THOSE March 22. CHRIST'S DOUBLE SONSHIP. HOSE who truly realize their lost condition, and would fain be redeemed, will not lightly trust any helper; and reasonably so, because the adequacy of the redemption entirely depends on the sufficiency of the Redeemer. Now, to this sufficiency the double Sonship is all-essential. Had Jesus not been the son of Mary, he could not have been the Messiah of promise, or the Messenger of the covenant, and these scriptures could not have been fulfilled,—“ Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel;" and again, "Thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." There was much, it is true, that was humbling about the time and place of Christ's birth; nevertheless, this very humiliation was not only a fulfilment of Scripture, but was a first and absolutely needful step in the redemption of our race. Had this been all, however, that could have been said of Jesus, whatever his willingness, the power to save would have been wholly wanting in him. Mary was also the Son of God. In a voice from heaven, the Father said of him, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And he himself said, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." But the son of This all-important fact is one of the most marvellous in the Bible. Indeed, "God manifest in the flesh" is expressly declared to be the great mystery of godliness; and it is only through divine aid and teaching that any can rightly realize it. Accordingly, when Peter, in reply to the question of his Lord, said, "We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus answered and said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Indeed, among the early Christians so great a thing was it for a poor sinner to acknowledge that the only begotten of the Father was made flesh and dwelt among us, and died for our salvation, that whenever any one among the Jews or idolaters openly said, "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God," they were ready almost at once to baptize him. What need we more? they seemed to think, the great secret has been revealed to his soul; God has come to him, and dwelleth in him, and he in God. "He, the mighty God, has come, "The hand," said Augustine, "that was nailed to the cross built the universe." be Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. — ISA. ix. 6. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.-LUKE ii. 11. March 23. THE LORD BOTH KNOWS HIS PEOPLE AND DELIGHTS IN THEM. HOUGH God bears with godless and unsanctified men, and makes his sun to shine and his rain to descend on them as on others, yet he never looks on them with benign complacency, or expresses delight in their persons or ways. He could not, for it is his very nature to shun and loathe everything morally vile. He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with him. As a refined ear, for which music, with all its rich and varied harmonies, has special charms, cannot possibly delight in jarring discords, so neither can the Lord, from the very perfection and purity of his nature, delight in those who scorn his mercy and go on in sin. Very differently, however, does the Lord regard those who accept his offered love and grace in Jesus Christ, and walk in his fear. They are precious in his sight, a peculiar treasure, dear as the apple of his eye, the objects of his constant care; even as the prophet says: "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." This precious truth, however, is not always realized by them, just because, though the Lord's promises are ever clear, his providences are often dark. At such seasons they are sorely tempted either to say fretfully with the patriarch, “All these things are against me," or to ask despondingly with the Psalmist, "Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" At other times, again, it is not so much outward as inward things that perplex them; such as the deceitfulness of their own hearts, the waywardness of their affections, and all their deeply-felt shortcomings in daily life. Yet, in spite of these varied fears, there is never on the part of the Lord any forgetting or forsaking of those who trust in him. It is a proverb among the serfs in Russia, who feel as if they had none to care for them, “God is high above us, and the Czar is far away." But no genuine believer has ever reason for any such utterance. It is true no voice may be heard from heaven, nor divine footstep be seen on earth; but he needs no such outward signs to assure him, for he has the word of the Lord on which to rest, and knows that wherever his lot may be cast, or however remote from creature fellowship or sympathy, his God will be with him, keeping his soul in peace, and making even the roughest of paths the very highway to heaven. "God will protect to heaven, And every good that meets thee is A blessing wisely given. If losses come-so let it be, The God of heaven remains with thee." If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.-NUм. xiv. 8. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.-Ps. xxxvii. 23. Thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.—Isa. lxii. 4. March 24. PLACE THE TRUE PLACE OF APPOINTED ORDINANCES. HOSE who are prone, from mystical tendencies in THOSE their nature, to undervalue outward ordinances, forget that, when kept in their true and intended place, so far from being antagonistic to spiritual religion and the inner life, they are, on the contrary, sweetly helpful in every way. Had it been otherwise, never would the Psalmist have said: "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." Others, again, have a tendency to rely unduly on things external, and to make more of the courts of the Lord than of the Lord of the courts. The Church gets greater prominence than Christ, and more is expected from the administration of the sacraments than from the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. We see this in the case of Paul, who, in the days of his darkness, gloried in mere externals-such as his Hebrew origin, his peculiar training, and his Pharisaic exactness in all matters of the law, though these were of no avail whatever for justification. So was it with his nation. Never, perhaps, were the Jews more ceremonially rigid than in the time of our Lord. They gloried in their ancestry, their exclusiveness, the splendour of their Temple, and the multiplicity of their services; yet all the while they were in reality profaning the Temple, making void the law, and filling up the measure of their iniquity, till, by the rejection of the Son of God, wrath came upon them to the uttermost. Mere ritualism did not save the Jews, neither will it save the Gentiles. |