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to bear this message of reconciliation to mankind. "We are ambassadors," says St. Paul, speaking of himself as one of those who were ordained to publish the good tidings of the gospel, "we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God." Commissions such as ye these, and they are doctrines which form a most important feature in the New Testament dispensation, are amongst the most cheering and delightful which Christ's ministering servants are privileged to bear. Nor can they be too frequently brought before the notice of all serious and earnest Christians. Those who are at least sincere in their devotions to heaven, we learn from this gracious encouragement, are not required to look upon God only as a God of vengeance; nor need they be always asking, in sorrow and despair, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?"* Though there be darkness in our own bewildered ways-though, in the struggles of our rebellious nature, and the blindness of our unhumbled hearts, there be many circumstances, especially at the outset of our heaven-ward pilgrimage, which cast a temporary gloom over our spiritual prospects, yet the melancholy aspect which they seem to

* Psalm lxxvii. 9.

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wear, forms no part of the real character of the gospel-itself essentially a system replete with cheerfulness and joy-but must be charged entirely on the dulness of our partial perceptions, and the dreadful extent of that natural corruption which requires us to pass through many a dark hour of humiliation and self-abasement ere we can duly feel our own helplessness, and rightly value the blessings of its remedy And though, if we may use such a comparison, our natural vision is not strong enough to gaze at once on the full radiance of the gospel's unclouded light, yet the more, as we grow in grace, the spiritual eye becomes inured to the contemplation of the celestial objects it presents, the more clearly we shall perceive how eminently bright and beautiful they are, and what cheerful glimpses of hope and comfort, even in this life, by the aid of that gospel, are suffered to dawn on the soul of man. "Our iniquities," it is true, as Isaiah says, "have separated between us and our God, and our sins have hid his face from us, that he will not hear;" yet "the Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear." And while, in penitence and contrition, we fully feel how greatly and justly we have provoked his wrath, still the

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* Isaiah lix. 1.

bruised reed need not be broken, nor the smoking flax be quenched,-hope is yet a lawful visitor to cheer the most lonely heart oppressed with the burthen of its sins, nor need we ever forget that our God is a God of mercy, and that the gospel is a gospel of gladness, of "good tidings of great joy."

Now if, as it certainly appears, this promise of reconciliation, with all its attendant blessings, be essentially mixed up and associated with every principle and precept of the gospel, I need hardly observe how peculiarly incumbent it is upon us not to overlook it in the celebration of any of our public religious solemnities; and how carefully we should provide that, when, at stated intervals, we renew, as it were, our covenant with God, no Christian should be suffered to forget that the God in whose presence he is, is one who hath abundant blessings to bestow, as well as terrible punishments to inflict; that it is no mere abject or debasing fear that has brought together the assembled worshippers; that the love which should stimulate them in all they do, is the love of children to a Parent who hath loved them first; that true piety, amongst its other characteristics, is the operation of all those bright and cheerful aspirations of the soul after its own immortal bliss, which the grace of God hath wrought, as it

were, out of the mine of nature, purified from their inherent dross, freed from their superincumbent earthliness, and directed to their right and legitimate objects. In the ordinary public worship, therefore, of our church, when we meet together to offer praise unto God, and to supplicate his blessing, we ought to be ever reminded of the gracious character in which He stands towards the penitent sinner. It is right the assembled congregation should be told that devout and humble prayer is not a hopeless and unprofitable exercise; that "the Lord God is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; * and that they are come to offer their supplications to a Being who will unfailingly return an answer of peace to the sincere and earnest petitioner. And it is right that the minister, when he meets his people, should not withhold any part of the message which he bears, but should unfold to them the full commission with which he is charged, in all its details of mercy as well as vengeance, of reconciliation as well as wrath.

Accordingly, for reasons, most probably, such as have been given, it is wisely provided that those who join in the public services of our

*Exodus xxxiv. 6.

church should not have withheld from them any portion of these great and precious truths. The doctrines which are propounded in our text, and of which the whole spirit of the New Testament scriptures is so full, have been carefully embodied in that form of our liturgy called the Absolution, and appropriately applied to the comfort and satisfaction of the assembled worshippers. And they are introduced, moreover, at a period of the service in which they are the best calculated to assist their devotions, and to encourage that free communion of the soul with God in which the intrinsic value and privilege of prayer so essentially consist. The congregation who are assembled in the house of God have been told already, you will recollect, that they cannot, of themselves alone, venture so much as to lift up their eyes unto heaven; that they may not presume to address themselves unto their heavenly Father as though they had been his unoffending and accepted children. They have been told before that, while there rests upon their souls the burthen of unconfessed and unrepented sin, there is of necessity a restraint upon them that will not let them pray; -that the tongue, as it were, is tied, the soul burthened and bowed down; that the words of praise spring not, as they ought to do, freely and spontaneously to their lips; that the warm glow

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