MEDITATION X.

June 3, 1796.

JOHN XI. 36.

BEHOLD HOW HE LOVED HIM!

"BEHOLD how he loved him!" said the Jews, when they saw Jesus shedding tears over the grave of Lazarus. What would they say now if they saw him shedding blood?

O! love of infinite degree. Angels must surely look down with amazement, and cry, "Behold how he loved them!" And should we, christians, be less affected than they? Behold him stooping down, and washing the feet of his disciples. He did not content himself with washing one, and bidding the rest to wash one another; but, that there might be no envy or jealousy among them that one was more favoured than another, he washed them all himself. Behold how he loved them !. We saw him at the Holy Supper breaking the bread, and giving it to the disciples, saying, "Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you: do this in remembrance of me." And he appointed

this to be a standing ordinance in the church, that they might not forget their truest and best Friend. Behold how he loved them! We heard him preach (if I may so call it) his farewell sermon, in which he suggested every thing that could be thought of, to soothe and comfort them; and talked to them so sweetly about heaven, as reconciled them to his death and made them long for their own. Behold how he loved them! When he had done speaking to them, he turns to God, and puts up the most affectionate prayer for them, that ever a dying parent could put up for his orphan family that he was to leave behind. He says all the good of them and for them that love could suggest; and puts in a claim on their behalf to a partnership with him, in all the joys and glories of his heavenly kingdom. Behold how he loved them! when he could do nothing more for them on earth, he surrendered himself to his enemies, was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He submitted to be fettered, to be scourged, to be spit upon, to be buffeted, to be crucified. Surely this speaks aloud; Behold how he loved them!

And,

It was pleasing to observe how, having loved his own, he loved them to the end; and the nearer he drew to his end, the brighter and stronger did his affections flame out. love in his mouth; and

He died, as it were, with that is further than the

human friendship of many persons go. They will, perhaps, show us kindness as long as their own circumstances are easy; but, when they themselves begin to be in trouble, if they meet with losses and crosses in the world, or if they are afflicted with painful and threatening disorders of body, they forget us; they have enough to do to attend to themselves; their own burdens engross all their thoughts and cares, and they have nothing to spare for strangers. Not so that Friend, who sticketh closer than a brother. He is a Friend born for adversity. Having once professed a kindness for any person, he never forgets it afterwards, let their circumstances or his own be what they may. He loved them as long as he lived; and, if that were all, if his love ended with his life, the disciples would have been miserable notwithstanding. But that was not all he loved them to the end of his own life, and he loved them to the end of theirs too. Christians, never a day passes over our heads, but Christ is someway or other testifying his love. We are not so attentive to these things as we ought to be. Our thoughts are so much taken up about the world, its business or its pleasures, that numberless favours from our Divine Benefactor lie "forgotten in unthankfulness;" and, "without praises, die." But the blessed angels, those ministering spirits who minister to the heirs of salvation, and narrowly watch all that passes

from Christ to us, they see with astonishment the ardour and constancy of his love. When we are called out to some difficult service, which, of ourselves, we are no way equal to, they observe Christ secretly whispering, "My grace is sufficient for thee, my strength shall be made perfect in your weakness;" and then, seeing feeble worms performing a task so hard with so much seeming ease, they look at one another as if they would say, "Behold how he loved them!" When they see us beset with temptations, the fiery darts of Satan flying thick about us, snares laid for us on all sides so that it seems almost impossible for us to escape; but yet, when they observe Christ restraining the tempter, and saying, "Hitherto shalt thou go, but no further;" and then praying to his heavenly Father that the faith of his poor tempted disciples may not fail, and, in consequence of it, to escape unhurt, yea, and come off more than conquerors, they look as if they would say, "Behold how he loved them !" When they see us put into the burning fiery furnace, and when, at the same time, they see the Lord sitting as a refiner watching the precious metal, that none of it be wasted or lost; when they see him making all our bed in our sickness, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, putting underneath his everlasting arms, and observe how, in all our afflictions, he is afflicted, angels are astonished, and cry, "Behold how he

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loved them!" When they see the King making a feast, and inviting the poor, and the blind, and the halt, and the maimed; when they see his oxen and fatlings killed, and the most sumptuous provision made for the entertainment of the guests; when they see him bring us into his banquetting house, when his banner over us is love; when they hear him say, "Eat, O friends! drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved!" they look as if they would say, "Behold how he loved them!" And when they see us languishing on the bed of death, our flesh and our heart failing, this earthly house of our tabernacle dissolving; when they observe the "pains, the groans, and dying strife," and, at the same time, the compassion of our Divine Friend tenderly loosening the bands of life, carefully taking out pin after pin to let it come gently down, kindly stilling the enemy and the avenger, and keeping off every thing that might disturb and distress us in that trying time; charging those angels that are our immediate attendants, to keep good watch about our bed, to be ready to receive our departing spirits, and convey them through the territories of the Prince of the power of the air, and lodge them safe within the gates of the New Jerusalem; this adds greatly to their surprise, and makes them cry louder than ever, "Behold how he loved them!" And yet, wonderful as this is, even this is not all: Christ loves his disciples not only to the end of

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