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III. His love gives boldness in the Day of Judgment, verse 17. There is a great day coming, often spoken of in the Biblethe Day of Judgment-the day when God shall judge the secrets of men's hearts by Christ Jesus. The Christless will not be able to stand in that day. The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. At present, sinners have much boldness; their neck is an iron sinew, and their brow brass. Many of them cannot blush when they are caught in sin. Amongst ourselves, is it not amazing how bold sinners are in forsaking ordinances? With what a brazen face will some men swear! How bold some ungodly men are in coming to the Lord's Table! But it will not be so in a little while. When Christ shall appear-the holy Jesus, in all his glory, then brazen-faced sinners will begin to blush. Those that never prayed will begin to wail. Sinners, whose limbs carried them stoutly to sin and to the Lord's Table last Sabbath, will find their knees knocking against one another. Who shall abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appears? When the books are opened-the one the book of God's remembrance, the other the Bible-then the dead will be judged out of those things written in the books. Then the heart of the ungodly will die within them; then will begin their shame and everlasting contempt." Many wicked persons comfort themselves with this, that their sin is not known, that no eye secs them; but in that day the most secret sins will be all brought out to the light." Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the Day of Judgment." How would you tremble and blush, O wicked man, if I were now to go over before this congregation the secret sins you have committed during the past week; all your secret fraud and cheating; your secret uncleanness; your secret malice and envy; how you would blush and be confounded! How much more in that day, when the secrets of your whole life shall be made manifest before an assembled world! What eternal confusion will sink down your soul in that day! You will be quite chop-fallen; all your pride and blustering will be gone. All in Christ will have boldness.

1. Because Christ shall be Judge.-What abundant peace will it give you in that day, believer, when you see Christ is judge! He that shed his blood for you. He that is your surety, your shepherd, your all. It will take away all fear. You will be able to say, who shall condemn, for Christ hath died. In the very hand that opens the books, you will see the marks of the wounds made by your sins. Christ will be the same to you in the judgment that he is now.

2. Because the Father himself loveth you. Christ and the Father are one. The Father sees no sin in you; because as Christ is, so are you in this world. You are judged by God according to what the surety is; so that God's love will be with you in that

day. You will feel the smile of the Father, and you will hear the voice of Jesus saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father."

Learn to fear nothing between this and judgment. Fear not, wait on the Lord and be of good courage.

When a

IV. The consequences of being in the love of God. 1. "We love him because he first loved us;" v. 19. poor sinner cleaves to Jesus, and finds the forgiving love of God, he cannot but love God back again. When the prodigal returned home and felt his Father's arms around his neck, then did he feel the gushings of affection toward his father. When the summer sun shines full down upon the sea, it draws the vapors upward to the sky. So when the sunbeams of the Son of Righteousness fall upon the soul, they draw forth the constant risings of love to him in return.

Some of you are longing to be able to love God. Come into hs love then. Consent to be loved by him, though worthless in yourself. It is better to be loved by him than to love, and it is the only way to learn to love him. When the light of the sun falls upon the moon, it finds the moon dark and unlovely, but the moon reflects the light, and casts it back again. So let the love of God shine into your breast, and you will cast it back again. The love of Christ constraineth us. "We love him because he first loved us." The only cure for a cold heart is to look at the heart of Jesus.

Some of you have no love to God because you love an idol. You may be sure you have never come into his love: that curse rests upon you, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema maranatha."

2. We love our brother also. If you love an absent person you will love their picture. What is that the sailor's wife keeps so closely wrapped in a napkin, laid up in her best drawer among sweet smelling flowers? She takes it out morning and evening, and gazes at it through her tears. It is the picture of her absent husband. She loves it because it is like him. It has many imperfections, but still it is like. Believers are the pictures of God in this world. The spirit of Christ dwells in them. They walk as he walked. True, they are full of imperfections; still they are true copies. If you love him, you will love them. You will make them your bosom friends.

Are there none of you that dislike real Christians? You do not like their look, their ways, their speech, their prayers. You call them hypocrites, and keep away from them. Do you know the reason? You hate the copy, because you hate the original; you hate Christ, and are none of his.

St. Peter's, 1840.

SERMON XIII.

ACTION SERMON.-October 25, 1840.

"But 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.”—Gal. vi., 14.

Doctrine-Glorying in the Cross.

I. The subject here spoken of by Paul. The Cross of Christ. -This word is used in three different senses in the Bible. It is important to distinguish them.

1. It is used to signify the wooden cross; the tree upon which the Lord Jesus was crucified. The punishment of the cross was a Roman invention. It was made use of only in the case of slaves, or very notorious malefactors. The cross was made of two beams of wood crossing each other. It was laid on the ground and the criminal stretched upon it. A nail was driven through each hand, and one nail through both the feet. It was then lifted upright, and let fall into a hole, where it was wedged in. The crucified man was then left to die, hanging by his hands and feet. This was the death to which Jesus stooped. "He endured the cross, despising the shame." "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Matt. xxvii., 40, 42; Mark xv., 30, 32; Luke xxiii., 26; John xix., 17, 19, 25, 31; Eph. ii., 16.

2. It is used to signify the way of salvation by Jesus Christ crucified. So 1 Cor. i., 18, "The preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it is the power of God;" compared with verse 23, "We preach Christ crucified," &c. Here it is plain the preaching of the Cross and the preaching of Christ crucified are the same thing. This is the meaning in the passage before us, "God forbid that I should glory, &c." It is the name given to the whole plan of salvation by a crucified Redeemer. That little word implies the whole glorious work of Christ for us. It implies the love of God in giving his Son (John iii., 16); the love of Christ in giving himself (Eph. v., 2); the incarnation of the Son of God; his substitution, one for many; his atoning sufferings and death. The whole work of Christ is included in that little word, the Cross of Christ. And the reason is plain; his dying on the cross was the lowest point of his humiliation. It was there he cried, It is finished; the work of my obedience is finished! my sufferings are finished; the work of redemption is complete; the wrath of my people is finished; and he bowed the head and gave up the ghost. Hence his whole finished work is called the Cross of Christ.

3. It is used to signify the sufferings borne in following Christ.

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"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take his cross and follow me," Matt. xvi., 24. When a man determines to follow Christ, he must give up his sinful pleasures, his sinful companions; he meets with scorn, ridicule, contempt, hatred; the persecution of early friends; his name is cast out as evil. 66 He that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution." Now, to meet all these is "to take up the cross." that taketh not up his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy

of me."

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In the passage before us the words are used in the second meaning; the plan of salvation by a crucified Saviour.

Dear friends, it is this that is set before you in the broken bread and poured out wine; the whole work of Christ for the salvation of sinners. The love and grace of the Lord Jesus are all gathered into a focus there. The love of the Father; the covenant with the Son; the love of Jesus; his incarnation, obedience, death; all are set before you in that broken bread and wine. It is a sweet, silent sermon. Many a sermon contains not Christ from beginning to end. Many show him doubtfully and imperfectly. But here is nothing else but Christ and him crucified. Most rich and speaking ordinance! Pray that the very sight of that broken bread may break your hearts, and make them flow to the Lamb of God. Pray for conversions from the sight of the broken bread and poured out wine. Look attentively, dear souls and little children, when the bread is broken and the wine poured out. It is a heart-affecting sight. May the Holy Spirit bless it. Dear believers, look you attentively, to get deeper, fuller views of the way of pardon and holiness. A look from the eye of Christ to Peter broke and melted his proud heart; he went out and wept bitterly. Pray that a single look of that broken bread may do the same for you. the cross of Jesus, saw him die, and the rocks rend, he cried out, Truly this was the Son of God! Look at this broken bread, and you will see the same thing, and may your heart be made to cry after the Lord Jesus. When the dying thief looked on the pale face of Immanuel, and saw the holy majesty that beamed from his dying eye, he cried, Lord, remember me! This broken bread reveals the same thing. May the same grace be given you, and may you breathe the cry, Lord remember me!

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When the Roman centurion, that watched beside

get ripening views of Christ, dear believers. The corn in harvest sometimes ripens more in one day than in weeks before. So some Christians gain more grace in one day than for months before. Pray that this may be a ripening harvest day in your

souls.

II. Paul's feelings towards the Cross of Christ: "God forbid,” &c. 1. It is implied that he had utterly forsaken the way of right

eousness by deeds of the law. Every natural man seeks salvation by making himself better in the sight of God. He tries to mend his life; he puts a bridle on his tongue; he tries to command his feelings and thoughts, all to make himself better in the sight of God. Or he goes further; tries to cover his past sins by religious observances; he becomes a religious man; prays, weeps, reads, attends sacraments, is deeply occupied in religion, and tries to get it into his heart, all to make himself appear good in the eye of God, that he may lay God under debt to pardon and love him. Paul tried this plan for long. He was a Pharisee, touching the righteousness in the law blameless; he lived an outwardly blameless life, and was highly thought of as a most religious man. "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." When it pleased God to open his eyes, he gave up this way of self-righteousness for ever and ever; he had no more any peace from looking in: "we have no confidence in the flesh;" he bade farewell for ever to that way of seeking peace. Nay, he trampled it under his feet. "I do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Oh! it is a glorious thing when a man is brought to trample under feet his own righteousness; it is the hardest thing in the world.

2. He betook himself to the Lord Jesus Christ.-Paul got such a view of the glory, brightness, and excellency of the way of salvation by Jesus, that it filled his whole heart. All other things sunk into littleness. Every mountain and hill was brought low, the crooked was made straight, the rough places smooth, and the glory of the Lord was revealed. As the rising sun makes all the stars disappear, so the rising of Christ upon his soul made everything else disappear. Jesus suffering for us filled his eye; filled his heart. He saw, believed, and was happy. Christ for us, answered all his need. From the Cross of Christ a ray of heavenly light flamed to his soul, filling him with light and joy unspeakable. He felt that God was glorified, and he was saved; he cleaved to the Lord with full purpose of heart. Like Edwards, “I was unspeakably pleased."

3. He gloried in the Cross.-He confessed Christ before men ; he was not ashamed of Christ before that adulterous generation; he gloried that this was his way of pardon, peace, and holiness. Ah! what a change! once he blasphemed the name of Jesus, and persecuted to the death those that called on his name; now it is all his boast, "Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." Once he gloried in his blameless life when he was among Pharisees; now he glories in this, that he is the chief of sinners, but that Christ died for such as he. Once he gloried in his learning, when he sat at the feet of Gamaliel ; now he glories in being reckoned a fool for Christ's sake, in being a little child led by the hand of Jesus. At the Lord's table, among his friends, in heathen cities, at Athens, at Rome, among the wise

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