for sin." The sufferings of Christ and the salvation of men are connected together as cause and effect. (2.) It suggests also an important truth in relation to the nature of those sufferings. "The travail of His soul" would seem to indicate that the mind of Messiah was more immediately the seat of His atoning agonies (a). (3.) Of those agonies the passage further depicts the intense and aggravated character-"the travail of His soul." The pangs of "a woman in travail" is a phrase sanctioned and employed again and again by the Divine Spirit, as an image combining in itself all that can be conceived of the extreme and the terrible in human suffering. And this image, among others, is here employed to depict the mental sensations of the Son of God when "the chastisement of our peace was upon Him," &c. "Travail" is the peculiar suffering connected with the natural birth of a human being; and as applied to Christ it intimates that in the throes and pangs of His soul, He endured what was necessary to give spiritual existence to the Church.

It was not what Christ was in His moral character, nor what He did as a prophet, "mighty in deed and in word," that constituted that peculiar work by which He became personally and alone the Saviour of men.

3. The greatness of the results which are to flow from the Redeemer's sufferings. Implied in the declaration, "He shall be satisfied," the mind of Messiah shall be filled with joy when He witnesses the effect of His sufferings in the salvation of the redeemed. That the results productive in Him of this feeling must be surpassingly and inconceivably great appears from several considerations. (1.) Messiah is the Creator of the universe (John i. 3). All its vastness and magnificence was needed to satisfy Him as such. How much sublimer must those spiritual results necessarily be with which He is to be "satisfied!" The new creation may reasonably be expected to surpass as far the old and the earthly as the human intellect is superior to dead

brute matter, or the love of God's heart must necessarily excel the power of His hand, or the redemption of the lost exceeds and surpasses the support of the living. (2.) The extent and intensity of His sufferings (3). For all those sufferings He is to be recompensed (John xvi. 21), but in an infinitely higher degree. (3.) Consider the period occupied, the care expended, and the anxiety sustained in carrying on the process, the result of which is to satisfy Messiah. In nature, that which is of slow growth is always distinguished by proportionate excellence. Among men, long-continued and arduous labour is expected to be followed by corresponding results, both in the effects produced and in the rewards enjoyed. But the work of redemption abounds over history of all time. Nay, previous to the birth of time, it occupied the thought and councils of the Eternal. In actual operation it stretches from the fall of man to the restitution of all things. The reward will be proportioned to the magnitude and costliness of the work performed.

4. Those things with which we may suppose the Saviour will be "satisfied.” (1.) The inconceivable number of the saved (7). (2.) The equally inconceivable perfection of their character. (3.) The love and adoration of the redeemed. (4.) The effect of the work of redemption on the moral universe, revealing God more fully to it, and helping to keep it loyal to Him.

II. HOW WE WHO UNDERSTAND AND BELIEVE THE MEANING OF THE TEXT OUGHT TO BE AFFECTED.

1. We should be moved to humility. The continued prevalence in the world of what grieves and offends Him ought to have disappeared long since, and would have done so, had the Church been faithful to her office and her Lord. In the unfaithfulness of the Church we have had our share.

2. The declaration of our text should stimulate our faith and missionary activity. "He shall see, &c." Christianity is yet to be acknowledged and professed by universal man (H. E. I. 979, 1166–

1169). But this end, however confidently expected, even faith expects not without the employment of appropriate instrumentality. Among the means employed, there must be the sending forth of the Bible and the preacher, the letter of the message and the loving messenger.

3. The subject ought to lead us, individually and personally, seriously to examine whether we are contributing to the Saviour's "satisfaction," either by what we are, or what we are doing (H. E. I. 4423-4428, 4446-4466).T. Binney, LL.D.: Sermons, second series, Pp. 1-50.

(a) "The travail of His soul" carries us further than to what was physical; it teaches us to attach inferior importance to the bruising and the piercing of the flesh-to the animal pain (if I may so speak) which the Redeemer endured, and which, whatever was its extent, was probably surpassed in many of the martyrs. "The travail of His soul" would seem to explain that mysterious amazement which overtook and overwhelmed the Lord Jesus previous to His public rejection by the people, before the hand of man had touched Him, when alone with His disciples and in the attitude of prayer. If it be proper to use such an expression with respect to Him, with all reverence I would say that at that moment He seemed destitute or bereft of the high bearing, the calm serenity, the magnanimous heroisin, the contempt of danger, pain, death, which have often illustrated the conduct of His followers, even women, under circumstances similar or worse-worse, if the external circumstances were all. Now, this is a fact in the history of Jesus eternally irreconcileable with the idea of His dying merely as a witness for truth, or an example to others; it can be accounted for, with honour to His character, only on the ground of His sustaining as sacrificial victim, and sustaining in His soul, sufferings exclusively and pre-eminently His own.-Binney.

(B) What the sufferings of Messiah really were in themselves, it is as impossible to say as i is to conceive of their magnitude and their depth. They could not be literally the agonies of the damned; literally the curse due to sin, or the direct results on a spiritual nature of the foul act of personal transgression. And yet if anything there be bearing any resemblance to them at all-which probably there is not-it must be found among the victims of retributive justice. The sufferings of Christ, whatever they were, in fact were those which resulted from the presentation of Himself as a real sacrifice, the sacrifice of a living, sensitive Being in an "offering made by fire unto the Lord." The fire, indeed, was

spiritual, like the thing it touched; and from that very circumstance it was the more terrible. It was not that element that can become the servant of man, and minister to his wrath, and be made to seize upon and "destroy the body, and after that hath nothing more that it can do;" but it was fire which nothing but heaven could furnish, something which God alone could inflict and which a spiritual nature alone could feel. It descended upon the soul of the Redeemer, and (if I may so speak) consumed it, like the fire which descended upon the altar of the prophet, "which consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench." Sufferings flowing from a source like this cannot but be felt to have been unparalleled and unspeakable; they necessarily transcend not only the power of language, but the power of thought.Binney.

(7) Messiah, it is said, is to "see His seed," "justify many," and "the pleasure of the Lord is to prosper in His hand." This work could not, I think, be said to "prosper" if the number of the lost should exceed that of the saved; nor if the number of the lost and saved were nearly balanced; nor if the success of Messiah in rescuing from death were to be but little superior to that of His adversary in seducing to destruction. The saved will, I imagine, as to numbers surpass the lost to a degree that shall destroy everything like parallel or proportion between them. They shall be brought from all lands, and from under every dispensation; they shall be "of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues;" they shall be of every class, and colour, and condition; and they shall constitute "a number which no man can number," equalling or exceeding the sands of the sea, or "the stars of heaven," or "the grass of the field," or "the drops of dew from the womb of the morning.”—Binney.

Christ's bodily travail was great. On this part of the Messiah's sufferings the prophet lays no particular emphasis, because, though most visible, it was not the main part of His atoning sufferings. ing sufferings. He emphasizes the inward mental spiritual agony as that in which he chiefly bore our iniquities. Let us reverently note some of those things which we may conceive constituted for our Lord, "the travail of His soul" first, during his life, and secondly, in connection with His death; though this distinction is not to be pressed, since the sufferings of the life and of the death overlap each other, and constitute together "the travail of His soul."

I. IN LIFE. We must not limit Christ's atoning mental sufferings to His actual endurance on the cross, or forget what He endured before the last scenes of His ministry on earth. The whole period of His public ministry was a "temptation," and to Him temptation was suffering, as He met and fought it. 1. Ile endured "the contradiction of sinners against Himself.” 2 The sight and contact of human sin and misery as they lay passive around Him must have deeply wounded His soul. If Lot could vex his righteous soul in Sodom, what must Christ have endured as He saw all that was debased and repulsive in humanity with His holy eye (see p. 476), as He sighed. over human pains and sorrows, and made them in sympathy His own (Matt. viii. 17; see p. 484). 3. His foresight of the doom coming on God's chosen people caused Him pain (Luke xix. 41-44). 4. The shadow of the cross projecting itself over His life cast a burden on His spirit as He anticipated the end of His ministry (Mark viii. 31, &c.).

II. IN CONNECTION WITH DEATH. The travail of soul during life culminated at death, assuming a distinctness and bitterness peculiarly great as that crisis arrived. All the past was intensified and concentrated, and additional elements of pain were experienced. Thus His friends forsook Him and fled. One denied Him. One betrayed Him. Did not this experience, to one who was so sympathetic and social Himself, and who then needed all the human sympathy and society which His friends could give Him, cause sorrow of soul of no ordinary kind? His enemies, too, the people He came to save, trampled His love under foot, insulted, maligned, cast Him out, and crucified Him, inflicting sorer wounds upon His generous heart and loving soul than on His body by their shameful treatment of Him. The lifelong vision and contact of sin came to a head in its most painful and repulsive form, and He would see more vividly and feel more acutely in His own maltreatment the depravity, not only of the

nation, but of the race which He had come to save, and of which He was one. The fierce passions that raged against Him, His actual collision with the world's evil, His suffering of its concentrated hatred of good must have caused Him, the only sinless One of the race, unspeakable horror and anguish of soul. But there was also

1. The human and natural shrinking from death as the dissolution of soul and body; in His case peculiarly painful because of the perfection of His human nature, the consciousness of His own sinlessness, the fulness of His indwelling power of life, the clear insight He had into the dread connection between sin and death, and that His death was by judicial murder. He was not a Stoic. He was not ignorant of what it involved, and had not the feeling that it was natural for Him to submit to the "common lot," or die a death of refined and wilful cruelty.

2. Satanic temptation. The prince of this world came back to find something in Him, and found nothing. But the search was painful, as the devil did his last and worst, since all temptation is suffering. It was the hour and power of darkness for our Lord when the seed of the serpent bruised the heel of the seed of the woman. The bruising of the heel might indicate only a slight injury in comparison with the wounding of the head, but who can tell what in itself it was to Jesus Christ; how manifold and searching were the assaults of Satan, and how they intensified the bitterness of Christ's sorrow of soul?

3. His treatment as a sinner. Christ realised sin in the, to Him, most painful form of bearing it and suffering for it. He was "made sin for us"-enduring for us, in some real but mysterious way, the wrath of God due to us for our sins. Every view of His death which ignores this wraps His whole suffering in inexplicable mys tery, and provokes men to despair, not only of themselves, but even of God. What pain for the Holy One to be treated, not merely by man, but by God as a sinner, to feel in His soul

the anger of God, to be forsaken for a time by His Father! Who can fathom the depth of soul-sorrow in the cry, "My God," &c., as it came from the heart of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son?

LEARN-(1.) The costliness of His redemption. (2.) The evil and shamefulness of sin. (3.) The reality of our Lord's sympathy for all who are in the world as He was, and follow in His footsteps. (4.) The greatness of the suffering of the impenitent.-The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. pp. 78–82.

Throughout the chapter the Messiah appears as a suffering individual. He is represented as bearing the punishment of sin, though not on His own account, but on behalf of others, for whom He appears as a substitute. The expression, "travail of His soul," is elliptical, and evidently means, that He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. The mighty and benevolent objects He had in view would certainly be accomplished, and would be fully satisfactory to Him.

I. SOME OF THOSE OBJECTS WHICH THE MESSIAH SHALL BEHOLD AS THE RESULT OF HIS SUFFERING.

1. Obstructions removed out of the way of the sinner's salvation. The apostasy and rebellion of man have subjected him to the curse of the divine law. No offer of mercy can be made to him, while that law, by which God rules all worlds, is trampled upon and dishonoured. The substitution of the innocent for the guilty, was the great moral expedient by which God determined to save His apostate creatures, and to preserve unsullied the honour of His government. The object of divine mercy was to save transgressors, but the government of God required that sin should be condemned in the flesh. The obedience of the Son of God has magnified the law, as law. God can now, as a moral governor, exercise mercy without doing violence to His character, or weakening the obligations of His law.

ner that has been saved, from the beginning of the world, has been saved by virtue of the death of Christ (Heb. ix. 22, x. 4). After His humiliation and death, He was to see the fruit of His sufferings (ver. 10). The death of Christ was to be followed by the rapid and extensive diffusion of the truth. Christianity widely spread in every direction. It took root in every soil-it visited every clime-and gained converts from every rank in society.

3. The moral disorders of our nature rectified. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and to establish an empire of righteousness, truth, and joy in the Holy Ghost. As the doctrines of the cross extend, the Saviour is "purifying to Himself a people zealous of good works." This process is going on in the world; the latter-day glory will consist in the wide and extended reign of holy principles. The great mass of human society will be pervaded by them. Instead of wrath, hatred, envyings, covetousness, and all unrighteousness, love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, temperance, will become the dominant principles of action.

II. THE SATISFACTION WITH WHICH THE SAVIOUR WILL BEHOLD THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS PURPOSES.

1. The completion of any great undertaking is accompanied with pleasure

and satisfaction. To see a wise and mighty scheme of action working out the anticipated results, cannot fail to be gratifying to the projector.

He

still retains the sympathies and affections of our nature in His glorified state. We are to awake in His likeness. There will, therefore, be a peculiarity in the satisfaction He enjoys, arising from a community of feeling with us. There will be an identity of feeling, a sympathy in happiness, which no one can feel who has not tasted of humanity.

IMPROVEMENT.-1. Let the subject teach us that we all have a deep interest in the travail of the Redeemer's soul. It has a gracious aspect to every one of us. This is the glad tidings of salvation, the gospel of the grace of God.

2. How great are our obligations to the Saviour!- Samuel Summers: Sermons, pp. 169-191.

Were there no other evidence of the true divinity of our Lord than that which may be gathered from a comparison of this chapter with the accounts of His life, sufferings, and death, as furnished by the four Evangelists, it ought to be abundantly sufficient to satisfy any reasonable mind. While Scripture is most positive and frequent in its declaration on this great doctrine, there is no passage or word, rightly understood, which favours a contrary opinion. If a firm belief in the true divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ is necessary, a proper notion of His real humanity is not less so. The doctrine of atonement requires a distinct conviction of the true and proper humanity of our Lord. Deity cannot suffer, &c. We shall confine ourselves to the consideration of our Lord's sufferings of soul; because general attention is directed rather to His sufferings of body, and because the text speaks expressly of the "travail of His soul."

I. OUR LORD'S TRAVAIL OF SOUL. He had a travail of soul arising-1. From an anxious desire to be engaged in His great work. We know something of this feeling. How strong must it have been in the soul of Christ (Luke

xii. 50). 2. From the temptations of the devil. These were sometimes presented through the unconscious agency of others. But His severest temptations were suggested by Satan in his own person in the wilderness. 3. From sorrow at men's impenitence and hardness (Mark vi. 6; Matt. xxiii. 37). 4. From fear in the immediate anticipation of His agony (Heb. v. 7; Matt. xxvi. 38, 39). 5. From a sense of Divine desertion. "He trod the wine-press alone." All His sufferings and travail of soul were as nothing compared with that sensation of utter loneliness and destitution which wrung from Him that exceeding great and bitter cry, "My God," &c.

II. WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF ALL THIS TRAVAIL OF SOUL AND

AGONY OF BODY? 1. In reference to man. The result to every one who receives Him is Justification. "By the knowledge of Him shall My righteous servant justify many," implies a living faith in the Saviour.

2. In reference to our Lord Himself. One word expresses them. "He shall

...

be satisfied." Satisfied with what ? (1.) With its effects upon individuals, leading them from the depths of sin to the heights of holiness. (2.) With its efficacy for all mankind. (3.) With the fulfilment of the Divine engagement to save every believing penitent. No poor guilty sinner coming in the way of God's appointment has been rejected. (4.) The salvation of sinners is Christ's satisfaction. He does not regret His mediatorial undertaking, His reproach, and suffering, and death. He knows what our salvation has cost Him, and is satisfied.

But He may see of the travail of His soul and not be satisfied. He is not satisfied when the backslider crucifies Him afresh and puts Him to an open shame. He is not satisfied when the open sinner "tramples Him under foot," &c. We have all, I trust, given some satisfaction to Christ; but which of us has done so fully? How many defects and imperfections have marred our best services!—S. D. Waddy, D.D. : Sermons, pp. 43–61.