EMMANUEL.

"They shall call His name EMMANUEL."-MATT. i. 23,

IN proportion as we love Jesus will be our joy at the dignity conferred on Him, and the glory ascribed to Him. It delights the spiritual mind to know that it cannot think too highly of Jesus, or ascribe too much to Him 3 and as it goes over His names and titles, it rejoices to find that all honour and glory are given Him. He is not only JESUS, the allsufficient, ever-loving, and ever-living Saviour, but He is EMMANUEL, "which is, being interpreted, GOD WITH US.

He was GOD FOR US, before He became God with us; and it was because He was for us that He became God with us. His heart was set upon us for everlasting. He always loved us, and loved us with an infinite, consequently with an inconceivable love. He delighted in us ages before he appeared among

us.

When creation-work was going on, He was rejoicing before His Father, and His delights were with the sons of men. In the glass of the eternal decrees He saw us, anticipated the time when he should come among us, and rested in His love to us. In the co

venant He engaged for us, in the promise He was pledged to us, in the types He was presented to us, in the predictions He appeared as though among us, and, at length, He literally, became one with us. For "the chil

dren being partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise Himself also took part of the same; that through death, He might destroy Him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Thus He became

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GOD WITH US. God in our nature; God in our world. God in our nature and in our world, as one of ourselves. This is the great mystery of godliness, "God was manifest in the flesh.' The Divine nature underwent no change, but it was mysteriously united to the human. The body became the temple of Deity. The whole human nature became one with God. In that nature dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Thus God came as near to us as He possibly could. He became one with us, dwelt among us, sympa thised with us, spoke to us, wrought before us, suffered instead of us, and died to save us. O mystery of mercy! O wonder of wonders! The man of Nazareth, who was despised and rejected of men, who suffered the just for the unjust, who was put to death in the flesh, was EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US. The babe of Bethlehem, sitting on Joseph's knee, or lying in Mary's bosom, was the true Almighty

God. The youth in the temple, listening to the Rabbi's and asking them questions, was the Creator of the universe. The stranger,

sitting on the kerb of Jacob's well, and talking with the guilty Samaritan woman, was God over all, and blessed for evermore.

us.

"No less Almighty at His birth,
Than on His throne supreme;
His shoulders held up heaven and earth,
When Mary held up Him."

He was GOD LIKE US; that is to say, He became as much like us as possible. True, the Divinity did not become human, nor the humanity Divine; the natures were distinct, but were so united that the two became one person. The Divine nature was one with Man once aimed to be as God, and now God stoops to be as man. Our God is like us; he thinks, he speaks, he feels, he works, he suffers, he dies, as we do. He enters, by experience, into all the peculiarities of our nature. In our afflictions He is afflicted. Himself bore our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows; He is therefore still touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We do not conceive it possible for God to become more like us than He has.

"Almighty God sigh'd human breath;
The Lord of life experienced death.
How it was done we can't discuss,
But this we know, 'twas done for us!"

He is GOD IN US.

This was the effect of His being one with us. "I will dwell in them and I will walk in them, saith the Lord Almighty." God's mystery among the Gentiles is, Christ in us the hope of glory. "I live," said Paul," and yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Our bodies are the members of Christ. Our persons are the temples of God. God dwelleth in us; the affections are His throne, the heart is His home. Thus God was for us before time, therefore He became God with us in time; being God with us, He became as much as possible like us; and having become like us, He takes up his abode in us. Thus God dwelleth in us, and we dwell in God.

The

And why was all this? Just that we may be for God: His portion; His people; His representatives; His sons; His servants. That we may think for Him, speak for Him, work for him, suffer for Him, and, if required, die for Him, as many have. Lord says, "I will be for thee, and thou shalt be for Me." Beloved, let us daily, hourly, bear in mind, that it is of us the Lord says, This people have I formed for Myself; they shall shew forth My praise.' Emmanuel gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." That we may be with God. Jesus came to earth that he might go to heaven. He tabernacled in a tent among men, that we might

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dwell with God in a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. O glorious mystery! I live because Jesus died; I shall be happy, because Jesus suffered; I shall dwell with God, because Jesus dwelt with men. That we may be like God. Not divinities, not deified; but like God in holiness, in happiness, in glory. My will running parallel with His will; my heart beating in unison with His heart, and having the same object in view, and aiming at the same end. As God became as much like me as possible, so I shall be as much like God as possible. That we may be in God. Hence Jesus prayed, "I pray for them that shall believe on Me, that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be ONE IN US. And the glory which Thou givest Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I IN THEM, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me," John xvii. 20-23. What can it be to be in God?-to dwell in God?-united to the Divine nature as closely and as gloriously as possible? We must die to know it fully.

Brethren, how wonderful the grace of God! That God should be for us, who were against Him. That He should come to be with us who said, "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways." That He