abideth for ever. Oh, listen not to the lying, slanderous Devil,
who tells you that by your own sin you have lost your share in
Christ, lost baptismal grace, lost Christ's love--Lost His love?
His, who, were you in the very lowest depths of hell, would pity you
still? His love, who Himself went down into hell, and preached to
the spirits in prison, to show that he did care even for them? Not
so: into Him you have been baptized. His cross is on your
foreheads, His Father is your Father:--and can a father desert his
child, even though he sinned seventy and seven times, if seventy and
seven times he turn and repent? Can man weary God? Can the
creature conquer and destroy the love of his Creator? Can Christ
deny Himself? Not so; whosoever thou art, however sorely tempted,
however deeply fallen, however disgusted and terrified at thyself,
turn only to that blessed face which wept over Jerusalem, to that
great heart which bled for thee upon the cross, and thou shalt find
him unchanged, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, the Lord of
life and love, able and willing to save to the uttermost all who
come to God through Him, and the accusing Devil shall turn and flee,
and thou shalt know that thy Redeemer liveth still, and in thy flesh
thou shalt see the salvation of God, and cry, 'Rejoice not against
me, Satan, mine enemy; for when I fall I shall arise.'



SERMON III. A GOOD CONSCIENCE



1 Peter iii. 21. The like figure whereunto baptism doth now save us
(not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a