through whom alone we, who are spiritually blind, can so perceive the
spiritual character and glory of Jesus as to admire and love Him;--and
prayer, by which we can hold actual, personal intercourse with, and
thus come to know and love Jesus more and more from experience: these,
I say, and other doctrines appear to me to be involved in the very
idea that Christianity is supreme love to Jesus Christ. But I shall
not consider any of them except one, the first and all-important, the
very pillar and ground of the truth--viz., the divinity of Christ's
Person. Let us therefore inquire--


II.

WHO WAS JESUS CHRIST?


A more important question cannot be proposed for our consideration!
Who is this, I ask with absorbing interest, whom I am commanded
to honour as I honour the living God? Who is this who claims my
unreserved faith, my unlimited obedience, my devoted love? Who is this
who promises to pardon my sins through faith in His blood; to purify
and perfect my nature through faith in His power? Who is this in whom
I am to abide in life; into whose hands I am to commit my spirit, and
the spirits of all who are dear to me, in the hour of death; whose
voice is to call me forth from the grave when He comes again, and who
is finally to judge me, and to determine my eternal condition?

That Jesus Christ _does_ make those claims upon us, and those promises
to us, is certain; and it is equally certain that they have been, and
are, joyfully acquiesced in by the Christian Church. The question,