atonement," have a relation to it, and have their end in it. So that, after comparing it to every thing in the universe, such is its richness and merit, that we must sum all up in the conclusion, that it is the super-eminently precious blood of Christ.

VI. By way of application, let us see whether this blood be not precious to every rightly affected human heart. Mark its efficacy and power over every class of sinners, who are resting upon its sovereign influence through the power of the Holy Spirit. "To you he is precious."

1. Look at the half-awakened sinner, he that is convicted of sin by the power of God; he anticipates judgment, he anticipates hell beyond it; the lightnings of God's wrath flash in the face of his conscience; he hears the thunders of the broken law, he is disturbed, alarmed, unhappy; but let him stop here, and then he will soon find that all is hardness and despair; he wants the thunder-shower, the softening influence you have it here. He is brought in contact with the cross, he is pointed to Christ crucified, he is led to reflect on what Christ has done and suffered for him, and these sufferings carried home to his heart by the Holy Spirit, he cries,

By thy Spirit, Lord, reprove,

All my inmost sins reveal;
Sins against thy light and love,
Let me see, and let me feel;
Sins that crucified my God,
Spilt again his precious blood.

And here comes the thunder-shower, the relieving influence, he sorrows for sin, he hates it for its own sake; and because it is obnoxious to God, to God in Christ, to the divine Savior crucified for that sin, and thus he is led to a real and true repentence towards God.

2. Now take the penitent sinner to the same cross, let him be brought under the same influence; hope springs up in his bosom; he sees that God is merciful as well as just; he rejoices in the hope of pardon and salvation; he looks and sees the sunshine stealing through the shower, it glistens in the cloud before the shower is over; and then he looks again, he contemplates more attentively, the troubles of his breast are calmed, his fears are removed, and he forms a proper spiritual estimate of the preciousness of the Savior's blood. When the sinner can be brought to see the atonement in the light in which God sees it, he believes in his heart unto righteousness; Christ interposes between an offended God and condemned, self-condemned, miserable man; he points to his blood, the Father looks down upon it, and then

he is ready to pardon, he makes haste to be gracious, he burns to spare the sinner, he wishes him to take the same interest which he does in the atonement of the Son of God, and the same impression from it.What does he do? he sends his Spirit into his heart, and transfers, or rather communicates something of his own impression of the atonement to the heart of the sinner; the sinner looks up to Christ's blood, his face is towards his God, his face is towards it, by the power of God he is induced to look up for pardon, and then he pardons him freely, he freely justifies him, and by that power the sinner is induced to trustin him for the promised pardon: the moment the sinner so trusts he believes in his heart unto righteousness; he goes home to his house justified, he is made accepted in the beloved, and justified by his blood.

3. Mark its effects upon the Christian, whether newly made in Christ, or the more established Christian. What is its influence upon that character for instance upon his worship, he goes to the altar of God to worship him; he enters into the temple to offer his sacrifices, he bends his way to the altar of Atonement, he approaches it with reverence and adoration, he makes haste to worship God, he finds the altar of incense sprinkled with the blood of that atonement, the incense ascends and mingles with the wreaths of smoke from the altar of the great atoning sacrifice, and thus becomes acceptable to God. What a stimulus to his activity, for the love of Christ constraineth him! What a support under suffering, for he believes there is no way for him in the time of trial and suffering but to lean upon the Lord, to depend upon his tenderest sympathies, arising out of what he has done and suffered for him; and, therefore, he takes his whole burthen to the cross, and leans upon it with his whole weight; he does not cast his burthen upon God, he does not expect to do so, he is not to be so entirely disengaged from it, " Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain (not it, but) thee." But he does not suffer his beloved to stoop under the weight of it, he sustains him by his cross-the Christian leans his weight upon Christ's cross, and he finds that promise true.

And oh, what a support is it in death! If we read the history of the most evangelical and spiritually-minded Christians in the article of death, whose spirits are just about to take their flight to their kindred element, what references do we see them making to the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

Other title I disclaim,

This, only this, is all my plea:

I the chief of sinners am,

But Jesus died for me.

In these moments of parting nature, it possesses an incomparable charm. All things then are but loss to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus; their desire is then to be found in Christ Jesus, not having on their own righteousness, but that of him who died to purchase pardon for penitent sinners.

I was extremely struck with an incident which, as it bears some relation to this part of my subject, you will excuse my repeating. You are aware that the supplement to our excellent and long-established hymn-book was arranged under the direction of my late friend Mr. Watson. I remember that upon one occasion, having the privilege of conversing with him, he distinctly stated that he suffered pain in his mind in mentioning two or three hymns out of the collections of Doddridge and Toplady; and there was one which he expressed the strongest aversion to introduce into the supplement, chiefly as a matter of taste. The hymn in question had some grammatical improprieties which ought not to be admitted; and besides that, it held too familiar language in reference to our Savior, which he considered ought not to be sanctioned in any of our standards of theology or forms of worship. But I was struck on hearing my excellent friend in his last days in the habit of referring to that very hymn, more than any other, either in the original hymn-book or the supplement, as, through the blessing of God, a source of consolation to him- of dying consolation. We are not, indeed, to wonder that as piety matures it should exhibit an increasing softness, susceptibility, and tenderness: ripe fruit is tender and mellow. This was the hymn which was excluded on the ground of taste, and which was yet found to be so precious a support in the time of trial:

--

"Thou dear Redeemer, dying Lamb,

We love to hear of thee;

No music's like thy charming name,
Nor half so sweet can be."

It thus closes :

"When we appear in yonder cloud,

With all the favored throng;

Then will we sing more sweet, more loud,
And Christ shall be our song."

This blood will be the plea in judgment, of those who stand in that great day clothed in the righteousness of Christ the comprehensive merit and all-powerful efficacy of his blood. It will be their theme, their delight, and their song of rejoicing throughout all eternity, to attest how precious it was to their happiness and their salvation, and how dear to their hearts. Precious is this blood! Oh, be thankful to God for his bountiful provision! Oh, tremble at the idea of trifling

with it, and trampling it under your feet! O Christian, make use of its powerful influence with God for yourself! Hitherto you have asked nothing in Christ's name, nothing worthy of the plea, and the influence and merit of his death, you have hitherto asked nothing: "Ask, and ye shall receive." Ask something, something proportionate to Christ's merit and his death; "Ask and receive, that your joy may be full."

Finally, my brethren, as you have felt the value of this blood in your own case, use all your influence to spread the fame of it among your fellow-creatures. What a shame it is that the world needs these exertions! What a shame it is that effort must be used to propagate a knowledge of its influence, and that this precious blood is not universally welcomed and confided in, this state of things must be corrected and reversed; it can only be so by the combined efforts of those who have experienced the value of the atoning efficacy of this blood, and God working with them as his instruments in the great work, and performing mighty spiritual wonders.

Lamb of God, who bear'st away

All the sins of all mankind,
Bow a world unto thy sway;
Let thy dying love constrain

Those who disregard thy frown;

Sink the mountain to a plain;
Bring the pride of sinners down;
Soften the obdurate crowd;

Melt the rebels with thy blood!

SERMON XIX.

THE SCENE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.

BY REV. R. W. HAMILTON, D. D., L. L. D.

"And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works."- REVELATION XX. 11-18.

IN looking around this congregation, beloved hearers, I feel at this moment well nigh overwhelmed. So many eyes so many ears - all

the organs and the representatives of immortal souls!

Suffer me to relieve my emotions by an allusion to a well-known fact. When Massillon pronounced one of those discourses which have placed him in the first class of orators, he found himself surrounded by the trappings and pageants of a royal funeral. The temple was not only hung with sable, but shadowed with darkness, save the few twinkling lights of the altar; the beauty and the chivalry of the land were spread out before him; the censers threw forth their fumes of incense, and they mounted to the gilded dome. There sat majesty, clothed in sackcloth and sunk in grief. All felt in common, and as one. It was a breathless suspense; not a sound broke upon the awful stillness.— The master of mighty eloquence arose. His hands were folded on his bosom: his eyes were lifted to heaven; utterance seemed denied him; he stood abstracted and lost. At length his fixed look unbent; it hurried over the scene, where every pomp was mixed and every trophy strewn. It found there no resting-place, amidst all that idle parade and all that mocking vanity. Once more it settled; it had fastened upon the bier, glittering with escutcheons and veiled with plumes. A sense of the indescribable nothingness of man "at his best estate," in that hearsed mortal, overcame him. His eye once more closed; his action was suspended; and in a scarcely audible whisper he disturbed the long-drawn pause" There is nothing great but God."

It would be in vain for me to attempt his power of impression; but it may not be wrong to covet his depth of feeling. And while these words are yet vibrating on your ears, and are harrowing up your souls, I take the abrupt sentence and fit it to the present theme. There is nothing solemn but Judgment.

The thunder-storm is solemn; when the lightnings, "as arrows, shoot abroad;" when the peals startle up the nations; when the dread artillery rushes along the sky. But what is that to the far-resounding crash, louder than the roar and bellow of ten thousand thunders, which shall pierce to the deepest charnels, and which all the dead shall hear?

The sea-tempest is solemn: when those huge billows lift up their crests; when mighty armaments are wrecked by their fury; broken as the foam, scattered as the spray. But what is that to the commotion of the deep, when "its proud waves" shall no more "be stayed," its ancient barriers no more be observed, the great channels be emptied, and every abyss be dry?

The earthquake is solemn : when without a warning cities totter, and kingdoms rend, and islands flee away. But what is it to that tremor which shall convulse our globe, dissolving every law of attraction, untying