SERMON I.

ROMANS VIII. 38, 39.

1 AM PERSUADED, THAT NEITHER DEATH, NOR LIFE, NOR ANGELS, NOR PRINCIPALITIES, NOR POWERS, NOR

THINGS PRESENT, NOR THINGS TO COME, NOR HEIGHT, NOR DEPTH, NOR ANY OTHER CREATURE, SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LOord.

وو

WHAT a song of triumph is this! what a glorious conclusion of a chapter filled with the enumeration of the Christian's blessed privileges and animating hopes! And does the language of triumph become us on the present occasion? We bless God that it does. We are called indeed to mourning; nor is our sorrow confined to a single family or parish, or neighbourhood. The loss which has been sustained in the removal of one so long sent in the providence of God to minister among you, is a loss which is felt by the whole Church; and, I believe I may truly say, the more spirituallyminded, the more devoted, the more single-hearted are any members of that Church, the more deeply do they feel that they have lost in him a loving brother, a

ready helper, a faithful counsellor, and a sympathizing friend. But we have cause for triumph. We have cause to thank God for what He was pleased to make our dear brother amongst us : we have cause to thank and praise Him that He brings before us now, in so remarkable a manner, the certainty of His faithful servant's everlasting triumph in Christ. And although the time of sorrow and bereavement should be doubtless a season of humiliation before God, and when the Church is called upon to lament the removal of one whom the Lord has been wont to use as an instrument for carrying on His own work amongst us, it most becomes her to regard it as a chastening from Him, and to "hear the rod and who has appointed it,"-yet we cannot disconnect even this from a view of the consolation afforded us by the unceasing presence of the Lord Himself; we must not lose sight of the fact that even "in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us ;" and sure I am, that the language which your late dear minister would most have desired that we should use on this occasion, would be that of humiliation mingled with praise and hope.

In complying with the request that I would occupy this pulpit to-day, I have been led to select for our meditation the words of my text,-because I understand that in one of those intervals when our beloved brother woke up from a state of unconsciousness which was the effect of his disease, it was in these words that he expressed his own sure confidence, his undoubting faith, that death had no sting for him, and that the victory over the grave was assuredly his; and also because the principle set forth in them, appears to have

been the ruling, the prevailing principle in his soul, which, by the grace of God, made him what he was. In discharging this solemn and responsible duty, I need much the support and help of your prayers. I have been asked to undertake it partly because of the close intimacy which through the mercy of our God, was permitted to grow up between our families for the last few years; (and if any had cause to love him who is gone I am sure that I and mine had most reason to do so;)-partly because it has been my privilege to share with him in an interest in many of those blessed institutions in which he so long, and so indefatigably, and so cordially laboured, and especially as a member of the Church Missionary Committee, who have been ever foremost to acknowledge their appreciation of the value of the services which our dear friend for so many years rendered to the cause in which they are engaged; and partly because, as having often been permitted to sojourn for a season here, I do not speak altogether as a stranger to those amongst whom he laboured in the Gospel of Christ. May the Lord Himself be present with us, and mercifully help us to meditate on the subject before us in such manner as may be profitable to us all, for His own Name's sake.—

The subject to which my text directs us is the believer's persuasion of the unalterable, the invincible, the inalienable love of God in Christ Jesus to him. We will consider.

I. THE SUBJECT ITSELF.

II. THE EFFECTS OF SUCH A PERSUASION WROUGHT IN THE BELIEVER'S SOUL.

III. WHAT PRACTICAL

LESSONS IN CONNECTION

WITH IT WE MAY LEARN ON THIS SOLEMN OCCASION

I. WHAT A SUBJECT THIS IS-the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a blessed object of contemplation. It is no new subject to you. It is the theme which has been brought before you times without number, sabbath after sabbath-week after week, in the Church, in the school-room, in the cottage, by one whose voice you must hear no more, who has delivered his Lord's message to you for the last time, who has finished his course, who has been faithful unto death, whose stewardship is over, but whose testimony amongst you, with all the responsibility attached to it, remains as a witness before God. The love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, having its source only in His own Divine mind. The love of God, from eternity, to guilty sinners who deserved nothing but His wrath. The love of God, which, as is declared in the 5th chapter of this epistle, is commended to us by the very fact that "when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." The love of God, which is thus free, undeserved, eternal. The love of God, which provided a full, perfect, and sufficient atonement and satisfaction for the sins of a guilty world, though that atonement was only brought about by the gift of His own Son, as we read in this chapter, it is the love of Him "who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." It is distinguishing love; the love of God which brings the soul that believes in Jesus into a new state of relationship towards Him, which justifies through His merits, pardons for his sake, accepts "in the Beloved." The love of God which adopts us into His family; the love which by the power of His Holy Spirit regenerates, sanctifies, purifies, makes us His. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus, which gives us the distinguishing grace