we are not His,—if, therefore, we do long for the assurance of faith that we are Christ's even now, and for the assurance of hope that we shall be His through His Spirit even to the day of Jesus Christ; is not the true thing to be said to us no other than this, "Draw near unto Christ, come unto Him, and He will give you rest; believe, and you will be saved?" It is not by a painful counting up of duties undone, and sins committed, and by a resolving ever so earnestly to be more careful in all these things for the time to come, that we can be saved; by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. Much less is it by a fond trust in that which is utterly worthless; outward rites and ceremonies, or the belonging to what is in such a sense most falsely called Christ's holy church. We must belong to Christ's church through Him, to that church which will be His for ever, not to Him through His church. If the church by its constant teaching, by the living example of its members, speaks to us aloud to cling unto Christ as our only salvation, then the church does its part as a faithful witness to its Lord; but if it says to us, "Rest in me, trust in my ordinances, labour to do my works, abide in me, and as I am Christ's so shall ye be Christ's," then this is no voice of Christ's faithful spouse, but of the adulteress who has gone like her sister of old after her idols, who has left her Lord herself, and would fain tempt us

to leave Him too. Salvation is not there; no, nor in even the most faithful church which ever followed its Lord, but in Him only. Him for salvation, to be one with

Let us go to Him, to share

in His Spirit, and by His power to be delivered from sin, and to walk in holiness. But not to us or to our works belongs the victory. It is His only who by His death purchased for Himself the heirs of death, that they might become heirs of glory; and by His life has put into them a new life, that they might be His, because they were possessed by His Spirit. It is His victory, and our part in it is this only, that by our faith we gave ourselves up to His working, trusting in no other help than His, and so suffered Him to work out His own salvation in us.

March 6, 1842.

SERMON XXVII.

(PREACHED ON PALM SUNDAY.)

CHRIST'S CRUCIFIXION.

ST. LUKE, Xxiii. 35.

And the people stood beholding.

It was our Lord upon the cross whom they were beholding, and they who so beheld Him were the mixed multitude which, with all sorts of feelings, poured out of the walls of Jerusalem to see the spectacle. And so it is still; Christ is crucified among us daily, and the people stand beholding.

They stand beholding, an infinite variety of persons with an infinite variety of feelings, even as the multitude who then stood around His cross. There was His mother, and there was His beloved disciple; there was the centurion; there were the women of His acquaintance, and the women of Jerusalem generally; there were the Roman

soldiers, there were the common Jews, there were the rulers and chief priests and scribes, beholding as they thought the accomplishment of their work. These beheld Him, standing around, or at a little distance from His cross. Nor were there wanting others who beheld Him, themselves being to mortal eyes invisible, the angels of God, who looked with awe and adoration upon that infinite display of God's love. They too are beholding Him now, crucified as He is again daily amongst us.

We may, if we will, apply this in two ways; we may apply it to ourselves, this present congregation, at this present season, beholding so to speak the representation of Christ crucified in the services of this week, and in the communion of next Sunday. In this sense it may be said, "The people stand beholding Him." Or again we may apply it to ourselves, still to this present congregation, in another sense; as beholding Christ crucified, not in the historical representation of it given in the Scriptures, and read out to us in the church services; but actually, according to the language of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in the sins which His people are daily committing; we standing and looking on the while, and regarding it very differently some of us from others.

And lastly, if I may so speak, we behold Christ crucified in yet another sense: we each are guilty of sin, we each look upon ourselves thus sinning

and having sinned with a great variety of feelings; our minds do not always keep the same temper; in one and the same heart, as various moods prevail, there is sorrow, there is seriousness, there is indifference, there is even hatred and scorn; another aspect of the words contained in the text, "And the people stood beholding."

Now, in the first place, let us apply the words to ourselves, and to the services of this week. Already the sufferings and death of our Lord have been brought before us in the lessons, and in the gospel of this day; then on Wednesday, when we usually assemble in this place, they will be brought before us again; and yet again on Friday. We know that the Gospel for every day in this week is taken from the Scriptures which describe our Lord's death; the Epistle and some of the lessons also more or less exclusively relate to it. The mere outward and formal difference of this week cannot escape the observation of the most careless; we cannot but distinguish it from other weeks. Therefore the representation of Christ crucified is set before us: we stand beholding more or less attentively indeed, and with more or less of interest, but we all stand beholding.

Amongst those who stood round His actual cross, there were, as we have seen, great varieties. There was our Lord's mother, and his beloved disciple John, and there were the chief priests and