mystery of Iniquity, revealed at last, is not pointed out from the very first: whether Judas was not solemnly warned against the particular sin which in the end proved his ruin, even from the first day that he was drawn to his Divine Master's side! The picture of our SAVIOUR's long-suffering and forbearance, thus presented to our notice, will be complete, when to every active endeavour on His part to reclaim Judas from ruin, we add the recollection of the keen suffering which the mere presence of such an one as Judas must have daily occasioned Him; and the patience with which that sorrow was submitted to by our LORD. How exceeding great must have been the grief, where the meal had to be daily partaken of with one who would some day rise from eating His bread to betray Him into the hands of His enemies! where the hollow unreality had to be daily endured, and the gross hypocrisy witnessed, of one whose prayers, whose preaching, whose professions, were all, from first to last, a lie; and would all, in the end, turn to the greater condemnation of one who might have become one of God's chiefest Saints! . . . . Throughout the Gospels we nevertheless meet with no one speech of bitterness addressed to Judas: no single reproach of his ingratitudė: no word, to the very last, but of the tenderest Love. And is it possible to take notice of such things, and yet to overlook their personal teaching? It cannot be! And yet it is strange indeed to notice how little impression this Divine example of long-suffering and forbearance seems to have made on the Christian World at large. Each one seems to think himself at perfect liberty to resent a neighbour's ingratitude: while misplaced confidence, and good offices ill requited, -these are deemed a fair occasion for bitter complaint; a valid ground for laying claim to the sympathy of every other member of the Christian community. It is forgotten how fruitful a source of disappointment is misplaced confidence; and therefore, how often the fault of unrequited kindness is, in truth, all our own: how paltry, at best, are the benefits which we are ourselves able to confer on another: and how grossly ungrateful to the GOD which hath fed us all our life long unto this day, we have already, in countless ways and on countless occasions, shewn ourselves to be. All this we forget. We are wronged, it may be; but He was betrayed! We are injured; but He was slain! We made the man our friend; but He made of Judas an Apostle! We are sinful; but He was perfectly holy, just, and good! Why then must it be added that while no reproach was ever found on His lips, yet angry vindictive expressions are ever so rife on ours? Why will we not consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself;' that so we may escape the shame of proving easily wearied and faint in our minds? we, who have not yet resisted,-nor, it may be, ever shall resist,-as our LORD and SAVIOUR did, 'unto blood.' : Good-Friday. CHRIST CRUCIFIED. ST. JOHN xix. 30. He said, It is finished; and He bowed His head, and gave up the Ghost. THIS day is so entirely unlike every other day in the year, so past all telling solemn, that silence seems the only fitting occupation for us, as often as it comes round. It is the anniversary of more than a Parent's death, (which seems impossible ;) for it is our SAVIOUR, who, as on this day, died for us. Add the circumstances of His death, and the burthen of grief becomes truly appalling. It is not only true that He died in order to save us; but it was our sins which made it needful that He should die. Nor was it any common death that He died; but a cruel, murderous death ; the prolonged torture of the Cross, sharpened by every indignity which malice could devise, or Love submit to. Nor have we yet said all for this SAVIOUR : and Benefactor, this crucified REDEEMER, was very GoD as well as very Man. This is a stupendous thought, and one which we cannot completely master; but which we must nevertheless accept, and, in our degree, seek to realize. In truth it took more than man could offer to redeem the souls of men; so that man must have 'let that alone for ever.' None but GOD, taking Man's nature, could have availed to redeem Mankind. And in speaking of the human sufferings of CHRIST, His Godhead must be clearly kept in view; if for no other reason, at least for this, that we may thereby form the truer notion, (incomplete indeed, yet truer,) of those very human sufferings. For a perverse spirit might be found to reason thus: Many before, and since, have undergone Crucifixion. CHRIST, therefore, did but suffer that which thousands besides had suffered.' He who can so wickedly argue, overlooks every circumstance of unequalled injustice, shame, and torture. But, (what is far more to the purpose,) he forgets that He who suffered was very GoD as well as very Man. We say not, of course, that GOD suffered the bitter death of the Cross. Heaven forbid that we should so speak! for GOD can suffer nothing. But we do a Ps. xlix. 8. |