for the worst of those who will come unto him; but unless we come, we never can be benefited by his mediation. Men may console themselves for a season with bright hopes built upon the simple death of Jesus, without complying with the requisitions of the Gospel; but they are trusting in mercies which have never been covenanted, and laying their foundation in the sand. I grant that the death of Christ was a complete satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. I grant that every drop of his blood speaks volumes of grace, and cries in tones which Jehovah will not and cannot fail to heed. But I have yet to find the first passage or intimation in the Bible which represents it as speaking and crying in behalf of any one who has not covenanted with Jesus to present it as his plea for salvation. Supplies of grace there are to ransom every rebel in the universe, but Christ alone as the great high Priest in heaven can unlock the fountain and give us access to its healing and exhaustless waters. Let the glad tidings of free grace circulate among you as freely as the air you breathe-throw them upon the wings of the winds-publish them from Dan to Beersheba, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth-tell to every stricken sinner, the Lord has died for you! Tell him that Jesus of Nazareth stands ready to save him. But while you thus herald abroad the tidings of gladness, let it also be as distinctly understood that "he that believeth not shall be damned." For just so surely as Christ's atonement is a thing going on in heaven, so surely shall we come short of salvation, unless we come to him-covenant with him-and rely on him.

This then is the great reason why all men are not saved-all men do not choose to be saved. It is not because Christ did not die for them that any are lost, but because they do not plead his sufferings and death as the ground of their justification. They do not receive Christ as their Priest. To such he said himself, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light." The gate has been opened, but how shall the city be entered without passing through it? The remedy is provided, but how can it relieve without being applied? Food may be never so abundant and nutritive, but how can it preserve from starvation unless it be taken? No more can the death of Jesus with all its untold merit secure the redemption of any one,

unless those duties be attended to which alone can engage him as our high priest. The condemned rejecter of the Gospel can bring no reproaches upon God's impartiality. He cannot lift himself up in his torments and stay their fury with the reflection that Christ never died for him, and salvation never was within his reach. No, no! his language is, "I have destroyed myself. I have rejected the Lord who died to save me. I have spurned the glorious crown that was proffered me. The cause of my ruin is not in God-not in the Gospel-not in anything but my own mad self. 'Tis here the worm that dieth not finds all its venom !"

In the name of the great Redeemer of the world then, I say, let no man think his salvation sure, or indulge the hope of reaching heaven, who refuses to acknowledge Christ as his Prophethis Priest-and his King. When the floods of death and storms of judgment come, such airy castles must fall, and great shall be the fall of them. To be saved, sins must be repented of and renounced-self must be sacrificed-and Jesus must be trusted and obeyed. These are the only terms upon which he becomes the officiating priest of any one. one. And until you have complied with these, never, never flatter yourselves with the expectation of finding your way to glory. "Verily, verily, except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

But it may be asked by those who wish to press this view of atonement in all its bearings, If Christ's atonement is a thing going on in heaven, and atonement is made only for those who covenant with the Savior to this effect, how then are infants saved? To this I offer a brief reply.

That children, and all children are saved, is not to be doubted. They were received into the church as heirs of the promise under the old dispensation, and Christ himself declared them fit subjects for the kingdom of heaven. It is certain too that they are saved by the same merciful provisions through which adult believers are saved. But in what particular way they become partakers of Christ's mediation, has not been revealed in the Scriptures. It is enough for me to know, it is enough for all bereaved parents to know, that all those little ones which like budding flowers here withered in our arms, have been taken to bloom in a more congenial clime; and that while we linger with tears at their little graves their spirits rest upon the soft bosom of him who on earth took

them in his arms and blessed them. The doctrine which I have advanced I hold to be the doctrine of the Bible. And while I have an inch of ground in the province of Revelation on which to set my foot, I will not-I cannot resign it for the most subtle, beautiful and attractive speculation of unassisted reason. If the method of infant salvation cannot be satisfactorily explained, it is sufficient to know that there is no necessity that it should be. The way in which we are to be saved is clear enough. Our duty is laid down in terms so plain, that a wayfaring man though a fool may not err therein. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.".

And if I have succeeded in impressing you with a correct idea of the atonement, if Christ is at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, there ready to present his blood for the acquittal of every worn sinner who will but come to him; how rich then is the encouragement for all to venture unreservedly on him, and to trust him with all the immortal interests of our souls. Certainly there is not a man on earth who does not feel himself a sinner. The heathen themselves have felt and acknowledge the disturbing influences of a guilty conscience. How dear the message then to such a heart, that there is one who is now in heaven who is able and ready to redeem it with his blood. Look sinner, look at that great high priest who now stands in glorified humanity before the throne of God.. Do you see those scars borne with him from Calvary? Do you see the mitre on his brow and the fresh blood on his glittering robes? Do you see him just ready to say to Him who sits upon the throne, "Here Father, here is the price for yonder soul," yet seemingly waiting to receive the word to proceed? Sinner, he stands there ready to atone for you, and save you. He hesitates merely for you to say in sincerity "Lord save or I perish!" and then his blood shall sheathe the sword and still the thunders which now threaten you. you any reason why you should not pray that prayer? and wearied with your sins-tired of chasing phantoms and of gathering bubbles, is there no encouragement for you to say at once, "Dear Son of God, I come, I come!" Why would you think of slighting a Savior so willing to save you? Oh, how base the ingratitude of conduct so monstrous as that of slighting such

And have

Distressed

a Friend! Will the ragged beggar contemn the hand that clothed and fed him? Will the drowning man turn with cold indifference from the friend who at the greatest peril brought him safely to the shore? Will even the dog forget the master who caressed him, or the stupid ox the crib from which he was fed? And will intelligent and immortal man turn away with cold indifference from dying love, and dying love followed up with proffered mercy! Will the pining sinner slight his only and waiting Savior-and the Savior too who has died to redeem him! Oh God, how can it be! "Hear, Oh heavens, and be astonished Oh earth!"

LECTURE XXIV.

THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS CHRIST.

Heb. x. 1-18. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

THESE words conclude the masterly argument of our apostle on the priesthood of Jesus Christ. He here makes his last stroke to sever the cherished ties which yet bound many of his readers to Judaism. There were many reasons why the Jews should think highly of the Levitical institutions. From early infancy they were taught to look upon theirs as the only true religion on earth. The first lessons which they learned from maternal lips, told of the wonderful interpositions of God in their behalf in the days of the patriarchs-in Egypt-in the wilderness-and all along the thread of their history from Abraham to Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Solomon. The awful manner in which their law was given-the long list of honored worthies who had lived, flourished and triumphantly died in the Jewish faith-together with the blessed and brilliant promises annexed to the sincere observance of its solemn rites and noble ceremonies, reasonably begat in all of them a deep reverence and ardent attachment to the Mosaic religion. But at the