say? Alas! he is in an unspeakably worse state, for not to receive the atonement is to reject it, and to reject it is to incur a guilt of untold enormity. So great Then from the Read the evil of sin in Christ's atonement. was the dishonour it cast on God's government, so pernicious was the influence it shed upon his creatures, that the glory of the one, and the interests of the other, required that in order to forgiveness, there should be such a sacrifice of such a Saviour. Had sin been a trivial evil, the goodness and the justice of God would both have forbidden such an oblation as we know to have been offered. And of sin, such sin, each one is a partaker. We are all marked by it. Our hearts condemn us, our consciences testify against us. atonement infer the miserable condition of those who do not cherish and accept it. They are "in their sins." And what is worse, If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins, and where I am, ye cannot come.” Behold, then, the fate of sinners without faith in the atonement. "Ye shall die in your sins." What will matter the rich and costly funeral rites, the monument, the panegyric, the signs and symbols of unaffected sorrow, and kindly memories, if a man be dead in his sins? That is death. There is no death but that. All other death is life. That is the death of soul as well as body; death without a resurrection; death for ever! 66 This is the pith of the whole matter. The wrath awakened must consume your sacrifice or you. "The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” C DIVINE influence is a most extensive subject. It is not confined in fact, nor in the Bible, to religious operations, but takes in the whole extent and compass of the works of God. The universe is the theatre of its display; the history of all created things is the history of its display. The human mind is but one department of divine agency. Matter, as well as spirit, is formed and ruled and ordered by it. The Spirit of God fashions and preserves and regulates all the ten thousand physical objects which reveal "the invisible things of God, even his eternal power and Godhead." And if you restrict it to the human mind, you may not restrict it to its spiritual restoration. God acts on mind in more instances than its conversion and sanctification; for more purposes than its redemption. The prophets "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;""the Spirit of the Lord came upon" and qualified the ancient deliverers of his people, for their great achievements; "God raised up the spirit" of the Israelites to return to their own land; and it is certain that we are ourselves and constantly the subjects of his mighty and |