Surely it will affect your hearts to hear it said he is come-the great Saviour is in the world.

3. He came to do something-and that something absolutely essential to our salvation.-To take our place— become our surety-pay his life for our redemption. Thus we find he fulfilled the law, and made it honourable. But this was for us, not for himself: and then, when he had honoured the law by his active obedience, he equally fulfilled and honoured it by his passive submission to its awful sentence of condemnationbearing our sins in his own body on the tree, and so offering a full satisfaction for sin-or a moral consideration to the divine justice which was received as a substitute for the actual punishment of guilty man. He who was "made of a woman," was also "made under the law, that he might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Therefore by his coming he made the salvation of the lost compatible with the claims of eternal justice-for" he bore our sins in his own body on the tree." He reconciled both mercy and justice, in the work of human salvation, and glorified the holiness and righteousness of God more by his voluntary sufferings, than if justice had been carried to its utmost extremity against sinners.

III. Let us observe the benevolent end he had in view by his coming. It was to seek and to save the lost.

1. This seems to be said of his personal labour, teaching, and suffering.-The object of the whole was to make himself known then, and for ever, and in every place, as a Saviour for the lost. To call all men unto him, as the sent of God, the true Messiah. He therefore constantly speaks of this as the great object of his coming. Of course, as possessed of all knowledge and all power, he needed no search for the sake of information—but as the sent of God, he had to proceed according to the system of providence; in

dealing with man, therefore, he adopts rational and human means. His seeking was to draw to himself those who might be persuaded to believe, and all who so far felt their need as to embrace his promise of salvation. How deeply interesting then does the Son of man appear seeking everywhere that which was lost-calling and inviting men to come unto him-saying, "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money-come ye-yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." His seeking then is for the purpose of making men conscious of their need of him, and to bring them into the possession of all that his salvation includes.

2. He continues by his ministers, his word, his providence, and his spirit in men's consciences, still to seek out sinners, as he did Zaccheus, in the connexion of the text. -Many must be conscious that he has often made their sin find them out, and their conscience feel his quick and powerful word. He has come to them by faithful preaching, and said "Thou art the man". -“repent and be converted." He compares himself to a man whose sheep had strayed-and himself searching for them. He employs distresses, trials, afflictions, to find us out while at a distance from him, and make us feel our forlorn, guilty, and hopeless condition. These constrain sinners to seek him-for when he says this effectually, "Seek ye my face, our heart replies, Thy face, Lord, will we seek." There are thousands of true believers, who never thought of their salvation, till God sought them out by some afflicting or alarming event. But his Spirit comes to seek and subdue the hard heart of the sinner. By one flash of light from Sinai, he sends conviction to the conscience, and lays the proudest rebel prostrate at his feet. But you will observe the expression before us, to seek, is used to show us generally the care, and pains, and perseverance of God's mercy in following us day by day, month by month, year by year-as if he could not finally give us up, nor leave us without faithful and affectionate admonition. We resist, or delay, or refuse, or flee from him, but still he

pursues. We stifle one conviction, but he excites another. We disregard one message, but he sends another. We misimprove one gracious opportunity, but he grants us yet another. We waste one year, but he adds another to our frail life-till at length, after many conflicts of truth with conscience, many hard struggles between our stubborn will and his authority, he gains the mastery, our heart yields before omnipotent grace, and he numbers us among his faithful subjects.

Now this work of grace is subservient to salvation. He seeks to save-that is his end-both in coming and in seeking. Salvation is provided for all who come to Christ. It is freely offered to us, and it consists in deliverance from all that guilty souls suffer in eternal perdition, and in the enjoyment of all the felicity, which the favour and presence of God can afford. Many have already experienced this salvation. They have passed from this state of sin, and guilt, and misery, to a state of perfect and eternal happiness. And many who would not listen nor obey, are lostlost past recovery, because they refused him who sought their salvation-many that were once like ourselves, the busy, delighted spectators or actors on this stage of life-men and women who once partook in all the joys, and all the engagements of earth-were mothers and fathers, husbands, wives, parents and children. They possessed the same nature, and enjoyed the same gospel as ourselves; and some, even, that before us occupied the same place of worship, sang the same hymns, and heard the same scriptures read, and had all these same truths, which you now hear, pressed upon their attention by faithful and affectionate ministers. But they are gone, and they are lost-for to the last hour of their lives they remained mere hearers, and died without faith in the only Saviour, and without entering the only way of salvation. No offer of salvation or of forgiveness will ever again be made to them. Now, our day of grace is not yet ended. The Lord Jesus Christ has not yet given us up, nor ceased to press upon us his great salvation. But our

day will terminate, and it will terminate either in our salvation or damnation. When we quit this earthly scene, we shall depart either to eternal felicity, or to eternal misery and despair. But is this a matter that we can calmly or carelessly leave undetermined? Can you be contented to live on henceforth ignorant of what is likely to be your state for ever? Even now we are all either in the condition of lost or saved. These words might by written on our foreheads respectively. There are some that know they are yet in their sins, and that if their state were described, it would be by this awful word lost-and they might wear it as a sign, that all might read and know their true character. Yet, such are not finally lost till they have passed away from this state of mercy in which Christ continues to seek and to save. To such he makes another appeal now, perhaps the last, the very last! O let it not be in vain. Who among you now feels that he is a lost sinner; let him hear, let him repent, let him direct the eye of his faith to the seeking, waiting, saving Son of man, who again comes to you for the gracious purpose of effecting your salvation. He saves by the efficacy of his precious blood from the guilt of sin; he saves from impenitence by the application of his word to the heart; he saves from the pollution and tyranny of sinful passions by the renewing energy of his Holy Spirit; and he saves from death by receiving the departing soul to his immediate and glorious presence.

APPLICATION.

1. Let each inquire, has the Saviour's benevolent purpose been accomplished in me?-Am I now a sinner saved by grace? This inquiry presses upon you as one that you are bound to answer before God and Endeavour to decide, then, your own conscience. whether you should rise to heaven or sink to hell, if you were to be this moment called away from earth.

2. Supposing you can trace a scriptural evidence that you have been sought out and called-saved from a

guilty conscience, from the power of sin-then what thanks and praises, what obedience and devotedness do you owe to Christ! Let all real Christians feel their obligations to co-operate with Christ in seeking and saving the lost.

3. Supposing you cannot yet trace any evidence of your salvation, nor feel any experience of grace, then what alarm, what anxiety should this produce," I am in a lost state." Then take up the inquiry, What must I do to be saved? and rest not till you find, and feel, and enjoy the answer. O Jesus, thou divine Saviour of sinners, that didst come into the world for no other purpose, turn our wayward and erring steps into the narrow way. Come and seek us that we may be found; find us though we are in our sins, that we may be saved; save us that we may be blessed, and, that being blessed, we may bless thee for ever and Amen.

ever.

XII.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

(BY THE LATE REV. THOS. SPENCER, OF LIVErpool.*)

EXODUS XV. 27.

"And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees: and they encamped there by the waters."

CONTEXT.—“ Elim," usually understood as the name of a place, but by some supposed to be a forest.

* This gifted youth, on the completion of his studies at the Hoxton Academy, settled at Liverpool. He had previously attracted an unprecedented degree of attention in the metropolis and its neighbourhood. His boyish appearance, ready elocution, the musical tones of his voice, combined with the deeply experimental nature of his remarks, and extraordinary acquaintance with Scripture and apt introduction of it in his discourses, drew Christians of all ages