not been MERCY which had been wooing man all his life, when he could have changed his nature. A belief that the Lord Jesus had been fully punished by the wrath of God for all our sins, and, therefore, we ought not to be punished, is, according to some, the means of means to transform in a minute, the guiltiest wretch into a fit companion of archangels. To these, and to all specifics such as these, the words of our text stand as a perpetual condemnation. "By no means clearing the guilty.” So long as a man is guilty, so long he is condemned. He is guilty so long as he loves sin and does it. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.”John iii. 19. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you he that DOETH righteousness IS RIGHTEOUS."-1 John iii. 6, 7. "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."-1 John iii. 10. The dread of a guilty man is not a dread of sin, but a dread of punishment. His sin is as dear as ever, and he would commit it again and again, if he dared. He does not repent of his guilt; he repents of being discovered, and of being about to suffer the reward of his misdeeds. Take away the terror, and the inwardly wicked man flies again to his wickedness. He never repented of having slighted, disobeyed, and defied the God of Love. He never repented of having injured his neighbour, broke his peace, or plundered his property, and He who reads the hearts sees he is guilty still. by no means clears the guilty. Let him cease to be guilty. Let him cease to love sin or to do it. Let him abhor the evil within him, and detest the selfishness that would plunder others, or the rebellious ingratitude that takes the blessings of the Saviour's universe, and tramples upon His laws. Let him hate sin, seek his Saviour, and become a new man, and then he will find a loving arm to help, that will bear away iniquity, transgression, and sin; though it will by no means clear the guilty.

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We must be born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, become new men, and as we walk in obedience to Him, we shall have that character formed within us that will fit us to live where angels live, because we love what angels love. Our change of heart and mind will be gradual. Not that we are to take steps for it to be gradual, but from the nature of the case, "It is first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn

in the ear."-Mark iv. 28. We should strive as we would with a diseased body, that by full obedience to all the directions of the physician, the cure shall be as rapid as may be, but we shall find that much tribulation and steady striving alone fit us for the realms of the blest. Our Divine Saviour watches over us, gives us help, and in due time will say of us, "Well done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord." But He by no means clears the guilty.

There is a passage in the epistle of James which has puzzled and pained many an anxious soul in connection with this word "guilty." "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law."

The word point which is in italics, and therefore not to be considered as belonging to the text at all, has distressed multitudes of tender consciences. They have thought that with all their endeavours they would miss some little point, and then be adjudged guilty of breaking the whole law. But the Apostle meant to teach no such thing as that. The child which is striving to walk, but yet through weakness stumbles, does not offend. It is purposed wrong which righteously offends. The soul which is lovingly striving to keep the commandments of the Lord Jesus, though from weakness it often fails, does not offend. It is borne with, and grows in strength. It gradually rises in purity, until it comes to perfect love, which runs to do its Lord's will, and has neither failing nor fear. What the Apostle means, is, that when a person who is moral in many things, but has some sin to which he is prone, breaks the law that does not suit him, he would break any other law that stood in his way, and he is accounted disobedient and guilty in all. On the other hand, he who truly loves his neighbour, and genuinely strives to do him good, he is accounted as fulfilling the whole law. "If ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well."-James ii. 8. "By this we know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren."-1 John iii. 14.

One other feature of His government the Lord brings before us, the law of causes and effects. "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation:" strictly unto the thirds and fourths.

It has pleased Infinite Wisdom to link our race together. The human family constitutes a grand chain, each link depending

upon all which have gone before, and imparting its qualities to all that follow after.

By hereditary transmission we know the likeness of parents and grandparents descend, and that affects not the face only, but the mind, the body, the habits. It is a law of unspeakable value : it is the law of progression. By it, the Divine Providence intends that the acquisitions of one generation should be the transmitted wealth of another. Hence, in endless advance, the virtues, talents, and excellencies of parents should be inherited by the descendants as inward riches, far nobler than any outward heritage. The starting point of each generation would thus be higher than that which preceded it.

But, on the other hand, when parents depart from goodness and from God, the sad perversities they impress upon themselves are transmitted also to their children. The iniquity of the fathers is transmitted; to the children, not as sins for which they have to be punished, but as tendencies against which they have to guard. The avaricious parent transmits the tendency to covetousness; the drunkard the tendency to drink; the quarrelsome the tendency to hot tempers. Children have not to bear the iniquity of the parents (Ezek. xviii. 20); they have not to be punished for it, but only to be tempted by it.

Not only so, but Divine Mercy stores up in the infant heart counterbalancing tendencies to good. "Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound."

If the fallen nature is a hell in miniature (Mark vii. 21), there is implanted also within, a heaven in miniature.—Luke xvii. 21. It is iniquity, (crookedness of the affections), not sin, (actual evil) which is transmitted; and punishment only follows actual delinquency. Of every child, it may still be said, as to its actual state by creation, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." "It is not the will of our Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish."

Blessed, then, for ever blessed, be the Holy Name of the All Good. All His nature is Tender, Wise, Merciful, and Gracious.

He provides ten thousand blessings in time and in eternity, for the good. He delights to bring those who have strayed, back to His divine fold, bearing, and removing iniquity, transgression, and sin. He will not, cannot alter His Divine Laws, and clear the guilty, so long as he is guilty. "But when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. All his transgressions that he hath committed, shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live."

SERMON XLVIII.

THE FACE OF MOSES SHINING AND VEILED.

"But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone; and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him."-Ex. xxxiv. 34, 35.

The Israelites had many astonishing evidences of the truth and faithfulness of their great leader. By his marvellous power displayed at the Red Sea they were eminently taught that God was with him.

The pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, testified that powers higher than his own accompanied the aged chief; and now the visible presence of gleams of unwonted light about his face was a sign to every beholder that he had been in a presence higher than his own.

Such remains of spiritual intercourse, history has recorded, have sometimes played around the human countenances in later times. The ardour of love demonstrates its energy in the glow of warmth in the human body, and there seems no reason to disbelieve that the energy of heavenly wisdom may disclose itself on sufficient occasions in super-human light. So the radiance around saintly heads has been avouched by many to have been occasionally seen both in ancient and in modern times. The angel with the rainbow round his head, seen by John, shewed the beautiful sphere seen often round the blessed in the spirit world ; and the shining face of Moses was a similar phenomenon produced on a lower sphere.

So the face of Moses shone in his intercourse with God: but when he conversed with his people he covered it with a Veil. But Moses, we must never forget, was the representative of the LAW, given through him from God to men. Every occurrence, therefore, that took place with Moses was typical of what takes place with the Divine Law, in the leadership it exercises in the journey of regeneration, made by Christian men.

We have our Moses, and our Moses is the Law of God. "The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ," Gal. iv. 24: an excellent schoolmaster, and when obeyed, a salutary and loving one. "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." -Luke xvi. 29. They must indeed hear: there is no other way. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."—ver. 31.

In the early states of our reformation, the law seems hard to us, cold, perhaps severe and exacting. It forbids us where we would fain go. It threatens, warns, and admonishes. We are sinful it is pure.

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"Thou shalt NOT," goes through the divine commands; and where we would often do what worldly love and selfishness desire, the Law comes with its "Thou shalt not," and we are prevented and save our souls alive. If we sincerely obey, the Lord works wonderfully within us, and gives us a love of obedience. The yoke that was once hard, becomes, after many conflicts, first easy, and then delightful. The law which seemed at first our enemy, as curtailing our enjoyments, becomes our friend. The friends of sensual indulgence which it has slain, were really our deadly enemies. The law has broken our fetters for us, brought us out of Egypt, redeemed us from slavery, and points our way to Canaan. The law that curbed us, is a general that disciplined and trained us for the glorious liberty of the children of light. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."-Ps. xix. 7-9.

When we have arived at the state to perceive this character of the law, Moses has gone up into the mountain to speak with God. A light, which we have never seen before, beams from his face, a holy splendour, new to us, breaks from the law which tells us that the law is more precious than thousands of gold and silver. The opening of the Word gives us light: it giveth understanding to the simple.-Ps. cxix. 130. Through the keeping of the divine commandments we become wise, wiser than our enemies (Ps. cxix. 98): wiser than all our teachers (ver. 99): wiser than the ancients (ver. 100). A gleam of glory comes from the face of Moses, a true light, a holy light, a radiance from the glory of heaven.

That the divine commandments are the laws of heaven is the