Oh! the joy of that happy, happy day. I knew God had had mercy on me, a poor, vile sinner. Was there ever any one so bad as I? I knew He loved me. I knew that Jesus loved me, that He died for me, and that His blood cleanseth from all sin. Oh! I was so thankful; but then next day I was unhappy again, and the next, and the next; for I didn't feel I was saved. And then at last, there came a dear kind letter by the post, to say, "If you look for feelings you are like the Jew that looked for a sign and never got one. Surely, the simple evidence of the written word is enough for you: 'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." And now, once more I was at rest. "Oh!" I said, "he that believeth hath; I believe, and I have eternal life." How can I doubt now; God has said it-that blessed God that sent His Son to die for me. Why should I doubt His word? I do believe it; I rejoice in the fact that everlasting life is mine. Ten years have rolled away since then, and I have never ceased to know, and through His changeless mercy never will, that Christ has saved my soul from hell, and given me an inalienable title to pass eternity with Him in glory. Dear can you say the same? bless this simple story to you. Ever yours affectionately. May the Lord "EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS." PHIL. ii. 8. NOTES OF AN ADDRESS. WHAT a death! There never was, never will be, never can be another such death. None but Jesus, the Son of God, could be obedient to that death of all deaths, even the death of the cross.' The scene is only rightly 66 approached with worshipping, adoring hearts; for God was there, and on the person of His well-beloved Son, executing the just judgment due to sin and transgressions, that man-sinful man-might be saved. "Christ once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." No creature can fathom these depths, no language describe their meaning, no human mind scan the shore or measure the infinite fulness of that bottomless ocean of love and sorrow. God alone could estimate the eternal worth of that death. It is a marvellous mystery that "the Son of the Highest" should be found in the lowest depths; that "the Lord of Glory" should be so abased; that "the Prince of Life" should be seen bowing His head in death. But so it was; and the magnitude and perfectness of the work are more and more opened up to us, as we are enabled, by the Spirit's teaching, to consider the glory of His sacred person, the unutterable sorrow and anguish He endured, and the glorious results that follow. Among men, it is the dignity of the office which gives honour and importance to the person. Not so, however, with the Son of God; for it was the infinite glory of His person, which gave dignity and value to all He did. It was the eternal Godhead of that blessed One, who laid down His life for us, which gave everlasting efficacy to the work that He accomplished. In that darkest hour, the glory of God shone forth. We are told, that, "being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God." (Phil. ii. 6.) Take away His divine glory, and you destroy the whole value of His atoning work. Admit the smallest taint or tarnish of His blessed person, and the efficacy of His sacrifice is undermined. Take away the reality of His perfect manhood, and you have no substitute, no sacrifice, no redeemer. Hence the same scripture tells us that, though "being in the form of God, . . . He took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, found in fashion as a man" (ver. 7-8). Elsewhere we have it, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Thus the mystery of His person, Immanuel, God with us, is plainly set forthverily and truly man, as made of a woman and born of a woman, yet verily and truly God, the Word, the only-begotten Son, by whom all things were made, who, while perfectly subject to the Father's will, could say, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," and "I and my Father are One." Jesus then was "God manifested in the flesh." Because He was man, He was able to render to God all His demands of man; able to glorify God in the earth in a life of entire devotedness, and by obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. All through, God saw in Him everything He could desire in man, and could say, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Man had sinned, and man must die under the judgment of God for sin, and, blessed be God, though "by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor. xv. 21.) Because Jesus was God, He was infinitely qualified to suffer all from God, and render to God all that He required. He could fully satisfy all the claims of divine righteousness and holiness on account of our sin. Being infinitely perfect in His person, He did nothing that was not perfect. When He said, "It is finished," and bowed His head in death upon the tree, He accomplished eternal redemption for us. It was not only the purity, and guilelessness of Jesus, but His divine, eternal qualities which so fitted Him to finish the work He undertook, as He said, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God;" and gave such eternal efficacy to the sacrifice which He once offered when He offered Himself. The unutterable sufferings of the Son of God on the Cross can never be fully comprehended by finite creatures. At the best we see, as it were, through a glass darkly. We know in part, and what we do know is known very imperfectly. We can look back on Calvary, and fall down and worship, but we have no line long enough to sound its marvellous depths. God only could deal out His infinite hatred to sin, and judge it in unsparing condemnation; and He only knew the sorrow and anguish this spotless One endured for us, when it pleased Him thus to bruise Him, and put Him to grief, when He was numbered with the transgressors, and bare the sins of many, and poured out His soul unto death. In this, Jesus was alone. He only drank the cup. He said, "There is none to help." By Himself He purged our sins. Alone, He met all the righteous claims of God's throne. He vindicated God, glorified God, and saved us, by being "made sin for us." On "His own Son," God "condemned sin in the flesh." He was wounded, smitten, bruised, and more than all forsaken of God, which wrung that bitterest cry from His holy, loving heart, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" "Yea; all the billows pass'd o'er Him, Our sins-they bore Him down; Our souls may gaze upon this perfect outflow of divine love to us even while we were yet sinners, and contemplate the man of sorrows bearing our sins, going under the billows of divine wrath, thus glorifying God, and purging our sins, and bow our hearts in worship; but we cannot go much further in the apprehension of these marvellous mysteries. We feel lost, as it were, in traversing this labyrinth of love and sorrow, where mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other. The sons of Kohath had to carry from place to place some parts of the furniture of the tabernacle on which their eye had never rested, and which they dare not uncover lest they died (Num. iv. 15-20); so we have to bear about with us many precious mysteries of the personal glory and sufferings of the Son of God, well knowing that " no man knoweth the Son but the Father." (Matt. xi. 27.) We know, however, that He made peace by the blood of His cross, and there, too, we can always read the lessons of divine, unchanging love. "Jesus bruised and put to shame In His spotless soul's distress I perceive my guiltiness; Since my ransom was so great!" The terrible distress, however, of Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, helps much to shew how un |