THE
BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL.
BY
LE ROY J. HALSEY, D. D.
AUTHOR OF "LIFE PICTURES FROM THE BIBLE,"
"LITERARY ATTRACTIONS," ETC.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
No, 821 CHESTNUT STREET.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
JAMES DUNLAP, TREAS.
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania.
S1TEREOTYPED BY WILLIAM W. HARDING, PHILADELPHIA.




PREFACE.
THE great saving truths of the gospel ought to be
none the less attractive because they are old and familiar.
They are indeed only the more precious because so many
human hearts through all ages have believed them, and
drawn consolation from them in life and in death.  The
story of the cross can never lose its interest or its power
in a world of sin and death; and increasing millions every
day bear witness to the truth of the prediction-" I, if I be
lifted up, will draw all men unto myself."
The present volume is but one among the thousand
attempts which have been made, and to the end of time,
will continue to be made, to unfold the beauties of Immanuel, and to show fbrth that attractive power by which
he draws a dying world to himself. No mortal pen is
adequate to such a task. And yet it is permitted, even
to the humblest, to approach, to behold, to admire, and
then to tell, at least something of his glory. It is in the
person and character of Immanuel, that we find the very
essence of our faith. He is himself faith's great and allsatisfying object. We tell the story of salvation just as
we tell of Jesus-the facts of his life, death, sufferings,
(3)




4                    PREFACE.
instructions, resurrection, and ascension to glory. We
hope for life and glory beyond the grave only in proportion as our faith can rest on him.
With such convictions the writer has approached this
matchless theme, and has studied to unfold it, not in the
lights of speculation and fancy, but only in that clear and
sacred light which shines from the inspired pages. He
would seek to commend to every dying fellow man, the
personal character of the Redeemer, as infinitely the most
lovely and attractive object that was ever revealed to the
contemplation of the human mind. But while commending it thus as containing our only possible hope of salvation, he has sought to present it in no other way than as it
has been revealed to us by those who "beheld his glory,
the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth."




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
TlE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST...........................
CHAPTER II.
HIS BIRTH AND EARLY HISTORY..........................................  14
CHAPTER III.
HIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY................................       2 
CHAPTER IV.
HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.....................................................   35
CHAPTER V.
HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.............................................   49
CHAPTER VI.
HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.............................6....................   67
CHAPTER VII.
THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY....................................  82
CHAPTER VIII.
HIIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH................................................ 100
CHAPTER IX.
HIS RESUJRRECTION AND ASCENSION................................. 117
l-,                                                      (5)




6                         CONTENTS.
CHAPTER X.
r&GE
HIS MEDIATORIAL OFFICES AND WORK...........................  138
CHAPTER XI.
HIs SECOND AND GLORIOUS APPEARING................................ 147
CHAPTER XII.
THIE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL..................................... 157
CHAPTER XIII.
RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION..........................   195




THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.'"HIS NAME SIIALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL"
CHAPTER I.
THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST.
FROM all the characters portrayed in the Bible
or exemplified in human history, it is a sublime ascent to that of Jesus Christ. In a former volume*
it has been our aim to trace the streams of holy influence, so grand and beautiful, as they flowed forth
over all the ancient world, in the lives of heroes and
sages, kings and statesmen, prophets and apostles.
We must now rise to the fountain head.  We have
been gazing on the stars of the greater and the lesser
magnitudes, as for four thousand years they rose and
set in the mighty firmament; we must now behold the
bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, as he
rises to set no more, in the clear and perfect day of
a finished apocalypse. All that was lovely and of
good report in these diversified characters of four
thousand years, was but a preparation of the mind
* "Life Pictures from the Bible."
(7)




8         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
of man for the unfolding of that one perfect character, to which they all in a manner pointed, and
from which they had in fact by anticipation borrowed all their brightness. For it is not more certain that human hearts began to be inspired with
elevating hopes by that first promise in Eden of a
Saviour to come, than it is that human character
began to be moulded to forms of greatness and
beauty by the conception, dim and shadowy as it
may have been at first, of God manifest in the
flesh. So that we must regard the character of Immanuel, not only as sending down its influences
over the eighteen centuries that have followed, but
as throwing back its rays to the very gates of the
primeval paradise, and giving a brighter glow to
every saintly and heroic character that adorned
the patriarchal and prophetic ages.
They all rejoiced to see his day, though afar off:
and they were enabled to shine as lights in a dark
world, because they were themselves illuminated by
faith in a God incarnate-even that glorious living
Redeemer of whom Job spoke, who should stand in
the latter day upon the earth.
Regarded simply in a literary and historical point
of view, the character of Jesus of Nazareth is the
wonder and the study of all ages. Regarded only
in that light, it would be the greatest enigma that
ever appeared in the annals of man. Taking his
life and actions as recorded in the New Testament.
and looking upon him merely as we would any other




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST.   9
historical personage, aside from any claim to a supernatural mission and a Divine nature; we
have both a career and a character, to which there
is nothing in the past history of our race that affords the slightest parallel, and for which nothing
in any of the known elements of human nature
offers the slightest solution. It is not only unique
and original: it is infinitely the most unique and
original thing that has ever been seen on earth. It
is such an originality, as the forty centuries which
went before, though constantly foretelling it,
never produced; and the eighteen that have followed, have never found a duplicate. In the progress of nearly six thousand years, it has appeared
but once; and with all man's improvement and
vaunted approaches to perfection, there is not the
slightest probability that it will ever appear again,
until He shall appear according to his promise. It
is not more certain, that there is one God only over
universal nature, than it is, that there is but one
Jesus Christ in all history. Simply as a man, he
stands at an infinite distance from every other man
of our race: even as the Bible says, "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners."
It is said that the great masters of painting and
statuary, in embodying their highest conception of
perfection in the "human form divine," do not take
the idea from any one living man, but from a thousand different subjects-combining the beauty and
the strength and all the manly virtues of each, into one




10        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
symmetrical and glorious form. But the character
of Jesus Christ was not the result of any such combination as this.  It is most true that it was gradually unfolded in all the prophecies, through a period
of four thousand years, brighter and brighter
glimpses of it being caught from age to age, and
even impersonated in those great characters which
typified his own; but then it was not unfolded by
man working upon man, and adding the excellences of a Cicero to those of a Socrates, or even the
higher virtues of a Moses to those of a Paul, but
by God himself revealing a pattern of moral beauty
from the skies, and thus giving the world assurance
of a style of humanity, which had otherwise never
been known to man. For certain it is, that the
great masters of this world's wisdom, who through
sixty centuries have been working upon man outside
of the Bible, and independently as they think of
its aid, have never, by any blending of the virtues
of the great, or otherwise, produced even in fiction,
such a character as the Christ of the old Testament
prophets, and the Christ of the New Testament
history.
But it is not merely in a literary and historical
point of view, that we now propose to contemplate
his wonderful character.  It is in the full light of
all the Scriptures, both of the Old Testament and
the New, that we must estimate his character. We
are not at liberty to ignore any part of the work
and revelation of God.  If we admit the Christ of




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST. 11
history at all, we must admit the whole Christ of
revelation. The moment we behold the veritable
living man Christ Jesus, we are bound to recognize
and adore all that belonged to him and marked him
as something more than a man. His whole character-his whole august and mysterious nature, human
and divine-stands before us as distinctly in the Bib]le, as any living personage was ever revealed to
the eyes or the conceptions of men. It is Jesus Immanuel who is the burden of all the Scriptures.  It is
not one like Abraham, or Moses, or David, or
Daniel, or John the Baptist: but one, the latchet
of whose shoes they were not worthy to unloose:
not a helpless sinner of our race like the greatest
of these, but one who is the Saviour of every sinner of the race who will trust in him: one, dwelling indeed in human form, like unto his brethren
the sons of men, but in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. If it is the child of
Bethlehem, the son of Joseph, the man of Nazareth, the sufferer of Calvary, who is called Jesus;
let us not forget that it is the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the
Prince of peace, who is called Jesus. And we can
no more set aside one class of the facts than we
can the other. If we take the human and reject
the Divine, or take the Divine and reject the human, we do it at our peril; for in either case we reject the testimony of God concerning his Son, and
the only offer of God for our salvation.




12        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
Now it is remarkable, that the proofs of the humanity and the Divinity of Jesus Christ are not
only alike full and explicit in the Scriptures, but
they are everywhere mingled together in exact proportions, and stated in precisely similar terms. If
there is any point which is made plain, and guarded
against the ingenuity and sophisms of unbelief, it
would seem to be this. How do we know that
Jesus of Nazareth was a man? By his being called
a man, and exercising all the functions, attributes,
and works of man.  He is called the man of sorrows, the son of man, the child born-born of the
virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, and buried.  He eats, drinks, walks,
sleeps, feels, thinks, suffers, and dies as a man; and
therefore he is a man. And how do we know he is
God? Precisely in the same way. He is called
God, wears all the titles of God-the Mighty God
-does all the works of God-assumes all the attributes of God-receives from men and angels in
earth and heaven, the very worship of God. He
is conceived of the Holy Ghost, announced at his
birth as the Saviour of the world, attested from
heaven as the Son of God, condemned to death for
making himself God; raised from the dead, justified by the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up
into glory as God manifest in the flesh. He speaks,
acts, lives, reigns, and triumphs over all as God; and
therefore he is God.




LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST. 13
Following the method hitherto pursued in all our
illustrations of Bible characters, which is to let
them speak and act for themselves as near as we
can in the very terms of the sacred oracles, let us
now address ourselves to this last and highest task
-which is to set forth a brief but comprehensive
outline of the life and the adorable character of
Immanuel. And may the Spirit of all truth fill our
hearts and minds with some measure of that conception of it which inspired the undertaking of the
beloved disciple when he said, " The word was made
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth."
2




14        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL,
CHAPTER IT.
HIS BIRTH AND EARLY HISTORY.
WEE need not stop to recite here the wonderful
story of Bethlehem, which is so familiar to every
child. Perhaps nothing in all the Bible is so universally known. The shepherds watching their flocks
by night, the angel from heaven declaring his birth
that day, the multitude of the heavenly host praising God in the highest, the star pointing out his
birth-place, the wise men from the East seeking to
find him, the babe lying in the manger at Bethlehem, the gold, frankincense, and myrrh offered to
him, the cruel edict of King Herod, the warnings
from God to the wise men and to Joseph, the presentation of the child to the Lord in the temple at
Jerusalem, the timely flight into Egypt, and the
safe return to Nazareth-all this we have heard
from our lisping infancy. But though it has been
told ten thousand thousand times, it shall never lose
its graphic power and beauty as a narrative, nor its
interest as the opening chapter in the scheme of
God's salvation. It stands just where it ought to
stand on the introductory pages of the New Testament. It is the pure and crystal fountain, spark



HIS BIRTHI AND EARLY HISI ORY.      15
ling with the waters of immortal life for man, out
of which the life of the Son of God on earth is to
flow, and to which all nations shall come to drink.
Since the creation of Adam no human life had ever
had so wonderful a beginning. And now at the
distance of eighteen centuries and a half, there is
to us as deep an interest in it, as to those who first re.
ceived the glad tidings, " Unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord,"
Ind heard the song of an innumerable host above,
"Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and
food will to men."
It was the fulfilment of those deep prophecies of
Isaiah, which for eight centuries hitherto had found
no adequate solution. " Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son
is given; and the government shall be upon his
shoulder." It was the beginning of the fulfilment
of that still more ancient oracle which had come
down from the garden of Eden.  "The seed of the
woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Loud and
fierce has been the outcry which modern infidelity
has raised against this simple and unvarnished
narrative of our Lord's conception and nativity, in
the opening pages of the New Testament.  But we
submit that such a conception and nativity as this
is precisely the thing which the ancient prophecies
called for, and without which those prophecies, not
only never have been, but never can be fulfilled.




16        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
And we submit again, that on the supposition that
those prophecies had a meaning in them and were
ever to be fulfilled at all, by one who was Immanuel,
God with us, God incarnate, God manifest in the
flesh, the account of our Saviour's birth in the New
Testament, as one made of a woman, "conceived
by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin Mary,"
is not only a true and exact fulfilment, but one
which commends itself to our reason as eminently
befitting all the conditions and possibilities of the
case. It is precisely what we should expect to
occur, and precisely the manner in which we should
say it ought to occur, if the prophecies of four
thousand years are ever to be verified in fact, and
the Deity is ever to be arrayed in mortal flesh.
Given the fact of an incarnation of the Divine nature, and then the fact, that the incarnate one is to
be a virgin-born child, and a real man with a true
body and a reasonable soul like ourselves; and
what other plan will our worldly wise philosophy
devise for its accomplishment more worthy of God's
infinite wisdom and man's belief, than the one recorded by Matthew and Luke?  "This is the Lord's
doing and it is marvellous in our eyes." But so far
from discrediting the New Testament as given of
God, it is a confirmation of it; because it corresponds to every conception of the Messiah as revealed in the Old Testament; and its very unlikeness to anything that man could have done, or
would have invented, is a voucher of its truth. A




HIS BIRTH AND EARLY HISTORY.        17
Divine religion, conscious of the truth of God, could
unfearingly go forth with that high and marvellous
mystery on its very forehead.  A false religion, as
our sensitive and shame-faced unbelief shows, would
have shrunk with scorn from inventing such a story,
supposing it to be a fiction, and still more from the
shame of telling it, supposing it to be a fact.  That
the Evangelists have told it, not only without fear
or shrinking, but with exultation and joy, and
that, upon the very face of their sacred books, and
in the eyes of a proud and incredulous world, is
itself a demonstration that it is not of men, but of
God.
It was in the reign of Caesar Augustus, the
Roman emperor, that this great event took place.
It was a time of peace over all the world-fit time
for the advent of him who was the Prince of Peace.
The temple of Janus at Rome, after the ceaseless
conflict of ages, was now closed, as indicative that
the world was at peace: and the temple at Jerusalem, spared by the haughty invader, was still open
for that morning and evening sacrifice, which had
so long foreshadowed the Lamb of God, that should
take away the sin of the world. The very fulness
of time had come-the prophecies all ripe for fulfilment, the Jewish nation looking for its deliverer.
the world at large full of expectation, and the preparation of four thousand years now completed
Thus at th I precise point of time, and at the proper
place, at Bethlehem of Judah, and of David's royal
2*




18        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
line, glorious still though in obscurity, and of a
virgin mother overshadowed by th- Holy Ghost,
and under outward circumstances of deepest humiliation combined with others of unearthly grandeur,
was Jesus the Messiah born. It is no marvel to us
that a child thus born should be a wonder and a
study to all who saw him and heard of him-that
his kinswoman Elizabeth and his virgin mother and
the no longer incredulous Zacharias, should be filled
with the Holy Ghost and utter songs of joy at his
birth, that the shepherds should go home glorifying
and praising God for all the things that they had
heard and seen, that sages from the farthest east
should come to worship and adore him, that the
guilty Herod should be conscious that the rightful
claimant of his throne was born, that the aged
Simeon and Anna waiting at the temple for the
consolation of Israel, as soon as they beheld him,
should rejoice, and say, "L Lrd, now lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace according to thy word, for
mine eyes have seen thy salvation," and that Joseph
and his mother should deeply ponder all these things
in their hearts. Had Abraham who rejoiced to see
his day, and the dying Jacob who told of his descent from Judah, and Isaiah who spake of his
glory, and Micah who marked his birth-place, and
Daniel who designated the time, been there, they
too, like Simeon and Anna, would have felt that it
was enough-this is the Son of the Highest, the




HIS BIRTH AND EARLY HISTORY.         1 
Prince of the house of David, the glory of Israel,
and a light to lighten the Gentiles.
From these scenes of his early infancy, until he
was twelve years old, the sacred record is almost
entirely silent. After his presentation in the temple, the flight into Egypt, and the return to Nazareth on the death of Herod, our only information
is that "the child grew and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon
him." But this is enough to show he was preparing
for his great life work. We know that his parents
neglected nothing within their power, for we are
told that they did all things according to the law,
and were accustomed to go up every year to Jerusalem to attend the passover.  After all that had
been communicated both by the angel and the
prophets of the Lord, and after all that she had
herself spoken by the Holy Ghost, his mother
would not faiil to use every means of instruction in
the sacred oracles, and to inculcate every lesson of
early piety, that this child should be trained for his
sublime mission as the Son of the Highest.
Accordingly the Evangelist Luke gives us one
striking and beautiful incident, occurring at the age
of twelve, to illustrate how during all this early
period he had, indeed, waxed strong in spirit, filled
with celestial wisdom and grace divine.
His parents, whom he had accompanied to Jerusalem were returning from the great annual feast
in the caravan of their kinsfolk and acquaintance.




20        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
Unknown to them Jesus had tarried behind. Missing him, but supposing that he was safe in the
company, (for, doubtless, all knew him and felt an
interest in so extraordinary a child,) they went a
day's journey, and then turned back in search of
him. It was not until after three days that they
found him. He was in the temple, sitting in the
midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking
them questions. And all that heard him were
astonished at his understanding and answers. Mary
and Joseph were amazed: and she said, "Son, why
hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and
I have sought thee sorrowing." And he said,
"How is it that ye sought me?  Wist ye not that
I must be about my Father's business?" They did
not fully comprehend his answer; but, as if to show
that it was in no spirit of disobedience to them, his
earthly parents, that he had acted thus, it is added,'" He went down with them, and came to Nazareth,
and was subject unto them. But his mother kept
all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased
in-wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and
man. "




HIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.    21
CHAPTER III.
HIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.
WHEN our Saviour had reached the age of thirty,
the time of life at which the Jewish priests were
accustomed to enter upon their public functions,
conscious that it became him to fulfil all righteousness under that dispensation in which he was born,
and that the hour was at hand for him to be made
manifest to Israel as the Messiah, and to enter
publicly upon the discharge of all the offices of that
great work for which he had come into the world,
he left Nazareth and came to John, the son of
Zacharias, in the wilderness of Judea, to be baptized of him. John, surrounded by the ten thousands of Israel, was on the banks of the Jordan,
whither he had gone to preach the baptism of repentance, and to fulfil his own high mission, as the
voice of one crying in the wilderness, and the messenger who should prepare the way of the Lord before him. Knowing that this was the immaculate
Son of the Highest, and that, as such, he could
have no need of that baptism of repentance which
he was sent to preach, John, at first refused to administer the ordinance to him. But being admoa.




22        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
ished that it was necessary in order to fulfil all the
requirements of the law, he suffered it to be so, and
thus publicly in the eyes of Israel, and in virtue of
his own prophetic and priestly office, administered
that solemn rite which marks the era of the Messiah's introduction into his public ministry, and to
which he himself was accustomed to appeal as the
very seal of authority, when the Jews disputed his
legal rights in the temple.
As a public inauguration of his ministry, nothing
could be more appropriate and imposing than this
baptism. A king in virtue of his being of David's
royal line, a prophet and a priest in virtue of his
being anointed by the Holy Ghost, and now publicly
designated by John, he had both the testimony of
earth and heaven, that he was the Messiah. John
saw and bare record that this is the Son of God;
crying to the thousands of Israel, "Behold the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world." And he had a far higher testimony than
John's, even that of the Father and the Holy
Ghost. That august attestation is recorded in the
following words: "Now when all the people were
baptized (a people thus prepared for the Lord), it
came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized and
praying, the heaven was opened unto him. And
the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a
dove, upon him, and a voice came from heaven
which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I
am well pleased."




HIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.   23
Thus attested and honoured by God and man,
thus endowed plentifully with all Divine and human
gifts, thus consecrated and anointed to the sublimest
mission ever known to man, thus publicly proclaimed
to Israel by his great forerunner, and thus, while
the dew of youth was fresh upon him, and all the
strength of opening manhood bounded in his veins,
did Jesus Immanuel begin his work.
His first great work was one of conflict.  Its
arena was in the unseen and spiritual world. He
had come to destroy the works of the Devil; to repair the evils which he had wrought, to atone for
the guilt which man through him had incurred. He
had undertaken for man-he had come to be God's
Advocate and man's Redeemer. And so the battle
began with the powers of the darkness of this
world-a struggle for the mastery between the incarnate Son of God, and him who, from the beginning, had been God's adversary and man's enemy.
Crowned with all the glories of his recent baptism,
strong in the confidence of God's favour, and full
of the Holy Ghost, our blessed Lord is led away by
the spirit that was upon him, not to the abodes of
men, but to the deep solitudes of the wilderness,
there to meet the enemy of our souls, there to be
tempted of the devil. And there, single-handed
and alone, amid fastings and hungerings which no
mortal flesh but his could have endured, for forty
days he wrestles with the prince of the power of
the air, the god of this world. We shall not stay




24        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
to depict the various changes of the solemn scene)
as it is detailed by the evangelists. Brief as the
sacred record is, and short as was its period of forty
days, it has furnished the ground work of Milton's
second great epic, Paradise Regained. And when
that conflict was ended, and from every assault of
the tempter, the Son of God had come off a conqueror, the gifted bard represents the great battle
as fought, the victory won, the tempter foiled, lost
Paradise restored, and "Eden raised in the waste
wilderness." But this is-certainly a great misconception of the work of Christ. The work was not
finished, nor the great conflict ended with the forty
days in the wilderness. It was but just begun, to
be renewed and perpetuated through his whole
earthly career. And so with deep significance, one
of the Evangelists tells us, that "when the devil
had ended all the temptations, he departed from him
for a season." And then angels came and ministered unto him.
But this first great conflict being past, the next
scene of his labours was among men. He had a
work of love to do among men, as well as a war to
wage with the devil. Hence we follow him from
the wilderness as he returns in the power of the
Spirit into Galilee; preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of diseases among
the people. Through all the cities, and in all the
synagogues of Galilee, the great burden of his
message is, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of




HIIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.   25
heaven is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel." When entreated by the people in one place
not to depart from them, he replies, "I must preach
the kingdom of God to other cities also; for therefore am I sent." And with such words of power
and wisdom, grace and truth, did he preach, that
the people were everywhere astonished at his doctrine, and followed him from city to city and even
into the deserts to attend upon his extraordinary
ministry. Among the important opening acts of
this public ministry, he called and ordained his
twelve disciples, that they might be with him to receive his instructions in all the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, and that he might send them
forth likewise to preach the gospel to the lost sheep
-of the house of Israel. It was also at an early
stage of this ministry, that he went back to Nazareth
where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath
day read in their synagogue that remarkable passage from Isaiah which was then accomplished in
himself, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to
the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord."  And, as he said unto them,
"This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears,
they all bare him witness, and wondered at the
gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth."
3




26        TTIE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
And yet, before he was done, with such pungent
power and zeal for God did he preach the truth to
these self-righteous sinners of Nazarcth, that, as if
prophetical of the manner in which an unbelieving
world would in all ages treat the messages and
ministers of God, they were filled with wrath, and
thrust him out of their city.
It is no part of our plan to follow him step by
step through his whole public ministry. This would
require volumes.  It was a ministry of incessant
labours, extending through more than three years,
from his baptism to the hour, when, hanging on the
cross, he said, "It is finished."  It was brief, as
compared with that of the great body of his ministers
in all ages of the church. But whether we consider
its sublime beginning or its still sublimer close,
whether we consider the mighty manifestations of
Divine power which attended it from first to last, or
the mighty results and influences which have flowed
from it through all subsequent ages, it stands alone,
unapproached and unapproachable in its solitary
grandeur. No public teacher, no preacher of righteousness, by any ministry long or short, ever made
such an impression on the mind of man.  By an
unfailing attendance upon all the great annual feasts
at Jerusalem, by incessant journeys through Galilee,
Samaria, Judea, and the region beyond the Jordan,
by public' and private discourses in season and out
of season wherever he went, the strong probability
is that, during these three years, the vast body of




IIIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.   27
his countrymen, as well as thousands from other nations, had listened to his matchless instructions.
" The people which sat in darkness saw a great light,
and to those who sat in the region and shadow of
death, light was sprung up."
We have one of his great public discourses recorded at length-the sermon on the Mount-delivered to his disciples and the countless multitudes
that had come from all the cities of Galilee, Judea,
and the region beyond Jordan-delivered not in any
building, for there was none in the land large
enough to hold the people, but in the open air, on
the broad terraces of a mountain. And this is perhaps given as an example of the matter, style, manner, and surroundings of his ordinary popular discourses.  Whether, therefore, we consider the deep
and thrilling interest of the doctrines which he
taught, or the words of grace and power with which
he spoke, or the mighty works with which he called
attention to his preaching, or the fact that both in
Galilee and at all the great festivals of Jerusalem,
he was always attended by an immense multitude,
numbering sometimes, even in remote desert places,
four and five thousand men, we must conclude that
there were few, if any, of his cotemporaries from
Dan to Beersheba, who had not heard, or had the
opportunity of hearing this great teacher.
Now, in this wonderful ministry, taken as a whole,
we notice three great attributes, everywhere prominent, which at once illustrate the character of our




28        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
blessed Master, and present him as a perfect model
for all who would preach the Gospel.
The first is his consuming and self-sacrificing
zeal for God.'"My meat is to do the will of him
that sent me, and to finish his work." "I must
work the works of him that sent me while it is day;
the night cometh when no man can work." From
the day in which the Spirit of the Lord was poured
upon him in double measure, anointing him to
preach the Gospel to the poor, to his expiring
breath on the cross, his life was one great act of
consecration to God in the work he had given
him to do. In this spirit his days were spent in
incessant toil, and at night when others slept, he
retired to the mountains or the deserts to pray.
When countless thousands were following him from
city to city all over Galilee, and depriving him, not
only of rest, but of opportunities for necessary food,
Mark tells us, that his friends went out to lay hold
upon him, thinking that he was beside him. But
what were friends and kindred to him, who could
say, "' Let the dead bury their dead, but come thou
and follow me?" " I have a baptism to be baptized
with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" " The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
ransom for many." " Whosoever shall do the will
of God, the same is my brother and sister and mother." In this spirit he could appropriate the prophecy as true of his whole ministry: "The zeal




HIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.   29
of thy house hath eaten me up." And thus he said
at the last, "Father, I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do."
The second great characteristic displayed through
all his ministry was his intense and yearning love
for his fellow-men. He beheld the multitudes and
had compassion on them, for they were as sheep
without a shepherd. But he was himself the good
Shepherd.  He was sent to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. His great life-work, as it regarded
man, was to go about doing good —to labour for
others, to suffer for others, to bear our griefs, and
to carry our sorrows. In all our afflictions he was
afflicted. The foxes had holes, and the birds of the
air had nests, but the Son of man had not where to
lay his head. His only home was with the friendless, his bed at night with the sons of the poor, his
daily work to save the perishing. Thus he who was
Lord of all, rich in all the treasures of the universe,
and thought it no robbery to be equal with God,
emptied himself of his glory, became poor for our
sakes, condescended to men of low estate, and with
a depth of compassion that -had hitherto been unknown to men or angels, carried the offers of immortal life and glory in his own person to the
wretched abodes of publicans and sinners. There
is no trait of his character, no theme in all the
Scriptures, on which his inspired apostles love more
3*




30        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
to dwell, than this fulness of all Divine and human
love in the bosom of Jesus.  " The love of Christ
constraineth us." It was in his life, as he healed
the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils, preached
the gospel to the poor, and answered the prayer of
the dying sinner, even on the cross, that they beheld the highest manifestation of the Divine chardcter, and learned the lesson-God is love.
While holding daily communion with God, such
as the world knew not of, he was, at the same time,
in intense sympathy with suffering man; his soul
was all alive to human want and woe in every shape
and form. He was touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. He looked upon us in our lost estate
with all the yearning tenderness of a brother's
heart.  He never sent the poor sorrowing suppliant
empty away.  Through his whole public ministry
he was never too engaged to turn away from the cry
for mercy. Through life, and in death itself, he
had a heart to feel for sinners, and a hand that was
ready to bring salvation. Even on the cross he
could speak words of comfort to his heart-broken
mother, open the gates of paradise to the dying
thief, and for his murderers pray, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." At the
grave of Lazarus he wept with the weeping sisters,
and over Jerusalem —loved and lost Jerusalemchosen city of his God and Father-city of David
and all the prophets, which, even for their sakes, he
would have died to save-over Jerusalem, when her




HIS BAPTISM  AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.    31
day was passed, he stood and cried ir. all the bitterness of yearning love-" 0 Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather
her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!"
What a spectacle of love and pity was that!
"The Son of God in tears
Angels with wonder see.
Be thou astonished, 0 my soul,
He shed those tears for thee!
He wept that we might weep,
Each sin demands a tear;
In heaven alone no sin is found,
And there's no weeping there."
The third signal characteristic of his ministry,
was the calm, unfearing, and unfaltering purpose,
with which, from the opening to the close, he pursued his great work of devotion to God and good
will to men. His life, in all its plans, purposes, and
results, was a perfect, symmetrical, and consistent
whole. He did all that he came to do-suffered all
that he came to suffer. Though he saw the end
from the beginning, and knew the cup of suffering
which he must drink, he yet went steadily on
without vacillation or shadow of turning. It is
wonderful to notice how many opportunities to
change his purpose pressed upon his pathway, and
how many agencies, both of friends and foes, com



32        THE BEAUTY OF I-IMMANUEL.
bined their power to divert him  from his course.
The temptations of the devil, the opposition of the
wicked, the worldly expectations of his countrymen,
the carnal hopes of his disciples, the readiness of
the people to crown him as their king, the legions
of angels that would have come at his call-these
and a thousand other things conspired to any other
result rather than that which occurred-a life of
poverty and toil, and a death of agony. But
through them all, and in despite of them all, he
pressed his solitary way to the death of the cross.
And, though he had often predicted it to his disciples, yet there was not a living being in the world
who seemed capable of understanding the grand
purpose that filled his own soul.  There is something august and imposing in this position of
solitary grandeur in which he stood even while
thronged by living men. The evangelists are careful to tell us more than once, that his disciples understood not his sayings at the time. And then
again behold him  in his onward and unfaltering
course. Though surrounded by enemies, and by
dangers, thickening and growing more formidable
at every step, he calmly faces them all, and walks
unmoved amid the assaults of earth and hell, as one
who feels immortal till his work be done. When
warned by the Pharisees to flee from Galilee, because the blood-stained Herod would seek to kill
him, his reply was, "Go ye and tell that fox, Behold I cast out devils and I do cures to-day and to



HIS BAPTISM AND PUBLIC MINISTRY.    33
morrow; and the third day I shall be perfected.
Nevertheless, I must walk to-day and to-morrow
and the day (that is year) following; for it cannot
be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." When
at last, assaulted by all his foes and deserted by all
his followers, he stood calm, silent, and alone before
the judgment-seat of imperial Rome, and when the
haughty Pilate, insolent with power, thought to
overawe and intimidate him  with  the words"Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not
that I have power to crucify thee, and have power
to release thee?" his only answer was an inculcation of the doctrine of God's providence and man's
impotence, " Thou couldst have no power at all
against me, except it were given thee from above;
therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the
greater sin."
These three great attributes, supreme love to
God, good will to man, and heroic courage in the
path of duty, so seldom combined in the character
of men, and yet so essential to the development
of the highest virtue, shone forth in the person of
Immanuel in all their fulness and glory.  On a
lower scale, and so far as that which is human may
imitate the Divine, the very same attributes adorned
the character of the Apostle Paul, and by their
combination made him the greatest of all the apostles. And so in all ages of the church, those who
have been called to be partakers in the labours and




34        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
trials of that ministry which he so gloriously illustrated, have excelled in power and abounded in
usefulness, just in proportion as they have trodden
in the footsteps and imitated all the imitable perfections of the Great Master.




HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.           85
CHAPTER IV.
HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.
ONE of the most striking things attending the
ministry of our blessed Lord, from its opening to
its close, was the constant display of Divine power,
by which even to the eyes of a gainsaying and unbelieving world he vindicated his claims as the Son
of God and the Messiah of Israel. These displays
were so numerous and so stupendous, that it seems
never to have occurred to any one of his cotemporaries, whether Roman, Greek, or Jew, however incredulous or inimical, to evade their force by denying their reality.  That was a device reserved for
the ingenious sophistry of a latex age. All that
the eye and ear witnesses of his own times ever attempted to do, was to set aside the conclusions
drawn from them touching his Divine mission, by
ascribing them to some other agency than that of
God. But in our day, such are the tactics of unbelief, that it is easier to deny their historical verity
altogether, than to trust them into the hands of an
inexorable logic, whose demands are infinitely
better satisfied with the solution of the agency
of God than with any other so.ation whatsoever.




36        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
King  Iterod, when he heard of these things,
accounted for them  by saying, "It is John the
Baptist, who is risen from the dead; therefore
mighty works do show forth themselves in him."
The Pharisees who beheld them, said: "This man
casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the
devils."  The Roman centurion, who had gone
through all the wonders of the cross and the sepulchre, could draw no other conclusion, than that this
was "truly the Son of God." Nicodemus, a master
in Israel, had arrived at the same conclusion long
before: "No man can do these miracles that thou
doest except God be with him." But modern rationalism, too proud to follow the superstitious credulity either of Herod or the Pharisees, and too
undevout to confess with Nicodemus and the centurion, that this is the finger of God, seeks relief
from argument and an easy solution of all the facts,
by denying that the facts ever existed. The solution is short enough, and it might ere long, perhaps,
find admirers, were it not that the facts have been
reported on evidence which can never be set'aside
without overthrowing the truth of all history.
It is not our province here to enter upon the discussion of this evidence. Nor is it needful. It is
enough to say, that the facts of the gospel history, both
its ordinary and its extraordinary facts, are established on the testimony of witnesses as numerous and
as competent as any in the annals of human history.
The gospel history is a record of innumerable facts,




HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.             37
great and small, occurring in the ordinary course
of human affairs, which no mortal ever thought of
questioning, though we know them on the authority
of that record alone.  It is, at the same time, a
record of many extraordinary or supernatural facts,
including all the mighty miracles of our Saviour's
life, which no mortal would have ever thought of
questioning any more than the others, except for
their being out of the ordinary course of human
events.  But it is to be observed, that our knowledge and belief of the two classes of facts rest
precisely on the same ground-which, indeed, is the
ground of all history-the testimon.y of competent
witnesses. For the mighty miracles of Christ and
all the supernatural events of the New Testament,
we have as many infallible proofs and as many competent witnesses, as we have for all its ordinary
events, great and small; because the witnesses and
the proofs are precisely the same for both.  The
historians who tell us Jesus lived and died, are the
same who tell us that he rose from the dead and
ascended to heaven. On what ground then are they
to be believed in the one case and discredited in the
other?  Nay, more, the world is compelled to
credit their testimony on all these ordinary historical
facts, because there are other witnesses outside of
the Bible who avouch the same, and the keenest
criticism of eighteen centuries has never yet convicted them of falsehood on any known historical
event. On what ground then does infidelity set




38        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
aside their testimony, on certain great facts lying
outside of the domain of secular history, when on a
thousand things lying within the domain of that
history, infidelity is compelled to admit that they
have always reported the truth, and never once
spoken falsely?  For the man who credits the
general voice of history, and credits even the historians of the new Testament on a thousand minor
points, and then deliberately rejects all the great
points on which they give their most solemn and
emphatic testimony, the only fitting answer is that
of the Master himself on another occasion: "Out
of thine own mouth will I condemn thee, thou
wicked servant."
But, as touching the credibility of the miracles of
Christ, it should certainly go far to vindicate their
claims, even at the bar of the most sceptical philosophy, to consider the person by whom and the
object for which they were wrought. All the parts
of the gospel history have an intrinsic fitness and
harmony with each other; and its facts are no more
to be judged of singly and disjunctively, than are
the facts of Astronomy or any other science to be
judged of out of their connections and harmonious
adaptations.  Now let this principle be applied
to the miracles of Christ.  And who will denysupposing it to be possible for God to display his
mighty power on earth, and probable that he would
ever do it-that the incarnation of the Son of God
swas an occasion worthy of the exercise of that




HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.           39
miraculous power. By whom ought signs and wonders and mighty works to be done, if not by God
manifest in the flesh? And for what ends ought
they to be wrought, if not that he, with all the
overflowing bounty of a God, might pour salvation
upon the perishing, and vindicate to men and angels
his amazing mission of love and mercy in this guilty
world? Once admit the fact of the presence of the
incarnate Son of God on earth, and you have an
occasion, an object, and an agent, worthy of all
these displays of Divine power. Once conceive of
Jesus of Nazareth as being all that he claimed to
be, and all the prophets said, and so far from its
being an incredible thing that he should raise the
dead or do anything else which God can do, the
more he displays these mighty powers, the more
easily can we believe in him. In this state of things
-in the presence of Immanuel-God with us-we
ascend at once into a higher and purer realm of
being, where miracle is the recognized law, and the
ordinary course of things would be anomalous and
abnormal. When God works, it is easier for man to
believe with miracles than without them.
Familiarized to displays of Divine power, as the
Jewish mind had been by the whole past history of
the nation, it was still filled with astonishment and
awe at the miracles of Christ. The amazement
arose not from the fact that such works should be
done; for, on that score, a Jew had nothing to
doubt; but that one who belonged to the common




40         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
people, a man without profession or learning, an
humble Galilean, whom many had known from his
childhood, should do such works. Wherever he
went the people marvelled, saying, "It was never
so seen in Israel." When he came into his own
country, they were still more astonished, saying,
"Whence hath this mian this wisdom and these
mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren
James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And
his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then
hath this man all these things?" Though this was
the language of unbelief, it still shows how deep
was the feeling of wonder in the public mind
touching these mighty works. The wonder was
natural enough, at least at the first. For, on the
one hand, here was everything in the outward condition, history, and circumstances of the young
Nazarene forbidding the thought that he could be
the great Prophet of Israel whose coming had been
foretold from the first; and, on the other, here were
all, and more than all, the mighty works that any
prophet had ever wrought by the power of God.
The most usual designation of these miracles in
the gospel history is that of signs, wonders, and
mighty works. The fundamental idea of the Greek
word, translated miracle, is that of power, strength,
force. Where, for example, Christ is called the
"power of God," it is the same word which in the
New Testament is so often rernlcered miracle. These




HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.             41
mighty works of Christ, therefore, while they are
called wonders, as referring to their effects upon the
minds of men, and signs, as referring to the object
for which they were wrought, are, strictly and properly, as referring to their inherent nature and
origin, powers, because they display the direct, irnmediate, and almighty power of God.
Nothing is clearer from the sacred narrative, than
the great moral purpose with which all the miracles
of Christ were performed.  They all, from the first
of them, the turning of water into wine in Cana
of Galilee, down to the last of them, the restoration of the ear of Malchus by a touch on the night
of his betrayal, had a distinct public character, and
the same great end in view. As such, they all belonged to his public ministry, and formed an essential part of it. They were not wrought, any of
them, for his own personal convenience, or the accommodation of his disciples. But from the first
to the last, they were all intended, even including
those in which he fed the hungry multitudes, relieved the maladies of the sick, and raised the dead,
to manifest to Israel the presence and glory of their
Messiah —to convince his disciples and the world,
that he was himself the anointed Christ of God
even in this state of deepest humiliation. And as
to the number and the glory of these displays of
Divine power, during his three years' ministry, it is
manifest, that just enough were given to answer the
purpose and no more. On the one hand he was not
4*




42        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
sparing of his miracles, when they were needed;
on the other, he was not prodigal of them where
they were not. At some places they were so abundant, that the sick were conveyed to him from the
housetops, and there went forth healing virtue from
the very hem of his garment. At others, we are
told, that he could do no mighty work there because
of their unbelief. It is easy to see, that one who
possessed the power which Jesus did, could have
wielded that power indefinitely. He who could raise
the dead, in three different instances, at intervals
probably of a year-first of a maiden just deadthen of a young man borne on his bier to the tomb
-and then of one dead four days and buried, could
have opened every grave in Palestine and filled the
world with proofs of his Godhead. But how then
should the Scriptures have been fulfilled, and the
work of man's redemption accomplished? It is
easy to see, that while his miracles could not well
have been less numerous and glorious than they
were, in consistency with the vindication of his character and mission as the Son of God; at the same
time they could not well have been more so, in consistency with that estate of humiliation and suffering, for which he came into the world. And thus
on certain occasions of the brighter manifestations
of his Divinity, we find him charging his disciples
not to make them known till he should be risen
from the dead. More miracles and brighter visions
of his glory, would have overshadowed his humanity




HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.            43
altogether, and defeated the great end of his incarnation and humiliation. But the great end for which
all his miracles were wrought was to convince men,
as by the manifest testimony of God himself, that
this was his Son, the Saviour of the world, though
for a season veiled in mortal flesh. Thus John says
of his opening miracle-" This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested
forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him."
" This beginning of miracles," says Trench, "' is
as truly an introduction to all other miracles which
Christ did, as the parable of the Sower is an introduction to all other parables which he spoke. No other
miracle would have had so much in it of prophecy,
would have served as so fit an inauguration to the
whole future work of the Son of God. For that
work might be characterized throughout as an ennobling of the common, and a transmuting of the
mean-a turning of the water of earth into the
wine of heaven." It is a little remarkable that the
whole number of reported and minutely recorded
miracles in the life of Jesus should so nearly correspond with the number of his parables. The parables, as enumerated by Trench, are thirty; while
the miracles, including the one at the sea of Tiberias after his resurrection, are thirty-three.  These
are, in both cases, such only as the Evangelists have
singled out from a countless multitude and recorded
at length, as examples of all the rest. For they
tell us that Jesus healed all manner of sicknesses




44        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
and diseases among the people, and did many other
signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
recorded by them, and could not be without filling
the world with books.
This abundant manifestation of miraculous powers
was looked upon by the people, as one of the infallible proofs of Messiahship. On a certain occasion,
when the question was raised, whether Jesus were
the Christ, we find some asking, as if to put the
matter beyond all doubt, "When Christ cometh,
will he do more miracles than those which this man
hath done?"  This is an incidental indication of
the multitude of his mighty works. But there are
many  similar indications.   For example, Luke
mentions the case of a poor sick woman, who was
healed by merely touching the border of his garmerit; and Mark gives us the following record
-" And whithersoever he entered into any villages
or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets,
and besought him that they might touch, if it were
but the border of his garment; and as many as
touched him were made whole." What an amazing
manifestation of his fulness of Divine power was
this, that the sick who thronged his pathway had
but to touch his clothing in faith, in order to receive
that healing virtue which went out of him! Who
can imagine any higher credentials of the presence
of the incarnate Deity than such trophies of his
healing power? And once admit that he exercised
such power, and who does not see how natural are




HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.            45
all the recorded facts of the myriads upon myriads
who left every thing to follow him, not only from
city to city, but across the sea and into the barren
deserts?
His prominent, and so to speak, representative
miracles, are the following: The water made wine,
the healing of the nobleman's son, the first miraculous draught of fishes, the stilling of the tempest,
the demoniacs in the country of the Gadarenes, the
raising of Jairus' daughter, the woman with an
issue of blood, the opening of the eyes of two blind
in the house, the healing of the paralytic, the cleansing of the leper, the healing of the centurion's servant, the demoniac in the synagogue of Capernaum,
the healing of Simon's wife's mother, the raising of
the widow's son, the healing of the impotent man
at Bethesda, the miraculous feeding of five thousand, the walking on the sea, the opening of the
eyes of one born.blind, the restoring of a man with
a withered hand, the woman with the spirit of infirmity, the healing of a man with a dropsy, the
cleansing of the ten lepers, the healing of the
daughter of the Syrophenician woman, the healing
of one deaf and dumb, the miraculous feeding of
four thousand, the opening of the eyes of one blind
at Bethsaida, the healing of the lunatic child, the
money in the fish's mouth, the raising of Lazarus,
the opening of the eyes of two blind men near Jericho, the withering of the fruitless fig tree, the




46        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
healing of Malchus's ear, and the second miraculous
draught of fishes.
In this long list it is striking to notice, first, the
vast variety of subjects on which our Lord exerted
his almighty power. They were such as to show
his absolute mastery over the whole realm of nature,
animate and inanimate, physical and spiritual.
Not only the elements of matter, but the spirits of
living men and the powers of the invisible world
were subject to his control. Not only the winds
and the waves obeyed him, but the very laws of
matter were reversed, or new properties created at
his command; the water became wine, the sea
solid beneath his feet, the loaves and fishes multiplied into food for thousands, the living fig tree
died at his word, and a fish from the deep brought
him tribute money. And not only diseases of the
body, and defects of its organs existing from birth,
but the deeper maladies of the mind and spirit, all
departed at his bidding. And further still, as if
this were not enough to show the range of his
power, the demons of darkness fled from their long
fettered victims at his approach, and in three wellattested instances the disembodied spirit came back
to its tabernacle of clay, and the tomb gave up its
dead. If the problem were whether this is the Son
of God, and the trial had to be made again in the
face of all the universe, and we were called upon to fix
upon thirty or more different cases or occasions, which
should be the tests of Almighty power, and proofs




HIS MIGHTY MIRACLES.            47
of a present Deity, we cannot imagine any thirty
cases more to the point, and more utterly beyond
the power of all the men in the universe to do, than
precisely those things which Jesus did. For the
very least of them involved a power as impossible
to man as the creation of a world.
But there is a second feature pervading these
mighty works, as remarkable as their infinite range
of power. It is their character of benevolence and
mercy. In this they differ greatly from many of
the miracles of the ancient dispensation.  The
miracles of Moses, of Joshua, of Samuel, of Elijah,
and all the prophets, while vindicating the truth of
God, were oftentimes visitations of awful judgment
and destruction. Not so the mighty works of
Christ. They are a mirror to reflect all the milder
glories of Immanuel's character as well as to assert
his Divinity. If we had nothing but his miracles
to judge from, we should have enough to show that
God is love, and that his mission was one of infinite
grace and mercy to our ruined race. For besides
their higher purpose, which was to glorify God by
vindicating the Divine mission of his well-beloved
Son, they all, with a few exceptions, such as the
tribute money and the barren fig tree, were selected
with another end in view, which was to display
the deep compassion of Immanuel's love, as the
Friend of the friendless and the Saviour of sinners.
Hence, if we look over this list, we shall fnd that
they are mostly miracles of charity and mercy,




48        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
wrought for the healing and the consolation of the
poor, the sick, the outcast, the perishing-the
wretched sons and daughters of affliction, for whom
this world could do, and cared to do, nothing.
More than two thirds of them are cases of healing
and restoration-and that too of a character so ag
gravated as to lie utterly beyond the power of human aid. Eight of them are cases in which the Son
of God exerted his mighty power, either at the solicitation or for the relief of some poor, suffering,
and sorrowing woman.  One of them was the humble Syrophenician woman who could not claim even
to belong to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
and yet did not depart without his blessing.
Now, if we bear in mind that these recorded cases
of the New Testament are given but as examples
of all the other unnumbered signs, wonders, and
mighty works which Jesus exhibited during his whole
public ministry, we shall be constrained to confess,
that they furnish a demonstration both of his Divine
power and his superhuman excellence of character,
which is absolutely perfect.  And so he was accustomed to appeal to them, when the Jews demanded
proof of his being the Christ, "The works that I
do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me."




HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.       49
CHAPTER V.
HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.
IT would be difficult to say which is the more remarkable of the two, and which contains a fuller
revelation of the character of Immanuel —his mighty
works or the words of grace and truth which he
spake.  The conclusion of Nicodemus would be
equally applicable in both cases-No man can do
these miracles, or utter these words, except God be
with him. If the one is the vindication of his omnipotent power, the other is the proof of his infinite
wisdom. IHis works and his words alike declare his
glory. The two are constantly interwoven through
the whole course of his public ministry; and while
they mutually shed light upon each other, they pour
their united radiance over his whole person and
character as the great Teacher-the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth.
From frequent indications given in the evangelical
history, it would seem that the astonishment everywhere produced upon the multitude by his mighty
works, was but the counterpart of the profound and
universal admiration inspired by his wonderful instructions and manner of teaching.' The common
5




50        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
people heard him gladly." " They were astonished
at his doctrine, for he taught them as one having
authority and not as the Scribes."  "About the
midst of the feast, Jesus went up it. o the temple
and taught, and the Jews marvelled, saying, How
knoweth this man letters, having never learned?"
" All bare him witness and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth." Such
are the terms in which the impression of his teaching on the public mind is described. And so we
find the multitudes following him, with unabated interest, through his whole public career, not more to
behold his mighty works than to listen to his matchless instructions. Well, indeed, they might; for,
though, as in the case of his miracles, we have only
some of the more striking examples of his public
discourses recorded, still we have enough to show,
that as a teacher he stood alone among menunique and original both in the form and substance
of his teaching.
If we look through the record of his discourses,
as reported by three of the evangelists, the first and
most obvious characteristic we meet with, is the
peculiar form in which he taught the people and his
disciples.  It was in parables.  It is true that parables had been used before to some extent.  We find
traces of them in the symbolical and highly figura
tive language of the Old Testament prophets. But
no teacher had ever used them to such a degree, or
given them such power and beauty as our Savio ir.




HIIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.       51
Ani  none has ever equalled them  since.  As a
vehicle of the most exalted spiritual instructionas a channel of conveying to the mind of man the
deep things of God's kingd.m, our Saviour's parables stand without a parallel in the literature of the
world.  And this is the more remarkable because
the parable was a favourite form of instruction with
all the Oriental ancient nations.  Of course he did
not confine himself to parables.  Indeed, he seems,
at the opening of his ministry, not to have used
them at all, as we find him speaking to the people
in parables for the first time, from a vessel on the
sea of Tiberias.  John  has not given any of
the parables, though he has reported some of his
longest and most beautiful discourses. We know,
then, that there were occasions, such as the sermon
on the mount, and the farewell discourse of the last
supper, when he used no parable. Still, after all
these exceptions, it remains a striking feature in
the public teaching of our Lord, that he spake in
parables.  The parables which have been reported
at length in the first three Evangelists are the following, as arranged by Trench —The Sower, The
Tares, The Mustard Seed, The Leaven, The Hid
Treasure, The Pearl, The Draw Net, The Unmerciful Servant, The Labourers in the Vineyard, The
Two Sons, The Wicked Husbandmen, The Marriage
of the King's Son, The Ten Virgins, The Talents,
The Seed Growing Secretly, The Two Debtors, The
Good Samaritan, The Friend at Midnight, The




52        THE BEAUTY OF IMI ANUEL.
Rich Fool, The Barren Fig Tree, The Great Supper,
The Lost Sheep, The Lost Piece of Money, The
Prodigal Son, The Unjust Steward, The Rich Man
and Lazarus, The Unprofitable Servants, The Unjust Judge, The Pharisee and Publican, The
Pounds. Besides these thirty regular parables, his
discourses are everywhere enlivened with the most
striking similes and analogies drawn from the material world around; and, in some instances, we
have the higher forms of allegory, as in John's
Gospel, where he represents himself as the Good
Shepherd, the True Vine, the Bread of Life, the
Living Water.
Such was the outward form of his instructions.
But there are far more wonderful things in his
teaching than this. "Never man spake like this
man,"was the report of the commissioned officers
of the great Sanhedrim, when they went back as
they came, and assigned the reasons why they had
not brought him as a prisoner. Men clothed with
the authority of the law, are not accustomed to be
diverted from the execution of their orders, by the
mere words of a peaceable, unarmed citizen. But
here are public officers, sent expressly to arrest him,
and returning without him, not because of the crowd
which surrounded him, or any manifestation of his
miraculous power, but solely on account of the
words of wisdom which he had uttered in their
hearing. There was no other reason to give, and
they were not ashamed to give this, extraordinary




HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.        5o
as it was. How profound must have been their
conviction of his superhuman character, that they
could go back to their masters with such a plea as
this —"Never man spake like this man."  Undoubtedly there is to us now, after the conflicts of
eighteen centuries, a far deeper import in these
words than the awe-struck hearers of our Saviour,
who first uttered them, were ever conscious of. The
lapse of ages, by the very failure to produce a
parallel, has but deepened the impression, that no
man ever taught as Jesus. If this was true of him,
as compared with all the teachers that these Jewish
officers had ever seen, or heard, or read of in their
day, it is not less true of him now, as compared
with all the men of every age and nation, who have
appeared in human history.
It is worthy of note that many of the highest
tributes of praise ever bestowed on the character of
Jesus, both in sacred and profane history, have been
reluctantly wrung from his enemies. Witness that
of the devils, whom he had come to dispossess-"I
know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God."
Witness that of the unrighteous judge who condemned him to death-" I am innocent of the blood
of this just person. Take ye him and crucify him,
for I find no fault in him." Witness that of Pilate's
wife —" Have thou nothing to do with that just
man," and that of Judas-" I have sinned in that
I have betrayed innocent blood." Witness that of
the Roman centurion at his execution-" Truly this
5*




54        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
man was the Son of God," and that in the celebrated Confessions of Rousseau-"If the life and
death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and
death of Jesus are those of a God."  But all things
considered, we do not know that either of these remarkable testimonies is any more striking than this
confession of the Jewish police at the bar of the
Sanhedrim-" Never man spake like this man."
They had found him where he was wont to be, in
the courts of the temple, on the last great day of
the Feast of Tabernacles, surrounded by the ten
thousands of Israel, and proclaiming the way of
salvation and eternal life to dying men in words of
grace and wisdom, such as Jerusalem had never
heard before. They listen with the multitude; they
are filled with awe; their own hearts respond to the
truth of this message from  God, for they too are
dying sinners; and, instead of laying violent hands
on the preacher, they return to attest his Divine
mission.
And now while our own hearts in willing and
adoring homage respond to this eulogium of the
great Teacher, let us ponder what it is in his instructions that so separated him from all other
teachers, and made him speak as never man spake.
The first is the subject matter of his discourses.
None before his day had ever spoken as he did, and
few, indeed, had ever spoken at all on those grand
themes which, from first to last, formed the staple
of all his public and private instructions. Multi



HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.        55
tudes of men had in all ages of the world spoken
more; and it may be on a greater variety of subjects.
Aristotle had among the Greeks, and Cicero among
the Romans. But they had spoken mainly of the
things of this life; their grandest themes were confined to the present world. On the great things of
God and eternity; of life, death, and a judgment to
come; of heaven and hell, holiness and sin; of the
human soul in its wants and woes, its origin and
destiny, its sense of guilt, its fear of retribution,
and its longings after immortality; of the deep
wretchedness and ruin of our race, and the method
of its redemption and recovery-in fact, on all those
things relating to God and man, which the human
heart is most concerned to know, Jesus spoke with
a freedom and a fulness, possible only to a teacher
come from God. On such themes as the mysteries
of Divine grace, the essential attributes of the Godhead, the doctrines of creation, providence, and redemption, of man's true relation to God and the
universe, of the way of salvation from  sin, the
resurrection of the dead, the church and kingdom of
God in the world; and, indeed, on all those grand
inspiring themes which now for eighteen centuries
have employed the highest intellect of civilized nations, Jesus spoke as never man had spoken. He
brought life and immortality to light in the gospel.
On all these things, where the uninspired genius of
all antiquity, Roman, Grecian, Egyptian, and
2haldean, had groped in utter darkness, he was




56        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
able to utter heaven's clearest oracles, saying, "We
speak that we do know and testify that we have
seen."  These things are all so familiar to our
minds, that we can scarcely appreciate the condition
of the world before they were known or even conceived of. But independently of the truth of his
doctrines on all these grand mysteries, it is perfectly
manifest that he filled the world with new conceptions of them. Except just so far as they had been
revealed to holy men of old, who spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament Scriptures, they were utterly hidden from the
human mind. The patriarchs had looked forward,
by faith, and caught some distant glimpses of Immanuel's glory in the latter days, and the prophets
had testified beforehand of these wonderful doctrines of his gospel; but outside of the Bible, it was
true, for four thousand years, that never man spake
like this man touching these great things of God.
Nor is this all. It was much, in a, brief career
of some three years' labour, to have opened a new
world to the thoughts of men. It was much to have
added more to the stock of human ideas than all
the philosophers of antiquity put together had ever
done. It was much to have advanced the revelations of God to a degree of fulness and glory, far
beyond anything they had attained under the accumulated light of all the prophets. And it was
much to have given the huma' mind, on themes like
these, an impulse which shall but deepen and widen




HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.        57
to the end of time. But, perhaps the most remarkable feature of the case is, that he so taught
all these exalted doctrines that the world with all
its progress of science, and all its advancing intellect, has never been able to add anything to them
since his day. Great and marvellous as have been
the discoveries of science, and the accessions of
knowledge in every field of the heavens and earth,
since Jesus dwelt with men; they all together have
not added one jot or tittle to those great spiritual
and eternal truths which Jesus taught. On all
these high and awful mysteries of God and man,
and the universe in which we dwell, the world stands
to-day with just that stock of knowledge which he
left it, and no more, except just so far as his inspired apostles have developed and recorded his instructions in the New Testament. After all our
laudations about the dignity of human nature, the
advancement of learning, the- spirit of bold adventure, of daring experiment, and of profound research, we stand, to-day, in the middle of the nineteenth century, precisely at the point where our
race stood when the incarnate Son of God proclaimed the truth-" No man hath seen God at any
time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath declared him." We know
from him the true worth and dignity of the soul, its
fearful ruin and the price of its redemption; we
know from him the way to heaven, the forgiveness
of sin, the life everlasting; we know from him that




58        TIIE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. We know from
him that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness, and truth; and that to see his face.n peace, so as to glorify and enjoy him for ever,
we too must be holy-repenting of all our sins and
believing on the Son of God for salvation. This is
the sum of all the instructions of Jesus, as a
Teacher come from God. And, as for anything we
can learn from all the teachers of this world besides,
God would be as much "the unknown God" to us today, as he was to the Athenians when Paul preached
on Mars Hill.
The next remarkable element in our Saviour's
teaching, separating him from all others, was the
tone of superhuman authority with which he spoke.
His peculiar manner of discourse was in perfect
harmony with its weighty and solemn matter. One
great secret of attraction in his preaching to the
astonished and admiring multitudes who crowded to
hear him, was that he taught them as one having
authority and not as the scribes.  He clothes his
thoughts in the most attractive form of human
speech. His subjects were the most important that
ever challenged the attention of men. And he uttered his sayings with the absolute assurance and
authority of a message direct from God: "Verily,
verily I say unto you."  "We speak that we do
know, and testify that we have seen"-such was the




HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUC IONS.        59
habitual prelude of personal authority which took
the place of that deferential appeal to a higher
power with which the ancient prophets had always
come, saying, c" Thus saith the Lord."
The common people were tired of the hypocrisy
and cant of all their learned and professed expounders of the law. They had indeed made void
the law by their endless traditions, and laid burdens
upon men too grievous to be borne. The whole
world was in fact sick at heart for something it
knew not what, but something better than it had
yet seen. Both Jew and Gentile were weary and
worn out, with the ceaseless jargon of the schools
and systems of philosophy falsely so called by which
men, then as now, darkened counsel by words without knowledge.  Here was a new  and different
teacher, whose words were Yea and Amen; whose
words came fresh from the heart, and went directly
home to the heart. Here was one who spake as the very
oracle and mouthpiece of God. It mattered not
where was his temple, or who were his auditors, it
was always the same voice of absolute certainty
and of Divine power. In the crowded synagogue,
or the still more crowded wayside, on the mountain's
brow or on the seashore, in distant desert places, or
at the great national gatherings of the people, in
the domestic circle of affection at Bethany, or amid
the public courts of the temple where he rebuked
the pride of chief priest, scribe, and Pharisee, it
was always the same tone of infallible certainty,




60        TIIE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEl.
and of undisputed supremacy. It was more than
the return of the spirit and power of Elijah. It
was one, who while stooping to men of low estate and
even unto babes, yet ever spake with the graceful
majesty of a king, and the conscious authority of
God manifest in the flesh.
There are three different classes of circumstances
in the life of our Lord, wherein we find him speaking with this tone of superhuman authority.
The first embraces all those occasions in which he
wrought his mighty works. These cannot be numbered. But as above stated we have thirty or more
of them, circumstantially narrated, when by a single
word of power, he spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast. We refer not now to the
miracle itself, but to the authoritative tone of him
who speaks it into being. It is precisely the manner of Him who at the beginning said, " Let there
be light, and there was light." The eyewitnesses
themselves were everywhere struck with this tone
of supremacy and command in Jesus, "What manner of man is this? For he commandeth even the
winds and water, and they obey him."  "They
were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this? For with authority and
power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they
obey him." Here indeed lies the striking difference
between his miracles and all those of the prophets
on the one hand, his apostles on the other —that his
are all performed in virtue of his own inherent




HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.        61
power, without the intervention of other means or
agencies.  "I will," says he, "be thou clean."
"Take up thy bed and walk." "Stretch forth
thine hand: and he stretched it forth whole as the
other." " Daughter, thy sins be forgiven thee: go
in peace."  "Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise."
"Lazarus, come forth;" and he that was dead came
forth, bound hand and foot. Such was our Saviour's
manner of performing his mighty works. And on
all these occasions he spake as man never spake.
The second class embraces all the occasions on
which he delivered his formal and public discourses
in the presence of his disciples and the multitudes
of the Jewish people. Of these we have remarkable
examples in the sermon on the mount, in his description of the last judgment in the 25th chapter
of Matthew, in his invective against the scribes and
Pharisees in the twenty-third, in the various discourses in the temple at the great Jewish festivals,
as recorded by John, and in his farewell discourse
to his disciples alone, on the night before he suffered.
No man can listen to these solemn revelations of
things unseen and eternal-things on which no
mortal tongue had ever ventured to speak thus before-without feeling their awful and unapproachable sublimity. Especially is this the case with his
last discourses, when we know that their author, so
far as he was a man at all, was but a young man in
the prime of life, expecting voluntarily to lay down
nis life on the morrow for the truth of his convic6




62         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
tions. Socrates, under somewhat similar circumstances, has been an object of the world's admiration. But mere admiration is far short of the
merits of this case. No man can read and ponder
the words of Jesus, without the conviction that their
author stood in an attitude of moral power and superiority over all the men of this world, such as nothing could inspire less than the consciousness that
he was either a teacher come from God, or God
himself.
But if he was the one, he was the other. If he
was the less, then he was of necessity the greater.
It is a case in which the less involves and draws
after it the whole truth of the greater proposition.
If he was a teacher come from God, as it is impossible to deny he was, then he was God himself, because he expressly claimed to be God, and died asserting the claim. A teacher come from God,
whose whole life and actions had been what his
were, could not have spoken anything but the truth.
But one of the great truths which he never ceased
to speak, through his whole public career to the
very tribunal which condemned him to death, was
that he was the Son of God, that he was equal with
God, that he was God. So that if the miracles and
the words of Jesus force us to the alternative that
he was either a teacher from God, or God manifest
in the flesh, that alternative shuts us up to but one
conclusion-that he was all that he claimed to be.
And now to feel in your inmost heart, that this is




HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.       63
the true and only possible alternative, listen to some
of those words which no man before or since ever
spake of himself: "Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my words shall not pass away. Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Then shall ye see the Son of Man coming in the
clouds of heaven.  He shall sit upon the throne of
his glory, and before him all nations shall be
gathered; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the
goats. All power is given to me in heaven and
earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the world. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and
lie that believeth not shall be damned."
When did mortal man ever speak thus? How
would such language have sounded on the lips of
Abraham, or Moses, or Daniel, or Paul? Men in
their folly have sometimes talked of Jesus as a mere
man. But, leaving out of view his miracles, and
taking only his words, the difference between him
atnd every other man is an infinite difference. If
ever there was a mortal disposed to speak in a tone
of authority, and arrogate to himself all human




64        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
powers, it was that mighty conqueror, whose edicts
gave law to Europe and whose sword had overturned
her thrones. But Napoleon never spake like this.
Even at the meridian height of his pomp and power,
words like these, or anything approaching them,
would have convicted him in the sight of the universe
of being either a blasphemer or insane. And with
reverence be it spoken, there is nothing that could
exempt the mere humanity of Jesus from the same
charge. It is only because he is God over all,
blessed for ever, that these awful and superhuman
words are the words of soberness and truth.
The third class of occasions on which he showed
the same superhuman wisdom, embraces all his private informal interviews and conversations-occasions when he wrought no mighty works, and delivered no public discourses, but appeared most like
a man. Witness that, for example, with Nathaniel
in the first chapter of John, and that with Nicodemus in the third. Witness the interview with the
young ruler, and the one with the lawyer who
tempted him. See how he puts to silence, in succession, the wily deputations from the Herodians,
the Sadducees, and the Pharisees, till no man durst
ask him any more questions. See him alone before
the judgment-seat of Pilate-the arrogant Roman
evidently awed into admiration and fear by the silent
and sublime demeanour of his suffering prisoner! To
my own mind, there is scarcely anything in the New
Testament more remarkable and significant than




HIS MATCHLESS INSTRUCTIONS.         65
this-that Jesus Christ, through all those scenes of
humiliation, suffering, and the daily intercourse of
life, in which it was necessary for him to appear
most like a man and least like a God, should yet so
speak and act as to make men feel that he was more
than man. From the hour in which he stood in the
midst of the doctors of the temple at the age of
twelve, down to that in which he stood before his
last accusers, and his final judge, there was something about him-in his every word, look, and action-which made every one who came in contact
with him, feel that he was a superior being.
When we mark that calm, quiet, self-possessed,
and yet authoritative tone in which he accosted both
friends and foes, that gentle yet uncompromising
dignity and sense of superiority which pervaded his
every instruction to man, woman, or child; when
we follow him to the retreats of private life in the
presence of his disciples alone, or in the bosom of
the loved family at Bethany; when in these familiar
and unstudied moments we hear him  say, "My
meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to
finish his work. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
me;" when we hear him saying to the sorrowing
sister of Lazarus, " I am the resurrection and the
life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead
yet shall he live; and he that liveth, and believeth
in me shall never die;" when we follow him to the
place of death, and hear him answer the last request
6*




66        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
of one who languished at his side, "This day shalt
thou be with me in paradise," we are constrained to
feel, that never man spake like this man. We bear
testimony with Nathaniel, " Rabbi, thou art the
Son of God, thou art the king of Israel."  For not
only does he speak Af things men never knew before, and never could have known; but, unlike all
the teachers of antiquity, who rested their instructions on a foregoing authority higher than their own,
he speaks, as one having absolute, inherent, personal,
and underived knowledge of all things whereof he
affirms. His teaching, like his power, is wholly independent of man.




HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.         d?
CHAPTER VI.
HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.
NOTHING, perhaps, has ever made a deeper impression upon the heart of the world than the compassion of Jesus. It is a quality which all men,
even the unregenerate, have been ready to acknowledge and admire, when, perhaps, they could see no
other beauty in Immanuel. Mercy, compassion,
sympathy with the deep woes of man, strikes a chord
in every human bosom, that is not utterly dead to
all the higher and better instincts of our fallen nature.  Orators praise it. Poets celebrate it in their
loftiest strains.  Good men love and practise it.
Bad men do homage to it, as the sum of all goodness. The man who is ready to risk his life to save
others, whose bosom melts with pity for the poor,
whose generous sympathies respond to every cry of
human anguish, wins not only the approval of all
the good, but even the plaudits of those who are
destitute of the attribute they extol. The heart of
man was made to be moved by sympathy. It needs
the sympathies both of God and men. There is
scarcely anything which it needs more. It cannot
stand alone. It needs something to lean upon.




68         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
And hence, whenever a true hearted Howard appears, braving danger and death, out of that yearning love which he bears towards the perishing, all
men are ready to take him to their hearts, not only
as a brother but as a very idol. This deep and
universal sentiment of admiration for philanthropy
is vividly depicted, though with an approach to extravagance, in the lines:
"' The spirits of the just,
When first arrayed in Virtue's purest robe,
They saw her Howard traversing the globe,
Mistook a mortal for an angel guest,
And asked what seraph's foot the earth imprest.
Onward he flies-disease and death retire,
And wondering demons hate him and admire.
If such a character as Howard's, and such a life
of self-sacrificing good will, may win a world's approval-call down encomium from heaven, and extort reluctant homage from the lost-what ought to
be our appreciation of the virtues human and Divine
that dwelt in the bosom of Jesus? If we could for
a moment divest ourselves of the peculiar relations
in which we stand to him as a Saviour and a God,
and then look upon him simply as a fellow-man, as
we look upon Howard, it is clear that we should
even then behold in him an example of generous,
heroic, and self-sacrificing virtue, which has no parallel in the annals of mankind. Even on the score
of philanthropy and brotherhood it has no parallel
among men. It was a philanthropy embracing first




HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.           69
the objects of love immediately surrounding himhis disciples-and then all his countrymen, and then
all the world.  It was a philanthropy that went
down to the abodes of poverty, of disease, of want,
and held familiar converse with all its woes. It was
a Divine compassion that sought to save the lost,
the vile, the outcast; that could eat with publicans
and sinners, when such companionship was not regarded as a virtue. It was a compassion which,
while grasping the wide world, did not overlook
even the babes and sucklings that clustered at its
feet. The Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
others.  He came to seek and to save that which
was lost; not only the lost sheep of the house of
Israel, but the lost of all nations and generations
of men. For our sakes he became poor. As before
remarked, there is no theme on which the sacred
writers dwell with greater delight and wonder than
this infinite compassion of Immanuel-this condescension to the poor —this emptying himself of his
Divine glory, that he might come to our reliefmight bear our griefs and carry our sorrows-might
become our brother, touched with our infirmities,
tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
It is the burden of the prophet's vision. It inspires
the song of the sweet psalmist of Israel.  It is the
story of all the evangelists. It is the meditation of
all the apostles, as they carry the glad tidings to the
end of the earth: " Ye know the grace of our Lord




70        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
Jesus Christ, that whereas he was rich, yet for our
sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty
might be rich."
"Aside the Prince of glory threw
His most Divine array,
And wrapped his Godhead in a veil
Of our inferior clay."
"'And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross." His whole public life, from his
baptism to the great expiation on Calvary, was a
life of sympathy with the suffering, and of merciful
visitation to the poor. Though he was a man of
sorrows, as bearing the sins of the whole worldbearing them onward to the scene of final sacrificeand though he had not where to lay his head in the
world he  had created, and  was now  about to
redeem-yet was he never known to turn away
from a single sinner however humble, and however
vile, of all the ten thousands that sought his favour.
It has often been noticed how the character of
Immanuel is illustrated in his life.  The sacred
writers describe his virtues by simply narrating his
actions. They set before us a succession of the
most touching and graphic scenes, which, far better
than any words of eulogy, display his benevolent
compassions, and the full glory of his human and
Divine perfection. As his mission was to preach
the gospel to the poor, to seek the lost sheep of the




HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.          71
house of Israel, to humble himself to the ministry
of a servant; so of necessity, philanthropy, benevolence, compassion, becomes the prominent attribute
in this whole manifestation of his character.  It is
in the human life of Jesus, more than in anything
else, that we behold the love of God. The only
begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father.
came into the world, and led a life of compassion,
not only that he might save us, but that he might
thus reveal the love of God. Hence we find all his
mighty works partaking of this element of compassion-wrought for the deliverance of the wretched
and the outcast, or of the humble and helpless.
The very titles of his acts of mercy are enough to
illustrate his character; and the great masters of
art have found no higher study than to reproduce
the scene.  Thus we have, Christ healing the Sick,
Christ blessing little Children, Christ feeding the
Multitudes, Christ raising the Widow's Son, Christ
restoring Lazarus, Christ weeping over Jerusalem.
In all these and other similar scenes that make up
the history of his life, the grand distinguishing attribute is mercy. It is the crowning glory of his
manhood. It is the bright effulgence of that Godhead, which shines out through the veil of this human tabernacle. Nothing could be more appropriate than such a manifestation of celestial virtue.
If we had been told beforehand that God would
manifest himself in the form of a man; that celestial Divine virtue would become incarnate and dis



72        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
play all its brightest glories in a living, human
character; and that such a revelation was to be
made for the benefit, and amid all the sufferings, of
our wretched, dying race, it would be the dictate of
reason, that God, thus manifesting himself, should
clothe himself with all those attributes of condescension, sympathy, compassion, and love, which
we now behold in the person of Immanuel. This is
precisely the form of virtue which such a manifestation, for such a purpose, and in such a world, would
demand. Nor can we conceive of anything that
could be taken away from the character of Jesus
Christ, on the one hand, nor of a single attribute
that could be added to it on the other, that would
make its adaptation more complete, and its beauty
more symmetrical and glorious. One shade more,
one ray less, would have marred that absolute
perfection which now adorns his character. More
of the Divine and less of the human; more of
majesty and less of condescension; greater displays
of power and fewer deeds of love, instead of lending
new attractions to the cross, would have only detracted from that matchless power and pathos by
which it now draws all men unto it.
There is nothing in the life of Jesus more significant of his immaculate virtue, and more in keeping
with all the ends for which such virtue became incarnate, than his tears. When we consider who he
was, and why he came into the world, his tears are
as indicative of his Divine mission and as precious




HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.           73
to us, as his mighty works. They are the tokens
of his unspeakable love. They are the seals of a
sympathy in our sorrows, such as, without them, we
did not know God could feel for sinners. They are
the proofs of an interest in our welfare which assures our fainting hearts, that He, who has undertaken for us, is as willing as he is able to save.
And it is striking to notice through the sacred narrative, how the tears of Jesus flow mingling with
his mighty works. It was at the grave of Lazarus,
and when in a few moments the sleep of death was
to be broken by a word of omnipotence, that Jesus
wept. The very scene which calls forth the sublimest attributes of the Godhead-the scene of his
almighty triumph over death and the grave-is that
in which all the tenderest sympathies of his immaculate human heart are touched, and find appropriate
utterance in tears. If the war-worn conqueror of a
hundred battles should be seen to weep in the moment of his greatest victory, it would be but a faint
approach to that power of emotion which filled the
Son of God with tears at the grave of Lazarus.
"Jesus wept." And those around, filled with admiration and awe, that one who had been known to
give sight to the blind, should thus weep, said, Behold how he loved him! Could not this man, endowed with such power, and moved by such love,
had he been here, have caused that Lazarus should
uot have died? The mighty men of this world, in
the height of their power, are not accustomed to
7




74        THE BEAUTY OF IMMAN1UEL.
weep at the sight of others' woe. But Jesus wept,
even in that sublime hour, when he burst asunder
the bands of death-wept responsive to the tears
of those bereaved and sorrowing sisters who were
imploring his help-wept in deep and yearning
sympathy with all the sufferings and desolation
which this much-loved family had endured in the
loss of a brother-wept out of his full and unutterable love for that poor dying human nature, whose
countless griefs he had come to bear, whose dreadful
maladies he had come to heal.  Oh! it was fit that
the Man of sorrows should thus weep.  Though he
was the Prince of glory, the Conqueror of death
and hell, it was fit that the Friend of sinners should
weep at the grave. Though he could say to the
stricken hearts around him, Thy brother shall rise
again; and, though he did say, with Divine power,
ere those tears of love were dry upon his cheek,
"Lazarus, come forth," still nothing could be more
in keeping with the great work he came to do, than
that he should weep at the grave. For all flesh
weeps there. Every human being weeps there, even
if he weeps no where else. There is no man so
hard as not to weep for his dead. And there is no
man so wicked or worthless as not t,) have the
tribute of a tear when he is gone. It is one of the
saddest, but one of the most inalienable portions
of our earthly heritage, that we are all, sooner or
later, called to weep over our dead. HIow significant
and appropriate to the character of our great




HIS IMMAC;LATE VIRTUES.          75
Mediator, who came to rescue us from the grasp of
sin and death, that we should have this simple and
touching memorial of his love-JEsus WEPT!
But this is not the only record of his tenderness.
We read of another memorable occasion which
called forth the tears of the Son of God.  It was
his last visit to Jerusalem-that which led him, as
he had so often told his disciples, to go up for the express purpose of dying there. It was on the day
of his public and triumphal entry into the holy city,
according to that ancient prophecy which had described, in joyful strains, Zion's king as coming to
her with salvation, riding upon the foal of an ass.
It was an occasion which, occurring only a few days
before the great annual feast of the Passover, had
drawn together an unwonted number of his friends
and followers, as well as a vast concourse of the
people, who had beheld his mighty works in Galilee,
or had still more recently been the witnesses of his
great miracle near Jerusalem, the resurrection of
Lazarus.  Leaving Bethany, where he had but
lately wrought this mighty work, and accompanied
by the vast multitudes, both of those who had followed him, and of those who had come out of the
city to welcome his vapproach, he passed over the
Mount of Olives, and came at once within full view
of that glorious city.
He had not seen it before for more than three
months. He had left it at the feast of the Dedication, a voluntary exile, because his hour had not




76        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
then come to die. He had at that time bidden it
farewell in the following sorrowful words, recorded
by Luke: "   Jerusalem! Jerusalem! which killest
the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together as a hen doth gather her brood under her
wings, but ye would not! Behold your house is left
unto you desolate. And verily I say unto you, Ye
shall not see me until the time come when ye shall
say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord."
And now that time had come. He was approaching, to leave Jerusalem no more, till he
should have laid down his life as a sacrifice for the
sins of the world.  "For," said he, "it cannot be
that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." He was
coming in the name of the Lord to die, whilst a
joyful multitude, thinking he was coming to set up
his temporal kingdom on the throne of David,
strewed their garments and palm branches in his
way, and cried aloud: " Hosanna! Blessed be the
King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the
Lord. Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest."
From the point of descent of the Mount of
Olives, over which he was now passing, in a direction directly west and across the deep valley of
Jehoshaphat, appeared the city in all its ancient
grandeur. He had at one view the whole outline
of its eastern wall surmounting the brow of the hill,
and rising some two hundre I feet above the valley;




HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.             77
and above and beyond that, the gorgeous temple,
covering the whole summit of Mount Moriah, with
its beautiful eastern gate, its white marble walls, its
alabaster porticoes and colonnades, its gold-covered
pinnacles and turrets —all flashing back the morning light, and sparkling like "a mountain of snow
studded with jewels." On that glorious spectacle,
the pilgrims of every generation had fixed their
eyes with devout and admiring wonder, even from
the days of Solomon. Can we doubt that the Son
of God now paused to gaze upon such a scene of
loveliness?
"There stood Jerusalem. How fair she looked,
The silver sun on all her palaces,
And her fair daughters'mid the golden spires,
Tending their terrace flowers, and Kedron's stream
Lacing the meadows with its silver band,
And breathing its mist mantle on the sky
With the morn's exhalations. There she stood,
Jerusalem, the city of his love,
Chosen from all the earth; Jerusalem,
That knew him not, and had rejected him;
Jerusalem for whom he came to die."
And how was Jesus affected by all this scene of
external magnificence-the chosen seat of God's
favoured covenant people?  He wept over it.  He
mingled his tears of pity with prophetic warnings
of its approach'ng doom. The sacred writer tells
us that " when he was come near he beheld the city
and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known,
even thou, at least, in this thy day, the things which
7*




78        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from
thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee,
that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee,
and compass thee round, ar.d keep thee in on every
side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and
thy children within thee; and they shall not leave
in thee one stone upon another; because thou
knewest not the time of thy visitation."
Here again, as in so many other instances, we
behold the mysterious blending of all his Divine
and human attributes. While all the deep fountains
of Divine and human love are moved within him;
while the warm tears of humanity stream from his
eyes, as he thinks of the hapless fate of the incorrigible but beloved city, with all the consciousness
of Divine power, and with a perfect foresight of all
the sad future, he pronounces its terrible doom.
And what a contrast between this deep and solitary
sorrow of the Son of God, and the enthusiastic joy
of the multitude which surrounds him! How utterly unlike every other king and conqueror in the
world's history, when borne along in triumphal procession, amid the shouts and hosannas of an applauding and rejoicing people! " And when he was
come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount
of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God, with a loud voice, for
all the mighty works they had seen."
But Jesus wept-wept alone: for, at that moment
of universal joy around him, there was probably not




HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.               79
one human heart in all the throng that could understand or appreciate his sorrow. He wept not for
himself, but for others; not on account of the sufferings he was so soon to endure, hut on account of
the woes of the doomed city, and of this guilty
world. He wept for the city and the people he had
come to save; whom he would have died to save; to
whom he had so long preached, and for whom he
had so often prayed. And now he saw that the day
of merciful visitation was closing for ever. He came
unto his own and his own had not received him.
The harvest was passed; the summer was ended;
and the sinners of Jerusalem, as if about to forestall the doom of all sinners to the end of time,
were not saved.
" He thought not of the death that he should die,
He thought not of the thorns he knew must pierce
His forehead-of the buffet on the cheekThe scourge-the mocking homage-the foul scorn.
Gethsemane stood out beneath his eye,
Clear in the morning sun. And Golgotha
Stood bare and desert by the city wall.
And in its midst to his prophetic eye
Rose the rough cross, and its keen agonies,
The nails, the spear, and the insulting sponge,
The blood and water gushing from his side.
Aye! he forgot all this. He only saw
Jerusalem, the chosen, the loved, the lost;
He only felt, that for her sake his life
Was vainly given; and in his pitying love,
The sufferings, that would clothe the heavens in black
Were quite forgotten. Was there ever love
In earth or heaven like this?"




80:       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
But we pause. Human language is inadequate.
to delineate the character of Immanuel, even in one
of its virtues.  The inspired writers have recorded
for us his words, breathing the love of heaven; they
have told us of his tears, the outward symbols of
that love; and then they have set before us the
amazing scene of his death, as its highest conceivable proof and manifestation. Our object has been
to single out this unparalleled love simply as an illustration of the manifold virtues or attributes, that
shone forth, in full-orbed perfection, from the whole
Divine and human nature of Jesus. We have taken
this one perfection, because front the nature of the
case, it had to bear a prominent part in his estate
of humiliation, and his ministry of mercy in our
suffering world; and also because it is one which is
of the very essence of the gospel which he preached,
and of the God whom he came to reveal. Love is
the fulfilling of every law of the gospel; and God
himself is love. The perfect love of Jesus may,
therefore, be taken as the crowning proof and seal
of all his other virtues. It was impossible that
there should be such a manifestation of all Divine
and human sympathies even unto death, without at
the same time carrying with it the full play of
every other conceivable perfection.
THence we find exhibit.d in the life of Jesus all
other virtues —not only an absolute sinless humanity, but a humanity completely radiant with every
positive excellence which can be conceived of, as




HIS IMMACULATE VIRTUES.           81
belonging to an incarnate Deity. We behold at
every step the character of one who, though living
among sinners, and at last dying for sinners, and
tempted in all points like as we are, was yet holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. We
behold not only kindness, courtesy, condescension,
sympathy, moderation, gentleness, self-denial, patience, fortitude, and all those qualities that adorn
the relationships of human life; but we behold all
the higher and nobler attributes of virtue-an in
flexible justice, an unflinching courage, an undeviating truthfulness, a steadfast purpose, an uncompromising honour, a genuine devotion, a heroic faith,
a self-sacrificing zeal, a sublime energy, and an im.
maculate holiness, such as, even aside from  his
boundless love, never met before in any human character.  Each trait was absolutely perfect in itself,
and absolutely perfect in its combination with all
the rest.  Such a character of moral excellence is
without a parallel in the annals of mankind. And
such a character in such a world as this, is a demonstration complete that its possessor was Divine.




82        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.
IN reading the life of our blessed Lord, we must
not forget that there were reasons which made it
necessary that his celestial beauty and all his Divine attributes should be partially concealed from
men during the whole period of his incarnation.
The work he came into the world to accomplish was
essentially a work of suffering and death. His
condition while performing that work was of necessity one of deep humiliation, inconsistent with any
general and overpowering display of Divine glory.
It was the sun in a state of eclipse.  Though he
was, even while dwelling in mortal clay, the brightness of the Father's glory and the express imnage
of his person, possessing all the fulness of the God.
head bodily, yet that glory was under a cloud,
hidden, not only from the world, but, in great
measure, from his most intimate friends and disciples. In view of this low estate we find Isaiah
foretelling that he would be despised and rejected
of men, an object of astonishment and offence to
many, because his visage was so marred more than
any man, and his form more than the sons of men.




THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   83
"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form
nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is
no beauty that we should desire him."
But, notwithstanding this deep humiliation and
hiding of his power, we find, both in Isaiah and
other prophets, indications that even in the days of
his flesh, there should break forth many signal displays of his Divine glory and beauty. The sun
must, indeed, be hidden, but it was not to be a total
eclipse. Isaiah speaks of him as "the Branch of
the Lord, beautiful and glorious;" "Thine eyes
shall see the King in his beauty," and David,
drawing aside that veil of suffering which so concealed his glory from mortal view, exclaims, " Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power; in
the beauties of holiness from  the womb of the
morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth."
Accordingly we find the life of Jesus Christ, as
related by the evangelists, everywhere in exact correspondence with this two-fold prophetical representation of his humiliation and his glory. For,
while there hangs over his whole mortal career, from
the manger to the cross, that eclipse of Divine
glories which so well befitted a suffering Messiah,
there were not wanting, even at the darkest hour,
bright glimpses of celestial light, indicating that
the darkness must soon pass, and the sun rise again
triumphant in his meridian splendor.  Over and
above all his miracles and mighty works, there were




84        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
other manifestations of his glory —indications of a
supernatural order, given to him from the Fatherat once tokens to him of his Father's approving
love, and proofs to his disciples that he was the beloved Son of God.
These, from the very nature of the case, had to
be given as occasional manifestations, or exceptions
from the general tenor of our Saviour's life. For
it is obvious that, had they occurred so frequently
as to become the rule, and not the exception, during
his incarnation, they must have defeated the great
work of suffering and death, which could be performed only in an estate of humiliation. And so
we find that, unlike all the ordinary transactions
and events of his life, these occasional manifestations of supernatural power and glory were, for the
most part, witnessed by but a few chosen spectators.
When he suffered and died, the world looked on the
spectacle. Thousands of human eyes gazed on the
helpless sufferer. But no man saw him rise from
the dead.  That glory was reserved for the angels
alone.  All his appearances after his resurrection,
during the forty days preceding his ascension, as
belonging, properly, to his estate of exaltation,
took place in the presence of his disciples alone,
varying in number from one to above five hundred.
That last and most glorious act of all, when he ascended up on high, must have been witnessed by a
comparatively small number.   And so all the
brightest manifestations of his glory, prior to his




THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   85
resurrection, were not given to the world at large,
but to a few spectators. When an angel was sent
from heaven to announce his advent, and that of his
forerunner, in the one case Zacharias, and in the
other Mary, were the sole recipients of the message.
When at his birth a multitude of angels sang Glory
to God in the highest; peace on earth, good will to
men, a few shepherds at Bethlehem were all that
heard the song. When his star appeared in the
east, and hovered over his manger, though many may
have seen it, yet none but a few wise men seem to
have understood its peculiar glory. When angels
descended and ministered to him at the end of his
temptations in the wilderness, we are told that he
was alone with the wild beasts. No mortal saw his
heavenly visitants. In the awful hour of his agony
in the garden of Gethsemane, when he had withdrawn from the presence of the disciples to pray
alone, there appeared unto him an angel from
heaven, strengthening him. But all these signs of
power were hidden from the world.
In two instances, recorded by the evangelists,
there seem to have been multitudes present to witness these extraordinary manifestations of his glory.
The one was at his baptism, when the heavens were
opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And
lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. The other was on
a subsequent occasion, during his last days, in the
8




86        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
temple at Jerusalem, when in answer to his prayer,
"Father, glorify thy name," there caine a voice
from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it, and
will glorify it again." We cannot tell what number
of people saw and heard these two supernatural
manifestations of his glory. But on another still
more remarkable occasion, that of his transfiguration
on the Mount, we know that only three chosen disciples were present with Moses and Elias, to behold
his glory, and that these were charged not to make
it known till he should have risen from the dead;
thereby showing that this and similar revelations
belonged not properly to his mortal life, but to his
risen and exalted state.
The transfiguration, which is so fully recorded by
three of the evangelists, and referred to by the
Apostle Peter in his second epistle, is indeed one
of the most wonderful and significant transactions
in our Saviour's history, and deserves a special consideration. It may be taken as the type or exponent of all those extraordinary manifestations of
his glory, which seem to have been granted from
time to time, as a sort of pledge or earnest of the
future, in order to relieve the darkness and offset
the deep humiliation of his incarnate mortal life.
St. Peter evidently lays peculiar stress upon this
transfiguration, when, writing long after its occurrence, he says, "We have not followed cunningly
devised fables, when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but




TIlE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   87
were eye witnesses of his majesty. For he received
from God the Father honour and glory, when there
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,
"This is my beloved Son in whom  I am well
pleased. And this voice which came from heaven
we heard, when we were with him in the holy
Mount."  The Apostle John probably refers to this
event, when he says, " The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth." It is also worthy of notice,
that in describing his sublime vision of the Saviour
in the opening chapter of the Apocalypse, where he
appears in glory as the Alpha and Omega, the First
and the Last, this apostle uses language similar to
that in which the transfiguration is described:
"His head and his hairs were white like wool, as
white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of
fire; and his countenance as the sun shining in his
strength."
But let us turn to the account of the transfiguration as recorded by Matthew. " After six days
Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother,
and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart;
and was transfigured before them: and his face did
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the
light." Luke adds, that he went up to pray, and
that as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance
was altered, and his raiment became white and glistening. "And behold, there appeared unto them




88        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
Moses and Elias talking with him." Luke again
adds the subject of discourse, " who appeared in glory
and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem."  "Then answered Peter, and
said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here;
if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles;
one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias:"
as Luke adds, not knowing what he said. " While
he yet spake, behold a bright cloud overshadowed
them; and behold a voice out of the cloud, which
said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased; hear ye him. And when the disciples
heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore
afraid." Luke says, they feared as they entered
into the cloud.  "And Jesus came and touched
them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And
when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no
man save Jesus only. And as they came down
from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying,
Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be
risen again from the dead." Mark tells us that
they kept that saying with themselves, questioning
one with another, what the rising from the dead should
mean; and he further adds, that all the people,
when they beheld him as he came down from the
mount, were greatly amazed, and running to him,
saluted him. From this it would seem, that, as in
the case of Moses on a similar occasion, some vestiges of the excellent glory still lingered about his




THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.    89
person, and inspired the multitude with wonder and
adoration.
The first thing claiming attention in this account
of the transfiguration is the time of its occurrence.
It was six days after our Saviour's most emphatic
declaration to his disciples that he must suffer death
at Jerusalem. In the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi,
while conversing with the disciples about his Messiahship, he had received from Peter that good and
strong confession, Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God, which led him to say, Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
"From that time forth," we are told, "began Jesus
to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto
Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and
chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be
raised again the third day." This was in the last
year of his public ministry, and probably about nine
months before his death. As the disciples could
neither comprehend the mystery of his resurrection,
nor see the necessity for his death, one object of
the transfiguration was evidently to impress their
minds with the certainty of these great facts.
Peter had, ir his ardent zeal, even ventured to rebuke him, fot thus speaking of a speedy and violent
death. But he rebukes the disciple in turn, and
takes occasion to utter some of the most weighty
and fundamental truths of his gospel, saying, as no
mortal man had ever said before, " If any man will
8*




90         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANL EL.
come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save
his life, shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the
glory of his Father with his angels, and then he
shall reward every man according to his works.
Verily, I say unto you, There be some standing
here, which shall not taste of death, till they see
the Son of man coming in his kingdom."
In immediate connection with these sublime utterances, in each of the three evangelists, stands the
record of his transfiguration. There can be no
doubt, that as a manifestation of his celestial glory,
and as a type and symbol of that eternal kingdom
of which he had just spoken, and in the full glory
of which he should come at the last day, this transfiguration was in his mind as the first and immediate
fulfilment of the prediction. "There be some standing here who shall not taste of death till they see
the Son of man coming in his kingdom."  For this
being a demonstration from heaven of his eternal
power and Godhead-the very prelude, pledge, and
proof of his final and glorious appearing, might well
be regarded by those who saw it, as the coming of
his kingdom. Indeed we know that the apostle
Peter did so regard it; for he says, "We have not
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made




THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   91
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty."
From these and other circumstances attending
the transfiguration, it is easy to see what was its
great design. To the three disciples who witnessed
it, it was evidently intended to be a sublime and
prophetic representation of Immanuel in his glory
-that glory which he had before he came into the
world, which he now wears in heaven, and in which
he will come at last to judge the world. It was intended for the confirmation of their faith, and, when
the seal of secrecy should be removed, to be a source
of instruction and consolation to his church through
all ages. To the Saviour himself it probably had
another and still higher significance.  Like the
presence of ministering angels in his hours of trial
and agony, and like other celestial attestations,
which he received from time to time, it no doubt
had the great purpose of sustaining his own faith,
and of preparing him for the great sacrifice which
he was to make at Jerusalem.  The well-beloved
Son of God was not to be left entirely alone even in his
deep humiliation. He needed, and from time to time,
he received these high tokens of the Father's love, and
these prelibations of the glory which awaited him
when his work should have been accomplished.
It is interesting to notice in this scene the important agency of prayer. One evangelist tells us
that he went up into the mount to pray; and that
as he prayed the fashion of his countenance was




92        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
changed. What honour does the Son of God place
upon prayer in thus using it in all the great transactions of his life! And what honour does the
Father place upon it, in granting all his most glorious manifestations in answer to prayer!  At his
baptism, it was while he prayed, that the heavens
were opened to him, and the Spirit descended upon
him, and a voice came from heaven: "This is my
beloved Son." It was while he was uttering the
language of prayer, that the same voice was heard
again in the temple. Before he called Lazarus
from the grave, he lifted up his eyes to heaven in
thanksgiving and prayer. And so here, it is prayer
that opens the heavens on the Mount of transfiguration, and brings down the glorified messengers. If
Immanuel found it good to pray, how much more
ought sinful, helpless men always to pray and not
to faint!
One of the most significant circumstances connected with the vision, was, that Moses and Elias
should appear. Of all the saints who had lived
under the Old Testament dispensation, and gone to
glory, it was most appropriate that these two should
be manifested on this occasion-Moses as the great
lawgiver of Israel, and Elijah as the most remarkable example and representative of the prophetic
order. As Christ is the end of the whole legal
system, and the burden of all the prophets; as all
the Scriptures, both of the law and the prophets,
pointed to his advent; so now the great lawgiver and




THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   93
the great typal prophet, appear to him in glory, and
discourse of that death which was to fulfil both the
law and the prophets. Indeed, it was predicted of
him, that he should be a prophet like unto Moses,
and that Elijah should be sent as his immediate
forerunner to prepare for his coming. And so,
these two great names, the one opening the Scriptures of the law, and the other closing those of the
prophets, by this prediction in Malachi, in a manner, represent the whole period of preparation, the
four thousand years before Immanuel's advent; and
now when the fulness of time had come, they appear on the holy Mount to bear witness and homage
to him as Lord of all. The glorified spirit of the
prophet, in the same glorified body, which, without
tasting death, had once been wafted to heaven in a
chariot of fire and horsemen of fire, comes down to
the cloud-covered Mount on this new and unusual
ministry. And the once disembodied spirit of the
great lawgiver, which had been so long in heaven,
is now arrayed in a mortal form, prepared for the
occasion, or else in that very body, raised from the
dead, which the Lord himself had buried in a valley
of the land of Moab, where no man knew of his
sepulchre. In either case, and in both examples, it
was a sublime and glorious demonstration of the
great truth of another and higher life for man.
It was an occasion on which the two worlds
seemed to meet face to face.  Heaven was there,
represented by these glorified spirits of juast men




94        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
made perfect, who, for ages, had tasted its bliss.
And earth was there, represented by the three
apostles in all their frailty, wonderment, and aspiration after better things. Between them stood Immanuel. clothed now in the nature of both, fit Mediator thus between God and man, and only ladder
of ascent from the mortal to the immortal. As it
was a meeting and commingling of the two worlds,
earth and heaven, brief indeed in its duration, but
prefiguring one which is to be eternal, so also was it
a striking representation of the unity of the church
of God, under all forms and dispensations. Here,
on a lone mountain summit, apart from every human
abode, and hidden from the gaze of other men, the
three disciples have an ocular demonstration of
Zion's glory in her Great Redeemer.  Here is the
church of the ancient covenant in the person of two
of his greatest teachers; representing all those who
by faith and patience had already inherited the
promises, and entered into their rest. And here
was the church of the New Testament, in the person
of the three apostles, representing all those, to the
end of time, who, by faith and patience, were yet
to enter in the church of the fathers and the
church of the latter days-the church militant and
the church triumphant-all built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief Corner Stone.  Truly Immanuel
was here in his glory, for he was here in the midst
of his church, the great central object, with whom




THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   95
the immortals converse, and on whom the mortals
gaze with awe and love. Well might Peter exclaim,
not knowing, indeed, what to say adequate to such
a scene, " Lord, it is good for us to be here; if thou
wilt, let us here make three tabernacles, one for
thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."
But, mark the voice which comes from heaven, as
the interpreter of this scene, " This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."
There is no more need of earthly tabernacles for
Moses and Elias. The times of the law, and the
times of the prophets are passed.  There is now a
greater Lawgiver and a greater Prophet in the
church below.  Henceforth the only earthly tabernacle is that in which Christ resides. The work of
Moses is done; the work of Elijah and all the prophets is done; but one work remains, that of the
Son. " This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased; hear ye him."  Let him  be your Lawgiver, your Prophet, Priest, and King.
This whole scene of transfiguration is, therefore,
a representation of Immanuel's glory in his mediatorial character, as well as the type and prelude of
his estate of exaltation when he should rise from
the dead, ascend to heaven, and come again in the
clouds of judgment. For, most clearly, we have
here the manifestation of his character as our great
High Priest, properly the first of his mediatorial
offices. The burden of discourse between him and
the celestial visitors is his work of sacrifice.  They




96        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
spake of the decease which he must accomplish at
Jerusalem; and the apostles are charged to tell the
vision to no man till that work was done. The
work of sacrifice once ended, and the great High
Priest having risen again and gone up from the
valley of humiliation to appear before the throne in
his exalted state, a Priest for ever after the order
of Melchisedec —then might this glory be declared
to men.
Just as clearly is it a representation of his Prophetic character.  For the apostles, and, through
them, the church, to the end of time,' are commanded to hear him as the great Teacher, the only
true prophet and lawgiver on earth.  Greater than
Moses, greater than Elijah, he comes as the very
Prophet of whom Moses had spoken, and whose way
Elijah had already prepared in the person of John
the Baptist. This vision reveals him in all the
glory of the prophetic character because the prophet
and the lawgiver here meet in one who is the beloved Son of God.
And so also it is a representation of the Mediator
in the glory of his royal character. It was to show
beforehand to a few chosen witnesses who, in due
time, should bear witness to all the church how he
would appear in glory when he should come as a
King, a Conqueror, and a Judge. He had declared
in the hearing of the multitude, only six days before,
that the Son of man would come in the glory of his
Father with his angels, to reward every man accord



THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   97
ing to his works. And he added, that some were
present, who should not taste of death, till they
should see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
And here on the mountain, was the declaration
verified to the three disciples who beheld this manifestation of his power and glory as the King of
kings and the Lord of lords.
Altogether it forms one of the most instructive
scenes in the earthly life of Immanuel. And it is
full of consolation to all his people. It shows how
near heaven is to us, even while in this mortal state.
We are like the other disciples, left below, and
wholly unconscious of what was transpiring in the
mount. These heavenly visitors came and went,
but they knew it not. But if our eyes were open,
what glorified forms might we not behold in that
spiritual world which is just above us! How thin
too is the veil which intercepts our vision! It needs
but death to lift it, and we shall see face to face
these glorified ones. If Moses and Elias may come
back into our world, and be made visible to mortal
eyes, how much easier must be our transition into
their world! And unto God all things are possible.
Perhaps we have but to die, to realize how closely
we had lived on the confines of heaven, and how
true was the conception, that-,,Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth,
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep."
9




98        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
The beloved disciple, when writing the fourth
Gospel, and quoting from Isaiah to show why the
Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, says, " These
things said Esaias, when he saw his glory and spake
of him." The glory revealed to the inspired prophet was that in which he saw the Lord, sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up, his train filling
the temple, and the six-winged seraphim crying,
one to another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord
of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."
This prophetic apocalypse may be regarded as the
type and prelude of the sublime vision of the transfiguration; even as the transfiguration is of that
eternal kingdom and glory in which the Son of
man shall be revealed at the last day. And so we
find the transfiguration, with its kindred manifestations of Immanuel's glory, holding very much the
same relation to the evangelical history and to all
the subsequent revelations of the New Testament,
which Isaiah's sublime vision held in the prophetic
history and in the following Old Testament Scriptures. No doubt the apostles, in many a dark hour
of toil and tribulation, remembered what they had
seen and heard in the holy mount; and felt their
hearts inspired with new zeal, as they looked forward to the day when their own bodies should be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, and they
should see him face to face.  "Belhved, now are
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet ap



THE MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS GLORY.   99
pear what we shall be; but we know that when
he shall appear we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is. And every man that hath
this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is
pure. "




100       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
CHAPTER VIII.
HIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH.
THE death of Jesus was itself a sublime demonstration of his immaculate virtue. So far as man's
agency was involved, he died simply because a
wicked world could not longer bear the presence of
such virtue. His pure and holy life was a standing
rebuke to its iniquity.  He had committed no
crime, he had done no wrong, he had spoken no
treason; his whole public and private life had been
a mission of mercy, goodness, and peace; and he
boldly challenged the world, in whose open daylight
all his deeds had been done, to convict him of a
single sin; and the world, in a most remarkable
manner, admitted that he was unimpeachable of any
crime. The witnesses who appeared against him
contradicted each other. The man who betrayed
him acknowledged his innocence, and hung himself
in remorse for his own crime. The judge who passed
sentence of death upon him, confessed in the same
breath that he could find no fault in him. The
Roman executioner testified at the cross that he was
a righteous man. The powers in authority at Jerusalemll knew that for envy alone he had been be



HIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH.        101.
trayed and delivered up; and all the people from
Dan to Beersheba knew, that his miracles had been
miracles of mercy; his words, only words of truth
and wisdom; and all his acts, acts of peace and
love. And yet the world crucified him-crucified
him just because it could no longer stand the reproving presence of his immaculate purity.
That such a man should have died such a death
of cruelty and shame, in a civilized and enlightened
age, can admit of no other explanation, when we
leave out of view all the higher and Divine purposes,
than that man was depraved, and he was holy. He
had spoken to the guilty conscience of a world
lying in wickedness as never man spake before.
His heart-searching discourses had penetrated the
inmost depths of its iniquity. He had proclaimed
the wrath of God against all unrighteousness, and
had exposed the hollow-hearted hypocrisy of the
proud in the clear light of heaven's truth. With
such convincing demonstration did he speak to the
heart and conscience of his guilty countrymen, that
they could give his doctrines no answer except that
which, as they thought, should silence his voice for
ever. The New Testament is full of examples of
this heart-searching power of his preaching. The
whole world is, to this day, full of witnesses, both
among the good and the bad, of the same thing.
His words do still cleave their way to the inmost
convictions of every living and dying man, as no
other words ever did, or can. Many others since
9*




102       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
his day have, like him, reasoned of righteousness,
temperance, and a judgment to come, so as to make
the wicked tremble on the very throne of power.
But these have done it in his name, and in virtue
of his authority and example.
It was for his fidelity, therefore, to truth and
righteousness, that is, for his doctrines and his
virtues, that the world put him to death.  "The
world cannot hate you," said he; " but me it hateth
because I testify of it, that the works thereof are
evil." And this unceasing testimony he had given
both by his words and his virtues. His holy doctrines reproved its thousand falsehoods; and his
holy life condemned its deep and dark depravity.
As Socrates, at Athens, centuries before, had suffered death without a crime, save that his doctrines
and his virtues rendered him obnoxious to his fellow
citizens; so our blessed Lord at Jerusalem, by a
similar mode of treatment, but on an infinitely
higher field of truth and virtue, was rejected, betrayed, and crucified by those who could lay no sin
to his charge.
But this would be to look at the death of Jesus
from the human side alone; and to account for it
on the low ground of a depraved human agency.
Many noble martyrs have died for their opinions
and their virtues in this degenerate world. It has
been no uncommon thing thus to die; at least since
his death. This, however, would give us no satisfactory reason for his death, looking at it from the




HIS SUFFERINGxS AND DEATH.        103
side of his Divinity. This alone could never account
for the occurrence of such a death as a part of the
great unfolding scheme of Providence, and of the
world's redemption.  There is an infinitely higher
solution. There was an infinitely grander agency
at work. Wicked men committed the awful deed;
but God permitted and ordained the great event,
for the accomplishment of his eternal purposes of
mercy to our ruined race. The Apostle Peter gave
the great reason on the day of Pentecost: "Him
being delivered, by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain." It was no mere
martyr's death he died-no patriot's immolation for
his country's good —no grand moral spectacle to the
universe, of virtue suffering wrongfully for virtue's
sake.  Whatever there was of this nature in it was
the least part of it.  This was merely incidental to
it, and not the chief end and object of it.  But it
was as a sacrifice for sin-not his own but the sins
of others-that Jesus died.  It was as the incarnate
Son of God, man's Surety, and the Mediator between God and man, that he died. He died a vicarious death. He died to satisfy the claims of
God's broken law in behalf of all who believe in
him, and thus to secure a righteousness for them on
the ground of which they may be justified and
saved. He died an atoning death, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people.  For the iniquity
of his people was he stricken; for the redemption




104       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
of sinners through the blood of his cross, Was he
cut off; "He hath borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows; with his stripes we are healed, and the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."  Thus
was it written by the prophets, and thus did it behove Christ to suffer.  The Scriptures do not more
clearly set before us the great fact of his death,
than they do the great end and purpose of that
death.  " He hath made him who knew no sin, to be
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him."
He came into the world, therefore, not simply to
suffer and die with us, but to suffer and die for usto suffer and die for us as no other man ever did, or
ever can. It was not simply by his example, to
show us how to suffer and die; to encourage us in
suffering and dying; and to sustain us in such sacrifices. Any other martyr could have done this.
A thousand others have done it. We are, at all
times, compassed about by a great cloud of such
witnesses. But he came to do infinitely more for
us than this-infinitely more than all the martyrs
and confessors of all generations could ever do.
I-e came to suffer and die for our sins, in the sense
of paying the awful penalty due to them, bearing
the curse of the law, atoning for our guilt, and securing our pardon and justification.  He came into
the world then for the purpose of suffering and dying. Thus it became necessary, or behoved him
to suffer.  Unlike all other human lives and deaths




ilS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH.          105
— his death was not the mere natural end and consequence of living, but it was the grand, foreseen
and determinate purpose for which he lived.  His
life was but preparatory to his death, as his death
was to his resurrection and eternal glory.  He became incarnate, and lived a life of self-denial and
suffering, in order that he might die the death of a
vicarious sacrifice for sin. In a word, the great
work which he came into the world to accomplish,
was a work of suffering and death, and there was
no way in which it could be finished, except by
passing through them.
Hence we find the Scriptures everywhere referring our salvation to the death of Christ, the blood
of Christ, the cross of Christ.  It is not that his
labours, in working out our salvation, were restricted
to the cross and to the hour of death.  His whole
life of spotless obedience to the law of God, formed
a necessary part of his atoning work. For it became him to magnify the law and make it honourable,
as well as to suffer its penalty in the room of those
who had broken and dishonoured it. But it is because the shedding of his blood by the death of the
cross was the great consummation of all his acts, all
his sufferings.  The labours and the sufferings that
had gone before, found their climax and completion
when with his dying breath he said, It is finished.
So that from  that moment, the cross became the
very symbol and formula of all that Jesus did and
suffered in the flesh as our Mediator.  The great




106         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
idea of the work of Christ is that of suffering.
Hence the apostle says to the Hebrews, " It became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Hence he said to his disciples, when these
sufferings were over, " Thus it was necessary, and
thus it behoved Christ to suffer."   So Paul could
say to the Corinthians, "I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him
crucified;" and to the Galatians, " God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ."  Indeed the sufferings of Christ, which
had been for ages the theme of prophecy, from
David to Isaiah, and from Isaiah to Zechariah, become in the New Testament the prominent and
inexhaustible subject of all his apostles.   The
preaching of the gospel is the preaching of the cross.
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross,
despising the shame; and it is through the blood of
the cross that he hath made peace between God
and man, and reconciled all things unto himself;
whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven.
It is true that our Saviour's life had something
of joy as well as suffering. No holy heart, however
oppressed and burdened with others' woes, can be
utterly without joy.  It can glory even in tribulations; it can rejoice in conscious innocence and in
a sense of God's favour amid its very tears.  So in




HIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH.          107
-lis suffering and sorrowful life there were some
gleams of bright, celestial joy, notwithstanding the
dark eclipse which necessarily excluded his Divine
nature from mortal view. There were times when
Jesus rejoiced in Spirit and said, "I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight."
Still the predominant feature, both of his life
and of his death, that is, of the whole period of
his humiliation from the manger to the cross, was
suffering, self-denial, sacrifice. It is not possible
for any human mind to know, or even to conjecture,
all that a holy being, constituted as he was and dying the death he died, must have endured in the
way of suffering. Nevertheless, with the sacred
narrative before us, we may get some idea of it, by
considering carefully some of the many elements
which made up that bitter cup. And to do this we
must take into account those which preceded as well
as those which attended his dying hours.
The first element of his sufferings was the deep
poverty and privation of his life. This began in
the manger of Bethlehem, and it followed him to
the tomb.  "Ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ," says an apostle, " that whereas he was rich,
yet for our sakes he became poor." Being originally
"in the form of God, and counting it no robbery to
be equal with God, he made himself of no reputa



108        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
tion, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was found in the likeness of men."  He emptied
himself of all his titles, all his honours, al;l his riches,
and became a man of poverty, who had not where
to lay his head while living, and in death was buried
in the tomb of his friend.  Though Lord of all,
and rightful possessor of the riches of the universe,
he yet on earth toiled for his daily bread till his
public ministry began, and during that ministry was
supplied from day to day in a manner that could
not be unattended with hardship and want. Whatever degree of mental or of physical suffering may
be conceived of as attending this voluntary surrender of all the bliss. of heaven, and all the comforts
of earth, for a life of extreme dependence and of
pinching penury, may well be regarded as forming
at least one of the ingredients of that bitter cup,
which our blessed Lord had to drink. With what
sadness, with what tenderness, and yet with what
uncomplaining submission does he say, " The foxes
have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but
the Son of man hath not where to lay his head!"
The next element was the humiliation and shame
that in the eyes of an ungodly world attended such
a life and such a death.  "Being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross."  He was
despised and rejected by men; he was despised and
we esteemed him not. " The reproaches of them
that reproached thee fell on me." In all his ca



HIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH.          109
reer he had to encounter the opposition, the derision,
the insults of a wicked world. And he had to bear
it alone.  There was none to cheer him, none to
succour, none to defend his injured character. Consider him, says an apostle, who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself.  He stood
and proclaimed the truth of God in the midst of a
crooked and perverse generation, and at every step
of his pathway he was watched by malignant foes,
who were plotting his destruction, and doing every
thing in their power to blacken and blast his character. For three years he bore this cross, despising
the shame. And when at last his hour was come,
he died amid scenes of mockery and insult, in which
all that Jew and Gentile, earth and hell could do,
was done to pour contempt upon his suffering soul.
Forsaken by his friends, scourged, mocked, crowned
with thorns by the officers of justice, laughed to
scorn, taunted, and spit upon by his relentless persecutors, and dragged away faint and bleeding to
the place of execution; he is nailed by merciless and
ruffian hands to the accursed cross of a Roman
slave, and hung up between two thieves, with every
possible circumstance of disgrace and torture that
human ingenuity could invent to heap infamy upon
its dying victim.
Another element of his suffering life was its
ceaseless toil. From the opening of his public ministry till its close in death he never rested. His whole
life was spent in the two great departments of his
10




110         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
labour-healing the maladies of the body, and the
deeper maladies of the soul. His disciples, at times,
besought him to rest and to take food. But his answer was: My meat is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to finish his work. I must work while
the day lasts; the night cometh when no man can
work. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and
how am I straitened till it be accomplished?  The
zeal of thine house hath consumed me. Hence we
find him everywhere thronged by the vast multitudes that had come to be healed, and to hear his
preaching. He went about doing good, preaching
in all the cities and villages, instructing all who
came to him, attending upon all the great festivals
at Jerusalem; and the probability is strong, that
during the few years of his public ministry, all his
cotemporaries both in Judea and Galilee, as well as
strangers from all parts of the world, had heard his
matchless instructions and seen his mighty works.
Never was there on earth a more active, self-devoted, and laborious life. His days were consumed
in toil, and whole nights in prayer to God
"Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witnessed the fervour of his prayer,
The deserts his temptations know,
His conflicts and his victory too."
Another bitter ingredient in his cup of suffering,
was that mysterious agony which oppressed him in
immediate view of the cross.  In the garden of




HIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATI,         11i
Gethsernane, on the night of his betrayal, before a
single pang of death had come, there was an awful
crushing weight of woe upon his holy soul, which
seemed to fill him with an unearthly and unutterable sorrow, and caused his bodily frame to sweat
drops of blood.  This mental anguish, the fit exponent of that load of imputed guilt which he was.
bearing for a lost world, and which revealed its
power so fully in the garden, was not indeed limited to that dark hour.  It had, doubtless, been his
daily and nightly companion long before, and during
all his ministry.  Omniscient as he was, and foreseeing the end from the beginning, with all the vivid
distinctness that we perceive present or past events,
the whole scene of death was ever present to his
thoughts; and it is impossible that he should not
often, especially when alone, have suffered the same
agony that oppressed him  in the garden.  For
during all his life, as well as -on the cross, he bore
our griefs and carried our sorrows, because the Lord
had laid on him the iniquity of us all. On the mount
of transfiguration he had talked with Moses and
Elias of that decease which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem; and we have the record of many different occasions on which he had plainly told his
disciples, that he must go up to Jerusalem, to be
betrayed by the rulers, delivered to the Gentiles.
and crucified. All this long anticipated and new
sorrow of the soul, in immediate foresight of death,
and under the infliction of Divine wrath against the




11 2         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
sinner's substitute, comes upon him  in the garden
and at the deepest gloom of midnight. And he
has to bear it alone, unsupported and uncheered,
save as he is strengthened for the trial by the ministering angels of God. The world, for which he is
about to die, is asleep; his disciples, the companions
of his three years' toils, are all heavy with sleep.
Jerusalem, the city of his love, is profoundly asleep,
all save those murderous bands that are moving at
this lone hour towards his place of sorrow. And
there he is in the garden's deepest shade, in the
midst of his sleeping disciples, prostrate on the
ground, sweating, as it were, great drops of blood
falling down to the groundl, now breaking the silence
with the cry, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even
unto death," and now with the thrice offered prayer
to the Father, " If it be possible let this cup pass
fiom  me; nevertheless not my will but thine be
be done."  Here was sorrow, here was suffering
such as mortal heart hard never felt-such as no finite mind can fully fathom.
"It was a dark and fearful hour,
The stars might well grow.dinm,
When this mortality had power
So to o'ershadow him;
mnat he who gave man's breath might know
The very depths of human woe."
The next element to be noticed in our Saviour's
sufferings was the physical torture of his crucifixion.
Outside of the dungeons of a Roman Catholic In



HIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH.          113
quisition, there has probably never been devised by
man, a mode of death more dreadful and excruciating than that of the cross.  Indeed the intensest
torture both of body and mind, we are accustomed
to describe by this very term, excruciating, which
is derived from  the cross.  But in our Saviour's
case, besides all the common and inevitable horrors
of such a death-its ignominy, its laceration of the
flesh, its exhaustion, its thirst, its lingering agony
-there was added every thing in the way of insult, derision, andt cruel torture which a diabolican
rage could invent to augment his sufferings.  To
such an extent was this carried, that the insane malignity of his foes defeated itself, and brought on a
premature and unexpected sinking of his vital powers.  So that the scene of torture, which in ordinary cases, was protracted through several days,
was terminated in his case by death in a few hours.
In the fresh vigour of health and in the strength of
manhnood, he is arrested at dead of night, brought
to trial with the early dawn, hurried before the bar
of the Sanhedrim, then before Pilate's bar, then before Ilerod and his men of war, and then back to
Pila te, and then again through the streets of the
city to the hill of death, bearing his cross; and
through all these scenes he is so maltreated, by
being scourged with rods, smitten on the head,
pierced with a crown of thorns, reviled and spit
upon, that when at last exhausted with fatigue, and
faint with loss of blood, he is nailed to the cross,
10 *




114        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
his poor crushed nature yields to the load of agony,
and he expires in from  three to six hours.  The
probability is that it was the shorter period, for
while the evangelists vary as to the beginning of
this dread drama, some speaking of the sixth hour,
and some of the third, they agree that there xas
darkness over all the land frobm the sixth to the
ninth hour; so that we have reason to think, our
blessed Lord was nailed to the cross about the sixth
hour or mid-day, and expired about the ninth hour,
near the time of the evening sacrifice, and thus suffered during the three awful hours of this supernatural darkness.  But in either event he suffered all
that human malignity could inflict in the way of
torture, and all that was required to extinguish such
a life. There is no page in human history, no record of human sufferings, which recounts a scene
more calculated to touch the heart by its graphic
grouping of all that was dreadful in the persecutor,
with all that was sacred and tender in the sufferer,
than this story of the passion of our Lord.
But another still, and probably the bitterest of
all the ingredients in our Saviour's cup of suffering,
was the hiding of his Father's face in that dread
hour of agony.  While his faint and bleeding body
was suffering all that it could suffer at the hands of
man, his pure and holy soul was suffering still more
under the awful hidings of his Father's face.  It
was something of this kind, no doubt, realized or
anticipated, that, on the night before, had so over



HIS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH.         115
powered him, when he sweat great drops of blood,
and said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death." But now, in his extremity, when dissolving nature hangs helpless on the cross, when
earth and hell have risen in league against him,
when all human helpers have forsaken him and fled,
save one trembling disciple and his heart-broken
mother with her female attendants-now when
earth's deepest darkness has gathered over his dying
head, that favour, and love, and fellowship which
from all eternity he had enjoyed with his Father
seems to be withdrawn, and the very heavens are
turned to wrath. All the waves and billows of
Divine wrath seem to be passing over his head, and
he is left alone to struggle with that overwhelming
despair which, but for him, had been poured for ever
upon the soul of sinful man.  His last words had
been spoken, his last charges given to his weeping
mother and the loved disciple, his last promise to
the penitent thief had been uttered, his last petition
had been offered up for his foes: "Father, forgive
them, they know not what they do;" the raging,
scoffing multitude around had exhausted all their
vials of wrath upon him, and now, it seemed that
nothing remained but to die. But at this awful
moment there is a loud and bitter cry, as of one
sinking in despair. "And, at the ninth hour," says
the evangelist, " Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama, sabacthani! which is,
being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?'




116       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
And here we may well veil our faces in astonishment, and hush our lips to silence. No mortal
tongue may tell of the nature or the extent of that
suffering which thus in death weighed down the
Spirit of the Son of God. The Scriptures have
left it in impenetrable mystery. The human mind
is incapable of comprehending it. All that we
know, or perhaps could know in our present state,
is that he suffered not thus for himself. To his pure
and holy.soul, death itself could have had no terrors. To him death would have been but the gate
of endless joy; and instead of this cry of despair,
there would have been but songs of triumph. It
was because he was bearing in his body on the
cross the sins of the whole world, dying the Just
for the unjust, and receiving into his bosom the
awful curse of the violated law, which, for the time,
shut out from his view every ray of the Divine
favour —it was because he stood in our place and
died our death, that there was for a season poured
out upon his devoted and vicarious head the unmitigated wrath of God against sin. This was the
burden of his fearful passion. " Thus it was written,
and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to enter
into his rest." But this storm of wrath was soon
passed. And then he said, "It is finished." And
when he had cried again with a loud voice, "Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit," he bowed his
head and gave up the ghost.




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    117
CHAPTER IX.
HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.
TIIE story of the cross, whilst it is the most
tragical, is yet the most glorious in the annals of
history. The sufferer becomes a conqueror, even
in his death; because he dies to rise again triumphant and victorious over all his foes.  Where
the historic record of all other men ends, that of
Jesus begins with a new and nobler life. With him
the pangs of death and the three days of imprisonment in the sepulchre were but the door of entrance
for his glorified humanity, into that sublime and
exalted estate in which there is no suffering and no
death for ever.
It is impossible for us to appreciate fully the
feelings of his disciples as they passed through the
sad scenes of his crucifixion. We can never, even
in imagination, stand under that crushing grief and
despair which pressed them down, when hope after
hope departed, arid they, at last, beheld the beloved
Master, on whom all their fondest affections centred,
expire on the cross. Because we know what they
did not.  We know the end from the beginning.
We see the cross and the crown together. We read




118        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
the sad story of suffering and woe in the light and
the joy of his resurrection morning.  The rising
sun of the third (lay does for us what it could not
do for them-it throws back a halo of glory which
gilds the Saviour's tomb, and dispels for us all
those doubts and fears which had gathered over
their souls, as the gloom  of midnight.  Still, with
the glorious issue full in view, there is a deathless
pathos to all hearts, in the story of the cross.
Though we know that the third (lay morning shall
be as life from the dead, shall dry up our tears and
tell of our great deliverer's almighty power, and
pour again the sweet radiance of hope into the
broken hearts of his scattered disciples, still there
is a touching tenderness in the sufferings of Jesus,
which the millions yet to come, as the millions who
have gone before, can read of only with tearful
eyes.
No doubt, some of his disciples cherished a hope,
even to the last, that his life would be spared; that
in some way he would exert his mighty power, even
on the cross, to the confusion and overthrow of all
his enemies.  Judas himself, probably, had some
idea of this sort when he betrayed him; and this
may have been one reason why the traitor was so
overwhelmed when he saw that instead of being delivered by his miraculous powers, he was actually
sentenced and led out to death.  Though the guilty
traitor had, in despair, hung himself, we cannot
suppose that his faithful and loving disciples could




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    119
lhave lost all hope of deliverance, so long as life lingered in the sufferer.  Scattered and dismayed as
they all were by the rude midnight arrest of their
Master, some of them, nevertheless, had gathered
sufficient courage and hope to follow him through
all the scenes of the trial, and to the very place of
execution.  Wherever they may have stood among
the crowd, near by or distant from the cross, in
silence and fear, watching every shifting scene of
the dreadful tragedy, it could not be otherwise than
that they should have prayed, and expected, even to
the last moment, that he would come (dowa from the
cross. Because they had for three years seen too
many manifestations of his Divine power, not to
know that with him nothing was impossible. He
saved others, even after death had done its work;
and why might he not save himself from the approach of death?
But when they saw him die, apparently before
the usual time of death by crucifixion; when, after
three hours of supernatural darkness veiling the
hill of death, and three hours of unparalleled sufferings, they heard his last words, " Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit," and saw him bow his
hlead and give up the ghost —as they gazed in helpless agony upon the pale, still form of their beloved
Lord, every ray of hope must have departed from
their stricken hearts, and they were left in utter
desolation.  They thought it had been he who should




120        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
have redeemed Israel. But they could think so no
longer now!
As the sun of that awful day went down thus in
darkness and blood, all their hopes of earthly, and,
perhaps, of celestial glory, went down wi:th it.
What a night was that in Jerusalem! What a night
to Peter and John! to Lazarus and his sisters! to
Mary Magdalene and his own heart-broken mother!
As they met one another that night or the next
Sabbath day, and ventured to recount the scenes of
trial and death they had witnessed, to tell of his
last words, his last looks, and his dying agony, how
their hearts must have sunk at the sorrowful recital!
The Scripture is silent as to all that they did, said,
and suffered during this period. All that we know
about their feelings we learn from the record of
Luke, that "many beholding the things that were
done, smote their breasts and returned;" and from
the words of Jesus to two of them after he was risen,
" What manner of communications are these that ye
have, one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?"
But that they cherished his memory with an intense
and undying affection, we may safely infer, not only
from the honourable burial he received at the hands
of Joseph and Nicodemus, and the costly preparations of the women for embalming his body, but
from all the incidents connected with the amazing
scenes of the resurrection, the forty days' sojourn
with them, and his glorious ascension to heaven.
Though our Saviour had repeatedly foretold the




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    121
manner of his death, and declared plainly to his
disciples that he would rise again the third day, still
the scenes of his trial and crucifixion were so extraordinary and overwhelming, that they seem to
have obliterated all thought or expectation of this
kind, as effectually as if he had never spoken a
syllable on the subject.  While his enemies remembered these predictions, and resorted to all possible
safeguards against being imposed upon by his
friends, there is no indication that in all Jerusalem
he had a single disciple or friend iwho once thought
of his rising again. The loving women, who, if any
on earth, would have clung to such a hope, instead
of thinking of a resurrection, went at the appointed
hour to the grave to embalm his dead body.  And
so far was such a thought from their minds, that the
most ardent of them  all, Mary Magdalene, even
when she saw the stone rolled away from the
sepulchre, the grave clothes lying alone, and two
angels sitting on the spot where the body had lain,
still inquired of him, whom she supposed the
gardener, where he had borne away the dead body.
Indeed, as if to account for that strange forgetfulness of his predictions, and slowness of heart to believe, which had taken possession of their minds,
the sacred writers tell us expressly that his disciples
did not understand the Scripture that he should rise
again.
Under these circumstances, how convincing must
have been the proof which overcame this reluctance
11




122       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUJEL.
to believe, and how overpowering the joy, when, on
the third day, the strange tidings got wing, and flew
from heart to heart, that Jesus was alive again.
Never, perhaps, in the history of mankind, was
there a day of such joy to so many desolate hearts,
as that first day of the week in Jerusalem.  The
accounts given by the evangelists of the whole scene
-so fragmentary, so full of rapid movements, so
full even of apparent disorder and confusion, different messengers running in different directions with
the news, some meeting and some missing each
other-are in perfect keeping with all that is natural
onl an occasion so marvellous, and so fraught with
unspeakable joy. There is nothing in all the New
Testament truer to life and nature, and more convincing by all its internal evidences, than the manner in which this story of the resurrection of our
Lord is told by the different evangelists.  If such
an event had to occur a thousand times over, in precisely the same, or similar, circumstances, it could
not occur without producing just such phenomena
as we find it did produce among the saddened,
despairing, and yet loving friends of Jesus-first
the slowness of heart to believe, then the fright and
bewildered astonishment, then the eager haste to
spread the tidings before the whole truth was known,
then the unutterable joy which the great fact inspired, and then some appearance of discrepancy in
the different statements made  by the different




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    123
parties, as they recounted the several different parts
of the scene.
It is worthy of remark that there was no human
spectator of our Lord's resurrection.  His disciples
expected no such event, and were not looking for it.
It occurred at an hour when Jerusalem was all quiet
in the slumbers of the early morn. The keepers
on guard, who were awake, were terrified at the apparition of angels, and became as dead men. And
when the women reached the spot, it was only to
hear the announcement, "He is not here; he is
risen as he said; come see the place where the Lord
lay."  But the stupendous scene was past.  While
men slept, and ere the earthquake had rent the rocks
and broken the profound stillness of his three days'
sojourn in the tomb, the conqueror had burst asunder all its bars and risen to life again.  Thousands
had gazed upon him in the deep humiliation of the
cross. They had witnessed -all his agonies; had
heard his outcry; had seen him die; had followed
him to the burial. But no mortal eye looked on
him, as in might and majesty he rose! In this he
was seen of angels alone. They were his witnesses.
They bore testimony of the fact to his unbelieving
disciples one after another; and they, in turn, bore
testimony to an unbelieving world. And thus the
most wonderful and stupendous event in the history
of man —the event on which all our hopes of heaven
depend, was at the first received on testimony, the
testimony of angels witnessing it, and the testimony




124       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
of his disciples reporting to others what they had
heard and seen.
But the proof was not to end with this testimony.
Although no human being saw him rise from the
dead, yet many were permitted to see him, to converse with him, to eat with him,-after he had risen.
To see one die and laid in the grave, and then to
see him alive again, is as perfect an evidence of his
resurrection as to behold him in the very act of
rising.  And this evidence the apostles had repeatedly, in a great  variety of circumstances during
a period of forty days. In this sense we find on
different occasions from one to five hundred eyewitnesses of his resurrection.  Luke tells us, that
to his chosen apostles he showed himself alive after
his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of
them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. We have an account of at least ten different occasions on which
he appeared to some one or more of his disciples,
during this period.  He may have appeared to them
on many other occasions of which we have no record. We know he appeared often enough to convince the most sceptical and unbelieving among
them.
His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene
alone, early in the morning, immediately after the
other women had gone back to the city to tell the
disciples of the vision of angels which they had
seen at the sepulchre.  It is a pleasing and in



HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.   125
structive fact that this devoted female disciple,
whose chief distinction was her ardent love, should
thus be honoured with the first interview with the
risen Redeemer. The interview was short, but full
of tender pathos.  She stood weeping in the garden, grieving for the loss of the absent body, for it
was not in the tomb, and she knew not where they
had laid it. The living Saviour had already said,
" Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?"
But in the intensity of her grief she knew him not.
He had, however, but to speak her name, Mary,
probably in that very tone to which she was accustomed while he was alive, and then she turned and
said with the full joyous gush of recognition,
"Rabboni!" which is to say, Master! Jesus saith
unto her, doubtless for the purpose of turning her
mind from all mere earthly affections, and making
her feel that he was no longer an inhabitant of this
world, "Touch me not; for I -am not yet ascended
to my Father; but go to my brethren and say unto
them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father,
and to my God and your God."
His second appearance was immediately after this
to the other women, Joanna, Salome, Mary the
mother of James and others, as they were on
their way to the city, when he met them, and
said, "All hail." And they came and held him
by the feet and worshipped him. In this embrace
of his feet there was, no doubt, the homage of believing, reverential, and adoring worship; and hence
11 *




126        TIIE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
he receives and does not forbid it, as he had just
done in the case of Mary Magdalene, whose first
gushing emotions of joy had centered upon him
more as an earthly friend restored, than as a glorified God and Saviour. Then said Jesus unto them,
"Be not afraid; (they were still awed by his
spiritual majesty,) go tell my brethren that they go
into Galilee, and there shall they see me."
His third appearance was to Simon Peter, some
time during this first day of the week; for in the
evening of that day, we find, as the two disciples
returned from Emmaus, that they were greeted at
Jerusalem with the tidings, " The Lord is risen, indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon." As the
Apostle Paul in mentioning his different appearances to the Corintllians, says, "HIe was seen of
Cephas, then of the twelve," we naturally infer,
that on this occasion he appeared to Peter alone,
and before he had appeared to any of the twelve.
We have no record, however, of any of the incidents of this third appearance.  The reason why
Peter was singled out from all the other apostles,
and permitted to see his risen Master first, could
hardly have been because he had always been a
sort of leader among his brethren, but is, no doubt,
to be found in the great grace and condescension
of our Saviour, who would thus display his loving
kindness by visiting and reassuring the very disciple
who had offended most grievously, and was now
most deeply humble and penitent. If the Lord




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    127
had indeed forgiven and appeared to Peter, how
much more might all the others take courage and be
comforted!
His fourth appearance was on the same day to
two of those who had believed in him as the Redeemer of Israel, as they journeyed to Emmaus and
talked together of all that had happened.  The
whole story of this interview, which is given by
Luke with peculiar minuteness of detail, is full of
interest, as showing the deep grief and disappointment which his sorrowful death had brought upon
all his friends.  Joining himself to them as a stranger, with in terest and synpathy listening to all their
sad recital of what had just occurred at Jerusalem,
then himiself expounding  to them  the Messianic
Scriptures in a way thlat made their hearts burn
within them, and at last reaching the village, and
yielding to their solicitation to tarry with them for
the night, he reveals himself to them at their evening meal, in the act of breaking, blessing, and distributing the bread. No doubt, in those significant
and familiar acts, there was something on this occasion, in his whole tone and manner, which brought
all the past vividly to their minds, and made them
see, as though scales had fallen from their eyes, the
living face of Jesus.  With astonishment and joy
they rose up that hour, and went back to Jerusalem
to tell the great truth which the women had reported in the morning, and whlich till then they had
doubted, that the Lord had risen indeed.  When




1298      ITHE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
they reached the city, they found the eleven ano'
other disciples gathered together. And then there
was a mutual announcement of glad tidings. For
while the two travellers rehearsed what things were
done on the way, and how he was revealed to them
in the breaking of bread, the Jerusalem company
even anticipated their story with the exultant statement, " The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared
unto Simon."
Then follows quickly his fifth appearance to this
assembled company, even as they talked and rejoiced together.  "And as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto
them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified
and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a
spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled?
and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle
me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as
ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken.
he showed them his hands and his feet. And while
they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said
unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they
gave him a piece of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb. And he took it and did eat before them
[thus giving the most palpable proof that he was a
living man]. And he said unto them, These are the
words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were
written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets,




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    129
and in the psalms concerning me. Then opened he
their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise
from the dead the third day; and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in his
name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold
I send the promise of my Father upon you; but
tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued
with power from on high."
These five appearances were all on the first day
of the week, the first Christian Sabbath. His sixth
appearance was on the Sabbath following, or eight
days after, to the eleven disciples including Thomas.
Thomas had not been present at the former interview. When the others reported to him how they
had seen the Lord, had conversed with him, eaten
with him, marked the very nail- prints on his hands
and feet, in a spirit of excessive caution and incredulity he replied, " Except I shall see in his hands the
print of the nails and put my finger into the print
of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will
not believe."   Our blessed Lord, more perhaps
with a view to make the proof of his resurrection
doubly sure to the doubtful of all coming generations, than of yielding to the unreasonable demand
of this doubting disciple, granted another interview,
probably in the same room, which removed all the
doubts of Thomas.  " Then came Jesus, the doors




130        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
being shut, and stood in the midst and saidl, Pe:ice
be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach
hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be
not faithless but believing. And Thomas answered
and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus
saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me,
thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet have believed."
His seventh appearance was on the shore of the
sea of Galilee, early in the morning, to seven of his
disciples, who had spent a toilsome and fruitless
night in fishing. John, who narrates it, calls it the
third time he had showed himself to his disciples.
It was indeed only the third time he had appeared
to any collective body of them, but as we have seen,
the seventh, from the first, including the four preceding interviews, which were only personal, as being with one or two individuals. The disciples on
this occasion were Peter, James, John, Thomas,
Nathaniel or Bartholomew, and two others, whose
names are not given. This interview, which is perhaps more fully recorded than any other, was accompanied by one of his mighty miracles, bringing
to their minds other similar displays of Did'ine
power while he was with them, and leading them at
once to know that it was the Lord.  On this occasion he dined with them, and held that memorable
dialogue with Peter, which seemed intended to reinstate him in his forfeited apostleship, and to point




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    131
out the great duty of the office —" Feed my sheep,
feed my lambs."
His eighth appearance was that which he had himself appointed in Galilee. On the night he was
betrayed, he had said to his disciples, "When I am
risen I will go before you into Galilee." On the
morning of the resurrection the angels sent word to
his disciples by the women, and he afterwards met
them and repeated the message, To go and tell his
brethren to meet him in Galilee. Accordingly after
the second Sabbath his apostles seem to have left
Jerusalem  and returned to Galilee to wait for his
appointed appearance.  We know  not the place
which he appointed.  The Scripture speaks of it as
a mountain, and tradition makes it the mount of
transfiguration, on which Peter, James, and John
had once beheld his excellent glory, when he charged'
them to tell the vision to no man till the Son of
man should be risen fromn the dead(. It seems very natural to suppose that there was some sort of connection between that first partial revelation of his glory
to the three disciples, and this fuller manifestation
to all of them after he was risen from the dead, and
that the place was the same. But be this as it may,
there can be no doubt that a great number of his
disciples and friends, not only from Jerusalem, but
from  all the cities of Galilee had resorted to the
place of meeting.  It is evidently of this interview
that the apostle Paul speaks, when writing to the
Corinthians many years afterwards, he says, "After




132        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at
once, of whom the greater part remain unto this
present, but some are fallen asleep."  Important
however as the occasion was, both in its previous
appointment, and in the numbers who witnessed it,
it is very briefly recorded.  "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee into a mountain where
Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw
him they worshipped him, but some doubted. And
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given to me in heaven and earth." Matthew, who alone of the evangelists, relates this appearance in Galilee, connects with it the words of the
great commission, " Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world." And the strong probability is that this great command was given on
more than one occasion-at least on this one, and
on that in which he ascended to heaven.
The ninth appearance was to James, as mentioned
by Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians.
There is some doubt as to which one of the persons
bearing the name of James, this was. In all probability it was the one whom Paul mentions in his
epistle to the Galatians as the "brother of the
Lord," and who was afterwards eminent in the
church at Jerusalem, and took a leading part in the




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.   133
first synod there, as stated in the fifteenth chapter
of the Acts. But there is no account given elsewhere of this appearance to James.
His tenth and last appearance (excepting that in
which he was afterwards seen by Paul) was on the
day of his ascension to heaven. A full account of
this is given by St. Luke, partly in his Gospel and
partly in the first chapter of the book of Acts.
It occurred forty days after his resurrection, and
consequently jus' ten days before the day of Pentecost. No doubb the whole band of his apostles,
having returned from Galilee, were present at the
last interview. Indeed we read in immediate connection, that the number of the names of those who
were together was one hundred and twenty. On
this occasion he charged them not to depart from
Jerusalem, but to "wait for the promise of the
Father, which they had heard of him. For John
truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence." From
Luke's narrative we should infer that he spent some
considerable time with them on this occasion,
"giving them commandments and speaking to them
of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."
As suggested by Dr. Moore, in his admirable little
work, "The Last Days of Jesus," we think it likely
that he met his disciples on this occasion, as he had
done on others, in the evening, in their usual place
of meeting in Jerusalem, spent the whole night with
them, and led them out through the early dawn, by
12




134        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
the familiar path which they had trodden on the
night of his betrayal, across the brook Cedron, past
Gethsemane, and over the Mount of Olives, to his
loved and quiet Bethany, the chosen spot for his
ascension. Luke closes his Gospel with the following record: "And he led them out as far as
Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. And it came to pass while he blessed them,
he was parted from them, and carried up into
heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to
Jerusalem  with great joy, and were continually
in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen."
In the Acts, he supplements this account with other
interesting particulars.  The disciples ask, "Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel?" He answers, " It is not for you to know
the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put
in his own power. But ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and
ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." In all probability he uttered again the solemn words of the great commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the
gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned. And when he had spoken these
things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a
cloud received him out of their sight." St. Mark
idds, "He was received up into heaven and sat on




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    135
the right hand of God."  "And while they looked
steadfastly toward heaven, (continues St. Luke,) as
he went up, behold two men stood by them in white
apparel; who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why
qtand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesu,
who is taken from you into heaven, shall so comc
in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Then returned they unto Jerusalem, from the Mount
called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbatli
day's journey."
Truly the Lord hath done all things well! No.
thing could be more complete and convincing thai
these proofs of his resurrection, given to so man,
witnesses, in so many varying forms, through th(
space of forty days. Angels saw him rise. Bu:
men saw him die, saw him buried, saw him alive
again, and saw him ascend to heaven.  There can
be no possibility of mistake as to either of these
facts. There is no more ground to doubt that he
rose from the dead and ascended to heaven than to
doubt that he lived and died. But if he rose and
ascended, then all is true, all is sure and safe for
ever. If he rose and ascended, then is he a Divine
and Almighty Saviour, exalted at God's right hand
and living for evermore to intercede for us.  If he
rose and ascended, then was his life an incarnation
of God in the flesh, and his death a great atoning
sacrifice for the sins of the lost. If he rose and
ascended, then is this story of the cross a true
Wospel to a perishing world, the power of God and




136       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
the wisdom of God to all who believe. If he rose
and ascended, then is our hope of heaven secure,
our salvation on the immovable basis of God's truth
and God's infinite love and mercy. Then was he
delivered for our offences, and raised again for our
justification. Made of the seed of David according
to the flesh, he was thus declared to be the Son of
God with power by the resurrection from the dead.
Nothing ever was, and nothing ever can be, more
sublime and glorious than such a termination of
such a life, and such a death! The toils of his suffering life, the humiliation and agony of his cruel
death,' exchanged for the immortal robes of his resurrection body, and for the bright diadem of a conqueror over death and hell, ascending to his eternal
throne in the heavens.  The genius of the old
classic Greeks and Romans, strove to embody some
lofty conception of the sublime and beautiful, the
eternal and divine, in their myths and fables of
human apotheosis and transformation. But here,
alone, in Jesus Immanuel, incarnate, crucified, risen,
ascended, and crowned with glory, we find the only
true meeting of earth and heaven, the one grand
transformation of the Divine into the human, and
apotheosis of the human on the throne of Divinity.
Here alone, in this wondrous and sublime story, do
we find man's only possible exaltation and glory.
We see not yet all things put under man; for the
end is not yet. But we see Jesus on the throne;
we see Jesus, "who was made a little lower than the




HIS RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.    137
angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and houour; that he, by the grace of God, should
taste death for every man."
The resurrection and ascension were not only a
demonstration to the universe that his grand work
of atonement for man by the death of his cross,
was fully accomplished and accepted in the heavens,
but a complete and eternal vindication of his character and all his claims as our conquering King
and Redeemer. It marked the ending of his estate
of humiliation in the flesh as our atoning sacrifice,
and the beginning of that estate of exaltation and
glory, as King of kings and Lord of lords, in which
he shall reign in heaven and rule on earth, until all
enemies shall be put under his feet, and death itself
shall die. It was a fitting spectacle to the attendant angels, that the whole band of loving disciples,
as on that memorable morning they stood on the
mount, and saw him ascend in his chariot of cloud
to the highest heavens, should, with adoring wonder,
worship such a Saviour, such a conqueror. It was
but the prelude of that eternal worship which
awaited him on high, when the everlasting doors
were lifted up at his approach, and the decree of
welcome went forth-"Let all the angels of God
worship him."
12*




138       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL,
CHAPTER X.
HIS MEDIATORIAL OFFICES AND WORK.
AMONG men no character can be fully estimated
without considering the offices filled and the works
accomplished by its possessor.  It is mainly through
the works of a life time that the character of any
man is best displayed. The same rule will apply to
the life and character of our blessed Lord. Thus
far we have traced the great facts and events of his
life, with his Divine and human virtues, through
their gradual historical development, from the hour
of his incarnation in human form to that of his ascension to heaven, as our risen and glorified Mediator. And if this were all, it would infinitely
transcend anything that was ever known among
men; but the wondrous story does not end even
with this sublime apotheosis. As he came from
heaven at first only to enter upon his work, as he
passed from life to death only to finish for ever one
great part of that work, that of sacrifice and expiation, so he passed from death to life again, and from
earth to heaven itself, but to carry on and consummate
his great Mediatorial work.  Having done all that
the case he had undertaken required to be done on




H1IS MEDIATORIAL OFFICES AND WORK.   139
earth, he is now gone up to appear before God as
our Advocate, Intercessor, and victorious King,
there to accomplish all that part of his work which,
from his ascension to his second coming, remained to
be (lone.
Although exalted on his heavenly throne, he still
fills his Mediatorial offices, and is carrying on his
great work, and we, in this mortal state, only see in
part and know in part what he has done and is yet
to do; nevertheless the Scriptures have revealed
enough to give us some conception of his character
and achievements as our Prophet, Priest, and King.
These three great offices pertain to him as Mediator
between God and man; and they belong to him
both in his estate of humiliation and of exaltation.
For whilst the different offices are, each in turn,
most prominently brought to view at the several
successive stages of his work, those of Prophet and
Priest characterizing his estate of humiliation, the
one in his life of instruction, and the other in his
death of sacrifice, and that of King characterizing
his state of exaltation from the resurrection to the
consummation of all things; still all three of them
were filled by him while in the flesh, and by anticipation for four thousand years before the advent,
and all three of them are still borne by him, now
that he is in heaven.  As our Great High Priest,
he finished the work of sacrifice, by the one offering
of himself upon the cross. But he is still our Great
High Priest in heaven-" a priest for ever after the




140        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL,
order of Melchisedec"-"a priest who ever liveth to
make intercession for us"-" the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world." In the days of his earthly
ministry he was the Prophet, that was to come into
the world, the great Teacher of Israel, a light to
lighten the Gentiles, and a preacher of glad tidings
to the poor. But from the very beginning, through
all dispensations, he was in the church as the great
Prophet of all the prophets, teaching his people and
preparing the way for his incarnation, by revelations and manifestations to holy men of old who
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In
his kingly office, which belongs preeminently to his
estate of exaltation and glory, as risen from the
dead and ascended to heaven, he is now seated at
God's right hand, clothed with all power in heaven
and earth, conquering all his and our enemies, and
carrying forward his eternal purposes, until "every
knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on
earth and things under the earth, and every tongue
shall confess that he is Lord of all to the glory of
God the Father." But still he was our King from
the beginning of the history of Redemption. In
the darkest hour of his humiliation, when his Godhead was all eclipsed in the cloud of mortal flesh,
and he stood arraigned as a culprit at Pilate's bar,
he could say, " I am a king, for this end was I born,
and for this purpose came I into the world, that I
might bear witness unto the truth."  He was with
his church through all the wilderness, not only as




HIS MEDIATORIAL OFFICES AND WORK.  141
her suffering Messiah, but as her all-conquering
Sovereign-the Prophet of all her prophets, the
Priest of all her priests, the King of all her kings,
the rightful Lord of the whole earth.  And thus,
from the beginning to the end, through all dispensations, both in humiliation and in exaltation, in
life, in death, and resurrection, on earth and in
heaven, he executes for the church of his redeemed
his great Mediatorial work, and fills all the high
offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. His kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom, and of his dominion
there shall be no end, till he shall have consummated all the purposes of his Mediatorship, shall
have put down all authority and power, brought all
his ransomed home to glory, and delivered up the
kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all
in all.
If we look back into the history of the ancient
church, as developed through all the Old Testament
Scriptures, it is in the light of these three great
Mediatorial offices filled by the Messiah, that we can
best understand the types, symbols, ceremonies, and
revelations of that time of preparation.  All spoke
of Christ, all pointed to Christ as the one Mediator
and Deliverer of Israel-the Prophet to come, like
unto Moses, the atoning Priest adumbrated by
Aaron, the eternal King in Zion sitting on the throne
of David. He was the burden of all the prophets'
messages of salvation and deliverance. He was the
subject of all the inspired bards and psalmists of




142         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
Israel. He was the substance of all the burning
altars, the bleeding victims and the priestly offerings and oblations. HIe was the end of all the laws
for righteousness to every one that believeth.  He
was the theme of all the Scriptures, that were written in the law, the prophets, and the psalms.  It is
only as the soul of man is taught and enlightened
by him, as God's appointed Prophet, redeemed from
sin and hell by him as God's accepted Priest, delivered from all enemies by him, as God's equal and
eternal Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
that any soul ever was or can be saved. It is only
thus as he executes those great offices, and in them
accomplishes the greatest work that was ever undertaken in the universe, that all the church of
God, of all nations and generations from the beginning to the end of time, shall be saved and gathered
home to glory, washed by his blood, sanctified by
his Spirit, and redeemed by the might of his power.
There was in the very nature of the work which
the Mediator undertook, the work of redemption,
a necessity that he should discharge each of these
great offices. The race of man was ruined by sin,
apostate from God, under the curse of his violated
law, lost to all the light of heaven, and delivered
over to the dominion of death.  To make reconciliation for such sinners-lost for ever in the triple
sense of being in utter darkness, in utter condemnation, and utter bondage to death and the devil,
there was a threefold work to be done, the work of




HIS MEDIATORIAL OFFICES AND WORK.   143
instruction, the work of sacrifice, and the work of
conquering all their enemies.  The pall of nature's
darkness must be lifted from eyes that had been
hopelessly blinded by sin. The death penalties of
a violated law must be met and satisfied for those
who were already under its curse, having forfeited
every claim to life. The prison-doors of hell and
the grave must be unbarred by one, who, having infinite righteousness, and having given his own blood
as a ransom, had almighty power to release the captirves. Thus it was written, and thus it behoved
Christ to suffer; and not only to suffer, but to pour
the light of Divine truth into every sin-blinded soul,
and to reign and conquer in behalf of all his redeemed people.  It is therefore of the very essence
of salvation, a matter arising out of the fearful
exigencies of our condition as sinners, that our
Mediator Immanuel should be a Prophet, a Priest,
andl a King.  The whole history of redemption exhibits him as such.  He could not have been a Saviour otherwise.  In each his work is perfect and
glorious.  He taught with infinite wisdom, as never
man taught.  He died once for all, the victim and
the priest, the just for the unjust, as neither men
nor angels could have died.  He destroyed Satan's
throne, and triumphed openly over death and hell,
as none but a God could do. Not in one jot or tittle
of all his work did he fail.
If we look forward into the Apocalypse, the prophetic book of the New Testament, we behold him,




144         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
amid all the glories of the heavenly hierarchy, worshipped and adored; not only for his own infinite
majesty as the eternal Son of God, but for that
amazing work of redemption which he had wrought
out by his blood, carried forward by his Spirit, and
perfected for ever by his sovereign power as the
Mediator between God and man. This is indeed
the sublimest vision of the Apocalypse. This work
of the Lamb is the theme of the new song. It is
the most wondrous, the most joyous, and exultant
theme that the angels had ever heard in heaven.
"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art
worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to
God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue
an(l people and nation; and hast made us unto our
God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the
earth.  And I beheld, and I heard the voice of
many angels round about the throne and the living
creatures and the elders; and the number of them
was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands
of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is
the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glcry,
and blessing. And every creature which is in the
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and
such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
heard I saying, Blessing and honour and glory and
power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."




HIS MEDIATORIAL OFFICES AND WORK.  145
It is in this work of man's redemption that Immanuel has made the highest manifestation to the
Universe of the glory of God.  Not only does it
display the infinite loveliness of his own personal
character, as showing the riches of his grace toward
perishing man, and the glory of his power and wisdom in his salvation, but it displays, as nothing else
had ever done or could do, all the grand, essential
attributes of the Godhead.   "These things the
angels desire to look into;" for these, more than
all works and ways of God, declare his glorious
mnoral character, as the God of infinite justice, infinlite holiness, infinite truth, infinite love and
nierev.
By this great work of sacrifice, of instruction,
and of conquest, he has vanquished all the enemies
of God for ever, has rolled back the night of sin
and death from the face of God's creation, broken
-Satan's power in the dust, reconquered and reclaimed his trophies, and prepared a people for his
glory in the heavens. On this work he has founded
his own Mediatorial kingdom, and built his church,
so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
This church of the redeemed, founded on the rock
of ages, in his own person, gathered from every age
and nation, and intended by him to make known
unto principalities and powers in heavenly places,
the manifold wisdom of God —this church is itself
but the result and exponent of his mighty work.
And not until the last sinner shall have been saved,
13




146         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
and the last saint of all earth's teeming millions
brought home to glory —not until the general assembly and church of the first born, who are written
in heaven, shall have met to part no more in his
presence-not until that day when God shall wipe
all tears from every face, and these mortal bodies,
raised from the dust and fashioned like unto his
glorious body, shall have rejoined their ransomed
spirits in the skies, shall we ever know all that God
our Saviour has done for us.
"Burst, ye emerald gates, and bring
To my raptured vision,
All the ecstatic joys that spring
Round the bright elysian.
Hark, the thrilling symphonies
Seem e'en now to seize us,
Join we too the holy lays,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Sweetest sound in Seraph's song,
Sweetest note on mortal tongue,
Sweetest carol ever sung,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus"




HIS SECOND AND GLORIOUS APPEARING. 147
CHAPTER XI.
HIS SECOND AND GLORIOUS APPEARING.
TT is a blessed and glorious thought that the Son
of God is to come back to the earth again-not in
poverty and humiliation, but in triumph and majesty
-not as the Lamb slain, but as the Lion of the
tribe of Judah.  "I know that my Redeemer
liveth," cried the sorrowing patriarch of Uz, "and
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see
for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within me."
The law of compensation reigns through all the
ways of God. The cross is but the prelude to the
crown. The death of a good man is but his stepping stone to glory. And so the first advent of the
Son of God in weakness, and toil, and woe, was but
the necessary preparation for that second advent in
which he is to come in all the glory of his Father
with the holy angels. He shall stand upon Mount
Zion again, not as he once stood, derided and rejected of men, at Pilate's judgment-seat, but himself the Judge of quick and dead.  "This same




148       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
Jesus," said the angels at his ascension, "who is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go away into heaven."
"Behold he cometh with clouds," writes the prophet
of the Apocalyps, "and every eye shall see him,
and they also that pierced him shall see him, and
all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him."
One of the earliest prophecies on record, speaks of
this second and triumphant coming. Enoch, the
seventh from Adam, said, "Behold, the Lord cometh
with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly
among them of all their ungodly deeds which they
have ungodly committed, and of all their hard
speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against
him."
This sublime doctrine of the second coming our
Saviour had often taught his disciples while he was
with them: "When the Son of man shall come in
his glory and all the holy angels with him, then
shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall
separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats." When arraigned for trial before the Jewish Sanhedrim, and
adjured by the high priest, in the name of the living
God, to tell them whether he was the Christ, the
Son of God, he answered, "I am; and hereafter
shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right
hand of power, and coming in the clouds of




HIIS SECOND ANTD GLORIOUS APPEARING. 149
heaven." And thus from the time of his ascension
to heaven, onward through all the Epistles and the
Apocalypse, we find this grand doctrine of his return to earth, held forth prominently, as the great
prophecy of the New Testament, and the most
joyful hopc of the church.  "We look for that
blessed hope," says Paul, "the glorious appearing
of the great God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ."
To the Scriptures of the New Testament, and to
the whole church of the New Dispensation, this
promise of the second advent, stands related, very
much as the promise of the first advent stood related
to the Scriptures and the church of the 011 Covenant.
It is the grand inspiring object of hope. It is the
bright pledge of final deliverance and redemption
for all the saints of God.
Intimately associated with this second coming of
the Son of God, are many of the grandest revelations of the Scriptures-the resurrection of the dead,
the judgment of men and angels, the new heavens
and the new earth, the final redemption of the
church, the glory of the righteous, the doom of the
wicked. All these last great things are dependent
upon his advent. They belong to him in his exaltation and glory. They are to be executed by
him in his royal power. To all the universe, they
will be as full a display of his Divine power, and as
triumphant a vindication of his right to reign and
rule, God over all, blessed for ever, as the death of
the cross had been of the completeness of his work
13 *




150       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
Of humiliation and sacrifice. Here we beh ld one
of those amazing contrasts of which the history of
redemption is so full —the Son of God condemned
as a man at Pilate's bar, the Son of man vindicated
as God on his throne of judgment in the clouds.
If ever, in any case, the end and issue of a story
justified its beginning and vindicated all the stages
of its progress, so as to furnish by the very fitness
and symmetry of all things a demonstration of its
truth, it is done in the history of Redemption.
Man in his impotent short-sightedness, looking only
at the feeble beginnings, and the partial progress
of this scheme of salvation across the ages, may be
tempted to write imperfection and failure upon the
Gospel of God. But let man suspend his judgment
till the whole case is issued-till the last great
things are done-till the Man of sorrows and the
scenes of Gethsemane give place to the judgmentseat of Christ, and the " glory yet to be revealed"
— till heaven shall compensate for the toils of earth
and eternity adjust the inequalities of time-and
he shall then see, that from the beginning to the
end, in every step of his progress, the Lord hath
done all things well.
As the crucifixion fulfilled the prophecies of four
thousand years; as the resurrection and ascension
demonstrated the Divine purpose and significance
of the crucifixion; as the descent of the Spirit on
the day of Pentecost was but the development of
the great results of the resurrection and ascension;




HIS SECOND AND GLORIOUS APPEARING. 151
as the onward, irresistible progress of the gospel
among the nations for eighteen centuries, is but the
carrying out of that Pentecostal beginning, and the
constantly accumulating vindication of all that has
gone before; so the shout of the archangel, the
trump of God, and the coming of the Son of man
in the clouds of heaven, attended by the spirits of
just men made perfect, and all the holy angels, to
raise the dead, to judge the world in righteousness,
and to settle all the issues of time in the light of
eternity, will be but the necessary unfolding and
completing of that great scheme of Providence and
grace which began with the first announcement in
Eden-" The seed of the woman shall bruise the
serpent's head." The whole progress of the work
with its crowning day, was as fully present to the
mind of the Lord then, to justify and direct every
successive revelation of the Bible, as it will be before the minds of angels and men at the last day.
As to the time appointed for the ushering in of
these last great things, the Scriptures have given us
no distinct information. We may perhaps understand something, as to the order of succession in
which they are to occur, and get some faint conception as to their awful grandeur, transcending all
earthly and mortal scenes; but the set time is one
of those secret things, which belong-not to us or our
children, but only to God. It is a great mystery,
over which the Divine mind seems purposely to have
thrown the veil of concealment. Many have sought




152        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
in vain to penetrate that veil; to see what is behind
the curtain of the future. From the very days of
the apostles there have been some in the church,
who have striven to fix the time of Christ's appearing. St. Paul wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians, in part to correct the error of those who
taught that the coming of the Lord was then just
at hand. At many subsequent periods, down to our
own, the same opinion has been revived; and some
have ventured beforehand to tell the year and the
day when the Son of man should appear. Some
even now, from their reading of the prophecies, are
looking with confident assurance to his appearing as
an event near at hand, to be witnessed by this generation. Some suppose that his coming will not be
until the earth has had its full week of working
days-a thousand years for a day-to be followed
by a seventh day of rest, or Millennial Sabbath, of
a thousand years; making four thousand years of
preparation for the first advent, two thousand for
the second, and one thousand of the latter day glory
for the end.
But all such conjectures are fruitless, perhaps
presumptuous. When on the mount of Olives, the
disciples came to our Saviour privately, saying, " Tell
us when shall these things be; and what shall be
the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the
world?" after telling them of many things which
must first come to pass in all nations, he added,
"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no,




HIS SECOND AND GLORIOUS APPEARING. 153
not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
And when, on the (lay of his ascension to heaven,
they asked, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the
kingdom to Israel?" he said, "It is not for you to
know the times and the seasons which the Father
hath put in his own power."  It would seem, that
such language as this, even though referring to
other events, ought to deter us from any confident
assertion as to the time of his second and glorious
appearing; and also as to the question whether his
coming shall long precede, or be immediately followed by, the stupendous scenes of the resurrection
of the dead, the last judgment, and the destruction
of the world by fire. About scenes so awfully sublime as these, and so unlike any thing that mortal
eye has gazed upon, and of which the sacred writers
speak with such reserve, it is certainly rash for us
to speak with confidence, either as to the time or
programme of their occurrence.  The revelations
of the Apocalypse on this whole subject, are as yet
a profound mystery, it may be, reserved for the
clearer light of ages yet to come, and providences
yet to be unfolded. The best thing we can do on
such a subject, is to lay aside all speculation, and
ponder well the simple, but sublime words of the
apostles. "If we believe, that Jesus died and rose
again," says Paul to the Thessalonians, "even so
them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with
him. For this we say unto you by the word of the
Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the




154         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
coming of the Lord, shall not prevent (rise before)
them who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trump of God; and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air;
and so shall we ever be with the Lord." With this
accords what he says to the Corinthians, "Behold,
I show you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put
on immortality.  So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying, that is written, Death is swallowed up in victoiry. 0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is
thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength
of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
With this also agrees the solemn language of St.
Peter, " The day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away
with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are
therein shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all
these thlings shall be dissolved, what manner of per



HIS MEDIATORIAL OFFICES AND WORK.   155
sons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according
to his promise, look for new heavens and a new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
It ought to be enough for us to know that he shall
come again in glorious majesty; that it is one of
the sure promises of God; that it is among those
unchangeable decrees, every jot and tittle of which
shall stand fast, though heaven and earth pass away.
It ought to be enough for us, that it is not only revealed as certain, bat like the coming of death, as
imminent to all generations of men. As no man
or angel can say when it shall come; so none can
say when it shall not. It is certain; it will be sudden, even as the lightning of heaven; and it may
be soon.  The closing message of the Apocalypse
is, "He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely,
I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Like the first advent, this second coming is
to live, as a fresh perennial hope, in the heart of the
church until it is realized in glorious fruition.  It is
to bring unmingled joy and glory to all God's children, not only at the close, but through all the
stages of the pilgrimage.  From  the first it was
intended to pour a stream of holy joy, by anticipation, along the whole track of ages, as generation
after generation of the saints has loved and longed




156         THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
for his appearing. All the grand events in the his
tory of redemption have been so arranged as to
throw their celestial radiance both forward and
backward over the course of time.  It was so with
the first advent.  It has been and will be so with
the second.  The saints who live before, and those
who come after, are partakers of the same blessed
influences with those who are cotemporary with the
transactions.  Faith resting on the testimony of
inspired history in God's word looks back to the
cross of Calvary, as for four thousand years it
looked back to the first promise in Eden. Faith
and hope, resting in like manner on the sure voice
of inspired prophecy in God's word, looks forward
now to this glorious revelation of the Son of God
from heaven, even as, for four thousand years, they
pointed the eye of every believer to the first manifestation of the Son of God -in the flesh. And thus
with faith looking back to rest on all that God has
said and done, with hope looking forward to rest on
all that he is yet to do, and love looking up to rest
on all that he is in his own glorious person and
character, the whole economy of salvation is so
arranged, that, in whatever dispensation of the church
the believer's lot is cast, he has all the fulness of
the blessings of the gospel of Christ, for Christ is
ever with him, and Christ is all in all.




THE SAVING POWER OF HITS GOSPEL,   157
CHAPTER XII.
THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.
ALL these great facts and doctrines connected
with the person, character, offices, and work of
Christ taken together constitute the gospel.  The
essence of the Bible is the gospel; and the essence
of the gospel is Christ.  In the history of Christ,
in his life, character, labours, sufferings, death, resurrectioh, ascension, and Mediatorial reign, we find
the great truths of Divine mercy and grace, which
every sinner must embrace in order to be saved, and
which God has revealed as the glad tidings of great
joy to all people.  "This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners."
This story of Immanuel reveals the way and the
only possible way of salvation for any soul of man.
It contains the only facts, the only remedy, the
only influences, which meet all the fearful exigences
of our lost condition.  To believe this story in all
its fulness is to inherit everlasting life. To reject
it is to perish utterly and for ever.
The Apostle Paul gives a striking summary of
the great facts of this gospel, in their immediate
14




158        TIIE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
connection with Christ, when he says, "Withou+
controversy,   great is the mystery of godliness, God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up into glory." These,
indeed, are the essential facts of the gospel, without
which it would be no gospel.  It is only because
Christ, the Son of God, is in it, as the power of God
and the wisdoii of God unto salvation, that it has
any efficacy in saving a soul from death, and in reclaiming a world from sin. As Christ therefore is
the sum and substance of the gospel, and we have
undertaken to unfold his glorious life and character
as exhibited in all that he hath done and suffered;
hlaving thus far spoken of him in his varied estates,
labours, gifts, virtues, instructions, offices, miracles,
and mighty works, as Immanuel, the Mediator between God and man, it remains only to complete
our view by a brief survey of that gospel which is
the great result or effect of his work.  This gospel
is the church's great treasure; the world's richest
inheritance; and this, with all its blessed influences,
its priceless hopes for time and eternity, we owe to
Jesus.  In the course of ages there have been many
great benefactors of mankind, who have toiled, suffered, and died, to leave posterity a legacy of good.
There is but one benefactor who has left mankind a
gospel of Divine grace and salvation.  Let us
mark well the secret of its power.  " The weapons
of our warfare," says the apostle, " are not carnal,




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.    159
but mighty through God to the pulling down of
strong holds."
First of all the gospel carries with it the convincing and enlightening power of the truth.  It is
a system of truth-the very truth which God reveals. Resting all its claims upon the evidence of
facts, and appealing for the reality of its facts to
the testimony of God and man, it challenges the
scrutiny, the conviction, the belief, the homage
of every rational mind.  It addresses the understanding and the conscience of every human being.
It speaks to his reason, to his instincts, to his
deepest experience.  In the name of God it demands a hearing; and4 then on the broad basis of
infallible proof, it demonstrates itself to be worthy
of all acceptation.  And thus, as the accredited
truth of God, it claims the assent of that whole intellectual and moral vnature which God has given to
man for the very purpose of knowing and obeying
the truth.  The human soul was made for truth,
eternal truth.  It must feed on truth; it must grow
by truth, as the very law of its being, the aliment
of its subsistence.  Nor can it reject the truth
without doing violence to its nature.  In like manner,
as the soul is God's workmanship, created with capacities to know and follow the truth, the gospel is
God's workmanship-a perfect system of Divine
truth-revealed and offered to man in his darkness
and impotence for the purpose of restoring to him




160       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
that light of truth and that life of God in the soul,
which he had lost by sin.
By his gospel, therefore, as a system  of Divine,
eternal truth, revealed for iman's salvation, Christ
speaks to all the world, as never man spake.  The
Bible is full of examples, and the world itself,
wherever this gospel has been preached, is full of
examples of that moral power by which his words
find a response in the deepest convictions of our
nature, and cleave their way to the inmost experience of every living man.  When he reasons of
righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come,
as he did in the days of his earthly ministry, and
as he does through all the sacred pages by his prophets and apostles, men feel that their very consciences are made manifest, and that they are open
and naked to the eyes of Him with whom they have
to do.  Conscious guilt trembles, like Felix, on the
very throne of power.  He slays them  by the
breath of his mouth. His word of truth is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  In this
convincing and enlightening power over the human
mind, and in this mastery of conscience, there
never has been anything on earth like the gospel.
But it is remarkable, that, while revealing to us
the only way of salvation from sin, Christ has
taught the world its most important lessons on a




THiE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   161
thousand other subjects.  This gospel has been
found to be the great reformer and civilizer of man.
We behold in it not alone the power of God and the
wisdom of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, but the true moral life of all nations.  It
contains all the truth of God respecting the road to
heaven and the hope of immortality. It also contains the most important truth yet known to man,
respecting all the highest and best interests of the
present world.  It is the true elevator of all human
society. It is the only civilizer and peacemaker
among the nations.  There is a far-reaching wisdom
in this gospel, which, from the beginning, has seemed
to comprehend the whole problem of man's wretchedness, to provide for all his wants, to anticipate all
his boasted discoveries in art and science, and to
make him feel, even to the end of the world, that
in its presence, he is but a child and a learner.
Tile highest attainment which moral philosophy
has yet made only carries us back to the words of
Jesus as its most fitting formula, "Whatsoever ye
would that men should (lo to you, do ye even so to
them, for this is the law and the prophets." Our
whole theory of civil and  religious liberty, as
founded upon a total separation of church and state,
seems to have been comprehended in that memorable
saying, "Render therefore to Csesar the things that
are Coesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
The wealth of nations, the progress of society, the
peace and prosperity of the world, the true political
14 




162       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
economy for all mankind, were all announced in the
maxim, " Put up thy sword, for they that take the
sword shall also perish by the sword." After
eighteen centuries of toil, of study, and of advancement, it is remarkable that the last analysis of all
our mental, moral, political, and social science, only
carries us back to the simple and sublime, yet incidental, utterances of this gospel, for its truest and
best exponent.
Again; this gospel vindicates itself as the power
and wisdom of God, because it comes to man with
all the attractive and constraining power of Divine
love. It reveals God as the God of love; it exhibits God in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself by the cross; its great plea with man is,
that " God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life;" and
its universal proclamation is, "Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And the Spirit
and the Bride say, Come, and let him that heareth
say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and
whosoever will, let him take the water of life
freely." It is a gospel of love, conceived in the infinite love of God the Father, executed in the
amazing self-sacrificing love of God the Son, and
applied by the constraining love of God the Spirit.
Flowing from the inexhaustible fountain of Divine
love, all other love excelling, its effect is loveuniversal love of man to his brother man, and




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   163
eternal love of man to his redeeming God. We
love him because he first loved us. Love is the
moral philosophy of the gospel. Love is its grand
motive, by which faith works, purifying the heart
and overcoming the world. Love is the fulfilling
of all its laws. Love is the vital principle of all
its obedience. It is by the power of love that it
wins the human heart, and gains all its proudest
triumphs over the world, and the flesh, and the devil.
There is, perhaps, nothing which more distinguishes
the gospel from all the systems and devices of human philosophy, and demonstrates it to be the
mighty power of God, than this wonderful manner
in which it has revealed the love of God. It has
thus bound the human heart in chains of everlasting
love to God, and encircled the earth with a network
of holy influences, which shall one day bring it in
willing and adoring homage to Immanuel's feet.
Still further, this gospel makes its appeal to the
heart of every living and dying man, as nothing
else has ever done or can do, because it carries with
it the power of a Divine consolation. It is the
friend and helper of the wretched, the perishing,
the lost. It is the only thing on earth that can
speak peace to the troubled soul, and whisper hope
in the ear of the dying sinner. When all other
resources fail, when friends and comforters have all
forsaken us, when the very cords of life are breaking, and nothing is left us but to die, there is a voice
here which can give us courage and consolation amid




121) f    THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
the darkness of the valley and shadow of death.
Through all the trials of life, and all the dangers
of dissolving nature, the soul that hath laid hold
upon the hope of this gospel, can look up, with
calm confidence, and say: "Thou art with me, I
will fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." Here is the patience of the saints.
Here is the hope of the blessed. Here is the strong
consolation of the cross. He, who was touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, who hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, who was bruised
for our iniquities, and had the chastisement of our
peace laid upon him, who passed through the iron
gates of death before us, and was made perfect
through sufferings, hath spoken to us, by his gospel,
such words of consolation as never man spake.
Clothed in all the tender compassions of our mortal
nature, and, at the same time, arrayed in all the glorious attributes of the Godhead, having authority on
earth to forgive sins, and power to destroy all the enemies of our souls, he was able to offer strong consolation to all the sons and daughters of sorrow. While
upon earth he spake, and now that he is gone up to
glory he still speaks, in all the invitations and offers
of this gospel, words of pardon, of peace, of comfort,
of loving sympathy, of grace and mercy, such as
mortal tongues have never spoken, such as human
ears had never heard before. " To you, 0 men, I
call, and my voice is to the sons of men! Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   165
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am  meek and lowly in
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
To the weeping sisters at the grave of Lazarus,
he said, as he alone could say, " Thy brother shall
rise again. I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die."  To the poor, blind Bartimeus, on the way-side as he passed by at Jericho,
who rose and pressed towards him through the
crowd, crying, "Jesus, thou son of David, have
compassion on me," he said, "Go thy way, thy
faith hath made thee whole." On the last great
day of the Feast of Tabernacles, he stood and cried
in the hearing of the thousands of Israel, and of
the officers who had been commissioned to arrest
him, with accents of love anti mercy which ought
to have melted the hearts of all that dying multitude, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me
and drink." To his faithful but sorrowing disciples,
on the night before he suffered, the last night he
was to be with them on earth, he spake those. precious and memorable words so full of love, so overflowing with Divine consolation: "Let not your
heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.
I go to prepare a place for you. In this world ye
shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I
have overcome the world. Peace I leave with you;




166       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth,
give I unto you." To the poor penitent thief on
the cross at his side, who turned to him his dying
eyes and prayed, "Lord, remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom," he said, "This day shalt
thou be with me in Paradise."
And still that voice of love and mercy, that voice
of hope for the perishing, and strong consolation for
the penitent, sorrowing soul, is ringing through all
the world.  In the wretched abodes of poverty and
sin, in the dark prison houses of sin and shame,
this gospel still utters its proclamations of mercy
from  the Lord, saying, "Come now, and let us
reason together, saith the Lord.  Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
From the beginning it has been preached to the
poor.  It is adapted to the deepest necessities and
wants of the poor.  It-comes and offers its richest
consolations without money and without price.
Wherever wretchedness can cry for mercy and
helplessness can trust, there may all its saving
power be felt. In the chambers of disease and
suffering, where heart and flesh are failing fast,
and the world is receding from the view of the
dying, there its voice of consolation may be heard
in strains as sweet as angels use, whispering peace
to the soul.  In the silent cemeteries of the deadon all their marble monuments, over all their solemn
gateways and sepulchral arches, graven with an




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   167
iron pen and lead in the rock for ever, are inscribed
the words of this gospel-the living words of Jesus.
And there are no other words on mortal tongues
which can take their places. In the sacred presence
of our buried dead, in the darkened chambers of
the suffering sick, and on all those occasions where
human hearts lie crushed and bleeding in the dust
of affliction, we instinctively feel, that there are no
words fit to utter except the words of Jesus.  These
alone are sacred enough for our sorrow. And these
alone can tell us of hope, of immortality, of Divine
consol ation.
But, last of all, and above all, this gospel is the
mighty power of God for the pulling down of the
strongholds of sin and Satan, because it is ever accompanied by the energies of the Divine Spirit, the
third person of the adorable Trinity. We must not
forget that, while the gospel is the special result of
the work of Christ, it is at the same time the united
work of all the persons of the Godhead. It is, in
fact, a revelation and a manifestation of the Triune
God, requiring  the wor'k and  agency of each
adorable person in the unfolding of its scheme of
mercy, and( displaying, in turn, both to men and to
angels, their glorious attributes and character.  In
this, more than in any other work of his hands, God
has unfolded the riches of his grace and glory, in
making known to us the mysterious union of Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost in the Godhead.
III analyzing the elements of influence over man,




168        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
as wielded by the gospel, we have seen that it carries
with it, first, the mighty power of Divine truth, and
then the attractive power of Divine love, and then,
again, the power of Divine consolation; and that,
having all these inherent elements of success, it is
adapted to do the work and accomplish the end for
which God designed it. But there is another power
-a power over and above all these, which is absolutely essential to their efficiency. It is the power
of the Spirit of God. It is that Divine power which
sets all the other powers of truth, and love, and
consolation to work.  It is a power not lodged in
the gospel like truth, and love, and consolation,
which can act only as it is acted on, but ever coming
down from above to accompany the gospel wherever
it is preached, in order to apply its truth, to unfold
its love, and give its consolation to the heart of man.
This is the grand secret of all its efficiency and success in opening the eyes, winning the hlearts, and
saving the souls of dying men. This is the special
work and office of the Holy Ghost-to apply the
gospel and make it effectual to our salvation.
Still, in contemplating the gospel as the result of
the work of Christ, this agency of the Holy Ghost
must be included. The Comforter, according to the
eternal covenant of redemption, and according to
his promise when he departed, was sent forth from
the Father, to take his place in the church and to
carry on his work. Christ's only true Vicar and
Representative on earth is this Comforter, the Holy




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.    169
Ghost.  Hence the whole work of the Spirit in the
hearts of men is, in one sense, the work of Christ,
even as in another sense it is also the work of the
Father. This Divine agency of the Spirit, in applying the truth of God to the hearts of men, and
so making the redeeming work of Christ effectual
to their salvation, was only a part of the grand
economy of grace. While each person of the Godhead fills his own office, and performs a special
work, they all work together in such a manner, that
what one does may be ascribed to the others also.
Our Saviour was explicit on this point, when he
said, " My Father worketh hitherto and I work.  I
came not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me, and to finish his work.  I do nothing
of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I
speak these things. And lie that sent me is with
me; the Father hath not left me alone; for I do
always those things that please him." The same
intimate union of purpose, and communion in work
which thus existed between the Father and the Son,
even while the Son was on earth, also exists between
the Spirit and the Son, now that the Son hath ascended to his mediatorial throne, and the Spirit, in
the bosom of the church below, is still carrying on
his work. And so this power of the Divine Spirit,
which accompanies the preached gospel, even as
from the beginning of revelation it has inspired the
word of God in all the Scriptures, and made that
word effectual to salvation, may be regarded as one
15




170       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
grand department of the work of Christ. The
Spirit itself, like all the other blessed influences of
the gospel, is the gift of Christ, and the very purchase of his death.  "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you, but if I depart, I will
send him unto you. And when he is come he will
teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
He shall reprove the world of sin, and of righteoushess, and of judgment to come."
While, therefore, the Spirit is the Comforter sent
by Christ to communicate the consolations of the
gospel, he is also the great reprover to enforce upon
the conscience of man, all its doctrines, precepts,
promises, and warnings. And this Divine Instructer
is always in the bosom of the church, to accompany
and make effectual the preaching of the word: "Go
ye and teach all nations: lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world."   Though this
treasure of truth divine is borne by earthen vessels,
yet its efficiency is of God. Man works and God
works.  And God hath chosen the weakness of
man's agency in the work of preaching this gospel,
that the mighty power might be seen to be of God.
And thus it is that the gospel is sure of successfinal and c inplete success.  Despite of human
weakness and folly, despite of open enemies and
false friends, foes without and traitors within, over
all the opposition of earth and hell, it shall triumph
gloriously.  God will not let it fail.  "He shall see




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   171
of the travail of his soul and be satisfied," is the
promise to the Mediator. And this is the grand
office and end of all the Spirit's work in the soulto make the work of Christ for the soul effectual to
its complete salvation.
Well might the apostle say, "I am sure, that
when I come unto you, I will come in the fulness
of the blessing of the gospel of Christ."  He felt
that this story of the cross which he preached
was indeed a gospel of good things, complete in all
its parts, adequate in all its powers, worthy of Goa
and man. It is, indeed, full of incomprehensible
wonders, mysterious doctrines, far above reason's
grasp, amazing scenes, past and yet to come, which
can be received only on the testimony of God.
But it is just as full of great facts, and heart experiences, and plain palpable doctrines which every
sane man knows to be true, and to be the most important of all truth. And perhaps the most amazing thing of all is, that any human being can reject
it: that, in a world of darkness and death, where
there is no other light, and no other possible chance
of life, guilty, dying man should turn away in his
impotent folly, spurning the only arm that can save
him. Surely the greatest of all sins-the most unreasonable, the most unaccountable, and the most
fatal, is the sin of unbelief-the sin of rejecting the
Son of God. How would it strike the mind of man
with astonishment, if he could see such a spectacle
among the fallen angels, as that which this world




172       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
now presents to the universe in the case of every
unbelieving sinner! If God had visited the lost
angels with such mercy, and such offers of life as
he makes to us in the gospel, what would man think
if he should see all hell arrayed in opposition to
God's ambassador; despising every overture of reconciliation; and, at last, rising up in wrath against
him, as man rose against the incarnate Son of God?
What would man think if he could see the immaculate Son of God visiting the lost and ruined spirits
of the pit, in their dark abodes; standing with them
for a season on the burning soil of hell; paying their
penalty and bearing their curse as he did ours; offering them redemption through his blood as he does
to us; weeping over their sin and folly in all the
tenderness of Divine compassion; saying as he did
to the sinners of lost Jerusalem, "Oh thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thee, as
a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, but
ye would not!" and then, at last, as rejected, despised, crucified, he dies at their hands, crying,
"Father, forgive them, they know not what they
do," and all in vain because of their unbelief!  But
this is not the sin of devils.  It is the sin of unbelieving men.
Unbelieving men, in their amazing folly and
wickedness, reject this gospel, notwithstanding all
its evidences, all its promises of life, all its manifestations of D)ivine love and mercy. They see no




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   173
beauty in it that they should desire it. Though
angels desire to look into it; though the world is
full of the trophies of its power; though heaven is
already peopled with myriads of happy spirits, redeemed through its blessed influences; though kings,
and prophets, and nobles of the earth looked forward through distant ages, rejoicing in its glad
tidings; and apostles could say, " God forbid that we
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto us and
we unto the world;" still unbelieving men, who have
their all at stake upon the issue-a heaven to gain,
or a heaven to lose by it-see no beauty in Immanuel, no glory in this gospel of God's grace.
" He was in the world, and the world was made by
him, and the world knew him not." Through his
preached gospel, and by the mighty working of his
Spirit, everywhere bearing witness in the hearts of
men to the truth and power of that gospel, he is
still in the world; the world has been redeemed by
him; and yet the unbelieving know him not, admire
him not, receive him not. In all ages past it has
been true, and it is still true, that there are some to
whom this glorious gospel has been hid. It is to
some a savour of life unto life, to others a savour
of death unto death. From the very nature of it
as a remedy for sin-as God's only remedy for sin
-it can leave no man as it finds him. It must
cure or kill. It must save him from condemnation
and give him life for evermore, or it will sink him
15 *




174       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
down to a deeper and a darker woe, with the aggravated guilt of having rejected the Son of God.
The apostle John, in the opening of his history
of this gospel, describes the case not only of his
own countrymen, but of the men of all countries
and all generations thus far, where the gospel has
been preached.  "'He came unto his own and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name; who were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God."  The turning point in
the character and destinies of men, is at the cross.
All things for time and eternity hang on their reception or rejection of the Son of God. To receive
him, to believe on his name, to trust in him, is to
become a son of God, an heir of glory. To receive
him, as he is freely offered in the gospel to every
perishing sinner of our race, is to be born of God
by a new, celestial birth. To reject him, to turn
away from him, to find no beauty in him, is to die;
because it is to reject the only remedy which God
has provided for our lost estate, and to continue
under that curse and condemnation which is upon us
already-which is death. So that wherever the gospel goes, it must of necessity draw a line, deep, broad,
and ineffaceable, between those who receive the Son
of God by believing on him, and those who by unbelief reject him. Even as he declared, when, having
finished the work of man's redemption, he ascended




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   175
to heaven and said, " Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned."
What then is it to believe?  What is the essence
of that faith in Christ by which he is received, and
through which he saves the soul? "He is the power
of God and the wisdom  of God to all them  that
believe." And he commands all men every where to
repent and believe the gospel. Nothing, therefore,
can be more important than that we should understand what it is to believe, what it is to have a saving faith in Christ. It is the glory of the gospel
that it does not leave us in any doubt or uncertainty
on this essential point. It is the glory of the gospel
that this one act of the soul, whereby we receive
and rest upon Christ alone for salvation, whilst it
is a saving grace wrought in us by God's Spirit, is
as simple and intelligible -as any act of man can
be. It is so simple that the wayfaring man, though
a fool as to other things, need not mistake it.
It is first to assent to the truth respecting Christ
as true, and then to approve it as good, and then to
trust the soul upon him for salvation.  To see him
as he is revealed in the gospel, to understand who
he is, to approve and admire him as the Saviour we
need, and then to renounce all other dependence,
and trust in him alone for salvation-this is to receive Christ, this is to believe. It is not enough
merely to assent to the truth, to understand the




176       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
truth, to accept the truth as true. For ungodly
men may do this as well as true believers. The
truth may be held in unrighteousness. In this sense
the devils believe, and yet tremble.  Nor is it
enough, after understanding and assenting to the
truth, merely to approve and admire the truth as
good. Many wicked and unbelieving men have in
their inmost hearts admired the character of Christ,
and given their approbation to the doctrines of the
Bible. But they never came to Christ for salvation, never trusted in him. The angels in heaven
approve and admire all the truth respecting the
work and character of Christ. But they do not
trust, they need not trust in him for salvation; and
hence they cannot exercise that saving faith which
is required of us.  We see, then, that the essential
thing in a true, saving faith, which distinguishes it
from every thing else, is to trust in Christ, or commit our souls to his hands for salvation.  We may
understand and assent to the truth, even as wicked
men and devils do; we may approve and admire the
truth, even as the angels do; but any thing short of
a personal trust and committing of our souls to
Christ is short of saving faith.
These two things-the assent of the understanding to the truth, and the heart's approval of it as
good-always accompany the act of saving faith.
But alone they do not constitute it. For they may
exist without it as we have just seen. We must
first understand the truth before we can approve it,




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   177
and we must approve it before we can trust oui
souls upon it. So that in every case of true saving
faith there will be first an intelligent conviction of
the truth on evidence, as revealed in the Scriptures,
and then a moral perception and approval of it as
good and necessary, and then a cordial embracing of
it by trusting our souls into the Saviour's hands.
" Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life."  This is the confession of one who
understands the way of salvation as opened through
Christ alone, whose heart and conscience approve
of that way, and who has staked his own soul upon
it by a personal application to Christ. Peter takes
God's testimony as true, sees that he needs a
Saviour, and that Christ is the only Saviour; Peter
sees that this salvation through Christ alone, is not
only true, but good, desirable; worthy of all acceptation as the one thing needful; and with his mind
resting on this conviction of truth, and his heart
filled with this moral approbation of it as good, he
trusts his all to Christ for time and eternity, he
comes to Christ, he receives and rests on Christ for
salvation. This is faith. This is what every sinner
must do in order to be saved. He must give up all
other hopes, and commit his case personally to
Christ. This is all that he can do. This is the
very least he ought to wish to do. The act is just
analogous to that of a poor sick man, labouring
under some fatal malady, who has tried a thousand
remedies in vain. but at last finds one physician of




178        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
whose skill he is convinced, and whose mode of
treatment he approves, and in the strength of these
convictions, commits his case and trusts his life into
his hands. So here, for all the deeper maladies of
the soul there is balm in Gilead, there is a safe and
skilful physician. There is but one. -It is Immanuel. And the thing we have to do is to apply
to him for help, to submit the case to him, to trust
in him. This is the saving faith of the gospel.
Well may the apostle speak of this remedy for
sin as the "glorious gospel of the blessed God." It
is alike glorious in its grandeur and in its simplicity,
glorious in all its Divine provisions, glorious in its
adaptation to man's necessities, and glorious in the
plain, equitable, and gracious terms on which it
offers salvation to the perishing. It is simply, believe and live, believe what God has spoken, approve what God has done, accept what God has
offered in his Son. For God has no pleasure in the
death of the sinner; God, who created the soul, has
given his Son to redeem it; and the great message
of the gospel to every soul is, repent, believe, and
live, in view of what Christ has done; for God is in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself. " For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through him might be
saved."
But notwithstanding the way of salvation is so
plain, the terms of the gospel so easy, the character
of Immanuel so attract;ive, and all his promises and




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.  179
invitations so blessed and glorious, there have always been thousands to whom all these things have
been but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
The human heart may be so dead to all that is
bright and glorious, as not to know when its greatest
good cometh. Amid the most splendid manifestations of eternal power and wisdom, there are men
who can walk unconscious of the presence of a God.
And so amid all the triumphs of gospel grace, and
all the glories of Immanuel's person, there have
been, and are human hearts that can see no beauty
in him that they should desire him, and no reason
why they should believe on him. He is to them as
he was to the Jews of old, a stumbling block, or as
he was to the Greeks, foolishness. Writing to the
Corinthians, the apostle Paul said, " After that, in
the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. For the Jews require a
sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we
preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling
block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men."
In this passage there are three distinct types of
character brought into view, which represent very
accurately the different classes that have existed in
every age under the preaching of the gospel. They




180       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
are the Jew, the Greek, and the called of God. We
have here the formal, superstitious, wonder-loving
Jew, accustomed to miracles, and ready to demand
a sign from heaven as the only warrant for his faith.
We have then the philosophizing, incredulous Greek,
scouting every thing as fable and foolishness, which
does not answer to his inward sense of beauty and
wisdom. And we have also the humble, evangelical
believer in Christ, called of God, and taught by the
Spirit to put no confidence in Jewish ceremony, or
Grecian wisdom, as touching the things of the soul's
salvation. Wherever this gospel was proclaimed by
Paul and his fellow apostles, most men who heard
it long enough to know what it taught, and to be
affected by it, might have been ranged into three
distinct classes, not inaptly represented by the Jew,
the Greek, and the called of God. And from that
day to this, wherever it has been faithfully preached,
these three ancient types have generally reappeared,
well defining the positions of all who have heard
the gospel, and the feelings with which they have
either received or rejected the messages of God.
Always and everywhere it has met with the Jew,
the Greek, and the humble believer. To some it
is still what it was to the self-righteous, ceremonious
Jew, a stumbling block. To some it is still just
what it was to the self-complacent, boastful Greek,
foolishness. While to some, called from the ranks
of both Jews and Greeks, it is still all that it was




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   181
to the primitive disciples, the power of God and the
wisdom of God unto salvation.
And thus also, answering to these three classes
into which from the beginning the hearers of the
gospel have been divided, there have been three
widely different and conflicting views of the gospel
itself, giving rise to as many different systems within
the nominally Christian church, each claiming to be
the only true gospel.  These are, first, the sacramental system, or formalism, which makes religion
consist mainly in externals, the rites and ceremonies
of worship, and rigid conformity to ecclesiastical
order: secondly, rationalism, or the system which
makes human reason the umpire of all revelation,
rejecting both mysteries and miracles: and thirdly,
the spiritual and evangelical system of grace, whose
central truth is Christ crucified as an atoning sacrifice for sin, and which attributes everything good in
man to a Divine influence.
Now it is manifest that only the last of these has
any claim to be regarded as the true gospel of the
New Testament. Ritualism on the one side, and
rationalism on the other, are but pretenders, claiming to be a gospel while they are no gospel. And
yet many of the creeds and systems that have appeared in the past history of the church, belong to
the one error or the other. In all ages men have
been found subverting the truth and power of the
gospel, by a departure into formalism on the one
side or rationalism on the other. And any one,
16




182        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
who is himself acquainted with the essential spirit of
the gospel, can read the past history of the church,
or survey its present condition, and easily assign to its
proper place every heresy, and every sect, and every
individual opinion.  He may classify them with all
the exactness of a science. For if not found with
Paul, glorying in Jesus Christ and him crucified as
the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation, they will be found standing in unbelief, with
the ceremony-worshipping Jew on the one side, or
the reason-worshipping Greek on the other. If
Christ Jesus be not exalted to the throne, as all in
all, Lord of the conscience, sovereign of the church,
and only Saviour of the soul, then either man with
his boasting reason, or the church with her ancient
prescription, will usurp the throne. The Jew and
the Greek are still alive, even among those who call
themselves Christians, ever striving to substitute for
the true gospel of God -that which is another gospel
altogether, and is therefore no gospel.  The Judaizing teacher of the modern church, forsaking the
true faith of the gospel, comes with his venerable
traditions and church ceremonies to exalt a ritual
service, a baptismal font, a wafer, the pope, or the
virgin mother into the place of Christ. The rationalistic teacher on the other hand, in the very spirit
of an old Greek, exalts human reason, or art, or
man's natural love of the sublime and beautiful,
above the very testimony of God's word, and thus




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   183
baptizing his infidelity with the name of Christian,
subverts the gospel of Christ.
It is obvious to remark that the true gospel of
Christ, by which he becomes the power of God and
the wisdom of God for salvation to all that believe,
stands midway between these two extremes, as far
removed from the superstitious formalism of the
one, as from the sceptical rationalism of the other.
The true evangelical system holds this middle position, not because it is any compromise between the
antagonistic errors, but because it stood there at
the beginning. That is the ancient position. The
true gospel was first in the field. And the other
systems are but departures from it. Men have undertaken to be wise above what is written, to improve the gospel of God by their philosophies, to
devise some more reasonable and acceptable way;
and the result in every case has been a departure
from the truth, either in the one direction or the
other, either in the road which leads through sacramentalism back to Rome, or in the road which leads
through rationalism to Pelagianism, Socinianism,
infidelity, atheism, and all thle modern errors.
The unbelieving Jew of old, and his modern successors, the ritualists and the legalists of every
school, unwilling to be saved by Christ alone, and
going about to establish their own righteousness, exalt
the rites and ceremonies of external worship, and
demand conformity, like Nebuchadnezzar, to some
great idol image of their own creation; and thus




184        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
subvert the gospel by vain traditions and legal
works. The unbelieving Greek, and his modern
successors, the baptized rationalists, and sceptics of
every heretical sect, too proud to take the simple
story of the cross in its plain and obvious import,
rush to the opposite extreme of the scale of error,
and discarding not only man's alleged miracles,
but God's also, reduce the gospel to a thing of cold,
logical reason, until there is nothing Divine left in
it, not even the Divinity of Immanuel; and thus
subvert the truth by a philosophy, falsely so called.
It is not strange, that when men can find no better
righteousness than their own to build upon, they should
take refuge in the will-worship and superstitions of
popery, and kindred forms of sacramentalism. And
it is not strange that those who can find in the gospel no trace of Immanuel's Divinity or the Spirit's
power, should obey that instinct of the soul which
seeks to worship something, and so exalt human
reason, or philosophy, or nature, to that throne
which Christ ought alone to fill. But it is strange
that any human being with the Bible in his hands
should so mistake both its letter and its spirit, as to
call either the one or the other of these systems the
true gospel of God.
To the one class this plain and simple gospel is
still a stumbling block, as it was to the Jews at the
first; and to the other it is still foolishness, as it
was to the Greek. The apostle Paul understood
the position of both parties as they stood in his day,




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   185
and he has virtually anticipated and described the
position and character of their successors, down to
the present hour. The Jews wanted power-Divine
miraculous power that should come down from heaven
and consume their enemies.  They longed for a
temporal kingdom and a visible throne that should
dash in pieces all the rulers of the earth.  Their
only idea of the Messiah of Israel was that of another David who should treat their enemies as David
treated Goliath of Gath. They looked for a deliverer who should come as a conquering king, who
should gird on the sword of battle, and adding to
all the pomp of earthly grandeur, the supernatural
power of Jehovah, should abide for ever, and make
Jerusalem at once the terror and the glory of the
world. And because Jesus of Nazareth seemed
destitute of all these outward signs of power, though
claiming to be their Messiah, they rejected his
claims and put him to death. The apostle understood precisely their position and their prejudices,
for he had once shared in all their ideas and expectations. Brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, he well knew the inmost
heart of the Jew, that he wanted a religion of miraculuas signs, and. a Messiah of Divine, irresistible
power. And so to the power-loving Jew, who trod
the earth with his eye ever fixed upon the heavens
for a sign, and whose main objection to the story of
the crucified Nazarene, was that it was a gospel of
weakness, utter weakness mnd insufficiency; to him
16 *




186       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
and all like him in every age, Paul replies, We preach
a gospel of power, the mighty power of God; we
preach a gospel of moral, spiritual, and eternal
power; a gospel adequate to do that which all the
powers of this world could never do, that is, to secure the pardon of sin and save the soul from death.
It is the power of light in a world of darkness; the
power of truth in a world of error; the power of
holiness in a world of sin; the power of beneficence
in a world of selfishness; the power of love in a
world of hatred and war; the power of immortality
in a world shrouded in death; a gospel bringing the
glad tidings from God of pardon, peace, and life
from the dead, to souls already sunk in sin, and led
captive by the devil at his will. We preach Christ
the power of God, unto salvation, for every one that
believeth, whether Jew or Greek.
The Greeks, on the other hand, wanted wisdom.
They boasted of learning, art, and eloquence. They
gloried in philosophy. They longed for some new
thing. They had lost the sceptre of military power,
and they had exploded the myths and fables, gods
and goddesses of their once splendid mythology,
the national religion. They had become a nation
of reasoners and of sceptics.  The highest deity
known to their philosophy was human reason, or
nature, or man's aesthetic sense of the sublime and
beautiful.  If there was any higher God in all the
Pantheon, he was to them the "unknown God," and
belonged solely to Another world.  Taught by their




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   187
latest philosophy to regard every thing superhuman
as fabulous, they put no confidence in signs and
wonders, and were ready to laugh to scorn the first
mention of "Jesus and resurrection," as the vain
babbling of an impostor. They despised the very
things which the Jews most delighted in. They
thirsted not for power, but for wisdom; not for old
traditions, but for some new thing; not for rites, but
for reasons.
The apostle understood their wants precisely; for
he was a native of Tarsus, a famous seat of Grecian
philosophy. He had doubtless read the books and
even attended the schools of this proud, self-complacent race, which regarded all men outside of
Greece and her colonies, as barbarians. And thus
to the reasoning Greek, seeking after wisdom, and
to all like him in every age, who would reject the
story of the cross as foolishness, utterly destitute
of all philosophy, Paul replies, We preach a gospel
of wisdom, the unsearchable wisdom of God; we
have not followed cunningly devised fables, the
product of a rude and barbarous age, or the device
of men aiming to impose upon the world; but we
preach that sublime wisdom of God, which none of
the princes of this world have ever known, which
none of its sages could have discovered, and which,
though long hidden from the wise and the prudent,
is now revealed in Christ to all the chosen sons of
God. We preach Christ the wisdom of God, the
true and infallible word of God, able to save unto




188       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
the uttermost all who come unto God through him,
whether Jew or Greek. It is a wisdom which can
guide where all other teachers fail; a wisdom which
shines brighter and brighter when every light of
philosophy goes out in utter darkness. It is a wisdom
not limited like the boasted wisdom of the Greeks,
to the narrow bounds of that which is but material and perishing, but taking hold of all that is
unseen, eternal, Divine.  It is the wisdom of the
infinite mind-the wisdom of God.  It is that wisdom which comes from God, and which alone can
raise the soul to God. It is a wisdom adequate to fill
all its high and noble faculties both for time and eternity.  "In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom anl knowledge." And well may the apostle exclaim as he surveys all the glorious provisions and
promises of such a gospel and such a Saviour, "Oh
the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God!"
To those on the one side therefore who challenge
power, clamour for signs and wonders, and are ready
to reject the gospel as one of impotence, because
it comes not with the insignia of earthly grandeur,
Paul proclaims it as the very word of power, sovereign, saving, and eternal power, as much greater
than all human power demanded by the Jew, as
God is stronger than man.  To those on the other
side, who clamour for wisdom and make their boast
Df philosophy, and would reject the gospel as foolishness because it puts no confidence in the flesh,




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   189
lays the pride of human reason in the dust, and
abates not a jot or tittle of its high mysteries to suit
the views of men, Paul vindicates it as the only
true and saving wisdom in the world, as much
greater than all the wisdom conceived of by the
Greeks, as God is wiser than men.
It is only because Christ is a Divine Saviour, the
power and wisdom of God unto salvation, that the
gospel is what it is, the antidote for sin and the
hope of a ruined world. This great mystery of
godliness is its glory. This has enabled it to stand
fast and hold its ground, amid all the errors and
conflicts of the eighteen centuries which have passed
since its first promulgation at Jerusalem. This has
given it power to surmount all opposing forces, the
persecutions of its enemies, and the treachery of
professing friends, and to press its conquering way
from nation to nation, from  age to age.  Had the
gospel been what men have striven so hard to prove
it, a mere routine of outward ceremonies on the one
hand, or a mere string of abstract propositions
commending themselves to human taste on tho
other, what more could it have done for the world
than Jewish tradition or Grecian philosophy did?
Had it been nothing more than these it would long
ago have perished, even as these have done. But
it has had a vitality which earth and hell have not
been able to crush; and the secret of this indestructible life is, that it reveals Christ as the power
and wisdom of God unto salvation.




190        TIIE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
And yet, strange to say, though all intelligent
readers of the New Testament, who take words in
their obvious import, will be ready to acknowledge
the justness of this view of the case; still almost
every man who hears the story of Christ and
him crucified, and does not embrace him with a saving faith, will be found occupying one or the other
of these old positions.  He either stands where the
Jew stood, or where the Greek stood; and it would
be difficult to say which side can count the larger
number, and which position is the more dangerous.
Why does not Christ become a 8aviour, believed,
accepted, and loved, to that large class of persons
in every Christian land, who hear the gospel
preached, who read the Scriptures, who assent to
the truth, who approve the truth, and even profess
to admire it? Why are they still out of Christ?
Why are they yet unbelievers as to any real, personal, saving trust in him? They do not intend to
live and die without a saving acquaintance with the
gospel; and yet they do virtually continue in unbelief, rejecting Christ as their Saviour. For what
are such hearers of the gospel waiting? What are
they expecting?
If such men will examine their hearts with candour and honesty, they will find that they are either
like the Jew, waiting for some more wonderful way,
or like the Greek, for some more reasonable way.
They are either in the one class or the other, looking for more signs and wonders, before they will




THE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   191
believe, or for something in the way of a more convincing logic, in order to make them believe. They
have an idea that the fault is not in themselves, but
in the gospel; in some want either of supernatural
and overpowering attestation before their eyes, or
of rational and convincing argument uponx their
minds.
Some, no doubt, flatter themselves that they will
yet be Christians at a more convenient season. But
they are waiting for more signal manifestations of
God's power. They are not satisfied to take things
just as God has revealed them in the gospel, and as
thousands of others have had to take them. They
demand something peculiar and extraordinarysome dream or vision of the night-something grand
and overwhelming; Their ease they think is unusual;
and it will take something more than common to satisfy their minds. They want a demonstration which
is tangible, positive, decisive; which shall flash conviction through the very senses, and put the matter
of salvation beyond all question for ever. They would
like to have a miracle to make the Bible plainer, and
to prove that all the other miracles are from God.
They would believe, they think, if one should rise
from the dead. They want the kingdom of God to
come into their hearts with observation, with somewhat of the same outward pomp and parade with which
the Jews wished to see their Messiah come into the
world. Like Naaman the Syrian, they think they
ought to be healed in a wonderful way; that the




192       TIIE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
prophet ought to come out, and stand before the
chariot, and call upon the name of the Lord his
God, and strike his hand over the place, and thus
recover the leper. In a word, they have the very
spirit of the Jew; demanding a sign from heaven,
dictating terms to God, and thus seeking to establish their own righteousness. And what does God
say to all such?  "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall be no sign
given them, save those already given. If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they
be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish.  If ye
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."
Some again are standing on the opposite extreme.
They desire nothing of this sort. They have no
relish for mysteries and marvels in religion. They
are not waiting for more signs, but for something
to solve the problem of those already given. With
them the great difficulty, preventing, as they think,
a cordial reception of Christ, is that the gospel is
too full of hard sayings, mysterious, incomprehensible doctrines, which do not suit their natural taste,
or their logical reason, or their nice, poetic sense of
justice, or their admiring perception of the sublime
and beautiful.  The gospel is not that rational, intelligible, all-merciful, and beautiful system which
they think it ought to be. They are doubtful and
incredulous as to a thousand difficult points which
they would like to have cleared up: and they are




TIIE SAVING POWER OF HIS GOSPEL.   193
waiting for some more reasonable way, or some more
convincing argument than they have yet seen, before they can take up the cross and follow Jesus.
In short, they are Greeks in spirit; ready to reject
the wisdom of God as foolishness, because it is so
different from the philosophy of man; and waiting
for some new light, and for some auspicious hour,
when the skies shall be all clear, and the problems
all solved, and the gospel shall become a system
level to the calibre of a finite mind! Then they
will believe! But that hour will not come, that
light will not be given. For this is virtually to
reject God's testimony, and to exalt human reason
to that throne which belongs to him alone. This is
to be wise above what is written in things where
none but God can teach man wisdom. And what
does Christ say to this self-righteous and exacting
spirit which strives for the mastery when it should
only believe and adore? "Except ye be converted
and become as a little child, ye shall in no wise
enter into the kingdom of heaven. If our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the
god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them."
The spirit of the true believer, equally removed
from the arrogance of the Jew and the pride of the
Greek, is that of a learner and a child, sitting at
the feet of Immanuel.  Of such is the kingdom of
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194        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
heaven. The true believer takes God's testimony
as it is, accredits it as true, the very truth of truth,
approves it not only as true, but as right and good,
receives and rests upon it as the only and all-sufficient salvation, embraces and glories in Immanuel
as the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether
lovely, takes up the cross and follows him through
evil and through good report, as all in all, for time
and for eternity. He asks for no other Saviour; he
needs no other; he can depend on no other: he is
perfectly satisfied with the gospel as it is; in life,
in death, and through eternity, he is willing to fall
at Immanuel's feet, to crown him Lord of all, and
to cry, as believing Thomas did, "My Lord and my
God!"




RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION.    195
CHAPTER XIII.
RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION.
BUT here we pause; not because we have reached
the end, but because what we have said may, at
least, suffice to turn the reader's thoughts to that
revelation of Immanuel's beauty, which is contained
in the sacred word. " His name shall be called Wonderful," said the inspired prophet. His person is
wonderful; his character is wonderful; his life and
death were wonderful; his work was wonderful; his
gospel is wonderful; his first coming was wonderful;
his second shall be more so; everything connected
with him is wonderful and glorious. It is a boundless theme. It has to man a deathless interest; for
it is that which alone brings life and hope to a dying
world.  In  him-in his person, character, and
kingdom-are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. Whatever other treasures of power,
wealth, or wisdom, a man may gain, not to know
this wisdom is to be a fool indeed, not to gain this
unsearchable treasure is to be poor for ever.
And now this gospel of the Son of God, with all
its unspeakable blessings, is committed to us, not
only to be embraced as our life and the life of our




196       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
children, but to be made known to the ends of the
earth, to be spread abroad to the farthest nations,
to be preached to every creature under heaven.
"Till I come," is the only termination of the work,
the only limit of the great commission.  This is the
one grand mission and work of the blood-bought
church of Christ-to preach his gospel. The field
is the world. And the day of labour is from the
first to the second advent. He has himself connected these two great events in such a way that
the church can never forget the one, or lose sight
of the other.  "'As oft as ye eat this bread and
drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he
come."  Here all that is sacred in the past blends
with all that is glorious in the future. We must
remember him, must love him, must celebrate his
death, must preach his gospel, must labour, and
toil, and suffer, and watch, and pray, till he come.
For surely he shall come. As surely as he died
and rose again, he shall come. Now we see through
a glass darkly. Now we know in part and we understand in part. But then we shall see face to
face, and know even as we are known.  We know
not yet what we shall be; but we know that when
he shall appear we shall be like him. Our vile
bodies shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body.
Our life is hid with Christ in God, so that when he
shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory.
This is our hope, this our confident and joyful ex-t
pectation.  " To you," says the apostle, " who are




RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION.   197
troubled, rest with us in hope, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when
he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be
admired in all them that believe."
In the person and character of Immanuel, we are
to remember, God has made the brightest manifestation of himself. "No man hath seen God at any
time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath declared him." "He that
hath seen me," said Jesus, "hath seen the Father."
We know the heart of God even as we know the
heart of Jesus. We become acquainted with the
character of God, as we become personally acquainted with the character of Jesus.  "For God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ." There are various methods in which God
has manifested his character and glory to his intelligent, moral creatures; and there are manifold
channels through which this glory shines. He has
revealed himself everywhere in nature, every work
of his almighty hand proclaiming his glory. He
has revealed himself in providence, every event,
great and small, uttering an intelligible voice. He
17 *




198        THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
has revealed himself in every page of his written
and inspired oracles-the holy Scriptures. He has
revealed himself also in the work of the Holy Ghost
upon the regenerated human soul; and, indeed, in
all the deep instincts and utterances of the soul itself. But, above all other manifestations is this
glorious manifestation of the word made flesh.
For here it is that we behold the essence of all Divine knowledge and perfection —infinite wisdom,
goodness, truth, beauty, and love, personified, embodied, exemplified in the character of a living man
like ourselves, in all points tempted as we are, yet
without sin. This is the manifestation of God which
comes nearest to our bosoms, and is most easily understood by us.
We learn something of God in every manifestation he has made of himself. Day unto day uttereth speech of him; night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where his
voice is not heard. The signs of his eternal power
and Godhead overspread the heavens.  His glory
fills the earth. His stately steppings are seen in
the great waters. His wisdom shines in every star
that gems the firmament.  His mighty acts are
visible in all the movements of his providence. His
justice, holiness, and truth are proclaimed from
every line of his word. The thunders of his law,
the beseeching overtures of his gospel, the gentle,
yet irresistible, pleadings of his gracious Spiritall alike make known to man something of the deep




RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION.    199
things of God.  But it is in Immanuel, most of all,
that the soul of man finds the clear light of God.
He above all others is the way, and the truth, and
the life.
"Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find;
The holy, just, and sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind.
But if Inmmnanuel's face appear
My hope, my joy begins;
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His grace removes my sins."
Ten thousand times ten thousand guilty, helpless,
dying sinners in all ages, have been led to admire
the beauty of Immanuel, as they have seen him to
be the only and all-sufficient Saviour, both able and
willing to give them that succour which no other
being in the universe could ever give. As they
have found in him a friend and a helper just suited
to their lost estate-the slcrifice for all their sins,
the supply of all their wants, the antidote to all
their woes, the Prophet, Priest, King, and Captain
of their salvation, they have been made to rejoice
with a joy unspeakable and full of glory.  For all
the manifestations of God's character, however
made, and for all the gifts of his grace, however
communicated, we ought to be profoundly grateful.
But for the gift of his Son —for the manifestation
of his amazing love in Christ, how can we ever sufficiently praise him!  Where shall we find words to




200       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
express, or images to shadow forth, our conception
of the debt of gratitude which we owe to God for
such a Saviour! We can only take the language
of an apostle and cry —" Thanks be unto God for
his unspeakable gift."
When we consider what Jesus hath done for ushow he left the bright abodes of glory and stooped
to our lost estate-how he hath borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows in his own body on the treehow he endured all that men and demons could inflict while drinking for us the wrath of God-how
he hath taken our feet from an horrible pit and from
the miry clay, and placed them upon the rock of
ages, and put a new song into our mouths, even the
song of praise for his delivering grace-how he
hath made us, who were by nature the children of
wrath and heirs of death, the children of adoption,
sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, heirs of
God, and joint heirs with himself to an inheritance
which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for all them that believe, we can only fall in adoring homage at his feet,
and cry, " Thanks be to God for his unspeakable
gift."
When we think of life here, as it is to some, and
as it would be to us, without him —the loneliness,
desolation, and darkness of a life without hope and
without God in the world; when we think how we
should feel and act, with every light of the gospel
and every hope of heaven for ever extinguished in




RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION.   201
our souls; when the friends of our youth have all
fallen around us; when the dearest objects of our
human affections are sleeping in the ground; when
all our bodily powers give token of approaching
decay and dissolution, and the storms of adversity
are beating upon our souls; when our days are all
sunless, and our nights without a star, and there
seems nothing before us but the blackness of death
-unending death-Oh! when we think of such a
condition as this-the condition of the unbelieving
sceptic, who cares nothing for Jesus, and then think
of all that he has done for us, and of the glory
which yet awaits us, we cry with adoring and admiring
homage, "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable
gift!"
When, as God's suffering children, we pass
through many a dark valley of humiliation on life's
weary pilgrimage; when we are compelled to eat the
bread of carefulness, to drink the cup of tears, to
wrestle with gloomy doubts and fears, to feel that
the deep waters are ready to engulf us; when all
our plans of life seem to fail, our best purposes to
be defeated, our fondest hopes to be utterly crushed
and blasted; when all our enemies have risen up
against us; when the world has cheated us, friends
and kindred have forsaken us, and the very church
and people of God deceived us; when our very heartstrings are breaking for sorrow, and there seems
nothing left for us but to lie down and die-wretched,
poor, despised, forsaken, tired of the world, and yet




202       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
feeling unfit for heaven-counting all men liars, and
yet unable to look up lovingly and confidingly into
the face of God-Oh! in such an hour of temptation and despondency, what a voice of consolation
is that which comes to us from the lips of Jesus, as
we open again the sacred pages, and, with streaming
eyes, read those calm, tender, soul-subduing, and unfathomable words, "Ye believe in God; believe also
in me! In my Father's house are many mansions;
if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again, and receive you
unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also."
And then, if never before, we cry, with chastened,
humble, loving hearts, "Thanks be unto God for his
unspeakable gift!"
" For such compassions, 0 my God,
Ten thousand thanks are dueFor such compassions, I esteem
Ten thousand thanks too few."
And when, at last, we look forward to the time
of our departure from this mortal scene, and are
called to pass through the dark valley and shadow
of death; when our earthly house of this tabernacle
is about to be dissolved, and we feel that with every
heaving breath and every ebbing pulse we are but
drawing nearer and nearer to the presence of God;
when we feel that in the lone and untried valley
we need a guide and a comforter, a rod and a staff




RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION.   1203
to support our trembling footsteps, a friendly bosom
on which to lean the weary head, an Almighty arm
to protect us, and a voice of love to cheer us and
bid us fear no evil-where then shall we find the
guide and comforter of our souls? Who but Immanuel can be with us then, go with us through all
the darkness of death, and bid us welcome to the
fields of immortality, when it is passed? When we
feel, as we must all soon feel, that the only guide
and counsellor through this dread passage, is Jesus;
that the only rod and staff to comfort us there, the
only loving bosom on which we can lean our dying
heads, and the only friendly voice which can come
to cheer us, is that of Jesus who hath trodden it before us, well may we cry, "Thanks be to God!Glory be to God in the highest for this unspeakable
gift! Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy,
hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
God with us! God incarnate! God our Saviour,
Brother, Lord! How it should elevate our thoughts,
how it should kindle our devotions, how it should
bind our hearts in holy love to contemplate the
great and blessed mystery of God manifest in the
flesh! that God has been with us, and that we shall
be with him for ever, he in our nature, and we
through him made partakers of the Divine nature!
What more could God do for us?  What more do
we need in order that Christ should win oulr hearts?




204       THE BEAUTY OF IMMANUEL.
When we think of-the loved ones, who were so
recently with us, who have left the church below
and gone up to the general assembly and church of
the first-born, having washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb-when we look
around upon our broken family circles, and feel that
those with whom we took sweet counsel here, are
now in the presence of Jesus, beholding his glory
face to face-when we think of all those venerable
and honoured names, whose praises were in all the
church below, and whose toil-worn but happy spirits
have passed away, even during the last year, to join
the ranks and to swell the chorus of the redeemed
on high-when we think that these with the saints
of all ages are now with Jesus, and that we also,
after a few more years of toil and sorrow, shall join
their blessed company, to part no more for ever;
how should our hearts burn within us, as we tell of
Immanuel's love, of all that we owe to him, and of
all that we hope to be!
Here then let us come, even to the cross of Immanuel; here let us find rest in a sense of his love;
here let us admire and adore, as, for time and eternity, we commit our souls to his keeping.