rather than Jesus. They clamored loudly for our Lord's crucifixion. And they wound up all by recklessly taking on themselves all the guilt of our Lord's death, in words of portentous meaning, " His blood be on us and our children."
And what had our Lord done, that the Jews should hate Him so ? He was no robber, or murderer. He was no blasphemer of their God, or re viler of their pro- phets. He was one whose life w^as love. He was one who " went about doing good, and healing all that were op- pressed of the devil." (Acts x. 38.) He was innocent of any transgression against the law of God or man. And yet the Jews hated Him, and never rested till He was slain! Thej_Jui;ted Kim, because.. He told them the truth. They hated Him, because He testified of their works that they were evil. They hated the light, be- cause it made their own darkness visible. In a word,
/'they hated Christ, because he was righteous and they ,iwere wicked, — because He was holy and they were un- holy,— because he testified against sin, and they were determined to keep their sins and not let them go.
Let us observe this. There are few things so little believed and realized as the corruption of human nature.
7 Men fancy that if they saw a perfect person, they would love and admire him. They flatter themselves that it is the inconsistency of professing Christians which they dis- like, and not their religion. They forget that when a really perfect man was on earth, in the person of the Son of God, He was hated and put to death. That single fact goes far to prove the truth of Edwards' remark, — '^ un- converted men would kill God, if they could get at Him."
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