voluntarily submitted; but you bestowed on him the tribute of your tears, the expression of your regrets.

Jesus, having undergone these previous sufferings, arrived at Calvary, where he was to offer himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Before they fastened him to the cross, they presented to him wine mingled with myrrh. This was always given to criminals before they suffered, in order to blunt the sense of pain, and produce stupefaction; but, says. the Evangelist, Jesus" received it not:" (Mark xv. 23.) He was unappalled by the horrors of crucifixion; he had no need of any other supports than those of his God and his conscience; he wished to preserve his reason and feeling, that he might suffer the extremity of pain, and display, in an illustrious manner, all those virtues that he requires of his disciples in a season of trial.

Having rejected this offered lenitive, that he might meet death clothed in all his terrors, a new trial succeeds. The merciless executioners despoil him of his garments; they uncover his bleeding wounds, and expose his sacred body to the gaze of the populace. He who "decketh himself with light as with a garment;" he before whom, but a few days since, the people strewed their garments, that he might triumphantly enter into Jerusalem, now goes from this same Jerusalem, to be despoiled of his raiment before the inconstant and profane multitude. "His garments are taken from him, and for his vesture they cast lots."

The cross is now reared, his arms are stretched out upon it, and they strike the nails deep into those hands that had been employed only in works of beneficence and mercy; into those feet which bore him from city to city," while he went about doing good,"

and blessing the nations. Whilst they are thus employed, whilst the sense of his ignominious sufferings is strongest, behold! he raises his eyes to heaven, he pours out his petitions to his Father! And for what does he petition? Does he not ask that the thunders of God should be sent forth, and blast his murderers to endless perdition? No, my brethren, he prays, he pleads for his murderers: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They know not who it is that they thus revile and torture; forgive them, Father; my arms and my bosom are open to receive them. Let me be their advocate and intercessor with thee; let that blood which now gushes warm from my veins, shelter them from the strokes of thine offended justice. O what hearts must those have been, which could remain obdurate after this tender supplication of Jesus! But the hearts of the soldiers did remain obdurate; and the Maker of all things is suspended between heaven, which is his throne, and earth, which is his footstool, as though unworthy to occupy a place upon either.

We have naturally a high sense of shame, and in the most noble and generous minds this sense is the strongest. To be charged with the most heinous crimes; to be viewed with abhorrence and execration by our fellow-men; to suffer a punishment never inflicted by the Roman law upon a freeman, however guilty, but reserved for the vilest slave; to depart from earth, leaving our name and reputation covered with ignominy and dishonour; who can conceive the torments inflicted by such circumstances? Yet all this didst thou endure, merciful Saviour! Thy charity could not be satisfied by bearing all the misery

that could befal us, unless thou underwentest also all the ignominy which could overwhelm us.

This death then by its ignominy was naturally calculated to wound the mind of the Redeemer; by its painfulness it was calculated to convulse his frame. His whole body is suspended by his wounds, and the weight of his body continually widens those wounds, tears his nerves, rends the flesh, and causes the most exquisite pain. This pain is not transient; it continues for six long hours; life lingers and slowly departs; drop by drop it escapes him, whilst each moment he feels more than the pangs of an ordinary death.

He suffered then acutely: nevertheless no state can be supremely miserable when we have the pity and condolence of those who surround us. Behold then the crowd which surrounds the cross of the Redeemer, and listen to their expressions of sympathy and compassion. Sympathy! compassion! Alas, I hear nothing but blasphemies and imprecations; but an infernal rivalship in guilt: each is anxious to exceed others in cruelty, in indignity, in wickedness. Here, one cries, "He saved others, himself he cannot save!" There, "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross!" Here, they exclaim, shaking their heads in scorn, "O thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it again in three days, display now the force of thy victorious arm!" There, that dreadful execration strikes his ears, "His blood be upon us, and our children!" Charity of my Saviour, dost thou still endure? Legions of angels, merciful Redeemer, wait only the first signal of thy voice to fly to thy succour. Though apparently weak and feeble, thou holdest the thunders in thine hand, wilt thou not discharge them? 46

VOL. I.

Is not thy grace exhausted by the multiplied reproaches of this faithless nation? No, my brethren; though Jesus still possessed unlimited power; though he who had so often recovered others from death, could have saved himself from its attacks, yet it was ever his beautiful character that "his power was seated between his wisdom and mercy, and acted but by their counsel." To expiate for the sins of man, by submitting to a cruel death, he came into the world; he will not now relinquish his design through a vain and ostentatious desire to display his power, or through the unworthy impulse of revenge.

But perhaps this calmness in the midst of the reproaches of his enemies, is derived from the cheering light of his Father's countenance. Ah, no! for those divine communications of which he had made his only joy, are now intermitted. Bearing the punishment of our sins, the vials of divine wrath are poured out into his soul; and even his Father smites and afflicts him; so that he is constrained to cry out, in the extremity of his anguish, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" • The Jews are cruel and ungrateful, the devils malicious and opposed to holiness; I wonder not that these have assaulted me: my disciples themselves are weak and frail men; I am not surprised that they have abandoned me. But thou, my Father; thou who hast said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased:" dost thou too forget and forsake me, and withhold from me those comforts which I now so much need to sustain me? What, even me, my Father? How many of thy children in the midst of their trials, have been upheld by thy presence and consolations? Hast thou relieved them, and dost thou forsake me? Me,

thine only begotten, thy dear, thine eternal Son?

66

My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?"

O what a voice was this to proceed from the Son of God! Nature trembled at these complaints of its Creator; the sun shrouded itself in darkness, and started back astonished to behold the Sun of Righteousness, from whom it received its light, setting in darkness and in blood; the earth trembled to its centre; death heard the cry in his inmost caverns, and dropped the chains with which his prisoners were bound, and permitted them to start into life. All nature sympathized with its God; man alone remained unmoved; man scoffed, while angels wept; man's heart remained unbroken, while the very rocks were rent asunder.

Thus Jesus continues suffering till the predestined work for which he assumed our nature is accomplished. When justice is satisfied, when every wo is undergone, and every prophecy accomplished, he calmly, tranquilly, and freely commends his spirit to the hands of his Father; cries in the language of triumph, and with a joy which the pains he endured could not destroy, "It is finished;" bows his head, and expires. Thy sufferings are consummated, merciful Jesus, and with them our redemption : God can now be just in saving the rebellious; and the door of heaven, which was barred by the apostacy, is again opened for the children of men.

II. And now, my brethren, what effects shall this review of the sufferings of our Lord produce upon us? Shall we be satisfied merely with exercising the emotions of natural sympathy, and pouring forth our tears over our crucified Lord? Oh no! other and more important sentiments should occupy our hearts: for the eternal Son of God submitted to this deep hu