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a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, A PECULIAR PEOPLE, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS.

It is scarcely possible, that any of us who have a hope of an interest in the purchased redemption of Christ, should be fully aware of the force and directness with which this subject addresses itself to us. Did Christ indeed, give himself for us? Then how lost was our original condition-how profound the wretchedness and ruin into which we were sunk-how deep the stains of pollution and guilt that adhered to our souls. Did the great God our Saviour GIVE HIMSELF FOR US? Then what grandeur and debasement, what misery and glory, what heights and depths, mingle in our character and condition.

How rich, how poor, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful are we.

How passing wonder he, who has become a Saviour in every conceivable point adapted to our double condition of greatness and meanness, and who has given us a gospel that reaches our extremest exigences that is a complete remedy for all the evil we can feel or fear ! Did the blessed Saviour give himself for us? Then, indeed, what strength of obligation, binds us to him and his cause. Then, indeed, is it too much for us to give away our poor, wretched, ruined selves to him? Tell me, ye ransomed ones-ye, to whom redeeming love has come with present peace, and pledges of eternal and imperishable crowns of glory, is it too much for you to bind yourselves with bonds of unalterable and everlasting affection to his person and his kingdom. And ye, who wait this solemn, joyful hour, to make a public surrender of yourselves to him, do you not crave some worthier offering for your Lord? Do you not want a thousand hearts and a thousand lives to give him who has given you a new heart, and the life of God in your souls. But he is graciously pleased to accept the heart. Give it then-give it entirely-give it eternally.

But may I not ask, what christians are they, who hope they are redeemed, and yet practise iniquity ? To love and live in sin, isto trample under foot redeeming blood-is to despise and reject its sole benefit and efficacy. Ah, such nominal christians, are not, cannot be spiritual, purified christians.

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SERMON IX.

Value and Test of Christ's Friendship.

JOHN XV. 14.

YE ARE MY FRIENDS, IF YE DO WHATSOEVER I COMMAND YOU.

THERE is a sentiment somewhere expressed in poetry, which, when I formerly read it, impressed me as singularly just and affecting. The beautiful language in which it was clothed, has too far escaped my recollection to be now repeated; but the idea as imperfectly recalled, may be thus given :-" Where shall I find a friend whose merits will never disappoint, and whose love will never forsake me? I have surveyed the world, and sought where my affections might repose. But some have forgotten me, some have proved faithless to my hopes, and some have been torn from me by death. Oh, my Saviour, thou remainest always true, and forever present with me." The person who made this complaint, doubtless, only expressed the language of his own personal experience. He may have professed a quickness of sensibility, a refinement of delicacy, and a propensity to sadness, which render it difficult for many fully to sympathize with him. And yet there is a truth and dignity in the sentiment he utters, which must reach and commend itself to the bosoms of nearly all. Few are the privileged ones, if, indeed, it be a privilege to escape the sorrows and sufferings of mortality, who have reached even the midway stage of human life, without meeting enough to teach them what it is to lose friends, and how desirable it is to have one at least that can never be lost. It seems to be one great aim in the divine allotments towards men in the present life, to teach them the latter of these lessons, by bringing them often and in various afflictive ways to experience the former. For this end he leaves the most perfect human characters very far from perfection here, and the most certain earthly things altogether uncertain. Could all the excellent of the earth who have ever yet lived upon it, be gathered in one group before the mind, not one among the whole would be found, in whose character there would not be presented even to the imperfect scrutiny of which we are capable, sufficient to enforce with great emphasis, the divine exhortation to cease from man. For no one of them could we cherish that subordinate and unforbidden attachment which is due to a creature, with any thing like certainty, that it would not sooner or later be perceived to be misplaced. We could not know that the valued one would not at length forget us; or, if not forget us, prove altogether faithless and unworthy of our esteem and confidence. We could not know, that his seeming virtues were not assumed, and that a detestable selfishness did not lurk beneath the semblance of a generous friendship. But were this difficulty removed, and we might safely confide in the fidelity of our chosen friends, being absolutely certain of their friendly offices so long as they live; yet our best earthly friends cannot live always. Nothing is more precarious than human life. It vanishes like the vapor. It flees like a shadow and continues not. Whom has not death robbed of a friend? Where shall we go to find some one who has not suffered such a loss? That child who cannot tell you, though he has experienced what a friend is, has suffered such a loss. He suffered it, perhaps, in her, who only lived to pronounce his name, Benoni, and to breathe one prayer, that he might have a name and a place in that world where sorrows are un-known. Or, perhaps he suffered it in one or both of that venerated pair, whom a riper piety and larger experience, taught to watch over and cherish this second shoot from their now withered trunks, with a fond solicitude which they felt not for their own offspring. Or, it may be, he suffered the loss in one, who, from the Sabbath school, where she labored to nurture him for glory, herself has early gone to keep an eternal Sabbath! If the child is no stranger to bereavements of this nature, how must the number of such visitations be multiplied in the history of those, who have reached any of the more advanced periods in the life of man. Persons in middle life can usually reckon up more, who have departed from the circle of their relatives and intimate friends, than now constitute that circle. While the aged stand almost alone and deserted, having followed to the grave nearly all who were their friends and neighbors in age, and place of residence. But not even this circumstance in human condition, presents to the full extent man's need of a friend who is beyond the reach of time, and chance, and change. What if our friends should abide with us to the utmost limits of our earthly course. We need offices of friendship which none of them can afford us. We have wants, which the kindest friends on earth have no power to supply. These wants we now feel, and we shall continue to feel them in all their growing power forever, unless help comes from some friend who is as mighty as he is merciful, and as omniscient as he is compassionate. Thus are we strongly urged, and it seems manifestly the divine intention to urge us, by what we here experience of the fickleness and inconstancy of earthly friendships, as well as of the impotency of any endeavors of the most faithful and valued friends on earth, to do us the good we need, to look to Him who sticketh closer than a brother.

For the same benevolent end, no doubt, God has given us what may be called the principle of friendship. A

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