The Cross

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESENTED BY MRS. HENRY T. LOUTHAN

BY ROBERT BOYTE C. HOWELL, D.D. Futor of Main-Street (Second Baptist) Church, Richmond, Va. AUTHOR or ' TERMS Of COMMUNION," " THE DEACONSH]!'," " THE WAY Of SAT.VATION," "ETILS OF IJTFANT BAPTISM," ETC., ETC. " God forbid th;u I tftnnM tflorj, rivt in th<; croA^ mir ix>ro>Je«D* Christ. '—PIUT,.; '.*,.-*, CHAKLESTON, S. C.: SOUTHERN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. RICHMOND, VA.: VIRGINIA BAP. S. S. AN') PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 1854.

UiFI JUN Entered, according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1854. 1> •• ROBERT BOYTE C- HOWELL, D. D. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for th« Eastern District of Virginia. CHARLESTON : STEAM TOWER PRESS OF WALKER AND JAMES, No. 3 Broad-street-

TO HIS BELOVED BROTHER 1M CHRIST, RICHARD FULLER, D. D., PASTOR OF THE PACA-ST. (SEVENTH BAPTIST) CHURCH, BALTIMORE, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, In testimony of his affection towards him As a Man, as a Christian, and as a Minister of the Cross, BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE. THE preparation of this little volume has afforded me many hours of the sincerest enjoyment. The study I have given to the subjects embraced in its several chap ters, has warmed my heart with a new love to the Sa viour, and increased my admiration of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 am more than ever convinced that the doctrine which, in this work, I have attempted to sketch, is the soul of all true religion, and the only power by which this world can be subdued to the do minion of Messiah. I now send forth the book, with my earnest prayer to Almighty God, that it may be made a blessing to his cause and people. ROB'T BOYTE C. HOWELL. Richmond, Va., March 29th, 1854.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page- By the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, God designed, from eternity, the redemption of men, - 1 CHAPTER II. By the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Justice of God, and the salvation of sinners, are brought into glorious harmony. - - ...... 21 CHAPTER III. By the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, God reveals the ex tent of hit love, ------- 43

X CONTKNTi. CHAPTER IV. Paf"' Ths cross is the medium of that spiritual change necessary to salvation, - - - - - 61 CHAPTER V. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ has fixed, io every sancti fied heart, an indelible abhorrence of all sin, - - 83 CHAPTER VI. From the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ flow, to the universe, great and perpetual blessings, .... 108 CHAPTER VII. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only power that will effectually move the soul to holy action, • - 125 CHAPTER VIII. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ has given character, in every age, to all the ordinances of religion, - - 143 CHAPTER IX. From the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, are derived the amplest instructions for the formation of Christian char acter, 165

CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER X. Through the power of the cross, all the countless multitudts on high, have received their crowns, and thrones of glory, ........ 187 CHAPTER XI. Conclusion, ........ 209

THE CROSS. CHAPTER I. BY THE CROSS OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, GOD DE SIGNED, FROM ETERNITY, THE REDEMPTION OF MAN. The covenant of redemption ; nature of the law ; the forms of ancient worship ; preceding prophecies. THE cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most illustrious object in the universe. In sub limity, in grandeur, in benevolence, in excel lency, there is not another with which it may be compared. The cross is the bright centre around which converge all that is glorious in the character of God ; all that is animating in the hopes of men ; and all that is impressive in the history of our fallen race. All preceding 1

2 THE CROSS dispensations were but preparations for its in troduction. All succeeding events revert .to the cross, as the grand foundation upon which they rest. It contains a revelation of God in all his thoughts, more exalted and affecting, than otherwise could ever possibly have reached the knowledge of man. In the cross, you behold a practical development of his in finitely gracious designs towards miserable and lost sinners ; designs which occupied his thoughts, and entered into his counsels, long ere the heavens were spread out above us, or the earth assumed its place amid the orbs that revolve around his throne. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is associated indissolubly with all your highest conceptions of the Fa ther, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and is in terwoven with every emotion of gratitude and love that swells your bosom, or gives joy to your heart. Not, indeed, the literal cross. It is not to this, much less any material repre sentation of it, to which you look with so much feeling. By the cross, is meant, not wood, nor silver, nor gold, but the great satisfaction

PREDETERMINED OF GOD. 3 to divine justice, by the Son of God, in be half of sinners ; the glorious. offering, which was the object of Messiah's mission ; and which Jehovah was graciously pleased to approve and accept. The cross is but the symbol. It was the offering itself which gave it significance, and by which it has be come forever associated with all those bless ings which so expand themselves from ever lasting to everlasting ; whose depths reach those that have sunk lowest into the abyss of crime and misery ; and whose heights throw a radiance even upon the throne and crown of the eternal God himself. These are the exalted conceptions embraced in your contemplation of the cross. No wonder, then, that every recur rence to the cross sends thrilling through your soul emotions of the purest delight. In this sense, and with the same feelings that fill your heart, was the cross regarded by pro phets and apostles. Referring to its sufferings, Isaiah exclaimed, " He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." " He was wounded for our transgressions ; he was bruised for our

4 THE CROSS iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed."* And Paul says, " We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."f " Through the blood of the cross" you are " reconciled to God, by Jesus Christ," who will at last, " in the body of his flesh, present you holy and unbla mable, and unreprovable in his sight."J The cross, therefore, expresses in one word, all that is contained in " the glorious gospel of the blessed God." The truths which it embodies, no man ever heard, or ever will hear with in difference. It will, inevitably, move the soul, either to enmity or to love "No minister ever rehearsed its story to a listless congregation. No mother ever sung it over the pillow of her babe, without tenderness. No living man ever perused it with an unaffected heart. No dy ing man ever heard it without emotion."§ God * Isaiah, 63 : 4, 5. 1 1 Cor. 1:18, 23, 24. J Col. 1 : 19-22. § Dr. Spring, Mai. 3:1.

PREDETERMINED OP QOD. has himself invested it with peculiar power. It is the appointed agency by which all nations are to be finally subjected to the dominion of Messiah. And can it be that God's purposes of mercy towards the children of me*n, through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, were cherished by him from eternity ? Did he even then, design to redeem you from sin, by this strange instrumen tality? Who that is familiar with his holy word, can doubt on this subject, or fail to feel in consequence, a higher appreciation of his glorious grace ? His purposes are made appa rent by all that is revealed to us in relation to the Covenant of Redemption. When he sent forth his Son into the world, he announced him as " The Messenger of the Covenant."* " The blood of the cross," he designates as " The blood of the Covenant," and " The blood of the everlasting Covenant."f Referring to " the mystery of redemption," an apostle declares it to have been " according to the eternal pur *Mal.3: 1. tHeb. 10: 29; Zeck. 9 : 11.

6 THE CROSS pose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."* It is evident, therefore, that from that far-off eternity in which he dwelt, God never contemplated our universe, but in connection with a Mediator. He foresaw the sinfulness of men, and their consequent exposure to misery and death. And, blessed be his holy name, he also determined their deliverance, and provi ded the means of its accomplishment. If it be enquired why Jehovah thus exercised infinite kindness towards sinners, my only an swer is, he was moved to it by his boundless 'grace. How strikingly impressive does this fact become, when considered in the light of the great truth now before us ! Grace led to the gracious conception of your deliverance. Grace prompted the measures necessary for its ac complishment. Grace carried all these mea sures into complete effect. God was not, there fore, moved to its exercise, as some have ima gined, by the proposed satisfaction subsequently to be made by Christ, upon the cross. This *Eph. 3: 9,10, 11.

PREDETERMINED OF GOD. satisfaction was itself, on the contrary, the re sult of the previous exercise of grace, and of which the Father could present no higher proof than the gift of "his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life."* His grace was, consequently, antecedent to the covenant of redemption, led to its existence, and of coursei to all its subsequent issues. It is this which gives emphasis to that declaration of the Fa ther, that "He hath made him [Christ] who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made in him the righteousness of God."f " Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and gent his Son to be the propitia tion for our sins."J Here is a work worthy of the second per son in the adorable Trinity. Man, who once bore the image of God, and even after the destruction of that image, was still exalted and immortal, was ruined and lost. He was to be delivered ;uid made happy, and God was to be glorified. Well did Messiah *John, 3: 16. 1 3 dor. 5:21. H John, 4:10.

8 THE CROSS know that this work would require him to as sume our nature; that it would cover him with humiliation ; that it would lead him to the cross. Yet, in the high counsels of eternity, he hesitated not to enter into that covenant, and to say to the Father, " Here am I. Send me." And was it God the Father, only, who could say, as he does, to his people, " I have loved thee with an everlasting love."* This was true, equally of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. * Here the whole Deity is known, Nor dares a creature guess Which of his glories brightest shone, His justice or his grace." On this part of our subject, Peter, while fts own soul exults in the amazing truth, thus beautifully instructs his brethren of the primi tive churches. " Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold," "but with the precious blood of Christ," " who verily *Jer.33: 1.

PREDETERMINED OF GOD. '.' was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God who raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God."* And Paul declares that by him, "God, who cannot lie, promised eternal life, before the world be gan.""^ To these, and like considerations, you are, in another place, referred as so many rea sons for unwavering reliance upon him for every other possible blessing : " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him, also, freely give us all things ?"J Who, then, can doubt that these glorious purposes were determined and fixed, in the covenant of redemption, " be fore the foundation of the world ;" that to this covenant, God the Father was moved by his own infinite grace ; and that God the Son, to carry them into effect, came into our world, as sumed our nature, and " gave himself for us, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God ?"§ * 1 Pet. 1 : 18-21. t Tim. 1 : 2. tRom. 8 : 32. § 1 Pet. 3 : 18.

10 THE CROSS God's eternal purposes of redemption by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, is further evi dent, by the nature of the original law under which man was created. As a covenant of salvation, that law de manded perfect obedience. In all its parts, it was a transcript of the moral perfections of its great author. It must have been so, because it was an emanation from God, and he can cre ate nothing that does not bear his own exalted impress. " The law was, therefore, holy, just and good,"* and perfectly suited to man as a holy being, securing all his ends, and to the utmost extent. It was intended to impart, and while obeyed, did impart to him the purest happiness. Once violated, however, and so far as the law was concerned, all was lost. It contained within itself no power to restore the offender to honor and life. Nor had man, as a transgressor, any ability to recover himself. How can a guilty man make himself innocent ? How can a dead man give himself life ? No law ever existed, *Roman«, 7: 1*.

PREDETERMINED OP (JOB. 11 human or divine, by which such a result was possible. He was then, in all respects, as to the law, miserable and ruined, because an impure and criminal thing. It had, white he remained innocent, protected his holiness, his happiness, and his life. Now that he was guilty, it sternly demanded satisfaction. Hope expired. Nothing remained for him but a " fearful looking for of wrath, and fiery indignation." Were these characteristics of the law accidental ? Surely not. God creates nothing by accident. If, then, God foresaw, as we have seen, the rebel lion of man, and determined beforehand, to de liver and restore him ; and if the law itself, under which man was created, contained inhe rently no power by which this deliverance and restoration could be accomplished, it is evi dent he must have intended to secure this end by some other means, and without the agency of the law. Of this, the very nature of the law itself becomes the infallible proof. If, now, we turn to the word of God, we shall there find that this, precisely, is the doctrine taught us on the

12 THE CROSS subject, by the apostles. " By the deeds of the law," says Paul to the Romans, " there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." And he adds : " But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe."* We are here as sured, in so many words, that the law itself bears witness that your deliverance is not through its medium, nor was ever so intended, but by the cross of Christ. Salvation reaches you, not through the law, but " through the re demption that is in Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation for our sins, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins."f It is thus most evi dent, that in the nature of the law itself, Jeho vah contemplated your redemption by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The eternal purpose" of God to deliver sin- « Rom. 3 : 19-24. tRom. 3 : 25.

PREDETERMINED OF GOD. 13 ners by the cross, is further apparent in the pe culiar forms of religion which characterised all (hose dispensations which preceded his coming. The most striking of these forms were seen in the perpetually recurring sacrifices. These were instituted immediately after the fall, and simultaneously with the promise of a Deliverer, ofwhose character and work they were designed to be a vivid representation. In them, until Messiah appeared upon earth in person, was daily presented before the minds of the people, the fundamental idea, that to deliver them from sin, it was necessary that the innocent should die for the guilty. This great doctrine was in delibly impressed upon them all, under what ever dispensation. The presentation of the victim was an acknowledgment of sin ; and its offering, an expression of confidence, that God would accept an atonement, and pardon the transgressor. These sacrifices, under the Mo saic economy, especially, were unceasing. Blood flowed unremittingly. " Almost all things," said Paul, " are, by the law, purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood,

14 THE CROSf there is no remission."* Wherefore all these offerings ? Of themselves, they did no more than preserve the ceremonial purity of the wor shippers. They did not, and could not take away sins. They all pointed unmistakably to the cross. On this subject, the teachings of the divine word are explicit. " The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, could never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year, continually, make the comers thereunto perfect." " It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats, should take away sin."f These were but the emblems. The efficacy was found in "the blood of Christ" himself, to which they always directed the faith of the of ferers. " Wherefore, when he [Christ] cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifices and offer ings thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure." " Lo, I come to do thy will, 0 God." "I lay down my *Heb. 9: 22. fHeb. 10: 14.

PREDETERMINED OF GOD. 15 life for you." "This commandment [the com mandment to do this] have I received of my Father." " The will of God," which he came to do, was manifestly the offering of his body for sin. To this end it was " prepared," and all of their previous sacrifices were types and representations. In him they met their fulfil ment, and no more exist, since " by one offer ing, he hath perfected forever, all them that are sanctified." The previous designs of God, I now finally observe, to redeem men by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, is, if possible, still more evi dent by the prophecies which announced his coming into our world. These prophecies are singularly numerous, and describe, in language not readily misunder- stood, every event connected with his life, and sufferings, and death. David appears to have been actually looking upon these scenes when, a thousand years before their occurrence, he per sonates Messiah thus : " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" "All they that see me, laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him." " They pierced my hands and

16 THE CROSS my feet." "I may tell all my bones." " They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."* " Mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me."f Isaiah also thus speaks on the same subject : *' He is despised and rejected of men : a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." " Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." " He was wounded for our transgressions ; he was bruised for our iniquities." " He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter ; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." " And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich, in his death."J Nor is Zechariah less explicit. Speaking propheti cally of Jesus, he says : " I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price, and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, a goodly price that I was prized at of them."§ Need I point out the application of these, and many other similar prophecies, with which the whole sacred record * Ps. 23 : 1, 7, 8, 16, 17, 18. t Ps. 41 : 9. t Isa. 53 : 3, 5, 7, 9. § Zech. 11 : 12, 13.

PREDETERMINED OF GOD. 17 abounds, and show their fulfilment in the per son of our Lord Jesus Christ ? He himself does so, when holding in his hand the cup of trem bling, and hesitating to drink it, he said, " How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"* And after his resur rection he again, in another form, makes the same application. He said to his disciples, " Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations."f Thus is it clearly apparent, by the prophecies which preceded his coming, that God from eternity designed the redemption of sinners, by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. This great truth, as we have now seen, is evi dent from the terms of the covenant of redemp tion ; from the nature of the original law un der which man was created ; from the forms of religion in all preceding dispensations, among which the most striking were their perpetually * Matt. 26 : 39. t Luke 24 : 46, 47. a

18 THE CROSS recurring sacrifices ; and from the numerous prophecies which announced the earthly mis sion of the Redeemer. Thus heralded, " in the fullness of time." Messiah came, and gloriously accomplished the infinitely gracious design. Not '' one jot nor one tittle " of all his purposes failed. And how amazing was the work as signed him. O, the event itself; the cross ! Shall we take our position near the cross, and depict its scenes as they pass before us ? No, I will not essay an attempt so adventurous. They are too overwhelming. Such another event has never occurred, and never can occur in the annals of man. It contained elements which no finite mind can ever fully comprehend or appreciate. Angels gazed upon it confounded. Hierarchies of glory burst from their seats, over whelmed in astonishment. The brightest se raph before his throne had never seen so much of God before. The agonies of the garden, which were but preliminary to the deeper hor rors of Calvary, are narrated by the evan gelists in such terms as invest them with a frightful gloom. What then were they upon

PREDETERMINED OF GOD. 19 the cross, where the Christ suffered in his whole nature ? They were too appalling for even inspiration itself to portray in intelligible language. There hangs the groaning sufferer, (quivering in every fibre with unutterable an guish. But the external aspect of the victim declares not all the suffering of the cross ! The marred visage, the flowing blood, the tortured limbs, the failing eye, the sinking head, the ghastly seal of death upon his countenance : all these are but the symbols of a deeper suffering within. The curse of the Father is upon the Son. This it was that withered his life.* The sins of a rebellious world were pressing on his bursting heart. The sword of avenging jus tice was lacerating his soul. His agonies, therefore, intense, profound, unfathomable as his own exalted nature, in that awful hour, thrilled the whole universe of thought and be ing. All nature mantled itself in mourning, and bowed, amidst signs and wonders, before the mingled love and woe of the cross. And although the Father, in that dreadful moment, •Gal. 3: 13.

20 THE CROSS. hadforsaken him, that he might thus suffer and die for your deliverance, such was still his love and sympathy, that the infinite heart of the great God himself shook with every pang that rent the bosom of the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus did Messiah accomplish his surprising work. He died upon the cross. But as "he bowed his head and gave up the ghost," he " cried with a loud voice, saying, It is fin ished /" Thanks be to God for the blessed as surance. Your redemption is complete ! " It is finished ;" and finished, too, " according to the eternal purpose [of God] which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."* The approach of this great event had excited the eager expecta tion of the wise and the good, from the begin ning of time. It is past. And to its solemn scenes, and the indications by which it was pre ceded, all the redeemed will ever look back with indescribable emotions. Never in this world, or in the next, can the cross fade from your memory, or cease to call forth your warm est love. *Eph.2: 11.

CHAPTER II. BY THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE JUS TICE OP GOD, AND THE SALVATION OF SINNERS, ARE BROUGHT INTO GLORIOUS HARMONY. The cross inevitable ; Messiah's glorification for it ; method by which its benefits are transferred to sinners ; results. THE cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was an appalling alternative. Was it inevitable 1 Could not its blood, and groans, and agonies, have been spared ? Might not a God of infi nite power have pardoned, sanctified and saved you, by an act of his own absolute sovereignty, and irrespective of any other consideration? To these, and all similar inquiries, inspiration responds definitely : " God is faithful. He can not deny himself."* Justice is a constituent part of his nature. Could he have remained faith * 2 Tim. 2 : 13.

22 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION ful, and permitted sin to pass with impunity ? Not to have rebuked and punished transgress ion, he must have "denied himself." But God "cannot deny himself." Are not "justice and judgment the habitations of his throne?"* Upon these, no less essentially than upon love and mercy, rests his glorious government, not one of whose supports can ever be removed. Whatever exists in the universe, in conflict with the nature of God, must meet his unquali fied condemnation. To him, sin of every cha racter is infinitely repugnant. It is offensive in itself. It is a violation of his authority. It disseminates throughout his government the elements of discord, misery and death. He must look upon it with infinite loathing and in dignation. Either, therefore, the cross, or the eternal destruction of sinners, was inevitable. Sin, and the sinner, are in an important sense identical. The sinner consequently, since " He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and can not look upon iniquity,"f must, like his sins, be •P.. 89: 14. tH»b. 1: 3.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 23 hateful to God. " He is angry with the wicked every day."* Sin must meet its just recom pense. His very nature imperatively demands it. Yet he would spare the sinner, and purify and save him. To God he is still dear, not withstanding his guilt. " Have I any pleasure at all, that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God ; and not that he should turn from his ways and live?" "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God."f But how can the wicked be saved ? Aside from the cross, it is impossible. He must die. Can sin and the sinner be separated, his sin be atoned for and destroyed, and the sinner pu rified, and pardoned, and saved? If so, there is hope for him still. Grace, and love, and mercy will exult in the achievement, and justice, and righteousness, and truth. will concur and re joice. Thank God, this is possible. But how, and by whom, can it be done ? It can never be accomplished by God as God, since he is the * Pi. 7 : 14. t Ezek. 18 : 23, 31.

24 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION being against whom the offence is committed, and whose nature requires its punishment. Nor can it be done by man as man, since he is the guilty party, and, as we saw in the prece ding chapter, therefore incapable of giving the satisfaction demanded. Much less can angels do it. They belong to another class of beings. By whom, then, is it to be done? No one ex ists in heaven, or upon earth, capable of exe cuting the mighty task. A being peculiarly endowed is demanded. That being God must himself prepare ; and, blessed be his name, he did prepare him, in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. " For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."* And " it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself." " And you who were some time alienated, and enemies in your mind, by wicked works, yet now hath he re * John 3: 17.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 25 conciled."* Messiah accomplished the mighty deliverance. On this account it was said to Joseph, " Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sms."f He shall remove from you all unholiness and trans gression, and sanctify and save you. Thus, while you are made " meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light," God will be glorified in an infinitely higher degree than would, otherwise, ever have been possible. Al luding to these considerations, he himself, in his memorable last prayer, said to the Father, " I have glorified thee upon the earth. I have fin ished the work which thou gavest me to do."J Had human redemption never been devised, God would still have appeared, to all pure in telligences, " glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders."§ How resplendent is he in all his works of nature ! " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth know *Col. 1: 19-92. tMatt. 1: 21. t John 17: 14. § Exod. 15 : 11.

26 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION ledge." For "by the things that are made are clearly seen his eternal power and God head." But his grace and salvation, through Christ —of these " the heavens and the earth are silent." They are seen only in the gospel. They could not be known but by revelation. They are manifested alone in the cross of Christ. It may be truly said, therefore, as re spects his whole character, " No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."* To accomplish your redemption it is requi site, I have said, that Messiah be peculiarly en dowed. He must, in the first place, unite in his own person perfect divinity and perfect hu manity. Had he not been divine, he would have had no right to sacrifice his life for any purpose whatever. The life of no created be ing is at his own disposal. He belongs to God. He gave life to angels and to man for his own purposes. They have, therefore, without his •Matt. 11: 27.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 27 command, no authority to destroy it, nor to ap propriate it to any end which may suggest itself to them, no matter how apparently desi rable. But Jesus Christ declared that his life was his own ; that he had a right to dispose of it according to his own pleasure ; and that he did voluntarily and freely give it, a sacrifice for the redemption of sinners. " No man," said he, " taketh it from me. I have power to lay it down ; and I have power to take it up again."* But a mere man has no such power ; no such right. God only possesses it. Christ was, therefore, God. His deity was a necessa ry qualification for the offering. On this ac count, the proper divinity of Christ is declared in his word with peculiar emphasis and clear ness. He is "God over all, blessed for ever." It is equally necessary that Messiah be man perfectly. Man only can be the representative of man. Such was " the first Adam ;" and such must be " the second Adam." Man sinned ; and man * John 10 : 18.

X& THE CROSS A SATISFACTION must make " reconciliation for sin." No other was capable of " being made a curse for us."* Could any other be your " High Priest ?" " As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he, also, himself, likewise took part of the same, that, through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death." " He took not on him the nature of angels ; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore it be hoved him to be made in all things like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the peo ple."f He was man perfectly. He was God perfectly. He was the Christ who " came into the world to save sinners." In this two-fold character Messiah perpetually appears, both in prophecy and in actual life. " Moses an nounced him as the prophet like unto himself, whom all men were bound to hear ; Jacob, as the Shilob, unto whom should be the gathering of the people ; Isaiah, as the Wonderful, the •Gal. 3: 13. t Hob. 2 : 11-17.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 29 Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, who, while making his soul an offering for sin, should yet prolong his days, and reign over his people for ever ; Daniel, as the Ancient of Days, the Mes siah, the Princely One ; Malachi, the last of the prophetic line, as the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his wings. They speak of him as gentle and lowly, despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, yet of kingly might, glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength, and mighty to save ; as David's son, and David's Lord, the sovereign of the temple, and messen ger of the covenant, as giving his back to the smiters, and his cheek to them that plucked off the hair ; dragged as a lamb to the slaughter, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, num bered with transgressors, and finally cut off by a premature and ignominous death ; and yet as reigning a triumphant God, confessed, loved and adored by myriads, his power resistless, his reign universal and everlasting."* How ex * Christ in History, pp. 138, 139.

80 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION alted, how humble, how mysterious, how glori ous our blessed Redeemer ! A second qualification for your redemption, with which Messiah must be endowed, it im maculate purity. And was our .Lord Jesus Christ uncontaminated by sin? "He was not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."* He is de clared by his apostles to have been emphati cally "holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners."f He was pure in all respects— pure in his soul, and in his life. He " knew no «n."J In this respect also, his qualifications were perfect. A third consideration is necessary ; Christ must be capable of becoming your substitute. As such, he must suffer for your sins. But how, if he were not sinful, could he suffer ? No truth is more certain in all the government of God, than that which assures us that holi- « Heb. 4 : 15. t Heb. 7 : 26. t 3 Cor. 5: 31.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 31 ness and suffering are utterly incompatible with each other. They are never found together among any of his creatures. A perfectly holy being cannot die. No such instance ever oc curred, or ever can occur. It is impossible, be cause, in the first place, holiness and happiness are, by the law of God, inseparably associated ; and because, in the second place, the justice of God never will permit it, since he will as cer tainly protect the innocent as he will punish the guilty. Guilt must, in every case, precede, and be the cause of suffering. How then, since Jesus Christ was perfectly holy, could he suffer ? To him the cross, it would seem, was interdicted in the very nature of things. He could assume it only by the power which he possessed as God. It is sufficient at present to remind you that he was "before the law" your representative. In himself, he was infinitely pure. Had it been otherwise, he must have died for his own sins. He could not even have delivered himself. Much less could he have delivered you. He was born holy. He lived holy. He " fulfilled the law." He " magnified

32 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION it, and made it honorable." The time came for him to suffer. To prepare him to do so, he, by his divine power, assumed, voluntarily and free ly, the sins of all his people, of every period and of every country. He so took them into connection with his own holy nature, that he was no longer regarded by the law as innocent, but as a sinner. You are a sinner. He took your place. Therefore he was adjudged as a sinner. This substitution was in compliance with those obligations into which he entered in the covenant of redemption. He did all by " the will of the Father," who, as we have seen, " made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us."* Now the Son of God could suffer. Now jus tice could afflict him. Now could be poured out upon him all the vials of the divine wrath. Looking forward to this scene, a prophet ex claimed, " The Lord hath laid on him the ini quity of us all."f And an apostle adds, " He bore our sins in his own body on the tree."J He hung upon the cross, therefore, not as an * 2 Cor. 5: 21. t Isa. 53: 6. t Pet. 2: 24.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. >' •> innocent, but as a guilty being. Justice ap proved his sufferings and death. These were the qualifications necessary to prepare Jesus Christ for the cross, and to make his offering effective in your behalf. He was God ; he was man ; he was holy ; he was your substi tute. A fourth consideration is, that the benefits of Christ's death must become yours. But how can the benefits of his death be so transferred to you, as that you can, on their ac count, be pardoned, and sanctified, and saved ? His death for sinners, of itself, and irrespective of its personal application, delivers no one. You, notwithstanding that event, are still in your sins, and under condemnation. Your mo ral state is such, that without a total change in your whole nature, you are incapable of salva tion. Jesus Christ is one person, and you are another, and a different person. How can his sufferings, no matter how intense or meritori ous, avail for you ? They certainly never can, unless they are, by some means, transferred to you personally. Some siich union, it is plain, ' a

34 • THE CROSS A SATISFACTION must exist between Christ and you., as that both can be received and accepted by the law, as one person. This union, were your sins looked upon as a debt merely, would be unnecessary ; since the debt of one man may be paid by ano ther, and irrespective of the moral character of the delinquent, justice is fully satisfied. The claim of the creditor is wholly cancelled. He can, legitimately, have no further demands. In crime, however, it is not so. Indeed it is far otherwise. The criminal must, in every case, himself suffer. The suffering for him of another person is wholly inadmissible. Justice, instead of being satisfied by such an expedient, would be, if possible, still more outraged than ever, by the original offence. The interference, in behalf of a criminal, of an exalted and noble person, may do much in favor of mercy, and to mitigate the severity of justice. Often, also, as we but too well know, the innocent, by pe culiar relations or associations, become in volved with the guilty, and deeply share in the consequences of their sins. But the sufenngs of an innocent person never can be justly ad-

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 35 mitted as an expiation for the crimes ol'& guilty person, and especially in such a sense as that the guilty person may, on this account, he re leased from the charge of crime, and received, and accepted as no longer guilty. You are not a debtor merely. You are a criminal. You must, therefore, yourself suffer the penalty due to sin. How, then, if the innocent cannot justly suffer, even though he might earnestly desire it, the penalty due to the crimes of one who is guilty, the inquiry recurs, can Christ's suffer ings avail for you ? No other expedient is pos sible, but that which has been stated. Christ's sufferings must be your sufferings. In a word, Christ and you must be one. The moment this relation is brought into being, the result is achieved. By this divine arrangement, your sins are accounted as his sins, and you are re garded as having suffered their penalty, since he who suffered it, is one with you. In Christ Jesus you have died for your sins ; you have been buried, and you have risen again, a glori ous conqueror. Between you and Christ, jus tice cannot discriminate, and from the moment

36 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION of your union with him, has no more claim against you. On the same principle that your sins are his sins, which alone made his death possible, his satisfaction to divine justice, is your satisfaction to divine justice, which alone makes your salvation possible. Thus you meet the claims of the law, and thus you obtain everlasting life. The possessions, for all prac tical purposes, of the husband, belong, in law, to the wife, and those of the wife, to the hus band. " They are no more twain, but one flesh." In a similar sense, all that is yours is Christ's, and all that is Christ's belongs to you. On this principle, and on this only, the sufferings of Christ are a propitiation for your sins. " You are in Christ Jesus." You are included in that inspired declaration, " There is, therefore, now, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." " For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death."* But, by what process is it possible that Christ * Rom. 8 : IS.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. • and you can become one? Such union does not exist as a matter of course. By nature, all men are " without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world."* They are not, therefore, although he has died, in any appro priate sense, naturally one with Christ. There are those, however, who really do possess this union. He himself describes it in his inter cessory prayer. "I in them, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee." " I in them, and thou in me."f You thus possess a oneness with Christ. The agency by which this unity is brought into being, is the Holy Ghost, acting through va rious influences, upon the heart of the penitent. And of the presence of that glorious relation, the fruits of the Spirit—" love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,"J—are the conclusive testimonies. The medium of this gracious spiritual union, is faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus you •Eph.3: 11-13. t John 17: 31-23. t Gal. 5 : 22,23.

x THE CROSS A SATISFACTION receive Christ, and appropriate all the benefits of his death. " To as many as received him"— thus by faith, so revelation distinctly teaches us—" to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.'"* " He that believeth on him, is not con demned.''f If you have thus received him, you are, in the true sense, one with Christ. You are one with him in disposition,J evinced in humi lity, patience, and devotion to the glory of God, and the happiness and salvation of men. You are one with Christ in love, in obedience, in suffering. You are a partaker of his merits. § You "count all things but loss for the excel lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord, for whom you have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but 'filth, || that you may win Christ, and be found in him, not having on your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith 'of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."1 * John 3: 18. tJohnl: 12. t Phil. 2:6. §Heb. 12:2. \\mv0i\a. IT Phil. 3 : 8-10.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 80 The results of this happy union with our Lord Jesus Christ, are, that you are a partaker of the full benefits of his redemption. It is indeed, not enough to say that all the claims of divine justice against you, are satis fied in Christ. They now, in fact, imperatively demand your salvation. Previously, they re quired your destruction. You were a sinner, condemned and helpless. No earthly power could deliver you. Now, in Christ Jesus, you are pardoned ; you are sanctified ; you are jus tified— approved and received as if you had never sinned—and adopted into the family of God. Justice is not your opponent, but your advocate. Justice is now as much concerned in securing your deliverance, even as Mercy itself. "Instead of dragging the believer in Christ to prison, Justice demands his freedom. Justice is his protection from punishment. Jus tice would not act justly, if it would consent to the punishment of those who have been pun ished in Christ. As resppf.ts himself as a sinner, the salvation of the bel'.over is of pure mercy ; as he is viewed in Christ, it is pure justice,"

40 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION " In this way, both Justice and Mercy press the same demand ; though they press it on differ ent grounds. They Both cry aloud to set the believer free ; but the one views him as a sin ner, the other views him as perfectly free from sin, and possessed of the whole righteousness of the law. Justice would exclaim as loudly as Mercy, or Love, or Benevolence, against the punishment of those whose sins were borne by Christ. If Christ has purchased them with his own blood, a God of justice is pledged to see them delivered. Were they to suffer, after the ransom paid for them, there would not be a particle of justice in heaven." " Here is a ground of hope as strong as the pillars of God Almighty's throne. Standing upon it, the most guilty of the human race, while he is clothed with humility as in himself a sinner, may lift up his face to the throne of God, with the confi dence of an angel."* " What shall we say to these things ?" asks an apostle. " If God be for us, who can be against us?" " Who shall * Carson : Kpowledga of Jssus, page 130.

TO DIVINE JUSTICE. 41 lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather that is risen again ; who is ever at the right hand of God ; who also maketh intercession for us."* Here is, indeed, " everlasting conso lation, and good hope through grace," flowing directly from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now seen that, to bring the justice of God into harmony with the salvation of sin ners, the cross of Christ was inevitable ; that Messiah's qualifications to suffer its agony and shame on your behalf, were perfect ; that the manner in which all the benefits of his death are conferred upon you, is simple and effectual ; and that the justification, and sanctification, and acceptance, you thereby obtain, are ample to assure you of salvation and eternal life. By the power of the cross, Justice is satisfied, and the glory of the Father, the majesty of the Son, the benevolence of the Spirit, and the salvation of the penitent believer in Christ, are all in * Rom. 8 : 31-34.

42 THE CROSS A SATISFACTION. perfect concord. The cross is the bond by which they are inseparably united. Who, then, can contemplate that cross without emotion ! Who that understands all its bearings, rela tions and consequences, can withhold his warm est gratitude, his most ardent love ?

CHAPTER III. BY THE CROSS OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, GOD RE VEALS TUB INFINITE EXTENT OF HIS LOVE. Tht love of God ; love shown by the Father ; lovo evinced by the Son ; love manifested by the Spirit. THE love of God, as revealed by the crust of our Lord Jesus Christ. must ever command your prot'oundest admiration and gratitude. Its depth, its height, its expansion, its infinite mag nitude, who can adequately conceive ! In com parison with this, every other manifestation of his love is obscure and feeble. Here it shines forth, not exclusively, but in its most glorious emanations. His love appears in many other forms. In truth, "God is love" in his whole na ture. Love pervades all his attributes ; and characterises alike, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghott. It is enstamped upon all hig

44 THE CROSS works. What do you behold in the broad uni verse, upon which love is not legibly written ? It is seen amid the clustering orbs that spa.rkle in the canopy of night. The effulgence of day sends it forth blazing in the glowing sunlight. On the rugged mountain's brow it is en graven. You hear it in the ceaseless roar of the ocean. Darkness, wrapped in her sable robe, steals with silent step, to your bed, and whispers in your ear, " God is love." It is ut tered perpetually, by the heavens above you, and by the earth beneath you. It is embodied in the formation and susceptibilities of your persons ; and dispensed in all the rich blessings which daily crown your existence. In none of these forms, however, did its manifestation in volve more than the simple exertion of his power, the extension of his forbearance, or the exercise of his wisdom. In the cross, his love demanded the sacrifice of ''his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In the cross, therefore, God has evinced an intensity of love, infinitely greater than in any other form would have been possible.

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. 46 The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is an ex alted manifestation of the love of the Father. The fearful scene of Calvary, horrible as it was, contained within itself all the brightness and excellency of divine love in mingled ten derness and energy. John gazed upon it, and meditated its properties, until overwhelmed with gratitude, he exclaimed, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us !"* The Redeemer himself, referring to the same subject, employs language still more im pressive : " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, hut have everlasting life."f "So loved!" " God so loved !" In this phrase, the boundless fullness of the Fa ther's affection is told, as far as in human words, it can be expressed. The whole mean ing is beyond the grasp of mortal power. The language admits of no commentary. It cannot be illustrated. It is sublimely simple. It ic gloriously full. It is immeasurably perfect. *Uohn,3: 1. t John, 3: 16.

46 THE CROSS The more it is contemplated, the warmer be comes your wonder and astonishment. He go loved you, that to deliver and to save you, hegave his Son ; his beloved Son ; gave him to die ; gave him to die the. death of the cross ! Why " God so loved" us, we know not. We only know that he loved us, and that to this love, we owe every blessing, and especially the greatest of all blessings, the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. He came, sent by the Father, on a mission of mercy. From the Fa ther's hands he received that bitter cup, which could not pass from him. It was the Father who "laid upon him," the Son of his bosom, "the iniquities of us all." How boundless, then, must his love have been ! How strangely mysterious is it, in itself ! How honorable to you ! In no other form could the proof of its magnitude and undying power have possibly been so ample, so perfect, so exalted. The cross is an expression, still more em phatic, if possible, of the love of the Son of God, our Saviour. With the truth of this proposition, no one can

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. 47 fail to be impressed. It is only necessary to know that Jesus died to redeem you, and you instantly feel that it was an act of inexpressi ble love. On this subject, the divine word speaks with unparalleled simplicity and beauty. " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."* " Scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet, peradventure, for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sin ners, Christ died for us."f He did more for you than one man ever did for another. Men have been known to die for their friends, but never for their enemies. He died to deliver rebels and persecutors. Nor was it a reluctant of fering. He gave his life cheerfully and freely. " To this end," said he, " was I born, and for this cause came I into the world."J " To re deem us from the curse of the law," he refused not to " be made a curse for us." " It is written, cursed is every one. that hangeth on a tree." •John, 15: 13. tRom. 5: 7,8. ? John, 18: 37.

48 THE CROSS This curse he bore, " that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ."* But, after all, we shall know little, compara tively, of the love of Christ to sinners, unless we consider with more attention, the fearful texts to which it w<ts subjected. The test of the Father's love, was the gift of his Son. But what were the tests of the love of the Son ? Was it not enough that he relinquished " the glory which he had with the Father, before the world was ;" came to earth ; and here, in human nature, lived and died in poverty, ob scurity, privation ? What more was demanded ? Misery and shame, and all the horrors of the cross ? He accepted the terms, and paid the mighty debt. " Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful man ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled him * Gal. 3 : 13, 14.

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. 49 self, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."* Strange condescension! Amazing humiliation ! And who could be found willing to inflict upon him a cruelty so relentless? Never was there a being so bene ficent, so gentle. Whom had he harmed ? Blessed Redeemer, who could lift his hand against thee ? Who could desire to give thee pain? Ah, there were priests and rulers of the Jews, who were sufficiently depraved for any act, however abhorrent. To them, Jesus was odious beyond endurance. " They hated him without a cause."f Yet they hated him with immeasurable bitterness. " He was deli vered" into their hands ; " and they crucified him !" In this declaration, expressed in lan guage so simple, we have unveiled events and characteristics, which no sensitive heart can contemplate without deep emotion. They crucified him, because in that form death was the most infamous. His death simply, no matter how painful, * Phil. 2:6-9. t John, 15: 25. 4

50 THE CROSS was not enough to satisfy them. They deter mined to accompany it with every possible cir cumstance of obloquy and disgrace. To the death of the cross, no one was condemned but the most vile and debased. It was a death too shameful, too ignominious, to be inflicted upon any others. Men of character, of respectabi lity, were protected by public sentiment, and Roman citizens by law, from this revolting in dignity. Thus, in the manner of his death, they associated "the Lord of glory" with the miserable outcasts, the degraded wretches, who, by their crimes, had placed themselves beyond the pale of human regard or sympathy. And to make their purpose still more apparent, they carried him forth not alone. " There were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and the other on the left."* Little did they imagine how literally they were thus fulfilling the scriptures. They were solicitous only, to secure their own immediate purposes. By this means, they expected not only to crush him, but *Matt. 27: 38.

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. 51 also to bring his doctrine and his disciples into inextricable contempt. Messiah quailed not. He complained not. Silently, and unresistingly, he submitted to every contumely. Nor were his disciples dismayed, but for the moment. They were, ere long, "endued with power from on high."* Then they were reassured. They now, as never before, understood the scriptures. "Jesus of Nazareth" said Peter, addressing these very Jews, " Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him, in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands, have crucified and slain ; whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." And proceeding to establish his claims by proofs from the divine record, he closes with the declaration, " Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God * Luke, 24: 49.

52 THE CROSS hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ."* From that hour, they took their stand by the cross, and preached "Christ crucified; to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."f They were ever animated by the spi rit of their master, and hesitated not to be " witnesses unto him, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."J No toil or sacrifice turned them aside. They despised the honors of the world. They " gloried in sufferings, in tribulations, in dis tresses." " None of these things moved them. Neither counted they their lives dear unto themselves, so that they might finish their course with joy, and the ministry which they had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."§ The test of in famy by which the love of the Saviour was * Acts, 2 : 22-24-36. f 1 Cor. 1 : 23, 24. {Acts, 1: 8. § Act., 20: 24.

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. 58 tried, was not only triumphantly sustained by him, but became thus, a source of unfailing energy to his disciples, in every age. Their love took the same character with that of their master, and became, in life and in death, un conquerable. " They crucified the Lord of glory," because this, furthermore, was, of all other forms of death, the most painful. " The tender mer cies of the wicked are cruel."* Thus speak the oracles of truth, and never did they speak more truly. " The chief priests and scribes" were eager to see their victim writh ing in the agonies they had prepared for him. They derided him. They buffeted him. They scourged 'him. ' 'They -crucified him. You have alr'eadj considered the terri ble agonies oY'-rhe t'ritcifie'd.' "Tbey ' stand around him, gloat over his 'pangs, 'dnd mock, and triumph ! Great God ! who can bear to be even a spectator of such a scene ! And this is the death they inflicted upon Messiah. Well, * Prov. 12 : 10.

54 THE CROSS he knew before it came, all its Tearfulness. He deliberately chose thus to give his life for your life. He died himself for no other reason, than that you might live. Behold, how Jesus loved you ! " They crucified him" also, because, in no other way could they so fully gratify the malig nity of their own hearts. Did the whole life of Jesus present a single act calculated to give just cause of offence to any man ? Not one. His enemies, however, were mercenary men, covetous, ambitious. They perverted the word of God into authority for the accomplishment of all their purposes of selfishness. Our Redeemer's holy life contrasted wkh. theifs,- iiusuch; 3, manner as to put them to shame.. His te&chitxg coaimen/ted itself at once, to every mind, and. destroyed 'instantly, every deceitful exposition* "He spake as one hav ing authority, and not as the scribes."* Thus, he stood as an obstacle in the way of their ag grandizement. On these, and similar accounts, * Matt. 7: 29.

AN EXPRESSION OP LOVE. 55 their anger was insatiable. They sought by false witnesses, but failed, to sustain charges against him. They, at last, extorted from Pi late his condemnation. But in the very act of pronouncing it, he told them plainly, " I find no fault in this man." " Nor yet Herod ; for I sent you to him, and IP, nothing worthy of death" appears. Three times did this Roman governor asseverate his innocence, and three times did he propose to release him, but the Jews became, every moment, more clamorous for his death. Now they " cried out all at once, away with this man." "Crucify him. Crucify him." He yielded to their importunities, and ordered that he should be crucified ! " This was their hour, and the power of darkness."* The authority was yielded to them, and they exercised it to gratify their long pert up malice against the Son of God. " They crucified him," because this death was the most infamous ; because it was the most painful ; and because, by its infliction, * Luke, 22: 63.

56 THE CROSS they could most effectually gratify the malig nity of their own hearts. These, and similar facts, must be taken into the account, and con sidered in their various relations and bearings, if you would comprehend how fully the cross reveals the love of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord ! The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ manifests also, most affectingly, the love of God, the Holy Spirit. He it is by whom you are regenerated, and sanctified, and prepared for glory and immor tality in heaven. All, however, that the Holy Ghost does for you, is predicated exclusively upon the work of atonement wrought out by our Lord Jesus Christ. He proceeds from the Father and the Son. These three persons cornpose the only living and true God. They are the same in essence, and equal in divine pro perties. The love of one, therefore, must be the love of all the persons in the ever blessed Trinity. " The love of the Spirit," consequently, is as full, and as perfect, as the love of the Son. or the love 'of the Father. Who can tell to

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. 67 which of the Divine Three you are the most indebted for your deliverance and salvation? Pardoned indeed you might be by the satisfac tion of Jesus Christ, without the work of the Holy Spirit. This, however, would never re sult in your salvation, since your nature would remain unsanctified, and instantly plunge you into renewed guilt. The work of the Spirit is as necessary as the work of the Father or the Son. Without it, the suffering of the cross would be wholly ineffectual. Each of the persons in the Godhead, is infi nitely free and sovereign. Yet all co-operate harmoniously in your deliverance. Than this, no truth is more striking, or unequivocally af firmed in the inspired records. " Not by works of righteousness which we have done," says Paul, "but according to his mercy, he [the Fa ther] hath saved us, by the washing of regene ration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs, according to

OH THE CROSS the hope of eternal life."* You here see set forth in a single passage, the glorious co-opera tion of which I speak. And of the Spirit, Mes siah said " He shall glorify me."f But how ? He glorifies Christ, by sealing upon your hearts, all " the benefits of his death." " I will not leave you comfortless," said he. " The Father shall give you another comforter"—"the Holy Ghost"—and " he shall abide with you for ever." He is " the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."| The dead in sin are, by the Spirit, brought into the life and love of God, and to rejoice in Christ Jesus our Lord. By the Spirit, the word of God is made effectual for your direction and comfort. If you " abound in hope," it is " through the power of the Holy Ghost." He imparts such a measure of divine love, and such a consciousness of union with Christ, as •Tit. 3: 5. t John, 16: 14. t John, 16 : 14.

AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE. 59 fills your soul with delight. He forsakes you never. Amidst much—alas, how much! —of ingratitude, and even opposition, he still carries on the work of grace in your heart. Have you been, for a season, deaf to his kind reproofs? Has he, in consequence, left you in darkness, and barrenness of soul ? When you have re pented, and given yourself anew to him, how ready has he ever been to return to his man sion, and to diffuse anew in your heart, light, and life, and joy ! And all this he does on ac count solely of the satisfaction in your behalf, made by our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus. does the cross evince the love of God, the Holy Spirit. In the considerations now submitted, we have briefly seen, how, by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, God reveals to us the extent of his love. Love glowed in the bosom of the Father so pervadingly, that he gave his only begotten Son to redeem and save you ; love so influenced the heart of the Son, that to gain this glorious end, he laid down his own life, and love brought into our world the Holy Spirit, and impelled

60 THE CROSS. him to take up his abode in your heart, that he might sanctify, and bring you into the posses sion of immortality and eternal life. Truths like these, whose bosom do they not deeply move ? How immeasurably are you honored of God ! Thanks, everlasting thanks, for the manifestation of his infinite kindness in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER IV. THE CROSS IS THE MEDIUM OF THAT GREAT SPIRITUAL CHANGE NECESSARY TO SALVATION. Natural disqualifications for heaven ; process of the spiritual change ; its effect upon our character ; its influence upon our destiny. " HEAVES is a prepared place for a prepared people."* " Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."f Naturally you are incapable of salvation. Such a re newal in the spirit of your mind must occur, as will change your whole character and life. This change can be produced alone through the medium of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The abstract offering of Messiah, we have before seen, is, of itself, not enough. A * Newton. t John, 3 : 3.

62 THE CROSS THE MEDIUM personal application of " the benefits of his death," is also necessary. What is the cross to you, unaccompanied by its appropriate sanc tifying influence ? Can you be saved uncleansed from the original pollutions of your nature ? Justice is satisfied in him ; but what individual interest have you in Christ ? " God is reconciled by the death of his Son ; "* but are you reconciled to God ? Are you not still carnal, sold under sin ?f Of all such, Christ has said: "Whither I go ye cannot come." J The author of eternal life has himself fixed its conditions—" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; and he that believeth not shall be damned." || Faith, in this connection, em braces the whole process of spiritual religion. To these terms you must be conformed ; other wise the cross will not save you from destruc tion. The natural depravity of the heart, of which all men are partakers, interposes an in superable barrier to your salvation. The only remedy is a personal application of * Rom. 5 : 10. t Rom. 7 : 4. t John, 8 : 21. || Mark, 16 : 15-16.

OF SPIRITUAL CHANGE. . 63 the merits of Christ's death. Thus your cor ruption must be removed, and a new nature imparted. Why depravity so operates, is easy to be comprehended. A moment's reflection in regard to its nature, must convinco you that it cannot be otherwise. What is depravity ? It consists, essentially, in a state of mind the opposite of th?t required by the law of God. " Jesus said, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it : Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."* " Therefore, love is the fulfiling of the law."f But the depraved heart cherishes no such love. It is filled with oppo site affections. The creature usurps the place of the Creator, and all the moral powers are disorganized, perverted and corrupted. And, too, in addition to your actual sins, knowingly and deliberately committed, and on account of •Matt. 22: 37-39.- t Rom. 13: 10.

64 THE CROSS THE MEDIUM which you are already condemned, you love sin, and follow it. You do not love God. Such is depravity, and such its influence on your heart. Thus characterised, how is your salva tion possible ? It is no mitigation of the fearfulness of your moral state, that of your sin and danger you have no especial consciousness. You may, possibly, not be aware of any rooted enmity to God and holiness, nor of any overweening love of the world. You i'eel, it may be, no aggra vated guilt ! You see in your circumstances nothing to create alarm ! This, to me, is, alas ! no cause of gratification. It proves but the more clearly the obduracy and blindness of your heart. Carnality has taken possession of your whole mind. You are in pursuit, exclu sively, of the things of the flesh. And well do I know that " to be carnally minded is death." Yea more, "the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be ; so, then, they that are in [under the influence of] the flesh, cannot

or SPIRITUAL CHANGE. 65 please God." * How solemn that caution ad dressed by Paul to the Galatians, and which is so applicable to you !—"Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption." f These terms describe, distinctly, your spiritual condition, and pronounce, alas, your sentence of death ! Yet you are unmoved ! You see no danger ! What would you think of a man prostrated by disease, and rapidly sinking into the grave, who should insist, meantime, that he is not ill, not certainly in any immediate peril, and should, therefore, refuse to receive the only remedy by which it was possible to save his life? Would his insensibility diminish your anxiety for his safety? Your neighbor has for years committed, and continues daily to com mit, the most outrageous of offences against your person and property. He is approached on the subject, with remonstrances. He de clares that he is not conscious of having given » Rom. 8: 6,7,8. t Gal. 6: 7,8. 5

6fi THE CROSS THE MEDIUM you reason for offence ! Would you pronounce him a. corrupt and hardened wretch ? Such has been your conduct towards God. Yet you do not feel very guilty, and conclude, therefore, that you are not very guilty ! Melancholy in deed is your depravity ; your sinl'ulness ; but still more melancholy the obduracy of your heart. Your strange insensibility increases, a thousand fold, your guilt and your danger. How does such a moral position comport with the hope of salvation ? Consider it. No love to God; no appreciation of holiness; a persevering violator of the divine law ; uncon scious of the enormity of your sins ; under the dominion of worldly passions and desires ; with no emotions of heart in consonance with the character of heaven : how can you be saved ? Are you not utterly disqualified for eternal life ? To make heaven possible, an entire revolution must occur in your whole spiritual nature. Heaven is the enjoyment of God. God is infi nitely holy. Therefore, heaven is the enjoy ment of infinite holiness. Holinrs.-;, however, is no source of enjoyment to you. If is repug

OF SPdllTUAL CHANOE. 67 nant to you now ; and, since death produces no moral change, it will be repugnant to you in eternity. The heaven of God, therefore—and there is no other— would be no heaven to you. Not only, then, must your sins be pardoned : your nature, also, must be changed, or you can never be saved. Christ has, indeed, died to deliver you ; but he has, as we. have before seen, himself taught us that, to this end, a personal application is necessary, by the Holy Spirit, of his merits and righteousness. Salva tion is, consequently, possible only on condition of that change of heart, the medium of which is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. With these facts before you, the nature ol the change demanded, becomes a subject of absorbing interest. Let us consider it. Can it be comprehended ? What form of language shall I employ to make it intelligi ble ? In the divine word it is described by va rious modes of speech. It is " a new creature."* It is the "putting off the old man with his deeds. «2Cor. 5: 17.

!»f THE CROSS THE MEDIUM and putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge," after the image of God.* It is " being renewed in the spirit of your mind." f ' It is the " being quickened ; " J " born again ; " || having "Christ in you, the hope of glory ;"§ being " partakers of the divine nature." If What is that condition of things which all these representations are intended to describe 1 The moral revolution which requires such terms for its delineation, must be striking in all its characteristics, and in its whole nature full and entire. One among its first indications is a painful conviction of sin. Standing by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and considering all its love and grace, you begin to entertain more just conceptions of the divine law ; of the righteousness of God ; of your own utter want of any adequate pre paration to appear at his tribunal ; of your obligations to your great Deliverer ; and of the cold ingratitude towards him you have ever * Col. 3:10. t Eph. 4 : S3. \ Eph. 2:1. || John, 3:3. § Col. 1 : 27. T 2 Pet. 1 : 4.

OF SPIRITUAL CHANGE. evinced. With Peter, when he ''fell down at Jesus' knees," you, too, are compelled to ex claim : "lam a sinful man, O Lord."* This impression is rendered still more deep by the consciousness that you are without apology for your sins, but have persevered in them reck lessly and wickedly ; by the remembrance of the forbearance and mercy God has meantime exercised ; by a recollection of your exposure to eternal death ; and by the affecting view you now have of the love and compassion of Jesus. The whole truth, in all its fearfulness, at last fixes itself upon your soul. You men tally exclaim, I am indeed a miserable offender, depraved, criminal, obdurate, condemned ! How ungratefully have I turned away from Christ ! O, I have trampled profanely on his precious blood ! How stubbornly have I refused to hear those gracious invitations by which he has so often called me to life ! I have justly incurred, 0 God, thy infinite displeasure ; yet, if I might, 1 would implore thy mercy, through Jesus * Luk«, 5 : 8.

70 THE CROSS THK MEDtt'AI Christ. You are astonished that you never be fore fully perceived your criminality and dan ger. Conviction of .sin has now taken posses sion of your soul, and such conviction always accompanies a change of heart. Nor .is this all. With conviction comes re pentance of sin. It is not enough that you are conscious of oftensiveness. You loathe and forsake it. Of repentance I may remark, that it places the soul in the attitude of recollecting itself, and of reviewing its own dispositions and actions. It is " repentance towards God,"* because through its influence you turn to him. It is "repent ance unto life,"f because it leads directly to the possession of life, in all its spiritual excellency. It is sorrow for sin. It is the forsaking of sin. Consequently it is a reformation of life. The considerations by which it is produced, all cen tre in the cross. Take away the encourage ment derived thence, and all hope would be instantly crushed. Despair would take posses * Acts, 20: 91. t Acts, 11 : 18.

OF SPIRITUAL CHANGE. 7 I sion of your soul. Do you look to the mercy <>f God ? But what sustaining confidence can there be in his mercy, not derived from the revelation of his purpose to forgive sin ? No such purpose exists, but through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross, therefore, gives the only assurance, and it gives all the assurance, which repentance demands. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto him self."* It is the cross which effectually breaks the heart of the sinner. Your eyes are fixed immovably upon the cross. It is no longer the threatening of the law, nor the fear of punish ment, which excites your heart ; but a deep regret for your own depravity and sinfulness. The language of your soul is that of Job : O, Lord, " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Where fore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. "f Your unsanctified nature leads you continually astray. From this source flows a perpetual current of evil, which, unaided, you * 2 Cor. 5:19. t Job, 42 : 5, S.

72 THE CROSS THE MEDIUM cannot successfully resist. Your only hope is in the cross. With David, therefore, you pray : " Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord, according to thy loving kindness. According to the multi tude of thy tender mercies, blot out my trans gressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me."* Casting yourself thus upon God, however, is an act indicating yet another process of mind, which also invariably accompanies a change of heart ; it isfaith in our Lord Jesus Christ. " Without faith it is impossible to please him."f A failure to exercise faith, is in fact to call in question the veracity of God himself. '' He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar ; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son."J The exercise of faith is, on the other hand, always pleasing to our heavenly Father. When the Philippian jailor penitently and earnestly inquired, " What must •Pi. 51: 1-3. tEeb. 31:6. H John, 5:10.

OP SPIRITUAL CHANGE. 7o I do to be saved ?" Paul answered him, " Be lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved."* Faith is, therefore, eminently the instrumentality by which you receive Christ, and enjoy the blessings of his grace. By faith you come to Christ ; by faith you live in Christ, and by faith you walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Christ dwells in your heart by faith. By faith you give your cordial assent to the terms of par don ; gratefully approve his truth ; and gladly embrace Christ in his whole character. How distinguished, therefore, is the position occupied by faith in the great work of salvation ! And yet how simple is its nature ! As an exercise of the mind, faith is the same, whether it have reference to spiritual or temporal things. It is, in a word, the assent of the mind to the truth of a proposition. If you believe what is de clared, as to that particular declaration you have faith. And faith always takes the charac ter of its object. If the proposition is religious, *Aota, 16: 30,31.

74 THE CROSS THE MEDIUM your faith is religious. Faith 711 our Lord Je sus Christ is, therefore, a full assent of the mind, and a cheerful approval anil reception of God's declarations concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It is necessarily predicated, first, upon a competent knowledge, and second ly, upon a correct understanding, of what he has made known. It is very possible that, through various influences, you may not believe the truth announced. It is equally possible that you may believe that it is false. Into both these evils multitudes fall daily. In either case the results are. always more or less injurious. But he who does not know the truth, or know ing, does not rightly understand, it, necessarily fails of faith in Christ. As respects the means by which faith is brought into exercise, I re mark, that it may be commanded by the nature of the proposition itself; or it may be called forth by your confidence in the intelligence and veracity of its author ; or it may arise from the lorce of the testimony by which it is sustained. The faith is the same, whatever may be the means of its origination. It is not, therefore,

OF SPIRITUAL CHANCK. 15 you will percfivr. ;i series of religious actions, nor tin inward principle in tlic soul ; nor a dispositioji ol' (lie heart, irrespective of truth com municated ; hut a full reliance upon the cer tainty of all that God has declared, in his most holy word, concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. And such a faith is invariably attended with marked results You cannot believe that a man intends to do you harm, without a feel ing of indignation, and some preparation to guard against his designs; nor that he purposes to do you a kindness, without a sense of gratitude, and a determination suitably, if possible, to re quite his benevolence. And can you under stand and believe all that Christ Jesus did to deliver and save you, and not love him ? Can you love him, and not seek to honor and obey him ? These are consequences which arise as necessarily and inevitably from faith, as does the light of day from the presence of the sun in mid-heaven. These mental processes—conviction of sin, repentance, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ —always appear in the change of heart of

76 THE CROSS THE MEDIUM every penitent believer. They are never ab sent in a single instance. True religion is, therefore, a new " life which you live in the flesh,"* the opposite of the former in all its mor al developments. " If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold all things have become new."f Into every faculty of your soul is dif fused a new spiritual vitality. Your percep tions, your inclinations, your purposes, your de sires, your affections, are wholly changed. When you were under the influence of the flesh, all these powers of the soul were governed by worldly considerations. Now, they are moved by holy impulses. The difference between your spiritual condition formerly, and at present, is that precisely which distinguishes sin from ho liness ; the carnal mind from the spiritual mind; the love of the world, from the love of Christ. Such, briefly, I understand to be that great mor al change, wrought in your heart by the Holy Spirit, through the medium of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. •Gal. 2: SO. t a Cor. 5: 17.

OF SPIRITUAL CHANGE. 77 This change, I now observe, marks emphati cally the whole character of all those by whom it is experienced. " You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins ; wherein, in time past, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our con versation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were, by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ ; (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ; that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kind ness towards us, through Christ Jesus."* No longer are you a slave to the follies and vices of the world. Carnal desires and passions have *Eph.2: 1-7.

78 THE CROSS THE MEDIUM lost their mastery. Satan does not now, as for merly, rule in your members. Over them all, you have gained a glorious victory. You are not yet free 1'rom their annoyances, but you are not under their dominion. You have renounc ed them. You have cast them off. You tram ple them under your feet. " The peace of God rules in your heart."* Your constraining im pulse is " the love of Christ."f To him you have given yourself unreservedly, soul, and bo dy, and spirit. You cultivate sedulously an obedient will, an humble spirit, and holy affec tions. You delight to obey all his command ments and ordinances. Having " laid up for yourself treasures in heaven,"J your life is not devoted exclusively to the wealth, the honors, and the pleasures of this world, but to the glory of God, and to the happiness and salvation of men. Your " fellowship is truly with the Fa ther, and with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."|| How striking, therefore, is the change wrought through the cross, upon your whole character ! Truly with Paul, may you say, " I am crucified * Col. 3 : 15. 1 2 Cor. 5: 14. t Matt. « : 19, 20. || 1 John 1 : 3,

OF SPIRITUAL CHAN«E. 79 with Christ ; nevertheless, 1 live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."* This spiritual change produces also, a cor responding change in your destiny. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ?" And such you were. " But ye are washed ; but ye are sanc tified ; but ye are justified in the name of the Lord, and by the Spirit of our God."f " If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage, again to fear ; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, attd joint heirs with Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. "J * Gal. 2: 20. t 1 Cor. 6: 9-1J. t Rom. 8 : 13-17.

80 THE CROSS THE MEDIUM In such language does God himself describe the destiny to which he reserves his people. You were, originally, a sinner, miserable and condemned. Now you are a child of God, an expectant of all the glory and all the happi ness which heaven itself can bestow. You are, in one word, " kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be re vealed at the last time."* How glorious is that inheritance, " incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away"—which becomes yours through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! How wonderful the effects of the cross ! Es pecially is it the medium through which you receive that spiritual change necessary to fit you for heaven. In its presentation, we have considered your original disqualifications for eternal life, and particularly that which grows out of your innate depravity ; the process and nature of the change demanded, and especially those features which, as a work of the Holy Spirit, connect it with conviction of sin, repent * 1 Peter 1 : 5.

OF SPIRITUAL CHANGE. 81 ance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and which am never absent from the re generation of the soul ; and wo have seen the influenceof this change upon your character, and upon your destiny, as manifested in holy living, and associated, inseparably, with your immor tality and eternal life. You are thus saved with an everlasting salvation ! Who will ever be able fully to comprehend his indebtedness to the Redeemer ? The price he paid was infi nite. Infinite are the glories he confers. " Heaven's sovereign blessings clustering from th« cross, Rush on us in a throng, and close us round, The prisoners of amaze !"

CHAPTER V. THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HAS FIXED, IN EYERY SANCTIFIED HEART, AX INDELIBLE ABHORRENCE OF ALL SIN. Sin destroyed man's happiness ; filled the earlh with confusion ; introduced suffering of body and mind ; brings the body to the grave ; plunges man into eternal destruction ; nailed Christ to the cross. To THE sanctified heart, sin is loathsome in all its aspects. The deceitfulness of its cha racter, and the calamities it inflicts, render it always most hateful. It is offensive to God, and an enemy to all that is pure and exalted among men. In itself, therefore, and in all its bearings and relations, sin is degrading and re pugnant. It can be fully understood, however, only when contemplated from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thence, you comprehend all its malignity, and it becomes infinitely ab-

84 THE CROSS horrent. The cross reveals not only the bound less love and grace of God, the purity of his justice, and perfection of his holiness, but also, in a form not less impressive, the true nature of sin ; its abominable vileness, its detestable enormity. How great must have been his love for you, on the one hand ; and, on the other, how fearful the peril into which sin had plunged you ; that he found it necessary to " die, the just for the unjust, that he might bring you to God."* Sin is the moral mildew of the uni verse. It has diffused its poisonous venom into all that was fair and beautiful. It is the pro lific fountain from which flow the swollen streams of misery, and sorrow, and disease, and death. It cost man his innocence, his hap piness, his salvation ; and to restore them, cost the Saviour the shame and agony of the cross. Consider the evils which you, and all our race, have suffered from it, and you cannot but ex claim, " 0 cursed, cursed sin ! Traitor to God, And ruiner of man ! Author ot wo, And death, and hell !" * 1 Peter 3 : 18.

CREATES ABHORREXCE OF SIN. 85 Of what inestimable blessings did sin despoil our primal parents ! What unspeakable mise ries did it bring upon them ! They were exalted and happy in themselves. God had endowed them personally, with such powers of mind and body, and surrounded them with such possessions, and facilities for enjoy ment, that their bliss was complete. How sim ple, and how instructive, the narrative in which these facts are made known ! " God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them." " And God said, let them have domi nion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth."* The universe, with its hills and rivers, its plains and oceans, its flowery fields and starry skies, was their patrimony and dwelling place. How full was it of joy and beauty ? When, by the command of the *Gen. 1: 26-30.

86 THE CROSS Highest, it sprang into being, heaven itself be holding it, echoed with delight. " The Morn ing Stars sang together ; and all the Sons of God shouted for joy."* And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it WHS very good."f Who can fully conceive of the dig nity and glory with which the parents of our race were then invested ! Purity reigned in their heart. Wisdom sat enthroned on their brow. Angels were their companions. With the great God himself, their intercourse was unrestrained and free. O, why might not they and their descendants have remained forever thus exalted and happy ? The law under which they were created, and which was essential to their perfection, was most wise and beneficent. Of all exist ences, of whatever character, law is an insepa rable element. It is as essential in the natural, and moral, and spiritual world, as are form and impenetrability to matter around us. The law which belongs to it, is appropriate to that » Job 38: 7. tGen. 1 : 31.

CREATES ABHORRENCE OF SIN. 87 particular department of the universe which it governs. These facts impressively manifest the infinite wisdom, power and benevolence of the great Creator. Look, for example, upon the nature, the operation and design of those laws which govern the physical world. Which of them is not wise, benevolent, necessary T Which of them might be removed without ir reparable injury ? By their power alone, •' the sun ariseth. and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place whence he arose."* They di rect " the stars in their courses," and which vary from their orbits, -never. Their agency renders the divine declaration certain, that, " While the earth remaineth, seed time, and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. "f Not less beneficent and necessary, although of a wholly different character, are those laws which govern intellectual and moral nature. They enter largely into those sciences which occupy, so pleasantly, much of yotir reading * liccl. 1 : 5. tGen. 8: 22.

88 THE CROSS and reflection. Is not law also a necessity of man's spiritual nature ? Angels are exclu sively spiritual beings, and that they are go verned by law, is evinced by the melancholy fact, that some of them are offenders, which otherwise would be impossible, since " where there is no law, there is no transgression."* Even the great God himself is governed by law. So he has revealed himself to his creatures. This is the principle upon which are predica ted all the threatenings and all the promises of his most holy word. You can, indeed, no more conceive of an existence, without law to go vern it, than you can conceive of nonentity. Law is a necessity of man's spiritual nature. It is plain that, without it, there could have been no accountability, no virtue, no approba tion, no happiness. The voluntary character of the human mind (and without this, mind could not have been mind) rendered the violation of law possible. But does that fact argue defectiveness? Surely not. Such is the law of gravi * Romt4: 15.

CREATES ABHORRENCE OF SIN. ">•< tation, that if you throw yourself down from an eminence, you must be destroyed. Is gravita tion, on this account, the less important, neces sary or benevolent? The law under which man was created was, in every sense, perfect. The form of its practical obligation was su blimely simple. One ordinance only was im- / posed, and this was a bare negation. No posi tive action was demanded. A slight restraint only was required. In a personal interview with Adam, God, pointing to the rich and luxu rious abundance of the fruits around him, said, " Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."* How simple the injunction ! How stri kingly it manifests the benevolence of God ! Its simplicity, however, detracted, in no degree, from the infinite importance of obedience. Sim ple as it was, this law, as has before been shown, and this law only, guarded and preserved man's * Gen. 2 : 16, 17.

THE CROSS holiness, and consequently his happiness and his life, temporal, spiritual and eternal. Jeho vah fully warned him of sin and its conse quences. The tempter possessed no power to seduce him without his consent. His defection was, therefore, voluntary, uncompelled; and with a full knowledge that it must be followed by calamity and death. Into the system of the universe, its great Au thor introduced no evil. All his works were perfect. If evil was possible, he provided all the means necessary for its prevention. In the government of man as a moral agent, omnipo tence was neither the measure nor the rule of the divine conduct. By the interposition of power, sin might have been excluded ; but, in that case, so would have been all virtue. If blame had been impossible, there could have been no praise. Man would, in a word, Imve been no longer man. He was liable to fall, yet fully able to stand. He could have maintained forever his integrity. God created him thus holy, and endowed him with powers little lower than those of angels ; placed him under au-

CREATES ABHORRENCE OF SIN. 91 spices most benevolent ; provided for him every safeguard ; poured upon him every benediction. The melancholy narrative of his temptation and. .fall, need not be recounted. He sinned ; sinned knowingly ; sinned of his own free will and accord ; sinned against infinite goodness and benevolence ! How great the blessings thus forfeited and lost ! How appaling the miseries which sprung up around him. Joy, and hap piness, and life, were destroyed ; and he was driven from Paradise, the prey of wretchedness, sorrow, disappointment, disease and death. " Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of won, That all was lost." But the consequences ot sin did not termi nate with our first parents. They have trans mitted them, chiefly through the medium of de pravity, which adhered to them. and of which all men are partakers, to their whole race. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,

92 THE CROSS for that all have sinned."* " All flesh have corrupted their way upon the earth."f Thus, the deep and withering curse has spread through all nations. To man, immediately af ter the fall, " the Lord God said : Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns, also, and thistles, shalt it bring forth unto thee." " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou shalt return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."J Under the same sentence have fallen all their posterity. How multitu dinous the forms in which that curse prevails. The hearts of men are filled with the vilest passions, for the gratification of which, there is no enormity they will not sometimes com mit. Measures are necessary, in every social organization, such as your courts of justice, your jails, and your penitentiaries, to restrain vice and to punish crimes. Discords, strifes, hatred and violence, agitate alike, communities *Rom.P:lS. t Gen. 6:12. t Gen. 3: 17-19.

CREATES ABHORRENCE OF SIN. 93 and nations. The history of the world is little less than a record of warfare, rapine and blood. Revenge, injustice, cruelty and murder, stalk abroad at noon-day. The whole universe has ever been, since the fall, one extended scene of suffering, and sorrow, and tears. These are some of the miseries brought upon our first pa rents, and which have been entailed upon all their unhappy descendants. Who can contem plate them intelligently, and not feel for sin an utter abhorrence ? Your heart sickens at the sight, and you exclaim with David : O Lord, " what is man, that thou art mindful of him ; or the son of man, that thou visitest him ?"* But the curse of sin assumes yet another form, which to you personally, since it affects both your body and your mind, is still more fearful. By its influence, your bodily powers are so disposed and enfeebled, that they are af fected by cold and by heat ; by the air you breathe, and by your necessary food ; by the rains and the dews of heaven ; by exhalations from the earth and from the waters ; and by *P«alms8: 4.

94 THE CROSS a thousand other causes, which bring upon you pain, and debility, and decay. Your physical organization is worn out by the toil necessary to procure your daily subsistence ; crushed by the accidents which are constantly occurring, and which often bring with them the most me lancholy consequences ; prostrated by diseases of various names, which assail you by night and by day, and which so soon hurry you whence you are no more seen. Thus, sin preys upon your body. Sin also fills your mind with overwhelming distresses. So connected are your mental with your physical powers, that the one cannot suffer without involving the other. Anxieties and fears, disappointments and re grets, forebodings and apprehensions, crowd your footsteps like spectres, throughout your whole life. You are suffering from the moment of your birth, to the hour when your agonized soul is torn away from its frail tenement of clay, and passes into the unseen world. Is it possible you can know all this, and not abhor sin? Another, and still more frightful form of the same dread penalty, is death. The death of the

CREATES ABHORRENCE OF SIN. 95 body, how fearful, how full of horror ! Who does not shrink back appalled from its ap proach ! And yet it is not the pain of dissolu tion, nor the fearful ness of the grave alone, that so fills you with dismay. Ah ! there are ties that bind you to this world, the severance of which will cost you deeper pangs than the extinction of life. The honors which your ambition has achieved ; the gold your toil and self-denial have gathered ; the friends who have endeared themselves to your heart ; the loved ones who cling about your bosom at the domestic hearth ; how strongly they all have entwined themselves into the very ligaments of your being ! The agony with which you sunder them, no word can ever adequately ex press. But death tears them all away, and leaves you naked and alone, to go through the dark valley. Nor is this all. How attractive this beautiful world ! How repulsive the cold, silent tomb ! Who does not shrink from Death's dark oblivion ? Ah, Who to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned, Loft the warm precincta of the cheerful day, Nor caitone longing, lingering look behind V

96 THE CROSS But you must close your eyes forever, upon the light of the sun ; you must look no more upon the green fields and the starry skies ; you must go down to the grave ; you must moulder there amid its putrescence, its decay, its crawl ing worms ! Horrible doom, to which sin has consigned you ! How fearfully it speaks the curse. How emphatically it tells of bitterness, and sorrow, and tears ! But the most dreadful of all the results of sin, remains yet to bo considered. It is found be yond the grave. In eternity, the curse is infi nitely more deep, and dark, and withering. He who goes hence untouched by the cross, finds the sufferings of this world but the prelude to other and more inexpressible horrors. " There are groans that end not, and sighs That always sigh, and tears that ever weep, And ever fall, but not in Mercy's sight !" O, the miseries of the damned are hopeless. "Their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched."* The wailings of the lost sound * Mark 9 : 48.

CREATES ABHORRENCE OF SIN. 97 ing in your ears, you will be able to understand more fully the meaning of that inspired decla ration, " The wages of sin is death."* " This is the second death."f Its connection with the first is immediate. It is its consummation and its recompense. It is the completion of the death threatened by the law. It is the contrast of the life promised in the gospel. By the one, you are prepared more clearly to comprehend the other. If the life you derive from the se cond Adam is eternal, so the death you derive from the first Adam is eternal. It is not anni hilation. You do not cease to be. It is a " liv ing death." It is a death which " casts both soul and body into hell."J By its power, you are lost beyond remedy. You are separated from all good, and tossed interminably, upon the billows of dark damnation ! These are some of the reasons why sin should be abhorrent to every human mind. It brought upon our primal parents, unspeakable calamities ; if. has filled all nations with dis * Rom. 6: 33. tRev. 2:11. t Matt. 10: 28. 7

THE CROSS cord, anarchy and blood ; it has overwhelmed your physical nature with disease and pain, and your rninds with distress and sorrow ; it brings down the body to the grave, and tears from you all that you love upon the earth ; and after death, it destroys forever, " both soul and body in heli." If man ever had an enemy of unappeasable malignity, that enemy is sin. Without respect to any thing Christ has done, sin, in itself, is odious enough to disgust all hearts. Is it not, therefore, amazing that there are so many who still love sin ; revel in its pur suit; and cannot be turned aside from it, even by all the love and kindness of God himself? Like the trembling inebriate, who cannot resist the seductions of the wine-cup, they grasp the poisoned chalice, draining its fiery contents to the bottom, and expire. Alas, Satan has clothed the syrens, whom he employs to tempt mankind, in meretricious trappings, and thus masked, they appear beautiful. Their song charms your senses, and unbalances your reason. O, be not thus deceived ! Their presence is con tagion. Their embrace is deathi

CREATES ABHORRENCE OP SIN. 99 The cross, however, at once despoils sin of all its attractions, and implants for it, in every sanctified heart, a.n utter abhorrence. It gives you light on the whole subject. Now sin ap pears to you in its true character. You see its malignity. You long to escape from its power. But how can you escape ? Only by the cross. No other means are adequate for your deliver ance. Messiah, in his infinite grace, was pleased to endure the cross, " that through death, he might deliver them who, through fear of death, were, all their life-time, subject to bondage."* Thus, " our Saviour, Jesus Christ, hath abolished death, and brought life and im mortality to light, through the gospel."f His object was to wrest you from the curse, and elevate you to glory- He came in accordance with previous promise and prophecy. From that hour when his gracious annunciation broke the gloom which had settled down upon the beauties of Eden, until the moment when ce lestial choirs poured upon the ears of the as- • * Heb. 2 . 14, 15. f 2 Tim. 1 : 10.

100 THE CROSS tonished shepherds the new song of deliver ance, God was preparing the world for his ad vent. He was " made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."* Upon him, " for your sake," wrath was poured to the uttermost. It was your sin that overwhelmed his soul in Gethsemane ; that bowed his blessed head before the bar of Pi late : that drove the nails through his hands and his feet, and the spear into his side ; and that wrung from his bursting heart that death groan which shook the universe to its centre. Thus, he saves you. And your earthly deliver ance is only a preliminary measure for the bestowment upon you, in heaven, of immortal glory. Were your sins laid upon him ? Was it on this account he suffered ? Are you now sensible of this great truth ? You see, then, as you never saw before, the hatefulness of sin. You love Christ. Your soul overflows with gratitude. Your eyes are fully open. You dream no *Gal. 4: 4,6.

CREATES ABHORRENCE OF SIN. 101 longer. Your delusions are removed. The Spirit dwells in your bosom. Sin, in all its forms, developments and associations, stands before you in its own deformity. You despise it. You trample upon it with loathing. Thus, has the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ fixed, in every sanctified heart, an indelible abhorrence of all sin.

CHAPTER VI. FROM THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JBSUS CHRIST FLOW, TO THE UNIVERSE, GREAT AND PERPETUAL BLESSINQi. Th« cross gives blessings, physical, social, moral, intellectual, political, spiritual. THROUGH Jesus Christ our Lord, " God giveth us richly all things to enjoy."* " He died for all."f " In him we live, and move, and have our being."J Prom his cross flow, to all men, perpetual and unspeakable blessings, of every class and character. Not spiritual blessings only, but "life, and breath, and all things."|| The cross is the only melioration of our ruined world ; its only hope. Unvisited by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, how like an Aceldama would have been our whole universe ! In what * 1 Tim. 6: 17. t 2 Cor. 5: 17. tA«ts, 17: 28. [] Acts, 17: 25.

104 THE CROSS respects would it have been different from the dwelling place of the lost ? Their habitation is full of horrors and despair, mainly because sin has full sway, and reigns among them un checked and supreme. Depravity pervades all natures, and controls all dispositions, affections and actions. Having rejected the redemption of Christ, they are now forever beyond the cir cle of its influence. Men and devils, in those cursed regions, are abandoned to the corrup tions they have loved and practiced. What they have wickedly made themselves, they are permitted to remain interminably. Hope never visits them. No ray of joy penetrates their gloom. Similar must have been the condition of men upon the earth, but for the cross of our adorable Redeemer. It stands a beacon light in the midst of the dark and stormy ocean of life, and gives to its voyagers the happy assu rance that they are not abandoned nor for saken. How many, and how ?reat, are the benefits which, even in this wot ! I, flow to all men from the cross! Apart from its life-giving power, how

BLESSES THE WORLD. 105 numerous and how ennobling the influences it diffuses through society in all its ramifications ! Not only does it open, to all believers, the gates of glory, and confer upon them eternal joy in heaven, but it bestows, in this world, the great est blessings, physical, and social, and moral, and intellectual, and political. Everywhere its power is plainly seen, refining, and elevating, and ennobling, even those who reject its sanc tifying grace. And can it, with truth, be affirmed, that the blessings of the cross extend even to the physi cal condition of men '! Are the irreligious masses in Christian coun tries, physically exalted by the cross ? How is such a result possible ? To be convinced of its reality, you have only to cast your eyes over the nations, and calmly to compare the condi tion of the people in Christian, with those in heathen lands. Why do security, and pros perity, and comfort, and all the amenities of life, abound in the one, and uncertainty, and oppression, and poverty, and distrust, prevail in the other ? These consequences cannot be

106 THE CROSS attributed to any peculiarities of climate, con geniality, or other causes belonging to the regions they respectively inhabit, since their countries are as fertile, as salubrious and as inspiring as yours. Indeed, heathendom occu pies many of the fairest portions of the earth. Nature has lavished upon them her richest gifts. Their skies are bright ; their mountains are majestic ; their rivers and streams abound in number and beauty ; their forests are luxu riant ; and their plains and hills smile with verdure. But, amidst all these resplendent scenes, prowl degraded men, dark with super stition and ignorance ; fiendish in their disposi tions; steeped in cruelty ; "hateful, and hating one another."* Nor can the difference in ques tion be accounted for, on the supposition that those nations are peopled by naturally inferior races. Not a few individuals among them, as history truly testifies, have evinced genius of a high order, in science, in literature, and in all the arts of life. Their original capabilities * Tit. 8 : 8.

BLESSES THE WORLD. 107 cannot be questioned. Why, then, are the}', physically, so depressed, in comparison with the inhabitants of Christian lands? It can be at tributed only to the eros> of Christ, which beams upon you, and from the. light of which they have been excluded. The same contrast is also observable in man's social condition. " Beyond the boundaries of Christendom, on every side, ' the dark places of the earth arc tilled with the habitations of cruelly.'* We have mourned over the savage ferocity of the Indians of our western wilderness. We have turned to Africa, and seen almost the whole continent a prey to lawless banditti, or else bowing down in the most revolting idolatry. We have descended along the coast, and beheld villages burnt or depopulated ; fields laid waste ; and her people who have escaped de struction, naked and famishing, flee to their forests at the sight of a stranger. We have asked : What fearful visitation from heaven * Ft. 74 : SO.

108 THE CEOS* has laid these settlements in ruins ? What de stroying pestilence has swept over this land, consigning to oblivion almost its entire popula tion 1 What mean the smoking ruins of so many habitations ? Why is yon fresh sod crimson and slippery with recent murder ? We have turned to Asia, .and beheld how the demon of her idolatry has worse than debased, has brutalized, the minds of men. Everywhere his despotism has been grievous. Here, with merciless tyranny, he has exulted in the misery of his victims. He has rent from the human heart all that was endearing in the charities of life. He has taught the mother to tear away the infant as it smiled in her bosom, and cast it a shrieking prey to contending crocodiles. He has taught the son to light the funeral pile, and to witness, unmoved, the dying agonies of a widowed mother."* And this is the social condition of heathen nations ! Compare it with your own. Your villages smile in happy concord and security. Your scattered popula

BLESSES THE WORLD. 109 tion penetrate, fearlessly, the depths of the for est, and expect to find, in the face of every stranger, the welcome smile of a brother. " Who has made you to differ ? " " Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you."* Thousands have joyfully embraced his love, and trusted in his redemption. The reflex influence of his religion has gone abroad. It has penetrated into all the recesses of society. From them are absent all these holy and eleva ting considerations. Man was formed for soci ety. His nature demands it. But without the cross, he makes it always a curse : a scene of vvretchedness and suffering. The blessings in morals conferred by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, are still more marked and impressive than they are in physical and social life. True morals, in the absence of the cross, never have been, they never can be, sustained. Debase religion, as, for example, Italy and Spain have done, and morals manifest a like deterio- *Gal. 3: 1.

110 THE CROSS\ ration. How, then, can morals be supported under the degrading influence o!' heathenism? These truths are demonstrated by the whole history of the human race. " The ancient classic nations," as they have been called, pre sent the most favorable aspect which heathen ism has ever manifested. Their morals inspi ration has graphically described. I shall not now hold up that picture before you. Paul thus closes the revolting detail : " Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, maliciousness ; full of envy, mur der, debate, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God : deceitful, proud, boasters, inventers of evil things ; disobedient to parents ; without understanding ; covenant breakers ; without natural affection; implacable; un merciful."* And is this a true portrait of the morale of those ancient nations whose philoso- * Rom. 1 : 21-32.

BLESSES THE WORLD. Ill phy, learning, eloquence, wealth, skill, aud prowess, have been the admiration of all suc ceeding ages ? Study, carefully, their history and character, and you can no longer doubt. Justly is it testified of them, that " the ma jority even of the greatest minds in Rome, and Greece, portions of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, the most civilized portions of the ancient world, were followers of a sensual material ism," to which they fully conformed in their manners and intercourse. " The superior or ders of society were distinguished only by an intenser corruption. Rome, especially, was ever relentless and cruel, as is seen, for example, in her gladiatorial exhibitions, of which even her women were passionately fond. These grew, perpetually, more and more bloody. Whole hecatombs of men were often sacri- H ficed under the eyes of pleasure-loving throngs, merely to heighten their gratification. The young patrician beauty, languishing on purple couches, ' by a sign of her jewelled finger,' condemned the poor gladiator to die, for no

112 THE CROSS reason but to amuse herself with a sight of his expiring agonies."* Yes— " / see before me, the gladiator lie ! He leans upon his hand. His manly brow' Consents to death, but conquers agony. And his droop'd head sinks gradually low, As through his side the last drops, ebbing slow From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one, Like the first of a thunder shower. And now The arena swims around him. He is gone, Ere ceas'd th' inhuman shout that hail'd the wretch who won. He heard it, but he heeded not. His eyes Were with his heart, and that was far awa)-. He recked not of the life he lost, nor prize : But his rude hut that by the Danube lay, There were his young barbarians, all at play ; There was their Dacian mother ; he, their sire, Butchered to make a Roman holyday." The banquets of the wealthy were scenes of debauchery. Their poets and orators were as depraved as were their warriors and statesmen. Lucretius and Horace were notoriously licen * Christ in History, ch. 7.

BLESSES THE WORLD. 113 tious. Virgil, who sung like an angel, had no moral character. Lucian, among the Greeks, and Persius and Juvenal, among the Latins, sneer and jest at all sacred things. Writers of every class treated, in detail, the most detest able affections, as things of daily occurrence, alike among the vulgar and the refined. The temples themselves were places of pollution and dishonor.* Individual instances of excep tion, of rather rare occurrence, to this preva lent corruption, are found like oases in a desert. But the full moral enormity of the masses, we dare not describe, because, as Paul so truly de clares, "It is a shame to speak of those things which are done of them in secret."f All this, and more, characterized the morals of the best portions of the heathen world. What, then, must have been the degradation of those na tions which were beyond the circles of their refinements ? What they are, at this hour, we have already seen, in our survey, just submitted, of their physical and social condition. Nor * Christ in History, ch. 7. t Eph. 5 : 12. 8

1 14 THE OROPS> were they without instruction on this subject. Turn to the monuments yet remaining, of Gre cian and Roman learning, and you will per ceive that on none of the sciences did they write more profoundly than on morals. But how slight the practical advantages which they gained. The Grove, the Portico and the Academy, resounded with scholastic discussions, but the tide of popular corruption swept on unimpeded. "Attempts at reform were spider's webs in the path of Leviathan ; straws to stem the current of the ocean." The cross is the only effectual teacher of morals. Here lies the secret of your superiority to the cultivated nations of antiquity. " Egypt, Greece and Rome Drew from the streams below. More favored, we Drink when we choose it, from the fountain head. To them it flowed much mingled, and defiled With hurtful error, prejudice, and dreams Illusive of philosophy, so called, But falsely. Sages after sages, strove In vain, to filter off a crystal draught Pure from the lees, which often more enhanosd Intoxication and delirium wild."

BLESSES THE WORLD. 115 These "sages" were, themselves, living de monstrations of the practical inefficiency of their own doctrines. Personally, few of them were less unjust, licentious and cruel, than the masses of men around them. Inspiration pro nounces their "philosophy," "vain deceit."* And so it ever proves itself. The lessons of the cross, unlike theirs, are not a mere hypothesis, beautiful in theory, but absent from the life. Every word of God is a present, operative and living reality. His holy truth is written indeli bly, by the Spirit, in man's inner nature. In this consists the mystery of its power. The morals of the cross necessarily extend them selves into all your pursuits, your relations, and your associations. Brotherhood, kindness, be nevolence, courtesy, sympathy, justice, honor, all that is exalted and pure, are inculcated, and diffuse themselves wherever pure religion prevails. " Talk ye of morals < O thou bleeding Lov* ! The grand morality is lova of thee." * Col. 9 : 8.

116 THE CROSS The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the source of many and extraordinary intellectual blessings. The connection between knowledge and re ligion, is intimate and indissoluble. Learning is not always confined to religion. It contains within itself ample inducements for its ardent pursuit. To revel in the fields of science, art and literature, affords, to an ingenuous mind, a delight purer and more lofty than any other that earth can give. Learning also places its possessor on high ground, in relation to the other pursuits and acquisitions of life. It gives him an enviable social position ; it enables him to accumulate wealth with a much more ready facility ; and it clothes him with that power over others which all men so earnestly covet. The idolatrous, Pagan and Moham medan world have, therefore, not been want ing in instances of great intellectual acquire ments. Their poets, philosophers and orators, have never been surpassed. In Christian lands, also, great attainments have been made, both by the enemies of the cross and the advocate!

BLESSES THE WORLD. 117 of spurious religion. Intellectual greatness is not, therefore, necessarily an emanation of the cross. And yet learning is called forth by reli gion to a greater extent, and of a more exalted character, than by any other power. How many of the best scholars ever known in any age or country, have been stimulated by the cross to all their attainments ! Multitudes have toiled, day and night, and year after year, ani mated not only by the desire of knowledge for its own sake, but also by the hope of making it the means of increased usefulness in the cause of truth and salvation. And still more, the religion of Christ seeks knowledge for the masses of the people, as earnestly as for itself, and invariably with an ardor and perseverance proportioned to its purity and gospel character. Those communities and nations, therefore, other things being equal, that are the most eminently Christian, are always the most en lightened and cultivated. Who does not know that most of our colleges, and other schools. male and female, and especially those that have been distinguished for great abilities and

1 18 THE CROSS usefulness, have been originated and sustained by the churches and people of Christ ? They were brought into being, and have been made what they are, by the influence of the cross of Christ. So it has ever been, in all ages and in every country. The cross carries with it, wherever it extends itself, learning and knowl edge, not for a few only, but for the multitude. Nor will its mission be accomplished until, with a liberal hand, exalted and sanctified intelli gence shall be fully diffused among all people. Innumerable political blessings also flow to the nations, from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Its elevating power is seen no less distinctly in its influence upon nations, than upon indi viduals. In most countries, religion has been placed in a false and degrading attitude. It has, in some one of its sectarian 1'orms, Popish or Protestant, been incorporated and established as the religion of the state, and thus despoiled of both its glory and its power. Of none of these corrupt caricatures do I now speak, but of that free and holy energy of the gospel.

BLESSES THE WORLD. 119 which enlightens public opinion, and diffuses those salutary moral influences, essential alike to the creation and preservation of a happy po litical government. Why have so many despotisms been permit ted to rise, and curse the earth for ages ? Be cause, I answer, the intelligence and moral principle of the people were insufficient suc cessfully to resist them. Had the pure religion of the cross prevailed among them, as it does among us, they would have been impossible. It is, therefore, mainly the absence of true reli gion, which binds one nation in the chains of tyranny ; covers another with the horrors of anarchy ; kindles, in a third, the flames of civil war ; and pours out, in a fourth, the blood of multiplied thousands, a sacrifice to ambition, and the lust of place :i:id power. The cross, therefore, is the only safe-guard of the people against the political encroachments of the pow erful and the great. And has a nation been so fortunate as to have secured a wise and just government ? How is it to be preserved and maintained? The best and purest of which

120 THE CROSS men are capable, are always subjected to pres sures from various quarters, which constantly threaten their overthrow. Politicians have sagely told us that " perpetual vigilance is the price of liberty." Among an ignorant and vi cious population, how can liberty be preserved ? How impotent are laws, no matter how just and necessary, for the public good ! They can not be executed; and confusion, and turmoil, and injury, must always reign. Public opinion must be enlightened, and it must be guided by salutary moral influences, if free government is created. And when such government is secured, they must still prevail, in order that it may be preserved and main tained. Politically, therefore, enlightened public opinion and high moral principle are primary necessities. These, however, are, as we have seen, without the cross, wholly impracticable. In the cross, therefore, you find the secret spring which is perpetually sending forth the streams which enlighten the mind, which purify and strengthen the morals, which elevate society, which establish just and free governments, and

BLESSEi THE WORLD. 121 which give to law and order their necessary power and majesty. To the cross must we, as American citizens especially, look for light to guide our legislators ; to sustain our general government ; to preserve the equilibrium of our states ; to secure our internal peace ; and unite us all together as one great family. Thus only shall we escape ignorance, irreligion and fanaticism, those fruitful curses of so many of the nations around us. Without the cross, none can ever be really free and happy. These are some of the distinguished blessings conferred upon the world by the cross of Christ. It blesses its inhabitants in their physical con dition ; it elevates their social character ; it purifies and exalts their morals ; it enlightens and expands their intellect ; and it gives them free political governments and just laws, equita bly and impartially administered. All this it confers upon men, irrespective of its sanctifying and saving power. If, then, you sought only the temporal good of man, you would earnestly strive to extend pure religion over the whole

122 THE CROSS earth. It is inseparable, in the present life, from a high state of prosperity and happiness. In an infinitely higher and holier sense, how ever, than any of these, does the cross of Christ bless the nations of the earth. That eternal life has ever been even offered to any man, is a boon purchased by the blood of Christ. You may despise and reject it, but it cost him none the less on that account. But all men will not reject it. The churches of Christ are charged with the universal dissemi nation of the gospel. They are now, thank God, waking up to their duty. They are send ing forth their sacred heralds into' all lands. The knowledge of the cross is rapidly extend ing. Churches are springing up in every val ley, and upon every hill and plain of our round earth. Their beacon fires are driving back the darkness which has so long rested, like a pall, upon our ruined world. The cross will at length achieve the conver sion of all nations. For this consummation we have the pledge of Jehovah himself. He has

BLESSES THE WORLD. 123 said : " From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall he great among the Gentiles; and in every place in cense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oifering ; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the. Lord of hosts."* " All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn to the Lord ; and all the kindreds of the earth shall worship before him."f Yes, assuredly, " One song shall employ all nations, and all cry, Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us." Then shall " the New Jerusalem come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."J Wars shall cease ; discord be hushed forever ; love universally prevail ; and the light, and glory, and joy of the millennium, rest, in all their beauty, upon the whole ea^rth. * Mai. 1:11. tPs. 22:27. t Rev. 31 : 2.

CHAPTER VII. THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JE6UB CHRIST IS THE ONLT POW ER THAT WILL EFFECTUALLY MOVE THE SOUL TO HOLT ACTION. Obduracy of the heart ; how conquered by the crois ; it» atoning power ; spirit it inspires. How obdurate is man's sinful heart ! How firm the grasp with which he clings to this pol luted world ! How unwilling to entertain the demands of the gospel ! How conclusive, and, at the same time, how instructive the testimo ny, that " the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only power that will effectually move the soul to holy action .'" Are you still a sinner—" without hope, and without God in the world ?" You do not occu py this dangerous attitude because no efforts have been made for your salvation. We saw, in the last chapter, the impotency of reason

126 THE CROSS and of the teachings of philosophy, to turn man from sin. Upon these, however, we do not re ly. You have had, also, the rich and full in structions of the word of God. But thus far, alas ! they have failed to bring you to Christ. What power can extirpate your depraved pre ferences and passions ? You are far from being ignorant of the demoralizing influences of transgression. You are aware of the injury it inflicts upon your happiness, your honor, upon all your highest interests, in this world and in the next. But your convictions are met and neutralized by an opposite power. "The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life,"* solicit, and you cannot resist their im portunities. Like the young man who came to the Saviour to learn what he must do to obtain everlasting life.f you, perchance, have been " very sorrowful," when you have found that you must renounce all these, if you would " in herit the kingdom of heaven ;" and here your anxieties have ended. Meantime, you have *M»rk4: 19. tLnkolS: S3.

MOVES THE SOUL. 127 continued to follow the promptings of your car nal heart ! Appeals have been ma<le to your fears. The terrors of the law have been held up before you. Its justice, its severity, the certainty that you are now laboring under its condemnation, and that you must ere long suffer its fearful penalty, have been pressed upon your attention. You have been carried even to the very border of the pit, and have seen the miserable beings who walk in those " Caves of hopeless depth, Through all that dungeon of unfading fire, Burning continually, yet unconsumed ; Forever wasting, yet enduring still." Nor have you been wholly indifferent to these fearful considerations. For the moment you have been filled with alarm. Your soul has, perhaps, been shaken as with an earthquake. But you have been like " the man who beholds his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway

128 THE CROSi forgetteth what manner of man he was."* Mingling in the duties and pleasures of life, you have ceased to remember your danger. You have not repented of sin. You have not turned to God. You have not surrendered your heart to Christ ! The allurements of heaven have been portray ed before you, in the hope that you might thus be enticed from sin, and won to the Saviour. You have been pointed to those scenes whence all sorrow has fled ; where pain, and disquiet, and death, have been forgotten ; and where the glorified wear the image, and rejoice in the presence and smiles, of the Redeemer forever. The only effect has been to excite your imagi nation, which has soared in those bright fields, and you have revelled in their beauties as un der the inspirations of poetry ! All has termi nated, " as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an in strument.'^ Neither the injuries you suffer from sin, nor the threatenings of the law, nor * Jamei 1 : 33, 24. t Eiek. 33 : 38.

MOVES THE SOUL. 129 the danger of everlasting destruction, nor the glories of heaven, have had power sufficient to move you to penitence and love ! How can you repent ? How can you be a Christian ? What, you renounce the world ! What, you be " crucified to the world !" You give up all the joys and pleasures of the world ! Alas ! " you carry with you a thousand appetites, a thousand passions, a thousand propensities, which all plead for gratification. Around you are thick ly scattered, from the cradle to the grave, ob jects most seductive ; solicitations most refined and delicate." These drive all religious desires from your mind, and impress upon your heart " a death-like indifference. You are buried in the deep lethargy of nature. You are sepul chred in the senses." You are paralyzed by your contact with the earth ! Truly has it been said, " there is no flesh in man's obdurate heart." Is there, on earth or in heaven, any power by which you can be moved ? Upon one only, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, may we rely—it is the cross of our blessed Redeemer. 9

130 THE CROSS That is our only hope ; our last recourse. Will it be effectual ? We know that it is God's ap pointed method to this end. " Christ crucified," is the "power of God, and the wisdom of God."* It cannot, therefore, be wholly useless. How ever callous you may have been, there is an energy in the cross, which you must acknow ledge. You may have a heart of stone ; you may even glory in your obduracy ; but you must be moved by the potency of the cross. The most terrifying denunciations may have passed by you unheeded. You may have been inaccessible to the most touching remon strances. You may be proof against every other appeal. The cross penetrates your soul, and stirs the deep fountain within you. I will con fess that even this you may, at length, drive from you. You may resist the holy feeling it in spires. You may quench all its love, and be lost at last. But, in such a case, you will go down to death with recollections more bitter than the grave. If the cross fails to win you * 1 Cor. 1 : 22, 23.

MOVES THE SOUL. 131 to Christ, there is no hope. Your damnation is sealed. But, thanks be to God, " whatever the intellect of man, there is an argument in the cross to convince him ; whatever his heedlessness, there is an energy in the cross to arouse him ; whatever his guilt, there is in the cross a magnet to draw, a magic to change, a mastery to save him."* " A distinguished missionary," says Dr. Ful ler, " was sent among the Indians ; and he preached with all his earnestness, of God, his power, his grandeur and his glory. But they turned away and derided him. Why, they had heard far nobler sermons on these subjects, than man could utter. They had sat down by day, amid the wild pomp of their mountains, and the sublime silence of their forests ; and at night they had looked up at the pavement of unfading fire above their head. They had listened to the rushing of the cataract, ' deep calling unto deep'—and the music of the tem pest, and the cry of the hurricane. Before * R. Fuller, of whose thoughts, and, sometimes, language, I hav« in thia chapter freely availed myself.

132 THE CROSS their eyes the lightning's fiery flood had rifted the sturdy oak ; and hoarse and strong had thundered on beneath them, the might of the earthquake. They had heard these preach : and they preached of God, in tones which mock ed the puny articulations of human eloquence. And now had the white man come to tell them that there is a God, and that this God is great, and powerful, and glorious !" " They spurned him in hardness and derision. Baffled in his first effort, the missionary changed in his ad dress, and proclaimed a crucified Jesus. He opened his Bible and read to them those words: ' God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' ' God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' Now he did not preach in vain. The gaze of his audience was at once fastened. They were astonished at the doctrine, and their hearts were touched. As the speaker went on with the ' faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation ;' as he led them to the scene of the Saviour's humiliation and sorrows—from

MOVES THE SOUL. 188 the manger to the garden, and from the garden to the judgment hall—smothered sobs began to be heard. At last, when he brought them to the cross, and showed them, nailed there, the abused and suffering Son of God, and said, ' All this for you ! these tears, these groans, this blood, for you !' these poor savages could refrain no longer. They had stood all else, but they could not stand this. They exclaimed, ' Is this true? Is this true?' And they lifted up their voices and wept aloud."* Thus it is ever. Your heart feels as did theirs. Every other appeal may be vain. Without this, it will be vain. In the cross there is a power that can, that will, effectually move the soul to holy action. It will, it must, when properly comprehended and appreciated, melt every sentiment of the bosom into penitence and love. Your first emotion, when you have thus un derstood and embraced the cross, is, perhaps, a joyful astonishment to perceive the character and extent of divine grace. You recognise in *Powcr of the Cross, pp. 23-25.

134 THE CROSS Christ your great substitute, and in his life and death a perfect satisfaction for all your sins. No longer do you imagine that you have in him only an example for your imitation—merely an instance of high resolves, and of the perseve rance with which exalted virtue will pursue the obligations of truth and duty. We know that " he gave us an example, that we should fol low his steps."* But this is not all he did. To receive this truth, and exclude the others with which it is associated, is to sever from the cross the merits of his atonement, and thus to de grade the character of the Saviour's mission, and rob it of all its higher glories. A ministry which does not preach a vicarious atonement, is destitute of all spiritual vitality. The doc trines it inculcates are as cheerless as would be " a world in which was hushed the music of the groves, the cadences of murmuring streams, and the dulcet sounds of love and friendship." He did more for you than merely to give an ex alted example. He gave his life for your life. * 1 Peter 3: 21.

MOvES THE SOUL. 135 Because he died, you live. These were the great truths which filled and animated the heart of Paul, when he exclaimed—and every syllable finds a perfect response in your own bosom— " O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !"* Another emotion which takes full possession of your soul, while you thus contemplate the cross, is ardent love to the Redeemer. A philo sopher who beheld him only in his inapproacha ble majesty, has said, " It is impossible to love God." A Christian, who sees him " in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," responds : " It is impossible not to love God." " He sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." "We love him, because he first loved us."f O, who can withhold his love ? Let a man have * Rom. 11 : 33. t 1 John 4 : 9, 10-19.

]3t> THE CROSS a heart that beats, and a soul that feels ; endow him with the sensibilities of humanity ; and then lead him to that cross, and show him that holy sufferer, as he agonizes under the load of guilt laid upon. him, and he must exclaim— " I yield, I yield, I can hold out no more ; I tink, by dying lova compelled, And own thee conqueror." Now, as never before, you comprehend the magnitude and importance of eternal things. What is the world ? What are all its riches, and pleasures, and honors? Christ and salva tion absorb your whole thoughts. You look forward to heaven with the more delight, be cause he is there, and you will dwell with him forever. Sin ! How contemptible. It is your perfect scorn. It may, indeed, be decorated with gold and purple. And so is the wily ser pent, " That glitters only to betray To death, or else to misery."

MOVES THE SOUL. 137 You admire and /ot>e holiness, because it is the most striking characteristic of your Sa viour ; more than any thing else assimilates you to him ; renders you pleasing in his sight ; and is inseparably connected with your happi ness in this world, and in the world to come. An irrepressible desire arises in your heart to glorify him upon the earth. You will, there fore, sustained by the grace of God, and di rected by his most holy word, obey all his com mandments and ordinances ; benefit, as far as you have opportunity, all men ; and by " every good word and work," earnestly seek to please and honor him. Nor will you shrink from any sufferings, or reproaches-, or sacrifices, which your fidelity to Christ may demand. Are you subjected to in jury for his sake ? The recollection of his cross nerves you with strength to endure it cheer fully. The primitive disciples "rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name."* " The reproach of the cross !"f * Acts 5: 4. f 1 Tim. 4: 10.

138 THE CROSS It has become your glory. Moses " esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt."* Sacrifices may be re quired even at your hands, of honor, of wealth, and of social position. You hesitate not a mo ment. Of himself, Paul said, " I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the know ledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom 1 have suffered the loss of all things."f To win Christ, is now the warmest desire of your soul. To the Hebrew Christians he said, " ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance."J Whose lot among us can be compared, in these respects, with that of the apostles ? " Even unto this present hour," said one of their number, " we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and buf feted, and have no certain dwelling place.'' And had such privations and sufferings no ten dency to wean them from Christ? How em phatically does Paul respond : " The sufferings *Heb. 11:26. t Phil. 3: 7. » Heb. 10 : 34.

MOVES THE SOUL. 139 of this present time are not worthy to be com pared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."* Therefore, " being reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, we suffer it ; being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day."f Still, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."J The benevolent hand of God turns them all to blessings, since " tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience ; and experience, hope ; and hope maketh not ashamed ; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the H6ly Ghost, which is given unto us."§ The cross suppresses every discontent, reproves every weakness, and clothes you with unconquerable strength. Well, therefore, may every Christian, whatever may be his sufferings, and privatibns, and toils, glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus *10or. 4: 11-13. tRom. 8: 18. tGal. 6: U. §Rom. 5: 3-5.

140 THE CROSS Christ." You accept them all, and eagerly, gratefully, give yourself to the Redeemer. Such is the power of the cross to move the heart of man to holy action. It subdues effect ually, the natural obduracy of the soul, and im plants the religion of Christ. It is " an argu ment, a motive, the wonder-working power of God," which all men, the ignorant as readily as the wise, at once comprehend. No strength of intellect can refute its teachings. No human ingenuity can turn aside its energies And how glorious the hopes and prospects it inspires. In comparison with them, all sublunary splendors are eclipsed ; all mortal attractions dimmed and lost. What, now, are the charms, the flatteries, the fascinations, of earth? What are its plea sures, its riches, its grandeurs, before which men bow themselves so devotedly? What are they all, when compared with that " far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," which shall be revealed in us? To abide in "Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," where there is no more pain, nor sin, nor sickness, nor sorrow ; to be with Christ,

MOVES THE SOUL. 141 and to behold in heaven his exaltation, who was crucified for us upon earth ; to fall at his feet, to look up into his face, to enjoy his smiles for ever ! O, this will be enough ! The world ! It no longer dazzles or intoxicates. We renounce it —renounce it without a single regret—and grasp—joyfully grasp—the undecaying happi ness, honor and immortality, set before us in the gospel.

CHAPTER VIII. «r THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HAS GIVEN CHAR ACTER, Iff EVERY AGE, TO ALL THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. Ordinances ; sacrifices ; baptism ; communion ; forms of ordi nances ; their import ; their efficacy. RELIGION, under every dispensation, has had its peculiar ordinances. These have been dif ferent in different ages. All, however, were of the same origin. Whether Patriarchal, Mo saic or Christian, they were divinely appointed to represent Christ ; and they all received from his cross their form, their import and their effi cacy. In their nature, they were symbolic and commemorative, and were embraced chiefly in the sacrifices under the law, and in baptism and the Lord's Supper under the gospel. The suf ferings, the death, the burial and the resurrec

144 THE CROSS GIVES CHARACTER lion of the Son of God, in other words, the cross, is the subject of them all. By these great acts, he accomplished your redemption, and Jehovah, in his ordinances, keeps them perpetually be fore the minds of all men. The ordinances of the law were of like import with those of the gospel. They are so many rays diverging from Christ, the great centre of life and salvation. Sacrifices were the oldest and most striking of all the forms of divine worship. Under both the Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations, which were in many respects similar, they were associated, more or less intimately, with all tho ordinances of religion. In the first chapter of this work, I had occasion to state, and I will here repeat, that sacrifices were instituted im mediately after the fall, and simultaneously with the promise of a Deliverer, of whose character and work they were designed to be a vivid re presentation. In them, until Messiah appeared upon earth in person, was daily presented, be fore the minds of the people, the fundamental idea, that to deliver them from sin, it was ne cessary that the innocent should die for the

TO THE ORDINANCES Of RELIGION. 145 guilty. And is not this the grand truth which constitutes the New Testament ? Sacrifices, therefore, contained within themselves, and conveyed to all by whom they were understood, a summary of the gospel of Christ. Impres sively did they teach its great and leading doc trine of substitution, which places the pardon and salvation of men upon the foundation of the satisfaction made for them by their repre sentative, Jesus Christ our Lord. The same truths, therefore, which are now preached to you, were thus more obscurely declared to men, in the very beginning of time. Through their agency, Christ was known, consequently, and in a most affecting sense, as "the Lamb slain [sacrifice offered] from the foundation of the world."* In every such offering, an acknow ledgment was made of allegiance to God ; the slaughter of the victim was a confession, by the worshipper that, on account of sin, he had forfeited his own life; arid its presentation upon the altar, was the expression of a hope of *KeT. 13 : 8. 10

146 JHE CROSS GIVES CHARACTER mercy, through the great sacrifice, of which this was but a symbol. This general character belonged to all the Patriarchal ordinances. Most obviously, therefore, did they receive from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, their pecu liar form and character. Sacrifices entered largely, also, into all the ordinances of religion under the Mosaic eco nomy. When this dispensation commenced their design and import had, to a great extent, among all men, been forgotten and perverted. During the passage of the Hebrews through the wilderness, they were re-appointed, again explained, increased in number, and incorpo rated into the Levitical law. As a consequence, by the intelligent and pious Israelites they were understood, and their reference to Messiah was never afterwards wholly lost. Besides these, however, many other forms and observances were instituted, which were peculiar to Israel, such as circumcision, and similar injunctions, the object of which was to distinguish them from all other nations, and so to surround them as to certify the fulfilment of the promise to

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 147 Abraham, that the; Christ should spring from his family. In thus separating them, therefore, the purpose of God was most wise and bene volent. To " the Father of the faithful" he had said : " In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."* The peculiarities of the Mosaic re ligion guarded that nation until Messiah should come, and his claims be fully estab lished. Beyond this, and the incidental figura tive character of the Jewish rites, rendering still more obvious the nature of the Redeemer's mission, God had no further object in its sepa ration from the other nations of the world. To the promise of the covenant announced to Abra ham, of which we have spoken, the law of Mo ses was added, to be observed by Israel alone, and by them only, until that promise should be fulfilled in the appearing of Christ. Such, un doubtedly, is the sum of apostolic teaching on the subject. " Wherefore, then," asks Paul, " serveth the law [of Moses] ? It was added," he answers, " because of transgression, [the * Gen. 3 : 19.

148 THE CROSS GIVES CHARACTER liability of men to depart from God, and lose sight of the promise,] until the seed should come."* " In the fullness of time," Messiah did come. He accomplished his great work, and returned to the right hand of the Father in heaven. Henceforth, the Mosaic dispensation, temporary in the nature of things, and having fully served its purpose, was abrogated ; and no longer do any distinctions exist between Jews and Gentiles, fn the sight of God, they are alike, and so will hereafter ever remain. " The middle wall of partition between them, is broken down," forever, f No longer is "he a Jew who is one outwardly," merely. " Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter."J But the Patriarchs and the Hebrews were not the only people who have been accustomed to offer sacrifices. They were as common, and as sedulously observed by all others, as they « Eph. 8 : 12-20. t Eph. 2 : 14. t Rom. 2 : 28, 29.

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 149 ever were among the descendants of Abraham. Instituted, as we have seen, at the beginning of time, and observed by the primal parents of our race, they, as a. matter of course, passed into the worship of all nations. They were common among the Egyptians, the Babyloni ans, the Persians, the Syrians, the Greeks, the Romans, everywhere. But how horribly were they perverted by them all ! They offered them to false gods, and associated them with the most revolting cruelties, and degrading super stitions and debaucheries. Nor have they even now ceased, but are, to this hour, offered in every country into which the gospel has not penetrated. But, alas ! their original design and import are wholly lost. The people do not know that they refer to the Son of God, their Saviour. And even were they cognizant of this truth, still they are unaware that Christ has come, and that the types and shadows have given place to the reality. Gentile sacrifices are never, therefore, condemned by the word of God, as in themselves improper, because they, aa well as the Jewish, were of divine appoint

150 THE CROSS GIVRS CHARACTER ment. They were denounced solely on account of the perversion of their form and object. Moses truly represents them,- when he says, " they forsook God who made them, and lightly esteemed the rock 'of their salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods ; with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed to devils, not' to God ; to gods whom they knew not ; to new gods that came newly ap, whom their fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat them, they were unmind ful, and have forgotten God that formed them. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of their sons and their daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them ; I will see what their end shall be."* And Paul remarks, "I say the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God."f Here was the evil which destroyed the nation, and which is still overwhelming all to whom the gospel of Christ -is unknown. How great will be the * Deut. 32 : 15-20. t 1 Cor. 10: 16-21.

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 151 blessing when they shall again be taught the import of their own sacrifices, and shall be turned back to him who "by one offering hath perfected, forever, them that are sanctified !"* Such were the ordinances of religion, as originally instituted, and subsequently existing among the Patriarchs, the Hebrews and the various Gentile nations. The promise of re demption, by Christ, given to our first parents, was-, through them, the inheritance of all men, without distinction of nations ; sacrifices, insti tuted to indicate his great work, were obliga tory upon all ; the promise of the covenant is " to allfamilies of the earth ; " and the com mand in the apostolic commission is : " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Christ was the substance of all the ordinances of religion, in every age previous to his advent. They were all "figures for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifice •. which could not make him that did the servi. e perfect as pertaining * Heb. 10 : 11.

152 THE CROSS GIVES CHARACTER to the conscience ; which stood only in meats, and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But [now] Christ being come, a High Priest of good things to come," " neither by the blood of goats and calves, by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls, and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself with out spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works, to serve the living God ?"* Thus have we seen that, from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, all the ordinances of the Mosaic religion, as well as of the Patriarchal and Gen tile, received their peculiar character. They were " a shadow of good things to come." " The body was of Christ."f The cross of our Lore! Jesus Christ has also *Heb. 9: 6-14. t Col. S: 17.

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 153 given character to all the ordinances under the gospel. The Christian ordinances, says Robinson and others, are " baptism and the eucharist ; "* both of which are symbolical and commemorative in stitutions, and full of the richest instruction. We will refer to them separately. Your baptism speaks of the cross in terms most affecting and impressive. It keeps—so we are instructed by the apostles—perpetually before the mind, the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ, definitely. " Know ye not," says Paul, "that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death ? Therefore, we are buried with him, by baptism, into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in new ness of life."f He again refers to the subject in his argument, addressed to the Corinthians, on the resurrection : " If the dead rise not, why are ye then baptized for the dead?"J Your * Calmet's Diet. sub. wee. t Rom. 6 : 2-4. t 1 Cor. 15 : 29.

154 THE CROSS GIVES CHARACTER baptism, he asserts in other words, symbolizes and commemorates, not only the death and burial, but also the resurrection of Christ. " But if the dead rise not, then is not Christ risen. And if Christ be not risen," the teach ing of your baptism is fallacious, since it pro fessedly sets forth an event which never in truth occurred. In still another place, Paul says : ye are " buried with him in baptism, wherein ye are also risen with him."* These are, therefore, the three great facts set forth in your baptism ; and taken together, the same apostle avows that they constitute the sum of the gospel. " I declare unto you the gospel" said lie, " which I preached unto you ; which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand ; by which also you are saved ; " " that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures"; and that he was buried ; and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures."f Thus does every instance of baptism re- assert the primary truths of tho gospel, and recur * Col. 2:12. t 1 Cor. 15 : 1-4.

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 155 unceasingly to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord's supper—"the eucharist"—refers also, and with the same impressiveness as bap tism, to the cross of our Redeemer. This ordinance symbolizes and commemo rates his death and his sufferings, generally. Numerous passages in the word of God might be adduced in proof of this proposition. I shall satisfy myself with one only. "The Lord Je sus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread ; and when he had given thanks, he said, Take ; eat ; this is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death, till he come."* Baptism and the Lord's Supper, together, * 1 Cor. 11: 23-26.

156 THE CROSS GIVES CHARACTER hold up before you all that series of acts upon which you rest you hopes of salvation. The former represents his death, burial and resur rection definitely ; the latter, his death and suf ferings generally. Both include the death of the Lord Jesus, because that was the great cen tral act in the work of redemption. Such is the direct reference to the cross, and such are the teachings, of the Christian ordinances. Their forms are different from those of the Patri archal and Mosaic, but they inculcate the same lessons. How benevolent and how wise the methods adopted by our Heavenly Father, to impress upon your mind the primary truths of our holy religion ! In the form of address, he gives, in his word, written and preached, direct information. He repeats, in his ordinances, the same instructions. Thus have you " line upon line, line upon line ; precept upon pre cept, precept upon precept."* Your heart is sought both by the intellect and the senses ; by what you hear and by what you see. In * I«ai. 38: 10-13.

TO THE OEDINANCES OF RELIGION. 157 some sense, even we may say, therefore, as did John to the primitive Christians—•' That which was from the beginning, which we have heard. which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life," " declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us ; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."* By the Christian ordinances, no less distinctly than by other methods of intelligence, you are carried to Gethsemane ; to Pilate's judgment hall ; to the scenes of his scourging; to Calvary; to the agonies of the cross ; to the silent tomb ; and to his triumphant and glorious resurrec tion. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, I now further remark, gives to the ordinances of reli gion their peculiar and expressive forms and import. Every external service must necessarily as sume some form. Services which are symbolic * 1 John, 1 : 1-8.

158 THE CROeS GIVES CHARACTER and commemorative, as are these, must take such form as will readily call up to the mind the acts they symbolize and commemorate. The forms of ordinance have, accordingly, in every age, been singularly expressive. Em phatically was this, as we have seen, true of sacrifices. " Every sacrifice, in the proper sense, was the solemn infliction of death upon a living being, by the shedding of blood, and the offering up, by a proper person, of its body, and blood, and life, upon the altar, as a suppli cation to God for the pardon of sin."* Bap tism and the Lord's supper are, in their forms, equally expressive. Every baptism is, neces sarily, the burial in water, and the rising again from the emblematic grave, upon a profession of faith, of a penitent believer, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy- Ghost. The Lord's supper always demands the exhibition and reception of the broken bread and the flowing cup, in such a manner as that, in them, may be clearly seen his broken * Encyc. Rel. Knowl. sub. voce.

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 1 59 body and shed blood. Nor can these forms ever possibly change, since, in that case, they would necessarily cease to indicate the purpose for which they were instituted. In this respect, what is true of the one is equally true of them all. You can no more change the form of baptism, than you can change the form of sac rifices, or of the Lord's supper. What, there fore, Paul says of communion, applies with the same force to baptism—" The cup of bless ing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many, are one bread and one body ; for we are all partakers of that one bread."* " Ye come together," when you meet, as you have sometimes done, and observe this ordinance, not in the form in which God ap pointed it, but as a common sacrificial feast, " not for the better, but for the worse." " In [thus] eating, every . one taketh before other, his own supper ; and one is hungry, and another * 1 Cor. 10 : 16-21.

160 THE CROSS QIVES CHARACTER is drunken!" "This is not to eat the Lord's supper." " Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily [in an improper manner or form], shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." " For he that eateth and drinketh [thus] unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation [condemnation] to himself, not discerning the Lord's body."* All these ordinances are the same in import ; in theirforms they must plainly show their de sign ; and these forms, divinely fixed, you are here plainly taught, can never change ; they received them from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ gives, also, to the ordinances of religion, all their efficacy. In themselves, and apart from their legiti mate object, they have no efficacy. Nor has one any peculiar efficacy that does not belong to the others. In this respect they are all alike. To what end, I inquire, are gospel ordinances »lCor. 11: 17-29.

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 161 administered and received ? They do not pro cure your admission into the covenant of grace. They do not obtain the cleansing of the Spirit of God. They are no seal of any kind what ever. They are not the medium of the pardon of sins. They are no pledge of God's favor or of your salvation. All these are by "grace through faith." They are " nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God."* He who observes them legitimately, keeps the com mandments of God. He who disregards or perverts them, violates the commandments of God. Of the ancient sacrifices, Paul says, they " could never take away sins ; " and of baptism, Peter affirms, it "is not the washing away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience." " The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," of which these are the symbols, itself "cleanseth us from all sin." " For this cause," said an apostle, " he is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgres * 1 Cor. 7 : 19. 11

162 THE CROSS GIVES CHARACTER sions that were under the first Testament, they that were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."* Sacrifices were of no efficacy when offered without faith in Messiah to whom they referred. Baptism and the Lord's supper are of no efficacy, when received by those who have no faith in Christ. But "he that believeth shall receive remission of sins."f It has been true in all ages, that " the just shall live by faith."J These ordinances were appointed by Messiah, as the mode in which his people publicly profess their faith in him, and there assume, formally, the high obli gations and privileges of the Christian life ; they serve to keep the eye fixed upon the cross ; they give steadiness to your character, and in tensity to your devotions ; and they admit you to fellowship in the church of the living God. From the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ they derive all their efficacy. Such is the character given by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, to all the ordinances of * Heb. 9 : 15. t Acts, 10 : 43. t Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17.

TO THE ORDINANCES OF RELIGION. 168 religion, in every age, Patriarchal, Mosaic and Christian. They were divinely appointed to represent him ; and they received, from his cross, their forms, their import and their effi cacy. Glorious cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ! The more you contemplate it, the more you see how wonderfully it is honored of Almighty God. Nothing exists in the wide universe that is not made subservient to the cross. It is con clusive of the fact, that God has made upon earth, and not in heaven, the brightest exhibi tions of his wisdom and love. Men gaze upon the cross with rapturous gratitude. Angels receive their most vivid impressions of his glory, when, bending from their thrones, they look towards Calvary. Amazed at the scene, they "veil their faces with their wings, and cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!" " Just and true are all thy ways, thou king of saints." " Saviour of men ! Henceforth be thou my theme— My study, day and night, redeeming love."

CHAPTER IX. FROM THE CROSS OP OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ARE DE RIVED THE AMPLEST INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE FORMA TION OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. Character, how formed ; Christian character embraces ardor, obedience, renunciation of earth, fortitude, forgiveness of ene mies, love of all men ; all impressed by the cross. CHARACTER consists in those peculiar quali ties, whatever they may be, which are im pressed upon your heart and your life, and by which you are known among men. It may be secular or religious, or both. Whether the one or the other, it is, in every sense, of the utmost importance. If exalted, it will secure the con fidence of those around you, and give success to your various enterprises. If evil, it closes before you the path of prosperity, and covers you with shame and disaster. With what fear

166 THE CROSS fulness do even the unworthy and otherwise reckless, shrink from an infamous reputation ! How earnestly do all desire the favorable esti mate of the world ! Eventually, however, as a general rule, every man will reach his own proper position, and occupy in society that place to which he is justly entitled. In the na ture of things, character is not an original endowment. You necessarily achieve it for yourself. You can no more inherit that of other men, than you can inherit their learning or their religion. Nor is it readily or suddenly formed. It is the result, commonly, of years of thought and action, steadily pursued ; and which thus grow into habits of mind and of conduct. These habits gradually settle into a permanence which constitutes character : and which, whether good or bad, is afterwards sel dom materially changed. In the formation of character, secular and religious, the same con siderations apply, and with equal force. In both respects, the instrumentalities employed are chiefly the instructions you receive, and the examples which are ever before you. Of these,

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. incalculably important as they are, the latter is much more sensibly felt than the former. Autho rity, commands, admonitions, are impressive ; but high resolves, exalted purposes, and noble actions, stir the very depths of your soul. In trepidity, honor, patriotism, continually before you, seldom fail to transfer themselves, and you are insensibly a man of intrepidity, of honor, of patriotism. Most men, especially among the better classes, involuntarily emulate the great and excellent. Example is, therefore, influential often, when all other incitements have proved wholly ineffectual. The formation of Christian character, how ever, demands, at present, our exclusive atten tion. Than this subject, what can be more important 1 Character, in the ordinary worldly sense, is more valuable than millions of gold. Christian character is a possession still more rich, since it involves not only your happiness and your usefulness in this life, but it is really a part of your prepar. \lion for another and a better world. For your direction, you have here, also, the necessary guidance in both in-

168 TtfE CROSS siraction and example. Your instructions are the word of God. "Search the scriptures," said Messiah, " for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me."* Your great example is the adorable Redeemer. " Christ also suffered for us, leav ing us an example that we should follow his steps."f With these, and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, what more is wanted ? Let us refer, consecutively, to some of the elements which enter into true Christian character, and which are produced by a contemplation of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. \-"-~ Not the least important of these, is a glowing V ardor for the honor of God, and the salvation of men. How strikingly did this quality manifest itself in Messiah ! So fervent was his determination, that even the cross could not turn him aside. And indeed, when was our Lord Jesus languid ? Under what circumstances • did he hesitate or waver? Where did Lc indicate faintness of * John, 5: 39. 1 1 Peter, 2: 21.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 169 heart in his great work ? His soul was ever overflowing with earnestness. In their admi ration of his warmth, his disciples remembered that it was written of him : " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."* No power could divert him for a moment from his purpose ; not even the prospect of death in its most revolting forms. Upon you the same character, by con stant meditation of his example, becomes in delibly impressed. If a glowing zeal is neces sary to your success in any temporal pursuit, how much more necessary is it for you as a dis ciple of the Redeemer ? Without it, how can you ever reach, especially, those heights of Christian excellence it is your privilege to at tain ? Only the ardor of the cross will impart to you a resistless impulse. ..v How impressive, also, the instructions which you derive from the example of the cross, of unshrinking obedience to the will of God ! -^~ "I come," said Messiah, "to do thy will, O God." And most perfectly did he accomplish * Ps. 69 : 9 ; John 2 : 17.

170 THE CROSS every requisition. Never did he fail in a single instance. When uttering his last prayer, he said to the Father, " I have finished the work thou gavest me to do."* In the garden, when in full view of Calvary, he said, " 0 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as / will, but as thou wilt." " Thy will be done."f " The cup that my Fa ther hath given me, shall I not drink it?"J Such was the obedience of the Son of God, to the will of the Father. It was, in all res pects, perfect. Of firmness of purpose, and un shaken fidelity, even when manifested in com mon life, you feel the highest admiration. He who, irrespective of consequences, will do his duty, never fails to command your warmest approval. When this element of character marks strongly a man's religion, you cannot withhold from him your veneration. Its mani festation in the Redeemer is infinitely exalted, yet not too high for your imitation. " Let this mind," exhorts an apostle, " be in you which •<• * John 17: 4. t Matt. 26 : 89-42. t John 18: 11.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 171 was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. And being form ed in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."* In the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ you learn the true value of all earthly possessions, / and honors, and enjoyments. Wealth, and honors, and enjoyments, are not sinful in themselves. On the contrary, they are blessings which come from God, and which he requires you.to employ as the means of good to ». ~ , men, and for the advancement of his truth and salvation. They become evils only when brought into collision with the religion of Christ. They are attainments which most persons desire'above all other earthly things, and to which they cling with the utmost tenacity. There is danger, therefore, that they may be preferred even * Phil. 9 : 5-8. .

172 THE CROSS ( above the promises and hopes of the gospel. The cross teaches you to hold them in subser viency to Christ, and to be ready to renounce them whenever they become inconsistent with your fidelity to the higher interests of the soul. " Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich."* How exalted the riches, and honors, and joys, he renounced for you ! No natural necessity impelled him. He renounced them of his own infinite grace, "for your sake." Nor was this all. How deep the poverty, and wretchedness, and suffering, he voluntarily as sumed ! How complete was his earthly deso lation ! " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man had not where to lay his head."I All that men so much loved was within his grasp. Why, then, did he abandon it ? The purposes of his mis sion demanded the sacrifice. He came to place himself, not in circumstances of ease ; not even * H Por. 8:9. t Matt. 8 : 90 ; Luke 9 : 58.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 173 on a level with the ordinarily poor and destitute ; but beneath the lowest depths of society, that he might, thereby, raise the poor and the rich, the ignoble and the honorable, the wretched and the happy, together, to glory, and honor, and immortality. Thus, " When sun and stars were dust beneath his throne, He seized our dreadful right, the load sustained, And heaved the mountain from a guilty world." In these respects, especially, our Saviour con ducted himself in direct opposition to the ignor ant expectation of the Jews. They confidently supposed that he would assume, on earth, the state of a temporal prince, suitable in dignity and splendor to the ancient dynasty of David. They revolted at the idea of poverty, and ob- 1 scurity, and suffering, and, therefore, despised \ the Son of God. They believed not, they would not believe, that he " must needs suffer" and die, and " be raised from the dead the third day." Their vain-glorious desires closed their eyes against all the declarations of the prophets.

174 THE CROSS But, had their conceptions been just—had Mes siah become an earthly monarch, surrounded by wealth, and power, and grandeur—what must have been the consequences ? His very station would have fostered pride in the hearts of the great ; it would have called forth unhallowed aspirations on the part of the middle classes ; it would have effectually crushed the poor, since their distance from him would have been hopeless ; it would have filled the world with selfishness and misery. Religion must, in that case, have assumed the aspects which belong to royalty. The rich and the honored would have been its votaries, and have carried into Chris tianity all their vanity and worldliness. Who that was unable to reach his earthly rank, would have felt any sympathy with Messiah ? Who that shared his regal splendors, would not have despised all who were below them 2 Re ligion itself, would have set in motion all the vilest passions of men, and have filled the world with intrigues, ambition and conflicts. All this would have characterized the more elevated classes. But the poor and obscure, who ever

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 175 have constiuted, and who ever must constitute, the great body of every community and nation, what feeling could they ever have cherished in consonance with such pomps, and riches, and glory of the world ? They might have been awed by a distant view of his exaltation, but they never could have approached him with filial confidence and love. Who, of all these, would have been content with his earthly lot? In whose bosom would their wretchedness have awakened pity or compassion ? The masses in all lands would have been consumed, perpetu ally, by dark envy, cruel malevolence, and bit ter repinings. The purpose of Messiah's mis sion would have been utterly overthrown. Princely station, the honors which come from men, earthly possessions—he, as became him, renounced them all. " My kingdom," said he to Pilate, " is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence."* To *John 18 : 36.

176 THE CROSS the Jews he said : " I receive not honor from men." " How can ye believe, who receive hon or one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only ?"* As he taught in the synagogue at Nazareth, he said : " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath an ointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to pro claim deliverance to the captives, and recover ing of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are bound ; to declare the acceptable year of the Lord."f To an inquiry from John's dis ciples, he answered : " Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gos pel preached unto them. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."J Thus Christ himself describes the reasons why he re linquished the grandeur and glory of the world, and embraced dishonor, and poverty, and shame * John 5: 41-44. t Luke 4: 19. t Matt. 11 : 4-6.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 177 and reproach, and privations, and sufferings, and death. In his sight, wealth, and rank, and earthly distinctions, have no influence. Pover ty, obscurity and wretchedness, debar no one from his favor. None arc so miserable as not to receive his warmest sympathy. Even the vilest of men may hope for pardon and salva tion, since, for their sake, he became, in the es timation of the world, the vilest of them all. We have, thanks be to God ! " a High Priest who is holy, harmless, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens ;"* but who yet " can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and " who was in all points tempt ed as we are, yet without sin." Therefore, we " come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."f Your religion, thus formed upon the model of the cross, teaches you justly to es timate all earthly things. You renounce all the honors, possessions, and joys of the world, not in consonance with fidelity to Christ ; you * Heb. 7 : 25. t Heb. 5 : 15, 16. 12

178 THE CROSS repel all pride, ambition and vain glory ; and you bear willingly, if necessary, the scorn and obloquy of man. Thus have you exalted fel lowship with the Saviour, and a happy and af fectionate union with all his people. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ instructs you how to meet, with intrepidity and patience, /all the sufferings which may be involved in your v profession of his holy religion. Suffering has been, in the wise providence of God, inseparably associated with the Christian life. " To you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake."* " We both labor, and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God."f But " if we suffer, we shall also reign with him."l The time will never come when suffering will not be demanded of true Chris tians. But does this fact appal you ? Great and good men have, sometimes, sacrificed them selves for their country's safety and honor. Your sympathy for the hardships they endured, *Phil. 1: 29. tl Tim. 4:10. i 2 Tim. 2: 12.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 179 was swallowed up in admiration of their brave designs. And this is the common feeling of so ciety. " Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause Bled nobly, and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense." You have exulted when a like conduct has been evinced in the cause of religion. With growing enthusiasm, you have gloried in Is rael's great Law-giver, when you have read of him. " Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season."* With un speakable emotion, you have perused those pages which record the faith, the sufferings and the patience, of the Christian martyrs. But how much more exalted the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ ! In their vastness, all others are lost. They are as the little rill that murmurs *Heb. 11:25.

180 THE CROSS at your feet, compared with the floods of the mighty " father of waters." You may well " take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord,ybr an example of suffering affliction, and of patience."* But I urge you more especially, to consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds. " Look unto Jesus, the author and fin isher of our faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."f Thus, will you be amply sustained in your " works of faith, and labors of love." You will be ever ready, intrepidly and patiently, to suffer and to toil in his cause, assured that " in afflictions, in necessities, in stripes, in im prisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings," you but follow in the foot steps of " the Captain of our salvation," who himself " was made perfect through suffering."t * James 5:10. f H«b. 13 : 2-4. t H«b. 9 : 10.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 181 The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ teaches you a noble forgiveness ofenemies. Heard you that prayer, which quivered on the dying lips of the Son of God? For whom, at such'a time, and in such circumstances, is he uttering his petitions ? For his enemies ! " Father,forgive them. They know not what they do."* Forgive them ! Forgive whom ? For give those vilest of wretches ; those infuriated fiends, whose hands were reeking with his blood; those most malignant of men? Thus, he forgave his enemies ; and thus he com mands that you shall forgive yours. " If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses."f " Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." J Indeed, he has taught you to go still further. " If thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink."§ " Bless them that curse you ; do good to them that hate you ; and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute *Luke 23: 34. f Matt. 6: 15. [ Luke 6:37. § Rom. 12 : 20.

182 THE CROSS you ; that ye may be the children of your Fa ther who is in heaven."* Joyfully, in imitation of your adorable Redeemer, do you forgive, and love, and bless all your enemies. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ teaches you to cherish sympathy and lovefor all men. The sympathy of Christ ! The love of Christ ! This is a theme that will be fresh and glorious forever. It will never cease to astonish all holy intelligences. " He loved us, and gave himself for us."f Similar to his, and in the measure of your ability, will be your compassion, your love for all men. You will know the persons of none, but as sinners, and in need of salvation. Christ Jesus was exalted that he might save the exalted. He became poor that he might save the poor. He suffered that he might save the miserable. He was degraded that he might save the most guilty. He is able to save him to the uttermost, that come unto God by him."J And it is your privilege and your honor, to " be come all things to all men, that by all means, * Matt. 5 : 44. t Gal. 3 : 20. t Heb. 7 : 25.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 183 you may save some."* None are so high, or so low, as to be beyond the circle of your prayers, your hopes and your labors. In all the designs of his great mission, " ye are laborers together with God."f And what, if, for so great an end, you also, must renounce wealth, and ease, and honor ? What, if you, as he did, must become poor, and forsaken, and despised ? What, if, like him, you must suffer and die. All this, and more, your Saviour has done for you. And it you should thus cherish love and sympathy for oilmen, how much more for your brethren of the household of faith ? " This," said he, " is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you."J To be like his, how pure must be your lave; how disinterested ; how ex pansive ; how fervent ! These are some of tl o facilities for the for mation of Christian character, derived from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It teaches, and by the Spirit of God, imparts to you a glowing ardor in the cause of truth and salvation ; un- *1 Cor. 9:22. tl Cor. 3:9. t John 15: 12.

184 THE CROSS shaken obedience to the will of God ; a true estimate of all earthly possessions, and honors, and enjoyments ; intrepidity and patience in all those sufferings which your integrity to Christ may involve ; the forgiveness of enemies ; and the love of all men. That character into which enter these, and other similar elements, is infi nitely elevated ; inconceivably noble ! And how necessary that you possess it, as a qualifi cation to bless men, and to honor God ! Do you feel conscious that, as yet, you have not at tained it ? We have before intimated, that Christian character, ample as are your advan tages, is not formed at once, nor perfected by infrequent and feeble efforts. Perpetual ear nestness is demanded. Even Paul said: " Breth ren, I count not myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are .behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God, in Christ Jesus."* At first, it is necessarily *PhiL3: 13,14.

FORMS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 185 very imperfect, but becomes, as you advance in the Christian life, more and more complete. Like the traveler, you ascend one height after another, until, at last, you stand upon the sum mit of the mount of God, far above the storms that agitate the vallies below. To what excel lencies may you not, by the grace of God, ulti mately arise ! It is your privilege to be " like Christ," while on earth, and to look forward with joyfulness, to that higher consummation, when " with open face, beholding, as in a glass, his glory, you will be changed into the same im age, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord."* * 3 Cor. I: 18.

CHAPTER X. THROUGH THE POWER OF THE CROSS, ALL THE COUNTLESS MULTITUDES ON HIGH, HAVE RECEIVED THEIR CROWNS AND THRONES OF GLORY. Heaven a reality ; a place ; a place of beauty ; qualifications for its enjoyment ; nature of its happiness ; it is eternal. THE saved in heaven ; how exalted their dig nity and happiness ! Crowns of honor there, and thrones of glory, await all the holy. Not such as men of the world admire ; not such as kindle the ambition of earthly princes. Crowns and thrones, infinitely more rich and noble. Purchased for you, by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will, when life's fitful scenes are over, be graciously conferred, through the power of the cross. Paul beheld them when he thus wrote to Timothy, his cherished son in the gospel : " I am now ready to be offered, and

188 HEAVEN the time of my departure is at hand. I havefought a good fight ; I have finished my course ; I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day ; and not to me only, but unto all them, also, that love his appearing."* To encourage his apostles amidst their toils and persecutions, Messiah said, on a memorable occasion, " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, ye also, shall sit upon twelve thrones."f In such lan guage does inspiration depict the glories you will realize in that better world. Heaven is a blissful reality. It is the dwelling place of God and angels, and "the spirits of the just made perfect." The present is the scene of your con flicts and struggles. That will be the theatre of your honors and your joys. Of its inexpress ible grandeur, John gives a full and glowing description. " I beheld, and lo, a great multi tude which no man could number, of all na tions, and kindred, and people, and tongues, * 3 Tim. 4: 6-8. t Matt. 19: 28.

PURCHASED BY THE CROSS. 189 stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands ; and cried with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our God that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the el ders," " and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen." These are they " who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple."* When man lost his earthly paradise, and be came an outcast, God, as we have seen, did not forsake him. By his sin, he r " Brought death into the world, and all our wo, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the lUssful seat." That " greater Man" was promised to our * Rev. 7 : i-17.

190 HEAVEN first parents, and " the blissful seat" he should " regain" for us, was made known through them to all nations. From the Eden of earth, they were pointed to an Eden in the skies, which they might reach through the great De liverer ! How consolatory such an assurance ! Once having taken possession of the human mind, it could never afterwards be eradicated. Consequently, every community, and every age, no matter how depraved and ignorant, have clung still, with a tenacity which nothing could relax, to the hope of a paradise after death. Their conceptions of such a future condition, as of all else that concerned religion, soon be came gross and confused. But however per verted, they were of universal prevalence. The entire body of ancient literature teems with these hopes, and especially its poetry. The more cultivated nations known to us, found a home for their dead beyond the misty sea. Their " Hesperian gardens" were rich in golden fruits, and their " Elysian fields" redolent of flowers and fragrance. Islands of the blessed ; cool retreats ; groves of spices ; quiet vallies ; crys

PURCHASED BY THE CROSS. 191 tal streams, invited the virtuous departed to their joys. Others made their heaven to con sist in absorption into the Deity ; or in the trans migration of souls ; or in a sensual paradise. But all, even the rudest and most debased, ad hered to the hope of a better life, however dif ferent from that in which it was originally re vealed. " E'en the poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind, Whose soul proud science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way ; Yet simple nature to his hope has given, Behind the cloud-capt hill, an humble heaven ; Some safer worlds in depth of woods embraced, Some happier island in the watery waste." These all, are but so many forms in which we behold the dim shadowingsof the great ori ginal promise of the word of God. Man is to live interminably. He can never cease to be. " The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God."* But upon the Ps. 9: 17.

192 HEAVEN righteous, Christ will bestow a world which sor row and tears can never reach ; in which life and happiness are perfect ; and where the holy will rejoice in his presence forever. But what is heaven ? This inquiry will pre sent itself, and we must not pass it wholly un noticed. Is it only a condition of the soul ; or is it a place of glory and joy ? I regret that, on this subject, the conceptions of many are so dreamy and indistinct. Imag ine you, that souls float, after death, in an undefinable repose ; " that they live where all the warm and tangible accompaniments that give such an expression of strength, and life, and col oring, to our present habitation, are attenuated into a sort of ghostly element, meagre, impercep tible, and uninviting to denizens of earth ; that from them every vestige of former association is done away, and nothing is left but unearthly scenes, clothed with no power of allurement ; and that they pass ar, eternity in exalted ecsta sies, with which it is impossible to sympa thise."* Such vague fancies must be banished * Chalmers.

PURCHASED BY THE CROSS. 198 from your thoughts. In heaven, your nature will be perfect ; your intellect full of vigor : your knowledge expanded ; and your worship exalted. Comparing the future with your pres ent state, an apostle says : " Now we know in part.v " But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Now we see as through a glass darkly. Then shall we see face to face. Now I know in part. Then shall I know, even as also I am known."* Heaven is, indeed, a state of being, but it is, also, unquestionably, a place in which you will live and reign with Christ forever. " I go," said the Redeemer to his disciples, " to prepare a place for you. And if 1 go, and pre pare a place for you, I will come again and re ceive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."f When he prayed for the admis sion of his followers to heaven, Jesus said : "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where. I am, that they may behold my glory."J Can you, with such declarations before you, doubt that heaven is a * 1 Cor. 13 : 9-12. t John 14 : 2, 3. t John It : 24. 13

184 HEAVEN place ? But, apart from this testimony, reason itself would convince you. Already, numerous material bodies are in heaven. Christ is there in his human nature. Enoch and Elijah are there. All those are there who came forth from their graves at the time of the resurrection of Christ. The sainted dead will at last be bodily in heaven. But material bodies cannot exist except in some place. Therefore, heaven is a place. It is " a paternal home ; a peopled resi dence ; a real habitation, where glorified saints will live with each other forever, upon terms of the closest fellowship and warmest love."* Heaven, I may also add, is a place of glorious beauty. To describe it, inspiration has dipped its pencil in colors of living light, and sketched the most gorgeous representations. Divine wis dom itself seems to have reserved its noblest ut terances to express the majesty of so great a theme. " He showed rne," says John, "thatgreat city, the holy Jerusalem," " having the glory of G&d ! And her light was like unto a stone most "Krummacher.

PURCHASED BY THE CROSS. 195 precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crys tal." "Its walls were great and high ; "its twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate of one pearl ; and the streets of the city were of pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Al mighty and the Lamb, are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten if, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb. In the midst of the streets of the city, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which yielded twelve manner of fruits," and "brought forth its fruits every month." There " his ser vants shall serve him. And they shall see his face. And they shall reign forever and ever."* How resplendent this scene of delight ! It lies before the eye of your faith, as a possession purchased for you, by the cross of our Lord Je sus Christ. *Rev. chapters 21, 22.

190 HEAVEN The qualifications necessary to prepare you to wear that crown, and to sit upon the throne which the Saviour gives, have been, in previous chapters, sufficiently considered. I will here add only, that these qualifications extend to both the soul and the body. The soul, regene rated and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, is fitted for the skies. Salvation, however, is not yet perfect, since, until the resurrection, the body, which is also redeemed by the cross, still re mains under the power of death. " The last enemy" is not yet "destroyed." But ultimate ly, the dead shall arise from their graves, puri fied and ennobled. Your soul and body will then resume their previous relation. Now you will be fully prepared for immortal life. The body " is sown (placed in the grave) in dishon or, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power ; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."* " Death is swal lowed up in victory." Both the body and the soul are now holy and perfect. Your salvation * 1 Cor. 15: 43,44.

PURCHASED BV THE CROSS. 197 is complete. "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." But, if salvation is not perfect until the re surrection, what, during that long period which elapses from the death of the body until that time, is the condition of the soul? Did the soul, when the body died, plume its wings and soar on high, to the fountain of uncreated and im perishable bliss ? ''I stand beside the expiring couch of my dear friend. As he struggles in agony, I pour upon his ear the promises of the gospel. He hears delighted, and calmly waits the coming of the pale messenger. The mo ment arrives. He waves me his last farewell. He is gone. There lies, still before me, his tenantless body. But the spirit has fled, ah ! whither? All is silent now. His chamber, his accustomed walks, his little circle of friends, he will revisit them no more. Shall I never again behold that loved form, or hear that kind voice with which I was so familiar ? I close my eyes, and, in fancy, he stands before me. I

10R HEAVEN look towards the radiant heavens, and repeat the inquiry, where is my dear friend now?"* Different religionists give me various and conflicting answers. The cold Materialist tells me that from the death of the body, until its resurrection, the soul lies in a state of uncon sciousness ! If I demand a reason for this cheer less conclusion, he gives me no authority from the word of God. lie offers only philosophical speculations, founded upon the false notion that the soul has no separate independent being, but is a result of corporeal organization, and, there fore, incapable of existing except in connection with the body ! In other words, he would per suade me that men have really no souls in the popular sense ! What we have conceived to be the soul, is, he presumes, a result merely of matter acting in a particular form. But all this, 1 know to be untrue, not only because it is in opposition to enlightened reason: but also, because it is in direct conflict with the word of God. In the first place, the body and the soul *Harbaugh.

PURCHASED BV THE CROSS. 199 were made separately in the creation. " The Lord God formed man of the dast of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."* In the second place, the body ami the soul are capable of occu pying, at one and the same lime, separate condi tions. " Fear not them," said the Saviour to his disciples, " who kill the body, but who are not able to kill the soul. Rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and bo'ly in hell."f Thirdly, the soul often acts independently of the body. " I knew a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago," said Paul, '"whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth ;" who was " caught up into the third heavens," " into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for man to utter."J And fourthly, when the body dies the soul continues to live, and goes to its ap propriate destiny. Speaking of death, Solomon says : " Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who •Gen. 3: 7. t Matt. 10 : 28. 1 2 Cor. 12 : 2-4.

200 HEAVEN gave it."* Thus is the sleep of the soul con tradicted, since, upon divine testimony, it is found that the body and soul were separate in their formation, that they are capable of occu pying, at one and the same time, different con ditions, that the soul acts independently of the body, and that when the body dies, the soul con tinues to live. In one word, the soul is the man. The body is the dwelling place, essential to its perfection and highest glory, but not to its life, or to its powers of thought and feeling. The question then recurs : " Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he ? "f The Papist, the Universalist, and others, tell me that when the body dies, the soul indeed lives ; but that it finds its way not to heaven or hell, except in rare instances, but to an intermediate place, known among them by various names, where another probationary state is given, and from which it goes to the last judgment ! And am I expected to believe such an absurdity as this ? It is less rational than Paganism itself. The *Eccl. 12: 7. tJob, 14: 10.

PURCHASED BY THE OROHS. 201 word of God condemns it explicitly. This horrid Aceldama, what is it? If I contem plate it— • " I see before me, along the edge Of raylass night, on either side, the shades Of spirits move, as yet unjudged, undoomed, Or unrewarded ! Some seem to hope ; Some sit in gloom ; some walk in dark suspense ; Some agonize to change their state ! O, say ! If this is real ; or .but a monstrous dream ! " The good and virtuous are held in no such fearful prison. The vile and abominable need not be. The whole theory is, indeed, " a mon strous dream." Death will, undoubtedly, at once reveal to you your eternal destiny. At that hour the soul of the sanctified enters the glories of hea ven ; and the soul of the unholy, the horrors of the damned. Are there objections, of appar ent force, to this conclusion ? I turn not aside to consider them, since as the word of God explicitly affirms it, these objections lie not against the conclusion, so much as against the

202 . HEAVEN truth of God's own declarations. Their advo cates must settle the controversy, not with me, but with God. He has taught us that " the rich man died, and was buried, and in bell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments ; " and that Lazarus, " the beggar, died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom."* To the peni tent malefactor upon the cross, Christ said : " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. "+ Paul avers, as we have seen, that Paradise is " the third heaven ; "J and John, that it is the glorious city of the saved on high.|| The direct scripture testimony upon this subject is volumi nous, but this is conclusive, and therefore am ple. Death, while it hurries the wicked into hell, introduces the holy into the presence of God and the possession of eternal glory. Thus we ascertain, definitely, the condition of the soul from the death of the body until its resurrection. It is not in .a state of insensi bility, or hovering about the decaying dust. It is not groping in promiscuous death, in a * Luke, 16 : 22-24. t Luke, 23 : 43. t 2 Cor. 12: 4. II Rev. 22 : 2.

PURCHASED BY THE CROSS. 203 revolting; intermediate dungeon. It has entered upon the prelude of its eternal destiny. Its misery or happiness is not complete, since to this consummation the presence of the body is necessary. But what will be the judgment of the last day is not unknown. Its awards are all fully anticipated. We now contemplate, briefly, the nature of the glorious heaven conferred upon the holy, through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There you will " be sinless, and consequently no longer subject to those sufferings which are now the punishments or chastisements of your offences, and which are necessary to check your waywardness, or awaken you to repent ance. No disease of body will be there, nor anxiety of mind ; no fears, no regrets, no dis appointments, no unsatisfied wish, no restless ness, no discontent ; no seasons of melancholy and depression ; no broken friendships, no envy or jealousy, no distressing sympathies, no sepa ration from those you love ; no traces of past sorrows ; no wounds left open and bleeding ; no sounds of lamentation ; no qualms of con-

HEAVEN science ; nothing: to disturb your perfect bliss."* You will there, in a word, be separated forever from all evil. Your body, " fashioned after the glorious image of Christ," will enjoy unending youth and beauty ; and your mind be as vigor ous and exalted as those of the Seraphim. Of all the saved, John beautifully says: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more. Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall lead them unto living foun tains of waters. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."f And upon you will be bestowed every possible good. Sentient beings cannot have a higher happiness than that of all the glorified in heaven. And this happiness, to render it still more attractive, will, in its nature, be social. The delights of the present world are greatly enhanced by being enjoyed or shared with those you love. Nor will this disposition of your mind be different there. In that temple * John Dick. - * Rev. 7 : 12-17.

PURCHASED BY THE CROSS. 205 above, of which the visible presence of Christ is the light and glory, you will meet all those who were dearest to you upon earth. How thrilling will be this reunion ! Friends and relatives who have journeyed together through life's pilgrimage, there review the dangers and recount in company the blessings of their way, and magnify him who preserved them on earth and conducted them to glory. Parents and their children, brothers and sisters, pastors and people, husbands and wives, all who have loved Christ and each other, will once again be united. • " Prophets, priests, Apostles, great reformers, all that served Messiah faithfully, like stars appear Of fairest beam, and round them gather, clad In white, the vouchers of their ministry, The flocks their care had nourished, fed and saved." O, what greetings will be there ! What rap turous delights ! What exstatic hosannas, " When we meet to part no more ! ''

20fi HEAVEN » * How warm will be your embraces ! How perfect your joys ! How delicious your endear ments ! You will sing as never before, and heaven, to its utmost verge, will resound with the harmonious anthem—"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his Father, unto him be glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen."* Thus have we seen that the glories conferred upon you by the power of .the cross, are not found to consist in a slate of being only, but have, for their development, a place—the place where God dwells, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; that it is a place of incomparable beauty ; that you are prepared to enjoy all its happiness by the resurrection of your body, its reunion with the soul, and the perfect sanctification of your whole being ; and that the glory of heaven is, in its nature, infinitely ex cellent and exalted. I have only to add, that the happiness of * Rer. 1 : 5, 6.

PURCHASED BY THE CEOSB. 207 that world will be eternal. No failure of your powers of enjoyment, nor of the source of your bliss, is possible. Your crown is unfa ding. Your throne is forever and ever. It is an eternal redemption, of which Christ is the author. The resurrection past, and there is no more change. Ages will roll on more rapidly than hours pass among mor tals ; but millions of ages will take nothing from your felicity. God has constituted you, by his gift, what he himself is in his own na ture ; and of you, therefore, as of him, it may be said : " Thy years shall have no end." The cup of your happiness is full and exhaustless.

CHAPTER XI. CONCLUSION. Recapitulation ; worthiness of the cross ; sin of its rejection ; its motives to practical godliness ; an essential element in the dissemination of the gospel. How wonderful, in all its aspects, is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ! In the preceding chapters we have glanced, briefly, at some of its amazing triumphs. We have seen that by the cross God designed, from eternity, to ac complish the redemption of man ; that by the cross the justice of God and the salvation of sinners are brought into glorious harmony ; that by the cross God reveals the infinite extent of his love ; that the cross is the medium of the spiritual change necessary to salvation ; that the cross has fixed, in every renewed 14

210 THE CROSS. heart, an indelible abhorrence of all sin ; that from the cross flow, to the universe, great and perpetual blessings ; that the cross is the only power that effectually moves the soul to holy action ; that the cross has given character, in every age, to all the ordinances of religion ; that from the cross are derived the amplest in structions for the formation of Christian charac ter ; and that, through the power of the cross, all the countless multitudes on high have re ceived their crowns and thrones of glory ! What blessings do we receive on earth, or in heaven, for which we are not indebted to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ? Separately considered, they are, each, overwhelming in their magnitude and excellency. United in one grand aggregate, no finite mind can con ceive their extent and grandeur. In submitting this whole subject, two or three conclusions naturally arising, demand a brief but earnest reference. 1 . Who, after mature reflection upon all these

CONCLUSION. 211 great truths, can resist the conviction that lite cross is infinitely worthy of llie. love and admira tion of all men ? It is God's greatest and best gift to the uni verse. Well did an apostle say, " It is worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."* It is, also, worthy the acceptation of all. The rich and the poor, the free and the bond, the wise and the igno rant, are equally sinners. Before him, who " is no respecter of persons,"f they stand on the same ground. To every individual, of every class, the salvation purchased by his blood, is alike applicable. None are so exalted as not to need his grace. None are so degraded as to be beneath his regard. The cross, as a fact only, in the government of God, challenges in vestigation, and awakens profounder interest than any other in the world's history. In the bearing which it has upon the relations existing between him and his intelligent creatures, it rises into unspeakable magnificence, and spreads it- *1 Tim. 1: 15. t Acts 10: 34.

212 THE CROSS. self over the field of vision, to an infinite ex tent. " Plato, as a philosopher ; Raphael, as a painter ; LaPlace, as a mathematician ; Chat ham, as an orator, had no such subject." The feeblest preacher of the cross, on the outskirts of civilization ; the humblest Sabbath school teacher, who speaks to his pupils of Jesus, has a throne the noblest in the universe, and in comparison with which, all others are circum scribed and insignificant. I do not undervalue the possessions of this life. But are not these, also, from the same hand ? He gives you riches, and honors, and health, and friend?, and enjoyments. Gratefully should you receive them, and sedulously employ them, according to his will. May any of earth's acquisitions be compared with the blessings which flow from the cross 1 How ephemeral are they all ; passing away ; departing. You yourself, also, will soon be gone. I have stood upon many an ancient battle-field. All was still then, and si lent. No armies were there. The thunder of artillery ; the clashing of arms ; the shouts of charging hosts ; the groans of the dying, were

CONCLUSION. 213 heard no more. This world will soon be remem bered, as are those battle-fields, only as the scene in which you acted your brief being. Honor is but a bubble which sparkles -for a moment, and vanishes forever. " Riches cer tainly take to themselves wings, and fly away."* Life itself " Is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Yet, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave." And beyond the borders of death, of what value will be all temporal things? "We brought nothing into this world, and it is cer tain we can carry nothing ont."f Unblessed by the cross, what, then, will be your condidition? In the presence of the judgment seat, nothing will avail you but the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. To all the unholy, " our God is a consuming fire."j The cross alone * Prov. 23 : 5. f 1 Tim. 6:7. t Heb. 12 : 29.

214 THE CROSS. can save you. It is worthy, therefore, of your highest admiration and love. 2. If we do not materially err in stating these great doctrines, it must be obvious that the re jection of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the most revolting of all sins. To the thoughtless observer, this fact may not be at once apparent. To him it may seem a mere careless neglect ; a negative sin ; a simple omission of duty. In the estimation of Paul, it bore a different aspect. "If the word spoken by angels was steadfast," said he, " and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we es cape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him."* The offence of rejecting his cross, is thus designated by Messiah himself : " If I had not come and spoken unto them, they [com paratively] had had no sin. But now, they « Heb. 2 : 2, 3.

CONCLUSION. 215 have no cloak for their sin."* " And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."f Ye are con demned already, because ye have not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God."J The rejection of the cross is no trivial sin. It is the most deep, and dark, and damning of which man upon earth is capable. Unbelief is the manner in which it is generally committed. And what shall we say of unbelief? Were it merely the absence of faith, with its usual concomitant, a want of requisite knowledge, the case would be somewhat different. But you have no such apology. Unbelief is more than the absence of faith. It arises from your cherished depravity of ueart ; the love of sin ; an aversion to God, and to his service. It is a positive, active energy, and is everywhere found operating as one of those elements which con stitute a corrupt mind. Unbelief, though al ways the same in essence, assumes in its devet * John 15 : 29. t John 3: 19. t John 3 : 18.

216 THE CROSS. opment, various forms. Sometimes it is a per severing neglect of religion ; a careless indif ference to all its requirements. In other in stances, it takes the names of piety, and puts on many of the habiliments prescribed by the gos pel, but carefully excludes Christ as an atoning Saviour. Again, we see it manifesting itself in speculative infidelity, and claiming in its be half, the teachings of reason and philosophy. Then it appears as a cavilling hatred of all re ligion, which it denounces as a compound of hypocrisy and fanaticism. These all, with nu merous others, arc but the various methods by which the natural enmity of the heart evinces itself. Unbelief is, therefore, in all its manifes tations, a rebellion against God ; a resistance of the truth ; a refusal of his mercy ; a rejec tion of the cross. In your case, particularly, the sin of rejecting the cross, is the more revolting, because of the extent of your knowledge upon the whole sub ject. Heathen nations may plead ignorance of Christ. But you understand the claims of the

CONCLUSION. 217 gospel. Your crime is, therefore, infinitely deeper than theirs. " Wo unto thee, Chorazin !" said the Saviour ; " wo unto thee, Bethsaida ! For if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judg ment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For, if the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in So dom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for you."* " The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here."t The cross has been before your eyes from your childhood. You have long since known that in its teachings, are seen all that is lovely in the character of God ; all that * Matt. 11 : 21-24. tMatt. 12 : 41.

218 THE CROSS. is affecting in the relations between him and his creatures ; all that is exalted in the pre cepts and prohibitions of the law; and all that is vile and abominable in sin. The cross has poured upon you its full effulgence. Yet you have turned away from its love. You have re fused to submit to its claims ! Other influences in connection with these, have been brought to bear upon you. " That rebuke, and those ter rors ; that bondage of the curse, and those forms of horror ; that exclusion from the divine favor, and that everlasting damnation, which is the inheritance of the impenitent; that beauty of holiness, and that deformity of sin ; that per fect atonement, and those expiatory sufferings ; that pardon and adoption into the family of God ; and that eternal glory which the Saviour gives ;"* these have all been pressed upon your heart. Still you reject the cross ! And appeals have been made by Christian friends, the most touching ; remonstrances the most earnest ; ar guments the most convincing ; exhortations full of tenderness and affection. You have resisted * Dr. Spring.

CONCLUSION. 219 them all. You have turned away, and despised them. No command of God controls you ; no fear restrains you; no threatenings terrify yo i ; no words of mercy allure you ; no love of the Saviour charms yon to his bosom. Still you re ject the cross ! The rejection of the cross is an open con tempt of God, in all his love. Some sins are less revolting and heinous than others. In them all, indeed, contempt of God is always included. But in this, that contempt is horrible. "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; "* the redemption of the cross freely offered ; and all its love and bless ing rejected; this, this is the consummation of crime ! This, truly, is to "trample under foot the Son of God and count the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an un holy thing !" This is, indeed, to " do despite to the Spirit of grace."f It is saying, in other words, that you do not regard God. What to you is the gospel ? You put it from you ! You reject the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ! * 2 Cor. 5:19. t Heb. 10 : 29.

THE CROSS. The sin of rejecting the cross is necessarily fatal. It must exclude you, if you persist in it, from heaven forever, and consign you to intermina ble wo, because no other means exist by which pardon can be extended, the sanctification of the Spirit secured, and the necessary qualifications obtained for glory and immortality. To the Jews, Peter said, and the remark is equally applica ble to you: "This is the stone which was set at naught by you builders, which has become the head of the corner. Neither is there salva tion in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men, where by we must be saved."* What, then, must be your destiny ? Your destruction is certain. The cross embraced, and all other sins are par doned. " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."f The cross rejected, and there is no remedy. This sin separates you from all hope. It closes against you the gates of hea ven. It seals, finally, your eternal damna tion. * Acts, 4: 11, 12. 1 1 John, 1 : 7.

CONCLUSION. 221 How appaling, therefore, is the sin of reject ing the cross ! It is, of all other sins, the most horrible, because it evinces, as we have seen, a deep-rooted enmity against God ; because it is, in your case at least, committed against light, and knowledge, and every possible effort to turn you to Christ ; because it is an open contempt of God, in all his love and grace ; and because the cross is the only medium by which salvation is possible. It is a deliberate and final refusal of eternal life. It is the acme of human guilt. You must be lost. Eternal death is your equitable desert. What is more just than that, if you refuse the life he offers, God should give you the death you have chosen ? 3. The considerations which have passed be fore you in these chapters, evince conclusively, the salutary influence of the cross in the produc tion of practical godliness. From that hour when " Christ is formed in you, the hope of glory," you sedulously " follow

222 THE CROSS. his steps." To his disciples he said : " If ye love me, keep my commandments."* " Then are ye my friends, if ye do whatsoever I com mand you."f You lovt; him. You are his friend, and determine to manifest your attach ment. You can never forget that, by his cross, you have been won from sin to holiness ; from peril to safety ; from the burden of woe to the beatitudes of heaven. " The love of Christ constrains you " to maintain a holy life. What so effectually promotes true humility, as a cor rect apprehension of the humiliation of him who, on earth, assumed your nature, " and be came obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ?" What kindles in your heart a flame of love to all men, so warm and so ar dent, as a recollection of the love wherewith he loved you." You will never repine at the afflictions of this life, while you continue to meditate his poverty and sufferings. What so inspires the spirit of forgiveness, as a just sense * John, 14: 21-523. t John, 15: 14.

CONCLUSION. 223 of that pardon you have so graciously received from him ? What so deeply stirs the spirit of your liberality, as a consideration of " the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich ?" What so effectually counteracts the vicious influence of all earthly things, and impels to every Christian duty, as " looking unto Jesus?" How mighty, for all these ends, is the cross ! Mighty as an argument ; mighty as a motive ; mighty as an appeal to all the better feelings of your heart ! What other consideration can ever exert such an influence ? What else possesses such a transforming energy ? What can produce such a beneficient change in your whole character and life 1 The cross is a power perpetually present, and ever operating in the development of practical godliness. 4. Throughout all these discussions, it must have been apparent to you, that the cross is the great power by which the whole world is to be sub dued to the dominion of Messiah.

224 THE CROSS. The cross as it is manifested in the life and character of Christians ; the cross as it is seen in the consecration of all our wealth, and tal ents, and energies, to Christ and his cause ; the cross as it is evinced in the proclamation of the gospel to every creature ; this is an effectual agency. Why has religion progressed in our world, heretofore, so tardily ? Why is its moral influence over the heart of man so feeble ? Marvel not at the inefficiency of a ministry that gives no special prominence to the atone ment of Christ. Be not surprised at the fee bleness of a doctrine, in which, if allowed a place at all, it is held as a mere abstraction. Wonder not at the sepulchral chillness of that sanctuary in which " Christ crucified" is a disesteemed topic. " Put me, if you will, upon a polar iceberg, where no verdure greets the eye, where no flowers shed their fragrance, where no sound is heard but the white bear's growl, or the scream of the passing eagle ; and let me drift— ' Where'er the surge may sweep, Or tempest's breath prevail ;' but, I implore you, hold me not a worshipper in

CONCLUSION. 225 any temple where there is no Calvary ; no atoning Saviour." Give me the blessed cross. That is the great power of God. Wherever the cross goes, there " Satan's throne is broken, his kingdom subvert ed, and a blow dealt which resounds throughout the borders of his dominions. Forget this ; for get the melting, subduing, overwhelming ener gy of the cross ; turn to man's wisdom, and de feat awaits you ; confusion will cover you. But lift the cross on high, and before its almightiness, Satan shall fall from heaven like lightning. No resistance can withstand it ;" no enchantment of earth ; no stratagem of hell can prevail against the cross. Then, let " the heathen rage ;" let " the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed ; he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall leave them in derision." What are banded might and numbers against the cross ? Is the cross ours ? Then " the Lord of hosts is with us ; he will be exalted among the heathen ; he will be exalted in the earth." The cross 15

226 THE CROSS. will sweep from the nations, all the clouds of ignorance and sin, and fill the earth with light, and joy, and radiance. Be your daily life near the cross. Contemplate it, until you are fully imbued with its spirit. Let it pervade all your thoughts, and intercourse, and conversation. It will fill your heart with a delightful hope, and give resistless energy to all " your works of faith, and labors of love." And when this life's brief scenes are over, you shall receive the ap proval of the Father, and a place near the side of your Redeemer on high, where you shall be hold his glory, and rejoice in his presence for ever and ever. AMEN.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SODTHEM BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. BAPTIST PSALMODY. A SELECTION of Hymus for the worship of God. By Rev. Basil Manly, D.D., and Rev. Basil Manly,jr., 18mo. and 32mo. pp. 772. Pew edition, 18mo. sheep, 75 " " 18mo. roan, - - 1 00 " " 18mo. turkey morocco, and full gilt, 2 50 " " 18mo. " " " " " with clasp, - - - 3 00 Pocket " 32mo. sheep, - - 50 " " 32mo. roan, 75 " " 32mo. tuck and gilt edges, - 1 28 " " 32mo. turkey morocco and full gilt, - I 50 " " 32mo. " " " " with clasp, - - - 2 00 An extensive and excellent collection of Hymns, well suited to meet the wants of our Southern Churches. Many of the old familiar Songs of Zion, which are either omitted or mutilated in the modarn hymn-books, appear in their entire fullness in this. 16

PUBLICATIONS OF TUB SOUTHEERN We like these ancient lyrics, critically imperfect as they somelimes are; they appeal to the ear wilh the melody of early and sweet associations, and exert upon the heart the energy of that elevated feeling which they first served to express. The hymn which closes the collection—" O sing to me of Heaven !"—will never fail to excite the most devoutly tender emotions.—South ern Baptist. About twenty-Jive thousand copies of this popular Hymniiook have been issued within the past four years, and the dermmd is constantly increasing. Churches, and individuals who purchase to sell again, are allowed twenty-Jive per rent. discount, for cash, from retail prices. THE WAY OF SALVATION. REv. R. B. C. HOWELL, D.D. Fourth Edition ; 12mo., pp. 336 ; price, l5c. DR. HOWELL is a religious writer of singular power and direct ness. Although here and there we discover in this volume the traces of a pen not unfamiliar with the beauties of literature, the main object of the writer was not so much to soothe the imagi nation by rhetorical lenitives, as to impart religious instruction and call into lively exercise the spiritual sensibilities and powers of his readers. The work is an excellent digest of Christian facts and precepts, and may be denominated a system of popular and practical theology. The cross is the central theme. around which all others are grouped.—So. Baptist.

BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. EVILS OF INFANT BAPTISM. BY REV. R. B. C. HOWELL, D. D. Fourth Edition ; 16mo.,pp. 310; price, 5Qc. THE work needs no recommendation. It will recommend itself wherever it goes. It will not shrink by investigation, but courts and earnestly aska you to make yourself well acquainted with its truths, comparing it with the Bible. In my humble judgment, it is the best work on that subject that has ever been published, or perhaps ever will be. It would appear that every Baptist who knew of the work would have one copy or more copies, for circulation.—Cor. of Christian Index. AND TERMS OF COMMUNION, BY REV. RICHARD FULLER, D. D. Third Edition ; I vol., 1G i:w.,pp. 282. Price 50 cents. WE are glad this work of Dr. FuLLtft has passed to the third edition. We read the first edition when just issued from the press, and were delighted with the argument, and the spirit with

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN which it was written. Dr. FULLER has no superior in the pulpit, and with the pen, as employed on subjects connected with his profession. The discussion is so scriptural, so logical and con clusive, that we see not how any candid mind can close the book and fail of conviction in favor of the author. If we have any among us that need to obtain light on this subject, and to be confirmed in the truth, we hope they will not fail to come into possession of this argument by Dr. FULLER. We learn that this is an edition from new stereotyped plates —Christian Chronicle. WE cannot say that we think every work on baptism an addi tion to the literature of that subject. We think this book is an addition. It is an argument, strictly. It proceeds directly to its object— always eloquent, but with no rambling eloquence in it— condensing philology, history, and the concessions of opponents, into a close, logical and decisive plea for the immersion of be lievers, as the only Christian baptism, and for churches so formed as the only ones following the primitive model. No jury could resist the evidence which it adduces. And while it is marked by the close adherence to the point to be established, which dis tinguishes the able lawyer, it is sanctified by the love of truth and the cordial courtesy which become the Christian minister.— N. Y. Recorder.

BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. BAPTIS IN ITS MODE AND SUBJECTS. BY PROFESSOR P. H. MELL, MERCER UNIVERSITY, GEORGIA. Second Edition : 1 vol., 16 mo., pp. 300. Price 50 cents. PROFESSOR MELT. is a vigorous writer and a close thinker, and he has furnished a pointed, condensed and vigorous argument in behalf of our denominational views. We have recently had several, and very able, works on this subject ; and it may be thought that an additional work is unnecessary, and that no point which has not heretofore been brought forward, can now be ad duced. We have standard works, fitted for general use, but our opponents are continually sending forth publications, which, be ing inordinately puffed up, are circulated in local sections, and need an antidote to operate in the same regions. Dr. Summers' work has been extensively circulated in the South and West ; and though his arguments are neither new nor profound, they are in some instances rather specious, and Professor Mell's work will do good service in exposing them, as well as those of other Pedobaptist writers ; and we regard it as a valuable addition to our works on the baptismal question.—Religious Herald. ITS analysis is clear and accurate. The meaning of the au thor forces itself upon the reader without confusion, and without any labor on his part. It is concise. Few words are employed, except such as are absolutely necessary to avoid obscurity. At the same time it is sufficiently minute in its descriptions and il lustrations to meet the necessities of any uneducated reader.

PUBLICATIONS OF THK SOUTHERN Many works on baptism are almost useless to a person who is unacquainted with the Greek language. Not so with this. Any careful reader may obtain from it a comprehensive, and, at the same time, minute view of the whole controversy. It takes up fairly, and, if possible, in the objector's own words, all the popu lar objections which are urged on the Pedobaptist side, delibe rately and thoroughly investigates them, and dismisses the subject only after every shadow of a refuge for his opponent has disap peared. The author often exposes to ridicule the arguments of Pedobaptists, but so far as we have discovered, there is nothing that conflicts, in the slightest dcgree, with the laws of Christian charity. — Christian Index. DUTIES OF CHURCHES TO THEIR PASTORS. BT REV. FRANKLIN WILSON, OP BALTIMO RE. Third Edition : 1 vol. I8mo. pp. 108 ; price 25 cents. " THE author is a writer of great promise, and is extensively known ns the Editor of the True Union. The present essay, to which a prize 1ms been awarded by a committee in Georgia, is an able discussion ol a great but neglected theme. The duties here indicated, have a reflex in8uence. They at once

BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. benefit a Pastor and his people. In prayer and labor that a good Pastor may be secured, and then in showing to him who is called to discharge this function, a proper respect ; is esteem ing him very highly in love, and in co-operating with and sus taining him, a church provides for its own prosperity. A. work which adequately discusses such themes, cannot be too highly commended. This production is well written, and glows with evangelical sentiment."—Smith. Vnptist. DUTIES OF PASTORS TO TO THEIR CHURCHES. BY REV. T. GK JONES, NORFOLK, VA. SECOND EDITION : 1 voL. ISMO. PP- 104.; PRICE 25c. Tins little volume, as our readers are aware, is the second of the Essays for which a premium of $100 each has recently been awarded by several brethren of this State. We are per suaded that all who contributed to this premium fund, will feel, on reading these Essays, that they are worth to the de nomination, far more than the cost of the premiums and the ex pense of publication. The first Essay, on the Duties of Churches, prepared by Rev. F. Wilson, of Baltimore, was no ticed in our columns about the time it was published. The Essay of Rev. T. G. Jones opens with a definition of " The Church," clear and scriptural. This is an important point,

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN for even Baptists often have very confused, if not incorrect no tions on this subject. The duties of a pastor, comprising " preaching the word — pastoral visitation—government of the church—and the general oversight uf its interests," arc set forth in n manner adapted tn enlighten the understanding, and warm the lienrt. A volume containing 104 pages, ISmo., cannot be expected to enter into the several departments of a pastor's labors with much minuteness, but enough is said under each topic to suggest to a thoughtful mind, a ".train of reflections which can hardly f.iil to be profitable ; and every minister who reads this Essay, must rise from its perusal, with an increased conviction of the necessity of much prayer, study and self-de nial, to the successful prosecution of his arduous work — Chris tian Index. EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY In a Sytematic and practical Discussion of their External Department. REV. J. P. TUSTIN, SAVANNAH, GEO. 1 vol., 16 mo., pp. 249. Price 50 cents. Is taking up this book for examination, the first thought •which struck us was, its adaptation, in size and cost, to meet a popular want—a want that has long seemed to us unsupplied. This consideration has incited the author to engage in the pre

BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. paration of the present work, which he has accomplished with much deliberation, a cautious consultation of authorities, and a careful casting of the whole so as to answer the end which he had proposed to himself. Such an undertaking is the price of more labor than might be imagined, requiring, as it does, exten sive reading, thorough condensation, and clear analysis. These qualities are conspicuous in Mr. Tustin's work, and cannot fail of winning for it an appreciation in our churches, the younger as well as older members of which will find here what will greatly tend to render firmer in their own minds, the founda tions of their faith. We hope the book may meet, throughout our country, with the demand to which it is entitled, and that our friend, the author, may be led to give his attention to the preparation of another volume of similar size, which shall treat of the Internal Evidences of Christianity.— Watchman $ Re flector. DUTIES OF MASTERS TO SERVANTS. THREE PRIZE ESSAYS, REV. H. N. McTYEIRE, REV. C. F. STURGIS AND REV. A. T. HOLMES. 1 vol. 16mo.,pp. 152 ; price 35 cents. THESIS Essays, it is believed. will supply a want which has been long and widely felt throughout the South. They are written by three clergymen, one of them a Methodist, the others Baptists ; and were called forth by the offer of a prize,

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOUTHERN by the Alabama Baptist State Convention, for the best Essay ou f.hia subject. The volume has been widely circulated, and meets with general favor, with all denominations of Christians. SIMPLE RHYMES N FAMILIAR CONVERSATIONS FOE REV. C. D. MALLARY, D. D. 1 vol. l(jmo.,2)p. 88; price 25-cents. A VERY entertaining and instructive book for young people. IMPORTANT SUBJECTS. 1 vol. 'I8mo. pp. 330 ; price 40 cents. 1. The Bible. By Rev. J. L. DAGG, D. D. 2. Human Depravity. By Rev. J. R. KENDRICK. 3. Justification. By Rev. J. B JETER.

BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 4. Sanctification. By Rev. C. I>. MALLARY, D. D. 5. The "World's Revolution. By Rev. R. T. HIDDLEDITCH. 6. The Spirit of Missions. By Rev. E. T. WINKLER. 7. Sabbath Schools. By Rev. C. D. MALLARY, D. D. 8. Infant Baptism. By Rev. J. L. DAGO, D. D. 9. Charges against Baptists. By Rev. J. B. JETEK. BT REV. J. J. FINCH, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 1 vol. 12mo.t pp. 314, with a portrait of the author ; price one dollar. CHRISTIAN PROGRESS BY JOHN ANGEL JAMES. A republication from the English Edition. 1 vol. I8mo.,pp. 180 ; price 30 cents.

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