to sanctify our natures by the Holy Ghost, the third person of this adorable Trinity. Will any one of us fail of so great salvation? "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

VIII.

EMULATION IN HEAVEN AMONG THE

REDEEMED.

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” -1 Timothy

1: 15.

If there is anything like emulation among the redeemed in heaven, we may suppose that it is of a kind unknown on earth. It was written long ago by a good man, that if certain men should enter heaven as they now are, their great surprise would be not to find angels laying schemes to make themselves archangels. Perhaps these words of Paul in the text, express the chief subject of emulation among the redeemed, "sinners, of whom I am chief." With them it may be, that emulation consists in harmonious strife to settle among themselves who of them were chief sinners, and are now chief debtors to the grace of God.

It would not be easy for any of us to conceive

of such emulation, unless we have already come to the deliberate opinion, that anything which we can experience short of hell is to us mercy.

Who will probably seem in heaven to have the highest claim as the chief of sinners, to be greatest debtors to infinite grace?

Let us suppose the inhabitants of heaven from among men engaged in this rivalry, pleading each his claim of owing most to divine mercy. We will judge between them in this harmonious strife.

I. THE APOSTLE PAUL FIRST BRINGS FORWARD HIS CLAIM.

"I persecuted the Church of God. That infant church, the fruit of a Saviour's tears and blood was my prey. I hated it with implacable hatred. I went into houses and dragged Christians to prison. Neither age nor sex found mercy at my hands.

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Being exceedingly mad against them I compelled some of them to blaspheme. I saw their agony with heartfelt satisfaction. Around you in the heavenly company are the witnesses of my crimes. Behold the spirits of those whom I persecuted even to death. They came out of great tribulation, inflicted on them by me.

"The most affecting thing in my heavenly his

tory, was my first interview with the martyr Stephen. When I saw him last on earth, he was kneeling to receive the stones from the murderers hands, and I was consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. I did it not from love of pain and blood, but as a religious duty. Little did I ever think of meeting him in heaven; but his must have been the greater surprise to meet me here, though with his last breath he prayed for me: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.' His blood infuriated me with more zeal for Christian blood.

"On my way to Damascus with full authority to bind, imprison and kill every Christian, He who loved me and gave himself for me, appeared and spake to me, and in a tone of mingled remonstrance and pity, said, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' When he might have consumed me with his lightnings, he spoke to me with gentle upbraiding. He could have suffered me to go on and fill up the measure of my iniquity, and be the most guilty spirit in hell; instead of which he has made me, as you will all acknowledge, chief debtor to his love.

"In contrast with my former life of blood, see what he permitted me to do. When it pleased God who separated me from my birth, to reveal his Son in me, forthwith I became a preacher

and an Apostle to the Gentiles. I preached to the nations who had never known Him, the unsearchable riches of Christ. I was permitted to write a large part of the New Testament to be the guide of thousands of generations to heaven. I was permitted for Christ's sake to be in dangers more abundant than all my companions, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

"I appeal to what I once was, and what I was permitted to do; to what I was by the grace of God, and to my present bliss in looking upon millions who by my influence were brought to heaven, if I was not in the first place the chief of sinners; if I am not now the greatest debtor to the grace of God."

II. Our attention is now demanded by a small company of men who cannot admit the claims of their beloved brother Paul, to be a greater sinner and a greater debtor to mercy than they. They are THE CRUCIFIERS OF CHRIST, whom we will suppose to have been converted at the day of Pentecost.

"Is it possible," they say, "that blood can fall with so deep a stain on a murderer's hand as the blood of the Son of God?" "With my hands," says one of them, "the crown of thorns