mies accepted the challenge, and put him to death; and, on the third day, he burst the bars of the tomb, and presented himself, uninjured by death, "first to a few disciples," and "then to five hundred brethren at once." By this power he first created the world; by this, he now sustains it; and, by this, he shall finally tread all enemies under his feet.

There is, however, another sense, in which the expression was most accurate. He saved others; himself he could not save. What the perfidy of his disci

ples, the councils of the Sanhedrim, the fury of the populace, the power of the Roman army, could not accomplish, his own love accomplished. This drove the nails of the cross, and planted the crown of thorns upon his brow. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the

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end;" and indeed, like a fond parent, loved them the better as he more closely touched on the hour of his separation from them*. And, under the influence of this love, he could not dash from his lips the cup which, for their sakes, he had himself mingled; he could not flee from the wrath to which he had freely submitted himself; he could not consent to sacrifice to his own comforts the justice of God and the highest interests of man: he could not violate his everlasting pledge to the great family upon earth, that" by his stripes," they should be "healed;" he could not consign a whole world to perdition, when the ransom was in his own hands. In this way Love controlled even the strength of Omnipotence, and bound that Will

* Massillon: Discours.

which binds the universe. And, though here affirmed by the chief priests in mockery and insult, how true and important is the declaration of the text, he saved others! It is possible that even the angels of God maintain their purity and their place in the invisible world by the strength of the Redeemer; and that these "morning stars" shine only by the reflected beam of this "Sun of righteousness." But, at all events, not a human being shall ever escape the torments of perdition, or tread the golden pavement of the city of God, except through the sacrifice, the righteousness, and the intercession of the Son of God. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." It is equally the song of all the spirits of the just made perfect, "Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,

out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."

And let the full import of the words, he saved us," be considered. From what evils has this redemption delivered us? In the present stage of existence, intervals from uncertainty, too long at the best, and possibly from despair; and, in the world to come, from justice without any mixture of mercy; from a state in which every faculty shall exclusively minister to anguish; in which the memory will recal only the subjects of wretchedness, the imagination conceive only scenes of horror, and the heart, casting away every pure affection, will become the den of all that is sordid and impure; from a world where God manifests himself only as a Destroyer; from "the worm that never dies, and the fire that is not quenched."

If a deliverance from such evils as these were the whole amount of the salvation purchased for us by the blood of Christ, it is obvious that the gift would transcend every power of ours to form a just estimate of it. But how small a part is this of the mercy bestowed upon us! Salvation is not merely exemption from sorrow, but, in its final stage and consummation, the inheritance of unmixed and immeasurable joy. In the present life, it is to possess a quiet conscience and a reconciled God: it is to be washed in the blood of atonement, and sanctified by the Spirit of the Lord: it is to walk in the light of the Divine countenance: it is to be careful for nothing; to approach God as a father; to have a hope full of immortality; to feel an intimate persuasion that "all