the Christian is "the love of Christ." All his graces find their element at the Cross. Christ crucified is his glory and joy. Christ in his uncreated glory-Christ in his humanity-Christ in his obedience and temptations— Christ in his death and resurrection-Christ in his kingdom and on his throne-Christ in his weakness and his power, in his reproach and in his honor, in his past history and his coming triumphs-is the mighty magnet that attracts his heart, that moves and fixes it, that fills it with grateful astonishment and devotion. Christ, in the word and ordinances, is meat indeed to him when he is hungry, and when he is thirsty it is drink. In the storm and tempest, Christ is his hiding-place; in the parched desert, he is as rivers of water; under the noon-day sun, he is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Christ near him is his consolation in sorrow, in joy his triumph. Christ in him is the hope of glory. He seeks supplies only from the fullness of Christ. In death Christ is his life, and his resurrection in the grave. When he stands in the judgment, Christ is his Judge; and through interminable ages Christ is his heaven. The religion of the Cross is full of Christ; and this renders it so peaceful and so happy a religion, and imparts to it. not indeed the paroxysms of ecstacy, but "the peace of God that passeth all understanding." It begins and takes root in the soul, not until it has first felt the burden of sin and a sense of its condemnation; not until it has learned to cry for mercy at the foot of the throne; and not until it has found relief in believing in the Son of God, and receiving him as all its salvation and all its desire. Then its peace is as a river, and its joys as the waves of the sea. It is the counterpart of heaven. It is the cup of joy from the river of life, which, clear as crystal, flows from the throne of God and the Lamb.

Allow me affectionately to ask, Do you possess this religion of the Cross? You may not be a favorite with the world if you do; but what is unutterably more, you are the friend of God. This religion comes to you as a suffering, perishing creature, and would make you happy by making you holy. Make the trial of everything else if you will, but there is a voice within your own bosoms that dispels the delusion. And I hear your own response to it: No, I cannot be happy, without the religion of the Cross! I may well afford to forego anything, everything, rather than the religion of the Cross!

11

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CROSS THE TEST OF CHARACTER.

THE eternal state of men is decided by their character. The Scriptures teach us, that in the day of judgment God will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortaliy, eternal life;" while to them "that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness," he will render "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish." Every good man will then receive the rewards of heaven, and every wicked man will be condemned to the pains of hell. "The hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice; they that have done. good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." With the exception of those who die in infancy, therefore, all have the opportunity of forming the character by which their eternal state is to be determined. Nor is there anything tha exerts so powerful an influence in forming the characters of men as the Cross of Christ. To some, it is the savor of life unto life; to others, the savor of death unto death. To some, the Saviour is the object of interest, of love, of confidence, and of glorying; to others, he is the object of indifference, and then of hostility, of distrust, and they turn away their faces from him for very shame, “The

preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto them which are saved it is the wisdom of God, and the power of God." The Cross is the great test of character. This is a very plain truth, and needs illustration rather than proof.

I begin this illustration by remarking, that the Cross presents a vivid manifestation of those excellences of the divine character to which all wicked men are hostile, and in which all good men have high complacency. We have already contemplated the truth that the "glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ." All the perfections of the divine nature there appear in the greatest fullness, richness and splendor, in which they ever have been, or ever will be, revealed to men. No principle in the moral constitution of men is more obvious, than that those objects which they most hate are most hated when most clearly seen; and those which they love, when most clearly seen are loved the most. Wicked men there are who are slow to believe that they are the enemies of God, because they have not deep impressions of his being, nor just conceptions of his character; nor do they always admit the thought, that he is so holy that he cannot look on sin, and so just that he will by no means clear the guilty. And good men there are who doubt their love to him, because they do not always enjoy the light of his countenance, nor behold his beauty as they have sometimes seen it. The Cross brings God near to both. Wicked men may see the low estimation in which they hold the God of heaven, by the contempt with which they regard the method of salvation by his Son; and good men may discover the high esteem they cherish for him, by the high regard they pay to him, when, in the person of his Son, they discover him to be glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, Very few

men in the world look upon themselves as such enemies of God as to refuse to be reconciled to him on any terms; nor is it until they discover their hostility to the terms of mercy proposed in the Gospel, that they have a practical demonstration that their enmity is vigorous and unrelenting. Very many good men know not how much they love God, until they enjoy those refreshing and repeated views of his loveliness which are so often imparted to them as they gather round the Cross. Wicked men, who enjoy the faithful preaching of the Gospel, have a fair trial of what is in their hearts; for the Cross is continually disturbing them, and sometimes excites their enmity almost to infuriateness. They are often led to see, when contemplating the truths of the Cross, that they not only have not the love of God in them, but cherish a deeplyrooted aversion to his character, and give way to blasphemous thoughts, if not to thoughts of malice, against the Holy One of Israel. They have no desire to exalt God, or to see him exalted. The principal reason why they do not fall in with the method of mercy by the Cross is, that it brings glory to God in the highest. While good men, on the other hand, have the same trial of their hearts, by the same Gospel; and it brings out and shows their love, their delight in God, their gratified and grateful love. The Cross does not repel their hearts, but attracts them-attracts them to God their supreme good and joy; and if there is a thought that gives more value to the Cross than any other, it is that it secures the highest glory to God, while it announces peace on earth and good-will to men. The only reason why wicked men continue to reject the Cross is, that they are enemies to God; and it is because good men are his friends that they accept it. There is no surer test of character, and no greater proof that a man is the enemy of God, than