of those signs had been wrought, which made the amazed and convinced Centurion cry out, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" And yet, at this moment, probably the darkest in the whole history of the Lord Jesus, while He wrought out the work of salvation upon earth, did this malefactor look upon Him with the eye of faith, and see the Lord of infinite and eternal glory, through all the depths of his humiliation and own Him, as his Saviour, his Portion, his Hope, and his King. “Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom!" He fixed his spiritual eye, his spiritual affection, his whole heart upon Jesus and his soul seemed to hear the proclamation of God the Father, at the moment when hardly another appeared to receive it. “The man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts."

If the Redeemer were, to man's apprehension, unable to save his own life, by coming down from the cross, where was the probability that He should save

from endless death, and enrich with life and glory everlasting, one who was, outwardly and judicially only, in the same condemnation? If our Saviour was in that hour the mockery of men, how should any one see in Him, the Lord of angels, the light, the glory, the praise, the blessedness of all in heaven? How, indeed, except by God's most free and sovereign. gift of faith? That "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It can discover the Sun of Righteousness, under the thickest cloud; it can see Christ a Saviour, under the despised, persecuted, and dying Jesus; and own Him, as the believing sinner's Lord and hope. It can come behind Him in the press, and say in defiance of all that is called reasonable expectation, "If I do but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole." It can see a glory in a crucified Redeemer, when others deride Him. It can gladly own Him, when others deny Him. Like Abraham, it can hope,

F

even against hope.

"Christ crucified" is

to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness; but unto them who are called and they only are believers, He is Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. None of that imaginary inconsistency, which the reasoning idolatry of Socinianism thinks it has detected, between the death of Jesus, and the salvation of man, can hinder the believer, who is saved by grace, through faith, from clinging with all his soul's hope to the amazing atonement of the cross, as to an infinitely needful interference, and from regarding the price of that atonement as infinitely precious, because it is the blood of God manifest in the flesh. And no sense of vileness in the Christian, when once the Holy Ghost hath taught him to realize the nature and grace of his Lord, can dissuade or prevent him from coming, in the assurance of that blessed record, "that God hath give to sinners eternal life, and this life is in his Son."

No deliverer comes to Jesus; yet the thief casts himself upon Him for his everlasting redemption, and cries, "Lord, remember me." Faith is a long-sighted and a clear-sighted grace of the soul. While "that wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God," sees no beauty in God's crucified Son, why it should desire Him, faith beholds such a light from heaven poured upon Him, upon the glory of his person, and the mighty work of his salvation, as sheds comparative dimness upon every other object. Here was one, himself expiring in cruel tortures, yet carried out of himself, to overlook and despise them ;with his soul anxious only for the everlasting blessedness, which Jesus Christ could bestow, and eagerly seeking it. Here was one, who, unmoved by every taunt, by every indignity, so industriously heaped upon the Saviour, boldly confessed Him before men, and owned Him, because he felt Him to be the only foundation of life, and peace, and hope, to his soul. The

apostles reached no such elevation of faith, although flesh and blood had not declared the Eternal Sonship of Jesus unto Peter, but the Father who is in heaven. They looked indeed for a kingdom, that their Lord should have; but they little expected that He should suffer, and thus enter into that royalty, which, at His second advent shall be universal. Bear, I entreat you, dear friends, the solemn inference deducible from this man's case upon your hearts. He was a malefactor, whose life had probably been one dark tissue of crime and sin; and whose knowledge, as he had learned knowledge in the world, was little more than acquaintance with guilt. Yet does he give in a confession, which no other witness had made, to the glory of Christ. Saving faith is not the result of religious education; however frequently God may put great honour upon it, as a means of grace. Faith is no product of moral righteousness. The belief that justifies is no necessary consequence of previous in