Five bleeding wounds he bears, He ever lives above, For me to intercede; His all-redeeming love, His precious blood to plead. His blood atoned for all our race, And sprinkles now the throne of grace. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling the RECONCILIATION. Between the bleeding victim, cut in twain, So they adjudge who breaks his folemn oath. THIS engraving represents two men standing between the two parts of a divided calf. They have been for a long time enemies to each other. Now they earnestly defire to become friends again; they wish to bury all past differences in the ocean of forgetfulness, and to enter into an agreement mutually to affist and defend each other in time to come. To accomplish this object, they have met together. As a proof of their fincerity, they offer a facrifice to the object of their religious adoration. The blood of the victim is poured out, the animal is divided into two equal parts. The parts are placed oppofite to each other, space enough being left for the parties to enter between. When this is done, they meet in the middle of the divided beaft, where the contract is read or repeated, and by a folemn oath sanctioned and confirmed. This was an ancient and almost universal mode of making contracts. It is referred to by Jeremiah the prophet: "And I will deliver up the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed through the parts thereof.". The above is a fignificant emblem of that reconciliation which is proclaimed by the everlasting gospel. The holy God and finful man conftitute the parties. Man had, by his fins, separated himself from God, and had, in fact, become an "enemy." God, the offended party, proclaims a truce, and proposes a reconciliation. The place of meeting was Mount Calvary. There Mercy and Truth met together, Justice and Peace embraced each other; the victim, the Lord Jesus Christ. Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, and without forgiveness there is no reconciliation; but "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself," and " Christ is our peace, who hath made both one." The terms of the covenant are, "He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." On this ground, i. e., "in Christ," God has fworn to receive to friendship all who come to him. Here he opens his heart of love-here he bestows more than kingly dignities-here the kingdom of grace is exhibited, and the splendours of the kingdom of glory shadowed forth. But for those "who count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, there remaineth no more facrifice for fin, but a certain fearful looking for of fiery indignation, which shall devour the adver faries." The reconciliation of a foul to God is perhaps the greatest event that can come to pass on the earth. It affects three worlds: heaven, earth, and hell. When this takes place, angels, in their flights of mercy, paffing over fields of renown, where empires are won and lost, stoop upon the wing, and stringing their harps to a loftier melody, they sing the anthem of all-redeeming love, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good-will toward man." God, the offended God Most High, |