feasted the soul, the sweetest is to see the Lamb that was slain in the midst of his Father's throne.

My dear brethren, we came here to day to find him in the place of graves; but he is not here, he is risen.

"With joy we tell the scoffing age,

He that was dead has left the tomb:
He lives above their utmost rage,

And we are waiting till he come."

We had thought to come and stand and weep where Mary wept; but while we were coming, the angel descended and rolled back the stone, and lo the mangled body has taken its flight. We saw that body mangled; we saw the stripes cut deep into his sacred flesh; we saw his temples gored with thorns; we heard the loud roar of vulgar mockery; we saw him borne away on the tide of popular fury; we saw his cross erected; we saw his hands and feet extended and nailed to the wood. We stood weeping and trembling six hours as he hung on the torturing spikes, under the burden of our sins; we saw his mother swoon and sink to the earth; we saw John as pale as death; we saw heaven and earth convulsed; we heard his dying groan; we saw him committed to the sepulchre. And we had now come to embalm him. But he is not here. O could we hear him speak to us as he did to Mary before the sepulchre, with what transport would we also cry, Rabboni! and rush into his arms. Yes and we will embalm him still. We will embalm his name in our hearts. We will embalm it among our

children and friends by the memorial of his love which we are about to set forth. We will embalm it by a life savoring of his loveliness. We will cmbalm it by our praise, which shall be prolonged while we have breath, and sink away at last upon our dying lips. And we will embalm it among the songs of the upper world. O if we are permitted to come and stand where the elders bow before the Lamb enthroned, how will we bow and sing! When we shall look down to hell and see our old com panions there, and then back to Calvary, and then look up and read the touching traces of love in those melting eyes, and among the prints of the thorns, we will embalm his name if love and songs can do it. We will tell all heaven of his love. If ever new inhabitants should come in from other worlds, they shall hear the story of Calvary. If commissioned in remote ages of eternity to visit other planets, we will carry to them the amazing tidings. We will tell the story to all we meet. We will erect monuments of the wonderful facts on every plain of heaven, and inscribe them all over with the story of the manger, the garden, and the cross.— While gratitude and truth remain, the name and the love of Jesus shall never be forgotten. It shall be the sweetest part of our heaven to see him on the throne, to see him bending with infinite delight over his beloved Church,-to hear that shout of praise from all the redeemed, from all the angels, from all the holy creation. It shall be our heaven to bow with them and join the song.

But poor miserable sinners, where will you be? While all this burst of joy and praise is heard in heaven, where will you be? During all the coming ages of that glorious eternity, where will you be? While your blessed parents and friends are feasting above, O where will you be? Saying "to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand?"

SERMON XXXIII.

HOW CAN I PUT THEE AMONG THE CHILDREN.

JER. III. 19.

But I said, How shall I put thee among the children and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the host of nations? And I said, Thou shalt call me my Father, and shalt not turn away from me.

These words were primarily addressed to the ten tribes of Israel, who had been carried captive about a century before by the king of Assyria. God seems to be revolving in his mind the immense difficulties in the way of restoring them to the character of children and to the land and privileges of their fathers, and inquires with himself, or proposes the inquiry to them, how so great a restoration could be accomplished. To the eye of reason it seemed impossible. They had been transported into the country of the Medes, and other nations had been brought in to possess their lands and to fill their cities. The whole authority of the Assy

rian monarch, who at that time possessed almost all Asia, had guaranteed their country to its new possessors and confined them to the land of their captivity. The power of Assyria was continually increasing, and no prospect of the subversion of that immense empire appeared. The captive tribes had built houses and planted vineyards in Media, and had gradually become attached to that country as their home, and in the same proportion had become weaned from the inheritance of their fathers. The prospect of their ever being able or willing to return was daily decreasing. And to swell the difficulties, they who had been banished from the presence of God for their idolatry, were growing more and more heathenish from their connexion with the nations among whom they were scattered. But they must be recovered to holiness and to the pure worship of God before they could be restored to the privileges of the Church. To complete the seeming impossibility, all their past sins stood like mountains between them and God. And now the question arose, how could they who had done so much to wean the love of God from them, who were scattered among the heathen, attached to their new homes, growing more and more heathenish, held in captivity by all the power of the Assyrian empire; their former possessions desolated, their cities burned, and the wasted country in the hands of other inhabitants; how could they be restored to the former character and privileges of Israel? Over these difficulties God seems to be pondering when he inquires, “How shall I put thee among the children