noble spectacle.

It was verily "a new thing in the earth." The world had had its warriors, statesmen, judges, kings, patriarchs, poets, and prophets; but in His purpose this "Servant" of God differed from them all.

II. THE DIFFICULTY OF HIS PERSEVERANCE.

To realise this we must remember that He was "the man Christ Jesus." 1. He was almost alone in His great work. Often He felt that only "the Father was with Him," so out of joint was He with all around Him (John xvi. 32). 2. He was very poor; and a man is heavily weighted in doing a great work if he is very poor. 3. His views were unpopular. In His principles and practices He ran counter to all parties in the Church and State, and especially was He out of accord with the religious thought and people of His day. He carried on His great work not only without any such aid, but in the teeth of a strong and united opposition. 4. His own family derided Him (John vii. 5). No light thing or trifling hindrance. 5. He had recreant followers. Some evinced pride, some anger, some ambition, some fear; one was covetous, most were ignorant and carnal, one denied Him shockingly, another betrayed Him foully, while "all forsook Him and fled." What a trial and difficulty this was to the Master to have such weak human elements in His chosen companions we can never fully know. 6. He was terribly tempted; and this, I take it, was by far the worst of all. Really tempted "in all points as we are ; terribly tempted, for "He suffered " through it. After this brief review who will dare to say Christ's difficulties were small or that He had nothing to discourage Him?

III. THE SUCCESS OF CHRIST'S PERSEVERANCE.

The prophecy became fact. He did not "fail "" nor was He "discouraged till He had set judgment in the earth." His success is seen in the fact that1. He taught the truth He came to teach (John xviii. 37). 2. He did the work He was sent to accomplish. He could

cry at last, "It is finished." 3. He suffered all it was necessary He should endure, even to death itself. He was taunted and tempted to "save Himself and come down from the cross," but He would not; He persevered to the " bitter end." 4. He showed His victory over sin and death by rising from the grave and ascending into heaven. 5. We see His success through His Apo ties and His Church since. Let the Pentecosts and the world-wide spread of the Gospel at the first, and the reformations and revivals of more modern times, be the proof. The remotest "islands" have not only "waited" for, but have actually and joyfully received, "His law." His success is still thus accruing, and it shall yet go on till "the whole earth shall be filled with His glory," and He has seen "of the travail of His soul " and is "satisfied."

IV. THE SECRET OF HIS PERSEVERANCE.

What was it? Let us "spoil the Egyptians" by finding the answer in the taunt of His foes. He trusted in God! Jesus Christ was the Greatest Believer as well as the only Saviour (John xiv. 10). His strong, and abiding, and incomparable faith in God is the secret of His constancy. This led Him to pray to God and work for God as none ever prayed or toiled before or since. And all for the glory of God. "I have put my Spirit upon Him," is the prophetic explanation in the context, and that of the New Testament is like unto it (John iii. 34, 35).

V. THE PRACTICAL LESSON OF HIS PERSEVERANCE.

It is twofold-1. There is example and encouragement here for those who are Christ's followers. Example as to how they should persevere; encouragement to hold on their way (Phil. i. 6). 2. Here is also something to induce those "without" to come and live. "He will not fail," whatever you need, 66 nor be discouraged," though you have done so much to make Him so. saveth to the uttermost." He "receiveth sinners" still.-John Collins:

"He

A revelation of Christ's tenderness and constancy in His mediatorial work. Perseverance is a high virtue.

I. The work in which the Saviour is engaged. It is described as "setting judgment in the earth." Denotes the benevolence and rectitude of His undertaking. It is no selfish work no attempt to overreach and destroy His enemies. But He saw that the laws of God had been set aside in this earth, &c., and He came to correct these flagrant evils, and restore the world to purity and peace.

II. The discouragements that rise up before Him. The assurance that He will not fail nor be discouraged implies that He will meet with much to discourage Him, and His work will be inconceivably difficult and painful. This was verified all through His personal residence on earth. In what state did He find the world? 1. Sin. 2. Selfishness-a cold individualism.

III. The victory that will eventually crown His cause. The assurance of this fact rests not on a single passage or promise of Scripture. There shall be the triumph-1. Of the moral over the physical. 2. Of the real over the ideal. 3. Of the social over the selfish. 4. Of the true over the false.

1. Great will be the results of these mighty changes. 2. Let us take encouragement from the Saviour's example.-J. T. Peck, D.D.: Sermons by Fifty American Preachers, pp. 193.

hundreds of years, they scorned His instructions and resisted His claims (John i. 11). The Gentile nations, ignorant, desperately corrupt, hopeless (1 Cor. i. 21; Rom. i. 21-32; Eph. ii. 12). What a world to visit, what a race to address, what a work to accomplish! But the world had, and still has, to be redeemed by the redemption of individuals. Let us,

therefore, call to mind the obstacles which any single human being presents to Christ when He comes forth in the power of His grace to seek and

to save.

Un

1. What is the bent of his inclinations? Whither run his affections? What is the tendency of his will? Of what character are his moral instincts? He is an earthly creature. He may be more or less intellectual in his pursuits, but he is still earthly and sensual. He desires earthly things as the means of his enjoyment. He lives to himself, not to his Maker. holy selfishness is the principle which puts into motion his activity in all its forms. Yet he has the most exalted conceptions of his personal merits and security. What obstacles are here to Christianity, to the salvation offered by Christ! what strongholds must be demolished, what fierce animosities. must be subdued, ere the dominion of Christ can be established in any human soul!

2. Consider the indisposedness of man to receive instruction. How vast is the influence of all this pride and worldliness upon the mind. Its distinctions of good and evil are confounded, the understanding is blinded, the affections are enslaved. Man has no disposition honestly to seek the truth or to retrace his steps to the paths of godliness (Prov. xiv. 12; John iii. 20). The approach of spiritual light is painful to him. Religious instruction alarms rather than delights his mind. The corrupt heart resists the admission of God's claims (Ps. lviii. 3-5). We love the sounds that lull, and the counsels which gratify our passions (H. E. I. 2669-2679).

3. Observe the use which we make of instruction when actually received. With what unequal steps do we advance along the paths of heavenly science! Into how many by-roads do we turn! What inconsistency and irresolution are visible in our daily conduct! How prone to let go the truth and to take up error! What dulness to discern, and what indolence to pursue, the whole will and counsel of God!

Let these facts be considered, and the obstacles in the way of Christ will appear insuperably great.

II. THE PATIENCE AND TENDERNESS WITH WHICH HE MEETS ALL THESE OBSTACLES.

With what constancy He pursues His gracious object amid all the difficulties by which it is encompassed! He counted the cost ere He engaged in the work of redemption; He fully understood the human heart, and had anticipated all the baseness of its ingratitude; and therefore nothing could turn Him away from the fulfil ment of the errand of mercy on which He came (Heb. xii. 2, 3). He remains the same, unchanged in His counsels of peace, unwearied in His efforts to enlighten and to save. And not in vain. His religion has overthrown the polytheism of ancient nations. Into how many a cold, reluctant, rebellious heart has His Gospel at length forced its way, and shed a late though lasting peace over the tumults of conscience and the perturbations of passion! What a history of forbearance and compassion on the part of Christ would the secret but detailed memoirs of individual believers compose!

III. THE ULTIMATE TRIUMPHS OF HIS GRACE. "He will not fail nor be discouraged." Viewed separately, many events may appear contradictory to His purpose; but, under the silent and strong control of an unseen Agency, the complicated system of this world's occurrences in really "working together for good" (H. E. I. 4024, 4030).

1. Numerous as are the strongholds of idolatry and superstition, truth

shall yet brighten every land, and religion have dominion over a willing and converted world (Rev. xi. 15; H. E. L. 979, 1166-1168, 2541, 4829, 4831).

2. It is in reference to the comple tion of Christ's work of love upon the individual heart that the subject assumes to us the deepest interest. If towards His redeemed servant, notwithstanding all his inconstancy, our Lord has hitherto been compassionate and indulged, it is with the intention to cleanse him from all iniquity. It is a consideration full of comfort for an honest mind which trembles under a sense of weakness and unworthiness, that redemption is a settled and deliberate plan of mercy to bless the wretched and save the lost; that Christ is the Mediator of an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; and that God has connected the manifestation of His own glory with the deliverance of His people from the captivity of sin. To what conclusion do these considerations bring me? To love my Benefactor more warmly, and to throw myself afresh into the combat with evil (1 John iv. 4; Rom. viii. 37; Jude 24; H. E. I. 1070).-Hon. Gerard T. Noel, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 142–158.

Introduction.-Briefly give the spirit of verses 1-3, dwelling especially on the greatness of the work to be done, as contrasted with the apparent feebleness of the means to be employed.

I. The hopeful spirit of this Servant of Jehovah. Draw attention to the discouragements arising from character of the work, and to the hindrances alike in the world, the Church, and the individual. The tendency of workers to lose heart, to grow weary in well-doing." The effect of this losing heart on the quality of the work and its efficiency.

66

Two things essential to hopeful working-1. Faith in truth. 2. Faith in the possibility of accomplishing the work (H. E. I. 1928-1931; P. D. 1162, 1176).

See both these in the Servant of

likely to be a failure because, they say, there is a conflict between science and religion. They tell us that the advance of science has shown errors in the accounts of the Bible; that the Bible has become effete; that the system of Christianity has served its day; that we must look for something grander, and nobler, and stronger to call and hold the attention of the human mind.

III. It is one of the favoured expressions of these men who fancy Christianity is a failure, that in the order of this world there shall be the "survival of the fittest"-that the weaker shall pass away, and the stronger and the mightier shall remain. Now, if we contrast Christianity with other forms of religion, where shall we find its failure? may say to-day, simply as a fact, that it still remains, and, surpassing any other system in its strength and beauty, we shall see its survival over all.

We

Compare it with paganism. Not that low, degrading paganism we find among the Indians of our continent or the tribes of Africa, but paganism in its palmiest hours-in the days of the philosophy of Greece and of the power of Rome, when its temples shone with splendour, when its poets sang with grace, when sculpture and architecture gathered around it their forms of beauty. Scepticism then doubted and denied; but all the scepticism of Greece or Rome never closed one temple, never dethroned one of their imaginary deities. In the midst of scepticism popular faith went right on, and the temples had their devotees and worshippers. Judaism taught the knowledge of the one true God, yet it made no advances against idolatry. But what sceptical philosophy and Judaism could not do, Christianity has accomplished. Men without earthly power, men persecuted, men in prison, men reproached, went telling the story of a living and dying and ascended Christ, and as they told this story, the temples became deserted and the idols fell, until to-day there is not a god worshipped on earth that was wor

shipped in the time of the philosophy and glory of Greece and Rome.

Compare it with Brahmanism-a system that has much in it that is beautiful, with many of its precepts sublime, and many of its declarations grand. We have India brought up under this system, and what is it? I have not time to dwell on its suffering, darkness, and degradation. Two hundred millions of the people of India, with their Brahmanism, are controlled by less than thirty millions of Englishmen, who used to be on an island just at one extremity of the earth. Why? How? Because the system fails to develop men. Because Christianity does develop manhood, and gives its strength to power.

Compare Christianity with the teachings of Confucius, as we find them embodied in the Chinese. Voltaire, Volney, and others spoke of the wonderful influence of this form of heathenism, and made some of us think, in our earlier hours, there was something grand in the system. But what are the results of the teachings of Confucius? What kind of men do they produce? What is the result of the teaching? China, with her four thou sand years or more on her head, is bowing to young America, and sending her sons here to be educated. Japan, by her side, is asking for our teachers and our schools. Japan is the object of a resurrection; for to-day in Japan the Bible is becoming the text-book in some of the schools, and the young people are beginning to see the light and the glory that emanate from Christianity.

On the principle of the survival of the fittest, is Christianity a failure? Paganism has gone, Brahmanism is going, and Confucianism is going down. Christianity is just raising herself. Oh, I see her! There is beauty on her brow; there is lustre in her eye; there is glory on her cheek. I see her stepping on the mountains, passing over the plains; I see her with wideopen hand distributing blessings on the sons of men. She is yet young. The dew of youth is yet upon her, and