Our Expectation

“He shall see his seed.” — Isaiah liii. 10. The first thoug-lit suggested by this text is, that Jesus is still alive for to see anything is the act of a living person. Our Lord Jesus died. We know tJiat he died. “We are glad that there is overwhelming evidence that, not in appearance, but in fact, he died. His side was pierced; he was given up by the Roman authorities for burial; the imperial authorities were sure of his death. The soldier had made assurance doubly sure by piercing his side. His disciples buried him. They would not have left him in the cave if they had felt any doubt about his death. They went in the morning after the Sabbath to embalm him. They were all persuaded that he hadi really died. Blessed be the dying Christ! Here our living hopes take their foundation. If he had not died, we must have died for ever.. The more assured we are of his death, the more assured we feel of’ the life of all who are in him.

But, my brothers, he is not dead. Some years ago, someone, wishing to mock our holy faith, brought out a handbill, which was plastered everywhere — “Can you trust in a dead man?” Our answer would, have been, “No; nobody can trust in a man who is dead.” But it was known by those who printed the bill that they were misrepresenting our faith. Jesus is no longer dead. He rose again the third day.. We have sure and infallible proofs of it. It is an historical fact, betterproved than almost any other which is commonly received as historical,, that he did really rise again from the grave. He arose no more tO” die. He has gone out of the land of tears and death. He has goneinto the region of immortality. Ho sits at the right hand of God, eveui the Father, and he reigns there for ever. We love him that died, but we rejoice that he who died is not dead, but ever liveth to mak: intercession for us.

Dear children of God, do not be afraid that Christ’s work will break down because he is dead. He lives to carry it on. That which lie purchased for us by his death, he lives to secure for us by his life. Do not let your faith be a sort of dead faith dealing with a dead man ;, let it be instinct with life, with warm blood in its veins. Go to youi;’ No. 2,186. j own Christ, your living Christ; make him 3’our familiar Friend, the Acquaintance of your solitude, the Companion of your pilgrimage. Do not think that there is a great gulf between you, a living man, and him. The shades of death do not divide you from him. He lives, he feels, he sympathizes, he looks on, he is ready to help, he will help you even now. You have come in to the place where prayer is wont to be made, burdened and troubled, and joli seek relief; let the thought that your Lord is a living Friend ease you of your burden. He is still ready to be your strong Helper, and to do for you what he did for needy ones in the days of his sojourn here below. I want even you, who do not know him, to remember that he lives, that you may seek him to-night — that ere another sun shall rise you may find him, and, finding him, may yourselves be found, and saved. Do not trj- to live without the living, loving Friend of sinners. Seek his healing hand; then beg for his company; get it; keej) it; and joii shall find that it makes life below like heaven above. When 3’ou live with the living Christ, you will live indeed. In him is light, and the light is the life of men.

And now to the text itself, with brevity. I have to observe upon it, fii’st, that Chrisfs death produced a posterity. “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.” Evidently the death of Christ was fruitful of a seed for him. Secondly, that posterity remains. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not look to-day on emptiness: he is not bereaved of his household, but still he sees his seed. And, thirdly and lastly, that posterity is tinder his immediate eye at all times, for “ile shall see his seed.”

I. Well, first of all, the death of Christ has produced a posterity. We do not read here that the Lord Christ has followers. That would be true; but the text prefers to say he has a seed. We read just now that the Lord Jesus has disciples. That would be distinctly true; but the text does not so read. It says, *’ He shall see his seed.’’’’ Why- his seed? Why, because everyone, who is a true follower or disciple of Christ, has been born by a new birth from him into the position of disciple. There is no knowing Christ except through the new birth. We are naturally sold under sin, and Ave cannot discern the spiritual and real Christ until we have a spirit created within us by the new birth, of which he said, “Ye must be born again.” This is the gate of entrance into discijoleship. None can be written in the roll of followers of Christ unless they are also written in the register of the family of Grod — “this and that man was born there.” Other men can get disciples for themselves by the means that are usual for such ends; but all the disciples of Christ are pro- •tluced by miracle. They are all discipled by being newly-created. Jesus, as he looks upon them all, can say, “Behold, I make all things new.” They all come into the world, of which he is King, by being born into it. There is no other way into the first world but by birth: and there is no other way into the second world, wherein dwelleth righteousness, but by birth, and that birth is strictly connected with the pangs of the Saviour’s passion, “when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.” See, then, the reason why we have here the remarkable expression — “his seed.”

OUR EXPECTAnON. 6.^5

Learn from this that all who truly follow Christ, and are saved by tim, have his life in them. The parent’s life is in the child. From the parent that life has been received. It is Christ’s life that is in every true believer — “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” We have our natural life, and this makes tis men: we have our spiritual life, and this makes us Christians. AVe take life from our parents, this links us with the first Adam: we have taken life from Christ, and this joins us to tire second Adam. Do not mistake me; that same life which abides in Christ, at the right hand of God, is that everlasting life which he has bestowed upon all those who put their trust in him. That water springing up into everlasting life he gave us. He made it to be in us a well of water springing up. The first drops of that living spring, the whole outcome of the spring, and the spring itself, came from him.

Let me put it to you, beloved hearers. Do you know anything about this new birth? Do you know anything about this divine life? There are multitudes of religious people, very religious peoyle; but they are as dead as door-nails. Multitudes of religious persons are like waxworks, well-proportioned, and you might mistake them by candle-light for life; but in the light of God you would soon discover that there is a mighty difference, for the best that human skill can do is a poor imitation of real life. You, dear hearer, dressed in the garments of family religion, and adorned with the jewels of moral virtue, may be nothing beyond “a child of nature finely dressed, but not the living child.” God’s living children may not seem to be quite so handsome, nor so charmingly arrayed as you are, and in their own esteem they may not be worthy to consort with you; but there is a solemn difference between the living child and the dead child, however you may try to conceal it. Righteous men know themselves to be sinners: sinners believe themselves to be righteous men. There is more truth in the fear of the first than there ca,n be in the faith of the second; for the faith of the second is founded on a falsehood. Beloved, we become, I say again, the followers of Christ by being made partakers of his life, and unless his life be in us, we may say what we will about Christ, and profess what we like about following him; but we are not in the secret. We are out of the spiritual world altogether — that world of which he is the Head, the Creator, the Lord. You see why the word “seed” is used. We come to him by birth: we are partakers of his life.

Furthermore, believers in our Lord are said to be his seed because they are like kiiiu I wish that I could say this with less need to qualify it; but the man who really believes in Jesus, and in whom the divine life is strong and powerful, is like to Jesus, and especially like to Jesus in this — that, as the Christ consecrated himself wholly to God’s service and glory, so has this believer done; and as the Christ founded his successes on being dead and buried, surrendering honour, and comfort, and life itself, for his work, so should the true believer be willing to give up anything and everything, that he may achieve his life-purpose, and bring glory to God. “As he is, so are we in this world” — that is, we are bent upon the glory of God; filled with love to men, and anxious fi36 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE PULPIT.

for their salvation, that God may be glorified thereby. You know best brothers and sisters, whether this is true of you; but if we have not the Spii’it of Christ, we are none of his. If we are not like Christ, it is not possible that we are his seed, for the seed is like the parent. Surely, children are like their father — not all to the same degree; but still there is the evidence of their souship in their likeness to him from whom they came. Our Lord’s true people are like him, or they could not be styled “his seed.” Alas, the old nature blots and blurs theresemblance! The stamp of the first Adam is not altogether removed ;. but it ought to grow fainter and fainter, while the lines of the divineportrait should grow stronger and clearer. Is this the experience of our life in Christ? I pray that it may be so. It should cause us great searcliiug of heart if there is not in us an increasing likeness to our Lonl.

There is this to be said also for those who are called his seed — that they prosecute the same ends, and expect to receive the same rewards We are towards Christ, his seed, and thus we are heirs to all that he has — heirs to his business on earth, heirs to his estate in heaven. W& are to be witnesses to the truth as Jesus was, and to go about doing good as he did, and to seek and save the lost after his example-This we must inherit, as a son follows his father’s business. All that Christ has belongs to his seed. As a man hands down to his postei-ity his possessions, Christ Jesus has made over to his people all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he ever will be, that they may be with him, and behold his glory, and shine with him as the stars for ever and ever. We are his seed in this respect — that he has taken us into his family, and given us the family patrimony, and made us partakers of all things in himself.

Now, beloved, this is all through his death. We are made his seed through his death. Why through his death principally? Why-, because it was by reason of his death for us that the Father could come and deal with us, and the Spirit could breathe upon us, and new-create us. There was no dealing with us by a just Cod until th& atoning Sacrifice had rolled away the stone that blocked the way,, namely, the necessity that sin should be punished. Christ having died for us, we came into another relation to justice, and it became possible for us to be regenerated, and brought into the household of God. Beloved, I think that you know, in your own experience, that it was his death that really operated most upon you in the matter of your conversion. I hear a great talk about the example of Christ havinggreat effect upon ungodly men; but I do not believe it, and certainly have never seeiwj. It has great effect upon men when they are born again, and are saved from the wrath to come, and are full of gratitude on this account; but before that happens, we have known men admire the conduct of Christ, and even write books about the beauty of his character, while, at the same time, they have denied his Godhead. Thua they have rejected him in his essential character, and there has been no effect produced upon their conduct by their cold admiration of his life. But when a man comes to see that he is pardoned and saved through the death of Jesus, he is moved to gratitude, and then to love. “We love him because he first loved us.” That love which he-OUE KXl’ECTATIOX.

-displayed in his death has touched the mainspring of our being, and moved us with a j)assion to which we were strangers before; and, because of this, we hate the sins that once were sweet, and turn with all our hearts to the obedience that once was so unpleasant. There is more effect in faith in the blood of Christ tochauge the human character than in every other consideration. The cross once seen, sin is crucified: the passion of the Master once ai)prehended as being endured for us, we then feel that we are not our own, but are bought with a price. This perception of redeeming love, in the death of our Lord Jesus, makes all the difference: this prepares us for a higher and a better life than we have ever known before. It is his death that does it.

And now, beloved, if by his death we have become his seed (and I think I speak at this time to many who can truly say they’ hope that it is so with them), then let us consider the fact for a minute. We are his seed. They speak of the seed royal. What shall I say of the seed of Christ? Believer, jou may be a poor person, living in an obscure lane, but 3’ou arc of the imperial house. You are ignorant and unlettered, it may be, and your name will never shine in the roll of science, but ho who is the divine Wisdom owns you as one of his seed. It may be that you are sick: even now your head is aching, jour heart is faint ;^ou feefthat by-and-by you will die. Ah, well! but you are of his seed who died, and rose, and is gone into glory. You are of the seed of him “who only hath immortality.” You may jDut away your crowns, ye kings and emperors — earth, yellow earth, hammered, and decorated, with other sparkling bits of soil — you may put them all away, as altogether outdone in value! We have crowns infinitely more precious, and we belong to a. royal house trauscendently more glorious than any of yours.

But then it follows, if we are thus of a seed, that we ought to be united, and love each other more and more. Chi-istian people, 3’ou ought to have a clannish feeling! “Oh,” says one, “3’ou mean that the Baptists ought to get together!” I do not mean anything of the kind. I mean that the seed of Christ should be of one heart; and we ought to recognize that, wherever the life and love of Jesus are to be found, there our love goes out. It is very delightful, at Christmas time, or perhaps at some other time in the year, for all the family to meet; and though your name may be “Smith” or “Brown,” yet you feel there is some importance in your name, when all your clan have met togetlitr. It may be a name that is very common, or very obscure; but, somehow, you feel quite great on that day when all the members of the family have joined to keep united holiday. Your love to one another gathers warmth, as the glowing coals are drawn together. So may it be in your heart towards all those that belong to Christ! You are of the blood royal of heaven. You are neither a Guelph nor a HohenzoUern, but you are a Christian; and that is a greater name than all. He has a seed — even he whom, unseen, we this night adore. My inmost soul glories in the Head of my clan — in him of the pierced hands, and the nailed feet, who wears for his princely star the lance-mark in his side! Oh, how blessedly bright is he! How transcendently glorious are the nail-prints! We adore him in the

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infinite majesty of his unutterable love. We are of his seed, and sO’ we are near akin to him. Do not think that I am too familiar. I go not beyond the limit which this word allows me; nay, I have scarcely come up to the edge of it. We are truly of the seed of Jesus, even, as the Jews are of the seed of Israel — not born after the flesh, for he had none born to him in that way; but born after the Spirit, wherein his seed is as the stars of heaven. We rejoice with exultation as we read the text, “He shall see his seed.”

Thus much on oiu- first point.

II. Now, my second point is, that posterity of his remains. Our Lord always has a seed. That seems to me to be clear from the indefiniteness of the text. It does not say that he shall see his seed for so long, and then no longer; but it stands as a prophecy fulfille.l, always fulfilling, and always to be fulfilled: — “He shall see his seed.” Christ will always have a seed to see. His church, then, will never die out while the world standeth; and throughout eternity that seed must still exist in the endless state; for world without end our-Lord Jesus shall see his seed.

I notice that the word is in the plural — “He shall see his seeds,” as. though some were truly his seed, and yet for a time, at least, differed from the rest. Our Lord said of those not yet converted, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring; ‘’ and again,” Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” Christ will see generation after generation of those redeemed by his blood who shall be born, into his family, and shall call him blessed. Instead of the fathersshall be the children, whom he will make princes in all the earth. The Sej)tuagiut reads it, “He shall see a long-lived seed.” Thougk I do not think that the version is correct, it shows that still it was thought and believed that the Messiah would have a perpetual seed. Certainly it is so. Beloved, if it had been possible to destroy the church of (iod on earth, it would have been destroyed long ago.. The malice of hell has done all that it could do to destroy the seed of Christ — the seed that sprang from his death. Standing in the Colosseum at Rome, I could not, as I looked around on the ruins of that vast house of sin, but praise God that the church of God existed,, though the Colosseum is in ruins. Anyone standing there, when the thousands upon thousands gloated their eyes with the sufferings of Christians, would have said, “Christianity will die out; but the Colosseum, so firmly built, will stand to’the end of time; “but lo, the Colosseum is a ruin, and the church of God more firm, more strong, more glorious than ever! Only read the story of the persecutions under NerOj and under Diocletian, in the olden times, and you will wonder that Christianity survived the cruel blows. Every form of torture which devils could invent was inflicted upon Christian muii and women. Not here and there, but everywhere, they were huntiul down and persecuted. It makes one thrill with horror as he reads of women tossed on the horns of bulls, or set in red-hot iron chairs; and. men smeared with honey to be stvmg to death by wasps, or dragged, at the heels of wild horses, or exposed to savage beasts in the ampliitheatre B;)t I will say no more about it. The gallant vessel of the church ploughed the red waves of a crimson sea, her prow scarlet with gore, but the ship itself was the” better for its washing-, and sailed all the more gallantly because of boisterous winds. As to our own. country, read the story of persecutions here. You will have enough if you only read Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs.” I wish that every house had in it a large-typed copy of the “Book of Martyrs.” Well do L recollect, as a child, how many hours, how many days, I spent looking; at the pictures in an old-fashioned “Book of Martyrs,” and wonderinghow the men of God suffered, as they did, so bravely. I recollect how I used to turn to that boy of Brentford, who was first beaten with. rods, and afterwards tied to the stake, cheerfully to burn for Christ’ssake. I am reminded, by the effect which it had uj)on my m.ind, of what was said of a certain ancient church in this city of London, which was greatly persecuted. Many, many years ago, a number of persons were noticed to be going towards Smithfield, early one morning, and somebody said, “Whither are you going ‘?” “We are going to Smithfield.” “What for?” “To see our pastor burnt.” “Well, but what, in the name of goodness, do you want to see him. burnt for? What can be the good of it?” They answered, “We go to see him burn that we may learn the way.” Oh, but that was grand! “To learn the way!” Then the rank and file of the followers of Jesus learned tln’ way to suffer and die as the leaders of the church. set the example. Yet the church in England was not destroyed by persecution, but it became more mighty than ever because of theopposition oLila-foes.

Since then there have been laborious attempts to destroy the church of Christ by eri-or. One hundred 3’ears ago or so, throughout the most of our Dissenting churches, a sort of Unitarianism was triumphant. The essential doctrines of the gospel were omitted, the pith of it was. taken away, the marrow was torn out of its bones. The Church ol England was asleep, too; and everywhere it seemed as if there was a kind of orthodox heterodoxy that did not believe anything in particular, and did not hold that there was a doctrine worth anybody’s living for or dying for, but that all religious teaching should be like a nose of wax, that you might shape whichever way you liked.. It looked as if the living church of God would be extinguished altogether; but it was not so, for God did but stamp his foot, and, from, all parts of the country, men like Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitefield, came to the front, and hundreds of others, mighty men of valour, proclaimed the gospel with unusual power, and away went the bats and the owls back to their proper dwelling-place. The same mischievous experiment is being tried now, and there will be the same residt; for the living Christ is still to the front. The King is not off the ground yet: the battle will be won by his armies. Jehovah has declared his decree, •’Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” Our Lord shall see his seed on the conquering hand yet.

Worldliness has gone a long way to destroy the church of God. I judge it to be the worst cankerworm that asails us. Persons come into the church with a profession which they never carry out. Have we not all around us persons who say that they are Christians, and are not, but do lie And many who, we hope, are Christians, are but.

very poverty-stricken specimens of the race, with, little love, little zeal (indeed, they are afraid to be too zealous), little searching of the Word, little prayer, little consecration, little communion with Grod. They are enough to kill all hope of better things. The Lord have mercy upon his poor church when she comes to be neitjier cold nor hot, so that he is ready to spue her out of his mouth! Yet, still the lukewarm can be heated: the cause is not dead. “He shall see his seed.” Take it as a standing miracle that there are any godly people on the face of the earth; for there would not be one were it not for the exertion of miraculous power. Christianity is not a natural growth: it is constantly a divine creation. Christian life needs to have daily the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The church must perpetually receive fresh light and life from above, or else it would die; but still stands the promise, “He shall see his seed.” While sun and moon endure, 1;here shall be a people who follow the Lamb; and even though they be so few that Elias might say, “I, only I, am left, and they seek my life to take it away,” God will reserve to himself thousands that have not bowed the knee to Baal.

III. And now I am to wind up with this third thought: — This

POSTERITY IS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMMEDIATE EYE OF ChRIST. “He shall

see his seed.” Oh, I like this, “He shall see his seed “! He sees them when they are first born anew. I keep looking out from this pulpit for that small portion of them that may be born in this place; and there are many watchful brethren and sisters here, who try to speak to all that come into the place in whom there are movings of the Spirit. If there is an anxious soul, they seek to find him out. We cannot sec them all; but HE shall see his seed. Sometimes it is a question whether they are his seed or not — a very great question with themselves, but none with him: he sees his seed. Some are seeking; they have hardly found; they are longing; they have scarcely realized the way of faith. Ah, well! he sees your first desires, your humble breathings, your lowly hopes, j’our trembling approaches. He sees you. There is not a child of his, born in any out-of-the-way place, but what he perceives him at once. The first living cry, the first living tear, he observes. “He shall see his seed.” AVhat a mercy to have such a Watcher! We poor earthly pastors are of small use; but this great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, with an eye that never misses a single new-born lamb of gi’ace — what a mercy to have such a Shepherd to look after the whole flock! “He shall see his seed.”

Yes, and ever afterward, wherever his seed may wander, he still «ees them. Some of you, perhaps, have lived long in England, but you are contemplating going far away — to Australia or America. You wonder whether you will meet with any friend who will help you spiritually. Do not fear. “He shall see his seed.” “Rivers unknown to song, are not unknown to God.” And if you should have to dwell quite alone in the bush, and have no Christian acquaintance, still go direct to the Son of God, for “He shall see his seed.” The eye of Christ is never off from the eye of faith. If you look to him, rest you well assured that he looks to you.

The beauty of it is, that this look of Christ, whereby he sees hig fieed, is one of intense delight. I cannot preach upon that most precious topic, tut I wish you to think it over: it is a divine pleasure to the Lord Jesus to look at you: it is promised him as a reward for his death. Mother, you know yourself what a pleasure it has been for 30U to look at your daughter, and to see her grow up. You would not like to tell her all you have thought of her: you have looked at her with intense delight. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ looks at you in just the same way. Love is blind, they say. Jesus is not blind; but he does see in his people much more than they ever will see in themselves. He sees their hopes, their desires, their aspirations; and he often takes the will for the deed, and marks that for a beauty which now may be half-developed, and therefore not all we could wish it to be. It is, at present, the caricature of a virtue; but it is well meant, and will come right, and the Lord sees it as it will be, and he rejoices in it. Oh, what blessed eyes those are of his that can spy out beauties which only he can see! Since he has created them, and put them there himself, he sees them. “He shall see his seed.” He suffered so much for our redemption, that he must love us. We cost higi so much, that he must delight in us.

“The Son with joy looks down, and sees

The purchase of his agonies.”,

“He shall see his seed.”

Brethren, our Saviour will always behold his redeemed ones. He will see all his seed to the last. When they come to the river which divides them from the celestial country, “he shall see his seed.” It may possibly be gloomy with some of you; but it is not often dark at death-time. Many of the Lord’s children have a fine candle to go to bed with. Even if they go to bed in the dark, they fall asleej) the sooner; but in either case, their Lord will see them if they cannot see him. When you can see nothing, and the brain begins to reel, and thought and memory flee, he sees his seed.

But what a seed he will have to see in the morning! I am not yet an old man, as some suppose from the many years of my ministry, but I am often looking forward to that blessed morning, when all the sacred seed shall meet around the throne. I believe the Christ will come in to see all his beloved purchased ones; and he will search to see whether we are all there. Then shall the sheep pass again under the hand of him that telleth them, and he will count them, for he knows whom he bought with his blood, and he will see that they are there in full tale. I think that I hear the reading of the register, the muster-roll. Will you be there to answer to your name? Dear friends, all the Lord’s seed will be there — all that were born into his house with a new birth. They shall answer, “Ay, ay, ay, we are here; we are here!” Oh, but the joy we shall have in being there — the delight in beholding his face, yet, if all our joys are put together, they will not equal the joy that he will have when he finds them all there for whom he shed his blood — all whom the Father gave him — all who gave themselves to him — all who were born as his seed — not one lost! “Of all whom thou hast given me, I have lost none.” Oh, the joy, the delight, of our Well-beloved in that day! Then shall he see his seed!

And I beHeve that it will be a part of his heaven for him to look 2s

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upon His redeemed. He is the Bridegroom, they make up the bride; and the bridegroom’s joy is not in seeing his bride for once on the wedding-day, but he takes delight in her as long as they both live. A true husband and a true spouse are alwa^s lovers: they are always linked together by strong ties of affection; and it is so with that model Husband, the Lord Christ, and his perfect church above. He loves his people no less, and he could not love them any more, than when he died for them, and so for ever “he shall see his seed.”

Thus have I talked with you in a very poor and feeble way, as far as my speech is concerned: but the doctrine is not feeble, the gospel is not poor. 0 you that are the seed of Christ, go out and magnify him by your lives! Be worthy of your high calling. Show the nobility of your pedigree by the magnanimity of your Uves. And, you that are not among his seed, see where you are! What can you do? All that you can do will bring you no further: you must be born again; and this is the work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God works the new birth in his own way, but he works according to the gospel. What is the gospel? “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” I give you the gospel without mutilating it, just as I get it in the gospel by Mark, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Obey the precept, and the promise is yours. God help you to believe in the Lord Jesus, and so to have eternal life! The moment you believe in Jesus Christ you are born again. May he, by his Holy Spirit, seal the message with his blessing to everyone in this house, for his own name’s sake! Amen.

Portion of Scripture read before Sermon — John xii. 20 — 45.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book” — 325, 332, 302.

JESUS IXTERCEDING FOR TRANSGRESSORS.

Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, November IStii, 1877, by
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

•’ And made intercession for the transgressors.” — Isaiah liii. 12.

Our blessed Lord made intercession for transgressors in so many words while he was being crucified, fur he was heard to say, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” It is generally thought that he nttered this prayer at the moment when the nails were piercing his hands and feet, and the Roman soldiers were roughly performing their duty as executioners. At the very commencement of his passion he begins to bless his enemies with his prayers. As soon as the rock of our salvation was smitten there flowed forth from it a blessed stream of inter- •cession.

Our Lord fixed his eye upon that point in the character of his perse- •cutors which was most favourable to them, namely, that they knew net what they did. He could not plead their innocence, and therefore he pleaded their ignorance. Ignorance could not excuse their deed, but it did lighten their guilt, and therefore our Lord was quick to mention it .as in some measure an extenuating circumstance. The Roman soldiers, of course, knew nothing of his higher mission; they were the mere tools of those who were in power, and though they “mocked him, <;oming to him, and ofiering him vinegar,” they did so because they misunderstood his claims and regarded him as a foolish rival of Ctesar, only worthy to be ridiculed. No doubt the Saviour included these rough Gentiles in his supplication, and perhaps their centurion who “glorified <5od, saying. Certainly this was a righteous man,” was converted in answer to our Lord’s prayer. As for the Jews, though they had some measure of light, yet they also acted in the dark. Peter, who would not have flattered any man, yet said, “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.” It is doubtless true that, had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, though it is equally clear that they ought to have known him, for Jiis credentials were clear as noon day. Our Redeemer, in that dying prayer of his, shows how quick he is to see anything which is in any degree favourable to the poor ch’ents whose cause lie has undertaken. He spied out in a moment the only fact upon which compassion could find foothold, and he secretly breathed out his loving heart in the cry,. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Our great Advocate will be sure to plead wisely and etficiontly on our behalf; he will urge every argument which can be discovered, for his eye, quickenedi by love, will suOer nothing to pass which may tell in our favour.

The prophet, however, does not, I suppose, intend to confine our thoughts to the one incident which is recorded by the evangelists, for theintercession of Christ was an essential part of his entire life-work. The mountain’s side often heard him, beneath the chilly night, pouring out. his heart in supplications. He might as fitly be called the man of prayers as “the man of sorrows.” He was always praying, even when his lips moved not. While he was teaching and working miracles by day he was silently communing with God, and making supplication for men; and his nights, instead of being spent in seeking restoration froni his exhausting labours, were frequently occupied with intercession. Indeed, our Lord’s whole life is a prayer. His career on earth was intercession wrought out in actions. Since “he prayeth best who loveth best,” he was a mass of prayer, for he is altogether love. He is not only the channel and the example of prayer, but he is the life and force of prayer. The greatest plea with God is Christ himself. The argument which always prevails with God is Christ incarnate, Christ, fulfilling the law, and Christ bearing the penalty. Jesus himself is the reasoning and logic of prayer, and he himself is an ever living prayerunto the M<;st High.

It was part of our Lord’s official work to make intercession for thetransgressors. He is a Priest, and as such he brings his offering, and. presents prayer on the behalf of the people. Our Lord is the Great High Priest of our profession, and in fulfilling this office we read that he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears; and we know that he is now offering up prayers for the souls of men.. This, indeed, is the great work which he is carrying on to-day. We rejoice in his finished work, and rest in it, but that relates to his atoning sacrifice; his intercession springs out of his atonement, and it will never cease while the blood of his sacrifice retains its power. The blood of sprinkling continues to speak better things than that of Abel. Jesus ispleading now, and will be pleading till the heavens shall be no more. For all that come to God by him he still presents his merits to the Father, and pleads the causes of their souls. He urges the grand argument derived from his life and death, and so obtains innumerable blessings for the rebellious sous of men.

I. I have to direct your attention this morning to our ever-living; Lord making intercession for the transgressors; and as I do so I shall pray God, in the first place, that all of us may be roused to adjuration FOR HIS GRACE. Come, brethren, gather up your scattered thoughts and meditate upon him who alone -u-as found fit to stand in the gap and turn. away wrath by his pleading. If you will consider his intercession fortransgressors I think you will be struck with the love, and tenderness, and; graciousness of his heart, when you recollect that he offered i?ifercessio/ip rerdally tchile he was standing in the midst of their sin. Sin heard of and sin seen are two very dilferent things. We read of crimes in the mewspapers, but we are not at all so horrified as if we had seen them foi ourselves. Our Lord actually saw human sin, saw it unfettered and unrestrained, saw it at its worst. Transgressoi’s surrounded his person, and by their sins darted ten thousand arrows into his sacred heart, and yet while they pierced him he prcjyed for them. The mob compassed him Toiind about, yelling, “Crucify him, crucify him,” and his answer was ■“Father, forgive them”: he knew their cruelty and ingratitude, and felt them most keenly, but answered them only with a prayer. The great ones of the earth were there, too, sneering and jesting — Pharisee and Sadducee and Herodian — he saw their selfishness, conceit, falsehood, and bloodthirstiness, and yet he prayed. Strong bulls of Bashan had beset him round, and dogs had compassed him, yet he interceded for men. Man’s sin had stirred up all its strength to slay God’s love, and therefore sin had arrived at its worst point, and yet mercy kept pace with malice, and out-Tan it, for he sought forgiveness fur his tormentors. After killing prophets and other messengers, the wicked murderers were now saying, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.” And jet that heir of all things, who might have called fire from heaven upon them, died crying, “Father, forgive them.” He knew that what they did was sin, or he would not have prayed “forgive them,” but yet he :set their deed in the least unfavourable light, and said, “they know not what they do.” He set his own sonship to work on their behalf, and appealed to his Father’s love to pardon them for his sake. Never was virtue set in so fair a frame before, never goodness came so adorned ■w’ith abundant love as in the person of the Lord Jesus, and yet they hated him all the more for his loveliness, and gathered round him with the deeper spite because of his infinite goodness. He saw it all, and felt the sin as you and I cannot feci it, for his heart was purer, and therefore tenderer than ours: he saw that the tendency of sin was to put him to death, and all like him, yea and to slay God himself if it could achieve its purpose, for man had become a Deicide and must need? crucify his God — and yet, though his holy soul saw and loathed all this tendency and atrocity of transgression, he still made intercession for the transgressors. I do not know whether I convey my own idea, but to me it seems beyond measure wonderful that he should know sin so thoroughly, understand its heinousness, and see the diift of it, and feel it so wantonly assailing himself when he was doing nothing but deeds of ilvindness; and yet with all that vivid sense of the vileness of sin upon him, even there and then he made intercession for the transgressors, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Ai’.othcr point of his graciousness was also clear on that occasion, aiamely, that he should ilius intercede while in agony. It is marvellous that he should be able to call his mind away from his own pains to coniiidcr their transgressions. You and I, if we are subject to great pains of body, do not find it easy to command our minds, and especially to collect our thoughts and restrain them, so as to forgive the person inflicting the pain, and even to invoke blessings on his head. Remember that your Lord was suffering while he made intercession, beginning to suffer the pangs of death, suffering in soul as ^lell as in body.

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for he had freslily come from the garden, where his soul was c’<“eodi7igj sorrowful, even unto death. Yet in the midst of that depie-isioii of spirit, which might well have made him forgetful of the wretched beings wno were putting him to death, he forgets himself, and he only thinks of them, and pleads for them. I am sure that we should have been taken up with our pains even if we had not been moved to some measure of resentment against our tormentors; but we hear no complaints from our Lord, no accusations lodged with God, no angry replies to them such as Paul once gave — “God shall smite thee, thou whited wall”; not even a., word of mourning or of complaining concei-ning the indignities which he endured, but his dear heart all ascended to heaven in that one blessed petition for his enemies, which there and then he presented to his. Father.

But I will not confine your thoughts to that incident, because, as I have already said, the prophet’s words had a wider range. To me it ismarvellous ihat he, being pure, should plead for fransr/ressors at all: for you and for me amongst them — let the wondei- begin there. Sinners by nature, sinners by practice, wilful sinners, simiers who cling to sia with a terrible tenacity, sinners who come back to sin after we; have smarted for it; and yet the Just One has espoused our cause, and has become a suitor for our pardon. We are sinners who omit duties. when they are pleasures, and who follow after sins which are known to involve sorrow: sinners, therefore, of the most foolish kind, wanton. wilful sinners, and yet he who hates all sin has deigned to take our part,. and plead the causes of our souls. Our Lord’s hatred of sin is as great as his love to siimers; his indignation against everything impure is as great as that of the thrice holy God who relengeth and is furious when he comes, inco contact with evil; and yet this divine Prince, of whom we sing,. “Thou lovest righteousness and hatest la ickedness,” espouses the cause of transgressors, and pleads for them. Oh, matchless grace! Surely angels wonder at this stretch of condescending love. Brethren, words fail me to speak of it. I ask you to adore!

Further, it is to me a very wonderful fact that in his ylory lie sJiould’ still be pleading for sinners. There are some men who when they have reached to high positions forget their former associates. They knew the poor and needy friend once, for, as the proverb hath it, poverty brings us strange bedfellows, but when they have risen out of such conditions they are ashamed of the people whom once they knew. Our Lord is not thus forgetful of the degraded clients whose cause he espoused in the days of his humiliation. Yet though I know his constancy I marvel and admire,. The Son of man on earth pleading for sinners is very gracious, but I am overwhelmed when I think of his interceding fur sinners now that he reigns yonder, where harps unnumbered tune his praise and cherubim and seraphim count it their glory to be less than nothing at his feet, wherj all the glory of his Father is resijleiident in himself, and he sitteth at the right hand of God in divine favour and majesty unspeakable. How can we hear without amazement that the King of kings and Lord of lords occupies himself with caring for transgressors — caring indeed for you and me. It is condescension that he should commune with the blood-washed before his throne, and allow the ierfect spirits to be his companions, but that his heart should steal away from all heaven’s felicities-JESUS INTERCKDING FOR TRANSaiiESSuKS. 817

to remember such poor creatures as we are and make incessant prayer on our behalf, this is like his own loving self — it is Christlike, Godlike. Methinks I see at this moment our great High Priest pleading before the throne, wearing his jewelled breastplate and his garments of glory and beauty, wearing our names upon his breast and his shoulders in the most holy place. What a vision of incomparable love! It is a fact, and no mere dream. He is within the holy of holies, presenting the one sacrifice. His prayers are always heard, and heard for us, but the marvel is that the Son of God should condescend to exercise such an office and make intercession for transgressors. This matchless grace well nigh seals my lips, but it opens the floodgates of my soulj’and I would fain pause to worship him whom my words fail to set forth.

Again, it is gloriously gracious that our Lord should continue to do this; fi jT lo, these eighteen hundred years and more he has gone into his glory, yet hath he never ceased to make intercession for transgressors. Never on heaven’s most joyous holiday when all his armies are marshalled, and in their glittering squadrons pass in review before the King of kings, has he forgotten his redeemed ones. The splendours of heaven have not made him indifferent to the sorrows of earth. Never, though, for aught we know, he may have created myriads of worlds, and though assuredly he has been ruling the courses of the entire universe, never once, I say, has he suspended his incessant pleading for the transgressors. Nor will he, for the holy Scriptures lead us to believe that as long as he lives as mediator he will intercede: “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” He lived and lives to intercede, as if this were the express object of his living. Beloved, as long as the great Redeemer lives and there is a sinner still to come to him, he will still continue to intercede. Oh, my Master, how shall I praise thee! Hadst thou nndertaken such an office now and then, and hadst thou gone into the royal presence once in a while to intercede for some special cases, it would have been divinely gracious on thy part, but that thou shouldst always be a suppliant, and never cease to intercede, surpasses all our praise. Wonderful are his words as written in prophecy by Isaiah, — “For Zion’s sake will I nut hold my peace, and fur Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” As the lamp in the temple went not out, so neither hath our Advocate ceased to plead day nor night. Unwearied in his labour of love, withuut a pause he has urged our suit befure the Father’s face. Beloved, I will not enlarge, I cannot, for adoration of such love quite masters me; but let your hearts be enlarged with abounding love to such an intercessor as this, who made, who does make, and who always will make intercession for the transgressors. I have said, ‘•’ wilt malce,’’ and indeed this is no bare assertiun of mine, for my text may be read in the future as well as in the past: indeed, as you will perceive upon a little thought, it must have been meant to be understood in the future, since the pruphecy was written some seven hundred years before our Lord had breathed his intercessory prayer at the cross: although the prophet, in order tu make his language pictorial and vivid, puts it in the past tense, it was actually in the future to him, and therefure we cannot err in reading it in the fnfcnre, as I have done — “he shall make intercession for the transgressors.” Constant love puts up a ceaseless plea. Endless compassion breathes its endless prayer. Till the last of the redeemed has been gathered home that interceding breath shall never stay, nor cease to prevail.

II. Thus have I called you to feel admiration for his grace; and now, secondly, I do earnestly yray that we may be led of the Holy Ghost so to view his intercession for transgressors as to put our confidence in HIMSELF. There is ground for a sinner’s confidence in Christ, and there is abundant argument for the believer’s complete reliance in him, from the fact of his perpetual intercession.

Let me show you this first, because, beloved, his intercession succeeds. God heareth him, of that we do not doubt; but what is the basis of this intercession? For whatever that is, seeing it makes the intercession to be successful, we may safely rest on it. Read carefully the verse: “Because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many.” See, then, the success of his plea arises out of his substitution. He pleads and prevails because he has borne the sin of those for whom he intercedes. The main stay and strength of his prevalence in his intercession lies in the completeness of the sacrifice which he offered when he bore the sin of many. Come, then, my soul, if Christ’s prayer prevails because of this, so will thy faith. Resting on the same foundation, thy faith will be equally secure of acceptance. Come, my heart, rest thou on that truth — “he bare the sin of many.” Throw thyself with all thy sin upon his substitution and feel that this is a safe resting-place for thy believing, because it is a solid basis for thy Lord’s intercession. The perfect sacrifice will bear all the strain which can possibly come upon it; test it by the strongest faith and see for thyself; plead it with the boldest requests and leara its boundless prevalence. Thou mayest urge the plea of the precious blood with the Father, seeing the Lord Jesus has urged it, and has never failed.

Now, again, there is reason for transgressors to come and trust in Jesus Christ, seeing he ‘plcads for them. You need never be afraid that Chi-ist will cast you out when you can hear liiui pleading for you. If a son had been disobedient and had left his father’s house, and were to come back again, if he had any fear about his father’s receiving him, it would all disappear if he stood listening at the door and heard his lather praying for him. “Oh,” saith he, “my coming back is an answer to my father’s prayer, he will gladly enough receive me.” Whenever a soul comes to Christ it need have no hesitancy, seeing Christ has already prayed for it that it might be saved. I tell you, transgressors, Christ prays for you when you do not pray for yourselves. Did he not say of his believing people, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word “? Before his elect become believers they have a place in his supplications. Before you know yourselves to be transgressors and have any desire for pardon, while as yet you are lying dead in sin, his intercession has gone up even for such as you are. “Father, forgive them” was a prayer for those who had never sought forgiveness for themselves. And when you dare not pray for yourselves he is still praying for you: when under a sense of sin you dare not lift

SO nmch as your eyes towards heaven, when yon think “Surely it would be in vain for me to seek my heavenly Father’s face,” he is pleading for you. Ay, and when you cannot plead, when through deep distress” of mind you feel choked in the very attempt to pray, when the ilanguage of supplication seems to blister your lip because you feel yourself to be so unworthy, when you cannot force even a holy groan from your despairing heart, he stills pleads for you. Oh what encouragement this ought to give you. If yon cannot pray he can, and if you feel as lif your prayers must be shut out, yet his intercession cannot be denied. ■Come and trust him! Come and trust him! He who pleads for you will not reject you: do not entertain so unkind a thought, but come and iast yourself upon him. Hath he not said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out “? Venture upon the assured truth of that word, and you will be received into the abode of his love.

I am sure too that if Jesus Christ pleads for transgressors as transgressors, while as yet they have not begun to pray for themselves, Ae will he sure to hear them tvhen they are at last ted to pray. When the transyressor becomes a penitent, when he weeps because he has gone astray, let us be quite sure that the Lord of mercy who went after him in his sin will come to meet hiui now that he returns. There can be no doubt about that. I have known what it is to catch at this text when I have ibeen heavy in heart. I have seen my sinfulness, and I have been filled with distress, but I have blessed the Lord Jesus Christ that he makes intercession for the transyressors, for then I may venture to believe that he intercedes for me, since I am a transgressor beyond all doubt. Then again, when my spirit has revived, and I have said, “But yet I am :a child of God, and I know I am born from above,” then I have drawn ii further inference, — if he makes intercession for transgressors then ‘depend upon it he is even more intent upon pleading for his own people. If he is heard for those who are out of the way, assuredly he will be heard for those who have returned unto the shepherd and bishop of their souls. For them above all others he will be sure to plead, for he lives to intercede for all who come unto God by him.

In order that our confidence maybe increased, consider the effect of our Lord’s intercession for transyressors. Remember, first, that many of the worst of transgressors have been preserved in life in answer to Christ’s prayer. Had it not been for his pleading they would have been dead long ago. You know the parable of the fig tree that cumbered the ground, bearing no fruit, and impoverishing the soil. The master of the vineyard said, “Cut it down,” but the vine dresser said, “Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well.” Need I say who he is that stays the axe which else had long ago been laid at the root of the barren tree? 1 tell you ungodly men and women that you owe your very lives to my Lord’s interference on your behalf. You did not hear the intercession, but the great owner of the vineyard heard it, and in answer to the gracious entreaties of his Son he has let you live a little longer. Still are you where the gospel can come at you, and where the Holy Spirit can renew you? Is there no ground for faith in this gracious fact? Can you not trust in him through whose iustrumentaUty you are yet alive? Say to your heavenly father,” Lord, and am I yet alive, Not in torments, not in hell! Still doth thy jrood Spirit strive — AVith the chief of sinners dwell? ‘’

And then believe in him to whose pleading you owe the fact that yora are within reach of mercy. AVell doth it become you to confide in him who has already been your preserver from death and hell. May the divine Spirit teach you the reasonableness of my argument, and lead you at once to humble faith in Jesus.

Remember next, that iJiC fjifl of the. Holy Spirit which is needful for the quickening of transgressors was the result of Christ’s intercession. Our poet was right when he said: —

“‘Tis by thine intercedinir breath
The Sjiirit dwells with men.”

I do not doubt but that between the prayer of Christ for his murderers and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost there was an intimate connection. As the prayer of Stejjhen brought Saul into the church and made him an apostle, so the prayer of Christ brought in three thousand at Pentecost to become his disciples. The Spirit of God waa given “to the rebellious also” in answer to the pleadings of our Lord Now, it is a great blessing thus to have the Spirit of God given to the-sons of men, and if this comes through Jesus’ prayers let us trust ia him, for what will not come if we rely upon his power? Upon sinners. he will still display his power; they will be pricked in their hearts, and will believe in him whom they have pierced.

It is through Christ’s intercession that our poor prayers are accepted wUh God. John, in the Revelation, saw another angel standing at the -altar, having a golden censer, to whom there was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden, altar which was before the throne. Whence comes the much incense r What is it but Jesus’ merits? Our prayers are only accepted because of his prayers. If, then, the intercession of Christ for transgressors has made the prayers of trangressors to be accepted, let us without wavering put our trust in him, and let us show it by offering our supplications with a full assurance of faith, and an unstaggering confidence in tiiepromise of our covenant God. Are not all the promises yea and amen in Christ Jesus? Let us remember him, and ask in faith, nothing, wavering.

It is through the prayers of Christ, too, that we are Tcept in the hour of temptation. Remember what he said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not,” when Satan desired to have him and sift him as wheat. “Father, keep them from the evil” is a part of our Lord’s supplication, and his Father hears him always. AVell, if we are kept in the midst of temptation from being destroyed because Christ pleads for us, let us never fear to trust ourselves in his kind, careiul hands. He can keep us, for he has kept us. If his prayers have delivered us out of the hand of Satan, his eternal power can bring us safely home, though death lies in the way.

Indeed, it is because he pleads that ive are saved at all. He is “ablealso to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” This, also, is one grand. reason why we are able to challenge all the accusations of the world. and of the devil, for “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Satan’s charges are all answered by our Advocate. He defends us at the judgment seat. when we stand there like Joshua in filthy garments, accused of the devil ;. and therefore the verdict is always given in our favour — “Take away his filthy garments fi’om him.” Oh ye that would bring slanderous accusations against the saints of God, they will not damage us in the court of the great King, for “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Think, my dear brethren and sisters, of what the intercession of Jesus has done, and you will clearly perceive great inducements to place your sole reliance in your Lord, You who have never trusted him, will you not this very morning begin to do so? Come, weary heart, take the Lord Jesus to be your confidence, — what more do you want? Can you desire a better friend than he is, a more pre’alcnt advocate before the throne? Come,, leave all other trusts, and yield yourselves to him this morning. I pray you accept this advice of love. And you, ye saints, if you are foolish enough to have doubts and fears, come, see how Jesus pleads for you. Give him your burden to bear, leave with him your anxieties at this moment that he may care for you. He will carry on your suit before the eternal throne, and carry it through to success. He who engages a solicitor to manage his legal business among men leaves his affairs in his hands, and he who has such a pleader before God as Christ Jesus, the Wonderful, Counsellor, has no need to torment himself with anxieties. Rather let him rest in Jesus, and wait the result with patience.

“Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead,
Nor doubt the Father’s grace.”

So much, then, for the duty of exercising confidence in him. May the Holy Ghost fill you with faith and peace.

111. And now, in the third place, I pray that our text may inspire us with the spirit of obedience to his example. I say obedience to his example, for I take the example of Christ to be an embodied precept as much binding upon us as his written commands. The life of Christ is a precept to tho-se who profess to be his disciples. Now, brethren in Christ, may I put a few practical matters before you, and will you endeavour by the help of God’s Spirit to carry them out?

I’irst, then, your Lord makes intercession for the transgressors, theref reiiuiiate him htj foryiving all transgressions against yourself. Have any (.•if ended you? Let the very recollection of the offence as far as possible pass from your minds, for none have ever injured you as men injured him; let me say, as you yourself have injured him. They have not nailed you to a cross, nor pierced your hands, and feet, and side; yet if lie said,. “Father, forgive them,” well may you say the same. Ten thousand talents did you owe? Yet he forgave you all that debt, not without a grievous outlay to himself: your brother owes you but a hundred pence,.. ill you take him by the throat? Will you not rather freely forgivehim even to seventy times seven? Can you not forgive him? If you

•652 MKTllOl’OMTAN TABKRNACLE PULPIT.

find it to be impossible I will not speak to you any longer as a Christian, because I must doubt if you are a believer at all. The Lord cannot accept you while you are unforgiving, since he himself says, ■” Theref<)re if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and ofler thy gift.” If peace be not made thou wilt not be accepted. God hears not those in whose hearts malice and enmity find a lodging. Yet I would speak to thee in tones of love rather than with words of .threatening: as a follower of the gentle Christ I beseech thee imitate him in this, and thou shalt find rest and comfort to thine own soul. From the day in which Christ forgiveth thee rise to that nobility of character which finds a pleasure in forgiving all offences fully and frankly for ‘Christ’s salcc. Surely, the atonement which he offered, if it satisfied (jod, may well satisfy thee, and make amends for the sin of thy brother against thee as well as against the Lord. Jesus took upon himself the transgressions of the second table of the law, as well as of the first, and wilt thou bring a suit against thy brother for the sin which Jesus bore? Brethren, ye must forgive, for the blood has blotted the record! Let these words of Scripture drop upon your hearts like gentle dew from heaven, — “Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one :another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

Next, imitate Christ, dear friends, in lAeading for yourselves. Since jou are transgressors, and you see that Jesus intercedes for transgressors, make bold to say, “If he pleads for such as I am, I will put in my humble j)etition, and hope to be heard through him. Since I hear him cry, ‘Father, rforgive them,’ I will humbly weep at his feet, and try to mingle my faint nd trembling plea with bis all-prevalent supplication.” When Jesus .-says, “Father, forgive them,” it will be your wisdom to cry,” Father, forgive me Dear hearer, that is the way to be saved. Let thy prayers hang, like the g Iden bells, upon the skirts of the great High Priest; he will carry them within the veil, and make them ring out sweetly there. As music borne on the breeze is heard afar, so shall thy prayers have a Listener in heaven because Jesus wafts them there. Since thy prayers are ifeeble, yoke them tj the omnipotence of his intercession: let his merits be as wings on which they may soar, and his power as hands with which they may grasp the priceless boons. What shall I say to those who refuse to pray lq they have such an encouragement as the aid of Jesus? Tones of tenderness are suitable when addressing the ungodly, when we would ])crsaade them to pray; but if they refuse the intercession of Jesus Christ himself, then must we add our solemn warnings. If you perish, your blood be on your own heads: we must say Amen to your condemnation, and bear witness that you deserve to be doubly punished. IRejecters of great mercy must expect great wrath. The intercession of your Saviour, when refused, will be visited upon you most terribly in the day when he becomes your judge.

Let us imitate our Lord in a third point, dear friends: namely, if we have been forgiven our transgressions, Jet us now intercede for transgressors, since Jesus does so. He is the great example of all his disciples, and, if he makes it his constant business to suppUcate for sinners, should not his people unite with him? Therefore would I stir up your

JESUS INTERCEDING FOR TRANSGRESSORS. Q^f

pure minds by way of remembrance, to come together in your hundreds, and in your thousands, to pray. Never let our prayer-meetings decline-Let us, as a church, make intercession for transgressors, and never rest from seeking the conversion of all around us. I trust that every day, sO’ often as you bow the knee for yourselves, you will make intercession for the transgressors. Poor things, many of them are sinning against their own souls, but they know not what they do. They think to find pleasure in sin: in this, also they know not what they do. They break the Sabbath, they despise the sanctuary, they reject Christ, they go downward to hell with mirth, singing merry glees as if they were going to a wedding feast: they know not what they do. But you do know what, they are doing. By your humanity — scarcely shall I need to urge a stronger motive, — I say, by mere humanity, I beseech you, do all you can. for these poor souls, and especially pray for them. It is not much you are asked to do; you are not pointed to the cross and bidden to bleed there for sinners, you are but asked to make intercession. Intercession, is an honourable service; it is an ennobling thing that a sinner like yourself should be allowed to entreat the King for others. If you could have permission to frequent the Queen’s courts you would not think it a hardsliipto be asked to present a petition for another; it would be to you a delight to be enjoyed, a privilege to be snatched at eagerly, that you should be permitted to present requests for others. Oh, stand where-. Abraham stood and plead for sinners: Sodom could scarce be worsethan many portions of the world at this hour. Plead, then, with all your hearts. Plead again, and again, and again with the Lord, though ye be but dust and ashes, and cease not till the liord say, “I have heard the petition, I will bless the city, I will save the millions, and my Son shall be glorified.”

I have not quite done, for I have a further duty to speak of, and it: is this; let us take care, dear friends, that if we do plead for others. we mix with it tli& doing of good to them, because it is not recorded that he made intercession for transgressors until it is first written, “he bare the sin of many.” For us to pray for sinners without instructing them, without exerting ourselves to arouse them, or making any sacrifice for their conversion, without using any likely means for theirimpression and conviction, would be a piece of mere formality on our part. According to our ability we must prove the sincerity of our petitions by our actions. Prayer without effort is falsehood, and that cannot be pleasing to God. Yield up yourselves to seek the good of’ others, and then may you intercede with honest hearts.

I>astly, (/ O/irist a2)pears in heaven for us, let us he glad to appear on ear Ih for him. He owns us before God and the holy angels, let us not be ashamed to confess him before men and devils. If Christ ileads with God for men, let us not be backward to plead with men fur God. If’ he by h.is intercession saves us to the uttermost, let us hasten to serve him to the uttcmir)st. If he spends eternity in intercession for us, let, us spend our time in intercession for his cause. If he thinks of us, we ought also to think of his people, and especially supplicate for his afflicted. If he watches our cases, and adapts his prayers to our necessities, let us, observe the needs of his people, and plead for them with understanding. Alas, how soon do men weary of pleading for our Lord. If a whole day is set.

«fi54 METROPOLITAN TABERNACI;E I’Ur.PIT.

apart for prayer and the meetinf is not carefully managed it readily becomes a weariness of the flesh. Prayer-meetings very easily lose their flame ,and bnrn low. Shame on these laggard spirits and this heavy flesh of ours, which needs to be pampered with hveliness and brevity, or we go to sleep at ■onr devotions. “For ever “is not too long for him to plead, and yet an hour tries us here. On, and on, and on through all the ages, still his intercession rises to the throne, and yet we flag and our prayers are half dead in a short season. See, iloses lets his hands hang down, and Amelek is defeating Joshua in the plain! Can we endure to be thus losing victories and causing the enemy to triumph? If your ministers are unsaccessfal, if your labourers f )r Christ in foreign lands make little headway, if the work of Christ di’ags, is it not because in the secret place of intercession we have but little strength? The restraining of prayer is the weakening of the church. If we aroused ourselves to lay hold u]).)u the covenant angel and resolutely cried,” I will not let thee go, except thou bless me,” we should enrich ourselves and our age. If we used more of the strong reasons which make up the weapon of all-prayer, our ‘ictorics would not be so few and far between. Oar interceding Lord is hindered “for lack of an interceding church; the kingdom comes not because so little use is made of the throne of grace. Get ye to your knees, my brethren, for on your knees ye conquer. Go to the mercy-seat and remain there. What better argument can I use with you than this — -Jesus is there, and if you desire his company you must ofttimes resort thither? If you want to taste his dearest, sweetest love, do what he is doing: union of work will create a new communion of heart. Let us never be absent when praying men meet together. Let us make a point of frequenting assemblies gathered for prayer, even if we give up other occupations. While we live let us be above all things men of prayer, and when we die, if nothing else can be said of us, may men give us this e]iita])ii, which is al:> ) our Lord’s memorial — “He made intercession .for the tran.gressurs.” Amen.

I’uii’i’iMX OF ScKiPTL’HK ii;:ad bekoub Sermon — Isaiah liii.

Hymns from “Our Own Hymn Book” — 327, 412, 329.