probation of God, if it be enough for us, that he who suffered upon the cross, is afflicted in all our afflictions, we shall with him forgive all our enemies, and return good for evil. When reviled we shall not revile again, but commit our cause to God.

Nay, we shall expect to suffer, we shall learn patience, we shall fear prosperity, we shall fear self-love and selfpraise, we shall humble ourselves and be earnestly engaged in bringing every disposition into obedience to Christ: this is religion.

Those who love the world, and who do not bow themselves to God, will not love this spirit. But the gospel is the doctrine of one who was crucified, and made perfect through sufferings. And before we can enter heaven, we must crucify our sins, however dear. We must not weep only, and pray, but we must suffer the purifying fires of affliction, the

bitterness of self-reproach, the cutting out of the heart every evil disposition and habit; we must follow Christ, bearing the cross.

69

SERMON IV.

GOOD FRIDAY.

ST. JOHN iv. 29.

Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!

THE apostle Paul calls Christianity the preaching of the cross, for upon the cross of Christ its glory is founded: this gave power to the effect of miracles, added conviction to the force of preaching, and subdued the heart, and led the world captive by the love of Christ.

This is the greatest mystery, this the chief of miracles, that the death of Christ should be his glorification; that he should

be made man that he might embrace the cross and die.

Blessed Saviour! whose love and whose sorrow were so surpassing, what can we render unto thee? for thou givest us thyself; thou layest down life for thine enemies, that the Lord God may dwell among them, and may open to them the gates of everlasting joy.

Behold the Lamb of God!

Contem

plate him till the hard heart be changed into flesh, pride into humility, lust into purity, profaneness into penitence, cursing into prayer, the love of earth into the love of Christ.

The true Christian daily carries in his heart the cross of Christ. By this he deadens to his view the pomps and vanities of this deceitful world: by this he becomes one with Christ; he partakes of his spirit; he overcomes temptation; he crucifies his own will at the will of his Master; he receives suffering with patience, injuries with mildness, and does

all things with love. His master is the Son of God, he who promised paradise from the cross; he who from the cross foretold the calamities that were to come upon his enemies; he who, in that the darkest scene of his ministry, gave signs to the sincere and pure in heart that it was the Son of God with whom nature suffered. The world is still waiting for other promises than those of paradise, for other signs than those of the cross; it will not believe that to be good, which does not appear so to flesh and blood, to the rich and the great, to the ignorant multitude, and the inclinations of the sinner.

The world or sin must be in every thing that would please or attract the mere worldly mind. For such the cross of Christ has nothing glorious, nothing to fill the heart, nothing to create desire and love.

And what doth the world give you that you should prefer to the cross of