after them will I go." Under the various calamities of life, also, believers find consolation in the thought that the salvation of their souls is secured by Christ. Hence they are enabled to bear their trials with firmness : they " know how both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." And shall not this recommend the Gospel ? that there is no situation, no circumstance whatever wherein it is not suited to us ? that while every other method of salvation increases our anxiety, and, in many instances, drives us utterly to despair, the Gospel always mitigates our sorrows, and often turns them into joy and triumph ?
A farther excellency of the Gospel is, that it refers all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every other plan of salvation leaves room for man to boast : but, on the plan of the Gospel, the most moral person upon earth must subscribe to the declaration of the Apostle, " By grace are ye saved, through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." None, who have obtained an interest in Christ, will take the glory to themselves : the voice of all without excep- tion is, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise." There is not any thing that distinguishes true believers more than this, that they desire to glorify Christ as the one source of all their blessings. In this their hearts are in perfect unison with the glorified saints, who sing continually, " To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to Him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever." And is not this another excellency of the Gospel ? Is it at all desirable that while some in heaven are ascribing salvation to God and to the Lamb, others should ascribe salvation to God and to themselves ? Surely the felicity of heaven is much increased by the obligation which they feel to Jesus, and the consideration that every particle of that bliss was " purchased for them by the blood of God" him- self; nor is there so much as one amongst all the hosts of heaven who would consent for an instant to rob the Saviour of his glory.