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-it was for this that Christ died. It was by His death, more even than by His life, that He showed how His sympathy extended far beyond His own nation, His own friends, His own family. 'I, if I be 'lifted up' on the Cross, 'will draw all men unto 'me.' It is this which the Collects of this day bring before us. They speak, in fact, of hardly anything else. They tell us how He died that 'all estates,' not one estate only, but 'all estates in His Holy Church '— that 'every member of the Church' in its widest sense, not the clergy or the religious only, but every one, in his 'several vocation and ministry,' might 'truly 'and godly serve Him.' They pray for God's mercy visit not Christians merely, but all religions, however separate from ours-Jews, Turks, Heretics, and ‘Infidels,’— in the hope that they may all at last, here or hereafter, be 'one fold under one shepherd,' the One Good Shepherd who laid down His life not for the flock of one single fold only, but for the countless sheep scattered on the hills, not of the fold of the Jewish people, or of the Christian Church only, but of all mankind.

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This is a truth which comes home to us with peculiar force in Palestine. What is it that has made this small country so famous? What is it that has carried the names of Jerusalem and of Nazareth to the uttermost parts of the earth? It is in one word, 'the 'death of Christ.' Had He not died as He did, His religion - His name His country, the places of His birth and education and life,- would never have broken through all the bonds of time and place as they have. That we are here at all on this day, is a proof

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of the effect which His death has had even on the outward fortunes of the world.

This universal love of God in Christ's death is specially impressed upon us in Nazareth. What Christ was in His death, He was in His life. What He was in His life, He was in His death. And if we wish to know the spirit which pervades both, we cannot do so better than by seeing what we may call the text of His first sermon at Nazareth. He was in the synagogue.' The roll of the Hebrew Scriptures was handed to Him. He unrolled it. His former friends and acquaintance fixed their eyes upon Him to see what He would say. And what were the words. which He chose? They were these: The Spirit of 'the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me 'to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me 'to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to 'the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, 'to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach 'the acceptable year of the Lord.' What He said on this text is not described; we are only told that they 'marvelled at the gracious words that proceeded out ' of His mouth.' But what those gracious words were we can well see from the words of the passage itself. 'The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him,' first, 'to 'preach the Gospel to the poor,' the glad tidings of God's love to the poor, the humble classes, the neglected classes, the dangerous classes, the friendless, the oppressed, the unthought for, the uncared for. The Spirit of God was upon Him, secondly, 'to heal 'the broken-hearted:'-to heal, as a good physician

Luke iv. 18.

heals, not with one medicine, but with all the various medicines and remedies which Infinite Wisdom possesses, all the fractures, and diseases, and infirmities of our poor human hearts. There is not a weakness, there is not a sorrow, there is not a grievance, for which the love of God, as seen in the life and death of Christ, does not offer some remedy. He has not overlooked us. He is with us. He remembers us. The Spirit of God was upon Him, thirdly, 'to preach 'deliverance to the captive.' Whatever be the evil habit, or the inveterate prejudice, or the master passion, or the long indulgence, which weighs upon us like a bondage, He feels for us, and will do his utmost to set us free-to set at liberty those that are cramped and bruised and confined by the chain of their sins, their weakness, their misfortunes, their condition in life, their difficulties, their responsibilities, their want of responsibilities, their employments, their want of employments. And, fourthly, 'The 'Spirit of God was upon Him,' to 'give sight to the 'blind.' How few of us there are who know our own failings, who see into our own hearts, who know what is really good for us! That is the knowledge which the thought of Christ's death is likely to give us. That is the truth which, above all other truths, is likely to set us free. Lord, that I may receive my 'sight,' is the prayer which each of us may offer up for our spiritual state, as the poor man whom He met at Jericho did for his bodily eyesight.

For every one of these conditions, He died. Not for those only who are professedly religious, but for those who are the least so to them the mes

sage of Good Friday and of Nazareth is especially addressed. Christianity is, one may almost say, the only religion, of which the Teacher addressed Himself, not to the religious, not to the ecclesiastical, not to the learned world, but to the irreligious, or the non-religious, to those who thought little of themselves and were thought little of by others, to the careless, to the thoughtless, to the rough publican, to the wild prodigal, to the heretical Samaritan, to the heathen soldier, to the thankless peasants of Nazareth, to the swarming populations of Galilee. He addresses Himself, now, to each of us, however lowly we may be in our own eyes, however little we think that we have a religious call, however encompassed we are with infirmities; His love is ready to receive, to encourage, to cherish, to save us.

II. I pass to the other lesson which Good Friday teaches us here. It is that, whatever good is to be done in the world, even though it is God Himself who does it, cannot be done without an effort a preparation a Sacrifice. So it was especially in the death of Christ- so it was in His whole life. His whole life from the time when He grew up, 'as a tender 'plant' in the seclusion of this valley, to the hour when He died at Jerusalem, was one long effortone long struggle against misunderstanding, opposition, scorn, hatred, hardship, pain. He had doubtless His happier and gentler hours we must not forget them: His friends at Bethany, His apostles who hung upon His lips, His mother who followed Him in thought and mind wherever He went. But here, amongst His own people, He met with angry opposi

tion and jealousy. He had to bear the hardships of toil and labour, like any other Nazarene artisan. He had here, by a silent preparation of thirty years, to make Himself ready for the work which lay before Him. He had to endure the heat and the cold, the burning sun, and the stormy rain of these hills and valleys. 'The foxes' of the plain of Esdraelon' have holes,' 'the 'birds' of the Galilean forests have their nests,' but 'He had' often 'not where to lay His head.' And in Jerusalem, though there were momentary bursts of enthusiasm in His behalf, yet He came so directly across the interests, the fears, the pleasures, and the prejudices of those who there ruled and taught, that at last it cost Him His life. By no less a sacrifice could the world be redeemed, by no less a struggle could His work be finished.

In that work, in one sense, none but He can take part. He trod the winepress alone.' But in another sense, often urged upon us in the Bible, we must all take part in it, if we would wish to do good to ourselves or to others. We cannot improve ourselves, we cannot assist others, we cannot do our duty in the world, except by exertion, except by unpopularity, except with annoyance, except with care and difficulty. We must, each of us, bear our Cross with Him. When we bear it, it is lightened by thinking of Him. When we bear it, each day makes it easier to us. Once the name of 'Christian,' of ‘Naza'rene,' was an offence in the eyes of the world; now, it is a glory. But we cannot have the glory without the labour which it involves. To hear His words, and to do them, to hear of His death, and to follow in

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