which the reader will do well to observe. It was five days before Christ's death. Now the passover was on the fourteenth day of the month; and this consequently was the tenth. An exact correspondence took place, therefore, between the order at the institution of the passover, in setting apart the paschal lamb; and the Lamb of God, the real and true passover, which that paschal lamb signified. It is highly observable, that as the lamb for sacrifice was to be set apart four days before the Jewish service took place; so Christ, our passover, sacrificed for us, entered Jerusalem four days before his sufferings and death. (Exod. xii. 3.) And as the lamb in the camp of Israel, was to be a lamb of the first year, without blemish, and without spot; so Christ was declared Pontius Pilate, in the very moment he pronounced sentence of death upon him, to be guiltless. For we read, that he "washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person." (Matt. xxvii. 24, 25.)

The Lord sending two of his disciples into the village, which was over against them, as they approached the city, to request the loan of an ass, with her colt; and over-ruling the minds of the owners to grant the favour desired; is no less observable. Both Mark and Luke enlarge on this part of the relation concerning the ass; namely, that it was one "whereon never man sat." And they particularly state also, that the Lord Jesus had told them of the very spot where they should find the ass, namely, "immediately on their entering the village." Here was a test of our Lord's omniscience. And no less, in the over-ruling the minds of the owners to the grant of the ass unto Christ, became as decided a proof of his eternal power and GODHEAD. For as the Lord had foreseen that a demand would be made on the disciples as they took the ass, as to what their

intention was; and so it proved. For it is said, that the disciples found the ass and colt, even as Jesus had foretold; and as they were loosing them from the place, the owners said, "What do ye, loosing the colt? And they said even as Jesus had commanded; and they let them go." I pause for the moment in this place just to observe, that amidst the poverty of our glorious Lord, who was thus constrained to borrow, what a display of sovereignty appeared! And very sweetly that Scripture comes in to our meditation in the comment upon it: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich." (2 Cor. viii. 9.)

But we must not stop here: For the most illustrious part of the history remains yet to be noticed. All the evangelists, with one voice, concur to tell the church the occasion of all this wonderful proceeding, with the marvellous events included in it: "All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass." The prophet Zechariah, five hundred years before, had, being inspired by the Holy Ghost, given this prophecy, by way of preparing the minds of the Lord's people, for this auspicious event. And as it was big with importance, the prophet bid the church to welcome the Lord's coming, in the most rapturous terms: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, and shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee, he is just and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." (Zech. ix. 9.) And by way of identifying the person of our glorious Lord, and to prove that to him, and to him alone, this prophecy

referred, it is remarkable that no other king ever, before or since, so entered Jerusalem. Indeed the features of his glorious person, and the poverty of his appearance, were never possible to have been blended in any one, but in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is described as Zion's king; but who, of kings, ever rode in triumph upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass? Of whom, among princes, and the great ones of the earth, could it ever have been said to have been meek and lowly? And yet infinitely more impossible to have added, having salvation! Let not the reader overlook such divine features of character; in the event of which, the present peace and everlasting happiness of the whole church of God is secured. Truly, to this amount, is that blessed testimony given by the apostle, when he said, "Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.)

3

I detain the reader to remark also, what a beautiful correspondence of what is here said by one prophet, concerning the person of our most glorious Christ, is given to the same amount by every other. Indeed what the Holy Ghost hath said by Zechariah, in this Scripture, as refered to by the evangelist, is uniformly the same as that of God the Father, by the prophet Isaiah: "Behold my servant whom I uphold: mine elect in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law." (Isa. xlii. 1-4.) And no

less of what was said by the Son of God himself, under the spirit of prophecy, in allusion to his advent, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for lo, I come; and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee," (Zech. ii. 10, 11.) It is always blessed to behold with what a world of apparatus the whole volume of Scripture in the Old Testament, in every part, ushered in the Lord of life and glory, under the New. And what is more particularly to be regarded, how the whole concurred in dwelling upon those two grand features of character, by which the coming Saviour was to be known; namely, in the infinite greatness and underived dignity of his person, and the infinite greatness and all-sufficiency of his finished salvation. All bore their united testimony to this, as one of them expressed it, and all of them concurred, when he said: "Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” (Isa. xxxv. 4-6.) And had it been possible for either the writer or reader of this Scripture Extract to have been present when the Lord Jesus came in person, and walked about the streets of Jerusalem; could we have beheld him, while having the Scriptures of the prophets in our hand, and compared the portrait with the original, and while we read the one, have beheld the other; going about healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people; what would have been

the instant exclamation of each heart, but as the same truth was called forth from the centurion at the foot of the cross: "Truly, this was the Son of God!" (Matt. xxvii, 54; xxi. 6-9.)

HOLY SCRIPTURE.

"And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, "And brought the ass and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.

"And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in

the way.

"And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matt. xxi. 6—9.)

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS.

THERE is somewhat of a special signification in the answer which the Lord Jesus bid his disciples give to the owners of the ass and colt; "The Lord hath need of them!" How was it that the Lord should need any thing of his creatures? And how was it that this needs-be of the Lord, should at once influence the minds of such as, it is more than probable, knew not the Lord, "straightway to send them?" The reader, (if he be a gracious reader,) will do well to make a suitable memorandum of these things. Some of the Lord's people have found peculiar sweetness in those Scriptures which direct the mind to look over persons and things, and behold, as the prophet did, in the complicated machine of apparent much confusion, One, in the likeness, as the appearance of a man, above upon it, guiding all. (Ezek. i. 26.)