which is to come,-the Almighty, who is over all, God blessed for ever. How inconceivable, then, the love of God in bestowing on us a gift of such transcendant excellence!

But even this is not all. The greatness of the gift is enhanced by the peculiar circumstances which attended the manner of bestowing it. Had the Son of God appeared in our world in the pomp and dignity of a king ;-had he been honoured, caressed, and admired, by those who approached him ;—had every one vied with each other who should have paid him the highest reverence, even in this the condescension would have been infinitely inconceivable. But the love of Jehovah appears still more wonderful in the circumstances of abasement to which the glorious Redeemer voluntarily submitted, and in the number and severity of the sufferings which he so cheerfully endured: For "though he was rich, yet for our sakes "he became poor, that we thro' his po"verty might be made rich." If we judge of the degree of affection which any one bears to us by the measure of trouble, expense, or personal inconve

nience to which he is ready to submit for our benefit; behold, O believer, in the humiliation, sufferings, and death of Christ, the most wondrous love that was ever shewn since the day that God created man upon the earth!

That God's gracious purpose of redeeming sinners might be accomplished, it was necessary that the Son of the High. est should not only become man, but a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. It was necessary that the Lord of life and glory should die upon a cross,— unspotted righteousness be made sin,and unblemished blessedness become a curse. When God created the world, he had only to speak the word, and it was done; but its redemption could not be accomplished without the blood of Emanuel, God in human flesh.

View this glorious person, whom angels adore, an humble babe in Bethlehem. Trace him through a life of pain and poverty, of labour and sorrow, of reproach and persecution. Regard him especially at the close of life. See him in the garden of Gethsemane, lying prostrate on the ground in an agony,-his soul

exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Behold him betrayed by one of his own disciples, denied by another, forsaken by all, apprehended by a furious multitude, bound, dragged to an unrighteous tribunal, and treated with the utmost cruelty, mockery, and insult. Ascend with him to Calvary. See him crowned with thorns, his hands and feet nailed to the cross, his side pierced with a spear, while his spotless soul suffers anguish inexpressible, under a sense of the wrath that was due to the sins of a guilty world. See him at last bowing his head and giving up the ghost. Join all these circumstances together, and judge what must be the greatness of that love which dwelt in God, when, for accomplishing the purposes of his love, such astonishing means were employed!

Indeed, such strange manner of love is this, that to some pretended sons of wisdom, who must needs measure the divine proceedings by the standard of their own imperfect reason, it appears to exceed belief. "Christ crucified was to "the Jews a stumbling block, and to "the Greeks foolishness." And still, in

every age, some have been found too wise in their own conceit to submit to the plain declarations of Scripture, and too good in their own esteem to depend for the whole of their salvation upon the work finished on Calvary. But the cross of Christ is the Christian's glory. The doctrine of an atonement for sin, by God manifest in the flesh, is the grand corner-stone of Christianity. Remove this, and you remove the only foundation of the sinner's hope. While others, therefore, treat with indifference, or even dare to pour contempt, on this great mystery of godliness, ought every disciple of Jesus to regard it with the highest reverence and delight, as his choicest treasure, as the source of all his happiness; convinced, that in the whole of this marvellous transaction, the God with whom he has to do appears in the amiable light of a reconciled God and gracious Father; his anger is turned away, and his love towards him exhibited in its fullest glory.-But,

Third, The love of God in redemption appears in the manner of its application to the souls of men.

And here we may, first of all, observe the various outward means which God has appointed to bring men to the knowledge and experience of salvation. How many alluring promises and pressing invitations are to be found in his word, so passionately expressed, that were not the hearts of sinners" hard as the nether "millstone," it would be impossible to hear or to read them without emotion. With what tenderness does the great God invite sinners to come to him that they may live ; assuring them, in the most solemn manner, that he has no pleasure in their death, but rather that the wicked should turn from their evil ways and live; saying, "Turn ye, turn ye, why "will ye die, O house of Israel ?" In like heart-melting strains does the compassionate Redeemer address every one without exception : "Behold I stand at "the door and knock; if any man will

hear my voice, and open the door, I "will come in to him, and sup with him, "and he with me." In the same affectionate manner do the Apostles deliver the message of salvation to their fellow