SERMON II.

THE DYING REDEEMER'S TENDERNESS

FOR HIS MOTHER.

JOHN XIX. 25-27.

NOW THERE STOOD BY THE CROSS OF JESUS, HIS MOTHER, AND HIS MOTHER'S SISTER, MARY THE WIFE OF CLEOPHAS, AND MARY MAGDALENE. WHEN JESUS THEREFORE SAW HIS MOTHER AND THE DISCIPLE STANDING BY, WHOM HE LOVED, HE SAITH UNTO HIS MOTHER, WOMAN, BEHOLD THY SON! THEN SAITH HE TO THE DISCIPLE, BEHOLD THY MOTHER! AND FROM THAT HOUR THAT DISCIPLE TOOK HER UNTO HIS OWN HOME.

IT has become a proverb, which the experience of all ages, and all circumstances in the history of fallen man, has tended to verify, that acute and aggravated sorrow, instead of diminishing, confirms

and increases the natural selfishness of the human heart. The more intense the sufferings endured may be, the more strongly and obstinately does the sufferer enwrap himself in his own afflictions; and turn away from all kindly sympathy with the calamities, which others around him may endure. It is a manifestation of divine grace, and a triumph of God's new-creating Spirit over the old man of sin, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, when one who is himself labouring under the visitations of trial and trouble, is enabled to "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with them that weep.'

In this respect, as in all others, He who hath left us an example that we should follow his steps, deserves the imitation of his disciples. His word has told us, that He that He is love: and the exhibition of it, by Himself, was perfect love, the love which fills all heaven, and all the blessed, who dwell there.

Amidst all the agonies of Gethsemane, when his sweat was, as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground, He could so accurately view the danger of his sleeping disciples, as to beseech them to watch and pray, lest they entered into temptation. Even on the cross itself, notwithstanding the anguish with which his body was racked, and all the weight of sin that pressed down his soul, as the infinite justice of God required its atonement at his hands, we find Him able to enter deeply, and minutely into the miseries and wants of others. They who nailed Him to the cross, had invoked his blood upon themselves, and upon their children. Unless the guilt thus madly called down, were cleansed through his atonement, applied by faith to their souls, they would irrecoverably and for

perish, beneath the wrath of God. Their want was therefore most urgent, their misery extreme and his gracious interference on their behalf, unimaginably im

portant. The first words therefore, which He uttered from the cross, were addressed to God, on their behalf-" Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And most gladly, most effectually, most gloriously did that Father answer to the intercession of His son-never more dear to his love, than in the hour of crucifixion, by giving Him the souls, and the salvation, of so many of His murderers, on the day of Pentecost, to be a seed to serve Him, and to be counted to Him for a generation.

Having thus first pleaded the spiritual and eternal cause of his enemies as a Mediator both of atonement and intercession, He turns, with a flow of tenderness which no suffering of his own could for one moment interrupt, to provide for the comfort of those who were most dear to Him in the flesh, and according to the bonds of human kindred and connexion. Joseph, the husband of his mother had probably long been dead.

Yet a few minutes more of agony, and Jesus himself, her remaining support and stay, would give up the ghost. The history under our review, seems to afford a strong presumption that she had no children, except that Holy thing who was born of her, and was called the Son of God: for, if they who are styled the brethren of the Lord, had really been born of Mary, He would probably have consigned His mother to their affection, tenderness, and support; in obedience to the law of Israel, which commanded the widow to be maintained by the heirs of her husband, until she received her dowry, whatever it might be. To whom then, should the dying Saviour commit his mother, in the approaching hour of her destitution and sorrow? Even to the disciple whom He loved, and who had so ardently returned his condescending and gracious affection. By this act St. John was especially owned, as a brother in affection by our Lord, -"Woman,

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