lating the prospects, and debasing the soul of man, it audaciously steps forth, as the first-born of the powers of darkness, to assail the steadfastness and attempt the overthrow of Him who was "God with us." After having insulted and violated that law of which he was the author, it presumptuously aims at involving Himself in the charge of its violation. Having first taught men to desire what He had forbidden-to set his authority at nought, and thus to expose themselves to the awful effects of his righteous displeasure, it is seen persuading them to reject, and instigating them to revile him, and struggling to turn them away from accepting the gracious offers of his unmerited mercy. What an evil and accursed thing must sin be, when it seizes, as it were, on the very Individual by whom alone its fearful enormities can be counteracted, and nails him to the cross! This is what sin has donethis what we are here called upon to contemplate as its doings; and surely, then, the feeling which this view of it ought to awaken in our mind, is that holy hatred, in some degree, with which it is regarded by Him of whose law it is the transgression.

3. The guilt and evil of sin, however, are to be judged of, not so much by the manner in which it has exalted itself against God, as by the means which he has employed at once for its condemnation and punishment-in other words, for the satisfying of his justiceand for the redemption of sinners from its awful penalties. God has declared that "the wages of sin is death;" and it is stated, on his authority, by the apostle, that "God, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." "Cursed," says the Scripture, "is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." But on Christ, as the appointed Substitute and Redeemer of sinners, the whole weight of this curse was made to rest. "The Lord laid," or caused to meet, "on Him, the iniquity of

us all." This being the case, “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities." He "gave his life a ransom for many," (Isa. liii. 5, 6.) “His own self," says the apostle Peter, "bore our sins in his own body on the tree;" and, therefore, as he elsewhere remarks, "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold," "but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It was while "tasting death for every man," and undergoing the punishment which the law had denounced against every transgression and disobedience, that Jesus exclaimed, "Now is my soul exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" nay that, in the extremity of his anguish, and while exhausting the very dregs of that cup of wrath which the Father had given him to drink, he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Now, how should it be possible for us to contemplate such things as these, without feeling awakened in our souls a deep and awful sense of the infinite rectitude, the terrible sanctions, and the transcendant sacredness of the divine law, and an awful sense of the absolute inflexibility of divine justice. Mercy spared the sinner, but only because, at the same time, Righteousness proclaimed I have found a ransom." When the Son of God appeared in the nature, and in the room, of the guilty, not even the ineffable love of the Father toward him was permitted to cancel, or even to mitigate any part of the punishment which the guilty themselves would otherwise have had to endure. God "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." How deeply, then, should we feel the terrors of the law, how profoundly should we stand in awe that we sin not!

But the manner in which the Son of God accomplished not only the punishment, but also the expiation of sin, and thereby the redemption of sinners, is not less fitted to impress us with a sense of our own demerit and helplessness, and therefore to inspire us with a

deep feeling of humility. The sins for which He suffered were our sins; and the nature and amount of his sufferings were such as greatly to increase, instead of diminishing, the idea which we should entertain of their real and inherent enormity. Were any of us to think lightly of sin, on the ground that we have been delivered from suffering in our own persons the punishment which it deserved, there would need no stronger proof that the wrath of God was yet abiding on us. And if the sufferings of Christ are thus fitted to impress us with a sense of our demerit, so are they, with a sense of our helplessness. "The redemption of the soul is precious," so precious as to be altogether beyond the reach of human wisdom, human worth, or human effort. "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." When there was no eye to pity, and no hand to help, then did God say to his Holy One, "I have laid help upon one that is mighty." "For," says the apostle," when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Not that our helplessness entitled us to his gracious interposition, or that it was either the only or the principal thing which induced him to interpose in our behalf; but assuredly if, consistently with the divine perfections, effectual deliverance could have been furnished in any other way, the SON OF GOD would not have been subjected to the ignominy and agonies which He was appointed to undergo.

Now, under the painful sense of our own demerit and helplessness, what feeling can it better become us to cherish than one of deep and unfeigned humility? Without this, we can have no just idea of what we owe to Christ, or of the condition in which we were placed when he came in the name of the Lord to save us. Casting down imaginations, and every thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God," we must be ready to admit-nay, we must rejoice to proclaim, that Christ is "all our salvation." There is no

66

grace more essential to the Christian character than that of humility, and no feeling more suitable or indispensable on the part of every acceptable guest at a communion table.

But we have next to remark, that the redemption which Christ, by his expiatory sufferings, has purchased for sinners-even previously to any special consideration of the love toward us by which he was actuated— is admirably calculated to inspire us with the feeling of ardent gratitude. The sufferings to which he has submitted are those from which, through faith in his blood, we have obtained a blessed exemption. We were all under the sentence of death. We lay under the wrath and curse of God. The fire and the wood were ready to consume us on the altar of his vengeance, when a voice from heaven itself commanded that our blood should not be shed. Whatever were the grateful and rapturous feelings of devotion which glowed in the breast of Abraham, when his sacrificial hand was suddenly arrested-when he unbound his beloved son Isaac, and lifted him up from the altar that was about to be imbrued with his blood; and whatever were the not less grateful feelings of the intended victim-still more ardently grateful, in some respects, ought to be the feelings of every ransomed sinner. Had Isaac been put to death, it would have been an act, on the part both of the father and the son, of the sublimest faith and devotion—and a prelude to the admission of both into the blessedness of eternal life. But had we been made to suffer what offended justice demanded, our portion must have been everlasting perdition. What unutterable gratitude, then, ought we to feel toward Him on whom was laid "the chastisement of our peace," and by "whose stripes we are healed!"

In proportion, however, to this our gratitude, should be our godly sorrow on account of the sufferings to which our sins have subjected him. The more that we owe to him, the more should we be grieved for the

sufferings which our sins have accumulated on the "Man of Sorrows." In contemplating his body broken, and his blood shed, we ought to feel the utmost brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit. "When we remember these things," we should " pour out our soul in us." We should "look upon Him whom we have pierced, and mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born," (Zech. xii. 10.)

4. We have now to notice, in the last place, under this head, that another object of Christ's coming into the world and laying down his life, was not only to deter us from sin, but to allure us to holy obedienceto encourage and promote, especially among men, the cause of universal holiness. He came to exhibit an example of perfect obedience to the law of God, as well as to make a full and adequate atonement for those who had been guilty of transgressing it. He embodied in his own life all the graces which he inculcated, and all the righteousness which the law of God required for the justifying of the ungodly. In all that he did, he glorified him that sent him. His whole life was one spotless and splendid oblation of praise and glory to God. In all this he has left us an example that we should follow his steps; and how inadequate soever we may be to follow him wholly, no one can deny that this is our duty, and ought to be our constant desire. We ought to be habitually endeavouring to "glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, which are God's." is the best way by which to express toward Christ both our admiration and our gratitude. Naming his name, we should live under the abiding influence of the holy desire and earnest endeavour to "depart from iniquity." Contemplating the beauty of his holiness, we should be won by the voice of gracious and constraining love, "Be ye holy, for I am holy."- -"Beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," we should desire to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory,

66

G

This