solemn and vital importance. It is the declaration of St. Paul in the text, that, penetrated with the fact of the crucifixion of the Son of God for the sins of the world, he had, as it were, nailed his own appetites, lusts, tempers to the cross of his Redeemer. I do not therefore, at the present moment, stop to inquire what is your judgment upon points which have perplexed the wise and the learned of all ages, upon questions which have equally baffled the powers of the theologian and the philosopher; but I ask, whether you are "crucified to the world," and whether "the world is crucified unto you?" Are your corrupt tastes and habits offered as so many victims to God? Does the evil one, when he "comes," find every day less in your nature of which to lay hold, and convert to the purpose of your final destruction? Is the dominion of sin weakened within you? Is that “strong man" bound, who used to "keep” the chambers of the heart, and lead you captive at his will? Are you in a sense dead to sin, and living unto righteousness?— These, my brethren, are questions which will not wait for the adjustment of barren

and interminable disputes. These are points which, in the breast of every wise man, ought to have the precedence of every other;-points on which eternity is suspended-points which are to fix our destiny in regions of endless misery or of endless joy.

II. But, secondly, St. Paul adds, with regard to himself, in the text, "Nevertheless I live."-There are, therefore, certain objects as to which this crucified man lives. And a slight consideration of the circumstances of the heart, before and after the Spirit of God has shed his holy influences upon it, will shew you that there is, in the two states, a distinction sufficiently wide to be shadowed out by the difference between life and death.

Present, for example, to the man in the first of these circumstances, the strongest picture of his own guilt as a sinner-as a rebel against Infinite Power, and Wisdom, and Love as the prodigal child of a most compassionate parent; and scarcely any feeling of self-condemnation arises in his soul. The fact is, that his conscience is dead.

Or display to such a man all that is most attractive and lovely in the gifts of religion, the calm of a quiet conscience, the sense of an ever-present God, the anticipation of a world to come; sound in his ears the truths and promises of the Gospel; shew him the living fountains of water, the throne of his Redeemer, and the palace of the great King: and he is able to discover little or no beauty in scenes which are the themes of angels and the unchangeable delight of heaven. His spiri

tual taste is dead.

Place before the same person the awful spectacle of his dying Redeemer; shew him the hill of Calvary; direct his eye to the conspiring band of priests and of soldiers; let him see the spear thrust into the side of the Son of God, and the crown of thorns planted upon his bleeding brow: and scarcely the smallest emotion of heart is awakened. The truth is, that his spiritual feelings are dead.

Once more: contrast, in the presence of such a man, earthly and heavenly things; "shew him the shadows of this world, and the realities of another;" the perishing

vanities of time and the enduring glories of eternity; and, perhaps, in the face of what appears to a spiritual mind indisputable and irrefragable evidence, he prefers the shadow to the substance; earth, to heaven; the perishing chaplets of this life, to a "crown of glory that fadeth not away." His spiritual discernment is dead.

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But let the Spirit of God visit the heart of this as yet unawakened sinner, and, through all the range of his feelings and faculties, the change is perceptible. once he begins to hope, to fear, to believe, to love, to obey, in a new spirit: "Old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new." The change may be more or less gradual; but, whatever be the rate at which it advances, the steps are marked and definite. As Lazarus, even in the tomb, heard the voice which bid him "come forth," and immediately arose, "bound with the grave-clothes" in which he had been laid to rest; so the sinner, quickened" by the Spirit of God, comes forth from the grave of spiritual death, bearing, perhaps, along with him, for a time, many indications of his previous state

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-the sickly hue, and the feeble step, and the languid voice of spiritual disease but still there is a transition, as from death to life. How sublime is the picture of this resurrection of the soul under the awakening power of the Holy Ghost, which is presented to us by the Prophet Ezekiel : "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones....and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones

live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest....Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind; prophesy, son of man; and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied, as he commanded me; and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." Like this breath of the Lord, my brethren, is the quickening influence of the Spirit of God upon our fallen natures. Let him