ing truths:-That the whole world is become guilty before God, and is under his wrath and curse on that account. This is our state: a miserable state it is, and as hopeless as miserable, for any thing we can do for ourselves. But I read in this Bible to the full amount of the following conclusions-that in the counsels of the mysterious triune Jehovah, Jesus Christ, the second person of the incomprehensible Trinity, was sanctified, or set apart to become the Saviour of their law-condemned sinners, to take their nature upon him, and the whole of the requisitions of the eternal immutable law of God upon him, to become in every sense their surety. Man is a rebel, it is put to his account-a penalty is incurred, He, as their surety, is made liable. Are they again to be made heirs of eternal life? Perfect obedience is the condition, and of him, as their surety, it is demanded. All this being fulfilled, sinners are become his property-he has paid their debts, fulfilled their duties, and merited for them eternal life, all in their own nature, as their head and representative; so that believers are complete in him. This is the righteousness of God, wrought out by Jesus Christ, in his own person, God man, as their surety. To this nothing of the believer's is to be added-with this nothing of his mixed; it is for ever perfect; entirely distinct from that holiness of heart and life which is wrought in him in consequence of this. It is the believer's by pure imputation. God has declared himself well pleased with this righteousness, and that being himself reconciled, he is in Christ Jesus reconciling sinners to him. Hence all the invitations scattered thick in the Old and New Testament, not only to the penitent, weary, and heavy laden, but to the stout-hearted, the backslider, to them that are wearying themselves in their own way. 'Ho! every one that thirsteth, whosoever will, let hima come and take of the water of life freely.' Hence all the promises annexed to believing, accepting, receiving, trusting, resting: Christ the Saviour is the object-the gift of God to sinners for all the above purposes. The Lord has convinced me that I have nothing in myself on which I can rest; my conscience echoes to his word in all that it asserts of my nature and my state; but this Saviour is provided for sinners exactly of this description. I am invited to put in my claim, I believe the record, I rest my salvation on his word; God giveth to me eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Jesus calls me to look unto him, and be saved; I do look unto him, and I am saved. He assures me that those who come unto him shall never be cast out. I do go to him, and commit my sinful soul to his keeping; I shall not be cast cut. That as many as receive the gift of his Son, receive at the same time power to become the children of God. I do receive his gift, and lay claim to his promise. He is my reconciled Father, and I am his adopted child, and he hath sent his Spirit into my heart, by which I can say, Abba, Father. I have, my dear James, taken this method of laying before you the grounds of my own hope, because I think it the most simple method, and containing at the same time my counsel to you to lay hold on the same hope. The warrant is given us in God's own word, as sinners, without respect to fruit or any works of ours. I can, if necessary, give you chapter and verse, to the full amount; but you have those about you who can give it to you by little and little, as your weak state can bear it. This gift is held out to the sinner's acceptance in many places of the word of God, and becomes the sinner's in the moment of believing. Provision is made by the same covenant for his sanctification; but that makes no part of justifying righteousness. Christ is made of God unto him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and complete redemption. Try, my precious young friend, to lay hold on this hope, and enter into the rest provided for the believer here. Stretch forth the withered hand,' the Lord himself will give you strength. Commit your precious soul into his hands, and rest assured that he will perfect all that concerns you-work all his work in youcarry you safely through the Jordan of death, and put you in possession of the inheritance he has purchased for you. That all this shall be, is the prayer and firm hope of Your affectionate friend, ISABELLA GRAHAM. REST. GENESIS ii. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested the seventh day from all his work which he had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work that he had created and made.' Exodus xvi. And Moses said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. So the people rested on the seventh day.' Luke xxiii. 'And the women followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid, and they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.' Christ rested in the tomb of Joseph the last Sabbath under the law: but the evening and the morning were the first day. On that morning he closed his work of humiliation, manifested his victory over death, the curse denounced, by rising from the tomb, and rested on the first day of the week from all his humiliation work; his death, burial, and rest in the grave on the seventh day, being the last part of that work. 142 The following Poem was not found till after Mrs. Graham's Funeral Sermon was preached. JORDAN. oshua chap. i. 11, and chap. iii. Psalm xxiii. 4, lxxiii. 24. THE Solemn hour, my soul, draws near, The holy Ark and Priests appear: They forward move to Jordan's flood, The type, thou knowest, thy Cov'nant God. The signal too, to thee is known, Obey, remove, and follow on; The Ark of the Cov'nant is thy guide, The waves for him, must not divide, |
