covered with blood. But though they now took off the purple robe, they took not off the crown of torture. He took forth our thorns on His sacred head, and lays them not aside.

Such was His Death for our sakes, "by whose stripes we are healed." Oh that we could feel more deeply the sins which made Him die! Yet how little we feel them! And yet we must feel them before His blood will wash them away. But we do not feel them while we go on sinning, still indulging our evil habits, not growing in grace. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." But have you ever mourned? can you use the word sorrow to the feeling you have had about sins? How slight compared with His sorrow, which He yet bore for our sakes! He felt infinitely more for, and suffered more under, our sins, than we do ourselves.

SERMON II.

GOOD FRIDAY.

ALL THINGS OF CHRIST TYPICAL.

The things concerning Me have an end.

LUKE Xxii. 37.

THERE was never a word or an action of Jesus, from His birth to His death, without a particular meaning and peculiar force. All the things written concerning Him have an end, a meaning, a reality, which the world do not see or know. We may draw aside the veil, and read and see what is behind it. He is there, as it were behind a veil, and we must draw it aside to know more of Him, if we wish; He must be sought for, and He may be found. May we approach Him with holy awe, with enquiring humility, and contemplate for a few moments His day of sorrows, His week of agony. It is my intention to contemplate the events from the judgment-hall

to the cross, seeing the peculiar force and meaning of each, seeing how all things concerning Him have an end; to continue the consideration from the cross to the sepulchre; and on Easter morning to take the same view with regard to the Resurrection itself.

I. 1. Judas, then, having taken our Lord in the garden, He was first led to the house of Annas, as being the president of the Jewish council. He was then led to Caiaphas, the high-priest, and examined before him. Here He was struck on His head for His answers.

2. Then came an examination before the Jewish council, early in the morning, and here it was that the two false witnesses gave their witness. At this moment St. Peter denied Christ.

3. Then He was led to Pilate to be tried; and He was left outside the prætorium, or judgment-hall, and Pilate came out to Him, and the conversation took place related in John xviii. 29-32.

4. After this Pilate returned into the prætorium, and Jesus with him, leaving the Jews outside, and the conversation, John xviii. 33-38, "What is truth," &c., took place.

5. Pilate, without waiting for an answer, came out again from the prætorium, leaving Jesus alone

within, to speak to His accusers without; when the conversation in John xviii. 38 to the end of the chapter took place. In this conversation was his first express declaration of Christ's innocence, and proposal with regard to Barabbas; all this time Jesus stood alone.

6. Pilate then turned to Jesus, and ordered Him to be scourged.

7. Then he went out the third time, alone, to tell the people Jesus was coming. He came accordingly, wearing the purple robe and the crown of thorns. John xix. 1-5.

8. Jesus, being still in public, exposed, and in such a dress, to the gaze of the people, the conversation took place recorded in John xix. 6-8.

9. Then he entered the prætorium again, the third time, and sent for Jesus; xix. 9-11. Then he came out the fourth time, and made the third intercession with the people for Jesus.

10. Now it was for the first time that Pilate sat down to judge Him in public. Then came the message from Pilate's wife.

11. Pilate was now seated on his judgmentthrone; the accusation of the Jewish council was then brought, and the question asked, "Art Thou the King of the Jews ?" Then the silence of Jesus, He not answering at all to the questions of the

governor. On this followed his declaration of his conviction of His innocence, and his sending Him to Herod. Being dragged back from Herod, still arrayed in His mock robe, Pilate said, "Behold your King."

Having tried to save Him, Pilate washed His hands of His blood. He then gives Him up to be scourged; He was scourged in pub. lic, and this was the second time He had been scourged since the morning. They then cover Him with His own raiment, and lead Him away to crucify Him.

I will now take a more minute and particular view of the case.

II. And I will take four divisions for the remainder of this day of sorrows: 1. From leaving the judgment-hall to the third hour; 2. From the third to the sixth hour; 3. From the sixth to the ninth hour; 4. From the ninth hour to the beginning of the Sabbath, or Saturday morning.

1. Having left the judgment-hall, two thieves were coupled with Him, probably companions of Barabbas. Four soldiers guarded each; so the party was made up of Jesus, His brow still bleeding beneath the crown of thorns, the two thieves, twelve soldiers, and the centurion who commanded them.