UC-NRLF ^ ^ ns QSM iSSis n^ LIBRARY UNIVEtSITT Of CAtirOINtA ^^ ^^\ ^ ///////// ///// 4€_^ ti^ ki-^.- i ny THE SAME AUTHOR. THE PSALTER OR PSALMS OF DAVID IN ENGLISH VERSE. Price y. 6ii. BETWEEN WHILES, OR WAYSIDE AMUSEMENTS OF A WORKING LIFE. Price 6s. OCCASIONAL SERMONS PKKACHKn REroRK THK UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGK AND eusewherf:, WITir AN APPENDIX OF HYMNS. BENJAMIN HALL KENNEDY, D.D., RRnitis PKorsssoK or gbkkk, camrbidob. and canom or klv. GEORGE BELL AND SONS. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO. 1877 PRINTKD BV C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVKKSITV PRESS. 6X5133 1877 TO HIS GRACE WILLIAM DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K.G., eHANCELU^R OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED WITH THE GRATITUDE FELT BY THE WRITER AND THE RESPECT FELT BY ALL. i 027 CONTENTS fAom SERMON 1. I hi: Mauian Visit SERMON II. 1 HK Mural Exckllenx* of Jesus .... 15 SERMON III. Jesus thk King of his People 33 SERMON IV. The Interpretation of the Bible -49 SERMON V. biiNFUL Party-Spirit exemplified in the Jewish Sanhedrim 68 SERMON VI. The Fear of the World exemplified in Pontius Pil.\te • . . . 8j SERMON VII. Socialism and Christianity 98 SERMON VIII. The B.\lance of Duties in Education . 113 SERMON IX. The DEr.vRTfRE of the aged Christian . . - '33 VI CONTENTS. PAGE SERMON X. Ordinatiow 145 SERMON XI. Fhe Doctrine of the Holy Tkinity , . .155 SERMON XII. Christian Missions 167 SERMON XIII. The Safeguards of Christian Boyhood . .178 SERMON XIV. The Commemoration of Benefactors , .189 SERMON XV. On the Death of the Prince Consort . . 104 SERMON XVI. Papal Supremacy «'5 On the Judgment in the Gorham Case . .223 SERMON XVII. The Christ of Prophecy 23' APPENDIX. Psalms and Hymns 247 Appendix to Sermons 288 SERMON I. THE MAGIAN VISIT. BKFORE THE UNIVERSITY OP CAMBRIDGE, JAN. 6. 1861. St Luke ii. 32. A Light to lighten iJu GentiUs. Among the titles given by the early Church to the Feast we this day celebrate, two are more especially prominent : — Theophany, or manifestation of God ; and Epiphany, dawn of light, or, sudden appearance. Both titles are well adapted to every Manifestation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. For God was in Christ, recon- ciling the world unto Himsell Christ is called Em- manuel, God with us; and in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Again : Christ was foretold as the Sun of Righteousness, who should arise with healing in his wings. He reveals Himself as the bright and morning star. He is declared by his own l^eloved Apostle to be the Light of men. Once more : Christ appeared indeed in the fulness of the time K. I 2 SERMON I. determined and foretold : yet was He born suddenly into the world which was made by Him and knew Him not. Angel visits and dreams were required to prepare a few chosen persons for Messiah's birth. Angel songs drew a few poor shepherds, firstfruits and types of Jewish faith, to the manger in the city of David, where Christ the Lord was cradled, a new-born babe. Suddenly, as Malachi had said aforetime, did the Lord come to his temple on the day of his Presentation : and none knew Him save one aged Rabbi, just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and one widow of about four- score and four years, who served God with fastings and prayers night and day. The former of these holy per- sons, Simeon, came by the Spirit into the temple, and took up the child Jesus in his arms, and blessed God, and said, ' Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people : a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.' But not to these circumstances only, nor to these chiefly, did the early Church apply the term Epiphany. It was applied principally to the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, when the dove-like Spirit and the heavenly Voice manifested Him to all the people there assembled, as the beloved Son, in whom the Father was well pleased. It was applied also to the beginning of miracles which Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, whereby ' He manifested forth his glory, and the disciples believed on Him.' But when, in the fourth century, the Nativity of our Lord had been determined to THE MAG I AN VISIT. 3 the 2Sth day of December, twelve following days were in process of time set apart for the festivities of Christmas, ending with the Feast of the Epiphany on this day, which has since been held in the Church to commemorate the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, that is, to the Wise-men, or Magians, who came from the East to worship the new-bom King of the Jews. Thus we have two Epiphanies of the infant Saviour, one to the Jews, the shepherds of Bethlehem, the other to the Gentiles, the Eastern Magians : and two Epiphanies of the adult Sa- viour, when He began his prophetic work: one, in his Baptism, to the Jews, the other, in his first Miracle, to his disciples. It has indeed been well said that every one of his miracles was an Epiphany : and if we look beyond the time when, having wrought the work of re- demption on earth, He was received up into glory, wc find two Epiphanies of the Lord to Paul and Peter, whereby it was made manifest that the partition-wall was now throMm down, and the Church of Christ opyened to Gen- tile as well as Jew. And are not all who name his Name sincerely, looking for a final Epiphany, even that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our SaN-iour Jesus Christ? O my brethren, how can that glorious appearing be a blessed hope to any of the sinful children of men, unless they have received into their own hearts, through faith, the spiritual Epiphany of that true Light, which alone gives us power to become the sons of God? The subject matter of the present Festival — the jour- ney of the Magians, as recorded in the Gospel for the I — 2 4 SERMON I. day— opens a large field for thought and enquiry. May it be blest to our edification. Vague tradition, resting, it would seem, on no stronger basis than the threefold offering of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, has pronounced these Magians to be three in number : and the same tradition, finding in their pilgrimage the fulfilment of those old predictions, that the kings of Arabia and Saba should bring gifts, and that kings should come to the brightness of Messiah's rising, has exalted them to the rank of emirs or petty kings. We know how large a place they hold in mediaeval legend : how often Christian Art has clothed them with the forms and colours of painting : how Christian Architecture has enshrined them in one of its most splendid works, the Choir at Cologne. But in the sterner divinity of the Reformed Church, which interprets Scripture chiefly by its own light, admitting tradition only as corroborative evidence, and that with great caution, the number of the Magian visitors remains undefined, and it is left an open question, whether, from their title, we conclude them to have been astrologers from Chaldea, or priests of the Mazdean faith from Persia. Difficulties there are belonging to this Magian visit and its immediate results (as stated in the 2nd Chapter of St Matthew), the flight into Egypt, the murder of the Infants, the return of the holy Family, and their settle- ment at Nazareth: difficulties perhaps more numerous and various than are found in any scriptural passage of the same length. The source to which the Magians seem to ascribe their information— 'we have seen his star in THE MAC I AN VISIT. 5 the East^; — the star itself, and the motions assigned to it ; the perplexing order of events in St Nfatthew as com- pared with those of the same period in St Luke's Gospel : the silence of Josephus respecting the nuissacre of the Infants: the questions raised by the ciutions from the Old Testament which are said to be fulfilled : these are die principal objections arrayed against the Gospel narra- tive by the atheist, the pantheist, the deist, and the ration- alist, who, differ as they may on other points, ag^ree in discrediting the supernatural facts of Scripture, and in denying its supreme authority as an inspired book. But the thoughtful Christian is dismayed by no difficulties in Holy Writ, which do not involve a contradiction of some recognized truth. Such as merely imply that a question is dark or doubtful, because some knowledge requisite for its elucidation is withheld from us, may employ his mind, but they cannot distress it. He regards these difficulties as occasions for the exercise of humility and faith ; and he is well content to wait and pray till more light be given, or to remain ignorant, if it must be so, on this side the grave. Nay more : with Bishop Butler, he views the hard problems of the Bible as among the indications of its coming from Him who has given hard problems in the book of nature, to exercise the higher faculties of men, while what is really needful to life — to corporeal life in nature, to spiritual life in revelation — He has placed within the reach of all who desire to eat and be satisfied. The cavils of a Strauss and a Bruno Bauer on this passage, and the answers they have received from Chris- tian learning, we may leave, for the most part, to be more 6 SERMON L fitly considered in the study and the lecture-room than in the pulpit of God's house. But one objection there is, so nearly affecting the honour of God and our own edifi- cation, that we may not pursue our subject without some endeavour to remove it St Matthew tells us that the Magians at Jerusalem spoke in this wise : * Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him.' Was then this star, whatever its precise nature, the real and sole medium through which God apprized them of Christ's birth? They might have had — we believe they had — previous expectation of such an event. But this does not get rid of the objection. Did the star alone make known the fact? If so, it could only be by virtue of some sup- posed principle of astrology. But judicial astrology, divi- nation by means of the heavenly bodies, to a Christian mind implies nothing better than delusion or imposture. Can we for a moment suppose that God, the God of truth, He who hateth a lie, gave a true voice in this in- stance to astrology, and made its calculations to be tokens of his truth, yea, of his greatest truth, the central world-truth, the appearance of his Son in the flesh? We dare not think it. As reasonably, as reverently might we suppose that God would speak by the mouth of the Delphian priestess, and accredit her oracles. But if we refuse to believe this, do we then admit that the Magians spoke deceitfully, when they ascribed their knowledge to the star ? that they, called and guided, as they must have been, by the grace of God, to be the first fruits of heathen faith in Christ, came to Jerusalem with a lie in their THE MAGIAN VISIT, 7 mouths? Once more, impossible. How then, it is further asked, do we untie the knot? We do not untie: we cut it We say that this difficulty implies no more than that we do not know enough of the foregoing cir- cumstances to explain how far the Magians meant to represent the sight of the star as their medium of infor- mation, and as the moving cause of their journey. That the birth of a mighty Jewish prince was looked for about this time in the East, is a well attested and acknowledged fact. That Daniel's great prediction was known to the learned of Persia and Chaldea, is not improbable. Jeru- salem, its history, its politics and prospects, must have been deeply interesting to a people who had once held the Jews captive, among whom many Jews were still dispersed, and who regularly traded with Judea. The Magians then, we may well believe, were in a waiting frame of mind. It has been surmised (assuming that the Presentation in the Temple must certainly be dated some months before the Magians appeared at Jerusalem) that the reports of Simeon and Anna concerning Mes- siah's birth may have been conveyed to the East by some devout Jewish merchant. No such surmise is necessary. They may, as afterwards, have been warned and called of God in a dream, and waking to the sight of a new and bright star in the heavens, destined by God for their en- couragement and guidance, they may, without any de- ceitful intention, have used those words at Jerusalem : * We have seen '— or rather * we saw his star in the East and came to worship him.' We put this solution as a bare possibility, without presuming to know more than God is 8 SERMON I. pleased to tell us of the means by which He brings to bear his eternal purposes. Enough to have shown that our opponents fail to place the honour of God and the credit of his revelation on the horns of a moral dilemma. The way should now be clear for a practical view of the subject before us. And note : how bright a constellation of excellent virtues shines forth in the conduct of these Eastern pil- grims ! In commencing the journey, what faith is theirs, what hope, what unhesitating obedience, what trust in God ! In pursuing it, what perseverance and patience ! At Jerusalem, what guilelessness yet what prudence, what reverent submission to God's written Word ! When they draw near to Christ, what holy joy ! In the house at Bethlehem, what humble devotion, what ample liberality, what readiness to pour forth the best of all they have for the service of their Saviour and their God ! These great and truly Christian qualities shine with so clear a lustre in the story of these Magians, brief as it is, that we need not enlarge upon them severally, content with praying for grace to imitate as well as admire them. But we would pause for a brief space, and observe the blessing which God gives to sincere faith, even when ac- companied with imperfect knowledge. The Magians were called by the free grace of God: for 'no man,' saith our Lord, * can come unto me, unless the Father, who hath sent me, draw him.' The warning of God and the sight of his star turned their eyes and their feet at once towards Jerusalem. Yet the new-born Infant, whom they THE MAGI AS VJ^ir. 9 went to worship, they knew not as the Son of God, as the Incarnate Word, who was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God, by whom the worlds were made. They knew him only as King of the Jews. Some great blessing they certainly hoped from Him, we know not exactly what: some victory, perhaps, of good over evil, some triumph of Ormuzd over Ahrinuin : or some universal reign of righteousness and peace. They believed with a vague faith, yet they obeyed with a clear and sted> (ast purpose. * Lord, we believe,' was their virtual prayer, ' help Thou our unbelief.' And verily they were helped. Willing to do the will of the Father, they gained the know- ledge of the true doctrine of his blessed Son. They were led from faith to faith ; from faith in God's call and God's star during the journey, to faith in God's written Word at Jerusalem. They were led to higher and better things still ; from faith to sight, from hope to fruition, from doubt and trial to assurance and joy. Travailing and heavy-laden they came to Jesus, and He, babe and suckling as He was, gave them rest. The enemy and avenger, the wily Herod, was baffled in his plots against them and against the Lord's Anointed. Being warned of God in a dream, the Magians departed into their own country another way. That way may have been longer and harder than the former : but now more than ever would the Lord be with them ; his rod and his staff would comfort them : surely goodness and mercy followed them all the days of their life, and they dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. May we meet them there in the resurrection of the just. But if we are to stand with the Magians in the con- lo SERMON I. gregation of the righteous hereafter, ours too must be a faith like theirs-in this our earthly pilgrimage : a faith that can turn its back on all things else to seek and find Christ : a faith that can overcome the world, and avoid the snares it lays to entrap the feet of those who are bound to a better country : a faith that can look on pomps and vanities with indifference, or rather with pity, and discern the great and the good, the beautiful and the divine, in things which to unpurged eyes are least and poorest : a faith which values human lore only so far as it points to Christ and may be made the means of showing Him to the world ; which prizes human wealth only so far as it can be used to extend the kingdom of God, and make his creatures happier and better: a faith which prays ever to be sustained and increased by the power of the Holy Spirit in the heart, yet ever looks abroad for occasions of strengthening itself by action for God's honour and the good of men : a humble, a thankful, a hopeful, a self-denying faith, a faith that works by love ; in short, the justifying faith of Scripture. If this faith be ours, then, in the season now ended, we shall have shared the Christmas gladness of the Jewish Shepherds, prais- ing and glorifying God for the birth of Him, through whom we, personally, have peace with God. The New Year will have found us looking behind and before us with Christian eyes, humbled and penitent for past sins, grateful for mercies received, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, resolved, through the grace of God, to work with and for our divine Master in this present year, watching unto prayer, that if we be called to Him, or He THE MA GIA N * u^ii. 1 1 come to us, in the course of it, we may be found ready. The Day of our Lord's Circamdsion, foreshadowing Good Friday, will have tanght us its proper lessons ; that we have a Saviour, a Jesus, who, sinless Himself, lived and died to save us, not im our sins, but from our sins ; that we serve One whose example binds us to fulfil all righteousness, and to deny worldly lusts; for that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And so should we now be fit to keep the Festival of this day in the sense which the Church gives to it, as the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, as the great Mission-feast of the Church. When holy Simeon spoke the words of my text, there was no veil upon his heart, as upon the hearts of other Jews. The whole stream of prophetic light flowed in rich abundance through his inspired souL He read aright the promise of God to Abraham and Isaac, that in their seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. He saw the dawning of the day, when Ishmael should come home again, and Esau be hated no more. The dark speech uttered upon David's harp was not dark to him. He knew to whom the heathen should be given for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. That dim prediction of Zion's future glories, the eighty-seventh Psalm, he could read by the clearer splendours which later prophecy sheds from the sixtieth and following chapters of the Book of Isaiah : 'Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.' And he would remember that, when the prophetic spirit of Israel breathed its 12 SERMON I. last on the lips of Malachi, the Lord thus spake through his latest interpreter : * From the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my Name, and a peace-offering.' Of these prophecies, my brethren, are not we our- selves a living fulfilment, we, sprung from heathen an- cestors, in a once heathen land ? Upon us hath not the true light shined, even the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world? Have we not all been received by Him in holy baptism? Has He not, by his ministers, taken us into his arms, and signed us with the sign of his cross and blessed us, and given to us power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name? When we have wandered from Him, the true Shepherd, has not his loving voice restored us, and led us in the paths of righteousness? And, when we return to Him with sighs and tears of repentance, does He not forgive our sins, and prepare a table for us in the wilderness of this world, and feed us with the cup of salvation and the bread of life ? ' O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that He doeth for the children of men ! ' Or when we lift up our eyes to the world around us, through the gross darkness which covers large populations of the earth see we not light after light flashing up, and in many a moral desert a pathway made for Him, who is alone the way, the truth, and the life to all mankind? And although that East, from which the THE MAGIAN VISIT. 13 Magians travelled to adore the Infant Light, is now the darkest home of heathendom, although many a genera- tion may pass, ere He, to whom a thousand years are as one day, shall make the false stars of Buddha and Brahma and Mohammed to vanish from the human horizon, yet year by year their light pales before the advancing beams of the Sun of righteousness. Mean> while Ethiopia stretches out her hands unto God : on every Atlantic coast the mariner hears the sound of Sabbath bells: over the breadth of the vast Pacific — well-omened name — the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice ; yea, the multitude of the isles may be glad thereof. 'O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodness, and declare the wonders that He doeth for the children of men !' Enough is here to rejoice in : yet our joy should be mingled with fear. Let us look well to our own candle> stick, that it be not removed from its place. Let us tremble lest the light, which is lightening the Gentiles in other lands, be burning but too dimly in our own. Within these British Isles, nominally Christian, there is enough of virtual heathenism to employ all the mis- sionaries of all Christendom : heathenism of many a Lazarus whom the Church cannot reach, heathenism, alas, of many a Dives, who will not hear the Chnrch. And all this time, — O shame and sorrow ! — Christian* — yea. Christian Churchmen — are at war among them- selves, when they should be standing side by side against their common foes, vice and ignorance and infidelity. May the time past suffice to have wrought such mad- 14 SERMON I. ncss ! May we, each and all, pray and strive for more Christian love. Christian brotherhood, Christian zeal ! Yes, may each strive in love, that all may strive in union ! Society is but an aggregate of individuals : and all individuals have the same moral and religious wants. The faith which can change your heart and mine, has the power to transform society itself. The truth which sanctifies the man, sanctifies human nature. The light which illuminates one soul, dispels the moral darkness of the world. O Christians in name, be Christians in deed and in truth, in heart and in life. All things are possible to him that believeth. The Light that now lightens the Gentiles from Oregon to China shone first in a stable at Bethlehem and in a carpenter's shop at Nazareth. Received in the power of faith by a few lowly and despised Galileans, it became the vital prin- ciple of human civilization. Let us walk as children of that light : so shall we realize our Lord's promise, and like Himself, like his Apostles, we too in our sphere and in our degree shall be the light of the world. ' For Zion's sake we shall not hold our peace, and for Jerusalem's sake we shall not rest, until the righteous- ness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.' SERMON II. THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. BEFORE THE UNrVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. JAN. i^ i86(. St John xiv. i. Ye Mieve in Cod; btlieve also in Me. * No man hath seen God at any time,' says the Evan- gelist St John in his first chapter : and so far religion and irreligion hold the same langiiage. ' No man hath seen God at any time,' says the Materialist : therefore, for aught we know, the things which are seen may have existed for ever, and may go on to exist for ever, in form manifold and mutable, but in substance always the same. 'No man hath seen God at any time,* says the Pantheist: for God is the One in All, and the All in One, absolute, infinite, incomprehensible; and things which are seen, whether we call them good or evil, yea, we ourselves, are but so many phases of the one divine essence, bubbles, as it were, that rise and float 1 6 SERMON II. for awhile on the ocean of Godhead, and then sink into its bosom for ever. *No man hath seen God at any time,' says the philosophic Theist : but I believe in a personal God ; and, if you ask me for the arguments on which I rest my belief, I reply: They are many and various, some drawn from my own consciousness, others from out- ward experience. If you further ask : Do any or all of these arguments amount to a demonstration of the existence of God? I reply : No ; for demonstration im- plies definition, and the Infinite defined is a contradic- tion in terms : demonstration involves the assumption of a first principle ; but God Himself is prior to any prin- ciple, and therefore, by the nature of the case, indemon- strable. Believing that I have in my own consciousness, as guiding instincts, the ideas of existence, of freedom, and of duty or morality, I further believe that I have the idea of the perfection of each of these ideas, that is, the idea of the Absolute and Infinite, that is, the idea of God. This idea of perfection is necessarily vague and incomplete, because my nature is relative and finite, and the relative has no measure for the abso- lute, nor the finite for the infinite. But as I believe in a perfectly moral Being, on whom all things depend, I must believe that all things are directed to serve a perfectly moral purpose. I do then believe that this idea of perfection is given for the purpose of lifting my eyes to the distant hills, behind which absolute Truth hides its awful beauty ; for the purpose of pricking me on towards that far distant but ever desired and alone /3 THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 17 desirable goal: for the purpose of raising me ever hi^licr and higher in the scale of being, of drawing mc ever nearer and nearer to God. Furthermore, from that restlesa quest of the Better which I find inherent in my naturc, from my thirsting desire of intimate and abiding communion with the true and the beautiful, as aUo from comparing the notions of justice and love, which ire implied in the divine perfection, with the wrongs md inequalities and sufTerings of human life, I am irrc- --istibly led to believe in the immortal existence of man, ind in a future state of retribution. * No man hath seen God at any time,' says the Christian ; this is an admitted, and to me a revealed, truth. I accept and approve all that has been said by the philosophic Theist ; but I cannot rest where he rests. I feel a strong and ardent desire to know more of the true and living God, more of my relations with Him, more of my duties to Him, more of my hopes from Him, than reason and experience are able to teach me. As He has given me this desire, and as the things de- sired are good in themselves, I may hope that He, the All-just and All-wise, will in some just and wise nanner and measure deign to satisfy it. I may pray for a divine revelation of things divine ; and the more so AS I find that the profoundest and purest of heathen philosophers, a Socrates and a Plato, acknowledged the same desire, and authorized the same prayer. But there is yet a keener thought goading me on, and allowing me no rest. I owe to God duties, which I never have fully paid, which I never can fully pay. I find in myself, 1 8 SERMON II. and see everywhere around me, not only pain and sor- row, but also moral evil, rooted in human nature, bear- ing poisonous fruit, and propagating itself in all direc- tions. O God, what remedy? what dare I hope from thy justice, which I have violated, from thy love, which I have slighted ? I want the hope of pardon and recon- ciliation with God. I want help from Him to fight against the power of evil in and around me. I want to see my brother-men helped to fight the same battle. I want to be assured that I shall not carry this evil with me beyond the grave, that it will not pursue me and my brothers into our future state, and cleave to us there, an incurable leprosy, for ever. This it is that forbids me to be satisfied with the natural religion of the philosophic Theist. This it is that drives me to prayer. This obliges me to cry with an exceeding bit- ter cry : O my Father, who hast deigned to make me as I am, and to give me the desire of being with Thee for ever, deign also to be my Saviour from the evil, and my Guide unto Thyself, who art the fountain of all good. And I believe that this cry, the cry of suffering humanity, has been heard. Nay, rather I be- lieve that it was anticipated in God's everlasting pur- pose. I do not pretend to explain creation. I do not pretend to explain the existence of evil. They are be- yond the reach of my finite understanding. But I know they do exist : and I find in books claiming to speak in God's name an account of God's dispensations in regard to them, which, taken as a whole, meets and satisfies the cravings of my spirit. I see the world THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 19 created, and man in the image of God, pure and happy, but free. I see man tempted, and yielding to tempta> tion ; sin entering into the world, and death by sin. But, as soon as the disease breaks out, I see the ranedy proclaimed, even the restoration of man to the favour of God and to the capacity of holiness, by means of a Redeemer, the seed of the woman, to be bom in the fulness of time. I see a peculiar people, a peculiar ritual, a peculiar history, arran|^ and directed by God to prepare those great events of redemption, the birth, life, death and resurrection of this Saviour. At the Name time 1 observe the traditions of heathen mythology teeming with hints of this great story, and the currents of profane history converging towards a central point and a great world-era. The hour at length strikes : the Word is made flesh, and dwells among men ; and, although no man hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed Him. And not only does He reveal God, not only docs He bring life and immortality to light, but He willingly underwent death and the grave, to take away the sins of the world, that all who believe in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Finally, having risen again, and having been received up into glory, He sent forth his Holy Spirit to com- fort his followers, and bear witness with their spirits that they are the sons of God. Therefore am I a Christian. Therefore, when my Saviour says to his disciples in the words of the text, ' Ye believe in God, 2 - 2 20 SERMON II. believe also in Me,' I hasten to reply with humble rap- ture : ' Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief.' Why the believer in God should also believe in Christ appears from the words, already cited, of St John, that He who revealed God to men is the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; words figuratively denoting the intimate and essential union of Christ and God. The same doctrine is taught by Jesus Himself, in the passage which nearly follows my text': 'he that hath seen me hath seen the Father': and elsewhere, * I and the Father are One.' Such being the claims advanced by Jesus to a par- ticipation in the divine nature, and so exalted the cha- racter of his doctrine, are we not entitled, nay, morally compelled, to expect a corresponding character in his human life, in all that He did, and all that He was, here on earth? For He, whose thoughts and lessons and commandments were those of God, must, by strict con- sequence, have lived a divine life, even while dwelling as a man with men. He who in his ethical system set before mankind a standard of holiness, must have real- ized this ideal in Himself, must Himself have been holy in all his walk and conversation. And the facts do indeed answer so truly to this expectation, that the tran- scendant moral excellence of Jesus has from the first been used as an argument for his divine mission. Nay, we find that He himself appeals to this proof. And a proof it is not less obvious than forcible. For the earthly life of Jesus is the very counterpart and ful- filment of his doctrine. It displays a pattern of holi- THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 21 ness, such as human history cannot parallel, such as cannot be explained by any human attributes, but only by the supposition of a divine nature dwelling and \vorking in Him. This proof has the further advantage of being both gjenerally intelligible and powerfully con- vincing, since it exhibits the thing which is to be proved not in abstract notions, but in a living reality, plainly showing that no excellence of heart or mind, no human virtue, can be named, of which we do not find in Christ the most perfect type and example. And those types and examples extend to every state and relation of human life ; since the Son of Man, that He might be the perfect pattern of humanity, was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. The evangelical narratives, which acquaint us with the life of Jesus, are the more trustworthy, as they are evidently not written for the express purpose of drawing a portrait of moral perfection, or executing an elabo- rate panegyric. With artless simplicity, and in few words, the writers produce the acts and sayings of Jesus, usually without any comment of their own. In this season of Epiphany, the Church directs our special attention to the active life of the Incarnate Son of God, as the great Prophet of the Church. Far be from us the vain and presumptuous thought of sounding that deep mystery of godliness, which angels desire to look into, the moral nature of Him who was very God and very Man. But, as none are Christians who do not abide in Him, and 'he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked,' we may 22 SERMON 11. without presumption, if humbly and reverently and with inward prayer for the guidance of his Holy Spirit, review some of those features in the life and character of Jesus, which display Him first, as a model of human virtue, secondly, as something more than human, as, in that sense, divine. As the first excellence in our Lord's human character, let us note his entire devotion to the will and work of the Father who sent Him. The Apostle to the He- brews aptly puts in his mouth the prophetic words of his forefather David : ' I delight to do thy will, O ray God.' And indeed our Lord so spake in his own person : ' My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish his work.' To the will of the Father He had consecrated his earthly life, and accordingly that life became one series of uninterrupted exertion in the discharge of the task committed to Him, the re- demption of fallen man. He went about, unwearied, from place to place, teaching men to know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom He had sent. When the day had been spent in addressing and instructing men, the night was often given to prayer and com- munion with God. The same spirit of faithful devo- tion was shown in the resolute confidence which led Him to commence so vast an enterprise with means which seemed so slight and inadequate. Without name, without riches, without friends or followers. He appeared in public life. Soon afterwards, He had the pain of learning that his own townsmen, nay, his very rela- tives, had no faith in Him ; that even honest and well- THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 33 ntentioned though erring men could say: 'Can any ;ood come out of Nazareth?' But this dreary loneli- ness, this discouraging withdrawal of human support had no power to shake the stediast resolution of Him, who was urged by more than human motives to under- ake God's work, and could therefore count on more than human support in achieving it. And so He still pursued the even tenour of his way, choosing his fust disciples from the fishermen of the lake, and preach- ing his Gospel chiefly to the poor, though not re- fusing his advice and assistance, when sought by the rich and great If desertion had no power to discourage Jesus, nei- ther did hindrance avail to restrain his activity. The leaders of the Jewish sects and schools, having more or less influence with the people, threw themselves in his way : — the scribes and teachers of the Law from envy, because He discarded their captious subtleties and unprofitable jargon, teaching as one, to whom autho- rity was given from above : — the Pharisees from hatred and revenge, because He exposed their hypocrisy and ostentation, censured their immoral principles, and ex- acted a far nobler and truer holiness than theirs : — the Sadducees from contempt, because He did not, like them, recommend sensual enjoyment as the aim of human existence, but rather purity and holiness and endless life with God. Even the people, who expected a tem- poral Messiah, seeing no preparation made by Jesus to restore the throne of David, and hearing no exhor- tations from his mouth but those which called them 24 SERMON II. to repentance, self-denial, purity, peace, and a kingdom of God in the heart, gradually forsook Him and his cause. Yet, in the face of all these impediments, so firm was his stedfastness, so calm his temper, so as- sured his trust, that in one of those trying seasons of desertion He offered to the few who still remained by his side the option of departing with the rest. If the life and character of Jesus present the highest example of faithful devotion to the will and work of God, our admiration is also due to his principles and conduct in dealing with men. His tender love towards oiir race appears indeed from the facts already mentioned ; for all his great achievements and suffer- ings were for the good of mankind. If the will of God was the motive, the salvation of man was the end. But, besides what He did and suffered for men, we have also to consider how He lived among them : we have to regard Him as a model of the social virtues. Though on every side He met with misunderstanding and con- tradiction, yet so constantly did He practise as well as teach peaceableness, forbearance, and forgiveness, that his best disciples were unable to comprehend and imitate Him. He, the strictest teacher of purity and truth, was yet so mild to the erring, so gentle to sinners, that his enemies imputed to Him laxity of principle. That loving compassion for the spiritual sicknesses of men, which moved Him to become their Redeemer and the Physician of their souls, was extended also to their bodily wants and ailments; and most of his great miracles were wrought to remove or palliate human suffering. From THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 25 these good works He was diverted by no malice or ingratitude of wicked men. Slander and caluntny were cast on Him, and his only reply was, to labour for the benefit of the slanderers and calunmiators. Reviled and hated, He neither reviled nor hated in return : He repaid his enemies with love, and prayed for those who had nailed Him to the bitter cross. And although the great purpose of his mission reached to the whole human race, yet in every narrower circle of relative duty He was not the less a pattern of excellence. As a son, He remained in dutiful subjection to his human parents for a time much exceeding the usual years of tutelage : and almost his last words on the cross commended his mother to the care of his most beloved disciple. Christianity has sometimes, but unjustly, been reproached with omitting from its code of virtues friendship and patriotism. Yet the only tears which we know to have been shed by Jesus flowed beside the tomb of his friend Lazanis, and in view of the doomed metropolis of his native land. So loyally was He the friend of his country- men, that to their welfare his public labours were almost wholly devoted : and, had they been capable of knowing the things which belonged to their peace, He would have saved them politically as well as morally. But the grandeur of his character, in all that He undertook and carried on and achieved for the glory of God and the good of men, is not seen in its full light, until we take in the purity of his motives, his noble unselfishness, his high-minded indifference not to re- ward only, but even to recognition. The stimulants and 26 SERMON IT. attractions, which commonly prompt men to active exertion, He knew not, or, if He knew, heeded not. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, often not having where to lay his head. He had bidden a long farewell to the enjoyments of earth and sense. Riches, the chief good of ordinary men, had no charm for Him. Honour and renown, the idols of a somewhat higher order of minds, were beneath his regard. Command and leadership, which so many seek and so few attain, and yet fewer rightly use, he put away from Him, and withdrew Himself from the multitude, when they were eager to march under his banner and proclaim Him their king. And why was this? even because the honour of his heavenly Father, the salvation of men, and the reign of truth and righteousness, were to Him all in all. These purposes, the best and the highest, occupied his entire soul. His single motive, the noblest and the purest, was to serve and advance these. For these alone He lived, and for these He died. So far we have viewed the life and character of the man Christ Jesus as arriving at the summit of human perfection. Never man, we say, lived and spake as this man. Let us now, with reverent humility, consider those features in his character, which display to us a moral being superior to the highest human excellence, a being supernatural, and so what we deem divine : God stooping to the senses, and speaking to the heart of man. And first, behold the sinlessness of our blessed Lord. This quality, though negative in form, has in this case THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 27 a positive force, for, as it denies a property inherent in human nature, it marks the moral character of Jesus as a thing which transcends humanity, as invested with the purity which we ascribe to the divine essence He was tempted as other men are tempted, yet He sinned not He was tried, as few others have been tried, in every stage of his earthly calling, yet He sinned not. He had to bear the unteachableness of his disciples, the unstcdfastness of his friends, the calumnies and persecution of his foes, the ingratitude of his nation, the treason of a trusted follower, the agonies of his closing life, the shame and torture of his cruel death ; yet He sirmed not He endured all with a serenity of temper and a loftiness of soul, which after ages have regarded with admiring wonder, as placing Him above the nature of man, and attributable only to a divine element within Him. He could Himself venture to appeal to the testimony of his contemporaries, and before the face of his enemies He could say: 'Which of you convinceth me of sin?' And when those enemies had condemned Him to death for words of truth, which they represented as blasphemous, and demanded from the heathen ruler the confirmation of their sentence, the impartial verdict of that ruler declared: 'I find no fault in Him.' Another and positive mark of superhuman excellence is the equal perfection of Jesus in every department of morals. Absolute holiness is indeed a thing we believe in without assuming that our imperfect faculties can actually comprehend it. But it is competent to us to form some judgment of that which indefinitely surpasses 28 SERMON II. in gfreatness and goodness all our conceptions of our own powers, and all our experience of the powers of other men. And thus we say of the equal and universal holiness of our blessed Lord, that, human in kind (for, if not such, we could not estimate it at all), it is super- . human in degree. The finite individual mind rises in this life to relative perfection only, whether of knowledge or of virtue; and the very best minds have their own spheres of excellence; the best characters in history have their special vices or defects. But from what- ever side we view the character of Jesus, in whatever direction we follow the tenour of his life and action, we everywhere find Him equally great, equally perfect. In his devotion to his calling, in his relations with God and with men, in social and public circles, in what. He did and what He suffered, in struggle and in victory, in life and in death, from first to last, we have before us the same beautiful yet awful ideal, which every good man would fain reach, which every best man feels and owns his utter inability to approach. A third feature, in which is seen the more than human excellence of our Lord's nature, is the moral equilibrium, which holds in just and harmonious pro- portion virtues seemingly contradictory to one another. The peculiarity of man's condition debars him from ever attaining this perfect equipoise. In reasoning (as notable instances at the present time remind us), he is continually baffled by the inability of his dialectic facul- ties to measure and define the vast conceptions of his inquiring mind. In his moral being, and in the con- THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 29 duct of life, he finds it so hard to reconcile conflicting duties, that, while in those, whom history ranks as Krc.ii men, we often find the gravest faults, so is many ^ man of worth held back from greatness and even trom usefulness by the very fear of going too far in this or that moral direction ; and in corrupt times the ;>opular ideal of excellence is the ability to make things easy and pleasant without allowing to moral and reli- gious principle any power or right to become a dis- turbing force in the social system. In Cod alone, the absolute Being, free from all contradictions of the finite, moral virtues arc combined in essential perfection and mutual harmony. Refracted and tinted in the world, in Him they shine with colourless and pure light He is, in equable weight and measure, Lord and Father, just and merciful, chastening- and forgiving, patient and prompt to interpose in due time. How strikingly does Christ exhibit Himself to us in this respect as the true Son of God, as indeed one with the Father! In His whole walk and conduct on earth we find this sublime union of the most opposite virtues ; majesty with hu- mility ; zeal with gentleness ; strength with tenderness ; energy with composure ; the wisdom and prudence of the sage with the simplicity of the dove and the can- dour of the child ; all that is best and fairest in human nature raised and refined to all that can most be ima- gined of the divine. Alas, in attempting to photograph, as it were, the character of the Saviour from the representation of in- spired limners, how do our hands tremble, our lights JO SERMON II. err, our distances deceive, our results fall short of the perfect loveliness of the great original : so that what is said of the King of kings and Lord of lords, we are almost constrained to say of the man Christ Jesus, that He dwelleth in light whereunto no man can approach. Yet not so. Let not the humble and faithful Christian be thus discouraged. Let him not fear, in pursuance of the apostolic exhortation, to run with patience the race that is set before him, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith. Let him not despair of gaining the mind of Christ, for this indeed is the prize of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And if he need yet greater encouragement, let him remem- ber that our Lord on more than one occasion proposed to his disciples no less a model than his heavenly Fa- ther Himself. Let him bear in his heart of hearts with holy meditation and prayer those words of divine com- fort, so solemnly uttered in prayer by Jesus himself : ' All things are delivered unto Me of my Father ; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither know- eth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom- soever the Son will reveal Him:' and those other sweet words of precept and promise : ' Take 'my yoke upon you, and learn of Me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls.' Yea verily, brethren, these are they, the meek and lowly in heart, who learn, to the saving of their souls, of Him who was meek and lowly in heart. These are they, who joyfully respond to the Lord's appeal ; ' Ye believe in God, believe also in Me. Were the mate- THE MORAL EXCELLENCE OF JESUS. 31 rialist or the pantheist before me, I should not venture to debate with them the metaphysics of the finite and the intinitc, the relative and the absolute, the many and the one, matter and spirit I should bear in mind what Uavid and St Paul have said of such as deny God. 1 should simply appeal to my own conscience, and hum- bly pray that in them too the inward voice might awake, by the grace of God, and make itself heard. And what shall we say of those, who, having been taught the love of God in sending his only-begotten Sun into the world, that we might live by Him, refuse to believe in Christ, while they profess to believe in God and immortality? Fain would we speak with the charity that hopeth all things of men who, unlike some of their precursors, bend reverently before the ideal beauty of our Lord's life and character, without ac- knowledging his divine nature and mission. But it is the tenderest and most loving of the Apostles who said : • Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Fa- ther.' And why do they deny the Son? Because, for- sooth, the dignity of reason and philosophy forbids them to believe in mysteries and miracles. As if the temple of science were not thronged with chambers of mystery, which mortal eye cannot penetrate. As if any of the Gospel wonders were more truly miraculous than the life and character of Jesus of Nazareth, than the pre- paration for his advent, and its mighty consequences in the world. But let us thank Him, who over-rules all things for good, that in the unbelief of such men we have a new 32 SERMON II. argument for the profound insight of Christ, and for the truth of his written Word. We still see the know- ledge of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes. We still see the foolishness of God wiser than men ; that no flesh may glory in his presence, but that, if any man glory, he may glory in the Lord, even in Christ Jesus, who unto them that believe is made wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. [Note. — In p. 38, 1. 26 of this sermon, allusion is made to the metaphysical controversy (respecting the limits of human reason in religion) which arose in i860 between two eminent divines now gone to their rest, Dean Mansel and Mr Maurice.]* SERMON III. 7ESC/S THE KING OF HIS PEOPLE. BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY, Jam. m, i86i. St Matthew iv. 17, From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, ' Re- Pent: /or the Kingdom of heaven is at hand^ Through a simple and docile childhood, a submissive and studious boyhood, having a heart even then intent upon his Father's work, Jesus had increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. In holy silence lie the eighteen years of his youth and ripening manhood. Yet doubt we not that during those > ears He was guarding with prayer and meditation the temple of his soul and body, and fashioning and proving his armour against the day of trial. At length that day dawned. John, the son of Zacharias, forerunner of Him that should come, was baptizing and preaching repent- ance, for the Kingdom of heaven was at hand. Jesus, made under the law, had fulfilled all legal righteousness. K. 3 3+ SERMON III. He must now fulfil the righteousness of the new covenant. He must submit to John's baptism, and therein be miraculously shown as the beloved Son of the Father. He must be publicly owned by the Baptist, and pointed out to a few chosen hearts as the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world. He is next summoned to that mysterious conflict in the wilderness, where the chief temptations of his earthly life were foreshown, that He might prove his spiritual strength, and, by anticipa- tion, overcome them all. A few disciples then gather round Jesus, attracted by the power of his doctrine, and believing the Baptist's testimony concerning Him. Their faith is confirmed by his first miracle at Cana, where, by changing water into wine at the marriage-feast, He manifested forth his glory, as Lord of creation and as sanctifier of human joy, while his Gospel is symbolized as that which gives dignity to the mean, strength to the weak, and power to the spiritless. With these disciples He will attend the Passover at Jerusalem, and there become known by new signs and miracles. Returning through Samaria, He will reveal Himself to a woman of the land at Jacob's well, and prepare the hearts of that outcast race to receive in due time the fuller gospel of his salvation. He is once more in Galilee at a gloomy moment. The Baptist lies in prison, thrown there by the weak and dissolute tetrarch, Herod Antipas. The preacher of repentance is silenced. The stronger than he, the baptizer with spirit and with fire, will step into his place. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.' y£SO'S THE KhSG OF HIS PEOPLE. 35 If, when John preached in the wilderness, there went at to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region >und about Jordan, and were Ixiptized of him in Jordan, onfesaing their sins, what concourse would there be, when Jesus Himself preached? If the herald was so welcomed, what greeting would the King receive? lo this question the sacred text affords no direct .iiiswer. But much may be inferred from the context, .md something from the history of the times. The Jews in general were eagerly desiring a liberator. Swollen with national pride, they abhorred the Edomite rulers imposed on them by Rome, even as they detested the iolatrous empire of Rome itself. To them a Herod and A Tiberius were alike odious and unclean. Since the death of their first Idumean sovereign, sedition after [ sedition had convulsed the land, and when the mutineers found a leader to their liking, Josephus says they pro- claimed him king. If a son of David offered himself to their notice, what would such a populace hope to tind in him? They would look for one moSt mighty, I one who should gird his sword upon his thigh, and ride on in majesty and glory, and whose right hand should teach him terrible things. How striking, how marvellous are the parallels of history! What the Italians felt I some years ago, the Jews were feeling then ! Rome was their Austria, the Herods their Ferdinand and Francis, and they looked for a military saviour, for one who should imite dismembered Palestine, reclaim Canaan for the children of Israel, the Holy Land for the people of God. 3—2 36 SEEMON IIT. But He who harangued them was Jesus of Nazareth, a man of peace : and his rallying-cry was no other than that of John: 'Repent: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.' He sees them writhing under a foreign yoke, and eager to shake it off; but with this He meddles not. He exhorts them to repent. He knows that their necks are bowed down and their knees enfeebled by another and a far worse yoke, the yoke of sin. The selfish and the sensual are slaves by their own compulsion. This yoke He would help them to throw off, and to that end ' He calls upon them to repent; to change their minds, their hearts, their hopes, their desires ; to put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; to come unto the truth, and the truth shall make them free. For this purpose the Kingdom of heaven is at hand : and in Him who speaks (though He does not tell them so) they behold its King. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.' How would such a proclamation be received by the Jews of that time ? What impression would such a preacher make on the congregations of Galilee? The answer is but too obvious. A few tender and thoughtful hearts would open to his loving voice, as flowers to the sun; an Andrew prompt to trust, a Simon full of zeal, a Philip, searcher of the scriptures, a John rich in love. But from how many more would lessons such as these pro- voke nothing better than the idler's jest, or the drunkard's JESUS THE KING OF HIS PEOPLE. 37 mg, or the rude disdain of the reckless partizan! On ;liis account we may see that miracles were needed to \» in for Jesus the popular ear, and even the confidence t his disciples. Except they see signs and wonders, t;u\ will not believe in a Prince of peace. But, in these t!.i\ > of ours, brethren, the person and doctrine, the life md death of Jesus, and the plan of redemption wrought by Him, should be far more powerful instruments of l.iith than all the special signs which were needed then : and if wt believe not Moses and the Prophets, the Evan- ^ and Apostles, when they tell us of those great ^.-, neither should we be persuaded, though the blind ^ iw, the lame walked, and men rose from the dead before our eyes. The more carefully we trace in the sacred narrative 'ur Lord's wisdom and prudence in dealing with his claims to the kingly title and office, the more clearly shall we see the grandeur of his character, the more deeply shall we feel the truth of his revelation. Prophet and priest had been anointed to their functions as well us king ; and we are therefore wont to say, that the name Christ applies to Jesus in each character. This is true for us; but when we observe that Messiah, that is, Christ, was then the special and proper name of that deliverer whom the Jews expected, and that in this Christ they looked for a son of David, who should restore the kingdom to Israel, it is evident that to claim the title of Christ was in effect to claim that very title which had terrified the first Herod, when the Magians appeared in Jerusalem to worship the new-bom King of the Jews. 38 SERMON ITT. This is the reason why our Lord abstained with as much caution from declaring Himself the Christ, as from pro- claiming Himself, or letting others proclaim Him, King. And yet He was the very Christ, the Holy One of God : and yet He was and is a King, the spiritual King of his faithful people. He never repudiates either title as more than his due. But He looks to times, places, persons, circumstances. What He will say or admit here. He will forbid to be reported elsewhere. And the key to this conduct is, that He will not lend his person or his name, as pretending to the earthly throne of David. Let us note this principle of our Lord in a few instances. To the multitude He never plainly declared Himself Christ the King. If ever He was believed and accepted in this character. He owed it to the influence of his great miracles and authoritative teaching. He might have led an insurgent host in Galilee. But when they sought to make Him a king by force, he withdrew Him- self into a mountain apart. True, He entered Jerusalem on the day of palms, riding upon the ass of which the prophet had spoken. True, his entry bore some resem- blance to a royal procession. The people owned Him with shouts of 'Hosanna to the Son of David.' And He did not disclaim their homage. Ay ! but He knew what was coming. He knew that within a few days the Hosannas would be changed for another cry, that of 'Crucify Him, crucify Him.' He knew that He was mounting not to the throne of David on Zion, but to the cross of the malefactor on Calvary. Need I say how He dealt with the Scribes and JESUS THE KING OF HIS PEOPLE. 39 riuu-isccs, the Sadducees and Hcrodians? Such men were the last to whom He would have owned Himself the Messiah. It was the very confession into which they sought to entrap him ; the very claim they would have infierred from some of his words or deeds, in order to tax Him with blasphemy or treason. With what ex- quisite skill and sagacity does he baffle their craft I He will not arbitrate in a quesdoo of property. His shall not be the tongue to sentence the adulteress. He will give them no sign but that of Jonas the prophet. C