Holy Communion, as the surest means whereby we might obtain grace to obey that new Commandment which to-day He gave, that we should "love one another." Let us then, as we desire to be found of HIM among the sheep and not among the goats, when He shall come to judge the world, be careful above all things to be true and real. Some of us have more vows upon us than have others. Of every idle, every vain, and false word that we may speak shall we have to give account at the last day, and, therefore, let us be especially careful that our most solemn vows be not to us as things of nought. Let us be true to GoD and to ourselves, and Hɛ, assuredly, will not be otherwise than true to us. Let us prepare diligently for our Easter Communion, seeking of the LORD Whom we worship to be conformed to His Life, and to be animated by His Truth, and whenever, in any particular, we shrink from what has devolved upon us by our own word, passed and pledged, whether to man, or to GOD, let us call to mind, that passage of Holy Writ, wherein it is said, that "after this, JESUS knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled,"-and that to its fulfilment His Own Word, as Son of Man, was pledged, -"said, I thirst."

THERE remain for our consideration yet two more sayings of our Blessed LORD, both seemingly uttered in the moment of that separation of His human soul from its earthly tabernacle, which left the Body of the Son of Man hanging a lifeless corse upon His tree of shame, and waiting to receive treatment which should go yet further to fulfil and confirm those sacred Scriptures whose predictions, as we saw yesterday, are as the parts of a cloven tally of which the events of the Gospel story are the corresponding measures. Suitably does it accord with the thoughts which the Church would have in our mind on Good Friday and Easter Even to meditate on these two latest sayings of the Dying JESUS. The Death and Burial of CHRIST our LORD are closely identified with His declaration that all was finished, and His

commendation of His Spirit into the keeping of that FATHER of Spirits Whose Word was pledged that He would not leave His soul in hell nor suffer His flesh to see corruption.' It is to be remarked, that as St. John alone gives the saying in our text, so St. Luke alone records that which it is our intention to consider on the morrow, and each connects the words he severally hands down, with the death of CHRIST OUR LORD; the other two evangelists simply recording that HE again cried with a loud voice, at this time of Death.

We must then regard these words "It is finished” as the declaration on the part of HIM Who came to be our Ransom, that now, all that HE in fulfilment of this His gracious purpose came to do, is over,— that the Victim is slain, that its Propitiation is allowed of GOD, and all that now remains is that He should testify its acceptance by raising from the dead the Great High Priest Who is to present it within the heaven of heavens of which the Holy of Holies was the type. Considering then that the services of this whole week have solemnized your minds to due and fitting meditation on the mystery of CHRIST's most sacred Passion, and trusting that holy thoughts and a living faith are enabling you this day to learn and practise the true doctrine of CHRIST's Cross, I proceed, as in strict keeping with these thoughts, and desiring to deepen still more the foundations which are to receive that great doctrine to which our attenCompare Ps. xvi. 10. Acts ii. 27, 31, and xiii. 35.

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tion will be drawn on Sunday next, and which indeed is the keystone of the arch of Christian faith, since if CHRIST be not risen our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins in strict keeping, I say, with the thoughts that have been thus induced, I proceed to consider in that triple application in which we have viewed the previous sentences, the one which forms our theme to-day," It is finished."

Viewed in reference to the attributes of CHRIST our LORD, we learn hence the sinless perfection of our adorable JESUS. As teaching us an article of the faith we learn from these words, that it is CHRIST in Whom we are complete; that in HIM we have justification and deliverance from sin. And, as propounding a duty of human obligation, we have herein set before us as that which we are to strive to follow, an Example of perfect obedience.

When our SAVIOUR was discharging His earthly ministry, it was His continual teaching that HE came not to do His own will but the will of the FATHER. "Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the Book it is written of ME that I should fulfil Thy will, O My GOD: I am content to do it; yea, Thy law is within My heart." For this very purpose was He born, and for this did HE come into the world, that He might do His FATHER'S Will. And now He declares that this the end and object of His Incarnation is completed: "It is finished." He has but to die, and all things which were written 1 Compare Ps. xl. 9, 10, and Heb. x. 7, 9.

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in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning the probation of the Son of Man will receive their fulfilment. Let us dwell, in order, upon the sinless perfection and the complete obedience of HIM Who now dies for our sins; and see how the one and the other issue in our Justification.

Men are apt to think, and indeed to speak, as if our LORD's sinlessness and perfect obedience were the immediate fruit of His own Godhead in union with His human nature, supposing that He was sinless, that He rendered perfect obedience, because He was GOD as well as Man. And this is true, if it merely means that because our SAVIOUR was God, the manhood which He had assumed must be pure, or it could not be in union with HIм, a pure and holy Being. But it is the foundation of a most dangerous theological error to speak of the Divinity in the CHRIST as if it came ever and anon to the rescue of His humanity in the hour of temptation, delivering HIM from encompassing dangers by the constant and perpetual interposition of a power which is not vouchsafed to the race whom He came to redeem. Let us then dwell reverently on what that is which is involved in the sinless perfection of our Sacrifice, and learn how it was that He could render perfect obedience.

When our LORD took human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, He was by His miraculous Conception exempted from every stain of that ori