high that their neighbours really thought they would reach the top; but, after getting a certain height, whether it was owing to the weakness of the materials, or a powerful current which they always met at a certain elevation, and which by a sort of down-draught blew them back from the brow of the mountain, they uniformly found themselves again on the spot from which they first ascended. A long time had now passed on, and multitudes had died of the plague without any clearer views of the specific plant; when a poor sufferer who had already gone a fruitless expedition in the ship, and from the severity of his anguish was eager in trying every scheme, lay tossing on his bed. He got hold of a large paper-roll which lay on a shelf beside him. It was very dirty, and the ink was faded, but to while away the time he began to unfold it, and found from the beginning that it was the Book of the Balm of Gilead.* He at once suspected that it was the book which the stranger had left so` long ago, and wondered how they had suffered it to fall aside, and he had not read far till it told him that if he would only read on, it would put him on the way of finding the Plant of Renown. It gave a full description-many particulars of which he had never heard before-and as he advanced in his feverish earnestness, unrolling it fold by fold, and reading rapidly as he went along, hoping that it would tell him the very spot where he should look for it, he found the plant itself! There it lay in the heart of the long-neglected volume; and LUTHER's eye glistened as he read "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." "But where is Christ to be found? Must I ascend the height or descend into the deep? Must I climb these cliffs or cross that sea? Oh! no. Christ is here-nigh me-God's present gift to me conveyed in the volume of this book. I see him. I accept him. I believe." From that moment Christ was Luther's righteousness; and in the flash of sudden joy with which he discovered the Lord his righteousness, though it did not so strike him at the moment, Luther's eternal life began.

The apologue has prematurely betrayed itself; but no matter, it is so historically true that it could not be hid. The cure for a plague-stricken dying world was long concealed in the Bible, till, led by the Spirit of God, Luther found it there. You have only to go where Luther went, and you will find it again. But so inveterate is the disposition to travel far, or do some great thing for the sake of some surpassing good, that few are content with a salvation which has already come to their house. Leaving their Bible behind them, they go to sea in the ship of a so-called apostolic church, or they make to themselves the wings of a mystic

Title of New Testament, and Matth. i. 1.

piety, and, by dint of personal effort, try to bring Christ down from above. But all their labour is futile. That only "Christ" who is the "end of the law" and the "sinner's righteousness," is in the Bible already, and as such is God's free gift to me-a gift unspeakable in its intrinsic value-unspeakable in the everlasting results which its acceptance involves-God-like in the freeness with which it is offered, and God-like in the nearness with which it is brought; but missed by many because so nigh, and rejected by others because so free.

SERMON XX.

THOSE WHO ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH ARE HEIRS OF LIFE.

BY THE REV. A. BORLAND PARKER,

FREE CHURCH, LESMAHAGO.

Now the just shall live by faith.”—HEB. X. 38.

In the beginning of this chapter the Apostle shows the insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to make atonement for sin. "The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect." It was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away the iniquity of a guilty world. Seeing, then, that a nobler sacrifice was required to accomplish this important purpose, where was the sacrifice to be found? Not among the sons of men; for there was none which could procure remission of his own sin, far less atone for the sins of a brother. Not among creatures of a higher order the angels and the cherubim of heaven-for every service they could render, every work they could perform, was owing as a matter of debt to the sovereign Ruler of the universe, and no part of their obedience could be put to the account of our fallen race. It was in vain that the woods of Lebanon might burn, and the cattle on a thousand hills be slain at the altar; or that rivers of oil might cover the earth, or clouds of incense darken the sky. Unavailing were the costliest oblations which sinners of mankind might present. But what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God accomplished by the sending of his own Son. Christ came into the world to be at once a priest and a victim. There is this difference, however, between the priesthood of our Saviour and that of the sons of Aaron-the latter, after ministering for a time, were removed by infirmity or death; the former, because he is the Son of God, continues a Priest for ever. He is a minister of that true tabernacle and sanctuary which the Lord hath pitched and not man. And there is this difference, also, between the victims presented under the law, and the sacrifice offered by our blessed Lord, that while the former merely removed the stain of ceremonial defilement-"sanctifying,” as the Apostle tells us, "to the purifying of the flesh"-the latter is efficacious in cleansing

the conscience and purifying the heart; and while the former served a temporary purpose, and were frequently repeated, the latter was offered once and once for all; for, "by his one offering, Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." We have now, therefore, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus-by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. We have an High Priest over the house of God who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, who can communicate the supplies of grace and strength of which we stand in need, and who is able and willing to save to the very uttermost all who will come unto him. Fearful, indeed, will be the judgment of those who despise the overtures of reconciliation, who trample under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the everlasting covenant an unholy thing. If the despisers of Moses' law perished without mercy, heavier far will be the doom of such as set at nought the blessed Jesus. The Apostle, in the context, makes a special allusion to the great fight of afflictions which his Hebrew brethren had already endured, partly, while they were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while they became the companions of those who were so used. With manly fortitude and Christian patience, they sustained the various hardships to which they were subjected; they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better, even an enduring inheritance. St Paul exhorts them still to exhibit the same stedfastness-to hold by the profession they had made whatever consequences might ensue; in a word, to persevere unto the end. The way might be rough-it was but short. The difficulties might be numerous-they would all be overcome. The storm might rage around them-but its fury would soon be spent; or they would be removed to a peaceful habitation, where the howling of the winter wind would never reach their ear. "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”

There is a slight transposition in the words of our text, which is warranted by the original Greek, and which, while it does not materially affect the meaning of the passage, appears to set it in a clearer light. We may read the text thus-"The just by faith shall live." The expression, "the just by faith," or he "he who is justified by faith," is descriptive of a child of God. You are aware that the term "just" is of much larger comprehension in Scripture than it is in common language. The "just," or 'justified man," is not merely a person who is equitable in all his dealings, and who maintains a character for honesty and rectitude, but one who has received by faith the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ— who has been renewed in the spirit of his mind by the power of the Holy Ghost, and who has been led to seek those things that are above, where Christ

sitteth at the right hand of God. No one can be called "just" by nature, for we are all the children of disobedience, and prone to every evil work. Nor can we make ourselves just by any efforts of our own. We may, indeed, exhibit the image of external decency of conduct; we may obtain a fair reputation among the men of the world; we may practice some of those specious virtues which are extolled by the breath of empty applause; and all the while the understanding may be darkened, the will perverted, and the heart hardened, through the deceitfulness of sin. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." It is by faith alone the sinner becomes just-that faith by which he is enabled to receive and rest upon Christ in all his freeness and in all his fulness. His mind is illuminated with the knowledge of the glorious Gospel. He sees himself to be infinitely vile, and Christ to be infinitely worthy. He renounces at once and for ever all righteousness of his own, and seeks for, and lays hold of, the righteousness of his Redeemer. He casts aside the rent and tattered garment, and clothes himself with a robe which is pure and spotless. He is joined to Christ by a close and vital union. He is in Christ, and Christ is in him. He is righteous because Christ is righteous. He receives of His exhaustless fulness, and grace for grace. The words of our text are a quotation from the Prophet Habakkuk. In the passage referred to, the Prophet is describing the different dispositions of the Jews when they were threatened by the Chaldeans. Some would be lifted up in soul, and presumptously trust in their own resources for deliverance from the invading foe, and it is implied that destruction would be their lot; while others would place dependence on God's promise, and look to Him alone for help, and thus would be preserved and "live." The same quotation occurs in the Epistle to the Romans (i. 17), where the Apostle argues that the cardinal doctrine of justification by faith was taught under the old dispensation as well as under the new. What, then, does the Apostle intimate in our text concerning the man who is just by faith-who is justified in Christ? Briefly this" He shall live." But there is great fulness of meaning in the expression, as with the Divine blessing we will endeavour shortly to illustrate under two general points of view.

I. The justified man shall live in this world.

II. He shall live in the world to come.

I. He shall live in this world.-A man's outward condition forms no correct criterion, by which we may ascertain the measure of his acceptance with God, or the amount of sorrow or of joy which he inwardly feels. The possession of riches and honours does not necessarily imply that the