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of death and the pains of hell" might, perhaps, come nearer your view of it. Ah! then, strive hard to know the misery of being unconverted. Be determined to know the worst of yourself; for thus only will you see the desirableness of conversion-the excellency of Christ.

And now, then, laying together the two conclusions which I have drawn from our text-the difficulty of conversion, so great that God himself must be the author; and the desirableness of conversion, so great that peace, and holiness, and joy, all depend upon it--suffer the word of exhortation-to seek it in the only way in which the Psalmist found it: "Waiting, I waited for Jehovah "—that is, I waited anxiously—“ and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry." He is more ready to hear, than thou to ask. The Rock is already laid. Christ hath died, and thou art this day besought to stand upon his righteousness; and being in Christ, you shall every day become more a new creature; and being a new creature, you shall sing a new song of praise to Him who hath loved us.

One word to those of you who can look back upon an experience like that described in my text-who can say that God hath brought you out of an horrible pit and the miry clay, and set your feet upon a rock, and established your goings, and put a new song in your mouth. Take you heed that the following words be also realized: "Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord." How many on every hand of you are yet unconverted!—both in the pit and in the clay. Let them see, then, how great things God hath done for your soul, that they may fear lest they die unconverted— lest this glorious change never come to them-lest they die old creatures, tenants of the horrible pit, to remove only to the pit eternal lest they be altogether swallowed up in the miry clay; and thus, moved by fear, they may be persuaded to trust in God, as you have done to rest on the Rock, Christ, for righteousness.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father which is in heaven."

-Amen.

Dunipace, Aug. 2, 1835.

SERMON IV.

THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead."-2 COR. v. 14.

Of all the features of St Paul's character, untiring activity was the most striking. From his early history, which tells us of his personal exertions in wasting the infant Church, when he was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, it is quite obvious that this was the prominent characteristic of his natural mind. But when it pleased the Lord Jesus Christ to show forth in him all long-suffering, and to make him a pattern to them which should afterwards believe on Him, it is beautiful and most instructive to see how the natural features of this daringly bad man became not only sanctified, but invigorated and enlarged; so true it is that they that are in Christ are a new creation : “Old things pass away, and all things become new.” "Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed"-this was a faithful picture of the life of the converted Paul. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, and the fearful situation of all who were yet in their sins, he made it the business of his life to persuade men-striving if, by any means, he might commend the truth to their consciences. "For (saith he) whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause." -Verse 13. Whether the world think us wise or mad, the cause of God and of human souls is the cause in which we have embarked all the energies of our being. Who, then, is not ready to inquire into the secret spring of all these supernatural labours? Who would not desire to have heard from the lips of Paul the mighty principle that impelled him through so many toils and dangers? What magic spell has taken possession of this mighty mind, or what unseen planetary influence, with unceasing power, draws him on through all discouragements-indifferent alike to the world's dread laugh, and the fear of man, which bringeth a snare

-careless alike of the sneer of the sceptical Athenian, of the frown of the luxurious Corinthian, and the rage of the narrow-minded Jew? What saith the apostle himself? for we have his own explanation of the mystery in the words before us: "The love of Christ constraineth us."

That Christ's love to man is here intended, and not our love to the Saviour, is quite obvious, from the explanation which follows, where his dying for all is pointed to as the instance of his love. It was the view of that strange compassion of the Saviour, moving him to die for his enemies to bear double for all our sins-to taste death for every man—it was this view which gave him the impulse in every labour-which made all suffering light to him, and every commandment not grievous. He ran with patience the race that was set before him. Why? Because, looking unto Jesus, he lived a man crucified unto the world, and the world crucified unto him. By what means? By looking to the cross of Christ. As the natural sun in the heavens exercises a mighty and unceasing attractive energy on the planets which circle round him, so did the Sun of Righteousness, which had indeed arisen on Paul with a brightness above that of noon-day, exercise on his mind a continual and an almighty energy, constraining him to live henceforth no more unto himself, but to him that died for him and rose again. And observe, that it was no temporary, fitful energy, which it exerted over his heart and life, but an abiding and a continued attraction; for he doth not say that the love of Christ did once constrain him; or that it shall yet constrain him; or that in times of excitement, in seasons of prayer, or peculiar devotion, the love of Christ was wont to constrain him; but he saith simply, that the love of Christ constraineth him. It is the ever-present, ever-abiding, ever-moving power, which forms the mainspring of all his working; so that, take that away, and his energies are gone, and Paul is become weak as other men. Is there no one before me whose heart is longing to possess just such a master-principle? Is there no one of you, brethren, who has arrived at that most interesting of all the stages of conversion in which you are panting after a power to make you new? You have entered in at the strait gate of believing. You have seen that there is no peace to the unjustified; and therefore you have put on Christ for your righteousness; and already do you feel something of the joy and peace of believing. You can look

back on your past life, spent without God in the world, and without Christ in the world, and without the Spirit in the world-you can see yourself a condemned outcast, and you say: "Though I should wash my hands in snow water, yet mine own clothes would abhor me." You can do all this, with shame and self-reproach, it is true, but yet without dismay, and without despair; for your eye has been lifted believingly on him who was made sin for us, and you are persuaded that, as it pleased God to count all your iniquities to the Saviour, so he is willing, and hath always been willing, to count all the Saviour's righteousness to you. Without despair, did I say? nay, with joy and singing; for if, indeed, thou believest with all thine heart, then thou art come to the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works-which David describes, saying: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin." This is the peace of the justified man. But is this peace a state of perfect blessedness? Is there nothing left to be desired?—I appeal to those of you who know what it is to be just by believing. What is it that still clouds the brow-that represses the exulting of the spirit? Why might we not always join in the song of thanksgiving: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities!" If we have received double for all our sins, why should it ever be needful for us to argue as doth the Psalmist: " Why art thou cast down, O my soul; and why art thou disquieted in me?" Ah! my friends, there is not a man among you, who has really believed, who has not felt the disquieting thought of which I am now speaking. There may be some of you who have felt it so painfully, that it has obscured, as with a heavy cloud, the sweet light of Gospel peace-the shining in of the reconciled countenance upon the soul. The thought is this: a justified man; but, alas! I am not a sanctified man. can look at my past life without despair; but how can I look forward to what is to come?"

"I am

I

There is not a more picturesque moral landscape in the universe than such a soul presents. Forgiven all trespasses that are past, the eye looks inwards with a clearness and an impartiality unknown before, and there it gazes upon its long fostered affections for sin, which, like ancient rivers, have worn a deep channel into the heart-its periodic re

turns of passion, hitherto irresistible and overwhelming, like the tides of the ocean-its perversities of temper and of habit, crooked and unyielding, like the gnarled branches of a stunted oak. Ah! what a scene is here-what anticipations of the future!-what forebodings of a vain struggle against the tyranny of lust!-against old trains of acting, and of speaking, and of thinking! Were it not that the hope of the glory of God is one of the chartered rights of the justified man, who would be surprised if this view of terror were to drive a man back, like the dog to his vomit, or the sow that was washed to wallow again in the mire? Now it is to the man precisely in this situation, crying out at morning and at evening, How shall I be made new? -what good shall the forgiveness of my past sins do me, if I be not delivered from the love of sin?-it is to that man that we would now, with all earnestness and affection, point out the example of Paul, and the secret power which wrought in him. "The love of Christ" (says Paul) "constraineth us." We, too, are men of like passions with yourselves that same sight which you view with dismay within you, was in like manner revealed to us in all its discouraging power. Nay, ever and anon the same hideous view of our own hearts is opened up to us. But we have an encouragement which never fails. The love of the bleeding Saviour constraineth us. The Spirit is given to them that believe; and that almighty agent hath one argument that moves us continually-THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

:

My present object, brethren, is to show how this argument, in the hand of the Spirit, does move the believer to live unto God-how so simple a truth as the love of Christ to man, continually presented to the mind by the Holy Ghost, should enable any man to live a life of Gospel holiness; and if there be one man among you whose great inquiry is: How shall I be saved from sin-how shall I walk as a child of God?-that is the man, of all others, whose ear and heart I am anxious to engage.

1. The love of Christ to man constraineth the believer to live a holy life, because that truth takes away all his dread and hatred of God. When Adam was unfallen, God was everything to his soul; and everything was good and desirable to him, only in so far as it had to do with God. Every vein of his body, so fearfully and wonderfully made-every leaf that rustled in the bowers of Paradise

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