The grand fact, which constitutes the very essence and glory of the Gospel, and which it is the leading object of the Christian ministry to announce; is, that He, who took upon himself the form of a servant, and offered up the sacrifice of Calvary, is _God over all, blessed for ever_. This gives to the cross all its glory and efficacy. It is on the supreme Deity of Christ--on the expiation made for sin by the Maker and Sovereign of worlds--that the whole fabric of evangelical truth rests. On any other supposition, the sacrifice of the cross was a very ordinary affair. If the Saviour of sinners be not God--if he be a created being, of whatever grade,--where is the _mystery of Godliness?_--Where those unfathomable depths of divine love, _into which the angels desire to look_? If Christ be only a servant of God, however exalted, what was there, in his appearance on our world, to constitute a new era in heaven, and to fill its inhabitants with astonishment and ecstasy? Did the heavenly host descend in rapture, and cause the mountains of Judea to reecho with their acclamations, because a _dependent creature_ had _consented_ to do his Maker's will? Whence the ascription of _glory to God in the highest_, and why do the courts above resound with a new song of praise to God for his redeeming mercy, if this redemption was effected by the labours and sufferings of one inferior to the Deity? Was such a dispensation as that of Moses, designed simply to prepare the way for a messenger of God to declare his will, and to seal the testimony with his blood, as many good men have done, both before and since? Why did patriarchs and prophets foretell his coming, and celebrate his praises?--Why did the continual offering of divinely appointed sacrifices, for many centuries, typify his sufferings?--And why did nature shudder, and shroud herself in darkness, at the consummation of those sufferings? All these things are utterly inexplicable, on the supposition that Christ is a created dependent being. But view him as _God manifest in the flesh_--view him as voluntarily laying aside his glory, and descending from the throne of infinite majesty, to assume the nature, and expiate the guilt of a ruined race;--and we are struck with the appropriateness of all the attending circumstances. The splendid ceremonials of the Jewish ritual, and the raptured songs of prophets and of angels were well employed to prepare the way for the visible manifestation of Deity among men. The annunciation of the divine nature of the Redeemer must, therefore, be an essential part of _the preaching of the cross_.