which seem to derive some dignity from their greatness. Nothing which really causes us care or sorrow, is despised by Him: He has felt all those little trials Himself on earth, and He has called us Brethren.

And lastly, may adoration of the Son of Man now glorious in Heaven inspire us with religious hope, and make us resolute to strive with and conquer every sin which doth still too easily

beset us.

His wish and good pleasure is that there we should reign with Him for ever: 'His purpose is, to change our vile bodies that they may be made like unto His glorious body:' (1 Cor. xv.).

Let it be to us the blessing of every Christmas that we are taking fresh steps to lay the foundations of that glorious change in every action of our body, and every movement and emotion of our heart.

Let it be our belief that we shall for ever share His Nature,-because, even now, we find in our conscience that He is daily redeeming us from all iniquity, and purifying us to Himself as a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

91.

VIII.

GOD'S COVENANT.

'In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision: but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.'—Gal. vi. 15, 16.

ESTERDAY was observed in our Church

YEST

to do honour to our Lord's circumcision; that is to say, the outward ceremony by which, as a human being, He was admitted into the Jewish Church, and into covenant with God the Father, for the days of His humiliation upon earth.

This admission of Jesus into the congregation. of God's people here below is rather more marked in our public services than many other events. It is specially mentioned in the Litany, and to-day the Communion Service proper to the Sunday after Christmas is set aside (if necessary) to make room for it.

I think we may find on reflection, sufficient reasons why we are thus guided in our devotions. For first of all, our Lord's circumcision reminds us that man is not in covenant with his Creator

at all by the mere fact of being born into the world.

2ndly, it draws our attention to another fact, that the willingness of God as well as man is needful to such a covenant: for under the law of Moses God distinctly refused to enter into it with the Ammonite and Moabite.

Which, 3rdly, makes it more significant, that God was pleased to enter into it with a baby, being a child of His own chosen people, although that baby exercised no will of coming to God; nor took any part, but that of suffering the wound enjoined.

Next, it bears witness to us, that God saw fit to make distinction between the religious conditions which affected male and female in this mortal life. This law, as well as others, made a difference and, therefore, by contemplation of it we are guarded against siding with persons who treat the Apostle's opinion with disdain, and his rules about the place of women in the congregation.

But, more particularly are we benefited by this Festival if it brings to us opportunity of knowing what St. Paul said in his epistles touching the law of circumcision. For many of them (and notably this Epistle to the Galatians from which the text comes) are hard to be understood, unless this practice of the Jewish Church be clear and familiar to us.

Let us therefore, seek the instructions of holy writ-first-What benefits bodily circumcision brought to the Jew, and-When these benefits ceased to be of any avail.

Then let us consider what benefits God offered to Christians instead of these first.

And lastly, why it was that St. Paul was so urgent with his disciples to give up all reliance on the first circumcision; lest they should forfeit the blessings of that circumcision of the heart required by the Gospel.

Whether the sign of circumcision was some new thing, or whether God took a custom already practised and gave it a sacredness which it had not before, we cannot tell. But when He commanded it to Abraham and his descendants, from that time forth until the preaching of the Gospel it was a witness to each person permitted to have it, that he was one of God's true people upon earth; he had certain promises from his Maker; certain benefits, which others had not.

Now, what were they? St. Paul puts the question (Rom. iii. 1, 2), 'What advantage hath the Jew over an uncircumcised heathen?' And he himself answers, 'Much every way: chiefly, because thatunto them were committed the oracles of God; which, I think, means to say, God's revelations, God's promises, and God's laws.

It was far from being all. For God Himself pointed out in the prophets many other benefits,

such as His separation of them from the evil company of idolatrous nations, the witness of His judgments upon their sins, His repeated deliverance of them from their enemies: it was much that they had seen and experienced these things. And the Divine worship which God set up in the middle of their land with His special Presence at Jerusalem, and its many outward tokens to remind them of Him, were certainly accounted by their Creator to be real advantages, which God expresses by that parable of the vineyard in the fifth chapter of Isaiah: And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein.'

Of these things the Jew had much advantage; and they came to him with the sign of circumcision that gave him entrance, and a share in them.

That covenant gave him no real release of his conscience from sin, nor any fresh gift of the Spirit to fulfil the law.

If he had God's forgiveness and God's help it was not attached to circumcision. I suppose that it secretly followed his belief in God.

And such a person had all the benefits which his mind could derive from a knowledge of right and wrong-knowledge of himself and his God, and a certainty that his steps were guarded, and his petitions heard, by his Father in heaven.

But when the Gospel came, God made a new