Incompetency of sentiments, as distinct from principles, to work
a change of character-the difficulty of loving God without a
definite conception of Him, and the difficulty of definitely con-
ceiving Him-what are affection and sympathy, as they exist in
the Divine Nature ?-but the Nature of God is made by the In-
carnation level to our conceptions-illustration from the sunlight,
which can only be intelligently studied by looking at it through
the medium of the prism or the raindrops-God made level to our
apprehensions in the Person of Christ--the stern elements in Our
Lord's character, and their adjustment with the tender elements-
God made level to our sympathies in the Person of Christ-the
emotions of Our Lord's heart are a translation into the language of
humanity of the (to us incomprehensible) affections of the Divine
Mind-yet, as we have never seen Christ, how His Incarnation
such an advantage to us, as supplying us with definite conceptions
of God?-admitted difficulty of believing and loving without seeing
-we must remember that acquaintance with Christ upon earth was
attended with compensating disadvantages, from which our view of
Him is free also we must bear in mind the exact portraiture of
Him by the Evangelists, and the four different points of view from
which those portraits are taken-do we love the whole character