they will know others also. I would, that, by themselves -in their own souls-by their attainments for which they are eager, they should know, that the humble man of Nazareth is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. Yes, by their discovering, and there lighting up in them, the recurrence of the same virtues, by which he cast his eyes over the fields of human being.

How encouraging, and consolatory a truth is here! That the elements are within you, the fundamentals of knowing, and there being known, the seats, the rudiments, of there arising in the human being the certitude, and imperishable existence, of the knowledge, truth and love, for which the most ardent aspire. Oh! these longings are not in vain! There is a germ of a purity, a wisdom, within us, which does not yearn for nought. It will not deceive us. In itself, it is an assurance, in its throbbings, that the race shall arise in a satisfaction of knowing, through itself, its Author. Our being shall open up to us! And thus shall be rendered plain, accessible to the understanding, the truths, which the study of nature promulges. The living of the humble man of Nazareth was the shewing of these truths. His life was nature-the adhering to himself in God. As we keep to nature-as the truths which will thus light within us shall be as a lamp to our feet, so shall we be an utterance of those beatitudes which are so hard to apply in the world, and a shewing of them in ourselves to others. And, as others shall incline, and throng, to the hearing, we shall have joyousness! and, in the evidence to our souls, exhort all who are

with us, to lift up their eyes, and look on the fields—

of thought the arising of human qualities the mellowness of virtue-truth, love, in the ascendancywhich, for a supreme sustenance to society, are white to harvest.

THE NEED WITH MAN OF DIVINE

TRUTH.

CHRISTMAS

DAY.

THE return of this day, or on this day the especial recurring, in anniversary, of the circumstance, in commemoration of which the day is kept as a holiday, is a jubilee to my soul; for on this day pervades me a gladsome impulse: it is a cheering of my spirit from the depressions that may weigh heavily on me of the world's cares; or a kindling, a quickening, of powers that have an object, a pleasure, beyond the present hour: a pervading of my system with a light, an intuition, of the object of God in man's being.

With a peculiar implication, hear I, in spirit, the words, that were spoken by him whom this day spiritually presents to my mind, that are a message of glad tidings, a communication, or revelation, responsive to which more sensitively throb human emotions; our loves, our aspirations-our henceforth increased understanding, welcoming the warm solace to our yearnings; soothed, calmed, sanctified, our perturbations for truth-the Divine will, delivered to man, from God, by his messenger, Jesus of Nazareth; he enunciating :-"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 captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” Blessed message! blessed in piration! Blessed declaration of truth!

Has the result proved the verity of the words which I have now quoted? On this I rest my appeal; taking them for the basis on which I shall proceed to construct my discourse. They are the 18th, 19th and 21st verses of the 4th chapter of the history of the Gospel by Luke.

I will read them with the context.

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was 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 captives, 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 synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."

You will find the corresponding passage, which

also, with the words that I have quoted, I read in the earlier portion of this service, in Isaiah, the 61st chapter, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd verses.

Such was the opening of Christ's teaching; the declaration of the authority of his mission: and it is to substantiate, whether the results have borne out the truth of the declaration, the applying of the prophecy to himself, that I have taken his words for my text.

*Before I proceed, however, I will cursorily notice to you-though I have on former occasions variously reminded you of the circumstance, but I do so occasionally for the sake of the information of the youth who are always rising up amongst us-that in the synagogues of the Jews, it was usual for some of the people to offer themselves, or to be called upon, by the keeper of the synagogue,-with whom, or in whose care, were deposited the sacred books, and who was responsible for the due performance of the services of the day, to read the lessons, and to make on them what observations the reader might feel interested to make; so that there was nothing extraordinary in thẻ circumstance of Jesus having delivered unto him the book, and in his reading from it, and addressing the audience on what he had read. It is not improbable that he might have been in the habit of reading on these occasions ;-and, indeed, it is said, that, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. This may apply to the two circumstances; or to the one only, of his custom of attending the synagogue on the Sabbath day; and he might now, for the first time, have made