A Physician.

"How lost was my condition

Till Jesus made me whole!
There is but one physician

Can cure a sin-sick soul.
The worst of all diseases

Is light, compared with sin;
On every part it seizes,

But rages most within.

"From men great skill professing,
I thought a cure to gain;
But this proved more distressing,
And added to my pain.

Some said that nothing ailed me,

Some gave me up for lost;
Thus every refuge failed me,

And all my hopes were crossed.

"At length this great Physician How matchless is His grace! Accepted my petition,

And undertook my case.

III.

A PHYSICIAN.

"Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?" JER. viii. 22.

'And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick." - LUKE V. 31.

IN, as a disease, is both an epidemic and a con

SIN,

tagion. It infects all through a liability to it in the soul itself, and it is communicated by contact. We inherit a depraved nature; while teaching, influence, and example have much to do with the degree of depravity that we exhibit. Sin, too, like variolous diseases, is loathsome and malignant. It corrupts the entire nature, and, unless divine help interpose, it issues in death. "Thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up. Thou hast no healing medicine." The symptoms of this disease appear in a rebellious will, a proud heart, a seared conscience, in depraved appetites, violent lusts, and malignant passions. The works of the flesh are

enumerated in the 1st of Romans and the 5th of Galatians. Conscious of inbred sin, each must

"Lord, I am vile, conceived in sin,
And born unholy and unclean ;

Sprung from the man whose guilty fall

Corrupts the race and taints us all."

We would be more appalled by the deadliness of our condition, only that we live in the infected. district, and are ourselves diseased. Disease that fastens upon the body is less to be dreaded, for it can destroy only the mortal part; but sin kills beyond the tomb.

Now, to relieve man of this malady Christ has come. We are like the Jews in the wilderness bitten by the fiery serpent. But infinite love has sought us, and there is life in a look. Christ is the balm in Gilead; He is the great physician; He came to seek and to save the lost. It is pleasant to think of Christ as a man, as one who comes to us in a personal form to do us good.

What are some of the characteristics of this great Physician?

1. He is distinguished for ability. This is a prime quality. We require of an earthly physician that he shall have natural talents and a