Shall we not echo back their song, and reply, "To him that loved us, and "washed us from our sins in his blood, "to him be glory and dominion for ever " and ever?"

Surely, my friends, this is the most distinguished privilege which we possess above the inferior creatures, that we are formed in some degree capable, even in this distant land, of knowing and contemplating our Creator and Redeemer. Let us then assert our native dignity; let us rise with noble ambition above the objects of time and sense, and fix our thoughts on the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

But the object to which we are here required to look, not only deserves our highest regard, because he is a Divine Personage, "equal to and one with the Fa"ther;" but also because he is "the great

Immanuel, God with us," in whom the divine and human nature are mysteriously combined. What admiration, O Christians, pervaded the heavenly host, when the mystery of godliness was revealed, "God manifested in the flesh !" And did this sight attract the attention and

wonder of angels, and shall the sons of men be indifferent? They who are most interested in it, they upon whom it reflects the highest honour,-on whom it confers the greatest happiness ?"Christ took not on him the nature of

angels, but the seed of Abraham." Our nature in him is advanced above the angels, and is next in dignity to the nature of God. And to what object in the universe shall man delight to look, if not to that which is most honourable to man;-the human nature in Christ, exalted above principalities and powers, raised to a place of eminence, to which even archangels dare not aspire, united with the Godhead, and invested with universal dominion? Turn then your eyes, fellow Christians, from earth, where human nature appears so vile and degraded, subjected to such weakness and distresses; so polluted with guilt, so prone to every thing that is base or mean, where, in the course of a few revolving suns, it loses its beauty and its vigour, becomes a frail tottering fabric which quickly drops into the dust, and becomes food for worms;-turn your eyes

from this humiliating scene to the throne of God, there to behold human nature raised to its highest perfection, shining in eternal undiminished glory in the person of Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer !

Such is the object to which we are desired to look, an object which, of itself, ought to attract and fix our contemplation. Does beauty delight the eye? "Christ is fairer than the sons of men," or even the angels of light: he is the uncreated beauty; the brightness of the Father's glory. Does grandeur excite admiration? He is the great and only Potentate; he is the King of Kings; he dwells in light inaccessible; resides in the high and holy place; heaven is his throne, and earth his footstool. Is goodness a delightful object? He is the source of goodness; his countenance beams benignity and love through creation; his hand with liberal bounty spreads a table for every thing that lives; he is the protector, the friend, and the saviour of man. Is not this an object to which all the sinful sons of Adam ought to look? Ought they not to withdraw their atten

tion from every thing terrestrial, and deem it an high honour, a noble privilege, to be permitted to contemplate the King in his beauty and glory ?—But it is not only the privilege, it is the duty of man! This brings me to mention, in the

Second place, That it is Christ who here calls us to look to him.

And under what multiplied obligations do we lie to obey his voice? It is not the voice of a fellow mortal; it is not the command of a creature:-these we may disregard. But it is the Creator, the Redeemer, the Governor of the world, who invites and commands us. It is that voice which "spake, and it was done;" which said, "Let there be light, and there was

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light." It is the voice that spake us from nothing into existence; and shall we, when brought into existence, disobey it? It is he who sits on a throne of majesty, whose sceptre rules over all, whose eternal laws heaven, earth and seas obey, who calls us to look to him; and dare we disregard or resist his will? It is he whose voice the quick and the dead shall at last hear and obey; a voice which

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shall ere long address each of us in these joyful words: "Come, ye blessed of my "Father; or in this awful language, Depart from me, ye cursed.” And ought not this consideration to alarm us now, to make us listen in the day of our merciful visitation, and to acknowledge Christ to be our Saviour on earth, that he may acknowledge us as his friends and followers in heaven?

But will not love, a nobler and more powerful motive than terror, constrain us? Will we not be drawn, irresistibly drawn, by the cords of love, to look to him whose delights from the beginning have been with the sons of men? What was it that induced the blessed Jesus, supremely and independently happy in himself at the Father's right hand, to visit a world lying in wickedness, and daily provoking his righteous indignation ; was it not pity, divine pity, and godlike love? And was it not the same generous principles that induced him to exchange the joys of heaven for a life of humiliation and sufferings; that induced him to appear low, obscure and forlorn upon earth, at last to finish his days upon the cross,