John xix. 39. There came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night.
IT is generally supposed, that by conversion a man's character is altogether changed. But this is by no means true. Divine grace gives a new direction
to a man's natural powers ; but it does not divest him of them, so that he shall altogether cease to be the same as he was before. His moral dispositions, so far as they were evil, will be corrected ; and, so far as they were good, will be improved : but the natural temperament of his mind will remain in a great mea- sure the same as it was in his unconverted state, only under the controul of a higher and better principle. For instance, a bold and confident Peter will carry into his religious profession the same boldness and precipitancy which characterized him as a natural man : and, for the most part, a man's besetting sins (due allowance being made for a change of age and circumstances) will prove his besetting sins even to his dying hour. In conduct, the lion will become a lamb ; but the disposition of courage or timidity will still adhere to each, according to his natural bias. Yet sometimes these matters shall be reversed, as we see in the history before us. At the period of our Lord's lowest extremity, when he hanged dead upon the cross, a cowardly Nicodemus united with another no less timid than himself, Joseph of Arimathea, to honour the Saviour, whom the intrepid Peter had forsaken, and denied even with oaths and curses.
To cast further light upon this subject, I shall,
I. Consider the character of Nicodemus —
He was a man of very considerable distinction, at the time of our Lord's death. In his religious pro- fession he was a Pharisee ; in his civil station he was a member of the great council of the nation, and a ruler and teacher in a synagogue ; and in the habit of his mind, a candid and honest man. Having heard of the miracles which the Lord Jesus had wrought, he concluded, that a person endued with such powers must necessarily have come from God, and, consequently, must have much religious information to impart. He determined, therefore, to obtain an interview with Jesus, and learn from him whatever he was commissioned to reveal. And, when he went to Jesus, he, though possessed of such rank and