On that day, the annual expiation was made for the sins of the whole nation. It was the most solemn sacrifice offered in the Jewish Church. Although that sacrifice can no longer be offered, because of the destruction of the Temple and the dispersion of the nation of Israel, the Jews still keep the day as a strict fast, and they spend it in their Synagogues in earnest and most pathetic cries for deliverance. No doubt can exist in our minds, that the atonement which was made on that solemn day, strikingly set forth the Atonement for human transgression which CHRIST made "by offering up HIMSELF once for all." And as the year of Jubilee was dated from the Day of Atonement, so is the year of each individual believer's spiritual release from condemnation to be dated from the reception of the Atonement of CHRIST into his soul by an act of true and heartfelt faith in CHRIST's precious blood. From that day the fetters of our natural bondage to sin and death are burst asunder, and we enter upon a year of redemption which shall never end.*

3dly, Consider the CIRCUMSTANCES of this happy period. It was ushered in by the sound of trumpet, blown by Priests and Levites throughout all the land of Israel, that every one might hear and know that

* It has been supposed that the crucifixion of Christ took place in the year of Jubilee; and if so, the connection between the type and its antitype was most impressive and instructive.

the season of liberation from slavery, and of the restoration of alienated possessions, was arrived. And thus the glad tidings of " Redemption by CHRIST JESUS" are to be proclaimed, that all may hear; and that whosoever believeth may receive that inheritance of bliss which was alienated from us by the sin of Adam and by our own personal iniquities. GOD has sent forth the Heralds of the Cross; and His command to each one of them is, "Cry aloud, lift up thy voice like a trumpet." CHRIST Himself has given the word, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."-It is the privilege and happiness of the Ministers of CHRIST, to proclaim spiritual "liberty to the captives" of sin and Satan, " and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to declare the acceptable year of the Lord. Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound!” Brethren, "the joyful sound" has long rested upon our ears; but has it entered into our hearts? Oh, with what eagerness would the enslaved Israelite listen through the hours of the night preceding the dawn of "the year of release," for the sound of that trumpet which would be the signal of his return to liberty and prosperity! And will any be careless and indifferent under the sound of the Gospel-trumpet? Shall that excite no emotion-produce no thrill of hope and delight within the soul of the bondslave of Satan, and the drudge of that master whose wages are death and destruction? Oh, could the declara

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tion, which I am now about to utter, as the Ambassador of CHRIST, to every sinner who is serving divers lusts and passions and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath, be heard in the prison of Hell-what, think you, would be the feelings and conduct of the inmates of that dreadful abode ? This is the message of mercy now proclaimed to you: "God so loved "the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "It is a faithful saying, and

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worthy of all acceptation, that CHRIST JESUS came into "the world to save sinners." "If any man sin, we "have an Advocate with the FATHER, JESUS CHRIST the Righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins." "The SPIRIT and the bride say, Come; and let him "that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst,

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come and whosoever will, let him take of the water

of life freely."-Such gracious words of God to man excite wonder in Heaven; and would light up the dark dungeon of Hell with hope, could they be heard there. It is only upon earth, and among men who have but a hair's-breadth between them and an eternity of unmixed happiness or unmixed misery, that this sound produces no impression, and passeth over "as a tale that is told." Is it so with any of you, brethren? Are you to this hour uninfluenced by the Gospel-message of reconciliation? Has it been slighted, forgotten, neglected, despised by any in this congregation? Then let me warn such of

their guilt and danger. You turn a deaf ear to the trumpet of mercy; but will you be able to remain unmoved, when the trumpet of judgment shall send forth its long and penetrating blast through the wide regions of the sleeping dead? How will you then escape, if you now neglect the offered "redemption that is in CHRIST JESUS?" Think upon this, I beseech you; and may the LORD fasten conviction upon your heart, and give you no rest, until you seek and find it, in and through the Great Atonement of the only SAVIOUR!

In the year of Jubilee, many peculiar privileges were enjoyed. There was a national cessation from the labour of cultivating the land. Thus an opportunity was afforded to the poorest and most laborious inhabitants of Judea to attend to the things that made for their eternal peace. And it seems, that one great object of this intermission of labour for their daily bread, was the general instruction of the Israelites in the Divine Law. In the Book of Deuteronomy (xxxi. 11-13), there is this direction how the leisure season of the year of Jubilee should be employed: "In the solemnity of the year of release, when all Israel is come to appear before "the LORD thy GOD in the place which He shall "choose, thou shalt read this Law before all Israel, in

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their hearing. Gather the people together, men, "and women, and children, and thy stranger that is "within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they

"may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe "to do all the words of this Law: And that their "children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as

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or in

long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan "to possess it."—All debts were to be remitted in the Jubilee. So, if any person had been sold into slavery by an inexorable creditor, any other way had lost his liberty, he was to be set free, the moment the trump of Jubilee sounded. And thus, also, whatever inheritance had been lost, through poverty, oppression, or any other cause, was to be restored to its rightful owner, who could not possibly be deprived of it any longer.

And thus the Gospel-trumpet invites man to cease from sinful labour and toil after "the meat which perisheth," and to come and partake of the abundant provisions which the LORD offers "freely, without money and without price," to every hungry and thirsty soul. Opportunities are afforded to the poorest and the most ignorant to become "wise unto salvation." The Inspired Volume is put into the hands of all; and every seventh day the trumpet of mercy may be heard throughout our highly-favoured land, and the people are privileged with instruction in the great truths of "the everlasting Gospel." And the Ministers of the LORD JESUS invite those who are in bondage, guilt, condemnation, and corruption, to partake of "the glorious liberty of the Children of God." Beloved, "now is the accepted time, now is the day