the One all perfect Deity. He has indeed taught us much concerning the proper object of worship; but none of his teachings on this subject require men to worship a God whom they had not before worshipped. It was one of the high purposes of his heavenly mission to reveal, more fully than had been done under the Jewish dispensation, the moral character of the only living and true God. This important purpose, he gloriously accomplished. The Jews had been taught to regard God in the light of the Supreme Governor of nature and of nations; and also as sustaining toward their nation a very peculiar relation. That is, they were instructed to view him, either in the awful attributes of divine sovereignty, or else in the restricted manifestations of his mercy, as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Sometimes indeed, he is represented to them under the character of the Father of the human family. This, however, is done but seldom.

Now the fact is quite otherwise in the Christian dispensation. Our Saviour came to make a full discovery of the real character of God, and to unite mankind to him and to one another in the bonds of love and the ways of righteousness. With a view to such purposes, he is peculiarly careful to reveal God to the world under the character of a Father. He has made it the duty of his followers to worship God under the paternal character. He commands all the members of the vast and wide spread family of man to worship God in the exercise of a filial and fraternal spirit, as their common Father in heaven. It is, therefore, very evident, that our Saviour effected no change in the Supreme object of worship. He indeed enjoined the worship

of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; of the same God that Moses taught the Jews to worship. He expressly enjoined a regard to him in his true character, as the Father of men aud angels, and the God and Father of himself. But he enjoined the worship of no new God.

You then perceive that the change which Jesus has effected relates to the mode of worship. This is proved by his own words. 'Hitherto,' says he, 'ye have asked nothing in my name. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.' Looking forward to the time when he should be exalted to the right hand of God, the alteration in the mode of religious worship which would then be necessary, presents itself to his mind. He proceeds, therefore, to instruct his apostles, and through them his followers of every successive age, in what this alteration was to consist. 'Hitherto,' says he, 'ye have asked nothing in my name.' That is, under the Jewish dispensation of religion and during your connexion with ine, you have not been accustomed to present your devotion to God in the name of myself, as the mediator between God and man. 'At that day, ye shall ask in

my name.' That is, this is to be the mode of worship under the new and perfect dispensation of gospel grace, which I am ushering into the world. This worshipping of God through myself as mediator, is to constitute one of the peculiarities of the last dispensation. This mode of worship is to be an ever enduring remembrance to the church, that her glorious head

reigns above at the right hand of God. It was important to guard this instruction against misapprehension and abuse. Our Saviour, therefore proceeds to address his apostles, and through them, his followers in all after ages, in the way of caution; yea in the terms of solemn prohibition. Foreseeing that a strong temptation would be presented to his followers to address himself in their devotion instead of his Father, when he should have become exalted at the right hand of God, he takes special pains to guard them against the power of this temptation. In that day, says he, ye shall ask me nothing.' As if he had said, you are not to understand, by praying in my name, that your supreme worship is to be offered to myself, as the Supreme Being. This I expressly forbid. And I enjoin it upon you, ever to bear it in careful remembrance, to whom your supreme homage is to be offered. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Ask, that is, of the Father, in the name of the mediator as you are commanded, that your joy may be full.' Thus you perceive that our Saviour has plainly taught us, that the mode of religious worship under the Christian, was to be different from what it had been under the Jewish dispensation, while the Supreme object of prayer was to remain unchanged. And he has also taught us with emphatic emphasis, that we are to worship our Heavenly Father in the name of his Son, the mediator between God and man.

Let me illustrate this new fully. There is one God. between this God and man.

mode of worship more There is one mediator

This one God is not this

one mediator.

This one mediator is not this one God. They are two beings, distinct from each other. In the name of one, religious worship is to be offered to the other. When you pray to the Father, you do not pray in the name of the Father. When you pray in the name of the mediator, you do not pray to the mediator. But you pray to the Father, as the Supreme Being, in the name or as the disciples of his son Jesus Christ, whom he has appointed to be the mediator between himself and sinners of the human race. man cometh to the Father in accordance with the directions of the gospel, but by Christ. He is the true and living way of approach to the living fountain. He is the mediator, the only and all sufficient mediator of the new covenant. We are to ask him nothing. We are to worship the Father in his name.

No

But what is implied in worshipping our Father in the name of our Saviour. It implies that we worship in all respects as his obedient disciples, that we believe in him as the son of God and the Saviour of the world; that we acknowledge his authority as divine; that we cherish a disposition to receive whatever doctrines he delivers, and to obey whatever commands he promulgates. It implies that we surrender ourselves to him as our only master in matters of religion; that we worship the same being whom he directs us to worship, and that we worship this glorious Deity with such feelings of heart, and from such motives, and with a view to such blessings, and in all respects in such a manner, as he directs. To worship the Father in the name of his Son, implies that our religious worship be regulated wholly by the directions which Christ has given,

respecting the object and subject, the feeling and motive, the mode and circumstance.

W.

QUIETNESS A PERVADING FEATURE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.

That ye study to be quiet,' says the Apostle, and to do your own business.'-A forgotten and despised precept, we should say, judging from the present aspect of the religious world. Perhaps it is a difficult one, too, for there is in the human mind a morbid love of excitement, and nothing is so hard for most persons, as to keep still. Yet to know how to be quiet is no trifling attainment; and to be so, is often a great virtue. We may say, perhaps, it is always a virtue. In a certain sense, at least, it is so. Or rather, quietness should be an ingredient of all our virtues. The Founder of our faith strikingly exhibited it in his life, and the epithets employed by himself and his apostles in describing the christian character, as meek,' 'peaceable,'' gentle,' and others, lead to the conviction that it is of primary value, and should be esteemed in fact, one of the characteristics of his followers. The spirit of his religion is the reverse of all that is rude, noisy, meddling, and obtrusive. The true christian is

quiet.

First, his piety partakes of a character of quietness. There is in it no tumult or agitation. He is not accustomed often to talk of it before men, for there is in