SERMON I.

THE SON OF MAN.

MATT. xxvi. 24. LUKE Xxii. 22.-The Son of man goeth, as it is written of him,-goeth, as it was determined.

THE Son of Man. Who is HE? and what does this appellation mean? what is its reference, and what is its signification? And his going, What is IT? whence does he go? whither does he go? how does he go? These are the topics which the passages of Scripture now read naturally bring before the mind.

These were topics which, in the days of his flesh, deeply engaged the attention both of the enemies and the friends of our Lord Jesus. On a very interesting occasion, when, on certain Greeks seeking an interview with him—seeing in this event the handful of first-fruits of the fulfilment of the ancient oracles, "To Shiloh," when come, "shall be the gathering of the people," and "in Abraham's seed shall all nations be blessed," he said, "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified: now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out: and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me;" the unbelieving Jews exclaimed, "Who is this Son of man?" Whom can he mean? Can he mean himself? And if he mean himself, What does he mean? And his going was as

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much a mystery to them as his name. When he said to them, "I go my way; and ye shall seek me, and shall not find me, and shall die in sins: whither I go, ye canyour Then said the Jews, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go ye cannot come. What manner of saying is this?" They had indeed no wish to know the truth; and our Lord left them with those words of fearful augury. "When ye have lift up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am HE;""the same that I said to you from the beginning." They now know who the Son of man is, and have found out where he has gone, and that "where he is, there they can never come."

The friends of our Lord, his chosen disciples, had no doubt who the Son of man was. It is very questionable how far, at this time, they understood the meaning of this appellation, but they were quite satisfied as to its reference. How could it be otherwise, after he had said to them, "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am? Who say ye that I am?" and they had replied, by the mouth of Peter, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God."

But though they were quite clear as to who the Son of man was, they were very much in the dark with respect to his "going." The truth is, they had no wish that he should go at all. It is highly probable that their faith was that of their nation, who held, that the Messiah should come, and not go; they thought that they had read in the law, "that Christ abideth for ever." Their hopes were connected with his staying, not with his going. They trusted that this was He who should redeem Israel: and how is he to redeem Israel if he go away; for assuredly Israel is not yet redeemed? Whenever he talked about going, bewilderment filled their minds, and sorrow their hearts. They very imperfectly understood either the dignity of his person or the design of his mission. But he was more than all the world to them; the life of their life, their stay, their hope.

They had left all for him, and he was to them more than all they had left. They were very unwilling to part with him. What could they do without him? And then, there was

something about the way in which he spoke of leaving them, which alarmed them; for though they seem to have flattered themselves that his words, when he spoke of suffering many things, being mocked by the chief priests, delivered to the Gentiles, crucified, and on the third day rising again, were figurative, and did not mean all they seemed to say; yet still they feared the mystery involved in his words was something > terrible. When he told them that he must go to the Father; and that, in going to the Father, he would prepare a place, and return, and take them to himself, and added, "Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know:" Surely, after all I have said, you should know why, where, how, I am going; Philip, speaking, I doubt not, the sentiments of them all, replied, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?" And afterwards, when he said to them, "A little while, and ye shall not see me and again a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father; his disciples said among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again a little while, and ye shall see me, and Because I go to the Father? What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith." They find new difficulty in every additional expression. Ah, they were not willing to confess to themselves all they knew; at any rate, all they surmised on the subject! They did not clearly "understand the sayings, and they were afraid to ask him."

It has been all explained to them long ago. The mystery has been made manifest. He has gone; and they, erelong, became persuaded, that it was expedient for them that he should go, even though they, for a season, should be left behind him. They are gone too; gone to him: they have seen him again; and their hearts rejoice, and their joy no man taketh from them: rejoicing, "with a joy unspeakable and full of glory," that he came, that he went, that he will

come again, bringing them with him to revisit this earth, once the scene of their sinful and his sinless sorrows, then to become the theatre of His and of their glory; and, after reclaiming that part of His body in theirs, which, even when the spirit was life through his righteousness, has been dead in consequence of sin, return at the head of the unnumbered millions of the fully redeemed "purchased possession," to enter into the palace of his Father and their Father, the great King, the Lord of hosts; "and there they shall abide."

We, my brethren, are free from the perplexities equally of the unbelieving Jews, and of the disciples as yet unbaptized with that Holy Ghost, whose mission was one of the blessed effects of that going, which they so dimly apprehended, so deeply deprecated. If he had not gone, the Comforter could not have come. But he has gone, and sent Him from the Father; and it is to Him that we owe our freedom from all indistinctness and uncertainty on the subjects which the text brings before our minds. We know well, I trust, both the reference and the meaning of the appellation, "The Son of man.” We know whither he has gone, and we know the way. We know that by penal suffering, by unutterable mental violent dissolution of the constituent parts of his humanity, he has gone, his soul into the separate state, and his body to the grave; and that these constituent parts of his humanity having been reunited in a glorious resurrection, he has, by a triumphant ascension, gone into heaven, the heaven of heavens, and "sat down for ever on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

agonies, and by a most

The religious ordinance we are met to observe is an emblematical representation of the going away of the Son of man, especially of some of the earlier stages of his wonderful journey from earth to heaven, through agony, and death, and burial; and the brief season we have to spend previously to our engaging in it can surely scarcely be more appropriately employed, than in meditating a little on the Son of man, on his

going, and on the manner of his going, as indicated in the text. He goeth, as it was determined. He goeth, as it is written.

And now, my friends, may your hearts indite a good matter, and may the tongue of the preacher be as the pen of a ready writer, when he speaks of the things which he has made, touching the Son of man, "the King," "the King's Son."

Nothing is more certain than that the appellation, the Son of man, belongs to Jesus Christ, and is peculiar to him. The prophet Ezekiel is, indeed, often addressed "son of man ;" but neither he nor any one else, except Jesus Christ, is ever termed "the Son of man." In a passage already quoted, our Lord most expressly appropriates the appellation, “Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" The phrase occurs sixty-six times, if I mistake not, in the gospel histories, and in every case is used by our Lord himself. Indeed, the only instance in which it is employed by any one else is when Stephen, at his martyrdom, "looking up steadfastly to heaven," and beholding the Schekinah, or divine glory, and Jesus in the midst of it, exclaimed, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." The reason of these remarkable facts may probably come out in the course of our observations. It has been supposed, that in two cases in the Book of Revelation our Lord is termed the Son of man; but this is a mistake. The passages referred to are, chap. i. 12, and chap. xiv. 14. In both places the reference is to appearances of our Lord; but the expression is not "the Son of man," but it is "one like to the son of man," or rather "one like to a son of man"—that is, a person in human form. The expression in both cases is plainly a translation of Daniel's phrase, chap. vii. 13, where the reference is to the Messiah, but where the true rendering is, "one like a son of man," one in human form.

It has been often and confidently stated that the appellation, "the Son of man," was one of the names of the promised Messiah current among the Jews. Of this there is