II. CHRIST IS AN EXAMPLE OF CONFIDENCE IN GOD IN THE HOUR OF DARKNESS. His trust was in the Lord and His stay

upon God.

III. CHRIST CALLS UPON ALL "that fear the Lord, that obey the voice of His Servant" (ie., the Messiah), TO FOLLOW HIS

"WALK IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR FIRE ;

LIE DOWN IN SORROW"

(Isa. l. 11).

HE that walks in darkness is safe when he puts his trust in the name of the Lord, is the teaching of the preceding verse. But some will refuse this. They will enkindle sparks for themselves, and walk in the light of the fire they have themselves made. "Do so," is the sad irony of the text, "and ye shall lie down in sorrow

"One movement of My hand upon you,

And ye shall lie down in sorrow.'

I. THE TEXT APPLIES TO ALL WHO WALK BY ANY OTHER RULE THAN THAT OF RIGHT. We may draw our illustrations of this truth from the events of Passion Week. Judas, did he not refuse the light of God and walk in the light of his own fire, and lie down in sorrow? Pilate, secular history supplies the story of his sad end. Herod, was it not so with him? He threw away his last chance when the Christ stood before him on His trial. And so has it ever been. Set up principles of your own, be guided like Judas by the love of money, be led like Pilate by the desire of popular applause, think like Herod of the amusement of the hour-he desired to see Him (out of curiosity) of a long season-then the end shall be sorrow. Let the story of many a ruined man and woman add to the impressiveness of this truth, preached from every jail, from every asylum, from every court of justice in the land, "Walk in the light of your fire; . . . ye shall lie down in darkness."

II. THE TEXT APPLIES TO ALL WHO RENOUNCE THE REVELATION OF CHRIST AND RESIST HIS SPIRIT. Human science and philosophy-substitutes for Christianity-atheism, deism, infidelity, all are false lights, which, like the false signals of wicked wreckers in the rough days of old, allure the unwary to their destruction. They lie down in sorrow." So the Jews rejected Christ, and then-why, then the destroying army of Titus, and the candlestick removed out of its place, and the name of the

Jew a byword and reproach among the nations. have of Mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow." Let us walk in the light of the cross.

"This shall ye

LESSONS.

SECOND EVENING LESSON.

THE WORLD'S HATE.

(John xv. 18-25).

THE Lord still suffers in His Church, for it is His spiritual body. The Church still has its passion-tide upon earth; and as the world still remains the world, the hatred of which Jesus spoke is still the portion of His Church. If we have Christ with us, we have also Caiaphas and Judas and Pilate.

I. THE DISCIPLE'S INHERITANCE (vers. 18-19); (Matt. x. 22, xxiv. 9). The reproach of Christ is the glorious sign of a true Christian, the Christian man's finest mark of dignity and insignia of his order. It loosens us from the world and binds us to the Lord. Luther said, speaking no doubt from heartfelt experience, "This text is worth a hundred golden pieces; nay, its value cannot be told in gold."

II. THE DISCIPLE'S INHERITANCE OF HATE IS THE WORLD'S SIN (vers. 23-25). In this hatred without a cause is the world's sin and shame and judgment.

Wednesday before Easter.

EPISTLE.

CERTAINTIES.

"IT IS APPOINTED UNTO MEN ONCE TO DIE, BUT AFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT; SO CHRIST WAS ONCE OFFERED TO BEAR THE SINS OF MANY; AND UNTO THEM THAT LOOK FOR HIM SHALL HE APPEAR THE SECOND TIME WITHOUT SIN UNTO SALVATION

(Heb. ix. 27, 28).

AMONG the vast number of life's uncertainties and of historical doubts, there are a few things that are indubitable.

I. DEATH IS A CERTAINTY. This is sad, but the death of Christ shows us how to die. (1.) With prayerful charity; (2.) with humble thankfulness; (3.) with child-like confidence.

II. JUDGMENT TO COME IS A CERTAINTY. It is to be observed that it is an unwarranted assumption that the immediate sequence in the text of these two propositions implies that judgment immediately follows death. The judgment is terrible, but "it is Christ that died."

III. IT IS A CHRISTIAN CERTAINTY THAT JESUS WAS ONCE OFFERED TO BEAR THE SINS OF MANY. This fact illumines the other two.

IV. THE SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST FOR THE SALVATION OF HIS PEOPLE IS A CHRISTIAN CERTAINTY.

meaning of all the preceding.

This fact shows the

TYPE AND ANTITYPE.

"FOR CHRIST IS NOT ENTERED INTO THE HOLY PLACES MADE WITH HANDS, WHICH ARE THE FIGURES OF THE

TRUE; BUT INTO HEAVEN ITSELF, NOW TO APPEAR
IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD FOR US

(Heb. ix. 24).

THE Contrast here is between

I. THE TYPICAL AND THE HEAVENLY TABERNACLE.
II. THE TYPICAL AND THE HEAVENLY HIGH PRIEST.
III. THE TYPICAL AND THE HEAVENLY INTERCESSION.

THE OLD COVENANT AND THE NEW
(Heb. ix. 16-28).

THE puzzle of this passage seems to be only capable of a satisfactory solution by assuming that the word "testament," with its double meaning, is in reality used in the course of a few verses in a twofold sense, once as meaning testament or will, and again as signifying covenant. Only thus can its perplexities be cleared away. Then the teaching of the whole lection is

I. THAT CHRIST'S DEATH, LIKE THAT OF AN ORDINARY TESTATOR, WAS THE EVENT WHICH OPENED UP THE WAY TO THE INHERITANCE

(vers. 16-18).

1. How much better is the heavenly than any earthly inheritance! Think of all that it is possible for you to be heir to, and Christ has left you by His will more and better.

2. Christ's death it is that opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Such are heirs and joint-heirs with Christ. In holy baptism we are assured of the heirship.

II. CHRIST'S DEATH IS TO THE NEW COVENANT WHAT THE SPRINKLING OF BLOOD WAS TO THE OLD, ITS RATIFICATION (vers. 18-21).

I. The covenant of God with Moses was inaugurated with blood. "He took the blood of calves and of goats with water

and sprinkled both the book and all the people," &c. Here it is to be observed that the ceremonies spoken of in this verse are given with greater fulness than in the original account (Exod. xxiv.), as is also the case with the ceremonies used at the consecration of the tabernacle (Exod. xl.) Probably these further details are due to tradition.

2. The covenant of God with the Jew, as expressed in the whole Levitical rites, is a covenant of blood (ver. 22). Moses inaugurated, the priests carried on the ritual of blood-sprinkling; and every time blood was sprinkled God spoke by symbol to the people of their sin and defilement and their need of purging.

III. CHRIST IS TO THE NEW COVENANT WHAT MOSES AND SUBSEQUENTLY THE HIGH PRIESTS WERE TO THE OLD.

I. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant; Christ is the mediator of the new. Christ's assumption of this office closes for ever the mediatorial system begun by Moses.

2. The high priest was the representative of the people to God; Christ is this to us under the new covenant. But there are marked differences, and it was these marked differences that the writer would accentuate to teach the Hebrews that the old had passed away and all things become new; that a new covenant was begun and all the glory of the old faded away in the glory of the new. These differences, which mark the greater

glory of the new, are

(1.) The high priest entered into the earthly tabernacle; Christ into the heavenly.

(2.) The high priest entered as the representative of the Jew; Christ as the representative of all men," now to appear before the face of God for us" (R. V.)

(3.) The high priest entered with the blood of bulls and of goats; Christ with "better sacrifices than these." He was Himself the victim. It was not "with blood of others," but "by the sacrifice of Himself."

(4.) The high priest entered often-once a year; Christ once for all. A frequent entry implies a frequent sacrifice. He has once entered, or He must have often suffered since the foundation of the world. Man only dies once, and then waits until the judgment; Christ died once, and does not re-issue from the holy place not made with hands until He comes a second time with a second sin-offering to complete the salvation of those redeemed by His death. Thus, finally

(5.) The high priest returned from the holy place often; Christ only once, and that return is for the consummation of all things.

IN the administration of the Holy Eucharist the words of communion contain an exhortation to thankfulness. We are to eat "with thanksgiving." In the presentation of the cup the communicant is enjoined, "Be ye thankful."

I. CHRIST EARNESTLY DESIRES OUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS FEAST: INDIFFERENCE IS UNTHANKFULNESS.