cate all is innocent within, but needs Jesus Christ. There is not a child taught in the infant school to lisp the name of Jesus, but needs to be washed in Jesus' blood. There is not any one of any age, or in any circumstances, any one (I repeat it) so amiable, so lovely, so beloved, but needs Christ's atoning sacrifice. We all need Christ; and as in her case none but Jesus could remove the disease, so in ours, "there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved".

"None but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good." This we see every day. We cannot do people good, real good, solid, permanent good, till we bring them to Jesus. Vain, I do in my heart believe, is every attempt to do people lasting good but through the Gospel: this is " 'good tidings of great 'glory joy" this is good-this brings to God in the highest, and on earth peace.' The words seem still to sound in our ears. Oh that they may now reach the hearts of all who have hitherto neglected so great salvation ! This day, my brethren, I proclaim to you as an ambassador for Christ, these glad tidings : to you is born a Saviour, and just the Saviour you all need-" look unto him and be saved"_" take hold of his strength, and so you shall have peace!"

I was saying the Gospel was not only a means of bringing real and lasting good to all who received it, but the only means. This was strikingly exemplified in the Greenland mission; for several years attempts had been made to civilise and moralise, apart from the Gospel, the poor ignorant Greenlanders, but all in vain.

Like the woman we have been speaking and hearing of, they grew "nothing better, but rather worse." After fifteen years, the Gospel of Jesus in its simplicity was proclaimed; the spiritual disease was brought to Jesus,

"How beautiful were the feet of them who brought good tidings, that published peace." Even in Greenland hearts were touched, and souls were converted; even here many were saved by grace through

2. Again, like the woman who came to Jesus, we bring nothing with us but misery and want. What had she? Observe, she had spent all, so that Jesus, the Good Physician, demanded nothing from her for the cure wrought in her. It is so with us, my brethren; we are to bring no payment to Christ; he demands none: let us hear his own words, Isa. lv. 1— "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." And again, Rev. xxii. 17, " and the Spirit and the Bride say come; and let him that heareth say come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

The salvation of the soul is a free gift, "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ"-"if thou knewest (said Christ) the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou

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wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." what need I say more? no more does the Lord demand payment by works, or penances, or any thing of the kind, in order to the obtaining salvation, than Elisha demanded money of Naaman, or Moses Elisha said, "go of the bitten Israelite. wash in Jordan seven times;" Moses di

rected the Israelite to look to the serpent "look to me of brass; and Jesus says, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;"—" as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish but have everlasting life." If any, like Naaman, are angry at the statement of the freeness of the Gospel, (and it does irritate the natural heart of the unconverted) I would reason with them this day, I would persuade them if possible, as Naaman's servants did their master, "How much rather!"-we see many around us doing great things" in order to be saved, "How much rather" ought

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3. Like her when we do come to Jesus, when we are drawn by the Spirit, (otherwise we shall never come) he will in no wise cast us out.—In no wise-it is contrary to his nature to do so-for what is his nature? As to his power? He is "able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him." As to his willingness? "how oft would I have gathered you" he said to the Jews, and says to the Gentiles too,-" and ye would not?" He waits to be gracious! How encouraging is this: we may suppose the ruler Jairus was in sad suspense all the time this interview was taking place-but the Lord's delays are not denials. What at the time, perhaps, pained Jarius whose daughter "lay a dying," presently encouraged him to tarry the Lord's leisure.

And to us too, it is most encouraging to hear and read of Jesus' acts of mercy and love, as recorded in this and other passages of the Gospel history. He is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." It is his property "always to have mercy." He never sends any empty away who come in faith to him: and if at the last day those who hear the sentence " depart," were to be recalled and the question put to each-" did you EVER in real earnest seek salvation through the Saviour of sinners ?" each would have to say, NEVER! and heaven's courts would reecho, NEVER!—and through eternity hell would re-echo, NEVER! for he "never said to any, seek my face in vain.”

And why is it, so few come to seek a Saviour now? Why refuse to hear the charmer's voice now? It must be by reason of some counter charm!-it is even so, St. Paul tells us in this (2 Cor. iv. 4.) "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them."—This keeps men from Jesus in the first instance, and draws them back, often, afterwards. Yes, there is such a thing as going back in religion, leaving our "first love"-this leads to neglect of secret prayer, the

by one, neglected-the soul declines.— The case my brethren is possible. It is possible to be alive and not be in good health—it is so with the soul, it is possible to be believers in Jesus, and yet, so weak, so cold, so faithless, that the Holy Spirit is grieved, and the declining christian is a stumbling block to the world, and an injury to the church. Well, to you too my brethren, if any answering this description be present, Christ is a gracious Saviour. His word to you is “ return," as his word to the unconverted is "come.' To both I would say in the language of the prophet Hosea (chap. vi. 1.) "come and let us return." The Lord Jesus delights to bring back the straying sheep; for the time he seems to love it better than the ninety and nine who were safe in the fold. He loves to welcome the returning prodigal for the time, he seems to love him better than the elder brother who was ever with him.”— This is speaking to us after the manner of men, in compassion to our infirmities. Let none say, 'I am so weak, so oppressed by sickness, so full of care, that I cannot come'-what, so weak as not to come for strength-so ill as not to need a physician? And to such a Saviour! "He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax."

He loves to see in his people great faith, but he does not despise little faith; while he points his hand to the Centurion and says of him, I have not found so great faith," he "stretched out his hand" to sinking Peter, and said, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?" But even more: Jesus is a gracious Saviour to his own people who abide in him as the branch in the vine. Glorious things are spoken of Thee O Blessed Saviour towards thine own people."He knoweth their frame," He " can be touched with the feeling of their infirmities. "He is not ashamed to call them brethren," "He sticketh closer than a brother," "His secret is with them that fear him :" and as he confides his secret to them, they are encouraged to confide all their secrets to him, and like the poor

THERE are many persons, my dear brethren, especially at the present day, who seem perfectly to understand the nature of the finished work of Christ; who can point out the adaptation of its several parts, to the corresponding wants of the sinner; who can dwell upon the benefits resulting to mankind, from the life, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of the Redeemer, and yet who present to us the spectacle of hearts unchanged, and lives uninfluenced by the doctrines which they profess to believe. This at first sight might seem strange, it might seem contradictory to the Scriptures of truth which every where speak of a change of heart and life as the necessary consequence of believing in salvation as it is in Jesus; and we might be at a loss what opinion to form concerning such a class of persons, did we not find both their present state and their future prospects accurately described in the pages of the Word of God. This is that reception of the truth which the Apostle Paul alludes to when he speaks of its "coming in word, but not in power"-these are the characters whom he describes as "having the form of godliness, but denying the power of it. These are they whom our blessed Lord interrogates when he asks," why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" and whose doom he announces in the fearful sentence, “depart from me, I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity."

One great source of this evil, 1 believe to be the habit so very general of looking to, and speaking of, the work of Christ, as though it were a work of substitution only, and not rather a work of

union-a work which he has performed for us, rather than a work which we ourselves, if believers, are looked upon, and may speak of ourselves as having performed by virtue of our union with him. Salvation is thought of, and spoken of, as though it consisted in the occupying of human nature's right position by the Lord Jesus only, rather than in the restoring of human nature through the work of Jesus, to that position which it was originally designed to occupy in the sight of God. Thus lowness of doctrine produces proportionate lowness of practice-ignorance as to calling blindness as to privilege-neglect as to duty, are the consequences of this partial reception of the truth.

There is, therefore, I think, my brethern, especial weight to be attached to those passages of God's Word, which point out and enlarge upon the nature of the believer's union with Christ, which are calculated to lead us individually to the inquiry, "am I united unto Jesus?" And, if united," am I walking in all things worthy of the vocation with which I am called?" Such seems the nature of the passage which I have taken for a text, and such is the inquiry which I would ask the Lord's blessing to enable me to lead each one of you to make individually.

The apostle, in verse 16, has been speaking of justification through faith, "knowing," he says, "that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."