doctrines, which were necessary to explain their use, and make manifest
their reasonableness and worth. There was no lack of attention among
theologians to the doctrine that Christ was an incarnation of the Deity;
but little or no regard was paid to the kindred doctrine, its necessary
accompaniment, that Jesus was the 'image,' the 'likeness,' of God, the
revelation or manifestation of His character. Yet this is essential to a
right understanding and a due appreciation of the other. The revelation
or manifestation of God, and especially of His eternal and infinite
love, was the great design and end of the incarnation. Taken apart from
this doctrine the incarnation becomes a dry hard fact, without use or
meaning. It is when viewed as a means of revealing God,--of making
manifest His infinite goodness, and by that means melting and purifying
man's heart, and transforming his character, that it is seen to be full
of interest and power and glory.

The doctrine that Jesus is God's image, God manifest in the flesh, is
the one great doctrine of Christianity,--the sum, the substance of the
whole Gospel,--the Gospel itself,--the power of God to the salvation of
every one that truly believes and contemplates it. It is a world of
truth in one,--a whole encyclopædia of divine philosophy; the perfection
of all wisdom and of all power; the one great revelation needful to the
salvation of the world.

Yet I never met with this doctrine for the first thirty years of my
life, in any theological work. I have no recollection that I ever heard
it mentioned in a sermon. I certainly never heard it explained and
applied to the great purposes for which it was designed. I never was
told that to know the character of God, I had only to look at the
character of Christ,--that what Christ was during His life on earth in
the circle in which He moved, that God was throughout all worlds, and