"If Jesus had not died, we could never have been saved; if Jesus had not died, man could never have estimated in any degree the depth and power of that infinite love from which the plan of salvation sprang. It was not that God needed to be appeased, 'for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son;' but it was that his moral government being thus righteously upheld, the lost might be sought and found, and his love commended to us, 'in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' It was not that God was angry and implacable, but that man, being redeemed by the blood of Christ, was to be won and reconciled to him. It was the setting up, as it were, of an eternal altar, on which sinners, feeling helpless and undone, might lay their load of sin and care, and on which the one is consumed and put away forever, and the other is changed into sanctifying discipline. "If your sins be not repented of and confessed, and blotted out there, they are yet on your own heads; and unpardoned sinners must die, for 'the wages of sin is death.' O, it is an easy thing to read and believe a history, and give a sigh to the fate of an unjustly condemned and persecuted man, and this may be done sincerely by an amiable, kind heart that is never influenced beyond the moment by the fact; but, it is quite another thing to take God at his word, to receive his message of mercy and love, and, believing in his love to you, to yield up in return the affection of your hearts, and the grateful service of your lives. I would solemnly ask you to go to your closets, search and see what is your real position before God, look to Jesus who was lifted up that he might draw all to him; and then, in penitence and self-renunciation, you will learn who 'they' were that 'crucified him.'" Mrs. Davis paused, and left the minds of her young friends to meditate for a little while on the truths she had read. She observed with encouragement that no head was turned to question the impression made upon another, and, perhaps, in that silence each, at least for once, looked anxiously into her own heart. Then she resumed. "Elizabeth had prepared to follow the preacher with her ready pencil, that she might enjoy over again, or detail to others, the eloquence she so much admired. Soon, however, her hand paused, the paper remained blank, and her eyes rose with astonishment and alarm to the face of the earnest speaker. "At first she struggled proudly against the thought that she, if a believer, could have anything to do with the death of Jesus. The personal application of such a fact had never entered her mind before, and yet the frightful alternative was not to be endured for a moment. She meant to be saved, she must be saved. She could not, she would not, cast in her lot with the enemies of God, with unbelievers, with lovers of pleasure, and of the world which she thought she had renounced.