The religion, then, that a sinner needs, cannot be limited to the two doctrines of the holiness of God, and the creature’s obligation to love and serve Him,—­cannot be pared down to the precept:  Fear God and practise virtue.  It must be greatly enlarged, and augmented, by the introduction of that other class of truths which relate to the Divine mercy towards those who have not feared God, and the Divine method of salvation for those who are sinful.  In other words, the religion for a transgressor is revealed religion, or the religion of Atonement and Redemption.

What, now, is there in this species of religion that necessitates the meek and docile temper of a child, as distinguished from the proud and self-reliant spirit of a man, in order to its reception into the heart?

I. In the first place, the New Testament religion offers the forgiveness of sins, and provides for it.  No one can ponder this fact an instant, without perceiving that the pride and self-reliance of manhood are excluded, and that the meekness and implicit trust of childhood are demanded.  Pardon and justification before God must, from the nature of the case, be a gift, and a gift cannot be obtained unless it is accepted as such.  To demand or claim mercy, is self-contradictory.  For, a claim implies a personal ground for it; and this implies self-reliance, and this is “manhood” in distinction from “childhood.”  In coming, therefore, as the religion of the Cross does, before man with a gratuity, with an offer to pardon his sins, it supposes that he take a correspondent attitude.  Were he sinless, the religion suited to him would be the mere utterance of law, and he might stand up before it with the serene brow of an obedient subject of the Divine government; though even then, not with a proud and boastful temper.  It would be out of place for him, to plead guilty when he was innocent; or to cast himself upon mercy, when he could appeal to justice.  If the creature’s acceptance be of works, then it is no more of grace, otherwise work is no more work.  But if it be by grace, then it is no more of works (Rom. xi. 6).  If the very first feature of the Christian religion is the exhibition of clemency, then the proper and necessary attitude of one who receives it is that of humility.

But, leaving this argument drawn from the characteristics, of Christianity as a religion of Redemption, let us pass into the soul of man, and see what we are taught there, respecting the temper which he must possess in order to receive this new, revealed kingdom of God.  The soul of man is guilty.  Now, there is something in the very nature of guilt that excludes the proud, self-conscious, self-reliant spirit of manhood, and necessitates the lowly, and dependent spirit of childhood.  When conscience is full of remorse, and the holy eye of law is searching us, and fears of eternal banishment and punishment are rakeing the spirit, there is no