no price required. "Him that cometh unto Me I will in nowise cast out." There can be no mistake about the testimony of a faithful God. Neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword, shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ. Then, if we are found in this path, nothing can be against us; "nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Then, "wherefore should I fear?"-though all these things should come upon me, or any one of them? All was arranged in the love of God; all was arranged in the wisdom of God. When they come upon a child of God, they come as the means of communicating to him that which shall be for his good. What an evidence we have of this from the Word of God, in those who have been through the bitterest trials! How satisfactory, how clear, as to the overcoming! In the eighth of Romans, the apostle was brought to say, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." There is a glory to be revealed beyond all these temporal things. If that occupies your mind little it will have the effect it had on the Apostle. "The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. In hope? Yes. What !-the mortal body committed to the dust-("Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return ") what! any hope about that? Yes "He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself." Death will do its part: it can do no more; for "the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Herein is set before us the infinite

a

extent of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus-the blood of Christ; this sufficeth for the redemption of the soul, and for the redemption of the body; and "the hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth; they that have done good" (and this flows from Jesus Christ, by virtue of His blood) "unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil"-O, think of it! every one that lives and dies without a special interest in the blood of Christ" unto the resurrection of damnation."

God grant that every one of us may be found upon our knees begging of God to grant us that mercy that is in Christ; that we may say, "Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil?" Christ is mine; He hath delivered me from all evil; He hath shed abroad His love in my heart; and being found in Him I shall be glorified in Him. God Almighty bless his own word. Amen.

SUMMARY.-In this psalm God speaks to all... Man loves pleasure, but true wisdom is to consider our end, and to look for another habitation. Has God set us going for one prepared for us?. All participate in the sentence of death; all, allowedly, in Adam's sin... No help in man. But God proclaims a Saviour. . . His Word is with power. Do we want to hear His voice? The days of evil to lost man are trouble, adversity, sickness, death, and coming eternity. These will come, and "then, to have recourse to God!" . . By these God shows the fruit of sin. But "wherefore should I fear?"-set confessing sin by God-forgiven -delivered-prayer answered. "Wherefore should I fear?" is not said in pride; trials and felt sin make assurance needed. "Wherefore fear?" for He "spared not His Son -a certain provision-a faithful God. Nothing can separate from His love. The body "shall return to dust," but "in hope"-infinite redemption by the blood of Christ; without it, damnation... May we be begging mercy, "found in Him."

SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25, 1874. "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift."-2 CORINTHIANS ix. last verse.

COULD we rightly understand the subject before us, it
would be marvellous indeed to us that God should have
to do with sinful man at all, much more so that He
should provide anything for him, or give anything_to
him. But He has provided and done all for him.
giveth to all life and breath and all things.”

"All creatures to His bounty owe
Their being and their breath;
But greatest gratitude should flow
In souls redeemed from death."

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It is by virtue of redemption that God will "in very deed dwell with man upon earth," though he is such a polluted worm, and God the great "I AM;" and not only dwell with man, but dwell in him, "the High and Holy One," "to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Yea, says Christ, "wheresoever two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." And as the Lord has made these provisions for us, so He teaches us, and brings us into places where we learn our need of them; and we have to learn our being interested in them as we learn our need of them, and also the great wisdom of God in providing mercies so suitable to our cases. The peculiar feature of the Gospel is that it is so adapted to the cases of lost sinners. "The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did." Here is helplessness on the part of the sinner, but help is laid on One that is mighty. Here is ruin on the part of a sinner, but He says, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to -a God of infinite wisdom, of infinite strength, of infinite love and mercy. The Apostle might well say, "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He hath loved us even when we we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Him." Rich mercy!

save

Great love!-Quickened together with Christ! So that that "by grace ye are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."

The words I have just read for the text undoubtedly immediately express the thankfulness of the Apostle and those that were with him for the gift of His dear Son, through whom flows all rich mercy, all great love. "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift." Think what a gift it is for the chosen inheritance, the children of God, the sheep of His pasture. The Apostle might well call it "unspeakable.' The Son must be given for every purpose needed for their salvation. The Son must be given that life may be communicated, for "ye must be born again." The Son must be given that faith may be wrought; for He says, "He that believeth in Me hath everlasting life." The Son must be given that sight may be given, that we may look upon Him who, " as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," was lifted up; "That whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life." The Son must be given that hope may be given, and that everyone that hath received His testimony may "set to his seal that God is true."

Now, are you and I partakers of these tokens that God has given His Son for us? Has a change of heart been wrought in you and me, so that, as by nature we are blind and ignorant of our state as undone sinners, it has pleased God to give us to feel the solemn state we are in, and to give us a consciousness of our need? Has He given us a sight of "the kingdom of God," and such a sight of it that we really feel we need deliverance from the kingdom of darkness and translation into the kingdom of His dear Son? The Saviour said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." You know the Lord was not speaking of little things. "If I have told you of earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" The Son of man must come

down and take our nature, and in that nature suffer, bleed, and die, and receive "a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Have you and I received that living faith, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the One lifted up to draw dying sinners unto Him, as the brazen serpent attracted the bitten; and so proved the truth of the Saviour's word, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me"? He is lifted up as an ensign to the nations; and He says, "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Have we received these truths in the substance of them in our hearts to the embracing of them, so as to set to our seal that God is true? "O," says the soul, "nothing less will do to live by; and nothing less will do to die by." Then there will be an echo in our hearts to the truth, even thanks to God for the unspeakable gift. O, it's not a cold expression, but a warm, heartfelt acknowledgment of the goodness of God; and it produces a willingness, yea, an anxious concern, a prayerful concern, to feel our hearts flowing out in gratitude and love to a covenant God and heavenly Father for His love to us. This is what so many want to know and drink into more -to know and believe "the love that God hath to usGod is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him"; and not only to know the love of the Father in giving His Son, but the love of the Son in giving Himself, in undergoing such sufferings, such a death, in purposes of love; and that He should yield Himself to it; He " I gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." And wherever redemption is referred to, it certainly is expressive of suffering and of death. "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." "And as it is appointed unto all men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many"; Jesus must be given to take our place, to die for our sins according to the Scriptures, and "them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."