"No voice but thine can give me rest,

And bid my fears depart;

No love but thine can make me bless'd,

And satisfy my heart.

"What anguish has that question stirr'd,

'If I will also go?'

Yet, Lord! relying on thy word,

I humbly answer,—'No.'"

Stand by that resolution. Hold fast what you have received; let no man take your crown. It is as certainly yours as if you had it, if you persevere. Faithful is he who has said it—not a man that he should lie; though the Son of man, not such a son of man as changes his mind-" Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life." To Him and to his Father we commend the keeping of your souls. They are able, by their good Spirit, to "keep you from falling, and to present you before the presence of their glory with exceeding joy."

And now, "O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our fathers! God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! keep this for ever in the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart of us thy people, and prepare our heart unto thee. Let thy hand be upon the Man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man, who thou madest strong for thyself; so shall we not go back from thee: quicken us, and we shall call on thy name. Turn us again, O Lord of Hosts! cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved."

SERMON II.

THE GOING OF 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, and the going of the Son of man, these are the two subjects which the text offers to our consideration. In a discourse which I delivered to you four months ago, when I last presided among you in the observance of the Lord's Supper, I called your attention to the first of these topics. It is my intention to devote the present discourse to the illustration of the second.

On the occasion referred to, I showed you that, while 'Son of man' signifies neither more nor less than a partaker of human nature, by being a descendant of Adam, a born, not a created man, the Son of man is one of the distinctive appellations of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the Saviour of mankind. I traced the origin of the appellation to an Old Testament oracle, and showed you how this designation turns the attention at once to the reality and the peculiarities of our Lord's humanity. While it includes him in the race of man, it distinguishes him from every other individual of that race. It marks him a real man; but it equally marks him as a singular man. It tells us he is no airy phantom, no incarnate angel: he is a very man; he is the man Christ

Jesus; born of a woman, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh; with a body capable of fatigue, and pain, and death ; and with a mind to think, and a heart to feel, and a conscience to judge, and a will to choose, as we have; passing through the helplessness of childhood and the changes of youth, into the maturity of manhood; personally acquainted with the trials of humanity, and able to sympathize with its infirmities and sorrows. But while it marks him as a real man, it equally marks him as a singular man: as a perfect man, man as he should be, the normal man; in this respect all his people resemble him, but none of them equal him : as the representative man, the second Adam; in this respect there is but one man who can be compared to him, Adam, and he is his contrast, not his resemblance: as the God-man, the Word made flesh, God manifest in flesh; in this respect he has not only none equal, but none like to him; he stands alone, not only among men, but among creatures, ay, among existing beings: as the predicted man, the illustrious man, to whom all the prophets who have been since the world began bear testimony; here, too, he has the pre-eminence; for though other men are subjects of prophecy, he is the great subject of prophecy. The spirit of prophecy is, by way of eminence, HIS witness. It testifies of Him, and of every one else only as related to Him. This is the Son of man, so real, so singular a man, so like us, so unlike us, at once so entirely on our level and so immeasurably above us.

The predestined, predicted "going" of this Son of man comes now to be considered. "The Son of man," said the Son of man himself, goeth, "goeth as was determined, goeth as it is written." It was a common thing for him to speak both of his coming and his going. Heaven was his original abode-earth was his present residence; but it was not intended to be his permanent dwelling-place. He had come from heaven to earth, and was to go from earth to heaven. When he came, he came not unsent. He was commissioned to do a great work, and, when that work was accomplished,

he was to return to him that sent him. This is the going referred to in the text, sometimes called his "decease" or departure, sometimes his being "taken up," which was to be "accomplished at Jerusalem."

The time of his continuance on earth was now drawing to a close. "The Son of man goeth," is just about to go. In a very few days he would finish the work which the Father had given him to do, having glorified him on the earth. In a very few weeks he would be in his Father's house, on his Father's throne.

The journey that was before him, on which he was just about to enter, was a very wonderful one: it was first a journey down into the lowest depths of suffering and abasement, and then a journey up from these depths to the loftiest heights of dignity and happiness. The journey had, as it were, two great stages. He goes to the grave, the lowest spot he can reach on earth; and he goes to the throne of God, the highest spot he can reach in heaven. He goeth to severe suffering and violent death; he goeth to eternal life and to boundless enjoyment; and he goeth through this suffering and death to this life and enjoyment. The cross is the way to the crown. "The Son of man goeth."

Let us, led by the Spirit of inspiration, endeavour to accompany him in his wondrous journey; and when we have seen whither he has gone, and what was the way, we will be prepared for understanding the import of his words concerning this going, when he says, "He goeth, as it was determined; he goeth, as it is written."

When our Lord uttered the words of the text, he had finished his public ministry. He had for the last time, before his entering on the first stage of his mysterious journey, his journey to the house of silence, the low, lonely dwelling of the dead, assembled his disciples together to celebrate along with them, once more, the symbolical ordinance which, for so many ages, had foreshadowed his passion, and to institute another, which should be its commemoration till time shall be no more. To cure them of their ambition, he taught

them, by performing to them the menial office of washing their feet, that, like their Master, they should readily submit to the most degrading services, in order to promote the welfare of their fellow disciples, and even fellow men; and that in his society the point of honour was not superior power, but superior usefulness, not the highest dignity, but the deepest humility; intimating to them meanwhile, that very high spiritual honours would be enjoyed by them as princes and judges under him, over the twelve tribes of the spiritual Israel. Sitting at the passover table with them, with his loins girt, and his shoes on his feet and his staff in his hand, like one just about to go, to begin his journey, he intimated that one of them should betray him. "The hand," said he, "of him who betrayeth me, is at the table. The Son of man goeth as it is written, goeth as it was determined; but wo to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed." Having given the beloved disciple the means of ascertaining who he referred to, and having intimated to the miserable man himself that he was aware of his treachery, he dismissed him, without apparently making any disclosure to the rest of the disciples. He then proceeded to say to his chosen, faithful few, "Little children, yet a little while I am with you; ye shall seek me; and as I said to the Jews, now I say unto you, Whither I go ye cannot come." "Lord," said Simon Peter, with characteristic forwardness, "whither goest thou?" Jesus answered him, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards." He then instituted that solemn religious observance, in which, after more than eighteen centuries, we are come together to-day to engage, intimating that he and they were just about to part, and that most important events would take place ere they should meet again. "Verily, I say unto you, I shall no more drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, till I drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father, God." "I go," he said to them, for he saw sorrow had filled their hearts, "I go to my Father's house, in which are many mansions, to prepare a place for you; and