a second descent. "The Son of God did not live human life only; he diml human de11th. Oh what a step downwar,l was this I We may be feeble and depenclcnt, still we are alive. .And how great is the difference between the living and the dead! We enjoy the society of a friend; we sit at his table; we interchange the thoughts of Jiving men, But there comes a dny when, on repairing to hie dweliing, we are con- ducted to tho darkened room, and behold his lifeless remainR; the friend of yesterday is ready for the grave to-day I ... What, then, m11st. the disciples have felt as they prepared their Master for his burial I '!'hey were conring up and putting out of sight, as what they could no longer bear to look upon, that blessed countenance in which Divine beauty had shone. They were closing, as they thought for ever, those eyes of tenderness in whose light they had rejoiced to live. He ha-I said, 'Ye shnll weep an,! lament,' and verily his words wrre fulfilled. And when the transitiou from life t,, death is accomplished by the hand of v;olence, the sorrow of bereavemeut is of a m,1ch more overwhelming character. We see on a friend's dead body the marks of rude hands, of instruments of savage cruelty, and emotion altogether o,erpowers us. How true to nature are the words which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Mark Antony as he comes upon Cresar's body, 'Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth '! He sought pardon for uncontrollable emotion, for the wild bursts of grief. What, then, must have been the emotion of the disciples as they gazed on their dead Master! His bad been • the death of the cross.' It was in a bloody shroud they wrapped him. His sacred person was disfi11;ured by marks of savage violence; his hands bore them, his feet, his wounded side. '!'hey had never bad any difficulty about bis living human life. Though they knew him to be 'the Son of the living God,' habit had accustomed them to the sight of his eating and drinking and sleeping as they did. .And they knew that he believed and hoped and prayed as they did, for he taught them by his example so to do. Ilut from this dire consnmmation--cleath, and such a death !-they had always shrunk. And now they saw it realized. He who but yesterday taught, and cheered, and comforted, e.nd blessed them, now lay before their eyes, covered with blood and wounds, and ready only for his sepulchre. A second step in the Christ's descent indeed I From the throne of God to the grave of man ! " We have here, then, in the "double descent of the Christ," in his humiliation to become man, and in his humilia- tion to be obedient as far as to death (µ.lxp• 6<ZJ1d.Tou), and this death that of the cross, the sublimest enforcement ever afforded of the duty of looking, not upon one's own things, but upon the things of others. 'l'he self-sacrifice of Christ is the perfection and ideal of public spirit. It is God moving from the abysmal depths of his absolute being to perform an unparalleled public service and save a ruined race. At the foot of the cross we become the tenants of a large-hearted, public spirit.-R. M. E.
Vers. 9-11.-Christ's exaltation. Can the public spirit displayed by Jesus Christ be allowed to terminate in the tomb? Or will it receive a gracious recognition and compensation? It is to this we are next brought by the apostle. The Father set his ~eal upon the Son's self-sacrifice by highly exalting him and conferring on him a superlative Name. .And here we learn- I. THAT EXALTA'l'ION IS PROPORTIONAL TO HUMILIATION IN THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS OF Gon. (Ver. 9.) 'l'he humiliation of Christ, as we have seen, is the deepest which the universe admitted of; and so his exaltation is the greatest. Just as water descend- ing from the highest height will return to its own level; so Christ, in condPscending to tho cross and the grave from the eternal throne, comes back to more than pristine glory, and gets a Name which is above every name. HencEJ if we were wise, we should gladly abase ourselves in the assurance th11t self-11basement, is the plain and only path to real exaltntion (Luke xiv. 11). II. 'l'HE FA'l'HER JIAS GIVEN UNTO JESUS A NAME WB.IOH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME. (Ver. 9.) Now, when we consider what a" name" is, we find that it is a. rcvdation of what a person or thing is. Of course, names may be given where their appellative character is not reg11rded; but when a name is given as a glory, it contains a rc~e\11tion. 'l'hus it has been pertinently said, "Names are mysteries, l11be\led. A thrng not labelled is a mystery directly. If it has not been Illlmed, we look at it, we smell it, we tuste it, we won,ler at it; 11ncl finally nsk-Wh«t can -it bd Naming is the a11uihil.1tion of curiosity. Names nre lli,guiscs put upon things to cc,ucc.1I from us 80 'l'BE EPISTLE TO 'I'HE PHILIPPIANS. [err. n, 1-30,