most profound attention: it often does so, when carried by the missionary to the heathen and the stranger; they, who never heard before the good tidings of salvation, are arrested by the voice of the messenger, and hang upon his lips with a longing anxiety, and receive his message to the comfort of their souls: and can we remain unmoved by such considerations ; we, who know the purport of the heavenly message; we, who profess to believe that it is sent for our everlasting salvation from sin and death; to reconcile us to an offended God, to deliver us from the intolerable bondage of Satan, to make us happy while we live, happy when we die, happy for ever in another world, in the kingdom of heaven? Though the mercy is too great to be adequately understood, though "the love of Christ passeth knowledge," shall this prevent us from contemplation and enquiry? shall we not rather, on this very account, entertain a more fervent desire to understand and know, of this mystery of goodness, all

THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST.

that is possible to be known? Whoever, indeed, has not this desire, cannot take any lively interest in the revelation which he professes to believe, cannot have sincerely embraced it; knowing, as he does, the subject and purpose of the gospel, he is in a worse situation than many an ignorant heathen; his heart more hard and unimpressible ; his eyes more closed against the light; his affections more dif ficult to be roused and engaged. May the Lord touch the heart of all such heedless professors; or the very publicans and sinners, the darkest and most despised of the earth, will" enter into the kingdom of heaven before them."

Hoping that we all are deeply concerned in this important matter, that we do place a most exalted value on the riches of Christ, and earnestly desire to partake of them, I beg that we may enter together, with humble minds and spiritual desires, into some examination of their nature and excellency; and enquire in

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what respects, and for what reasons, they are unsearchable.

1. In the first place, what is the foundation of all our blessedness and all our hope, as the redeemed and adopted children of God; as brought from a state of enmity and rebellion, into favour with Him; as having any claim upon His mercy; any prospect of recovering our lost happiness, of saving our souls alive? What, I say, is the foundation on which we expect these marvellous acts of grace ? It is, that the everlasting Son of God left "the glory which he had with the Father before the world was," and "took upon Him the form of a servant," the nature of man it is, that the "Word, who in the beginning was with God and was God," "was made flesh" and came and "dwelt among us, full of grace and truth."+ Here then, in the very outset, is unsearchable mercy; the immensity of the divine Redeemer's condescension and love! Who can search, who can understand it?

* John xvii. 5. † Philipp. ii. 7. John i. 1. 14.

THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST.

"It is higher than heaven, what canst thou know" of it? Admire thou mayest, and adore and love; but it is beyond the stretch of thy created powers to conceive, beyond the capacity of any creature. The great truth is revealed and the work is accomplished; and here thou must leave it, in humble faith and overwhelming emotion.

2. We may consider, in the next place, the preciousness, the value, the efficacy of the incarnation and sufferings of our Redeemer. All the attributes of the Godhead are perfect and infinite; His holiness and justice, as well as His mercy. Man, by transgression, fell into a state of unholiness; his nature became corrupt; his understanding debased, his affections and passions and desires all sinful; as such he could not possibly be accepted or blest by the infinitely holy God, by Him "who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity:" he became, to borrow the language of men, vile and hateful in God's sight; he resembled Satan and the wicked spirits,

who fell, for their transgression, from the heavens. And so, with regard to justice; the infinitely just God could not, without some means of atonement or satisfaction, shew favour to a disobedient, offending, rebellious creature; it was contrary to His essential character and nature so to do: nor can we form any true idea of the value of that sacrifice, on the part of another, which could be held sufficient to reconcile the great Jehovah to a creature “laden with iniquity" the displeasure being infinite, the distance and separation between God and His creatures infinite, the sacrifice must be infinite also, and exceeding the bounds of our comprehension. And yet, strange to say, though the means of the sinner's re-admission, to the favour and blessing of a holy and just God, must of necessity be beyond our powers of conception, there are persons, who object to the Christian doctrine of the atonement, solely on the ground of its being incomprehensible. But we, my brethren, "have not so learned Christ;" we are ready