apparel, the diadem, the cloth of goid bedecked with sparkling gems, in which her maids have attired their mistress, why, in the righteousness that clothes, and the graces of the Spirit that adorn him, the believer wears a robe, which wins the admiration, not of men's, but angels' eyes, and shines even amid the glories of a city whose gates are made of pearls, and whose streets are paved with gold. To the half of his kingdom, the Persian promised whatever his queen might ask; and generous, right-royal as was his offer, it helps us by its very meanness, as a molehill at the foot of a mountain, as a taper's feeble, yellow flame held up against the blazing sun, to form some estimate of the boundless grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Half his kingdom! He offers nothing by halves. His promise is illimitable. All mine is thine. Confining his generosity neither to kingdoms, nor continents, nor worlds, nor heaven itself, he lays the whole universe at a poor sinner's feet. Away then with fears and cares! There is nothing we need that we shall not get, nothing we can ask that we shall not receive. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Transferring divine wealth, if I may so speak, to our account in the bank of heaven, and giving us an unlimited credit there, Jesus says, All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive.

In regard to Christ's fullness, I remark

1. That there is all fullness of mercy to pardon in him.

Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor, so, says Solomon, doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. Such great mischief can little things do. One

small leak will sink the biggest ship that ever sailed the ocean; one bad link in the chain she rides by, and parting from her anchor, she is hurled on the horrid reef or driven before the fury of the tempest; and even one little wedge left carelessly on the slips arrests her progress when the signal is given, and eager crowds are waiting to cheer the launch, and the bosom of the sea is swelling to receive her into its arms. And had there the smallest doubt expressed in the Bible about the fullness of pardoning mercy, had it not been made clear as noon-day that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, from sins as well of the deepest as of the lightest dye, what a stumbling-block would that have been! I believe that it would have arrested the steps of thousands now happy in Christ, or now safe in heaven, as they went to throw themselves at his feet and cry, Lord, save us, we perish.

But there is no such doubt. A herald of the cross, I stand here in my master's name to proclaim a universal amnesty. When the last gun is fired, and pardon is proclaimed in reconquered provinces, is it not always marked by some notable exceptions? When the sword of war is sheathed, the sword of justice is drawn, only to be returned to the scabbard after it is filled with blood. Men say that they need not look for mercy in the hour of retribution, who wreaked ruthless vengeance on helpless women, nor had pity on sweet tender babes. But from the pardon of redeeming mercy there are none excepted, unless those, who, by refusing to accept it, except themselves. Are you unjust? Christ Jesus died, the just for the unjust. Are you sinners? He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Are you the vilest of the vile? He never lifted his foot, when he was on this

earth, to spurn the guiltiest away. He pitied whom others spurned; he received whom others rejected; he loved whom others loathed. Let the vilest, meanest, most wretched outcasts, know that they have a friend in him. A mother's door may be shut against them, but not his. It was his glory then, and it is his glory still, to be reproached as the friend of sinners. He faced contumely to save them; he endured death to save them. And be you groaning under a load of cares or guilt, of sins or sorrows, kind and gracious Lord! he says, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, "which also leaned on his breast at supper," and lingered by his cross, and was entrusted with the care of his mother, and more than any of the others enjoyed his master's intimacy and knew his mind, says, not as one who balances his language, and carefully selects his words, lest he should compromise and commit his master too far, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous :" adding, "and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." The whole world! ah! some would say, that is dangerous language. It is God's language. It binds a zone of mercy around the world, and perish the hand that would narrow it by a hair's breadth. Beneath his grace in Christ, as beneath that ample sky, there is room enough for all the men and women in the wide world. None shall be damned but they who damn. themselves. What were it but to make God a liar, should we doubt that our sins can be pardoned, ay, and shall be pardoned, if we seek their forgiveness? Within its widest shores the vast ocean has its bounds,

and so has the far-travelling sun within his orbit; but this pardon is confined within no limits of time, or age, or guilt, or class, or character, and is clogged with no conditions but that you accept it.

One might fancy that now all are certain to be saved. Who will not accept of it? Offer a starving man bread, he will take it; offer a poor man money, he will take it; offer a sick man health, he will take it; offer an ambitious man honor, he will take it; offer a lifeboat in the wreck, a pardon at the gallows, oh! how gladly he will take them. Salvation, which is the one thing needful, is the only thing man will not accept. He will stoop to pick up a piece of gold out of the mire, but he will not rise out of the mire to receive a crown from heaven. What folly! What infatuation! May God by his Spirit empty our hearts of pride, and take away the heart of unbelief! Vain here is the help of man. Arise, O Lord, and plead the cause that is thine own. Break the spell of sin, and help us to say with the man of old, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief!

2. There is all fullness of grace to sanctify in Christ. "My leanness! my leanness!" is a lamentation which God's people, as well as the old prophet, have often used in mourning over their spiritual condition. It may be very low, very sad; presenting the contrast of a soul famished, and a body luxuriously fed; increase of earthly, but a diminution of sacred joys; at the year's end more money in the bank, but less grace in the heart; the tide of worldly fame flowing, and the tide of God's favor ebbing; gardens, and orchards, and woodlands, and the fields of nature, green, gay, and beautiful, but barrenness of soul within; graces withering, prayers dull, faith weak, love cold, desires feeble,

spiritual appetite failing; much to alarm the saint, and send him to his knees crying, My soul cleaveth to the dust, quicken thou me according to thy word.

But why is it, why should it be so? Why burns the virgins' lamp with such a flickering flame? Why runs the stream of grace so small, shrunk to the size of a summer brook? Why are the best of us no better, no holier, no happier, than we are? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? No. The supplies are not exhausted, nor is the fountain empty; nor is our Father fallen into poverty, that his children are so scantily supplied, and have to go about meanly begging a share of the world's enjoyments. It is easy to know why many poor children in this city come to have misery stamped on their young faces, and look as if they had never smiled in this world, nor found this world smiling on them; a tyrant rules at home, harsh, stern, cruel, forbidding. Hapless creatures, they wander shoeless and shivering on our frosty streets, and with hunger in their hollow cheeks, and beggary hung on their backs, they hold out their skinny hands for charity; their father is poor, or dead, or, worse than dead, the base slave of a most damning vice, a drunkard, from whose imperious voice they fly, whose reeling step they tremble to hear. But what have God's children to do with unhappy looks?

God is love. Fury is not in me, saith the Lord.. With him is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. What do you wish or want? Go tell it to your Father. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. Can he who justified not sanctify? Can he who enlisted us under his holy banner not provide munitions of war enough to secure, though there may be a hard fight for it, the final victory? Can he who led the