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crowd gathered together to hear him on the Sunday had been attracted by the hope of seeing him do some curious thing. I imagine it would be to him a very painful discovery, that those whom he believed had loved him, because he had "told them the truth," had rather been drawn to him, thinking there was something in him uncommon and unnatural.

Scarcely could any man hope to persuade others he really sympathizes with them in sufferings occasioned by physical and moral weakness, if by the very constitution of his nature he were himself exempt from both. Wants which miracle could satisfy at pleasure are not our wants, they are not "wants" at all. A man who has no desires, save those he may on all occasions gratify, is not subject to temptation, seeing he only "is tempted who is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed."

Humility, such as is spoken of by the prophet Isaiah as the condition necessary for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we as mortals fain would cherish, but humility consisting in the consciousness and modest use of supernatural power is of a kind we cannot even apprehend. The being in whom such humility resides cannot be fitly called a

human being, at least he does not so present himself to our minds. That it may have been otherwise with writers in the Bible is however quite probable, seeing that Christ is by no means the only man there represented as obtaining some degree of control over the elements, and also the keys of life and death.

In the survey of Christ's life and work given in "Ecce Homo," the record of His miracles is not only accepted, but they are stated to have been "essential to Christ's success :" while in His "temperance in the use of supernatural power" we are asked to contemplate "a moral miracle superinduced upon a physical one." That such temperance may be among "the graces of the gods" none can deny; but how the person by whom it was exercised could be "in all points tempted like as we are," I do not understand. "We walk by faith, not by sight:" the "Reign of Law," beneficent in its unalterable operations on the grand scale, tempts us at times to think our aims and aspirations trifling, both in their issues and import: and this temptation seriously tries our moral strength. To presuppose Christ entirely freed from it, is to conclude not only that "He had an easier passage through life than

we," but that He never knew the fear of death, over which we have to gain a victory through faith. Against the objection that the Apostles' belief in miracles exempted them too, from our doubts, I urge the absence from Paul's Epistles of other than moral grounds for faith, save one which is open to question.

It is, indeed, less in His character as a Brother in sufferings, than as a Brother in sanctification, that the separation of Christ from humanity is felt to detract from the glory of His power in the past, and from its virtue in the present, to animate our faith and hope. "As many as received him," says the Apostle John, "to them gave he power to become the sons of God:" in strong terms does Christ figure the power of faith, which surely has been tested in removing mountains of superstition and of sin, while the spirit of holiness has declared many of Christ's brethren to be sons of God; only the hope, too often cherished, of obtaining powers denied to man, has once and again been put to shame. The moral source to which Christ attributed His power, and such apprehension of it as should quicken faith and love, is I think, clearly manifest in His reply to Peter's expressed

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conviction :-"Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood (external testimony) hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." That" That "upon this rock" Christ's true church is built, thousands of souls could testify, who, far from the age of miracles, aye, living in this age, which needs must call in question every miracle, yet confess to Christ, "Thou art the Son of the living God!" That this view may induce Paul's desire no more to know Christ" after the flesh" I readily admit; but with regard to the attempt made in "Ecce Homo" so to present Him, I think it fails to bring before us "the man Christ Jesus."

Much of the popularity of this book is, I think, owing to the fact that it meets in a most acceptable manner some of the special wants and tendencies of our day. The first of these which I shall notice is the cry for UTILITY.

There is a very general demand for practical philosophies and beneficent religions, and who can wonder at it? Comparisons drawn between the condition of the poor in our own country and on the continent do not flatter the pride of Christian Englishmen, while that heart must indeed be callous which does not often ache at the thought

of our neglected little ones, long that they should be better cared for, and devise means by which some stimulus might be given to general education. Not in heathen lands alone are there "dark places, full of the habitations of cruelty."

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Now it is generally allowed, at least it is not openly contradicted, that sin is the cause of the greater part of suffering; but sin itself is looked at too much in its consequences, not in its character, and as the result, remedial measures are material and superficial. I fear both Paul and Emerson are regarded as "unpractical, and quite beside the mark" in the remedies they would suggest--the one-" Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh;" the other"Regret calamities if you can thereby help the sufferers, if not, attend to your own work, and already the evil begins to be repaired."

I have no hesitation in predicting an affirmative. answer from persons in all professions, guardians of youth, and employers of labour, were they asked, "Would you not be thankful if all on whom you depend for the prosecution of scientific investigation, all for whom you are responsible, all on whom you rely for the prosecution of your plans,

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