who believe on him to follow his steps. He came to take away sin here, and to purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.2

and in truth is to reproduce faithfully in ourselves the image of Him who has loved us."-(Ditto.) “A main part of Christ's business in this world was to teach by His practice what He did require of others, and to make His own conversation an exact resemblance of those unparalleled rules which He prescribed."-(SCOUGAL.) "Our religion sets before

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us a living copy and visible standard of good practice, wherein we have all its precepts compacted, as it were, into one body, and at once exposed to our view. Example yields the most compendious instruction, together with the most efficacious incitement to action."-(Dr. ISAAC BARROW.) Precept and example combined is the only perfect form of instruction; and that example, in order to be a rule of duty adapted to human beings, must be a human example, because men could not follow the example of an angel, nor of any nature different from their own."-(Philosophy of Redemption.) It seems to be the existence of the human nature in Christ that imparts to Christianity in its subjective character its peculiar power of influencing and controlling the human mind." (HUGH MILLER.) "The theologians have, perhaps, too frequently dwelt on the Saviour's vicarious satisfaction for human sin in its relation to the offended justice of the Father."—(Ditto.) "The great effect of the Incarnation, as far as our human nature is concerned, was to render human love for the Most High a possible thing," (ARTHUR H. HALLAM.)

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"Thus much is true and certain: that Jesus Christ is our pattern; that what He did for us that we are also to do for ourselves; or, in other words, we must follow Him in the regeneration. For what He did, He did both as ouratonement and example. His process or course of life, temptations, sufferings, denying His own will, death and resurrection, was all done and gone through on our account, because the human soul wanted such a process of regeneration and redemption; because only in such a gradual process all that was lost in Adam could be restored to us again. And, therefore, it is beyond all doubt that this process is to be looked upon as the stated method of our purification."-(Law: Christian Regeneration.) "The example of our Divine Lord is uniformly proposed to us as the model of our lives: the never-failing guide to virtue and happiness."-(Dean GRAVES.) "Nothing but the imitation of Jesus Christ enables us to penetrate into the secret of His thoughts and of His heart. Without this imitation He must ever remain an enigma for us."—(VINET.) "The truest

and most substantial practice of religion consists in the imitation of the Divine perfections." (Archbishop TILLOTSON.) "The closer our association with Christ, the nearer shall we be assimilated to Him. . . The soul that is always beholding the glory of the Lord shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory." (Divine Breathings.) "The characteristic thing in being a Christian is the education of every part of the soul upon the model of Christ Jesus."-(H. W. BEECHER.) "The image of God in man is that universal rectitude of all the faculties of the soul by which they stand apt and disposed to their respective offices and operations."(Dr. SOUTH.) "All true happiness consists in a participation of God, arising from the assimilation of our souls to Him. Every one is and must be acceptable to God according as he resembles God."—(Rev. J. SMITH: Discourses.)

2" We greatly dishonour Christ's earthly mission if we ever conceive of it as having any lower purpose than that He might redeem us from all

Whatever then is good, or true, or noble in the world is

iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." -(Dr. H. DARLING.) "The end of Christ's incarnation, humiliation, and death itself being by St. Paul defined to be the 'redeeming us from all iniquity, and purifying unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works". so in effect the reformation of lives and heightening of Christian practice to the most elevated pitch" is "the one only design of all our Christianity."(Dr. HAMMOND.) "He died that He might take away sin, and not only or chiefly to procure our pardon, which was done by Him for a further end, that a universal indemnity being offered through His death, all mankind might be thereby encouraged to enter into a course of holy obedience with all possible advantages, having the hopes of endless happiness and the fears of eternal misery before them."- (ScoUGAL: Life of God.) "Perhaps there is nothing in the language used by our Lord more remarkable than the words so often and significantly used by Him respecting the kingdom of heaven, as destined through His means to be established upon earth. . . This was His favourite and constantly recurring mode of expressing Himself; . . . and in the prayer which He taught His disciples, and which He probably meant to be used by His followers of all times, He has embodied the conceptions expressed by this phraseology most beautifully and strikingly when He has directed us to pray: Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven."" Thus "heaven, instead of being altogether separated from earth, and characterized by qualities to which those of time have no resemblance, seems, when this mode of speaking of it is adopted, to be but the extension and evolution of the same wise and good and all-pervading principles. The moment we admit the idea that earth and heaven are but varied departments of one boundless dominion, we also perceive that all human affections may now be made instrumental in promoting the best purposes of divine Providence, and that all human pursuits and occupations may be so conducted as to aid essentially in advancing that one vast plan which God is carrying on throughout all portions of His dominions for the good of His creatures."-(Manual of Conduct.) "Christian teachers in this day seem to be afraid to speak of the rewards of heaven as proportioned by the good works that believers here perform. They hesitate to employ this motive as a stimulus to Christian activity, least in some minds they might thus weaken belief in the great cardinal truth of justification by faith alone. But the Apostles and early preachers of Christianity had no such fear. They were covetous of a high place in heaven for all among whom they laboured; and knowing that this was the reward of faithfulness here, they were constantly stimulating their hearers by such a prize to a life both of holiness and usefulness. The prize that God holds up to the eye of the believer . . . is not a fixed and definite thing, incapable of addition and unsusceptible to diminution, but, on the contrary, is always proportioned by the degree of progress that we here make towards the mark.

This diversity of glory and happiness among saints hereafter will be both occasioned and measured by the difference in their holiness and usefulness in this life. 'He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully."(DARLING: The Closer Walk.) "It is very considerable, and ought to be often and seriously thought upon, that our Saviour, describing to us the Day of Judgment, represents the Great Judge of the World acquitting and condemning men according to the good which they had done, or neglected to do, in ways of mercy and charity; for feeding the hungry, and

not distinct from, but allied to Christianity.1 Whatever tends to the diffusion of knowledge, to the diminution of crime, to the lessening of physical suffering, to the extend

clothing the naked, and visiting the sick, or for neglecting to do these things. Than which nothing can more plainly and effectually declare to us the necessity of doing good, in order to the obtaining eternal happiness." -(TILLOTSON: Sermons.) "If this were practised among us, then glory would dwell in our land; mercy and truth would meet together; righteousness and peace would kiss each other; truth would spring out of the earth, and righteousness would look down from heaven; yea, the Lord would give that which is good, and our land would yield her increase; righteousness would go before Him, and set us in the way of His steps." -(Ditto.)

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"It is to be kept in mind that, though we are in the habit of separating the kingdom of God into several departments, as those of nature, of providence, and of grace, yet in truth these only form one grand dominion, assuming various aspects to our limited modes of perception and of thought; and that the kingdom of God, being thus one and uniform, we cannot better that kingdom in any of its forms or departments without extending a corresponding influence to its other and perhaps its higher aspects."- (Manual of Conduct.) "If a scientific truth be really true in one department of thought, the chances are that it will have its bearing on every other. And if it be not true, but erroneous, its effect will be of a corresponding character: for there is a brotherhood of error as close as the brotherhood of truth."-(Duke of ARGYLL: Reign of Law.) "All good is from Him; all that actually amends us and conduces to our real welfare we ascribe to Him with the most sincere and unreserved conviction." (SPALDING: Feelings in Religion.) "If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to Him, not to reject or contemn truth wherever it appears. If the Lord has been pleased to assist us by the work and ministry of the ungodly in physics, dialectics, mathematics, and other similar sciences, let us avail ourselves of it, lest by neglecting the gifts of God spontaneously offered to us, we be justly punished for our sloth. Shall we deem anything to be noble and praiseworthy without tracing it to the hand of God? Far from us be such ingratitude... Let us not forget that there are most excellent blessings which the Divine Spirit dispenses to whom He will, for the benefit of mankind."-(CALVIN: Institutes.) "God has conferred the powers which are revealed in the literature and art of every age and of every land. He gave to every orator his eloquence, to every statesman his sagacity, to every philosopher his faculty for speculation, to every artist his eye for beauty, to every poet his genius for song."-(Rev. R. W. DALE.) "Truth does not in the least become altered in its value simply by the source from which it has proceeded; . . . and hence it follows that not only those truths and institutions which have come to man from the pure source of divine revelation, but all the wisdom that has been given to His varied generations by means of those enlightened and good men who, in all countries and ages, have devoted themselves to the illumination of their species, are to be regarded as the gifts of divine Providence for the improvement of the condition of His creatures."-(Manual of Conduct.) "If you do not see that the commonest things in life belong to the Christian scheme-the plan of God-you have got to learn it."-(GEO. MACDONALD: Sermons.)

ing of material comfort or happiness is for the advancement of Christianity. With every advance in science, with every improvement in art, with every addition to our material comforts or happiness the cause of Christianity is promoted; the cause of the kingdom of righteousness, which in the latter days is to be established on the earth, is advanced.2

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1 "Not only religious and moral institutions, but arts and sciences, and legislation, as well as moral and religious truth, in all the different forms and varied degrees in which they are found in different countries and different ages of the existence of mankind, are entitled to be ranked in the class of means for the advancement of the kingdom of God; and according to the degree in which by any of these means the face of the universe is beautified, the social institutions of men bettered, or their moral and religious condition improved, in the same degree and to the same extent is the kingdom of God extended and established."-(Manual of Conduct.) "Every new discovery in science yields its contribution to the proofs and illustrations of the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of God."(Dr. M'COSH.) Every new triumph of scientific genius is a new illustration of the truth which lies at the foundation of our faith, that man was created in the image of God, and is, therefore, endowed with faculties which enable him to understand the structure of the universe which God made. Every new power which we acquire over the forces of the material world is a nearer approach to that ultimate supremacy over the works of God's hands which belongs to the ideal condition of man as a sonnot merely a servant of God, a supremacy which has been restored to our race by the Lord Jesus Christ. Every new accession to our scientific knowledge is one additional argument for adoring the infinite wisdom of Christ, the Creator of all things; and every increase of the happiness and security of human life, every alleviation of pain, every protection against disease resulting from a profounder acquaintance with the resources and laws of the physical creation is a fresh discovery of the wealth of Christ's goodness, and a fresh reason for faith in the bright golden age which He has promised shall one day bless mankind." -(Rev. R. W. DALE.) Clement of Alexandria held that "it was most unreasonable that philosophy only should be condemned on account of its being human; and that the meanest arts besides, even those of a smith and shipwright, which are as much human, should be commended and approved.' "We recognize God's hand in other things; why then do we outlaw knowledge? Why do we declare that the exercise of our intellectual powers is altogether alien from God? Why do we deny that poets and philosophers, scholars and men of science can serve God each in his calling as well as bakers and butchers, as well as hewers of wood and drawers of water?"-(Guesses at Truth.)

2 "To us the illustrious students of nature are ministers of God, and benefactors of mankind. Without the rapture of inspiration, they are prophets who interpret to us the laws by which God orders His physical creation, and they are recovering for us the history of His providence in the ages which rolled by before the earliest years of which tradition preserves a vague and uncertain memory. Unconsecrated by the imposition of saintly hands, they are priests, by whose service and mediation rich and innumerable blessings, which it has ever been in the heart of God to grant, are actually obtained for the relief of human suffering, the increase

The end of all knowledge and of all religion is the perfection of our nature, the bringing it again into that condition in which it was originally created.1 The natural powers of man are unequal to the task, and a revelation has been vouchsafed to him, making him acquainted with the laws which have been broken, and showing him how his nature may be again brought into harmony with them."

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To discover, and to bring our nature into conformity with law is the great province of reason, the great business of

of human happiness, and the general elevation and improvement of the condition of our race.' "He, in whatever situation he may be, who in the study of science has discovered a new means of alleviating pain or of remedying disease; who has described a wiser method of preventing poverty or of shielding misfortune; who has suggested additional means of increasing or improving the beneficent productions of nature, has left a memorial of himself which cannot be forgotten; which will communicate happiness to ages yet unborn; and which in the emphatic language of Scripture, renders him a fellow worker with God himself in the improvement of his creation."—(Rev. A. ALISON: Sermons.)

1 "The end of learning," says Milton, "is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection." "The end of true religion as far it regards us is the salvation and happiness of mankind."-(Archbishop LEIGHTON.) "In every department of learning there is good to be done to mankind." (Rev. A. ALISON.) "Science is advancing its discoveries, and politics its reforms, and all to remove the evils under which the world is labouring."-(Dr. M'Cosн.) "The whole nature of the Gospel redemption means nothing but the one true and only possible way of delivering man from all the evil of his fall."(T. A'KEMPIS.) "Could the world unite in the practice of that despised train of virtues which the divine ethics of our Saviour hath so inculcated upon us, the furious face of things must disappear; Eden would be yet to be found, and the angels might look down, not with pity, but joy upon us."-(Sir T. BROWNE.) 'If man in his social character does not adopt perfection for his principle, he will never have a fixed and constant one.-(VINET.)

2 "The first point of wisdom is to understand our true interest, and to be right in our main end; and in this religion will best instruct and direct us. (TILLOTSON.) "The powers of man never reach the true measure of their greatness, except in the vision and service of God."(Rev. R. W. DALE.) "Let man's knowledge become as extensive and as accurate as it ever could by any possibility, revelation is still and always supreme, always infinitely greater than any possible increment of natural knowledge," (Theory of Human Progression.) "The Holy Scripture is that provision God hath thought fit to make for our weakness and ignorance, This is the transcript of the divine mind, a light that showeth in darkness, and by which divine wisdom designed to guide us through all the maze of disputes, and to resolve us of all the important questions that concern our eternal interest."-(Holy Living.)