was designedly permitted, for the purpose of furnishing conclusive evidence of the perfect truthfulness of the writers, and the minute accuracy of their statements.

Matthew commences with a genealogy of Jesus, traced downward from Abraham, and then proceeds to record his marvellous birth. Mark says nothing of his birth; but after rapidly connecting the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,' with the prophecies of the Old Testament, proceeds at once to the commencement of his public mission, by narrating his baptism in the Jordan, and his formal recognition from heaven. Luke goes further back, to the circumstances preceding the birth of the Lord's harbinger, and then furnishes a more particular account than Matthew had supplied of the events preceding the birth of Christ himself. But John goes back further still into the remote and ancient past. He speaks but little of that human birth which chiefly engages the attention of Matthew and Luke. He says of it simply, that He was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' He goes back-back, into the darknesses of the eternal past, before the creation, and finds Him, who thus became flesh, in the beginning with God.' He ascends to the heaven of heavens, and finds there, in the bosom of the Father, Him who had, in those latter days, laid aside this glory to become the light of men. The other evangelists knew all this; but John alone set it forth plainly at the beginning. There was a reason. John wrote later than the others; and it was needed that there should be an explicit declaration on a matter respecting which men had already begun to question and dispute.

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It is further remarkable, that while the other evangelists carefully record our Lord's final ascent to heaven, John, who at the commencement brings Him down from heaven as the incarnate Word, is alone silent with respect to his return thither. He knew this great fact to be already fully stated; and it was the will of the Spirit that he should put on record much which they had passed over, rather than that he should repeat what had already been sufficiently attested.

We need not enter into the questions which have been raised as to the import of the Greek term (LOGOS) translated WORD, nor into the views under which the sacred writer applied it to Christ. It is enough to know, that he certainly and undeniably denotes by this term the Son of God, who, as Jesus, came into the world, and the world knew Him not; who, as the Christ, to whom all the prophets had borne witness, came unto his own, and his own received Him not; who, as the Light, came to shine into the darkness, and the darkness comprehended Him not. Some, however, beheld in Him that glory which could belong to no other than the Only-begotten of the Father;' a few comprehended Him; and some, although they did not yet fully comprehend Him, rejoiced to receive Him as their Saviour and their Lord. And what profit had they? Verily this, that although by acknowledging Him they were exposed to a great fight of afflictions, and were pierced through with many sorrows, yet, to 6 as many as received Him, gave He power to become the SONS OF GOD!'

'His by redemption, by adoption his ;'

in the possession of which high privilege and glorious distinction they might well afford to trample beneath their feet, not only the treasures of the world, but its thorns and torturing scourges. But what is it to receive Him? Oh, if He would but come! would we not receive Him?-would we not set wide open all our chambers for Him to enter in? But, lo, He has passed away into the heavens, where we behold Him not, and whence we cannot receive Him. No, no! There was never but one way of receiving Him; and every one of us can receive Him as did the disciples who walked with Him on earth. The evangelist himself is careful to guard against any misconception on this point, by explaining what it is to receive Him, and who they are to whom it is given, by receiving Him, to become the sons of God,' even to them that believe on his name.' Therefore the Ethiopian eunuch, when he declared that he believed with all his heart'—that is, with true, appropriating faith—that

Jesus was the Son of God; therefore the jailer at Philippi, when he rejoiced,' believing in the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore the last heart that has opened to receive Him as a Saviour, -all these, though they beheld Him not with the bodily eye, did as truly receive Him, and did as truly receive the gift to become the sons of God, as those who, in the days of his flesh, did literally receive Him into their houses—literally leaned upon his breast-literally left all, and followed Him.

The design of John the evangelist was manifestly to exhibit the incarnate Logos as the life and the light-the quickening and illuminating principle of man. He had before him the idea of a world dead in sin, and of a church darkened by heresy. He was, therefore, inspired to set forth the eternal Logos as the principle and source of both life and light.

The word Logos is the most remarkable term in this gospel, and one of the most remarkable in the whole Bible. That it indicates a person, and is thus a proper name, cannot be disputed. It is no abstract quality or attribute, though it is descriptive of certain distinctive attributes in the person to whom it is given. It is not applied to the mere reason, or mind, or speech of God; but it designates an active and acting agent, eternally related to God, and manifesting, by his acting, the power, wisdom, and love of Godhead. The spirit of man is invisible; but it manifests itself by word or speech. No man hath seen God at any time;' but the Logos 'hath declared Him.' This analogy, however, must not be pressed too far. There is a depth and a mystery in the relation of the eternal Logos to the eternal Father, which the human mind cannot fathom. The Logos being the sole manifestation of Godhead in all its operations, was, so to speak, the visible or immediate actor in creation : ‘All things were made by Him.' The Logos, again, is not only a person distinct from God, absolutely considered, so that the evangelist can say, 'The Logos was with God;' but the Logos is also in another sense, equal to, identical with God, so that the evangelist can also say, 'The Logos was God.'

But this personal and eternal Logos is exhibited in another, and to us a still more interesting aspect. As the 'Word of God,' He is the revealer of God; and not only so, but He is himself the grand revelation of God. In Him the attributes of God exist, and from Him have been developed. The will of God has ever and only

been made known by and through Him. To Adam in paradise, to the patriarchs and prophets in Israel, to the evangelists and apostles of the New Testament, the Logos revealed the truth; and not only so, but He himself, in his nature, mission, passion, and triumph, was THE TRUTH. The very central idea of revelation, then, is embodied in this name—a revelation by the Logos contained in the Bible, and a revelation of the Logos made to us through the Bible. This leads to the highest conception of the person, nature, and work of the eternal Logos, as set before us by the apostle John.

Twenty-seventh Week-Second Day.

ELIAS. LUKE I. 17.

ISAIAH the prophet, when directed to 'speak comfortably to Jerusalem,' announced, 'The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God."1 Malachi, the last of the prophets, speaking in the Lord's name, declares, 'Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and further on he says, in the same great name, 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."

2

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From these passages the Jews drew the inference, that the Messiah, for whose coming they looked with deep desire, would be preceded by a harbinger to announce Him, and that this harbinger would be no other than Elijah the prophet in person. The correct apprehension of their views in this respect is important to the right understanding of several passages in the gospels; and as it appears that most of the views now entertained by the Jews, if not all of them, existed in the time of our Lord, they may be usefully cited in illustration.

It is, then, to be observed, that this expectation of Elias, as the forerunner of the Messiah, has led them for many ages to give petitions for his manifestation a prominent place in their 3 Mal. iv. 5.

1 Isa. xl. 3.

2 Mal. iii. I.

public, and doubtless also in their private, prayers. In the notions and expectations which they have connected with his name, they do not forget that the Tishbite tasted not of death; for on this they have founded a large body of too curious speculations-speculations which appear so natural to the Hebrew mind, that the absence of them in the Scriptures might well excite our wonder, did we not know that the holy men of old spake not of themselves, but as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost. The difference between the traditions and writings of the Hebrews, when left to themselves and the tendencies of their truly oriental minds, and what they produced under the direct teaching of the Divine Spirit, is so great and so signal, as of itself to furnish a powerful argument for the inspiration of the Scriptures, though it has generally been overlooked. Well, seeing that Elijah died not, but was taken away in a whirlwind, it came to be first conjectured, and then very fixedly believed, that although he retains his body, it is not like our bodies-all its essential moisture having been dried up, or evaporated, by that fiery whirlwind which reft him from the earth. He acquired by this change a sort of halfspiritual frame, which qualified him to subsist without meat or drink, or the common necessities of mortal life. They conceived that the prophet, even in this condition of existence, was taken, not to the 'heaven of heavens,' but to that earthly paradise from which our first parents were cast forth, where his proper station is beneath the tree of life. Yet he is not so confined to that spot as to preclude him from being in any part of the world where his presence is needed—in many or in all places at once-wherever Jews are; for he has become the special and appointed guardian of their affairs; and wherever they want a helper, there is he, redressing wrong, punishing injustice, and showing mercy. Many beautiful legends have they, relative to the interest Elias takes in the affairs of the Jews, his watchfulness over their conduct, and the good he has at various times done for Israel. He is believed to be present at all circumcisions, on which occasions a chair is set for him ; and he is supposed invisibly to occupy it—' invisibly,' except