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For the Law did but faintly express its will ; the prophets looked forward to a ftd- filment in act of a thought which had l)een before them ; the sacrifices were but symbols of a self-dedication such as this; and when the Scribes say, this highest truth is contrary to the letter of Moses, or trenches on the dignity of Abraham or of his children, none but the very Truth of God embodied can answer, * Before Moses, and before Abraham teas, I AMJ* In a way, indeed, Man is before Israel, as Humanity before Nations, and Justice before Law, and Faith before Bitual, and Redemption before Punishment ; but He who embodies in Himself all the eternal substance, says confidently. Before these shadows were, I AM. " Whatever then your poets have fabled of the Divine pre- server's becoming incarnate in Edma or Crishna, seem to me shadows of the truth, that the thought of the eternal Spirit must come to fulfilment in act, and His wisdom manifest itself to our experience embodied in a living person, before we can know the counsel of Him whose thouglits are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways. How easily we may bewilder ourselves in s|)eculations about that which is above our senses, and beyond our experience, is but too clear from all the former part of this dialogue, which I am almost ashamed now of having borne a part in. And although the visible world may be some shadow of the thought of the Almighty, yet how unworthy are the things we tread and consume, and even blame or abhor, to be taken as adequate images of Him who is above and beyond and higher and deeper, and by His wisdom causes these senseless things to be! But if you would know how human life brings out our Maker's will, read that of Jesus. See 360 REJECTION OF CHBIST. Him obedient, holj, harmless, doing good, reviled, and reviling not again, caring for all save for Himself, resigning Himself to the reproach of the cross, and after saving all who drew nigh to Him, enduring to have it said. Himself He cannot save. If 70U would know God's judgment of sin, see what Jesus suffered to save men from it. If you would know that Divine love wliich passeth knowledge, hear the call of Jesus to all who are wearj of the world, and laden with sin, to come unto Him and find rest ; or see His deeds of mercy exemplifying His speech ; and then be persuaded, that this should be the author and finisher of our faith, the Son of the living Grod. " You will ask, how came the Jews to reject Jesus ? This may seem strange until you consider it thus. To all those who could not pass isoTH the world of the senses into that of thought, and so accept the higher meaning which He gave to the two principal hopes of His nation. He seemed to disappoint them in both. The Scripturalists and Expounders, who wished Him to support the time-hallowed system of Moses, were very jealous of that leading into the deepest spirit, which even in frdfiUing the letter overthrew its authority; for thus the whole system of their ancestral polity, and temple, and law, was swept away. They then could hardly fail to call Jesus a Samaritan or an infidel, and as such they thought it their duty to punish Him. The common people again, who sighed to be delivered from the Roman tax-gatherer, thought it not only a disappointment, but a treason to their race, that one should place the kingdom of God within the heart, and turn all minds from national glories, to the palm won in a strife against evil passions and lusts. They then, though their first hope might cry Hosanna^ would in the shock of disappointment say. Crucify Him. Again the sacerdotal politicians, who ever feared some popular rising might draw down Roman vengeance, thought it sound policy to rid themselves of One whose doctrines, whether understood or mis- understood, might ruin the nation. Add to this confrision of Jewish feeling that mixture of prejudice and carelessness in CRUCIFIXION. 361 human nature, which is ever uneasy at the cry of reform, and especially shrinks from a reformation of manners which may involve trouble and sacrifice. You will then easily see how tlie ancestral law of Moses, however burdensome it had become, could not be abolished even for a higher law of the spirit and of truth, unless He who wrought out such freedom purchased it with His blood. So the Priests, and the Scripturalists, and the Expounders, delivered Jesus into the hands of the Romans ; and He was crucified under Pontius Pilate between two thieves; thus He, in whose mouth no guile had been found, vku numbered amongst the tranagresscra ; He who had wept over Jerusalem, was counted a traitor ; He who had embodied the love of Grod in His life, was put to death for infidelity and blasphemy ; and He whose kingdom was to be in the hearts of men to the ends of the earth, was rejected by those who might have chosen Him, when they said. We unU not have this Man to reign over us. This seemed indeed a triumph of the great enemy. The mystery of evil, and the confusion of relations in the world, and the neoes- sity for even love to work out its purpose through suffering, have had no hour in histoiy so dark. The life had fulfilled all that our imagination can paint as most Divine ; the death was of the most utter humiliation, rejection, pain, and shame. My Oodj my God, why hast Thou forsaken me f were the words of Jesus from the Psalms; and the bystanders answered. He trusted in Ood that He vxmld deliver him; let Him deliver him if He wiU have him, " But r^oioe not against me, 0 mine enemy. The policy of the priest, and the madness of the multitude, and the yielding of the governor, wrought out of their unconscious freewill the higher counsel of the Eternal. For thus, in the first place, Jesus fulfilled the sacrifice of His life, even to the end. We can all obey, when the will of God enables us to do good by being exalted. But Jesus was obedient even to the death of the cross. Nothing unforeseen had come upon Him. Nor yet was His death self-chosen, but appointed to Him. His mere 362 SACRIFICE. human will miglit have slirunk, but He said to His Fatlier, Not My willy but Thine. Thii3 He fulfilled in His own body on the accursed tree that entire self-dedication which the old sacrifices of the law had been intended to express ; and He made good the prophecy of the psalmist, that the sacrijices of God are a broken spirit. He had heard in spirit, what for each of us is written, My son, give me thine heart. " Secondly, Jesus thus shewed His loving patience towards men. For in that hour, when God could refuse Him nothing, He prayed not for ease, or for exaltation, but said, Fatlier. forgive them ; for they know not what they do. He rememljered, as no meaner sufferer would, what genuine zeal for their entire system of temple and scripture animated many of His slayers, so that in giving over into lawless hands Him by whom the whole ilosaic polity was being abolished, they thought they did God service. Nor is there anything in which Christians more require a return to their Master's doctrine than in their tone of mind towards the Jews. If we remembered how little the present generation can help what their forefathers did, and how few even out of that generation could have bonie an active part, and what mistaken zeal and fidelity to the God, as they thought, of tlieir fathers, and to His written revelation, Wiis their working motive, wc should speak of them now more in compassion than in anger. But Jesus Christ is above Christianity, and you see here His very mind. " Tliirdly, Jesus fulfilled by dying, not only the thing meant in ancient sacrifices, but the martyr-type, or the cha- racter of all godlike sufferers for tlie right and the good. It is no strange thing for one who benefits others to do so at his own cost. You cannot give and retain the gift. You cannot warn without danger of dislike, nor tcAch higher truth without irritating those bound to the lower. You could not have had the old Jewish fidelity to Scripture, and temple, and race, without obstinate prejudice, and exclusiveness as well. There is no light without shadow, nor virtue without its kindred fault. SUFFERINQ OF CHRI8T. 363 But God, with whom is no yariableness, docs not lightly change His laws, or suffer any principle to vary its operation, because persons come within its range or stand aloof. He blovra with His wind, and the waters flow, either to bear the skilful mariner, or to drown the lieedless.