Sacred, Biography

affections, in mutual forbearance and forgive- | for so it seemed good in thy sight. Let me be the subject of thy miraculous grace, and convey thou the healing power through what soever channel thou wilt.

ness, in the balm of sympathy, whether we sorrow or rejoice; in a word, according to the apostolic injunction, in being of the same mind one towards another.

The religion of the Gospel wears an aspect peculiarly favourable to families. The infancy and childhood of Jesus Christ were passed in the bosom of his family. His first public miracle was performed in putting honour upon a family party, at Cana of Galilee. He made one in the family of Simon, at Capernaum. The house of Lazarus and his sisters at Bethany, he made his home, and there he cultivated all the endearing charities of exalted friendship. To find a home for his mother was his last earthly care; and, as the head of his own family, he presided at the Paschal solemnity, and instituted the memorial of his dying love. Thus are domestic relations strengthened, sweetened, sanctified, ennobled. A Christian kingdom or state never existed. But a family of Christians, all of one heart and of one soul, we trust, is not a rarity. And to christianize families is the direct road to the christianizing of nations. In the contracted sphere of a family, however numerous, every one knows every one; every one cares for every one. The master's influence is felt and acknowledged by all. A common interest, both temporal and eternal, unites the individuals to each other, and heaven descends to dwell with men upon earth. So propitious is Christianity to the dearest and best interests of civil society.

The service of the synagogue, in the morning of the sabbath, had been disturbed by a wretched demoniac, who "cried out with a loud voice, saying, let us alone: what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art: the holy one of God." Jesus by a word, dispossessed the impure spirit, and restored the unhappy man to himself, in the presence of the whole assembly, who were justly filled with astonishment at such a display of power and goodness. It is af fecting to think that this dreadful species of malady was far from being uncommon at that period; for we find the fame of the morning's miracle spread abroad, and it attracts to the place where Jesus was, in the evening, many persons in the same deplorable condition. One of the depths of Satan, in these cases, was to pay affected homage to Jesus of Nazareth, in the view of infusing a suspicion that there might be a secret conbination and collusion between him and them, and of thereby diminishing his dignity and authority in the eyes of the people. To be praised by the wicked, is offensive and dishonourable to the good: and the adversary is never more dangerous than when he is transformed into an angel of light." But when the prince of this world came, be found nothing in Christ; no weak part to attack, no foundation whereon to erect his engines; but wisdom ever prepared to meet cunning, purity to resist every evil sugges tion, and authority to silence the tempter whenever his encroachment became too daring. He disdained the testimony of a demon in his favour, and rejected the insidions praise of an enemy. "And he rebuking them, suf fered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ:" that is, he permitted them not to declare, though they spake the truth, that they knew him to be the Christ.

The scene which we have been reviewing passed on the evening of the sabbath. Nor could the sanctity of the day be profaned by a work of mercy, or by the pious and friendly intercourse of kindred spirits, whose religion was seated in the heart, not chilled into lifeless forms. But the superstitious observance of the sabbath operated powerfully on the multitude. Though prompted by natural affection to apply for relief to their afflicted friends, they defer it till the going down of the sun, that is till the sabbath was over; for Having thus fulfilled the public duties of they had yet to learn "what this meaneth, I the sanctuary, and the more private offices will have mercy and not sacrifice;" and of friendship; having employed the greater "the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath- part of the night in receiving and relieving day;" and "the sabbath was made for man, the numerous objects who came, or who were and not man for the sabbath." "Now when brought to him, he withdrew, toward the the sun was setting, all they that had any dawning of the day, into a still closer retiresick with divers diseases brought them unto ment; and, for a season, shut the world him." A sense of the weakness of those entirely out. "And when it was day he degood people is lost in respect for their hu- parted, and went into a desert place." Samanity. They are not chidden away from cred were those hours of solitude to heavenly Peter's door as unseasonable intruders; they meditation, to devotional intercourse with are not referred to another day. It is the Him that sent Him, whose glory he ever cry of misery entering into the ear of mercy, sought, and whose will it was his delight to and it cries not in vain: "and he laid his execute. "Ye shall leave me alone;" sys hands on every one of them, and healed he to his disciples, “and yet.” adds he, “I them." Here the mode of cure is the im- am not alone, because the Father is with position of hands. Even so, blessed Jesus, me." When some great arrangement is to

be made toward the establishment and exten- the kingdom." Such was the glorious subsion of his kingdom, preparation for it passes ject of Christ's preaching: a subject, comin solemn abstraction from all sublunary pared to which the pursuits of avarice, of things. Thus his own public ministry was ambition, and the pride of kings are less than preceded by a "forty days retreat into the nothing and vanity: a subject that interests wilderness." "And it came to pass in those not Nazareth, and Capernaum, and the cities days," when he was about to consecrate the of Galilee only, where it was first proclaimed, twelve to the office of apostleship, "that he but the men, the cities, the nations of all went up into a mountain to pray, and con- ages and generations. On such a narrow tinued all night in prayer to God;" thus also and seemingly slender foundation, what a was the glorious scene of his transfiguration fabric has arisen? "This is the Lord's doing, introduced; and thus he exemplified the it is marvellous in our eyes." Let the great practice which he so powerfully recommends object of Christ's mission direct and control to his disciples: "But thou, when thou our pursuit of every object. He was sent to prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou bring men under the dominion of the kinghast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which dom of God; and he has taught us when we is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in pray to say: "Thy kingdom come." If we secret, shall reward thee openly." enter into the spirit of that petition, it will be our concern that the empire of sin and Satan in our own hearts be completely subverted; "that peace on earth, and good-will among men be promoted; that the kingdoms of this world, become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and that he may reign for ever and ever."-Let us review this portion of our blessed Lord's history, and thus reflect:

The admiring and delighted multitude trace him into his place of retirement, and, sensible of the value of such a visit, they entreat him to prolong it. Various motives might suggest this request. In some, it might be the attraction of novelty, in others the love of the truth: here the sense of gratitude for benefits received, there the principle of curiosity gaping after a farther display 1. The duties of religion, then, and those of wonders. In one it might be the full con- of ordinary life are intimately united and viction of an honest and enlightened mind, interwoven; they are perfectly consistent, and in another a malignant disposition to dis- and yield mutual support. The service of cover a blemish. We know from the sequel the sanctuary must not be unnecessarily that the success of our Lord's miracles and protracted, to the wearying of the flesh, and preaching at Capernaum, was wofully simi- to become an encroachment on the just, prufar to what it had been at Nazareth, for this dent, or necessary concerns of the family, is the dismal account which he himself gives and no domestic regards must preclude works of it, "And thou, Capernaum, which art ex- of charity and mercy, even to strangers. On alted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to the other hand, no attention to civil and dohell: for if the nighty works which have mestic affairs, except in cases of urgent nebeen done in thee had been done in Sodom, cessity, and no works of mercy must plead a it would have remained until this day. But dispensation for the non-observance of the I say unto you, that it shall be more tolera- ordinance of God. Under the governance of ble for the land of Sodom in the day of judg- a well regulated spirit, daily lawful employment than for thee." Whatever were their ments become not only a reasonable but a motives for wishing his longer continuance religious service, and the functions necesamong them, they are for the present resist- sary to the support of mere animal life, may ed, and a reason is assigned. "I must preach be performed to the glory of God. And the kingdom of God to other cities also, for neither the public offices of the temple, nor therefore am I sent." Every word here is family order and devotion must be alleged significant and powerful. "I must preach." as an exemption from the obligations of priWhat imposed the necessity? The commis- vate and personal religion. Indeed all must sion which he had undertaken to execute; begin here. For families are composed of his own sovereign will and pleasure; his individuals, and the churches of Christ of faown unerring understanding; his own un-milies. To the perfect health of the natural bounded benevolence; the extensive demands of perishing humanity. "I must preach the kingdom of God:" its descent to earth; its adaptation to the nature and condition of ignorant and guilty men; its divine object, to raise fallen man from earth, from hell, to heaven; its present operation and effect, righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;" its stability, "a kingdom that cannot be moved;" the sovereign grace which confers it, "fear not little flock: for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you

body, the soundness of every member is essential: a perfection, however, rarely to be found, and seldom of long continuance. But the present feebleness, imperfection, and disorder of the particular members of that body whereof Christ is the head, are relieved by the prospect of" the perfecting of the saints, of the edifying of the body of Christ," when "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the staturq of the fulness of Christ."

2. Can the father of lies speak truth?-liverance? The distress came from an unYes, when it promises to answer his pur- seen hand, and so did the relief. The agent, pose; and truth itself partakes of the nature the instrument was human, was sensible. of a lie, when it is employed for the purpose It was the skill of the physician, it was the of deception. Do devils believe? Yes, to power of medicine, it was the sympathy of their sorrow; they believe and tremble." friendship. But who taught the physician to Does Satan give a just testimony to the Son comprehend my malady, and to reach it! of God? Yes, in hope of bringing it into Who gave virtue to the prescribed medicine! discredit. Let no one, then, value himself Who excited compassion in the bosom of my on the mere truth and soundness of his prin- friend? He who rebuked the fever, and it ciples, on the exact orthodoxy of his faith. fled; he who laid his hands on the sick, A principle, however excellent, that remains and they were made whole; he who took inactive, is of no value, like a mathematical the dead daughter of the ruler of the synaproposition, demonstrably certain, but applied gogue by the hand, and said, "Damsel, arise;" to no use; or a wholesome stream frozen up and "straightway she arose and walked." and stagnating at the very source. "Not Whether, therefore, health remain unimevery one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, paired, or be restored, by natural or extraorshall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but dinary means; whether deliverance come he that doeth the will of my Father which immediately from God, or be wrought through is in heaven." "This is the victory that the instrumentality of second causes, the overcometh the world even our faith. Who hand of Deity is equally to be acknowis he that overcometh the world, but he that ledged; and prolonged life and renewed believeth that Jesus is the Son of God." strength are to be devoted to Him who 3. Who has not known disease, and dan-"giveth to all life and breath, and all things; ger, and manifold affliction? And who has for in Him we live, and move, and have our not experienced frequent and merciful de-being."

HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST.

LECTURE CXXV.

And the Jews' passover was at hand; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money, sitting: and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things bence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.-JOHN ii. 13-17.

BESIDES the usual, universal, and fixed | those more distinguished periods. They are measurements of time, all men have a par- remembered and referred to because they ticular and personal standard of calculation are rare. Were every day to exhibit a stateand reference, namely, certain incidents of trial, hardly any, except the parties and their their own lives, to themselves inexpressibly connexions, would care to attend it, or think momentous, however uninteresting to the rest of setting a mark upon it. of mankind. Thus a mother, with much ac- There is one life, however, of which every curacy and distinctness, refers every other hour is an epoch, of which every act is decievent, of whatever magnitude and import-sive, of which every event is highly and uniance, to the respective dates of the birth of versally interesting, and of which every her children. The expiration of his time, as period is a "fulness of time." Of this life it is called, that is of his clerkship, or appren- each instant, each incident, every progressive ticeship, forms an important epoch in the ex-step furnishes a theme for the tongues, for istence of a young man; and the fate of the pens of thousands of thousands of men princes, and the revolutions of empire acquire, and angels, and, when their stores are exin his eyes, a peculiar consequence from hausted, it presents a subject as new, as imtheir relation, in point of time, to that grand portant, as unbounded as it was at the beginrevolution in his own little state. The con- ning. The beloved disciple, having thrown secration of prelates and the inauguration of his mite of information into the public treskings are, at once, public and private mea-sury, concludes his gospel with declaring his sures of duration. Every act of the state is dated by the year of the sovereign's reign. But human life admits not of a repetition of

belief, his deliberate conviction that the history of the life and actions of his divine Master was a subject infinite and inexhausti

ble. "There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written;" meaning undoubtedly, that the things which Jesus said and did were so many, so extraordinary, so significant, so efficient, as infinitely to exceed human comprehension and belief. But wherefore should the expression of the evangelist be considered as hyperbolical, when we are told that these are the "things which the angels desire to look into;" and when we reflect on the burden of the eternal song of the redeemed in heaven, "I heard," says John "the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands: saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."

From the marriage in Cana of Galilee, Jesus again" went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days." How those days were employed we have seen in the preceding Lecture: in conducting the service of the synagogue, in cultivating the charities of private life, in secret devotion, in healing the sick, in casting out devils, in preaching the kingdom of God. Having made a progress of teaching and preaching over the cities and synagogues of Galilee, He now, for the first time since he assumed a public character, went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of passover. Preserving the order of events as accurately as an attentive comparison of evangelist with evangelist enables us, we are now to contemplate an incident in our Lord's history marked with very peculiar features, and pre*senting a new and instructive opening into his character, namely his purgation of the temple from the impurities with which it was profaned by an impious and infamous traffic. From his earliest years the commanded solemnities of that sacred place were punctually observed. Whatever the law enjoined was to his infant state duly performed. While under parental authority, particularly when it led to the house and worship of God, He respectfully submitted to it. In the maturity of age, voluntary and cheerful obedience to the ordinances of heaven distinguished the great exemplar of decency and order. Through the goodness of God, we are delivered from all burdensome and costly

attendance on the service of the temple. We are not called to wait upon God with rams and calves of a year old. Our husbandmen, manufacturers, and merchants are not summoned, under severe penalties, several times in the year, to join in the worship of the metropolitan church, at a great expense of time and substance. Is therefore the service of the Christian sanctuary worthless and contemptible? Do we therefore requite the Lord of the sabbath with neglect and ingratitude? Do we therefore snuff at his bloodless sacrifices, and say, "Behold, what a weariness is it? and bring that which is torn, and the lame, and the sick for an offering?" Dare Christian parents set the example to their children and dependants of irreligion and profanity, and, because they are set free from a costly ceremonial, and a superstitious observance of the sabbath, will they claim and assume an exemption from the offices and the spirit of piety, devotion, and gratitude? Liberated from an intolerable yoke of iron, disdain they to wear the honourable, the golden chains of love?

The Jewish ritual was at this period vilely profaned, and was rapidly hastening to dissolution. But so long as it is in force, our blessed Lord condescends to be the pattern of attention and respect to it. And yet, what a scene did the house of God then present! The forms of religion remained, but the power and glory had departed. The letter of the law was still held in affected veneration, but the spirit was completely evaporated. The sacrifices of the living and true God were shamefully prostituted to gratify the most sordid of human passions, godliness was perverted into a mere instrument of filthy lucre, and the house of prayer was degraded into a den of thieves. And such is the fearful progress of moral corruption. Fervour gradually subsides into lukewarmness, and lukewarmness into cold. Indifference soon becomes mere formality, and formality is but a step from total neglect. Neglect degenerates into hatred and aversion, and an unhallowed zeal at length attempts to destroy what a zeal according to godliness once endeavoured to build up. What can be more opposite and unlike than devout worshippers engaged in a holy contention of gratitude, praise, and love, striving who should present the most acceptable sacrifice to the Father of Spirits; and carnal, worldly minded formalists trying to overreach one another; the one eager to purchase the ox or the sheep for his offering at as cheap a rate as possible, and the other to sell it at the highest price. And the very court of the temple is made the open theatre of this abominable commerce.

Before thou liftest up thy hand, O man, to scourge out those impious, sordid, profane Jews, pause, and look into thine own heart.

Is no unholy traffic going on there? Know- lities have a boundary. There are occasions est thou not that thine own body is the tem- where the exercise of them would cease to ple of the living God? Whose altar, then, be virtue, and where a man would do well is reared up in that sacred edifice of God's to be angry." Wanton, deliberate profanaown building; and what incense smokes tion of the name, the day, the house of the upon it? Say, is the name of Mammon in- Lord, is one of those occasions which justiscribed there? Does sensuality there cele- fy severity. A commanding dignity, an irrebrate no nocturnal revels! What, shall the sistible glory must have occasionally beamed palace of the great King be transformed into from the person of our Lord, which overawed a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." and intimidated the beholder. How is it Or, with the superstitious Athenian, art thou possible otherwise to account for the quiet ignorantly bowing down before an "unknown submission of those men to corporal chastiseGod?" Thou regularly observest the hour, ment. They were many in number; they and frequentest the house of prayer; but is had a common interest to bind them to each there no table of "the money-changer" lurk- other; they were in hitherto unquestioned ing in some obscure corner? Didst thou possession of the ground; their property was leave the world at the door on coming in? concerned; they had the connivance at least, Why wander these eyes abroad over thy if not the permission of the higher powers. neighbour's garb and appearance? They He was alone, unknown, unconnected, unought to be fixed on "thy Father who is in supported. But they cannot stand the lightsecret," and who "seeth in secret." Dost ning of his eye, his voice strikes horror into thou too "offer the sacrifice of fools?"- their guilty consciences. They presume not Darest thou approach the altar of God, con- to reason or to resist, but tamely give up scious that thou art not yet reconciled to thy their painful traffic abashed and confounded. brother? The gift in thy hand is polluted; Thus the multitude that came with Judas to presume not to offer it. "Leave it before take Jesus, though furnished “with lanterns, the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled and torches, and weapons," were so overto thy brother, and then come and offer thy whelmed by the majesty of his appearance, gift.' that "as soon as he had said unto them, I am It was the court of the Gentiles which he, they went backward and fell to the this scandalous trade thus shamefully pro- ground." And if such were the glory with faned, by the buying and selling of sheep, which he sometimes invested himself, in his and oxen, and doves; and by the exchange state of humiliation, what must be the glory of foreign for current coin, and of money of of his second coming "with clouds," when a higher for that of a lower denomination."every eye shall see him, and they also And thus not only was the worship of the which pierced him?" great Jehovah debased and perverted, but the minds of decent and devout strangers, who "had come to Jerusalem for to worship," must have been grievously shocked and scandalized, to the utter extinction of every serious and devotional impression. This it was which excited a holy and just indignation in the Son of God; in beholding the temple violated, the sacrifices of God defiled, and a stumbling block laid in the way of proselytes, by men invested with a sacred character.

"And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise.' This discloses a new and singular exhibition of our blessed Lord's spirit and temper. No personal injury or insult could provoke one expression of resentment. He gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: he hid not his face from shame and spitting:" you have heard of the meekness of Moses, and of the patience of Job. But what are they to the patience, meekness, and gentleness of Christ? Nevertheless these gracious qua

What a severe reproof was this action of our Lord, of the carelessness and indifference of the high-priest, and of the other ministers of religion? To them it belonged to guard the sanctity of the temple and of its worship. The dignity of their own station and charac ter suffered, when the house of God was violated. Is it doing them injustice to suspect that they partook of the profits of this illicit trade? If this suspicion be well founded, the grossest enormity is immediately accounted for. When the love of money has once taken possession of the heart, no tie of religion or morality is binding. Conscience, sense of honour, sense of decency, sense of duty, all, all is sacrificed at the shrine of this insatiate demon, which never says "it is enough." At those seasons the demand for cattle to be offered in sacrifice must have been very great. Josephus, in his Wars of the Jews, informs us, that no less than two hundred and fifty-six thousand and five hundred victims were presented at one passover, A small share of the gains upon such an extensive consumption, must therefore have amounted to a very large sum. What a confederacy, then, had the zeal and intrepidity of Christ to encounter! a whole host of inhuman, unfeeling dealers in flesh, actuated

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