ORIGINAL ESSAYS.

XLVIII.

CHARACTER OF CHRIST COMPARED TO A FOUNTAIN.

A RELIGION without Christ for its object and end, is like a system without a sun-devoid of heat and animation, of light and life. This is an humbling thought. But while there are some who have closed this mortal career rich in the graces of the eternal Spirit, and blooming with immortality, singing with the immortal Cowper in their departing moments

"There is a fountain fill'd with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;

And sinners plung'd beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains."

There are others, yea, a countless number, who live and die without a spiritual knowledge of Jesus, and the fountain opened for the expiation of guilt; who lie entombed in the desolated grave of nature, of whom it may affectingly be asserted, that it had been infinitely better for them had they never been born." Oh! how distinguishing the riches of redeeming love! one shall be taken, another shall be left. Two shall be malefactors, alike involved in the turpitude of the deepest guilt, without a shade of difference, and even up to the very period of their torture and agonies on a cross, shall both add blacker hues to their criminality, by railing on the ever blessed Redeemer ; when in a moment, in a less interval than the twinkling of an eye, the one shall be melted into love, and become an humble suppliant at his feet, and obtain mercy at the last extremity; the other is suffered to fill up the measure of his sin, and to proceed to his own place to weep and wail, where there is nothing but gnashing of teeth. But "wisdom is justified of her children."

In every view of Jesus faith beholds much to wonder at his greatness and incomparable love. The metaphors of nature have often been made, by the illuminating influences of the Holy Ghost, blessedly subservient in leading the spiritually taught mind to the more ravishing contemplation of him. And whatever there is in this lower world inviting to the senses, there is abundantly more, in a more exalting sense, in Jesus, who combines in his sacred person every beauty human and divine.

The fountain of nature which flows in silvery streams through the pale green grass of the rural valley, so as to attract the admiration of a contemplative mind on the adjacent hill; which glides majestically through the lonesome mead with the appearance of a polished mirror VOL. V.-No. 61.

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encircled with gems; or which soothes the weary traveller with the aquatic murmurs of its torrents as he passes through the glebe, and offers an antidote to his thirst by the way- these are interesting scenes, and the mind must be callous and inanimate indeed that can resist the softness of their influence; yet how poor, how incomparably poor, past thought, is such a source of satisfaction, and interrupted joy, to the solace and delight which the redeemed enjoy in measure, and anticipation of him who died for sinners, and by the shedding of his blood obtained everlasting mercy for them.

However highly we may picture to the mind, and feast the imagination with earthly delights, at best they yield an impure and sickly satisfaction. Thorns and briers intrude their unwelcome visits where roses and lilies grow. And daily experience becomes a daily expositor of the transitory and delusive nature of every thing out of Jesus, and adds infallible testimony that every other contemplation, every other luxury, however much to be desired, is but and ought only to be valued at most as a secondary good. Sin has broken every cistern, and cast the ravages of strife and the waters of bitterness around us; dried up the natural fountain of created bliss which flowed over Eden's plains unmixed with defiling qualities; ruined the fairest True, there are still some structure, and demoralized the world.

broken fragments in creation left, which serve faintly to illustrate the wondrous greatness of their divine original; but there must be a new creation unto spiritual life by the almighty energy of God the Holy Ghost, before the man can rise superior to earthly contemplation, and feast in vision on the blessings of eternity, the river of God which flows in and through Christ, its source, its spring, and fountain head. Here all good centers, and from hence all good proceeds. Without Christ the earth is an empty void. It is a habitation only suited to those who know no higher joys than it produces, but in vain it allures the beloved pilgrim, it may momentarily lead captive by its smiles, but the state is, and while Jesus lives as a superior object of his contemplation it must be, only a state of captivity unwelcome to him.

Of what avail to the soul bowed down with sorrow on account of guilt, and oppressed with a weight of sadness from a sense of base ingratitude to Jesus, excited by his loving favour and supernatural influence, would be the bequeathment of the most princely domain, He seeks not, and the most costly portion in such circumstances?

in such condition, relief from exterior objects: he requires rest for his soul in the balm of Jesus' precious blood. He seeks consolation to his fainting spirits in the enjoyment of Jesus's smiles at his wounded feet. Here he discovers a fountain which flows freely and is all divine; and is conscious that no earthly fountain can assuage his thirst, that no balsam can expunge his anguish; and like the hunted hart on the mountains, he pants, he hastens, not for the streams it emits, but for those richer streams of love and pardon which make glad the city of God. And thus it is with him more or less throughout his journey. He needs a complete Saviour, and a full and

Overflowing fountain, and only in those streams does he find sweet repose from sin and sorrow's load.

Jesus is indeed the first and last in the estimation of his disciples: he is a fountain of felicity and love which is admirably adapted to their condition, because it abounds in mercy and superabounds in grace; because its streams at once atone and cleanse. Jesus is the creator of his frame, the sustainer of his life, the almoner of his wants and necessities, and, above all earthly blessings, he is the alpha and the omega of his salvation, the author of his spiritual faith, and the finisher of the work through the official work of Jehovah the Holy Spirit. Thus he renews, confirms, strengthens, recovers from and heals our various wanderings and backslidings, by the incomprehensible power and exhilirating influences of that equally to be adored personage in the blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost.

What an enchanting view of the Redeemer of sinners did the prophet Zechariah enjoy when he foretold of him that he should become to David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; where he declares the discriminating properties of the expected blessing being alike applicable both to Jew and gentile, "even to as many as it shall please the Lord our God to call."

The rich crimson streams of his immortal blood, which when his precious side was pierced by the soldier's spear first opened the blessed fountain, have been ever flowing in love and mercy to the church, and has formed a laver of righteousness and peace which has often administered to the happiness of every believer now in glory, or wandering in the desert, and cleansed them from the stains of black impurity. Nothing but this precious blood can make clean before God, or relieve the guilty conscience. No washing of theirs, no sacrifice, no blood of bulls, or of goats; no merits, no works of theirs have in the least measure contributed to its fulness: it exists independent of them. It is more immeasurable than the ocean, is infinitely more superabounding in its efficacy than all the aboundings of our pollution, and is incalculably free for every sensible sinner who flees to it for cleansing virtue, for life and salvation; and it will outlive even time itself.

It is of infinite value. There would have been no merit or efficacy in this blood, had it not been the blood of God, or the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The blood which flowed from the Jewish altars in the performance of their ceremonial offerings, as is recorded in their ritual, would have claimed equal regard for its sovereign power, were not the purple current flowing from his bleeding wounds of infinitely higher than human origin.

Jesus is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." In the eternal purpose of God he was mediatorily offered as a living sacrifice for sin, even before its being. If we carry back our meditations to the patriarchal dispensation, we behold him through the type as the Lamb slain; and though on Calvary's brow he was

actually offered up for the purpose of our redemption as a vicarious offering for sin, we only there behold him (yet more blessedly) as the bleeding victim. And in the eternity to come, he is as the beloved disciple in the isle of Patmos saw him, " as a lamb that was newly slain," amidst his Father's throne. He is in himself a fountain, the fountain; and from him proceeds an endless retinue of blessings, extending from eternity to eternity, accomplishing in their course all the destinies of the holy triune Jehovah in behalf of his church and people. He is to them in a covenant way a fountain of love, of mercy, of pardon, of peace, of justification, of sanctification, and every other benefit they can possibly require, which are treasured up in him as their grand centre for their supply by the way, until they drink full draughts of bliss with him in the boundless plains of unbeclouded day.

At the memorable period of his crucifixion, when justice sheathed his keen sword in his very vitals, and the fountain of the great deep of unrelenting wrath was broken up and descended in appalling cataracts upon his guiltless head, when he was numbered with transgressors and poured out his soul unto death-then he gave full proof of the fulness of the fountain of his love, pity, grace, and pardon, to a vile and guilty race.

Unlike a pitcher broken at the fountain which cannot retain the reviving fluid for a solitary moment, Jesus, unbroken by affliction, and immaculately holy, harmless, and undefiled in himself, being God and Man in one glorious Christ, is a fit reservoir to contain the blessings of the everlasting covenant; the conditions of which he performed by the power of his own might to the very full. Yes, Jesus is a true fountain, where alone can be found that which will satisfy an immortal soul. From his wounds flow a constant stream of blood and water, as fresh and efficacious as though now reeking from his veins from Calvary's tree; as sufficient to atone, to pardon, to sanctify, and cleanse from the contaminating defilement of contracted guilt as in former ages. It is, indeed, new for our application every morning and evening of the day, and is ever a sovereign balsam which possesses in itself healing, cleansing and restorative virtues, which administer consoling efficacy under any the most painful circumstances.

Jesus is comparable to a fountain, from the exhaustless stores of blessedness which abide in him; of which abundance he dispenses to his family in every season. There can be no benefit, either outward or spiritual, but what emanates from him. The fulness of the streams which flow from him, to water and bless his choice plantation, have suffered no diminution for ages; and, though millions have drank of the rivulet of his discriminating grace, and plunged again and again into the boundless abyss, and fathomless deeps of this uncorrupted fountain, richly participating of its delightful waters ;-still it remains, and ever shall remain, the same uncreated, immeasureable, and inexhaustible fulness; ever springing up into everlasting life; ever flowing through the valley; and finding again its true source in the paradise

of God. Oh! to be hid in the cleft side of this smitten Rock-how unspeakable the mercy!

Jesus is a fountain of light and life; of joy and liberty. All our springs are in him. The ever-living waters which stream from the Rock of Ages-the fountain of life; afford cooling refreshment to the weary pilgrim, in a dry and dreary desert, where are no water springs -no consoling blessings to propel him onwards in his course. These peaceful currents which follow the vessels of mercy through all the winding valley, are pregnant with holy consolation; and, when the Holy Ghost is pleased to bestow a sip by the way, Oh! how exhilirating to the spirits; what a reviving cordial to the soul of the disconsolate saint!

There is no circumstance can impede its freeness of bestowment. This fountain is free for every coming sinner; for every thirsty traveller. But it is the province of the Holy Ghost to administer this soothing bliss. It is his power alone who giveth life, to produce thirst for this sacred ocean, and to satisfy the soul's desire for the waters of the sanctuary. There is no situation in which the tried believer may be placed, that can render him unwelcome to a free participation of the drops of bliss which fall from this ever-flowing fountain; for in Jesus is enough, and to spare. There is no qualification but a sense of thirst needed, to render the most wretched welcome to this everlasting spring. If Jesus be made a welcome guest, in the experience of the soul, to him, that soul is welcome to Christ. Jesus is a free gift; and, consequently, all the streams which flow from his ocean fulness, as the fountain of peace, are all free gifts; not purchases, either in whole or in part. The invitation of the Spirit is to the poor and needy, and to him that hath no money. The streams of mercy, which flow so sweetly throughout the lowly valley, are for the thirsty, not the full. A true consciousness of want, and a glimpse of the infinite condescension and goodness of our Lord to supply those wants, which he has produced, is the only true qualification. Not being coversant with the truth, is a great cause of our misery; for, in ignorance of our best recommendation being only a knowledge of our necessities, we vainly interpose our idol frames, and fondly present them as suited meetness, preparatory to our approach to the fountain head. Hence our souls are filled with darkness; and faith loses his roll of evidences, amidst the dark shadows which intervene with their glaring aspect. Sinners of the deepest die have applied to this fountain, when overcome by thirst, and fainting by the way. They sought the streams by faith, and experienced the absolute and unconditional freeness of their flow. Nor is there any case too desperate. The wounded spirit here resorts for balm, and finds relief; and "whosoever will, let him come," is the invitation of the Spirit, "and partake of the waters of life freely."

Satan has tried every stratagem to stem the torrents of mercy, and to counteract their progress; but they have proved to be never-failing mercies, incessantly bestowed upon the objects of his love, whom he