"good to all men, especially to them that are of the household of faith;" he is long-suffering and gentle, forgiving offences as he has received forgiveness, and practising sobriety and temperance; he shows that he has communion with Him who is light, and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; and is preparing for that blissful vision of God, where there shall be no night, but where the soul shall be raised to the fullest and most perfect resemblance of Him who is light, and who dwells in that light which is inaccessible to mortal eye.

This, then, is that inward and outward holiness to which we are called by the Gospel, which forms the basis of our fellowship with God, and is the source of all spiritual comfort. It is this which creates our peace, maintains our joy, and opens already in the heart a foretaste of heaven. It is the light of comfort, and the joy of faith.

III. The great reason or ground of this fellowship. That man can acceptably approach unto God only through the medium of some satisfaction for his sins, is a truth received from the earliest ages of the world. "Shall I come before him with thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" is an inquiry expressive of a conviction generally prevalent, not only amongst those who possess a written revelation, but also among Pagans. When we view the character of God, who "is light," and that of the sinner, who in his natural state is "darkness" itself, we perceive an absolute contrast, and discern difficulties in man's way to communion and fellowship with God, which cannot be removed by human reason; for how shall justice have fellowship with guilt, holiness with sin, happiness with misery; in a word, light with darkness, a sinner with God? What to human reason is impossible, God has himself effected by sending his only-begotten Son to be the Saviour of the world. The economy of human redemption by Christ is the leading theme of revelation, and is set forth in promises, in prophecies, and in types. The most ancient mode of worship recorded in holy Scripture, which was no doubt taught by the Creator himself to Adam and his sons, was sacrificial; beginning with Abel, one of the earliest of the antediluvians; continued by Noah, the father of the new world; but assuming a more solemn, regular, and magnificent character, first, in the tabernacle, and then in the temple at Jerusalem. These, however, were but shadows, their substance being Christ; they were done in a figure, and were typical representations of the sacrificial death of our Redeemer; in themselves they possessed no virtue to take away either the guilt, the power, or the curse of sin, but derived their efficacy from the offerer's faith in the great Antitype.

"Wherefore," saith the Apostle," when he cometh into the world," as man's Redeemer, "he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,

but a body hast thou prepared me," being made man of the seed of David according to the flesh. "In burnt-offerings and sacrifice for sin thou hast had no pleasure;" for,

"The blood of goats, and bullocks slain,

Could never for one sin atone;

To purge the guilty offerer's stain,

Thine was the work, and thine alone."

"Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God,"-to accomplish thy great purposes in relation to mankind, shadowed forth under former dispensations; and, by offering up myself as an atonement, to finish transgression, and make an end of sin.

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It is, then, "the blood of Jesus Christ his [Son," the sacrificial death of our Mediator, "which cleanseth us from all sin;" and, by thus removing the great barrier which first separated man from his Creator, re-opens the way to God, and is the ground and the reason of our communion [and fellowship with him. There are two points to which our attention may be directed: the dignity of his person, and the universality and perpetuity of the efficacy of his atonement. He is the Son of God; not a created son, nor a son by adoption; but the Only-begotten of the Father; "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made;" of the same nature and essence with the Father, he is co-equal and co-eternal, over all, God blessed for evermore." He for us men, and for our salvation, was made man, became incarnate of the Holy Ghost; being, says the Apostle, "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law :" thus taking on him, not the nature of angels, but the human nature in the seed of Abraham; according to the prophecy: "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." His humanity, thus taken from our own nature, is not a new creation, but an assumption from a nature already existing; so that hereby he is one of ourselves,-our Brother, our Kinsman, a second general Head, as Adam was the first. In his adorable person are thus united the divinity and the humanity. Each nature perfect and entire, existing separate and distinct, without a mixture of natures, or conversion of one nature into the other; thus forming not two Christs, but one God-man, Immanuel, God manifest in the flesh. We want language fully to set forth, in its reality, all the dignity of our Redeemer, the only-begotten Son of God. He is described by the Prophet Isaiah as the Child born, and the Son given, on whose shoulders the government is laid, and whose name is "called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father," and "the Prince of peace." Zechariah represents him as "my Shepherd," (that is, Jehovah's Shepherd,) and, "the Man that is my fellow,"-Jehovah's equal. In

the same strain are the words of St. Paul: "Who being in the form of God," (that is, in reality God,) he "thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant," (becoming, in reality, a servant,)" and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

In this constitution of the person of our Redeemer, the wisdom of God is eminently manifest. He was to be a victim, and shed his blood in sacrifice; it being ordained, that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin; therefore, the Divinity being impassible, he was made man, that he might have blood to shed. The sin being that of our race, it was just that our race should make the required satisfaction. His humanity was not a new creation, prepared specially for him, but taken out of our own stock, blood of our blood, bone of our bone, the woman's Seed, of Abraham's own posterity, of the house and lineage of David. Thus the claims of immutable justice are met by the circumstance, that the victim is of the same nature by which the offence is committed; so that the nature that sinned has also made the atonement. But it was God's law that was violated; and this law like its Author, divine, its claims could not be met by any sacrifice merely human; Divinity only could treat with Divinity, and God answer to God. This difficulty, then, is met by the fact, that our Redeemer is God as well as man. And though we cannot take upon us to describe the manner in which the two natures are united in one person, or how the properties of the one are communicated to the other, yet it is plain that the union of the Divinity with the humanity gives infinite value to every act of the man Christ Jesus; rendering his death and blood-shedding an available sacrifice, making full satisfaction to the law, for the sins of all mankind. "Ye are redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ."

In man we behold a fallen creature,-guilty, unholy, far from God, miserable in himself, and doomed to everlasting destruction. God, who is love, wills his salvation, and his bowels of mercy yearn over him: "My bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him." Moved by the strong impulse of infinite love, every attribute of the Godhead is put into activity; but whilst God wills and purposes man's salvation, it is to be effected only in harmony with his other moral attributes of justice, holiness, and truth. The justice of God must be maintained, his holiness vindicated, his truth kept invio

lable, and his infinite hatred to sin, which is opposed to his own pure light, made manifest. There can be no relaxation of its claims on the part of justice, no speck or flaw must be admitted on God's pure truth or holiness: as the beams of the sun fall unsullied on the darkness and dross of this lower world, so he must appear

"Full orb'd in his whole round of rays complete,"

as ineffable Light, without darkness, whilst he imparts his own light to the sinner, and establishes this communion and fellowship with him. Now, all this is done by the blood, that is, the death, of Jesus Christ. Follow, in your thought, your Redeemer to Mount Calvary; view his crucifixion, and hear his cry, "It is finished!" The sun retires, there is darkness over the whole land, the earth quakes and trembles, the rocks rend, the graves are opened, and the bodies of the dead arise, and appear to many in the holy city; the veil of the temple, which concealed the holy of holies, is rent from the top to the bottom, and the sacred place, into which it was death for any but the High Priest to enter, exposed to public gaze. Here mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Justice finds an infinite satisfaction; holiness can appear with no more brilliant lustre; whilst all-conquering love throws open the fountain of eternal mercy to the penitent believer. Now is our Redeemer "set forth, to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he may be just, and the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus."

The universality and perpetuity of the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ is included in the expression, "Cleanseth us from all sin." This may relate to three points: The forgiveness of sins, the sanctification of our nature, and the maintenance and perpetuity of communion and fellowship established between God and the believer.

1. The forgiveness of sins is one of the great benefits procured for us by the blood of Christ; "in whom," says the Apostle, "we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "It is your sins that separate between you and your God;" but where sin is forgiven, the cause of separation ceases. Reconciliation with God, adoption into his family, the Spirit of adoption, and a title to the kingdom of heaven, are its attendants. "Blessed," then, "is the man whose iniquity is forgiven, and whose sin is covered: blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not sin." He is no longer far from God, but brought nigh by the blood of the cross; he is no more an alien and a stranger, but reckoned as a child; he has fellowship with God, by the Holy Ghost which is now given unto him; and he rejoices in hope of the glory of God: for if a child, then is he an heir, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. The sole condi

tion of the forgiveness of sins, on our part, as laid down in holy Scripture, is that of faith. "Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." And, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." This doctrine is full of comfort for the penitent sinner: the efficacy of the precious blood of Christ, applied by living faith, is balm to his wounded conscience. Nor need the greatest transgressor despair: "Come, now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." The efficacy of this blood can be limited only by the extent of transgression, for it "cleanseth from all sin." The most aggravated guilt can, therefore, be no insuperable hinderance to fellowship with God.

2. As the blood of Christ provides for the pardon of sin, and thus brings us nigh to God, so does it also for the sanctification of our nature, and fits us for the indwelling of God. "In that day," says Zechariah, prophesying of our Lord's crucifixion, "there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." The Apostle, also, directs our attention to the same subject, in these words: "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The sanctification of believers by the blood of Jesus Christ is repeatedly referred to in holy Scripture: "Unto him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God; unto him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." The inhabitants of heaven are described, in the Revelation, as having come "out of great tribulation," and having "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." As, when every barrier is removed, the rays of the natural sun fill the interior of the edifice with light; so when sin, which prevents the intercourse between God and the soul, is taken away by the precious blood of Christ, the believer is filled by the true Light; the darkness of sin disappears; a new and holy nature is imparted; the Spirit of God, by his creative energy, renews the heart. The heart thus renewed is filled with God: "I will dwell in you, and walk in you." Communion and fellowship with him is now established. The deep prayer of Christ has its fulfilment: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.-I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." And again: "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

As no limit can be fixed to the virtue of Christ's blood in its removal of guilt, neither can its efficacy be restricted in the destruction of the carnal mind, and the sanctification of our nature. "It cleanses