a loud voice, saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of the brethren is cast down, which accuseth them before God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them."*

My brethren, the enmity of which we have been speaking, shall continue even unto the day of this glorious triumph. The two hostile parties shall be arrayed against each other, and shall fight even unto death. You, also, who are assembled in this house of God, are all required to take a part in this conflict. Here neutrality is impossible . . . Say, then, say to which of these people you wish to belong? say under whose standard you wish to fight? I now unfurl among you the banner of the Saviour, and summon you, in the name of God and in the name of your own immortal interests, to come and range yourselves beneath it, if you would not be accounted ene

* Rev. xii. 9-12.

mies of Christ, and treated accordingly. The world, on its side, unfurls among you and lifts up on high the standard of the prince of darkness. Which of these appeals will you answer? Haste, haste! time urges you. Already you hear the shouts of the combatants, which shall be succeeded by the song of victory. I repeat it again-neutrality is impossible. Accountable beings, you cannot occupy a neutral ground with regard to God. You cannot serve two masters; you must hate the one or love the other. I am aware that the part which would please you most, is that of indifference; but be not deceived; there is no such thing. Indifference towards a God, whose laws you have violated, and before whom you are in a state of condemnation, is nothing but hatred or sovereign contempt. In the view of the Saviour, who has loaded you with favours and benefits, who has so loved you as to die for you, indifference is worse than hatred. Choose then, decide whom you will love, whom you will hate. Hate God! Hate His people! Have you well considered what is implied in this? Hell is in these words. Ah! rather give your whole heart, give the whole power of your affections to a redeeming

God, the only being really worthy of your love. Herein is life, herein is happiness. And that you may be able to love Him the better, to love Him exclusively, as he seeks to be loved, proclaim an irreconcilable hatred against any thing that comes from the kingdom of darkness. Hate evil, hate sin. Mistake me not. I devote not to your hatred the persons of those, who have the misfortune still to be fighting under the banner of God's enemies. No; I call upon you to hate their works, but to love the individuals, to love them with all your heart, to pray for them, to use every means in your power to snatch them from the ruin to which they are hastening.-Lord, give us grace to draw them to Thee, by showing them much love! Lord, save them, save them ere they perish! My God! pour Thy love into our still too selfish hearts! My God! grant us to love that which Thou lovest, and to hate that which Thou hatest!

MEDITATION VII.

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN.-THE REMEDY.

GEN. III. 16-19.

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy desire shall be unto thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns, also, and thistles, shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

WE have seen the tribunal of the righteous Judge erected in Eden. Already a sentence of malediction has been pronounced upon the instrument of the fall, and upon the author

of evil himself, whose gloomy empire is doomed to be overthrown by the seed of the woman. An eternal deliverance has thus been promised to the fallen children of Adam, whom a mighty Saviour is to set free from the tyrannical yoke of the devil. But shall not the penalty of sin fall upon those who have committed it? Shall they be absolved? Will God hold the sinner guiltless? No, my brethren! Though God, in His infinite mercy, reserves for man a spiritual blessing, in which all shall partake who apply to themselves the admirable remedy which He has found for the evils of sin; yet sin itself shall not be left unpunished: its consequences are inevitable, because the justice of God is unchangeable as the rock of ages.

Let us then, this day, hear, with holy attention, the sentence which the Almighty pronounces upon our first parents, now fallen from His favour. And while we hear it, let us cast a glance at the present state of man, and we shall see abundant reason to confess that this curse has been executing, from generation to generation, upon the whole race of Adam. The affections of human life afford us but too conclusive an evidence of this: