sinful nature, and motives to a constant progress in holiness. You cannot approach the cross of Christ-cannot enter into its mediatorial design-without feeling that a virtue comes out of it-that the Holy Spirit is honouring and employing it as the means of your renovation. Yes, so wonderfully adapted—so exquisitely adjusted to all the springs of our nature, is the cross of Christ, that, in the hand of the Spirit, it relieves our fears while it quickens our sensibility; gives peace to the conscience, while it increases its activity and power; inspires hope, and yet produces humility by the very magnitude and splendour of the objects which inspire it; demands perfection by presenting the heart with an object calculated to produce it.

Nor is even this all; "what is man," exclaims the patriarch, "that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment?"—that thou shouldest never lose sight of himnever for a moment cease to aim at his welfare. Yes, the Bible draws aside the veil which hides the spiritual world from our view; and, behold, a vast scheme of providence administered by God himself-in which every want of His people is noticed, every object numbered, every being moving in the direct gaze of omniscience. Would the assurance of sympathy lighten the sufferer's griefs? The Bible assures him that there is a sense in which his every pang vibrates to the throne of God-thrills the very heart of Divine compassion. Hence the Bible contains a promise for every pang that rends—a solace for every throb that beats in the human breast. Hence it brings the most afflicted the nearest to the throne of grace; reserves for him there the favoured place. And hence too the Son of God himself became a man of sorrows, that He might be able to succour them that are tempted. Should it sustain the Christian to know that his trials conduce to his moral improvement here; and, more than that, to his blessedness hereafter? Let him know that there are lines of relation between every sanctified trial on earth, and the

highest throne in heaven. Would he see the men who once had the world against them for their attachment to Christ? He must look for them now before the throne of God. He will find them now, with a number which no man can number, clad in robes of royalty, and having palms of triumph in their hands. Oh blessed arrangement, and worthy of a God, by which our light afflictions, and but for a moment, can thus be made to work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. "Lord, what is man that thou shouldest thus magnify him!"

IV.

For,

And this leads us to think of the end of the whole. fourthly, if this result shall prove to correspond with the costly means employed for our recovery, the proof of the infinite condescension and love of God to man will be completed. And here I might remind you of the amazing honour conferred on His people in taking them into His service. This is one of the fruits of His love. From being the slaves of sin, He advances us into His high and holy service. He has no need of our services, for He is self-sufficient, and could accomplish every thing by the word of His power; or, if He chose to surround Himself with obedient servants as a thing becoming His majesty and state, He might have taken them. all from the heavenly world. They have never revolted from Him, as we have done; never abused His goodness, nor renounced his authority, as we have done; but have ever counted it their highest honour to adore and serve Him. How astonishing is it, then, that He should come to seek for servants in this sinful world! that He should call any into His service from among our apostate race! And yet He does this. And He does it in a manner as though He were really dependent on our services-unable to conduct the affairs of His government without us; for He not only calls us, He urges, and entreats, and even offers to reward us-though we can never be otherwise than unprofitable servants.

If we

neglect His first invitations, He repeats them; if we faint in His service, He supports and encourages us; if we decline from His service, He actually follows and brings us back to it again; He stoops to do that which we should count it a degradation to do to a fellow-man. He reminds us that angels are our fellow-servants; He calls us co-workers together with himself; He even engages to applaud us at last in the face of the universe, by saying, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord."

And, oh, that joy of our Lord! "Beloved," says an apostle, "now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." Now are we the sons of God; and when we look down to the depth from which He has raised us, we may well be astonished at the height of our present elevation. But when we look up towards the summits which we are yet destined to attain, we feel that it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Great as the honour is which He has already conferred on His people, it is only the beginning, the pledge of what He purposes to bestow on them in heaven. High as is the exaltation to which He has already raised them, they are still rising and shall continue to ascend, till they have left sin, and death, and hell, at an infinite depth below them, and find themselves placed at the right hand of God. And think you that even then they will have reached the limits of His glory? That glory is an ocean; and they will only then be just launched forth on its shoreless expanse. Even then, as they survey the interminable prospect of blessedness which stretches before them, they will be heard saying, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but this we know, that we are like him, for now we see him as he is." Brethren, were the operation of the grace of God to terminate at this moment-were the affairs of His kingdom to be wound up at once-how astonishing the effects which His condescension has already produced! How many has it raised to the enjoyment of eternal life! What a tide of happiness has it poured through the world, bearing on its bosom to the haven

of rest an innumerable multitude, every one of whom would else have perished in the blackness of darkness for ever! But it shall not cease to operate till it has compassed the salvation of all His people; and then, and not till then, will it be adequately appreciated and adored. But then, when all the objects of His love-the fruits of His condescension-shall stand upon the mount of God; when.they shall look up and gaze upon the glories of Him who sits upon the throne; and then look back and down upon the cross, and remember that He once hung upon it, and trace the various stages through which He passed till He reached it-what an amazing impression of His condescension will they have, and what a theme for praise. And when they shall contrast their high exaltation with their former depression-when they shall find that they are without fault before the throne of God, that they are walking in the society of angels, are raised to the enjoyment of all that heaven contains-and shall then look down upon that state in which His condescension found them —and, still lower, on that state of perdition from which His grace has saved them, what a view will they obtain of their sublime exaltation, and what cause for gratitude to Him who hath so magnified them--so set His heart upon them!

1. Now, if this be a true and scriptural account of the manner in which God has shewn His infinite regard for man, one of the first reflections which the subject suggests relates to man's own voluntary degradation. How great must be the folly and guilt of man in setting his heart supremely on any object less than God! And yet this is the condition of mankind generally, and this the secret of their spiritual debasement. The scriptural account of them is, that they "forget God." Whatever else they may remember, they forget Him! Whatever other knowledge they may like to retain, they do "not like to retain him in their knowledge." Idols they have-idols of the mind, and idols of the sense; but they are "without God in the world"—in His own world they are without Him! Objects they have to which they are

looking for happiness; but they are "without Christ," without the only Being who could make them truly happy. His name they may have, but Himself they have not. Although His kingdom has come nigh unto them, they are not in it. In the very presence of the Cross, they are without Christ. What but degradation and guilt can ensue? They were made for God, constituted to engage in the pursuit of an infinite object, and to find in that pursuit an ever-enlarging capacity for enjoyment, ever-increasing excellence and happiness. To engage in the pursuit of any other object, then, is to set their hearts on that which is infinitely less than they were meant for. So that, even if there were no guilt in this conduct, it could not be otherwise than ruinous to themselves. For, as the object of their pursuit was less than God-and, therefore, an object infinitely less than they were made for the time would infallibly arrive when they would have overtaken that object, have comprehended and exhausted it. From that moment their progress would be at an end, their souls would be lost-for from that moment their misery would begin. To arouse them to a sense of this danger, the Saviour himself has drawn near to them, and has put the startling enquiry, "What shall it profit a man though he could gain the whole world, and yet lose his own soul?" Answer this, my unconverted hearers. The gain of the world, even if that were possible, would still involve the loss of your soul. Even if the pursuit should for awhile engross your attention and enlarge your mind, the time would come when you would have exhausted all its powers to please, and when, instead of enlarging and filling your capacities, you would have to contract, and let yourself down, and reduce yourself to its meagre dimensions; and from that moment your soul would be lost. You would be carrying about within you powers undeveloped, faculties unused, capacities unfilled; for of the only object which could employ and fill them without end, you would have defrauded them.