When visited by affliction, he always acknowledged | it, and explore it as a secret source of inexhaustible and the hand of God, and maintained tranquillity of mind in evergrowing aggrandisement and wealth. a very wonderful degree. He had a tender heart, and sad things, as Burnet remarks, were apt to make deep impressions upon him; yet the regard he paid to the wisdom and providence of God, and the just estimate he had of all worldly things, tended to support him amid all his bereavements. But we will not enlarge any more upon the character of this illustrious man; from what we have already said, it must be obvious that he was indeed a true, sincere, and consistent Christian, testifying his faith by his works, and looking on this world only as a preparation for another and a better. In the words of his biographer, "He was one of the greatest patterns his age has afforded, whether in his private deportment as a Christian, or in his public employments, either at the bar or on the bench." HID TREASURES.* BY THE REV. ROBERT JAMIESON, Minister of Westruther. "If thou seekest for knowledge as silver, and searchest for her as for THE similes used in both these passages are conceived by the generality of commentators to be founded on the circumstance, that the precious metals, which are held in so much estimation among men, on account of the purposes of utility or ornament to which they are capable of being applied, are not found strewed on the surface of the ground, but lie deeply imbedded in the bowels of the earth, unknown and imperceptible to human observation. To the ignorant and inexperienced eye, there may be nothing in the external appearance of nature to give token that she has there imparted any thing beyond the clods and the verdure, by which they may be covered. Yea, to such a depth are these valuable treasures occasionally sunk, that the most practised observers are not unfrequently deceived, and never dream of penetrating the bosom of the earth, for stores, of the existence of which she seems so studiously to have withheld all knowledge; and as the spots in which such valuable mines are discovered have generally been of a barren and unpromising character, it has not unfrequently happened, that they have been consigned to neglect, and allowed to lie in a waste and uncultivated state, as altogether incapable of rewarding the labour and expense of tillage; so that age may succeed to age, and one proprietor convey it to another, without one of the busy multitudes that tread upon its surface ever dreaming of the precious ore that lies deposited beneath. But let some happy accident reveal the secret, and give but a hint, that beneath a surface apparently so unpromising, the most valuable treasure is concealed, and from that moment, the field that contains it attracts an attention, and acquires an importance, to which it had not formerly the shadow of a claim. However it may continue to be neglected or undervalued by the rest of the world, yet in the eyes of the discoverer himself, it will appear infinitely more precious than the fairest and most extensive domains by which it may be surrounded, it will become the idol of his imagination by day, and rise before him in the visions of the night and never will he be satisfied or at rest till he has secured the undisputed possession of it to himself, and brought ell his resources of labour and of strength to bear upon To correct a misapprehension in the minds of some of our readers, it may be right to state, that all the articles from the pen of Mr Jamieson, with the exception of that in our first Number, have been written expressly for The Scottish Christian Herald.-ED. Such fortunate discoveries, however, of the golden repositories of nature, have always been so rare, as to unfit them for being made the groundwork of metaphors or narratives like those before us, which were intended for the familiar and the obvious illustration of truth; and the veins in which they are found generally extend, wherever they appear, in such abundance, as soon acquires for them too great value and importance in the public eye, to admit of the man who discovered the field where the treasure is hid, purchasing or long retaining it as his private property. Besides, Judea was never ranked among the countries where in ancient times the precious metals were obtained, nor did its solitary river, like the famed Pactolus, wash down from the neighbouring mountains the golden pebbles which its overflowing banks deposited in the fields through which it ran, enriching many of the peasants to whom our Lord was addressing this parable of the hid treasure, at no great distance from the banks of the Jordan. The propriety of the simile, therefore, which is introduced, both in the parable of Christ and in the Proverbs of Solomon, must have been founded on something more nearly allied to the general habits and associations of Eastern people-something more likely to come home to the hearers of the one, and the readers of the other, than that which was known to lead some of them to the purchase of new possessions, or to have greatly enhanced the value of such as were already their own. The readers of oriental tales are familiar with stories of persons, who, by some fortunate discovery of bidden treasure, were suddenly raised from poverty to unbounded wealth, and they are probably accustomed to ascribe such extraordinary variations of fortune to the poetic license which writers of fictitious narratives are never challenged for taking. But a little consideration will suffice to shew, that the tried and extensive fame of these beautiful fictions, which, in the countries where they were produced, form for whole seasons the only night's entertainments, has arisen solely from their being pictures of real life, and that while there is no idea which the inhabitants of all parts of the Eastern world are so prone to entertain as that of treasure hid in the field, the universality of the notion has originated, not in some vain and delusive dream, which their warm imaginations are fond of indulging, but in their knowledge of the immense riches which have frequently, in this manner, been acquired, and of the causes which render such places their chosen receptacle. The fact is, that the practice of hiding treasures is one which has risen out of necessity. In these quarters, so often the theatre of sudden revolutions--where the throne is occupied by a needy despot, who scruples at no means whereby to replenish his treasury, and where the subordinate governors imitate the rapacity of their superiors, the people, taught by experience that the suspicion of wealth often brings along with it a notoriety that proves dangerous to the possessor, endeavour to provide against emergencies which they have so good reason to fear, by depositing their money in places which are not liable to be affected by the dangers of anarchy or war. When a person has accumulated any considerable amount of wealth, he begins to think of the best means of securing it; and the usual practice in such cases is, after reserving as much in hand as may be necessary for the purposes of livelihood and trade, and expending another portion on jewels, which, from their portable nature, may not retard his flight, to bury the rest under ground, the only dead and unprofitable stock, the owner has at least the bank being the earth, where, if the money remains a satisfaction of knowing that he will find it safe and entire, whenever his necessities or inclination prompt him to retake it. In the selection of this place of concealment, he is guided by no motive but that of secrecy; ancit matters little where the treasure is hid, provided thedeposit can be effected without any traces being leftto excite suspicion, and bring others to a knowlede of the secret. The more remote, of course, the sitution of the place, the greater is its recommendation as aplace of safety; and hence the field is so generally pitaed on as least of all the scene of public or general resort. For the knowledge of this private hoard is studously confined to the bosom of its owner, and shoud he, in the course of events, be compelled to abandon the spot, or die before he has an opportunity of returning to it, the secret dies with him, and will be for ever unknown to the world, unless some happy accident bring it in the way of the peasant as he turns up the soil with the plough. Imumerable stories of the discovery of treasure hid in the held are found in the pages of authentic history from Herodotus down to the present day. That venerable father of history gives a long account of an ancient King of Egypt who had amassed 400,000 talents in the course of his life, which he had securely deposited in the garden adjoining his palace, and which was never known nor suspected by any till he imparted the secret to his sons on his death-bed. Josephus informs us that Solomon laid up vast treasures in the royal sepulchre, which was reckoned the place of the greatest security, from the sacredness attached to the abodes of the dead; and the same historian also tells us that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, during its last and memorable siege, concealed their treasures in the streets, and under the floor, and within the door-posts of their houses, and in various unfrequented parts of their city, and that the precious secret would have been for ever buried in the grave with the owners, had not the plough of the conquerors passed over the ruins of the holy place and reduced it to a field. Discoveries of a similar kind are related in the modern histories of the East. Amadedulat, who reigned in Persia in the tenth century, according to D'Herbelot, found himself reduced to great difficulties from the impoverished state of his treasury, and walking one day in one of the rooms of his palace, which had been the favourite residence of his predecessor, he perceived a serpent putting its head out of a chink of the wall. The king having ordered the place to be searched and the serpent to be killed, found in the opening of the wall, a secret place, in which, though they missed the reptile, they found some treasure, and renewing their search with greater eagerness, lighted on a great number of large coffers loaded with the treasure which the former prince had amassed and concealed there. Sir John Malcolm, in his history of Persia, relates that Ismail Samanee, having pledged his word to the inhabitants of a conquered city that he would not surrender it to be plundered by his soldiers, found himself obliged, to avoid the temptation of violating his word through the murmurs and discontent of his soldiers, to withdraw from the neighbourhood of the place. He had not gone far, Sir John continues on the authority of Persian authors, when a ruby necklace of one of his ladies was carried away by a vulture, being from its redness mistaken for meat. The bird was watched, and seen to deposit the jewel in a dry pit, which was immediately searched. The necklace was recovered, and several boxes of treasure were found near it, which proved to be part of the wealth of the captured monarch. "About ten years ago," says Volney, in his travels through Syria, "a small coffin was found at Hebron, full of gold and silver; and in the country of the Druzes, an individual lately discovered a jar, with gold coin in the form of a crescent, but as the chiefs and governors claim a right to those discoveries, and ruin those who have made them under pretence of obliging them to make restoration, those who find any thing endeavour carefully to conceal it, by secretly melting the antique coins, or burying them again in the same place where they were found." | "of trea Among the Turks, the same habit has long prevailed, and a memorable instance is recorded by Dr Perry, of immense treasures belonging to some of the principal people of the Turkish empire being concealed under ground, which, upon a revolution, were discovered by some of the domestics who had penetrated the secret. Nor is the custom of hiding money under ground less common in India. "We are constantly hearing," says Mr Roberts, late missionary in Hindostan, sures which have been and are about to be discovered; and it is no rare thing to see a large space of ground completely turned up, or a group of old and young digging amid the foundations of an old ruin, all full of the greatest eagerness and desire to reach the expected treasure. I once saw a deep tank made completely dry by immense labour in the hope of finding great treasures, which were said to have been cast in during the ancient wars." Nor is money the only article which the timid spirit of oriental society seeks in this manner to secure. The same necessity which led to the concealment of their gold and silver in the bowels of the earth, suggested to the natives the expedient of committing to the same faithful custody as much of their other effects as could be spared from immediate use; and what was at first resorted to only in the most dangerous and unsettled crisis, as the best means of placing their property beyond the reach of untoward accidents, was afterwards continued in more peaceful times from the feeling of security attending it, and became the common mode in which people of all ranks preserved their valuable commodities the opulent, their luxuries-the traders, their merchandise the farmers, the precious fruits of harvestvast quantities of grain, oil, wine, honey, and apparel have been discovered thus hoarded up in subterranean cells, several hundreds of which have been found in the same field and although, from the nature and variety of the goods deposited in them, these must have been often required to be of great magnitude, yet so carefully and dexterously had the holes been filled and the surface levelled, that not a vestige remained to shew that the earth had been moved. Such were the treasures, with the discovery of which Jeremiah (xli. 8.) tells us, that ten unfortunate Israelites ransomed their lives from the hands of the treacherous and sanguinary Ishmael. "But ten men were found among them, that said unto Ishmael, stay us not; for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey." It will be readily supposed, that the knowledge of this custom of concealing treasure in the field having prevailed from time immemorial in the East, would give rise to many a desire to meet with ocular demonstrations of its existence; and that the more eager and sanguine votaries of Mammon, in all ages, would leave no means untried that promised to put them in possession of such valuable acquisitions. Accordingly, men were not wanting in ancient times, who, taking advantage of the prevailing anxiety, pretended to discover the places where treasure was hid by the arts of sorcery. Many Asiatic princes carried those sorcerers in their train to the cities they had won by their arms, to point out the places where the vanquished had concealed their treasures. And one remarkable instance is recorded of an Arab chief, who by the aid of a person of this description, striking with a stick on the walls and on the ground, discovered the spots that had been hollowed, and obtained in consequence immense sums. Whether, as is most likely, these conjurors were guided entirely by superior sagacity and skill, which they dexterously attributed to art, it is certain that the people of the East are universally of opinion that sorcery is the only effectual means of making the discovery of hidden treasure. So universal is this persuasion, that we are informed by many modern travellers who have gone in quest of Eastern antiquities, that their researches have been great 66 ly retarded, and sometimes entirely prevented, by the culable value of the treasure it contains, they wil reajealousy of the natives, who are incapable of conceiving dily submit to any labour, however arduous, or d any them animated by any liberal motives, and who, regard-privation, however great, in order to secure the ontiing all Europeans, from their extensive attainments in nued possession of it to themselves. Not that anything science, as notorious sorcerers, conclude that they have they can give or can part with is equivalent to the price travelled so far for no other purpose than to discover of it. "It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver and take away the vast treasures which they believe be weighed for the price thereof it cannot be valued lie concealed in various quarters of their country. It with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx or the is to this belief in the skill of sorcerers to discover hid sapphire," and, therefore, in this sense, they cannever treasures, that the Prophet Isaiah (xlv. 3.) is conceived give an equivalent for it; but, impressed with a deep to allude. "As God," says Harmer, opposed his sense of the value of the treasure, and the unspeakable prophets at various times to pretended sorcerers, it is importance of possessing it, they are willing to part not unlikely that the prophet points at some such pro- with the nearest and dearest object that may endanger phetic discoveries in these remarkable words: And I its security, or be incompatible with the possession of will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches it; to give up any pursuits-relinquish any hopes--foreof secret places, that thou mayest know that I the Lord, go any pleasure-sever any connexions that are found to which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel: i. e., come between them and the enjoyment of that which I will give them, by enabling some prophet of mine to they know and feel to be worth more than the world tell thee where they are concealed." itself; and this is the sense in which the man who has found the "treasure hid in the field" of the Gospel, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and purchaseth the field." | 66 DISCOURSE. BY THE REV. JAMES BUCHANAN, These observations may serve to illustrate that desire, or rather passion, to seek for hid treasure which exists so strongly in the breasts of Eastern people, and has been characteristic of them in all ages—a desire which has originated in their knowledge of customs, which the frequent wars and the unsettled state of society have rendered general in all countries of the East, and which being felt by the Jews,* in common with their neighbours, both our Lord and the wise king of Israel have mentioned as the measure of the strong and ardent zeal with which we ought to seek after that knowledge which makes rich towards God and for eternity. The field in which this precious treasure is hid, is the Gospel, which is offered and open to the researches of all; and yet as multitudes often wander unconsciously over the spots where the most valuable stores are deposited, so multitudes who have the Gospel within their reach, and are able to read it, are ignorant of the unsearchable riches it contains have no acquaintance with its divine excellence, because they have never set them-self elsewhere describes, as "trusting in their own selves in sober earnestness to examine into its nature and "Wherefore, I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."LUKE, vii. 47. THERE were present at this interview with the Saviour of the world, two persons whose characters were in many respects widely different; a Pharisee, who appears from his language to have imbibed the spirit of his sect, which our Lord him But righteousness, and despising others :" and a woman explore its contents; or, as is the case with many, they may have done so, and yet, confining their views to its history, its poetry, or the useful and virtuous maxims it prescribes for the economy of life, are equally far as the former class from having discovered its real treasures, just because they have not gone to it in the right way -in the spirit and with the feelings of those to whom it is addressed. Let them but acknowledge themselves to be sinners-let them feel, in all its reality and power, the conviction that they are fallen and guilty-destitute of all claims to the favour of God, and in a perishing condition, and then they will be in a state of mind and spirit to appreciate the unsearchable value of the Gospel; they will betake themselves to it with all the urgencies of needy dependants who have met with unexpected relief, and having discovered a treasure inexhaustible, and of divine value, they will, with all the intense anxiety I. The Pharisee seems to have been offended of those who are "secking for silver and searching for by the Saviour's permitting this woman to aphid treasure," dig deeper and deeper, and never be sa-proach him: she was a sinner, and from the emtisfied, till they have ascertained the real amount of the phasis which is attached to the word, probably stores they have found-or dropping the metaphor, they will betake themselves to the reading of the Gospel, a notorious one; and he seems to have thought, not in the formal listless manner of those who would that such a person ought either to have been excomply with an approved custom, nor of those who cluded altogether from converse with Christ, or wish merely to provide themselves with the means of that before coming, she should have gone through intellectual entertainment, but with the earnest and ena probationary course of trial and reformation. grossing desire of those who, persuaded that they are But such an idea is at variance with the whole guilty and miserable sinners, apply to it as the only source of obtaining a knowledge of the way of salva- scope and tenor of the Gospel; nor could our tion. They will not only read it, but study it-make Lord have excluded this sinful woman from his it the subject of their frequent, fervent, and importu- presence, on the ground of any such principle, nate prayers; and perceiving more and more the incal-without virtually abandoning the doctrine of free The ancient Jews may have been led to hide their treasures under ground for security during the wars with the Philistines and their other warlike neighbours. grace altogether. Had he forbidden her approach, or treated her with stern severity as unworthy of his presence, he must have sanctioned the mis- | apprehension of the Pharisee respecting the object of his mission, and confirmed to the end of time that legal and self-righteous spirit which the whole tenor of the Gospel was meant to rebuke and to subdue. But mindful of the sublime object of his mission, "to seek and to save the LOST," he regarded "this woman that was a sinner," as one of the very fittest subjects of his compassionate care: for her redemption, and for the redemption of such as she was, he had come down from heaven; and now that he was brought into personal contact with the very guiltiest and most wretched, and that too, in the company of a proud self-righteous man, he did not shrink from her, but received her into his presence, and permitted her to wash and anoint his feet with a benignant condescension, which may well minister rebuke to self-righteous pride, and encouragement to every penitent heart, to the end of time. And this he did, even while he admitted "that her sins were many." It was not necessary for him to vindicate her from the charge of guilt; nor was it consistent with his design to palliate or in any way to excuse the sinfulness of her life: on the contrary, He received and welcomed her as a sinner, and it was in so receiving her that he manifested the perfect freeness of redeeming love, and gave to the Pharisee an affecting exhibition in practice of what he had elsewhere declared in words, "that the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick,”"that he came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance,”—" and that whosuerer cometh unto him should in nowise be cast out." From this affecting scene, we learn the cheering truth, that many sins do not debar us from the Saviour. The very object of his mission was, and the great end of his Gospel still is, to save the guilty. To none but sinners is it suitable; for every sinner it is sufficient. By his sufferings and death, as their substitute, he has made reparation to God for the dishonour which had been put upon his law; and rendered it consistent with the highest interests of the divine government, to extend the free forgiveness of sin to every one of is that will accept of it. It is emphatically said, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from ALL in. He is able to save UNTO THE UTTERMOST— Lone so guilty that he cannot redeem; none so vile that he will not receive them. Nor is his grace fettered with conditions, or restricted to particular classes; it is alike universal and free, -its invitations are addressed to all. Are there none in this assembly who will listen to this gracious call: none who feel that they have much to be forgiven: none who have tasted the bitterness of remorse, and are sick at heart: is there not amongst us one solitary spirit, that has begun to feel itself weary and heavy laden, and that would gladly welcome a relief from the burden of guilt? Oh ! if there be but one such spirit now present, I point to the woman that was a sinner, and say go to the Saviour as she did, and he will Be not welcome you, even as he welcomed her! faithless but believing. Your sins are many—so were hers: You are deeply distressed and fearful— so was she, when she stood at the Saviour's feet in tears: You have nothing to recommend you to the Saviour, nothing to plead in extenuation or excuse for your guilt, nor had she ;-she wept and was silent. And you too, when you retire this evening to your closet, and weep a silent flood over the remembrance of your sins, will have the com passionate eye of the Saviour upon you:—the Saviour's heart is not changed-exalted as he is, it is still his delightful office to bind up the broken-hearted: to no friend on earth, to no angel in Heaven, will your first prayer give greater pleasure than to the Saviour himself. Go then to your knees with the words of David on your heart, "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me." This woman that was a sinner seems to have come uninvited, to a house where, to all but the Saviour, her presence was unwelcome or offensive: you can go, and plead his own invitation for your warrant, his own recorded love for your motive, his own express promise for your prayer and to you, as to her, may the Saviour say, "Son, daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee; thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace.' II. Another reason why the Pharisee was offended by our Lord's gracious conduct to this woman, seems to have arisen from an apprehension that the free forgiveness of sin could not be extended to such characters, consistently with the interests of morality. He thought that it must be an encouragement to vice: that the kindness which the Saviour exercised to the very chief of sinners must become, in the case of his disciples, a motive to licentiousness. Such an opinion has often been expressed, not only in ancient but also in modern times; especially by those decent men of the world, who, without much experience of the vital power of religion, have maintained a regard for good morals, and an attachment to the forms and ordinances of religion. They have thought the doctrine of free grace injurious, or, at least, dangerous to the interests of morality; and hence their attempts to fetter the gospel with restrictions, and to re-impose the bondage of legal conditions, which, were they admitted, would have the effect of excluding every man who has a right sense of his own sinfulness from applying to the Saviour at all. That some such thought was passing through the mind of the Pharisee, is evident from the scope of our Lord's observations, which are mainly directed to this point-that the free forgiveness of sin, so far from being opposed to the interests of morality, is, on the contrary, the means of calling into operation, a principle which insures a life not only of strict but of willing and cheerful obedience. That principle is love: love to Christ as a compassionate Saviour, and to God as a reconciled Father through him; that love which is the sum and substance of the law, the spring of all acceptable obedience, the only source of true happiness in religious or moral duty. This love is first awakened by the free grace of | says, "Wherefore her sins are forgiven, for she loved much," he does not refer to her love as the meritorious or procuring cause of forgiveness; on the contrary, his illustration, drawn from the case of the two debtors, shows that love is the fruit or effect of forgiveness; but he points to it in the text as affording a proof that this poor woman had been forgiven, and as the genuine fruit and effect of the kindness with which she had been treated. With this explanation, I observe there were two grand points which our Lord wished to establish. The first, that free forgiveness would produce love; and the second, that love, when produced, would ensure cheerful obedience. With reference to the former of these points, our Lord makes an appeal to the Pharisee himself, well knowing that the Gospel was adapted to the common principles of human nature: "And Jesus answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee: and he said, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most. Simon answered, and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, thou hast rightly judged." Here Simon admits, in the case of an ordinary debtor, that a frank forgiveness will produce love to a generous benefactor; and that this love will bear some proportion to the amount of the debt discharged, or the magnitude of the love displayed: and in this admission, our Lord had all that he wished for explaining the principle and vindicating the reasonableness of his procedure in frankly forgiving the sins of all classes, without respect to the little distinctions which might obtain among them. The Pharisee thought himself more righteous than the woman that was a sinner; whether he really was so in the sight of Him who judgeth the heart, we have no means of discovering: but our Lord meets his objection to the free forgiveness of the woman, on the distinct ground, that even were his opinion correct as to the comparative righteousness of the two parties, still the interests of morality were secure, since from his own admission" to whom much is forgiven, the same will love much." This, then, is the first point which our Lord wished to establish, that whenever a sinner is taught to believe the Gospel, and to obtain the free forgiveness of sin, a new principle will spring up in his bosom-he will love the Saviour; and having established this, our Lord proceeds to show (2dly,) the practical working of that principle, in a way which was fitted very deeply to humble the pride of the Most Pharisee. He lays hold of the circumstances which had occurred since they sat down to table, as a sufficient proof that the love of this poor woman was a more active principle of dutiful obedience, than any which the Pharisee himself possessed. beautiful is the example which our Lord here gives of the operation of love in the case of a true convert, as contrasted with the cold outward respect of a formal professor of religion. "He turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven her;-for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." There is something exquisitely beautiful in this simple description-something which finds its way to the heart in the devoted love of this sinful woman to the Saviour of sinners. It might have been expected, that on meeting with the holy Son of God, the Pharisee, who made his boast of the law, and professed great attachment to moral goodness, would have shown more reverence and esteem for the Perfect Pattern of all moral excellence, than the woman that was a sinner. But it was not so he was cased up in self-righteous pride; but the poor woman knew that she was a sinner, she looked to Christ as a Saviour, and having been graciously received by him, his love awakened a responsive love in her bosom, and she followed him as her Master. The free forgiveness of her sins bound her to his service, by a tie which neither shame, nor contempt, nor persecution, could break: her faith wrought by love, and that love led her to follow him at all hazards. So is it in every case. We have here but an exemplification of what takes place on the conversion of every sinner, an illustration of the way in which the Gospel works in the heart of every believer: the love of the Saviour produces love to the Saviour, and love to Him secures our sanctification, and renders our obedience alike constant and cheerful. When the heart is thus filled with love, you see the Gospel fulfilling the very end of the law, for the law of the universe is love, and that law is fulfilled, when, through the free forgiveness of sin, Christ is loved as a Saviour, and God is loved as a reconciled Father. When this love takes full possession of the heart, religion becomes a cheerful service; without it, religion may be observed in its outward forms, but it cannot be sensibly enjoyed. We must have some sense or some hope of forgiveness from him, before God can be loved as our God: when he is thus loved, he will be cheerfully served: no sacrifice will seem too great, no labour too difficult, no suffering too severe, to be submitted to. Our desire will be to become in all respects conformed to the will of |