it has made in their condition, and of the prodigious expense at which it has been purchased. "Knowing", says St. Peter, "that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled." (1 PETER, c. ii. v. 18, 19.) Far be it from you, my friends; far be it from you, to be so deficient in appreciating the unparalleled benefits which you have derived from the great work of your redemption. Far be it from you to contemplate it without the most lively feelings of gratitude and affection towards that merciful redeemer, who accomplished it at so high a price. Oh! then, my friends, let it be your endeavour, by meditation, accompanied with the most earnest supplications to heaven for the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit upon your hearts, to acquire that deep and feeling conviction of the obligations you are under to your blessed Redeemer for so wonderful a manifestation of mercy in your behalf. And as the holy name of Jesus was given to him to denote that wonderful manifestation of mercy, let it be so associated with it in your minds, that the very sight, the sound, or even the thought of the former may bring instantaneously the latter to your recollection, and thus awaken in your hearts the warmest sentiments of gratitude and love so justly due to your immortal deliverer.

Not only is the holy name of Jesus applicable to our blessed Saviour, because by his atonement for sin, and by the assistance of the Holy Spirit which

he has procured for us, he has furnished us with the means of working out our salvation, but because he has also presented us, by the efficacy of his example, with a powerful incentive to animate us to co-operate with him in the attainment of it. Who, for instance, when he contemplates that unruffled meekness which he constantly testified amidst the most outrageous insults, is not inclined to repress any angry emotion which the provocations by which he may be assailed are calculated to excite? Who does not perceive every vindictive feeling die within him when he reflects on the merciful disposition of his dying Saviour so strikingly evinced by that fervent petition to his Heavenly Father, for the pardon of his attrocious murderers, in the memorable terms recorded by the Evangelist, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."? (LUKE, c. xxiii. v. 34.) Who, knowing that, as St. Peter says, Christ left us an example that we should follow his steps, (1 PETER, c. ii. v. 21.) and finding those steps described by the same Apostle as invariably marked by acts of beneficence, when he observes that he went about doing good," (Acrs, c. x. v. 38.) does not feel disposed to do all the good he can within the sphere in which it is allotted to him to move? Who, among the numerous children of sorrow, in all the various sufferings, whether of mind or body, which he is liable to endure, is not induced "to humble himself under the mighty hand of God" (1 PETER, c. v. v. 6.) when he considers the example of perfect submission to the will of his Heavenly

Father, exhibited by the blessed Jesus in the garden of Gethsemani? But there is one particular description of trouble, and that, too, sometimes extremely distressing, with which holy and devout souls are occasionally visited, to which the affecting circumstance in the life of our Divine Saviour, which I have just mentioned, is singularly applicable. For alas! my pious friends, you know full well, that occasionally, when you are engaged in your devotional exercises, when, attracted by the charms of the supreme object of your affections, you wish to indulge in sweet intercourse with him, whilst you are prepared to behold the heavens opening to your view, and gratifying you with a foresight of those inexpressible delights which are enjoyed by the spirits of the just made perfect; you know, I say, say, full well, that occasionally, in those hallowed moments, a dismal gloom is apt to overspread your minds, and like a black and tempestuous cloud, to intercept, for a while, the light of God's countenance, to blot out the heavens from your sight, and to leave you, like some benighted traveller amidst the terrors of an impending storm, alarmed, cheerless, and desolate. Oh! then, what dismal and dispiriting apprehensions begin immediately to agitate your minds! Then, listening to the inauspicious bodings of those internal alarmists, do you vainly imagine that the darkness with which you are encompassed is all the effect of the divine displeasure, that in the midst of those baleful horrors the Eternal holds his dread pavilion, that already "he has made bare his outstretched

arm," and that he is about to dart the lightnings of his vengeance on your devoted heads; whilst, alas! poor, weak, dejected mortals, the God whom you thus figure to your troubled imaginations, as frowning upon you with indignant fury, and ready to make you feel the effects of his wrath, is looking down upon you all the time, with a benignant smile, and giving you, in reality, the strongest proofs of his affectionate kindness. On these trying occasions, my pious friends, what relief might not you expect to derive, from an imitation of the example of the blessed Jesus, in the situation referred to, when, as St. Mark expresses it, "he began to fear and to be heavy," and "his soul," as he said to his three chosen disciples, "was sorrowful even unto death." Then it was, that, as the Apostle adds, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, offering up prayers and supplications, with a strong cry and tears, to him that was able to save him from death, he was heard, "in being delivered from fear,"* in being delivered, that is to say, from the fear of death. What relief, then, I say, my pious friends, might not you expect to derive from an imitation of his example in the touching scene which I have described? For, as Jesus, when he applied to his Heavenly Father for the conditional removal of the bitter cup which was presented to his lips, succeeded so far, as to have the ingredient of fear withdrawn from it, "having been

* In this sense, with learned and judicious commentators, I understand the original greek,-Εισακουσθεις απο της ευλάβειας.

heard in being delivered from fear," although the salvation of mankind required that he should drink the remainder of the distasteful potion; so the distressing apprehensions of the loss of God's favour occasioned by the want of devotional feeling, would, in all probability, on a similar application to him, be, in like manner, dispelled, although perhaps, with a view to your everlasting interests, your spiritual sadness may be allowed, for awhile, to remain. For, by witholding from you for a time the interior consolations of his grace, he may wish to purify your piety from every debasing mixture of selfish motives, to prevent it from being tainted by the contamination of spiritual pride, to guard it with humility, to. make you sensible of your own natural weakness when left to yourselves, and to convince you experimentally of the absolute necessity of your dependance on the assistance of Heaven.

Such, my friends, and many more than time will permit me at present to develop, are the blessings with which the holy name of Jesus is pregnant to those who fervently invoke it with a just sense of its real import; who invoke it, that is to say, as expressive of the saving influence of the divine author of man's salvation, who, having died for our offences, and risen again for our justification, is now seated at the right hand of God, where he is " always living to make intercession for us." But, as I am unwilling to extend this instruction to an inconvenient length, I will now bring it to a conclusion by an apposite passage from a "devout servant of God,"