THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

THE death or sacrifice of the Son of God, is a subject of the deepest interest, of the greatest importance; and hence, it is a subject very frequently referred to in the Word of God.

It is there presented to our minds in various aspects; bearing relation to a variety of other truths, and being intimately connected with them. The object of this article is to direct attention to some of those various relations which the death of Christ bears in the scheme of human redemption.

1. The death of Christ is a manifestation of the love of God.

"In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent forth his Son to be a propitiation for our sins." 1 John iv. 9, 10. See also John iii. 14—16 and Romans v. 8.

Yes, brethren, God has indeed given us the strongest evidence of his love to us, in that he spared not his own Son, his only-begotten Son, his well-beloved Son, but delivered him up for us all. He has indeed recommended his love to us, in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. O, then, let us love him who has so loved us!

2. The death of Christ, is spoken of, as a proof of the love of Christ himself.

"Walk in love, even as Christ has loved us, and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour." Eph. v. 2. See also John xv. 13; and Gal. ii. 20.

And, certainly, this is the greatest proof that could be given that Jesus loved us; and that his love was great and strong. Such was his love, that he submitted to shame, to derision, to reviling, to spitting, to buffeting, to death itself; nay, more, to be made a sinoffering for us, that we might become the justified of God by him. "Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my heart, my life, my all."

3. The sacrifice of Christ gives a striking display of the evil of sin, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, has accomplished, and by a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Rom. viii. 3. See also Isaiah liii. 4-6; and Zech. xiii. 7.

Such is the evil of sin, such its malignity and demerit, that nothing less than a complete atonement-an atonement made by a perfect, a divine Redeemer, could expiate it, or take it away. In the sacrifice of the Son of God, then, we behold the offensive nature of sin, its odiousness and vileness. He, the holy Lamb of God, had to be wounded

for our transgression, and bruised for our iniquities, ere sin could be forgiven and sinners saved. Let us, then, abhor sin, and depart from all iniquity.

4. It is through the death of Christ, we have been made partakers of pardon, reconciliation, and adoption.

"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his favour, with which he has highly favoured us in the Beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his favour." Eph. i. 5-7. See also Eph. ii. 13—16, and Col. i. 21, 22.

Yes, brethren, we who were formerly afar off have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ-have been pardoned, adopted, and saved through his atoning blood. By his death we have been reconciled to God; and also to each other. All the blessings, and privileges, indeed, which we enjoy as the children of God, and as brethren in Jesus, we enjoy through the sacrifice of God's beloved Son.

5. The death of Christ, is a means of our progressive sanctification. "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Heb. ix. 13, 14. See also 1 John i. 7, and 1 Peter ii. 2.

As it is by faith in Christ that our hearts have been changed and purified, so it is by continually looking to Jesus as having been crucified for us, that we become increasingly dead to sin and alive to God, and thus grow in likeness to him who died and rose again for us.

6. Hence, we are from the death of Christ, frequently exhorted to be obedient and holy.

"Christ, then, having suffered for us in the flesh, do you also arm yourselves with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; so that he no longer lives his remaining time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." 1 Peter iv. 1, 2. See also Romans vi. 9, 13, and 1 Cor. vi. 20.

And, surely, the death of Christ for sin, is a fact which ought powerfully to constrain us to self-denial and obedience. Let us then, brethren, remember the sufferings and death of Jesus, and strive more and more to live consistently; to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

7. From the sufferings and death of Christ, we are frequently exhorted to the patient enduring of trials.

If, when you do well, and suffer, you bear it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Besides, to this you were called, for even Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered threatened not, but committed his cause to him who judges righteously." 1 Peter ii. 20-23. See also 1 Peter iii. 16-18, and

Hebrews xii. 13.

How striking, and yet how true, the language of the Prophet:"He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."

What patience, then, did he exemplify, under trials, under reproaches, ridicule, insult, and cruelty. O let us strive to imitate him in patience and meekness, and submission to the will of God. Let us endeavour, in all things, to live under the influence of the cross of Christ. And may the language of our minds ever be,-

"Unto him who has loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

Linlithgow,

A. D.

REFORMATION.-No. III.

FAMILY TRAINING.

THE morality of the gospel extends to all the relations in which man stands to man. The perfections of the evangelical system consists in this-that it fully contemplates all these relations, even to the most minute, and graduates all its requirements upon the benevolent principle of practical utility. There is not an arbitrary requisition in all the moral code. The things enjoined are not right, simply because enjoined, but they are right in themselves whether enjoined or not. A supernatural knowledge of man in the author of the gospel code, is as clearly apparent to him intimately acquainted with the Christian Scriptures, as the eternal power and divinity of the Architect of the universe, is to the eye of the rational student of nature. The evidences of intelligent design, however numerous and striking, every where imprinted on the face of the heavens and the earth, do not more irresistably arrest the attention and command the reverence of the true philosopher, than do the wisdom and benevolence of Christian morality, assert the divine mission and unction of the author and founder of the Christian faith.

The marriage covenant is the root and origin of all natural relationship amongst mankind. The very names husband, wife, father, mother, parent, son and daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin,

nephew, ancestor, descendant, &c. &c. are but the representatives of the relations which spring from it. Now all the duties that belong to these parties in reference to one another, have their obligation from the nature of these relations, of which God himself is the author.

The training of a family, to those who have entered into the nuptial covenant, is, therefore, the paramount moral concern. The nursery is of necessity the primary school of morality and religion. Here the seeds are sown which are to blossom in youth, and to bring forth fruit in manhood and old age. The general rule which obtains here is, whatever a man sows, that also he shall reap. If into the tender mind and affections of the infant family the good word of God is sown, cherished, and watered by parental goodness and holy affection, the tender blade of youthful piety and morality will be the happy presage of the rich harvest of manly virtue and moral excellency of riper years.

The disciples of Jesus Christ are commanded to "bring up their children in the correction and instruction of the Lord." Delightful task! "In keeping all his commandments there is a great reward." The command implies a blessing; and teaches, more than a thousand lectures, the practibility of the duty enforced. If parents could not thus educate their children, they could not have been thus commanded; and they would not have been thus commanded, had not a blessing been intended in the obedience.

Now the question is, How shall this command be obeyed? Do those parents reverence the authority of the Saviour and keep his commandments, who do not early and habitually endeavour to inscribe the testimony of God upon the fleshly tables of the hearts of their infant offspring? Who do not by precept and example enforce upon their attention, faith in God and hope in his salvation? Are those parents bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, who do not daily and constantly, morning and evening, bow the knee in their presence, and in every thing give thanks to God before them? Are those parents training their children for heaven, who, while at church themselves, on the Lord's day, permit their children to seek their companions and instructors in the lanes and alleys of the city, or in the woods and fields of the country? If this be obeying Jesus Christ-if this be parental affection-if this be obeying the apostolic injunction, then are the infidels and sceptics, the lawless and profane, educating their children for Jesus Christ, and bringing them up in the correction and instruction of the Lord! But then the question will be propounded, Are not they who command their children and their households, as the Lord said Abraham would govern his; who lead their children by the hand to the "house

of God," on the day of the resurrection, and to the fireside morning and evening social thanksgivings and prayers; and imbue their infant minds with the fear of God, which Solomon styled the "beginning of wisdom;"-who are at all pains to teach them the Holy Scriptures, and to guard them against the contagion of vice and immorality found in the streets and hedges, in the city and in the hamlet, unnecessarily devout, affectionate, and laborious! Are they not too strict, too severe, too anti-republican in their parental discipline? There is a fault on the one side or on the other. The two systems are more at variance than Calvinism and Arminianism. Now if there be no scriptural reason, precept, nor precedent for habituating our children to attendance at the weekly meetings of the people of God, or for accustoming them to assemble at the hour of morning and evening prayers and religious instruction; certainly there is no precedent for giving them up to their own will and pleasure, for setting them adrift on the currant of vice and immorality in the very morning of life, while reason, the Bible, and political law recognize them as not only minors, but as wholly the property, and under the absolute government of their parents.

If, indeed, we were mere fatalists as respects both worlds, the present and the future; if we believe that a destiny without means, unchangeable and uncontrollable, awaited all, and frustrated all human effort; then we might put the reins of discipline into the hands of our infants, and, under the guidance of their own passions and appetites, usher them into the field of action. But on no other principle of reason or expendiency, and still less of scriptural authority or license, can it be done.

But my republican and religious neighbour says, "Would you have us to seize the understanding of our children, captivate their hearts, and enslave their consciences, as the Romanists, the Protestants, the Jews, the Turks, the Pagans, impose their religion upon their offspring, and thus rivet upon them our religion, authoritatively forestalling, their own judgment and deliberate choice!" I certainly would have you bring them up for the Lord; and if this means that you should imbue their minds with no religion at all, but leave them a perfect carte blanche as to the name and perfections of God and every religious and moral idea, then be this your choice. May we not put the Holy Scriptures into their hands, and let them see a good example, hear our prayers for them, and listen to our songs of praise, without destroying their mental independence, or divesting them of the liberty of choosing whom they shall adore, and in whom they shall confide?

The influence of religious education, supported, by an exemplary display of the principles we profess, in a becoming course of action,