The true revival is the freeing of the truth to win its own good way. We can haRe no ground for glorying comparable to this-" the Word of God is not bound.'.'-R. T. Ver. 4.-(Jhrist as tM Image of God. "The glorious gospel of Christ, who is the Image of God..n From 1 Cor. xi. 7 we learn that there is a sense in which man is the "image_ an~. glory of God." . In Col. i. 15 the Son of GoJ. is spoken of as the "Image of the mvis1ble God, the F1rstborn of every creature." The word used in our text is exactly equivalent to our word "likeness.'' "An image, or likeness, is e. visible repre- sentation of an object. So Christ, in his humauity, is a visible representation of the unseen God. No revelation of the wisdom and power of God that man has received can compare with that made in the life, death, and resurrection of the incarnate Son." The point to which we ask attention is this-the gospel sets forth the glory of Christ. Bnt, when it is rightly viewed, this is found to be the setting forth of the glory of God. For God can only be known in image and symbol; and this is the perfect and wholly satisfact.ory image, precisely adapted to our human faculties and necessities. Jesus Christ is the "Brightness of the Father's glory, and the express Image of his person." His sonship is the earthly presentation of the Divine fatherhood. The Son is the very image of the Father. Philips Brooks well says, "This is the sum of the work of the Incarnation. A himdred other statements regarding it, regarding him who was incarnate, are true ; but all statements concerning him hold their truth within this truth-that Jesus came to restore the fact of God's fatherhood to man's knowledge, and t.o its central place of power over man's life. Jesus is mysteriously the Word of God made flesh. He is ths Worker of amazing miracles upon the bodies and the souls of men. He is the Convincer of sin. He is the Saviour by suffering. But, behind all these, as the purpose for which he is all these, he is the Redeemer of man in:to the fatherhood of God." Christ brings the light of God's fatherly love 1o shine on prodigal and sinful sons; that light wakens the old son-spirit in their hearts, and wins them home, iii penitence and faith, to their heavenly Father. And just this is the mission of Christ and his gospel-to shine God's light into men's sciuls.-R. T.
Ver. 6.-Light from God and light on God. The new Revised Version makes an important alteration in this verse, reading it thus : "Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to ,rive the light [or,• illumina- tion'] of the knowledge of the glory of God in ,the face of Jesus Christ." I. LIGHT FBOM GoD IS' CREATION. (Gen. i. 3.) 'l'he following points may be illus- trated. 1. All material light, as a warming, life-giving, beautifying agent, is from God. 2. All moral light, as the intimation of what is good and right in the relation- ships of men, is from God. :l. All revela.tional light, as the unfolding of -the mysteries belonging to God and his claim and mercy, must come directly from himself. On spiritual things man can have no knowledge, save as God is pleased freely to give it; and, on these higher themes, all light must be tempered to the capacity of thoee on whom it shines. II. LIGHT oN GoD m ClmlBT. Calvin says of this verse," A notablo place, whence we learn that God is not to be investigated in his unsearchable height, for ho inhabits the light unapproachable (1 Tim. vi. 16), but t.o be known as far as he rev_eals ~imeelf in Christ. . . . It is more useful for us to behold God as he appears ID hie only begotten Son than to investigate his secret eee.ince." The face of Christ is said to reveal the glory of God, as the shining of Moses' face told of the splendour about the mount where ho had been with God. But tho glory of God is his redemption-1vork. That showed (1) pity, (2) love, (3) wisdom, (4) holy purpose; and all these wo find in the face of Je8116 Christ. Illustrate the power of expression, and the power of revealing thou<>ht and heart, that are in the human face, and then show how the face of the Lord° Jesus reveals to us the " heart of God." Before Christ came God was a half- known if not au unknown, God. And the incomplete conceptions of him involved, too of(en, imperfect and unworthy ~oncept!ons. We now know ~e "tr~e God and eternal life" in the face of Jesus, hlB manifested Son-or rather, his marufested j:ielf, -R.'l'. Ver. 7,-Heaventy_treaaure in earthen vessels, "It was the practice of Eastern kings, CB. rv. 1-18.] THE SECOND El'ISTLE TO THE CORINTIIIANS. 115