opposition shall fade away before Him at his triumphant march (vers. 5, 6). But His victory must be preceded by heavy toil. The suffering must go. before the glory. "He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head."

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“He shall drink of the brook in the way." These words remind us of the deep humiliation of Jesus. In a certain sense the entire earthly life of Christ was a drinking of the brook in the way. He drank of mortality. Passing by the angels, He laid hold of our nature, and, by His incarnation, became subject to sorrow, suffering, and death. Though He did not take a sinful nature, He took real humanity into abiding union with Himself. How deep was Christ's draught of poverty! He had not where to lay his head. His infant wants, and the wherewithal to flee into Egypt, were supplied by the gifts of the wise men. How mysterious that Divine providence which guided the magi to the manger, and so influenced their hearts that they emptied their treasures at the infant Saviour's feet! In the midst of thy poverty, O child of God, remember that thou art in fellowship with Jesus. Study well His life, and be comforted by the fact that the same wondrous providence is over all Christ's brethren. In addition to his poverty, He had to drink deep of the waters of malice. Deceitful friends and spiteful foes embittered the last few years of His earthly life. The curse of the law, mingled with hell's floods, made a dreadful potion, whilst Divine wrath filled the brook.

Though we perceive that Christ, in a limited sense, was constantly drinking of the brook during His sojourn in this polluted world, we feel sure that the words at the head of this paper have a deeper significance. Reading the phrase, "He shall drink of the brook in the way," with careful attention, we learn that Christ's sufferings were accumulative. Some people seem to entertain the idea that the life of Jesus, from its commencement to its close, was one of unmixed sorrow. That is a vain imagination. He had many bright spots, and He could laugh as well as weep. With the pure trust and joy of infancy, He clung round His mother's neck, and laughed with His eyes as only an infant can. When His feet first felt the floor, as His mother supported Him by the arms, He danced for very glee. Think you that as He grew up, a fine, healthy boy, He abstained from all the innocent pleasures of boyhood? The idea is preposterous, and fit only for a gloomy misanthrope. You need not swallow the tale about the mud-sparrows; how that one day, when Jesus and His playfellows were amusing themselves by making mud into the form of sparrows, He suddenly startled them by causing His sparrow to be filled with life and covered with feathers, and to career gaily through the air. That lie you may delegate to the dark ages whence it sprung. At twelve years of age he posed the doctors in the Temple with his questions, whilst, to their inquiries, quick, ready answers leaped from His lips. They were astonished and delighted with the boy, whose handsome form had not yet become feeble through long fasts and suffering, nor His beauteous face marred by mental anguish and bodily pain. Wonderment alone was expressed by His look, as He asked His weary mother, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Then, putting His little hand into. His earthly parents', He tripped lightly along,

filling the hearts of Joseph and Mary with joy by His innocent talk. Sorrows, doubtless, often entered the humble cottage of the carpenter at Nazareth. Pinching poverty drove the little family to great straits. Still the greatest suffering was reserved for Jesus. In His quiet retirement He experienced but little of the effects of sin. Though the sweat of his brow, which He often wiped away with His horny hand, reminded Him of the curse of a broken law, He had to wait for the full realization of the virulent hatred of men and devils. When a man is thrust into public notice for the performance of some great work, then, if he be faithful, will his sufferings increase. Jesus was no exception to this rule. Whilst His Father was preparing Him in the quiet of Joseph's shop, Satan did not take much notice of Him; though, doubtless, the Evil One did not allow Him to have unbroken peace. He had no sooner, however, presented Himself for baptism, than, rising from His immersion to receive the Divine approbation, and rejoicing to hear His Father's voice, He immediately found a wilderness, a tempting devil, and a spiteful priesthood. His sufferings now began in earnest. The brook rapidly filled up, until it became swollen, turbid, bloody, like to the Kidron, which David crossed when he fled from Absalom, and which the antitypical David passed over that doleful night when He sought the bowers of Gethsemane with his little band of weeping followers. What was this brook, of which Christ drank? The wrath of God, running through the channel of a broken law.

Come, turn aside. Worldly sights have engaged you too long. Give me your hand, and let me lead you into the shadow of our Saviour's sufferings. Remove your shoes, for the ground is holy. Cease your rmurmuings; you have no sorrow like unto His. Behold! the Lord of life and glory is on His hands and knees, lapping water out of the muddy brook. Heaven, earth, and hell are all startled by the sight. As He takes His first bitter draught, let me remind you that all his sorrows flowed from one source. "Ah yes," you say, "I know that sin caused it all. Sin crowned Him with thorns, pierced His hands and feet, and opened his bleeding side." That is true, but that is not exactly our present meaning. In thinking of the common source of all Christ's sufferings, let us forget secondary causes for a time. Losing sight of devils and men, we look up and see the Father's hand emptying the vials of wrath against sin into "the brook in the way." It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief." apostle Peter recognized this solemn truth when He boldly declared, "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." No excuse can be found for the treacherous Judas, the villainous priests, the murderous rabble, or the vacillating Pilate, and yet all happened according to the purpose of God. Having taken upon Him His people's sins, Jesus became the mark of Divine justice, and endured the punishment of the law.

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The

The afflicted Saviour understood where to look for the source of His troubles: hence, when He bowed Himself in the garden, He cried, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." Again, the majestic sufferer declared the doctrine of Divine sovereignty when He replied

can.

to Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above." Whilst, however, we perceive that the Heavenly Father, for a glorious purpose, bruised His well-beloved Son, we must guard ourselves against entertaining the idea that there was anything like malice in the act. The hand of God is not vindictive. To be vindictive is to be revengeful—maliciously and deliberately returning an injury, or plotting. destruction. Where vindictiveness commences justice ends.. Whoever can call forth vindictiveness from God, neither Christ nor His people The hand which gave Jesus such heavy strokes was guided by an heart of infinite and unchanging love. The bowels of Divine mercy, out of which salvation is spun, moved with unabated compassion towards Christ all the time He was suffering the terrors of hell and the curses of Sinai. We state, as a fact which admits of no contradiction, that God never can be vindictive. Wrath is not a Divine attribute. The wrath of God is simply the effect of His holiness and justice coming into collision with sin. Wherever He sees iniquity, He hates it, and will punish it. His people are free from judicial punishment, because their sins have been cast into the ocean of Christ's blood, and they themselves are covered with His robe of righteousnesss. "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel." Marvellous grace! How can we sufficiently praise it? Though there was no sin in Christ, there was sin on Him. God's eye of justice saw this: hence the poured out vials, the terrible punishment.

Remember, beloved reader, that, as all Christ's sufferings flowed from one source, even from His Father's hand, they also all met at one place. Employing different instruments, God guided them all by heaven's own clockwork to the same terrible spot, so that Jesus could say, "Father, the hour is come." Like so many different streams did Christ's sufferings come pouring in from heaven, earth, and hell, till they all met in that muddy brook. No wonder that He cried, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Cease your unseemly noise, O child of God. Stop your groaning over your petty sorrows. Say no more, "All Thy waves and Thy billows have gone over me.' You know it is not true. There is only one sufferer, who is God as well as man, who could truthfully use such words. All your sorrows do not come at once. The Lord brings you out of one before he brings you into another. Magnify the love which deals so tenderly with you. Draw closer to the cross; then will you oftener sing,

"His way was much rougher

And darker than mine;
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer,
And shall I repine ?"

Favourite Hymns and their Authors.