cause it ought to be the sum and substance of every missionary message to the perishing heathen, and to the house of Israel. one Now you will observe how suited to man's estate is the message before us. FOR FIRST OF ALL, CHRIST IS THE ANOINTED PREACHER. In the thirty anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the If you will observe attentively the eighth verse we read, "How GOD sermon before us, it contains great truth developed in several ways. The great truth is, that GoD has sent us a message of peace by Jesus Christ. This truth is developed in several ways, because it is made to rest on. Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for GoD was with him." There was an express design, as it were, that Christ should himself be a preacher of his peace, First of all-Christ being the anoint- because by this very method GoD seed preacher of this peace. Secondly-Christ being its procurer by his sufferings and resurrection. Thirdly-Christ being its bestower in the remission of sins. And Fourthly-Christ being the decider in the great day of his coming, when he finally confirms the peace of his people. Now the blessing of peace is one sought after universally, inasmuch as it is a word synonymous with men's happiness; and if we ask men of every tribe, nation, country, and various pursuit, what was their object in life, they would all, more or less, declare that they were in pursuit of happiness. Now God saw that all the attempts of man to obtain happiness were vain in himself; and, therefore, our text declares that God sent Jesus Christ preaching peace. And GoD saw, secondly, that man was not only without peace, but was unable to procure peace, and therefore Jesus Christ obtained that peace for him. In the one way we are led to see man as an empty creature, and in the other we are led to see man as a weak, sinful, and feeble creature; and hence, in a peace so constituted, sensible that they have no happiness within naturally, nor by any means they can invent can they procure happiness, those who are its partakers, are led to rejoice in the truth, that God has sent a message of peace to the sons of men. cures, in the eyes of his people, their full approbation and their full consent, that this peace must be exceedingly valuable. It is not preached to us merely by Moses or by the prophets, or even by the angelic host themselves, when they said, good will and peace to men." But the Lord Jesus Christ himself was the anointed prophet of his church, and he himself was the preacher of the very peace which from age to age he communicates to all his people. This, I say, secures its entrance, and recommends its adaptation to every one that is taught of God; for they are enabled thus to reason, that that peace must be unspeakably precious, of which Christ is not only the sum and substance and the procurer, but which he even condescended to preach himself to the sons of men. Now there is a peculiar stress to be laid on the words that "GOD anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost," because it intimates to us, that if Christ was a mere man he could not preach peace in the same way as the Apostle sets him out, "Jesus of Nazareth the Lord of all." There is therefore a beautiful union, and a requisite union in the person of Christ; for when he comes as the Lord of all, he comes preaching the very peace that he bestows; if he was a mere creature, we might say, that we were going again to creature springs, and that we were about again | Here, then, in the first place, Christ is the preacher. We observe, SECONDLY, THAT CHRIST This is stated in the thirty-ninth and to seek our happiness in the arm of flesh, when God hath said, "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh the arm of flesh his strength." If Christ was a creature, however high, however exalted in GoD's creation, yet still we might naturally shrink from the idea of depending on a creature, or a creature's word. But he is LORD of all—he is God over all. He is omnipotent in his power-and he is gracious in his gifts to the full amount of Divine love, and Divine wisdom, and Divine power. So then we are enabled to look on this great preacher as the Lord of all; and yet he is set out to us as Jesus of Nazareth in his manhood, inasmuch as Jesus was his incarnation name, the name connected with his taking our flesh upon him. So that he preaches peace from sympathy as well as from infinite power; and he knew in his manhood, and from the sufferings of his manhood, and from the sensibilities of his manhood, and from the weakness of his manhood, how necessary a requisite peace must be to the sons of men. Christ in his manhood had a need of peace, because Christ in his manhood had a need of support; and, therefore, it is expressly said, that " Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost was not given by measure unto him, that is to say, the fulness of the Holy Ghost was given unto Christ's manhood, that he might by the very enjoyment which he had, and the very close union which his godhead and manhood possessed, pour out on his people with a sympathising heart that very peace which was to be their portion for time and eternity.-how precious that peace must be since Oh, my friends, it is a blessed truth that he was Jesus of Nazareth in all the sensibilities, and in all the weakness of our nature, upheld by the wonderful power of the Holy Ghost. Now, the great truth then that the Christian learns when he stands on Calvary, and beholds the sorrows of Christ, and the agonies of Christ, is this it flows to my soul through the blood of my Redeemer-since it was connected with the agonies of Jesus of Nazareth; and before he could leave this legacy, "My peace I leave you," he was obliged to seal his will by his own blood. He conveyed it to us in a manner that enriches it in the Christian's view, and in a manner that strips the poor proud Pharisee, and the poor proud sinner of all pretensions to receive it upon his own merits. It teaches us, in fact, that it is not only a valuable peace, but that it has been effected by Christ alone; and it is just because the sons of men have no eye of faith to behold Christ crucified, because they cannot see the wonders of Calvary, that ever selfrighteousness has been known in the world, or that a proud Pharisee has ever existed. But bring any sinner to Christ crucified, and show him that, or rather let the Holy Ghost show him Christ, and he cannot be a Pharisee any longer. He is convinced, once for all, that he has no part, or share, or portion in procuring the peace; that the absurd idea which runs in the natural mind of making his peace with GOD is full of opposition to the truth, that Christ has made peace by the blood of his cross; and, therefore, every one who depends, in the slightest degree, on his own efforts, or uses one effort to make peace with GOD, in the sense of procuring it, independently of Christ, that man is practically an infidel, that man is practically turned away from Jesus, who will admit of no condition, no partnership, no compromise, no union between himself and the sinner in the procuring of this peace. He will take it on himself altogether, and he will have nothing to do with the man who attempts to do any thing to make his peace with GOD. He calls on the poor sinner to receive the peace that he has procured, and he calls on the guilty rebel to receive the message of peace simply as a recipient, without money, and without price; and, if I may so speak, without effort, and without condition. My friends, we cannot speak too plainly on this great truth, that Christ by his work, once finished, has procured peace for all that believe in him. But we must advance one step more in the fact of Christ's procuring peace. Observe, the Apostle connects his death with his resurrection, in the next verse, "Him GOD raised up the third day, and showed him openly." Now this I mention, because we too often suppose that the work of Christ was finished when he died, whereas, in fact, the work of Christ was not finished till he rose again. He had to contend not only with death in its agonies, but he had to contend with death in its very chamber. He entered into the regions of death, and he dispossessed the strong man of his power, in his own palace, in his kingdom. And this is the glory of the resurrection, that Christ comes out to his people in his risen and in his glorified humanity—not in his suffering and humiliated humanity-as the Prince of Peace, announcing to the world that he has broken all the shackles, and all the bonds of death-that he has contended with the prince of the power of the air, and with him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and that he subdued him and conquered him in his own kingdom, and that he rose triumphant to preach peace to his people. It is for this reason that the New Testament lays such a stress upon the resurrection of Christ, and we never should separate the one from the other, or suppose the death of Christ was more essential than his resurrection, since the work of Christ is a whole, composed of parts, every one of which was essential to his vicarious work. So far, then, we see Christ as the procurer. Now, then, let us attend, in the THIRD PLACE, to the blessings promised. We read in the forty-third verse, "To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name ing in that they may have peace, and whosoever believeth in him shall re- as GoD has appointed both the means faith is only the channel that con- But the Apostle says further in this verse, "To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." It is a delightful thing sometimes to look back on the prophetic declarations, and to trace in all the passages of the prophetic word the glorious truth, that all the servants of GOD were washed in the same fountain. When we open the book of Psalms we find it continually repeats this delightful message of the remission of sins. Thus, in the thirty-second Psalm, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." In the hundred and third Psalm, "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities : who healeth all thy diseases." And in the middle of the same Psalm, we find that this forgiveness is so complete and so perfect, that "as far as the east is distant from the west, so far hath God removed our iniquities from us;" and inasmuch as the east and the west shall never meet together, never be united, never lose their places, so the sins of the believer never shall approach him in any degree whatever; but once removed are always equally removed in the midst of his darkness, in the midst of his temptation, and even in the midst of his follies. There is no hatred of God to his soul; there is an hatred of God to his sin. He sees the sins of his children, but not to be angry with them, not to hate them, (if I may so speak) not to hate them and cast them off; but he sees their sins to correct them, and he sees their sins to punish them, in order that they may be sanctified, and that they may be delivered from that which is the greatest of all miseries. So that the question, whether GoD sees sin in a believer, is also answered very simply from Scripture-" If thy children forsake my laws, I will visit their iniquities." GOD saw their iniquities. "I will visit their iniquities with stripes, and their transgressions with a rod." But here is his love to their persons-" nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not take away, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail them." Now, in the midst of their sins God's loving-kindness is by no means diminished; but his very loving-kindness, if I may so speak, is exerted to them in the language of gracious rebuke, in the language of the kindest chastisement, and in the language of fraternal exhortation to bring them back into the enjoyment of his own presence, and the light of his counte nance. The remission of sins is often dwelt upon by the Prophets as well as by the Psalmist. We find that the Prophet Isaiah assures his people, the Jews, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." This is the first figure he makes use of. He makes use of another figure when he says, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy iniquity as a cloud, and thy transgressions as a thick cloud." In the one he washes away the defilement, and in the other he destroys and blots out its magnitude; and just as the sun in its risen power consumes and blots out the cloud from the face of heaven, so do the rays of Christ's mercy and love blot out for ever the sins of his people from the light of GOD's countenance, and even from their own souls. We find that the prophets have so many passages on this subject that we could not attempt to refer to them all, but we would just bring one forward from the Prophet Micah, where he represents, in his seventh chapter, GOD not only washing away the defilement of sin, and blotting out its magnitude, but casting it out of his sight for ever, so that it shall never be remembered by him, declaring that "he will cast all their iniquities into the depths of the sea." Now, this is an expression so delightful, that it shows us that GOD, when he forgives |