reason to use the expression. It is a sore spiritual disease, and one most painfully common among men. There are thousands in the present day just as blind in their way as the Jews. They shut their eyes against the plainest facts and doctrines of Christianity. They pretend to say that they do not understand, and cannot therefore believe the things that we press on their attention, as needful to sal- vation. But, alas ! in nineteen cases out of twent}T it is a wilful ignorance. They do not believe what they do not like to believe. They will neither read, nor listen, nor search, nor think, nor inquire, honestly after truth. Can any one wonder if such persons are ignorant? Faithful and true is that old proverb, — " There are none so blind as those who will not see."
We see, for another thing, in these verses, the overruling hand of God over all His enemies. We find that the un- believing Jews " Sought to take our Lord : but no man laid hands on Him, because his hour was not yet come." They had the will to hurt him, but b}r an invisible restraint from above, they had not the power.
There is a mine of deep truth in the woids before us, which deserves close attention. They show us plainly that all our Lord's sufferings were undergone voluntarily, and of His own free will. He did not go to the cross because He could not help it. He did not die because He could not prevent His death. Neither Jew nor Gentile, Pharisee nor Sadducee, Annas nor Caiaphas, Herod nor Pontius Pilate, could have injured our Lord, except power had been given them from above. All that they did was done under control, and by permission. The crucifixion was part of the eternal counsels of the Trinit}^. The passion of our Lord could not begin until the very hour which God had appointed. This is a grea*; mystery. But it is a truth.
The servants of Christ in Q\ery age should treasure up the doctrine before us, and remember it in time of need.