ed innocent of the charge laid against him; we must have freedom not only from condemnation but from accusation; we must be brought into the state of those concerning whom that most triumphant challenge is given by the Apostle Paul, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? it is God that justifieth." We must be delivered from the stings of an accusing conscience, from the uneasy circumstances of a state of doubt. We must know that the judge to whom our cause is committed, beholds us with complacency, that he is well-pleased with us for his righteousness' sake,-well-pleased, because he can behold us with complacency, while his justice is unsullied by unjust mercy.

In Christ, man's justification is complete. He has not only delivered us from wrath by his death, but given us a title to appear as just before God through virtue of his obedience, which is by imputation unto all and upon all them that believe. The atonement of Christ was requisite for our pardon,-the

obedience of Christ for our acquittal of guilt. This latter is a part, and a principal part, of that great work which contains the remedy for man's state, that work through which man is brought back from the circumstances of his fallen condition. Words merely human may be multiplied, but cannot equal the comprehensiveness of Scripture brevity. St Paul, in the fourth chapter, and fourth and fifth verses of his Epistle to the Galatians, expresses the whole of this important fact and doctrine in few and comprehensive words. In the fourth verse we have the facts: "But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." Here are the facts: that when the appointed time for the accomplishment of the great work mysteriously decreed in eternity, had arrived, when, by the recovery of alienated man, God should be glorified, God assumed our nature, became man; was made of a woman, made in all respects like unto us, sin only excepted; as was said to Mary,

"Wherefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of the Highest ;"-was made under the law, subject to all its requirements, but enabled to meet them through the holy, indwelling power of God.

And in the fifth verse we have the doctrine, the cause of these facts, the consequence of them to us— "to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." The purpose of Christ's work was to redeem them that were under the law; to fulfil the requirements of the law as our substitute, so that if we accept of his work of substitution, justice requires no more. Having failed in our own work, we are complete through his; and the consequence of that work is, that we may receive the adoption of sons, have our want supplied,-be brought back to companionship ;-instead of being aliens, be made children,-instead of being foreigners, be fellow-citizens with the saints, be joint-heirs with Christ of the treasures

sures of the world to come; be once more of the household of God.

The object of Christ's work of obedience was two-fold; it was first to fulfil the law in in our stead, the law of obedience broken by man in paradise, and so to present the merit of his perfect satisfaction for the continual disobedience of men; and its next object was, as an apostle states, "to leave us an example that we should follow his steps."

Now, in the first case it is evident, that obedience must be rendered in our nature, the substitute must be assimilated to that for which it is substituted; Christ's obedience was rendered as perfect man, but he obeyed as sinless man; as man in whom inherent holiness was repellent to the very approach of sin. He took our nature in its weakness, its liability to temptation and trial, weariness, suffering, and sorrow; and in that nature, and under all these outwardly disadvantageous circumstances, he rendered an obedience which man, though created sinless, had failed to ren

B

der, and which when he had become sinful he never could render.

Had Christ performed his works,—had he lived and obeyed as God only, we could not 'consider him,' so as to follow his steps; his example would be immeasurably away from us; but we are enabled to take an example from him, because we see him in our nature, not doing his own will, but the will of him that sent him; we see him trusting in God, walking by faith, seeking strength in prayer, resisting the devil, overcoming the world.

In us sin and temptation are often almost identical; the thought of foolishness is sin; and temptation is rarely presented to the mind in such a manner as not to involve some degree of voluntary or involuntary sin. Christ's human nature was liable to the same temptations, but not in the same way. There was nothing in him to meet the temptation; Satan found no sin in him, though he found much to tempt. Temptation is not always in itself sin; Christ was tempted when hungry,