end well.

"The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.

And if we say, God is with us on earth, can we not say with assurance, we shall be with God in heaven? We have already seen what "God manifested in the flesh" requires of you in the present time; should we not now examine what he promises you for the life to come? Can God have had any other object in appearing in our inheritance than to give us the possession of his own? Was not his object, in being with us during a human life, to cause us to be with him on high throughout an eternity? We with God for ever! This is the last and most glorious consequence of the great mystery of godliness. Yes, my brethren, let this mystery teach you the greatness of your destiny. Give up these vulgar ideas; throw off these earthly prejudices which render you worthless. Refuse not to receive and open these true patents of nobility which the Divine Being returned to you when he assumed your nature, This human nature of yours is the throne which God was pleased to choose, How great, then, are the purposes for which it may be reserved! God has been made flesh; since such a transformation has occurred, how great a transformation you can now hope for! And since God has become man, what, then, can man become! Neither angels nor principalities nor powers have the same titles of glory, the same pledges of greatness; for God did not assume their natures. God has been here below as our neighbour; let us not wonder, then, that he declares that we shall share all things with him; that his inheritance shall be ours; that his throne shall be ours; that if we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together with him. Preserve in your hearts this glorious truth, O ye who believe in God manifest in the flesh. You can never be with God here below in as literal a sense as God has been with you; but if God with you has been a principle in this world, you with God will be a principle of heaven. There alone will be fulfilled the union of which this day speaks. Here below we follow the road; there we shall reach the goal. Here below we only

make efforts; there the work will be accomplished. "Then cometh the end," says the apostle. "God will be all in all." It will be the last measure of our union with God

Lord! how is it with thy work, that work for which thou didst become a man here below? Oh! why are there still so many left behind? So many who believe not that thou hast dwelt with us! Lord! shall thy work remain imperfect? And when thy hand has raised the scaffold, shall the edifice remain unbuilt? O thou who didst come in the flesh, fulfil the purpose for which thou didst come! Let not our wicked unbelief neutralize the effect of thy manifestation! Call men unto thyself! Destroy the enmity which is in our hearts, that all may be one! Thou dost not lay the corner-stone of the building without erecting the building. We know and confess that the work which thou didst begin in Bethlehem is accomplishing in the world. That work goes on. The laying of the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem is constantly advancing here below. All things are hastening on. “Thou art worthy to receive honour and glory and blessing."

But, my brethren, are we those "lively stones of which Peter speaks, "who are built up a spiritual house of God"? You have seen, my brethren, that God has been with us, to accomplish on his part the work of our union; we should be with God, to accomplish it on ours. You know all; we have kept back nothing from you; you have been enabled to contemplate that work as it should be. But we ask you once

time?

Examine, my dear
Can you avoid

more, Has that work been executed? hearer, the state of your soul in this respect. looking upon this work as worthy of all your consideration? Can it be that, having heard the truth to-day, you will not think of being united with God? What, then, will occupy your attention? To what undertaking will you give up your If the things of which we have spoken to you to-day do not concern your eternal peace, what can there be besides that does concern it? Will you not remember that indifference has its bounds, and that the day is coming when we can no longer postpone the consideration of this subject? May that moment have arrived for you, my dear hearer! May this day be blessed to you, so that it may become the glorious epoch of your union with God; and that, in the same hour in which I have said, GOD WITH US, may be able to say, YOU WITH GOD! Amen.

I

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DISCOURSE II.

THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST.

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."-GALATIANS, vi, 14.

MY

Y brethren,-God did not choose to deprive man of all occasions of glorying. To glory is one of the most characteristic propensities of our nature. It is seen in every class of society, and in every portion of the human race.

From the highest dignitary to the lowest beggar, from the enlightened and refined citizen to the savage in whose mind scarcely a spark of reason appears, all discover something in which they think they can glory. And in what do they glory? In foolish toys, of which they should rather be ashamed than proud. Oh! what a sad spectacle our vanity presents; and how evidently it shows that the human race has lost that in which it ought to glory; that “it has come short of the glory of God;" and that in this abject poverty it grasps eagerly at the first bauble it sees, as a substitute for the reality which it does not possess. Thus the inhabitant of a city, reduced to the most dreadful famine, seizes with avidity the loathsome food at the sight of which in common times he would sicken. God designed to give man something in which he could reasonably glory: He gave him "the Cross of Jesus Christ." 'God forbid," says St. Paul in the words of our text, "that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And herein he utters a sentence of condemnation against all the delusive objects which we usually worship. He commands all men to cease their vain researches; and he commends the Cross of Jesus Christ as the only thing worthy of being gloried in eternally by every rational being. And when the apostle speaks of the Cross, do not suppose that he means that visible sign, the representation of which is frequently seen in many countries of Christendom, and which superstition has so greatly abused. He refers to the death of

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the Son of God, which in due time occurred, for the remission of our sins. But he uses this expression, the Cross, to remind us, by the remembrance of that punishment which was esteemed infamous among all nations, that this death in which he requires us to glory is full of humiliation, reproach, and shame, and is even accursed of God. Such, my brethren, is the glory of which God permits, nay commands you to boast. On this day was laid the only foundation of all greatness which humanity can claim. Never could man have had reason to glory had not that scene occurred on Golgotha eighteen centuries ago; had not that Jesus, who was dragged from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back to Pilate, been crucified then; had he not been nailed to the tree, a reproach of men, and despised of the people;" and had not the most fearful condemnation rested on the only innocent being that ever dwelt on earth. On that day the great battle was fought, the great victory achieved, which brought us honour and immortality. On that day our perpetual grant of nobility was inscribed in the Book of Life.

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God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

On this

This meditation will be devoted to the examination of the new right of glorying which has been granted to man. subject there are two opinions: :

One is the apostle's opinion, which we shall sustain. The other is the opinion of the world, which we shall refute. In other words, we shall first display the greatness of the Cross of Christ, and shall then examine your sentiments with regard to it. And when we shall have defended the truth and opposed error, we shall have accomplished our design.

And do thou, O Lord! fulfil the work which thou alone canst perform; for both the beginning and the end and all things are thine. Show us that the Cross of Jesus Christ is "the power of God and the wisdom of God." Amen.

THE APOSTLE'S OPINION.

We have observed, my brethren, that the apostle of the Gentiles holds up the Cross of Christ as the only thing in which he has a right to glory. And the first reason which led him to do

so was because he saw the character and glory of God fully displayed in it. It is true that St. Paul had been taught concerning God in his early years. But the zeal which led him so violently to persecute the disciples of the Nazarene before his conversion is sufficient evidence of the nature of his know

ledge of God. But afterward the Cross of Jesus Christ was revealed to him; it spoke of a God concerning whom he had not been taught in the school of Gamaliel; and he gloried in the gift of that wonderful knowledge. Yes, my brethren, the Cross is the only teacher that reveals the living God. It matters not from what source we have drawn our knowledge; unless the Cross of Jesus Christ has instructed us, we have no real acquaintance with God. Without that Cross, even nature and conscience speak in an unknown tongue; and that which is most important for us to know is hidden from us. Where will you learn to know God's holiness, the absolute detestation with which he looks upon sin, and of which he gives you so serious a warning? Conscience will tell you something about it. But if you would form a correct idea of it, go to the Cross of Jesus Christ. See him who dwells in the fulness of the Godhead nailed to that tree on account of sin, and because iniquity exists on earth. Will you ever have vague ideas of God's holiness again? And will you ever think that God has not given sufficiently striking tokens of it to the world? Where will you learn to know the love of God, that infinite mercy which must be the foundation of all your happiness? Nature will tell you something about it. But if you wish to hear it speak with a power compared with which nature can only stammer, go to the Cross of Jesus Christ. See the beloved Son of the Father humbling himself unto death, and nailed to the cross, to the end that the world might have life. Is not that an act of love? "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Where will you learn to know the glory of God? Where, O my Lord and my God, can I see thee in all thy glory? Shall my thoughts be fixed on thee as surrounded by those worlds created by thee? Shall I think of thec as dwelling in light inaccessible, worshipped by all thine