Christ! Is that soul in affliction ?-Christ shall wipe away all tears from its eyes. Is it in pain or sickness?-the Sun of Righteousness hath healing on his wings. Is it on the bed of death, trembling on the threshold of the unknown world?-behold! it sees the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God-it sees those arms once stretched upon the cross for its salvation, now extended to receive it into ever

lasting bliss. This, my brethren, is the peace of the true Christian;-this is the peace which the wicked, the careless, the irreligious can never attain ;-this is the peace which the world cannot give. And that we may all attain this happy, this blessed frame of mind, which no casualties of life, no malice of the devil can disturb, may God of his infinite mercy grant, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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SERMON XII.

ROMANS i. 16.

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth.

In an assembly of Christians, such a declaration as that contained in the text would appear to be almost superfluous. Who is there amongst us, brethren, that, so far from being ashamed of the gospel of Christ, has not come here for the very purpose of avowing the contrary—that he is proud of being called the disciple of the blessed Jesus, that he glories in the cross of Christ, that his greatest boast is, that he rests his hopes of salvation upon him alone?

At the time, however, when this declaration was made by the apostle, the gospel was struggling against the ignorance, the stubbornness, and the prejudices of mankind. The cross of Christ was "to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. s." The former, wrapt up in their ideas of a temporal Prince in the Messiah; of one who should more than restore the splendours of the kingdom of David; and not only release them from the Roman yoke, but even transfer the empire of the world to themselves --could not endure the idea of a suffering and crucified Redeemer. Their views were so entirely carnal, that they could not give to the oracles of God that spiritual interpretation, which to an humble-minded and reflecting people, would naturally have suggested itself as most applicable to writings dictated by the immediate inspiration of the Deity. To these feelings must be added, a strong jealousy of any innovation as to their law, which they regarded as a permanent institution, having God for its

i 1 Cor. i. 23.

author, and (in their ideas) salvation for its end. They could not see in it those deficiencies, which plainly showed that it was but the shadow of better things to come; that it was a scheme in itself altogether imperfect; and depended, for all its excellence, not upon any intrinsic merits of its own, but upon its final accomplishment in the Messiah himself. Therefore it was that the name of Jesus and his doctrines-pure and holy as they were were hateful to them. Therefore it was that they crucified the Master, and persecuted his followers; therefore they endeavoured to suppress the evidence of his resurrection, and commanded his disciples, on pain of the severest punishment, not to preach in his name.

And as the gospel was thus an object of hatred and offence to the Jews, so was it also one of contempt to the Greeks or Gentiles. Accustomed to a religion, derived, as they conceived, from the highest antiquity, and whose rites were celebrated with the greatest pomp and magnificence, the very sim city of the Christian scheme was

Could they

enough to excite their scorn. suppose that all they had hitherto been accustomed to hold sacred was a mere fable— that those numerous deities before whom they had hitherto bowed down, were the offspring of the heated imaginations of their poets? That instead of these, they were to seek for present happiness and future glory from the son of a Jewish artisan, who had been punished with death as an impostor? Was this the channel through which they were to attain their elysium? Was a poor wandering Jew, who had not where to lay his head during his life, and had died the death of a common malefactor, to lead them to salvation-to open to them the gate of everlasting life? They revolted from the bare idea; they turned from so preposterous a doctrine, with the contempt which it appeared to them to deserve.

Still, notwithstanding the united opposition of both Jew and Gentile, the gospel did work its way; with all the powers of earth and hell in league against it, it gradually forced conviction upon the minds of