fulness and loveliness of His character as there displayed, and thy soul shall be at peace as to the issue of the final judgment. Jesus Christ hath declared, This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. (John vi. 39, 40.) To know this to be the will of God, to acquaint thyself with these purposes of divine wisdom and love, must give thee peace. Every cause of disquietude arising from the number or the character of thy sins, is removed by the sufficiency of Jesu's atonement. For His blood cleanseth from all sin. (1 John i. 7.) And thus to acquaint thyself with God, really to know that He has accepted that atonement as the condition on which He was to become reconciled to guilty man, must satisfy thy mind, and compose all thy fears.

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But even here also caution is needful. must not confound the knowledge of God that only lodges in the mind of a man, with that which constitutes eternal life. (John xvii. 3.) Rightly and truly to be acquainted with Him as our Father in Christ Jesus, is to love Him supremely, to hold every thought and inclination in subjection to His will. Many can speak of the wisdom, the power, and truth of Jehovah, and relate the

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events of Jesu's life and death, whose knowledge brings no peace to their minds. For they do not embrace the Redeemer with that steadfast faith which alone can remove the fears of death and judgment. Their knowledge of God has been acquired merely by the exercise of the understanding it cannot, therefore, give the conscience rest. Peace is one of the fruits of the Spirit, a saving knowledge of God is another; and they are always united in the devout and humble believer's heart. A full, experimental, practical acquaintance with the Lord, invariably draws the soul unto Him; inspires it with the love and confidence of a child towards Him; and maintains an habitual resignation to His will, and a cheerful obedience to His commands. To expect peace from a knowledge short of this, is to look for fruit on a tree that never yet bore any thing but leaves. Seek then, brethren, a truer foundation whereon to rest your souls. Being rooted and grounded in love, you will be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord. (Eph. iii. 17, 18.) To know Him thus, is to love Him supremely: and a love so deep, so extensive, will delight to manifest itself by an unwavering fidelity to His word.

DISCOURSE IV.

THE CAUSE OF OUR PEACE.

HE WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS, HE WAS BRUISED FOR OUR INIQUITIES; THE CHASTISEMENT OF OUR PEACE WAS UPON HIM; AND WITH HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED.-Isaiah liii. 5.

WHEN we begin earnestly to consider the necessity of making our peace with God, we feel alarmed at the thought of having lived so long at enmity against Him. Conscious that we have "sold ourselves to work iniquity," and assured that the wages of sin is death, we look out, with an anxiety we never felt before, for some remedy to compose the fears so naturally awakened in our minds. Divine justice appears to be armed against us, and we can find no ground of appeal, either in the world or in ourselves, against the sentence to which we stand obnoxious. Knowing that our sins have separated between us and our God, His very perfections seem to close against us every avenue of escape from the terrors of His wrath; and in such a state of mind we are pre

pared to value and to welcome the glad tidings of salvation revealed in the Gospel. There we read of that eternal Son who descended from heaven, and took upon Him the form of a servant, for the twofold purpose of bringing "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." (Luke ii. 14.) But in accomplishing this gracious work He submitted to all the agonies of mortality, becoming "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." This He endured as the punishment deserved by those whom He came to save. Yes, " He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.”

The first question that arises here is, What necessity was there for the Redeemer to suffer? That necessity is implied in the expression, "the chastisement of our peace was upon Him." There could be no peace without the punishment either of the sinner or his surety. In the administration of human laws, the punishment of a transgressor is compatible with mercy towards him. But in executing a sentence of the divine law there can be no mitigation of its severity: because every offence is capital, the sentence having gone forth from the throne of God, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." The judgment here denounced is not death to the body merely, which might have consisted with mercy to the soul in a future world, but it includes the banishment of

the whole man to the regions of misery where hope can never come. This eternal exclusion from the presence of God is therefore described as a "second death," (Rev. ii. 11.) because, though the culprits will live, yet will their lives be to them an insupportable burden. They will be dead to happiness, and gladly would they cease to exist if they could. For this reason they are represented in St. John's vision of the last judgment, as calling to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, and to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne; and from the wrath of the Lamb: for they will not be able to stand, when the great day of His wrath is come. (Rev. vi. 16, 17.) The misery then of those who shall hereafter bear the punishment of their sins, instead of a chastisement of peace, will be an infliction of hopeless, unmitigated anguish. Not a drop of water will be given to cool their tongues when tormented in the flame of hell. (Luke xvi. 24, 25.)

All mankind deserve this tremendous doom, "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. iii. 23.) Justice then requires the execution of His sentence upon them. The moral perfection of His nature, and the rectitude of all His proceedings, forbid the hope that He can let the wicked go unpunished. It is written, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works." (Psalm cxlv. 17.) Before a human tribunal a culprit may escape through