white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same JESUS, Which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come, "JESUS said unto His disciples, If ye love ME, keep My commandments. And I will pray the FATHER, and SERMON I. THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER. 2 TIMOTHY II. 3. "THOU THEREFORE ENDURE HARDNESS, AS A GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST." THE character which the Old Testament drew of the Messiah, before His Coming in the Flesh, was that of a saddened, sorrowing, suffering Person: we do indeed read in prophecy of His majesty and His might, His terrors and His triumphs, but amidst it all there is a deep and mysterious under-current of bitterness and woe. To us, indeed, in this our day, the mighty meaning of all this is plain; for when we look back on those pages of prophecy which so teem with glory and dominion, we see that the bleeding B Feet of the Crucified have walked across them, even HIS, WHO was "slain from the foundation of the world," that He might get HIMSELF the victory." The Messiah was foretold to be, in the comprehensive language of Isaiah, "a Man of Sorrows."2 And when, at last, He came upon earth in the Flesh, did HE not indeed fulfil and realize, in its widest extent, the description given of HIM by prophecy? See how, from first to last, HE united in His own character, at one and the same time, suffering and glory; lowliness and might; persecution and triumph. Was it not so from first to last? A Jewish maiden was chosen by HIS FATHER as His future earthly parent--yet an Angel from Heaven is chosen to announce this: HE is born into this world, a little Child, in a manger-yet Heavenly hosts carol His Birth: HE comes, at His Presentation in the Temple, to offer HIMSELF as our REDEEMER yet, then and thereby, condescends "HIMSELF to be redeemed:" HE submits to be baptized, as though He needed 1 Rev. xiii. 8. 2 Isa. liii. 3. it, among sinners fleeing from the wrath to come-yet Heaven is opened over HIM, and the FATHER Speaks: HE is "an hungered"— and yet, (as He afterwards proved,) HE might, had HE chosen, have "commanded those stones to be made bread:"" HE is tempted of Satan-yet Angels minister unto HIM: "The eyes of all were fastened on HIM" "and all bare HIM witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His Mouth"-" and they were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust HIM out of the city, and led HIM unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast HIM down headlong. But HE, passing through the midst of them, went His way:" Multitudes follow HIM-and "He hath not where to lay His Head:" villages and cities press upon HIM -and HE is desired "to depart out of their coasts:"""The multitude took HIM for a prophet"-and affirmed HIM to "have a 1 S. Matt. iv. 2; compare xiv. 15—21. 2 S. Luke iv. 20, 22, 28-30. 3 S. Matt. viii. 20. 5 S. Matt. xxi. 46; viii. 48 4 S. Matt. viii. 34. compare with S. John vii. 20; |