Lord of His Church. He builds up that Church by the word of truth and by the Spirit of His grace. He watches over the Church everywhere in this world, presides over the departure of every soul, and governs the "spacious world unseen " with a view to the judgment day. "He died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."

6. The consummation of all things is put into His hand. He who sent Peter to gather in the first-fruits, will send forth His angels to reap when the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when, for all believers, He shall have conquered death, having raised them up at the last day. Then the redeemed shall be gathered home. from all lands, shall be without spot before the throne of God, and presented before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Then shall our Saviour have manifested the wisdom of the Father in putting all things into His hand; He shall everlastingly

have proved His infinite capacity for the trust; and then shall Christ and His Church be glorified together.

II. WHAT IS THE PRACTICAL BEARING OF THIS THEME?

1. We see that Christ's work in saving us, is hut part of a vast, boundless, infinite scheme of glory and of grandeur which it will take ages on ages to develop and reveal!

2. We see a reason why every preacher should follow the example of John the Baptist, and point away from himself to Christ (John iii. 26–35).

3. We see the imperativeness of insisting on the Lordship of Christ over men and nations. Governments only lay up sorrow for themselves if they contravene the holy will of Christ.

4. We see why we must point to Jesus only as the exclusive object of a sinner's trust.

5. We see the security of the redemption of those who are in Christ.

6. We see the certainty of the ruin of those who persist in rebelling against Christ.-Clemant Clemance, D.D.: The Christian Era, vol. ii. p. 41, &c.

liii. 10, 11.

I. The aspect in which that work of the Saviour by which He accomplished the redemption of the world is here represented: "The travail of His soul." The New Testament teaches that the Saviour's sufferings were-1. Sacrificial and expiatory. 2. Voluntary. The first The first clause of the text should read: "When His soul shall make an offering for sin." 3. Most intense and awful. (a).

II. The nature of that sublime and heavenly satisfaction described in this passage, as accruing to the Redeemer from witnessing the effect of His work and sufferings in the salvation of men.

1. It is the satisfaction arising from enlarged success of a pleasure always proportionate to the difficulties of the task we have fulfilled, and to the

zeal with which it has been prosecuted.

2. It is the satisfaction of most pure and exalted benevolence. No joy can be compared with the peaceful and exquisite delight arising from this principle, when it is effectual in the mitigation of calamity or the removal of necessity or danger (6).

3. It is such as springs from contemplating the greatness, the importance, and the difficulties of the work itself. Salvation is an illustrious and an arduous work. The obstacles that present themselves in the way of its accomplishment are, to all but the power of God, insuperable.

4. It is to be estimated only by the perfection of the Saviour's knowledge,

relative to the whole progress and issue of that event which he so joyously contemplates.

5. It arises principally from the peculiar relation of His character and work to the event itself and to all its consequences (7).

III. The certainty that this satisfaction shall be finally realised. This is certain, because the most unlimited diffusion of Christianity throughout the world is certain. We cherish this confidence -1. Because of the natural attraction and influence of the great doctrine of the atonement, which forms the very substance of the Gospel (8).

was

2. Because of the tendency of the Gospel to an unlimited and ceaseless diffusion. This characteristic exhibited in the age of its first promulgation. It still continues, for in every heart in which the Gospel is truly received it kindles a strong desire to make it known to others. Wherever it is received, it blesses men in temporal as well as in spiritual things.

3. Because of its resistless and triumphant progress in past ages. There remains no new form of opposition or of danger which has not already been successfully encountered; no enemy to combat who has not been already vanquished; no power which has not already been overthrown ().

4. Because of the peculiar and encouraging appearances which are now everywhere beheld in the condition. and circumstances of the Church. Awaking from her long and inglorious repose, she has thrown aside that lethargy by which she was restrained from asserting her ancient glories. She has heard and is responding to the voice of Him who summons her to extend her conquests, and to inherit the desolate heritages.-R. S. M'All, LL.D.: Sermons, pp. 422-472.

(a) See outlines on this clause, and on the description: "A man of sorrows," &c.

(8) What ecstasy were it to reflect that we had snatched a fellow-creature from the devouring flame or the tempestuous deep; that we had stayed the progress of contagion or pestilence in its march of silence and desolation; that we had unbarred the dungeon of the prisoner, or burst the fetter of the slave!

How exalted, then, the joy with which the adorable Redeemer must behold the helpless ruin of mankind exchanged for happiness and safety!-M'AU.

(7) With what holy and elevated transport may the martyrs and confessors, the prophets and apostles, be supposed to look now upon the scene of their labours and the progress of their cause! How may we suppose them now to exult in the remembrance of their self

denying efforts and oppressive privations, their wants and trials and griefs, and, more than all, that terrible moment when they sealed their last testimony, and closed their career in blood! With what unspeakable felicity must those devoted missionaries, lately removed from us, behold, amidst the mansions of blessedness, the first-fruits of their labours-the poor wanderer of Africa or the wretched slave of Demerara-now mingling in the chorus of the redeemed! But who shall describe the interest taken in all that relates to the salvation of His people by their ascended and sympathising Lord? Here all the causes of interest and joy are united in the highest operation. The affection of the Saviour is infinite. relation He bears to the saved is the closest and most indissoluble; and their rescue and happiness are the results only of His dying agonies and His ever-living intercession.-M'All.

The

(8) Never, amongst all the diversity of sacrificial institutions in any country or in any age, has there appeared even a distant resemblance to many of the most essential features of this great Christian propitiation. Never has the guilt of sin been represented as forgiven, in consequence of a design mercifully originating in the Deity Himself, and that, too, in opposition to the provocation and obstinate rebellion of the miserable offender. Never has the part to be sustained by the worshipper been declared to be that only of the free and joyous reception of unpurchased favour and the simple reliance of a grateful heart. Never has the victim been represented as provided, not by man, but God, and that victim the object of His own unspeakable and infinite attachment. Never has that victim been represented as offering himself willingly to suffer, not on behalf of his friends, but of his enemies, and for the pardon of the very crime by which he died.

The manner in which it addresses itself to the heart is equally peculiar. Other systems effectuate their purpose the most fully when they can alarm and agitate and appal. It is this alone which lulls the breast into sacred tranquillity, and, banishing every fear, ravishes the soul with ceaseless adoration, and allures to the cheerful obedience of gratitude and love, and unites the tears of contrition with the ardour of thankfulness and the exultation of hope.-M'AU.

(e) No subtlety of philosophical scepticism can be harder to subdue than that which was opposed to the first proclamation of the Gospel by Porphyry, Celsus, and Julian, and the learned of Greece and Asia; nor any political

power more terrible than that which was exercised by Nero, Domitian, and Maximus; no barbarism more fierce than that of the Scythians, the Sarmatians, and the Gauls; no ignorance more gross, no darkness of the

understanding more intense, than that of the Greenlander and the E-quimaux. But over these the Gospel has already triumphed; and what cause have we then to tremble for the future?-M.AU.

SOUL.

These

The "travail" of the Redeemer signifies the sufferings He underwent. By "the travail of His soul" is meant that peculiar agony of grief by which His soul was affected in the course of His sufferings. The physical sufferings of some of "the noble army of martyrs" equalled, perhaps surpassed, those of their Lord. But the sorrows of His soul forced from Him His bloody sweat, and His cry, "My God," &c. sorrows were wisely designated by the ancient fathers of the Church, "the unknown sufferings of the Son of God." But it is revealed that two of the ingredients in that cup of mental suffering were the burden of the sins of a guilty world, and the furious onslaught of Satan and his emissaries in the utmost violence and plenitude of their power. We must also take into view certain considerations of a peculiar nature which tend to heighten our conceptions of their character and extent :

1. The soul of the Redeemer was perfect in holiness. In proportion to a man's purity of heart is the shock and revulsion of soul of which he is conscious, when he is compelled to witness the debasing and desolating effects of sin. Inconceivably painful must have been the travail of our Redeemer's soul when He was brought into the nearest relation to sin that is possible to a being perfectly pure, when surveying its horrors in the light of His own spotless holiness, when bearing the wrath of His heavenly Father on account of it.

2. The soul of the Redeemer was full of light. Confined to a small spot of the surface of the globe, and capable of interpreting only to a very small

degree those revelations of the future which have been vouchsafed to us, our conception of the real extent of the tendencies and effects of sin is very limited. But to the mind of the Redeemer all the awful effects of sin throughout time and eternity lay bare, and the impression thereby produced must have been correspondingly deep and solemn. Moreover, when man suffers, his sufferings come on him by a gradual process, and he is sustained by the hope of deliverance at every stage of his journey. But to our Redeemer all the parts and constituents of His sufferings were by clear anticipation present at one and the same instant. What, then, must have been "the travail of His soul?"

3. The soul of the Redeemer was full of love. A philanthropist feels with tender acuteness for the distresses of his fellowmen. What, then, must have been the travail of the Redeemer's soul when, in the full flow of His ardent and unlimited benevolence, He surveyed the ruin of man's moral greatness, and died that He might restore him to his forfeited honour?

II. THE RESULTS OF OUR SAVIOUR'S SUFFERINGS AS SEEN BY HIMSELF.

In the preceding part of the chapter, He is represented as suffering the most cruel and ignominious inflictions on account of sin. Here He is represented as beholding the results of His sufferings-in the deliverance of unnumbered millions of sinful men from the condemnation and misery of sin, and their exaltation to blessedness and glory in heaven. Those results began to appear in the entrance of Abel into heaven; and have been seen in every heart, every home, every country in which the work that Christ came into

the world to do has been accomplished. What glorious and exquisitely beautiful results!

III. THE SATISFACTION WHICH THE REDEEMER FEELS IN CONTEMPLATING THE RESULTS OF "THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL." A debased mind is satisfied with what is mean and degrading; a narrow mind will rest contented with what is little and trifling; but an enlarged and comprehensive mind will be pleased only with what is dignified and noble! What, then, can be that which can satisfy the soul of the Divine Redeemer? It is by us inconceivable. But some things we do see

1. That the scheme of redemption affords a bright display of the attributes of God.

2. That through the sufferings and death of Christ the great interests of holiness have been most effectually secured. His people are delivered from the dominion as well as the condemnation of sin. On holiness the welfare and happiness of the universe depend.

3. That by His blood countless myriads of the human race have been redeemed. As He contemplates these things, we may say with reverent confidence, His mind, expanded with the noblest and purest benevolence, must become filled with delight and satisfaction indescribable.

CONCLUSION.-1. This great theme reminds us of the inestimable value of the human soul. Surely that must be inestimably precious the redemption of which, at such a cost, can satisfy the Son of God (P. D. 3204).

2. If the salvation of a soul gives delight to the mind of God, surely He will not reject any awakened sinner who comes to Him in faith (John vi. 37; Rev. xxii. 17; H. E. I. 928, 929).

3. The subject furnishes the most powerful motives to love and obey the Saviour. By so doing we co-operate in the accomplishment of His great design, and contribute to the satisfaction of His soul.

4. The subject furnishes most ample encouragement in the labours and trials of the Christian ministry. The enterprise in which we are engaged is

the opposite of hopeless, for God has promised that by the results of it His Son shall be satisfied, and "He is faithful who hath promised!" Besides, in what can we find greater delight than in doing something to contribute to the satisfaction of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us-Robert Burns, D.D.: Protestant Preacher, vol. iii. pp. 399-408.

(Missionary Sermon.)

I. A FEW THOUGHTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MEANING OF THE TEXT.

He

1. Mark the singularity and greatness which our text would seem to teach us to attach to Christ. It implies a distinction between Christ and the Church. is not a part of it; He does not rank with saved men. He, looking upon them, "shall see of the travail of His soul;" they, looking unto Him, shall behold the source of their spiritual existence. In such a case there must be an essential difference between the parties. To confound them together, as of the same nature, and possessing nothing else on either side, would seem like confounding the potter with the material substance he can fashion as he will, or the Creator of the world with the work of His hands. God is not a part of the creation; nor is Christ a part of the Church. This essential distinction, or at least the supremacy resulting from it, would seem to be indicated by the declaration that "He shall be satisfied;" as if to intimate that were He not, whatever else might be achieved, nothing comparatively would seem to be accomplished.

2. The passage also indicates the peculiar work of Christ, and attaches preeminent importance to that. (1.) This remarkable expression would seem to imply that all the glory of the Church, all the salvation of sinners, the perfec tion of the faithful, whatever in the consequences of His undertaking connected either with God or man can be regarded as a source of satisfaction to Messiah, is to be attributed to the fact that "His soul was made an offering