Mount Calvary and made him sub- | the soul; as long as we are in a state mit to the shame and anguish and desertedness which marked his closing hour. It is the engaging display of this principle of love which kindles the heart of all God's people, and binds their best affections to him, and makes them gird their loins for Christian exertion, and suffers them not to draw back from any possible amount of Christian duty. Now we see here the operation of infinite wisdom, because this is the one single attribute of GOD which does not tend by its contemplation to increase the interval of separation between us and our Creator. If we consider His omnipotence, it is a mighty and majestic and stupendous thing. When we regard Him as the architect of worlds and systems, who created them all and launched them on their paths of light, and tenanted them with creatures constituted for their own enjoyment and His glory, and endowed with faculties nicely adjusted to the position to which they are appointed; or when we consider the unfailing power which sustains the mighty machinery thus formed at first-when we remember that the meanest thing is sustained in life by the daily ministration of that GOD who rules the whole-here is, indeed, much to admire. But, just in proportion as we admire are we separated from Him who wields such unlimited might. We look to Him and we see all that is majestic in power; and we look to ourselves, and we see all that is mean in our nothingness. Or, again, if we contemplate the omniscience of GOD ---if we consider that eye which sweeps the whole field of creation, and suffers not even the smallest transaction to pass unnoticed; that eye which can penetrate the deepest darkness and concealment, and can go down to the chambers of every heart; and detect what is passing in the secrecies of of irreconcilement, so far from this contemplation tending to bring us nearer to GOD, it fills us only with dread and dismay, and would make us, if it might be, take refuge in some inconceivable distance where we should escape His all searching eye; we would take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the universe, there to remain, if we might but escape His glance. Then again, the attribute of justice would stand forth in all its terrors to alarm the consciencestricken sinner, and to increase his distance from an injured and insulted GOD. The contemplation even of this attribute of justice may be, we doubt not, a most encouraging and delightful subject to engage the lofty minds of the angels who encircle his throne, the bright unfallen creatures who are always doing his errands of mercy, and who have never swerved from the pathway of obedience; but to those on whom the charge of disobedience and rebellion is fixed, it can be but the source of unmingled terror. Even the characteristic of holiness, which is essential to the divine nature, does not tend to draw us into communion with Him while contemplated in disconnection with mercy; but on the contrary, it throws us to a still greater distance. It is such that even the heavens are not clean in His sight. It is so pure as to recoil from sin with disgust and abhorrence such as is inconceivable even to those who have learned to view it as a vile and loathsome thing. Until therefore we have been invested with a better righteousness than our own, and have become sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart, the contrast of the purity of the divine nature with the defilement of our own, only increases the gulf of separation. But love is God's re conciling attribute; when we view | GoD could, even by one single word, Him under this aspect, he assumes towards us the character of a tender parent yearning over the members of his wide family who have left his house and his service, and have been unaffectionate, undutiful and disobedient, and with respect to whom He yet stands in the attitude of pity and compassion. I might appeal to the experience of those among you who are parents, and I might say that as you might retain tenderness for your wayward and perverse children even when no other hearts would sympathize with them, and be ready to receive them again to your affection when all others were alienated by their follies or their crimes; so does the Lord deal with his people, but with an amount of patience and forbearance, and pitying tenderness, such as the heart of father or mother has never known. They have wandered from him; but he has never left them; they have forsaken Him, but He has followed them with mercy, and suffered them not to remain in their state of estrangement, but he fetched them back from the far country, and the doors of his house and the circle of his family were open for them, and the arms of everlasting love were expanded to clasp and embrace them for ever. Now here you see that attribute of God, the contemplation of which does indeed cause all our heart's affections to gush forth towards him. The moment we appreciate in any degree the love of GOD, that moment is there excited within our bosom, somewhat of the same principle towards Him. call into existence myriads of such creatures. Jesus was not created: He is the eternal GoD: He is the sharer of His Father's throne from everlasting; and in rendering Him up to die there was an effort of love, the length and breadth of which we shall never be able to measure. It was not that God gave up ranks of angels, or annihilated worlds and systems, and made the mighty aggregate the sacrifice for man's transgression. This would have been comparatively a small thing. He did infinitely and inconceivably more than this. He gave up his dear Son the eternal partner of his nature and dominion, and caused him to come on earth, and take on him the form of a servant, of a man of sorrows, one in whom the world should see no form and no comeliness. And it was this very principle that made Christ undertake the work of redemption, and that carried him to the accomplishment of that work. His journey through the world was among scenes of inconceivable suffering and woe; for I believe, that there was not one single moment of Christ's earthly existence in which He was not paying out, part by part, the penalty of man's transgressions. And at the last, the flood of divine wrath rushed on him in a mighty torrent that must have overwhelmed and destroyed any one but an incarnate GOD. Here, then, is the great proof of God's love, that He gave his Son for us: the gift, though of mighty value, was not too costly; the price, though of tremendous amount, was not too great; and it was paid into the treasury of divine justice. But here I would remind you, that in contemplating the manifestation of GOD's love in the redemption of a sin ruined world, we must never lose sight of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, since if we impugn that one great foundation doctrine of the Gospel, we rob the manifestation of God's love of all its value and its greatness. For, if Christ were a creature, although he might have all the surpassing accomplishments need-there lingered in the midst of the ful for his work, and might be adorned with all conceivable moral excellence, yet there would be no great proof of divine love in this sacrifice; since Now we see the great knowledge of the human heart which is displayed in the application as well as in the first devising of the plan of redemption. It is indeed, a direct proof that the plan is from Him who formed the heart, and therefore, who knows what there is in the heart; for sin defiled, as we are, yet it seems as if moral ruins of our nature, the one beautiful feeling of gratitude. I believe that it would be difficult to prove that there walks the earth one human creature of whom it could be truly said, that this principle is altogether extinguished in his heart. I do not believe that there is one who, though he may have earned the hatred and contempt of his fellows, and may bear towards them the aspect of hardness and scorn, and stand in the attitude of resolute defiance, who does not yet bear in his bosom the principle of gratitude; dormant it may be, yet ready to be wakened into life by the manifestation of sympathy with the bitterness of his fallen condition and willingness to promote his welfare. In the various changes which are taking place in the constitution and relations of society, there could hardly be one more beneficial, and more precious in its results, than that which should tend to the adoption of the great principle of divine government into the exercises of human authority. Love excited by kindness would make that to be willingly yielded, which no violence could wrench from the determination of the obstinate. But whether this shall ever be adopted as a principle of social government, or be rejected as visionary and incapable of application, we are quite sure that it is the mainspring of the obedience to which we are led by the gentle and pursuasive yet irresistible influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not terrified by the alarms of coming vengeance, but we are led by the constraining force of love. We are not bidden to do God's work, and promote his glory upon earth, that we may thus tender the price, and pay the purchase money of heaven; we are reminded of what the Lord has done for us, infinitely and inconceivably beyond the reach of repayment, that we may thus be constrained to render ourselves unreservedly to Him who has so fastened our affections to Himself. When the Apostles would stir up their people to any extraordinary exertion, or unaccustomed duty, they reminded them simply of the weight of obligation which had been laid upon their souls, of the love wherewith GOD loved them, even when they were dead in trespasses and sins; that love which looked first on them, and did not wait until they took one step in the way of return; and so using this as the great motive which should influence their hearts, they would persuade them to carry it out to its result in the ready and joyful performance of the various duties which were enjoined them. Just so, dear brethren, if we would persuade you to do any thing to the glory of GoD, and the benefit of his creatures-if we would persuade you to any thing which might promote the present comfort of the brethren for whose interest we are concerned, or the advancement of that Saviour's kingdom on whose love we trust our hearts are resting: we could only use this one motive: Christ has loved you, therefore do what you may, for His sake. If we were to use any other means of persuasion, I believe that it would fail, as it has often failed before. There is but one prevailing principle, which is not of partial, but universal application. Other motives might sometimes be called into operation, and exercise occasional and temporary influence. If there were any great and important matter to be accomplished; if there were any unusual exertion to be made, it might be urged on us that we should obtain some special advantage; and so we might put forth the energy of our minds, and gird ourselves to the accomplishment of the immediate purpose; but here is a motive that is ever present in the believer's heart. Whether it be some great effort that he is to make for the glory of his Master, or the carrying out the principles of his Gospel in his daily and hourly actions and conversation, still the same argument would be urged with the like application and success. Wherever there is the love of GoD in the heart, there will be the desire of complete self-devotion to the Lord; the inquiry of the believer will be, not how he may escape from the required duty, or shift to the shoulders of others, the burden from which he would relieve his own, nor how he should conceal from his neighbours the smallness of his contribution to the proposed good work; bnt the inquiry will be," What shall I render to my GOD for all the benefits that he hath done unto me." The be iever's heart will recall past mercies, and glow at the remembrance of God's grace and loving kindness to him when he was a stranger and an alien: he will remember how love first found him a prodigal and an outcast, and bore with him in all his perverseness and all his rebellion: he will remember that God hath purchased him, that he is not his own, that he is bought with a precious price, that he is bound to glorify his Master with his body and his spirit, with every talent and every endow ment, for they are God's. But I pass on to consider in the Second place The amount of service which the Gospel claims. It was the commendation of Mary, in the words of the text, that she had done what she could. It may seem hard to define, with any thing of accuracy, the requirements of Christian duty; and we must ever bear in mind that the Gospel is not a system of exact and precise legislation, telling us in every possible and conceivable case, what we are required to do, and what we are required to contribute, but it is a system of general principles, which are to be applied in each special and individual case by a conscience, enlightened by the spirit of GOD, and directed by him in the knowledge of the truth, as well as assisted by him in carrying out into detail the performances of duty. Here we find one great general rule laid down, that the amount of ability is the measure of duty. It may be carried out into operation as well in our efforts for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom; as in the contributions which we make to relieve the necessities of the poorer brethren. In the former case we observe that the claim of service is not only upon those who are distinguished by the nobler endowments intrusted to them, but that it reaches also to those whose talents are of a far lower order. When Christ came as the missionary of mercy to teach and to save the benighted world, in the accomplishment of his mighty purpose to send the knowledge of the way of salvation through the earth, He chose such agents as human wisdom would have been little likely to select. Though the prejudices of carnal Even if it were apparent that our put them to interest, so that at the Lord's coming He may receive his own with usury; I charge you by the account which you shall render when the great white throne shall be set, and the debt book shall be opened, use them for the glory of GoD. You have now the opportunity, but it may not long remain to you; the Lord now calls you to his service, but the bright and sunny hours of day are fast declining, and the night is at hand, in which no man can work. Even if your sphere is far more circumscribed, and your circle of influence far narrower, yet I would remind you that there is no one who does not exercise some measure of influence over those with whom he has connection and intercourse in the relations of social life; and of this he cannot dispossess himself; it must tell for the glory of GoD, or for the cause of his great enemy; and it may continue to operate upon the principles and practice of others, when he by whom it was first exercised is laid in his quiet grave, and his body has gone back to the dust from which it sprang. It is greatly for your encouragement to remember how often GoD has used the humblest instruments, in the fulfilment of his gracious purposes to his chosen people. Among the Apostles there was indeed one gifted man who went forth to his appointed work with the endowments of an accomplished mind, as well as the devotedness of an affectionate heart; but his partners in the mighty work of evangelizing the world, were men of the bumblest attainments, and such as the undiscerning multitude would haye pronounced utterly unfit for the great design which they were destined to fulfil. And GoD still vindicates his own wisdom in the choice of means, and takes to himself glory which He will not suffer any human creature to share. He often raises up from the lowest and most despised condition one and another, whom He enables to bear a blessed, and successful testimony to the power of his Gospel; and not unfrequently those who in the strength and vigour of their days, when the energies of mind and body were fresh and unbroken, could per ceive but little result of their labours in the cause of Christ, are permitted to speak effectually to the souls of those around them, when they are fastened to the bed of weakness and pain, when they are passing away from the interests, and occupations of the world, and their footstep is almost on the threshold of eternity. The word thus spoken in much weakness, yet in much faith, has often. been carried home to the hearts of those who stood in the Christian's death chamber, and it has been as seed sown on a prepared soil, and has sprung up and borne fruit unto eternal life. Whatever then be the measure of your ability, rejoice to do what you may for the glory of your Master, and for the benefit of immortal souls. Let every faculty and every affection be bound to his service by the con straining power of love; and unwor thy, and inadequate though your efforts may seem, He can give them an abundant measure of success, and make you the honoured instruments of accomplishing his purposes of mercy. It will be a blessed thing, and it may even enhance the inconceivable amount of heaven's glories, if there shall stand side by side with you on the right hand of the Judge, some one to whom your words, or your example was made the means of conversion. And how would this blessedness be yet more increased, if it were from the circle of your own family that such a one were thus gathered in; if it were parent, or wife, or child, or brother, who should thus be called by a word in season, or by the silent preaching of an humble, holy, and consistent life, to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. Be faithful, bold, and full of prayer; never be ashamed to own Christ for your Master in the midst of an evil generation, and do not doubt that He will put honour upon your simple dependence, and make you the channels through which to convey blessings to the souls of others. The same principle as the measure of duty may be applied also in determining the amount of required con |