SERMON X.
"Ile was o29ressed, and ]Te wzs qfflicted, yet He oflened hot les modh; fie is brot«gh.t as a lamb to the slm«ghter, attl as a skee beflvre ber «hearers is dumb, so ]fe ofieeth uot lits mo¢tk.'"
T. PETER makes it ahnost a description ofa Christiau, that hc loves IIim whom hc has hot seen; speaking" of Christ, ho says, "whom having hot sccn, ye love; iu whom, though now ye sec IIim not, 3et believing, yc rejoice with joy unspealablc and full of glory." Ag'ain he speaks oI" "tasting that thc Lord is gracious. '' Unless we have a truc love of Christ, we arc not Itis truc disciples; and we camot love IIim unless we have heartfelt gratitude to IIim; and we cannot duly fiel gratitude, unless wc feel kecnly what He suffercd »r us. I say it seems to us impossible, under the circumstances of the case, that any oue can have attaincd to the love of Christ, who feels no distrcss, no misery, at the thought of les bittcr lains, and no self-reproach at a 1Pet. t. 8; il. 3.
having" through lais own sins had a share in causing" them. I know quite well, and wish you, my brethren, never fo forg'et, tlmt feelin is not enough; that itis hot enoug'h merely to feel and nothing more; that fo feel grief for Christ's suffcrings, and yet hot fo go on to obey Him, is not truc love, bnt a lnoekery. Truc love both feels rig'ht, and acts rig'ht; but at the same rime as warm feelings without rcligqous eonduet are a kind of hypocrisy, so, on the other hand, right eonduct, when unattended with deep feeling's, is at best a very imperfect sort of relig'ion. And at this rime of year espeeially are we called upon to raise out hearts fo Christ, and fo have keen feelings and piereing" thoug'hts of sorrow and shame, of compunetion and of gratitude, of love and tender affection and horror and anguish, at the review of those awful sufferings whereby our salvation has been purehased. Let. us pray God to give us all graees; and while, in the first plaee, ve pray that Ite would make us holy, really holy, let us also pray Him fo give us the beaet.f of holiness, whieh consists in tender and eaer affection towards out Lord and Saviour; whieh is, in the case of the Christian, what beauty of person is fo the outward man, so that through God's merey our souls may bave, hot streng'th and health only, but a sort of bloom and comeliness; and that as we grow older in body, we may, year by year, grow more youthful in spirit. Passion-ride.
You will ask, how are we to learn to fcel pain and anguish af thc thought of Christ's sufferings? I answer, by thinking of them, that is, by dvelling on the thoug'ht. '/'lais, through God's mercy, is in the power of every one.:No one who will but solemnly think over the history of those sufferings, as drawn out for us in the Gospels, but will gradually gain, throug'h God's gracc, a sense of them, will in a measnre realize them, will in a measure be as if he saw them, will tbel towards them as being" hot merely a talc written in a book, but as a truc history, as a series of events whieh took place. If is indeed a g, reat mercy that this dnty which I speak of, though so high, is notwithstanding, so level with the powers of ail classes of persons, learned and unlearned, i{ they wish to perform it. Any one tan think of Christ's sufferings, if he will; and knows well what fo think about. "' If is hOt in heaven that thou shouldst say, Who shall go up for us fo heaven and bring if fo us, that we may hear if and do if? Neither is if beyond the sea that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us?... but the word is ver:}- nigqa unto tl:ee;" very nigh, for if is in the four Gospels, which, at this day af least, are open to ail men. Ail men may read or hear the Gospels, and in knowing them, thcy will know all that is necessary o be known in order to feel ariht; they will know all that any one knows, all that bas been told us, all that the g, reatest aints have ever had fo make them full of love and saered fear.
Now, then, let me make one or two reflections by way of stirring" up your hcarts and making you lnourn over Christ's suffcring's, as you are callcd to do af this season. I. First, as to these sufferings you will observe that our Lord is callcd a lamb in thc text; that is, IIc was as dcfenceless, and as immcent, as a lamb is. Since then Scripture compares IIim to this iuoffensive and unprotccted animal, we may without prcsumption or irreveronce take the image as a mcans of conveyin, to our minds those feeling, s which out Lord's sufferin,,s shouhl excite in us. I mean, considcr how vcry horrible itis to read the accounts which somctimes mect us of cruelties exereised on brute animals. Does if hot somctimes make us shuddcr fo hcar tell of them, or to read them in some chaice publicttion which we take up? Af one time if is the wanton deed of barbarous and angry owners who ill-treat their cattle, or beasts of burden; and af another, if is thc cold-blooded and calculating, act of men of science, who make experimcnts on brute animals perhaps merely from a sort of curiosity. I do hot like fo go into particulars, for many reasons; but one of those instances which we read of as happening in this day, and which seems more shocking than the rest, is, when the poor dumb victim is fastened against a wall, pierced, gashed, and so left to linger out ifs life. Now do you not see that I have a reason for saying this, and ara hot using" these distressing words for nothing? For what was this but the very cruclty intlicted upon out
Lord? He was gashed with the scourge, pierced through hands and feet., and so fastened fo the Cross, and there left, and that as a spectacle. Nmv what is if. moves our very hearts, and siekens us so mueh af eruelty shown fo. poor brutes? I sui)pose this first, that they have dolm. no harm; next., that they have lin power whatever of resistanee; if is the eowardiee and tynmny of whieh they are the vietims whieh lnakes their sultbrings so espeeially touehing. For instance, if they were dang'erous animals, take the case of wild beasts at large, al»le hot only fo defend thelnselves, but even to attaek us; lnueh as we. mig'ht dislike fo hear of their wounds and agony, yet out feelings would be of a very different kind; but there is something so very dreadful, so satanie in tor,nenting those who never have harmed us, aud who eammt defend themselves, who are utterly in out power, who have weapons neither of offenee nor defenee, that none but ve W hardened persons ean endure the thought, of it. Now t.his was àust out Saviour's case: IIe had laid aside His glory, 1le had (as if were) disbanded Ilis legions of Angels, He came on earth without arms, exeept the arms of t.ruth, meekness, and righteousness, and eolmnitted Himself fo the world iu pertiet ilmoeenee and sinlessness, and in utter helplessness, as the Lamb of God. Iu the words of St. Peter, "Who did no sin, neither wns guile found in Ilis mouth; who, when IIe was reviled, reviled hot again; when IIe suffered, IIe threatened hot; but eommitted Himself fo Ilim that judgeth right- eouslyl. '' Think thon, my brethren, of your feelings af cruelty praetised upon brute animals, and you will gain one sort of feeling whieh thc history of Christ's Cross and Passion ougqt to excite within you. And let me add, this is in all cases one good use fo whieh you may turn any aceounts you read of wanton and unfeeling aets shown towards thc infcrior animals; let them remind 3-on, as a picture, of Christ's sufferings. He who is higher than the Angels, deigned to hmnble Himself even fo the state of the brute ereation, as the Psalm says, "I ara a worm, and no man; a very seorn of men, and the outeast of the pcople. '' 2. Take another example, and you will sec the saine thing still more strikingly. How overpowered should we bc, nay hot af the sight only, but at the very hearing of crucifies shown to a little ehild, and whv so? for the saine two reasons, bceause it was so innocent, and because it was so unable to defend itself. I do hot like fo go into the details of sueh eruelty, they would be so hcart-rending. Vlmt if wieked men took and erueified a young ehild? Vhat if they deliberately seized ifs por little ri'ame, and stretehed out its anns, nailed them fo a cross bar of wood, drove a stake through ifs two feet, and fastened them fo a bemn, and so left it fo die? Itis almost too shoeking fo say; perhaps, you will aetually say it is too shoeking, and ought hot tobe said. O, my brethren, you feel the horror of this, and 1 Pet. il. 22, 23. Ps. xxii. 6.
yet you can be,r to read of Christ's sufferings 'ithout horror for 'h,t is th.t little child's agony to His? and wlHch deserved it more? which is fle more imocent? which the holier? was IIe hOt gentler, sweeter, meeler, more tender, more loving, than any litHe child? hy are you shocked af the one, why are you hot shocled af the oher? Or talle #nother instance, hOt so shocking in is crcumstances, yet introducing us o anotler dstinction, in vhich Christ's passion exceeds that of any innocent sufferers, such as I h.ve supFosed. Whe Joseph was sent by his father o his brethre on messa'e of love, they, -hen they saw him, said, "]3chold, his dreamer cometh corne now, flerefore, nd let us slay him .» They dd hot lill him, however, but they put him in a pit in spire of the angush of his soul, and sold him as slave to the Ishmaelites, and he was alen clown into foreign country, where he had no friends. Tow ws most cruel and most cowardly in tle sons of Jacob and what is so especially shocling in itis, flat Joseph was hot only innocent and defenceless, their younger lrother whom hey ought to have Froected, but besides hat he was so confiding and loving, (hat he need hot bave corne o them, hat he would hot af all have been in their power, exce.pt for his desire o do them service. ow, whom does this hstory remind us of but of Him ¢oncerning whom the MasSer of he vineyard said, on Gen. xx.vL 19, scnding Ilim fo the husbandmen, "Thcy will revercnce My Son 1?,, "But whcn the husbaldnien saw the Son, thcy said among" themselvcs, This is tle IIcir, corne, let us kill IIim, and let us seize on tIis inhcritance. And they caught IIim, aud cast Him out of tle vineyard, and slcw Him." IIere, then, is an additional cireumstance of cruelty fo afl[.ct us in Christ's history, sueh as is suggescd in Joseph's, but which no instance of a brute animal's or of a child's sufferings can have; our Lord was hot only guiltlcss and dcfcnceless, but IIe had corne among Ilis persecutors in love. 3. And now, instead of taking the case of the young, innocent, and contidin,, let us take another instance which will prescrit fo us our Lord's passiou under another aspect. Let us suppose that some ag'ed and venerable person whom we have known as long" as we could rccollect any flfing, and loved and reverenced, suppose such one, who had oftcn done us kindnesses, who had taught us, who had given us good advice who had cncouraged us, smiled on us, comforted us i troublc, whom we knew fo be very good and religious, very holy, ihll o wisdom, f«ll of heven, witl grey hairs and awful eountenanee, waiting fi)r Ahnighty God's summons fo leave this world for a better place; suppose, I say, s-ueh a one whom we have ourselves known, and whose memory is dear fo us, rudely seized by tierce lnen, stripped naked in publie, insulted, drive x Mat. xxi. 7—9.
about here and there, ruade laughing-stoek, struek, spit on, dressed up in other elothcs in ridicule, then sevcrcly scourg'ed on the bacl, then laden with somc heavy load till ho could carry if no longer, pulled and drag'cd about., and af last exposed with all his wounds fo the gaze of a rude multitude who came and jeered hhn, what would bc our feeling's? Let us in out mind think of this person or that, and considcr how wc should bc ovcrwhelmed and pierced throug'h and through by such, hideous occurrence. But wh,t is all this fo the sufferin of the holy ffcsus, whieh we bear fo read of as a marrer of course! Only think of Him, when in IIis woundcd sf,te, and without arment on, He had to ereep up Ihe ladder, as Ite couk|, whieh ]ed IIim up fhe cross hig'h enoug, h for IIis murderers to nail ]Iim fo if; and consider w]w if was that was in that misery. 0r a.ain, view Him dying,, hour after hour bleediuff o death; and how? in peaee? no; with lIis arms stretehed ouf, and His face exposed to view, and any one who pleased eoming" and staring" af Him, moeking" Him, and watching" the gradual ebbing of His strength, and the approach of death. These arc some of lhe appallin detai]s which the Gospels contain, and surely they were hot recorded for nothing,; but that we might dwell on thcm. Do you think that those who saw these things had mach heart for eafing or drinking or enjoying themselves? On thc contrary, we are fold that even "the e le who came together to that sight, smote their breasts and rcturned 1.,, If these were the feelings of the people, what were St. John's feelings, or St. Ma.ry:Magdalene's, or St. M?ary's, out Lord's blessed mother? Do ve desire fo be of this eompany? do we desire, aceording fo His ovn promise, tobe rather blessed than he womb that bare Him, and thc paps that He sucked? do we desire tobe as Ilis brother, and sister, and mothcr2? Then, surely, ought we fo have some portion of that mother's sorrov[ Vheu IIe was on the cross and she stood by, theu, aecording to Simeon's prophecy, "a sword pierced through her soul ." What is the use of our kecpiug the memory of His cross and passion, nnless we lainent and are in sorrow with her? I eau understaud people who do lot keep Good Friday af all; they are indeed very ungrateful, but I know what they meau; I understand them. ]3ut I do hot understand af all, I do hot af all sec what men mean who do profess to keep it, yet do hot sorrow, or at least try to sorrow. Such spirit of grief and lamentation is expressly mentioned in Scripture as characteristic of those vho turn fo Christ. If the we do hot sorrow, have we turned to Him? "I will pour upon the house of David," says the merciful Saviour Himself, before He came on earth, speaking of what was to come, "upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplicatious; and they shall look upon Me Luke xxiii. 48. - 3Iatt. xii. 46, &c. z Luke ii. 35.
T/e C.ztcijT.v'oz. 4 3 whom flmy have piereed, md they shall o- for Itim, as one mourneth for his only son, and slmll be h bitterness for Him, s one tlmt is in bitterness for his firstborD. 1.,J One thing I will add:—if there be persons here present who are eonseious to themselves that tbey do hot feel grief whieh this season should cause them, who feel now as they do af otber rimes, let, them eonsider with themselves wbêthcr perhaps this defect does hot arise from their having" neg'lectêd to eomc fo ehureh, whcther during. this season or af otller rimes, as offert as they migqt. Out feeling's are hot in out own power; God alone ean rule our feelings; God alone ean make us sorrow, when we would but cannot sorrow; but will He, if we bave hot diligently sought Him aeeording fo out opportunities in this house of graee? I speak of those who might corne fo pra.yers more frequently, and do hot. I know well that many eannot corne. I speak of those who ean, if they will. Even if they eome as often as they are able, I know well they will not be satL'ed with their own feêlings; they will be eonseious even then that they oug'ht to g, rieve more than they do; of course none of us feels the g'reat event of this day as he ought, and therefore we all o«/t fo be dissatisfied with ourselves. However, if this is hot out own fault, we need hot be out of hemoE., for God will mereifully lead us forward in His own rime; but if it arises from out Zech. xii. 10.
not comhg {o prayers here as often as we might, then out eoldness nnd deadness are our own fault, and I beg you all fo eousider that that fimlt is hot a slight one. If is said in the ]3ook of 1Revelation, "]3ehold IIe cometh with elouds; and every eye shall sec Him, and they also whieh pierced lIim: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail beeause of Ilim." We, my brethren, eve T one of us, shall one day rise ri'oto onr graves, and sec Jesus Christ; we shall see llim who hung on the cross, wc shalI sec Ilis wounds, we shall sec the marks in Ilis hands, and in Ilis feet, aud in Ilis side. Do we wish fo be of those, then, who wail and lainent, or of those who rejoice? If we would hot lament af the sight of tIim then, we must lainent at the thought of Him now. Let us prepare to meet our God; let us comc into Itis Presence whencver we can; let us t W fo fancy as il" wc saw the Cross and Him upon if; let us draw near to if; let us beg Him fo look on us as He did on the penitent thief, and let us say to Him, " Lord remember me when Thou comcst in Thv kingdom =." Let this be added to the prayer, my brethren,with which vou are about fo lcave this church. After I have given the blessing, you will say to yourselves a short prayer. Vell; fimcy you sec Jesus Christ on the cross, and say fo Him with the penitent thief, "' Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom;" that is, " Remember me, Lord, in mercy, remember hot my sins, a Iev. i. 7. = Luke xxiii. 42.
but Thine own cross; remcmber Thinc own suffcring's, remember tha Thou sulK'redst for me,.n sinner; remcmber in t.he last day that I, during my lifctilne, felt Thy sufferings, that I suff«rcd on my cross by Thy side. Rëmenber inc then, and make me remember Thee llOW."