his return was made an occasion of mirth and festivity to the whole household. He is satisfied, as the shepherd was who "went after the sheep that was lost until he found it, and when he found it, laid it on his shoulders rejoicing, and when he came home, called together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." Even so, the recovery of every wanderer from the paths of sin and death, and his entrance into the fold where are life and light and peace and holiness and perfect safety, strikes a chord in the breast of the Saviour, to which there is an instant response from all the bright array of blessed spirits, and "there is joy in heaven." The Redeemer, for joy that another heir of immortality is born, remembers no more his former sorrow, his many struggles, and long labours, and formidable difficulties. And what kind of happiness, think you, must that be which fills and satisfies the divine mind of Christ? How stupendous, how worthy of God, must that be which causes it, embracing all other grand occasions of extraordinary joy and festivity! It is the work of redemption beheld in all its precious fruits, and in its sublime consummation, that has this effect. And what, then, must be the unspeakable worth of the human soul, the salvation of which is accounted of so much importance in heaven! And what must be the grandeur of redemption in the view of angelic intelligences, the issue of which heightens their felicity, and fills the immensity of the Saviour's mind! Ah, brethren, of what do the most of us think so little as of our souls, and what are we so ready to barter for the meanest indulgence? What do we value so light as salvation? What distresses us so little as sin? What makes us tremble so little as hell? What so little invites our desires and pursuit as that holiness without which no man shall sce God? O the fallacy of human sense! O the vanity of carnal judgment! O the incurable thoughtlessness of man! Those things which are to you light as feathers in the balance against the possessions and pleasures of the world, were the occasion of the Saviour's soul-travail. From them his satisfaction is now derived; and, though unheeded by us, they are things into which the angels desire to look.

It may help us to rise to the height of spiritual contemplation to which this theme invites us, to consider, in conclusion, when this sight and satisfaction are enjoyed by Christ. And here we observe, that he saw of the fruit of his travail from all eternity. It was his inducement to undertake the work of redemption. This was the joy set before him, for which he endured the cross and despised the shame. He delighted in the anticipation of what he beheld in distant vision-that this man and that man should be born again-that in this and that place such and such poor sinners should be called by his grace, delivered from the thraldom of

Satan, redeemed, regenerated, and brought to glory. In reference to the joy he derived from this prospect, even before the heavens were prepared, or a compass set upon the face of the deep, he is said to have "rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and to have had his delights with the sons of men." His sufferings were not hid from his view, but neither were his triumphs. He saw from afar sin condemned, sinners rescued, the law magnified, God glorified, hell confounded. 'A thousand years are with

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the Lord as one day, and one day as a thousand years."

He saw of the travail of his soul in the very time of enduring that travail; and it was the sight of the blessed consequences that armed him with courage and constancy as he proceeded on his doleful way, and reconciled him to the extent and bitterness of the sufferings through which the redemption of his people was to be accomplished. His eye reached forward beyond the anguish and ignominy of his crucifixion to the glorious issue of it-to the company of the redeemed gathered as a rich harvest from his death; and beholding them returning to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, the sight of their happiness as the fruit of his pain, carried him unhesitatingly through his fearful fight of afflictions. He declined deliverance, though he could have commanded it. "He set his face like a flint." "He hid not his face from shame and spitting." Nay, anticipating the victories of his grace and the triumphs of his gospel, he even longed for the coming of the hour when he should be delivered up. "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you." "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." On the cross his victory began. When he fell he triumphed; principalities and powers were made a show of openly. He procured the forgiveness of sin by being numbered with transgressors. He opened a way of reconciliation by submitting to the treatment of an outcast. He abolished death by dying.

He saw of the travail of his soul on his ascension, in the pouring out of his spirit, as the consequence and evidence of his exaltation, and in the conversion that followed of three thousand in one day, as the first-fruits of that harvest of souls which he has ever since been gathering in. With what complacency must the eye of the newly-risen Saviour have rested on the delightful scene, when "the disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayer. And were daily in the temple with one accord, and did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And when the churches had rest, and were edified ; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied."

He sees now of the travail of his soul in every sinner that is converted by

the preaching of his truth, and in every saint that is edified and built up in his holy faith. Every new convert is a fresh accession to his victory— another brand snatched from the burning, recovered from the horrors of hell, and elevated to the purity and bliss of heaven. The pollution and misery of that hell, and the holiness and happiness of that heaven, we cannot now fully estimate-but the Saviour can; and the transition of each redeemed spirit from the one to the other fills his benevolent soul with a new and sublime satisfaction. And this satisfaction is increased by every victory you obtain in your spiritual warfare, every step you advance in your heavenward journey. Every sin you renounce-every grace you cherish every conquest you secure over your temper, your inordinate affections, your corrupt desires-is marked by his diligent eye, and is a cause of joy to your glorified Saviour.

He shall see more largely of the travail of his soul when his people shall have sent forth his gospel into all nations, and it shall have been blessed for the conversion of the whole heathen-when the corn of wheat that has fallen into the ground and died, shall bring forth much fruit, and the handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains shall shake with fruit like Lebanon for abundance. Now, we anticipate the period when the entire world shall be recovered to an acknowledgment of the true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, and when the spiritual reign of truth and piety shall be unlimited. For the whole earth is to be filled with his glory. The little leaven is to leaven the whole lump. The kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord, and he shall reign for ever. The stone cut out without hands is to become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. The doom of every Pagan temple is pronounced. The debasing influence of idolatry shall everywhere yield to the renovating force of Christian truth, and the pollutions of heathenism disappear before the extended empire of Immanuel. When this time comes, as come it shall, it will be the fruit of the Redeemer's sacrifice, and will add even to the sum of his felicity. And what benevolent spirit, looking to the present debased state of the world, would not rejoice when every solitary place is gladdened with the voice of the gospel-and the earth yields her increase-and God, even our own God, doth bless us—and the Christian graces blossom like the rose of Sharon, where now the spiritual wilderness stretches out in dreary monotony-and the wolf dwells with the lamb, and the leopard lies down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And there shall be nothing to hurt nor to destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Finally, Jesus shall see of the travail of his soul at the consummation

of all things;-at the Resurrection, when his purchased possession shall be redeemed from the power of the grave, and "this corruptible shall put on incorruption-this mortal, immortality--and death shall be swallowed up in victory;" on the Day of Judgment, when he shall stand before the Father at the head of his ransomed people, and shall say, "Lo, here am I, Lord, and the children whom thou hast given me ;"throughout Eternity, when his prayer will be fulfilled-" Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." Then shall the ransomed of the Lord shine radiant with robes made white in the blood of the Lamb and illuminated with the light of God's approving countenance, and the song of redemption shall be heard in the golden streets of the New Jerusalem. O how delightful to the Saviour, after all his soultravail, to see his spiritual progeny thus safely brought to a state of love and union with him in his everlasting kingdom, and the Church gathered to its rest! He shall remember no more the anguish for joy at the sight of so many precious souls recovered from perdition, and exalted to a condition of unspeakable dignity and happiness. Those countless thousands he will contemplate with infinite complacency as the fruit of his pain, and reciprocal love and joy will fill the heart of himself and people throughout an endless eternity. To release a poor suffering debtor from prison, and restore him to the comforts of his home-to snatch a drowning man from the jaws of death-to ransom a fellow-citizen from what was deemed a hopeless captivity-how does the instrument of blessing, in such a case, sympathize with the delight of the person blessed! What a pure and generous happiness is felt in contemplating the results of one's sacrifices or exertions! Go to the bereaved mother, or wife, or children, mourning the loss of him whom they never expect to see again: view the desolate hearth--a family deprived of its solace and support! Go back again to that scene when the ransomed captive has returned: mark the light and joy that have revisited the dwelling, and beam in every face-the aged parent revived by seeing again her child before she die-the tears of the wife and mother dried up the little children happy once more in the protection of a restored father-I say, there is no man capable of right moral feeling who can look upon such a scene without being overpowered by a tide of tender emotion. But there is a change more grateful still to the enlightened, benevolent spirit of a Christian. It is when the slave of passion, with brutalized understanding, revelling in debauchery, and sunk in vice and apathy, is arrested in his downward career-is brought to call upon his God, and submit to the power of the truth, and walk in blessed light and immortality, the heir of an gnfading inheritance-when the accents of devotion are heard from the

lips that vented profanity and blasphemy-and the ravening and roaring lion is converted into the meek and gentle lamb of the Redeemer's flock. If the first of these changes, which terminates with this short life, and the joy of which, death may soon overcast, nevertheless fills even the unrenewed man with delight-if the second, only in a single case, is a cause of wonder and praise to the believer, narrow as his capacity is, and imperfect his spiritual perceptions and feelings-O what a divine satisfaction must the repetition of it in unnumbered cases communicate to the infinite mind of Christ, with all its boundless benevolence, and its quick sense of human misery, and its generous interest in whatever promotes the glory of God and the good of undying souls!

1. Behold from this subject the amazing grandeur of the work of redemption, the worth of the soul, the preciousness of salvation, the costliness of the price paid for it, and cease to wonder that God has chosen the Church as that by which to make known his manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in heavenly places.

2. Ye who are living impenitent and unbelieving under the means of grace, unawakened, unconverted, unsanctified, behold in the travail of the Redeemer's soul the extent of the curse due to sin-a curse which must descend unmitigated on your own head, if you find no saving interest in his redemption-and which, in your case, will prove a curse long as eternity. O would you wish to be absent on that day when Jesus will gather his saints from the four winds of heaven? Would you wish to experience what the everlasting destruction of the soul from the presence of God means? If not, seek to be numbered among his people now; and remember you cannot, by your unbelief, rob him of his reward. His kingdom shall advance in spite of you and your preference of the paltry and pitiful gratifications of this world. His recompence is certain and infallible. And though, by your infatuated neglect of your eternal interests, you are not of the number of his spiritual progeny, he shall nevertheless see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. The infinite loss will not be his; it will be your own.

3. Ye who are indeed the people of Christ, redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Saviour's body and the travail of his tender soul, what, in equity and gratitude, do you owe him for his generous interest in your happiness? If love should ever beget a corresponding kindness, can the devotion of your lives, your time, your talents, and your substance, be at all an adequate requital of his unparalleled friendship? Study to increase his satisfaction by seeking the daily renewal of your spirits, the daily crucifixion of your lusts and passions, and a daily growing conformity to his lovely