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would not accept of his liberty, in token that he should be his for ever): "burnt-offering and sin"offering hast Thou not required. Then said I, Lo, "I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Ime, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, Thy "law is within my heart;" namely, to give "the sacrifice of Himself" instead of the sacrifices here referred to; to lay down His own life as an atonement for sin even the same "will" and "pleasure of the Lord Jehovah foretold again in Isaiah liii. 10, "Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath "put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall

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prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand: or, as He named it in the hour of His greatest submission and trial—" The cup "which the Father had given Him to drink;" and relative to which He said-" Father, not My will but Thine be done."

THIS He volunteered for us-for fallen, sinful, unworthy, and helpless man-to save him from the death to which he was doomed: and this work He hastened to be occupied about: for this "business" denied the calls of natural affection: His answer to those who with all the anxiety of Parents had "sought Him sorrowing"-"How is it that ye sought me? "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's

"business?" For this He denied Himself; it was all for which he lived:-as He saith again, "My "meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to "finish His work." And, when a word could have saved Him from all—when, as he said, in "the hour" of His enemies' triumph and "of the power of darkness," He could have instantly commanded the services of "legions of angels," every consideration for himself was lost in that one-" But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?" that is to say-'How then shall the redemption of the world be accomplished?' the only "must be❞— the only necessity that lay upon Him.

2. But again--no less does this answer of the Saviour declare the love of The Father to the world in His Mission.

It tells us that redemption, the object of that Mission in which we thus early find the Son of God occupied, is the "business of His Father"-His Will and His Work: and so, with all the passages already quoted to the same purpose and numerous others, it gives the refutation to that most revolting dogma (often put forward as the very essential truth of the Gospel) that the mission of the Son was for the reconciliation of the Father in the sense of moving Him to compassionate the world, and inducing Him to the exercise of mercy towards His sinful and

erring creatures. This is indeed the character of God which man natural draws—“ thinking that God is such an one as himself," implacable and unmerciful: it is the notion of Deity which pervades every form of Heathenism; and it will also be found to enter more or less into every perversion of Christianity, whether the appeasing medium be the sacrifice of Christ or self-sacrifice in one form or another. But this is not the God of the Scriptures, whose name is declared to be "LOVE"-The Father Love; The Son Love; The Holy Ghost Love. The Father Love in Himself: The Son the Love of the Father manifested (as it is written, 1 John iv. 8, 9,-" God is "Love: In this was manifested the Love of God "toward us, because that God sent His Son into the "world that we might live through Him"): The Holy Spirit Love-the Love of the Father in the Son -communicated, the "life" itself in us which is its gift. Whence the Son, about to leave the world(His Father's "business," of which He speaks in the Text, transacted-), says, "I have glorified Thee on "the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do I have manifested THY NAME unto the men whom Thou gavest me out of "the world. Now they have known that "all things whatsoever Thou hast given me are of "THEE: for I have given unto them the words which

"Thou gavest Me; and they have received them and "have known surely that I came out from Thee, and "they have believed that Thou didst send me.” (John xvii. 4-8).*

II. But I said that these words before us are not only thus a declaration of the Mission of Christ, but also have a reference and application to ourselves as His disciples and followers.

That is Christ in His Life on earth is set before us not only as our Saviour, and His actions not only in their bearing on the work which He came to accomplish for us, but as our Example; and this even in those sufferings by which was effected His atonement, as we learn from 1 Pet. ii. 21 &c.: His obedience as a Son in our nature being designed to

* There is, indeed, a sense in which The Father was reconciled to us by the death of The Son: that is, inasmuch as thereby the exercise of mercy was made consistent with justice, and a way of access opened for man as a sinner to that God whom he had offended; and who, otherwise, could only have stood revealed to him in avenging wrath, as "a consuming fire." In stating this, however, it is ever carefully to be remembered that the means of thus satisfying the Father's Justice are the provision of the Father's Love, and the access one which He Himself has opened; "For "-(to add another Scripture to those quoted above)" God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten "Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but "have everlasting life." (John iii, 16.)

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teach obedience to those whom He makes sons. He does make us Sons: as it is written-" As many "as received Him to them gave He power (the right "or privilege, Marg.) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name;" (John i. 12): and not only so, but, as another Scripture saith, 66 Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit "of His Son into your hearts crying Abba, Father:" (Gal. iv. 6). But if the Spirit of the Son be ours, then is His language also ours, (as indeed here stated) -then in the Text also is He our example: and what, let us ask, are the lessons which in this view it teaches?

1. First-We learn the paramount claim upon us of the service of God. To all who would divert us from this one work our answer should be that of Christ "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business:" For, this is the end for which we were born-the end of our creation, and more especially the end of our redemption and regeneration -that we should "glorify God in our bodies and spirits which are His;" that we should live to Him and serve Him; that we should consider that we have each a work to do for Him and see that we are occupied in it. But, Is it not directly the reverse with the majority of those who name the name of