A.D. 29. The victim of the 8th sacrifice offered these festivities The Saviour's invitation to thirsty souls.--I. That the springs of the best blessings are in Christ: 1. Pardon; 2. Favour of 12 bullocks were God; 3. Communications of the Spirit; 4. Joys and glories of to be offered, and heaven. II. That Jesus is willing to communicate these streams so on in decreaswith a Divine freedom, and in the richest abundance: 1. Let His ing series. invitations witness it; 2. The Spirit of Christ; 3. The tears of Christ; 4. The blood of Christ; 5. Experience. III. Application.m-Christ the Fountain of living water.—I. A description of its nature: 1. Its residence; 2. Its quality-living water; 3. Its plenitude. II. An invitation to the source of this religion: 1. He is the appointed source; 2. He is the sufficient source; 3. He is an accessible source. III. A direction for the attainment of this religion: 1. The disposition required; 2. The conduct enjoined; 3. The participation expressed." The progeny of faith and works. From that union have sprung not witnessed up a glorious progeny. All the mighty deeds which have ennobled has no idea of a and elevated humanity own that parentage. Faith and action Jubilee."--Saying have been the source, under God, of everything good and great of Rabbins. and enduring in the Church of Christ: the very Church itself dPss. cxiii.-cxviii. exists through them. Its model men were men of faith and Nu. xx. 8-11. action. Such have ever been God's true evangelists. Such was g1 Co. x. 4. Luther, the flaming iconoclast of Europe; to-day writing theses See Wordsworth and commentaries, and to-morrow translating the Scriptures, or Pr. xviii. 4; Is. hurling fresh invective against the black domination of the Man lviii. 11; Jo. iv. of Sin. Such were Baxter, the indefatigable pastor; Edwards, the perpetual thinker; Neander, the perpetual student; Owen, the perpetual writer; Knox, the untiring reformer; Whitefield, the untiring preacher; and Chalmers, who appears to have been pastor, preacher, writer, thinker, and reformer, all in one. Brethren, such may God honour us in being. A faith sound as that of the Westminster Assembly will not save the dying world around us unless it flows out into action. e Is. xii. 3. in loc. 14. Is. xliv. 3; Joel Ac. ii. 17, 33. ii. 28; Jo. xvi. 7; 16. Jo. xiv. 16; xv. m Doddridge. n Anon. Christ o T. L. Cuyler. 40-44. many, not all, a division among them. prophet, various the predicted one.a Christ, for some held that that p. was not opinions the Christ. shall.. Galilee, wh. may explain the objection of concerning v. 27. hath.. said, etc., and judging by hearsay or appear- a De. xviii. 15ances, they did not examine His agreement with the known pre-18; Jo. vi. 14. dictions. division, two parties; one altogether opposed; the b Cf. Ps. cxxxii. other favourable, but still divided in opinion, vv. 40-42. some, 11; Je. xxiii. 5; of those who were opposed. Prob. the officers also who had Mi. v. 2; Lu. ii. been sent (v. 32). no him, two reasons, fear of people, and 4; 1 8. xvi. 1, 5. v. 46. "Nothing separates men from widely, or unites them together more closely, This is the Christ.—His name implies that He is—I. The great each other more Prophet; II. The true High Priest; III. The eternal King. Fuchs.-Christ to come from Bethlehem.-I. The son of David. II. The Lord of David. III. The Lord of David, because He was born His Son.-Bethlehem.-I. The house of bread for the soul (Jo. vi. 33). II. The City of David. III. The least of all the cities of Judah. IV. The most remarkable of all the cities of the earth.c Thoughtless reading of the Bible.-You get up in the morning, and you say, "It is the calm of the morning, and I am going over into the city where I shall be tempted, and I must read a little before I start." You do not know exactly where you will read, but you must read somewhere. So you turn over the leaves at random. You happen to stop in the Book of Acts. When you than the Gospel."-J. Ford. c Lange. d H. W. Beecher. "Those Scriptures refresh me most wh. are open to all, and not limited to a particular class." -T. Scott. A.D. 29. "The precept is given, that the help may be sought of Him who gives it."Leo. never man spake like this man a Lu. iv. 22. b Je. v. 4, 5. c Jo. xii. 42; 1 Co. i. 26. "The Spirit of never known to rest upon a poor the Lord was man."- Rabbinical Saying. "That the au thority of men Hooker. in all that is ness in every have read eight, or ten, or twelve verses, you think you will stop. Then you say to yourself, "This is rather pinching the matter; the chapter is not very long, so I guess I will read it to the end." The next day, quite having forgotten what you read yesterday, you read a chapter near the beginning of the Gospels. But you do not go back to that spot for months. You do not join what you read on to what you have read.d 45-49. why, etc., a question that, to this day, may be pertinently put to sceptics and others. Whose reply, if they spoke the truth, would be the same. never,a a in all time and in all the world, or in our experience. man, who was only a man. spake, and His deeds spake louder still. this man, if, indeed, He be a man only. deceived, little did they know how self-deceived they themselves were. rulers,' their unbelief might be accounted for; but some, even of them, had. this people, spoken contemptuously of people whom they ought to have pitied, if they were deluded. cursed, their greatest curse was having such rulers. The great orator.-I. "Never," etc., when you consider the matter of His speech: 1. He speaks of a sinful past forgiven; 2. Of a miserable present made happy; 3. Of an awful future averted. II. "Never," etc., when you consider the manner of His speech: 1. He has authority without arrogance; 2. Tenderness without unfaithfulness; 3. Wisdom without pedantry; 4. Earnestness without extravagance; 5. Personality without malice.< Why have ye not brought Him?-Many have been asked this, taught us, kind- and the answer has been and still is, "Never man spake like this ness in every pre- man." "Our Lord found many a topic of discourse in the scenes cept, and happi-around Him. Even the humblest objects shone in His hands as promise."-Hugo I have seen a fragment of broken glass, as it caught the sunbeam, de St. Victor. light up, flashing like a diamond. A little child, which He takes "I have surveyed from his mother's side and holds up blushing in his arms before the astonished audience, is the text for a sermon on humility. A husbandman on a neighbouring height, between Him and the sky, who strides with long and measured steps over the field he sows, supplies a text from which He discourses on the Gospel and its subjects known effects on different classes of hearers. In a woman baking; in in the world; but two women who sit by some cottage door grinding at a mill; in at this time I can Ian old strong tower, perched on a rock, whence it looks across the stay my soul on none of them, but brawling torrent to the ruined and roofless gable of a house swept upon the holy away by mountain floods-Jesus found texts. From the birds Scriptures."- that sung above His head, and the lilies that blossomed at His "There are no feet, He discoursed on the care of God-these His texts, and songs compar- providence His theme."e-Never man spake like this man.—Mr. able to the songs Powell, a minister of the Gospel, being informed that an officer tions equal to was come to apprehend him for preaching the Gospel, quietly rethose of the pro- signed himself into his hands, requesting only that he might be phets, no politics permitted to join with his wife and children in prayer before he which the Scrip- was dragged to prison. With this request the officer complied; and tures teach." most of the learn ing found among the sons of men; and my study is full of books and papers on most John Selden. of Sion, no ora equal to those Milton. d Stems and Twigs. e Dr. Guthrie. Nicodemus the family being together, the officer was so struck with the ardent and tender prayers of this suffering servant of God for his family, for the Church, and for his persecutors in particular, that he declared he would die rather than have a hand in apprehending such a man. 50-53. Nicodemus,a one of these very rulers. judge,' these rulers had prejudged the whole case. hear, for defence, etc. doeth, Nicodemus would draw attention to what had A.D. 29. convinced him. answered, but their reply was a taunt, not anb De. xviii. 8; Pr. argument. Galilee, they assume that Jesus was a Galilean, xviii. 13. and challenge Him to vindicate His claims. False premises lead "Nicodemus' man.. house, to hatch new plots. words to erroneous conclusions. Comp. Jesus in next verse. is touched their conscience, probation may be whether they will take due care to inform them and afterwards whether they will act, as the case requires, upon Judging wrongly.-An evil judgment taken up yesterday prepares another to-day, and this another to-morrow, and so a vast complicated web of false judgments, in the name of reason, spread over all the subjects of knowledge. We fall into a state selves by partial thus of general confusion, in which even the distinctions of consideration; knowledge are lost. Presenting our little mirror to the clear light of God, we might have received true images of things, and gotten by degrees a glorious wealth of knowledge; but we break the mirror in the perversity of our sin, and offer only the shivered fragments to the light, when, of course, we see distinctly nothing. Then, probably enough, we begin to sympathise with ourselves and justify the ignorance we are in, wondering, if there be a God, that He should be so dark to us, or that He should fall behind these walls of silence and suffer Himself to be only doubtfully guessed through fogs of ignorance and obscurity.e CHAPTER THE EIGHTH. the evidence wh. they have. And this, we find by experience, is often our probation in our tem poral capacity." -Bp. Butler. d Preachers' Portf. e Dr. Bushnell. worth. 1, 2. [vv. 1-12a said by some to be spurious. Not found early in the in many MSS. or old versions. Not commented on by anc. Temple fathers. Dif. in style fr. rest of Jo.'s Gospel. Said to have been a See Alford. derived fr. narrative of Papius, a scholar of Jo., wh. was first in-b As Origen serted in Gospel of the Hebrews, and passed thence into this Cyril, Chrysostom, Gospel. It is dif. to decide on its genuineness; still, it is found etc. See Wordsin some old MSS. and versions,d commented on, or quoted by some fathers."Besides, v. 12 would connect very well with v. 52| of last cap."] Jesus.. Olives, as was His wont, meditation, prayer. early, eager to renew His work, and finish His course. Temple, were most sure of an audience, and braving all danger. IV. An c Eusebius iii. 39. d Arabic, Persian, Coptic, Syriac, etc. e Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, etc. It is also treated as genuine in the Apostolic Constitutions ii. 24. f Jacobus. 9 Teaching in the Temple.-Notice-I. The time of this teaching, "early in the morning." II. The place-in the Temple. III. The Teacher-Christ, the great Redeemer of His people. The audience-all the people: 1. A vast;. 2. A varied; 3. attentive congregation.-Anon. Perseverance in doing good.-An old man in Watton, whom Mr. Thornton had in vain urged to come to church, was taken ill and confined to his bed. Mr. Thornton went to the cottage, and asked to see him. The old man, hearing his voice below, answered, in no very courteous tone, "I don't want you here, you may go away." The following day, the curate was again at the who, by pro"Well, my friend, may I come up to-day, and fession, went halfway with Again he received the same reply, "I don't Him, and then foot of the stairs. sit beside you?" Lu. xix. 41. "None will have such a dreadful parting with the Lord at the last day as will those A.D. 29. left Him."-Gurnall. the woman "The only godli- ungodliness, and we hunt after other other men's sins, not that we may mourn over them, but that we may cast them in their teeth."-Gregory Nazianzen. "There are cer tain sins, wh., as it were, kill the soul at one blow." -Augustine. b Homilist. e Godwyn. a Greenleaj's the view of Augustine, Luther, Cal vin, etc. e De. xvii. 7; Ro. ii. 1, 22. "Most want you here." Twenty-one days successively Mr. T. paid his visit to the cottage, and on the twenty-second his perseverance was rewarded. He was permitted to enter the room of the aged sufferer, to read the Bible, and pray by his bedside. The poor man recovered, and became one of the most regular attendants at the house of God.-Life of Rev. S. Thornton. 3-5. and .. brought, etc., to see whether, as in His doctrines, they could find anything against Him in the application of the law. say.. act, no doubt whatever of her guilt. Mosesa.. Thou, they would place Him at variance with Moses; and thus excite the people against Him. The woman taken in adultery.-I. The vilest sinners are often the greatest accusers. II. The severest judge of sinners is their own conscience. III. The greatest friend of sinners is Jesus Christ: 1. He declines pronouncing a judicial condemnation; 2. He discharges them with a merciful admonition. Death by stoniny.-There were eighteen crimes to be punished with stoning. The mode was this-The offender was led to a place without the gates, two cubits high, his hands being bound. From hence one of the witnesses knocked him down by a blow upon the loins. If that killed him not, the witness lifted up a stone, being the weight of two men, which chiefly the other witness cast upon him. If that killed him not, all Israel threw stones upon him. The party thus executed, was afterwards, in greater ignominy, hanged on a tree till towards the sunset, at which time both he and the tree were buried."c Moses." 6-8. accuse, bec. He must decide against the law, wh. inflicted death; or against the Roms. who suffered them not to put anyone to death, and who would still less have allowed it for such a crime as adultery, wh. was not a capital offence among them." Or, if he said yea, they would charge him with inconsistency in preaching compassion, and not showing it: if nay, with opposing wrote.. ground, unwilling to attend, or indifferent [as. . not, not in original]. continued, they thought He was conscious of being in a difficulty. said stone, wh. they could not do: (1) Because they were conscious sinners; (2) anyone silent, Because the Roman law was in the way. again, etc., turning when to speak in contempt fr. those who thus trifled with a great sin, a Divine is of no profit. law, and the Lord of Truth. men speak, when they do not know how dom do you see to be silent. Sel Tie your tongue, lest it be wanton Tempting Christ.-I. This inquiry meant as a temptation. II. and luxuriant; The object in view,-"that they might accuse Him.” keep it within III. The the banks, as ra- way in which it was met by our Lord.—Anon.—Tempting the pidly flowing Lord.-To tempt God is to-I. Impute evil to Him; II. Suffer collects oneself to be tempted by the evil one; III. Attempt to render the mud."-Ambrose. spirit of light subservient to the spirit of darkness.d soon "Before thou rep rehend The beauty of conscience.-There is great beauty in conscience. another, take When it tempers the speech, and makes it true and just: when it heed thou art tempers the actions and makes them noble and right; when it not culpable in what thou goest produces fairness, and honour, and just judgments—how beautiful about to repre- are all the direct and indirect influences of a Christian conscience hend. He that in a man! But it sometimes leads Christian men to a sphere of uncharitable judgment. It inspires a high conception of what is right, and men take that conception as a rule by which to measure the conduct of their fellow-men, without consideration of their organisations, without making allowance for their weaknesses, cleanses a blot with blotted fingers, makes a greater blur." F. Quarles. A.D. 29. without sympathy with them. There are many men that, adhering strictly to God's ideal of rectitude, fail to have 'Nothing more sympathy with poor, crippled, and broken-down human nature; disposes us to and they go aside and away from God just in proportion as show mercy to they do this. It was this cruelty that brought down from our others, than the Saviour His most vehement denunciations; for vice and crime our own danger." were not regarded by Christ as being as guilty as moral purity-Augustine. without any heart, without any sympathy, without any charitable d Lange. judgment. consideration of e H. W. Beecher. c Jo. v. 14. "On stone he had written the Law, signifying the hardness of the on the 9-11. eldest, who, having lived longest, had prob. more sins power of conto remember. Jesus.. woman, mercy and misery.a where, science few would accuse others if only the innocent might. thee.. a Augustine. more, hence He condemned sin, while He pardoned the sinner. b Jo. iii. 17. Jesus indisposed to condemn the sinner.-I. The text neither affirms nor insinuates that our Lord had no grounds on which He might have justly condemned her, had He been disposed so to do. II. Direct your attention to that decision which the text reports the Saviour to have given in the case of this poor sinner-Jews; "Where are thine accusers?' III. The admonition given to earth He wrote, signifying the this poor sinner-" Go and sin no more."d fruitfulness of The joy of Divine forgiveness.-So I saw in my dream that just Christians."--Auas Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his gustine. shoulder and fell from off his back and began to tumble, and so "The sick person continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where remained alone it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then was Christian glad and with the Physician; mighty lightsome, and said with a merry heart, "He hath given me rest misery with by His sorrow, and life by His death." Then he stood still mighty mercy."awhile to look and wonder, for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden; he looked therefore and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the water down his cheeks. Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold three shining ones came to him, and saluted him with "Peace be to thee." So the first said to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;" the second stripped him of his rags and clothed him with a change of raiment; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate; so they went on their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing— "Thus far did I come, laden with my sin, Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in, Till I came hither;-What a place is this! Must here be the beginning of my bliss? Must here the burden fall from off my back? Must here the strings that bound it to me crack? Blest cross! blest sepulchre; blest rather be The Man that there was put to shame for me."e 12, 13. [On the theory that vv. 1-11 are thrown in as a parenthesis, v. 12 may be read as continuation of vii. 52.] Light," the true L.; that L., L. of life. followeth,' to none else is the light of the highest use. darkness, ignorance, sin, danger. said, He is now charged with being a self-witness. Ibid. "When Jesus eyes, it is to overturns away His look our sins, and expect our amendment. When He looks on us again, it is to comfort our fears, and absolve our sins. We are judges of evil thoughts;' but Jesus alone is the Judge of Mercy." -Austin. d Anon. e J. Bunyan. the Light of xlix. 6; Mal. iv. 2. Heb Jo. xii. 35, 46. Christ the light of the world.-I. Christ's excellency. enlightens all by-1. His instructions; 2. Example. II. The c Jo. v. 31. blessedness of His followers: 1. They shall not walk in darkness; |