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a (Contemplation of Certain Cuent.^

©ttt: ^auimtr^s ^ife.

SIX SERMONS

DELIVERED ItY

The Right Rev. J. W. Williams, D.D.,

Late Lord Bishop of Quebec,

ON THE

Krioays in Lent, 1892.

Ittotttrral :

PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL & SON.

1892.

CONTENTS.

Sermon /.

Introduction. ^^^"^
7

Sermon II.

Our Saviour's Birth and Youth j,

Sermon III.
The Beginning ok Our Saviour's Public Life 35

Sermon IV.
The Ministry m Galilee

Sermon V.

The Ministry m Jerusalem

• 67

Sermon VI,

The End

PREFACE.

The Six Sermons, by the Right Rev. J. W.
Williams, D.D., late Bishop of Quebec, which
form this Volume, have been pubh'shed, not
because they are considered to represent the best
work, and most original thought of the author, as
a Theologian, and Sermon Writer, but because a
special interest attaches to them, as having been
the last Course of Sermons written and preached
by him.

The Sermons were delivered in St. Matthew's
Church, Quebec, at Evensong, on the Fridays
in Lent; the last Sermon of the series, entitled
" The End," on the Friday in Passion Week, in
the year 1S92. It was then noticed that he was
suffering from a bad cold. On the following.

Preface.

Friday, Good Friday, the Bisliop took to his bed.
On Ivister Eve acute inflammation of the lun"-s set
in, and on the following Wednesday, within the
octave of the glorious Easter Festival, with its
blessed assurance of Death conquered, and the
Resurrection to Eternal Life, he passed away.

This Volume is published at the request of
Mrs. Williams, the widow of the late Bishop,
in order that, sent to each of the Clergy of the
Diocese of Quebec, it may serve as a memento of
their late beloved father-in God, their devoted
attachment to whom, during his life-time, they so
frequently manifested.

L. W.

Quebec, Whitsuntide, 1892.

^ (^<>utfm|rl»tio« of (tmm €xm\U in (Our

Sermon I.
IfntvortMction. %)\^ i,\\\\\t$% of mc.

Galatians IV. 4.
" When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth 11 h Son.-
I PROPOSE, on the Friday evenings of this Lent, to i).it
before you some thoughts about the earthly life of
our Lord.

And the first of these tlioughts-that which arrests
our attention as soon as we begin to think about it— is
this one concerning the "fulness of time." Wherein
lay the fuhiess of the time when Jesus Christ came into
the world ?

Wherein lay the fulness of the time? I Well it lay :

(i) In the worn-outness of the Religions of the world.

(2) In the consolidation of the Roman Empire. (3)

In the diffusion of the Greek language. (4) In the

dispersion of the Jews over all the world. (5) In

Srniion I.

the expectation of the Messiah's coming. These may
not be all ; but these are some of the things that went
to make the fulness of time.

(i) The time was ripe for the Saviour's comin^
because the Religions of the world were worn out;
the false religions were seen through ; and the religion
of the Jews had accomplished its purpose.

The false religions were seen through. It seems that
a sense of the mystery of the world in which they live,
will always engender in mankind the notion of a Being,
or Beings, other than man, who made it what it is. Now
this notion is founded upon a sense of power, and has
nothing to do with goodness.

The natural notion that the heathen have of their
gods is that they are beings to be feared and propi-
tiated ; that is all.

And these gods they identify with the things they see
and feel ; and they worship, some, the sun and moon ;
some, the stocks and stones; and some, the creatures of
their own imaginations. Their gDds are many, and they
are not o^ly ////moral; they are, in many instances,
immoral. This, however, does not hinder the worship

i
a

The Fulness of Time.

of them, 'liiey are uoi. shipped not from love of, or
reverence for, tiKMr goodness, but in awe of their power
to hurt. Eut, in thoughtful minds, even amongst Pagan
people, as reason developed, and morality matured
there came a revolt against such gods as these, cen-
turies before the advent of Christ.

Reason had proclaimed among the thinkers of Greece
that God must be one ; and Conscience had demanded
that the God it should revere must be good. And so it
came about, that in the educated among them, Religion
at the tune of Christ's coming, was an exploded thing'
Pohfcans might use it as a superstition, convenient
for keepmg the ignorant in order; but by men serious
and truth-loving it was derided for its folly, and for
Its nnmorality, detested.

The Religion of the Jews, indeed, had not in it any
si.ch seeds of decay; that Religion was no superstition
of natural growth; it was a Revelation from Heaven-
ns fundamental ideas from the beginning were utterl^
and radically different from those which give rise in the
natural man to such religion as he invents for himself-
these fundamental ideas of the Revealed Religion werj

Sermon I.

(i) (iod is one; and that (2) God is Holy. In such
a religion there was no room for contrariety between
lehgion and conscience— between reh'gion and reason.

Men's notions of what was holy, and what was in ac-
cord with reason, might, in early times, have been crude
and imperfect; but, as their moral convictions became
purified, this higher morality took naturally its proper
place in such a religion. Such a religion had nothing
in it incompatible with development of conscience. God
is holy : it always proclaimed that; it readily took on
the higher thoughts of a more enlightened conscience,
as to what holiness is, concerning the holiness of God,
and the holiness, the morality, incumbent upon men.

And in respect of the '.?lief in many gods, discredited
now by the advance of thought, religion had always
told the Israelite what the world only slowly attained to
see. Lapses there were, no doubt, in the history of the
Jews into Idolatry, and into Immorality. But this only
proves that the standard, both of worship and morality,
was always there, since it was always appealed to.

The prophet's voice was always raised in appeal
against the wickedness of men's vices, and the enor-
mity of their idolatrous worship.

•I

The Fulness of Tinic>

((

" He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good ; and
what dotli the Lord require of thee but to do justly,

" and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy

" God."

There will never be found any inconsistency between
that and the highest morality, and the purest reason
that man may arrive at.

No! the Jewish religion was not doomed like the
Pagan religions to decay, because it could not bear the
hght of Truth ; but its work was done ; it was a school-
master to bring men to Christ ; and the Lesson had
now been taught. The convictions of the unity of
God, and the holiness of God, and of the immortality
of the soul, had been inured into men's minds; and
the expectations of a great deliverer had been raised
and maintained.

The Religion of the Jews had done its work; there
was nothing more for it to do; and, if there had been,
it was not able to do it, for it was now in its dotage.
True, the Temple yet stood in Jerusalem, the most
magnificent fane ever reared by human hands.

" In the streets of Jerusalem," writes one, himself a

Scrtfiou /.

Master of Israel, who in our day and generation passed
from Judaism into, and was, for many years, a man of
light and leading in, the Christian Church. "In the
'I streets of Jerusalem, men from the most distant coun-
" tries met, speaking every variety of language and
*' dialect. Jews and Greeks, Roman soldiers and Gali-
'' lean peasants, Pharisees, Sadducees and white-robed
** Essenes, busy merchants, and students of abstruse
'' theology, mingled, a motley crowd, in the narrow
" streets of the city of palaces; but over all, the Tem-
" pie, rising above the city, seemed to fling its shadow,
" and its glory.

" Each morning the threefold blast of the Priests'
" trumpets wakened the city to prayer; each evening
"the same blasts closed the working-day as with
" sounds from heaven.

" Turn where you might, everywhere the holy build-
" ings were in view, now the smoke of sacrifices curling
" over the courts, or again with solemn stillness resting
" UDon the sacred halls."* True the Temple still stood,
and still its spacious courts were crowded— especially
^^ ^^^g great feasts, which zealous Jews came from

* Kdersheim,

The Fulness of Time.

all parts to attend, in such numbers, that the historian
(himself a Jew of the next generation) computes them
at no less than 2,000,000 — with eager throngs of wor-
shippers.

But the soul of worsliip, if not departed, was de-
parting from the seemingly still stalwart Body at the
Temple worship. Faith v^as giving way to form ; the
tillers of mint, anise, and cummin— they, who
neglected the weightier matters of the Law— were in
the ascendant. The work of the Jewish religion was
done.

That was one element in the fulness of the time.
(2) Another was the recently consummated conso-
lidation of the then civilized world into the Roman
Empire.

The effect of this was to give a free intercourse and
communication between the people of all countries.
Wherever they went the missionaries of the Gospel found
unforbidden access, and all the faciUties for travel
afforded by unrestricted commerce, and by the well con-
structed, and well kept military roads, which radiated in
all directions from Rome. And wherever they went,

Sermon I.

tHey were under the protection of the lon^ ..
arm of the Roman Law Did the . ^' ^^

af p • ., , "^ exasperated Tews

^. Con,„„ endeavor ,„ set the authorities a j ,!
r-l for preachmg the Gospel? Galiio drove «

-e:t:t;i::ie:e
.•'---.i,o.,s disputes:::— ^^^^^^^^^^

Epir; ''''-^""""^^ '--■■"'•■■-« '-'^e^oh'at

The town clerk allays the tumult l„
tl.e Majesty of the Lavv' '' '" •■'"''^^' '°

A free passage for the Gospel by means of th- con
a„on of the Roman Empire, that was an eknZ

"'"r TT "' '""'■ "'"" "^ -' fo"!' His S T
(3 Another was the wide dlff, ■

use of the Greek langul^e °"' "" '""■^^-'

J|>y is it that the New Testament was written in

Because that language, in that particular forn, r •.
was everywhere known and used r, "'

-pository of learning an;of,:tHtr:"°';"'^*=
'efi..ementwen.forinstn,ct,-o,ant.rcI':Mrw::

The Fulness of Time,

the language of tlie market and the street, in which
men of diverse nationalities, and strange tongues con-
gregated from all the cities of the Empire, conversed
together, and transacted their business.

And how came the Greek language to be so widely
diffused for the transaction of the common affairs of
life?

It came when, through the Providence of God in
which " all things work together for good to them that
" love God— to them who are called according to His
" purpose." It came when, in the Providence of God,
Alexander the Great was permitted to overrun, in his
conquests, all Greece, and Egypt, and Asia as far as
India, leaving kingdoms, and colonies behind him when
he died ; who naturalized the speech over all that space ;
and it was in Alexandria, a city which he founded,
which still stands, and still bears his name, that the
Greek Translation of the Scriptures was made for the
use of the Jews resident there ; and not for their use
only ; so familiar vvrere the Jews all over the world with
this Translation, that a large part of the quotations
from the Holy Scriptures in the New Testament are
taken from it.

Sermon I.

TI.ese, tl,e„, arc some of the thing., which go to make
"P .he ftUnoss of time sooken of in the text

The fact that the Old Testament, the Old Covenant
r: t>™« "> "^ ^xi. '"at its wck was done. A ,
fact that there was an open road throngh the o m
w.de Kmpire for the Evangehs.s to travers . l" ;

every cty they might set up the Kingdom of Gd-
he C ,„„,„ ,e,igion_the Chnrch of Christ. And the
fact ha. for the facilitating of this e.abh'shn , t o
Clmst,an„y, in Ro„,e, ;„ £,,,,, ,,, J"'

>ey went, the missionaries would m,d, suitable to Xe
Purpose, a common language famili.ar to all
(4) Another thing there was, too, that contributed

tl ! i, . ^ '""■'"" ""-^ geographer of the

<"ne .ells us that there was hardly a city in the ci H
ued world but the Jews were there thriving „ '

pertng, and you see from the Acts of the Apostles t at'
everywhere, or almost everywhere, the Apos les f nd a
colony Jews with their Synagogue. The Synagogue

- at th,s.n„e the most spiritual of Religious 11
e..ces among the Jews, and to this Synagogue he

The Fulness of Time.

Apostles always went; and in it they began to unfold
their message, first to the Jews, "then to the Gentiles.
Thus the Dispersion of the Jews gave centres every-
where for the i)ropagation of the Faith.

(5) But there was another thing that went to make
the time ripe for the Redeemer ; and that was the eager
expectation of His coming.

From amid the suffering, and humiliation of sub-
jugated peoples, there always goes up the cry of the
oppressed for deliverance ; and the wish that is father
to the thought soon engenders the belief that the De-
liverer will come.

But the Jews had better foundation for these hopes
than the creative influence of imagination brooding upon
its miseries; through the entire tissue of their nation's
history ran the golden thread of prophecy predicting
the Advent of their Messiah ; and now the feeling was
abroad that His approach was near; and the feeling was
intense.

The whole people throbbed with the excitement of
the anticipation. Their Messiah when He came was not
only to set His people free from the yoke of the for-

Seriiioii I.

eignor, He was to be a great K
'I'hrone of David with subject nat

ing sitting upon the
ions at His feet.

ley did not understand, indeed -

sec— the iiiff'criiig side of the S

they could not

expected ^[essiah was to live o
forever; but it would I)e a mistake t

:iviour's career. Their

"1, in joy and splendour

) sui)|)()se that

tliey ignored ahogether the Spiritual side of His char-
acter and His Kingdom.

There were men hke Symeon " waiting for the con-
•' solation of Israel," "just men and de-. out "-waiting in
the silence of a holy life for the " Salvation which God
"was preparing" before the face of all people; men
looking anxiously out for the Light, which was to lighten
the Gentiles, and to be the glory of His people Israel.
They looked, as we learn from the still extant literature
of the period, which, though no part of Scripture, pre-
serves the aspirations and expectations of the time;
they looked for a Deliverer who was " The Son of God,"
" whose name was named before the sun was made/'
who existed " aforetime in the presence of God," who
was called cir.-.luuically " the Son of Man." These
more spiritual .. v ^i ■ of the expected Messiah fed the

:oii-

Thc Fuhicss of Time.

hoi-cs of tl)c pious ; but the whole people seethed with
the excitement of expectation. Tliey thronged the 'J'emple
courts, vainly asking of their doctors and teachers when
the Messiah was to appear. In their enthusiasm they
followed false lights with alacrity; and many perished
at the call of, and in their fanatic devotion to the cause
of imposters, who promised the deliverance they looked
for. And this general expectation of the Messiah was
one of the signs-the crowning sign-that the fulness
of tune was come. And then, -when the fulness of
" tune was come, God sent forth His Son ! "

Of that 1 shall have something to say to you on
Friday next.

Sermon II.
®hc §iyth \m\ ^outU of a)ut ^juicur.

GALATIANS IV. 4.

" But -ivhcH the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
" I/is Son, made of a woman, made under the law.^'

On Friday last I made some observations upon that
phrase — tlie fuUness of the time.

I propose now to consider the rest of the verse,
and to dwell for a while upon the thoughts suggested
by the statement that God sent forth His Son, and that
He was made of a woman, s-d that He was made
under the Law.

The man Jesus was not born as other men was born.
He was made of a woman. To one coming from Jeru-
salem, as travellers tell us, there appears, discerned
from the last heights of Samaria, across the plain of
Jezreel, far up on the hills cf Galilee, lying like a
white point, the little Village of Nazareth; the name
signifies a flower, or a branch. Quietness, and peace
rest upon the softly undulating hills. And there,

Sermon II.

in one of those quiet homes lived the young girl,
who was to receive by Angels' ministration God's
announcement of her high destiny.

The Angel came to her, and he said: "Hail! highly
''favoured. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou
"among women." She was troubled, she knew not
what this could mean ; and again the Angel :,aid : "Fear
" not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And,
"behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shall
" bring forth a Son. and shalt call His name Jesus. He
'* shall be great and shall be called the Son of the
" Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto Him the
" Throne of His Father David ; and He shall reign over
"Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there shall be
"no end."

In her surprise, and simplicity the maiden asks :
" How shall this be, seeing I know not a man.? "

The Angel replied : " Tlie Holy Ghost shall come
" upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall over-
" shadow thee ; therefore shall that Holy Thing which
" shall be born of thee be called the Son of God."

Even in the awe, and the joy, of that stupendous

The Birth of Our Saviour,

revelation, the submissive piety, and maiden modesty
of the Blessed Virgin marks her demeanour, and
Mary said : " Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it
" unto me according to thy word."

Iw the next scene in which the Gospel story presents
her, the joy of her high destiny breaks out into exul-
tant utterance. The Angel had told her that her
cousin Elizabeth, much older than herself, and hitherto
childless, was about to be a mother; and she went to
the hill country of Judaea to visit her. There is com-
munication of thought between kindred spirits, which
needs not, stays not, the slow communications of
speech.

No sooner did the cousins meet, than Elizabeth, filled
with the Holy Ghost, cried with a loud voice : '•' Bless-
" ed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of
"thy womb. And whence is this to me that the
"mother of my Lord should come to me." And Mary
answers back : " My soul doth magnify the Lord. And
" my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He
"hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden: for,
•' behold, from henceforth all generations hall call me

Sernioft It.

and holy is His name." '

In due lime she was married to fosenli ,o i

was ,„fo™,ed by Divine communications conce
the l,oly mystery of l,is bride's conception '

Jte scene is now transferred to Be,h.el,cm.
on: 'f T '^ -^ "'"P- '>'«'-I-n the hi,Uot,„.ry

ofjd.aabot,.s,x„,„es,o,heso„tlrofjer.,salen,.

A .g„s..„, ti,en master of the I^oman world, kept .s
>ve know, a very careft.l account cf al, tlte r so re
'" '""''/"' "--. °f ^'^ great Empire. AndTe ad

'..-:terew.asnoroomfort,,emi„l7: r::;f

-e. or covered^': ::;:::-- :-

fro,« . e ground; on ,v„ic„ elevation the gu«ts s
posed themselves ;w„ils., be cattle occupied^he cent;

The Birth of Our Saviour.

me,

of the square. Usually, too, there were (if the nature
of the country admitted) caverns, or grottoes in the
iiillsides, which were used for the housing of cattle.

And in -one of these, it would seem, Jesus was born.
And at His birth was heard a multitude of the heavenly
host, praising God, and saying : "^ Glory to God in the
"highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men."

And Mary kept all these things, and pondered them
in her iieart.

Upon the appearance of the wise men from the
East, and the slaughter of the babes, I shall not now
enlarge: nor upon the flight of Joseph with the Holy
Child and his Mother into Egypt.

In about a year, as it would seem, they returned, and
resumed their former life at Nazareth. And there it
was that Jesus grew up. And ^7hat was the home in
which he grew up ? It was a Jewish home, and a
pious home. The pious customs migh.t degenerate into
formalities in some homes, but not in that of Joseph
and Mary; that was a pious home. And what was it
h"ke ?

"Every thing," says ot^e who knew well, "every

; i

Scriiion II.

^ thing in the Jewish ho.nc was quite pccuh-ar. At the
^' outset the rite of cirru.ncision separated the Jew
' from the nations around, and dedicated him to God
" Private prayer, morning and evening, hallowed daily
l.fe, and family religion pervaded the home Be-
ll fore every meal they washed, and prayed: after it
they gave thanks. ]iesides, there were what may
^^ be designated as specially family feasts. The return
of the Sabbath sanctified the week of labour It

^^ bridegroom ; and each household observed it as a

" season of sacred rest, and joy."
" As the head of the house returned on the eve of the

" Sabbath from the Synagogue to his home, he found it
" festively adorned, the Sabbath lamp brightly burning,
and the table spread with the richest each household
" could afford. First he blessed each child with the
" blessing of Israel. And next evening, when the
" Sabbath light faded out, he made solemn separation

' between the hallowed day and the working week •
" and so commenced his labour once more in the
" name of the Lord."

The Birth of Our Saviour,

Siicli was the Iiome in which Jesus grew up. And in
the home was tlie education and upbringing of the Jew
to an extent not known elsewhere. True, there were
schools of instruction attached to the Synagogues, but
every master of a household was bound (i) to teach
his son the Law of God, and (2) to teach him a trade,
in which to learn and labour truly to get his own living.

To teach him a trade. Amongst no other people was
there the same respect for the dignity of labour. By the
Greeks and Romans mechanical toil was held in con-
tempt as a thing fit only for slaves. But it was quite
otherwise with the Jews ; every father, with them, was
bound to teach a son a trade.

And of their most learned Ral)bies one was a wood
cutter, another a carpenter, while Paul, the accom-
plished scholar, the rising hope of the most influential
men of his day, could, and did, earn his living as a
tent maker.

Joseph was a carpenter; and Jesus, as custom and
convenience ruled, followed the same trade. In the
workshop of Joseph, His youth and rising manhood were
passed. In Joseph's home, He was brought up in the

Sermon II.

nu ca„dadm„„,eio„oftl,eWd. " As .soon as tl,e
cluld had a„y knowledge, .he private and .he uni.ed

Pyof.ef.n,>,a,,d,hedo„«s.ic,i.es-„,e.her
of weekly Sabba.h, or of festive seaso„.s-„.o„,d
indehbly impress themselves on his mind "
„ 7''"^~■•^» "- feast of .he Dedica.ion, with its
■">.m,„a.,on of each house. Wl,en the Hrst evening
ca,ne one eandle would he ,i. for eaeh me.noer of
h household, the numher increasing eaeh night

."ontee,gh,hitwaseighttnnes.hatofthefii"
1 1.e., there was P„rim, .he feas. of Es.her, with ,he

good ceer and boisterous tnerriment it brotlght,"
The feast rf Tabernaeles, when .he very youngest

of .he family h.td to live ot,t in the boolh."

" And chiefest of ail, the feiet „f ft. r>
„ Ti , ' ''^•^^' of the P.assover week.

Ti.ere was about the Pascha, Supper with its .symbols
and services, that which appealed to every feelin.
even h..d no. the Law e.pressi, enjoined that m

_ of the service. At a certain part of the service i. was

'able should rise, and formally ask what was .he

The Birth of Our Saviour.

" meaning of all this service, and how it was distin-
" guished from others."

'• To which the father was to reply by relating, in
" language suited to the child's capacity, the whole
" national history of Israel from the calling of Abraham
" down to the deliverance from Egypt, and the giving
" of the Law."

" And the more fully," it is added. " he explains it,
" all the better."

As the child's capacity developed, he was taught to
read the Scriptures. In some degree this would be
done at the school attached to the Synagogue. But the
best part of it was done in the home. It was a duty
incumbent on the father ; but the mother's influence
is never to be forgotten. It was from his grandmother
Lois, and his mother Eunice, that Timothy got in
childhood his familiarity with the Scriptures. And
what Lois and Eunice were in motherly love, and
instructive piety to Timothy, that, we may be sure,
Mary was to the child Jesus.

These were the surroundings of the child Jesus at
Nazareth.

J If]

3°

Sermon IT

-urn Of Josop,, .„rM :;l "'•'.''="'« '-'•°"'^'--
'"Jerusalem, and found I ' •■"'""'■" J°""'^^

•he Temple. ""'""'>' ™'d^""e doctors i„

-.erof!,,:°:;:rc:r:;rr"''^"^

accompanied His paren.s o I , '""' "^

-edou.,.,on,jo;:n:ix;-^-''-i^

I' was quite in order that He should be there
^'vertng and questioning the doctor, J, ' """

such occasions for .r ' ''° •■""-■"ded on

instr„ctio;r^^'"™"'"^"''-°fsiving these

Jr'ofH?J''"'''^'"'^''''^^^^'-^--".e

".•smother. gentC:VS:i„T'''""^''"'°
'vha. the Kvangeh-st records a he , se on;""'°'7""
opens up a verv In . '"^ ^'o^e of the incident)

"nessr "" "'"^"'^' "l""" »y Father's bud.

The Birth of Our Saviour.

Ihat seems as though the consciousness of His
D.vine paternity, and of His mission for the Redemp-
tion of mankind, was now beginning to dawn u ,n
Hmi. But whether that be so or no, the difficult nues-
t.on of which I spoke-a question which we cannot
lielp askmg ourselves, but which we cannot answer
^vuh any precision, and had better not answer with
rashness of dogmatism-is opened by what follows •
" And He went down wiih them, and came to Na/a-
II reth, and was subject unto them, but His Mother
" kept all these sayings in her heart."

" And jesus increased in wisdom, and in stature
and m favour with God and man."

How could He. who was God incarnate, increase in
wisdom ?

Later on, we shall see that sometimes. He knows
what ,s m man, and beyond man, with the unerring
>ns,ght of a Divine intuition. And sometimes, He
Hm.self declares that there are things which the
Son knows not. The Godhead in Him was veiled
from Imma . eyes, but how far was it veiled from
Pipself? how far was jt hel^ in abeyance by His

'%\

Sermon II.

tncse questions; tla-.r mistake i, Unt ,!„.„ ■ •
upon answering them. ''^ '"""

It -.ere tl,eir wisdon, ,„ f„„o,v tl,e Holy Mother's
cxampe_to Iceepi il„.„, j ' Mothers

hearts. ' ' "" "°"^" ">-» "' their

' "''°'"' ''"^' f™™ this time, before his „,ind k„a
'vhat was titat business > '^'"^

Well, for twenty years or thereabouts, it wa, ,im„|,
t -au ; to live on, working in Jo.seph-s hop-r d

.•"th!Liusi::,rCar;;:,:r''"""^'"''-^'

-Wch filled, in after yea^Hts tt ","""' "'"'"'

-d de,ight,-the liiie? f ": ^,'/™vr""'°"

grow_the fields whitening to the harvest-the sheen

wander„,g away and lost-the foxes with their ho '

"e eagles gathering to the carease-.he ^^^ L"^

.g".fica„ce of morning's, and of evening, g, „ ™

'-nty years His business was to wa ,. 'rZn Z

iimaii life?
eniselves— -
:'iey insist

Mother's
1 in their

IS was to
id. And

IS simply
-reading
ip of the
in there,
'1 sights,
itruction
3w they
e sheep
holes —
varied
V. For
en the

TAc Birth 0/ Our Saviour,

K. hers purpose, and His own purpose, was matured,
^^nd that purpose was-thc Salvation of Afankind.

How did He purpose to save n.en ? Uy unitin,
tnn,noGo,. Making them, as St. Peter expresses i

lartakersof the Divine nature."

And how did Ue purpose to unite men to Ood ^
J^y^unumg them to Himsclf-hnmanuel-God fncar-

And how did He purpo.se to unite men to HimselCP
;y forming then, into a Kingdom-a Society-a
Chur<:h_a .Spiritual V,o,\y . Of which He is ti.e heul
And how does He form them into that SoeietyP IK-
Himself laying down the great Principles, and Consti-
tutions of the Spiritual Kingdom. And I,y estal.lishin,.-
US fundan.ental institutions \. the two Sacran.ents^
'iy calhng and commissioning the twelve Apostles
to carry out His design. And l>y sending the Holy
G ost-the Giver of Life-to tnake men, one by one,
subjects of the Kingdom, and members of the JJody i

■But, before all th

world
saved,

•s, something else is needed. 'I'l,

■s enslaved to sin, and, before the si

lie must be redeemed -bouol

state of slavery to sin.

:ive can be
It (jff from that

;l|

Serjuon II.

And how does Jesus purpose to Redeem mankind
from their subjection to sin and its consequences?

He will redeem the race, by Himself bearing the
penalty of sin, and by obliterating its cffccis. His holy
life is human life regenerated, and into the regenerated
life Christians are incorporated— grafted by God, the
Holy Ghost. That was the Father's business which
it behoved Him to be about.

How He set about it we shall see on Friday next.

t i

11 mankind
inces ?
'earing the
His lioly
cgcneralod
/ God, the
ess wiiich

ly next.

Scnnoii Til.
iThc 'ikniimittn of («)uv ^aviouv^o i^tbUr Xifc.

St, Luke in. 23.

tinity years of a^c."

That is the rendering of the revised version ; and it is
no doul)t tlie proper meaning.

The rendering of the authorized version: «« Jesus
Himself began to be about thirty years of age," has
no justification in the rules and usages of the language
from which the translation is made. What St. Luke
says is just this: ''when Jesus began, He was about
liHrty years of age." IJegan what.? Something must
be supplied to make the sense complete ; and it seems
pretty plain what that something must be, viz., when
He began His ministry, when Me began to teach.
But, before I go on to speak of His ministry, it will be
convenient to say something about the great prophet,
who came to prepare His way.

John the Baptist was the son of a priest, and in the
ordinary course he would have been a priest himself;

3^>

Senium 111.

bill his picdcslincd life In,y out of the ordinary course.
He was lo l)c no priest, l)ut a prophet; he was called
J^lijah, and, like l-Jijah, he lived a life removed from
the haunts of men.

" lie was in the deserts until the day of his shewin-
'•unto Israel."

In the deserts. The wilderness of Juda2a stretches
some 60 miles from the shores of the Dead Sea to the
c(mfmes of Samaria, and is 4 or 5 miles wide, having
the hills of judah on one side and the valley of the
Jordan on the other. A bare, silent solitude without
a tree or a blade of grass under the ever-blazing sun.

A long white line winds across towards the Mount
of ( )lives ; this is tiie high road from Jericho to Jerusalem.
And here it was that the prophet, clothed in his coarse
robe of camel's hair, and feeding upon locusts and wild
l)oney, ripened for his work. He was not bred in the
formalities, and bigotries, and puerilities of the Pha-
risees. No ! nor did even the solemn services of the
'J'emple form his religious character. In the deserts he
was alone with (lod, and in that sj.iritual communion
be learnt all that the types, and services, and regu-

Our Saviouy\s Public U/c,

ry course,
was called
ovcd from

is shewing

stretches
5ea to the
le, having
ey of the
e without
ig sun.
e Mount
-■rusaleni.
lis coarse
and wild
d in the
^he Pha-
s of the
:serts he
ini union
d regii-

lalions, ;uKl .:c,™„„,ic,s „r ll,c !,,„ c„„kl lead, ; and
ar ,n.,a. ,1,..,, in i,,,. ,,„, .,r ,„„„ ,„^,„ . ^,. , ^^^^^^^
i'c .s„undcd the depths or tlK- tnystcry „f ,i„

la"SlM, ohscrvc the I,™ in „|, i.^ strictness. Ti,ev
'""»e .lo „„„e than that, the prophet felt, and the
prop et know. After they have done all that, they arc
«iii hnt „npn,li,al,le servants. Tliey ,n„st repent-
t.e.y ,„„», a,vay w,th all eoneei. ot seif.righteonsness-
U.cy tnnst own thetnseivos to he .sinnors-they must
confess their sins.

In the wilderness, John announced that the long ex-
pected, vainly looked for Kingdon, of God was at hand
-that repentance dee,,, and publicly owned, was the
true, and only, prei)aration for it.

I have said that a great and much frequented road
passed across the desert where John resided. There as
tl-y passed, the numerous caravans, and companies' of
travellers fron. all parts would see the weird hgure of
-^ prophet, and hear his burning words. And what
they saw, and what they heard, they would tell again;
aiul so n came to pass that there went out to hiu)

iir

Serinon Iff.

"JcR.salcm .111(1 all jiuLea, and all the rcgi,,,, round
about Jordan, '"and were l.apti/.cd of him in Jordan,
"confessing their sins."

He taught them the r.ecessity of repentance. Con-
fession of their sins was a pledge of -he sincerity of
liieir repentance.

Baptism was the public symbol and expression of
rei)entance.

For b.is Baptism, John came down to Ik-lhabara, or
Bethaiiv, about 3 miles above the northernmost part of
t!u' I)''ad Sea, where was a ford of the Jordan, u|) to
vvliich led another great road from the south. The
fame of the prophet was now spread over all the
country, and they came, of all classes, orders, and
degrees, to be baptized.

He required of them repentance, and confession of

sm. Their baptism implied and expressed that.

But after! what then ? what must we do ? was their
cry.

"Do! Do justice and love mercy; these are the
"fruits meet for repentance." " Let him that hath two
"coats give to him that kith none."

0//r Sfw/our's I'nblic Life.

lothc publicans and the Utx .^aihccrs ho said : no
>»ore of your tricks and cKUmions ; "exact n., more
^'^an IS set down for yo„." To tlic soldiers he said:
cease from yonr oppression of the poor; "extort
"nothing by n.is, accusation.- " JJe content with
your pay."

Those were the fruits meet for repentance. I<or
t';e cultivation and maintenance of a penitent, reii-
Kious mmd, lie tau^du them to l>ray, and to l-ast.

All who came with hearts moved to genuine peni-
tence were welcomed kindly, and kindly exl.orted.

They who came from contemptuous curiosity, or
with insidious designs, were sternly rejected.

To the Pharisees and Sadducees all he had to say
was : " () generation of Vipers who hath warned you to
(lee from the wrath to come."

And whilst John was baptizing in IJethabara, Jesus
came to be baptized of him. There is nothing to shew
that John was personally acquainted with Jesur his
kinsman though he was; but he had heard, no douSt
from his mother, of the mysterious birth, and quality (,f
tlic Virgin's Child; and when he saw Him, i.e knew

S,r>/u»i flf.

".m, just as his .• n.o.IuM- Kli.alK-,h kncv, as In-,- <on-
"" ^"^"^ -I>l>'"aHu.l, .1.,, uu> .nu.hcr of her I.o.d
-•- to hu.- So, in the youM, nun, <:omin, now
'^^•- I-P.ism, John ,.vo,nisod, I,y a .livindy inspired

"^'-^'->""nwh.Mv,,s...n.vivc.Iof,h.lloly(;host..uul
>omoru.eVi„inM.,.y. He said :'., have need to i.

N>tm-dorThoc,andron,cstthon(onK.." IU.. |es„"'
~ng sai.l. >.Snm-,. it to „e so now, n,.- thi.s it
l)ec(,melh us to fnUil all liKhieousness."

I W did it heronu- Jesns. who was without sin, t.
AiK.lall .iKlUoousncss. by suhnussion to the rite whiH.
wasuselfaeonlessionofsin? Just as it became 1 lin>
to d,e upon the eross ,or sin. He was the representa-
I've son of nun ! Ho ean.e to '> hear our iniquities "
n.s u-,11 was to sulnnit Hiutself to all that became a
nun to submit hin.self to. And, in II.s baptism, the
Sp.nt <"-c:oddes.ended upon llim like a dove:

''And lo, :, Voice from heaven, saying: This is my
^vcll-beloved S.,n, in whom 1 am well pleased'"

After His baptism. Jesus was led up of the Spirit
'nto .he wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.
''"''^>t i^-^l-'tion of the Saviour's lite which is enve-

(^/if S„vio/n\s rnhlt, Life.

-y^l-y- Son ,., (;o,i „.o„„,, ,,. is, „, ,„,.„„•,, ,.
t''^--ndm<,nso(l„mun life, an<l the- tuupia.ion of ,|,c
Dcv.l .s one „r .luMuosl j^ricv.H.s of those co.uIiiioMs

'" the opcnin. of Ifis .Ministry for the Salvation of
•"'^"' ncslcdl.y the Spirit into the desert. Always, we

^--, U was His hahi,, especially in important moments
<" '''^"•">'"'^try, to retire into solitude for prayer, and
-'"""«"'-n with the Father. Now He spends 40 days
;in(l ni^rhts coninuiously in this cmmunion

A.HMh.n the Ten.pter eomes. Vou know the s.ory
of the 3 Templations. f need not repeat them. iOnon-d,
to rcMnemher that the Ten,.tation, as a whole, was to the
m.suse of the Divine Power, of which He was consciotts
-to lise U lor self-sake. lOnough to remember that the
"Son of Clod," who was also the "Son of Man," willed
in Ihe .self-humiliation of His l)uman life, to tmdergo all
that a man would undergo in the like case, and that was
a real lemptation. Enough to remember that He was
tempted in all points as we are. Enough to ren.ember
tms, and the utter failure of the Temptation, to find in
l^im any hold of sin whereon to fasten.

'it.

Scn/ion III.

In some way (into which wc cannot penetrate) it
would seem tluit the 40 days of sohtary prayer, and fast-
ing-with the subsequent mystery of the Temptation-
was, in the inscrutable counsels of God, a condition of
our Salvation, the pre-ordained initiatory step in the
ministry of the Messiah.

After the Temptation, and the Fast of 4(, days, Jesus
returned to the banks of the Jordan, where John still
conlmued his work; and, whilst he was so engaged,
John saw Jesus coming to Him.
^ -"liehold," he said, "the Lamb of God which taketh
" away the sins of the world ! "

"Again, on the morrow, John was standing, and
*• two of his disciples, and he looked on Jesus as He
" walked, and saith : Behold the Lamb of God."

"And the two disciples heard him speak; and they
"followed Jesus."

"And Jesus turned, and beheld them following, and
"sa.th unto them. What seek ye? and they said unto
"Hmi: Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted,
"Master) where abidest Thou? He saith unto then
" Come and see."

Our Saviour's Public Life.

One of these was Andrew, Peter's hrotiier. The
oth r is not named ; but it was no doubt John, the
writer of the Gospel in which the incident is recorded.

Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus, wlio
gave him the name he has borne since in the Church.
He said, " Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by
interpretation Pester (Rock)." These were Jesus' first
disciples. He stayed no longer in Beihal.ara, but
set out to return to Galilee. On the way, as it
should seem, He found Philip, and said : " Follow me.'*

Philip found Nathaniel, and said to him :

" We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law,
"and the prophets, did write .—Jesus of Nazareth, the
" Son of Joseph ! "

Nathaniel said: "Can any good thing come out
"of Nazareth?"

" Philip saith unto him : Come and see." When
Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him, He said, " Jie'hold
" an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile."

Jesus has now five followers j that was the beginning
of the Christian Church. He proceeded to Galilee;
His stay in Galilee was not long; He attended IhJ

A\\

Sermon III.

be„evcd o„ H,„,," Then He w.,u for. fe^uay,:
Caperna,,,,, w,c„ His n.o.lKT, H,s l.e,„re„, and H
1-„,lcs; after wl.iel, He retunud u. ,e, , '

"- .ime of ,|,e Feast on„e Passuver , "

"•"' He must needs he.in His ' "'

Srnl,,. 1„ ■ ° ^'■'•'••- <="'"'••■« with

^u,bes,l.i,ansees,cl,iefpnests, and the like

He went straight to the Temple. As the great festivals
ca...e ronnd, all the a|,proaches to the Teml
".-Scd with t„„„„tnous crowds. 'kZ;:::
money, .and the sellers of eattle for saerifice, had el
shed ,e„,selves in the very eo,„,s of t e Te, 1 .'
• - bol ow,„g of the beasts, the noise of ,1,, cod'

D.v,ne Sonslnp, and exercised His authority , e
d ove out the cattle dealers. He overturned the ab
of the money changers ; and He said ■

"Take these things hence, ,„ake no, „,y Kather's
i.ouse a house of n.erchandise." This was [he be!L!

Our Saviour's Public Life.

Mis
Jie

ibles

ning of that quarrel between Jesus and the I'riests, and
riiarisees, which was only to end in ilis deaili on
the cross.

His mission was \\<.)\s declared; many believed on
His name.

After the least He retired to the coinitry parts of
Judica. His drawing to Himself of disciples there
stirred the Pharisees into action against Him ; or,
at least, Jesus knew that it would stir them.

So He left those parts and returned once more to
Galilee ; and, to do this, He must needs pass througii
Samaria.

His conversation at the well with the Samaritan
woman led to the pressing entreaty of the people for
His remaining with them.

" And they said to tlie woman, now, we believe,
" not because of thy speaking, for we have heard for
** ourselves, and know thai this is indeed tlie Saviour
"of the world."

Then He went on to Galilee; again he visited Cana ;
and again, at tlie request of the nobleman, whose son
was sick. He went down to Capernaum. He seems to

Sermon II J,

'">'vcgon.,oJe,-,.alcn,u, a.' ,.,.,. or, ,,.,,„;,;
a,M.oara„ce of Jes,. ,a j,.„„,,,,„ ., ,„^,„,^,,.;^ ^
nu ,ng a„ a.lvance in U,. Savio„,.s ,n,l„,c „„c,o ,„.
of Hnnsdl, „f H,s peso,,, a„d Hi. „„■.,„•„„

-over Of Hi. ,n,„i. ,„„„,,,, „,^,.,^ , J J

•lien f,o,« H,„, ,„ wiucl, „. ca„ „ow read a d.eh,,
'■°-'H,»Divi„i„; <..M,,evwe,.e,,...„,J.,t;

:,:;::r'" ''■^' ■---• --.-.-

A>.d ,l,e |,ublic_bo,i, „,ie,. a„d ,„led-,vl,i|„ ,dvi,„
«^e Hi. i.,di,,a,„,,, ,,.,,„ ..^^^^

Join, .„„, l,ad pointed if,„, o,„ as d,c La,„i, of C„d
-.d .he few „.e s,„a„ l,a„df„, „, diseiple, „ad beli ^
m H„„ as tjie Messiah. o<-"cved

f"' 'hoirU,o„gl,.sa„d expee,a,i„„s about .be Mes-
s,ah were as yet far from perfeci
Nc-w, however, He p,ai„„, „„„„„akab,y, deelares

(hti S(ivii>/trs Public I.ifc.

ing

IliniSL'lf to l)c lliL- Mcssiali — the Son of (lod— criual
with (lotl.

TIk; occasion \v,is 1 1 is he.iling of ;i cripple at the pool
of Hcllu'sda on tlu' Sal)l)atli. l-'or this vicjiation of the
Sahhalh Ifc was called in (pieslion l)y the Jews.

He makes no defence; lie declines lo dscuss
the obligations of the I,aw ; He simply declares Him-
self to he (lod, the W(jrkings (jf whose will no man may
(lucstion.

" My i'ather worketh hitherto ; and I work. I''or
"this cause the jews sought the more tf) kill Him;
"because He not only brake tin' ^ dibalh, hut also
"called (jod His own Father — making Himself ecjual
with God."

And He goes on to tell them that as the Fatlier
raiseth the dead, and quickcneth them, so He, the Son,
also quickencth wliom He will ; and adds :

" He that heareth my word, and bclicveth Him
" that sent me, hath Eternal life, and cometh not
" into judgment, but hath passed out of death into
"life."

Here was Jesus' first open announcement (for all

Sermon III,

--)U,atKe«,sU,.Tn,cMc.s,,bh;™d,|,,j,,^.,.,

(.od's own Son.

Hcnccfoni, (al,l,„„gl, .,,e eon,m„„ people amy War
" " gladly), ,l.ere U beUvcc, Hi„, .„d ,|,e L

.n..e„ce-l ,a, ,-.,ce, Herodia,., Sadd„cee., .I.e scnbos,

'1'Kl llic doctors— open war.

;,' '"""^ '"'^"^ -"'■■^"■y; H.» B.p.i.„ ,,,'d Hi

Kr„,.lal,„„ were the solcmiMueliminanes
TNc ,„i„i.,t,y ll,e„ l.egan will, (,) u,e calling of ,l,e

ve cl.. .pies ,„ ,„e neighbourhood ofliethabar.; „,,,,.
He was baptized. '

(-') A return to, and brief stay in (iaiilee

(3) A visit to Jerusalem, when the cleansing of
tlie I emple took place. ^

(4) A seeond return to Galilee, throng,, Sarnari..,
■".d Ht. glad reeeptton by the people there;

(5) Followed by a second visit to lerus.len, „

a.-d '.the feast Of the Jews" (whichevi:
w.nc tins proclanration of His Messiahship and H
God-head took place.

,e,r '""'"' "™" '° '"^ """'"•"^'^ ^°-">-« over a

Out- Saviour's Public Li/c.

The beginning was now made. His name, and His
claim, were in all nioulhs ihiough ihc length and breadth
of the land. And He returned once more to Galilee,
there to begin the sec(Hid period of His ministry,
deepening His instructions, and developing His plans
for the Redemption of man.

Of this, the Galileean Ministry, I shall have some-
thing to say on Friday next.

Sermon IV.
She a^Uai^tru m (!5aUIcf.

,i!

Mark i. 14.
" Ko-w alter thai Jclu, 7vas fut in prison, Jesus came into
" Galilee freaclii,!^' the dispel of the Kingdom of God; and
" soy in ^, 'J he time is fulfilled, and the Kin^niom oj Cod is at
" hand. Aefcnt ye avd hauve the Gospel."

St. Mattiikw, f >■, ik, and St. Luke, all begin their
accounts of the ministry of Jesus with the imprison-
ment of Jolin the IJaptist. And they proceed to relate
the occurrences of his ministry in Galilee, of which
the text is a summary statement.

It is from the recollections of St. John the Evan-
gelist, set down in his old age, that we know what
took place in the interval between the Temptation
and the imprisonment of John the Baptist; when that
happened Jesus went to Galilee, and then began to
give out that the time was come— the Kingdom at
hand. It was an announcement that would meet
there with a ready response; the people there were
despised indeed by those who lived in Jerusalem and

lli

Sermon IV.

us neighbourhood for tiieir provincial rudeness, but
none were more ardent in their patriotism. Inha-
bitnig a country full of inaccessible retreats, they
were not so easily coe. :ed as were their brethren in the
.uore accessible districts; and they were always re.dy
to rise in rebellion against their op])ressors.

They were of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali
and from fust to last, - from those whose valour
cL^.med its praise in Deborah's trimaiph song, to
those who went out with Judas in the days of the
taxing-" Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that
"jeoparded their lives to death in the high places of
" the field."

Amongst them, the ferment of expectation, hi which
the Jews now generally expected the coming of the
Kingdom, and the King, was at its height.

And when Jesus came amongst them, announcing
that the Kingdom was come, and that He was the
King, they were ready to rally round Him, and to
rise in 1 1 is defence.

His way was not theirs, but that they had yet to
learn.

The Ministry in Galilee.

in the village of Nazareth, indeed, where He had

lived so long, His reception was far from favourable.

The prophet had no honour in His own country.

Here it was that He went first of all ; on the Sabbath

He stood up, as he Jiad aforetime been accustomed, to

read the Scripture lesson o*" the day in the Synagogue.

The lesson v/as the 6ist Chapter of Isaiah : the

great prophecy of the Messiah, beginning " the S])irit

" of the Lord is upon me." " And Ho closed the

'• Book, and gave it again to the minister, and sat

"down," assuned the attitude, that is, of one about

to teach and expound.

" And the eyes of all them that were in the Syna-
'* gogue were listened upon Him," " and He began
" to say unto them, this day is this Scripture fulfilled
" in your ears." They reject Him. " Is not this
Josei)h's Son?!" He intimates to them that God
has others lO be saved besides the chosen people ;
that, already, before them were preferred the Sidonian
widow, and the Syrian leper. Then they arose in
fury, and would have murdered Him; but Me passed
through their midst, and went His way; "and came

Sermon IV.

"clown to Cai.criKium, a city <,f Galilee, and taught them
on the Sabbath days."

Capernaum is n.,w but a heap of ruins. The only
recognizable building being the Synagogue: as we
have every reason t„ believe, the same in which the
Saviour taught, the same tiiat was built by that good
Centurion (as attested by the Roman fashion of its
form, indicated by the bases of the columns, which
mark the nave, and four aisles), that good Centurion
who loved the nation, and shewed his love by the
lavish magnif.cence of this privately executed public
work, as the custom of his people was. Capernaum
stood at the head of the Sea of Galilee-or Lake of
Genezaret-ihis lake described by those who know it
as the gem of (ialilee-a gem, a jewel, not shewing
always with the sapphire's constant blue, but reflecting
rather (in the beautiful setting of its encircling hills—
those nearest of a sombre violet, the furthest off a
pale blue) the oj.al's ever changing hues. At mid-day,
the sky, sharply ciif, off and framed by these hills,'
glistens with a silvery whiteness, and the lake lies
beneath like another silver sheet. Later on, in the

I'hc Aliiiistry in Galilee.

hushed stiUness of nightfall, the lake puts on its
ojjalescent tints, as on its waters the rejections of the
surrounding hills apjjear in broad bands of violet shot
with green, passing, as the light fades, into a violet
grey. As the stars come out, the light breeze just
moves the foliage on the margin : the ripple breaks
on the pebbles, in whose prattle the lake seems to
wake, and to talk.

Twenty towns and villages in our Lord's time were
washed by its waters. 'JVenty towns. The whole of
Galilee^ we must remember, dreary and poverty-stricken
as it now appears, was renov.-ned in those days for
the fertility of its soil, and the riches of its people.

Pre-eminently this was the land suggestive to the
Hebrew poets of those images, and predictions of
plenty, and prosperity— when " the little hills shall
" rejoice on every side, the folds shall be full of sheep,
" the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn that
" they shall laugh and sing."

The roads connecting the great commercial towns
on the Mediterranean sea with Damascus, and the
far east passed through it. Hither Jesus came, when

Scnnoii IV.

e,..N,scd by .„e people of N..,reli,. And t„i, „as
Won H,., ,,o,„c-.„ ,, „,, H. ,„„ , „„,„;

C'i--U,epo„uofdep.nua.foMi.„c,,,-,,io,,,J
i>0 l».n. .0 ,v„icl, Ho ro.,„„ed f,.„,„ u,e,„. ,„ „
-ve„ „,o,uhs He traversed U,e whole co,„n,,, ,^
«. -,d U.chi,„, .„d do,-,,, good. ,,,e .,„ ,! e' ^
'"■ "^'"'^'^'^ "---"f "...CI., .nd tl,e „„dc..|> „«

''"'"'"". '^ ^'"'- -^"d 'here was, coo, ...e .« ^
--«..ra.,o,, of ,he K,„,,do,„. ,,e ,k. „. o 1
K."Sdon, He declared i„ ,|,e parables, wl.iel, ,o„ „
""J ... tl,e ,3U, Chapter of S.. Ma,tl,ew. I, „,„ „
'" '' «"-^' ^°^'^''^-^ --^'e. organized Body. uZ

-.00a. ..en,:ri::;:t-::--

were la,d dow„ the great principles of the Kingdon,
a. d tts sptritual character was proclaimed. Jes'
o..iy ahenated the nrnltitude, by His refusa of ,
H.S ve,y d.sc.ples, by the i„tima,ion-all incredible

The Ministry ift Galilee.

to their preconception— that He, the Messiah, must
die at the hands of His enemies. The choosing of
the twelve Apostles was the actual inauguration of
the Kingdom — the i)eginn!ng of the organization of
Christ's Church on earth.

Aheady we have seen, immediately after His Temp-
tation, He called, on the banks of the lower Jordan,
Peter, and \ndrew, and John, and Philip, and Nathan-
iel ; these, it would seem, we re with Him from that
time, more or less. But still they were not continu-
ously attached to His person. They went back to
their own homes, and followed their usual occupa-
tions.

On his first arrival at Capernaum, when He made
that the centre of His work, Jesus called them (or
some of them) again, to be in c lose attendance upon
Him, to give up their calling as fishermen, in order
to be made fishers of men.

And then, by and by, " He goclh up into a Moun-
" tain, and calleth whom He would, and they came
" imto Him."

" And He ordained twelve, that they should be

Sermon IV.

" ^vith Him, and that He might send them forth to
" preach."

'That they might be with him: note that. The
tram.ng of the Apostles for their work was one ^reat
feature of onr Lord's (lahlean Ministry ; and U.eir
trammg was -to be with Him;" it consisted, I>e-
sides their qualification to be witnesses of the facts
of His hYe; it consisted in the educative inlluence
of association with His person. Hints, and pregnant
■sayings, and sometimes explanations and instructions
He gave them, no doubt. But it was not so murj
by direct instruction as by incidental influence
observation, and reflection, that they were to be'
educated. Self-abnegation was His work, and theirs
And It is not enough to preach this, men must be
"Hired into it ; it is best inculcated by example, and
nislilled by the tone of the company a man keeps

As the twelve saw their Master's life, as in their
degree, they shared His life; as they listened to His
parables, and mused upon His deep sayings the
seed thoughts took root : slowly, but surely,' they
began to germinate. And when the Holy Ghost was

The Ministry in Galilee,

foith to

Tilt

given, who brought all things whatsoever Jesus had
said to them to their ri^mcnibrance, the slowly open-
ing seeds fructified; and they were guided into all
the truth.

That was the training of the Apostles ; but, besides
this, their education, by living in the influence of the
Master's presence, hearing His words, and seeing
His work, seeing His life; besides this, He gave them
some training by practical experience.

" And He called unto Him the twelve, and began
" to send them forth by two and two, and gave
" them power over unclean spirits. And commanded
" them that they should take nothing for their jour-
" ney, save a staff only— no scrip, no bread, no
"■ money in their purse," etc., etc.

The training of the Apostles was a great part of
the Master's Galilean work; but it was not all.
Jesus purposed also to disseminate the principles and
ideas of the Kingdom, and His claim to be the King
—the Messiah— widely through the country. He pro-
posed to cast His bread upon the waters, that after
many days the crop might ripen. He proposed to
evangelise the people ; and they '* heard Him gladly."

Sermon IV.

Even the spies, wI,o were sent by the Seribes and
riiarisces to find matter for obstructing Him, were
carried away by the popular entliusiasm, and relumed
to their employers, saying:

"Never man spake like this man," the spies of
the Scribes and Pharisees! The opposition between
Jesus and the Pharisees, Chief Priests and the rest,
though it had .lot reached its height, was always in a
state of more or less active fermentation; and here in
Galilee it broke openly out. As miracle after mira-
cle displayed His Divine power, and, as the enthu-
siastic multitudes hailed Him for their Deliverer,
they dogged Him, and defamed Him, ascribing His
power to Beelzebub. And on His again once^nore
assertni..' His authority over the Sabbath, and thereby
claiming an authority nothing less than Divine,
"the Pharisees went forth and straightway took
" counsel with the Herodians against Him-how they
" might destroy Him." The purpose of His enemies
was now fixed-they would destroy Him. But still
the multitude was with Him; they would, in their
eagerness, and Ainatic violence take Him by force

The Ministry in Galilee.

6 1

„i

to make Ilini tlicir Kiny. I'm lliis was tt) fnislialc
tl)c' divinely purposed plan of man's redemption.

In the Synagogue at Capernaum lie dispelled
tjieir illusion ; He shewed them tli i the i ."iigdom
He came to establish was a spirui..! Kir' dom —
that He is the bread of life — that the;; vha cat that
bread shall live for ever — that union with Hiu), and
through Him with the Fathei- — that that was the
Salvation He came to l)ring; you may see it all
recorded ir. the 6ih cha[)ter of St. John's G(jspel.

And " upon this, many of His disciples went back
and walked no more with Him," and the j^eople,
they too, fell from Him. Soon we hear the sad
outpourings of His disa])poiiitment — "woe unto thee
"Chorazin — woe unto thee JJethsaida!" -'for if the
"mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon
"which were done in you, they would have repented
"long ago in sackcloth and ashes."

"And thou Capernaum 1 say it shall be more

"tolerable for the land of Sodom mi the day of judg-
" ment, than for thee."

The enthusiasm of the Galilean people was after

Sermon IV.

all but the blazing up of their natural excital,ih-lv,
and proverbial fanaticism, and when that cooled
under the shock of their perception that Jesus in-
tended to be no such King as was painted on their
unaginations, th jy fell from Him.

But His work went on all the same. "At that
" season, Jesus answered and said : I Hunk thee, O
" Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that thou didst
"hide these things from the wise and understanding,
'I and didst reveal them unto babes; yea, F , her, for
"so it was well pleasing in thy sight."

And He continued His work, passing in rapid
and frequent journeys through ail the region, healing
the sick, and spreading far and wide the true idea
of the Kingdom of G ,d, and the true principles of
Christian life !

And then came another step in the enlightenment
of the selected few : " Fro,„ that time began Jesus
"to shew unto His disciples how th; t He mus- go
"unto Jerusalem, and suffer many tinngs of the elders
"and chi.f priests, and scribes, and he killed, and
" the third day be raised up."

The Ministry in Galilee.

They were shocked, even they could not realize
this. Peter undertook to remonstrate with Him, but
Ills presumption met with sharp reproof.

" He turned, and said unto Peter, get thee behind
" me, Satan ; thou mindest not the things of God, but
" the things of men."

Then He went on to warn His disciples that
through self-denial lies the only road to Heaven.

" If any man would come after me let him deny
" himself— take up his cross"— let him accept willingly
obloquy, shame, and pain (the greatest man can
inflict upon man). " Let him take up his cross, and
" follow me."

The clouds, portentous of the coming storm, begin
to gather, but on their edge the silver lining gleams.
Once the gatherinj^' glooms of the final conflict part,
and reveal tor a moment the brightness of the light
beyond.

" After six days, Jesus takcth with Him Peter, and
" James, and John his brother, and bringeth them uj)
" into a high mountain apart ; and He was transfigured
" before them ; and His face did shine as the sun,

T (■

Sermon IV.

" and Mis garments became white as light." '< And
''behold, there a|.i)eared unto them, Moses and
" Ehjah talking with Him ! "

All the significance of this wondrous event, our
profoundest meditations will not exhaust. But some-
thiiig of its meaning we seem to see. ^I'he Son of
(iod was now entering into -he bitterness of His
humiliation as the Son of man, and these chosen three
(for they were not to tell these things to others as yet,
at least) were to be fortified in their faith for what was
coming ■ they were to be made to see the God in
Jesus Christ ever breaking through the sufferings and
humiliations of the man. And from what Peter said
long after, we know that their (aith was fortified. In
after times they could look back upon what they then
saw, and know that their Gospel was no delusion,
that they had not followed - cunningly devised fables.''
What there was of comfort an<l strength in the
Transfiguration for the man Christ Jesus Himself, it
would be presumptuous foi us to pronounce, only this
we know: (,) That such support He more than once
accepted ; (2) That after Hi.s Temptation " An-a-ls

The Ministry iu Galilee.

^'5

"came and ministered unto Him;" (3) And, that in
His agony in the garden, there "appeared . '.to Him
" an angel from heaven strengthening Him." At His
Baptism, the solemn inauguration of His ministry,
the heavens were opened, and a voice was heard,'
saying : - This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased ! "

And now, as he is about to enter u])on the sadder,
sorer times of bitter opposition, revenge, insult, and
the humiliation of a degrading punishment, the voice
of the Father is again heard through the clear
heavens, and the same words are spoken: <' This
*' is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

After this, Jesus returned to Capernaum for a short
time, and then left it for ever, and went to Jerusalem
to attend the Feast of Tabernacles. Henceforth, Judaea
is the scene of His ministry. There the last grc a
struggles of the battle between truth and falsehood,
malignity and goodness, took place, and the con-
sideration of this I shall take up on Friday next.

'I I

Sermon V.

Luke ix. 51.

" /I lid if came to />ns^, when the time was come that He should
be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jcrnsaiemr

In Galilee Jesus had shewn the sketch, laid down the
plan, collected and instructed the Master workmen,
for the erection of His Church: that Chuich, which,
according to St. Paul, is " God's building," a holy
tenii)le, into which all devout Christian people are
builded together for a habitation of God through the
Spirit.

He now goes to Jerusalem, there to lay the corner-
stone.

Six months, now, and all will be accomplished ! 1

In the meantime He goes on His way baffling His

enemies, and sustaining, in the fulness of His human

feeling, all the distress of the cunning misrepresentation,

and malignant persecution to which He was subject;

as well as looking on to the steadily approacliing day

of His cruel subjection,— cruel subjection by His relent

I| i

Sermon V.

le^js persecutors, meek submission on flis own i-art to
the indignities of a public execution of the most de/,.^rad-
ing kind— looking forward continually to the steadily
approaching time when, having first been made the
sport and amusemc:!' of mocking slaves, with His crown
of thorns and i)urplc robe, and reed for a sceptre, and
their mock obeisance it: ('^-ision of His kingly claims,
their ?nock obeisaiice j.assing quickly into petulant
insolence and brutality as they smote Him with the
palms of their hands and spat upon Him, He should,
as a condemneu criminal, be lashed with the scourge of
ilK? executioner, and sliould then suffer the cruel tortures
of an ignominious death: exposed, a, object of public
shame and scorn, amid the flouts and jeers of His ene-
mies, and in the desertion of all but the one disciple,
whom he loved, the mother who stood by His cross of
•^hame and pain, and one or two other women, who
clung to Him to the last. The life He now led, and tiie
anticipation of its terrible, certain, and fast approaching
enu, could not but throw a sadder and more sombre
cast over the last six months spent by tlie Son of
God as a man among men.

The Ministry in Jerusalcin.

His work in Galilee, where He was at one time so
h.gh in popular favour, had broken down, as it seemed
in failure. Even His brethren did not believe in Him'
Go, they seem to say, if you are indeed the Mes-
siah you claim to be. Go to Jerusalem and assert
your clamvs there, where there are men of learning
and the men of authority to judge of them ; what does
all this commotion among the ignorant and excitable
peasants of Galilee amount to? And even that has
come to nothing ! !

Yes, He will go. But He will take His own time
He proposes to attend the Feast of Tabernacles for
there and then His conflict with Priests, and Scribes
and Pharisees, is to be renewed, the issue more clearly
defined, and the strain of the struggle increased.

But more than once, we shall find, He has, durin-
the last six months, to withdraw from the stress of the
storm He raises, and to retire, lest the rage of His
adversaries should bring about a premature issue.

The Paschal lamb must be sacrificed at the Passover
Feast; and not till then. He went up to Jerusalem,
not openly, but, as it were, secretly.

i' f

Sermon V.

W^ieii ihc companies and caravans passing, as usual,
in their vast numbers to the great Fair and Festival at
Jerusalem had disappeared, then Jesus, with His own
special following, also set out. He took the road that
passes through Samaria. We know how enthusiasti-
cally He was, on a former occasion, received by the
Samaritans; but now "they did not receive Him,
'because His face was as though He would go to
"Jerusalem."

Even here, too, the first flush of the Gospel fades
into the light of common day.

And the jealousies engendered by diversity of race
and religion blind men's eyes so that they cannot, will
not, see the truth.

It would seem that, in the purposes of Providence,
the good seed was to be sown all through the land,
but that it was to take root nowhere till after many
days.

The seed was to be sown all through the land.

Over much of iIk country our Lord had Himself
passed, and sown the seed with His own lips.
Elsewhere He sent the twelve to carry the good news.

t
I
t
c

The Ministry in Jernsakm.

And now tliat, repulsed from Samaria, He was
P^'s.'^-ng to Jerasalem (by the road, probably, that
ran along the Valley of the Jordan to Jericho), He
sends ont other seventy upon a similar errand.

'''Jie incidents, and conversations of the journey
ye told by St Luke, the last being the repose at
the house of Mary, and Martha in Bethany.
^^ He was now near to Jerusalem. And here St. John
" takes up the wondrous tale."

^^ ; Now, about the midst of the Feast, Jesus went up
into the Temple and taught."
At once the collision came.

" How knoweth this man letters," said the Jews,
" havnig never learned ? "

You must note, in reading St. John's Gospel, that
when bespeaks of '' the Jews," he generally means'
the residents of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, who
took their tone, and opinion from the Scribes and
Pharisees, far more than d.d those who came up to
the feasts from the country parts, and from foreign
countries, which latter class composed the "multi-
tude," and the "people" St. John speaks of in

i^-^

Sermon V.

conliadistiiiclion to "the Jews." "How." c;.;^ i,^
Jews, "how knoweth this man letters, not having
learned ? "

They knew that there was no school in Galilee

such as there w.iv, in Jerusalem, where those learned

in the Law .uid its traditional exposition gave their

instructions to those in their turn aspiring to teach.

" How knovveth this man letters, having never learned? "

And thereupon Jesus announced to them that His

knowledge was not learned in the schools of men.

" My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me."

The people were perplexed.

They understood the declaration, and they heard in
it Jesus' assertion that He was the Messiah.

And yet, the rulers to whom they looked for guid
ance, to whose authority tl^ey suIjuMtted, lade no
move.

" Do the rulers know, indeed," they said, " that this

"is the very Christ? "

" And many of the people believed on Him."
And then, when they found that tiie i^-oplc were

going over to flim, then the rulers and lea; b tirred

themselves, and sent officers to take Him.

;«'^ ''C

liaviiig

Galilee
learned
c their
teach,
•ned?"
at His
I.
t me."

ird ill

guid
le no

t this

were
tirred

The Ministry in Jerusalem.

Ih.s attempt failed. The very n.cn who were sent to
arrest Hnn were so awed by His words, and His pre
sence, that they wore unable to execute their office.
^ Jhey returned, saying, « Never man spoke like this

But malice is always obdurate. "Then answered

^^ them the Pharisees : Are ye also deceived ? " '* Have

^^ any of the rulers, or the Pharisees, believed on Him ? "

But th.s people ,.ho knoweth not the law are

'cursed.

And wl... Nicodemus interposed some calm counsels
of justice, and fairness, ll,ey turned upon l,in, with
sneers, and ...roaches. B,,, „oU,ing was done.
Kvery man went , , his own house."
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. On the morrow
He returned to the Temple, and again more emphati.
cally and explicitly declared His divinity

He knew that they were endeavouring ,o compass
H.S death; and He told them so. And before He
parted from the,„, he declared Himself to be God's
ever-existing Son, in those men,orable words ■
" Before Abraham was 1 am I "

Sermon V.

f i

The words could have for them but one incanino_

thai He Himself was God; and they took up stones,
to stone Him as a blasphemer !

But this was to precipitate the day of His doom,
which was not yet come; and in the tumult of their
wild fanatic fury He hid Hmiself, and went " out of the
Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by." He seems, from what St Luke says in his T3th
chapter, to have gone into Herod's jurisdiction— pass-
ing probably over the Jordan into the district which
belonged to Herod. There the seventy returned to Him,
and reported with delight the success of their mission.

For some time He remained— healing, and teaching,
and confounding the Pharisees, as usual.

And at the Feast of Dedication He again returned
to Jerusalem, some two months after His appearance
there during the Feast of Tabernacles.

And here, as He walked in Solomon's Porch, came
the reiterated assertion of His Eternal God-head—
the plain, clear, statement, which has been from that
time to this the backbone of Christian Doctrine, and
the stumbling block of all those who would explain
the supernatural out of the New Testament.

The Mi)tistry in Jerusalem.

"TIic Jews came round about Him, and said unio
Him: How long wilt thou make us to doubt? Jf hoii
be the Christ, tell us plainly."

And His answer to that question is closed uj) in
the great, transcendent, truth of the Christian religion :
" I and my Father are one ! "

Again, the infuriated fanatics took up stones to stone
Him !

Again, He retired beyond the Jordan ; and tliere He
remained, evangelizing, as of old, until He returned
to Bethany for the resurrection of Lazarus.

When the Pharisees heard of this they roused them-
selves afresh to put Him out of the way.

"Then gathered the Chief Priests, and Pharisees, a
Council."

That was an ominous conjunction of religious fana-
tics and worldly politicians, all desirous, for different
reasons, to put Jesus to death.

The Chief Priests were Sadducees at this time

wordly men, who wanted above all things the quiet
enjoyment of i)lace and power ; and they were sup-
ported by the Pharisees, because, little as the Pharisees
liked them, they were doing the Pharisees' work.

Sennon V.

" What do we," tliey said, " for this man doeth many
miracles. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe
on Him, and the Romans shall come and take away
both our place and nation."

Caiaphas, the High Priest, bluntly and brutally cut
the matter short.

" Ye know nothing at all," he said, " nor consider
that it is expedient for us that one man should die for
the people, and that the whole nation perish not."

There is no question about justice, you see. Justice,
or no justice ! what is the death of one man, if it averts
a storm likely to burst upon us all? ! That is what
the speech of Caiaphas comes to.

Recalling the matter, in his old age, St. John sees, in
this course, the accomplishment of God's Providence.
Lut there can be no doubt that this accomplishment
was undesigned on the High Priest's part.

It was the counsel, and the course, of a selfish and
ruthless expediency, that made nothing of killing a man
for its own convenience.

" From that day tliey took counsel together for to
put Him to death."

The Minis try in Jcrusalcui.

"Jesus, therefore, walked no more openly among tlie
Jews, but went thence into a country near to the wilder-
ness, into a City called P^.phraim. And there continued
with His disciples."

Ephraim appears to have been a City on the borders
of Judea and Samaria. As the Passover approached,
Jesus quitted Ei)hraim to go to Jerusalem.

But He did not go directly thither; He made a
circuitous tour through the midst of Samaria and
Galilee. Nothing is told us of the places at which
Jesus stopped, only we know that He came round to
Jerusalem by Jericho, and Bethany.

Much, however, is told us of what He did, and said,
by the way.

There was the healing of the ten lepers ;

Thj parable of the importunate widow ;

The stoiy of the Pharisee and Publican,

Of Zacheas, etc., etc.

And there was another solemn announcement to tlie
twelve of His coming death, and resurrection, which,
even yet, they could not understand.

"Then He took imto Him the twelve, and saiJ unto

Sermon V.

them: Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all thinos
tl'at a,e written by the prophets concerning the Son of
man shall be accomplished; for He shall be delivered
unto the Gentiles, and shall be n.ocked, and spite-
inlly entreated, and spitted on, and they shall scourge
H.m,and put Him to death, and the third day He
shall rise again."

"And they understood none of these things" \\\
th.sand more you will f.nd in the ,7th chapter of St
Luke.

Passing through Jericho, where He healed blind men
both at His entrance, and departure, He stopped at
Bethany.

Bethany was a quiet village, lying on the slopes of
Mount Olivet-about two miles from Jerusalem. And
tl^-'^t was our Lord's usual resting place, whilst He was
uttenamg the feasts at Jerusalem.

His habit was. it appears, to go ir the morning to the
lemple,and return in the evening to Bethany, where
hved Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus, "whom He
loved." \Vith them, you remember, He lodged ,at

tune, when Martha cumbered herself with much s- .

The Ministry in Jerusahm.

things
Son of
livered

spite-
courge
y He

' All
of St.

men,
ed at

es of
And

• was

3 the
here
He
at

and Mary sat at His feet ; and now again tliere was
a social entertainment at wliich the characteristics of
the sisters again shewed themselves.

Tlie Supper was not in their own house, but in that
of "Snnon the Leper," Lazarus was a guest, Martha
was one of those who served, and Mary " took a pound
of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the
feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with iier hair ; and the
house was filled with the odour of the ointment,"

And when one murmured at the expense, Jesus said :
" Let her alone, against the day of my burying hath
she kept this."

What is the meaning of that ?

The Apostles, we know, could not understand our
Lord's plain assurances, that He was about to die ; the
thought of it, such was the obstinacy of their preposses-
sion, could find no lodgment in their minds.

Was Mary's tenderer spirit blessed with a truer in"
sight? Did she alone of all the disciples foresee the
sadness of the End ? We know not ; anyhow, her spirit,
finely touched, was responsive to the Master's mood.

And the Man of sorrows, reposing, before the week of

Sermon V.

yny, of betrayal, and humil.auo,,, and suffering, i„ ,|,e
affc..,o„ of .1,0.0 whom be.. He loved, received wi.h
k.ndly apprecia.ion .he s.riking, and striking because
>.n-a . and, as i. sec.ns costly, cxpressio,, of
grateful and always tender sy„,patl,y.

J here forte present we leave Hin,-in the quiet of
Let any w,.„ Martha, and Mary, and La.aru' whon,

He-oved o„.hen,orrowca™ethebegi„„i„g'„r,,,
;"d. And of .hat I shall have sonre.hing .„ say o„
rriday next. ^

Sermon VI.
(The (i^ntl.

John xii. 12.

" Cn the next day, much people that 7uere come to the feast
" when they heard that Jes.s r.as coming to Jerusalem, took
^^ branches of palm trees, and went jWth to meet IJim, and
^^ cried, //osanna, Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh
**ia the name of the Lord."

St. Luke xxi. 37.

''And in the daytime He was teaching in the Temple; and at
" night He went out, and abode in the mount that is called the
''mount of Olives.^'

That is a very compendious description of the way
in which our Lord spent the last week of His life
upon earth. But the time was crowded with events,
and enriched with revelations.

"On the next day," that is on the first day of the
week, our Sunday (for the Supper at the house of
Simon in Bethany was on the Sabbath), "on the next
day," Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jeru-

Sermon VI.

•salem. Tiiosc who came out to meet Him, with their
palms, and their shouts, were the pilgrims, who had
come ui^ from tlie couiury parts to keep the feast,
and who had i)een talking among themselves about'
Him, and wondering whether He would be there.

The t^rly enthusiasm had surged up again ; and it
passed, a loud resounding, but quickly subsiding, wave
over the inconstant spirits of the fickle crowd. All too
soon their glad Hnsannas will cease; and from the
same throats will come the fierce fanatic yell for His
blood. "Crucify Him," "Crucify Him," would soon be
their cry.

It was the old story over again; they would make of
Him a King after their own imaginations; and, in the
rage of their disappointment, they were worked upon,
by the persistently malignant contrivers of Jesus' death,'
to extort from the pusillanimity of the reluctant Pilate
tiie crucifixion of one whom, in his heart, he believed
to be innocent !

In the meantime, Jesus accepts the ovation ; He enters
Jerusalem as the King fore-announced by the prophets'
U'ord. Lowly, indeed, and riding uj)on an ass, and

The End.

a colt, the foai of an ass, but still as tlie King, the Mes-
siah, come to take possession of His Kingdom. There
was no longer need to slum the popular acclamation ;
mistaken in their conception of His royalty, thougii
the people were; and sure as their commotion was
to precipitate the arrest, and execution of the man
lifted, by all this excitement, into a notoriety that
must drive His enemies to desperation.

His hour was come; He Himself knew the hollow
ness, and the shallowness, of this brief recurrence
of i)opuIarity; and His soul was sad. As the pro-
cession reached tiie crest of the Mount of Olives,
Jerusalem rose in sight before Him.

"And, when He was come near, He beheld the
" City, and wept over it."

This was the day on which, according to the Law,
the Paschal Lamb was to be selected; and Jesus
designated, and consecrated Himself the very Paschal
Lamb, chosen to be the spiritual food of His people,
by presenting Himself, on this day, in the Temple.

" And they came to Jerusalem ; and Jesus entered
"into the Temple."

Sermon VI.

\ \

, !

It!

"And when He had looked around upon all things,
" and now the eventide was come, He went out to
" Bethany with the twelve."

On the morrow, the Monday, His indignation is
again roused, as we saw it was in the beginning of His
ministry, by the profixnation of the Temple ; again He
" went into the Temple of God, and cast out all them
" that soil and bought in the Temi)le, and overthrew the
" tables of the money changers, and the seats of
" them that sold Doves, and said unto them : It is
" written, my House shall be called a house of Prayer,
" but ye have made it a den of thieves."

The enthusiasm of yesterday's triumphal entry still
continued; and, in the very courts of the Temple,
the children were crying out, *' Hosanna to the Son
of David." This was more than the Chief Priests
and Scribes could endure ; they were indignant, but,
by Jesus' answer, they were silenced. And He went
out to Bethany.

On the morrow— that was on the Tuesday— when
he returned to the Temple, they plucked up their
courage, and demanded by what authority He did

The End.

«5

these tilings. Again they were silenced by His asking
what they thought of the authority of John the Jjaptist.
At all points they assail Him ; and at all points
they are foiled.

He brands their faithlessness to the Trust com-
mitted to them by God under the old covenant, in
the i)arable of the Vineyard, where tlie husbandmen
beat, and killed, the servants who were sent to them,
one after another, and, lastly, slew the son.

In their exasperation they try to entrap Him with
the tribute money ; if He should commend the pay-
ing of tribute to the Romans, they hoped that would
alienate the people ; if He should advise the refusal
of the tribute, that would bring down upon Him the
prompt vengeance of the conquering people ; but again
they are disconcerted by His referring to their own
practice, and their submission to the autliorities ac-
tually in possession. Then the Sadducees, after their
mocking manner, make their attempt, with the story
of seven brothers who successively married the same
woman; and they, too. are shewn their uLter ignorance
of the things concerning which they undertook to
question Him.

Sermon VI.

One, indeed, of the Scril)es, who drew out from
Him His condensation of all molality, and all reli-
gion, into the twofold application of the one great
Law of Love, the loving of God with all our hlart,
and all our soul, and all our strength, and the
loving of our neighbour as ourselves; elicited (by
his intuition into, and hearty acceptance of, the
great, far-reaching truth) from Jesus the approving
comment: ''Thou art not far from the Kingdoui l{
" God." Uut in the bulk of the class the acrimony
of their hostility was . ■ i. -hourly—increasing; and
the final rupture qu!.;.i • ; , me.

In the 23rd chapter -r St. Matthew, you read Jesus'
stern denunciation of woe after woe upon those hypo-
crites, play actors, a term seven times repeated with
increasing emphasis, not to say vehemence, hypocrites !
—fools! He calls them, blind .'-serpents !— vipers !
And at this time it was that He said to his disciples:

" The hour is come that the Son of Man should be
" glorified— now is my soul troubled; and what shall
" I say— Father save me from this hour.

"But for this cause came 1 unto this hour. Father

The End,

drew out from
lily, and all reli-
of the one great
ith all onr heart,
trength, and the
''es; elicited (by
ceptance of, the
us the approving
the Kingdom of
ass the acrimony
-increasing ; and

v^, you read Jesus'
upon those hypo-
les repeated with
ence, hypocrites !
;rpents ! — vipers !
o his disciples :
f Man should be
; and what shall
ir.
:his hour, Father

" glorify 'I'hy name !" Then came there a voice from
lieaven saying "I have both glorified it, and will
" glorify it again."

The same voice that heralded Hi^ entrance upon the
work at His Baptism, the same voice that jjroclaimed
afresh His Divine Sonship at His Transfiguration, as
He was going into the last, and saddest, part of His
course, now sustains Him, or rather sustains His
followers, for the coming events which will make their
faith to tremble. By and by, He foretells the coming
destruction of Jerusalem, and final overthrow of the old
services of the Temple, and passes on from that to
si)eak of the end of the world, and of the day of Judg-
ment !

As He passed out from the Temple on that Tuesday
evening, and sat down contemplating Jerusalem from
the Mount of Olives, His work was to human eyes a
failure. Instructions, mirac'es, warnings, self-sacrificing
goodness, all had been tried, and all in vain ; at one
time, indeed, and another, the multitude had hailed

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Sef^non VI.

th(

acclamation was
not faith, but only froth.

A itv^, poor, unlettered men, and a few women, still
clung to Him, and believed in Him. That was all

The Wednesday of the great week was now come
that was the day of the Betrayal.

" Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went
'' unto the Chief Priests, and said: What will ye give
" me, and I will deliver Him to you. And they
" covenanted with Him for thirty pieces of silver

"And from that time He sought opportunitv to
" betray Him."

On the morrow, on the Thursday, Jesus sends two
of His disciples to prepare for the Last Supper.

''And, when even was come, He sat down with
** the twelve."

The incidents of that solemn feast I need not relate-
you remember them all : the announcement that the'
traitor was one of themselves, and their consternation
thereat: the designatioa of Judas : his withdrawal • the
institution of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
and the rest. '

The End'

There is, indeed, one thing about this last which
ought to be, but is not always, reflected upon ; and
that is, the unhesitating, uninquiring acceptance with
which the twelve received the astounding declaration :
" This is my Body ! " " This is my Blood ! "

How was it that this assertion caused no surprise
among them ? Turn to the 6th chapter of St. John, and
you will see. It had been explained long before ; that
is the solution. When first uttered, the saying caused
astonishment enough ; it had been explained ; the neces-
sity of the spiritual feeding upon the Body and Blood of
Christ had been shewn then.

The thing to be done was not new to them; the
manner of its doing was what was now made known.
This is that eating of my flesh, and drinking of my
blood, of which I then spoke; this is the way in
which you are to carry into act the spiritual feeding
upon me of which I then spoke.

Then you remember, too, the great lesson in humi-
lity and mutual service among brethren, which Jesus
inculcated, by girding Himself with a towel, like a
servant, or slave, and washing His disciples' feet.

Sermon VI

And then there are those last words of confidential
communication between the Master and the disciples
He was so soon to leave; the reiterated injunction to
love one another; the deeper insight He gave them into
tlnngs divine, when He told them, in answer to Philip's
question, that He is the revelation of God to man
^^ '' Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast
thou not known me, Philip. He that hath seen me
^|hath seen the Father." ''Believe me, that I am in
the Father; and the Father in me ;" when he told
them of the many mansions in His Father's House •
when He said, not I shew you the way, I shew you the
yuth, I shew you the Life, but '' I am the way, and
Uie Truth, and the Life ; " when He told them of the
Comforter whom He would send from the Father
And when they had sung an hymn, the customary'
close of the Paschal Supper,-when they had sung
an hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives

Jesus, with His disciples, was now on the way to
the garden of His agony; and on the way He
taught them, and prepared them, and consoled them
still. He told them of their intimate, vital, union with

The End.

Him, the True Vine ; He told them again of the Com-
forter, and what He would be to them, and in them,
and for them ; He told them that in the world they
should have tribulation, but "be of good cheer."
He added: "I have overcome the world." And He
prayed the great prayer, for them and for all the
Church, in all times :

"That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art
" in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one

" in us."

Then they come to Gethsemane; and He said: '' My
" sou' is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Tarry
" ye here, and watch with me ! "

And we, too, should watch. With reverential awe,
it becomes us to look upon the agony of Him who
"was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for
" our iniquities."

Into the depths of that suffering we cannot pene-
trate ; but we know that He suffered all that could
come upon a man in the like case ; He was '- touched
" with a feeling of our infirmities."

He had all the shrinking from the pain, and the

Sermo7i VI

sa„,e of the horrible death, now so dose upon H™
wh,ch was .he nMura, consequence of His hh,gvr;
-". AndHehad„.o..ha„.ha.;.honghI,ess
He bo,e the sorrows of sin, for ■• on Hi™ was laid
he nnqnny of ns all... His hear, was ,orn ; b„t
His w,II was true. His submission perfect

" If U he possible let this cup pass from me," was
>.e cry of H,s human feehng;" nevertheless, not™
"wm but Thine be done,., was the God.man.s:esp„„r
■^..ch was the intensity of His emotion that He sweu
great drops of blood.

Then came the betravi) n.^,j .1
. , , ""rayal, and the arrest. He wis

carri-d first to the hoirse of Annas .hp h,^ ■ ,

ii,„ t,; , „ . innas, the father-m-law of

;;:t^the";:r"°'™^ ''-''-'■ ----■'-

This was informal, and only ,0 shew the old man I

M.|.pose, that their machinations were successful

I ben they proceeded to the house of Caiaphas,

'","'.«" ^™^' '»'""--- held, in the night the
|.relm,,nary examination which custom reqt.ired This

-ptndeed, but a mockery of Mice ;the report o

the examiners was predetermined; it was, that He was
worthy of death. ^

The End.

but

Early in the morning the Council was convened •
the Good Frid.y now had come ; there His death waJ
decreed.

At once He was carried to the castle, where, during
the tumultuous times of the great Festivals, the Roman
Governor was always in residence.

Cut here arose the difficulty. The Council had
decreed the death of Jesus for blasphemy, under the
Jewish Law; now, none but the Roman authorities
could mflict capital punishment ; and Pilate was not
w.ilMig to degrade the majesty of Roman Law by
lendmg its sanction to carry out what he considered
the dictates of local superstition.

Then the enemies of Jesus played upon Pilate's
fears ; they shifted the grounds of their accusation,
and charged Jesus with treason.

"If thou let this man go, thou art not Caisar's
"friend."

And before the danger of that insinuation-a very
real danger when Tiberius was Emperor,-before the
danger of that insinuation, Pilate's courage gave way •
and, with a feeble protest, he delivered Jesus 'to

Sermofi VI.

be cruciaed by R„™.„ soldiers, .her the Roman
fashion.

"Then delivered he Him, therefore, to be crucified."
" And they took Jesus and led him away."
^^ "And He, bearing His cross, went forth to a place
called the place of a skull " (which is called, in the
Hebrew, Golgotha), where they crucified Him, and
two others with Him, on either side one, and Jesus
"in the midst."

The End was come.
^^ ''Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother,
and H.s Mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas
."and Mary Magdalene.

^ " When Jesus, therefore, saw His mother, and disc'-
' pie standing by .vhom He loved, He said unto his
mother: Woman, behold thy son!"
" Then saith He to the disciple : Behold thy Mother
and from that time that disciple took her to his own
'home."

These only stood l,y Him in ,he long lingering
hours of His torture.
I" his great prayer for the Church He had said

7 he End.

" I have finished tlie work which 'I'hou gavcst me
to do ! "

And now, again, witli His last breath, He repeats
the pregnant word:

" He said, it is finished ; Jind He bowed His head
*' and gave up the ghost."