Then thou shalt be exposed on a dying bed to the dreadful conflicts which he endured in Gethsemane. Thou shalt shudder at the idea of that punishment which an avenging Deity is preparing for thee. Thou shalt sweat as it were great drops of blood, when the eye is directed to the tribunal of justice whither thou art going to be dragged. Nay more, thou shalt then be condemned to compensate, by the duration of thy punishment, what the weakness of thy nature renders thee incapable of supporting in respect of weight. Ages accumulated upon ages shall set no bounds to thy torments. Thou shalt be accursed of God through eternity, as Jesus Christ was in time; and that cross which thou refusedst to bear for a time, thou must bear for ever and ever.

If we consider the cross of Jesus Christ, with relation to the atrocious guilt of those who despise a sacrifice of such high value, we shall feel a powerful tendency to adopt the dispositions of St. Paul, and to say with him, "the world is crucified unto me, and I am crucified unto the world." The image which I would here trace for your inspection, is still that of St. Paul. This apostle depicts to us the love of the world, as a contempt of the cross of Christ, and as a renewal of the punishment which he suffered. The idea of what such a crime deserves, absorbs and confounds his spirit; he cannot find colours strong enough to paint it; and he satisfies himself with asking, after he had mentioned the punishment inflicted on those who had violated the law of Moses: "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the

Son of God, and bath counted the blood of the cov enant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" Heb. X. 29.

Here, sinner, here read thy sentence! The voice of the blood of the Son of God will cry from earth to heaven for vengeance against thee. God will one day call thee to give an account of the blood of a Son so dear to him. He will say to thee as St. Peter did to those who shed it; "Thou hast denied the Holy One and the just . . . and killed the Prince of Life," Acts iii. 14, 15. He will pursue thee with all his plagues, as if thou hadst imbrued thy hands in that blood, and as he has pursued those who were actually guilty of that crime.

But let us press motives more gentle, and more congenial to the dignity of the redeemed of the · Lord. If we consider the cross of Christ, in relation to the proofs which he there displays to us of his love, is it possible we should find any thing too painful in the sacrifices which he demands of us? Is it possible for us to do too much for that Jesus who has done so much for us? When the heart feels a disposition to revolt against the morality of the gospel; when you are tempted to say, "This is a hard saying, who can hear it?" John vi. 60: When the gate of heaven seems too strait for you: when the flesh would exaggerate the difficulties of working out your salvation; when it seems as if we were tearing the heart from your bosom, in charging you to curb the impetuosity of your temperament, to resist the torrent of irreglar desire, to give a portion of your goods to the

poor, to sacrifice a Dalilah or a Drusilla: follow your Saviour to Calvary: behold him passing the brook Kidron, ascending the fatal Mount on which his sacrifice was to be accomplished; behold that concourse of woes which constrain him to cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matt. xxvii. 46. If ye can, hold out against objects like these!

If we consider the cross of Jesus Christ, relatively to the proofs which it supplies in support of the doctrine of him who there finished his life, it will be a powerful inducement to adopt the sentiments of St. Paul. It is natural, I allow, for reasonable beings, of whom sacrifices are exacted, so costly as those which Christianity prescribes, to expect full assurance of the truth of that religion. It is impossible to employ too much precaution, when the point in question is whether or not we are to surrender victims so beloved. The slightest doubt on this head is of essential importance. But is this article susceptible of the slightest doubt? Jesus Christ sealed with his blood the doctrine which he taught; he was not only the hero of the religion which we preach, but likewise the martyr of it.

If we consider the cross of Christ, relatively to the aid necessary to form us to the sentiments expressed by St. Paul, it still powerfully presses us to adopt them. It assures, on the part of God, every support we can need, in maintaining the conflicts to which we are called. It lays the foundation of this reasoning, the justest, the most conclusive which intelligence ever formed: "If God be for us, who

can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 31, 32.

And, to conclude this discourse by representing the same images which we traced in the beginning of it, if we consider the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, relatively to the glory which followed, it still presses us to adopt the sentiments of St. Paul in the text. The idea of that glory carried Jesus Christ through all that was most painful in his sacrifice. On the eve of consummating it, he thus addresses his heavenly Father: "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Father, glorify thy name....Father the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee....I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do: and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was," John xii. 23, 28. xvii. 1, 4, 5. This expectation was not disappointed. The conflict was long, it was severe, but it came to a period; but heavenly messengers descended to receive him as he issued from the tomb; but a cloud came to raise him from the earth; but the gates of heaven opened, with the acclamations of the church triumphant, celebrating his victories, and hailing his exaltation in these strains: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in," Ps. xxiv. 7.

Christians! let our eyes settle on this object. To suffer with Jesus Christ, is to have full assur ance of reigning with him, We do not mean to conceal

from you the pains which await you in the career prescribed to the followers of the Redeemer. It is a hard thing to renounce all that flatters, all that pleases, all that charms. It is hard to be told incessantly of difficulties to be surmounted, of enemies to be encountered, of a cross to be borne, of crucifixion to be endured. It is hard for a man to mortify himself, while all around him are rejoicing; while they are refining on pleasure; while they are employing their utmost ingenuity to procure new amusements; while they are distilling their brain to diversify their delights; while they are spending life in sports, in feasting, in gaity, in spectacle on spectacle. The conflict is long, it is violent, I acknowledge it; but it draws to a period; but your cross shall be followed by the same triumph which that of your Saviour was: Father the hour is come, glorify thy Son; but, you, in expiring on your cross; you shall with holy joy and confidence commend your soul to God, as he commended his, and, closing your eyes in death, say, Father! into thy hands I commend my spirit, Luke xxiii. 46. but the angels shall descend to receive that departing spirit, to convey it to the bosom of your God; and after having rejoiced in your conversion, they shall rejoice together in your beatitude, as they rejoiced in his ; but in the great day of the restitution of all things, you shall ascend on the clouds of heaven, as Jesus Christ did; you shall be exalted, like him, far above all heavens; and you shall assume, together with him, a seat on the throne of the majesty of God.