the world; the purity of his life; the favours he had conferred on his persecutors; the affectionate exhortations he had addressed to them; the miracles he had wrought for them, in healing their sick, and raising their dead: and after contemplating this picture of consummate excellence, let us call to mind the treatment he experienced; the calumnies levelled against him by his persecutors; their lies; their perjuries; their savage importunity to procure his death, which had merited everlasting infamy and execration, had it been exercised against the vilest criminal. Above all let us advert to the nature of the death to which he was condemned; crucifixion, a fate reserved for slaves, and the refuse of malefactors; in which the unhappy sufferer was fastened to a cross by nails driven through his hands and feet; his body racked; and his blood flowing drop by drop; until death should put an end to his lingering agonies, which often continued so long as to require the interposition of some fresh torment to give nature the concluding shock; as was the case in the instance of the two thieves crucified in company with our Saviour. But let us not stop here. Why should we forget the scarlet robe; the crown of thorns; the mock sceptre; the insolent defiance, "he saved others, himself he cannot save?" Let us combine all these circumstances, and we may form some faint idea of the crime of those who murdered the prince of life. Let nature and the elements accuse them. Let the prodigies that accompanied the crucifixion, convict them. Let the darkness that covered the earth, the sun veiling his face in clouds, that he might not behold the accursed parricide: Let the veil of the Temple rent, to be the habiliment of mourning for the murder of the Temple's Lord; let the earth convulsed as if she trembled at the bloodiest deed that ever stained her bosom; let the rocks split; the graves opened; the dead arising as if the trumpet of eternity called them to judgment; let these— let these substantiate the guilt of our Lord's murderers, and

justify the decree by which their children are at this moment scattered through the world, marked by a portion of that infamy in which they sought to involve him.

In the fourth place.—We are to view the death of Christ as a source and spring of perfect morality. If it becomes us to fear the fetributive justice of Heaven, where shall we go to learn that salutary fear, with better prospect of suct cess, than to the cross of Jesus? Contemplated from that elevation, how formidable will Heaven's justice appear? Even from the Heaven of Heavens she draws her victim: even from the bosom of God she draws him: she has an al tar not made with hands, and on it she binds a divine lamb, without spot and without blemish. Surely then, sinners, who can, in themselves, offer nothing to their judge but what will unavoidably provoke his indignation, shall not escape, if they trample on the gospel, thus rendering themselves the more guilty, in that this very gospel alone furnishes them the means of escape.

If we would learn to see sin, or moral depravity, in its true colours, as a hateful and despicable departure from what is the glory of a reasonable and immortal being, where shall we go with better hopes of success than to the cross of Jesus? They who roll sin, as it were, a sweet morsel under the tongue, and who drink in iniquity like water, to this cross let them repair; let them learn the cause from its effects; and when they devise sin in their thoughts, let them remember the blow which it struck at the heart of God's most blessed Son.

If we would have a model to imitate, where shall we find one more worthy of imitation than on the cross of Jesus?

Ambitious man! come to the cross of my Saviour, and I will shew you meekness and lowliness incarnate; I will shew you him who, although he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet for the benefit of others, took on him the form of a servant, and died the death of a slave.

Voluptuary! come to the cross of my Saviour, and I will shew you pleasure mortified, and, the flesh crucified with its affections and lusts.

Revengeful spirit! come to the cross of my Saviour, and I will shew you one who prayed for his murderers, and died for his enemies.

Finally. If we would love our Redeemer, whence shall we derive a more powerful motive to that love than from his cross? There we see the evidences of his love who first loved us, We see his hands and feet pierced; his side opened; his wounds bleeding; his body torn by the whips of Almighty justice; and all for our salvation. At a sight so affecting, where is the obstinacy so invincible as not to yield? Where the heart so flinty as not to melt? Where the love so ardent as not to burn with a renewed and brighter flame?

Thus we have taken a fourfold view of the death of Christ; we have considered it as an atonement for the sins of the world; as the substance of ancient types, and the accomplishment of ancient predictions; as a crime on the part of his murderers, unparalleled in the annals of human guilt; and as a source and spring of perfect morality.

This death, brethren, you are now about to commemorate at the holy table. Endeavour, therefore, to affect your hearts with a pious and thankful recollection of it. Recognize in the bread the broken body of your Lord, and in the wine his shed blood; and when you raise to your lips the consecrated symbols of salvation, see that you make the sincere return of love for love, and life for life. Retire not from these heavenly contemplations and performances without growth in grace. Let not your affections, plighted at the very altar to your dying Saviour, be as the early dewdrops which glitter in the morning sun, but disappear as the hours advance. Let the cross ever occupy your minds, your hearts, your lives; and in the chamber where you meet

your fate, let the cross be lifted up to dissipate the terrors of the grave. And may God vouchsafe, by his Holy Spirit, so to strengthen you in that dread moment, as that you may look from Christ crucified, to 'Christ risen; glorified; interceding; prevailing; and extending his arms to receive your departing spirits; that having passed through things tempo ral, you may finally attain the things eternal.-AMEN.

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