SERMON I.'

THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

HEBREWS xii. 1, 2.

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.

WHAT depth of holy meaning, and what varied remembrances of the past, lie beneath those few and simple words, "the cross of Christ!" They were spoken to the stern rulers of the world in days of old; but they turned in high-born pride from the basest death they knew, and with incurious indifference attributed to the sufferer the leading of tumults in Rome. They were uttered to the Jew; and though his Scriptures were eloquent with promise, and his sacrifices full of symbolic import, he saw in the cross but the failure of an impostor, who could not fulfil the test of coming down from it that he 1 Preached on Good Friday, 1841.

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might believe. They were proclaimed to the wise, and they pronounced them foolishness; to the strong, and they despised them as weakness.

But the foolishness of God is wiser than

and the weakness of God is stronger than men. By these same words was wrought the greatest change which has ever passed upon mankind. First there assembled by stealth a small and humble band of men, who gloried in the cross of Christ. They were persecuted and smitten asunder. Their word went out into all lands, and their sound unto the ends of the world. The little cloud had risen up over the heaven, and there was a great rain. Drop after drop descended into the barren and untended soil of the human heart. The divine Spirit accompanied, sowing the seed of life. The reproach of the cross passed away. The punishment of a malefactor was the self-sacrifice of the good Shepherd; the detected weakness of an impostor was the withholding of Divine power in obedience to the law of love. And thus for a while the cross waxed dearer and more wonderful in the thoughts of men. It became the symbol of their faith. It was borne before armies, and folded to the bosom of princes. But as the figure of Him crucified was nearer than the reality, and the things of time than those of faith, so the outward and visible sign prevailed over the inward and spiritual grace. The symbol of the cross gave

sanction to deeds which the prayer of Him who suffered on it might best have reproved; and the Saviour bled afresh in the persons of those for whom he died. But the living stream of truth has purged off these pollutions, and again runs pure and free. The worldly Church has lost much of its gains; but the cross none of its dignity.

We are met here this day to commemorate the cross of Christ. From our labours and our studies, we have assembled in this our temple, to think and speak of Him that was crucified.

And there is still much in those simple words which appeals to all our hearts. We knew not when that cross was signed upon us, in token that we were his soldiers and servants; but there were those who struggled with their tears, when the first seal of immortality was imprinted on each of us, their then newly-found and lateliest-loved; and the Christian father and the believing mother yet see on these brows, too often darkened with the clouds of worldly passion, that best and brightest token of the covenant of God. But why do we here meet, and whither must our meditations tend this day? Not to discharge a mere service of formality, nor to speculate on wonders which are matters of faith; but to be reminded that the service of the cross is a spiritual service, a daily struggle, to which each of us is by vow and sacrament bound, as well as by

the state of high privilege in which we find ourselves.

We are exhorted to run with patience the race set before us. To many here, life is yet opening its untried course. They enter it with every advantage. Fresh in feeling, eager for action, they might want definiteness of purpose and aim for their energies. But with this the Church of Christ has provided them. She has entered their homes, and claimed those children for her own, whom Christ has bidden us suffer to come to Him. She has led them gently on, ministering help to their infirmities, and knitting their good resolves into compactness and order. She has brought them to renew their vows for themselves, and has given her Apostolic blessing to build them up in the faith. And she has offered them the body and blood of Christ, to be by faith received as food, whereby their souls may be strengthened and refreshed.

So that their race is set before them; and it remains that we conjure them from God to run it with patience. They will find many a hindrance to check their ardour, many an excitement to oversway it. Let them not be discouraged by opposition on the one hand, nor borne away by ill-regulated zeal on the other. They may find the beaten path of duty tedious and uninviting; the wayside meadows may be thick with the fresh flowers of life, and the blue of the distant hills