that I speak to Protestant, evangelical Christians, who, amidst all the pretensions of modern "philosophy, falsely so called," take their theology, not from the speculations of the nineteenth century, but from the inspired teachings of the first; and who, holding the unadulterated, uncurtailed Bible as the sole, absolute, infallible, and all-sufficient rule of faith and practice, believe that "though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel" than that Paul preached, he should be accursed. Nor need we review the whole history of the Apostle, and search through all his writings, to reach the discovery we desire. He has himself anticipated our necessity, and, in his affectionate counsel to his dear son and missionary successor, given us a text unspeakably precious to every soul born of the Spirit, which every student of his Epistles recognizes as a close, yet clear condensation of them all-the very breath and life of his sanctified mind and heart; the theme of ten thousand sermons, but so full of gospel, that it continually overflows as with honey from the cleft of the rock; so profound, that a whole system of theology might be drawn from its few words, yet so simple, that even I may preach upon it by God's help, and hope to win a hearing from those who love Jesus, and the truth as it is in him.

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." The verse has two parts. The Apostle's Faith, and his Confession.

His Faith: "This is a faithful saying, and

worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

His Confession: " of whom (sinners) I am chief."

First-THE APOSTLE'S FAITH:

66 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

He "came" by his own divine power and choice, from the sphere where he had dwelt eternally, "into the world;" yet not of his own prerogative alone, for he was the "Christ," the only-begotten Son of God, sent of the Father by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the form and true nature of man; called "JESUS," the Savior, before he was conceived of the Holy Ghost by the Virgin Mary, (blessed was she among women, and blessed the fruit of her womb!) Sent of God the Father, and anointed by God the Holy Ghost, God the Son, in our nature, assumed the headship of a new creation, the second Adam, our Elder-Brother Jesus, that he might "save sinners." Our race was lost; all were concluded under sin, and the sentence of death had passed upon all. Before any of the guilty could be brought back to life and God, the law which they had broken, the law given to man to be obeyed on earth, must be satisfied and vindicated; therefore, the Deliverer came into the world truly man as he was truly God; and, having thus taken upon him. the form of a servant "in fashion as a man," he became obedient unto [i. e. until death,] even the death of the cross. Then, with the last breath of his holy, obedient, suffering, exemplary life, the satisfaction of the law, which he, sent of the Father,

and sanctified of the Holy Ghost, came into the world to provide, was "finished;" and the ground, the only possible ground in the judgment of God, on which a human sinner can be saved, was laid in his infinite merits.

Yet, while the merit on which the salvation should proceed was provided, the salvation of the sinner was not accomplished. He must be brought back to God a willing penitent, and, to be a sharer in the benefits of Christ, must become a new creature. Christ cannot be a minister of sin, or justice allow of pardon to an impenitent sinner. His people must be made like him, the second Adam, his image formed in their hearts as the earnest of glory with him. They must be saved from the power of sin as well as from its guilt. Hence his name is "Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins." Therefore must He, who saves from eternal death, be also the author of eternal life. So Christ, who died for us on the cross, rose again for us from the dead; and, having commanded his Apostles, and the Church through them, to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," he ascended up on high, and, from his mediatorial throne, sent down the Holy Ghost on the Church at the Pentecost, the fulfillment of his promise that they "should receive power from on high," and that he would be with them "alway, even unto the end of the world." None could come unto him except the Father drew them by the Holy Ghost, given in answer to the prayers of the Son. There was no way of coming unto him but by faith in his Gospel; and no faith

in the Gospel was genuine that did not purify the heart, "work by love, and overcome the world." Faith without repentance, and repentance without faith, are alike impossible. "To as many as received him gave he power to become sons of God," in likeness, obedience, confidence, and inheritance, "even to them that believe on his name;" and this adoption into the divine family is wrought by the renovating energies of the Holy Ghost: "which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The new life so given and derived, is eternal, a holy energy that shall never die, a godlike tendency begun in the new-born babe, and sure of ultimate perfection among the spotless, exalted, and ever-expanding services of a heaven without end.

This is the doctrine which our Apostle believed to be true, from the indubitable testimony of God and his own happy experience; which he believed to be "worthy of all acceptation," because all men are sinners liable to eternal death, and "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." This doctrine he preached, and, though learned and wise beyond all parallel with his successors, he preached nothing else; nay, humbled himself from all his skill in words and logic, to preach it in its simplicity, asking no demonstrative power, and relying on none but that which the Master has promised by the energy of the Holy Ghost; and, here in our text he transmits to Timothy, and so to all of us, the same single, divinely-appointed method of persuading men to be reconciled unto God. God keep us

all from the profound folly of leaning to our own understanding, and being tempted of the devil to be wiser than the chiefest of the Apostles!

There were thus, among others, two things prominently present to the mind of the well-tried Apostle, when he set this faithful saying before his young follower in the evangelical office:-first, that the merciful purpose of Christ is to save men from the power of sin; and secondly, that the preaching of Christ is the appointed method of our instrumentality for that end.

1. "His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." That "Christ Jesus came to save sinners " from the terrible wrath of God in eternal hell, is a most blessed truth, which should fill our souls with thankfulness and our lives with zeal in his cause. For, O my friends, how dreadful is the thought of a soul lying down in everlasting burnings! But to make deliverance from punishment the only or even the principal part of salvation, is contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture, and an error of the selfish, ungodly soul, that cares more to escape suffering than to serve Him, whom to know is life eternal. Nay, the salvation necessarily forbids so narrow a belief; for without the entire, radical reformation of the sinner, deliverance from eternal misery is impossible. The vital connection of happiness with holiness is laid in the all-perfect being of God himself. While the infinitely Holy One is infinitely blessed, the slightest deviation of a creature from the divine will must have its effect in mortal ruin. The law of the universe is in antagonism to sin, and the