320 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
Punishment, strictly speaking, is inflicted for personal guilt. Chastisement may be inflicted for the improvement of him who suffers it, or for the benefit of those who witness it, but the latter does not imply guilt.^
1[ Dr. Lowson of Hull, who died in a London nursing home on 14th March 1906, had had a distinguislied career, and was one of the most skilful surgeons in the country. Whilst in practice in Huddersfield he was called upon to perform the operation of tracheotomy for diphtheria. The tube suddenly became blocked, and with no thought for himself Dr. Lowson at once sucked the wound and rescued the patient from imminent death. Within a few days he was himself stricken with the disease, and, owing to serious complications which it left behind, he was incapacitated from work for a year. For his noble act he received the Albert Medal. The illness which has resulted in his death commenced through blood-poisoning caused through pricking his finger whilst performing an operation for appendicitis without fee.^ I ^. It mv^t not he in vain. — This demand is met by the prophet in a later verse of this same chapter — " He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." Here it is enough to notice the fundamental fact that Christ died once for all. The penalty, paid once, cannot be exacted twice. And so they who die with Him are free from the fear of a second death, or of any form of punishment. Death hath no longer any dominion over them. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And, more than that, Christ, being made a curse for us, has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, that the righteousness of the Law might he fulfilled in us.
IT Eecall Joseph Cook's illustration. Suppose the boy had been called up and punished a second time, after the master had been chastised, would that have been right ? The master accepted the chastisement voluntarily, and now he cannot call up that boy and punish him again. The school would say it was wrong. Why ? What has the master done ? He has paid the debt of the boy to the school, and to the law which he broke, but the master is not to blame. In this, which we can understand as a human transaction, we may perhaps catch a glimpse of an infinitely greater transaction, which we call the Atonement. In the case of the scholar guilt meant two things. Where there is personal blameworthiness, there is the obligation to do something to pay the debt due to the school and to the law. It is eternally true of the boy that the violation of the law, his personal demerit,
^ Bishop J. J. S. Perowne ' Daily News, 16th March 1906.
ISAIAH 321
,s not transferred to the master ; only his obligation to pay 3 debt is removed by the voluntary sacrifice of the master, )W I understand when that is done by a voluntary act of the ister, a motive has been brought to bear on the boy which will msform him, if anything can. Nothing can take hold of human ture like such convincing justice and love.^
I bore with thee long weary days and nights,
Through many pangs of heart, through many tears;
I bore with thee, thy hardness, coldness, slights. For three-and-thirty years.
Who else had dared for thee what I have dared ?
I plunged the depth most deep from bliss above; I not My flesh, I not My spirit spared:
Give thou Me love for love.
For thee I thirsted in the daily drouth. For thee I trembled in the nightly frost:
Much sweeter thou than honey to My mouth: Why wilt thou still be lost?
I bore thee on My shoulders and rejoiced: Men only marked upon My shoulders borne
The branding cross ; and shouted hungry-voiced, Or wagged their heads in scorn.
Thee did nails grave upon My hands, thy name Did thorns for frontlets stamp between Mine eyes:
I, Holy One, put on thy guilt and shame; I, God, Priest, Sacrifice.
A thief upon My right hand and My left;
Six hours alone, athirst, in misery : At length in death one smote My heart and cleft
A hiding-place for thee.
Nailed to the racking oross, than bed of down More dear, whereon to stretch Myself and sleep:
So did I win a kingdom — Share My crown; A harvest — Come and reap.^
* Bishop Perowne. ' Cbristina G. Eossetti.
21
Our Sin-bearer.
Literature.
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Mission Sermons, ii. 112.
Armstrong (W.), Five- Minute Sermons to Children, 85, 184.
Baillie (D.), The Love of God, 20.
Belfrage (H.), Sacramental Addresses, 73.
Chadwick (G. A.), Pilate's Gift, 220.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women, and Children, 5th series, 445.
Jerdan (C.) Messages to the Children, 70.
Laing (F. A.), Simple Bible Lessons, 392.
Lefroy (W.), The Immortality of Memory, 119.
Macduff (J. R.), The Shepherd arid His Flock, 9.
Macgregor (W. M.), Jesus Christ the Son of Cfod, 66.
Maclaren (A.), PauVs Prayers, 168.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions, Isaiah xlix.-lxvi. 97.
Matheson (G.), Searchings in the Silence, 146.
Nicoll (W. R.), Ten-Minvte Sermons, 227.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, i. 313.
Shepherd (A.), The Gospel and Social Questio7is, 49.