No whispering zephyr bore the precious name along,

(Though joy their chants disclose) ;*

When first, in all its beauty from Thine hand,

For Him this earth arose.

Hid in Thine heart's affections lay that peerless name

From everlasting days.

None were co-heirs to value it with Thee, And sound His ceaseless praise.

And earth so fair, grew old, while ages roll'd

away

With ceaseless, silent tread;

"Fulness of times" drew on, up-bearing those

To whom th' unfolding sped.

"Call his name Jesus," swift to earth from heaven they bear §

His wondrous, glorious NAME;

Faith owns it, and grace reckons him coheir,

For whom the Saviour came.

Filling with joy the vast eternity to come, Each echoing voice still bears;

"Name above every name '-well known to Thee,

Known now to chosen heirs. T

* Job xxxviii. 7.

Gal. iv. 4.

H. C. A.

† Col. i. 16, 17.

§ Mat. i. 21; Luke ii. 21.

Phil. ii. 10; Eph. iii. 21. Rom. viii, 17.

CHAPTER XIX. 31: xx. 1-9.

IN the invisible world, Jesus was in Paradise; as to this world, an uninterrupted funeral, nothing more. Sin, death, Satan, God's judgment, had done all that they severally could: Christ's earthly life was ended, and with it all the relationships with this world, and with man as belonging to this world. Death reigned outwardly, even over the Son of God; and godly souls who knew it were perplexed. But the world went on as usual; the Passover was celebrated with its usual ceremonies. Jerusalem was just what it was before. They had got rid of the two thieves; what had become of them, either of one or of the other, did not concern society. Its egotism had got rid of them, and, indeed, of Another that troubled it, in saying too much about it. One thief was in paradise with Christ; the other, far away from all VOL. XIX.

H

hope; the soul of the Third was in the repose of perfect blessing, in the bosom of the Divinity. And as to the world, it had lost its Saviour, and would see Him no more.

But it was impossible, as to His Person, that Jesus could rest under the power of death, although He submitted to it for us. According to divine justice, He was not to remain there. True Son of God, the Father's glory was concerned in His not being holden of death; He could not allow His Holy One to see corruption. The absolute darkness that had come down upon the world, spoke on God's part of the aurora of a new and eternal day that was going to rise beyond death, for God's glory, upon those who, attached to Jesus, saw in Him the Sun of Righteousness. Sorrow, where faith exists, may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. For the righteous, light arises in the midst of darkness. Man must be condemned, but God is sovereign in grace, glorious in righteousness. Christ, as man, had

to die, according to that grace, and righteousness against sin; but He must rise from the dead according to God's unfailing righteousness. This is the foundation-truth as regards Christ's work, but it is the principle of all God's ways with us. We must die with Christ, and rise with Him. If we live in this truth, as it is our privilege to do (Col. ii., iii.), we enjoy a life that is not of this world, carrying about always in our body the dying of Jesus. If, in anything, this life of the flesh is not mortified, death must be applied to it: we experience this, in the ways of God. It is the history of our christian life down here. As to the efficacious accomplishment, it was done, once for all, at the cross.

CHAPTER XX,

IN this chapter, the history of the resurrection, or rather of the Lord's manifestations to His own, is full of interest and of important principles. The first person who is presented to us is not even the Christ :--we find those

who were to surround Him spiritually, and who had actually surrounded Him down here. It was good and meet that the state of their affections-and the affections strengthen faith-that this state, I say, as confidence in Him and attachment to His Person should be manifested, and that then He, revealed in resurrection, should be the answer to this state, and should lead them on further.

The first person that presented herself, whose story is of a profound and touching interest, is Mary Magdalene. Her name has become an expression denoting an evil life, or at least that of a woman come out of a disorderly life, but there is nothing to justify the tradition. But it is no tradition that she had been completely under the power of the devil: the Lord had cast seven demons out of her. Her state therefore had been most miserable, and she loved much. We find her with a woman constantly called "the other Mary," (Matt. xxviii. 1) accompanying the Lord with others, and paying Him