accident; but whether it be so or not, we shall not err in regarding the Creeds as a burst of praise, and the Nicene Creed as the first burst of praise in that Service, which is throughout a Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving. Divided as it is into three Paragraphs, corresponding to the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, it is only the Doxology expanded. And it should be said therefore in a spirit attuned to praise, in a jubilant spirit, quickened by the triumphs of redeeming Love to speak aloud the Redeemer's glory. Those who love to exalt the Name of Christ,—those who feel (as what true Christian does not feel?) that it is His Divinity which gives efficacy to His Atonement, and lends such peculiar lustre to the whole scheme of Redemption, -will not elsewhere find terms better suited to express their sentiments than those on which we have commented, "God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made, Being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made." And there is a grandeur, too, in that confession of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, which will approve itself specially to those who, being deeply conscious of the weakness and sinfulness of their own nature, know that no strength short of God's will suffice to give them the victory; "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets."

Let it be our aim, then, to join in this part of the Divine Office in a spirit of holy exultation. Such a spirit will be found to have a reflex action upon our own minds of the most beneficial character. It will strengthen our Christian principle, fortify us against temptation, enable us to cope more successfully with besetting sins. For it is not with the palsied hands of despondency that we can hope to achieve any spiritual enterprise, nor with the tottering feet of a timid, doubting, hesitating faith that we can hope to walk bravely and firmly in the ways of the Lord. "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." "The joy of the Lord is your strength."

NOTE ON THE ETERNAL GENERATION OF THE SON OF GOD.

IT was suggested to the author by some, who heard the substance of this Chapter delivered as a Sermon, that the article, "Begotten of the Father before all worlds," should receive some explanation, as being a stumbling-block to many. It can be no stumbling-block to any who have read Bishop Pearson's elaborate and masterly disquisition on the Eternal Generation of the Son, in which he shows that Our Lord is the Son of God not only in respect of His Birth of the Virgin, not only in respect of His Birth from the Grave (Resurrection), not only in respect of His Inheritance of all things, but also in respect of the communication (from all eternity) of the Divine Essence from the Father, which is far more truly and properly a generation than any natural generation of the creature. The Scriptural texts which show this are:

"GOD sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world."—John iv. 9.

(He was the Son before He was sent.)

"GOD sent forth His Son, made of a woman.”—Gal. iv. 4. (He was the Son before He was born of a woman.) "The Firstborn of every creature" (or, as it might be rendered, "Begotten prior to every creature").-Col. i. 17. "The Only-Begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father" (evidently referring to Our Lord's position in the Godhead, not to His Birth in Time).—John i. 18.

Bishop Pearson's argument is thus admirably summed up by Bishop Browne in his exposition of the Second Article:"Now the communication of the nature of God, thus made by the Father to the Son, may be called a proper generation. Nay, it is more proper than any earthly generation. For, in human generation, the son indeed derives his nature from his father, but it is in a manner according with the imperfection of humanity. Man's generation is in time, and, as connected with that which is material, results, in part at least, from that property of matter called divisibility. The son, too, in human beings, when derived from the father, becomes separated from him.

"But this is not so with God. God's eternal perfections He, from all eternity, communicated to His Son. 'So also the Divine essence, being by reason of its simplicity not subject to division, and in respect of its infinity incapable of multiplication, is so communicated as not to be multiplied; insomuch that he which proceedeth by that communication, hath not only the same nature, but is also the same God. The Father God, and the Word God; Abraham man, and Isaac man: but Abraham one

man, Isaac another man; not so the Father one God, and the Word another, but the Father and the Word both the same God. Since then the propriety of generation is founded in the essential similitude of the son unto the father, by reason of the same nature which he receiveth from him; since the full perfect nature of God is communicated unto the Word, and that more intimately and with a greater unity or identity than can be found in human generations: it followeth that this communication of the Divine nature is the proper generation by which Christ is, and is called, the true and proper Son of God.'"-Pp. 66, 67, of the Fifth Edition.

The point proved by the above texts, and learnedly expounded in the above extract, may seem at first of a subtle and abstract nature, such as has a tendency to perplex rather than edify. But see how important a bearing dogma has upon practice! We should be robbed of a full half of our consolation, if we were not persuaded that Our Lord from all eternity stood towards God in the relation of the Only-Begotten. What a pang does it cost a parent to part with an only son, -to part with him to danger, sufferings and death! Yet parents are found, who in a noble cause will make even this sacrifice, though it rends their hearts asunder. GOD made this sacrifice for the salvation of souls. How intensely must He have loved us, even while we were yet sinners, to tear His Only Son from His Bosom, and send Him down into the pit of our ruin, to agonize and bleed for every

man!

CHAPTER V

OF THE SERMON OR INSTRUCTION

"I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Preach the word.”—2 TIM. iv. 1, 2

THE

HE position which the Sermon has always held in the Communion Office sufficiently declares its nature. It follows after the Word of God, and after the authoritative conciliary exposition of the Word of God. It is plainly meant, then, to be a commentary upon, or exposition of that Word,-wanting of course now-a-days the sanction of Inspiration, wanting even the sanction of the authority of the Universal Church;

but still delivered under the express commission of Christ, when He gave this parting charge to His disciples; "Go ye, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." The Sermon is (or ought to be) an instruction of baptized persons in all things which Christ commanded, none of those things being omitted, all of them finding a place there in turn. As such, it has the Lord's own warrant, and to that warrant, not to the eloquence or ingenuity of its composition, all its spiritual efficacy is due.

Now here is opened up at the outset a line of thought on the subject before us, which may profitably guard us against contrary errors. The Sermon is an exposition of Holy Scripture. On the one hand, it has no independent ground of its own to stand upon. On the other, it is not, and is not designed to be, Scripture itself. An oration not suggested by, or turning upon, the Word of God,-not professing to illustrate its doctrines or enforce its precepts, however able it might be, and however pious and well-intentioned, would not be a sermon. Just in proportion as an address from the pulpit takes up an independent line of thought, not holding of Scripture, in that proportion it is not a sermon. But, on the other hand, a sermon is not (as some seem to think it, who cherish a very just horror of the opposite extreme) a cento of texts of Scripture, tacked together with no other connexion than such as a Concordance, or a Bible with marginal references, might furnish. There must be a play of the preacher's mind upon Scripture to constitute a sermon. be Scripture, not in its letter and abstract form, but as it presents itself to an ordinary human mind, projected upon it for the purpose of drawing out its lessons. The preacher stands in much the same relation to Scripture as a musician does to the instrument on which he plays. Every conceivable melody is wrapped up in those notes, which lie under the musician's hand. Apart from the notes, there can be no melody. Yet

It is to

the musician has an important part to play in combining the notes. If he were merely to strike a number of them at random, there would be no melody. In like manner the preacher must be a composer from materials supplied to him. All his materials are found in Scripture; there are none beside. But the arrangement of these, the illustration of one by another, the form in which they shall be presented, must be the work of the preacher's mind.

This is a point of great importance; and we must dwell upon it a little more, and trace out some of its bearings. What then is the real substance of the Ordinance (for such it is) of Preaching, as distinct from its form, which is variable, and which circumstances may modify? The substance is this, that God uses fallible and sinful man to teach man. It was of course open to Him to adopt other methods of proceeding; but this is the method which, no doubt on the wisest and best grounds, He preferred. He might send periodically angels from heaven to instruct us in the way of life. Such an arrangement might not seem to be without its advantages. The great message would always be truly, and purely, and fully delivered; it would never be liable to misrepresentation or perversion. Yet as it was not God's purpose to redeem, so neither is it His purpose to instruct us, by the ministry of angels. And thus much, at all events, we may see of the wisdom of this purpose, that angels having made no experiment of our temptations, and our whole mode of life and thought being of necessity entirely foreign to those among whom sin and sorrow are unknown, they could in no way do aught but deliver their bare message, they would not possess that key to the heart, which nothing short of a common experience can give. Why is it that European missionaries to the distant heathen see very little fruit of their labours, in comparison of converts from among the natives themselves, who have been instructed and ordained? The reason is obvious. A European has not the key to a Brahman's habits of thought, to a