Himself loveth you," says Christ. (John xvi. 27.) Nay more, " God so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son." (John iii. 16.) Remember, then, what great reason you have to love and reverence with your whole heart, so loving a Father. You cannot love and reverence Him, unless you avoid whatever is displeasing to Him, and do that which is agreeable to Him, that is, unless you "avoid evil and do good."
TUESDAY.
The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
I. The second person of the Trinity existed from all eternity, without any relation to time, equal to the Father and consubstantial with Him. He is coeternal with the Father, "the image of God and the figure of His substance." He is properly the Word (or idea) of the Divine intellect, expressing in Himself the substance of the Divine nature. This Word became vocal by the mystery of the Incarnation, and declared to mankind the secrets of His Father. " Who shall declare His generation," exclaims the prophet. (Is. liii. 8.) Neither the angels themselves, nor all the eloquence of earth-born men can explain His mysterious birth. If they could, this Divine Word would present no object for our faith, because our understandings, which would then be capable of comprehending His Divine nature, must either be infinite, or this Divine Word must be a limited and an imperfect being. Our understandings are not infinite, and He is not an imperfect being; therefore, we cannot comprehend, by any faculty of which we are possessed, this mysterious generation. It is sufficient for us, that we adore Him with an unshaken faith, and rejoice in His glory, which is
