Man Christ Jesus, so the instrument which God's wisdom has been pleased to adopt, is the system of Sacraments. The object is that Christ's manhood, like that of the first Adam, should be the quickening seed of His earthly brethren. Therefore did God pre-appoint men "to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." "For as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit." And the very purpose both of Baptism and of the Holy Eucharist is, that the sanctified humanity of the Son of Man may penetrate and leaven the defiled humanity of His brethren.

This is a divine work, and can only be brought about by divine means. But it is a real work, which must truly be effected, if we would profit by that sacrifice which the great Head of our being offered for our redemption, and by that gift, which He bestows for the renewal of our souls. "For we are members of His Body," says St. Paul, "of His flesh, and of His bones. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church." Now this oneness with Christ, this living through His present influence-Our Lord sets forth as the result of that Holy ordinance of the Eucharist, whereby is consummated that union, which in Baptism is commenced-" Except ye eat the flesh

of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink." The Capharnaites, to whom these words were spoken, supposed that Our Lord's Sacred Body was to be broken into morsels, and eaten as material food by men. And the same error does our Church deny under the title of transubstantiation. But that which Christ designed was such real participation of His sanctified humanity, that we may be as truly bound to the New, as by nature we were to the first Adam. And this is to be brought about, not by the carnal devouring of His material flesh, but by Sacramental participation of His ascended humanity. Thus is He in us, and we in Him-He the real seed of life, the quickening principle of a new nature, who has first taken our common Being that He might die for our sins, and then gives it us back sanctified in Himself.

And now, then, we may see, in conclusion, how the weakness of man may be reconciled with his strength. In himself, as heir of his fallen parent, as representing the first Adam, his weakness is incurable, his depravity unredeemed. But look at him as humanity has been renewed in Christ, and those great things, which were originally designed to be his birthright, are again restored. "For the first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is

the Lord from heaven." Well then may man be the image and glory of God, since He who is God Himself, has condescended to take the burden of humanity upon Him. Him. And this shows as well the inward life which may be expected of Christians, as the outward objects which deserve their consideration. Their inward life is not to be fashioned merely on the rule of a decorous morality, it is not enough for them to be decent, peaceful, orderly, inoffensive, their birthright is, that they are "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." With such exceeding great and precious promises, what may not be expected even from the children of a fallen sire! The Christian graces, therefore, the affections and desires of the new man, which were perfectly exhibited in the great Head of our race, should in like manner be manifest in all His brethren. "Be renewed," says the Apostle, "in the spirit of your mind. And put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Not only those deadly sins which shut men out from grace, and against which, therefore, we pray continually in the Litany, but even those sins of infirmity, which cleave so closely to fallen man, should be perpetually mortified. The habit of supposing such sins irresistible, the contented subjection to irritability, covetousness, worldlymindedness, distracting thoughts in prayer-all

these things are inconsistent with that complete renewal of man's nature, which should be the daily work of those in whom Christ is being formed anew. Let us first form an high estimate of that actual gift which is bestowed through Sacramental union with the Lord's body, and we shall more deeply appreciate that change of life, which may be expected from ourselves. To be much in prayer, to commune with God publicly and in private, to hold intercourse with Him through His word-these will be natural consequences of appreciating that great change which He has effected in humanity at large, by the taking it into God.

And this may remind us, likewise, what public services are most worthy of man's thought, and correspond most truly with the nobility of His being. Men are wont to esteem highly the founders of states, and the benefactors of their kind. But the institutions of men, and the schemes of beneficence, are at best but transitory. They are more honourable, doubtless, than that which looks to private ends, or is limited to individual advantage. But would men aim at that which has relation to the highest ends of life, and sets forth its noblest distinction, let them see what the true Pattern of man's race, the real image and glory of God, thinks worthy of attention. This it is which gives so much dignity to the office of the Christian ministry, and so much importance to all

its accessories. For it is the discharge of that office on earth and among men, which the Great Head of humanity is perpetually discharging at His Father's right hand, in the heaven of heavens. And this, too, gives its moment to that common worship, in which it is your office, as Christian laymen, to join. The collective supplication of all Christian people is their continual means of approach to the throne of God. He who has taken our nature is, at such seasons, present among them. And therefore should all the external circumstances of worship correspond to that highest function, wherein mortals can be engaged.

For man's most enduring honour is to bear part in those sacred ends, for which the One Perfect Image of God sacrificed His life. The ends of private magnificence, even the works of public liberality, are a kind of mockery of those who raise them. They last, but their builders pass away. Other generations will inhabit the palaces which this has builded: its senate-houses will be the arena where another race will urge on the petty contentions of their transitory day. Those whose toil has reared them, they will profit no longer. But the prayers which shall ascend from every fresh house of God-they will blend, doubtless, with those aspirations which Christ's unembodied servants will for ever offer; seeing that through the communion of saints the whole family in heaven and earth is united together. Thus may man's works