with his father Isaac, and his grandfather Abraham, in the kingdom of God. There the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign forever and ever. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

Who is surprised that poor Bunyan, in his gloomy prison, exclaimed, "I wished myself among them”? Though on a throne, what Christian but would burn with the same longing, yearning desire? what Christian but would feel that, for him, this earth with all its glory is only a prison, from which he pines to escape, that he too might have his crown and his harp, and might enter in and be among them? Would that I were among them. Would that the moment had come when my weary foot were on the last round of the ladder; when my next step might be in among them; when, with one bound, I might reach the sapphire pavement, and stand amidst the blooming light and bursting hallelu

jahs of the thick around the throne, raining their crowns of amaranth at his feet, and without intermission answering one another, and saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord"Which when I had seen, I wished myself among them."

SERMON XII.

THE CROSS. *

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. JOHN, xii. 32.

THAT is a singular account given by Eusebius of the conversion of Constantine. He was marching, says the historian, at the head of his army from France, to encounter his rival Maxentius in a conflict, upon the issue of which his empire depended. Oppressed with anxiety, he prayed that some God would aid him; when, in the heavens and higher than the sun, a luminous cross appeared, emblazoned with these words: "By this sign thou shalt conquer." He did conquer; and ever after the cross was displayed as the banner of the Cæsars.

The truth of this narrative I, of course, shall not now examine. It is certain, fathers and brethren, and all important for us to recollect, that, in the noble enterprise in which we are engaged, there is but one standard which can be upreared successfully-but one banner which, star-like, must flame above our ranks, and lead

* Delivered in Baltimore, before the General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States; April 28, 1841.

us on to victory-and that this is the cross-the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How exactly to the subject in hand is the prediction uttered by a prophet, and cited by Paul in the fifteenth chapter of Romans. "In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek." And although it is probable that Isaiah himself did not comprehend "what the spirit of Christ which was in him did signify” (for a cross! a gallows!-even upon the vision of that most rapt of all the seers of Israel, could this have streamed as an ensign for man's deliverance for the gathering and disenthralling of the nations ?) yet we, my brethren, understand the prophecy and its fulfilment.

The very act, indeed, of the crucifixion, and the hour, furnished remarkable proof, or rather a significant type and adumbration, of the influence which the cross would exert. On that day and witnessing that spectacle, were present, in truth, the very "all men”—that is, all classes of men-to whom the text refers; and observe the effect on them. In the Roman centurion, behold a representative of the intellectual and sceptical; and what is the effect on him? He is convinced; he "feared greatly, saying, truly this was the Son of God." In the multitude, remark the careless and thoughtless; and what are their emotions? Roused and agitated, they leave the spot, "smiting heavily on their breasts." And in that poor thief—in his conscious guilt, his penitence, his imploring cry for help, and the answer which at once dispels his fears, and sheds joy throughout his

soul, and opens to him the gates of Paradise-see there the influence of the cross upon a sinner, its power to stir, and then to hush, the guilty clamor within.

Behold the might of the cross, as exhibited in the very act of the crucifixion, and on that memorable day when the Saviour was lifted up. But was this power confined to that time, and to that place? No, my brethren. As Paul said to the Galatians who had heard the gospel, "Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you," although Galatia was some hundreds of miles distant from Calvary-so, wherever the gospel is now preached to a people, there the Saviour is set forth lifted up among that people, and there the same influence will be felt, the same potency exerted. Still it is true (and I here indicate the subject and division of my whole discourse), still it is true, that whatever the intellect of a man, there is an argument in the cross to convince him; whatever the heedlessness of a man, there is an energy in the cross to rouse him; in fine, whatever his guilt, there is in the cross a magnetism to draw, and a magic to change, and a mystery to save him. Let us resume these thoughts. I beg you, my hearers, to honor me with all your attention. And, "O thou that hearest prayer," vouchsafe me the adorable succors of thy grace, and hasten the time when "unto thee shall all flesh come !" Amen.

I am going to consider the cross, in the first place, simply as an argument; and recollect, the Saviour himself declares that one object of his mission and death was the assertion and establishment of the truth. It was