men! It can strike terror into the minds of monarchs on their thrones. It can make multitudes tremble and shake before a few bold friends of truth, like a flock of sheep. Blind and mistaken as conscience often is, unable to convert man or lead him to Christ, it is still a most blessed part of man's constitution, and the best friend in the congregation that the preacher of the Gospel has. No wonder that Paul says, "By manifestation of the truth we commend ourselves to every man's conscience." (2 Cor. iv. 2.)

He that desires inward peace must beware of quarrelling with his conscience. Let him rather use it well, guard it jealously, hear what it has to say, and reckon it his friend. Above all, let him pray daily that his conscience may be enlightened by the Holy Ghost, and cleansed by the blood of Christ. The words of St. John are very significant: "If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." (1 John iii. 21.) That man is doing well who can say, "I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man." (Acts xxiv. 16.)

NOTES. LUKE XXIII. 44-49.

44.-[About the sixth hour.] According to the Jewish mode of reckoning, the day began at what we should call six o'clock in the evening. Our Lord was crucified at the third hour, answering to our nine o'clock. The darkness began at the sixth hour, answering to our twelve o'clock in the day. It should be

observed, therefore, that the supernatural darkness mentioned here took place precisely at the brightest part of the day, between twelve o'clock and three. Six hours was the whole length of time during which Jesus hung on the cross before He gave up the ghost.

[There was a darkness.] This was a miraculous darkness. It could not have been an eclipse of the sun, because our Lord's crucifixion took place at the passover, and the passover was

always kept at the full moon, when an eclipse of the sun is impossible.

[Over all the earth.] The marginal reading of this expression seems preferable,-" over all the land." There seems no necessity for supposing that the darkness extended beyond Palestine. Our Lord's ministry was specially directed to Israel, and the land of Israel was the land to which all miracles connected with His life and death were confined. See the same expression in Luke xxi. 23.

It is difficult to imagine any miraculous sign better calculated to arrest the attention of all people, and to strike awe into all minds than this sudden and unexpected darkness. It necessarily stopped all business and obliged all men to be still, and think what could be its cause.

45.—[The sun was darkened.] We are not meant to regard this as a sign, or miracle, distinct from the darkness spoken of in the preceding verse. It is simply an amplification of the same fact, and intended to show how deep and intense the darkness was.

[The veil of the temple was rent.] This miracle must have been as striking and terrible to the priests who ministered in the temple, as the darkness was to the inhabitants of Palestine. It signified the opening of the way into the holiest by Christ's death, the passing away of the Jewish dispensation, and the. revelation of the Gospel way of salvation to all mankind.

Doddridge remarks, "This being a high day, it is probable that Caiaphas the high priest might now be performing the solemn act of burning incense before the veil, which, if he did, it is astonishing that his obstinate heart should not be impressed with so awful and significant a phenomenon. There is no room to doubt that many of the other priests who had a hand in Christ's death saw the pieces of the veil, which considering its texture and other circumstances, must as fully have convinced them of this extraordinary fact, as if they had been present." 46.-Cried with a loud voice.] This expression, as well as all the verse, deserves particular notice. It shows that there was something peculiar and uncommon about our Lord's death. A dying man's voice is generally not "loud," but feeble.

To this circumstance, as well as to the expression "he gave up the ghost," all the best commentators from Ambrose downwards, very properly direct our attention. It is evident, they tell us, that the Lord Jesus did not die because He was obliged, but because He chose voluntarily and of His own free will to submit to death. His death was "his own act." He "offered himself without spot to God."

Alford, after Stier, remarks that "none of the evangelists say that Jesus died, although that expression is ever after used of

His death, when stated as one great fact."

Matthew says

that He "yielded up the ghost." Mark, Luke, and John, though in different Greek words, say much the same, "He gave up the ghost."

I add to this remark that in all the five Old Testament passages which our translators have rendered, "giving up the ghost," the Septuagint Greek translators have not used the expressions applied in the Gospels to our Lord's death, nor anything like them. Gen. xlix. 33; Job x. 18; xi. 20; xiv. 10; Jerem. xv. 9. I also remark that the Greek expression about Sapphira, which is rendered, "yielded up the ghost," (Acts v. 10.) is totally different from those used about our Lord's death. The remarks of Brentius on the whole verse are peculiarly valuable.

47.-[This was a righteous man.] It may be doubted whether these words exactly convey the literal sense of the Greek expression. Alford would render it, " truly this man was innocent or just."

48.-[Beholding the things which were done.] This expression seems to point to the darkness, and the earthquake which immediately followed our Lord's death. These signs struck awe into the minds of the gazing mob, which had mocked our Lord a few hours before. There was no raillery or mocking after this.

Poole maintains that there is no proof that "the people" took part in mocking our Lord on the cross, but that it was confined to the scribes and priests. Yet the expression of St. Matthew and St. Mark about "those who passed by railing," besides the priests, seems to make his theory doubtful.

49.-[The women.] These would appear to be different from the women to whom our Lord spoke as He was carrying the cross. These came from Galilee. Those were "daughters of Jerusalem.”

LUKE XXIII. 50–56.

50 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man and a just:

51 (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them ;) he was of Arimathæa, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.

52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.

53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre

that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.

54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.

55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.

56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

WE see from these verses that Christ has some disciples of chom little is known. We are told of one Joseph, "a good man and a just,"-a man who "had not consented to the counsel" of those who condemned our Lord,-a man who "himself waited for the kingdom of God." This man went boldly to Pilate after the crucifixion, begged the body of Jesus, "took it down," from the cross, and "laid it in a sepulchre."

We know nothing of Joseph excepting what is here told us. In no part of the Acts or Epistles do we find any mention of his name. At no former period of our Lord's ministry does he ever come forward. His reason for not openly joining the disciples before, we cannot explain. But here, at the eleventh hour, this man is not afraid to show himself one of our Lord's friends. At the very time when the apostles had forsaken Jesus, Joseph is not ashamed to show his love and respect. Others had confessed Him while He was living and doing miracles. It was reserved for Joseph to confess Him when He was dead.

The history of Joseph is full of instruction and encouragement. It shows us that Christ has friends of whom the Church knows little or nothing, friends who profess less than some do, but friends who in real love and affection are second to none. It shows us, above all, that events may bring out grace in quarters where at present we do not expect it; and that the cause of Christ may prove one day to have many supporters, of whose existence. we are at present not aware. These are they whom David calls "hidden ones," and Solomon compares to a lily among thorns." (Psalm lxxxiii. 3; Cant. ii. 2.)

Let us learn from the case of Joseph of Arimathæa, to be charitable and hopeful in our judgments. All is not barren in this world, when our eyes perhaps see nothing. There may be some latent sparks of light when all appear dark. Little plants of spiritual life may be existing in some remote Romish, or Greek, or Armenian congregations, which the Father Himself has planted. Grains of true faith may be lying hid in some neglected English parish, which have been placed there by God. There were seven thousand true worshippers in Israel of whom Elijah knew nothing. The day of judgment will bring forward men who seemed last, and place them among the first. (1 Kings xix. 18.)

We see, secondly, from these verses the reality of Christ's death. This is a fact which is placed beyond dispute, by the circumstances related about His burial. Those who took His body from the cross, and wrapped it in linen, could not have been deceived. Their own senses must have been witnesses to the fact, that He whom they handled was a corpse. Their own hands and eyes must have told them, that He whom they laid in Joseph's sepulchre was not alive but dead.

The importance of the fact before us, is far greater than a careless reader supposes. If Christ did not really die, there would be an end of all the comfort of the Gospel. Nothing short of His death could have paid man's debt to God. His incarnation, and sermons, and parables, and miracles, and sinless obedience to the law, would have availed nothing, if He had not died. The penalty threatened to the first Adam, was death eternal in hell. If the second Adam had not really and actually