it be present to our minds, that, "blessed are they who so mourn," and they only. It is while we look, then, upon Him from whom others turn away their eyes, that the springs of this sorrow are touched, -and while we look upon him with the guilty consciousness, that we pierced him. For we are not to think, that it is upon those who cried out, "crucify him, crucify him"-upon Caiphas who condemned him-upon Pilate who delivered him to their will-the whole guilt lies. It is not so much the executioner who is the cause of the death of the criminal, nor yet the judge who pronounces sentence upon him. We pierced him. His actual crucifiers were but the representatives of our whole race. Every man born into the world, as regarded in his fallen nature, was an accomplice in the conspiracy against the Son of God; was implicated in the crucifixion of the Son of God. This is our deep condemnation, that man, sinful man, not only rejected God in heaven, but that when "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person," appeared upon earth, he was the object of the same rancourous enmity, was "despised and rejected" upon earth; that not only upon the throne of Heaven, but "God manifest in the flesh" was rejected" we will not have this man to reign over us." In what colours does our sin appear, when we see in it the expression of such enmity to Christ— when we see it stained with the blood of Christ guilty of the death of Christ! for our iniquities-if he endured stripes, it was that we might be healed-if he was in that agony, it was the chastisement of our peace that was upon him!— Was he condemned?—It was that for us there might be no condemnation. Did he cry out, as forsaken of his Father?It was that we might be restored to the favor of his Father. Was he made a curse? It was that we might be delivered from the curse. Was he made sin?—It was that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He took our sins upon himself, that we might stand before God, accepted in his righteousness. We see him bending over the deep gulph, which was yawning at his feet, looking down into it with a trembling eye, which pierced to its lowest depths, and counted up all its miseries and horrors-then saying, it is very terrible; yet, if there be no way of saving sinners from falling into it, except by falling into it myself, let them take me, then, and cast me headlong. He gave himself a ransom for us—“the just for the unjust”—it was our sins he bore in his body upon that tree. My brethren, it is thus-those wounds which sin had made, according to the promise of the text, became "a fountain" to wash away the sin which made them. A fountain was opened in them for sin and for uncleanness. Out of that side which we pierced, issued forth a stream to cleanse those who pierced it. It is as we "look upon him" in such an association as we see, those arms which we had nailed to the accursed tree, extended to embrace those who nailed them to it as we hear the voice from it "look unto me, and be saved"—it is as we see a throne of grace erected upon the cross, that they are pierced themselves, who pierced him. It is as we see Ah! and is it only that he was pierced by our sins, but was he not also pierced for them? When I was in Italy, I heard from the master of the deaf and dumb institution at Pisa, that one of the pupils, from having been shown continually by his parents, as often as he did any thing wrong, a picture of the Saviour writhing" God in this his bleeding Son, reconin agony upon the cross, was under ciling sinners unto himself, not imputing the impression that he had been the their trespasses unto them," blotting out worst and wickedest of men; as though their sins in the blood which they had the object of his parents in pointing themselves shed, that the heart of stone to the picture had been to deter relents, melts that we mourn and are him from those courses which might in bitterness as for an only son. It is the bring him to a like end. What may we Spirit of grace, ("I will pour upon them suppose he felt, when he came to under- the Spirit of grace and of supplications") stand, that if he was treated as the worst and wickedest of men, it was for us and for our wickedness he was so treated that if he was wounded, it was for our transgressions—if he was bruised, it was it is the spirit of grace that smites the rock within us, that the waters gush out, while we taste that the Lord is so gracious. The spirit of grace it is that is a spirit of supplications, that puts even into the heart that is wrung with well as for their own. In the scene of its sin, to cry Abba, Father. "Grace taught my soul to pray, It is as we taste that the Lord is so gracious, that sin appears exceeding sinful. It is according to those words in Ezek. xvi. "when he is pacified towards us for all that we have done," that " we remember and are confounded, and open our mouth no more, because of our shame," when we see the Lord our God pacified towards us for all that we have done against him. Such was the sorrow of that woman who was a sinner, whose sins, which were many, had been forgiven her. It was as she saw in one view, her own abounding sin, and the grace which abounded beyond her sin, that the flood gushed out, with which she washed the Saviour's feet. Such was the sorrow presented to us in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, "Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly," as Peter closes his address to them, "that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this," we read, "they were pricked in their hearts, (stung with compunction) and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptised every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." It was at that word, remission of sins, in the name of Him against whom they had been committed, that their hearts began to bleed truly. Nor is it for our own sin only we thus mourn, but for sin universally; as by which, while man is degraded and destroyed, God is so fearfully insulted and dishonoured. The licentious jest, profane mirth, would sound in our ears, as if we heard some bosom friend vilified, a revered parent derided.To be capable of any familiarity with sin, were as though we should take to our bosom the murderer of that revered parent or beloved friend. It is as when "the righteous soul of Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked." We partake of his feeling, who cried out, " rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law" of theirs who "sighed and cried for the abominations of Jerusalem," as mourning presented to us in the text, while the whole land mourns, and every family apart, there is a mourning for the sin common to all, as well as for the sin of which each individual was conscious in his own bosom. Let me now ask, my brethren, whether we be among those who thus mourn ?— For as sure as the spirit of grace has been poured upon us, we are. Ah! after this, to make a mock at sin! or to make light of it! Do not we hear him from the cross, "behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, with which the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger!" in the fierce anger to which he subjected himself for our sins. And is there no sorrow on our part, whose the sins were? "Is it nothing to you"-might he not well complain-"is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" Alas! with how many it is as though it were nothing to them. It is with the great mass, according to those words in Isaiah xxii. 12, 13. "In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die." Are we, I ask, among those who mourn as He would have us? In the confession in which we joined an hour ago, while we repeated, "we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep-we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts-we have offended against thy holy laws-we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done," as our past history, all our selfseeking, self-pleasing, self-indulging, self-exalting—our living to do our own will, rather than the will of him who sent us into the world to do his. —as our neglect of God, our misspent time, our misapplied talents—as all passed in rapid review before us, were we conscious of any thing of this mourning, if it passed in review before us at all? Nay, it may be, the confession of sin appears of so little moment to us, that we often do not come into church, till it be over. then in the absolution, when forgivenes was pronounced. In the case, however, And As and do we, accoring to the mourning described in the text, do we moorn apart, as well as in the ecogrega tion ? Do we moum dome and in secret, for our sins, as we collido, were any of our children taken from us? As Josept when bis heart was full, sought where to weep, and he entered into his ebam ber and wept there as Peter went out,' when he wept bitterly. If our sorrow for sin do not go beyond the confession of it in the church-if our chambers know nothing of it—if our pillows know nothing of it—neither does God. There is nothing real in it. Overwhelming indeed must have been that grief, which burst out, as we read, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would to God I had died for thee, O Absalom my son, my son! Yet David mourned for sin, as he never mourned for Absalom. Let me ask those of us who, as they look back upon their past life, see the first pages of it stained, it may be, with many a foul blot, with what feelings, I would ask, are those foul blots regarded by them? Is it according to a phrase, which makes one shudder as one hears it, it makes so light of what God regards with such abhorrence is it as though that had been the time for "sowing your wild oats;' or as any instance of early profligacy starts into your mind, do you "abhor yourself, and repent in dust and ashes ?" Suppose a man, in retracing the past, to call up acts of former years, such as to have created the necessity for this and similar institutions. Does he then, as he looks back upon such passages in his history, regard them with the indulgent eye with which the world regards them? Because the wreck of female innocence does not forfeit for a man his place in the world's society, nor though the bonds of wedlock were no restraint upon him, because he does not thus subject himself, in the circle in which he moves, to the frown of man, nor of woman, does he thefire. Oh does he forgive himself, as easly as the world forgives him ?—or as he thinks in what such deeds are regarded in heaven, what characters ey are registered there-as he thinks of the victim of them, as that moment, it may be in the haunts of pollution, it sury be, in the regicas of despair-and with whom, in the day when every secret thing shall be beggst to right, he may yet be cocércated, and denounced as the author of her destruction as he thinks thus of such deeds of darkness, and then sees a Saviour yet ready to forgive alla Samour's grace abounding beyond his abounding sin, that his sin, though “red like scarlet, stall be white as snow," does he, or does he not "abbor himself and repent in dust and ashes?" Were I to live over again,' do you not say, concerted sinner, were I to live over again, would I not cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, rather than sin against God as I have done? Dear children, says every child of God in our congregation, were I young as you, while I feel as I now feel, what glory would I not hope to give to God, serving him from my youth! Would that I could tear out of the book of my remembrance, as my God has torn out of his, the sins and iniquities of my youth! And shall I not, then, turn to you, who can yet give such glory to God, who can yet give him the service of your youth? and will you not? Dear young friends, will you not give to the God who so loved you the blossom of life rather than the dregs, rather than the leavings of youthful lusts? If sorrow could enter heaven, if a sigh could be heaved there, if a tear could roll down the cheek of a saint in light, it would be for the time spent in forgetfulness of God, which might have been spent to his glory. It may be that as you lay upon a bed of sickness, you felt sorrow for your past sins. But have you now a proof of its genuineness, in your abstaining from the the things, in which you were then sorry you had allowed yourself, and in practising the duties which you were then sorry you had neglected? or are your former habits again indulged? are former neglects repeated? If it be so, those tears of sickness they were not the tears, which God puts into his bottle. They were but as the water, with which the sow was washed, which, because there is no change of nature, returns to her wallow-, would inflame bad passions, provoke eviling in the mire. tempers, give a tone of levity to the con- Am I addressing any in affliction? And in what congregation should we not be addressing such? Dear sufferers, the Lord comfort you, as he comforts those, who are thus brought to mourn for their sins; for those sins, without which, afflic-prietor of omnibus coaches in London, tion would be unknown in our world. And how often does the Lord in his mercy make sorrow such as yours a stepping-stone to that sorrow, which leaves behind it the peaceable fruits of righteousness, in those who are exercised thereby. Take one instance out of a thousand, and such a one I would chuse as that the greatest sinner should not have to say, it does not apply to me. We read in the 33rd Chap. of II. Chron. that when one, whose sins had been of a scarlet dye truly, that "when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." The Lord grant, it may be good for you also to be in trouble, by its making you to be in trouble for your sins. My brethren, do we indeed mourn for sin ? How careful we shall then be, to avoid every thing that would be a temptation to us to commit sin-not to go into company that would be dangerous to us,— not to frequent places of amusement in which we might have reason to apprehend danger-not to expose ourselves, where the world has it all its own way; not to read books, which though we may think they would not shake our principles, might yet leave a stain upon our imaginations. We shall hate the very garment spotted with the flesh." The admonition to the Corinthians—“Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you; and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty," will be ringing in our ears continually. And shall we not then be all eyes and watchfulness, that there be nothing about us, which would be the occasion of sin to others-that no words escape from our lips, which would be as sparks upon the tinder of corrupt human nature, that as soon as he became a Christian, though it was at a considerable pecuniary loss, would no longer let any of his coaches, run upon the Lord's day. He could not go himself with his family to Church, with any satisfaction, while he felt himself to be accessary in any manner to the profanation of the Sabbath by others. What should we have thought of those at Ephesus, who made the silver shrines for the goddess Diana, if after their conversion, for the sake of the gain, they had continued the manufacture of idolatrous shrines. It was thought worthy of insertion in the history of the Apostolic Church, that many in that city, who were making their fortune by the practice of curious arts, as soon as they embraced Christianity, brought their magic books together and burned them before all men. Perhaps you did not know, children, that there is an account of a bon fire in the Bible—a bon fire, made of a collection of wicked books, and which were valued at fifty thousand pieces of silver; and will we make no like sacrafices? or is conscience satisfied, that we have none such to make? Inn-keeper in England, who when he succeeded his father in the business, found a piece of cricket-ground attached to the Inn, and which was the source of its chief profits. But as it was also a source of much sin, upon the occasion of the cricket matches that were played upon it, he had no hesitation, however great the sacrifice, in putting away the stumblingblock, in parting with the cricket ground. Nay, if we be in any sympathy with him, who, if his eating meat, as he said, from any misconstruction of it, from any bad use that might be made of his allowing himself his Christian liberty, should be to others the occasion of sin, he would not put another morsel of meat into his mouth as long as the world lasted; if we have any feeling in common with Paul, we shall be ready to give up, what is as lawful as the use of meat, rather than be to others the occasion of sin. I know an Nor is it only watchful we shall be not to draw others into sin, but shall we not of that woman, who was a sinner, but a forgiven sinner, her wounds were made to bleed afresh even by the balm which healed them. Do we remember and are we confounded, and open our mouth no more because of our shame, when we hear that the Lord our God is pacified towards us for all that we have done? tion? Ah! and do we, according to the mourning described in the text, do we mourn apart, as well as in the congregaDo we mourn alone and in secret, for our sins, as we should do, were any of our children taken from us? As Joseph when his heart was full, sought where to weep, and he entered into his cham ber and wept there as Peter "went out," when he wept bitterly. If our sorrow for sin do not go beyond the confession of it in the church-if our chambers know nothing of it-if our pillows know nothing of it—neither does God. There is nothing real in it. Overwhelming indeed must have been that grief, which burst out, as we read, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would to God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! Yet David mourned for sin, as he never mourned for Absalom. therefore, Oh! does he forgive himself, as easily as the world forgives him?-or as he thinks in what light such deeds are regarded in heaven, in what characters they are registered there-as he thinks of the victim of them, at that moment, it may be, in the haunts of pollution, it may be, in the regions of despair-and with whom, in the day when every secret thing shall be brought to light, he may yet be confronted, and denounced as the author of her destruction-as he thinks thus of such deeds of darkness, and then sees a Saviour yet ready to forgive all— a Saviour's grace abounding beyond his abounding sin, that his sin, though “red like scarlet, shall be white as snow," does he, or does he not "abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes ?" Were I to live over again,' do you not say, converted sinner, 'were I to live over again, would I not cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, rather than sin against God as I have done?' Dear children, says every child of God in our congregation, were I young as you, while I feel as I now feel, what glory would I not hope to give to God, serving him from my youth! Would that I could tear out of the book of my remembrance, as my God has torn out of his, the sins and iniquities of my youth! And shall I not, then, turn to you, who can yet give such glory to God, who can yet give him the ser Let me ask those of us who, as they look back upon their past life, see the first pages of it stained, it may be, with many a foul blot, with what feelings, Ivice of your youth? and will you not? would ask, are those foul blots regarded Dear young friends, will you not give to by them? Is it according to a phrase, the God who so loved you the blossom which makes one shudder as one hears it, of life rather than the dregs, rather than it makes so light of what God regards the leavings of youthful lusts? If sorrow with such abhorrence-is it as though could enter heaven, if a sigh could be that had been the time for "sowing your heaved there, if a tear could roll down wild oats;' or as any instance of early the cheek of a saint in light, it would be profligacy starts into your mind, do you for the time spent in forgetfulness of "abhor yourself, and repent in dust and God, which might have been spent to his glory. ashes ?" Suppose a man, in retracing the past, to call up acts of former years, such as to have created the necessity for this and similar institutions. Does he then, as he looks back upon such passages in his history, regard them with the indulgent eye with which the world regards them? Because the wreck of female innocence does not forfeit for a man his place in the world's society, nor though the bonds of wedlock were no restraint upon him, because he does not thus subject himself, in the circle in which he moves, to the frown of man, nor of woman, does he It may be that as you lay upon a bed of sickness, you felt sorrow for your past sins. But have you now a proof of its genuineness, in your abstaining from the the things, in which you were then sorry you had allowed yourself, and in practising the duties which you were then sorry you had neglected? or are your formner habits again indulged? are former neglects repeated? If it be so, those tears of sickness they were not the tears, which God puts into his bottle. They were but as the water, with which the sow was washed, which, because there is no |