sound, many a voice of conscience that he had grappled with and stifled, now stood forth in the awful light of memory. "Son, remember." Sinner, you will never forget, never; not a message of pardon that has ever reached you, will you be able to forget; not a token of the Saviour's love that you have ever heard of, will you be able to forget; not an embassage of peace that was ever sent you, will you be able to forget; not a display of the grace that has ever tried to win you, will you be able to forget. And the remembrance of what you had been, and what you might have been, in contrast with what you are in hell, will give point to the teeth of the worm that dieth not, and strength to the scorching of the flame that never shall be quenched.

There are

Another point in the discourse of Abraham. some who get all their good things now. "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." There are some, and all the tears they will ever shed they are weeping now; there are some, and all the trials and troubles they will ever know they know now; soon the trials will be over, the conflict will be done, the battle with the world, self, and the devil, will issue in the glorious triumph that awaits the children of God. His own hand will wipe away the tears from off all faces: "Thou shalt weep no more; he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry." There are others, and oh, how they laugh! Would to God they wept; how they trifle; would to God they were made solemn; they are getting now all the good they will ever enjoy, their poor wretched goodness, and pleasures, and riches, will leave them bankrupt and stranded upon the shore with nothing —not even a drop of water to cool their tongue. The Lord himself says so, I do not comment upon it.

Then another point. The separation between those who have come to God by Christ and found him, and those who rejected him and have been lost and cut off from him, is an everlasting separation. Ages upon ages may roll on but they will never get one whit the nearer. "Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed,"-fixed," so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." The Lord himself is the teacher, the painting is sketched by his own hand.

Lastly, you who, rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and daring the Day of Judgment, are challenging its sentence, learn, in the discourse of Abraham, that the best means even God could provide for your salvation you already possess; you may say, why does not God convince me, why do not the graves around me open and tell me of the importance of the things that I am blind to? Why does not the vault of heaven rend, and some demonstration that would shake my conscience occur, to overwhelm my unbelief and my hardness of heart? The Son of God has stated that the man who does not hear the message of God in Scripture, who is not wooed by the story of the love which prophets harped upon, and Moses in his wonderful dispensation of type and picture shadowed forth,-the flowing of the blood, the brazen serpent, the fountain open, -the man, I say, who is not wooed and won by means of the word of God, that Scripture which the Holy Ghost came down to proclaim,every letter of it,—would not be persuaded even by the teaching of one who rose from the dead to convince him of his folly, and to proclaim to him God's truth: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." Men seem to forget, who talk in this way, that Lazarus did rise from the dead. The Lord seems to allude to this very fact; I do not

say he indicates the same individual, but there is a striking coincidence in the name. And yet we read (John xii. 10, 11) that so far from being convinced by the resurrection of Lazarus, the scribes and pharisees sought to kill him again.

Moreover, the Son of God rose from the dead. Yes, he rent the tomb, he scattered principalities and powers, death could not hold him, justice could not hold him, dying in our stead he satisfied justice, he rose from the dead, five hundred brethren saw him at once, and the gift of the Holy Ghost since the day of Pentecost is the pledge that he has risen from the dead, and thousands and thousands of new-born souls testify that he is risen from the dead, every message of the gospel proclaims that he is risen from the dead. Oh! how many of my congregation truly believe on him notwithstanding!

May the Holy Spirit of God speak to us from the risen Son of God, and tell us of his glorious salvation. We have warnings, we have exhortations, we have facts. The Son of God has risen from the dead. He himself has given you this picture. Friends never forget it. God grant you may never forget the realities of eternity.

A SERMON

BY

THE REV. MARCUS RAINSFORD.

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience."-COL. iii. 1-6.

THIS passage is a richly laden bough from the tree of

life. The Apostle is writing to men of like passions with ourselves, dwelling at Colosse. What wonderful things he here declares of them moreover, he grounds the declarations he makes, and urges the motives he presents, and draws the conclusions concerning them, from the fact recorded in chapter i. 4; he had heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which they had to all the saints.

The subjects we are to consider this morning are altogether divine. May God the Holy Ghost enable me to speak with profit to your souls and to my own:

(1) We are here taught the fact that those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are united to the Son of Godare members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, are in union with Jesus.

SERM. XI.

(2) That there are two consequences of that union, and three practical obligations flow from it.

In John xvii. the Lord prayed a wonderful prayer. Having brought the case of his disciples before his Father, he prayed thus (verse 20), "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one in us." Consequently, if I am addressing any, even the weakest Believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, to-day, your name, brother or sister, was in the Lord's heart, and your case and circumstances in the Lord's prayer when he uttered those words; moreover, the prayer is answered and your name is registered in heaven. God never looks at Christ but he sees you, and God never looks at you but he sees Christ. If this is not true, there is nothing true in the Bible.

The consequences of this union, the expressions and illustrations by which it is taught, and the means by which it is effected, are amongst the most blessed themes of Scripture. How has this union between the glorious Christ and my soul, your souls,-if you believe on him, been effected? The movement began with himself. There was an infinite gulf between us and him-sin had made it; but he took our nature,-"he bowed the heavens and came down." He who swayed the destinies of the universe was born in Bethlehem; and then, in our nature, he clothed himself with strength, that he might destroy our foes; he invested himself with fulness, that he might supply our need; and he laid down his life on Calvary, a sacrifice to atone to Justice for all our sins; and, having finished the work, conquered Satan, and rifled the grave, he went up,