and consumed the sons of Aaron, because they approached the altar unbidden, and "offered strange fire which the Lord had not commanded." The scriptural definition of a priest is, one who is " ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sin." Since the abolition of the Jewish economy and the death of Christ, no living man, no being in the universe, sustains this office, save the Son who is consecrated a Priest forevermore. The priests under the law had successors, because they were dying men: our great High Priest has no successor, because he himself "ever liveth." And because every other priesthood is done away and absorbed in Christ's, every other sacrifice is done away and absorbed in his. The pretence of repeating it, while it is one of a system of errors of frightful enormity, is evidence of great moral blindness, if not rash and reckless impiety. God would have men feel their constant dependence on this one sacrifice, once offered. They need no other. It is by the power of this finished propitiation, that they are delivered from sin and hell, and adopted as his returning children into his divine family: "These are they," said one of the Elders about the throne to John in the Revelation, "which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." They follow the Lamb wherever he goeth; and the song they sing is, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and honor, and glory, and blessing!" Take heed, that "no man beguile you from the simplicity that is in Christ." He has procured your reconciliation to God, by devoting himself to the death of the Cross. Here is the strength of your faith, and the vividness of your joy. Spiritual enjoyments must necessarily decline and wither, when

ever you lose sight of this "one offering." Resources of blessedness are here, never to be exhausted. No considerations of unworthiness or ill-desert should obscure your views of this great sacrifice. That God is willing to pardon, to sanctify, to guide, to save, we know assuredly when we look at the Cross. It is only "the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne who shall feed you, and shall lead you to living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes."

CHAPTER V.

THE ACTUAL PURPOSE OF THE CROSS.

THERE are good reasons in the Divine Mind for all those expressions of his holy and inscrutable sovereignty which are made both in his works of creation, providence, and redemption. Nothing is gained, but everything is in danger of being lost, by quarreling with the great facts which take place under the government of the "God only wise." What is difficult to us, is plain to him; what to us is dark, to him is enveloped with light-pure, unmingled light. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Fallen men are made to differ from fallen angels, without any apparent reason; one man is made to differ from another, when no human intellect is able to assign the reason why "one is taken and another is left." There is a melancholy equality in the moral character of men. They are all born under the same broken covenant, inherit the same corrupt nature, and are alike exposed to the wrath and curse of God, both in this life and that which is to come. Nor do any of them so differ in the outward acts and expressions of their wickedness, but that the best of them deserves to perish, and if he is saved must attribute his salvation to the unspeakable riches and sovereignty of infinite grace.

The divine purposes are all accomplished. If there were no other method of learning what they are, we may read a part of them at least in the history of the

past. Nor have we any more reason to quarrel with them, than we have with the facts recorded on the pages of history. When that last day shall come on which the entire history of our race, as it respects the present world, shall be completed and recited, it will be but the rehearsal of the executed purposes of God. It will then be seen that all men are not saved. "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; while to them on his left hand, he shall say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." In our Lord's exposition of the parable of the tares, he says, "As therefore, the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Nothing therefore is more clear from the Scriptures, than that it is not the actual purpose of the Cross to save all mankind.

On the other hand, the fact is not questioned, that a part of mankind are saved. This fact, also, is but the counterpart of the divine purpose; it is, it was, it ever has been, the divine purpose to save them. Nor can there be any question as to the way in which this purpose is

carried into effect. "There is no other name given under heaven among men, by which they must be saved," except the name of Christ. "No other foundation can any man lay, than that is laid." The method of salvation is the Cross. Other objects the Cross secures; but its great object is the redemption of a part of mankind— "a peculiar people, that they should show forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light."

It deserves consideration whether sufficient prominence is given in our own thoughts, and in our relative views of the truth of God, to this great purpose of his redeeming mercy. I confess, when I contemplate the Cross, and would fain commend its manifold and wondrous attractions, this purpose of redeeming mercy seems to me to be the great and master purpose of the Divine Mind. It is the purpose which has the greatest extent and comprehensiveness; which reaches from everlasting to everlasting; which is fortified and confirmed by every other purpose; which acquires additional beauty, dignity and importance, the more it is considered; and which, instead of being revealed with a cautious reserve, courts publicity, and fearlessly stands out as the principal and selected means by which the Infinite One glorifies his great name. Το deny or disprove this purpose, would be virtually to deny or disprove the whole Gospel. The great first principle of the Gospel is, that it is the actual purpose of God to save a great multitude, which no man can number, by the death of his Son. Take away this purpose, and the Gospel has no foundation; God would never have been manifest in the flesh, nor should we ever have heard of his effective propitiation for sin. It was indeed a mighty movement in heaven to show mercy to a part of our guilty and wretched race. God has not told us how