A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, JULY 18, 1856,

BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,

AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK

“I will give thee for a covenant of the people.” — Isaiah 49:8.

We all believe that our Savior has very much to do with the covenant of eternal salvation. We have been accustomed to regard him as the Mediator of the covenant, as the surety of the covenant, and as the scope or substance of the covenant.” We have considered him to be the Mediator of the covenant, for we were certain that God could make no covenant with man unless there were a mediator — a days-man who should stand between them both. And we have hailed him as the Mediator, who with mercy in his hands, came down to tell to sinful man the news that grace was promised in the eternal counsel of the Most High. We have also loved our Savior as the Surety of the covenant, who, on our behalf, undertook to pay our debts; and on his Father’s behalf, undertook, also to see that all our souls should be secure and safe, and ultimately presented unblemished and complete before him. And, doubt not, we have also rejoiced in the thought that Christ is the sum and substance of the covenant; we believe that if we would sum up all spiritual blessings, we must say, “Christ is all.”

He is the matter, he is the substance of it; and although much might be said concerning the glories of the covenant, yet nothing could be said which is not to be found in that one word, “Christ.” But this morning I shall dwell on Christ, not as the Mediator, nor as the surety, nor as the scope of the covenant, but as one great and glorious article of the covenant which God has given to his children. It is our firm belief that Christ is ours, and is given to us of God; we know that “he freely delivered him up for us all,” and we, therefore, believe that he will, “with him freely give us all things.”

We can say with the spouse, “My beloved is mine.” We feel that we have a personal property in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I will therefore delight us for a while, this morning, in the simplest manner possible, without the garnishings of eloquence or the trappings of oratory, just to meditate upon this great thought, that Jesus Christ in the covenant is the property of every believer.

First, we shall examine this property , secondly we shall notice the purpose for which it was conveyed to us ; and thirdly, we shall give one precept , which may well be affixed upon so great a blessing as this, and is indeed an inference from it.

I. In the first place, then, here is aGREAT POSSESSION — Jesus Christ by the covenant is the property of every believer. By this we must understand Jesus Christ is many different senses; and we will begin, first of all, by declaring that Jesus Christ is ours, in all his attributes . He has a double set of attributes, seeing that there are two natures joined in glorious union in one person. He has the attributes of very God, and he has the attributes of perfect man; and whatever these may be, they are each one of them the perpetual property of every believing child of God. I need not dwell on his attributes as God; you all know how infinite is his love, how vast his grace, how firm his faithfulness, how unswerving his veracity; you know that he is omniscient I you know that he is omnipresent, you know that he is omnipotent, and it will console you if you will but think that all these great and glorious attributes which belong to God are all yours. Has he power?

That power is yours; yours to support and strengthen you; yours to overcome your enemies, yours to keep you immutably secure. Has he love?

Well, there is not a particle of his love in his great heart which is not ours; all his love belongs to you; you may dive into the immense, bottomless ocean of his love, and you may say of it all, “it is mine.” Hath he justice? It may seem a stern attribute; but even that is yours for he will by his justice see to it, that all which is covenanted to you by the oath and promise of God shall be most certainly secured to you. Mention whatever you please which is a characteristic of Christ as the ever glorious Son of God, and, O faithful one, thou mayest put thine hand upon it and say, “it is mine.” Thine arm O Jesus, upon which the pillars of the earth do hang, is mine. Those eyes, O Jesus which pierce through the thick darkness and behold futurity — thine eyes are mine to look on me with love. Those lips, O Christ, which sometimes speak words louder than ten thousand thunders, or whisper syllables sweeter than the music of the harps of the glorified — those lips are mine. And that great heart which beateth high with such disinterested, pure, and unaffected love — that heart is mine. The whole of Christ, in all his glorious nature as the Son of God, as God over all, blessed for ever, is yours, positively, actually, without metaphor, in reality yours.

Consider him as man too. All that he has as perfect man is yours. As a perfect man he stood before his Father, “full of grace and truth,” full of favor, and accepted by God as a perfect being. O believer, God’s acceptance of Christ is thine acceptance; for knowest thou not, that that love which the Father set on a perfect Christ, he sets on thee now? For all that Christ did is thine. That perfect righteousness which Jesus wrought out, when through his stainless life he kept the law and made it honorable, is thine. There is not a virtue which Christ ever had, that is not thine; there is not a holy deed which he ever did which is not thine, there is not a prayer he ever sent to heaven that is not thine; there is not one solitary thought towards God which it was his duty to think, and which he thought as man serving his God, which is not thine. All his righteousness, in its vast extent, and in all the perfection of his character, is imputed to thee Oh! canst thou think what thou hast gotten in the word “Christ?” Come, believer, consider that word “God,” and think how mighty it is; and then meditate upon that word “perfect man,” for all that the Man-God, Christ, and the glorious God-man, Christ, ever had, or ever can have as the characteristic of either of his natures, all that is thine. It all belongs to thee; it is out of pure free favor, beyond the fear of revocation, passed over to thee to be thine actual property — and that for ever. 2. Then, consider believer, that not only is Christ thine in all his attributes, but he is thine in all his offices . Great and glorious these offices are, we have scarce time to mention them all. Is he a prophet? Then he is thy prophet. Is he a priest? Then he is thy priest. Is he a king? Then he is thy king. Is he a redeemer? Then he is thy redeemer. Is he an advocate? Then he is thy advocate. Is he a forerunner? Then he is thy forerunner. Is he a surety of the covenant? Then he is thy surety. In every name he bears, in every crown he wears, in every vestment in which he is arrayed, he is the believer’s own. Oh! child of God, if thou hadst grace to gather up this thought into thy soul it would comfort thee marvelously, to think that in all Christ is in office, he is most assuredly thine. Dost thou see him yonder, interceding before his Father, with outstretched arms? Dost thou mark his ephod — his golden miter on his brow, inscribed with “holiness unto the Lord?” Dost see him as he lifts up his hands to pray? Hearest thou not that marvelous intercession such as man never preyed on earth; that authoritative intercession such as he himself could not use in the agonies of the garden? For “With sighs and groans, he offered up His humble suit below But with authority he pleads Enthroned in glory now.” Dost see how he asks, and how he receives as soon as his petition is put up? And canst thou, darest thou believe that that intercession is all thine own, that on his breast thy name is written, that in his heart thy name is stamped in marks of indelible grace, and that all the majesty of that marvelous, that surpassing intercession is thine own, and would all be expended for thee if thou didst require it, that he has not any authority with his Father, that he will not use on thy behalf, if thou dost need it, that he has no power to intercede that he would not employ for thee in all times of necessity? Come now, words cannot set this forth; it is only your thoughts that can teach you this; it is only God the Holy Spirit bringing home the truth that can set this ravishing, this transporting thought in its proper position in your heart, that Christ is yours in all he is and has. Seest thou him on earth? There he stands, the priest offering his bloody sacrifice; see him on the tree, his hands are pierced, his feet are gushing gore! Oh! dost thou see that pallid countenance, and those languid eyes flowing with compassion? Dost thou mark that crown of thorns? Dost thou behold that mightiest of sacrifices, the sum and substance of them all? Believer, that is thine , those precious drops plead and claim thy peace with God, that open side is thy refuge, those pierced hands are thy redemption; that groan he groans for thee, that cry of a forsaken heart be utters for thee, that death ha dies for thee. Come, I beseech thee, consider Christ in any one of his various offices; but when thou dost consider him lay hold of this thought, that in all these things he is thy Christ, given unto thee to be one article in the eternal covenant — thy possession for ever. 3. Then mark next, Christ is the believer’s in every one of his works .

Whether they be works of suffering or of duty, they are the property of the believer. As a child, he was circumcised, and is that bloody rite mine? Ay, “Circumcised in Christ.” As a believer he is buried, and is that watery sign of baptism mine? Yes, “Buried with Christ in baptism unto death.” Jesus’ baptism I share when I lie interred with my best friend in the selfsame watery tomb. See there he dies, and it is a master work to die. But is his death mine? Yes, I die in Christ. He is buried, and is that burial mine? Yes, I am buried with Christ. He rises. Mark him startling his guards, and rising from the tomb! And is that resurrection mine? Yes, we are “risen together with Christ.” Mark again, he ascends up on high, and leads captivity captive. Is that ascension mine? Yes, for he hath “raised us up together.”

And see, he sits on his Father’s throne is that deed mine? Yes, he hath made us, “sit together in heavenly places.” All he did is ours. By divine decree, there existed such an union between Christ and his people, that all Christ did his people did: and all Christ has performed, his people did perform in him, for they were in his loins when he descended to the tomb, and in his loins they have ascended up on high, with him they entered into bliss, and with him thou sit in heavenly places. Represented by him, their Head, all his people even now are glorified in him even in him who is the head over all things to his church. In all the deeds of Christ either in his humiliation or his exaltation, recollect, O believer, thou hast a covenant interest, and all those things are thine. 4. I would for one moment hint at a sweet thought, which is this, you know that in the person of Christ “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Ah! believer, “and of his fullness have we received, and grace for grace.” All the fullness of Christ and do you know what that is? Do you understand that phrase? I warrant you, you do not know it, and shall not do just yet. But all that fullness of Christ, the abundance of which you may guess of by your own emptiness — all that fullness is thine to supply thy multiplied necessities. All the fullness of Christ to restrain thee to keep thee and preserve thee; all that fullness of power, of love, of purity, which is stored up in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, is thine. Do treasure up that thought, for then thine emptiness need never be a cause of fear; how canst thou be lost whilst thou hast all fullness to fly to? 5. But I come to something sweeter then this, the very life of Christ is the property of the believer, Ah! this is a thought into which I cannot dive, and I feel I have outdone myself in only mentioning it. The life of Christ is the property of every believer. Canst thou conceive what Christ’s life is? “Sure,” you say, “he poured it out upon the tree.” He did, and it was his life that he gave to thee then. But he took that life again; even the life of his burly was restored, and the life of his great and glorious Godhead had never undergone any change, even at that time. But now you know he has immortality: “he only hath immortality.” Can you conceive what kind of life that is which Christ possesses? Can he ever die? No; far sooner may the harps of heaven be stopped, and the chorus of the redeemed cease for ever; far sooner may the glorious walls of paradise be shaken, and the foundations thereof be removed; than that Christ, the Son of God, should ever die. Immortal as his Father, now he sits, the Great Eternal One.

Christian that life of Christ is thine. Hear what he says: “Because I live ye shall live also.” “Ye are dead; and your life” — where is it? It is “hid with Christ in God.” The same blow which smites us dead, spiritually, must slay Christ too; the same sword which can take away the spiritual life of a regenerate man, must take away the life of the Redeemer also; for they are linked together — they are not two lives, but one. We are but the rays of the great Sun of Righteousness, our Redeemer, — sparks which must return to the great orb again. If we are indeed the true heirs of heaven, we cannot die until he from whom we take our rise dieth also. We are the stream that cannot stop till the fountain be dry; we are the rays that cannot cease until the sun doth cease to shine. We are the branches, and we cannot wither until the trunk itself shall die. “Because I live, ye shall live also.”

The very life of Christ is the property of every one of his brethren. 6. And best of all, the person of Jesus Christ is the property of the Christian. I am persuaded, beloved, we think a great deal more of God’s gifts than we do of God; and we preach a great deal more about the Holy Spirit’s influence than we do about the Holy Spirit. And I am also assured that we talk a great deal more about the offices, and works, and attributes of Christ than we do about the person of Christ. Hence it is that there are few of us who can often understand the figures that are used in Solomon’s Song, concerning the person of Christ, because we have seldom sought to see him or desired to know him. But, O believer, thou hast sometimes been able to behold thy Lord. Hast thou not seen him , who is white and ruddy, “the chief amongst ten thousand, and the altogether lovely?” Hast thou not been sometimes lost in pleasure when thou hast seen his feet, which are like much fine gold, as if they burned in a furnace? Hast thou not beheld him in the double character, the white and the red, the lily and the rose, the God yet the man, the dying yet the living; the perfect, and yet bearing about with him a body of death? Hast thou ever beheld that Lord with the nailprint in his hands, and the mark still on his side? And hast thou ever been ravished at his loving smile, and been delighted at his voice? Hast thou never had love visits from him? Has he never put his banner over thee? hast thou never walked with him to the villages and the garden of nuts? Hast thou never sat under his shadow? hast thou never found his fruit sweet unto thy taste? Yes, thou hast. His person then is thine. The wife loveth her husband; she loveth his house and his property; she loveth him for all that he giveth her, for all the bounty he confers, and all the love he bestows; but his person is the object of her affections. So with the believer: he blesses Christ for all he does and all he is. But oh! it is Christ that is everything. He does not care so much about his office, as he does about the Man Christ.

See the child on his father’s knee — the father is a professor in the university; he is a great man with many titles, and perhaps the child knows that these are honorable titles, and esteems him for them; but he does not care so much about the professor and his dignity, as about the person of his father. It is not the college square cap, or the gown that the child loves; ay, and if it be a loving child it will not be so much the meal the father provides, or the house in which it lives, as the father which it loves, it is his dear person that has become the object of true and hearty affection. I am sure it is so with you, if you know your Savior; you love his mercies, you love his offices, you love his deeds, but oh! you love his person best.

Reflect, then that the person of Christ is in the covenant conveyed to you: “I will give thee to be a covenant for the people.”

II. Now we come to the second:FOR WHAT PURPOSE DOES GOD PUT CHRIST IN THE COVENANT? 1. Well, in the first place, Christ is in the covenant in order to comfort every coming sinner . “Oh,” says the sinner who is coming to God, “I cannot lay hold on such a great covenant as that, I cannot believe that heaven is provided for me, I cannot conceive that that robe of righteousness and all these wondrous things can be intended for such a wretch as I am.” Here comes in the thought that Christ is in the covenant.

Sinner, canst thou lay hold on Christ? Canst thou say, “Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling?” Well, if thou hast got that, it was put in on purpose for thee to hold fast by God’s covenant mercies all go together, and if thou hast laid hold on Christ, thou hast gained every blessing in the covenant. That is one reason why Christ was put there. Why, if Christ were not there, the poor sinner would say, “I dare not lay hold on that mercy. It is a God-like and a divine one, but I dare not grasp it; it is too good for me. I cannot receive it, it staggers my faith.” But he sees Christ with all his great atonement in the covenant; and Christ looks so lovingly at him, and opens his arms so wide, saying, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” that the sinner comes and throws his arms around Christ, and then Christ whispers, “Sinner, in laying hold of me, thou hast laid hold of all.” Why, Lord, I dare not think I could have the other mercies. I dare trust thee, but I dare not take the others. Ah, sinner, but in that thou hast taken me thou hast taken all, for the mercies of the covenant are like links in the chain. This one link is an enticing one. The sinner lays hold of it; and God has purposely put it there to entice the sinner to come and receive the mercies of the covenant. For when he has once got hold of Christ — here is the comfort — he has everything that the covenant can give. 2. Christ is put also to confirm the doubting saint . Sometimes he cannot read his interest in the covenant. He cannot see his portion among them that are sanctified. He is afraid that God is not his God, that the Spirit hath no dealings with his soul; but then, “Amid temptations, sharp and strong, His soul to that dear refuge flies; Hope is his anchor, firm and strong, When tempests blow and billows rise.” So he lays hold of Christ, and were it not for that, even the believer dare not come at all. He could not lay hold on any other mercy than that with which Christ is connected. “Ah,” saith he, “I know I am a sinner, and Christ came to save sinners.” So he holds fast to Christ. “I can hold fast here,” he says, “my black hands will not black Christ, my filthiness will not make him unclean.” So the saint holds hard by Christ, as hard as if it were the death-clutch of a drowning man. And what then? Why, he has got every mercy of the covenant in his hand. It is the wisdom of God that he has put Christ in, so that a poor sinner, who might be afraid to lay hold of another, knowing the gracious nature of Christ, is not afraid to lay hold of him, and therein he grasps the whole, but of oftimes unconsciously to himself. 4. Again, it was necessary that Christ should be in the covenant, because there are many things there that would be nought without him . Our great redemption is in the covenant, but we have no redemption except through his blood. It is true that my righteousness is in the covenant, but I can have no righteousness apart from that which Christ has wrought out, and which is imputed to me by God. It is very true that my eternal perfection is in the covenant, but the elect are only perfect in Christ. They are not perfect in themselves, nor will they ever be, until they have been washed, and sanctified, and perfected by the Holy Ghost. And even in heaven their perfection consists not so much in their sanctification, as in their justification in Christ. “Their beauty this, their glorious dress, Jesus the Lord their righteousness.” In fact, if you take Christ out of the covenant, you have just done the same as if you should break the string of a necklace: all the jewels, or beads, or corals, drop off and separate from each other. Christ is the golden string whereon the mercies of the covenant are threaded, and when you lay hold of him, you have obtained the whole string of pearls. But if Christ be taken out, true there will be the pearls, but we cannot wear them, we cannot grasp them; they are separated, and poor faith can never know how to get hold of them. Oh! it is a mercy worth worlds, that Christ is in the covenant. 4. But mark once more, as I told you when preaching concerning God in the covenant, See New Park Street Pulpit, No. 93. Christ is in the covenant to be used . God never gives his children a promise which he does not intend them to use. There are some promises in the Bible which I have never yet used; but I am well assured that there will come times of trial and trouble when I shall find that that poor despised promise, which I thought was never meant for me, will be the only one on which I can float. I know that the time is coming when every believer shall know the worth of every promise in the covenant. God has not given him any part of an inheritance which he did not mean him to till. Christ is given us to use. Believer, use him! I tell thee again, as I told thee before, that thou dost not use thy Christ as thou oughtest to do. Why, man, when thou art in trouble, why dost thou not go and tell him? Has he not a sympathizing heart, and can he not comfort and relieve thee? No, thou art gadding about to all thy friends save thy best friend, and telling thy tale everywhere except into the bosom of thy Lord. Oh, use him, use him. Art thou black with yesterday’s sins?

Here is a fountain filled with blood; use it, saint, use it. Has thy guilt returned again? Well his power has been proved again and again; come use him! use him! Dost thou feel naked? Come hither, soul, put on the robe.

Stand not staring at it; put it on. Strip, sir, strip thine own righteousness off, and thine own fears too. Put this on, and wear it, for it was meant to wear. Dost thou feel thyself sick? What, wilt thou not go and pull the night-bell of prayer, and wake up thy physician? I beseech thee go and stir him up betimes, and he will give the cordial that will revive thee. What! art thou sick, with such a physician next door to thee, a present help in time of trouble, and wilt thou not go to him? Oh, remember thou art poor, but then thou hast “a kinsman, a mighty man of wealth.” What! wilt thou not go to him and ask him to give thee of his abundance, when he has given thee this promise, that as long as he has anything thou shalt go shares with him, for all he is and all he has is thine? Oh, believer, do use Christ, I beseech thee.

There is nothing Christ dislikes more than for his people to make a showthing of him and not to use him. He loves to be worked. He is a great laborer; he always was for his Father, and now he loves to be a great laborer for his brethren. The more burdens you put on his shoulders the better he will love you. Cast your burden on him. You will never know the sympathy of Christ’s heart and the love of his soul so well as when you have heaved a very mountain of trouble from yourself to his shoulders, and have found that he does not stagger under the weight. Are your troubles like huge mountains of snow upon your spirit? Bid them rumble like an avalanche upon the shoulders of the Almighty Christ. He can bear them all away, and carry them into the depths of the sea. Do use thy Master, for this very purpose he was put into the covenant, that thou mightest use him whenever thou needest him.

III. Now, lastly, here is APRECEPT, and what shall the precept be? Christ is ours; then be ye Christ’s , beloved. Ye are Christ’s, ye know right well.

Ye are his by your Father’s donation when he gave you to the Son. You are his by his bloody purchase, when he counted down the price for your redemption. You are his by dedication, for you have dedicated yourselves to him. You are his by adoption, for you are brought to him and made one of his brethren and joint-heirs with him I beseech you, labor, dear brethren, to show the world that you are his in practice. When tempted to sin, reply, “I cannot do this great wickedness. I cannot, for I am one of Christ’s.”

When wealth is before thee to be won by sin, touch it not; say that thou art Christ’s, else thou wouldst take it; but now thou canst not. Tell Satan that you would not gain the world if you had to love Christ less. Are you exposed in the world to difficulties and dangers? Stand fast in the evil day, remembering that you are one of Christ’s. Are you in a field where much is to be done, and others are sitting down idly and lazily, doing nothing? Go at your work, and when the sweat stands upon your brow and you are bidden to stay, say “No, I cannot stop; I am one of Christ’s. He had a baptism to be baptized with, and so have I, and I am straitened until it be accomplished. I am one of Christ’s. If I were not one of his, and purchased by blood, I might be like Issachar, crouching between two burdens; but I am one of Christ’s.” When the syren song of pleasure would tempt thee from the path of right, reply, “Hush your strains, O temptress; I am one of Christ’s. Thy music cannot affect me; I am not my own, I am bought with a price. When the cause of God needs thee, give thyself to it, for thou art Christ’s. When the poor need thee, give thyself away, for thou art one of Christ’s. When, at any time there is ought to be done for his church and for his cross, do it, remembering that thou art one of Christ’s. I beseech thee, never belie thy profession. Go not where others could say of thee, “He cannot be Christ’s;” but be thou ever one of those whose brogue is Christian, whose very idiom is Christ-like, whose conduct and conversation are so redolent of heaven, that all who see thee may know that thou art one of the Savior’s and may recognize in thee his features and his lovely countenance.

And now, dearly beloved hearers, I must say one word to those of you to whom I have not preached, for there are some of you who have never laid hold of the covenant. I sometimes hear it whispered, and sometimes read it, that there are men who trust to the uncovenanted mercies of God. Let me solemnly assure you that there is now no such thing in heaven as uncovenanted mercy; there is no such thing beneath God’s sky or above it, as uncovenanted grace towards men. All ye can receive, and all you ever ought to hope for, must be through the covenant of free grace, and that alone.

Mayhap, poor convinced sinner thou darest not take hold of the covenant to day. Thou canst not say the covenant is thine. Thou art afraid it never can be thine; thou art such an unworthy wretch. Hark thee; canst thou lay hold on Christ? Darest thou do that? “Oh,” sayest thou, “I am too unworthy.” Nay, soul, darest thou touch the hem of his garment to day?

Darest thou come up to him just so much as to touch the very skirt that is trailing on the ground? “No,” sayest thou “I dare not,” Why not, poor soul, why not? Canst thou not trust to Christ? “Are not his mercies rich and free?

Then say, poor soul, why not for thee.” “I dare not come, I am so unworthy ,” you say. Hear, then; my Master bids you come, and will you be afraid after that? “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’) Why dare you not come to Christ? Oh, you are afraid he will turn you away! Hark ye, then, what he saith; “Whosoever cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out.” Thou savest, “I know he would cast me out .”

Come, then, and see if thou canst prove him a liar. I know thou canst not, but come and try. He has said “whosoever.” “But I am the blackest .”

Nevertheless, he has said “whosoever “come along, blackest of the black. “Oh, but I am filthy .” Come along, filthy one, come and try him, come and prove him; recollect he has said he will cast out none that come to him by faith. Come and try him. I do not ask thee to lay hold on the whole covenant, thou shalt do that by-and-bye; but lay hold on Christ, and if thou wilt do that, then thou hast the covenant. “Oh, I cannot lay hold of him ,” saith one poor soul. Well then, lie prostrate at his feet, and beg of him to lay hold of thee. Do groan one groan, and say, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Do sigh one sigh, and say, “Lord, save, or I perish.” Do let thy heart say it, if thy lips cannot. If grief, long smothered, burns like a flame within thy bones, at least let one spark out. Now pray one prayer and verily I say unto thee, one sincere prayer shall most assuredly prove that he will save thee. One true groan, where God has put it in the heart, is an earnest of his love; one true wish after Christ, if it be followed by sincere and earnest seeking of him, shall be accepted of God, and thou shalt be saved.

Come, soul, once more. Lay hold on Christ. “Oh, but I dare not do it .”

Now I was about to say a foolish thing; I was going to say that I wish I was a sinner like thyself this moment, and I think I would run before, and lay hold on Christ, and then say to you, “Take hold too.” But I am a sinner like thyself, and no better than thyself; I have no merits, no righteousness, no works; I shall be damned in hell unless Christ have mercy on me, and should have been there now if I had had my deserts. Here am I a sinner once as black as thou art; and yet, O Christ, these arms embrace thee.

Sinner, come and take thy turn after me. Have not I embraced him? Am I not as vile as thou art? Come and let my case assure thee. How did he treat me when I first laid hold of him? Why he said to me, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”