SERMON XII.

Good Friday.

CHRIST'S MOVING APPEAL FROM THE CROSS.

LAM. I. 12.

"Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see, if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger."

A

LL is over at last-those terrible scenes of injustice

and oppression, of bloodshed and blasphemy. At three o'clock this afternoon, the Holy Sufferer uttered His expiring cry. He bowed His Head, and gave up the Ghost. His Body has ere this been taken down from the Cross; His Face, as we may well conceive, wearing in death that look of holy resignation it bore all along, and, specially, when He commended His departing Spirit into the hands of His Father and ours. The bloody and mutilated corpses of the malefactors have also been removed (for the coming Sabbath was a high day, and it was not deemed seemly that the bodies should remain on the cross); the countenance of the penitent

thief shewing that changed expression, that look of quiet rest and repose so often noticed in the stillness of death, after the struggle for dissolution has been long and violent. The cross of the railing and impenitent thief stands also empty; and I cannot but think that in his remains we should discern the distorted and livid features which, almost invariably, mark the endurance of physical suffering when the soul is unsustained by any hope beyond the grave. The crowd has now dispersed; the streets of Jerusalem no longer echo the maddened cry of "Crucify Him! crucify Him!" the groans of the sufferers, the weeping of friends, and the mockery of the passers by.

The great Sabbath, according to Jewish reckoning, has already begun. The cowardly and time-serving judge has retired, and is, even now, bearing the reproaches of his farther-seeing, if more superstitious, wife, and the keener stings of his own guilty and upbraiding conscience. He has taken a plunge in the downward course this day, poor miserable Pilate! which shall land him, he knows not whither. But we know; for history tells of him, as of others who were guilty of shedding the "innocent blood," that that blood would be required of them; that, like the blood of righteous Abel, it "crieth to GOD from the ground." In vain Pilate washed his hands before all the people this morning; for "not all the waters of Neptune's ocean" shall cleanse him from that stain. The curse is on him. Disgrace, banishment, and a miserable death are the proper sequel of this day's evil deeds. The Sanhedrim too have separated; Annas and Caiaphas to congratulate

themselves on having done their Victim to the death; to satisfy their consciences, if consciences they have, with the self-deception that they were, all along, acting for the good of their country, and to maintain the integrity of their Law, when their real motives were hatred and jealousy, or, as the Scripture says, "envy"-envy so palpable, envy so notorious, that even Pilate himself was aware of it. The honourable councillors Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathæa have also gone home to bewail the national crime, to write "Ichabod" against their beloved country. These noble and righteous men did what they could to avert the catastrophe, for they consented not to the evil deed of the chief Priests and elders. Already they have prepared the spices, and laid the Body in the new tomb. Judas lies a hideous corpse in the Field of Blood, and has gone "to his own place." S. Peter's tears are not yet dry; S. John has taken the holy mother to his own home and is seeking to comfort her; for terribly, indeed, has the sword, according to old Simeon's prophecy, pierced through her soul. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary have followed to see where the beloved Remains are laid. Watchfully will they wait for the dawning of the third day; anxiously will they look into the East to catch the earliest indication of sunrise on the first Easter Day. Like mothers gazing on the remains of their sons, they cannot bear the beloved Object out of their sight; or, if they may not see the Body, they can at least behold the place where their Lord is laid. The Centurion is pondering over the wonderful acts and amazing death of that Son of GOD Whom he had been set to watch; and if very ancient

tradition is to be trusted, he became one whom Christ, by the power of the Cross, drew unto Himself.

Soon the streets of the Holy City will be deserted; its stillness and silence will be meet emblems of the repose of Easter Eve. Its busy population will seek to drown in sleep the recollection of these terrible hours. But Oh! how shall the events of Holy week flash back into their recollection! The children who cried "Hosanna!" shall hardly count a grey hair, before Jerusalem shall be encompassed with armies. That Temple, whose gilded cupola reflects back the rays of the paschal moon, shall be laid low; "not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down." In spite of the counsel of Caiaphas "that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not," the Romans shall come and take away both their "place and nation." The terrible imprecation, "His Blood be on us and on our children," not merely, as has been alleged, raised by an excited mob, but deliberately pronounced on themselves by rulers and people alike, shall be fulfilled. The Jew, degraded in form and debased in mind, a wanderer and a vagabond on the face of the earth, his name a proverb and a byeword, is a standing proof that the Blood which was shed to-day is on him and on his children. That ban will never be removed till GOD shall again look on His ancient people to take away their reproach, and to bring them in "with the fulness of the Gentiles." Brethren! let us pray to GOD to hasten that day: let us intreat Him to look down with the eyes of mercy on their low estate; let us beseech Him in the comprehensive spirit