tion but an augmentation of His love. It was the adding of an love to the Divine; the mingling of the sweet and gentle affecof perfect humanity with the profound and godlike emotion of y. He was “made of a woman,” and He had more than a woman's erness and love; He was the Son of man, and He had more than n's heroic self-devotion ; He was still the Son of God, and God is

And if His incarnation augmented His love, His ascension did liminish it. If He loved His Church before He died for it, He ot love it less afterwards. And if this inspired expression, “Christ His Church,” may be applied to all ages of the past, it will serve or the present and the future; for Christ loves His people still vill love them for ever. Having loved His own He will love them

end, for His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. He loves hurch now, and pours out His love continually in blessings upon d He may love and bless it more and more. For if He loved the ch so that He gave Himself for it, how much will He love it now ihat act of self-devotion has endeared it to Him! If He loved it ich in pity and compassion, how must He love it now in complaand delight! If He loved it at first in its guilt and pollution, vill He love it at last in its purity and glory, when He shall have nted it to Himself holy and without blemish! And if he loved hus beforehand, what will the end and consummation of such love The apostle John invites us to “behold what manner of love the r hath bestowed upon us ;” but here and elsewhere we are sumd to meditate on the wondrous love of the adorable Son who

the Church and gave Himself for it. Therefore " to Him that loved us” be everlasting praises ascribed.

THE SELF-DEVOTION." And gave Himself for it." w let us dwell for a moment on the value, costliness, and grandeur is gift. Himself! The greatest and most wonderful Individuality e universe. Himself, the Almighty God, the God of glory, the enly Majesty, the Eternal, the Infinite, the Perfect One, the of kings and Lord of lords, the Creator of the worlds, the of angels and men, the Father of lights, the source and sum of ood, the All-Beautiful, the first Fair, the bright Original of all 8. He to whom belong all might, majesty, dominion, and power; reat attributes and all vast treasures. Himself, the Man Christ 3; the pure, spotless, innocent, perfect man, the holy undefiled and separate from sinners. He whose heart was a treasury of all t fragrant human affections, and the words of whose lips were as it pearls, or as drops of life and glory! Himself, the chiefest ig ten thousand, the altogether lovely, who is fairer than the ren of men, who is anointed with the oil of gladness above His ws, and whose garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, and he perfumes of goodness! Himself, the image of the Invisible ; the First-begotten from the dead, the Prince of the kings of the h, the First-born of every creature, who is made so much better 1 the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent

name than they, who in all things hath the pre-eminence! Hims the lovely, glorious Son of God, who unites in His person the elemei the beauties, the energies, the glories of all being, finite and infin heavenly and earthly, eternal and temporal. Unspeakable gift! gave Himself! He gave His Divinity, He gave His humanity : gave His infinite and His finite nature; He gave His eternal glor and He gave His mortal flesh ; He gave all His attributes and fections, His innocence and His virtues; He gave all that was God Him, and all that was man, His Divine grandeur and power, and human lowliness and weakness, the sweetness of His infinite esser and His undefiled body and precious blood. He gave Himself, with the glories of His nature, and all the treasures of His heart. precious Gift, O gracious Giver, we accept Thee, we thank Thee!

And now let us observe how He bestowed this wondrous gif Himself. He gave Himself not to us, but for us. It were in vain t He had given Himself to us, for we could not have received, or proved, or enjoyed, or perceived the value of so Divine a gift. 1 had no spiritual faculty within us to discover the excellences of Chr There was no beauty in Him to us that we should desire Him, and He had given Himself to us we could not have possessed Him. 1 deed, we know what would have been the result of His giving Himi directly to man, for in a subordinate manner He did so. He surr dered Himself into the hands of men, and they utterly despised a rejected Him. They did unto Him whatsoever they listed. They sa “ Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him, crucify Him The form, therefore, that His self-devotion properly took was th He gave Himself for us-gave Himself to God on our behalf-topi mote our cause, to advance our interests, to destroy our enemies, overcome our dangers, to deliver us from our sins, to cancel our deb to annul our condemnation, to save our souls. He gave Himself us to do and to suffer everything which Infinite Wisdom saw necessat for our eternal happiness; gave Himself to redeem us from erei curse, and to procure for us every blessing; gave Himself to becor incarnate, to live, to labour, to suffer, to bleed, to die, to rise agai to intercede, to rule, to control nature, to guide Providence, to disper grace for us. He gave Himself for us as Prophet, Instructor, Sacrifii Propitiation, Priest, and King, to sustain every gracious characte and to fulfil every gracious office for us. But chiefly He gave Hims as a sacrificial offering to God for us; as our Substitute and Sure before Divine justice, to bear our sins, to suffer our penalties, to wo out a righteousness by which we may be justified and accepted." was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made til righteousness of God in Him." Yes, He gave Himself for us. Wonde ful self-devotion! Unparallelled self-sacrifice! Gave Himself to d for His enemies ! And now since He has given Himself for us, nothin can be against us; for Christ draws the universe after Him, and if be for us, who can be against us? And then having given Himself f. the Church, He gives Himself to it, for what He has done for Al

le prepares them to receive, to appreciate, to love, and to enjoy

I. THE OBJECT OF THIS SELF-DEVOTION. le object here set forth is the second and final design of Christ's :, sanctification and holiness ; the first object, pardon and justifi. n being implied in the expression we have been considering, “ He Himself for us.” id this final design is twofold,—the sanctification on earth, and the ntation in heaven. The sanctification on earth (ver. 26). And this is just the object i we might have expected Christ's pure and holy love to seek, and enerous self-sacrifice to work out. For He loved us not for but rsin, and in spite of it, and because He saw that we were capable lining, or that He was capable of making us shine, in holiness for

The great end and fruit, therefore, of His love and His work is anctification. He would cleanse us from our pollution, He would us from our degradation, He would reclaim us from our evil ways, rould draw us off from low associations and pursuits and vile and illing practices, He would purify our hearts, purge our natures, », correct, ennoble all that is within us; suffuse and baptize us purity, clothe us with beauty and loveliness, stamp upon us His image, and make us shine with the very brightness of Divinity Ter. The great result of Christ's love to the Church, and of His upon it, is to make it resplendent with all holiness and virtue. nay take the word sanctify, too, not merely in the sense of purify, is meaning to set apart, and understand by it that Christ is sancg the Church to Himself-to His own use, His own service, His pleasure and honour. For if Christ sanctifies the Church, He ifies it only to and for Himself; He sanctifies it to Himself now, He may present it to Himself by-and-by. “He gave Himself 8 that He may redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Him4 peculiar people zealous of good works." What then, brethren? ir sanctification is the great end of Christ's love and of Christ's -, surely we ought in gratitude to fall in with it. We ought to o work out the designs of redeeming love in our own experience, to be as holy as our Saviour would love to see us. We cannot ite His love, but we can in some degree fulfil it. Let us follow holiness, then, and suffer the love of Jesus to have its own sweet

with us.

word or two on the manner in which, or the means by which, this tification is effected. It is by “the washing of water.” This exsion evidently alludes to the rite of baptism, but it denotes that tually cleansing operation of which baptism is the emblem, and ch is called “the washing of regeneration.” It is also “ by the d," by which is meant Divine revealed truth, the great instrument anctification. And there may be this difference between these two igs, that the washing of water is an operation that takes place once all, while the influence of the word is continuous and permanent. We are to read and hear and meditate on the word continually for t sustenance and increase of our spiritual life. The washing of wa itself, however, is to have a permanent influence upon us, for the s ritual baptism is to be continued through life, and the outer bapti is to be remembered as a perpetual incentive to renewed effort af holiness. “For he that lacketh these things,” says Peter, “ hath f gotten that he was purged from his old sins;" he has forgotten t meaning, design, and use of his baptism. Brethren, we ought to r member our baptism with its vows and obligations and holy teaching continually, and these recollections should combine with the word promote and perfect our sanctification. And this shows that then of baptism should be observed only after the power of memory begit For what is the use of baptism if we cannot remember it?

2. The presentation (ver. 27). And how is Christ to present Church ? As a glorious Church, a Church arrayed in glory and beau and splendour, invested with dignity and honour, crowned with joy a victory, with all its habiliments of mourning and all its emblems degradation cast away for ever. As a holy Church, “not having si or wrinkle or any such thing,” but that it should be holy and with blemish. Not having any spot of impurity, or wrinkle of deformity nor any such thing ; having no imperfection, no defect, no flaw, fault, with every feature of moral beauty perfect and entire, w nothing to mar or defile that comeliness and excellency in which Lord finds His satisfaction. As a happy Church also ; for glory a unwrinkled beauty and unspotted purity must, combined, make up t highest felicity. Sorrow goes with spots and wrinkles, but joy wi glory and purity. And when the people of the Lord shall be presente before Him sinless, spotless, stainless, oh how great will be their sati faction and delight! Thus another Scripture writer speaks of H who is able to “present us faultless before the presence of His glor with exceeding joy." Oh, shall we be present at that great presenta tion day ? Shall we be there amongst the myriads of the redeemed crowned with glory and beauty and joy, presented by the Lord to Hin self ? For, secondly, to whom is this presentation to be made Christ? To whom but" to Himself”! For to whom should He pr sent it but to Himself ? To whom but Himself who gave Himself it? Who but He is entitled to the honour, can appreciate the vald and the joy of this presentation ? To whom can the Church wil thus to be presented ? To whom but to Him to whose love and deal she owes her beauty and joy and very existence! Whose acceptand approval, admiration, complacency, and love, does she seek or value by His ?

Brethren, let this be our supreme desire,—to be presented at lag holy and perfect by Christ to Himself. And when shall He thus PN sent it? When the Church is complete.

THE INFANT VOYAGERS.

FOR THE YOUNG.

e bright glow of a summer-even- | I'll tell you a pretty story out of the inset was shed over the sea-shore book I'm reading,” said Esther. mall fishing village, in a beau “Let me come too, Esther,” said part of the coast of Devonshire. Tommy. The boy, as he threw down i lay moored all along the sand his spade and sprang in after his b, here and there, a few paces | sister, seated himself astride on one

studding the long bay as it of the seats. “Now, sister, tell us ched in a semicircle for nearly one of your stories.” le, bordered by the red cliffs The fair child loosened the strings 1 jotted out to the east in a of her white sun-bonnet to catch 1 point.

some of the evening breeze which is whole fishing population of was springing up after the hot illage seemed gathered to one August day, and curling the crisp where they were busily en little waves which were breaking Tin watching the landing of a | upon the shore. The story she told (a large net), which it was them seemed very interesting to the sed contained a great haul of little ones, for they gazed lovingly erel. And even the few gentry, and quietly into Esther's eyes, and sual visitors, who were drawn forgot all but the sound of her gentle s retired spot, were sitting or voice, until suddenly she stopped, ing near the net, waiting for and exclaimed: lauling-in to be accomplished, “Why, Tommy, we are floating ! peculating upon the number of Take hold of Chubby, while I push ikely to be landed.

back with the oar." ree children were to be seen on Tommy sprang forward, nearly ery opposite side of the bay, swinging over the small boat, and ng in and about a small boat seized Chubby, who instantly set up I was lying a little over on one a loud scream. moored by its anchor, just be “O Tommy, Tommy! there are igh water mark. The eldest, a no oars here, they are on the beach," f eight years old, was intently cried Esther. “What shall we do ?” ng a book, seated inside the “I will take care of you,” said whilst every now and then Tommy, stoutly. “Don't mind ; ifted up her eyes to watch the father will be sure to see us." ments of her little sister, a baby “No, no, he won't, he won't, Tom0, who was building sand-hills, | my,” said Esther, “he's at the seine, ding her tiny hands with the | ever so far away; and we are going and, and throwing it up in the | away out to sea so fast.”. The third, a boy of five years “ I will shout to him," said Tome, was digging a deep hole with my, in a faltering voice. “I am sure vooden spade round the spot he will hear;" and he hallooed to e the anchor was loosely resting the utmost pitch of his childish e sandy beach.

voice. Esther, Esther,” lisped the little But the sound was borne away "lift me up; I want to come upon the waters, and never reached

the boat with you.” Esther the knot of men who were gathered id down her sweet face, and together at the distant part of the d the little one as she lifted her beach, looking like a small dark the boat.

patch upon the sand. jome, Chubby, and sit here, and “Esther, can't we hold up some