of Thy kingdom. Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou remainest; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up; and they shall be changed, but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.”

Christ is the Son, therefore, as "Only begotten of the Father;" as supremely "beloved" by Him; as One with Him in and from the beginning; as GOD WITH us; And we know Him to be God, because, while in the form of man, He did the works of God, and did them as a God. Man, as the delegate of God, hath wrought many wondrous works. He hath spoken the words of power, hath parted the waves of the sea, and opened through the mighty depths a path for the ransomed of the Lord. He hath smitten the waters of the river, that God's priests and God's Prophet have passed over dryshod; he hath stricken the rock, so that the water gushed out like a river; he

hath stayed the moon in her rising, and arrested the sun in his going down; he hath healed the sick, and cleansed the lepers, and cast out devils, and raised the dead; but he did all as the delegate of JEHOVAH. He wielded JEHOVAH'S power, and spake in JEHOVAH's name. But here is One, who does the works of God, and does them by the words of God, and does them by the power of God. He appeals to no greater Power, He invokes no loftier name; His answer to the supplicant is, "I will, be thou clean;" to the leper, "Go shew thyself to the Priest;" to the devils, "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit;" to the dead, Young man, I say to thee, arise;" "Lazarus, come forth;" to the winds and to the waters,

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Peace, be still." What then is this but Omnipotence? Again, He needed none to testify to Him what was in man: He knew the secrets of the heart, and returned answer, not to their words, but to their thoughts; what was this but Omniscience? Again, He

was in Heaven even while he was upon earth; "and where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them ;"-what was this but Omnipresence? He therefore in whom Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence are united, how can He but be GOD?

Not only however in living, but in dying; in that which would seem the hour of nature's weakness, and the triumph of the power of darkness, do we see Him to be God. "No man," He said, "taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." He "humbles Himself to the death of the cross." In the crisis of His unutterable agony, He declares Himself able to summon legions of angels around Him with a word; and such is the testimony borne even by the convulsions of inanimate nature to her expiring Lord, the sun darkened, the earth heaving, the rocks rending, the graves opening, that even

the voice of a heathen centurion, encompassed and astounded by these portentous signs of Deity, utters the conviction of Nature and of Reason, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

And what is He now? What need we more say, exalted as He is at the right hand of His Father; the "Brightness of His glory and the express Image of His Person; upholding all things by His power; Head over all things to His church; the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever; King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last, which is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty." Can such a Being then be other than Deity? Do we not know whom we have believed, and are we not persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed to Him against the great day?

Therefore are we baptized in His name equally with that of the Father. Therefore is the very first act that brings us

within the pale of the visible church, and qualifies us to participate in the privileges of the covenant of grace, an act of consecration to the Father who sent, and to the Son who came; to the Father who gave His Son, and to the Son who gave Himself. "This is life eternal, to know the true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent;" but it would not be life eternal to know God the Father, without knowing God the Son; for "our God is a consuming fire ;" and how could we approach Him, except as reconciled through Christ Jesus; except as made "the righteousness of God in Him." The church is an Ark of safety against the fiery deluge of Divine wrath which shall at last consume the universe, because it is Christ's church. And we are Christ's. Who then shall shake, much less subvert our belief, that we are thus to "honour the Son, even as we honour the Father?" Therefore are we, as He hath commanded, baptized in His name, equally with that of the Father. Therefore do