maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate

us from the love of Christ? I 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 Lord." (Rom. viii. 31-39.) But remember, my brethren, that, as St John tells us," he who hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as Christ is pure."

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SERMON XVI.

THE GOSPEL NEWS;

OR,

CHRIST'S VICTORY.

ISAIAH lii. 7.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!

THE message which our Saviour brought down to us from heaven is called in the New Testament the Gospel, or the good news, of Jesus Christ; and the words spoken by the angel to the shepherds were much to the same purpose: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." Now what are these good tidings? what is this good news, which our Lord took so long and so toilsome a journey to bring us? this good news, the light of which brightened his feet as he trod over the tops of the mountains, when he came to declare

VOL. I.

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who are

old

it to those who were sitting in the valley of the shadow of death? Those among you enough to remember the late war, will be best able to answer this question. For they will know what good news in time of war means. In those days, if one heard the words good news, one immediately asked: "What! have we gained a great victory by sea? or a great victory by land? Have our sailors taken the French fleet? or our soldiers beaten the French army? And is the victory so complete a one as to give any hopes of peace? These are the questions which every body was wont to ask twenty years ago, when mention was made of good news. Now if in answer to these questions we had been told, "The good news just received is not solely about a victory by land, nor solely about a victory by sea, nor solely about peace, but about all three together: for we have beaten all our enemies in every possible way: we have beaten them both by sea and by land, and so thoroughly, that we are sure of making a safe and glorious peace to-morrow, provided we do not throw away the opportunity,"-if, I say, we had heard an answer of this sort to our questions about the good news, how happy, how proud, how well satisfied should we have been! We should have said, "This surely is the very best news that was ever brought to England."

Now the good news which our Lord brought us from heaven, is just news of this kind. He came on purpose to help us in our warfare; because he saw we were getting the worst. I need not remind you in what warfare the children of Adam were engaged at his coming: for the same warfare is going on now. Nor is there any necessity that I should tell you who our enemies were: for they were the same against whom we are still enlisted, against whom we have still to wage battle. Sin and Death were in those days, as they are still, the great enemies of mankind; and there seemed to be no possible end of the war, short of our utter discomfiture and destruction. Sin and Death were fighting side by side against us: the devil, like a mighty warrior, who had never found his match, was raging fiercely: and all whom he caught and seized, the grave, opening its wide mouth, swallowed up: so that there seemed to be no hope left for man. It was in this sad state of the war, when things were thus going against us, that Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, came down to our help and rescue. Have you ever thought of David delivering the lamb out of the lion's mouth, and smiting the lion and the bear, that had come to attack his father's flock? You will then have a lively image of our helplessness in the clutches of Sin and Death, until Jesus

vouchsafed to come and deliver us from those iron clutches. For we are God's flock; and out of that flock, Satan, that roaring lion, was not merely taking a single lamb: he was carrying off the whole flock one by one, to tear and mangle and devour, when the glorious Son of David, seeing and pitying our wretchedness, came to our aid, and fought and conquered for us, and delivered us from the jaws of our destroyer, and therewith from the power and fear of death. This is the good news,-news of a victory over Sin, news of a victory over Death,-news lastly of a reconciliation with our God and Father, against whom we had been lured by our enemy Sin to be guilty of treachery and rebellion. And is not this the best of all news? Is it not a good thing to know that we can now resist sin through the grace of Christ, who makes us more than conquerors? Is it not a good thing to know that we have no more to fear death, now that Christ has brought life and immortality to light, and set it clearly before our eyes? Above all, is it not a blessed thing to be assured that God will receive us into favour, notwithstanding our manifold offenses, if we will turn to him, and trust in his promises, and believe that he can and will forgive us, and act as becomes the penitent who have been pardoned ?

Is not this, I say, the very best of news? Now