till we learn that to be God is not to be a mighty King enthroned above
all the assaults of His creatures, but that to be God is to have more
love than all besides; to be able to make greater sacrifices for the
good of all; to have an infinite capacity to humble Himself, to put
Himself out of sight, and to consider our good. This is the God we have
in Christ; our Judge becoming our atoning Victim, our God becoming our
Father, the Infinite One coming with all His helpfulness into the most
intimate relations with us; is this not a God to whom we can trust
ourselves, and whom we can love and serve? If this is the real nature of
God, if we may always expect such faithfulness and help from God, if to
be God be to be all this, as full of love in the future as He has shown
Himself in the past, then may not existence yet be that perfect joy our
instincts crave, and towards which we are slowly and doubtfully finding
our way through all the darkness, and strains, and shocks that are
needed to sift what is spiritual in us from what is unworthy?

The second lesson the Incarnation teaches regards our own duty.
Everywhere among the first disciples was this lesson learned and
inculcated. "Let this mind," says Paul, "be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus." "Christ suffered for us," says Peter, "leaving us an
example." "If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" is the
very spirit of John. Look steadily at the Incarnation, at the love which
made Christ take our place and identify Himself with us; consider the
new breath of life that this one act has breathed into human life,
ennobling the world and showing us how deep and lovely are the
possibilities that lie in human nature; and new thoughts of your own
conduct will lay hold of your mind. Come to this great central fire, and
your cold, hard nature will be melted; try in some sort to weigh this
Divine love and accept it as your own, as that which embraces and cares
for and carries you on to all good, and you will insensibly be imbued
with its spirit. You will feel that no loss could be so great as to
lose the possession and exercise of this love in your own heart. Great
as are the gifts it bestows, you begin to see that the greatest of them
all is that it transforms you into its own likeness, and teaches you
yourself to love in the same sort. Understanding our security and our
joyful prospect as saved by the care of God, and as provided for by a
love of perfect intelligen