Rom. xv. 1 — 3. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the iveak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself ; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee, fell on me.
WHILST many scarcely ever dwell upon the atonement of Christ, and on that righteousness which
he has wrought out for the redemption of a ruined world, others insist on these, almost to the utter exclusion of all other topics. But the Apostle Paul, who certainly was inferior to none in his regard for that fundamental doctrine of the Gospel, — salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus, was yet delighted to exhibit his Divine Master as a pattern and example of universal holiness. In respect to love in parti- cular, he constantly urges us " to love one another, as Christ loved us." In the words before us, he seems almost to go out of his way (if we may so speak) to introduce Christ to our notice in this view. He brings forward, as illustrative of it, a passage of Scripture, in which a person less conversant with the spiritual import of Scripture, or less alive to this important point, would scarcely have found any thing bearing upon his subject. Indeed he almost appears to apologize for this particular quotation, by observing, that " Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning ;" and that, consequently, this prophecy, even though it should not be thought to bear so directly and obviously upon his subject as some others, may properly be adduced in illustration of it. But this very circumstance tends so much the more to shew the importance of the subject in the precise view in which he has placed it. Let us consider then,
I. The example here propounded to us —
Two things are said of our blessed Lord,
1. He pleased not himself — [And how true is this! View him in his incarnation: Was it to please himself that he left " the bosom of the Fa- ther," and divested himself of all " the glory that he had with the Father from all eternity ? " Was it to please himself, that, " when he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant ? " Was it to please him- self that he was " made in the likeness of sinful flesh," par- taking of all our infirmities, and being " made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted ?" View him in his life : Was it to please himself that till the age of thirty he worked as a common carpenter: and that, from the time he took upon him