FORTY-SIXTH MEDITATION.

SON.

MY SAVIOUR is the SON OF God, - "the only begotten of the Father." Under this title I contemplate my Saviour, sustaining the highest relation to God the Father,* with whom he is ONE † in essence, but, by a generation which none can comprehend, distinct in person and in operation. In a form of glory which no created being ever wore, he was recognized by Nebuchadnezzar, and was undoubtedly known to his three faithful servants in the burning fiery furnace. Is it one leading object of my petitions at the throne of grace, that I may obtain the brightest views of my Saviour's glory? Let me not be surprised, if he call me into the hottest fire of affliction, to meet him, and behold his glory.

*

the kiss of adoring and loyal homage, as their only security from the wrath to come. A voice from heaven,t at his baptism, and at his transfig. uration, proclaimed this high dignity of my Saviour ; the very devils owned his claim ; $ his pharisaical enemies accused him of blasphemy, because he asserted this claim;s and the wonders of his death extorted a confession of it from the Roman centurion. || The divinity of his Sonship was a prominent theme in the ministry of the apostles; and faith in this article of religion was made the very hinge of human salvation. I

By his assumption of our nature, my Saviour also became “ the Son of man,” and bears this appellation nearly one hundred times in the sacred volume. Daniel beheld him invested with the form and sustaining the character of the Son of man, in his prophetical visions. By this title he is exhibited to my soul, by the evangelists, under all the most affecting circumstances of his history, from the time when he itinerated in the land of Israel, without a place where to ‘ay his head, till he took his station at the right land of God, in the united perfection of the

Godhead and the humanity, fully qualified “to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him.” And now, through the completed work of his mediation, he bestows on his people a bright reflection of his own glory; for 5 to them that believe on his name he gives power, or authority, and a title to become the sons of God."* If, then, he is my Saviour, through faith in his name, I am as truly a son of God, and united to him as my Father, as the Lord Jesus is the Son of God. He has entered upon his inheritance, and therein I enjoy a pledge that I shall obtain mine.

I cannot lift my shrinking eye,

To meet, O God, thy piercing gaze:
To thickest shades, alarmed, I fly,

Nor dare the splendors of thy face,
Until, arrayed in grace and light,
Thy Son incarnate greets my sight.

In Jesus seen, my God is love;

The brightness of his glory brings
No terrors, while the Holy Dove
Sheds

SUN.

MY SAVIOUR is "the SUN of Righteousness," who was to arise, and who did "arise with heal

ing in his wings," upon a world benighted under the threefold gloom of sin, and wrath, and oppression. There were but few awake from the slumber of death, that infolded in its arms the mass of mankind, to behold the brightness of its rising beams. They consisted only of those who feared Jehovah's name, and who were "waiting for the consolation of Israel," and "looked for redemption." He rose to set no more. He passed under a temporary eclipse, amidst the darkness of the day of Calvary; but he emerged from that gloom with augmented brightness; and his course is that of "the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." When the natural sun has reached

his meridian height, he covers the entire hemisphere with his effulgence. The innumerable forms of terrestrial things, which make up the surface of our globe, and are themselves dark and colorless, are now clothed with an endless variety of beauty. They are, as it were, invested with the greater light that rules the day. To this natural phenomenon there is a reference, in the Apocalyptic vision of “a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun. In that emblem, St. John beheld the church, clothed with the righteousness of Christ-clothed with Christ himself, whom his people put on by faith, as their robe of light and glory. The church has no more righteousness of her own, either for justification or holiness, than the earth has of light or color. The natural and the spiritual world are each wholly and equally dependent upon their respective sun, for light, and life, and beauty. Of these, the material sun has been the exhaustless and undiminished source, ever since the creation. My Redeemer has also been the celestial fountain of illumination, spiritual vitality, and the beauty of holiness, to the souls of his people. “ The Lord God," my Saviour, “is a