This is a call to attention. It is the announcement of a Saviour. When the infant Jesus was brought to the Temple, Simeon recognised in Him the Lord's Anointed, whom he was to see before his death. He concluded his song with words borrowed from the sixth verse of this chapter: "A light to lighten the Gentiles." The whole passage is quoted Matt. xii. 18-21.

"Behold the man," said Pilate. "Behold My Servant," says God.

I. HIS DIVINE APPOINTMENT.

The text is the Father's authentication of His Son's commission and appointment to His redeeming work.

1. As a servant. A servant is subordinate to his employer. There may be equality of nature while there is subordination in office. The son of a king is equal in nature to his father, while he takes a subordinate position as appointed by him to some office. The Son of God took upon Him "the form of a servant." He was "made of a woman, made under the law." He took the nature of man, that He might be in the position of servitude proper to man, render a full obedience to the law, and suffer on the cross the curse due to those who had failed to render the obedience to which they were bound.

2. As a chosen servant. "No man taketh this honour unto himself" (Heb. v. 4, 5). Among all beings in the universe, human or angelic, no other was found competent to the great redeeming work. He was therefore chosen and appointed from eternity. "Mine Elect."

Son of God with power." The Father was well pleased with Him from all eternity. He was well pleased with the manner in which He performed His work on earth,

"Whom

4. As a supported servant. I uphold." Although for a season He veiled the splendours of His divine nature, His human nature was not left without divine support. During all His earthly career there was the most intimate fellowship between the Father and Himself. Some of His mightiest works were performed after special seasons of prayer. The consciousness of His Father's supporting presence kept Him from breaking down beneath the load of suffering, care, and human sin that continually pressed upon Him.

II. HIS SPECIAL ENDOWMENT.

"I have put my Spirit upon Him." Read lxi. 1-3, with Luke iv. 17-21. The relation between the persons of the Godhead cannot be fully apprehended by us; nor can we fully apprehend the action of the Father upon the Son, nor of the Spirit in connection with the Father and the Son. It becomes us to keep close to the letter of Scripture. Still Scripture speaks clearly of some distinction between the Persons of the Godhead, and of a mutual action or going forth of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost in connection with the redemption work. Thus the Son of God, who became a servant, received His qualification and anointing as man for His work. God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him. He possessed it during His earthly ministry; and then, after His glorification, shed it forth on His Church.

This anointing of the Saviour, corresponding to the ancient anointing of the prophets, priests, and kings of the former dispensation, answers to the threefold office of Christ, which

relates to the threefold requirement of our nature.

1. We are ignorant and blinded by sin. Christ received the Spirit as the Teacher of the Church. All that heard Him were astonished.

2. We are guilty and condemned. An atonement was necessary, but was out of our power. He is the anointed Priest. In that capacity He has offered the sacrifice of Himself.

3. We are unholy and depraved. Yet we are under obligation to be holy. Christ is the anointed King. He sends His Spirit into our hearts, and we willingly submit to His authority. "Being by the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this"

(1.) On the Apostles, so that they were endowed for their work of preaching and teaching (John xiv. 26). Hence we have the record of His words, the inspired Epistles, the doctrine of Christ. (2.) On such as are called to service and office in the Church. His ministers must be called and qualified by His Spirit. He gives sympathy with His work of saving men; willingness to consecrate life to it; love that seeks no personal interest, regards only the grand spiritual end and the immortal issues of labour for Christ. (3.) On all who are interested in His grace (Rom. viii. 9; 1 John ii. 19).

III. HIS EXPANSIVE WORK,

"He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." Observe

1. What He will bring forth. "Judgment." Synonymous, as in Ps. cxix., with the divine law or revelation. Hence the method of the divine government, and eventually the manifestation of the Gospel.

2. To whom. "The Gentiles." The old prophets frequently dwell on the incorporation of the Gentiles with the Church. The opposite of the spirit of exclusiveness that characterised the Jews. The Gospel is expansive. It contemplates the day when the knowledge of Christ shall be diffused over the wide world.

3. How. By the universal proclamation of Christ as the world's Saviour.

Christ is the manifestation of God's wisdom and love. Let us remember His love. Let us yield to His claim of expansive love and devoted service. Let us be co-workers with God in the endeavour to attract attention to Him who is chosen and appointed, as He is exclusively qualified to be the centre of faith and hope to human souls. Cry, Behold Him!-J. Rawlinson.

I. "Behold My Servant, whom I uphold." These words must be understood of Christ in His mediatorial capacity. If He be not viewed as Jesus upheld by the Father, there is something unintelligible in the prediction; if our Redeemer be not God, in every sense equal to the Father, co-eternal, coessential, the whole of revelation is flimsy and worthless. But it is often necessary to speak exclusively of His humanity; and Christ Jesus, as man, is the subject of the prophetic announcement. As perfect man, He was the Father's servant (Phil. ii. 7; John iv. 34, vii. 16, &c.) Is it necessary to suppose that His nature was fallen nature in order that such a sacrifice might have its force? Not so; but believing as we do that His human nature was not fallen nature, we still believe that it was preserved from becoming so by the energies of the Holy Spirit, communicated without measure by the Father. It is to deny the nature of a creature to suppose it incapable of falling; we cannot ascribe to man properties that would make him cease to be man. God upheld Christ's humanity by the power of the indwelling Spirit, so that the potentiality of sinning never passed over into actuality. He was so completely upheld, that not the least element of sinfulness could ever be traced to a single action of His Still, by being allowed-if the expression be not too bold-to become, sometimes almost overpowered, He learned to have a fellow-feeling--sympathy in the true sense of that word-with the believer in his conflict, though He never had partnership with him in his

transgression (Heb. v. 7; H. E. I. 849, 866, 873).

II. "Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth." Christ Jesus was the Elect of God, in that from all eternity Infinite Wisdom had chosen Him to execute the sovereign purposes of infinite mercy (Heb. v. 4, 5). It lay beyond human conception to imagine the Father reconciling the sinner to Himself in the complex person of our Surety. Had the thought been sug gested, we should have expected to see the human temple burned up and turned into ashes by such a sublime and mysterious union.

Why should God delight in this elect Mediator? Because 1. The mediation of Christ magnified every Divine attribute (2 Cor. iii. 18; Heb. i. 3). Christ became the shining forth of God's glory to man (John xiv. 9). He stood in the midst of an evil generation, but He made it manifest that He was a Being of another world; He was armed with power, before which every created thing bowed down. Note especially, the degree in which Christ Jesus glorified God by His vicarious sufferings and obedience. Contrast holiness, truth, power, and wisdom, as manifested (for they should have been manifested) in man, left an outcast through the first Adam, and man made perfect through the mediation of the Son, and you will not fail to perceive that Christ crucified is the Father glorified-that Christ suspended on the cross for man is God exalted, and avenged, and vindicated.

2. It met every human necessity. Man had been brought under condemnation, and Christ endured that condemnation. Man, even when freed from condemnation, has no righteousness of his own that can be acceptable in the sight of God; but Christ obeyed in all points of the law; and now, where God does not impute sin, He does impute the righteousness of His Son, Man, though pardoned through Christ's death, though justified through Christ's life, is yet unfit to enter into the association of the

pure; but Christ has risen to intercede for him and procure the gift of the Holy Spirit for his sanctification; and thus, beyond his title, he acquires a meetness for his inheritance (1 Cor. i. 30). "Behold," then, "Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth!"

CONCLUSION. Try yourselves by the simple criterion which this subject presents. Is your dependence placed on the might by which the Mediator was upheld? Do you delight in Christ for any of the reasons which made the Father well-pleased in Him, or are you wrapped up in that formality which is the pestilential blight of so much religion-Henry Melvill, B.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 67-74.

Religion, if it be important, is allimportant. However little importance we may attach to it, God attaches a great deal. Mark its personal aspect. "Behold!"-a message to every member of the human family. We are not addressed in the mass, but in our individual characters. As in the judg ment-day each shall find himself singled out from the crowd, so every man in Scripture has a distinct and personal message sent to him, as having the deepest personal interest in the promises and threatenings of the Word of God. We love to escape this personality, to mingle in the crowd, to escape reflection. But God mercifully will not permit this, for we should lose much by it. To young and old, rich and poor, He says, "Behold My Servant," &c.

I. BEHOLD AND WONDER at the extent of love which pervades the scheme of our redemption. "Behold!"-it is a word of wonder, and indeed there is in Christ a world of wonders. Everything is wonderful in Him. The whole Christian religion is a concatenation of wonders, "a chaining together of mystery upon mystery.' He is wonderful in His person, in His name, in His offices, in the design and character of His work-bringing into life by His death, to glory by His shame. He is the great centre of

attraction to heaven and earth; the Father loves Him, angels adore Him, all the redeemed repose their eternal confidence in Him.

"Behold" the display of love that reigns in our redemption-in the selection of such a Saviour, in the benefits that flow to us through Him. Consider the depth of degradation from which it raises, the height of glory to which it conducts. Study this love! In all times the world has been astonished at the extent of God's love to His people-in their deliverance from their greatest enemies, in the estab lishment of their brightest hopes. Jethro was astonished at their deliverance from Egypt (Exod. xviii. 9-11); the neighbouring natives at their rescue from Babylon (Ps. cxxvi. 2). But the love of Christ is more surprising still. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Jews said, Behold, how He loved him!" But His love for us passes the knowledge of the holiest saint on earth, of the wisest angel in heaven. Mourn the apathy of the world-let us mourn our own-to the claims of Christ.

II. BEHOLD AND TRUST. If God intrusts Him with the weight of His glory, you may with all the weight of your salvation. He is God's "Servant," God's "Elect," the object of

God's delight. Why is this said but to show that whatever He did in the business of our salvation He did under the seal of Divine authority? He was God's Chosen-chosen to be the Head of the Church, the great Peacemaker between earth and heaven. It is a great prop and encouragement to our sinking faith, a great satisfaction to the troubled conscience, that in all that Christ did for us, and in all that He works in us, He is the object of Divine complacency and delight. In all our approaches and applications to God, let this minister boldness to us, that we go to Him in the name of One whom He loves (P. D. 2314).

III. BEHOLD AND LOVE. If God delights in Christ, we should too. The estimate in which Christ is held by us is the most decisive test of oneness of sentiment between God and us. "If God were your Father, ye would love me." Christ is God's Elect, God's Chosen; if He be not ours, there is a great contrariety between Him and us. Great is His love for us; let us return it. He sets a high value on the pardoned sinner's love. "Unto you that believe, He is precious" (H. E. I. 1003, 1004, 3367, 3369, 3909; P. D. 2338, 2341).

IV. BEHOLD AND LIVE (Col. iii. 3, 4).-Samuel Thodey.

"The Lord our God is one Lord." But He has been pleased to reveal Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is inexplicable by us, but it is certainly Scriptural. Three Persons, but one God! By our text we are reminded that the unity of the Persons in the Holy Trinity has been manifested in the salvation of man.

I. THE LOVE OF THE FATHER. We must never forget that the mission of the Son had its origin in the Father's pitying love for us (a).

1. The Son was sent forth by the Father. He came to accomplish the Father's purposes (1 John iv. 9, 10; John iii. 16).

2. It was because our Lord undertook to fulfil the purpose of the Father's heart that the Father loved Him: "Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth." The Father loved the Son eternally as God in the heaven of His own glory; but it is of the Father's love to the Son while living in a servant's form that He speaks here. Our text teaches us not only

that the Father appointed the Son to the work, and was willing that He should succeed, but was well pleased when He saw Him going forth on His high enterprise of mercy. Thus the whole scheme of redemption redounds to the glory of the Father.

3. How near that scheme lay to the Father's heart was manifested also in the manner in which He upheld His Son while He was engaged in its accomplishment: "My Servant, whom I uphold." It was by means of the grace of the Father that He was enabled to make the sacrifice needed for our salvation (Heb. ii. 9). He not only appointed His Son to the task, but ensured its fulfilment by supplying the strength required, and sustaining Him through the protracted conflict with the powers of darkness (3).

All this serves to confirm the inspired announcement, "God is love." Oh, that we could more fully realise the Father's love to our souls, and yield some larger measure of gratitude to Him who thus so wonderfully, even from everlasting, "first loved us (H. E. I. 390, 2319–2321).

II. THE CONDESCENSION SON.

OF THE

factor's most ignominious death, "even the death of the cross."

III. THE CO-OPERATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

"I have put My Spirit upon Him." 1. It was by the Holy Spirit that the Son was qualified for the accomplishment of the work He had undertaken (John i. 16, iii. 34). 2. It is by the Holy Spirit that the work of Christ is now carried on in the hearts of men (John xvi. 7, 8).-Charles Kemble, M.A.: Seventeen Sermons, pp. 325-349.

(a.) If we have any saving acquaintance with the Gospel, we are at all times disposed to offer to the Son of God the homage of gratitude and praise for the work of redemption. But there are times when we are in danger of falling into the mistake of regarding the Saviour as offering Himself as a sacrifice to propitiate an angry God. We are prone to contemplate the Father as a stern, uncompromising, and unpitying Judge, actuated by vindictive feelings, taking pleasure in exacting punishment and inflicting pain; or a personification (so to speak) of the attributes of almighty power, unerring wisdom, and unswerving justice. But there our view of the great Creator stops, and there our apprehension of Him who is the Moral Governor of the world becomes defective. Contemplating the bleeding Victim, voluntarily bleeding to atone for the guilty, and to bring back rebels to reconciliation and peace, the justice, power, and love of the Father are well-nigh forgotten in the sight of the tenderness and self-abandonment displayed by the Son. . . . But this Scripture combines with others to teach us that if we would love Him "who first loved us," we must pass on from Calvary to Him whose will is accomplished by the death and passion of His Son.-Kemble.

(8.) Concerning this great mystery, see Dr. Bunting's comments in the Outline THE FATHER'S ELECT SERVANT, and the note by Bishop Horsley appended thereto.

VOL IL

"Though He were a Son," yet learned He obedience " as a servant." It is so with all God's servants here on earth; they are sons of God, but they are called to prove their sonship by their service.

"Mine Elect." He was chosen of God for this service, called of God, sent of God to do God's work. It is so

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