which every transgression and every sin has its foul and polluted origin? Then, again, as to their effects: do not the clouds hang between us and the sun, and shut out from us the clear and cheering light, and the bright blue sky; and when they greatly thicken, do they not augur storms and tempests? and are not our sins, as we have already seen, and as God has God has expressly declared,

the wall which separates between us and our God, and hides, as it were, his face from us; and are they not as sure a token of his coming wrath, and of the vengeance from his judgment seat, as ever the darkest cloud that warned us of the approaching thunder-storm?

Still further, as to their situation are not the clouds hung out in mid heaven, high above our heads; and although it appears the simplest thing in nature to dissolve and dissipate them, for ofttimes while we look, the rays of the sun are melting them away, so that the figure which

we have just delighted to trace in them, is, even while we gaze, changed, and loosened, and scattered, and then gone for ever; yet are they so placed, that weak and transient as they are, not all the united efforts of all the men that ever dwelt upon the wide world's surface, could avail to blot one cloud out of existence. So is it with our sins; from the instant they are committed, from the very moment that the cloud is formed, it hangs out far beyond our reach; no mortal hand can ever touch that sin, no mortal power avail to pardon it. For take it even at its lowest estimate, it may be what we term some trifling offence, it matters not, man cannot pardon it; man may avenge his broken law, he may punish the sin, but he cannot pardon it. He may indeed pardon the crime, for that is the portion of the sin which affects himself, but he can never pardon the sin he can never, with all the tenderness, and compassion, and forgiving

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love, that the most affectionate of human hearts is capable of containing, he can never dissipate the smallest cloud that hangs between us and our Maker, so that he must let that alone for ever, for there is but one Being in the universe who has ever said, who can ever say,

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I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own name's sake, and will not remember thy sins."

We see, then, with what peculiar propriety the Prophet has adopted the simile of the text. But we must follow up his idea still further, as the best and clearest method of distinctly setting before you the great doctrine which it contains.

"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." The idea of blotting out a cloud, seems to be an allusion to that dissolving of these vapours which is continually taking place in the atmosphere, when the heat of the summer sun draws up the moisture of the cloud, and renders it

completely invisible. How accurately, and how instructively, does this pourtray the constant operation of the Divine grace with regard to the sins of every believing penitent. The Sun of Righteousness arises upon them "with healing in its wings," bringing pardon and peace to the soul; a full and free forgiveness is at once, and for ever, made our own; the sin is as completely absorbed, if we may so say, by the Sun of Righteousness, as the clouds, and fogs, and mists of earth are by the sun of nature. It is as impossible to find the former, to bring it forth again to judgment, as it would be to reconstruct the clouds, with all their varied shapes, and hues, and tints, which we looked upon last summer, and which never outlived the day we gazed upon them.

Blessed consideration, for the souls of God's believing and pardoned people. Doubly blessed for you, who having long, and deeply, and penitently felt the burden and the weight of sin, have also felt

the beams of the Sun of Righteousness burst forth and shine upon it with all their splendour; and while you looked, and, it may be, wept to look upon so foul a thing, so fearful an offence against the God of all your mercies, it was for ever hidden from your eyes, no more to be seen, no more to be remembered, except with gratitude for its entire and complete removal, while a voice was heard, which spake even to your soul, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins."

Beloved brethren, learn then but one last lesson of comfort, and of peace, from the Prophet's simile. Never cast a glance at that stupendous vault, which the mighty Maker of the universe has hung above us and around us; never, while as you behold the clouds passing rapidly across it, think these are fit emblems of my many, my daily, my dark and desperate sins; without at the same time thinking, If the clouds pourtray my