hopes of glory?—and where our communion-sabbaths or communion-services? But, blessed be his name, he bore the name of Jesus, and why? that not saving himself, he might save others. As the promised Messiah he had said in prophecy,-Lo I come in the body thou hast prepared for me, in which to suffer and die. Deliver them from going down to the pit, I am the ransom. And, therefore, if in obedience to the demand of the priests and elders he had descended from the cross to prove his Messiahship, that would so far have been renouncing the very name which he bore, and the very office for the execution of which he had been sanctified, sealed, and sent into the world. Yes, and it is farther interesting to mark, that in the very act of dying he did save a soul alive,-while being crucified in weakness, he put forth his power as a Saviour-God. For the malice of his enemies in associating him with two malefactors, not only, as was seen, fulfilled ancient prophecy, but laid in his way an occasion of mighty conquest, and raised one of the noblest trophies of his grace. A scene more impressively awful and affecting it is impossible to conceive. After he hung upon the cross, enduring agonies to us inconceivable-when lover and friend stood aloof from him in obscurity and silence, and his enemies loaded him with ridicule and insult, as one that was not fit to live —a rebel, a blasphemer, an impostor, a seditious traitor, it is when the poor outcast seems deserted, forlorn, solitary, helpless, dying, and when nature aggravates the gloom by throwing around him its veil of midnight darkness, yea, when he seems not less forsaken of God than renounced by man, then it is and there that he dispenses life and forgiveness to

an expiring criminal, and with the voice of one having authority over all worlds, assigns him a place in his everlasting kingdom. He saved others, himself he did not save.

We have thus, as was proposed, invited your devout thoughts-I. To a contemplation of the fact of the crucifixion,-II. To some of the circumstances which attended it, namely, the parting of the Saviour's garments among the soldiers-the inscription over his cross-the guilty companions of his death, and the mockings and revilings with which he was assailed to his dying moment. Other circumstances might be added, such as the preternatural darkness, and the desertion of the holy sufferer by his Father and God. But your time does not permit of our entering on the illustration of these topics, nor allow us to dwell at any great length on the consideration of the last head of discourse stated, namely, some of the spiritual and moral lessons which the whole is designed to teach.

In the way of application, we must note and urge upon you a few of these lessons. What, then, may you learn while thus sitting watching around the cross?

(1.) Learn to hate sin. See at the cross how odious and dreadful sin is. What must that be which could be expiated by nothing short of this shameful degradation and bitter passion of the Son of God? To cure this plague-spot of humanity, the natural order of things had to be reversed, as from the highest heaven to the lowest hell. God had to become man, and turn his glory into shame; the Prince of Life had to taste of death; the Sun of Righteousness, as well as the sun in the firmament, had to suffer an eclipse. The holiest of beings had to be associated with the vilest. Chris

tians, what are your feelings as to sin, after having heard what Christ suffered on account of it? Have you been sympathising with his agonies? He needs not now your compassion, but he would have you change it all into hatred and horror of sin. Has it pained your sensibility to behold the innocent Lamb of God in the hands of sinners, and to see the blood flowing profusely from his wounded and crucified body, from his head, and hands, and feet, and side? Have you listened with indignation to the bitter mockings of which he was the subject? Better then to ask, what was the cause of all his woes? It was sin,— nothing but sin; for if he had not been a substitute for others, those evils could not have reached him. If we had not been such sinners, the Son of God would not have been such a sufferer.

(2.) In watching beside the cross, you may learn the certainty and the value of Christ's salvation. For, in looking at the varied, the complicated, the effectual, and long-continued sufferings of Christ, we are led to ask, what is the punishment the sins of believers merit which Christ has not endured-pain, shame, oppression, curse, death? Fear not, then, O humble penitent! Seeing so ample and sufficient a satisfaction has been given, you may approach the throne of God with lively hope. For all this has been given by God himself; His only begotten and well-beloved Son was by Him freely delivered up to death for us. To make us His own-us, who are children of wrath and disobedience-He abandoned, for a season, His own Son in whom He delighted. And he, the Son, willingly and cheerfully consented to his Father's will. He received and endured, in his own innocent body, the

entire chastisement of our peace-he was cursed that we might be blessed-he sank to hell that we might rise to heaven.

It cost Him death to save our lives,
To buy our souls it cost His own,
And all the unknown joys He gives

Were bought with agonies unknown.

Sit down and watch in faith beneath the cross, and the blood which drops thence will purge your consciences and purify your hearts.

(3.) In watching beside the cross of the dying Jesus, let us learn to suffer with him. If the Head of the Church was by all classes thus insulted, let us not in this evil world, which persecuted the Lord of glory, expect a condition much superior to that of the master. If we would share in his triumph, we must also be prepared to share in his conflict; in other words, if we would live with Christ hereafter, we must be crucified with Christ here. To the cross of our dying Lord we must affix all the members of the old man,-we must transfix and mortify all carnal, earthly, devilish affections, our ambition and avarice, sensuality and voluptuousness, gluttony and drunkenness, hatred, envy, malice, revenge, and such like, that having shared in the cross here, we may share in the crown hereafter. Amen.

SERMON VIII.

66 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent." &c.-MATTHEW, xxvii. 50-54.

A GREAT degree of attention has of late years been paid to the subject of unfulfilled prophecy, and many pious inquirers are anticipating, as soon to arrive, the period when the mystery of God on the earth shall be finished—when the Judge of the quick and dead shall bring together his enemies into a place of slaughter called Armageddon, and when the seventh angel shall pour out his vial into the air, and there shall come a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" Without meaning to depreciate or discourage such inquiries, when they are conducted in a becoming spirit, and upon definite and tangible principles, we would, at the same time, remark that, in point of fact, the world's great battle has been fought already, the decisive victory has already been won, which is the certain pledge of ultimate success in the good cause in all future contests. And it cannot surely be a less interesting object of contemplation to view that great conflict in its known nature, and in its ascertained effects, than to perplex ourselves as to consequences which may still result from it, but which are as yet hid in the obscurity of the dark and distant