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world was in darkness, and here was the Light it needed.'*

"The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ.'t Standing before Pilate, Jesus says, To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.'

We like much the remark of an old writer on this subject. Speaking of the motto, he says Jesus meant, 'I am the Truth and substance of all the types and shadows of the law.' This view does not go far enough. We believe Jesus to be the great standard of all moral truth; the great test by which all moral questions are to be tried. In him centres all spiritual truth. He is the great spiritual Light of the moral world: the only infallible Teacher that has ever been upon our earth; the only one who had a perfect knowledge of God and of the human soul. Every word he uttered was truth. Every action was pure; every principle of conduct was from the fountain of truth itself. In fine, he was a being of unsullied purity. It was strictly true of him to the latest moment of his continuance on earth; with perfect sincerity it might have been shouted with triumph as he ascended to the throne of Heaven, 'He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.' With what propriety, then, might Jesus say to the world, 'I am the TRUTH!'

Before Jesus came, all was darkness and confusion. Cicero says it was almost impossible to enumerate

* Sermons on the Mission, Character, and Doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth. By W. J. Fox. Vol. i. p. 4. London.

† John i. 17.

Ib. xviii. 37.

the different sentiments of the ancient philosophers. The Stoics affirmed that virtue was the sole good, and its own reward. The Peripatetics rejected that notion in the case of virtue in distress, and made the good things of this life a necessary ingredient of happiness. The Epicureans set up pleasure, or, at least, indolence and freedom from pain, as the final good which men ought to propose to themselves. When we take into consideration these various and discordant views, we see how much the world needed a Teacher who could say at once, 'I am the TRUTH.' And such an one was Jesus of Nazareth. When he appeared, truth dropped upon the world in all its purity.

But it was not merely respecting the great points of morality that the world was ignorant, but men knew nothing of another state of being. They were groping their way in darkness and conjecture. Some believed in transmigration; others denied that man would survive the death of the body. On this point, let us hear Socrates, whose words seem to embody the views and feelings of the ancient world. Shortly before his death, he said, 'I hope I am now going to good men, though this I would not take upon me peremptorily to assert; but, that I shall go to the gods, lords that are absolutely good, this, if I can affirm anything of this kind, I would certainly affirm. And for this reason I do not take it ill that I am to die, as otherwise I should do; but I am in good hope that there is something remaining for those who are dead, and that it will then be much better for good than for bad men.'* How much darkness and con

* Plato, Phædon. op. tom. i. p. 143. ed. Bipont.

jecture is expressed in these few words! How clearly do they prove the necessity of more light from heaven. respecting the unseen world. In the midst of this darkness the TRUTH appeared. Jesus went down into the lone chambers of the grave; on the third day he burst its barriers, and appeared before the world, a living demonstration of the doctrine of life and immortality. With what propriety, then, might he style himself 'the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' But we cannot pursue this great subject.

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The TRUTH, then, has dawned upon the world, yea, has arisen in its glory, and not only irradiated this dark world, but it has thrown a radiance into the world beyond. And now we know man will live forever. And how lovely is truth! It is the most beautiful object in the universe. It is powerful. It was never conquered, nor ever can be. It has the strength of the Almighty. Truth is the glory of time, and the daughter of eternity; she is the life of religion; the crown of wisdom; her essence is in God, and her dwelling with his servants.' She is the ministering spirit who sheds on man that bright and indestructible principle of life, which is given, by its mighty Author, to illuminate and inspire the immortal soul, and which, like himself, "is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." Well, then, might Jesus say, 'I am the TRUTH.' The world never saw truth before in all its purity and loveliness. She was upon the earth, for she has never wholly deserted man, though man has often deserted her. But her dwelling-place is with the pure and upright: 'Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.'

Her residence is not in temples or in caverns,

but within the soul. There she rears her throne; there she makes her conquests; there she will live when the splendor of all earthly temples shall have grown dim, and when thrones and dominions shall have passed away. There is her kingdom. And the Truth is now going forth to conquer and to conquer. The victory is sure, for Jesus has said, 'Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free;' I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'

'Thou art the Way-and he who sighs
Amid this starless waste of woe

To find a pathway to the skies,

A light from heaven's eternal glow

By thee must come, thou Gate of love,
Through which the saints undoubting trod;
Till faith discovers, like the dove,

An ark, a resting-place in God

Thou art the Truth-whose steady day
Shines on through earthly blight and bloom;

The pure, the everlasting ray,

The lamp that shines e'en in the tomb;
The light that out of darkness springs,

And guideth those that blindly go;

The word whose precious radiance flings
Its lustre upon all below.

Thou art the Life-the blessed Well,

With living waters gushing o'er,

Which those that drink shall ever dwell

Where sin and thirst are known no more.

Thou art the mystic pillar given

Our lamp by night, our light by day;
Thou art the sacred Bread from heaven;

Thou art the Life—the Truth—the Way.'

LXXVI. VINE.

'I am the true Vine. My Father is the Husbandman.' John xv. 1.

How many beautiful emblems does the Saviour employ to represent himself and the glory and beauty of his doctrine. He takes down the sun and presents it as an illustration. He feeds thousands, and then says, 'The Bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.'* He stands at the gushing fountain, and then says, 'Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.' And the lily of the field, as plucked by his hand, has the freshness of the morning and the dew upon it. Indeed, the homeliest fact as unfolded by him is found to contain the most treasured truths. He drew his illustrations from every source. He threw his eye upon the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms, and all awakened at his touch, and yielded their treaNow we are to contemplate him under the emblem of a Vine, one of the most interesting objects in the whole vegetable world. the vine with its extended

sures.

* John vi. 33.

Who has not admired branches, its tendrils

Ib. iv. 13, 14.

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