This doctrine is practical, and not an abstract speculation, or an article of faith intended merely to fill up the outline of a system, and unconnected with any moral results. It is calculated to awaken our gratitude and kindle our love, by showing us the infinite goodness of God, who "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all"--"who made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." It should further engage us to cultivate humility and patience. A view of the abasement of the Son of God should impress upon us a sense of the insignificance of all earthly glory, and the propriety of sustaining all the trials and deprivations of life with unrepining fortitude. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." This view of the incarnation of Christ is adapted also to promote charity; for, "though he _was_ rich, yet for our sakes he _became_ poor; that we, through his poverty, might be rich;" and it tends to elevate us above the meanness of temporal compliances, and the degradation of worldly lusts, by pointing out the dignity to which our nature is advanced, through having been assumed, and still being retained in its purified state by the Son of God. Let a holy ambition prevail, to live as those who possess such a relationship; and who, though at present disguised in the dress of poverty, are born to an inheritance of which no enemy can prevent your possession--"an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." Section II. Nothing happens by Chance--Dispensations preparatory to the Coming of Christ--Prophecy of Micah accomplished by Means of the Decree of Augustus--Mary supernaturally strengthened to attend upon her new-born Infant--Visit of the Shepherds--Mary's Reflections--Circumcision of the Child--taken to the Temple--Simeon's Rapture and Prediction--Visit and Offerings of the Arabian Philosophers--general Considerations.