the wilderness, struggling in fierce and agonizing conflict with the fiend that was most loathsome, bearing the cross, and suffering the death-pang, all for him-when the word of God unveils the scene of Calvary and Gethsemane, and points to guilty man as the cause is not a new and overwhelming power introduced into the mind? Is it not a controlling influence "living and energetic ?" Aye, is it not "sharper than any two-edged "sword?" Does it not pierce him with a deeper sorrow, a more filial anguish, for having ever caused the Holy Being, who loved him, to be rent by the agony, and grappled by death? And thus the impression produced by the former truths, which amounted only to conviction, by the force of this deeper truth, makes another step towards genuine repentance. Faith works together with it-they are entwined around each other. Repentance strengthens faith, and faith quickens repentance-both springing from the cross-both flowing from the fountain of grace. We have been striving to exhibit the Word of God in its scriptural reality. First, as an awful weapon, by which the sinner is smitten; and, secondly, as a consoling power, with which the believer is furnished. And now, dearly beloved, recurring to the position laid down in the outset, that the text opens a way for subduing this world into an auxiliary for the next, we ask you-If the Word of God be thus implanted in the heart, can the world, the flesh, or the devil, stand victorious against it? We speak not of these truths being merely heard or merely read, in order to produce such results. For we have all along been speaking of the engrafted word, we mean, the truth carried home to the conscience, and stamped by Divine grace on the heart. The sword must be wielded by the Holy Spirit, or it will have none of the power or keenness of the double-edge. But the position we contend for and maintain, is this : If a man reads the word of God in earnest, and hears it preached, with a sincere desire to believe and repent-and if he utters the frequent and fervent prayer for the Holy Spirit to apply it, and embraces all the means of grace to strengthen him, especially if he frequently approaches that fountain of grace opened to him at the sacramental table (for there he may spiritually dwell with Christ, and Christ with him)-then are we bold to assure him (God is our testimony), that he will be equipped with the most powerful sword for any conflict, and he shall be "more than conqueror, through Him that loved us." What a sublime and entrancing power of religion upon the soul ! theme is the When I the Bible, it reminds one of entering a beautiful armoury, surveying with extacy, and handling with awe the weapons which have won a thousand battles, and are entwined with the laurel for ever! "If God be for us, who can be against us." is 66 Satan may rise up like a giant, and the world may seem as a mountain, ready to overwhelm us, and the word of God will teach us our own helplessness, and make us cry out for Him who mighty to save;" but then-God will arm us with the two-edged sword; and by faith we shall remove the mountain, and cleave asunder the enemy. As you go forth into the world, and are about to encounter any temptation, we tell you to gird on the text; it will be a faithful friend to you, and a weapon of more than mortal temperament; and since you all know where it is to be found, yea, as it has been put into your hands, we entreat you to hold it fast; and then, when you fall in the battle-field of death (as we all must), may the spiritual victory be your's. For the word which you have this day heard, though it may seem to die away, will have a new and a quickening power at the judgment. What says Christ? "The Word which I "have spoken, the same shall judge you at the "last day." Oh! then will it not be " sharper "than any two-edged sword ?" May it never be raised against us. God grant that we may then hold it forth in triumph, and lay it at the feet of the Redeemer, as the Divine instrument by which heaven has been secured. SERMON IV. SPIRITUAL CRUCIFIXION, AND SPIRI TUAL RESURRECTION. 3 GALATIANS, II. 20. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." OUR last subject was the power of God's Word upon the heart; we endeavoured to shew the impression which some of the main truths of the Gospel successively make upon the conscience, and the actual amount of influence which faith in each of those doctrines is calculated to wield over the world. But we now propose to draw out more fully the one great truth upon which all the rest hang, and to examine, specially, the actual power which the doctrine of the cross exercises over the practice of the believer. We shall assume, then, as granted, (what was attempted to be shewn in our last discourse) that the truths of a resurrection and a judgment to come, had opened a listener's eyes to the certainty of the future, and had convinced him of his responsibility; that the further truth of God's perfect holiness, and the peculiarity inherent in that attribute, viz. abhorrence and wrath towards its opposite-unholiness, had struck the sinner with awe and dismay, as he contemplated the contrast of his own character with that of the spotless judge-so far we must be allowed to assume that these truths have acted, at least, upon his fears; but we are anxious to examine more attentively how the impression of the further truth, the great doctrine of redemption, would work upon his love, and so exhibit the fruits which that love would produce. Now, instead of supposing any imaginary case to illustrate this subject, we can take the actual example with which we are furnished in the text. For the whole life of the Apostle Paul was a witness to the power which the doctrine of the cross wielded over his practice. In the first clause, St. Paul simply states the fact, "I am crucified "with Christ." That was, to him, the practical |