God. Blessed, for ever blessed be his grace, who by this offering hath opened a fountain for sin and for uncleanness, in which the most polluted may wash and be clean; For Christ so loved the church as to give himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it might be holy and without blemish: for his blood has infinite virtue to purify the foulest sinner, even so to cleanse him, that he may be perfect. for ever and the great use of faith is to receive it, and to apply it, even as God himself has recommended it and it has lost none of its virtue. To this very day, it purifies as perfectly as ever it did, and believers now, in life, and in the hour of death, feel its divine efficacy, as truly as the martyred Stephen did. I find a dying Christian thus proclaiming his faith and hope in it, when heart and flesh were failing him. "Am not I, my friends, a monument of God's rich, free grace, of his boundless love and mercy

in Christ? O most extensive is the efficacy of his precious blood! for it has reached to me, one of the vilest of sinners: O here is. boundless goodness, unfathomable love! This blood has washed clean my soul, the seat of defilement, that was as black as hell; purified my conscience, that was darker than the grave, and made it brighter than the light in a word, this blood will make me, who was vile-most vile-a child of hellan heir of wrath, holy before God, and fit to live with God, and the Lamb, with angels, and the spirits of good men made perfect, to all eternity, and in a few minutes my soul shall be made perfect also. O blessed, for ever blessed be God my Saviour: eternal praises be rendered unto thee." This is true faith, and high honour put upon the blood of Jesus, to seal God's testimony coneerning it. He hath set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Trusting to it, the foulest sins are washed as white as snow, and crimson sins as the purest wool. So the Beloved says to

his church" Behold, thou art fair, my love: behold thou art all fair, there is no spot in thee: thou art all glorious within :?? No angel can be whiter or purer, or stand more accepted before God than he does who is washed in the blood of the Lamb. blessed man who hast obtained redemption by it! thou art commanded to enter with Boldness into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus the way is open; thou art called to draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having thy heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and thy body washed with pure water, that thou mayest hold thy profession of faith without wavering, as that great multitude did, who washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; they are now crying with a loud voice, "Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever." They triumph indeed: and so may, est thou. Thou hast the same reason as they have. The same fountain, which washed their robes, cleanses thine: the same promises that it will, and thou shalt

stand before God without spot of sin unto eternal salvation, as perfect as they. Jesus is thy Saviour, as truly as he is theirs. Even to day, thy conscience purged from guilt, and thy heart purified by faith, thou mayest enter within the vail, and make sweet melody in thy heart unto the Lord thy God. Our elder brethren round his throne are employed in the same delightful work. We do it here as well as we can they in heaven, and we on earth. The same subject in the church below, as well as above, and the same employment. We try to sing the praises of the worthy, slaughtered Lamb in as high a note as they do. And when we fail we try again, praying the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep in tune with them, that our songs may dai. ly be more spiritual and heavenly. A poet of our own, feeling something of this harmony, would have us to celebrate the triumphs of the Lamb of God, in these words:

There is a fountain fill'd with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,

And sinners plung'd beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.