ciling us to him, through the blood of the cross. But the death of Christ (2) is a purtfica-
tion. It purifies the whole man; its purifying influence goes on, and is needed, till death.
“The blood of Jesus Christ,” we read, “cleanseth us from all sin.” No doubt it
cleanseth as a propitiation from the guilt of sin, but more especially it cleanseth as a
purification from the filth of sin. It cleanseth the soul from the love of sin and the
body from the practice of it; the faculties from thoughts of sin, the members of
the body from works of sin, The hands are purified from deeds of darkness; they are
fitted for and filled with works of faith and labours of love on earth, and thus prepared
for sweeping the harps of gold and swelling the symphonies of heaven. The eyes are
urified ; they are cleared of scales, and opened to see the wondrous things of God’s
w, and the gracious things of both Law and gospel. Thus, too, are they prepared for gazing on the radiant splendour of the eternal throne and the glories of the upper sanctuary. ‘The ears are opened to hear what God the Lord says to his servants, and are thus prepared at length for drinking in the music of the skies and for being charmed with the melodies of heaven. The feet are kept back from every false step and every wrong way, and furnished as though with wings to move readily and rapidly in the way of God’s commandments; and thus they are prepared at last to stand upon the glassy sea and tread the golden streets. The head is freed from every iniquitous echeme, and enlightened to comprehend the Divine counsels of mercy; and thus it is prepared to wear a crown, fair in its form, fresh in its colouring, brilliant in its lustre, unfading in its beauty, and amaranthine in its bloom, The heart is purified from every
opensity to evil; it overflows with the love of God on earth, and waits to have that Love still more intensified amid the raptures and ecstasies of heaven.
TIL Lessons TAUGHT Us BY THE CROss, 1. God’s hatred of sin is seen in the cross. We trace the wrath of God in the waters of the flood that swept away the antedi- luvians; in the sin-ruined cities of which few fragments remain to ‘ell where once they were; in the dreary waters that roll over the desolated plain where Sodom and Gomorrah once stood ; in the peeled and scattered and sifted race whose fathers’ awful imprecation, “His blood be upon us, and our children,” called down the withering curse of Heaven; in that dark abode where the angels that kept not their first estate are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day ; in thas region of despair where the finally impenitent are doomed to weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and where the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. And yet the wrath of God, we think, is revealed in clearer light and blazoned
842 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. (on. xv, 1—47,