importance at an uncertainty. Should you be under a mistake, is it not desirable to discover it in time to alter? Do you ask how you are to know whether you have the Spirit? Not by a direct assurance from Heaven; not by any sudden impulse of mind. No; but by the effects produced. This is the way the sacred writers lead us to determine. If the Spirit of Christ be in you, you may be sure it will be active there; that it will banish the love of sin; that it will inspire a desire to please and glorify God. Examine the history of the Son of God; observe His language; see Him going about doing good; see Him, "meek and holy in heart;" hear Him say, " My meat is to do the will of my Father, and to finish His work.” Oh, if you have His Spirit, could you live, as some of you are living, without prayer? Remember, the Spirit of God is called "the Spirit of Grace and of Supplication." It is His office to take up the things of Christ, and to reveal them unto you.

Well, if you are His, we have reason to hail you. You need no more to fill you with joy unspeakable and full of glory, than a pleasing sense of this. You need fear no "condemnation," as you have heard, for "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." That is, though Satan may accuse and condemn you; though the world may accuse and condemn, God hath justified you. "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."

Then you need fear no separation. For, as we read in the chapter before us, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then need fear no exigency. For your you God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." "There is no want to them that fear Him." "He," says the Apostle, " that provideth not for his own is worse than an infidel." Does not God, think you, provide for His own? Does not the Saviour provide for His own ?-those for whom He suffered, bled, and died? Yes. All the promises are theirs. All the treasures of grace and glory are theirs. Nature and Providence, too, are theirs. All things are theirs; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; "All are yours, Christians, for ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

There is one remark with which we conclude. There may be in this large assembly some who have not the Spirit, and they know it. Your case is truly awful, but we would not drive you to despair. There is hope in Israel concerning this. There is hope regarding your salvation. The Apostle's language in our text is, "Now if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." But he does not say, "He shall be none of His ; that there exists an impossibility of his ever being one of Christ's." Oh, no. What were those once, now in a state of union and communion with Him? Hear them saying, “Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord: but to Thy name be all the glory." "O taste and see that the Lord is good," for yourselves, "blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." Behold Him, therefore, exalted at the right hand of God, waiting to be gracious; go and plead with Him; hearken to His language. "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" When Mr. Newton was first awakened, he says he was impressed with these words, and they afforded him encouragement. "I said to myself, 'If the Bible be true, why then this promise must be true, and if this promise be true, then if I ask I shall receive.' I did ask," he tells us, "and I received; I did seek, and I found; I did knock, and the door of mercy opened. Now I stand before Him, as a monument of His goodness, to excite and induce others to believe on Him to life everlasting." Amen.

540

VIII.

EASTER HOPES.

(Preached on Easter Sunday, April 23rd, 1840.)

"Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you."-2 CORINTHIANS iv. 14.

FOR many years I have been in the habit at the return of this season, as you well remember, of considering the resurrection of Christ in the morning, and that of His people in the evening; but as now I have only to address you once, I combine them both in our present exercise, according to the language of our apostle in the text, "Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you." Now here are four things which we shall endeavour to explain and improve. The first regards a fact; "God raised up the Lord Jesus." The second regards the inference derivable from it; "He shall raise up us also by Jesus." The third regards a privilege : fellowship; "and shall present us with you." The fourth regards a knowledge of this: we know it," say Paul and Barnabas, the speakers in our text. 'Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you."

I. The first regards A FACT. "God raised up the Lord Jesus." We call it a fact because it has been acknowledged as such for nearly two thousand years, and because it has been so acknowledged by men the most capable of understanding the force and value of evidence; because it is a subject that demands all our attention and all our belief; and because we can bring forward in defence of it, probabilities, proofs, and even demonstrations which no man can reasonably gainsay or resist.

Jesus died. Here we begin. This was never denied: It could not be denied. He was publicly executed on a hill, at

the time of a festival, and before a vast number of spectators. His death was ascertained even while He was yet upon the cross. When the executioner had broken the legs of the malefactors that were crucified with Him, they brake not His legs because they found He was dead already. "Then Joseph of Arimathea took down the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes," and anointed the body, and then He was conveyed to the grave, which was a new tomb wherein never man was laid. To prevent all deception His adversaries set a watch, and sealed the stone of His sepulchre with the Governor's seal. But yet the third day the body was gone. What became of it? The guard was answerable for it, it was committed to their keeping, and that those poor timid suffering disciples came and drove away these veterans of the world and took the corpse was too absurd for them to report; therefore they were taught to say, "that His disciples came by night, while we slept, and stole him away." But here was a reflection upon the Roman soldiers, who were said to sleep while on watch. Then, secondly, how came they all to be asleep, no individual among them being awake? Then, thirdly, this instance is the first time in all the annals of history of a party coming into court for the purpose of swearing to a thing which took place while they were asleep. But infidelity stops at nothing. There is nothing too inconsistent -too improbable-too impossible-with men when they oppose the truth of God.

We may remark also, the disciples were not men of hasty credence; they were full of despondency; nothing but the most strong and convincing proofs would have satisfied them; but the weakness of their faith is the strengthening of ours.

They were favoured to be the witnesses of His resurrection; and what were these witnesses? What was the number of them? It is said "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." Our Lord appeared to several individuals alone. He appeared unto two of His disciples as they were going to Emmaus. Twice He appeared to His disciples when assembled at Jerusalem. Again He appeared to seventy of them at the Sea of Galilee; and afterwards He appeared to above five hundred at once. What were their qualities as witnesses? They were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses; they were manual witnesses. And what time had they to observe whether this were a reality? Why, "To them He showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the

kingdom of God." Thus they could not be imposed upon themselves.

Let us ask, what could have induced them to want to impose upon others? What prospect had they of success? What were they to gain? What honour, or wealth, or safety by their lies? But, my brethren, as we have proofs as well as probabilities to adduce, we have also demonstrations. These men came forward and vowed that He whom they had crucified had risen; that He was actually now alive. "You know we have no learning; we can only speak our own tongue," might they say, "but we will call upon Him, and we will immediately speak off eloquently thirteen languages which we never knew, and persons from various countries shall hear in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. We are mere men, we are acting in His name and in His strength; and if you question this, bring forward your blind and we will give them sight, your deaf and we will cause them to hear, your dead and we will raise them to life by a word."

"Hence and for ever from my heart,
I bid my doubts and fears depart;
And to His hand my soul resign,
That bears credentials so divine."

So far, my brethren, we have considered His resurrection as certain, but we may also view it as magnificent. The air was clear and cold; the pale moon was shining on the helmets and shields of the soldiers, when the earthquake shook the ground; and then an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre and sat upon it. Why do not these guards drive him. away? Why do they suffer this to take place? But these guards trembled, and became as dead men, and fell to the ground, while he sat upon the stone with folded arms defying all their power: well, but they had viewed many terrible things; they had made the earth to tremble with their exploits ; and now they tremble and shake! But this is not all. was magnificence of mercy as well as might. Here were women where were the Apostles? Here were women, the last at the cross, and the first at the sepulchre; they came very early while it was yet dark; they were not terrified at those Roman guards; but though they were not afraid of these, they obviously were afraid of the shining figure on the stone. Yet this fear was perfectly groundless. "And the angel answered and said unto them. Fear not; I know that ye

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