I. CHRIBT'e EXTREME HUMILIATION. Christ "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. ii. 7, 8). Note the chief points of the humiliation. Being "in the form of God" and" equal with God," he consented (1) to be born on earth as a man; (2) in a humble station; (3) to be la:d in a manger; (4) to be "subject" to earthly parents; (5) to be cast out of his native city by his fellow-townsmen ; (6) to have not where to lay his head; (7) to have his teaching rejected by the mass of bis countrymen; (8) to be betrayed ; (9) bound; (10) smitten; (11) derided; (12) spit upon; (13) scourged; (14) crucified; (15) buried. The steps of the humiliation were progressive. First it was negative rather than positive, while be worked as a "carpenter" in his reputed father's shop. Then it received aggravation, when he became a homeless wanderer, was "rejected of men," bidden to "depart out of their coasts," threatened with stoning, declared to "have a devil," "hated," plotted against. Finally, it culminated in that night and day of a~ony when one disciple betrayed him, and the rest forsook him and fled, and he was led before three tribunals, mocked, buffeted, crowned with thorns, smitten with a reed, scourged judicially, nailed to the cross, flouted, railed on, finally buried out of men's sight, as thongh all was indeed "finished" with him, and the earth would hear no more of One who had lived an outcast's life, and died the death of a malefactor! II. CHRIST'S EXALTATION AND GLORY. "Wherefore God also bath highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. ii. 9-12). Note the chief points of the exaltation. No sooner is he dead than he descends to Hades, "preaches to the spirits in prison,'' and deprives hell of its prey; then rises, "loosens the bonds of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it," cheers his "little flock" with his presence for forty days, ascends to heaven, and sits at God's right hand, King of kings and Lord of lords for evermore. On earth be has "a Na.me above every name." The Roman empire bows down to him; the barbarians are in great part converted ; more and more nations flow into his kingdom; and at the present day three hundred millions of men, more than a fourth part of the world'8 inhabitants, nominally at any rate, confess him for their Master a.nd Lord. In heaven the angels worship him; he sits upon the great white throne, and before him are the four and twenty elders, and the host o[ angels, and the ten thousand thousand saints, and the song is sung, "Salvation unto our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb; " and all the angels stand about the throne, and ahout the elders and the four beasts, and fall on their face before the throne, and worship him, saying, "Dlessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen " (Rev. vii. 9-12).
Vers. 13-16.-The love of God for his Ohurch. The love of God for his Church is no doubt something mysterious, inscrutable, as are all the Divine attributes; but it is so pointedly set before us in many places, both of the Old and the New Testaments, that it must certainly be intended we should meditate upon it. We may with reverence consider it (1) in its origin; (2) in its action; (3) in its results. I. IN ITS ORIGIN. God's love for his Church would seem to originate in the fondness with which all intelligent beings regard the work of their own hands; that on which they have spent toil, time, labour, thought, care. God in creating tho world had, primarily, his (?hurc~ in vie~; he m_ade all material things for the sake of man; and he made mankmd with a vtew to his Church. He was moved to the creation of the world by a desire to have for all eternity a body of pure, good, happy, intelligent worshippers dwelling with him in heaven. He began by making man" in his own image" (Gen. i. 27), with a moral nature, free-will, consciousness, personality, memory. He knew that, with these gifts, man would '.fall; but he determined from tho first that out of fallen humanity he would raise up a certain number-as many as would allow him-save them, purify them, make them his "peculiar people" (Deut. xiv. 2), his Church. In idea, we may say that God loved his Church before he had created it; for, 236 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, [oH. XLIX, 1-26,