ately after death, which I believe some persons in this room dispute; alas! for the folly and the blindness of their infidelity. Well, Moses and Elias, their purified spirits, (before the day of resurrection, you know,) came and ministered to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Peter, in his busy zeal, would have raised a tabernacle for Moses and Elias, and another for his Master; just as some people, in the present day, would unite the law and the glorious gospel together. All at once a cloud overshadowed them, Moses and Elias disappeared, the Saviour was left alone, the sole object of the allegiance and faith of the disciples, and a voice was heard from the cloud, the voice of God the Father, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."

And, therefore, friends, let us lay aside our hard heart of unbelief, and gratefully accept that divine Saviour, that glorious unspeakable gift of God, who "was in the beginning with God, and was God; the same was in the beginning with God; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made; in him was life, and the life was the light of men;" and who in process of time took flesh, and dwelt amongst us, and then his disciples did behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Yes, my beloved friends,

pray for the Holy Ghost, do not lean to your own understandings, pray for the Holy Spirit, that ye may call Jesus Lord; that ye may bow before him, as Thomas did in days of old, when he said to him, "My Lord, and my God;" that ye may be baptized into the name of the Son; and then, friends, ye will be prepared for a right understanding of that great doctrine, which lies at the foundation of all our hopes, and of all our virtues; that "he who was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;" and that his death was a propitiation for the sins of the world, that "he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed; all we like sheep have gone astray, and have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all." Than which, no words can possibly be plainer; "He suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God." "He gave his life a ransom for all, to be testified of in due time." "He was a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." A very brief selection from that multitude of passages, which are scat

tered over the volume of scripture on the all-important subject of the atonement made for sin; and it is truly astonishing that any man should, on the one hand, acknowledge the divine authority of scripture, and entertain for one moment a doubt on this glorious, essential, fundamental truth, which is not only stated with the utmost plainness in a variety of passages by our Saviour himself, and by his apostles, but which may be said to be interwoven in the Bible, and proclaimed from beginning to end.

Well, my beloved friends, what is the practical result? How are we to avail ourselves of it? We must come, as poor penitent sinners, "and wash our robes, and make them white from every stain, in the blood of the Lamb." We must draw nigh unto God, through faith in his Son, for justification and pardon for all our sins, through faith in the atoning blood of Jesus; that we may be justified, and stand accepted in the sight of our heavenly Father, who, for his dear Son's sake, doth array us in the white robes of his righteousness, wherein there is no spot; that we may be safe from condemnation; and that our names may be written in characters of light, in the Lamb's book of life; and God grant that it may be so with you all.

Then, friends, the sinner who is thus brought home to God, is at the same time impressed with a deep sense of the holiness of God, who requireth such a sacrifice, such an atonement; and he abhors himself for his

iniquity-he is amazed at the view of the sinfulness of sin-he dares not continue in this bondage he knows that it is fatal in its very nature he dares not call his disease by any soft name-he knows that no words can express the malignity of this disease, the fearfulness, or the danger, or death, to which it leads; and he is well aware that Christ came, not to save him in his sins, but from his sins; and therefore he is impressed with the absolute necessity of coming, and of escaping from the bondage of his sin. But not only so; he is filled with a sense of the love of God; he measures the love by the greatness of God's gift; the greater the gift, the more the gratitude: who does not know it? who does not admit it? And he contemplates the glorious doctrine of God, manifest in the flesh; his very soul is filled with love; and almighty love becomes the motive, the spring of his actions, and moves him forward, with perpetual power, in the direction of virtue, of happiness, of heaven, and of glory. And we may perceive, therefore, that the doctrine of our Lord's divinity lies at the foundation of the practical influence of the Gospel; for the gospel is not a dream; it is not a speculation; the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The glad tidings of salvation are communicated, and so bring on the best affections of the mind of man; so it becomes the power of God unto salvation.

Well, friends, God grant that we may have faith to receive truth as it is in Jesus, as there

is no greater danger in the present day, than of being one-sided in religion. Man must have his mind stretched by a divine power before he can comprehend the whole truth. I beseech you, as you value your immortal souls, come and be baptized, not only into the name of the Father, and into the name of the Son, but also into the name of the Holy Ghost; for no man ever did, or ever will, sanctify himself; and we know that in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; and that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord," nor can we possibly breathe the element of heaven. And how are we to be made meet for heaven? Oh, friends! ours is a practical religion, ours is the religion of righteousness. We plead for a new creation; we plead for the putting off of the old man, which is corrupt, and for the putting on of the new man, which is created in righteousness and true holiness.

And those who truly believe in a crucified Redeemer, do receive, through faith in him, the blessed gift of God's Holy Spirit. Now you may always observe one thing, friends, that when people degrade the Son, they think little of the holy Spirit; they do not feel the need of justification or sanctification through the blood of Christ, and they think that they may be prepared for heaven, without the aid of the holy Ghost. For, my beloved friends, it is utterly impossible for poor corrupt man ever to enter through the pearl gates into the city of God, unless he is sancti