up to him. We need a stage on which to rest in our ascent. The indistinctness too, with which we conceive an immaterial, eternal, and infinite Being, concurs with his greatness to prevent our affections opening towards him with all that ardour which his excellence and our happiness equally require. Christ is "over all God blessed for ever;" but God (if I may so speak) veiled of his effulgence. Having taken on him the nature of men, he is not ashamed to call them brethren: and as brethren, we on our parts can turn towards him with complacency and confidence. In fancy we can even behold him, such as he once was in the days of his flesh; and when we read the tale of his sufferings, we feel all those emotions and sympathies swelling in our bosoms, which attach us so closely to our own kindred. Recollecting what he was, we can think of what he is, without terror; and in his presence, and under his protection, can approach with joy even that awful seat where holiness and justice for ever reside.

Of all the wonderful things which constitute, or are intimately connected with, the dispensation of grace, perhaps there is none of which we have so inadequate a conception as sin, its essential deformity and most fatal tendency. When we talk to a careless liver of the guilt of his ordinary conversation in the world, and describe sin in the fearful language of the Bible, we seem to him as dreamers. Even the most humble and advanced Christian finds it difficult to fix in his mind such a

sense of the sanctity of God's law, and the terrible profaneness of violating it, as corresponds in any tolerable degree with the measure of these things in holy writ. Yet certainly it most nearly concerns us to appreciate them justly. Now it is impossible to conceive any truth so calculated to penetrate us with a just horror of sin in general, and with the deepest confusion for our own offences, as the doctrine of the cross. It stamps upon evil a character of darkness and horror which no tongue can utter : it bears in its amazing mercy the most awful testimony to the majesty and justice of God; and while it pours gladness into the bosom of the penitent, speaks death to the presumptuous rebel.-It is worth observing in this place, that an objection sometimes made to Revelation, on account of the astonishing costliness of the sacrifice which it declares to have been provided as an atonement for guilt, admits of the same reply which may be offered to the common argument against the moral character of God, from the extent and intensity of suffering allowed to prevail in the world: both are calculated to attest visibly, and to all ages, the dreadful consequences of sin. Can it be said that the apprehensions entertained of this by mankind are generally such, that we can think the evidence has been more than sufficient?

This was

"In patience possess ye your souls." the solemn precept and premonition of Christ himself; of him who, "when he suffered, threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth

righteously;"-" who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Of what importance it is to "patient continuance in well doing," that Christians should learn constancy under afflictions; and of what efficacy the example of a suffering Saviour was believed by the apostles to be, for working such a temper in their disciples; the Epistles of the New Testament every where attest. patience ye inherit the promises."

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Through faith and "We are made

partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast to the end." "Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." "It is better that ye suffer for well-doing, than for evil doing; for Christ also hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust." "Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind." "Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings." It is not indeed accurate to define virtue, as some have done, the sacrificing of a present for a future greater good: virtue must ever be essentially the same; and the day will assuredly come, to every true servant of God, when holiness will be the most delightful of all exercises, unaccompanied even with the appearance of a loss: yet, in our present state, with corrupt hearts in a corrupt world, it cannot be denied that persevering self-denial is at the basis of all moral excellence. We must be ready to abandon

much, and endure much, if Heaven is the prize we seek for.

There is another Christian grace, of the highest worth, which is intimately connected with self-denial, and peculiarly taught in the doctrine of the cross,-Humility. Can we see the Son of God crucified for our sins, and still indulge a lofty, selfgratulating spirit? Had our crimes brought a friend, a wife, or child, to an infamous death, should we dare stalk round the world with a triumphant look, and proud, braggart deportment? In such a case, surely the very worst would hide his face in the dust. But we have crucified the Lord of life: our crimes have brought the ever-blessed Emmanuel to shame and suffering. A just view of the great superiority of moral worth over all other advantages, and such a sense of our own moral unworthiness, as the cross of Christ can alone teach, would effectually deliver us from that over-weening and selfish folly, which even the ablest of men, untaught in the school of Christ, are ever ready to mistake for magnanimity. It is not, however, the sufferings of our Saviour only, that should cover us with confusion : the recollection that his death is our life; his shame and sorrow our everlasting joy; these, surely, are thoughts, which, above all others, must empty us of selfishness, draw forth every grateful and generous affection, and bring us to the foot of the cross, in mingled tears and rapture, to join the song of angels; "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto

the Lamb, for ever and ever." Let it be remembered, that pride is a preference of ourselves; love and gratitude, a preference of others. These sentiments, therefore, cannot subsist together; and whatever tends to excite the better feelings, must tend also to expel the worse.

The last Christian grace, which I shall notice, as wrought more especially by the doctrine of the cross, is Spiritual-mindedness:-the source and pledge, the fruit and crown, of all. On this, assuredly, it is needless to enlarge. What says the apostle of the Gentiles? "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Throughout the New Testament, the death of Christ is spoken of as directly emblematic of, and above all other things effectual to produce, that death unto sin, and deadness to the pleasures of this world, which ever accompany a spiritual frame of mind.

We see, then, that the doctrine of the atonement -the knowledge of that great truth, which unknown might have wrought inestimable good for man-has a peculiar and most powerful tendency to excite an ardent love of God; a deep detestation of sin; patient self-denial; humility; and spiritual-mindedness. Let it now be considered how large a portion of holiness these graces themselves constitute, and how necessarily they imply or produce the rest, and, if the Scripture account of happiness be true,