277 LECTURE XII. GALATIANS vi. 14. GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD GLORY, SAVE IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. THIS is a remarkable sentiment, differing as widely and as entirely from any thing to be met with in the whole range of uninspired literature, as it does from the daily conviction and feeling of unregenerate man. It was delivered by one whose life and conversation we have lately considered, and from the peculiar manner in which it is ushered in, and the remarkable energy with which it is expressed, we cannot but feel that it must be well worthy of our most careful investigation. Let us then seek for the promised aid of God's Holy Spirit, while dwelling upon so striking a portion of the divine word, that we may each and all be led to participate in a feeling which this great apostle evidently considered as his highest privilege and his chiefest boast. In furtherance of this object, let us consider, First, What that was of which the inspired apostle was so well content to glory, and Secondly, Why he would thus glory. First, then, the object of St. Paul's glorying is thus described in the text, "the cross of Christ." "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." In addressing this congregation, I need not caution you, as the immortal Luther thought it necessary to caution his audience, when, in speaking from these very words, he said, "Moreover, the cross of Christ doth not signify that piece of wood which Christ did bear upon his shoulders, and to the which he was afterwards nailed." No, blessed be God, the time is past we trust, at least among ourselves, when such cautions are necessary; the crucifix is no longer substituted for the cross, and in this Protestant country men no longer waste that adoration upon the mere senseless instrument, which belongs only to Him who hung upon it. By the cross of Christ, then, we understand, the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Redeemer, that which the same apostle elsewhere says, was "unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." It was this in which the apostle gloried, it was this for which while the learned of the world despised it, and the noble of the • See Luther on the Galatians, in loco. world derided it, St. Paul gloried, as the one, the only truth worth knowing here below, the one, the only passport to an eternity of happiness. Let us then consider a little more minutely the nature of this great truth, of which St. Paul spake so exultingly, which forms the theme of every good man's praises upon earth, which shall occupy his heart throughout unnumbered ages in the kingdom of his Father. "The cross of Christ!" O, how do angels desire to look into that high mystery, and yet, with humility be it spoken, no created angel can see it with the eyes with which we see it, or feel it with the heart with which we appreciate it for no created angel has ever been separated from God by sin, and brought back to His fatherly affection, forgiveness, and love, as we have been, by the cross of Christ. No created angel can say, as the spirits of just men made perfect are represented 66 in the apocalyptic vision to say, “We overcame by the blood of the Lamb." The cross of Christ is therefore peculiarly, of all created beings, our glory, and ours alone. When, as the prophet says, "All we like sheep had gone astray, and turned every one to his own way," the great and omnipotent God, even God the Father, found out this remedy, and sent His Son Jesus Christ, that on Him might be "laid the iniquity of us all." In pursuance with this resolution of the Most High, did God the Son, in the fulness of time, according to the terms of the everlasting covenant, come "in the likeness of sinful flesh," and take our nature; and having become obedient to death, even the death of the cross, thus purchase for Himself a peculiar people, who should believe in Him and obey Him upon earth, and be for the sake of His infinitely meritorious sacrifice, the partakers of His blessedness, and the sharers of |