world; and his compassion induced him to adopt the plan. It was, that his beloved Son should suffer for guilty man, and bear the curse instead of him. Thus would sin be punished; and thus might the sinner be entirely forgiven.

An acquaintance with this divine Saviour is absolutely needful for you. He is set forth as the only foundation for a sinner's eternal hopes. His is the only name by which a sinner can be saved; and he is the only way of access to God. The way of salvation is believing on him from the heart. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou Ishalt be saved. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." But, my young friend, permit me affectionately to caution you against deceiving your own soul with the shadow of belief instead of the substance, for in one sense, "the devils believe and tremble." Believing in Jesus, is termed, in scripture, "believing with the heart." There is the consent of the heart to this plan of salvation, as well as the persuasion of the mind. Believing on Christ is described as a receiving of him. If you believe, you will receive him as your Lord, your hope, your Saviour, your all. Believing is also described being a persuasion of divine truths, and an embracing of them. If you believe on Jesus,

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you will be persuaded, on God's authority, that he is what the scriptures represent, an all-sufficient Saviour; that he has done what the scriptures declare, that he has laid down his life for you; and, persuaded of these truths, you will embrace this great salvation. Believing is represented as a going to Christ; it is such a conviction of his power and grace as is attended by the going, as it were, of the soul to him for life and salvation. Look then to him. Rest your eternal all on his righteousness and death. Let this become your plea for obtaining mercy and heaven, that Jesus loved you, that Jesus died for you. Go in the solemn moments of retired devotion, and intrust your all to Jesus. Can you not there say to him, to whom darkness and day are alike, 66 Lord, I adore thee as my Saviour, thou didst die for my sins, and I commit my eternal all to thee? Wash me in thy blood; wash not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Thy gospel I embrace. All that thou discoverest let me believe; all that thou teachest let me learn. Thy example I would follow. All that thou lovest let me love, all that thou hatest let me hate; and all that thou commandest, let my faith, working by love, urge me to obey. Be thou my all; thy death and righteousness my hope; thy life my pattern:

thy word my rule; thy glory my aim; thy love my heaven."

A well placed trust in Jesus Christ will be found a sure support for hope, and peace, and joy, when all other dependences sink in eternal ruin; and all other hopes are blasted in black despair. The soul committed to his care will be safe through its short stay among the objects of time and sense; and, what is far more important, will be safe and happy when the graves are giving up their dead, when the world is fleeing from the majesty of its Maker's face, and when the world is perishing in flames.

Numbers profess a regard to Christ, whose hopes are, in reality, built upon themselves; and they imagine that when they have done as well as they can, Jesus will make up the rest. But that right knowledge of the Saviour, in which so much of religion consists, leads to very different views: if you enjoy this, Jesus Christ will be your all. You will, as a lost, helpless, condemned, and wretched creature, come to him for life. Your whole trust will

be in him: abhorring yourself, you will flee to him as your sole dependence. You will indulge no hope, from imagining that your sins are few or small; but will own them deserving of divine wrath. You will no longer rest on the deluding, but absolutely

false notion, that you have done as well as you could, and that therefore God will accept you, but you will be humbled as a guilty, creature at your Maker's feet. Nothing past, nothing present, nothing future of your own, must, in the slightest degree, be the ground of your dependence, but, as stripped of every thing, as in yourself destitute of all good, you must look to the Lamb of God. A dying minister, eminent in his day, said to a visitor who was taking leave of him, "I am every day expecting my death; but I desire to die like the penitent thief, crying to the crucified Jesus for mercy. I am nothing; I have nothing; I can do nothing, except what is unworthy; my eye, and hope, and faith, is to Christ on his cross. I bring an unworthiness, like that of the poor dying thief, unto him; and have no more to plead than he. Like the poor thief, I am waiting to be received, by the infinite grace of my Lord, into his kingdom."

But, my young friend, do not mistake th nature of the gospel: or imagine that because the soul is saved solely through the obe dience and death of Christ, upon its believing in him, that therefore holiness of heart and life is an unimportant thing. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." When Jesus invites the humbled soul to him, he

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adds, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me;" he says, "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. If a man love me he will keep my words." The true christian's faith is represented as, "faith which works by love;" and without the fruits of holiness, "faith is dead, being alone." If you, from your heart, receive the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Redeemer, you will also submit to him as your sovereign Lord. You will love the commandments of God, as just and holy. You will yield up yourself, body, soul, and spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ; that "whether you live you may live to the Lord, or whether you die you may die to the Lord." While religion leads you to trust the Saviour's death, it will teach you to copy his life.

There are few situations, in which christians can show those bright specimens of glowing piety, which dazzle the eyes of others; but that steady, humble, constant piety; those secret desires for holiness and heaven; that private, daily converse with God in prayer; that cheerful, firm depend ence on the atoning Saviour; and those attempts, in the retired scenes of domestic life, to live as apostles would have lived, if placed in a like situation;-all these flow from following Jesus, as surely as water flows