It was this which was represented by the royal progress which the Redeemer is recorded in this narrative as making towards Jerusalem. 66 Rejoice," says says Zechariah, greatly, O daughter of Zion: shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; for, behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on an ass, and a : colt the foal of an ass." It was, then, the advent of the Saviour which it was the object of this narrative to represent. It accordingly directs our attention to the light in which his humiliation is to be considered. It tells us that, from the womb to the cross, and from the cross to his ascension up to glory-it tells us that, in all the circumstances of his helpless infancy, of his youth's obscurity, of a ministry in the exercise of which he had "not where to lay his head," and which he prosecuted amidst taunts and contumely, and terminated amidst the agony and ignominy of a death of crucifixionit tells us that, in all, he was alike the King of glory, making his triumphal progress towards the throne which was his own, towards those everlasting doors which were ready to fly open at his coming, and admit him to the palace of a glory not less excellent and infinite than that of the light in which God dwells, and which no man can approach unto. All the circumstances of his humiliation in our nature were nothing but so many steps by which he was continually ascending into the hill of the Lord, continually rising up into his holy place. "Yet," said Jehovah, "have I set my King on my holy hill of Zion." And do the heathen rage accordingly, and do the people imagine a vain thing? Do the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed? They are but lending themselves as an instrumentality for carrying forward a design which they think to counterwork: they are but illustrating and miristering to a glory which they think that they have clouded with a stain which is indelible: they are but swelling the triumph which they think they have converted into the most signal and ignominious of defeats: they are but making a platform for the Conqueror's progress the more elevated and imposing by all the obstacles which they seem to have succeeded in crowding up to heaven in the way of his advance. "Ride on," is the word which is still coming from above to him; and every circumstance of humiliation and of suffering does but bring him nearer and nearer to the temple of a glory which is infinite-does but go to swell the train of his disciples-does but gather round him an increasing and increasing multitude of wondering, loving, and confiding followers-does but cause our world to echo to a louder hosanna, and to wave with the palms of spiritual triumph, diffused over a wider circuit, and continually rising in a thicker grove. That Infant of Days, that poor working Carpenter, that Son of Joseph and of Mary, whose brethren and sisters were known, and all about them; that crucified Being, hanging (under the solemn and judicial sentence of the holy Sanhedrim) in the agonies of crucifixion between two thieves, crucified along with him, on either side oneit is the King of Glory that we witness in each instance the King of Glory making his triumphal progress through the territory of our bondaged nature, and, in traversing, emancipating, and subduing it-the King of Glory realizing in continually increasing fulness the likeness of the Son of man, preparatory to his coming in that likeness in the clouds of heaven, and coming to the Ancient of Days, and being brought before him, and having given to him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, instead of being the servants of sin and Satan, should serve him; his dominion, moreover, an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom one that shall not pass away. The Redeemer, brethren, did not bury in our suffering clay the glory of his deity. He unimposing animal selected for this service? did just the contrary: he stamped on its There was, brethren, a design in the selection. meanest condition a dignity that was divine;"All this was done," says the evangelist, and, along the path of its acutest suffering," that it might be fulfilled which was spoken diffused behind him, at each step of his ad- by the prophet, saying, Say ye to the daughter vance, a blessing that was infinite. To the of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, Son of God the carpenter's shop was the meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the Bethel of a communion, and the chamber of foal of an ass." a presence the like of which was unknown among the angels; and to him the very cross itself (I mean in the moment in which, exclaiming, "It is finished," he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost) may be believed to have been the field of an enjoyment which was new and strange and satisfying as no previous pleasure even to himself. The more that his humiliation deepened, and the more that his sufferings grew exquisite, the brighter about his pathway was the blazonry of deity the louder the voice that heralded to the nations the coming of their Saviour, and exclaimed to the church of the true Israelites, "Behold your King!" For it was proportionately our griefs that he was bearing, and our sorrows; and when, accordingly, after descending from the opposite elevation of a divine glory into the very depths of the valley of our miseries, he was seen climbing again, in his resurrection and ascension, the acclivity of Zion's mount, it was then our feet that stood within thy gates, O Jerusalem! it was our sins which he had buried in the grave from which he was emerging, and the throne of a people forgiven their iniquity which he was thenceforward to assume. Such is the first advent of the Saviour, according to the idea of it suggested by the narrative which makes the gospel of this day. We turn, It was the triumph of meekness which the Saviour celebrated in the circumstances of this advent. He came to visit us in great humility. It was not his glory to come to Zion upon this occasion on the milk-white war-horse of the many-diademed prince of the kings of the whole earth, but on the lowly ass of the meek teacher. Pride-the pride of the first man-had been our ruin: meekness-the meekness of the second man-was to be the salvation and recovery of the ruined. A creature of the dust, the first Adam, was not to be bribed even to obedience by the pleasures of a paradise: the Lord from heaven, the second Adam, is content to do the will of his Eternal Father at the loss of his own heaven, and to the sacrifice, at once, of all that makes the happiness of creatureship. To him, to do the will of God is meat and drink; as not even the participation of his sovereignty, as not even the enjoyment of his love and presence and communion with him, is. In compliance with it, he does not part with his coequal glory, and appear among us in the likeness of flesh merely, but of sinful flesh. He has not prepared for him a body merely, but a mortal body. He does not descend merely to the degradation of universal empire, and an earthly monarchy; but to the state of one whose cradle is a manger, whose condition a mechanic's, and his end a cross. And thus was his progress through our state of being a triumphant one? It was the triumph of meekness which he celebrated in that progress. It was meekness which brought him down into our valley, and meekness which carried him up into our Zion. He rode on, because of the word of truth, and meekness, and righteousness. He exhibited an example of depending upon God, divinely glorious in its manifestation, and eternally momentous in its consequences and results. He celebrated a triumph; but that triumph was the triumph of indomitable meekness. It was meekness his dying for our sins: it was the reward of meekness his rising again for our justification; and the world, which was destroyed by the pride of the first man, had a Saviour given to it through the meek II. To direct attention to the peculiar feature of this advent as noticed in that narrative. It was, we are told by the evangelist, "on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass,' that Jesus made that royal progress towards Jerusalem which he designed to be expressive of the character and circumstances of his advent. It was not for want of the means of entering Jerusalem in greater state that he entered it riding on an animal so humble; for even that poor animal was not his own, nor was it the property of any who were friendly to him. And thus the same almighty influence which alone disposed some rude and wondering villagers to part, without a murmur, on the application of a couple of poor strangers, with this little property, could of course as easily have collected around our divine Lord, for the occasion, the wealth, whe-ness of the second. ther of Judea or the universe, could as easily have sent him forward in his progress with the pomp of monarchs and the insignia of command. And why, then, the humble and We notice III. The effects which attended our Lord's advent. They are studiously comprehended in the circumstances of the narrative; for All the approaches which we naturally make to God, or think to make to him, are made on a footing of traffic and self-interest. We have not any heart for God; but we know of his existence, and we are willing to cheapen his favour, to pay a kind of black-mail for exemption from the effects of his displeasure and hostility. It was to this principle of our fallen nature that the legal dispensation was adjusted. It admitted the Canaanite into the house of the Lord. Not, indeed, that God was to be served, in fact, by those whose service was a calculating and a carnal one; but that he was pleased to meet them in a way of bargain, in order that, by the terms that he proposed to them, he might teach them to despair of being saved by their own works; in order that, from the blood of bulls and goats, which could never take away sin, their thoughts might be carried forward towards that Lamb of God who was indeed to take away the sin of the world. In the meanwhile the Canaanite was in the house of the Lord. Those that bought and sold had access to his temple, and seemed to have a shelter for the selfish traffic which their fallen nature prompted them to carry on under the cover of its roofs. But this abuse was one that had not a shadow of countenance afforded to it from the period of Christ's advent. Christ's advent was the casting out the bondwoman and her son. It was the setting the stamp of an authoritative condemnation on all carnal service. It was the separating the precious from the vile. It was the rescuing from the desecrations of an abused law 'the service of the sanctuary. The buyers and sellers were cast out of the temple as the effect of our Lord's advent. It disentangled principles that were previously intermingled and confused. It made the doctrine of faith no longer matter, as it were, of remote inference, but of immediate intuition. It wrote it with a sunbeam, though in characters of blood, on the cross of the Lord Jesus. It denounced all traffic in God's temple. It put an authoritative and indignant ban upon the entrance there of any except those of whom it could be said, "Behold, he prayeth." It pronounced, as in a voice of thunder, that, "except a man is born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." It drove as thieves and robbers out of the family of God all those who had climbed up into the fold of it by works, and to serve sinister and carnal objects of their own, instead of coming in at the door of faith in a divine Redeemer, and, accordingly, in the marriage-garment of his loving and meek Spirit. And, accordingly, notice2. Another effect of our Lord's advent. For "the blind and lame," we read, "came to him in the temple; and he healed them." We are all, indeed, naturally Canaanites in the house of the Lord; but some of us become Rahabs in his family. We become persons who feel our Canaanitish extraction and relations as our misery. Our carnality is felt by us as we should feel a natural misfortune, such as blindness or lameness, falling on our persons; we are intent on the removal of it; we are alarmed about the consequences which it threatens; we regard it as the one thing standing between us and the enjoyment of existence; we want the pardon, we want the cure of it more than we want anything. Observe, then, that the effect of our Lord's advent is to give us what we want. We have encouragement to go to him in his temple; and he will heal us as the consequence. "The blind and lame," we are told, " came to him in the temple; and he healed them." And, brethren, if the felt misery of a physical evil was a plea for his compassion, can that compassion fail to be drawn forth towards those who groan under a feeling of their sinfulness? It was for sinners, remember, that he came-sinners that he lived and died and rose again to save. And what sinners, if not those who feel painfully the condemnation lying on their nature and their practice; sinners who, instead of going up to traffic in the temple of the Lord, go to Jesus in that temple, go in faith to him and go in penitence, go to be accepted in their persons through the efficacy of his sacrifice, to be sanctified in their souls by the almighty power of his Spirit? Are these, brethren, the objects that have brought you into the temple of a Christian profession, or are you the Canaanite in the house of the Lord? Is yours a religion which is intended to compound for the sin which it does not prompt you to forsake? a religion by which you turn the house of prayer into a mart of traffic, by which you seek to make the service of the sanctuary itself subservient to your cupidity and selfishness? How aggravated, were this the case, would be the condemnation in which you would be perishing! How delightful, on the. contrary, if knowing that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, to think that the blind and lame have only to go to Jesus, in his temple, and he heals them to think that you may buy mayest ever. Amen. of him gold tried in the fire that thou mayest | reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and be rich, and white raiment that thou be clothed, and that the shame of thy 'nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see! to think that he casts out none that come to him, and that "he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them!" And do you trust that he has forgiven all your iniquities, that he has healed all your diseases? Allow me to direct your attention, in conclusion, to a circumstance in the narrative which has not hitherto been noticed. "The disciples," we are told, "in celebration of Christ's triumph, "strewed their garments in the way." They carpeted the platform of his progress, as they could, by lining the road with their own garments. And you, if you are his disciples, brethren, will do likewise. You will devote to himto the design of glorifying Jesus-whatever you possess. He has clothed you with the righteousness in which you are accepted; and you will cast the crown of it, in honour of him, at his feet. He has given you all things richly to enjoy your primary enjoyment of them will be using them for him, for his service and his glory. It is little, you may think, that you have the opportunity of doing for him. You will do, however, what you You will strew your garments in the way; you will deny yourselves; and you will exult in doing so, to do him service. can. What a contrast, brethren, this, to the Canaanitish spirit which is natural to us! Can we doubt our union with our Saviour, if the language of our heart and of our life to him, in the midst of all our many corruptions and infirmities, still is, "Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee?" Could we think, on the contrary, that we were Christ's disciples, were all forced, compromising, Canaanitish, in the service that we rendered him? SABBATH MEDITATIONS. No. XXIII. DECEMBER 1.-FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT. THE COLLECT. ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may .cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that, in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and "The end proposed by the church in setting these two appearances of Christ together before us at this time, is to beget in our minds proper dispositions to celebrate the one and expect the other; that so, with joy and thankfulness, we may now go to Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us, even the Son of God come to visit us in great humility; and thence, with faith unfeigned and hope immovable, ascend in heart and mind, to meet the same Son of God in the air, coming in glorious majesty to judge the quick and dead" (Bishop Horne). those reasons for separation which the scripture Meditation.-"We charge the Romanists with allows; such as idolatry, perverting the gospel and institutions of Christ, and tyranny over the consalvation which Christ never made so. But none of sciences of men, in making those things necessary to them can, with any appearance of reason, be charged upon the church of England, since we profess to give religious worship only to God: we worship no images, we invocate no saints, we adore no host, we creep to no crucifix, we kiss no relics. We equal no traditions with the gospel: we lock it not up from the people in an unknown tongue. We preach no other terms of salvation than Christ and his apostles did. We set up no monarchy in the church to undermine Christ's, and to dispense with his laws and institutions. We mangle no sacraments, nor pretend to know what makes more for the honour of his blood than he did himself. We pretend to no skill in expiating men's sins when they are dead, nor in turning the bottomless pit into the pains of purgatory and a quick motion of the hand. We do not cheat men's minds with false bills of exchange, called indulgences; nor give out that we have the treasure of the church in our keeping, which we can apply as we see fit. tend to be infallible, as they do when they have a We use no pious frauds to delude the people, nor premind to deceive" (Stillingfleet). Prayer. O most holy Lord God, who spakest sometimes in visions unto thy servants, the prophets and apostles, and hast also given unto us the more sure word of inspiration, make us to give heed unto that word as unto a light shining in a dark place. fusion of face, that, like Israel of old, we have Gracious God, we confess, with shame and consinned and rebelled against thee. We desire to humble ourselves before thee, that although, in thy tender mercy, the day-spring from on high hath visited us, darkness yet covers the earth and gross darkness the people. We acknowledge, with contrite hearts, that, even in this favoured land, where the bright beams of thy gospel have caused thy chosen to rejoice and walk in the light of thy truth, the dark habitations of man are full of cruelty. We confess that we are a sinful nation, O Lord. We have forsaken thee, our God: we have provoked thee, the Holy One of Israel, to anger. We have gone away backward. Thy holy Sabbaths have we profaned: our solemn meetings have been full of iniquity; and, when we have spread forth our hands in prayer, our hearts have been far from thee. Yea, even the vineyard which thou hast planted, and the branch which thou madest so strong for thyself, how is it trodden under foot by the enemy, and sown with tares | by many who are set to watch over it! O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face; but unto thee mercies and forgivenesses. For thy dear Son's sake, we meekly beseech thee, hear thou us, who desire to lift up our voice with the remnant that is left, and to set our face and our heart unto thee, our merciful Father. And here, by prayer and supplication, with mourning and fasting of spirit, we make our humble intercession at thy footstool, for ourselves, our rulers, our brethren, and especially those who set at nought thy counsel and despise thy reproof. O, hearken thou to the petitions of thy servants that cry unto thee. Hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place; and, when thou hearest, forgive, for Jesu Christ the righteous' sake. We laud and magnify thy name, that, although we have sought the way of destruction, yet in thee is our help found; and we now come before thee, pleading the merits and righteousness of thy dear Son, whom thine infinite love hath set forth to be the propitiation for our sins. In his dear name, we earnestly implore thee, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which the same thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility. O, wash us and make us clean in that fountain open for sin and all uncleanness. Though our sins be deep as scarlet, O, make them white as snow. Create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us, that we may put away the evil of our doings from before thine eyes. Sanctify us by thy blessed Spirit, that we may cease to do evil and learn to do well; that we may seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, and become unto thee a holy people, zealous of good works. And do thou, O Lord Jesus, remember thy mercy which was ever of old, and be a sanctuary unto us, when thou shalt come again to consume the wicked one with the spirit of thy mouth, and destroy him with the breath of thy coming. In that day raise us, O Saviour, from the grave of death to the life immortal, and grant to rejoice with thee in the sabbath of glory everlasting. Amen. Amen. EVENING. E. L. "After the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another Priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life."-Heb. vii. 15, 16. Meditation.-"Because we cannot present either a lamb or a dove, neither innocence of life nor true sorrow for sin, therefore Christ's oblation doth supply the defect of our imperfections. We cannot offer up such tears for sin as we ought; therefore the strong cries and tears which he offered stand between God and us. Because the agony and grief of our hearts is cold and dead, therefore the agony that he endured, when he sweat" water and blood," is a suppliant. So he is both an oblation for us, and supplieth the imperfection of our oblations" (Bp. Andrews). Prayer. O Lord Jesus, King of kings, and Prince of peace, who by thy heavenly anointing wast consecrated to be our Prophet and King, and, abiding for ever, art unto us an unchangeable High-priest, we receive, we adore, we glorify thee as the Surety and Mediator of a better covenant, purchased and sealed with thine own precious blood. O thou Holy One, made not after the law of a carnal commandment, wherein is weakness and unprofitableness, but after the power of an endless life; O thou, who wast before Abraham was, and dwelt in the bosom of thy Father before all time; O thou most Holy, who condescended to our flesh, and wast harmless and undefiled, separate from sinners and altogether without stain or wrinkle, we humbly beseech thee, manifest thyself unto our souls; and, inasmuch as thou wert touched with the feeling of our infirmities, being in all points tempted like as we are, let thy love and thy compassion overshadow us. Anoint us, O Lord our God, with the strengthening grace of thy blessed Spirit, that we may be upheld in the weakness of poor and sinful nature; and, in the sufficiency of his grace, be enabled to bear every trial and temptation, which may beset us in the wilderness of our earthly pilgrimage. Let our faith in thy tender mercies be so fast and unmoveable, that we may look up to thee with full assurance that, in all perils and adversities, thou wilt help us with thy strong hand and holy arm, and order all things for our endless comfort and deliverance. More especially we implore thee, O blessed Saviour, by that sacrifice of thyself once and for ever offered up on the altar of thy Father's justice, by the full propitiation that thou then madest for the sins of the whole world, that it may please thee to take away the stony heart out of our flesh, and to endue us with a new heart and a right spirit. Open thou our eyes, that we may discern more and more the exceeding sinfulness of sin; and, since that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, do thou convert our souls from the darkness and power of Satan unto thy Father and our Father; so that, being born again of seed incorruptible, we may bring forth fruit unto holiness, and abound in every good word and work, unto his honour and glory. These mercies we earnestly beg of thee, the alone Mediator and Advocate, who ever livest to make intercession for us, and wilt, according to thine immutable promise, assuredly save them to the uttermost who come unto the heavenly Father by thee. Hear us, O God of our salvation; hear us and save us, O thou who hast the keys of hell and death. S. K. C. Poetry. FLEETING LIFE. BY MRS. H. W. RICHTER. (For the Church of England Magazine.) "In the morning it is green, and groweth up: in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered."-PSA. xc. 5. FLOWER of beauty, in the morning Round thee gentle dews are shed. Zephyr floats in balm around thee, While the summer noon is bright: Day is waning on the dial Long and dark the shadows lie. |
