riest tears his clothes, and declares his words to be “blasphemy,” which could only be true on the supposition that he was bearing false witness. He appeals for judgment, and the universal testimony is, “He is worthy of death.” The ecclesiastical court has condemned him. “Straightway in the morning,” after due consultation on the rt of “the whole council,” they “ bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered im up to Pilate” He is now arraigned before the civil tribunal. Pilate’s direct inquiry, “ Art thou the King of the Jews?” The reply, “Thou sayest,” is an affirmative. Pilate has no idea of a spiritual kingship. In each court Jesus is tried, and found guilty. Pilate could have no fear that the calm Prisoner before him, who confessed his kingdom to be “ not of this world,” would be able to establish his claim, and having his interest in him excited by various circumstances, is disposed to release him. But the instant assertion, “ If thou let this man go, thou art not Cwsar’s friend,” and his desire “to content the multitude,” and lest there should be an uproar, “delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.” Underneath all this show of human judgment we must see other forces at work. In “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” we must find the roots of this delivering up. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. Nor must we lose sight of that voluntary consecration of himself to the will of the Father which guided Jesus when he laid down his life that he might take it again. Other aspects of this remarkable incident come into our view,when we hear Jesus refusing to make the appeal which could bring to his help “more than twelve legions of angels,” and that because he would that “the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” It is needful to group together the various details given by the several writers, each throwing into promi- nence one or other important feature of the scene, and it is equally needful to read the records in the light of various portions of the epistolary writings of Paul and others, especially that to the Hebrews. There we see the end it was designed should be answered by his appearing “as a lamb before her shearers—dumb.” But the judgment of Jesus is really the judgment of his accusers; of them at whose bar he is arraigned, and by whom his sentence is pronounced. We see in it the most humiliating condem- nation of itself by its unwarranted condemnation passed by the Jewish nation upon its innocent Victim. Even Pilate declared he found no fault in him; nor would he have delivered him up had he not been hounded on by zealots, whose sensibilities he feared in his weakness to excite, and whose tool he lent himself to be. This repudia- tion of the truth, this despisal of holiness—holiness as exhibited in the life of One who has become the world’s type of righteousness—and this revolt from the will of the Father as declared in the writings of the acknowledged prophets, condemns them as children of error, of unholiness, and of wicked disobedience.—G. -
Vers. 1, 2.—Approach of the end. IL “A TIME OF SILENCE AND SOLITUDE PROPERLY PRECEDES THE DAY OF DEATH.”
OH. xIv. i—72.' THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 273 i a le ee Ce
-IL “Wir THE HIGHEST ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY, AND MUCH WORLDLY PRU- DENOE, THERE MAY BE GREAT WICKEDNESS” (Godwin),—WJ.
Vers. 3—9.—Anointing for martyrdom. I. PuRE LOVE RISES ABOVE THE OON- SIDERATIONS OF THRIFT. Logic must give place to love. The full heart disdains the question of money expense. Habitual extravagance is one thing, the redundancy of grateful affection is another. We are never safe, in conduct or in thought, except when we follow the heart’s lead.
Il. SYMPATHY PRESERVES THE JUDGMENT FROM ERROR. The disciples did not understand the woman’s act. Christ lifted it into the light of truth. There is a narrow scale of judgment—of those who stand too close to the act, and see only its immediate bearings. To see truly we must see far. There is a perspective of acts. This Christ points out. The acts of instinctive faith and love, of obedience and loyalty, are worth more than those based upon prudence and calculation.
Ill. Toe pDeaTH oF CHRIST MEASURES THE WORTH OF AcTs. This act will go down in history inseparable from his death. It was a forecast and a memento. The loving self-devotion of the Saviour attracts the like from those who surround him and who know him.
IV. THE TRUEST REWARD OF GOODNESS I8 TO BE HELD IN THE LOVING RECOLLECTION oF oTHERS. “The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.” One great man prays, “Lord, keep my memory green!” A poet turns the wish into song, that he may be “only remembered by what he has done.”—J.
Vers. 10, 11.—Black conspiracy. I. “THE BEST INFLUENCES FOB GOOD MAY BE
BESISTED AND BECOME VAIN.” IL “Hypoornisy PREPARES FOR DISHONESTY AND ALL WICKEDNESS” (Godwin).—J.
Vers. 12—21.—7he Paschal supper. I. THE DUTIFUL MIND IS THE OLEAR-8KEING AND THE PREPARED MIND. What struck the evangelists was the calm foresight and method of Jesus. It was like the strategy of a general; the presence of mind of one who holds the clue to events, because he knows the moral sequence. On another occasion “ Jesus himself knew what he would do.” Here the disciples “ found even as he told them.” So generally, “ everything will be found as Jesus has declared.”
Il. THE PUBEST SOCIETY I8 NOT FREE FROM AN IMPURE LEAVEN. A Judas among the twelve; and an incipient Judas in the conscience of the rest. Better for us, instead of looking round for the Judas, to look into the heart to discover how much: of Judas is there.
Il], THERE MAY BE A COINCIDENCE OF DIVINE APPOINTMENT AND HUMAN GUILT IN THE SAME acT. It is in the law of things that the good should suffer from human violence. But it is not in the law of things that any man should take part in that violence. We may not be able to seize the secret unity of principle behind the seeming contradiction of the knowledge of God and the responsibility of man. But the latter is our fact, clear and definite. The former is of the ‘‘ secret things that
belong to the Lord our God.”—J.
Vers. 22—25.—Eucharistie service. I. THE SYMBOLIC BREAD AND WINE, [ating and drinking are the most significant physical acts of life. For they are the foundation of life. Hence the act is appropriate as a symbol of the foundation of spiritual life. The appropriation of Christ by the intelligence and will is analogous to the appropriation of food in the process of digestion.
Il. THE sERVICE IS THE VISIBLE SEAL OF & NEW COVENANT. Which is a con- tinuation, an enlargement or evolution of the old; founded on better promises. Objectively, the grace of God is more clearly revealed and abundantly poured forth in the New Testament thaninthe Old. Subjectively, the conditions of blessing are purer and simpler, The spiritual act of faith includes them all, including the man as a whole.