ngly action of Christ, the
Mediator between God and man. Thus in the Gospel for the First Sunday,
He manifests His glory in the temple at the age of twelve years,
sitting among the doctors, and astonishing them with His wisdom. In
the Gospel for the Second Sunday He manifests His glory at the wedding
feast, when He turned the water into wine, a miracle not of necessity
or urgency, but especially an august and bountiful act--the act of a
King, who out of His abundance gave a gift to His own, therewith to
make merry with their friends. In the Third Sunday, the leper worships
Christ, who thereupon heals him; the centurion, again, reminds Him of
His Angels and ministers, and He speaks the word, and his servant is
restored forthwith. In the Fourth, a storm arises on the lake, while
He is peacefully sleeping, without care or sorrow, on a pillow; then He
rises and rebukes the winds and the sea, and a calm follows, deep as
that of His own soul, and the beholders worship Him. And next He casts
out Legion, after the man possessed with it had also "run and
worshipped Him[2]." In the Fifth, we hear of His kingdom on earth, and
of the enemy sowing tares amid the good seed. And in the Sixth, of His
second Epiphany from heaven, "with power and great glory."

Such is the series of manifestations which the Sundays after the
Epiphany bring before us. When He is with the doctors in the temple.
He is manifested as a prophet--in turning the water into wine, as a
priest--in His miracles of healing, as a bounteous Lord, giving out of
His abundance--in His rebuking the sea, as a Sovereign, whose word is
law--in the parable of the wheat and tares, as a guardian and ruler--in
His second coming, as a lawgiver and judge.

And as in these Gospels we hear of our Saviour's greatness, so in the
Epistles and First Lessons we hear of the privileges and the duties of
the new people, whom He has formed to show forth His praise.
Christians are at once the temple of Christ, and His worshippers and
ministers _in_ the temple; they are the Bride of the Lamb taken
collectively, and taken individually, they are the friends of the
Bridegroom and the guests at the marriage feast. In these various
points of view are they presented to us in the Services during these
weeks. In the Lessons from the prophet Isaiah we read of the gifts and
privileges, the characteristics, the power, the fortunes of the
Church--how widely spreading, even throughout all the Gen