youth; or, if it were only to look on her, and call her blessed! Why has inspired wisdom thrown a veil over all this? Why, but to prevent our regarding that mother in a false light? Why, but to remove all ground, or apparent ground, for that adoration which a large section of the Christian world, even as it is, pays to her-making her a second Intercessor, although God's word declares that there is but 'one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus; and ascribing to her that glory which God the Saviour gives not to another. Three days only, and her crucified son rises from the tomb. What was that joyful mother's share in the glad triumph of his resurrection? Scripture tells us that he appeared first to Mary Magdalene; afterwards to a company women; but nothing of any interview between him and his mother. Was she present at the glorious spectacle of his Ascension? Did she receive from him then any special token of recognition? Scripture is silent-silent concerning her after-life; silent concerning her own dying hour. And is not that silence a comment on the words of Jesus, when one told him that his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him; but he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For, whosoever shall do the will of

of

my Father which is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother!'*—and on his manner of replying to her, when, apparently, she was busying herself in reference to the beginning of his miracles, 'Woman, what have I to do with thee?'†

Blessed was Mary's lot, although the cross was, indeed, a sword that pierced through her soul;‡ and blessed shall her memory be through all our generations; but blessed, in our thinking of her as Scripture instructs us to think, not in making her the subject of 'blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits.'

THE WITNESSES OF THE CRUCIFIXION.

The Centurion and the Guard of Soldiers.

Ver. 39.

And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

The impression made on the soldiers by what they saw and heard on the cross has been already briefly noticed. They had conducted Jesus to it with mockery and insult, and, for a time, they continued to behave thus unfeelingly and brutally towards him, as they stood watching him on the cross itself. We now read of the marvellous change which was wrought in them. The Evangelist tells us that the centurion 'when he saw that he so cried out and gave up the

* Matth. xii. 46–50.

† John ii. 4.

+ Luke ii. 35.

ghost, said, Truly this man was the Son of God.' From St. Matthew* we learn that all the soldiers felt and expressed themselves in the like manner. According to St. Luke the words were Certainly this was a righteous man,'t or one unjustly condemned. Both exclamations must, therefore, have been uttered, and both express the same conviction concerning Jesus. He had been condemned, and was hanging on the cross, because he had claimed to be the Son of God. This claim he openly maintained to the last. His dying words emphatically assert it. If, then, he was a 'righteous man,' and unjustly condemned, this assertion that he was the Son of God was true; and if this assertion was true, he was unjustly condemned. So that the two expressions were, in reference to the conviction and faith wrought in the centurion and the soldiers, equivalent, and meant the same thing. It was only the difference between saying of one condemned on a certain charge, that he is innocent, and saying, in express terms, that he did not commit such and such a crime; or that he did fulfil such and such a duty, for the neglect of which he had been condemned. In this very language Pilate's wife sent her warning to her husband, in consequence of a dream which had divinely informed her of the justice of

his wonderful prisoner's cause.

to do with that just man.'

'Have thou nothing

But what, it may be asked, was the result, on the cen

* Chap. xxvii. 54. † Luke xxiii. 47.

Matth. xxvii. 19.

turion himself and his comrades, of the testimony thus borne by them to Jesus? Did he, or they, or any of them, carry away in the impression made by the cross. the seeds of Gospel faith? At that cross itself they were not ashamed to confess their faith in Christ crucified. Did all, or any of them, go forth to fight under his banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue his faithful soldiers and servants unto their lives' end? We may hope that it was so; but God's Word is silent. Omissions on points such as this, make us aware that Scripture was not of man's authorship; forasmuch as it is not written as man writes, to gratify even innocent curiosity.

It is to be observed, that the New Testament narratives, in the several periods which they embrace, bring under our notice soldiers especially, as affected by deep religious impressions. It was of a centurion that the Lord Jesus said, he had not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.* Cornelius, another centurion, was the first Christian convert from the Gentile world, bringing with him into the Church his whole household; and one, at least, of the soldiers under him had been, previously, like Cornelius himself, ' a devout man.'†

By this expression 'devout,' and that of'fearing God,' as applied to the Heathen or Gentiles, is meant that they belonged to that portion of the Gentile world who were so far enlightened as to believe in the one

* Luke vii. 9.

† Acts x. 7.

6

true God. Possibly the Centurion at the Cross, and some of those with him, may have been likewise Gentiles of this class, and may have applied to Jesus the title of the Son of God,' not as men ignorant of Him, to whom the holy sufferer cried, in words which so deeply impressed them, 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' However this may have been, certain it is, that, among worldly callings, there is no one which Scripture exhibits to us more strikingly, as compatible with faith and piety, than that of the soldier.

SUPERNATURAL OCCURRENCES IN CONNEXION WITH

THE CRUCIFIXION.

Ver. 33, 38.

And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.- -And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Messiah, that he was to be known by opening the eyes of the blind, and healing all manner of disease and infirmity, was fulfilled in two ways. It was fulfilled literally by the miracles which Jesus wrought in attestation of his divine mission; and it was fulfilled figuratively, but not less truly, by his healing men of spiritual blindness, of spiritual infirmity, and of moral corruption. The cure of the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the lepers, must have made men think of this prophecy : the miraculous character of these cures gave assurance