fulfil His words, " Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also the heavens." " The moon shall be ccm- founded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion." (Heb. xii. 26 ; Isaiah xxiv. 23.)
Let us observe, secondly, in these verses, the remark- able words which our Lord spoke when He died. We read that " When he had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit : and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."
There is a depth of meaning, no doubt, in these words, which we have no line to fathom. There was something mysterious about our Lord's death, which made it unlike the death of any mere man. He who spoke the words before us, we must carefully remember, was God as well as man. His divine and human nature were inseparably united. His divine nature of course could not die. He says Himself, " I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." (John x. 17, 18.) Christ died, not as we die when our hour is come, — ^not because He was com- pelled and could not help djring, — ^but voluntarily, and of His own free will.
There is a sense, however, in which our Lord's words supply a lesson to all true Christians. They show us the manner in which death should be met by all God's children. They aflPord an example which every believer should strive to follow. Like our Master, we should not be afraid to confront the king of terrors. We should regard him as a vanquished enemy, whose sting has been