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GOOD FRIDAY.

SERMON VIII.

THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS.

ISAIAH liii. 11.

"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied."

THESE words form part of that remarkable prophecy, which describes, with historical exactness, the treatment which our blessed Lord should experience on his coming into the world, and the character which he should display. "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth;

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he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." At the close, come the words of the text; "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." He shall be satisfied with the fruit which he shall see resulting from the travail of his soul.

Now this is one of those illustrations which abound in scripture, striking our minds the more, because taken from things known and familiar. We are all aware with how much grief and suffering children are born into the world. This was part of that first sentence, by which God declared his hatred of sin. He said unto Eve, "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." The truth of his words has been proved by experience from that hour to this : and be convinced, my brethren, on the evidence of fact, that all his words are faithful and ought to be believed.

But we know likewise, that the infant is no sooner born, than the mother so rejoices in the sight of her child as to forget her grief. She sees the fruit of her travail, and is satisfied. And the prophet here declares that such is also the case with our merciful Redeemer. Great

as his sufferings were, the description of which has been read to you this morning; yet when he sees the result of them, when he sees the blessings which they have procured to mankind, when he sees any one of the human race enjoying these blessings, he is satisfied; he "remembers no more the anguish," with which his "soul was sorrowful even unto death," for joy that an immortal creature is saved from everlasting misery.

Many things here, my brethren, deserve your solemn consideration. I shall endeavour to promote the object of this sacred day, by showing, in the first place,

What was the travail of Christ ;

Secondly, why he submitted to it;

Thirdly, why and when he is satisfied that he

endured it,

May the Holy Spirit impress what is said upon your hearts!

I. The travail, the sufferings of Christ, consisted, first, in this, that he came down from heaven, and took upon him the nature of man. Perhaps it is not possible that we should judge of this humiliation as it deserves; or form an

as man.

adequate conception what it must be for him, who was " in the beginning with God, and was God," to lay aside his majesty, his power, his happiness, his brightness of glory, and to dwell upon the earth "Forasmuch as those whom he came to save, are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same. He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham."

Indeed, his whole life on earth must be regarded as a continued travail. . To be calling those to repentance who refused to hearken! To be daily "stretching out his hands towards a stiff-necked and gain-saying people! To be daily offering them eternal life, and yet have reason for the complaint, ye will not come unto me that ye may have life!" To be continually witnessing sin, with a full knowledge of the misery to which it leads the sinner! Not only to witness it, but to endure its violence; to be subject to its enmity; to bear "the contradiction of sinners against himself:" to leave the form of God and take the form of man for man's sake, and yet to be despised and rejected of men !" "Behold

9 Hebrews ii. 14-18.

and see; was there any sorrow like unto his sorrow?" 2

But the suffering which the prophet particularly speaks of, was no doubt his last suffering: his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and passion. I shall not, in respect of this, attempt any addition to the simplicity of the scriptural narrative. That will sufficiently affect us, if our hearts are in a state to be affected, when we read how the death of the cross, studiously cruel in all cases, was in the case of Jesus aggravated by previous ill-usage. His back was bruised by the smiters, his hands and feet were wounded with nails; a spear pierced his side; and his head was torn with a crown of thorns, designed at once to grieve his mind and pain his body.

And indeed the extremity of bodily anguish was increased to the utmost by anguish of the soul. How much it must have embittered his travail, that he was not only persecuted and tortured, but left destitute of comfort, and deserted by all! A thief and murderer was pre

2 Some thoughts which occur in the two ensuing pages, are borrowed from Bp. Andrews's Sermon on this passage of Jeremiah.