he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God."

Redemption by the blood of Christ, is our song in the house of our pilgrimage. Take from us the cross, and our harps are upon the willows;—we must sit down in everlasting silence and grief. Take from this world the cross, and what is it, but a great sepulchre ? Thick glooms and night-shades settle all over it, and shut out the last beam of mortal hope. If ever light from the throne of God breaks in upon the darkness of our minds, it is when we profoundly muse upon the august pledges of his love, in the sacrifice of his Son upon the cross. If ever we realize the value of our undying spirits, and God's infinite care for them, it is then. If ever we feel constrained to die unto sin and live unto God, it is then. If ever our hearts know any thing of real, vital, saving religion, it is then. To be able to say, with the apostles, that we "glory only in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified to us, and we to the world," we hold to be the noblest attainment of mortals, and their purest and loftiest pleasure, as they journey through this vale of shadows and tears towards the celestial city. And to sing redeeming love, with seraphic heart and voice, we believe to be the noblest employment of the redeemed above.

Our proof of this doctrine has been strictly scriptural. But providence and nature speak the same. Such is the mysterious ordering of providence, that nearly every blessing, nay, even our very existence, comes to us, through the sufferings, and often the death

of others. Voiceless nature herself could not be silent here. The sun and the stars spake. The serene lustre of Bethlehem's star, that smiled on the infant Redeemer, was followed with the veiling of that greater orb, which refused to look on those dying agonies which wrought out the world's redemption. Thus did all nature sympathize in this amazing transaction. Once, and once only, has the sun put on mourning. No other death has been thus honored. Thus does one and the same voice come from God's word and works, a full and swelling strain, growing clearer, louder, more thrilling, as we listen, proclaiming the wonders of redemption by the cross. Inscribed on the heavens and the earth, borne on every wind, it resounds and re-echoes through the universe.

This doctrine cannot be innocently denied. Who can shut his eyes against this flood of light, this overwhelming evidence, and be guiltless ? Who can pretend without the grossest inconsistency, to take his religion from the Bible, and yet leave out the Christian atonement ? As well might you pretend to walk in the light of noon-day, and leave out the sun. We may in truth say, that reason is too Godlike a faculty to be thus treated with impunity. Such a violation of the highest law of reason-such an abuse of the power of mental vision-in relation to an object so infinitely dear to the heart of God, is set down by God himself as the sin of sins. To trifle with or neglect the cross, is the consummation of guilt.

But if this doctrine be true, then is the religion of the Bible truly a momentous affair. If the eternal

God did actually veil his deity in humanity, and, thus incarnate, bleed and die upon the cross for the redemption of the world, and if the religion of the Bible is— as we have seen it is a developement of this amazing fact, it is worthy to command the highest possible homage of every rational mind. No man, on approaching this religion, need to fear letting down his intellect, or bestowing his affections upon an unworthy object. Let the scholar of natural learning and science make his highest possible attainments, and, if he embrace this religion, he shall be carried yet higher, immeasurably, into regions of truth, sublimity, glory. This religion comprehends "the exceeding riches of God's grace," the value, the vastness, the grandeur of which, can be estimated only by the sacrifice of the cross. Hence this religion will never be out-run, or outmatched, by the human intellect. It will be found adequate to absorb the highest energies of the mind of the world, during those bright ages when that mind, matured in strength and enriched with knowledge, shall have left its present state far behind, as one of feeble infancy. The glories of the cross will still, more and more, eclipse all other glories. And every man will see it to be his highest wisdom and honor, as Sir Isaac Newton began to see and confess it, to turn from the study of nature to the sublimer study of the cross. Yes, it is in the mind of God, and that benignant purpose is steadily unfolding, "in the ages to come to show forth the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us by Christ Jesus."*

* Eph. ii. 7.

Finally, if this doctrine be true, the result must be momentous. In all the works of God, there is a relation of means to ends :-Great means, in the hands of God, are the forerunner of great events.

Now here is

What greater

the greatest of all conceivable means. thing could God do, than give the Son of his bosom to die upon the cross? Who can believe that he has done this, without believing that, as the result of it, he will flood the earth and the universe with the splendors of his throne?

CHAPTER VIII.

ELECTION,

PERHAPS no Christian doctrine has been more misrepresented and abused than that of election. None has furnished more theological difficulties, or put more cavils into the lips of infidelity. It belongs to the deep things of God. Still it is a revealed doctrine, although, like many of the facts in nature, the reasons and relations of it are not fully explained.

The doctrine itself is very lucidly stated by St. Peter. The apostle is addressing Christians. To awaken their gratitude and confidence towards God, he tells them that they were "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." He reminds them that they did not first choose God, but that God chose them. But were they elected of God to be saved in their sins, as the objector would have it? No, "Through sanctification of the Spirit :"―They were to be saved by becoming sanctified. Were they then first obedient, and then elected; as the Arminian says?

* 1 Peter i. 2.