the daisy at their base, and the purpling heather fringing their lofty brow, make an enticing lap for a poetic child to sit and sing upon, you feel that Nature is not exhausted yet, and that she has treasures yet in store. At length, as the dancing stream in its capricious course winds round the foot of that impending rock, you come abruptly on a scene so grand and wondrous, that you are one and all hushed into silence, and chained in a reverential awe by its dignified and sublime repose. It seems as though, up to this time, the handmaids had been leading you through the porch and the vestibule, but now you had entered the feasting-chamber itself, and stood face to face with the royal host. Something like these feelings will affect the mind of him who floats along the river of Pauline eloquence, with devotion for his rudder, and imagination for his sail. Suppose that you have halted on this entrancing voyage, having sailed as far as the beginning of this epistle to the Hebrews, and here you once more unloose from your moorings and resume your course. With the remembrance of the wonders of your former journey, and with the enchanting wizardry of your inspired guide fresh in your mind, you set forth again. But still the glories into which you launch at once suffer no detraction from the recollection of those which have already suffused your soul. The sun seems to be shining brightly on the waters, even at the outset: we are called upon to pause and listen to the echo of the ancient prophets' voices, taken up and re-echoed in sweeter accents by the Son of God. Or rather, we are called upon to listen to the voice of the Eternal, once expounded to our fathers by the prophets, set forth by a fitter and a diviner exponent in the person of the Saviour.

A halo of brightness is then thrown around Him, and His mercy is invoked as our attendant on our voyage-the throne of God-the splendours of Heaven-the firmament, its jewelled pavement-and the angels, its resplendent inhabitants, are ushered in before us, and we are again summoned to listen earnestly to them as ministering spirits sent forth to minister unto us. And then, having excited our wonder and our joy by a full orbed-glance at the glorious redemption purchased for the faithful, the inspired

apostle, like some potent sorcerer who has bathed his wand in Heaven, calls up a spell which holds us hushed and awe-struck, by the question, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation"?

Notwithstanding the terrible and almost threatening significance of this question, it is cheering to those who delight to look upon the atonement of Christ as an atonement for all-to find the question put by the apostle Paul, who is the great and consistent advocate of the special purposes of the divine sovereignty. For, it seems to me at least, to contain a proof, or to imply one, of the universality of the application of the atonement of the Saviour, and of the sincerity of God's desire that all should be partakers of it. I say, then it is cheering to find Paul, the great preacher of the doctrine of predestination, using the language of the text, as it shows that, whatever he may mean by the election for which he contends, he does not mean that it is out of any man's power to obtain salvation if he will.

He speaks of it as a "great salvation," and this seems to imply that it is great in a twofold sense. Great as regards the depth and danger from which it rescues man, and great as regards its application, and the freeness by which it may be obtained.

(1.) It is a great salvation then, first, as regards the depth and the danger from which it rescues man.

The full profundity of that depth will never be apparent to human appreciation, until we look down into the horrible pit and miry clay from the lofty altitude of the eternal seats of Heaven. It was long before the Great Artificer had formed the earthit was long before He had evoked the light obedient to His word, and formed the sun and moon and stars to smile upon the world which He had fashioned it was long before creation claimed its lord, and man stood forth the image of his God that amidst the Heavenly seats, where joy had reigned unbroken from eternity, where spirit vied with spirit in paying loyal homage to the Great I AM—where morning light had bathed each throne in glory, and girdled every brow with an immortal crown. the jealous tooth of Pride struck into an angel heart. The song which hung

upon the lips of all the host, and which had ushered in the birth of each event through each successive age, was marred by notes which never had been heard before. And, as the Monarch of the Sky drank in His wonted meed of praise, He tasted an ingredient in the draught, which called into His face the first frown that ever darkened it, or cast its shadow through the realms of joy. Each angel trembled as he stood before the throne, and Heaven was mute beneath the scowl of God. And in that interval of awful silence, a mighty spirit, shining with all the lustre of celestial light, raised loud the shout of foul rebellion, and rallying around himself a legion of infatuate rebels trembling with deadly rage and fell revolt, made impious onslaught on the Monarch's throne. A moment more and the thunderbolts of Omnipotence were hurled, and Satan and his angels fell like lightning from Heaven. Whither could they flee? There was no relenting, and therefore could be no returning. So the exiled immortals, banded in solemn conclave, resolved by every devilish artifice to try to thwart the Great Eternal in His plans. No sooner, then, had God looked down upon the shapeless mass "without form and void," before He formed it to a world, than the banished spirits, from the shadows of their gloomy exile looked towards it too. And when Paradise was made, when Eden was clothed with foliage and flowers, and man walked forth, the monarch of the whole, the whisper of conspiracy ran round the outlawed host, and Satan saw the germ of an empire even in the handiwork of God. His quick intelligence at once perceived, that fashioned as he was after the image of his Maker, if he desired to be altogether like Him, he would desire to be wise; and it was upon this desire that he resolved to practise his seductions. Clothed in a serpent's garb, he lurked beneath the fairest flowers in the garden, and, as if to make his conquest all the more complete, he sought to make his first victim of the purest triumph of the Maker's skill by whispering his insidious craft into the woman's ear. His machinations prospered, she took the proferred fruit, and from its juice she sucked the virus which has poisoned all mankind. Hell was now dug, and the fire was lighted there; and man,

the heir of immortality became the captive of destruction, and the prey of death. His sons and daughters grew in sin, and wandered far from God. The image of God was blasted by the imprint of the cloven foot. Life and immortality suffered one huge eclipse-death and destruction reigned on Earth; and while there were tears in Heaven, there was a carnival in Hell. The heart of man, created for the temple of the living God, became the theatre of vice, and the grim arena of passion and of lust. In every human sanctuary truth was expelled, Jehovah deposed from His throne, the altars of Satan were upreared, and "Lords many and Gods many" received the worship due only to the Lord of Hosts. Men who should have grown in grace, grew more and more corrupt, till the fair face of all God's lovely earth reeked with the incense of a foul idolatry, and cried to God for vengeance. Seeing the crying guilt growing deeper and and breaking every gracious barrier erected to arrest it, the Lord repented that He had made man, and swamped the world which He had formed beneath the waters of the flood. Sin still grew, even in the resuscitated world, and loud above the hymns of psalmists and the voices of the prophets, the sounds of Belial worship brayed in boisterous insolence. Satan seemed to have all God's creatures in his toils-to let them loose upon their lease of life, and then to lead them captive at his will down to his dark domain. But God seeing, at length, that man had no pity on himself, took pity on Him. From the temples where the faithful few had never ceased to worship Him, a hundred signs and emblems pointed towards some grand event. The blood of bulls and of goats, spoke dimly of the blood of a worthier and a nobler sacrifice. The prayers of the high-priest for the people, told of an intercession more prevailing yet to come. "And God who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." Yes, by His Son. His only begotten Son: for look, my fellow-sinner, at that kneeling figure in that garden, crying, while the sweat of His great agony hangs clammy on His brow and falls upon the ground-"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me."

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By His Son, His only Son; for see, upon that mountain hangs the bleeding Saviour, praying in a voice that hushes even the blatant yellings of the mocking crowd into awful silence, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." This is the deathblow to the devil's empire,-this is the refuge for his hapless followers,-this strikes the chains from off his fettered captives, this is the stoop by which He plucks us from the jaws of hell,-this is the "great salvation" which he freely offers. In His name, then, and in His stead, we take our stand beneath that cross; and beseech you by the wonders of His big compassion,-by the awful travail of His soul,—by the earnestness with which, and the liberty to which He beckons you, by the hopeless slavery from which he rescues you,-by the certainty of death and judgment, and the equal certainty of a dark damnation if you continue in your guilt-to "kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way"; for how shall you escape, "if ye neglect so great salvation? "

(2) It is a great salvation, too, in its applicability to all.

All had sinned alike, and come short of the glory of God. All were travelling alike to a common doom, and all are invited alike to a common deliverer. It is the very universality of Christ's atonement that will shut up every avenue of escape from him who neglects it. If it were intended but for a few, how could we be said to neglect what was never meant for us? My brother, are you neglecting it? How are you affected by it? Do you feel your need of it? Are you prepared to give up all to obtain it?

Suppose that you are slumbering in a burning-house, and are all at once awoke by the terrified cry of "Fire!" echoing through the street. Rushing to the door, you find the stairs are all consumed, and that you only look down into an abyss of burning rafters and angry flame. The fire is gathering closer and closer round you, and chases you from room to room. some frighted bird, scared from its nest, you fly from place to place to avoid the forked tongues which lick up all before them, and swallow down into their fiery throats all objects in their way, as in a burning hell. As you listen to the roaring of the

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