avenge all disobedience and rebellion, and stubbornness, when "the day of His wrath" shall come, tender and gentle though He be now. Modest and retiring must the lambs of His fold be; not decked with gay clothing, nor adorned with vain ornaments, to draw the eyes of men upon them; but clothed inwardly with the white garment of purity, adorned with "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price," and arrayed outwardly with simple and modest apparel. Humble in heart, pure from defilements of the flesh, free from ill-will, and ready to learn and to be guided, must the lambs of His fold be.

"Now count His train to-day,

And who may meet Him, learn:

Him child-like sires, meek maidens find,

Where pride can nought discern.

Still to the lowly soul

He doth Himself impart,

And for His cradle and His throne,

Chooseth the pure in heart." 23

He calls us to Himself and says,

"Take my yoke

upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and

lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your

souls."

"24

23 Christian Year-Purification.

24 St. Matt. xi. 29.

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279

SERMON XXIII.

GLORYING IN THE CROSS.

GALATIANS, vi. 14.

"God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

It is most wonderful how the Cross, which was the badge of shame, has become the glory of the Christian. St. Paul's whole soul is thrilled with joy and triumph at the very mention of the Cross. He will glory in nothing else: he will see nothing else: he looks through all other objects, and sees the Cross beyond. On this his eyes are fixed: there his heart is and there are all his hopes for there he sees his Divine Master in the very act of offering up Himself for the sins of the world: there he sees the crucified Jesus, for whose sake he despises the loss of all things, and counts them utterly vile, so that he may win Christ for his own, and be found in Him.' And is it not so now with us in our measure? (Ought it not to be so far more than it is?) Does

1 Phil. iii. 8, 9.

not the mention of the Cross raise feelings which nothing else can raise? Does not the very sight of the Cross cheer and invigorate us? We love to see it on our churches, for it marks them as belonging to Christ, and is a symbol of the doctrines which are there taught. We love to think that it has been signed upon our foreheads, to mark us soldiers of Jesus Christ.

as the

But what was it that led St. Paul to glory in the Cross? It was love for Him who hung upon it. It was love, called forth by the love of Christ as manifested on the Cross. There he beheld the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, making propitiation by His own blood. There he beheld the Good Shepherd laying down His life for the sheep. And why is it that we find peace and joy in the thought of the Cross, except that we love Him who was crucified upon it, because He first loved us? We find peace in believing that He who has done so much for us will do more, even all that we need; we find joy in believing that He who so loved us as to die for us, loves us still. We rejoice in the memory of the Cross as the surest token for us of His love, in whose favour all true happiness consists. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down His life for his friends." This has Christ done for us; and knowing that He has done it, and that He permits us to love Him for it, and to glory in His cross as the token of His love, we trust that He still is willing to say of us, "Ye are my friends," " notwith

2 St. John, xv. 13, 14.

2

standing that we are conscious that we have not always kept His commandments. The Cross of Christ is the seal of our present privileges, and the pledge of better things to come. If we are tempted to fear that the sins we have committed will be punished in the day of judgment by banishment from God's presence; if we dread lest, sin-defiled as we are, we should be unfit to enter heaven; in the first place we look to that precious Blood which was shed upon the Cross, and pray that all our sins. may be blotted out as we confess them; in the next place we trust that the renewing grace of God so dearly bought for us by our dying Saviour, will not be denied to us in the hour of our deep necessity, but that it will be granted to us as we seek it day by day for Christ's sake.

But should even that worst of all fears afflict us, the fear lest by our sins we may be out off from the grace of God, which He sheds so abundantly on His faithful children: should we fear lest there be no fit place in us where Christ may lay His head, lest we have so grieved the Holy Spirit that He will visit us no longer through the means of grace, lest evil habits have gained so strong a hold upon us that it is impossible to get free; still the cross of Christ is our only comfort; making all other comforts real, which would be miserable deceptions if the Cross of Jesus were taken from us. Surely, dear brethren, it is a great comfort, and a sweet refuge from our fears, that we are permitted to take pleasure in the thought of our Saviour's Cross; it is a gracious token that Christ has not forsaken us, that

we

are allowed to love Him because He first loved us.

to say,

Now there are many tokens such as this, which Christ bestows upon us to save us from despair, when we fear, as indeed we sometimes justly may, lest we be altogether shut out from His kingdom by our manifold sins. One such token is the Lord's prayer which we are allowed to use; we are not forbidden "Our Father," although we are unworthy to be His children: that holy prayer is not taken from us; the free and heartfelt use of it is still granted us; and when we are allowed to use such words from our hearts, we cannot but hope that the words are not left to us to mock us, but that they have a meaning which they can have only as used by those who are still the children of God.

Another token of God's favour and ground of hope, that notwithstanding the consciousness of our unworthiness, we are still within the kingdom of grace, is the opportunity and the power which still remain to us of loving our fellow Christians, the members of Christ, for Christ's sake; loving them as we could love none but Christians, loving them because they are good and holy, loving them for their goodness, and as we should not love them if they ceased to love Christ. Many similar tokens might be named: but from all these gracious pledges of the continued goodness of God, we turn to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto us, and we, as we trust, are being crucified unto the world. Surely, while we may love Christ, adore Him for His love, and glory in His Cross, we are not aliens