"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Jesus of Nazareth, who bowed under the weight of his cross, who was nailed to that fatal tree on Calvary's Mount, and who was hanging there in indescribable agony of body, for the space of about six hours; and you know friends that during these three noon-day hours, there was, the latter part of the time, a veil and a shroud of solemn portentous darkness upon the face of nature, and nature seemed to own her sovereign Lord! And O, the depth of the affliction of his soul, when under the inconceivable pressure of the sins of all mankind, in all ages, he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And at length in the most solemn and important of all moments that have ever marked the course of time in the history of mankind, he said, "It is finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost." Then, my beloved friends, was the great atoning sacrifice made for the sins of all mankind in all ages. Then were the shadows and ceremonies of the Jewish law fulfilled and abolished, as far as their authority went; then was the glorious gospel introduced in its fulness for the welfare of all men, of every name, of every country, of every colour. Then was the veil which separated between the sanctuary and the Holy of holies in the temple of God, rent asunder from the top to the bottom, and a way of entrance was opened for every poor believing sinner

through the veil that is to say his flesh, his body that was broken, and his blood that was shed for usinto the holiest place of all, where cherubims and seraphims dwell in their glory, and perpetually do cry, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, and the whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Jesus of Nazareth, who burst the bands of death asunder, triumphed over the prison-house of the grave, breathed upon his disciples, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" and after forty days ascended up in a cloud of glory, to the mansions of the heavens above, and sat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, when the cry did indeed go forth to the gates and everlasting doors of the kingdom of heaven, “ Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." Yes, friends, it was by his name, by his power, a power unchangeable and eternal, that the decrepit one, the cripple from his birth, stood before the multitude in the condition of perfect soundness. He derived the strength of his limb in its new perfection, from the immediate operation of the creative power of the Son of God, one with the Father, who said, "I and my Father are one." Yes, that eter

Who

nal Word who was in the beginning with God, and was God. Was himself God, not merely the word or spirit of God, as some pretend, dwelt in him when he walked among men, which may be said of every good man on the face of God's earth-but he was the eternal Word, and that Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and he was Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews crucified, whom God raised up on the third day, who in his divine nature, his eternal, unchangeable power, did restore the poor cripple to that state of health and strength, energy and activity of body, in a moment.

0, my beloved friends, are there any persons here in this large and solemn assembly, who are numbered among the doubters and disputers of this world, and who elude the grasp of plain truth, by certain circuitous speculations of their own, which have no foundation in the plain testimony of Scripture? I believe, friends, the day is coming when many who have been numbered among the doubters and disputers and speculators of this world, will come bended before the extended sceptre of the King of kings, and before the very same power by which the cripple was made whole. And they are cripples, they can feel it, they know it; their want of faith has crippled them. Alas! alas! what strong men some might have been in the camp of Israel, and in the army of the Lamb, and in the warfare of truth and righteousness, if they had not been crippled by the strong

hand of that spiritual enemy whose existence they pretend to deny through their want of faith deny the existence of the spiritual enemy of their souls; convert him into an oriental image and figure of poetry. I think I am addressing some one mind at least, who has harboured a view of this kind-for it seems brought before me by that which I do not hold it to be safe to resist. We know that this adversary of souls is described by our blessed Saviour as the father of lies, a liar from the beginning. And amongst all the lies that he has palmed upon the doubters and speculators amongst men, this surely is the most crafty, and most refined, by which he has persuaded them to deny that he has any existence at all; and therefore they are not wearing that panoply of God, by which we are instructed in Scripture to stand against the wiles of the devil. Of what use is the panoply of God to them that have no devil to contend with? According to their view, why should they wear the breastplate of righteousness and shield of faith? "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," said the Apostle, "but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." "Wherefore,"-mark the word," wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of

righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."

And O, my soul is clothed with a very sweet hope, that there are individuals in this assembly, who having vilely cast away their shield, as if it had never been anointed with oil, upon the barren mountains of mere theoretical and speculative religion, will now in the tender mercies of their God, be permitted an opportunity of laying hold once more of the good old shield, and who, as I humbly trust, will embrace the opportunity in the life and light of eternal truth, that they may once more contend valliantly against the hosts of the Philistines, and against the antetype of Goliah, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; and although they have been miserably crippled, although their high and holy course has been impeded indeed, yet now in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,―mark ye,—of Nazareth, not a Christ of your own phantasm-but now in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom the Jews crucified, and whom God raised from the dead, Rise up and walk ye, and leap for joy, and praise God for your deliverance from the power of darkness, and for your translation, as I humbly trust it may be, into the kingdom of God's dear Son, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and who is descending by his Holy