WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? 1.-The Gospel is the good-news of God's favor. (Acts xx. 24.) Can any sinful being hear this with indifference? Think, dear reader, of the character of the Almighty; contemplate the pure and insufferable glories that surround His throne; then bring into contrast your own fearful rebellion— your untold sins against His sovereign Majesty, and say, could your ears be greeted with more joyful intelligence than that of His favor towards you? 2.-The Gospel is the good-news about JESUS. (Acts viii. 35.) Yes, there is no grace-no favor for man but through Jesus. He is the beginning, middle, and end of the gladdening message. Erase his name out of the Gospel, and there is nothing left. Still Jesus cannot constitute the substance of the good-news, unless in some character, as standing in some relation to God and man, as sustaining some office on man's behalf. We must therefore pursue our theme; we must come at the person, office, and work of Jesus, before we can disburden our minds of the heavenly word of peace. "The 3.-The Gospel is the good-news of Jesus' BIRTH. (Luke ii. 10, 11.) Long, long had he been foreshadowed by significant type, described in prophetic diction, extolled in sacred song. Prophets and righteous men had often languished with consuming desire to see David's righteous Branch sprouting forth, but had died without the sight. But hark! angelic voices announce his appearance, and chant his natal song. child is born; the son is given!" "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace, and good will among men !" 4.—The Gospel is the good-news that Jesus is the MESSIAH, the Son of the living GOD. (Matt. xvi. 16; Acts v. 42.) this Jesus? He has no form or comeliness. What beauty is there in him that we should desire him? He is clothed with infirmity, bowed down with sorrow. What can he do? It is whispered" Is not this the carpenter's son? Yea, may be, he himself handles the vulgar tools! Are we to look to him for salvation?" Foolish reasoners! he, though lowly in form, is Jehovah's anointed; His elect, in whom His soul delighteth. Clad though he be in human weakness, yet is there hid in him divine strength. The divine word in flesh he is,-Immanuel, God with us! No. 7, Vol. III.July, 1857. 5.-The Gospel is the good-news of Jesus' DEATH, BURIAL, and RESURRECTION. (1 Cor. xv. 1-4.) But how can news of death be joyful? When is it so, but in the case of tyrants, murderers, and other pests of society? "For our sins," converts the solemn funeral dirge to joyful rapturous strains. Who could have conceived the plan, but the infinitely Wise? Immanuel bearing our sins in his own body on the tree! Behold the Lamb of God, and wonder at divine Mercy. The burial attests the reality of the death, and besides, not being generally granted to the victims of the Cross, bespeaks the completeness of the Sacrifice-the law wants no more. Can it be !-0 ye Jews, what confusion must now mantle your cheeks. Where are the "little ones" of the scattered flock? Collect them! The tomb has been burst-tell them He Jesus has triumphed! The Lord is risen indeed!! appears to the women-to Simon-to the two wayfarers-t the ten-to the eleven-to above five hundred at once. They bear testimony to the unparalleled fact, forthwith, in tha same land. They are opposed, but they cannot be confuted They are persecuted, but nothing can hush their intrepid an unanimous testimony, save death. Good, then, as the news is we are constrained to admit that it is not "too good to b true." We can sooner believe the stupendous miracle of Jesus resurrection, than credit all the absurdities that would resul from rejecting the testimony of the apostles to that fact Behold, then, the glory following the sufferings of Christ. H rises to give the fullest possible evidence of his Messiahship and divinity, and to leave every unbeliever without excuse He rises! but it is in an official capacity; it is “for our justification." He rises, as "the first fruits of them that slept." He rises to reign, to save, to judge! 6. The Gospel is the good-news of the KINGDOM OF GOD. (Luke viii. 1.; Acts viii. 12.) Man had long tried to govern himself, but without success. The conclusions of his reason wanted clearness and certainty; the dictates of his conscience, efficiency. Tyrants could not compel the exercise of piety, righteousness, and self-control, by fear; nor could philosophers, by love. The celebrated political kingdom of the Jews, though it served its immediate purposes, failed to purify and beautify the moral nature of man. But good-news is proclaimed! The God of heaven has set up a kingdom, under the administration of His well-beloved, whom he has constituted Lord and Messiah ! Every human being is privileged to enter that kingdom. Its King is supremely worthy of universal reverence and love. Its laws are easy and equitable. Its prominent blessings are "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." In proportion as the Messiah's reign is appreciated, submitted to, and extended, the discordant elements of politics will be adjusted; the poor of the people will be judged; the children of the needy, saved; the rod of the oppressor, broken. "In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth." This must yet be fulfilled, "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it!" 7.—The Gospel is the good-news of Jesus' NAME. (Acts viii. 12.; Phil. ii. 9, 10.) Though there is salvation in no other name, there assuredly is in this; for it has been given under heaven among men for this very purpose. Every believer in Christ's person, may obtain forgiveness through his name. In the ordinance of christian immersion he (and no other) is invested with all its righteousness and strength. His sins are then forgiven him for Jesus' name's sake. (Acts ii. 38.; 1 John ii. 12.) But has the believer then done with this precious name? Oh no! it is, through life, his tower and hiding-place. It is his constant plea, with which, as a prince, he has power with God and prevails. 8.-The Gospel is the good-news of PEACE. (Acts x. 36.; Eph. ii. 17.) How enchanting the sound of peace when the horrors of war have been fully realized. Suppose a given county had risen up in rebellion against her sovereign; and and that the cream of Britain's power and wealth, virtue and loyalty, had surrounded her on every side, in dread array. The rebellious district, now alive to her position, is convulsed with agony at the prospect of merciless devastation. Let us repair to its frontier. The inhabitants on the border know not what to do. To approach the royal forces were instant destruction. We understand those forces are making active preparations to close in upon them. But see! the white flag waves from the head-quarters of the Commander-in-chief! Now the chosen herald bears it across the plain. The joyful intelligence is spread along the rebel ranks-" he comes proclaiming peace!" Resound the news through every nook of the shire till every palpitating heart is quieted, and every guilty conscience appeased by the bright hope of pardon. Such is the Gospel. 9. The Gospel is the good-news of REPENTANCE. (Acts v. 31.; xi. 18.) The all-prevailing motives to repentance have been supplied; time and room to change our minds have been afforded; the connection between repentance and pardon, repentance and life has been established. These things signally betoken the long-suffering, the unfathomed mercy of our redeeming God. Hear! O sinner; you are under no fatal necessity to sin on and die. You may change your mind towards God, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, obey the gospel, be pardoned, and live! 10.-The Gospel is the good-news of REMISSION. (Luke xxvi. 47.) Remission or forgiveness, through Jesus' blood and name, is the very burden of the word of reconciliation. In this respect the superiority of the Christian over the Jewish religion shines forth most brightly. The conscience is perfected, by being effectually pacified. When we remember the blood by which our pardon was secured, and make the sweet and full surrender of ourselves to Jesus by which it is received, how unspeakably valuable does it then appear in our estimation. 11.-The Gospel is the good-news of the "REST that remaineth for the people of God." (Heb. iv. 2, 9). Of what comparative consequence would it be whether Jesus had lived and died, arisen and ascended,-whether we spent our few days of the life that now is" in a pardoned or an unpardoned state, if there were no "life to come." A little while hence, and these things, however great in themselves, would be to us as nothing! Justly, then, may we regard it as the crowning point, that life and immortality are brought to light through the Gospel. This throws an unearthly glory over every other discovery that it makes, and forms an eloquent conclusion to the evangelic message. Reviewing the various yet harmonious aspects in which the good-news have presented themselves to our view, may we not well speak of" the glorious gospel of the blessed God?" Was anything so glorious ever heard before ? or has anything, equal to it, ever been listened to since? Oh how comprehensive; how adapted to man's ruin; how God-like! Well may angels be desirous of looking into it with their most inquisitive gaze. Well might it be termed the word of reconciliation. The wonder is, not that sinners, with all their alienation, yield to onquered by it, but that they can and do resist its sforming power! We are not surprised that Paul wonderful things when contemplating the Gospelo big for utterance, or finding egress only in such expressions as— THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST THAT PASSETH KNOWLEDGE;" "ULNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST." 66 J. B. R. HE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. d of heaven set the greatest possible merit upon the lood of Christ, and foretold by Isaiah that "if he ke his soul an offering for sin he should see a seed, d celebrate his praises." Paul says of those who on this blood, that "it is a fearful thing to fall into of the living God." The Holy Spirit tells us that od shed from the beginning of the world in sacrifice y a shadowy type of the blood of the Son of God; and ugh "without the shedding of blood there was no ' yet the blood of animals never could cleanse the ; that Christ's precious sacrifice alone reached that an, which indeed is a main point, for it is in the that the sense of guilt resides; so that while knowfies the understanding, pardon by the blood of ne, can cleanse the conscience and deliver it from d awakenings and dire whisperings and forebodings ent. "How much The law does But suppose n were in prison for a capital crime, his blood nd under condemnation, and his fellows without ll in at the prison window that he might take at a sheep was to be offered in his stead. What nreason suppose his answer to be? man than a sheep, you mock me. ■f the less suffering for the greater." m that his fellow prisoner was to be taken for him. t we suppose his answer to be? Would he not guilty cannot suffer in law for the guilty, the suffer for himself, my fellow prisoner is already , and cannot become my substitute." But suppose him that the king's son had assumed his responsi |