SERMON XX.

SUNDAY BEFORE EASTER.

ST. LUKE, Xxiv. 26.

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His Glory?

THE Occasion, on which these words were spoken, was as follows:- Two of our Lord's disciples, who had been witnesses of His miracles, His virtues, and His cruel death, were walking sadly together, and communing of the things, which they had heard and seen. Jesus of Naza

reth, their Master and instructor, was known to them by long friendship, by love, and by reverence. They had seen His goings out, and comings in; that all His actions were blameless; and that His heart breathed only purity and mercy. Of His doctrine, they knew, that never man spake as He did; of His power, that all things, in earth, and in Heaven, were subject to His tone of authority; that He was a Prophet mighty in word and in deed. They had seen obstinate diseases cured by Him with a breath:

they had seen His word turn five small loaves into a meal for five thousand people: they had seen the wind and storm obey His commands; and had beheld His way in the sea, and His path in the deep waters.-Nor was it lifeless nature only, which thus acknowledged His Divinity. The rebellious angels, the first seducers and enemies of men, crouched down and trembled at the feet of Jesus; whom they hailed, with terror and astonishment, as the Son of God most high. In this character, too, He was acknowledged by His Father Almighty Himself; who, by a voice from Heaven, and by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost, had declared Himself well pleased in His beloved Son.

With such circumstances as these to raise His character, they had hoped that Jesus was He, who should have redeemed Israel:- that He should have saved His people from their enemies; and have sate on the throne of His father David, (from whom He was, by His Mother's side, decended,)- the king of Jerusalem, and of all the world. For the Jews, partly induced by their pride, which made them wish to see all nations at their feet; partly by those passages in the prophets, which describe Christ's second coming in power and majesty to judge mankind, had quite overlooked those other prophecies, which said that the Messiah, before He should triumph, should be a Man of sorrow,

and acquainted with grief. They had no idea that their Christ was to suffer on the cross; but had hoped that He would be a military Messiah, -to make all the nations of the world - slaves to the Jewish people. But this Jesus, of whom such mighty expectations were formed, was a poor young man, a wanderer on the earth, without a home to lay His head.-His greatest triumph was, once, the riding on an ass; His richest attendants, a few poor simple women; and the names of madman, of sorcerer, and blasphemer, were all the titles, which He received from His country.

Such was the mournful life of Him, whose birth was proclaimed by angels; feared by tyrants; and honoured by the wise men of the farthest east; but when His sorrowing disciples, in their Sabbath evening's walk to Emmaus, reflected on the dreadful manner, in which that life was brought to an end; when they remembered all those circumstances of horror and cruelty, which you have heard read to-day; when they thought on the agony and bloody sweat, the scourging, the bitter and cruel mocking, the crown of thorns, the torments and the lingering death of Him, from whom such great things were hoped; they might well be lost, in wonder, and in sorrow, that such glorious pros

1 Isaiah, liii. 3.

pects should be marred by the sin and folly of mankind. It was, indeed, this crucified God, which was to the Jews a stumbling block;-the main objection, which the pride of their nation could not surmount; and, in itself, it is so wonderful, that we well believe it surpassed the comprehension of those ignorant, though wellmeaning, Galileans.

As they were thus conversing, a Stranger joined them. Their eyes were holden, that they should not know Him; but it was no other than Jesus Himself, whom they lamented,—now risen from the dead. He rebukes them, for their slowness of belief; and He reminds them, that the ancient prophets had all said, that Christ ought to suffer such things; and then, and not till then, to enter into His glory. Then, beginning with Moses, and the prophets, He expounded, unto them, the things which were written concerning Himself. What were those words which made their hearts to burn within them, we are not told; but, as the Scriptures, to which He referred, are in the hands of us all, and read in our churches every Sabbath day, it is our own fault, (and a fault, which we cannot expect will be excused,) if we are ignorant of these truths, on which our hopes of eternal salvation are founded. And at present it is peculiarly fitting to prepare our minds for duly observing that day, on which the Son of God laid

down His life for our sakes; so that we may know and feel how great things God hath done for us, and may experience proportional gratitude and love to Him who hath loved us so truly and so well.

We may learn, then, from Moses and the prophets, that it was necessary for Christ to suffer such things, and to enter into His glory. It was, indeed, according to His own words, the very cause for which He came into the world. Even when His human nature was sinking under that load of God's vengeance, which we should else have suffered; when, with bitter and strong crying, He called on God who was able to deliver Him; when His soul was troubled; and He shrunk almost from His approaching torments; —even then, though His infirmities almost forced the prayer of—" Father, save me from this hour;"-yet His Divine courage immediately corrects the weakness; and He remembers," that for this cause came I to this hour." When the zeal of Peter2 draws a sword in His defence, He answers, that, if He but asked His Father, He would send many thousand angels to His rescue; but how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be. I will endeavour to explain the testimony thus

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1 St. John, xii. 27.

2 St. John, xviii. 10.

3 St. Matthew, xxvi. 53.