taking place at our Lord's crucifixion; of a person being made to bear our Savior's cross after him, a sort of type or prophecy of what the church, that is, all Christians, should do to the end of time.

The crucifixion of our blessed Lord is not only the wonderful love of God set before us in the atonement for our sins, and the example of his unspeakable humility, but it is also a pattern, a sort of representation and lively image of what we are to be; namely, crucified together with Christ from all worldly affections as long as we are in this life.

That these are the terms upon which alone we are made partakers of the benefits of Christ's death, the church sets before us in the service of baptism, very distinctly. Indeed, the sign of the cross, with which we are then signed, is a token of this, and we pray that, being buried with Christ in his death, the baptized Christian may crucify the old man, so that as he is made partaker of the death of the Son of God, he may be also of his resurrection. We are told that we should always remember that baptism doth represent unto us our profession, which is to be made like unto Christ, that as he died, so we who are baptized should die from sin, continually mortifying all our evil affections. So that you see every Christian who hopes to be saved by the sacramental washing of baptism, is bound through the whole of his life to be able to say with St. Paul :

:

"God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

This is certainly an awful and serious reflection, for it may be asked, Do Christians in the present day con

sider it?

And yet it may be clearly shown that the gospel throughout does require this of all who would be saved. And the epistles do throughout imply the same, and all the Old Testament distinctly points the same way in the light thrown upon it by the New.

Št. Paul, when thus speaking of himself, in the passages before alluded to, does not think that by being so

crucified to the world and the like, that he was doing any great matter which it was not necessary to do in order to be saved; but on the contrary, he says, that all this was, "if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as if he had already attained." And in another place he says, that he thus mortified himself, "lest he should be himself a castaway."

Now this, I say, is an awful thought, for it cannot be thought unnecessary to our salvation to do that which an inspired apostle thought absolutely necessary for his salvation, that is, to be dead and crucified to the world, and glorying in the cross of Christ alone.

But some who will allow it to be most necessary to all Christians, yet may think that somehow or other they are so, or in fact not think seriously at all about it, but indulge a fancied thoughtless security, concluding that by some means or other all will be well at the last.

In the sense which the apostle speaks, and which the Bible requires, I fear that there are extremely few, indeed, who are thus mortified, so as to be able to use the words of the text. And yet if we cannot, there can be no solid grounds for a Christian's hope, and if we have no solid grounds for hope in Christ, what will become of us without an effectual change of life?

We may see by the strong expression, "God forbid," that the apostle puts it far from him, as a thing quite unsuitable to his Christian calling, that he should glory in anything else but the cross.

And the reason of this was, because, as a matter of course, he was by that cross crucified, that is to say, become gradually dead and mortified to worldly desires: and all the pride of this world was become by the same crucified or dead to him, such as could move him no more, or affect him.

Now a great deal might be said about the benefit of self-denial, of subduing and mortifying the desires of the natural man, and of the necessity of our being dead to this world before we can ever be alive to another. And a great deal might be said about the necessity of Christians loving one another, and loving God above all

things, and of feeling so great an interest and anxiety about their own salvation and that of others, as not to mind earthly things. But the fact is, that more than the tongue of man or angel could teach of these things, is taught by that one consideration of the cross.

Therefore, says St. Paul to the Corinthians, he "determined not to know anything among them but Jesus Christ and him crucified."

He had no eloquence of preaching, he says, for his bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible, and no worldly wisdom to induce men to repent—but only the cross of Christ.

He tells the Galatians not to trouble and interrupt him about other matters, for he was not his own but belonged to another; for he bore on his body the marks of the Lord Jesus; as if, like a slave, he had a mark burnt on his body to say to what master he belonged, which mark was the cross.

Did he expose himself to much toil and hardship? it was, he says, "bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus." The thought of the cross was to him his eloquence; it was also his wisdom; it was also his protection; and it was also his consolation. For it implied by itself alone more than all that could be said to him, and more than his words could convey to others.

For, consider, was Christ crucified indeed, the Almighty God himself, who made and supports all the world by the breath of his mouth? Was the painful way of the cross the way which he chose? then what folly and what madness for such as we to suppose that any other way but that of the cross, of being by self-denial and humility dead to the world, can be salvation and safety to us!

If we look to the heavens above, or to the deep below, if we look before and behind us, and all around, there is no other way but that of the cross. If there was any other easier and better way, surely Christ himself would have chosen it, and pointed it out to us.

Or if he might have chosen one way, and another way might do for us, then he would not have told us

that whoever would come after him, "must take up his cross and follow him."

Nor would St. Paul have told us, that if we would reign with Christ we must also suffer with him.

If there was anything else in this world which was truly valuable, surely Jesus Christ would have chosen it. It would be impious indeed to suppose the contrary; for it would be to suppose that the all-wise God himself could be mistaken in the true value of things. And surely nothing can be truly valuable to us which was not so to him.

Christ is called the true light, because he shows us the true worth of these things, respecting which we are so apt to form erroneous notions.

And therefore a day will come, when, if we have gloried in anything else but in being made conformable to his sufferings, we shall find ourselves to have been exceedingly mistaken.

To respect wealth, and the station which it gives to others, as being an ordinance of God, is becoming to Christian meekness.

But to think highly of wealth, and to covet increasing riches for ourselves, or to glory in them, is not to know of what spirit we are of. It is rejecting the cross, and thinking of another way for ourselves beside that which Jesus Christ hath taught.

And if the cross of Christ was something which so changed the heart of St. Paul as to affect all that he said, and did, and thought, so also to glory in anything which this world considers great, whether it be riches, or honor, or learning, will affect all that we say, and do, and think.

And as sure as the Bible is true, so surely is this, like things we imagine in sleep, a mere delusion, from which we shall some day awake, and see that it was so.

We shall dream that we have something in our hands, and wake and find it is nothing; or, that we are catching at a substance, which we shall find a shadow.

Consider again: was it for our sins that Jesus Christ endured the cross?

Then sin must be something very different from what we are wont to consider it.

Then the way which we are used to live from day to day, must be something far more important than we are apt to suppose.

Then an eternity of happiness or of misery must be something infinitely greater than our poor thoughts can enter into.

For otherwise how could a sacrifice of such infinite worth have been required?

Has any one a great sin on his conscience, which he feels no time can lessen, but which must find him out at the day of judgment, and then be brought forward? If he flatters himself that the great God, all holy, can pass it over as a light matter, let him reflect, that after he had been washed by Christ's blood in baptism, he polluted himself thus, instead of being made, as he then undertook to be, conformable unto his death.

Let him think over what a sacrifice it required to put him into a state of salvation.

And that though it be true that "the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin," yet it is only "if we walk in the light even as he is in the light:" that is, of course, if our life is in some measure like his.

It was a sense of these things that was perhaps present in the apostle's mind when he exclaimed, "Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.'

But if we are duly sensible of all this, more than the fear of falling short of so great salvation, shall we feel, as St. Paul also says, "the love of Christ constraining

us ?"

For not only if we are crucified to the world will all envy, and hatred, and covetousness, die within us, but also a serious and frequent consideration of the cross of Christ will open our hearts more than anything else to that divine love and charity which is alone availing.

In short, the sum and substance of the whole matter is this: if this great apostle was thus crucified with Christ, thus dead and mortified in all his desires and affections, if it was this principle, namely, the cross of