the cross and of Christ, a glorious truth was extorted-" He saved others." What the Jews applied to the Saviour in derision, we apply in praise and in honour; what they said with a sneer, we with joy and gratitude; what they uttered to proclaim him an impostor, we utter to proclaim him the promised Messiah, the everlasting God: and thus we wrest his triumphs from Satan, and demonstrate them the triumphs of Christ, and turn the discordant reproaches of hell into the holy and harmonious songs of heaven.

First, observe THE CONCESSION MADE BY THE BITTEREST ENEMIES OF THE LORD JESUS. They had long tried, by falsehood and misrepresentation, to eclipse the glory of his marvellous works, and, under the semblance of piety, to affix on the Son of God the crimes and the guilt of a sinner: and now, for the first time, when they thought his merciful career was at its close, they admitted the truth" He saved others"-which they had all along endeavoured to do away. They see at length the eyes of the blind drink in again the rays of day, by the Saviour's touch; and the ears of the deaf hear sounds of sweet concord, at the Saviour's command; and the halt and the maimed, at the magic of his look, leap as the hart and as the roe; and as this tears fall on the grave of Lazarus, and his voice echoes through its chambers, they see the dead come forth and appear again amid the ranks of living men. These were the imperishable proofs of his great salvation-these the trophies of his ability to save to the uttermost of human calamity and woe.

But we might go back to earlier eras, and bring from these the many proofs of the assertion-" He saved others." It was He that saved just Lot. It was He, the angel of Jehovah's presence, that saved his people from Egyptian darkness and thraldom, and led them through the wilderness with a high hand and an out-stretched arm. It was He that appeared to Daniel, greatly beloved, by the streams of Ulai, and gathered his people out of Babylon, and drew them with cords of a man, and with bands of love, and placed them in the midst of their own country. At whatever period of the world we look, we find it fulfilled, "He saved others." There was no disease which he did not cure, no form of death he did not quicken, and no amount of human guilt he did not save from. His name was indeed Jesus-he that should save Israel from their sins.

And now, brethren, we may come down the tide of time, and learn what illustration this clause derives from the character and destinies of those who have experienced its truth and its efficacy. We read of men rejoicing amid the pangs of martyrdom, and wafted to glory amid joys, which neither fire nor flood could extinguish. We hear of men rising superior to the severest ills of human life, wholly in virtue of the power of an unseen Saviour. We see and we know of men delivered from the fears of eternal death, and from the power and the ascendancy of besetting sin, and from the terrors which the justice and holiness of God are fitted to inspire, wholly through the salvation of the Son of God, and, in fact, that the physical deliverances wrought by Jesus on earth, are infinitely eclipsed by the spiritual deliverances wrought by Jesus in heaven. We find men conscious of a sight they never enjoyed before; and perceptions, and hopes, and prospects, to which they were formerly strangers. In short, He is able to save others to the uttermost of human guilt, to the uttermost of human life, to the uttermost of human time.

This position is proved by the assertrons of that Book that lies not, and confirmed by daily instances that cannot be misapprehended.

Now the great question presses on our attention with all its force-how it comes to pass that He, who saved others, could not save himself; how He, who could tear from death his prey, and from the grave its tenantry, could not come down himself from the cross; how He, who could command, according to his own declaration, legions of angels strong, could not scatter and unnerve the desperate bands that nailed him to the cross. We say it seems most marvellous that He, who could pass through the doors and the walls within which his people were assembled, or blast the fig-tree by a syllable, or feed five thousand by a word, could not command the nails that they should not enter his flesh, and the cross that it should not bear him, and the hearts of the soldiers that they should not keep from fainting and failing in the murderous tragedy. It seems most marvellous that He, who could walk upon the crouching billows of the unruly deep, and beckon to the winds, and make them obey, and rescue men from the waters in their fury, could not yet arrest the machinery and the executioners of death. He had power, he said, to take up his life and to lay it down; yet hear you not his prayer-"Father, save me from this hour: but for this purpose came I into the world."

How, then, is the seeming wonder of the text to be explained? It was not for want of power; for he had all power in heaven and in earth. It was not through any deadness to a feeling of pain; for his sensibilities were keen as his sufferings were unparalleled. It was not from any ignorance of the issue; for he knew before, and predicted, the absolute certainty of his painful death. How then came it to pass, that he saved others, and yet himself he could not save? The answer and the explanation to the mystery will be found in the end which he came into the world to accomplish. He came "to seek and to save them that were lost:" and these he sought; and these he would save, should it be at the expenditure of life, and peace, and all that was dear: and if he found it decreed and written that, in saving others, himself he could not save, he was prepared and willing to suffer and to die. So that the "could not save himself" arose not from any physical inability, or any lack of strength or of wisdom.

First, IT AROSE FROM THE NATURE OF THE WORK WHICH HE HAD UNDERTAKEN. He determined to save others, though he had to bear the wrath of God, and to endure the curse, and to hang and die upon the cross. It was found that without shedding of blood, there could be no remission of sins-that the blood of bulls and of goats could not wash away sin; in short, that unless it was the blood of Jehovah's incarnate Son, in our nature, and in the likeness of our humanity, it could not take away sin: and hence, the Saviour, to save others, was pleased, and yet constrained, to sacrifice himself. O, there was that in sin which nothing but the blood of incarnate Deity could wash away; there was a chasm between the Creator and the fallen creature, which none but a suffering Saviour could render palpable. We see, then, that if the end for which the Saviour came into the world was to be accomplished, he could not save himself. If others were to be saved, Christ must die.

Secondly, THE Everlasting PURPOSE OF THE FATHER WAS ANOTHER

REASON WHY HE COULD NOT SAVE HIMSELF. The Father had proclaimed that in no other way could the sinner be saved than by a substitute bearing the sinner's punishment; so that, coming into the sinner's room and stead, he should find it fulfilled that, while he saved others, himself he could not sare. The wrath that descended in torrents on the Substitute, should issue from him in streams of mercy and peace on the sinner; and the darkness that entered into the soul of the Substitute, should shine forth from him, in rays of light, into the heart of the converted sinner. It was, in short, decreed, that the Substitute should receive into his bosom all that was awful and infinite in the threats and curses of offended Deity; and having, by a chemistry altogether inscrutable, converted them into blessings, and promises, and hopes, should scatter them liberally on every land. Hence, whosoever undertook the dread functions of Mediator between the Living God and the sinner, must be prepared to submit to the condition of the text, that while he saved others, himself he could not save.

Thirdly, THE SAVIOUR'S FREE UNDERTAKING OF THE OFFICE OF A PRIEST, AND VICTIM, AND REDEEMER, brought him into the condition that while he saved others, himself he could not save. When God put the momentous question, "Who shall stand in the gap, and endure the punishment that sin deserves, and be a channel to the mercy which the sinner needs, and can obtain in no other way?" the Son of God replied, "Send me: lo, I come to do thy will, O God." The Lord Jesus having undertaken the glorious achievement, would not, through the pressure of tribulation, and anguish, and wrath, shrink back from the work which the Father had given him to do. He was not man that he should repent, nor the son of man that he should lie. He had pledged himself to go

through the agonizing work of redemption; and though he should meet the legions of hell arrayed and in arms against him, and though he should meet the Jews, and the men of the world in general, opposed to his person and functions, and though he should find the wrath of God against sin, and the wrath of man against holiness, so fearful that he must be consumed in the midst of it, as a sacrifice-still he was determined to finish the work of redemption.

Fourthly, THE GLORY AND HONOur of God made IT THE ONLY ALTER

NATIVE, THAT WHILE HE SAVED OTHERS, HIMSELF HE COULD NOT SAVE.

Had God admitted unsanctified sinners, without expiation, into his glorious presence, he would have made his mercy the grave of his holiness, and justice, and truth; he would have conveyed to men an impression of Deity inferior far to that which our own minds might conceive; he would have virtually sanctioned the inference which men would have generally made, that God approves of vice and of virtue without distinction, and extends his rewards to the one as well as to the other. We should thus have supposed that holiness and truth were but ideas invented in imaginative days, destitute of reality, and unentitled to veneration or pursuit. But in the sacrifice and death of the Son of God, we have the clearest evidence that the Almighty regards sin with the deepest abhorrence, and holiness with infinite love. We learn from the cross, that God's holiness is so great, that it cannot admit one of the family of Adam within the precincts of heaven till his sins are washed entirely away; and that the truth of God is so

unalterable that it cannot revoke its threatenings, or unfold the gates of glory, till all its curse had been endured, and all its words fulfilled.

Hence it came to pass that, while the Son of God saved others, himself he could not save. He clasped the sinner in his arms, and met the fiery wrath of the sinner's God, and passed him to heaven, while he himself perished in the midst of its flames. He wrapped the guilty in his bosom, and encountered the threats and the curses of the law, and carried him to bliss, while he himself was sacrificed in the furious struggle. Thus, while he saved others, himself he could not save, because it was his meat and his drink to do the will of his heavenly Father; because it was the overwhelming desire of his heart to glorify his God, and finish the work which he had given him to do. Sinners he could save, but sinners he would not save at the expense of his Father's glory: and therefore himself he could not save; he preferred the glory of God to his own life.

Fifthly, THE Love that he boRE TO US IS ANOTHER REASON of the TRUTH OF THE TEXT. The great principle that impelled him forth on his errand of mercy and grace, was a principle of love to the children of men. ^ He loved us altogether irrespective of any quality with which we were endued; and because he loved us with an everlasting love, he was prepared to save us, though in the mighty effort he should sacrifice himself. No love surely can exceed the love that led the Son of God to die, "the just for the unjust "-"though rich, for our sakes to become poor"-to become "a curse for us"-to present himself a sacrifice for our sins. O, it was not the everlasting covenant, with all its certainty and strength, nor the vindication of his Father's character, which might have been otherwise, and must have been ultimately, set forth in its integrity and glory-that urged the Son of God to brave the powers of hell and the principalities of earth-the hiding of his Father's face, and the eclipse of his own glory for a while, and the agonizing and accursed pains of the cross-these were mighty, and these were pressing; but the mainspring of his doings and sufferings, was love to perishing sinners: the cords that bound him to the cross, were cords of love taken from his own heart; and these held him so fast to the tree, that it was brought to pass that while he saved others, himself he could not save. The "could not" was the result of his love; the impossibility of saving himself, sprung from his infinite affection to you.

The Lord Jesus had but two alternatives—either to leave sinners to perish in their sins, and plunge into the abodes of the eternally lost, and himself abide in the glory and bliss which he had with the Father in heaven-or to rescue and raise sinners from their misery, and condemnation, and unhappy doom, to the joys of immortality, and himself to undergo the sinner's punishment, and exchange the mansions of heaven for the miseries of earth, and his crown for a cross, and the praises of cherubim and seraphim for the execrations of Israel. Behold the dread alternative! Sinners must eternally die, or the Son of God must infinitely suffer. Behold next the character of the respective parties: men enemiesyea, enmity-to God; men perfectly indifferent whether they should live or die; men destitute of all claim, and of all merit, and of every beautiful trait; men leavened with enmity to God, and lost in darkness, misery, and sin. Christ, on the other hand, sinned against and despised; Christ, the Holy God, defied ~nd dishonoured, unworshinned, unpraised, unsought, and uncared for-not

to be made more happy though Adam's universal family were saved, and not to be made miserable though Adain's universal family were lost.

After you have now seen the position of the parties-man and his Maker— listen to the proposition that is proclaimed in the realms of glory. Are men to be saved while their Saviour cannot be saved? Are the enemies of God to be left to perish in their blood? Or is God to become man, and suffer, and be sacrificed, in their stead? O, momentous crisis in the annals of the universe! O, spirit-stirring moment! On the decision hung the eternal destinies of unborn millions. On the reply, hell or heaven was to rejoice, and sinners to suffer or be saved. What reply would reason have suggested? What response would justice have uttered? What decision would fallen man have come to, had it been between him and his enemy? Angels, and men, and justice, and truth, would have cried, "Let the guilty sons of men suffer; let not the Holy Son of God endure anything for their salvation." But O! "God's thoughts are not our thoughts, aud God's ways are not our ways." While all creation stood at this crisis in amazement and suspense-while angels wondered if ever they might be able to rejoice over penitent sinners, and the earth wondered if her groans were to cease, and heaven wondered if songs of redemption were ever to be heard within its gates, a voice came from the throne of the Lamb, and from the midst of living streams, saying, "Send me. Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me." O, never did music like this steal upon the ear of the listening universe -never were sounds so spirit-stirring heard-never did a thrill of deeper rapture pass athwart creation, than at that hour and moment. Others saved, though God incarnate not saved! Enemies died for by Him against whom they had raised their arm! God satisfying for the dishonour which man had done to His law, and to His attributes: God bearing the punishment the guilty deserved. Wrath poured on Jesus, that mercy might be poured on the sinner! Death fastening on the Son of God, that life might be given to us! The grave receiving Him who never sinned, that glory might encircle us who had done nothing but sin! His groans are our songs of triumph and of joy-His tears, our unfading smiles-His agonies and pangs, our transport and our triumphs -His cry on the cross, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" the cause of our hope, "Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us"-His wounded and bleeding heart, the fountain of our sanctification and peace.

First, Observe the intimate and inseparable connexion that subsists between the sacrifice of Jesus, and the salvation of his people. It is right that you should contemplate the glory of Christ, and rejoice in his approaching triumph, and admire the lofty morality of his doctrine, and the noble impress it can stamp on the hearts and habits of men. But with all this, and without depreciation of this, the great object on which our eyes should be riveted from our birth to our death, and from the cradle to the grave, is the sacrifice and the cross of Christ? It is with this cross that our salvation is essentially connected; it is with a crucified Christ that we have mainly to do: and until you look at the cross as the only channel of life, and behold the suffering Saviour as the source of your salvation -until you find the cross so interwoven with all your feelings, and hopes, and affections, that you can, with Paul, glory in the cross, and in it alone-you will never rise to the full participation of your privileges, nor to the full experience of