priate to us, in the same task which employed the prophets, apostles, translators, and martyrs of the Scriptures-the task of "publishing it to every creature."

REDEMPTION FROM ALL

INIQUITY.

"WHO GAVE HIMSELF FOR US, THAT HE MIGHT REDEEM US FROM ALL INIQUITY, AND PURIFY UNTO HIMSELF A PECULIAR PEOPLE, ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS."-Titus ii. 14.

T

HIS portion of Holy Writ may be contem

plated as an epitome of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Here the Friend of sinners is exhibited in His redeeming character. His love to a fallen world induced Him to give Himself a vicarious sacrifice, whereby Divine justice receives satisfaction, and mercy is extended to our race. Here the renovating properties of His grace are beautifully portrayed. Through Him the guilty are forgiven, the contaminated are purified, strangers to God are constituted His peculiar people, or specially His own, and those who were accustomed to do evil are made zealous of good works.

I. The benevolence of Jesus Christ is brought into view in the text.

That we may the more fully discover the good-will and the loving-kindness of our gracious Redeemer, let us briefly contemplate the contrast between His dignified and exalted character, and our degraded and wretched condition.

He was Divine, as well as the perfection of humanity. All the attributes of Deity, which could not possibly belong to any created intelligence, however elevated, are in the Holy Scriptures ascribed to Him who came to "seek and to save that which was lost." He was, to quote St. Paul's noble phrase, "God over all, blessed forever."

In becoming our Redeemer, He became our kinsman. It was the province of the kinsman, under the Law, to redeem those of his connection that might have fallen into bondage, and restore them to liberty. So Jesus, by taking our nature, had the right and the freely-assumed task to redeem us. "He took not upon Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham." And so, as there "dwelt in Him all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," yet was He also "partaker of (our) flesh and blood." He was fully prepared to lay hands upon both parties, God and His crea

tures, separated by sin, and bring about a reconciliation. He who was the Infinite and Eternal God, as Christ, our Advocate is made;

U's to save, our flesh assumes,

Brother to our souls becomes."

On the other hand, let us view the condition of those whom He came to redeem. They were guilty. All had sinned, and come short of the glory of God. There were none righteous; no, not one. They were willful transgressors of God's law, and justly liable to punishment.

They were corrupt. "The whole head," saith Isaiah, of man, "is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither molified with ointment.”

They are helpless, utterly incapable of satisfying the claims of Divine justice. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, doth He save us." "None of them can by any means redeem his brother (or himself), or give to God a ransom for the soul."

Jesus Christ, so high, so holy, manifested His benevolence by suffering instead of such be

ings. He voluntarily submitted to suffering, poverty, temptation, affliction, and death, that they might be raised from the ruins of the fall, restored to the favor of God, and obtain eternal life.

II. The Design of Christ is here exhibited, "that He might redeem us from all iniquity."

Redemption denotes our recovery from sin and death, by the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Hence He is called our Redeemer. Deliverance from sin, in the Scriptures, is attributed to the atonement made by Jesus Christ. "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

To redeem implies to buy back, to set free, to deliver. Jesus Christ, by this sacrifice of Himself, pays the price, satisfies the claim of Justice, so that God is just, while He justifies the ungodly, who believe on Jesus.

Yet it is not enough that He pay the price.