, and, from that 
 moment we shall have to date our woe. Virtue, wherever 
 it exists, is greatness of the highest order ; for it allies us to 
 supreme greatness ; but, as though he represented and em- 
 bodied universal holiness in his own person, as though he 
 were at once the author and champion of all righteousness, 
 he engages to reward every act that befriends it, as an 
 honor conferred on himself; while, whatever opposes it, 
 even in thought, he describes as a violence offered to his 
 own nature which he feels himself bound to resent, ' Ye 
 did it unto me, or, ye did it not unto me ;' these are the 
 terms of aggravation in which he depicts himself describ- 
 ing every act, and by which he informs us that, as he sits 
 on the throne of judgment, the great centre of the congre- 
 gated world, every act v/ill be seen, like a line, pointing to 
 him as its object and end ; or else, in forgetfulness and 
 enmity, diverging from him, and losing itself in outer 
 darkness. 
 
 The name of a person is a familiar formula to denote his 
 
58 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 character and influence. The name of God is a compen- 
 dious idiom of scripture, importing his glory, the fulness 
 and totality of his divine perfections. Hence, every thing 
 peculiar to the legal economy v^as prescribed in his name 
 as the Fountain of authority, or was required to be done to 
 his name, as its only legitimate object and end. In intro- 
 ducing the christian economy, we find Jesus denoting his 
 power and supremacy in the same manner. Copying the 
 example of Deity, he impressed his name upon every act, 
 and object, and office, peculiar to the new dispensation. 
 His disciples, as often as they desired to call down spiritual 
 blessings, were to employ his name, and their plea would 
 prevail. They were to gather together for social worship 
 to his name. They were to baptize to his name. In his 
 name they were to summon and subvert the strongholds of 
 idolatry and sin, and to arouse the nations from the slum- 
 bers of spiritual death. Speaking in his name, they were 
 to find the ordinances of nature miraculously obedient to 
 their voice. His name was to be their watchword, their 
 badge of distinction, the principal of their piety, the bond 
 of their union, the end of their actions, the authority for 
 their conduct, and the source of their success. Nothing 
 was to be recognised or received in his kingdon, which 
 did not bear the superscription of his name ; every thing 
 was to confess his supremacy, by acknowledging him for 
 its author, or else for its ultimate design. 
 
 But these illustrations of the dignity which marked the 
 teaching of Christ might be multiplied indefinitely. I do 
 not profess to have selected the best : for when I have 
 hoped the difficulty of selection was over, a new specimen 
 has suddenly occurred, bringing in its train a host of fresh 
 illustrations, as eligible as those already cited. It is one of 
 the peculiarities of our Lord's teaching, that he was his 
 own subject ; and seldom does he release our attention 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 59 
 
 from the exalted theme. As if he sought to be always 
 present to our eye, he converted all nature into an index to 
 his greatness, treated it as an intended system of emblems 
 of himself There is a sense in which the much-admired 
 saying of Plato, that light is ' only the shadow of God,' 
 was applied by our Lord to himself 'I,' said he, 'am the 
 light of the world ;' the sun is only ' my emblematic rep- 
 resentative.' Water, and air, and light, and life, the great 
 elements of existence, the universal principles, were select- 
 ed by him as the only adequate emblems of his greatness. 
 How numerous the occasions in which he partially re- 
 moved the veil of his greamess ; heightening our concep- 
 tions of his majesty by the terms of reserve in which he 
 spoke of it. His pre-existence, his personal dignity, his 
 prospective glory ; these were themes familiar to his tongue. 
 • He thought it not robbery to be equal with God ;' and 
 accordingly when he claimed the equality, he did not em- 
 ploy any pomp of words, he did not appoint a public occa- 
 sion, and assemble the nation, and command attention by 
 the trumpets and thunders of Sinai ; like one to whom all 
 greatness was familiar, he simply announced it in his com- 
 mon speech. ' As the Father, said he, knoweth me, even 
 so know I the Father. The Son restoreth to life whom 
 he will. All things that the Father hath are mine. I and 
 my Father are one. I appoint unto you a kingdom.' Great- 
 ness, which baffles and astonishes our conceptions, he 
 spoke of in a tone of unmoved tranquillity. He lays his 
 hand on the throne of God, with the spontaneous ease of 
 an eternal habitude. Arraying himself in all the perfec- 
 tions of Godhead, and putting on his head the crown of 
 Deity, he assumes his seat at the right hand of the Father, 
 and claims a community of supreme honors. Grandeur, 
 which the heart of man hath not imagined, and which 
 even his apostles could not glance at without emotions of 
 
60 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 unutterable wonder, he speaks of without any effort, and 
 distributes without any ostentation. Astonishment is only 
 for those to whom knowledge is novelty ; but 'the glory 
 which is to be revealed' to us, is 'the glory which he had 
 with the Father before the world was;' the unapproacha- 
 ble splendors of the celestial state, he speaks of as ever 
 present to his mind, as the natural and familiar scenes of 
 his Father's house. The heavenly heights, to which we 
 can ascend onl}^ as we are succoured and raised by an om- 
 nipotent arm, was the state of exaltation with which he 
 had ever moved on a level, and from which he had visited 
 us only by accomplishing a laborious descent. He car- 
 ried our views of his greatness from the present to the 
 future; declared that his final doom of the wicked will be, 
 • depart from me ;' importing that banishment from him 
 will be exile from happiness, the consumation of human 
 woe : while, on the other hand, the peculiar and eternal 
 charm of that world where all is glorious, is to consist in 
 the manifestation and enjoyment of his presence. ' Where 
 I am, there also shall my servant be.' ' I will that they 
 be with me w^here I am, to behold my glory.' 
 
 Under this head, it is needful to remark, that the pervad- 
 ing style of our Lord's teaching is that of assertion and 
 testimony. While it pre-supposes the laws of reason, it 
 does not, nor could it without manifest incongruity, make 
 an appeal to them. His disclosures of truth are necessa- 
 rily dogmatic. But since man, if he is to be treated as a 
 rational being, must have adequate grounds on which to 
 rest his belief, our Lord, in the stead of arguments, con- 
 structed a basis of miracles. He claimed to be ' believed 
 for his work's sake.' They were the hand of God, endors- 
 ing and attesting as true whatever he revealed. Having 
 thus acquired a right to dictate, he could not have submitted 
 the principles he announced to the ordinary process of ar* 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 61 
 
 gumentation, without implying that human reasoning, our 
 present impaired perceptions of truth, was a surer ground 
 for reliance than the purest reason ; he would, have been 
 expunging faith from the christian virtues, exalting human 
 reason, or that which stands for it, above the wisdom of 
 God, and treating it as though in the sphere of religion it 
 were perfect, and at home ; whereas he found it prostrate 
 and lost, and had to rekindle its extinguished torch with 
 the very first elements of sacred knowledge. Surrounded 
 with divine credentials, he took his stand as a living ora- 
 cle, and demanded the credence of all who heard his un- 
 reasoned verities. He spake as one having authority, 
 addressing himself to humility, obedience, and implicit 
 faith. Every science has its data : fundamental principles 
 assumed to be true, on the unquestioned authority of which 
 all its deductions and applications rest ; in the science of 
 theology, the sayings of Christ are ultimate truths. From 
 these, as from first principles, all our reasoning in religion 
 must proceed : to call in question their authority, would be 
 to disturb and subvert the foundations of truth. His dic- 
 tates constitute the rudiments of sacred science ; and they 
 are to be acquiesced in, as the reasons of duty, and the laws 
 of faith. 
 
 HI. A third quality, which imparted a style of awful 
 authority to our Lord's teaching, was solemnity. In the 
 Old Testament, as I live, saith the Lord, is a form of di- 
 vine asseveration, which compels attention ; and which, by 
 giving the existence of Jehovah in pledge, imparts to sen- 
 timents already grave in themselves the exceeding awful- 
 ness of an infinite oath. Answerable to this, is that re- 
 markaj^le formula employed by Christ, and peculiar to him, 
 with which he so often commands attention, as with the 
 blast of a trumpet, ' Verily, verily, I say untoyou.' The re- 
 
62 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 iteration of the first word, proceeding from the lips of him 
 who is ' the truth,' and ' the word of God,' invests the an- 
 nouncements which follow with a superlative sanctity and 
 solemnity, as if they came to us legibly impressed with 
 the stamp and seal of God. Solemnity of address, at all 
 times affecting, is never more so than when, like elemental 
 thunder, it proclaims the terrors of the Lord. Whoever 
 may be the organ of divine denunciation, he has only to 
 evince that he feels the weight and burden of his message, 
 in order to obtain respectful audience from the conscience 
 of the sinner, and to awaken and authenticate its most 
 hidden forebodings. But what an appalling accession to 
 the Redeemer's power of rebuke is derived from the con- 
 sideration of his prevailing compassion, as well as of his 
 mysterious resources to fulfil and to punish. The voice 
 of him who was ' meek and lowly in heart,' uttering the 
 hoarse and exasperated accents of wrath, is more than a 
 recollection of Sinai. But how was it possible that even 
 mercy itself could visit a scene like that which he travers- 
 ed, and maintain a style of unmingled tenderness. Ac- 
 cordingly, there were occasions when, surveying the proud, 
 hypocritical, and guilty throngs which crowded his path, 
 he clothed himself with zeal as with a garment, and, with 
 a consuming jealousy for the insulted majesty of God, 
 ' took them into his lips, and smote them with the sword 
 of his mouth.' Witness the cleansing of the temple. In- 
 tent on gain, the Jews had converted the holy place into a 
 scene of sacrilegious traffic ; they had turned the ancient 
 and solemn passover itself to profit ; they bartered deep in 
 the blood of human souls ; they worshipped mammon in 
 his Father's house. But, * suddenly coming to his temple,' 
 he flamed around its hallowed walls, ' like a refiner's fire,' 
 and with the tones of injured and insulted Deity, rained on 
 their consciences such strokes of terrible dismay, that they 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 
 
 eagerly sought refuge from his holy indignation in flight, 
 leaving him the Lord, and sole possessor of the sanctuary. 
 But chiefly, let us recall to our recollection the unbrok- 
 en series of pregnant woes which he denounced during 
 his last visit to the temple. Long had he walked, like an 
 incarnate conscience, through their guilty land ; and often 
 had they been troubled, and trembled at the rebuke of his 
 sacred presence. Having nearly filled the capacious meas- 
 ure of their iniquity by rejecting him, they were about to 
 make it overflow by his crucifixion. Undeterred by the 
 appalling prospect, he came with unfaltering step to the 
 scene of his sufferings, to finish the work which was given 
 him to do. Finding himself surrounded in the temple by 
 a large assemblage of Jewish doctors, scribes, and lawyers 
 and pharisees the very elements and essence of the nation's 
 guilt ; he assailed and demolished the enormous fabric of 
 sanctimonious hypocrisy, which their laborious impiety 
 had reared, and, with the fidelity and fviarlessness of the 
 king of martyrs, denounced and delivered his final protest 
 against the pride and the power which upheld it. They 
 had occasionally heard his fearful comminations before, and 
 trembled for their security, for every word w^as a weapon ; 
 but now, having regularly invested and approached their 
 fortified guilt, he opened on them the dreadful artillery of 
 his divine malediction. An occasional flash had before 
 apprized them that a storm might be near ; but now hav- 
 ing collected together all the materials of tempest into one 
 black and fearful mass, and having awed them to silence 
 as nature is hushed when awaiting a crisis, he discharged 
 its tremendous contents, in one volleyed and prolonged 
 explosion, on their guilty and unsheltered heads. He 
 arraigned them as though he had already ascended the 
 seat of doom, and laid open all the sepulchral recesses of 
 their iniquity, as though he read from the book of God's 
 
64 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 remembrance. Hypocrisy was unable to conceal itself in 
 the clouds of incense which it offered. The proud, the 
 covetous, the intolerant, he confounded and covered with 
 the shame of detection and conscious guilt. As they came 
 up for judgment, in succession, he fulminated against them 
 the Avoes and imprecations of his wrath, ' the wrath of the 
 Lamb,' in tones anticipating those of their final sentence. 
 ' Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites !' ' One 
 Avoe is past, and behold, another woe cometh,' ' Woe unto 
 you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites ! ye serpents, ye 
 generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of 
 hell f' That solemn scene, remembering the character of 
 the Great Reprover, and the impending judgments of 
 which it was prognostic, may well remind us of the seven 
 apocalyptic thunders uttering their voices; and often, may 
 we suppose, would the echoes of his denunciations return 
 upon the ears of those who heard them in after years, like 
 the distant, but quailing reverberations of the mount that 
 burned. 
 
 IV. Another characteristic of the authority which 
 marked the teaching of our Lord, and the last I propose 
 to illustrate, is that which he discovered in his legislative 
 and judicial capacity. To disturb the majestic repose of 
 the divine law, argues, on the part of him who attemps it, 
 either the final stage of insane impiety, or an authority 
 clothed with the prerogatives of the original lawgiver. In 
 this latter exalted predicament the Saviour claimed to 
 stand; 'As the Father,' said he, 'hath life in himself; so 
 hath he given to the Son, to have life in himself; and hath 
 given him authority to execute judgment also, because he 
 is the son of man.' ' All things are delivered unto me of 
 my Father.' In the exercise of his legal supremacy, he 
 maybe said to have revised the laws of heaven. Not only 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 65 
 
 did he put on them his own authoritative Interpretation, from 
 which he permits no appeal, and by which he greatly- 
 extended the sphere of their jurisdiction, in bestowing 
 forgiveness, he even controlled and suspended their opera- 
 tion ; he pronounced what part of the divine code was of 
 perpetual, and what of temporary obligation ; he repealed 
 its positive enactments, and enjoined others ; while, by 
 laying open the scenes of the final judgment, and speaking 
 as from the mysterious cross, he placed it on another basis, 
 infused into it a new vigor, and augmented its force in the 
 highest degree. 
 
 When the sanctimonious pharisees, impatient to accuse 
 him, but despairing of a charge, alleged against him the 
 trivial act of his hungry disciples, in plucking the ears of 
 corn on the sabbath day, he not only established the inno- 
 cence of the deed, but with what an air of inimitable dig- 
 nity did he cast over it the ample shield of his own pre- 
 rogative ; ' the Son of man,' said he, ' is Lord even of 
 the sabbath day.' On another occasion, when the same 
 unappeasable intolerance, and cloked hypocrisy, construed 
 an act of healing into a breach of the sabbath, he again 
 asserted his superiority to the law. But, beyond this, he 
 expounded his right to that superiority ; he declared, that 
 as the operations of the Father knew no intermission, so 
 neither did his ; that as the machinery of Providence doevS 
 not pause in deference to the sabbatic law, but continues, 
 through every moment of time, to fill the universe with 
 its agency, so he acknowledged no restraint, but claimed 
 the same unlimited scope, and infinite freedom of activity 
 for his beneficence : thus clearly placing his own miracu- 
 lous works on a level with the works of God ; demandinof 
 the same consideration for their character ; and assuming 
 an equality, or rather an identity, with the Supreme, in 
 will, and right, and power. ' My Father worketh until 
 
66 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 now, and I work. Whatsoever things the Father doeth, 
 those things the Son also doeth in like manner.' But his 
 dispensation with the law of the sabbath was only a speci- 
 men of his supreme authority. By issuing the final and 
 sovereign mandate to his disciples, ' Go into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature;' he virtually 
 annulled the Jewish ritual, and repealed a whole economy, 
 casting it back among the things that were ; while, by 
 replacing it with ordinances of his own enactment, and 
 sacred to his worship, he proclaimed himself the founder 
 and legislator of a new religion. 
 
 For the establishment of his religion, a display of mi- 
 raculous power was necessary ; and, accordingly, he not 
 only declared his ability and rights to control at pleasure 
 the laws of nature, he placed those laws as he saw fit, un- 
 der the subjection of his apostles also. ' When he had 
 called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power 
 against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all 
 manner of sickness, and all manner of disease. And these 
 signs shall follow them that believe ; in my name shall 
 they work miracles.' ' And whatsoever ye shall ask in 
 my name, that / will do.' 
 
 The exercise of his supremacy, in the instances we 
 have cited, was accompanied by the most illustrious dis- 
 plays of authority, in developing and enforcing the eter- 
 nal and unchangeable laws of morality. The morality of 
 the Mosaic code was of divine dictation ; but, in revising 
 its statutes and giving it perfection, he introduces his new 
 prescriptions with this preamble, ' Ye have heard that it 
 was said to them of old time — but I say unto you ; ' thus 
 placing his own legislation on a footing with the authority 
 of Sinai ; and, if not actually effacing the original tables, 
 to make room for his own statutes, yet inserting and incor- 
 porating these statutes at pleasure, and publishing them as a 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 67 
 
 part of the eternal law. How tender, yet inconcealable, the 
 tone of authority in which he said to his disciples, when 
 he was only a step from the cross, ' A new commandment 
 give I unto you, that ye love one another.' To regard 
 this as a mere republication, seems to impugn the modesty 
 which distinguished his character, for it represents him as 
 claiming originality and novehy for that which is only the 
 revival of an obsolete law. But with that ancient precept 
 which enjoined love to our neighbor, this new command 
 has no affinity except in appearance ; it diffeis in its na- 
 ture, its objects, and in the peculiar considerations by 
 which it is enforced. That prescribes the love of benevo- 
 lence ; this requires the love of complacency : that enjoins 
 loving kindness, the love of the kind, of man as man ; this 
 enjoins the love of character, of virtue, of man as chris- 
 tian ; while its claim to novelty is completed by the divine 
 Legislator proposing his own example, as the model and 
 motive to obedience. But that which displays his superi- 
 ority to all human, all merely delegated authority, and 
 which places him on a level with the Supreme Power is, 
 that having enacted laws, he can ensure obedience. The 
 highest praise of an earthly lawgiver, is to adapt his laws 
 as nearly as possible to the claims of abstract right, on the 
 one hand ; and to the peculiar state of the people receiving 
 them, on the other. He can do little more to promote 
 obedience to them, than by publicly chastising the refrac- 
 tory and disobedient. But the great Prophet and Law- 
 giver of the christian church, having consulted our nature 
 in the requirements he makes, can then conform our na- 
 ture to his authority ; having authoritatively announced 
 his will, he can carry it into all the recesses of the soul, 
 and, in perfect harmony with our free volitions, can so 
 identify it with our thoughts and aims, so blend it with the 
 stream and current of our consciousness, that in yielding 
 
68 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 obedience to his word, we are only obeying the actings and 
 impulses of our own minds. Hence the language of con- 
 scious authority, and efficient power, which he employed 
 in relation to the conversion of the Gentiles : ' Other sheep 
 I have, which are not of this fold, them also / must bring 
 and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold 
 and one shepherd.' Hence too, he could say to whom he 
 chose, 'Follow me; ' and the individual addressed ' arose 
 and followed him.' At this disenchanting command, the 
 spirit of the world fled from the heart ; the thousand ties 
 which bound it to the earth were snapped asunder ; and 
 the man suddenly found himself emancipated, and walking 
 in the Savior's train. The omnipotent effect with which 
 he spoke to the tempestuous elements, and to demons more 
 fierce and fearful than they, was only a type and pledge of 
 his unlimited power over the mind of man. He speaks, 
 and it is done; his people are ' made willing in the day of 
 his power.' 
 
 But of all his displays of authority, his forgiveness of 
 sin is immeasurably the greatest. This, according to. hu- 
 man conceptions, is the highest and uttermost prerogative 
 of the Supreme. It is to ascend a throne above the law- 
 giver, and to silence his voice, and suspend his functions, 
 for a reason paramount to all law and more comprehen- 
 sive. It is to overrule the claims of justice, and stopping 
 it in its full career towards the sinner, to exhibit a reason 
 for mercy, to which justice bows with reverence, and before 
 which it retires. Law, the dictate of infinite wisdom, is 
 the rule by which man is to act towards God ; but forgive- 
 ness is a dispensation, a reason, issuing from a deeper re- 
 cess of his mysterious nature, and by which he chooses to 
 act towards us. But this prerogative, essentially divine, 
 this high and incommunicable right, Jesus exercised, and 
 vindicated his competence to do so. ' Son,' said he to thQ 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 69 
 
 paralytic man, ' be of good cheer ; thy sins are forgiven 
 thee : and, behold, some of the scribes said within them- 
 selves, Why doth he thus speak blasphemies ? who can 
 forgive sins but God alone? But Jesus knowing their 
 thoughts, said, Why do ye think evil in your hearts? 
 For which is easier, to say. Thy sins are forgiven ; or to 
 say, Arise and walk ? But that ye may know the Son of 
 man upon earth hath a right to forgive sins, (he saith to 
 the paral^nic,) Arise, take up thy couch, and go to thy 
 house.' Thus, forestalling the functions of the last day, 
 he remitted the claim of justice on a sinful being ; erased 
 his guilt from the book of God ; changed the relations of 
 an accountable creature to the Supreme Governor ; and, in 
 efiect; assorted that he possessed the power of taking from 
 the inmost soul the sting of conscious guih. While, by 
 declaring that he retained this power, though he was then 
 the Son of man upo?i earth, he carries our thoughts to the 
 state whence he had descended, and reminds us that no 
 distance from his throne above, no depth of humiliation to 
 which he might condescend, can deprive him of his right 
 to pardon ; that as it is exclusively, so it is inalienably di- 
 vine ; and that he is therefore free to use it as God, though 
 f(Jr a time he may choose to rank as the Son of man. 
 
 Preceding prophets, jealous for the divine honor, had 
 scrupulously guarded against the remotest suspicion that 
 they spake in their own name ; they distinctly confessed 
 their delegated capacity, and perpetually appealed to the 
 authority which sent them. But Jesus, we have seen, 
 without any modification or reserve, employed the lan- 
 guage of supreme personal authority. He did not, indeed, 
 in any way impart the impression of an interest, or even 
 an existence, detached from the Father. The authority by 
 which he spoke, though expressly his own, was, by iden- 
 tity of nature, the authority of the Father also. As often 
 
70 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 as he exercised the functions of the legislator, he placed 
 himself, if I may say so, on a level, and in a line, with 
 the eternal throne ; so that its glory fell directly upon him, 
 and by him was again reflected back, mingled with the 
 lustre of his own greatness. While he stood forth distinct- 
 ly in his own personality, and addressed us in his own 
 name, he stood in so perfect a conjunction with the Deity, 
 and so far within the borders of the encircling light, that 
 his voice came with the authority of an oracle from the 
 central glory. ' Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may 
 glorify thee. I am in the Father, and the Father is in 
 me. No man knoweth the Father but the Son, neither 
 knoweth any man the Son but the Father. Whatsoever 
 things the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 
 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also. I and 
 my Father are one.' 
 
 In closing our illustrations of the authority of the Savior's 
 teaching, it may not be irrelevant briefly to remark, that 
 not only was that authority exempt from those deductions 
 to which the force of mere human instruction is liable, but 
 that it must have been greatly augmented by every consid- 
 eration of an opposite kind. 
 
 Nothing can be imagined more fatal to the power of a 
 public teacher, than a lurking suspicion, a secret misgiv- 
 ing of the truth, the value or consistency of his doctrine. 
 In such a case, the mind may be said to have lost its pow- 
 er of projection, its professed aim will not be reached. Any 
 thing short of full conviction will betray itself to his audi- 
 ence, in a way inviting their suspicion, and creating disbe- 
 lief. Equally unfriendly to the weight of his instructions, 
 is a conscious inability to refer them to those first princi- 
 ples from which they derive their authority ; a want of 
 cordial sympathy with their practical influence ; a sense 
 of discordance between that influence and his present con- 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 71 
 
 duct ; a painful uncertainty concerning their success ; or, 
 lastly, a doubt of his own eligibility and right to the office 
 of teacher. 
 
 Now, not merely was the Savior exempt, by necessity of 
 nature, from each of these foes to authoritative teaching; 
 the mount, from which he sometimes taught, was only an 
 emblem of the moral elevation on which he always stood, 
 where every thing was present to augment the pervading 
 power of his preaching, and from whence he spoke with 
 an authority exclusively his own. To convince the incre- 
 dulity of others that he came from God, he often referred 
 to his being heralded by John ; to his announcement by 
 the voice from the excellent glory ; and to his affluence in 
 divine qualifications and miraculous powers. For himself, 
 he could not have felt a stronger assurance of the fact, had 
 all the heirarchies and state of heaven, constantly and 
 visibly stood around him, an amphitheatre of living glory, 
 to corroborate his mission, and authenticate every sentence 
 he uttered. 
 
 So perfect was his example, that had it been possible for 
 the least inconsistency to have existed between his instruc- 
 tions and his life, we should, without hesitation, have 
 sought the defect in his teaching. But such a discrepancy 
 was impossible. In every precept he taught, he felt that 
 he was only expounding his own life, reading from the 
 holy volume of his own heart. Virtue found itself re- 
 assured in his presence; and, having imbibed courage 
 and strength from his looks, went to complete the conquest 
 of sin. Instead of pointing his hearers to the tables of 
 stone, he could invite them to learn of him ; and the holy 
 law rejoiced the while in its living representative. He 
 could look round on a nation of witnesses, and say, ' Which 
 of you convicteth me of sin ? ' with the certainty that the 
 challenge could not be accepted. But what amazing 
 
rZ THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 weight must this consideration have lent to his instructions, 
 what power to his rebukes, what authority and force to his 
 commands ! Truth never languished on his lips, never 
 suffered in his hands, from want of sympathy in its advo- 
 cate. ' To this end was I born,' said he, ' and for this 
 cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto 
 the truth.' And as often as it issued from his tongue, it 
 came with the freshness of a new revelation : was announ- 
 ced with an earnestness commensurate with its intrinsic 
 importance, and with the momentous results depending on 
 its success ; and was defended wath the devotedness and 
 zeal of a champion prepared to die in its behalf 
 
 Such is the present limitation o( our knowledge, and our 
 constant liability to err, that diffidence in the announcement 
 of our opinions is accounted a virtue. But he, who came 
 forth from God to be the light of the world, spoke on every 
 subject with the unfaltering assurance of certain knowl- 
 edge. To him, truth, all truth was, in a sense, ever pres- 
 ent and self-evident. Properly speaking, he uttered no 
 mere sentiments, notions, or opinions, but only truths. He 
 did not speak on probability and credit ; his assertions 
 were sustained on ultimate principles and personal knowl- 
 edge. He saw, intuitively, that whatever was opposed to 
 his doctrine, however plausible as conjecture, or deeply 
 rooted in the popular faith, was delusion and falsehood. 
 * Every one that is of the truth,' said he, ' heareth my voice.' 
 And not only was he assured of the particular doctrine, he 
 was perfectly acquainted with the general principle whence 
 it drew its authorit}^ and with the unchangeable position 
 that principle holds in the system of universal truth. Hav- 
 ing stood in the counsel of God, having dwelt in the pen- 
 etralia, the innermost recesses of the eternal sanctuary, 
 the elements and originals of all truth were familiarly 
 present to his mind. Of his sublimest supernatural dis* 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 73 
 
 closures he averred, that he was speaking that which he 
 knew, and testifying that which he had seen. He came 
 forth from the bosom of the Father, as the Word, the Re- 
 veaier of that infinite mind in which, from eternity, he 
 had surveyed the archetype and idea of all truth ; and he 
 spoke with the authority of a divine oracle. 
 
 But, besides the consciousness that he was the Word 
 and the Wisdom of God, his discourses must have derived 
 an accession of power from the knowledge that he was un- 
 folding truth of the highest order — the words of eternal 
 life. Science of all kinds is distinction and power ; and 
 he who imparts it is a benefactor to his species : but the 
 knowledge which Jesus came to unfold was emphatically 
 the gospel ; truth which God deems important, which had 
 been revolved from eternity in his infinite mind, which 
 enters into his purposes and involves his glory ; a revela- 
 tion so essential to our well-being, and every way so mo- 
 mentous, that it not only disdains comparison with the dis- 
 coveries of man, but engrossing to itself the undivided at' 
 tention of the only begotten Son of God, would have held 
 its majesty debased had it been mingled, even on his hal- 
 lowed lips, with the meaner topics of human science. His 
 mission contemplated our race, as immortal beings labor- 
 ing under the frown of incensed justice ; and standing ig- 
 norant, helpless, and exposed, on the verge of a gulf of 
 irretrievable ruin. Alive to all the horrors of our condi- 
 tion, he came with the message and means of deliverance; 
 he brought from heaven an express assurance of complete 
 relief Other knowledge may be acquired by ordinary 
 means, its worth may be computed, it may be dispensed with 
 altogether ; but the way of salvation could only be made 
 known by God himself: while its utter indispensableness 
 and infinite value appear from the fact, that we must have 
 it or perish. ' I am come,' said Christ, ' a light into the 
 5 
 
74 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 world ; ' and, as he ascended the firmament of truth, he 
 shone with the sublime consciousness, that, were he to with- 
 draw its beams and retire, the world would be immersed 
 in eternal night ; but that as many as should walk in his 
 light, would be brought from the darkness and distance of 
 sin, into the immediate vision and fruition of God. He 
 could stand forth and challenge the profound attention of 
 the world, with the full conviction that he was not only the 
 greatest benefactor it Avould ever behold, but that he com- 
 bined within himself all the several qualities of beneficence 
 to be found in the universe ; for he felt that, in imparting 
 the gospel, he was pouring out the resources of heaven, 
 and conferring an antidote for all the miseries of mankind. 
 
 Add to this, the Son of God was perfectly exempt from 
 the chilling perception that his motives were alloyed. It 
 was peculiar to him, of all born of women, to be entirely 
 free from the taint of selfishness, ' He pleased not him- 
 self.' The whole of his course was a history of pure dis- 
 interested benevolence. He had assumed our nature for 
 no other purpose than to display the glory of God in the 
 happiness of man ; and for this end he breathed out his 
 life. When uttering his largest professions of sympathy 
 and love, he rejoiced in the secret consciousness that he 
 intended to do abundantly more than he had said ; that, 
 besides the stream of goodness and truth which issued 
 daily from his lips, he held within his heart a fountain of 
 compassion, clear as crystal, as yet untouched ; but which, 
 at the appointed hour, would issue forth, far exceeding ex- 
 pectation, and blessing the world. 
 
 And beyond all this, what must have imparted vigor to 
 the tone of his teaching, was the unclouded prospect which 
 he enjoyed of its ultimate and universal success. ' This 
 gospel,' he could say, ' shall be preached for a witness 
 among all nations.' In its immediate results, indeed, it 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 75 
 
 but too fully realized the representation of the sower, that 
 went forth to sow. But he clearly foresaw that the incor-- 
 Tuptible seed of his word, though for a time it mig-ht seem 
 to be lost, was destined again to spring out of the earth, 
 producing a harvest of holiness for heaven. In praying 
 that his church might be sanctified by the truth, he felt 
 that he was praying with the force of an almighty decree ; 
 that, in the divine intention, his prayer was answered as 
 soon as uttered ; while he beheld, in anticipation, a host 
 which no one could number, already encircling the throne 
 above, robed in the purity his prayer desired. A part of 
 the joy which was set before him, consisted in the distinct 
 perception of a scene, in which his truth, armed with the 
 Omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, having completed the 
 conquest of error, given law to the world, and impressed 
 her image on every thing human, was receiving the hom- 
 age of a renovated race, and reigning in the new heavens, 
 and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
 
 Recollecting that causes such as these concurred' in the 
 teaching of the Son of God, and bearing in mind the speci- 
 mens we have adduced from his divine discourses, we are 
 fully prepared to hear it testified, that ' the people were as- 
 tonished at his doctrine ; ' and that, ' when Jesus had end- 
 ed these sayings, the people Avere astonished at his doc- 
 trine ; for he taught them as one having authority, and not 
 as the scribes.' Their established teachers, having ]ong 
 since completed the conquest of common sense, labored to 
 preserve the fruits of their victory, by the endless repeti- 
 tion of fables and childish traditions. The loftiest models 
 of public instruction with which they were acquainted, 
 consisted in the heartless recitement of frivolous opinions 
 and trivial ceremonies, confirmed by quotations more je- 
 june and frivolous still ; the very essence of insipidity. 
 What then must have been the astonishment and involun- 
 
76 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 tary homage with which they listened to the discourses of 
 the Son of God. It was an era in the history of their 
 minds. In their opinion, he spake, as never man spake. 
 For, besides that he addressed them in his own name, as 
 the highest authority, he laid open scenes the most novel, 
 and subjects the most momentous ; carried his appeals into 
 their conscience ; made them once more feel that they were 
 immortal men; stripped off every mask, and conveyed 
 them, with their sins upon them, to the throne of God; 
 annihilated the distance between them and the judgment 
 day ; placed them on the threshold of the infinite and ev- 
 erlasting ; and effaced the recollections of the present, by 
 the absorbing realities of the eternal future. Some hailed 
 his preaching as a new and glorious light, while others 
 shunned it as the forked and fatal lightning; each class 
 bearing involuntary testimony to its commanding power. 
 And, associated, as it naturally would be in their minds, 
 with the recollection of his miraculous deeds ; remember- 
 ing that the demons had quailed, and the tempestuous 
 ocean grown quiet in the presence in which they were 
 standing ; that the whirlwind had revered the voice to 
 which they were listening ; they could not but tacitly con- 
 fess that he spoke with an authority which, if the sun were 
 extinguished, might say, ' Let there be light,' and light 
 would be. 
 
 In concluding an essay, already, I fear, too much pro- 
 longed, the reader will allow me to suggest its practical 
 application. Whatever may be the characteristics of a 
 perfect instructor, he is entitled to look for the counterpart 
 of each in those he addresses. The authority, then, which 
 distinguishes the teaching of Christ should be met, by his 
 disciples, with submission and acquiescence. It is obvious 
 to all, that the mental impression received from any object, 
 depends materially on the state of the mind itself ' If any 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 77 
 
 man will do the will of God,' said Jesus, ' he shall know 
 of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak 
 of myself His gospel is addressed to our moral nature: 
 and the only mind in a state to do justice to the divinity of 
 its claims, is that which is trained and disciplined to habits 
 of holy obedience. If we take to it a spirit which it does 
 not approve, we are likely to bring from it a spirit which 
 it has not imparted. Even the ancient heathens, when 
 they went to consult their idol gods, did not expect to suc- 
 ceed without due preparation. Their approaches were 
 marked by acts of reverence and self-purification. Before 
 they hoped for the least oracular intimation, days were 
 consumed in sacrifice, ablution, and meditation. They did 
 not degrade even their false deities, by supposing they 
 would speak in the ear of levity, or waste instruction on 
 an irreverent and polluted mind. Were we creatures de- 
 void of a moral nature, or did the gospel address the un- 
 derstanding alone, we might then approach it as we go to 
 the study of a mathematical truth, as beings of intellect 
 only ; but its aim is the heart ; it is addressed to our moral 
 nature ; and as such, it claims a free and undisputed in- 
 gress to the throne of the will. If it flattered our impor- 
 tance by submitting its truths to the tribunal of reason, 
 pride would then be no unsuitable preparation for receiv- 
 ing it ; but, taking for granted our moral disqualification, 
 it 'casts down imaginations, and every high thing that ex- 
 alteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into 
 captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.' Pro- 
 ceeding on the supposition, that it is the heart which in its 
 fall has dragged dowm the faculties of the soul, it proposes 
 to erect them again, by raising and restoring the degrading 
 cause ; it requires, therefore, that in the process they be 
 submissive and silent. If we would learn of Christ, the 
 soul must be vacated of all its proud prepossessions, that 
 
78 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 there may be room to prepare him a seat in the will. If 
 we would listen to his voice with effect, there must be si- 
 lence in the soul : the clamorous pretensions of self-suffi- 
 ciency must be rebuked; and, putting- on the robe of hu- 
 mility, we must take our station as children at his feet. 
 
 But that submission to the authority of Christ, which 
 forms an essential qualification in his disciples, is not only 
 opposed to the pride that rejects ; it is intelligent and con- 
 scious, and therefore equally remote from that unheeding 
 acquiescence which admits with a fatal facility, and as a 
 matter of custom and course, whatever he inculcates : if 
 the former of these is the disqualification of rebellion, the 
 latter is the incapacity of death. Perhaps no greater ob- 
 stacle can be named, to the proper reception of the gospel, 
 than the error, alas ! how common, of placing religion in 
 a bare assent to its truths; of cherishing a settled and sat- 
 isfied persuasion that we are christians, simply because we 
 subscribe, and in proportion to the unthinking readiness 
 with which we subscribe, to its dictates. So effectually 
 does this delusion enclose and encase the heart, that 'the 
 arrows of the Lord,' though barbed and winged by an an- 
 gel's hand, would fail to ' stick fast in it.' So potent is the 
 spell, that it enables us to listen, not only to truths the most 
 pungent, but even to the description which pourtrays the 
 very delusion itself, without any self application or effect. 
 With such certainty does it turn aside and ward off every 
 salutary impression, that, like a building defended from the 
 lightnings of heaven by a rod of steel, Ave can venture 
 amongst the forked lightnings of the truth, and yet come 
 out from them free, unscathed, and untouched. On such 
 a state of mind, the voice of the Great Teacher himself — 
 its loudest, its most solemn and authoritative tones — are 
 dissipated and lost. 
 
 The submission, then, which he demands, is that which 
 
HIS AUTHORITY. 79 
 
 arises from conviction, and consists in the self-surrender of 
 the will ; that which, while it admits, at the same time 
 'trembles at his word.' But where is this preparation to 
 be obtained ? where, but at the throne of the heavenly 
 grace. It is only at the altar, and from the hand of God, 
 we can receive that celestial torch, which reveals at once 
 our own incompetence, and the dignity and glory of Christ. 
 That is the appointed place of meeting between God and 
 the soul, where he puts us under the guidance of that holy 
 spirit, who leads us into all truth ; who takes the things of 
 Christ as they fall from his lips, and conveys them as liv- 
 ing powers into the obedient heart: who prepares and 
 delivers us into the mould of the gospel, that we may take 
 the perfect impress of its author. 
 
ESSAY II. 
 ON THE ORIGINALITY OF OUR LORD'S TEACHING, 
 
 SECTION I. OF GOD THE FATHER. 
 
 ' Never man spake like Uiis man.' 
 
 'No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son -v^ill 
 
 reveal him.' 
 
 In illustrating the originality which marked the instruc- 
 tions of our blessed Lord, it can scarcely be necessary to 
 premise, that, as the mode of his teaching will receive our 
 separate consideration, we shall now confine ourselves to 
 its subjects. 
 
 Were we claiming the attribute of originality for an un- 
 inspired mind, we should feel as if Ave were establishing 
 his right to fame. For he who enlarges, in the least, the 
 narrow confines of human knowledge, is said to confer 
 imperishable wealth ; to redeem our mental character ; 
 and thus, owing to the unfrequency of the occurrence, he 
 renders himself an object of homage to the species. But 
 this is a quality, which, abstractedly considered, has no 
 moral character ; it is a blessing or a curse, only accord- 
 ing to the direction which it takes, and the service in which 
 it is engaged. 
 
 As the ultimate object of our Lord's teaching, was of a 
 nature entirely practical, it requires but little effort of the 
 imagination to conceive why, if his praise consists, partly, 
 in being so original, it consists also, partly, in not being 
 more original than he is. ' If I have told you earthly 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 81 
 
 things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you 
 heavenly things ? ' He could unquestionably have made 
 disclosures which would have eclipsed, and consigned to 
 oblivion, all prior discoveries. As far as power is concern- 
 ed, he could easily have embroiled the polemic world, by 
 mystifying without misrepresenting, every subject of earthly 
 dispute. He could have uttered a single sentence, which, 
 by famishing a key to many a mystery, and affording a 
 glimpse of arcana before unknown, would have collected 
 and concentrated around it the busy thoughts of each suc- 
 cessive generation to the close of time. Opening one of 
 the numerous doors at which human curiosity has been 
 knocking impatiently for ages, he could have admitted men 
 to a tree of knowledge, from which, age after age, they 
 would have continued to pluck and partake, until the trump 
 of God surprised them at their unholy feast, and found 
 them unprepared for the summons. But he came to plant 
 for them the tree of life, and to give them access to its heal- 
 ing fruits. And as he allowed nothing to divert his own 
 attention from the accomplishment of this object, he guard- 
 ed against every thing likely to beguile them from seeking 
 the benefit resulting from it. He disdained not the repeti- 
 tion of old and familiar truths, provided his introduction of 
 them would subserve his grand design; for though he 
 proposed to erect a second temple of truth, the glory of 
 which should eclipse the splendor of the first, he deigned 
 to appropriate whatever of the ancient materials remained 
 available. Truths, which the lapse of time had seen dis- 
 placed and disconnected from their true position, as stars 
 are said to have wandered from their primal signs, he re- 
 called and established anew ; and principles, which had 
 faded, disappeared, and been lost, as stars are said to have 
 become extinct, he rekindled and resphered, and command- 
 ed them to stand fast forever. Such, for instance, was the 
 
82 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 golden law of wedded love : which, though coeval with 
 paradise, and the crown of its joys, had been partially re- 
 mitted by divine sufferance, and reduced to a name by hu- 
 man depravity, but which he restored and republished as 
 of divine and indissoluble obligation. 
 
 The power of recasting important truths from their old 
 and worn-out forms, and of giving them to the world again 
 with all their original freshness and force, is the peculiar 
 perogative of genius ; but^ though our Lord must be sup- 
 posed to have possessed this power in perfection, he did not 
 exercise it for its own sake. An acquaintance with the 
 origin of some of his parables, his prayers, and many of 
 his most familiar sayings, will show that he often conde- 
 scended to adopt the beauties of the Talmud, which were 
 then ' floating on the lips of the wise,' as well as the pop- 
 ular proverbs of the day, and to insert them into his own 
 instructions. But this by no means impairs his claim to 
 originality of the loftiest kind. Intellect of the highest 
 earthly order, though aware that its claims to renown de- 
 pended chiefly on the exercise of its own creative powers, 
 has not feared the forfeiture of those claims for borrowing 
 the productions of inferior minds : it was conscious of a 
 power of falling back, at pleasure, on its own resources, 
 and of being ably sustained. Then how much more might 
 he do the same ; He, to whom all human thought is but 
 one idea ; and that only a fractional part of the infinite 
 whole which his mind comprehends. He, who in his pre- 
 existent state, had not refused to predicate of his divine 
 nature the parts and passions of poor humanity, though at 
 the hazard of materializing his pure spirituality in the 
 crude conceptions of human ignorance ; he who had pro- 
 ceeded even to assume that humanity, the mere figurative 
 assumption of which was an infinite condescension, might 
 surely be spared the necessity of a defence, for the occa- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 83 
 
 sional appropriation of human thoughts. If his assump- 
 tion of our nature was an infinite stoop of grace demand- 
 ing our adoration, his adoption of any of our thoughts 
 (though not to be named as a comparison) was only an ad- 
 junct and continuation of that grace. 
 
 Besides, this probably is only to be regarded as one of 
 the numerous methods by which he was constantly aiming 
 to lessen the impression which must have frequently re- 
 turned on his hearers — as far as that impression was like- 
 ly to interfere with his usefulness — of his mysterious and 
 incomprehensible character. He knew, with a perfection 
 of knowledge, that as the great and beneficent operations 
 of nature are produced, not by abrupt and extraordinary 
 interpositions, but by the calm and regular movements of 
 its appointed laws ; so, ordinarily, a method of instruction, 
 which violates the sanctuary of our settled associations, 
 though it may startle, and astonish, and even fill with won- 
 der for the moment, is far from friendly to the lasting con- 
 viction and future improvement of the mind ; and, there- 
 fore, he disturbed their accustomed trains of thought as 
 little as was consistent with the introduction of a renovat- 
 ing power, a new and transforming economy of truth. He 
 sought access to their minds, by the beaten pathway of their 
 most familiar associations ; he insinuated and intertwined 
 his divine instruction with the network of their most hal- 
 lowed recollections and sympathies ; thus providing for it 
 the easiest mode of admission into their hearts, and mak- 
 ing them feel that his identification with their nature and 
 interest was complete. But, at the same time, whatever of 
 their most popular and admired lore he condescended to 
 employ, he gave them an opportunity of marking his supe- 
 riority to the most approved and honored of their rabbinic- 
 al teachers ; for, however great its original excellences 
 might have been considered, it came from his hands beau- 
 
84 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 tified with a simplicity, dignified with a power, and invest- 
 ed with attractions unknown to it before. 
 
 In order that he might obtain admission through the 
 common avenue of our sympathies, and build himself a 
 home in our hearts, he drew his images and illustrations 
 from the great treasury of our household affections, and from 
 the most familiar features of nature. But the lily of the 
 field, as plucked by his hand, has the freshness of the 
 morning, and the dew upon it ; and the homeliest fact, as 
 unfolded by him, is found to contain the most treasured 
 truths. Thus, by deriving his illustrations from humble 
 sources, he not only avoided taking our feelings by surprise, 
 he showed us how all unperverted knowledge tends towards 
 heaven by a law, and how all unsophisticated nature, right- 
 ly construed, is only an expanded page of holy writ ; how 
 every part of Eden and of earth must have teemed, and 
 been vocal, with wisdom to the attentive ear of unfallen 
 man ; and how, to the mind which mirrors and reflects the 
 lines and aspects of nature, truth may still be said to spring 
 out of the earth. 
 
 But, though we could not have passed entirely unnoticed 
 the circumstantial originality of the Savior's teaching, it is 
 time to show that his claim to this quality arises from mer- 
 its peculiarly his own ; from additional revelations, and 
 momentous disclosures of divine truth. Had he only 
 commented on the volume of nature, had he even read 
 from the book of the universe the names and titles of its 
 author, our advantage comparatively, would have been small 
 indeed. That volume was originally meant only for the 
 eye of sinless humanity. It uttered no prediction, awoke 
 no presentiment of the fall ; in no part of its hallowed con- 
 tents could a line be found foretokening woe. The 
 morning of the day of transgression dawned on the 
 world, unconscious of the impending change. The 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 85 
 
 sun poured forth as full a flood of living light; the 
 air was as rich in fragrance and song ; earth and heaven ap- 
 peared to live in each other's smiles ; nature lay open at 
 as fair and bright a page, as at the moment when God 
 complacently pronounced it to he very good* The tremen- 
 dous catastrophe of that day took it by surprise. So far 
 from furnishing man with resources for the event, it was 
 itselfinvolvedinthe calamity; it was 'cursed for his sake.' 
 So far from being able to utter a consolatory truth in hu- 
 man ears, it required itself to be solaced and sustained, for 
 it lay prostrate and panting under its Maker's frown. 
 Wounded by the stroke, and cumbered with the weight of 
 sin, it sent forth a cry, in which all its natural harmonies 
 were drowned ; a cry of heplessness and of suffering, 
 which has never from that moment ceased, but which has 
 gone on, from age to age, waxing louder and louder, till 
 the whole creation has become vocal with woe, ' and groan- 
 eth and travaileth in pain together until now,' laboring in 
 its pangs, and struggling to be free. 
 
 So far from showing commiseration, and whispering 
 hope, there is a sense in which all nature stands ready to 
 avenge the quarrel of God with man. Take as examples, 
 the histories of Pharaoh and Herod. When the former 
 refused to obey the mandates of heaven, all nature express- 
 ed its sympathy with its injured Maker ; armed in his be- 
 half, and put itself in motion to avenge the insult. The 
 latter, affected to bethought a god, forthwith an angel, jeal- 
 ous of Jehovah's honor, descends and smites him ; and, at 
 the same moment, the meanest insects begin to devour him: 
 the highest order of created intelligence, and the lowest 
 form of animal existence, the two extremes in the scale of 
 creation, unite to prostrate and punish his impiety. It will 
 be found, in the history of the divine justice, that every 
 element of nature has taken its turn, as a minister of wrath. 
 
86 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 to assert the quarrel of God with rebellious man. And, 
 be it remembered, that one of these elements is held in re- 
 serve for the destruction of the world : he has only to 
 speak, and it will wrap the globe in living flames. 
 Meanwhile, he may be said to have laid all nature under a 
 solemn interdict, not to minister to our most pressing wants; 
 he has laid it under an eternal ban. Let there be no peace to 
 the wicked saith my God ; let everything be at war with 
 him. If he will be the enemy of God, let him live and die 
 amidst a universe of frow^ns : let every thing in heaven, 
 earth, and hell, be armed, and ready to assail him : let 
 there be no peace to the wicked ; and universal nature re- 
 sponds, there shall be none ; and the universal experience 
 of sinners, as it sends up its reply from the bottomless pit 
 declares, in accents of terrible despair, there is 7ione. Could 
 the sinner but open his ' eyes to the dreadful reality of his 
 condition, were he endowed with a power of vision like 
 the servant of the prophet, he would find himself surround- 
 ed, not indeed with horses and chariots of fire to guard 
 him but with terrible forms of anger and destruction, wait- 
 ing to dart on him, and make him their prey. He would 
 find himself standing in the great theatre of the universe, 
 with every eye that it contains fixed and frowning upon 
 him ; w^ith every weapon in the infinite armoury of God, 
 ready, and levelled against him. And the hour arrives 
 Avhen he finds that sin has arrayed against him, not only all 
 the universe without, but all the powers and passions with- 
 in him ; that it has armed him against himself ; that it has 
 given a sting to every thought, and turned his conscience 
 into a worm that dieth not, and his depraved and ungovern- 
 ed passions into fires never to be quenched. 
 
 O how unparalleled the infatuation of the man who pre- 
 tends, that, from the doubtful and scattered intimations of 
 nature, he can collect the materials of a sufficient creed ; 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 87 
 
 when, at the same time, they are so obviously intermixed 
 with the fragments of a violated law. Nature, indeed, is 
 still an oracle on one point ; and when consulted on that 
 point, which relates to the great remedy for sin, her spon- 
 taneous response is it is 7iot i?i me : it is not until man has 
 examined her by torture, that he extorts some doubtful re- 
 ply, which — his vanity being made the interpreter — is 
 found to coincide with his wishes, and to flatter his pride. 
 On the fact of the divine existence, indeed, the protestations 
 of nature are positive, loud and unceasing ; this is a truth 
 of which she is never making less than solemn affirmation 
 and oath, with all her myriad voices ; the unintermitting 
 response of the living creatures heard by John, is only 
 the echo of her voice in the sanctuary above, proclaiming 
 to the universe his eternal power and Godhead. But, how- 
 ever able and ready to enlighten the inquiring mind on 
 the fact of his existence, she could do nothing to dissipate 
 the clouds of doubt and gloom which had gathered and 
 settled into thick darkness round about his throne : on the 
 anxious subject of his character, and his possible conduct 
 towards the guilty, she has received no instructions and is 
 silent. By the introduction of sin, our condition has be- 
 come preternatural and the wisdom that prescribes for us, 
 therefore must be supernatural, or it will prove supernatural, 
 or it will prove a physician of no value. 
 
 I. Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, came to 
 be the light of the world ; and one of the topics on which 
 he most delighted to expatiate and dwell, was the paternal 
 character and universal benevolence of God. This, in the 
 form in which it came from his hands, was an original sub- 
 ject a new gift to the world. 
 
 Hear his own emphatic representations ; ' righteous 
 Father, the world hath not known thee.' ' No man know- 
 
88 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 eth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the 
 Son will reveal him.' 'I have manifested thy name un- 
 to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world.' Such 
 are the unequivocal terms in which he declares, that, at 
 the time he spoke, the world was destitute of the know- 
 ledge of God ; that this inestimable knowledge was his 
 own peculiar gift, the chief treasure which he had brought 
 into the world ; that the impartation of it was in his high 
 prerogative alone ; and that, in the sove reign exercise of 
 that prerogative, he had given it to his disciples, by them 
 to be communicated to the world at large. 
 
 Nor does this statement require any qualification, from the 
 fact that God had before spoken to man, * at sundry times, 
 and in divers manners.' Without any unjust depreciation 
 of the Jewish institute, it may be boldly affirmed, that it 
 gave but a faint and partial representation of the divine 
 character. What must have been the views of God enter- 
 tained by Solomon, who, though he had been employed to 
 build the temple of Jehovah, could forsake that very tem- 
 ple for an idol's grove? What must have been the god of 
 the prophet Jonah, when he attempted to flee from his pie- 
 sence, and pettishly charged him with fickleness of purpose 
 for not involving Nineveh in destruction? It is, indeed^ im- 
 possible to state the precise amount of the knowledge of 
 God which is essential to salvation ; but there is reason to 
 conclude that, considering the peculiar advantages of the 
 Mosaic economy, that knowledge was generally at its min- 
 imum in Judea. It is more than probable, that when those 
 prophetic intimations were first uttered, which contain 
 most hope for man, and which we are acustomed to admire 
 as splendid anticipations of the gospel, and worthy the me- 
 ridian of the christian church, they were either dismissed 
 by their hearers as unintelligible, or understood with so 
 great a reserve in favor of Judea, as virtually to annul the 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 89 
 
 prophecy. Besides, between such enlarged representations, 
 and the restrictive spirit of their economy, a conflict must 
 necessarily have ensued, Avhich could not fail to end in fa- 
 vor of the latter. And, when in addition to this, it is re- 
 membered, — that the whole of their law had become rab- 
 binzed and overlaid with traditions ; that, notwithstanding- 
 their sacrificial types, the doctrine of pardon procured by 
 a vicarious expiation, was ' to the Jews a stumbling block ;' 
 that all that was supernatural in their temple worship had 
 been long since recalled to heaven, and all that was spirit- 
 ual suffered to depart ; that any of their moral duties were 
 compounded for a pecuniary consideration ; that the only 
 heaven they knew, was suspended, in their imagination, 
 over the land of Judea ; and that they were actually jeal- 
 ous of the Divine being, lest he should take within the 
 pale of salvation, any part of the Gentile world, — it will 
 be admitted that, of such a people, it would be difficult 
 to underrate their acquaintance with the divine character. 
 
 As to the state of the heathen world, it is only necessary 
 to quote the declaration of the apostle — that it knew not 
 God, In Greece, where the dialectic philosophy saw its 
 proudest days ; at Athens, where it was enthroned, its last 
 effort was to rear an altar to the unknown God. At Rome, 
 the asylum of deposed and fugitive gods, the pantheon of 
 the world, the genius of Cicero, though it towered above 
 his age, could add nothing to the religious knowledge of 
 that age ; could only speak vaguely of a nuvien aliquod 
 'prastantissim(2 mentis. From the moment that philoso- 
 phy touched its meridian in the hands of Socrates, Plato, 
 and Aristotle, it began to decline. Reason, as if blinded 
 by excess of light, submitted to be led by any who assumed 
 the office of a guide : revenged herself for the prodigious 
 effort to which she had been tasked, by abandoning herself 
 to the sorcery of the senses. Truth was pronounced un- 
 6 
 
90 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 attainable ; virtue, impracticable ; the temples of relio-fon 
 were ceded to vice, who found herself consecrated and en- 
 shrined in their inmost recesses ; while the phantom of 
 happiness, (for the reality had departed with its sister fugi- 
 tives, virtue and truth,) was chased under a thousand forms 
 and names ; till the world, having applied its fevered lips 
 to the poisoned chalice of Epicurus, concluded, in their 
 intoxication, that they had found it in the sensual form of 
 unbridled pleasure. 
 
 By one class, the idea of a Deity was discarded as a 
 baseless figment of the fancy ; by another, he was multi- 
 plied into ' lords many, and gods many,' the patrons of as 
 many vices ; and, by a third, his throne was removed to a 
 distance, which relieved the world of his presence, and 
 eased him of the cares of active government. This was 
 unquestionably the creed of the majority ; for it had this 
 irresistible recommendation, that, by admitting his exist- 
 ence, it preserved the mask of religion, while, by trans- 
 ferring his seat to some unknown region in the outskirts 
 of the creation, it saved them the practical inconvenience 
 of regarding his character or consulting his will. They 
 persuaded themselves, not only that his habitation Avas so 
 immeasurably remote, but also that his dignity and felicity 
 were so essentially dependent on undisturbed repose, that 
 the character and condition of human beings never shared 
 for a moment his divine regards. This was courteously 
 deposing, and complimentally dismissing the god of their 
 creed beyond the circle of their society. This was ' athe- 
 ism with a god.' This was attaining the completion of 
 their misery and guilt. For, by this virtual annihilation 
 of the Divine Being, they destroyed every adequate re- 
 straint on vice, every encouragement to virtue, and everj^ 
 ground of substantial consolation to distress. The vicious 
 might sin on, without dreading his frown ; the virtuous 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 91 
 
 might sacrifice life itself in the pursuit of improvement, 
 without hoping to obtain his smile ; and had all the suffer- 
 ers which the world contained sent up one united groan, 
 one concentrated cry for relief, they would only have been 
 giving their breath to the winds. They had reduced them- 
 selves to the blank and cheerless state of being ' without 
 hope and without God in the world.' 
 
 II. How different the view of his character and conduct, 
 presented to us by the hand of Christ ! Drawing aside 
 the veil which concealed his glory from our eyes, it shows 
 him in his high and holy place, not in a state of silence 
 and solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten 
 thousand, and thousands of thousands of holy, happy 
 beings, and every one of them waiting to do his bidding; 
 not in a state of inactivity and moral indifference, but in 
 active communication with every part of his vast domin- 
 ions, through a numberless variety of channels ; not in a 
 state of apathy, regardless of the world, and all its multi- 
 plied concerns, but as actually stooping from his throne 
 and bending towards it, listening to every sound it utters, 
 observing the movements of every being it contains, and 
 approving or condemning every action it exhibits ; it even 
 shows him to us in the astonishing act of raising up the 
 fallen and prostrate children of earth, and putting them in 
 the way of reaching his own abode. 
 
 To exalt our conceptions of the greatness of the Deity, 
 our divine Instructor describes him as reigning sole over 
 all the universe of matter and mind ; asserts the pure spir- 
 ituality of his nature, which no material images can rep- 
 resent ; ascribes to him a power, to which easy and diffi- 
 cult are terms alike unknown, for to him all things are 
 possible ; and, raising him to an infinite height above the 
 loftiest created intellio-ence, declares that he stands alone in 
 
92 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 absolute, unapproachable perfection. To enlarge ouf 
 views of his condescension and benevolence, he assembles 
 the universal family of man, ' the just and the unjust,' and 
 takes from each of the uncounted multitude a distinct at- 
 testation of the divine goodness to himself in particular. 
 He leads them abroad into the open fields of nature, and, 
 lo, on touching their eyes, he surprises them Avith the sight 
 of the hand which upholds the world, employed in paint- 
 ing the lily of the field, feeding the fowls of the air, and 
 adjusting and succoring the descent of the falling sparrow. 
 He appeals to every drop of rain, and to every ray of 
 light shed on an unthankful world ; and they confirm his 
 testimony to the supreme goodness. 
 
 But he informs his disciples that the amount of divine 
 attention bestowed on any given object, is proportioned to 
 the rank which that object occupies in the scale of crea- 
 tion. If the grass of the field, then, share so much of the 
 divine attention, can we form exaggerated ideas of the re- 
 gard which he bestows on man ? Having thus prepared 
 his disciples to see greater things than these, he conducts 
 them into a higher department of truth. He lays open to 
 their inspection the volume of providence, and turning to 
 the name of each one in succession, shows him that in 
 that volume each has a page ; that he has never been ab- 
 sent from the mind of God ; that the page assigned to him 
 contains every particular of his history, even to the num- 
 bered hairs of his head. 
 
 HI. From this department of truth he leads us into a 
 higher region still ; for, having elated our hopes by the 
 minuteness of the divdne attention to our temporal condi- 
 tion, he has prepared us to look for a far more astonishing 
 display of divine munificence tow^ards us, as his spiritual 
 offspring. Having already shown us the liberality of his 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 93 
 
 liand, he encourages us to approach and take a nearer 
 view of his character, to look into his heart. We begin 
 to enter into the spirit of the exercise, to feel our hope 
 taking confidence, and our anticipations growing sanguine; 
 we become conscious that we must give scope and wing to 
 our expectation, and urge it to its utmost flight, to do any- 
 thing like justice to the occasion. But who shall antici- 
 pate the gifts of infinite love ? 
 
 ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life.' Though sin had for ages dis- 
 turbed the equable flow of the divine benevolence to man, 
 that benevolence had never, for a moment, ceased to accu- 
 mulate, or lost its earthward direction. Through every 
 hour, of every age, it had continued to increase ; and was 
 only restrained till a suitable channel was ready, and the 
 world prepared to receive it. And now, when the fulness 
 of time was come, the windows of heaven, the heart of 
 Deity itself, was opened, and poured forth on the world a 
 healing flood of heavenly grace. Herein is love I We 
 will not presume to question whether a gift of inferior 
 value would have been adequate to relieve the world or 
 not : but God so loved us that he could not have realized 
 his vast propensions of grace by giving us less ; he so 
 loved us that he would not suffer it to remain possible to 
 be said that he could love us more ; he knew that a dona- 
 tion of calculable value would only call forth an odious 
 spirit of fierce and jealous monopoly, but he so loved us, 
 that he resolved on a gift, defying all computation, and the 
 very mention of which should surcharge our minds with 
 greatness, give us an idea of infinity, and impregnate our 
 selfishness with a transforming sentiment of generous and 
 diffusive benevolence ; he so loved us, that he would leave 
 nothing for the most apprehensive guilt to fear, nor the 
 
94 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 most capacious wishes to desire; he laid claim to the 
 whole of our affections, by pouring out the whole treasury 
 of heaven, by giving us his all at once. Herein is love! 
 
 • God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
 world, but that the world through him might be saved.' 
 In order to enhance our views of the divine compassion, 
 the Savior, in this language, reminds us of the terrible al- 
 ternative which outraged Omnipotence might have adopt- 
 ed. He carries back our thoughts to the time when God, 
 after looking with centuries of patience and forbearance 
 on the unparalleled spectacle of his holy law prostrate, 
 and broken, and trampled under foot by a confederated race 
 of rebellious creatures, came forth out of his place, and 
 punished the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity ; 
 swept them away with a flood as with a besom of destruc- 
 tion. But man, insensible to the lessons of chastisement, 
 w^as no sooner permitted to repeople the earth, than he re- 
 sumed his weapons, renewed his hostility to heaven under 
 circumstances of aggravation unknown before, and trans- 
 mitted to his posterity, as if it had been a sacred obliga- 
 tion, the art and spirit of the unnatural war. So deep had 
 this infernal enmity to God struck its roots in the human 
 heart, and so wide were its ramifications throughout the 
 entire mass of humanity, that even a solitary indication of 
 returning friendship towards him was denounced as treach- 
 ery to a common cause ; the first relaxation of this im- 
 pious strife, the first relenting sigh, was instantly detected 
 by a wakeful impiety, quickened by hatred to an instinc- 
 tive vigilance ; and was summarily dealt with as an ene- 
 my in the camp. Man had naturalized the principle of 
 sin ; had consecrated vice in all its forms ; had opened to 
 it all the recesses of his nature ; cherished and established 
 its dominion by every species of submission and indulg- 
 ence ; and boasted of his new allegiance in the face of 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 95 
 
 heaven. The only law which kept mankind united, the 
 only sympathy which held the unnumbered parts and in- 
 terests of the world in affinity, seemed to be an all-perva- 
 ding principle of aversion to God ; and this was sufficient 
 to bind them fast for ages, in one great and unbroken work 
 of prodigious guilt. The destruction of the world, there- 
 fore, so far from being an infraction of justice, was only 
 what justice required ; would only have been the natural 
 course of things, flowing in the unobstructed order of 
 cause and effect. A crisis had arrived in the grovernment 
 of God on earth, in which something great and decisive 
 must be done ; prolong the delay — and the character of 
 God will be compromised and gone ; the voices of the 
 souls beneath the altar were wearied with crying for retri- 
 bution ; the armoury of heaven was open ; all its hosts and 
 equipments ready ; justice had only to speak the word, and, 
 in a moment's flight, the panic earth would have beheld its 
 firmament filled with the careering fires and terrific forms 
 of descending wrath. The Son of God had only to pour 
 out the vial of incensed wrath, and there had been voices, 
 and thunderings, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and uni- 
 versal desolation ; and all the holy intelligences, as they 
 stood, afar off', on the sea of glass, beholding the tremen- 
 dous catastrophe, would have said, ' Thou art righteous, O 
 Lord, because thou hast judged thus.' 
 
 But at that crisis of the world, when every movement 
 in the government of God was to be watched with breath- 
 less apprehension, when, had justice made the slightest 
 move, every thing that had feeling would have veiled its 
 eyes in fear, then mercy prevailed to unfold the scheme of 
 love, and it became the office of justice to wonder and at- 
 tend ; then, when God might have sent his Son to condemn 
 the world, he was sent — amazing grace ! — to save it. Here- 
 in is love ! The apostles never touched it, but they in- 
 
96 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 stantly kindled at the inspiration of the theme. Conscious 
 that their language fell far below their conceptions, and 
 their conception below their subject, they could only ex- 
 claim, in the impotence of overwhelming admiration, 
 Herein is love ! The universe is crowded ^vith proofs of 
 his benevolence ; but here is a proof which outweighs 
 them all ! How much he loved us we can never compute ; 
 we have no line with which to fathom, no standard with 
 v^hich to compare it ; but he so loved us that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that through him he might confer on 
 us eternal life. 
 
 IV. But, in order to raise our estimate of the divine be- 
 nevolence, the Savior not only announces that he brings from 
 heaven the infinite donation of eternal life ; he points our 
 attention to the means of mercy. ' For as Moses lifted up 
 the serpent in the Avilderness, so must the Son of man be 
 lifted up.' Everlasting life is a gift so ineffably great, an 
 alternative so vast for creatrues who had reached, who 
 were crossing the confines of endless death, that had it cost 
 the Almighty but a mere volition, had it been the result of 
 a fiat as easy and unexpensive as that which gave birth to 
 light, it w^ould still have rendered his grace the theme and 
 wonder of the universe. But, however spontaneous the 
 love which projected the plan of mercy, the execution of 
 that plan asks for more than the simple volitions which 
 created the world, or the unconstrained and tranquil circu- 
 lation of the power which sustains it : The Son of Man, 
 must he lifted up. He must yield to conditions of which 
 an infinite nature alone is capable; and in yielding to 
 which, all that infinite capability will be in stress. At the 
 time he spoke, he had already made an infinite stoop, in 
 consenting to an actual junction with the nature that had 
 sinned, and on which sin was to be punished. But this was 
 only the prolouge of the act of mercy. He had joined the 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 97 
 
 offending- nature to his own, for the distinct and deliberate 
 object of pouring out the blood which flowed through its 
 veins, and of making its soul an offering for sin. His 
 whole life was only a preface to his death. Having taken 
 a survey of ^1 that would be required from the Surety of 
 sinners ; having cast up and pondered the mighty sum of 
 guilt to be cancelled ; and measured with his eye the thun- 
 der-stores of wrath which must be exhausted ; and fathom- 
 ed the pit which to them was bottomless : he pressed the> 
 entire responsibility to his heart, and addressed himself to 
 the task. Our nature, to him, was a robe of suffering, as- 
 sumed expressly, that, when the crisis of our redemption 
 came, justice might find him sacrificially attired and pre- 
 pared for the altar, a substance which her sword could 
 smite, a victim which could agonize and die. And if the hu- 
 man soul admits of an indefinite enlargement, in its capacity 
 of pleasure and pain ; if the admission, of the purified spirit 
 to the uncreated splendor above, augments that capacity to 
 such a degree, that almost an infinitude of emotion can be 
 compressed into the space of a moment ; what must have 
 been the measureless capability of the human soul which 
 he took into so perfect a union with his divinity, that the 
 two natures composed olny one person; what must have 
 been the acquired intensity of its antipathy to sin, and 
 what the consequent intensity of his exceeding sorrow, 
 when, being in an agony, he had, in a sense, to absorb, the 
 infinite mass of human guilt, and to exhaust, in one short 
 moment, the mighty cup of omnipotent wrath ! 
 
 For the key to all this mystery of compassion, the Sa- 
 vior himself refers us to the love of God. While we are 
 standing before his cross, and musing on that amazing ex- 
 pedient of mercy, the holy Sufferer himself raises his eyes 
 to heaven for its origin, and looks at the heart of God. He 
 impresses on us the sublime fact, that the Father loves us, 
 
98 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 not in consequence of the great propitiation, but that he 
 provided the propitiation because he loved us ; because he 
 was bent on obtaining a medium through which he could 
 pour out the ocean-fulness of his love upon us. 
 
 Of all the remarkable declarations of Christ, when the 
 love of God was his theme, one" of the most striking, per- 
 haps, and one which seems to place us in an unusually fa- 
 vorable position for looking at the divine benevolence, is the 
 memorable sentence. ' Therefore doth my Father love me, 
 because I lay down my life, that I might take it again . . 
 .... because I lay down my life for the sheep :' in other 
 words, ' My father loves you with a love so unbounded, that 
 he even loves me the more for dying to redeem you. He 
 so loves you, that whatever facilitates the expression of his 
 love receives an expression of his divine esteem : by sus- 
 taining your liabilities, by surrendering my life as an equiv- 
 alent for your transgressions, and thus vindicating his law 
 from all appearance of connivance at sin, I am setting his 
 compassion at liberty ; I am removing a restraint from his 
 love, which threatened to hold it in eternal suspense ; I am 
 enabling his grace to act, to save whom it will ; and for 
 thus concurring in his benevolent purpose, and opening an 
 ample channel for the tide of his love to flow in, the Father 
 loves me ; I receive such additional expressions of his com- 
 placency, that, though ineffably beloved from eternity, he 
 may be said to have added infinite delight to infinite.' 
 
 And how does it enchance our conceptions of the divine 
 compassion when we reflect that there is a sense in which 
 the sufferings of Christ were the sufferings of the Father 
 also. From eternity, their divine subsistence in the unity 
 of the Godhead had been only short of indentity ; nor 
 could the circumstance of the Savior's humiliation in the 
 slightest degree relax the bonds of this mutual in-being ; 
 while walking the earth in the form of a servant, he could 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 99 
 
 Still affirm, ' My Father is in me, and I in him .... I and 
 my father are one.' Once and again did the paternal 
 complacency overflow, surprising the world with expres- 
 sions of infinite delight, and inviting us to resign our 
 hearts at once and for ever to his beloved Son ; besides 
 which, numerous intimations are given, that the mysterious 
 interchange of divine affection which had existed from 
 eternity, continued in undiminished activity ; that the Incar- 
 nate Word was often surrounded as with an atmosphere 
 instinct with love, into which God had breathed the ele- 
 ments of the joy which He had with the Father before the 
 world was ; that had the great designs of mercy allowed, 
 the paternal love, as if impatient of his continuance on 
 earth would have borne him from the world, and resumed 
 him to himself again. 
 
 The love of God then invites our adoration, not only as 
 it, at first, sent his only begotten Son ; during every mo- 
 ment of the Savior's sojourn on earth, that love was repeat- 
 ing its gift, was making an infinite sacrifice for sinners ; 
 while every pang he endured in the prosecution of his 
 work was the infliction of a wound in the very heart of pa- 
 ternal love. Who then shall venture to speak of the ap- 
 peal which was made to that love, of the trial to which 
 that love was put, when the blessed Jesus took into his 
 hand the cup of suffering, when his capacity for suffering 
 was the only limitation his sufferings knoAV. If it be true 
 that God is always in vital, sympathetic communication with 
 every part of the suffering creation ; that, as the sensorium 
 of the universe, he apprehends every emotion and commis- 
 serates every thrill of anguish, how exquisitely must he 
 have felt the filial appeal, when, in the extremity of pain, 
 in the very crisis of his agonizing task, the Savior cried, 
 • My God, my God ; why hast thou forsaken me ! ' Were 
 it possible for a moment to occur, in which the worship ot 
 
100 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 heaten could "be lost on the divine attention ; in which the 
 infinite mind could be concentrated and confined to one ob- 
 ject alone ] that, surely, must have been the moment. Were 
 it possible that any juncture could have arrived, in which 
 the paternal love could have repented the sacrifice it had 
 made for man ; that, surely, must have been the hour. 
 
 What a new and amazing insight, then does it give us 
 into his love for sinners, that it was able to bear the stress 
 of that crisis, that it did not yield and give way to the incal- 
 culable power of that appeal. This is a circumstance, 
 which if I may so say, puts into our hands a line, enabling 
 us to fathom his love to an infinite depth ; but we find it 
 immeasureably deeper still. It invests the attractions of 
 the cross with augmented power ; for in the sufferings of 
 that scene Ave behold more — if more we are capable of see- 
 ing—more even than the love of Christ ; in every pang 
 which is there endured, we behold the throes of paternal 
 love, the pulsations and tears of infinite compassion ; more 
 than the creation in travail, the divine Creator himself tra- 
 vailing in the greatness of almighty love. 
 
 V. But if this be an outline of the means of mercy, 
 what can be the nature of that end which justifies the em- 
 ployment of such means ? To enlarge our views of the 
 divine benevolence, the Savior announces that he brings 
 from heaven the vast donation of eternal life ; that the sole 
 object of God, in sending him to be lifted up, is, that we might 
 have everlasting life. The separation which sin had ef- 
 fected between God and man, had robbed us of a whole 
 order of life. All that remained to us on earth, was a 
 masked and modified form of death : and, as to the future, 
 there was nothing left us but to perish for ever. Here, 
 then, was scope for divine benevolence to do as little or as 
 much as it chose, Here was a wide waste of misery, inferi- 
 or only to the blank and limitless desolation of hell, in which 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 101 
 
 divine compassion could find room to expatiate at large ; and 
 in which, while its richest stores could be all employed, its 
 smallest gift would be an infinite gratuity — showing like 
 a single star in the darkness of midnight. 
 
 But he chose it to be the theatre of his mightiest grace. 
 As if heaven with al] its amplitude, were too confined, he 
 sought to enlarge the sphere of his beneficence, by the ad- 
 dition of another province ; and, as if to take the universe 
 by surprise, to put forth his grace in a form which it had 
 not entered into the busy and far-reaching minds of angels 
 to conceive, he chose that that province should be this sink- 
 ing world. But there is suspended over it a sweeping 
 sentence of utter condemnation ; the clouds of wrath are 
 collected around it ; the materials of destruction have been 
 piled up for ages, and still they continue to increase ; it is 
 the place where Satan's seat is, and all its population he 
 holds in allegiance; it is the immediate precincts and 
 neighborhood of hell. Yes, but these are the mighty im- 
 pediments which it is the glory of God to cope with and 
 overcome ; these are the hopeless materials, the elements 
 of damnation, out of which he delights to raise the fabric 
 of eternal life. To deliver us only from the impending evil, 
 or to confer on us merely a limited good, could'not have 
 satisfied his paternal heart. Having committed himself to 
 the amazing work of our redemption, he resolved that he 
 would spare nothing however costly, withhold nothing 
 however dear, which was essential to the consummation of 
 the design. Having begun to bless us, he determined that 
 he would not stop short of heaven itself; that he would 
 not stop even there, but would continue to surround us with 
 favors, to heap on us gift after gift, until he had filled our 
 capacity for enjoyment, and had opened to us all the treas- 
 ures of eternal life. 
 
 For this high purpose his peculiar presence was neces» 
 
102 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 sary amongst us; accordingly, he erected a throne on earth, 
 making it the scene of his especial grace, and of wonders 
 surpassin gthose of heaven. The course of justice requires 
 that sin should be, not merely pardoned, but punished, or 
 expiated ; he compasses both by appointing his only be- 
 gotten Son, first to expiate, and then forgive. But man is 
 severed from the life of God ; his soul is so palsied and dis- 
 abled by the deadly poison of sin, that his spiritual system 
 is incapable of appropriating and circulating the element 
 of a divine life, were it even provided ; and so prone, so 
 ingenious is he to pervert every blessing he receives, and to 
 employ it as a weapon against the divine Bestower, that 
 providence can hardly dare to bless him. But God is not 
 to be thus defeated: he sent his Son to assume our human- 
 ity ; that through him he might open the springs of his life- 
 giving nature anew, and henceforth maintain a perpetual 
 stream of his vital and transforming spirit ; that, by this 
 mysterious adjunction of our nature to his, he himself 
 might henceforth live through all the powers of the soul — 
 light, in its understanding ; love, in its affections ; a per- 
 petual current of blessedness and joy, blended with the 
 stream of its own consciousness ; and life to its immortali- 
 ty, life of the most exalted order. But the properties of 
 that life, who on earth shall describe ? It is more than a 
 simple element of good, a single blessing ; it is a vast assem- 
 blage of blessings. All other things, at best, are only ac- 
 cessaries to happiness ; this, is happiness itself Compared 
 with this, a bare perpetuity of existence, is only a mockery 
 of life, deserves only the name of death ; this is existence, 
 enriched with the highest positive blessedness ; life, purifi- 
 ed, exalted, applied to the loftiest purposes, carried out to 
 its utmost extent of enjoj^ment; the very crown of being. 
 Everlasting life, is a name for a blessing, which enables us 
 to challenge, with impunity, the universe of evil, and to 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 103 
 
 write our names, as heirs, on all the universe of good ; it is 
 God himself multiplied in the souls of his people. 
 
 VI. And, as the representative of the Father, our bless- 
 ed Lord offered this gift to all. Human reason, arguing 
 from the limited application of the benefit, would infer that 
 the extent of the love which provided, and the value of the 
 means which procured it, are limited also ; would examine 
 them by the torture of its logic, and bring its insignificant 
 line to the measurement of boundless grace. Human sel- 
 fishness would make a monopoly of eternal life. The 
 Jewish christians would fain have made it a local and na- 
 tional benefit ; till the unconfinable spirit came, and showed 
 them that, like the air, it belonged to the world. And the 
 inheritors of their selfishness, in every succeeding age, 
 have attempted to number Israel, to count the people ; have 
 adhered to the persuasion that the great gift of eternal life 
 is only to be offered to a party. But an attempt to imprison 
 the air, and to enchain the light, would be wise and saluta- 
 ry compared with this. 
 
 Of the angels that kept not their first estate, we read, 
 that God hath reserved them in everlasting chains, under 
 darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. From 
 which Ave learn, that when any part of the creation sins, 
 and falls away from God, the natural, direct, and if mercy 
 interpose not, the inevitable consequence of such apostacy, 
 is everlasting and remediless punishment. Why did not 
 sin then entail this awful consequence on man ? Why is 
 it that some other race of intelligent beings is not, at this 
 moment, reading concerning us, what we have just quoted 
 of the apostate angels — that the race of man, the inhabit- 
 ants of the earth who kept not their first estate, God hath 
 reserved in everlasting chains of darkness against the 
 judgment of the great day? Our only reply is that God, 
 
104 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 kaving designed our salvation, devised an expedient, in the 
 sacrifice of Christ, of unlimited value — unlimited, by right 
 of its own nature, as God himself is infinite ; so that the 
 1-ove of God, acting through the atonement of Christ, has 
 been, from the beginning of time, keeping all the living 
 out of hell, and conducting multitudes to heaven ■ and thus 
 operating, as it is at this moment, in favor of all mankind. 
 To this source it is that our Lord would have us to ascribe 
 our common mercies ; he would put every individual of 
 our race to take a census of the divine favors ; to compute 
 how many of these he enjoys in common with the species, 
 and how many, besides, are conferred in particular on him- 
 self; and, finally, to draw the inevitable conclusion, that 
 universality belongs to the divine goodness. And, while 
 his ordinary blessings are chartered to the world, shall 
 the stigma of exclusiveness be reserved for his grace alone ? 
 ' I am the light of the world,' said Christ ; a blessing uni- 
 versal as the light. He came to demolish every wall of 
 partition, to throw open evei*y compartment in the temple of 
 creation, that every whorshipper might have free and equal 
 access to the God of the temple. He so unveiled and pre- 
 sented the character of God, that every human being 
 should feel it to be looking on himself, casting an aspect of 
 benignity directly on himself The message of mercy 
 which he brought from the Father was meant for the ear 
 of the world ; ' whoso hath ears to hear, let him hear.' 
 And supposing the world to be assembled, and audience 
 obtained, this was the music which broke from his lips, 
 ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life.' He gave him, to encircle the 
 world with an atmosphere of grace, as real and universal, 
 as the elemental air which encompasses and circulates 
 around the globe itself; and whoever chooses to enhale it 
 hath eternal life. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 105 
 
 Herein is love ! Tliat he should have raised our world 
 from the gloomy suberbs of hell, and have lifted it into 
 the radiance of an orbit next his throne ; that he should 
 have made our hatred subserve the purposes of his love, 
 and have educed from our evil a greater good than would 
 have otherwise existed ; that he should have adopted our 
 nature into the person of his Son, and have carried it to 
 the highest throne of the highest heavens ; that he should 
 confer on us an honor, to which a retinue of angels would 
 form no comparison, no addition— himself inhabiting and 
 possessing us with his own life, making us instinct with his 
 own Spirit ; that the origin of all this should be his spon- 
 taneous love; that the means of it should be the incarna- 
 tion and death of his only begotten Son, and its consuma- 
 tion — but for that we have at present only a name, stand- 
 ing in the stead of an infinite meaning — everlasting life • 
 
 whatever the point from which we contemplate his love, 
 the prospect widens into infinitude ; the subject grows in 
 our hands ; amasses glory on glory, till it becomes too 
 bright for contemplation, and towers as high as the heaven 
 is above the earth. O what a God, what a Father, what 
 an ocean of love is the God of our salvation ! Havino- 
 
 o 
 
 collected all the riches of the universe, and laid open all 
 the resources of his infinite nature, he gave them all into 
 the hands of Christ, and said, ' These, all these, are for 
 man ; use them for man ; distribute them to men ; if ne- 
 cessary, confer them all upon man, in order to convince 
 him that there is no love in the universe but mine, and 
 that his happiness consists in loving me, and givino- him- 
 self to me in return.' In discharge of this momentous 
 trust, the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. It 
 was to render this vast deposit available that he sprinkled 
 it with his blood ; an act by which he, at the same time, both 
 made it ours, and added to its original value an infinity of 
 7 
 
106 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 worth ; an act by which he created for the world a truth 
 incomparably more precious than aught which the ark 
 contained — that the richest gift, and the costliest sacrifice, 
 have been selected by God, as the only adequate expres- 
 sion of his love to man. 
 
 Our redemption by Christ is an exhibition of grace 
 which God himself cannot surpass : unexpected develope- 
 ments of its relations and glories will, no doubt, through 
 eternity be constantly rising to view, and maintaining for it 
 a character of ever new and increasing interest ; our con- 
 ceptions of its excellence will be continually receiving fresh 
 accessions ; but while its future glory may surpass its 
 present in the eyes of the redeemed, God, if I may be al- 
 lowed to say so, the blessed God has deprived himself of 
 the power of ever eclipsing that glory by exhibiting to the 
 universe a richer display of love. But well may his infin- 
 ite mind be satisfied with this as his crowntiing work ; for 
 he has now demonstrated to all his intelligent creation, that 
 there is no love but his. 
 
 VII. But the Savior had not yet completed his repre- 
 sentation of the divine character. He had rolled away 
 the thick darkness from before the throne of God, and had 
 revealed him to the world as light and love ; but it re- 
 mained to attemper the radiance of the light, and to soften 
 and humanize the love. As long as we remain immersed 
 in sense, we must be indebted for all our conceptions to 
 sensible objects ; hence the purest and most abstract of hu- 
 man sciences has its diagrams ; and Christianity the most 
 spiritual form of religion, employs its symbols. The same 
 necessity has, in every age, expressed itself in ardent de- 
 sires for sensible manifestations of the Divine Being. The 
 entreaty of Moses, ' I beseech thee show me thy glory,' was 
 again repeated by Philip, when he said, ' Show us the Fa- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 107 
 
 ther, and it sufficeth us ; ' and both requests were only the 
 echo of a universal desire ; a desire of the mind for some- 
 thing to sustain it in its most etherial of efforts, its endeav- 
 ors to think of God. 
 
 Another necessity requiring to be met, was the exagger- 
 ated fears of the penitent sinner, when interpreting the rec- 
 toral office of the Father in the covenant of grace, into a 
 proof of his avenging inexorableness. In the ministry of 
 the Gospel, the constant reference which is necessarily 
 made to his just requirements in maintaining the rights of 
 Deity, is extremely liable to produce on a mind, perturbed 
 wdth gudt, an impression of dread, which no mere abstract 
 descriptions of the love of God can effectually remove ; 
 which makes it impossible to speak of that love in terms 
 of excess. Now, of both these necessities, the Savior took 
 special cognizance ; against each of them he fully provided 
 when, standing forth before the eye of the world, he pro- 
 claimed himself the perfect representative of the Father ; 
 and in that capacity, challenged for the Father, the confi- 
 dence, and affection, and cordial allegiance of mankind. 
 ' I am in the Father, said he, and the Father is in me ; ' . . . . 
 ' from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip 
 saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth 
 us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time Avith 
 you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He. that 
 hath seen me hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou 
 then. Show us the Father 1 Believest thou not that I am 
 
 in the Father, and the Father in me ? the Father that 
 
 dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I 
 am in the Father, and the Father in me : or else believe me 
 for the very works' sake.' ' I and my Father are one.' 
 
 Instead of leaving our faith to apprehend an infinite ab- 
 straction, he has, in his own person, invested the Deity with 
 that power over our minds Avhicha definite object alone can 
 
108 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 exercise. Instead of claiming our affections merely for 
 the invisible and impalpable cause of mercy, he wrestles 
 with oar fears, and challenges our embracing affections, by 
 protesting that there is no feature to be loved in himself, 
 which is not equally to be loved in the character of God ; 
 that if we admire the tenderness and compassion of his 
 character, we are admiring the very same qualities in the 
 Father : that we do injustice to his representative character, 
 if we do not receive it entire as a perfect reduplication of 
 the mind of God. He would have us to believe, and to act 
 on the belief, that so far from attempting to bribe and be- 
 guile our affections for God, by expressing for us a kind- 
 ness to which the heart of God does not respond, he could 
 not have omitted a single expression of that kindness with- 
 out giving us a defective idea of the divine benevolence ; 
 that so utterly impossible would it be for him to give us 
 an exaggerated conception of that benevolence, that could 
 we by any process collect and concentrate all the varied 
 expressions of his grace to a focal point, and receive the 
 effect of the whole entire, and at once, that effect, after all, 
 would be a bare and inadequate expression of the love of 
 God to man, Whatever doctrine of grace he propounds, 
 whatever promise he gives, w^hatever deed of love he per- 
 forms, whatever divine attractions he exhibits, — every such 
 attraction in him is to be regarded as an index to the same 
 quality indefinitely greater in the character of God. The 
 conduct of Christ is a copy, a living map of the im- 
 mense expanse of the divine perfections, reduced from its 
 infinite dimensions, and subdued to a scale studiously 
 adapted to the feeble vision of man. The character of 
 God, so infinitely reduced, is to be seen in the life of 
 Christ ; the excellences of Christ, if infinitely magnified 
 and restored to their original proportions, are to be found 
 in the perfections of God. The character of Christ is 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY, 109 
 
 the conception of a being of infinite amiableness, seeking 
 to engage the heart of a world that reasons by analogy, 
 and to enamour it of divine excellence. How-often did he 
 authenticate the life of Jesus, and give it currrency as a 
 copy of his own. Had the Almighty Father veiled his glo- 
 ries, and dwelt among us, the history which now belongs 
 to Christ would have related, word for word, his own con- 
 descending grace ; so that, in every word and act of Jesus, 
 we are to recognise, in effect, the voice and movements of 
 paternal love. 
 
 In the person of Christ we behold the eternal God en- 
 gaged in an enterprise of boundless mercy. To aid our 
 conceptions of his being, he clothes his spiiituality in the 
 vestments of humanity. To convince us that an un- 
 limited concern for our souls may coexist with the utmost 
 hatred of our sins, he shows us that the river of 
 the water of life takes its rise from under his throne ; 
 he plants a cross, and provides a sacrifice, and enacts be- 
 fore the world a prodigy of mercy, of which this is the 
 only adequate solution, that he so loved us.. That no un- 
 warranted apprehensions of his greatness might efface this 
 impression of his love from our minds, that all suspicion 
 and distrust might be made impossible, he shows us that 
 he can stoop from an act which saves a world, to number 
 the very hairs of our head ; that his regard for the whole 
 comprises a regard for each infinitesimal part ; so that 
 whatever has the power of raising an emotion in our 
 breast, acquires, by that circumstance, if by nothing else, 
 sufficient importance to receive his sympathetic attention. 
 Disrobed of his essential glory, unattended by the train 
 and state of heaven, as if earth was to be henceforth his 
 adopted home, he came evidently attired for a purpose of 
 love ; mingled in our common cares, and inscribed his 
 name on every object which speaks to the human heart. 
 
no THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 The cup of sorrow never passed him untasted ; often did 
 he exhaust the distasteful draught himself, and return the 
 cup of gladness in its stead. The human heart, in his 
 hands, might have become a sacred harp, every chord of 
 which should have sent forth none but heavenly music. 
 The history of his labors of love, is the shame and con- 
 demnation of unbelief, the argument of faith and hope, the 
 standing memorial of his claims on the undoubting trust 
 of a dependent world : for it presents him, not barely fulfil- 
 ling the conditions of our redemption, but far exceeding 
 them ; going beyond the complement of grace ; overflow-* 
 ing in supererogatory acts of beneficence ; and anticipating 
 the tender offices proper to heaven, by beginning even 
 here to wipe away all tears from all faces. 
 
 VIII. Having restored our confidence in the divine 
 character, the Savior sought to complete our love to God, 
 by teaching us to address him by a new name ; a name 
 which should be at once a sign of our affection to him, 
 and a pledge of his tender regard and relationship to us. 
 He knew that the name which is entwined with the dearest 
 associations of the human heart, is also the name which 
 hath most music in the ear of God — and therefore he 
 selected and encouraged us to employ it — the endearing 
 appellation of Father. And that we might not be deterred 
 from taking it into our lips by the fear of presumption, he 
 continues to repeat it, again and again, until it has become 
 familiar to our ear. Thus instructed and encouraged, he 
 leads us through a new and living way, every step of which 
 is hung with emblems of paternal love, adorned with me- 
 morials of redeeming grace ; conducts us into the holiest 
 of all, even to our Father's throne ; reveals him there sur- 
 rounded with all the heaped and opulent resources of in- 
 finite grace ; and then, in order that our confidence and 
 
* HIS ORIGINALITY. HI 
 
 l.ov€ might find speech, and our poverty loose itself in 
 boundless wealth, he adds, ' Ask, and ye shall receive.' 
 * If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children; how much more shall your heavenly Father 
 give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him.' 
 
 It will then, I think, be conceded that the character of 
 the Supreme Being, as it came from the hands of Christ, 
 was an original subject, a new gift to the world. It was 
 new in the universal aspect of benevolence which it bears 
 towards man ; as opposed to those limited conceptions of 
 his goodness which were cherished, if not propagated, by 
 the Jewish economy : new in its mode of exemplification ; 
 for it was seen, not in the works of nature, the operations 
 of providence, or the rites of religion, but in the living incar- 
 nation, the real and visible person of his only begotten 
 Son: new in its bestowments; for hitherto, however rich 
 his gifts to his church had been, he had always accompanied 
 them with an assurance that he had yet a gift in reserve in 
 which all good would be summed up ; and however various 
 they had been, they all bore some resemblance and re- 
 lation to each other, in value, at least, if in nothing else ; 
 but now in the person of Christ he bestowed the promised 
 gift, eclipsed his former grace, and conferred a donation, 
 which, as it was perfectly original, so it can never be 
 repeated or equalled ; since every subsequent donation is 
 only a consequence and part of the gift, and eternity itself 
 will be necessary for the full development of all it contains : 
 new in its paternal aspect ; not merely representing him as 
 our Father, but teaching us to address him as such ; to re- 
 gard him as the fountain of all that parental affection which 
 has flown down, generation after generation, through the 
 channel of human hearts ; and to believe that all the pity, 
 compassion, and love, which he has ever poured through 
 parental natures, are as nothing compared with what re- 
 
112 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 sides in his own heart ; that however much he may have 
 imparted, infinitely more, a reserved ocean, must ever re- 
 main behind in himself; and that all this is in perpetual 
 activity, interesting itself in the wants, and providing- for 
 the happiness of his people : and new, also, in the mode 
 of its future connection with man, through a Mediator ; 
 for since Christ came to declare the Father unto us', it is 
 the exalted privilege of believers to contemplate God in 
 Christ, to approach his throne in the name, and relying on 
 the successful intercession of Christ. 
 
 ' And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the 
 only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.' 
 Knowledge, of all kinds, is the wealth proper to a rational 
 nature ; but to captivate us with the knowledge of God, 
 our Lord declares that this is the only science which con- 
 ducts to happiness, the only wealth which can be converted 
 into unfading crowns and eternal life. As the whole of 
 celestial blessedness is often, in scripture, made to consist in 
 the vision of God ; so the whole of religion on earth, is 
 represented as consisting in the knowledge of him. Be- 
 cause, first, all sin originates in ignorance of God : that is, 
 it is indebted for its existence to the absence of God, tem- 
 porary or habitual, from the mind ; it triumphs most where 
 he is most completely unknown, or forgotten ; it could not 
 lift up its deformity, with the hope of being loved, in the 
 strong light of his glorious presence. Because, secondly, 
 were the mind discharged and clear of all the the obstruc- 
 tions of sin, it would be only necessary for it to see God, 
 in order to be supremely enamoured of him ; the bare 
 perception of his image, as pourtraycd by Christ, would 
 alone be sufficient to change the soul, by mere intensity of 
 love, into the same image. And because, thirdly, although 
 the mind is filled with hostile influences, it is only necessa- 
 ry for the Holy Spirit to bring him before it, to place his char- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 113 
 
 acter advantageously before its eye, and the sight attracts 
 softens, subdues, ceases not to operate, till it has trans- 
 formed the soul into its own likeness. 
 
 Is it then producing this saving effect upon us ? or is the 
 vast and glorious conception of God inhabiting our minds 
 to no purpose ? Shall the knowledge of God, which Jesus 
 Christ came from heaven to impart, remain in our posses- 
 sion, through a whole life, as a dead and useless thing? 
 have we nothing of less moment to sport with, that we 
 must needs- trifle with this ?■ shall it at last be reckoned our 
 greatest curse, that we knew the blessed God ? We can- 
 not even glance an inquiring look towards him, but Jesus 
 advances to encourage the act, saying, ' To know him is 
 life eternal' We cannot place ourselves in the pleasant 
 beams of his light, cannot be conscious of a single emotion 
 of admiration of his character, but Jesus addresses himself to 
 our rising hopes, and says, ' You can be like him ; you may 
 even resemble the blessed God; Be ye perfect as your Fa- 
 ther in heaven is perfect.' We cannot cherish a desire, or 
 breathe a sigh for conformity, but the Holy Spirit forthwith 
 begins to transcribe his will on the inner man, to abridge 
 and to eptomise his likeness on the heart in the process of 
 regeneration. God, who commanded the light to shine out 
 of darkness, is willing to shine into our hearts, to give the 
 light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
114 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 SECTION II. — CONCERNING HIMSELF. 
 
 ■ No man knoweth the Son but the Father.' 
 
 * I,' SAID Christ, ' am the light of the world : ' he arose 
 on the world, an object as wonderful and new in his per- 
 son and office, as the sun when it first took rank among 
 the stars of heaven ; and, like the solar light, while pour- 
 ing a flood of radiance on every thing else, he remains 
 himself a glorious mystery. Notwithstanding the diver- 
 sified dreams in which the world had for ages indulged 
 concerning his person and advent ; and all the materials 
 for fancy to work with, supplied by the paintings of proph- 
 ecy ; and the significant shadows which providence had 
 thrown before ; his appearance at last took mankind by 
 surprise : a surprise for which the world avenged itself, 
 hy arming against him and all who should afterwards as- 
 sume his badge ; but a surprise which overwhelmed the 
 church with a measure of gratitude and delight to which 
 it has ever since been giving expression, and the full utter- 
 ance of which it reserves for a world where its strains, 
 relieved from all interruption, shall be swelled and aided 
 by all the harps of God. 
 
 The supernatural truths by which he is described are 
 so early instilled into our minds, that we ought not to be 
 able to remember the time when first we heard them ; and, 
 having become so familiar to us, it requires a considerable 
 mental efibrt to realise the thought, that they were ever 
 original. But though the human mind had been for ages 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 115 
 
 training to receive him, he found himself, on becoming 
 man, a stranger in a world of strangers. 
 
 Judging from the conduct of his disciples, the Mosaic 
 economy does not appear to have given them a single cor- 
 rect presentiment concerning him. His character and 
 claims were so perfectly unique, that although their relig- 
 ion was instituted expressly to be his analogue — and it 
 was the only thing in the world which did represent him 
 — yet they did not at first perceive a single point of coin- 
 cidence. Every truth which he uttered respecting him- 
 self fell on their ear with the strangeness of a new revela- 
 tion ; and instead of being received into their minds with 
 the welcome of an expected guest, had to create a place 
 for itself, or to wait till they could feel themselves recon- 
 ciled to the novelty. They were not, indeed, wanting in 
 occasional confessions and ascriptions, which satisfied his 
 claims, and called forth his approbation ; but much of this 
 homage was involuntarily won by some sudden escape of 
 his glory, some surprising display of his greatness ; and 
 the frequent inconsistencies in their conduct, by which that 
 homage was in a sense recalled or neutralized, showed, 
 that though a new disturbing power was at work within 
 them, it had not yet succeeded in acquiring the dominion 
 of principle and conviction. 
 
 Nor was it till after his return to heaven that they began 
 to appreciate aright the claims of the illustrious visitant. 
 Then, when the excitement attending the vision began to 
 subside, they found they had been entertaining the Lord 
 of angels unawares : then, when the Spirit brought all 
 things to their remembrance ; when the words of Christ 
 were once more repeated in their ears, and the wonders of 
 his life were made to pass in slow and stately procession 
 before their eyes, they awoke as from a trance, and pro- 
 claimed that the Word had been made flesh, and dwelt 
 
116 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 among us, and that they had beheld his glory, the glory 
 as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
 truth. At the dictation of the Spirit, they proceeded to re- 
 cord a sketch of his life : but they labored at no encomium ; 
 they left that life to speak for itself; they felt that in sim- 
 ply uttering the name of Jesus, they were repeating a 
 name for all that is transcendant in humanity, and all that 
 is glorious in Deity. Henceforth they sought to atone for 
 their past misapprehensions of him by confessing and re- 
 cording those misapprehensions to their own condemna- 
 tion ; by showing to the world that he had displaced every 
 other idea of greatness from their minds ; and that, if while 
 proclaiming his worth to others, they were called to die 
 for his sake, it was the highest honor to which they as- 
 pired. The vision which John beheld of him, when he 
 saw in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks one like 
 unto the Son of man, was only, in one sense, an image of 
 his surpassing glory, as he was continually present to the 
 minds of them all. 
 
 I. Looking at the outline of our Saviour's character, 
 which ancient prophecy had sketched, and comparing it 
 with the more finished portrait which he drew of himself, 
 it is obvious that, even supposing the former had taken full 
 effect on the minds of his disciples, there was yet so much 
 of originality in the additions of the latter, that they could 
 scarcely fail to contemplate it without receiving an impres- 
 sion of entire novelty. The pen of inspiration had re- 
 corded that his goings forth had been from everlasting : 
 in illustration of this sublime truth, he raised the veil of 
 the past eternity, carried back their thoughts through date- 
 less ages before the world began, towards the unimagina- 
 ble and awful place where God dwells, assuring them that 
 there never was a period when he was not there ; there^ 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 117 
 
 as an object of infinite complacency ; there, in a fellow- 
 ship of glory with Deity ] there, m an identity of charac- 
 ter, and unity of essence, a mutual intuition comprising 
 knowledge which no created mind can be made to compre- 
 hend : that he, to whose human voice they were then lis- 
 tening, had there seen the cycles of eternity revolve, the 
 ages of time expire, the fathers of their nation and the 
 lights of their church, many kings, and prophets, and 
 righteous men, fill up the measure of their days ; and that 
 thence he had actually come forth and descended, to save 
 the world. 
 
 Prophecy, indeed, had accustomed them to expect in 
 Christ a duality of natures, and a consequent mysterious- 
 ness of character and person which would entitle him to 
 be called Wonderful. But -what imagination was prepar- 
 ed, even by this exciting prediction, for the great reality. 
 It is true, a' herald was sent before to call the attention of 
 the world, and to place it in a state of preparation for his 
 coming ; but, ' should he condescend to speak of himself,' 
 it might have been said, ' By what mental revolution, what 
 new combination of thought, shall we prepare to under- 
 stand him ? Perhaps, however, he may maintain a reserve 
 on this subject ; a regard for our limited capacity, and the 
 peculiar object of his mission, may induce him to hold the 
 mysteries of his nature in abeyance.' And he did so. 
 He frequently made it apparent that his object was not to 
 expound the complexity of his nature, but to pour into the 
 heart of the world the entire advantage which that com- 
 plexity was capable of producing ; and that, as he had 
 stooped to the low conditions of humanity, he sought not 
 tenaciously to assert the dignity of his superior claims, but 
 considered his humiliation as consisting partly in dwelling 
 on the degradation to which he had stooped. But though 
 he frequently waived the subject in question, yet as often 
 
118 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 as necessity urged him to advert to it, he must be confes- 
 sed to have uttered ' a new thing in the earth.' We are 
 in the full and familiar possession of his sayings : but had 
 we heard him when first he declared, ' No man hath as- 
 cended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, 
 even the Son of man who is in heaven ; ' ' Before Abra- 
 ham was, I am ; ' should we not have felt that we were 
 listening to a being to whom all space is a point, and all 
 time but a moment ; that our thoughts could not keep pace 
 Avith the rapid and boundless transitions his words re- 
 quired ; that he was approaching a subject which the lim- 
 ited terms, and analogical language of human speech have 
 no signs to represent, no powers to convey ; a subject of 
 which our minds, accustomed as they are to the mere parts 
 of thino^s, to fractional thouorhts, and fragments of truth, 
 could receive only, at most, an angular point, a very ob- 
 scure glimpse and confused impression ? 
 
 Had we heard him affirm, in the face of his evident hu- 
 manity, that he was not of this world ; that we knew not 
 whence he came oi whither he went; that the Father 
 alone, as a being of infinite intuition, knew him to perfec- 
 tion ; should w^e not have felt that we were listening to 
 blasphemy, or else to the only being incapable of blas- 
 phemy, because he alone can be the object of it; that a 
 principle of interpretation, hitherto unknown to the world 
 must be found and applied to his self descriptions, a prin- 
 ciple which may well be sacred to that purpose alone, since 
 the language of no other being Avill need its application ? 
 Could we have heard him forgiving sins ; asserting his 
 right to do so, ' even upon earth; ' summoning the world 
 to yield up its heart to him ; to make its homage to the Fa- 
 ther a pattern of its homage to him ; could we have heard 
 this without feeling that God must be present in the person 
 of the mysterious speaker, that the throne of Deity must 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 119 
 
 be, in a sense, removed from heaven to earth? Could we 
 have heard him emphatically call himself the Son of man, 
 and solemnly announce that there is a sense in which the 
 Father is greater than he, without feeling that it was an 
 announcement which a mere creature could never have 
 thought it necessary to make, and wondering at the great- 
 ness which could excuse and justify such statements ? 
 
 Had we been the individuals to whose retirement under 
 the fig-tree he was privy ; whose history he disclosed at 
 the well of Samaria ; to whose unuttered thoughts he often 
 adverted and replied, as others reply to our words, and to 
 whom he pledged his unceasing presence, wherever we 
 might be scattered, or whenever we might meet; should 
 we not have felt the natural impossibility of leaving the 
 presence of such a being, and have yielded to the impres- 
 sive thought, the unavoidable inference, that he who stood 
 before us in mysterious combination with a nature like our 
 own, was at the same moment present, in his superior na- 
 ture, in regions immeasurably remote from earth — the 
 sovereign and uncircumscribed energy of the universe? 
 He defended his alleged breach of the sabbatic law, by af- 
 firming that in his providential capacity, like the eternal 
 Father, he knew no sabbath ; that as the soundness of the 
 man he had restored was the result of his healing power, 
 so the repose of the universe was the result of his un- 
 intermitting activity conjointly with the Father. With the 
 same unaffected simplicity and ease, he both acknowledged 
 inferiority to God, and claimed equality with him ; and 
 promised to every christian, in the Father's name, ' We 
 will come unto him and make our abode with him.' Now 
 could we have heard these new and diverse statements from 
 his lips, without feeling that the being who advanced them 
 was a new form of existence ; that in his person, time and 
 eternity, infinity and limitation, laws the most opposite, met 
 
120 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 and were reconciled ; that we beheld in him the grand an- 
 omaly of infinite majesty clothed with meekness ; supreme 
 dominion rendering obedience ; absolute sovereignty, ex- 
 hibiting entire resignation ; God, manifest in the flesh ? 
 
 Prophecy had created the expectation of an illustrious 
 Deliverer, for whom a class of descriptive names had been 
 hallowed, and for ages embalmed, and set apart, as sacred 
 to him alone. ' The Messiah, or Christ ; the Son of man ; 
 the Son of God ; were apellations as incommunicable, if 
 not as awful, as the solemn J ah, or Jehovah, of the Supreme 
 Being ; for they described a person and an office of an or- 
 der so entirely unique, as to make all participation or re- 
 semblance impossible, by engrossing to itself every thing 
 peculiar to it. Jesus came, appropriated these honors to 
 himself as his proper right, and wore them with such an 
 air of accordant ease as to make them his own, with such 
 a port of unlabored majesty as to translate them into an 
 obvious and sober description of himself. If his right to 
 assume them was challenged, his defence was prompt and 
 complete ; he pleaded the sublimity of his doctrine ; ap. 
 pealed to the superiority of his life ; referred to the admit- 
 ted testimony of the Baptist ; pointed attention to the voice 
 from heaven ; invited a comparison of his history with the pro- 
 phecies concerning the Mesiah, declaring that his life would 
 be found to be a faithful comment on the sacred text; and called 
 for his miracles — a splendid array of evidence, which forced 
 even from demons the unwilling recognition of his claims, 
 and left unbelief without any cloke for its sin. 
 
 II. Thus warranted by the constitution of his person 
 and standing on a mountainous acumulation of evidence 
 which enabled him to speak as from the skies, he propos- 
 ed himself to our affection and faith as the unveiled char- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 121 
 
 acter of God. This may be regarded as his grand, origi- 
 nal and all-comprehending claim. 
 
 1. Were it revelant to our subject, we might shew, first, 
 that the actions of Jesus evinced the existence of God. Had 
 man never previously heard, never entertained the concep- 
 tion of a Supreme Being, the miracles of Christ would 
 have inevitably suggested and embodied the grand idea. But 
 he appeared among a people with whom this was already a 
 primary truth. Besides, the scripture has nothing to say to 
 the man who denies it; only this, that it is 'the fool who saith 
 in his heart, there is no God; ' and, 'that the devils believe 
 and tremble.' The existence of the Deity is a truth funda- 
 mental of every other ; it is the throne of religion : and it 
 would ill comport with the composed majesty and stately 
 grandeur of religion to be constantly proving or protesting 
 that it has a throne. He who denies the divine existence^ 
 renounces by that very act his own humanity; falls out of 
 the ranks of rational beings, and courts community and fel 
 lowship with brutes. Accordingly, religion while it con. 
 descends to follow him to the outermost limits of rationality 
 and thus maintains its character for compassion; yet re- 
 membering the state and honors due to its throne, it aban- 
 dons him there, and proceeding in its onward march through 
 an empire of intelligent beings, receives their homage, and 
 perfects their intelligence, by reuniting it with the divine 
 mind. 
 
 2. As the representative of Deity in this lower world, 
 the Savior by his incarnation, embodied the divine spirtual- 
 ity. ' Ye have neither heard his voice at any time,' said 
 Christ, ' nor seen his shape ;' shape, outline, dimensions, 
 he has none ; as an infinite spirit he can have none. How 
 then can we think of him ? for unless we can obtain some 
 sensible manifestation, or definite conception of him, we 
 have nothing around which our thoughts car: collect, or on 
 
122 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 which our affections can settle and rest ; he will elude 
 and escape our laboring apprehensions. It is in vain to 
 allege, that the sublimest material representation can bear 
 no proportion to his glory, no relation to his nature; and, 
 consequently, that it could not fail to impart to the mind un- 
 worthy conceptions of his greatness. Without some sen- 
 sible representation of the divine being, the understanding 
 can make no approach to him, the affections have nothing 
 to embrace : faith itself like the dove of the deluge, has 
 nothing on which it can alight ; it finds itself voyaging iu 
 an objectless universe, an infinite vacuity ; and piety must 
 suffer and pine as in an atmosphere too subtle and unsub- 
 stantial for its present earthly constitution. 
 
 This feeling of want, this ardent craving after a definite 
 object which the mind can lay hold of and apprehend, has 
 been the most frequent occasion of idolatry and atheism. 
 The doctrine of an infinite spirit was the only pure abstrac- 
 tion in the human mind: all other things were objects; 
 had their appropiate images, and the power of imprinting 
 themselves upon the mind, by sensible impressions : while 
 this, standing in the mind solitary and aloof, subject to the 
 antagonist influence and constant encroachment of mater- 
 ial objects, was unable alone to maintain its ground, and in 
 perpetual danger of being displaced and lost from the mind. 
 And hence instead of making this doctrine a place of rest, 
 men have made it a starting point to one of two extremes : 
 they have either proceeded to refine on the nature of Deity 
 till they have reached transcendental atheism, an infinite 
 nothing; or else, advancing in the opposite direction, they 
 have brought him within the sphere of the senses, and em- 
 bodied him in the woik of their own hands. Every erone- 
 ous veiw of God which the world has entertained, was 
 either scepticism, arrived at one or other of its numerous 
 stages, in its way to atheism ; or else, it was idolatry rest- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 123 
 
 ing awhile, at one or other of its stages, on its way to the 
 opposite issue. From the moment that the doctrine of an 
 infinite essence has, at any time, been deposited in the hu- 
 man mind, it has begun to evaporate ; and while the scep- 
 tic, on the one hand, rejoiced in the vacuum which ensued; 
 and the idolater, on the other, found or feigned a residuum 
 which he took and moulded into a god ; they both concur- 
 red, at least in this one sentiment — that the theory of an in- 
 finite spirit yields no repose to the intellect, nor object for 
 the afieetions. 
 
 Passing by the peculiar provisions of the patriarchal 
 church, we cannot hesitate to regard the Jewish economy, 
 in part, as a temporary but elaborate construction for aid- 
 ing the mind in its conceptions of a purely spiritual being. 
 All the angelic visits, and supernatural appearances, with 
 which that church was favored, answered this end. It en- 
 joyed a local manifestation of the Deity: the cloud of glo- 
 ry that dwelt within the veil, resided there as temporary 
 substitute till he should appear in whom would dwell all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily ; and, probably, most of 
 those devotional expressions, in the Old Testament, which 
 raise our thoughts to heaven, only carried the thoughts of 
 the Israelites within the veil. The whole of their worship 
 was a presentiment and promise of the approaching 
 manifestation of God in Christ ; and not merely a promise 
 of it, but an actual provision to aid them in lifting their 
 thoughts to God, and conceiving of the divine personality 
 *ill that more glorious manifestation should take place. 
 
 Behold, in Christ, the image of the invisible God ! Hav- 
 ing left the bosom of the Father, and embodied the attri- 
 butes of God in an incarnate form, he came forth, and 
 stood before the world, and proclaimed himself the perma- 
 nent, adequate, apprehensible representation of the invis- 
 ible Deity. ' I am in the Father,' said he, 'and the Father 
 
124 THE GREAT TEACHtlR, 
 
 in me.' ' From henceforth ye know the Father, and hard 
 seen him.' * He that hath seen me hath seen the Father 
 also.' ' I and my father are one.' It is true, that he is 
 no longer cognizant to our senses ; but having assumed 
 an incarnate form, is evermore visible to the eye of 
 faith ; he can never ascend bej^ond the flight of the 
 sanctified imagination. And if imagination be an attri- 
 bute of the mind, and Christ be entitled to the homage 
 of all our powers, then to depicture his person and pour- 
 tray his glory, is not merely legitimate, but the most suit- 
 able and exalted object on which it is possible for the im- 
 agination to be employed. When he ascended up, ' and a 
 cloud received him out of their sight,' were his disciples 
 never more to think of God as manifest in the flesh 7 They 
 are directed to look at the things which are not seen, to place 
 them before their mental eye in the most vivid imagery ; and 
 of all the imaginable and illustrious objects in the temple 
 above, he surely stands central and supreme. In order to 
 inflame our affections, and carry our imaginations with 
 him, he affords us glimpses of his offices and relations in 
 heaven, and prays that we may behold his glory ; thus 
 making that glory, henceforth, the appropriate and engros- 
 sing object of evangelical faith. 
 
 Nor, in thus yielding to the dictates of piety, and the 
 claims of Christ, can we be charged with worshipping 
 his human nature. Though that nature is exalted above the 
 whole creation; though it is crowned with glory and 
 honor; though the fulness of the Godhead is in it; though 
 it forms even a part of the person of God, yetthe object we 
 adore, is he to whom that nature is hypostatically united* 
 and who stooped to that union expressly that he might be- 
 come a more palpable and definite object of our love. He 
 invites us to draw near and contemplate this great sight ; 
 and, on approaching, we behold the invisible God invested 
 in the robes of humanity, and emitting a glory bo softened 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 125 
 
 and subdued that our eyes can rest on it without dismay; 
 in all our endeavors to raise our thoughts to God, the idea 
 of Jesus comes to our aid, like the mystic ladder of the 
 patriarch's dream, and they ascend and descend upon the 
 Son of man. In all our acts of sincere devotion, we be- 
 hold him by faith, standing- betwixt us and the eternal 
 throne, waiting to meet our flagging and half-way efforts, 
 to assist us up the laborious ascent, to raise and present our 
 spiritual offerings : or, if our devotion ascends still higher 
 to him that sits upon the throne, whom do we there behold 
 but the image of the still invisible God, the Lamb in the 
 midst of the throne. He is the great ordinance by which 
 Godandman commune together ; the appointed place ofmeet- 
 ing between God and human thoughts ; for as all the lines 
 of the divine manifestation converge and meet in him, so 
 all our devotional thoughts and affections centre in him 
 also. And there is, we think, ground to believe that he 
 will sustain this relation for ever ; that whatever may be 
 the modification of the present economy, when, throwing 
 off the accidents and relations of time, it shall retain only 
 the elements and receive the impress of eternity, yet he, as 
 the light of heaven and the temple thereof, will remain the 
 sole manifestation of Deity, to which every eye will be di- 
 rected and every heart be drawn ; that no angel or saint 
 will ever know aught of the invisible God, but as it is 
 brought forth and unveiled in the adorable person of Christ. 
 Of the future visibilit}^ of the divine essence, indeed, we 
 would speak with unaffected diffidence : but the prayer of 
 Christ, that his people may be with him where he is to be- 
 hold his glory, while it discloses the chief ingredient of ce- 
 lestial blessedness, makes known also the conspicuous ob- 
 ject of heavenly contemplation. By adopting our nature 
 into a personal subsistance with bis own divinity, he has 
 given a centre, if we may say so, to the uncircumscribed 
 
126 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 essence of the Deity, and has prepared a spectacle for the 
 universe resembling, but ineffably transcending, the angel 
 standing in the midst of the sun. 
 
 3. But chiefly did he rest his claims to the regards of 
 the world, on the ground that he was the adequate repre- 
 sentative of the divine character. The condition of the 
 world had rendered the advent of such a being, and the in- 
 stitution of such an office indispensably necessary. The 
 knowledge of the divine character is the great conserva- 
 tive principle of holiness, and the bulwark of human hap- 
 piness : and it was the persuasion of this fact, which led 
 the enemy of man to make that knowledge the object of his 
 first assault. He knew that, dispossessed of this we should 
 be divested of all our strength, and the ready dupes of 
 every artifice he might choose to practise. And the aw- 
 ful results of his enterprise have proved the truth of his 
 calculations, and must surely have gratified to the full his 
 boundless appetite for human destruction. Planting him- 
 self between God and man, he sought to intercept every 
 beam from heaven, and to throw his awful shadow across 
 the earth ; the gloom of his presence fell, like a pall over 
 human hope, involving us in darkness that might be felt. 
 It is true, there were many unobliterated traces of God to 
 be found in creation, but these related chiefly to his natural 
 greatness : his moral perfections could only be deduced 
 from his owti supernatural disclosures ; and these as they 
 existed among the Jews, were intentionally imperfect. 
 Truths, the most vital, wore the form of enigmas ; the 
 church was local and limited ; the moral law was oppres- 
 sed and borne down by the ceremonial ; the sensible was 
 appealed to more than the intellectual, sight more than 
 faith ; sin was only cerimonially atoned for ; the eternal 
 future was but dimly seen; and the divine perfections 
 
HIS ORIGIXAHTY. 127 
 
 only hinted at. Theirs was an economy which professed 
 not to be day, but only the dawn and promise of a day. 
 
 The office of revealing and representing the character 
 of the Deity was reserved for him who had been from eter- 
 nity in the bosom of the Father; the image of the invisi- 
 ble God, What no verbal description could pourtray, 
 what no image in creation could represent, what the loftiest 
 seraph in heaven would have shrunk from under a sense 
 of infinite inadequacy, that Christ undertook, professed, 
 ^and accomplished—to bless the world with a living, actual', 
 "adequate impersonation of the supreme God. It was ex- 
 pressly for this that he stooped to employ the organs and 
 faculties af a human being , for it was only by adopting 
 that appropiate but humble expedient that he could make 
 himself visible and familiar to our eyes, while working 
 out and embodying the character of infinite love. Array- 
 ed in a body which God had prepared and not man, he 
 challenged to himself the exclusive power of unveiling 
 the divine perfections ; ' No man,' said he, knoweth the 
 Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son 
 shall reveal him. He took, as it became him the high- 
 est ground; for he felt that he held the salvation of the 
 world in his hand ; that the illumination of mankind was 
 entirely at his discretion : that, at that moment, the fulness 
 of the Godhead was in him ; and that had he decided it 
 should remain there concealed, the unrelieved darkness of 
 the world would have been made eternal, and man must 
 have perished in ignorance of God. 
 
 That he came to show us the Father is evident from con- 
 siderations such as these : first, he claimed to be regarded 
 as the habitation of Deity. ' Destroy this temple,' said he, 
 ' and in three days I will raise it again ; ' 'He spake of 
 the temple of his body.' To constitute a place, or a per- 
 son, a temple, the indwelling presence of Jehovah is the pri- 
 
128 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 mary requisite. The Jews could have had no conception of 
 a temple apart from this ; for in the holiest of all, Jehovah 
 had dwelt as in his earthly palace, enthroned in veiled and 
 unapproachable splendor : nor could Jesus have intended to 
 claim less than this for the sanctuary of his body, without 
 offering violence to modes of thinking which had become 
 sacred, and to associations the most precious. On another 
 occasion, w^hen standing in the holy place, he affirmed, ' I 
 say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the tem- 
 ple; ' he said this while perfectly aware that the hallowed 
 object with which he compared himself was, in their eyes, 
 the image of every thing magnificent and divine ; that it 
 was their heaven upon earth ; that they allowed nothing 
 to surpass the temple except the God who dwelt in it ; but 
 he could add, the Father is in me, in a sense which justified 
 the comparison, and which turned even the symbolic glory 
 which descended at the dedication into eclipse and dark- 
 ness. Had the vision of Isaiah been repeated, ' when he 
 saw his glory and spake of him,' it could have made no 
 addition to the greatness he already derived from the per- 
 sonal inhabitation of the Deit^^ Had Moses and Elijah, 
 attended by all the heirarchal orders of the Jewish church 
 of every age, descended as on Tabor, and laid their official 
 honors at his feet, it would have been only an augmenta- 
 tion of his glory in declaration and appearance. If, on 
 entering his ' Father's house,' an invisible hand had poured 
 out all its wealth before him ; had all its symbols of power 
 and office taken life and form, and settled upon him ; had 
 all its priests departed, its fires become extinct, and the Jast 
 wreath of its incense mounted to heaven ; had its ancient 
 shekinah from within the veil, emerged and enthroned 
 itself on his brow; and had all its angel-guards made 
 themselves visible, and fallen into his train, the enactment 
 of the scene would have been only the homage of a splen- 
 did pageant paid to a glory unlimited and divine. The 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 129 
 
 glorious train of the divine perfections had come down and 
 filled the temple of his humanity. Truth was seated in 
 his lips; and thence gave forth in abundance unsolicited 
 oracles, such as mortal ears had never before heard, nor 
 the records of heavenly wisdom themselves contained. His 
 heart was an altar on which infinite love could visibly 
 burn ; and in which it found for itself a sacrifice as costly 
 and congenial as its soul could desire. Goodness and 
 power employed him, to assert their majesty, by bending 
 all things to the furtherance of human happiness. In his 
 breast mercy may be said to have held her court ; and in 
 his looks of compassion, which were always bent over hu- 
 man misery, to have found the most prevailing advocates 
 and intercessors. Holiness could dispense with an ark 
 and tables to contain its laws ; for in his life its enshrined 
 glory was made so transparent that even demons confessed 
 him to be the Holy One of God. While justice, which 
 had asked only an equivalent for the wrong it had sustain- 
 ed at the hands of man, found that the illustrious victim 
 was the living temple itself; that though replenished 
 throughout with the presence of Deity, the whole sanctu- 
 ary was one entire propitiatory. Like the moveable sanc- 
 tuary which accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness, 
 he was the tabernacle of witness ; having been made flesh, 
 he came and set up his tabernacle in the midst of the hu- 
 man encampment, pitched his tent side by side with our 
 tents, to attest the presence of God, to make us familiar 
 with his character, and sensible of his love. The great 
 inscription of Immanuel, God ivith us, was so legible on 
 every part that the thoughtful and reverent could not raise 
 their eye to Christ, without being conscious of feelings of 
 reverence and awe, like those awakened by the sight of a 
 temple. Even the godless and profane, who armed them- 
 selves and went out to destroy this temple, were repeatedly 
 
130 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 abashed as they drew near, and forgot their purpose ; dis- 
 armed and ravished at the sight of its divine magnificence, 
 they remained awhile to worship, and then returned to con- 
 fess their admiration ; occasionally, they beheld the shrine 
 of his humanity flooded with light, bathed in the glory of 
 the present Deity ; a glory which was obviously attemper- 
 ed and desiofned to make man in love with God, for it was 
 full of grace and truth. 
 
 Secondly, his frequent declarations that he had received 
 universal empire, can only be construed as meant to estab- 
 lish his representative claims. Affirmations to this effect, 
 he uttered in terms such as these : ' All things are deliv- 
 ered unto me of my Father ; all things that the Father 
 hath are mine ; all power is given unto me in heaven and 
 on earth.' Now for what adequate, what assignable rea- 
 son could this mighty transfer have been made ; this trans- 
 fer of all things into the hands of the incarnate Savior, if 
 not for the purpose of employing and making them known? 
 Concealment could not possibly be the object of giving 
 him this infinite treasure ; for that end might have been 
 equally answered by allowing it to remain where it had 
 been from eternity — shut up in the bosom of God. But it 
 was committed to him with a commission to make it known ; 
 it was given to him, like light to the sun, with a command 
 to shine and turn our darkness into day. 
 
 That he was the ordained medium of the divine glory 
 is apparent thirdly, from his ' Making himself equal with 
 God.' The fact that he did this, is here assumed : the ob- 
 ject he aimed at, could have only one alternative ; for if it 
 was not to aggrandize himself at the expense of the Deity, 
 to sink the character of the Divine Being in the eyes of 
 the world, and to erect his own pretensions on its ruins, 
 his sole design must have been to furnish an adequate man- 
 ifestation of the supreme excellence. That this alone was 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 131 
 
 his aim is obvious ; for if he ever for a moment intermit- 
 ted his endeavor to enlarge our views of that excellence, 
 it was only to realize the conceptions which his words had 
 awakened, by giving to them life and form in godlike deeds. 
 
 The same end is evident, fourthly, from his uniformly 
 referring every thing good and gracious he did to the love 
 of God. It is true, that in exalting the character of God, 
 he was virtually magnifying his own ; for they are strictly 
 identical. But as far as his own claims, as Mediator, are 
 distinct from those of the invisible God, he laid himself 
 out to aggrandize the paternal character. Take, as an ex- 
 ample, the declaration in which he ascribes his advent to 
 the fact, that God loved the world. Had he attributed his 
 coming to his own love, the representation would have been 
 most literally true ; but he would have us to see in it noth- 
 ing but the love of God. Bent on alluring us to God, by 
 filling our mind with a vast conception of paternal grace, 
 he would have us to refer his own incarnation, with all its 
 attendant blessings, entirely to the grace of God. He was 
 content to conceal himself, to merge his own claims, as far 
 as that is consistent with the laws of mediation, that he 
 might occupy the whole of our held of vision with the 
 perfections of God. 
 
 And that such was his distinguished office is apparent, 
 fifthly, from declarations which are all but express on the 
 subject. In his intercessory prayer, for instance, he de- 
 clared, ' I have manifested thy name ; I have glorified thee 
 on earth ; 1 have finished the work which thou gavest me 
 to do.' Language, which intimates that the supreme ob- 
 ject of his coming into the world had been to illustrate the 
 glorious character of God ; and that having done this, he 
 considered his work on earth as accomplished. 
 
132 THE. GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 III. It now becomes an interesting and essential part of 
 our business, to trace his mode of divine manifestation. 
 As the word of God, he partly employed the medium of 
 oral instruction. And had he sustained the character of 
 a prophet only, had he added no actions to his words, the 
 clearness, unction, and fulness of his teaching were such, 
 that the most evangelical writers of the Old Testament 
 might have envied a place at his feet, and have exclaimed 
 with the disciples, ' Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast 
 the words of eternal life.' 
 
 But a verbal representation of the Divine Being, even 
 though it had come direct from the depths of the excellent 
 glory, would have been totally inadequate to the ends pro- 
 posed; and yet more than this would have been 'above all 
 that we can ask or think.' Actions alone could adequate- 
 ly set forth the grace of him, whose natural greatness is 
 such, that a celestial alphabet, a glorious arrangement of 
 characters composed of an infinite number of suns and sys- 
 tems, is requisite to express it. The acts of Christ were a 
 system of sublime hieroglyphics, every part of which stood 
 for some glorious aspect of the divine character ; while, 
 of that system, his words were meant to furnish us with 
 the key and interpretation. Actions, it is proverbial, speak 
 louder than words : his actions spoke with a voice which 
 unbelief itself, though it had stopped its ears, could not re- 
 sist, and which made itself to be heard, even by many who 
 were dead in sin; a voice which, beginning at his incarna- 
 tion, went on increasing through all his godlike deeds of 
 power and love, waxing louder and louder through the 
 successive stages of his sufferings and death, his resurrec- 
 tion and ascension, till the Lord went up with a shout ; and 
 which still continues to swell in volume and power, as he 
 goes on to work out the character of God, and evolve the 
 glorious purposes of grace, filling heaven and earth, tho 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 133 
 
 illimitable temple of the universe, with the echoes of the 
 grand announcement — that God is love. 
 
 1. Speaking to the mind by sensible representations, 
 was a striking characteristic even of our Lord's ordinary 
 teaching. A memorable instance occurred in his reply to 
 the messengers of John, when they came to inquire, ' Art 
 thou he that should comej or do we look for another ? 
 And in the same hour he cured many of their infirmities, 
 arid plagues, and of evil spirits ; and unto many that were 
 blind he gave sight. Then said Jesus unto them. Go your 
 way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard.' 
 He foresaw the moment when these disciples would arrive 
 and he prepared for it ; he kncAv the object of their visit, 
 and he arrayed his demonstrations accordingly. And 
 what were his preparations ? a company of the blind, the 
 deaf, the leprous the demoniacal, the dying ; these were 
 collected around him, and formed the materials on which 
 he proposed to work ; this was the selection of misery, 
 the mass of disease and death on which he designed to 
 breathe, and create it anew. The messengers drew nigh, 
 and he made bare his arm : they arrived, and asked him to 
 decide the question of his Messiahship ; forthwith they re- 
 received his reply in a series of stupendous miracles. He 
 spoke and the deaf heard his voice; he spoke again and 
 the blind opened their eyes on the blessed light of day; 
 he put forth his hand, and the crimson fever faded at his 
 touch ; he looked on the dying, and they arose and were 
 strong ; he called to the phrenzied demoniac, and madness 
 itself fell down and worshipped him. ' There,' said he, 
 * behold my reply ! Go, and tell John what things ye have 
 seen and heard, and abide by the right interpretation of 
 them.' 
 
 Similar to this was his reply, when Philip requested to 
 behold the Father. ' Jesus answered, Have I been so long^ 
 
134 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 time with you, and yet hast thou not known me Philip ? 
 
 he that hath seen me hath seen the Father from 
 
 henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.' The desire 
 of the disciple to behold the sum of all excellence, is the 
 last effort, the noblest aspiration of the human mind. The 
 prompt, detailed, and definite reply of Christ, showed his 
 high estimate of its importance, and his desire to give 
 it a final answer. This he did, hy calling attention to 
 himsdf; he did not rebuke the desire of being shown the 
 Father, but instantly and completely gratified it by show- 
 ing himself; while the only rebuke which his words con- 
 veyed, was a tender reproach for that mental obtuseness 
 which could ask for a supplement to perfection, which could 
 look for additions to his own divinity, or think of the pa- 
 ternal character and existence as detached from his own ; 
 a remonstrance for the want of that spiritual intuition which 
 should have discerned in him the concentration of the whole 
 moral greatness, the great name of God. 
 
 The exhibition of the divine character was an end so 
 sublime, that nothing could for a moment divert his eye 
 from it ; every action and item of his life was referrible to 
 this, and subsidiary to it. In all he did, he intuitively saw 
 how the Father would have done it, and he immediately 
 embodied and realized the conception. The power which 
 had replenished the universe with worlds and beings, em- 
 ployed his human arms, and unbent itself in acts of heal- 
 ing mercy. Omniscence, looking through his eyes, spoke 
 of the future as if it were present, and perused at pleasure 
 the secrets of every heart. As the centre of the Presence 
 which fills immensity, and the seat of the will to which 
 all things are possible, he proved himself present where he 
 was not seen ; issued his fiat to distant objects, and received 
 obedience to a mere volition. He made all-sufficence in- 
 telligible and familar, by calling for things that were not 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 135 
 
 and they came ; by making the capacity of the recipients 
 the only measure of his impartations ; and by the sponta- 
 neous emanation of a virtue which went out of him, and 
 healed them all. Had the star which led the Magi to his feet 
 been actually brought from a distant system, it would only 
 have been a faint illustration of the way in which he 
 brought the perfections of God under the cognizance of 
 man. Those properties of the divine greatness from which 
 previously we had seemed to stand at an in finite remoteness, 
 he brought near, and domesticated, and encouraged us to 
 consider them henceforth as our own. 
 
 2. ' As the Father gave me commandment, so I do.' 
 Such were the significant terms with which the Savior pre- 
 faced his godlike deeds, as, completing one stage in his 
 career of mercy, he advanced and addressed himself to 
 another. ' This commandment have 1 received of my Fa- 
 ther ; ' in other words, ' In all I do, I am only consulting the 
 will, and fulfilling the designs of the eternal Father ; so 
 that the history of my earthly life will be the exact record 
 of his purposes towards man, and the adequate manifesta- 
 tion of his divine perfections.' Thus interpreted, all have 
 an infinite moral : — of which this is a point and essence — 
 that God would vanquish us by love. Did he come forth 
 from the Father ? it was to annihilate the distance, to bring 
 us across the gulf which sin had created between God and 
 us, to place us in the domains of mercy, and within reach 
 of the tree of life. Did he join himself to our nature ? it 
 was to show us that God would have us to be in the clos- 
 est union with himself, and that as we cannot possibly be 
 happy without him, so neither can his love be satisfied 
 without us ; that he is bent on reclaiming a race of crea- 
 tures who, though they once rejoiced in him, have been 
 lost from his embrace, and of attaching them to himself by 
 a tie as new and astonishing to the universe, as it is proof 
 
136 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 against all the dissevering powers of sin. He lived among 
 us, consuming himself in acts of self-denial and labors of 
 love ; it was to teach us that God is always living with us, 
 that he is an inmate of every dwelling, tasting every earth- 
 ly sorrow, and regarding our wants as the natural channels 
 for his fulness to flow in and replenish. 
 
 3. The motto of every divine dispensation to man has 
 been the same, God is love. The original apostacy com- 
 menced in the disbelief and denial of this truth ; for it is 
 only by clearly discerning and cordially believing it that 
 we remain in a state of allegiance to God. But if infinite 
 "benevolence was considered problematical by man prior to 
 the fall, by what unimaginable expedient shall the problem 
 be demonstrated to him, now that he looks on every thing 
 that comes from God through a medium of enmity ? And 
 yet this very truth did Jesus adopt as his motto ; this very 
 question he undertook to work out, and set at rest for ever. 
 To convince us, therefore, that there was no dissentient 
 principle in the character of God, that every property of 
 the divine nature consented and subscribed to this declara- 
 tion of infinite love to man, it remained that as these per- 
 fections had been already displayed separately, they should 
 now be all collected and concentrated, and put forth in 
 some mighty act of grace, in some definite, overwhelming, 
 all-comprehensive deed of love. This, and ineffably more 
 than this was efTected in the decease which he accomplish- 
 ed at Jerusalem. On his way to that ancient theatre of the 
 divine perfections, declarations such as these were con- 
 stantly on his lips ; ' As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up ; that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
 eternal life.' ' God so loved the world, that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life.' ' I lay down my life 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 137 
 
 for my sheep.' • I give my flesh for the life of the world.' 
 ' I give my life a ransom for many.' ' This command- 
 ment have I received of my Father.' Here was power, 
 nerving his arm, and declaring that it would show itself 
 in him mighty to save. Here was wisdom, with its un- 
 folded plan of redemption, calling admiration to its amaz- 
 ing details: and faithfulness, honoring and accepting its 
 ancient engagements : and holiness pressing to its heart the 
 violated law, and meditating for its illustrious honors ; and 
 love, rejoicing to find itself thus supported ; speaking as 
 confidently as if its task were already achieved ; bidding 
 the world look up and smile ; and giving away provinces 
 and thrones in its prospective kingdom. 
 
 Having thus taught us to refer his death to the divine 
 benignity, having placed his cross in a line with the light 
 of the divine countenance, so that on beholding the one we 
 may be drawn to gaze on the other, he poured out his soul 
 unto death. He showed us that, while the hatred of God 
 against sin is strong as death, his love to sinners is yet 
 stronger than death. He brought to an issue the momen- 
 tous question, which had been kept open since the fall — 
 whether or not God is light and love. The satanic agita- 
 tion of this parent truth was the origin of human aliena- 
 tion from God. And having once brought it into question 
 in the human mind, and thereby sown the seeds of enmity 
 against God, it only remained for the father of lies to water 
 those deadly seeds, in order to reap the fruit of a con- 
 tinued triumph against the Supreme. Besides, by widen- 
 ening the breach which existed between earth and heaven, 
 Satan might calculate on the possibility of at length realiz- 
 ing his own lie, of wearing out the goodness which only 
 encountered abuse, of extinguishing the last spark of love 
 in the breast of God, and of exasperating justice to doom 
 and destroy the whole species. Every moment of four 
 9 
 
138 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 thousand years, therefore, he had turned to account, in fo- 
 menting the aversion of man to God. By a vast, unslum- 
 bering, and complicated system, the whole agency of evil 
 had been kept in motion, and made to bear upon man, ad- 
 dressing itself to every passion, and entrenching itself in 
 every heart ; so that, in a sense more than figurative, the 
 world, the entire mass of humanity, was subjected to a de- 
 moniacal possession. 
 
 Under such tutelege, (how could it be otherwise ?) every 
 dispensation and event was interpreted against God. Sig- 
 nals of reconciliation were hung out from heaven ; treaties 
 were set on foot ; but men scowled back defiance, and ex- 
 claimed, ' Depart from us : we desire not the knowledge of 
 thy ways.' Messenger after messenger was dispatched to 
 entreat their attention, ' but they beat one, and stoned anoth- 
 er, and killed another.' During the whole tract of time, 
 the principle of human hatred had gone on growing in in- 
 tensity, collecting its materials of war, and daily augment- 
 ing in strength till it had reached so gigantic and threaten- 
 ing a form, that if it was to be vanquished by love and not 
 by power, it was evident that love must put forth its might 
 in an act unparalleled, unimaginable, and infinite. Such an 
 act was resolved on. Voices from heaven announced it. 
 Calvary was selected for the eventful scene. On the part 
 of God, appeared his only begotten Son, wearing the form 
 of a human being : against him, came hell and earth ; all 
 the nursed and ancient hatred of the human heart, and all 
 the immemorial enmity which had formed the atmosphere 
 of hell, were there, collected and concentrated against him. 
 Love and hatred confronted each other. At that moment, 
 of all the passions and principles in the universe, these two 
 antagonist powers alone remained. All the diversified 
 sentiments and emotions of created natures were ranged 
 under, or resolved into one of these two principles. And 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 139 
 
 while the object of the one was to unite its whole force in a 
 blow which should need no repetition, to throw all its ac- 
 cumulated vengeance into one annihilating stroke ; it was 
 the aim of the other, by receiving that stroke, to let the 
 strength of its foe be exhausted, to vanquish it by submis- 
 sion, to reduce it to a state of silence and shame, at finding 
 its powers and weapons all spent, while yet the object of its 
 rage stood unimpaired, and even seemed by Avounding to 
 acquire strength. 
 
 And what was the sublime resuh ? ' Ye know the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.' As the demands of our 
 hatred increased, his love rose with them : we aimed at his 
 heart ; and he promptly bared it to receive the stroke ; and, 
 behold, it was inscribed with the names of his enemies : we 
 sought his life ; ' but,' said he, ' I lay it down of myself,' 
 • and he gave up the ghost ; ' so quick was he in anticipat- 
 ing the fatal blow, that he even forestalled death by the 
 speed with which he voluntarily surrendered his spirit: 
 we demanded his blood ; but no sooner had his side been 
 pierced than forthwith came thereout blood and water — a 
 twofold evidence of his death; if not also a symbol of the 
 twofold element of pardon and purity, and an emblem of 
 the fulness with which the treasury of his heart pours forth 
 more than we ask or think. 
 
 4. One might have supposed that the cross of Christ, as 
 the great illustration of divine grace, would have been left 
 to stand alone ; that even he, whose name is Love, would 
 not have thought of enhancing its attractions by any sub- 
 sidiary aids. As the focal point of his divine benevolence 
 the cross of Christ is the jewel, of which all the created 
 universe is only the setting : by what possible accompani- 
 ments, then, can its attractions be enhanced ? He, who can 
 challenge perfection for all his Avorks, whose minutest pro- 
 ductions are know^n by their exquisite finish, would allow 
 
140 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 no circumstance to be wanting, which could grace and 
 complete his mastervvork. By praying for his execution- 
 ers, and, still more, by dispensing salvation to the dying 
 malefactor, he showed, that, while dying for all, he was 
 distinctly mindful of the exigencies of each. His cross 
 was surrounded by a mass of the darkest elements of hu- 
 man depravity — a specimen of the gross, the condensed 
 impiety which in every age would collect around it, to de- 
 ride, or to pray ; but it became vocal with prayer, and gave 
 forth an element of spiritual life ; surrounding itself with 
 an element of light and love which none could approach, 
 without approaching at the same time a personal change. 
 By associating Christ, in his death, with the condemned 
 malefactors, the object of the Jews was to add the last shade 
 of disgrace to his holy name ; and had it been their aim to 
 select such as, besides being the refuse of the vile, were 
 the least likely to catch what they might call the infection 
 of his character, they could not probably have selected 
 two human beings more proof against the impressions of 
 moral excellence. By saving one of these, therefore, in 
 the hour of his own death, he created the most effecting 
 and unlooked-for illustration of the love of God ; he show- 
 ed that whatever light might then be suffering eclipse, the 
 solar fervor of that love could know no abatement ; he 
 caused to meet, in the same moment, the crowning act of 
 human guilt in his own crucifixion, and the crowning act 
 of divine benevolence in the salvation of one of the guilti- 
 est of our race. He thus erected a monument, in the face 
 of the world, to the transcendant love of God ; a monument 
 which, from its position close by the cross, could not fail to 
 be seen by every penitent eye Avhich in after times should 
 be pointed to the Lamb of God bearing on it this inscrip-^ 
 tion, ' Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners ; 
 even the chief.' 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 141 
 
 5. Had the history of Christ only taught us that sin 
 may be successfully resisted, and the world overcome, even 
 that would have laid us under vast obligation. But having 
 assumed our nature, and espoused our cause, he looked on 
 our enemies as his own ; he challenged and assailed them in 
 our name. He laid not down his life, till he could say of 
 the conflict, It is finished ; he retired not from the scene of 
 blood, till he could say to his followers, ' Be of good cheer, 
 I have overcome.' His resurrection from the dead rolled 
 away thd stone from the tomb of human hope. Having 
 carried our nature triumphantly through all the evils that 
 can assail it ; having collected at his feet the chains and 
 weapons which were meant for us — all the instruments and 
 spoils of sin — he would have us to know, that henceforth 
 we have nothing to dread from our spiritual foes ; since, in 
 the same way, he will carry us triumphantly through all 
 the ranks of hell, and the dominions of the grave, and will 
 bring us into the rest that remaineth for the people of God. 
 
 6. Subsequent to his resurrection, the commission which 
 he gave to his apostles, to publish ' repentance and remis- 
 sion of sins in his name, among all nations, beginning at 
 Jerusalem, showed him still inventive of new illustrations of 
 the divine love. It was the act of a most clement sove- 
 reign, who, bent on convincing his rebellious subjects of 
 the sincerity of his desire to replace them in his favor, 
 should take some of the most traitorous among them, load 
 them with honors, instate them into the highest offices, 
 and then send them forth into the camp of the revolted to 
 proclaim his grace to the chief of the disaffected, and bear- 
 ing in their hands an act of amnesty for all. * Ye have 
 not chosen me ; but I have chosen you, and ordained you, 
 that ye should go and bring forth fruit.' They had lived 
 in the closest alliance with those who had not only said, 
 
 ^ Come let us kill him ;' but who had actually perpetrated his 
 
142 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 death with acclamation, as a deed essential to their happi- 
 ness. Bat having reclaimed them from their disobedience, 
 and engaged their hearts, he took them into his counsels, 
 heaped on them his royal favors, shared with them his 
 prerogatives, gave them a joint interest with himself in the 
 success of all his designs of grace, and then sent them 
 forth to his foes Avith this injunction — that they should first 
 visit the men Avho had slain him — should let it be seen 
 how affluent he had made them in heavenly gifts, how un- 
 limited the access they enjoyed to his divine treasury ; at 
 the same time exhibiting their commission, and inviting all 
 to a community with themselves of these special priviliges 
 and grace. 
 
 7. The most affectionate parent can only endow his 
 child with the accidents of fortune, and operate on him by 
 the uncertain influence of education and example. How- 
 ever wise and virtuous he may be himself; and however 
 he may yearn to share his piety with his beloved child, a 
 communication of character is a transferrence which he 
 cannot make. Every thing else he may succeed in im- 
 parting but here he has no prerogative. Christ not only 
 gave himself for, but to his disciples. ' He breathed on 
 them, and saith unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost.' 
 By this emblematic act, he signified, not merely theimpar- 
 tation of miraculous powers, but the inspiration of his 
 sanctifying spirit, the vital transfusion of his own self, into 
 the souls of his people. He would have them to know 
 that, henceforth, he and they can no more live a divided 
 life; that he will live through their faculties, and act through 
 their organs ; and that they must choose with his will, and 
 act with his spirit ; that it may be no more they that live, 
 but he that liveth in them. But, in all this, he would im- 
 press them with the fact — that he is only giving to them 
 the glory which the Father had given him, that both he 
 and they might be one in God. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 143 
 
 8. An original and important part of the Savior's teach- 
 ing concering himself, is that which relates to his office of 
 intercession. Perhaps no part of the Jewish ceremonial 
 was more impressive, or calculcated to fill the imagination 
 than the scene in which the High Priest passed within the 
 veil on the great day of atonement. Every attendant cir- 
 cumstance — the inviolable sanctity of the veil which the 
 people dared not to approach, nor even the priests to touch, 
 the fact that only one man of all the human race was per- 
 mitted to lift that veil, and pass within — the rareness of 
 that occurrence, for to him it was accessible only once a 
 year — and the awful Being, the ineffable mystery that re- 
 sided there — all conspired to fill the mind with emotions 
 of the profoundest awe. On the morning of the appointed 
 day, what must his feelings have been, when, having pre- 
 sented the sin-offerings for him.self and the people, he took 
 the blood of the sacrifice, andtheincense, and followed by the 
 anxious eyes of the breathless congregation, he proceeded 
 towards the awful recess — when he reflected that every 
 step took him nearer to the visible presence of the incom- 
 prehehsible God — when he lifted up the veil \vith fear and 
 trembling — when the veil closed on him, and left him alone 
 with God — when his eye glanced at the mercy-seat, and 
 saw the glory resting on it — when he advanced up to it, 
 and instantly began to wave the incense before it, that it 
 might forthwith be enveloped in a cloud, lest he should 
 gaze on it, and perish — when he sprinkled the ark with 
 the blood which he had brought in, and remembered the 
 purity of the Being who commanded it, and the sinfulness 
 of the beings which rendered it necessary — what a respon- 
 sible office, at that moment, he filled ! and what vivid, sol- 
 emn, and lasting impressions must the scene have left on 
 every thoughtful worshipper ! 
 
 This must have been true, even of that large majority 
 
144 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 whose views terminated on the passing ceremony, and who 
 did ' not look unto the end of that which is abolished.' 
 But how much more affecting must it have been to those 
 who remembered that the scene they beheld ' was only a 
 figure for the time then present : ' and that solemn as it 
 was, it would eventually give place to a reality inconceiv- 
 ably more glorious. Let any one make the mental effort 
 of transporting himself back into their circumstances, and 
 he will find how impossible it was for the believers of that 
 economy to conceive what the substance of that shadow, 
 the reality of that figure was likely to be ; and he may 
 also apprehend how much more impressive the sign must 
 have been, from the very circumstance of their inability to 
 decipher it. Doubtless, 'they searched diligently,' and 
 pondered deeply, the meaning of the enigma ; and numer- 
 ous and splendid may have been their conjectures of what 
 would possibly be the reality. Of that reality, it is our 
 privilege to have been informed ; and so stupendous is its 
 nature, that we feel assured, the sublimest preconceptions 
 of man could not have come within an infinite distance of 
 it. ' We have a great High Priest who is passed into the 
 heavens, Jesus the Son of God.' ' Christ is not entered 
 into the holy places made with hands, but into heaven it- 
 self, now to appear in the presence of God for us.' ' By 
 his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, hav- 
 ing obtained eternal redemption for us.' 
 
 The most copious account, indeed, of his divine interces- 
 sion is to be found in the inspired epistles ; but the an- 
 nouncement of the doctrine came originally and directly 
 from his own lips. ' / will fray the Father^' said he ' and 
 he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide 
 with you for evei.' Concerning the mode of his interces- 
 sion in heaven, it would not be relevant here to enlarge. 
 But, unless the whole doctrine be a mere fiction of mercy, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 145 
 
 (an idea at which every feeling of piety revolts,) the first 
 appearance of Jesus there, in his new capacity, must have 
 been as invigorating to the worship of heaven, as it is en- 
 couraging to the devotions of believers on earth. When 
 he went from the place of sacrifice and stood in the pre- 
 sence of God for us ; when he arrived there, to find that 
 the incense of his offering had preceded him, and had filled 
 the entire temple with its odours ; that, as if impatient for 
 his arrival, his throne was prepared, the hosts and orders 
 of heaven marshalled for his reception, the splendid ranks 
 and hierarchies destined for his future state and retinue 
 waiting to do him homage ; and even the eternal Father 
 himself, waiting with this grant of the world, this burst of 
 infinite love on his lips. 'Ask of me, and I will give thee 
 the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of 
 the earth for thy possession ;' from that triumphant mo- 
 ment in the history of grace, the services of heaven must 
 have proceeded with new vigor, and every worshipper 
 there have become conscious of a fresh motive, a crowning 
 incentive to obedience. 
 
 But, however this may be, all the encouragement which 
 the intercession of Christ, as revealed in scripture, is cal- 
 culated to afford, is intended to descend and alight in the 
 heart of the earthly suppliant as he bends at the footstool 
 of mercy. And what richer encouragement could the 
 avarice of human fear, or our guilty unbelief, desire ? 
 What stronger warrant for coming boldly to the throne 
 of grace could God himself supply 1 A faint illustration 
 of this may be drawn from that part of the former econo- 
 my, to which allusion has already been made — the feast 
 of atonement. Suppose, among the thousands that came 
 up to Jerusalem at that annual solemnity, a penitent Israel- 
 ite entered the temple with fear and trembling. Like the 
 publican that went up to the temple to pray, he is burden- 
 
146 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 ed with a sense of enormous guilt ; he durst not lift up so 
 much as his eyes to heaven ; he smites upon his breast ; 
 he would fain entreat for mercy, but he dreads lest, by do- 
 ing so, he should be chargeable with presumption. Now, 
 when the High Priest went within the veil, how powerful- 
 ly might this dejected and desponding penitent have been 
 urged and entreated to lift up his voice to God for mercy. 
 ' It is true, you are a sinner ;' a pious friend might have 
 said to him ; ' you cannot overrate the awful aggravation 
 of your guilt; but then do not underrate the mercy of 
 God through an atonement. Has he not promised that, 
 for the sake of a propitiatory sacrifice, he will certainly for- 
 give our nation their iniquities ? and are not you one of 
 the nation ? and is not our High priest now within the veil 
 offering the blood of atonement ? O then now, now while he 
 is there pleading in our behalf ; now while God is in the 
 act of accepting the offering; now ask for remission; and 
 as far as the east is from the west, so far will he remove 
 your transgressions from you.' What an encouragement 
 was this to pray ! The application of all this is obvious. 
 Suppose the intercession of Christ w^ere at present un- 
 known to you, unknown to the world. You have, let it be 
 supposed, just emerged from the darkness of sin, into the 
 light of truth. For the first time, you have caught a 
 glimpse of your true condition as a transgressor against 
 God. You feel that you are barely out of hell : your con- 
 science, unused and strange to its office, labors to discharge 
 in a moment, the accumulated duty of years ; repeats and 
 even exasperates the accents of the violated law ; surrounds 
 itself with an atmosphere as terrible as that of Sinai. But 
 though God is the being whose awful justice you have 
 armed against you, his mercy you must sue for, and obtain, 
 or perish. It is in vain for you to think of compensation, 
 to plead your penitence, to promise amendment ; you can- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 147 
 
 not in this way appease his wrath ; you must cast yourself 
 on his free mercy, or perish. Do not think of excusing 
 yourself from this act, by pleading that it would be pre- 
 sumption, an aggravation of your guilt, an invitation to 
 ruin : even if this were true, it is also true that to neglect 
 it is destruction. If a single ray of hope be left you, it must 
 come direct from the throne of God. 
 
 From what quarter then shall we draw the encourage- 
 ment which shall embolden you to approach the mercy-seat? 
 What is the condition on which you would consent to go at 
 any given hour to-day or to-morrow, and fall down before God 
 in prayer ? Would you promise to do this ; could you be as- 
 sured that at the moment when you were calling upon God for 
 mercy, you should be accompanied by the earnest interces- 
 sions of your family, and of all your friends in your behalf? 
 You have heard, that ' the effectual fervent prayer of a 
 righteous man availeth much ;' that the intercession of 
 Abraham suspended, for a time, the descending fire which 
 destroyed Sodom : that, could ten righteous men have been 
 found there, God would for their sakes, have recalled the 
 sentence v/hich had gone out against it ; — now would you 
 deem it a sufficient encouragement to go before God, 
 could we guarantee that, at the time you prayed, every 
 righteous man, every believer in the kingdom, should 
 enter into his closet, and earnestly supplicate God for you ? 
 Or, beyond this, could we assemble together, in your be- 
 half, a solemn convocation of all the christian churches up- 
 on earth ; could we bring all flesh before God ; could we 
 undertake to engage for you all the power of prayer which 
 at present exists upon earth ; and carrying the supposition 
 out to the utmost, could we even ensure to you the might- 
 ier supplications of the church above, of all its thrones 
 dominions, principalities, powers, and orders of saints; 
 were all the created universe to obtain a special audience 
 
148 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 of God at the same time, and to surround his throne to- 
 gether, for the sole object of entreating him on your behalf, 
 could you doubt of your success ? If he speaks of the com- 
 bined intercession of ' Noah, Daniel, and Job,' as all but 
 omnipotent, could you question the efficacy of your entrea- 
 ties, if you knew them to be thus seconded and urged by 
 the combined importunity of all creation in prayer ? But 
 what if, at the very moment of audience, when the violent 
 were taking heaven for you by force ; what if then you 
 should behold the Savior himself come forth, and stand at 
 the altar of incense, having in his hand the golden censer ; 
 and what if you should hear him announce, ' I will pray 
 the Father for you.' what a day of hope would instantly 
 arise upon your soul ! \vould you not at once be shamed 
 out of all your fears and unbelief? would you not feel that, 
 having him for an advocate, you could dispense with all 
 inferior aid ? that your suit was as good as gained ? So 
 far from doubting or dreading the issue of your prayers, 
 you would henceforth feel that the footstool of mercy was 
 the only place of safety and of hope ; that if danger im- 
 pended, yet there he stood between you and it ; that if mercy 
 gushed forth, he stood there as the medium to receive and 
 pour it into your soul ; that, in his hands, your sacrifice re- 
 ceived an infinite accession of worth, and your entreaties, 
 if at all augmented in power were augmented to omnipo- 
 tence. But you need no vision to certify the substantial 
 truth of this representation. If there be any veracity in 
 the word of God, there can be no more credible fact than 
 this — that Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. 
 You are warranted to imagine and paint the vision to your 
 faith ; to believe that you no sooner approach the seat of 
 mercy, than you become the client of the great Advocate ; 
 that, on the first utterance of your penitence, he espouses 
 your cause, makes it his own, and presents your supplica- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 149 
 
 lion before the throne as his own desire. Can you doubt 
 or delay to draw near to God after this ? 
 
 9. It is observable that our Lord encourages the devo- 
 tion of his disciples, by placing the virtue of his mediation 
 in a striking variety of lights. In uttering the language 
 already quoted, he pledges himself to the office of their per- 
 sonal Intecessor ; ' I will pray the Father for you.' 
 He who could not see them exposed to destruction without 
 pouring out his life to save them, could not behold them 
 prostrate at the throne of grace, as trembling suppliants, 
 without raising them up and becoming their advocate. He, 
 who has created for them an infinite fund of merit, could 
 not fail to employ it in the way most eminently conducive 
 to their advantage ; causing it to ascend, in their behalf, as 
 a memorial before God, at the moment of their entreaties 
 for mercy. It is to be borne in mind, that while on earth, 
 he did nothing for himself Having graciously engaged 
 to be our substitute, whatever he did, he did solely for his 
 people. What then has become of the inexhaustible fund 
 of obedience accruing from his obedience unto death? 
 How is the infinite treasure employed ? Where is it depos- 
 ited ? By proclaiming himself our Intercessor, he would 
 have us to know that the entire merit of all he did is con- 
 tained as incense in his golden censer, that he might offer 
 it up with the prayers of his people. Our prayers then, 
 in their ascent to the throne of God, mingle and blend with 
 the ascending incense of his merit. Our voice, before it 
 reaches the ear of God, falls in and blends with the voice 
 of him whom the Father heareth always. So that, in pledg- 
 ing himself to intercede in our behalf, he is, in effect, assur- 
 ing us of the certainty of our success. 
 
 10. Another encouragement to prayer, which he derives 
 for us from his mediatorial influence, is the use which he 
 allows us to make of his name. ' Ask,' saith he, ' in my 
 
150 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 name.^ Were we about to become suppliants to an earth- 
 ly benefactor, it would be important to ascertain the plea 
 most likely to dispose him to accede to our request. For 
 there is always one argument which affects an individual, 
 and gives us the key to his heart more effectually than all 
 others. How important is it then that we, who are daily 
 suppliants to God for blessings on which our salvation de, 
 pends, should be acquainted with that plea which he most 
 delights to honor. Now the plea most prevalent with him 
 is beyond all comparison, the name of Jesus. It is the 
 name of his only begotten Son. It is the name which he 
 has solemnly pledged himself to honor. It is the name 
 which he himself has conferred in token of his infinite 
 complacency and satisfaction. It is the name which he 
 has indissolubly bound up with his own character and 
 perfections, so that he cannot disregard it without dishon- 
 oring his own name. Employ any other name, as a plea at 
 the throne of grace, and you insult the majesty of heaven. 
 But employ his name, and you instantly attract the com- 
 placent attention of the almighty Father, and obtain access 
 to the treasures of his grace. 
 
 ' Hitherto,' said Christ, ' have ye asked nothing in my 
 name.'' Up to that moment, in the history of the church 
 devotion had been ignorant of its real strength ; unacquaint- 
 ed with the extent of its resources and power. Relying sim- 
 ply on the promiess of God, it was content to present its 
 supplications, ignorant of the ground on which they were 
 heard ; and often sighing, in the paroxysms of conscious 
 guilt, for a days-man and intercessor. But Jesus explained 
 the rationale of devotion ; laid open the secret of our suc- 
 cess ; and thus enabled it to feel the power which it has 
 with God, the purchase it has on the eternal throne. ' Ver- 
 ily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
 Father in my name, he will give it you ;' as if he had said, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 151 
 
 ' When you go to the door of mercy, and knock make use 
 of my name and you shall gain admission ; make it known 
 that you belong to me, and my father will treat you as be- 
 longing to him; make it known that there is a mutual af- 
 fection, a close and indissoluble friendship subsisting be- 
 tween us, and my Father will take you into his favor, to 
 his heart ; tell him that my name is dear to you, and it 
 will endear you to him ; so endear you, that ask what you 
 will, the forgiveness of your sins, adoption into his family, 
 the sanctification of your nature, the riches of his grace, 
 all, all, he will give it you ; I am so beloved by him, that 
 for my sake he will refuse you nothing.' 
 
 We ourselves are accustomed to act kindly towards a 
 person, though he be a stranger to us, provided he can 
 show us that he is related to one whom we love ; in show- 
 ing him kindness, we feel that we are evincing our affec- 
 tion for the friend who sent him. The father demonstrates 
 his infinite love to Christ, by receiving and welcoming the 
 friends of Christ as his own friends. He has pledged 
 himself to do so ; and he is so complacently delighted with 
 Christ ; so fully satisfied with the atonement he has made ; 
 feels himself so unspeakably glorified by the incarnation 
 and life, the death and mediation of Christ ; by all that he 
 has done for the honor of the divine government and the 
 salvation of man, that, if I may say so, he has thrown 
 open his heart and his heaven to all the friends of Christ. 
 They come to his throne; and, on the intercession of 
 Christ in their behalf, the Father lays open all the treas- 
 ures of his grace for their appropriation and use. ' Yea,' 
 saith Christ, ' ask in my name, and I do not say that I will 
 pray the Father for you ; for the Father himself loveth 
 you because ye have loved me.' ' Make use of my name, 
 and that will suffice ; my name alone, without any entreaty 
 on my part, would be a certain passport to my Father's 
 
152 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 heart, and to all the riches of his grace.' ' Wherefore, ask 
 and receive, that your joy may be full.' 
 
 Now what a vast acquisition was this to the weahh of 
 devotion ; it was supplying it with a key to the divine 
 treasury, and placing it in a position, in reference to the 
 throne of grace, which gave to it an omnipotent influence 
 with him who sitteth thereon. What a prodigious advance 
 was it, in one sense, even on the promise of his personal 
 intercession ! By empowering his people to employ the 
 argument of his name, he is, in so far, placing the fund of 
 his merit at their disposal ; affording them the profound 
 satisfaction of bringing it into the presence of God, and 
 using for themselves the very same plea which he employs 
 for them ; he is in effect pleading for them by their own 
 lips as well as with his own, and thus multiplying the 
 voice and power of his intercession. By investing them 
 with this privilege, he is virtually clothing them with 
 priestly vestments, placing them by his side at the altar, 
 and putting into their hands a censer filled with incense 
 like his own. 
 
 11. But further, with a view to promote the devotion of 
 his disciples, he distinctly engages to answer their sup- 
 plications. ' Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that 
 will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If 
 ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.' That 
 the same being should undertake, both to present and to 
 answer their petitions, both to intercede for them and to 
 confer the blessings sought, may appear incompatible ; but 
 the offices, though distinct, are perfectly reconcileable. In 
 his conduct at the altar we behold the Intercessor, and in 
 his conduct on the throne we behold the result and reward 
 of his intercession: having become the medium of prayer 
 from man to God, he is rewarded by being made the me- 
 dium of blessing from God to man : the Intercessor for 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 153 
 
 human penury, is constituted the Almoner of infinite boun- 
 ty : he is called from the altar of incense, to ascend and 
 dispense from the throne of God, the blessings which he 
 has sought for us. 
 
 However various the lights then in which we behold the 
 virtues of our Lord's mediation, it is evident that one prin- 
 ciple explains, harmonizes, and encompasses the whole — 
 the love of God ; that they all subserve the grand aim of 
 which we have been speaking — the manifestation of the 
 divine character for human encouragement and salvation. 
 To regard the institution of the intercessory office, as ne- 
 cessary to give us success with God, is an injustice to his 
 beneficence, and a misapprehension of the whole economy. 
 'At that day,' saith Christ, *ye shall ask me nothing; for 
 the Father himself loveth you. And whatsoever ye shall 
 ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may he 
 glorified in the Son.'' Till our fears are allayed, and our 
 distrust removed, the love of God does not cease to heap 
 up its gifts, and to multiply its grants and appointments. 
 On this principle it is, that the throne of grace, though in 
 itself ineffably attractive as occupied by infinite love, is 
 made additionally attractive by the appointment and pres- 
 ence of a benignant Intercessor : as if God did not deem 
 its attractions complete while only invested with the might 
 of his own love, he has placed at the altar before it an Ad- 
 vocate clothed in our own nature. On our way to the seat 
 of mercy our Intercessor assures us, and asks us to receive 
 the assurance as the only correct interpretation of his of- 
 fice, that if he accompanies and introduces us to God, it is 
 not because God requires it for himself, but for us ; that 
 the design of his intercession is, not to excite, but to satisfy 
 the love of the Father — by granting this last favor to our 
 fears. There is a spot in the universe where centres all 
 dignity, authority, and power — the focus of glory — that 
 10 
 
154 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 spot is at the right hand of Deity ; and Jesus assures us that 
 he himself is its sole occupant in the capacity of our Inter- 
 cessor. Yes, he who might have been placing a vial of 
 wrath in the hand of every angel around his throne, with 
 a commission to pour it out on this rebellious world till it 
 was utterly consumed, is standing at this moment at the 
 altar of incense, presenting our prayers for mercy, and 
 officiating there as our great high priest. 
 
 ' Who then is he that condemneth 1 it is Christ that died: 
 yea, rather, that is risen again ; who is even at the right 
 hand of God ; 2vho also maketh intercession for us I ' This 
 is an argument not to be refuted, a climax to which nothing 
 can be added ; leading us upward, step by step, it conducts 
 us to a summit where all is unclouded and serene, and 
 where we can breathe the air of security and triumph. 
 While standing on this elevation, by the side of our Inter- 
 cessor, and in the light of the throne of God, we feel that 
 no foe can approach, no enemy impeach us, that the uni- 
 verse is at peace with us. 
 
 How richly is Jesus entitled to be called, the Wonder- 
 ful ! The view indeed which has now been taken of his 
 office and excellence, is hasty and defective : had it been 
 much less unworthy than it is, it would still have fallen in- 
 finitely short of the grandeur of the subject ; for we are 
 dilating on a theme on which it is a joy to reflect that per- 
 fection is unaUainable. But crude and imperfect as our 
 remarks are, they will have answered an important end, 
 if they have enabled us to feel this ; if they have made us 
 sensible that we are enffaofed on a theme, which we must 
 have eternity to celebrate and comprehend. He has shown 
 us that even the mysteries of the Godhead admit of in- 
 crease ; for he has added to them the peculiarities of hu- 
 manity, and adopted the sum of them all into his own per- 
 son. Besides the predicates which are true of him as God, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 155 
 
 and those which are true of him as man, by combining 
 divinity and humanity together, he has created, if I may 
 say so, a third class of truths which can be predicated of 
 him, and of him alone ; and on these, as they relate to his 
 mediatorial office, hangs the hope of the perishing world. 
 None, before his advent, had ever succeeded in drawing 
 the character of a perfect man; he not merely described 
 but exhibited a specimen of perfect humanity conjoined 
 with Deity ; and while he preserved the characteristics of 
 each nature distinct, he showed what God is, and what 
 man should be ; became the representative of God and the 
 exemplar of men. He erected a new order of greatness ; 
 of which the laws, conditions, and results — the whole arch- 
 etype — were peculiarly his own. He gave a new economy 
 to the divine government, placed himself at the head of a 
 new dispensation, the object of which was to reconcile the 
 prerogatives of justice and c{>mpassion ; and to do this, not 
 by compromising either, but by honoring both; by enabling 
 mercy to punish without impairing its clemency or its 
 claims to our love ; and enabling justice to forgive, without 
 sacrificing its purity, or its claims on our awful regards. 
 The rights of justice, and the condition of sinful man, were 
 essentially hostile : they had diverged to an infinite re- 
 moteness, and stood frowning at each other, as from oppo- 
 site sides of the universe. He laid hold on the nature of 
 man : and planting his cross midway, created a point of 
 attraction which reached and drew them across the sepa- 
 rating gulph, back to itself, as to a common centre. Jus- 
 tice moved from its high and awful position on Sinai ; and, 
 with all the armies of holiness, brightening and still 
 brightening with complacency as it approached, bowed 
 with reverence at the cross, and said, ' It is enough.' The 
 sinner, detached by the same magnetic power from the 
 strong confederacy of sin, approaches, relents, and changes, 
 
156 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 as he draws near, till he falls prostrate before the cross, a 
 new creation in Christ Jesus. By giving his heart to sin- 
 ners, and for them, holiness finds that it has nothing to 
 ask, nothing to do ; only to raise the sinner from the dust, 
 and to become the guardian of his new life : the sinner 
 finds that nothing is left him to desire, except that he may 
 never wander from the sight of that cross which has made 
 him the ward of infinite holiness, and is preparing him 
 for heaven. Here God erects his throne, and man adores; 
 to each the cross is ineffably precious ; for it is only in its 
 immediate presence that sin can be vanquished, and yet 
 the sinner be saved. 
 
 While this amazing consummation was in actual pro- 
 cess, the character of Christ evolved an amount of excel- 
 lence which might have made angelic natures, if capable 
 of the feeling, jealous of the rivalry and riches of earth. 
 The eternal Father himself beheld in it more than an in- 
 demnity for human transgression : never before had he 
 contemplated a work in which his holiness appeared so 
 pure, his mercy so amiable, his wisdom so profound ; he 
 saw in it the stability of all law, the recovery of man, an 
 infinite augmentation of the splendoT which surrounds his 
 throne, an amount of objective glory such as he had never 
 before beheld out of, and apart from himself And as if 
 this new relation and aspect of the divine nature had been 
 an experiment, the result of which more than answered to 
 his great idea ; as if the advent of Christ surpassed the 
 divine expectation, the sublime phenomena which it dis- 
 played, called forth audible and delighted expressions of 
 paternal complacency and love; the radiance of the divine 
 countenance fell full upon them. 
 
 The dedication of the Jewish temple was an epoch in 
 the history of the earth. All Israel was assembled on the 
 occasion ; and, had man done justice to the event, all the 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 157 
 
 world would have flocked and kept festival ; for what did 
 it signify but that the great God himself was become a 
 dweller with man upon the earth. But the dedication of 
 Christ was worthy to be a day of jubilee to the universe. 
 Here human instrumentality was dispensed with, as un- 
 worthy the greatness of the occasion ; nothing lower than 
 angelic agency was employed ; the arrangement and pro- 
 cess was wholly divine. His only human herald was di- 
 rected to announce, ' him haih God the Father sealed ; — 
 he needs no human induction or testimony ; he enters on 
 his office sealed and signalized with all the marks of di- 
 vinity upon him.' He proclaimed himself, as ' him whom 
 the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world.' The 
 splendid scene at his baptismal inauguration, when the 
 heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended upon him, 
 was only the after imitation, the faint repetition of a scene 
 in heaven, in which the eternal Father, passing by all the 
 hosts and hierarchies of heaven, had elected and devoted 
 him to the office of his divine representative and our medi- 
 ator : a scene, of which all the thrones, and dominions, 
 and principalities of heaven stood around, the awed and 
 admiring spectators ; and in Avhich the only share they 
 took, was reverently and joyfully to worship him. God 
 of eternal glory! thou thyself wast never so glorious 
 in thine own eyes as at that moment, never so great in the 
 eyes of thy creatures ! Could thine unbeginning and un- 
 ending existence admit of dates, surely that would stand 
 out as an era in thine eternal round of years. Never was 
 the ocean of thy love stirred so completely to its depths. 
 Never didst thou put forth thine hand on so glorious an 
 occasion as then, when thou didst give up and devote thine 
 only begotten Son, to the great work of embodying and 
 bringing thy character into the world that men might be- 
 hold it sijd live ! And thou, co-equal and co-eternal Son, 
 
168 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 never hadst thou shone more glorious in the eyes of pa* 
 ternal love, nor made so large and unanswerable a demand 
 on the admiration and homage of the universe, as when, 
 accepting thy new and mysterious office, thou didst say, 
 • For their sakes I sanctify myself In pursuance of thy 
 voluntary engagement, thou didst come and offer thyself 
 and thy glory to the world ; thou didst withdraw thyself 
 from the grandeur of heaven, and set thyself apart to the 
 wants and sorrows of earth ; and, having set up thy taber- 
 nacle amongst us, thou didst keep it consecrated for the 
 indwelling glory and for the worship of man. Ambition 
 never entered it : the kingdoms of the world, and the glo- 
 ries of them, were brought in perspective before thee; but 
 thou sawest them as though thou sawest them not. Thou 
 couldest, with a single sentence, have flashed light on the 
 darkest mysteries of science ; but thou wouldest not spare 
 a moment from teaching that sublimer knowledge — the 
 science of salvation. Thou hadst ears only for one sound, 
 and that was the sound occasioned by sin ; the voice of 
 penitence imploring forgiveness; the voice of fear and 
 conscious guilt deprecating the vengeance of eternal fire. 
 Thou hadst eyes only for one sight — a wilderness of woe, 
 a captive world, chained to the wheels of the great enemy, 
 and already arrived in the gloomy precincts of hell. This 
 object filled the whole sphere of thy vision ; thou couldst 
 see nothing else ; and had all the thrones of earth been va- 
 cant and invited thy acceptance, it would not have induced 
 thee to diverge a single step from the path which led direct 
 to the cross. Thou hadst tears but for one object, and thou 
 didst weep them over lost souls. So fully wast thou pos- 
 sessed with the vastness of thy design, that thou didst 
 value moments, faculties, life itself, onlj' as the means of 
 working it out; and through every step of thy course thou 
 didst bring the whole of thy glory to bear on its comple- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 159 
 
 tion. Thou hadst not to cast out aught evil from thy ca- 
 pacious mind; thou hadst not to sweep and cleanse the 
 temple of thy soul from sordid cares, for never didst thou 
 know a thought alien from thine object ; and though all 
 the fulness and fire of the passions dwelt in thee, thou 
 didst not waste a single feeling, but didst devote the whole 
 as consecrated fuel for offering up the great sacrifice in 
 which thy life was consumed, and by which the world 
 might be saved. And how godlike was the object to which 
 he set himself apart ! At the altar of God he swore eter- 
 nal war against the principle of sin ; devoted himself to 
 the work of chasing it from the earth, of putting it to shame 
 in the face of the universe ; and of achieving this task, 
 not by the arbitrary domination of power, but by merely 
 showing what God is, by the exercise of omnipotent love. 
 Were we to hear of a design contemplated by God, to sub- 
 due the rebellion of hell, and to rescue its victims ; what 
 a view would it give us of his unresting benevolence, and 
 with what impatient longing should we desire to know the 
 way in which the sun of the divine glory would arise on 
 the blackness of darkness, and how it would paint its lustre 
 on the clouds of perdition. But the importation of the di- 
 vine character and glory to earth, in the person of Christ, 
 however from circumstances we may disparage the event, 
 would bear a comparison even with that ; for our carnal 
 mind was enmity against God like theirs, while we pos- 
 sessed not even the redeeming quality, to believe and 
 tremble. 
 
 It seems to be one of the laws of mind, that it shall be 
 not merely employed, but employed to the full ; and when 
 it becomes conscious of its dignity and powers, nothing 
 less than great objects can satisfy it. Now, what a thea- 
 tre did the blessed Jesus select, what an object did he adopt 
 in coming into the world ! Let us receive it in his own 
 
160 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 words to the eternal Father : ' For their sakes I sanctify 
 myself, that they may be sanctified through the truth ; ' that 
 he might make truth do the work of power ; that he might 
 pervade and transform pollution into sanctity, by merely 
 showing it the face of truth ; that he might erect living 
 temples out of the wreck and refuse of humanity, swept 
 by the besom of destruction to the very mouth of perdition. 
 Let us hear him repeat the design in other language ; 
 'I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; 
 that the love wherewith thou hast loved me mo,y he in them^ 
 and I in them.^ He contemplated nothing less than the 
 conveyance of the love of God to man ; to bring it to us 
 as our portion ; entail it on us as our inheritance; trans- 
 fuse it through us as our life. Like the prophet emblem- 
 atically extending himself over the dead body of the child, 
 to convey life into all its parts, the Savior proposes to shed 
 abroad the love of God through every member of his body 
 the church, to convey the circulating vitality of that love 
 through every part of our nature, thai it may dwell in us 
 as it does in him. But is not this an unattainable design? 
 is it possible that God can love us as he loves Christ ? 
 Jesus himself declares, that nothing less than this can satisfy 
 his desires in our behalf; and we may rest assured that, 
 vast as those desires are, they are all defined and accredit- 
 ed by the hand of infinite wisdom ; they are only the pul- 
 satione of the heart of paternal love ; they are the desires 
 of one, who knows, if we may say so, from actual admeas- 
 urement, the length and breadth, the height and depth of 
 the love of God ; and who knows that, as soon as we be- 
 come united to him, the Father loves us as parts of Christ, 
 as members of that mystical body of which Christ is the 
 glorified head. The tide of the divine love, on its first 
 flowing forth from the heart of God, found its rest in Christ ; 
 till having opened for iiself an ample channel through his 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 161 
 
 sufferings and death in our stead, it poured on with una- 
 bated strength to reach his people, carrying away all their 
 sins, bearing every obstacle before it, and shedding itself 
 abroad in their hearts ; Christ, at the same time, entering 
 with it, and infinitely augmenting it by the accession ; and 
 thus realizing his great and godlike design, 'that the love 
 wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in 
 them.' 
 
 So great was the avowed intention of the Redeemer's 
 advent, that none but a mind of infinite compass could 
 have formed it ; and so amazing the manner in which he 
 achieved it, by the humble organs and instruments of hu- 
 manity, that were it not for the immortal interests at stake, 
 we couldscarcely wonder atthe ancient heresy whichtaught 
 that the whole of his life was a phantasm, a supernatur- 
 al illusion of the senses. That God should be manifested 
 in the flesh, was truly the mystery which had been hid 
 from ages, and from generations. That, in the nature of a 
 man, God should have been, like light in the sun, enthron- 
 ed, uttering and unburdening infinite love with his tongue; 
 beaming divine compassion through his eyes ; illustrating 
 purity and grace by his actions — it is this which renders 
 the person of Christ ineffably glorious above the whole 
 creation ; it is this which crowns him with glory and hon- 
 or. There is nothing like it in the universe: take the 
 wings of the morning, and flee to the uttermost parts of 
 the earth ; ransack the treasures of creation ; visit and be- 
 hold its brightest glories, plunge into the depths beneath ; 
 soar to the heights above ; survey and question the blest 
 inhabitants of heaven ; and you will find that the person of 
 Christ, as the manifested glory of God, has no comparison. 
 Bring all that is great into his presence, and it becomes 
 little ; bring all that is glorious, and it is eclipsed and lost. 
 Oh! the depth of the riches of that love, wherein God 
 
162 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 hath abounded towards us in the person of his Son. 
 When we begin to speak of it, we instantly feel the pover- 
 ty of our thoughts, our utter unfitness to approach it. It 
 is a subject in which minds of every order are alike lost; 
 on which human wisdom can say nothing ; on which we 
 can only lisp like infants, or acknowledge our helplessness 
 by our silent adoration. Here, then, is the peculiar prov- 
 ince of faith and prayer ; here is an object in whose pres- 
 ence our wisdom becomes ignorance ; here our understand- 
 ing is completely at fault : God in Christ is an object so 
 stupendous that it cannot be brought into our minds ; we 
 have not room to receive it : this truth is a guest so glori- 
 ous, that our limited mind feels itself both unworthy and 
 unable to receive it under its roof; our faith must go forth, 
 with all the train of christian graces, and do it homage. 
 Like the apostle, when oppressed in its presence with a 
 sense of its immensity, we can only take refuge in prayer, 
 beseeching ' the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 that he would grant .... that we may be able to compre- 
 hend .... and to know the love of Christ, which passeth 
 knowledge.' 
 
 We have already remarked the profound satisfaction 
 expressed by the Father, at the display of his character in 
 the person of Christ ; a satisfaction which showed that he 
 beheld in it the perfect reflection of his own image. On 
 account of this entire identity of character, we often find 
 the apostles speaking of the eternal Father and of Christ, 
 in equivalent and convertible terms. Hence, too, the pre- 
 cedence and importance assigned to the knowledge of 
 Christ ; and the promise of the Spirit, for the special de- 
 sign of imparting that knowledge ; for it is only by acquaint- 
 ing ourselves with the character of Christ that we can ar- 
 rive at the knowledge of God ; our knowledge of the Son 
 is the exact measure of our acquaintance with the Father. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 163 
 
 The Regenerating Spirit, in all his operations on the hu- 
 man heart, makes the character of Christ the pattern after 
 which he works ; he begins by taking of the things of 
 Christ, and showing them to the eye which he has prepar- 
 ed to behold them ; and he ends not, till the soul is com- 
 pletely conformed to the perfect model. Believers them- 
 selves are enamoured of it, for it is the character of their 
 Savior ; and as such, every act and feature composing it 
 bears a direct relation to them. They can think of no ex- 
 cellence, can make not the remotest approach to any modi- 
 fication of goodness, of which they do not find the arche- 
 type and perfection in him. Turning from every other 
 representation as dim and veiled, they all, as with open face 
 behold in him the glory of the Lord. A glance at this ob- 
 ject fills their minds with a grand and overpowering idea 
 of excellence ; it draws to itself the whole depth and mass 
 of their being. They count every part of their moral dis- 
 cipline as lost, which does not promote their likeness to his 
 image ; every instance in which the ordinances of grace 
 do notincreasetheirloveto him, they regard as a fresh call 
 to humiliation, a fresh provocative to self-examination and 
 prayer ; while every act of devotion they deem especially 
 defective, which does not celebrate his glory, or implore 
 an accession of 'the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the 
 knowledge of him.' 
 
 If a life of piety may be considered a life of praise to 
 God ; if man is so fearfully and w^onderfully made, that 
 even a discourse on the use of the parts of his body may 
 be regarded as a hymn to the Creator, where shall we find 
 terms fit to describe the tribute of Glory to God which ac- 
 crues from the life of Christ? or, could we appreciate his 
 character in all its perfections, what expressions of ecstacy 
 and delight would do justice to its worth? Nature from 
 the beginning, had been vocal in her Maker's praise ; had 
 
164 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 been constant and full in an anthem, in which every crea- 
 ture bore its part ; but the whole creation in chorus could 
 not show forth all his praise, could but barely hint his ex- 
 cellence. As if conscious of the defect, and anxious to re- 
 pair it by commencing anew, piety had often restrung her 
 harp, and summoned the creatures to arise and aid her in 
 the infinite attempt ; had called on every thing that hath 
 breath to join in a full concert of praise to God. But her 
 utmost effort was only a preluding flourish, till he should 
 come to lead the song, who had said, ' In the midst of the 
 church will I sing praise unto thee.' He took up the strain 
 at a point beyond which creation would never have carried 
 it. His voice gave the key-note to the universe. His de- 
 scription of the divine character furnished words for the 
 new, everlasting, universal song. His unconfined power : 
 his unsearchable understanding; his holiness, on which 
 no spot, no shadow could settle, and which the eyes of 
 wickedness could not gaze on for its brightness ; his untir- 
 ing patience ; his constant community with the general 
 heart of man, which he wept over and bathed in tears : his 
 meekness clothed with majesty ; his personification of in- 
 finite love : these were the several parts of the harmonious 
 song. All the attributes in him became vocal, and made 
 infinite music in the ear of that glorious Being in w^hom 
 they eternally reside. Each myriad-voiced rank of the 
 church above, overflowing with joy, took up the mighty, 
 whelming, ocean strain : the church below redoubled, and 
 returned it back again in alleluias to the throne of Godj 
 age after age has heard it swelling on, as lisping infancy, 
 and newly pardoned penitence, and misery beguiled of its 
 woes, and ingratitude charmed into thankfulness, and hope 
 spreading her pinions for heaven, and all the new-born heirs 
 of grace have awoke up their glory, and joined the general 
 choir ; and on it shall continue to roll and swell, attuning 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 165 
 
 and gathering to itself all the harmonies of nature ; till all 
 space shall become a temple ; and all holy beings, actuated 
 by one Spirit, and swayed in perfect diapason, shall become 
 one great instrument, sounding forth 'praise to God in the 
 church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without 
 end. Amen.' 
 
 SECTION III. OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 'This spake he of the Spirit, which they tnat believe on him should receive.' 
 
 It is extremely difficult to discriminate between original- 
 ity and mere novelty in a public teacher. The multitude 
 are so prone to take their opinions from first impulses, 
 rather than from judgment ; inconsiderately and impet- 
 uously to ascribe a new and pleasing impression to the 
 highest possible origin, rather than to any secondary cause; 
 that many a public instructor has been invested with the 
 highest preogative of genius, whose only attraction was, 
 that he had assumed one of the thousand vizors which nov- 
 elty owns, and wore it gracefully. And what enhances 
 the difficulty of discrimination is, that while it is in the 
 power of an inferior mind to invest a familiar truth with 
 an air of singularity, it is one of the attributes of the high- 
 est order of intellect, and an attribute which it delights to ex- 
 ercise, to simplify an original truth, and give to it an air 
 of familiarity ; to secure for it an easy introduction into 
 the mind, by giving it, though a stranger, the welcome as- 
 •pect of a friend. 
 
166 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 The difficulty of discrimination is further increased, 
 when the truths to be judged of date back to a remote an- 
 tiquity ; when, by distance of time, which operates in this 
 case like distance of space, the opinions which looked bold 
 and prominent to the near beholder, have mingled and mel- 
 ted into one mass of indistinctness. 
 
 We have advanced the claim of originality for many of 
 the doctrines of the Great Teacher ; and were the Old 
 Testament the only witness to be examined, the claim might 
 be easily substantiated. But during the long silence of 
 the divine oracle, during the space which intervened from 
 the last words of Malachi to the coming of Christ, we know 
 not what opinions grew up and prevailed. It is only rea- 
 soning on the known principles of humanity to say, that 
 when the linng voice of inspiration had ceased to speak, 
 the sacred volume was much more likely to receive the 
 undivided attention of the church than before. And with 
 a volume so seminal of all truth, so constantly whispering 
 in the ear of hope, as the Bible, who can say what ap- 
 proaches were made to many evangelical doctrines ; what 
 prophets of hope arose? And when once opinions, to 
 which the wants or aspirations of the soul respond, have 
 been broached, who can say to what consolidation or sta- 
 bility they may attain ? The feathered seed, which this 
 year floats in the air; the emblem of volatility; a feather 
 dropped from the wing of levity ; will next year, be found 
 rooted in the earth ; dividing with the oak the spoils of 
 the clouds, and rejoicing in the blessings of heaven, itself a 
 seed-bearing plant. And the floating guess of one age be- 
 comes the settled creed of a succeeding ; its point-like base 
 is forgotten; and men go on building an inverted pyramid 
 whose top may reach to heaven : it is congenial with one 
 or other of the elements of humanity, and, by passing 
 through a thousand minds, it acquires a consistency anJ 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 167 
 
 power which gives it a place among the realties of our 
 being. 
 
 By what process then shall we ascertain how much of 
 the gospel is an absolute origination ; or how much is a 
 mere adoption and authorization of pre-existing opinions? 
 Taking many other tests for granted, it may be suggested, 
 that the amount of new truth contained in the gospel, 
 or the degree of newness belonging to any one of its doc- 
 trines, may be conjectured from the number of errors 
 which have sprung up around it. Truth is antecedent to er- 
 ror and the measure of it ; as is the originality of a doctrine 
 or system, in the same proportion will be the multiplicity 
 of errors following. The whole tribe of error is parasi- 
 tical, and can only grow by hanging its envenomed weight 
 on the plants of truth. Let the doctrines of Christ be 
 judged of in this way ; the plants of the Lord's right- 
 hand planting, and the originality of his teaching will be 
 apparent to all. 
 
 The doctrine of the agency of the Holy Spirit, is one 
 of the most original which came from the lips of Christ ; 
 and one whose precise degree of originality is most mark- 
 ed and ascertainable. Referring to the records of the Old 
 Testament, we learn the distinction of the Spirit in 
 the unity of the Godhead ; his 'personality and his divinity. 
 We read of the same divine subsistence as daily replen- 
 ishing the earth with life and beauty ; as visiting and ac- 
 tuating the moral world at pleasure ; and as promised to 
 the church, with a frequency, particularity, and magnifi- 
 cence of language, which showed that the divine Promi- 
 ser himself regarded the gift as indentical w^th a state of 
 distinguished prosperity; and which led believers to 
 mark it with supreme distinction, by calling it the pro- 
 mise. 
 
 Concerning the nature of the Holy Spirit, as a distinct 
 
168 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 and divine person, the teaching of Christ is clear and con- 
 clusive : nor can we conceive any thing more unwelcome, 
 to those who shrink from applying the personal pronouns 
 to the Divine Spirit, than the valedictory discourse of 
 Christ to his disciples.* If I do not enlarge on this part 
 of the subject then, let it be understoood, that I refrain 
 not because Christ was silent on it ; for he, I repeat, was 
 copious and explicit ; but because he had been greatly an- 
 ticipated by the revelations of the Old Testament. 
 
 I. It is worthy of our earliest consideration, both from 
 its native importance, and from the peculiar solemnity of 
 the affirmation, that our Lord described the mission of the 
 Holy Spirit as absolutely dependent on his own return to 
 heaven. ' Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedi- 
 ent for you that I go away ; for, if I go not away, the 
 Spirit will not come unto you ; but, if I depart, I will send 
 him unto you.' Now, admitting the impropriety of any 
 arrano-ement w^hich should have combined too-ether the 
 presence of the Spirit and the personal residence of Christ 
 in permanent conjunction on earth, it may yet be inquired 
 why the mission of the Spirit could not have taken place 
 immediately before the ascension of Christ, as well as 
 immediately after % If the inquirer be sincere, it would 
 be sufficient to reply, ' Even so. Father : for so it seemeth 
 good in thy sight.' The arrangement may have been 
 founded on reasons of state ; reasons, which measure wdth 
 the universe, as comprehensive as the divine government, 
 and the issues of which are placed far in eternity. But 
 many of the reasons for this arrangemen- are apparent ; 
 
 * On the ineffable promanation or procession of the Holy Spirit 
 from the Father and the Son, though it is a truth which seems ne- 
 cessarily involved in certain parts of that discourse, I presume not 
 to speak. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 169 
 
 the Almighty evinced by it his reverence for order. He 
 was evolving a plan of infinite magnitude, the unfolding 
 of which had commenced at the fall ; he hadarrived at a 
 vital part of it, a part on which he would have mankind in 
 all ages to fix their gaze ; and he therefore caused it to un- 
 fold and pass before their eyes in slow and stately proces- 
 sion. He knew that man is easily distracted by multi- 
 plicity of objects ; is extremely liable to place the cause 
 for the effect, and the effect for the cause ; is taught most 
 effectually by example ; is prone to disregard a future 
 good, so long as he can retain a present though inferior bles- 
 sing : on all these accounts, therefore, the mission of the 
 Holy Spirit was withheld until Christ had ascended to his 
 appointed throne. The Almighty would signalize the en- 
 thronement of Chirst in the eyes of the universe ; would 
 impress the minds of believers with the glorious reception 
 which their Head had met with on his return to heaven ; 
 would enjoy the infinite satisfaction of hearing the, first 
 prayer of that exalted Head for the promised Spirit ; and 
 thus demonstrate to them, at once and for ever, the certain 
 prevalencey of his intercession ; for if his first prayer suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining for us the great gift of the Spirit, how 
 much more shall he secure for us every inferior good ; God 
 would show us in the most impressive manner, by placing 
 the fact in the strong light of the mediatorial throne, that 
 the connexion of the work of Christ with the gift of the 
 Spirit is the absolute connexion of cause and effect. 
 
 ' He spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him 
 should receive ; for the Spirit was not yet given because 
 that Jesus was not yet glorifiecV Can we suppose that 
 his ascension to heaven was a silent and private transac- 
 tion? Shall an Elijah ascend in a chariot of fire? shall 
 the departed spirit of a Lazarus be conveyed by angels to 
 Abraham's bosom? and shall the Lord of angels himself 
 11 
 
170 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 return to his own dominions from the conquest of one 
 world, and the redemption of another, unattended and 
 ohscure 1 No ; ' The chariots of God, on the occasion, 
 were twenty thousand, even thousands of angels.' At the 
 point where he vanished from the view of mortals, he was 
 joined hy the rejoicing ranks of the cherubim and sera- 
 phim ; he found them arranged to receive him ; impatient to 
 commence the celebration of his deeds, and to conduct him 
 in triumph to his glorious throne. His appearance was the 
 signal to begin the song: they called on earth to assist 
 them in the mighty task, ' Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of 
 the earth : O sing praises unto the Lord ; to him that ri- 
 deth upon the heaven of heavens.' That was the moment 
 when the universe became the vehicle of his glory ; when 
 he began to ride on the summit of creation ; having 
 all the events and revolutions of time for his chariot wheels. 
 Hitherto, as man, he had inhabited the material parts of 
 the creation ; but now he relinquished these and took pos- 
 session of the intelligent parts. He began to inhabit the 
 praises of eternity : not merely the spiritual universe, but 
 even the essence of that ; the life of the spiritual universe, 
 exhaling in the incense and fragrance of praise. He found 
 himself enthroned far above all heavens, with the heights 
 of creation for his footstool. 
 
 It had been predicted, and he himself had confirmed the 
 expectation, that when he ascended up on high, he would 
 give gifts unto men. But what gift can Christ bestow rich 
 enough to signalize and grace his accession to the media- 
 torial throne ? had he collected together all the treasures 
 of the earth, and multiplied them a thousand-fold, and then 
 poured them out at the feet of his people, the gift would 
 have been utterly inadequate to the greatness of the occa- 
 sion : had all created good been accumulated upon them to 
 the highest possible amount, it would only have disgraced 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 171 
 
 the greatness of the occasion. The unconfined benevo- 
 lence of his heart impelled him to give something, (for it 
 was the jubilee of heaven), and if he gave, he would be 
 sure to bestow a gift worthy of himself, answerable to the 
 magnitude of the occasion, honorable to the royalty of his 
 grace. But if such is to be the character of the gift ; the 
 Spirit, the divine Spirit, the converting, enlightening, sanc- 
 tifying, saving Spirit alone, must be the donation. Because 
 he would give all gifts in one, he gave to them the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 A very limited measure of this gift, indeed ; the mere 
 earnest of the Spirit ; had been enjoyed under the Jewish 
 dispensation : but the Spirit in his fulness was not then giv- 
 en, because the framework of that economy was too mate- 
 rial to be inhabited and actuated by the Spirit ; and because 
 Jesus, for whose bestovvment the gift was reserved, was 
 not yet glorified. But, during the whole economy, the in- 
 fluences of the Spirit had been accumulating for that au- 
 spicious moment. Prayers had been daily ascending for 
 the fulfilhnent of ' the promise ;' and, of all these earnest 
 supplications, not one had been lost ; each of them had 
 been turned into the blessing sought for, and had added 
 something to the treasures of divine influence. The church 
 had been incessantly importuning God to hasten the im- 
 partation of the gift ; and, with profound satisfaction, he 
 had beheld a stream of supplication flowing for ages into 
 the same channel, without a moment's pause, swelling and 
 rising, till it was ready to overflow and pour forth a heal- 
 ing flood of heavenly influence over the world. Nothing 
 was wanting, but that Christ should add his intercession. 
 Nothing was wanting, but that he should ascend his throne, 
 and claim the gift of the Spirit, to pour it out upon his 
 people. 
 
 * He ascended up on high, leading captivity captive, and 
 
172 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 gave gifts unto men.' Having reached his throne, the 
 Spirit came down as he had promised ; came like a rushing 
 mighty wind, filling the whole house where the disciples 
 were assembled, filling each heart, filling the whole church ; 
 came with a copiousness and a power as if his influences had 
 for ages been pent up and under restraint, and now rejoic. 
 ed at being able to pour themselves out over the church and 
 the world. And what was the immediate eflect of that event ? 
 thousands were instantly converted ; the sword of the Spirit 
 seemed newly edged with power, and bathed in the light- 
 nings of heaven, flashing conviction on human conscien- 
 ces, and piercing to the recesses of the soul. The gospel 
 went flying abroad to the utmost ends of the earth, levy- 
 ing human hearts in the name of Christ wherever it came. 
 The influences of the Spirit poured over the Avorld like an 
 inundation, a new deluge, overturning the altars and sweep- 
 ing away the vestages of idolatry ; and, had the vital 
 flood continued to roll on, the only ahar left standing 
 would have been that which sanctifieth the gift and the giv- 
 er— the altar of the cross. New teritories were added to 
 the domains of the church ; vast tracts of the moral wil- 
 derness were taken into the garden of the Lord. The 
 church beheld her converts flocking to her from all di- 
 rections, like clouds of doves to their windows : and among 
 the wonders of that period, one was, to see her enemies 
 lick the dust ; to see her bitterest persecutors become her 
 champions and her martyrs ; to see leopards become lambs, 
 and wolves become kids. 
 
 The chuch became one region of life, of divine vitality 
 throughout ; in which whosoever breathed, lived— enjoyed 
 life in perfection. From a state of unsightly barrenness 
 and drought, it was suddenly covered with verdure, like 
 the garden of the Lord. Believers themselves seemed re- 
 converted ; if sinners became saints, saints themselves 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 
 
 173 
 
 became as angels ; thus fulfilling the prophecy which had 
 said, ' The weak shall be as David, and David as an angel 
 of the Lord.' Every christian saw in every other the face 
 of an angel, looks of benevolence and brotherly love ; one 
 interest prevailed ; one subject of emulation swallowed up 
 every other ; who should approach nearest to the likeness 
 of Christ ; which should do most for the enlargement of 
 his reign. * The whole multitude of them that believed 
 were of one heart, and of one mind ;' the Spirit of Christ an- 
 imated the whole, became the one heart of the whole com- 
 munity, and every particular pulse beat in concert with it. 
 What a gift was this ! The value of a gift depends mate- 
 rially on its suitableness"; what could be more suitable to a 
 world dying, dead in sin, than the Spirit of life and of ho- 
 liness. The world was a valley of dry bones ; what could 
 be more welcome than that the Spirit should come and 
 breathe upon these slain, that they might live ; that, descend- 
 ing to this moral Golgotha, this place of skulls, he should 
 give a soul to the world, and again replenish it with spirit- 
 ual life. How munificent was this gift ! It was munifi- 
 cent in itself, in its kind, for it was the best ; and it was al- 
 so munificent in its degree, for he poured it forth in a pro- 
 fusion of gifts and graces. It was owing to no indigence, 
 to no niggardliness on the part of Christ, that his church 
 did not rapidly extend over the world, and that the whole 
 was not filled with the Spirit. He gave with a liberality 
 which showed that he tasted his own act, enjoyed the god- 
 like act of giving, gratified himself in the exercise of his 
 benignity. How godlike was this gift ! Had man been 
 consulted on the occasion, he would have asked some infe- 
 rior good ; but Jesus, taking the affair entirely into his 
 own hands, poured out his Holy Spirit — a blessing intend- 
 ed to make us holy like himself, happy like himself, and 
 even one with himself ; for, by giving us his Spirit, he 
 
174 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 may be said to have given us himself, to have turned him* 
 self into Spirit, into a fountain of divine influence that he 
 may be one with our spirits, 
 
 II. The great object of the advent of the Holy Spirit is 
 thus distinctly specified by Christ : ' When He is come, he 
 shall convince the world of sin ;' an announcement which 
 Jesus himself must have felt as a wonderful truth. Stand- 
 ing as he did at that moment near to the cross, in the shad- 
 ow of that awful monument of human guilt, he could not 
 have glanced around on the scene of enormous and com- 
 plicated guilt he was about to leave, and forward to the tri- 
 umph and agency of the descending spirit, without feeling* 
 as he uttered this grand prediction, that he was unbur- 
 thening his mind of a weighty and glorious communica- 
 tion. 
 
 An obvious and striking feature of all the divine opera- 
 tions, is the accomplishment of the most comprehensive 
 and important ends, by few and simple means. Such is 
 the nice dependence of every part in his government on 
 every other part, and such the entire harmony of the whole, 
 that he only touches an almost invisible chord, and the vi- 
 bration is felt to the extremities of the universe : how tre- 
 mendous then must that principle of evil be, which can 
 only be subdued by the mighty power of the Spirit ; by 
 the advent and accession of the third person in the awful 
 Godhead ; by no modified energy, but by the full almigh- 
 tiness of divine power. And tremendous it was ! The 
 world had become the grave of piety : if the principle of 
 piety showed itself vigorous and active, it became the mark 
 for every shaft and weapon of hell ; if it was impotent, it 
 soon sickened and sunk under the pestilential atmosphere 
 which sin had universally difl^used ; angelic piety itself 
 would have found a sepulchre here. Not only was the 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 175 
 
 world destitute of all native, active goodness ; a principle 
 of evil, another Spirit, embodying all the essences of evil, 
 was here, and at work. But did man show no signs of 
 resistance to this alien Spirit? not a single indication of 
 spiritual conflict appeared ; all was silent, unconstrained 
 submission, for this, to use the emphatic language of in- 
 spiration, is, ' where Satan's seat is.' 
 
 Now by what means shall this mass of disorder, dark- 
 ness, and death be renovated ? The divine benevolence 
 had been prodigal of its means ; but, as to any permanent 
 good, they had failed. Experience had shown, that it was 
 easier to crush and destroy the world, than to reform it. 
 The Son of God himself had descended ; but, as if deter- 
 mined by one desperate act to shut out all further commu- 
 nications from above, as if to intimidate the mercy of Om- 
 nipotence, they crucified the Lord of glory. What expe- 
 dient, then, we ask, remains to be employed 1 Oh ! how 
 boundless are the divine resources ! how grand ! how 
 amazing the provision ! It was not that our world should 
 be the scene of a splendid angelic administration, and be 
 charmed into a love of piety by their graceful exhibition 
 of it : it was not that our world should be placed in dread- 
 ful proximity to hell, and be awed into sullen but silent 
 submission by the sight of worms that die not, and of fires 
 that are not quenched : it was not that our world should be 
 raised into the precincts of heaven ; that a sight of the 
 Being we had rejected, there enthroned in light, and sur- 
 rounded by the sanctities of heaven might surprise us into 
 involuntary adoration. No, saith Christ, ' My Spirit alone 
 is competent to the task ; and when He is come, He shall 
 convince the world of sin. External applications would 
 only produce, at best, a temporary reaction of mind : the 
 agency that shall succeed in transforming it, must include 
 the power of coming into immediate contact with it, and 
 
176 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 of having at command whatever can suitably affect it. I 
 have a cause lying against mankind ; and he shall be my 
 Advocate. I have an indefeasible claim on the human 
 heart ; and he, the Great Pleader, shall enforqe it on the 
 consciences of men. He shall go into all the world as- 
 serting my right, vindicating my claims, and writing my 
 name upon human hearts; and he shall pass into every 
 region of the soul, diffuse himself through all its capaci- 
 ties and recesses, throwing light into the understanding, 
 assailing and subverting the fortress of sin in the heart, 
 and taking an oath of allegiance to me from all its redeem- 
 ed powers.' 
 
 Accordingly, in the discharge of his awful functions, 
 the Spirit addresses himself to the hearts of men. There 
 is sin lying upon them, enormous sin ! and his object is to 
 convince them of it. Oh ! how solemn the transaction ! 
 how mysterious the process ! how critical the juncture ! 
 The instrument employed may be, in itself, the most sim- 
 ple and inefficient ; hearing the gospel, or reading it, or 
 recalling some truth to mind ; but while the eye, or the 
 ear, or the memory is thus engaged, and all without seems 
 at rest, the Spirit is at Avork within, bringing the truth for- 
 ward into the strong light of distinct consciousness ; ren- 
 dering it irresistible, by taking away the very will of resist- 
 ing ; turning it into a living conviction, and incorporating 
 it among the spiritual realities of the soul. There are 
 times, when all sensation seems collected into a point, and 
 we live only in the eye or the ear : and when the Invisible 
 Spirit is at work within, creating a new heart, the faculties 
 and energies of our whole being seem collected into a fo- 
 cal point — the entire soul becomes conscience. Having 
 seated and centred himself there, the whole mass and depth 
 of our being is drawn, slowly perhaps, yet certainly drawn 
 to him, owning his power, and trembling at his presence. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 177 
 
 He is there, in the name of Christ ; there, as the living 
 Law, come down to right itself; and as he goes on con- 
 victing the sinner, piling up sentences of condemnation ; 
 one power of the soul after another ^ wakes, till the whole 
 soul is one region of alarm ; and, collecting all its ener- 
 gies into an outcry for mercy, exclaims, ' What must I do 
 to be saved ? ' The prediction of Jesus is then fulfilled ; 
 The Divine Spirit has conducted the cause of his illus- 
 trious Client to a triumphant issue. 
 
 And in doing this, observe, no external force is employ- 
 ed ; no violence whatever is done to the freedom of the 
 mind : the subject of the operation is never more conscious 
 of mental liberty than Vv'hen the change is in process. It 
 is true, the change is necessitated ; but that moral necessity 
 is the highest form of freedom. It is true, that the mind 
 is brought under the authority of a new law ; but that law 
 is the royal law of liberty, the law to which the nature of 
 man was preconfigured ; and all that the Divine Spirit 
 effects, is to bring out and make legible the secret charac- 
 ters of that law originally written on the heart. He comes 
 to the emancipation of the will from a state of slavery ; 
 (for sin can only triumph by enfeebling the mind and ex- 
 tinguishing the liberty of the soul ;) and hence, from first 
 to last, he carries the mind along with him, employs its 
 own voluntary agency, calls into exercise its noblest pow- 
 ers. Even the expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself; 
 for no sooner is it thus revisited by its Maker, than it em- 
 ploys against sin those arms and instruments which had 
 hitherto served as members of unrighteousness. In fine, 
 the only condition on which the freedom of a finite will is 
 possible, is, by its becoming one with the will of God ; 
 and to produce this happy junction is the object of the re- 
 generating Spirit ; so that subjection to him is restoration 
 to oneself His presence in the soul is the first signal and 
 
178 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 moment of freedom ; and the more he puts forth his influ- 
 ence within it, the more spontaneous and vigorous are its 
 own movements ; till it utters an instinctive cry for the 
 Spirit, and for liberty, as for an identical good. 
 
 III. The same truth appears in another original state- 
 ment of Christ, declarative of the means by which the Holy 
 Spirit should operate on the mind — ' He shall take of mine, 
 and show it unto you.' Sin is the disease and derange- 
 ment o( the soul, in consequence of which the understand- 
 ing fails to discharge its appointed function, on the heart : 
 the eye of a corpse, as long as its transparency remains 
 unimpaired, will receive the picture of an object on the re- 
 tina as well as if the organ w^ere living, but there is no 
 corresponding impression produced on the brain ; so relig- 
 ious truths may be easily imported into the understanding, 
 but then it has ceased to be a medium of conveyance to the 
 heart ; the communication between them is obstructed, and 
 we have the mortification of finding, that to obtain the as- 
 sent of the one, is no security whatever for the concurrence 
 of the other. To produce this essential coincidence be- 
 tween the understanding and the heart is the province of 
 the Spirit alone. 
 
 In a well-ordered family, while every member has his 
 appropriate duties, yet, if occasion require, one will go far 
 in his kind endeavors to supply the deficiencies or absence 
 of another. And though the several powers of the mind, 
 like an exemplary household, have their respective duties, 
 yet, on occasion, will the emotions and excited affections 
 of the soul find an understanding of their own, and antici- 
 pate the office of the judgment. Under the influence of 
 the Spirit, the heart is frequently induced to listen for the 
 understanding, as well as the understanding for the heart. 
 His entrance occasions a temporary confusion in the house- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 179 
 
 hold economy of the soul, during which an interchange of 
 friendly offices unconsciously takes place, and which facil- 
 itates the necessary preparation for the reception of the 
 King of Glory. 
 
 And how alluring the objects, how captivating the means 
 by which he solicits an entrance into the soul ! It is true, 
 that the process of couching the mental, not less than the 
 bodily eye, may be attended with pain ; the birth-pangs of 
 the new principle may be severe ; but the objects to which 
 he directs the first efforts of the attention are all of the 
 most captivating nature. The first sight which greeted the 
 eye of Adam, was the enchanting scenery of paradise, wet 
 with the first dew ; and the sight on which the Divine 
 Spirit would have the eye of the new creature first to rest, is 
 composed of the selected and arranged glories of Christ. 
 He takes the best of the best, the most attractive excellen- 
 ces of him who is ' altogether lovely,' and disposes them 
 so as to engage and receive the first glances of the renew- 
 ed sinner : infinite love, in the person of the Son of God, 
 looking at him from heaven ; erasing the sentence of his 
 condemnation ; inserting his name in the book of life ; 
 presenting to him a robe of righteousness ; preparing for 
 him a heavenly mansion ; pointing him to the spectacle 
 of the cross as the means of his redemption, and to the 
 crown of life as the end of his faith : these are ' the things 
 of Christ,' which are placed by the Spirit before the eye 
 of the mind, and along with which he passes in, and dif- 
 fuses himself through the whole soul. He would silence 
 every other sound, but that which emanates from these 
 speaking truths ; and cast a veil over all other objects, that 
 the soul might be secluded and left to the undisturbed in- 
 fluence of this new creation- He would have it awake to 
 the sound of music, to the music of the Savior's voice of 
 love. He would have it to inhale the knowledge of Christ 
 
180 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 like fragrance ; to imbibe holiness insensibly, as from 
 a surrounding element; and heavenly dispositions, like 
 melodies, stealing into the heart from a distance. While 
 ' forming Christ within the hope of glory,' he would come 
 upon the soul with a grateful over-shadowing, and operate 
 only through the medium of the affections. 
 
 IV. The absolute necessity of regeneration by the Holy 
 Spirit comes to us under the great seal of our Lord's most sol- 
 emn asseveration repeatedly affixed ; ' Amen, amen, I say 
 unto you ; I, who not merely desire to speak the truth, but 
 who am the truth ; I, who am the amen, the faithful and 
 true witness ; who having come from heaven, am acquaint- 
 ed with the character of such as are allowed to enter it ; 
 I, who hold the keys of that kingdom, I say unto you, 
 Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he can- 
 not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' 
 
 It is the property of every form of created power inces- 
 santly to labor to subdue all things to itself. The stagna- 
 tion of the universe is prevented by this unremitting strug- 
 gle. The revolution of the planets is maintained by the 
 perpetual contest of two principles, each of which is al- 
 w^ays equal to cope with, but never able to master the other. 
 All the activity and life of nature are to be traced to the 
 unwearied contention of its various elements ; each seek- 
 ing to overpower and assimulate the rest to itself, but itself 
 acted on in return by so equal a force, that incessant con- 
 flict is made incessant harmony. In the intellectual world, 
 a law of our nature is always at work, striving, by a syn- 
 thesis of comparison and arrangement, to reduce all knowl- 
 edge, physical, philosophical, and religious, all to one 
 compact system. The mind (perhaps unconsciously) is 
 laboring after this by a necessity of nature, in all its search- 
 ings after analogies, and attempts at generalization ; it acts 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 181 
 
 on the mental instinct, that truth is but one idea, one infin- 
 ite whole, the product of the one reason; and to this state 
 of unity it is constantly aiming to reduce all its concep- 
 tions and knowledge, as the only state in which the whole 
 of its knowledge can be mastered. Now the same repre- 
 sentation holds true of the moral world. The will is per- 
 petually aggressive, laboring to conquer and convert all 
 things around it to its own purposes, and to change them 
 into its own nature. But here the conflict, as far as it is in- 
 stigated by Satan the great rebel, and actuated by sin, is 
 direct hostility against God. It is not carried on in 
 subordination to established law, as the elemental conflicts 
 of nature are ; nor in obedience to the immediate mandates 
 of heaven, as the ministries of angels are ; but in direct 
 hostility against God. It arms the understanding against 
 the dictates of revelation ; and the passions against the pu- 
 rity and self-denial of the divine requirements ; and the 
 will against ' all that is called God, and that is worship- 
 ed ; ' it arms every member as an instrument of unrighte- 
 ousness, and precipitates the whole man into the battle-field 
 occupied by the hostile forces of good and evil. 
 
 But happiness is the coincidence of the finite will with 
 the infinite; in other words, it is holiness. And who 
 would wish to be happy at the price of that ? who ; what 
 rational or enlightened being would desire to be happy at 
 the expense of the divine character and government ? at 
 the sacrifice of seeing the creature erected above the Crea- 
 tor ? But though all the universe should desire the enor- 
 mity, it could not be : for happiness, we repeat, is nothing 
 more, and nothing less, than the coincidence of the finite 
 will with the infinite. That infinite will, in the person of 
 the Holy Spirit, is come into the world, expressly to sub- 
 due all things to himself: for shall he alone, he the Su- 
 preme Mind, be inactive; he, whose every movement is 
 
182 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 along the line of right, whose every conquest i s the recovery 
 of his, own and his every breath the creation and diffusion 
 of happiness ? No ; he seeks to remedy the errors of the 
 mind, by becoming the one reason of every individual un- 
 derstanding; to correct the selfishness of every separate 
 heart, by becoming the centre and law of all mankind — 
 the one heart for the whole colossal mass of humanity. 
 The primitive church presents us with an instance of his 
 uncounteracted agency; 'the whole multitude of them 
 that believed were of one heart, and of one mind ; ' on 
 them his agency took full effect ; he became the heart of the 
 whole community, and every particular pulse found its health 
 by beating in unison with it. Until he works, each indi- 
 vidual human spirit is striving to be a centre of influence 
 to itself; but harmonious subordination to the Supreme 
 Spirit is happiness, is heaven ; and hence the absolute ne- 
 cessity of coming under his subjecting and transforming 
 power, in order to the enjoyment of heaven. 
 
 V. The happy result of regeneration by the Holy Spirit 
 is the production of a corresponding principle of spiritual 
 life ; ' that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.' That 
 which he creates may be material; but that which 
 he begets in his proper character, his moral capacity, must 
 partake of his nature and likeness. The possession of an 
 immortal spirit indeed, is common to all men ; for ' there 
 is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty 
 hath given him understanding.' But it is in the power of 
 sin to erect the material part of our nature into a state of 
 dominion over the spiritual ; to dethrone the soul, and give 
 it in captivity to the flesh ; and, in this unnatural state, the 
 mind is degraded with the name of its material tyrant and 
 is called, a Jicshly mind. Now it is the glory of the Divine 
 Regenerator that he turns this flesh into spirit ; he be- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 183 
 
 comes a soul to our soul, lifting it out of its materiality, 
 and restores to it again its lost prerogative of dominion. 
 He makes it spirit. 
 
 And, in restoring it to the exercise of its peculiar func- 
 tions, he is said to give it life. As long as it is held in 
 subjection to the flesh, it is represented as being dead while 
 it lives ; but by breathing upon it, he restores it again to 
 the life of God. Henceforth, it not only lives itself, but 
 throws a life into all its spiritual exercises, and is dissatifi- 
 ed unless God infuses a life into all its religious privileges. 
 In the enjoyment of this new-found existence, it pants after 
 God, can be satisfied with nothing less than divine com- 
 munications, and seeks to receive its nourishment from the 
 hand of God. One of the distinctive characters of phys- 
 ical life, is its power of assimulating materials of different 
 natures to its own substance ; like that, the regenerated 
 soul is endowed with the power of converting the various 
 events of time into the mysterious means of its nourish- 
 ment, and even of turning obstacles into its own form and 
 character. As its divine Author puts forth his power to 
 produce it, so it proclaims its descent, and honors its par- 
 entage, by putting forth a corresponding power in its en- 
 deavors after holiness. At times, indeed, its possessor may 
 utter a complaint of impotence, ' that when he would do 
 good, evil is present with him ; ' but so probably he would 
 complain, were his spiritual strength considerably greater 
 than it is. The complaint is often to be regarded, not so 
 ]nuch as an evidence of weakness, as a sign of that dissat- 
 isfaction with every thing short of perfection, which is a 
 distinguishing feature of the spiritual life ; being born 
 from above, it pants after the perfection of its native region 
 it essays to rise, and is impatient of every thing which im- 
 pedes its aspirations, and detains its flight. . It feels the at- 
 traction of that supreme central good to which all goodness 
 
184 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 gravitates ; and, like the earth, which is always laboring 
 in its onward course to gain the sun, it is always striving 
 to reach its centre : to escape beyond all the influences of 
 sin, and to attain the region of heavenly life. And it 
 demonstrates its celestial descent, by persevering in its aim 
 till it triumphs. The divine Spirit, who begot it, will not 
 more certainly triumph over all the array of sin which 
 the world contains, and cast it out ; than the new principle 
 of regenerated life will continue to work, till it has expel- 
 led sin from the soul, and is conducted victorious, into the 
 presence of its Divine Parent. 
 
 The name which the Divine regenerator prefers, and by 
 which he chooses most frequently to make himself known, 
 is the Holy Spirit. It is owing to his love for holiness, 
 and his ability to produce it, that he has undertaken the 
 office of changing the human heart. If he were not cer- 
 tain that he should renew the soul, and assimulate it to his 
 own holy nature, he would not come into contact with an 
 object so polluted, and depraved, and unlike himself But 
 ' that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit ; ' and, as the 
 offspring of infinite holiness, it so completely possesses the 
 believer with a desire for sanctity, that he rejoices in tribu- 
 lation, accepts the furnace, and exults in the flames, if by 
 passing through them, he may lose his impurity, and 
 emerge in the likeness of God. 
 
 Like its spiritual progenitor, the renewed spirit must 
 have an unconfined range. It is made free of the universe 
 and eternity, and cannot submit its diffusive benevolence to 
 the restriction of limits. Without deserting the concen- 
 tric circles of self, and family, and party, and country, and 
 contemporaries, it goes forth, expatiating and rejoicing in 
 a sphere which encompasses all these, and which itself 
 knows no circumference. As an organized part of uni- 
 versal being, it seeks to diffuse and multiply itself through 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY, 185 
 
 all the mass, by the circulation of unlimited happiness. 
 Beyond the confined range which it labors to fill with its 
 own personal activity, it seeks to be present, not merely 
 in aim and affectionate desire, but by engaging the gra- 
 cious agency of its infinite Author. Thus it makes an ap- 
 proximation to universal love : imitates the infinity of the 
 divine goodness ; and is distinguished by a subordinate 
 omnipresence of benevolence. By drinking of the water 
 which Jesus gives — ' this spake he of the Spirit ' — it pos- 
 sesses within itself ' a well of water springing up to ever- 
 lasting life.' Though it shall be cut off' from all created 
 streams, it has a fountain of its own, fed from a higher 
 fountain ; a perpetual spring in immediate communication 
 with the well-head of life. Its alliance with the Infinite 
 Spirit raises it to a state of independence of the creature, 
 confers on it a kind of spiritual self-sufficiency. And, final- 
 ly, as nothing but God could satisfy God, so the renewed soul 
 demonstrates its divine descent by disdaining, as emptiness 
 and insult, less than the fulness of him thatfilleth all in all. 
 That, indeed, which is born spirit of Spirit, is necessari- 
 ly limited in its likeness to God by the natural and strait- 
 ened conditions of humanity. It has nothing in common 
 with some, of the attributes of its divine Parent ; for, ab- 
 tsractedly considered, they are incommunicable. It has 
 little more than a no/me in common with any of his attri- 
 butes ; for the holiness, the wisdom, the goodness which it 
 derives from him, are infinitely less than the same qualities 
 as possessed by him. But though it does not possess an 
 identity of nature with these attributes, it is its glory than it 
 can boast a likeness, a similitude which takes in every lin- 
 eament of his moral image. It is true, that his nature 
 obliges him to produce some things in us, in consequence 
 of our depravity, of which there is no archetype in him- 
 self: yet even these peculiar features are the counterparts^ 
 12 
 
186 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 the necessary impressions of certain parts of his own 
 character. Repentance, for instance, is one of the first 
 fruits of his renewing operations ; but repentance in us, 
 answers to holiness in him ; it is only the process by Avhich 
 infinite purity is seeking to reflect and behold its image in 
 our breast. 
 
 The new creature is an entire impression ; an imperfect 
 and a miniature representation, it is allowed : but still an 
 entire impression of its spiritual Author. All the excel- 
 lences necessary to make up absolute perfection, do not 
 more certainly reside in the character of the Spirit him- 
 self, than all the corresponding qualities, necessary to make 
 up the sum of sanctified excellence, exist in that which is 
 born of the Spirit. When the prophet restored the dead 
 youth to life, he did not more carefully extend himself over 
 the whole surface of the body, adjusting his eyes, and 
 mouth and hands, to the corresponding parts and organs 
 of the deceased, that the whole body might revive, than 
 the divine Spirit joins bosoms, applies himself in regener- 
 tion to every part of our moral being, to resuscitate and 
 restore the Avhole. He leaves no dead or palsied part ; but 
 difflising life and activity through the entire frame, he 
 would have us to develope and work out every principle 
 and function of our new nature in the service of God. 
 Or, to use a scriptural figure, he delivers the soul into a 
 mould from which it cannot fail to receive the unmaimed 
 and entire impression of a man in Christ Jesus. 
 
 VI. And our Lord predicted, as the crowning effect of 
 the operations of the Holy Spirit, ' He shall glorify me ; ' 
 a prediction which is realized in various ways. The ad- 
 vent of the Spirit, in the cause of Christ, was itself an 
 event which conferred on that cause transcendant honor. 
 Had myriads of angels been dispatched instead, to fly 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 187 
 
 through the midst of heaven, preaching the everlasting 
 gospel to the inhabitants of the earth, even that would have 
 given us lofty ideas of the exaltation of Christ ; but that 
 the infinite Spirit himself should have come at his inter- 
 cession, and in his service, this indeed glorifies Christ. That 
 he should come expressly to convince men, not merely 
 that they are sinners, but that they are sinners especially 
 against Christ : and not merely so, but that the sin of re- 
 jecting him is the greatest sin they can commit ; that it is 
 the master sin, the capital oflence of the longest life of impiety 
 including the essence, and surpassing the guilt of all other 
 sins combined together ; how unspeakably is Jesus mag- 
 nified by this act of the Spirit ! 
 
 He engages to renovate the soul through the medium of 
 truth ; now what honor does he confer upon Christ, that 
 he should pass by all other kinds of truth, and should take 
 that, and employ that only which relates to Christ. Does 
 he not thus teach us, by his own example, to count all 
 things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 
 Christ Jesus our Lord? Does he not say to us, in actions 
 louder than words, ' This is the sum of all science; this is 
 the only knowledge that can incorporate and mingle with 
 your being ; this is life eternal, to know the true God, and 
 Jesus Christ whom he hath sent ; ' and all other knowl- 
 edge is real only so far as it is symbolical of this. He un- 
 dertakes to change the heart; to product in the will, where 
 all the strength of man and all the powers of sin are con- 
 centrated and entrenched, an entire revolution ; a work so 
 great, that to create a human being is represented as easy 
 in comparison ; for it is not merely to evolve something 
 out of nothing, but to produce a contrary from a contrary, 
 to bring light out of darkness, love out of enmity, holiness 
 out of essential impurity ; and hence, to mark the om- 
 nipotence, the infinite outgoing of power which the work 
 
188 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 demands, the day in which he does this is called ' the day 
 of his power.' Now what honor does he confer upon 
 Christ, that without employing any force, without doing 
 any violence to the constitution of the soul, he should effect 
 ^his mighty change, which angels cannot hehold without 
 bursting into a rapture of admiration, by simply taking of 
 the things of Christ, and showing them to the soul. He 
 asks for no other weapons than these weapons of love, 
 these things of Christ. As if he should say, ' Give me 
 these ; and I will change the sinner into a saint. Arm 
 me with these ; and I will pass into his soul as the antag- 
 onist of sin, disturbing and tracking it in all its windings, 
 and expelling it from all its recesses ; 1 will change his 
 pride into humility; his enmity and unbelief into faith and 
 love. And I will do this by illapses so gentle, by a pro- 
 cess so natural, and so coincident with the operations of 
 his own mind, that, were not the effects essentially divine, 
 he would deem the agency that effected it essentially hu- 
 man.' He engages to conduct the soul to happiness; to 
 merit at his hands the name of the Comforter. How does 
 he magnify Christ then, by leading the sinner direct into 
 the presence of Christ, as the only method of fulfilling his 
 engagement; confessing, by the act, that apart from Christ 
 even he could not give the soul comfort. 
 
 In the prosecution of his work, the divine Spirit em^ 
 ploys a model to which to conform the renewed soul ; for^ 
 as he finds the character of man depraved, deformed, and 
 awfully unlike what it should be, he proposes to give it 
 beauty, and excellence, and perfection. What honor then 
 does he confer upon Christ, by making him the pattern after 
 which he works, the model by which he moulds and fash* 
 ions all believers. He takes of the things of Christ, and 
 shows them to the the soul, expressly that it may catch 
 their temper and likeness. He holds before its eye the 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 189 
 
 mirror of the gospel, that, beholding as in a glass the glory 
 of the Lord, it may be changed into the same image. Ef- 
 facing from the soul the image of the earthy, he imprints 
 in its stead the likeness of the Lord from heaven ; nor does 
 he count the work complete, till the soul is completely 
 conformed to the perfect model. 
 
 And the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ by rendering him 
 the object of supreme affection and delight to all believers. 
 The uniform effect of his teaching is, that they ' rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus.' They distinctly see that there never was 
 any righteousness in the world but his ; that there is no 
 excellence in the universe except his, and what is derived 
 from him. They feel therefore that, while there is no sin 
 equal to that of disregarding him, there can be no act which 
 harmonizes with so many of the original and best prin- 
 ciples of our nature, or w^hich is so much an occasion of 
 joy, as that of receiving Christ Jesus the Lord. When 
 the Spirit was poured out from on high, the church was 
 flooded \vith light; but like the angel standing in the sun, 
 the central object of that light was Christ ; the church 
 was thrown into a transport of joy, but the subject of that 
 joy w^as Christ ; his name was on every tongue his love 
 filled every heart. And w^herever the divine Spirit ope- 
 rates, the same supreme delight in Christ invariably en- 
 sues. He comes to herald the way for Christ ; to throw 
 open the temple gates of the heart for the reception of 
 Christ ; to announce the titles, and display the excellences 
 of Christ : that the soul, beholding the glory of its royal 
 guest, may receive him with acts of worship, and acclam- 
 ations of delight. And having admitted Christ, the be- 
 liever discovers that he has admitted God ; the all-compre- 
 hending fulness of God. Henceforth he can never lift his 
 eye towards him, but his heart assumes a posture of com- 
 placent adoration and joy; and, when he has been implor- 
 
190 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 ing and putting himself under the influence of the blessed 
 Spirit, the name of Christ fills his soul with light and 
 glory. It is a name which has an attraciion for every- 
 thing great and good in the universe. The eye does not 
 more rapidly sweep the midnight magnificence of the 
 starry heavens, than the renewed mind, at the mention of 
 his name, makes the circuit of creation gathering up all 
 that is glorious in its course, as related to him, and emblem- 
 atic of his excellence. 
 
 But this prediction looks fowardto a more glorious ful- 
 fillment than any which it has yet received ; a peiiod when 
 the Holy Spirit shall glorify Christ in these various respects, 
 not merely in the conversion of a sinner here and there, but 
 when the sphere of his operations shall embrace the world; 
 when he shall become the soul of the world, the great ani- 
 mating spirit of mankind, leading them as with one heart 
 and one hand to crown the Savior, Lord of all. But the 
 prediction is of greater compass still ; it teaches us to look 
 onward to the period, when Jesus 'shall come to be admir- 
 ed in his saints, and glorified in all them that believe.' 
 He determines that he will reap a large harvest of human 
 hearts, of sanctified affections ; and he has sent the Spirit 
 into the world to collect this revenue, to gather up this glory 
 for him ; and then the Spirit will have completed his task, 
 will have glorified Christ ; for it will then be seen that he 
 has clothed every believer in the righteousness of Christ ; 
 renewed them all after the likeness of Christ ; that with 
 no other instrument to work with than the gospel of Christ, 
 he has operated on a vast mass of depravity, on a multitude 
 which no one can number of sinful souls, and has renewed 
 and made them resplendent, and crowned them with the 
 glory of Christ. 
 
 VII. Such is a somewhat connected view of the princi- 
 pal original truths, with which the Great Teacher enriched 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 191 
 
 his churcli, concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit. 
 I will point attention also to two or three isolated declara- 
 tions, calculated to show the importance of receiving his 
 influence, as well as to give a practical application to the 
 preceding remarks. 
 
 ' Verily I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphe- 
 my shall be forgiven unto men ; but the blasphemy against 
 the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And \yho- 
 soever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall 
 be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against the Holy 
 Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
 neither in the world to come.' What form of denunciation 
 can be conceived more calculated than this to warn the tri- 
 fler that he is on holy ground, and to bespeak for the whole 
 doctrine of divine influence the reverence of, a prostrate 
 soul. The sin denounced is, probably, the rejection of the 
 last and greatest evidence of the Messiahship of Christ ; 
 the dispensation of the Spirit. Up to that point of unbe- 
 lief, the Jews were within the reach of forgiveness. Their 
 blasphemy against Christ ; their rejection of all the evi- 
 dence arising from his character, his miracles, the testimo- 
 ny of John, and the distinct fulfillment in him of numer- 
 ous prophecies ; even the act of nailing him to the cross ; 
 all this did not consummate their guilt, and render their 
 condition hopeless. It was, indeed, approaching as near 
 to the edge of the precipice as possible without actually 
 falling over. It was closing their eyes against evidence 
 which ought to have convinced them that Christ was the 
 Messiah ; but still there was further evidence to be submit- 
 ted to them, and evidence of a superior kind. The mirac- 
 ulous dispensation of the Holy Spirit, attesting as it would 
 his resurrection from the dead, and his exaltation at the 
 right hand of God, and bringing as it would the right arm 
 of Omnipotence visibly to certify his claims, was reserved 
 
192 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 for that closing proof. Till that should be found unavail- 
 ing, their impenitence could not be pron(>unced final. But 
 should they reject that, they would be resisting the last 
 proof that would be given, that Christ is the Son of God, 
 and the Savior of sinners ; with their own hands they 
 would have subscribed the sentence which doomed them to 
 perdition ; they would have added the final shade of hor- 
 ror to their condition, anticipating ' the blackness of dark- 
 ness for ever.' 
 
 But let the specific sin denounced be what it may ; and 
 possibly it is left indeterminate, that it may shed a caution- 
 ary influence over a larger space ; the denunciation sur- 
 rounds the doctrine of divine influence with a guard, as 
 terrific as the barriers placed about the mount that burned. 
 It has no parallel in the word of God ; and is only infe- 
 rior, in its power to inspire dread, to the awful sentence of 
 the last day. Where all besides is pleasant as the garden 
 of the Lord, it stands out a terrible anomaly — a volcano 
 fast by the tree of life. He w^ho incurs its terrors, is hence- 
 forth an outcast from grace ; a proclaimed anathema ; de- 
 voted to damnation ; the heir of unknown treasures of 
 wrath. Reader, as you would dread to take even the first 
 step in the direction of this tremendous sin ; as you would 
 tremble to think of entering into its mountainous shadow ; 
 trifle with nothing which relates to the agency of the Holy 
 Spirit. That agency is truly ' for your life.' Sin has 
 brought you into the crisis of the second death ; and his is 
 the only hand that can apply the only remedy. In his 
 offers and influence, God may be regarded as collecting up 
 all that is gracious and solemn in the vast economy of re- 
 demption, and coming to bring the whole, as far as you are 
 concerned, to an issue ; as making his nearest and final 
 approach to your spirit : as you value eternal life, then, 
 let there be no symptom of disinclination to receive him. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY, 
 
 But this is not enough : when he spoke of the Holy- 
 Spirit, the Savior would have his disciples to lift up their 
 thoughts, to enlarge their expectations, and form the loftiest 
 conceptions of excellence and grace ; declaring, that the 
 advent of the Spirit would more than compensate for the 
 loss of his own personal presence. What must be the 
 value of that gift which would supply the place of the orb 
 of day, and make us cease to deplore his extinction ? Of 
 infinitely surpassing value must be the gift which could 
 indemnify the church for the personal departure of its 
 Sovereign Lord. Yet such a gift is the Holy Spirit; the 
 soul of the church ; and the life of the world ; for so much 
 of the Spirit as there is in the world, precisely so much, 
 and no more, is there of life. 
 
 In the history of the natural creation, it is recorded that 
 until he brooded upon the face of the waters, the earth was 
 without form and void ; but he infused into it a vital ele- 
 ment ; and what a world of beauty arose ! an enlargement 
 of heaven ; the treasury and temple of the material uni- 
 verse. And, until he came into the new creation, the work 
 of salvation was at a stand. The sacrifice for sin had been 
 offered ; the atonement accepted ; all the elements of sal- 
 vation were in existence, but without life ; all the blessings 
 of grace were ready, but the Spirit was wanting to convey 
 them into the soul. And when he came, and commenced 
 his office, what glories transpired! The Savior had not 
 merely foreseen these ; his holy mind had often luxuriated 
 in the scene, had dwelt with unimaginable delight on the 
 prospect of the Spirit returned to the world, and employed 
 in its renovation. The valley of dry bones was around 
 him ; the place he inhabited was a moral sepulchre ; but 
 he saw the Spirit about to become the soul of these slain, 
 to breathe into them a higher order of life than they had 
 yet lived, enabling them to do divine exploits, to defy and 
 
194 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 triumph over death. Before him lay stretched out, wherever 
 he turned, an ocean of woe, brackish with human tears ; 
 the Dead Sea, embittering, poisoning, and turning to ashes 
 the fairest fruits of earth ; and exhaling vapors fatal to all 
 human joys. But he saw the divine Spirit ; the waters of 
 prophetic vision; issuing forth from the sanctuary of hea- 
 ven, a new element of life ; ' going down into the desert, 
 and into the sea, to heal the waters. And it came to pass 
 that the waters were healed, and every thing lived* whither 
 the river came.' 
 
 Humanity, to his view, appeared as one body, one mighty 
 growth and stature of sin demonically possessed by the 
 prince of the power of the air, and putting forth all its gi- 
 gantic powers in exploits of evil. But he saw the power 
 of his exorcism at hand and rejoiced ; ' Now,' said he, ' is 
 the judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of this 
 world be cast out.' He beheld human nature released from 
 the foe whose name is legion ; renewed in all its powers ; 
 raised to a holy rivalship with angels ; and prepared to be 
 the ornament of a new creation ; and all this resulting from 
 the advent and operation of the Holy Spirit. The pro- 
 found complacency with which he dwelt on the vision, ev- 
 idently showed that he deemed nothing too great to be ex- 
 pected from the coming of the divine Spirit ; and that he 
 desired to communicate to his disciples his own enthusi- 
 asm, to fill them with anticipations as enlarged and glowing 
 as his own. 
 
 He intimates that, of all the gifts Avhich we can solicit, 
 or he impart, a greater cannot be named than the donation 
 of his Spirit. ' If thou knewest the gift of God, and who 
 it is that sahh unto thee. Give me to drink ; thou wouldest 
 have asked of him, and he would have given thee living 
 water ; ' he would have bestowed on thee the gift of his 
 Spirit, extinguishing all thy wants at once, and leaving thee, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 195 
 
 through eternity, nothing to crave. And who can com- 
 pute, who can exaggerate the value of this gift ? Had we 
 originally classed Avith the beasts that perish, as mere ani- 
 mated clay ; and had he then raised us in the scale of being 
 by adding our immaterial and immortal soul ; we could 
 not have looked back on our brutal pre-existence, or have 
 felt the consciousness of our new-found powers of mind, 
 without standing amazed at the greatness of the gift he had 
 conferred. But here he speaks of a superaddition. He 
 has given to us one spirit ; but he proposes to give us an- 
 other, to make us all the richer by an additional Spirit. 
 He has given a soul to our body ; but he would not have us 
 to suppose that his gifts are exhausted, for he offers to give us 
 a soul to our soul. The spirit which he has already im- 
 planted is human, but that which he has in reserve is di- 
 vine. And, to excite and inflame our desires, he repre- 
 sents the divine spirit as his crowning gift ; as rendering 
 any further additions unnecessary, by absorbing all our 
 wants, and comprising the essence of all good. 
 
 Were the natural influences of the Spirit to be denied to 
 the material world, who can paint the desolation which 
 would instantly ensue ! its pleasant verdure dried up and 
 destroyed ; all its harmonies silenced ; its surface strewed 
 with the wrecks of what was life ; a sepulchral world, en- 
 veloped with a pall of darkness; a wandering star, in 
 which all things were hastening to chaos and desolation. 
 As the Spirit of grace, his agency is the life of the spirit- 
 ual world. Accordingly, the chief penalty of the apostacy, 
 the most deadly element of the curse, was the suspension 
 and withdrawment of his vital presence; by which the 
 guilty and deserted soul was left to enter at once on eternal 
 death — to begin hell on this side the grave. On the other 
 hand, it follows, that the restoration of the spirit is the cap- 
 ital blessing of the covenant of grace. As if all the other 
 
196 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 blessings were represented by this, and included in it, the 
 Savior magnifies and names the Spirit alone. While, in 
 one of the evangelists, we hear him offer all good things 
 to them that ask ; from another we learn that, by this all- 
 comprehending offer, he expressly intends his Holy Spirit: 
 thus leaving us to infer, first, that universal good, and the 
 Divine Spirit define each other; or, that they are one and 
 the same thing : and, secondly, impressing us with the 
 fact, that the Spirit is the only unchangeable and necessa- 
 ry good. Philosophy teaches us that no material object 
 on earth has a color of its own ; that whatever the hue 
 which apparently belongs to any object, it may be chang- 
 ed ; and the object be made to take the hue of all the pris- 
 matic colors in succession. This is true, analogically, of 
 all the things and events of this life; they are not intrin- 
 sically good or evil ; do not possess a character and com- 
 plexion of their own. The same dispensation may prove 
 a curse to one, and a blessing to another; may be an evil 
 to-day, and a good to-morrow ; may come as a favor, but 
 be perverted and turned into poison by our depravity ; or 
 may come as a trial, and be converted into food and life by 
 the transforming touch and smile of God. But the gra- 
 cious influence of the Spirit is susceptible of no such fluc- 
 tuation. Impassive itself, it is yet capable of changing ev- 
 ery thing else ; while able to impress its own character 
 on the universe of being, it remains itself unchanged and 
 unchangeable ; the only absolute, eternal, and necessary 
 good. 
 
 What more can be necessary to turn our whole soul in- 
 to desire ?• to turn all our most ardent thoughts and long- 
 ings into one channel, pouring forth a copious stream of 
 supplication for the one great gift of the Spirit ? Is it possi- 
 ble that we can ask for any inferior good, till we have obtain- 
 ed this ? Had we an adequate impression of its magnitude 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 197 
 
 we should forget that any other want existed : our entreat- 
 ies would rise in energy and earnestness as we moved for- 
 ward to the attainment of the blessing : our cry would as- 
 cend, and peal with ceaseless importunity at the gate of 
 heaven : would go in unto the Almighty, even into his ho- 
 ly place ; we should ask, and seek, and knock, till he had 
 bestowed it with a liberality which left nothing for our 
 fears to apprehend, or our expectations to desire. 
 
 But is there ground to believe that our earnest applica- 
 tion for this ineffable good would be crowned with success ? 
 For, in proportion as the value and necessity of an object 
 rise on our view, our demand for encouragement to pursue 
 it rises also. Two things are observable, in reply. The 
 first is, that the gift of the Spirit, which is the only indis- 
 pensable good, is the only blessing which is promised with 
 unconditional, absolute certainty, andthesecond is, that 
 it is the absolute and essential goodness of this blessing 
 which enables the Almighty to promise it unconditionally. 
 If, like all subordinate blessings, its character were muta- 
 ble, and its value dependent on circumstances, like them it 
 could only be made the subject of a conditional promise ; 
 the mere mutability of its nature, and the consequent possi- 
 bility of its becoming an evil, would have made it incapable 
 of an absolute promise. But the intrinsic and immutable 
 goodness of the gift enables the Divine Promisor to say of 
 it, what he can say of no inferior blessing, ' Ask, and ye 
 shall receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall 
 be opened unto you.' 
 
 The student of mechanical philosophy is aware that 
 dynamics, or the science of force and motion, enters into 
 nearly every physical inquiry ; that it is placed at the 
 head of all the sciences ; and that, happily for human 
 knowledge, it is one in which certainty is attainable equal 
 to that of mathematical demonstration. Indeed — what is 
 
198 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 true of no other branch of physical science — our knowl- 
 edge of dynamics, of motion and its communication, is on- 
 ly limited by that of pure mathematics. Now let our 
 present subject be denominated spiritual dynamics, and 
 the analogy of these remarks will be obvious. The di- 
 vine Spirit is the author of all motion in the moral world; 
 the science of spiritual force and motion, originating in him, 
 is at the head of all the doctrines of evangelical religion ; 
 it enters into all our religious calculations ; and happily for 
 our hopes and endeavors, it is one in which every step may 
 be taken with absolute certainty. Indeed — what is true of 
 no other promised good — the measure in which we re- 
 ceive his influence is determined only by the measure of 
 our desires after it, or by the limit of our capacity to enjoy 
 it. ' Every one,' saith Christ, ' that asketh, receiveth ; 
 and he that seeketh, findeth.' He would have us observe 
 that he is not propounding a theory, but stating a fact : 
 that he is expounding a law of the divine government, a 
 law which has established a certain connexion between 
 asking for the Holy Spirit and receiving it ; and that could 
 we appeal to all who have made the experiment, we should 
 find that this order was never violated ; that could we in- 
 terrogate each of that throng without number who have 
 sought the gift, they would testify with one consent, that 
 they all received to the utmost amount of their desires, and 
 abundantly more. 
 
 Prior, indeed, to the act of regeneration, and as to the 
 time and manner of that event, the wind itself is not more 
 uncontrolable and free than is the agency of the Holy 
 Spirit. He illustrates his sovereignty by acting where he 
 listeth : asserts and magnifies the royalty of his grace by 
 selecting the most unlikely objects, and thus pouring 
 contempt on human calculations. But, in all his subse- 
 quent communications, he voluntarily binds himself to act 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 199 
 
 by a rule which man can understand and employ, volun- 
 tarily subjects his influence to the call of prayer, and in a 
 sense, resigns his sceptre into the hand of faith. Amaz- 
 ing condescension ! as if only concerned to bring us to the 
 footstool of mercy, and as if fearful lest the recollection of 
 his sovereignty should deter us from appoaching, he actually 
 merges that sovereignty ; yes, at the tremendous risk of seeing 
 us erase the doctrine of his absolute liberty from our creed, 
 of hearing us deny the sovereignty of his operations, he in 
 effect, throws up the high prerogative, brings himself under 
 obligation, irrevocably binds himself to answer prayer. 
 
 To encourage our application for the Holy Spirit, the 
 Savior appeals from the instinct of parental tenderness, to 
 the infinite benevolence of our heavenly Father. ' What 
 man is there among you, who if his son asked bread of him 
 would give him a stone ; or if he asked a fish, would give him 
 serpent V Who would mock the wants of his famishing 
 child? The testimony of universal experience is against 
 the probability of such an act : the thing indeed is possible, 
 but so rare, that it has never been deemed necessary to pro- 
 vide a law for its punishment. So deeply does parental 
 affection enter into the heart, that it commonly survives 
 every other benevolent feeling ; it is the last affection which 
 leaves the nature of a bad man. ' But if ye, being evil, 
 know how to give good gifts unto your children,' said 
 Christ; 'how much more shall your heavenly Father 
 give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him V Could all the 
 parental tenderness which the world has contained, from 
 the beginning of time till now, be all collected and infused 
 into one human heart, compared with the unbounded benev- 
 olence of our Father in heaven, it would be but as a drop 
 compared with the ocean. And, therefore, it cannot be 
 that the needy and suppliant soul should plead for the gift 
 of the Holy Spirit, and his infinite goodness refuse to give. 
 Degrade him to a level with sinful humanity, suppose him 
 
200 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 to be only an earthly parent, still the refusal would be all 
 but impossible. Now what a human father will scarcely 
 ever fail to do, though he is evil ; God will never fail to do- 
 because he is ineifably good. 
 
 But that nothing might be wanting to complete our en- 
 couragement and crown our hopes, our Lord represents 
 the treasures of divine influence as placed entirely at his 
 own disposal. And where would Poverty and Want have 
 relief deposited, if not in the hands of unconfined Bounty. 
 Like a channel, prepared on purpose to receive and con- 
 vey the overflowings of a fountain, he receives only to com- 
 municate. As well might the sun be charged with nig- 
 gardliness in the dispensation of light ; though from the 
 moment of its creation, it has been constantly pouring forth, 
 in all directions, an immensity of light, sufficient to flood 
 with radiance ten thousand worlds like ours ; as to question 
 the readiness of Christ to impart the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit. Let the amazing profusion with which he dispensed 
 it, on the day of pentecost, testify his grace. Religious ordi- 
 nances, means of grace, a standing ministry ; whatare these 
 but channels through which he seeks to pour a constant 
 supply of the river of life for the irrigation of his church ? 
 what are they but pillars which he has reared as memo- 
 rials of his ascension, to remind us that now we have on- 
 ly to ask in order to receive ; that he can now dispense 
 the Spirit perpetually and without measure ; so that every 
 day might be a pentecostal day, a repetition of his corona- 
 tion day. 
 
 Having become the repository of divine influence, his 
 only solicitude appears to arise from his not finding recipi- 
 ents to share the blessing. As the heedless and the world- 
 ly pass him by, he calls to them in language which shows 
 that they could not find more relief in receiving, than he 
 would experience delight in giving ; that his benevolent 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 201 
 
 heart is actually burthened with the magnitude of the gifts 
 he has to dispense, and yearns for the godlike gratification 
 of giving them away. ' O if thou knewest the gift of 
 God, and who it is that speaks to thee, thou wouldst ask 
 him, and he would give thee living w^ater. But ye will 
 not come unto me, that ye might have life. Ask, and ye 
 shall receive.' You cannot open your eye on the light of 
 day, but a thousand rays from the sun instantly enter and 
 illuminate your organ of sight ; you cannot inspire, in the 
 ordinary act of breathing without drawing in copious- 
 ly the vital air ; repair at once to the throne of grace, 
 and you shall not raise a craving look for the blessed Spir- 
 it in vain, your eye shall attract him ; inspire, draw in, and 
 you shall inhale at every breath of earnest desire, the in- 
 fluence of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The christian church is a region, and the only region on 
 earth, replenished with the vital influence of the Holy 
 Spirit : and by making baptism the iniatory ordinance, 
 the Savior has significantly taught, that, while all within 
 inhale an element of life, all without are breathing an ele- 
 ment of destruction. By appointing the right to be ad- 
 ministered ' in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost,' he has sealed us to the day of re- 
 demption ; he has burnt in, and made indelible, the awful 
 signatures of Christian discipleship ; reminding us, that, 
 as those who have ' been born again of water and of the 
 Spirit,' he has given into our keeping a new life, a life su- 
 pernatural and divine ; and charging it on us, as we hope 
 to see he glorious day which is longed-for by all creation, 
 that we preserve that life inviolate and ungrieved. 
 
 In allusion to the residence of the Divine Presence in 
 
 the temple, he declares of the Spirit of truth, that ' he 
 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.' There is a sense 
 
 in which all the believers, of all ages, are represented as 
 
 13 
 
202 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 forming one vast and compacted temple, of which the Ho- 
 ly Spirit is the living soul, cementing, animating, and per- 
 vading the whole. Now if important duties devolve on 
 you, though you are only a fraction, an atom of the stu- 
 pendous fabric inhabited by the Holy Spirit, how momen- 
 tous do your duties appear, when you reflect that you 
 yourself constitute an entire temple. The Jews had an ap- 
 pointed guard to watch their temple, night and day ; and, 
 though the guard w^as numerous, each must doubtless have 
 felt that he was entrusted with a solemn charge. But 
 what would one of them have felt, had the whole trust 
 been devolved on him alone ; and that too at a time of 
 peculiar danger from a watchful foe : how tremblingly 
 alive would he have been to every thing relating to his 
 sacred charge ! To you my fellow-christian, as to a living 
 sanctuary, the Spirit has been given, 'that he may abide 
 with you for ever.' Reflect on his divine character and 
 gracious designs and then conceive, if you can, of a more 
 sacred and weighty trust than that of keeping his temple in- 
 violate. 
 
 Had you originally belonged to one of the lowest spe- 
 cies of animal life ; and had he raised you in the scale of 
 being, multiplying, and enlarging your faculties from step 
 to step till reason dawaied, what a sense of responsibility, we 
 may suppose, would havefl ashed on your mind as you first 
 awoke to the consciousness ofyour amazing transformation ! 
 To find yourself suddenly endowed and entrusted with an 
 immortal soul, rich in affections, strong in intellectual pow- 
 ers, boundless in its capabilities and desires ; the percep- 
 tion of your new accountability might well impress you 
 with an awful concern. But a greater responsibility is 
 here. The Spirit of spirits, the Fountain Spirit himself 
 is given to you, as a principle of new and heavenly life, 
 as a divine in-dweller, and you have to keep for him the 
 temple of your soul. O then, see to it, that your conduct 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 203 
 
 accords with so sacred a trust. He comes to you as the 
 Spirit of truth ; study the mind of the Spirit ; consult his 
 dictates as your living oracle. By yielding to the dictates 
 of the flesh, your spirit has lost its proper character, its 
 discriminating and determining moral power ; but he pro- 
 poses to rescue and reinforce your spiritual nature ; he 
 comes to be your spirit, to turn your very flesh into spirit, 
 renewing your fleshly mind : do not let it appear by your 
 conduct, as if, having carnalized your own spirit, you 
 would, if possible, carnalize the divine Spirit also, placing 
 all spirit in subjugation to the flesh. He is the Comforter; 
 the very soul of happiness ; do not grieve him whose ob- 
 ject it is to solace and bless you. Do not resist him in the 
 execution of his office, while engaged in cleansing and 
 sanctifying his temple. Be not satisfied with merely not 
 grieving the Spirit of God ; but aspire to please him, to 
 magnify his office, to enjoy an aflluence of his grace, to 
 live in the Spirit as in the hallowed atmosphere of a tem- 
 ple, in an all-surrounding element of holiness. 
 
 SECTION IV. or THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY, AND 
 
 OF A SPIRITUAL CHURCH. 
 
 Among the subjects comprehended in our Lord's origi- 
 nal teaching may be named the doctrine of the Trinity. 
 There is no ground to conclude, that, prior to the promul- 
 gation of the gospel, this doctrine had any claim on the 
 faith of mankind. The early christians, indeed, in their 
 eagerness to obtain for Christianity the patronage of phi- 
 losophy, professed to find the doctrine of the trinity in the 
 
204 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 writings of Plato ; but had they maintained instead a du- 
 ality, or a quarternity, the same writings would have equal- 
 ly befriended them. The humble pretensions of the Jew- 
 ish system were satisfied with proclaiming the existence 
 and unity, or oneness of God, in opposition to 'the lords 
 many, and gods many,' of the heathens ; the allusipns 
 which the system contained to the triplicity of the divine 
 nature, awaited, like so many dormant seeds of truth, the 
 rising of the Sun of Righteousness, to quicken and 
 draw them forth from their obscurity. 
 
 But though the solemn mystery is sufficiently developed 
 in the gospel to demand our faith ; though the Great 
 Teacher held in his hand the entire map of truth, he dis- 
 closed only so much of the part in question as related to 
 our path to heaven. In adverting to the abysmal subject 
 of the Divine Essence, he maintained a wise reserve : and 
 he did this, both that he might not entangle us in a laby- 
 rinth, when we ought to he advancing in the open path 
 of life ; and because of our natural incapacity to compre- 
 hend him on a theme on which there are no analogies to 
 assist lis. 'How shall ye believe, or understand me,' 
 said he, ' if I tell you of heavenly things V Instead there- 
 fore,, of theorizing on the subject, he taught it dogmatically 
 and practically. 
 
 The doctrine in the general opinion of the christian 
 church, is necessarily involved in various parts of our 
 Lord's teaching. I shall content myself, however, with 
 adverting to his great command, ' Go, then, and make dis- 
 ciples of all nations, baptizing them unto the NAME of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' 
 Whether he intended these words to be a formulary of the 
 rite or not, is immaterial to determine. Their obvious im- 
 port is to describe baptism to be a religious dedication to 
 God, who is known by the manifestation of his NAME, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 205 
 
 the display of his glorious perfections. Now as this name 
 is attributed equally to the Father, to the Son, and to the 
 Holy Spirit, it seems inevitably to follow, that the Son and 
 the Spirit are, with the Father, the One God. 
 
 Our Lord instituted but two ordinances — baptism and 
 the Lord's supper ; he erected but two monumental pil- 
 lars ; one without, and the other within the church : on 
 the first of these, that which fronts the world, he inscribed 
 the great name of the triune God ; and, as if to render 
 the inscription more impressive, he made it his last act. 
 Baptism is the vestibule, or entrance, to his spiritual tem- 
 ple, the church ; so that before his disciples can pass the 
 threshold, he requires them to receive the print of the Sa- 
 cred Name : and, by making that one ceremony final, he 
 reminds them that the holy signature is indelible. By 
 baptizing us into the threefold name of Gvod, he would im- 
 press us at the very outset of our christian life with the 
 fact, that the work of our snlvation is so vast that it brings 
 into action every distinction and attribute of the divine na- 
 ture ; that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the 
 entire Godhead, find ample scope for the exercise of all 
 their perfections, and employment for all the affluence of 
 their grace. And thus would he put every part and pro- 
 perty of our nature, in return, into active requisition in 
 his service ; causing us to feel the penury of our utmost 
 love, and constraining us cheerfully to own, that, could we 
 multiply our powers three, or a thousand fold, they should 
 all be his. If, before, we considered our obligations infin- 
 ite, what shall we think of them now, on beholding the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three distinct subsis- 
 tencies, actually confederating and concurring together, 
 and embarking all their infinite treasures in the cause of our 
 happiness : what but that our obligations, which we before 
 considered infinite, are thus multiplied threefold | a multi^ 
 
206 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 plication this which the metaphysics of a grateful heart 
 will allow, if not the severer philosophy of the head. 
 How amazing the thought, that the Godhead, the, three 
 glorious subsistencies in the Divine Essence should be all 
 officially present to receive us in the baptismal solemnity, 
 the porch of the church ; that all the Divine Being should 
 be there, to enter into covenant relation with us ; that we 
 should there be met by the sum of excellence, and have it 
 ascertained to us, that to the utttermost extent of our capac- 
 ity we are entitled to the enjoyment of the whole. An 
 ocean of happiness placed before those, whose hearts over- 
 flow with a drop ! ' A presumptuous idea, if our own in- 
 vention ; a lofty one, if revealed to us.' 
 
 ' Upon this rock will I build my church.' 
 'My kingdom is not of this world.' 
 
 I. Another original subject contained in our Lord's 
 teaching, is the existence of a spiritual church. The 
 grand conception of organizing and erecting a new com- 
 munity, to be distinguished from all the existing forms of 
 civil society in the world, by the spiritual nature and de- 
 sign of its government, could have only originated in the 
 mind of one who had himself seen ' the pattern of heaven- 
 ly things.' Under the Mosaic economy, this exalted 
 scheme existed only in emblem. The ' church in the wil- 
 derness ; ' the Israelitish people, nationally selected, and 
 separated from all the nations of the earth ; prefigured an 
 approaching separation of a more select and refined nature, 
 consisting exxlusivel)^ of ' Israelites indeed.' Christ came 
 to realize the sublime idea; to be himself the heart of the 
 church ; the point around which it should crystalize and 
 form; and, in his own person, (humanity inhabited by 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 207 
 
 Deity,) presented at once the image and nucleus of the 
 miearthly society. 
 
 II. The voice of prophecy had declared that such would 
 be the spiritual character of his new kingdom. For while 
 some monstrous type, of brute ferocity and power, was 
 deemed an appropriate symbol of each preceding monarchy 
 as seen by Daniel, the ensign of the Messiah's reign was 
 distinguished by the likeness of the Son of man ; aptly de- 
 noting, that while they prevailed by the ascendency of 
 physical might, from his kingdom should be banished 
 every carnal weapon, and instrument of coertion ; and 
 that to him should belong the honor of recognising and 
 erecting the prostrate elements of humanitj^ of reigning 
 by the spiritual action of mind on mind, the almighty in- 
 fluence of enlightened reason, of sanctified gratitude and 
 love. It was distinctly predicted that his kingdom, instead 
 of symbolizing with any of the governments of earth, 
 should be to the world an image of his own sufficiency, 
 surpassing and encompassing them all. At first, it would 
 resemble an imperium in imperio, a dominion of principle 
 and affection flourishing amidst the kingdoms of the world 
 like the verdure of paradise set in the desert ; but in the 
 end, as Bacon describes the prevalence of a far different 
 principle, ' it bringeth in a new primum mobile, that ravish- 
 eth all the spheres of government ; ' forming from first to 
 last, in the eyes of the world, an anomaly of government. 
 Accordingly, when Jesus came to erect it he appeared at a 
 loss for suitable illustrations by which to explain it to the 
 minds of his hearers. ' Whereunto,' saith he ' shall we liken 
 the kingdom of God, and with what comparison shall we 
 compare it ? ' None of the governments of the world 
 supplied an analogy: he who is the wisdom of God seem- 
 ed embarrassed, as he looked around the world of civil so- 
 ciety for a similitude, and saw that it contained none. 
 
208 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 III. But though the constitution he designed to erect 
 was a new creation, he constructed it in a manner the 
 most unforced and simple. He who asked only the dust 
 of the earth out of which to form a creature of divine lin- 
 eaments : — he, who took the universal law of animal na- 
 ture which seeks the propagation of its kind, and, by graft- 
 ing on it the sacred institution of marriage, made it pro- 
 duce the choicest fruits of the earth ; thus converting and 
 consecrating an animal instinct, a principle which man 
 possesses only in common with brutes, into a source of 
 pure and purifying enjoyment, which more than any oth- 
 er natural means, raises and distinguishes man above the 
 inferior creation : he asked only the elements of our so- 
 cial nature, with which to construct ' his body,' the church, 
 t Wherever two or three are gathered together in my 
 name,' said Christ, ' there am I in the midst of them.' He 
 knew that in obedience to our social instincts, to the law 
 which leads us to seek our kind, Ave should in all ages 
 continue to associate : he saw that, in the kingdom of Sa- 
 tan, familiar intercourse is one of the principle means for 
 extending the contagion of evil, one of the grand ordinan- 
 ces of sin, and he determined to give the same principle 
 sanctified scope and activity, in a sphere where it might 
 prove equally efficacious in the production and reciproca- 
 tion of good. 
 
 IV. His church is the court of holy love, filled Avith of- 
 fices and appointments of charity and grace. Bringing 
 into it pity, and kindness, and zeal, he baptizes them with 
 the spirit of heaven, assigns them each appropriate duties, 
 and commands them to find and fabricate their happiness 
 out of the happiness of others. Here, we are to look on 
 the faults of others, only to pray fjr, and assist in their 
 improvement ; and to contemplate their excellences, only 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 209 
 
 to admire and imitate. By a law of our nature, like seeks 
 to associate with like ; and, in his church, he enables holi- 
 ness to ally and reinforce itself with holiness ; he essays to 
 make the least portion of goodness feel, that it is identified 
 with all the goodness in the universe. The fluid which is 
 about to crystalize, does not more certainly assume the 
 form of the crystal inserted into it, than believers modify 
 and accelerate the formation of their character by associat- 
 ing in christian fellowship ; and all assimulate to Christ 
 their common type and centre : according to his prayer 
 they become one in him. 
 
 V. Assimilation is a law of our nature, but the tenden- 
 cy of this principle in the world is to hasten its moral de- 
 composition ; whereas, in the church, it is intended to ren- 
 ovate and restore the moral health ; and thus render the 
 church the salt of the earth. But, to secure this end, it is 
 evident that the members of his church must possess a 
 character essentially different from the rest of the world. 
 And this radical change must take place prior to their ad- 
 mission; otherwise, there is no guarantee that the world 
 will not modify and absorb the church ; rather, there is the 
 strongest probability that the principle of assimilation will 
 operate. To the triumph of the world, and the destruc- 
 tion of the church. 
 
 1. Previous to its formation, therefore, this was the 
 mandate that rang through Judea, ' Repent ye, for the 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand ; ' peculiar elements were 
 wanted to constitute this new society ; subjects were called 
 for to enrol under this new form of government ; and re- 
 pentance, transmentation, a change of mind, was the indis- 
 pensable condition of enrolment. Its divine Founder fol- 
 lowed, and intent on its purity, he not only echoed the 
 same call, but inscribed over its great entrance-gate the 
 
210 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 memorable sentence, 'Except a man be born again, he 
 cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' He commanded 
 his disciples to go through the world proclaiming repent- 
 ance and the remission of sins in his name, baptizing them, 
 (baptizing, that is, such as, being capable, obeyed the call 
 to repentance, and accepted the offer of forgiveness); these 
 specimens of regenerated humanity, already selected by 
 the divine hand, and baptized with the Spirit, they were 
 to collect, and admit by the door of visible baptism into the 
 christian church. 
 
 2. That his church is to be composed only of spiritual 
 elements, of such only as appear and profess to be the 
 subjects of a divine change, is evident from the power 
 with which he has armed it to expel offenders. ' More- 
 over, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him 
 his fault between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, 
 tholi hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear 
 thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the 
 mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be estab- 
 lished. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto 
 the church : but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be 
 unto thee as a heathen man or publican. Verily, I say unto 
 you. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
 heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto you, That if two of 
 you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they 
 shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is 
 in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my 
 name, there am I in the midst of them.' 
 
 The whole of this paragraph evidently relates to the 
 same subject; containing the rudiments of church govern- 
 ment, forming the only authentic and divine platform of 
 ecclesiastical discipline. We learn from it, first, that mere 
 nominal christians have no room provided for them in his 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 211 
 
 church; for it is obviously implied that all its members, 
 have such habits, of charity and devotion to maintain, and 
 such holy offices to fill as the representatives of Christ, 
 and duties to discharge requiring his seal and fiat to give 
 them validity ; all of so spiritual and distinctive a character 
 that they necessarily presuppose the possession of nothing 
 less than vital godliness. Secondly, it implies that when 
 instances arise in the church, calling for the exercise of 
 discipline, the members of the charch alone are sufficient 
 to administer the discipline necessary, without the inter- 
 vention of any civil authority from without. For, thirdly, 
 it might occur that were a civil arm a part of the organiza- 
 tion of the church, that arm might be the very part of the 
 body requiring excision ; an hypothesis by no means ex- 
 travagant, if the spirituality and purity of the church be 
 an object ; but unless the power of excision be lodged in 
 the spiritual community itself, this necessary purification 
 could not take place. And, fourthly, it instructs us, that a 
 church though composed of only ' two or three,' is com- 
 plete in itself; that, like the human body, it possesses a 
 self-correcting principle, an expulsive power ; and is com- 
 petent to the discharge of all its peculiar duties. 
 
 The correction of incidental evils, and the expulsion of 
 offenders, constitute the most delicate and difficult class of 
 duties which a christian church has to perform. But the 
 task is imperative, and the discharge of it vital to the 
 health and purity of the society ; our Lord, therefore, in 
 legislating on this subject is unusually particular and en- 
 couraging. He exalts the duty of christian reproof into a 
 standing ordinance ; appoints the method, and specifies the 
 several ascending degrees of its administration, till it has 
 been brought to bear in its utmost force and power on the 
 conscience of the offending subject. Should it prove inef- 
 fectual to his recovery, the only remaining step is his ex- 
 
212 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 communication. In exercising this solemn function, this 
 highest prerogative, they are to come into the presence of 
 Christ as the fountain of their power : he declares that he 
 will descend to be a party in the final, awful transaction ; 
 that as they discharge the painful task, he will ratify it ; 
 that as they pronounce the sentence charged with the ter- 
 rors of Sinai, he will adopt it as his own, and re-echo it, 
 ' as if many thunders uttered their voices ' in the conscience 
 of the doomed offender. And this appeal to himself he 
 appoints as final, as the ne plus ultra of church discipline ; 
 to appeal elsewhere would be an impeachment of his au- 
 thority, and treason against his throne. 
 
 And let no one speak lightly of this power of rebuke 
 and expulsion. The omnipotence of public opinion, for 
 instance, has almost become a proverbial expression. The 
 .world at present acknowledges nothing so mighty, though 
 silent, in its operations. Its slightest whisper is law to a 
 nation. It utters a prediction, and all the powers of soci- 
 ety rush to accomplish the prophecy. Unable to endure 
 its censure, numbers seek the asylum of the grave ; and 
 rather than encounter its denunciations, even thrones have 
 trembled and hid themselves in the dust. But in uttering 
 rebuke, the voice of the church is public opinion in its 
 most concentrated form, borrowing mysterious efhcacy 
 from the presence and co-operation of an invisible Agent, 
 and gathering tones of alarm by passing through the ave- 
 nues of an affrighted soul. As the necessity of punishing 
 the offender springs from the first principles in the divine 
 nature, so the sentence of punishment harmonizes with the 
 first principles of his own nature, meets and coalesces with 
 all the remorse in his bosom, finds a ready and loud res- 
 ponse from his conscience, and arms him against himself 
 Sharper than any two-edged sw^ord, it inflicts a wound on 
 the spirit for which earth has no remedy. It is a flash of 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 213 
 
 that consuming lightning, which, leaving the outward man 
 unscathed, passes direct to its mark within, scorching the 
 conscious soul, and turning all its joys to ashes; It is even 
 an anticipation of the last day, a foretaste of that consum- 
 mation of terrors ; flashing the fires of the lake that burn- 
 eth on the face of the soul ; cutting it off from God, de- 
 livering it over to Satan as a sealed anathema, an eternal 
 outcast from hope and grace. Such is its efficacy when 
 impartially administered, in connexion with the other 
 branches of christian discipline, to preserve the purity of 
 the church, that were it sufficiently known, christians 
 would no more think of calling temporal aid into the church, 
 than they would of deputing an arm of flesh to guide and 
 assist the bolt of heaven to its destined object. 
 
 3. The severe denunciations which Jesus uttered against 
 the Pharisees, for ' teaching as doctrine the commandments 
 of men ; ' discharging all his thunders on the intrusion of 
 human authority into the worship of God, and on the sanc- 
 timonious hypocrisy which naturally ensued, indicated 
 clearly the spiritual nature of the church which he design- 
 ed. He found the world in the church ; but he determin- 
 ed to reverse their relative position, to construct and per- 
 petuate his new society as a church in the world. 'Every 
 plant,' said Christ, and he spoke prospectively, as well as 
 in reference to existing evils, ' Every plant which my 
 heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.' 
 The church is a sacred enclosure taken in from the world; 
 brought into cultivation by the Divine Husbandman ; and 
 intended to be filled exclusively with the plants of right- 
 eousness. On the outside of this enclosure is to be found 
 the spontaneous produce of evil, bringing forth fruit unto 
 death ; but all within are meant to be ' plants of the Lord's 
 right-hand planting,' exhibiting in the fruits they bear the 
 essentia.1 difference between sin and holiness, and the infi- 
 
214 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 nite superiority of his transforming grace over the deadly 
 produce of depraved nature. But if, in defiance of this 
 arrangement, the hand of the world he allowed to interfere, 
 his design is defeated ; plants are brought in which are 
 not of his selection ; his Eden is degraded into a spot for 
 human experiments, in which the produce of grace is sup- 
 planted by poisonous exotics, and overrun with the nox- 
 ious weeds of human tradition. He designed the church 
 to be his own peculiuvi : it is the only fortress which he 
 holds in a revolted world ; and he intended, therefore, that 
 no authority should be known in it, no laws acknowledg- 
 ed, but his own ; that no parties should obtain admission 
 but those ' who are called, and chosen, and faithful ; ' so 
 that to open its gates for the entrance of any of the revolt- 
 ed, however specious the pretext, is a betrayal of the most 
 sacred trust, and treachery to the great cause of Christ. 
 His high design is, that as Satan has a church (he himself 
 speaks of the synagogue of Satan) consisting of the chil- 
 dren of sin ; a church in which men have been always la- 
 boring to cast off the divine law, and to confound the dis- 
 tinction between good and evil ; so he would have a church 
 in which these essential distinctions should again be re- 
 stored and exemplified, and in which the beauties of holi- 
 ness, seen in their native lustre, should attract the notice, 
 and extort the admiration of the universe. These are the 
 fruits by which its members were to glorify God; these 
 the unearthly marks by which all men should know them 
 as his disciples. 
 
 But then, in order to the success of this grand design, it 
 is essential that man should not intermeddle — the process 
 is divine throughout. Had Christ taken up his residence 
 visibly and permanently on earth, the impertinence and 
 impiety of interfering with the arrangements of his church 
 would have been too palpable to be attempted. But though 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 215 
 
 lie has departed, he appointed the Spirit as his successor, 
 and promised him as more than his equal in the superin- 
 tendence of the church ; the Spirit has come, and in the 
 scriptures of his own dictation has presented the church 
 with its only code and charter ; so that for man to interfere, 
 is either to impugn the divine sufficiency of the Spirit, or 
 to convict himself of presumptuous impiety. To every 
 such intruder the language of Christ is decisive, 'My 
 kingdom is not of this world ; ' it has no principle in com- 
 mon with the kingdoms of earth ; it refuses all human 
 patronage ; rejects, and casts off from itself as alien to its 
 nature, the aid of temporal pains and penalties ; and for a 
 man to put forth his hand with a patronizing air to support 
 it, is to endanger its safety, or to peril his own. 
 
 Whether personally present or absent, our Lord design- 
 ed his church to exhibit to the world an image of his own 
 sufficiency ; to furnish to it a standing representation of 
 another world, of other laws than earth obeys, and of a 
 higher order of enjoyment and power than man possesses, 
 derived from a source independent of all created means. 
 But in order to answer its original intention, its heaven- 
 ly Founder must be left unimpeded to work out his great 
 idea. If his church is to resemble a temple, let it be built 
 after the pattern of things in the heavens ; let it have the 
 exacts dimensions and proportions assigned by the angel- 
 architect, who brought to the work his golden measuring 
 rod from heaven, and it will lift up its head into the light 
 of day, and tower towards heaven, a stately and magnifi- 
 cent fabric, visibly inhabited by the shekinah of the divine 
 presence, made transparent by the enshrined glory, and ra- 
 diating around in all directions its dazzling beams, so as 
 to invite admiration, to repel the presumptuous approach, 
 and smite with blindness the profane gaze of irreligion — 
 finding in its own glory its ustre and defence. If the 
 
216 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 church is to attain the fair proportions, and to reach the 
 immortai stature of the body of Christ, let her be fed with 
 the manna which his own hand supplies, and grow as the 
 in-dwelling life shall expand, and be left to the sole guar- 
 dianship of his own grace, and she shall move in her own 
 light, clad in more than complete steel, having the robes of 
 divinity about her, frowning impurity from her path with 
 a look, suprising curiosity into blank awe, into involuntary 
 and prostrate adoration by her noble grace and bearing, 
 and passing on in unblenched majesty, she shall perform 
 the heroic works and exploits assigned her by God ; — a 
 wonder ! astonishing heaven and earth ; — ' a woman, 
 clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and 
 upon her head a crown of twelve stars ; ' being adorned 
 with celestial attire, and crowned with light ; instead of 
 seeking to enhance her glory by sublunary ornaments, she 
 evinces her spiritual nobility by treading them under foot. 
 Oh ! had men revered the evident intention of the Great 
 Head of the church ; instead of encumbering religion as 
 they have, and weighing her down to the dust with a load 
 of earth-made armor, they would have seen her equipped 
 in the light, but indestructible panoply of grace, advance 
 to her appointed conflict, terrible as a bannered host ; car- 
 rying with her the sympathies of the groaning creation, 
 w^hose champion she is ; trampling her enemies under 
 foot, (the earth itself helping her in her straits ;) her weak- 
 ness doing the deeds of might, deeds which omnipotence 
 might own ; gathering up trophies at every step : and re- 
 turning at length from the circuit and conquest of the 
 world with a train of willing captives which no one can 
 number, of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people ; and 
 laden with many crowns for him whose strength had resi- 
 ded in her right arm, and who alone had caused her to 
 triumph in every place. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 217 
 
 4. But the church of Christ, enfeebled and defective as 
 it may be, is that only object on earth, on which he bestows 
 his supreme regard. If his attention is divided, it is only 
 between his church below and his church in heaven ; but 
 in his estimation they are identical, they are only two por- 
 tions of the one object which constitutes in his eyes the 
 glory of the universe. The affairs of the world, indeed, 
 are under his superintendence, but always with an especial 
 view to the prosperity of his church. While he extends 
 his sceptre, and dispatches his angels to every part of the 
 w^orld, he engages to come personally into the midst of his 
 church, and to honor their prayers and decisions by regard- 
 ing them as laws for his own conduct. The church is his 
 mystical body ; and he is present as the vital head, living 
 through all its members. It is the theatre of his grace; 
 in which he is making experiments of mercy on human 
 hearts, and effecting transformations so amazing that angels 
 look on with astonishment and joy. Here he is training 
 up a number of those who were children of wrath, and 
 preparing them to take part in the business and pleasures 
 of heaven. He has it in prospect to collect a large reve- 
 nue of glory from earth ; and his church is the repository 
 in which all that wealth is stored, preparatory to its full 
 and final display. His appointment of her ordinances, the 
 full-souled ardor of his intercessory prayer that she might 
 be with him, one with him forever; his donation and dow- 
 ry of the Holy Spirit ; his rich and constant supplies of 
 grace : his watchful jealousy of all the advances of tem- 
 poral power ; and the encompassing wall of fire into which 
 his perfections kindle for her protection ; a wall which the 
 gates of hell shall not break and enter ; all concur to 
 show, that, as the elected bridegroom of the church, he is 
 looking forward to the spousal day, w^hen, having made 
 herself as a bride adorned for her husband, he shall find 
 14 
 
218 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 in her unwrinkled beauty and spotless perfection, the solace 
 and reward of all his love ; and in her full happiness the 
 supplement and completion of his own glory. Now he is 
 the centre from which radiates all her splendor, then he 
 shall be the focus to which it shall all return. His voice 
 shall be the only sound to which his church shall listen ; 
 his glory the only object on w^hich her eye shall fasten ; 
 his grace, matchless and untold, the only theme that shall 
 engage her tongue. ' Blessed are they who are called 
 unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.' 
 
 SECTION V. ON SATANIC AGENCY, 
 
 ' The Devil and his angeis 
 
 Angelic agency, both good and bad, is a doctrine fa- 
 miliar to the Old Testament. That part of the doctrine 
 Avhich relates to the ministry of holy angels, indeed, is 
 there so fully illustrated, that, although the discourses of 
 Christ contain frequent allusions to it, they present so little 
 that is new, except the conspicuous part they will enact in 
 the solemnities of the last day ; and the fact that they are 
 his ; that the few remarks on the subject we propose to ad- 
 vance, will relate exclusively to 'the devil and his angels.' 
 Concerning these, the teaching of Christ is more copious, 
 explicit, and original : as if, in compassion to our fears, the 
 full exposure of our danger from hell had been reserved, 
 till he could furnish the antidote to those fears by revealing 
 the counteracting agency of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Having assumed the championship of the world, and 
 being confident of ultimate triumph, our Lord did not hes- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 219 
 
 itate to confirm our worst apprehensions of the numbers, 
 and povyers, and malice of our spiritual foes. He opened 
 our eyes, and, behold ! the enemy in full possession of our 
 world. And, as if the seat of the infernal government had 
 been long since transferred from hell to earth, he repeated 
 its princely titles as familiar words, enlarged on its domin- 
 ion, and pointed out its thrones, principalities, and powers. 
 Among these he spoke of one as Satan ; Beelzebub ; a 
 liar ; a murderer from the beginning ; the wicked and evil 
 one ; one who, by trampling on law, had acquired the au- 
 thority of a legislator in guilt : one who, by signalizing 
 himself as the most daring of rebels, had reached the bad 
 pre-eminence of the ' prince of demons.' 
 
 Of the number of his angels we can form only a con- 
 jecture : but the fact, that his ' field is the world ; ' that he 
 is represented as multiplying himself through their agency- 
 over the whole field ; and concurring in, if not actually in- 
 stigating, all the evils which it contains, warrants the con- 
 jecture that they out-number the human race. Let no 
 man, then hope to escape temptation, through any lack of 
 Satanic agents. He, whose resources enable him to devote 
 a legion to torment a human body, cannot be wanting in 
 instruments to tempt and destroy the immortal soul. 
 
 Whether sin had ever entered the universe, at any date- 
 less period prior to the angelic apostacy, we know not; it 
 is certain that we can only trace its history up to that mys- 
 terious event. Speaking of Satan, our Lord declares that 
 ' he abode not in the truth ; ' once, he possessed a throne 
 where all is radiant with holiness and joy, but he swerved 
 from his allegiance to ' the blessed and only Potentate,' and 
 thus lost his first estate. Together with an unknown mul- 
 titude of associate rebels, he was driven from the presence 
 of God, cut off from the loyal part of the creation, and 
 doomed to be the prey of his own mighty depravity. From 
 
220 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 that moment he became the avowed antagonist of God ; 
 established an infernal empire, and planted the standard of 
 rebellion, around which all the principles and powers of 
 evil might rally and combine. Actuated by that universal 
 law, by which each being and principle seeks to conform 
 all things to its own nature, and stimulated by implacable 
 hatred against God, he no sooner found our world created, 
 than he came to efface from it the image of God and to 
 stamp his own on its breast. In the execution of this 
 dreadful project he succeeded ; meriting, by the means 
 which he adopted, and the dreadful results of his success, 
 the titles of liar, the father of lies, and a murderer from 
 the beginning. He impregnated the heart of man with 
 the awful spirit of revolt, and added earth to his infernal 
 empire ] involving the whole species in guilt ; introducing 
 death, (now perhaps first known,) into the dominions of 
 God; and leading mankind, generation after generation, 
 into the outer darkness of his own proper region. And of 
 all the vast and complicated agency of evil, by which the 
 sinfulness and misery of the wotld is perpetuated, he is 
 * the Wicked One,' the Evil, the great efficient cause. His 
 throne is the rallying point, to which all evil looks for 
 reinforcement and support ; the centre, from which flows, 
 and to which gravitates, all evil ; the heart of the great 
 system of guilt. 
 
 The domination which Satan has acquired on earth is 
 called by Christ a kingdom ; in which he possesses, by 
 right of supremacy in guilt, the princely titles, and exer- 
 cises the prerogatives of royalty. Unable to expel God 
 from his throne, and thus succeed to the homage of man; 
 he had, by a universal system of idolatry, planted his throne 
 between the human worshipper and the Divine Being, in- 
 tercepting and appropriating the adoration which belonged 
 to God alone. But, in order that earth might not quite 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 221 
 
 forget its rightful Lord, Jehovah was pleased to select a 
 people and erect a temple, expressly for the maintenance 
 of his true worship. They held their country from God, 
 on the express condition of fealty to his throne. From the 
 moment of that arrangement, Satan may be said to have 
 made a descent on Judea ; its temple was a memorial of 
 his tyranny, a standing protest against his usurpation ; its 
 worship, a national proclamation, daily repeated, in the 
 name of heaven, of his treason and guilt. At different 
 times he seems to have put all the forces of his kingdom 
 into motion to bear upon it : for to shut up the temple of 
 God, to seduce the people to idolatry, to erect an idol in 
 the holy place, was to sit on the only throne of God upon 
 earth, was a triumph which could only be exceeded by as- 
 cending the throne of heaven. 
 
 For ages previous to the divine advent, the world seem- 
 ed almost entirely his own. His contest for earthly su- 
 premacy, so long disputed by heaven, seemed crowned 
 with success. His vice-regencies and powers sat in the 
 quiet and unchallenged possession of their thrones. No 
 prophet smote them on their lofty seats, or denounced their 
 usurpations ; no miracle reminded them of an omnipotent 
 antagonist. The world appeared to be as completely theirs, 
 to portion out, and rule at pleasure, as if they held it by 
 grant and seal from God himself, and were appointed to 
 reign in his name. Nor did Judea itself form an excep- 
 tion to this wide infernal sway ; for (short of formal idol- 
 atry) it belonged to the universal confederacy, and formed 
 one of the fairest and most faithful provinces of the satanic 
 empire. And, as if to exact a terrible compensation, even 
 for this slight nominal deduction from full allegiance, many 
 of its inhabitants were held as hostages to hell, by a terri- 
 ble system of demonaical possession. Satan had become 
 ' the prince of this world,' Wherever he looked the ex- 
 
222 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 panse was his own ; the teeming population were his suh* 
 jects; the invisible rulers were his selected agents ; temp- 
 tation in his hands had become a science, and sin was 
 taught by rule ; the world was one storehouse of tempta- 
 tion ; an armory in which every object and event ranked 
 as a weapon, and all classed and kept ready for service : 
 every human heart was a fortified place : every demon 
 power was at its post : he beheld the complicated machine- 
 ry of evil, which his mighty malignity had constructed, in 
 full and efficient operation ; no heart unoccupied, no spot 
 un visited, no agency unemployed ; and the whole result- 
 ing in a vast, organized and consolidated empire. No 
 sooner, therefore, did Jesus begin to attract the attention of 
 Judea, as the ' Sent of God,' than he became obnoxious to 
 the tyrant's hate. In the usurped capacity of the sove- 
 reign of the world, the tempter went forth and met him, 
 asking him only to own that sovereignty, and all the king- 
 doms of the world should be his, and the glory of them. 
 
 But the great object which had brought Christ upon 
 earth, was to dispute that soverignty, to re-assert the origi- 
 nal and supreme rights of God to the alienated homage of 
 mankind, and thus rescue man from the grasp of the Des- 
 troyer. What the enemy reserved as his last and most 
 powerful temptation, the splendid vision of a thousand prov- 
 inces ; was a sight, we may suppose, familiar to the eye 
 of Christ; though seen by him, alas! under a far differ- 
 ent aspect. He beheld in it a scene of woe, which never 
 failed to call forth his profound compassion. On all sides 
 he beheld the blinded victims of satanic cruelty ; vast, 
 crowded tracts of spiritual beings, immortal essences, wast- 
 ed, ruined, murdered, lost ; a captive world, chained to the 
 wheels of the spoiler, and moving along, (most of them so 
 beguiled, as to be actually pleased with the mock pomp of 
 the gloomy procession, to endless death. While immedi- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 223 
 
 ately "beneath his eye, in the very land where he had taken 
 humanity, he saw legions of fiends in actual, bodily pos- 
 session of miserable man. Not satisfied with the evil they 
 could inflict by ordinary temptation, he beheld them con- 
 summating their cruelty by actually incorporating with 
 men ; turning their bodies into living tombs, engrossing and 
 demonizing all their powers, merging the man in the fiend. 
 Yes, man, who had been created in the image of God, be- 
 came ' the habitation of dragons ; ' his heart the fuel con- 
 sumed by their passions ; his senses and organs, the slaves 
 of their rampant impiety ; hell brought to him, and begun 
 in him, upon earth ; an incarnate demon, his features put- 
 ting on the image of the legion within him ; — what a sight 
 for the Lover of souls ! what a spectacle for infinite good- 
 ness to contemplate ! The Savior beheld, and meditated 
 lelief. He made bare his arm, and the unclean spirits fled 
 at his approach. He sent his disciples, first twelve, and 
 then seventy, to traverse the land in all directions ; each of 
 them armed, and charged, to cast out devils ; and again he 
 repeated the charge to his apostles, when on his way to 
 ascend from earth to heaven. 
 
 When vindicating the character of his power from the 
 imputation of the Pharisees, he affirmed that it was of a 
 nature essentially hostile to Satan, and subversive of his 
 kingdom. While the foresight of the redemption his 
 death would achieve enable d him to speak of the future as 
 if it had been present, and to say, ' Now is the prince of 
 this world cast out.' The voice of prophecy had declared, 
 ♦ He shall divide the spoil with the strong ;' and, in fulfill- 
 ment of that prediction, he planted himself full in the path- 
 way of the destroyer : he may be said to have erected his 
 cross in the highway to hell, that he might rescue sinners 
 from the very jaws of perdition. 
 
 Now, as Satan possesses on earth official ubiquity, as he 
 
224 THE GREAT TEACAER, 
 
 is every where present through the medium of his agents, 
 it was not to be supposed that an event so signalized as 
 the advent of Christ would escape his knowledge ; or, that 
 being known, it would fail to call forth his jealous vigi- 
 lance and utmost opposition. Knowing, indeed, Bswe do, the 
 essential dignity of Christ, we might have hoped that, in 
 deference to his purity and majesty, temptation would have 
 retired from his presence, or have laid its baneful activity 
 to sleep ; that the powers of darkness would have left him 
 a free and open passage through the world : and that his 
 disciples would have found in his hallowed presence a 
 certain shelter from the persecutions of hell. But, so far 
 from this, his coming awoke all the original antipathy, the 
 native oppugnancy, of evil against good. He had come 
 into a world in which nothing in human form had ever 
 escape the polution of sin ; and he had come here, attested 
 by such signal credentials of a divine commission, that 
 from the hour of his advent, through the w^hole of his 
 earthly course, Satan appears to have called in his agents 
 from every other pursuit, and to have set them in array 
 against him alone ; turning away from all ignobler prey, 
 he seems to have made him the sole mark for every shaft 
 and w^eapon of hell. As if the temptation of Christ were 
 too great an enterprise, a field too momentous, to be left to 
 the power of a common arm, the prince of darkness, him- 
 self, undertook personally to conduct the untried adventure. 
 Having drawn out his forces, and entrenched himself in 
 his way, he came into eager and determined collision with 
 Christ on the very threshold of his public life ; leaving him 
 to infer, that if he persisted in his intended course, his pro- 
 gress would be disputed, step by step. 
 
 Nor are the eventful narratives of the evangelists want- 
 ing in intimations that the threat was made good. In his 
 own express language, especially as that language is after- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 225 
 
 wards illustrated by the apostles, we can only arrive at 
 one conclusion, that his whole life was a continued coflict, 
 hourly increasing in fierceness and malignity on the part 
 of hell, till it came to the crisis of Calvary. ' The prince 
 of this world cometh,' said he, ' and hath nothing in me.' 
 • Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.' ' This 
 is your hour, and the power of darkness.' During that 
 dreadful hour, indeed, no foe could be seen by man, but 
 such as the gates of Jerusalem had poured forth. And it 
 is true, that, had that been the only foe, the enmity of the 
 carnal mind had that day collected and led, out her chosen 
 bands from the halls and streets of the city ; had assem- 
 bled and crowded around the cross the darkest elements of 
 human depravity. But the great Foe was invisible. Of- 
 ten had he assailed the life of Jesus before, but as often 
 had he been defeated ; it seemed guarded, like the tree of 
 life itself, by a sword which turned every way. But now, 
 at length, his persevering malice seemed crowned with suc- 
 cess; the Savior was in his toils, and appeared to be aban- 
 doned to his fate : he and his cause would expire in igno- 
 miny together ; and mercy pierced through his side, and 
 chased from the world, would no more return, but would 
 henceforth relinquish man to the undisp ued sceptre of 
 hell. 
 
 We cannot but imagine that the thrones and principal- 
 ities of darkness were there to witness the triumph ; that, 
 flocking together from the east and west, the north and 
 south, leaving behind them many an unfinished plot of 
 evil, they came and covered the mount, to celebrate his tri- 
 umph. And could heaven be absent? No, the angels of 
 God, incapable of repose while such an issue was pend- 
 ing, quitted their celestial seats, and surrounded the scene 
 with horses and chariots of fire. Stars in their courses 
 might have fought during that hour, and have been un- 
 
226 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 heeded. It was more than an era ; the junction of all the 
 eras of time : the event of that hour was to determine, 
 whether earth should pass entirely into the hands of Satan, 
 or be again recovered into the hand of God : whether the 
 expiring rays of human hope should be quite extinguished 
 in the blood of Christ, leaving the earth in hopeless night ; 
 or, whether his cross should henceforth radiate light and 
 life to the universe : it was to draw to a close the great 
 question, to terminate the comprehensive controversy of all 
 ages between right and wrong, holiness and sin. Hell in- 
 flicted the decisive stroke; the shock was received and 
 sustained by the heart of the son of God. Then, and not 
 till then, did the powers of darkness perceive their error : 
 they saw with unutterable dismay, that in bowing his head 
 he was dragging the pillars of their empire to the dust; 
 that he was dying to triumph ; that, in effect, his cross 
 was changing into a throne. He exclaimed, ' It is finish- 
 ed!' and the gates of hell vibrated to the shout. He en- 
 tered into the grave for a short space ; there attired him- 
 self in the robes of triumph ; came forth to receive the 
 gratulation and homage of angels and men; and ascended 
 to his new mediatorial throne, ' leading captivity captive, 
 and making a show of them openly.' 
 
 It is by no means unlikely that some persons, on com- 
 paring this statement with the moral condition of the 
 world, may be tempted to think, that, if the death of our 
 Lord is to be viewed as a triumph over hell, we greatly 
 overrate its practical results. To such a suspicion it may 
 suffice to reply, that our language is only the echo of 
 scripture, of the declarations of Christ himself That, 
 ' we see not yet all things put under him,' we readily ad- 
 mit ; that a large proportion of the satanic empire has not 
 yet been even summoned in his name ; and that much of the 
 kingdom which nominally belongs to Christ has not real- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 227 
 
 ly transferee! its allegiance from Satan, are facts we deep- 
 ly deplore. But, first, he distinctly predicted this prolong- 
 ed activity and power of the enemy. A consideration, 
 secondly, which should induce us to credit his other pre- 
 dictions of perfect triumph in the end. Especially as, in 
 the third place, we recognise in his mediatorial work, all 
 the essential elements of that triumph; the character of - 
 God, which Satan had obscured, made more illustrious 
 than before ; the most affecting and decisive proof that 
 God, in punishing sin, is perfectly just and infinitely good; 
 the dignity and happiness of the creature, which Satan had 
 placed in revolt, not only consisting with a state of subjec- 
 tion to God, but depending on it ; divinty and humanity, 
 which Satan had traduced and represented as antagonist 
 natures, brought into the close embrace and union of one 
 person; the forgiveness of sin, which the enemy supposed 
 imcompatible with the divine rectitude made more com- 
 patible with that rectitude than even the punishment 
 of sin would be ; new incentives to holiness, and an infi- 
 nite augmentation of every previous motive to resist sin ;• 
 and to crown all, the almighty agency of the Holy Spirit, 
 to expel from the heart ' the strong man armed,' and to en- 
 throne in his stead, ' a stronger than he.' And, fourthly, it 
 appears that, wherever these elements of triumph are 
 brought to bear on the human heart, they infallibly achieve 
 success ; demonstrating the glorious superiority of Christ 
 to ' all the power of the enemy.' 
 
 The church which he has formed has been reared in the 
 immediate presence of hell in arms ; every member belong- 
 ing to it is a vassal rescued from the empire of sin ; many 
 of them were once even the pillars of that empire. As 
 the spiritual erection has proceeded, it has been approach- 
 ed by stratagem, and beleagured in form ; but it is ' built 
 on a rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
 
228 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 it.' When the seventy returned to him, saying, * Even the 
 devils are subject to us through thy name,' he received the 
 announcement as matter of course ; his eye had followed 
 them wherever they had gone ; and, surveying futurity as 
 already present, had beheld in their success the earnest of 
 a triumph in which ' Satan should fall like lightning from 
 heaven : ' looking through all the intermediate clouds and 
 storms of time, he gazed complacently, as in sceptred state 
 on the serene atmosphere of the world, purged of all its 
 evil elements, and fit to be breathed by the inhabitants of 
 heaven. When surrounded by circumstances of the deep- 
 est depression, he said, with the calm confidence of majes- 
 ty enthroned with all its rivals at its feet, ' The prince of 
 this world is judged,' ' Now shall he be cast out.' Even 
 then he saw, in perspective, the completion of his triumph 
 and beyond: his prophetic ear, even then, caught the dis- 
 tant shout of his redeemed church. He knew, that when 
 he should exclaim, ' It is finished,' the powers of darkness 
 would hear in that cry, the knell of their empire ; that 
 when his name should be shouted from land to land, as 
 the watchword of salvation, its every echo should shake 
 and bring down the fabrics of that empire. 
 
 And now it is finished, the work of redemption is com- 
 pleted ; all that remains for him to do, is perfectly compat- 
 ible with a state of rest ; ' from henceforth he is expecting 
 till his enemies be made his footstool.' Having fought the 
 battle, he has dispatched his subjects to pursue the enemy 
 to win the victory, and collect the spoils. As long, indeed, 
 as this remains unaccomplished, he will not consider his 
 office fulfilled, or his reward complete. As long as a sin- 
 gle principle of evil continues at large, the universe is 
 threatened, the safety and peace of the Savior's empire are 
 liable to invasion and revolt ; ' he must reign, till he hath 
 put all enemies under his feet.' Nor, till then, will his 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 229 
 
 kingdom be in a state to be ' delivered up unto God, even 
 the Father ; ' he has undertaken, expressly, to ' gather out 
 of it all things that offend, and them that do iniquity ; ' to 
 restore it to a state of purity and perfection worthy to be 
 known as the work of his hands ; fit to be accepted, and in- 
 stated again, as an integral part of his dominions, ' who is 
 of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.' And, as he sits 
 enthroned, with all power in his arm, it is true, that to 
 him, even now, is the prince of this world cast out, and 
 the last enemy destroyed. He beholds the prince of the 
 power of the air already in flight ; followed in disorder by 
 the routed remains of his once gorgeous and imperial 
 state ; thrones, dominations, and powers ; the tyranny of 
 six thousand years; sailing through the air, and fading 
 from the view ; he looks upon the world, his own world, 
 subdued by love, exorcised of every element and atom of 
 evil ; another heaven ; catching, and reflecting, and mul- 
 tiplying his own image, and God is all in all. 
 
 And .here we should quit the subject, did we not suspect 
 that certain inquiries have been suggested in the course of 
 the essay, some of which, if left unnoticed, might impair 
 the salutary eflect which it might otherwise produce, and 
 all of which admit of a practical application. 
 
 Concerning the nature of the beings of whom we are 
 speaking, we only know that they are spirits; by which, 
 probably, all that is meant is, — not that they are absolute- 
 ly unembodied, to be only spirit is most likely peculiar to 
 God alone ; but that they are exempt from the gross mate- 
 riality of bodies like our own. By calling them spirits, 
 our Lord would probably remind us of the facility with 
 which they obtain access to our minds, and would put us 
 on our guard against the subtlety of our operations. The 
 circumstance that we are ignorant of the way in which 
 they reach our mind, is no objection whatever to the doc- 
 
230 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 trine that tliey do reach it ; our incapability of tracing' 
 many of our sensible impressions beyond the mere sensa- 
 tion itself, leaves the fact of such impressions unques- 
 tioned. Besides, a priori, we should have thought it more 
 unlikely that matter should act upon mind, that material 
 objects should act on that which seems to have no property 
 in common with them, than that mind should act upon 
 mind, two homogeneous substances on each other. Yet 
 experience tells us, that the former action is always going 
 on in the process of our mental perceptions ; and the latter 
 we presume, is all that is meant, physically, by Satanic 
 agency ; of which indeed a counterpart and illustration 
 is to be found, in the action of one human mind upon 
 another. 
 
 Nor is the doctrine invalidated by the objection, that we 
 are unconscious of such extraneous influence ; this only 
 show^s the facility with which the Tempter acts, and is the 
 triumph of his art. He so times and modulates his whis- 
 pers, that we mistake them for the voice of our OAvn 
 thoughts ; so conceals his agency, that while we fancy we 
 are sailing before the impulse, and floating down the stream 
 of our own free volitions, his hand is on the helm : thus 
 flattering our pride, scofling at our weakness, and steering- 
 our destiny at the same time. We ourselves suppose that 
 there is an established order in which our thoughts suc- 
 ceed each other ; that, detached and promiscuous as they 
 appear to be, they are linked together with all the strength 
 and sequence of a chain, and the principle which thus unites 
 them we call the principle of suggestion, the law of associ- 
 ation. Now, admitting the existence of such a law, a law 
 common to all minds, like gravity to all matter ; operating^ 
 by mental affinity and attraction — it is only to suppose that 
 Satan has mastered this principle ; that the result of the 
 experience of many thousand years, in studying the struc- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 231 
 
 ture, watching- the movements, and experimenting" on the 
 properties of mind is, that he knows the universal bearing and 
 operation of this principle; and what a fearful amount of 
 power, what an immense command over the human mind, 
 may he possess in the knowledge of this principle alone. 
 
 But whatever the grand secret of his dreadful art may- 
 be, the strongest language is but barely equal to express 
 the reality of the power which he w^ields over the mind. 
 He is represented as actually ' entering into the heart ; ' 
 becoming the gloomy and fearful inmate of the soul ; 
 mingling his his very essence with the being of a sinner, 
 ' Get thee behind me Satan,' said Christ to Peter, when 
 that apostle acted the part of the Tempter. And 'one of 
 you,' said he, when speaking of the traitor, ' one of you 
 is a devil.' Evil is no doubt, at times, attributed to Satan, 
 not because he has directly produced it, but because he loves 
 it; and those who have wrought it have imbibed his spir- 
 it, and are employed in his service ; such therefore, may 
 appropriately take their 7iame from him, from whom they 
 have derived their nature. 
 
 To excite our most solicitous avoidance of the enemy, as 
 well as to describe his nature, he is repeatedly called, by 
 Christ, an unclean spirit. It is not every unclean thing 
 that oflends the sight, while the slightest stain upon some 
 things will excite in us deep dislike ; the feeling depends 
 entirely on the nature of the thing, and the purpose to 
 which it is applied. We pass by an unclean stone unnotic- 
 ed ; it is unconscious of its state, and was meant to be 
 trampled under foot. But, rising a step higher in the scale 
 of creation, to an unclean plant, we become conscious of a 
 slight emotion of dislike ; because we see that which might 
 have pleased the eye, and have beautified a spot in the crea- 
 tion, disfigured and useless. An unclean animal excites 
 our dislike yet more ; for, instead of proving useful in any 
 
232 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 way, it is merely a moving pollution. But an unclean 
 human being excites our loathing more than all : it pre- 
 sents our nature in a light so disgusting, than it lessens 
 our pity for him, if he be miserable, and excites in us ideas 
 of disease, contamination, and pain. But an unclean spir- 
 it I — it is loathsome above all things ; it is the soul and es- 
 sence of pollution ; it is the uncleanest object in the uni- 
 verse ; it is a spectacle which excites the deep dislike of 
 God himself. His dislike of it is all the more intense, be- 
 cause, originally, it was pure, and capable of making per- 
 petual advances towards divine perfection ; whereas, now, 
 it presents itself to his eye, robbed of all its purity, and de- 
 filed in all its powers, a fountain of pollution. It is so ut- 
 terly unfit for its original employment and state, that the 
 pure and holy God has no alternative, but to banish it from 
 his presence as a spiritual nuisance, and to consign it to 
 the place which he has reserved ' for every thing that defil- 
 eth.' To yield to temptation, then, is to put ourselves into 
 the hands of him with whom contact is contamination : it 
 is to receive into the centre of our being the great spirit of 
 uncleanness ; and to let our own spirits be degraded into 
 the sink of essential pollution. How unspeakably precious 
 to the sinner, sensible of his ingrained defilement, is ' the 
 fountain opened for sin and uncleanness.' 
 
 ' When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walk- 
 eth through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 
 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I 
 came out ; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept 
 and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself 
 seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they 
 enter in and dwell there ; and the last state of that man 
 is worse than the first.' This awful picture of demoniacal 
 possession, is expressly stated, by Christ, to be a parabolic- 
 al representation of the Jewish nation. But its applicabili- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 233 
 
 ty to a nation, warrants the propriety of applying it to cer- 
 tain states of the individual sinner. And what an affecting 
 view does it present of the untiring, enchroaching, all-en- 
 grossing power of the enemy ! how solemnly does it warn 
 us to resist his first approaches ! Having obtained a lodg- 
 ment in the heart of the ungodly, he consuhs their vicious 
 taste, panders to their depraved appetites, and thus seeks to 
 make himself necessary to their peace. In the sin which 
 most easily besets them he finds his power, and a conven- 
 ient avenue by which he can always command an entrance 
 and a welcome to the inmost chambers of their souls. 
 They arise in the morning, without being able to say wheth- 
 er he will have gained a fresh triumph over them before 
 night or not : they have so often yielded, that they feel it 
 will only depend on whether they are tempted or not : if he 
 comes in the shape of their favorite sin, they will surrender 
 again as a matter of course. They perceive, indeed, some 
 of the evil consequences which will attend it; they dread 
 his approach ; they foresee that it will occasion them an- 
 guish afterwards ; but he has only to appear in the form of 
 the tyrant sin, and they throw themselves prostrate at his 
 feet, while he casts his chain around them once more. 
 From the moment he achieves his first triumph, he seeks 
 to make the heart ' his house ; ' till, having transmuted it 
 into his own nature, though he should go through the 
 whole world seeking rest, he would find none so congeni- 
 al as that human house. Circumstances may occur which 
 may induce him for a time to quit his residence. But if 
 during that interval divine grace does not seize the throne 
 of the heart, it will again be reclaimed, and re-entered 
 with a large reinforcement of the enemy, and held with 
 a seven-fold power. He will patiently wait, if necessary, 
 till they have outlived the alarm which led to his with- 
 drawment ; wait till they have passed through every down-* 
 15 
 
234 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 ward stage of fear, doubt, indifference, obduracy, enmity ; 
 wait for years till he is again solicited to return and resume 
 his power. Then does he avenge his temporary expulsion 
 with fearful rigor. Every faculty of the mind is entered 
 and possessed. The serpent sin coils around the heart, 
 and infixes his fangs, with a power which threatens never 
 to unloose. 
 
 Are we disposed to entertain hard thoughts of that ar- 
 rangement of the divine government which permits our 
 exposure to satanic wiles 7 It should be enough for us to 
 ■ remember that God will finally justify, not only this, but 
 all his ways to man. This arrangement, however, is only 
 part of that all-encircling mystery — the origin of evil — so 
 that to notice it here would be gratuitously to misplace it. 
 We will only suggest, therefore, in passing, that the divine 
 Being, in not preventing satanic temptation by the arbitra- 
 ry exercise of powder, is only acting consistently with the 
 requirements of a moral government ; a government which 
 opposes principle by principle, and not by physical force 
 or coertion ; that, as the virtue of good me7b finds an appro- 
 priate sphere for action, and is improved, by resisting the 
 influence of the wicked, so it is highly probable the excel- 
 lence of the holy angels is exercised and advanced by 
 their efforts to counteract the powers of evil ; that the Al- 
 mighty may be considered as doing every thing necessary 
 to vindicate his benevolence, by counterbalancing the agen- 
 cy of the evil, by the activity of his holy angels ; while, 
 in superadding to their activity in our behalf, the omnipo- 
 tent aid of his Holy Spirit, he is greatly magnifying his 
 grace ; that, in securing the final triumph of that kingdom 
 which embraces all the elements of moral good over that 
 which comprehends every thing of evil, he is entitling 
 himself to an infinite revenue of glory ; and, finally, that 
 a principal ingredient in the happiness of the redeemed, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 235 
 
 will result from a clear and comprehensive survey of those 
 tremendous powers of evil over which they will have tri- 
 umphed. 
 
 In the mean time, it should be borne in mind, that in no 
 instance in which Satan acquires dominion over the sinner 
 does he obtain it by force ; the means which he employs 
 are perfectly compatible with human freedom ; so that the 
 surrender of the sinner is voluntary, he sells himself to 
 work iniquity. If the enemy sow tares in the field of the 
 church, or of the individual mind, it is done ' while men 
 sleep ; ' if he ' cometh, and catcheth away the good seed 
 sown in the heart,' it is when the subject of it 'understand- 
 eth it not ; ' does not lay his mind to it ; or, if he re-enters 
 the soul, after a transient absence, with seven-fold strength, 
 it is only when * he finds his house empty, swept, and gar- 
 nished,' to welcome his return. The sole secret of his 
 power over us, is to be found in our own depravity; the 
 soul may be ' set on fire of hell,' the live coal may be 
 brought from the infernal fires, but the combustible materi- 
 als were already collected and laid in the depraved soul. 
 And, accordingly, though our depravity is frequently as- 
 cribed to ' the wicked one,' yet his agency is never alleged 
 as an excuse for our sinfulness, but, on the contrary, as its 
 last ao-o-ravation. 
 
 We have already remarked that the days of the reign 
 of Satan are numbered : the chain which is to bind him is 
 forged, and the fires which shall encircle him are already 
 kindled, ' the breath of the Lord like a stream of brim- 
 stone hath kindled them.' And the day is appointed when 
 they who have lived his willing slaves shall find themselves 
 involved in the coils of the same chain, and enveloped in 
 the same penal fires. The Judge of all ' shall say unto 
 them on his left hand. Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting 
 fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' Those who 
 
236 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 have tempted, and they who have embraced temptation, are 
 the two classes which comprise all the pollution in the 
 universe ; as such, the besom of destruction shall sweep 
 them together into one place ; as the refuse of sin, the nui- 
 sance and leavings of the creation, Gehenna, the recepta- 
 cle of all the elements of pollution, shall enlarge its capa- 
 cious bosom to receive them ; where, as the appropriate fuel 
 of almighty wrath, they shall 'burn together, and none 
 shall quench them.' 
 
 RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 
 
 I am the resurrection and the life. 
 
 ■ That question in religion which takes precedence of 
 every other ; the existence of God excepted ; and which 
 gives character and importance to them all, is the ancient 
 inquiry, entailed with unabated interest on each succeed- 
 ing generation, ' If a man die, shall he live again ? ' In- 
 dependent of revelation — if indeed any of the human race 
 have ever been quite independent of it — men have gener- 
 ally anticipated a future existence, as a doctrine harmoniz- 
 ing with their desires and wants, and with the character of 
 a righteous moral governor. The instinctive horror with 
 Avhich the soul recoils from the thought of annihilation; 
 its ardent longing after a perpetuity of life, and its strong 
 presentiment of it ; its constant progress in knowledge and 
 power up to the moment of death ; its capability of ab- 
 stracting itself from this world, and conceiving of univer* 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 237 
 
 sal natures, and nobler states of being- ; the prodigality 
 with which it lavishes its great powers on unworthy ob- 
 jects, owing to the inadequacy of every thing earthly to 
 engage them; the necessity of the ho^e of immortality to 
 develope and give scope to its latent powers; and the prin- 
 ciples and design of a moral government, in punishing sin 
 and rewarding virtue; these considerations are so many 
 steps by which men have emerged from the sepulchre, as- 
 cended the throne, and, in hope, seized the crown of im- 
 mortality. Now throughout the kingdom of animated 
 nature, wherever an organ or faculty is to exist character- 
 istic* of the species to which it belongs, a kind of pre-as- 
 surance is given, a practical anticipation that it will, by 
 and by, be developed ; nor is this prophecy ever falsified. 
 The most perfect human being is, at best, m this world, 
 nothing more than an unfinished sketch of humanity ; a 
 creature full of these pre-assurances and anticipations of 
 future developement, and final perfection: unless, then, his 
 instincts and essential principles are a splendid falsehood; 
 unless the divine signatures impressed on his nature be a 
 forgery, a grave imposture; unless humanity itself be a 
 lie, a deep-laid conspiracy against all right and happiness, 
 we are warranted in the hope of immortality. Under the 
 government of a righteous Being, we naturally look for 
 an illustration of his character in his works ; we ponder 
 the volume of nature, and find it to contain one vast and 
 compacted argument for the divine perfections ; but deny to 
 man a future existence, and the argument is flawed, and 
 the character of God, which it professes to vindicate, stands 
 impeached. 
 
 We, however, who enjoy the light of the gospel, are lia- 
 ble to over-rate the argument derived from nature, and to 
 forget that, to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of 
 death, nothing short of a divine revelation can give to the 
 
238 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 hope of immortality stability and repose. For. in that 
 consciousness of guilt which is common to all mankind, a 
 suspicion arises in the mind that the natural course and or- 
 der of things have been deranged, a shadow of uncertain- 
 ty comes over our best reasoned speculations, and we feel 
 at a loss to say what course the king of a boundless em- 
 pire may see fit to pursue towards the rebellious subjects 
 of an insignificant province. Here the opinions of a Soc- 
 rates and a Plato, of a Cicero and a Seneca, though often 
 quoted, are only, at best, the conflicting conjectures of minds 
 alternating between hope and fear. They beheld, with 
 dismay, the human race walking in gloomy procession to 
 the grave : and, as they saw them disappear in the land of 
 shadows, they sought, with strained and untiring gaze, to 
 follow their steps and learn their fate; and had not revela- 
 tion come to our aid, their opinions would have deserved 
 respect, and would have often passed the lips of the dying 
 in the stead of truths. But they themselves were conscious 
 of distressing doubt : while, at one time, they spoke as 
 from the skies ; at another, they uttered the language of 
 the sepulchre ; according as hope or fear was the oracle of 
 the moment. 
 
 Revelation authenticatesthehope, and fulfills the obscure 
 predictions, of this great instinct of humanity — an endless 
 existence. It did so, partially, under the Jewish dispensa- 
 tion : at one time, darkly hinting the doctrine, to magnify 
 the hopes or fears of men ; and, at another, pourtraying it in 
 definite forms, to engage their faith : now, dispatching a 
 messenger from the unseen world; and, now, clothing a 
 prophet with the terrors of an unearthly visitant, and plant- 
 ing him in their way to bring them to a stand, by warning 
 them of a fearful something beyond. But the light which 
 it held over the sepulchre flickered, did not burn so strong, 
 but that it might have been extinguished by the deadly va- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 239 
 
 poTs of the tomb ; and hence, the views of its disciples wa- 
 vered also ; sometimes speaking in tones of depression, as 
 i£ their whole horizon were the walls of a charnel-house; 
 at other times by a kind of lofty divination peculiar to the 
 wise and the good of every age, (for every good man is, in a 
 sense, a prophet), making near approaches to the truth ; 
 anticipating revelations reserved for after times : and then, 
 again, seizing their harp, and singing their triumphant 
 song, as if their immortality had already begun. 
 
 But the full revelation and proof of the doctrine of a 
 future state were reserved to grace the mission of him who, 
 in his own person, is ' the way, the truth, and the life.' 
 We do not, indeed, conceive these to have been the chief 
 or specific design of his advent ; though it is a part of the 
 glory of that design that it includes them : ' he hath 
 brought life and immortality to light by the gospel.' If 
 he found them problems, he left them axioms ; promoted 
 them to the rank of postulates in his system of truth; 
 made them the basis of the whole christian fabric. Hea- 
 then philosophy halted at the grave ; ancient revelation ac- 
 companied its disciples a little beyond, conducting them 
 into Sheol, Hades, the unknown state ; Christianity comes 
 to our aid in the very moment of desertion, stands to receive 
 us at the very place of parting with every other religion, 
 graciously approaches and offers its guidance up to the 
 throne of God. If, prior to the coming of Christ, the doc- 
 trine of immortality was undefined and unsubstantial ; if, 
 like the spectral phantom of Eliphaz, the believer could 
 only say of it, ' It passed before my face ; it stood still ; but 
 I could not discern the form thereof; ' he may be said to 
 have embodied the truth, to have fashioned and impersonated 
 it in his own glorious body. Having rolled away the stone 
 from the sepulchre of human hope, he invites us to look 
 in ; and instead of the dust, and darkness, and loathsomeness 
 
240 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 proper to the grave, we behold the ' linen clothes lying by 
 themselves ' — the apparel of the prison-house vacated and 
 left — and angels in white, sitting to re-assure our hope, 
 and point us to the skies. 
 
 I. In naming the most original features of our Lord's 
 teaching on this subject, the first, in order, is the doctrine 
 of an intermediate state. Pre-supposing the immateriality 
 and immortality of the soul, he frequently employed Ian- 
 guage which denotes the active existence of the soul be- 
 tween death and the resurrection. ' Fear not them,' said 
 Christ to his disciples ; ' fear not them who kill the body, 
 but are not able to kill the soul.' Then the soul and the 
 body are distinct existences : the body may be slain, and 
 yet the soul escape. But insensibility would be virtual 
 destruction to the soul ; for we cannot conceive how a 
 thinking being can be more destroyed than by losing the 
 power of thought; then the soul will not cease to think. 
 But the only reason, why the soul is indestructible by 
 man, must be its immateriality ; the body he can destroy, 
 for that is material ; and if the soul resulted from any sub- 
 tilization, juxtaposition, or combinations of brute atoms, 
 that could be apprehended, burnt, divided, exhausted, ex- 
 ploded, destroyed also. But, no, saith Christ, ' it is not de- 
 structible by man.' The suicide has no weapon with 
 which he can reach his soul. Persecution, though it has 
 taxed its ingenuity to the utmost, and has called in the in- 
 ventive aid of him who is a murderer from the beginning, 
 has failed to devise any instrument with which it could 
 seize and torment the soul ; has feU and inwardly cursed 
 its impotence, that, in consuming the body of its victim, it 
 was actually releasing the immortal soul. The soul has 
 nothing to do with death ; if persecution will have the 
 body, the soul surrenders it, leaves it behind, drops it in the 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 241 
 
 grave, and passes on to immortality. Indeed, had the con- 
 trary sentiment prevailed, there is reason to conclude that 
 Christianity would have had a much smaller numher of 
 martyrs to boast ; they would have shrunk from death, not 
 to avoid the physical suffering, but the loss they were cal- 
 led to sustain, the dreary suspension of all the enjoyments 
 the gospel had brought them ; that would have given to 
 death a new sting. But the fearful apprehension never 
 seems to have visited their minds. A primary article in 
 their martyr-creed was this : ' Absent from the body, pres- 
 ent with the Lord.' They felt that their noblest life had 
 its root in heaven; that their spiritual existence was 'hid 
 with Christ in God ;' was seated high up, beyond reach, 
 in the very fountain and summit of creation. At thought of 
 this, the apparatus of death became consecrated in their eyes, 
 as the means of their admission to his presence ; the in- 
 struments of torture glowed with a glory reflected from his 
 throne ; the flames were chariots of fire to convey them in 
 triumph to their appointed thrones. 
 
 The doctrine of an intermediate existence is recog- 
 nised by Christ, in the parable of the rich man and Laz- 
 arus ; where we learn that the former, dying, lifted up his 
 eyes, being in torment ; while the latter was straightway 
 conveyed, by angels, to Abraham's bosom. Spirits are 
 evoked by Christ, from heaven and hell, to attest an inter- 
 mediate state. He would have us to read the doctrine by 
 the lurid glare of infernal flames, and by the radiance of a 
 celestial vision. He taught it also in the light which he 
 flashed on the divine declaration, ' I am the God of Abra- 
 ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob :' ' God,' 
 said he, ' is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' The 
 Almighty had uttered this three hundred years after the 
 death of Abraham: now, whatever relation he may sustain 
 to the lifeless body, and to the inanimate creation at large, 
 
242 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 he can only be said to be a God to the living soul. On the 
 former, he can only bring to bear his natural attributes, can 
 only exercise mechanical power ; while, on the latter, he 
 can turn the fall aspect of his moral perfections, can bring 
 his transcendental attributes, the peculiar glory ot his char- 
 acter, can bring all his nature into active communication 
 with theirs. Whatever he may do to mere matter, he does 
 to an unconscious object, to a thing which can return him 
 no look of gratitude, no expression of affection ; while the 
 soul finds its heaven in his smile, and he beholds the reflec- 
 tion of his image in its face. Wherefore, ' he is not asham- 
 ed to be called its God :' by which we are to understand 
 that he glories to be called so ; he tells it to the universe ; 
 boasts of the relationship ; is willing to be judged of by his 
 treatment of his spiritual offspring ; is prepared to rest his 
 claims to universal homage on the glorious provision to 
 which he brings them in heaven ; is so satisfied with that 
 illustration of his excellence which he beholds in the pres- 
 ent condition of the spirits of just men made perfect, that, 
 could we see their blessedness, he would be content to be 
 known only as their God ; and, accordingly, one of the ti- 
 tles which he has adopted, and graven on his crown of 
 light, informs us that he is ' the Father of spirits.' 
 
 Another declaration of Christ, to the same import, is his 
 memorable reply to the expiring malefactor, ' Verily, I say 
 unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' The 
 sense of this passage has been made by some, indeed, to 
 turn on a question of punctuation. But receiving it in its 
 general acceptation ; the only acceptation, we apprehend, 
 which common sense wil) ratify ; we learn from it the ca- 
 pabilh^ of the soul to exist independently of the body ; the 
 instant transition of the soul, at death, to the state adapted 
 to its moral character ; and the fact, that it there immediate- 
 ly enters on its endless portion. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 243 
 
 II. The resurrection of the hody was a dogma already 
 familiar to the Jews ; but this doctrine our Lord illustrat- 
 ed, amplified, and confirmed. Aware that it formed the 
 key-stone of Christianity, he may be said to have labored 
 out the proof of it, till he brought it to demonstration. ' Ye 
 do err,' said he, to the Sadducees, who denied a resurrec- 
 tion, ' not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God.* 
 Here, first, he dismisses the question of its possibility by 
 placing it at once in the hands of omnipotence. Secondly, 
 he places around the doctrine a guard of divine declara- 
 tions ; thus reminding us, that if God has said the dead 
 shall be raised, the event is as certain as if it had already 
 occurred and become matter of history. And, thirdly, 
 he alleges as a reason for the event, the relation which 
 God sustains to his people — ' he is their God ;' and is 
 bound, therefore, by a pledge voluntarily given, to do every 
 thing for them essential to their well-being : but the restor- 
 ation of their bodies is essential to the integrity of their 
 nature ; then his faithfulness is pledged to restore, them. 
 Besides, he is the God. oi i\iQ living ; but a constituent 
 part of their nature is held in captivity by death, then to 
 vindicate his title as their God, he must effect the redemp- 
 tion of the body, and replenish it, in common with the soul, 
 with immortal life. Agreeably to this declaration, the Sa- 
 vior elsewhere affirms, ' This is the Father's will who hath 
 sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose 
 nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.' He 
 was commissioned by the Father to accomplish the work 
 of redemption, in a manner worthy of him whose peculiar 
 distinction it is, that ' his work is perfect.' He holds him- 
 self responsible, therefore, for the re-production of the bodies 
 of all his people : he has set his seal upon each of their 
 graves ; and, of all that he holds in trust, he declares that 
 lie will lose, not merely not one, but ' nothing ' — not a frac- 
 
244 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 tion, not a particle essential to one of the bodies of his 
 saints. During the short period that he himself remained 
 in the grave, he hel-d his person dishonored by the bond- 
 age ; and, till the morning of the resurrection arrive, he 
 regards his people as dishonored : the completion of his 
 engagement, and the perfection of his reward, require that, 
 ' of all which have been given him he should lose nothing. 
 
 But our Lord did not limit his proof of a resurrection 
 to words ; he proceeded to demonbtrate the truth by an 
 appeal to our senses. On one occasion, he released an in- 
 dividual whom death had just made his prisoner. On an- 
 other occasion, he met the king of terrors at the gate of a 
 city, conveying a victim to the grave ; and he arrested his 
 march, and reclaimed the prey. And, on a third time, he 
 brought Lazarus forth from the grave, who had been dead 
 four days. On that occasion, he had intentionally delayed to 
 interfere, that the process of decomposition might commence ; 
 he had given to death every possible advantage ; he had 
 voluntarily kept away, till death should be in full posses- 
 sion, till the monster had not merely seized his victim, but 
 had retired with him into the gloomy dominions of the 
 grave, till he had there closed and barred up the entrance, 
 and fortified himself, as in a strong hold, which none should 
 dare to assail, and where he might reign secure. But Je- 
 sus summoned the citadel of death, broke open the* enclos- 
 ure of the grave, and with a voice which compelled 
 submission, demanded, and restored to life, his deceased 
 friend. 
 
 And then, to complete and consumate the proof of a res?- 
 urrection, he himself arose from the dead. The way in 
 which that grand event demonstrates the doctrine of our 
 resurrection is this — he came into the world in the high 
 capacity of the Son of God, and the Savior of mankind. 
 In that capacity he proclaimed, that, having provided sal- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 245 
 
 vation for the human race, he would come again when his 
 plans of mercy were completed, to raise the dead and to 
 judge the v/orld. To prove that he was what he claimed to 
 be, and that he would fulfil what he predicted, he announc- 
 ed, that he himself would arise from the dead on the third 
 day after his decease. 'Then said Jesus unto them, When 
 ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that 
 I am he, and that I do nothing of myself ; but as my 
 Father hath taught me, I do these things.' ' Destroy this 
 temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.' He de- 
 scended into the dreary domains of death ; disappeared in 
 the valley of the shadow of death ; and for a time a darkness 
 deeper that than which enwrapped the earth at his crucifix- 
 ion seemed settling down on the prospects of mankind, and 
 turning his tomb into the grave of immortality. But on 
 the morning of the appointed day, he came forth as he had 
 said, stood at the mouth of the sepulchre, radiant Avith im- 
 mortality, planted the banner of hope on the citadel of 
 death, and called on the world to behold and share in his 
 triumph. Then he is the Son of God ; then he ivill come 
 again to raise the dead : here are the undeniable stamp and 
 seal of heaven that all his representations of the last great 
 day were true, and will certainly be verified. 
 
 III. * Among the numerous additions which he made 
 to our knowledge of the doctrine in question, we may 
 name, first, the fact, that he himself will raise the dead. 
 ' Jesus answered. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour 
 is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice 
 of the Son of God : and they that hear shall live.' Wheth- 
 er this prediction related to the approaching resurrection 
 of Lazarus and others, or to the tide of spiritual life which 
 was about to flow through the world in the diffusion of the 
 gospel, is uncertain. Perhaps, indeed, his comprehensive 
 
246 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 mind may have looked forward to both ; it is evident, how- 
 ever, that the sublimity of the prediction, and the solemn- 
 ity of the asseveration with which he prefaced it, awoke 
 in the minds of many of his hearers, vast and awful ideas 
 of some impending event, ideas which impressed marks 
 of astonishment on iheir anxious countenances. Remark- 
 ing that astonishment, perceiving, by their eager and atten- 
 tive looks, that they were now prepared to receive ri still 
 more stupendous announcement, he continued, ' Marvel not 
 at this ;' ' I perceive that what I have already said has 
 filled you with wonder, and well it might; but attend and 
 you shall hear still greater things than these ; for the hour 
 is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall 
 hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done 
 good, to the resurrection of life ; and they that have done 
 evil unto the resurrection of damnation.' There was a 
 time when no life existed ; when the earth, just brought 
 into being, presented one universal blank, no vital motion, 
 no breathing life upon it. But he spake, and it was done ; 
 for his word is the seed of universal nature, the principle of 
 all life. His fiat went forth, and instantly whole orders 
 of sentient beings sprang into happy existence. His good- 
 ness opened, and burst forth in a creation ; and earth was 
 made the receptacle of his vast overflowing life. His voice 
 was heard ; and forthwith the surface of the earth teemed 
 and overflowed with an ocean of living forms. ' But by 
 one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and 
 so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned !' 
 Since that tremendous catastrophe death has reigned upon 
 earth ; there is no reason to believe that his ravages are 
 known in any other part of the dominions of God ; this 
 is his native seat and throne ; here he keeps court and re- 
 gal state; God has been constantly replenishing the world 
 with new life ; but in every age, death has swept and cleared 
 
HIS ORIGINALiTV, 247 
 
 the stage, has thrown a pall over each generation, has not 
 allowed the grave to be closed, the hatchment of the world 
 to be taken down for a moment, has carried every thing 
 before him. We and our contemporaries are the few sur- 
 vivors of the myriads that have fallen, the children of the 
 slain, and we shall soon be added to the number. Oh, 
 could we see the numberless victims, which have fallen be- 
 neath his stroke accumulated together, we should behold a 
 mountain of mortality towering to the skies : but he has 
 hid them all in the dust, has conveyed them all away to 
 his subterraneous caverns, his ever-enlarging prison of the 
 grave. 
 
 Now it was not fit that death should thus reign : though 
 we, indeed, had deserved to be left in his eternal possess- 
 ion, yet it did not comport with the benevolent designs and 
 glory of God, that death should be thus allowed to enjoy 
 an undisturbed triumph over the work of his hands. He 
 therefore, who at first had peopled the earth with living 
 beings, again returned to survey the scene, to check the 
 career of death, to repair the waste and ravages which 
 death had made. And, oh ! what a mournful sight pre- 
 sented itself to his eyes ; a pestilential element breathed 
 by death over the whole creation, withering all nature, 
 causing the entire universe of being to languish, and droop, 
 and perish ; the world, his world, which was meant to be the 
 pleasant habitation of his creatures, turned into their grave; 
 the shadow of death settled down upon all, and enwrapping 
 it like a funeral pall signifying that all was his. What a 
 pitiable spectacle stretched beneath his view ! — For, re- 
 member, he surveyed the whole at one comprehensive 
 glance ; mothers weeping for their children, and refusing 
 to be comforted because they were not ; every where, groups 
 of mourners collected, weeping over those whom death 
 had seized, bound, and made captive in their presence ; 
 
248 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 long processions of bereaved relatives, following the car of 
 death as if to grace his triumph, and uttering their lamenta- 
 tions in their march to the grave : on all sides, the trophies 
 of death, erected in the shape of tombs, and sepulchres and 
 monumental stones. What must have been his emotions, 
 as the Lord of life and pity, as he walked the field of death, 
 this place of skulls ! What were his emotio7is? Did he 
 not show what they were by his conduct ? ' He healed all 
 manner of sickness, and all manner of diseases among 
 the people ;' in other words, he defeated the designs of 
 death ; drew out the arrows which death had infixed, and 
 healed the Avounds they had made. Even, had he done 
 nothing to redeem the world, his visit would, still have 
 been an era in the annals of mortality ; the Lord of life 
 walking through the regions of death. No wonder the 
 sick and the dying came flocking, and fell down at his feet; 
 no wonder they besought him to shelter and save them 
 from the monster which even dared to chase them into his 
 presence. And did he not save them ? he healed them all; 
 death paused, and stood rebuked in his presence ; found 
 himself overmatched ; discovered, for the first time, that 
 there was one mightier than he. And had all the world 
 brought out their sick and their dyings Christ could have 
 healed them all ; thus famishing death ; thus creating a 
 hiatus in the revenues of death. Nor was this all : he 
 called some back into life again ; and humbled the power 
 of death by compelling him to relinquish his prey. 
 
 Do we ask what his feelings must have been as he tra- 
 versed this Golgothq^ this land of death? 'Jesus wept!' 
 yes, he stood and wept ! And, as he wept, he resolved to 
 remedy and to save. He advanced to the very gates of death 
 and proclaimed with a voice which went pealing and echo- 
 ing through all the dominions of death, and made even 
 the throne of the king of terrors vibrate and tremble, ' I 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 249 
 
 am the resurrection and the life ;' ' I will be known as the 
 antagonist of death ; let my actions prove it ;' ' Lazarus 
 come forth ; and he that was dead came forth/ There, 
 said Christ, ' Pie that believeth in me, though he were 
 dead yet shall he live.' ' That is only a specimen of my 
 designs. I am the great principle of life ; if I chose, I 
 could now raise all the dead; I could end the reio-n of 
 death at once; I have only to speak, and all the dead would 
 recognise my voice, and start into life ; but wisdom re- 
 quires me to forbear ; this is meant as an instance of my 
 power, a sample of my designs.' ' Marvel not at this 
 therefore ; for the hour is coming, in the which all that 
 are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man 
 and shall come forth ; they that have done good unto the 
 resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil unto 
 the resurrection of damnation. 
 
 lY. In opposition to the Pharisees— the principal sect 
 at that time among the Jews — who taught that the resur- 
 rection would be partial, being confined to the bodies of 
 the just, our Lord taught that it would be general. God 
 works by laws, and laws operate universally : every ac- 
 tion, and every atom in the universe has its own law • is 
 impressed with certain qualities, or endued w^'th certain 
 powers, which operate with all the certainty of a law. It 
 was the appointment of God, that the sin of the first Adam, 
 as the federal head of the human race, should bring in a 
 law of death, and the law has acted universally— all have 
 died. It is equally his appointment, that the mediation of 
 the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, standing in the 
 same federal relation, should bring in a law of life • he 
 was pleased to endue it and impress it with this vital' pro-* 
 perty or law ; and unless it should meet with counteraction 
 from a mightier law, which is impossible, it must act uni^ 
 16 
 
250 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 versally. * As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be 
 made alive.' It is the perfection of a law, that it includes 
 all possible cases that may occur and has relation to an in- 
 finite number of cases that never will exist ; so that, had the 
 actual numbers of the human race been multiplied ten thou- 
 sand-fold, the law of death would have swept them all in- 
 to the grave ; and, ' the law of life in Christ Jesus,' would 
 with an operation co-exlensive, have revived them again. 
 'All that are in the grave, shall hear his voice and shall 
 come forth.' 
 
 Besides, it should be remembered, that the resurrection 
 is not a final act ; it is to take place in subserviency to the 
 divine purposes of retribution ; so that the principles of the 
 holy government of God require that it should be univer- 
 sal. Less than the resurrection of all would not satisfy 
 the claims of the righteous Judge. Were one of his peo- 
 ple to be lacking, his mercy could not be satisfied ; his 
 mystical body would be maimed and deficient in an essen- 
 tial member. Were one of the ungodly to be absent, his 
 justice could not be satisfied. Whether good or evil, all 
 will be raised ; every age, every nation, every family, eve- 
 ry individual of all the posterity of Adam. Death shall 
 be abolished and swallowed up in victory. Not only shall 
 its operation be arrested, its ravages stopped, but all the 
 victims which it has seized from the beginning of lime 
 shall be reproduced and restored. It shall beholdall the or- 
 ganized materials which it had dissolved,'and scattered, and 
 trampled in the dust, and labored to efface from the crea- 
 tion, collected and surrounded, and acted upon on all sides 
 with a principle of life ; and rising, as from a sleep, cloth- 
 ed with incorruption. It shall behold its empire vanish in 
 a moment, by the insurrection of all its subjects armed 
 with immortality. Many of the greatest empires of an- 
 tiquity are not only extinct and their boundaries effaced, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 251 
 
 but even the seat of their power is only to be known by- 
 colored dust in the desert, or by colored sand washed up 
 by the waves of a stormy sea ; but of the empire of death, 
 not a vestage shall be left ; not a particle of dust, if search- 
 ed for, shall remain for its memorial ; life, an ocean of vic- 
 torious life, shall overflow and swallow it up. 
 
 V. We may also infer, from the teaching of our Lord, 
 that the bodies raised will be identical with those com- 
 mitted to the grave. '7%e7/ that are in the graves shall 
 come forth.' ' Of all that the Father hath given me I will 
 lose nothing, but will raise it up in the last day.' Indeed, 
 the very term resurrection implies this identity ; otherwise 
 the bodies produced in the last day would be, not a resur- 
 rection, but a creation, like that of the first man. And the 
 design of the resurrection requires it ; the purposes of 
 justice demand that the beings, who shall then appear in 
 judgment, should be the identical beings who have been 
 here on probation. To the objection of the sceptic, that 
 the rapid waste and supply of our animal frame, the suc- 
 cession of bodies we may be said to inhabit, renders this 
 identity inconceivable, we deem it sufficient to reply in 
 the language of Christ, ' Ye do err, not knowing the scrip- 
 tures, nor the power of God.' It should however abate 
 his confidence, if not entirely silence the objector; that, 
 on his principle, neither punishments nor rewards could 
 be justly dispensed, even in this life ; since the material 
 structure changes so rapidly, that in the lapse of a few 
 years not a particle of the primitive body remains. He 
 would not think of asserting, we presume, that he himself 
 is not now the identical individual he was at the time of his 
 birth : that the decrepit body of the aged debauchee is suf- 
 fering unjustly for the intemperance of his youthful frame ; 
 that it would be unrighteous to punish the murderer for a 
 crime which he perpetrated when his body was composed 
 
252 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 of Other particles ; or, that he himself, in consequence of ^ 
 similar change, has no title to property left him a few years 
 ago. His common sense protects him from such absurdi- 
 ties in the affairs of this life ; and we will leave him to as- 
 sign to himself a reason, if he can, why it should desert 
 him only in the province of religion ; let him say, what is 
 the interpretation to be put on the conduct of him who re- 
 serves all his hostility for religion^ arid who evinces that 
 hostility by availing himself of weapons which he would 
 not stoop to employ against any othet object. But among 
 the various triumphs of the resurrection-day, one will be 
 the triumph of common sense ; and let him remember 
 that, even while he has been cavilling and were plying, 
 the hour of retribution has come nearer ; and that the in- 
 destructible principle of conscience, the principle Avhich 
 runs through our being, giving continuity and identity to 
 that being through an eternity of existence, has actually 
 gathered strength w^hile we have been thus communing, 
 and increased its store of materials for future joy or woe. 
 
 VI. We have already shown that the doctrine of immor- 
 tality is not distinctive of the christian system ; it is we 
 think equally clear, that the ho7wr of describing the nature^ 
 and providing the means of a resurrection to everlasting 
 happiness, is peculiar to Christ alone. Blind to the fact of 
 their departure from God, numbers are satisfied with be-* 
 lieving the bare immortality of their nature ; here their 
 inquiries terminate ; the happiness of that nature they take 
 for granted as a matter of course ; they confound existence 
 with enjoyment ; an error this which many a heathen 
 w^ould have blushed to own. Though sitting in the shad- 
 dow of death, ihey were sufficiently enlightened to perceive 
 that an immortality of misery is quite as possible to sinful 
 creatures as an eternity of bliss ; they would have regarded 
 him, who should have brought to them the proo/of immortal 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 253 
 
 i'ty, as conferring a very equivocal boon, unless he could also 
 sow that immortality with the seeds of happiness ; and hence, 
 while they labored to demonstrate a future state, decidedly 
 the greater part of their endeavors were directed to the task 
 of exploring the character and will of the Divinity, and of 
 descrying the nature of the regions beyond the grave, with 
 a view to provide for their future enjoyment. 
 
 Now while the teaching of Christ presupposes the im- 
 mortality of the soul, to him belongs the grand distinction 
 of having proved the resurrection of the body, and pro- 
 vided for the endless happiness of the whole man in heav- 
 en. Had he not made this essential provision, his instruc- 
 tions would only have illuminated the darkness of the 
 world, as with flames ascending from the bottomless pit, 
 would only have painted more dreadful colors on the gloom 
 which has gathered around the seat of the Invisible ; and 
 he himself might be reproached as tormenting us before 
 our time ; but having made our happiness and our immor- 
 tality consistent and co-extensive, what can equally deserve 
 our attention with the way in which he has ' brought it to 
 
 light.' 
 
 1. By this essential divinity he possesses the potoer of 
 defeating death, and of opening to the soul unbounded re- 
 sources of pure and eternal enjoyment. He declared that 
 ' he has life in himself, so that he can quicken whom he 
 will.' ' I,' said he, ' am the resurrection and the life,' ' I 
 
 am the life.' This is language appropriate to 
 
 the Deity alone: for life properly ^^ speaking, inhabits 
 none besides. Life in him is essence ; but of the highest 
 created beings it can only be said that they live, that they 
 are the offspring, the dependent recipients of his essence. 
 However large their capacities, and replenished with life, 
 still they are infinitely nearer to nothing, than to absolute 
 and essential life. So that he ' who only hath immortality,' 
 
254 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 though he hath surrounded himself with an universe of life, 
 still retains to himself the prerogative of swearing, As I live; 
 and of announcing, / am ; and, / am life ; he only hath 
 immortality in its fullness and essence ; and all the oceans 
 of vitality circulating through the universe take their rise 
 in him, ' with whom is the fountain of life,' ' he filleth all 
 in all.' But if it belongs to him alone to say, ' I am life,' 
 when surrounded by ' the living creatures,' the princes of 
 immortality above, with what a heightened emphasis could 
 he repeat it in this region of death ; here, where life was 
 ahvays conditional, and in jeopardy from the first ; here, 
 where comparatively a very small portion of being had 
 been distributed at first ; where that little had been inva- 
 ded, forfeited, wasted ; w^here death was actually in full 
 possession. He came into a land of sepulchres ; found 
 himself standing in a grave, with death for a companion 
 laboring to tread out and trample in the dust the last spark 
 of human life. And, lifting himself up into an attitude of 
 supreme dignity, he said, with a voice which is still echo- 
 ing through the subterranean realms of death, ' I am the 
 resurrection, and the life.' ' I am the ark in which all the 
 life is contained that shall finally issue to people a world 
 now deluged with death. From me proceeds all the re- 
 dundancy of life at this moment replenishing the universe; 
 and I will cause a stream of vitality to set in and flood the 
 earth.' 
 
 2. But power and right are distinct things, and, among 
 men, are frequently opposed to each other. It is however 
 the glory of Him who can do all things, that he does only 
 that w^hich is right; that his power waits on his justice, 
 and takes law from infinite rectitude. Now he had pro- 
 nounced it right that man should die ; how then can he 
 reverse the sentence without impeaching its rectitude, and 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 255 
 
 appearing to judge himself? And yet Jesus asserts to 
 himself the right of restoring the dead to life, selects for 
 himself a title descriptive of this work, and demands to 
 be known by it, as his most honorable and favorite appel- 
 lation. 
 
 The problem is solved, when we hear him affirm that 
 he had come to give his life a ransom for many ; that, as 
 the good shepherd, he proposed to lay down his life for the 
 sheep. Death was the punishment of transgression ; it 
 was in perfect accordance with right that the penalty should 
 be inflicted, in order that holiness might be protected, that 
 sin might be discouraged, and that the divine determina- 
 tion to maintain the law and order of his government might 
 be emphatically proclaimed. If, however, an expedient can 
 be devised by which all these ends can be equally answer- 
 ed, without the infliction of the penalty, right will be sat- 
 isfied, and concede the exemption. That expedient is found 
 in the incarnation and death of the Son of God. By vol- 
 untarily stooping from his glory, assuming our nature, and 
 suffering before the eyes of the universe, all that humani- 
 ty, sustained by divinity, could endure, he has answered 
 the very ends which our punishment would have secured, 
 and infinitely more ; he has placed the hatefulness of sin, 
 and the holiness of God, in a focus of light which will 
 make itself to be seen by every eye ; he has, at once, in- 
 flicted a death-blow on the power of sin, given a triumph 
 to justice, secured life, eternal life to man ; and distinguish- 
 ed an attribute which would have been for ever eclipsed 
 had justice taken its original course, the attribute of Infi- 
 nite Love, The nature of his reward was determined, 
 predetermined, by the nature of his work ; he died, in or- 
 der to exempt us from death. Having received his re- 
 ward, having purchased us out of the hands of offended 
 justice, and made us his own property, he may now em- 
 
25G THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 ploy the right he has acquired in us as he pleases. Death, 
 in its judicial character, is abolished. He is at liberty, 
 either to exempt his people entirely from death, to insert 
 an exception in their favor in the universal commission of 
 death ; or, permitting- the sentence of mortality to take ef- 
 fect, to restore them to life afterwards, and place them for- 
 ever beyond the reach of death. His wisdom prefers the 
 latter course. By allowing them to depart from earth m 
 the ordinary way, through the portal of death, he leaves 
 undisturbed the existing arrangements of providence, avoids 
 many palpable evils, and secures in addition, many valua- 
 ble ends. But while he allows this arrangement to hold, 
 he would have his people to know that it is not forced on 
 him; that it is the choice of his own benignity; that he 
 sways an unchallenged sceptre over the whole empire of 
 hades ; that, in respect to his people, the shadow of death, 
 wherever it falls, may be regarded as the shadow of that 
 sceptre, for at their death, ' he comes to receive them to 
 himself 
 
 3. But sin involves a spiritual as well as a physical 
 death. We have seen that Christ possesses the poiver of 
 re^animating the body; and that he is invested with the 
 right ; but it is evident that these may both be exercised to 
 the punishment of men, ' for some shall come forth to the 
 resurrection of damnation.' The great question then which 
 remains, is, whether or not he possesses the means of call- 
 ing us forth to an immortality of happiness. * I am come,' 
 said he, ' that they may have life, and that they may have 
 it more abundantly.' ' Whoso eateth my flesh, and drink- 
 eth my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up' 
 at the last day.' ' Whosoever drinketh of the water that 
 I shall give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I 
 shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing 
 up into everlasting life.' ' This spake he of the Spirit, 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 257 
 
 which they that believe on him should receive.' By the 
 agency of his Holy Spirit, he conducts in his people, in 
 the present life, a moral process by which they experience 
 a resurrection to holiness. The hour is not only coming-, 
 but now is, when the dead hear the voice of the Son of 
 God : and they that hear it live. Starting from the slum- 
 bers of sin, they awake to newness of life, and attire them- 
 selves in the garments of salvation. Dissevering them- 
 selves from their former bonds, they ask to be trained for 
 every duty his service may require, and pant to enjoy all 
 the happiness his kingdom may contain. Conscious that 
 they are once more breathing the only atmosphere in which 
 the soul can live — the complacent favor of God — they feel 
 within themselves an earnest of immortality ; feel that the 
 new principle of which they have been made the subjects 
 has nothing to fear from death, that it is made for eternity, 
 that it can smile at the decay of the body, and will soon 
 spring from the bed of death to immortality. 
 
 And, from the fact that they have been made the parta- 
 kers of a divine principle, there arises to believers this new 
 pledge of a resurrection to eternal life — that Christ has 
 engaged to raise them as a part of his own being. This 
 truth he himself distinctly taught ; ' As the living Father 
 hath sent me, and I live by the Father : so he that eateth 
 me, even he shall live by me ; ' — ' he dwelleth in me, and 
 I in him ; ' — ' I will raise him up at the last day ; ' — ' be- 
 cause I live, ye shall live also.' He became one flesh 
 with us, in order that we might become one ■ spirit with 
 him. Here is a two-fold bond subsisting between Christ 
 and his people : but the former of these they possess only 
 in common with all mankind, it allies him to the species, 
 and, by virtue of it, all the ungodly shall be raised. The 
 spiritual bond however, is peculiar to themselves ; it has 
 been tied by his own hand, and nothing shall be able to 
 
258 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 separate it. By virtue of this union it is that believers 
 shall arise ; not merely by an act of his power, for thus 
 the wicked shall arise, but by an extension of his life as 
 their life. To the ungodly he can say, ' I am the resur- 
 rection ; ' but to the faithful alone he proclaims, ' I am the 
 resurrection and the life.' The grave was the prison-house 
 of insulted justice ; and as their Representative he bowed 
 himself down, and condescended to wear its fetters ; but 
 his enlargement and return from it shows that it no longer 
 retains its original character ; he has changed it into the 
 peaceful depository of their dust ; the treasury of the skies ; 
 they contemplate his grave as the basement-ground whence 
 their nature takes its spring to immortality. 
 
 So ample and sufficient are the preparatory measures 
 which Christ has taken for the final extinction of death, 
 that he speaks of it in terms of comparative disparagement 
 and indifference. So efTectually is it disarmed and mutila- 
 ted, and so completely at the disposal of Christ, that he 
 speaks of it already as if it were not. ' Whosoever be- 
 lieveth in me, shall never die.' ' If a man keep my say- 
 ings he shall never taste of death, he shall never see death.' 
 In accordance with these representations, he has given to 
 the state of death the soft and tranquillizing name of sleep. 
 This use of the term, indeed, was not unknown to Jewish 
 saints ; but as applied by them to death, it denoted chiefly 
 the silence, darkness, and inactivity of the grave. The 
 Greeks, too, had long been accustomed to speak of death 
 in the softest terms : the dead they often spoke of as the 
 departed, the worn out ; and called their burial-grounds, 
 dormitories or sleeping places. But this arose partly from 
 the dislike they felt to allude to a gloomy and unwelcome 
 subject ; and partly from a wish to propitiate the deceased, 
 of whom they stood in considerable dread. How superior 
 the sense in which Jesus employed the term, sleep ! they 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 259 
 
 used it as a figure, but he turned it into a reality ; they ut- 
 tered it from fear, but he made it the language of hope and 
 of faith. He used it with the highest authority, for he 
 was about to awaken one of the sleepers from his sleep ; 
 and, however protracted the slumbers of his people may 
 be, he knew that they are all finally to hear his voice and 
 to come forth. 
 
 Dense as the gloom is which hangs over the mouth of 
 the sepulchre, it is the spot, above all others, where the 
 gospel, if it enters, shines and triumphs. In the busy 
 sphere of life and health, it encounters an active antago- 
 nist ; the world confronts it, aims to obscure its glories, to 
 deny its claims, to drown its voice, to dispute its progress, 
 to drive it from the ground it occupies. But from the 
 mouth of the grave the world retires ; it shrinks from the 
 contest there ; it leaves a clear and open space in which 
 the gospel can assert its claims, and unveil its glories with- 
 out opposition or fear. There the infidel and the world- 
 ling look anxiously around, but the world has left them 
 helpless and fled. There the christian looks around, and 
 lo the angel of mercy is standing close by his side. The 
 gospel kindles a torch, which not only irradiates the val- 
 ley of the shadow of death, but throws a radiance into the 
 world beyond, and reveals it peopled with the sainted spir- 
 its of those w^ho have died in Jesus. It descends with us 
 into the low chambers of the grave ; bids us look on its 
 silent inmates ; and to look on them with the persuasion 
 that they only sleep. It assures us- that death, like sleep, 
 is not the destruction of the living principle, but only a 
 temporary change in the mode of its operation; that, like 
 sleep, it is a state of rest, discharging us from all the con- 
 cerns of the world ; that, like sleep, it principally affects 
 the body, the activity of the soul being meantime contin- 
 ued, and perhaps greatly increased ; and, most of all, that, 
 
260 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 like sleep, it will not be perpetual, but only endure for a 
 night. It tells us that a day will dawn on the world, when 
 Jesus, assuming an aspect of infinite benignity, will say, 
 in effect, of all his sleeping saints, as he said of Lazarus, 
 * I go to awake them out of sleep.' 
 
 O how vast the immortal awakening ! Who can lift his 
 mind to the greatness of the occasion ! Where is the 
 height from which we can command a view of the sublime 
 spectacle ? In prospect of it, ' Jesus said. The hour is come, 
 thai the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground 
 and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth 
 much fruit.' As the first fruits of them that sleep, he has 
 arisen and appeared before God, the certain pledge of 
 the great harvest-home. ' Put ye in the sickle, for the 
 harvest is ripe: multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of 
 decision.' The wide earth shall ' stand thick,' and wave, 
 with that ocean plenitude of life. The produce of the 
 fields, every year, is a renewed triumph of life over death ; 
 but the triumph of life on that day will be final and com- 
 plete, leaving not an atom for which death can contend. 
 It will be a triumph of the highest order, consisting, not 
 in the mere creation of new being, but in the release and 
 reanimati n of what had been dragged away from the ter- 
 ritories of life ; death itself will be turned into life, corrup- 
 tion will put on incorruption. The triumph will be en- 
 hanced by the circumstance that it will be achieved on the 
 very spot where death had reigned ; if the power of death 
 be confined to this world, what an opprobrium must earth 
 be to all the regions of life, and how naturally may it be 
 pointed at by their inhabitants as the mysterious sepulchre 
 of life, the dishonor of the universe ; but the morning of 
 the resurrection will wipe off' that disgrace, will make 
 earth their boast and song ; for, ' there, they will be able 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 261 
 
 to say, there death was overthrown ; there the great an- 
 tagonist of life, after wasting the earth for thousands of 
 years, and threatening to push the conquest into other 
 worlds, was expelled from the universe as an evil no long- 
 er to be borne. And from that very scene where death 
 once reigned, heaven has received its largest influx of spir- 
 itual and immortal life.' And to consummate the triumph, 
 life on that day will be crowned with immortality ; it will 
 not merely be restored, but ennobled, exalted to the high- 
 est state of security and glory it can sustain. From the 
 ruinous heap of every grave a living structure shall arise, 
 built up into an imperishable monument of 'the Resurrec- 
 tion and the Life ; ' in the stead of corruption, it shall be 
 inaccessible to decay ; ' for neither can they die any more, 
 they are equal Unto the angels ; and are the children of 
 God, being the children of the resurrection.' In the stead 
 of dishonor it will be raised in glory, radiating a splendor 
 which shall eclipse all sublunary glory. In the place of 
 weakness, it shall be clothed with the vigor of immortal 
 youth, asking no relaxation or repose, the wings of the 
 soul accompanying and aiding it in all its untiring flights. 
 In the place of a natural body, it shall be raised a spiritual 
 body : the original grossness of its materiality shall be 
 purged away, it shall be refined and etherialized into spirit, 
 a robe of light rivaling the invisible essence of the soul it- 
 self; while each of its senses shall form an inlet to floods 
 of enjoyment, and each of its organs be instinct and emu- 
 lous with zeal for the divine glory. 
 
 Earth has been often the scene of splendid triumphs, 
 the fame of which has filled the world, and reverberated 
 from age to age ; but how tame, how trifling the greatest 
 achievments of man compared with this ! a triumph which 
 not only eflaces the remembrance of all that man has done, 
 but even eclipses the glory of the divine exploits ; ' the 
 
262 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 former things shall no more come into remembrance.' 
 Here man may indulge in wonder without loss of dignity; 
 not to be astonished here would be unnatural ! Christ 
 himself is represented, ages before his incarnation, as con- 
 templating this scene with boundless delight, as rehearsing 
 his victory over death from eternity. From the bosom of 
 the Father he looked on through the vista of time, while 
 the successive parts of his great work passed in slow and 
 stately procession, till he beheld the scene of the rising 
 dead ; all the intermediate ages instantly vanished ; he saw 
 in anticipation, the king of terrors disarmed beneath his 
 feet, the world flooded with light and life, the song of myr- 
 iads of myriads reached his ear, shouting his name as 
 their Great Deliverer; and, with holy impatience to realize 
 the scene, he exclaimed, ' I will ransom them from the 
 power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death ; O 
 death, I will be thy plagues ! O grave, I will be thy de- 
 struction! ' And during the interval till he came in the 
 flesh, did his interest in the prospect appear to have evap- 
 orated ? What truth did he more frequently or solemnly 
 teach 7 Thrice, in rapid succession, he exclaimed, ' I will 
 raise them up at the last day ; ' as if he sought to find, in 
 the bare repetition of the truth, a solace and compensation 
 for deferring the event. Nor, since his ascension, does his 
 desire to realize it appear to have suiTered the least abate- 
 ment. On the contrary, ' from henceforth he is expect- 
 ing ' till this last enemy shall be destroyed. When last 
 he appeared before his church, to close the visions of futu- 
 rity, the character which he selected for the occasion, was, 
 ' he that hath the keys of the invisible world, and of death.' 
 This is the capacity in which he will next greet the eyes of 
 the redeemed ; meanwhile, he is training them to raise, in 
 concert with himself, this shout over the last of their foes, 
 ' O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy vic- 
 tory V 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 263 
 
 SECTION VII. OF THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 ■ The Son of man shall come in his glory ; and before him shall be gathered all 
 nations.' 
 
 We have already had occasion to remark that the res- 
 urrection of the dead will not take place as a final event, 
 that it stands in the relation of means to an end, and that 
 end, the general judgment, with its eternal awards. Even 
 'Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of that day^ 
 saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his 
 saints, to execute judgment upon all.' And Solomon, 
 when, in the capacity of a preacher, he looked round the 
 universe* for the strongest motive to holy obedience — the 
 motive which should render it unnecessary to seek another 
 — took it from the prospect of a judgment to come ; ' Let 
 us hear the conclusion of the whole matter : Fear God, 
 and keep his commandments : for this is the whole duty of 
 man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, 
 with every secret thing, whether it be good or w^hether it 
 be evil.' 
 
 He w^ho ' sees the end from the beginning,' has imparted 
 to man a subordinate prescience of the same comprehen- 
 sive kind, has sketched on his mind an outline of the great 
 system of providence, and filled him with presentiments of 
 the principal events which are to attend the developement 
 of that system. The consequence is, that wherever the 
 Bible comes, it finds our nature preconfigured to many of 
 its truths, waiting for an interpreter, and ready to respond 
 to the truth of many a prediction, as a prophecy, or an an- 
 
264 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 ticipation with which it had long been familiar in thought, 
 and for which it only wanted divine authentication and a 
 name in order to regard it as a solemn reality. Indeed, in 
 this respect, the work of God only resembles his word ; 
 for as in his word, he has often disclosed the infinite afflu- 
 ence of his mind by revealing, with all the simplicity of 
 apparent unconsciousness, an eternal principle in a passing 
 word ; and infinite project in an incidental allusion ; so, 
 in the construction of the human mind, he has traced on it 
 characters and imagery which can only be read by the 
 light of eternity ; thrown on it the unsteady shadows of 
 objects which stand yet far distant on the plains of futurity. 
 Of these pre-intimations we know of none more deeply 
 inlaid in the mind than that of future retribution* That 
 the ancient saints lived in the faith of it we know ; for the 
 Spirit of inspiration has recorded the very words in 
 which, in the prospect of that day, they triumphed over 
 their persecutors, and sang of the joy that would crown 
 them in ' the day of the Lord.' And, relying on the uni- 
 formity and immutability of the human constitution, we may 
 safely infer that ancient sinners anticipated it also. There 
 were moments when they possessed tne warning of its 
 approach in the restless apprehensions of their own breasts ; 
 moments when the fires of that day seemed to rise up in 
 the distant horizon, and to cast a lurid glare on the face of 
 their startled and trembling conscience; when the mention 
 of such a day would have fallen in with the smothered 
 forebodings of their minds ; would have aroused an in- 
 ward monitor, which, however carefully laid to sleep, was 
 ready to awake at the slightest summons, and to bear testi- 
 mony in the cause of righteousness. 
 
 But though the doctrine of a future judgment did not 
 originate in the teaching of Christ, though from the earli- 
 est ages, mankind had variously received it, yet the light 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 265 
 
 they possessed, even the revealed light, did but just suffice 
 dimly to show them the Judg-e enthroned in clouds, and sur- 
 rounded with judgments ; while, from his superiority to 
 temptation, his greatness and perfection, they inferred that 
 the Judge of all the earth would do right. But the person 
 of the Judge, the pomp and process of the judgment, its 
 most solemn circumstances, and affecting results — all this 
 was comparatively unknown to them ; and in supplying 
 the information our Lord has greatly enlarged the orig- 
 al part of his teaching. 
 
 1. When speaking of the final judgment, it is observ- 
 able that he seldom omitted to insist and enlarge on its 'pub- 
 licity. He thus reminds us, that the end for which there 
 is any judgment at all, is best secured by having it held in 
 the presence of all worlds ; that piety may be most honor- 
 ed, sin most abashed, and the government of God vindicat- 
 ed and glorified, on the largest possible scale. In a few 
 desrciptive words, he fills the horizon with intelligent be- 
 ings of all orders and characters. It will not be 
 the judgment of a single individual, nor of a nation, 
 but of a whole world of intelligent and accountable 
 beings. It will not be an assize for sins of recent com- 
 mission merely, sins committed thousands of years before 
 will be reproduced and examined, with all their circum- 
 stances of aggravation, as if they had been only just com- 
 mitted. What a profound impression will that produce of 
 the holy character of God, and of the infinite enormity of sin ? 
 When his people are crowned, he would not have one of 
 their enemies absent ; and when the ungodly are doomed 
 he would not have one of the righteous absent ; he would 
 have them now to forestall that day, to feel by anticipation, 
 that they are speaking with the universe for their audience 
 and acting in the great theatre of the judgment ; and, then 
 he would have them to depart to their respective allotments 
 17 
 
266 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 bearjng away with them impressions of the hatefulness of 
 sin, and the beauty of holiness, Vv^hich shall remain unef- 
 faced through all the scenes of eternity. 
 
 2. Pursuing our examination, we recognize in the Judge 
 the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. * The Son of man 
 shall come in his glory, and before him shall be gathered 
 all nations.' 'The Father judgeth no man, but hath com- 
 mitted all judgment to the Son.' He hath 'authority to 
 execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man;^ in 
 his super-added humanity, consists the very reason of his 
 appointment. If the Judge is to be seen on that day with 
 our bodily eyes, and if realities are to triumph on that day 
 over appearances, substances over shadows, then is it fit 
 that no illusion should sit on the throne, that he should 
 occupy it who is, ' without controversy, God manifest in 
 the flesh.' If that is to be the day of final compensation, 
 the day in which all the arrears of reward and honor shall 
 be brought up to all the sufferers in the cause of virtue, 
 then is it fit that the Judge, the Prince of sufferers, and 
 who is set forth as the type of the happiness which holy 
 suffering yields, should receive, in his own person, the 
 amplest compensation ; that he who submitted to be ar- 
 raigned, and who occupied the cross here, should then as- 
 cend the throne as his proper reward. If it was right 
 that the work of salvation should be commenced, it must 
 also be right that it should be completed ; and if it was fit 
 that Christ should undertake it, then is it fit, that, in order 
 to evince his competency, and reward his toils, he also 
 should complete it ; that the honor of conferring the last 
 great blessings of his grace, and of giving the final appli- 
 cation to the great principles of his dispensation, should be 
 enjoyed by him alone. If it was right in God, so to con- 
 struct the plan of salvation, that in all its w^orkings it should 
 be made to yield to believers, as it docs, the largest possi- 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 267 
 
 ble measure of consolation and joy, then must it be right 
 also, that in the person of their Judge they should recog- 
 nise their Redeemer. It will give an additional value to 
 the crown of life, that it will be bestowed by the hand of 
 Christ; that the very being who died for them, who gave 
 them the grace of repentance, and who awakened in them 
 the hope of salvation, should come personally to realize 
 their hopes, to collect them around him, to wipe away every 
 tear, to receive the plaudits of the universe in their salva- 
 tion: this will be the only ingredient their cup of bliss 
 will require, and the last it can receive ; having that, their 
 joy will be full. And if it be right that his enemies should 
 be vanquished, it seems fit that he should vanquish them ; 
 if it is proper that unbelievers should be condemned, there 
 appears a peculiar propriety that, both for their greater con- 
 viction, and his greater exaltation, the sentence of condem- 
 nation should be pronounced by him. 
 
 And, oh ! what an enhancement of their doom, will this 
 single circumstance contain ! If a person be conscious 
 that he is chargeable with ingratitude, and with ingrati- 
 tude beyond forgiveness, he would rather confront his 
 greatest foe than the person he has thus injured. Were 
 any other being than Christ to ascend the throne of judg- 
 ment, or were he any other than he is, the confusion of the 
 impenitent sinner at appearing in his presence would be 
 less intolerable. But when he shall draw near, and be 
 compelled to look on that injured goodness, his confusion 
 will be complete. When he shall behold him invested in 
 the robe of humanity, that single sight will flash on him 
 the recollection of all that Jesus did in that nature to re- 
 deem him — the incarnation, the bloody sweat, the cross, 
 the pierced side — all will rise to view, and penetrate him 
 with an agonizing sense of his ingratitude and guilt. 
 When he shall hear the voice of that injured Being, the 
 
268 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 voice which he had heard so often in the gospel, inviting, 
 entreating, .beseeching Him in every tone of gracious so- 
 licitude, it 'will vibrate on his ear more dreadfully than 
 the sound of the archangel's trump which called him 
 from the grave. When the impenitent are represented as 
 calling on the mountains and rocks to fall on them ; Avhat 
 is that which they seek to avoid ? they ask to be hidden 
 from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
 from the wrath of the Lamb — the wrath of the Lamb. 
 Had it been the fury of the lion ; had it been the wrath of 
 a being who had only created them, given them a law, and 
 left them to obey it or perish: who had only been known 
 to them as a being of rigorous and unbending justice; 
 then, however conscious of guilt, they might have attempt- 
 ed to lift up their hardened front in his presence. But it is 
 the wrath of the Lamb ; of a Being who has always acted 
 towards them with infinite tenderness and patience; who 
 became the Lamb of God, the great sacrificial victim, suf- 
 fering and dying to take away their guilt: this is the cir- 
 cumstance which will render his wrath so unendurable, 
 that the}'- will ask no higher favor than to be shehered 
 from the sight of his face, and would take the weight of 
 the incumbent earth as a blessed exchange. 
 
 3. Our Lord very frequently spoke of the pomp and 
 circumstances of the final scene. In painting that coming 
 event, there is, no doubt, a propensity to overcharge the 
 picture with physical terrors ; to make it depend for inter- 
 est, too exclusively, on material splendors ; there is a dan- 
 get of sinking the moral, and of leaving the mind unduly 
 occupied with images of material grandeur. And it is, no 
 doubt, true, that in that awful day, our spiritual condition 
 will be the great engrossing theme; that a flaming world 
 will have little interest for one who is about to pass into a 
 lake which ever burneth ; that the stupendous magnifi' 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 269 
 
 cence of the surrounding scene will have slight attractions 
 for one whose ear has just drank in the sentence of divine 
 approval, and whose eye is fast filling with the visions of 
 eternal life. But, till then, we have the sanction of our 
 Lord's example, for introducing, and enlarging on, the 
 physical machinery of that day. He who knew all the 
 avenues to the human heart, knew that the way to engage 
 our attention to the day of doom itself, is to invest it with 
 sublime scenical imagery, to accumulate around it all those 
 circumstances of awful pomp which are known to have 
 terrible attraction for the human heart. ' The Son of man 
 shall come in the clouds of heaven, in his own glory, and 
 in the glory of his Father, and of all his holy angels, wdth 
 a great sound of trumpets.' 
 
 And who can question that the truth of the scene re- 
 quires this dramatic description? Had Sinai its appara- 
 tus of quailing terrors; its sublime blackness of darkness; 
 its thunders, and tempests, and earthquakes ; its sound of 
 a trumpet waxing louder and louder ; and its hosts of min- 
 istering angels: did all this appalling machinery attend 
 the ■publication of the law, a mere national event, a com- 
 paratively private scene? and shall that day, when the law- 
 is to assert its high majesty, and man to have his final au- 
 dit ; that day of universal summoning, and eternal'dispen- 
 sations ; be w^anting in circumstantial effect? Had even 
 Bethlehem its signs and wonders, its guiding star, and ex- 
 ulting cherubim ; when He came as in labored obscurity, 
 could creation even then be hardly restrained from collect- 
 ing her glories to grace the scene? and shall she be remiss in 
 her attendance when he wall come on purpose to be glorifi- 
 ed, when leave will be given her to pour all her splendors 
 in his train ? has Calvary also its tale of prodigious things; 
 did nature come and weep at his cross, and sympathize with 
 his sorrows ? and shall she not come to wait on his throne 
 
270 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 and give effect to his triumph'? Yes, we believe that the 
 promise which he made, especially to his disciples, is des- 
 tined to have universal application; that every element and 
 every nature which sympathized in his tribulation, will 
 then be promoted to swell his train, or enthroned to share 
 his glory. Whether, indeed, every predicted prodigy, 
 every image of terrible sublimity which the scriptures as- 
 sign to that awful day, will be literally realized or not, it 
 is immaterial to determine. The fact that our Lord's de- 
 scriptions of it fill the imagination, that in order to aggran- 
 dize its interest he has selected and combined every ele- 
 ment of greatness, beauty, and terror, warrants us to infer 
 that the machinery will be every way worthy the unparal- 
 led occasion ; that if one of, those predicted circumstances 
 are wanting, it will only be to make way for another of 
 surpassing power. ' He shall come in his own glory,' 
 clad in the robe of essential light he had worn from eternity ; 
 *and in the glory of his Father,' absorbing in his own per- 
 son all power and office, invested by the paternal hand with 
 all the insignia of supreme majesty, and girt with the 
 sword of ultimate justice never till now unsheathed; and 
 crowned with the most convincing signs, and glorious de- 
 monstrations of paternal love; 'and in the glory of his 
 holy angels,' all the bright inhabitants of heaven, forsak- 
 ing their sublime occupations, and descending from their 
 lofty seats, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands 
 of thousands, shall encircle his throne, and attend his 
 coming. In the presence of that splendor, the sun itself 
 shall wane, and all light be swallowed up. The vast pro- 
 cession, sailing on the bosom of the troubled air, filling 
 the concave of the sky, and flanked with prepared thunder- 
 clouds of wrath, shall open its front on the asionished world. 
 No interpreter will be necessary; it will flash its meaning 
 on every mind ; find a key in every breast ; explaining a 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 271 
 
 thousand presentiments, and realizing- ten thousand appre- 
 hensions. The sound of the trumpet is heard; it is the 
 voice of the Judge calling for the sleeping dead ; calling 
 with a voice which is instantly heard, understood and 
 obeyed ; they that are in their graves come forth. Again 
 it sounds ; and unnumbered angels, true to the signal, dis- 
 perse over the four winds of heaven, and collect the whole 
 human family into the area of the great tribunal. Then 
 shall ensue the conflagration of the globe ; forsaken of its 
 inhabitants, all its stores of fire shall be unmasked, every 
 mountain shall be a Sinai, and the flame universal ; yet 
 w^ho shall heed the sight? for the great assize will have 
 began. ' Oh, may the Lord grant that we may find mercy 
 of the Lord in that day.' 
 
 4. The rectitude which will distinguish the proceedings 
 of the last day, is a sentiment familiar to the Old Testament. 
 On this account, I should content myself with barely re- 
 peating it, had not our Lord directed our attention to cer- 
 tain particulars, by which that rectitude will make itself 
 impressively seen. 'Before him shall be gathered aM na- 
 tions ; ' in other words, the judgment will be universal. 
 If it were not ; if only one of all the generations of man- 
 kind were absent' the whole universe would have a rio-ht 
 to complain of injustice. But the judgment will be righte- 
 ous, so that all will be present ; and therefore you will be 
 present. However loathe to leave the darkness of the 
 grave, you must come forth. However eager to remain in 
 the domains of death, death must deliver you up. Howev- 
 er loud your entreaties to the rocks to fall on you, and to 
 the hills to cover you, they will refuse to aflord you a refuge. 
 Though, now, you may often compel nature to serve you 
 in your sins, and to conceal your character ; then it will be 
 avenged; darkness itself will reject you; the night will 
 become light about you, every department and element of 
 
272 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 creation, true to its original design, will render service 
 to its Lord in conspiring to facilitate the ends of justice. 
 And so essential to those ends will be the presence of every 
 human being, that if you alone were absent, the solemn 
 proceedings would wait, the judgment would stop for your 
 appearance. 
 
 But impartiality requires not only that every individual 
 should be present ; it also demands that cognizance be 
 taken of every act. Let a single deed, let a single thought, 
 the most inconsequent and unproductive that ever passed 
 through the mind, be omitted ; and if that thought possess- 
 ed a moral quality, the universe would be justified in pro- 
 testing against the omission. But nothing shall be over- 
 looked, nothing made light of; the slightest voluntary ex- 
 ercise of the soul, the very dust of the balances shall be 
 taken into the account. The two mites, the cup of cold 
 water, the prison visit, the pious wish, on the one hand ; 
 the omitted kindness, the idle word, the unchaste look, the 
 thought of evil, the deed of darkness, on the other ; shall 
 all bo brought into the open court. It is in the moral world 
 as it is in the natural, where every substance weighs some- 
 thing : though we speak of imponderable bodies, yet na- 
 ture knows nothing of positive levity. And were we pos- 
 sessed of the necessary scales, the exquisite instrument, 
 we should find that the same holds true in the moral world. 
 Nothing is insignificant on which sin has breathed the 
 breath of hell ; every thing is important on which holiness 
 has impressed itself in the faintest characters. And, ac- 
 cordingly, ' there is nothing covered that shall not be re- 
 vealed ; and hid, that shall not be known.' However un- 
 important now in the estimation of man, yet, when placed 
 in the light of the divine countenance, like the atom in the 
 sun's rays, it shall be found deserving attention ; and as 
 the minutest molecule of matter contains all the primordial 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 273 
 
 elements of a world, so the least action of the mind shall 
 be found to include in it the essential elements of heaven, 
 or of hell. 
 
 And in order to make good its character for righteous- 
 ness, it must also be a judgment of proportion and compar- 
 ison ; in which the guilt of each is ascertained according 
 to all its peculiar modifications. In the courts of human 
 judicature, one law, and one measure of punishment, is 
 often applied to a multitude of offences varying in their 
 shades of guilt. But, in that day, a law will be found for 
 every different sin ; and a measure of punishment accu- 
 rately adjusted to every measure of guilt. It will be more 
 tolerable for some than it will be for others. He who knew 
 his Lord's will, and did it not, shall be beaten with many 
 stripes ; and he who knew not, and yet committed things 
 worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. The 
 number of talents which each had received, will determine 
 the returns which each should have made. It will not be 
 a question merely of guilt or innocence, but a question of 
 how guilty. The sinner will not merely be convicted of 
 impenitence, but of all the aggravations of his impenitence. 
 He will find himself brought into comparison with those, 
 who, though their religious advantages were less than his, 
 succeeded in laying hold on eternal life. He will find 
 himself confronted by the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 of Tyre and Sidon, and Ninevah ; the whole heathen 
 world shall rise up in judgment to condemn him. They 
 who have been punished will demand — they who would 
 have been punished, had they misused their means and mer- 
 cies as he has done, will demand — the universe will de- 
 mand, on every principle of impartiality and justice, that 
 the impenitent hearer of the gospel shall not escape, that 
 judgment go forth against him, that he be punished accord- 
 ing to the enormity of his guilt, 
 
274 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 Were any allowed to absent themselves from that tribu- 
 nal, the hearers of the gospel certainly would not ; they 
 form the most important class who will be there arraigned. 
 Could any class of sins be passed by, impenitence under 
 the gospel could not ; it takes rank with the highest order 
 of guilt ; it will throw every other description of sin into 
 the shade. Were a day of judgment appointed for no 
 other class, the hearers of the gospel are a class so impor- 
 tant, that the judgment would be set, and the books be open- 
 ed, if only for them. They occupy no middle ground. 
 They are either the subjects of faith and repentance, and 
 as such entitled, through grace, to the highest glories of 
 the heavenly state; or else they are the guiltiest, the most 
 inexcusable of their race, and as such deserving the ex- 
 tremest woe. We are to suppose that the most ordinary 
 proceedings of that day will be invested with a more awful 
 solemnity than the universe ever before beheld: but when 
 the impenitent hearer of the gospel shall be arraigned, that 
 solemnity shall deepen, if possible, a thousand-fold ; while 
 the crimson aggravations of his guilt shall be laid open, the 
 attention of the congregated world shall become more 
 breathless and intense ; and when his doom shall be pro- 
 nounced, the voice of the righteous Judge shall take if pos- 
 sible a deeper tone, and speak with a more awful empha- 
 sis, as he utters the sentence, ' Depart from me ; I never 
 knew you.' 
 
 And to render the rectitude of the judgment perfect, the 
 whole must be conducted according to the known laws of 
 the divine government. In other words, the laws to which 
 man is now required to conform, are the identical rules to 
 which his conduct will then be brought. Were another 
 standard to be then set up, a new law introduced, man 
 might justly object to its irrelevance, put in a plea of igno- 
 rance, and protest against its application. But the rule of 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 275 
 
 judgment will be two-fold : the law of eternal morality to 
 which our nature was originally adapted, and in obedience 
 to which we should have found perfection ;- and the law of 
 grace brought in to suit our lapsed condition, and in com- 
 pliance with which we may obtain salvation. These, as 
 they are the only rules known to us now, will be the only 
 laws adduced then ; the consequence of which will be, that 
 our tvorks, our present conformity or non-conformity with 
 these known principles will constitute the great subject of 
 inquest. ' By thy words shalt thou be justified,' said Christ, 
 'and by thy words shalt thou be condemned.' While he 
 declares that the formula of the final sentence shall run 
 thus, ' Inasmuch as ye did it ; and inasmuch as ye did it 
 not.'' 
 
 In his hands, these laws will become of universal appli- 
 cation. He will make it apparent that our conduct has 
 never stopped with ourselves ; that it has never stopped at 
 human laws, but has been all related to his divine laws ; 
 that every thing we have done, has obeyed a law% or vio- 
 lated a law divinely enacted ; and either written on our 
 hearts, or published in his word. And not only will these 
 laws, in his hands, receive universal application as to per- 
 sons, but also as to the character of each individual ; taking 
 cognizance of all its thoughts and rudiments. If we had 
 eyes adapted to the sight, we should see, on looking into 
 the smallest seed, the future flower, or shrub, or tree, en- 
 closed in it. He will look into our feelings and motives 
 as into seeds ; by those embryoes of action he will infalli- 
 bly determine what we are, and will show what we should 
 have been had there been scope and stage for their devel- 
 opement and maturity. His law has a magnifying power ; 
 and when he shall apply it in that day to human charac- 
 ter, the faintest and minutest parts of that character will 
 show a definite outline, and a determinate quality. 
 
276 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 And how easy will it be for him to give the law this 
 magnifying power ; or, rather, to show that it has always 
 possessed it. How often did he do this in the days of his 
 flesh, for the Old Testament code. By a single sentence; 
 a passing remark : he sometimes laid open the spiritual 
 interior of a precept; and showed that in the morality of 
 the ancient book there lay, as in its germ, the whole 
 legislation of bis new economy. The last day will be the 
 triumph of law : by a single touch the scales shall 
 fall from our eyes ; and what now seems low in the stand- 
 ard of holiness shall be seen towering away to an infinite 
 height, and what now seems contracted shall be seen ta- 
 king an immeasurable compass. God himself will be seen 
 paying reverence to the law ; and man shall feel himself 
 pervaded and encompassed by it. Nothing shall seem to 
 exist but character and law : man, denuded of all but char- 
 acter, shall find nothing left him but his virtue or his vice; 
 and the law, in the person of the Judge, applying itself to 
 that character, and making its estimate. The reign of ap- 
 pearances and professions will then be over, and works 
 alone will be in request. Now men act as though the law 
 called only for words, professions, semblances of right ; but 
 then it will be heard calling imperatively for works, char- 
 acter, works : and men will find that they have nothing else 
 left them to produce. 
 
 5. The necessary result of bringing the human charac- 
 ter to this test will be, the division of the whole family .of 
 man into two clases — the good, and the bad. ' When the 
 Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy an- 
 gels with him, then shall He sit upon the throne of his 
 glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations : and 
 He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd di- 
 videth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep 
 on his right hand, but the goats on the left.' Now, men 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 277 
 
 are distributed into a thousand classes, divided and subdi- 
 vided by so large a multiplication of social and artificial 
 distinctions, that this greatest of all distinctions, arising 
 from character, is almost confounded and lost in the crowd. 
 But, ' they that have done good, and they that have done 
 evil,' will be the sole remaining distinction then : the mul- 
 tifarious compound of human society will be resolved into 
 these two simple elements. 
 
 The student of nature adverts with proud delight to that 
 period in the history of science, when, as facts multiplied, 
 leading phenomena became prominent, laws began to 
 emerge^ and generalizations to commence ; when the dis- 
 coveries of a single mind harmonized unnumbered facts, 
 and placed the system of the universe on a basis never af- 
 ter to be shaken. The judgment will be a great process 
 of moral generalization. Wherever, indeed, the gospel 
 comes with power ; even now, the process begins. It no 
 sooner obtains a footing amongst a people, than, pouring 
 contempt on all their existing distinctions, it proposes a 
 new classification. It develops the conscience, raises the 
 moral part of our nature into importance, bestows all its 
 attention, and confers all its titles upon that. It essays to 
 separate the precious from the vile, and to collect them in- 
 to a church ; to draw a line of demarcation ; on the one 
 side of which shall stand all the good, and on the other 
 side all the bad ; and this classification it intends to be all- 
 comprehensive and ultimate. At present, however, nu- 
 merous impediments operate to prevent the perfect realiza- 
 tion of the theory. Approximation is all that can be at- 
 tained. Tares spring up among the wheat ; and, notwith- 
 standing every precaution, the foolish virgins mingle with 
 the w^se. but the last day shall behold this simplification 
 complete. By the operation of a single principle he will 
 reduce the chaos to order, ' dividing the light from the 
 
278 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 darkness.' By the application of a single rule he will 
 gather ' like things to like ;' and two classes shall com- 
 prise all the infinite varieties. Under one or the other of 
 these, each individual shall find a place — a place so appro- 
 piate, that he could not exchange it even with one of the 
 same classs, without doing violence to all fitness and order: 
 and those characteristics, on account of which the place 
 has been assigned him, will be acknowledged by all to be 
 specific, his most distinguishing marks. The universe 
 will confess and admire the justice, harmony, and perfec- 
 tion of the distribution. 
 
 Some, in their impatience, would have the Great Head 
 of the Church to effect this separation at once; they would 
 gather out the tares before the time of harvest. As if they 
 despaired of a judgment-day, they would fain bring all the 
 plans of Providence within the bounds of time; as if it 
 gave them but little satisfaction to know that a full exposi- 
 tion and justification of the ways of God is to be made in 
 eternity, they would forestall the future, and submit his 
 plans to instant explanation. But, ' Nay,' saith he, ' ye 
 know not what manner of spirit ye are of ' As the tares 
 are left till the time of harvest, and are then gathered and 
 burned in the fire ; so shall it be at the end of the world. 
 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
 gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them 
 that do iniquity.' Thus he signifies that his plans are al- 
 ready formed, formed with an accuracy which admits of no 
 alteration, and on a scale of greatness which excludes 
 all haste. He can afTord to wait. Had he any occasion 
 to doubt the issue, he might, at times, be tempted to precipi- 
 tate the end. But he sees the end from the beginning ; 
 sees it so clearly, and awaits it so confidently, that his pa- 
 tience only proclaims the efficiency of his government. If 
 impatience of his apparent delay could have induced him to 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 279 
 
 hasten the final event, if suspicions of his power, if mis- 
 constructions of his patience, could have provoked him to 
 rashness, long before this he would have ' sworn, there 
 shall be time no longer.' But his forbearance serves to il- 
 lustrate his majesty ; and is meant to remind us, that if he 
 does not submit his plans to our present impatience, and 
 compress them into the limits of time, it is because he re- 
 serves them for a nobler theatre, and deems them worthy 
 the expanse of eternity. 
 
 There are others wbo construe his apparent delay in fa- 
 vor of the impunity of prosperous vice. ' The evil servant 
 saith in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming. And with 
 that he begins to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and 
 drink with the drunken.' 'As in the days of Noah, they 
 laugh at the threatened judgment, and eat and drink, mar- 
 ry and are given in marriage.' Because the event has 
 been long foretold, but through a series of ages has not ta- 
 ken place, they conclude it need be dreaded no more, and 
 take heart to live on in sin. They forget that his forbear- 
 ance to the wicked makes part of a vast and gracious plan, by 
 which he is seeking their salvation. They forget that one 
 day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand, 
 years as one day ; and that when the whole circle of time shall 
 have revolved, they themselves will think it short. They 
 are now in the condition of one who has swallowed some 
 poisonous and fatal draught ; the taste may be pleasant, 
 the operation may be slow, and he may begin to flatter 
 himself that it will never take effect ; but only wait the 
 necessary time, and it will appear that he has swallowed 
 death. The poison of sin is now sleeping in the veins of 
 humanity ; few of its deadly symptoms may at present ap- 
 pear ; but in the last day they will all be developed ; the 
 destructive element will then appear in its real character, 
 will furnish its awful operation in the second death of all 
 who have neglected the divine antidote. 
 
280 THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 • The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from 
 among- the just.' By this intimation our Lord intended 
 not merely to rebuke the impatience of those who would 
 hasten his judgments, but to denote the perfect accuracy 
 with which the separation will be made. The work will 
 be committed to the highest order of created instrumental- 
 ity ; the process of discrimination will be conducted under 
 the immediate eye of Omniscience. Man, we have seen, 
 in his ignorance and impatience, frequently deems it neces- 
 sary wow;; God himself, the long-suifering God himself, 
 will deem it necessary then. The happiness of his sub- 
 jects will require that he should gather out of his kingdom 
 all things that offend and whatsoever worketh abomination; 
 that all whose characters are not congenial with the laws, 
 the enjoyments, the' society of that blessed state, should be 
 removed beyond the borders of his dominions. The sta- 
 bility of his kingdom will require it. Unlike every other 
 kingdom, he declares that his kingdom shall never be mov- 
 ed. He designs it for eternity ; but were he to admit into 
 its composition any impure elements, any perishable mate- 
 rials, it would mar his purpose, it would do him no honor, 
 his work would require revision and improvement, it would 
 not be perfect. Like a wise builder, therefore, he will per- 
 mit nothing to enter as an elementary part of that fabric, 
 but gold, and silver, and precious stones ; the wood, hay, 
 and stubble, shall be burnt up. He Avill secure to it eter- 
 nal stability, by allowing nothing to become a part of it, 
 which has not passed under the scrutiny of his omniscience, 
 and received the seal of his approbation. 
 
 6. Immediately consequent on this separation will be 
 the final award. ' Then shall the king say unto them on 
 his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
 world.' How gracious the language ! Every word is 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 281 
 
 fraught with infinite benignity. Then shall he say it — 
 then, when the universe is assembled, when he is distribu- 
 ting endless life and endless death, when every word he 
 utters is pregnant with fate, when all creation is hushed 
 into the deepest silence, when the spheres, the very stars 
 in their courses, are standing still to listen — then, when 
 no creature is breathing, but all are intensely bending to 
 hear, then shall he address to them on his right hand the in- 
 finite welcome. He will say to them, Come; a word 
 w^hich will place him in the centre of a redeemed universe, 
 which will collect around him all the loyal and the sancti- 
 fied in the creation, which will bring all the blessed into 
 immediate communication, and place them in eternal con- 
 junction with himself He will say to them, Comt ; and, 
 opening his arms of infinite love, their nature shall find 
 perfection, and their love repose. He will say to them, 
 Come ; and every mansion in heaven shall echo the invi- 
 tation as if impatient to receiv^e its destined guest. 
 
 ' Come, ye blessed of my Father ;' how comprehensive 
 the title ! reaching through eternity ; causing every thing 
 in the universe to cast a benignant aspect upon them; ap- 
 pointing them heirs of blessedness. How efficacious the 
 blessing ! not the mere breath of applause, not a faint im- 
 potent wish of happiness which evaporates and is lost in 
 the air ; but a substantial, operative blessing, which carries 
 its own fulfillment with it ; clothing them with happiness 
 like a garment, surrounding them with it like an element, 
 blending it with their nature, gloryfyng, or turning them 
 into glory. If a fellow-creature blessed them, it only im- 
 plied that he loved them ; but to be blessed and beloved of 
 God, can only be because they are lovely. How irrever- 
 sible the blessing! for, if he blesses, who can curse? the 
 hatred and imprecations of the universe could not deprive 
 them of it. ' Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 18 
 
2S2 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 kingdom 'pre'pared for you.'' More than a mansion, a city, 
 a province — a kingdom, is yours ; honor in its fountain ; 
 unbounded resources ; 'freedom and dominion not to be 
 questioned ; royalty shared with the King of kings. A 
 kingdom 'prepared, adapted in all its arrangements to your 
 renewed natures; a state in which your lofty aspirations 
 and desires have been amply and expressly provided for. 
 While on earth you evinced the royalty of your descent ; 
 you exercised dominion over sin ; you sought to give laws 
 to the world ; to establish a new reign upon earth; you 
 cultivated the noblest principles ; pursued high and regal 
 objects ; now realize your most enlarged desires, ascend 
 your thrones, and assume your crowns. The kingdom 
 was prepared for you from the foimdation of the ivorld. 
 Your happiness engaged the eternal mind before the world 
 began : he purposed it, planned it, secured it, ages before 
 your existence. If wisdom rejoiced, from eternity, in the 
 habitable parts of the earth ; if she shared her delights, 
 prospectively, with the sons of men, while they would be 
 passing their probationary state, how much more would 
 she love to ponder the vision of their final glorification in 
 heaven ; if the bare anticipation of providing for their re- 
 ception on earth, of mingling with them, taking to them 
 blessings from heaven, and seeing them provisionally hap- 
 py in the low vale of mortality; if the prospect of this fill- 
 ed her with joy, how much more would the completion of 
 all her plans, and the consummation of their happiness, 
 in the crowns and thrones of the heavenly state, engage 
 her care and enrapture her with delight. Come possess a 
 kingdom which existed for you in the divine idea before 
 the earth itself was made. 
 
 O what a welcome this ! Yet vast as it is, he seems on- 
 ly to ease his infinite heart in uttering it. What fragrant 
 breathings of grace, filling the universe \vith vital odors ! 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 283 
 
 What ravishing accents to those addressed ! they will feel 
 that till then they never heard the sound of music ! Then 
 first will they begin to respire. Then will their glory reach 
 its meridian to know no decline. Then will their joy at- 
 tain its fulltide mark, to know no ebb. Less than this 
 would not satisfy the blessed Lord himself For this he 
 guaranteed, as the reward of his mediation ; on this his 
 heart has ever been set. Could he not bring forth, on the 
 occasion, all the reserved treasures of the Godhead, he . 
 would account himself dishonored and defeated. But even 
 he shall be satisfied; even He, as he looks on his people, 
 shall say, both for himself and for them, ' It is enough. 
 Glory shall then cast off its last veil; and as it offers itself 
 to their fulleyed view, and looks forth upon them, they 
 shall open to it their inmost souls, they shall themselves be- 
 come glory. 
 
 ' Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, De- 
 part from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for 
 the devil and his angels.' Of heaven it is said it was 
 prepared for the righteous ; prepared for them from the 
 foundation of the world : but it is not said of hell that it 
 was prepared for the ungodly ; that was prepared origin- 
 ally for the devil and his angels. Hell did not form a pri- 
 mary part of the creation ; there was a time when there was 
 no hell in the universe ; such a place did not enter into 
 God's primitive design ] it was, so to speak, accidental, 
 made necessary by sin ; it was an after-creation, forced on 
 the Almighty that he might provide a receptacle for guilt. 
 Now, if he prepared heaven from the first, it shows that 
 he created man to be happy : and if he did not from the 
 first prepare a hell, it shows that he did not create any for 
 misery. No, hell was not provided, its flames were not 
 kindled at first for man, but for Satan and his angels. Yet, 
 being prepared, the dreadful place can receive any other 
 
284 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 rebels as well as they : and as sinners league with them now, 
 and do the works of the devil, they must finally share in 
 the same suffering, in the same place. The sinner renders 
 their place his own ; and the sentence of the last day rati- 
 fies the awful arrangement. 
 
 And who can tell the terrible import of this curse ! A 
 curse uttered by God : by the lips of him whose supreme 
 delight it is to bless ! What must sin be, that it can force 
 a curse from infinite goodness ; that it can move the divine 
 temperament to displeasure ; that it can make it an appro- 
 piate act, a worthy, becoming, and even godlike act 
 for infinite love to utter a malediction on the work 
 of his own hands, ! And such a malediction ! Every ac- 
 cent is lightning ; every word is loaded with misery, is 
 full of perdition. It is a sentence, every clause of which 
 adds a hell to the misery already denounced, till it reaches 
 the climax of woe — a sentence in which one vial after an- 
 other of Almighty wrath is poured out, till the whole is 
 discharged ; the wrath of God distilled — a sentence, in 
 which are gathered up, and compressed into one, all the 
 curses of God, requiring an eternity to comprehend and ex- 
 haust them. But it is not for tongue to describe it; it is for 
 the heart to ponder, for the imagination to conceive ; and 
 muse on it the most fertile conception may, without any 
 danger of excess. Then first will the ungodly know what 
 is meant by punishment. Then will they begin to esti- 
 mate truly the dreadful nature of their situation. And 
 oh ! when the prospect shall first open upon them, when 
 they shall find that God himself is against them, when 
 they shall hear themselves outlawed by divine proclamation, 
 when they shall find that on God saying depart, every 
 thing else, every being, every place, but hell, shall repeat 
 depart ; casting them forth, disowning, refusing them sym- 
 pathy and refuge ; when they shall feel that the cur.^^ie is 
 made to enter and possess the very centre of their being ; 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 285 
 
 that it is not a mere stigma branded on their foreheads, but 
 a substantial curse, written upon their hearts in characters 
 of living fire ; burnt in, scorching and consuming their 
 immortality ; that they have the wrath of God for a soul, 
 will they not call on universal nature to mourn with them 
 to aid them in expressing their mighty grief, to assist them 
 in bewailing the immensity and eternity of their loss ? 
 
 'And these shall go away into everlasting punishment : 
 but the righteous into life eternal.' Then the future pun- 
 ishment of the finally impenitent will be eternal. ' They 
 shall not see life ;' ' their worm dieth not, and their fire is not 
 quenched.' If they continued to deteriorate here under a reme- 
 dial economy of grace, is their character likely to be amelior- 
 ated in a state where all the elements of universal evil shall 
 be collected and combined together? Whatever maybe 
 the punishment inflicted upon them from without, it is cer^ 
 tain its sting will be supplied from an angry conscience, 
 and its hottest fervors from the inkindled passions within 
 them ; and as these belong to the soul, as they number 
 among its essential qualities, they will be immortal like the 
 soul itself And not only has our Lord employed the same 
 term to denote the duration of misery, which he has applied 
 to the duration of happiness, thus implying that they will 
 be parallel to each other ; not only has he employed posi- 
 tive, terms, which, indeed, may be understood in various de- 
 grees of latitude ; he has also used negative terms, and a 
 negation admits of no degrees ; he has spoken of future 
 punishment as a state of endless privation. He has threat- 
 ened it as the worst evil, the consummation of all evil ; but 
 if it were temporary and remedial, if it meant only a quan- 
 tum of suffering bearing a relation to eventual happiness, 
 it should rather be spoken of, like the present afflictions of 
 the righteous, not in the language of threatening, but of 
 promise, Rut 'the wicked shall go away into everlasting 
 
286 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 punishment :' and though it may now be impossible, with 
 our present human feelings and limited faculties, to compre- 
 hend the idea ; for aught we know the existence of eternal 
 misery may hereafter be shown not only to consist with, 
 but to be even the necessary effect of a perfect government, 
 and of supreme goodness. 
 
 But while ultimate justice shall be conducting the wick- 
 ed away into everlasting darkness, what shall become of the 
 righteous ? They will be severed from the heirs of wrath, as 
 far as heaven and hell assunder. Our Lord teaches us that 
 ' they shall see God : ' whether the bodily eye shall share 
 in the vision or not, may probably depend on the degree 
 in which their material part shall be refined and made 
 spiritual ; but they shall see him with that which is the 
 true organ of sight in divine things, the renewed heart; 
 they shall behold every feature of his image reflected in 
 the mirror of their purified nature. They shall be 'equal 
 unto the angels ; ' they shall be able to approach as close- 
 ly to the throne of God, and to gaze as stedfastly on the 
 unveiled splendors of that throne : they will be able to fill 
 every office that angels fill, to soar to equal heights, and 
 to maintain as untiring a flight in the service of God ; they 
 will in every way be worthy of the angelic brotherhood, 
 and able to run with them in the race of divine perfection. 
 They shall then 'be with him where he is, to behold his 
 glory ; ' to be conducted by him into the inmost recesses of 
 his glory: to see him throw open and bring out all the 
 glory that is peculiarly his ; to be the objects on which that 
 glory shall fall and accumulate: to have their nature wed- 
 ded to happiness and him for ever. Then shall his ardent 
 desire be gratified, 'that they all may be one in him:' 
 by being one in all, he will make all one ; by being all in 
 every part, he will become the unity of the whole ; so that 
 they shall ever be viewed, and spoken of, and treated as 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 287 
 
 one with, and a part of himself. 'Then shall the right- 
 eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father ;' 
 in a world where all is splendor they shall yet distinctly 
 shine, shine as suns forever and ever. 
 
 We shall conclude this section of our subject with two 
 remarks. First, although the revelation of our immortal- 
 ity is not the specific object of the gospel, yet by combining 
 it with the knowledge of salvation, our Lord has made it 
 what no mere human philosophy could have done, a guid- 
 ing principle of life. He- has made it the Pharos of the 
 universe : it is true indeed, that, prior to his coming, his 
 colossal truth existed; but it lay prostrate on the earth, an 
 undefined rough-hewn mass, creating shadow instead of 
 light ; while the majority of those who viewed it could 
 only speculate about the uses to which it might be applied. 
 But our Lord, having given it an angel-form, upreared its 
 gigantic stature to the skies, kindled its beacon fire, and 
 placed it in a line with the haven of eternity ; that by 
 flinging its warning light across the dark and perilous 
 ocean of life, it might enable the endangered voyagers to 
 reach the port of futurity in peace. And how many, in 
 every age, by steering in the track of its radiance, have out- 
 lived the billows and perils of the deep, and at length ' es- 
 caped safe to land.' 
 
 Our second remark is, that in his representations of the 
 last day, our Lord appears to set no bounds to his estimate 
 of his own importance to man. When we hear him an- 
 nounce, ' I am the light of the world,' even then we cannot 
 forbear exclaiming, ' What must be the dignity of him 
 who can thus stand up and say, in the face of the sun, ' I 
 compare claims with that great source and element of 
 light ; ' what must be his own conception of his greatness 
 and value, when he can thus seek to eclipse the noon-day 
 sun, and challenge for himself the attention of the world ! ' 
 
283 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 But in his representations of the last day, he makes him- 
 self the light of both worlds, the centre of the universe. 
 Now what must be his own idea of his ability and worth, 
 that having unveiled so tremendous a scene, he should 
 make himself the central object? What must be his own 
 estimate of the saving power of his gospel, that he should 
 select the awful ampitheatre of the judgment in which to 
 try its efficacy ; that he should deem it an antidote for in- 
 finite terror, the terrors of the last day 1 Had he suppos- 
 ed its efficacy was limited, he would have made its limit 
 the measure of his disclosures of the judgment day. He 
 would have been silent concerning many of its most alarm- 
 ing features, he would have lifted the veil with a guarded 
 hand, lest by raising it to its utmost height, he should 
 awaken fears beyond his power to allay. But, in the full 
 confidence of its efficacy to sustain and to save, he rolls 
 back the face of his throne, summons mankind before him, 
 calls for his thunders, and the ministers of his wrath, un- 
 covers the mouth of the bottomless pit ; and, while justice 
 is in its full career of punishment, he throws over his people 
 the shield of his favor, and canopies them with almighty 
 grace. Well can he afford to disclose the utmost terrors 
 of that day, for he feels that he is able to save unto the ut- 
 termost ; he knows that even now he can pluck from the 
 mind the sting of conscious guih, and replace it with a 
 peace passing all understanding, thus enabling his , disci- 
 ples to long and look for his appearing ; and he knows 
 that then, while all the guilty shall wail because of him, 
 his people, upheld by his grace, shall rise superior to dis- 
 may, and shall only recognise in the pomp and grandeur of 
 the scene, the celebration of their own triumph, and occa- 
 sions for their joy. The saved and the lost will then meet 
 together for the last time in contrast before his throne. 
 And as it will be the last time the righteous will be able 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 289 
 
 to triumph on so large a scale before the intermediate eyes 
 of the wicked ; and as the scene will be enacted partly to 
 make that triumph complete, we may be assured that every 
 thing present will tend to crown their glory with perfec- 
 tion. Sin will have reached maturity in the wicked, and 
 prepared them for hell ; holiness will have attained maturi- 
 ty in the righteous, and prepared them for heaven ; and 
 when the purity and beauty, the joy and glory on the right 
 hand, shall be seen in immediate contrast with the awful 
 array on the left, all will acknowledge that the salvation of 
 his people as there displayed is a worthy result of all his 
 stupendous plans, and abundantly exceeds all the lofty 
 things he has spoken concernin'g them. In that one 
 scene shall be combined, the consummation of all the 
 plans of time, the rehearsal of all the glories of eterni- 
 ty. Oh, who can revere him too profoundly, love him too 
 ardently, or rely on him too confidently. 
 
ESSAY III. 
 SPIRITUALITY OF OUR LORD'S TEACHING. 
 
 ' The words that I speak unto you are Spirit, and are life. 
 
 I. The doctrine of the spirituality of the divine nature, 
 lies at the foundation of all true religion. Accordingly, to 
 assert and preserve it was one of the avowed designs of 
 the Jewish economy. - But the frequency with which it 
 became necessary for God to republish and defend the doc- 
 trine, shewed how unknown and uncongenial it is to the 
 unenlightened mind of man, and how difficult to maintain 
 it in combination with an economy of carnal ordinances. 
 It is true, indeed, that for some time prior to the advent of 
 Christ, the Jews had not so entirely lost it as to relapse 
 into the worship of idols ; yet, short of this, their views of 
 God were at perfect variance with the belief of his spirit- 
 ual nature. Divesting him of all the properties peculiar 
 to that nature, the popular creed pourtrayed him as cir- 
 cumscribed in his essence, and local in his residence, with 
 a jurisdiction which dispensed with the inward homage of 
 the heart, and which only took cognizance of outward 
 acts. 
 
 But if, in the prevailing belief of the Jews, the Deity 
 was only almost ; in that of the heathen world he was al- 
 together such a one as themselves. They had gradually 
 disqualified themselves for all virtue, and prepared them- 
 selves for the commission of every vice, by debasing him 
 to a level with themselves, and ascribing to him the attri- 
 butes of a corporeal being. God — the invisible, the al- 
 
THE GREAT TEACHER, 291 
 
 mighty, the omnipresent, the omniscient Spirit — was not 
 in all their thoughts. What an awful vacuity ! He was 
 excluded from his own world ; lost to his intelligent crea- 
 tures ; while his place was occupied with the fictions of 
 human fancy, and beings of material form. 
 
 ' God is a spirit ; ' such is the simple announcement by 
 which Jesus dispersed the legions of idolatrous error, and 
 restored God to the world. This w^as the fundamental 
 principle of his theology. In harmony with its import- 
 ance, he taught it in every stage of his ministry, and in all 
 varieties of form. The God he proclaimed is all-knowing 
 and every where present, and to whom all things are pos- 
 sible ; a being whom no man hath seen nor can see, and 
 who requires to be worshipped in spirit and in truth; 
 whose new evangelical kingdom on earth is to be seated in. 
 the human soul, having spiritual laws enforced by spiritual 
 sanctions, and administered by the agency of his Holy 
 Spirit. By thus attesting the Spirituality of the divine na- 
 ture, and making it a fundamental doctrine of his gospel, 
 our Lord lifted the mind of man from earth to heaven ; 
 provided against all our tendencies to materialize and de- 
 base religion ; furnished a motive for every virtue ; kindled 
 in his church a central, all pervading light : and animated 
 all piety with a living soul. 
 
 n. Agreeably to the spirituality of the Supreme Being, 
 and the relation in which we stand to him as his spiritual off- 
 spring, in exercising the prerogative of lawgiver, he had 
 legislated for the soul. Human laws, for reasons the m.ost 
 obvious, can only take cognizance of outward acts. But 
 even the positive rites of the Jewish code however carnal 
 in their nature, and temporary in their obligation, were 
 specifically designed and constructed for the soul ; while of 
 the moral law, the soul was the proper sphere, the peculiar 
 
292 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 province of jurisdiction ; it claims authority over actions only 
 as they are the motions and expressions of the in-dwelling 
 soul. It is, in effect, the voice of God speaking to the soul, 
 and/or it; giving utterance and energy to the enlightened 
 and original dictates of the man within. But in entire obliv- 
 ion or open defiance, of its spiritual nature, the Jews had 
 'made it of none effect by their tradition.' Having de- 
 throned and dismissed it from within, they limited its juris- 
 diction to the outward life, guarding every avenue by which 
 it might return and resume its seat by a trivial ceremony, 
 or a precarious tradition. And not only so, they bought 
 themselves off at pleasure, from even an outward observ- 
 ance of the moral law, purchased a dispensation to trans- 
 gress it, at the easy price of a little additional punctilious- 
 ness in the ritual worship. Thus discredited and disown- 
 ed, its authority was merely nominal ; and the only rank 
 it was permitted to take was below the emptiest superstition. 
 But Jesus came to its rescue : restored to it the spirit 
 and office which, in their hands, it had lost. The tables 
 of the law, prostrate and defaced, and overlaid with the 
 long-accumulated dust and rubbish of rabbinical lore, he 
 drew forth and again set up : and retracing their charac- 
 ters afresh, as with the finger of infinite purity, he repub- 
 lished them with an authority and effect which the fires of 
 Sinai rekindled could not have increased. As expounded 
 and enforced by his lips, especially in his sermon on the 
 mount, they not only retrieved their original honors, but 
 acquired a more perfectly reasoned and undeniable title to 
 rule and reign in the heart. He claimed for the operation 
 of the divine law, a scope and space as free and unbound- 
 ed as the divine essence. He showed that, like the ele- 
 mental fire, it is not only present where it is grossly visi- 
 ble, but that it is all-pervading ; that, with a lidless and 
 unslumbcring eye, its gaze is fixed on all the thoughts and 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 293 
 
 ways of the world ; that it beholds nothing of an indiffer- 
 ent nature in the whole scene ; but that noting, discrimina- 
 ting, and weighing all things, it every where and in every 
 thing discovers the elements of good or evil, approving or 
 condemning whatever transpires. Opening the dark and 
 secret chambers of the heart, he showed it there searching 
 for sin ; having for its torch the sword of avenging justice, 
 with which it flashed on the face of conscience as it pas- 
 sed, and detected sins which had not yet dared to come 
 forth in action. He showed it there, discovering and ar- 
 raigning evil in its first rudiments ; rage, in its spark ; li- 
 centiousness, in its first glance ; and murder ambushed in 
 an unbreathed and unsuspected thought : sin in its seed, 
 concealing the coming transgression, enclosing the future 
 hell. 
 
 So multiplied were the subdivisions, and so minute the 
 gradations of duty, devised by the Jews, that the obliga- 
 tions of holiness were well-nigh forgotten, in endless dis- 
 putes about the comparative importance and precedence of 
 its several branches. Morality, as a practice, was in dan- 
 ger of being sentenced to wait, till morality, as a science, 
 should be complete ; till they should succeed in the hope- 
 less task of determining the merits, and adjusting the claims 
 of its respective parts, so as to give it the scholastic air of 
 a system. Resolving their endless distinctions of duty into 
 two classes, our Lord not only declared which is the first 
 and great command, he showed them that the principle of 
 all obedience, and the substance of all law, are essentially 
 the same ; that love is the fulfilling of the laio. He taught 
 that ' all the law and the prophets,' all the duties enjoined 
 from the foundation of the world are resolvable into this 
 as their life and essence : and that, consequently, wherever 
 this principle exists, though the subjects of it may be igno- 
 rant that such duties have been formally enjoined, it would 
 
294 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 by the necessity of its nature unfold and expand, putting 
 forth all the fruits and beauties of holiness : that it is the 
 principle which is in the stead of law, and the fulfillment 
 of all law. 
 
 And to the law of God thus explained and enforced, he 
 put the seal of eternity. In the hands of the Jews, it had 
 been made to vary its demands, accommodating its require- 
 ments to the changing temperature of times and circum- 
 stances ; but as the principles on Avhich it rests can know 
 no change, he proclaimed its immutability. 'For verily 
 I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one 
 tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.' 
 Having raised and restored it to all its original claims, he 
 published it anew as the rule of our spiritual nature ; the 
 perfect, universal, and perpetual standard, to which the en- 
 tire man must be conformed. 
 
 III. From his exposition of the moral law, it is only a 
 short and easy transition to the spiritual character which 
 his teaching prescribed for, 
 
 I. The worship of God. There is a sense in which 
 spiritual devotion stands opposed to that which is local. 
 Among the many restrictions peculiar to the Jewish econ- 
 omy, one was, that after the erection of the temple at Jeru- 
 salem, it became impious to perform certain rites at any 
 other place. Hence the difficulty expressed by the woman 
 of Samaria, as to the proper place of devotion. Jesus an- 
 nounced that, by the introduction of the gospel, all such 
 local distinctions would cease, and that believers would of- 
 fer their spiritual sacrifices wherever, and as often as they 
 chose. On another occasion he declared to his disciples, 
 ' Wherever two or three are met together in my name, there 
 am I in the midst of them ; ' thus asserting the spirituali- 
 ty and immensity of his divine nature, and harmonizing it 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 295 
 
 with the spiritual character and universal extension of his 
 church. While by the final commission which he gave 
 to his disciples to cafry his gospel into all nations, he abro- 
 gated the law of local sanctity, consecrated the wide world 
 to the worship of God, and appointed the whole earth to 
 be ' the mountain of holiness.' 
 
 2. The spirituality of worship which Jesus taught is 
 contradistinguished from ceremonial observances. God is 
 a spirit, and the only devotion compatible with his nature 
 is that which flows from the souls of his worshippers. 
 In prescribing the ritual part of a religion, he is to be re- 
 garded as consulting not the spirituality of his own, but 
 the materiality and infirmities of our nature ; as relaxing 
 the demands of his heavenly Ao meet the necessities of our 
 earthly. But as his only aim, in thus suspending the re- 
 quirements which are proper to his nature, is to engage 
 and assist our souls in his service, so the religion which 
 attains this end with the fewest forms is regarded by him 
 at the most perfect. It is more congenial to his spiritual 
 nature, and less ensnaring to our formality. On this prin- 
 ciple it is that the Christian dispensation, which when 
 compared with the Jewish, ranks so much higher in moral 
 excellence, was assigned to the hands of Jesus to bestow 
 as an incomparably better gift. And of the heavenly 
 state where devotion is carried to the highest perfection, 
 John informs us that he saw no temple therein : it is dis- 
 pensed with there as ah unnecessary appendage. The 
 worshippers there are independent of time, and place, and 
 circumstance. By such restrictions they would deem their 
 worship impeded and disfigured. Devotion there, divest- 
 ed of all its earthly vestments, is reduced to its pure essen- 
 tial elements. The soul of religion enters there alone, and 
 hence the superiority and perfection of the worship. 
 
 The ritual of the Jews indeed prescribed a multitude of 
 
296 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 perpetually recurring observances. But, though burdened 
 with ceremonies, it was highly significant of all that is 
 spiritual and essential in the presentfeconomy. That its 
 rites were not necessary to salvation must have been evi- 
 dent to the reflecting Israelite, from the fact that many had 
 been saved before they were prescribed. To secure and 
 vindicate the spirituality of the divine worship was one of 
 its chief and avowed objects. For this the Almighty pro- 
 claimed himself a jealous God. Hence too, the rigorous 
 prohibition of graven images ; the certain and awful pun- 
 ishment which followed every lapse into idolatry ; the fre- 
 quency with which he directed his prophets to correct 
 their formality by partially disparaging the appointed forms 
 of their service, ' desiring mercy and not sacrifice, and the 
 knowledge of God more than burnt offerings ; ' by insist- 
 ing on the emptiness of ritual worship, unless accompa- 
 nied by the sacrifice of a contrite spirit ; by reminding 
 them during seasons of captivity and war, when the ob- 
 servance of their rites was not in their power, that if they 
 still retained the piety of the heart, they possessed the es- 
 sence and core of true religion ; all of which combined to 
 preserve and promote the spirituality of their devotion. 
 Piety, indeed, has always been composed of the same ele- 
 ments, and issued in the same result — the production of 
 spiritual men. For this, the legal economy may be said 
 to have travailed and been in birth. Yet, however labo- 
 rious the process, and elementary the character it produ- 
 ced, it could be satisfied with nothing less. Disowning 
 and rejecting the formalist as a reproach, it acknowledged 
 for its offspring none who boie not its spiritual impress ; 
 and, equally with the gospel, reserved its ultimate rewards 
 for the ' Israelite indeed.' Over every gate of the temple, 
 it may be said to have exhibited this inscription, ' He is not 
 a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 297 
 
 which is outward in the flesh : but he is a Jew who is one 
 inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the 
 spirit and not in the letter ; whose praise is not of men, but 
 of God.' 
 
 But though that economy contemplated the pure and 
 cordial worship of God, yet spirituality was not its char- 
 acteristic. It was light only in comparison with the sur- 
 rounding darkness of ignorance and idolatry. As viewed 
 from heaven its devotion must have appeared remote, labo- 
 rious, and material. Its name, to be descriptive and appro- 
 priate, could onl3. be taken from its ritual character ; hence 
 it is denominated, ' the hand-writing of ordinances ;' 'the 
 law of commandments contained in ordinances ; ' ' a figure 
 for the time then present ; ' ' which stood only in meats 
 and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances ; ' 
 and for a similar reason its disciples called themselves the 
 iemple and the circumcision. Each of the supernatural 
 doctrines it taught was veiled. It contained truth only in 
 the seed or the husk. Its most striking and instructive 
 parts were ' only figures of the true.' The law made noth- 
 ing perfect. It left the Adorable himself in shadow. Like 
 its own awful and unapproachable veil, it at once contain- 
 ed and co7iccaled ; investing the spiritual with material 
 forms, and placing the glorious in distant obscurity. 
 
 But it was only meant for a temporary purpose : ' being 
 imposed until the time of reformation ' by Christ. In the 
 execution of his office he gradually repealed the whole 
 ceremonial. ' Go,' said he, * and learn what that meaneth, 
 I will have mercy and not sacrifice;' thus virtually dis- 
 countenancing the ritual of their religion, he exalted char- 
 acter into supreme importance, implying its independent 
 sufficiency, and the possibility that under a new dispensa- 
 tion it might exist alone. By dispensing with all pomp 
 and state in his own person, and demanding regeneration 
 19 
 
298 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 as the only qualification for the kingdom of God, he taught 
 that religion was hencef(>rth to prove its independence of 
 forms ; that, dismissing all its earthly allies and appenda- 
 ges, it was to rest its claims on its own intrinsic merits; to 
 walk the earth in unattended majesty, indebted for all its 
 attractions and triumphs to the invisible Spirit alone. 
 
 His prediction of the entire destruction of the temple, 
 intimated the approaching purification of religion. The 
 temple was the fixed and only home of the ceremonial in- 
 stitute. During the earlier history of that institute it had 
 been migratory ; ' I have not, saith God, dwelt in any house 
 since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out 
 of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent 
 and in a tabernacle.' The erection of the temple gave to 
 it locality, consolidation, and repose ; was the appropriate 
 token and promise of its stability ; and accordingly around 
 that sacred fane the nation settled and built a home in re- 
 liance on that stability. The unqualified prediction of its 
 fall then involved the abrogation of its peculiar rites. The 
 prophecy of its former demolition, only involved the sus- 
 pension of these rites ; for it was accompanied and even 
 preceded by a promise of its restoration. But Jesus, by 
 announcing the deletion, the utter erasure of the temple 
 from the face of the earth, without any reserve for the fu- 
 ture, intimated the irrevocable nature of its fall, the visible 
 repeal of the religion which dwelt in it, and ' the bringing 
 in of a better hope, by the which w^e draw nigh unto God.' 
 
 By announcing that he was greater than the temple, he 
 virtually displaced it with all its contents, and remained 
 himself in the place it had occupied : and by proclaiming 
 himself ' the way, the truth, and the life,' he intimated that 
 all the typic rites had found their prototype and fulfillment 
 in himself, and that henceforth all the offices of the church 
 would be absorbed and centred in himself alone. Hither- 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 299 
 
 to, the worship of God had been conducted, so to speak, 
 at a distance, believers approaching him only through in- 
 termediate forms ; but Jesus annihilated that distance and 
 dispensed with these forms : supplying them with the in- 
 cense of his own name, he constitutes each of them a spir- 
 itual priest, leads them direct to an immediate audience 
 with God, and, placing them around the footstool of mercy, 
 commands them to 'ask and receive, that their joy may be 
 full.' When solicited to decide between the respective 
 merits of the Jewish and Samaritan rituals, he intimated 
 that the time had arrived when the question ceased to be 
 important, since both of them were about to be annulled 
 and superseded ; ' The hour cometh,' said he, ■ and now is, 
 when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in 
 spirit and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such to worship 
 him.' 
 
 In harmony with this representation, the disciples of 
 Christ are distinguished as ' the true circumcision, who 
 worship God in the spirit.' He introduces them into a 
 church from which he has swept every vestige of the an- 
 cient rites. He allows them to restore none of these rites, 
 nor to substitute aught in lieu of them, at the awful peril 
 of his displeasure. When they come into his courts, he 
 requires that nothing be laid upon his altar but * spiritual 
 sacrifices ; ' that nothing appear before him but our spirits 
 communing with his Spirit. He looks for an assembly of 
 human hearts, of naked human hearts ; and when he be- 
 holds them engaged, delighted, absorbed in his worship, 
 he contemplates an object far more acceptable than the flam- 
 ing sacrifice of the whole material world. 
 
 And the quality of the provision which he has made for 
 his worship, perfectly corresponds with the spirituality of 
 its nature and requirements. He has placed it under the 
 entire superintendence of the Holy Spirit, whose aid he 
 
300 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 instructed his disciples to consider as absolutely necessary 
 and all-sufficient. A convert from Judaism must have felt 
 an amazing change, in passing from its crowded and pomp- 
 ous ritual, to the severe simplicity of the christian church. 
 In a literal sense, he exchanged the gorgeous magnificence 
 of the temple for the bare and unpretending plainness of 
 * an upper room ; ' and in a spiritual point of view he did 
 the same. But then, among the new and numerous ad- 
 vantages arising from the transition, it might be said that 
 he found that room to be within the veil. He left the rites 
 to stand in the presence of the God. He emerged from 
 the cloud of incense to find himself alone with the great 
 Spirit of the new dispensation. ' Likewise also the Spirit, 
 he could say, helpeth our infirmities.' Employed by Jesus, 
 the divine Spirit whom he departed to send, compensates 
 for the loss of the material sanctuary by erecting the soul 
 of the believer into a living temple. Having cleansed and 
 made it consecrate, and kindled on its altar a sacred fire, 
 he himself condescends to assume the office of conducting 
 its worship. Acting the part of its high priest and inter- 
 cessor, he prepares and presents to God the welcome sac- 
 rifice of a broken and contrite heart. He calls the 
 thoughts, and affections, and desires away from the world, 
 and conducts them like a band of humble worshippers to 
 the throne of God ; constraining the soul and all that is 
 within it to bless and praise his holy name. 
 
 3. Another species of worship to which spiritual and 
 acceptable devotion is opposed, is that which is prescribed 
 by human authority. Destitute of that faith which ranges 
 the invisible world, and which makes the interior of the 
 temple above its own, the Jews sought to supply the defect 
 by perpetually multiplying the objects and observances of 
 their earthly temple. Being prevented, by the unchange- 
 able nature of their constitution, from cultivating the science 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 301 
 
 of civil legislation ; and by the intrusion of foreign domi- 
 nation, from the exercise of the highest executive powers, 
 religion was doomed to receive the undivided attentions of 
 worldly ambition ; the temple was the great national valve 
 through Avhich that principle, which loves to enact and 
 create, found an escape. But to add to the appointments 
 of God in religion, to legislate where he has been legis- 
 lating before, is to imply that we understand the wants and 
 niceties of our human and the requirements of his divine 
 nature, better than he does, and are more concerned to 
 meet them. It is to set up our throne by his throne, and 
 to imply that we possess authority to bind the conscience 
 and control the heart. Besides, so comprehensive and 
 perfect are the divine appointments, however few and sim- 
 ple they may seem, that it is impossible for man to intro- 
 duce additions without in some way deranging and dis- 
 placing these prior appointments, and doing violence to 
 some part of human nature. If his petty parasitical addi- 
 tions take root, they gradually shade and overtop the orig- 
 inal ordinances of God, depriving them of all that rever- 
 ence of soul which is the appropriate soil of religion, and 
 which belongs to it alone. If, on the other hand, they in- 
 cur the neglect their origin deserves, they are likely to in- 
 volve the religion about which they have entwined in the 
 same undistinguishing contempt. Hence, said Jesus, ' Ev- 
 ery plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, 
 shall be rooted up.' Arraigning the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees, the profane usurpers of religious authority, he de- 
 manded, • Why do ye transgress the commandment of God 
 by your tradition ? ' And having cited a single instance 
 of their impiety, he added, ' Thus have ye made the com- 
 mandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye 
 hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you saying. This 
 people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and hon- 
 
302 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 oreth me with their lips ; but their heart is far from me. 
 But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the 
 commandments of men.' 
 
 Piety, or religious obedience, is a virtue in the sight of 
 God, only as it is a compliance with his authority ; so that 
 for man to assume the power of prescribing, is to make 
 virtue impossible : it is to poison duty at the fountain- 
 head ; to turn the waters of the sanctuary into an element 
 of impurity and death. To save his purer religion from 
 this deadly ingredient — that is, if any language could have 
 saved it — not only did Jesus institute a more spiritual wor- 
 ship, and one therefore less liable to combine with human 
 admixtures, he proclaims its entireness and sufficiency, and 
 his own exclusive authority in the church. To those Avho 
 would convert his house into a battlemented and frowning 
 fortress, he addresses the language of mild remonstrance, 
 and says, 'ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of 
 ' The Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to 
 save them.' ' Put up the sword again into its place.' ' If 
 my kingdom were of this world then would my servants 
 fight, but now is it not from hence.' Stripping ofTthe tinsel 
 trappings, with which men in their love for pomp and show 
 would fain adorn his spiritual throne, he reminds them that 
 his kingdom is not of this world. He authoritatively silen- 
 ces the lowest tone, the first syllable, of human legislation 
 in his worship, by proclaiming, ' One is your master, even 
 Christ ; and all ye are brethren.' On conducting the Gen- 
 tile world into his church, his disciples were to inculcate 
 the observance of his commands, and his alone : — ' teach- 
 ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have command- 
 ed ;' — this is, at once, the ample extent, and the well defin- 
 ed limits of the evangelical commission. Drawing around 
 his church a line of spiritual interdiction, he requires that 
 before it be crossed, every badge of authority be laid aside, 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 303 
 
 that every high thing Avhich exalteth itself be left without, 
 and allows nothing to obtain currency and acceptance as de- 
 votion within, which does not bear the mintage and im- 
 press of his image, the superscription of his name. 
 
 4. And the spirituality of devotion which Jesus taught 
 is opposed to that which is formal and insincere. In relig- 
 ion the heart is every thing : if the heart be absent from 
 the worship of God, the man is absent ; or, what is worse, 
 the Omniscient beholds, in the stead of a sincere worship- 
 per, a piece of solemn formality going through the attitudes 
 and signs of devotion, and even uttering the affecting lan- 
 guage of confession, supplication, and praise, but entirely 
 devoid of any corresponding emotions within. He beholds 
 moreover, in the rights of such worship, an array of spir- 
 itual idols: of means converted into ends: of forms erect- 
 ed into objects of trust, supplanting him and substituted in 
 his stead, robbing him of the homage which is due unto 
 his name. The idols of the heathen stood between earth 
 and heaven, obscuring the vision of God, intercepting and 
 appropriating the mounting incense which should have as- 
 cended to the eternal throne. The rites of the formalist 
 are his spiritual idols ; instead of leading his thoughts on- 
 wards to God, they stand between him and the professed 
 object of his worship, concealing God from his view, en- 
 grossing his soul to themselves, and leaving behind them 
 a feeling of satisfaction simply "because they have been re- 
 vered and observed. 
 
 By attesting the spirituality of the divine nature^ our 
 Lord taught that the heart is indispensable in devotion. 
 For if God be a spirit, it follows that our worship, to be ac- 
 ceptable, must correspond with his nature. Accordingly, 
 when we come before him, he requires that the soul, the 
 noblest part of our nature, should do him homage ; that 
 our thoughts should relate to him, our affections embrace 
 
304 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 him, that our spiritual nature should go forth and seek 
 communion with him : nor can he be imposed on by mere 
 forms and semblances, for, being spirit, he is perfectly- 
 acquainted with all other spirits : intimately, and always 
 present with them. 
 
 If devotion be regarded as the use and application of a 
 spiritual remedy, the Savior taught the same important les- 
 son, by describing the heart as the seat of our moral disease. 
 
 ' Out of the heart,' said he, ' proceed evil thoughts, 
 
 these are the things which defile a man ; but to eat bread 
 with unwashed hands, this defileth not a man.' The heart 
 then is the source of moral defilement j not only does it 
 originate all the evil which appears in the life, it must plead 
 guilty to a mass of evil which never comes forth into the 
 conduct ; the ungodliness that appears in the life, is barely 
 the overflowings of an ungodly heart. It originates many 
 a thought which the tongue never breathes in the softest 
 whisper ; and many a desire which is smothered in the 
 birth as too monstrous to see the day ; and purposes with- 
 out number, for which the darkness of night would be too 
 light and the secrecy of solitude too public. Well may 
 the prophet exclaim, in allusion to its desperate wickedness, 
 ' Who can know it 'V it has intricacies, which no other 
 creature can penetrate ; recesses, which the man himself 
 cannot explore ; depths which God alone is able to fathom. 
 It is there that error takes it rise as from a fountain, and 
 thence all the streams of error are constantly fed. There 
 it is that sin sows its poisonous seed as in ground prepar- 
 ed for its reception, and w^here it is sure to take root. 
 There it is that malice muses its deep-laid projects of re- 
 venge; that lust revels in thoughts of sensual indulgence; 
 that treachery plots and cherishes its dark des'gns. It is 
 in the heart that the lool says what he fears to utter with 
 his tongue, 'No God.' There it is that scepticism harbors 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 305 
 
 its hard thoughts of God, and that our natural enmity 
 agamst him finds a home. It is the treasury of sin, where 
 all its resources are kept against the hour of opportunity. 
 It is the hiding-place of sin, where it often lurks unknown 
 to us, and whence it frequently steals forth and takes us by 
 surprise. It is the first place which sin enters, and the 
 last which it leaves ; for sin not only takes up its abode in 
 the heart before it appears in the conduct, but how often 
 does it occur that after sin has been banished from the out- 
 ward life it only retires back again and hides itself in the 
 heart. Having taken up a commanding position in the 
 heart, and fortified and entrenched itself there, it mocks 
 every effort made to dislodge it, which does not reach and 
 shake the very centre of our being. 
 
 Religion then, the antagonist force which is to expel sin 
 from our nature, must be conveyed into the same seat, must 
 meet the enemy on its ov/n ground, must attack and van- 
 quish it in its stronghold. ' Make the tree good,' saith 
 Christ, 'and the fruit will be good.' Our visible piety 
 must be the fruit of a tree whose roots are struck deep in 
 the heart. 
 
 The loftiest distinction in his kingdom he reserved for 
 the pure in heart. According to a law in nature which uni- 
 versally prevails, a change in the constitution of any crea- 
 ture is followed by a corresponding change in his condi- 
 tion When changed from pollution to purity, his people 
 shall be blessed by purity, be brought into the presence 
 of celestial purity, be beloved by infinite purity, shall as- 
 cend to the beatific vision of God as to their orio-inal 
 
 o 
 
 birthright. 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall 
 see God.' 
 
 While leading his disciples into the presence of God, 
 he impressed on them what they were chiefly to implore ; 
 they were to solicit that all-comprehending gift, the Holy 
 
306 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 Spirit : a gift which, from its very nature, would demand 
 their heart for the place of its reception. And if it be found 
 impossible, owing to a fixed and infallible law of our be- 
 ing, to associate even with a fellow-mortal without receiv- 
 ing moral modification, a degree of assimilation to his 
 character, how can the supreme, the ever-active and all- 
 assirnilating Spirit, take up his abode in the midst of our 
 nature without changing the heart and conforming it to his 
 own holiness. 
 
 Placing himself between the mercy-seat and the crowd 
 of heartless worshippers that beset it, he shamed their vain 
 ostentation, silenced their endless repetitions, and 1 ifting 
 up the drapery of the breast, he showed them to themselves 
 hollow and heartless, and dismissed them with denuncia- 
 tions instead of blessings. Having removed the hypocrit- 
 ical throng, he sought to surround the footstool of grace 
 with Israelites indeed. To engage their affections in 
 prayer, he taught them to call the Being they addressed 
 by the endearing name of Father; thus allaying their 
 fears, and awakening and consecrating their filial instincts 
 to devotion. To call forth the ardor of their souls, he held 
 up a prize of prayer before their eyes ; gave to it th? most 
 alluring names; called it imperishable weahh — good things 
 — the Holy Spirit — eternal life ; or, as though no lan- 
 guage could describe the efficacy he would assign to pray- 
 er, he assured them that ask what they would it should be 
 done for them ; that they should find the treasury of heav- 
 en, and all the resources of God, open and accessible to 
 them. 
 
 To show them the triumph of feeling over form, he brought 
 them by parable, into be temple, and directed their atten- 
 tion to two worshippers — the one, a pharisee, standing erect 
 before God ; loud and voluble ; with nothing but virtues 
 to recount ; the envy of his nation, tha pride cf his 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 307 
 
 sect: the other a publican, one of the refuse of the peo- 
 ple ; bowed, dejected, self condemned ; his eyes seeking 
 the dust ; his heart swollen even to bursting : his ut- 
 terance choked; smiting upon his breast as the seat of all 
 his agony and disease ; able only to articulate, ' God be 
 merciful to me, a sinner.' But while the former is sent 
 empty away, he shows them the other returning to his 
 house, rich in the favor of God ; forgiven, justified, happy. 
 Thus he taught them that prayer is a sigh ; a tear ; a 
 look ; an act of prostration ; a transaction of the soul with 
 heaven : an affair in which the only office of the tongue is 
 to unload the freighted and overflowing heart, and relieve 
 it of its oppressive fulness. He encouraged and urged 
 them, by his own example, by arguments, by parables, by 
 appeals to the parental affections of th.-ir rature, by expli- 
 cit promises, to ask, to seek, to knock, to set no bounds to 
 their importunity, to give unlimited scope and ardor to 
 their desires ; and, that no doubt of welcome and success 
 might obtrude to check the full flow and outpouring of 
 their souls to God, he affirmed it to be an invariable principle 
 of the divine government, that every one that asketh, re- 
 ceiveth. And likening his new and evangelical church to a 
 kingdom, and the entrance to it to a strait gate and a nar- 
 row way, a defile in which hell has posted its archers to 
 dispute the passage, he cheered them to the onset, bade 
 them, though at the risk of an eye, a hand or even life it- 
 self, to agonize, to force their way as with a spasm of en- 
 ergy, and seize that kingdom by storm. 
 
 Devotion, which to be pure and vital must derive its 
 supplies, like the living stream, by hidden communication 
 with the parent ocean, he found cut off from the great 
 Fountain of life, and made to consist in artificial jet works 
 and devices for proud and public display. Its seclusive 
 character was entirely gone. As if the only aliment on 
 
308 THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 which it could live was publicity, as if its value depended 
 entirely on the degree in which it was seen, its favorite re- 
 sorts were the chief seats in the synagogue, the corners 
 of the streets, and the market-place. Tired of the closet, 
 and even of the sanctuary, devotion, or that which passed 
 for it, had brought forth all its symbols and apparatus 
 which should have been sacred to secresy, spread them 
 abroad before the public eye, and transacted its high and sol- 
 emn affairs with heaven at the sound of the trumpet, and 
 in the broad glare of day. Reprobating this shameless os- 
 tentation as hypocrisy, he assigned to it its only legitimate 
 reward — the notice of man, the barren applause of congen- 
 ial hypocrisy — and left it withering under the frown of 
 God. But taking the subject of sincere devotion by the 
 hand, he led him to a hushed and secret recess : and, clos- 
 ing the door, secluded him from the noise and observation 
 of the world, and left him alone with God ; there to forget 
 all things but God and himself; there to discover, in his 
 connatural affinity and sympathy with God, the hidden 
 and dormant dignity of his own nature; and thence to 
 come forth, rich in the smiles of his heavenly Father, and, 
 like a priest fresh from a cloud of incense, suffused with 
 the holy fragrance of his divine employment. 
 
 IV. But that which formed a prominent feature of our 
 Lord's teaching, and which on that account claims our espe- 
 cial attention, was the spirituality of his new, evangelical 
 kingdom. He came to a people possessed by the demon of 
 national ambition. Having secularized their religion, 
 and thus prepared themselves for the delusion, their early 
 conquests, their miraculous history, and the glowing de- 
 scriptions of prophecy combined to foster the expectation of 
 their coming greatness and universal empire; while the 
 galling pressure of the Roman yoke rendered the vision 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. ^309 
 
 :x 
 
 doubly prec lous, and heightened its splendors, and- filled 
 them with a frenzy of impatience to behold it realized. 
 The advent of Messiah alone was wanting to make them a 
 nation of princes and masters of the world. On^ his ap- 
 pearing, the nations were to be summoned ; and submit, or 
 perish. Leading forth an army of conquerers, the swords 
 of God, he would make the circuit of the earth,'.,and return 
 with the spoils of universal triumph. Judea would hence- 
 forth be a land of palaces, the seat of terrestrial power, the 
 very heaven of earth. They lived in the familiar contempla- 
 tion of a vision in which 'all the kingdoms ;(of the world, 
 and the glories of them,' were placed at their' feet; a vis- 
 ion in which they saw themselves collected and ranged in 
 hierarchal order, gradation above gradation, a towering 
 structure of political grandeur ; a living pyramid, whose 
 summit was crowned with the throne of the hope of Israel 
 invested with the insignia of universal supremacy, and at 
 whose basement was stretched out in glorious perspective 
 the kneeling and admiring homage of the world. Such 
 anticipation, in substance was the creed of the nation. It 
 was not peculiar to a visionary few, but was pourtrayed in 
 vivid and permanent imagery on every mind. Not to be- 
 lieve in its approach was infidelity ; and not to pray for it 
 was, to a proverb, not to pray at all. The expectation of 
 it moulded their worship, imprinted itself on their lan- 
 guage and on many of their habits, and kept them in a 
 perpetual fever of excitement. 
 
 In the face of this sorcerous and powerful delusion, Jesus 
 propounded the simplicity of Messiah's reign. He did 
 this, not merely to dissipate the existing error, but knowing 
 that the principle from which it sprung is native to the hu- 
 man heart, and foreseeing that the great enemy would at- 
 tempt to employ it against his church, in every form 
 and in every age, he sought to render it, if not impossi- 
 
310 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 ble, at least utterly inexcusable. His early instruc- 
 tions were devoted supremely, and even solely to this ob- 
 ject. By dispatching his herald to proclaim repentance as 
 the only preparation for his coming kingdom, he essayed 
 to disturb the national dream and to break up the popular 
 delusion. On coming to Jerusalem, he repaired to the 
 temple; and by expelling the herd of the Vv^orldly that 
 profaned it, he practically taught that in his church, vvhere- 
 ever and whenever it might exist, names would benothinsf 
 and character every thing. Discoursing with Nicodemus 
 immediately after, he insisted on the regeneration of the 
 heart as indispensable to his kingdom. Then followed his 
 discourse with the woman of Samaria, in which, as we have 
 already seen, he left nothing to the hopes of the secular 
 and car nal, but opened to the spiritual a prospect of un- 
 clouded day. Proceeding into Galilee, betook up the bur- 
 den of the Baptist's preaching, and repeated wherever he 
 came, ' Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 
 Arriving at Nazareth, he implied the spiritual design of his 
 mission by appropriating the prediction which described 
 the poor, the blind, the bruised and broken hearted as the 
 objects of his peculiar care. Followed by a large and ad- 
 miring multitude, many of whom had lately beheld him 
 at Jerusalem when his miracles had divided attention w4th 
 the temple itself, and all of whom were sanguine of his 
 patriotic designs, he ascended a mount, marked the unholy 
 enthusiasm which fired their hearts, surveyed the phan- 
 toms of national greatness which played before their eyes, 
 saw that their ambitious impatience was at its height, and 
 opening his mouth, by the first sentence he uttered he laid 
 ^Afcir kingdom in the dust ; * Blessed are the poor in Spirit 
 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' He corrects their 
 extravagant views, not by branding and denouncing them, 
 but by pronouncing his benediction on sentiments of a very 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY, 311 
 
 opposite description. He does not require them to relin- 
 quish their hopes of a kingdom; he promises a kingdom; 
 but then the kingdom he proposes is spiritual, a state in 
 which their earthly passions will be discredited and un- 
 known, and qualities the very opposite prevail, in which 
 spiritual poverty would constitute the greatest wealth. 
 
 Had he delivered no specific instructions concerning the 
 genius of his kingdom, we might have inferred its spiritu- 
 ality from his conduct alone. Had the policy and pride of 
 man been consulted on the means of its erection, they 
 would have demanded that splendor should be seen follow- 
 ing in his train, and wealth pouring out its treasures at his 
 feet, and ambition realizing honors and titles at his hands. 
 They would have said, ' If a new system is to be proclaim- 
 ed and established, in the world, let the profoundest philos- 
 ophers of the day be engaged to advocate its merits ; let 
 the^ princes and potentates of the earth be induced to pat- 
 ronize it, and take it under their guardian care ; let poetry 
 sing its praises ; let eloquence pour forth its most effective 
 oratory in its behalf: let every spring of human power be 
 touched and put in motion, and the gospel may gradually 
 gain a footing in the world.' And had it been of earthly 
 origin and character, such instrumentality might have been 
 wise and well. But the spirituality of its nature disdained 
 such alliance. The empire of Jesus was intended to be 
 the great anomaly of the world; audits Founder design- 
 ed that its distinctive character should be seen in the 
 anomalous means employed to erect it. 'My kingdom,' 
 said he, ' is not of this world ; ' and forthwith he proceed- 
 ed to illustrate the truth by laying its foundation in his own 
 death : by erecting a cross for its centre and glory. ' My 
 kingdom is not of this world ; it came down complete from 
 heaven, and it conducts thither again ; it does not contem- 
 plate man specifically in his national, secular, or artificial 
 
312 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 relations, but in his moral capacity as amenable to the in- 
 visible and supreme Governor ; and it proposes to form 
 him into a subject, and to acquire his allegiance, by laws 
 and influences unknown to the resources of earthly pow- 
 ers, and mysterious as the operation of the wind, an agen- 
 cy derived immediately from heaven.' It may impress its 
 image on earthly governments with the happiest effect, but 
 cannot take from them the slightest print without receiving 
 essential injury ; it may leave the constitution of a human 
 empire untouched, while it pervades and possesses every 
 member of that state, and renders him a new creature. 
 So spiritual is its nature, that, like its omnipresent Founder, 
 who is always present with his creatures in the same place, 
 without destroying any of the attributes proper to their na- 
 ture, it is capable of co-existing and co-extending with an 
 earthly state, and of preserving its own separate character, 
 without at all interfering with the functions proper to W^at 
 state. 
 
 Unlike the dominions of the kings of the earth, his 
 kingdom knows nothing of territorial divisions and geo- 
 graphical bounds. ' That which is born of the Spirit is 
 spirit,' and belongs to his domains : so much of the man as 
 is sanctified is native to this state, and no more ; and only 
 so much of society as is reclaimed to holiness comes within 
 its spiritual scope and verge. It is a region ol light; and 
 to whatever point its beams may reach, ' the kingdom of 
 God is come nigh unto it.' It is a dominion of holiness ; 
 and he who begins to exhibit the signs of repentance is 
 'not far from it,' is approaching its happy confines. The 
 lengths and breadths of Immannel's land are not capable of 
 being mapped ; it is a region too etherial to be subjected to 
 the lines of latitude and longitude ; it is to commensurate 
 with actual faith, and actual holiness, and knows no limits 
 but where these terminate. 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 313 
 
 To be the subjects of this kingdom does not depend on 
 birth-place or human relationship. Their great distinc- 
 tion is, that they are born from above; 'Jesus answered, 
 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh ; and 
 that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit. Marvel not that I 
 said unto thee, ye must be born again.' In their natural state 
 they are flesh of flesh ; the depraved offspring of depraved 
 parents. Their spiritual principle— that which principal- 
 ly distinguished them as men, and allied them to God — 
 has become a secondary and subordinate part of their na- 
 ture. It ought to have reigned, but it has resigned its au- 
 thority, dismissed its state, and abdicated its throne. It 
 has descended to be a slave where it ought to have been 
 king. The flesh, which should have been only its chariot 
 of triumph, leads it, instead, in degrading captivity. In 
 this degraded state, it is regarded as having forfeited its 
 own name; it is no longer w^orthy to be called spirit; it 
 even submits to the dishonor of taking its name from the 
 inferior, the fleshly principle. Being immersed in the 
 flesh, and owning the flesh for its master, the mind is ani- 
 malized, the very mind is turned into flesh, and rendered a 
 fleshly mind ; ' that which is born of the flesh, is flesh.' 
 
 Now it is characteristic of all the subjects of the gospel 
 kingdom, that this unnatural order of things has been re- 
 versed, and their spirit restored to its proper supremacy 
 and power. Brought out of the grave which enclosed it, 
 and reseated on its native throne, it learns to assert its au- 
 thority over the flesh. It is not detached from the body ; 
 but is enabled to deny the flesh, to hold it in subjection, to 
 give it laws, and to exact obedience. It is not exempt 
 from the influence of carnal propensities ; but it struggles 
 with them ; and herein consists its spirituality. It will no 
 20 
 
314 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 longer submit to their rule ; it will be master ; it will tri- 
 umph over the flesh, and make its new-found royalty ap- 
 pear in a prevailing spirituality. And having thus recov- 
 ered its authority and birth-right, it now again resumes its 
 name — it is spirit. The subject of the change, still taking 
 his name from his ruling principle, is now denominated 
 spiritual, for it is his spirit that reigns ; ' that which is born 
 of the Spirit, is spirit.' And of this spiritual character 
 aie all the subjects of the christian kingdom. God has no 
 moral kingdom on earth, but what consists of such char- 
 acters; for as the extinction of this spirituality by sin, was 
 the extinction of a kingdom, so the reproduction of it by 
 the Divine Spirit is the setting up of a new kingdom; 
 and except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot be en- 
 rolled among its subjects. 
 
 Contrary to the kingdoms of the world, the empire of 
 Christ does not find its subjects, but makes them. This is 
 its specific and exalted object — the production and perfec- 
 tion of spiritual men. Having wandered from the region 
 of holiness, they were accounted dead towards God ; des- 
 titute of a whole order of life which originally belonged 
 to all their faculties, and was diffused through their nature 
 constituting its beauty and perfection. ' 1 am come,' said 
 Christ, ' that they might have life, and that they might 
 have it more abundantly.' Being drawn by an unseen 
 hand within the circle of the spiritual region, the life they 
 had lost is again infused ; and in the exercise of its func- 
 tions, they find themselves capable of the duties of their 
 new empire, and make proof of their allegiance to their 
 new king. Throwing off the yoke of the flesh, they no 
 longer allow themselves to be the sport and victim of what- 
 ever sin might choose to assail them ; but as the Spirit hath 
 put forth his power to renew them, so their spirit puts forth 
 a corresponding power in earnest endeavors after holiness. 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 315 
 
 Admitted to the presence of their Sovereign Lord, they 
 take their directions from his lips, acquire an expansion 
 and increase of the divine life, until being changed into 
 the same image, they are translated to augment and adorn 
 his kingdom above. 
 
 The enlargment of an earthly kingdom is commonly at- 
 tended with 'the confused noise of the battle of the war- 
 rior, and garments rolled in blood ; ' its boundary lines are 
 drawn in blood. But the progress of his empire is like 
 the silent stealing of light on darkness. ' If my kingdom 
 were of this world,' said he, 'then would my servants 
 fight ; but now is my kingdom not from hence.' The only 
 panoply he has provided for its militant subjects, is an ar- 
 mor of character ; the weapons of their warfare are the 
 love that attracts, the patience that endures, and the union 
 that gives strength. The victories they achieve are all 
 bloodless — the moral conquest of revolted minds. And, 
 hence, like the silent fermenting of the hidden leaven, or 
 the unobtrusive growth of the mustard seed to a tree, the 
 enlargement of his empire is ' not with observation ; ' 
 though it is a leaven which is to pervade and assimilate the 
 entire mass of humanity, and a tree which is to fill the 
 world with its fragrance and its fruits. 
 
 The only domains on which his empire agresses are 
 those of ignorance, sense, and sin ; nor does it make any 
 real accession, but as it gradually brings them into subjec- 
 tion ; so that to accept the patronage, or to seek the alliance 
 of the unrenewed, is to suppose that darkness would com- 
 bine with light, to introduce a subject of the prince of dark- 
 ness, and invest him with authority in the dominions of the 
 prince of light. The primary object of human governments, 
 is the protection of property, liberty and life ; the design of 
 the kingdom of Christ may consist with the loss of all these, 
 and yet be perfectly answered, for the enemies and evils 
 from which it proposes to save, relate to the soul and eter- 
 
316 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 nity. Its sovereign himself asserted his royalty in the 
 presence of death, and endured the cross as the very means 
 of erecting his empire. Qualities which shine most re- 
 splendent in the kingdoms of the world, have no place in 
 his : and, while accidents of birth and fortune confer dis- 
 tinction in the former, the latter is an empire in which men 
 take rank according to their piety alone : ' w^hosoever shall 
 do and teach the divine commands, the same shall be called 
 great in the kingdom of heaven.' His is a kingdom in 
 which we belong to the higher orders, or the lower, ac- 
 cording to our character : in which holiness is the only 
 true nobility ; in ^vhich is wealth, accomplishment, and 
 rank all in one ; and the higher our attainments in right- 
 eousness, the larger our share of his royal favor, the more 
 unequivocally are we treated as the children of a king. 
 The immunities of his kingdom afford no hope for the 
 covetous, no scope for the proud and restless aspirations of 
 human ambition ; they consist of self dominion, sympa- 
 thies with heaven, foretastes of perfection, the imperisha- 
 ble affluence of the soul, ' spiritual blessings in heavenly 
 places.' The laws of his kingdom, unlike the mutable 
 and precarious enactments of men, are unaherable ; being 
 founded in his own unchangeable nature, and in the eter- 
 nal constitution of man ; heaven- and earth shall pass 
 away, before one of them shall fail. And constituting as 
 they do, a divine and perfect code, they admit of no amend- 
 ment, accept of no additions from human legislation. The 
 voice of human authority in his empire is the voice of 
 treason, a fearful approximation to the example of that am- 
 bitious spirit whose presumption procured his banishment 
 from heaven. The penalties of his kingdom are all spir- 
 itual : within the wide limits of his peaceful dominions he 
 allows no blood to be seen, but that of his ow^n atoning 
 sacrifice ; no sword to be wielded, but that weapon of ethe- 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 317 
 
 rial temper, the sword of the spirit, wliose strokes alight 
 only on the conscience, and whose edge is annointed with 
 a balm to heal every wound it may inflict. If one of his 
 professed subjects offend, the loyal and obedient are only 
 empowered to rebuke the offender, and to refuse him their 
 society; and even of the man who withholds his alleo-i- 
 ance, he declares, ' I judge him not ' during the present 
 dispensation, ' for I came not to judge the world, but to 
 save it.^ 
 
 The court of an earthly state is the rendezvous of its 
 pomp, the focus of its splendor; a spectacle which the 
 eyes of its people never weary to behold: his court is in- 
 Visible ; and though he comes to give audience to his peo- 
 ple, and to receive their petitions, his presence is unseen, 
 the object of their faith. Under the dominion of earthly 
 princes, a graduated scale is applied to society, dividing it 
 into ranks, and assigning to each its appropriate elevation 
 and distinction : under the administration of the gospel 
 kingdom, said Christ, it ' shall not be so ; but he that is 
 greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he 
 that is chief as he that doth serve.' ' For one is your 
 master even Christ, and all ye are brethren.' Under the 
 former, society is a cone, the high places of Avhich are oc- 
 cupied by those who, in proportion to their elevation, speak 
 with authority to the circles below them : under the latter 
 society is a plane, on which all artificial distinctions are 
 levelled and lost. The rich descending from their elevated 
 station, the poor emerging from their obscure retreats, and 
 both depositing their respective badges, they are enrolled 
 in his kingdom by one common appellation, enter his pres- 
 ence, and encircle his throne, on the same low basement. 
 Whatever their distinctions as the subjects of earthly 
 princes, as the subjkts of his empire, their wants, and ob- 
 ligations, and destiny exactly coincide, and place them on 
 
318 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 a perfect equality : while the only scope they have for em- 
 ulation is in a contest of humility, devotedness, and love, a 
 race of holiness ; and to the splendor of holiness, being 
 an order of splendor b)^ itself, no earthly distinction can 
 add a ray of lustre. 
 
 And, to conclude this prolonged particular, I will only 
 remark, that, while the subjects of human governments 
 are mortal, and, on laying down their bodies, cease from 
 the dominion of earthly power, the subjects of Messiah's 
 kingdom, as such, are immortal ; their departure from 
 earth being only a removal to a higher department of his 
 empire, where their allegiance is undivided, and rendered 
 to him alone, and where their spiritual relations to him 
 are all verified and complete ; ' Where I am,' saith he, 
 'there shall also my servants be.' ' I appoint unto you a 
 kingdom.' And while, not only the subjects of earthly 
 states, but the kingdoms themselves, dissolve and disappear, 
 his spiritual empire shall rise on the ruins of them all : 
 having combined with none of their perishable elements, it 
 shall know no change, but that of a perpetual advance 
 from glory to glory ; and the moment which shall behold 
 the dissolution of the great globe itself, shall behold his 
 kingdom crowned with perfection, and completed for eter- 
 nity. 
 
 Let the spirituality of the Savior's teaching, on the 
 great subjects which have passed under consideration, re- 
 mind us of our proneness and danger to repose in a form 
 of piety to the neglect of spiritual and evangelical holiness. 
 Created under a law which promised us life on the condi- 
 tion of our perfect obedience, we still retain a propensity 
 to claim the reward, though morally unable to perform the 
 condition. To evade the conviction of this inability, and 
 to maintain unimpaired our pretensions to heaven, we 
 fondly substitute an obedience of forms for the homage and 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 319 
 
 piety of the heart. Besides, owing to the ascendency 
 which our senses have gained over cur minds, it is so 
 much more easy and gratifying to be able to see and recount 
 our religious doings, than to attend to the secret duties 
 of the heart, that we would fain lose sight of the spiritual 
 nature of religion, in an engrossing attention to its outward 
 forms. 
 
 On these accounts it is that a system of superstition 
 however torturing the rites it may inflict on its votaries, is 
 able to boast a more imposing array of devotees, than the 
 spiritual religion of the gospel of Christ. It is so much, 
 more easy to endure bodily torture, than to bend the will 
 and impose mental discipline ; there is so much in the idea 
 of personal merit to sustain the endurance of physical suf- 
 fering, and so much food for complacency afterwards in 
 the review, that Christianity has only to proclaim its ac- 
 cepiance of tortures and penances in the stead of spiritual 
 eiSbrts, in order to enrol among its followers multitudes 
 who now stand aloof in aversion and despair. 
 
 Owing to the operation of the same principles it was 
 that the higher and ultimate designs of the Jewish econo- 
 my became neutralized and lost. Burdened as that dis- 
 pensation was with ceremonial observances, it was yet 
 highly significant of all that is spiritual and essential in 
 the present economy. But the Jews, while they scrupu- 
 lously honored the signs, entirely lost sight of the thing 
 signified. They paid tithes of anise, mint, and cummin ; 
 they oflTered their animal sacrifices ; they were even wil- 
 ling to multiply their ritual observances a hundred-fold pro- 
 vided, that by doing so, they might be spared the irksome 
 task of reflecting, of sustaining a mental eflbrt which 
 should enable them to ' look to the end of that which was 
 to be abolished ; ' this was a duty so much more difficult 
 than to discharge a routine of outward ceremonies, that 
 
320 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 they utterly dismissed it. In their carnal hands, the trans- . 
 parent type became opaque and useless, their speaking and 
 instructive service became an unmeaning enigma, a dumb 
 and tiresome show : and even the glorious temple itself, 
 meant to be the shrine and sanctuary of living piety, be- 
 came its sepulchre ; the mighty mausoleum of a departed 
 relio-ion, in which all that remained to interest, was the 
 constant celebration of its funeral rites. 
 
 Judea, having proved the grave of religion, became also 
 the scene of its resurrection to a loftier order of life, and 
 clothed in a more spiritual body. Christianity, as com- 
 pared with religion in its Jewish state, is ' corruption cloth- 
 ed in incorruption.' And now, we might have supposed, 
 religion is safe from its former fate ; its spirituality will 
 now form its protection ; and, in addition, it will be guard- 
 ed by the jealousy of devout admiration ; but, instead of 
 this, the very first danger to which it was exposed was that 
 of being divested of its distinctive character, and of being 
 reduced to an affair of forms and ceremonies. Many of 
 its primitive disciples had been born in the shadow of the 
 holy place ; had inhaled the incense of the altar with their 
 earliest breath ; and had daily walked amidst the solemn 
 and o-oro-eous magnificence of an economy modelled after 
 the pattern of heavenly things, and adorned by the hand of 
 Deity himself Proud to be allied to such a church, they 
 had derived their distinctive name from its initiatory rite, 
 and gloried to be denominated ' the circumcision.' The 
 loftiest conceptions of excellence and distinction, of per- 
 sonal security and future enjoyment, had long been iden- 
 tified in their minds with ' the circumcision.' And hence, 
 though the superior character of the christian economy 
 had long since carried their convictions, and won their es- 
 teem, yet true to their early prepossessions, they essayed 
 to insert it as a s^raft into the Jewish stock, as the infallible 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 321 
 
 means of enhancing the vahje of its fruits. So far from 
 etertaining the idea, that the christian institute was design- 
 ed to supplant the Mosaic, they insisted that its saving effi- 
 cacy depended entirely on its being incorporated with it ; 
 that whatever good of a subordinate kind it might impart 
 to others, its ultimate blessings would only accrue to ' the 
 circumcision.' And accordingly the apostles had early to 
 interpose their authority, individually and collectively, in 
 order to save the new dispensation from being overlaid and 
 destroyed by a favorite and corrupted ritual. 
 
 The propensity in question however is by no means pe- 
 culiar to the Jews, whether regarded as professors of Ju- 
 daism or of Christianity ; it is one to which our common 
 nature is prone. What is it that passes throughout Chris- 
 tendom generally for the religion of Christ? what but an 
 elaborate accumulation of penances and mortifications, of 
 splendid sights and melodious sounds, of fasts and festivals, 
 a constantly recurring round of outward observances? As 
 though conscious of its want of a spiritual life, they have 
 vainly attempted to find compensation in a constant multi- 
 plication of heartless ceremonies : as if aware that they had 
 no more of religion than the lifeless form, they have en- 
 deavored to conceal its deathlike features by overlaying it 
 with a profusion of costly decorations. 
 
 Nor does this propensity confine its pernicious opera- 
 tions to the sphere of our duties alone— of what we have 
 to do; but invading the region of christian expectation and 
 privilege, how generally has it debased the notions of men 
 concerning the nature of that salvation which God propo- 
 ses to accomplish for them. By salvation, they. understand 
 a mere outward deliverance— the bestowment of pardon 
 alone— without remembering that to be pardoned, in the 
 scriptural sense, is at the same time to be renewed in the 
 spirit of their mind ; in the very soul of their soul. They 
 
322 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 profess to be infinitely indebted to Cbrist, supposing him to 
 have accomplished every thing for them in such a sense, 
 that now they have only to give their consent, in order to 
 be taken to heaven ; not remembering that, before he can 
 be said to have done any thing for them personally, he must 
 actually commence a renovating process within them. They 
 estimate their deliverance from hell, as from a place of out- 
 ward torment ; forgetting that sin has created a hell with- 
 in them ; that an angry and polluted conscience is a worm 
 which dieth not ; that unsubdued propensities to sin are 
 fires which, if now left unquenched, will continue to bum 
 on for ever ; that dying in habits of vice we shall take them 
 with us as chains of our own forging and imposing, and 
 wear them for ever; and that unless they are delivered from 
 these evils now^ by the renewing agency of the Divine 
 Spirit, heaven itself, were they permitted to enter it, would 
 be no scene of joy to them,. since every thing there would 
 be at variance with their taste, and painfully opposed to 
 their character. And in the same way they are accustom- 
 ed to anticipate heaven as a spectacle of splendor, and the 
 scene of every refined pleasure which can charm the 
 senses ; as the elysium in which they are to find happiness 
 prepared and awaiting their arrival, whatever the state in 
 which they may reach it. They entirely lose sight of the 
 fact, that their present character is creating their future 
 destiny ; that their principles and actions, preceding their 
 own departure, have already arrived in eternity, and are 
 there preparing for them a place of reception. They for- 
 get, that on departing from earth, that which goes to be ex- 
 amined at the bar of God is the unclothed soul, the naked 
 human character, and that the inevitable test to which it is 
 there subjected is, whether or not it has been formed and 
 sanctified by the Spirit of God. They are blind to the im- 
 portant truth, that the happiness of heaven will principally 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 323 
 
 result from holiness and conformity to God: that so far 
 heaven commences with the christian on earth ; and that, 
 when he leaves the world, he takes the elements of heav- 
 enly happiness Vvith him; so that it is only by becoming a 
 subject of the kingdom of holiness now, that he can enter 
 into the kingdom of happiness hereafter. 
 
 The principle which leads men to substitute external 
 things for the religion of Christ, is of universal operation : 
 we have seen that it has entered each dispensation, and ap- 
 peared in every age of the church, obscuring the glory, 
 and corroding the very vitals of piety. In the war it has 
 waged with the spirituality of religion, it has succeeded in 
 materializing and debasing it to a degree which has left 
 nothing for the most secular and devoted worldling to hope 
 or desire. It has so consulted his tastes and provided for 
 his wishes, that he can easily serve both God and mam- 
 mon ; an achievement which was once pronounced imprac- 
 ticable ; for while it leaves the heart at liberty for the re- 
 ception of any guests, it provides that religion shall be sat- 
 isfied with the attentions of form. It has subverted the 
 whole constitution of Messiah's kingdom ; for while it has 
 dethroned him from his seat in the heart ; and has turned 
 his laws into prescriptions of empty forms ; and the hom- 
 age which is paid him into an affair of heartless ceremo- 
 ny, of feudal custom ; it has left him to sway an impotent 
 sceptre over a kingdom of mere nominal subjects. By 
 anticipation, it has even carried its deteriorating influence 
 into the region of futurity, invaded the upper province of 
 his dominions, materializing the happiness of heaven itself. 
 Oh, what would that kingdom of which Christ is the au- 
 thor and glory have become, had it been left to be moulded 
 by the hands of man ! It would have been made to consist 
 'of meats and drinks ; ' an assemblage of outward observ- 
 ances, and those of the most trivial description ; whereas 
 
324 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 it is composed of ' righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
 Holy Ghost.' 
 
 Thus man debases whatever he touches ; even the spir- 
 ituality of the gospel could not escape the contamination. 
 But from this humbling survey of the treatment which 
 Christianity has received at his hands, let me advert, in con- 
 clusion, to the divine simplicity of the character which it is 
 intended to form; and advert to it w^ith a view to enforce 
 its necessity. 
 
 The great gift of the new dispensation, the promise most 
 frequently on the lips of Christ, and which he evidently 
 gloried to repeat, is the promise of the Holy Spirit. The 
 fulfillment of this promise, which is alike essential to the 
 first and the last step of the christian life, infallibly trans- 
 forms its recipients into spiritual worshippers. They speak 
 to God through no indirect or doubtful medium ; they ap- 
 proach him by no lengthened process of preliminary forms; 
 through the new and living way, it is their privilege to 
 advance to his footstool personally and at once. They ad- 
 dress him with their own lips, and believe that he is listen- 
 ing to every word they utter. They bare their hearts to his 
 inspection, and entreat him to penetrate and pervade them 
 with his grace. Conscience, faithful to its trust, presents 
 therecordof its secrets to his eye; and, in the sovereign smile 
 which approves its fidelity,^ feels reconfirmed in its office, 
 and swears allegiance anew. Their thoughts are busy 
 with the scheme of redemption ; and as wonder after won- 
 der rises on their view, they find themselves attracted near- 
 er and nearer to the object of their worship. Their aifec- 
 tions, expanding to admit his presence, invite him to enter 
 and ascend the throne. Every part of their spiritual na- 
 ture is employed ; going forth towards him in appropiate 
 acts and emotions, or passively waiting to own the first 
 and gentlest impulses of his hand. Hypocrisy is a mask 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 325 
 
 which they wear not before men ; before God, besides its 
 inefficiency of which they are perfectly aware, it would 
 defeat the purpose dearest to their hearts. They would 
 have every word they utter in the ear of God, issue as 
 from the centre of their being. Whatever, while in his 
 presence, diverts their thoughts, or induces them to express 
 an unfelt desire, incurs their displeasure, and excites their 
 regret. Not to hold fellowship with him, not to feel that 
 their spiritual nature has come in contact with his, is to 
 experience a disappointment for which no external rites, 
 however numerous, splendid, or venerable, can compen- 
 sate; a disappointment like that which we may suppose 
 the high priest would have felt, had he passed into the ho- 
 liest of all and found the glory departed, the ark, the mer- 
 cy-seat, and the cherubim gone. 
 
 ' The Father seeketh such to worship him.' He has 
 sought them under every dispensation of religion ; but, un- 
 der the present economy, he has a right to expect that his 
 search will be peculiarly successful. The declaration in- 
 deed denotes their comparative rareness ; and reminds us 
 of the value which God sets on them. The formal and 
 insincere universally abound ; but such he disregards, they 
 are an abomination in his sight, but wherever a spiritutil 
 worshipper is to be found, there is an object which attracts 
 the divine regard. He entertains the lofty design of trans- 
 lating all his spiritual worshippers to the temple above. 
 
 Finally, let those of my readers who belong to the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus, be ambitious to exemplify the spiritual na- 
 ture and dignity of their christian vocation. Delivered from 
 the shadows and ceremonies of the law, you are placed 
 in a situation pre-eminently favorable to increased spirital- 
 ity of mind. Disciples of a school in which all human 
 authority is abjured ; in which every lesson that is taught 
 is 'spirit and life;' and in which no limits are placed to 
 
326 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 the discoveries made by the Great Teacher, you are expec- 
 ted to build up a character eminent for the distinctness of 
 its heavenly features, to become proficients in the art of 
 spiritual-mindedness. Yours is not merely the character 
 of the ancient believer, changed in nothing but in name ; 
 it is the elements of which that character is composed, 
 brought from the dimness and distance of a twilight dis- 
 pensation into the radiance of the divine presence, baptized 
 with the Spirit of Christ, sustained with a purer aliment, 
 and thus developed, expanded, and matured. Looking at 
 the superiority of your spiritual knowledge, the freedom 
 of your access to God, and the fulness of heavenly influ- 
 ence put within your reach, the gospel may be said to have 
 placed you midway between the Jewish economy and the 
 celestial state. Or, as if it had placed you in effect even 
 nearer than this to the privileges of heaven, you are repre- 
 sented as having come to mount Zion, and unto the city of 
 the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Raised into this 
 ethereal region, j^our views are not to be bounded by the 
 sensible horizon of time ; urge and erect your souls to 
 take a larger survey ; expatiate over the ample fields of 
 revelation ; let your eyes range from everlasting to ever- 
 lasting ; you will thus become conversant with objects in. 
 whose radiance this world will stand eclipsed, and famil- 
 iar with scenes and plans compared with which all earth 
 is only a point, all time a moment, all human knowledge an 
 imperfect idea. 
 
 If the mind takes its character from the objects which it 
 most contemplates, then yours should be a transcript of all 
 that is great, and pure, and spiritual. You are born spirit 
 of Spirit : you have the mind of Christ ; he takes you in- 
 to daily and familiar converse with himself on the subject 
 of eternal purposes and infinite grace, that he may so trans- 
 fer to you his own likeness, and send you forth into the 
 
HIS SPIRITUALITY. 327 
 
 world as his spiritual representatives. Your spirituality- 
 is, in his eyes, your only glory; it is the only mark by 
 which he distinguishes you from the world, the only part 
 of your nature which he owns for his offspring; you can- 
 not therefore open your souls to the ingress of the world* 
 or leave them unfortified against its influence, without con- 
 senting to lose your great distinction, and being guilty of 
 treason against the King of souls. 
 
 In effacing from your minds the image of the earthy, his 
 design is to impress on them the image of the heavenly; 
 that you may show forth his likeness, and circulate his 
 praise in the world. If he admits you to stand in the light 
 of his presence, it is not that you may absorb and conceal 
 it ; but that, as prepared mediums, you may transmit the 
 glory of his throne to others. He has made you the sub- 
 jects of a kingdom which disdains the boundaries of time 
 and place, that your benevolence may know no limits. In 
 approaching his altar as his royal priesthood, you are to 
 speak as intercessors for the race; in offering thanksgiving, 
 you are to be the organ and voice of the gratitude due to 
 him from the world. And having enrolled yourselves as 
 his subjects and servants, you are to apply your hand to 
 the vast machinery of his providence, and to mingle with 
 the operations of his almighty love, in restoring to harmo- 
 ny the disorders of the universe. He has given to you 
 his own Spirit, that even here you may become naturalized 
 to a spiritual element, and be changed into it : and that 
 when you are called to join the great community of spirits, 
 where the lody itself is to be sublimated into spirit, you 
 may not be found wanting in any heavenly function, but 
 may enter on it as on the enjoyment of your native state. 
 
ESSAY IV. 
 
 ON THE TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE OF OUR 
 LORD'S TEACHING. 
 
 'Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto 
 
 your souls.' 
 
 ' And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded 
 
 out of his mouth.' 
 
 In perusing the writings of many a moral instructor, the 
 only abatement from our edification arises from the unwel- 
 come recollection of his character. His statements of 
 truth are forcible, his illustrations clear, his appeals af- 
 fecting ; but the remembrance of the contradiction which 
 existed between his doctrine and life returns, the spell by 
 Avhich he held us is dissolved, a shadow falls on the page, 
 and his most arrowy appeals drop pointless and short of 
 our hearts. But in listening to the instructions of our 
 blessed Lord, the recollection of his character is not mere- 
 ly welcome, in order to do them justice, it is essential. 
 There have been others, indeed, who have owed the suc- 
 cess of their teaching partly to their moral excellences ; 
 but such is the excellence of his character that, could we 
 only bring to the perusal of his instructions a vivid con- 
 ception of it, we should no longer have to deplore their in- 
 efficacy ; could we only come to them under the full influ- 
 ence of that idea, nothing could long resist their power; 
 as often as we returned to them, they would receive so 
 strong a reinforcement of impression from that association, 
 that they could not fail to pass farther and farther into the 
 mind, making for themselves a home in the heart, chang- 
 ing the soul into their own form and quality and thus ver- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 329 
 
 ifying his own description of them, that 'they are spirit, 
 and they are life.' 
 
 His original hearers, be it remembered, enjoyed this ad- 
 vantage ; whether or not they availed themselves of it is 
 a distinct consideration ; they often enjoyed the privilege 
 of beholding his miracles of mercy; and, instantly on 
 the same spot, they listened to the gracious words which 
 proceeded out of his mouth; while yet they were under 
 the arrest of some new display of majesty, his doctrine 
 dropped as the rain, his speech distilled as the dew, It 
 will not be irrelevant then, if, to place ourselves as nearly as 
 possible in their position, we briefly advert to the excellen- 
 cies of our Lord's character ; especially to those which re- 
 late to the particular qualities of his teaching, now under 
 consideration. We shall then point out some of his cor- 
 responding characteristics as a teacher ; and, finally, pres- 
 ent examples from his teaching illustrative of his tender- 
 ness, benignity, and compassion. 
 
 I. In attempting to pourtray the moral perfection of 
 Christ, we feel that we are contemplating one who is fair- 
 er than the children of men ; standing in the presence of 
 Him who is altogether lovely. O for the pen of that dis- 
 ciple whom Jesus loved ; who selected his Lord's humility 
 and love as things most congenial with his own taste ; and 
 leant on his sacred bosom till he became imbued with the 
 heavenly love which dwelt there ! O for the aid of the Ho- 
 ly Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, to unveil his excellencies to 
 our view ; that, while we are beholding, Ave may be chang- 
 ed into the same image; may have our taste purified and 
 exalted into sympathy with his transcendant character » 
 Of the early history of Christ, indeed, we have but two or 
 three slight incidental notices : but who can read even 
 these notices, slender as they are, in the light of his after- 
 21 
 
THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 life, without finding in them a warrant for the imagination 
 to indulge itself with a picture of his early perfection. If his 
 youth and his early manhood corresponded with his sub- 
 sequent life, how cloudless and blessed must have been the 
 morning of such a day, and how happy they who stood 
 in its light. Unlike the virtues of ordinary humanity, 
 which are grafted, and stunted, and hardly preserved with 
 incessant care, his nature contained in itself the seeds of 
 a^l worth, and every seed became a fruit ; every hour be- 
 held him put forth some additional bud of promise. Like 
 the earth when first it was sown by the hand of God, and 
 held in its bosom the germs of a universal paradise, his na- 
 ture brought with it all the elements of excellence. Good- 
 ness rejoiced in it as in its native soil. His life was as the 
 garden of the Lord ; for there grew in it every thing plea- 
 sant to the sight and good for food : obedience, which ran 
 at the first call of duty ; prudence, rendering the present 
 subservient to the future ; sensibility, responding to the 
 softest tones of nature, and the clear transparency of truth : 
 and native courtesy and love, that clasped everything love- 
 ly to its soul, and became one with it. What wonder was 
 it that, thus adorned and distinguished, he should have ' in- 
 creased in favor with God and man,' have become the fa- 
 vorite of heaven and earth. Had the first probation been 
 to be made again, one individual tried as the representative 
 of all the race, and heaven proposed as the prize of suc- 
 cess, who would not have thought of him 7 all eyes would 
 have involuntarily turned to him, all hearts would have 
 confided the great probation to his hands, and have looked 
 on heaven as secure. 
 
 Emerging, at length, from the obscurity of his early life, 
 ♦he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: 
 and, as his custom was, he went into the synagouge on the 
 sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was de- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 331 
 
 livered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And, 
 when he had opened the book, he found the place where it 
 is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he 
 hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath 
 sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to 
 the captive, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
 liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year 
 of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again 
 to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them 
 that were in the synagouge were fastened on him. And 
 he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture ful- 
 filled in your ears.' Such, then, in his own estimation, 
 was the nature of his divine commission ; and he fulfilled it. 
 His whole life was a comment on this text. 
 
 If our subject permitted, we should love to linger on 
 the purity of his character ; for this, though by no means 
 the most attractive feature to a sinful race, is one of the 
 most remarkable. And here, be it observed, he soug-ht 
 not to preserve his holiness unspotted, by avoiding contact 
 with the world ; he was not indebted for his purity to the 
 privacy of a recluse. From the moment he became a pub- 
 lic character, his field was the world ; he domesticated 
 himself, if I may say so, and desired to be numbered as 
 one of the human family ; he sought to become the heart 
 of the world ; and, in the prosecution of that object, he 
 turned not aside from a personal encounter with the Temp- 
 ter himself From every thing which the world contain- 
 ed of great and good, his nature selected and drew to it- 
 self aliment and life, while it rejected all the pernicious 
 ingredients with which the purest elements on earth are 
 defiled. 
 
 He passed through a scene in which, at every step he 
 took, a thousand malignant influences were waiting to dart 
 on him, ' Yet he did no sin, neither was guile found in his 
 
332 THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 mouth.' He uttered noi a single sentence capable of be- 
 ing construed into a confession of guilt, or a consciousness 
 of defilement. He often alluded to his poverty, rejection, 
 and sufferings ; and oftener still to the subject of sin, in a 
 variety of forms ; but he breathed not a word which could 
 be construed into an intimation that he considered himself 
 less than a being of unsullied purity. On the contrary, he 
 challenged his enemies (and he had but few friends) to con- 
 vict him of a single sin. The prince of this world came, 
 and found nothing in him ; no single thought or feeling 
 which responded to temptation, or disposed him for a mo- 
 ment to yield to it. He lived for years, and was actively 
 employed in a world in which every condition has its pe- 
 culiar temptations, so that of all the myriads who have ever 
 inhabited it, not one has escaped the pollution of sin. But, 
 like the sunbeam, which remains uncontaminated whatever 
 the object on which it may shine, the Savior emerged from 
 this region of guilt, and re-entered the portals of heaven, 
 as pure and unspotted as when he left the bosom of the 
 Father. It was strictly true of him to the latest moment 
 of his continuance on earth ; with perfect sincerity it might 
 have been inscribed on his tomb ; it might have been 
 shouted with triumph as he ascended to the throne of heav- 
 en, ' he w^as in all points tempted like as we are, yet with- 
 out sin.' 
 
 Besides his purity, we might specify, not merely his su- 
 periority to the age in which he lived, but the absolute con- 
 trariety of his character to all existing and surrounding 
 influences ; the universality of his plans, w^hich distinguish- 
 ed and left him alone in the earth : the reconciliation and 
 union in his character of opposite excellencies, and which 
 formed its perfection and finish. But that which sheds a 
 prevailing hue over the whole character of Christ, and 
 forms its principal feature, is unquestionably, benevolence 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 333 
 
 It is that transcendental attribute, which ran through all 
 the rest, adapting, baptizing, and turning the whole into 
 grace. What but this could hav^e induced his purity to 
 tabernacle in the midst of sin? it was by no means an in- 
 different act to him ; ' he suffered, being tempted,' suffered 
 in proportion to the perfection of his holiness, and the 
 depth of his aversion to sin; but though his residence in 
 an atmosphere of sin was revolting to his purity, though. 
 the presence of depravity made his continuance here a per- 
 petual sacrifice, his love induced him to submit, induced him 
 so intimately to associate with the ungodly, that one of 
 his characteristic names became, ' the friend of publicans 
 and sinners.' 
 
 We have said that his character was not only superior 
 to all existing and surrounding influences, but quite dis- 
 tinct from them. Others are more or less affected by the 
 circumstances in which they are brought up ; however 
 superior to external influences they may appear, they can- 
 not escape entirely the spirit of the age ; they hold com- 
 munion, and enjoy sympathy, with those around them. 
 But the character of Christ had in it nothing local, tem- 
 porary, or common. It appeared in the world entire, inde- 
 pendent, and unique. It was formed for a world which 
 had lost the original pattern of goodness, and had sunk 
 into a state of universal selfishness : the whole of his his- 
 tory therefore is a history of the sacrifice of selfish feel- 
 ings ; his life was calculated and constructed on the prin- 
 ciple of a laborious endeavorer to imbue the world with 
 the lost spirit of benevolence, to baptize it afresh in the ele- 
 ment of love. 
 
 The universality of his plans, which left him without 
 any contemporaneous sympathy, must also be resolved into 
 the same principle. He loved man as man, he came to be 
 the liofht and life of the world. His benevolence could not 
 
334 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 endure the thought of a single human being perishing ; his 
 heart had room for the whole race ; and he could not be 
 satisfied with less than a universal offer of mercy. 
 
 And benevolence is the principle which harmonized in 
 him the most contrasted qualities. In his mysterious per- 
 son it had brought into union time and eternity, heaven 
 and earth ; and in his character it blended majesty such as 
 God before had never displayed, with meekness such as 
 man before had never shown. Dignity, in him, was not 
 terror, for he clothed it with a condescension which had 
 before been thought inconsistent with greatness. Tem- 
 perance and self-denial, with him, w^ere not darkened with 
 austerity, but came softened and recommended by gentleness 
 and suavity. In him were united an indignant sensibility 
 to sin, with weeping compassion for the sinner ; the splen- 
 dors of more than an angelic nature, with the humility of 
 a little child; a resolved perseverance in the path of duty 
 which no array of dangers could deter, with a heart so 
 attuned to compassion that the faintest appeal of misery 
 arrested his progress as with the power of omnipotence, 
 and made him stand still. While he seemed to do every 
 thing for the future, he yet neglected nothing proper to the 
 present ; while he held himself ready to embrace the 
 mightiest plans, and evinced a consciousness that he stood 
 related to the whole species, he yet stooped, without tri- 
 fling, to the smallest circumstance. Like the Almighty 
 Father, sustaining the worlds, yet stooping to succor the 
 falling bird ; he one moment conversed with celestial vis- 
 itants, and the next he listened to the lispings of infant 
 praise, or meekly bore the obtuseness of his disciples. 
 He, who received the homage of angels, and had all their 
 legions at command, sees wealth in the tribute of a sinful 
 woman's tears, and finds the sweetest music in the dying- 
 thanks of the guilty malefactor. Having driven demons 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 335 
 
 from his presence with an awful rebuke, he takes up little 
 children to his heart ; and they feel in his looks the secu- 
 rity of home, and in his tones an assurance of love which 
 makes them reluctant to leave his arms, even for the wel- 
 come of a mother's bosom. Having pourtrayed the judg- 
 ment of the last day, and clothed himself with thunder as 
 the central object of the awful scene, he follows the first 
 beck of misery, or turns aside to weep over the hardness 
 of human hearts. Having proclaimed himself ' the resur- 
 rection and the life ; ' how easily does he descend from his 
 dignity to mingle his tears with the bereaved mourners ! 
 Universal philanthropy did not impair his sensibility to the 
 pleasures of private friendships and domestic intercourse; 
 nor did the momentous interests which pressed on his soul 
 in the crisis of the world's redemption prevent him from 
 thinking of his filial relation, and tenderly providing for 
 a mother's comfort. Never was there a character at the 
 same time so magnificent and unlabored ; so conscious of 
 greatness, and so unostentatiously simple ; so full of inspi- 
 ration to the good, and so free from terror ; so replete Avith 
 encouragement to the outcast penitent. In his character 
 met the whole constellation of the virtues, each one made 
 brighter by contrast : but one overpowering sentiment 
 softened and subjected them all to itself; one all-pervading 
 law gave unity and harmony to his most opposite actions ; 
 interpreting all his words and looks ; preventing him, even 
 in the most critical situations, from being at variance with 
 himself, or falling below his professed object — and that 
 sentiment, that law, was love. 
 
 In the history of his miracles, we see almighty power 
 itself consenting to be led by love, and consecrated to its 
 service. Had he only intended to produce impressions of 
 his majesty, or prove the divinity of his mission, he might 
 perhaps have accomplished this sooner by appealing to 
 
33G THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 our fears in miracles of terror and destruction. But the 
 object iie aimed at, and the truths he taught, were both of 
 a benevolent nature ; and the miracles he performed in con- 
 firmation of those truths partook of the same character. 
 He refused but one application to his miraculous power; 
 when his disciples rashly desired that fire might descend 
 from heaven on their enemies ; but he reminded them that 
 he came ' not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.' On 
 the night of his apprehension, he touched the wound of an 
 enemy and healed it : for with him, power and kindness 
 were the same thing. Wherever he came, disease and 
 sufl^ering fled from his presence. His path might be traced 
 from place to place in lines of life, and health, and joy. 
 Where he was expected, the public way was thronged with 
 forms of helplessness, disease, and woe. Where he had 
 passed, the restored might be seen, making trial of their 
 new-found powers ; listeners, formed into groups to hear 
 the tale of healing; and the delighted objects of his com- 
 passion, rehearsing, with earnestness, what had passed, 
 imitating his tones, and even trying to convey an idea of 
 his condescending ways. His voice was the first sound 
 which many of them heard ; his name the first word they 
 had pronounced ; his blessed form the first sight they had 
 ever beheld. And often, at the close of a laborious day, 
 when his wearied frame required repose, the children of 
 affliction besieged his retreat, and implored his help. And 
 did they ever seek in vain ! Wearied and worn as he was, 
 • he pleased not himself; ' he went forth, and patiently lis- 
 tened to all their tales of woe, tasted their several com- 
 plaints, raised each suppliant from the dust, nor left them 
 till he^ had absorbed their sufferings, and healed them all. 
 He went through the land like a current of vital air, an 
 element of life, diffusing health and joy wherever he ap- 
 peared. Had the spiritual object of his advent permitted 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 337 
 
 the continuance of his abode on earth, he would have be- 
 come the shrine at which all disease would have knelt, the 
 centre to which all suffering would have tended as by a 
 law ; to him the world of the afflicted would have gone as 
 on pilgrimage ; and would it not then have been equally- 
 true, that ' he healed them all 1 ' 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth! Who can declare thee! thou wast 
 the heart of infinite love, beating and bleeding for human 
 happiness ! How didst thou consult our wants, and adapt 
 thyself to our condition ! Among the ignorant, thou wast 
 the light of life; when surrounded by the needy, thou wast 
 the fullness of the Godhead. When didst thou disregard 
 the cry of suppliant misery ? thy daily path, like the ra- 
 diance left by one of the splendors of the firmament in its 
 midnight path, was marked with simple but sublime glory; 
 for, with thee, the close of one act of beneficence was the 
 commencement of another ; thou didst dispense thy bless- 
 ings so profusely, as if thou hadst forgotten that thou wert 
 a man upon earth, and didst think thyself still on thy throne. 
 Why did sorrow come to thee to have its tears wiped 
 away ! and conscious guilt fall at thy feet with an uplifted 
 eye of hope ! why did unsheltered weakness run, as by 
 instinct, to take sanctuary in thy presence ! and penitence 
 lay bare its wounds to catch the balm that fell from thy 
 lips ! blessed Jesus, thou hadst a balm for every wound. 
 
 Thou hadst come to seek companionship with sorrow ; 
 yet didst thou not frown upon the social amenities of life, 
 but didst affably partake of them. Every action of thine 
 was inlaid with grace ; even aversion, with thee, was not 
 hatred, but only sorrow heightened into concern.. Thy 
 mercy was not proud and imperial in its blessings ; thou 
 didst condescend and love to be thanked ; and, O, if grat- 
 itude melted into penitence, thou didst proclaim a jubilee 
 in heaven, and invite the universe to share in thy joy. 
 
338 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 And why wast thou thus benignant ? It was not because 
 thou hadst been surprised into a career of mercy, and 
 couldst not draw back ; for thou hadst looked into the 
 darkest recesses of depravity in the human heart, and 
 spunded the lowest depths of human misery, before thou 
 camest to expiate and relieve : it was not that, as man often 
 will, thou didst compromise with sin, or indulge compas- 
 sion at the expense of truth ; for thou was a martyr to 
 fidelity, and a sacrifice for sin : nor was it that thy charac- 
 ter was all yielding and undistinguishing softness ! for 
 while thou wast as an altar at which the lowliest could 
 kneel, like an altar also thou didst check the profane look, 
 and command veneration from the passer by : nor was it 
 that the world caressed thee ; thy injuries might have 
 taught patience itself to blaspheme ; yet didst thou remain 
 meek and lowly in heart, and persist in turning the tears 
 of the world into smiles. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth ! who can declare thee ! In thee 
 wisdom and goodness were in conjunction with holiness 
 and power. All who treated with thee tasted of goodness, 
 of divinity ; thine actions, if distributed over the course of 
 time, might have formed its eras ; thy virtues Avere dow- 
 ries sufficient to enrich a world ; thy character was glory 
 set in grace. 
 
 II. With this impression of our Lord's benignity, let us, 
 secondl3^ proceed to some of the circumstances which 
 evince his benevolence as a Teacher. 
 
 And here we may as well, at once, dispose of an objec- 
 tion ; and it is I believe, the only shadow of an objection 
 which can be found in the whole compass of the evangelical 
 narratives, to the tenderness of Christ, in the capacity of a 
 Teacher; arising from the reason he assigns for speaking 
 in parables. On one occasion, ' the disciples came, and 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 339 
 
 said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables ? 
 He answered, and said unto them, Because unto you 
 it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heav- 
 en, but to them it is not given ; therefore speak I 
 
 unto them in parables: because they seeing, see not; and 
 hearing, they hear not ; neither do they understand. And 
 in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, 
 By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and 
 seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this peo- 
 ple's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hear- 
 ing, and their eyes have they closed ; lest at any tune 
 they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 
 and should understand with their heart, and should be con- 
 verted, and I should hea. them.' From this reply, many 
 have inferred that our Lord addressed the Jews on that oc- 
 casion in parables, that they might 7iot understand : an in- 
 ference which was probably suggested by the apparent se- 
 verity of the quotation from the prophet. But let us only 
 remember the canon — that it is common for God to speak 
 by his prophets, of events that would happen, in a manner 
 as if he had enjoined them — and all appearance of severi- 
 ty will vanish. 
 
 That the employment of parables was not meant, by 
 Christ, as an act of judicial severity, is evident from the 
 following considerations : First, it was an ordinary and 
 prevailing mode of instruction. Secondly, the question 
 with which he prefaced his parables, ' Whereunto shall we 
 liken the kingdom of God? ' evinced a gracious anxiety 
 to make himself understood by selecting similitudes adapt- 
 ed to their capacity. Thirdly, there is every reason to 
 conclude that, had they gone to him afterwards for an ex- 
 position of the parables, he would have shewn delight at 
 the application, and have promptly met their inquiries. 
 Fourthly, he continued the parabolic strain to his disci- 
 
340 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 pies after the multitude had retired ; a proof that he had 
 not adopted that strain in anger. Fifthly, he frequently 
 spoke in parables at other times, when his only object was 
 evidently to allure and instruct. Sixthly, the contrary 
 supposition is at variance with all we know of his benevo- 
 lent character. The motive of our Lord for speaking in 
 parables on this occasion, was no doubt, to avoid the mal- 
 ice of his enemies ; for his subject, which related to the 
 progress of his kingdom, would call forth all the ingenui- 
 ty and activity of that malice. And hence the reason he 
 assigns for adopting this mode is, that their wickedness 
 had disqualified themfor listening to more explicit teaching, 
 and deprived them of it. His speaking to them by para- 
 bles, then so far from being an act of judicial severity, was 
 a device of kindness, the recourse of compassion. They 
 could not look on the open face of truth, and he veiled it. 
 Their morbid sensibility and malice left him no alterna- 
 tive, but to be indirect on this particular subject, or entire- 
 ly silent. Displeasure would have chosen the latter, but 
 compassion adopted the former. Rather than be quite si- 
 lent, he addressed them by parable ; for to have taken the 
 truth out of this casket, would have been casting pearls be- 
 fore swine. It is true, that in its effect it operated as a 
 judgment, for they disregarded its meaning; but we are 
 not, on that account, to disparage his grace, any more than 
 we impeach the conduct of the sower, some of whose seed 
 fell where it took no root. Life itself is a parable, a course 
 of instruction by events ; each of which, if rightly con- 
 strued, is found to contain a useful lesson ; but neglected, 
 it leaves us in ignorance and aggravated guilt ; and yet 
 who does not see that it is a mode of instruction consistent 
 with kindness, and even dictated by love ? We might 
 therefore, without any refining, place the conduct of Christ 
 on this occasion, among the illustrations of his benevo- 
 lence as a Teacher. 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 341 
 
 But Other and superior illustrations demand our atten- 
 tion. Had the object of Jesus been merely to leave in our 
 possession a revelation of the will of God, he would have 
 dispensed with that tender solicitude which marked his 
 conduct, and have confined himself exclusively to the de- 
 sign of his mission. But he came to enlighten, only that 
 he might save; and, like a wise and kind instructor, he 
 clothed himself in love that he might gain for his instruc- 
 tions a place in our heart. To this end it was that he 
 chose to move in the humbler walks of life. Every condi- 
 tion of society was open to his choice, and human taste 
 would have selected a state of wealth, and rank, and world- 
 ly influence; but this would have removed him from the 
 society of the people ; whereas his object was to make 
 himself one with them. He selected others to assist him 
 in preaching the kingdom of heaven ; but he asked not 
 philosophy to argue in its defence, or poetry to sing its 
 praise, or eloquence to pour forth its oratory, or royalty to 
 clothe it with state, or arm it with power. The instru- 
 mentality he employed was of the humblest order; was, 
 like himself, 'raised up from among the people,' and there- 
 fore adapted to gain the attention of the people. 
 
 He regarded himself as specially ' annointed to preach 
 the gospel to the poor.' Had human pride been consulted 
 on the subject, it would fain have had splendor follow in 
 his train, and wealth pour out its treasures before him, and 
 ambitionreceive titles and honors at his hands. It would 
 have had his gospel patronized by the great and mighty 
 of the earth ; and then it would have mingled among 
 them, and enrolled its name among his followers. But 
 the great distinction of his ministry, and the fact in which 
 he gloried, was, that the foor had the gospel preached to 
 them. This was a stretch of philanthropy unknown to the 
 philosophers of Greece and Rome. The transcendant 
 
242 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 he can only be said to be a God to the living soul. On the 
 former, he can only bring to bear his natural attributes, can 
 only exercise mechanical power; while, on the latter, he 
 can turn the full aspect of his moral perfections, can bring 
 his transcendental attributes, the peculiar glory ot his char- 
 acter, can bring all his nature into active communication 
 with theirs. Whatever he may do to mere matter, he dees 
 to an unconscious object, to a thing which can return him 
 no look of gratitude, no expression of affection ; while the 
 soul finds its heaven in his smile, and he beholds the reflec- 
 tion o-f his image in its face. Wherefore, ' he is not asham- 
 ed to be called its God :' by which we are to understand 
 that he glories to be called so ; he tells it to the universe ; 
 boasts of the relationship ; is willing to be judged of by his 
 treatment of his spiritual offspring; is prepared to rest his 
 claims to universal homage on the glorious provision to 
 which he brings them in heaven ; is so satisfied with that 
 illustration of his excellence which he beholds in the pres- 
 ent condition of the spirits of just men made perfect, that, 
 could we see their blessedness, he would be content to be 
 known only as their God ; and, accordingly, one of the ti- 
 tles which he has adopted, and graven on his crown of 
 light, informs us that he is ' the Father of spirits.' 
 
 Another declaration of Christ, to the same import, is his 
 memorable reply to the expiring malefactor, ' Veril}^ I say 
 unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' The 
 sense of this passage has been made by some, indeed, to 
 turn on a question of punctuation. But receiving it in its 
 general acceptation ; the only acceptation, we apprehend, 
 which common sense will ratify ; we learn from it the ca- 
 pability of the soul to exist independently of the body ; the 
 instant transition of the soul, at death, to the state adapted 
 to its moral character ; and the fact, that it there immediate- 
 ly enters on its endless portion. 
 
HIS ORIGINALITY. 243 
 
 II. The resurrection of the body was a dogma already 
 familiar to the Jews ; but this doctrine our Lord illustrat- 
 ed, amplified, and confirmed. Aware that it formed the 
 key-stone of Christianity, he may be said to have labored 
 out the proof of it, till he brought it to demonstration. ' Ye 
 do err,' said he, to the Sadducees, who denied a resurrec- 
 tion, ' not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God.' 
 Here, first, he dismisses the question of its possibility by 
 placing it at once in the hands of omnipotence. Secondly, 
 he places around the doctrine a guard of divine declara- 
 tions ; thus reminding us, that if God has said the dead 
 shall be raised, the event is as certain as if it had already 
 occurred and become matter of history. And, thirdly, 
 he alleges as a reason for the event, the relation which 
 God sustains to his people — ' he is their God ;' and is 
 bound, therefore, by a pledge voluntarily given, to do every 
 thing for them essential to their well-being : but the restor- 
 ation of their bodies is essential to the integrity of their 
 nature ; then his faithfulness is pledged to restore, them. 
 Besides, he is the God of the living ; but a constituent 
 part of their nature is held in captivity by death, then to 
 vindicate his title as their God, he must effect the redemp- 
 tion of the body, and replenish it, in common with the soul, 
 with immortal life. Agreeably to this declaration, the Sa- 
 vior elsewhere affirms, ' This is the Father's will who hath 
 sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose 
 nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.' He 
 was commissioned by the Father to accomplish the work 
 of redemption, in a manner worthy of him whose peculiar 
 distinction it is, that ' his work is perfect.' He holds him- 
 self responsible, therefore, for the re-production of the bodies 
 of all his people : he has set his seal upon each of their 
 graves ; and, of all that he holds in trust, he declares that 
 he will lose, not merely not one, but ' nothing ' — not a frac* 
 
344 THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 which their philosophers were accustomed to propound their 
 flimsy abstractions. But the Great Teacher would not thus 
 debase his gospel, and frustrate his design. He sought 
 to make himself universal; to speak to humanity. His 
 tongue was only the interpreter for his heart ; and he aimed 
 to render his teaching a contact of hearts. The 'key of 
 knowledge had been taken away,' by those who should 
 have held it only for the people; they had ' shut up the 
 kingdom of heaven ' from the poor, and left them to perish : 
 and, while he charged them with this awful fraud on the 
 well-being of man, he hastened to supply the perishing 
 with superior means of salvation. ' He sought out, and 
 set in order, acceptable words.' His leading topics were 
 few, that he might not confuse ; but so personal and impor- 
 tant, that they found a response and an interpreter in every 
 bosom. He simplified knowledge, and reduced it to its 
 elements : now removing the veil from an ancient prophe- 
 cy, now uttering a touching parable, now a graphic illus- 
 tration from familiar life, now an easy precept or weighty 
 truth, and presently returning again to place the same truth 
 in a new light. Though all the science of eternity was 
 hid in his mind, and the unspeakable words which it is not 
 lawful for a man to utter could have flown from his tongue, 
 he delighted to be known as the teacher of babes. He low- 
 ered himself down to their capacity, waited on their dul- 
 ness, tasted knowledge for them, and fed them with food 
 convenient for them. He went about as the bread of life. 
 And the simplicity of his teaching was only in accord- 
 ance with its compassionate design — to console the wretch- 
 ed. The effect of sorrow is to reduce our nature to its 
 elements ; to suspend our intellectual powers, and resolve 
 us into creatures of mere feeling ; to shut up every avenue 
 but that which leads to the heart. He knew that grief 
 thus simplifies our nature, and he provided a remedy equal- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 345 
 
 ]y simple. He imparted truths to which the heart listens 
 and which the heart alone can understand ; for he held 
 the heart of the world in'his hand ; and knowing the secret 
 of all its sympathies, he communed with its weakness and 
 sorrows by methods peculiarly his own. Sorrow was, in 
 his eyes, among the most sacred things he found on earth; 
 and had it not been so before, the reverent attention with 
 which he honored it, and the simple and sympathetic 
 terms in which he addressed it, would have made it hal- 
 lowed. He knew also that the time of affliction would be 
 the season when numbers would first direct a look to the 
 gospel for relief; when help, if it came to them at all, must 
 come without effort ; when the staff must not only be pro- 
 vided, but actually put into their hand. And knowing 
 this, he published his gospel as a system of consolation 
 for the miserable ; and they who know it best are the 
 readiest to confess how fully it answers to the character ; 
 after the trial of ages, it maintains its prerogative of bind- 
 ing up the broken in heart. 
 
 Even the places in which he taught evinced his conde- 
 scension. If he discoursed in the temple, it was not from 
 any regard to its vastness, splendor, or circumstantial sanc- 
 tity ; for, in his eyes, it was only the mausoleum of piety, 
 the tomb of a departed dispensation ; but because he could 
 there teach ' before all the people ; ' could there, especial- 
 ly at the great festivals when it became the centre of at- 
 traction, could there meet with, and appeal to, the heart of 
 the nation. But during his ministry, it could be said lit- 
 erally, ' Wisdom crieth without ; in the chief concourse 
 of the people.' The ship, the strand, the desert, the moun- 
 tain, were as eligible in his view, as the city and the tem- 
 ple, for the work of saving souls from death. By his god- 
 like indifference to time and place, in the work of reli- 
 gious instruction, he consecrated the practice of itinerant 
 22 
 
346 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 preaching. He embodied the conduct of the good shep- 
 herd in his own parable of the lost sheep, traversing with 
 unwearied zeal, the moral wilderness of Judea, in quest of 
 * th^ lost sheep of the house of Israel.' 
 
 Wherever he found a multitude disposed to listen, he 
 ■was prompt to address to them the words of eternal life. 
 Some present object, some late occurrence or familiar inci- 
 dent, was the point from which he led them, step by step, 
 up an easy ascent, to themes of heavenly ahitude, of infin- 
 ite importance. He was always ready to gratify the in- 
 quirer, provided his inquiries were made with sincerity, 
 and were such as he could solve with propriety. Though 
 he often enjoined his disciples to tell no man where he was 
 — for in his life were combined the active and the contem- 
 plative in perfect proportions — yet the eager suppliant w^ho 
 should succeed, at such times, in discovering and pene- 
 trating his retreat, never encountered a repulse, even though 
 ' he came to Jesus by night.' Over the door of his most 
 sacred retreat may be said to have been inscribed, ' Knock, 
 and it shall be opened.' When his disciples came to him 
 in private, to request an explanation of the statements he 
 had been making in public, he was always ready to de- 
 scend to their low capacities, and to gratify their desires. 
 When Peter replied to his inquiry concerning his personal 
 claims, ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ; ' 
 like a teacher charmed with the progress of his pupil, and 
 anxious to encourage him, he pronounced him blessed, and 
 rewarded him with an animating promise. He w^atched 
 the progress of his disciples, however slow, with more 
 than parental delight. He spoke in accents of encourage- 
 ment to piety of the weakest pulse ; feeding it with line 
 upon line, and invigorating it with promise upon promise. 
 Lessons unwelcome to our depravity, but important to 
 our happiness, he not only repeated often, but even devis- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 347 
 
 ed the most condescending expedients to make them live 
 in our minds. His disciples had often contested the ques- 
 tion of precedence in his kingdom. He could at once 
 have rebuked their ambition with a denunciation of wrath, 
 have withered their pride with a frown ; but, in accord- 
 ance with his characteristic benevolence, he chose to ad- 
 monish them by an affecting sign which they could not 
 easily forget. How beautiful, affecting, and instructive 
 the sight ! The Lord of glory folding in his arms a help- 
 less babe, as an emblem of the humility which adorns his 
 kingdom. Humility, from that day, needs to plead no 
 other sanction for her lowliest acts. 
 
 Often had he inculcated the condescending offices of 
 brotherly love, for well he knew that, like the ligaments 
 and arterial net-work of the human frame, the health and 
 happiness of his body — the church — depended on their 
 binding power and reciprocating influence. But by what 
 new expedient can he deepen the effects of his past les- 
 sons ? ' Jesus knowing that the Father had given all 
 things into his hands, and that he was come from God, 
 and went to God ; he riseth from supper, and laid aside 
 his garments ; and took a towel, and girded himself, and 
 washed his disciples' feet. When he was about to ascend 
 to the seat of universal empire ; when the cross alone re- 
 mained between him and the government of heaven, earth, 
 and hell; even 'then he took a towel and girded himself, 
 and poured water into a basin, and washed the disciples' 
 feet, and wiped them with the towel wherewith he was 
 girded ; saying, Ye call me Master and Lord ; and ye 
 say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, 
 have washed your feet : ye also ought to wash one anoth- 
 er's feet ; ' — to condescend to the lowest office of christian 
 beneficence and love. Beyond this, he might have said, 
 ye cannot go. 
 
348 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 But, O, there was another lesson to be taught, the high- 
 est, and the last; a lesson comprehensive of every other; 
 and he sought to steep it in the essence of his tenderness 
 and love. He, who had laid aside his garments to wash 
 his disciples' feet, and laid aside his robes of celestial light 
 and taken upon him the form of a servant, that he might 
 become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 
 • The same night, therefore, in which he was betrayed he 
 took bread: and when he had given thanks, he brake it, 
 and said, Take, eat : this is my body, which is broken for 
 you : this do in rememberance of me. After the same 
 manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, 
 This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed 
 for many for the remission of sins : this do ye, as oft as ye 
 drink it, in rememberance of me.' Thus tenderly did 
 he seek to impress us with the great love wherewith he 
 had loved us : to remind us how essential he is to our hap- 
 piness ; and to live in our devout affections. By this 
 touching rite, he would have us to erect his cross in our 
 minds, that we may hold personal and perpetual commun- 
 ion with his dying love. He gives into our hands the 
 doctrine of his atoning sacrifices, charging us to keep it — 
 by all that is sacred in his death, precious in his love, val- 
 uable in our own happiness — charging us to keep it em- 
 balmed in his own blood. He gloried in his cross as the 
 pillar of human hope ; the column on which he desired 
 that his name might be inscribed as the great memento of 
 his love to man, as that single act by which he is content 
 to be known, and on which he desires to rest his claim on 
 the eternal gratitude of the world. Knowing the power 
 which it would give him on human hearts, he has made 
 his cross the depository of all the doctines of salvation. 
 
 HI. But, thirdly, our professed object requires that we 
 should present examples from our Lord's teaching illus- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 349 
 
 trative of his tenderness and benevolence. ' Learn of me,' 
 said he, * for I am meek and lowly of heart ; and ye shall 
 find rest unto your souls.' This is the character which 
 he gave of himself as a teacher ; and the only instance, 
 in which he laid claim directly to human excellencies. 
 And who will not accord to him the amiable qualities 
 which he here claims 1 When first he opened his lips in 
 the synagogue of Nazereth, the audience wondered at the 
 gracious words which proceeded from his mouth. And the 
 description of his benevolent commission, which he then 
 read from the prophet, and distinctly appropriated to himself, 
 seems intended to throw forward a tender and mellowing light 
 on the whole of his after course. By informing us at first of 
 the gracious character he meant to sustain, he seems to 
 seek to disarm our opposition, to invite our confidence, to 
 ask us to meet his tenderness with a corresponding feeling 
 of affectionate reliance. From a certain date, too, in his 
 public ministrations, his teaching must have acquired a 
 very affecting character, from his frequent allusions to his 
 approaching sufferings and death. ' From that time forth 
 began Jesus to show unto bis disciples, how that he must 
 go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, 
 and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be rais- 
 ed again the third day.' Up to that time he had but ob- 
 scurely alluded to the subject ; but suddenly he lays naked 
 to their view — the cross ; he speaks of coming sorrows, 
 approaching sufferings, impending death ; he paints a 
 scene in which he appears the principal object, bending 
 under the weight of a cross, spit upon, scourged, crucified, 
 the victim of human and infernal malice. Most probably, 
 as often as he adverted to the topic, his voice took deeper 
 and more tender tones, and his countenance assumed a 
 more solemn aspect : but whether they did so or not, his 
 teaching, which had always been grave and pathetic, had 
 
350 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 from this time infused into it a new element of solemnity 
 and pathos. Henceforth he stood in a shadow, which 
 threw on him a tender and solemn grandeur — the shadow 
 of the cross : and while speaking from that position, his 
 promises became more gracious, and his commands more 
 affecting and binding than ever. 
 
 1. The first sentence he uttered, in his first recorded 
 discourse, is a sample of the spirit he breathed in all his 
 subsequent addresses ; ' Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' To bless men, to make 
 them happy, was the great object for which he descended 
 from heaven. He came into the world, expressly, to bless 
 whatever he could, to encourage and promote it, and to res- 
 cue from earth whatever would accord with the purity, and 
 enhance the glory, of the world from which he came. In- 
 stead of using the lofty and imperative style of positive 
 command, he seems to dismiss the state of supreme au- 
 thority, to lay aside the character of the legislator, and to 
 appear only as the Savior and the Friend : in the most gen- 
 tle and engaging manner, he insinuates his will, and our 
 duty, by pronouncing those blessed who comply with it. 
 Blessing after blessing follow each other in quick succes- 
 sion ; every sentence comes from his lips loaded with 
 grace ; like the gushing forth of a fountain long sealed up 
 they showed the fulness of benovolence which possessed 
 his heart. 
 
 Rejecting the minions and favorites of the world, he se- 
 lected those whom the the world disowns. The poor in 
 spirit, the meek, the holy, the sorrowful and broken-heart- 
 ed, the merciful, the sincere, the peaceful, the persecuted : 
 the orphans, the disinherited, the rejected of the world; 
 such was the large family on whom his blessings fell, and 
 to whom he opened his arms, and welcomed them to the shel- 
 ter of his heait. Each of the virtues which he here implies. 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 351 
 
 may be regarded as a separate and essential feature of 
 christian excellence ; and, as he adds one lineament to the 
 portrait after another, he surveys it with delight. He sees 
 wealth in that spiritual poverty more ample and enduring- 
 than all the treasures which earth can boast ; a majesty in 
 this meekness to which pride can never erect itself; and, 
 in this christian sorrow, he beholds the seeds of joy, the 
 blossomings of glory. He contemplates it in reference to 
 another state of being ; and though the world in its blind- 
 ness may hold this character in contempt, he knows that it 
 is such as angels will bless ; that the great God, seated on 
 the throne of heaven, pronounces it blessed, repeats over 
 it all the divine beatitudes ; he would have us to know 
 that when it departs by death from this earthly scene, he 
 raises and welcomes it into his own kingdom ; and that 
 when every mere earthly embellishment shall have faded 
 and disappeared, he will proclaim it happy in the presence 
 of the universe, and crown it with glory and honor ; that 
 it is a character whose blessedness eternity itself will ratify 
 and augment. As if the benevolence of God had forsaken 
 every other vent to find a channel through his lips, thus 
 freely and copiously did he pour forth his divine benedic- 
 tions. 
 
 And may we not affirm, without a paradox, that it was 
 in the exercise of this same benevolence that he uttered 
 those denunciations of woe — if, indeed, they are not rather 
 to be regarded as exclamations of pity — recorded in the 
 23rd chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The compassion 
 which brought him from heaven dictated these denuncia- 
 tions ; for he uttered them in the defence of the oppressed 
 and the wretched. Having identified himself with the vic- 
 tims of injustice, he stood forth in their behalf, as one who 
 felt himself personally insulted and dishonored by their 
 wrongs. He would be known to the avaricious, the proud, 
 
352 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 and unjust, as the Patron of injured humanity; taking 
 misery within the pale of the divine law, and extending 
 over it the shield of his divine protection. But even his 
 denunciation of ' Woe ! woe ! ' ended in that affecting apos- 
 trophe, ' O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I 
 
 have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gather- 
 eth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!' 
 Like the thunder-cloud, which, having discharged its holt 
 at the earth, weeps itself away, exhausts itself in a healing 
 shower which closes the rent it had made ; so his pity 
 commiserates, and pours itself forth over those whom, in 
 the same breath, he had felt himself called to rebuke. 
 
 2. In the same discourse which opens with the beati- 
 tudes, and pervaded with the same compassionate spirit, 
 we meet with the exhortation, ' Therefore I say unto you. 
 Take no thought for your life, w^hat ye shall eat, or what 
 ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body what ye shall put 
 on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than rai- 
 ment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, 
 neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heav- 
 enly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
 they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit 
 unto his stature? And why take ye thought for.raiment? 
 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil 
 not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you. That 
 even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
 these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, 
 which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall 
 he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? ' &c. 
 Matt. vi. 25 — 34. This is one of the beauties of scripture. 
 Had it no other recommendation than its felicity of illus- 
 tration, and its graces of composition, it would deserve our 
 warm admiration ; and indeed it has received the tribute of 
 admiration from men who wexe only in pursuit of literary 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 353 
 
 beauties. But it has higher qualities of excellence than these: 
 it speaks to the understanding and the heart, on themes of 
 deep and universal importance. It contemplates the world 
 laboring, restless, fevered about the petty provisions of the 
 present life ; causing their cup of sorrow to overflow, by 
 holding it with an unsteady hand ; anxiously looking on- 
 ward to the future, borrowing the distresses of the morrow 
 to aggravate those of the present day; loading themselves 
 with burdens of grief which do not belong to them, and 
 which they are not required to bear: and, surveying this 
 scene of overtoiled labor, and sleepless anxiety, and wast- 
 ing solicitude, in which mortals are embroiled, the voice 
 of Jesus, the friend of man, the tender sympathizer with 
 human woe, is heard, rising in tones of the kindest com- 
 passion, above the sighs, and plaints, and groans of the 
 multitude, and saying, ' Peace, be still ; mourner, dry thy 
 tears ; ye, who are laden with the self-imposed burdens of 
 worldly care, deposit the heavy load ; ye destitute, who 
 count yourselves outcasts of the world, for whom no one 
 cares, know that you have a Father, and that the God of 
 providence is he. Come, learn of me, and I will give you 
 rest; I will allay your anxieties, and lay your hearts to 
 rest on the bosom of that paternal Providence which cares 
 and provides for all it has made ; for every thing, from the 
 meanest herb which it feeds with the precious dews, up to 
 the immortal soul on which it pours the immediate influ- 
 ences of the divine Spirit,' 
 
 It is true, that the books of pagan morality abound with 
 counsels against grief. The cup of sorrow is so constantly 
 in circulation, passing from hand to hand, through the 
 whole family of man, and every individual has so surely, 
 sooner or later, to drink a portion of the bitter draught ; 
 that there is no subject which is more popular, or on which 
 men speak more frequently and feelingly, than on that of 
 
354 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 human exigence and sorrow ; and none which it is more 
 easy to reason against, showing the folly, the uselessness, 
 and injuriousness of excessive solicitude. But the reason- 
 ings of Christ on the subject have this vast distinction of 
 superiority^ : he does not unfeelingly and gratuitously dis- 
 parage the wants and the trials of life ; he does not seek to 
 degrade our nature by divesting us of feeling, and redu- 
 cing us to a state of brutish insensibility ; he would have 
 us to believe that our earthly cares are of sufficient impor- 
 tance to engage the attention of the Divine Being ; and, 
 in that persuasion, he would have us to devolve the entire 
 burden upon him. He does not propose to give us free- 
 dom from care, merely for its own sake ; nor does he seek 
 to disengage our hearts from the world without filling the 
 vaccuum with a new object: he would replace the perish- 
 ing trifles of earth, with objects vast as our wishes and per- 
 manent as our being; and would discharge us from all 
 the corroding anxieties of time, only that we may be free 
 to put forth all our unincumbered strength in the pursuit 
 of heaven. He knows that our whole nature is reduced 
 to a state of exigence ; not the body merely, but also the 
 immortal, imperishable soul ; and, with the deep anxiety 
 of true friendship, he sees that our extreme solicitude about 
 this life entirely disqualifies us for attending to the eternal 
 exigencies of the soul ; he would fain, therefore, relieve 
 us from the pressure of the present, lest we should lose the 
 substance in grasping at the shadow. He assures us, 
 therefore, in accents of gracious concern, that if we will 
 but seek supremely ' the kingdom of God, and his right- 
 eousness,' we shall, from that moment, find that God is our 
 Father ; that, as we advance from stage to stage in our 
 way to his kingdom, we shall find the necessaries of life 
 ready, and waiting our arrival ; and that rather would he 
 move all nature, and put all his miraculous agency in op- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 355 
 
 eration, than dishonor his paternal relation, or disappoint 
 the confidence we repose in his word. 
 
 3. ' Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy la- 
 den, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, 
 and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and 
 ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, 
 and my burden is light.' Among the numerous illustra- 
 tions of our present subject, which spontaneously rise to 
 our recollection, this passage is one of the first, and claims 
 our attention by its pre-eminence of grace. 
 
 A message from the Baptist, which is related at the open- 
 ing of the chapter, had led our Lord to advert to that pre- 
 vailing impenitence and unbelief which had resisted both 
 the preaching of John, and his own ministry and miracles. 
 'Woe unto thee,' said he; or, 'Alas for thee, Chorazin! 
 alas for thee, Bethsaida ! ' He might have called down 
 fire upon them, like that which desolated the cities of the 
 plain ; for he affirmed, that their guilt exceeded that of 
 Sodom and Gomorrah. But though he seems, at the m o 
 ment, to have taken a wide survey of human depravity, and 
 to have been deeply affected at the sight, he prayed for no 
 vengeance, breathed no desire to relinquish the work of 
 saving ungrateful man. On the contrary, as if he feared 
 that, by upbraiding the people for their unbelief, he had 
 been placing himself in an unwelcome light ; as if, by 
 glancing at the topic, he had been actually doing violence to 
 his own benignity, repressing for a time the current of benev- 
 olence which ever flowed through his heart ; as if he now 
 felt all the Savior return again into his breast, he exclaim- 
 ed with divine compassion, with an irresistible kindness 
 that would not be denied, ' Come unto me, and I will give 
 you rest.' To add force to his appeal, he prefaces it with 
 a declaration of his divine relation to the Father, of the 
 identity of their character, and of the fact that, as our Re- 
 
356 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 deemer, all things are delivered into his hands. There- 
 fore, saith he, ' Come, and partake. All things are mine ; 
 come, and share them. I have received them for your en- 
 joyment and use; come and let me confer them upon you. 
 I am made the Treasurer, the Almoner of all the riches 
 and resources of the divine nature ; and you are to be made 
 the happy recipients ; come, and let me make you the rich- 
 er by the free gift of eternal life. 
 
 Had the invitation been addressed to any one class ex- 
 clusively, how invidious an office would it have been to 
 proclaim the gospel ; and how mournful the feelings with 
 which many would retire from hearing it ; for they would 
 find that it was not meant for them. But it knows no such 
 exclusion. It addresses us by a description which is com- 
 mon to humanity ; its boast and glory is, that it is intended 
 for all who need it, all who labor and are heavy laden. It 
 does not even pry into the cause of our restlessness ; it does 
 not ask what occasions our distress; it only inquires 
 whether or not we are the subjects of disquietude. If we 
 can look within, and pronounce all calm and tranquil there; 
 if we can look around on the various circumstances and 
 relations of life, in which we ai'e concerned — and back- 
 wards on the history of our past life — and forwards into the 
 eternal future which we are rapidly approaching ; if on tak- 
 ing this survey, we can see no cloud in the whole horizon 
 to disturb our repose ; then may we take it for granted the 
 invitation was not meant for us. Or if we can point out 
 one whose heart is corroded by no care, restless after no 
 object, disturbed by no apprehension, we have discovered 
 an individual uninterested in this appeal. But till then, it 
 admits of no restriction, its application is universal. 
 
 In uttering it, our Lord undoubtedly selected language 
 which would meet the condition, and fall soothingly on the 
 ear, of exery man. He had surveyed, on the morning of 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 357 
 
 creation, the vast and disordered abyss of chaos ; and he 
 had silenced its tumults, and reduced every element to or- 
 der. He had sailed with his disciples, in a, storm which 
 threatened them with destruction, and had calmed it to rest : 
 but when he surveyed the condition of man, he beheld a 
 storm more furious and deadly than that which raged on 
 the sea of Tiberias, and a scene of confusion more appalling 
 than that which chaos presented on the morning of creation. 
 His eye travelled over scenes and wastes of human woe, 
 scenes in which he saw the chains of captivity; the pains 
 of superstition ; the struggles of poverty : the disappoint- 
 ments of ambition ; the misgivings of the self-righteous ; 
 and the exhausted efforts of the sinner, lashed by the re- 
 proaches of an angry conscience, and aiming to escape 
 from a load of guilt. He heard the thickening cries of 
 misery ; his ear caught a sigh, or a sound of woe, from 
 every habitation, every breast of man ; a never-ebbing tide 
 of the sounds of anguish, strife and death. His omniscience 
 penetrated every heart, and saw the tooth of care corroding 
 the peace not merely of the poor and the afflicted, but prey- 
 ing alike on the learned, the wealthy, and the mighty of 
 the earth. He beheld a storm, in which every one was 
 seeking for shelter, without knowing where to obtain it; 
 and voluntarily exposing himself to all its horrors, he 
 pressed forth into the midst of it, and exclaimed, with a 
 heart which felt and bled for them all, ' Come unto me, and 
 I will give you rest.' 
 
 This is an invitation from which no peculiarity in our 
 character or condition can possibly exclude us. If any 
 such exception could be named, it must be the peculiar ac- 
 cumulation of our guilt, or the amount of our misery ; but 
 this, so far from excluding, brings us more completely 
 within the scope of its grace. Were it possible for a man 
 to unite in his own individual person, all the wants, and 
 
358 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 guilt, and capacities of the whole human race, the invita- 
 tion would only address him in a more personal manner, 
 and with a deeper emphasis of compassion. And shall 
 all this benevolence be lost on us '? In the name of all 
 that is tender and gracious he urges us to come. He ad- 
 dresses us as if we had never offended him, nor had ren- 
 dered it necessary that he should suffer on our account ; 
 as if, in contemplating our wants, he had actually forgot- 
 ten our depravity and guilt. Indeed, had he himself been 
 the offending party, and had entailed on us all the evils 
 we suffer, he could not have employed language more af- 
 fectionate, nor have manifested greater solicitude to relieve 
 us. Had he descended from heaven to announce only this 
 single invitation to our guilty race, it is so graciously ad- 
 apted to our condition, that it would have fully justified the 
 important mission, and ought to have endeared him^ to ev- 
 ery human heart. 
 
 4. If the gospel be regarded as a temple of spiritual 
 truth, the parables of our Lord may be compared to paint- 
 ings with which he has adorned the walls, and by which 
 he seeks to arrest the wandering eye, and to please W'hile 
 he instructs. Among these, the parable of the prodigal 
 son never fails to attract and impress. The errors of the 
 wanderer, his sufferings, his bitter tears, his penitential re- 
 turn, the melting heart of that indulgent parent who ran 
 to welcome to his arms, and weep over, his long-lost son ; 
 how many eyes have looked at it till they filled with tears; 
 how many a heart has melted before it ; how many a peni- 
 tent has it first inspired w'ith hope. It makes an appeal, 
 which finds a responsive chord, of one kind or another, in 
 every bosom It is always fresh, and always welcome ; 
 equally affecting us in infancy, and old age. 
 
 But what is the secret of its subduing influence ? It is 
 not that it embodies any profound philosophic truth : it evin- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE 359 
 
 ces no desire to affect ; it is a specimen of unlabored sim- 
 plicity. Much of its power is, no doubt, to be ascribed to 
 that graphic minuteness of detail by which ^ve seem plac- 
 ed in the midst of the scene described, and to become spec- 
 tators of all that transpires. But it appeals to more than 
 our sympathy ; it draws in our heart, and creates in it all 
 the interest of a personal event. The truth is, it is a pic- 
 ture of the prodigal and ruined world come to itself, la- 
 menting its wretchedness, and retracing its wanderings 
 back to God. It represents the meeting of misery with 
 compassion ; the communing of penitent wretchedness with 
 all-sufficient grace ; of our lost humanity with that infinite 
 love, which received and embraced our guilty nature, and 
 even adopted it into the person of Christ. The parable is 
 an epitome of the spiritual history of the whole church; 
 so that every individual member beholds in it an image of 
 the most affecting parts of his own life. 
 
 And what an insight does it give us into the depths of 
 our Lord's benevolent character ! We feel that we are lis- 
 tening to a party concerned ; he presents us with his heart 
 in almost every sentence ; nor is it easy to conceive that 
 he uttered it without tears. And the view which it gives 
 us of his benevolence is further enhanced, when we think 
 of the object for which he uttered it ; he sought to promote 
 repentance, to encourage that change by which the sinner 
 comes to himself ; not merely by depicting the paternal 
 compassion of God, but by representing it as an occasion 
 of joy to angels, and to every order of holy intelligence in 
 the universe. From a perusal of this, and the two para- 
 bles connected with it, he would have the penitent to be- 
 lieve, that in going to God for mercy he is occasioning a 
 joy which, beginning at the centre of all benevolence — the 
 heart of the eternal Father — circulates through all ranks 
 of holy existences, to the utmost circumference of the spir- 
 itual creation. 
 
360 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 5. There are numerous passages in our Lord's discour- 
 ses in which, as the representative of his people, he de- 
 scribes himself as personally affected by all that befals 
 them — a sentiment which can only be resolved into that 
 enlarged benevolence which identifies him with all piety. 
 He reproved the errors and sins of the Jews, with the indig- 
 nant sensibility of one who felt himself personally wronged 
 and dishonored by them. He spoke of the weakest believ- 
 er as his other self ; resenting his wrongs, and adopting 
 the favors shown him as his own. After often repeating 
 this sentiment, and presenting it in various lights, he raised 
 it to a climax in the declaration that, in the last great day, 
 he will pronounce concerning every action relating to 
 them ; ' ye did it unto me ; or, ye did it not unto me.'' If 
 sympathy is to be regarded as a kind of substitution, by 
 which we are put into the place of another, and affected in 
 many respects as he is affected, then what shall we think of 
 the sympathy of Christ, which never allows him to re- 
 main an indifferent spectator of any thing his people may 
 suffer. Virtue cannot receive the slightest wound, of 
 which he does not instantly feel the smart. He is the 
 great sympathetic nerve of the church, over which all the 
 oppressions and sufferings of his people distinctly pass ; 
 nor does that mysterious instrument of sensation in the 
 human body convey more correctly to the sensorium a 
 sense of the condition of the extremest part of the frame, 
 than the benevolence of Jesus, who is the sensorium of the 
 spiritual universe, apprehends, and sympathizes with the 
 least emotion of suffering in his body the church. 
 
 6. ' And when he was come near, he beheld the city, 
 and wept over it, saying. If thou hadst known, even thou, 
 at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy 
 peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes.' Often had 
 he approached Jerusalem before by the same road, and gaz- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 361 
 
 ed on it from the same spot ; and we may suppose, had he 
 looked on it, but with emotions of unutterable concern : 
 for oh ! Jerusalem was endeared to him by ties unimagin- 
 ed by man. But now he was approaching it for the last 
 time ; and he paused to take a final look. He knew that 
 his entrance within its gates would be the signal for filling 
 up the measure of its guilt; and therefore he lingered a 
 moment, as if to respite its doom ; the sun of righteous- 
 ness lingered a moment on Mount Olivet, as if to prolong 
 for it that day of grace made by his own immediate beams. 
 He had before asked for it ' another year,' that he might 
 make on it fresh experiments of mercy : and now he gra- 
 ciously vouchsafed it another moment. And as he stood 
 and gazed on it, his mind filled with affecting recollections 
 of the past ; the future rose to his prophetic eye crowded 
 with scenes of guilt and woe ; while both became aggra- 
 vated by the afflicting thought, that all his generous efforts 
 to save it were defeated, and would only serve to enhance 
 its doom. 
 
 His comprehensive mind reverted to the past ; he re- 
 membered the days of old, ' when Israel was holiness to 
 the Lord.' He could not forget that Judea had for ages 
 been the ark of religion, where the knowledge of Jehovah 
 had been preserved and cherished when lost by all the 
 world besides ; that it was filled with the mementoes of 
 prophets and miracles ; that it had been the birth-place of 
 men of whom the world was not worthy ; that its paths 
 had been trod by angel-feet ; that its dust was hallowed, 
 its very soil sacred to God. He thought of the temple, 
 where devotion had for so many ages felt itself nearer 
 heaven ; where the bleeding sacrifice had daily testified 
 of human guilt and divine placability ; where successive 
 generations had communed with God from ofif the mercy- 
 seat; and multitudes had found the gate of heaven. But 
 23 
 
362 THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 these recollections, pleasing in themselves, were emhitter- 
 ed by the remembrance of the guilt they necessarily re- 
 called — ages of accumulated g^ilt. The Lord had sent unto 
 them his prophets, ' rising early and sending them ;' but 'they 
 beat one and killed another and stoned another.' It could 
 not be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem. It was 
 saturated with 'the blood of all the prophets, down to the 
 blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom they slew be- 
 tween the temple and the altar.' And, now, he knew that 
 it was thirsting after his own blood. For more than a 
 thousand years it had enjoyed the peculiar regards of heav- 
 en ; yet, with all his compassion for it in lively exercise, 
 the benevolent Jesus could not but see that it was the 
 grave of hope, the vortex of all piety. For three years 
 now, he himself had come seeking fruit, and finding none. 
 During that period, his preaching and miracles had but 
 this one object — the instruction and salvation of its thank- 
 less and disobedient people. How solemnly had he warn- 
 ed them, how graciously invited them, how anxiously la- 
 bored to convince them that he was the Hope of Israel, 
 their promised Messiah. For them he had toiled, and trav- 
 elled, and interceded, and spent himself in self-consuming 
 privations. For their sakes he had made himself of no 
 reputation, and had taken upon him the form of a servant. 
 When driven from Jerusalem by persecution, exiled by 
 bitter hate, he carried their welfare with him in his heart, 
 and soon he returned to them again with a kindness which 
 seemed increased by ingratitude. They formed the sole 
 object of his lenderest solicitude, the essence of his daily 
 thought. For them every pulse of his heart had beaten» 
 and for them that heart was ready to pour forth its vital 
 blood. He had done every thing that could be done, con- 
 sistently with his own perfections and with the liberty of 
 accountable creatures, but in vain. On them the ob- 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 363 
 
 ject of his mission was entirely lost. He knew that at that 
 moment they were passing his destruction into a law. He 
 looked down on the guilty city ; and, behold, it resembled 
 a vast cauldron filled and fermenting with all infernal pas- 
 sions, of which he was to be the devoted victim. 
 
 But, with the self-denying love of a patriot, and the 
 grace of a Savior, he looked beyond the spectacle of his 
 own sufferings, and fixed his eye upon theirs ; he could 
 view them only through an atmosphere of compassion. 
 And, oh ! what an appeal to his pity was there. Clouds 
 of wrath were gathering over Jerusalem from every quar- 
 ter of heaven, fraught with materials of destruction such 
 as none but a divine hand could collect : his own blood, 
 by which he had graciously meant to wash away their 
 guilt, calling with a voice not to be denied, for the ministers 
 of justice to arm; all things on earth and in heaven mus- 
 tering and disposing for their doom. He looked again ; 
 and, lo, the city, his city, was beleaguered and lost ; Jeru- 
 salem lay bleeding at his feet ; the harpy nations had tak- 
 en their prey ; her dwellings of holiness were laid waste ; 
 and the sound of her expiring lament, drowning even the 
 voice of justice itself, pierced his heart, and drew from him 
 words in which all his soul came forth ; ' If thou hadst 
 known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which 
 belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine 
 eyes.' 
 
 The exclamation regarded as a sentence, is interupted 
 and incomplete ; but who does not see that it is both in- 
 terupted, and completed, by tears — tears which are the nat- 
 ural language of compassion, and which express its in. 
 tenseness beyond all words. But he not only thought of 
 the past, and surveyed the future, he evidently glanced also 
 at a pleasing picture of what the present might have been ; 
 and then the hiatus is to be regarded as filled up with a si- 
 
364 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 lent reflection on what would have been the happy results 
 had Jerusalem accepted his mission. The lingering- con- 
 templation of the same blessed possibility is apparent also 
 in his subsequent exclamation ; ' O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
 thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them who are 
 sent unto thee, how often ^vould I have gathered thy chil- 
 dren together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
 her wings, and ye would not !' Had the nation apprecia- 
 ed his character, and sympathized with his mission, how 
 different we may suppose, his conduct would have been, 
 and how changed the history of his earthly life. The Jew- 
 ish economy might have died a glorious death, full of days 
 and full of honors. Instead of entering the temple to de- 
 nounce and to scourge, he might have gone to explain, and 
 to apply to himself, its ancient rites ; to make known the 
 termination of its service ; and to pronounce, in the hear- 
 ing of the great congregation its funeral eulogium. In- 
 stead of being hated, persecuted, and ignominiously put to 
 death as the victim of malice, he might have assembled 
 the tribes by proclamation ; have lifted up his voice and 
 explained to their breathless attention, the doctrine of the 
 atonement ; have opened their understanding, and disclos- 
 ed the amazing fact, that the principle of vicarious suffering, 
 which ran through the whole of their economy, was now 
 to terminate and triumph in his own piacular death for 
 man : and then, amidst the tears and sympathies of the 
 world, he might have ascended Calvary — or even the al- 
 tar of sacrifice itself — and there he might have been visi- 
 bly smitten by the immediate sword of justice ; while an- 
 gels bending over the mysterious scene, would have point- 
 ed each other to his blood, and said, ' Behold, how he lov- 
 ed them.' Instead of retiring into Galilee when he arose 
 from the dead, he might have shown himself openly to all 
 the people ; he might once more have entered the temple, 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 365 
 
 wliere ' Moses and Elias,' as the representatives of the 
 Jewish church, might have resigned into his hands the 
 trust which it had held for the human race ; and investing 
 him with the insignia of prophet, priest, and king, have 
 hailed him as the Hope of Israel, and the Surety of the 
 world. ' Oh that his people had hearkened unto him, and 
 Israel had walked in his ways !' 
 
 It is true, the contrary was foreseen ; every step he took 
 was calculated and arranged on the distinct foreknowledge 
 of his rejection: the wickedness of his enemies was inter- 
 woven into the texture of the divine plans concerning him. 
 But his rejection was necessitated only hy their own de- 
 pravity. Had their blinding unbelief permitted them to 
 ' know him, they could not have crucified the Lord of glo- 
 ry.' The morn of mercy would have arisen cloudless on 
 the world. He would have made the temple the cradle 
 of Christianity, the rendezvous of piety to all nations, the 
 sanctuary of the world. Jerusalem should have arisen as 
 a stately palm, towering to heaven and seen to the ends of 
 the earth, distilling balm for the healing of the nations, and 
 wafting its fragrance as incense through the skies ; relig- 
 ion should have built her palaces in its shadow ; it should 
 have been the joy of the whole earth. 
 
 How often would he have done this, and more than this, 
 for his beloved Jerusalem ; gathering her children under 
 his fostering care, and making her the abode of heavenly 
 glory. But, alas, this was only a vision — as the name 
 Jerusalem imports a vision of peace : and now it was both 
 hid from her eyes, and vanished from his. He would have 
 turned the vision into reality; but she would not, she thrust 
 him from her. Painful indeed is the situation of the patri- 
 ot who is condemned to watch the exhausted strug- 
 gles of his country; to tend it during its alternate parox- 
 ysms of raving, and intervals of lethargic stupefaction, till 
 
366 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 one by one the lingering symptoms of life have disappear- 
 eid, and it lies prostrate in corruption, and trodden under 
 foot of the nations. But here was more than a patriot 
 called to mourn over the desolation of his land, and to wit- 
 ness the frustration of all his plans for saving it ; here was 
 the friend of sinners, the lover of human souls, called to 
 contemplate the spiritual perdition of a whole land, and that 
 land the immediate scene of his godlike labors. He could 
 not fail to be deeply affected by the prospect of its tempo- 
 Tal sufferings : but what were they compared with its 
 impending spiritual fate. He knew the history of sin : 
 he had seen it in its awful origin, expelling the angels from 
 heaven and preparing for them a hell ; his omnipresent 
 mind had all the endless consequences of sin present to 
 his view. And knowing and deploring as he did the eter- 
 nal results of the least sin, how inconceivably great must 
 his emotions of grief and compassion have been at the 
 sight of a whole nation of human beings, for whose wel- 
 fare, at any moment, he was ready to become a curse, des- 
 troyed by the vials of Almighty displeasure, and perish- 
 ing under a charge of guilt, only inferior in aggravation 
 to the guilt of the angels that kept not their first estate. 
 His benevolent nature recoiled at the idea ; he felt as if 
 he could not give them up, could not see them consigned 
 to such irretrievable ruin ; as if even now it was not too 
 late to save them ; as if he could almost have saved them 
 even against their wills. The consideration of their con- 
 tinued aggravated guilt, had, we might have supposed, 
 drained the whole passion of pity from his nature ; but at 
 the sight of that coming woe, a new fountain of compas- 
 sion opens in his heart, and pours itself forth in an unex- 
 ampled gush of sympathy ; at the prospect of that dread- 
 ful scene, that type of the terrors of the judgment day, he 
 hears not the acclamations of the surrounding multitude, 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 367 
 
 hailing his entrance into the devoted city, thinks not of his 
 own impending death, but abandons himself to sympathy; 
 his whole nature dissolves into compassion, which can only 
 find vent in an exclamation in which he poured forth the 
 tears of his heart, ' O that thou hadst known, even thou, 
 at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy 
 peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes.' 
 
 Pitiable, indeed, must be the state of that mind which 
 can find itself at ease to debate a question of metaphysical 
 divinity in the presence of the Redeemer's tears. Yet there 
 are men whose creed has no place even for his sacred 
 grief; who are actually annoyed at these tears wept over 
 perishing sinners, as at heterodox variance with the divine 
 decrees ; who frown at this precious distilment of infinite 
 love, as inconsistent with their views of divine inflexibility. 
 There are those who would rather these tears had never 
 been shed, or that the record of this burst of divine com- 
 passion should be expunged from the sacred page, than 
 that it should remain as an obstacle to their logical views 
 of the divine purposes. But we linger over it with de- 
 light ; we love to remain within the softening influence, 
 the hallowed contagion of the Redeemer's tears ; we bless 
 him for them ; we regard the melting scene as only infe- 
 rior in pathos, in tender and solemn grandeur, to Calvary 
 itself. 
 
 The compassionate exclamation of Jesus, on this occa- 
 sion, intimates that the salvation of the Jews would have 
 been more agreeable to his benevolent nature than their 
 destruction ; that, notwithstanding this, there were suffi- 
 cient reasons why his omnipotence should not interpose 
 to prevent that destruction ; that, in the same act, justice, 
 awful and unbending justice, may denounce destruction 
 against the sinner, while benevolence sympathizes in his 
 misery even to tears. When Jesus afterwards turned to 
 
368 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 the mourning daughters of Jerusalem as they followed 
 him to Calvary, and said, ' Weep not for me, but weep for 
 yourselves,' he sought, by that admonition, to impress them 
 with the magnitude of the calamity which awaited them ; 
 a calamity so pregnant with woe, that had all the tears 
 shed from the creation, been reserved for that event, had 
 all the universe joined and aided them in the mighty grief, 
 it would not have equalled the greatness of the occasion. 
 But his own tears should affect us more" deeply with the 
 greatness of the calamity, than the sight of all creation in 
 tears. To think that Jesus wept, that tears fell from his 
 eyes, the eyes of incarnate perfection, how great must have 
 been the calamity which occasioned them, the calamity of 
 souls lost, immortal natures perishing under the frown of 
 God. And he would encourage us to infer, that, making 
 the necessary allowance for the difference between his 
 earthly and his heavenly state, his nature is still the same : 
 that no sinner perishes unpitied, unlan\,ented. He would 
 have the ministers of his gospel to mingle their appeals 
 and warnings with tears, and to assure the impenitent that 
 if they finally perish, they descend into perdition bathed 
 in the tears of his divine compassion. 
 
 7. What an affecting illustration of the tenderness and 
 benevolence of our Lord's teaching do we find in his vale- 
 dictory discourse to his disciples on the evening prior to 
 his crucifixion.* He was about to leave them. He had 
 so far advanced in his earthty course, that he was now 
 only a step from the cross : a few hours more, and the 
 pang of parting from their Lord must be endured. Ten- 
 der as his conduct, and gracious as his intercourse had al- 
 ways been, he had evidently reserved the outpouring of his 
 heart till now. He sought to prepare them for the ap- 
 proaching trial, by showing them that, though he died, he 
 (lied with them in his heart. Addressing them in terms 
 *John xiv. XV. xvi. 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 369 
 
 of gracious endearment such as they had never listened 
 to before ; and such as, considering the circumstances un- 
 der which they were uttered, they could never forget, he 
 took them into a new region of truth ; expatiated over 
 fields filled with the products of infinite love ; ranged over 
 ground which they had only before; beheld dimly at a dis- 
 tance, ground which brought them within sight of the gate 
 of heaven. Often had he spoken to them as never man 
 spake, descanting on topics which it had not entered into 
 the heart of man to conceive ; but he now led them into a 
 higher department, an inner chamber of truth ; he now 
 conducted them into the treasury of his love, displayed be- 
 fore them his resources and affluence, pointed out the costly 
 gifts which he meant for them, and even invited them to 
 select and appropriate his choicest treasures. He drew 
 them close to himself; afforded them the nearest inspec- 
 tion of his character ; unbosomed to them his inmost de- 
 signs ; showed them his very heart with all their names 
 engraven there, and all theif interests bound up and made 
 one with his dearest purposes, and Avith the glory of the 
 Father. 
 
 His avowed object in thus addressing them was, that 
 ' his joy might remain in them, and that their joy might be 
 full ; ' that the same exalted views and principles, which 
 had sustained and actuated him, might descend to them ; 
 that they might inherit the very same spiritual property ; 
 that it might be entailed on his church for ever, and yield 
 to his people in all generations as , large a revenue of joy 
 and peace, as, in proportion, it had brought to him. And, 
 as if to increase the pathos of this touching discourse, he 
 he invested it with circumstances of irresistible tenderness 
 and love. He uttered it in the presence of the symbols of 
 his death ; and while the melting sentence, ' Do this in re- 
 membrance of me,' was yet sounding in their ears. And 
 
370 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 he immediately followed it with a prayer such as, till then, 
 heaven had never received from earth — a prayer in which 
 he seemed unconscious of mortal presence, and spoke as 
 if he had never left the bosom of the Father — a prayer in 
 which he asked, with the largeness and confidence of one 
 who felt that he had established a claim on the divine re- 
 sources, that having so nearly reached the cross, he was 
 entitled to ask what he would ; and all he asked was for 
 his disciples ; all his new and unmeasured influence at the 
 throne of grace was employed for them, that they might 
 enjoy an interest in all his perfections, a share in all his 
 glory — a prayer in which he pleaded as if he had already 
 reached the altar of incense above, and had actually enter- 
 ed on his office of intercessor there ; and in which he clasp- . 
 ed the eternal throne as if he would save his people by- 
 prayer alone. By means such as these did he aim, not 
 merely to prepare them for the trial of his approaching de- 
 parture, but to leave his image impressed on all their 
 hearts, to bind them fast to himself with the cords of love, 
 to assure them that, henceforth and for ever, he and they 
 were one. 
 
 8. There are numerous declarations, interspersed through 
 every part of our Lord's discourses, concerning the object 
 of his advent, in which he invites us to listen to the high- 
 est strains of benevolence. * I am, come,' saith he, ' that 
 they might have life, and that they might have it more 
 abundantly. I am the bread of life. I am the good shep- 
 herd, and lay down my life for the sheep. Whoso eateth 
 my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I 
 will raise him up at the last day. As Moses lifted up the 
 serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be 
 lifted up : that whosoever believeth in him should not per- 
 ish but have everlasting life. The Son of man is come 
 to seek and to save that which was lost ; to give himself a 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 371 
 
 ransom for many ; to shed his blood for many for the re- 
 mission of sins.' These passages form part of a numer- 
 ous class ; and we have reserved them till how, as exhibit- 
 ing- the benevolence of Christ, in its highest and most 
 comprehensive form ; for they disclose both his purposes 
 of grace, and the costly means by which he effects them. 
 
 They teach us, that, in saving man he is obeying the 
 spontaneous dictates, and gratifying the compassionate 
 yearnings of his own heart. He assumed life for the ex- 
 press purpose of laying it down. He shewed that his 
 heart was full of a purpose formed from eternity. No 
 scene of trial could take him by surprise ; no hour of suf- 
 fering found him unprepared. He saw as from a height 
 the whole array of duty and trial which awaited him ; and 
 the only emotion he evinced at the sight, was a self-con- 
 suming ardor to reach the cross which stood at the end of 
 his path, a holy impatience to be baptized with that bap- 
 tism of blood. And when his hour was come, the myste- 
 rious manner in which he surrendered up his life on the 
 cross — breathing it forth — giving it up — parting with it 
 as a freewill ofTering to God — evinced the truth of his 
 own declaration, '"No man taketh it from me, I lay it down 
 of myself 
 
 ' For their sakes,' said he, ' I sanctify myself; ' and he 
 did so, he devoted himself exclusively to the cause of hu- 
 man salvation ; it occupied his thoughts from the first mo- 
 ment to the last of his continuance upon earth. All the 
 paths of human ambition were open and accessible to him, 
 but he passed them all by. All the kingdoms of the world, 
 and the glory of them were laid at his feet, but he saw them 
 as if he saw them not. With a single sentence he could 
 have flashed light on the darkest mysteries of philosophy; 
 but he would not thus debase, his mission, he would not 
 spare a single moment from teaching that higher science, 
 
372 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 the knowledge of salvation. He had ears only for one 
 sound — and that was the voice of penitence imploring for- 
 giveness : the voice of fear and conscious guilt deprecat- 
 ing the vengeance of eternal lire, and crying for relief. 
 He had eyes only for one sight — and that was the misery 
 of man ; the spectacle of a world invaded, ruined, lost, 
 and moving along in chains to the pit of perdition. This 
 object filled the whole sphere of his vision ; he could see 
 nothing else ; and had all the thrones of earth been 
 vacant, and invited his acceptance, it would not have induced 
 him to diverge a single step from the path which led di- 
 rect to the cross. He had tears but for one sorrow; and 
 he wept them over lost souls. He valued life itself but 
 for one object ; as it enabled him to present it in sacrifice 
 for human redemption. 
 
 The key to all his conduct is love ; this is the principle 
 by which he invites us to interpret all his earthly history ; 
 and which is found to explain it all, while itself remains 
 inexplicable. Such is the property of sympathy, that even 
 in ordinary cases, it impels us to enact a kind of mental 
 substitution, imparting to us the feelings, and placing us in 
 the situation of the party with whom we sympathize. But 
 such was the power of the Savior's compassion, that it 
 impelled him to enact a real substitution ! it gave him our 
 nature. Under its mighty impulse, he took our place in 
 the universe; invited the government of God to treat him 
 as the representative of the human race ; absorbed our in- 
 terest ; opened his bosom, and welcomed to his heart the 
 stroke which we had deserved. And having thus answer- 
 ed our liabilities, and honored the claims of injured justice, 
 he is rewarded with all the means and the power of salvation. 
 Having offered to God a perfect sacrifice as the substitute 
 for man, he is now to be regarded as offering a perfect 
 salvation to us as the substiute for God. And in making 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 373 
 
 these overtures of infinite grace, every word he utters 
 breathes of compassion that will not be denied. 
 
 9. In further illustration of the tenderness and benevo- 
 lence which distinguished our Lord's instructions, we 
 might adduce the universality of his offers of mercy. He 
 could not contemplate, without deep solicitude, the exclu- 
 sion of any from the blessings of his grace ; to satisfy the 
 cravings of his benevolence, all must love him, and be be- 
 loved by him. We might refer to the relations which he 
 represented himself as assuming and sustaining ; for in 
 him the tenderness of the shepherd, the affection of the pa- 
 rent, and the grace of the Savior, are combined. We 
 might point to the attractive epithets which he applied to 
 the blessings of his grace; not contenting himself with 
 merely announcing those blessings, but aiming to excite 
 our desire to possess them by describing them in the most 
 alluring terms. Nor should we omit to mention, for the 
 same end, the characteristic tenderness of the topics on 
 which he delighted to dilate. He loved to dwell on the 
 paternal character of God ; it was a view which formed 
 his own consolation and joy through every stage of his 
 earthly course, and he essayed to conduct his people to the 
 same fountain of delight. Prayer was a subject frequent- 
 ly on his lips. His heart was set on bringing about an 
 interview between God and man; for he knew it must lead 
 to the reconciliation of the parties ; he knew that if he 
 could but bring us to the footstool of mercy, all would be 
 well. Hence the attractions with which he has invested 
 the throne of grace ; assuring us that we go there invited 
 and expected as his friends ; hence the unalienable charter 
 of prayer, which, sprinkled with his own blood, he has 
 placed in our hands : promising to exercise all the good 
 within the compass of omnipotence to bestow, and urging 
 it in terms of gracious encouragement, to which nothing 
 
374 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 consistently with the divine dignity, could be added. How 
 evidently was he gratifying his own mind, while expatiat- 
 ing on the doctrine of divine influence ; offering the Holy- 
 Spirit as the free gift of God ; promising his presence as the 
 abiding Comforter; and enlarging on the great and certain 
 advantages of dwelling in the element of his light and 
 love. How visibly congenial to his taste w^as the topic of 
 brotherly love ; it formed the subject of his new command, 
 of his frequent admonition, and occupied a principal part 
 of his intercessory prayer. He might justty have engros- 
 sed the love of his people to himself; but, no, he waived 
 his own right, and said, ' Love one another.' Such is the 
 superiority of his claims on their hearts, that no other be- 
 ing could justly demand a share, until they had rendered to 
 him his due ; and this would never have been. But he 
 graciously dispensed with his own interest, consenting to 
 tajce the love they owe to him, in the form of love to each 
 other. Like a father looking on his assembled children, 
 w^hile kissing and embracing each other in the first fond 
 essays of love, he is content, for the time, to loitness their 
 mutual regard, without being the immediate object of it. 
 He loved to contemplate his church as a community of 
 hearts, cemented by attachment to a common object, and 
 thus rendered one. For this he prayed with an earnest- 
 ness that would not be denied, ' that they all might be one ;' 
 that they might form a church in whose capacious bosom 
 there should be but one heart to sway all its motions, and 
 direct all its actions, emulating the harmonious movements 
 of the blessed; a heart which should beat in concert with 
 heaven, and whose every pulse should diffuse life, and 
 health, and joy to the remotest members of the body. 
 
 10. Nor were the tenderness and benevolence of Christ 
 abated, either by the lapse of time, or the perseverance of 
 human ingratitude. His kindness exhibited no tendency 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 375 
 
 to degenerate into mere professional sympathy ; nor had 
 the malice of those who seized his outstretched hand and 
 nailed it to the cross, any other visible affect than that of in- 
 ducing him to hasten the work of saving them from them- 
 selves and from hell. The superiority to ingratitude 
 which some exhibit, arises from a defect in the constitution 
 of their nature, by which they are armed with a degree of 
 insensibility to wrongs, sufficient to blunt the weapons of 
 unkindness. But the sensibilities of Christ were of the 
 most acute description ; for in him were harmonized all 
 that is great in mind, noble in sentiment, and delicate in 
 feeling ; his nature exhibited the perfection of humanity. 
 And during the whole of his continuance on earth, his 
 sensiblities were all in excitement and activity ; for where- 
 ever he looked he saw man was perishing ; and yet wherever 
 he turned he saw man, the object of his tender solicitude, 
 requitting his compassion with a fixed frown of hostility 
 and defiance. The conduct of man made a constant de- 
 mand on his forbearance, a perpetual drain on his pity, 
 sufficient to exhaust every heart but one, which was daily 
 replenished at the fountain of compassion itself. He en- 
 dured, at times, paroxysms of anguish so great, that no 
 compound of mortal elements, unless supernaturally sus- 
 tained, could by any possibility have oulivedthem. There 
 is abundant reason to believe that his course would have 
 been much sooner run, that he would have fallen exhausted 
 in body and mind before the cross was reached, had he not 
 lived in immediate communication with a hidden source 
 from whence he drew daily reinforcements of strength. 
 Thus supplied and sustained, ' he failed not, nor was dis- 
 couraged:' his affections maintained their freshness and 
 youth ; his tender and feeling eloquence, and his holy sen- 
 sibilities went on increasing even to the last. 
 
 On arising from the dead, it appears as if his first con- 
 
376 THE GREAT TEACHER. 
 
 cern was to convince his apostles of his undiminished re* 
 gard for them ; to prove to them that he had returned from 
 the grave with the same heart with which he had died. Often 
 had he spoken to them before, as if he would not merely 
 win their souls to him, but breathe his soul into them ; and 
 now he actually did so ; ' he breathed on them, and said, 
 Receive ye the Holy Ghost ' he imparted to them his own 
 Spirit. He had been accustomed to call them his disciples 
 and servants. On the evening prior to his crucifixion, as 
 if his affection for them increased the nearer the hour of 
 separation approached, as if he desired to draw closer the 
 bands of affection before he left them, he called them his 
 friends ; ' henceforth,' said he, ' I call you not servants but 
 friends.' And, then, it was not till after his resurrection 
 that he drew the cords of love still closer, and called them 
 his brethen ; ' Go, tell my brethren,' said he, ' that they 
 meet me in Galilee.' ' Go to my brethren, and say to 
 them ; I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God 
 and your God.' Thus he reserved the tenderest appella- 
 tion for the last ; as though he would provide against all 
 their suspicions and fears that he would forget them as he 
 rose in dignity and power, by showing them that he loved 
 them the more, the more he did for them, and the more he 
 became capable of blessing them ; and whatever the digni- 
 ty to which he might be raised, he would value that digni- 
 ty chiefly as it gave him the power of blessing them, and 
 of raising them to a joint participation of his glory. ' And 
 he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his 
 hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he 
 blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into 
 heaven.' This divine arrangement was undoubtedly 
 meant to be as significant as the gracious benediction he 
 was pronouncing. It taught his disciples that he carried 
 their interests with him to heaven : and that his occupation 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 377 
 
 there would be only a continuation of his employment 
 here — the godlike work of blessing them. He meant to 
 cheer them with the impression that his departure to heav- 
 en, so far from terminating his ability to bless them, would 
 augment that power : that the intercession which he had 
 begun on earth, he went to carry on and complete in the 
 immediate presence of the eternal throne. 
 
 His kindness to his disciples onl}'- corresponded with 
 the grace of his conduct towards the guilty city. He com- 
 manded them, 'that repentance and remission of sins 
 should be preached, in his name, among all nations, begin- 
 ning at Jerusalem.^ Could tears have washed away the 
 crimson guilt of its inhabitants, they would now have 
 needed no remission ; for over them the Man of sorrows 
 had dissolved into grief Could kindness have melted or 
 moved them, they would not now have required an exhor- 
 tation to repentance : for his last anguish on the cross in- 
 cluded a pang of compassion for them ; and for them he 
 had saved his latest breath to pray, ' Father, forgive them; 
 for they know not what they do.' But their impenitence was 
 triumphant. Yet no sooner does he find himself in a ca- 
 pacity to bless, than he exercises the prerogative in bless- 
 ing them. We might almost as soon have expected that 
 he would have sent his gospel to be proclaimed over the 
 mouth of perdition as to Jerusalem, the hell of earth. At 
 least, we should have expected to see it making the circuit 
 of the earth before it came there ; to hear him directing 
 his apostles to wait till his immediate enemies had descend- 
 ed to the grave ; to visit Jerusalem last. But the course 
 of his grace admits not of human calculation ; for 
 he sends them to Jerusalem first. While the eyes of his 
 enemies are yet gleaming with the fire of triumphant re- 
 venge, he commissions his apostles to hasten and open 
 the charter of redemption within sight of Calvary ; to 
 24 
 
378 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 let them know that, whatever they might have drawn 
 from his heart, his love for them remains there still ; to as- 
 sure them that there is one mode of inflicting on him greater 
 pain than even that of employing the cross — hy obstinately 
 refusing the blessings which his cross has procured. But, 
 O, there is an exalted sense, in which this act of grace to 
 Jerusalem is only to be regarded as a type of his benevo- 
 lence to the world at large ; an affected rehearsal on a 
 limited scale, of that great dispensation of mercy which 
 selects for its objects the chief transgressors of every age, 
 and traverses the world in quest of those whose lives have 
 been spent in ' crucifying the Son of God afresh, and put- 
 ting him to an open shame.' 
 
 Accordingly, his last injunction to his apostles was to 
 preach salvation in his name to every creature. His final 
 act on earth was to make the world the heirs of his grace ; 
 to leave behind him in trust the conveyance of his salva- 
 tion to all mankind. He had now contemplated man from 
 various and affecting points ; and, from each point, the as- 
 pect presented to view was calculated to try his love in a 
 new and peculiar manner. From heaven, he had beheld 
 us falling by myriads into perdition : but awful as the sight 
 was, it was only the natural result of guilt, so great as to 
 make even the earth itself to loathe us. He clothed him- 
 self with love, and descended into the midst of us ; of- 
 fering himself and his glory to the service of man; but he 
 had beheld us instantly league and arm against him, mak- 
 ing common cause with hell in the work of his destruction. 
 He had earnestly gazed on us from the cross ; and what 
 w^as the spectacle he beheld immediately before him, but a 
 group of maniac fiends, yelling a song of triumph at hav-' 
 ing compassed his death 1 And now, at the moment of 
 his departure, as he pierced the future, he saw his humil- 
 iation continued and perpetuated through every succeeding 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 379 
 
 age, and in every variety of form ; he beheld the enmity 
 of the carnal mind, true to its character, daily enacting 
 afresh the ignominious scenes of Calvary down to the 
 close of time. Yet, with all this infinite guilt lying distinct- 
 ly like a map before him, he commended and sent his love 
 to every creature. He remembered only that we were per- 
 ishing, and felt only that he could save. He found him- 
 self in possession of the gift of eternal life, and he sent 
 it in messages of grace over all the earth. By connecting 
 this embassy with an act of special benediction on those 
 whom he honored to fulfil it, he significantly taught them 
 that he set them apart to a work of blessing ; that they 
 were to go from under his uplifted hands to bless mankind 
 as he had blessed them ; to issue forth from under the can- 
 opy of his blessing, propagating and diffusing that bless- 
 ing to the ends of the earth. And as they were the only 
 agents he employed, he thus intentionally taught us that 
 henceforth he devoted himself to the office of saving us ; 
 that he engaged no agency, owned no agency whatever, 
 but for this purpose; that henceforth his oiily communica- 
 tion with man would be in streams of unmingled mercy, 
 the ocean of his grace pouring its fulness into our empti- 
 ness ; that while he needed no destructive agency what- 
 ever, he should require all the benevolent agency of heav- 
 en and earth to be put into motion, in order to do justice to 
 the purposes of his love. Having died for the redemption 
 of the world, he felt that he had made the world his own ; 
 and, embracing all its dearest interests, he pressed them to 
 his heart. 
 
 But fascinating and enchaining as this subject is, we 
 must now hasten to a close. Casting our eye back on 
 the ground we have passed over, what a miracle of moral 
 portraiture do we behold in the evangelical history of 
 Christ! What transcendent wisdom! What divine 
 
380 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 benevolence ! What perfection ! The character of Jesus 
 stands alone ; it has no archetype in history ; no analogy 
 in nature ; no model in all the worlds of imagination ; as 
 pourtrayed in scripture, it could only have been drawn 
 from a contemplation of the living reality. It was the con- 
 ception of an infinite mind. It was the triumph of mercy 
 aiming to condense in the same being the evidences of di- 
 vinity, adequate illustration of divine love, and the power 
 of winning the souls of men to salvation, and transform- 
 ing them to holiness. 
 
 The character of Christ forms a distinct proof, an in- 
 vincible demonstration for the truth of the gospel. When 
 we remember that it received a tribute of homage from fal- 
 len spirits, we shall the less wonder that it has extorted 
 expressions of reverence from some of the worst speci- 
 mens of fallen humanity. Men, who have sported with the 
 sanctity of everything else that religion owns, have passed 
 by the character of Christ in respectful silence ; this was 
 conscience, recognizing in his perfection a likeness which 
 it felt it ought to be familiar with and adore ; such is the 
 awful power of goodness on natures preconfigured to its 
 image. Some have been entirely restrained from violat- 
 ing the sanctuary of truth, by the same guardian influence : 
 the character of Christ, like the presence of a shrine, pro- 
 tected it. As the house of Obededom was blessed for the 
 sake of the residing ark, so religion has often escaped evil, 
 and received homage from its foes, for the sake of the 
 character of Christ. Men who have destroyed, in inten- 
 tion, every other part of the temple of truth, have paused 
 when they came to this ; have turned aside and desisted 
 lor awhile from the work of demolition, to gaze and bow- 
 before it ; have not merely left it standing as a column too 
 majestic, or an altar too holy, for human sacrilege to assail, 
 but (it was the only redeeming act in their history,) have 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 381 
 
 even inscribed their names on its base, and have been 
 heard to burst forth in admiring exclamations approaching 
 to love. 
 
 The peculiar excellences of the character of Christ, as 
 an argument for the gospel, are, that it tends to attract and 
 invite inspection ; for it is the perfection of moral beau- 
 ty : it is level to the apprehension of all ; for it makes 
 a direct appeal to some of the first principles of our nature 
 to our natural perceptions of goodness, and our instinctive 
 approval of it ; and it not only convinces, but transforms • 
 engaging and carrying with it at once the understanding 
 and the heart. While some, who w^ere in the last stao-es 
 of depravity, have been allured by it to the pursuit of ex- 
 cellence ; others, who have been sitting in despondency at 
 the gates of perdition, have beheld it, and conceived hope. 
 And though the best specimens of our race have, in every 
 age since his appearance, been laboring to imitate, they have 
 not been able to equal it. The character of Jesus challen- 
 ges the affections of all intelligent beings, leaves the im- 
 pression of its image on every object it touches, and is 
 destined to collect around itself all the sanctified passions 
 of the universe. 
 
 But, besides being an evidence for Christianity, the char- 
 acter of our Lord is to be regarded as an example. ' I 
 have given you an example,' said he, ' that ye should do 
 as I have done unto you. Learn of me. A new com- 
 mandment I give unto you. That ye love one another ; as 
 I have loved you, that ye also love one another.' Thus 
 he seeks to augment the value of his own character, re- 
 garded as an argument for the gospel, by multiplying the 
 copies of his excellence in the lives of all his people : he 
 would render each of his disciples like himself— a living 
 demonstration for the truth. All the wealth of moral pow- 
 er which the wise and the good have ever possessed is 
 
382 THE C«IEAT TEACHER, 
 
 summed up in him, and infinitely augmented, and brought 
 to bear on the hearts of his people ; that by living as under 
 the focus of all excellence, they might be transformed into 
 the same image. Having turned all his infinite nature 
 into grace, having dissolved into a fountain of healing 
 mercy for the recovery of the world, he would now em- 
 ploy the hearts of his people as consecrated channels for 
 the diffusion of its streams ; he would have their natures, 
 like his own, changed into tenderness and love. It is 
 true, his example can never be equalled, for it embodies in- 
 finite goodness ; but with so much the greater force does it 
 oblige us, in our humble measure, to attempt the imitation. 
 Having adopted our humanity, when it was only related to 
 him, like other natures, by creation, he is surely entitled 
 to expect that we should love our own flesh, that we should 
 seek the welfare of the nature which is essentially our 
 own, by diffusing the greatest possible happiness among 
 those connatural with us. Having died for the good of 
 man, the least he is authorized to expect is, that w^e should 
 live for the same benevolent object. What do we behold 
 in his history, but a whole life of humility, one continued 
 act of condescension, a vast and unbroken descent from 
 the heights of heaven to the form of a servant, the life of 
 an outcast, the death of a malefactor ? The least use then 
 we can make of his example — we who have it not in our 
 power, as sinners, to practise great condescension, since we 
 are all on a level in the dust already — is to assist each oth- 
 er to arise, aiding the infirmities of the w^eak, and breath- 
 ing a spirit of sympathetic tenderness for all. As far as 
 religion is practical and relative to others, he has made 
 benevolence its life and essence ; not merely a part of the 
 christian character, but the character itself 
 
 And how eminently is the tender compassion of Christ 
 calculated to encourage all to repair to him. When the 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 
 
 o^f 
 
 more prominent parts of his history are made to pass be- 
 fore our eyes, if we are not destitute of all sensibility, how- 
 softening and hallowing the effect they produce on the 
 mind ! How impossible is it for the most timid spirit to 
 picture the serenity of that brow which no evil passions 
 ever disturbed, to mark the benevolence which beamed 
 from his eye, and to listen to the tones of that voice which 
 soothed and cheered the most fearful and sorrowful, with- 
 out feeling itself drawn gradually nearer and closer to his 
 side. Wherever his grace is scripturally displayed, it se- 
 cures the attention of the most thoughtless, it melts the 
 hardest and subdues the proudest heart, and inspires the 
 most fearful wath hope. The apostle declares, that had 
 the princes of this world known him, they would not have 
 crucified him ; had they known the principle of love which 
 brought him from heaven, they w^ould have been disarmed 
 of their enmity against him, and instead of condemning 
 him, they would have paid him homage as the prince of 
 the kings of the earth. Had those whoitvere most eager 
 to hasten his crucifixion, and most delighted with his 
 death, caught but a glimpse of the love which dictated eve- 
 ry action of his life, their cruel malignity must have yielded 
 and given place to unfeigned penitence and love. 
 
 The character of Christ is the character of his dispen- 
 sation ; it is the dispensation of the still small voice ; and 
 the secret of its power is love. His ministers, therefore, 
 are to win souls, to persuade men, to beseech them, to min- 
 gle their instructions with tears ; and the more deeply they 
 are imbued with the mind of Christ, the more tender wall 
 be their address, the more affectionate their message. They 
 have only to consult their own experience to learn that the 
 public exhibition of Christ, as the Savior of sinners, con- 
 stitutes the most welcome and profitable topic on which 
 they can enlarge ; that, whatever their subject maybe, like 
 
384 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 John the Baptist pointing abruptly to his passing Lord, 
 that cannot be a faulty digression which directs their hear- 
 ers to behold the Lamb of God. 
 
 The fact that Jesus Christ was peculiarly his own sub- 
 ject, teaches us that he ought also to be ours ; and that as- 
 pect of his character which he most delighted to exhibit, 
 must be the feature to which we should give especial prom- 
 inence ; and what was that but tender compassion for the 
 souls of men? Approach, then, and look upon him; the 
 nature in which you behold him clothed is truly your own : 
 he has assumed it that he may dissipate all your fears : 
 that he might taste death for you ; that he may absorb and 
 carry away all your sorrows ; that he may claim kindred 
 with you ; that he may discharge for you all the kind and 
 benificent offices of brotherhood ; that he might make it 
 impossible for you to doubt his love. Approach, and be- 
 hold his hands and his feet ; those are the wounds which 
 he received when he was wounded for our transgressions, 
 bruised for our. iniquities, when the chastisement of our 
 peace was upon him, that by his stripes we might be heal- 
 ed. Urge nothing in excuse for not coming to him ; lose 
 not the time necessary to utter it ; for whatever your guik 
 or weakness, your wants or unworthiness may be, his grace 
 overrules and provides for the whole. He knows the value 
 of a religious principle too well, as well as the dangers to 
 which it is exposed, to despise it on account of its weak- 
 ness ; he does not wait for a time, to see whether the spark 
 of piety will increase or vanish ; but he watches it, and 
 solicits and feeds it, until it rises into a pure and steady 
 flame of devotion towards God. He does not disregard the 
 piety of the poor and destitute, because they are unable to 
 advocate his cause, or to contribute to its support more 
 than two mites, or to adorn it with earthly splendor ; the 
 arms of his love embrace alike the obscure and the more 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 385 
 
 useful ; and if you are only conscious of a desire to love 
 him, a concern to please him, you share a place in his 
 heart in common with the angels around his throne. When 
 the backslider relapses into the state from which he had 
 been rescued, and seems even to prosecute his sinful course 
 with renewed avidity, he does not, as man commonly does, 
 regard him as lost. He goes after him into the wilder- 
 ness ; sends afflictions in pursuit of him ; and waits to see 
 the effect which trial and reflection produce. And if, like 
 the prodigal, the sinner should come to himself and say, 
 ' I will arise and return,' and actually begins to retrace his 
 steps, the Savior delays not in order to see how far he will 
 return — he sees him yet a great way off^ and runs to meet 
 him — he is delighted at the first indications of penitence, 
 anticipates his intention, assists him in returning, and re- 
 joices over him as one who was dead and is alive again. 
 We ourselves can trace the mightiest occurrences back to 
 sources the most insignificant ; and, with intuitive ease, 
 the Savior beholds, in the first emotion of the penitent, the 
 first symptom of an endless life, the first step in a career 
 of glory, honor, and immortality. He does not therefore 
 despise the day of small things. And how many thousands 
 of the blessed, who are now surrounding his throne above, 
 are constrained, on looking back to the weakness of their 
 early religious impressions, and the hesitation with which 
 at first they advanced in the path of life, to bless him that 
 he did not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking 
 flax. O that you knew the unutterable interest which he 
 takes in every serious emotion of your soul, you would 
 love him more, and resort to him oftener, and repose in 
 him all the confidence which he asks. 
 
 Finally ; let those of my readers who have been hither- 
 to regardless of the ineffable compassion of the Son of 
 God, remember the melting tones of remonstrance with 
 
dbb TIIK GREAT TEACHER 
 
 which, when looking round upon such as you, he said, in 
 all the grief of defeated mercy, ' Ye will not come unto 
 me that ye might have life.' You can go to others, and 
 enquire the way to happiness ; you can believe what they 
 say ; you do follow their advice ; but to him who has laid 
 out himself for your welfare, who alone could make the 
 vast provision necessary for your immortal happiness, and 
 who has made it at the expense of an infinite sacrifice, to 
 him you will not come. He has to complain of you, that 
 while you have been always ready to yield to the solicita- 
 tions of the world, to follow the first beck of temptation, 
 to accept of any invitation in the shape of worldly plea- 
 sure, yet his call you will not obey. He has to complain 
 of you, that you put him ofi' with mere professions, and 
 make him to serve with the mere semblance of friendship; 
 that though you have for years frequented his house, and 
 heard his invitations, and been pressed to accept them, you 
 still remain on terms as cold and distant with him as ever ; 
 that you never come to his footstool as suppliants, nor to 
 his table as friends, nor walk in his ways as devoted disci- 
 ples. But he will not yet let you go : though he feels your 
 obstinate refusal to come to him ; feels it as an insult to 
 his grace ; feels it as a deep disappointment, a grievous 
 frustration of an object on which his heart was set, yet 
 once more he comes to you ; and, 0, mark and admire the 
 gentleness of the terms in which he expostulates — it is the 
 melting rebuke of mercy chiding you into its embrace — 
 ' Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.' There 
 is a sense, perhaps, in which, owing to your prolonged and 
 stony indifference to his claims, you may be said to have 
 closed your hearts against him ; but he seeks to surmount 
 even this obstacle ; ' Behold,' saith he, ' I stand at the door 
 and knock.' He knows what unholy guests are within, 
 what sins are entertained and regaled in the chambers of 
 
HIS TENDERNESS AND BENEVOLENCE. 387 
 
 your hearts, while he is kept standing without and refused 
 admission. But still, by the instrumentality of his gospel, 
 if by nothing else, he continues to knock and to urge you 
 to come to him ; or he tenderly upbraids you that you will 
 not. 
 
 But why does the blessed Jesus thus expostulate 1 ' It 
 is not,' saith he, ' that I receive honor of men ; it is not 
 that I seek to be gratified with the barren applauses of 
 men, or that I hope for human requital ; but these things 
 I say unto you, that ye might be saved.' Yes, Savior of 
 sinners, this is thine only object, that they might be saved; 
 the object of all thou hast said to them, and of all thou hast 
 done for them ; the object which is always present to thy 
 mind. For this thou hast surrounded thyself with con- 
 vincing proofs of thine appointment and power to save ; 
 and, O, surpassing grace, thou even consentest to wait for 
 their decision till they have examined the evidence of thy 
 claims in detail. For this thou hast withheld nothing, not 
 even thy blood, thy life ; thou hast done so much for them 
 that infinite love can do no more. 
 
 Behold, then ; behold, in the boundless love of Christ, 
 a sufficient inducement to repair to him at once. He may 
 be regarded, at this moment, as standing before you, with 
 the hoarded love of eternity in his heart, offering to make 
 you heirs of all its wealth; nor is it in your power to 
 grieve him more, than oy disregarding the gracious over- 
 ture. He fears nothing but your neglect; deprecates 
 nothing but your inattention. The first look you direct 
 towards him, would not escape his notice ; the first step 
 ^rou take towards him, would bring him more than a step 
 towards you. All things are ready for your reception ; he 
 will meet your weakness with his almighty strength, your 
 emptiness and poverty wdth his inexhaustible fullness. 
 
ESSAY V. 
 THE PRACTICALNESS OF OUR LORD'S TEACHING. 
 
 ■ Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.' 
 ' Bej-e perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' 
 
 I. Considered as a teacher of holiness, our Lord Jesus 
 Christ exemplified his wisdom, not only in the light which 
 he imparted, but also in what he withheld. 
 
 \. Pretenders to a divine revelation have seldom omitted 
 to infuse into their systems of error a large proportion of 
 the marvelous. Calculating on the credulity, and raven- 
 ous curiosity of the multitude, they have been graphic and 
 unsparing in their disclosures of the invisible and future. 
 Besides pandering to the prevailing passions of mankind, 
 they have aimed to establish their dominion by stimulating 
 and engrossing the imagination with wonders ; and having 
 raised the veil of mystery to its utmost height, they proceed 
 to measure the infinite, to paint the inconceivable, and to 
 materialize and subject the spiritual to the senses. 
 
 But he w^ho came forth from the bosom of the Father, 
 and who could therefore have dazzled and astounded the 
 world with celestial visions, practised a wise and gracious 
 reserve. He came, not to astonish, but to instruct and to 
 save; and to instruct solely with a view to save; and, 
 knowing that to feed curiosity is only to increase its 
 appetite, that to impart a particle of knowledge more 
 than is essential to our advance in the path of holi- 
 ness, would operate as a diversion from that path rather 
 than an incitement in it, he limited his communications to 
 the exact measure of practical utility. He kept his hand, 
 
HIS PRACTICLENESS. 389 
 
 if I may say so, on the pulse of conscience, and adminis- 
 tered only so much of the exciting element of knowledge 
 as would subserve the health and holy activity of the soul. 
 
 In order to estimate the gospel aright, it is necessary to 
 bear in mind, that it is not meant for intellectual beings as 
 such ; it is not addressed to man in his mental, but in his 
 moral capacity : it contemplates him as a lapsed and ruined 
 creature, to whom the only kowledge that is essential is 
 a knowledge of the way of deliverance. If, besides con- 
 taining this vital information, it also ministered to his 
 unsanctified curiosity, he would, undoubtedly, prior to 
 his conversion, value it the more highly ; but, from the 
 moment he opened his eyes to a perception of his guilt 
 and danger, he would as certainly account that very 
 circumstance a great defect. His first solicitude and 
 employment, then, would be, to disentangle and detach- 
 ing on these, and on these alone, the name of gospel, 
 the plain and simple prescriptions of mercy ; and, bestow- 
 ing would cast theremainder away as refuse, as an insult to 
 his anguish, a mockery of his woe. However unnatu- 
 ral his cravings before, nothing now but the unadulterated 
 bread of life can satisfy his famishing soul. 
 
 Accordingly, at the hazard of displeasing the specula- 
 tive and inquisitive, the Savior confined his communica- 
 tions to the wants of our condition. Repelling the curios- 
 ity of his disciples, how^ often did he turn their prying in- 
 quiries into occasions of solemn practical appeal. When 
 they sought to pluck fr*m the interdicted tree of know- 
 ledge, he graciously presented them with the fruit of the 
 tree of life. They found every avenue closed, but the nar- 
 row way that leadeth to life eternal ; every fountain seal- 
 ed, but the fountain of the water of life. While the heav- 
 enly Oracle was prompt in answering even the mental and 
 unuttered inquiries of the devout and humble, the inquisi- 
 tive received a rebuke which contained a blessing. Hav- 
 
390 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 ing come to seek and to save that which was lost, to open 
 a way from the mouth of that fearful pit around which we 
 had gathered to the gate of heaven, he caused all the light 
 of revelation w^hich he shed to fall on that path alone : that 
 we might not be tempted to wander from the highway 
 of holiness, he left it skirted on each hand with original 
 darkness ; while, from whatever part of the spacious firm- 
 ament of truth he brought the beams of revelation, he caus- 
 ed them all to converge and rest on that strait and narrow 
 way. 
 
 2. But if we admire the wisdom of the Great Teacher, 
 in thus limiting his discoveries to the measure of our wants 
 and interests, we cannot withhold our complacency at his 
 legislation, in delivering a code of pure and simple moral- 
 ity entirely unencumbered by the clogs of an onerous and 
 elaborate ritual. Discharging his disciples from the cares 
 and vexatious obligations of the ancient ceremonial, he has 
 laid aside for them every such weight, and left them free 
 for the race of holiness to heaven. The rites of baptism 
 and the Lord's supper are too simple and spiritual to be 
 treated as exceptions to this fact. Instead of wasting the 
 powers, and exhausting the vigor of the soul, on outward 
 observances, he holds it disengaged and fresh for the upward 
 path of holiness. Economizing our energies and passions, 
 he points us to a sphere of duty in Avhich angels might en- 
 gage w4th honor, and commands us to put forth all our 
 strength, adorning ourselves with all that is fair, emulating 
 all that is great, overtaking the excellencies and embody- 
 ing the perfections of heavenly natures. Having touched 
 and given impulse to all our spiritual powers, instead of 
 imparing that momentum by calling us to surmount the 
 obstacles of preliminary rites, he collects and compacts its 
 force, and dismisses it in a line direct from heaven. Treat- 
 ing our nature with a divine respect, the code which he 
 
^ , HIS PRACTICALNESS. 391 
 
 enacts is one of generous authority, taking off every de- 
 pressing weight, only prescribing what is absolutely ne- 
 cessary, and actuated in doing so by the aim of building 
 up our character into a goodly fabric of spiritual beauty 
 and perfection. 
 
 II. If it comported with our design to specify the sub- 
 ject of our Lord's discourses, we should unhesitatingly 
 say, that his most favorite 'practical topics were humility he- 
 fore God, and a spirit of forbearance and love towards 
 man. In the inculcation of morals, by uninspired teach- 
 ers, novelty is the last quality to be desired, since it could 
 scarcely fail to be error ; but the practical instructions of 
 Jesus had this distinction, that their peculiarities w^ere ex- 
 cellences. One of these marked peculiarities consists in 
 his taking under his special protection certain dispositions 
 which the world had consented to brand and cast out, had 
 conspired to frown out of existence ; in restoring them to 
 the rank of duties, and proclaiming them graces of the 
 kingdom of God, 
 
 1. Hamility is a habit of mind which has never been in 
 favor with the world : in every age it has been degraded in- 
 to the footstool of vanity, and conceit, and enthroned pride ; 
 but, in direct opposition to the unanimous verdict of man- 
 kind, he raised it out of the dust into which it was trodden, 
 pronounced it a favorite of heaven, and clothed it with the 
 garments of salvation. ' Blessed are the poor in spirit, 
 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' 
 
 Since the fatal moment when man aspired to 'be as a 
 god,' his great quarrel with his Maker has been, a deter- 
 mination to assert a power of independence altogether alien 
 to his nature and condition. The standard of revolt was 
 then erected ; and the history of all his subsequent con- 
 duct has been the history of an insane endeavour to con- 
 
392 THE GREAT TEACHER, * 
 
 Struct an empire, governed by laws, and replenished with re- 
 sources, independent of God. The idolatry, and sensuality, 
 the unbelief, irreligion, and all the multiform sins of man, 
 are resolvable into this proud and infernal attempt. Now, 
 before God can do any thing towards our personal recov- 
 ery, it is obviously necessary that we should be disabused 
 of the idea of our supposed self-sufficiency; that, descend- 
 ing from the pedestal our pride has erected, we should cast 
 ourselves down at his feet, and await his pleasure. The 
 true value of humility consists in its inducing us to desire 
 and welcome the assistance we need, to abandon ourselves 
 cordially to the divine direction, to return, and descend, and 
 gratefully to occupy our proper station at his footstool, as 
 pensioners on his bounty and grace. ' They that are whole 
 need not' a physician, but they that are sick ;' and they on- 
 ly will apply to him for aid. 
 
 Alas, for man, that his humility should have to be ac- 
 counted a virtue ; that, by simply conforming his views to 
 his condition, and taking a just estimate of his state and 
 character, he should render himself an object of congratu- 
 lation to man, and of peculiar complacency to God ; what 
 a depth of depravity does it imply, what a reproach on our 
 nature does it convey, for a blind and insignificant creature 
 to believe his infinite Creator, for a guilty and condemned 
 criminal to accept of pardon, for a man in the act of perish- 
 ing to submit to be saved, that this should be esteemed a 
 virtue ! and should be lauded with a warmth which denotes 
 its rareness I ' This is indeed a lamentation, and shall be 
 for a lamentation.' But, condescending to our condition, 
 our Lord inculcated humility as a cardinal grace, promoting 
 it to the highest place in the catalogue of virtues. He re- 
 peatedly intimated, that while a spirit of self-exaltation 
 shall finally be smitten with a blow which it cannot sur- 
 vive, that while the Almighty will array against this avow- 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 393 
 
 ed antagonist all the forces of his wrath, and will not rest 
 till he has driven it far from his presence, into outer and 
 endless darkness, humility shall be raised from glory to 
 glory, till it has reached the loftiest throne in the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 But that which gives peculiar emphasis to'his inculcations 
 on this subject is, that humility is inseparably connected with 
 the cordial reception of his gospel ; so that, in enjoining it, 
 he is infallibly preparing the way for the enlargement of 
 his holy kingdom. Humility is the conservator of the 
 virtues ; nor is there an act or office peculiar to christians 
 in which its influence is not vitally felt. As pourtrayed 
 by him, on entering his evangelical church it is a little 
 child, to whom belief is natural, an emblem of candor, 
 simplicity, and faith ; when hearing his word, it sits at 
 his feet, and is all docility and attention ; on entering the 
 presence of God, it throws itself prostrate, or smites on its 
 breast, and dares not lift up so much as its eyes to heaven ; 
 when it is free to take the highest seat in the assembly, it 
 voluntarily selects the lowest, and is taken by surprise if 
 called up higher ; in the presence of superior excellence, 
 it is praise and imitation ; associated with fellow-christians, 
 it is willing subordination, emulous of no distinction but 
 that which arises from pre-eminent service ; it declines to 
 be called ' master,' and lays all its honors at the Savior's 
 feet ; and when, at length, he shall ascend his throne, and 
 enumerate its godlike deeds, he describes it as filled with 
 self-abasement even there, and diffident of receivino- his 
 divme award. Under the reign of holiness, it is the office 
 of humility to lay a foundation for universal obedience, by 
 filling every subject with gratitude for the blessings he en- 
 joys, and making him feel that the lowest situation is a 
 post of unmerited distinction, held by a grant from sover- 
 eign grace. 
 
 25 
 
304 
 
 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 2. Benevolence — meaning by that term the most en- 
 larged exercise of forbearance, forgiveness, and love — was 
 another despised and unworldly obligation, which he res- 
 cued and enforced by the highest sanctions. Under the 
 disorganizing influence of sin, the tendency of the world 
 is to a state of universal misanthropy. Having lost its 
 original centre in God, it attempts not to find any common 
 point of repose, but spends itself in fruitless efforts to erect 
 an infinity of independent interests. Every kingdom and 
 province, every family, every individual discovers a pro- 
 pensity to insulate himself from the common brotherhood, 
 and to constitute himself the centre of an all-subordinating 
 and ever-enlarging circle. Such is the natural egotism of 
 the heart, that each individual, following his unrestrained 
 bent, acts as if he w^ere a whole kingdom in himself, and 
 as if the general well-being depended on subjection to his 
 supremacy. He would fain be his own end ; himself the 
 reason of all he does. On this ungodly and unatural ex- 
 periment the Savior laid his sovereign interdict. He pla- 
 ces it in every light, takes us to view it from every point, 
 in order to show us its flagrant sinfulness ; and no sooner 
 do we place ourselves at his disposal, than we find ourselves 
 restored and related to all around, and engaged in a career 
 of godlike benevolence : we ' remember the words of the 
 Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to 
 receive.' 
 
 He sought to neutralize the maxims of the world in fa- 
 vor of selfishness and revenge, by bringing into currency 
 opposing maxims of forgiveness and love. He would have 
 it impressed on us, that we owe to every man a debt of af- 
 fection which is never discharged ; that we owe it to him 
 as one of our own kind : and that no conduct of his, how- 
 ever personally offensive, can ever release us from the ob- 
 ligation of seeking his welfare. He would have us to 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 395 
 
 honor all men ; to pay respect to human nature ; to aim at 
 the general good of that humam family into which we 
 have been born everlasting members. ' Peter said unto 
 him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and 
 I forgive him ; until seven times ? Jesus answered, I say 
 not unto thee till seven times, but until seventy times seven.' 
 And, when we have done this, he points us to the conduct 
 of our heavenly Father, and renders the duty of forgive- 
 ness infinite, while he says, 'Be ye merciful, even as your 
 Father in heaven is merciful.' He meets us on our way 
 to the throne to obtain forgiveness, and he assures us that, 
 however costly the gift we may be about to lay on the holy 
 altar, God is not to be bribed to do that for us which we re- 
 fuse to do for others ; that there is no access to his presence, 
 no audience, nor hope, until our friendship for man is en- 
 tire. He supposes ws to have even reached the altar, to 
 be standing in the immediate presence of God ; he suppo- 
 ses the religious service to have reached that juncture when 
 the Deity is actually waiting to receive the offering, — what 
 now can be of sufficient importance to stop the service 1 he 
 teaches us that the exercise of forgiveness is that impor- 
 tant thing, and that while that is performing the majesty of 
 heaven and earth consents to wait. And, to save his dis- 
 ciples from all reservation and delusion on this subject, he 
 taught them to pray that the measure in which they forgive 
 might be the standard by which God would dispense his 
 grace to them : thus leaving to revenge no alternative but 
 instant reconciliation, or the imprecation of revenge on its 
 own head. 
 
 He represents our Almighty Father as conceding his 
 high preogative, merging the consideration of the infinite 
 difference between our offences against his majesty, and 
 the offences of a fellow mortal against our insignificance, and 
 offering us pardon for pardon, grace, for grace ' if we from 
 the heart forgive everyone his brother their trespasses.' He 
 
396 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 would have every man proclaim a general amnesty; an 
 act of oblivion of all injuries ; a year of jubilee ; and that 
 jubilee he would have us to make perpetual. 
 
 The world has no notion of vanquishing enemies, ex- 
 cept by the employment of outward force, by the exercise 
 of revenge, and the infliction of punishment. Jesus Christ 
 has brought into operation a new power for subduing an 
 enemy. He enjoins his disciples to try the efficacy of 
 love : not to content themselves Avith mere negative benev- 
 olence, or, 7wt avenging themselves ; but to breathe back 
 love for hatred, and blessings for curses. He points them 
 to the triumphant effects of this principle in the hand of 
 God ; and, taking out of their hands the weapons of re- 
 venge, he would have them to make trial of it also. And 
 is it possible for them to survey the unconfined goodness 
 of God, to entertain the great conception of infinite good- 
 ness, to have their minds possessed with so vast and glori- 
 ous an idea, without receiving corresponding impressions ? 
 they will be led by a necessity of nature to imitate that 
 diffusive goodness, to act the god, if I may say so, in their 
 small and limited spheres ; to exercise the divine preroga- 
 tive of mercy, to wield that power, before which all oppo- 
 sition is destined to give way — the omnipotent power of 
 love. 
 
 As a spiritual being, man is the offspring of the Father 
 of spirits; this is a relation and an honor which he cannot 
 lose ; and in this high capacity, the Savior, having further 
 dignified us with his own love, proposes every human be-* 
 ing as a magnificent object of affection to the whole species. 
 Taking us from that small circle, that point of selfishness 
 we have made our home, and where, in building ourselves 
 in from the incursion of outward evils, we have at the 
 same time shut out the sight of the great, the spiritual, 
 and the future, he conducts us to a mount of vision "from 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 
 
 397 
 
 which all the territorial lines and artificial distinctions of 
 society are no longer visible, and where the living land- 
 scape presents us with a view of one vast community of 
 immortal beings, claiming the same distinguished origin, 
 involved in a common danger, invited to one grand deliver- 
 ance, and passing together into the unseen state. While 
 surveying this comprehensive and affecting scene, he 
 would have us especially to remark the mutual action, the 
 certain relation, by which, like the interdependence of the 
 planetary system, the interests of each are co-mingled and 
 blended with the welfare of the whole. From this eleva- 
 tion he points us to the infinite resources he has opened 
 for us in God ; reminding us that we have access to more 
 than we want, in order that we may go and instrumentally 
 minister to the wants of others. Then dismissing us again 
 into the vale of life, he would have us to descend and min- 
 gle with our race, surcharged with a benevolence like that 
 which brought himself from heaven, and which induces 
 him still to identify our interests with his highest glory. 
 
 He would have his disciples to combine in a godlike 
 endeavor to disarm the species ; to gather out of his king- 
 dom all the weapons and instruments of revenge, casting 
 them far into the territories of Satan, from which they 
 came ; to bring the art of mutual destruction into disgrace 
 and disuse ; and to prove their descent from the great 
 Peacemaker of the universe, by binding the whole family 
 of man into one vast confederacy of mutual assistance 
 and brotherly love. ' Blessed are the peacemakers, for 
 they shall be called the children of God.' The ancient 
 distinction between neighbor and enemy he has annihilat- 
 ed ; his disciples are to know no enemy; the very term is 
 banished from the christian vocabulary, or to be inserted 
 only as obsolete. He would have them to supersede the 
 visible employment of angels under the present economy 
 
398 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 by becoming themselves his angels and ambassadors to 
 man. By commanding them to imitate his own love, he 
 would have them not only supplant bat surpass angelic 
 ministrations ; like an orphan family, whose members 
 have attained an age and state of active affection in which 
 the foreign helps they enjoyed in childhood are made un- 
 necessary, by their mutually caring for and aiding each 
 other. The friendships which are cemented in adversity 
 are commonly of a more tender, disinterested, and lasting 
 nature, than those which are formed in any other circum- 
 stances : that friendship between man and man, of which 
 he has laid the foundation, is to be eternal ; and therefore 
 would he see it cemented as closely as possible, by having 
 it commenced while they are here in a state of trial ; and 
 commenced, (how wise, how worthy of himself the divine 
 arrangement !) in a reciprocation of christian offices whose 
 issues shall reach through eternity. For not only does he 
 charge them to do all the good they can to each other 
 themselves, he takes them to the throne of God, and in- 
 vests them with the office of mutual intercessors, empow- 
 ers them to touch and set in motion an almighty agency 
 for each other ; he even puts into their hands the means of 
 mutual salvation, making it at once their honor and office 
 to assist as subordinate agents in training and conducting 
 each other to eternal life. 
 
 III. In entering on any of the offices or relations of 
 life, it is an obvious advantage to possess a view of the du- 
 ties peculiar to that sphere, in as brief, clear, and compre- 
 hensive a form as possible ; indeed, if they could all be 
 adequately described in a single sentence, they would be 
 so much the more acceptable. It is a distinguished excel- 
 lence of the Great Teacher, that, in the inculcation of mo- 
 rality, he preferred comprehensive rules to a distinct spe- 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 399 
 
 cification of duties ; though he took the most enlarged 
 view of human obligations, he generalized and enforced 
 them by a few compendious laws, instead of separately le- 
 gislating for each particular duty. Had he adopted, or 
 rather attempted, the latter method, descending to a minute 
 enumeration of duties, it would have involved this serious 
 evil — that every duty which might have arisen below the 
 point of enumeration would have been in danger of being 
 treated as unobligatory, because not inserted in the specifi- 
 cation. Glad of the plausible excuse arising from the 
 omission, men would have regarded every duty not en- 
 joined as omissible, and every sin not prohibited as allow- 
 able. But in the hands of Jesus, the science of morality 
 is simplified and complete. A single prohibition is so 
 planted by him, that like a piece of ordnance, it may be 
 said to enfilade and sweep a whole territory of sin ; noth- 
 ing can come within its range without challenging its 
 thunder and courting death. A single rule is found to 
 contain laws for an indefinite number of actions ; for all the 
 possible cases, of the class described, which can ever occur. 
 Like the few imaginary circles by which geography cir- 
 cumscribes the earth, he has, by a few sentences, describ- 
 ed and distributed into sections the whole globe of duty ; 
 so that, wherever we may be on it, we find ourselves en- 
 compassed by some comprehensive maxim ; and, in what- 
 ever direction we may move, we have only to reflect, in or- 
 der to perceive that we are receding from or approaching 
 to some line of morality. 
 
 By thus generalizing morality he has consuhed the w^eak- 
 ness of the most impaired m.emory ; presented us with 
 a map-like view of the wide region of duty which a single 
 glance can survey ; provided rules for all the possible va- 
 rieties and contingencies of human action ; while the con- 
 sciousness it affords his followers, that they are able to sus- 
 
400 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 tain the particulars of their life upon great first principles, 
 enables them to advance in the path of holiness with an 
 erect, assured, and dignified carriage of mind ; and the de- 
 mand which it makes on the higher capabilities of nature, 
 in calling them to comprehend such measures of greatness, 
 and to sympathize with such perfection, raises and enno- 
 bles them to themselves, and possesses them with the feel- 
 ing that they are allied to God. 
 
 To give a single exemplification, let me advert to the ax- 
 iom known by the names of the golden rule, and the uni- 
 versal law of equity; 'all things whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them ; for 
 this is the law and the prophets.' The Savior himself as- 
 cribes to this rule the condensed and comprehensive char- 
 acter for which we have cited it ; he pronounces it an ab- 
 stract of all that had been prescribed by the law and the 
 prophets ; all they delivered on the subject is reducible to 
 this, so that, were their writings lost, this summary might 
 be expanded into all they uttered. Notwithstanding its 
 conciseness, it is a maxim of so generic a kind, that, encir- 
 cling the whole sphere of social virtue, it embraces all 
 things lohatsocver that sphere contains. No injury can 
 be done, no reasonable kindness be omitted by man to 
 man, v/hich is not a violation of this royal law; nor can 
 any duty be performed which it does not virtually enjoin. 
 If it needed any other quality to recommend it, we might 
 easily show that it has numerous excellencies fully an- 
 swerable to its comprehensiveness. It is a rule as portable 
 as our self-love, and identical with it ; for what is it but the 
 love of self applied to the destruction of selfishness, by be- 
 ing pressed into the service of universal benevolence 1 It is 
 the measuring rod, which is never out of the hand of self for 
 its own purpose, legalized, and applied to mete out the 
 same measure for the good of others. It seeks to equalize 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 401 
 
 vicissitude ; to make a community of our joys and sor- 
 rows, by distributing them as nearly into equal parts as if 
 we knew not the portion which would fall to us. It aims 
 to transform self into an impartial judge, by giving it an 
 interest in all the decisions which it pronounces on others. 
 By compelling our selfishness to do the work of destruc- 
 tion on itself, it makes us content to number as one, as a 
 mere unit in the sum of the species ; and to seek the wel- 
 fare of the whole as the shortest and the only way of pro- 
 moting our own individual interest. Let this infallible 
 law be understood and applied, and the trade of the casu- 
 ist would be gone in the department of social life : for self- 
 interest, prompt, and even intuitive when it sits in judg- 
 ment for its own ends, would have only to imagine a mo- 
 mentary self-transmigration, and to transfer its judgments 
 for the advantage of others. 
 
 We might extend this representation to another particu- 
 lar of a similar kind, showing the comprehensiveness of 
 our Lord's maxims concerning the omission of duty. The 
 line which divides his kingdom from the empire of sin is 
 so fine, that, like the line of geometry, it is length without 
 breadth; it occupies no part of the territories which it de- 
 fines ; it creates no border land, no neutral ground. 'He 
 that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth 
 not with me scattereth abroad ; ' a sentence which sepa- 
 rates the world into two great classes; assigning over to 
 the dominion of Satan the lukewarm with the hostile ; and 
 leaving them to discover, that whereas they had expected 
 to find themselves standing at least on neutral ground, they 
 are actually and considerably within the frontiers of the 
 kingdom of darkness. 
 
 How large a proportion of those, whom custom and 
 courtesy agree to call christins, live and die in self-compla- 
 cency and hope, from the persuasion that they have been 
 
402 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 harmless, or, because they have done iiothlng. It seems 
 never to occur to such, that to spend threescore years and 
 ten on a field of conflict, the listless spectators of a strife 
 in which heaven every moment importunes them to take 
 part, is disobedience and guilt. But, for this large sum of 
 human ciphers, this aggregation of figures whose total is 
 nothing, the final sentence is already prepared. Having 
 never aspired to christian activity, or positive excellence, 
 the doom which will consign the whole class to their own 
 place will descend on them Avith this fearful formula, 'In- 
 asmuch as ye did it not.'' Now if human guilt is reduci- 
 ble to a graduated scale of demerit, by thus inscribing 
 condemnation at the least and lowest degree on the scale, 
 how unavoidable is the inference made that greater con- 
 demnation is reserved for every higher degree of sin ; if 
 the mere absence of activity, the negation of friendship, 
 for Christ, be denounced, it follows of course that activity 
 against him, that positive hostility, being superior guilt, 
 has nothing to hope for. Thus, by recording a sentence 
 against the omission of duty, the Divine Teacher has not 
 merely destroyed the plea of harmlessness, and proscribed 
 the whole tribe of the useless, he has tacitly comprehend- 
 ed and denounced the hostile and persecuting, leaving 
 them to infer that to doom them formally would be super- 
 fluous. , 
 
 IV. Another excellence of the morality which Jesus in- 
 culcates is, that it extends to the thoughts and operations of 
 the heart. To legislate for a small department of the out- 
 ward life, is all the power that is accorded to human au- 
 thority. In speaking of the spiritual character which the 
 law assumed in the hands of Christ, we showed that it is 
 his prerogative to prescribe for the heart. ' He knew 
 what was in man ;' and he knew the connection between 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 403 
 
 that hidden source and the visible life, to be the relation of 
 cause and effect ; he sought, therefore, to purify the streams 
 by cleansing the fountain. He denounces the murder and 
 aduhery of the heart; sins, which were unknown to the 
 popular code of Jewish morality. ' Out of the heart,' 
 said he, ' proceed evil thoughts and every thing that de- 
 fileth ; ' and, accordingly, he laid his hand on the hidden 
 machinery of pollution, and essayed to destroy it in its 
 springs. He sees evil there in its type ; and aimed to crush 
 and annihilate it in its mould. He does not wait till sin 
 comes out into the life, an overt act ; but, passing into the 
 heart, he begins to exert the authority of law much earlier 
 and higher ; he meets the sin in its native home ; detects 
 it before it has become any thing but thought, or desire, or 
 intention. 
 
 By repeatedly asking his auditors, as he did, ' Why 
 think ye evil in your hearts 1 ' he, in effect, proclaimed 
 that the busy and populous world of thought is subject to 
 divine jurisdiction ; that his eye is on all its most silent 
 pulsations and hidden movements ; and, consequently, that 
 these would furnish materials for a future judicial process. 
 And if it exalt our conceptions of matter, to know, that, 
 by man, it is absolutely indestructible ; that of all which 
 has ever existed not an atom is lost; that, however it may 
 be modified and dissipated, it cannot be destroyed ; and that 
 the whole is destined to pass through the final regenerating 
 fires ; then, what is the amount of solemn importance 
 which should invest the slightest movements of our minds, 
 and what the degree of intense solicitude with w^hich w^e 
 should control and watch them, when we know, that of all 
 the infinite myriads of our thoughts, not one is lost ; that 
 they are accumulating fast for judgment; that over the 
 least of them all a solemn inquest will be held, by God and 
 his empannelled angels; and that their verdict will turn it 
 
404 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 into an element of endless joy or woe. Yes, the moment 
 will come, when the slightest movement of the mind will 
 be deemed inexpressibly more worthy of attention, than the 
 aspect of the starry heavens in their solemn midnight 
 magnificence — the most august spectacle of nature — for it 
 will be seen creating for us our eternal state : and why 
 should we not deem it so now ? To cleanse the air, under 
 certain circumstances, philosophy has devised a method of 
 straining, and even searching, that subtle element for every 
 particle of matter injurious to life ] did we duly care for 
 the health of the soul, the morality of Jesus would teach 
 us the nobler philosophy, the more vital art, of subjecting 
 the inner atmosphere of the soul to a process of examina- 
 tion, in which the faintest rudiments of evil would be de- 
 tected, and rejected as seeds of death. 
 
 V. But the morality which Jesus inculcated penetrates 
 deeper than to the thoughts ; it goes down to that which 
 originates and gives character to thought itself — to motive. 
 Conscious that the vilest motives may coexist with the fair- 
 est actions, men have ever made it a favorite object to have 
 their character estimated by professions and appearances. 
 But the morality of Jesus will accept nothing for virtue 
 which is not pure in its origin : it proposes to restore the 
 reign of motive. ' Except your righteousness,' said he, 
 ' shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of hea- 
 ven.' The radical defect of their piety was, that it was 
 only superficial : a robe of light assumed to conceal the 
 fiend of darkness. Their actions were the outside of the 
 platter, burnished and clean; but their motives were the 
 inside, polluted with their excesses. Their professions 
 were 'like graves which appear not, and the men that walk 
 over them are not aware of them.' Their piety was the 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 405 
 
 • whited sepulchre, which, indeed appears beautiful with- 
 out ; ' the motive which produced it was the corruption and 
 death within. They gave alms ; but it was only when the 
 trumpet sounded, to attract the notice of the public ; and, 
 from this ostentation, the Savior took occasion to convey 
 this important truth — that, in the kingdom of God, the re- 
 ward of a laudable action never rises above the level of the 
 motive which produces it; if it originates as theirs did in a 
 thirst for human applause, it must not look for the divine 
 approbation ; its motive is the measure and arbiter of its 
 own reward. 
 
 But not only did he reprobate impure and selfish m(»- 
 tives, he specified and even provided the motive which ho- 
 liness demands — the principle which fills the bosom and 
 sways the actions of God himself — love. Like a perfect 
 legislator, having prescribed the sublimest rules of life^ he 
 proceeded to furnish the most generous and glorious prin* 
 ciple of obedience. He died for us. As if determined 
 that a sense of obligation should overpower and absorb 
 every other incentive to duty, he made the obligation infi- 
 nite by laying down his life for our redemption. He died 
 to secure us from the penalty of the law we had broken, 
 that he might bring us under irresistible obligation to obey 
 the law which he enactedi In the place of the two tables 
 of stone, he substituted the cross, inscribed with the me- 
 morials of his love, and of our duty. He erected his 
 cross; and constituted it at once the seat of legislation and 
 the altar of sacrifice. ' When Moses had spoken every 
 precept to all the people according to the law, he sprinkled 
 wdth blood both the book and all the people, saying. This 
 is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined un- 
 to you ; ' when Jesus had completed his code of divine 
 morality, he sprinkled it with his own most precious bloody 
 saying, ' If ye love me^ keep my commandments. Greater 
 
406 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life 
 for his friends : ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I 
 command you.' 
 
 It is true, that while inculcating his divine precepts, the 
 piacular and vicarious nature of his death was not under- 
 stood by those whom he addressed. But not only were 
 his injunctions copiously interspersed wuth allusions to his 
 grace, and descriptions of his remedial relations to man ; 
 he required faith in himself, whatever he might do or be- 
 come, as the great w^ork of God. ' This is the work of 
 God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent ; ' a com- 
 mand which was anticipatory and prospective of his ap- 
 proaching death, for it foresaw that their faith in him would 
 have shortly to contemplate the amazing fact of his death 
 for the remission of sins, and would thus possess them with 
 that love which is the great evangelical motive to obedience. 
 On the foresight of this approaching event, he required of 
 his disciples that love should be the ruling motive of their 
 conduct, as though his death had already transpired. — 
 Whatever they did, they were to do it in his name ; from 
 a principle of obedience to his will, and obligation to his 
 grace. If they received a disciple, they w^ere to do it in 
 the name of a disciple ; making the fact of his disciple- 
 ship, his relation and resemblance to Christ, the object of 
 their regard. ' Whosoever shall receive one of such chil- 
 dren i7i my name, receiveth me. Whosoever shall give 
 you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye be- 
 long to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his 
 reward. Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and 
 the gospel's, the same shall save it.' 
 
 Now, considering the depraved condition of our nature, 
 the appointment of love as the moving principle of our 
 obedience, might seem to exceed in boldness the loftiest 
 flight of the most romantic theorist. But he, -vvho knew 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. ^07 
 
 all the workings of our mysterious nature, foresaw that his 
 miraculous death for our redemption would give rise to a 
 cause fully commensurate to the proposed effect. And the 
 history of his church, from that period to the present, is a 
 comment on his wisdom and benevolence ; it demonstrates 
 that his death gave a new motive to the world ; brought 
 into operation a principle, which, meeting and uniting with 
 every other principle of virtue in the human heart, and as- 
 similating to itself all that is foreign to its nature, turns ev- 
 ery thing it encounters into an accession of power, and 
 holds the soul for Christ, and in cordial allegiance to him. 
 Like the great but unobtrusive operations of God in na- 
 ture, it is silently but constantly at work, achieving the 
 mightiest effects in the soul of man, converting his human 
 into divine, and raising him from a state of close compan- 
 ionship with demons, to the society of the blessed, and the 
 vision of God. Issuing from the cross, it has more than 
 the power of moral gravitation ; for, while it retains the 
 christian in the orb of duty, it propels him forward at the 
 same time. And if, in mechanics, the strength of a partic- 
 ular power is displayed in the number of opposing forces 
 which it overcomes, what must be the potency of that princi- 
 ple which overcomes the world, wrestles with satanic agen- 
 cy, conquers the love of life itself, and which makes its way 
 through a host of adverse powers, mastering them all; a 
 principle, whose lowest degree of operation results in acts 
 of heroism and triumph, and which generates all the obe- 
 dience God receives from man. 
 
 VI. But not only do we need an actuating principle ; 
 being put into a state of activity we also requiie an end to 
 aim at ; accordingly, the morality of Jesus, having sup- 
 plied us with a principle which allies us to God, points us 
 to an object, and gives a direction to that principle which 
 
408 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 terminates in God ; the glory and enjoyment of the Divine 
 Being. Uninspired morality, the offspring of ignorance, 
 or passion, or pride, refers us to inferior objects ; to the 
 indiscriminate love of pleasure, the avoidance of pain, the 
 dictates of nature, or to the greatest present advantage ; 
 (and if I do not enlarge on these various theories of hu- 
 man ethics, it is only from the fear of desecrating the divine 
 morality of him who is soon to sit it judgment on us all ; ) 
 but the ethics of Jesus include every allowable inferior ob- 
 ject, by proposing an end above and beyond them all. 
 
 Having shown us the character of God as the first good, 
 and the first fair, he makes it evident that our happiness 
 consists in the imitation and enjoyment of that infinite ex- 
 cellence. He does this, generally, by requiring us to 
 make the will of God the rule of our conduct ; for it is 
 not in our power to render greater honor to God, than by 
 thus placing our immortal interests in his hands. 'Bless- 
 ed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.' And, 
 more particular^, he prescribes the divine glory as our 
 end and aim, in declarations such as this, ' No man can 
 serve two masters ; for either he will love the one and hate 
 the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the 
 other ; ye cannot serve God and mammon ; ' thus, by in- 
 ference, erecting the glory of God into a supremacy, be- 
 fore which every other object must fall down and do hom- 
 age. And how emphatically did his own conduct incul- 
 cate the same sentiment : ' I came,' said he, ' not to do mine 
 own will, but the will of him that sent me. My meat is to 
 do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.' 
 And when entering the shadow of that hour of darkness, 
 in which his life of suffering and reproach was to be con- 
 summated in a death of ignominy and agony, he fixed his 
 eye on the glory of God, and exclaimed, ' Father, glorify 
 thy name.' 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 409 
 
 It is no valid objection to the loftiness of this object, that, 
 being pure, it is only adapted to a state of sinless perfec- 
 tion ; it is addressed to our imperfect nature as one of the 
 means of restoring us to that perfection for which we are 
 destined. And, besides the agency of the Holy Spirit, of 
 whose help we have yet to speak, the gospel, unlike the 
 law, while it demands and provides for our ultimate per- 
 fection, and could be satisfied with nothing less, is yet sat- 
 isfied, for the present, if it sees us advancing in holiness. 
 It infuses into our nature a motive, adapted, by its very 
 loftiness, to sustain its office ; for, were it less exalted, the 
 depressing influences of sin would draw it down to their 
 own low level, and destroy it : but now, though it meets 
 with many a check, and mingles with much pollution, it 
 remains uncorrupted as light, and never fails eventually to 
 triumph, leavening humanity with its own purity. It pro- 
 poses, for our aim, an object fitted by the infinity of its ex- 
 cellence to engage our pursuit — for that object is final: 
 had an inferior end been set before us, we should have had 
 a pretext for discontent, for we should have felt ourselves 
 capable of a higher aim than was assigned us. It strength- 
 ens our principles by simplifying them ; expelling some 
 from our hearts ; and reducing those that remain under 
 the sway of a reigning affection, which gives to the soul 
 the harmony, simplicity, and singleness of intention of ' a 
 little child.' But this sanctification is a 'process ; and, like 
 that change of one political government for another, that 
 setting up of a new kingdom in the heart, to which it is 
 compared, it encounters many an obstacle, and asks time 
 for adjustment and consolidation. 
 
 It is, indeed, impossible to say whether, in the present 
 
 state, the great motive of the gospel ever exists pure and 
 
 uncompounded. Principles of action are too subtle for 
 
 analysis ; they elude our most anxious, but coarse attempts 
 
 26 
 
410 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 to reduce them to their elements. The motive, which, to 
 our eye, looks pure as light, might, could we examine it 
 through a moral prism, prove, to our astonishment, to be 
 many-colored. The aim which we regard as in a straight 
 line to the glory of God, might, could we obtain a com- 
 prehensive view of its course, appear, like a stream mean- 
 dering to the ocean, touching at every accessible point, and 
 taking every object in the way, consistent with reaching 
 its final destination. But indirect and compounded as is the 
 best principle of human action, the Great Teacher would 
 have us raise our eye to the highest point, and aim at the 
 loftiest mark in the universe. Unhinging us from the cen- 
 tre of self on which we have turned, he supplies us with 
 a common centre in God. The eye which has glanced at 
 the unclouded sun, is unable, for a time, to recognise the 
 most familiar objects of earth; he unveils to us the splen- 
 dors of the eternal throne — and the grandeur, and wealth, 
 and most attractive objects of the world, fade and vanish 
 from our view ; he calls us away from the limited and sor- 
 did pursuits of time, takes us into the counsels of God, in- 
 vites us to join hands with Providence, to mingle in the 
 operations of almighty love in renewing, and beautifying, 
 and making happy a world of immortal beings. 
 
 Without destroying the rotary principle of self-interest, 
 by which every man resembles the diurnal motion of the 
 globe, he gives to us a momentum, and assigns to us an 
 orbit, of which God is the centre, and which transports us, 
 in effect, into the most distant parts of the universe, placing 
 us in relationship to every part, and blending us with the 
 great whole. He directs us to pray that earth may copy 
 the example, and rival the obedience of heaven, where the 
 glory of God is the point from which every action starts, 
 and the goal at which it terminates. ' Sacred to God,' is 
 to be inscribed on all our possessions, in the use of which 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 411 
 
 we are to consult his honor and acquiesce in his arrange- 
 ments. He invites us to take part in a concert of praise 
 which ascribes ' kingdom, and power, and glory,' to God 
 supreme ; a concert in which earth is once more to chime 
 and chord with heaven ; and which is finally destined to 
 be universal, when ' every thing that hath breath shall 
 praise the Lord.' In the mean time, like the solar splen- 
 dor, our light is so to shine before men, that they, seeing 
 our good works, may glorify our Father who is in heaven ; 
 may be constrained to take part in the divine concert. 
 Opening before us a career of glory in which angels are 
 our competitors, he would have us to stop short at no at- 
 tainment, till the will of God be done on earth as it is done 
 in heaven ; he would have us be satisfied with no reward, 
 till we can mingle the radiance of our crowns with the 
 emanations of the paternal throne. 
 
 VII. The holiness which the ethics of the gospel in- 
 culcate, acknowledges no standard but God. Man is an 
 imitative creature. Having lost his original likeness to 
 God, he involuntarily discloses the insufficiency of his 
 nature, and a sense of the loss he has sustained, by look- 
 ing out of himself for precedent and example in all he does ; 
 while the facility with which he lets himself down, and 
 adapts himself to the Jow circumstances into which he has 
 sunk, reveals the awful entireness of the revolution his na- 
 ture has undergone. But, if his character is to be a copy, 
 how important that the model should be of the best descrip- 
 tion, of a description which is likely to elevate and im- 
 prove his nature, to develope its powers, and fill it with 
 all the excellence of which it is capable. But where was 
 such a model to be found ?■ where, among all the speci- 
 mens of virtue which earth has owned, and even all the 
 ideal forms of worth the imagination had pourtrayed? 
 
412 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 Man had lost even the idea of moral perfection. Such ex- 
 cellence can be understood only by sympathy ; but for this 
 sin had disqualified him ; and hence the necessity of his 
 regeneration iuto the divine image, before he can under- 
 stand what that image is. To have selected the best, the 
 least imperfect of human characters for imitation, would 
 have been therefore to erect a defective standard ; and of 
 this, the part which, most likely, would have been first 
 copied into his nature, would have been its faults and im- 
 perfections. Besides, the period might have come when 
 he had succeeded in equalling his model ; the resemblance 
 is complete ; but he feels himself capable of higher attain- 
 ments still ; where now is the pattern for him to copy ? 
 He wants one Vv'hose excellence knows no limits, but which 
 shall continue to enlarge as he approaches it, and to unfold 
 new beauties as he becomes capable of appreciating and 
 imitating them, in endless progression ; in fine, the only 
 example suitable to our nature is a perfect example. 
 
 The blessed Savior supplies this necessity : ' Be ye per- 
 fect,' saith he, ' even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' 
 And what an honor does he confer on our nature, by sim- 
 ply exhorting us to attempt so high an example! What- 
 ever of excellence the universe contains, is only a faint 
 resemblance copied from Deity. All created goodness, in 
 heaven and earth, is derived from him as its only fountain; 
 and could all this excellence be collected and concentered 
 in one being, that glorious being would still fall infinitely 
 short of the Supreme Perfection. In exhorting us then to 
 attempt the remotest imitation of him, the Savior was put- 
 ting an honor on our nature which, of itself, should be 
 sufiicient to lift us out of the Avorld and sin, and to fill us 
 with high and heroic aims. And, to encourage us to en- 
 gage in this great endeavor, he not only reminds us that 
 God is our Father, thus appealing to our filial love ;— .foy 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 413 
 
 one of the earliest characteristics of a child is that he at- 
 tempts to imitate his father ; and any action carries with it 
 a sufficient recommendation in his eyes if his father does 
 it ; — but, in order to bring the divine example within the 
 scope and compass of our feeble endeavors, he humanized 
 and embodied it in his own life. ' He that hath seen me,' 
 saith he, 'hath seen the Father also ; ' hath seen the char- 
 acter of the eternal Father acted out and submitted to hu- 
 man imitation. And so softened and subdued is that ex- 
 ample, as seen in him, that the babe in Christ beholds in 
 it features which he hopes and aspires to resemble ; so at- 
 tractive is it, that all the family of God, in heaven and 
 earth, have their eyes habitually fixed on it in holy and 
 delighted contemplation ; so perfect is it, that the least de- 
 viation from it is sin, and the least approach to it a step to- 
 wards holiness ; and so great and glorious is it, that the 
 spirits of the just made perfect, and the angels before the 
 throne, have higher conceptions of it at this moment than 
 they have ever had before ; and so their conceptions of it 
 will go on perpetually enlarging, and their admiration con- 
 stantly increasing, while they will always feel that there 
 is in it an unfathomed excellence, an infinite perfection, 
 still remaining. 
 
 The Divine Redeemer, by thus making the character of 
 God exemplary in his own life, has graciously adapted it 
 to universal imitation. Uniting in his person the ex- 
 tremes of Avealth and poverty, majesty and abasement, 
 power and weakness, his example, in one or other of its 
 aspects, is accommodated to every variety of condition. It 
 teaches the highest, that there is an order of greatness 
 distinct from all that earth can confer, and superior to it ; 
 and it reminds the lowest, that they can invest their state 
 with grandeur, and finally attain an elevation of excellence 
 from w^hich the inequalities of life will appear on a level ; 
 
414 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 while, to every intermediate condition, it presents a phase 
 especially suited for study and imitation. And what a mo- 
 tive to imitation arises from the fact, that he who has thus 
 become our exemplar is himself occupied in the perpetual 
 inspection of our conduct. ' Lo,' saith he, to his disciples, 
 ' I am with you always.' By moving in the presence 
 even of a man of a vigorous and commanding character, 
 we gradually imbibe his spirit and opinions : on this prin- 
 ciple it was, that a heathen philosopher advised his disci- 
 ples to imagine themselves constantly acting under the 
 eye of some ancient sage renowned for virtue; we can 
 never lift our eye without encountering the look of ouj: 
 Di\dne Master. We never move out of his presence, nor 
 does he ever withdraw his eye from us : and as, in copy- 
 ing the productions of ancient genius, the admiring artist 
 takes up his station before his model, and, that he may not 
 omit a single line or shade, raises his eye every moment 
 to scan the original, so we are to avail ourselves of his 
 perpetual presence, by recurring in thought to his divine 
 example preparatory to every step we take ; and as the 
 soldier in actual conflict is instantly nerved with additional 
 vigor on catching the glance of his leader, so we shall be 
 braced to redoubled energy in the field of duty, while con- 
 scious of the presence of the Lord of hosts, the Captain 
 of salvation. 
 
 Were the world to lose the idea of the character and 
 example of God, it would forthwith rapidly retrograde to- 
 wards the lowest point of depravity; earth would from 
 that moment begin to compete with hell, in a fearful enter- 
 prize and rivalry of sin. The possession of this idea, as 
 it is exhibited and secured to us in the gospel, is the safe- 
 guard of all morality, the germ of all real excellence. 
 Barely to apprehend it even, is an era in the understand- 
 ing ; but to conceive the desire of copying it, is a lift in 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 415 
 
 the scale of excellence which gives us the sympathy of 
 angels, and places us, as at a bound, within sight of the 
 gate of heaven. It ventilates the human breast of every 
 thing sordid, grovelling, and impure ; and turns through 
 it a cleansing and invigorating current of heavenly influ- 
 ence. The student in art is sent to refine his taste, and 
 exalt his genius, by the patient investigation of the great 
 masters of antiquity ; the student in holiness is referred to 
 him who is the exemplar of all that is good, the original 
 of all that is fair : and no sooner does he begin to admire 
 than he begins to partake ; he is * changed into the same 
 image from glory to glory.' Possessed with the idea of 
 God, he is enamoured of all he meets with that is beauti- 
 ful and good ; but instead of resting in any fragmentitious 
 excellence, it only sends him in thought to the great Arch- 
 etype, with whom by an instinctive act of the mind he 
 compares it, and so estimates its worth. 
 
 In the universe of intelligent beings, the character of 
 God is the centre to which all that is virtuous and obedient 
 gravitates : the authority with which every enlightened 
 conscience is in constant intercourse ; the appointed ren- 
 dezvous from every part of creation, to which all the hosts 
 that have retained or resumed their allegiance resort, to 
 renew their oath, and to reinforce their strength. And, 
 in the heart of every individual believer, this exalted con- 
 ception of the divine character reigns supreme. It is a 
 principle and a power which awes every other fear, expels 
 every rival authority, and commands him to fear that Be- 
 ing only who can cast both soul and body into hell. It is 
 a nucleus, around w^hich ' whatsoever things are honest, 
 just, pure, lovely, and of good report,' collect and crystal- 
 lize. ' If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,' 
 this is the point about which they form, and brighten, and 
 acquire their splendor. Claiming the entire homage of the 
 
416 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 heart, it receives the subjection of every thought, and be- 
 holds every other name of power withdraw and vanish ; 
 while, capable of perpetual accretion and aggrandizement, 
 it comes at length to fill the soul, and to constitute the sole 
 principle of holy action. 
 
 VIII. We must not omit to notice the advantage which 
 the preaching of Jesus derived, from the simple and au- 
 thoritative manner in which it was delivered, and the sanc- 
 tions in which it was invested. In putting a man on any 
 given course of action, it is important to his progress and 
 perseverance, that he should feel unlimited confidence in 
 the wisdom and authority of his patron. If the instruc- 
 tions he receives are couched in ambiguous terms, or de- 
 livered in a tone of uncertainty, or enforced with the ver- 
 bosity of a special pleader, the methodical clauses and 
 measured distinctions of the logician, the endless excep- 
 tions and provisoes of the jurist, or the misty film-work 
 and cold abstractions of the metaphysician, he will most 
 probably suspect that his instructor has yet to form a defin- 
 ite idea of his own wishes ; or that he doubts their practi- 
 cability ; or feels that their questionable propriety requires 
 the protecting veil of a disguising sophistry ; and the 
 probability is, that, possessed Avith these very natural sus- 
 picions, he will never attempt to carry the instructions 
 into practice ; or will waste the feeling and passion neces- 
 sary to action, in harrassing alternations between right and 
 wrong ; or will construe the first obstacle he encounters, 
 in the course proposed, into a providential intimation that 
 he is not in the path of duty, and should instantly turn 
 back. 
 
 The injunctions of Jesus were clear, determinate, and 
 imperative ; combining, at once, the simplicity of a father 
 directing his child, and the authority of a king whose will 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 417 
 
 is law. Taking his stand on the firm, broad, uncomprom- 
 ising principles of morality, he spoke, as conscience itself 
 speaks, concisely, energetically, and to the point. The 
 only logic he employed, was the logic of the heart ; his 
 only auditor, common sense. Loading every sentence 
 with meaning, he levelled it direct at the breast. His 
 style seems not merely to breathe a solicitude that it 
 may be understood ; it seems to burn with a resolution that 
 it will be felt, that it will make itself to be remembered. 
 This is true of the style of all his commands ; but there 
 are some of them which go even beyond this, they not 
 only effect for themselves a lodgment in the memory, but 
 when once there they defy oblivion, nothing can dislodge 
 them. 
 
 The unauthorized precepts of other moralists are only 
 guesses at right, and should therefore, be uttered with dif- 
 fidence, and received with discretion. But he spoke, as 
 the organ and oracle of God, for the universe and for eter- 
 nity. He knew that his precepts are to constitute the laws 
 of the last day : and that each of them is to sustain the 
 everlasting awards of myriads of immortal beings. If 
 any one could hear them enjoined, and yet refuse to them 
 unbounded regard, his miracles came to his aid, collected 
 and clustered around to abet and confirm them. He called 
 in the terrors and powers of the world to come, to augment 
 their sanction. If we consider his character and office, 
 his relation. to man and to the invisible world, we shall 
 feel that, while propounding his laws, he occupied a posi- 
 tion more imposing than that of the mount that burn- 
 ed ; that he legislated as in an ampitheatre filled with the 
 attendant thrones and dominions of heaven, with the judg- 
 ment seat in perspective, the rewards of glory piled up in 
 sight, the penal fires of perdition flaring up at intervals 
 and darting forth volcanic flashes from an unknown depth, 
 
418 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 and God meanwhile co rroborating his authority in accents 
 of thunder, and saying, ' This is my beloved Son, hear ye 
 him.' 
 
 IX. How unspeakably superior is the holiness of the 
 gospel to that of mere human moralists, not only as it 
 raises the standard of excellence higher, even up to an im- 
 itation of the blessed God, but also as it supplies the neces- 
 sary hope and help to obedience. They only tell us whaf 
 they conceive to be our duty, and there they leave us in 
 our helplessness ; but Jesus provides us with motives, sets 
 before us the incentive of his own example, points us to 
 the throne of grace, and engages to meet us there with 
 the aid of his Holy Spirit. When the mind is first awak- 
 ened to a consciousness of its guilt, it is inclined to look at 
 those things most which serve to corroborate its fears, and 
 deepen its gloom; the intrinsic evil of sin, the im- 
 mutable requirements of the divine law, the aggravat- 
 ing fpeculiarities of its own transgressions, these are 
 the fearful aspects of its condition Avhich concentrate 
 its attention, and augment its dismay. Revolting at 
 the thought of aggravating its guilt by looking to the 
 general goodness of God, it turns away from him who 
 would give it encouragement from that source, as from a 
 sophist and a foe. It derives a morbid satisfaction from 
 nourishing its anguish ; and whether or not it w411 ever 
 essay a first step in the way to heaven, depends on the 
 practicability of inspiring it with hope. 
 
 To this crushed and overwhelmed state of mind the Sa- 
 vior draws nigh, and ministers the balm of consolation. 
 ' Blessed,' saith he, ' are they that mourn ; for they shall 
 be comforted. Blessed are the poor in spirit ; for theirs 
 is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek; for 
 they shall inherit the earth.' Though less than nothing in 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 419 
 
 their own eyes, he tells them that in his estimation there 
 is a wealth in their poverty of spirit, more ample and en- 
 during than all the treasures of earth ; a majesty in their 
 meekness, to which pride can never erect itself and attain; 
 and, in their sorrow for sin, in every tear they shed, an im- 
 mortal seed, the fruit of which will be peace and unending 
 joy. Though the world in its depravity and blindness 
 may continue to hold their character in contempt, he as- 
 sures them that the great God, seated on the throne of heav- 
 en, pronounces it blessed ; that the dowry which falls, ev- 
 en now, to its portion contains the blossomings of celestial 
 life ; that as often as the partakers of it depart by death 
 from this earthly scene, he raises and welcomes them into 
 his own kingdom ; and, when every earthly embellish- 
 ment shall have faded and disappeared, he wall, Avith his 
 own lips, proclaim them happy, and in the presence of 
 the universe, w^ill crown them with all the beatitudes of 
 heaven. 
 
 He informs them that he came into the world to seek 
 and to save that which was lost : that his commission ex- 
 tends to the mouth of the botomless pit : and, to show them 
 that he goes to the extreme of his commission, he points 
 them to those whom he rescued at the awful brink, and 
 who accompanied him about as the specimens and trophies 
 of his grace. By his parable of the prodigal, his encour- 
 aging views of the parental love of God, his inspiriting 
 invitations and promises of grace, he sought to make des- 
 pair impossible, and hope the first emotion of their peni- 
 tent souls. He assures them, that so far from being unno- 
 ticed, they no sooner turn their faces in the direction of 
 heaven, than their Father beholds them yet a great way 
 off; that their first incipient desire for aid, brings an al- 
 mighty agent to their side ; that, during the hour of their 
 first application for mercy, the place of audience is kept 
 
420 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 peculiarly for them ; and that, on the tidings of their repen- 
 tance arriving in heaven, whatever may have engrossed the 
 angelic harps till then, instantly and joyfully the theme is 
 changed to the celebration of this new event. Having al- 
 lured them to the footstool of mercy, he stretches forth his 
 hand from the throne before which they have fallen, and 
 lifts them up, places them on their feet, and points them to 
 the duties and encounters which now await them. 
 
 To calculate on miraculous interposition in the ordinary 
 affairs of life, savors of presumption and romance. But, in 
 the sphere of christian hope, Jesus has made the extrava- 
 gance of romance impossible, by promising to exceed all 
 hope ; he has given a wing to our expectation which dis- 
 dains all limit, for he has declared that whatever we ask in 
 his name we shall receive. He meets the desponding ob- 
 jection to which the survey of our duties and difficulties 
 would give birth, and he destroys it before it can be utter- 
 ed, by engaging, ' Ask, and ye shall receive.' He thus 
 gives us immediate access to the treasury of the divine be- 
 nevolence ; so that even in this world, we can not only ward 
 off and suspend around us every evil, but we can draw ar- 
 ound us every good ; as though we possessed an omnipo- 
 tent charm, we can create around us an atmosphere of 
 peace and joy. He grants us introduction to the armory 
 of God, and to all his resources of strength ; so that, like 
 the angel who had the key of the bottomless pit, and 
 a great chain in his hand, we can fetter the operations and 
 restrain the power of the prince of darkness ; or we can 
 enter the field of conflict, and overpower him. To put 
 us in progress towards heaven, he even guarantees the as- 
 sistance of the Holy Spirit ; this is help to which nothing 
 can be added, for it is all-comprehensive; and nothing ?i6C(i 
 be, for it is all-sufl^icient. It infuses omnipotence into our 
 feeblest effort, and renders us, while moving in the line of 
 duty, invincible and irresitisble, 
 
MIS PRACTICALNESS. 421 
 
 And he not only inspires hope by supplying the necessary 
 aid, he also quickens our activity in the path of holiness 
 by exibiting its ultimate reward. Instead of taking it for 
 granted that we should be enamoured of duty for 
 its own sake alone, he evinces the kindest consideration 
 for our fallen condition, by accompanying his commands 
 with appropiate promises and blessings. Thus, in his ser- 
 mon on the Mount, while inculcating the virtues peculiar 
 to the christian character, he associates each with a divine 
 beatitude ; graciously alluring us to cultivate the tree, by 
 engaging that all its fruit shall be our own. And frequent- 
 ly, to give an access of fervor to our zeal he unveils the 
 prize which he has promised to holy perseverance, and pla- 
 ces it distinctly before our eyes ; he brings out all the crowns, 
 the regalia of heaven, and suspends it from his throne, re- 
 minding us that it is placed there to be won. 
 
 X. But, however perfect the morality of the gospel may 
 be, and however delightful the task of thus expatiating on its 
 excellence, it is necessary to remember that, like its heav- 
 enly author, it has not escaped the tongue of calumny; 
 though the painful shock which this recollection inflicts, on 
 those who know the gospel best, may be regarded as a suf- 
 ficient refutation of its foes. Numbers, indeed, who have 
 witheld their admiration from the Son of God in every 
 other respect, have yet accorded the highest praise to his 
 precepts ; they could not advert to these without soon ex- 
 hausting the powers of language in eulogy and delight ; 
 and to such, therefore, we might justifiably refer the im- 
 pugners of his code, to receive the answer they need and 
 the reprobation they deserve. 
 
 But we would not leave his morality to be precariously 
 defended by the enemies of his cross, though we can now 
 advance only a word in its behalf. 
 
422 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 1. Is it objected that, wherever the gospel has come, dis- 
 sension has more or less invariably ensued ? It is time 
 for such objectors to know, that there is an important dif- 
 ference between an incidental occasion and a direct cause ; 
 that, of whatever evils the gospel may be the indirect oc- 
 casion, it is the cause only of unmixed good. Like the 
 sun, it cannot rise and shine without being the cause of 
 light, and life, and happiness to the world ; though there 
 are some fatal spots, on which it cannot look without occa- 
 sioning pestilence and death. 
 
 2. Is it alleged against the gospel, that it maintains a pro- 
 found silence on the subject of friendship as a duty ? This 
 is its wisdom. For until it can be shown that friendship 
 is a virtue, w^hatever the kind of characters it may unite ; 
 that it is a good abstractedly and for its own sake alone, 
 whatever the effects it may produce ; and that, although 
 its formation depends on the sympathetic attraction of twin- 
 like dispositions, on the nicest balancing of feeling and 
 concurrence of circumstances, yet all in every situation 
 enjoy the means of cementing it ; he who should enact it 
 as a law, and enforce it as a duty, would betray his igno- 
 rance of human nature, and evince that, from whatever 
 quarter his credentials were derived, he was no legislator 
 sent from God. But, though Jesus has not prescribed 
 friendship as a proximate duty, he has done what is far 
 more consonant with our nature, and infinitely more con- 
 ducive to our well-being. In the amiable qualities which 
 his gospel produces, and the acts of relative kindness 
 which it prescribes, he has laid the foundation of a friend- 
 ship, sanctified and eternal. So far from being indifferent 
 to this union of souls, he has not only set us a most attractive 
 example in his own conduct, but, by commanding his fol- 
 lowers to collect into a church, he has consecrated the so- 
 cial instinct, and built a home for friendship to inhabit : he 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 423 
 
 has shown that it is only within the sacred pale of Christian- 
 ity that it can exist in perfection ; only in the soil of reli- 
 gion that this plant of paradise, this scion from the tree of 
 life, whose root is grace and whose frait is glory, can 
 bloom w^th freshness and vigor. Having redeemed it out 
 of the hands of the ungodly, he has sprinkled 'it with his 
 blood, breathed on it his own spirit, and given to it a life 
 which passes uninjured through the gate of death, and 
 emerges in the kingdom of God ; where those who are 
 the subjects of it approach and fall down together before 
 the eternal throne, and receive from his approving smile 
 the only element wanted to crown it with perfection, the 
 element of immortality. 
 
 3. Equally futile is the charge which some allege, that 
 the gospel is silent on the subject of patriotism. All, how- 
 ever, that can be really meant by such an objection is, that 
 it says nothing of a tendency to fortify and build up a na- 
 tion in its selfishness ; that it confers not on one state a 
 right to forge fetters for another ; that it kindles no brand 
 to ignite those popular passions which nature has already 
 made sufficiently inflammable, and to which a vicious ed- 
 ucation has added the dangerous tendency of spontaneous 
 combustion. But, as far as consistent with his ultimate 
 and unearthly aim of establishing the universal kingdom 
 of God, our Lord has prescribed every general rule on 
 which the welfare of a country depends ; and it would be 
 easy to show, that no evil could possibly befall a state, ei- 
 ther in its internal or external relations, which had n.ot 
 arisen from the infraction of one or other of his divine 
 laws. 
 
 Besides, it should be distinctly remembered, that love of 
 country is a phrase of very uncertain value ; that the pe- 
 riod may come when it will fall into comparative disuse, 
 since it depends even for existence on the continuance of 
 
424 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 the present condition of the world. Only let the great 
 society of nations harmonize and blend — only let knowl- 
 edge go forth in its might, as it is promising to do, and 
 throw down the barriers of conventional prejudice— and 
 patriotism will enlarge and lose itself in philanthropy. 
 This is a fact which is beginning to force itself on the con- 
 viction of the most reluctant. Even science cannot touch 
 on this theme, without becoming loud and prophetic. It 
 refuses to entertain any project less than the amelioration 
 of the species. It undertakes to convince mankind that 
 every true interest must be universal, that good is indivisi- 
 ble, so that to be enjoyed in perfection by one it must be 
 conferred upon all. But, what science says, the gospel 
 will do. In prosecuting the march which it has com- 
 menced, it consults the map of the world. As the sun of 
 righteousness ascends in the firmament, our moral horizon 
 enlarges; those whom we had seen by the brand-light of 
 ignorance disfigured into phantoms w^hich it w^as thought 
 merit to hate, are shown to be men whom it is pleasure to 
 love ; and thus all kindreds, people, and tongues, are drawn 
 into the close relationship of a family compact, preparato- 
 ry to their final assembly ija heaven. 
 
 But, while the gospel aims at universal benevolence, it 
 does not overleap any of the inner and smaller circles of 
 duty ; and, as one of these, it takes up, directs, and sanc- 
 tifies the love of country. In the conduct of our blessed 
 Lord we behold a holy patriotism personified, the love of 
 country embodied. Where did patriotism ever exhibit a 
 nobler burst of sorrow than on Mount Olivet; when 'he 
 beheld the city, and wept over it, and said, O Jerusalem, 
 Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee, as a hen 
 gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would 
 not?' Whose patriotism ever endured what his did? 
 He had but twelve offices to bestow ; but then they were 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 425 
 
 the highest out of heaven, and these he bestowed on twelve 
 of his countrymen. He had but one gift to impart ; but, 
 oh ! it comprehends every other — the gift of eternal life; 
 and this he directed to be offered to his country first, * be- 
 ginning at Jerusalem.' 
 
 4. ;dut we will not prolong our defence of evangelical 
 morality, though the examination of every fresh objection 
 could not fail to repay us with the discovery of unforseen 
 excellence, we may confidently assert for it the claims of 
 divine perfection, and tranquilly rest them on an appeal to 
 its practical effects : ' Men do not gather grapes from thorns, 
 nor figs from thistles ; the tree is known by its fruits,' 
 Concede to Christianity the benefit of this criterion, and its 
 triumph is complete. Follow it in its progress from place 
 to place, and, as it was with its heavenly Author w^hile 
 here on earth, its path may be traced by the song of grati- 
 tude, the acclaim of joy, which it leaves behind : whatever 
 form of misery and vice it may overtake, nothing but pu- 
 rity and peace is in its rear. If it gains introduction to a 
 community already civilized, it takes all that it finds there, 
 of wise and good, under its special protection ; it gives 
 new motives to duty, new sanctions to law ; arms justice 
 with a new and keener sword, and presents her with more 
 perfect balances than she possessed before; throws its 
 shield over oppressed and prostrate virtue; and becomes 
 the rallying point, from every quarter, for conscience, and 
 truth, and hope, and right. Engaged in a perpetual con- 
 flict with evil, it invites all ranks to enlist under its banners ; 
 by giving them an interest in the result of the struggle, it 
 urges them to arise in a body, to make common cause 
 against the common foe ; and, not merely to chase it over 
 the borders of their own community, but to give it no 
 pause till it has descended into the pit from which at first 
 it issued. 
 
 27 
 
426 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 If the gospel, in fulfillment of its universal commission, 
 visits a barbarous people, its advent among them is like the 
 bursting forth of a fountain in the heart of a desert — the 
 waste is changed into the garden of the Lord. From 
 that moment they find a place on the page of history ; and 
 from having been tethered to the limits of a wilderness, 
 and knowing nothing of their fellows beyond, it calls them 
 to take rank in the commonwealth of nations, opens to 
 them a commerce with heaven, and makes them free of 
 every part of the universe. It not only lifts us out of the 
 grossness of barbarism, by acquainting us with the secret 
 of our real birthright ; by the new and ennobling employ- 
 ment which it gives to thought, it raises us also in the 
 scale of intelligent beings ; so that many in finding it have 
 found a mind, have exhibited the first symptoms of intel- 
 lectual consciousness and power. Yes, thousands, whom 
 ignorance and selfishness had branded as the leavings and 
 refuse of the species, if not actually akin to the beasts that 
 perish, are at this moment rising under the fostering care 
 of the gospel, ascribing their enfranchisement to its benign 
 interposition, taking encouragement from its smiles to as- 
 sume the port and bearing of men, and, by their acts and 
 aspirations, retrieving the character and dignity of the 
 slandered human form. But these are only blessings ac- 
 cidental to religion, the shed blossoms of the tree of life, 
 the dust of that diamond which constitutes her crowning 
 gift. In giving light to the eye of the mind, and objects of 
 spiritual purity to the affections, and immortality to the 
 hopes, in showing us that there is nothing too great for us 
 to expect, or too good for us to attain, it is only fulfill- 
 ing its trust and calling us to perfection. 
 
 Of every other system it may be said, that it only actu- 
 ates a part of our nature, leaving the rest like a palsied 
 member of the body, unnoticed and unused ; to Christianity 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 427 
 
 alone belongs the high prerogative of calling e^ery latent 
 principle of our complex nature into action, giving appro- 
 priate exercise to every function, and proportion to every 
 part ; of animating, and maturing, and circulating like an 
 etherial fluid through the whole, and bringing it to the 
 perfection of 'a man in Christ Jesus.' Wherever it comes, 
 it creates a capacity for true enjoyment, and puts all the 
 universe in motion to gratify that capacity. It makes us 
 feel that we exist under an obligation to be happy. Per- 
 fect itself, it pants to behold perfection in every thing else; 
 and, since it finds it not already existing, it puts forth all 
 its efforts to produce it. Perfect from the beginning, it 
 has remained unchanged, while the arts, and sciences, and 
 systems of a dateless antiquity have yielded to the demand 
 for improvement. It has seen every thing human, contem- 
 poraneous with its origin, renovated and changed again; 
 but, like the Jewish legislator when he had survived his 
 generation, its eye is not dim, nor its natural force abated. 
 It maintains its post in the van (>f improvement, and points 
 the way to enterprise and hope, as the anointed leader of 
 mankind. And however untried the paths, and high the 
 distinctions which await them in their onward course, it 
 will still be seen in exemplary advance, beckoning them on 
 to the goal of perfection. No living springs of good shall 
 gush from their hidden depths in human nature, which 
 have not been smitten into existence by this rod of heaven; 
 no forms of excellence shall arise to bless the world, of 
 which it is not the parent, and the perfect type. Only give 
 the gospel room to plant its moral apparatus, and let it ob- 
 tain the necessary fulcrum for its powers, and it will em- 
 ploy a lever which shall move the Avorld from the dark 
 vicinity of hell, and lift it into the sunlight and neighbor- 
 hood of heaven. 
 
 XI. However incredible the statement may appear to 
 
428 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 those who are unacquainted with the chimeras of error, 
 there is a class of persons Avho, under the presumptuous 
 pretence of enjoying an intimate acquaintance with the 
 mind of Christ, and of magnifying his grace, profess to 
 glory in the gospel as a dispensation from holiness. That 
 such a dispensation would be highly acceptable to the chil- 
 dren of disobedience we can easily imagine, but that its 
 advent should be ascribed to him Avhom hell itself ac- 
 knowledged to be the Holy One of God, must be regarded 
 as a master-piece of impiety which bids defiance to imita- 
 tion, as the last triumph of infernal art. Compared with 
 the advocates of this blasphemy, he who only charges on 
 the gospel a defective morality is a mere venial trifler ; he 
 only alleges that it is wanting in some of the elements of 
 a perfect excellence ; they claim for it as a peculiar glory- 
 that it dispenses with all excellence. For, by affirming 
 that it discharges them from the law as a rule of life, they 
 virtually declare that it legalizes vice, that it grants them a 
 patent to sin under its own broad seal, that it naturalizes 
 the alien and eternal outlaw, sin, and makes it a denizen 
 of the kingdom of God. He, by pretending dissatisfac- 
 tion with its unfinished excellence, is guilty of abating the 
 ardor and expectation of the thirsty inquirer after the wa- 
 ter of life; they, by adulterating the vital element, by in- 
 fusing their own poisonous distillation, turn the very chal- 
 ice of salvation into the cup of perdition. He wears no 
 mask, he bears the mark of his master visibly stamped on 
 his forehead, and takes on himself, so far at least as the 
 character of the gospel is concerned, the undivided respon- 
 sibility of his sin; while they, under the treacherous 
 guise of an alliance with Christ, affiliate their monstrous 
 enormities on his holy gospel, and throw its hallowed 
 skirt over the nakedness of their pollution. 
 
 This, it must be confessed, is a ' doctrine of devils ;' it 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 429 
 
 partakes of the infernal too palpably to be mistaken ; like 
 a stream of volcanic lava, it may be traced directly to the 
 mouth of the pit which disgorged it, to scorch and desolate 
 the earth in its progress. If demons can rejoice, the suc- 
 cessful introduction of this error into the church must have 
 furnished them with an occasion for exultation not less tri- 
 umphant than that of the first transgression : it taught 
 them that the paradise of the new creation is as accessible 
 as the original Eden, that the upas can be grafted on the 
 tree of life, that they might confidently repose on the suc- 
 cess of this experiment, and regard it as final, secure that, 
 after this, there is nothing too monstrous to be believed, or 
 too good to be perverted, when human credulity and de- 
 pravity are the materials to be employed. If he of our 
 race who lent himself to be the first vehicle of this deadly 
 sentiment, had aspired to the bad pre-eminence of 
 eclipsing the first sinner, of enacting another fall of man, 
 he could not have adopted a more effectual expedient. Be- 
 yond all proportion of demerit, he has purchased for him- 
 self the first place in the classification of the heretics, and 
 troublers, and monsters of the church. Judas betrayed 
 his master to the cross ; but he has betrayed the cross it- 
 self, and all its loaded blessings, into the hands of the ene- 
 my of God and man ; his name like that of the Iscar- 
 iot traitor, deserves to be the sjmonyme of all that is ex- 
 aggerated and enormous in guilt. 
 
 XII. Instead however of humbling the gospel by put- 
 ting it on its defence against such an enemy — indeed, an 
 apology is due to common sense, and to the most ordinary 
 piety, for having adverted to the topic — I shall draw to a 
 conclusion by adducing a few illustrations of the supreme 
 importance attached to holiness in the preaching of Christ. 
 
 1 , Every reformer of ancient abuses, every benefactor 
 
430 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 of the species, must expect on entering on his godlike ca- 
 reer to be assailed by two antagonist forces. He passes to 
 his work through two opposing ranks ; the hosts of pre- 
 judice draw out, and assail him as an Abaddon, a reckless 
 destroyer of everything covered with the dust of antiquity; 
 the lovers of change congratulate themselves, that, at last, 
 they have found a champion to defy and destroy whatever 
 is. In this predicament stood Christ : but, to silence sus- 
 picion, and to leave the minds of both parties at liberty to 
 accord to his doctrine undivided attention, he stood on the 
 threshold of his labors, and made known, that, so far from 
 assailing the fundamental principles of law, upon them he 
 should take his stand as upon the terra firma of morality, 
 that he should make them the foundation of all he built, 
 the basis of a superstructure which should survive the dis- 
 solution of heaven and earth. 
 
 2. Whenever holiness came into fomparison with any 
 of those objects which the world is inclined to idolize, he 
 omitted no opportunity of assigning to it a place infinitely 
 above them. Knowledge is one of these objects: so pow- 
 erful are its attractions to many, that they cordially sacrifice 
 property, and health, and every thing in the pursuit of it. 
 But had w^e mastered all the branches of human science, 
 laid open all the secrets of nature, and expounded its most 
 hidden and comprehensive laws ; could we recall the past, 
 control the present, and by a wide range of philosophical 
 induction, foretel the future ; were we able to descant fa- 
 miliarly on the remotest regions of the universe, and, in 
 the wantonness of that power which knowledge confers, to 
 yoke the imperial elements of nature, and compel them to 
 labor for us ; still he would impress us with the fact that 
 the science by which a defiled heart may be made holy, 
 comprises the sum of all wisdom. ' This,' said he, ' is life 
 eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 431 
 
 whom thou hast sent.' But he valued even this knowledge, 
 only as it prepared men for heaven hy regeneration ; ' Sanc- 
 tify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.' 
 
 3. He foresaw that the time would come, when a splen- 
 did profession of piety, and the possession of superhuman 
 endowments, would he objects of envy in his church. But, 
 in order to correct our estimate of their value, he would 
 have us to understand, that although we could speak in 
 every dialect of heaven and earth, rob futurity of its se- 
 crets, lay open all mysteries, and grasp all knowledge ; 
 though our faith could enable us to move the everlasting 
 hills ; though we possessed, what to our apprehension is 
 the greatest distinction of a miraculous nature which a hu- 
 man being can enjoy, the power of casting out demons, of 
 detecting their presence and commanding them to depart, 
 of defying their power, and compelling them to submit; 
 though, like the apostles, we could invade the infernal re- 
 gion, and add it to our Lord's unearthly conquest; though 
 our benevolence disdained less than the sacrifice of our 
 whole property ; and though our martyr-zeal impelled us 
 into the flames ; the absence of evangelical holiness would 
 render the whole nugatory and useless. ' Not every one 
 that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- 
 dom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father 
 who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day. Lord, 
 Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy 
 name have cast out devils 1 and in thy name done many 
 wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto them, I 
 never knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' 
 
 4. Our Lord foresaw that, in every age of his church, 
 his professed followers, true to the bias of depraved hu- 
 manity, would be in danger of substituting the appendages 
 and accretions of religion in the place of piety itself This 
 pernicious propensity began to disclose itself under his 
 
432 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 own eye. For on a certain occasion, when he had been 
 delighting his hearers with an effusion of heavenly wis- 
 dom, a woman of the company lifted up her voice, and 
 said, ' Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps 
 w^hich thou hast sucked.' Now of all the conceivable sub- 
 stitutes for personal piety on which human indolence might 
 seek to repose, that of kinship to Christ seems the most 
 natural, and the least liable to general abuse. But he saw 
 in this outburst of maternal feeling, however natural, a 
 principle involved capable of general application, and preg- 
 nant with danger ; and, therefore, in order to take off our 
 attention from every inferior distinction, and fix it on the 
 true theory of blessedness, he instantly rejoined, ' Yea, 
 rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and 
 keep it.' 
 
 5. On another occasion, his mother and brethren, actu- 
 ally presuming on the ties of kindred, wished to interfere 
 with his labors, and expected that he would show them 
 some public mark of deference. ' But he answered and 
 said, Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ? ' thus 
 plainly intimating that, in his official capacity, he knew no 
 affinity but that which originates in faith, is cemented by 
 love, and puts forth the fruits of holy obedience. He de- 
 tected the hydra of religious formality in this chrysalis of 
 natural feeling ; and, therefore, at the hazard of appearing 
 severe to his earthly kindred, he cast it from him, and 
 smote it with the sword of his mouth. But, ' stretching 
 orth his hands towards his disciples, he said, Behold my 
 mother, and my brethren ; for whosoever shall do the will 
 of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, 
 and sister, and mother.' 
 
 6. Were we to quote every part of the practical instruc- 
 tions of Christ, our citations would amount to at least, two- 
 thirds of all he is recorded to have taught. In his first 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 433 
 
 discourse on record, that which he addressed to Nicode- 
 mus, he describes himself as having kindled a light in the 
 midst of the world ; and that while all the children of the 
 day delighted to feed and strengthen their spiritual vision 
 at its beams, the doers of evil, all the progeny of darkness, 
 feared to come forth from their dens of night to encounter 
 its rays, lest it should flash condemnation in their face. 
 
 7. His Sermon on .the Mount, the most detailed speci- 
 men of his preaching we possess, is practical throughout. 
 iTnlike many a modern discourse, it is not merely guarded 
 and finished with a border of practical application that it 
 may not be quite unuseful, the material and texture of the 
 w^hole piece consist of the most serviceable and enduring 
 principles of duty. So perfect is the character which Je- 
 sus requires of his disciples, that the infidel has pretended 
 to see in it nothing but the unattainable beau-ideal of ro- 
 mance, and to read in its very perfection its own refuta- 
 tion. He knew not that celestial aid is offered for the at- 
 tainment ; and reflected not that to erect a standard profes- 
 sing to be divine, and yet short of perfection, would have 
 been representing the holy God as making a compromise 
 with sin. The morality of Jesus gives no quarter to vice ; 
 allows not a moment's truce to any sinful propensity. Ev- 
 ery member and instrument of sin is to be severed and cast 
 away with an unsparing hand. His people are to turn 
 every act into devotion ; to make every meal sacramental, 
 a token and pledge of infinite love. The termination of 
 one duty, is to be only a signal for the commencement of 
 another ; their life is to be one continuous act of obedience. 
 Though, for the sake of civil government and order, they 
 may comply with many of the forms which yoke men to 
 duty, and keep them in allegiance to virtue, they are yet 
 to consider themselves bound by superior obligations ; their 
 heavenly Master has taken them to his cross, and sworn 
 
434 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 them to holiness over the symbols of his death ; hence- 
 forth they are to live on oath. 
 
 8. And their piety is to be diffusive; bursting the limits 
 of their own life, it is to multiply itself in the lives of 
 others. He offers a premium to eminent piety by pro- 
 claiming that, when sinners, aroused by its active and un- 
 sparing aggressions on vice, shall league and arm to 
 destroy it, the gates of bliss shall be throAvn wide open to 
 welcome the martyr-spirit in its ascent from the field of con- 
 flict, and great shall be its reward in heaven. His people 
 constitute the salt of the earth: the advent of his gospel was 
 the introduction of a new restorative principle into the 
 world ; it arrested the progress of corruption, renovtaed 
 much that had fallen into a state of moral decomposition, and 
 infused into it the permanent vitality and strength of holiness. 
 His people are the depositories of this principle ; and by their 
 holy activity they are not only to suspend the tendency of 
 the world to a state of general demoralization, but to save 
 it for God. They are the lights of the world ; they have 
 been kindled to irradiate the surrounding gloom ; they are 
 placed in their respective orbits to catch the radiance of 
 his throne, and transmit it to a world immersed in the sha- 
 dow of death. In order to sustain their office with effect, 
 he requires them not merely to shine, but to burn, to be re- 
 splendent with holiness and zeal. 
 
 9. When an eastern monarch contemplated a journey 
 through a distant part of his dominions, he prepared for 
 the expedition, and made it memorable, by sending harbin- 
 gers to level a road, and announce his coming. The regal 
 progress of Jesus through Judea was preceded by the com- 
 mand, ' Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths 
 straight.' The impediments to be removed, and the 
 mountains to be levelled, were moral obstructions ; and by 
 issuing an edict for repentance, a call to universal reforma- 
 tion, he would fain have signalized the epoch of his mis- 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 435 
 
 sion, by sweeping the land of its mountainous iniquities, 
 preparing it for the free and unobstructed commerce of 
 goodness, and filling it from one end to the other with the 
 paths of pleasantness and peace. 
 
 1 0. And this holiness he wills to be universal. In re- 
 quiring us to yield our supreme affection to God, and to 
 lore our neighbor as ourselves, he was prescribing for 
 earth the elements of celestial felicity ; for it is by doing 
 this that angels are happy, that heaven is the region of 
 blessedness which it is : nor could its happiness survive 
 this duty for a moment. But in directing us to pray, that 
 ' the will of God may be done on earth, as it is in heaven,' 
 he would open before us the prospect of unbounded pro- 
 gression and improvement; he would inspirit us to enter 
 on a career of emulation with angels ; to despair of noth- 
 ing, to hope for every thing, in the moral advancement of 
 the world ; to stop at no point short of universal holiness ; 
 and to call in, at every step, the almighty agency of God. 
 Heaven, it is true, is in every divine excellence, immeasur- 
 ably in advance of earth. Truth, is the food of the soul ; 
 and there, in the clear revelations of the eternal mind, the 
 spirit is perpetually feasted with fresh discoveries of truth. 
 Obedience, is the activity and exercise of the renewed 
 soul ; and there it is its privilege to serve him day and 
 night in the noblest acts of duty. Holiness is the beauty 
 of the soul ; and there it is robed in that ' fine linen, white 
 and clean, which is the righteousness of the saints.' Hap- 
 piness, is the health, the well-being of the sanctified spirit ; 
 and there it imbibes felicity, at will, at the fountain head. 
 The specific employments of the blessed we know not ; 
 but we are told that every earthly impediment to duty is to 
 them unknown, and that in every act of obedience they 
 put forth all the mightiest ardor of the most intense devo- 
 tion. Every motive to holiness acts on them with a force 
 to which earth at present has no parallel. So directly 
 
436 THE GREAT TEACHER, 
 
 does their happiness flow from their obedience, that they 
 would deplore a pause in their duty as a suspension of 
 their bliss. Holiness is always at its standard there ; and 
 happiness, at its full-tide mark. 
 
 But that state of blessedness, instead of depressing us 
 by its superiority, becomes, in the hands of the Great 
 Teacher, a spring to* hope, and a motive to imitation. He 
 knows that, in every condition of our nature, the best way 
 to ensure excellence is to aim at perfection ; on this princi- 
 ple he renders the perfection of the heavenly state subser- 
 vient to the improvement of this. Aware of the capabili- 
 ties of earth, when pervaded by his Spirit, and blessed with 
 his fostering care, he has pledged himself fully to devel- 
 ope its best properties, even all its possible excellences ; 
 and, for this end, he has raised its aim to the highest point, 
 elevated its endeavors to the loftiest pitch, by showing it 
 the fairest specimens of created excellence as seen around 
 the throne above. He has brought the throne of God 
 within sight of earth, he has directed all flesh to come and 
 collect around it ; and that we may not ask a blessing un- 
 worthy of the greatness of the occasion, he instructs us 
 to request that we may rival angels in the perfection of 
 their obedience ; in order that we may not retire from the 
 throne unblessed, through the poverty of our desires, he 
 aims to make us jealous of the inhabitants of heaven, and 
 incites us to ask to be admitted into a full community of 
 excellence and happiness with them. Yea, more; by urg- 
 ing us to make this request, he would fain induce us to 
 move God himself to jealousy, for the honor of his holy 
 name ; for what is it, in effect, but the presentation of a 
 memorial to the King of kings, setting forth that, in this 
 distant dependency of his empire, though its capabilities 
 are great, though it might be made to yield him a revenue 
 of glory which should compete with the treasured homage 
 of heaven, yet his laws are dishonored, his glory defraud- 
 
HIS PRACTICALNESS. 437 
 
 ed, and his will left undone ; what is it, in effect, but a pe- 
 tition founded on this memorial, that Heaven may not en- 
 gross to itself all the immunities of loyalty and obedience, 
 but that earth may add its full tribute to his throne, and re- 
 ceive its quota of his royal regard; that righteousness, 
 looking down from heaven, may behold her image reflect- 
 ed back again from the earth, as perfectly as it is mirrored 
 in the chrystal sea which circulates around the eternal 
 throne. 
 
 O, thou divine Instructor and Redeemer of mankind, 
 what tongue can suitably speak the sublimity of thy pre- 
 cepts, the vastness of thy benevolent designs for man, and 
 the happiness that w^ould flow from the fulfillment of them. 
 How graciously wouldst thou animate us to heroic aims of 
 virtue, by intimating that it is possible for us to equal heav- 
 en ; how wisely wouldst thou guard us from presumptu- 
 ous self-reliance, by referring us to Him for help to whom 
 all things are possible; how like thyself dost thou act in 
 saving us from a romantic expectation of the end without 
 the means, laying on us every necessary command, and 
 thus making us instrumental to the accomplishment of our 
 own desires. Would man but yield himself up to thy di- 
 rections, the hosts of the blessed should have to gird on 
 their zeal afresh, in order to maintain their ancient ascen- 
 dency; heaven and earth should become convertible terms, 
 and, as seen from the height of thy throne, should appear 
 equally active in thy service, and radiant with thy glory. 
 O, Holy Spirit of God ; Glorifier of Jesus ; and Renewer 
 of the world ; give thou the necessary impulse, and soon 
 shall it be transformed into a paradise again — a paradise 
 in which the virtues of heaven shall be emulated, and its 
 divinest pleasures be foretasted, in which the noblest exer- 
 cises of a coming eternity shall be antedated and rehearsed 
 and into which God himself shall descend from heaven, 
 bringing the peace and joy of heaven with him. 
 
I 
 

 
 'm