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which referred itself to the Lord, and cast itself into His arms, was instantly met with a welcome of overflowing mercy. A single glance of the heart towards His compassion and power, and towards "the world to come," over which that power is specially exercised, unlocked all the treasure-house of Our Lord's compassion, and fetched down blessings beyond the power of the tongue to express: Verily I unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." Judas, like a falling star, dropped from the heaven of Christ's companionship into the bottomless pit of perdition. He had been with Christ in this world, but his awful lot in the future state was to be eternally severed from the light and joy of that society. The penitent robber, on the other hand, is lifted up, by the strong hand of Love, into that light and joy:-- Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise." And the same shall be the case with every penitent who, looking beyond the barriers of time with a realizing faith, and seeing Jesus mighty to save, commits his soul to that boundless love with a prayer even for the lowest place in His favour; "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. Thine is the Blood of the Atonement, a running stream to discharge all thy guilt. Thine is the Spirit of Grace, to heal, to restore, to sanctify thee. Under such auspices, what may not be hoped for? With such powers enlisted on thy side, what may not be achieved? Holiness may seem at present an impossible attainment to one who has fallen so low, an inaccessible pinnacle towering above thy head, and defying all thine efforts to scale it. But to God all things are possible. And to him,

too, are all things possible who believeth-believeth in the power and willingness of Christ to draw him out of the abyss of sin, and giving his hand to that Everlasting Father, follows whithersoever He leads, though there be a Red Sea of difficulty and discouragement before him, still in the might of his God "going forward."

SERMON X.

THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD AS MANIFESTED IN THE ATONEMENT.

One of a Series of Sermons by different Preachers on "Christian Faith and the Atonement," designed to counteract the views of Modern Sceptics on those subjects.

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God."

ROM. xi. 22.

THE Apostle is here speaking of God's dealings with the Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, who had been so long a barren branch on the olive-tree of His Church, putting forth, indeed, the leaves of religious profession, but no fruit of true holiness,-He had cut off and cast away. The Gentiles,-originally "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise," He had inserted, as a new wild graft, into the cultivated olive-tree.

These two contrary dealings are traced up to their source in different attributes of the Most High; the one testifies to His severity, the other to His goodness,— "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God."

Goodness and severity are elements of a perfect character even among men. Without goodness, the character is stern and inflexible; it repels instead of winning. There may be certain qualities which command our respect in a Draco, who ordains death as the penalty for every trifling violation of the law, or

in a Brutus, who with tearless eye gives orders, in the way of duty, for the execution of his sons; but from characters of such untempered austerity, sympathy and affection recoil. On the other hand, without severity goodness degenerates into weakness; into that moral pliancy which, under the name of good-nature, has often made men 66 consent easily to the enticement of sinners, and has given them nothing in return, but the insipid reputation of having been enemies to none but themselves. In a perfect character, if such existed among men, you would see the counterbalancing powers of goodness and severity held in exact equilibrium. And such, the Word of God assures us, is the character of Him with whom we have to do-" Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God."

A very beautiful illustration of this twofold element of the Divine character may be drawn from nature. "God is light," says the Scripture. Philosophers have discovered that light, though apparently so simple a substance, is compounded of seven different rays. It may be said to have two main ingredients: the sombre rays (blue, indigo, violet); the bright rays (orange, red, yellow, green). Both classes of rays are essential to the delicacy and purity of the substance. Without the sombre rays, light would be a glare, the eyeball would ache beneath it; without the bright rays, light would approximate to the nature of darkness, and lose the gay smile which lights up the face of nature, and twinkles on the sea. Similarly, the holiness, justice, and truth of God, (attributes which wear an awful aspect to the sinner,) are an element of His nature as essential to its perfectness, as mercy, love, and goodness. Suppose in Him, for a moment, no stern defiance against moral evil, but an allowance and admission

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of it, and you degrade Jehovah to the level of a pagan deity, honoured with impure rights, and forming His worshippers on the model of His own licentiousness. Suppose in Him, on the other hand, an absence of love, and you supplant the very being of God, you overcloud the light, and convert it into its antagonist darkness; for "God is love." But combine both righteousness and love, intensified to the highest conceivable degree, and you are then possessed of the Scriptural idea of the Most High. "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.”

It is this essential character of the Divine Being which forms the basis of the great doctrine of the Atonement. God presents us in the Atonement with the highest illustration of both His attributes. He may be conceived as standing by the Cross of the Lord Jesus, and pointing to it in exemplification of His character, as set forth in the text, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God."

It is well and wise ever and anon to recur to the foundations of our faith, and to ascertain that we are rooted and grounded in "the principles of the doctrine of Christ." For assuredly unsoundness in the groundwork would vitiate the whole structure of our religious belief.

I shall make no further apology for calling your attention to the grand subject of the Atonement. In considering it, I propose to set before you :

I. A certain preliminary caution, and security against error, in studying this doctrine.

II. The Scriptural statement of the doctrine itself. III. The way in which the narrative of the New Testament bears out the teaching of its doctrinal books on this head.