soul, you are able to add, with the Apostle, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Substitute not, my Christian brethren, for questions such as these, questions of doubtful disputation. Labour to determine with precision the circumstances of your own soul. Cease not from inquiry, from vigilance, from prayer, till you can believe, upon scriptural grounds, that you are among the happy number to whom "it is the Father's good pleasure to give the kingdom."

2. In the last place, if such be the power of the crucifixion of the Son of God upon the souls of those who approach that great truth of religion with feelings of devotion and gratitude, let this discovery be applied to the encouragement of the lowly and contrite heart.—I may be speaking to individuals who, with a sincere desire to subdue the evil passions and tempers of the soul, have as yet found the difficulties of the work insuperable. Suffer me to inquire of such persons, whether, while they have been seeking their end by obviously inadequate means, they have not at the same time been neglecting means which would,

under God, have ensured them success. Brethren, it is not enough for the correction of the character to prove, even by the most complete demonstration, to the understanding, that any particular pursuit is wrong. The gambler will continue to gamble, the drunkard to drink, the blasphemer to blaspheme, in spite of their conviction that these practices are destroying their character, or ruining their property, or conducting their families to anguish and ruin. But communicate to any one of these infatuated persons, a passion for war; fill him with desires to head the battles of his country; to repel the invader from her white cliffs, or verdant fields; plunge him into the ranks of honour, and valour, and patriotism; and, of himself, and without any call from others, he will surrender, for a time at least, the pursuits from which nothing else could wean him*. -In like manner, if you desire to subdue the "flesh, with its affections and lusts," I may say that mere argument will not ac

* See this subject finely illustrated in Chalmers's last volume of Sermons.

complish the end; that logic and eloquence will find an enemy too strong for them: but once give the man a new emotion or passion, and the difficulty is overcome. And such an emotion or passion is the love of our Redeemer. Let the love of Him who "loved us, and gave himself for us," be once seated in the soul; and, as the stars die before the glow of opening day, the weaker affections of the soul will expire in the blaze of this, the brightest and the noblest.

And this may serve as one reply to the class of objectors who complain of those insisting much on the great fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, and especially on the doctrine of the atonement, as the enemies of morality! To such persons I may say confidently, "the best friends of morality will be found to dwell most on these doctrines." There needs a master-passion to subdue the inferior passions of the soul; and here alone can this master-passion be found: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith: Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

As the love of the Redeemer advances, the love of sin decays; and in the blessed region where that love is perfected, sin has no existence: "nothing that defileth entereth therein."

Here then, my Christian brethren, is the remedy for the defects of character and temper, for which you have perhaps long been searching in vain. And may this propitious day see you apply this remedy earnestly, devoutly, successfully. May the "love of Christ be shed abroad in hearts;" may it melt and disperse every corruption within you. May the Saviour of sinners wash you in his blood, clothe you in the mantle of his righteousness, stamp you with his image, "guide you by his counsel," and at length "receive you up into glory."

your

SERMON III.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

Easter Sunday.

REVEL. i. 17, 18.

Fear not; I am the first, and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen: and have the keys of hell and of death.

MUCH of the language of the book from which our text is taken must be considered, in spite of the labours of many able and laborious expositors of the prophetical writings, as in a high degree intricate and obscure. And as the object of prophecy is rather to confirm the faith when the events predicted have occurred, than to lead us to the anticipation of these events, it is probable that less fruit will be col