and that "there is none other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." Such being the doctrine, let us now enquire, as I proposed,

In the second place, what reception it ought to meet with from sinful man.

How would a criminal, condemned to death, receive intelligence of a reprieve? How would an anxious patient, suffering under a painful and mortal disease, receive a remedy which promised certain restoration to health and strength? With what feelings would a person, exposed to any evil or danger, accept the friendly assistance whereby he might be rescued from it? If our sense of the danger, to which we are naturally exposed, bore any proportion to its real magnitude, and if our feelings at being delivered from it at all correspond with the greatness of the mercy therein shown us, our thoughts would in vain attempt to find utterance in language. We should be reduced to say, with David, when contemplating the mercies of God, "If I should declare them and speak of them, they should be more than I am able to express." What joy, what gratitude, what love for our great benefactor, would fill our hearts! If the angels in heaven rejoice at the repentance of a single sinner, how

should that sinner himself rejoice, when he is made sensible of the mercy of God towards him! But we are in general, dull, cold, lifeless, indifferent; we feel not these happy emotions, and that Saviour, whose day faithful Abraham rejoiced to see in the distant prospect, and having seen, was glad, we regard with no warmth of affection or gratitude, and that gospel which was foretold by prophets and ushered in by Angels, in terms of praise to God, and congratulation to the world, those "glad tidings of great joy, which should be to all people," we receive with thankless, joyless hearts, as if we had no interest in this happy proclamation. Whence is this? How should we, who are so greatly concerned in the glorious news, be so little affected by it? It is through want of faith; we do not believe ourselves so lost as the scriptures represent, we do not believe ourselves so restored as the scriptures represent, we do not think ourselves in so great danger, we do not understand the greatness of the price paid for our redemption. But he who by the mercy of God has come to a right knowledge of his condition, he who is conscious of his utter inability to save himself by any means that he can devise, any efforts that he can make, any holiness that he can acquire, yet longs above all things to be restored to the favour and countenance of God,

and that "there is none other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." Such being the doctrine, let us now enquire, as I proposed,

In the second place, what reception it ought to meet with from sinful man.

How would a criminal, condemned to death, receive intelligence of a reprieve? How would an anxious patient, suffering under a painful and mortal disease, receive a remedy which promised certain restoration to health and strength? With what feelings would a person, exposed to any evil or danger, accept the friendly assistance whereby he might be rescued from it? If our sense of the danger, to which we are naturally exposed, bore any proportion to its real magnitude, and if our feelings at being delivered from it at all correspond with the greatness of the mercy therein shown us, our thoughts would in vain attempt to find utterance in language. We should be reduced to say, with David, when contemplating the mercies of God, "If I should declare them and speak of them, they should be more than I am able to express." What joy, what gratitude, what love for our great benefactor, would fill our hearts! If the angels in heaven rejoice at the repentance of a single sinner, how

should that sinner himself rejoice, when he is made sensible of the mercy of God towards him! But we are in general, dull, cold, lifeless, indifferent; we feel not these happy emotions, and that Saviour, whose day faithful Abraham rejoiced to see in the distant prospect, and having seen, was glad, we regard with no warmth of affection or gratitude, and that gospel which was foretold by prophets and ushered in by Angels, in terms of praise to God, and congratulation to the world, those "glad tidings of great joy, which should be to all people," we receive with thankless, joyless hearts, as if we had no interest in this happy proclamation. Whence is this? How should we, who are so greatly concerned in the glorious news, be so little affected by it? It is through want of faith; we do not believe ourselves so lost as the scriptures represent, we do not believe ourselves so restored as the scriptures represent, we do not think ourselves in so great danger, we do not understand the greatness of the price paid for our redemption. But he who by the mercy of God has come to a right knowledge of his condition, he who is conscious of his utter inability to save himself by any means that he can devise, any efforts that he can make, any holiness that he can acquire, yet longs above all things to be restored to the favour and countenance of God,

and to the hope of the eternal enjoyment of his presence in heaven, such a man, on learning that he is "justified freely by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood," will be overpowered with gratitude, like the wise men of the east, when they found Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem, and will "rejoice with exceeding great joy." For what a treasure has he found; what comfort, what encouragement, what unspeakable happiness to know that all his sins, however great their multitude, however aggravated their nature, are blotted out and will be no more remembered against him! -that vile as he is in himself, as a member of Christ's body he is accounted holy before God, and that he shall hereafter be actually admitted to that heaven, that holy, happy, glorious, eternal heaven, to which he feels that he is unworthy to lift up his hands or his eyes. But remember, my brethren, it is faith in Christ which authorises us to entertain these happy thoughts and hopes; it is not our own goodness, our own piety, our own repentance, our own zeal, our own endeavours to obey the commandments of God, our own works or deservings of any kind, on account of which we are justified, pardoned, or saved; all these things are far too imperfect, and much too greatly