was Nurse; that was Physician; that was Minister; that was Friend; that was All in all to the desolate, the poor, and the needy.

ness.

The manifestation of Jesus Christ upon the cross was to show that God suffered in order that men might be redeemed from suffering. It was to show the interior disposition of God as an all-helpful, all-serving, all-loving Father, full of the plenitude and grandeur and heroism of mercy. It was to make known to the world the divine ministration of goodThis was made known through the Lord Jesus Christ, and no person has ever felt the real power of the Lord Jesus Christ that his soul has not in substance come to such a view as this, though he may not have understood it in any philosophical sense. It has been limited, it has been chequered, it has been clothed in ways that were grotesque, it has been so dealt with that the precious truth has been hindered in its progress; but I hold that the sacrifice of Christ was a semblance of the divine nature, in which love universal bore in itself the capacity and the disposition to serve universal want ; and that when Christ laid himself down and said, "I am the Road," he let the feet of all the world tread upon him. The old, and the weak, and the captive, and little children, and all that lived, walked upon him, as it were. He made himself a way on which their feet could tread. He put himself underneath them, so that when he lifted himself up he might carry them up with him. Having humbled himself in this way, and done such a mighty and majestic service of love, fitly was it declared that God for this should give him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow, and every tongue confess that he was Lord, to the glory of God.

Our Lord, therefore, is not a despot of supreme decrees, who sits in heaven saying to the world, "There is law, and if you do not come up to that law, you shall be damned— and if you do, a great many of you shall, that I made on purpose to damn." How hideous is the conception of such a sovereign as that, lifted up by the side of Calvary, that speaks of One who descended from the glory of the heavenly estate that he might bring down to men the infinite mercy of

a self-sacrificing God, to represent the glory that the eterni. ties would disclose! What a slander it is to depict God as one who finds his glory in the most despicable and hateful tyranny! For the race is born too weak, too poor, too low down, too ignorant, to find its own way from the ooze. We come from the dust, and to the dust we go again; and if there be not somewhere something mightier than men's own power, O what will become of them? What would become of our children if they were all alone in the house? How many babes would ever get beyond the first few days if there was not a ministration over them of some superior? We have it in the family all the time. We have it in the interpretation of the Bible as it is continually before us. Those who live for weakness and for want; those who pour out their own experience, exercise their own judgment, spend their own time and give their own life for those who need succor, are honorable in the sight of their fellow-men, and are held in high esteem by those around about them by reason of these things. Mankind are but little children. The whole world is in babyhood. Men were created helpless. The race was made subject to vanity not willingly. not ask me whether I would be born, nor you. were brought into existence without their volition. The continents of the globe were peopled without consulting the beings by whom they were peopled. The whole earth is in trouble and bondage. And yet there is a God of infinite mercy and compassion. It seems to me that men might well rise up with an indignant infidelity, and maintain their manhood against the mischievous and horrible idea of a demoniac God.

God did The nations

That which takes place in the family between parents and children is an illustration of what takes place in God's universe between him and his creatures.

I know of fathers whose sons are intemperate, and whose houses are as Gethsemanes and Aceldamas; and yet, such is their life that all the surroundings of their homes, and all the golden hours that might otherwise be radiant in the household, are sacrificed; and no continuance in evil, no excess, no temptation, wears out the unweariable patience of

parental love; and thus years and years of debasement being past, yet it is hoped that years in the future may bring reformation.

Now, who gave to the father that love and that heroism? Whence did they come but from Him who does by the universe and by its prodigals what the father in an earthly family learns to do by self-sacrificing love for his son.

With these conceptions of God, I could say, almost, as Paul did, "Let me preach that view, and I will know nothing else."

But there is something very subduing in the mercy of God, more than in his judgments and righteousness. We need the conception of a God who is infinitely righteous, and who is stirring the world up to righteousness. We do not want a God who does not care, and who would let the world go into a slough. We do not want a God who will not hold men responsible, and who will not visit them with pain and penalty for violation. We want a God who shall be a schoolmaster that is exacting, and demand that his pupils shall perform their duties; but we want him to be a schoolmaster who shall work out the peaceable fruit of knowledge in the school boys, and make lovely characters in them.

Those are not the best parents who do not care whether their children go right or wrong. Good parents will determine that their children shall go right; and while they resort to severe measures to secure their obedience, they will have the welfare of those children before them, and they will love them, and will wait and suffer for them. The love of a true parent will empty itself for the child, and make itself the minister and servant of the child's wants. The parent that is wise and faithful will use pain and fear, as well as love, for the exaltation of the child.

And we need the view of a father God, who has determined in his infinite warmth of love that the whole creation shall yet be glorified, ransomed, saved; and who, in time and eternity, by joy, by sorrow, by pain, by pleasure, by fear, by hope, by all motives, administers for the upbuilding of the entire race.

This is a conception of God before which my soul can

bow. I could not bow before a despot. I say freely that there have been views of God taught and held up which are abhorrent to that spirit which has been bred in me by the familiarity of the Gospel, and to the moral sense which I have derived from my knowledge of Christ Jesus. Humility and gentleness and meekness, so far as I have had them sown in me, rise up in revolt at such ideas of God's character as have been made supreme in theology. I rebel against them with all the strength that there is in me. I resist such aspersions upon the life and example of the Lord Jesus Christ, and upon the character of Almighty God. I protest against such slanders of the grandeur and glory of the topmost heaven.

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But when you reveal to me that the regnant Power of the universe governs nations and individuals by material forces, by ten thousand cogent motives, by all the influences that can touch all sides of human nature, but that he governs them in love, with infinite patience, for the growth and increase of all his creatures, and that when I say Our Father which art in heaven" I utter a vaster truth than any fatherhood on earth can interpret to me and make me understand-when you reveal to me such a God as that, everything that is within me bows down before it. I admire, I love, I adore, I follow, and I am smitten through with a sense of my infinite unworthiness, when I think of what such an One is, and of what I am-of the contumescence of my pride, of the infiltrations of my selfishness, and of the despotic sides of my experience, instead of self-sacrificing and self-renouncing sides of that experience.

God is crucified. Do you shrink from that? Have you been brought up to think that God must be One who is lifted above the power of pain? Stop, and think again. What would you think of a man on earth who was so perfect that he could not suffer for a friend? What would you think of a woman who was so serene, with a face enameled and white, that she could see sickness and sorrow and anguish and death come into her family, and sit sweet and happy? What would you think of one who was so perfect that he could remain tranquil and undisturbed in the midst of sorrows in overmeasure on every side? Would you consider absence from pain under such circumstances as perfection? Would you

not feel everything that was generous in your soul revolting at such a conception as that? I say that a being who cannot suffer for another is despicable. The idea of such a being is hateful.

Do you shrink from worshiping Christ? What do you shrink from worshiping that Name which is above every name—the Name at the sound of which every knee shall bow, and which every tongue shall confess as Lord to the glory of God? Is there not full and glorious permission here?

I call upon every man who has a sense of what is worthy in the noblest conception of manhood to look up to that yet nobler conception of which these are but analogies and emblems-to the glorious sacrifice of Christ as an interpreting element of the divine nature-to God, who rules over the whole world.

Are you unwilling to be his friend? Are you unwilling to be his disciple? Are you willing to take upon you the cross, and to live a life in which you shall give up yourself for the sake of helping others-not every moment, but in great lines and in organized elements of duty? If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his. You may have the spirit of the Pharisee-you may never drink; you may never chew tobacco; you may never swear; you may never shave nor black your boots on Sunday; and you may thank God that you are so regular, eating and drinking just enough, and not a bit too much, owing nobody anything, and paying your taxes regularly, and living, oh how gloriously! And the more gloriously you live, the more you admire yourself; and the more you admire yourself the more you marvel that your neighbors are so imperfect; and when they suffer, you say, "They ought never to have done so why do they not do as I do ?"

Is that the soul of manhood? Is that your conception of manliness? Is not one to be in sympathy with the infirmities of men? He who holds himself to be a servant of men looks humbly upon his own attainments. Is not that the

more generous and the nobler way? Is it not that that the world lacks? Is it not that, after all, which is to constitute the triumph of Christianity?