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of faith is to receive it, and to apply it, even as God himself has recommended it, and it has lost none of its virtue. To this very day it purifies as perfectly as ever it did, and believers now in life, and in the hour of death, feel its divine efficacy, as truly as the martyred Stephen did. I find a dying Christian thus proclaiming his faith and hope in it, when heart and flesh were failing him: "Am not I, my friends, a monument of God's rich, free grace, of his boundless love and mercy in Christ? O most extensive is the efficacy of his precious blood! for it has reached to me, one of the vilest of sinners: O here is boundless goodness, unfathomable love!—this blood has washed clean my soul, the seat of defilement, that was as black as hell; purified my conscience, that was darker than the grave, and made it brighter than the light: in a word, this blood will make me, who was vile, most vile, a child of hell, an heir of wrath, holy before God, and fit to live with God and the Lamb, with angels, and the spirits of good men made perfect, to all eternity, and in a few minutes my soul shall be made perfect also. O blessed, for ever blessed be God my Saviour: eternal praises be rendered unto thee!" This is true faith, and high honour put upon the blood of Jesus, to seal God's testimony concerning it. He hath set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Trusting to it, the foulest sins are washed as white as snow, and crimson sins as the purest wool. So the Beloved says to his church"Behold, thou art fair, my love: behold, thou art all fair, there is no spot in thee; thou art all glorious within." No angel can be whiter or purer, or stand

more accepted before God, than he does who is
washed in the blood of the Lamb. O blessed man
who has obtained redemption by it! thou art com-
manded to enter with boldness into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus-the way is open: thou art called
to draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of
faith, having thy heart sprinkled from an evil con-
science, and thy body washed with pure water, that
thou mayest hold thy profession of faith without
wavering, as that great multitude did, who washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb: they are now crying with a loud voice,
"Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever!" They triumph in-
deed; and so mayest thou.
Thou hast the same
reason as they have.
washed their robes, cleanses thine.
mises that it will; and thou shalt stand before God
without spot of sin unto eternal salvation, as perfect
as they. Jesus is thy Saviour, as truly as he is
theirs: even to-day, thy conscience purged from guilt,
and thy heart purified by faith, thou mayest enter
within the vail, and make sweet melody in thy heart
unto the Lord thy God. Our elder brethren round
his throne, are employed in the same delightful
work: we do it here as well as we can: they in
heaven, and we on earth. The same subject in the
church below, as well as above, and the same em-
ployment. We try to sing the praises of the worthy
slaughtered Lamb in as high a note as they do.
And when we fail, we try again, praying the Holy
Spirit to enable us to keep in tune with them, that
our songs may daily be more spiritual and heavenly.

The same fountain, which
The same pro-

A poet of our own, feeling something of this harmony, would have us to celebrate the triumphs of the Lamb of God in these words:—

There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there have I, as vile as he,
Washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,

Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved to sin no more.

E'er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler sweeter song

I'll sing thy power to save,

When this poor lisping, stamm'ring tongue

Lies silent in the grave.

The song of heaven is upon this same subject. The Holy Ghost has taught us the very words of their divine hymn, and what is the harmony of all the redeemed round the throne, with one heart and one voice, blessing God and the Lamb: O that he may tune our hearts to join the chorus, and fit us now to sing in as high a strain as we can, and every day to aim higher, till we come to the completion of the heavenly vision thus described by the apostle!—

"After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, whom no one could number, of all nations, and kin

dreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb: therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat: for the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." "And they sung with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever"-" Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

CHAPTER V.

The Believer's Triumph over Sin in its guilt.

THE forgiveness of sins is the grand doctrine of salvation, on which peace with God is built. Sin is present with the believer, but pardoned. Sin is felt, but ceases to condemn. This is the chief difficulty in experience, How the truth of God, and his holiness, and his threatenings, and the honour of

his law, can be maintained, and yet he can be faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The believer may be often shaken in his mind, and troubled with legal fears and workings, if he be not so well established by the Spirit and word of God, as to submit in his conscience to God's way of pardoning sin: it was always one and the same, contrived and appointed in the everlasting counsels of the blessed Trinity, and revealed upon the entrance of sin, namely, that a person in Jehovah would become incarnate, and take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. To him Moses and all the prophets gave witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. The proclamation of grace holds it out most clearly. When Moses was permitted to see his glory, the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth: keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Every sacrifice preached this same truth visibly, showing the death which the sinner deserved, and the divine method of pardoning it, through faith in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; for Jesus is the very paschal Lamb who was sacrificed for us: and the deliverance which they experienced in Egypt, through the sprinkling of his blood, we feel the same in our hearts unto this day. Through faith they kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them: through the same faith we keep the same feast, and having found redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, we live safe out of the reach of

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