given; and putting all his sins, with all their aggravations, on one side of a paper, he fled to a lonely castle - while there, he wrote with his pencil all the promises he could think of upon the other side. And lo, he found such an abundance of mercy that his sins were lost, swallowed up in God!! Enlarge here on God's mercy being the moving spring primarily, and the cause of Jesus and all the blessings from Jesus. He "hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." When Christ died, the hopes of his followers died also; we cannot think of their state without peculiar emotion; their hopes were buried with their Master: "We thought it was he who should have redeemed Israel." (Enlarge on similar texts.) It was then a dead hope; but now, when Christ rises, the hope again revived, and flourished again; and as their hope had been entombed with him, so with him it left the tomb. It rose with their Master, and was now a living, a lively hope: "He hath begotten this hope in us again." The hope within us had died, but he again begot, again produced it.

(Dwell on the hope of the Christian: "It is the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil whither our forerunner has for us entered. He who has this hope purifies himself even as he is pure." Show who are possessors of this hope and have claim to it; the sinner's is a dead hope, for Christ has never risen in his heart). This is the hope that shall never perish again, like that of the hypocrite, &c.

"By the resurrection from the dead." We are not to suppose that the apostle excluded the other parts of our Lord's life, his sufferings or death, but that he includes the whole in this one in the resurrection; for it put the crown on all the rest. Show that his death would have been of no avail to us if he had not risen again. Though he died for our sins, and thus, by his death, paid the price of our redemption, yet we could never have laid hold on God by the faith of Jesus if we had not been assured of God's acceptance of him, and of his thus rising for our justification. (Enlarge here.) Hence the apostles preached Jesus and the resurrection.

Now God hath begotten us; we are now his children, and entitled to the inheritance of children; ours is no empty title; if children, then heirs, says St. Paul. So St. Peter: being children, we are entitled to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Here is an allusion to the terrestrial Canaan, which was corruptible-but this is undefiled, untainted, unsullied; not annoyed by wicked men, with which that land was polluted.

Fadeth not away. The crown at the Olympic games was composed of perishable materials; but this is one which "neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal." (Quote what the various apostles and evangelists say on it.) St. Paul tells us what the possession is, "heirs of God." What the glory will be we know not; but when Christ shall appear we shall be like him. Let this satisfy us. Let us not again forget that this is procured by Jesus Christ for us; with him, everything.

III. It is reserved for them, &c. Oh! the contrast; reserved in heaven! this marks its security-allusion to the bulwarks made use of, and the outposts to defend a country; garrisoned at every point, fully equipped to defend the possession or estate. And has God made heaven thus secure to us? Does he guard our possession by his own Almighty power, and ensure us the full enjoyment of it? What arm, then, can rob us of our estate? He himself is our shield, our defence. Fear nothing, little Jacob.

But you are kept for it-allusion to the ancient practice when an heir to a great possession is born: he was taken into a strong fortress, and there kept, lest he should be destroyed. And does God thus keep his children? Heirs to such a vast estate? Does he snatch them and lodge them under his wing? Round all their glory he makes a defence. Oh! how secure is the believer in Christ! the believer in the present tense; love God.

But yet man is not to be saved as a machine. Though his salvation is all of grace, yet faith is the instrument by which man must apprehend God. Our weapons are spiritual; and we must keep a constant hold of the promises of God by faith. Faith brings the blessings down.-Enlarge. -Faith is as the hand to the body.

All heaven is concerned for us; God's almighty power is pledged to protect us. What, then, can harm us if we be followers of that which is good?

SERMON XVIII.

THE ENSIGN OF THE CHURCH.

Isaiah, xi., 10.-And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

How precious are the promises contained in this chapter! "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (equivalent to Zechariah, ix.). If it be inquired how or by what means this great work shall be effected, the answer from our text is obvious: "In that day," that is, the Gospel dispensation. A day in Scripture is an indefinite portion of time; Christ himself calls his dispensation a day: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." It is called "a day of salvation;" hence Paul applied it to his time: "Behold, now is the day of salvation." It is with us the same day; the day of the Gospel dispensation is now: "The sun of Righteousness is shining with healing in his wings."

I. Consider what is meant by the root of Jesse. II. How it shall be an ensign for the people. III. The blessed promise, "To it shall the Gentiles seek." IV. Consider the glorious rest promised to such.

(Get our minds in a proper frame; sit as under the cross, as if you saw the blessed Jesus exalted.) I. Consider what is meant by the root of Jesse. The person meant by this is the Lord Jesus Christ, that

complex being who is very God and very man. In our text we have,

1. His Divine nature pointed out; and it is very important to observe it. He is called "the root of Jesse;" for, as God, he was the first of all beings; the root of Adam as well as every living thing. Hence David in spirit called him Lord: "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." But though his Divine nature only is pointed out here, yet I take it,

2. That his human nature is implied. Turn to the first verse: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow up out of his roots." Here is his humanity: he grows out of the stem of Jesse. Observe the wonderful beauty of the figure. Through all the changes of David's family they are reduced from royalty to abject poverty; no mark of dignity attaches itself to them, and yet God had wonderfully preserved the line distinct, and it was just about to expire when the Messiah came. But the prophet does not say, " A rod shall come out of David," but of Jesse; it shall spring, not from the royal branches, all these are lopped off; but, like an old tree cut down, the stump only remaining in the ground, a rod, or, as the word may mean, scion, sprig, a little stem shall shoot up, as if the old stump were left in the ground for this purpose; a straight, slender twig shall come out and grow up to perfection. God passes by all the stately cedars of the Jews, and pitches upon the neglected stem "his roots;" they barely remained, yet these roots send forth the Branch. (Dwell on the fine idea.) Thus Christ is the stem as well as the root of Jesse; hence St. John beautifully connects the two ideas :* "The root and offspring of David." Perhaps God meant to show that, in sending his Messiah into the world, the most humble state should be his: hence he pitches not on royalty, but traces him to David's first state of huniliation: "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness: and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."

II. How it shall be an ensign for the people.

It may have two meanings, referring either to the standard itself, which was called the ensign, or to the standardbearer. In both these senses it will apply to Jesus Christ.

The standard was used first in the camp; the hosts were marshalled under it. In the camp it is like the pillar of fire and cloud; it will station with thee in the camp. Secondly, in the march it went before and led on the company. So our standard is raised on high and carried before us, and we are commanded to follow the cross. "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Show the need that Christians have to be encouraged in the march by the ensign being carried before them. Thirdly, in the battle. (Constantine.) So long as the standard is kept elevated, victory may yet be gained; it is the token of conquest being yet undecided-the battle not finally won. So in our fights, so long as our standard is unfurled we rally to it and fight beneath it-victory is certain, not dubious; for the standard cannot be plucked out of the hand of Omnipotence. Fourthly, it is used in the triumph, in exultation, and of joy. Thus, then, shall it be when all Christ's cross-bearers will come forth with, not laurels, but "everlasting joy upon their heads."

But, 2. As to the ensign itself. In this point of view it answers to Christ: he stands for an ensign. 1. See Mount Calvary-Paul was not ashamed of a crucified master. 2. He is lifted upon the pole of a preached Gospel. Paul to the Galatians: they had not seen Jesus with their eyes, and yet they had, says St. Paul, seen him crucified among them. It was doubtless in this sense he meant it. On this pole he is now elevated, and shall continue to be to the end of the world. Miserable are those Christless sermons in which this is hardly touched upon.

III. What a blessed promise! the Gentiles shall yet flock to this standard. We had a proof of this in the wise men-they sought to it; next in the Syro-Phœnician woman, of whom our Lord said, "Great is thy faith," &c. See the case of the Roman centurion-next Cornelius, a seed of Gentilism, which produced the conversion