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SERMON XV.

THE ATONEMENT.

1 TIMOTHY i. 15.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

"CHRIST Jesus came into the world to save sinners." He left all the glories of heaven: he came from the bosom of the Father, and was made man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and, after a life of toil and heavy care, he died a painful and shameful death upon the cross. Do you ask why he did this? why he gave up so much glory and blessedness? why he underwent so much pain? why he suffered the Jews to put him to such a cruel death? St Paul tells you he did it to save sinners. He did it to reunite us to the Father, and as it were to fasten and cement us to holiness and godliness with his

most precious blood. Being God as well as man, I need not tell you, that he bore all those dreadful pains and insults and injuries, which you read of in the 26th and 27th chapters of St Matthew, and in the latter chapters of the other Gospels,—I need not tell you that Jesus bore all these things of his own free will. It was with his own consent that the Jews nailed his innocent hands and feet to the cross. It was with his own consent that they spat on him, that they scourged him, that they dragged him before Pilate, that they condemned him to die, that they made him bear his cross, that they wagged their heads at him and reviled him. If he had not permitted them to do all this, they could not have done it. Think you that his word, which had calmed the fury of the sea, and tamed such as were possest by devils, could not have quieted and put down the violence of those wicked men? A wish, a single wish would have been enough to free him: a single wish would have been enough to scatter all his enemies, in the midst of their blasphemies, of their mockery, of their malignant taunts. "Thinkest thou," he says, "that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels ?" armies of heavenly soldiers, with their chariots of fire and horses of fire, any one of them powerful enough

to destroy a world. But Jesus uttered no such prayer: and he tells us the reason why"Because thus it must be, that the Scriptures must be fulfilled." Which is as much as to say, God's word must be kept: his will must be done : his prophets have promised redemption and pardon to the children of Adam through the blood of the Lamb of God. I am that Lamb. I am going therefore as a lamb to the slaughter: I must be gentle as a lamb; I must be unresisting as a lamb; that the great sacrifice, which is to be offered for the sins of the world, may be perfected, and that man may be freely pardoned, and united again to God.

This is the great secret, and the foundation stone of Christianity; that man is reconciled to God by the blood of Christ. This is the great mystery, let me rather call it the great marvel and miracle, of the atonement, which no love less than God's could have desired, which no wisdom less than God's could have devised, which no power less than God's could have accomplished. It is of this, God's wonderful and wonder-working scheme for the redemption and salvation of his fallen creatures, that St Paul is speaking in the text;-and how does he speak of it? He tells us, that" it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation;" which means, that it is true, and a

truth which concerns us very nearly. Many things are true, which do not concern us, and which we are neither the better for knowing, nor the worse for not knowing. It is true for instance, that a king of England was put to death by his subjects something more than a hundred and eighty years ago. It is true, that in some countries the people live chiefly on fruits and rice. It is true again, that there are two distant points on the earth, where the sun only rises once and sets once in a year; so that each day and each night lasts six months. But, though these facts are true, the knowledge of them does you no good. It does not make you happier it does not in any way make you better. Therefore no one would think of calling these truths worthy of all acceptation. The truth, on the other hand, that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, is of quite another kind. It is a truth we are to turn to practical use, a truth we are to live by, a truth we are to be saved by. Therefore St Paul calls it worthy of all acceptation: not of a little acceptance, but of all. We are not to receive it with a slight welcome, and then think no more about it, we might receive a neighbour, when he happens to call in for a few minutes. We are to receive it heartily and joyfully and entirely, with all acceptation, as a man would welcome his

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bride to his house, who is to be the inmate of it for life. This is the way that the great doctrine of redemption and salvation by the blood of Christ ought to be received by every one. It deserves, it is worthy of entire and universal acceptation. Let me entreat you to lend me your ears, while I try to give you some account of it, and to shew you how excellent, how comfortable, how hopeful a doctrine it is.

In the first place it is clear that, if Jesus Christ came to save sinners, there must be sinners to be saved. Unless we know and feel that the heart of man naturally loves sin, and that nevertheless, when we love sin, we love a thing which we ought to hate, and which is a disease and dis grace to us, the sufferings and death of Christ will be as great a stumbling-block to us, as they were to the Jews, provided we ever think about them. If our thoughts do not turn that way, of course we shall not stumble at that stumblingblock just as a man who keeps away from the narrow gate spoken of in our Saviour's parable, will never see and feel that it is narrow. This is the reason why there are so many people in the world, who call themselves Christians, yet live the life of heathens. They never think about the matter; and Christian seems to them as good a name as any other: so they are content to