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the spirit of his heavenly religion! A ransom for many! A ransom

Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. BUT IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU. These are words which ought to be carefully considered in framing, or remodelling, the constitution of a church. And they ought to be habitually and practically regarded by the ministers of every church, without exception.

Our Lord took occasion, in the course of his reply, to declare the justice and equity of God's dealings under the gospel dispensation. He assures us that it is not possible even for him, as the head of the church, to distribute rewards and honours upon any other principles than those of eternal truth and rectitude. He neither desires, nor is able, to give seats in his kingdom to any "but to those for whom it is prepared by his father." Perhaps the best practical comment that can be given upon these very important words is a reference to the twenty-fifth chapter of this gospel: see especially verses 21, 33, 34.

How strikingly do the mildness and gentleness of our Saviour's character appear in the whole of the discourse before us! How bright is the force of that example to which, at last, he so pointedly refers! See Phil. ii. 5-11. And how clear and simple is that declaration of the great cardinal doctrine of the gospel, with which the passage closes: The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for (instead of) many.

is that which is given or paid as an equivalent for captives to be liberated or returned. Sinners were captives under the power of the law, and the death of Christ is the price of their freedom; his voluntary and perfect obedience, his life yielded up upon the cross, are accepted in the place of their everlasting punishment, if by a living, obedient, devoted faith, they are one with him, and he with them.-Let us learn, more and more, to value aright this inestimable ransom; and let us continually seek for this appropriating faith. "Ye know that ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.

HYMN.

Father, I sing thy wondrous grace;
I bless my Saviour's name,
He bought salvation for the poor
And bore the sinner's shame.

His deep distress has rais'd us high;
His duty and his zeal
Fulfill'd the law which mortals broke,
And finish'd all thy will.

This shall his humble followers see
And set their hearts at rest;
They by his death draw near to thee
And live for ever blest.

Let heav'n, and all that dwell on high,
To God their voices raise,
While lands and seas assist the sky

And join to advance the praise.

WATTS.

LXV.

CHAP. XX. 29–34.

Christ giveth two blind men their sight.

29 And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed them.

b

30 And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David.

31 And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace; but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son

tends to commend the credibility of the writers as independent, yet concurrent, narrators of facts. St. Mark and St. Luke speak of only one blind man upon whom this miracle was wrought; namely, Bartimæus, the son of Timæus. He was probably the one whose case had attracted the greatest notice; and it is evident that the Evanhis cure, do not deny the fact of a gelists, in referring exclusively to similar miracle having been wrought in favour of another at the same time.—St. Luke says, that the cure was effected as our Saviour drew nigh to Jericho; whereas St. Matthew and St. Mark speak of it as having been performed as our Lord and his disciples departed from that place. This may, perhaps, be rightly regarded as an actual discrepancy in the statements; pre32 And Jesus stood still, and cisely such as continually takes called them, and said, What place where several independent will ye that I shall do unto you? witnesses, between whom there is 33 They say unto him, Lord, no collusion or secret understanding, that our eyes may be opened. are called upon to bear testimony 34 So Jesus had compassion in their statement on minor points; to a fact. Such persons often differ on them, and touched their eyes: and yet their evidence, as a whole, and immediately their eyes re-establishes the occurrence of the ceived sight, and they followed fact, beyond all reasonable doubt. -We may safely assert that if the Evangelists had been artful men, attempting to impose upon us by untrue and fictitious narratives, they would not have suffered such a discrepancy as this to exist upon their pages.

of David.

him.

a Mark x. 46. Luke xviii. 35.-b ch. ix. 27.

Reader. This miracle is recorded also by St. Mark (x. 46-52) and St. Luke (xviii. 35-43). The narratives of the three Evangelists are substantially the same, with that slight variation in minor circumstances and matters of detail, which

READER. Two blind men sitting by the way side.-Bartimæus, says St. Mark, sat by the highway side, begging. Such also we may suppose to have been the occupation of his companion. And we may remark, that these two men, in their infirmity and their poverty, present to us a very lively picture of the spiritual condition of all mankind, as partakers in the loss and misery consequent upon the fall of our first parents. We are, by nature, spiritually blind and poor. -Until our minds are enlightened by the word and the Spirit of God, we do not discover the things which belong to our everlasting peace. We are blind to the evil and malignity of sin,-the corruption and deceitfulness of our own hearts, the dangers by which we are surrounded, the holiness of God,-the beauty of holiness and its necessity in our own hearts and practice, and the happiness of that heaven, where holiness is found without alloy and in infinite perfection. It is common indeed, with respect to all these things, for men to say We see; but it is certain that, until Christ gives them light, they remain in darkness. And as men are, by nature, spiritually blind, so they are also spiritually poor. Nay, they are involved in a large and insuperable debt; for they have committed that breach of God's holy and perfect law for which they are utterly unable to make amends. And while sin has made them debtors to divine justice, it has robbed them of all that excellency and goodness

which the Creator originally imparted to their nature. Man, since the fall, is, of himself, destitute of that holiness which forms his best, and highest, and most indispensable goodness. He is born into the world with a corrupt and darkened heart; he grows up to still greater corruption and still further debasement, and he dies with an immortal spirit void of holiness, happiness, or hope.-Hence then the condition of Bartimæus and his companion, as blind men and as the subjects of distressing poverty, is a pattern of the miserable state of all mankind by nature, if destitute of the gifts of the grace of God.

When they heard that Jesus passed by.-St. Luke makes mention of a circumstance which may be worthy of remark. He says concerning Bartimæus, that "hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant." He made use of those faculties which God had mercifully left at his command. And it is our duty to do the same, with regard to spiritual things. "He that hath," he that makes a good and honest use of what he does possess,-" to him shall be given." Let us remember this, and consider whether or not we have paid due attention to those striking objects of religious belief and practice which have been, as it were, continually thrust upon our notice from our earliest days. Have we seriously and earnestly asked, What do these things mean? Surely it would seem, so to speak, natural, for persons who grow up in a Christian country, to

;

reason thus,-"I find myself, from thing less than this:-Jesus of Namy childhood, incorporated into a zareth, who, by his grace, has opened society of men professing a common the eyes of many a blind undersubject of belief as a matter of vital standing,-who, in his infinite importance. I find this society in compassion and mercy, has never possession of a sacred volume con- shut his ears against the prayer of taining an express revelation from the destitute, but has imparted to the God who made me. I find that, multitudes the riches of his free from some cause or other, certain salvation,-this Jesus of Nazareth religious ordinances have been in- still passeth by. Here is the sigstituted,-days set apart for re- nificancy, here is the truth and ligious purposes,―places set apart vitality, of our religion, without for religious assemblies,-men set which it were a mere empty show. apart to study the word of God and Here is the meaning of every thing to dispense religious instruction; connected with it.-What means, and over all these things there is for instance, the baptismal font? thrown a shade of sanctity and so- Jesus is there to receive members lemnity which demands my espe- into his church,-to seal the forcial attention. Now, what do these giveness of sin to all those who do things mean?"-And they told him, or shall truly believe in his saving continues St. Luke, that Jesus of name,-to declare their adoption Nazareth passeth by. Here was in- into the family of God,-and to telligence for poor blind Bartimæus ! promise them those spiritual aids He learnt that it was no common and powers, which, duly accepted occasion which had caused the mul- and employed, will conduct them titude to come together. The peo- safely through life's pilgrimage, to ple had collected around that won- the Canaan of everlasting rest and derful person of whom he had heard blessedness.-What means the holy so much, that Jesus of Nazareth table? Jesus is there to strengthen who had often opened blind men's and refresh the souls of all who eyes, and who had never shut his draw near with genuine penitence ears against a poor man's prayer. and lively faith, to give the asAnd the wonderful deliverer, whose surance of pardon, acceptance, and presence he had so often desired, heavenly favour, and to bestow had at length come near to him, those renewed and appropriate graces and was now actually passing by!- of the Holy Spirit, whereby the soul And here, in a higher sense, is in- of the humble and believing comtelligence even for ourselves. In municant may be endued with inthe ordinances and ministrations of creased ability to resist temptation, religion, Jesus of Nazareth still and to keep the commandments of passeth by. The meaning of our God. What means the united supsacred days and places and persons, plications and thanksgivings of asand of all religious services, is no- sembled worshippers? It is that

wheresoever two or three are met together in the name of Jesus, he is in the midst of them, ready to catch every sincere devotion from every humble heart, and to waft it to the high and holy place, perfumed with the incense of his atoning sacrifice, and his allavailing intercession.-And, lastly, what means the reading and the preaching of the word of God? The voice is the voice of a man, but the language is the language of Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth passeth by, pleading with the profane, and saying, "Why will ye die?"-exhorting the careless, " Awake, thou that sleepest!"-speaking to his obedient people, "This is the way, walk ye in it," and saying to one and all, “Look unto me, and be ye saved!" -Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.

When the blind men heard that Jesus passed by, they

Cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. Having been reminded of our Christian privileges, we are here again directed to the exercise of our Christian duty. When Jesus passed by, these blind men sought his mercy and his aid; and if they had neglected to do this, we have no reason to suppose that they would have received their sight. In like manner, it will be to no purpose that the almighty Saviour passes before us in the ordinances of religion, unless we personally apply to him, in a faithful and diligent use of those means of grace. We must use these things, and we must use them with an humble, honest, and faithful

heart; or else we derive no benefit from their institution. For example; when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we have no reason to take to ourselves the comfortable assurance that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin, unless there be in our hearts a sincere sorrow for our manifold transgressions of God's holy law, and a desire (by God's help) to forsake every evil way,-together with humble trust in God's mercy through the merits of the sacrifice which we solemnly commemorate, and a real purpose to walk, through grace given us, in the way of holy obedience.—And the same may be said concerning every other privilege which we enjoy. What will it avail us that Christ is ready to receive and to present the prayer of the heart, if we pray only with the lips? And what benefit do we derive from the reading or the preaching of the word of God, if it fall upon stony ground, or take root in a scanty soil, or afterwards be choked with thorns?-Let us, then, take a lesson from the conduct of these two blind men. Let us look for a blessing, not in the mere possession, but in the use, of those privileges which, as Christians, we enjoy.

And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace.— Surely they ought rather to have taken these sufferers by the hand, to have led them to Jesus, and to have mingled in their supplications, saying, "Lord, have mercy on these our needy brethren!" And such also, in a spiritual sense, is the duty

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