fainting tribes of the Israel of God, so the blessings of salvation revive and animate the minds of God's spiritual Israel. By waiting upon the Lord they "shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." When the child of God thirsts after righteousness, as the hunted "hart panteth after the waterbrooks," he may come unto Him who giveth "living water" and drink.

3. He is "as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." This completes the benefits derived from Christ, for the rock not only screens the traveller from the rays of the sun, but it also possesses a cooling and soothing property in itself, which it emits to him who approaches it. Christ saves you from all the withering and destructive effects of outward assaults. He does more; He also conveys to your soul the soothing, comforting virtue of His own grace and love. The Church, in speaking of His benefits in Solomon's Song, says, "I sat under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." By virtue of your approximation to Him all your sorrows can be allayed, all your weariness be cast off, all your troubles be forgotten, all your tears be dried up. He will give unto you "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

These then, are some of the benefits derived from the Man Christ Jesus; but the half can never be told. He is a mine of wealth, which cannot be explored; a sea of mercy, which cannot be fathomed; a stream of love, which never dries; a fountain of grace, which never fails. Will you apply to Him for shelter and protection? "There is no salvation in any other, and no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved." To be His, is to be secured for time and eternity from the wind, the tempest, and the sun. But to continue His enemies, is to be for ever exposed to all that will complete your misery.

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Christmas-day.

MORNING SERVICE.-First Lesson: Isaiah ix.

Verse 6.-"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

In this portion of sacred writ we have revealed unto us the greatest and best of gifts: it may well be termed "God's unspeakable gift." When God first created man He made him a holy, just, and spotless being, He endowed him with His own image, and furnished him with all the properties of innocence. But alas! he soon fell from this state of purity, and through his disobedience he lost both his happiness and his God. Adam, by sinning against God, brought sin and death into the world. From that fatal moment he, and all his posterity, became subject to natural, spiritual, and eternal death. Notwithstanding all this, the love and compassion of Jehovah were so great that no sooner had man wandered and ruined himself than the promise was given, that through the seed of the woman the race should be restored into favour, and be raised from that melancholy state of destitution and wretchedness. Redemption was revealed through the incarnation of the second Adam, and a way was marked out through Him by which God could be just and the justifier of all those who believe in the Saviour.

During the Mosaic dispensation the Redeemer was typified in various ways, and under various forms. The Paschal lamb which was to be eaten by the Israelites with bitter herbs—the scape-goat which was to bear away the sins of the people into the wilderness, together with all the animals offered in sacrifice on the Jewish altars,-pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ as the

great sacrifice which God had appointed "to take away the sins of the world." All the prophets prophesied of Him, and looked forward with joy to the period when the Son of God should assume the nature of man, and stand a substitute for the sinner. When, therefore, the fulness of time appointed by Divine wisdom was come, the antitype of all the types, and the substance of all the prophecies appeared in the form of a servant and the likeness of man. Though our text is a prophecy concerning Christ, yet it speaks of Him as already come, showing the clearness of Isaiah's foresight of the Messiah, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," &c.

The field which is opened before us in this passage is so interminable that we cannot at present enter fully into any portion of it. We must, therefore, content ourselves with a cursory view of each part, whilst in every clause we see the beautiful adaptation of our Redeemer to work out the incomparable plan of our salvation. We shall notice first the appearance, and secondly the character, of the Messiah.

I. The appearance of Christ in the flesh, a child is born, unto us a son is given."

"For unto us

Many are the names given here to our blessed Saviour, but as Immanuel, God with us, He fills the whole, although He is "called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." At the same time. He is a child born, and a son given unto us. Well might the great apostle of the Gentiles be absorbed in admiration, and exclaim with astonishment, " Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh." By contemplating this stupendous subject may our hearts be filled with Divine love, that we may admire the infinite condescension of Him "who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."

1. "Unto us a child is born." This clause respects the humanity of the Saviour. It points out to us His incarnation and birth, which though future, is spoken of in the present

tense, to show the certainty of it, and that He should really become man-assume a true body and reasonable soul— partake of the same flesh and blood as His people-be made flesh and dwell among men. It was necessary for Him to become a child, that He might be a suitable Saviour for children, otherwise He could not have sympathised with all the feebleness and infirmities of infancy. But being born as an infant, treated as an infant, nourished as an infant, and growing in stature and wisdom as another child, He was subject to all the pains and weaknesses which are attached to children. Therefore He is "touched with the feeling of (their) infirmities." In regarding His birth we may notice that it was humble and poor-He was born in due time—and He was born under the law. Hence the declaration of the apostle, "When the fulness of time was come God sent his Son, made of a woman; made under the law." Christ appeared under three laws. The moral-the ceremonialand the mediatorial. He was born to sustain the curse of the moral law, to abolish the ceremonial-and to establish the mediatorial. He came to "fulfil the law," and therefore was submissive to all its ordinances. He was circumcised at eight days old. Thus, though pure and without blemish, He was esteemed polluted, and became a debtor to keep the whole law. When He was forty days old He was taken into the temple to be redeemed as the firstborn for five shekels of silver, according to the law. His mother at her purification offered that sacrifice which was appointed by Moses. Thus, "for us men and for our salvation," the eternal Lawgiver Himself became subject to His own law. He was born of a woman and under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the law, and that we might receive the adoption of sons.

2. He was not only a child born, but also a "son given unto us." Originally He was the Son of God, His eternal Son, His beloved Son, His only begotten Son, possessing the same nature as His Father, so that He possessed the same properties, the same attributes, and had a claim to the same

adoration as the Father. But by the union of our nature to the Divine in His own person, He became also the Son of man. In this capacity He was qualified to perform all the work, and to sustain all the sufferings which were necessary to effect our redemption. As the Son of man He was born of a virgin, as the Son of God He appeared in the world in a manner exclusive to Himself; as the Son of man Herod's emissaries sought His life in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, as the Son of God He baffled the vigilance of that civil tyrant; as the Son of man He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, as the Son of God He obtained the victory over the tempter; as the Son of man He hungered and was athirst, as the Son of God He multiplied five loaves to an amount capable of feeding upwards of five thousand; as the Son of man He was despised and rejected of men, as the Son of God He convinced His most inveterate foes that never did man speak like unto Him; as the Son of man He sat wearied with the journey at the well of Jacob, as the Son of God He gave living water to the woman of Sychar; as the Son of man He bled, He groaned, He died, as the Son of God He rose superior to all His sufferings, He struck terror into the hearts of His enemies, He crushed the powers of darkness under His feet, He stamped infinite value on the sacrifice which He offered, He divested death of its natural gloom, and brought "life and immortality to light."

3. He was given unto us. Of all God's gifts that was the greatest on this gift all others depend, in this gift all others are included. "For if God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, will he not also with him give unto us all things?" He was given unto us, not unto angels. He took not upon Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham.

Angels for one act of disobedience were plunged into the depth of everlasting misery and irremediable despair, confined in chains and darkness, without the least glimmering hopes of mercy or restitution; whilst man, let heaven praise; whilst man, let earth wonder; whilst man, equally criminal, received