happy hereafter; to educate them as in a state of pupilage and minority for the world of their majority. Now we know that in education the principal and most effective part is example. The best precepts in the world will have but little effect, if there be no manifest carrying out of those precepts. And those who think that by teaching their children to read they will make them good and dutiful, and yet set them an evil example, will find this out.

Accordingly, when CHRIST says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law," what does HE? Why, He gives a manifestation of His own most holy life.

And, accordingly, nothing is more observable than the declarations of Holy Scripture on this point. I have given you an Example, says our LORD, that ye should do as I have done to you. Be like-minded, says Paul, "after the Example of CHRIST." CHRIST suffered for us, says St. Peter, leaving us an Example, that we should follow His Example, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth."

Forasmuch, then, as CHRIST hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the Will of God." Of which Mind of CHRIST, St. Paul also says, “Let the mind be in you, which was also in CHRIST Jesus, Who, though in the form of GOD, thinking it no robbery to be equal with GOD, yet made HIMSELF of no reputation, and took upon HIм the form of a servant, and humbled HIMSELF, and became obedient to death, even the Death of the Cross." Upon which manifestation of HIM, he further grounds this inference,

"Therefore, let nothing annoy you, through strife or vain glory; but, in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves; do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye, too, may be manifest blameless and harmless, the Sons of GOD, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."

But, my Brethren, while I thus speak of the efficacy of CHRIST'S Example to take away our sins, because, as you plainly see, so the Scripture also speaks; what are the very terms of that Covenant of Grace, into which we have been admitted? Hear how St. Paul speaks in the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews:-"The HOLY GHOST is a witness to us:For this is a Covenant that I will make with them, saith the LORD: I will put my Laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more." Here are the very terms of our Gospel Covenant, in the words which the HOLY GHOST witnesseth,-first by the Prophet, then by the Apostle. Here is the total removal of which I speak. The forgetfulness, indeed, of the sin; but, coupled therewith, the placing the Law in the hearts, writing it in the mind,-the transposing it from the outward tables of stone to the inward tablet of the heart.

And now then, my Brethren, we see the full meaning of the statement in the text,-"He that committeth sin transgresseth also the Law." For if the putting the Law in the heart, giving it a more glorious place-if that be one of the special things mentioned in the bond, then he who lives in a self-indulgent state of sin—whatever his bosom sin may be,—as he breaks the law on his part, so, like the Tables of Stone in the

hands of Moses, he shall find it a broken covenant to himself hereafter.

My Brethren, John lived to see that come to pass which our LORD foretold: a debasement in the Christian character; men resting upon their privileges, but forgetful of their duties; taking, in short, their covenant by halves, thinking that GOD remembered their sins and their iniquities no more, because they were themselves pleased not to remember them: but not calling to mind also that it was part of the same covenant that the Law should be in their heart; not in the head, but in the heart; that it should be loved and obeyed. As CHRIST said, "If ye love ME, keep My commandments."

Now it is against this great heresy, this monster corruption, the great Apostle sets himself,—the notion that the two parts of the covenant could be severed; the taking away the guilt of a sin without taking away the habit of sin. Read but this chapter only and its often repeated declarations :-for instance, the very verses that immediately follow the text:-"Whosoever abideth in HIM sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen HIм nor known HIM. Little children, let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as CHRIST is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of GOD was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. In this the children of GoD are manifest; and the children of the devil, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in HIM, and HE in him; and hereby we know that HE abideth in us.

Read not

this only, but take chapter after chapter throughout,

and you will perceive the whole Epistles to be but a multiform repetition of the same grand idea which St. Paul places thus in the form of a question. "Do we make void the law through faith? Nay, verily, we establish the law." On the table of wood the worms destroy it; on the table of stone the moss grows over it; but written on the fleshly tables of the heart, it becomes each day clearer and more legible; its characters of light, its letters of fire, burning out and consuming all the dross, and making, as by degrees, that Holy Temple to the LORD, which needeth neither the sun nor the moon to shine in it. For the Glory of GoD doth lighten it, and the LAMB is the Light thereof.

G. J. C.

SERMON XXII.

ADAM IN PARADISE.

Septuagesima Sunday.

GENESIS II. 8.

AND THE LORD GOD PLANTED A GARDEN EASTWARD IN EDEN: AND THERE HE PUT THE MAN WHOM HE HAD FORMED.

"HEARKEN Unto ME, ye that follow after righteousness; ye that seek the LORD, look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and unto the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." Such was God's address to His people Israel by Isaiah the Prophet. He bad them in their distress, and in the calamity which had fallen upon them, to call to mind the mercies which He had showed of old to "Abraham their Father and to Sarah that bare them," (for it was from this faithful pair that the nation of Israel had sprung,) and so to comfort themselves with the assurance that God would not cast away His ancient people; but that "the redeemed of the LORD should return and come with singing unto Zion," and that "His salvation should be for ever."