Lastly, we read of throne, the company of under the shadow of the pledge of the love and care of the God in whom they trusted. That token of the covenant of promise often sought for by faith here, amid the clouds and storms of time, ever telling of hope and promise, they there see compassing the throne round which they stand, and crowning the head of their Lord and King, when he shall open his everlasting arms to welcome them as his blood-bought ones, and fold them to his heart for ever; and while they hear him say, "Come, ye blessed, children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," with wonder and praise they shall recognize the crown of the kingdom of his glory to be the pledge and token of that covenant of grace and love which brought them there. AMEN. another circle round about the the redeemed! There they are rainbow, which was to them the A SERMON BY THE REV. MARCUS RAINSFORD, Preached on Good Friday Morning, April 15th, 1870. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."— GALATIANS vi. 14. WHE THEN we were singing that hymn a short time since I was looking into my own heart, and looking round upon my congregation: we were all singing, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small." And we were singing, "All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood." Forgive me, dear friends, for being honest with you. I believe a great many of us were mocking God when we sang those words; no doubt unintentionally. But I put it to your consciences, how many uttered those words and sang those expressions, and yet God who searcheth the heart knows right well, and our own hearts bear witness, that we have not the least idea of sacrificing all the vain things that charm us most to his blood. May God Almighty make us real and sincere. Half the souls which are lost, are lost through formality and outward Christian profession. They go along the broad road that leadeth to destruction, speaking religion, but with a lie in their right hand, with the name of the Lord Jesus upon their lips, with the praise of the precious holy blood in their utterances; they say "All the vain things that charm me most, SERM. II.* I sacrifice them to his blood." Instead of that they sacrifice themselves to the vain things. May God speak to our consciences, dear friends. It is a solemn thing to worship God; it is a solemn thing to go through the form of prayer and praise. There is no period in our life's history in which we do so slight God, so dishonour God, so tempt God, as when we go down on our knees and call him Father, and praise his grace in giving us a Christ to whom we have never come, and for whom we care but little; if, indeed, we care for him at all. "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ" (Phillip. iii. 18). "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Paul was a professor once; but he was no mere professor when he wrote these words-they came up right hot from his very heart. Most men, indeed all men, have somewhat wherein they glory, from the highest and most refined to the lowest and most degraded of our race. You will find it to be one of the characteristics of our nature that we glory in something. Rather than not glory, men will glory in their shame; but glory in something or another we all do. The apostle Paul once gloried in being "a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, that he was as touching the law blameless;" but from the day when he was upon his journey to Damascus, full of rage against the professors of the religion of Christ, and full of opposition to Christ himself; when he was stopped in his mad career, and struck down by the grace of God; when, having his eyes opened by divine light, he recognized the king of heaven, and the Lord of glory in the man who was crucified for him; from henceforth the key-note of his ministry, and the anthem of his soul was "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Oh, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth for in these things I delight, saith the Lord" (Jer. ix. 23, 24). 66 The cross of Christ" was the matter about which the great apostle of the Gentiles gloried. The expression is frequently met with in Scripture, and we find it used in at least three different senses. Sometimes by the cross of Christ is meant the wooden cross; that tree upon which the Lord Jesus Christ was put to death. Crucifixion was a Roman punishment, and never executed but upon the greatest criminals. It was contrary to the Roman law that a Roman citizen should be crucified; they crucified only their slaves and their enemies. But we read of our blessed Lord and Master, that he "endured the cross and despised the shame;" we read that "He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ;" and in such passages the expression means the instrument of execution upon which he hung when he died. The cross was a beam of timber laid upon the ground, and the victim was then stretched upon it, and nails were put into the hands and feet, fixing him to it, and then it was lifted up and violently plunged into a socket prepared for it, and the victim was left to die from exhaustion, and agony, and thirst. Then we have the expression, "the cross of Christ," to signify the way of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ for sinners. As for instance (1 Cor. i. 18, 23, 24): "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." There, "the preaching of the cross" is evidently the same as the preaching of Christ crucified. This "preaching of the cross," this preaching of Christ crucified, implies the whole plan of salvation: God's love in giving Christ, the precious Christ's own love in giving himself, his incarnation that he might be given, his substitution for sinners when he was incarnate, his atonementsuffering, and his atonement-death are all summed up in the one little expression-the cross of Christ; because it was the lowest stage of that wondrous descent of love, of which we read, in Phill. ii. 6-8. of him, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men : and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Step after step the descent goes, and from thence he begins his wondrous ascent in a new character, not as a private individual, but as the public federal head; bringing life, salvation, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to all who trust him. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The third sense in which the expression, "the cross of Christ," is used, is in reference to the suffering that pertains to the profession of Christ by those who follow him. They are said to "take up their cross and follow him;" and the Lord Jesus Christ says, "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." In all these senses we have the expression, "the cross of Christ," and in the text, I think, we have the expression in a general sense, including all three. In reference to the |