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It has been objected to this doctrine, that it is not consistent with divine equity to make an innocent being suffer for guilty men. Is it consistent with divine equity that a nation should suffer for the sins of its ruler? Is it any more consistent with divine equity that children in health, in position, and in everything, should suffer for the sins of their fathers? But, in this case, you have an innocent being voluntarily suffering for the guilty. The nation does not voluntarily suffer for the ruler's sins; the children do not voluntarily suffer for the parent's sins; but Jesus voluntarily suffered. "I lay down my life," were his words.

How glorious is this precious truth, Christ our Passover is sacrificed, not for our example or instruction, but in our stead! How blessed the thought that he became the sufferer, that we might never suffer; that he died, that we might live; that he became a curse, that we might inherit a blessing. That Good Friday was no parade of unreal suffering; it was no triumphant promenade of one who had no sensibility. It was his agony and bloody sweat; it was his cross and passion; it was his death and suffering for us; it was a real transaction; therefore it is a real salvation, therefore we have real hopes, that will never make ashamed. think it very beautiful and suitable that any section of the Church should take special notice of those days which are associated with Christ. I do not like saints' days, but I think days that refer to the life or death of our blessed Lord ought to be observed. I can see no objection to seizing all the opportunities possible in a world where there are so few, of bringing before men those great truths upon which our eternal destiny depends. That Good Friday was to Jesus agony and

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pain, but every subsequent Good Friday should be to us joy. We joy in God, through Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the Atonement. This is not the day of the Sacrifice, it is finished; this is the day that simply recalls, commemorates, or refers to it. His was the agony, ours is the joy. We rejoice that Aceldama has passed away. Calvary is now scarcely distinguishable amid the other hills of Palestine, but its virtue still remains. We have no heed of any repetition of those scenes. Jesus, who wore our raiment, and shed our tears, and bowed under our anguish, still lives. in heaven to apply to the believer his finished and consummated Sacrifice upon earth and what we are asked to do is, not to sacrifice, not to weep over a suffering victim, not to look upon the Cross and Calvary as John and Mary did; but to believe these facts, to repose our confidence in them, to say to God, "We believe this; we are quite satisfied. O Lord, we believe Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." Do not then, gaze upon Christ as a marvellous portrait, fair to look upon, but too remote for us to believe in. Do not gaze upon Christ as a grand likeness hung up in the halls of history, or in the chambers of memory, beautiful and glorious in itself, but too distant for us; but look upon him, and rest upon him, as Christ our Passover sacrificed for us, the virtues of which are inexhaustible as the years that extend into eternity itself.

III.

Behold the Lamb.

Ir needs only a superficial acquaintance with the statements of the Gospels, to see that John was extremely popular as a preacher of repentance. Great multitudes followed him, and wherever he proclaimed the message entrusted to his charge, he found many open ears to hear it, and many hearts disposed earnestly to embrace it.

It appears that Jesus had just been baptized, that a voice from the heavenly glory had sounded in the hearing of all, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." John caught the echo of the beautiful and glorious accents, and pointed to Jesus, and said, "He, of whom the voice has spoken, This is my beloved SonHe, whom I have baptized in the Jordan - He, whose shoe-latchet I am not worthy to unloose, and who cometh after me-He is there-behold Him-the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

John's mission, too, at this moment was about to expire; he was soon to be cast into prison, and to disappear from the stage on which he had played so long and so conspicuous a part; and he was anxious, that, as he left, men should recollect him simply as the servant, and should cling to his glorious Master as all

and in all. The morning star was about to retreat into its orbit; the Sun of Righteousness was about to shine. John was anxious that the last ray of his departing glory might be effaced from every mind, and that the full splendor of the rising Sun might be welcomed and received by all; and therefore he said, "Behold not me, but the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

It is evident that Jesus, who was here specified, was no ordinary being. There is not an instance in the Old Testament Scriptures, of priest, prophet, or king, having thus a herald to announce his advent. The very fact that the Baptist thus preceeded Jesus, was an evidence of a Royalty that was not human, of a Priesthood that was not Levitical, and of a Prophet greater than Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament Scriptures.

But what was the precise meaning of this epithet that John applied to Jesus? It was not a mere figure, hyperbole, or random expression, borrowed from the usages of Levi, and accidentally or eulogistically applied to Jesus. What is added to it, "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," at once points out its special, sacrificial, and atoning import. The time was at the 10th hour of the day; it was nearly between the evenings, or two hours before the evening, or about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when John pointed out Jesus. We gather this from the previous context. It is very probable, that at this moment the persons whose duty it was were carrying the evening lamb to be offered on the accustomed altar for the evening sacrifice; and John, seeing the crowd of his disciples looking round and gazing reverentially upon

that lamb that was being born to the altar, to be offered up as a typical sacrifice, seized the opportunity of turning their attention from the type that was soon to wither, to the Lamb it prefigured and foreshadowed; and, with an emphasis peculiar to the moment, he said, "Behold, not that lamb, for its mission is done; that shadow retires, that sign is now empty; behold, not the lamb of Levi, but the Lamb of God which really, not typically, taketh away the sin, not of the Jews, but of the world."

Or he may have referred to the Passover Lamb, whose blood upon the lintel of the Israelites kept away the destroying angel, and procured exemption, safety, and peace, to all the first-born of the people of Israel. So the blood of this Lamb shed, and stricken upon the lintel of many a believer's heart, shall save from the breath of the angel of the second death, who shall breathe into the faces of all who are not interested in the Sacrifice of the better than the paschal lamb,— Christ our passover sacrificed for us, who taketh away the sin of the world.

Or it may be that John in this language made some allusion to the prophecies in Isaiah: One cannot fail to see that the 53d chapter of Isaiah is interwoven with the Gospels, is the undertone of every sermon in the Acts of the Apostles, is alluded to constantly in the Epistles; in truth, it was the great prophecy to which Evangelists, Apostles, and martyrs, constantly referred. In that prophecy Christ is spoken of as being led as a lamb to the slaughter. The Ethiopian eunuch was reading this very chapter, and he was led to ask Philip whether the prophet spoke of himself, or of some other man; and there may have been some

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