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was a person of consequence, whom our Lord himself styles ‘a master of Israel.'

The Jewish writers make frequent mention of one Nicodemus the son of Gorion, who lived in this age, and was a member of the council; and some have thought this the same with our Nicodemus. The concurrence of name, time, and condition, is favourable to this conclusion. Nicodemus was renowned for his wealth; and that he was rich, is shown by the liberal provision of costly spices which he made for our Lord's burial. In fact, of Nicodemus it is said that he was one of the three richest men in Jerusalem: so wealthy that he might have maintained a city at his own charge for ten years; and was able to give his daughter a dowry of a million golden denarii. But he was afterwards reduced to a very low estate, and his daughter had to beg her bread; which, if he was the same with the present Nicodemus, would be sufficiently explained by the persecutions likely to befall so noted a person, when he at length openly avowed himself an adherent of Jesus. The name 'Nicodemus' is Greek; and it was the custom of this age to have two names, one Greek or Latin, and the other native. It is said that the native name of Nicodemus was Bonai, and it is on record that one Bonai became a disciple of Jesus. All these, at least, are curious coincidences. But we do not press them, and the reader must take them for what it may seem to him they are worth.

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. It is generally sup posed that he chose this season because he was unwilling, without further inquiry, to commit himself, and increase the suspicions of the jealous body to which he belonged, by going in the day-time. This is not, however, certain; for it is recorded just before—(John ii. 24, 25)—that Jesus kept himself aloof from personal intercourse with those whom his miracles had impressed, so that there might be no opportunity of gaining his attention but by visiting Him at night; and if this was the night of the same day in which Nicodemus had seen our Lord's miracles, he could not well have had an earlier opportunity; and the intimation may thus be designed to express his im

patient alacrity rather than his caution. To which it may be added, that it was very common with the Jewish doctors to meet together for conversation and the study of the law at night, and that to do this was considered highly commendable and meritorious. The existence of such a custom shows, at least, that the procedure of this 'master of Israel' was not in any way extraordinary.

Having witnessed the miracles our Lord had wrought, Nicodemus had reached the conviction that He was invested with a divine calling; but it does not appear that he had attained any clear views of Christ's person or mission; and his desire to possess more distinct information, must have been the greater from the expectations in regard to the approaching reign of the Messiah, which the ministrations of John had generally awakened. Nicodemus probably shared the general notion of the temporal character of that reign, though he may, at the same time, have had some more worthy and spiritual ideas concerning it. It does not seem that he had any conception that Jesus himself was the Messiah; but beholding Him as a divinely commissioned prophet, he repaired to Him for more definite information than he had yet been able to obtain on that great and interesting subject. As a pious Jew and rigid Pharisee, he had no doubt of his share in the Messiah's kingdom; but he was most anxious to learn when and how it would be manifested. How great then was his astonishment to hear that-son of Abraham as he was— -Jew as he was-Pharisee as he was-something more was needed before he or any one else could become a fit subject of the kingdom which the Messiah came to establish, or entitled to a share in its benefits; and that the exaltation of the Messiah was to be of a kind far different from what he had thought—a lifting up (upon the cross) in suffering and death, that, as was well represented when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, whosoever looked believingly at Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!

The conversation with Nicodemus is one of the most memorable pages in the gospel, and differs in an essential particular

from the other teachings of Christ. In addressing a well-instructed man—a doctor of the law-Jesus uses language conformable to the state of mind and knowledge of his new disciple; and it is difficult to seize the prevailing idea without some knowledge of the principles and prejudices of the Jewish theology of that age. The Jews believed that a heathen who became a proselyte passed through a new birth, and, by being thus new-born, cast into oblivion his antecedent connections and relatives in life, and this so literally and effectively, that he might espouse his own mother or sister without offence. The idea and name of a new birth were, therefore, familiar to the Jews; but under a gross and literal apprehension, which was at one time in danger of creeping into the Christian church, and which Paul so forcibly condemns in the Epistles to the Corinthians. The astonishment which Nicodemus expressed, was therefore not at the idea of a new birth in itself, but at the notion that he, as a Jew, should need any such transition in becoming a disciple of Christ. This was so strange and incredible, that he thought he must have misunderstood what had been said, and rather fell back upon the absurdity of a natural regeneration, facilitated perhaps more to him than to us, by the general belief in a sort of transmigration of souls. Hence his questions: How can a man be born when he is old?'—' How can these things be ?' In answer to which, Jesus, in words full of divine power, disclosed to him the spiritual nature of the kingdom He designed to establish, the essential regenerating change which must pass over those who become the subjects of that kingdom; and, in conclusion, He declared with emphasis the real end and purpose of his coming, and even went so far as to indicate the very form of that death which He was to suffer for man's sake. There were designedly many things in this that Nicodemus could not thoroughly understand till a future day; but he pondered them well, and when that day came, he remembered and understood them.

1 I Cor. v. I; 2 Cor. ii.

Thirty-fourth Week—First Day.

JESUS AND THE BAPTIST. JOHN III. 22–36.

WHEN Our Lord withdrew from Jerusalem He did not hasten back into Galilee, but remained in Judea, and at length proceeded to the Jordan, where He began to baptize. This seemed, to common apprehension, to bring Him into direct rivalry with John, who was then actually baptizing at another station on the river, higher up, at Ænon, near to Salim. John's disciples, jealous for their master's credit, hastened to tell him of this; and the terms in which they did so, intimate that the baptism of John had become comparatively forsaken for that of Jesus. They said: 'He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to Him.' They spoke not only as being jealous for their master, but as feeling their own consequence, as his adherents, affected by the higher popularity which the new teacher had already acquired. The principle on which all this is founded, lies deep in human nature. Jealousy of a rival's fame and success is constantly seen in the world, through every path of life, and not only inflicts great anguish upon the proud fleshly mind, but has often led to deeds of blackness and dishonour. The religion of Jesus enjoined the entire prostration of this common feeling; and the man whose mind is thoroughly saturated with its holy influences, will be content, while he knows that his record is on high, and that his Lord's honour and the good of souls have been his only aims, to lie humbly in the dust, neglected and forgotten of men; and not only to regard without repining or dislike those who have outstript him or outshone him in his own paths of honour and usefulness, but to rejoice in their success, and to cheer on with sympathiz

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ing shouts those who have taken from his own hands the sword of warfare and the palm of triumph.

John was not a Christian. But no one, however fully instructed in the things of Christ, did ever more strongly or loyally evince this self-abnegation in a matter where the pride of man is most quick and tender. It is quite refreshing to contrast his tone with that of his disciples. The manner in which they speak of Jesus is manifestly bitter, if not contemptuous, as if He was labouring to supplant in the public favour the man who had introduced Him to it, and as if He had been but too successful in his art.

Nothing ever uttered by man, under any like circumstances, can be finer than was John's answer, which, without a word of direct reproof, must in its effect, and by its contrast, have been felt as a severe rebuke by the complaining disciples. He called to their minds that he had always declared that he was not the Christ, but was sent before Him to prepare the way for Him. He beautifully compared himself to the paranymph, or friend of the bridegroom, who, although he had not himself the bride, stood by rejoicing greatly in the happiness of his friend. ‘This my joy,' he said,- this my joy, therefore, is fulfilled.' And then he added, with a cheerful satisfaction which reaches to the sublime of moral grandeur, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.'

See here how freely he admits and acquiesces in the fact of his own decline; and consider how unwilling men are to admit any idea of the kind, and how earnestly they repel it as the suggestion of malice or ignorance, when hinted by others. Many, rather than endure the idea of such degradation, will welcome death if it saves them from public neglect. But John admits the idea frankly, and with a clear perception of all that it involved. It involved the decline of his fame. To some minds popularity is the most gratifying of all attainments, and John had gained it in a high degree. He had seen multitudes flocking to him from all quarters; he had received a dignified deputation from the great ecclesiastical council of the nation to ask if he was the Messiah. But few were now to approach

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