extent of the human population a watch- as the origin of all that is, the guarfulness which nothing can escape, and dian, the refuge, the life, of every creaa carefulness which nothing can wea- ture in every spot of unlimited space. ry. He has to give audience every mo- The human mind shrinks from the ment to unnumbered beings, who lay effort to compass the multitudinous before him the expressions of their transaction. And it is not the business wants and desires; and every moment of a day, or a year, or a century. If we he has to minister to the necessities of follow the leadings of science,-leadunnumbered others, who live upon his ings which seem not the less trustbounty, and yet yield him no worship. worthy, because only the fragments of It is not by day alone, it is not by night a shell, or the footprints of an insect, alone, it is not at stated seasons alone, may have guided her along the path of but perpetually as well as universally, discovery, we find dates graven on at every instant, in every land, in every the visible universe, which seem to household, in every heart, that the Al- prove that, thousands of ages back, in mighty must be busy busy, wherever periods too remote for the flight of all there is life, in ministering animation; but imagination, there were systems wherever there is death, in dismissing and beings to engage the unremitthe spirit; wherever there is righteousness, in producing it; wherever there is wickedness, in controlling it; wherever there is sorrow, wherever there is peace, wherever there is supplication, in sanctifying, bestowing, receiving. We know not where to find terms in which to set forth to you what we may dare to call the industry of Deity. But if you can number the actions which are daily wrought upon the earth, the words which are spoken, the thoughts which are thought, the tears which are shed, the joys which are felt, the wishes which are breathed, then you number the occupations with which this single creation furnishes the Creator; for with every the most minute and insignificant of these he has a close and immediate concern; either causing, or overruling, or mode rating, or answering.

And is it not then true that there must be an activity in God, which is, at least, as wonderful as aught else which reason and revelation concur in ascribing to him? We have spoken only of a solitary globe, inhabited by beings who have been made "a little lower than the angels." But there are worlds upon worlds, scattered throughout immensity, each, it may be, the home of life and intelligence. And all that inconceivable employment, which is furnished to God by a single province of his infinite empire, is probably but an inconsiderable fraction of that total of occupation which is devolved upon him as the ruler and upholder of "thrones and dominions, and principalities and powers," the end as well

ted attention of the Creator; just as, throughout the coming eternity, myriads upon myriads will hang momentarily on his support. Oh, it were to be as God, to comprehend what God has to do! But this we may safely say, that if, as the protector and moral governor of whatsoever he hath formed, the Almighty be observant of all the actions of all his intelligent creatures; if he inspect every heart, record every motive, supply every want, hear every petition, appoint every judgment, employ every instrument,-and this too in every section of an unmeasured dominion, then all must acknowledge the truth of the simple but sublime statement of Christ, "Hitherto my Father worketh."

We have now, in the second place, to consider what our Savior here af firms of himself: he associates himself with the Father in the perpetual working of which he speaks: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." We may suppose that Christ partly refer red to that perfect union of will and operation which subsists among the persons of the Trinity, and which makes them to be not more one in nature than in purpose. When St. Paul, in writing to the Hebrews, had described the Son as "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person," and had thus assigned him the honors of Godhead, he went on to speak of him as "upholding all things by the word of his power," and thus attributed to him that continued agency on which we have discoursed as characteristic of Deity. It might then

have been a sufficient explanation of our text, if uttered by Christ in his divine capacity, to have referred to that oneness which there is among the persons of the Trinity, and to have concluded from it that "what things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." But we have already stated that it was in the discharge of his mediatorial office that Christ had wrought a miracle on the Sabbath; and that it must therefore have been as the Savior, rather than as the Creator of the world, that he spake, when affirming his own continued agency. This opens before us a most interesting truth; for Christ exhibits himself as having been all along occupied with redeeming, just as the Father had been with preserving mankind. In his mediatorial capacity, for in this he now spake, he had not been inactive up to the time of his incarnation, as though, until the Word were made flesh, there had been nothing to be done on behalf of transgressors. On the contrary, there had been the same uninterrupted agency as is exercised by God, as Creator and Governor of the universe, so that the one perpetual action might be paralleled by the other, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.'

volume of knowledge. This dispensation had its period; and then, the fulness of time having at length arrived, the Jewish temple, with its mysterious shadows and sacramental treasures, departed from the scene, and a new order of things was introduced by Christ and his apostles.

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To those who take only a cursory survey of the dealings of God, it might seem as though there had been no sameness in these various dispensations, but that different modes of obtaining the divine favor had been prescribed in different ages. They may not perceive that close connection between the patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian religions, that uniformity in the appointed method of salvation, which is apparent on attentive inspection, and affirmed by the whole tenor of the Gospel. There is abundant demonstration, both from express statements of Scripture, and from the nature of each successive dispensation, that, from the first, men recovered the forfeited immortality through the suretyship of the everlasting Word; that, from the first, in every age and every land, it hath been equalyl true that there is none other name under heaven," but the name of Jesus Christ, given among men, whereby We speak of this as a most interest- we must be saved." There were vast ing, though well-known truth, which differences in the degrees in which it would be for our profit frequently Christ was made known; but, all along, to ponder. It hath pleased God, who there was but one Savior, and that one, "worketh all things after the counsel Jesus of Nazareth. The early patriarch, of his own will," to place men beneath who assembled his family round some various dispensations, commanding du- rude altar, built at God's command, on ties, and enjoining observances pecu- the mountain, or in the valley, and liar to each. We have but faint traces there offered the firstlings of his flock; of patriarchal religion; but we know the Jew in Egypt, sprinkling his doorthat, whilst the world was yet young, posts with the blood of the Paschal and evil only of recent introduction, Lamb, or in the wilderness, following God held intercourse with the fathers the pillar of fire and cloud; his chilof humankind, and instructed them as dren, settled in Canaan, thronging to a to the mode in which he would be wor- magnificent temple, with the blast of shipped. It would seem that he went silver trumpets, and the floating of on revealing his purposes, with greater incense, and the pomp of a splendid and greater distinctness, to a favored priesthood,-these were all, notwithfew, until he separated one people from standing the striking differences in exthe rest of the world, and made them ternal circumstance, seeking the salvathe depositary of truth. And then he tion of the soul through the same changradually imposed on this people an as-nel as ourselves, to whom the Gospel semblage of mystical rites, and taught them by a succession of prophets and seers-every instituted ordinance conveying a new lesson, and every inspired messenger adding a fresh leaf to the

is preached in its beauty and fulness. We find it said of Abraham, that he rejoiced to see Christ's day; that he saw it, and was glad. We read of Isaiah, that he "saw Christ's glory, and spake

of him." We are told of Moses, that he "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt." And does not St. Peter, speaking of the righteous men who had obtained justification under the law, use this remarkable expression: "We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they?" an expression which puts it beyond controversy, that, from the earliest days, there had been but one mode of salvation; and that, when there appeared on the earth the one Mediator between God and man," no new way was opened into the kingdom of heaven; there was only poured a flood of glorious light on the path which had been trodden by good men under every dispensation. It were almost to quote the whole Bible to produce, if we may use such expression, the footprints of a Mediator which are discernible along the line of the patriarchal and legal economy. To Him give all the prophets witness." He it was whom seers beheld, when the train of future things swept before them in mysterious procession. He died in every sacrifice; he ascended in every cloud of incense; his name was in every jubilee shout; his majesty in the awfulness of the holy of holies.

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And if it be true that Christ was a Savior as well before as after his incarnation; that, at the very instant of human apostacy, he entered on his great office; and that he hath labored in its discharge, whensoever there was a soul to be saved; must it not be allowed that there was demanded as uninterrupted an activity from the Redeemer, as from the Upholder and moral Governor of the universe? As soon as there was sin, there was salvation-salvation through Christ. And if there were salvation, there must have been the interference and agency of the Savior, who anticipating his passion and death, must have acted as an advocate with God, presenting the virtues of his own sacrifice, and thus averting from the guilty the doom they had deserved. We know not whether many, or whether only few, were gathered in early days into the kingdom of heaven. But the determining this is not material to our being certified of the incessant occupa

tion with which the Mediator was charged. Enough that he had to act as Mediator; and we might almost say that he had the same amount of labor, whether men were saved, or whether they perished. Who shall doubt that Christ has toiled for a lost soul, as well as for a rescued-toiling through the striving of his Spirit, and with the shedding of his blood, though he have not won from unrighteousness the being with whom he hath pleaded, and for whom he died? He had been busy, not only with the eight who were enclosed in the ark, but with the thousands upon thousands who wrestled vainly with the deluge. He had been busy, not only with those among the Jews who died in faith, but with the great body of the people, who trusted in ceremonies, and put shadow for substance. He had been busy, not only with this single and isolated nation, but with those vast masses of humankind who had only the feeble notices of truth derivable from tradition and conscience. He had been busy with making men inexcusable, chargeable altogether with their own condemnation, when he could not prevail on them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and give themselves in good earnest to the seeking their God. Thus every human being had furnished employment to the Mediator, as well as to the Creator. The individual had not sprung of Adam's line, who had not drawn the notice, and engaged the operations of the Surety of the fallen, even as he had been watched by the Providence which is about our path, and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways. And, therefore, might the uninterrupted activity of a Redeemer be spoken of in the same terms with that of the universal Guardian and Governor-no pause in the one any more than in the other, no moment of idleness, no interval of repose-and Christ could employ the present tense in speaking not only of the Father's operations, but of his own, just as he could apply to himself the sublime definition, "I am that I am;" and say to the Jews when they arraigned him for healing on the Sabbath, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

Now we are aware, that, in thus showing you the unremitting activity