But how much more precious in the case of the awakened sinner! See him standing, terror-stricken, before mount Sinai. Thunders roll above him—lightnings flash around him—the earth trembles beneath him, as if ready to open her mouth and swallow him up. The sound of the trumpet rings through his soul—“Guilty! guilty! guilty!” Pale and trembling, he looks eagerly around him, and sees nothing but revelations of wrath. Overwhelmed with fear and dismay, he cries out—“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me! What shall I do?” A voice reaches his ear—penetrates his heart—“Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” He turns his eyes to Calvary. Wonderous vision! Emmanuel expiring upon the cross! the sinner’s Substitute satisfying the demand of the law against the sinner! Now all his fears are hushed, and rivers of peace flow into his soul. This is the peace of Christ. How precious is this peace, amid all the dark vicissitudes of life! How invaluable this jewel, through all the dangers of the wilderness! How cheering to know that Jesus, who hath loved us even unto death, is the pilot of our perilous voyage; that he rules the winds and the waves, and can hush them to silence at his will, and bring the frailest bark of faith to the desired haven! Trusting where he cannot trace his Master’s footsteps, the disciple is joyful amid the darkest dispensations of Divine Providence; turning all his sorrows into songs, and all his tribulations into triumphs. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” II. The victory of Christ over the world, the source of comfort and joy to believers. “In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The world is the great castle of Belial, containing three temples; “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life;” in one or another of which every unconverted soul is a worshipper. But Jesus has demolished that castle, and abolished the service of its several temples. The world has two modes of warfare. Sometimes it puts on the apparent mildness of a lamb, and allures to destruction with the song of a siren. Again it leaps upon its prey like an angry lion, or pursues its victim like an exasperated dragon. Its frown has destroyed thousands; its smile, tens of thousands. A certain man has laid it down as a rule, that all must take the world as it is. But all general rules have their exceptions. Christ is the exception here. Christ conquered the world. The Prince of this world met him in the wilderness, when he was alone, in poverty and distress—weary, hungry, and thirsty—and offered him all the kingdoms of the world, for which have been fought so many battles. But Jesus refused the offer; choosing rather to be poor, that we might be made rich. He detected the lion in his affectation of the lamb, and stripped from the angel of darkness his garment of light.