uffered on earth, till the Lord has burned it up for ever, and
there is nothing but love and justice, order and usefulness, peace
and happiness, left in the universe of God.

Oh, think of these things, and cast away your sins betimes, at the
foot of his everlasting cross, lest you be consumed with your sins
in his everlasting fire!

SERMON XII. THE BIRTHNIGHT OF FREEDOM

(Easter Day.)

Exodus xii. 42. This is a night to be much observed unto the Lord,
for bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt.

To be much observed unto the Lord by the children of Israel. And by
us, too, my friends; and by all nations who call themselves FREE.

There are many and good ways of looking at Easter Day. Let us look
at it in this way for once.

It is the day on which God himself set men FREE.

Consider the story. These Israelites, the children of Abraham, the
brave, wild patriarch of the desert, have been settled for hundreds
of years in the rich lowlands of Egypt. There they have been eating
and drinking their fill, and growing more weak, slavish, luxurious,
fonder and fonder of the flesh-pots of Egypt; fattening literally
for the slaughter, like beasts in a stall. They are spiritually
dead--dead in trespasses and sins. They do not want to be free, to
be a nation. They are content to be slaves and idolaters, if they
can only fill their stomachs. This is the spiritual death of a
nation.

I say, they do not want to be free. When they are oppressed, they
cry out--as an animal cries when you beat him. But after they are
free, when they get into danger, or miss their meat, they cry out
too, and are willing enough to return to slavery; as the dog which
has run away for fear of the whip, will go back to his kennel for
the sake of his food. 'Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast
thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou
dealt thus with us to carry us out of Egypt?' And again, 'Would God
we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, where we
did sit by the flesh-pots, and eat meat to the full!' BRUTALIZED,
in one word, were these poor children of Israel.

Then God took their cause into his own hand; I say emphatically into
his own hand. If that part of the story be not true, I care nothing
for the rest. If God did not personally and actually interfere on
behalf of those poor slaves; if the plagues of Egypt are not TRUE--
the passage of the Red Sea be not TRUE--the s