It brings to mind ignorance, wilfulness, helplessness, foolishness, as characteristics of the unrenewed man. (2) Estimate the aggravations of human iniquity. If God were severe or nureasouable,_ bravery might hal_f excuse rebellion; but our God is righteous- !'ess and l~ve.. (3) Sm finds such mamfold an1 _dre:i,dful forms in which to express itself (see hst m Gal. v. 19.,-24), (4) Human m1qu1ty has one dreadful root. It is wilful self-love and self-pleasing. "God is not in all their thouohts ·" "Turned to his own way; " " The Go~ i!1 w:hom thy breath is . . . thou hast n~t gl~l'ified." Face, then, the fact of your own m1qu1ty before God. Be trne to yourself about it, Ask-On whom can it be laid ? II. MAN DEARING ms OWN INIQUITY. For a man may seriously and thoughtfully say-Why cannot I bear my own iniquities, the burden of their penalty, and the work of securing deliverance from their power? Fairly consider, then, such thin"s as these. 1. lniqui1y grows, involving ever-increasing physical and spiritual pe;alties. 2. Iniquity sets going a train of evils by which even your best treasures may be con- sumed. Do what you will, can you stop them? 3. Iniquity, in its effects, is now seen only in part, a.r,d day by day ; in the eternity we shall have to see it at once, and as a whole. Illust.rate by the vision of a life of sin that comes to the drowning. Unless utterly blinded by pride and self-worship, no man would ever dare to say, " I can bear my own burdens." "Though thou "·ash.thee with nitre, and take thee much sope, yet is thine iniquity m~rked before me, saith the Lord." III. Goo BEAr,IKG M.AN's INIQUITY FOR HIM. The person who bore was God's Christ, and so it was really God bearing. This expression shoul<l be viewed in the light of the figure used in the text-the figure of the shepherd laying on the under-shepherd the duty of fetching the wandering sheep back, aud setting it, free of evil, self-willed pro- pensities, in the fold again. That work was the "burden" which he was called to bear. So God laid on Christ the work of delivering men from their iniquity, from its consequences, and from iiself. " Himself bare our sicknesses, and carried our sorrows." He took on him man's deliverance from sin, and spent bis time in illustrative healings of men's bodily infirmities, and gave his life in the endeavour to save men from their ains. Illustrate by showing how the burden of the slave-woe was la.id on Wilberforce; and that of the prison-woe was laid on Howard and Fry. Any man who is actively concerned for a degraded class really bears their sins. In giving Christ, God proposed the saving of men from their sins, and therdore his Son was named the significant name of Jesus. God la.id the sin on Christ, as if be had said, "I charge you now with this supremely difficult, but most blessed work, of saving, everlastingly saving, sinful, wilful, ruined men." Plead, in conclusion, with each one thus: Do you feel your iniquity? Is it your burden? A.re you asking-What can be done with it? where can it be laid? Then see, the living Christ is charged of God with that very burden; it bas been laid upon him: it is laid upon him; be can be the living, delivering, saving Friend even to you.-R. T. Ver. 7.-The triumph of si1ence. "Opened not his mouth." A. careful study of the fivefold examinations of our Lord, before Annas, before the Sanhedrin, before Pilate, before Herod, and before Pilate again, will bring very impressively to view the remark- able sue-nces of our Lord. Sometimes he spoke, never more than brief sentences. But sometimes no word could be drawn from him, and the silence was either convincing or augravating. It was, however, always the sign that our Lord had supreme commanrl of himself, ne\·er for one brief moment, amid all those terrible scenes, losing his self- control. We notice two things. J. WREN A MAN'S WORK 18 TO ENDURE, THERE 18 NO NEED FOB SPEECH. 'l'he enduring is the speech ; and it can seldom- be helped by any spoken words. Suffering for God has its own voice, and does not want any utterance by the lips. I!Justra.te from sufferers in our spheres who "possess their souls in patience." "They also serve who only stand and wait." Show that our Lord's active work was now done; he was called to bear, endure, suffer. II. WHEN AM.A,, MAY NOT SPEAK, ms WORK 18 DONE DY SILENCE. He shows to men an example of self-control, in the triumph be has won, which enables him to keep ailence; and there are reproaches and convictions and humiliations in simple silence, that pierce to the dividing asunder of our souls as no 1poken words can do. Sometimes oe:, LIV. 1-17.] THE BOOK OF TlIE PROPHET ISAIAlt 313
we find absolutely unendurable the silence of those whose silence we feel to be reproof. Illustrate Christ's power on Peter, on Herod, and on Pilate. There are many occasions, even in our lives, when we may "say nothing," and so best serve God.-R. T.
Ver. 10.-.A soul-offering. This prepares us to see that the real sacrifice for sin, which our Redeemer offered, was the full surrender of his will, his uif, to God, which found expression, for us to apprehend it, in his bodily sufferings on the cross (see Heb. ix. 14). I. Sm IS A BOUL-TBING. It is not an act; it is a mnn acting. II. PENALTY IB A SOUL-THING. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die.'' Ill. SALVATION IS A SOUL-THING, Christ bore the soul-penalty; Christ brought life for dead souls. The infinite depth of Christ's suffering Lty bidden-in behind-in the Redeemer's soul, finding only once what seemed a suitable utterance in human language, and that a cry of immeasurable distress, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"-R. T.