glory in the martyr's death. It was predicted that he should die a sacrifice; but there is a splendour, a grandeur in the offering up of the oblation. It was predicted that he should die a conqueror; but the conqueror dies amidst a blaze of renown; fame blows its trumpet, and victory unfolds its banner. But he died "the death of the cross ;" and Satan and his compeers seem to have rejoiced in the peculiarity of the selection. They did all they could to wrest him from the Jewish judicature, and made the Jewish judicature deny and stultify itself, in order that it might abandon the meek sufferer of Nazareth to the pains of a Roman crucifixion. And Satan put it into the heart of Judas to betray him; and we may imagine that he was so overwhelmed by the torrent of the Saviour's anguish, that he would feel a kind of infuriate joy when he saw that the attempt succeeded, when he saw the sufferer bending under the cross, when he saw nail after nail driven through his limbs, when he saw the spear piercing his side and rooting in his heart, when he saw him bow his head in death. But oh, the immensity of Satan's sufferings! Oh, the ghastliness of his despair! Oh, the terror of his fall! While principalities and powers were spoiled, made a show of openly, and triumphed over by that very cross, he felt the iron goad, it entered into his soul, and the chains of darkness are at once seen to manacle him.

This is the view we must take; Jesus died the death of the cross in order to destroy the works of the devil, and him that had the power of death, that is the devil. And we may naturally think of the early success of that name, we may naturally recall its present efficacy, and we may remember that till now all its results had been dark conjecture on the part of those whom he trampled under foot. Until now, when they saw him prepared for the fight, they imagined he would choose another field; but it was this place upon which he was intent; and as they had long known and often confessed, so now they perceived, that their thoughts were not his thoughts, and that their ways were not his ways, and they sunk down into the hell of their own digging, and to their own contumely.

"Jesus I know, and Paul I know," said the exorcised fiend, "but who are ye?" Not that there was any comparison; for "was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" And yet had Satan afterwards presumed to enter amongst the sons of God before the Lord, he might have said as of old, "Hast thou considered my servant Paul?" The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is the strongest proof of Christianity, apart from the resurrection of Christ. If he were not sincere, all we can say then is, that the most sober judgment, the most sterling truth, the most cautious investigation, the exercise of the greatest sobriety over the imagination, can never lead to satisfactory results. If he were not sincere, we must believe, (and a strange contradiction it is,) that for the first time selfishness is covetous of sacrifice, that ambition is intent upon dishonour, that pleasure rejoices in austerity, and that hypocrisy sighs for death. What a changed, what a renewed character! He weeps, he prays! Those hands, which haled women and children to prison, are now suppliantly uplifted or penitentially clasped. They no longer bear the murderer's commission, nor the murderer's weapon. Those eyes weep which had been unmoved amidst the wailing of mothers and orphans; and though once flashing with defiance, they now overflow with tears. Those lips which had breathed out terror and slaughter can now only utter, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The enemy said, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will

divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will destroy my sword, my hand shall destroy them;" aud as he went hell was seen to follow with him. Where now is the fury of the oppressor? What a new creature! What a marvellous transposition! The lamb may lie down with the lion, the sucking child may play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child may lay his hand on the cockatrice's den.

Were there time, we might connect this with evangelical doctrine, with ministerial faithfulness, and with upright zeal. But we hasten to an immediate conclusion. Remember, that though we have had to speak in military terms, the project is one of benevolence. "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet." Now, what is this, but to stifle the last atom of evil, to extinguish the last tone of strife, and to purge the universe of that hostile principle which has so long distracted it? The strong man, for a long time, kept his goods in peace; but a stronger one has come on him, and overcome him, and taken away his armour, and now divides the spoil. And while demons are represented as scowling on our salvation, purer and more benevolent spirits rejoice, and when there is an accession made to the Saviour's kingdom, an enlargement obtained to his dominions, there is joy in heaven among the angels of God; heaven is all gladness and jubilee; the vaulted sky reflects angelic happiness, and the everlasting hills reverberate the thunderings of their praise; the tree of life hangs with a more luxurious fruit; the marriage supper of the Lamb presents a more cheerful festivity; the kingdom prepared before the foundation of the world assumes a more royal state; paradise is clothed with fairer beauty; and the bright seraphim in burning robes lift up their angel trumpets. And while there is this demon influence at work there is another influence far stronger than it can exert; the Holy Spirit comes down, and casts out Satan from the human heart, tears him from his royal throne, and turns that heart into his own temple, and into his own shrize.

And now, my brethren, what part take you? Satan has his confederates and colleagues on earth, and he who toucheth any unclean thing is himself unclean. Shall we bring down on ourselves the rebuke of heaven-" What have you to do with ine, who refuse to take my cup unto your lips?" Or shall we expose ourselves to the contempt of hell-" Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?" There is nothing but the practical surrender of the heart, nothing but coming to the Saviour's feet, and devoting ourselves to his service, plucking out a right eye, and holding ourselves in readiness to do and to suffer all his will, can secure to us the favour of heaven. If we are thus employed we do well. You are engaged in a good work, and we this day invoke you with all affection and fidelity, that you would contribute to this work of your prayers, and your influence, and your substance. The gold is the Lord's, and the silver is the Lord's. If you frequently give, you more and more frequently receive. You brought nothing into this world, and it is certain you can carry nothing out. There is a talent by which you may benefit others, and a cup of cold water, the costly shekel, or the poor mite, alike presented to Him that loved us and washed us in his own blood, shall in no wise lose its reward. You have as much common sense and as much piety as I can pretend to; you know that missionary institutions must have many expenses, and that those expenses must be met; I therefore make my simple appeal to you as Christians, wishing not to amuse, wishing not even to excite unduly, but praying that as Christians you would freely give, for you have freely received.

56

THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST.

RIGHT REV. C. J. BLOOMFIELD, d.D., Lord BISHOP OF LONDON.

ST. EDMUND THE KING AND ST. NICHOLAS ACONS, LOMBARD Street, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15th, 1833.

"And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."-Isaiah xxv. 9.

THE chapter from which these words are taken contains a noble description of the glory and the grace of God: of his glory in ruling with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm the nations of the earth, and in crushing the opposers of his counsels and the enemies of his church; of his grace, or rather I should say, of his glory and his grace, in the salvation of mankind. It records, by anticipation, the triumphs of the Gospel, the downfall of the powers of darkness, the annihilation of death itself, the reign of perpetual peace and joy. “I will destroy," says the Prophet, "in this mountain," that is in the spiritual Zion, his church, “the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations,” the covering of thick darkness and ignorance; the veil which is spread over the hearts of mankind, and which no hand but the hand of God can take away. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the rebuke of the people shall he take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath spoken it."

A description so magnificent as this could not belong to the actions of any human conqueror or deliverer. To abolish the primeval penalty of sin, to banish grief and sorrow from the precincts of human existence, to penetrate and dissipate the darkness which was proof against all the powers and energies of the human mind; this was the work of which the prophet spake, and this was a work not to be achieved by any, nor by all the powers of man. The church therefore was prepared to receive—at least, it ought to have been prepared to receive, and the few who knew and believed the words of God were actually prepared to receive-a mightier person than had ever before mediated between God and man; and the just expectations of the believing servants of God, and their joyful praises for the fulfilment of their hopes, are expressed in the words of my text: 66 Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

It is matter of historical certainty, that the people of God did wait for the coming of the Saviour, from the time of the very first promise given to the woman after the fall, to the period of our Lord's appearance upon earth; at which season we know there was a general expectation, not only in Judea but

in all the neighbouring regions, of the advent of some mighty personage, who was to realize all the sublime descriptions of the ancient prophets. We are told that Simeon, a just and devout man in Jerusalem, was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Anna, the aged prophetess, spoke of the child Jesus to them that looked for, or waited for, redemption in Jerusalem. Joseph of Arimathea, we read, was one of those who were waiting for the kingdom of God. It would have been well for the Jewish people if they had waited for their Messiah in the spirit of meek submission to the will of God, in a ready acquiescence with his connsels: they would then have verified both parts of the Prophet's description: they would not only have waited for the coming of their Saviour, but they would have welcomed him, and rejoiced in him when he did come: the chosen people of Jehovah would have hailed, as in the advent of their deliverer, with songs of congratulation and triumph, the same in words, far different in sentiment, from those which ushered in the Prince of Peace into the walls of that city, from which he was so soon to be led forth to crucifixion—“ Hosannah to the son of David: blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosannah in the highest.”

Now let us look somewhat more closely to the words of the Prophet, as being properly descriptive of those feelings, with which every one who has meditated upon the condition of man, and the promises of God, is accustomed to acknowledge the fulfilment of those promises in the person of Jesus Christ. "Lo, this is our God: we have waited for him, and he will save us." "This is our God:" not merely a prophet, a priest, a king, chosen by Jehovah from amongst his people, and commissioned to give laws and statutes, as Moses was; or to assert his divine authority, and to punish idolatry as Elijah was; or to denounce his wrath against an apostate people, and at the same time to foreshadow a great deliverance to come, as was Isaiah himself, or Jeremiah, or any other of those holy men who spake in old times by the Holy Ghost: but this is our Gon; this is Emanuel, God with us-God manifest in the flesh. His divine nature is announced by an angel before his conception: it is added by a voice from heaven afterwards, "This is my beloved Son." It is asserted by the Great Teacher himself, "I and my Father are one." It had before this been proclaimed by the voice of inspiration, "This is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness:" "And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

But Jesus Christ evinced this grand and solemn truth by his display of the divine attributes in his own person; by his omnipotence, by his mighty power, he showed himself to be indeed " the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person." The works which he wrought he wrought not as a delegated agent, but as possessing an inherent power; the spirit of might, as well as the spirit of wisdom, dwelt in him without measure. No unprejudiced person, who heard his teaching and saw in his works the confirmation of that teaching, could hesitate to exclaim "Lo, this is our God."

And now, my brethren, understand the vastness of the work which he had taken on himself to execute, by reconciling in his own person sinful man to an offended God; the overthrow of the kingdom of Satan; the abolition of death. We can perceive some reason why it should not have been entrusted to any inferior agent. No inferior agent could have performed it. Man could not redeem his brother; for he could not atone for his own transgressions. Could any of the angels, then, have taken the enterprize in hand? "Lo, he chargeth his angels with

folly, and the heavens are not clean in his sight." It was a work not only beyond the power, but above the conception, of any being of limited goodness and knowledge. It was fit to be accomplished by Him who alone could accomplish it, even by the Son of God-" Whom he hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom also he made the worlds."

We must not permit ourselves, my brethren, to contemplate the work of man's redemption in any point of view less striking, less awful, less sublime, than this; that it is God's work, devised and executed by Omnipotence. We must not content ourselves with any acknowledgment of the nature and office of the Saviour short of that which the Prophet has made, in the name of his universal church-" Lo, this is our God;" and with the Apostle, once for a time incredulous, but soon convinced of the fact of his Divine Master having risen from the dead-"My Lord, and my God."

But if this be indeed an established truth, that we have a Saviour not less able than willing to rescue us from the curse of sin, and from its power; in short, if God himself, in the person of his Eternal Son, is pledged to our salvation; if he was in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; is not this a fit subject for rejoicing and thanksgiving? Can any one, professing belief in the Gospel, have any adequate notion of the riches of divine love, of his own unworthiness and helplessness, of the mercy and condescension of his Saviour, who does not feel that gladness of heart, that holy, humble exultation, which is expressed by the Prophet, "This is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation?"

And, now, let me ask, is this really a subject of joy with every one of us, my brethren? Are these, indeed, the feelings which animate our breasts? Is the redemption, which has been wrought for us by the Son of God, the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh-is this habitually made by every one of us a subject of devout inquiry and meditation, of prayer and thanksgiving? Does it furnish materials for continued acts of prayer and adoration? Does it, in fact (I beseech you, put the question to your own consciences,) constantly, or at any time, excite in us the same, or any thing like the same, gladness of heart, which is sure to be awakened by some contingency of temporal good, success in our schemes of ambition, or our projects of money-making? Here it is the grand difficulty lies in the work of religion, in bringing men to a just apprehension and to a lively heart-felt feeling of the exceeding value of that salvation which is offered them in Jesus Christ. Why should it be so exceedingly difficult? It is because that apprehension can be felt only by those who have been first brought to a sense of their own sinfulness, and of the extreme need in which they stand of an Almighty Deliverer. He, alone, who has been induced by such feelings to exclaim with the Apostle, “ O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" can joyfully answer with the same Apostle, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." We must be filled with that anxious desire for such a deliverance, which can only spring from a just view of our sinfulness and danger, and which is implied in the Prophet's expression of waiting for the Lord, before we can feel an assurance that he will save us, or rejoice, as we ought to rejoice, in his salvation.

It is, therefore, wisely appointed by the church, that the attention of all Christians should be especially directed, at particular seasons of the year, to a nearer consideration of the mercy and condescension of the Son of God in taking upon himself the nature of man, and accomplishing all those glorious