rejected, crucified. From the hand of God, his soul endured the agony due to an impenitent sinner: he was troubled in spirit, yea, exceeding sorrowful even unto death; he trod the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God: he cried in bitter anguish "O! my Father, if it be possible take this cup from me" but God spared him not, for he is a just God. Of this awful transaction David wrote by the spirit of prophesy, in the twentysecond psalm, which opens with those memorable words uttered by the Saviour upon the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 0, my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O, thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." Thou art holy! Thou art a just God, by no means clearing the guilty. I have undertaken to stand for the guilty; and now my cries cannot avail to lighten my suffering, I must endure to the uttermost, or they cannot be saved, for "thou art holy." He did endure to the uttermost; be ye saved; for God is holy: his justice is no longer armed against, but for the sinner: "he is faithful and just to forgive him his sins," and "there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." This is emphatically

"the gospel." This is the power of God, and the wisdom of God, and the love of God in the salvation of sinners. This is the fundamental peculiarity of the religion of the Bible: a just God being a Saviour: a gracious Saviour continuing a just God.

All other religions describe to us a Saviour who is an unjust God; forgiving sinners for their repentance or amendment, or both; for the sacrifices they offer up; for the bodily sufferings which they voluntarily undergo; for the overplus of good they pretend to do at one time, to make amends for their evil at another time; or for some mixture of these. It would not be difficult to shew the injustice of that Being from whom forgiveness can be procured by any of these proposed methods. It is most meet and right that forgiveness should, in many cases, be so procured from an earthly prince; because it is most meet and right that an earthly prince should in many cases be unjust on the side of mercy. But God is a just God, a holy lawgiver, and having solemnly pronounced the wages of sin to be death, nothing short of the infliction of that sentence can vindicate his justice. "Without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin." No unconverted man, therefore, of any denomination, no individual who expects forgiveness of his sins (in whole or in part) from

any other procuring cause than the bloodshedding of Jesus Christ, to whatever sect he may belong, whatever profession he may make, however plausibly and pleasingly he may expatiate upon the tenderness of the divine being towards his creatures, and the attractive loveliness of the divine character thus amiably exhibited no such individual is worshipping the God mentioned in our text (a just God and a Saviour) but some other God, which yet is not another, for " there is no God else besides me," saith Jehovah. But all such persons are worshipping idols, beings of their own fancy, imperfect in both justice and mercy. We most cheerfully admit the excellent moral character and kind affectionate feelings of many against whom this heavy charge of idolatry is preferred; and if morality and kindliness were the sum total, or even the fundamentals of christianity, the charge would not be brought. But seeing that the whole volume of the book of God, from the history of Cain and Abel, even to the triumphant song of the redeemed, as revealed in the Apocalypse, does insist, as if with one uninterrupted voice, upon the doctrine of forgiveness of sin only by the shedding of blood, we must either renounce our Bibles, or persist in the statement, that it is only in THE CROSS of Jesus Christ the one true God is revealed; that it is only on the altar of

that heart which pleads the ATONING BLOOD of Jesus Christ, the one true God is worshipped-a just God and a Saviour.

But it will be said, does not the scripture represent the loving kindness of God towards his creatures as the source from which this atoning sacrifice proceeded? And how then, is it unscriptural to expatiate on his tender affection without reference to the atonement?

Now, without insisting upon the revealed fact that the sacrifice of the death of Christ was "the eternal purpose of God," (Eph. iii.— 10, 11,) we reply that affection towards an offender, and the forgiveness of that offender are two very different things. It is not how or when God loves, but in what manner God saves sinners that we are now discussing; and the bible informs us that "God who is rich in mercy loved us with a great love even when we were dead in sins;" but how did he manifest that love? how did he save? how did he forgive? Not absolutely, neither for any inadequate cause such as we could supply, regardless of his justice, and the high sanctions of his holy law; but "in this was manifested the love of God, that he gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins," and "God commendeth his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." "All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on

him (Christ*) the iniquities of us all he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement which, in the justice of God, must be inflicted before peace can be made with the sinner, was laid upon Christ, and by his stripes we are healed.

III. Every impediment to the most unbounded exercise of mercy being thus righteously removed, the invitation is given forth, in all its blessed broadness, into all lands. "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." To you, my brethren, is the word of this salvation come. "The word which God sent first to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, (he is Lord of all,) that word, I say, ye know." It is printed in your native language, it is preached in the temples of God throughout your native land, that whosoever among you believeth the divine record may not perish, but have eternal life. The Scripture defines no limits to the value of the great propitiation. The knowledge of it is extended among nations, and the saving benefit of it is applied to individuals, according to the wise purpose, and by the special operation of Him, who "hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and compassion on whom he Compare Isaiah liii.-passim, with Acts viii. 32, 33,

*

34, 35.

E