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sensible to the claims of nature or of country. Even when, in excruciating agony, he bore the sins of a whole world in his own body on the tree, he felt that there stood, at the foot of his cross, one, who had a particular claim on his affection; and recommended his beloved mother to the protecting care of his favourite disciple. While all were the objects of his love, a few enjoyed his peculiar friendship. Such were Peter, James, and John; and such, also, were the family at Bethany. When he raised the ruler's daughter and the widow's son, his heart was moved with pity; but at the grave of his friend Lazarus, where his feelings were more strongly overpowered, Jesus wept. While all nations were to share his benefits, every one must have perceived that his own ungrateful country ever held a first place in his regard, and must have marked the tender manner in which he continually speaks of his native land, and, even with tears in his eyes, deplores her approaching fate.-Nor was our Lord's kindness less displayed in his manner of conferring benefits, than in the benefits themselves. How tenderly did he take the little children in his arms, lay his hands upon them, and bless them! At Nain, too, it would obviously have been more than sufficient for the purpose of testifying his divine mission, to have raised by his word the widow's son to life. Yet ere he spake the commanding word, he, with the kindliest sympathy, advanced to console the bereaved parent: and no sooner was this command obeyed, than, with a grace and courtesy never to be forgotten, he delivered him to his mother! The manner, also, in which he conveyed reproof, was in general equally gentle and affectionate. Against hardened and presumptuous guilt, indeed, in whatever station he found it, he never failed loudly to raise his voice in a tone of becoming indignation. But, as the prophet had foretold of him, he brake not the bruised reed, nor ever resorted to harsher censures, when gentler methods were sufficient to attain his end. "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" was his mild reproof to his attendants, who, in the trying hour of his agony, suffered themselves to be overpowered by sleep. On Peter, who thrice denied him in his utmost need,

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he merely cast a look, penetrating indeed, but full of compassion. And even to the arch-traitor himself, whose guilt, he well knew, would soon be overtaken by the bitterest feelings of remorse, he said no more than, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?"-With what PRUDENCE did our Lord conduct himself, amid all the attempts, which the Evangelists tell us, were made for the purpose of entangling him in his talk. Witness his answers to the questions, "Master, which is the great commandment of the law?" and, “ Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar or not ?” In the case, too, of the wretched woman, who was brought before him, charged with a heinous offence, which the law of Moses visited with death, how well did he contrive to exercise his clemency, without assuming any interference with the administration of the laws of his country, by putting home to her accusers the paralysing observation, "He that is without sin amongst you, let him first cast a stone at her." The like prudence he displayed in other parts of his conduct. Neither with the wild reliance of the enthusiast on unnecessary supernatural aid, nor for the sake of making an idle display of his own courage, did he ever expose himself to any danger uncalled for by the voice of duty. On the contrary, we hear of him on many occasions escaping for the preservation of his useful life. But, wherever he was placed in such circumstances as called upon him to risk that life, in the service either of God or of man, then he showed forth all that genuine COURAGE, which forms so prominent a part of his exemplary character. Of this it may suffice to give one striking illustration. In consequence of the attempts made upon his life, he had, on a certain occasion, been obliged to quit Judea. But no sooner did he hear of the death of Lazarus, than, in face of the earnest solicitations of his more intimate Apostles, he forth with returned to the scene of danger, from which he had so recently fled, but which the claims of friendship had now rendered also the scene of duty. His prudence, unlike the temporizing wisdom of the world, had no tincture either of servile flattery or of low cunning; he neither fawned upon the great,

nor basely ministered to the passions of the multitude.— What noble DIGNITY did he display in his whole deportment, inculcating his doctrines as one having authority, rebuking pride and hypocrisy in the lofty tone of conscious superiority, pronouncing pardon as one who alone had power on earth to forgive sins-but never in a more striking manner exhibiting true dignity, than when the Judge of all the earth stood, as an arraigned culprit, at the bar of his own feeble creature. The cries of "Crucify him! Crucify him!" as little shook his firm and determined soul, as the previous hosannahs of the same fickle multitude, or their vain attempts to make him a king. Through the whole of the trying scene of his sufferings, what resignation did he display, what patience, what forbearance, what fortitude, what heroic magnanimity! But, while he thus acted in a manner worthy of the SON OF GOD, he showed at the same time that he felt as the SON OF MAN. He pretended to none of that insensibility to pain and suffering, so inconsistent with our nature, which has been the idle talk of philosophers. He submitted because duty demanded, and not because what he was called to endure was to him a matter of indifference. Father, he said, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. But why need we longer dwell upon a subject, which has furnished a theme of glowing panegyric to the sceptic, no less than to the firm believer?"Where," says Rousseau, "is the man, where is the philosopher, who can act, suffer, and die, without weakness, and without ostentation? What prejudice, what blindness must possess the mind of that man, who dares to compare the son of Sophroniscus with the Son of Mary! What a distance is there between the one and the other! Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God."-We shall now only say a few wordsregarding the UNIVERSALITY of Christ's example, or its adaptation to all classes and conditions of men. The young will receive from it the most striking pattern of filial reverence and submission, that ever was exhibited to the world. Not only when arrived at an age, at which self-conceit and undue notions of our

own abilities and knowledge are too apt to take possession of the place, so lately and so salutarily occupied by respect for parental authority, but at the very moment when he had displayed his own transcendent powers and wisdom, in profound discussions with the men of greatest learning and experience in his land, Jesus modestly returned from the temple at Jerusalem, with his mother and her husband, to their humble abode at Nazareth, where he spent the remainder of his youthful days in a state of the most dutiful submission. If there be any young person, who, from superior education, or other advantage real or imaginary, thinks himself absolved from the ordinary obligation of reverence for his parents, or other guardians of his helpless years, let him look upon this bright example of the Son of God, blush for his own arrogance and folly, and, ere it be too late, retrace his erring steps. And let it be the constant study of all, in their opening years, to acquire that progressive knowledge and goodness, which was exhibited in the early life of him, who increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Where, too, can manhood better learn a lesson of active virtue, than from Jesus of Nazareth, who went about doing goodwho was prompt at every call of duty and compassion, -brought every power and faculty into strenuous exertion-spared no labour, and shrunk from no difficulty or hazard, by which he might promote the glory of God, or the benefit of man? Even old age may find in Jesus an example well adapted to its own condition. For, though he never attained this last stage of life, he had long before him, in awful perspective, the cross, with all its appalling horrors, and ever spake of that approaching event, with a calmness, composure, and submissive resignation, well worthy the imitation of those, whose declining years forewarn them that the dread hour, which to all is ever on the wing, to them is near at hand. From the example of the Son of God, the great and the powerful may learn the due employment of the advantages which they possess, in promoting the glory of God, the encouragement of modest merit, the diffusion of knowledge, the relief of distress, the suppression of crime. They may learn to be great without

being proud, wise without being arrogant, beneficent without being ostentatious. From the example of the Son of Man, who had not where to lay his head, the poor man may learn unenvying contentment with the lot which Providence hath assigned him, unmurmuring resignation amidst the most painful sufferings and hardships, inflexible integrity amidst the severest trials, and to maintain a temper unruffled and serene even amid contumely and scorn. In a word, let all of us keep the example of our Blessed Master continually before us. Let it be our constant endeavour, that the same mind may be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus; who suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps.

Original.

ON THE DEATH AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

FATHER! the hour is come. What hour? An hour the most critical, the most pregnant with great events, since hours had begun to be numbered, since time had begun to run. It was the hour, in which the Son of God was to terminate the labours of his important life by a death still more important and illustrious; the hour of atoning, by his sufferings, for the guilt of mankind; the hour of accomplishing prophecies, types, and symbols, which had been carried on through a series of ages: the hour of concluding the old, and of introducing to the world the new dispensation of religion: the hour of his triumphing over the world, and death, and hell; the hour of his erecting that spiritual kingdom, which is to last for ever. This was the hour, in which Christ atoned for the sins of mankind, and accomplished our eternal redemption. It was the hour, when that great sacrifice was offered up, the efficacy of which reaches back to the first transgression of man, and extends forward to the end of time: the hour when, from the cross, as from an high altar, that blood was flowing which washed away the guilt of the nations. This awful dispensation of the Almighty contains mys

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