doubt near akin to hopelessness are the very aspirations of the wiser and better among them; as when, after delineating the noble character of Agricola, Tacitus cries, "If there be any place for the shades of the pious-if, as the wise will have it, great souls are not extinguished together with the body-mayest thou rest in peace!" But the imperial stoic philosopher boldly said, "Thou existest as a part; thou shalt disappear in that which produced thee, but rather thou shalt be received back into its seminal principle by transmutation:" and again, "To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a little mucus, tomorrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass, then, through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content; just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew."† Would you gather, in a word, the wondrous change which Christian faith brought on human life, pass on to the anticipated tribunal of Him who is at once Creator, Redeemer, and Judge, yet Brother and Kinsman of man. "When the Son of Man shall come in His majesty, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His majesty: and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd sepaMarcus Aurelius, iv. 14, 48.

• Agricola, 46.

K

rates the sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand: but the goats on His left. Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; I was naked, and you covered Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then shall the just answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and covered Thee? or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee? And the King shall answer and say to them, Amen, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me. Then shall He say to them also that shall be on His left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me not in; naked, and you covered Me not; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me. Then they also shall answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?

Then shall He answer them, saying, Amen, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me. And these shall go into everlasting punishment; but the just into everlasting life."*

Here observe how the acts of daily human life are invested with an importance far transcending their natural measure, since on them depends a futurity without limit. Nor only so, but they are connected with the human nature assumed by God, since the acts done to His brethren are counted by Him as done to Himself. That work of the Incarnation is not an act done once for all, and then receding back into distance of time; but a state touching and by its touch transforming every human life and every relationship of human life, man and man's society in every time and place. That human life at Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Golgotha, surrounds us all, connects us altogether now with its sympathies, affections, and kinsmanship. The kingdom promised as the sequel of this earthly life, made up of trials, is an inheritance prepared of old for brethren, as well as a reward given to combatants; and the King who gives it connects it inseparably with His own sonship, His human nature, and His sufferings, as in that high and transcendant promise wherein His own description of eternal life culminates: "To him that overcometh will I give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also

• Matt. xxv. 31-46.

have overcome, and am set down with My Father on His throne.”*

We have seen the light cast from this sevenfold vision of God on man as a moral agent in general. Let us now consider this light as it falls upon man in his different relations. And first as it falls on the individual.

The intellect of man tends naturally to truth, which is its object, desires to possess it, and aims at it. The will of man tends naturally to good, and desires equally its possession. But this truth and this good are both of the natural order; and the natural power of man's intellect and will is limited to this order. Now the light we have above mentioned disclosed to man God as the Author of a supernatural order, and a multitude of truths concerning that order comprehended in God and deduced from Him; disclosed to him likewise God as the Author of supernatural good, and the possession of this good as the further and higher end of his own being, superadded to the natural end. Thus this light in its operation upon the soul of man distributed itself into three virtues: that of Faith, lifting man's intellect to the knowledge of God, not only as his Creator, but as his Redeemer and his Reward; that of Hope, lifting his will to the desire of such a good; that of Charity, uniting actually his will with the good itself. These three virtues, Faith, Hope, and

* Apoc. iii. 21.

Charity, cognate as having the same object, purify, enlarge, and exalt the natural powers of the soul, raising them immediately to God, as the first Truth, the Giver of beatitude, the infinite Good Himself. In the order of generation Faith is first, for the intellect must apprehend before the will can desire; Hope succeeds, for the will must desire before the desire can be terminated in the possession of the good itself, which is the final union of charity. But in the order of perfection Charity is supreme, since it alone touches that Truth and that Good which the others aspire after.

But the God who is the object of these three virtues is He who not only creates but redeems; who is become visible in His Son; who by that Son imparts sonship to those whom He redeems. As to Faith, among those things hoped for of which it is the substance, and those things unseen of which it is the evidence, the economy of redemption takes so large a place that the word often stands by itself for the profession of Christianity. As to Hope, the possession of eternal beatitude, after which it aspires, is so entirely the gift of God in Christ, that we are said to be saved by it.* But let us take especially Charity, since, inasmuch as it unites with God, it becomes as it were the informing power or soul of all other virtues, without which none of them can merit eternal life, and so is the proper mark and character of the Christian. Now every where this habit of charity in the Apos

• Rom. viii. 24.