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Oh, higher yet his star shall rise;

While wise men mock, and babes are wise,
Its light shall mantle all the earth,
And unborn myriads bless its birth,
Through endless, endless years!

III.

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

As the light of the bright morning broke over the hills of Judea, a great multitude was seen hastening up the sides of the mountain. All the night long the Son of Man had been on this mountain alone. What prayers he offered, what desires he expressed, what visions he saw,

we may never know in this world. But early the crowds have gathered that they may hear him speak. They have heard that no human tongue ever uttered notes so sweet, that no human voice ever thrilled the heart with such power, leaving its echo in the soul, like some sweet music that seems to hover over the harp that first created the melody, and their hearts whisper that he may be the long-promised Messiah.

Near, and around him stand the many who call themselves his scholars. These he calls to him, and from them selects twelve by name. The multitude wonder. Are these the twelve who are to be generals in his army, marshals in his empire, as he leads out the hosts of Israel to their deliverance? Are these to be his staff officers in that mighty struggle, in

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which he will throw off the galling, Roman show himself a king, and to lift up the banner

yoke, and make his country free? Hark! He is now about to speak, to instruct them, unfolding his plans for raising, supporting, and disciplining his army, and of restoring Israel to the glory of Solomon! Hark! He is now to

under which the embattled hosts shall muster to war! What a call to arms, to blood, to death and glory, will now be heard! In utter amazement the crowds see him sit. down on a piece of rock. No sword, spear,

trumpet, or banner, is seen! He calls around him his selected ones, instructs them, prepares them to go out in his name among men. How strange the instructions, in manner, in spirit, and in their power! The voice, though low and soft, reaches every ear. His countenance is meek and lowly, yet he speaks with a power never known before. Instead of exciting the Jewish war-spirit, his very first words, if obeyed, would banish war from the earth. The characters which men despise, he exalts and pronounces blessed. The exterior, at

which they looked, was nothing to him. The heart was the man; the thoughts were the character; the feelings were the deed. Old prejudices, traditions, notions, and practices, he threw away as worthless and injurious. Formality, hypocrisy, and pretence, he detected and denounced. Quoting no traditions, appealing not to antiquity, asking no authority, he threw away long-established notions and usages, and exposed the deep principles of human action, as if he alone in all creation spoke with the voice of authority and truth.

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consequence for the new prophet of Nazareth | preacher of that gospel to the end of the world.

to send out a few illiterate men as heralds of his kingdom. Without education, wealth, genius, the patronage of the rich, or any thing by which they might hope to attract attention. They surrounded their teacher, and were told to go out in his name, and under his sole authority! How eagerly Peter, ardent and headstrong, listened! How timidly did lovely John receive the command! How strong arose the hope in the bosom of the traitor, that he would now have the opportunity to fill his purse! They thought that it was a commission to them to go out and preach the gospel: we see that it embraced the commission of every faithful

They thought Judea and its environs would form the boundaries of their labours; they little knew that on continents then undiscovered, and in languages then uncreated, magnificent churches would bear their names, and they would be invoked as the guardian saints! But those brief instructions form all the commission Christ's servants can ever claim. It was like stamping laws on light and on water, so that the creation of the first rainbow created every rainbow that shall ever hang on the dark clouds. The engineer seems to do but little as he marks out a track, and sets up here and there a stake, but in reality, he is deciding where the multitudes,

who shall daily pass over that road, shall go. It is thus that the acts of our Saviour, which seem at first view to be insignificant, are found to contain in them vast results. The oak is wrapped in the acorn; the mighty tree in the little seed. The few instructions contained in this one commision are worth more to the human race than the mightiest volume that uninspired, plodding minds have ever penned. Genius may throw his beautiful creations upon the world, and they will be admired: Learning may pour out his rich stores, and mankind will rise up and do him homage; Eloquence may throw his electrical wires over men, and make them

thrill at his will; Music may touch her lyre, and the heart will tremble in ecstasy: and Poetry may lift up the soul in regions where the sunshine, the light, the very breathings are unearthly: yet, after all, there was never a being who, in words so few, so simple, so childlike, bowed, subdued, and controlled so many hearts, as Jesus Christ. And if we were asked to point to a single page that beams with light like that which flashed from the Shekinah between the cherubim, we would turn to the great commission,-Jesus Christ sending out men to preach the gospel to all the earth.

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VI.

CHRIST CURING ONE SICK OF THE

PALSY.

STRETCHED on a couch of living death, With nought of life but pulse and breath, They bring the paralytic near,

For they have heard a Saviour's here. Crowds are around;-the rich, the wise;Poor palsied wretch! they will despise

Thee and thy friends; no room for thee;

The sinner's friend thou mayst not see;-
But conquering faith inspires the way,

The sick before the Lord to lay.

See! through the throng their way they bend,
Now have they found the sinner's friend..
On that benumbed and palsied ear

Already falls that word of cheer,
"Son, be thy many sins forgiven!"
Like blessed summer rain from heaven,
That word hath life and vigour given;
Already see the faded eye

Kindling with hope and ecstasy;

Already the untutored crowd
Prepare to glorify their God,-
Is there a heart untuned to praise?
Ah, yes; those scoffing Rabbis raise
The cry of blasphemy; "For none
Can pardon sins but God alone."
How meekly did the Saviour then

His Godhead and his power maintain :-
"Whether is easier to say,

Rise, take thy couch, and go thy way;'
Or to prepare a soul for heaven,
By showing all its sins forgiven?

But that your hardened hearts may know,
The Son of Man hath power below,
I to this palsied sufferer say,

'Rise, take thy couch, and go thy way!"
The crowds their shouts of honour raise,
As with glad haste the man obeys,
And mingles gratitude with praise.

VII.

CHRIST HEALING THE DEMONIAC.

Scene-Sunset in the cottage of the widow Shelomith, the
Jewess.

O My children, would that you had been with me to-day, that you might have seen the strange things I have seen. As I went out to the harvest-field to glean the widow's portion, the scattering ears, with little Helez, who so earnestly desired to see the reaping, I found the reapers leaving their work, and hastening, with multitudes of strangers, towards Capernaum. On my inquiring what this meant,

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Abdon, our neighbour, said, "Jesus, the car- he looked? Ah! my children, I cannot depenter's son, is near," and hurried on. Having heard of the wonders done by this new prophet, I took your little brother by the hand, and led him to the grove just in sight of Capernaum, where Jesus stood. You ask me how

scribe his majesty and loveliness; he is fairer
than the sons of men. Around him stood
twelve men who follow him, they say, in all
his wanderings. Before he began to speak, a
f
stir arose in the crowd. and two strong Ishmael-

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