HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST. LECTURE CXI. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering, said unto him, am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.— LUKE i. 11-20. "THE prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Being determined through the course of these exercises to avoid every thing that has the appearance of controversy, I take it for granted that you believe and receive the history of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as delivered in the four gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as of divine inspiration and authority. Of the four evangelists two were of the number of the twelve whom Christ called to the office of apostleship, and who recorded events of which they were witnesses and partakers, and transcribed discourses which they heard and well remembered. The other two derived their information immediately from those "who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word." Their harmony, in every particular of any importance, is a proof of the truth and certainty of each individually, and of the whole. John, as one borne aloft on the wings of an eagle, ascends into the heaven of heavens, and begins his account of his beloved Master with a sublime and interesting representation of his divine nature; for which we refer you to Lect. cviii. Mark introduces "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God," with the voice of a lion "crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Luke ushers in the great Prophet, "the desire of all nations," with an account of the conception and birth of his forerunner John the Baptist, and is of course led to extract the commencement of the evangelical, out of the legal dispensation: and he sets out with exhibiting Zacharias in the exercise of the priest's office. Matthew commences at once with the history of Christ's humanity, as the son of David, the son of Abraham. For these reasons, the four sacred historians of the New Testament dispensation have been distinguished by corresponding symbolical representations, nalo gous to the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, Matthew by the face of a man, Mark by that of a lion, Luke by that of an ox, and John by that of an eagle. St. Luke was by profession a physician; he became early a proselyte to the Jewish religion, and he is generally supposed to have been one of Christ's first disciples, and of the number of the seventy whom "He sent out two and two into every city and place, whither he himself would come." After he had concluded the history of our Lord himself, at the period of his ascension into heaven, he undertook that of the Acts of the Apostles, and he addresses both his books to a person of amiable character and exalted rank, named Theophilus, and in him, to every lover of God, in every age of the Church, who is desirous to know "the certainty of the things wherein he has been instructed." On the conversion of St. Paul to the Christian faith, he seems to have attached himself with much zeal and affection to that great Apostle of the Gentiles, he became voluntarily the companion of his tra vels and afflictions, and brought down his history to his arrival at Rome as a prisoner, on an appeal to the emperor Nero. gospel and history of the acts were probably submitted to the inspection of his illustrious fellow-traveller, and received the seal of his approbation. In the preface to the gospel inscribed with his name, he modestly, yet with firmness, lays claim to the great, the essential qualification of a historian, namely, accurate and complete information respecting his subject, having" says he, "had perfect understanding of all things, from the very first:" and the professed end which he had in view is no less worthy of a great and enlightened mind, that a respected friend might be established in the knowledge, faith, and hope of the gospel. The tongue of prophecy had now been silent for more than four hundred years. The last word which it had spoken announced the sending of Elijah the His prophet, to precede the great and notable | popular opinion, by the wisdom of God and day of the Lord, to work a remarkable change the folly of man! Weighed in the balance in the temper and character of mankind, to of the sanctuary, Herod fawning on Augusprevent the earth from being "smitten with tus, or on one of his favourites, dissolved in a curse." luxury, stained with blood, inflamed with resentment, is little and contemptible; while the aged priest, reconciled to the will of God, who had written him childless, pursuing the calm tenor of his way, fulfilling the unostentatious duties of his place and station, A period of darkness and disorder succeeded. The land which had been for ages so renowned in history seems as if blotted out of the globe; the people, which had been hung up as a sign before the eyes of so many successive generations, seems to be extin-"righteous before God, walking in all the guished and lost; the predictions and promises which conferred upon them such high importance, and duration so extended, seem to have been defeated and rendered of no effect. The throne of David, whose permanency was so often, and so solemnly declared, has sunk into the earth and disappeared. The representative of the royal line of Judah is sunk into a humble carpenter and all hope of revival is at an end. But the Lord hath spoken and shall he not do it, he hath promised and shall he not bring it to pass? Yes, but not at the season, nor in the way which human wisdom would have prescribed, nor by means which human wisdom would have employed. Behold light once more, and suddenly, shines out of darkness: the land of Israel rises once more into importance; Jerusalem rears her head among the nations, the star of Jacob arises, "a rod springs out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots;" and the glory of the latter temple eclipses that of the former. commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless," commands affection, esteem, and respect. This venerable pair, Zacharias and Elisabeth, were both of the tribe of Levi, on which the office of priesthood was entailed. Both nature and religion taught them to consider the gift of children as a blessing; but the hope of that blessing they seem now calmly to have resigned, and they are quietly sinking into the decline of life, if not with the consolation of leaving their name and office to their children, possessing nevertheless that of mutual affection, of a devout spirit, and a conscience void of offence. The midnight of nature is the dawning of the day of grace; and he who in wisdom and justice brings to nought the wisdom of the worldly prudent, "raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children." The evangelist informs us that at this The Prince of Peace is ready to make his eventful period Herod was king of Judea. public entrance on the grand theatre, and it Princes are often among the inferior actors is time for his harbinger to prepare the way, in the great drama of Providence. Their and for the herald to announce his approach. will shakes the nations of the earth, but the And where shall we look for him? Turn hearts and arms of kings themselves are in your eyes to Judea, to Jerusalem, to the temthe hands of the Lord, to be by him turned ple. See, the lot is prepared, to determine which way soever he will. This man has whose turn it should be to burn incense beby sorne been dignified with the addition of fore the Lord in the holy place. Providence "the great:" an appellation more frequently presides over it, and Zacharias is taken. Bebestowed as a reward to splendid vice, than hold him, with joy accepting the sacred task as a tribute to modest merit. Herod the of paying a grateful tribute of praise to God, great! and yet a paltry substitute of a Ro- and of assisting the prayers of the people man emperor, an habitual slave to the vilest without, with the commanded perfume of the of human passions, envy, lust, jealousy, cruel- altar of incense. Behold him entering withty, revenge. The inspired penman gives in the veil, under the mixed emotions of godly him no names, either good or bad, but simply fear, and exalted delight, to worship that tells his story as far as it is connected with God who once resided there in sensible glory, that of Him by whom "kings reign and but from which the glory had long departed. princes decree judgment." The reign of All is solitude and silence; the unextinguishHerod to us serves merely as a prologue to ed light that burnt continually before Jehointroduce the more important name and his-vah lends its flame to set on fire the incense tory of an ancient, obscure priest called Zacharias, and our attention is instantly called away from the splendour, noise, and intrigue of a busy, vainglorious, debauched court, to contemplate the humble concerns of a private family, and the noiseless performance of a religious service. How different are the ideas affixed to the terms great and little by sober reason and when lo, the lustre of material fire is lost in the brighter glory of the great Archangel, and the solemn silence is broken by the melodious accents of a celestial voice. Gabriel, who five hundred and forty years before announced to the prophet Daniel the commencement of the determined weeks which should precede the Messiah's day, now announces to Zachariah their consum his prayers are well known to him; he has all along been the sympathizing, though unseen, unknown witness of his anxieties and distresses, and he esteems it an honour and a happiness to be employed as the messenger of glad tidings to a pious, suffering human being. Zacharias had long ago ceased from expecting, had ceased from praying for the building up of his own house, but he waited for the consolation of Israel, he continued instant in prayer for the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David which was fallen down, and lo, God at length bestows, as he did upon Solomon, not only the blessing which he asked, but that also which he asked not: namely, a son to support the honour of his own name, and the promise of the Son that should be born, the Child that should be given, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. The injunctions of the law respecting Nazarites are repeated and applied to the present case, and the future greatness and importance of this miraculous child, in the scale of Providence, are foretold; and Zacharias has the satisfaction of mation. He opens the sealed book of prophecy, and to his astonishment informs him that the promised coming of Elias, with which the ancient canon closed, was near at hand; that this great prophet should appear in the person of a son of his own, whom God by a special dispensation of his Providence was raising up to fulfil the Scriptures, to turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, "to go before the Saviour in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." How is the pride of kings levelled to the dust before an appearance like this! How many princes and potentates have arisen, and fallen, and sunk into oblivion since Gabriel last visited the earth! How have the kingdoms of this world been shaken during the course of five centuries! How often has the seat of empire changed, and the globe changed its inhabitants! but the heavenly messenger enjoys unfading lustre and undiminished strength. The purpose of the Eternal has been proceeding all the while, and the con-hearing that he was to be the father of him vulsions and contention of the nations have been working the righteousness of God, and preparing the way for the kingdom of peace and love. who should be the accomplishment of ancient prophecies, "The voice crying in the wil derness," the finger to point out to mankind "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 66 Terror gives way by degrees to feelings of a different kind, and, with the glory of the heavenly vision before his eyes, with the faith of father Abraham, in similar circumstances, as an encouragement to his own, and with the manifold instances which the history of his own country afforded of similar interposition, he converses with flesh and blood, he staggers at the promise through unbelief, and for a moment forgets that with The appearance of an angel, however, though sent on an errand of mercy, though delivering a message of grace from on high, is an object of terror to frail mortality. "When Zacharias saw him he was troubled, and fear fell upon him; and if the upright and blameless man tremble at the presence of an angel, "where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear," when "the Lord himself shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on all them that know not God and obey not the gospel!" The tri-God all things are possible. The angel umph of goodness is the glory of a really superior being. The angel that "stands in the presence of God," exults not in the confusion of a frail mortal, but said to him "fear not, Zacharias." The insolence of superiority, and the delight of outshining, of dazzling, of distressing an inferior, are the characteristics of a little soul, of some angels falsely so called; those who are truly such condescendingly sink to the level of those who are beneath them, or affectionately raise the humble up to their own. In the presence of God all distinctions vanish; Gabriel and Zacharias are fellow-creatures, fellow-servants, fellow-dependants; the inferior being makes himself known by his timidity, the superior by his benevolence and love: this marks the difference, the affecting difference which purity and guilt have made. The flaming minister addresses the attendant on the earthly sanctuary, with all the familiarity and ease of ancient friendship; the desires of his heart, the subject of vouchsafes to explain himself to the unbeliever; his incredulity shall not frustrate the purpose of heaven, nor even divert into a different channel the mercy which he doubted; but his frailty shall not go wholly unpunished, he shall be wounded in those faculties which he had so ill employed as the avenues to his mind, the tongue which dared to express the language of doubt and suspicion must undergo a temporary silence, the ear which would not admit the communications of an archangel, shall be shut for a season against the delights of social intercourse, and the sign which he unwisely demanded shall bear upon it a mark of displeasure. Striking mixture of goodness and severity, of goodness unbounded, and severity restrained! Striking view of the supreme power possessed and exercised by the great Lord of Nature, over all our powers and possessions. He who bestowed the gift of speech on man can withdraw it in a moment; or confound it so as to be no longer a medium of communication between mankind; He 1. Angels, we perceive, take a lively, an can confer it on the dumb ass to reprove affectionate, and a compassionate interest in "the madness of the prophet;" or instanta- the affairs of men. "Are they not all minisneously communicate it, in all its different tering spirits, sent forth to minister for them forms, to the ignorant and illiterate, for the who shall be heirs of salvation?" The "litinstruction and salvation of the various na- tle ones" of Christ's family, the little in age tions of the earth. Let a gift so precious and stature, the little in condition, must not never be vilely profaned as an organ of be despised, "for I say unto you," are his falsehood, pride, lust, or profanity. emphatic words, "that in heaven their anThe words of the angel all meet their gels do always behold the face of my Father accomplishment in their season. The pre- which is in heaven:" and "There is joy in tended oracles of paganism were constrained the presence of the angels of God over one to veil their prophetic enunciations in terms sinner that repenteth." What condescenof mystery and obscurity; they spake with sion on the part of beings so highly exalted! timidity and caution; they clothed their What a protection provided for the feeble! responses and mandates in general and What encouragement proposed to the peniambiguous expressions, which superstition tent! "The angel of the Lord encampeth might interpret what way soever it would; round about them that fear him, and deliverand which any event might be wrested to eth them." Pleasing, awful thought! The justify and support; but the lively oracles of host of heaven guards my path and my bed, God are minute, distinct, intelligible, and watches over my lying down and rising up; pointed; he who runs may read them; they but their eyes are continually upon me, I clothe predictions with such an exactness of am "compassed about with a great cloud of circumstance: they appeal to events so near witnesses," they bear testimony to what 1 at hand, so obvious to investigation, that it is am, whither I go, how I am employed. Is impossible to mistake one thing for another, the eye of a child a guard to virtue? What to confound one with another. Zacharias' holy circumspection and watchfulness, then, dumbness, the season of his being attacked what earnestness and perseverance in well with it, the unexpected, miraculous preg- doing, what abhorrence of that which is evil,. nancy of Elisabeth, the birth of the child ought the inspection of an angel, ought the according to the time of life, the sudden res-all-seeing eye of God to produce?" He shall toration of the Father's hearing and speech, give his angels charge over thee, to keep at the very moment predicted, were all mat- thee in all thy ways;" "keep," therefore, ters of public notoriety; every one singular"thy heart with all diligence; for out of it in itself, the whole taken in connexion so are the issues of life." singular, as to mark the interest which eternal Providence took in an event, at first sight, of no great general importance, but in its effects and consequences involving the fate of nations, the everlasting destination of worlds. What! all this state and magnificence; the trumpet of prophecy resounding, the prince of angels descending, to proclaim the advent of merely a man with raiment of camels' hair, with a leathern girdle about his loins! The Ruler of the universe, be assured, is not so lavish of extraordinary displays of his power and wisdom. If the true God appear, it is on an occasion worthy of a God. And if this be the preparation made for the appearance of the servant, what state shall precede the entrance of the Sovereign? Gabriel, I foresee, has another message to bring, a multitude of the heavenly host is on the wing, to announce a greater than John Baptist, even him of whom John Baptist himself says, "There standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes' latchet I am not worthy to unloose." This solemn preparation for the manifestation of God in the flesh, if God permit, will be the subject of the next Lecture. I now conclude with the following reflections: . 2. From a preparation thus solemn and magnificent what are we not to expect? Four thousand years have been employed in making it; a procession of patriarchs, of prophets, of sages, of priests, of potentates, has passed on before in uninterrupted succession; angels have descended from heaven: surely He who thus cometh is the Son of God. "When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, “And let all the angels of God worship Him:” And “unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom :" for " Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." "His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things: And blessed be his glorious name for ever and ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory, Amen, and amen." 3. Though predicted events are strictly conformable to the word of prophecy, they nevertheless, in many cases, contradict, disappoint, and far exceed human expectation. The prophets themselves had not always a established dogma. Study the ways of Providence; but dare not to interpret them according as passion or prejudice may dictate. Thy way," O God, "is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known." Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture, and Providence of Providence; and "if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." Practical conformity to the divine will is preferable to the highest attainments in knowledge, and it is the most direct road to farther discovery. distinct and complete perception of the object which they were commissioned to hold up to the eyes of the world. Those "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The agents employed in the accomplishment of promise and prediction, little understood the part which they acted. They thought of nothing less; they intended nothing less. They were unconscious instruments in the hand of God to execute a purpose, which had they known they would have striven to defeat. "The heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, 5. Superior beings are now an object of and the rulers take counsel together, against terror, and it is conscious guilt in man which the Lord, and against his anointed-He clothes them with that terror. They are our that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The friends, they take delight in ministering to Lord shall have them in derision." Were our necessities, they cherish the gracious af"Herodand Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, fections of elder to younger brethren, yet and the people of Israel, gathered together" the apparition is formidable even to a Zato promote the cause of Christianity? No, they meant to destroy it. But" of a truth," Lord, they were constrained "to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." Happy are they who, with Gabriel and the other flaming ministers who stand before God, are the conscious, the voluntary, the joyful agents under, and together with God, in promoting the great work of Salvation. charias. But "there is no fear in love; for perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love." To that glorious perfection the Christian is encouraged to aspire. We shrink from the idea of a visit from a departed friend arising out of the grave, but we look with hope and desire to the day when we shall be added "to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are writ4. Let not man, then, presume to make ten in heaven-and to the spirits of just men his own understanding the measure of re- made perfect." The vision of one angel, in vealed truth, or of divine conduct. "Who our present state of depression, strikes the hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or, Who mind with awe; but we hope to come "to being his counsellor hath taught him?" It an innumerable company of angels;" nay ill becomes a creature conscious to himself" to God the judge of all," for we come of so much weakness, of so much ignorance, through "Jesus the Mediator of the new of such liableness to error, to erect himself into an infallible judge. "Search the Scriptures," but with reverence, with humility, with a desire to be instructed, not censoriously, self-sufficiently, not to wrest Scriptures in favour of a preconceived opinion, or long covenant, and the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” HISTORY OF JESUS CHRIST. LECTURE CXII. And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man, whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thon that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubledat his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive i thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.-LUKE i. 26–33. EVERY thing in nature, we have observed, mystery inexplicable. Every flower of the s revelation and discovery, and yet all is field, every pebble in the brook, every leaf |