de was to him not a name, but a reality. He
entered into the infinite of time and space, which is not measured by
days, or months, or years, but is alike boundless and eternal.

Again, we perceive a third trace of this infinitude in man, in the
power which he possesses of giving up self. In this, perhaps more than
in anything else, man may claim kindred with God. Nor is this power
confined to the best of mankind, but is possessed, to some extent at
least, by all. There is no man, how low soever he may be, who has not
one or two causes or secrets, which no earthly consideration would
induce him to betray. There is no man who does not feel towards one or
two at least, in this world, a devotion which all the bribes of the
universe would not be able to shake. We have heard the story of that
degraded criminal who, when sentence of death was passed upon him,
turned to his accomplice in guilt, in whose favour a verdict of
acquittal was brought in, and in glorious self-forgetfulness
exclaimed--"Thank God, _you_ are saved!" The savage and barbarous
Indian whose life has been one unbroken series of cruelty and crime,
will submit to a slow, lingering, torturing death, rather than betray
his country. Now, what shall we say to these things? Do they not tell
of an indestructible something in the nature of man, of which the
origin is divine?--the remains of a majesty which, though it may be
sullied, can never be entirely lost?

Before passing on let us observe, that were it not for this conviction
of the divine origin, and consequent perfectibility of our nature,
the very thought of God would be painful to us. God is so great, so
glorious, that the mind is overwhelmed by, and shrinks from, the
contemplation of His excellence, unless there comes the tender,
ennobling thought that we are the children of God, who are to become
like our Father in Heaven, whose blessed career it is to go on in an
advance of love and duty towards Him, until we love Him as we are
loved, and know Him almost as we are known.

II. We pass on, in the second place, to consider the Christian
motive--"Even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." Brethren,
worldly prudence, miscalled morality, says--"Be honest; you will find
your gain in being so. Do right; you will be the better for it--even
in this world you will not lose by it." The mistaken religionist only
magnifies this on a large scale. "Your duty," he says, "is