ceived with every mark of opprobrium by the superior Jews. He was every where vilified and abused; every where met by them with vituperation, contumely, and scorn. "He was delivered to the Gentiles, to mock and to scourge and to crucify him." "For our sakes he bare reproach, and we hid as it were our faces from him." "He was despised and we esteemed him not." "He gave his back to the smiters and hid not his face from shame and spitting." "He died for our sins."

Shall we then look back upon this melancholy event with cold indifference,-melancholy indeed in the circumstance, but glorious in the issue, and remain passive in that work of Salvation which he thus suffered to complete, when without our own co-operation it never can be realized to us? God forbid that we should! Where are the fruits of gain, even in worldly matters, derived to a passive spirit? Is it the slothful, or they who labour for them, that mostly obtain the riches of the world? So is it only to those who strive for them that the treasures of heaven are secured. Can we remember that the Lamb was slaughtered to save the souls of men, long “sicklied o'er" with the deadly taint of original guilt, and not daily prostrate ourselves before him in humble acknowledgment of such amazing condescension and so little deserved? How do we acknowledge our obligations to our fellow crea

tures? Often by the most flattering attentions, the most unintermitting endeavours to evince our sense of the kindness received. And yet where is he that would die for us! Where is he that would sacrifice his own comfort to secure ours? But Christ did more than this:-his life was one continued scene of privation and trouble endured "for us and for our salvation." He not only "died for our sins and rose again for our justification," but he is still "at the right hand of God, making intercession for us.” Do we then owe him no acknowledgment? Do we owe him no love? Is there no gratitude due here? Let us pause a moment. How do we acknowledge him, how love him, and to what degree of fervour does our gratitude for him rise? To know him is to love him. If therefore we love him not we know him not, and if we know him not, we can be none of his. For he says of his flock, “I know my sheep and am known of mine ;" we cannot consequently be of his flock if we do not know him, when he has so universally proclaimed himself and so signally shown himself to be "the shepherd and bishop of our souls."

What has he not done for us! His merit is sufficient to cancel all our offences if we only use the means of rendering that merit available. His name is the password to eternal life. "There is none other," says the Apostle, whereby man can be saved." Who then shall calculate the

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peril of those by whom he is rejected? His blood is the seal of our justification, but of theirs only who not simply confess but feel him to be their Saviour and their God. Such has "he redeemed unto God by his blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation."

From what has been said, it will, I imagine, sufficiently appear that no period in the history of mankind could have been better chosen for the advent of a Saviour than the time in which he appeared and nothing can more illustriously exhibit the extent of God's mercy, than sending his only begotten Son among men to save them from impending destruction when the measure of their iniquity was well nigh full. This is indeed a matter which is far from sufficiently considered among us, and much less sufficiently felt. In contemplating the incarnation of the divine nature, we are too apt to look upon it simply as forming a constituent and necessary part of one grand scheme of Providence, without considering it in its abstract relation to the higher and exclusive attributes of Deity, and as constituting the most extraordinary exercise of Omnipotent mercy which that ineffable nature could exhibit, without debasing its perfections. We do not seem to observe those peculiar marks of the divine love towards us by which it is so conspicuously distinguished, or ingratitude towards God, for this especial extension of his favour would cease

to be so general an inmate of the human heart, and we should exclaim with the holy fervor of the psalmist, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God."

Though as Christians we acknowledge all that has been done to purchase our redemption, yet how few among us by comparison seem sensible of the vast debt of obligation which must be due to an Almighty and immutable Being, who descended from the throne of his glory to take upon him the form of his fallen creatures only that he might snatch them from impending perdition by submitting to the agony and humiliation of a malefactor's death! The words of the prophet, it is to be feared, will but too frequently find their application among us of this generation. "And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouths they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness."

Important indeed as is the knowledge of Christ, nay absolutely essential as it is to our salvation, do we not content ourselves with a superficial knowledge merely, when we cannot know him too intimately; since without an intimate acquaintance with him, we can acquire none of that true" wisdom which is from above,”

and which alone "keepeth the feet of his saints." It is his especial gift and "his saints like it well." If we would hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering," and preserve it from languishing into a mere dull inactive belief, we shall ever keep alive the remembrance of "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and not imputing their trespasses unto them." We shall never stifle the recollection of that blessed atonement for the guilt of man which has obviated the dreadful consequences of his fall and exalted his views to the glorious prospect of everlasting life. We shall make it the anchor of our hopes. We shall never suffer the impression which it ought to awaken within us to grow languid, but always cherish it as a means of actuating us to that holy exercise in our christian profession which shall bring us safely through the perplexities and dangers of this agitated world. We shall make it the subject of a zealous, practical faith that discovers itself in its works, rather than of a cold, unoperative belief, which yields a dull assent without warming the heart into corresponding action.

Let us remember that "the Lord is at hand;" "he is about our path, and about our bed;" he is ever near when we call upon him, always to be found when sought for. Christian! where is thy fear? Sinner! where is now thy despair? He came into the world "to redeem