We ought not to suppose that the Saviour's condition on the cross was that of sorrow for sin in his own soul. His sufferings and agonies were great. But he did not feel the pains of a felon. He did not take into his soul the sin of the world, and suffer for that. That he could not have done. He suffered for the unjust, for the guilty, to set them an example, by which to live and attain salvation. But he did not suffer as the unjust, as the guilty suffer. He gave himself up to the death of the cross to show mankind how to bear even the greatest injustice; how, when bending under the heaviest strokes of persecutors, to love and forgive; how in the midst of the toughest trials, to keep alive in the soul, and to manifest the holy and loving spirit of God.

Let it not be said that it is impossible to suffer the pains of martyrdom and be filled with spiritual joy at one and the same time. The Christian when afflicted, is not therefore in distress; when cast down, is yet full of joy unspeakable; when alone, is yet not alone; when brought to the severest trials, is yet in the highest condition of serenity and peace. The Saviour was never in a loftier condition, or in a serener and happier mood, than when in that solemn, awful hour, he uttered the words, "It is finished!"

This spiritual life of the Saviour, is what we should pray for and attain. How much greater is this than anything belonging to the world? Our chief, our noblest aim should be, to follow the Saviour in his life of moral purity and practical benevolence. Our principal concern should be to promote the religion of

the Saviour. The wisest and strongest of us cannot do much if we measure their works with his. Still we can do more than we have done, if we but toil according to our ability and means. And we can attain fulness of joy. Humble and weak as we may be, we can do enough to occasion the highest and sweetest reflections in the darkest seasons. "Something good attempted, something done each day," the Poet tells us, "earns a night's repose." The thought of a life of useful, benevolent noble labor, will be more than worldly wealth, more than houses and lands, more than all the world, the world possessed alone, at the close of life. Such a thought would be one item. among all the elements making the soul's heaven. And it is this heaven- the soul's heaven- for which we should labor. As Christians we should labor for no other. It is the worldly mind that looks forward to, and labors for an outward heaven. It is the mind of low desires and inferior aspirations, that seeks only for a home in some strong palace where no material fire can burn, or personal devil can enter. The enlightened Christian desires and labors to be in soul and heart, free from sin, and so to be in heaven anywhere.

Thousands of mankind miss the prize they seek by overlooking it. They desire to be saved, but attain no good, because they imagine that salvation is a great way off. If they would but hear the voice of Christ, instead of the teachings of the creeds, they would immediately wear his yoke which is easy, and bear his burden which is light, and find rest to their souls. Let them comprehend and realize his Gospel, copy him

in his life, and they will carry heaven with them in alltheir journeys; and in all places they will be conscious of a spiritual connection with God and Christ, and angels in the immortal world.

My interest in the Saviour is not excited, my love for him is not awakened, my gratitude is not drawn out towards him by any idea of merely outward advantages and improvements induced by his influence. For what would such things be to me if my moral condition were not improved? What should I care for a more magnificent abode, for broader and more beautiful landscapes, if I should leave the world not to be changed or made perfect in my spiritual nature? I might live in a New Jerusalem, a glorious city in the third heaven, and walk unhindered its golden streets; I might own and occupy within its shining gates, a splendid palace, and hold undisturbed my possession, and pass unmolested through its illumined apartments, and yet be no loftier in my thoughts, no purer in my affections. My vision is not turned to the Saviour, my reverence for his character is not felt and manifested, because he is to lead me into another and better world. Any place in God's limitless universe is the centre of grandeur and loveliness with which the eye need not cease to be charmed, or the mind to be content. There is no locality within the Eternal's dominion, which does not lie in the midst of sublime and wonderful creations of God's hand, or which is not adorned with objects of marvellous beauty. I look to the Saviour now, as the greatest and best of God's holy messengers from heaven, as the one altogether

lovely, I listen now with a heart swelling with love and thankfulness to his last great and impressive words from the cross, because I perceive that his work of love is to be wrought in my soul - because I understand that you and I― that all are to be made holy in our spiritual nature, by the power of his truth and life because I foresee that he will put an end to transgression, and destroy the root of sorrow and grief. With feelings of indebtedness towards him which I cannot express I hear now from his divine lips the solemn and encouraging sentence, It is finished! And because I behold him on his lofty plain of moral life sending forth his agents to bring the human race to the holiness of heaven. And while pondering this expression, so weighty with truth, so vast with meaning, I feel how wrong it is ever to be indifferent to him, or his cause, how wrong it is for any of us ever to forsake or deviate from the path of religious duty and worship in which he is our Forerunner and Guide; and how wise and noble we should be, did we but follow him in his holy and benevolent life, in the homage of love towards God, and in the service of love towards man.

DISCOURSE VII.

CHRIST THE LORD OF THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT.

ROMANS XIV. 9.

FOR TO THIS END CHRIST BOTH DIED, AND ROSE, AND REVIVED, THAT HE MIGHT BE LORD BOTH OF THE DEAD AND LIVING.

All true power is eternal in nature and useful in character. We begin to live, and to form our moral character in this world, and here we exert some kind of moral influence. It is pure, noble, beneficent and perpetual, if we conform to the example of the Son of God; if we love God and keep his commandments. There is a kind of power which is false. This kind will not last. That only is lasting power with which we against all forms of evil. This power is In the spirit of love towards God, and love towards men, we can alone show real authority. Only in this spirit can we work and conquer and reign forever as kings and priests unto God.

can stand up that of love.

That power by which some men exercise arbitrary rule over their kind, is not real or true power. It cannot last. Those men who hold their brethren in bondage are not sure of their possessions. Though they