weight must this consideration have lent to his instructions, what power to his rebukes, what authority and force to his commands! Truth never languished on his lips, never suffered in his hands, from want of sympathy in its advocate. To this end was I born,' said he, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.' And as often as it issued from his tongue, it came with the freshness of a new revelation; was announced with an earnestness commensurate with its intrinsic importance, and with the momentous results depending on its success; and was defended with the devotedness and zeal of a champion prepared to die in its behalf.

Such is the present limitation of our knowledge, and our constant liability to err, that diffidence in the announcement of our opinions is accounted a virtue. But he, who came forth from God to be the light of the world, spoke on every subject with the unfaltering assurance of certain knowledge. To him, truth, all truth was, in a sense, ever pres ent and self-evident. Properly speaking, he uttered no mere sentiments, notions, or opinions, but only truths. He did not speak on probability and credit; his assertions were sustained on ultimate principles and personal knowledge. He saw, intuitively, that whatever was opposed to his doctrine, however plausible as conjecture, or deeply rooted in the popular faith, was delusion and falsehood. 'Every one that is of the truth,' said he, 'heareth my voice.' And not only was he assured of the particular doctrine, he was perfectly acquainted with the general principle whence it drew its authority, and with the unchangeable position that principle holds in the system of universal truth. Having stood in the counsel of God, having dwelt in the penetralia, the innermost recesses of the eternal sanctuary, the elements and originals of all truth were familiarly present to his mind. Of his sublimest supernatural dis

closures he averred, that he was speaking that which he knew, and testifying that which he had seen. He came forth from the bosom of the Father, as the Word, the Revealer of that infinite mind in which, from eternity, he had surveyed the archetype and idea of all truth; and he spoke with the authority of a divine oracle.

But, besides the consciousness that he was the Word and the Wisdom of God, his discourses must have derived an accession of power from the knowledge that he was unfolding truth of the highest order-the words of eternal life. Science of all kinds is distinction and power; and he who imparts it is a benefactor to his species: but the knowledge which Jesus came to unfold was emphatically the gospel; truth which God deems important, which had been revolved from eternity in his infinite mind, which enters into his purposes and involves his glory; a revelation so essential to our well-being, and every way so momentous, that it not only disdains comparison with the discoveries of man, but engrossing to itself the undivided attention of the only begotten Son of God, would have held its majesty debased had it been mingled, even on his hallowed lips, with the meaner topics of human science. His mission contemplated our race, as immortal beings laboring under the frown of incensed justice; and standing ignorant, helpless, and exposed, on the verge of a gulf of irretrievable ruin. Alive to all the horrors of our condition, he came with the message and means of deliverance; he brought from heaven an express assurance of complete relief. Other knowledge may be acquired by ordinary means, its worth may be computed, it may be dispensed with altogether; but the way of salvation could only be made known by God himself: while its utter indispensableness and infinite value appear from the fact, that we must have it or perish. I am come,' said Christ, a light into the

world;' and, as he ascended the firmament of truth, he shone with the sublime consciousness, that, were he to withdraw its beams and retire, the world would be immersed in eternal night; but that as many as should walk in his light, would be brought from the darkness and distance of sin, into the immediate vision and fruition of God. He could stand forth and challenge the profound attention of the world, with the full conviction that he was not only the greatest benefactor it would ever behold, but that he combined within himself all the several qualities of beneficence to be found in the universe; for he felt that, in imparting the gospel, he was pouring out the resources of heaven, and conferring an antidote for all the miseries of mankind.

Add to this, the Son of God was perfectly exempt from the chilling perception that his motives were alloyed. It was peculiar to him, of all born of women, to be entirely free from the taint of selfishness. 'He pleased not himself.' The whole of his course was a history of pure disinterested benevolence. He had assumed our nature for no other purpose than to display the glory of God in the happiness of man; and for this end he breathed out his life. When uttering his largest professions of sympathy and love, he rejoiced in the secret consciousness that he intended to do abundantly more than he had said; that, besides the stream of goodness and truth which issued daily from his lips, he held within his heart a fountain of compassion, clear as crystal, as yet untouched; but which, at the appointed hour, would issue forth, far exceeding expectation, and blessing the world.

And beyond all this, what must have imparted vigor to the tone of his teaching, was the unclouded prospect which he enjoyed of its ultimate and universal success. 'This gospel,' he could say, 'shall be preached for a witness among all nations.' In its immediate results, indeed, it

but too fully realized the representation of the sower, that went forth, to sow. But he clearly foresaw that the incorruptible seed of his word, though for a time it might seem to be lost, was destined again to spring out of the earth, producing a harvest of holiness for heaven. In praying that his church might be sanctified by the truth, he felt that he was praying with the force of an almighty decree; that, in the divine intention, his prayer was answered as soon as uttered; while he beheld, in anticipation, a host which no one could number, already encircling the throne above, robed in the purity his prayer desired. A part of the joy which was set before him, consisted in the distinct perception of a scene, in which his truth, armed with the Omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, having completed the conquest of error, given law to the world, and impressed her image on every thing human, was receiving the homage of a renovated race, and reigning in the new heavens, and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Recollecting that causes such as these concurred in the teaching of the Son of God, and bearing in mind the specimens we have adduced from his divine discourses, we are fully prepared to hear it testified, that 'the people were astonished at his doctrine;' and that, 'when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine; for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.' Their established teachers, having long since completed the conquest of common sense, labored to preserve the fruits of their victory, by the endless repetition of fables and childish traditions. The loftiest models of public instruction with which they were acquainted, consisted in the heartless recitement of frivolous opinions and trivial ceremonies, confirmed by quotations more jejune and frivolous still; the very essence of insipidity. What then must have been the astonishment and involun

tary homage with which they listened to the discourses of the Son of God. It was an era in the history of their minds. In their opinion, he spake, as never man spake. For, besides that he addressed them in his own name, as the highest authority, he laid open scenes the most novel, and subjects the most momentous; carried his appeals into their conscience; made them once more feel that they were immortal men; stripped off every mask, and conveyed them, with their sins upon them, to the throne of God; annihilated the distance between them and the judgment day; placed them on the threshold of the infinite and everlasting; and effaced the recollections of the present, by the absorbing realities of the eternal future. Some hailed his preaching as a new and glorious light, while others shunned it as the forked and fatal lightning; each class bearing involuntary testimony to its commanding power. And, associated, as it naturally would be in their minds, with the recollection of his miraculous deeds; remembering that the demons had quailed, and the tempestuous ocean grown quiet in the presence in which they were standing; that the whirlwind had revered the voice to which they were listening; they could not but tacitly confess that he spoke with an authority which, if the sun were extinguished, might say, 'Let there be light,' and light would be.

In concluding an essay, already, I fear, too much prolonged, the reader will allow me to suggest its practical application. Whatever may be the characteristics of a perfect instructor, he is entitled to look for the counterpart of each in those he addresses. The authority, then, which distinguishes the teaching of Christ should be met, by his disciples, with submission and acquiescence. It is obvious to all, that the mental impression received from any object, depends materially on the state of the mind itself. If any