yet he never knows but that, through his own infirmity or corruption, he may be temporarily overcome; and he is never safe if a single sentinel is withdrawn from any watchtower of his heart. Yes, he goes through the world as a combatant. He is required always to appear in arms. He fights his way up to the gate of heaven; and only resigns his armor in the act of putting off the garments of mortality.

The warrior endures with patience the hardships of the camp, and rushes fearlessly into the din of battle, not because he loves deprivation and danger, but because he connects with them the hope of victory. Victory, victory is the word that falls like music upon his ear—that burns in glory upon his heart; and when he looks around and finds himself in an army of conquerors, and feels that he is himself a conqueror too, how much more grateful is this than to be lying in ambush, or marching in the storm, or wading in blood, yet uncertain whether the fortunes of war may place him with the victors or the vanquished. He is resigned to his sufferings in view of the hopes which hang upon them; but he would not suffer always; he would hear the shouts of victory and bear the honors of victory, as soon as he can. And can it be otherwise with the Christian in his conflict? However patient he may be to wait God's time, must he not be comforted by the thought that his enemies will ere long lie prostrate at his feet; and must not his bosom sometimes kindle with strong desire to enter upon his eternal triumph? This is the place for wielding the sword of the Spirit, and wearing the shield of faith, and encountering the fiery darts of the adversary; but in yonder world the inhabitants bear palms, and wear crowns, and sit on thrones, in token of their being everlasting conquerors. Who would live alway in a world where fighting is the appropriate work; ́especially when there is a world in prospect where no hostile tongue shall ever move, and no hostile foot shall ever tread?

I would not live alway, because I would not always be harassed by spiritual enemies, and engaged in an eternal conflict. I would have this usurper within not only dethroned, but driven away. I would be beyond the reach of the devil's wiles. I would be able to lay my armor by, and feel that the contest had closed in glory. I would not live alway, because I long to feel that I have come off conqueror; I long to receive the blood-bought crown, and cast it at the feet of my enthroned Lord I would not live alway, because I had rather my heart should thrill with joy than throb with apprehension: I had rather my lips should be used to songs of immortal

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triumph, than even to supplications for God's grace to keep me from being overcome.

But I hear some one saying, "There is one thing which perhaps you have forgotten: there is a dark boundary-not a mountain, but a flood, that lies between earth and heaven; and that is to be passed before the Christian conqueror can be crowned." No, I have not forgotten that: I stand upon an eminence now, with that flood rolling and raging beneath my feet; and even here I repeat, I would not live alway. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and I rely. upon him to bear me over; and if I may only rest uponhis arm, I can walk firmly, though the tempest howls above, and the waters roar around. No, I would not alway-Rise, ye dark and stormy biilows, to frighten my poor soul, as much as ye will: Rise, ye fiends of darkness, and make your last desperate effort to terrify and overwhelm ; and in the courage of faith I dare say evento you, I would not live alway.

"Jesus, the vision of thy face

Hath overpowering charms;

Scarce shall I feel death's cold embrace,

If Christ be in my arms.

"Then, when ye hear my heartstrings break,
How sweet the minutes roll,

A mortal paleness on my cheek,

And glory in my soul!"

SERMON CCLXXI.

BY REV. W. B. SPRAGUE, D. D.

THE CROWN OF THORNS AND THE MANY CROWNS.

MATT. XXVII. 29.-And when they had platted a crown of thorns they put it upon his head:

IN CONNECTION WITH

REV. XIX. 12.-And on his head were

many crowns.

These two passages, as you will remember, refer to the same glorious personage, though they represent him in different and opposite conditions.

The former represents him in the depth of his humiliation: not only as an inhabitant of this world of sorrow, and an heir to the common sufferings of humanity, but as in the midst of that protracted scene of anguish in which he yielded himself up a sacrifice for the sins of men. The latter represents him in his glorified state; as occupying the mediatorial throne; as exalted to be head over all things to the church, and receiving the grateful homage of adoring millions. Christians, each of these passages announces a fact into which the angels desire to look; and the two facts, viewed in their connexion, may very properly form the basis of our sacramental meditations. Let us, then, before we surround the table, dwell for a few moments upon the " crown of thorns" and upon the " many crowns;" and show how the wearing of the one stood related to the wearing of the other.

"And when they had platted a CROWN OF THORNS, they put it upon his head."

When we read that our blessed Lord suffered the ignominious death of the cross, it is only a very inadequate idea of his sufferings that is conveyed to the mind. He might have been crucified without having endured the agony of the garden; without having been betrayed by one disciple, and denied by another, and deserted by all. He might have been crucified without going through with

that scene of horrible insult and cruelty to which he was subjected in the pretorium; without being gorgeously arrayed, in derision of his claims as a king; without being saluted in mockery by a blood-thirsty rabble; without having his sacred temples perforated by a crown of thorns. Indeed, it is the CIRCUMSTANCES of his crucifixion, especially in those which constituted the horrible preparation for it, rather than in the event itself, that we are to look for that which gives it such fearful prominence in the annals of suffering.

It is one of these circumstances only that is recorded in our text; and though our familiarity with it may diminish the influence which it is fitted to exert, yet where is the individual who can hold it to his mind without some tender and painful emotions? Suppose, at this moment, you were to see a crown of thorns brought forth to be placed upon the head of some person in this assembly--if you please, upon one whom you regard as your enemy-one whom you pass silently, when you meet him in the street; suppose you should see it laid carefully upon his head, and then pressed down, so that the thorns might penetrate deeply, and in a moment should see his entire body enveloped in purple gore-I ask you whether such a spectacle would not cause your own blood to set back with horror? And yet this was just what occurred in reference to our blessed Redeemer, the record of which you have perhaps read or heard a thousand times, without ever being deeply or seriously affected by it. My Redeemer wearing a crown of thorns! Was it not enough, blessed Jesus, that thou shouldst have endured that bloody sweat; that thou shouldst have felt that cruel scourge; that thou shouldst have worn that scarlet robe; that they should have bowed the knee in mockery, and deridingly hailed the as a king? No, thou must wear the crown of thorns-thy murderers are not satisfied-the malignant spirits of hell are not satisfied to have thy blood, except as the result of a protracted and lingering scene of torture; and into that scene the crown of thorns must enter!

Oh, how much CRUELTY was there in putting this thorny crown upon the blessed Redeemer's head! Had he done anything to provoke such barbarous treatment? Nothing else than to strain every nerve, both in action and in suffering, to bless and save the world. And yet here he is, with all the sensibilities of human nature in lively exercise, with the same kind of flesh and blood, of nerves and fibres, that you and I possess, bleeding, agonizing, under a crown of thorns; and even this was only a drop in the flood of anguish which was constituted by the whole scene in all its preparatory and attending circumstances!

But there was CONTEMPT as well as cruelty implied in putting this crown upon his head. It is far easier to bear bodily suffering than reproach and ignominy; but in the crown of thorns there was involved not less of the latter than of the former. Jesus had, without the semblance of ostentation, and yet with the conscious dignity of truth, declared himself a king; and hence they array him in mock majesty, and put a crown of thorns upon his head, in derision of the authority which he claimed, and pass before him bowing the knee and insultingly casting his own words into his teeth. Never was there so much of ignominy heaped upon any other being. The ingenuity of hell itself was tasked to make that man of sorrows appear unworthy of a place on God's footstool; and when he sunk at last into the arms of death, he sunk under a burden of ignominious torture.

Such was "the crown of thorns" which Jesus wore on Calvary. Let us now pass from a consideration of this to a view of the MANY CROWNS" which he now wears in heaven. When the beloved disciple saw him in his glorified state, he declares that "on his head were many crowns."

It is evident from the connexion in which these words occur, that they refer rather to his mediatorial dominion than to his absolute and original proprietorship of all things. As God the Creator, God the Preserver, God the universal Sovereign, well may the whole creation crown him Lord of all; but that there is particular reference in THIS passage to his mediatorial glory, is evident from the fact that he is here called by the peculiar names by which Christ as Mediator is designated; such as "the Faithful and True," and especially," the Word of God;" and moreover, the whole scene which is here described seems to recognize him exclusively in his mediatorial dignity. What then, more particularly, are understand, by his having upon his head "many crowns ?"

It implies that he has the whole creation in subjection to his authority; that every thing lives, and moves, and acts, as the effect of his will; that every event is rendered tributary to his purposes, and every creature is made to minister to his glory. Look abroad upon THIS EARTH, and you behold nothing but what is included in the Mediator's dominion. When you see imprisoned nature bursting from the grave of winter into the bloom and melody of spring; when you see the golden harvest falling before the reaper's sickle; when you view the mountain proudly lifting itself among the clouds; when the thunders roll and the ligtnings play around you; when the cattle sport themselves on a thousand hills,