Then followed the other appropriate preparatives for the coming of our Lord; the rebuilding of that temple which was thus to be more honored than by the Glory from heaven; the visions and predictions of those who looked for the great coming, day and night watching in the temple; the solemn and startling denunciations of the Baptist; the visible presence of the ETERNAL in the flesh; His mission; His power over nature, the human heart, and the Evil Spirit; His death for human sin; His rising again for human justification; His visible ascent to the throne of Heaven; the overwhelming miracles by which fortitude, knowledge, faith, and the power of communicating them all, were inspired into the peasants of Galilee; form an unspeakable display of light and wisdom, an illustration of Providence, which, through all the clouds of time and things, still fixes the eye on that spot above, where the Sun of the Spirit shall break forth at last, and the full aspect of the heavens be shown to man. Thus it was that the old religion put on a newer and more perfect form. The seed planted in the day of Abraham was at first shut up, but in the day of Judah began to grow, and shot majestically above the earth in the day of Christ. The primal faith, which long lay buried in weakness, was raised in power, and the mortal body of the patriarchal dispensation put on immortal glory. The corresponding preparation, which was attained through secular power, is equally worthy of special regard. When Christianity was to be given to the world, the Roman empire had received that form of government which most fully combined enterprise with solidity; the daring energy of a Republic, with the comprehensive ambition of a monarchy. Like all the great leaders of mankind, the genius of the Cæsars might stand for the representative of the empire. The unequaled union of the bold, the sagacious, and the indomitable, rendered that wonderful series of instruments superlatively adapted to cast up a highway, and gather out the stones from the path of human progress. When the shadow of the Roman eagle stretched over all nations, and the mandate of the emperor touched the extreme points of civilization, the final use of martial force was subordinate to that divine religion which was destined to spread speedily from Caucasus to Mauritania, and from the rising to the setting sun. The mighty empire was not to perish as it fell, but to cast off its pagan wretchedness, and become invested with the unsullied robe, and starry diadem, of a loftier sovereignty. The Babylonish, Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, which successively constituted civilization, formed the central channel of life to the earth; they were the spine, whence issued sensation and motion to the general frame, the meridian, to which all the lines of the chart of human progress must be referred. These four had exercised an unceasing influence on Judah, as invaders, or sovereigns, up to the time when