and deed ; let us not complain. 8. The patience of Ohrist. He w11.s buffeted and epat upon and cruelly mocked, yet he opened not his mouth; he was scourged, he was nailed to the cross; he suffered through all those six hours the intensest agony; he threatened not, he did not call for the twelve legions of angels. He committed all, himself, his caus.i, his torturers, to him that judgeth righteously-he left it all to God. He is our high Example. We should learn of him; we should pray for those who despitefully use us: "Father, forgive them." Here is the Christian's comfort when be is unjustly treated. God judgeth righteously; he knoweth them that are bis; be knows their prayers, their self-denials, their temptations. If the world judge them harshly, it matterR little; God judgeth righteously; they leave all to him. And when men speak evil of them, when they impute unworthy motives and accuse them falsely, they think of Christ mocked, reviled, blasphemed, and try to learn of him meekness and patience. 4. How Christians are enabled to follow that example. Christ is our Example; but he is more-he is the Propitiation for our sins. lt would be vain to set before us miserable sinners an example of perfect holiness, were it not that he bare our sins .in his own body on to the tree. None other than the holy Son of God could bear that awful burden. The Lord "laid on him the iniquity of us all." He bare that tremendous load of human sin in bis own body on to the tree, and there he took our sins away, dying, as he did, for all men, in our stead, suffering our punishment. Men think sin a light matter; true Christians know that it is a heavy burden, too heavy for them to bear. It was a heavy burden to Christ; it made him sweat those great drops of blood; it made him cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He only could bear that tremendous load. The Lord laid it on him ; he took it on himself in his gracious mercy. He came to give his life a ran- som for many; he was made sin for us, though he was without sin ; the Lord made his soul an offering for sin. And the end of that stupendous sacrifice was that we, being dead to sin, should be enabled to copy that Divine Example, and should live unto righteousness. Such an event as the death of the Son of God must involve great and far-reaching consequences; it requires of us, for whom he died, not merely an outward change, not some slight improvement in our lives, but a death unto sin. When we look upon the cross, and think who it was that suffered there for us, we see the intense guilt of sin, we see the great love of God; and we draw from the death of Christ a hidden source of strength which helps us to crnsh sin out of our hearts, though the effort be like a death-struggle and the agony like a death-pang; for by his death he broke the power of Satan, giving himself in his deep holy love to suffer our punishment and to take away our sins. Therefore we must be unto sin as though we were not, as though we had departed, as though the sinful "I" was gone, and Christ was there instead: "Not I, but Christ;" "To me to live is Christ;" he who knows the rneanii: 5 of those words is dying unto sin. As he dies unto sin, he lives unto right- eousness; a new life dawns into his soul, new aspirations, new emotions. He is full of the energy of a vigorous life; but it is not the old life-that is gone; it is a new life which only they can know who die with Christ unto sin. It is his death which gives them life; bis stripes heal their souls. They tortured and lacerated bis holy body, but they heal the sickness of our souls; for it was for our sins that be submitted to that dreadful outrage. Each blow shows us the guilt and misery or sin; each drop or blood most precious cleanses the souls that turn to him in faith. He has borne our punish- ment, and we are free if we are his indeed, he abiding in us and we in him. Let us contemplate his sufferings with awe and reverence and gratitude, mourning for those sins of ours which added to his agony, killing them out of our hearts by the power ot' his death ; thanking him in adoring love for bis exceeding ~reat love; bearing our little griefs patiently and cheerfully in the remem bra nee of his bitter cross and passion. 6. What they were; what they are now. " All we like sheep have gone astray." All have wandered from God, some in one direction, some in another, each turning to his own way. We flatter ourselves, in our folly, th11t we have not sinned like this or that neighbour. It may be so; his temptation was not our temptation; but our sin may be greater in the sight of God. All without exception have gone astray. Ilut the Lord c1une in his mercy to seek and to eave that which was lost. Happy those lost ones whom he has found, who, drawn by his grnce, bavo returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls I For he is the i;OOd Shepherd ; he knows his sheep, aud cares for BG 'l'HE Fll1ST EPlS'l'LE GENERAt OF PE'l'ER. [cu. n. 1-25,
them; and those sheep that have returned to him sb!\ll never perish, none can pluck them out of his hand. He is the Dishop, the Overseer, of our souls. He thinks of nll our spirilual wants, our temptations, our distresses. He watches for our souls; ho pro• Yides for our preseut necessities, for he feeds us with the sincere milk of the ,vord, with the bread of life ; for our future welfare, for he is gone to prepare a place for us in he1wen. LESSONS. 1. Christ took upon him the form of a sen·nnt; let Christians in humble positions be content. 2. Let them do their duty, taking slights and injuijtice patiently, as in the presence of Goo. 3. I.et them fix. their thoughts upon the great Example. He did no sin; yet he suffered; he reviled not again. 4. He is more than our Example; he is our Strength He bore our sins. He gal'e us power to die unto sin and to live unto right.eousness, We can do all things (if we abide in him) through him that strengtheneth us.