Study Christ, that ye may be like him.
How affecting is the simple, yet wonderful story of the Savior’s life! Behold him, the ruler and king who had been so long predicted, making his appearance, not in the splendor of the palace, but in the humility of the manger! See him, as if the powers of darkness trembled before his infancy, carried in his mother's arms a fugitive into Egypt! Mark the early developments of his wisdom, as he converses and reasons with the learned Jewish teachers in the Temple! Appreciating the great truth of a Divine Providence, which requires the adjustment of action to circumstances, he said to John the Baptist, — " It becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." And accordingly, in his domestic relations, he fulfilled, in meekness and love, the duties of a son and brother. In relations of a more general and public nature, he conformed to the civil and religious institutions of his country; — rejoicing in what was good, and submitting to what was imperfect and evil, because the day of its destruction had not arrived. Full of divine sympathy, he went about doing good; but without the spirit of boasting, and "without observation." The appointed renovator of the world, he may be said to have restored institutions prospectively, by sowing great principles which were to germinate and bear fruit in the appropriate hour of Providence. He was a man; — but, unlike man in his fallen and depraved state, he was a man dwelt in by the Holy Ghost, who descended visibly upon him. Baptized of John in the waters of the Jordan, — teaching men with heavenly wisdom, and at the same time exemplifying in his life the principles of eternal truth and love, — persecuted but never avenging himself, — in all situations and under all circumstances, he realizes and exemplifies the full idea of the Son of God. His last act is to die, not for himself, but for others; —" The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."
— edited from A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 7, Chapter 1.
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