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swords and staves," falsely accused by men who carry the lie in their faces, challenged to reply by a judge pretending to hold evenly the balance of justice, really filled with the direst hatred of you and the most patent prejudice, what would you feel if you can tell?

The Gospel does not to-day go on to the cross, nor need we now. Suffice it to see how Christ wrought out our salvation, "trode the wine-press;" and look once more to the Epistle for the motive of all this: "And I looked, and there was none to help and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me, and My fury it upheld Me."

LESSONS.

SECOND MORNING LESSON.

"WHERE I AM, THERE YE MAY BE ALSO

(John xiv. 3).

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OUR Lord opens up His very heart to His disciples in His endeavour to comfort them as the time of His departure drew near. He was now showing them what one effect of His death would be. It would "open the kingdom of heaven to all believers." The words lead us to contemplate

I. HEAVEN AS THE PLACE OF THE REDEEMER'S SPECIAL PRESENCE. Where I am."

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II. HEAVEN AS THE PLACE OF THE REDEEMER'S SPECIAL PRE

SENCE SURROUNDED BY THE GREAT CONCOURSE OF THE REDEEMED.

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There ye may be also."

1. This was the disciples' comfort in view of the Saviour's death.

2. It is our comfort as one of the effects of His death for us.

"LORD, SHEW US THE FATHER, AND IT SUFFICETH US" (John xiv. 8).

I. THE SOUL'S LONGING.

I. A desire for a divine manifestation. Men have sought God through all ages with passionate eagerness. There is something in man which will not be satisfied without God. The uneasy feelings of the young fledglings of the nest, when their wings begin to feather and gain strength, are the strange yearnings of

a power beginning to be felt. Man has something akin to thisthe feeling that only the flight upward to God can satisfy.

2. This desire is not always articulate, if it is passionate. It is a cry for something, but when guided by the light of conscience and the Word of God, it is a cry like that of St. Thomas.

II. THE SOUL'S SATISFACTION. It is a revelation of the Divine Fatherhood. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." How? Doubtless

1. In the life of Christ. But

2. Much more in that death we shortly celebrate. This opens the view into the Father's heart. Here is the revelation of the divine Fatherhood. Jesus revealed the Father by life and word, by death and by His resurrection. On the morn of the resurrection His word was, "I am not yet ascended to My Father and your Father."

175

Tuesday before Easter.

EPISTLE.

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD

(Isu. 1. 5-9).

I. THIS IS PROPHETIC OF THE PERFECT OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST (ver. 5). (Cf. Epistle of last Sunday.)

II. THIS IS PROPHETIC OF THE AWFUL SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST (ver. 6).

III. THIS IS PROPHETIC OF THE UNFLINCHING DETERMINATION OF CHRIST to carry out the Father's work (ver. 7). He who is spoken of as setting His face "like a flint" "set His face steadfastly" to go to Jerusalem.

IV. THIS IS PROPHETIC OF THE TRIUMPH OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION (ver. 8). God was near to "justify" and raise Him from the grave. Who then could condemn ?

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"AND PILATE,

(Isa. 1. 6).

WHEN HE HAD SCOURGED HIM,. AND (THE SOLDIERS) SMOTE HIM ON THE HEAD WITH A REED, AND DID SPIT UPON HIM." (Cf. also xiv. 65.)

(Mark xv. 15, 19).

THE prophecy in the Epistle of the day was literally and pictorially fulfilled. From this most dreadful portion of the narrative we learn—

I. THE MALIGNANT CRUELTY OF CHRIST'S ENEMIES.

Pilate

unjustly delivered Christ over to be scourged. It is said that the Roman scourging was horribly severe. Drops of lead and small sharp-pointed bones were often plaited on the scourges. The rough Roman soldiers smote the Saviour. In the ages of cruelty a prisoner was delivered over to the mockery of the guards, and the mockery with which the duty was fulfilled shows that they spared Christ no infliction. The cruelty of the heart untouched with the softening influences of Christianity is indeed unfathomable. In our own day, deeds of cruelty are wrought sufficient to make the blood curdle in the veins; but these deeds were once common, and excited but little comment or reprobation. From this scourging of the Son of God we learn what the influence of Christ has been in the world. Such a scene is impossible in Christian England. Why? Because it is permeated with the softening ideas of Christianity. Not civilisation alone, but the doctrines of Christ have transformed the moral aspect of mankind.

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II. THE WONDERFUL PATIENCE OF CHRIST ENDURES THE WORST INDIGNITIES. "The hands they bound had healed the sick and raised the dead; the lips they smote had calmed the winds and One word and His smiters might have been laid low in death. But as He had begun and continued He would end, . . . as self-restrained in the use of His awful powers on His own behalf as if He had been the most helpless of men. Divine patience and infinite love knew no wearying."

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III. THE DEEP HUMILIATION OF THE SON OF GOD. Spitting was an expression of the most thorough contempt (Num. xii. 14; Deut. xxv. 9; John xxx. 10). Those who were excommunicated were especially open to this expression of contempt. Christ was spit upon by Jews and Gentiles.

Think once more (as we need again and again to be reminded in considering such scenes) who was He? Your God and Lord. And think, too, again of why He endured this smiting and spitting. It was for our salvation.

THE COMMISSION OF CHRIST

(Isa. 1. 5-11).

I. THAT CHRIST WAS COMMISSIONED BY THE FATHER TO MAKE KNOWN HIS WILL TO MANKIND. "The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back" (ver. 5). The words must be connected with the preceding. "He wakeneth mine ear, that I may hear as disciples do." The idea is of a teacher wakening his pupils early that he may impart instruction to them. Christ turned not back from this instruction.

He was not rebellious, but willingly undertook the instruction of mankind.

II. THAT IN PERFORMING HIS COMMISSION HE WAS WILLING TO PASS THROUGH SUFFERINGS (ver. 6). What those sufferings were the Gospel of to-day may be sufficient to prove. "Therefore have I set My face like a flint,"-courage, resolution to pass through all.

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III. THAT AMID HIS SUFFERINGS HE WOULD BE DIVINELY SUSTAINED (ver. 7). "For the Lord God will help Me, therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." knowledge of the good pleasure of the Father it was that sustained the Saviour through all and gave flint to His courage. Angels strengthened Him in the garden (vers. 10, 11). Exhort to trust in God like His, and show the folly of unbelief.

IV. THAT GOD WOULD OPENLY JUSTIFY HIM BEFORE THE PEOPLE.

1. The attendant miracles.

2. The declarations of His innocence. "Why, what evil hath He done?" we read in the Gospel in the words of Pilate. 3. The cry of the centurion.

4. The resurrection from the dead (Rom. i. 4; 1 Tim. iii. 16). By all these things the Lord was justified.

In Rom. viii. 33, 34, St. Paul uses this verse of the justification of the believer before God, because in Christ's justification the believer is included.

"Lo!

V. THAT GOD WOULD DESTROY ALL HIS ADVERSARIES. they all shall wax old as doth a garment: the moth shall eat them up."

So is it the power of Christ and His cross lives, whilst that of His foes is destroyed. All the pomp of the men "dressed in a little brief authority" passed away, whilst the influence of His life, teaching, and the death they brought about, is ever on the increase.

WALKING IN DARKNESS.

"WHO IS AMONG YOU THAT FEARETH THE LORD, THAT OBEYETH THE VOICE OF HIS SERVANT, THAT WALKETH IN DARKNESS, AND HATH NO LIGHT? LET HIM TRUST IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, AND STAY UPON HIS GOD"

(Isa. 1. 10).

I. CHRIST IS AN EXAMPLE OF OUR WALKING IN THE DARKNESS OF PAIN AND TROUBLE. Like Him, we too suffer and are sad.

VOL. III.

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