deliverance of the soul from bondage which is just bondage, and from the bondage which is usurpation.

I do not know whether we might not illustrate the matter from the ancient people of God. Take the supposition that they were all liable to death justly; and that they were unrighteously held in bondage: there you have bondage justly, and bondage by usurpation. To meet the first, their liability to death, God provides the passover; he directs the blood to be taken and sprinkled. There is the arrangement on the part of God. But it must be sprinkled; the man must attend to the arrangement; and he must sympathize and harmonize with the mind of God. He does that, and is freed from death. They are held in bondage by positive usurpation. God comes with all the power of his might upon the individuals, and makes them terrified and afraid; and thus by his miraculous operations he opens a way to escape; but he does not lift them up, and carry them through the air. He has prepared a way, and by faith they go forth and are led by the power of God, and the operation of their moral and physical affections. Thus it is, brethren, that God is glorified in the power and omnipotence of his grace, and man is upheld in his rational and responsible character.

In the last place we observe the perfection and reality of the Gospel. "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." I do not dwell upon this, except further to state, that with respect to the first, I apprehend, that the freedom from the bondage by the ransom is so complete in every view of Scripture, that it will never be revoked. The act will never be revoked; the son and child will be the son and child for ever: he shall be free indeed; delivered indeed; pardoned indeed; justified indeed; the righteousness of God in him. And then with respect to the other, the highest liberty, the liberty of a rational and moral nature, freedom from the most degrading bondage; this is liberty indeed, and God when he gives the one liberty, always gives the other. You may emancipate the slave, and you may give him freedom; but you cannot give him the character and virtues of a freeman; he may still, in his state of emancipation, carry with him the degrading vices of the slave; but God when he makes you free also operates upon the nature and character, and gives the virtues of the freeman too; and thus we are free indeed.

You easily perceive, that I have contented myself, designedly, with mere outlines of the subject; and we come now to occupy a few minutes more with three or four practical observations, or inferences drawn from the subject. And now, brethren, let us come to a serious and practical conclusion of the whole matter.

And, in the first place, you are rejoicing to-day in the liberty of the slave; and you do well it is a legitimate subject of gladness and of gratulation. Far from me, and from my friends, be the heart that cannot sympathize, the mind that will not rejoice. We know not how far the spirits of the wise and the virtuous that are departed may know of the transactions of earth; or we could conceive of some patriots and legislators who lived for freedom, and who lived for this freedom, rejoicing on this day in the subject over which we rejoice. We know not whether angels have time from the lofty themes and subjects of a spiritual nature, to give a thought and a feeling to what is merely

secular; or they perhaps may rejoice over that with which we rejoice to-day: but this we know, that angels and spirits that are blessed in the presence of God, and rejoice to do his will, and rejoice in the fulfilment of his designs, that they rejoice over the spiritual emancipation of one sinner that repenteth. We know not what might excite their curiosity, whether they think about the transactions to-day occurring in our Colonies; we know not whether they have time or thought for that; but we know something more interesting to ourselves: we know that if there be a sinner here who will come with penitence and faith to the ransom, come and accept of God's mercy, come and give himself up to God that he might be free from his sins, angels will rejoice over that man. Verily I say unto you, that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

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Now you rejoice, as I have said, and you do well; but how dreadful to think, that while you are rejoicing over the freedom of the slaves, you are slaves yourselves. Some of you are in a more degrading bondage; a bondage, that unless God's mercy interfere, and be accepted by you, will never terminate. The slave in his most degraded condition, had often his hope fixed on the hour of death; he knew there would be a time when his ear would be deaf to the lash of the driver; he knew there was a time when his eye would be closed against the scene of excruciation and agony; but if you continue in your slavery, if you go on and die impenitent, you will carry your slavery with you for ever, and you will be the subject of that degrading bondage of the power of sin operating on the intellect and moral nature for ever and ever. It is painful to think, that some of you may be rejoicing over the liberty of the slave, and are not sensible of your own degradation. Has Christ made you free? Have you thought of this freedom? Oh, one may suppose that angels may weep, if they can weep, when perhaps in various assemblies of men they had looked upon a man with fascinating eloquence, powerful eloquence, warm enthusiasm, advocating the cause of the oppressed and bound slave, and yet himself the slave of his passions and his sins. And so it may be now; tears are dropping from your eyes; you are rejoicing over the physical emancipation of some, and you are neglecting the spiritual degradation of yourselves. Perhaps you do not go with the mind of the preacher, or the representations of Scripture; perhaps some of you are on the point of saying to the preacher, We never were in bondage, and do not feel the bondage. You are ready to say, with the individuals in the context, "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?" Just like the individuals before us. Abraham's seed had never been in bondage! Why God foretold to Abraham that they should be in bondage: they were in bondage at the very time when they spoke; and afterwards they confessed it when they had another purpose to serve; they said "We have no king but Cæsar." So, indeed, some of you may be talking of your liberty, while you are slaves to lust and to sin. Then let us be affected by this, and humble ourselves deeply before God, on account of this slavery, and bondage, and degradation of our nature.

In the second place; oh, let your minds be affected by the splendour of that ransom which hath been paid for your freedom. We talk about the twenty millions that we have given for the liberty of the slave; we talk about the splendour of the act, and the greatness of the sacrifice; a sacrifice which is

never felt.

"Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." He loved you, and gave himself for you; a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Oh, brethren, be affected by this; "He who was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, took upon himself the form of a servant, and appeared in the likeness of man, and humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;" having died the just for the unjust," to "redeem us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." Oh, brethren, if our hearts were not so hard, they would be melted by the consideration of a ransom like this. I will not enter into all the objections which some of you might make (and I can imagine many), I want rather to give you the doctrine of Scripture. I know some of you might talk about this ransom price interfering with the freeness of God's mercy. No, brethren, it illustrates that freeness; for the ransom is not our paying, but provided by the free manifestation of the mercy of God in Christ. We are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

that

you exhibit your Read attentively the commend it to every

I observe, in the next place, that if you profess, as some of you do, to be the subjects of God's delivering mercy, and to be free from the bondage of justice, see that you walk worthy of that profession; see conduct and character freed from the usurpation of sin. chapter we read at the commencement of the service; I believer; read over the sixth chapter of the Romans, and observe how the Apostle exhorts, that, as we are the subjects of God's grace, and delivered from the law, it becomes us to live devoted to God; and that as we had once given up ourselves to the service of sin, so now we yield ourselves entirely to God. Brethren, ye are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but we are debtors to live after the Spirit; to be spiritual in mind and person. Oh, for that faith, and the influence of that holy principle, which will enable us to say, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free." This ought to be the feeling and the character of every professing man.

Oh, brethren, if you are dreaming of your freedom, dreaming you are justified, and pardoned, and delivered, and if you are deceiving yourselves by hypocrisy and formality, how dreadful will be the discovery that it was all a dream. Suppose that all the palpitations of the heart, all the goings forth of the imagination, all the anticipation of that entrance on freedom which hath filled the breasts of the slaves were to be disappointed, and they found they had been deceived; what a tremendous revolution would there be in their feelings! But that would be nothing to a man deceiving himself by a name to live, while he is dead; professing to be free by the mercy of God, and yet not free by the Spirit of holiness; when he discovers he hath never known the liberty of Christ, hath never known him; and when he saith, "Lord, Lord, have we not in thy name done many wonderful works?" he will say, "Depart from me, I never knew you."

Yet, in the next place, let us rejoice in what is to come. You may class two great events together: there are two events yet future which we may associate. We rejoice that the time is to come when the whole world is to be emancipated from sin; when Christ's kingdom shall come universally; when all shall be

taught of God; when Christ shall reign in every nation, and be acknowledged of all nations; and when every thing that oppresses individual nations or kindreds shall perish; slavery and idolatry shall perish; when antichristian worship shall perish, and when the prophecy shall be fulfilled; when all rejoicing in Christ, and all bearing the image of Christ, and when the whole world of nature is happy and harmonious; when God shall rejoice over it all, and Christ shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, And there is another event; when nature, subject to the curse, when the creation now under bondage, groaning in pain, shall be delivered from that bondage; when Christ shall come in his glorious power; when all the intentions and purposes of his moral government shall be complete; when man shall be raised from the dead by the power and operation of the Spirit; when those kingdoms which sin has usurped dominion over, when death and sin shall be conquered-when these shall feel the power and operation of emancipating grace and mercy, and shall deliver up their dead; when death and the invisible state shall deliver up their dead, and when Christ shall come, and by that power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself, shall deliver our very physical nature from bondage; shall change our vile body, and make it like unto his glorious body; and when the whole Church, emancipated from all intellectual, and moral, and physical bondage, shall enter on the blessedness of the beatific glory that is reserved. Let us, then, rejoice in this freedom and blessedness of God's children

Now, brethren, one word more. If we know how to value these blessed truths, and if we hope we are made free, we shall rejoice in any opportunity of communicating spiritual as well as temporal and social freedom. There will be a collection on behalf of the particular funds of the Bible Society, for presenting to each of the emancipated slaves a copy of the New Testament and the book of Psalms bound together. It is a most beautiful volume; and the Bible Society has munificently determined that a copy shall be given to each slave. To fulfil the determination of the Bible Society will take twenty thousand pounds; therefore we make this appeal. If you have tasted the liberty with which Christ maketh free, and "If the Son hath made you free," you will be happy to convey one copy at least: and carry it in your heart and recollection, and let your prayers arise to God for a blessing on that copy, and that by the reading of that copy, received from you as your gift, they may enter into a liberty, higher and holier than the liberty in which we this day rejoice.

May God in his great mercy bless these few hints. May the spirit of liberty be given to each of us, that we may be free ourselves, and desire to impart liberally of the word of life to the wants of others!

RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN

REV. R. W. HAMILTON.

NEW COURT CHAPEL, CAREY STREET, MAY 11, 1834.

"Then shall I know even as also I am known."-1 CORINTHIANS, xiii. 12.

THAT the soul of every man who has hitherto died is living still-that the souls of every generation, including hundreds of millions, still exist—is a fact which we, perhaps without any examination, readily allow. We cannot but acknowledge-at least, when particularly pressed-that this being which is given to us shall be perpetually carried out, shall be eternally prolonged, a dawn without an eve, a race without a goal. We must further confess, that, whatever was the impression produced upon these spirits during their sojourn upon earth, never were they so conscious of what was present, so inindful of what was past, as in their actual state now. Nor shall we refuse to concede that their moral identity is unchanged, that they are the creatures of the same accountability as before, and that their present condition is linked together with their former history, as necessarily, as indissolubly.

We come, then, to this dread conclusion: that every man who ever thought, is still thinking; that every sensibility that ever felt, still feels; that every consciousness revives itself; that every memory recalls itself; that every individual who has departed this life has entered into eternity, and is still distinctly and vividly alive to all the scenes of that mortal period which is past, and of that immortal economy which has succeeded and superseded it.

But to be able to take hold of this truth, to receive an appropriate and a worthy impression of this fact, is far more difficult than its bare attestation. They who have quitted this earthly scene have scarcely left a trace of themselves behind the arrow has flown, and the air has quickly closed upon the passage; the leaf has fallen, and is mixed with the earth around the parent tree; the raindrop has sunk into the ocean, and is lost in its depths. Our general and lesser conceptions touching the dead is, that they are no more, that they are extinct, that they have perished: but, surely as ourselves now live, exercising our faculties and entertaining our emotions, these spirits, no more within our range, with a mental activity to us unknown, now muse, now revolve, now look backward, now look forward, only more intensely, because their intellectual essence is undiverted, is unencumbered, and nothing can occur to clog its operations, or to fix it in forgetfulness or indifference.

Surely there is something very solemn, quite overpowering, in this anticipation of my future being; "Then shall I know even as also I am known;"