sink serenely into his arms, "knowing in whom they have believed," and confidently "rejoicing with joy unspeakable, and full of glory."

SERMON XVI.

ON THE CRUCIFIXION.

EZEKIEL XXI. 9, 10.

Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord : say, a sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? It despiseth the rod of my Son, as every tree.

A SWORD, the weapon of wrath and destruction, of God's wrath and the destruction of sinners, is taken down from the armoury of fate, and sharpened with a just and holy indignation, with that fury which upholds the avenger when his garments are dyed with blood: its polish is bright

and keen, that it may glitter like flashes of lightning, and dazzle the sight of conscious guilty fear !

See, it descends, but not on the guilty! It contemneth the sceptre of God's own Son, as a staff cut from any ordinary tree; His rod of power is no protection against the trenchant blade of vengeance and death. His royal birth, and holy innocence, and divine nature, cannot make this cup pass from Him.

"Awake, O sword," was the cry of the prophet Zechariah in the same spirit; "awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts 1." And who is the Lord's shepherd, and what man is fellow to the Lord of Hosts? Every minister of the flock of Christ is a shepherd, and every true preacher of the Gospel is, St. Paul affirms, a fellowlabourer with GOD; but the Spirit of pro

1 Zech. xiii. 7.

phecy here points at the chief Shepherd. whose own the sheep are; at a man who is equal with GoD by the community of His divine essence, the man Christ Jesus. The sword is invoked to contemn even His rod as every tree, to treat Him as an ordinary person, as a condemned malefactor, and to shed His precious blood without remorse.

"I took my staff," the same prophet allegorizes, "I took my staff, or rod, Beauty, and cut it asunder that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day; and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the Word of the Lord: And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear; so they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver'."

Shiloh, which is, being interpreted, the sent, viz., the Messenger of the covenant,

1 Zech. xi. 10, &c.

came with His sceptre in His hand; but His own received Him not: His sceptre was broken, and His crown cast down to the ground; His staff, even Beauty, was cut asunder, that the covenant of the law might be annulled; and so the poor of the flock, the poor in spirit, the meek and humble and faithful, who, like holy Simeon and pious Anna, waited for the Lord, knew that it was the Word of the Lord; but what word? Even that Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory; the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

These happy poor of the flock knew, by the departing of the rod or sceptre from Judah, that Shiloh was at hand, that the Word of the Lord was about to appear; they waited for Him, and they welcomed Him, as the Christ, the Saviour of the world. But the world knew Him not; and they valued at thirty pieces of silver, at about fifty shillings, that blood which is above