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work! "We are ambassadors of God," publishing a general amnesty, proclaiming a crucified Jesus; thus at once proving and subduing the enmity of the human heart. For such a diplomacy who is sufficient? The strength of a cherub were all too weak, the tenderness of a seraph all too cold. "As though God did beseech you," (what language is this!) "we pray you in Christ's stead." If Christ were here, instead of speaking to you as I do, he would be all bathed in tears. Would that I had power and pathos and eloquence, that I might consecrate them to the furtherance of this treaty. But, feeble as is our ministry, ought it not to be effectual on such a theme? Ought not your own reason, your conscience, your heart, to supersede the necessity of any ministry, and awaken instinctively in you the play of every noble and generous feeling?

It is, however, above all, the love of Christ which ought to absorb our souls, as we meditate upon this subject. Tigranes, king of Armenia, not only offered a thousand talents, but surrendered himself in person, that he might redeem his wife, who had been taken captive. This devotion so touched Cyrus, in whose power they were, that he released them both freely. Being asked, on her return home, as to the person of so princely a conqueror, the wife replied, "I did not see him, my eyes beheld only the man who so loved me as to offer such a price, and expose himself to such a death for my sake." Shall the kindness of an earthly benefactor thus inflame the heart; and shall not the love of Christ blind us to all earthly objects, and turn and fix our adoring gaze on him, who

for our ransom poured out his blood, and humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross!

We have seen the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. And we know all that he welcomed for us while we were enemies; how he became a poor, weary wanderer on the face of his own earth, a homeless, houseless man; how his friends denied and betrayed him, and his foes heaped every indignity upon him; how he was dragged as a culprit to the bar, and even in the halls of justice, where common decency protects the vilest felons from insult, how he met only wanton mockery and outrage; and how at last (oh heavens !) a traitor and murderer was released, and he, the Prince of Life, nailed to the gibbet in his room. After this, what admiration, what gratitude, what love ought to ravish our hearts, and rivet our affections upon this disinterested, generous, magnanimous Redeemer. O earth, and all the things of earth which have hitherto charmed me! your spell is dissolved, one view of this adorable Being has disenchanted me of you forever; I count you all but dross and filth, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Ye criminal objects, which I hated even while I yielded to your seductions, cease to tempt me; your power I now despise. And ye lawful objects, so justly dear to my heart, transient and feeble are your attractions, compared with those which draw and bind me to this incarnate love, which is lifted up and bleeds for me. While life lasts, I will know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. When the pulses shall be ceasing, and the heart-strings breaking, my

vision, no longer able to discern my friends and family weeping around my bed, shall see him smiling upon me, beckoning me to come up thither; my voice, which can no more whisper tender adieus to those most precious to me upon earth, shall still be murmuring, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." Nor, yonder in heaven, shall any object divert my ravished eyes from him. There my glory shall be in his cross; there, with a rapture Thomas never knew, I will fall at his feet exclaiming, "My Lord and my God." And neither the streets of gold, nor the pavements of sapphire, nor the waving trees of life, nor angel, nor archangel, will have charms or beauty for me. My full-orbed gaze will but take in the loveliness of him, "the fairest among ten thousand and altogether lovely." My ear will but quaff the music of that voice. My lips will but echo back that hallelujah, bursting from myriads of blest voices around the throne, "Worthy is the Lamb!" "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever. Amen."

"THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."

"I once was a stranger to grace and to God,

JEREMIAH, Xxiii. 6.

I knew not my danger and felt not my load.
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenue was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,
Isaiah's wild measure, or John's simple page;
But e'en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenue seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
I wept when the waters went over his soul;
Yet thought not that my sin had nailed to the tree
Jehovah Tsidkenue; 'twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me by light from on high,
Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
No refuge, no safety in self could I see:
Jehovah Tsidkenue my Saviour must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet name,
My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came
To drink at the fountain life-giving and free :
Jehovah Tsidkenue is all things to me.

Jehovah Tsidkenue! my treasure and boast,
Jehovah Tsidkenue! I ne'er can be lost;
In thee I shall conquer by flood and by field,
My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield.

E'en treading the valley, the shadow of death,
This "watchword" shall rally my faltering breath,
For while from life's fever my God sets me free,
Jehovah Tsidkenue my death song shall be.”

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"THE PLEASURES OF. SIN FOR A SEASON."

(Preached before the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, in CHARLESTON, S. C.)

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As a native of this State ever dear to me, as a lover

our common country, I feel it good to be here; for I remember the wise remark of Lord Bacon, that if we would foretell the character of a nation twenty years to come, we must study the characters of her young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five.

Its

But it is as a Christian, especially a Christian minister, that I am profoundly interested in these associations of young men, which are springing up everywhere over the land. The very word, many tender and solemn reflections cluster about that word. evanescence; if life would but stop at this delightful period, but on it rushes and we are young no longer. Its wealth of buoyancy and hope and vivacity; but each year and month and week and day is an expenditure of this inestimable treasure. Of all our earthly possessions character alone is immortal, and it is in youth we receive those contributions which are afterwards consoli

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