"What is that?"

feet; I would like to kiss them-if but for once. And this life, I'd place it at her service." "Then your are not an Antinomian ?" "A man who says he is saved, but that he may murder againthat though liberated he may live as he lists. Would you murder again? or again break the Queen's laws ?" "Murder again! Break the laws again! Ah, no, no. If she were at war with her enemies, I'd go for her into the very thick of the fight. If I had a thousand. lives, they are not mine." "Then you could die for "I could. My life is not my own, but hers. She has given it to me.

her?"

Dear friends, do we get any inkling yet as to what grace is? We, who are quickened together with Christ, were dead; dead in sins. To set us free from that death, He bore our guilt, our sins, on His own body on the tree. To know this is to know the Gospel, and also God, who had His own design in loving us. The analogy is feeble, but the Queen knew what feelings filled her heart. She was conscious of clemency of grace. She felt compassion for the poor, miserable victim of crime; and she knew the murderer, when saved, would reveal all this-that he would be a mirror in which it would be reflected. She anticipated, also, what would be the effect of grace -that it would draw forth love; that the saved one, more than all her other subjects, would devote himself to her interests, and, if needful, would die in her service. Were he to shine among her peers as a member of her Court-educated and honoured-so much the greater wonder-so much the brighter witness would he be of her favour and of her grace. So God knew what was in Himself resources that had never been brought out, which no eye had ever seen or heart conceived. There they lay-hidden riches of grace and love truly infinite.

But God said, I will work a work in saving the sin

R

resources.

ner which, more than anything else, will bring out those How could His compassion or His grace be shown in angels who never fell? or even His love and joy to the same extent as in redeemed sinners? Where can we see holiness, or righteousness, or love, so displayed as at the Cross? Angels are subjects, servants, standing before God in primal innocence; delighting to do His will and yield Him homage; but sinners redeemed from death and from the lowest degradation, by "the precious blood of Christ," are made one with Christ-loved by God as Jesus is loved -to be glorified with Christ with the same glory, and to sit with Him on His throne as co-heirs of the same inheritance! Oh, marvel of marvels! wonder of the universe-displaying, as it does, "the manifold wisdom of God," and "the exceeding riches of His grace."

In the illustration which I have used, it is rather the Queen that we should see, and not so much the saved murderer; especially if, besides having his life granted to him, he is now, as we have supposed, not only saved, educated, elevated, but brought into nearness to the throne itself, and with unmeasured honour made to share its highest confidence, its richest glory. Law would have consigned him to an ignominious death, and buried him in a felon's grave; but grace has in him erected a monument for herself, and has adorned that monument with beauty and great glory-a glory and beauty bestowed by her own lavish hand. Thus out of the marred and broken pieces of our ruin, in which the enemy found his triumph, God has collected and constructed a wondrous plate, on which He has pourtrayed, as it were, a portrait of Himself-His wisdom, His righteousness, His holiness, and His love!

Now, this is the God-ward side of truth; and very precious it is to him that sees it. It would have been beginning at the wrong end if I had gone into that felon's cell, and had said-" My poor man, you must

love the Queen." How could he love the Queen? Was he not, on the morrow, to be hung by her laws? Where, in his case, was there a way for love? There was room enough for misery, fear, and dread; but none, in the nature of things, for love.

Or I had said, suppose My poor man, you must reform, be sorry, turn over to a new life." On the morrow he was to die. The law demanded his death; and none of those inward exercises of soul, nor outward moral amendments, would or could stay that demand. He had wept his last tears; he had groaned under the the sentence. But of weeping and groaning no account is taken by the law. He must be hung by law, or saved by grace.

Now, these were the two alternatives that lay before God. God must, according to His justice, which demanded the sinner's death, utterly condemn him; or on the ground of grace, save him. He chose the latter. Grace reigned-not at the expense of law, but by a most glorious vindication of the righteousness of law. Christ became sin; that is, He became responsible for its penalty, which was death. And that death He suffered-suffered for us. He took the place of the guilty; He bore the judgment of the guilty; and consequently the guilty, for whom He suffered, need not die. Life has been purchased for them. As has been well said, "Infinite worth has met and discharged eternal penalties." Thus the Gospel of the grace of God-God's good news (Rom. i. 1,)-is "the opening of the prison to them that were bound." It is the proclamation of pardon for the guilty-of salvation for the lost. It is far more. It is a message which puts us into a divine life; yea, into association with Christ. Says Paul"We who were dead in sins, are quickened together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

Thus to know God-His grace and love to us as

" We

sinners-is the true spring of our love to Him. love him because he first loved us." It is a poor, meagre Gospel merely to say that unless we change our ways, or love God, we shall be lost. This may be man's Gospel, but it is not God's. It is God's Gospel to say-We were guilty, lost; we had to die-were under sentence of death; but Christ took that sentence-He did die for us. Receiving this, believing it, we are saved-yes; receiving it, or believing it as simply as did the murderer receive or believe the message which gave him his life. Such is faith. The blessedness, however, of believing, is not in thinking of faith itself, but of its object; even as the murderer never thought of how he was to believe the message, but of the astounding and joy-inspiring truth which that message conveyed. And when he read or knew that message, it gave him life, joy, peace, gratitude. It was in him the germ of every emotion and affection which became a subject of such grace as that bestowed on him. Thus also is it with the good news of Christ. Strange preaching-to tell everything but the Gospel!

Sad overlooking of my mission had I gone into the prison cell, expatiating on the horrors of murder, and on the misery of the drop, and had enjoined on the criminal (a hopeless task in his case) sorrow for the past, and amendment for the future, but had forgotten to produce the Queen's reprieve! Melancholy trifling is it with souls, when sin is pourtrayed, and the law is opened, and death described, and the Judge at the door, and heaven depicted as lost, and hell-its doom, its fire, its worm, and flame-displayed; but no reprieve—no announcement of pardon-no news of life!—no Gospel— no good news of God!-no proclamation of Christ-no kingdom of heaven opened to all believers!

Let me not be mistaken. None can over-estimate the evil of sin, or the awfulness of death, and judgment,

and eternity, to the unsaved. But to begin and end with these-how melancholy! and may I not add, how cruel! Many a sinner already knows the misery of sin, the dread of dying, and the fear of hell. What he wants is to be saved. My poor prisoner-he knew the misery of murder, the horrors of the gallows. What he needed, and that which alone would meet his case, was grace, pure grace-the gift of his life. In no other way could it come. He had no reason to show for his life. He had no hope. Grace alone could meet his case. Grace alone can meet ours. Nor shall we ever take other ground-no, not even in heaven. It will be always and for ever

"Oh, to grace how great a debtor !"

It will be always and for ever- "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

And, now, such is grace. But the tree is known by its fruit. And, oh! what fruit! what joy and peace, on the reception of it! And we do not sin that grace may abound, but we put off the deeds of our former selves, that fruit may abound. For since we are raised up together with Christ, we mortify all that is not suitable to Him, or to the scene in which He hath placed us. That scene is heaven, (heavenly places,) where, before God, we are as Christ is accepted in the beloved; righteous as He. Our title to enter into the holiest of all is simply the blood, which is there, and which cleanseth from all sin.

But, oh, are there any in this multitude who have never seen themselves to be dead? or that all their works, their religion, their prayers even, in such condition, are but dead works. Ah, it is this which men do not see. Satan blinds them by this deadly doing.