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sin which has been described,-or of some other, -or, at all events, that he has hitherto been living without God in the world? Or is he perhaps afraid to confess this even to himself, and to feel that he is in danger of the judgment? We rejoice then in declaring to him that there is no sin of a stain so deep that it may not be washed to the whiteness of snow in the fountain of a Saviour's blood; and none so inveterate that it cannot be entirely subdued by the might of his sanctifying Spirit. Behold! now is the accepted time: behold! now is the day of salvation. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all. malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Eph. iv. 31, 32.) Lay hold, by faith, of the promise that sin forsaken shall be indeed forgiven, for that, when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Call down into your souls, by prayer, the renovating and strengthening influences of the Holy Spirit, whereby you may be enabled to renounce the iniquity of your thoughts and the evil of your ways, to grow and increase in holiness,—to live unto him who died for you, to awake up and behold his face in righteousness, to be numbered at last among

the objects of his favour,-and to be gathered, through his mercy, into those blissful mansions of his Father's house which he is gone before you to prepare.

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SERMON XV.

CHARITY NEVER FAILETH.

1 CORINTHIANS Xiii. 8.

Charity never faileth.

“THE end of the commandment," says the Scripture, "is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (1 Tim. i. 5.) A sense of the great love of God to ourselves, impressed by the Holy Spirit upon the heart, produces at once a deep feeling of gratitude to the Father of mercies, and a disposition of hearty goodwill and kindness towards our brethren in the world. And this love of our neighbour is enforced by the highest sanctions of the gospel. No precept of the New Testament is more prominent than this:-"A new commandment I

give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

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(John xiii. 34.) Distinct and audible is the language of the cross:-" Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John iv. 11.) Love is, in an especial manner, the badge and token of the true followers of Jesus: By this," said our blessed Lord, “shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John xiii. 35.) And it is Love which is commended as the beauty and crown of all Christian graces :-" Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Cor. xiii. 13.)

more.

Now, the peculiar praise of this great and distinguishing virtue is that which is drawn from its lasting and imperishable nature. The time will arrive when faith and hope, the handmaids of Christian holiness and peace, will be no Faith will be lost in vision, and hope will be followed by enjoyment. But charity will always continue to be the ornament and treasure of the soul. And so far from having given place to another experience or another temper when the spirits of the just shall have been made perfect, it will then only have attained to its own maturity. It is a plant of paradise, and it will blossom in full vigour and beauty only in its native soil.

Let us at this time consider, with a view to the practical improvement of our question, Why is it

that charity will last for ever? What is there in this virtue which may bespeak its immortality?

I. In the first place, Charity is the exact and immediate image of God upon the soul.

The same cannot be said concerning faith and hope. These graces, indeed, are produced and maintained by divine influence in the soul of man; but they cannot dwell in the bosom of the Deity himself. They are excellent qualities, imparted to the soul for a specific purpose, and adapted to a peculiar condition of being. They have been ordained by God as means of producing in the mind of man a conformity to his own pure and perfect nature; but, at the same time, they do not, of themselves, constitute any part of that conformity. God is the object of faith and hope; and therefore none but a created being can be the subject in which these graces may reside. But, on the other hand, benevolence is itself a moral attribute of God. It is not merely a temporary principle, adapted to a transient condition of being; but it is an abiding perfection of unchangeable Deity. God is love. It is the great moral glory of his nature, that he is good, and doeth good; and when this glory once shone through the veil of humanity, it was in the person of him who loved us unto the death,-whose words were words of

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