me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me." God does not impute to that soul his trespasses; he reckons to him the obedience of the Lord Jesus. God justifies him: "He will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing."-Zeph. iii., 17. (2.) The soul is reconciled to God. The Holy Spirit, who bends the soul to submit to Jesus, changes the heart to love him. When the beasts came into the ark, their natures were changed; they did not tear one another to pieces, but lovingly entered two and two into the ark; the lion did not devour the gentle deer, nor did the eagle pursue the dove. So, when sinners come to Christ, their heart is changed from enmity to love.

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Dear brethren, has he reconciled you to God? You were sometime afar off; have you been brought nigh? You were sometime darkness; have you been made light in the Lord? You were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind; has he reconciled you? has he brought you into the light of God's reconciled countenance? Is God's anger turned away from you? Can you sing; “O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me" (Isa. xii.); or, "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction?"-Ps. ciii. Have you been changed to love God? Do you love his Word, his people, his way of leading you?

III. The future object in view: "That he might present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight."

Sacrament days are solemn days: but there is a more solemn day at hand, even at the door. Here we meet to teach you and feed you, and get you to meet with Christ, and to live upon him; there we shall meet to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. In that day Christ will take those of you whom he has redeemed and reconciled, and present you to himself a glorious Church. He will confess your name before his Father, and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. There is a double perfection the saints will have in that day.

1. You will be perfectly righteous. You will be "unreprovable." Satan will accuse you, and the world, and conscience; but Christ will say: "The chastisement of their peace was upon me." Christ will show his scars, and say: "I died for that soul."

2. You will be perfectly holy: "Holy and unblamable." The body of sin you will leave behind you. The Spirit who dwells in you now will complete his work. You will be like Jesus; for you will see him as he is. You will be holy as God is holy, pure as Christ is pure.

Every one whom Christ reconciles he makes holy, and con

fesses before his Father: "Whom he justified, them he glorified." If Christ has truly begun a good work in you, he will perform it to the day of Christ Jesus. Christ says: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending." Whenever he begins, he will make an end. Whenever he builds a stone as the foundation, he will preserve it unshaken to the end. Only make sure that you are upon the foundation, that you are reconciled, that you have true peace with God, and then you may look across the mountains and rivers that are between you and that day, and say: "He is able to keep me from falling.' You have but two shallow brooks to pass through-sickness and death; and he has promised to meet you, to go with you, foot for foot. A few more tears, a few more temptations, a few more agonizing prayers, a few more sacraments, and you will stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion!

IV. Perseverance is needful to salvation: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel."-Verse 23. All whom Christ reconciles will be saved; but only in the way of persevering in the faith. He grounds and settles them in the cleft rock, and keeps them from being moved.

Dear believers, see that you continue in the faith. Remember you will be tried.

1. You may be tried by false doctrine. Satan may change himself into an angel of light, and try to beguile you by another Gospel. "Hold fast the form of sound words."

2. You will be tried by persecution. The world will hate you for your love to Christ. They will speak all manner of evil against you falsely.

3. You will be tried by flattery. The world will smile on you. Satan will spread his paths with flowers; he will perfume his bed with myrrh, and aloes, and cinnamon.

Will you continue in the faith? Will you not be moved away? Can you withstand all these enemies? Remember, perseverance is needful to salvation; as needful as faith, or as the new birth. True, every one that believes in Christ will be saved; but they will be saved through perseverance: "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Behold, in Jesus there is strength for perseverance. This bread and wine to-day are a pledge of that. Seek persevering grace to-day. Ask this when you take that bread and wine.

Hypocrites! you will one day be known by this. Many of you seem to be united, who truly are not. All who have had convictions of sin which have passed away, all who have the outward appearance of Christians, but within an unconverted heart, all who attend ordinances, but live in some way of sin, you will soon be discovered. You put on an appearance, you pretend that

you do cleave to Christ, and get grace from Christ, oh! how soon you will be shown in your true colors. Oh! that the thought may pierce your heart, that even now, though you came with a lying profession in your right hand, you may be persuaded to cleave to Jesus in truth. Amen.

St. Peter's, Aug. 1, 1841.-(Action Sermon.)

SERMON LII.

MY GOD, MY GOD.

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?”—Matt. xxvii., 46. THESE are the words of the great Surety of sinners, as he hung upon the accursed tree. The more I meditate upon them, the more impossible do I find it to unfold all that is contained in them. You must often have observed how a very small thing may be an index of something great going on within. The pennant at the mast-head is a small thing; yet it shows plainly which way the wind blows. A cloud no bigger than a man's hand is a small thing; yet it may show the approach of a mighty storm. The swallow is a little bird; and yet it shows that summer is come. So is it with man. A look, a sigh, a half-uttered word, a broken sentence, may show more of what is passing within than a long speech. So it was with the dying Saviour. These few troubled words tell more than volumes of divinity.

May the Lord enable us to find something here that will feed your souls!

I. The completeness of Christ's obedience.

1. Words of obedience: "My God, my God." He was obedient unto death. I have often explained to you how the Lord Jesus came to be a doing as well as a dying Saviour, not only to suffer all that we should have suffered, but to obey all that we should have obeyed; not only to suffer the curse of the law, but to obey the commands of the law. When the thing was proposed to him in heaven, he said: "Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God!" "Yea, thy law is within my heart." Now, then, look at him as a man obeying his God. See how perfectly he did it, even to the last! God says: Be about my business, he obeys: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

God says: Speak to sinners for me, he obeys: "I have meat to eat that ye know not of; my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." God says: Die in the room of sinners, wade through a sea of my wrath for the sake of enemies,

hang on a cross, and bleed and die for them, he obeys: "No man taketh my life from me." The night before he said: "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" But perhaps he will shrink back when he comes to the cross? No; for three hours the darkness had been over him, yet still he says: "My Gol, my God." Sinner, do you take Christ as your surety? See how fully he obeyed for thee! The great command laid upon him was to die for sinners. Behold how fully he obeys! 2. Words of faith: "My God, my God." These words show the greatest faith that ever was in this world. Faith is believing the word of God, not because we see it to be true, or feel it to be true, but because God has said it. Now Christ was forsaken. He did not see that God was his God, he did not feel that God was his God; and yet he believed God's word, and cried: "My God, my God." (1.) David shows great faith in Ps. xlii., 7, 8: "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." He felt like one covered with a sea of troubles. He can see no light, no way of escape; yet he believes the word of God, and says: "Yet the Lord will." This is faith, believing when we do not see. (2.) Jonah showed great faith: "All thy billows and thy waves passed over me: then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again towards thy holy temple."—Jonah ii., 3, 4. He was literally at the bottom of the sea. He knew no way of escape, he saw no light, he felt no safety; yet he believed the word of God. This was great faith. (3.) But, ah! a greater than Jonah is here. Here is greater faith than David's, greater faith than Jonah's, greater faith than ever was in the world, before or after. Christ was now beneath a deeper sea than Jonah's. The tossing billows of God's anger raged over him. He was for-. saken by God, he is in outer darkness, he is in hell; and yet he believes the word of God: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.” He does not feel it, he does not see it, but he believes it, and cries: "My God." Nay, more, to show his confidence, he says it twice: "My God, my God." "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Dear believer, this is your surety. You are often unbelieving, distrustful of God; behold your surety, cling to him, you are complete in him.

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3. Words of love." My God, my God." (1.) Those were words of sweet submission and love which Job spake, when God took away from him property and children: "Naked came I out my mother's womb." Sweet, that he could bless God even in taking away from him. (2.) Words of sweet submissive love which old Eli spake, when God told him that his sons should die; "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good." (3.) The same sweet temper in the bosom of the Shunamite who lost her

child, when the prophet asked: "Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well." (4.) But, ah! here is greater love, greater, sweeter submission, than that of Job, or Eli, or the Shunamite, greater than ever was breathed in this cold world before. Here is a being hanging between earth and heaven, forsaken by his God, without a smile, without a drop of comfort, the agonies of hell going over him; and yet he loves the God that has forsaken him. He does not cry out, Cruel, cruel, Father! no, but with all the vehemence of affection, cries out, "My God, my God."

Dear, dear souls, is this your surety? Do you take him as obeying for you? Ah! then, you are complete in him. You have very little love for God. How often you have murmured, and thought God cruel in taking things away from you; but, behold your surety, and rejoice in him with exceeding joy. All the merit of his holy obedience is imputed to you.

II. The infinity of Christ's sufferings.-He was forsaken by God; "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The Greek Liturgy says: "We beseech thee by all the sufferings of Christ, known and unknown." All the more we know of Christ's sufferings, the more we see they cannot be known. Ah! who can tell the full meaning of the broken bread and poured-out wine?

1. He suffered much from his enemies. (1.) He suffered in all parts of his body. In his head; that was crowned with thorns, and smitten with the reed. In his cheeks; for they smote him on the face, and he gave his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: "I hid not my face from shame and spitting." In his shoulders, that carried the heavy cross. In his back; "I gave my back to the smiters." In his hands and feet: "They pierced my hands and my feet." In his side; a soldier thrust a spear into his side. Ah! how well he might say, "This is my body, broken for you." (2.) He suffered in all his offices. As a prophet: "They smote him on the face, and said, Prophesy who smote thee?" As a priest, they mocked him when offering up that one offering for sins. As a king, when they bowed the knee, and said, “Hail! king of the Jews." (3.) He suffered from all sorts of men, from priests and elders, from passers by and soldiers, from kings and thieves: "Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round"-"Dogs have compassed me""They have compassed me about like bees." (4.) He suffered much from the devil: "Save me from the lion's mouth." His whole suffering was one continued wrestling with Satan; for he spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross."

2. From those he afterwards saved.-How bitter would be the scoffing of the thief who that day was to be forgiven and accept