VI I') i![i|[|iiiiii!iai m. PBiyCETON. N. J. No. SfuJt: So. Boo/,\ The John M. lirebs Donation. THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH: REVIEW OF PASSAGES IIISTOM OF JESUS CHllIST. Rev. W. lease, AUTHOR OF OUR ERA, THE EVIDENCES OF GRACE, ETC. JESDS OF UAZAEBTH "WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD.- — Peter. NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA : WILLIAM S. MAR TIEN, CONTENTS. PAGE, Preface v Chapter I. The Manger, — Greatness independent of Earthly Splendour. . 1 Chapter II, The Sages, — Philosophy kneeling to Christianity 15 Chapter III, The Midnight Flight, — Tyranny Frustrated 30 Chapter IV, The Temple. — The Power of Sinless Intellect 46 Chapter V, The Jordan. — The Heavenly Attestation 61 Chapter VI. The Wilderness, — The Tempter Foiled 75 Chapter VII, The Passover. — The House of God Purified 88 Chapter VIII. Samaria. — Acceptable Worship Defined 103 Chapter IX, Capernaum. — The Dispossession 117 Chapter X. "The Mount of Beatitudes." — The Messiah as a Preacher,. 132 Chapter XI, Jerusalem. — The Sabbath Cure 147 IV CONTENTS. PAGE. Chapter XII. Nain.— Life Restored 162 Chapter XIII. The Sea of Tiberias. — The Storm Hushed 176 Chapter XIV. Cesarea Philippi. — The Claim to Messiahship 190 Chapter XV. "The Holy Mount." — The Transfiguration 205 Chapter XVI. The Feast of Tabernacles. — Principles Enunciated 227 Chapter XVII. The Samaritan Village. — Ignorant Zeal Rebuked 235 Chapter XVIII. The Sanhedrim. — The Conspiracy , 250 Chapter XIX. Gethsemane. — The Redeemer's Agony 265 Chapter XX. Calvary. — The Crucifixion 280 Chapter XXI. The Burial.— Melancholy Thoughts 293 Chapter XXII. The First Day of the Week. — The Resurrection 308 Chapter XXIII. Galilee. — The Evidence Complete • 322 Chapter XXIV. Mount Olivet. — The Ascension 337 PREFACE. It is necessary to state the nature and design of this work. It is not a Life of Christ, nor is it the substance of sermons or lectures; although, probably, those who are in the habit of listening to the author's discourses may find in it passages which they have heard from his lips. I have been of opinion, for a consider- able period, that the facts of the Saviour's his- tory involve important principles, connected both with the Christian dispensation, and the intellectual condition of men ; that that history is more than the record of a wonderful life, more than biography ; that it is, in short, in- spired didatic narrative. The present volume is the result of this idea. It is a review of cer- tain passages in the Redeemer's history, as given by the Evangelists; and an effort to indicate those principles which the respective passages appeared to me to contain. Thus, for VI PREFACE. instance, the lowly circumstances of the Sa- viour's birth suggested the subject of the first chapter — " Greatness independent of Earthly Splendour ;" and the conduct of the Eastern Magi presented the thought of ''Philosophy kneeling to Christianity." The headings of the chapters refer to the place where, or to the circumstances under which, the events written about took place. The principal title of the book was selected for its simplicity, as con- veying the idea of progress, without raising expectations regarding the character of the work which I might not be able to satisfy. There are many other passages in the Evan- gelic Narrative which I had selected and ar- ranged for remark, but the apprehension that to increase the size of the volume would be to defeat my desire for its usefulness, by prevent- ing its circulation, led me to omit them. The order followed will be found in harmony with the usual chronology. As to the style in which the volume is written, it is not my province to say much ; but as I wished to transcribe the impressions made upon my own mind to that of the reader, I have studied clearness, and I hope I shall be perfectly understood. PREFACE. Vll During six months I have had many happy hours in preparing this work for the press; anxious thoughts have been rebuked, and gloom dispelled, by looking at the inspired account of our Redeemer's journeys, discourses, and mi- racles ; and the hope of happiness with Him who stilled the storm on the lake of Tiberias, when the storms of this life shall have passed away, has often come like the voice of an angel to my heart. That a similar blessing may be enjoyed by all who read it; that it may be received by the churches as not unworthy of a place in their regards ; and that it may be owned by the exalted and Divine Messiah, whose footsteps it traces, and at whose feet it is now laid, is my earnest prayer. W. LEASK. Dover, 18th March, 1847. THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. CHAPTER r. THE MANGER. GREATNESS INDEPENDENT OF EARTHLY SPLENDOUR. The fulness of the time had come. The sceptre had departed from Judah. Rome was triumphant. A vassal king sat upon the throne of David. Vision and prophecy were sealed up. All men were in expectation. The nations of the world were at peace. Augustus Ceesar had no rival. The instru- ments of death, wearied with carnage, required rest The Prince of Peace was at hand. A new king, the destined conqueror of universal mind, was born. The involuntary homage of a silent world greeted his advent. The world worshipped, but it knew not why; it adored, but it knew not whom. An occur- rence without precedent, an event without parallel, took place. There is a new thing in the earth. A virgin brings forth a son. He has no earthly father. He is the first child born into our world without the least tendency to sin. No moral contagion has sullied his nature ; no unholy influence has defiled his pure I 2 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. spirit; — let the eastern sages empty their treasures at his feet; let Simeon's redeemed spirit depart in peace; let the aged Anna prophesy with renewed vigour; let all the angels of God worship him: this is the desire of all nations; this is the Son of God. This is the Messiah. Here is the marvellous history. "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (This taxing was first made when Cyrenius was go- vernor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in th6 same country shep- herds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ, the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." "Lying in a manger!" Strange resting place for THE MANGER. 3 the Desire of all nations, the Messenger of the Cove- nant, the promised Messiah, the Author and Finisher of Faith, the Consolation of Israel, the Advocate with the Father, the Saviour of the world, the Ruler in Israel, the anointed King of universal empire, the destined Judge of quick and dead, and tlie only be- gotten Son of God ! Such is the exclamation with which human reason expresses its surprise at what it deems a beginning so ill in keeping with the won- derful career and glorious character of the babe of Bethlehem. It appears inharmonious with the dig- nity of Messiah. Ought not the first palace of the land to have been placed at the disposal of Mary, with all the sovereigns of earth as her waiting ser- vants, while the angels of heaven, who sang the advent of Jesus, prolonged their music over the hon- oured spot? Why were not the crowns and sceptres of empires laid at his feet? Why flowed not the wealth of the world into his treasury? Why came not the priests in their courses to acknowledge their Master, and welcome with rapture their long ex- pected Lord? Why? The decisions of human reason, were its counsel asked as to what it would deem ap- propriate manifestations of God in his government of the world, would doubtless harmonize with its own ideas of the grand and majestic. It attaches import- ance to the imposing spectacle, the dazzling pomp, the sparkling retinue, the cumbrous machinery. Its eye must be filled with the lustre of perishing wealth; its ear must be crowded with reiterated blasts from the trumpet of perishing fame; and its suffrage is obtained. Then it worships; but the vote is in favour of ils own creation; the idol is the embodiment of 4 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. its own idea. This is self-veneration. This is idola- try. This has cursed the world, and riven the church into shreds, built the dungeons of the Inqui- sition, whetted the swords and kindled the fires of persecution, alienated man from his fellow, and man- kind from God, deluged the earth with human blood, and prematurely tenanted the invisible world with human spirits. The starting point is misplaced. The criterion is deficient. It accords with our idea of the great, and therefore ought so to exhibit itself, is the language of reason on such a subject. But if this idea be the oflspring of a fallacy, the inference from it cannot be tenable. What if the human understanding be per- verted ? If so, there is danger of calling that great, which unerring wisdom would pronounce little. And the fact is so. " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts," This scripture re- veals a grand principle in the divine government, amply sufficient to justify the procedure of the Su- preme Ruler, and to silence the murmurs and allay the surprise of his creatures. In the midst of mys- tery and fear, faith looks at it, and gentle and soothing is the light that radiates from it. It ac- counts even for the manger. " This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." There was no room for them in the inn, but the manger was not an acci- dent ; nor was the tomb of Joseph the result of chance : the first and the last resting places of Jesus THE MANGER. 5 Clirist were decreed. The babe of Bethlehem, and the body of the crucified one were cared for, and the attendant circumstances were, in each case, accordant with tlie purposes of him " who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." But what if the circumstances attending Messiah's advent had been of that character which the world denominates majestic or glorious? What if the Ro- man empire had been shaken to its centre, not for the purpose of fulfilling the prophecy which named Bethlehem as the birth-place of Christ, but for the purpose of investing that birth with all the magnifi- cence which the mistress of the world had at com- mand? Would such an introduction to the scene of his destined sufterings have tended to facilitate the design of those sufferings? That design was the most marvellous, the most stupendous, the most God- like, ever heard of by any intelligence in the wide universe. It was the burden of eternity, the climax of Jehovah's works, and the crowning evidence that God is love. To make way for the triumphant ac- complishment of Messiah's undertaking, the invisible arm of Omnipotence iiad been employed ever since the creation of our earth. Thrones had been erected, shattered, removed; empires had arisen, flourished, faded, perished ; new empires had been founded on the ruins of the old; everywhere, throughout the wide world, men had been pursuing, for four thou- sand years, their favourite objects, superstition, idol- atry, philosophy, conquest; and everywhere, though the fact was utterly unknown to the actors, these commotions were preparing the way for the tri- umphant reign of the Son of God. Assyria, Egypt, 1^ b THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. Greece, Rome, and the host of minor dynasties he- ralded the coming of Christ, Their mission, Hke that of the son of Zacharias, was to prepare the way of the Lord. They meant it not, but they were the involuntary forerunners of man's Redeemer; neither did their heart think so, but they were the pioneers of the King of kings. They followed the imagination of their own hearts, and "played fantastic tricks before high heaven-," but as is the clay in the hands of the potter, so were they in the hands of the eternal God, whose purpose it was to " overturn, overturn, overturn," till he came whose right it was to occupy the throne of a kingdom which shall have no end. The world's frantic warriors had no intention of paving the way for the Prince of Peace. The in- evitable result of acknowledging his sceptre will be to break theirs — the laws of his kingdom will abolish those of theirs — the extension of his dominion to its destined limit will be the annihilation of theirs. The ascension of the radiant sun extinguishes all the ar- tificial lights of earth. The rise of the Prince of Peace is the signal for the gaudy kings of the world to retire to their native obscurity. Now, if the all- wise God so overruled the convulsions of the ancient world as to make them subserve the purpose of his Son's advent, the proposition that he could have commanded the ruling powers of earth to hail that advent with every demonstration of regal and im- perial glory, will be at once accepted. In this case, as in those already adverted to, the result could have been accomplished while the actors knew not that they were agents in the realization of a Divine design. The question, then, returns, Would THE MANGER. 7 the glorious purpose of the incarnation of the Son of God have been facilitated had its concomitants been the most costly symbols of imperial grandeur, instead of the stable and manger of Bethlehem? We might at once say no, and assign as the reason of this conclusion, the well-known fact that infinite "wisdom ordered it otherwise, and that this infinite wisdom is an attribute of the same God, who de- sired and decreed the complete triumph of his Son. This, indeed, is the most satisfactory answer of which the question is susceptible, in the judgment of the man who believes in the eternal purpose and fore- knowledge of God, in reference to the footsteps of Messiah. But as there is no subject on which men are more liable to form erroneous conclusions, than on the character of Christ's kingdom, the question before us is worthy of a somewhat lengthened inves- tigation. This liability to err arises partly from the reluctance of the depraved mind to dwell on a theme so purely spiritual in its nature, and which can never be clearly realized without the love of holiness in the breast of the student; partly from the fascinating in- fluence of worldly splendour; and partly from an unreasoning compliance with the maxims and opinions of worldly society. The last-mentioned power, in- deed, is one of the greatest barriers which spiritual truth has to overcome. It is thought's badge of slavery. It is the conservator of error. It is the unclean rut in which mind has moved for ages. By its influence the understanding has been captivated, and the judgment imprisoned. The laws of Christ's kingdom are directly hostile to the maxims and opinions of worldly society. To rebuke and purify S THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. the latter is one of the declared objects of the former. Such opinions, therefore, can never form correct cri- teria as to what would, or what would not, have been befitting associations of Messiah's advent; and, on the other hand, the promulgation, by Christ, from a throne of royalty, of the same doctrines which he taught the multitude on the mountain side, opposed as those doctrines were to all the maxims current in high places, would inevitably have aroused against him a spirit of opposition of the most virulent kind at the earliest period of his ministry, and thus, hu- manly speaking, the diffusion of light through the minds of tlie attentive throngs that hung upon his lips, would have been prevented. The doctrine that would have gained the suffrage of the great, must have been different from that proclaimed by Jesus. But the faithful Witness could not compromise. The time-server, the flatterer, the parasite — these are the men for courtly circles. Christ came to preach truth, God's own truth; truth intended for all men. Is TRUTH less valuable when taught by one of mean exterior, than when uttered by the lips of royalty? Is it affected by the medium through which it passes? Is it modified by the circumstances of the teacher? Itself answers no. Superstition avers that religious ordinances are valid only when administered by officials who have passed through certain forms. Christianity rebukes the assumption, and points to her conquests over mind, through the agency of men destitute of the imaginary qualification in question, as evidence of its fallacy. The former urges system^ the latter asks for spirit. That cnes form, this de- THE MANGER. 9 mands fridf. The former points to the scaffolding, the latter to the building. Results teach qualification. To know and love the truth of Christ are essential to success in diffusing it. But success has attended the labours of many whose understanding led them to reject the idea of an exclusive channel of ministerial authority. That success is the proof of their mission. Living epistles are better than the prelatic diploma. The King of truth was not introduced into our world amidst earthly splendour; his kingdom has never been advanced by associations with regal ma- chinery ; coalition between the spiritual and the gross is unseemly, if not impossible ; and the pure light of Heaven's own truth needs not the glitter of earth to increase its brilliancy. That has intrinsic value, under all circumstances ; the worth of this is only factitious. That is durable as eternity ; this will perish amidst the dross of time. The province of the former is the formation of mind and character for immortality, under the influence of God's Holy Spirit ; the utility of the latter is at best only tem- porary. It is one of the delusions of time to measure respectability by a golden standard, but the gospel teaches that a man' s posit ion in the unive7'se is to be tested by his approximation to Christ. Admiration of what the world calls great, instead of faciUtating as- similation to the character of Jesus, retards it. And, in one word, had the Redeemer's advent been amidst wealth instead of poverty, men would have admired the display for a time ; but the inconsistency be- tween that display and the humbling doctrines which he subsequently taught, would have arrested every mind as evidence of insincerity. To proclaim the 10 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. doctrine of self-denial from the palace of luxury, is to court defeat. This some of Christ's professed messen- gers do, and the results are grief to the pious, jests to the sceptic, and scandal to religion; and to have com- menced a life of poverty and suffering amidst the glittering scenes of hollow splendour, would have been inconsistent both with the character and design of Messiah's advent. The humble circumstances of Christ's birth were in harmony with his experience through life. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He had no where to lay his head. His associates were poor. His disciples were fishermen. His fol- lowers, for the most part, were the labourers, shep- herds, and mechanics of Judea. The blind, the lame, the deaf, the demoniac, the leper, the outcast, the beg- gar, found in him an accessible friend. In the chamber of sickness, in the abode of grief, there was Christ. This accorded with prophecy regarding him. " The Lord doth build up Jerusalem ; he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn ; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; that they might be called trees of right- THE MANGER. 11 eousness, the planting of the Lord, that he miglit be glorified." " I, the Lord, have called thee in right- eousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a Ught of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." " Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be un- stopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilder- ness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." "The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." -"^-^ These prophecies were fulfilled in Christ, as every reader of the evangelical narrative knows. He whom the Bethlehem shepherds found lying in a manger, went about doing good. Disease fled at his approach; the lame leaped, the blind saw, the deaf heard, the lepers were cleansed; at his voice the demon trembled, the dead rose to life, and the tumultuous ocean slept like a sea of glass. He spake and it was done ; he commanded and it stood fast. Sickness felt the pres- ence of the physician, and left its groaning subject; death heard the footsteps of its destined conqueror, and abandoned its helpless prey; and the elements of na- ture listened to the command of their Creator, and became placid. Notwithstanding these manifestations 12 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. of benevolence and supremacy, the life of Jesus of Nazareth was one of suffering, penury, and toil. "He shall grow up before him," said Isaiah, "as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not." To this description also the record per- fectly agrees. " He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not." "And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said. Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him." " The Pharisees said. He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils." " The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say. Behold a man gluttonous, a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." "And all they in the synagogue were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong." "And they watched him, and sent forth spies, who should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him to the THE MANGER. 13 power and authority of the governor." " Tlicn as- sembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the Iiigh priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him." " Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him ; and others smote him with the palms of their hands." One of his disciples betrayed him, another denied him, and the rest forsook him and fled ; and the crown of thorns, and the cross of Calvary can never be forgotten. Such, then, was the experience of Jesus Christ in the world for whose inhabitants he died ; such were some of the occurrences in the life of him whom to know is eternal life ; and such are passages in the extraordinary history of him whom the shepherds found lying in a manger. On a review of these facts, will not the believer exclaim, How great are his signs ! and how mighty are his wonders ! Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, thou King of saints ! Lord, how great are Thy works ! and Thy thoughts are very deep. Who is like unto Thee, Lord, among the gods ? Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ? For this Jesus, who was born in a stable and laid in a manger, has been by the right hand of God exalted far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. All things are put under his feet. He is head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. He is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and 2 14 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. Lord of lords; and the decree has gone forth, un- changeable as the character of him who made it, that the nation and kingdom that will not serve him shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. Amazing contrast, between the tenant of a manger, and the sovereign ruler of worlds ! Yet the purpose of that God, who evolves grand results from insignifi- cant beginnings, shall stand for ever. " Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the na- tion abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee." The Sun of Righteousness, that arose in obscurity, was destined to shine in unri- valled and ever increasing brightness : " a sun, O how unlike The babe at Bethlehem ! how unlike the man That groaned on Calvary ! — yet he it is ; That man of sorrows ! O how changed I What pomp ! In grandeur terrible, all heaven descends; And gods, ambitious, triumph in his train ! A swifl archangel, with his golden wing, As blots and clouds that darken and disgrace The scene divine, sweeps stars and suns aside. And now, all dross removed, heaven's own pure day Full on the confines of our ether flames." CHAPTER II. THE SAGES. PHILOSOPHY KNEELING TO CHRISTIANITY. The following facts are recorded by the evangelist Mattliew. — "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Jiidea ill the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the King had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he de- manded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Beth- lehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come a governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star ap- peared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, 16 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. the star, which they saw in the east, went hefore them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come info the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankin- cense, and myrrh." Every part of this paragraph is instructive; but the prostration of the " wise men" before the infant Messiah suggests the subject of this chapter. " They fell down and worshipped him." It was the subor- dination of wisdom to the service of God. It was science doing reverence to revelation. It was philo- sophy kneeling before Christianity. The position is appropriate; the posture is becoming. Philosophy acknowledges herself inferior to revelation, offers service on her knees, and lays her laurels at the feet of Christ. She begs permission to become a disciple of him who knew all things, and asks further illu- mination from the light of the world. She has studied the constellations of heaven for ages; but in the awful depths of space there are secrets where no ray penetrates to guide her bewildered thoughts, and she hails with rapture the Star of Bethlehem. This will shed light on regions beyond the widest range of her former investigations, and reveal the glories of the immaterial and eternal. This will guide to a haven of rest after ages of tossing on the seas of speculation; and her gratitude will be equal to her sense of safety. This is no exaggeration of her feelings : — THE SAGES. 17 "Now safely moored, my perils o'er, I'll sing, first in night's diadem, For ever and for evermore. The Star— the Star of Bethlehem!" She had long assiduously read the pages of crea- tion, but questions had often suggested themselves regarding which these pages were silent, and now she bends at the feet of the incarnate Creator himself. There she will find a key to the mystery. The enigma will be solved. The difficulty will vanish. She had long tried experiments, and formed theories, and taxed her mighty powers to account for visible phenomena; but Christianity will acquaint her with a new class of wonders, place before her an object worthy of her loftiest ambition, send her back to her pursuits at once enlightened and humbled, and teach her the province of her delegated sceptre. Instead of finding her dominions limited, she will find them expanded; but the additional territory being a grant, and not the result of conquest, will ever remind her that she is accountable to the Divine donor. The increase of her wealth is an increase of responsibility. " It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." She will not appropriate to herself praise for her discoveries. She will give to God the tithe of her produce. She will admire the flower as heretofore; but she will remember that he arrays it in glory. She will speak of the trees of the field; but she will remember that they are his planting. She will think of the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air; but she will remember that the cattle on a thousand hills are his, and that the sparrow falls not without his knowledge. She will 2* IS THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH, examine the structure of the human body; but her exclamation will be, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." The exquisite formation of the eye and the ear will furnish her with a text; but the inference from her discourse will be, " He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?" She will reason on the variegated scenery of the earth; but she will not forget that " He weigheth the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance." She will think about the mighty em- pires of the world, and the pomp and grandeur that have elicited the admiration of mankind; but she will be chastened by the recollection that "all na- tions before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and vanity." She will describe the orbits of planets, and gaze on the magnificent canopy of heaven; but she will also think of him " who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshop- pers; who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." She will dwell on the theory of the seasons; but she will be humbled by the questions — " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?" She will cast her eye over -The midnight pomp, The gorgeous arch, with golden worlds inlaid," and remember that "He made the stars also." Their astonishing numbers will fill her with admi- lation, which will be increased by the remembrance THE SAGES. 19 that " He calletli them all by their names." She will stand as if entranced in meditation on these brilliant " worlds on worlds," nntil the question es- capes, " Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, that thou visitest him." She will listen to the roaring thunder, and remember that " the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness," and she will watch the movements of the electric flash, and consider that he maketh " a way for the lightning." Or, if philosophy turn her attention from the visi- ble to the metaphysical, here, too, she will be aided in her studies by kneeling to Christianity. She will find that " God gives wisdom and understanding," that " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wis- dom," that "the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord," and that all mental powers, and all the faci- lities given for their expansion, and all the opportu- nities given for their application, are from that God from whom " cometh down every good and perfect gift." But the philosophy that scorns revelation, is a body without a soul. It is a galvanized corpse. It is a deceiver and an anti-christ. And when it puts on the guise of reverence for the religion it despises, it is that it may more efiectually poison the well- springs of life, and appropriate to itself the honoiu* due to its divine opponent. When infidel philoso- phy, professing to have been baptized by the be- nevolent spirit of the Gospel, appears among men, its success in doing evil is generally in proportion to the perfection of its hypocrisy. The disclaimers of hostility to the Gospel, which are repeated with of- fensive frequency, are among the certain proofs of 20 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. its secret dislike ; and its reiterated professions of supreme attachment to truth — by which it means its own prelections — are baits by which it attracts the superficial, and the sciolist. Several specimens of this so-called philosophy, have of late years issued from the British press ; these books have been pa- tronised and praised chiefly by parties whose pro- fessed sympathy with the sufferings of mankind em- bodies itself in finding fault with Christian eff"orts to do good, and by those whose restless spirits, having no fixed principles of faith, are ever on the search for novelty; but the diff"usion of mere speculation, or of baseless theories propounded with all the assu- rance of ascertained facts, though it may tend for a time to thicken the mental fogs in which many are enveloped, will eventually work its own cure. For as no final resting-place can be found in that which is essentially fallacious, so the mind which after a time discovers that it has been deluded by a fallacy, will become suspicious of the approach of any new candidate for its suff'rages, who cannot at the outset produce vouchers for his fidelity. Evidence of this kind will be demanded. The philosophy that would undermine Christiaiiity, cannot produce it; for as truth in all its departments is essentially one, and as Christianity is the revelation of truth, it follows that the philosophy which promulges theories opposed to Christianity must be false. Christianity is ready to furnish the proofs of her divinity. She courts inspection. She demands investigation. Her wit- nesses are prepared. They come from every region of the globe, from every age of the world, and from every class of men. They are found in fulfilled THE SAGES. 21 prophecy, attested miracles, constant conversions from sin to holiness, the adaptation of the gospel to the felt necessities of men; and in those exhibitions of the character and government of the invisible God which the gospel gives, and which, f?^om their very nature, are utterly beyond the unaided conceptions of the human mind. It is impossible to account for innumerable statements in the Bible on any other principle than that which itself furnishes, namely — " Holy men of God," in making those statements, " spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." The bad could not, the good would not, invent "a cun- ningly devised fable," and call it inspired. But neither bad nor good ever possessed an imagination equal to the task of producing such history, such doctrine, such precept, and such revelation, as are found in the Bible. The philosophy, therefore, which Avill not kneel to Christianity, must tend to the crea- tion of principles hostile to the best interests of men. But the provinces of philosophy and Christianity are distinct. The former has to do with natural re- ligion, the latter with supernatural. The former treats of the visible world, the latter of the invisible. The former regards mind as such, the latter regards it as fallen and redeemed. The former is circum- scribed by time, the latter comprehends eternity. But difference of province does not involve antago- nism in principle. The recognition of this truth is important. It indicates the character which true philosophy will bear. The Christian philosopher, knowing that the doctrines of the Bible are un- changeably true, will not propound theories subver- 22 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. sive of those doctrines. For irrespective of his reverence for the Bible, as containing a Divine re- velation, he will feel that however plausible such theories might be in the absence of clearer light, the fact of their opposition to statements which are un- doubtedly inspired, stamps them with error. Such theories may appear sound. They may be evolved from frequent and careful experiments. He may not be able to detect a flaw in the process by which he arrived at them. But he is sure that there cannot be in the universe two contradictory truths; and he will surrender his theory, conscious of his own falli- bility, and receive with gratitude infallible teaching. He has worshipped Christ; and he will not dethrone him to make room for an idol of his own. By the progress of science and further investigation, he will discover that his theory ivas wrong: thus philosophy herself reaps the advantage of kneeling to Chris- tianity. The provinces of the two systems are still kept distinct, but their results clash not. There is no collision. The greater and the lesser light shine in harmony. The sun and the moon are in the same firmament. Both show the works of God; but the latter borrows her light from the former, the former has his from God himself. Christianity is the highest kind of philosophy. It is the offspring of Divine wisdom; "the wisdom of God in a mystery." The philosophy of men was utterly unable to answer the most important questions which could be proposed. To the all important in- quiry, what is the character of the Being with whom we have to do? she could return no answer. Athens, the unrivalled seat and centre of philosophy, publicly THE SAGES. "23 confessed it. She erected an altar " to the un- known God." But Christianity arose full of ma- jesty, wisdom, and mercy. The light she shed upon the nations was new and wonderful. All who came within the influence of her beams were astonished. " Never man spake like this man," was the testimony of his hearers regarding the Divine Author of Chris- tianity. He published truths such as had never suggested themselves to the minds of men : study could not find them, thought could not discover them. That knowledge which should fully compre- hend the character and necessities of man as a sinful being, and furnish a remedy for his wants and woes, was too high for human philosophy. She could not reach it. But the wisdom of God does. Inspiration tells man what he was, what he is, and what he is destined to become. His original happiness and its cause, his present wretchedness and its cause, the mode by which he can be delivered from this wretch- edness, and the source of his redemption, are all clearly announced. There is no faltering, no doubt, every statement is a fact, every declaration a cer- tainty, every purpose immutable. There is no ex- periment ; for the whole system is the result of infi- nite wisdom, harmoniously acting with infinite mercy and justice. It is revelation, not mere theory ; it is purpose, decree, law. The gospel is law. It enacts salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. " He that believeth shall be saved," certainly, finally, saved. But it is law springing from love. It is not law made for the govern- ment of the creature as such; but for the redemption of the creature from the captivity of sin, and the 24 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. removal' of the penalty attached to transgression, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only be- gotten Son, that whosoever belie veth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is implied that but for this manifestation of Divine love, all would have perished; and justly so, for "all have sinned;" but it is also implied that, notwithstanding this manifestation of Divine love, those who refuse to avail themselves of its provisions shall perish. " He that believeth not shall be damned." Con- demnation is due to all men because of sin. This is the penalty attached to the law of government; but non-compliance with the laic of grace, which com- mands faith and promises life, is a fearful aggra- vation of guilt, consequently, the rejection of Christ, whilst it inevitably extinguishes every ray of hope to the criminal, increases the awful circumstances of his condenmation. " It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judg- ment, than for that city" which rejects the gospel. " This is the condemnation; that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Hence Simeon said of him before whom the wise men fell down, " Be- hold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." His doctrine is the savour of death unto death, or of life unto life. This arises from its perfection. It is " the law of the spirit of life" to the believer. The man whom the Son makes free is "free indeed." He that believeth on him, is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the only begotten Son of God." THE SAGES. 25 And in accordance with the perfection of its cha- racter, the gospel is exclusively the system of re- demption. It admits no rival. It stands absolutely alone among fallen men, as the record of God's mercy through the death of Christ. "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name who- soever believeth in him, shall receive remission of sins." " Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Divine love re- quired a mode of manifestation. Its desire is gra- tified through the incarnation and atonement of the Son of God. There was no need for any other me- dium by which to communicate itself to men. Its breadth, and length, and depth, and height, pass knowledge; but it has ample scope for its glorious outgoings through the mediation of Jesus Christ; for " He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." To save is the grand de- sign of this divine system ; and it embodies the wis- dom of God, from the well-ascertained fact that there is not a single arrangement wanting for the accom- plishment of its purpose. Man is guilty, it pardons him; — condemned, it justifies him; — carnal, it rege- nerates him; — an outcast, it adopts him; — an alien, it reconciles him; — ignorant, it instructs him; — polluted, it sanctifies him : — all these arrangements are made with obvious reference to the state of man as a fallen and, Mere/ore, helpless creature ; and all these bless- ings, the result of Christ's mediation, are conveyed to the soul by the Holy Spirit, whose glorious office the Redeemer thus indicates: "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto 3 26 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. you." We have said, fallen and therefore helpless; for self-restoration from sin appears a settled impos- sibility. The reason is obvious; sin is the breach of law; to the breach of law there is attached penalty; that penalty is not measured by the circumstances of the creature, but by the purity of the law and the claims of the law-giver; in this case the law is infi- nitely holy, and the claims of the law-giver are ab- solute; the endurance of the penalty, therefore, in- volves the destruction of the transgressor. Such being the case, self-restoration is impossible. But the sufferings of Christ were vicarious. He endured the penalty awarded to sin. " He died for us." Hence the glorious doctrine of the gospel, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; and hence the ground on which restoration is effected, salvation offered, the sinner pardoned and saved, and God glorified. It is thus summed up by inspiration: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." A system of mercy so complete and glorious admits no rival. And its success in accomplishing the end proposed has shown, that its original profession of perfect adaptation to that end was fully warranted. Per- fection was its character at first ; and many myriads of redeemed men stand ready to prove its claim to THE SAGES. 27 universal credence. Deeply rooted prejudices give way before it; pagan systems shrink at the flash of its eye ; hoary creeds relax their clammy gripe on the human understanding; superstition trembles in her dark den; many a costly temple of idolatry is laid in ruins; desolation occupies the shrine of the sanguinary idol; the cruel rites of barbarism have fled; the despot's arm has been broken; the war image trembles on its rending pedestal; the strong- holds of Satan have been shattered; and a multitude that no man can number have already exchanged the sorrows of mortality for a dwelling place in the king- dom of God and his Christ. All this has been eff'ected by the instrumentality of that gospel which is " tlie wisdom of God in a mystery." Such a system is worthy of " the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God V Now, what could human philosophy do in this vast region of thought? What could created mind do, were an answer demanded from it to the inquiry, "How can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" The energies of all the minds that ever thought on earth, if unaided by the Spirit of the living God, would have been taxed in vain for a reply. The rescue of man from sin and punishment, consistently with the glory and holiness of God, is a problem high as the third heavens, and the most ethereal efforts of the most gigantic philosophy could never solve it. God himself has solved it. The Bible contains the wonderful solution. Christianity em- bodies it. Let philosophy kneel and own her su- perior. 28 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. But does Christianity prohibit the labour of phi losophy ? Does she frown upon it ? Does she spurn it from her footstool? Does she allow it no place on the platform of thought ? Not so ! Far from it. The reverse is true ; and the advocate of Christianity, who would extinguish the light of philosophy, and cast out her name as evil, dishonours the system of which he is the advocate, and creates an additional barrier, already alas! too numerous, to the diffusion of the purest and most benign system of truth of which the world has ever heard. If there be any influence within the reach of thought that tends to expand mind, to invigorate intellect, and to induce examina- tion into the wonderful works of God, it is the in- fluence which springs from a cordial reception of the gospel as the testimony of God regarding his Son. Faith in Christ makes men thinkers. It rebukes mental indolence. It promotes inquiry. It sanctifies study. It dignifies the student. It ennobles the phi- losopher. And he who knows most of the glorious gospel, other things being equal, will be the best ex- ponent of the essential qualities and regulating laws both of matter and of mind. Moreover, he will have an inducement of a higher class than the sceptic feels, for investigating those qualities and laws. He will find elaborations of the Divine wisdom, power, and benevolence in everything. The grass blade, the flower, the pebble: the dewdrop, the rill, the ocean ; the comet, the planet, the sun; the reptile, the insect, the fowl; matter, life, and reason ; each, all, will open pages of glorious thought regarding him who is won- derful in working. He will " Rise firom Nature, up to Nature's God." THE SAGES. 29 He will echo the sentiment of the Hebrew poet, "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all thcni that have pleasure therein." He will subserve the good of the creature and the glory of the Creator by his patient investigation of the inexhaustible treasures of creation; and he will furnish the crowning evi- dence that he is a true philosopher, by imitating the sages of the east, who, after worshipping Christ, opened their treasures and poured them at his feet. 3* CHAPTER III. THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. TYRANNY FRUSTHATED. It is "a vain thing" to oppose the purposes of the Most High. It is folly and impiety. It is sure to end in disaster, and to cover the wretch who attempts it with ignominy. "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker ! Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth." But the opposition raised by the creature against the Creator, the thing of yesterday against the Ancient of Days, the child of dust against Omnipotence, is, if it were not rebellion in the last degree, moral insanity in the last stage. It is related by Matthew that, " when they," the wise men, " were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying. Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to des- troy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt; and was there until the death of Herod : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, " Out of Egypt have I called my son." Doddridge says : " When the wise men had come so far to pay their homage to a new-born prince, THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. 31 the several reports of what had lately happened would upon this occasion, be revived, and tlie be- haviour of two such celebrated persons as Simeon and Anna, on the presentation of Christ in the temple, which might at first be only taken notice of by a few pious persons, would probably be now re- ported to Herod, and must add to the alarm which the inquiry of the sages gave him." Had we no fuller account of the character of Herod than that given by the inspired writers, they have said enough to convince us that he was a most infamous man, a cruel tyrant. His purpose to destroy Jesus, not- withstanding that the information given him by the priests and scribes, that prophecy had fixed on Beth- lehem as the place of his birth, and the intelligence brought by the wise men of the wonderful events connected therewith, must have convinced him that such a purpose involved opposition to the designs of the Most High, proves that he was utterly destitute of the fear of God ; and the massacre of the Beth- lehem children affords melancholy evidence of the odious cruelty of his nature. Such atrocious con- duct must for ever hold him up to the detestation of every mind possessing a spark of common humanity. But it is not from the inspired pages alone, that we derive our impression of his character. The cele- brated Jewish historian, Josephus, has recorded con- cerning him that he was a man of the greatest bar- barity, and a slave to his passions. He executed his wife Mariamne, for whom he professed the greatest regard, and two sons whom she had borne him ; he caused his son Antipater to be slain in prison ; and when drawing near his dreadful death, the particu- 33 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. lars of wliich are related by Josephus, aware that the people would rejoice to be rid of such a tyrant, "he commanded that all the principal men of the entire Jewish nation, wheresoever they lived, should be called to him. Accordingly, there were a great number that came, because the whole nation was called, and all men heard of this call, and death was the penalty of such as should despise the epistles that were sent to call them. And now the king was in a wild rage against them all, the innocent as well as those that had afforded him ground for accusations; and when they were come, he ordered them all to be shut up in the hippodrome, and sent for his sister Salome, and her husband Alexas," and told them that what chiefly grieved him was, that he should "die without being lamented, and without such mourning as men usually expected at a king's death.'* He desired therefore that, as soon as his death took place, the multitude of Jews that were shut up in the hippodrome should be slaughtered, so that he might have " the honour of a memorable mourning at his funeral." Josephus adds, " Now any one may easily discover the temper of this man's mind, which not only took pleasure in doing what he had done formerly against his relations, out of the love of life, but by those commands of his which savoured of no humanity; since he took care, when he was depart- ing out of this life, that the whole nation should be put into mourning, and indeed made desolate of their dearest kindred, when he gave order that one out of every family should be slain, although they had done nothing that was unjust, or against him, nor were they accused of any other crimes ; while it THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. 33 is usual for tIios3 who have any regard to virtue, to lay aside their hatred at such a time, even with respect to those they justly esteemed their enemies." Such was the man whose mahgnant spirit enter- tained the idea of murdering the infant Messiah. Thus early in life was man's Redeemer exposed to the fury of diabolic agency. But the destruction of Christ was not permitted. He had a work to do, the completion of which should realize the anticipation of the angelic song, by securing glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will to men; and the same infallible spirit of prophecy which had fixed Bethlehem as his birth-place, had announced that he should '■'■ not faiV^ in the accomplishment of his work. A greater than Herod rules over the kingdoms of earth. The decree had gone forth, "I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." Agencies of the most opposite kind are seen actively at work at every stage of Messiah's progress. An infatuated prince, the emissary of hell, seeks to crush in the bud the glorious prospects of a ruined world, and to defeat the declared designs of the everlasting God. The angels of heaven, the mes- sengers of love, had recently enraptured the lowly shepherds, as they " sat simply chatting in a rustic row," with "Such music (as 'lis said) Before was never made, But when of old the sons of morning sung, While the Creator great His constellations set. And the well-balanced world on hinges hung, And cast the dark foundations deep. And bid the weltering waves their oozy channels keep;" 34 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. and now, one of them is despatched from his heavenly throne to the humble couch of Joseph, with this short but comprehensive command, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there tmtil I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young child to de- stroy him." It was enough. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Like Paul, Joseph " was not disobe- dient to the heavenly vision." He is honoured to be the earthly guardian of the child Jesus; but he has an Almighty guardian too, for an eye that never sleeps, and that commands a view of the universe at a glance, is constantly upon him for good. The heart of Herod lies open to the inspection of Jeho- vah; and those angels, who minister to the heirs of salvation, are joyously ready to minister to the Au- thor of salvation. The good man receives, through the instrumentality of one of them, the command to depart, and he obeys. Little preparation is neces- sary. There is no costly arrangement for the pro- cession of the infant Prince, although he is King of kings. There are no heralds sent to announce his arrival in the land of the Pharaohs ; there is no caval- cade; there is no retinue; all is sublimely simple; it is the flight of the Son of God, under the direc- tion of his Father. He flees from the land of his birth, of which he is the rightful King, and which was destined to become, ere long, the scene of his unrivalled teachings, unequalled sufferings, and ama- zing victory by death over sin and death ; and the providence of God, ever watchful, had anticipated the necessities of Joseph and Mary in this flight, and during their sojourn in a foreign land, by the THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. 35 gold which the eastern sages laid at the feet of Christ. Vain, therefore, are the purposes of Herod, or of any combination of earthly princes, to interrupt the career of Messiah. " He shall ascend The throne hereditary, and bound his reign With earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heavens." The history of Christianity, from its manger-cradle to the present moment, is the best commentary any where to be found on the doctrine of divine pro- vidence. That history now covers a period of eighteen centuries and a half It begins with the incarnation of the Son of God. The germ of that mighty system, which has been heard of with more or less distinctness by all the nations of the earth, and which claims for its author the homage of all mankind, must be sought for in the heart of the babe of Bethlehem. There it was, and thence it sprung to cover the nations with its healing leaves, and to save them by its heavenly fruit, the antidote of that which was forbidden, but plucked, in paradise. There it was, a divine gem, in a divine casket, and thence its rays diverged to illumine a world of im- mortal minds, grovelUng under the despotic sway of the prince of darkness. There it was, the well- spring of salvation, and thence its waters gushed to form the river of life which has been rolling on, accumulating force, and increasing in breadth and depth ever since, and will continue so to roll, and so to swell, until it shall have borne the countless multitudes of the redeemed on its glorious breast, to the shores of that kingdom which is eternal in the 36 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. heavens. Many efforts were put forth during the life of Christ on earth, from his childhood to the cross, to crush this germ, to sully this gem, and to stop this fountain. Why were they not successful? God's providence, subserving God's gracious pur- poses towards the human race, furnishes the answer. Elsewhere it is not to be found. " God worketh hitherto ;" and the preservation of Christianity is the proof. Every facility for success, in the efforts to which we have alluded, was possessed by those who made them, that is, every facility on which the world reckons for the accomplishment of its purposes. They were made by the influential, the rulers, the priests, the Sanhedrim. They had wealth, and they had unscrupulous dependents, parasites without con- science, ready to receive the wages of perjury if it was offered: it was offered and accepted; and false witnesses struggled to realize the design on which the hearts of their guilty employers were set, the destruction of Christ, and with him, his doctrine. And if one agent more seemed necessary, they found him among the twelve; one of this little company held out his hand for a bribe : " What will ye give me," said he to the chief priests, "and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." Noio they seemed suc- cessful ; but the moment of seeming triumph was the moment of real defeat. His hour was come; his work was on the eve of its glorious accomplish- ment; otherwise their plans would have been de- feated again; but the success on which they now congratulated themselves, was, in reality, the des- truction of all their designs. Instead of realizing THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. 37 victory, the issue of the secret consultation, the stratagem, and the bribe, was infamy to themselves; they purchased everlasting disgrace. It is the inhe- ritance for which they paid. Alas! it has been to the Jewish nation a sad inheritance, a legacy of weariness, gloom, and death ! Tyranny was frustrated by an invisible hand, during the life of Christ; and when at his death it seemed to triumph, it was only acting a subordinate part in the fulfilment of predictions, the ultimate accomplishment of which in their full extent, will sweep it from the face of the earth. It thought of crushing the truth that tormented its guilty conscience, but itself was a slave chained to the Redeemer's chariot wheels, a few more revolutions of which will grind it to powder. It helped the work it had hoped to hinder; but as God acknowledges only voluntary services, it has been punished for its purposes as though they had been realized to its own satisfaction, and its involuntary services form an item in its dis- grace, and an aggravation of its punishment. Free agency and accountability must be maintained or abandoned together. "The Son of Man goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born." Doddridge's paraphrase throws an apposite light on this passage: "The Son of Man, great and powerful as he will finally appear, is indeed going to sufferings and death, as it is written in the Scriptures, and deter- mined in the divine counsels concerning him; but as those prophecies and counsels have no influence to destroy the free agency of the persons concerned in 4 38 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. his death, so there will be a most terrible woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is so perfidiously betrayed, and who presumes to set a price on his royal and sacred blood: it had been well for that man if he had never been born, for a speedy and most dreadful vengeance awaits him, which will make the immortality of his being his everlasting curse." Prediction does not necessitate human conduct ; but the omniscient God, foreseeing those crimes of which man would become the voluntary perpetrator, was pleased by the agency of his prophets beforehand, to call attention to some of them; and thus their com- mission forms a part of the evidence in favour of scripture inspiration, and those prophecies that have their accomplishment in the experience of Jesus of Nazareth, undoubtedly proclaim his Messiahship. The crimes of men were not fore-ordained, but they were foreseen and fore-described. The freeness of the agent is the essence of the crime. Guilt by com- pulsion is a contradiction. Involuntary transgression is no breach of law, as involuntary obedience is no compliance with it. The first is destitute of the es- sence of crime, the last of the essence of virtue. But in regard to the compelling power, it is guilty, whatever its object. If a man compel another to sin, he who compels is guilty of that sin ; and if a man compel another to perform certain religious acts, he who compels is guilty of hypocrisy. The end never sanctifies the means. The subject of compulsion, no matter whether the power that forces him seek to serve God or the devil, loses his accountability in the service which he is forced to perform, simply because he is forced. He is used only as a piece of THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. 39 macliinery, as a non-intelligent creature. His free agency is suspended for the time being. If he has done evil, he has not sinned ; it was against his will. If he has done good, he has not served God ; it was against his will. But the power that compel- led him is guilty and accountable in either case. In the first case, it is guilty of the two-fold crime of des- troying, for the time, the free agency of a human being, and committing sin. In the second case, it is guilty of the two-fold crime of destroying, for the time, the free agency of a human being and mocking God. On this principle then, namely, the free agency of the actors, such passages as that quoted above are to be interpreted. " Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain," said Peter to the Jews on the day of Pente- cost. In like manner, Stephen thus fearlessly ad- dressed them: — "Ye stifi'-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the pro- phets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers ; who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." In so far, then, as the personal history of Christ is concerned, the wisdom and mercy of God to our world are manifest ; and the preservation of the man Christ Jesus, amidst all the snares which were laid for his destruction, until he had finished the work which had been given him to do, is a remarkable proof of an ever-working and overruling Providence. 40 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. But what the enemies of Christianity could not effect during the sojourn of its Founder on earth, they attempted to reahze after his ascension to hea- ven. Scarcely had he taken possession of the throne of his glory, when with increased energy they adopted measures for the utter extinction of the truth he had proclaimed, by seeking the destruction of the witnesses in whose hands he had deposited it. The spirit of Herod still stalked abroad. The rod of the oppressor was not yet broken. Evil was still in the ascendant. Craft was yet the associate of power, hatred of holiness the companion of secular influence. The prodigies of the crucifixion, and the concomi- tants of the resurrection, had stunned despotism, and paralyzed its arm for a time. But its nature was un- changed, its spirit unbroken ; its pride forbade it to acknowledge its mistake, and the work it had begun in blood, it resolved to go through with in blood. Calm calculation as to possible consequences would have been tantamount to a confession of its folly. The possibility that it Avas fighting against God, seems to have occasionally disturbed its dreams; but to have harboured the suggestion would have been a proclamation of its own guilt. Pride and cruelty are twins: they co-operate, and mutually encourage each other. Tyranny fears only defeat, or the non-suc- cess of its projects, because that would cover it with shame; and to avoid this, it pursues the course on which it has entered with increased virulence and the result is to hasten the end which it deprecates. It fills up the measure of its iniquity, and it falls into the pit which it had digged for others. It prepares the cup and mixes the ingredients, and an hi visible THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. 41 hand compels it to drink. It sows the wind, and it is obliged to reap the whirlwind. It sheds the blood of saints, and God gives it blood to drink. Crime is begotten of fatuity: it contains the elements of self- destruction in its own bosom. The connexion be- tween sin and suffering is inevitable. Such is the settled constitution of the moral world. God has so ordained it. Here then, is the conservative principle of good in this bad world. The institution of this principle is proof at once of the Divine goodness and prescience, and the working out of this principle, in the experience of individuals and nations, is proof that God reigneth over the affairs of time. " They that take the sword, shall perish with the sword.'* This is one of the laws of righteous government. Who shall impugn it? It were wisdom to attend to it, and the aggressor would cease, hostility and ty- ranny would perish from the earth, and the reign of peace would be universal. There is a day of final judgment, when all the mysteries of time will be cleared, all doubts solved, devotion to the Redeemer openly acknowledged, and opposition to his sceptre righteously punished; but were men wise they would see that there is a judgment process going on now; the history of nations declares it; "Now is the judg- ment of this world;" the history of Christianity proves that God has always espoused her cause. The gates of hell have not prevailed against her. No weapon formed against her has prospered. God has contended with them that contended with her. The resolution was announced: — "Even the captives of the mighty shall be laken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with 4» 42 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. liim that contendeth witfi thee, and I will save thy children; and I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with new wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviom* and thy Re- deemer, the mighty One of Jacob. The history of the early church amply illustrates all these facts. She was preserved amidst fire, and water, and blood, for God was with her. Almost incredible were the persecutions which she endured. But she lived, and flourished, and spread with as- tonishing rapidity. " When we consider," says Mosheim, "the rapid progress of Christianity among the Gentile nations, and the poor and feeble instru- ments by which this great and amazing event was immediately effected, we must naturally have re- course to an omnipotent and invisible hand, as its true and proper cause. For unless we suppose here a divine interposition, how was it possible that men, destitute of all human aid, without credit or riches, learning or eloquence, could, in so short a time, per- suade a considerable part of mankind to abandon the religion of their ancestors? How was it possible that a handful of apostles, who, as fishermen and publicans, must have been contemned by their own nation, and as Jews, must have been odious to all others, could engage the learned and the mighty, as well as the simple and those of low degree, to for- sake their favourite prejudices, and to embrace a new religion which was an enemy to their corrupt pas- sions? And indeed, there were undoubted marks of a celestial power perpetually attending their ministry. There was, in their very language, an incredible THE MIPNIGHT FLIGHT. 43 energy, an amazing power of sending light into the understanding, and conviction into the heart. To this were added the commanding influence of stu- pendous miracles, the foretelling of future events, the power of discerning the secret thoughts and in- tentions of the heart, a magnanimity superior to all difliculties, a contempt of riches and honours, a se- rene tranquillity in the face of death, and an invin- cible patience under torments still more dreadful than death itself; and all this accompanied with lives free from all stain, and adorned with the constant prac- tice of sublime virtue. Thus were the messengers of the Divine Saviour, the heralds of his spiritual and immortal kingdom, furnished for their glorious work, as the unanimous voice of ancient history so loudly testifies. The event sufficiently declares this, for without these remarkable and extraordinary cir- cumstances, no rational account can be given of the rapid propagation of the gospel throughout the world." Jerusalem was destroyed. Palestine was laid waste. The blood of Christ, invoked by their fathers, fell upon the heads of the Jews. The nation became a bye-word and a hissing. Time rolled on; the spirit of persecution laboured in vain: it wearied itself with very vanity ; tyranny was frustrated on every hand ; but the enemy of God and of souls had one arrow left in his quiver; he drew it and threw it with calamitous success ; for a time it made fearful havoc. His device was this: to destroy the spiritu- ality of Christianity. Its spirituality was its power, its beauty, its life. Destroy this, and the foe will ob- tain victory. Let the church be secularized; and the 44 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. end, vainly sought by persecution, will be attained. Blood could not render it powerless, bribery will. Constantine the Great, whose regard for Christianity, notwithstanding all that his apologists have urged to the contrary, appears to have been measured by the probability that it would subserve his political designs, took the first step in this calamitous policy. About the year 312, he granted it full toleration. Would that he had stopped there ! But this was followed, in rapid succession, by grants, bribes, en- dowments, secular power, and spiritual death! It is a tale of lamentation, mourning, and woe, for more than a thousand years. The church was established, and the monster tyrant, half church, half state, grew a bloated blasphemer. The judgment of the great day will unfold its history. The entrance of sin into our world excepted, the subjugation of Christianity to secular control was the greatest curse that ever blighted humanity. But did the foe triumph completely? Did the religion of Jesus perish? No! "The woman fled into the wilderness." There were some Abdiels found, faithful to their God, their Redeemer, and their consciences. They dissented from the dreadful system. They would not conform to its abomina- tions. The recesses of the Alps received them, the valleys of Piedmont witnessed their faith and order ; amidst incredible persecution from the hand of Anti- Christ they survived; and God has never left him- self without witness. And whilst, on the one hand, the nations of Europe have imitated the fatal pre- cedent set them by the Roman Emperor, by or- ganizing and establishing, each for itself, a national THE MIDNIGHT FLIGHT. 45 church; on the other hand, there have been found in those nations, men whose loyahy to the Redeemer's sceptre, and Avhose knowledge of the spiritnaUty of his kingdom, have led them to dissent from these secular institutions, and to maintain in simplicity "the faith once delivered to the saints." But for the existence and practical activity of this principle of dissent, the nations of Europe would present at this hour to the eye of the spectator, so far as religion is concerned, one unruffled dead sea of formalism, one vast mass of spiritual death. God, whose Divine Providence has watched over the career of Christianity, always employs the most appropriate means for de- feating his enemies, and eifecting his purposes ; and while he commissions an angel to Joseph, for the purpose of preserving the child Jesus from the hands of Herod, and causes his ciiurch to flourish in the midst of Jewish and Pagan persecution, he can also frustrate the purpose of the enemy who would secu- larize the spiritual kingdom of Messiah, by calling on his witnesses during the dark ages to separate themselves from the doomed system, by repeating the call at the era of the Reformation, and by con- tinuing to add the testimony of his approbation to the labours of those whose church polity is built upon a recognition of the spirituality of the whole Christian system. CHAPTER IV. THK TEMPLE. THE POWER OF SINLESS INTELLECT. "Never man spake like this man." Never child reasoned like this child. Wisdom, sought in vain in the pages of philosophy, flowed from his lips. His thoughts excited admiration ; his words thrilled the heart ; his early understanding astonished his hearers. "In him," says the Apostle, "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Herod was dead, and the Angel of the Lord, ac- cording to promise, informed Joseph of the event, and commanded him to return from Egypt into the land of Israel. He obeyed, but hearing that the cruel Archelaus — who, at the very beginning of his reign massacred three thousand Jews in the temple, at the feast of the Passover — reigned over Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither. Again, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and instructed him to withdraw into the region of Galilee. Here he took up his residence in Nazareth, a place so very contemptible among the Jews, that it was grown into a proverb : hence, the question of Nathanael, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Here then Jesus resided, and. THE TEMPLE. 47 from this circumstance, he and his disciples were afterwards contemptuously called Nazarenes. From this place, Mary and Joseph went yearly to Jerusa- lem, to the feast of the Passover. And when Christ was twelve years old, at which age, according to Jew- ish maxims, children came under the yoke of the law, they took him up with them to join in the celebration of the feast. "And when they had fulfilled the days," says Luke, " as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to be in the company, went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hear- ing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." One of the modes of instruction pursued by Jewish teachers, was to propose questions to their pupils, and elicit answers from them. They also encouraged them to ask information on any subject of difficulty that presented itself to their minds. This was a judicious and profitable custom. Among its other advantages, it is obvious that it would tend to fix the attention of the young, and to incite to mental activity. " Sitting in the midst of the doctors," is to be under- stood as merely meaning that Jesus had placed him- self among others at their feet, "as they sat on benches of a semicircular form, raised above their auditors and disciples." There are allusions to this 4S THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. practice in the Bible, as, for example, " They came to him, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind ;" and, in the case of Mary, who " sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word," and in that of Paul, who said, " I was brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers." In- deed, the practice in question seems to have been very ancient, for in "the blessing wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death," there is this expression, " Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words." The position which Jesus occupied, then, was not that of a teacher, but that of a learner. He listened with the most earnest attention to the ex- position of the law, and proposed questions which from their profundity, and also, perhaps, from the manner in which they were asked, excited the sur- prise and admiration of the Jewish doctors. It is obvious, at all events, from the history, that the depth of his understanding, evinced by the answers he returned to their questions, astonished them. We imagine them exchanging with each other looks of surprise. Here is no common child. Who is he? Who are his parents? Whence his astonishing proficiency? It has not been gathered at our feet, for this is his first visit to the temple. Neither is it supposing too much to suggest, that there was some- thing in the eye and countenance of Jesus that ar- rested attention, and made an impression, not soon forgotten, on the minds of all who saw him. Perhaps THE TEMPLE. 49 also, the return of Joseph and Mary, people in the lower walks of life, and inhabitants of such a des- pised place as Nazareth, to claim the wonderful child as their son, would add to the astonishment already felt and expressed by these learned rabbis. Whether they inquired how he became the possessor of such wisdom, and obtained any information re- specting the miraculous circumstances attending his birth, we are not informed. The probability is, that they did not ; or, if they did, the prudence of Mary would dictate to her the propriety of saying little; and of continuing to "ponder these things in her heart." The supposition of Dr. Guyse, that " some- thing of his divinity displayed itself on this occasion in such a surprising manner that he outshone all the rabbis themselves in the sagacity and prudence of his questions and replies," is, perhaps, correct; yet without having recourse to this theory at present, a theory without which it is impossible to account for many of the words and works of Jesus in after life — a theory without which, indeed, no rational meaning can be attached to the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, as, without allowing the full Deity of the Son of God, not only is violence done to every cor- rect principle of interpretation, but the mysteries of revelation are increased a thousand fold — we say, without availing ourselves of the supposition that the questions and answers of Jesus were at this time dictated by "the Divinity within," we shall recall a few facts which may account for his early acquire- ments, and suggest a few considerations calculated to excite the most glowing anticipations regarding the intellectual prospects of those who hope for salvation 5 50 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. through the atonement of the Mediator of the new covenant. It will be recollected, then, that a body was pre- pared for the Son of God; that to us a child was given ; that this child increased in wisdom and statiure ; that there was a gradual development of his intel- lectual and physical powers; that he possessed real manhood, a human body and soul ; that he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham; that forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and that in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things per- taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. It will be recollected, also, that from the announcement of the angel Gabriel, the song of Elisabeth, the declaration of the shepherds, the testi- mony of Simeon and Anna, the conduct of the sages, and concurrent and subsequent events, Mary could not but know that she was honoured to be the mother of the promised Saviour. Indeed, she knew it well. She "marvelled at those things which were spoken of the child Jesus. She pondered them in her heart," that is to say, she examined them gratefully and attentively, and understood their meaning; and if further evidence were necessary, her rapturous song of praise, when visiting her kinswoman Elisabeth, as recorded by the Evangelist Luke, abundantly fur- nishes it. Here there are two facts: first, that he who arose to reign over the house of Jacob, partook THE TEMPLE. 51- of all the sinless characteristics of our common hu- manity; and secondly", that Mary, his mother, knew that her son was the appointed Ruler in Israel. With what unspeakable tenderness, and gratitude, and wonder, then, would such a highly honoured mother ■watch over the infancy and childhood of such a son ! A wonderful destiny awaited him? His very name was announced by the Angel, and the reason for such a name intimated. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Could Mary ever forget this? Nay, rather would she not feel the unspeak- able responsibility of her charge? Would she not be filled with awe as she gazed upon the heavenly coun- tenance of the babe, of whom by the creative power of God, she had become the mother? Would she not watch with thrilling emotion the evidences that his mind was rapidly expanding? Would she not cry fervently to God for direction in her efforts to meet the inquiries of that expanding mind on the great doctrines of the law and the prophets? If the following command regarding the words of the law of the Lord, namely, "Thou shalt teach them dili- gently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up," was obeyed by every pious Jewish parent, would the "prudent" and devout Joseph, and the pious Mary, neglect it in the case of 52 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. the child Jesus? Would not every aid in providing information for him, which their poverty permitted them to enjoy, be eagerly seized, and highly valued? Would not the synagogue at Nazareth be a sacred spot, habitually attended? Would not Jesus prize its services? Luke tells us it " was his custom to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath day." He was soon to go about his " Father's business," and his mind eagerly sought acquaintance with those things which his Father had said " at sundry times and in divers manners by the prophets." But in addition to the care and solicitude of Mary to minister to the intellectual gratification of that child, whose wisdom, at the tender age of twelve, astonished the Jewish doctors, there is one fact more to be recollected. It is still more important than those already mentioned. It is a fact without parallel in the history of the human mind, since the entrance of sin into our world. Jesus Christ possessed a sinless intellect. His under- standing was not obscured by depravity. There floated no moral haze around his mind. The rays of light had not to struggle through thick fogs. There arose no mist from within. There was no dislike to the truth; no loving of darkness rather than the light, for he had no evil deeds, and no natural propensity thereto; the heart loved, and the understanding cov- eted light; there was no need of persuasion to the right, for the whole bent of the mind was truth ward; no necessity for entreaty, for an increase of holy knowledge was his joy. He grew in wisdom; it was his natural selection; it accorded with his moral tastes; he deemed "the merchandise of it better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain therefore more T.HE TEMPLE. 53 than fine gold." He increased in wisdom, for it was the aliment of his sinless soul. It was his meat and his drink. There was a gradual development of his intellectual powers: there was the dawn, the morn- ing, and the advancing day; but it was a day with- out clouds, the horizon was clear, the light was welcomed, loved, treasured. His imagination was not defiled, his memory was not weakened, his will was not perverted, his perception was not obscured by hereditary taint; for he was absolutely without sin. His holiness was not comparative, like that of his people, but positive ; not acquired like theirs, but inherent and original. For proof of this, we re- fer to prophets, evangelists, and apostles; for the necessity of this we refer to his office as mediator ; for the advantage which this gave him in the acqui- sition of Divine knowledge, we refer to the astonish- ment of the Jewish doctors regarding him, when he was not more than twelve years of age. It is superfluous to dwell on the facility for ac- quiring knowledge which the absence of moral im- perfection must give. Indeed, the existence of moral imperfection in our own minds prevents an adequate conception of it. We can only reason imperfectly about a matter regarding which we have no personal experience. We cannot realize the strength of that mental power which is not clogged and fettered by moral infirmity, because we have not known it our- selves. Sinless intellect is not yet the portion of any of the dwellers on earth. Our best aid here, there- fore, is to reason by contrast. We know full well, by painful experience, how slow is the process by which we arrive at any great religious truth. Here 5* 54 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. a little and there a little, as we are able to bear it — this is the mode by which we are instructed in the things of the kingdom. And the same painful expe- rience teaches us that we must regularly struggle against the counteracting influence of inward evil, not to mention external temptations, which, from their aflinity to inward foes, frequently succeed in hurling us headlong from the mount of contempla- tion. We would think, but we are checked. We would soar, but we are clogged. We would medi- tate, but we are encumbered. We would run, but there is a " weight." We would gaze into the myste- ries of the kingdom, but we see only through a glass darkly. " When we would do good, evil is present with lis." Ours is a wrestling, a fighting. There is the old against the new man, the spirit against the flesh, in constant combat, and the heart of the believer is the scene of this war. And if this be true of the man who has passed from death unto life, who has felt the powers of the world to come, and who has experienced the hberty wherewith Christ makes his people free, how must the entirely unsanctified heart oppose itself to all holy thought? Writing to the Ephesians, the Apostle speaks thus of the Gentiles: — "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Avho being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedi- ness." While the heart remains in this state, the THE TEMPLE. 55 knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ will not be sought after. Success in any pursuit requires the exercise of the will, and the love of the object pursued. Hence God makes his people willing. The tendency of the affections, perverted by sin, is changed by grace. They flow in a new channel. They attach themselves to new objects. These objects are in harmony with the Holy power that regenerates. Old things pass away, all things become new. Growth in grace ensues. The affections are set on things above, and there is increase in the knowledge of God. It is necessary that the sanctification of the heart and the expansion of the understanding should develope them- selves harmoniously. Intelligence and purity should mutually assist each other. The prayer of Christ con- veys this idea: "Sanctify them through thy truth." The more the knowledge of God is acquired, the more it will be loved; and the more it is loved, the stronger will be the desire to acquire it. The Gen- tiles "did not like to retain God in their knowledge," and the consequence w^s, that they not only wallowed in impm-ity, but groped amidst darkness, became irrational, void of judgment, "without imderstanding, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." But when the love of holiness takes place, divine light rushes in. " And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." What a change had been effected, when Paul could address the previously impure, ignorant, and degraded Corinthians thus: — "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image 56 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Assimilation to the character of Jesus Christ is the fflorions destiny of the redeemed. To this consum- mation all the divine arrangements regarding them tend. The system of recovery contemplates nothing short of this ; and it will not have etfected its ma- jestic design mitil this end shall be fully realized. And this end will be realized. "Now are we sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." " Glory shall be revealed in us." We shall be "conformed to the image of the Son." He is the only instance of sinless humanity dwelling on earth since the fall, and he is the pattern after which his people are to be fashioned. The process of transformation is now going on in all the regenerate; and it is their pri- vilege to be assured that they shall "all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect maii^ unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." " And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." " When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also ap- pear with him in glory." Nor are these briglit anticipations confined to our moral and intellectual being, for when our Lord Jesus Christ shall appear "He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself" Such, then, is the prospect which God has opened THE TEMPLE. 57 up for the followers of his Son; and is it not well fitted to suggest the most animating thoughts ? The present obscurity of our mental vision will be removed, for we shall outgrow our moral imperfec- tion, which is our grand impediment in attempting to run in the ways of the Lord, and which forms the chief hinderance when we would search into the mysteries of his truth. With what joy shall we read the revelations of the future world, and gaze on those discoveries, ever fresh and wonderful, which will unfold themselves in the world to come ! Studies of which we have now no conception will attract us. The breadth of Immanuel's land will be spread before us, in all the beauty of its unclouded scenery, and the angels that kept their first estate, together with the innumerable company redeemed from all nations, will form our companions and fellow students. The history of matter and of mind, of creation and providence, of moral government and redemption, will engage our thoughts, and form the themes of our conversation. Our sinless intellects will grasp the mighty, and acquire new strength by every successive flood of light that radiates from the great white throne. Partakers of the divine nature, we shall comprehend, as far as the finite can com- prehend manifestations of the infinite, those dark things of God which in our present state of being we are obliged to call " mysteries." What we know not now, in this the infancy of our being, we shall know hereafter, when mortality is swallowed up of life. The principles on which the all-wise God pro- ceeds in the government of this world are so far beyond our mental grasp at present, that " the 58 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. darkness of the ways of providence" has become a form of speech with us, indicating a vast reaUty. " We cannot by searching find out God." Tlie lan- guage of Job is adopted by multitudes daily : " Be- hold, I go forward, but he is not there ; and back- ward, but I cannot perceive him : on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him," His way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters, and his footsteps are not known. " God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm." Nevertheless, we are assured that infinite Wisdom presides over all things. Faith comes to our aid, where sense fails, and human judgment is baffled. " Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill, He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will." And it will be part of our employment in our future state of being to examine those footsteps of providence, to retrace all the way that the Lord shall have led us, and to appropriate, as part of the ali- ment of our purified understanding, every new de- velopment of his infinite wisdom and Fatherly care. And in as far as the thoughts of intelligent manhood surpass those of childhood, and the reasonings of the philosopher those of the illiterate peasant, will our intellect, when delivered from the encumbrances and obstacles incident to our present state and cha- THE TEMPLE. 59 racter, excel the highest thoughts and purest reason- mg of which we are now capable. Now we have frequently to unlearn that which we have acquired, to pull down that which we have built up with care ; but then there will be no retrograde movement, inasmuch as there will be no false lights exhibited by any tempter, to allure us from the royal highway, and no heart-sympathy with the doubtful or uncer- tain ; but constant progress in that path which leads to increasing honour and glory, and constant accu- mulation of such knowledge as shall fit for the high services of the great God. There will be no dark influence to eclipse the full blaze of heaven's meri- dian smi, for there will be no false apostles to in- sinuate heresy into the mind, and no false Christs to erect the standard of rebellion against the righteous authority of the Mediator of the new covenant who has bought us with his blood. There will be no mental anxieties in the case of those " who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world," for " He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them; they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat: for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." And there will be no ex- ternal cause of disquietude or fear, for "no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk there ; and the ransomed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and glad- 60 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. ness, and sorrow and sighing • shall flee away." Amidst such glorious circumstances, how rapidly will the understanding expand! The years of eternity will add to its holy wealth. Sinless intel- lect will grow rich in the presence, and by the teach- ing, of " Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," CHAPTER V. THE JORDAN. THE IIEAVENLV ATTESTATION. Jordan is among the most celebrated of rivers, not on account of any extraordinary length or breadth, for from its uppermost spring in Mount Lebanon, till it loses itself in the Dead Sea, its whole course is only about 160 miles, and, with the exception of those lakes which it forms at intervals in its progress, its inner banks are seldom more than thirty yards apart; neither does it derive its fame from hostile fleets meeting on its bosom, and crimsoning its waters with human blood ; nor from being the scene of conmiercial activity and mercantile enterprise. Its celebrity rests on a more durable foundation than any of these circumstances could lay; for its name is associated with events of the most thi'illing interest in the religious history of man, and in the records of Divine Providence. The warrior and the merchant, as such — names which, though thus incidentally con- nected, are essentially opposed, for the spirit of com- merce is necessarily friendly to international peace — will find little to interest them in the name of Jordan. It will not recall any "splendid victory" or "terrible defeat," at least, in the modern sense of these terms, to the memory of the former; nor will it prove to 6 62 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. the latter a remembrancer of successful speculation. But to the student of the Bible it is a name in- separably united to sacred reminiscences. Here God manifested himself for his ancient people, after their long sojourn in the wilderness, and gave proof that he had appointed Joshua to bring them in triumph to the land of promise. "And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the cove- nant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan." The command was accordingly given, and the result is recorded in the following words: "And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people ; and as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water — for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest — that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan : And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan." They were also instructed to take twelve stones out of the bed of the river, and to leave them THK JORDAN. 63 iii the place where they should lodge that night, as a memorial to their descendants of this gracious miracle. The waters of Jordan were divided for Elijah and Elisha, before the translation of the former. They had gone but a short distance from the river's bank, in solemn conversation, when they were separated by " a chariot of fire and horses of fire ; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." The great restorer of the law had accomplished his work — the number of his days on earth was completed — and the God of Israel honoured the fidelity of his servant by a tri- umphant and extraordinary ascension to the land of rest. It was in the waters of Jordan that the leprous captain of the host of Syria dipped himself seven times, at the command of Elisha, " and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." In the poetry of all nations, rivers have held a conspicuous place. They have been sung of as sug- gestive of fruitfuhiess, and beauty, and power, and the flight of time. In the impassioned strains of the northern bards, in the gentle songs of the south, and in the gorgeous poetry of the east, rivers have been celebrated; and in the magnificent poetry of the Hebrews, and in inspired song, Jordan has been im- mortalized. In one of his plaintive poems, written when "his soul was cast down within him," — and some of the most ethereal poetry in our own and other lands, has gushed from torn hearts, as some flowers when crushed emit the most pleasant odour — the sweet singer of Israel was suddenly encouraged to renew confidence in God, by the remembrance of mercies associated with the Jordan. And in one 64 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. of the hymns which used to be sung at the Passover, and at the feast of tabernacles, commemorative, the former, of the dehverance from Egypt, and the latter of the wilderness journey, the following abrupt and striking references to this famous river are found. "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language ; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it and fled. Jordan was driven back. What ailed thee, 0, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?" The image of a river rapidly overflowing its banks, and bearing all before it, is a fine poetical representation of warlike ravages. In the writings of Jeremiah, these solemn questions occiu-: "If thou hadst run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses ? And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, tiiey wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jor- dan ?" There are many other allusions to this river in the prophetic writings, and here, it is well known, the dauntless foreunner of the Son of God spent much of his time, and preached the baptism of re- pentance to thronging multitudes of Jews. Here, too, Christ was baptized, the Spirit of God descended upon him, and a voice from heaven said, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Jesus was now about thirty years of age. For eighteen years, that is, from his appearance in the temple, already referred to, until his baptism by John, there is no record concerning him. We are simply told, that after the visit to the temple, when he was twelve years of age, he went down to Na- THE JORDAN. 65 zareth with Joseph and his mother, and was subject unto them. His pure mind was not excited by the praises bestowed on him in the temple, but in love and obedience he passed the period of his youth. Still the mind which is attached to Jesus will pro- pose the question — How were those eighteen years employed ? Were there any indications, in the do- mestic circle at Nazareth, of that extraordinary cha- racter, whose fame subsequently spread over Judea and the whole east, filling all minds with wonder? Were there any evidences of that wisdom and elo- quence which afterwards bound the multitude in breathless attention, and induced the exclamation, "Never man spake like this man?" Were there any ministering angels sent to converse with him, on the plains of Galilee, during the stillness of even- ing? That in the days of his innocence the first Adam was visited by angelic beings we do not doubt; and the success of the tempter, if he came as an angel of light, which we think probable, may be partly accounted for, on the supposition that angelic visits were no uncommon occurrences in the expe- rience of the first human pair, prior to their awful fall. Was Jesus, the second Adam, thus visited ? And did Satan, aware of it, appear to him also as an angel of hght during the temptation in the wilder- ness, after his baptism ? Affirmation on these topics would be rash; they are merely suggested as the result of an impression that such may have been the case. To return, therefore to those intervening years ; whether God spake to his Son by angel, by dream, by vision, or by an audible voice, or whether there were no such manifestation, the manner in 6* 66 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. which his mind would be employed, and the sub- jects that would chiefly occupy his thoughts, it is not impossible, it is not difficult, to conceive. He had before him the law of God. Its spirituality, com- prehensiveness, accordance with the Divine charac- ter, and suitability to the human mind, would unfold themselves to his sinless intellect. He had before him the Levitical code, with all its mysterious enact- ments, types, shadows, and sacrifices. The mystery would vanish before him, the type would give place to the antitype, the shadow to the substance, and the great moral truths involved in the institution of sacrifice, would arrange themselves harmoniously before his pure mind. He had before him the prophetic rolls. Their wondrous announcements re- garding the character, teaching, experience, work, death, and destiny of the Messiah, would shine in eff*ulgent light around his holy soul. He had before him the history of the most celebrated nation under heaven. He saw it full of evidence of human folly, and of Divine mercy. To that history, the most marvellous chapter had yet to be added in "the things concerning himself." On him, from a thou- sand points, prophetic thoughts converged. Eternal decrees regarded him. The eyes of God were on him. The angels who ministered at his birth had not forgotten him. And he kneiv all this ! What subjects for the thoughts of such a thinker! He had before him the character of the Jews. And how sad the picture! Instead of spiritual religion, form. Instead of the law of God, tradition. Instead of devotion, ceremonies. Instead of justice, selfish- ness. Instead of mercy, cruelty. Instead of sin- THE JORDAN. 67 cerity, hypocrisy. Instead of purity, vice. Priests and people were sunk to the lowest depths. The temple was a house of merchandise. The law was a dead letter. The deterioration was complete. There wanted only one drop to make the cup of national iniquity full. God had sent to them, " last of all," his Son. " This is the heir," said they, "come let us kill him!" They did so; and the wrath of God fell on them, and scattered them over the surface of the globe, where they have wandered for eighteen centuries without assimilating with the nations, universally known, all but universally shmi- ned, and alas ! seldom pitied. The cloud still hangs over them, the mark is still on their foreheads ! Jesus saw the picture, and knew the dreary prospects of the infatuated nation. He kneiv that he was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. That "his soul wept in secret places for them," long before those memorable tears fell at the sight of Jerusalem, and long before the God of heaven at- tested his Messiahship on the banks of Jordan, we cannot doubt. That such were some of the mental pursuits of Messiah before he came forth to the gaze of the Jewish nation, from which his fame was to radiate to every district of the wide earth, cannot be doubted. The sun of righteousness arose in the east, the favoiured land, "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel." In the full strength of manhood, with his intellectual powers developed, his holy heart beating ardently for the welfare of mankind, and zeal for his Father's glory " eating him up," he appeared among men. But first a 68 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. public recogjiition of his claims on the hearts and understandings of men was deemed necessary. To the • objection of the surprised Baptist, " I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ?" Jesus replied, " Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Some have supposed that this relates to the law which com- manded the washing of the priests before inaugura- tion, and that Jesus fulfilled this law as the great High Priest. " By this," says Doddridge, " He intended to do an honour to John's ministry, and to conform himself to what he appointed to his follow- ers : for which last reason it was, that he drank like- wise of the sacramental cup. And this we may con- sider as a plain argument, that baptism may be ad- ministered to those who are not capable of all the purposes for which it was designed." With the first part of this note there will be general agreement; the last part appears to us too precarious a foundation on which to build any theory. The note of Albert Barnes is very satisfactory : — " There was no par- ticular precept in the Old Testament requiring this, but he chose to give the sanction of his example to the baptism of John, as to a divine ordinance. The phrase 'all righteousness,' here, is the same as a righteous institution or appointment. Jesus had no sin. But he was about to enter on his great work. It was proper that he should be set apart by his forerunner, and show his connexion with him, and give his approbation to what John had done. Also, he was baptized that occasion might be taken, at the commencement of his work, for God publicly to declare his approbation of him, and his solemn ap- THE JORDAN. 69 pointment to the office of the Messiah." This, we think, is the true interpretation of Christ's baptism. It was an acknowledgment of his harbinger. It gave the opportunity for a recognition of himself as the Messiah. The Spirit of God descended and remained upon him. God himself, by an audible voice from heaven, attested his Sonship and character. The Baptist had the evidence that He of whom he spake had burst from obscurity, and now he could say to his disciples, "Behold the Lamb of God!" These oc- currences gave a new and glorious feature to the moral revolution which was taking place in society. The herald must no longer occupy the chief position. The Master had come. His appearance was the signal for a higher range of thought. The baptism of repentance must give place to the baptism of the Spirit. " He must increase," said John, " but I must decrease." " He that cometh from heaven is above all." The system of redemption was develop- ing. The forerunner had said, as " the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. I am not the Christ. I am sent before him. I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe." He had said unto the cities of Judah, "Be- hold your God !" Circumstances had spoken ; the signs of the times had spoken; the forerunner of Jesus had spoken; and now from the heavenly world the voice of the eternal God speaks : — " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Jesus of Nazareth is thus openly declared to be the Saviour of whom "Moses, in the law, and the prophets did write." The heavenly attestation completes the chain 70 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. of evidence thus far. There are other Hnks to be added to it, but already everything concurs to arrest thought and fix it on Jesus. The voice of heaven aids no irnposter. " This is the Son of God!" With what reverence should the mind of the be- liever fix on these events! With what gratitude should he view them, and with what elevating senti- ments are they fitted to inspire him ! Reverence — for here meet in one glorious point, providence and grace, deity and humanity, earth and heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit! Gratitude — for all things concur in establishing his faith on that solid foundation which is laid in the Scriptures, and in warming his spirit towards the God of salvation, who has left no evidence to be desired further, for the reality of those truths which he values above life. And with what elevating sentiments are these facts fitted to inspire him; for they all speak of that region of holy thought which the mind of God oc- cupied from eternity, regarding the Messiah and his work, Christ and his church, salvation and its re- sults. The more these verities are studied, the more they purify the mind of the student. This is among the concurrent proofs that Christianity is from the holy God, that the more Christ is known, the more Christ-like the mind that knows him becomes. Evi- dence grows with communion. Assimilation follows devotion. Love advances with spiritual knowledge. The intellect expands as the heart warms. The sub- ject of study is high and pure. The result of study is purity and elevation. The heart and the head grow together, until the soul, ripe for glory, by the THE JORDAN. 71 work of the Holy Spirit, shakes off " this tabernacle," and flies to heaven to be present with its Lord ! And how must this heavenly attestation have ani- mated the mhid of Jesus? He had fulfilled all right- eousness. He had received a double baptism. The water and the Spirit had been shed upon him. And now his Father's approval greets his ear. The Spirit is to lead him to the wilderness, but his soul is resolved on triumph; the voice of God encourages him; "his work is before him;" he shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law. At this period his mind would be intensely occupied. The past would be recalled, the present surveyed, and the future summoned to his presence. He ha.d pub- licly dedicated himself to the greatest of all works — the bringing in of the new economy — the abrogation of the ceremonial law — the establishment of the Christian dispensation — the diff'usion of spiritual truth — the revelation of things kept secret since the foun- dation of the world — the offering of an all-perfect sacrifice — the ratification of the covenant of peace — the destruction of the power of Satan — the abolition of death, and the opening of the new Jerusalem to every believing inhabitant of this earth. Heaven and earth had witnessed that dedication. The " Man sent from God" had applied its symbol, the Spirit of God had applied the seal, and God himself audibly declared his approval of this dedication. There can be nothing more delightful to the mind of a holy being than the approbation of God. This is well described by Milton in the case of Abdiel, to whom — 72 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. "A voice From 'midst a golden cloud then mild was heard : Servant of God, well done! well hast thou fought The better fight, who singly hast maintained Against revolted multitudes the cause Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms; And for the testimony of truth hast borne Universal reproach — far worse to bear Than violence; for this was all thy care, To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds Judged thee perverse." And how would the holy soul of the Redeemer rejoice, that his voluntary dedication of himself to the service of God, in a world where reproach, suf- ferings, and death awaited him, was thus publicly and miraculously accepted! He had the approval of his Father. He was baptized with the Spirit "above measure." Temptation was at hand; but he went forth, " travelling in the greatness of his strength," the anointed One " mighty to save." With what consummate wisdom all things con- nected with the great salvation are arranged ! Every step in the progress of Messiah is associated with circumstances tending to develope the infinite love of God to our fallen race. Evidence, the most com- plete and convincing, rushes in from every part of the historical narrative, that Jesus is the messenger of the covenant. And that evidence harmonizes in character with the truths to which it relates. Are those truths of the highest intellectual character? The evidence is such as to satisfy the profoundest thinkers of the human race. There is nothing little, nothing unworthy of the theme. All is great; all is worthy of God. The ethereal Isaiah predicts that a THE JORDAN. 73 voice shall cry in the wilderness: "Prepare yc the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high- way for OLir God." Seven centuries afterwards, the noble minded Baptist appears v/ith this message as the harbinger of the Redeemer. Holy angels are employed as the messengers of heaven regarding both John and Jesus; and God himself is, at last, heard speaking in a language understood by men: « This is my beloved Son." How exalted, how great is all this ! Are those truths of the highest moral character? The evidence is such as to satisfy the purest mind. All is holy. The mother of Jesus was a virgin. Joseph was "a just man." Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of the Baptist, " were both righteous before God, walking in all the command- ments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." John himself was "filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." The aged Simeon "was just and devout, and the Holy Ghost was upon him." Anna, the prophetess, "served God with fastings and prayers, night and day." Jesus himself did no sin, neither was any deceit in his mouth. He was the Holy One of God. How pure the sources of tes- timony! How impossible deception through such channels! Are those truths of a supernatural cha- racter! Supernatural evidence is afforded. God speaks by his prophets. Centuries afterwards, place, time, and circumstances concur, despite all human probability, in the fulfilment of those predictions. A woman, stricken in years, becomes the mother of John the Baptist, though previously she had had no child, in accordance with the announcement of an angel who appears to Zacharias, standing on the right 7 74 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. side of the altar of incense. Zacharias, doubting whether he should have a child in his old age, asks a sign. He is struck dumb until the promised child is eight days old, and, after writing the prescribed name of his son, "his mouth was opened imme- diately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God." That Jesus should be born was like- wise announced by an angel to his virgin mother. An angel revealed his birth to a group of Jewish shepherds. A multitude of angels followed the in- telligence by a song of joy. A new star summoned to Judea a party of philosophers from a distant land. The murderous intentions of Herod regarding the new king were frustrated by the intervention of an angel, as the messenger of God. The baptism at Jordan took place, the Holy Ghost descended on Jesus in a bodily shape, and the great God spoke from the opened heavens. All this was superna- tural, in harmony with the divine character of Christianity, and of its glorious Founder. " Truly, this is the Son of God!" CHAPTER VI. THE WILDERNESS. THE TEMPTER FOILED. The sacred historian says, that Jesus, after his bap- tism, " was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." In the English lan- guage, the word wilderness signifies, a wild and un- inhabited region, a sterile tract of land, or a place of boundless forests. Milton uses it as synonymous with wildness : — " Their glittering tents he passed, and now is come Into the blissful field, through groves of myrrh And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm: A wilderness of sweets ; for Nature here Wanton'd as in her prime, and played at will Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet, Wild above rule or art, enormous bliss." And also, in a subsequent part of Paradise Lost, Adam is represented as saying to Eve, " These paths and bowers, doubt not, but our joint hands Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide As we need walk." In the evangelical history, however, the word translated wilderness, means a rough and thinly peopled country — a country comparatively unin- habited, and better adapted for pasture than tilling. There were inhabitants, and even villages, in what is called in Scripture a wilderness. We read of " six 76 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. cities, with their villages," in a district bearing this name in the days of Joshua. The wilderness of Judea stretched along the Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east of Jerusalem. It was rough, rocky, and mountainous. We are told in the Book of Judges, that " the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in- law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad." The sixty-third Psalm, written probably during the rebellion of Ab- salom, has this title, '-'A Psalm of David, when lie was in the wilderness of Judah," and the imagery employed in its first verse is strikingly appropriate for such a place: "0, God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is," A rocky, uncultivated, and thinly inha- bited country was well fitted to suggest this simile to the mind of David. It was to some such region that Jesus was led by the Spirit, and, doubtless, to the wildest part of it; for he was " with the wild beasts." " He entered now the bordering desert wild, And with dark shades and rocks environed round, His holy meditations thus pursued," &,c. Good and evil, it has been maintained, are, among all nations, relative terms. But we must have a standard. The character of God is the highest good; the law of God is the rule of right to all creatures; and in proportion to obedience to this law, and approximation to this character on the part of any being, he becomes a holy being; whilst in proportion to the extent of rebellion against THE WILDERNESS. 77 this law, and opposition to this character, on the part of any being, he becomes a sinful being. There is evil in the universe, and it works in the region of mind with peculiar force. This is the scene of its terrible exploits; and its power is measured by the distance from God's moral character, to which it draws or drives any creature. Those who are under its power, are said to be "far off." There are two opposite principles constantly at work. " The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other;" and those who are influenced by the grace of Christ are said to be " made nigh." The position of any creature is determined by his moral character. " The pure in heart shall see God." " The wicked shall be turned into hell." " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever;" but "they that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall be punished with ever- lasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." Holiness and sin, grace and temptation, man's Redeemer, and man's adversary, are operating on the human mind. The moral character is now forming for eternity. This world is the scene of this formation. This is the period of our probation. But we cannot con- ceive of probation without temptation. They are correlatives. In the infinite mercy of God re- demption is offered to men, but men are accountable beings and moral agents; hence life and death are set before them; life, the free gift of God; death, the proper result of sin; and they are commanded 78 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. to choose which they will have. "Temptation is common to men," as it must be to any race of ac- countable beings placed in circumstances where, on specified conditions, there are before them the alter- natives of future honour or disgrace in the moral uni- verse. The idea of a test of obedience is involved iu the idea of accountability. There was such a test for Adam in his sinless state, and it was necessary there should be, for what is obedience without it? Commands and prohibitions relate to each other; they both emanate from the same righteous author- ity; the former require the activity of the will, in the pursuit of right; the latter require the resistance of the will against wrong. Those say, do; these say, abstain from doing; and, under the present most gracious economy, the precepts are " follow Christ," and " resist the devil." There is a great tempter in the world, going up and down seeking whom he may devour ; but there is a greater Saviour, who came to destroy the works of the devil, and whose grace is sufficient for his tempted people; let them, therefore, " be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." To them the injunction is, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod THE WILDERNESS. 79 witli the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." It was with this weapon that Jesus triumphed over the temptations of Satan in the wilderness, on the temple, and on the high mountain; and in this re- spect, as in many others, he has left his people an example for imitation. That sinless beings, as well as depraved man, may be tempted to evil, is evident from the apostasy of " the angels who kept not their first estate," from the fall of our first parents, and from the attempt made on Jesus Christ ; and that the authority of God is the rule of conduct for all crea- tures, and the Word of God the weapon with which the adversary is to be repelled, is evident from the conduct of the Saviour during his temptation. The tempter himself recognised that authority. He se- lected passages of Scripture, by the false application of which he hoped to induce the Son of God to swerve from allegiance to his Father. The tempter was foiled. His effort was vain. He had to contend with holiness too pure, and wisdom too great, for his wiles. The idea of his success fills the mind with horror. It cannot be contemplated without a shudder. The consequences would have been disastrous in earth and in heaven. The purposes of Jehovah would have been frustrated, his government thrown into disorder, prophecy proved false, the hopes of the pious for ever blasted, and a part of God's do- minions for ever wrested from his sceptre! For this dire consummation the devil longed; — to this end 80 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. his diabolical malignity arranged its plans of attack; he saw before him the woman's seed ; he remembered well the denunciation in paradise; to render that denunciation abortive, by leading his destined con- queror into sin, was the gigantic crime he now con- templated. He had fought against God for ages ; he had dragged to perdition a multitude of the inha- bitants of heaven; he had triumphed in paradise, and turned our world into a great burial ground, and seduced its inhabitants into open rebellion; but what was all this compared to the ruin of God's be- loved Son? To realize this, all the energy of his great bad mind is summoned into action ; but success must be by temptation — force is folly — there must be consent on the part of the tempted one — otherwise there is no sin; — once, again, and a third time, he tries, and the result is, the complete failure of this dark enemy of God and men, and the glorious victory of our ever blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Witnessing angels, the messengers of an approving God, fled to his feet to minister to him, and thus his first struggle with the power of darkness, after the declaration of his Messiahship on the banks of Jordan, gloriously terminated. But let us view this temptation in another light. Jesus was " the Mediator of the new covenant." He was the substitute of his people. His sufferings were vicarious. He was the Redeemer of the tempted, and "in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." This is the use the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews makes of it. Again, " for we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the THE WILDERNESS. 81 feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Again, "Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered ; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;" that is, sufferings similar to those which his people endure, were ne- cessary to the perfection or completeness of his mediatorial character. As the Son of God, he needed no moral training, yet he submitted to suffering, adding the element of painful experience to his knowledge, by which he is enabled to sympa- thize with his people. " Touched with a sympathy within, He knows our feeble frame; He knows what sore temptations mean, For he has felt the same." He came to our world, took upon him our nature, combated the foe on our earth, submitted to those temptations which harass, and to those trials which distress us, wept with us, dwelt mnong us, gave himself ybr us, was made a curse ybr tis, finished the work of redemption for us, destroyed the works of the devil and spoiled death, and led captivity cap- tive for us, and now, at the right hand of the Ma- jesty in the heavens, he intercedes for us. All this is explicable on the mediatorial principle, not other- wise. In this light these facts can be read, but in none other. And beautiful and wonderful are these truths, thus viewed ! To gaze at them thus, is to catch their import, and to be sanctified by their in- fluence ! / 82 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. And the triumph of Jesus over the tempter, is a pledge of his people's final deliverance from the snares and wiles of this malignant foe. It was the Head of the Church that gained this memorable victory ; and as surely as he overcame, so shall they, through faith in his blood, and reliance on his strength. He who was asked to make bread to satisfy his hunger, will give the bread of life for ever to his people. " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more : neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." He who was asked to cast himself from the battlement of the temple, will hurl Satan from the battlements of earth, and purify the scene of his own sufferings and victory from all the pollutions of Satan and his angels, and will lay hold on that old serpent, and bind him, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and set a seal upon him, that he deceive the nations no more. He to whom the kingdoms of the world and their glory was offered, on condition that he would worship the tempter, will give " the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose king- dom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." His "throne is for ever and ever; the sceptre of his kingdom is a right sceptre." He is now "in his majesty riding pros- perously, because of truth and meekness and right- eousness; and his right hand teaches him terrible things." He is going from victory to victory. Ethio- THE WILDERNESS. 83 pia is stretching out her hands to him; the kings of Tarshish and of the isles are bringing presents; the daughter of Tyre is coming with a gift; the rich among the people are entreating his favour ; and the concave of those heavens which were covered with sackcloth when the Son of God was crucified, shall soon ring with a voice as of mighty thunderings in honour of his universal sovereignty, "Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!" Temptation ceases when the soul of the believer leaves this world. The time of probation over, he shall "enter into rest." The fight honourably con- cluded, he shall be crowned a victor. The region of faith passed, he shall see his Lord. Having over- come, he shall be made a pillar in the temple of his God, and he shall go no more out; "and I will write upon him," says Jesus, " the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Here, then, are preliminary and sequel; the work of time and the reward of eternity; the wrestle with the enemy and the rest after victory; first the well fought field, and then the laurel; first the toils of the vineyard, and then the "pay;" first fidelity, and then the "well done!" This is in accordance with the law of spiritual de- velopment. From the ruins of the fall, and the de- gradation of sin, God raises his people. He ad- ministers to them "correction and instruction in 84 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. righteousness." He subjects them to frequent provi- dential trials; but it is the furnace that purifies the gold. He allows them to feel the beating of the storms of the wilderness; but they are "rooted in Christ." They are often assaulted by Satanic tempta- tion; but they are instructed to "look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the riglit hand of God." They are apt to be " wearied and faint in their minds;" but they are commanded to *' consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself" Their soul is frequently " discouraged because of the way;" but "he giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall : but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be •weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Some- times they fear " lest Satan should get an advantage of them;" but this very apprehension teaches them to trust, not in themselves, but in the fidelity of that God, who has promised to bruise Satan under their feet shortly. They are commanded to "be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour : whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afilictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, THE WILDERNESS. S5 make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." Thus the scene of their trial becomes the school of Christ, in which they are trained for the glory that awaits them. Grace is sufficient for them — their Master's strength is made perfect in their weakness — but their afflictions, and trials, and temptations, teach them, or are made instrumental by the Spirit of God in teaching them, their own weakness, and the necessity of watchfulness, and prayer, and faith in their ever present, though invisible, Redeemer. The tottering infant stretches out its little hand for the support which its parent can give. The tried Christian, who has been taught how feeble he is, lays hold on the strength of his God. When the dis- ciples are in jeopardy from the violence of the storm, they cry "Master, master, we perish!" Thus faith is trained, strengthened and increased through trials. Those things that seem against them work for their good. This holds true even of Satanic temptation to sin. Such temptation has driven many a man to his closet, and thrown him on his knees before God. The enemy meant not this. The devil himself is thus made to serve Christ! These facts, we have said, accord with the law of spiritual development. The disciple grows in grace, as he feels his need of it, and becomes importunate at a throne of grace for it; his experience corroborates the truth of the scripture, that this is not his rest; and his anxiety to be pre- pared for "the rest that remaineth," increases with that experience. He discovers, and the discovery gives him in the first instance many a mental pang, that all on earth "is vanity." He has found gall where he expected honey, and grief where ho 8 86 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. looked for gladnesss, and foes where he anticipated friends; and the propriety, and duty, and reason- ableness of setting his affections on things above, become thence more apparent. He finds his own righteousness "filthy rags," and his desire increases, in proportion to the depth of this conviction, to be "found in Christ, not having on his own righteous- ness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." He finds that the moth and rust corrupt, and that thieves steal earthly treasures; and he gathers thence the wisdom and kindness of his Redeemer's advice, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where theives do not break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Preparation for a state of perfection, in the same world in which "man rebelled and lost his God," and in which he is subjected to the fascination of a vain world, and the temptations of the great ad- versary of God and his Christ, is an idea worthy of him "who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working;" and the involuntary subserviency of pre- sent evil to future and eternal good, is among the many evidences that "where sin abounds, grace much more abounds." Paul fully recognised this most valuable truth in the economy of restoration; — "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the thinsrs which are not seen are eternal." THE WILDERNESS. S7 The existence of moral evil in the dominions of the Holy One of Israel, though its origin be to man a mystery, and its operation productive of indescrib- able anguish, will be made ultimately, we believe, to subserve, not only the highest interests of the re- deemed, in the growth of holiness and the consequent increase of happiness, but also the glory of the divine character, and the wisdom of the divine gov- ernment. To educe good from good is easy. To pluck grapes from the vine, and to gather good fruit from a good tree, are actions accomplished without difficulty. But to educe good from evil; to bring light out darkness ; to change the corrupt and self- ish heart of man into a spring of purity and love ; to roll back the floods of temptation, and lay the highway of holiness upon the soil of a sin-cursed earth; to send a Redeemer in our nature, to grapple with and overthrow the chief of the fallen spirits, in a world over which he boasted sovereignty, and whose inhabitants he had seduced from loyalty to their true king; to make an atonement for sin, in a world of sinners, by the blood of a sinless man; to" redeem from death through death; to make the spi- ritually dead, alive unto God; and to determine that the graves of earth shall open and yield a glorious harvest of spiritual bodies to grace the triumphs, and form the obedient subjects of Him who was tempted by Satan, and crucified by sinners — these are works accomplished only by incomprehensible wisdom, infi- nite power, and love that " passeth understanding." Thus the works of the devil are destroyed; and thus holy angels and glorified men will for ever bear wit- ness that the Temptek is foiled. CHAPTER VII. THE PASSOVER. THE HOUSE OF GOD PURIFIED. The mention of the Passover leads our minds back to a time and circnmstances, long prior to the days of Christ's personal ministry. The imperious ruler of Egypt, jealous of the rapid increase of the de- scendants of Jacob, of whom it is recorded that they "were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and mul- tiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them," adopted the most unjust and oppressive measures for the purpose of weakening their power and diminishing their numbers. The reason he assigned to his servants for his conduct was one of state policy. It has long been the habit of rulers to attempt a justification of atrocious proceed- ings on this principle. The individual conscience has merged itself into state expediency, and the abstract idea of government has been rendered ac- countable for proceedings, from the perpetration of which the individuals composing that government would have shrunk. Responsibility has been cleverly shifted from a company of men acting in a certain capacity, to the word which gives the idea of that capacity, or from the tyrant to the conditions of an autocracy. The king of Egypt said to his people, THE PASSOVER. 89 "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and. fight against us, and so get them up out of the land." Such was the stroke of policy; but the expression "deal wisely" meant in the purpose of Pharaoh, deal cruelly, inhumanly, murderously. The most determinate efforts were used to crush the seed of Abraham. The word of a despot is law. The "wise" policy was speedily acted upon. Tasks, impossible to be performed, were pre- scribed to the Israelites. Crushing exactions were enforced. The task-master, the slave-driver, and his scourge, were appointed. Grievous burdens were imposed. "And the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigour; and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour." The domestic circle was invaded. Parental love was disregarded. The male children of the Israelites were ordered to be destroyed as soon as born. Years rolled on. There was no human redress for these oppressed slaves; but the "wise" policy, like all proceedings of earthly governments which are founded on injustice, was in vain. "The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew." The God of justice and mercy listened to the sighs and heard the groaning of the children of Israel. Their cry came up before him; and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children 8* 90 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. of Israel, and God had respect unto them. From the midst of a burning, but unconsumed bush, on the mountain of Horeb — strikingly illustrative of the state of the Hebrews in Egypt — he appeared to Moses, as he watched the flock of Jethro in the desert. He sent him to Egypt to demand the liberation of his people. He was commanded to say to Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first-born ; and I say unto thee. Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born." The haughty monarch replied, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Exasperated that efforts should be made to emanci- pate his slaves, the infatuated king gave orders "the same day," greatly to increase the hardships to which his predecessors had subjected Israel. The terrible crisis came. Egypt was visited by a succession of the most awful plagues from the God of heaven, the last of which executed the threatening, "I will slay thy first-born." The Israelites were commanded to take a lamb, "every man according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house," and sprinkle its blood on the two side posts, and on the upper door- post of their houses, that when the Lord passed through the land of Egypt to smite its first-born with death, he might pass over those houses which were thus distinguished. "And ye shall observe this thing," said God, "for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the Lord will give you according as he hath promised, that ye shall THE PASSOVER. 91 keep this service; and it shall come to pass wlicu ^T^our children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say — It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the peo- ple bowed the head, and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first- born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the first- born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead." Such was the terrific consequence to Egypt of the cruelty to man, and rebellion against God, manifested by its imperious ruler; such was the typical rite by which the dwellings of two millions of human beings were preserved from echoing with the lamentations of be- reavement during this awful night, and by which they were delivered from the galling yoke of slavery; and such was the origin of that feast, to celebrate which Jesus went up from Capernaum to Jerusalem, fifteen hundred years after its first institution. The circumstance on which a few thoughts are now to be founded, is thus related by John: — "And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jeru- salem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when lie had made a scourge of small 92 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen, and poured out the changers'' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, 'Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.' And his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." This was the first passover attended by Jesus, after his public dedication to the great work on which, as the Messiah, he had entered. He had been bap- tized by John, accredited by his Father, filled with the Holy Spirit above measure, tempted by the devil, and found victor; and, after exhibiting his power by the performance of a miracle, at Cana of Galilee, he visited Capernaum with his disciples, remained there a few days, and then went up to Jerusalem to the feast of the passover, when the occurrence related by John took place. One great design of the ministry of Jesus was to purify the worship of God from all additions of human origin, however plausible may have been the arguments used for their introduction by their au- thors, or for their continuance by their abettors. Even the gross violation of common propriety, in- volved in turning the outer court of the temple into an exchange and a market-place, doubtless found its advocates. It might be said, as the Jewish law re- quires that every man pay half a shekel to the service of the sanctuary, and as the money in current use is Roman coin, it will be a great convenience to have a place near the temple where the Roman coin may be exchanged for the Jewish half shekel. And in re- gard to the animals offered in sacrifice, it might like- THE PASSOVER. 93 wise be pleaded as a public convenience, that they should be obtained near the temple. Arguments of a religious character would be used, such as the facility which these arrangements would give to worshippers, and the duty of employing all possible means for the service of the temple, and the honour of God. Interested men are never at a loss for rea- sons, which seem to themselves conclusive in favour of adjuncts to divine institutions, though in their operation these adjuncts may be injurious to spiritual worship, and dishonouring to God. Our Lord, who knew well both the character of the Being worshipped and of the beings worshipping, said, with a voice of legitimate authority which admitted no refusal, and which does not appear to have met with any, " Take these things hence ; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise." Three years afterwards, he found it necessary to rebuke the same profanation, when he exposed the character of the persons en- gaged in this traffic, by saying, " It is written. My house shall be called the house of prayer ; but ye have made it a den of thieves." How true is it that " extor- tion and excess," and every other kind of criminality have been committed under the profession of rever- ence for God! To do God service has been the pro- fessed motive of deeds of infamy dark as hell. Some- times the parties whose recorded cruelties make the frame shrink, though committed a thousand years ago, appear to have believed that they were in reality doing God service. Ignorant of his character, they thought that the diffusion of their own opinions was identified with the spread of his glory. The house of God has been made a house of merchandise, and 94 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. the house of prayer has been turned into a den of thieves in all ages, in exact proportion to the extent to which men professing godliness have departed from the New Testament model of spiritual worship. The fatal error has been the erection of an ideal standard of ecclesiastical perfection, instead of loy- ally following out the enunciated principles of the Head of the Church. All efforts at improvement require a standard either real or imaginary. This is constantly recognised in all human institutions, whe- ther voluntary or governmental. The suggested im- provement is presented in theory by its advocate, and the probable practical benefit of its adoption is in- sisted on. There is no infallible standard ; no perfect model for the erection of any human confederacy, consequently, there is no other mode of procedure than that just named. There is no limit, and from the nature of things there can be none, to the changes which such associations may undergo. And so with governments. There is no unchanging standard of constitution. But in regard to the house and wor- ship of God, the case is widely different. There is a revelation, there is a principle, there is a de- clared purpose, all inspired, and consequently in- fallible. The design of worship, the character of the God to be adored, and the motives, feelings, and principles which ought to characterize the worshipper, are described. To the buyer and the seller in the temple, therefore, who suggests that his chattels are for the honour of God, and that the adoption of them would be an improvement, the great Purifier says, " Take these things hence, make not my Father's house an house of merchandise." To those THE PASSOVER. 95 who, under the cloak of reverence for Christianity, seek only for an increase of gain, in connexion with any of the branches of the Church, he says, "My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." And what terrible judgments does "He who liveth and was dead" threaten to inflict on that fearful apostasy, the climax of whose wickedness was its traffic in the bodies and souls of men ! Every age has had its peculiar tendencies towards the introduction of formality into the service of God. This fact, however painful, is not surprising. It is the result of various causes, among which we shall not err by naming the strong influence of the senses on the human mind, the difficulty of realizing the purely spiritual, and the fearful extent to which the doctrme of regeneration has been either entirely overlooked, or greatly misapprehended. The first- named cause requires to be kept under constant re- straint, otherwise "the house of prayer" will become the scene of gorgeous display; the fascmations of art will monopolise those thoughts which ought to be employed in devotion; the visible, instead of aiding contemplation of the invisible, will prevent it ; paint- ing, sculpture, and music, will attract that attention which spiritual truth demands; and the professed worshipper will become the creature of lifeless sen- timent, or sink down into the mere formalist. That healthful and vigorous mental condition which results from sympathy with the grand truths of the gospel, will not characterize such a man. It is true that, in certain cases, there may be spiritual devotion and intelligent piety even amid such drawbacks; but as facts warrent the inference that, in the majority of Off THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. instances, the evils deprecated will grow up amidst these sensible attractions, so we think the Purifier of God's house would say of them, "Take these things hence." We have also named the difficulty of realizing the purely spiritual. Almost all nations have had some idea of God as a material power, a great Being, pos- sessing material attributes. They have attempted, consequently, to "liken God," or to embody their gross conceptions of him in idols of wood and stone, in graven images of gold and silver, made "by art and man's device." The most sublime truth ever presented to the human mind is, that "God is a spirit," an omnipotent, omnipresent, invisible, imma- terial, pure, and holy spirit. But even after this truth has been presented through the medium of language, it is so vast, so grand, so overwhelming, as to baffle correct comprehension. It is beyond our reach. Its height, and depth, and length, and breadth, astonish and paralyze our feeble powers. We are lost in its greatness, and awed by its grandeur. We have no imagination equal to the task of grasp- ing it. We have no tangible premises from which to reason about it, no starting point, no example, no standard of comparison for it. It is boundlessness alive, infinitude gazing upon us, the All-seeing unseen. It has no gradations to help the journey of thought, no change of feature to fix attention; it is God — God a spirit — God everywhere; and having said this, we have but repeated this sublime revelation of the Eternal given by him who came forth from him to be the light of the world. But this God is the object of worship. How, then, is he to be worshipped? THE PASSOVER. 97 He is immaterial, infinite, holy. How is devotion to be regulated? How is thought to be fixed? Where is the mind to rest? Where is the centre of reverence? Is there no place for the eye of faith? There is. The difficulty has been graciously antici- pated, and provided against by God himself: — "Be- hold, the Lamb of GodP^ "Look unto Jesus!" Here is "God manifest in the flesh!" God speak- ing, God acting. Here is "the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of his person." Here is the Word made flesh, and "he dwelt among us," says John, "and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Here is "God with us." God, "in every deed," dwells "with men on the earth." "Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" Here, then, is a resting place for the mind. Thought, feeling, devotion, reverence, may converge here. " They will reverence my Son." God in Christ, Diety in hu- manity, he who was in the beginning with God, dweUing among men, is here before us ! Man cannot go up to God ; God comes down to man. " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." The doctrine of the incarnation appears to us essential to the co- herence of the gospel, the revealed purposes of God, and the condition of men. It shows the astonishing love of God to his ignorant and ruined creatures. It is the Mighty coming after the feeble, the Creator stooping to the dark pit in which his blind creatures were groping, and infinite mercy concentrating itself in a sinless human form, that it might arrest the pro- gress of rebellion, and erect a standard of loyalty and acceptable devotion, around which the penitent in 9 98 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. every coming age might congregate, as around the feet of the visible God. In "contending earnestly" for the doctrine of the incarnation, we contend not for an individual principle of the Christian faith merely, but for the keystone of the glorious arch which spans the dread abyss between heaven and earth. It connects the holy God with his sinful creatures, commmiicates to them the restoring in- fluences of his grace, makes them partakers of the Divine nature, fixes their attention on the character of the Being with whom they have to do, preserves them, on the one hand, from the grossness of that idolatry which thinks that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver graven by art, and, on the other, from being lost amidst the incomprehensible idea of an infinite Spirit, and teaches them "to ofier up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Let the Saviour be "exalted, and extolled, and made very high;" let his conduct, as far as it is imitable, be imitated; let his footsteps, as a sinless pattern, be followed; let his authority, as God, be obeyed; let "all men honour the Son ever as they honour the Father;" let him be the object of faith, the ground of hope, the only ruler in the Church, and the com- plaint of inability to realize the spiritual will vanish, formalism will give place to pure devotion, un- authorized additions to the worship of Jehovah will be removed, and the house of God will be purified. But, perhaps, the most prolific source of formalism, error, disease, death, in the visible Church, has been, and is, the neglect of the doctrine of regeneration, or the new birth. There is no doctrine of the New -Testament stated with greater clearness than this. THE PASSOVER. 99 It is presented in a variety of forms. It is insisted on as a fundamental truth. It is declared to be at tlie very threshold of the spiritual temple. It is made the starting point of the Christian race. It stands out prominently as essential to salvation; and its practical importance is repeatedly urged. Jesus speaks of it thus: — "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John an- nounces it thus: — "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Paul, writing to the Romans, describes it thus: — "He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Again: "our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Again: — "Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Again: — "The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not sub- ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So, then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Writing to the Corinthians, he defines it thus: — "If any man be in Clirist, he is a new crea- ture: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new." The attention of the Galatians 100 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. is called to it thus: — "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Again: — "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor un- circumcision, but a new creature." The Ephesians are reminded of it thus: — "And you hath he quick- ened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Again: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Again: — "Put on the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness." Again: — "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." And it is laid before the Co- lossians thus: — "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circum- cision of Christ." Again: — "Being dead in your sins, he hath quickened you together with Christ." And again: — "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off" the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." Now, it is clearly impossible that a doctrine so repeatedly brought before the churches, by the Holy Spirit, in the inspired volume, can be overlooked with either safety to men, or honour to God. It is the boundary line between the Church and the world. In it is found the most emphatic meaning of the celebrated declaration — "My kingdom is not of this world." All who have experienced the new THE PASSOVER. 101 birth, whatever their country, language, or denomi- national preferences, are subjects of the spiritual khigdom, disciples of Christ, children of God, and heirs of heaven; and no man who has not expe- rienced this change, however correct his creed, and praiseworthy his deportment, has entered the path that leads to heaven, and conducts to a happy im- mortality. He is still far off, still in the world, because he has not been born again. Yet this fun- damental doctrine, the value of which is obvious to all who have scriptural views of "the kingdom of heaven," has been misunderstood by multitudes of professed disciples of Jesus: by others it has been denied, or, which is the same thing, explained away ; and by a very large class it has been identified with the symbol of purity, the waters of baptism. The consequence has been, that Christianity, histead of being recognised as a vital spiritual power, has been confounded with conformity to a system of pro- positions. The positive institute has usm-ped the place assigned to the controlling principle. The moral world has occupied the territory of the spi- ritual Church. The platform of doctrine has been committed to memory, while the Author of faith has had no temple in the heart; and the Church has become a local, instead of a divine — a geographical, instead of a gracious institution. A serious error at the outset must make the journey disastrous. The foundation insecure, the building must give way. Allegiance to Christ, where the heart has not been changed by his spirit, is impossible. The pre-re- quisite wanting, there is an essential deficiency in loy- alty to him. The profession may be loud, but it 9* 102 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. wants the authorized motive, the inward spring of action, the invisible soul of hearty, willing, loved, and therefore acceptable, devotion; and in reference to those sacrifices, prayers, and labours, which spring from the lips and hands of those who have not sur- rendered their hearts to him, the Divine purifier of the house of God says, '^Take these things hence ! " "What is all righteousness that men devise? What — but a sordid bargain for the skies? But Christ as soon would abdicate his own, As stoop from heaven to sell the proud a tlirone." CHAPTER Vlir. SAMARIA. ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP DEFINED. The manifestations of God have been regulated by infinite wisdom in all ages. There has been a gra- dual development of the Divine character, suited to the circumstances and condition of the world. The light has been increasing from the earliest ages. The patriarchal was an increase to the antediluvian, the ritual to the patriarchal, the prophetic to the ritual, the evangelic to the prophetic. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." This last manifestation of God, — the Christian, — sheds more light on his character, and by consequence on the relation in which man stands to him, than any previous manifestation did. Things which were kept secret are now revealed. "Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which we see, and have not seen them ; and to hear those things which we hear, and have not heard them." The apostle Peter describes the feel- ing of the prophets regarding the gospel age: — "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and 104 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into." This is the noon-day of revelation, in which the long promised and prefigured Messiah speaks to men of those great truths which concern the deepest interests of the whole race. Previous manifestations pointed to this. Previous rays of divine light con- verge on this. This is the confluence of previous beams of revelation. And the light which now shines so brilliantly under the reign of grace, illu- mines the path to, and loses itself amidst, the regions of glory. It streams on the attractive future, and re- veals life and immortality. The world has never been abandoned by its Creator. Through all the ages of the past there are found monuments of his power, memorials of his mercy, evidences of his justice, and illustrations of his character. From the time when the voice of God was heard in Eden, in the cool of the day, by the conscience-stricken parents of our race, to the time when the voice of God man- ifest in the flesh, gave to the surprised woman of Samaria a definition of acceptable worship, the di- vine character has been unfolding itself to the sons of men. Never before was it so clearly understood as under the spiritual reign of him who said, " He SAMARIA. 105 that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." This, in the personal absence of our Lord, involves the idea of a spiritual manifestation, and well does such a manifestation accord with the definition of acceptable worship just alluded to: "God is a spirit: and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth." Jesus, knowing that the envy and malice of the Jewish rulers against him, because of the success of his ministry and the fame of the multitudes baptized by his disciples, were rapidly on the increase, left Judea for Galilee, a country where the influence of the Sanhedrim was not so powerful as in the neigh- bourhood of Jerusalem. "Though Jesus feared not death, and did not shrink from suffering, yet he did not needlessly throw himself into danger, or provoke opposition. He could do as much good in Galilee, probably, as in Judea, and he therefore withdrew himself from immediate danger." The direct road from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria, a country formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasseh. The following concise and acciu:ate account of the Sama- ritans, and of the grounds of that animosity which is well known to have obtained between them and the Jews, is extracted from the valuable "Notes" of Albert Barnes. "This people," — the Samaritan — "was formerly composed of a few of the ten tribes, and a mixture of foreigners. When the ten tribes were carried away into captivity to Babylon, the king of Assyria sent people from Cutha, Ava, Hametli, and Sc- 106 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. pharvaim, to inhabit their country. These people at first worshipped the idols of their own nations. But being troubled with lions, which had increased greatly while the country was uninhabited, they supposed it was because they had not honoured the God of the country. A Jewish priest was therefore sent to them from Babylon, to instruct them in the Jewish religion. They were instructed partially from the books of Moses, but still retained many of their old rites and idolatrous customs, and embraced a re- ligion made up of Judaism and idolatry. " The grounds of difference between the two na- tions were the following: "1st. The Jews after their return from Babylon, set about rebuilding their temple. The Samaritans offered to aid them. The Jews, however, perceiving that it was not from a love of true religion, but that they might obtain a part of the favours granted to the Jews by Cyrus, rejected their offer. The con- sequence was, that a state of long and bitter animosity arose between them and the Jews. "2d. While Nehemiah was engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem, the Samaritans used every art to thwart him in his undertaking. "3d. The Samaritans at length obtained leave of the Persian monarch to build a temple for them- selves. This was erected on Mount Gerizim, and they strenuously contended that that was the place designed by Moses as the place where the nation should worship. Sanballet, the leader of the Sama- ritans, constituted his son-in-law, Manasses, High Priest. The religion of the Samaritans thus became SAMARIA. 107 perpetuated, and an irreconcilable hatred arose be- tween them and the Jews. "4th. Afterwards Samaria became a place of resort for all the outlaws of Judea. They received willing- ly all the Jewish criminals, and refugees from justice. The violators of the Jewish laws, and those who had been excommunicated, betook themselves for safety to Samaria, and greatly increased their num- bers and the hatred which subsisted between the two nations. " 5th. The Samaritans received only the five books of Moses, and rejected the writings of the prophets, and all the Jewish traditions. From these causes arose an irreconcilable difference between them, so that the Jews regarded them as the worst of the hu- man race, and had no dealings with them." It was with an inhabitant of Sychar, in Samaria, a woman, an epitome of whose history presents her moral character in no favourable light, that Jesus held the memorable conversation recorded in the fourth chapter of the Gospel by John. His conde- scension and grace were strikingly illustrated in this conversation. To her he said, that he was the pos- sessor and distributor of living water. To her he annoimced that the time had come for the abolition of sacred places. To her he declared himself to be the promised Messiah. And to her he laid down the momentously important principle, that all true worshippers must worship the Father in spirit and in truth. It is impossible to imagine a more important principle than this. It brings the mind into corres- pondence with the vital realities of spiritual truth. It leaves no room for the idea, that formalism may in- 108 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. vest the externals of worship with attractions pleasing to the great Being who is the object of worship. It sends the mind within itself on the solemn search after devotional, reverential, and holy feelings. It deals at once with the human heart, sweeping aside all external circumstances of time, place, relation- ship, denominational affinities, and profession. It recognises no adventitious circumstance, no "visible church," no tribe of Levi, no gorgeous cathedrals, no sacred spots. It listens not to the plea, " Abraham is our father." It knows nothing of apostolic de- scent. It sees not the broad phylactery. It hears not the scientific melody. It proclaims that God is not worshipped by art and man's device ; that neither in Mount Gerizim, nor in Jerusalem, nor anywhere else throughout the wide earth, shall a sacred spot be found on which God will look down with peculiar benignity, as the place of his feet ; that the external, the ritual, the ceremonial, the visibly magnificent, are henceforth of no account; that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; but that as he is a holy and infinite Spirit, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, he looks upon the spirits, searches the hearts, and tries the reins of his crea- tures. It demands the throne of the heart for him who is its rightful occupant; the excercise of the judgment and affections in things divine, and the ex- pulsion of, or the unfeigned desire to expel, every sin- ful influence from the soul, as destructive of its true interests, and offensive to that God who has a right to its undivided and undistracted loyalty. "In spirit and in truth." Spirituality of mind is essential both to a right perception of divine things, SAMARIA. 109 and a right approach to God. The love of the pure and the holy must be a governing principle, divine impressions must be felt; access to God by faith, and conmiunion with him must be desired, the purity of his character, the design of a throne of grace, and the established medium of intercourse between the suppliant and his Creator, must be remembered; and the solemnity involved in the idea of drawing nigh to him who searches the heart, must be real- ized. He is a great King. The hosts of heaven bend before him. Its mightiest principalities, high in authority, high in intellect, high in moral perfec- tion, fall with veiled faces at his feet. His power is absolute; his reign eternal; his presence mii- versal; his holiness essential; his will, unchanging laiu to all the worlds spoken into existence by his word, and to all the beings into whom he has breathed reason; he looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills and they smoke; he measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and compre- hended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance; he taketh up the isles as a very Uttle thing; the nations before him are as a drop of a bucket; they are as nothing — they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity; and he seeth not as man sceth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. It is therefore, a solemn thing for man to draw near to God. It is to come into the presence of a Being, the grandeur of whose attributes overwhelms the greatest minds, and whose awful prerogative it is to read the mys- 10 110 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. teries of the human soul. Every thought, and feel- ing, and desire, and purpose, are clearly known by him. Those transient emotions of the soul of which we ourselves are scarcely conscious, which come and go we know neither whence nor whither, and which from their ephemeral chracter we deem unworthy of moral analysis, are distinctly traced by him. Though we may fail to recognise the fact, these brief mental passengers, which flit across the spirit like the shadow of a flying bird, belong to the vast mul- titude of influences that are constantly forming the character in the sight of God. Each of these slight impressions has moral affinities, the importance of which it is difficult to overstate. It unites and com- bines itself with the multitude of thoughts within us, which make us what we are, spiritual worship- pers, formalists, or mockers of holiness. And as the God with whom we have to do determines the cha- racter by the operation oi first principles in the mind, the volitions of the will, the desires and aspirations of the heart, so it is obvious that he is not adored at all, if the spirit of the professed worshipper be not engaged in that act. What a wonderful piece of divine mechanism is the human mind! How varied, and subtle, and elastic its powers! To what depths of investiga- tion is it capable of penetrating! To what glorious heights can it soar! And how wide the field of beauty and wonder over which God has permitted its delegated sceptre to sweep! Though at present the tenant of an earthly house, subject to all the ordinary laws which govern the animal creation, exposed to all the changes of summer and winter, SAMARIA. Ill day and night, heat and cold, as well as to the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the des- truction that wasteth at noon-day, and soon to be removed by the resistless stroke of the last enemy, yet it is so far independent of the mystic tie that leads it to sympathize even with the frailties of its tene- ment, that it can dart at will from world to world, can nestle in the bosom of the sun, fly to the foot of the throne of God, join in the songs of angels, and cast itself at the feet of the enthroned Messiah. Like "the word of God," it "is not bound." You may thrust Paul and Silas into the inner prison, and make their feet fast in the stocks, and charge the jailer to keep them safely; but notwithstanding their sores and sohtude, their unfettered minds can worship God in spirit and in truth, and send their acceptable praises from the gloom of the dungeon to the light of the heavenly world. In addition to this excursive power of the human mind, which leads it to "wan- der through eternity," its powers of endurance and susceptibility of enjoyment are also in the highest degree wonderful. The wringing of the hands, the gushing tears, the audible groan, the emaciated look, and the prematurely whitened hair, are but poor in- terpreters of what the mind can suffer. There are mental woes for which language has no voice, thought no symbol, action no hieroglyphic. It feels at times as if the three days of Egyptian palpable darkness were upon it, or as if the four apocalyptic angels had commanded the winds of heaven to blow upon it from every quarter. Times without number, in the history of mankind, has an individual mind been the den of throngs of demons, whose name was le- 112 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. gion. Hell in epitome has been realized before the sinful sufferer stood disembodied before his Judge. But, we repeat, language has no voice with which to speak of the powers of endurance characteristic of the human mind. And so also of its suscepti- bility of enjoyment. It has been the scene of hal- lowed gladness, such as heaven itself can alone transcend. It has had joys unspeakable and full of glory. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, have dwelt in it, and ministering angels have encircled it with a halo of effulgent light. Heaven in epitome has been realized before the honoured and happy mind exchanged worlds. "When Christ with all his graces crowned. Sheds his kind beams abroad, 'Tis a young heaven on earthly ground, And glory in the bud." The argument we wish to found on these conside- rations, and we think it legitimate, is the reasonable- ness of devoting this great power, or rather assem- blage of powers, to the service of its Maker and Author. With the exception of the work of redemp- tion, the formation of mind, in which word we include the intellectual powers and affections of the soul, must be considered the greatest work of God. Is it not reasonable therefore, that he should require the homage of the spirit? That he should ask the service of the soul? Shall he be satisfied with the service of the hands, the reverence of the lips, the bending of the knee, the prostration of the body, or the pecuniary sacrifice, while the heart is far from him? Revelation answers, no; and reason echoes SAMARIA. 113 the reply, "The true worshippers m\xsi \voys\.\\\) the Father in spirit and in truth." Moreover spiritual worship is alone profitable to the worshipper. His necessities are spiritual. His disease is spiritual. His dangers are spiritual The mind is depraved. The heart is alienated from God. "It is deceitful above all things, and despe- rately wicked." The defection from God is radical. The infirmity of the soul is past all human cure. " The carnal mind is enmity to God, and the eflfects df this enmity," says Howe, "are obvious. This alienation from God is voluntary, affected, and cho- sen: men in their unconverted state are not only strangers to God, but enemies against God, and that in their minds. A most fearful case, full of astonish- ment, that the very mind of man, the oftspring of God, the paternal mind, as a heathen called him, that this most excellent part or power belonging to the nature of man, should be poisoned with malig- nity, and envenomed with enmity against the glori- ous, ever-blessed God ! That the mind of man, his thinking power, the fountain of thoughts, should be set against God, who gave him the power to think ! Yet into this reason must every man's un-acquaint- ance with God be resolved, they know not God, and converse not with him, only because they have no mind to it. That noble faculty in man that resem- bles the nature of God is turned oflJ" from him, and set on vain things that cannot profit, as also upon wicked and impure things, that render them more unlike God, and disaffected to him." The revela- tion of mercy, however, announces that the grace of God in Christ is amply sufficient to dry up the spring 10* 114 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. of all this hostility, and to remove the spiritual de- gradation that has resulted from it. The Divine re- medy has been provided without cost to man, and is offered without money. There is a radical remedy for the radical disease. It is offered to the mind, and by the mind it must be sought. It is offered to the spirit, and by the spirit it must be sought. The prayer of the lip, and the homage of the knee, if the heart desire not the blessing named, will never bring it down from heaven. The influences of God's Holy Spirit, granted to the spiritual worshipper for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, can alone meet the case. Then spiritual sacrifices will be offered up, acceptable to God. Then the man becomes a "true worshipper." But without these influences, God is not acceptably worshipped, and the professed wor- shipper is not benefited. The evangelic system, which is an exposition of the Reedeemer's character and grace, is intended to meet the spiritual necessi- ties of men. This purpose it gloriously realizes. It tells what God is, and what he requires; and it ex- plains the nature and condition of man, and most graciously provides for him all that he needs, both as a worshipper of God, and as an expectant of everlasting life. To reveal to the world the grand provisions of this system of "grace and truth" was one of the objects of Messiah's incarnation. For this he "came down from heaven. And if any pro- fessed minister of his, either from ignorance of the characteristics of the evangelic system, or from com- pliance with a fashionable creed, substitute the life- less homily, or the classic morality, for that soul- saving and God-glorifying system, he must be reck- SAMARIA. 115 oned, despite his protests, among the "many anti- christs." The Redeemer's system and his are irre- concilable antagonists. "In truth." "God is not mocked." He desires truth in the inward parts. Hypocrisy is the crown- ing folly of which any man can be guilty. It is an acted lie in the presence of the heart-searching God. It is a profession of attachment to Divine things, where none is felt; a declaration of regard for spi- ritual truths, where no regard influences the mind; the sign of life, in the absence of all vitality, and an announcement of allegiance to the Redeemer, which has never manifested itself by a surrender of the heart to his control. It is regular in its external services; but the love of the present world is its guiding passion. It can say long prayers; but im- mediately afterwards devour widow's houses. It pays tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin; but omits judgment, mercy, and faith. It makes clean the outside of the cup, and of the platter; but within it is full of extortion and excess. Its "God I thank thee that I am not as other men," reveals at once its pride and folly. "Nothing but truth before his throne With honour can appear; Tlic painted hypocrites are known Through tlie disguise they wear." But, on the other hand, when there is an enlight- ened perception of the scriptural character of God, and a reverential approach to his footstool, with a deep and humbling sense of personal unworthincss, earnestly soliciting mercy and grace, according to the 116 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. directions of revealed truth, and in the name of Jesus, who is the sun, and sum, and substance of all truth, and with the holy purpose of employing the grace that may be communicated in the service andybr the glory of the great Giver, then everything is in order ; all the parts of the economy of mercy are in beau- tiful harmony ; the worshipper is abundantly blessed, and "the Father is worshipped in spirit and in. truth." CHAPTER IX. CAPERNAUM. THE DISPOSSESSION. Jesus, rejected by the ignorant inhabitants of Na- zareth, "came and dwelt in Capernaum, whicli is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthahm." He spent much of the time of his public ministry in this once celebrated city and its neighbourhood. It was the metropolis of Galilee, and stood on the north-west corner of the sea of Tiberias. The ministrations and miracles of Christ were abundant here; Matthew calls it "His own city." The Reedeemer foretold its destruction, be- cause of the inattention of its inhabitants to those evidences of his Messiahship which, by teaching and miracles, he had brought before them. "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day." This prediction has been so strictly fulfilled, from the cruelties inflicted on its inhabitants by the Romans, that it is difficult to determine its site. Nevertheless, there are historical reminiscences associated with Ca- pernaum, on which the mind of the disciple of Jesus must ever dwell with delight. The city of the clear 118 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. fountain, for such is the derivation of its name, may be a desolation now ; but he who gives the water of hfe freely to those who ask him, is the same yester- day, to day, and for ever. In him is life. He is its fountain, its perennial spring, and its benignant dispenser. If any man thirst he is invited to come to him and drink, to receive the Avater of life freely, and live for ever. Nor can we doubt the power to save, which is possessed by him at whose word an unclean spirit is compelled to leave its tortured victim. The follow- ing narrative supplies an illustration of this power. "And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doc- trine : for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. And there was in their sy- nagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying. Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to de- stroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying. Hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, inso- much that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the regions round about Galilee." The design of this work is neither critical nor polemic, otherwise an opportunity now presents it- CAPERNAUM. 119 self of vindicating the fidelity of the common trans- lation, of proving that this was not a case of hniacy or epilepsy, and of exposing the fallacy of the theory that labours to get rid of demoniacal possession. Nor is there any reason to regret that this purpose is not within the province of this work, as it has been ac- complished by many able writers, to the complete satisfaction of all who love truth more than party, and who desire the honour of the Son of God as the highest object on which sanctified intellect can em- ploy its powers. The abettors of the theory in ques- tion have never been very seriously impressed either with the depth of man's moral degradation, or with the exalted character and power of the Redeemer. Our design is practical, and our consolation is, that Jesus is master of the invisible world ; angels in heaven, and the unclean spirits of the dark pit being subject unto him. The havoc wrought among the sons of men by the devil and his angels, has been so fearful as to sur- pass all human comprehension, and consequently all human description. The precise mode by which diabolic agency influences the human mind is also involved in obscurity. It were strange, indeed, were it otherwise ; for as the primary motives and ope- rations of our own minds almost constantly elude detection, how is possible that we can be able to analyze the character and trace the outgoings of an order of minds far more subtle, and far higher in the scale of intelligence, than our own ? But the fact that the human mind is influenced by unclean spirits is, alas ! not among theories for philosophic, or metaphysical, or theological speciflation. It is a 120 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. sad, a melancholy truth, attested by the history of mdividuals and nations; by the experience of the world's living myriads; by the repeated declarations of the God of truth in his holy word ; and by the character and provisions of the plan of redemption. So completely has the race fallen, so absolute is its moral prostration, and so thoroughly has it been "possessed" by the spirit of diabolic madness, that it has literally done what the adversary wished the Messiah to do: it has fallen down and worshipped the devil! In every land sacrifice has been offered to him, on every shore he has had, and has to this hour, his shrines and his temples, his emissaries and his priests ! And the number of demon wor- shippers has been limited only by the world's popu- lation — always excepting the very small minority who have worshipped the true God in spirit and in truth. Let us not be understood as referring only to those lands on which no ray of revelation has poured its healing influence. Facts will not permit this limitation. Fidelity to God sternly forbids it. Woe be unto us if we attempt it ! Look at ancient Judea, with all its privileges. What demon worship prevailed there ! Look at Christendom, with its still greater privileges. What demon whorship has pre- vailed in it for fifteen centuries! Examine popery, that huge counterpart of hell's pandemonium, and what was it, nay what is it, — for it will undergo no essential change until its predicted doom shall be ac- complished by the right arm of Jesus, — what is it, we ask, but the gigantic masterpiece of Satan? his kingdom, his seat, his throne? What are its canonized " Saints," but enshrined emissaries of the CAPEKNATJM. 121 deceiver, by whose agency he wrought lying won- ders? What but demon worship is the reverence, what but sacrificing to devils are the offerings, pre- sented to them? Look at England, the most highly priA^ileged nation on which the sun shines; and what pride, what Ucentiousness, what covetousness, what numbers of shrines to the beast, meet us on every hand! Is this uncharitable? Would tliat it were! The religion of sentiment, that can see no distinction between the Jove of heathenism and the Jehovah of the Bible, and that finds the test of safety in the sincerity of the devotee, and that has a palliating circumstance for the most outrageous manifestations of human rebellion against the eternal God, will doubtless deem it so. }3ut it is the uncharitableness that finds its precedent in apostolic writings. And convinced, on the one hand, that scriptural charity means "speaking the truth in love," — not concealing it from an apprehension that it would disturb the dreams of the multitude, — and on the other, that in- dividual Christians, and churches, if ever they learn to discern between tilings that differ, must consult apostolic writings more, must study the life and teachings of Christ more, and must run the risk of a collision with prevalent indifference to all vital truth, though it wear the smile and assume the name of charity, we are willing to be recognised in the field which we are sure must speedily be occupied by all whose religion is "of God and not of men." This is not the time to dwell in ceiled houses, to daub v/ith untempered mortar, to preach smooth things. The signs of the times are in the highest degree ominous. Apostolic religion is branded by 11 122 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. many as old wives' fables. We are importing ra- tionalism and neology from Germany, popery from Italy, and infidelity from France. Our national universities, so called, although the most sectarian schools in the world, are the hotbeds of popery. Our endowed church has given her power to the beast, and is so deeply sunk in error, that we pre- dict the impossibility of her recovery. Our dissent- ing churches are everywhere complaining. Ardent men of God find not a tithe of tlie sympathy to which their work and purposes entitle them. There are famines in divers places; wars and rumours of war mutter in the distance; men's hearts are failing for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth. The moral landscape is every where dark with the shadow of a thick cloud. The thrashing instrument is at work, the winnowing pro- cess will speedily follow, and God is calling to his Church to "awake as in the ancient days!" Who, with his eyes open, can doubt the truth of these representations? Is it asked. What must be done ? The answer is at hand. There must be an immediate recurrence to the first principles of evangelic truth. The gospel must be preached as ive find it in the New Testament. Jesus must be heard in our syna- gogues, commanding the unclean spirit to leave its victims. There must be stronger faith exercised in the pure unmixed word of the living God. There must be less of the mechanical in the services of the sanc- tuary, and more, much more, of the simple, fervent, and therefore efficient ministrations which are exem- plified in the preaching of Christ and his apostles. CAPERNAUM. 123 The earnestness which God's truth inspires must be seen in its advocates. The principles which it enunciates must be enunciated; the precepts which it enjoins must be enforced; the discipUne which it recommends must be adopted. Expediency must give place to the authority of Christ; tradition to in- spiration; opinion to doctrine; doubt to faith. Con- formity to the world must make room for conformity to the Saviour: selfishness must make room for love; discord for union; form for fervour. The power of the Holy Spirit to transform and bless, must be a recognised reality, and an implored blessing; and instead of reasoning with depravity and the unclean spirit within, as if the power of logic could dislodge the foe, the man must come at once to the Saviour, who alone can cast him out. Why are instances of the power of Jesus over devils so frequently given in the evangelical narra- tive? Is it merely that we may class these instances among the evidences of his Messiahship, and deduce thence the duty of listening with reverence to his teachings as the messenger of the covenant? If this were all, a grand point would be indeed gained, a power would be acquired by the believer with which he could successfully meet the onsets of infidelity, a foothold on which he could firmly stand amidst the tumults of the delirious ocean of scepticism and speculation beneath him; but this is not all; for these instances of Messianic authority over the elder family of rebels are also illustrations of what he came to do, and of what he is daily doing. He came to destroy the works of the devil, to lead cap- tivity captive, to break the arm of the oppressor, and 124 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. to liberate the bond slaves of the great destroyer. The usurper had taken possession of this fair earth, and had filled its inhabitants with the spirit of mad- ness. But the glorious Creator had purposed to place this world under a mediatorial government. The sceptre of Jesus swept over all its lands. His infinite love embraced its countless generations. He destined it as the scene of his achievements, when the fulness of the time should come. He purposed to defeat the usurper in his strongholds, and to vin- dicate his own right to the homage of men. Nor had he merely a single enemy to conquer; for the world of men were also opposed to his authority; and in addition to the twofold power of him that worketh in the children of disobedience, and the enmity of mankind to his righteous sceptre, he had also to magnify and make honourable the insulted law of God, to show how he could be just, and the justifier of the ungodly, and to prove that infinite wisdom could associate spotless righteousness with love to the rebellious and unholy. And now that all this has been done, what remains for the subjects of sin and the victims of Satan? Self-directed efforts to escape from depravity — not to mention the penalty attached to transgression — with- out reference to the Messiah, granting, for a moment, the possibility that such a desire may be awakened in a sinner's breast in the absence of a Saviour's grace, are clearly derogatory to his claims and cha- racter, and can never be crowned with success. "No man is crowned except he strive lawfully," and the laiu of redemption is faith in the Redeemer, And efforts to control the evil spirit within, or to CAPERNAUM. 125 cast him out when his unholy motions agitate the soul, simply for the purpose of preserving the moral character and retaining a fair name among men, will be, likewise, unsuccessful; for the motive from which such efforts spring is decidedly and only selfish; but the mediatorial economy requires that all moral ac- tions find their motive in the honour of the Mediator; hence, to lose sight of this unchanging principle is to lose sight of the secret of success. But that which we have granted for the sake of argument, cannot be allowed as an occurring fact. Men uninfluenced by divine grace, try daily to get rid of the consequences of sin, that is of the internal misery which it creates, and the fear of punishment which it inspires; but where the honest wish exists to have that depravity, which is the fountain of guilt, dried up, there, un- doubtedly, Christ has been speaking to the heart. We have before us this class of persons, especially that portion of them who are periodically plunged into grief at the recurrence of strong temptation, and the commission of besetting sin. They mourn, and repent, and pray, and are again tempted, and again yield to the tempter, and go through the same sorrowful round. Their consciences are a burden, their lives are unhappy, their hope is feeble, and not a few of them take refuge, at last, in the filthy arms of antinomianism. Indeed, it is from such parties that that chaos attracts its materials. Pretending to magnify the grace of God, it magnifies only its own deformity; but it offers an asylum, such as it is, to parties who, if their first impressions had been followed to their results, would have adorned the Christian profession, and enjoyed the 11* 126 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. fellowship of " the children of light." They are apt to say, in their sorrow, that no one was ever tried as they are ; but the truth is, that were the causes of their disappointment presented in the form of a question regarding the unclean spirit, it would read thus : " Why could not we cast him out ?" Far be it from them to arrogate to themselves any such power; they heartily disclaim it; nevertheless, they do it in effect ; for they expect too much from them- selves. If they looked more at Christ, and less at self, the result would be widely different. The mariner, who gains his bread on the restless ocean, looks upward for the direction of the wind ; the husbandman looks upward for the rain of heaven to water the seed which God has given him to cast in the earth ; the forest songsters look for the dawn of day to begin their melody ; the child looks up for the smile of its parent to soothe its sorrows ; the apostolic Christians beheld as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and were changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. To look unto Jesus is the art of Christian victory over sin and Satan. Let the eye of the tempted be fixed on him. Gaze on the bright love that gushes from his divine heart; look on the firmament of glory that surrounds his presence, on the many crowns that encircle his head, and on the treasures of grace that are in his hand, and the darkest fiend will vanish. The unclean spirit cannot bear the look of his eye. Open the heart to him. Let him in. Make room for him. Dwell upon his measureless compassion, study his matchless character, read the victories of his strong right hand — in one word, look CAPERNAUM. 127 at him, and inevitably the depravity of the soul will diminish, the tempter will flee, and, continuing this process, the peace that passeth all understanding will be experienced. The Christian life is a life derived from Christ. From the moment of conversion to the hour of death, therefore, the follower must keep his eye on his guide, the disciple must sit at the feet of his Lord, the pardoned sinner must trust to his Saviour, and the servant must obey his master. Growth in grace is assimilation to Christ, but assi- milation supposes communion, and communion sup- poses faith; to look unto Jesus, therefore, is the way to hear his voice, commanding the tempter to depart. Is his power doubted? The evil spirit in the pas- sage quoted above, doubted it not. "Art thou come to destroy us.^ I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." James tells us, tliat "the devils be- lieve and tremble." Why should those whom he came expressly to save, doubt his ability to do so? Has he failed in any part of his appointed work? Why then dishonour him with this unbelief? He who bruised the head of the serpent, and on whose shoulders is the government, and at whose girdle are the keys of hell and of death, and whose coun- tenance is as the sun shining in his strength, is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. " Trust in the Lord, for ever trust, And banish all your fears: Strength in the Lord Jehovah dwells, Eternal as his years." 128 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. "Be Strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." Is his wilhngness doubted? With the gospel in your hands? His willingness to save from sin and Satan doubted after the declaration of his love and purposes? After his incarnation, life, miracles, in- vitations, promises, death, atonement, resurrection, triumph, and ascension to glory as the acknowledged head of all principality and power? After the pub- lication of the fact of his intercession, the descent of his Spirit, the establishment of his Church, and the constant raising up of faithful ministers to preach the gospel to every creature? To doubt is to dishonour him, and to prescribe limits which he has not drawn, and to circumscribe that love whose encircling girdle is beyond the utmost boundaries of human necessity. But election? Yes! It is a doctrine of Scripture as surely as is the death of Christ, and a glorious doc- trine it is. But what, say you — what if I am not one of the elect? Yes you are, except you refuse to be saved by the Son of God, and Avillingly reject his great salvation. It may as well be said, that because the sun is a fixed orb, you may not derive warmth from his beams, as because election is one of the pillars of the system of mercy, there is uncertainty whether that system may benefit you. Your chance of hght from an erratic sun would be far less than it is from a fixed one. Election is among the se- curities of successful application to the Redeemer. CAPERNAUM. 129 Without election you might be rejected; with it, look to Jesus, and you will be accepted in the be- loved. What doubt remains? The greatness of yonr transgression? Is it greater than the love of God and the merits of the atonement can meet? Was not its greatness foreseen and provided against? Is not its greatness the most impressive argument for an immediate acceptance of offered forgiveness? We liave read of one who thought so, and who used this argument in prayer: "For thy name's sake, Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great;'''' and as the efficacy of atoning blood is not partial, but complete, there is inspired security for confidence in the Re- deemer: "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sinP All this earnest attention, however, to the person, work, and character of the Messiah, does not super- sede the necessity of self-examination. If the former is the road to victory, the latter is the process by which the stages of the journey are marked. The mariner, we have said, looks upward for the direction of the wind; but he also examines his chart from time to time. He must ascertain the latitude. The husbandman looks upward for the rain of heaven; but he must also extirpate noxious weeds from the fields. The Christian looks upward for the grace of his Saviour; but he must also examine himself whether he be in the faith; whether he love the truth; whether the ordinances of his Master be a pleasure or a burden; he must watch and pray that he enter not into temptation; he must avoid the ap- 130 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. pearance of evil; and he must resist the devil; but to enable him to do all this successfully, he must, with calm and steady faith, look for his Lord's abun- dantly and repeatedly promised Spirit. To look constantly Avithin on the dark thought and impu- rities of the heart, would be a gloomy task, ending in despair. There is no help from that quarter, no ray of light from that region. But this is a very different thing from a repeated examination of the state of the convictions and feelings regarding him who is the grand object of faith, and hope, and love, and reverence. The one is like the poor lame tra- veller sitting by the way side, moaning over his in- juries, and looking with dismay on the thorns, and stones, and quagmires, that lie around him; but the other is like the traveller who, though conscious of personal inability to surmount the difficulties of the journey, holds on, animated by the hope of help and home, and rest, and taking note with thankful- ness of this interruption surmounted, and that hill crossed, and as they recede behind him, hope whis- pers, press on: the wounds of the way will be all cured at home, and you will enjoy it the more from the fact that the journey has been rough. We believe the Scriptures enjoin this combination of faith and examination; and that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints cannot be made a source of consolation if they are disjoined, will perhaps not be disputed by any who think scriptu- rally on this all important subject. Let the whole soul rest on the exalted Redeemer, and it will receive strength; but let it employ the strength it CAPERNAUM. 131 receives for the glory of the giver, in its gradual assimilation to his most glorious character; and in due time the disposession of every unclean spirit will be final. The authority which no demon dare dispute will say, " Come out of him, and enter no more into him." CHAPTER X. "the mount of beatitudes," THE MESSIAH AS A PREACHER. We have just seen our Redeemer surrounded by an astonished congregation in a Jewish synagogue, and giving evidence that he will bruise Satan under our feet shortly, by casting an unclean spirit, with a word, out of a man into whom he had entered. We now see him on a mountain, addressing to a dense multitude the most wonderful discourse on record in any language. Jesus as a preacher; the Saviour of mankind inculcating sublime truths on a mass of human beings whose hearts he intimately knew; with whose feelings, and hopes, and fears, and cha- racter, and history, he was thoroughly acquainted; whose reception or rejection of himself, as the Mes- siah, he foresaw; and whose individual destiny was spread out before him in the unclouded clearness of his own omniscience. What a theme? The heart flies back to the scene, the feelings instinctively prompt the wish that we had been there; we try to picture the appearance of the speaker; to catch the tones of his voice, to look upon the ray of min- gled love, earnestness, and truthfulness, that beamed from his eye; we should wish that eye to fall on ours, that we might feel the thrill of unusual emotion; it would be heaven if we loved him; it would set fire to our conscience, if otherwise. And how appear the THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 133 multitude? Are there any listless among them? Are there any thinking of their fields or their merchan- dise? Are there any inwardly murmuring at his doc- trine? Is it too pure? too strict? too heart-searching? Is there a resolution in one breast to follow him at once and at all risks? and in another, to hear him again ere he decide? and in a third, to accuse him to the authorities, as a deceiver? This much is certain, " They were astonished at his doctrine." But imagination fails to arrange the picture of the scene. We have, however, the divine sermon, full of meaning, every sentence a text, every principle enunciated a subject, every thought suggestive of multitudes of thoughts, and. every allusion recalling important doctrinal or historical facts. As a preacher, Christ addressed his hearers di- rectly. He spake to them. " Ye have heard that it hath been said, but I say unto you." Divine truth was intended for men as individuals. It is calcu- lated to meet the case of every individual. It is adapted to all. Coming from the Divine mind, it asks an entrance into the human mind. Its appeals, its arguments, its principles, are addressed to and fitted for, each and all. Beaming from heaven, it is intended to shine into the human heart. Its path is not circuitous, but straight. " I am come a light into the world," said its Author, " that whosoever believeth on me, should not abide in darkness." " The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." "I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him that sent me." "As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." There is nothing so important to man as 12 134 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. the reception of the gospel of Christ. His heart must be changed : this is the instrument by which it is effected. He needs light: it is here. He needs hope: it is here. He needs guidance: it is here. He has lost the image of God: he will find it here. He has lost the way to heaven: — here is direction, plain, clear, ample. It is not necessary, then, that every preacher of the gospel, every man who has been entrusted with this awfully responsible com- mission, should study the mode in which Christ ad- dressed men on the verities of the gospel? Should not the model sermon of the Great Master form the standard of ministration? We beheve that the at- tention of the audience, and, consequently, the ad- vancement of their spiritual interests, will be found generally proportionate to the earnest fidelity of that minister, the model of whose discourse was delivered on the Mount of Beatitudes. Directness of address, the eye of the speaker catching those of his hearers, and beaming with affectionate solicitude, that they should believe and practise the truths he is deliver- ing, and which it is evident from his manner are to himself more precious than life, is surely preferable to the monotonous and theorising homily, however much truth it may contain. Congregations are sel- dom mistaken in their judgment as to whether the preacher /ee/5 the importance of his subject. They soon find out whether he is " Much impress'd Himself, as conscious of his awful charge And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too, affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men." THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 135 There is nothing more painful to a mind deeply impressed with the solemnity of the interests involved in the reception or rejection of God's truth, than to see men ministering therein who are evidently with- out solicitude as to the result of their ministrations. They occupy certain portions of time on the first day of the week with the glowing truths of revelation spread out before them, and in the presence of a congregation of men who are being carried with the speed of time to the bar of the Great Judge, and yet it is written on their foreheads that they have no higlier motive than the discharge of an expected duty, arising from official considerations. They are so formal, and lifeless, and cold, that one can imagine their sentences suspended around their pulpits like icicles. There is no spiritual animation to awaken corresponding emotion in the breasts of their hearers. That life-eliciting faith which gave tone to the apos- tles as ministers of Christ is not theirs, Paul said, "We believe, and therefore speak," and the "love of Christ constraineth us." Peter and John assigned the following reason why they refused to attend to the prohibition of the Jewish council, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." They had caught the living spirit of their Master, and felt not only that " necessity was laid upon them to preach the gospel," but also that directness of address "to the people," after his example, was a duty and an honour. Their conviction of the divine origin of the message they delivered, was an indwell- ing verity in their souls. It was the life-blood that permeated their understandings. Hence their fer- vour. Hence their eagerness. Hence their engross- 136 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. ing solicitude that men should believe.- And, not forgetting the necessity of divine influence to awaken any sinner, we have no hesitation in saying, hence their success. There is no subject within the range of human in- vestigation, so well fitted to awaken fervid eloquence of thought and expression, as the gospel of Jesus Christ. How spiritual ought to be the motives, how impressive the appeals, and how irresistible the ar- guments of the ambassador of Christ ! All that is grand in the nature of God, all that is attractive and wonderful in the history of Jesus, and in the system of mediation, all that is spirit-stirring in the pros- pects of the penitent, and all that is awful in the des- tiny of the impenitent, so far as these are revealed, form the armory from which he is to select his wea- pons as a soldier of Jesus Christ. The human heart — a revelation in itself — with all its hopes and fears — alternating like the light and cloud of a northern sky, when spring and winter are striving for pos- session of the earth — with all its aspirations and mis- givings, heroic resolutions and sorrowful falls, its serene studies of the high and pure, and its turbu- lent passions, tossing it like the plaything of some mysterious power on the dark and dangerous rocks of moral life; its sudden gUmpses of joy unspeak- able, and its bursts of unutterable grief; its glorious sensations, when in happy moments the angels of heaven seem to make melody within it, and its unre- vealed anguish when it feels as if poisonous serpents were coiled around its core; the human heart, we say, with these and kindred characteristics of its myste- rious nature, forms the wide field on which, as a sol- THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 137 dier of Jesus Christ, he is to do battle with his Mas- ter's foes. Here he is to ply those motives, here to impress those appeals, and liere to use those argu- ments, with which the glorious gospel of the blessed God furnishes him. Mere skirmishing cannot do. It is neither honest in the sight of God, nor in that of men. It is a betrayal of trnst, and the result is failure. "Speaking the truth," without fear or com- promise, "in love," and directly, as "in Christ's stead," who has set the example of the manner in which he would have his creatures addressed, is every way preferable. Our Lord's ministry is distinguished by an uncom- promising exposure of the ?naxims and opinions of worldly society. The poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those Avho hunger and thirst after right- eousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace- makers, and those who are persecuted for righteous- ness' sake, are all pronounced blessed, and com- manded to rejoice. Characters and dispositions the reverse of all this, however, are applauded by human society in general; and the cultivation of feelings foreign to those on which the Messiah's benediction descends, is deemed honourable among worldly men. Oaths, retaliation, and revenge, are all strictly for- bidden by him; but the spirit of the world encou- rages the manifestations of human passion, calling them spirited and manly, and honouring their exhi- bition with applause and rewards. Generosity of conduct and expansive charity are inculcated by the Divine preacher; but selfishness, sordid calculation, and sectarian interests, are patented by the world as evidences of true wisdom. The love of enemies is 12* 138 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. laid down by Christ as a precept to he oheyed in his spiritual kingdom; but the maxim, "Thou slialt hate thine enemy," obtains the suffrage of mankind at large. Confident that the Church of Christ will never achieve those triumphs over the world which pro- phecy reserves for her, \nitil she renounce sympatiiy with worldly maxims, which have no higher origin than the proud impulses of the unrenewed heart, we feel that the time has come for an effort to be made literally to obey those divine precepts. Her duty is to obey, whatever sacrifice it may involve. Her duty is to imitate her Lord's conduct, whatever amount of scorn such imitation may reap from the surprised world. Indeed, scorn so purchased would be a far surer sign of spiritual health in the Church, than that interchange of friendly greetings which at present prevails. If affinity between the world and the Church ever exhibit itself, it is certain that the latter is gnilty of a sinful concession of principles which she was called into being to illustrate to man- kind; for the essential characteristics of the former change not. To talk of a compromise between the two is incorrect, for a compromise supposes mutual concessions, and the world will not concede any of its cherished maxims out of respect to the claims of the Redeemer, otherwise it would surrender itself at once to his spiritual sceptre; but even if it did con- cede anything, still a compromise could not be ef- fected without deep dereliction of duty on the part of the Church, for she dare not cede any of those principles which her founder has sanctioned and re- vealed for her guidance, whatever may be the amount THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 139 of temporal advantage held out as the price of the concession. It is a betrayal of trust, for those prin- ciples are not o{ her creation, nor are they susceptible of modification at her pleasure. They are the laws of that kingdom of which the Messiah is sole Sove- reign, and all who profess allegiance to him are bound to yield implicit obedience to them, otherwise they forfeit the honour attached to loyalty, in exact proportion to the extent of transgression. It is griev- ous that the laws of the Saviour should be allowed by his professed followers, from whom alone, of course, obedience is expected, to lie inoperative in the statute book of his kingdom; and especially is this matter of lamentation, v/hen it is acknowledged by all Christians, irrespective of sectional attachments, that the practical recognition of those laws would raise the Church to an elevation of influence such as she has never yet reached. It will be accepted as a truism that she will be prosperous, and spiritually powerful, and happy, in exact proportion to her fidelity in carrying out the principles of her Founder; she will become what he designed her, "a city set on a hill;" and yet, though all this is without contro- versy, she has lisped the language and imbibed the maxims of earth to such an extent, that the line which separates the spiritual from the secular do- minion has become so attenuated in many places, as to escape observation. An observer cannot tell where the Church begins, nor decide the boundaries be- tween it and the world. Nor is this all. As if in direct contravention of the principles under review, brother goelh to law with brother, many professedly Christian men and Christian ministers encom-age re- 140 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. taliation and revenge, and actually lend their ready aid to international hostilities, give their vote in fa- vour of the world's grand curse, war, and bless the insignia of destruction and death. "These things ought not so to be." For thus it is written of the Master, conformity to whom is the ultimate design of the whole system of grace and mercy, "When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suf- fered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." Nor is even this all. For so thoroughly secularized are many por- tions of the nominal church, that its ministers have stooped to the degradation, beyond which there is no depth, of receiving wages from the ungodly go- vernments of the secular kingdoms of this world. Are those men, and such as think with them, in a fit position to expose the maxims of human society, and to maintain the principles enunciated in the Sermon on the Mount? Can they lift up their voices from their pit of degradation, and shout in the dull ears of their paymasters and mankind at large — "No legal interference with Christianity! Swear not at all! No resistance of evil ! No going to law ! No retalia- tion! No revenge! No warlike dispositions! No secular bribes to sileuce the ambassadors of Christ from the free exposition of his eternal laws! There must be a separation between cause and eftect, before this phenomenon can be looked for in such regions. But that every follower of Messiah should endeavour to render literal obedience to the precepts of his Master touching oaths, non-resistance, peace, for- giveness, benevolence, and love, appears to us clear as the noon day. The maxims of the world on these THE MOUNT OP BEATITUDES. 141 subjects, will hold their place unmolested, until Christians rebuke them by taking their opposites out of the region of theory, and learn to embody them in habitual practice ; but so long as the Church acts with the world, the latter will allow the former to think as she pleases. Christian principles will be allowed to rest in their niches in the firmanent un- disturbed; but if they are to come in collision with society, so as to overthrow its idols, they must be brought down to earth, and become incarnate in the conduct and actions of living men. As might be expected, our Lord's sermon is pre- eminently distinguished by spirituality. Those crimes, the commission of which is alone cognizable by so- ciety, are by him detected in embryo in the human breast. Every passion is traced to its root. With a power of mental analysis unequalled, he lays bare the inception of the desire. Its beginning is noted. The licentious wish is classed among crimes in the sight of God. The evil purpose is evil committed. The overt act is not the essence of the crime; it is, when desired, "committed already in the heart.'* The Redeemer's doctrine is that the unholy thought cherished is sin, and that God determines the man's character by the state of his heart. How soul-search- ing is such a religion as this ! It passes by all con- ventionalisms and forms, all appearances and pro- fessions, and carries its burning light tlu^ough every inward motion, desire, and purpose, to examine their nature and pronounce on their character! How easy is it to see that such a religion would never have had a disciple in this world, but for power from on high ! This view of the case, if any, proves the need of 142 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. the Holy Spirit to create the love of purity; and how obvious is it also tliat all who recognise this prin- ciple of judgment must judge and condemn them- selves, and mourn over the thoughts of their hearts! The truth is, the religion which saves man must Jirst condemn him. To be benefited by it he must take it as it is. understand its first principles, and submit to its teachings, however humiliating, and whatever amount of heart-care it may demand. External pro- priety will follow internal regulation, but it is clearly a mistake to suppose that the former will do without the latter, or that morality of conduct can be substi- tuted for that system which says, " keep thy heart with all diligence." The public teacher of Chris- tianity who loses sight of its spiritual requirements and sanctions, loses sight of those things which con- stitute its very essence, and in which its great strength lies. It exposes the thoughts of the heart that it may regulate them. It sheds light on its pollution that it may purify it. It humbles that it may exalt. It "makes sorry," that it may fill with "joy unspeak- able." But having pursued a somewhat similar course of thought in a previous chapter, we notice another characteristic of our Lord's ministry — its discursive quality. Not only in the sermon on the mount, but also throughout the whole range of his instructions is this trait manifest. He mentions a common fact, or incident, with which the experience of men made them acquainted, and immediately associates with it some great doctrine of his religion, or bases on it some religious precept to which it bears some analogy, or with which it has some correspondence. THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 143 Thus: "Men do not light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." All men knew this; but what follows? " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Again: " Moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and steal your earthly treasures; this was well known, to the grief of multitudes, but it gives occasion to a memorable precept: "Lay up for yourselves trea- sures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal." It is also every where known, that " where the treasure is, there will the heart be also." The affections of the friend fly to his absent friend. The heart of the wife lingers around the place where her husband makes a temporary sojourn, and his affections return to his distant home. So with the parent and the child; and so with all the trea- sures of life, real or imaginary. The man of the world, who deems wealth the chief good, has his heart where his treasures lie. From this indisputable truth our Lord rises to the heavenly world, and gives a test of character, by intimating that if we have treasure in heaven, our heart, our affections, will be there also. "No man can serve two masters." True. ]\Iark the momentous doctrine that follows — a doc- trine which, if attended to, would, it is to be feared, unchurch one-half of the professedly Christian com- munity — " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." llie doctrine of the universality of Divine Provi- dence is brought under notice thus: "The fowls of the air neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns," 144 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. a fact evident to all; but, "your heavenly Father feedeth them." What subhmity and beauty are here! and what a consolation to the Christian! He, too, "shall be fed!" Elsewhere the same doctrine is taught still more strikingly. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" Every boy in Jerusalem knew this; but what follows is beyond the unaided dis- covery of the profoundest philosopher that ever trod the earth; it is pure revelation; "and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." What all-comprehensive care! What God-like at- tention to the most minute interests of his creatures is brought to light here! "Never man spake like this man!" Nor, as every reader of the New Testa- ments knows, was it merely animated nature that formed the Saviour's text book; every thing over which the eye swept, furnished its willing quota to aid in delighting and blessing man. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, ye of little faith?" It would be pleasant to amplify on this delightful theme. This is only a specimen. But there is ano- ther feature of the great sermon, which is at once so prominent and important that it cannot be overlook- ed. It reveals what the philosophers of antiquity vainly attempted to discover — the source of human happiness. Its primary and contributory springs are THE MOUNT OF BEATITUDES. 145 pointed out. The language in wliich tliis is clone is simple and affectionate. The glorious Preacher would win men to himself; and consequently, there is no- thing to repel, but everything to attract. The pure stream from the fountain of life flows on in grace and beauty. "He was fairer than the children of men; grace was poured into his lips." The rocky heart melted, and the stubborn knee bent before him, while he pointed out that for which every soul yearned — happiness. To reveal this secret, and to unfold the way to its possession, were among the objects for which he came down from the celestial world. Amply did he fulfil his mission, and whoso- ever folio weth him shall not walk in darkness on the all-engrossing question. Where is happiness to be found? "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." "He that doeth the will of my Father, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." And else- where: — "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 13 146 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. How great is the honour put upon the ministers of such a Saviour ! It is theirs to point to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world; to win the lost from spiritual error and misery; to ditfuse the high and holy principles of divine truth; to en- courage the weak and timid to press forward; to cheer the desponding, by representations of the abun- dant grace of their exalted Master; to console the afflicted, by considerations drawn from the end of chastisement; to arrest the wanderer in his sunless path, by turning his eye to the Light of the World; to enlighten the dark, from the living pages of inspi- ration; to rebuke the false maxims of the world, by holding up the doctrines of the cross; and to point the way to permanent happiness and full joy, amidst the glory which shall be revealed to all who look for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; and all this they will be instru- mental in doing, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in proportion as they study the manner and comprehend the matter of the Sermon on the Mount. CHAPTER XL JERUSALEM. THE SABBATH CURE. The preceding chapter was concluded by a reflection on the honour put upon the ministers of Jesus, seeing that they are privileged instrumentally to comnui- nicate knowledge, comfort, peace, and hope to their fellow men. To a benevolent mind there is nothing more delightful than to be the agent in diminishing the amount of human misery, and increasing the amount of human comforts. Briars and thorns, pains and sorrows, are thickly scattered on the highway of human life. The foot-print of the traveller fre- quently becomes a bed for his tears; and in his journey through life he leaves behind him many a spot rendered solemnly memorable by heart-wring- ing associations. If a Christian, he can recall scenes where, afraid of some threatened disaster which hung in the distance like a thick black cloud, his only resource was prayer to the ever present God of his salvation, whose power to deliver is as great in the stormy night as in the calm of noon; and where, fervently and importunately — though some- times startled by the sudden fear lest his impor- tunity should border on presumption — " he wrestled until the breaking of the day." It may be, also, tliat 148 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. memory goes back to some lodge in the wilderness, where, and to the day and the honr, when the last enemy, whose awful presence imposed profound silence on every tongue, entered to bear away the young spirit of some beloved child, who was, in his eye at least, the fairest of children. The arrow struck his heart, and carried away a portion thereof, wliich can never be replaced, for it lies with the wasting body of his child among the dust of the earth. But his tears were few; for when he looked from die corpse of his child to the anguish-smitten counte- nance of the bereaved mother, the fountain became suddenly choked. Sorrows such as these mark the life of man; but the gospel of Jesus explains the secret of them all, and promises to bless them all to those who love God; and it is the high privilege of the servants of the Redeemer, whether they are pas- tors, or teachers, or private Christians, to carry those promises to the ear of the sorrowing, that by their sanctified influence he may get "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." And not only have the consolations of the gospel been provided, but God has also appointed one day in seven as a day of rest — the Sabbath — during which peculiar facilities are aiforded for the manifestation of his great mercy to the children of men. The Messiah had descended from the mountain, cleansed a leper by a touch, returned to Capernaum, where the fame of his presence had attracted multi- tudes, healed a man disabled by the palsy, vindicated his power to forgive sins, and called Matthew to follow him; after which, says John, "there was a JERUSALEM. 149 feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem." Althougli it is of no consequence to our object whicli of tlie Jewish feasts this was, yet it may be proper to state that tlie evidence in favour of its being the passover is pecuharly strong. It was on this oc- casion, and on the Sabbath, that Jesus, while look- ing on the diseased persons who lay in the porches or cloisters of Bethesda, saw a man who, for thirty- eight years, had been the subject of some bodily in- firmity, which appears to have deprived him of the use of his limbs. Moved with that compassion wliich ever distinguished him, and which was one of the predicted characteristics of the Messiah, he com- manded the helpless man to rise, take up his bed, and walk. With the command health and strength were communicated; the astonished invalid was im- mediately made whole. The grace and mercy of the Redeemer were beautifully illustrated by this miracle, and another evidence was afforded that he is the Great Physician. The querulous attack of the Jews on the restored man, has no interest for us beyond the fact, that in this connexion we look on it as the type of a certain class of modern cynics, who quarrel with everything that is done either for the bodies or souls of men, except it be done in strict accordance with certain rules or forms which have received the sanction of their superior wisdom. Al- though the result may challenge the strictest in- vestigation, yet if the process by which it was ob- tained was not step by step according to their theory, it is denounced as imposture. However well puri- fied the ore, if it went not through their furnace, it is spurious. This is the spirit that prolongs the reign 13'- 150 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. of sectarian bitterness, and cramps the energies of catholic benevolence. But, if we mistake not, the spirit that animates the enlightened Christian would say, show me a man who has been turned from dark- ness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, and though the doctrines and opinions of him who was the agent of this transformation are not such as I can heartily countersign, yet I thankfully acknow- ledge the result. The hand of God is here. I own it, with praise. The deeply interesting discourse delivered by our Lord to the Jews on this occasion, will be found in the narrative, in the fifth chapter of the Gospel by John. In it he vindicates his authority, lays claim to equality with the Father, asserts that he has power to raise the dead, and quicken whom he will, and that all judgment is committed to him; declara- tions which could have been made by no mere crea- ture, without incurring the most fearful guilt. We return to the Sabbath cure. "I am the Lord that healeth thee." Man, by nature, is the subject of moral disease. His heart is disordered. His af- fections flow in corrupted channels. His passions are deranged. His thoughts are depraved. His understanding is darkened. His intellect is covered with a noxious cloud. His soul is sick unto death. His practice everywhere corresponds with this in- ward malady, asserts it, proves it, cries it aloud. The root is bitter; so is the fruit. The fountain is im- pure; so is the stream. He is without God in the world. He lives, he knows not why; he acts, he knows not for what end; he receives mercies, he knows not whence; he travels, he knows not whither; JERUSALEM. 151 until tlie Father of lights enlighten him from on high. And his physical diseases and mortality are at once the result and proof of his spiritual fall. It is both cruel and unscriptural to conceal his condition and palliate his guilt. He must be healed or die. There is no alternative. Fidelity in representing his case, as portrayed iii the Scriptures, is the greatest kindness. The true picture is far more likely to arouse him to a sense of his imminent danger, and to awaken solicitude for his safety in his own breast, than that temporizing procedure which false delicacy may dictate. The qualifications of Jesus relate to the necessities of man. The fulness of the Saviour points to the spiritual emptiness of the sinner. The power of Christ is relative to the weakness of those whom he came to save. The skill of the Great Phy- sician is what it is, because the diseases of men are so terrific, that no less competent mind could com- prehend or remove them. Even the Son of God has, as Mediator, no superfluous endowment. Hence, glowing descriptions of the fulness of grace that is in Christ, however attractive, and however scriptural they may be, are not felt in their relative adaptation to the position of man in the moral universe if his true condition is misrepresented, or lessened in the intensity of its wretchedness. But such juxtapositions seldom occur. The silent conservatism of truth pre- vents it. Hence the man who is most delighted with the grace and glory of the Saviour, is also the man who is the most faithful to the sinner. The same record that proclaims the exaltation of the one, pic- tures tlie degradation of the other. And, on the other hand, he who denies human depravity, con- 152 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. sistently enough denies Christ's deity. A partial fall needs only a partial Saviour. He who can to some extent help himself, has no need of an Omnipo- tent helper. But the truth is, that in the evangelic system, the qualifications of Christ and the condition of man shed mutual light on each other. They are relatively explanatory. The fall is seen in the cross; the cross is illustrated by the fall. Myriads of Sab- bath cures prove all this. What a mercy to mankind is the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath! What multitudes have been cured on that day by the word of Christ ! The moral disease of thirty-eight years standing has heard the command of the Great Physician, and left its subject. The spiritually dead have heard the voice of the Son of Man, and lived. The snare of the fowler has been broken, and the entangled mind has escaped. The web of delusion, woven around the soul, has been riven asunder. The bolts have been withdrawn, and the captive has been liberated. Those who sat in darkness have seen a great light; and those who were groping in the regions of death, have seen the beams of the Lord of life pointing the way to honour and immortality. The soul, long held under the tyrannic sway of the great deceiver, has been drawn to the Messiah, and directed in the path of liberty. The mind, long hostile to divine truth, and deeply prejudiced against holiness, has been won by the one, and attracted by the other; new im- pulses have been felt, new desires have been awa- kened, new hopes have been excited, new purposes have been formed, and a new life has given evidence that all this was not transitory, but the work of the JERUSALEM. 153 regenerating Spirit, effectually applying the word of Christ. Insensibility has given place to solicitude; indifference, to earnestness; formaUsm, to piety; thoughtfulness, to self-searching; worldliness, to god- liness. The pursuit of the shadows of time has been abandoned; that which was deemed the chief good has been seen to be a mockery and a snare, a fallacy and a lie, and eternal substance has been pressed after as the only legitimate business of hu- man life, the grand end of human exertion. The eye has been opened, the heart softened, the mider- standing enlightened, the ear circumcised. Thoughts that brooded in darkness over the turbulent spirit have been dispelled by the breath of the Lord; and the conscience, whose dread recollections and dark forebodings have made its possessor the most wretch- ed of men, has been sprinkled by the blood of atone- ment, on that hallowed day. The passion-tossed soul has heard the command, "Peace, be still!" and a calm surpassing description has ensued. The selfish has become benevolent; the deceitful upright; the misanthropist, patriotic; the cruel, kind; and the lewd, pure. The false swearer has learned integ- rity; the infidel, faith; and the blasphemer has join- ed in the high praises of our God. "The word of God'' has been felt to be "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and to be a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." All these, whatever their former degrees of darkness, or what- ever the peculiarities of their moral diseases, have, with one voice, said, " Worthy is the Lamb that was 154 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. slain!" and the sons of God, who shouted for joy when the last touch was given to the stupendous creation by the finger of God, have witnessed with intense admiration the new creation of those human spirits, and the result has been joy in heaven among the angels of God. All these have been Sabbath cures. Each of these said, " It was Jesus that made me whole." From what has been said already on spiritual wor- ship, the writer of these pages trusts it is superfluous for him to guard against the suspicion that he enter- tains any superstitious veneration for the first day of the week, as a day. Those whose religion is con- fined to the Christian Sabbath are destitute, in his judgment, of all real religion. Whatever their pro- fession, they " are yet carnal." They have need to learn " which be the first principles of the oracles of God. " Prostration on the Sabbath, and pride during the rest of the week, give no evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. " The sound of the church-going bells," in itself considered, conveys no more intelli- gence to us than does that of " the sounding brass," or "the tinkling cymbal;" but could we be sure that in all the buildings thus adorned, the great Physician is proclaimed in his grace and glory, in the fulness of his mercy, and in the adaptation of his healing power to fallen men, that sound would fall on our ear as the most harmonious instrumental music ever in- vented. The valleys and glens, villages and towns of our land, would then indeed be blessed, and mul- titudes, who are now enfolded in the fatal garment of self-righteousness, would catch the spirit of Paul's declaration, when he said, "I count all things but JERUSALEM. 155 dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.'' Never- theless, could his feeble voice reach " the thousands of Israel," he would say with emphatic earnestness, value, prize, love the Sabbath ! It commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It affords relaxation from the cares and toils of this world, and yields peaceful opportunities of adoring the great God, in whom we live and move, and have our being. It grants facilities, not exclusive, but peculiar, as already remarked, for hearing about the incarnation, and work, and character, and sacrifice, and government of the Son of God. His power to heal, and the necessity to man of his healing power, are then explained and enforced. The reminiscences of the Sabbath, the associations of the Sabbath, the jntrposes of the Sabbath — these can neither be for- gotten nor neglected with safety. Jesus effects his cures on other days — we have selected the instance of the cure wrought on the poor man on the Jew- ish sabbath, simply as a starting point for these thoughts — and by many other instrumentalities, be- sides the day of his resurrection, and the living voice of his servants. He has many ministers: — sick- ness, poverty, disappointment, and bereavement; the press, the platform, and the word spoken in season, are all employed at his pleasure to do his benefi- cent work. He " ordains" them all when and where he will. He gives them their commission, and they do his bidding. And the number of those who have been spiritually healed, by the blessing of God, 156 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. on the reading of the Scriptures in secret and pri- vate, is known only to Him who knows all things. Still, while all these agencies are performing their allotted work, the first day of the week stands out in imequalled glory as the time when, and the public preaching of the gospel as the instrument by which, the Redeemer diminishes the amount of spiritual disease, thins the ranks of his enemies, increases the number of his friends, diffuses the blessings of his mediatorial reign, and prepares his followers for a happy immortality. If anything be needed to add weight to these con- siderations, it will be found in the fact, that respect to the Sabbath is the best safeguard of a nation's morality. It has ever been found that vice prevails as the Sabbath is neglected. What was the state of England when that profane swearer, James the First, in order to destroy the moral example of the Puritans, who kept holy the first day of the week, commanded the publication of a book containing legal sports for the Christian Sabbath, and which consisted of arch- ery, leaping, dancing, bull and bear baiting? What horrid crimes disgraced the reign of his tyrannic son, Charles the First? The protectorate of Cromwell, a man too good to fill the polluted throne of Charles, followed, and an astonishing change for the better took place. The first day of the week was held sacred for the glory of God and the good of men. The nation advanced in moral strength. The univer- sities were the temples of pure religion, and the re- treats of solid learning. The pulpit was adorned by biblical knowledge, practical utility, and popular eloquence. Howe, Owen, Bates, and Baxter, were JERUSALEM. 157 amongst Uic number of Cromwell's chaplains, John Milton was his Latin secretary. The Restoration fol- lowed — the restoration of royalty in the person of Charles the Second, of vile memory, and witii it the return of Sabbath desecration. Immorality in all its flagitious forms marked this reign. The tide of li- centiousness weltered from the court over the length and breadth of the land. All ranks and conditions of men rolled in it. And what was the condition of France, when she proposed to decimate time that she might get rid of the Christian Sabbath? All know the harrowing tale. It is chronitled in eternal his- tory. The burning of the world will not reduce that chronicle to ashes. It is written among the things that God has "seen" on earth. Woe be to the nation which despises and abuses the Christian Sabbath? We have spoken of the time when, and the instru- ments by which, the Great Physician chiefly eflects his cures. But there is a consideration of vital im- portance which must not be overlooked. Men by nature are dead in trespasses and sins. They will not be persuaded by the unaided entreaty of even the most faithful ministers of Christ to abandon sin, and to follow that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. And Jesus has gone to the throne of his glory. He is not personally and visibly on earth, to give efl'ect to the ministry of re- conciliation. How then are those changes effected which have been mentioned above ? Scripture, the only record that sheds authoritative light either on the inner workings of the human mind, or on the mode by which the invisible God arrests its perverse tendencies, furnishes the reply to this most interesting 14 158 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. question. It attributes spiritual change in man to the operation of the Holy Spirit of God. It de- scribes Christ's ministers as servants, ambassadors, labourers, watchers, sowers, heralds; but "the pow- er" that makes effectual is reserved in the hand of the Holy Spirit. To them it is given to prophesy to "the dry bones;" but the "breath of the Lord" inspires the life, imparts the vivifying influence, and creates " the new man." It is theirs to " cry aloud ;" but it is the gracious office of the Spirit of the living God to open the heart to attend to the things that are spoken. Within the whole range of divine mani- festations, we see no arrangement more pregnant with instruction, more full of principles suggestive of profound and profitable thought than this. It is full of divine wisdom. It is pervaded by divine mercy. It declares the helplessness and deep guilt of man. It proclaims the glory of the Redeemer, and testifies to the fact of his exaltation as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins. It shines brilliantly among the ever accumu- lating evidence — which the student finds scattered like heaven's own gems on the pages of inspiration — that "God is love." It is the finishing character- istic of the majestic plan of mercy, that plan which, originating in the Eternal Mind, is, like its source, so complete, that it requires no additional touch, no mo- dification, no re-construction ; and so perfect, that all the purposes which it was designed to effect shall be effected, from the greatest to the least, so that the finished result of the whole system shall be the exact counterpart of the original type in the divine mind. Of course, we are indebted to revelation itself for JERUSALEM. 159 the thought; but the idea of redemption from spi- ritual thraldom seems to involve the idea of a spiritual power to be given; a power, that is, in character opposite to, and in energy greater than, the power by which men were enthralled. Man is not only led captive by Satan, a spirit far more powerful than his own, but the tendencies of his mind assimilate to the purposes of Satan. He is not only the slave of an impure Spirit, from whom, had he the will, he could not, unaided, liberate himself, but his own mind is thoroughly in love with this slavery. Hence if he is to become Christ's free man, and the* servant of holiness, his opi7iions must be altered, and his emancipation effected, by the Holy Spirit of God. Pardon respects sin. Justification respects law. The work of the Spirit of God respects the spirit of the pardoned and justified man: his regeneration, libe- ration, cleansing, aspirations after holiness, training for usefulness here and glory hereafter ; his spiritual life, breath, and character. The influences of the Holy Spirit begin and continue sanctification, which is the process of spiritual healing in the soul, its gradual restoration to the image of God. By these influences its affections are drawn from the world, and fixed more and more on Christ, as its hope, its centre, its heaven, its all. Sin appears increasingly odious, holiness increasingly beautiful, Christ in- creasingly precious. The conscience becomes more tender, inward evil is more readily detected, its lurking places in the mind are more easily discovered, and the resolution to follow the Lord fully, gathers strength even from the opposition with which it meets from hiward evil. As the process of sanctification 160 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. goes on, the strength of the mind increases, so that Avorldly cares are more easily borne, and worldly dis- appointments are compelled to subserve the growth of heavenly-mindedness. Formerly, these disappoint- ments were deemed disastrous to the man's true in- terests. They were looked on as destroying the very end, and defeating the very aim of life. But the Spirit of the living God sheds light, from the Scrip- tures, on the true character of these disappointments; and the circumstance which would have crushed the mind on which no ray from heaven had fallen, is shown to belong to the series of disciplinary events by which the God of love attracts his children to himself, as their chief good. In short, all that is necessary gloriously to consummate the divine pur- poses regarding those who have fled for refuge to the Messiah, is effected by the grace of the Holy Spirit. To deny his agency is unphilosophical, unscriptural, and ruinous. This beautiful world were a blank without the light of the sun. Its fertile valleys were a barren waste without the irrigating treasures of the clouds. The grandeur of the system of mercy, as revealed in the Scriptures, were incomprehensible without the illumination of the Spirit. The carnal mind could not receive it. The soul of man were barren of all fruits of holiness without the influences of the Holy Spirit; but when these are shed down, like the soft and fructifying dew, then appear love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, which are, in consequence, denominated the fruits of the Spirit. But it is es- sential to bear in mind, that the life-giving Spirit works on the human spirit through the medium of JERUSALEM. 161 his mvn truth. The Scriptures of truth are inspired by him; truth recorded there is his truth; by this therefore he holds intercourse with the mind of man, enhffhtening the understanding, and purifying the affections. To expect the influences of the Spirit, without reference to the revelation of mercy, of which the atonement of Christ is the centre, is fanaticism; and to expect the perusal of the Scriptures, or the preaching of the gospel to terminate in union to the Redeemer, and spiritual life, and heaven, without the influences of the Spirit, is to dishonour him who takes of the things of Jesus and shows them to the soul, and to give to a system of means the position and power of an etiicient cause. And as Jesus heals the soul, by the power of his omniscient Spirit, through the appointed instrumentality of his word preached and read, so the diseased soul should, in imitation of the poor man whose interesting recovery has suggested these thoughts, be found at Bethesda, the house of mercy, the place where the cure is ex- pected to be performed. It will be a time of great healing among the spiritually disabled myriads of our land, when the sanctuaries of God are crowded by earnest throngs, listening to illustrations of the power of Jesus as the soul's Physician: it will be a period of glorious Sabbath cures ! 14^ CHAPTER XII. WAIN. LIFE KESTORED. Our attention is now called to a new scene in the life of "Messiah the Prince." One of the most illus- trious and memorable of his many miracles, and associated with some of the most heart-touching in- cidents, is brought before the mind in the following paragraph. " And it came to pass that he went into a city called Nain ; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier, and they that bare him stood still. And he said. Young man, I say unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, that a great prophet is risen up am.ong us; and, that God hath visited his people." An inspired pencil only could have given this pic- ture. Here are grouped a variety of figures and cir- cumstances, yet all is distinct, all is impressive, and NAIN. 163 the whole is transferred to the memory of the spec- tator, and can never be forgotten. The eye takes it in, and dwells upon it with wonder, and the imagina- tion hovers around the memorable scene. Perhaps it was evening, the general time of sepulture among the Jews. Jesus, the grandeur of whose character was concealed under the appearance of ordinary humanity, approaches the gate of Nain. With him are his disciples, and a multitude of followers, in- duced to follow by the fame of his recent miracles. A solemn procession issues from the gate. It is a funeral company. They are bearing the body of a dead man towards the place of interment. He was the only son of his widowed mother; her last earthly comforter and stay. Death has inflicted a terrible wound on her heart. Sympathy was excited by her sad loss in the breasts of the citizens of Nain, and many of them go with her to see the grave destined for her son, and to lay his body there. The ap- proaching companies see each other; but perhaps the eyes of the widow are turned to the earth, which is moistened as she proceeds, by her fast falling tears. Deliverance is at hand; but she knows it not. The Lord of life and glory approaches; but as yet she sees him not. The Master of Death is just about to speak to her; but she thinks only of her bereave- ment. He draws near to her, and moved with compassion, says, in his own tender accents, " Weep not." Probably she answers not; but her thoughts may be imagined thus: — Doubtless this is a com- passionate stranger, who sees my grief, and sym- pathizes with me; but if he knew the extent of my sorrow, and the greatness of my loss, he would not 164 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. forbid these tears which yield me a melancholy relief. Jesus is about, however, to give an astonishing illus- tration of his meaning ; and approaching the bier, he touched it. They that bare it, stood, wondering what the stranger meant. All are silent: every eye is fixed on the Saviour, by whose voice the momen- tary suspense is broken: — "Young man, I say unto thee, arise!" The cold ear of the corpse feels the thrill of that living voice; the dead obeys; he that was dead sat up, and began to speak! And Jesus, without ostentation or parade of any kind, probably taking the young man by the hand, delivered him to his amazed mother, in the presence of the amazed and awe-struck multitude. What a rush of new and strange feelings was felt in the breasts of this multitude! "There fell a dread on all." The widow's heart sings for joy. The eyes of all turn from the restored man to his mysterious Restorer. Who is he? Whence this astonishing power? The dead listens to his command! Death obeys his authority! "A great prophet is risen up among us : God hath visited his people." The most thoughtless in the company began to thmk ; the most giddy are solemnly impressed; and from the memory of not one present will that scene ever be erased. Grief and joy, sorrow and gladness, death and life, met without the gate of Nain. The widow's anguish was turned into inexpressible gratitude, her tears of woe were turned into tears of joy: the cloud was thick; the hght of Messiah's countenance dispersed it; the hour was dark; the trappings of death were there ; unavailing sighs, and bitter tears, and pow- erless sympathy were there ; but the Sun of right- NAIN. 1G5 eoiisness arose between the desolate home and the empty grave; and the dreary prospect that ere while stretched around the weeping widow, is bathed in his glowing beams, and lit up with a thousand tints of beauty and of grace. With slow and reluctant step she was proceeding to the grave, to bury the body of her only child, and with it all her earthly affections; but whilst approaching the spot hence- forth to be consecrated by the ashes of him she loved, she found — who can doubt it? — a son and a Saviour! Perhaps it would not be proper to say that the fact under notice illustrates the Divine procedure regard- hig his people, for a miracle is in its nature different from the general operation of Providence; but the circumstances under which it was performed are evi- dently analogous to those remembered in the expe- rience of multitudes; we mean the deliverance which has been wrought for them, most unexpectedly, when all assistance from earthly sources seemed cut off; when all hope was fled, and when there was nothing before them but to drink the last drop of some cup of calamity. Who is there that cannot remember sometiiing of this kind? Some sad trial or difficulty came upon them, to escape from which every effort was put forth, every exertion made, every source from which help was likely lo come, tried, and all, apparently, in vain. The spirit was harassed, the heart was rung, sleep fled from' the eyes; perhaps their Christian character, of all things most dear unto them, was trembling in the balance, from inability to justify before men their professed integrity; when they lay down they said, with Job, "When shall we 166 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. arise, and the night be gone?*' and they were "full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day;" night brought them no repose — " Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," visited not their couch, except to scare them with dreams, and terrify them through visions; and when the hght of day poured through their dwellings, it seemed mingled with a dark hue, the precursor of some fierce storm; when the streets were trod, the head was bent in sympathy with the burdened heart, and the noise of the multitude passing and re-passing, the greetings and adieus, the conversation and laugh- ter of the gathering and dispersing groups, were utterly unintelligible to the ear, except as being something like the muttering of distant thunder; and even prayer itself, with all its soul-relieving associa- tions, was performed in broken accents and with wandering thoughts: then — when the heaven became as iron, and the earth as brass, when hope had fled, and with the silence of despair they awaited the ca- tastrophe, coming with ruin and disgrace in its train — then, and not till then, has a messenger of mercy been sent by an ever-watchful Providence, an angel of deliverance from an ever merciful God. Then the soul is filled with unspeakable emotions, as if just aroused from a terrible dream, and from its innermost recesses there arises a cloud of incense to the God of Salvation ; then ' it is armed with fresh resolution to meet the trials of the way; then it chides itself for distrusting the goodness of the Lord ; and then it fully enters into the sentiment of the spirit-smitten Cowper — NAIN. 1G7 " Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head." This, some reader may say, is but a faint picture of the reahty. Most true. The heart knoweth its own bitterness, and there are soul-pangs which " pen and ink" cannot present to the eye. He, however, who raised the widow's son, is Ruler in the kingdom of Providence, and though he permit evil, for wise and kind reasons, sometimes apparently to triumph without check, yet he will appear for the deliverance of his people when the affliction has gathered all its strength, and is about to strike the final blow. " Ho will not suffer them to be tempted above that they are able; but will, with the temptation also make a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it." But deeper still into the cup of human woe let us look. Here is death! A young man whose friends expected for him, and who probably promised to himself, many years of earthly comfort and useful- ness, is arrested, sickens, dies ! It is a common tale. Who has not been bereaved? Who has not laid some loved one in the grave? Whose breast has not swelled with anguish at the inroads of the last enemy, as the rapidly sinking pulse, and labouring breath, and parched lips, and staring eye, glistening with unearthly intensity, gave distressing proof of speedy dissolution? "The dust we tread once breathed." The wide world is a vast cemetery. The seeds of the resurrection are scattered over the whole earth, and carried by the rivers of every land to the bottom of the great deep. Every generation pushes its prede- 168 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. cesser over the precipice of time, and cries, "Make room!" All know this. Few feel it. All believe it. Few realize it. It is a common truth: — "all must die;" but how few apply the lesson? But our ob- ject is not to dwell on death, or on the tears, and woes, and broken hearts, and deranged intellects that mark his progress, and follow in his train; our eye is on Death's Master. Let us gaze on the Prince of Life! It is common, in poetic language, to speak of death as an independent power, scattering de- struction through the family of man, a free agent, sporting with human hopes, and revelling amidst the disasters of creation. Thus Young speaks of " Strong Death," and of " Death's toll, whose restless iron tongue Calls daily for his millions at a meal." And in the following sublime passage this idea of independency is forcibly expressed: "Death! great proprietor of all! 'tis thine To tread out empire, and to quench the stars; The sun himself by thy permission shines. And, one day, thou shalt pluck him from his sphere." This manner of representing death, though poetically allowable, because perfectly understood by every in- telligent reader, is far from conveying the real cha- racter of the last enemy, and his position — if disso- lution must be personified — in this part of God's uni- verse. Death cannot ultimately defeat any one of the Divine purposes. It is impossible that evil in any form, whether existent in the heart of man or devil, or exhibited in the ravages of mortality, can assimie an independent power under the government NAIN. 169 of the only wise God. Apart altogether from those self-degrading elements which are inherent in all evil, and which, if they do not predict its final ex- tinction, at least sentence it to its "own place," there are considerations springing out of the very idea of divine government, which bring this proposition home to our understanding as an incontrovertible truth. God, the infinitely wise and the infinitely benefi- cent, is the Guardian of the universe. Neither good nor evil can manifest itself at any given time, in any given spot of his vast empire, without his knowledge. The former cannot illumine the spirit, the latter cannot darken the path of any of his crea- tures, in any point of creation, without coming under the full blaze of his omniscience. Of all the good, done at any time, in any world, he is undoubtedly the First Cause. How sin first entered the minds of beings created holy, we ask not. A solution to this great question may be found at some future stage of our being; but time has no revelation regarding it. One thing is certain, that it entered against his ex- press authority: law prohibited it; but it is equally clear, that it could not have entered despite his power; Omnipotence coi//i/ Aai^e prevented it. Why it did not, we think we can to some extent see. Moral laws are intended for intelligent beings, created minds: all created minds are, at some stage of their existence subjected to a process of probation, which supposes moral law; evil entered the minds both of fallen angels and of men during their probationary state; but to have prevented this calamity by the exercise of power on the part of God, would have at once suspended law 3.nd probation. 15 170 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. The trial of the creature necessarily ends when Omnipotence prevents the possibility of his fall; and of course the motives and sanctions of law are in- operative, because superfluous, when infinite power shields the intelligence from the possibility of moral injury. Nor can there be in such a case reward for obedience, seeing that transgression was rendered impossible : obedience was a necessity, and therefore without merit. These thoughts, which merely point to a process of reasoning which might be followed long and profitably, serve to indicate that moral evil may enter the dominions of an infinitely holy and beneficent God, in perfect consistency with his cha- racter; that the relation in which his intelligent creatures stand to him, in their probationary state, forbids the exercise of omnipotence to prevent their transgression; and that death, which is one of the visible results of sin, has not, and cannot have, the power of ultimately defeating the Divine purposes. Nay, we go farther. Is not this Death, at present, in no higher position than the slave of Jesus Christ? And will not the Lord of life compel this sin-made scourge of man, ultimately to subserve some grand and unrevealed purpose of infinite wisdom and mer- cy? What if the Restorer of life intend to reveal at some future stage of our being an eternal purpose, by which the ravages of death shall be pressed into the service of illustrating his glory and increasing the happiness of his elect, when sin, the cause of death, shall have been sealed up in its own eternal den? One thing is certain — He brings good out of evil; and if in the ordinary operations of his provi- dence his grace is thereby illustrated, how much NAIN. 171 more will it be so if the ravages of the last enemy shall be summoned to the same service? The mag- nitude of the evil will correspondingly magnify the grace. The light will shine the brighter from the blackness of the contrast. The Restorer of life will stand on high, with death under his feet. Of the power over death possessed by him who, "in the days of his flesh," restored to life the daugh- ter of Jairus, the young man of Nain, and Lazarus of Bethany, the Holy Scriptures, both prophetic and apostolic, speak expressly. There is nothing dubi- ous about the language of either Isaiah or Paul on this subject. They mean to inform the world that Messiah has the power, of which he gave glorious specimens when he was on earth, of raising the dead, communicating life, and destroying death itself. This last he will do, when the proper hour arrives. Let us look at a few passages from the pens of prophets and apostles, on this hope-exciting subject. Isaiah sings thus: "He shall utterly destroy death for ever; And the Lord Jehovah shall wipe away the tear from off all faces ; And the reproach of his people shall he remove from the whole earth : For Jehovah hath spoken it." Lovvth. Hosea says — "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death : O death ! I will be thy plague; O grave! I will be thy destruction; Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." Paul, having both prophecies in his mind, says, tiiat " this saying shall be brought to pass" when " the 172 TUE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." He had previously stated that Christ "must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet," and that "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death:" and then he breaks out with these trium- phant questions, "0 death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." The Apostle's exultation in the anti- cipation of this triumph is expressed in such poetic language, that Pope has adopted it in his " Dying Christian," with only a transposition of the order. "O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" Writing to Timothy, the same Apostle says, that "Our Saviour, Jesus Christ has abolished death;" and he tells the Hebrews, that "Jesus took part of flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." And now that the glorious Conqueror is on his high throne, we hear him saying, " I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen: and have the keys of hell and of death." Well might he say to the sorrowing sister of Lazarus, "I am the resurrection and the life." The abolition of death formed part of the me- diatorial plan. Christ came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself In anticipation of the offering of this sacrifice, and on the ground of its acceptance. NAIN. 173 he forgave sin, pardoned transgressors, to the as- tonishiiient ol" tliose who heard him, and who, sup- posing him to be merely man, charged him with blas- phemy, a charge obviously correct on thdr theory ; for if Jesus of Nazareth were merely man, he had no power to forgive sin: this is the prerogative of God, the Lawgiver ; it follows then, that if Jesus forgave sin, the union of Deity with humanity in the person of Messiah, for which the inspired writers furnish the most overwhelming evidence, is a reality. But the power to forgive sin, involves the power to abol- ish death. Sin is the active principle of evil in the heart and life of man; death — we use the word in this connexion, simply to signify the dissolution of the body — is the last visible result of sin. Now, he who came to put away the cause of death, and who gloriously succeeded in the object- of his incarnation, must have power to terminate the effect. Remove the former, and the latter ceases. But it has been said, all men die, good and bad; where is the proof that Christ has abolished death? This question pro- ceeds from a fundamental error. The prevention of the dissolution of the body formed no part of the me- diatorial system. That system is strictly a system of Redemption. It sets aside no law, neither moral nor physical. The dissolution of the human body — though we certainly believe it to be the result of sin — must be acknowledged to be a physical law. Redemption, we have said, sets aside no law. Christ magnified and made honourable God's spiritual and moral laws, and redeemed all who believe in him ^rom their curse; he offered a sacrifice for sin, and redeemed all who believe in him frojii its power; and he died and 15* 174 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. rose again, and redeemed all who believe in him from death : they will be ransomed from the grave. This appears to be the glorious order, which is ob- viously in harmony with the idea of redemption. The death of the soul, spiritual death, is the penalty of sin; the day in which Adam sinned he died thus, and the apostle teaches us that all sinners are thus "dead in trespasses and sins." Now mark, the me- diatorial plan does not prevent this : it never contem- plated the prevention of this. The man rebels against God, and that moment he becomes dead to holiness, dead to God and the spiritual world, and to all in- tents and purposes as incapable of rising by his own strength to holiness of heart and reconciliation with God, as a corpse is of rising from its grave; and if not redeemed he must perish for ever. What then did the plan of grace contemplate? We reply, the re- demption of this man from, the spiritual death which his sin had produced; hence Jesus makes him "a new creature:" it is a spiritual resurrection: he is raised up to newness of life. So with the death of the body; it takes place; saints fall asleep, but it is in Christ, and he will in due time ransom them from the grave; death will have no more dominion over them; for they are the children of the resurrection, and they cannot die any more. Thus Jesus has abo- lished death, the abolition of which formed part of the mediatorial plan. God's moral and physical laws continue unchangeable ; Christ redeems those given to him from the curse of the one and the mortality of the other; he is the great Restorer of lost life, spiritual and bodily; and the same power that makes a child of wrath an heir of glory, will rend the graves NAIN. 175 of earth and summon together liis saints, that on the holy mind, united to its incorruptible body, he may bestow the glories of life eternal. And then, 0, how Avill our happiness be enhanced by the restored life of the loved ones whom on earth we have carried to their graves! Jesus will speak to them: they will arise, and he will "deliver them to" us, endowed with perpetual health and life ! "'Behold, my covenant stands for ever good, Sealed by the eternal sacrifice in blood. And signed with all their names; the Greek, the Jew^ That paid the ancient worship or the new:' There's no distinction liere ; join all your voices. And raise your heads, ye saints, for heaven rejoices. '"Here, (saith the Lord) ye angels spread their thrones. And near me seat my favorites and my sons: Come, my redeemed, possess the joys prepared Ere time began I 'tis your divine reward.' When Christ returns, wake every cheerful passion And shout, ye saints, he comes for your salvation." CHAPTER XIIL THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. THE STORM HUSHED. After the miracle at Nain had been performed, we find our Lord giving the memorable answer to the disciples of John, who were sent to inquire whether he were the Messiah; — discoursing about the cha- racter of the Baptist; lamenting over the impenitent cities that had been favoured as the scenes of his mighty works; making a progress through many- places, attended by the twelve and others; answer- ing the blasphemous Pharisee, who affirmed that his miracles resulted from collusion with Satan; caution- ing his hearers against the commission of the sin against the Holy Ghost; going to the sea side, and there delivering the parables of the sower, the tares, the springing seed, the mustard seed, the leaven, the hid treasure, the pearl, and the net; and now we find him crossing the Sea of Tiberias, and by a word stilling a fearful tempest. The facts of this sublime miracle are recorded by three of the Evan- gelists, a circumstance which justifies the impression that it must have had an extraordinary influence on their minds. Matthew's narrative follows: — "And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And, behold, there arose a great THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 177 tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was co- vered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, why are ye fearful, ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm." We envy not the mind that can look on this with- out emotion. It is fitted to stir to its centre any soul that can realize majesty, sublimity, grandeur. "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!" Is not this he "who by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power: who stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves and the tumult of the people?" Is not this he whom David addressed thus, "Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them?" Is not this he who interrogated Job out of the stormy cloud? "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, hitherto shall thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" This is he of whom John says, 178 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made;" and of whom Paul says, " By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or princi- palities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Here is the Messiah giving proof of his irresistible authority over the elements of nature, the material part 4>f his dominions, as he had done before over disease and death. At his word vigour returned to the invalid, and life to the dead; and now at the same word the storm is suc- ceeded by a calm. "He speaks, and it is done!" In every region, whether that of disease, of death, or of storm, the effect is the same: he is immedi- ately obeyed. Disease and health; death and hfe; storm and calm are all at his bidding; they are all liis servants. "He is Lord of all," and entitled to the adoration of all his creatures. " Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded and they were created. Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow and va- pours; stormy Avind fulfilling his word." All these are under constant subjection to the Lord of Chris- tians; and the inspired poetry that calls on them all to praise him, whether they be intelligent or non- intelligent, animate or inanimate, proceeds on this grand principle. THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 179 The miracle itself is suggestive of important con- siderations in relation to the Christian economy. Be- lieving, as we do, that time, with all its momentous interests, and the world, with its wonderful history, shall be made subsidiary to the elucidation of this economy; that the great scheme of providence is subservient to the greater scheme of grace ; and that the illustrations of God's character furnished by the phenomena of the material world are best understood in the light of the mediatorial plan; it appears fit and proper that the Mediator, as such, should have given specimens of his power in the providential kingdom, and over the material world, when he lived on this earth. It was relative to his mission. It was in accordance with the design of his Mes- siahship. It was right that, alluding to his mira- cles, he should be able to say, "What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son like- wise; — the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me;" that he should command the messengers of the Baptist to inform their master of the miracles which they had seen performed, as an answer to his question, "Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" and that "many of the people," convinced that he was the Messiah, should be able to justify their faith in him, as such, by saying, " When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?" The works which the Messiah was to do, the doctrines he was to teach, and the sufferings he was to undergo, were done, taught, and undergone by Jesus of Nazareth; there- ISO THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. fore Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. His mi- racles were performed, his doctrines were delivered, and his death suffered, in his Messianic character. His oral communications to the people were there- fore the mind of God; his miracles, illustrations of the beneficence of God, and his sacrificial death, at once the proclamation and consummation of the atonement. The evidence of his Messiahship furnished by mira- cles, was not simply deduced or inferred from them by his followers, though in the absence of any infor- mation from himself as to their grand design, cor- rect reasoners would have said, "When the Messiah Cometh will he do more miracles than these?" but Jesus himself repeatedly pointed to them as confir- matory of his claim to Messiahship. This doubtless was their primary design, their first object; but we are mistaken if they do not, as already hinted, adum- brate truths of a still higher class and wider range in the Christian economy. Take, for instance, the stilling of the tempest. A sudden storm had come down on the lake, and laslied its waters into fury. The little vessel, tossed by the violence of the waves and the strength of the wind, was, like other vessels in similar circumstances, in jeopardy: it became unmanageable: the means used by the disciples were inadequate to cope with the raging elements: they saw no prospect but death, except the Divine mercy should interpose to prevent it^ accordingly, they appealed to Jesus, of whose wonder working power and Divine compassion they had had many previous illustrations: ardent was their cry, urgent their prayer: "Lord, save us; we perish!" He arose, spake to the wind and the THE SEA OP TIBERIAS. ISl waters, and both obeyed immediately; the air be- came calm, and the surface of tlie lake smooth. Here were benevolence and power, constant charac- teristics of Jesus, acting in harmony to allay the mental disquietude of the disciples, and the mate- rial disturbance which caused that disquietude. The miracle was complete. The parties were saved. The wind ceased. The waters slept. The speaker was felt to be more than man. The reinless winds were chained. The storm-tossed lake was composed. The miracle appealed to the senses, and through the senses to the understanding of the astonished wit- nesses of this sublime transaction. Had latent doubt remained in the breast of any of the voyagers regard- ing the true character of Jesus, its last foothold would have given way now. Its power to disturb the mind would cease, for it would instantly vanish to give place to unbounded faith. But beyond those in- delible impressions which may have been made on the minds of the disciples at the period under notice, we think the light of succeeding revelations invites us to gaze. It points to man's Redeemer, the Adminis- trator of all affairs in the spiritual world, as the up- holder of all things, by whom all things consist, in the material universe. The vast empire of visible creation is declared to dependent on "the vvoud OP HIS POWER." The integrity of its laws, and the recurrence of its seasons, are secured by him; the periods of its cycles, and the orbits of its planets, are ordained and regulated by him; the fertility of the earth, the fragrance of the flower, the treasures of the cloud, and the warmth of the sun-beam, are ap- pointed and maintained by him. 16 183 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. "Tlie northern pole, and southern, rest On his supporting hand; Darkness and day from east to west Move round at his command. "His words the raging winds control. And rule the boisterous deep ; He makes the sleeping billows roll. The rolling billows sleep." " There could not be a more distinct ascription of Divinity to the Son of God than this," says a pleas- ing writer, that he upholds all things by the word of his power. " He upholds or sustains all things, that is, the universe. It is not merely the earth; not only its rocks, mountains, seas, animals, and men, but it is the universe — all distant worlds. How can he who is not God do this? He does it by his word — his command. What a conception! That a simple command should do all this! I know not* how men can explain away this ascription of infi- nite power to the Redeemer. There can be no higher idea of Omnipotence than to say that he up- holds all things by his word; and assuredly he who can hold up this vast universe, so that it does not sink into anarchy or into nothing, must be God." And now the question arises, what influence has this au- thority of the Messiah over the material universe, on the plan of spiritual redemption? If Jesus wrought miracles in his mediatorial character, and with the purpose, as we think, of evolving some truth be- yond the validity of his claim to Messiahship, what was that truth? If in the days when he appeared in the form of a servant, and previous to the offering up of liimself as a sacrifice for sin, he gave demon- THE SEA OF TIBEUIAS. 183 stralioii of his power over the material world by chaining the hurricane with a word, is it not fairly- inferable that the completion of the atoning purpose was an established certainty in the Divine counsels? Would the God incarnate have spoken thus, if the completion of this purpose had depended upon a con- tingency? And does not the fact that Jesus is Master of the universe give empliasis, at least to beings so greatly influenced by the objects of sense as we are, to the declaration that he is able to save them to the uttermost, that is, completely, that come unto God by him? What power can prevent this final and ab- solute salvation in the case of believers? Not sin; for it is pardoned for the sake of him who destroyed its condemning power by the sacrifice of himself. Not the law; for it is magnified and made honour- able. Not Satan; for captivity has been led cap- tive by the all-victorious Messiah. Not the world; for it is under the control of him who is head over all things. Not death; for we have seen him who claims the majestic title of "the Resurrection AND THE Life," commanding the last enemy to sur- render liis prey. The hurricane may bury the body of the believer in the furious ocean, or the yawning earthquake may entomb him alive, if Jesus so per- mit; but the sea shall give up its dead, and the graves shall open at the voice which stilled the storm on the lake of Tiberias. "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Clnist Jesus oiu* Lord." And ought not the con- 184 THE FOOTSTEPS 01' MESSIAH. templation of the visible creation, with its astonisliing variety of interesting objects, to Avarm the affec- tions and strengthen the faith of the Christian to- wards his most glorious Lord? The seas and conti- nents, the rivers and islands, the forests and plains, the deserts and fruitful fields, of the terraqueous globe, belong to Him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification. Light and darkness, storm and calm, are among his ministering ser- vants. All speak of a Saviour, all point to the Lamb of God, all are parts of the universal revelation, which finds its verbal summing-up in the Bible, and its enelTably brilhant centre in the exalted Messiah! Moreover, in relation to Jesus himself, how appro- priate that the material scene of his agony, the place of the travail of his soul, should be his in possession, included in his vast reward ! How fit that he who redeemed men should rule the world where his disciples are trained! How right that he should own the earth once trod by his own footsteps, and moistened by his own blood ! How consistent with the character of Jehovah, that he who broke the sceptre of the usurper, and bruised the serpent's head, should have the rescued world, where the con- flict took place, and where the victory was achieved, as part of his dominions! These considerations, also, indicate that the scheme of providence, which we have said is subservient to the greater scheme of grace, is executed by the Redeemer. Both schemes indeed are only parts of one great whole, of which he is the constituted and proclaimed administrator: hence the scheme of providence, whether manifested in the regulation of the seasons, or in the experience THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 1S5 of an individual Christian, will never teach a single truth subversive of, or contradictory to, any of the truths of that written revelation which proclaims the scheme of grace. There will be co-operation, there will be mutual illustration, and in due time, notwith- standing present mysteries, worlds will be summoned (o witness the glorious consummation of the purpose to which both harmoniously tend. It ought not to be matter of surprise that there appear to us frequent collisions between the experience of the Christian, and what, judging from the declared love of his God to him, ive should imagine that experience ought to be; for the comprehensive plan, whose breadth and grandeur surpass the widest sweep and strongest gaze of human ken, is probably far from its completion yet. It is only in the course of evolution, and, for aught we know of the design as it exists in the Eternal Mind, perhaps only in comparatively its first stages. The man who is ignorant of architecture, sees in the early stages of a building, which he is told is in- tended to be a palace for royalty, only pieces of wall, which appear to have no connexion with each other, and excavations, and rubbish, and scaffolding; but the archetype of the building is in the mind of the designer, and under his direction the structure will be completed in due time to the admiration of the beholder. And at the destined period, the eternal purpose of God will be so unfolded to the view of all worlds as to excite exclamations of adoration and gratitude. Those things which appear to us myste- rious, such as the exposure of saints to the storms and the restless ocean of life, will be found in per- fect harmony with his beneficent purpose, "who is 16* 186 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." That day is coming, that " Great day, To set in proper light the affairs of earth, And justify the government Divine ; Great day I — what can we more? What should we more .' Great triumph day of God's Incarnate Son I Great day of glory to the Almighty God! Day ! whence the everlasting years begin Their date, new era in eternity, And oft referred to in the song of heaven!" It is certainly the purpose of God, for it is express- ly revealed, " to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth." This grand and glorious purpose, which is every way worthy of Him who is love, requires only to be kept in view, to give an overwhelming idea of the majesty of the Christian dispensation, and of the supreme glory of its exalted Head. From some pe- culiar doctrinal eminence men may obtain a view of one or more of the aspects of this dispensation, as it exhibits one or more of the moral features of man, or as it sheds light on one or more of the Divine mani- festations; but from the mount of revelation, rising up into the third heavens, far above the cloud-cov- ered scenes of sectional strife, the mental eye, aided by strong laith, can sweep the universe of mind and matter, and, exulting in the gorgeous prospect, inlaid with golden worlds, and alive with mighty intellects, can exclaim, Christ, my Saviour, my Lord, is Head over all this! Ruler and Prince over all this ! This is the breadth of hnmanueVs land. The passage just quoted, is one of those mounts of revelation. It requires a strong foot to ascend it. It THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 187 needs, when the summit is reached, a strong eye to embrace the prospect. We see from it tlie final re- concihation of all things on earth and in heaven in Christ. How stupendously grand the prospect from this height! How boundless the view! There is 110 jarring element; no more discord in the wide universe! Angels and men are reconciled; inter- mediate worlds — the word in the Greek is plural — "heavens" — rolling between Jehovah's throne and Jiis footstool, earth, are all in harmony, under the benign reign of Messiah. Peace is restored. Order is universal. All minds are loyal — the impenitent in- habitants of one dark and solitary world, wandering in its sunless path in the outskirts of creation, ex- cepted. Everything is " put under" the Lord Jesus. Angels, men, and other intelligences, bow to his sceptre. Worlds on worlds are upheld by his power, safe in his protection, radiant in his smile, beauti- ful by his affluence, the scenes of his benignity, parts of his measureless dominions! The influence of that Christianity which is the medium of temporal blessings to all mankind, and of spiritual salvation to those who receive it in love, is not confined to this world and the future home of the redeemed, but in some way, unknown to us, extends to other creatures and other worlds. To the principalities and powers in heavenly places are made known, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. Wisdom, like the works of God in nature, greatly diversified, varie- gated, well ordered, or like the panorama of a rich and beautiful landscape, tending to excite the pro- foundest admiration, is displayed in the plan of re- demption, and by its effects in the Church of the 188 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. living God, before the minds of the higher ranks of being in upper worlds. They have all one Master, the Head and King of the Christian Church. And though they may not need, as men do, the bene- fits resulting from his incarnation, atonement, and in- tercession, yet they see exhibited in them, and illus- trated by them, the infinite wisdom of God, who, by such means, has reclaimed an alienated world, and restored it to its proper position among the stars that encircle his throne. Nor is this all. The results of Messiah's regal authority end not even here. The material world is disordered by human guilt. Sin has poisoned matter, as well as mind. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake," said God to Adam, "thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." The sentence was executed. The earth groans through all her borders. Pestilential vapours rise from many a shore. The desert simoom kills the pilgrim hordes. The avalanche rushes on its human prey. The burning mountain covers cities with torrents of fire. The lightning smites the way-side passenger. The tumultuous ocean swallows navies. The earthquake locks its victim in its granite jaws. The winged storm scatters the food of man, and rives the forest oak. Blight and mildew prepare the way of death. Add to these those less noted, but far more destruc- tive, agents from earth, air, and water, which are ever infusing poison into the human frame; and reminding man that the material world is full of enemies, scattered there on account of his sins. The human "lazar house," built by human guilt, con- tains — THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 189 " Numbers of all diseased, all maladies Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds, Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs, I Intestine stone, and ulcer, colic pangs, Demoniac phrenzy, moping melancholy, And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy, Merasmus, and wide-wasting ])estilence. Dropsies, and asthmas, and joint-racking rheums." But he who walked upon the sea and commanded the waves to be still, shall reconcile all things. Be- fore he deliver up the kingdom to his Father, the material creation shall cease to contain a noxious vapour, a poison-plant, or a pestilential influence. The thousand messengers of death shall die. The curse shall leave the ground. The boiling fires of earth shall rend its crust no more. The enemies of man shall cease, for man shall cease to be the ene- my of God. The heaving ocean shall no longer ter- rify, and the rushing hurricane shall cease to alarm; for he who in the days of his humiliation rebuked the winds and the waves of Tiberias, shall stand upon the throne of his glory, and issue his com- mand to a hsteuing universe, '^I'cace, Be still!" CHAPTER XIV. CESAREA PHILIPPI. THE CLAIM TO MESSIAH SHI P. Could we lose sight for a moment of the infinitely merciful object for which the Messiah appeared among men, and fix our thoughts exclusively on his charac- ter, we should still find enough to excite the profound- est admiration and \vonder. Everything that we can imagine necessary to form the perfection of humanity, the standard of our judgment being the revealed re- quirements of God, finds its abode and centre in this character. Neither before nor since has there appear- ed among men such a combination of varied excel- lencies, such a cluster of mental and moral beauties, as dwelt in the man Christ Jesus. And these ex- cellencies, we repeat, being such as God himself re- quires, were positive; absolutely up to the divine standard, not comparative, or such as distinguish one mere man from another. The patience that bears misrepresentation and injury; the magnanimity that forgives enemies; the sympathy that weeps with sor- row; the compassion that relieves distress; the love to God and men that fulfils the law; the unwearied zeal that leads to practical efforts for the glory of the former and the good of the latter; the engrossing solicitude that keeps its eye constantly on the great CESAREA PHILIPPI. 191 object of existence; the comprehensive benevolence that distains all selfish interests; the wisdom that selects the best means for accomplishing the best ends; the faith that wavers not in the dark and. cloudy day; the piety that shines with steady light in sorrow and in joy; the perfect holiness that re- ceives no stain from surrounding impurity; the re- signation that gathers motives to praise from every divine dispensation; the spirituality that finds the spring of conduct in the heart; the resolution that founds itself on what is immutably right, irrespec- tive of temporary consequences; the obedience to Jehovah's law which recognises in the will of God the safeguard of the universe; the enunciation of truth for its own sake, however it may clash with patronised maxims; the sincerity which never di- verges from its straight course to parley with expe- diency: the intellectual power that awes learning into reverence; the condescension that attracts the timid child; and the divine philosophy which measures hu- man conduct by an infallible standard, and places all the transactions of time in the light of eternity, were all found in, and exhibited by, the man Christ Jesus, in absolute perfection. Nor was this unequalled character occasional, tran- sitory, variable. It was uniform, constant, unchange- able. His heart was always pure. His affections were always in harmony; always set on God; — he loved hiin with all his strength, and soul, and mind, — and on God's work: he delighted to do it; and on God's fallen creatures: he failed not until lie had redeemed them. His understanding was always comprehensive, his intellect clear, his 192 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. judgment infallible. When he taught, there was no ostentation. When he suffered, there was no mur- muring. When he rejoiced, there was no levity. When he rebuked, there was no asperity. When he silenced gainsayers, there was no boast of tri- umph. When he took up children in his arms, there was no show of condescension. When he walked with the poor, there was no affected superiority. When he dined with the rich, there was no con- cealment of his opinions. He asked no favour, he sought no patronage, he courted no applause. Whe- ther sitting among the fishermen of Galilee, or in one of the cottages of Nazareth, or in the house of the Pharisee ; whether standing before the Jewish priests, or in the presence of Herod, or at the bar of Pilate; whether teaching the multitude, or insti- tuting the eucharist, or bearing his cross, he was the same ; " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Supremely beautiful character! Who that has looked upon it, as delineated with inimitable fidelity and simplicity in the evangelic history, can fail uttering a burst of surprised delight ! It has no drawback, no shade out of keeping, no stain; there is nothing to be deducted, nothing to be added. It is " altogether lovely." To his majestic miracles, proving his Divine pre- existence and authority, let his wonderful human character be added, and the validity of his claim to Messiahship, as put forth in the hearing of his disci- ples in the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, will be fully acknowledged. In the interval between the stilling of the tempest and the cojifession of his Messiahship, to which at- CESAREA PHILPPir. 193 tentiori is now called, our Lord had performed many miracles, among which may be mentioned the dis- possession of two demoniacs in the country of the Gadarenes — curing a woman of a dangerous disease, to overcome which human effort had been unavailing — raising from the dead the daughter of Jairus — feeding five thousand persons with five barley loaves and two small fishes — walking on the sea and stilling another storm — allowing many diseased persons to touch him, by which they were immediately cured — casting out a demon from the daughter of a Syro- phenician woman — curing a deaf and dumb man — satisfying the hunger of above four thousand persons by seven loaves and a few small fishes — and giving sight to a blind man at Bethsaida; after which he went into the towns belonging to Cesarea Philippi, when he asked his disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? And they said. Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." "But," continued our Saviour, "whom say ye that I am?" Peter, with characteristic promptitude, replied, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus received this declaration, involving a full recognition of his office and character, with the following bene- diction on the speaker, and an assurance that his opinion was a revelation from God himself: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." We cannot conceive of a more explicit declaration of approval of opinion, ratified as it was by a solemn appeal to Jehovah for its correctness. Thou art bless- 17 194 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. ed in the possession of this firm faith in Me as the Messiah, and the Son of the hving God, which I ac- knowledge and approve, for it is not the result of hu- man teaching, but it has been discovered to thee by my Father who is in heaven. The testimony is ac- cepted, and enshrined amongst the lasting verities of heaven, of which God is the author and revealer. The witness is approved and blessed, and encouraged to go forth, with rock-like firmness, in justification of the name he bore, for on the immutable truth to which he had now borne testimony, it was the intention of Jesus to build his Church. And Jesus himself now stands before his adoring disciples as the acknowledged Mes- siah, the Son of God, the author of salvation, and the Head of the Church. After the most careful examination of the subject, and of the conflicting theories regarding the passage which immediately follows — " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" — we are convinced, though, as already stated, we have no critical object in this work, that the above is the plain meaning which attaches to it. Jesus knew the decision of character which this apostle would evince, as a witness both to Jew and Gentile, that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and in allusion to this firmness, he called him nst^oi, Peter, a rock; he knew with what unflinching firmness he would vindi- cate this fundamental truth of the new economy from the cavillings of Jews and the sophistry of Gentiles; and he took occasion, as we think, from this avowal of Peter, to insinuate that he expected from him mani- festations of equal explicitness under trying circum- stances. It is, at all events, perfectly obvious, that CESAREA PHILIPPI. 195 the recognition and confession of the Messiahship of Jesus Jie at the foundation of the Christian Cliurch. Without this, there can be no church. Peter named the fundamental truth of Christianity. On this trutli the Church is built. Here is the first doctrine in the spiritual economy: Jesus of Nazareth is the great Messiah, and the Son of the ever living God. Tiiis doctrine holds the same relation to the plan of re- demption that a firm foundation does to a building. It is the basis of the superstructure. The super- incumbent erection rests upon it. It afl^ords secu- rity for the stability of the edifice. Let the Mes- siahship and Deity of Jesus Christ, for both are included in Peter's profession, be recognised in their length and breadth, as far as the human mind can recognise them, and the rock on which the Chris- tian Church rests becomes manifest in its glorious strength. The gates of hell, the counsels of the un- godly, shall not prevail against it. Heresy may work in the dark, but it cannot undermine; intestine broils may trouble, but they cannot rend; persecution may rage, but it cannot overthrow the building so founded. The flood and the hurricane may lash and beat against it, but their fury will tend only to ex- pend themselves, without removing a single stone in the spiritual temple, whose foundation is the Messiah- ship and Deity of Jesus Christ. This is a subject of infinite importance. Jesus Christ claimed to be the Messiah and the Son of the living God. As a doctrine it is ineffably grand. It stands out in its own brilliant light, conspicuous from its inherent majesty. And like all other doc- trines of Scripture, there emanate from it Cliristian 196 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. precepts, and guiding principles for Christian faith and practice, whose vahie in the Christian dispensa- tion must be estimated by the position of the doctrine from which they emanate. There is no doctrine of Scripture introduced for the mere purpose of giving uniformity to the plan of redemption, as developed in the New Testament ; each has an allotted sphere in which it shines, and gives out its appropriate practical light in its appointed region; and if each requires the exercise of faith in it as a doctrine, it also points to the practical influence of that faith as the required evidence of its existence. The New Testament is constructed on this very principle. It is a commentary on its own doctrines. It points to them as they shine in the heaven of revelation, and it summons man, for whose benefit they were placed there, to walk by the light which they give. Thus, for example: Is regeneration a doctrine of Scripture? It requires ^^servicem. newness of spirit." Is Just i- fication by faith in Christ, without the works of the law, a doctrine of Scripture? It requires that man believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth, and walk in newness of life. Is adoption a doctrine of Scripture? "Be ye \hexeioYQ followers o^ God as dear children," is its language. Is election a doctrine of Scripture? "Give diligence to make it sure," and "put on, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suf- fering," are its precepts. Is sanciification a doctrine of Scripture? The light that shines from it writes across the Christian's pathway, " Have no fellowship with the unfruitful ivorks of darkness, but ratber reprove them." Is spiritual influence a doctrine of CESAREA PHILIPPI. 197 Scripture? The corresponding command is, "Quench not the Spirit." Is the perseverance of saints a doc- trine of Scripture? Its precept is "Continue in the grace of God;" and practical obedience in view of it says, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calUng of God in Christ Jesus." So with the doctrine before us. It sheds its own hght over the whole system of mercy. It points to a thousand facts, and illumines a thousand circumstances, which otherwise would be involved in inexplicable mys- tery. But it is more than a doctrine. It is the foun- tain of all the light in which Divine revelation has been bathed, from the days of Moses to those of John. Its rays embrace the paradisiacal promise and the apocalyptic benediction. Ante-incarnation Scriptures led the mind of ancient saints forward to the work and character of Messiah: subsequent rev- elations recall that work and describe that character; and that work and character form to this hour, and will form henceforth, the glorious centre of attraction to all believers; for it is the central light of the me- diatorial dispensation. Other doctrines, as stars in the firmament, revolve around it; but it is the daz- zling sun, whence all their light is derived. This is the great light which came into the world. Revela- tion is the beautiful landscape on which its beams are shed. Man is the being summoned to gaze thereon and be blessed. And a happy eternity is the pro- mised result of a cordial faith in the source of this glorious hght. Deny that the Redeemer is the Son of God, in a sense infinitely superior to that in which the desig- nation is applied to any creature, and the whole 17^ 198 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. system of revelation is shorn of its grandeur. That which was before superlatively attractive, and spread out in living light and glory, producing alternately exclamations of wonder, and feelings of intense gra- titude, becomes dim and shadowy, unfinished and confused. A system of exegesis must be introduced, with no surer foundation than the vagaries of un- aided human reason; doctrinal theology wanders from its orbit and loses its bond of union; and the precepts of revelation are separated from that mo- tive which, in apostolitic writings, gives them such force and power. Hence any ecclesiastical confede- racy which is brought together on such a system, will be destitute of energy, activity, and spiritual zeal. It will not try to win the world to Christ. It will languish from inherent feebleness. It will neither have the spirit nor the material for aggres- sion on the unreclaimed wastes of the moral world; for it is destitute of faith in an omnipotent Messiah. Under the character of a prophet and messenger it may believe on him; but the dishonour done to him by denuding him of essential Deity, more than counterbalances the value of such a circumscribed faith. It is a faith which receives but part of the truth, and consequently has but a partial operation. But admit the claim of Jesus in its widest meaning; listen to the messenger, and honour the Son as tiie Father is honoured; recognise in him the Messiah and the Prince, Immanuel, God with us; and the system of mercy stands before mankind in full ma- jesty; the foundation truth on which the Church rests is revealed as sufficiently broad to bear the hopes of a world; the guarantee for die realization CESAREA PHILIPPI. 199 of those hopes becomes, as it were, visible in the per- son of the Word made flesh; the rays of redeeming love that gild the page of inspiration are seen to issue from the Son of God, who once appeared on earth in human form, walking on " the world that was made by him/' and as the man of sorrows and ac- quainted with grief, suffering, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; and as certainly as these Divine truths are cordially received into the heart, so certainly will its gratitude be excited to count all things but loss for such a Saviour, and to bring all men within the influence of his healing beams. Scriptural views of Messiah's character are necessary to correct views of his claims. His re- quirements spring from what he is; their length, and breadth, and depth, must be measured by his position in the universe. The grace of Christ was illustrated by his ac- knowledgment of Messiahship. It might have been deduced from his holy character, his heavenly teachings, and his miraculous power, added to those supernatural occurrences to which reference has been made, that he was the promised Saviour. Indeed, no other conclusion could have been arrived at. But to hear from his own lips a declaration so explicit as that which is involved in his response to the pro- fession of Peter, adds another link to the chain of evidence, and comes upon the mind of the listener like heavenly music. We hear it from himself, and are satisfied. It is to us an assurance that on his part everything should be done to keep us from walk- ing in darkness, and to guide our feet into the way of peace; that laborious research amongst prophetic 200 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. scrolls, and patient investigation of ancient opinions, should not be essential so the faith of the disciple; but that on the historical page, written for all coming ages, it should be found once and again, that he directly claimed to be the long promised and long looked for deliverer. The validity of that claim may be tested by those who have the requisite leisure and literary ability, by an examination of those sources of evidence which are accessible to the scholar — and learning cannot be more honourably employed, nor wreathe for herself a richer chaplet — and the result of that examination will be to deepen the conviction, that this is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. But still to the thousands of Israel whose daily toil grants no leisure for such in- vestigation, and whose mental acquirements are too limited to enter upon it, it is a source of devout gratitude to find him whom they believe to be " the Truth," and in whom is all their hope, expressly acknowledging that he was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. However valuable the labours of learned men in this department of mental toil, and that they are inexpressibly valuable, nothing but the most impenetrable ignorance will deny, yet it is well known that the Bible alone is the school book of the overwhelming majority of God's chil- dren; to them therefore, to find that Saviour whom they love more than life, not only giving evidence such as no mere man could have given that he is their mighty Redeemer, but actually saying so, it is a fresh proof of his goodness, an additional illus- tration of his grace. To them his word is more precious than rubies, more consolatory than the CESAREA PHILIPPI. 201 treasures of earth. They know in whom they have beUeved, and are persuaded that heaven and earth will pass away before one word of his fall to the ground. Their faith stands not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. They have been taught by him who teacheth savingly. They have heard and learned of the Father, and so have come to the Son; and in him they have found the supply of all their wants — the source of joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is diflicult to avoid being arrested by the tone of deep earnestness which characterized the speak- ers on this momentous occasion. We can imagine ourselves in their presence. We hear their voices. We watch the earnest eye of Peter, and the breath- less attention of the other disciples, whilst he was giv- ing verbal utterance to the faith common to them all. We look on the serene majesty of the Redeemer's countenance whilst gazing on that of his dauntless disciple. He knew that that very disciple should soon deny him; but that afterwards his courage should "strengthen his brethren." He knew that the confession of that disciple should be the watch- word of his followers in all future ages. Eagerly did the twelve listen to the words which came from their Master's Hps. As he spake, a thrill of holy joy awoke the best emotions of their hearts. They were glad, and grateful. The spot became endeared to their memories. Cesarea Philippi is more ho- noured by having its locality associated with this scene, than by being ornamented by Philip the te- trarch, and bearing, in conjunction with his, the proud name of the Roman emperor. We repeat, all 202 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. is reality here. This looks not like a myth. Preju- diced is the judgment, and perverted is the taste of him who could think so. There is nothing indistinct, or shadowy — the speakers are real, the conversation real, the subject, of eternal interest. Man can hear nothing that more deeply concerns him than that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and God has enunciated nothing to which he attaches more importance than he does to this revelation. The hopes of man are suspended on it. To deny it is inevitable ruin, woe without interval, calamity without cessation, if the denial be persisted in until the day of grace set in the darkness of death. To receive it is to fall in with the arrangements of eter- nal wisdom and love, regarding the redemption of men from the power of Satan, sin, and death. Tiie earnestness of the group before us, then, must have added to it the value to every man of the subject of their conversation, which cannot fail, when properly viewed, to beget corresponding earnestness in the reader of the narrative. The revelation made by God to Peter regarding the work and person of the Son of Man, was elicited by Jesus for the purpose of publication to the world; for though he commanded his disciples at that time not to make known that he was the Christ — for reasons which it is by no means difficult to understand — yet it is certain that this doctrine, the establishment of which is absolutely essential to Christianity, was the starting point of apostolic discourses, after they had receiveti their full commission by the baptism of the Holy Ghost; and it is equally certain that all the evangelists plainly declare it. The Redeemer knew that the opin- CESAREA PHILIPPI. 203 ion held by Peter would be held by all his real dis- ciples, and it was educed, we doubt not, for the purpose of being thus attractively placed on record for the ages to come. Many ages have rolled into eternity since the journey of Christ and his disciples into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, carrying with them coundess my- riads of souls from all the regions of this great earth ; but still there stands on record the claim to Messiah- ship advanced by him who alone, of all that ever breathed beneath the sun, had the right to advance such a claim, and the sources of evidence in favour of his claim, instead of diminishing in number by the lapse of ages and the revolutions of nations, are actually at this moment more numerous than at any previous period during the last eighteen centuries. It is in the nature of truth to expand. Examination consolidates its power. Opposition proves its strength. Whatever happens, then, Christianity is the gainer. We rejoice in the multitudes of its adherents; we would they were as the sand of the sea, or as the stars of heaven; but the validity of Christ's claims to Messiahship rests not on numbers. Numerical strength is not in itself always equivalent to moral power; there may be much of the former with little of the latter; and we freely admit that this is not a question to be settled by votes. It takes a higher range, and appeals to a holier tribunal. Still, it is in the nature of truth to expand; and as the nations of the earth become subject to the sceptre of Messiah, he will raise up witnesses endowed with the spirit of wisdom — intellects, baptized with his own Spirit — radiant with light — animated by love — wedded to 204 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. truth — to contend earnestly for the faith once de- hvered to the saints. New sources of evidence will open before them, to meet the exigencies of the time, and to enable them to strip the vail from any dark spirit of heresy that may arise to cast doubt on the vital realities of our most holy faith. The pro- gress of time will but deepen the conviction, that the religion of the cross is the only religion for men — that the service of God is their most honourable em- ployment — that eternal life is the grand prize set before them — and that, to obtain this, they must be- lieve in, and follow him, who by the unerring Spirit of inspiration is declared to be "/Ae Christ, the Son of the LIVING God." CHAPTER XV. THE HOLY MOUNT. THE TRANSFIGURATION. It has been supposed by many that Tabor, whicli lay in the tribe of Zebulon, was the mountain hon- oured as the scene of our Redeemer's transfigura- tion; but as there is no certain evidence to deter- mine the correctness of this conjecture, we have selected Peter's characteristic designation of the spot as the title of this chapter. Doubtless, he so named it from the glorious associations with which it recur- red to his memory. He, and his apostolic brethren, James and John, were honoured as the witnesses of a scene of glory far transcending anything that had been seen on earth before, referring to which, thirty, years afterwards, he says, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the ex- cellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with him in the Holy Mount." To forget the spot where two of the inhabitants of heaven, once dwellers on earth, ap- 18 20G THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. peared in their glorified forms, in the presence of their Master, whose face shone with a brightness Uke that of the sun, and whose raiment became white as hghtning, was surely impossible; never- theless while these divine circumstances are record- ed, the name of the mountain is not given, proba- bly to prevent the encouragement of that supersti- tious regard for mere localities, to which men are so prone even under the Christian economy. The transfiguration of Jesus, though a circum- stance full of the most pleasing suggestions, and fit- ted to call forth feelings of delight, does not appear to us so astonishing as many other parts of his won- derful history. Deity veiled in lowly humanity was far more surprising than Deity resplendent with its own lustre. The former was a continual miracle ; the latter was a temporary manifestation of essential glory. The former gave evidence of what the Son of God became for the sake of men; the latter afforded a brief visible illustration of what he was before he assumed humanity. He had glory with the Father before the world was; but in the fulness of the time he laid hold on the seed of Abraham, and took upon himself the form of a servant. He who thought it no robbery to be equal with God, appeared in the likeness of men; and had it been consistent with that prolonged state of humiliation, on which he voluntary entered, the scene of " the Holy Mount" could have been frequently exhibited; there could have been frequent resumptions of his original grandeur. If a monarch lay aside the con- comitants of royalty, and mingle Avith his subjects for a time as one of themselves, for the purpose of THE HOLY MOUNT. 207 being the almoner of his own beauty, the circum- stance is referred to as a proof of condescension and benevolence, and as an exception to the ordinary manner in which kings are expected to be seen. Faint, indeed, is this ilhistration; nevertheless, it sheds a little light on the idea we entertain of the subject before us. Believing, as we do, that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh, his sojourn among men, as a man, poor, despised, maligned, persecuted, killed, excites our astonishment to an inexpressible degree; whilst in the ineffable bright- ness of his appearance, and the glory of his counte- nance on the Mount, we see an evidence of the cor- rectness of our faith as to his real character, and find relief that, if only for a brief period, he ap- peared before "two or three witnesses" radiant with his own light, glorious in his undisguised majesty. His appearance in the form of ordinary humanity was, as a fact, a proof of wonderful condescension ; and the object he had in view, for which this as- sumption of humanity was preparatory, was so be- nevolent and merciful, as to bring with it its own evidence that it must have originated in the mind of God. To trace the idea of redemption to an inferior source, is to ask us to believe in an effect greater than its cause. The incarnation of the Son of God, then, was a preliminary veiling of his proper character, that through humanity the purpose of his eternal love might be accomplished; whilst the glory on the Mount was a visible declaration of his proper cha- racter. For a short period the "true light" burst forth; the Sun of righteousness shone without eclipse; those beams which had hitherto been confined, hi 208 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. mercy to men, rushed forth on the witnesses with alarming power. It is easy to perceive, that had the Redeemer walked thus on earth, the design of his mission could not have been accomplished. All men would have fallen prostrate before him. Every eye would have been blinded by " the brightness of that light." The sun would have set hi darkness, and the moon would have ceased to give her light. The glory of the transfiguration, then, was the proper glory of Christ, and his ordinary appearance among men was the real source of wonder. Nevertheless, we may be permitted to stand in the distance and look upon the Holy Mount; for if it has not some lesson for us, connected either with the doctrines or precepts of the new economy, or if it contain not some facts associated with the grand purpose of redemption, it is an exception to the other events in the life of Jesus. But instead of proving such an exception, it is rather fitted to deepen our impressions of the greatness of that glory which is to be revealed, and to strengthen our desires after that immortality which has been brought to light by the gospel. We have already seen that the miracles of our Lord were intended to convey great lessons, beyond the establishment of his claim to Messiah- ship, and it has been a source of pleasure to the writer to find, since the previous part of this work was written, the following vivid illustration of this opinion in one of the essays of the celebrated D'Aubigne: "True Christianity, true piety, may be thought very extraordinary in this selfish world ; but as soon as Christianity has been recognised, men must no longer wonder at certain tlnngs which THE HOLY MOUNT. 209 belong to its very nature, although they are wholly contrary to the common course of things in the world. To make oneself a slave is contrary to nature, for man loves liberty; he was born in it, and a man who is degraded enough to sell himself to another, deserves all the contempt of his fellows. Neverthe- less, we are told that missionaries liave become slaves among slaves, so that they might save some of them ; and, far from exciting our contempt, they win our warmest admiration. As soon as Christianity is ad- mitted, we call that a simple and even excellent deed which, a few moments before, we thought to be revolt- ing. So it was with miracles: that which in the or- dinary course of things would appear very extraordi- nary, becomes natural when the supreme God reveals himself. When revelation is admitted, miracles are likewise admitted; as when a Christian's charity is recognised, all the prodigies of devotion accompany it. Without miracles, revelation would not reveal the power and divinity of him who speaks. Without them, instead of being a glorious and evident fact, it would be abstruse and obscure. Miracles alone give it real publicity. They alone can and do announce that the God of heaven makes known the mysteries of his charity to the earth. To consider each of the miracles as an isolated fact is, as Neander re- marks, a very erroneous manner of looking at them. Then, indeed, they would not be rational. Each miracle is a member of a vast whole, and is part of an union of manifestations of the Divine Creator. Suppose a man condemned by the law sees his fetters suddenly unbound and the door of his prison opened, and hears these words: 'Go, and save thyself!' 1 IS* 210 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. can then exclaim that the laws are broken. But if I consider this fact in connexion with other facts; if I learn that a great king has just returned to his cap- ital, perhaps after a rebellion; that he resumes the throne; that he celebrates the marriage of his son, and that he wishes all the people, even to the pri- soner in his dungeon, to share the joy he feels ; then this fact, which, when isolated, appeared ex- traordinary, seems perfectly natural in connexion with this event. This is not the only fact of the same nature; other prisons have been opened, other debts have been paid, other misfortunes have been alleviated. And all these various events concentrate in one: 'The king has returned, and he wishes to show his favour to his people.' It is even so with miracles: they unite in one single fact, the coming of God on earth, the restoration of union between the holy God and sinful humanity. This principal fact is the great miracle. It draws all the others along with it. Who will wonder at these lesser de- liverances, granted to the bodies of men, when eternal deliverance of their souls appears? Are you surprised to see a beam of light entering your chamber, when the glorious orb of the sun has risen in the skies? When once the principle is acknowledged, all the consequences must be submitted to." In like man- ner, we think the fact of the transfiguration suggests truths whose value in the scheme of grace is so great that, in addition to the verbal summons to attend to them, this splendid scene may be said to utter the same language. Is there, for instance, perfect harmony between the THE HOLY MOUNT. 211 law and the gospel? Are they essentially in accord- ance? Are they parts of one comprehensive scheme? Successive developments of one divine plan? On the mount of transfiguration we find Moses luith Christ. Is the intermediate link between the Mosaic insti- tutes and the gospel revelation in keeping with both? Moses and Elias talk with Jesus. Here is harmony, here is perfect accordance, here is holy unity. Did the law and the prophets point to Jesus? Here the representatives of both meet him. The preceding systems merge in Christianity. It is the greater light. They acknowledge it, and pay homage to it accordingly. For what was the subject of conver- sation on the Mount? What great topic engaged the thoughts of the glorified law-giver, and his ce- lestial compeer? They spake of the decease which Jesus should accomplish at Jerusalem, by which the Mosaic ritual was to be for ever abolished, and to which prophecy pointed her disciples. The death of Jesus, the greatest of all great events, formed tiie theme of discourse between these celestial visitants. They dwelt upon the sacrifice he was to offer — of which the sacrifices introduced by the agency of Moses were types and shadows — and by which he was to proclaim the atonement, and bring in ever- lasting righteousness, and establish the new econ- omy, and open the gates of heaven to all believers. The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, the descent of the Holy Spirit, and the uni- versal diffusion of the gospel, the happiness of the nations in consequence thereof, and the world's pe- riod of sabbatic rest, together with the vast influx 212 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. of redeemed inhabitants into that heaven to which they were just about to return, were perhaps also touched on by Moses and EUas. By faith in the long promised Messiah they were permitted to en- ter into rest, and to share in the glories of immor- tality; and now they are honoured to stand in the presence of their Lord and Redeemer, and to hold, converse with him of whom Moses wrote; and, we doubt not their enjoyment of heavenly felicity would be enhanced by the anticipation of a countless mul- titude of companions from all the regions of the earth, through the merits of the decease which Christ should accomplish at Jerusalem. The strug- gle awaited him, but it led to victory. The agony lay in his path, but it was the way to honour. Contempt was near, but beyond was glory. The cross was in sight, but the crown followed. He was to make his soul an offering for sin, but God should therefore highly exalt him, and give him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. These anticipations were doubtless felt, and these and similar divine themes spoken of, on the Mount of transfiguration. And does not the descent of those two ancient saints to the Mount to meet Jesus, suggest that the inhabitants of heaven speak much about Christ and his redemption, and that they take a deep interest in the progress of Christianity in our world? If angels earnestly desire to contemplate the sufferings of Christ, and the glorious announcements of the THE HOLY MOUNT. 213 gospel, all of which relate to those sufferings, can it be supposed that the redeemed dwellers in heaven, who owe their mansions there, and their guaranteed immortality to those sufferings, are either ignorant of the progress of the kingdom of Christ on earth, or indifferent as to the results of the constantly preached gospel? If angels carry the tidings of conversion to heaven, and produce joy amongst their fellow- angels by those tidings, can the redeemed from among men walk by the banks of the river of life without sharing in that joy? Can David and Isaiah, and Job and Daniel, pay but little attention to the results of that atoning death, to speak concerning which, previous to its accomplishment, brought Mo- ses and Ehas from heaven to earth? If angels are sent forth as ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation, are the spirits of the just made perfect kept in profound ignorance of the state and charac- ter of their younger brethren in the Church below ? Does the great Father keep his eldest sons, who are established in loyalty, and perfected in character, and who dwell near his throne, in ignorance of all that is transpiring in the world in which they were regenerated, adopted, justified, and sanctified — the world in which his dear Son and their adored Lord lived, and died, and conquered? Are all the sources of intelligence from the lower world shut up from the inhabitants of the upper? And when memory recalls the painful and pleasing scenes of earth, is no messenger allowed to gratify the wish for infor- mation regarding the moral state of still remembered friends left in the wilderness? It is true, these are but questions, and it is also true that they embrace 214 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. considerations and subjects regarding which it may be urged that we are left greatly in the dark. It is admitted. We have no wish to travel beyond the record. Speculation may be met by counter spe- culation, and amidst the region of mere theory man finds no resting place for the sole of his foot. He wanders on from thought to thought, without a guide, without a star. But we are mistaken if revelation do not contain, at least, some allusions which seem to warrant the inference that the spirits of the glo- rified have knowledge of what is passing on earth, remember its scenes and associations, and rejoice in those arrangements which God has made for the per- petuity of Christianity and the triumph of grace. We have already seen Moses and Elias speaking about that subject which, of all others, most deeply engages the thoughts of believers on earth — the death of Jesus. We also know that heaven's inhabitants remember well the source of their salvation and glory. They sing the praises of him who was slain, and who redeemed them by his blood from the na- tions of the earth. Are we to suppose that Moses and Elias knew nothing about the state of matters on earth, the point to which the development of the mediatorial plan had reached, the progress of Jesus in his work, or the reception he had met with from the inhabitants of Judea, until the command was issued for their flight to our world? Had they to learn all these things from the lips of Jesus himself on the Mount of transfiguration? This cannot be deemed probable. But if they knew these things before, why not others of the dwellers in glory? Why not all? That memory recalls the facts of time THK HOLY MOUNT. 215 to those who have gone to the invisible world can scarcely be doubted. The rich man is represented by our Lord as recollecting the number of his brethren, and Abraham is described as remembering that they had access to the writings of Moses and the prophets, and that the design of those writings was to preserve men from future woe, and to direct them to future happiness. Such circumstances as these would not have been introduced even into a parable, had they not related to facts. In the apocalyptic vision John saw the souls of the martyrs, and heard them crying with a loud voice, "How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? The reply was, " that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be ful- filled." This, also, though part of a vision, indi- cates, we think, that the martyrs remember well the fact and circumstances of their martyrdom, and that intelligence was conveyed to them, that on the earth from which they came the spirit of persecution was still pursuing its fearful work. And in the same vision, where the awful destruction of Babylon is depicted, with a power of description never equalled by uninspired pen, the command goes forth, ''Re- joice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her." Apostles and prophets have been in heaven for many ages; Babylon, is not yet destroyed; but they will be informed thereof when the event takes place ; and are we to suppose that they are at this moment pro- foundly ignorant of the rapid progress of providen- 216 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. tial circumstances towards this grand consummation? There are other passages which appear to us to teach the same thing, of which we select only one. It is that in the epistle to the Hebrews, where, after the writer had enumerated the triumphs of faith as exemplied in the case of many persons whom he names, he adds, " Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." It is true that Macknight says, "By using this figure, the apostle did not mean to insinuate that the saints in the other world know what we are doing in this, but to teach us to think of them often, that, by the recollection of their trials and virtues, we may stir ourselves up to greater diligence in our Christian course." That the apos- tle meant to stimulate us to Christian fidelity and perseverance there can be no doubt, for he expressly says so; but that the motive presented was simply a recollection of the trials and virtues of the Hebrew martyrs, is an opinion which appears to us to fall short of his full meaning. We think he did "mean to insinuate that the saints in the other world know what we are doing in this." The word translated witnesses comes from /nag^'up, a witness, one who bears testimony, and is the same word which occurs in Matthew xviii. 16, "If he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be estab- lished." Here, to learn facts, was undoubtedly the design for which the " two or three" were to be brought into the presence of the offending brother. THE HOLY MOUNT. 217 They were to pay strict attention to what he said and did, and to give evidence accordingly. "A cloud of witnesses" evidently means a multitude, a great com- pany of lookers on, or spectators; and as there can- not be a doubt that the apostle alludes to the Olym- pic races, where persons were appointed to watch wlio first reached the goal, and to give evidence thereof, that the victor's crown might be bestowed upon him, so we believe the apostle meant to convey the idea that the inhabitants of heaven are cognizant of the conduct, and watch the progress of the fol- lowers of Jesus on earth. With this view of the subject, the apostle's argument for running in the Christian race is solemnly striking, and his allusion to the stadium remarkably apposite; whereas, the opinion entertained by Macknight and others, either makes the glorified Hebrew martyrs witnesses of a matter of which they were utterly ignorant, or shifts the idea of witnesses from them to us. This process of mental transference of ideas is not a characteristic of tlie writings of Paul. We believe that the inha- bitants of heaven know what transpires on earth, and that the Holy Scriptures warrant that belief; but as our object does not permit us to pursue the subject further here, we return to the transfiguration. The next fact that arrests attention on the holy mount is, the singular proposal of Peter that Jesus would allow him and his fellow apostles, James and John, to erect three tabernacles for the accommoda- tion of their Master and the two heavenly visitors, a proposal for which Luke offers something like an apology, by adding — "Not knowing what he said." The disciples, who were aroused from sleep by the 19 218 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. glory of Jesus and that of "the two men that stood with him," were filled with surprise and alarm at the magnificent and unexpected sight. Moses and Elias were in the act of returning to their mansions on high, having executed the commission with which they had been entrusted, when Peter submitted -this proposal to his Lord; but it was prefaced by a thought which at once finds its way to our holiest feelings, and awakens hope regarding the happiness of that home whence the saints "shall go no more out. He said to Jesus, " Master, it is good for us to be here." This simple statement finds an echo in the hearts of all who know what it is to have com- munion with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Even though the Redeemer's glory is seen only through a glass darkly in the present state of being, yet — " How sweet and awful is the place With Christ within the doors, While everlasting love displaj's, The choicest of her stores." Multitudes have adopted in the closet, at the com- munion table, and in the sanctuary, the expression of Peter, "Master, it is good for us to be here." But what of those who have exchanged the groans of earth for the glory of heaven, who behold the brightness, not of Moses and Elias only, but of an mnumerable company of angels, and of all the ra- diant throng of ransomed men; and who see Jesus in the unutterable effulgence of his own uncreated glory, giving light over all the regions of his great paradise of joy? Do they wish to return to this dark earth, or is the joyous sentiment of their hearts, THE HOLY MOUNT. 219 like that of Peter on the mount of transfiguration, " it is good to be here?^* Is there any longing after the scenes of mortality, or are they "full of joy" in tlie presence of the blessed? These questions admit of but one answer. Everything that can render heaven desirable is theirs in full possession. Their bliss is complete. Those hopes which animated them on earth are all realized, and more than realized. They see the Master whom they loved, and are happy. Their cares are over. Their fears are only matter of history. Their doubts are all past. Their struggles with the world, and depravity, and temp- tation, have for ever ceased. Their wanderings have terminated in a glorious home. Their tears liave ceased to flow. No groan escapes, no sigh heaves tiie breast, no sorrow bends the head, no feebleness weakens the limbs, no grief wrings the heart, no disappointment breaks the spirit. The crown, the palm, the robe, are theirs by sovereign grant. Heaven's highest authority has invested them with regal dignity, and put them in undisputed posses- sion of eternal immunities. The freedom of all hea- ven is theirs. " Behold them yonder, where the river pure Flows warbling down before the throne of God; And, shading on each side, the tree of life Spreads its unfading bouglisl — See how they shine, In garments white, quaffing deep draughts of love, And harping on their harps, new harmonies Preparing for the ear of God, Most Highl" If the apostles felt it good to be on the mount with Jesus, Moses, and Elias, how supremely good must it be, to he for ever with the Lord! for ever with 220 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. prophets, apostles, martyrs, angels, and the countless multitude ! for ever in possession of man's true glory — Holiness of Heart! But to secure this inexpressible felicity for every child of Adam who renounces his own righteousness, and cordially embraces the glorious offers made by God in the gospel, is the great design of the death which Jesus suffered at Jerusalem, and which formed the subject of solemn thought on the mount of trans- figuration. This happiness has been attained by all the redeemed who are now in heaven. It will be reached by all who shall remain faithful unto death, but the recollection that the priestly and prophetic offices of our Lord are inseparably connected, is es- sential. Look again to the holy mount. A new and glorious scene appears. While Peter spake, there came a bright cloud and overshadowed them. The symbol of the Divine presence is there. The moun- tain is canopied with the Shechinah. "And, be- hold, there came a voice out of the cloud, which said — This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him." At the Redeemer's baptism, as we have seen, the same voice attested his Messiah- ship. Now it is repeated amidst circumstances of additional solemnity and holy grandeur. Greater glory manifested on earth, it is impossible to imagine. What a confluence of the great, the holy, the im- posing, the awful is here ! How intense the interest which all heaven takes in the redemption of ruined men! Its angels come down, once and again, on messages relating to man's Redeemer! Two of its glorified human inhabitants come down to speak with man's Redeemer! The eternal Spirit descends on THE HOLY MOUNT. 221 mcni^s Redeemer! God the Father, whose uncre- ated glory is too effulgent for created vision, once and again, speaks in the hearing of mortals, respecting man's Redeemer! For wlioni are all these manifes- tations of the riches of Divine beneficence? For Christ, because he is the Son of God, and for the Son of God, because he had undertaken to be man's Redeemer. "Herein is love." And, hear hea- vens! and give ear, earth! the only intelligent creature in the whole universe that is indifferent to these stupendous transactions is — Man! The only being in God's magnificent creation that hears the name of Jesus without emotion is — Man! Man mocked, scourged, crucified him! Man denies his Deity, his holiness, his Messiahship ! Man tramples on his blood, derides his mercy, and blasphemes his name! Man scorns his authority, slights his intercession, and refuses his teaching ! And still he loves! And still the Father's voice issues from the Shechinah to the nations of the earth, "Hear ye Him!" This command relates to that prophetic office which, as has been said, is inseparably connected with the priestly office of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who atones must teach. He who offers sacrifice must in- struct men regarding the affairs of his own kingdom. He who laid down his life to redeem men must have the nations at his feet, to point out to them the way of life. They must receive the law at liis mouth. The gospel is his gospel. The evangelists are his historians. The apostles speak of him. This is tlie Divine arrangement. Here is the beautiful har- mony existing between the priestly and prophetic 19* 222 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. offices of the Mediator. Moses and Elias spake of his decease; God the Father summons attention to his instructions. And what are those instructions? To what do they relate'^ What do they embrace? Those instructions are all holy, just, and good. Founded upon the nature of God and the relation in which he stands to his creatures, they propose the real interests of man for time and eternity, with- out undermining one correct principle of action, or interfering with one proper deduction of reason, or drying up one source of legitimate pleasure. They are in accordance with what ought to be, what is essentially right — right in itself, right for ever. They proceed from infinite love and infinite wisdom, and propose to man, amidst his ignorance and degrada- tion, in consequence of guilt, the plan of God by which that guilt may be pardoned, that degradation escaped from, and that ignorance removed. They show that all this can be done honourably , both to God and man; and so effectually^ that at no period throughout eternity will there be any danger of mo- ral relapse; and so wisely, that no creature in holy worlds shall have reason to complain. The proposal introduces no jarring note amongst the harmonies of the universe. No angelic jealousy will be awakened by the immense favour shown to man; but, on the contrary the happiness of angels themselves will be increased thereby. Those who have maintained their original integrity, will find in redeemed men a new brotherhood of love. The fact that they have been redeemed by him whom angels acknowledge Master, redeemed without tarnishing God's holiness, or suspending God's law, or trespassing on the im- THE HOLY MOUNT. 22o munities of God's angels, will excite the admiration and joy of those pure beings for ever. Such is the nature of the instructions of Christ the prophet. And to what do those instructions relate? The answer would fill a volume. It does fill a volume. It fills the Bible, the best volume in human lan- guage. Those instructions relate to the heart, the feelings, the wishes, the fears, the hopes, the in- tellect, the understanding, the judgment, the con- science, the whole being of man. They point to the motives of his action, the principles of his conduct, and the character of his practice; they tell him what he was before sin hurled him from his high position among the creatures of Jehovah, what he is now in consequence of transgression, and what he shall be if obedient to those instructions. They tell him what to hate and what to love, what to shun and what to follow, what to fear and what to hope for. They inform him about God and Christ, and heaven and hell, and angels and devils, and time and eternity. They relate to the past, the present, and the future. They reveal the hidden, and explain the mysterious, •and pour light on the dark. They assign reasons for the moral law and its sanctions ; they trace the origin of the gospel, and describe its object; and they point to Christianity, and in a thousand ways recommend it to universal acceptance. Such are the subjects to which the instructions of Christ the Prophet re- late. And what do those instructions embrace ? Spread- ing from the particular to the general, they embrace the relative duties of kings and subjects, magistrates and people, masters and servants, husband and wife, 224 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. parents and children, pastors and flocks. The learn- ed and illiterate, the rich and poor, the old and young, are all addressed. Friends, neighbours, and the nations of the earth, are all instructed in the course proper to be pursued towards each other. But as the Spiritual Teacher, Christ's doctrines refer peculiarly to the Church which he liath purchased with his own blood; hence the character of its mem- bers, and their reciprocal oflices of love; its discipline, order, offices, government, responsibilities, work, and the grand object for which it was instituted, are most fully described. The Church is his, entirely and absolutely his; his by gift, iiis by inheritance, his by purchase. Hence, he is its Head, and Light, and King, and Priest, and Prophet. Nor has he delegated any of those offices to man or angel. There are pastors and teachers; but if they have not been appointed by him, they poison the flock, and are teachers of hes. All the pastors and teach- ers owned by him are such, and such only, as he has appointed. They are his servants, and direct attention only to his written instructions. There are men called "priests," but the name is an as-- sumption, and the office to which it relates has no place in the new dispensation; for the duty of the Christian minister is to lead the minds of his fellows to the one sacrifice of Jesus, that which was offered at Jerusalem ; and the exalted Redeemer is the only Priest in his Church. And there are civil magis- trates who call themselves, or are called by others, "the head" of some peculiar section of tlie Church legalized in their respective dominions; but it is a "name of blasphemy," for the Son of God is the sole THE HOLY MOUNT. 225 Head of the Christian Church; it is needless to add, therefore, that the Church of Christ will be polluted, and spiritually feeble, in proportion as it adds to his institutes or disregards his prophetic office; and that it will be pure, vigorous, and successful in its appointed work, in proportion as it follows his coun- sels. Such are some of the subjects embraced by the instructions of Christ the Prophet. "Hear ye Him!" The voice from "the excellent glory" enjoined this precept, as Peter was proposing the erection of the three tabernacles, and as Moses and Elias departed to heaven; may we not under- stand it, therefore, as intimating that the Mosaic institutes, having served their purpose, were now for ever abolished? That Christ having come, as the Son over his own house, the work of the ser- vant, whicli was preliminary, was at an end? " The true Messiah now appears, The types are all withdrawn; So fly the shadows and the stars Before the rising dawn." Is not the idea conveyed by this coincidence of cir- cumstances, that the Levitical priesthood had expired, seeing that the great sacrifice to which it had sum- moned attention for ages was just about to be offered on Calvary? "Aaron must lay his robes away, His mitre and his vest, When God himself comes down to be The offering and the priest." The old economy was just vanishing away, to give place to the new; the shadow, to the substance; the 226 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. synribol, to the thing signified; the ritual, to the spiritual; the ceremonial, to the simple and sublime religion of the New Testament; and the local dis- pensation of Moses, to the catholic economy of the Son of God. It is in vain, therefore, to erect tents for INIoses and Elias. Their work was done. Tliey re- turn to heaven, after laying down their commission at the feet of their Master on the mount of trans- figuration. Judaism has had its day; Christianity arises in the moral horizon, and every man in every nation under heaven, is to be called to look on it, to believe in it, and to be guided by it. With the command "Hear Him!" Moses and Elias depart, and as the sound of that glorious voice rolls through the heavens, Jesus and his disciples are found alone on the mountain, from which they are soon to descend to the habitations of men, the former as the Great Pro- phet, the latter as his heralds to all nations, of the everlasting covenant. CHAPTER XVI. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, PRINCIPLES ENUNCIATED. The principles of moral judgment enmiciated by our Lord, in his conversations with men, are of that class which commend themselves to the intellect of every clear thinker. They are always applicable. They are divine standards. They are pre-eminently spiritual; that is, they appeal for their validity to man's conscience, and make no compromise with any imaginable theory of expediency. Hence their universality as standards. They were not enunciated merely as apposite to the introduction of Christianity, or suitable to the times which were then passing over men, or appropriate to meet the erroneous current maxims of that day. They are for this day and for all days, for this nation and for all nations. Wc find some specimens of them delivered at the Feast of Tabernacles. The origin and object of this Jewish feast may be found in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus. Like all other Jewish feasts, it had much moral significance ; but the truths delivered by our Lord on the occasion of that celebration of it which is recorded in the seventh chapter of John's Gospel, claim our attention at present. 228 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. Previous to his departure from Galilee to Jeru- salem, however, in his reply to those whose secular views induced them to suggest to him that he should seek after popularity, we find him giving utterance to one truth of such a striking character, and so full of meaning, that we cannot entirely overlook it. That truth was thus expressed: "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." Here there are two principles laid down, the constant recollection of which would help to unriddle many of the seeming enigmas, and to clear many of the seeming mysteries of Hfe. The first of these principles is, that men whose views are bounded by secular considerations, will not incur the dislike, but secure the approba- tion of worldly men. They will be esteemed as harm- less and worthy persons, attending to what the world deems the proper business of life. Their max- ims will be approved, their opinions countersigned. Sailing with the stream, all will be comparatively smooth around them; and the train of flatterers that follow in their wake will increase in length and breadth, in proportion to their success in nearing the haven of worldly comfort and dignity on which their grovelling ambition is fixed. "All men will praise them when they do well to themselvesP Let them reach, no matter by what unworthy means, some post of honour and influence, and the parasites of earth will fondly cling to them. Let them accumu- late gold, no matter though in its accumulation every principle of high-minded integrity should be scattered to the four winds of heaven, and the idolaters of earth will shout "Bow the knee!" Their statements THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 229 will be applauded; their most inane outpourings deemed oracles; their vices will be innocuous; their invisible virtues, meritorious; their gifts, though springing from unmixed selfishness, will be "prince- ly liberality;" their religion, though detestable hy- pocrisy, "eminent goodness of heart!" The second principle involved in this declaration of our Lord is, that the hostility of the world will be aroused against the reprover of its wickedness. This hostility will be in the ratio of his fidelity. Our Lord's experience furnishes an everlasting proof of this. The world hated him, because he testified against its evil works. He would neither palliate its crimes, nor wink at its follies; but with the power and purity of Divine truth his denunciations flashed upon the consciences of its guilty inhabitants: hence he was hated, opposed, persecuted, and slain. His omniscient eye read the secret mental preferences of the worldling and the hypocrite; and while, with unerring skill he went through the process of moral analysis, exposing to the light of day those secrets which the worldling and the hypocrite desired to hide from human inspection, he exposed himself to the consequences of their most deadly malice. This was the reward of his fidelity to the insulted au- thority of the great God. His office as the Mediator of the new covenant, his holy character, and his ardent love to the souls of men, all required that he should bear testimony against sin ; but for doing so "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter." And his ministers have ever found, that the measure of their faithfulness in dealing with the human con- science and the claims of eternal truth, has been the 20 230 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. measure of condemnation which they have received at the hands of migodly men. Let them plant their foot on the immutable and all comprehending author- ity of the Redeemer, and speak of heart and con- science, mind and motive, as men whose eye is on the judgment seat, and whose ear anticipates the blast of the last trumpet, and the worldling and the for- malist, if they are not laid prostrate in the dust of self-abhorrence by the Spirit of God, will fly from the sound of their voice, and "say all manner of evil against them falsely," endeavouring to wound their reputation, to assassinate their character. Nor need they wonder at such base treatment from men for whose salvation they yearned; for if the prototypes of these enemies of heart-godliness " called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?" Many a young minister of Jesus Christ who has come forth, like Melancthon, with his heart beating with love to souls, has found to his dismay, that all his previous studies of human depravity had failed to give him a proper idea of the intensity with which unrenewed men hate vital godliness. He has found that the more abundantly he loved, the less he was loved. Under such circumstances, compromise is both cow- ardice and crime. A selection must be made, a de- cided course taken; but there is only one course that can be taken by the man of God, except he wishes to purchase external peace at the cost of an approving conscience, and that course is fidelity to death! The days of persecution are not over. Hea- ven contains a class of martyrs whose names are not written in any martyrology on earth, namely, those THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 231 faithful ministers of God who have been driven to madness, or whose hearts have been broken, by the successors of those worldUngs and formahsts who hated Christ, because he testified that their works were evil. During periods when tlie Church enjoys external repose, and religion becomes somewhat fashionable, these men, who are constantly endea- vouring to effect an impossibility, namely, to serve God and mammon, and who would fly to the arms of the undisguised world at the first sound of per- secution, mingle themselves with the churches and congregations of the land as judges, and critics, and calumniators, and murderers. Nevertheless, the prin- ciple that accounts for their malice conveys the Chris- tian minister's duty towards them. He must con- tinue to testify that their works are evil. He must speak the truth in love. He must have no fellow- ship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. He must cry aloud and spare not, and leave results to God. Passing onwards with our Lord from this conver- sation, which took place immediately previous to the Feast of Tabernacles, we find him a few days after- wards going up to Jerusalem and preaching in the temple, when the Jews, amazed at the extent of his literature, and knowing that he had never at- tended any of their great schools, said, " How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" Jesus replied, "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself He that speaketh of liimself seeketh his own glory: but he that scekcth 232 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him." Here are principles not less important than those to which we have adverted. The first principle thus enunciated is, that a resolute determination to obey the authority of God will lead to the conviction that Christianity is Divine. Let the will be resolved on obedience, and the judgment will be convinced that the instructions of Jesus form infallible guides to the desired end. The internal evidence on the heart and conscience — which, indeed, is the principal evi- dence accessible to the majority of Christians — will prove amply sufficient to satisfy the understanding that the reUgion of Jesus is the religion of God. Other evidences are valuable; this is most valuable. Other evidences are accessible; this, happily, is wo*/ accessible. This, in short, is the confirmatory evi- dence, the work of God's Holy Spirit, and without which no man, whatever the amount of his polemic skill, or the extent of his theoretic knowledge, can be a real Christian. The polemic, the theorist, and the collector of external evidences, may help to defend the outposts of Christianity from the attacks of its foes, and their labours have been of incalcu- lable service to the Church of the living God; but it is from the citadel of Christianity, the elevation given by a heartfelt sense of its divine power, that the most destructive projectiles are thrown against its antagonists, and the clearest view afforded of its in- trinsic beauty and glory. In proportion, therefore, to the number of scriptural Christians, will be the aggregate evidence of its celestial origin. Another principle laid down here is, that an ab- THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 233 sorbing zeal for the glory of God furnishes tlie guarantee of fidelity. This was the grand motive in the mind of Jesus Christ. He sought not his own glory, but that of him who sent him. As the messenger of the covenant, he was faithful. One of the evidences of his Messiahship lay in his absolute devotedness to the will and work of God. This, with him, was not means to an end, but the end of the means. Hence he could say, "Father, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." But where there is room to suspect, on sufficient proof, that the selfish motive takes precedence of the ostensible, in the case of any advocate of truth, his power to do good will be neutrahzed. The same principles that apply to Jesus as a Teacher sent from God, apply at all times, and in all places, to ministers of the gospel. The glory of God is the ultimate end of all truth; Christianity is the highest manifestation of truth; the. results of Christianity, therefore, declare most conspicuously the glory of God. And the teacher of Christianity, whatever may be the extent of his privations, occasioned by the ingratitude of the pious, or the amount of his mental sufferings, caused by the malice of the worldly, has before him, as the object of his work and the end of his being — the glory of his God and Saviour. This is the goal of his race, the final purpose of his existence. This contains a power to sustain, to animate, to encourage, the strength of which can be known only by personal test. Those only who have given themselves, as living sacrifices, soul body, and spirit, to the work of Christ, and who have had to fight their way 20* 234 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. through ranks of poisoned spears, can understand the consolation thus derived. The glory of God in the diffusion of the gospel and the salvation of sin- ners, is the highest object on which any human being can fix his heart; and when this object is pursued, through evil report and through good report, in constant dependence on the Holy Spirit, the man who is thus engaged will not be left destitute, during his labour, of great consolation, nor, when his labour ceases, will he miss the crown. CHAPTER XVII. THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE, IGNOHANT ZEAL REBUKED. The time was now drawing near when the work of the Messiah, on earth, should be finished amidst scenes of ignominy and glory, such as never com- bined before, and such as never will combine again in this world. Incessantly preaching, or delivering parables, or giving private instructions to his dis- ciples, or working miracles, Jesus compressed into a brief period of human life an amount of labour, which is itself none of the least remarkable of the ■wonderful characteristics of his life on earth. But now the end was rapidly approaching. "And it came to pass," says Luke, "when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face; and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned and rebuked them, and said. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son 236 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. The thoughts that rush into the mind on the perusal of such a passage as this are so varied and numerous, that selection becomes a real difficulty. Ignorant zeal, with all its calamitous consequences; ecclesiastical history, with all its sanguinary associa- tions; the old economy, with all its awful visible judgments; Christianity, with all its mild concomi- tants; Jesus, with all his gracious lessons; and man, even at his best estate, with all his attendant follies; rise up before us, and pass around the mind like a panoramic view of the most dissimilar colours. Nor is this all; for whilst we bow with reverence to that holy wisdom which directed the visible judgments of the preceding economy, and try to conceal from memory the pages of Church history — which we cannot open without imagining them red with human blood — we make the effort to draw a mental picture of the probable state of the Christian Church, and of the world at large, at this moment, if the rebuke given by Jesus to his hasty disciples had been always remembered, and if the reason he assigned for non-compliance with their rash request had been always acted on by his professed followers. We try to imagine this picture, and, when the outlines have come before the mental vision, we feel as if suddenly caught up to mid-air, to look down on the outspread glories of the millennial era, the world's jubilee, creation's rest. We see no denominational strife, no sectional jealousies, no Sabbath desecrations. Over the wide earth, no temple of idolatry lifts its impious towers amidst the light of heaven's sun; no THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE. 237 missionary, forsaking the homes of his ancestors to gather souls to Jesus, reasons with the devotee of gods of stone; no httle band of Christians seek among the wild beasts of the forest an asylum from the wilder cruelty of their fellow-men; no hordes of barbarians roam the trackless deserts of the east; no slave-ciu'se enters the writhing conscience of his tyrant brother-man; no groups of youths are trained to scientific murder on the field of battle ; and no sign of war appears across the smihng and fruitful earth: all is peace, all prosperity; everywhere the evidences of ardent piety meet the eye, and the gar- den of Eden is co-extensive with the habitations of men. But alas! it was but a momentary vision: the eye opens on the sad reality of a Church broken into hostile fragments, with seven-eighths of the world's population under the tyrannic sway of the prince of darkness! And, remembering that nearly eighteen centuries and a half of lime's years have rolled be- neath these heavens since the Son of God died the death of a Roman slave on the hill of Calvary, we cannot help a feeling of sadness ! How, wherefore, is this so? But, No! We ^^live by faith P We must live by faith. " A short work will the Lord" yet " make upon the earth." It appears to us that the design of Christ's mission is the prominent fact in the paragraph just quoted from Luke. The Son of Man came to save. And that the Saviour mentioned this to indicate the spirit which ought to distinguish his servants in their eftbrts to spread the knowledge of his salvation, is obvious. That spirit ought to manifest itself in 2)osilive exertion for tliis purpose, and in abstaining 238 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. from the employment of any means to accomplish their object, different from those sanctioned by the example of Christ, and the genius of the gospel. With the constitution and working of any society formed for the pm'pose of sending the gospel to the lands of heathenism, it is not our province to meddle; but the principle of diffusion commends itself to all who feel the claims of Jesus to active obedience, and who lament over the ignorance and guilt of those who have not heard of the love of God, as manifest- ed by the gift of his Son. That it is the duty of Christians to instruct their fellow-men in the truths of the gospel, is placed beyond dispute in the judg- ment of those who have read the word of the Lord with any degree of attention; and, indeed, no en- Hghtened Christian can take counsel with his own heart, without finding there a response to those di- vine precepts which enjoin effort for this purpose. Christ came to save. He has commanded the plan by which he reveals this purpose to be committed to writing. That plan, in consequence of this declared purpose, is named the Gospel. This gospel is com- mitted to the care of his followers. They are laid under the most solemn obligations to make it known to every creature under heaven, and its benevolence- inspiring effects on their own minds, are in per- fect keeping with those injunctions. They dare not conceal it if they could, they cannot, if they might. It creates those principles of active love, the ex- istence of which it assumes, when the precept to preach it is issued. It commands the manifestation of gratitude by activity in diffusing it, and it creates that gratitude which is necessary to render obedience THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE. 239 pleasurable. Nothing but the most criminal igno- rance of the Divine arrangements can refuse to com- ply with the request; but when that refusal attempts to justify itself by an appeal to the Divine sove- reignty, the excuse is so unreasonable, that, were it not for the solemnity of the interests involved, it would appear to approach the ludicrous. The sove- reignty of God, the proofs of which lie at the foun- dation of all religion, natural and revealed, and per- vade all worlds and all minds, and to deny which, therefore, is almost to deny an intuitive preception, is just the reason which takes precedence of all others, why the design of Christ's mission should be univer- sally published, why the gospel should be preached to every creature. He has commanded it, and he is a Sovereign. Hence, had there been no reason assigned, or no promise of success attached, to en- deavour to spread the knowledge of Christ's salva- tion would still remain an imperative duty, because his sovereig?i authority renders it imperative. But the disciples of Christ are not at liberty to employ means, for the accomplishment of this pur- pose, different from those sanctioned by the example of their Master, and the genius of the system which they seek to promulge. Christianity is not the re- sult of military conquest, nor of royal confederation, nor of diplomatic policy, nor of ecclesiastical union, nor of philosophic success, nor of individual zeal. As a system of divine truth, it had being and form in the mind of its Divine Author from eternity. As a revelation, it was communicated to men by his inspired disciples. And its diffusion through the nations has been effected by the providence and 240 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. grace of God, through appropriate instrumentality. But what is appropriate instrumentality? This ques- tion must find an answer in the character of its Foun- der, and in the nature of its doctrines and precepts. It owes nothing to the sword. The weapons of its warfare are not carnal. It is not indebted to crown- ed heads, at least, in their official capacity; and its amount of indebtedness to them for their individual devotedness to its interests is scarcely perceptible. Nor is it under obligation to secular diplomacy. The ambassadors of thrones have not drawn the Redeemer's chariot. Ecclesiastical union, when ce- mented by civil law, has not facilitated the progress of Christianity; but, on the contrary, it has always and everywhere impeded its course. In nine cases out of ten, philosophy has stood as its antagonist; and individual zeal, though it has done much to diifiise Christianity, has often had its power for good neutralized by manifestations of fanaticism, or by the exhibition of a spirit such as that rebuked by Christ in the passage quoted. Nevertheless — though it were folly to overlook these drawbacks, for they are too thickly scattered on the pages of history to escape observation — we believe that zeal for the honour of the Redeemer in the breasts of his dis- ciples, is the great motive power of exertion for the diffusion of the gospel. Ministers who feel not this, will not succeed. Missionaries who feel not this, would do well not to assume the missionary cha- racter. Individual Christians who feel not this, would do well to examine themselves. Churches which are not animated by zeal for the glory of their exalted Head, are destitute of one of the inspired THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE. 241 characteristics of Cliristian churches. But this zeal must be in connexion with knowledge. It must be associated with light. It must be the companion of love. It must not call "fire from heaven, to con- sume" the rejectors of Christ. Refusal to bow the knee to Jesus must not incur physical punishment at the hands of his servants. "The wrath of man work- eth not the righteousness of God." The Head of the Church reserves to himself the power of judgment, both as to its character and the period of inflicting it. " Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord." It may be said, that it is needless to pursue this subject further, because the nature of the gospel, and consequently the agency by which, and the spirit in which, it ought to be propagated, are now generally understood. Gratitude to God for the amount of truth conveyed by this opinion is both a duty and a pleasure; but alas! this opinion is not one to which we can ureservedly subscribe. No Christian ought to remain indifferent to what is transpiring, even in enlightened England, at this hour. We fear there are professed disciples of the holy and merciful Messiah, who would take the sword to punish, or, if they possessed the power, would call fire from heaven to consume, not those who refuse to receive Christ, but actually those who refuse to receive their favourite system of doctrine. If these fears be well founded, necessity is laid upon us to repeat the question, what is the appropriate instrumentality for promulgating Christianity? What was the practice of its Founder? What example has he left for imitation? Surely it cannot 2\ 242 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. be said that this mode of putting the case is irrele- vant. It appears to us the only legitimate test of exertion for the purpose in question. His practice, then, was to preach the pure truths of his own re- ligion, appealing to the authority of God over his creatures as the grand reason why those truths should be cordially received. He represented the state of man as a fallen and sinful, but still intelli- gent and accountable, being. He directed attention to the mode by which God, in infinite love, proposed to save man from the consequences of transgression, and from the corrupt workings of his own evil heart. He dealt with mind as a power capable of apprecia- ting the force of reason, and of feeling the power of motives. He represented, by apt similitudes, the natural connexion between certain lines of conduct and their consequences. The well-spring of com- passion and mercy in his heart gushed forth on those for whose happiness he was solicitous. It is essential that accountable beings consent to proposi- tions involving moral consequences — that they volun- tarily embrace truth — that they receive it with the heart — that they be willing to live imder its influence, and to walk by its direction, otherwise there can be no conversion from sin to holiness, from rebellion to obedience; hence Jesus used arguments to win men to himself, not by force, not by constraint, not by the terror of carnal weapons; for these, though they may succeed in inspiring fear and in promoting feigned obedience, utterly destroy the idea of mental consent on the part of the creature; but as feigned obedience is no obedience at all, and as Jesus sought the heart, its consent, its response to his doctrines, THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE. 243 its love, so he uniformly rejected the most remote approach to compulsion, and presented such facts before the understanding as were fitted to secure its adliesion to himself. He injured no man in person, property, or character, for non-compliance with his invitations. The very idea of a revelation of truth, intended to influence intelligent, and therefore res- ponsible beings, implies that its object cannot be gained unless those beings receive it as such, that is, believe it, assent to it, credit it. And it is remark- able that Jesus, after stating, on one occasion, that the worldly ambition of his hearers prevented the exercise of this faith, immediately added, "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father." Not even to this extent would he go; not that he had not the power, for the power to accuse is implied in the declaration that it should not be used; but even this approach to the argument from fear he would not make. Sometime afterward he added, " I am come a hght into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that reject eth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." These passages are specimens of others which might be cited to prove the correctness of what we have just written. No punishment, no accusation, no judgment, at present, for rejecting Christ: the consequences of unbelief are referred to the great day. But, it may be asked in passing, does not this view of the case invest with awful solemnity 244 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. the responsibility of man? It does. It seems to suggest, that to punish the rejecter of Jesus in his body or in his property, whilst it would not accord Avith the character of that gracious economy which seeks to soften the heart by its overflowing mercy, would fall far short of the degree of punishment which such rejection deserves. Love rejected, mercy despised, kindness insulted, truth trampled on, ar- guments scorned, are crimes too great for any tem- porary infliction; they "treasure up wrath against the day of ivrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." But this is " the day of salva- tion," and God who offers it will have it offered in a manner consistent with itself, and with the account- able state of men. With this, of course, the instructions given by Christ to his first ministers, and the genius of the gospel, as we find it subsequently illustrated by apostolic doctrine, perfectly correspond. We say, of course, for the character of the Founder is the character of the system. The mercy that pervades it, is his mercy; the love that permeates it, is his love: hence, sending out his first mhiisters, what said he? "As ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils ; freely ye have received, freely give. And whosoever shall not re- ceive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet for a testimony against them. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for that city." That is, they were to do good, and THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE. 245 only good, in harmony with the genius of their doc- trines, and to refer the conduct of those who refused to hear them to "the day of judgment." Jesus pos- sessed power to destroy his enemies, but he used it not; and he could have empowered his messen- gers to scatter destruction among those who refused to hear them, but he did it not. Why? His answer is, "The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And as the Jews were in the habit, when returning from any foreign country, to stop at its borders, and wipe the dust of it from their sandals, that the Holy Land might not be pol- luted by it, so Jesus instructed his disciples by a similar action to intimate to those Jews who rejected the doctrine of Messiah, that they were to be re- garded, in consequence of that rejection, not as the people of God, but as heathens or idolaters, and this action was to be recorded as a testimony for the day of judgment. How solemn is all this! How perfectly in harmony with the merciful and long- suffering character of Christianity! And how im- pressive is the idea which it gives of " that day" of final settlement, when the conduct of accountable beings shall find its appropriate consequence in joy or woe ! The apostolic letters also, which amplify and illus- trate the doctrines of Christianity, point out its ge- nius, and show the instrumentality, by which it is to be diff'used through the world. That it is a system of grace is prominent on every paragraph of every letter written by the apostles of Jesus. Regarding this fact there is no hesitation, no mystery: all is clear as simlight on this subject. That men should 21* 246 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. be compelled by external force to assume the Chris- tian profession, or subjected to bodily suffering for refusing to assume that profession, is an idea which the apostles would have rejected with indignation, had it been suggested to them. Of course, those mi- raculous punishments with which daring hypocrites and obstinate offenders were visited form no objec- tion to this representation, from the simple fact that they were miraculous, and therefore were never in- tended to form a precedent for the use of punish- ments by those who are destitute of the power to work miracles. The sudden deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, and the blindness of the sorcerer, Elymas, are not to be placed in opposition to an argument founded on the nature of Christianity: and those who would put heretics to torture or death, because those who "lied to the Holy Ghost" fell down dead, or because "the child of the devil" was smitten with blindness, are guilty not only of the folly of taking an exception as a rule, and opposing the whole spirit of the new economy, but they are also guilty of the fearful crime of usurping a Divine prerogative. But even the case of these persons cannot be pressed into the service of those who would wield the civil power agahist either the friends or foes of the gospel, for neither of them was touched by any human hand. Peter put some questions first to Ananias and then to his wife Sapphira, both of whom fell down dead at his feet; and the temporary bhndness of the sor- cerer was also from "the hand of the Lord." How different this from the rivers of human blood that have been shed by Rome and England, in the name of religion! Every man put to death by ecclcsias- THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE. 247 tical authority, whether he believed in or rejected Jesus Christ, has been murdered; and the zeal that sought thus to spread Christianity was not merely ignorant, but impious. Guilty of the highest offence against the Majesty of Heaven, its history stands as a terrible warning to all future ages, to beware of introducing the sword of the civil magistrate as a weapon of the sanctuary. But in reality it is utterly IMPOSSIBLE to propagate Christianity by civil en- actments, and pains and penalties, and fire and sword. The genius of Christianity, and the constitution of the human mind, vX\^q proclaim this impossibility. It never has been done; it never can be done. It is as impossible, by such means, to promote the religion of Jesus, as it is to promote health by a dungeon, or happiness by privation. The coffers of anti-christ may have been replenished by the fiend-work of the Inquisition; but the gold so procured was not the Lord's. The ecclesiastical state of Rome, or of England, may have been extended for a time by the system of pains and penalties; but an ecclesiastical state and the Church of Jesus Christ are 7iot the same institutions. They are essentially distinct. They cannot be confounded with each other in any coun- try where the New Testament circulates among the population. When this book escaped from prison, the doom of Rome thundered throughout Europe. When the principles of this book are fully recognised by the nations of the continent, and by these islands of the sea, the last advocate of a legal union between the secular and the spiritual will throw away his pen; the Bible and the sword will part company for ever: and all Christians will look into their own 248 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. breasts, and examine "what manner of spirit they are of." Appropriate instrumentality, then, is that which is animated by zeal for the honour of the Redeemer, and which is regulated in its exertions to promote that honour by his example, and the principles of his merciful religion. New Testament Christians are the only proper promoters of New Testament Christianity. Spiritual truth must be diffused by spiritual men, from spiritual motives. Divine veri- ties do not ask the aid of secular enactments for their propagation over the earth. The truth that saves will not be indebted to the instruments of death: but men alive from the dead, and enlightened from on high, and filled with the Spirit, and yearning for the salvation of souls, are expected to undertake this glorious service. To them Christ looks as his wit- nesses. To them the churches of the saints look as their messengers to every tribe of mankind. Where- ever humanity casts its shadow, wherever sinners breathe the atmosphere of heaven, wherever igno- rance binds mind in its cruel chain, and wherever sin has cursed the immortal spirit, there such men must travel. They must penetrate every region of the wide earth, with no sword but that of the Spirit, no ^^Jire'^ but that of love, no authority but that of Christ, and no aim but his glory in the regeneration and conversion of sinners. " The word of God only, the grace of Christ only, and the work of the Spirit ONLY," as the eloquent historian of "the Reforma- tion in the sixteenth century" has it, must be their argument, their dependence, their power. And the same spirit which animates them, must prompt the THE SAMARITAN VILLAGE. 249 churches of Christ which send them out. Those churches must consecrate their gold, not merely with liberality, but with joy, to the service of their Di- vine Sovereign. " Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us; God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him;" and then, also, shall "the wilder- ness become a fruitful field," the wielder of the sword shall retire from the bosom of the Church, and the Redeemer shall no more have to rebuke ignorant zeal. "How fair the daughter of Jerusalem tlicn! How gloriously from Zion Hill she looked! Clothed with the sun, and in her train the moon, And on her head a coronet of stars, And girdling round her waist, with heavenly grace. The bow of Mercy bright; and in her hand Immanuel's cross, her sceptre, and her hope." CHAPTER XVIII. THE SANHEDRIM. THE CONSPIHACT. Death had entered a happy domestic circle in the village of Bethany. Two pious and affectionate sisters were bereaved of a brother whom they loved and honoured. The stroke was deeply felt. Friends and neighbours did what they could to console the weeping sisters; human sympathy exerted its gentle influence to alleviate the grief of Martha and Mary; but their minds were fixed on Jesus; both were of opinion that if he had been at Bethany during the illness of Lazarus, their brother would not have died. They believed that he Iiad the power to pre- vent death. Their faith was memorably rewarded. The Prince of Life visited the cave where the body of the dead man lay; desired the stone to be re- moved from it, lifted up his eyes to heaven and gave thanks to his Father, and then "cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth!" The dead heard that omnipotent voice, and the summons was instantly obeyed. This sublime miracle removed all doubt regarding the Messiahship of Jesus from the minds of many of the Jews present; but there were some amongst them who appear to have been prompted by the unreasonable and criminal resolu- THE SANHEDRIM. 251 tion to submit to no evidence, however complete, to acquiesce in no proof, however perfect, of a propo- sition which miUtated against the reaHzation of their carnal and ambitious views; consequently, hasting to Jerusalem, they visited some of the principal Pharisees, and laid before them the circumstances connected with the death and resurrection of Lazarus. These parties, excited by the information of this glo- rious miracle, in consequence of which many influ- ential Jews had become disciples of the despised Nazarene, felt that the time had come, not to cast themselves at the feet of Jesus in faith and adoration, but to take some decisive steps to put an end to his growing popularity; hence, in concert with the chief priests, they convened a meeting of the Sanhedrim, or great council of the Jewish nation, to discuss the question, "What do we? for this man doeth many miracles." Reason would have suggested that the council should have unanimously responded to this question, by passing a resolution declaratory of their guilt in so long continuing hostile to the claims of Jesus as the long-expected Messiah, and that hence- forth they should surrender themselves entirely to his instructions and authority. But instead of this, urged forward by writhing jealousy and deadly malice, they agreed, with one honourable exception, that of Joseph of Arimathea, to put Jesus to death. "If we let him thus alone," said some of them, "all men will believe on him; and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." To this it might have been replied, that their "place," or temple, for which they professed so much attach- ment and reverence, was valuable only so far as the 252 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. design for which it was erected, namely, the worship of the God of Abraham, was reahzed ; but as it had become "a house of merchandise," the scene of hy- pocrisy, and "a den of thieves," they could expect nothing else than its destruction by that God whom they falsely pretended to serve, although they had made his commandments of none effect by their traditions. It is a sure sign of decay, and ought to be deemed a premonition of ruin, when the build- ing, or institution, erected for the service of God, is valued more highly than the object which it was intended to subserve. It is time to set aside any establishment, not excepting the divinely-planned temple itself, when the purposes of its establishment are lost sight of. It is valuable so long, and only so long, as it facilitates these. Such remarks as these might have been justly objected to their ap- prehension of danger to their sacred place. And as to their "nation," it was already a province of gigantic Rome. The eagle had passed over the Holy Land. Judea paid tribute to the city of seven hills. Whilst the council were approvingly listening to these shallow arguments, which were intended to intoxicate their consciences preparatory to the com- mission of a great crime, and whilst they were un- decided as to the most effectual mode of procedure, their most sacred functionary, the high priest, Caia- phas, submitted a practical proposition, prefacing it with a rebuke to the Sanhedrim for not acting with greater decision, and under the influence of still more enlarged views of patriotism, than those which had been mentioned. The substance of his speech was, "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is ex- THE SANHEDRIM. 253 pedient for us, that one man should die for the peo- ple, and that the whole nation perish not," That the death of Jesus was the secret wish of the great majority of the council there cannot be a doubt; but to the high priest belongs the infamy of proposing it. There is no hesitancy here. The proposal is plain, clear, without ambiguity or contingency. It was so worded as to lead to the conviction that its author wished to preclude the necessity of argument, or the examination of any moral or other difficulty in the way of its practical accomplishment. It said in effect to the members of the Sanhedrim — Where is your usual wisdom? Ye do not appear to take a sufficiently comprehensive view of this matter; it is a great emergency; there is therefore a pressing ne- cessity for decision, and for bold action. Moreover, where is your patriotism? The nation and the temple of God are in danger; the jealousy of the Romans will be aroused, as some of you have truly hinted, and we shall perish under the stroke of their ven- geance; for if the populace begin to take this man for the Messiah, however preposterous the delusion, they will proclaim him king; and as we have no king but Caesar, the result of the insurrection will be national ruin. Our course is plain, then; it is expedient for us that this man should die for the people. Is he innocent? What although? It is better that one innocent man should be slain than that an innocent nation should perish. " Then," says John, "from that day forth they took counsel together to put him to death." Political expediency was the argument of Caia- phas. He proposed to do evil that good might 22 254 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. ensue. Jesus was innocent, and the high priest knew it, yet he suggested that the emergency re- qTiired the destruction of one innocent person to prevent the possible destruction of many thousands; in short, he proposed that Jesus should be offered as a sacrifice to Rome, although Rome demanded no such sacrifice: all that she required was obedience to her laws, not one of which had Jesus ever broken, and not one of which would the followers of Jesus ever break as long as they attended to his instruc- tions, except those laws should infringe the autho- rity of God. Then, indeed, their course would be plain. A greater than Csesar had marked it out. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." If the civil magistrate prohibit divine worship, he ought to be disobeyed. If he command it in any form which the judgment of the worshipper cannot find in ac- cordance with revelation, or if he impose conditions which are not found in the Bible, he ought to be disobeyed. Or if he associate reward with the per- formance of certain nominal religious duties, and attach penalty to the neglect of those duties, neither the reward nor the penalty should be regarded by the truly religious man; for the civil magistrate has no authority from God, the object of religious wor- ship, either to patronise or to punish in such cases. He is the transgressor, for he has crossed the boun- dary of the spiritual kingdom; but his subject who refuses to recognise his official right to legislate within that boundary, does by his refusal — always assuming it to be the dictate of his intellect and con- science — prove his regard for the infinitely higher THE SANHEintlM. 255 authority of God. In this region of duty, disobe- dience to the civil magistrate is obedience to the Spiritual Sovereign. The argument of Caiaphas, however, proceeded on the principal of political ex- pediency, without regard to what was essentially right, and proposed to prolong national repose, al- though that repose was the symbol of slavery, by the judicial murder of an innocent man; a principle, the general recognition of which would prove fatal to all religious and civil liberty, inasmuch as the caprice or imaginary interests of the party in power, would dictate the unbridled exhibition of tyranny. No man would be allowed to propagate his solemn opinions, either on religious or civil questions, and consequently the human mind would prove a super- fluous creation. Why make men thinkers at all ? But politicians of the stamp of Caiaphas have ap- peared in every age, and maxims essentially unsound, and in their operation extensively ruinous, have been applauded and echoed by the thoughtless and self- ish. Conspiracies against the innocent constitute a great portion of the world's history; and criminal eflbrts to purchase or continue the approbation of tbe governing power, at the expense of those whose integrity and mental independence have aroused the envy of state-parasites, are no uncommon things in the records of time. Indeed, it would not be difficult to trace the persecutions which have glutted the earth with human blood, to such maxims as that which brands with eternal disgrace the name of the Jewish priest. Caiaphas was the soul of that conspiracy which resulted in the death of Jesus. " It was he," writes 256 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. John, in a subsequent part of his narrative, "who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people." His advice was adopted, and acted on, by his infatuated countrymen, who thereby brought upon their "place and nation" the very evil which they sought to avoid by their unparalleled crime, with this fearful additional in- gredient in their cup of calamity, that they suffered as the murderers of the Holy One of God. Better to have been destroyed whilst an innocent nation, had that been the only alternative, than to be pun- ished for a crime which it was impossible to trans- cend. But this was not the only alternative; for the whole nation might have worshipped Jesus, had they so chosen, without incurring a rebuke from Rome, so long as they acknowledged her political supremacy; for heathen Rome was tolerant of all religious opinions, a proof of wisdom which her "Christian" successor has not yet exhibited. In connexion with the proposal of Caiaphas, how- ever, there is a remark of deep religious value in- troduced by the evangelist. Referring to that pro- posal, John adds, "And this spake he not of him- self: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that he also should gather together in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad." That Caiphas meant to prophesy this, or that he wished any such construction to be put on his words, cannot be supposed for a moment. He spoke as a crafty politician, whose wish it was to destroy Jesus, that he might thus put an end to his holy doctrines, in whose light the criminal practices THE SANHEDRIM. 257 of the priests and Pharisees were daily exposed to the gaze of the muhitude. The fame of Christ was wormwood to these men. The purity of his hfe constantly rebuked them; and the people could not but contrast his meekness with their haughtiness, his humility with their pride, his disinterestedness with their covetousness, and his piety with their hypocrisy; whilst his stupendous miracles carried his name everywhere, and invested that name with a glory unexampled in any single instance, even in the history of that wonderful people, the Jews. The guardians of the national religion could not but sink into the shade in such circumstances; and not this merely, galling as it was to their pride, but they also felt that, by the light which radiated from the divine teachings of Jesus, the people would soon detect the hoUowness of their professions, and cover them with long-merited contempt. This feeling goaded them into restlessness; while the idea that a homeless, and, as they imagined, unlettered Nazarene, whom some of the populace actually believed to be the Messiah, should be the cause of all this, drove them to such an excess of infatuation, that they disre- garded all the evidences of his claims, and conspired to destroy him. Their fatal resolution was, " We will not have this man to reign over us;" and the defection of so many influential citizens, in conse- quence of the miracle at Bethany, occasioned, as we have seen, that extraordinary meeting of the San- hedrim under notice, at which Caiaphas proposed the death of the Redeemer. He gave, therefore, only verbal expression to the secret malice which rankled in his own breast and in those of his fellow- 258 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. counsellors, and had no knowledge that in speaking as he did, he was giving utterance to the most im- portant fact in the Christian religion, namely, that Jesus should die as a sacrifice for sin, and that by that death he should gather into one all the children of God. "Jesus wept" at the grave of Lazarus. Wliy? Was it merely as the tender friend? or, as the sympathetic Saviour? or from a review of the ravages of death? or all combined? We doubt not these ingredients w^ere all mingled with the Re- deemer's tears; but we think that when "he groan- ed in the Spirit and was troubled," and "wept" at the side of the cave, the principal cause of his grief was his knowledge that the resurrection of Lazarus should occasion the Jewish rulers to fill up the mea- sure of their iniquity. Those tears were shed not on his own account, but on that of those who should make this magnificent miracle a pretext for doing that which should bring down the vengeance of Heaven on the awfully guilty nation. Nevertheless, the inspired writer assures us, that from the lips of "the high priest" there fell a truth of prophetic grandeur, and of eternal importance. Although he himself was ignorant of the fact, and, therefore, not entitled to the honour of a prophet, he gave judgment on a point more important than any that in former years had waited the decision of his predecessors by Urim and Thummim. Whilst gratifying his own criminal desire, the Spirit of God spake by his lips ; an oracle was put into his mouth, he "being high priest that year," which neither himself, nor probably and of his hearers understood at the time, but the import of which is understood THE SANHEDRIM. 259 by the glorified in heaven, and gratefully pondered by all believers on earth. He prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad. Sublime prophecy! How wonderfully does God make the wrath of man to praise him! for at the meeting at which the death of Messiah was resolved on by a company of infatuated men, the Spirit of God, for a moment, stoops to enunciate the glorious result of that death ! It is obvious to remark — not as a general rule, for as a general rule, God does not employ bad men to promulge divine truth, but as an exception confir- matory of the rule — that the doctrine of the atone- ment made by Jesus, from the lips of Caiaphas has a peculiar value. He, in effect, pronounced thereby the abolition of his oion office, and summoned atten- tion to the glorious sacrifice of Christ, whose value should for ever supersede the many offerings of the Jewish economy. Without knowing it, he divested himself of all official dignity ,^\\di proclaimed the ter- mination of the Aaronic priesthood. With the conspi- racy to destroy Jesus came the end of the ritual and local system, and the beginning of the spiritual and universal reign of the Son of God, "the High Priest of our profession." From the lips of Peter or John, this truth would have been equally important, but falling from those of Caiaphas, it is associated with impressive and peculiar facts. On this principle it is, that we value the testimony of Judas and of Pilate to the innocence of Jesus, more than we do similar testimony from better men. We fully believe 260 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. the evidence given by good men, because we know that they would not deceive; but from such men as Judas and Pilate, a traitor and a miserable time- server, to hear the declaration that he who was "betrayed" by the one, and "delivered to be cru- cified" by the other, was free from guilt, we re- ceive the testimony as an evidence of the triumph OP TRUTH, while we despise the wretched witnesses. In like manner, the prophesy of Caiaphas, who hated Jesus, and proposed his death, that Jesus should atone for sin, and gather together the people of God by virtue of that atonement, gives to the truth enunciated a value which rises in contrast with the guilty intentions of the bad man who gave utter- ance to the prophecy. We receive the soul-anima- ting truth from the Spirit of God with gratitude and adoration, while we look on Caiaphas as a mere politician of \\{{\q penetration and less moral- ity, the shifting standard of whose conduct, even in a case of life and death, was state " expediency." And the fact that Caiaphas was ignorant of the meaning which God intended to attach to his words, suggests an impressive lesson regarding the divine supremacy over men. His free agency, and conse- quent accountability, remained undisturbed. He selected his own words to convey his meaning to those who heard him, and that was that Jesus should be slain to preserve the peace of the nation. He was to all intents and purposes, therefore, guilty of proposing murder. This was his proposition, which he vindicated by the supposed national necessity, a necessity created in his imagination by enmity to Jesus; but while he selected his own words to con- THE SANHEDRIM. 261 vey his own meaning, the Spirit of God intended by them to convey to all nations a higher, a holier, a far more glorious meaning, than the political repose of the Jews under the sceptre of the Caesars could possibly convey. If this be the correct interpretation of the passage, it affords, we repeat, an impressive instance of the harmony existing, where harmony has been often deemed impossible, namely, between the sovereignty of the Creator and the accountabil- ity of the creature. This is a subject, however, on which we only glance in passing, deeming it called for by the remarkable passage before us. This view of the prophecy of Caiaphas, it is acknowledged, is somewhat different from any that the writer has hitherto seen, and, therefore, whilst he thinks it cor- rect, he submits it with deference to the inspection of others. The prophecy itself, apart from the memorable circumstances under which it was delivered, is in accordance with the whole system of revealed truth. Jesus died to save a ruined world. Not for the Jewish nation only, but for mankind, was the sacri- fice offered and the atonement made; and every man in every nation under heaven, who cordially receives the testimony of God on this subject, and believes with his heart on the Redeemer, obtains the un- speakably great privileges and advantages which flow through that atonement. Hence the apostle says to the Ephesian converts, "Remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called un- circumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were witliout Christ, behig aliens from the common- 262 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who some- times were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of par- tition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that he might re- concile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and came and preached peace to you who were afar ofl", and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." Again, he says, that "in other ages this was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel." And elsewhere he says, that in the new creation "there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumci- sion nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." By faith in his atoning blood sinful men become the chil- dren of God, and are placed in possession of all the holy privileges and immunities of children. Of some of their privileges Paul speaks thus, after re- minding the Romans that Christ was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification: — "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by Avhom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein THE SANHEDRIM. 263 we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and pa- tience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified b)'' his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." And these privileges involve immuni- ties, taking this word in the sense of exemption from evil. The children of God are delivered from the curse of the law; — "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." And from the dominion of sin: — "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." And from the power of dark- ness: — "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." And from spiritual death: — "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncir- cumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blot- tin? out the handwriting of ordinances that was 264 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, naiUng it to his cross." And from the sting of deatli: — "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." And they shall be delivered from the influence of all inward evil: — "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And from all Satanic temptation: — "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." And their bodies shall be delivered from the grave : — " The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." Already they are delivered from the wrath to come: — "Jesus deliver- ed us from the wrath to come." For already they are in possession of that life which shall be ever- lasting: — "He that believeth on the Son hath ever- lasting life;" and "Verily, verily," said he whose death was resolved on by the Jewish conspirators, "I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." CHAPTER XIX. GETHSEMANE. THE REDEEMER'S AGONY, Gethsemane ! What a multitude of solemn thoughts press on the mind of the believer, as he names the scene of his Redeemer's agony! — an agony, the powerful causes of which are not revealed in the inspired narrative with such a degree of clear- ness as to render conjecture unnecessary. "Various opinions," consequently, "have been given of the probable causes of those sorrows of the Saviour. Some have thought it was a strong shrinking from the manner of dying on the cross, or from an ap- prehension of being forsaken there by the Father; others, that Satan was permitted in a peculiar manner to try him, and to fill his mind with horrors, having departed from him at the beginning of his ministry, for a season only, to renew his temptations in a more dreadful manner now; and others, that these suffer- ings were sent upon him as the wrath of God mani- fested against sin; that God inflicted them directly upon him by his own hand to show his abhorrence of the sins of men, for which he was about to die. When the Scriptures are silent about the cause, it does not become us confidently to express an opinion. We may suppose, perhaps, without presumption, that 23 266 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. a part or all these things were combined to pro- duce this awful sulfering. There is no need of sup- posing that there was a single thing that produced it; but it is rather probable that this was a rush of feeling from every quarter. His situation, his approaching death, the temptations of the enemy, and the awful suffering on account of men's sins, and God's hatred of it, about to be manifested by his own death — all coming upon his soul at once — sorrow flowing in from every quarter — the concen- tration of the sufferings of the atonement pouring together upon him, and filHng him with unspeak- able anguish." Perhaps the intensity of his mental anguish arose from causes which could not be ade- quately described, through the medium of language, to the human understanding, in its present enfeebled state of perception regarding the deep things of God, and which were associated with circumstances whose revelation might prompt to a speculation regarding the nature of the invisible world, inconsistent with that economy which, in mercy to man, conceals much that he would wish to know, that it may the more certainly cultivate in him the spirit oi faith. Perhaps this may be the reason why the mind, when eagerly pursuing some process of thought, awakened by Scripture, and when it finds itself bounding with joy at the prospect of reaching some hitherto un- discovered conclusion, is suddenly thrown back on the revelation from which it began its course, by the drawing of the veil which conceals the invisible glories of the future world. There is much more revealed than has been yet understood, in all its bearings and influences, by any man, and we may GETHSEMANE. 267 rest satisfied that both wisdom and mercy suggested the conceahiient of those things, concerning which imagination wearies her wing in vain, as the mount which she must ascend to realize her desires rises up too near the throne of God for her powers while she dwells in "this tabernacle." Moreover, the spe- culative tendency of the human mind, which is well known to man, and could not but be perfectly known to God, seldom results in any solid advantage either to intellect or religion; and when facts are left out of revelation, for the knowledge of which a desire is awakened, we may conclude that, whatever other reasons there may have been for their con- cealment, a salutary check is thus put upon mental curiosity. The deep darkness intercepts our path, and bids us return to the light of those things which are revealed, telling us to walk by faith and not by sight; and as an encouragement to obedience, promising that what we know not now, we shall know hereafter. Nevertheless, the Redeemer's agony in the garden of Gethsemane, can never cease to attract the most solemn attention of his followers. Regarding it, he said to the three disciples who had witnessed the glories of the transfiguration, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He experienced de- jection, amazement, and anguish of spirit, such as man never felt. The cup was exceedingly bitter which he was called to drink. He prayed three times that if it were possible it might pass from him, adding, "Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt; " a prayer which proves at once the in- tensity of his anguish, the reality of his manhood, and his devotedness to the will of God and the 268 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. work of human redemption. And so fearful was the mental agony, so dreadfid was the conflict, that though it was in the cool of the night and in the open air, the sweat ran from him with violence, ac- companied with blood, forced by the fearful com- motion of nature, through the pores of his body. InfideUty has objected to this, as it has done to many other facts in the wonderful history of our blessed Lord: but whilst there were causes for his agony and bloody sweat, which can never operate in the case of any ordinary man, the fact that intense grief has produced a similar phenomenon, in the case of ordinary mortals, is well known. That arch-infidel, Voltaire, has himself furnished an instance, which his admirers must set aside if they would consistently deny that blood fell from the Saviour's body in the garden of Gethsemane. Speaking of Charles the Ninth, of France, in his Universal History, Voltaire says, "He died in his thirty-fifth year; his disorder was of a very remarkable kind; ihe blood oozed out of all his pores. This malady, of which there have been other instances, was owing to either excessive fear, or violent agitation, or to a feverish and melan- choly temperament." And Doddridge has the follow- ing on the same subject: "Dr. Whitby observes, that Aristotle and Diodorus Siculus both mention bloody sweats as attending some extraordinary agony of mind; and I find Leti, in his Life of Pope Sextus the Fifth, and Sir John Chardin, in his History of Persia, mentioning a like phenomenon; to which Dr. Jackson adds another from Thuanus." The objection, then, against the bloody sweat in Gethse- mane, arises from its connexion witii the history of the GETHSEMANE. 269 holy Saviour. That "blood oozed" from the body of Charles the Ninth, infidelity will not deny; but that it fell from the body of Jesus of Nazareth it deems incredible; and yet the veracity of the historian Luke has generally been thought equal to that of the his- torian Voltare. Isaiah, foretelling the sufferings of Messiah, says, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief" Mark the scene and circumstances now, and behold the prediction accomplished. It was night. The last Passover had been celebrated by Christ, and the eucharist instituted to commemo- rate the great deliverance effected by his death. Judas had gone, immediately after the Passover, and previous to the institution of the Lord's Supper, as we beUeve, to keep his infamous appointment with the chief priests and Pharisees; from whom he re- ceived a band or cohort of Roman soldiers with their captain, and a number of Jewish officers, probably the servants of the Sanhedrim. These, " with lan- terns, and torches, and weapons," headed by the traitor, were approaching the garden of Gethsemane, which was known to Judas as a favourite resort of Jesus. The rabble of Jerusalem and the vilest cha- racters of the provinces, attracted thither for pur- poses of plunder and vicious indulgence, during the excitement caused by a great influx of visitors to the city on account of the national feast, arrested by the sight of soldiers and officers, bearing lanterns and torches, though the full moon poured her light on earth, would join the procession, and thus account for the statement of Matthew, that "a great multi- tude" came with Judas. Meantime Jesus, leaving 23* 270 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. his three disciples, with a charge to watch and pray, removed from them "about a stone's cast" to a more retired part of the garden, and "fell on the ground and prayed." Agitated by extreme anguish, he returned and found them asleep. Again and again the charge to watch and pray was given; again and again the overwhelmed soul of Messiah was poured out before God. He was alone in the awful conflict ! Truly might he say, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me." His "hour" had come; the agents of the power of darkness were approaching the garden; the three disciples were asleep; their eyes were heavy with sorrow; they apprehended some terrible evil; they feared some awful crisis; and Jesus was drinking the cup of wrath as the substitute of sinners. Now, as the Redeemer knew all these things per- fectly; — as the treachery of his disciple, and the malice of his enemies, and the claims of the holy law which he had engaged to meet, were all pre- sent to his mind, and as the dreadful events of the trial and the cross were before him, the agony of his pure mind must have been fearfully intense. His was no ordinary case of human woe. His were no ordinary snflerings. And his was no ordinary mind. Let it be remembered that his soul was sinless — that he had broken no law, either human or divine — that perfect obedience, springing from perfect holi- ness, invariably characterized him — that the accu- sations brought against him were all false — that his love had been rewarded with hatred, his compassion, with scorn; his mercy, with malignity — that his miracles had been attributed to Satanic agency — his GETHSEMANE. 271 separation between the secular and spiritual, to an insurrectionary motive, and his claim to Messiah- ship traced to the spirit of blasphemy; and the depth of his anguish, though it can never be soimded by mortal, will appear to have been awful in the ex- treme. It is impossible to conceive the power which such a "concentration," as Barnes justly calls it, of causes of woe, must have exerted on the soul of the Lord Jesus. Such a mind must have suffered tor- ture which it was impossible to describe. Hence, as we have said, it is not described. There is no attempt to describe it, beyond the use of words which are very feebly translated "sorrowful," and "sore amazed." The words thus rendered really mean to be pierced with sorrow, and to be almost crushed beneath an overwhelming load. We have said such a mind; for in proportion to the degree of holiness at which any man has arrived, in his spiritual sensibility, and his grief at the dis- honour done to God by human wickedness. This rule, applied to Jesus, will show that his abhorrence of sin must have been unmingled, and his sorrow at the madness of the Jews, of the most penetrating kind, for his holiness was perfect. He saw sin in its undisguised deformity, and judged of it by no conventional standard, but by the claims of eternal purity, and the terrific consequences to which, un- forgiven, it must inevitably lead. Its essential vile- ness, unveiled by any of those flimsy palliatives with which foolish men try to conceal its odious character, lay outspread before his all-penetrating eye. He looked upon it as the turbulent and lawless spirit that had introduced disorder, and woe, and 273 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. death, amidst God's beautiful universe — that had built a hell among the worlds composing that universe — that had given the lie to his F'ather's beneficent character, wherever its ravages had reached — and that with insatiable malignity was endeavouring to spread its baleful influence still wider. He saw the great majority of the professedly good, as well as all the openly profane, completely under its abomi- nable power. The scribes, the priests, and the elders, most of them, ranked in his view with the publicans and sinners of Judea; nay, the guilt of the former was greater than that of the latter, for those had light, but it was despised; knowledge, but it was trampled on. He saw the infatuated city where his Father's temple stood, rapidly rushing to a gulph of infamy, compared with which the degradation of Sodom is nothing. He saw in all the volumes of history in all coming ages the name of Jerusalem, the holy city, associated with the perpetration of the most terrible crime which could be committed. He saw the children of the faithful patriarch wanderers from age to age over the surface of the globe, a by-word and a hissing to every tribe of men, and from generation to generation refusing to acknowledge that Messiah whose day Abraham desired to see. He saw that sin was the fearful cause of all this mad- ness and disaster — that noio the crisis for which four thousand years had been preparing had come — that now the long pending question, "How can God be just, and justify the ungodly?" must be answered, or given up as unanswerable — that now the law of God must be honoured by sacrifice, or permission given to it to blast the world— that now the battle of GETHSEMANE. 273 the universe was to be finally decided, and that the scene of the inconceivable struggle was his own soul! Had he not been ^Hn an agony ^^ he could not have been the Mediator between God and men. To be insensible, is not to suffer. To be indifferent to sin, is a proof of guilt. Jesus was neither, for he was the Messiah. His character has been tried through hfe, and found perfect. Sinless, he had lived among sinners; pure, among the unclean; obe- dient, among rebels; and now the time had come when HE should hear the weight of our iniquities. For thus wrote the inspired prophet: "We all of us like sheep have strayed; We have turned aside, every one to his own way : And Jehovah hath made to light upon him tlie iniquity of us all. It was exacted, and he was made answerable; and he opened not his mouth : As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers Is dumb ; so he opened not his mouth." It has long been our impression that the sufferings of Jesus in Gethsemane were penal; that here, ere human hand had touched him, when he was alone with God, he began to suffer the punishment due to human guilt, and to drink that cup of woe as man's substitute, which, but for his infinitely merciful in- terposition, would have been presented to our lips, and the consequence of which would have been too awful for the grasp of imagination. Here, we think, the fire began to descend, which on the following day consumed the sacrifice; and here the travail of the Redeemer's soul was felt. 274 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. But, let us pause. As we shall see human guilt in action in the next chapter, let us now try to view it in essence. What is sin? What it has doiie^ the world, the grave, the Bible, heaven, and hell testify. But its essential nature, its true character, must be inferred from this amazing fact, that it could not be expiated without the agony and death of the Son of God. It may be called the antagonist of God's law, and its virulence gauged by the strength of its opposition to that law; but even this, though correct, so far as it goes, does not go far enough; for godless men repeatedly assert that the law is too strict, requires too much, is too spiritual and compre- hensive; and as long as this opinion prevails, the essential evil of sin will make little mental impression. In proportion as the law is deemed rigid, sin will be palliated. The impugners of the statute will con- nive at its transgression. The question, therefore, which may help to expose the inherent criminality of transgression is. What is the law which so se- verely condemns it? Is it arbitrary, or temporary, or the result of certain occurrences in the divine dominions, such for instance, as the introduction of human guilt? That is, was it enacted — we speak of course of mora/ law — to meet certain circumstances? and thus, is the conclusion warranted that the spirit of the law would have been difterent, had the moral state of the subjects for whom it was intended been different? To all these questions the answer is No! The law which enjoins holiness and condemns sin is the emanation of the Legislator's unchanging and unchangeable character. God is holy — at all times, everywhere, and eternally holy. So, consequently, GETHSEMANE. 275 is his law, holy — at all times, everywhere, and eter- nally holy. He cannot sin; his law therefore can ask nothing less than absolute and constant hohness in the hearts and conduct of his subjects. Sin, there- fore, is not merely the transgression of law, but the opposite of infinite purity, the enemy of God's es- sential character. The question is not, can the crea- ture obey in his fallen state? but, can God modify his law in any way likely to weaken the power of the dreadful penalty? Impossible, if the law emanate from the character of the Lawgiver, ex- cept that character change. Nay, the possibility of a relaxed law would be in the highest degree dis- astrous to the moral universe. The eye of man can- not gaze long on the meridian sun; would it bene- fit our earth to lessen the intensity of his brilliancy in accommodation to human vision? This, how- ever, is a very faint similitude; but, as in this case, gloom would overspread the world, so in the former, mental and moral night would scatter dismay every- where. Sin, then, is the enemy of God. But, again, the law is the emanation of the Lawgiver's cha- racter. God is LOVE. Sin, therefore, is not merely the transgression of law, but the antagonist of love, the enemy of God's essential benignity, the eter- nal opposite of what he is, and — adored be his name! — what he cannot cease to be. Why not relax the demand of the law which requires per- fect and constant love to himself and his creatures? Because it is the transcript of his unchangeable nature: it cannot ask partial love until he cease to be what he is, and then — woe to all creation! Sin, therefore, is essentially hateful, vile, impure — in- 276 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. tensely and eternally odious. Once more, the law is the emanation of the Lawgiver's character. God is LIGHT. Sin, therefore, is not merely the trans- gression of law, but the foe of God's essential cha- racter — a thing of darkness, woe, and death, leading to darkness, woe, and death; and had not Jesus drunk the awful cup in the garden of Gethsemane, and offered himself a sacrifice on Calvary to bear the curse it had brought with it, instead of man, to whom that curse was due, those glorious prospects which now cheer the believer would never have ani- mated a human spirit. But does the atonement of Jesus abrogate the law? Is it not now binding? Is its authority repealed? Or may we safely trifle with that authority, seeing we are saved by grace ? The opinion which furnishes an affirmative answer to these questions, whether it obtain among godless or among professedly godly men, is at once the result of ignorance, heresy, and impiety. The gospel which enunciates the atone- ment, describes the efl'ect which a cordial reception of its truths has upon the heart and conscience of the believer. The sum of the law is love; the sum of the gospel is love. Love is the fulfilling of the law; love is the fulfilling of Christian precepts. Grace produces that obedience which the authority of law commanded. " Love God," is the behest of the latter; "We love him, because he first loved us," is the effect of the former. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," is the injunction of law; the influence of grace upon the heart responds, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, be- cause we love the brethren." In infinite mercy, GETHSEMANE. 277 Jesus suffered the penalty attached to the breach of law, that whosoever believeth m him might not perish, but have everlasting life; but the effect of his great salvation is to lead to holy obedience. In measureless love, he bore the curse for man; but by doing so he proclaimed, not that the law was too rigid, or that it was in any way susceptible of modi- fication, but that it was perfectly righteous, abso- lutely holy, and incapable of alteration. Great, be- yond expression or thought, was his love to man; but — we speak with reverence — it was not so great as to lead him to suffer the penalty of an over-rigid law. Had it been possible to repeal the law, the proclamation of its repeal would have been issued to the universe, rather than this — "I have laid help upon One that is mighty;" or this — "God sent forth his Son, made under the law, to redeem, them that were under the law;" or this — "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us;" or this — "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins;" or this — "He was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin;" or this — "The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world;" or this — "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propi- tiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." These wondrously gracious proclamations would never have met created eye, had the relaxation of Jehovah's claims been pos- sible. But 0, the depth of that love which thought upon a substitute ! and 0, what ground for eternal 24 278 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. praise that the idea of a substitute was admissible in the divine government! We return to Gethsemane. Judas, preceding the multitude to whom he had given the sign of be- trayal, went up to Jesus, saying. Hail Master, Master! and kissed him. The Redeemer, "knowing all things that should come upon him," after simply saying to the perfidious disciple, "Friend wherefore art thou come? Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" went forth to meet the armed multitude, and said to them, "Whom seek ye?" They replied, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus answer- ed, "I am he." As he said these words, they were all so overwhelmed by a secret power, that they drew back and fell prostrate on the ground, as if struck down by the hand of God. The Re- deemer's object, however, was neither to destroy these impious men, nor to escape from their hands, by this manifestation of his Divine power; but probably to show to them and to the world, that neither betrayal nor force could drag him to judg- ment and death against his own will; that without his own consent, no power could even seem to pre- vail against him; and that, consequently, while he surrendered himself into their hands, if they led him to suffering after such an exhibition of the power he had to prevent it, their guilt would be fearfully augmented. Repeating the question, there- fore, and receiving the same answer, Jesus said, "I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way." Here was a manifes- tation of tenderness to his poor disciples, which it is hardly possible sufficiently to admire. Alas! their GETHSEMANE. 279 conduct had shown them utterly unworthy of such regard. But m the midst of these trying circum- stances, he requires that they shall not be molested, but have full liberty granted them to retire. The officers do not appear to have objected to this pro- posal, probably from the conviction that if his terms were not complied with, it was impossible to bring him with them. However obdurate their hearts, however impervious to truth, and however blind to the grandeur of Messiah's character, they had seen enough to convince them, that to compel Jesus was entirely out of the question. Neither Roman nor Jewish power could avail in this design. After re- buking Peter for wounding one of the high priest's servants, and healing the wound by a touch, he allowed himself to be bound and led away to the scene of trial. "Then the band, and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him. And they led him away to Annas first (for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was the high priest that same year.) Now Caiaphas was he who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people." Thus far then had this arch-conspirator succeeded, his "counsel," as wc have already seen, was taken; the proclamation of the Sanhedrim had been issued; the agony of the garden had been endured; and Jesus was sent bound from the presence of Annas to that of Caiaphas, be- fore whom a trial took place, the most abhorrent in its process to every principle of rectitude and justice that ever took place on this earth. CHAPTER XX. CALVARY. THE CRUCIFIXION. "And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people, and the chief priests, and the scribes, came together, and led Jesus into their council." But as we do not intend to quote passages from the sad mockery of a trial which followed, and which every reader of the New Testament may ponder for himself, let us follow our Lord to the scene of his last sufferings. "Well lie remembers Calvary, Nor let his saints forget." Calvary is a Latin word, meaning skull, or place of skulls; and the probabihty is, that the small emi- nence denominated Mount Calvary, was the place of capital punishments, which neither among the Romans nor among the Jews was allowed to be within the walls of a city. Jesus died without the gate; for the sacrifice he offered was the anti-type of those sacrifices which, under the law, were burned without the camp. "For the bodies of those beasts," says Paul, "whose blood is brought into the sanc- tuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered with- out the gate." CALVARY. 281 Jesus, betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, con- demned by the Sanhedrim, mocked by the impious Herod, scornfully abused, smitten, and blindfolded by the mob, crowned with thorns, streaming with blood, and given over to death by the pusillanimous Pilate, after he had repeatedly borne the most ex- plicit testimony to his innocence, was led forth to Calvary, bearing his cross, in the company of two malefactors, and surrounded by a dense multitude of cruel and infatuated men. Having reached the place of execution, they nailed him to his cross, and, as a mark of the greatest indignity, " with him they crucified the two thieves, the one on his right hand and the other on his left." It was nine o'clock in the morning of Friday, the day of preparation for the solemnities of the first Sabbath that followed the Passover. Throngs of spectators are every where visible. Multitudes surround the cross. But all cannot get near. On the eminences in the distance, on the walls of the city, and on the roofs of the houses, throngs are seen. Priests and Levites, Pha- risees and Sadducees, doctors of the law and their disciples, Jews and Gentiles, men from all the pro- vinces of the land, and from distant parts of the Roman empire, the philosopher and the peasant, the noble and ignoble, all are looking towards Calvary. Lepers, cleansed by the Sufferer between the two thieves, mingling with their fellow citizens, are there. The lame, enabled by him to walk, are there also. Those who had been blind, and to whom he had given sight, are gazing on the scene. Perhaps some of those Avhoni he had raised from the dead have come to witness his death. There are also 24* 282 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. some of those who scattered branches in the way when he rode into Jerusalem. Tliere is a mother holding np her child that it may obtain a view of the man whom it had lately greeted with "Hosanna!" In the distance were his acquaintances, and many women who had followed him from Galilee. "They stood afar off, beholding." Close by the cross there stood four persons, whose ardent love to Jesus brought them there, despite the wildness of the throng and the rudeness of the Roman soldiers, and the compli- cated horrors of the scene. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her sister, and Mary Magdalene, with the beloved and amiable John, were there. Their feelings who shall describe? We attempt it not. The revilings of the multitude were heard on every hand; the passing and re-passing crowds were no- ticed shaking their heads in scorn, and heard up- braiding him; the chief priests and rulers, with the scribes and elders, actually taunt him with his acts of benevolence and power; they turn to ridicule even his piety: — "He trusted in God, let him de- liver him now, if he will have him." The soldiers also mocked him; and as if all this were not display enough of demoniac madness, one of the tortured wretches that hung by his side turned his writhing eyes upon him, and branded him as an impostor ! Three hours passed thus. Three hours, during which human wickedness had reached its climax. It could go no further. It had gathered all its forces, summoned all its resources, concentrated all its ma- lignity, and expended all its virulence. Three hours, during which, perhaps, all nature shone out with ordinary tranquillity. The fields were mellow for the CALVARY. 283 sickle : the sheaf of new corn was to be presented on the coming day. The earth was quiet. Tlie rivers of Judea ran on as usual. The sun was ascending the horizon. It was nearly noon. " In 'customed glory briglit, that morn, the sun Rose, visiting the earth with light, and heat, And joy; and seemed as full of youth, and strong To mount the steep of heaven, as when the stars Of morning sung to his first dawn, and niglit Fled from his face ; the spacious sky received Him, blushing as a bride, when on iier looked The bridegroom ; and spread out beneath his eye, Eartii smiled. Up to his warm embrace, the dews, That all night long had wept his absence, flew; The herbs and flowers their fragrant stores unlocked. And gave the wanton breeze that, newly woke. Revelled in sweets, and from its wings shook healtii, A thousand grateful smells; the joyous woods Dried in his beams their locks, wet with the drops Of night; and all the sons of music sung Their matin song — from arboured bower, the thrush Concerting with the lark that hymned on high." Noon came, when suddenly a preternatural dark- ness spread over the land; the sun was darkened, though it was now full moon, and could not there- fore be an ordinary eclipse; the vail of the temple, which divided the holy from the most holy place, was rent in two from the top to the bottom: the sacred oracle was opened to public view; the earth trembled, as if in sympathy with the agony of the Redeemer; the rocks in the neighbourhood of Jeru- salem were torn asunder by an invisible hand ; and graves were opened by the awful earthquake. The guilty nmltitude were thrown into fearful conster- nation. About three hours after the sun had with- 284 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. drawn his beams, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Shortly after- wards he said, "// is finished^ And, when he had cried again with a loud voice, he said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," and he bowed his head and dismissed his spirit. The Roman centurion who conducted the execution, convinced by these prodigies that there had been some irreme- diable error committed, exclaimed, "Certainly this was a righteous man; truly this was the Son of God." Those that were with him watching Jesus, terrified by these miracles and by the guilt of their own con- sciences, repeated, "Truly, this was the Son of God." And the multitude of spectators, filled with remorse and apprehension of speedy vengeance, "smote their breasts and returned." Until three o'clock in the afternoon, the fearful darkness remained. Period of dread to the indescribably guilty inhabitants of Jeru- salem! Period of unseen and unrevealed agony to the atoning Saviour! For three hours before noon he hung on the accursed tree, the jest of blasphe- mers; for three hours after noon, he suffered amidst the fearful darkness of the sun and the commotions of nature, the indiscribable stroke of God's fiery law as the substitute of sinners. His Father for- sook him and hid his countenance from him, and amidst the darkness of nature, and the silence im- posed on the multitude by that darkness, he hung on the cross, the victim of Divine justice, and again alone, as he had been a few hours before in the garden of Gethsemane. The agony of the garden — too great for human eye — Avas intermitted until the perjured witnesses, and the cruel priests, and the CALVARY. 285 venal judge, and the delirious multitude had done their fearful work, and then, again in darkness, to hide the great sight from every human eye, the awful cup is presented — all nature waiting in sus- pense to ascertain whether it should be emptied to its dregs — and accepted, and, at the expense of his life it is all drunk. Sufficient strength is left for the Saviour to exclaim, "It is Finished." God heard that cry, and looked down with love on his beloved Son. The law heard it, and was completely satisfied. The sun heard it, and immediately shone out in splendour, as if to gild the first hours of the glorious economy, and to write upon the earth, "It is finished." The vibrating earth heard that cry, and as if shaking the curse and death from her bosom, awoke some of those that slept there. And death heard that cry, which pronounced his doom for ever, and as if to testify to its truth, surrendered a number of those whom he had taken to his gloomy dominions. Dark and dreadful, beyond the powers of any creature to imagine, were these three hours to the soul of our blessed Redeemer. The hand of God, which had ever been to him full of love, was now upon him as the avenger of his own justice. The face of God which had ever beamed with joy upon him, was now withdrawn. No ray of loving-kind- ness pierced that tremendous gloom; the curse of human guilt now entered his sinless soul. Tlie penalty of the holy law was now borne by him who undertook to put away sin by the sacrifice of him- self. "To what Christ was now enduring in his soul," says Wylie, in his truly valuable work — "Scenes from the Bible" — "is also to be added the 286 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. complete suspension of every public testimony to his sonship. Adversity is the time when love is put upon her trial. This was the hour, above every other, when Christ stood in need of the countenance of his F'ather; and yet this was the hour when he was forsaken: and never was any being more com- pletely forsaken than the Son of God now was. All creatures in the universe, from the throne down- wards, stood afar off; not a voice spoke comfort, not an eye looked love. His countrymen? They had forsaken him. His disciples? They, too, had for- saken him. His own Father? Ah! that was the sorrow that wounded him to the death. 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!' No wonder that the wicked reviled him. No wonder that Satan raged when his own Father was silent. The roar of blasphemy rose to the heavens, but no voice came from the heavens to rebuke it. His enemies were now saying, 'He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him.' This challenge remained without an answer, and those from whom it came, accounted that they had reason to conclude that he was not the Son of God. The light that shone around him on the mount of transfiguration, did not break forth to dispel the darkness on Cal- vary. The voice that ere while answered him in thunder, 'I have both glorified my name, and will glorify it again' was silent during this hour. Every public testimony was withheld when, as we would have thought, it was most urgently needed. To a spectator of the scene, it must have appeared as if the throne of righteousness had fallen, while wicked- ness had resolved to celebrate its fall by walking in CALVARY. 287 triumph through the universe." All events seemed to concur against Messiah, and hoUness, and justice, and God. The plans of the wicked were perfectly successful. Jealousy had her revenge, malice its satisfaction, bribery its price. The high priest was satisfied; the Sanhedrim had succeeded; Pilate be- came popular; between him and Herod a recon- ciliation took place; Judas was rewarded; Barabbas released; the blood-thirsty mob satiated; and "that deceiver" — as the priests and Pharisees blasphem- ously termed our adored Redeemer — put to death between two robbers, by the tortures of crucifixion. But "the triumph of the wicked is short." The cup of their iniquity was full, and it soon, very soon, came to them to be drunk. The hand that held it brooks no refusal. "I will repay, saith the Lord." But whilst we stand astonished at the wickedness of these men, let us remember who they were, and what prompted them to this excess of guilt, lest our indignation expend its force in the wrong direction. The murderers of Jesus were members of the human family, our kindred, our fellow-men; and as God tells us that those who fall away, "crucify to them- selves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame," it becomes us to guard with constant jealousy our thoughts and affections, lest we, too, should trifle with gracious influences and kind in- vitations, and forsaking the path of humility, should plunge into that worldliness which caused these bad men to put the Holy One of God to a shameful death. Their depravity was no deeper than ours, their hatred of holiness no stronger than that which thousands, who daily walk our streets, bear in their 2S8 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. bosoms. They loved the world, and the praises of men, and the pleasnres of time, and the objects of sense. They persecuted Jesus, because he testified against their evil deeds. Their consciences were stung by his rebukes, their pride was offended at his poverty, their unclean hearts were embittered at his holiness. Such were the men — our kindred, our brethren; and such the evil principles that prompted them to guilt — ^liatred of God, love of the world, pride, selfishness, impurity; principles which characterize the hearts of living myriads in this pro- fessedly Christian land, and which, but for the free love of God, in hifusing grace into our hearts by his Spirit, would characterize us all. Nay, more, it was our sins that crucified the Lord of life and glory. He suffered for us, the just for the unjust. Our iniquities met upon his holy soul, our sins crowned him with thorns, and nailed him to the cross, and mingled the cup of his agony. He died in our stead, and suffered in our room, the shameful death on Calvary. Instead of weep- ing over the fearful guilt of the inhabitants of Jerusalem — and 0! it was fearful beyond prece- dent or parallel — let us weep over our depravity and guilt, our pride and worldiiness, our indiffer- ence to things divine, and deep ingratitude to God, notwithstanding mercies innumerable as the sands by the sea-shore. Instead of standing amazed at the crime of Judea — for which she has groaned under the curse ever since — let us wonder at the wickedness and hardness of our own hearts, which nothing short of the power of God's Spirit can soften into penitence and holy love. And, instead of ad- CALVARY. 289 miring our Redeemer's patience, wlio suffered him- self to be thus maltreated and abused by beings who were absolutely in his hand, let us adore him for bearing so long with our follies, our unfulfilled vows and broken resolutions, and feeble conceptions of his true character and claims. By a word or a look he could have smitten the Jewish priests and people, and the Roman governor and soldiers, with per- petual death ; they were all entirely at his disposal ; but he holds the same power over us continually, and yet how seldom are we becomingly impressed with the solemn fact! In what light can we view the scenes of Calvary except in that of atonement? The glorious Scripture doctrine that Jesus offered a sacrifice for the sins of men on Calvary, and made atonement there, explains these transactions; but remove the light given by this doctrine, and how fearfully dark, how utterly inexplicable all becomes! Retain that light, how- ever, and how glorious everything appears to the mind of the believer! The shadow of night turns into morning, the gloom rolls away before the bright light of the Sun of Righteousness; the curse that would have entered his soul, and destroyed him eternally, is seen to fall upon the heart of his Re- deemer; and can he help — believing this — to love and bless that Redeemer? to live to his glory, and to count all things but dung for his sake? Can he help asking "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Feeling that he is bought with a price, he must endeavour to glorify God in his body and spirit, which are God's. The ties that bind him to the Redeemer's service are of no common kind. 25 290 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. Can he meditate on the love of Jesus to him, as seen in Gethsemane and Calvary, without fcehng that it is his reasonable service to live to the honour of such a Redeemer? Gazing on the fire that con- sumed the sacrifice — and which, but for Messiah's eternal love, would have consumed him — can he come to any other conclusion than this, that life is only valuable so far as it contributes to the fame of his enthroned Redeemer? There is no other conclusion possible in this case. It is surely the inevitable and only reasonable deduction from such a wonderful subject. Were the love of Christ more felt, there would be more zeal, more living, active, high-toned piety; more of the spirit of right-minded devotedness, and, consequently, less of that cold, formal, measured religion, which goes by the name of Christianity, and which threatens to work havoc with the Church of Christ, and which will fulfil its threatening speedily, if Christian men do not in- spire more largely the life-blood that flows from Messiah's love. Gethsemane and Calvary must be brought near, examined, studied, and prayed over, and their influence felt. It is an influence fitted to arouse from its very depths the holiest passions of tlie coldest soul, to give life to the dead, and activity to the indolent, and hope to the despairing, and joy to the most sorrowful spirit. Let men look at Jesus, and try to penetrate the darkness of the garden and Calvary; let them realize the fact that the Son of God endured woe there which it is impossible to describe, and that that woe was on their account, for them, the penalty due to their sins; that it was the curse of the violated law of Jehovah; and that Jesus CALVARY. 291 bore it, out of infinite love and infinite compassion for them — that he might save them, and bring them to God, and hoUness, and happiness, and heaven — and wonder will fill their breasts, and repentance pour out her tears from their eyes, and, casting themselves at the feet of Messiah, they will say, "My Lord, and my God!" Nor can we pass from the crucifixion without look- ing again at the love of God to man through tlie Lord Jesus Christ. The mode of its manifestation is one of the circumstances looked at by men who have re- ceived a proof of kindness from their fellow men: if that mode be such as to prove that the kind action cost the benefactor a great sacrifice, the individual benefited feels peculiar claims laid upon his gratitude. How strongly does this apply in the case under con- sideration! God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son — who dwelt with him before the world was, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, in whom he felt infinite com- placency — to give him up, not only to appear in the lowly gnise of humanity, but to be poor, afflicted, scorned, rejected, slain, by wretched men, rebels against law and love, children of wrath, and heirs of hell; and not only this, but to be tempted repeatedly by the malignant foe of God, who had long been expelled from heaven; and not only all this, but to bear the awful weight of his own broken law, the penalty, the curse of sin. Surely, if anything can give an impressive idea of God's love, it is the mode of its manifestation. We can conceive of no higher proof than has been afforded us in the atonement, that God is love. The only Son of God given up a 292 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. sacrifice for sin — "Christ our passover sacrificed for us," that we might escape from deserved wrath, and receive pardon, adoption, a new heart; the Spirit of God to sanctify us, and, in due time, glory, honour, and eternal Hfe: if this doctrine be not evidence of love which passeth knowledge, such evidence is no- where else to be found. The inspired writers repre- sent it as an overwhelming proof of the Father's love. Hence, they glory in the cross; the scenes of Calvary are ever present to their minds; the cruci- fixion of the Redeemer they never forget: they felt the hallowed influence of that love, whose unparal- leled strength is seen in the atoning death of the ever blessed Son of God — to whom be glory for ever! CHAPTER XXI. THE BURIAL. MELANCHOLY THOUGHTS. As the day was drawing to a dose, the Jews, anxious that the bodies should not remain all night upon tlie cross, entreated Pilate to instruct the soldiers, who were watching the crucified persons, to break their legs for the purpose of hastening death, that they might be removed. It was customary among some eastern nations to leave the bodies of criminals who had been executed, on the crosses or slakes, to be eaten by birds of prey. But the Jewish law on the subject ran thus: — "If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree; his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in anywise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is ac- cursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." John also mentions another reason for the solicitude of the Jews on this subject, namely, because the day on which Jesus was crucified, was " the preparation" for the Sabbath. The Roman governor complied with their request, and issued orders accordingly. The soldiers, therefore, broke the legs of the malefac- tors; but finding that Jesus was dead they broke not 25* 294 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. his legs. One of the soldiers however, gratified his inhumanity by piercing the side of the dead body with a spear, "and forthwith there came out blood and water," from which it is evident that, had Jesus been alive, the wound would have been mortal, for it had reached his heart. "These things were done," adds the Evangelist, "that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith. They shall look on him whom they pierced." Meantime, Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrim, and who, as already mentioned, had not concurred with his fellow-senators in their resolution to destroy Jesus, went in boldly to Pilate, and asked permission to remove the body for burial. The governor, know- ing that executions by crucifixion were lingering, expressed doubt as to the reality oj" the death of Jesus; but having ascertained from the centurion, not only that previous appearances indicated that life was extinct, but that he had been pierced to the heart by one of the soldiers, he commanded the body to be delivered to Joseph, who, thus author- ized, took it down from the cross, "and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth. And there came also Nicodemus, (who, at the first, came to Jesus by night,) and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now, in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new se- pulchre," which Joseph had hewn out of the rock, and in which no body had been previously placed. THE BURIAL. 295 Having laid the body of the Redeemer there, "and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre," they departed. JMoreover, those pious women who had followed Jesus from Galilee, were witnesses of the interment: they beheld where and how his body was laid. "And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day accord- ing to the commandment." Thus, then, two points of great importance were established beyond the possibility of doubt, the re- ality of Christ's death, and the fact of burial. Un- certainty about the first would have thrown doubt on the resurrection; uncertainty about the last would have created difliculties as to personal identity. But that he died and was buried, is just as certain as that he lived and rose again. The evidence in favour of the former facts is as strong as that in favour of the latter; consequently, the scepticism that affects doubt as to the death of Jesus, setting aside, as it does, all the ordijiary sources of testimony, can- not be reasoned with. The friends and enemies of Jesus alike knew that "he was cut off out of the land of the living." To the latter it was a source of momentary triumph. To the former it was the cause of deep, but, we rejoice, of only temporary, grief. And now that the stone is rolled to the door of the sepulchre, and all Jerusalem is summoned to attend to the solemnities of the Sabbath, which began at six o'clock, let us try to imagine the thoughts of Christ's disciples. Melancholy thoughts ! for as yet they knew not the meaning of his pre- diction, that he should rise from the dead. It is when the anxiety and excitement occasioned 296 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. by the illness and death of our beloved relatives have subsided — when kind friends who have been with us, rendering aid or administering consolation, have returned to the duties of their own homes — when we leave with slow step the cold grave and return to our dwellings, no more to hear the voice that cheered us, or to look on the face we loved; — it is then that deep grief wrings the heart, and that tears gush from the swollen eyes. Then the lips quiver as we pronounce the name of the departed one, who will never answer our tremulous call. We feel alone, as if we had been cut off from the society of the living, and our grief at the irreparable loss we have sus- tained creates a chill around us, as if in sympathy with the house of death, where lies the object of our love: the cold sensations of grief claim kindred with the grave; and our sorrow is of course in proportion to our affection. Everything around us seems to weep with us. Every object on which we cast our eye, is clad in gloom. Especially is this the case if in any way it reminds us of the dear deceased. And then memory, unusually active, recalls deeds of kind- ness done to us which cannot be repeated, or need- lessly harsh words spoken by us which we would fain have unsaid, but which we cannot unsay: all these things deepen the sadness to which surrounding ob- jects lend their aid. These ordinary operations of feeling would be greatly excited in the minds of the disciples, by the extraordinary character of him whom they imagined they had lost, and the extraordinary circumstances attending his death. They had lost not only a friend, an instructor, and a guide, but one in whom THE BURIAL. 297 they had placed their hopes of redemption, both personal and national — one whose whole life had been actively spent in scattering blessings — whose sinless character had elicited the admiration of all who knew him — wliose miracles had attested that he was more than man — who had received repeated testimony to his Messiahship from the heavenly world — and to whom therefore their eyes were turn- ed as the long promised messenger of the covenant. They knew, moreover, that he was entirely inno- cent of the crimes laid to his charge, and that his accusers and judges had borne testimony to that ef- fect. The manner of his death, too, the most igno- minious that could be selected, aggravated by pre- vious maltreatment, and by the position of his cross between those to which two wretched criminals were nailed, would add poignancy to their sorrow. The unexampled baseness of Judas, the contemptible cow- ardice of Peter, and the pitiable desertion of Jesus by the rest of the disciples, would come up in all their dark colours. Self-accusation, also, would add bitterness to their cup on this sad Sabbath-day. Joseph and Nicodemus would reproach themselves for being influenced by the fear of the Jews, so as to prevent the public confession of their behef in Jesus previous to his death, when they might have been able successfully to oppose the proposal for his de- struction. That Peter passed two wretched days — days of intense grief and self-abhorrence, there can- not be a doubt. That the perfidious Judas, driven to despair by the raging fire in his dark soul, rush- ed to destruction by self-murder, we know. That the remainder of the apostles were the subjects of 298 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. iincrontrollable grief, is apparent on the slightest reflection; and that those affectionate female disci- ples, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, and had "ministered to him of their substance," wept tears of unutterable sorrow, who can doubt? And Mary, the mother of Jesus? Her feelings, her woe, her heaviness of spirit, words cannot describe. To all this must be added the crushing sensation of terrible disappointment. Their expectations re- garding Jesus had been of the highest kind. They "trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel." They fondly expected that he would take possession of the throne of his royal ancestor, David, and lift the degraded kingdom to more than its original splendour among the nations of the world — that he would banish the emblems of idolatry and the presence of idolaters from the fa- voured land — that no foreign foe should be able to withstand his powerful arms; and that national prosperity, wealth, and grandeur, should distinguish and celebrate his long and glorious reign. But, he was dead! The bitterness of their disappoint- ment corresponded with the greatness of their ex- pectations: their hopes were hurled to a depth pro- portionate to the height to which they had been raised. True, indeed, there was no ground for those hopes regarding secular or national pre-eminence. Jesus had frequently rebuked them; but the resto- ration of the kingdom to Israel was an idea asso- ciated in their minds with the work of Messiah, and nothing but tiie most grievous disappointment in the first instance, followed by the teachings of the Holy Spirit, could dislodge it. It was subsequently dis- THE BURIAL. 299 lodged to make room for an idea of much greater glory, wlien the true nature of Messiah's throne and kingdom took possession of their understandings; but, in the meantime, their grief revolved around this foUacious expectation. So it is in common life. Far from the scene of those stirring incidents that proclaim the movements of the great ones of earth, hopes are born, fostered, encouraged, and blasted, whose extravagance, when related to the sons of ease by the novelist,- creates a smile on their faces. But the novelist seldom under- stands, and the sons of ease never, the real depth, and the intricate and subtle workings, of those feel- ings in the human soul, which weave such deceitful hopes. Many a noble and sensitive mind, full of lofty aspirations, and agitated by high thoughts, moves in the lower classes of society. Hopes are conceived, and theories formed, and projects sketched, amidst the toil and care of ordinary life, of which the great, and opulent, and mighty, have no idea; and to the sensitive spirit, surrounded by the clamorous cares and imperative demands of daily domestic duty, the disappointment of those fond hopes is peculiarly distressing; but if, as in the case of the disciples, they take a far higher range than personal or family elevation from the depths of anxiety and poverty, and embrace the loftiest kind of patriotism, of course their non-realization is correspondingly bitter; and, still further, if, as in the case of the followers of the crucified Saviour, the only being who could possibly realize them is removed from the land of the living, the mental pain endured is of the most fearful kind. Many things concurred to make those unhappy, who 300 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. had abandoned all on the faith of the Messiahsliip of Jesus. True, they had not, hke his murderers, to contend with the fire of guiUy consciences; but their hopes appeared to be blasted; he whom they fol- lowed was put to death as a malefactor; they had not the consolation of the firm faith that he should rise from the dead; they were the scorn of the populace, and exposed to the power of the rulers, who would speedily desire the death of the disciples, as they had already desired and obtained that of the Master; and should they be arrested, the probability that they should escape with their lives was ex- ceedingly small. To maintain, under the circum- stances, the innocence of Jesus, was to arraign their judges; to acknowledge that he was righteously put to death, was utterly impossible; and to promise to abandon their faith in him was equally out of the question. It is also true, that during the solemn day under review, thoughts of a merely personal kind, or speculations as to their future course, may not have entered much into the minds of the disci- ples, as the death of Jesus was too great an event to leave much room for inferior considerations; never- theless, as they could not but connect that death with the malice of the Sanhedrim, the probability is, that a feeling of their own helpless and exposed con- dition would occasionally flit across their heaving breasts. It was a day of melancholy thoughts to the disciples of the crucified Redeemer. But the followers of Christ were not the only parties who had unhappy thoughts in the city of Jerusalem on this memorable day; nor was their unhappiness so intolerable as that which disquieted THE BURIAL. 301 the souls of mony others. The priests and elders who conspu'ed against Jesus, and effected his death, conscious as they were of the innocence of the object of their malice, must have endured great mental torment. It cannot be supposed that they possessed the inward repose of men who are "void of offence," or that they enjoyed the satisfaction which rewards the performance of a virtuous deed. They had com- mitted a fatal error; and thongli the miserable argu- ments of Caiaphas before the Sanhedrim, together with the excitement which followed the adoption of his proposition, allowed little time for calm reflec- tion, yet the realization of their desires in the de- struction of the object of their envy, would be fol- lowed by a review of their proceedings, the result of which must have been very alarming. They must have taken a retrospect of their conduct during the preceding days; and a terrible retrospect it was! They remembered that Jesns had done no wrong; that they had given Judas money to betray him; that they had bribed some needy wretches to swear away his life; and that they had almost compelled- Pilate to consent to his execution; that the traitor had, in an agony of remorse, tin-own the price of his crime into the temple, crying, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood;" that the perjured witnesses openly contradicted each other; that Herod and Pilate declared that there was no fault in the man; and that the latter washed his hands before the multitude in token of the prisoner's perfect innocence. They remembered, moreover, the awful prodigies of the preceding day; the three hours supernatural darkness, the rocking earth, the 26 302 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. rending rocks, the opening graves, and the torn temple-vail. The memorials of those dread hours were before them and around them, whilst attending to the ceremonies of that "high Sabbath day." Be- fore them was the sacred vail, torn without hands from the top to the bottom, many gazing on it with solemnity in their countenances. The most holy place lay open to other eyes than those of the high priest. Around them were the rent rocks; and perhaps in the city many a building lay in ruins from the violence of the earthquake; but, more im- pressive than all, many graves had been opened, and, of course, could not be closed during the Sab- bath, and perhaps the dead lay exposed to public view. However this may be, those graves were opened during the fearful darkness of the previous day, and remained open until the Sabbath was past, when the bodies of the saints who slept in them arose, after the resurrection of Jesus, and went into the holy city, and appeared to many. But over all Jerusalem there was gloom that day. The vast multitude of spectators of the crucifixion had smit- ten their breasts in proof of mental disquietude. In the palace of Caiaphas and in that of Pilate, in the dwellings of the poor and in the mansions of the rich, in the temple of God and in the rendezvous of the Roman soldiers, there were uneasiness, fore- boding, and sadness. The death of Jesus, and its terrible concomitants, formed the subject of thought with all. Premonitions of some dire catastrophe, connected with these disturbances in nature, alarmed many a soul; between the conscience and the judg- THE BURIAL. 303 ment of multitudes, secret intelligence of coming vengeance passed; passengers to and from the house of God never journeyed in greater silence; and it was a day of melancholy tlioughts to all. "The way of transgressors is liard." The mur- derers of Jesus reaped the whirlwind. The cala- mities that befel the Jews are faithfully related by their own historian. The connexion of those ca- lamities with the death of the Redeemer is certain. But perhaps even now, on the very day in question, there were some who had the hardihood to trace the miracles which took place at the crucifixion to the anger of God against Jesus as an impostor; who maintained that these prodigies justified their deed, and proclaimed that those who were the most active in securing the destruction of Christ, were most meritorious in the sight of heaven. Notwithstand- ing the thousand proofs that he was the chosen of God, they would attempt to silence the accusations of conscience, by pointing to the devastations of the earthquake as the voice of God confirmatory of their procedure. The depth of darkness with which habitual crim.e covers the human understanding is fearful in the extreme. But, on the other hand, doubtless, there were many on whose hearts salutary impressions were made, and which resulted in the glorious conversions of Pentecost six weeks after. Not a few would be awakened to inquiry regarding the past history of Jesus; and the thought occur- ring that he might possibly be the Messiah, notwith- standing the wide difference between the popular belief regarding the Messianic reign, and the actual 304 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. history of the crucified one, they would unroll the books of the prophets to ascertain whether the re- ceived interpretation were the true one, whether it might not be susceptible of alteration, and whether the prophets had any where hinted that the Messiah was to be poor, despised, persecuted-, and slain. Such investigation, honestly pursued, would inev- itably lead to the conclusion that, at least, Jesus might be the promised Redeemer, and this convic- tion once received, would prepare them to listen to the rumours of his resurrection which startled Jeru- salem on the following day, and to attend to every subsequent movement among his disciples, until, on the day of Pentecost, they interrupted the eloquent discourse of Peter with the earnest cry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" In looking at the melancholy thoughts which per- vaded the breasts both of the friends and enemies of Jesus, during the time that his body lay in the tomb of Joseph, we cannot omit a circumstance of much practical value, which distinguished the former from the latter. We have adverted to the distinction be- tween the sadness caused by disappointed hopes, and that brought on the heart by conscious guilt; but the distinction points to a high privilege enjoyed by the disciples of Jesus, from which his foes were debarred as long as their henious sins were unre- pented of. We refer to "the throne of grace." The tried and sorrowing disciples could pour out their hearts before God: individually and unitedly they coxxXd pray ! And surehj at such a time, and under such mysterious circumstances, this invaluable THE BURIAL. 305 privilege would be prized! Before the God of Abraliam, wlioso authority llicy had obeyed in hear- ing iiis Soil, they could spread out their souls. To them all was mystery; the issue of these events they knew not; the result they could not foresee; but God knew all things, and to him they had recourse. It was "the hour of prayer," for it was the hour of trouble and of darkness; and the promises of God in liis word, always valuable-, are felt to be pecu- harly so in the time of deep trial. These disciples knew well that the omniscient God foresaw all things, and that even the death of Christ could not defeat his mysterious purposes regarding men, whatever those purposes might be. Whilst deeply humbled, therefore, on account of their own un worthiness and ignorance, and laid prostrate by the anguish of dis- appointment, they would derive consolation from the remembrance of Jehovah's faithfulness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of their fathers could not forsake them^ and though he might see fit to plunge them amidst deep waters, they knew that the floods should not overflow them, for he " who cannot lie," had repeatedly given promises to that effect. But how could the guilty conspirators and abettors in the death of Jesus presume to invoke the conso- lations of religion, when their consciences upbraided them with the darkest deed of which the annals of crime make mention? "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,"' is a permanent truth; whilst, therefore, their hands were red with blood, for the shedding of which they had not sought 26^ 306 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. forgiveness amidst deep repentance, the effort to obtain peace of mind by attention to the prescribed duties of religion, must have been a failure. The troubled conscience seeks repose in Divine mercy in vain, if the guilt which torments it be not confessed and deplored, with shame and grief Peace cannot be obtained, if the guilt which renders the need of that peace desirable be not felt, and acknowledged, and repented of There is no merit in repentance to lead to the idea that peace will be granted for its sake, or on its account; but, in the order of God's arrangements for the benefit of his sinful creatures, he has enjoined penitence as the preliminary of mental composure. Pardon does not follow repent- ance as the effect follows the cause; for they do not bear to each other the relation of cause and effect; but still, the confession of sin, is essential to peace of mind. The former would be the duty of the transgressor, although there were no prospect what- ever of the enjoyment of the latter. Hence, if he refuses to repent, he adds stubbornness to iniquity, increases the amount of his guilt, and excludes him- self from the enjoyment of the blessing whose need he so urgently feels. For although pardon — the forerunner of true peace — does not bear the same relation to repentance which an effect does to its cause, yet it has pleased God so to connect them, in the economy of grace, that the truly penitent mind — that is, the mind which deplores and forsakes its sin, hating it because of its own vileness, and on account of the dishonour which it does to the Holy One of Israel — may rest satisfied that its iniquities THE BURIAL. 307 will be blotted out, and its guilt covered. For- giveness, which it is the prerogative of God to extend, is extended to men for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, who offered himself on Calvary, a sacrifice for sin. To him, therefore, the eye of the penitent must be turned. This is the only way to get rid of melancholy thoughts. CHAPTER XXn. THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. THE RESURRECTION. Long ere the morning snn had cast his first beams oil the fruitful laud of Israel, or aroused the inha- bitants of Jerusalem from their troubled dreams, au event took place which has formed the theme of ex- ultatiou to the children of God for more than eighteen centuries, and which will never be forgotten, as long as the human mind is capable of appreciating the glorious, or feeling gratitude for the beneficent. The Saviour of mankind, casting aside for ever the bands of death, and forsaking the gloom of the grave, sprung up to immortal life and glory. Having Iain in the tomb the time appointed of the Father, he left the dwellings of the dead, no more to die; for death hath no more dominion over him. The ransom price was paid, and the last enemy had no further claim. Complete satisfaction was rendered to every demand of justice; and the Surety of his people, having tasted the bitterness of death, awoke, arose a victor over death, and him that had the power of death. Having magnified the law and made it honourable, and finished the work given him to do; having endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, and suffered the agony of the garden and THE PinST DAY OF THE WEEK. 309 the cross; and having slept in the rocky tomb until the dawning of the first day of the week, he who is the resurrection and the hfe, burst those gates wliich had never been opened before, shook off the frailties of niortahty, and arose to repossess that glory which he had with the Father before the world was. "Blest morning I whose first dawning rays Beheld the Son of God Arise triumphant from the grave, And leave his dark abode. Wrapt in the silence of the tomb The great Redeemer hiy, Till the revolving skies had brought The third, the appointed day." But before we name some of those thoughts which are suggested by the resurrection of Jesus, it will be proper to recur to the evangelic narrative. It will be remembered that we opened the last chapter by a reference to the request of the Jews, that Pilate would give orders for the removal of the bodies from the crosses. This request being complied with, they returned to their dwellings, or to the temple, to pre- pare for the festivities of the rapidly approaching Sabbath. But guilt is restless. For on "the next day that followed the day of the preparation," that is to say, on the Jewish sabbath itself, "the chief priests and Pharisees," doubtless members of the Sanhedrim, went in a body to Pilate, and addressed him thus: — "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days, I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulchre 310 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH, be made sure till the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, he is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first," The Roman gover- nor, doubtless anxious to get rid of these troublesome men, immediately replied, "Ye have a guard" — alluding either to those Roman soldiers who kept watch at the temple, or to those who attended the crucifixion, and who were probably still at the di- rection of the chief priests — "go your way, make the sepulchre as secure as ye can," Thus authorized, they proceeded with a detachment of soldiers to the garden of Joseph, "sealing the stone, and setting a watch," Thus, the removal of the body by human means was rendered impossible without the con- nivance of the guard, and the breaking of the seal. The light in which these transactions place the Jewish rulers is exceedingly humiliating to human nature. It shows them to have been agitated by dark passions. Guilt on the conscience creates fear and apprehension in the heart; and having entered on a course of unparalleled crime, they appear to have been resolved to prevent the possibility of the resurrection of tlie crucified one, which they began to fear might take place, seeing that he, whom, notwithstanding, they impiously called a deceiver, had said so. But here, again, the free agency of wicked men subserves the purposes of God, and adds to the evidence of the truth of that event, which they wished above all things to prevent. The mi- racles attending the resurrection must be witnessed by others than the disciples of Jesus, and the Jewish priests, his most deadly enemies, procure a guard of THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. 311 ]vonian soldiers, not for this purpose in theb^ design, but for this purpose in the design of God. For thus the narrative proceeds: — "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men." Passing over some intervening circumstances related by the his- torian, we find that when the terrified soldiers had recovered in some measure from the consternation into which they had been thrown, they hastened to the city to the chief priests, and reported all that had happened. "And thus," as has been well re- marked, "these ignorant and stupid heathens became in efiect the first preachers of Christ's resurrection, and were witnesses of the truth of it to the most in- veterate of his enemies." Mark here the wisdom of God. Intelligence of the feared resurrection would have reached the ears of the Jewish rulers through other channels, but coming, as it did, from the lips of the very men whom they had appointed to prevent that occurrence, it is full of moral signi- ficance. In this perplexing emergency, the chief priests immediately summoned a meeting of the Sanhedrim, not to take counsel on the propriety of publishing a recantation of their error in having so long refused credence to the proofs of Christ's Messiahship, but 312 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. to determine on some mode of preventing the circu- lation of the report of his resurrection. With this ,view, they agreed to bribe the soldiers by a large sum of money to publish a lie, instructing them to say, "His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept." And to induce the soldiers to comply with this infamous proposal, they added, '•And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you." Men without prin- ciple are easily influenced to commit crime if a pecu- niary gratification be held out as its price; for the love of money is the ruling passion in the majority of minds. But Roman soldiers, whose standard of morality was exceedingly low, being nothing better than absolute obedience to those who had command over them, could not be expected to raise any moral objection to the request of the priests; consequently, "they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." But the report is false, for "the Lord is risen indeed." The evidence in favour of the resurrection of Messiah is of the strongest kind; and this fact, which will claim our attention in the next chapter, illustrates remarkably the wisdom and goodness of God. For it is obvious on the slightest thought, that the truth of the report that one had risen from the dead was so incredible, that nothing short of the most convincing proof to that effect could have warranted men to believe it. It was contrary to experience. There were antecedent arguments of a strong kind against it. Unbelief on the point was justified by many considerations. To believe it simply on report THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. 313 and without evidence, would have been weakness. The announcernent required evidence sufficient to bear the severest test, and God graciously furnished the necessary proof. On the fact of the resurrection depended not only the progress of Christianity, but its very existence. If this could not be satisfactorily ascertained, the claims of Jesus to Messiahship would be set aside; he would be declared an impostor, and ranked with the "many false Christs" that troubled the Jewish nation. However difficult it might be to get rid of the evidence to the contrary, arising from his holy life, and beneficent conduct, and amazing miracles — and the difficulty would have been insur- mountable on ordinary principles — had he remained in the grave and "seen corruption," those who de- nominated him a deceiver would have been justified in their opinion. Ancient prophecy pointed to the resurrection of Christ, and the glory that should follow, and gave many glowing descriptions of the happiness to be enjoyed by men under his everlasting reign. Jesus himself assured his disciples that he should rise from the dead; now, as it is evident that had he not risen, these predictions would have been falsified, so it is clear that, in such a case, his doc- trines, however valuable, would have fallen to the ground as the announcements of one who had failed •in the most important point to be established. The non-accomplishment of prediction on a subject so very extraordinary, as from its very nature to draw the attention of his enemies to the place of burial, for the purpose of preventing the removal of the body, would have been disastrous in the extreme. The hateful political maxim of Caiaphas would have 27 314 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. been lauded as the acme of wisdom, and henceforth no man's Hfe would have been secure, as any in- dividual who ventured to propound doctrines dis- agreeable to the ruling powers, would have been sacrificed for "the good of the nation." Accusations and murders would have followed; and a reign of terror on the one hand, and the most abject slavery on the other, would have characterized Judea. The distinction between good and evil would have been lost, for the spotless character, and sublime miracles, and benevolent history of Jesus, would have become associated in the popular mind with the history of a notorious deceiver; and no argument from moral excellence could have shielded any man from the vengeance of the party in power, if he was even suspected of the crime of independent thought. And, at the same time, the disciples of Jesus, disappointed, persecuted, powerless — having nothing to justify their faith but the history of their Master, which, for the reason mentioned, could avail nothing — and embit- tered in spirit, would have been driven, humanly speaking, into a labyrinth of unbelief and consequent wretchedness. The hopes of all who looked to Jesus for redemption would have been for ever blasted, and the moral world would have been covered with the pall of death. For, as we have seen, had Jesus not risen from the dead, he could not have been the Messiah; and, as we shall just endeavour to show, there are reasons which lead to the conclusion, that no one else could at any subsequent period appear under that character with credentials in harmony with the character of God. Assuming Jesus to have been the Messiah, the THE FIRST DAV OF THE WEEK. 315 advocates of this opinion might have justified their faith ill him by a reference to the moral argnment. The character of God was revealed. The cliarac- ter of Jesus corresponded with that revelation. Je- hovah was holy. So was Jesus. He was compas- sionate. So was Jesus. He was long-suffering. So was Jesus. He had power over nature. So had Jesus. He could heal diseases. So could Jesus. He could forgive sins. So could Jesus. He could re- strain demons. So could Jesus. He could raise the dead. So could Jesus. So that, without insisting in the first instance on the Messiah's divine equal- ity with the Father, they could insist on the moral harmony between the character and prerogatives of the God of Israel, and those of Jesus of Nazareth. They might elaborate this argument. It was capable of being presented under a variety of lights. True, this argument clashed with the popular belief; but the popular belief was inimical to Scripture, and the moral argument in question required only to be well conducted in order entirely to shake it. It might have been presented thus: — We expect the Messiah, a Redeemer and King. God has promised to ac- complish the greatest good by him; but as the power to effect great good is not necessarily connected with earthly grandeur, is it not possible that the Messiah may be destitute of those characteristics of regal greatness with which in idea we have been in the habit of associating him? The accomplishment of the greatest good involves power over the greatest evil. Now, what is the greatest evil which afflicts us? Judged by the Divine character, with which the character of the chosen Messiah must correspond, 316 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. our greatest evil is of a moral nature — it is sin. But the possession of power to redeem from sin, does not involve the idea of earthly greatness — the greatness Avith wliich we have expected the Messiah to be in- vested. Moreover, the royal authority of the pro- mised One is to remain for ever. This of itself settles the question as to the dissimilarity between his sovereignty and any kind of earthly royalty with which we are acquainted. If he is to live for ever on earth, he must be superhuman, and the charac- teristics of his sceptre will be as far above those of earthly kings as his nature will be above theirs. Our preconceptions, then, are likely to be erroneous, for we have no precedent, no example of a deathless Sovereign. But as the Messiah is to be the greatest of all kings, what if it be intended that his authority is to be over mind, the most important part of God's creation? What if he is to be a spiritual Sovereign? If so, he will be undoubtedly the greatest of all rulers, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; and he can mantain his authority over mind without prolonging existence in this changing world in a human form. But Jesus of Nazareth gave evidence that he possessed every moral qualification for the office of Messiah. He was holy, wise, powerful, his doctrines were fitted to subdue mind to his au- thority. His life corresponded with the law of God. He wielded a power which no impostor could have possessed. He was invested with a glory superior to any that ever fell on earthly kings. These are con- siderations much stronger in favour of his being the Messiah, than any that can be furnished against this conclusion, from the fact that his appearance was at THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. 317 variance with our expectations. And now, if we re- fuse to receive Jesus as the Messiah, on the supposi- tion that he is an impostor, wliat kind of evidence will tlie true Messiah furnish wlien he appears, that shall satisfy the minds of our countrymen? Is he to be a great warrior? This would be at variance both with the character of God and the predictions of our prophets; but the true Messiah must assimilate to the one and accomplish the other. Is he to work miracles? It is impossible to perform any that shall surpass those of Jesus of Nazareth. What creden- tials of Messiahship can he produce stronger than those already produced by him whom our rulers have put to death? The moral argument is conclusive, and our preconceptions are therefore fallacious. The advocates of the claims of Jesus to Messiah- ship might have taken some such ground as this, we say; and, undoubtedly, whatever amount of priestly malice and popular clamour might have assailed them, they would have been borne out in their con- clusions by the facts of the case. Jesus possessed exactly those qualifications which are essential to a spiritual Saviour, and an universal king, and his re- surrection from the dead was the perfecting evidence, the final proof that he was the true Messiah. No additional testimony Vv'as necessary: and the mind of man is incapable of receiving any of a higher kind. He who will not believe on him who rose from the dead, cannot be convinced by evidence. A voice from heaven is, in several respects, inferior to this. It is enough. Christ is risen from the dead, and be- come the first-fruits of them that slept. The resurrection of Jesus secures that of all his 21^ 318 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. saints. He rose as their victorious Lord and Re- deemer, their surety, their forerunner, their Head. His empty tomb guarantees that theirs too shall be forsaken in due time. He will not leave under the power of the grave those for whom he gave him- self. " If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." Jesus is " the first begotten of the dead," and, therefore, blessed are "the dead in Christ!" Whatever difficulties we may suggest connected with the subject of a general resurrection— and if we consult merely our own reasonings, those difficulties will appear insurmountably great — must find their solution in the fact that our Saviour rose from the dead. Divine power is not confined to those rules of procedure which the human intellect would lay down for the accomplishment of any great work. Our Lord himself met the scepticism of the Sad- ducees on the point, thus: — "Ye do err, not know- ing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." This ought to be deemed a satisfactory reply to all doubt on the important subject of the general resurrection. God can eti'ect it. He has said that he ivill do so. The resurrection of Jesus proves that it may be glo- riously done. The resurrection of Jesus was a signal triumph over death. It was a victory over the last enemy, such as to prove that our Lord is Master of the in- visible world, and that the king of terrors is under the control of the great Mediator; — the mediatorial system embracing, as it does, the dead bodies of the saints, as well as their souls, sends its glorious influ- ence into the regions of death, and compels that foe THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. 319 that has spread dismay through the human race ever since sin entered our world, to do homage to him who upholds all things by the word of his power, and regulates the movements of mind and matter for the benefit of his redeemed Church. "Of this doctrine," says D wight, "not a trace can be found in all the investigations of philosophy. Paul, when declaring it to the Athenian philosophers, was pro- nounced by them to be a babbler. It was, there- fore, a doctrine unknown and unheard of within the purlieus of their science. No philosopher, to that time, had been so fortunate as to light upon it by accident, nor so ingenious as to derive it from reason. Indeed, it must be acknowledged to lie be- yond the reach of reason: and, in its very nature, to be hidden from the most scrutinizing human in- quiry. The resurrection itself is an event depend- ing absolutely on the will as well as on the power of God; and what he will choose to do with respect to this subject, no being but himself can determine. Yet no doctrine devised by philosophy concerning man is so sublime, so delightful, or so fitted to fur- nish consolation and hope to beings whose life in this Avorld is a moment, and whose end is the grave. To this dark and desolate habitation, man, by the twilight of nature, looks forward in despair, as his final home. All who have gone before him have pointed their feet to its silent chambers, and not one of them returned, to announce that an opening has been discovered from their dreary residence, to some other more lightsome and more desirable region. His own feet daily tread the same melancholy path. As he draws nigh, he surveys its prison walls, and 320 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. sees them unassailable by force, and insurmountable by skill. No lamp illumines the midnight within. No crevice opens to the eye a glimpse of the regions which lie beyond. In absolute despair he calls upon philosophy to cheer his drooping mind; but he calls in vain. She has no consolations for herself; and can, therefore, administer none to him. 'Here,' she coldly and sullenly cries, 'is the end of man. From nothing he sprang; to nothing he returns. All that remains of him is the dust, which here mingles with its native earth.' At this sullen moment of des- pair, revelation approaches, and with a command at once awful and delightful, exclaims, 'Lazarus, come forth!' In a moment the earth heaves, the tomb discloses, and a form bright as the sun, and arrayed in immortality, rises from the earth, and stretching its wings towards heaven, loses itself from the aston- ished sight." And surely the acceptance of the sacrifice offered on Calvary is proclaimed with a loud voice, by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He who be- came the substitute of man, whose sin had brought death into our world, would not have been liberated from the dark regions of death, had his offering been rejected, or had his sacrifice been incomplete. But the cry, "It is finished," which fell from his lips on the cross, was echoed through the universe early on the first day of the week by his resur- rection. "And did he rise ? Hear, O ye nations I hear it, Oye dead! He rose, he rose ! he burst the bars of death. Lift up your heads, yo everlasting gates, And give the King of glory to come in. THE FIRST DAY OP THE WEEK. 321 Who is the King of glory ? He who left, His throne of glory for the pangs of death. Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates, And give the King of glory to come in. Who is the King of glory? He who slew The ravenous foe that gorged all human race ! The King of glory he, whose glory filled Heaven with amazement at his love to man, And with divine complacency beheld Powers most illumined 'wildered in the theme." CHAPTER XXIII. GALILEE. THE EVIDENCE COMPLETE. After the celebration of the last passover, Jesus said to his disciples, "All ye shall be offended be- cause of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee." When Mary Magdalene and her companions visited the sepulchre early on the morning of the first day of the week, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus, their minds were greatly agitated. The stone had been removed by an angel, and they entered into the sepulchre. Whilst wondering at the unaccountable absence of the body, their astonishment was increased by the sudden presence of "two angels in shining garments." Terrified at this extraordinary circum- stance, they fixed their eyes upon the ground, and stood in profound silence; but one of the celestial messengers said to them, "Be not terrified, for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, but is risen, as he said. Remember how he spake unto you, when he was yet in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third GALILEE, 323 (Jny rise again.' Go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before yon into Galilee, there shall ye see him, as he said imto you: lo, I have told you." On hearing this wonderful statement, these honoured and excellent females "fled from the sepulchre," amazed and trembling, but with hearts full of un- utterable joy; and, with the speed which these emo- tions were fitted to produce, they ran to inform the disciples of what they had seen and heard. But greater joy awaited them. Their cup of bliss was not yet full. Their solicitude about the Saviour was not unnoticed, and could not pass unrewarded. For "as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying. All hail! And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me." It is not our intention to occupy space by a par- ticular reference to all the interviews Avhich Jesus had with individuals, or with parties of his disciples after his resurrection, as the sacred record, happily, is in the hands of all. It may be well, however, before taking a retrospect of the evidences of his Messiahship, to cite Paul's summary of his appear- ances after that glorious event. Writing to "the Church of God, at Corinth," this Apostle says, "I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures ; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scrip- tures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the 324 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. twelve; after that he was seen of above five hun- dred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, then of all the Apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." It will be observed that Paul, once and again, states that the experience of Jesus was "according to the Scriptures." The inspiration of the Old Tes- tament writings was with him the starting point, an ascertained, a credited, a certain fact. On this subject there was no dispute, no hesitancy, no mental misgiving. It was a settled and positive verity. God had spoken by the prophets. Now, Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the Messiah of the prophets. If this claim were just, there would be accordancy between the predicted character and work of Messiah, and those of Jesus. Was the Jesus of the Gospel the Messiah of the prophets? This was the question. The writers of the former declared that he was. Whence their evidence? Set aside the fact of their inspiration at present; put it out of court for the sake of argument, and still we main- tain that the validity of the claims of Jesus could be ascertained by them. They had the delineations of the Messianic character and work, from the pens of men who "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." They had also ample knowledge of the character exhibited, and the work performed, by Jesus of Nazareth. Did the latter correspond with the former? Was there perfect agreement? This they could ascertain by comparison. The picture GALILEE. 325 had been drawn centuries before. A poor man, born in an obscure town of Judea, professed to be the original. Tliose who knew him, and who had that picture in their possession, could judge for them- selves, just in the same way that ive can judge by- comparing the prophecy regarding Messiah with the history of Jesus. We open the book of the prophets, assured that it is inftpired; and we open the his- tory of Jesus, given by four men of sound judg- ment and moral integrity, convinced that their nar- rative is true — simply true, without the aid of the argument from inspiration at present, and we com- pare them, and the result of that comparison is a settled conviction that the Jesus of the Gospels is the Messiah of the prophets. We shall take a rapid survey of the mode in which any intelligent man might proceed in this investigation. Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet Micah announced that the " Ruler in Israel" should be born in Bethlehem. This designation the Jews perfectly understood to apply to the Messiah. Jesus was born in Bethlehem; but not by the wish of his mother and her husband. This was not their place of residence. Nazareth, in Galilee, was the home of Joseph and Mary; and they had gone to Bethlehem, not by choice, not by previous arrangement, but in consequence of a pro- clamation from the Roman Emperor, that the cen- sus of Palestine, now subject to his sceptre, should be taken, and Joseph went thither to be enrolled, because it was the home of his ancestors. It was a case of compulsion. They were obliged to go. 28 326 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. Thus Jesus of Nazareth was bom in the town for which the honour of being the birth-place of Messiah was reserved. "I will declare the decree," said the prophet, "the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." "He shall be great," said the angel Gabriel to Mary, respecting the child Jesus, "and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David." "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," says the historian John. Isaiah prophesied the birth and character of the Messiah, thus: "For unto us a child is born; unto us a Son is given; And the government shall be upon his shoulder; And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the Father of the everlasting age; the Prince of Peace." Of Jesus, the angel spoke to the Jewish shepherds tlius: — "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord;" and the evangelist John writes thus: — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Fourteen centuries before the birth of Jesus, God said to Moses: — "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my Avords in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I commajid him." "He that cometh from heaven is above all," said John the Baptist, regarding Jesus, "and what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth; for he GALILEE. 327 whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." And Jesus himself said to the Jdws, "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." David wrote thus concerning the Messiah: — "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I de- Hght to do thy will, 0, my God; yea, thy law is within my heart." Jesus said to his hearers, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. My meat is lo do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." Isaiah pointed to the Messiah thus: " Who hath believed our report ; And to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been manifested ? For he groweth up in their sight lilie a tender plant; And like a root from a thirsty soil : He hath no form, nor any beauty, that we should regard him ; Nor is his countenanee such that we should desire him. Despised, nor accounted in the number of men; A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; As one that hideth his face from us : He was despised, and we esteemed him not." Every reader of the Gospels knows that the ex- perience of Jesus corresponded with this prediction, and it is therefore needless to quote passages in proof. Messiah was pointed out by the prophet thus: "The Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him; Tlie spirit of wisdom and understanding; The spirit of counsel and strength. The spirit of tiie knowledge and the fear of Jehovah." 328 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. And again: "Behold my servant whom I uphold; My chosen, in whom my soul dclighteth, I will make my Spirit rest upon him; And he shall publish judgment to the nations." The historian tells us, that a voice from heaven said of Jesus, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," that the Spirit of God descended and abode npon him, that he was anointed with the Spirit above measure, and that his wisdom and understanding astonished all who heard him. It was predicted that the Messiah should preach good tidings to the poor, heal the broken-hearted, pro- claim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to tliem that were bound. Jesus did all this. It was predicted that Messiah should give sight to the blind, and speech to the dumb, and hearing to the deaf Jesus did all this. It was predicted that Messiah should be despised, betrayed, rejected, spit upon, mocked, and put to death. All this took place in the case of Jesus of Nazareth. It was pre- dicted that Messiah's garments should be parted, and lots cast upon his vesture. John says, "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was with- out seam, woven from tlie top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be." These soldiers were, of course, utterly ignorant that by this conduct they were fulfilling prophecy. Isaiah predicts: GALILEE. 329 "And his grave was appointed with the wicked; But with the ricli man was his tomb." Jesus was crucified between two thieves, and would have been buried with them, had not Joseph of Arimathea, "a rich man," begged his body from the governor, and "laid it in his own new tomb." It was predicted that the Messiah should have gall and vinegar presented to him. These were pre- sented to Jesus on the cross. It was predicted of Messiah, "All they that see me, laugh me to scorn: ihey shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." The historians record of Jesus that, whilst on the cross, " They that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah! thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross. The soldiers also mocked him saying. If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. Likewise, also, the chief priests: If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him." And it was predicted that Messiah should be cut off out of the land of the living; but that his flesh should rest in hope, that he should not see corruption, and that he should prolong his days. Jesus was put to death by wicked hands; and the historians tell us, that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that "he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of the apostles forty days, and 28* 330 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." These few specimens of accordance between the prophetic Scriptures regarding Messiah, and the history of Jesus of Nazareth, who professed himself tlie Messiah, might be muhiplied a hundred fold. And, as already remarked, the only inference that can be drawn from an intelligent comparison of these and similar prophecies with the history of Jesus of Nazareth is, that he was the Messiah. And, we repeat, this comparison may be instituted by any man. It needs not inspiration; it needs not even piety, to compare these two documents; bad men have done it, and have been convinced, both of the Messiahship of Jesus, and of their need of salvation by him. But now we recall what, for the sake of illustration, was temporarily ceded. The historians of the gospel were not only men of integrity, and whose statements may therefore be relied upon as true ; but they were also inspired men — men under the infallible guidance of God's Holy Spirit, and whose statements there- fore are not only unerringly t7'ue, but authoritative. Jesus is the Messiah, not merely because his life and death accomplished prophecy; but he is the Messiah because his inspired apostles say so. Inspired pro- phecy regarding the promised Messiah is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, and inspired historians record those facts which prove at once this fulfilment and the Messiahship of Jesus. Here is a double guaran- tee for accuracy — a twofold use of inspiration. Well might Peter say, "We have not followed cunning- ly devised fables!" All is certain. Everytiiing is GALILEE. 331 complete. The evidence is perfect. And it might not to be fora^otten, that many of the most remarkable passages in the life of Jesus were occasioned by his enemies. Their free agency led them to the per- formance of actions which accomplished prophecy, and therefore verified his claims to Messiahship. Some of them were bad men among the Jews, who, though they may have been conversant with pre- dictions regarding the expected Messiah, yet, be- lieving Jesus to be an impostor, they acted towards him as that belief prompted, desiring to rid the nation both of him and his doctrine; nevertheless, their conduct is among the evidences of his veracity. Others were idolaters, and, consequently, were ut- terly ignorant of the character of Jewish prophecy, yet. iiie part which they acted in the sufferings and death of Jesus, perfectly harmonizes with the fore- told experience of the Messiah. To all this must be added those facts which have been previously noted regarding the moral charac- ter of the Saviour — his innocence of alleged crime — his astonishing miracles — his remarkable benefi- cence — his patient endurance of wrong — his unin- terrupted devotedness to the will of God — the fulfil- ment of his own predictions — his victory over Satan — the supernatural attestations given to his claims, and the prodigies attending his death and resurrec- tion. It is also to be noted here, that Jesus himself did not write a syllable of his own history. He used no "ink and pen" for the purpose of recording his opinions, or feelings, or doctrines; or for the purpose of enforcing his claims. He gave no in- struction to his disciples what to say regarding liim. 332 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. The Holy Spirit brought to their remembrance after his ascension the things regarding him, and they wrote what they had "seen and heard," and recorded those facts of whicli they had "perfect understanding from the very first," as Lulie expresses himself in the preface to his gospel. An impostor would have acted differently. He would have recorded, with his own hand, his pretensions and opinions, or instructed his followers so to present his claims to men as to warrant the hope of obtaining their suffrages. But Jesus did neither. He was the Minister of truth — the Messiah long promised — the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world. From the manger to tlie sepulclire, his life and conduct proclaimed him the Anointed, sent into the world to put away sin. From the manger to the sepulchre, every word, every action, every appearance, and all the moral and physical consequences of his words and actions, proclaimed him to be what he said he was — the Messiah, An examination of his life from the manger to the sepulchre — in secret, in private, in public — among friends and enemies — among the poor and the rich — rejoicing or weeping — on the Holy Mount or in Gethsemane — cleansing the temple or nailed to the cross — exclaims with Peter, "Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God;" or with the centurion, "Certainly this was a righteous man;" or with the multitude, "Truly this was the Son of God;" or with Thomas, when he gazed on his risen Master, "My Lord and my God!" The evidence is complete. What an impressive view of the Divine bene- volence is afTorded by this amplitude of evidence! GALILEE. 333 The proposal to save was the result of love. The mode of salvation was the dictate of love. The gift of a Saviour was the outgoing of bve. And the copi- ous evidence that Jesus is the Saviour is impressive in its declaration that God is love. The beauties of a luxuriant landscape were never pointed out by a summer sun with greater exactness and attractiveness, than are the proofs on the field of revelation that the Son of God has arisen upon the earth, scattering love, and joy, and life, from his beneficent hand. The "truth" has appeared in our dark and delusive world, and God would have all men to feel its in- fluence, and imbibe its spirit, and journey from lime to eternity, from the regions of darkness to those of everlasting light, in its sure keeping. lie has ex- pressly revealed his mind on this subject, and, acting in accordance with this revelation, he has furnished all the evidence of which the matter to be attested was capable. That our race should be visited by the Messiah, a Redeemer mighty to save, was promised from age to age by the Holy One of Israel; and the promise was believed, and its performance expected from generation to generation. That Jesus of Naza- reth was born, and lived, and died in the favoured land, and that he rose again from the dead, about the period when the state of the Jewish people, as well as that of the Gentile nations, led all who were conversant with prophecy to expect the appearance of Messiah, is also placed beyond the possibility of doubt. That the whole history of Jesus from the manger to the sepulchre was extraordinary, in the highest degree wonderful, and connected with re- peated miraculous and supernatural events, is as 334 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. certain as is the historical existence of the Hebrew nation, or of the gigantic Roman empire. An argu- ment against the fact of the hfe and death of Jesus, with all its marvellous concomitants, would tell equal- ly against the fact that the Cassars had a throne. If the argument were successful in the one case, it would be equally so in the other. Indeed, the history of Jesus forms an inalienable part of the history of the world. Erase all that pertains to Messiah, and his doctrine, directly and indirectly, page by page, and line by line, from the records of the past, and what will be left? We should know nothing about the creation of our race, or that of the world we inhabit; nothing about the antediluvian generations; nothing about the infancy and growth of the famous empires of the east; nothing about that wonderful people, the Jews, who are at once the world's aristocracy and its republicans; they are the first, for they can trace their ancestry back with certainty over a period of three thousand eight hundred years, to their celebra- ted progenitor, Abraham, the father of the faithful, and the "friend of God:" they are the last, for they remain to this hour, although scattered on every shore of earth, a consanguineous nation, without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without an image, without an ephod, and without teraphim;" yet, but for the Bible we should be in utter ignorance of all these facts, for the Bible ivas written for the express purpose of announcins^ and retaining the knowledge of Messiah; and those statements which it contains regarding the creation, the antediluvian world, the ancient eastern empires, and the Jews themselves, all relate to this one grand jiurpose. The GALILEE. 335 Messiah is the subject of the Old Testament from beginning to end. To prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, is the object of the New Testament; an object accompUshed, as we have seen, in the first place by recording facts which all may- compare with ancient prediction regarding Messiah, and then, in subsequent parts of the volume, main- taining by inspired argument this primary truth. Now, what is true regarding ancient history, or the record of those events which took place previous to the birth of Christ, is true of the world's history since. We have said, erase all that pertains to Messiah in those very ancient annals, and what will be left? Erase all that pertains to Jesus and his doctrine from the history of the past eighteen centuries, and how much should we know about Asia and Europe? We are indebted to ecclesiastical history for the principal part of our knowledge regarding nations. And pro- fessedly secular history cannot be written, even by a Gibbon or a Plume, without a thousand references to Christianity. It affects not the argument, whether the Christianity of Europe has been in a pure or in a corrupted state during these centuries. There it ivas, \£ only in name, still in name, and its name was derived from its Founder, Jesus Christ. We repeat, then, that if an argument could be so conducted as to prove that the history of Jesus Christ is a mere fable, a tale of the imagination, then there is no such thing as moral evidence in our world, and the suffer- ings of the Jews by the Ca3sars are fabulous — the empire of Rome is simply an invention, which some have nevertheless believed to have been a reality; the story of "Christian" Rome, with its "popes," 336 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. and "popery," and "persecutions," is also incapable of any proof; all ecclesiastical history is imaginative, and so, consequently, are the emperors and kings who are represented as acting important parts in those great church commotions which have agitated Europe for many centuries. But, blessed be the God of salvation! "we have not followed cunningly devised fables:" proof, abun- dant as can be desired, clear to the intellect, con- vincing to the judgment, grateful to the heart, and salutary to the moral nature of man, is afforded, that Jesus died and rose again as man's Redeemer. The evidence is complete. CHAPTER XXIV. MOUNT OLIVET. THE ASCENSION. Who has not watched, with joyous emotions, the first evidences of approaching spring, after a cold and dreary winter? or the bursting fortli of the sun- beams, after a time of darkness? or the dawning of a peaceful day after a night of terror? or the re- covery to heaUh of a valued life, after dangerous illness? or who has not listened with pleasure to the soul-stirring notes of the winged creation when, after the torpor of the season of cold, they made the vale and the forest attractive by their inimitable melody? or who has not heard with gratitude the intelligence, that a friend who had long struggled with adversity, maintaining his integrity of purpose and nobleness of principle amidst a thousand tempta- tions, had, through the good providence of God, sur- mounted all his trials, been enabled to vindicate his profession before an incredulous world, and to enter on a course of honour and happiness which should gladden the evening of his days with a foretaste of immortality, and gild the twilight of his life with a ray from the land of cloudless light? But all these sources of pleasure, however gratifying, for the time being, are only of temporary duration; the stern 3y 338 THE FOOTSTEPS OP MESSIAH. winter will come again; the gloomy day will return; the night of terror will once more cast the ship on the merciless rocks, and uproot the tall trees, and make the dwellings of men to tremble; the melody of the forest will cease, and the winged warblers will sub- mit to the authority of the cold season; and the good man who had struggled with the terrible diffi- culties of life, and entered on the enjoyment of re- pose in the evening of life, will soon be summoned to depart hence, and sorrowing survivors will commit his body to the grave. All such pleasures are short- lived. But, suppose now, that instead of having to draw consolation from the belief that the soul of this good, but once tried man had entered into rest, and from the fact, that on the morning of the resurrection that part of his nature which was sown in dishonour and weakness should, by the authority of God, be raised from the dust of death in glory and in power, it were our privilege to witness his ascension^ in a glorified form, soul and body, to the heavenly world, would not our joy regarding him be complete? Whatever our personal sorrow from having lost a friend, an adviser, and a guide, we should feel per- fectly satisfied that he had entered on a course of happiness incapable of any change, except that arising from its frequent increase. Up to a certain point this may give a faint idea of the joy of the disciples, when, forty days after his resurrection, they were honoured to be the witnesses of Messiah's ascension from Mount Olivet, through crowds of attending angels, to take possession of the highest seat of dignity in the universe, "on the right hand of God." But it is only up to a certain point, MOUNT OLIVET. 339 for there were contrasts in the experience of Jesus that can never be predicated of any mere man. As his trials were of the most extraordinary kind, so his subsequent exaltation and glory were, and are, altogether peculiar. In the history of God's moral government, there is nothing to parallel the expe- rience of Jesus Christ, either as the man of sorrows, or as the King of kings. As a sufferer and as a victor he stands absolutely alone. He has the pre- eminence everywhere, and under all the aspects of his history. In its depth his humiliation was with- out precedent, for he descended from eternal glory to the condition of a servant, and became the subject of a heathen government. In their intensity his sufferings were without precedent, for there was no sorrow like his sorrow; and in their cliaracter, those sufferings were also without precedent, for he suffered for others, and endured the penalty which law attached to crimes committed by other beings. His exaltation, likewise, is as far above that of other beings, as his original character surpassed that of those over whom he reigned, or as his position as the Son of God rises above that of those who have been glorified for his sake. Moreover, the illus- tration we have selected, for the purpose of con- veying an idea of the joy we should experience, were we called to witness the translation to glory of a long-afflicted friend, fails exactly at the point of greatest personal interest to us. We should lose him. From a recollection of his history and example we might gather some useful lessons; but after his exaltation his voice would fail to reach us, and his advice in the hour of trial would be impossible. Not 340, THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. SO, however, with Jesus. His removal to glory was good for his disciples. It was expedient for them that he siiould return to heaven. Their advantage was consulted, and secured by his ascension. He laid not aside his mediatorial character when he left this earth. He only changed the scene of its action — unfolded a fresh page in its manifestations — rose from the cloudy regions of this world to the meri- dian of the spiritual universe at the right hand of God, whence the rays of his love, the power of his grace, and the riches of his mercy perpetually de- scend, by the agency of his Holy Spirit, on the hearts of the children of men. He has neither for- gotten the objects of his incarnation, nor laid aside the mediatorial work, amidst the unspeakable glories that enrich his high throne. His ascension has been the cause of incalculable gain to all the interests dependent on his authority. The church on earth can look up by faith to him who liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore, and who has the keys of the unseen world and of death; "for Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." We do not say that he could not have executed the office of intercessor, and adminis- tered the aflairs of the spiritual kingdom, had he chosen to remain on earth, for locality can have no influence either on the work or on the authority of an Omnipresent Saviour; but without removing the ordinary characteristics of our world, or at least of that part of it which he might have selected as his peculiar dwelling-place, there could not have been appropriate glory beneath the sun for the victorious MOUNT OLIVET. 341 Messiah. The divme plan required his exaltation far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion; and from his high throne he sends down on the Clmrch the invaluable boon of his Holy Spirit, to guide, to sanctify, and to bless. To those also who had exchanged earth for heaven during the four thousand years previous to his in- carnation, his triumphant arrival at glory must have secured an accession of joy. From the time when the soul of Abel arrived at heaven, to that which witnessed the entrance there of the spirit of the pardoned thief, to whom forgiveness was extended amidst the agonies of crucifixion, a very great com- pany had been admitted to rest. They had be- lieved the promise of a Saviour, and were saved. For his sake, the population of heaven had been re- ceiving accessions for many ages. Now, it is clear, that as they knew in whom they believed, so his return from the terrible battle with the hosts of darkness and the rebellious sons of men, would be hailed by them as a new era in their increasing happiness. The return of a long absent friend from the exposures and toils of a foreign land, adds to our domestic joy, although, during his absence, we may have been privileged with the necessaries and comforts of a peaceful home. The return of a king from the field of battle to the metropolis of his do- minions, carrying with him the trophies of victory, and bearing on his body tlie scars of war, is the signal for gladness and mutual gratulations among his loyal subjects, albeit that, during his absence the affairs of the kingdom may have been wisely ad- 29* 342 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. ministered. But here the myriads of glorified spirits saw the triumphal entry both of a Friend and a Sovereign, attended by a magnificent procession of mighty angels, — "thousands upon thousands," — calling, " Lift up your heads, 0, ye gates ; even hft them up, ye everlasting doors ; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle; he is the King of glory," And would they not shout through all their ranks, as they beheld the approach of their triumphant Redeemer and King to the glorious metropolis of his dominions, "Thou hast ascended on high; thou hast led captivity cap- tive; thou hast received gifts from men, that the Lord God might dwell among them?" And as on that head which was crowned with thorns, were placed the many crowns which symbolize his au- thority over the various orders of intelligences in the universe, would not they cast their crowns of gold at liis feet, and fall down before him, saying, "Thou art worthy: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kin- dred, and tongue, and people, and nation?" We know but little of the glory and happhiess of the spirits of just men made perfect, but whilst we know that "The head that was once crowned with tliorns Is crowned with glory now; A royal diadem adorns Tlie mighty victor's brow;" we are permitted, in faith and hope, to breathe the prayer. MOUNT OLIVET. 343 "Oh, that with yonder sacred throng, We, at liis feet may fall, Join in the everlasting song And crown him Lord of all!" And to the angels who kept their first estate, the ascension of Messiah to his throne must have been a source of holy joy. Many of them had been em- ployed as his servants, during the time of his min- istry on earth. They had witnessed his humilia- tion, and sufferings, and agony, and death, with profound astonishment at the extent of his forbear- ance with his guilty creatures, and the depth of his love to the enemies of his throne and sceptre; and whilst doubtless assured that the mystery would re- ceive a solution at the appointed time, they were perhaps not informed of the magnificent issue of all these strange proceedings; certain it is, however, that the innumerable host of angels adore the Mes- siah, "saying, with a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing!" They see in his exaltation to the throne of dominion, the working out of the glori- ous plan by which it was purposed to reconcile all things in heaven and on earth; — the justice of God in bestowing on him who made his soul an offering for sin, the highest honours in the universe; — the guarantee for the arrival at a blessed immortality of all who follow his steps; — and the pledge of the ultimate triumph of righteousness and holiness over rebellion and impurity in all their forms. They see — and the sight suggests "a new song" of gratitude 344 THE FOOTSTEPS OV MESSIAH. to the ever-living Jehovah — that the combination of the powers of darkness against God and his Christ, prompted by envy and sustained by mahgnity, shall eventually tend only to prove the inherent weakness of evil, and the victory of essential good, over all that ventures to oppose its manifestations. They see — and the sight confirms them in their resolution to remain eternally loyal to their Creator's throne — that the condition of individual happiness is un- swerving obedience to tlie righteous authority of the Most High; for though he may have interposed to bring good out of evil, by an act of transcendent mercy to an inferior order of his creatures, yet so far is this unprecedented act from inspiring the sen- timent, that superior orders may sin with impunity, that it conveys the idea of his measureless abhor- rence of iniquity in every shape; and that if he whose love to his degraded creatures of the human race was so great as to prompt the wish to save them, could not do so without the subjection of his well-beloved Son to a penal death, how vain the ex- pectation that beings of a higher order and enjoying greater light, should, if falling away from moral rec- titude, experience a similar redemption at similar cost! There can be no higher proof that God is holy, than the exaltation to his right hand of him who died to magnify his unalterable law. It is the chmax of all evidence, the final argument, the last appeal; and if any unsettled spirit from any region of creation, could find its way to the shores of heaven, and be informed that Jesus Christ, who once died on earth to make honourable the violated law of God, was the occupant of the throne, he MOUNT OLIVET. 345 would be at once convinced that it was utterly im- possible either to expect a relaxation of that law, or to transgress it without the certainty of condign punishment. To sin, because the Lawgiver is mer- ciful, is clearly to add to the bitterness of guilt its most daring and most dangerous element ; and to liope that any higher order of beings will experience a redemption similar to that which has been procured for man, if they make the mercy shown to man a precedent for their rebellion, is to hope for a de- clared impossibility; for "without shedding of blood there is no remission," and Jesus Christ "dieth no more!" The most costly sacrifice in the universe was provided for the benefit of the human race ; and though man may madly forget this, angels never will; and whilst the recollection thereof will lead them eternally to adore the God of love, it will ever be associated with an indelible impression of the unspeakable beauty of perfect holiness. For mark, now, who is he who sits "upon the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens," and to whom "angels, and principalities, and powers, are subject?" Jesus Christ, born of a woman, and made under the law! Humanity exalted to super-angelic au- thority! Humanity reigning! Why? Is it incre- dible? Let us recollect the facts of this marvellous case, as far as the mystery of redemption has been announced to us. It must not be forgotten, as the starting point, the immutable basis of all argument on this majestic subject, that Jesus Christ combined in himself two natures, that of essential Deity, and that of sinless humanity; he was the Son of God and the Son of Man. But it was in the mediatorial capacity 346 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. that he suffered the contradiction of sinners against himself, without murmuring; that he was tempted, without sinning; that he underwent a probation of thirty years, amidst daily exposure to evil, without swerving from allegiance to the holy law; that the kingdoms and glory of earth were offered to him amidst poverty and solitude, and rejected with un- yielding firmness; that he endured the betrayal, de- nial, and desertion of some of his disciples without repining; and that he bore the fearful agonies of Gethesemane and Calvary, and the hiding of his Father's face, without failing. Neither the wicked- ness of earth, nor the malice of hell, nor the with- drawal of Heaven's smiles, nor all united, could induce him to betray the honour of his Father's law. " He was tempted in all points, yet without sin." He suffered the wrath of men whom he had never injured, and the wrath of God whom he had never offended, and he prayed for the former, and adored the latter, in the midst of all. His endurance was as extraordinary as his resolution, and his cha- racter, as the object of his sufferings; and that object was nothing less than the realization of Divine love, in the redemption of those whose nature he bore, consistently with the claims of Divine government. Such extraordinary service to God and to the moral universe required extraordinary reward. The eter- ' nal covenant, consequently, secured the elevation of Messiah to the highest honour in the universe, in the event of his fidelity to his engagements and the complete success of his undertaking. The Son of God assumed humanity that this service might be rendered, and those sufferings endured, in the nature MOUNT OLIVET. 347 whicli liad rebelled; and the elevation to tlie throne, of that body whicli had suffered and died, and which arose from the dead without experiencing corrup- tion, was a guaranteed part of the Messiah's reward. Without sinning, he suffered — dying, he atoned for guilt which he had not committed — and rising, a victor over all the enemies of God, '^'this same Jesus''^ was taken up into heaven. The apostle of the Gentiles sums up the subject thus: — "Christ Je- sus, being in the form of God, thought it not rob- bery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name op Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Now can any in- telligent being in heaven behold, or on earth believe, the honour with which Jesus, the Son of Man, is in- vested, without feeling satisfied, beyond the necessity of further question, that as God has raised him who magnified the law on earth to the highest dignity in heaven, in proof of his approbation, so the main- tenance of that law in all its integrity throughout the entire universe, is an eternal purpose from which there can be no departure? And if sin has been "put away," at such a sacrifice, and obedience re- warded with such magnificent honours, Jehovah's 348 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. abhorrence of the former and approbation of the latter are placed beyond doubt — set in the clearest light — wondroiisly illustrated. A lesson has been read to the intelligent creation which can never be forgotten, whilst the redeemed have being, or Jesus sits upon the throne. Our blessed Lord ascended to heaven as the fore- runner of his people. His exaltation is the guar- antee of theirs. The members shall ascend to the Head, the disciples to their great Prophet. He has gone before to prepare a place for them in the house of many mansions. He will receive them to him- self. They shall reign with him. His prayer on earth, the perusal of which has cheered many a des- ponding spirit, was this: — "Neither pray 1 for these alone," — his then living people — "but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou. Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one : I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me, where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." Elsewhere, addressing the Father, he said, "Thou hearest me always." The Redeemer's prayers lie not unan- swered. His intercession is always available. The desire, then, that his people be with him to behold MOUNT OLIVET. 349 his glory, will be realized. The prayer will be fally and gloriously answered. They shall see his face and be like him. They, too, shall rise beyond the reach of all their enemies, leaving earth, and sin, and grief, and time, behind, and shall enter into "the joy of their Lord." He is in heaven. It is their destined home. He dies no more. Death shall no more disturb their enjoyments, nor deduct from the number of those they love, nor cast a shadow across the plains of heaven. Their treasure is there, and their hearts are there, and he will, according to his promise, receive them to himself. His intercession for them now, afibrds strong consolation on this, as on every other subject of spiritual solicitude; for " He ever liveth to make intercession for them. Such an High Priest," says the Apostle, "became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests" — the Jew- ish, under the law — "to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests who have infirmity; but the word of the oath, Avhich was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore." Because he lives, his people shall live also. " In him was life." He has "life in himself." He is "the resurrection and the life." He is "the way, the truth, and the life." He is "the Prince of life." Paul tells the Romans, that "they who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Jesus Christ;" and that "'as sin hath reigned unto death, even so does grace reign 30 350 THE FOOTSTEPS OF MESSIAH. through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." To the Colossians, he writes thus: — "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." This is the grand purpose of the great salvation. The followers of Jesus shall be all glorified. To secure this, the whole system of grace was arranged by eternal wisdom: the mercy of God has been pro- claimed, the Son of God became incarnate, lived and died among men, arose from the grave, and ascended to glory, that eternal life might be enjoyed by all his saints. For this object he reigns in heaven, and carries on his righteous government on earth, and gives effect to his Gospel by the power of his Spirit. This is the honour which all who confide in his promises, and plead his atonement, and rest on the merits of his sacrifice, and follow his steps, and love his appearing, are warranted to look for when mor- tality shall be swallowed up of life ; an honour too great for present conception; "for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now we know in part, but then shall we know even as also we are known. For we know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Happy are those who — by faith in the exalted Redeemer, and the witness of the Spirit with theirs — can say with the beloved MOUNT OLIVET. 351 disciple regarding himself, and those to whom he wrote, "Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." In closing this review of passages in the history of our adored and exalted Redeemer — the great Mes- siah promised to the fathers — who now occupies the central throne of his vast dominions, it is needless to add any reflections on what has been written, as the nature of the work required such remarks, as might otherwise be appropriate here, to be made during its progress. We would, therefore, with gratitude and reverence, say with the Apostle Paul, " IVithout controversy great is the tnystery of godli- ness: God was manifest in the tlesh, justified IN the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, re- ceived UP into glory." THE END, BOOKS PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM S. MARTIEN. A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of Africa; by Archihald Alexander, D. D., Professor ia the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey. 8vo. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans; by Charles Hodge, Professor of Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary at Princeton; abridged by the Author for the use of Sunday Schools and Bible Classes, lilmo. Questions on the Epistle to the Romans, designed for Bible Classes and Sunday Schools, by Charles Hodge, Professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey. 18mo. 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High Church Episcopacy; the Prelatical Doctrine of the Apostolical Succession Examined, with a delineation of the High Church system, by the Rev. U. A. Boardman, D. D. The American Mechanic and Workingman ; by the Rev. James W. Alexander, D. D. 2 vols. I8mo. Lectures on Biblical History, comprising the leading facts from the Creation to the death of Joshua; designed to promote and facilitate the careful reading of the sacred Scriptures, and adapted to the use of Families, Bible Classes, and Young People generally; by William Neill. D. I) ]2mo. The Influence of Physical Causes on Rehgious Ex- perience ; by the Rev. Joseph H. Jones, D. D. 18mo. Thoughts on Sacramental Occasions; extracted from the Diary of the Rev. Philip Doddridge, D. D., with an Introduction by the Rev. James VV. Alexander, D. D. 18mo. Hints on Cultivating the Christian Temper; by the Rev. H. A. Boardman, D. D. 32mo. 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