THE character and condition of the whole human race are most truthfully represented by this word "sinners." No word suggests more sad and humbling views of mankind at large. To be a sinner is to be in a state of alienation from God, our maker and preserver, who is at all times entitled to

* Our friend, Mr. Brown, accompanies his discourse with a note, in which he says, "You are aware that the late Rev. C. G. Townley, LL.D., selected for his funeral sermon, which was preached by Rev. Mr. Bevis, of Ramsgate, the place, I believe, of the Doctor's birth,-1 Tim. i. 15. Without pretending to know why the Doctor fixed on the verse specified in his will for the subject of his funeral sermon, I should think all who were intimately acquainted with him, and particularly those who had often heard him preach, will at once recognize the Doctor's mind, and that which formed the prevailing theme of his ministry. Few Christians, if any, held more exalted views of the Saviour, Christ Jesus; no subject was so welcome to him in conversation as Christ, and the progress of his cause in the world; and I think I may venture to affirm, that he never preached a sermon in which he did not hold out Christ most prominently as the sole foundation of the sinner's hope of acceptance with God, and, at the same time, the pattern and consolation of the Christian. He knew, above many, the intrinsic value of this faithful saying for himself, and he would that all VOL. XIV.

our undivided love and obedience. It is to be guilty of transgressing his laws; it is to be under the curse of God, and liable to woe everlasting. Differences of opinion may exist among men as to the origin of sin, how sin has got into the world, and likewise as to the amount of guilt that each may

might know it for themselves and be blessed. As it was my lot and happiness to have been for many years on terms of intimate friendship with that truly Christ-like man, and to have laboured, as you know, for a lengthened period in connection with him in Ireland, my thoughts were turned to that all-important passage of Holy Writ with an interest that possibly I never had before felt. Soon after the solemn event, I had more than one opportunity of preaching from the words, and related some events in the life of my friend, which seemed to produce marked attention. I take the liberty of sending you a copy of the discourse-not that I think it has any special excellence either as to matter or style that you may give it a place in the WITNESS, should you think well to do so; but chiefly as an expression of my love to the Doctor's memory. I have abstained from introducing any particulars respecting the Doctor, because I have understood that the Rev. Mr. Martin, of Westminster Chapel, where the Doctor latterly worshipped, intends publishing his sermon preached on the occasion of his death with notices of his life."

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be chargeable with, but few will be found denying the fact included in the text, "that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." The history of mankind in all ages and in every part of the world but confirms the humbling truth.

Were there no other proof of this being our condition and the condition of all, we have, I consider, sufficient in the restlessness of men in their pursuits after happiness, and the endless variety of schemes and expedients under the name of religion everywhere resorted to, in order, if possible, to bring peace to the disquieted conscience, and obtain the hope of a happier life hereafter. The utter inadequacy, alas! of all such inventions to secure the earnestly longed-for blessing, tells us most unmistakably that something better is yet wanted; that the soul-stirring questions, "How shall man be just with God?" again, "Wherewithal shall I come before God, and bow myself before the Most High God? and "What shall I do to be saved?" the philosophies and religions of man have been unable to answer. Blessed be God, the Gospel meets our case in all the depth and breadth of our misery; and this Gospel, I may safely affirm, is contained in this one short verse. This Divine saying reveals a remedy complete, free, and glorious for sinners; yes, even the worst, the greatest sinners that will receive this faithful saying.

I. The person named in this saying will claim our first attention, "Christ Jesus." You know him of whom the apostle speaks, and to many of you this name is as ointment poured forth; unto you that believe "he is precious." It was, in effect, declaring, that he that came into the world to save sinners was in all respects equal to the mighty undertaking, for the apostle to say, that "Christ Jesus came into the world." Is he not "the son of God as well as the Son of man?" "Immanuel, God with us." Is he not the "brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person?" Christ Jesus is "the image of the invisible God;" "in 'him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." In him there are united the human and Divine natures, the finite and the infinite, the weakness and sympathies of our humanity, and the grace and omnipotency of God. He was in all respects made

like unto us except sin, and yet he was God over all, blessed for ever. The name, Christ Jesus, gives us thoughts of the Saviour that cannot for a moment be entertained of any other being, not even the mightiest archangel in heaven. We are told in the sacred volume, of angels that came into our world as the messengers of God, at times to minister to his people, and then as executioners of his wrath against the ungodly, but to none of them was the salvation of sinners entrusted. One alone was found worthy to be sent on this work of infinite compassion, and that one was Christ Jesus; of him it is said, "I have found a ransom." We are carried back by these words to a period long anterior to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Isaiah, in vision, beheld his glory, and spake of him. This is he that was with the church in the wilderness; the Shiloh and the star that should arise out of Jacob. Abraham rejoiced to see his day, and was glad. But before creation, back into eternity, we are led by the apostle's words, for not only does he assume the pre-existence of the Saviour, but that it was his purpose from all eternity to come into the world as a man, that he might be the Saviour of sinners.

We are reminded of the peculiarly striking description which Solomon has given of Christ under the character of wisdom: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. Then I was by him, as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men,' Prov. viii. 22, 23, 30, 31. We shall find the best exponent, however, of these words in the opening of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." In substance the apostle tells us here, that while Christ's coming into the world was the appointment of the Father, still it was his own predetermination, his voluntary act; hence, in prophetic announcement, we, as it were,

hear him saying, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart."

II. This brings us to consider, in the second place, the mission of Christ Jesus, or the object for which he came into the world; it was "to save sinners;" mark, not that he might save them, but, as if certain as to the grand end of his mission being accomplished, the saying runs, "Christ Jesus came

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into the world to save sinners." was his only aim; it was for this purpose, and no other, and that God should be glorified in man's salvation. If to execute upon men the vengeance which their sins deserved, to punish them with everlasting destruction from his presence, had been the purpose of his advent, it was what we might have expected. How wondrous, then! it was a mission of pure, of boundless mercy to our guilty world. Mankind, viewed as sinners, are not only liable to endless woe, but are in a state of the most fearful bondage, being held captives by Satan, and are no more able to reinstate themselves in the favour of God, than they are to turn the darkness of midnight at once into the splendour of mid-day. What joy, then, what gratitude should it inspire, that Christ Jesus came to save us from both hell and sin, and raise us to more than man's original dignity and bliss!

Here we are led to the consideration of the way by which this mighty deliverance has been effected. Blessed be God, we are not left to conjecture, or mere speculation, upon this, of all other themes the most momentous to ourselves, If we had, we should have probably indulged in fancies somewhat like these. Surely we may look for him coming in awful majesty and grandeur; signs the most portentous, and myriads of the angelic hosts indicating his approach; or, will he not appear among us in the perfection of manhood, but far more glorious than was our great progenitor when at first he stood up in the presence of his Maker, the Almighty? Could we ever have thought of his lowly birth in a manger at Bethlehem, his infantile weakness, the poverty of his condition, his dependence on the care of Joseph and Mary, the cruelty to which his childhood was exposed, the flight into Egypt, his subjection to his parents, increasing in stature and in wisdom,

advancing gradually up to manhood, being in all respects made like unto his brethren? But it was thus the prediction of Isaiah was accomplished: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

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How strange that so large a portion of the period of his sojourn on earth should have been spent in comparative obscurity; that he was known only as the son of Joseph, the carpenter's son; and I think it is not assuming too much that Jesus even wrought at the trade of his supposed father. apostle saith, "He became poor," and when he had entered on his public ministry, he had to make this declaration to one who professed a desire to be his follower, but possibly influenced by mistaken expectations: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." He could hold out no encouragement to any of his disciples of riches, or pleasures, or honours of this world; but they were to take up their cross and follow him. He came to do the will of his Father in heaven, He said, "My meat and my drink is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." The entire period of his sojourn here was spent in rendering the most spotless obedience to the Divine will:He became obedient even unto death." In him the law was magnified and made honourable in his obedience; it shone forth in more than its original glory.

But he suffered the contradiction of sinners against himself. How must the ungodliness, the hypocrisy, the formalism, the selfishness and iniquity of every description that prevailed around him, have grieved his holy soul! There were seasons, too, when the arch enemy violently assailed him. The spirit and behaviour of his own disciples were often sources of intense sorrow to his mind. Their unbelief, their personal jealousies, their worldlymindedness, and their dulness in understanding his instructions, and the gracious purpose of his coming, drew many a sigh from his heart: "He was grieved at their unbelief.”

It might have been expected that a teacher, in whom there was such a combination of holiness, meekness,

truth, and disinterested benevolence, would have commanded universal esteem, and that men would have listened with the profoundest attention to his discourses. Not only was there the fullest revelation of God and his will in the teaching of Jesus, but he went about doing good, healing all manner of diseases, and all that were oppressed of the devil, raising the dead to life again, and furnishing the most unquestionable testimony that he came from heaven; but, strange to say, with comparatively few exceptions, he was despised and rejected of men; he was loaded with opprobrium, charged with acting under the influence of the devil, and pursued with relentless malice, until at last he fell under the power of his persecutors, betrayed by one of his own immediate disciples, denied with blasphemies by another, and forsaken by all. Nothing could satisfy his enemies but that he should be crucified. There were sufferings, however, of another kind, yet more mysterious, which we must not lose sight of, sufferings which appeared to come immediately from the invisible hand of his heavenly Father; and that, too, while exposed to the bitterest assaults both of men and devils. What else could be the meaning of his words: "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say; Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour." Again, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Again, when in the garden of Gethsemane, praying to his Father that the cup before him might, if it were possible, pass from him, he was in an agony, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground; then added, "Not my will, but thine be done." Once more that doleful bitter cry which he uttered while leaning on the accursed tree: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Was it occasioned by aught else than the sword of the Almighty, which entered his very soul? Not until that dark, indescribable suffering had been endured, did he exclaim in triumph, "It is finished!" and then addressing his Father, said, "Into thy hand I commend my spirit," and gave up the ghost. Without attempting any speculations on all this, or noticing the theories of men respecting the life and sufferings of Christ Jesus, I cannot comprehend how the statements of the sacred volume can be consistently un

derstood in any other sense, than as declaring, that his obedience and sufferings were, in the strictest sense, substitutionary for sinners, and that our salvation would have been an impossibility if Christ had not died and risen again. Is not this the testimony of prophecy: "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed"? His soul was made an offering for sin: "He shall bear their iniquities." Was not this the meaning of Christ's own words? "I come not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give my life a ransom for many; ""I lay down my life for the sheep."

The uniform teaching of the apostles was, that "Christ died the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." " Behold, then, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," while we adoringly contemplate his example, and believe that we are called to follow in his steps. How this, and its influence upon us, or any of our fallen race, is to deliver us from sin and all its tremendous consequences, and exalt us to everlasting happiness, is utterly incomprehensible; but that, in virtue of his obedience and death, flow forth us all the blessings of salvation, tha: we are pardoned and justified, and shall be ultimately glorified for his sake, or on account of his merits-because for us he has fulfilled all righteousness, endured the penalty of our sin, and that by his cross we are reconciled to God-this we can understand, and feel persuaded that it is the grand purpose for which he came into the world. Let us now,

III. Notice the realization, or the personal enjoyment, of this salvation. "Of whom I am chief," are words which would be well understood as expressing the apostle's own individual interest in the merciful design of Christ Jesus; and, in fact, that he, the chief of sinners, was a remarkable manifestation of the grace and power of Christ as the Saviour. Now, without entering into the inquiry whether there were any that were greater sinners than Paul himself before his conversion, I think it is probable that of those who had obtained mercy, and were the disciples of Christ Jesus, when he penned this confession, it may be understood as expressing that which