relative to the whole progress and issue of that event which he so joyously contemplates.

5. It arises principally from the peculiar relation of His character and work to the event itself and to all its consequences (7).

III. The certainty that this satisfaction shall be finally realised. This is certain, because the most unlimited diffusion of Christianity throughout the world. is certain. We cherish this confidence -1. Because of the natural attraction and influence of the great doctrine of the atonement, which forms the very substance of the Gospel (8).

was

2. Because of the tendency of the Gospel to an unlimited and ceaseless diffusion. This characteristic exhibited in the age of its first promulgation. It still continues, for in every heart in which the Gospel is truly received it kindles a strong desire to make it known to others. Wherever it is received, it blesses men in temporal as well as in spiritual things.

3. Because of its resistless and triumphant progress in past ages. There remains no new form of opposition or of danger which has not already been successfully encountered; no enemy to combat who has not been already vanquished; no power which has not already been overthrown (s).

4. Because of the peculiar and encouraging appearances which are now everywhere beheld in the condition and circumstances of the Church. Awaking from her long and inglorious repose, she has thrown aside that lethargy by which she was restrained from asserting her ancient glories. She has heard and is responding to the voice of Him who summons her to extend her conquests, and to inherit the desolate heritages.-R. S. M'All, LL.D.: Sermons, pp. 422-472.

(a) See outlines on this clause, and on the description: "A man of sorrows," &c.

(8) What ecstasy were it to reflect that we had snatched a fellow-creature from the devouring flame or the tempestuous deep; that we had stayed the progress of contagion or pestilence in its march of silence and desolation; that we had unbarred the dungeon of the prisoner, or burst the fetter of the slave !

How exalted, then, the joy with which the adorable Redeemer must behold the helpless ruin of mankind exchanged for happiness and safety!-M'AU.

(7) With what holy and elevated transport may the martyrs and confessors, the prophets and apostles, be supposed to look now upon the scene of their labours and the progress of their cause! How may we suppose them now to exult in the remembrance of their selfdenying efforts and oppressive privations, their wants and trials and griefs, and, more than all, that terrible moment when they sealed their last testimony, and closed their career in blood! With what unspeakable felicity must those devoted missionaries, lately removed from us, behold, amidst the mansions of blessedness, the first-fruits of their labours-the poor wanderer of Africa or the wretched slave of Demerara-now mingling in the chorus of the redeemed! But who shall describe the interest taken in all that relates to the salvation of His people by their ascended and sympathising Lord? Here all the causes of interest and joy are united in the highest operation. The affection of the Saviour is infinite. relation He bears to the saved is the closest and most indissoluble; and their rescue and happiness are the results only of His dying agonies and His ever-living intercession.—M'All.

The

(8) Never, amongst all the diversity of sacrificial institutions in any country or in any age, has there appeared even a distant resemblance to many of the most essential features of this great Christian propitiation. Never has the guilt of sin been represented as forgiven, in consequence of a design mercifully originating in the Deity Himself, and that, too, in opposition to the provocation and obstinate rebellion of the miserable offender. Never has the part to be sustained by the worshipper been declared to be that only of the free and joyous reception of unpurchased favour and the simple reliance of a grateful heart. Never has the victim been represented as provided, not by man, but God, and that victim the object of His own unspeakable and infinite attachment. Never has that victim been represented as offering himself willingly to suffer, not on behalf of his friends, but of his enemies, and for the pardon of the very crime by which he died.

The manner in which it addresses itself to the heart is equally peculiar. Other systems effectuate their purpose the most fully when they can alarm and agitate and appal. It is this alone which lulls the breast into sacred tranquillity, and, banishing every fear, ravishes the soul with ceaseless adoration, and allures to the cheerful obedience of gratitude and love, and unites the tears of contrition with the ardour of thankfulness and the exultation of hope.-M'Al.

(e) No subtlety of philosophical scepticism can be harder to subdue than that which was opposed to the first proclamation of the Gospel by Porphyry, Celsus, and Julian, and the learned of Greece and Asia; nor any political

power more terrible than that which was exercised by Nero, Domitian, and Maximus ; no barbarism more fierce than that of the Scythians, the Sarmatians, and the Gauls; no ignorance more gross, no darkness of the

understanding more intense, than that of the Greenlander and the Esquimaux. But over these the Gospel has already triumphed; and what cause have we then to tremble for the future?- M'AU.

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The "travail" of the Redeemer signifies the sufferings He underwent. By "the travail of His soul" is meant that peculiar agony of grief by which His soul was affected in the course of His sufferings. The physical sufferings of some of the noble army of martyrs" equalled, perhaps surpassed, those of their Lord. But the sorrows of His soul forced from Him His bloody sweat, and His cry, "My God," &c. These sorrows were wisely designated by the ancient fathers of the Church, “the unknown sufferings of the Son of God." But it is revealed that two of the ingredients in that cup of mental suffering were the burden of the sins of a guilty world, and the furious onslaught of Satan and his emissaries in the utmost violence and plenitude of their power. We must also take into view certain considerations of a peculiar nature which tend to heighten our conceptions of their character and extent :

1. The soul of the Redeemer was perfect in holiness. In proportion to a man's purity of heart is the shock and revulsion of soul of which he is conscious, when he is compelled to witness the debasing and desolating effects of sin. Inconceivably painful must have been the travail of our Redeemer's soul when He was brought into the nearest relation to sin that is possible to a being perfectly pure, when surveying its horrors in the light of His own spotless holiness, when bearing the wrath of His heavenly Father on account of it.

2. The soul of the Redeemer was full of light. Confined to a small spot of the surface of the globe, and 'capable of interpreting only to a very small

degree those revelations of the future which have been vouchsafed to us, our conception of the real extent of the tendencies and effects of sin is very limited. But to the mind of the Redeemer all the awful effects of sin throughout time and eternity lay bare, and the impression thereby produced must have been correspondingly deep and solemn. Moreover, when man suffers, his sufferings come on him by a gradual process, and he is sustained by the hope of deliverance at every stage of his journey. But to our Redeemer all the parts and constituents of His sufferings were by clear anticipation present at one and the same instant. What, then, must have been "the travail of His soul?"

3. The soul of the Redeemer was full of love. A philanthropist feels with tender acuteness for the distresses of his fellowmen. What, then, must have been the travail of the Redeemer's soul when, in the full flow of His ardent and unlimited benevolence, He surveyed the ruin of man's moral greatness, and died that He might restore him to his forfeited honour?

II. THE RESULTS OF OUR SAVIOUR'S SUFFERINGS AS SEEN BY HIMSELF.

In the preceding part of the chapter, He is represented as suffering the most cruel and ignominious inflictions on account of sin. Here He is represented as beholding the results of His sufferings-in the deliverance of unnumbered millions of sinful men from the condemnation and misery of sin, and their exaltation to blessedness and glory in heaven. Those results began to appear in the entrance of Abel into heaven; and have been seen in every heart, every home, every country in which the work that Christ came into

the world to do has been accomplished. What glorious and exquisitely beautiful results!

III. THE SATISFACTION WHICH THE REDEEMER FEELS IN CONTEMPLATING THE RESULTS OF "THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL." A debased mind is satisfied with what is mean and degrading; a narrow mind will rest contented with what is little and trifling; but an enlarged and comprehensive mind will be pleased only with what is dignified and noble! What, then, can be that which can satisfy the soul of the Divine Redeemer? It is by us inconceivable. But some things we do see

1. That the scheme of redemption affords a bright display of the attributes of God.

2. That through the sufferings and death of Christ the great interests of holiness have been most effectually secured. His people are delivered from the dominion as well as the condemnation of sin. On holiness the welfare and happiness of the universe depend.

3. That by His blood countless myriads of the human race have been redeemed. As He contemplates these things, we may say with reverent confidence, His mind, expanded with the noblest and purest benevolence, must become filled with delight and satisfaction indescribable.

CONCLUSION.-1. This great theme reminds us of the inestimable value of the human soul. Surely that must be inestimably precious the redemption of which, at such a cost, can satisfy the Son of God (P. D. 3204).

2. If the salvation of a soul gives delight to the mind of God, surely He will not reject any awakened sinner who comes to Him in faith (John vi. 37; Rev. xxii. 17; H. E. I. 928, 929).

3. The subject furnishes the most powerful motives to love and obey the Saviour. By so doing we co-operate in the accomplishment of His great design, and contribute to the satisfaction of His soul.

4. The subject furnishes most ample encouragement in the labours and trials of the Christian ministry. The enterprise in which we are engaged is

the opposite of hopeless, for God has promised that by the results of it His Son shall be satisfied, and "He is faithful who hath promised!" Besides, in what can we find greater delight than in doing something to contribute to the satisfaction of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us?-Robert Burns, D.D.: Protestant Preacher, vol. iii. pp. 399-408.

(Missionary Sermon.)

I. A FEW THOUGHTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MEANING OF THE TEXT.

1. Mark the singularity and greatness which our text would seem to teach us to attach to Christ. It implies a distinction between Christ and the Church. He is not a part of it; He does not rank with saved men. He, looking upon them, "shall see of the travail of His soul;" they, looking unto Him, shall behold the source of their spiritual existence. In such a case there must be an essential difference between the parties. To confound them together, as of the same nature, and possessing nothing else on either side, would seem like confounding the potter with the material substance he can fashion as he will, or the Creator of the world with the work of His hands. God is not a part of the creation; nor is Christ a part of the Church. This essential distinction, or at least the supremacy resulting from it, would seem to be indicated by the declaration that "He shall be satisfied;" as if to intimate that were He not, whatever else might be achieved, nothing comparatively would seem to be accomplished.

2. The passage also indicates the peculiar work of Christ, and attaches preeminent importance to that. (1.) This remarkable expression would seem to imply that all the glory of the Church, all the salvation of sinners, the perfection of the faithful, whatever in the consequences of His undertaking connected either with God or man can be regarded as a source of satisfaction to Messiah, is to be attributed to the fact that "His soul was made an offering

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 (8). 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 heroism, 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.

(8) What the sufferings of Messiah really were in themselves, it is as impossible to say as it 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. 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."