Imatges de pàgina
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seen the evil of sin, who have never yet groaned under the burden of sin, nor cried to Him" who appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself!"-May the Lord open their eyes, give them repentance, and form, even in them, "his image and " likeness!"

But while we adore the goodness of God, and think duly of the evil of sin, LET US

LIKEWISE CONSIDER HOW MUCH WE ARE INdebted to JESUS CHRIST. When our first parents, "foolish and unwise," fell from their first estate, lost the image of God, and forfeited every claim to life and happiness, Jesus Christ was revealed as our great Restorer, in that gracious promise-the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. And to accomplish this most merciful purpose, he, though the only begotten Son of God, came in the fulness of time, assumed our nature, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And all who believe in him shall never perish: they are freely justified they are washed and they are sanctified: they bear the image of God,

and from guilt and fear are restored to purity, and peace, and hope. The image which they at present bear, and whose linea. ments are knowledge, holiness, and happiness, fair as it now is, shall be made far more glorious, shall be made perfect, in that Paradise above, into which they shall be joyfully received, and from which they shall never be excluded. Praise then, the Lord Jesus Christ, O our souls! and forget not all his benefits! Let us make it the subject of our fervent prayers; let us make it the business of our whole lives to be grateful to him, and to show our gratitude by carefully observing all things whatsover he hath commanded us. Let this be the language of our love— "We are crucified with Christ, neverthe"less we live, and yet not we, but Christ "liveth in us, and the life we now live in "the flesh, we live by faith of the Son of "God, who loved us, and gave himself for "us" Thus shall it be made evident, that, though in Adam we died, yet in Christ we are made alive; and that, at last, we shall

* Gal. ii. 20.

"behold his face in righteousness and be "satisfied with his likeness."-But we cannot now conceive what it is to reflect the emanations of Divinity; to "behold the

glory of the Lord, and to be changed "into the same image, from glory to glory!"

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THE

FALL OF MAN.

GENESIS III. 22, 23, 24.

And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of Life, and eat and live for ever ; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

GOD is essentially good, and ever disposed to communicate all possible happiness. He cannot but know in what happiness consists, and that it is preferable-infinitely preferable to its opposite: and being self-existent, independent and omnipotent, we cannot but suppose that He is continually communciating it. A question then naturally occurs, if God is essentially good,

and delighteth to communicate all possible happiness, how comes evil to exist under his government?

Of this difficult and important question, which has engaged the attention of speculatists of all ages, I will not here attempt a particular solution. I may however remark, that though God is good, evil confessedly exists, and that therefore this evil must be consistent with the goodness of God, whether we short-sighted mortals be able to perceive the consistency or not. At present I need only refer to the scriptural acount of primeval man. In the beginning, he was a stranger to evil, and had implanted in him, all the faculties which were specially adapted to the perfecting of his nature. He "walked with God," free from suffering, and without the least moral indisposition. God, we are told, made man upright, after his own image, and enriched him with every thing requisite to his happiness. Man himself is represented as the immediate cause of his own evil. He listened to the deceiving voice of the tempter, transgressed the divine law, and involved himself and his posterity in ruin. He be

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