IN our study of the divine redemption we considered from the words of St. Paul to the Galatians the great foundation act of the whole, viz., the satisfaction made for sin by the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God. We had no time then to go on to the consequent deliverance. But we do not want to have either a building without a foundation, or a foundation without a building. In other words, we do not wish either to have a superficial life of Christian experience without a solid foundation in the great work of atonement, or to be so exclusively occupied by the atonement as to forget the great practical deliverance which is in fact the completion of redeeming grace. Having laid the foundation, then, in the study of the ransom, redemption price, or satisfaction for sin, we must pass on to the great deliverance with which God follows up His work of mercy. This we will now do, if God permit, and may He Himself put forth the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, and this very day in His own grace deliver souls! Now what is the first great gift of God in delivering souls?—the first result of the blood of atonement when applied to the salvation of the sinner? I hope that if we were all to speak we should give the same answer to the question, and that there are none amongst us who would hesitate to reply, ‘Forgiveness.’ So long as sin remains unforgiven there can be no freedom, nor any deliverance of any kind whatever. Unforgiven sin blocks the way against all hope of escape, and therefore when God invites a sinner to return He first assures him of the blotting out of sin: ‘I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.’ (Isa. xliv. 22.)