only of course Paul referred, bearing on the death of Christ, may be grouped thus: (1) Figures from commercial life. "Bought with a price"; "purchased with His own blood." (2) Figures from political life. "Redemption"; "Ransom." (3) Figures from judicial life. "Wounded for our transgressions," &c. (4) Figures from Jewish ceremonial observances. "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." "Blood of sprinkling.' Besides these, our New Testament scriptures, in the parables, and direct statements of Christ, and also in the arguments and references of His apostles, have much more to say about the death of our Lord. Altogether there is abundant reason here for understanding why "first of all" Paul preached that "Christ died for our sins." Mark vii. 34. (Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.) "AND LOOKING UP TO HEAVEN, HE SIGHED, AND SAITH UNTO HIM, EPHPHATHA, THAT IS, BE OPENED." THERE is a microscopic fulness of meaning in this record of one of the innumerable deeds and feelings of our Lord's life. What a combination of the Divine and human, the simple and the mysterious. There is (a) Divinity revealed. The cure here effected. Beyond mortal power to do. A "miracle." (b) Humanity. Natural emotions, actions, and signs exhibited. (c) Simplicity. For we think it only natural and harmonious that the Lord from heaven should ever "look up to heaven." (d) Mystery. For why should the great Healer, on the eve of working a blessed deed "sigh." Consider a few of the thoughts suggested by the Saviour's sigh:THE IV. THE DEATH OF CHRIST IS THE MIGHTIEST FORCE IN SALVATION OF THE WORLD. This follows from all we have said. But we may well ponder on the great truth that Christ's cross is not only the symbol of sacrifice but the source of sovereignty; and the second because the first. This is the deep meaning of our Lord's own words, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." This is verified in the experience (1) of individuals; (2) of the world. EDITOR. I. THE PERFECTION OF HIS HUMANITY. A very obvious truth. But like so many plain truths apt to be forgotten or weakened. Distorted views and heresies have arisen from forgetting this fact. So many people think of Christ's humanity as something different from their own; as if He lived and moved in a different sphere and under different laws. Christ possessed body and soul. Enforce this. Not merely a temple "in able soul and human flesh subsisting." How much closer this brings us to Him; how much more real does He become to our minds and hearts. A valuable testimony to this truth is the record that the Lord "sighed." Note that "sighing" may be only an evidence of the weakness of humanity. Sighs arise from many causes. (a) Disappointment. (b) Discontent. (c) Incapacity. (d) Reluctance to do the work sought. None of these of course were the cause of Christ's sighing. There are sighs that evidence the strength of our humanity. The proof of our aiming after higher things. A testimony to earth's insufficiency and to our boundless capacity for feeling and work. Such, e.g., at times of prayer, words too feeble, &c. Christ's sigh was such. Natural outpouring of a perfect human soul. It was the expression of a prayer too large for "words" and of "thoughts too deep for tears." II. THE INFINITE PATHOS OF HIS HEART. This sigh teaches how real, intense, and personal are the feelings the Lord bears to mankind. A wide difference between possessing a general idea of the evils and sorrows and sufferings of life, and coming into contact personally with such. (Illustrate from Howard's life.) Each case where Christ showed forth His supernatural power is an illustration too of His mercy and love toward the sufferer personally. We may do good deeds to the suffering, &c., and yet not bear a personal regard or love for them. But our Lord did not thus act. Note how this sigh shows the (a) Illimitable sympathy of Christ. What is sympathy in its true and real meaning. Who can so fulfil its meaning as Christ. No loneliness in life if we remember this. We cannot be alone having such a sympathising Helper. What allowances, &c., He will make even for our failings, &c., which cause us to seek His pardon, &c. (6) Compassion. No "bitter cry" or "silent suffering" but He pities. Whatever we feel stirs the ripples upon the sea of His love and compassion. No stern, cold, unfeeling Being do we worship and adore. He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." III. THE INFINITE EARNESTNESS OF CHRIST'S LIFE PURPOSE AND MISSION. Great and selfsacrificing workers may sigh when they think of (1) The greatness of their work: (2) The poverty of their means (3) The opposition engendered, &c. The will to do but the means lacking. "Would that more could be done." Do we not feel this at times,-the more so the nearer we draw to God, the more we see what life really is and what it ought to be. Do we not enter, e.g., into Jeremiah's weeping, &c. Far beyond us and all other of the world's workers and saviours did Christ feel this "burden of life." We cannot even faintly understand what He felt, for He was more than human. He could take in the sufferings of the whole race at one glance. He could see all the present and future possibilities for good and evil in every soul. He knew the privileges granted and neglected. Here this one sufferer only a type of the human race spiritually. And then the cause of all this bodily and spiritual sorrow and JAMES FOSTER, B.A. AUTHORPE RECTORY, LINCOLNSHIRE. DEGREES OF LIFE. "Things are not wholly alive or wholly dead. They are less or more alive. Take the nearest, most easily examined instance—the life of a flower. Notice what a different degree and kind of life there is in the calyx and in the corolla. The calyx is nothing but the swaddling clothes of the flower; the child blossom is bound in it hand and foot-guarded in it, restrained by ittill the time of birth. The shell is hardly more subordinate to the germ in the egg than the calyx to the blossom. It bursts at last, but it never lives as the corolla does. It may fall at the moment its task is fulfilled, as in the poppy; or wither gradually, as in the buttercup; or persist in a ligneous apathy after the flower is dead, as in the rose; or harmonise itself so as to share in the aspect of the real flower, as in the lily; but it never shares in the corolla's bright passion of life. And the gradations which thus exist between the different members of organic creatures, exist no less between the different ranges of organism. We know no higher or more energetic life than our own; but there seems to me this great good in the idea of gradation of life; it admits the idea of a life above us, in other creatures, as much nobler than ours as ours is nobler than that of the dust."-RUSKIN. Breviaries. The Transfiguration. "AND IT CAME ΤΟ PASS ABOUT AN EIGHT DAYS AFTER THESE SAYINGS, HE TOOK PETER AND JOHN AND JAMES, AND WENT UP INTO A MOUNTAIN TO PRAY," &c.-Luke ix. 28-36. LOOKING at the human side, the Transfiguration has practical lessons we may well learn. I.-CHRIST SELECTED THREE TO BE WITH HIM. This was not accidental, for we find that the same three were chosen on other occasions. The reason then must be in their greater fitness for the revelation. Doubtless they possessed larger sympathies and deeper spiritual insight than the rest of the Twelve. Now Christian life is far more to some than to others. Some Christians find God everywhere, and the smallest events aid them in the divine life. To others life comes with dull monotony, and its greatest opportunities have little inspiration. And these are apt to grumble as if they had been unfairly treated, and were not themselves to blame for the poorness of their Christian experience. As well might one who had refused to study music say that there was nothing in some masterpiece just because he could not understand it. The vision of Christ we have, depends upon the point to which our spiritual life has developed. His revelation of Himself is ever limited by our power to receive. There are visions and voices of Christ everywhere, could we but see and hear them. II. THEY DID NOT GRASP CHRIST'S PURPOSE, AND PARTLY LOST THE OPPORTUNITY. They slept, and so did they when they should have watched with Him in the garden. Excuses might possibly be made for them; but if Christ could watch and pray surely they might have done the same. They did as men often do, lost one of life's great openings because they were not watchful, seeking. The smallest work for Christ, or the poorest prayer meeting, may become the door through which we enter into realisation of new truth and clearer vision of Christ. No voice from heaven announces the great possibility. Along the line of the apparently small and commonplace it comes one day to the faithful servant who is ever obeying the Master's command-"Watch." III.-CHRIST TOOK THEM BACK FROM THE VISION TO DUTY. "Good to be here.' Yes, but not to stay. Down below are multitudes to be taught and devils to be cast out. Life is not to consist of visions and ecstatic experiences. It is good to have them, but from them we should go back to every-day duty better fitted for it. Here the mystics failed. The power and inspiration we get on the mount with Christ we should carry with us into all life's work. If not, our Christian life will degenerate into the mere enjoyment of mercies that serve no useful purpose. Like the monk, in "The Legend Beautiful," we shall find that he who is constantly faithful to duty is he who has most constantly the Beatific Vision. SLOUGH. FRANK SMITH. Spiritual Waymarks. "SET THEE UP WAYMARKS.”—Jer. xxxi. 21. THESE words follow repentance and promise: repentance on the part of Ephraim, promise on the part of God, "I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord." The true order is still preserved, God's love first, man's follows. First the Divine forbearance, then the yielding. God's love has no breaks in it, is one continuous chain, the links of which are "goodness and mercy." Memory is treacherous, forgets the old mercies and favours past. "If I forget thee O Jerusalem," shows possibility. Hence instruction follows hard upon mercy in the pilgrimage of return from captivity" set thee up waymarks." Here is an invitation-I.-To FOLLOW AN ANCIENT CUSTOM. Not all old customs bad, the good filtrates through all time. Observe, Jacob sets up his Bethel and repairs to it again in after years. Joshua takes twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan, and sets them up in Gilgal as a memorial. Between Mizpeh and Shem Samuel erected his Ebenezer. We learn that it is a holy duty to follow in the good, tried paths of the "just men made perfect." II.-To KEEP ALIVE OUR SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES. While faith obeys implicitly, aids are not rejected. To recount becomingly our experiences serves two ends, we put God in remembrance; we keep Him in remembrance. Our experiences may be such as (1) past grace received-(a) the grace to know (b) and the grace to love. (2) Past strength renewed. (3) Wonderful deliverance from fears. (4) Help in trouble. (5) Times of sweet communion. Thus we put in practise the word, "forget not all His benefits." |