Remember him always, as your Example, Guide, Friend, and Saviour. "FOR EVERY ONE THAT SEETH THE SON, AND BELIEVETH ON HIM, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE; AND I WILL RAISE HIM UP AT THE LAST DAY."

SERMON XI.

THE RELENTING CRUCIFIER.

MATT. XXVII. 48.

AND STRAIGHTWAY ONE OF THEM RAN, AND TOOK A SPONGE, AND FILLED IT WITH VINEGAR, AND PUT IT ON A REED, AND GAVE HIM TO DRINK.

AMONG the friends of Christ, we find a relenting crucifier. In companies where we should least expect it God secures witnesses for himself; and in hearts which appear to be the most unpromising soil we find the work of the Spirit.

The act performed by this partner of the crucifixion was so very slight, and evinces so little interest in Christ, that his claim to a place among the friends of Christ may naturally be questioned. It is not with the expectation of proving his claim, by any argument founded on his cursory act of kindness, that he is here included in the number of the Saviour's friends; but for the purpose of showing that the infinite condescension of the Saviour, in recognizing a cup of cold water given to one of his

disciples in the name of a disciple, as worthy of his reward, and in sparing a bruised reed, and treating with forbearance and hopefulness the smoking flax, may have found an object of grace even among those who were employed to bruise him and put him to grief. It may encourage some to see how slight a feeling of interest in Christ, how inconsiderable an act of kindness done for him, may bring a man within the wide circumference of that grace which rejoices in showing mercy where sin has abounded, nor is turned away from scenes the most revolting and hopeless to the eye of our faith. Besides, if all who befriended Christ were endowed with great talents, or were in affluent circumstances, or if all of them belonged to the intelligent classes of society, or even if they all enjoyed and exercised clear and strong faith, it is easy to see that very many might be discouraged. By including the penitent thief and the relenting crucifier in the number of the Saviour's friends, we feel sure that we act in accordance with the spirit of that "faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," "and that the Son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost."

Crucifixion always occasioned an intolerable thirst. To make the victims insensible, stupefying drinks were humanely offered. Christ refused such a

draught, and died with an unclouded mind. His followers may innocently receive alleviations of pain, and use them, even to the suspension of their consciousness, if they choose, or their friends so determine for them; but the manner in which Christ chose to meet death, illustrates the common reflection of suffering Christians, that their pains are not to be compared with those which Christ endured on their account; while it should serve to strengthen them for "all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness."

The dreadful scenes and agonies of the cross drew near their end. The last act of the Saviour's life was to commend his mother to the beloved disciple, who was standing near the cross, and who thus continues the account of the scene: "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst."

The seeming digression will not be found inconsistent with unity of effect, if we consider here the wonderful minuteness with which the sufferings of Christ were foretold, and their extreme coincidence with the predictions.

As soon as Christ was nailed to the cross, the soldiers, rapacious and poor, seized upon his garments, which his crucifiers had stripped from him, and as there were four of these soldiers, probably, who were detailed to attend the execution, they apportioned

his garments between them; his coat, making a fifth portion, consisting of one piece of cloth, without a seam, fell to one of them by lot.

Who but Omniscience could have foreseen that little incident of division, and the casting of the lot, in the distribution of the Saviour's garments? What a wonderful book the Bible appears to be; the more wonderful, the more minutely it is examined. God is in it, as in nature, wherever the eye rests or penetrates.

With respect to the manner in which the bodies of the three victims on those crosses were treated, there is the same remarkable fulfilment of prophecy. The Jews were unwilling that the bodies of men crucified should remain on the cross during the Sabbath; indeed, it was their custom always to remove a crucified body from the cross before sundown; but the near approach of the Sabbath, beginning at six o'clock of the preceding afternoon, made them anxious to dispose of the bodies without delay. They therefore begged the Roman governor, that the usual mode of hastening death might be resorted to; viz., a violent breaking of the legs of the victims. By this means, the two thieves were hastened out of the world. When they came to Christ to do the same, they found that he was already dead. Whether his death took place before the thieves had, either or both of them, died, does not appear; but, at least,