formed many wonderful works, such as no one could perform unless power were given him by the Almighty; and, fourthly, because God raised him from the dead, and took him up into heaven.

These reasons prove that Jesus Christ was sent by God; they prove, therefore, that you have good reasons for calling him your Lord and master. He was a prophet, and he was a far greater Prophet than Moses, or Isaiah, or Daniel, or any other of those who came before him. He was more pure and holy, and had more surpassing wisdom; and he performed more miracles, and of more various kinds, than they did. He also brought to mankind a new and better covenant from their heavenly Father, and declared to them how merciful and gracious he is; he came to rescue all mankind from vice and misery, to teach them to love God, and to show them the way to heaven; and as he has told us that we shall surely live again after we are dead, so will he also be our judge at the last day, when every man will be rewarded according to his deeds.

All this you learn by reading the New Testament; and it should learn you to love and honor Christ as your spiritual Master and Redeemer. But it will be of no use that you call him Lord, unless you do the things which he has commanded. He has himself said, in his

Sermon on the Mount, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord! Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven.' He also said to his disciples on the night before his crucifixion, If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John xiv. 15.) Shew then, that you, truly love and honor Christ, as the great Prophet and Messenger of God, by keeping in view his excellent example, and by being pure, and holy, and charitable, as he was. Bear always in mind the rules of life which he has given you, and never suffer yourselves to do any thing which he has forbidden. Live always as in the sight of that God who sent him into the world, to redeem you from all iniquity,' and then you will be Christians, not in name only, but in deed and in truth: at the great day of account Christ will own you as his true disciples and will receive you into his heavenly kingdom.

ADDRESS IX.

MEANING OF THE WORD GOSPEL.

My dear Children,

You recollect I told you last Sunday, that if

any one asks you why you call Jesus Lord, you

should say it is because you believe that he was sent by God; and I then gave you four reasons why we believe that he was sent by God. I hope that you have not forgotten what those reasons were. The first was because Christ was more holy and virtuous than any man that ever lived. He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' The second was, because he was wiser than any man that ever lived: he taught the most excellent doctrine, and told events which were to happen before they came to pass. The third was, because he did many wonderful works, such as giving sight to the blind and raising the dead, which he could not have done without power given him by God; and the fourth was, because God raised him from the dead, and exalted him to his right hand in heaven.

We find an account of all this in the gospels -the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and I will now explain to you what is meant by the word gospel. It means good news; as when the angels said to the shepherds, at the birth of Christ, Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings,' or good news, 'of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' (Luke ii, 10.) When, therefore, we speak of the gospel of Matthew, we mean the good news of which we

have an account written by Matthew; and so of the gospel of Mark,and the rest. This good news was what our Lord and Saviour came to tell us. And what was it that he told us? First of all he informed us that God is the kind and equal Father of all mankind. This had never been told to the world before. On the contrary, God had delivered his law to the Jews from Mount Sinai, and led them through the Red Sea and the desart, and given them the fruitful land of Canaan to dwell in, and shown forth his glorious presence on the mercy-seat in the tabernacle and the temple, none of which things he had done for any other nation. From this it might be supposed that God favored the Jews more than he favored other nations; but the time was now come when this could no longer be thought to be the case. As Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, The hour cometh, nay now is, when neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father;' that is, ye shall not worship him there only; 'but the true worshippers shall worship him in spirit and in truth;' which was as if he had said, In whatever place men put up their prayers to Almighty God, provided only that they pray with earnestness and sincerity, there God will listen to them.' Jesus also told the Jews that their splendid temple would be destroyed; and we know that it was destroy

ed a few years after Christ had been taken up into heaven, and that the glorious presence of God appeared no longer on the mercy-seat. And is not this good news to mankind? Is it not a joyful thing to be told by Jesus Christ, that God is as much the God of other nations as he is of the Jews?--that he is equally good and kind to all? Is it not a pleasant thing to know, that wherever we may happen to be, or whatever may be the country in which we are born, there is the same heavenly Father to us all, and that he loveth us all alike?

This is one piece of good news which Christ brought us; and another is, that God is willing to forgive us our sins, if we truly repent of them, and forgive others their trespasses against

us.

And is it not good news, my dear children, to be told this? We have all of us sinned against God, and done many things which we ought not to have done; and we know that for this he might make us very unhappy. How delightful then, is it to know that God is willing to forgive us, if we pray to him sincerely, and with true repentance! Suppose there was some great man or some king, whom we had grievously offended, and we were much afraid that he would soon come and punish us for what we had done; should we not consider it very joyful news, if we heard that he had

6*