ished religion of their fathers, and commence a new and more spiritual life. This is perhaps the highest influence that one human being can exert upon another, to induce him to change his character and his habits. Royal power cannot accomplish this. An earthly monarch exerts great sway in the earth, but it is merely superficial. He controls men's external actions. He does not alter their convictions, he does not induce them to act from new motives. He soon passes away. The peculiar institutions he has founded fall to decay, for another king reigns in his place, and claims the right of moulding the world according to his ideas.

Not so with the Apostles. They exercised the power through the Gospel of spiritual regeneration. They formed churches, which were collections of men and women whose object of association was the attainment of a divine and holy life. The words of these Apostles were committed to writing, and they have been the law of the world ever since. Through the records of the New Testament, the Apostles sit on Christ's throne, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And no otherwise is it now. The Christian ministry is the greatest power on earth. I do not mean the Church as an outward institution. I do not mean that vast hierarchy, which came into existence in the Middle Ages, and built itself a worldly throne higher than the kings of the earth. I mean the power of the pulpit and Christian ordinances in Protestant countries.

A majority of the population attend church on the Sabbath, many from childhood to old age. There

they are instructed under the most favorable auspices. The rest of the Sabbath frees their hands from toil, and their minds in a great measure from care. They come to listen to the Gospel, at the same time that they worship God; and the Gospel teaches them to know the God whom they worship.

Such perpetual inculcation, in the course of years, makes them acquainted with the whole round of their duty; it forms their opinions, even on subjects not immediately connected with religion; it shapes their sentiments; it settles their principles of action. In short, what is done on the Sabbath in Christian churches makes Christendom what it is. All those who faithfully preach the Gospel in Christian lands may be said to sit with Christ on his throne, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; they partake of Christ's power, and spread it abroad.

All this is direct and immediate. There is another power of Christ, which is indirect and incidental. It is exerted through literature. There is in every civilized community a certain class of intellectual and literary men, whose employment it is to operate immediately upon the public mind through their writings. The power of this class of men increases as literature and intelligence become more diffused. There is scarcely a limit to be set to their influence.

In a Christian country, the minds of these men, whether they are sensible of it or not, become imbued with Christian principles and sentiments, though they may not be religious men. In fact, the very language in which they write has become pervaded, we may say saturated, with Christianity. That language was born and baptized into Chris

tianity; its very words have derived their meaning from the precepts and the spirit of Christ. He who uses them, though without any theological intention, preaches a species of Gospel, which commands the conscience and controls the actions of mankind.

Thus it is that Christ is King of the world, through the truth he uttered, by the precepts he gave, by the life he led, by the sufferings he endured, by the credentials he brought.

DISCOURSE XXII.

JESUS THE SON OF GOD.

AND DECLARED TO BE THE SON OF GOD WITH POWER, ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS, BY THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.

Romans i. 4.

In the phraseology of the New Testament there is nothing more important, or which has had a greater influence upon the opinions of Christendom, than the epithet "Son of God," when applied to Jesus of Nazareth. It is the purpose of this Discourse to consider its import. In doing so I shall first investigate the matter historically; I shall first examine what was the meaning of this epithet before and at the advent of Christ. Secondly, What was it during the ministry of Christ and his Apostles? And thirdly, What has it been in after ages?

The introduction which we have in the New Testament to the state of things which existed in Judæa at the appearance of Jesus Christ, is exceedingly abrupt. Nearly four hundred years elapsed unrecorded between the close of the book of Malachi and the opening of the Gospel of Matthew. What took place in that long period is recorded

only by profane historians, and in them we have very little relating to the religious opinions or expectations of the Jews.

We do know that a strong expectation of a Messiah had been formed, and about the period of the birth of Jesus had become intense. A peculiar phraseology in relation to the expected one had been adopted. Epithets derived from various passages in the Old Testament had been applied to him. With them we meet almost as soon as we open the Evangelical narrative. He was called before his advent "the Son of David," "the King of Israel," "the Messiah," "the Christ" or the Anointed, "the Son of Man," and "the Son of God." All these phrases are synony. mous and are Judaic, derived from the condition and relations of the Jewish people as under a theocracy, the immediate government of God, through kings and priests, who were consecrated to office by being anointed, according to divine direction, with oil.

The Jews were led to expect their Messiah mainly in the capacity of a king. Among the Jews, and all Oriental nations, kings were considered as sustaining a peculiar relation to God. There were many reasons for this. They were exalted by God's providence to a station of great power and influence. They were the instruments of God of great good or evil to mankind. In the possession of great power, for good or for evil, they resembled God. Hence they are called not only "sons of God," but "gods," as in the eighty-second Psalm. "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods"; that is, kings or magistrates. "How long