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HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LECTURE CXX.

And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land: but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbathdays. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.-LUKE iv. 20–32

eth in popular favour; he feedeth on the wind, and graspeth the east wind in his arms.

But a more illustrious and more instructive instance, to this purpose, than that of Job, is before us. Now the eyes of the admiring multitude in the synagogue are fastened with wonder and delight on the face of Jesus; anon they are filled with wrath against him: now all bear him witness, and dwell upon "the gracious words which proceed out of his mouth;" next moment they are up in arms, they thrust him out of the city, they hurry him to the brow of the hill, with an intention to cast him down headlong. The cry to-day is, "let us take him and make him a king; never man spake like this man;" to-morrow it is, "away with him, crucify him; not this man but Barabbas." Let us trace the progress of the scene, and observe what produced the sudden change, and learn to cease from man, and to draw consolation and support from the approbation of God, and from the testimony of a conscience void of offence.

Ir is truly affecting to think on what a | But," O sad reverse! "they that are younger slippery foundation men attempt to rear the than I, have me in derision. And now I am fabric of happiness. They dream of deriving their song, yea I am their by-word. They it from their own stores. In the pride of his abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare heart, a man imagines himself to be equal to not to spit in my face. Upon my right hand every thing. What can elude his penetra-rise the youth, they push away my feet: tion; what can resist his force; what can they mar my path, they set forward my cafatigue his industry? Nevertheless, the lamity." And such is every one who truststammering of a child betrays his purpose; the rustling of a leaf melts his resolution: a stone cut out of the mountain, and hurled at him by an invisible hand, crushes in a moment all his powers into the dust. Are they more secure, or more successful, who depend on foreign aid; who build their felicity on the ability, the constancy, or the af fection of others? Alas, it is an attempt to erect a house upon the sand; the washing of the next tide levels it to the ground. Friendship, in a flush of zeal, promised you all encouragement and support. The hour of need comes, and you have recourse to the heart which fondly cherished you; it has waxed cold, it is alienated, it acknowledges you no longer. Your mountain stood strong in a prince's favour. What shall not "be done to the man whom the king delights to honour?" Ah, his breath is in his nostrils, he died yesterday, he has returned to his dust. Applauding multitudes hang upon your lips, the public finger points you out with approbation: but " you have heard" of the sufferings, as well as of the patience of Job. "When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me and hid themselves: and the aged arose and stood up. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel. They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth as for the latter rain; I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army.

The passage which he had read from the prophet was deeply interesting and affecting. It held up to view a most illustrious personage, supporting a dignified and important character, and singularly qualified for the exercise of it, employed in rendering the most seasonable and the most essential services to mankind; evangelizing the poor, healing the broken-hearted, redeeming the captive, enlightening the blind, setting the prisoner free, proclaiming the jubilee year, the era of universal joy. The value and

weight of the subject were greatly enhanced acquaintance, eminent qualities are regarded by the manner in which he rehearsed it. Into with a jealous eye. The reputation, ability, his lips grace was poured: what majesty sat and wisdom of exalted goodness are consienthroned on his brow! what mild glory dered by the less deserving as a reproach to beamed from his eyes! what dignity and themselves: What is every day within our grace in his attitude as he rose and sat down, reach we every day neglect. What costs us in receiving the book and delivering it again little we lightly esteem. Difficulty, and danto the minister! Behold every eye is fixed ger, and distance enhance the value of every upon him, every ear is attention, while in object of pursuit. But the very apology implies these few but emphatical words, he explains a censure of human nature, as wicked, unjust, and applies the prediction of the prophet, and absurd, in undervaluing worth merely "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your because it is allied to us, and neglecting good ears." "I am He to whom the prophet gives for no better reason than that it is known. witness; I am come into the world on this benevolent design; I, your bone and your flesh, your brother, your neighbour, your fellow-citizen, your friend." "Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

On this admiration gradually gives way to a feeling less gentle. Familiarity lowers the object with which it converses; self-love cannot brook to acknowledge a superior in an equal; envy seeks to indemnify itself under the oppression of eminent worth and excellence, by discovering and fixing upon some humiliating, mortifying circumstance, that reduces the hated greatness nearer to its own level. This explains the change which so quickly appeared in our Saviour's auditory. Dazzled, at first, by both the matter and manner of his address, they crown him with applause. But perceiving themselves eclipsed in the lustre of his graces and virtues, sinking as he rose, they strive to tumble him from his excellency, as if by degrading him, they were themselves to mount. His parentage is his only vulnerable part; that was poor, and mean, and despised, and that, accordingly, envy brings forward with affected surprise. "Is not this Joseph's son!" And when once this baleful, malignant passion has taken possession of the breast, every claim of justice, every plea of worth, every call of gratitude, every emotion of mercy, is disregarded, stifled, trampled under foot.

Christ observes it with pity, not with indignation; for he came not only to relieve the miserable, but to bear with and overcome the froward, to convince, subdue, and melt the obstinate, to cure prejudice, and to instruct indocility. Their uncivil, invidious inquiry excites in him no resentment; it can do him no hurt; but grieved at the hardness of their heart, and at the same time, compassionating their weakness, he at once reproves the one and makes an apology for the other. The apology he draws from the common, and well known principles of human nature. No prophet is accepted in his own country. Among strangers, a man is esteemed according to his talents and virtues. His ancestry and kindred are a matter of no moment. It is even a degree of merit to have emerged out of obscurity; but at home, among kindred and

Our blessed Lord, accordingly, blends mild and gentle reproof with the excuse which he makes for the unkind return that his countrymen and kinsfolk had made to his affec│tionate endeavours to serve and to instruct them. And this seems to be the force of his

reasoning.-"You have heard, my dear friends, of my going about doing good, at Capernaum and elsewhere; and you will naturally and with justice say to me, in the language of the common proverb, Physician, heal thyself: look at home; in attention to objects more remote, overlook not such as are equally pressing, and still more nearly interesting; let thy own country, if not in preference, at least in common with strangers, reap the benefit of these thy extraordinary, supernatural powers. Well, my beloved countrymen, here I am for this very purpose: ready to instruct you in the way of salvation, ready to heal all your plagues, to perform all the offices of mercy and loving-kindness which the prophet, in the passage which I now read, predicted concerning me: but I know the meaning of these ungracious looks, of these malignant whispers, of that envious inquiry into my pedigree, and occupation, and connexions in life. You are under the power of prejudice, you are too well acquainted with me to reap benefit from my ministrations: my labours will be more acceptable where I am less known.

"It happeneth to me as it did to the prophets of old; they were neglected, hated, persecuted of their own countrymen; and you inherit the spirit of your fathers, whom no calamity could subdue, no arguments convince, no goodness charm. I appeal to the history of our own nation. The times of Elijah's prophecy were marked with many signal interpositions of Divine Providence, particularly with a grievous famine, occasioned by a drought of uncommon duration, three years and six months. It was universally felt, particularly by the poorer and more unprotected part of the community, the widow, and the fatherless; and the extraordinary powers of the prophet were equally well known and acknowledged. But what is the fact? Was the prophet sought unto? Did the general distress drive the sufferers to seek relief in the piety and miraculous pow

ers of the man of God? No, he was the Tish- | description. Their indignation falls, not as bite, the son of somebody whom they knew, it ought to have done, on their own mean, he was at home, among his own, and there- unworthy, ungenerous, unmanly spirit, but fore his person was despised, his office slighted, and even the widow and the fatherless, unsubdued by the strong hand of necessity, perished from want, because they scorned the humane and compassionate interposition of a neighbour and kinsman. But O how acceptable was his visit to a stranger, a pagan, a woman of Sidon? She felt with others the pressure of the common calamity; the law of self-preservation, and compassion for the son of her womb, were strong in her, as in any widow or mother in Israel: but more faithful and believing than they, she cheerfully made the sacrifice of her last earthly provision; at the word of the prophet, she gave up her own and her son's subsistence; she reposed confidence in heaven, she | acknowledged the ensigns of Deity, she cast herself upon a miracle, and her hope made her not ashamed.

"Take another example, my friends, from your own history, and let it admonish and reprove you. Elisha inherited a double portion of the spirit of his master Elijah; he performed many notable miracles, he divided the waters of the river, he made iron to swim, he raised the dead to life, he employed the supernatural powers which were conferred upon him, in removing the miseries of his fellow-creatures. Among these the leprosy was one, a disease which baffles the skill of the physician, which not medicine, but the immediate power of God alone can cure. Now, what saith the record? What Israelitish lepers applied to the prophet, of the multitudes who were affected with this loathsome distemper? Not so much as one. He was at home, among those of his own house; the wretched patient, loathsome to himself, and a burden offensive to every one about him, chooses rather to continue an abomination, than to be beholden to an acquaintance, to an equal, to a prophet of his own country, for the miracle of cleansing. Not so the son of the stranger: Naaman, the Syrian, the commander of armies, the favourite of a prince, a worshipper of strange gods. He believes the report, he flies to the physician; he follows the prescription, he washes in Jordan, and becomes clean."

on their kind, affectionate, gentle monitor. And what follows? Is it the cynical representation of some surly traducer of mankind; or is it truth and history? Merciful Father of mankind! must I believe that the very persons who just now gazed with delight on that super-angelic face, who listened with rapture to the accents of that celestial voice, who justly gloried in their townsman, companion, and friend, are instantaneously converted into demons of hell? What, meditate, digest murder! the murder of innocence, truth, and wisdom! What, all of them! not one calm, moderate spirit to suggest milder counsels, to plead the cause of goodness, to arrest the hand of violence! No, not one. O human nature, what wert thou; and what art thou become! I tremble to think that I am a partaker of thee; of a "heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." " They rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong." And shall not fire come down from heaven, as it did once, and a second time, to avenge a lighter insult offered to a much inferior prophet! O no! "the Son of man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Behold a more glorious triumph, a miracle of grace and condescension, a triumph worthy of the Son of God, and the Saviour of men. He, passing through the midst of them, went his way." Behold power and mercy united. Were they, like the men of Sodom, stricken with blindness? Were their hands, like Jeroboam's, dried up and rendered immoveable? Were their eyes, like the disciples going to Emmaus, holden, that they should not know him? I stop not to inquire. Suffice it to say, his " hour was not yet come," and they had no power at all over him but what was permitted of God. And vain is the contention of man against God: it is hard for thee, O persecutor, to "kick against the pricks."

In the history referred to by our Lord, and in the instance of a miraculous supply of food to the widow of Sarepta, in a season of extreme scarcity, as well as in the other equally noted instance of a miraculous cure The conscience of his audience makes the of leprosy performed on the body of Naaman application of our Saviour's doctrine; and the Syrian, we perceive the dawning of the what ensues? What always did, and always gospel day upon the Gentile world. They will, when the principle of conscience is believed and obeyed the word of the proawakened, either humble and contrite sub-phet, and they obtained relief, while "the mission to the reproof, and an honest endeavour to profit by it: or else a rancorous animosity against the reprover, the confirmation of prejudice, a wilful exclusion of light, or a determined perseverance in what is known to be wrong. Unhappily the frequenters of the synagogue at Nazareth were of this last

seed of Abraham after the flesh" remained unbelieving and impenitent. "Of a truth, God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to

repent: because he hath appointed a day in heaven." That same apostle was spared to the which he will judge the world in right- address epistles "to the strangers scattereousness by that man whom he hath ordain- ed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, ed; whereof he hath given assurance unto Asia, and Bythinia, elect according to the all men, in that he hath raised him from the foreknowledge of God the Father, through dead." How God will deal in the judgment sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, with those who never enjoyed the benefit and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." of either the law or the gospel, it is not for Philip, the evangelist, "went down to the us to determine. "Shall not the Judge of city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto all the earth do right?" But "we ought to them. And the people with one accord gave give the more earnest heed to the things heed unto those things which Philip spake, which we have heard, lest at any time we hearing and seeing the miracles which he should let them slip. For if the word spoken did." That evangelist finds a proselyte in by angels was steadfast, and every transgres- the desert of Gaza, in a person of "great sion and disobedience received a just recom-authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopence of reward; how shall we escape if we pians, who had the charge of all her treaneglect so great salvation; which, at the sure." He, too, gladly receives the word, is first began to be spoken by the Lord, and baptized, and goes on his way rejoicing, to was confirmed unto us by them that heard carry into those dark regions the light of him; God also bearing them witness, both divine truth, and the Scripture is fulfilled with signs and wonders, and with divers which saith, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, accord-out her hands unto God." ing to his own will?"

Among other evidences that the Christian dispensation is from heaven, the universality of it is not the least. This act of grace contains no unkind exceptions. There is no proscribed region, or family, or individual. The proclamation is, "peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord." This dawning light was now in a progress "unto the perfect day." Though Christ's personal ministry was, in the first instance, addressed “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," its influence quickly spread far beyond the confines of Judea. His fame went throughout all Syria;" a woman of Canaan believed on him, and her daughter was healed: the Roman centurion, who had been made partaker of the same precious faith, in like manner had power with God, and prevailed in behalf of his palsied servant. Some of our Lord's immediate attendants lived to see “the kingdom of God come with power." "The centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus" on the cross, "when they saw the earthquake, and those things that were done," though unaccustomed to fear, "they feared greatly," and made this open confession; "Truly this was the Son of God."

The miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, in the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost, opened a passage in all directions for the speedy diffusion of the truth as it is in Jesus, over all lands. Peter no longer trembles and denies his master, but stands boldly up to plead his cause, and precious souls by thousands are added unto the Lord. Cured of his Jewish prejudices, by a vision from heaven, he descends to Cesarea, preaches the word of life to the centurion, Cornelius and "his kinsmen and near friends." It is accompanied with power, and "with the Holy Ghost sent down from

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Time would fail in tracing the progress, and marking the success, of him, who is emphatically denominated the Apostle of the Gentiles, through the islands of the Mediterranean, over the states of Greece, in Italy, at Rome. John the beloved disciple, had the pleasure of despatching particular letters, dictated by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, to the seven churches of Asia. He was one of those, then, concerning whom Christ said, in the passage already quoted, "verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." His life was prolonged to extreme old age. He saw the kingdom of his divine Master established in Europe, in Asia, in Africa. The great Western World was still unknown; but, in the wisdom of God, it too has emerged out of the bosom of the vast ocean, to swell the Redeemer's empire. To embrace the whole globe is its generous design. The period approaches, when "great voices in heaven' shall proclaim, saying: "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." "Though Israel," therefore, "be not gathered," "Messiah "shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord:" for he saith of him; "it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." And as the ancient dispensation contained many intimations of favour to the Gentile world, so the Gospel contains and discloses a dawn of hope to the Jewish nation. "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come

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lofty spirit of man now subdued to the obedience and love of Christ? Has not a daring attempt lately been made by a great nation, once denominated Christian, to obliterate the name, and overwhelm the cause of Christ? Wherefore change the ancient measurements of time? It was in the hope of swallowing up the distinction of days, and thereby of sinking the observance of the Lord's day in the mass. With the abolition of the sabbath the service of the sanctuary is swept away; and the spirit of Christianity, it was presumed, would not long survive its forms and rites. Are there none among ourselves who express rancorous animosity against the

Some interpreters of note have remarked a coincidence between the duration of the great famine which afflicted Israel, in the days of Elias, and that of our Saviour's ministry from his baptism to his death, namely three years and six months. As during the former period, at the word of the prophet, heaven was shut up, and all elementary influence suspended, to the inexpressible distress of the whole land; so during the lat-worthy name which they so unworthily bear! ter, through the mediation of a greater than Elias, full communication was opened. In the one we have displayed the severity of the Law, in the other the grace of the Gospel; in Elias, the minister of wrath and condemnation in Jesus, the minister of mercy and reconciliation; the one inflicting a temporary curse, the other calling down an everlasting benediction; there the clouds bound up, and the dew restrained; here a "doctrine dropping as the rain, and speech distilling as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." The prophet represents, in beautiful language, the blessedness of an open

communication between earth and heaven: "It shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God." But the contrast is dreadful! "She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax; and I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees." The prayer of faith is the channel of this interesting communication.

Is not the Lord's day profaned and the temple deserted; and, in defiance of the law of the land, to say nothing of the obligations of decency and religion, are not efforts made by persons high in place and station, to discredit and disuse the ordinances of the Gospel, and thereby to bring the Gospel itself into disrepute? We say, however, concerning such men, in the spirit and words of the wise Gamaliel: "Refrain from these men and let them alone: for if this counsel, or this work, be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, they cannot overthrow it; lest haply they be found even to fight against God."

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To this fell spirit in man, what a striking, what an amiable contrast have we in the temper and conduct of our blessed Lord! To withdraw himself from among these ingrates is the only mark of displeasure expressed by him. He desisted from teaching persons who were determined not to learn; 'He did not many mighty works there,” because they were liable to misapprehension, to misrepresentation. "He, passing through the midst of them, went his way." Thus men grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and he departs from them. And thus the Apostles of the Lord, Paul and Barnabas, when "the Jews, filled with envy, spake against them, contradicting and blaspheming," they said; "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life, lo we turn to the Gentiles." And is it no punishIt is humiliating to observe, and to reflect ment to be forsaken of a friend; a friend on the uniform and unrelenting malignity of whom we have grieved and offended, who the human heart. That greatness, power, feels himself constrained to retire, but rewealth should be envied, and the possessor tires silently, slowly, reluctantly! Little do hated and thrust at, is not so much an object men reflect what sorrow, what remorse they of surprise; but that simplicity, innocence, are treasuring up to themselves, in slighting, kindness, beneficence should provoke hos- in neglecting a day of merciful visitation. It tility, would exceed belief, were not the drew tears from the eyes of the compassionproofs too numerous and too stubborn to be ate friend of mankind: "And when he was resisted. We justly detest the wickedness, come near he beheld the city, and wept over injustice, and ingratitude of the Nazarenes, it, saying, If thou hadst known, even then, at in attempting to destroy their unassuming, least in this thy day, the things which be unoffending townsman: but is the angry, the long unto thy peace! but now they are hid

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