perfect in its nature, uninterrupted in its progress, and eternal in its duration. How precious then the redemption of the soul!

Consider, again, what influence the reflection of the immortality of the soul hath upon its capacity to endure misery. The misery of a lost spirit is unspeakably awful, from the consideration that it shall never cease to be. "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" all that his anger can inflict: who can tell what the dregs of the cup of trembling are? The groans of the whole creation from the fall of Adam, "which hath travailed in birth until now," are not produced by such a length or by such a quantity of misery as that of which one soul is capable, and must endure in the shades of hell, in eternity. Eternity-space without limit, duration without end, continuance without progression; the very spirit sinks and faints within us at the thought of a human being, the smoke of whose torment ascendeth up day and night for ever; or at the idea of being exposed to ceaseless wo. All the sorrows of mankind, sickness and disease, loss and privation, bereavement and fear; all that man suffers, put into the balance, is found immeasurably wanting. No way of escape from the prison-house, no door of hope to the captive, no place of refuge from the ever-coming storm of fire, no dawn of morning to that night of despair, no pause for relief, no interval of sweet oblivion, in which the captive may dream of liberty, the sufferer of ease, the despairing man of deliverance! How precious the redemption of the soul!

II. The price at which it was redeemed.

"Ye were not redeemed," saith St. Peter, "with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and with

out spot." All the inanimate portions of universal creation, however grand or numerous, or diversified ; a thousand suns, the lights of a thousand systems; all would have been a trifle, compared to the price of redemption.

The blood of every living thing that ever existed would have had no cleansing power, no atoning virtue, no comparison of worth to the blood of the cross. If angels had become imbodied in flesh, though it is thought, on I know not what authority, that they are creatures of a more excellent faculty than man, their blood could not have availed. They seem to be superior to man, for they have stood the probation from which some by transgression fell; they existed before man; they are spiritual beings, who have no infancy and no decay, being as young now as when "the morning stars sang together for joy;" but they could not atone for man. Though "they excel in strength, doing his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word," they could not carry our infirmities, or bear our transgressions; they could not do thy will, O God; for thy will is our sanctification.

"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us ;" the Divinity was not changed into man; but God became incarnate; and, inasmuch as the blood of man, though like "the blood of bulls and goats" in quality and consistence, is infinitely more valuable; so, and we speak it with reverence, though the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us was like human blood, it was infinitely more availing and available, for it was the blood of the Holy One and the Just.

But who can conceive of the price; the coming and the death of the Son of God? If an ancient sage is reported to have spent a day, and then to have length

ened out his meditation to two, to four days, in resolving the question, What is God? saying, The longer he thought, the less he could resolve; well may the gift of the Son overwhelm us, like the glory that overshadowed and overcame the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration. Angels whose intellect was never obscured by sin, nor enfeebled by the fall; who were never removed from the presence of God, desire to look into this "mystery," and are not able. The heart of the believer may swell, the affections may expand, and the soul may adore its God, when the subject occurs to the worshipper; but the understanding can never fathom the mystery; which, perhaps, is, in some sense, an object of faith even to angels themselves.

It would seem, then, we cannot conceive of the mystery as it is; nor can we arrive at a knowledge of it by illustration or comparison: "To whom will ye compare me, saith the Lord; as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." There is, however, one consideration which deserves attention; the price paid was provided by God; therefore, it was, however excellent and divine, not actually out of proportion to the redemption effected. To us there may seem no proportion between the redemption of any number of human souls from death to life, and the death of the Son of God; between our sufferings in eternity and his humiliation unto death; but God saw it good to find a ransom, and no less a one than "his only begotten Son." "It pleased the Lord" (mysterious words) "to bruise him." The proportion between the price and the thing purchased is sometimes absurdly enhanced by the ignorance of the buyer; sometimes by caprice, as in the case of rare, ancient, or curious matter; some

times by a fictitious value attached to a few things, such as diamonds; but He who bought us with a price. is a stranger to ignorance, weakness, and want. We are told, Christ "shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied;" in the work of his spirit, and the fruit of his passion, he shall be satisfied for his humiliation and his sufferings. There must, then, be some proportion between the travail and the satisfaction; the subject redeemed and the price paid.

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I know well that the supreme object of all he did and suffered was the glory of God in the highest ; I know that great objects were remotely accomplished thereby, inasmuch as unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places" was "made known the manifold wisdom of God;" and their holiness and happiness were thereby confirmed and increased. Satan's kingdom was virtually, and shall be actually overthrown; but the immediate object of the coming and death of Christ was that "he by the grace of God might taste death for every man."

I would here remark, what an unspeakable value does the price paid for its redemption, by Him who created it, and who alone perfectly knoweth his own creation, stamp upon the soul! O man, reverence thyself! "Stand in awe and sin not." The eternal Jehovah set his heart upon man; but man, vain, foolish man, hath set his heart upon food and raiment, silver and gold, friends, influence, honour,; and wisdom; upon the things which belong to time, which concern. outward things. Shame and confusion of face belong

unto us.

What a view do these considerations give us of the love of God! You and I have read many a disserta tion, heard many a discourse, and reflected many an

hour upon this subject; but, after all, St. John tells us in one sentence all that can be said upon the subject, "God is love;" and no part of his dealings with men so eminently sets it forth as in that he "so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son." "The redemption of the soul is precious."

III. The period of its redemption :

The opportunity of salvation ceaseth for ever. Such, we are convinced, is the meaning of the text, and have no doubt that such is the declaration of Scripture. The day of grace has its numbered hours, and the season once passed never returns; slighted and lost, it cannot be recalled, redemption is hopeless. Thus the spirit, having strove in vain during the days of Noah, the flood came, and not one of the impenitent escaped. If it were not so, the man who lived and died a stranger to the sin-pardoning God might nevertheless find grace; the most solemn expressions of Scripture would lose their authority, and we should be at a loss to know what were "the terrors of the Lord," by which, however, men are to be persuaded. "He that believeth not shall be condemned; work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh in which no man can work; work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do." Can any man that believes his Bible read these passages and not draw the inference, that life's short day is the period allotted for repentance and faith, for working out our own salvation?

The consideration which most forcibly strikes the mind, in considering this part of the text, is the unspeakable value of time! Much of our time is consumed in infancy, during which the senses are not exercised to discern between good and evil; in sleep, in which