wind;" so oftentimes, by the will of God, there comes upon us a bitterness, which suddenly troubles the peace of our souls, spreads over us, as it were, a veil of sadness, and excites violent storms in our hearts; so that we can say, "for peace I have great bitterness." Let us never forget, that while we are in this world we are in the region of tempests; and let us never calculate on a long season of rest. It is especially when we slumber in a time of calm; when we say, "peace and safety" by ceasing to watch ;-it is then especially, that we have reason to expect from the Lord, who loves us, some squall to awaken us. Too long a peace is not good for our souls! "through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom of heaven." Hence we ought, in a certain sense, "to rejoice with trembling;" we ought to be like soldiers who wait for the battle, "and to put on the whole armour of God, that we may be able to stand in the evil day." Let us fear to be like the people of Laish, "who dwelt careless, quiet and secure, because there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in anything," Judges xviii. 7; and who, in the midst of their security! were surprised by the enemy, who found them undefended, and utterly destroyed them. On the other hand, when great bitterness comes upon us, let us never think it is without remedy, but let us be persuaded, that if we flee to the Lord, we shall soon be enabled to say, "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption." It may sometimes seem as though our foot had slipped on the verge of the abyss, and we were rolling from temptation to temptation, from one degree of weakness to another, and from one degree of unbelief to another, even to the bottom, and falling into the pit of corruption. We then seem to feel the last breath of life on the

point of expiring in us; and in our despondency, are ready to say, "my strength and hope are perished from the Lord." But at the same moment, a powerful hand coming to our relief, when there is none else to help us, seizes us and holds us back. We find that we are surrounded and embraced by the everlasting arms. The power and mercy of our God bring us up out of the horrible pit: he sets our feet upon a rock, and places us there in security. We ought, then, never to say, I have sunk too deep for the Lord to raise me up. And, as in peace we ought to expect trials, so, in our trials. we ought not to despair of deliverance.

All mercies begin at the cross of Christ, and take their rise from the pardon of sin. Let us, then, ever regard our reconciliation to God by the blood of Christ as the first of mercies, and as that from which all others flow; and let us assure ourselves of this, by believing in him "who justifieth the ungodly." What can we ask of God with confidence, so long as we are not reconciled to him? On the contrary, with what boldness can we ask anything of him, when we are assured that he has cast all our sins behind his back? We can then adopt at all times, that reasoning at once so simple, and so conclusive; "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered himself up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

Observe also the force of the expression, "Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back," Isaiah xxxviii. 17. We see not what is behind us. Such then is the position which our God is pleased to assume towards us in the covenant of grace; he regards us as perfectly righteous, because "the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin." Our sins have disappeared from his view. He himself has cast them behind his back, and in this

sense, "he beholds not iniquity in Jacob, neither doth he see perverseness in Israel," Numb. xxiii. 21. His church, which he hath sanctified and cleansed for himself, appears unto him a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, Ephes. v. 27.

Observe too, it is said, "Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back;" all, not some, not a great part, not almost all, but ALL, yea, all, without exception. This the word of God constantly asserts. It tells us, that "with the Lord there is plenteous redemption, and that he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities,” Psalm cxxx. 7, 8. In Jeremiah, the Lord makes this glorious promise, “I will cleanse them from all iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me," Jer. xxxiii. 8. The prophet Micah expresses himself in similar terms, when he says, "he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." The apostle Paul declares, that these promises have been accomplished in Christ. "And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross," Col. ii. 13, 14.

O! my brethren-my poor companions in the sin and misery entailed by Adam! let not your unbelief retrench aught from the mercies of God:-let it not diminish the consolation which the word ALL contains, when applied to the pardon of sins. "All my sins;" that means, in the language of the God of truth, the sin of my whole life past-in thought, word, and deed; sins known, and

sins secret; vile, degrading, odious, inexcusable sins: sins, which excited my own indignation; such sins as, perhaps, I durst not avow to any one; repeated sins, continual falls; monstrous tissue of rebellion, selfishness, hypocrisy, and pride ;—in a word, all that can be conceived most frightful in number, and in enormity: all that can confound the imagination, overwhelm the conscience; astonish the sinner himself, amazed at his own iniquity. All this, and nothing less than this, constitutes 66 ALL MY SINS ;" and this is what God has cast behind his back; what he forgets, pardons, remembers no more; when I bring them, with sincerity, and with repentance, to the foot of the cross. Nothing short of this is the grace of God: the pardon which he offers me -the pardon which I need. If only one, yes, only one of my sins be excepted; if it be not blotted out, this single sin presses upon my soul like a weight; torments me, condemns; subjects me to the curse denounced against him that "continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." That the gospel should be glad tidings to me; that it should set my heart at liberty and that it should give joy to my soul, it must be presented to me such as that God has given it, who abundantly pardons: it must be that gospel in which Jesus tells me that, "all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men :"-that gospel, in which it is declared, on his part, "that by him all that believe, are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses," Acts xiii. 39.

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My brethren, I repeat it once more, let us not retrench aught from the mercies of God: let us not make him a liar. Since He has said ALL, let us believe that it is ALL; and let us say, with assurance of faith, "He has cast all my sins behind his back." However great the mercy of

God may be, it is not too great for us; and if we take anything from it; and if the word ALL do not signify literally ALL for us, then there is no peace for our souls. "The bed is shorter than that we can stretch ourselves on it; and the covering narrower than that we can wrap ourselves in it," Isaiah xxviii. 20. Let us, then, believe with a sincere confidence in the whole mercy of our God: let us rejoice in his promises; let us cast ourselves upon our face on the ground, adoring the love of Christ, which passeth all understanding; and let us ask of the Lord a heart which shall respond to that love.

Here, we only remark, that in order to be able to enjoy the consolation which the assurance that God has cast all our sins behind his back, affords; we must, by a sincere confession of them, place them, with humiliation, both before our own eyes and his : for it is written that, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from unrighteousness, 1 John i. 9. Before conversion, and in the painful time which often follows it, the sinner excuses his sins, hides them, dissembles, and does not bring them with openness to the foot of the cross; then, by a just punishment, it seems to him that his sins come up again before God, and he can say with Moses, "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance," Psalm xc. 8. But, as soon as the sinner becomes sincere; as soon as he ceases to flatter himself, and his iniquity presents itself as a hedge about him; as soon as he lays open his sins before God, just as they are, and without any disguise, immediately he feels that the pardon of his sins is applied anew to his conscience, and that the Lord casts behind his back those transgressions, of which the sinner himself can say, I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is