thirst, superinduced by the severity of his torments; the blood distils from his wounded members; the sinews crack; he "cries with a loud voice, and gives up the ghost." Think of these agonies endured for you! Recur to all which the services of the past week have presented to your minds, and if you can then resolve to turn from his holy table" I know not what manner of spirit ye are of."

There is more consolation derived to us from one sincere act of devotion at Christ's altar, than in all the mere habitual devotions of a whole life, where the heart is not interested. There can be no vital religion where its most solemn offices are slighted, and where only its less momentous obligations are attended to. The sacrament, however we may seek to evade its claims upon us, is a solemn, essential, and indispensable duty. A memorial appointed by the Saviour, under circumstances of such affecting interest to us all, cannot be evaded without neglecting the express command of that Saviour, "Do this in remembrance of me." And let it be borne in mind, that this is not a request which we may either comply with or refuse, but a specific injunction. To neglect an injunction, so solemnly and so signally given by the Lord God of our salvation, is to "do despite to the spirit of grace;" and suffer me to remind you, that it was to such the awful words of Christ himself were applied "how shall they escape the damnation of Hell?"

This is a most important question to us all. Let us endeavour so to conduct ourselves here, that the horrors to which it points, shall not be realized to us hereafter. "Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us; let us, therefore, keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth!"

SERMON XX.

OUR REDEMPTION BY CHRIST.

GALATIANS, II, 19, 20.

"For I through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

ST. PAUL having, in this chapter, related to the Galatians the circumstance respecting his reproving Peter, for separating himself from the gentiles, gives them a short account of what he said upon that occasion, on the true doctrine of the gospel, concerning the justification of sinners. What the Apostle, in the words before us, declared to be true of himself, is equally true of all Christians; as we shall readily perceive by considering the doctrine which they were designed to explain.

We all know that, according to the conditions of the first covenant between God and man, death was to be the penalty of transgression, immortal life in Heaven the due and merited reward of obedience. The condition was a simple one, easy to

be observed, and, because it was so easy, the punishment attached to the violation of it was justly severe. That law which could not refuse the reward of obedience, could neither withhold the punishment of disobedience; for "God is not a man, that he should lie;" and, therefore, the terms of the first covenant, proposed and ratified by Omniscience, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," became as immutable as the Being who framed them. As all the posterity of Adam is involved in the sad consequences of his infraction of the covenant entered into between God and him in Paradise-because, being derived from his body, of which we have been begotten, we are necessarily partakers of his corruption-by his breaking the law, we have all died, that is, we have all become liable to death, by its curse. Our obedience can never now be perfect, because it can never do away with the guilt of a breach of covenant already incurred. Future obedience, however perfect, could never obliterate past transgression; so that, now, if we live under an imperfect state of obedience, we must live by the free gift of God, and not by law, which demands perfect obedience; and this, in our present fallen state, is impossible. Thus, then, it is, that we, "through the law, are dead to the law, that we might live unto God."

The construction of this passage of the text is somewhat obscure. St. Paul, as I apprehend him, means to say, that, through breaking the law, we