stripes have wrought in us, does not our heart melt at once with love and grief. If we have ever loved our Lord Jesus, surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our bosoms.-Spurgeon.

I. A LAMENTABLE DISEASE ASSUMED. 1. The baneful result of transgression. 2. Universal in its prevalency. 3. Hereditary in its descent. 4. Incurable by human agency.

II. AN INFALLIBLE PHYSICIAN SPECIFIED. 1. Infinite in wisdom. 2. Impartial in attendance. 3. Ever easy of access. 4. Gratuitous in His practice.

III. THE REMEDY HE EMPLOYS. "His stripes," i.e. the atonement. 1. Divine in its appointment. 2. Easy in its application. 3. Universal in its adaptation. 4. Infallible in its efficacy.

IV. THE CURE EFFECTED BY IT.

1. Is now no novelty. 2. Is radical in its nature. 3. Is happy in its influences.

CONCLUSION. This subject tends, 1. To promote humility. 2. To produce self-examination. 3. To encourage the desponding penitent. 4. To excite fervent gratitude.-Four Hundred Sketches, vol. ii. p. 93.

I. THE MEDICINE WHICH IS HERE PRESCRIBED the stripes of our Saviour. I take the term "stripes" to comprehend all the physical and spiritual sufferings of our Lord, with especial reference to those chastisements of our peace which preceded rather than actually caused His sin-atoning death: it is by these that our souls are healed.

"But why?" say you. 1. Because our Lord, as a sufferer, was not a private person, but suffered as a public individual, and an appointed representative. Hence the effects of His grief are applied to us, and with His stripes we are healed. 2. Our Lord was not merely man, or else His sufferings could not have availed for the multitude who now are healed thereby.

But healing is a work that is carried

on within, and the text rather leads me to speak of the effect of the stripes of Christ upon our characters and natures than upon the result produced in our position before God.

II. THE MATCHLESS CURES WROUGHT BY THIS REMARKABLE MEDICINE. Look at two pictures. Look at man without the stricken Saviour; and then behold man with the Saviour, healed by His stripes.

III. THE MALADIES WHICH THIS WONDROUS MEDICINE REMOVES. The great root of all this mischief, the curse which fell on man through Adam's sin, is already effectually removed. But Í am now to speak of diseases which we have felt and bemoaned, and which still trouble the family of God. 1. The mania of despair. 2. The stony heart. 3. The paralysis of doubt. 4. Stiffness of the knee-joint of prayer. 5. Numbness of soul. 6. The fever of pride. 7. The leprosy of selfishness. 8. The fretting consumption of worldliness. (See also p. 494.)

IV. THE GURATIVE PROPERTIES OF THIS MEDICINE. All manner of good this divine remedy works in our spiritual constitution. The stripes of Jesus when well considered, 1. Arrest spiritual disorder. 2. Quicken all the powers of the spiritual man to resist the disease. 3. They restore to the man that which he lost in strength by sin. 4. They soothe the agony of conviction. 5. They eradicate the power of sin; they pull it up by the root; destroy the beasts in their lair; put to death the power of sin in our members.

V. THE MODES OF THE WORKING OF THIS MEDICINE. How does it work? Briefly, its effect upon the mind is this. The sinner hearing of the death of the incarnate God is led by the force of truth and the power of the Holy Spirit to believe in the incarnate God. After faith come gratitude, love, obedience, &c. (a)

VI. ITS REMARKABLY EASY APPLICATION. There are some materia medica which would be curative, but they are so difficult in administration. and attended with so much risk in their operation, that they are rarely if ever

employed; but the medicine prescribed in the text is very simple in itself, and very simply received; so simple is its reception that, if there be a willing mind here to receive it, it may be received by any of you at this very instant, for God's Holy Spirit is present to help you. How, then, does a man get the stripes to heal him? 1. He hears about them. 2. Faith cometh by hearing; that is, the hearer believes that Jesus is the Son of God, and he trusts in Him to save his soul. 3. Having believed, whenever the power of his faith begins to relax, he goes to hearing again, or else to what is even better, after once having heard to benefit, he resorts to contemplation; he resorts to the Lord's table that he may be helped by the outward signs; he reads the Bible that the letter of the word may refresh his memory as to its spirit, and he often seeks a season of quiet, &c.-Poor sinner, simply trust and thou art healed; backsliding saint, contemplate and believe again.

Since the medicine is so efficacious, since it is already prepared and freely presented, I do beseech you take it.— C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 834.

(a) Looking upon the "stripes" of Jesus, one may be led, 1. To think of the awfully malignant nature of sin, which would require for its expiation so great a sacrifice as that of the Son of God, and of the great depravity of his own heart in having been so destitute of love towards one so full of grace and goodness toward him. He is thus brought to tremble for his sin, and to mourn for it with deep contrition. And here is true repentance. 2. The inestimable value of the sacrifice, and the boundless love of God manifested in it, show him also that an atonement of most amply sufficient value has been offered for his sin; that the gracious God must be most mercifully disposed and willing to pardon and save him. Thus a

comfortable and satisfying faith is generated in his heart. 3. The apprehension of the favouring mind in God towards him, with all the love manifested in the sufferings of Christ, disposes his heart to the love of God. 4. Seeing also that he owes his renewed being and hopes to his God and Saviour, he is ready to give himself wholly to His service. For he feels the force of the apostle's words (Rom xii. 1.; 2 Cor. 14, 15). 5. When in the service of Christ he meets with great difficulties and trials, he remembers that Christ bore for him his eternal sufferings, and thinks little of anything he can endure for Him in his short life upon earth. 6. From the contemplation of the humiliation and death of Christ flow endless streams of benevolence, readiness to give, or to do, or endure anything for our neighbour (2 Cor. viii. 9; 1 John iii. 16). 7. While that contemplation urges him to devote himself to the service of God and the promotion of his neighbour's good, it also keeps him humble in his greatest zeal, both by the example of his crucified Saviour, and also by the remembrance that his only hope of mercy rests in his coming as a worthless creature for salvation to Christ, in reliance upon His merits alone. 8. Every one who has been brought to such views of sin as the sufferings of Jesus set forth, feels himself strongly repelled, by those sufferings, from all sin. Shall he add another sin to those by which he has pierced his beloved Saviour with sorrow and pain? Here is a most cogent motive to the resistance of temptation in the true believer. And if he finds difficulty in such resistance, he remembers that his Saviour suffered crucifixion for him, and feels that he must therefore think little of "crucifying the flesh, with its affections and lusts," for His sake (1 Pet. iv. 1, 2).

Thus the due effect of the sufferings of Christ upon man is the entire renovation of his heart. It tends to purify him from all sin, to fashion his soul in the frame of perfect holiness, to urge him to devoted zeal in all ways of piety and charity. The wisdom of God in appoint ing those sufferings as the means of our salvation, is justified in the beauty of holiness to which those who duly look upon them are thus brought. As the Israelites looked upon the brazen serpent till they were healed, so let us look upon our suffering Saviour till all the disorders of our souls are remedied, and we are restored to the "spirit of love and of a sound mind."-R. L. Cotton, M.A.: The Way of Salvation, pp. 95-99.

we have turned every one to his own way. says, "Behold, I come as a thief" (Rev. xvi. 15)-common sense will fix the resemblance to a single point, that He will come suddenly and unexpectedly.

So, when wandering sinners are compared to wandering sheep, we have a striking image of the danger of their state, and their inability to recover themselves. Sheep wandering without a shepherd are exposed, a defenceless and easy prey, to wild beasts and enemies, and liable to perish for want of pasture; for they are not able either to provide for themselves, or to find their way back to the place from whence they strayed. Whatever they suffer, they continue to wander, and if not sought out, will be lost. Thus far the allusion holds.

But sheep in such a situation are not the subjects of blame. They would be highly blameable, if we could suppose them rational creatures; if they had been under the eye of a careful and provident shepherd, had been capable of knowing him, had wilfully and obstinately renounced his protection and guidance, and voluntarily chosen to plunge themselves into danger, rather than to remain in it any longer.

Thus it is with man. 1. His wandering is rebellious. God made him. upright, but he has sought out to himself many inventions (Eccl. vii. 29).

2. God has appointed for mankind a safe and pleasant path, by walking in which they shall find rest to their souls; but they say, "We will not walk therein" (Jer. vi. 16).

3. They were capable of knowing the consequences of going astray, were repeatedly warned of them, were fenced in by wise and good laws, which they presumptuously broke through.

4. When they had wandered from Him, they were again and again invited to return to Him, but they refused. They mocked His messengers, and preferred the misery they had brought upon themselves to the happiness of being under His direction and care.

Surely He emphatically deserves the name of the Good Shepherd, who freely laid down His life to restore sheep of this character.-John Newton: Works, p. 712.

We are like sheep, 1. In our proneness to err. No creature is more prone to wander and lose his way than a sheep without a shepherd. So are we apt to transgress the bounds whereby God has hedged up our way (Jer. xiv. 10). This has been manifest in every period of our life (Ps. xxv. 7, xix. 12).

2. In our readiness to follow evil example. Sheep run after one another, and one straggler draweth away the whole flock; and so men take and do a great deal of hurt by sad examples. Sheep go by troops, and so do men follow the multitude to do evil; what is common passeth into our practice without observation (Eph. ii. 2, 3).

3. In our danger when we have gone astray. Straying sheep, when out of the pasture, are in harm's way, and exposed to a thousand dangers. Oh, consider what it is for a poor solitary lamb to wander through the mountains, where, it may be, some hungry lion or ravenous wolf looketh for such a prey. Even so is it with straying men: their judgments sleepeth not; it may be in the next hour they will be delivered to destruction (Jer. vii. 6, 7; Rom. iii. 16).

4. In our inability to return into the right way. Other animals can find their way home again, but a strayed sheep is irrecoverably lost without the shepherd's diligence and care. could wander by myself, but could not return by myself" (Augustine).

5. In our need of a redeemer.

"I

CONCLUSION. Has the Good Shepherd brought us back? Then, 1. Let us magnify His self-sacrificing and tender mercy, in following us, and bringing us into the pastures where there is at once safety and true satisfaction.

2. Let us remember for ourselves, and preach to others, that the sheep do not fare the better for going out of the pasture. In departing from God, we turn our back upon our own happiness. The broad and easy ways of sin are pleasing to flesh and blood, but destructive to the soul. Adam thought to find much happiness in forbidden fruit, to mend and better his condition,

but was miserably disappointed. The prodigal did not fare well in the far country (Luke xv. 14).

3. Let us pray for grace that we may be watchful in the future. Alas, which of us has not sad need to make our own the Psalmist's confession and prayer (Ps. cxix. 176)? Though our hearts be set to walk with God in the main, yet there is still in them a proneness to swerve from the right way, either by neglecting our duty to God, or by transgressing against His holy commandment; against this let us be on our guard, that we may not again grieve our Good Shepherd! Thomas Manton, D.D.: Complete Works, vol. iii. pp. 300–303.

and pernicious. We are not likened to one of the more noble and intelligent animals, but to a silly sheep. All sin is folly, all sinners are fools. You will observe that the creature selected for comparison is one that cannot live without care and attention. There is no such thing as a wild sheep. The creature's happiness, its safety, and very existence, all depend upon its being under a nurture and care far above its own. Yet for all that the sheep strays from the shepherd. If there be but one gap in the hedge, the sheep will find it out. If there be but one possibility out of five hundred that by any means the flock shall wander, one of the flock will be quite certain to discover that possibility, and all its companions will avail themselves of it. understanding for evil things. But So is it with man. He is quick of that very creature which is so quickwitted to wander is the least likely of all animals to return. And such is man-wise to do evil, but foolish towards that which is good. With a hundred eyes, like Argus, he searches out opportunities for sinning; but, repentance and return to God. like Bartimeus, he is stone blind as to

The sheep goes astray ungratefully. It owes everything to the shepherd, and yet forsakes the hand that feeds it and heals its diseases. The sheep goes astray repeatedly. If restored today, it may not stray to-day, if it cannot;

but it will to-morrow, if it can. The sheep wanders further and further, from bad to worse. There is no limit to its wandering except its weakness. See ye not your own selves as in a mirror?-C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 925.

sinning; though there be one path to heaven, there are many roads to hell. Each man chooses his own road, and the choices vary for several reasons :— 1. Because each mind is more or less individually active. While in an un

renewed condition, it is active in devising means for its own gratification (Ps. Ixiv. 6).

2. Because of the diversity of our constitutions. We see plainly that the body hath some indirect influence on the mind, and that the condition of the mind follows the constitution of the body. Moreover, Satan adapts his temptation according to what he perceives to be our constitutional tendencies (H. E. I. 4680).

3. Because of the variety of our businesses and position in the world. Many men are engaged in ways of sin because they best suit with their employments; it is the sin of their calling, as vainglory in a minister (1 Tim. iii. 6). So worldliness suits a man of business, or deceitfulness in his trade. Callings and businesses have their several corruptions, and into these, through the wickedness of their hearts, men slide.

4. Because of the differences in our education. Their education in the home as well as in school!

5. Because of the differences in the company into which we are drawn, and of the examples that are thus set before us. Men learn from those with whom they converse. Hence come national sins, partly, as they run in the blood, but more by way of example. Of the German we learn drunkenness and gluttony; of the French wantonness, &c. Hence also come individual sins. Hence the importance of shunning the society of the evil, and consorting only with the godly (H. E. I. 2123-2148, 4693, 4700).

II. PRACTICAL USES TO BE MADE OF THIS FACT.

1. Do not be too ready to bless yourselves, merely because the sins of others do not break out upon you; do not flatter yourselves because you do not run into the same sins that others do. The devil may take you in another snare that suiteth more with your temper and condition of life. Some are sensual, some vainglorious, some worldly, &c.; many meet in hell that do not go thither the same way. A man may not be as other men, and yet he may not be as he should be

(Luke xviii. 11). For many reasons men made light of the invitation to the marriage feast (Matt. xxii. 5), but each excuse ruined. One hath business to keep him from Christ, another pleasures, another the pomps and vanities of the present world, another his superstitious observances; but each of these things obstructs the power of the truth, and the receiving of Christ into the soul. Thou hatest this or that public blemish, but what are thy faults? (John viii. 7.) Do not rashly censure others, and descant on their faults; look within!

2. Stop your way of sinning; pluck out thy right eye, cut off thy right hand (Matt. v. 29, 30). Your trial lieth there, as Abraham was tried in the call to offer up his Isaac; and David voucheth it as a mark of his sincerity (Ps. xviii. 23).

3. As we look back upon our past, and humble ourselves before God, let us penitently confess, not only the sinfulness of our nature, which we have in common with all men, but also the personal transgressions by which individually we have grieved Him.

4. As to our future, there are two things we must do. (1.) We must walk circumspectly. We must look carefully at and around our way, and make sure that it is also the way of God (Prov. iv. 26, 27, xiv. 12); remembering that while there are many evil paths, there is but one right one. To save us from mistake, four waymarks have been mercifully given us. First, at the entrance of the way which leads to life everlasting there is a strait gate-so strait that we can enter it only by putting off all our sins, and giving ourselves entirely to the Lord. Secondly, it is a narrow way, and sometimes a very rugged way, so that much self-denial is needed to enable us to continue in it. Thirdly, it is a way in which you have little company (Matt. vii. 14). Fourthly, it is a way in which, if we look carefully, we can discern Christ's footsteps (1 Pet. ii. 21).

(2.) We must walk prayerfully, day