God my Saviour.” * It would have afforded no gladness to her soul - it would rather have filled her with unutterable grief, to be the virgin mother of the world's Redeemer, unless she had felt that she possessed in her own child her soul's eternal Saviour.

I hear the heavenly host proclaiming him as a Saviour to the shepherds ; † the men of Samaria acknowledging him to be the Saviour of the world ; # and apostles going through that world to declare, that “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." S My soul responds to the song of angels, to the acknowledgment of the Samaritans, and to the declaration of the apostles. I ask, I desire, I can trust no other than Him, whom, with, patriarchs and prophets, with apostles and martyrs, with believers on earth and saints in heaven, I own and love, I adore and praise, as my SAVIOUR.

Was there another sound that fell
Of song in heaven, or wail in hell,
When Gabriel flew thy name to tell,

The skies through all their mansions heard
That new, that sweet, mysterious word,
Now given to thee, their sovereign Lord,
O Jesus!

Then angels struck their lyres again,
And, flying round the golden plain,
They sung thy praise in loftier strain,
O Jesus!

Hell listened -paused that once alone
Was ever pause from wailing known, —
Then uttered one deep, lengthened groan,
O Jesus!

Alas! the breathing of thy name

Fans high and higher their quenchless flame, And fills their souls with wrath and shame,

O Jesus!

To man

-to guilty man alone,

Love, angels never heard, was shown,
When thou didst leave thy glory's throne,

O Jesus!

This, then, my fainting soul shall cheer,
And this shall check my starting tear,

The music of thy name to hear,

O Jesus!

FORTY-SECOND MEDITATION.

SEED

OF

THE

WOMAN.

My Saviour is the SEED OF THE WOMAN, whom Jehovah promised to our first parents, as the bruiser, the destroyer, of that dire serpent's head, by whom they had been drawn into sin and ruin. How often and how long, during their lengthened pilgrimage of nearly one thousand years, did Adam and Eve ponder those words of mercy, which conveyed to them and their posterity the promise of a Saviour! It is highly probable, that the brief text handed down to us was explained to them with sufficient clearness, to enable them to live by faith and hope in the promises. Abraham certainly knew more of Christ than is recorded of his knowledge. It was not necessary for our faith, that we should be informed of the whole of that revelation, on which his rested. He had the paradisiacal promise renewed and enlarged to him; and in

the view afforded him of the nature and extent of that promise, he "rejoiced to see the day of Christ; and he saw it, and was glad."

The fulfilment of the prophecies adds great splendor to the day of Christ, and my faith rejoices in the contemplation of their literal accomplishment. My Saviour was, in a peculiar and exclusive sense, "the seed of the woman." To this Jehovah pointed forward the expectation of his people, by the mouths and pens of Isaiah, of Micah, and of Jeremiah. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." This "new thing the Lord hath created in the earth." "When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."

How much wisdom and how much mercy may I discover in the way of giving a Saviour to man! He was to have the very nature that fell, and to receive it, untainted by sin, from a virgin daughter of the first transgressor. The promise itself was conveyed in the sentence passed upon the

John viii. 56.

Isa. vii. 14. Mic. v. 3. Matt. i. 22. + Gal. iv. 5.

tempter, as a righteous aggravation of his penalty; while it would thus recur with more force to the minds of the penitent offenders, than if it had been given immediately to themselves.

Adorable Saviour, by becoming the seed "of the woman,” and assuming my nature in its spotless purity, thou hast made thyself" the Everlasting Father" of a spiritual and immortal family of "a seed to serve thee," in a new and unfading paradise, where there is no tree, but the tree of life, and where no subtle tempter ever enters. Of this thy seed,* thou hadst a comprehensive and satisfying view, from that awful elevation of Mount Calvary. O that, when all shall be gathered round thee in the day of thy perfected glory, I may be numbered with the rejoicing offspring of thy love!

SEED of the Galilean maid,

Here strike the promised blow,
For, in this guilty bosom's shade,
Lies hid thy deadly foe;

O tread the lurking serpent down,

Then take and wear the victor's crown.

* Isa. liii. 10.