The Preparation began with the dawning of the day in Eden, when Messiah came in the ship of the Promise, and landed on the island of Time, and notified its inhabitants of his gracious intention to visit them again, and assume their nature, and live and die among them; to break their covenant allegiance to the prince of the iron yoke; and deliver to them the charter, signed and sealed with his own blood, for the redemption and renovation of their island, and the restoration of its suspended intercourse with the land of Eternal Life. The motto inscribed upon the banners of this age was,—“He shall bruise thy heel, and thou shalt bruise his head.” Here Jehovah thundered forth his hatred of sin from the thick darkness, and wrote his curse in fire upon the face of heaven; while rivers of sacrificial blood proclaimed the miserable state of man, and his need of a costlier atonement than mere humanity could offer. Here also the spirit of Messiah fell upon the prophets, leading them to search diligently for the way of deliverance, and enabling them to “testify beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” Then came the season of Actual War. “Messiah the Prince” was born in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling-bands, and laid in a manger. The Great Deliverer was “made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” With an almighty hand, he laid hold on the works of the devil, unlocked the iron furnace, and broke the brazen bands asunder. He opened his mouth, and the deaf heard, the blind saw, the dumb spake, the lame walked, and the lepers were cleansed. In the house of Jairus, in the street of Nain, and in the burial-ground of Bethany, his word was mightier than death; and the damsel on her bed, the young man on his bier, and Lazarus in his tomb, rising to second life, were but the earnests of his future triumph. The diseases of sin he healed, the iron chains of guilt he shattered, and all the horrible caves of human corruption and misery were opened by the Heavenly Warrior. He took our yoke, and bore it away upon his own shoulder, and cast it broken into the bottomless pit. He felt in his hands and his feet the nails, and in his side the spear. The iron entered into his soul, but the corrosive power of his blood destroyed it, and shall ultimately eat away all the iron in the kingdom of death. Behold him hanging on Calvary, nailing upon his cross three bills; the handwriting of the law which was against us, the oath of our allegiance to the prince of darkness, and the charter of the “everlasting covenant;” fulfilling the first, breaking the second, and sealing the third with his blood!