our Whitsuntide; and "Tabernacles" to our Michaelmas. The seventh month was remarkable for the number of ordinances which the law of Moses required the Jews to observe: on the first day was the Feast of Trumpets, on the tenth day was the Day of Atonement, and on the fifteenth began the Feast of Tabernacles, which Josephus calls the “holiest and greatest feast of the Jews." That this feast was kept up with extraordinary festivity and rejoicing in the latter days of the Jewish dispensation is testified by all Jewish writers. It was in the middle of this public rejoicing, and the concourse of Jews from every part of the world, that the things recorded in this chapter took place. It stands to reason that all our Lord said and did this week must have been more than usually public, and would necessarily attract great attention. It would appear as if there were three different types in these feasts: viz., that the feast of Passover was a type of Christ crucified; the Feast of Pentecost, of Christ sending forth the Holy Ghost in this dispensation; the Feast of Tabernacles, of Christ's coming again to gather His people in one joyous company, to reap the harvest of the earth, to wind up this dispensation, to come forth and bless His people, and to proclaim a jubilee to all the earth. We should observe in this passage the desperate hardness and unbelief of human nature: we are told that even our Lord's " brethren did not believe in Him." Holy and harmless and blameless as He was in life, some of His nearest relatives, according to the flesh, did not receive Him as the Messiah. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 255 That great Scriptural doctrine, man's need of preventing and converting grace, stands out here as if written with a sunbeam. It becomes all who question that doctrine to look at this passage and consider. Let them observe that seeing Christ's miracles, hearing Christ's teaching, living in Christ's own company, were not enough to make men believers. The mere pos session of spiritual privileges never yet made any one a Christian. All is useless without the effectual and applying work of God the Holy Ghost. No wonder that our Lord said in another place, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." (John vi. 44.) The true servants of Christ in every age will do well to remember this. They are often surprised and troubled to find that in religion they stand alone: they are apt to fancy that it must be their own fault that all around them are not converted like themselves; they are ready to blame themselves because their families remain worldly and unbelieving; but let them look at the verse before us: in our Lord Jesus Christ there was no fault, either in temper, word, or deed; yet even Christ's own "brethren did not believe in Him." Who these "brethren" were, is a matter of dispute; but the most probable opinion is that they were relatives and kinsmen of Joseph and Mary, living at Nazareth, or Capernaum, or elsewhere in Galilee, who naturally observed all our Lord's doings with interest and curiosity, but at present did not believe on Him. By the sixth verse, we see that our Lord did everything during His earthly ministry according to a pre ordained plan, and that He could take no step except in harmony with that plan. He doubtless spoke with a Divine depth of meaning that none but Himself could comprehend, and that must have been unintelligible at the time to His "brethren." When it says that “He went in secret" (10th ver.), it does not necessarily mean that He went alone: there is no reason to suppose that His own chosen Apostles had gone without Him. It only means that He did not go up publicly, in the company of all "His kinsfolk and acquaintance" from Galilee. We may observe lastly, the variety of opinions about Christ, which were current from the beginning. Thus, the endless differences and divisions about religion, which we see on all sides in the present day, ought never to surprise us. Such is the corruption of human nature, that Christ is the cause of divisions among men wherever He is preached. Let us never be ashamed to be of that little number who believe on Him, hear His voice, follow Him, and confess Him before men. The last day will show that we chose wisely, lost nothing, and gained a crown of glory that fadeth not away. All who possess true faith and love, O Lord, preserve me sound in faith; May nothing pluck me from Thy hand; Christ's Steadfastness of Purpose. ST. LUKE IX. 51-58. 51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52 And sent messengers before his face and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. 57 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. 58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. LET us notice the steady determination with which our Lord Jesus Christ regarded His own crucifixion and death. He knew full well what was before Him: the betrayal, the unjust trial, the mockery, the scourging, the crown of thorns, the spitting, the nails, the spear, the agony on the cross,-all, all were doubtless spread before His mind's eye, like a picture; but He never flinched for a moment from the work that He had undertaken. His heart was set on paying the price of our redemption, and going even to the prison of the grave, as our Surety. He was full of tender love towards sinners. It was the desire of His whole soul to procure for them salvation: and so, "for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame." (Heb. xii. 2.) For ever let us bless God that we have such a ready and willing Saviour; for ever let us remember that as He was ready to suffer, so He is always ready to save. The man that comes to Christ by faith should never doubt Christ's willingness to receive him. The mere fact that the Son of God willingly came into the world to die, and willingly suffered, should silence such doubts entirely. All the unwillingness is on the part of man, not of Christ. It consists in the ignorance, and pride, and unbelief, and halfheartedness of the sinner himself; but there is nothing wanting in Christ. Let us strive and pray that the same mind may be in us which was in our blessed Master. Like Him, let us be willing to go anywhere, do anything, suffer anything, when the path of duty is clear and the voice of God calls. Let us set our faces steadfastly to our work, when it is plainly marked out, and drink our bitter cups patiently, when they come from a Father's hand. The word "messengers," in the fifty-second verse, in the original is angels; and the use of that word here shows that angel in the Bible does not always mean heavenly beings. The name of the village where “they did not receive Him" is not mentioned: this means, did not entertain Him hospitably, or receive Him with kindness; the reason was, they ascertained that He was going to Jerusalem. This, no doubt, was on account |