that is holy and good.

How pure then should those persons be in whom the Holy Spirit deigns to dwell! How single should be their aim! How constant their self-denial ! How heavenly should be their feelings! And how should pride, and sensuality, and vanity, and covetousness, and love of gaiety be banished from their bosoms!

2. Not only does He dwell in them by His Spirit, but He also dwells among them as one of themselves. "And walk in" (or among) "them." In the person of His Son He assumed their nature, and thus became bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. He was made "in all things like unto His brethren," so that He can hold communion with them on a level with themselves. Taking upon Him their sinless infirmities He can sympathize with them; becoming the Captain of their salvation. He is in their midst to superintend their circumstances-to guide them in their courseto protect them from surrounding dangers-and to defend them from all the assaults of their enemies. As he marched forward in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night to guide His Israel through the wilderness, so He still walks in the midst of His people. He walks among them as a teacher among his pupils, as a master mariner on board his ship, as a general among his ranks, seeing that all is safe for their protection, improvement, and progress.

III. We have the relative connection here expressed. "And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." It is a mystical union which exists between Him and His people; whilst it is an union of supremacy on His part, it is at the same time an union of mutual friendship and familiarity.

1. He is their God, which implies not only an object of adoration and worship, but also of favour and protection. Being their God He is the source of their blessings and happiness. His perfections become their inheritance, He engages to acknowledge them for His own, He delights in them, and will supply all their need; His wisdom shall guide them, His strength shall defend them, His arm shall be

underneath them! He will hear their prayers, and cause all things to work together for their good.

2. They shall be His people, not merely by creation and providence, but by an act of special grace. He has made a covenant in Christ to constitute them His peculiar heritage, thus conferring upon them a degree of favour to which all others are strangers. On their part they dedicate themselves to Him, loving, worshipping, and serving Him. They trust in Him, and delight in Him as their only stay and protector; they aim in all their conversation to declare His glory and praise. The language implies a right of possession which is mutual on the part of God and His people. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

What an inestimable privilege it is to be a Christian! it is to be a child of God-to feel that He is our Father and our Friend, to feel that though we may be forsaken and despised by all others, yet there is One who never forsakes, One who never forgets that He has a people dependent upon Him, and who need His constant care. Compared with this how small the honour of being permitted to call the rich our friends, or to be connected with the nobles or even the princes of the world. Let the Christian then most highly prize his privileges and feel that he is raised above the most exalted elevations of rank and honour which man can bestow. All these shall fade away, the highest and the lowest shall meet on the same level in the grave, and alike turn to dust; but the elevation of the people of God shall only begin to be visible and to be appreciated when all other honours fall into eternal decay.

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The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity.

MORNING SERVICE.-Second Lesson: Luke i.

Verse 32.-" He shall be great."

No sooner had man wrecked his moral character in Eden than God graciously introduced a plan for its restoration. The blessed promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, held a prospect before the new world that, relapsed and degraded as it had become through man's disobedience, it should be again raised and renovated. Thus the great Creator at once manifested that whilst he was just and true to punish the transgressor for sin, He could likewise be gracious and merciful in forgiving that sin. However, to call into exercise the faith of His people, and to show that the breach made by man in a moment would be the work of time to repair, even by God himself, He protracted the fulfilment of the promise to some distant period. Hence as the population of the world increased, and as time advanced, the knowledge of the fact was confined to the few, and its belief to fewer still. For four thousand years the world was left to the guidance of unaided reason, and while a very small portion of the human race was receiving a revelation from heaven, the mass was left to work out the problem by what means the moral character of man may be raised. In the midst of all, "darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." At the very time when eloquence, poetry, and philosophy were crowning men with the laurels of fame, the great bulk of the population was sinking into the most degenerate ignorance and superstition; Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, successively rose to eminence and fell again in turn; but no system which either

of them introduced proved to be a sufficient lever to raise the condition of mankind until God ultimately verified the promise that the "seed of the woman "should bruise the "serpent's head."

To the fulfilment of this promise the Old Testament saints looked with delight; the patriarchs could see the day of Christ at a distance and rejoiced at the sight; the priests recognised an emblem of His worth in their dying victims; the prophets hailed His coming with ecstacies of joy; pious women dreaded the barren womb as the disgrace of their sex, each hoping to be honoured with giving birth to the

Saviour of the world. But this honour was reserved for Mary, a poor virgin of the tribe of Judah, who found favour in the sight of God, and received the glad tidings that of her the promised seed should be born. "And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."

In the text we have an intimation from the angel Gabriel of the future greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which may be regarded in connection with Himself, and in connection with His Church. Both views being inseparably blended together, we shall now notice them under one head, and observe

1. That He is great in His pedigree. "Who shall declare his generation?"

We meet with the biography of many eminent and praiseworthy characters in the annals of sacred and profane history, in the tracing of whose genealogy we have been both interested and benefited, but the pedigree of none surprise us so much as that of the Son of Mary. "Who shall declare His generation?" We have indeed His lineage on His mother's side in the first chapter of St. Matthew, as far back as

Abraham, and in the third chapter of this book we have His lineage on His supposed father's side traced to Adam; but if we regard the testimony of the angel to Mary as being valid, we must look to some other source for the pedigree of Christ than the lineage of Joseph the carpenter. And the angel answered and said unto her, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." He "shall be called the Son of God." God has elsewhere said of Him, "This is my beloved Son; hear ye Him." "He was declared to be the Son of God, with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Some speak of the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ, stating that He must of necessity be the eternal Son of God, or if we deny this, we must either deny the union of the Godhead, or the distinction of persons in the blessed Trinity. But this doctrine seems to be involved in a great mystery, for if we speak of the eternal sonship of Christ as God, we must, of course, speak of Him as inferior to the Father, inasmuch as the Son must be younger than the Father. We are instructed in scripture that He is co-equal, and co-existent with the Father. "Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God." If He be equal with God, He must Himself be God; if he be God He must be eternal, if He be eternal, none could have been His senior. We cannot therefore consistently speak of eternal sonship. However, by escaping Scylla we must not strike against Charybdis. Three persons and one God is a mystery that belongs to Omniscience alone to demonstrate, but as we are assured that there are three distinct persons going under the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we must understand those distinctions of persons as filling different capacities in their official engagements to effect the salvation of a perishing world. Christ is then the Son of God in office, being appointed the only Mediator between God and man. The more we reflect on His pedigree, the stronger we feel the