my earthliness, my conceit :-were all these laid upon Thee? Didst Thou become "Man of sorrows" for this, and hast Thou borne all my sins, for my soul's salvation!'

Ah! beloved, did the soul feel this, and enter into this, and were it made deeply to feel this, we should have something of fellowship with Christ, in His sufferings. It would not be mere natural feeling stirred up, it would not be mere natural affections flowing; we should have fellowship with Christ, in His sufferings.

Oh! how our hearts would then break! How low we should be brought! How softly we should walk! Talk against my brother? I cannot. Talk against that Society? I cannot. Find fault with that minister of Christ? I cannot; I can do it no more. Why? Because I have seen Him that was the "Man of sorrows," and sorrowed for my sins. His sorrows have made me hate myself, laid me in the dust, and lifted me out of it, and I can now say, I sorrow with that "godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of."

My dear hearers, and yet I would say, that while I would desire to dwell with Him, who was once a Man of sorrows," and enter into, and feel His sorrows, I would desire with gladness to dwell with Him, as now in sorrow no more. Jesus is no more 66 a Man of sorrows;" He is at the right hand of His Father and our Father, His God and our God; He has "finished the work, that was given Him to do," "made an end of sin, and made reconciliation for iniquity." Not made men salvable; God keep me from resting on that, when I come to die!--but it could not give me rest. He has borne sin away, into a land which is not inhabited, and where it cannot be found. What! is this so, and am I not glad? If I believe it, I must be glad. What! has He borne my sins? Then I shall not have to bear them; there is an end of them; they are blotted out, and cast into the depths of the sea.

Do not mistake this truth, beloved. I believe that as long as

we are in the world, and are found daily and hourly coming nearer the Divine glory, there are solemn seasons, deep searchings of heart, and secret loathings. I have more communion with some in their tears, than with others in their joy; though I do not think legal bondage a happy state, yet I think there is more eommunion with God in it. There is a joy springing from nature, and a joy springing from the Holy Ghost. We should dwell upon the

Lord with gladness, because He has borne our sins, cast them behind His back, and God remembers them no more.

Oh! not one drop of that cup, we shall have to drink. We have trials, it is true, and we ought not to repine under them; some of our choicest mercies are to be found in them; but not one single drop of the curse will ever belong to that soul, who is in Jesus.

Where is Christ now? He is at the right hand of God; He bears our names upon His heart, and our sorrows upon His shoulders; there is not a single sorrow, that we can have, but He bears it.

Oh! blessed truth! There are little things, in some of our sorrows, which we could not tell to any earthly being around us; nay, I have sometimes thought, that if one of those heavenly beings, who once lived on earth, were to come to us, we could not tell them. And yet we can tell God.

Blessed be God, Christ is as much our Saviour when our hands are hanging down, as when they are lifted up, though it is to our shame, that they are so often hanging down. I want a Saviour for low frames, as well as for high frames; and in Jesus I have such a Saviour.

Oh! beloved, Jesus is all that the soul can want, to make it glad. He is the "Man of sorrows ;" and there is not a sorrow that you have, but His grace is enough for it; He himself enters into it, and will soon lift you out of it, and above it, and make you sing the louder for it, throughout eternity.

Blessed truth: He can purify us, and make us like Himself, and

cause us to walk with God, as His children, in the subduedness of a subdued spirit, and in the blessed prospect of eternal glory.

Now with all these causes for gladness, are you stillļsad? I should like to ask you, as a brother disciple, what it is, which makes you sad? There must be some cause; what is that cause? Look into the fourteenth of John, and there you will see the elements of a happy life. At the twenty-third verse we read-" Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him;" we will dwell with him. In other words, if I may paraphrase it, he shall be abidingly a happy man. The man who lives on Me, and for Me, "We will come, and make our abode with him," amidst all his changes, amidst all his varieties of experience, and amidst all his sore temptations. Who are the happiest persons in this congregation? Those who walk most with Christ.

Oh! that the blessed Spirit may direct our eyes, to-night, to this blessed Sin-bearer. Perhaps we came hither heavily laden with the painful remembrance of sins, committed since our conversion. They are oftentimes more awful to us, than the sins of our unconverted ignorance; and if, when brought to the trial, after solemn prayer, serious purposes, and hearty determinations, we come short of it, and find ourselves as weak as a cobweb, there is something deeply affecting in this.

I dare say, as we

We have nearly come to the close of our year. look back upon it, we are ashamed of our little advances in the Divine life, how often we have been foiled, and how little progress we have made. Let us thank God that life yet remains to us.

It was a remark of a dear brother, now in glory, (and it keeps close to me,) that there is one enemy, which has received its death-blow, and that is, self-importance. And you will find, in all the saints of God, that the blessed Spirit is always aiming at their self-importance; their self-importance is always growing, but they are always receiving

something to humble it, and always will, till it shall have no existence in their souls for ever.

There are two or three thoughts, which I would commend to your serious and prayerful attention.

If you want to live nearer to God, live more on the great Sinbearer, remembering that He has made an end of your sins. Take away my justification, and you take away my sanctification. Remember those words of the psalmist-"I will run in the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart." Keeping the eye fixed on Jesus, and living upon Him and for Him, is the true secret of all happiness; it is the very happiness of heaven.

May the Lord bless these truths to my soul, and to your souls, for Christ's sake.