words, he intimated, that the time was now come, when mankind, over all the earth, were " to worship the Father in spirit and in truth."

Thus was a great change destined to be wrought in the religious services of mankind, which had formerly, among all nations, consisted chiefly in pompous ceremonies and emblematic rites, having scarcely any influence on the sentiments and conduct of the worshippers.-Nor was the change which our Saviour sought to produce in the prevailing ideas of moral duty less important;-for here also he set before men the idea of a Father in Heaven, whom it was their duty to honour and to love,-and to whom they were taught to consider all their acts, not only of homage, but of active and social duty, as paid. He thus raised even the most common offices of life into the high rank of services paid to God, and expressions of the devout homage with which he is regarded by his children;-the whole earth, with all the occupations committed to its inhabitants, thus assumed the aspect of a great Temple, from which incense and a pure offering might at all times ascend; -and a foundation was laid, in this simplicity and beautiful freedom of our Saviour's views, for a gradual amelioration of the moral ideas of mankind,

which should only receive new accessions of purity, from all the improvements in their views and in their condition that might afterwards take place.

The same fine idea," a Father in Heaven,"— was fitted, in the last place, to extend its renovating influence to all the social relations and public institutions of men. For being all children of the same Father, there could, in the view of Christianity, be henceforth no peculiar people upon earth;—hence the hostility and contempt with which different nations had previously treated each other would naturally be diminished, as the influence of the pure spirit of Christianity should become more prevalent; —and while all kindly charities would be fostered in private life, and even enemies be forgiven, as we expect forgiveness also of our sins,-every human being, however distant in his place, or dissimilar in his manners, or degraded in his condition, was henceforth to be regarded by every other as at once a child of the same Father, and an heir with himself of one blessed immortality.

Such were the grand results which our Saviour sought to accomplish, and such the simple means by which he intended to produce them ;-at the same time he was far from intimating that these

changes were to be speedily realized :-On the contrary, he always represented himself as only destined to begin the work, which his followers, throughout the long ages of the history of this world, were completely to effectuate;—and sought only to present views and give an introduction to institutions which should unfold their regenerating power with the increasing knowledge of future ages, and with the progressive wants and capabilities of men.

Yet he well knew that the seed which he had scattered could not ultimately fail of producing the expected harvest ;-and it is not to be wondered, that, in looking forward to the entire lapse of ages, the mind of our Lord should have been filled with a pure and holy joy, when he thus beheld the "kingdom of God" extending its ever-brightening influence during all the years that were yet to revolve ;— nor can we doubt, that it was the influence of such anticipations that made his frequent allusions to the

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kingdom of God" so favourite and characteristic a mode of expression with him in all his dis

courses.

It was accordingly, with great propriety, that he embodied these views, both as they related to the fundamental idea on which his doctrine reposes,

and as they pictured to his mind the future progress of" the kingdom" during all the ages of the world,—in that form of prayer which he taught his disciples, and which, as it has been in all past times, will continue through all future ages to be the favourite expression of their hopes and desires. "Our Father which art in Heaven,-hallowed be thy name,―thy kingdom come,―thy will be done in earth as it is done in Heaven."

II.

RELATIVE POWERS AND PLACES OF

IN

DIVIDUALS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD

UPON EARTH.

ROMANS Xii. 4. As we have many members in one body,—and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

THE words which have been chosen as the motto of this chapter, were probably recorded by the Apostle, primarily, with a reference to the body of Christians considered as an association distinct from the great mass of the community,-and expressed, in his use of them, the kindly feeling by which all the members of the Christian commonwealth ought to be bound together, and the employment which they were called to make of their different gifts and endowments for the advancement of those interests, which,