HRISTIANITY deals not with trifles, nor was the mission of Jesus for unimportant ends. The subjects and the purposes which are here presented to our view are, on the contrary, of the deepest moment, and of the most absorbing interest. Rejecting the vain objects of the fleeting world, and all the idle themes which appertain to earth, the Gospel embraces the things of life and death, and, entering at once upon the stern realities of human destiny, dwells on those solemn truths which, from their very nature, are fitted to engross the attention of every human being.

      Yet life and death, the great themes of religion, in which man is so deeply concerned, are among the great mysteries of the universe. How little [114] we know of life, although it is every-where around us, and even within us! How much less we know of death, of which we have had, as yet, no personal experience! Doubtless, however, it is this very obscurity which gives to these subjects an interest so deep and permanent. What we have fully explored and comprehended, wearies us by familiarity, and loses its attractive charm. But mystery awakens curiosity; engages attention; excites inquiry; gives activity to thought and zest to enjoyment. How just, then, that the most important things should be the most mysterious! How proper that we should be thus led to dwell upon these with fixed attention! How fitting, also, that we should be most deeply interested in the things which Christianity presents! Nature attracts us by the wonders of a life and a death which are temporal, but religion enchains the soul by the deeper mysteries of a life and a death which are eternal.

      In proportion as the mysteries presented to us deepen, they approach nearer to God. He is the great mystery of mysteries, and we draw nearer to Him as we approach the veil that conceals the [115] sacred arcana of his inner temple. Life natural is to us a great enigma, and it reveals to us much of all that we yet know of God; but DEATH, that still greater mystery, will open to the soul still nearer views of God in the world of spirits. In our investigations of nature, we may trace effects to their immediate causes, and discover important truths in regard to the divine system of material things. It is when we would seek to explain and analyze these causes themselves, that we find ourselves involved in deeper and more remote researches, and it is then, when we approach the mystery of the divine will, that we are brought nearer to the invisible Creator. It is untrue, then, that a mystery that is truly divine, can obstruct our progress or hinder our vision. On the contrary, it tends to give us truer and nobler views of the Deity, because it brings us nearer to Him, and yet veils, in a favoring obscurity, that dazzling glory which would otherwise blind our feeble vision. Thus it is not the light of day that gives to us the most glorious and sublime view of the material universe. We then see the earth beneath us, and the blue expanse above us, with its [116] single sun, on which, from its very brightness, we dare not gaze, and whose very light conceals from us the rest of the material system. It is when that light is withdrawn, and darkness casts her sable mantle over the things of earth, that our view, instead of being contracted, is enlarged, and fixed upon the heavens. It is then that worlds upon worlds arise before us, and millions of suns appear in place of one, and distant and still more distant orbs lead us farther and farther through the regions of illimitable space, to the unresolved nebulæ of utmost vision; to the sublime mysteries of nature; to the overwhelming grandeur and magnificence of the divine creation; to the infinite power and glory of the Creator. So, also, though life reveals much of God to man, it is death that shall unfold much more. It is the night of death, the darkness of the grave, which, while it hides from us the earth, shall reveal to us the heavens, and display to the soul those sublime mysteries of Deity which, though now above us and around us, are yet concealed from us by the very brightness of our day of life.

      But what is true of our own life and death, is [117] eminently so of the life and death of JESUS. How great was the mystery of the life of Christ! How thick the veil in which the divine glory was then enshrouded! Yet it was thus alone that man was enabled to approach so nearly, and to contemplate so fully the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. It was through that mystery of the incarnation that God was indeed revealed to mortals. It was amidst the darkness of the world that his infinite love, mercy, and condescension shone forth to the view of men. But ah! how much greater the mystery of his death! and how much more it presents to us of God! What new and wonderful developments it gives of the divine character! What awful and sublime conceptions of the Infinite One it presents to the soul! What startling thoughts it suggests of the things invisible! What sorrowful memories of the past; what blissful fellowship of the present; what joyous hopes of the future, cluster in the broad heaven which the death of Christ reveals! Ah! it is here that we see more of God than angels knew before! It is amidst the darkness of the grave of Jesus that [118] new visions of God arise, more sublime and glorious than all that could precede! It is, indeed, the bright light of His presence that dazzles and blinds. It is LIGHT that renders Him inaccessible, so that no man can approach Him. It is into the thick darkness that we must enter, like the leader of ancient Israel, if we would find Him. It is when He shrouds his glory in the veil of mortality; when He partakes of our deep woes, and enters into the gloom of our dark and dreary prison, that we may presume to draw near to Him in trustful faith, to enter into a holy spiritual communion, and partake of the ineffable joys which wait upon his presence. [119]

[CITS 114-119]