ourselves on every similar occasion. We do not insist enough that it is written, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." This word embraced as the word of God, and used in faith, will make the strongest darts as stubble; and the enemy beholding the lightning of this armour flashing from our bosoms, loses all hope of persuading us to the smallest compliance, or the least act of homage.

"Then the devil leaveth him; and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Such was the final issue of that great and eventful conflict with Satan, who never went away in more confusion, discomfiture and chagrin, than now from the most dreaded enemy of his kingdom. To be so totally defeated, was as intolerable to him as it was unusual. Like a dark thunder-cloud of night driven away by tempestuous winds, so did he depart in wrath and despair, ready to call on the mountains to fall on him, and the hills to cover him, and hide from him the heavens above, and the abyss beneath, that he might no longer hear the halleluiahs of heaven, nor the murmers of hell, at his ignominious overthrow.

As for our blessed Lord, it was well with him: oh how well, after forty days of dreadful destitution in a wilderness, amidst the powers of darkness, (for during the whole forty days, as St. Luke informs us, was he tempted,) to find himself restored at once to his own element, amidst the affectionate and reverend ministrations of

holy angels of God! Now, indeed, was fulfilled what Jacob had prophetically uttered on his death-bed, "Judah is a young lion; thou hast become exalted, my son, by great victory. He kneeled down, and he reposed as a lion, yea, as a lioness; who shall rise against him?" Gen. xlix. 9. But this "repose" was not the grand termination of the conflict; it was only a brief suspension. "Satan," as St. Luke relates, "departed from him for a season," Luke iv. 13. It was not long before he exerted his utmost against him, continuing to persecute him by stratagem and war, till at length the mighty Captain of our salvation, by his death upon the cross, wrested the dominion for ever from his hands. No sooner had the blood of the Lamb of God been shed upon the accursed tree, than the head of the old serpent was bruised for ever.

Our own Christian life, too, my brethren, can throughout be no other than a conflict. We shall have in this our wilderness some days of respite and even of jubilee; but the complete uninterrupted sabbath can only be beyond. While sojourning in these frail tabernacles, we must ever be exposed to the assaults of the adversary. Though his power is effectually broken, still he will not cease in this world to make us feel his "great wrath," and hatred, in various ways. But "fear none of these things," my brethren. Rejoice rather with thankfulness unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus

Christ. All the triumphs obtained by our Surety become our own by faith. In Him we already anticipate the final triumph. We triumph in Christ in the midst of the conflict, and in the arms of death. At our latter end, if not before, we are found more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Oh the blessedness of this truth, and the blessedness of that faith which receives it! Wherever such a faith lives, courage will not be wanting to stand in the evil day; for though in the heat of trial we may droop for a moment, yet will the feeble knees be quickly reinvigorated by such a faith as this. Happy then art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, a people SAVED by THE LORD, who is the shield of thine help, and the sword of thy victorious excellency? Thine enemies shall fail in their assaults on thee; but thou shalt walk at liberty upon their high places! Deut. xxxiii. 29. Amen.

THE ROCK OF SALVATION.

ROMANS iii. 25-26.

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.

THESE are important words, my friends, which we have before us. They form a ground-work and a principal pillar, which upholds the most essential article of the Christian faith. I know of no passage in the whole of Holy Writ which is of more importance in order to a clear, correct, and complete apprehension of the Scriptural doctrine of the atonement, than this. It may certainly not appear to you, at first sight, that such is the case; and it is remarkable, that for several centuries this passage continued in the church as if sealed up, and under lock and key. It is true, that in former times it might have been less necessary in the Christian church than it is in the present day. With respect to the manner in which Christ accomplished the reconciliation between God and the sinner, there was only one opinion and one doctrine; it was

preached in every pulpit, and was the general confession, and whoever deviated from it, would not, with his heresy, have escaped the tribunal of the church. In the present day, the case is otherwise. Many views of the work of atonement are become current, which deviate from the doctrine of the church-views, which all tend to divest the doctrine of the cross of its foolishness, and to bring it somewhat nearer to human ideas and rational comprehension. But it is in its foolishness that the peculiar sweetness of the doctrine of the atonement lies concealed; therefore we will not suffer ourselves, on any account, to be deprived of this foolishness.

In the passage we have read, there lies a gi gantic sword against these false and derogatory views of the doctrine of the cross, which overturns them all; and it shall be the object of our present meditation briefly to expound it according to its original meaning. Our discourse will attain a two-fold aim: first, as a preparatory discourse for the passion-week, it will elevate us to the only correct point of view, from whence we ought to contemplate the whole history of our Lord's passion; and secondly, as a monitory discourse, it will display to the sinners amongst us, who have no Saviour, that throne which burns with flames of fire, and if it please God, kindle in their soul a salutary dread-not indeed to urge them to despair, but to a godly sorrow. We consider Christ crucified,