passage, and cited it, and declared it to be that very day fulfilled in their ears"1. Now, conceive of man in every state that can be imagined ; conceive of him as bowed down with a sense of guilt, or harassed with temptations of Satan, or sinking under persecu- tions from men, or under the hidings of God's face, or in the prospect of immediate dissolution ; the Gospel contains that very thing which he needs — pardon for all sin, strength against every temptation, support under every trial, comfort under every affliction, and life by the simple exercise of faith, precisely as it was given to the dying Israelites by a view of the brazen serpent11. Were there any one situation for which it did not yield a supply, or any one thing which it required us to provide from our own store, it would not be a suitable remedy for us. Suppose, for a moment, that the Israelites in the wilderness had been provided with bread and water ; but that they had been left to their own guidance, or that no miracle had been wrought to preserve their clothes, or to keep their feet from the common effect of long and wearisome toil ; the want of any one thing would have rendered all their other blessings vain and nugatory. And so it would be with us. Say, for instance, to a dying man, e You must render such and such services to the Lord, before you can be accepted by him;' what hope would such painful tidings inspire ? But tell him that " Christ died for the very chief of sinners," and that " those who come unto him he will in no wise cast out0," and you will comfort his soul : and though such death-bed expe- riences are by no means to be trusted in, yet he may peradventure be made such another monument of grace as was the dying thief, and may be a " jewel in the Redeemer's crown" for ever and ever.
But, thanks be to God ! there is nothing which the Gospel does not impart to us in the hour of need : pardon, peace, holiness, glory, all are vouchsafed to us for Christ's sake ; " who of God is made unto
m Luke iv. 18 — 21. n John iii. 14, 15. « John vi. 37.