But as for those amongst you that have been brought up out of the pit, what should be the language of your thankful heart? You have not only seen the great redemption finished, but you have experienced its application. You have not merely been taught to trust Him in the bottom of the low dungeon, but you can say as David did, ‘He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.’ Ps. xl. 2. If so, will you not go on and add, ‘He hath put a new song in my mouth, even thanksgiving unto our God?’ Will you not join heart and soul in the language of our Communion Service, ‘We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty?’ IX. ATONEMENT. ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.’—GAL. iii. 13. IN tracing the doctrine of redemption through the types and illustrative narratives of the Old Testament, we found that redemption always includes two ideas—deliverance and ransom—and that in some cases, as _e.g._, in the redemption from Egypt, the deliverance is the more prominent of the two. I cannot help thinking that in this respect there is a difference between the Old Testament and the New. In the New, as well as the Old, the two ideas are always found, and the deliverance is always included; but the writers of the New Testament appear to have had their minds so full of the marvellous love that was shown on the cross of Christ, that the ransom, and the ransom price, appear in many passages to have been the prominent subjects of their thoughts. Hence it follows that in a great many religious books, and even in our Church Catechism, redemption is confounded with the atonement, and people lose sight of the fact that it includes the consequences of the atonement as well as the atonement itself, the release of the captive as well as the payment of the ransom; the actual salvation of the chosen people of God, as well as the satisfaction of the law by the substitution of the Son of God for man. In order, therefore, to get a clear view of the whole subject, we must consider the two parts separately; first, the ransom, satisfaction, or atonement, and after that the deliverance that follows. May it please God in His mercy to give us the sacred teaching of the Holy Spirit, and to lead us into the full realisation of the marvellous wonders of His redeeming love!