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who is true-who is truth. He is dead-unfit for communion with him who is living-who is life. He must be transformed he must be quickened; from the darkness of death, he must be brought into "the light of life." He who is true can make true; He who is light can give light; He who is life can give life. The substance of the whole of this wonderful declaration, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," thus seems, then, to be, It is through my mediation-specially by my going through death to heaven —that you are to be brought to the enjoyment of perfect holy happiness with the Father and with me there; and my mediation may be safely trusted to, for I am the truth and the life-the true and the living One-having all truth and life in myself, and the power and right to use these, so as to fill you with holy truth and divine life, and thus make you fit for being for ever with the true and living God.'

Indeed, the three clauses seem naturally to follow one another. "I am the way" to the Father-by my atoning death I open a way to heaven. But men are in ignorance and error-they do not know the way, they are in darkness, and know not whither they go. "I am the truth," the light of the world. I show the way I have opened up. But men are dead. "I am the life;" I quicken the dead, and enable them both to see the way and to walk in it. What more is necessary to efficient mediation for bringing man, who is far from God—in the pollution of moral darkness and death -to the enjoyment of holy happiness in the living and true God?

(4.) He is the only way to the Father.

Having thus exhibited himself as the way to the Father, our Lord adds, "No man cometh to the Father but by me," -i. 'There is no other way to the Father.'

In order to the ultimate happiness of a being like man, un

John viii. 12.

der the government of a being like God, there must be adequate satisfaction made for the violation of the Divine law. Sin must be expiated in order to its being pardoned. The God of righteousness cannot clear the guilty. And where can expiation be found, but in that blood which, because it is the blood of God's own Son and elect servant, "cleanseth us from all sin?" And not less necessary is a change of heart in the sinner to make him capable of holy happiness in God. No unholy man can ever enter heaven; and were it possible for him to enter it, he could not participate in its enjoyments. Where is this change to be obtained, but by the operation of the Spirit of Christ? And how could that Spirit, so rich a blessing, ever be conferred on men lying under the curse, had not "he who knew no sin, become sin in their room," had not the blessed One become a curse, "to redeem them from that curse, that they might obtain that Spirit?" And how could darkened, blind, bewildered man, find out this way, even supposing it opened up, but by Christ "the truth," in his word, by his Spirit making it known? And how could man, "without strength," "dead in trespasses and sins," walk in this way, unless Christ "the life" quickened him, and enabled him to "walk up and down in his name?" 2

Numerous are the plans which perverted human ingenuity has devised to obtain the Divine favour. All these pretended ways to the Father in heaven lead, in reality, in a very different direction. The most likely of these ways into life, is keeping the commandments-understanding by the commandments the whole law. That was once a practicable way to life for man, but since the fall of Adam, the way of entering into life by personal obedience, has been completely blocked up. With a depraved nature, will any man ever yield a perfect obedience to the Divine law-holy, just, good, perfectly reasonable, as are all its precepts? And

11 John i. 7.

Rom. v. 6. Eph. ii. 1. Zach. x. 12.

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at best, the law speaks on this wise: "He that doeth these things, shall live in them." These were its terms to innocent man. But now, supposing what never has, what never can take place, that man has yielded perfect obedience, from a certain point, What is to become of the guilt previously contracted? how is the curse to be removed? or how is it to be borne? And surely if there be no way into heaven, by doing what the law requires, there cannot be a way to that blessed place, by doing what that law does not require, or what that law forbids; and to one or both of these descriptions belongs every professed way to heaven, but the way which Christ has opened up by his death and intercession, and Spirit, and word, and mediatorial administration. It were strange if we could-by doing what God never commanded, or what God has forbidden, offering "thousands of rams, pouring out ten thousand of rivers of oil, giving the first-born for transgressions, the fruit of the body for the sin of the soul"—propitiate him whom we had offended, and regain the favour which we had lost by our violating his holy commandments. At the senseless bloody rites of pagan superstition, enlightened humanity shudders and weeps. Man seems bereft of reason in seeking the expiation of his crimes, by committing others still more foul. And though less shocking, not less obviously fruitless, and still more presumptuous, must appear the attempts of enlightened civilised men, calling themselves Christians, to secure the favour of God, and attain eternal happiness, by their own. self-devised plans, by their own unassisted exertions, without Christ, or in any other way than by Christ.

There is no salvation in any but Christ. He is, he alone is, the saviour. "Other foundation no man can lay"-other way no man can open up: "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus." "There is one mediator between God

Gal. iii. 12.

2 Mic. vi. 7.

and men, the man Christ Jesus." "His blood cleanseth us from all sin." No other blood can cleanse from any sinHis Spirit can mortify and destroy all corrupt principles-no other power in the universe can do this. Under his influence the faith of the truth, as it is in Jesus, can pacify the conscience, and purify the heart, and give confidence before God, and fill with peace, and hope, and holy joy. The belief of nothing else can do this. He can bring us to God. No man-no angel--can.

No truth is more explicitly stated than this. No terms can be plainer than those now before us. If we believe them not, we give the lie to him who "is the truth." Life is to be found only in him who is the life; and all who, seeking life, will not come to him to obtain it, shall find that their conduct is like one who loves death, for they could not take more certain means to obtain it. There is no true happiness but in knowing, and being loved by, and having intercourse and fellowship with, the Father; and the Father cannot be acceptably approached, either on earth or in heaven, but through him who is the way, the truth, and the life. Those, then, who are, either in whole or in part, expecting to find acceptance with God at last, on any ground but that of Christ having gone, through expiatory suffering, to heaven, as our surety and representative, are assuredly deceiving themselves, and will find, to their everlasting disappointment, that they cannot obtain God's favour and fellowship-nay, that they cannot escape destruction from his presence and the glory of his power-who "neglect this great salvation," and contemn, by overlooking, the only Saviour.

To bring a sinner to God,-either now, in penitent reception of the gift of his Son, and his salvation, or ultimately, in the enjoyment of perfect holy happiness in heaven,—is a wonderful exercise and manifestation of Divine omnipotence,

Acts iv. 12. 1 Tim. ii. 5. 1 John i. 7.

2 Heb. ii. 3.

as well as mercy. All the created powers of the universe are incapable of accomplishing either of these works. Had not God, in the exceeding greatness of his power, by the incarnation, death, and resurrection of his own Son, opened a way for bringing sinners to him as the Father, it must have continued an impossibility for one of our guilty race to experience how good it is to be near him. They must all have perished, being far from him. And, besides these general obstructions in the way of the sinner coming to God, rising out of the perfections of the Divine character, and the principles of the Divine government-difficulties which, from their very nature, are obviously insuperable by any power inferior to infinite-there are other obstructions in the case of every individual sinner, which, if the application as well as the impetration of the blessings of salvation, were not the work of Omnipotence, would preclude the possibility of the coming of a single sinful soul to God.

There is a stupidity and thoughtlessness natural to men in their present state in reference to religious relations and interests, so great, that if anything approaching to it were manifested in reference to their other relations and interests, we should, without hesitation, reckon it insanity, and treat it accordingly. While this madness of the heart continuesand, alas, it often continues with scarcely a lucid interval, till they awake, never to sleep again, amid the dread realities of eternity-men remain unaware of, or unimpressed with, the misery and danger of those who are far from God, and who never can come to him in mercy. Nothing but the power of God can dispel this stupor, and rouse men from this spiritual lethargy. The strongest reasoning, and the most persuasive eloquence—strains which, by their sweetness, might charm the adder, and, by their energy, waken the dead-produce no permanent impression. It is the voice that called creation into being that alone can effectually awaken thoughtless man to serious consideration.

And even when aroused, a divine power is necessary to