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and it was there, that mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace embraced each other.'

Here then, christian reader, is a theme worthy of an angel's pen-yea, of more than an angel's intellect. Here is the grand radiant point, towards which all the infinities converge:-infinite wisdom-infinite love-infinite justice—infinite mercy! Depths, heights, length, breadth— all passing knowledge! Innumerable pens have been employed upon the life, character, preaching and mediatorial work of Christ. Hundreds of commentaries, more or less critical and extended, have been written upon the four gospels. But have 'the seven seals' all been opened? Is there nothing left, to reward the toil of those who may hereafter devote their best powers to the study and elucidation of these sacred books? 'Who by searching can find out God, or the Almighty unto perfection?' The character of Christ is an infinitely perfect character. The gospels, in which he is exhibited, as the divine object of our faith, and love, and adoration; and which contain the record of his miracles, doctrines, sufferings, and final triumph, were 'given by inspiration of God,' and 'the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' which they contain, are literally inexhaustible. After all the 'living water' that has been drawn from these 'wells of salvation,' there is no diminution of the supply. Were a thousand of the most gifted and holy men now on earth, to 'set the Lord Jesus always before them,' and spend their whole lives in studying his adorable character, they would be so far from exhausting the theme, that other thousands more gifted and more holy might find ample scope for the employment of their powers, down to the end of time. However great and good the last writer, upon the life, character and teaching of Christ may be, and with all the helps which he will be able to command, he must leave the divine portraiture still

unfinished. Nor can it be doubted, that the mysteries of redemption, including the divine and mediatorial character, the incarnation and atoning sacrifice of the Son of God, will employ the minds, the hearts and the tongues of the Redeemed, through everlasting ages; and that new developements of the perfections and 'glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, will be made forever and ever.'

In this view of the subject, (and I am sure it must be the right view,) however well any man, or number of men may have written upon the preaching, miracles, or offices of Christ, it affords no objection, or discouragement to others, who may wish to occupy the same ground. No one, indeed, should be encouraged to put forth the results of his labors, unless he has something to say, which is worthy of being presented to the christian public-for time and money are too precious, to be thrown away upon mere common place ink and paper. But when a man of decided talents and piety, lays out his strength upon any one of the great topics just alluded to, and is happy in his method of treating it, he deserves our thanks, for putting into our hands this new help to christian edification.

The author of the present work, is the pastor of an independant church, in Epsom, Eng.; and is well reported of by the brethren.' It being his object in this volume, to bring us directly to Christ, for divine instruction, he entitles it, THE GREAT TEACHER. The book contains five Essays, of considerable length, and on the following important topics. 1. The authority of our Lord's teaching. II. The originality of our Lord's teaching, under seven distinct heads. III. The spirituality of our Lord's teaching. VI. On the tenderness and benevolence of our Lord's teaching. V. The practicalness of our Lord's teaching. In reading these Essays, I have been exceedingly interestted, as I am sure every person must be, who is pleased to

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find weighty and well digested thoughts, imbued with deep christian feeling, and clothed in perspicuous and polished language. Mr. Harris is a writer of much more than ordinary intellectual powers and cultivation. He writes like one, who has long been accustomed to 'sit at the feet of Jesus,' and has eminently profited under his teaching. Instead of asking what other men have thought of The Great Teacher, and borrowing their opinions, to help make out a respectable volume, he has evidently heard for himself; and he gives us his own impressions vividly and forcibly, just as he received them. Such a book as this, is not often written before the meridian of life, and never either before or after, without deep and protracted meditation.

I do not wonder at the avidity which is hastening its wide circulation in England; nor at the high terms, in which it is recommended, by so many of the best judges of its merits in that country. I am sure, that it deserves an equally rapid and wide circulation here. That disciple must have thought a great deal more, or a great deal less, than nine tenths of his christian brethren, of the striking peculiarities of our Lord's preaching, who can read these highly original and finished Essays, without having his mind enlightened, his heart warmed, and his admiration of the Great Teacher very much increased. 'Blessed, indeed, are those servants,' who hear his sayings, and do them.'

Amherst College, Dec. 1, 1835.

PREFACE.

WHEN the subject of the following Essays first engaged my thoughts, as many as twelve or fifteen characteristics of our Lord's Teaching presented themselves to notice, all of which I hoped to be able to illustrate in a volume. But the expansive nature of the subject soon warned me of the necessity of selection. For this end, I divided the series into two classes, of primary and secondary importance; intending to confine myself to the former. The same cause, however, reduced me again to compound with my intentions, and to omit some even of primary interest. Of these I may be allowed to specify two:-the Evangelicalness of our Lord's Teaching, and the striking peculiarity that he was his own prevailing subject. These topics, indeed, though not formally introduced, will be found to be illustrated, to no inconsiderable extent, in various parts of the volume. But on each of them I will here take the opportunity of recording a few remarks.

If any are disposed to wonder why our Lord should have said so much less, in the way of direct assertion, concerning his personal dignity, than his apostles, let it be remembered that it was not his object to give a full verbal exposition of his personal claims; that, during his earthly ministry, it was his aim, and a part of his humiliation, partially to conceal them; to observe a medium course between the extremes of a mean obscurity on the one hand, and an overwhelming grandeur on the other; to provide that human agency might be left free and unconstrained in its conduct towards him on the one hand, and that his love on the other, might move on to the cross, unthwarted and undisturbed by man; that the solemn oblation of himself, which was the act to which all his ministry subserved, for his whole life was only a preface to his death, might nei

ther be prevented nor disregarded: that he left his dignity to be inferred chiefly from his actions, and from a comparison of his life with the writings of the prophets: that his divine greatness having long been the subject of prophecy, it was not necessary for him to do more on this head than to identify himself with the prophecy. And he did this, -explicitly affirming that they wrote of him. Bringing all the rays of prophetic light together, he wreathed them into a crown of glory for his own head.

But, as if to compensate himself for the arrangement which required the temporary obscuration of his greatness he was emphatically his own subject. He himself was almost invariably the point from which he started, the theme on which he enlarged, or the centre to which he returned. If he adverted to the great elements of nature, it was only to proclaim them emblems of himself. If he spoke of the greatness of persons and objects which his hearers reverenced next to the Deity, it was only to announce himself as greater than they. If he displaced the types and rites of the Jewish church, it was that he might occupy their place himself; clearing the entire area of the church, to fill it with his own glory. He turned all the great things of nature, and of the ancient church, into so many marginal references to the all-absorbing theme, himself; and he frequently did it in a manner which shewed that he considered them dignified by being so employed. He carried this same spirit of self-aggrandizement into the presence of God; he predicted that the Eternal Spirit himself should come and wait on his glory. He is distinguished from every other teacher by this, that while he spoke of lowliness as his chief characteristic, he seldom released the attention of his hearers from himself-and yet the heart of the christian is sensible of no inconsistency here, for it feels, that while what he said of himself is measurable, what he left unsaid and unrevealed, is immeasurable.

On the other subject named-the evangelical nature of our Lord's teaching-perhaps, the first thought that occurs, relates to the fact of our Lord's discourses containing less of the peculiar doctrines of grace than the teaching of the apostles. How is the striking contrast between the gospels and epistles, in this important respect, to be accounted

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