to his offspring; and that man being made in the image of God, the parental and the filial relations in man are images— very imperfect images, I grant, but yet images—of the perfect reality which exists in the Godhead between the Father and the Son; only God's fatherly character towards His creatures is more perfect, more loving, more tender, and more holy than the relation which exists between a human parent and his child; and as nothing but some crime of the deepest dye can destroy the parental feeling which parents entertain for their offspring, so nothing but a condition of wickedness on the part of man which is past all the means of cure that are capable of being brought to bear on a moral being, can sever the relation in which God stands to men as their Creator and their Father. So completely does this view of the relation in which God stands to man pervade the teaching of the New Testament, that wherever the Divine name is mentioned His fatherly relationship is almost universally presupposed. Thus, He is the Father who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that the world through Him might be saved; He is the Father of mercies, the God of love, the God of all comfort, the God of patience and consolation; the God of hope, the God of peace; the Father who sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world; the Father who willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance ; the Father, whose character is the counterpart of that of the shepherd who, on finding his lost sheep, when he has recovered it, returns from the pursuit, laying it on his shoulders rejoicing; and of the father who, when he sees the prodigal yet afar off, is moved with compassion, runs to meet him, falls on his neck, and kisses him.

This parental character as ascribed to God is meaningless unless it involves the primary moral conceptions which enter into the idea of fatherhood in man. Among these, therefore, must be love in its purest form a watchful care for the well

being of His children, compassion for their weaknesses, a careful allowance for the power of internal and external temptation as compared with their strength to resist it, the exercise of impartial justice between the different members of His family, the not holding one responsible for the sins of another, and the not punishing as sin that of which a man has had nothing to do with the causation. All these and similar qualities are essential to the conception of fatherhood, and the human father in whom they are wanting would be properly designated as destitute of proper parental feelings. These qualities must, therefore, exist in absolute perfection in Him who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, a perfection of which the gift of Jesus Christ for man constitutes the measure and the revelation.

II. THE BENEVOLENCE OF CHRIST.

It is almost a platitude to affirm that the portraiture of our Lord, as it is delineated in the Gospels, constitutes an embodiment of benevolence in the purest form. So perfect is it that the highest flights of poetic imagination have never succeeded in depicting a benevolence equally perfect. It is a benevolence not of sentiment but of deeds; nor is it of deeds which cost little or nothing, but of an habitual sacrifice of self, persistently carried out through an entire life, and culminating in an ignominious death. It is, in fact, one continuous act of self-sacrifice for the good of others, manifesting itself in unceasing efforts to cure the moral and spiritual diseases of those with whom He came in contact, to elevate the degraded to a life of holiness, to impart hope to the penitent, strength to the weak, and finally a carrying out of self-sacrifice to its extremest limits, by giving His life for the life of the world, not in the tranquil death of a Socrates, but in the ignominy and the unspeakable anguish of the

cross.

If, then, it is true that "he that hath seen Jesus Christ hath seen the Father," the benevolence of this Divine life must be a revelation of the benevolence which exists in God. It is impossible that God can be less benevolent than Christ. The entire work of Jesus Christ is, therefore, a manifestation of the love for man which exists in God. "Herein," says St. John, "was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John iv. 9, 10.)

III. THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST FOR SUFFERERS AND SINNERS.

To enable me to set the compassion of Christ, in all its reality and fulness, before the reader, it would be necessary to quote a large portion of the Gospels. In them He is depicted as habitually moved with compassion at the sight of suffering, and even for sin, so far as it is the result of human weakness, and not of a will with deliberate purpose set in opposition to the holiness of God as revealed in Him. Of His compassion for human suffering a single illustration must suffice. Thus St. Matthew writes :

"And when evening was come, they brought unto him many possessed with devils, and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our diseases." (Matt. viii. 16, 17.)

This is undoubtedly a very singular application of a passage from the Old Testament. It is inconceivable that the Evangelist meant to affirm that our Lord, in curing diseases, took them on Himself, or bore them about with Him. It is obvious, therefore, that the thing intended is, that He was moved with such deep compassion at the sight of human woe,

that He seemed as if He himself were bearing the burden of the diseases He cured.

Of His compassion for sin into which men are drawn by weakness and temptation, we have a portraiture given us in the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, which is so perfect that any attempt to portray it in any other language than that of the Evangelist is to mar its perfection. I shall therefore simply quote his opening words :

"Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing near unto him for to hear him. And both the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them." In answer to this objection our Lord uttered the three parables of the lost sheep, the lost piece of money, and the prodigal son. Let the reader study them, and he will require no further proof of the Divine compassion for sinners which dwelt in the bosom of Jesus Christ, verifying His own declaration, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Another striking example is that of the woman taken in adultery

:

"And Jesus lifted up himself and said, Woman, where are they?" i.e. her accusers. "Did no man condemn thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee; go thy way; from henceforth sin no more." (John viii. 10, 11.)

Such is the compassion for human suffering and for human sin which the Gospels affirm to have dwelt in the bosom of Jesus Christ. If, then, His saying be true, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," a similar compassion must reside in God, as it is impossible that Christ can be more compassionate than God; for He himself affirms, "I am in the Father and the Father in me," and, "the Father abiding in me doeth his works." Compassion, therefore, forms an essential feature in the character of God, and every

representation of God which is inconsistent with the existence of this compassion in Him, must be due either to the imperfection of human reason, or be the result of narrowness and want of moral appreciation.

Yet, notwithstanding the existence in God of a benevolence and a compassion, such as I have above described, it is a fact that not only do sin, and suffering as a consequence of sin, but suffering independent of sin, exist, and that in no small degree, in the world in which we live. It may be urged, then, if God is almighty, and as divinely compassionate as Christ is compassionate, why does He not annihilate all these evils? And if Christ was thus compassionate, why did He confine the exercise of His superhuman power within the limits which He did, and not cure all the evils from which men suffer which are not self-caused? The only possible answer to these questions is, that they are only a particular form of that great mystery, the existence of evil in the universe of One whose power and wisdom are unlimited and whose goodness is perfect; and that this is a problem the solution of which transcends the powers of the human intellect.

But it will, perhaps, be urged that our inability to solve this question invalidates all reasonings from the Divine character as to the condition of men after death. To this I answer, that while our view of the Divine government is far too limited to enable us to form a judgment respecting the results which flow from the permission of the existence of evil and of suffering during the present constitution of things, yet the principles on which God will judge mankind, and the condition to which the various classes of sinful or imperfect men will be consigned in consequence of that judgment, involve considerations which are purely moral; and therefore we are adequate judges whether the various theories which have been propounded on this subject are in conformity with the character of God, as it is revealed in Jesus Christ, and