Christ, we make his spotless character, his heavenly life, the model of our own. Such is the sublimity of character which the gospel demands, and such the end to which our preaching should ever be directed. … We need to feel more deeply that we are entrusted with a religion which is designed to ennoble human nature; which recognizes in man the capacities of all that is great, good and excellent, and which offers every encouragement and aid to the pursuit of perfection. The Christian minister should often recollect that man, through prepense to evil, has yet power and faculties which may be exalted and refined to angelic glory; that he is called by the gospel to prepare for the community of angels; that he is formed for unlimited progress in intellectual and moral excellence and felicity. He should often recollect that in Jesus Christ our nature has been intimately united with the divine, and that in Jesus it is already enthroned in heaven. Familiarized to these generous conceptions, the Christian preacher, whilst he faithfully unfolds to men their guilt and danger, should also unfold their capacities for greatness; should reveal the splendor of that destiny to which they are called by Christ; should labor to awaken within them aspirations after a nobler character and a higher existence, and to inflame them with the love of all the graces and virtues with which Jesus came to enrich and adorn the human soul. In this way he will prove that he understands the true and great design of the gospel and the ministry—which is nothing less than the perfection of the human character.—_From Channing._ GLIMPSES OF ANCIENT GREEK LIFE. Selected from J. P. Mahaffy’s “Old Greek Life.” I.—THE GREEK TOWN AND HOUSE.