The person of Christ is to be the bold and commanding object, around which all the dependent ones must be ranked. We are to preach, not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. We must be determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. We are to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Nor can any circumstances of previous religious knowledge and information in a congregation, any profession of evangelical truth, any fashion, or bias of a part of the visible church, any purity of a national creed, any supposed and implied regard to fundamental truths, warrant the minister of religion to withhold or lessen the full display of the knowledge of Christ. If this doctrine be but faintly or partially enunciated, the triumph of the minister will carry no resemblance to that of the Apostle.

But who can describe fitly the SAVOUR of this knowledge?—and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. The mystery of redemption is not a cold abstract truth, like a subtile question in metaphysics, an obscure point in chronology, or a probable fact in history; it is not like the discovery of some new truth in mathematical science; it is not like an invention in the arts, or an application of skill in philosophy to the practical business of life. It is something infinitely greater and more interesting than all these. It involves

all the purposes and designs of God, it unfolds all the mysteries of the incarnation and death of Christ, it engages all the adorations of the heavenly hosts, it relates to the highest interests of man, rescues him from the most fearful state of guilt and misery, and proposes to him the most unutterable blessings. There is, therefore, a savour, a fragrance, an unction, an odour, so to speak, in the knowledge of Christ. As ointment and perfume, it rejoices the heart. Because of the savour of his good ointments, the name of Christ is as ointment poured forth. All his garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia. His words are sweet to the taste, yea sweeter than honey to the mouth. These expressions imply something of delight and relish and refreshment in the doctrine of the Saviour, which it is difficult adequately to describe.

As a proof of this, ask only the guilty and selfcondemned penitent who has suffered during a long period the torments of an accusing conscience, who has felt even upon earth the terrors of the wrath of God, and has repeatedly sought for relief, but in vain; and who has endeavoured fruitlessly to obtain peace, amongst other ways, by an adherence to the covenant of works. Inquire what he felt when the knowledge of justification by the merits of the Saviour alone was first communicated to his agitated mind. He will tell you there was a sa

vour in the knowledge of Christ, which no words can express.

Inquire again of the afflicted and tempted, the harassed and perplexed Christian, whose heart, depressed with trouble, has long implored deliverance and succour, and has not found it; and whom infirmity and unbelief and conscious unworthiness have united to deject and terrify. Bid him tell you what he thought of the knowledge of his compassionate Saviour and High Priest, when it was again brought with efficacy and power to his mind. He will rejoice to acknowledge, because he will have deeply felt, its unspeakable blessedness.

Or ask the expiring Christian, as he lies on the bed of death; when his heart and his flesh fail him; when he approaches the ghastly tomb; when the world reçedes from his view; and when he is entering on an untried and eternal scene. Mark with what transport he hears and speaks of an almighty Saviour, and how a new animation kindles in his sinking eye as he is told of his glory and his love.

The name of Christ is to such persons as a reviving fragrance to the faint, as pardon to a condemned criminal, as healing to the sick, as rest to the weary, food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, yea as life to the dead. The image of the text-strong as it is, when we recollect the customs of eastern nations, and the constant

introduction of odoriferous waters and other perfumes as constituting almost one of the necessaries of life-is not unsuitable to represent the ineffable consolation of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am aware that this language may be regarded as tinctured with enthusiasm. Many will be disposed to say that they can perfectly understand what is intended by the doctrine of Christ's redemption, but that this savour of his knowledge appears to them to border on what is vague and unintelligible. But let such persons remember that the language of the Holy Ghost in the text, obviously leads to our receiving it in some way at least consonant to the explanation which has been given. Surely the knowledge of Christ, and the savour of that knowledge, ought not to be identified as including but one and the same notion. And, indeed, what is the chief difference between speculation and faith, but the perception of this very savour? What is one great distinction between the form and the power of godliness, the external profession and the internal experience, but this new consciousness of holy delight in the contemplation of Jesus Christ? We admit that the corrupt moral taste of men who have never so repented of sin as to abhor it, and therefore have never comprehended this doctrine aright, can find no sweetness or refreshment in it; but the holy

and enlightened mind is not to be measured by the low, defective standard which is adapted to the sensual and immoral. Thus, in natural things, disease, it is true, may vitiate the organs, and the most exquisite perfumes may become in such cases offensive. Yet it is no less true, that, when the sensitive powers have been obstructed or perverted, a due and natural perception of the sensible qualities of objects is to be reckoned among the most striking evidences of returning health.

This, then, is the special blessing communicated in the triumph of Christ. The knowledge of him, like the sweetest unction, is manifested wherever it makes its progress. And as the woman in the Gospel came to our blessed Lord having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious, and brake the box and poured it on his head, so that the house was filled with the odour of the ointment: so the holy Apostle in every place to which he came, proclaimed the saving truths of Christ, and the whole surrounding atmosphere was filled, as it were, with the fragrance of the heavenly doctrine.

But we proceed to consider,

III. THE GRATITUDE WHICH THE APOSTLE OFFERS TO GOD FOR THIS TRIUMPH.

The language of the text is that of impas