upon it all as foolishness. Nevertheless such are the lessons which Christians teach to all around them ; and such are the instructions which Christ conveys by them to a benighted world.]
Whilst they thus speak from Christ they give us just occasion also to notice,
II. The honour they reflect on the Gospel of Christ —
They are all not merely epistles /;'o??« Christ, but witnesses also /or him. As the Jews were witnesses for God to all nations of the earth, since no other god could ever have effected what he had wrought for them^, and as all the persons whom Jesus healed were witnesses for him as the true Messiah'', so are all true converts witnesses,
1. Of the truth of the Gospel —
[What other system ever wrought as that has done ? Look at all the means which men have devised for obtaining recon- ciliation with God ; and see if they have ever operated so powerfully, and so beneficially, on the souls of those who have embraced them, as has the simple doctrine of the cross ? No : by no other doctrine did God ever work, nor by any other doctrine will he ever work, for the sanctification and salvation of a ruined world. Go to any place under heaven where Christ is not exalted as the only Saviour of the world, or where the Spirit of the living God is not honoured as the only source of all real holiness of heart and life, and see what the state is of those who are so taught : will there be found among them any work like that on the day of Pentecost ? Will the word preached there be quick, and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword ? Will " the weapons used there be found mighty to pull down the strong holds" of sin and Satan, and to " bring men's thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ ? " No : God does not, and will not, work by any thing but a simple exhibition of Christ crucified. It is the Gospel only that is " the rod of his strength," or that will ever prove " the power of God to the salvation of the soul." But where that is preached, these effects are wrought; multitudes are " brought out of darkness into marvellous light," and are enabled to shew by their works the reality of their faith ; and thus they give undoubted evidence, that the Gospel which is ministered unto them is the true Gospel. As Clu'ist said of the people whom he had healed, " The works that I do, the same bear witness of
e Isai. xliii. 10—12. " Matt. xi. 25.