“The truths which relate to Jesus himself are among the _most important_ which the Gospel reveals. ‘We preach Christ,’ says the Apostle, ‘warning every man and teaching every man, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.’ From this passage we derive a most important sentiment, confirmed by the whole New Testament—that the great design of all the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, is, to exalt the character,—to promote eminent purity of heart and life, to make men ‘perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect.’ We must preach not to make fiery partizans, and to swell the number of a sect; not to overwhelm the mind with fear, or to heat it with feverish rapture; not to form men to the decencies of life, to a superficial goodness, which will secure the admiration of mankind. All these effects fall infinitely short of the great end of the Christian ministry. We should preach that we may make men perfect Christians: perfect, not according to the standard of the world, but according to the law of Christ; perfect in heart and in life, in solitude and in society, in the great and in the common concerns of life. Here is the purpose of Christian preaching. In this, as in a common centre, all the truths of the Gospel meet; to this they all conspire; and no doctrine has an influence on salvation, any farther than it is an aid to the perfecting of our nature.” {48} “Christ is a great Saviour, as he redeems or sets free the mind, cleansing it from evil, breathing into it the love of virtue, calling forth its noblest faculties and affections, enduing it with moral power, restoring it to order, health and liberty.” * * * * “Christ has revealed to us God as the Father, and as a Father in the noblest sense of that word. He hath revealed Him as the author and lover of all souls, desiring to redeem all from sin, and to impress his likeness more and more resplendently on all; as proffering to all that best gift in the universe, his ‘holy Spirit;’ as having sent his beloved Son to train us up and to introduce us to an ‘inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading in the heavens.’” {49}