SERMON IX.

THE PATIENCE OF CHRIST.

I. TIM. I. 16.

Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Unbelief represents God as acting from mere calculation, without any of that direct love which exists among creatures. The principal end of Christ's mediatorial work was to dispel this delusion with every other, and to bring forth the real character of God to view. He "is the image of God," held out to show creatures what God is. The better to do this he appeared in a nature capable of feeling all the passions of men, and in that nature felt, in every moral respect, precisely like God. It was a man taken into personal union with the Deity, that so his feelings might be a public and full exposition of the heart of God. It was God acting with human sensibilities, to show more familiarly how the eternal Father feels,-how men, with their tastes

and passions, ought to feel,—and to reveal the moral contrast between men and God. It was God set forth to view in a visible and tangible form, with all the wants, sensibilities, and temptations of men. It was eternal purity and love laid out upon a human scale.

Amidst the divine glories which shine in the person and work of Christ, my attention now fixes on his patience. To this I am led by the grateful acknowledgment of that wondrous man who, converted from a bloody persecutor to an apostle, had been pardoned at the foot of the cross. "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting."

Passing by other views, I am disposed to contemplate the patience of Christ,

I. As it appeared before Pilate and the Jews. II. As it appears in his long suffering towards his people, both before and after their conversion.

III. As it appears in his consent to atone, and in a sense to answer, for all their sins against himself. I. I am to consider his patience as it appeared before Pilate and the Jews.

Bishop Horsely remarks, that properly to consider the example of Christ, is one of the last things which a mature faith achieves. I will add, that no man is fully prepared to admire the patience of Christ till he has had an opportunity to feel how hard it is to bear malignity and scorn. How does the great apostle of the Gentiles, (probably the ho

liest mere man that ever lived,) fade in comparison with him who stood before Pilate and the Jews. When the high priests, at the head of the Sanhedrim, commanded one to smite him on the mouth, Paul answered with spirit, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall; for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?" But when, in a similar condition, one actually smote Christ, as he would a slave, with the palm of his hand, you hear only this meek reply: "If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?" He was arrested, arraigned, and interrogated as a criminal; but nothing could irritate or discompose him.They brought false witnesses against him; they accused him of blasphemy, and pronounced him worthy of death. They spit in his face; they mocked and buffeted him; they blindfolded him and smote him on the face with "the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee?" The very servants treated him in this insulting manner. His "disciples forsook him and fled." The chief one of them, overcame by the dreadful scene, denied him in his very presence with oaths and curses. Still he remained unruffled. He was sent bound to Pilate, and thence to Herod. Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and insultingly arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate. In the presence of Pilate a robber was preferred before him. "They cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him." Pilate then having scourged him, (an ope

ration to the last degree torturing and cruel,) delivered him up to be crucified. The whole band of soldiers then gathered around him, and stripped his mangled body, and put on him a robe of mock royalty and a crown of thorns, and placed a reed in his right hand for a sceptre, and spit in his face, and smote him with their hands, and with the reed drove the thorns into his temples, and contemptuously bowed the knee before him and hailed him king of the Jews. Still he was calm. He talked composedly at different times during the whole scene. Nothing could exasperate him; nothing could hurry his spirits; nothing could flush his cheek or fire his eye; nothing could discompose a feature. His temper, like omnipotence itself, was proof against everything that an enemy could do. The fortitude of an Alexander vanishes here. It was unspeakably harder to bear these insults than to break through embattled legions. And to bear them with such a temper, was more difficult still. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." Well might the apostle beseech men "by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." When they had dragged him to Calvary, they suspended him on the torturing spikes between two thieves; they mocked him with vinegar and gall; they insulted his agony with the most cruel sarcasms and the most provoking triumphs. "They that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads." Still not a threat nor a reproach could they extort from him. The very thieves who were dying with him, insulted

and blasphemed him. One of them he converted and pardoned almost before the blasphemies were silent on his tongue. At last, lifting his languishing eye to heaven, he poured out his expiring breath in prayer for his murderers: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." If his former patience outdid that of a man, this was indeed the patience of a God. Here was displayed before a wondering universe the perfect spirit of the divine law, the real temper of the eternal God,-and precisely what men ought to be.

But there is another view of his patience which must by no means be omitted. All these trials dwindle into nothing compared with that which is yet to be mentioned. In that fearful hour, not only were the powers of earth and hell let loose upon him, but his Father withdrew from him the light of his countenance. That paternal countenance which had been wont to beam upon him with ineffable tenderness, was now darkened with an awful frown. When the wondrous phenomenon occured that God the Father frowned on God the Son, no wonder that the sun of our system veiled itself in darkness, -that the earth trembled and quaked. The repose of the sleeping dead was disturbed; all nature was convulsed, and the heaven of heavens was wrapt in amazement and concern. But amidst this strange commotion of the universe, the meek-eyed Jesus was composed and calm. The Lamb of God submitted without a murmur, mation of distress, to the stroke of almighty vengeance. For six long hours he hung on the ragged

and with but one excla