drops of blood." The Scriptures, selected for the service of the last few days, have brought him before us with "the chastisement of our peace upon him." But besides the sufferings to which I have already adverted, we have seen him betrayed by one disciple, denied by another, and forsaken by all. "He looked for some to have pity, but there was no man; neither found he any to comfort him." And let us imagine how the anguish of his soul must have been augmented, at witnessing the desertion of those with whom he had so long interchanged the social endearments of friendship, and whom he had so signally chosen as the propagators of his gospel. At the hour of extremity to be deserted by those we love, must, under any circumstances, be a severe trial; but here, where the ties of obligation were so strong, the severity was no doubt infinitely aggravated. That his enemies should have been loud in their clamours against him, was not surprising: he had publicly rebuked them, and thus exposed their iniquities to the reproaches of the good; but that a beloved disciple should have sanctioned, as it were, the savage hostility of his adversaries by a base denial, must indeed have been an additional source of bitter anguish to the already agonized Redeemer. Here, nevertheless, in the midst of his sufferings, how transcendently was Christ's love displayed! He reproached the delinquent Apostle only by a look. He did in no wise cast

him out," but accepted his contrition and his

tears.

Oh! that we would but love Christ as he has loved us, of which he has recorded so stupendous a proof! We should not then regard his counsel so lightly as we do. Surely real affection for the Saviour of sinners would animate our endeavours to do his blessed will, who made us "heirs of God, and joint heirs" with himself; and if we feel no real affection for him, we can have “neither part nor lot" in that expiatory sacrifice to which he submitted for the salvation of us all. If he were in our hearts, we could not fail to glorify him both "in our bodies and in our spirits which are his❞— his at the price of blood, of agony, of death. Could his regard for a race of erring creatures have been more signally displayed, than by the sufferings which he endured to save them from an eternity of infliction? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends:" but the Saviour went beyond this, he laid it down also for his enemies, for those who did despite unto him as well as for those who do so now. It was not to procure any advantage to himself that he died. He was the only loser, the gain was all ours. He reaped no benefit from the sacrifice, but we are put by it in a condition to reap the harvest of eternal life. To him there could be no advantage derived, for how can the salvation of sinners benefit him who has all perfection within himself,

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and is, consequently, incapable of deriving advantage. "In his love and in his pity he redeemed us," when we were under sentence of everlasting exclusion from the Paradise of God. Nothing short of infinite goodness could have determined to endure so much, simply for the rescue of a race of creatures from everlasting woe, whose happiness or misery can have no possible influence over the condition of his immutable and eternal nature. But the mercy of the Deity delights to be exercised, and to what a prodigious act of humiliation did his mercy lead? To the crucifixion of his only begotten Son; to his propitiation for sin, and thus to the redemption of mankind. But for the death of Christ, the penal gulf had been the everlasting abiding place of all the posterity of Adam. The "ten thousand times ten thousand," who will hereafter shout " Hosanna in the highest!" and lift up their voices in the courts of the heavenly sanctuary, to glorify him who presides there omnipotent and eternal; these, but for the stupendous sacrifice of God in the flesh, would hereafter swell for ever the dismal chorus of the condemned, which is characterized by the divine oracle of our faith, as an everlasting "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth."

But it is now time that we should consider more particularly for whom Christ died. He died then for us, who are now assembled here to commemorate his death; for us, who so often profess to acknowledge

and adore him, but nevertheless as often act as though we "counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing." He died for us and all mankind. Yes, he was persecuted, reviled, stigmatized, scourged, and finally nailed to that cross upon which he expired in agony, for a race of lapsed creatures, the corrupt descendants of those "who by transgression fell" from the state of innocence for which they and their posterity were originally designed; who rashly admitted sin into the world, and "death by sin"; who traversed the designs of Providence by a daring act of transgression, thus justly incurring and entailing upon their descendants, to the remotest generation, the penalty of eternal death. He died for a race of beings who are now continually rebelling against him, and thus rendering void the mighty effort which he made to save them. I repeat it, he died for us, and what are we? Let every one answer the question to his own heart. What return have we made for this condescension, this mercy, this love? Who has requited it as he ought; who has requited it as he could? Where is the Christian now before me, that would be bold enough to come forward and pronounce-It is I? Have any of us done our best to show a becoming sense of what the Redeemer has endured for us? Let not the predilections of self-love disguise the unwelcome truth. very best of us, but miserable sinners; and if this character will apply to the best, by what

We are,

the

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terms in language shall we convey an adequate idea of the worst? "I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin hath my mother conceived me." This declaration of the Psalmist is universally applica ble to mankind; and we but too prevalently shov our propagation from a corrupted stock, "for ther is not a just man upon earth that doeth good an sinneth not."

Alas! what exertions do we make to "flee fro the wrath to come," after all that the Saviour h undergone in order to break down those barri which obstructed our passage to immortal blis What exertions do we make to "enter in at the str gate," which alone can lead us "into all peac and through which all the righteous of every nat under Heaven, who have "finished their cours have already passed before us? We all stand need of much spiritual improvement. Our rigl ousness is far less prevailing than it should be. may, perhaps, devote some portion of our time Him, who "has redeemed us from the curse of law," by taking our curse upon himself; but this is often done more from habit than from principle offering him the mere federal homage of obligat for all the benefits that he has heaped upon rather than the willing obedience of an anx and affectionate heart. Though we are read acknowledge our redemption through his ble what will this acknowledgment be likely to ber us, if we do not allow ourselves to take advant