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    we have ascribed to Christ is the most glorious and beneficent which can be accomplished by any power on earth or in heaven . "—Pp . 6—8 . Declining to eiiter upon a full survey of the evidence which mi ^ ht be brought to bear , upon his subject , inasmuch as it would include the investigation of every fact , doctrine , and precept in the Scriptures , our author selects one primary and most important feature of Christianity , viz . its representation of the paternal character of God , and shews that this is revealed for the sake of its influence upon the human mind .

    " This leading feature of Christianity is the knowledge which it gives of the character of God . Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father . In the prophecies concerning him in the Old Testament , no characteristic is so frequently named as that he should spread the knowledge of the true God . Now , I ask , What constitutes the importance of such a revelation ? Why has the Creator sent his Son to make himself known ? I answer , God is most worthy to be known , because he is the most quickening , purifying , and ennobling object for the mind ; and his great purpose in revealing himself is , that he may exalt and perfect human nature . God , as he is manifested by Christ , is another name for intellectual and moral excellence ; and in the knowledge of him , our intellectual and moral powers find their element , nutriment , strength , expansion , and happiness . To know God is to attain to the sublimest conception in the universe . To love God is to bind ourselves to a being who is ntted i as no other being is , to penetrate and move our whole hearts ; in loving whom , we exalt ourselves ; in loving whom , we love the great , the good , the beautiful , and the infinite ; and under whose influence the soul unfolds itself as a perennial plant under the cherishing sun . This constitutes the chief glory of religion . It ennobles the soul . In this its unrivalled dignity and happiness consist . "—Pp . 8 , 9 .

    The great difficulty in reviewing this Sermon is to refrain from transcribing the whole of it , and inserting it at once , as one long quotation . We compel ourselves , however , to pass over the way in which this argument is pursued in reference to the obligation of piety and the practice of worship .

    The conclusion we must insert . et Do not , my friends , forget the great end for which Christ enjoins on us the worship of God . It is not , that we may ingratiate ourselves with an almighty agent , whose frown is destruction . It is , that we may hold communion with an intelligence and goodness , infinitely surpassing our own ; that we may rise above imperfect and finite natures ; that we may attach ourselves by love and reverence to the best Being in the universe ; and that through veneration and love we may receive into our own minds the excellence , disinterestedness , wisdom , purity , and power , which we adore . This reception of the divine attributes , I desire especially to hold forth , as the most glorious end for which God reveals himself . To praise him is not enough . That homage which has no power to assimilate us to him , is of

    little or no worth . The truest admiration is that by which we receive other minds into our own . True praise is a sympathy with excellence , gaining strength by utterance . Such is the praise which God demands . Then only is the purpose of Christ's revelation of God accomplished , when , by * reception of the doctrine of a Paternal Divinity , we are quickened to ' follow him , as dear children , ' and are * filled with his fulness / and become * his temples / and * dwell in God , and have God dwelling in ourselves . *"—P . 12 . No exception can be taken topr . Channing ' s selection of the Divine chaof It is

    racter fprtthe pi ^ ppse his argument . well chosen ; and its conclusive bearing upon the proposition he had undertaken ¦ to establish id most power full y > develop © d , Nor * can thereWbe any reasonable cGttiplaint that , within the ce » mpasfe * of asihgte sermon ; he has riot done ' more . Yet there is

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    Channing ' s Design of Christianity . 661

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 661, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/5/