phet! For this is He of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

But in one respect we differ from John the Baptist, as he himself differed from those who preceded him. They viewed Christ dimly and from afar, and announced

Him in symbols and dark speeches.

He

in plain terms, and as coming on the instant, nay, as come, as present. He of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, the desire of all nations, was actually among them even while he promised Him. The incarnate God was come unto his people. He trod on the heels of his messenger's announcement, as a king usually follows the steps and proclamations of his heralds. But we proclaim Christ as long since COME, as having not only lived, but as having died for our sins, and risen for our justification, and ascended again, where he was before he left the bosom of his Father; nay as reigning, exalted, and glo

rified, and worshipped, King of kings! and Lord of lords!

It is, therefore, with a deeper sense and meaning than the words first appear to bear, that we, as messengers of God, answer in the words of Christ, to them who question his coming; to them who yearn, they hardly know how or why, for deliverance from that thraldom of body and spirit to which all men are born, yet have not full faith in Christ, as the sole predestined deliverer of spirits out of prison. "Art thou he that should come?" said John's disciples to Jesus, "or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again the things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached."

Exactly so do we answer now-a-days to any earnest inquirer after truth, who indeed longs for deliverance from this body

of death! If he doubt whether there be a heavenly kingdom and a real Saviour in the midst of us, we say, look and see, from the coming of Christ until now-judge for yourself. The blind receive their sight! How? you will say! will say! Why, those who were even so lost and embruted by sin, that they called darkness light and light darkness, and took evil for good and good for evil, have clearly, in the presence of the world, been brought to adore the beauty of that truth and goodness which once they beheld not at all! They were blind, but now they see.

The lame walk. How? Why they that were feeble and poor and poor of purpose, maimed, so to say, in soul, and unable to act or think or speak without leaning upon other men, have become bold, strong in will and upright in the way, needing none to support them but Him whom they see by faith! They were lame, now they walk. The lepers are cleansed. How? They who were covered over with vices

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and corruptions, a real and visible leprosy of the soul, have, as manifestly, become pure and holy and undefiled, formed and fashioned anew; and, in heart and soul and in the fruits that flow from them, the very contraries to their former selves. They were lepers, but are cleansed.

The deaf hear. They who once turned ear and heart away from sacred counsels and wise reproof, are become meek and gentle like children, swift to hear, and eager to admit all that is good and wise into their inmost souls. They were deaf, but now they hear.

Nay, the very dead are raised up. They who had no more sense of things heavenly or power of acting upon them than a corpse has of life, being dead in trespasses and sins, are now full of a divine and purifying spirit. The stiffened limbs are unbent, the senses have regained their vital energy-they move, they speak, they act, they live to the God unto whom they were once utterly dead. They were dead, but now they live.

The poor have the gospel preached unto them, and herein is the greatest marvel of all.

The very lowest and humblest of mankind are, in the most precious treasures of all, and in a true nobility, raised to a level with kings and princes. Yea, if they know not the gospel and the riches of Christ, kings and princes are very poor in the eyes of God, and of his holy angels, and of all his saints, very poor and very miserable compared with the meanest in the kingdom of heaven! Rejoice! ye poor, and miserable, and oppressed, and despised, for Christ is come. The gospel is preached unto you, and great is your reward when, at the last day, he cometh to take unto himself his kingdom, and shall reign with his saints for ever.

Christ, therefore, is not only to come but he is come. He is in the midst of us;not only in his church and in his ministers, and in his sacraments, ready to reveal himself to them who have the faith to receive