the Lamb, that cleanseth from all sin, not as Aaron, when he went into the most holy place once a year, by the blood of others. And the word of God was, Let him not come within the vail without them, that he die not;" but Christ entered by his own blood.

Brethren, I tell you, it is low views of the blood of Christ are the ruin of our Christianity; and your faith will be strong, your peace deep, and your Christianity will be true, in proportion as you have right views of that precious, precious, precious, blood. Have you ever examined your Bibles upon the subject of the preciousness and the efficacy of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever glanced at what the spirit of God tells us it has effected for him whose blood it was; and for us, for whom he came to die? We are told by St. John, "He came by blood, not by water only, but by water and blood;" and, "It is the spirit that beareth witness, because the spirit is truth." We are taught, he was sanctified and consecrated by the blood; he made atonement and reconciliation by the blood; he rose again from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep. Great through the blood, for that is the force of the original. Great through the blood of the everlasting covenant. And we are told of that blood, that it speaketh better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood cried to God for vengeance upon his murderer: "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." But Jesus' blood crieth to his father for salvation, and proclaims welcome to heaven's glory for his murderers.

Then, think of what we read of the precious blood, as to it's virtue and efficacy for ourselves? I know not how many divine blessings come to us through the blood. Let me mention a few of them. We are "redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without

spot" (1 Peter i. 18). (Rom. v. 9), sanctified We are pardoned by and made nigh by the blood of his cross (Eph. ii. 13), our peace with God sealed by the blood of his cross (Col. i. 20). We have access unto God by the blood of Jesus (Heb. x. 19). "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests" (Rev. i. 5). We are made perfect by the blood (Heb. x. 19); and they that stand before the throne, clothed in white robes, with palms in their hands, tell us they overcame by the blood of the Lamb (Rev. xii. 8). They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and, therefore, are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple (Rev. vii. 14).

We are justified by the blood by the blood (Heb. xiii. 12). through the blood (Eph. i. 7),

Not by the blood of bulls and of goats, but by his own blood he entered. Oh, that entrance! He entered in once into the holy place. What a triumph! There never was such a triumph in heaven or earth as on that occasion, nor will be until the day when his salvation is fully accomplished, and he enters by the same gates, with new shoutings of heaven's host, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in ;" when he brings all his ransomed hosts with him. What an entrance! He went in, King of kings and Lord of lords! he went in High Priest, and consecrated head of his church-their forerunner and their surety. What an entrance! Where did he enter? Not through the vail of an earthly tabernacle, nor through the vail of even Solomon's temple, but through the rent vail of his own flesh, into the very heaven of heavens, to appear in the presence of God for us. "Christ being come.' May the Lord seal it upon our hearts and consciences.

And when Christ entered, what took place? He

obtained, by virtue of his incarnation and sacrifice; by virtue of his conquest of death and hell-He obtained what? Eternal redemption. Again, verse 15, "an eternal inheritance;" and, again, as you read in the fifth chapter of this same epistle, "eternal salvation." And the gift of God, now, is this eternal salvation—this eternal redemption, this eternal inheritance-and the price is paid, and the victory is won, and the Holy Ghost is on earth proclaiming it by the Word: "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.' For Christ has come, a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, not of this building, neither by the blood of bulls and of goats, but by his own blood he hath entered once. He never needs to do it twice. It was well done; it was gloriously done; it was done in such a way as satisfied every attribute of God, and every need of the sinner; and he sat down at the right hand of God, for there was no more work to be done; and God said, "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Ah, friends, you must every one be brought, conquered, to the feet of Jesus by the message of his cross, or you will be crushed one of these days beneath the sceptre of his power, for every knee shall bow to him, whether constrained by love or conquered by omnipotence.

Well, then, let us just take one or two conclusions from this wondrous statement. The shadows are gone, for the substance has come: remember that. And the men who go back to the shadows, which are but a poor mimicry of even the Jewish ritual, much less of the substance, are but going back to beggarly elements, and they are starving our souls. We have got something better than draperysomething better than incense; we have got something

better than Eucharistic worship-we have got the Lamb; and, O God, grant to us that we may not neglect this great salvation. Come, then, brethren, claim the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, put your cause into his hands, plead his blood, make mention of his righteousness, and expect the good things to come. And may God bless his own truth. AMEN.

A SERMON

BY

THE REV. MARCUS RAINSFORD,

Preached on Sunday Morning, April 10th, 1870.

“And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly." ST. LUKE, Xxii. 61, 62.

THERE is a very remarkable contrast between the bio

graphies of the Bible and those which men write: in the latter, we have a prejudiced, one-sided view, where the real or assumed virtues of a favourite character are exaggerated, and the many failings covered or ignored. When the Holy Ghost writes a biography, we have man as he is. When men write, their object is to exalt themselves and their fellows; when the Holy Ghost writes, his object is to exalt Christ. I believe we are all more or less conscious of a special interest in the character of the apostle Peter. There is something so very natural about it. Perhaps, too, some of us think we discover in his strange admixture of undoubted love for Christ, and yet, at times, of great and

SERM. II.