off sinfulness from others. Thus he, who was not, and could not, be a sinner by nature, did, by imputation, become the greatest of sinners: "He bare our sins in his own body on the tree; and Jehovah laid upon him the iniquities of us all, when he once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust." This dear Emmanuel was a Lamb without spot, and therefore meet to be slain for atonement; and a ScapeGoat, or Strong-One, going off, laden with iniquities; and so able to bear them away into everlasting forgetfulness.

He was very God and very man in one Christ. As Christ he is Emmanuel, or God with us. What

his name implies, that he truly is. He is God with us, able to save and to succour, able to bless and to enliven, in all our pilgrimage from earth to heaven. “Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

And is this thy promise, O thou meek and lowly Jesus! and shall I be still slow of heart to believe it! Shall I always be hanging my head like a bulrush; and shall my eyes be still gushing out their faithless tears; when thou hast promised not only the best of creatures in earth and heaven, but thine own blessed Self to be with me, who art Lord of all! O my dear Redeemer, be so with me, by thy gracious power, that I may be deeply sensible of thy continual presence! manifest thyself to me as thou dost not unto the world; for I am thine, and I desire to give up myself and all I am and have to thy blessed will for ever. Be indeed, according to thy name, my Emmanuel, my God with me and

in me of a truth, that I may walk with thee as one agreed, and draw from thee all those supplies of grace, life, and peace, without which I can neither be happy nor alive to thy glory. O hear and answer, for mine heart are upon eyes and my thee.

CHAPTER VII.

On Christ's Descent into Egypt.

IT behooved this Emmanuel in all things to be made like unto his brethren; therefore he went down into Egypt. All he did upon earth had some use and meaning. By some facts, he testified what he was doing; and by others, what he would continually do for his people.

"Out of Egypt have I called my Son, saith the Lord." His redeemed were spiritually in Egypt, the house of bondage. They were there under the service of a cruel king, a prince who ruleth in the world by usurpation till the time appointed. Grievous are the tasks, and sad are the wages, of this tyrant of souls. Jesus went down and came up again for a sign. As the Head of his people he did this, preaching their redemption from bondage in himself. In their order and times, they come up out of Egypt too, by the strong hand of this Captain of salvation. He is great in might, and therefore not one of them faileth. The prince of the air loseth his dominion over them; and though he fol

low them like Pharaoh, and chase them all the way, he cannot hinder their course of faith, nor rob them of their Canaan in glory.

Was it not

O marvellous love of my Saviour! enough for thee to take up my nature in its best estate, without submitting to a manger, to contempt, to persecution, to banishment, and all the wrongs of men? O how low must I be fallen, that it should be needful for thee (for, if it had not been needful, this act had been spared) to endure poverty, wretchedness, and shame, that I might be delivered from all! I was in Egypt, and thou camest to me. Thy grace preached liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound. Thy power performed what thy love proclaimed; and thou broughtest the prisoners from the prison, and those that sat in darkness out of the prison-house. I, O wonderful to tell! I, among thy ransomed, have followed thee in the regeneration out of this dismal Egypt, and have tasted a little of the glorious liberty of thy children. Not unto me, my dear Saviour, not unto me, but unto thy name be all the praise. I was wallowing in the mire of Egypt, and in the mud of the Nile; I was entirely given up to the filth and pollutions of this world, and should have remained therein till I had been sunk for ever in its woe; unless thy mighty arm had wrought my deliverance, and set me free. Glory to thee, JehovahJesus, thou Saviour all-divine, for mercy unmeasurable like this, for grace and glory yet before me, to which there is no end! O how shall I show forth thy praise for all which thou hast done for my soul!

CHAPTER VIII.

On the Miracles of Christ.

WE see but little into the true worth and importance of the miracles of Jesus, if we look no far ther than the historical facts. These indeed do speak aloud the glory of the Divine Person to the carnal sense of man, and did so even to those who hated and blasphemed him; but the grandeur of these works consisted in this, that they were only outward testimonies of the far more noble operations of his grace within the soul, which were not to endure for a time only, like their outward signs, but to flourish throughout eternity.

He gave sight to the blind, that he might testify unto men his sovereign power in giving light and understanding to the mind. He opened the deaf ear, that men might know by whom alone they can hear aright the good news of salvation, and live for ever. The lame he caused, in a moment, to walk, that his people might learn that they can only move, as well as live, by him, and that without him they can do nothing. He cured the foul leprosy of the body, in order to show that only by him can be healed the far more deplorable leprosy of sin, which covers and defiles the mind. All sickness vanished at his command, that we might have hope in him, as the sure Restorer of our souls. The poor or meek among men, were made rich for

eternity. He cast out unclean spirits, and suffered them to possess the swine, who were thereby lost, that he might teach his redeemed, that he only delivered and can deliver them from the powers of darkness, which, being let loose upon the world, drive them violently and swiftly down the steep course of time, into a gulf of inextricable woe. The hungry multitudes were fed by his miraculous power, to explain this great truth, that he is not only the Giver of spiritual life, but the constant Sustainer and Nourisher of it from day to day: and he did this by small means, that the excellency of the power might be known to be his, and not in the creatures, however sanctified, blessed, and used. The winds and waves were instantly obedient to his word, that his beloved might rejoice in him, as the Stiller of all spiritual waves, the tumultuous madness of this world, the ragings of Satan, and the confusion of all things. These can roar and foam no longer than it pleaseth him; and when they foam and roar at all, it shall turn out in the end for the good of his people. The dead were raised, to proclaim his rising power, and to declare, that the issues also of spiritual life and of endless death are altogether in his hands. Whatever he did was an act of mercy, under which he revealed, as in a parable, innumerable lessons of grace and love. All his works proclaimed him to be both the Creator of all, and, what seems more comforting to his chosen, the Redeemer and Restorer of millions that were lost.

Learn from these things, O believer, what thy