designated in the Scriptures under that name; for in this very epistle, he expressly distinguishes the word of the Spirit from the person of the Spirit, and asserts that the former without the latter the preaching the cross without the direct influence of God upon the mind-is ineffectual. Though Paul plant and Apollos water, all is vain without the Spirit's inworking.

But, on the other hand, Paul speaks of the gospel itself as being not inert, but quick and powerful,--not a dead letter, but a living principle,--through the grace of the Holy Spirit opening the mind to receive it, a divine energy, the divinely adapted and divinely powerful means of raising dead souls to a holy and spiritual life, and of sustaining and strengthening in them that life to their complete and eternal salvation. Nor does he merely say, that the gospel in general, but the doctrine of the cross in particular, is the power of God; the doctrine which points us to the expiatory sacrifice of Christ for justification, is also, on that account, the means of sanctification; the doctrine which alone gives peace to the burdened conscience, gives purity to the believing heart,-the doctrine which offers a free pardon to the vilest of sinners, associates their sins, on their cordially receiving it, with the deepest abhorrence of their souls,--the doctrine which brings to the heart of the very adultress, the accents of a bleeding Saviour, "Neither do I condemn thee," brings to her the warning also of the Almighty Judge, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." It is the only doctrine which is effectual to this end, and so in contrast with all human schemes of salvation, is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

All this is before the world as historic verity. The doctrine of the cross has been, and is in fact to them that are saved, the power of God. It was such in the days of the apostles. Myriads, where it was preached, in Jewish lands or in pagan, it powerfully convinced sin, and melted in contrition; it made joyful in the knowledge of forgiveness, and turned from all iniquity in love to their great Redeemer; it called out from the world in profession of his name, and emboldened in his cause in the face of persecution; it joined together in firm fellowship, and carried forward triumphant over all opposition in a new and holy life.

In the reformation of the sixteenth century, the same doctrine wrought with the same power. It was this which gave peace to the troubled soul of Martin Luther in the monastery of Erfurt; and which, imparting to him the peace, was also to him the power of God; and through him to many thousands, all over Europe, to whom, by his preaching and his writings, the doctrine came. It is this which stands first among the causes which have given to reformed nations since the elevation which they have possessed; which is the vital principles of the many thousands of evangelical churches in these nations; and, to them that are saved in these churches, is consciously as life from the dead, and through them is spreading light and life into all quar

ters of the world. Go to listening assemblies, where this doc trine is having its appropriate effect. What is it but the power of God which causes that breathless silence,--that unutterable emotion, that heart piercing conviction, that absorbing inquiry,--that obedient surrendering, that joy in God, which force the witnesses of the scene to say, "Surely God is in this place," and to those who gladly receive the word, make the hour the era of a new and holy life? Or what is it but the power of God that constrains so many of the subjects of this grace to break away from their country and friends, that they may convey to the perishing the salvation which they have found; that sustains them in a patient and cheerful prosecution of their work under all privations and sufferings; and that by their means, raises up degraded bushmen and ferocious cannibals into an honorable standing among the enlightened nations of the world? If it is by the power of God that these things are done, it is also by the power of the cross. It is this which directly and consciously operates on the sensibilities and active principles of the soul, quickened by the spirit of life; and to this alone, as connected with the agencies and means of its application, is the effect to be ascribed. The doctrine of the cross, in distinction from other means of moral culture, other schemes of religion, and other doctrines called Christian, is in fact the power of God in the moral renovation of men.

As such is the fact, so it is not difficult to show, from the moral constitution of men, that such is the appropriate result. The doctrine of the cross peculiarly is adapted to the effect:

1. Revealing God as having united himself to our nature, and for our salvation, it brings him near. No need have we of the sensible forms and gorgeous rites of pagan or papal idolatry,-no need of the symbols of the ancient dispensation, the shechinah, the mercy-seat, the temple,-to bring out the Eternal from the secrecy of his invisible abode, make him present to our apprehensions, or impress us with his personal agency around and within us, or his claims to our affection and worship. Standing around the cross, and believing in him who hangs bleeding there as very God and very man," and seeing him thence ascending, consecrated by sufferings, as "the author of eternal salvation to all those that obey him," it is not difficult for us to feel that he is near us, and mindful of us, that he condescends to our mean estate, though offended at our sin; and that with him is our great concern, and with the invisible God in and through him.

2. Revealing the holiness of God, and vindicating the claims of his law, it rouses the conscience, and convinces of sin. It was not for creatures of a day, nor for unoffending subjects of God, nor for sinners but slightly guilty, that Christ, the Son of God, died an atoning sacrifice. No! if Christ died for all, then were all dead; and every bleeding wound and dying groan proclaims to every living man, that all things here are infinitely insignifi

cant in comparison with an interest in his redemption. For if these things were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If God would forgive sin through no inferior sacrifice; if he who was in the form of God, and counted it no robbery to be equal with God, must have made himself of no reputation, and taken the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, that penitent sinners might be forgiven,-then sin is no light thing in the view of God; then is our God not only a loving Father but a righteous Judge; then can no riches of his goodness secure to favor those whom justice demands for punishment; and then will the punishment of those who die in impenitence, under the guilt of rejecting his grace, superadded to that of refusing his authority, be alike certain and dreadful.

3. Revealing the forgiving mercy of God, in harmony with his punitive justice, it pacifies the conscience and melts the hearts of those who cordially believe in it. It brings them to the throne of grace, confessing their sins; assures them that he who gave his Son to die for them when enemies, will not reject them coming to him reconciled; that in pardoning them through his blood, there is no sacrifice of righteousness; that his justice itself has no pleasure in their death, and asks only that the law be sustained in their forgiveness, and that, satisfied with the honor done it in Christ, it sits partner with mercy in forgiving and saving to the uttermost all who come unto God by him. No matter how great is their guilt, no matter how absolute their conscious destitution of righteousness, and their despair of working out any, they are made welcome as though they were like the angels; for the righteousness of God is unto and upon all them that believe, with no difference. And this it is that melts the heart while it tranquillizes the conscience,-dissolves it in penitence under the sense of sins so great freely forgiven. You have heard the story of the poor ignorant Greenlanders, who, as the missionaries told them of the power and Godhead of the Creator, turned away with stupid indifference; but when pointed to the cross, were softened and subdued. So it is everywhere. The goodness of God leadeth us to repentance; and where is the goodness of God seen as on the cross, pardoning sins so great as to require such an expiation?

Finally, bringing us into peace with God, awakening delight in him, and gratitude to him, it transforms us after his image. We love him because he first loved us. Knowing and believing the love which he hath toward us, we admire what we see, and would be what we admire; we love as we are loved; we forgive as we are forgiven; the same mind is in us which was in Christ Jesus. We look not every one on his own things, but every one also on the things of others, and very specially on the condition of lost souls, and desire their fellowship with us in the great salvation. "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again."

In conclusion, I remark,

1. The doctrine of the atonement is fundamental in the Christian system. The preaching of this doctrine is indispensable to the preaching of the gospel, and belief in it, to believing unto salvation. Preaching Christ merely as our teacher, or as our example, or as sealing his testimony with his own blood, or as the brightest manifestation of the love of God, is not preaching the cross, and will not answer the end of the preaching of the cross. It will not save men. It may move the sensibilities, but

it will not awaken the conscience or subdue the will. Nor will it heal the wounds of the contrite, or enthrone Christ in hearts devoted to the world. Jesus died, and died for us. He who was in the form of God, and counted it no robbery to be equal with God, took upon him our griefs and carried our sorrows; he whose throne is forever and ever, and whom all the angels of God do worship, took part with us in flesh and blood, that through death he might save us from death. This is the only doctrine that can at once awaken and tranquillize the conscience; subdue and constrain the will; produce in souls alienated from God the images of his holiness, and through them reproduce in others the same images to his glory. Ye who would be saved, ye who feel the power of sin, and are striving in vain for deliverance, hearken to him who from the cross proclaims, "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." That is the only object, the view of which can change the slave into a child,-the rebel into a friend.

2. The doctrine of the cross is a doctrine of great simplicity. Christ died for us. He died for our sins,-the just for the unjust. He redeemed us by his blood,-redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Such is the doctrine as it lies in the Scriptures. A child may understand it, though it involves relations into which angels look. The child, whose heart is opened to it, does understand it, and feels its power; so does the Greenlander and Hottentot, and is saved by it,-weeps and prays, and hopes, and loves, and rejoices, in the light of the glory of God, which shines upon him from it. But men have adopted other forms of statement. They have said that our sins were imputed to Christ,-that he was punished for them,-that he suffered the wrath of God on account of them,-that he suffered the curse of the law in our stead,--that his sufferings and death were the penalty of the law for our sins,-that he suffered and died to satisfy divine justice,-to satisfy and cancel the penal demands of the law. By such forms men would explain what God has not explained, or would distinguish their own views, the one from the other, of what they suppose that he has revealed. Doubtless some, even all these may be understood in accordance with the doctrine as it lies in the Scriptures; but they may be, and sometimes are, understood in a way that corrupts and perverts it; and this at least is certain, that whatever is peculiar to

them is not the power of God in saving those who hold to it, as is demonstrable from the fact, those who are saved are not agreed in them. Luther, and Baxter, and Edwards, in preaching the doctrine, employed different forms of statement, while they all preached the doctrine itself; and to themselves, and those who heard them, it was the power of God.

Brethren, how peculiarly it becomes us as preachers of the cross, proclaiming our own dependence on the infinite sacrifice, to be tolerant towards each other, united in the same faith, differ though we may in cherished forms of statement; and the more especially, since it is not by any doctrinal belief or doctrinal preaching, without its appropriate influence in our hearts, that we shall ourselves be saved, or can expect to save others. The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. It has not been by any merely verbal statements made with logical exactness, settled in councils, inscribed on parchments, and deposited in ecclesiastical archives, that the doctrine of the cross has come down to us through generations buried in dust; but it has been through souls, in all these generations, made alive to God and the concern of salvation by its power; and it must be by our own experience of that power," working in us mightily," if, when we lie sleeping in dust, it will have saved us, and, through us, been transmitted to those who will succeed us, and spread abroad for the salvation of a dying world. The doctrine is important,-is indispensable as the medium of communication with its objectthe true doctrine of the cross, and not another under the name; but woe to us if we rest in the doctrine; if we look not through the doctrine to the object, if we communicate not with it in the deep sympathies, and fervent aspirations, and applications of our inner man; if we give it not its appropriate place in our hearts; if we live not upon it, the life of godliness; if it be not in us, in the matter of our salvation, the power of God.

My brethren, it is a blessed privilege to be preachers of the cross, to dwell around the cross, as David desired, like the priests of old time, to dwell always in the house of the Lord,but to be also living examples of the efficacy of the cross, and preachers of it in churches, where, through us, its efficacy is conspicuous; and in view of what it has wrought in ourselves and in these, to be able to say to a perishing world,--See what it has done! to us who are saved it is the power of God,-to what higher blessedness could a sinful mortal aspire?

Brethren, I am happy to meet you on this occasion. Almost all whom I used to greet in these fraternal assemblings are gone. In the prospect of soon following them, I rejoice to know that the preaching of the cross will not cease, but, as it is now shedding heavenly glory over benighted nations, so, at no distant period, it will be known and acknowledged, by all our perishing race, as the power of God unto salvation--Amen.