Well, take it then that Paul is engaged in exhorting his brethren to generous beneficence, and that as an inducement he is reminding them of the generosity of the Divine beneficence; and then understand that you have the expression, in his own grand impulsive manner, that you have the expression of his own gratitude to God for the generous beneficence evinced in the incarnation; in the humiliation unto death, even the death of the Cross ; in the resurrection, and in the ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high,—and, so understanding it, let us see how we may fall in with him to-day, and catch, God helping us, some of the gratitude which he thus expressed.

I. Now, for a beginning, let us stir our hearts up by way of remembrance touching the unspeakableness of the gift of God's only begotten Son,-—unspeakable, indescribable, unutterable, ineffable; whatever the wealth of your vocabularies, brethren, your vocabularies are inadequate; and whatever your mastery of the languages and tongues of the world, all your languages and tongues are unavailing here. Then why, perhaps it will be said, say anything about it? if it be unspeakable, why not hold the peace ? why talk thereof at all? Well, we may so talk perhaps as to indicate the direction in which it is unspeakable ; that will be something. And we may so talk as that our gratitude shall be renewed in its activity and intelligence and power. And we may 80 talk that the fact shall not be comprehended with torpor and indolence, but that it shall be comprehended with energy and life. Of the fact itself we may become more comprehensively, more accurately, more sensibly, more vitally aware. Now let us try, and takeIst. The surpassing value of this Gift, and see its unspeakableness

there.

There are gifts of God, brethren, to which this epithet 'certainly would not be applicable, to which at any rate inspiration has not applied it in any case,—very great and precious gifts, even exceeding great and precious, but they are not unspeakable. You speak of some of them as valuable, and then of others as more valuable, and then of others as most valuable, and you may perhaps go on and speak of some of them as invaluable, but they are not unspeakable. Now our daily bread—we could, according to standards which are acknowledged by us, generally acknowledged—we could speak of that, we could conceive of it proportionally, and speak of it accurately, and of other things, as, of greater or smaller worth. We can do so, I say, of our daily bread, and of all the things which are convenient for us, and of our security from surrounding danger, and of our national advantages, and of our social heritage, and of our hearths and homes. We could so speak of the means and opportunities that we have touching science, literature, philosophy, and art, and our professions and trades. We could so speak about our means and opportunities in regard to providing things honest in the sight of all men. We could so speak in regard to our means and opportunities for helping our neighbours' joys and bearing

our neighbours' burdens. We could, as you perceive, speak of a great, great many things in regard to which it would be observed immediately, “But they are not unspeakable,” though they have been spoken of eloquently and effectively, if not exhaustively, sometimes in poetry and sometimes in prose. It is quite true that your vocabularies have been in some instances well-nigh exhausted, and that men's mastery of the vocabularies has been put severely to the tax; but the thing has been reputably done, whether it has been done in disquisition or in song, wherewith we have been content. God's great and perfect gifts have been beautifully demonstrated. Their value has been spoken of and described, until, because of that description, we have given and may still be giving our hearty and unfeigned thanks.

But now tell me, who can speak similarly, or describe similarly, this great Gift of God? Who can? Who can estimate, or estimating in any degree who can tell us in any proportionate and proper degree, the inherent value,-in other words, the inherent excellency,- of the only-begotten Son of God ? Thus is it written here, and thus we read regarding Him, “ Behold my Servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.” We read this, “Thy goings forth have been from of old, even from everlasting.” We read this, “ Whom being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, He abideth heir of all things." We read this, “ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” We read this, “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: the same was in the beginning with God.” And we read this, “When He prepared the heavens I was there; when He appointed the foundation of the earth I was by Him: as one brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” Enough, then you say, and enough, as touching the ineffable excellency to the Son of God; consequently enough, as testimony to the unspeakableness of this Gift of the Son of God. The universe is a product of which the Son of God is the Producer. Our race, our human race, is a creation of which the Son of God is the Creator. Angels, principalities, and powers are effects of which the Son of God is the Cause. And God, He himself, our Father in heaven, hath sent the Cause, and the Producer, and the Creator, He hath sent Him down from heaven to earth, not sparing His own Son, but delivering Him up for us all. Yea, He, our Father in heaven, hath sent down His own Beloved who was in His bosom, full of grace and truth. He hath sent His own Beloved, His own image, His own equal, His own fellow, He hath sent Him from heaven to earth. “So loved the world”—comprehend it who can,—" so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” An unspeakable Gift assuredly: the inherent blessedness, the transcending, surpassing excellency of the Gift to wit.

2nd. And then again, look not only at its surpassing value, but look at its momentous object, and see its unspeakableness there.

A case could be very presently conceived of, in which, with regard to the loyal and loving subjects of the divine Governor, all manner of ordinary good would be vouchsafed abundantly, and all manner of extraordinary good when the need or the occasion for that arrived. Let an individual, or a community of individuals, retain their loyalty and their love to the Lord, and for that community or that individual you may get but a certain vouchsafement of communication of blessings from above. The antecedent probability is that upon fealty and allegiance there will be sent down the ordinary, or the extraordinary, as the case may be. But now in the present case the antecedent probability is departed from. The case is at variance with the antecedent probability, for it is upon the disobedient and the rebellious that God sends down this special Gift at all. It is for sinful, guilty man that God sends the gift of His only begotten Son. To have given Him up for us under any circumstances would have been wonderful, even to admiration; for Him who was in the bosom of the Father to have become partaker of flesh and blood under any circumstances on our account, would have been past any finding out of ours; but how much more past our finding out, the circumstances being as they were! As it is written, and let me read to you that which is written, " There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth ; there is none that seeketh after God; they are all gone out of the way; the way of peace have they not known, and there is no fear of God before their eyes." And it is written beside, “ The carnal mind is enmity against God.” And it is written furthermore, “ The whole world lieth in wickedness.” And such things, similar things, are written all up and down the pages of our sacred books, and in forms and manners that leave the meaning of the declarations beyond any legitimate dispute, and all observation and experience. Brethren, Corroborate what is written. I have your permission to-day to quote you as my witnesses that ungodliness is the prevailing characteristic; and you have very little (if any) hesitation in telling me to say that ungodliness is the natural characteristic of every man that breathes. I might use a stronger word than ungodliness; and with your full consent about ten thousand times ten thousand persons—in describing them a great, great deal more significant and suggestive word, if you could find one-in some aspects you could not—but a more striking and significant word might be applied to thousands and tens of thousands who are known to you in all directions, even in our own generation, and of our own land; but take the word ungodliness, a great generic word and comprehending all others as well, and ungodliness is the characteristic of those for whom God sent down His Son from heaven. They were saying to Him, “Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.” He sends them His Son. When He called, they were refusing; When He stretched out His hand, none of them regarded; then He sent unto them His Son. They were abusing His long-suffering mercy, and, with suicidal infatuation, were taking His own ministrations of mercy and of love, and with them they were defying and insulting Him to His face; but He sent unto them His Son. And in dark and base ingratitude, they had forfeited all claim to the lot of the lesser mercies; but He sent unto them His Son; and it is written with great significance by the apostle, “ God commendeth His love to us"-HE commended it-set it forth prominently, illustriously, lifting it beyond anything like controversy or doubt—“God commendeth His love to us, in that, while we were yet sinners," His Son was sent. Now I want you, brethren, to mark that commendation well. You stand in awe as you see Him who was so rich become so low; you are amazed as you look at the brightness of the Father's glory divesting Himself of that glory, emptying Himself of that glory, estranging Himself from tha glory, and deliberately taking upon Him the form of a servant, tha He may be found in fashion as a man ; you are all amazed when you think of this ; but how much ought your awe and your amazemen to augment and intensify when you are told that the Father arrange that transition from riches to poverty, from honour to degradation, 01 account of high rebels against His government: that His own Fathe arranged that transition for the benefit and blessing of men who wer contemptuously ignoring, or who were impiously blaspheming, Hi holy name. Yes, and your amazement, it should intensify, and the how it should intensify again, when you are told that His Father wa - arranging all this transition from riches to poverty for man's sake, that this Son of His love might go and occupy the sinner's place, s occupy it so as to die in the sinner's stead!

The matter groweth upon us, you see, the matter groweth ex ceedingly. He is given for sinners, that is the statement; but t what end was He given, for there is the question. Now let us get th answer, from the only book, by the bye, whence it can be obtained and this is the answer. He was given for them that He might bea their sins in His own body on the tree. He was given for them tha He might die, the Just for the unjust, to bring them to God. He wa given for them that He might put away their sins by the sacrifice o Himself. He was given for them that He might be made sin for them that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Es sential to their reconciliation unto God was the expiation of sin essential to the forgiveness and removal of their ungodliness was th cancelling, the sacrificial cancelling, of their guilt. No remission o sins could there be, or ever had there been, apart from the shedding 0 the sacrificial blood; and the Father appointed Him to make the expiation, to cancel the guilt, to shed the propitiatory blood. With Hi own hand, brethren, He laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. It was Hi own act and deed to make His soul an offering for sin; and in the dark deep, unfathomable mysteries of His procedure in the hour of th power of darkness, it was His own Father that occasioned that appal sing outburst, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' An interrogation that should lead every man into the thoughtfu mood and keep him there, until, with something like sacredness and solemnity becoming the occasion, he finds an answer to that why. In sacredness and solemnity of soul, let us say, “ Why was He forsaken ?” Because, regarding Him as the sinner's substitute, the Father dealt with Him as though He had been the sinner, and was expressing thereby His utter abhorrence of sin, and was thus virtually inflicting the penalty that was due to sin, inflicting it until it was exhausted for erer, The Father can now, and has been ever since, and will evermore, be able honourably to vouchsafe His favour to all and sundry who will reverently and devoutly and congenially believe that their Substitute died instead of them ; for thus it is written, “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us." And thus it is written again, “ By the determinate counsel was He made accursed ; by the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God.” An unspeakable Gift assuredly; the momentous object for which it was given being in part the proof of its inherent value ; its momentous and its glorious object being, that we might never bear His Father's righteous ire.

3rd. Again, look at the glorious issue of this Gift, and see its unspeakableness there.

Our Lord was dead and buried, and the adversary had been crying, "Aha! so would we have it," as He was shut up in that tomb. Then presently there came the answer; then presently there came the ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high; and then there came this declaration, “ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Guided by that and by other scriptures to the same effect, we conclude that the time cometh, when, as sin is running unto death, so will grace run through righteousness unto eternal life; when men shall beat their $words into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, and shall learn war no more ; when, the world through and through, man shall love God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself. Yes, prethren, we do not believe it because of our deeper philosophy, nor because our sublime poetry has conceived it, nor because our nobler, loftier, philanthropy has craved it; but we believe it because the everJasting covenant has guaranteed it; and it has guaranteed it, that the wrongs of our world shall all be righted yet, that the enmities of our World shall all be conciliated yet, that the darkness of our world shall all be illuminated yet, that the sorrows of our world shall all be alleviated yet, and that the ungodliness of our world shall either spontaneously submit to, or shall be judicially subjected to, the authority that is absolutely supreme. The time cometh-doubt it who maywhen the creation, groaning and travailing in pain together until now, hall be delivered from its bondage of corruption into the glorious Aberty of the children of God. Fear it who may, the spectacle is in actual preparation now, the process is going on. Fear it who may, the