LAURENTIUS LAURENTI. Hymns from the Land of Luther.

We, who are all defiled with sin,

And rebels to our God!

We, who have crucified thy Son,
And trampled on his blood!

What strange, surprising grace is this,
That we, so lost, have room;
Jesus our weary souls invites,
And freely bids us come.

Ye saints below, and hosts above!
Join all your sacred powers;
No theme is like redeeming love,

No Saviour is like ours.

STENNETT,

THOU great Redeemer, who for us hast bled,
In trespasses and sins our hearts were dead;
But since thy pardoning grace new life can give,
Then, gracious Saviour, oh, my sins forgive!
Where'er a streamlet of thy grace is found,
There will the tender flowers and fruits abound;
And oh, how deeply in my soul I feel

That grace alone my wretched state can heal.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DEATH OF CHRIST A CENTRAL FACT-ITS RELATION TO THE SEVERAL OFFICES OF CHRIST-POETRY.

"We do show the Lord's Death till he come.'

N eminent divine has said "What is the history of the world without Christ?"1 He is its central figure," the sovereign intervention of divine love in history." With reference to him, all that preceded his coming was a prophecy and preparation, and all that followed, a revelation.

And the death of Christ is the central fact and vital element of his whole redemptive work. It is the key which unlocks the mystery of his incarnation. It interprets all the events of his life, gives value and glory to all his offices, and invests his

1 Julius Müller.

"Both

second coming with surpassing interest. historically and doctrinally, the Passion appears as the central and crowning point of the gospel."1

--

It is remarkable that the four Gospels are not so much a biography as an obituary,—a record of the closing portion of Christ's life. His birth and childhood are briefly noticed; the many years that follow forming the larger part of his life on earth are passed over almost in silence, until we come to the last three or four, upon which the pen of inspiration dwells with a minuteness and fulness that indicate the vast importance of those final years and their vital connection with his mission to mankind, the interest of the narrative deepening toward the end, nearly eight chapters of one evangelist, seven of another, and five each of two others, being devoted to an account of the last week. How the sacred writers linger about the last two days!-days crowded with events, all connected with and declaring the preeminent importance of the crucifixion of our Lord. His whole earthly life is, in itself, subordinate to his death.

His decease cannot therefore be regarded as merely the natural termination of a human life,

1 Westcott. Introd. to the Study of the Gospels.

inevitable to our common humanity; nor, considered as a violent end of his work, was it the mere seal and testimony of his sincerity.

It was an event for which, preeminently, he became incarnate, the predestined end which he ever kept steadily in view through all his ministry as the consummation and crown of that ministry. He came To DIE, to give up his life a ransom, to lay down his life for his sheep, to shed that blood without which there could be no remission of sins. His solemn utterance upon the cross, "It is finished!" "suggests the idea of a prescribed, a distinct, a definite work, brought to a final, satisfactory, and triumphant conclusion.

Taking it as the simple announcement of the fact that some great transaction was brought to its consummation, we ask ourselves, as we contemplate the entire circle of the Redeemer's services to our race, still running out their course, what part of these services was it of which it could be said that it was finished? Here, in the foreground, we have to put that one and perfect sacrifice which he offered up for the sin of the world. Through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God, and by that one sacrifice for sin, once for all, he hath perfected forever those that are sanctified;