In the third chapter of John we read, that Christ said to Nicodemus,――"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not; how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he, that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven." The express contrast of the words――"ascended up to heaven, came down from heaven," seems to fix the meaning beyond any possible doubt.――In the 6th chapter of John Christ said, as we read, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him, that sent me."――"Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he, which cometh from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." When the Jews murmured at his discourse, because he said, "I am the bread, which came down from heaven," Jesus repeated his plain teaching――"I am the living bread, which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread, that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." That is, he who came down from God in heaven would give his flesh, his human body to the agonies of crucifixion for the salvation of men. Many of his disciples said, "this is an hard saying: who can hear it?" What was the reply of Christ? It was this: "does this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?" In the 16th chapter of John we read Christ's words――"The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed, that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." Here again the contrast of expressions shows the meaning of the phrase, "I am come into the world." I will adduce only one other passage:――In Ephesians 4th we read――"Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" "He that descended is the same also, that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things." I think it thus most clearly and amply established in scripture, that the Lamb of God came down to the earth from the presence of God and laying aside his high dignity dwelt in a human body, as a man dwells in a body, and died in agony on the cross. There may be various high inquiries, which may here spring up. But surely no theory can be true, which contradicts and overthrows the divine teaching. No scheme of theology can be true, which denies, that he, who came down from heaven, could die and did die as a lamb of sacrifice to God for the sins of the world,――for this is a denial of the great doctrine of the atonement, and thus withers up all the hopes of sinful men. Who can prove, that God could not have a Son derived from Him before time began, by whom he created the universe, and who in his most amazing love to us abased himself to man's condition and died