THE GREAT GIVER AND THE

GREAT GIFT.

TITUS ii. 13, 14.

"The great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us."

is a good thing, we may be tempted to think, perps, that we are drawn back by the dumb forgetness of a fallen nature, or we should certainly e ourselves in adoring raptures at the great love of d. For, not to cite many instances, that of the t is sufficient in itself to entrance our souls; "the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave self for us." "Wonderful!" you exclaim.-What vonderful ?—" The love of God our Saviour!" Yes, now that is wonderful, but is not this wonderful —the forgetfulness of the marvellous fact by the tures He redeemed!

l'is a busy scene, this life: we rise early, we hurry day in the bustle of business, and care, and plea

sure, and sin; we retire at night to recruit our strength for another day of similar occupations, and another, and another, to the day when Death closes our eyes so fast. There is such a power of attraction and cohesion in our worldly condition, that the marvels of redemption are far above out of our sight; or, if we affect to bring them within reach, they do not piece-in with the native experience of our inner man; they look too like a patch of new cloth on an old garment. Is it not so now ? The great bulk of mankind, yes, of Christians, set their affections on things below, not on things above. And yet, what object more glorious, what truths more important, what facts more authentic can possibly engage the attention of men than those which form the sum and substance of Christian revelation ?

May God's Holy Spirit be pleased in His goodness to bless us now, and set before us in the force of truth the love of our Master, "the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us!" Amen.

Our Saviour Jesus Christ is God as well as man; Oh! never forget that. He is the great God. He was with His Father before the world was. By Him all things were made. He laid the foundations of the earth. He built the starry sky. He gave being to the angels. In Him we live and move and have our being. The divinity of Jesus Christ our Lord is a cardinal point of our creed. Forget not for a moment, dear brethren, that Jesus is our Lord and our God. And

et what a marvellous fact this is, and how little do e think of it in comparison with its importance; we y the sacred name without reverence, even with failiarity; we discuss the doctrine of His divinity in e same tone of voice, and perhaps with the same dinary feelings, as we discuss a topic of human expeence. The angels in heaven adore Him ever; the gels in hell tremble at Him; and we mortals, whose terest it is to love and adore Him most, are coldarted, and tongue-tied in His praises; we are clogged, d fettered, and biased, and cheated by sin; there is fear of our being carried off by ecstasies, or of being arged as Festus charged the Apostle-" Paul, thou beside thyself; much learning doth make thee

Yet now, beloved, remember, and forget not,

t Jesus our Saviour is our Lord and our God.

"He

de us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and sheep of His pasture."

The great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ! Oh! enever you repeat that blessed name, pass it not r, without recognizing the amazing grace of meanin it. Look on thy degraded condition by sin, forward to the exalted glory of the saints in light; mighty exaltation, the marvellous change is owing he great love of our Master and only Saviour Jesus ist, "who gave Himself for us." In another sense is our Lord, i. e., our Master; we are His sers, His disciples. If you go to China, or the healands; if you go to Islam, or the Jews, you

hear men say, Budda, Brahma, or Siva, or Mahomet, or Moses, is our Master; but here, in this Christian country, here amongst us, Jesus Christ is Lord. Leaving the multitudes alone, busied in their worldly commerce, Jesus Christ hath called us, saying to each one, as he said to the fishermen of Galilee, "Follow Me-I will set you on work, and when the day is over, I will call you to the reckoning." Oh! how many forget that Jesus is their Lord and Master! how many refuse to do His work, or slur it over hurriedly, and yet all hope to receive His pay! Foolish thought, and idle expectation! Suppose you were to hire yourself to a farmer, and undertake to work for him from morning even unto nightfall; but instead of that you should idle, or do your own business or pleasure, and when told of your fault and failing, should laugh in the face of him who told you; do you think the farmer would pay you certainly not; neither will Christ pay idlers ? and triflers, only the labourers of His vineyard.

But let us not rest too long on the word Lord or Master, let us take the other title that the text names, Saviour. Oh! that is the word with meaning above everything! When we talk of Duty we sink down abashed and wretched, for we have not done it, we cannot do it, we are unprofitable servants; and then He draweth nigh to us, I mean our Lord and Master, and taking us by the hand, saith-"I am your Saviour."-The miraculous draught of fishes could not have driven into the heart of Simon more wondrous feelings

awe and marvel, than that word Saviour uttered by arist can bring into ours; and besides the awe there meth in at the same time a feeling of love, keen, artfelt, genuine love; to think that so divine a Mas, should demean Himself in such guise, as to take e trembling bond-slave by the hand, and say unto m-"I will make you free." More than that, far re; for doth not the text say, "Our Lord and Saviour sus Christ gave Himself for us?" What does this an? We hear of servants giving themselves to their sters; subjects to their lords, constrained by duty service, or promptings of gratitude; but whoever ard before of Lord and Master giving himself for his ves and dependants? Yet here it is written! are say you have often thought about this, but I you to think of it again; and I pray God to bless r thoughts to your good.

I will try and be very plain, just mention a few ticulars wherein our Saviour gave Himself for us; suffered my thoughts and my words to go in that k, and take that flight, which, poor as they are, y are nevertheless capable of, you would not pers be able, all of you, to follow me; for 'tis a marous subject; full of most profound mysteries; deep eternity, wide as immensity, no created being can, sibly, fathom it!

He gave Himself for us. He, being God, gave Himself ecome a man for us. He dwelt in Heaven, in the y of the Father on His throne; the angels wor