nature and above it, whose name is "the Wonderful." Enough that sin never touched His hallowed nature, and yet that He is no ascetic or unapproachable Being; but a Friend to the friendless, Strength to the weak, and a Father to the fatherless; a Being, indeed, who in Himself is all that we can understand of "The Mighty God." Enough that in Him, purity has come into the world with a power to purify; goodness to make good; righteousness to righten; beauty to beautify; love to make lovable; mercy to save: and that a "Voice" from the Invisible Light, confirmatory of His claims, says, "This is my beloved Son." Yes, quite enough. We believe; we adore; for It and He are One. There is no other solution of the mightiest of historical mysteries.

"JESUS! there is no dearer name than Thine
Which Time has blazon'd on his mighty scroll;
No wreaths, no garlands ever did entwine
So fair a temple of so vast a Soul.

There every Virtue set his triumph-seal;

Wisdom conjoin'd with Strength and radiant Grace
In a sweet copy, Heaven to reveal,

And stamp Perfection on a mortal face.

Once on the earth wert Thou, before men's eyes,
That did not half Thy beauteous brightness see;
E'en as the emmet does not read the skies,
Nor our weak orbs look through immensity ;-
Once on the earth wert Thou, a living shrine,
Wherein conjoining dwelt, the Good, the Lovely, the
Divine."

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WHY WAS HE MANIFESTED?

15. In conclusion, Why was Tesus manifested? The work this "beloved Son" was to accomplish must have been of a kind which common man is unable to do. Some strong necessity must have been laid upon the heart of God for the projection into the world of the Second Adam. Now let it be considered :—1. That when God planted the heart of man, the first and deepest thing He planted there was Goodness; that faculty which waits no commands of duty or self-interest, but goes forth towards its object, because its own, in nature, by right; and 2. That it is this faculty which creates the sunshine of being; which gives true dignity and blessedness to man, which everywhere is the great mediating principle, which 66 renews the spirit of the mind" and begets to " newness of life." History and our own experiences, do they prove it true that God has given to the human heart a drop from His own ocean of Goodness, and that it is this Goodness is the elevating, renewing, cleansing, and hallowing element of life? If they do, then it is very apparent why Jesus was manifested. 66 It was to 'put away sin" by regenerating in the fallen, depraved human heart a love of Goodness; this regenerating to be accomplished "by the sacrifice of Himself." To dethrone Sin, in its forms of self-getting, self-seeking, and self-keeping, the

human soul must see Goodness incarnated,-see its radiant countenance, feel its warm breath, and listen to the thrilling music of its lips. In Jesus, and in Jesus alone, is Goodness incarnated. The fragrance of all virtues stream from His robe: and in Him evidently is "the beauty of the Lord our God." He is the "Truth;" for "it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." Because He is the Truth, therefore He is the "Way:" for it is as the eye of the human heart looks at Him is felt what Sin is, what Goodness is, what Justice is, what Mercy is. And because He is the Truth and Way, therefore He is the "Life" for "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord." Heart alone can touch heart. No power can change the heart but heart. Jesus is the throbbing heart of the Invisible God, "the Father." Therefore the one

and only true Creed for man, any man, universal man, is the "Beloved Son:" He alone, alone It; nothing more, nothing less.

V.

THE FATHER'S "WELL-DONE."

"In whom I am well pleased."-MATT. xvii. 5.

1. PRESUMING that Jesus and His disciples would go by the ordinary route from Cæsarea Philippi to the second summit of Hermon, they would leave behind them beautiful temples dedicated to the worship of Pan, god of shepherds and inventor of the flute. His image was a monster with two small horns on his head, a ruddy countenance, a flat nose, and legs, thighs, tail, and feet of a goat. Continuing up the valley of the Jordan, they would pass a projecting peak of the Hermon range, on which there was to be seen a group of temples, simple in form and rude in style. At that time upwards of a thousand years old, they had formed some of those "high places" of which we read in the Old Testament Scriptures, consecrated by Syrians or Phoenicians to the worship of Baalim. Crossing a picturesque but wild country, ridges sprinkled with oaks and glens dotted with olives, with the bleak side of Hermon on the

JOURNEY UP HERMON.

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right, they would come to the great fountain-source of the river. It is just possible they would go up to Hibbariyeh, to the sublime ravine now called Wady Shiba, which opens a side of the mount. Directly fronting the great chasm, looking up the mighty gorge as if to catch the first beams of the morning rising over Hermon, there stood in all its glory and beauty a temple dedicated to the Sun. Three of its walls yet stand, and several of its Ionic pilasters. At its west end was the altar in the temple proper or chancel. Right away to the opposite corner of the mountain range, at Rickhleh, is another such temple. In it is still to be found a huge medallion; the colossal face of an image handsomely carved in bold relief. The length of the face is 3 ft. 4 in. It has been purposely disfigured, but the features are yet distinct and striking. It is inclosed in a double circular wreath; and is the image of old Baal himself. In the time of our Lord it was doubtless perfect; and its fellow was to be found in every temple that adorned the gorges and pinnacles of this Mount. Jesus looked on them; His disciples too, as He led them round the Mount in search of a "solitary place."

2. Up the very glens they went, on the very spires they gazed at, and over which they mounted, the Druzes, a heretical Mohammedan sect, have built