V. Our Lord Jesus Christ then represented our race, and for them had become a curse. A stupendous transaction was then and there effected, to which we know of no parallel in heaven or on cart~ (~f. Matt. xx. 28; 1 Pet. ii. 24; 2 Cor. v. 21; John i. 29). Noto: 1. lie was of such dignity that he could represent the race. 2. His act was entirely spontaneous; he willed to do it. 3. It was the Father's appointment that he should do it. 4. Foreseeing the result of his work, he rejoiced to do it (Isa. Jiii. 11 (Hebrew); Heh. xii. 1, 2). Amid the external humiliation, the thought of savina men 0 thereby, bore him on ancl bore him through. VI. By bearing the curse on himself upon the tree he bore it off from us. He bas redeemed us therefrom. He bas bought us up out of it. He who deserved it not, was pressed down by it, that we who deserved it might be lifted up out of ir. Sin bavin"' been, in him, condemned-once, completely, righteously, eternally-the ri:;bteousnes; of the Lawgiver was demonstrated. Then was his love free to act towards us apart from Law, on the principle of grace. VII. The curse being thus rolled away, the way is prepared for the coming in of the blessing. However fully and freely infinite love now heaps blessing on blessino- on tbc vilest sinner, not from one quarter of the ·universe can the murmur rise up that God thinks lightly of sin, when, in order to lift its weight off the guilty sinner, the Infinite Son of God has taken the whole load upon himself, and atoned for sin by his own sacrifice! VIII. The blessing comes to men when they repent and believe. So argues Paul in both his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians. See especially Rom. iv. 16, and the wonderful parallel between the first and the second Adam in Rom. v. IN CONCLUSION. 1. Let us adore and magnify the grace and righteousness of God in the atoning work of Christ on the tree. The manifold perfections of the Divine nature shine forth here in corn bined Iustre. Thousands have objected to the doctrine of the atonement. No one ever objected to it who did not first misapprehend it. 2. Let us cultivate deep, serious, and earnest thinkings as to the evil of sin, thus branded with the curse of God. Only low moral conceptions can consist with the denial of thti necessity for an atonement. 3. Let us see that we rely entirely and penitently on the work of the Son of God on our behalf. 4. Let us defend the manifold glories of the cross against all deniers and opponents. 5. Let us, before whom this Divine act of self-surrender stands a9 the warrant of our hope, have it ever before us also as the model and standard of our life. And, in studying ever more and more fully the meaning of Christ's self-surrender to God for us, shall we find the inspiration of our self-surrender to God for others I
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Vers. 1-9.-Atonementfor unknown sin. We have here a ritual applicable to cases where murder has not been expiated by the apprehension and execution of the mur- derer. The mystery has remained unravelled. The elders and judges, in such a case, are to come and measure which city is nearest the slain man, and the elders of that city are then required to take the beifer prescribed and make aton~ment, that the country may be delivered from the guilt of innocent blood. The heifer is to be one in the full vigour of life, which has not been wrought with, and consequently expressed in the fullest form the life-prnduciug power to which the violent death stood as a con- trast.1 She is to be taken down into a "rough valley," or, as the words (ii;,•~ ''=11) more accurately mean, "a perennial stream," and there is her neck to be struck oft~ and the blood thns violently shed is to pass away in the never-failing stream. While this is taking place, the elders of the city ~re to wash their hau~s over her, in protesta_tion of their innocence, and to pray for deliverance from the gwlt, and 1t shall be forgiven them. J. AN UNDISCOVERED MURDER IS PROPERLY IMJ?UTED TO THE DISTRICT WHERE TH.E VIOTI!ll HAS BEEN FOUND, In a well-ordered society life should be safe. \Vhen it is 1 Cf. Kurtz's 'Sacrifioiul Worship of the Old Testament,' p. 427, 346 TH:g BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. tou. :nt. 1-23,