ecutors; now with an individual, as Nicodemus or the woman of
Samaria, now in the familiar circle of the twelve, now in the crowds of
the people. We find him in all situations, in the synagogue and the
temple, at home and on journeys, in villages and the city of Jerusalem,
in the desert and on the mountain, along the banks of Jordan and the
shores of the Galilean Sea, at the wedding feast and the grave, in
Gethsemane, in the judgment hall, and on Calvary. In all these various
relations, conditions, and situations, as they are crowded within the
few years of his public ministry, he sustains the same consistent
character throughout, without ever exposing himself to censure. He
fulfils every duty to God, to man, and to himself, without a single
violation of duty, and exhibits an entire conformity to the law, in the
spirit as well as the letter. His life is one unbroken service of God,
in active and passive obedience to His holy will--one grand act of
absolute love to God and love to man, of personal self-consecration to
the glory of his Heavenly Father and the salvation of a fallen race. In
the language of the people who were 'beyond measure astonished at his
works,' we must say, the more we study his life: 'He did all things
well.' In a solemn appeal to his Heavenly Father in the parting hour, he
could proclaim to the world that he had glorified him in the earth, and
finished the work he gave him to do.

UNITY OF VIRTUE AND PIETY.

The first feature in this singular perfection of Christ's character
which strikes our attention, is the perfect harmony of virtue and piety,
of morality and religion, or of love to God and love to man. He is more
than moral, and more than pious; he is holy in the strict and full sense
of the word. There is a divine beauty and perfection in his character,
the mere contemplation of which brings purity, brightness, peace, and
bliss to the soul.

Piety was the soul of his morality, and lifted it far above the sphere
of legality or conformity to law. Every moral action in him proceeded
from supreme love to God, and looked to the temporal and eternal
welfare of man. The groundwork of his character was the most intimate
and uninterrupted union and communion with his Heavenly Father, from
whom he derived, to whom he referred, everything. Already in his twelfth
year he found his life element and delight in the things of his Father.
It was his daily food to do the will of Him that sent him, and to fi