dies. Lad, distressed, asks how it happened; told that an hour ago she was playing, a large stone came dashing down, not known how it came, but it did the mischief. Ah! the lad knows how he had from top lifted that stone, sent it rolling down; in spite of warning he would please himself. As it flashes upon him, here result of his wilful sin, how much distressed! He has slain the child.) So at the Cross we see it, what sin has done, it has slain Him. We have had a share in that sin. Wilful sin said to crucify Him afresh (Heb. vi. 6). Sin slew Him (Zech. xii. 10). At the Cross we learn the hatefulness of sin (Rom. viii. 3).

(ii.) Who is that crucified One? (St. John i. 14.)

The God-Man.

All

(a) Man, as well as God. Man, great Head of the race, He represents us all (1 Cor. xv. 47; Eph. i. 22, 23). our guilt passing on to Him, that He may bear it. Holy Himself, yet made sin for us (2 Cor. v. 21). (Illust.— Little child in hospital, pale, thin, diseased, bedcover lifted up shows a bad foot, disease of the body all passed into the foot; if left, it may pass to the brain, child be an idiot, or die; doctor will take off the foot whilst the evil is there, that the child may get well.) All the guilt passed to our Holy Head, He to die that we may live; He, our Head, shut in by darkness, He seems to be dying alone, as when screen round hospital bed, but we die in His dying (Isa. liii. 4-6, 8). God looks on all when He looks on Him (2 Cor. v. 19).

(b) God as well as man. What has God to do with sin ? One thing. What? Punish it. Judge, with miserable prisoner in dock before him proved clearly guilty. What must he do? Even whilst pities him, must pass sentence, or would be an unjust judge. Suppose he stepped down from his seat, threw off ermine robe, took the prisoner's place in dock to bear the punishment;

would that be unjust? No. Would a judge do it? No. But that what Christ-the God-Man-did. God must be just. Sin must be punished. Himself bears the punishment (Rom. iii. 21-26).

What shines out most brightly on the Cross? Look at picture. Surely God's love. "In shining letters, God is love". (Rom. v. 8). Love of the Father, Who allowed it, for our sakes (St. John iii. 16, 17; Rom. viii. 32). Love of Jesus (St. John x. II, xv. 13, 14). At the Cross we learn the love of God.

Now two scenes. (1) In a clergyman's study one night miserable man shown in; distressed through drink, the habit so strong cannot pass public-house. What is he to do? How be delivered ? Said the clergyman, "Do you really desire to be free from this sin ?" Yes, he would give anything to be free. "Do you believe Christ died to save you from this sin ?" He had not looked on it in that light, but could only answer "Yes." They prayed; he carried the thought out of doors with him; he found it true; he called it to mind in the hour of temptation; by the Cross he was helped and saved. came back afterwards rejoicing in the power he had found. Yes, Christ died to save us from our evil tempers, selfishness, untruthfulness, cowardice. Carry this thought with you, and strive against sin (1 Cor. i. 18).

He

(2) In the chamber of an inn, where rich man put up for the night, over the mantel-piece a picture like this of ours; underneath written, "I suffered this for thee. What hast thou done for Me?" Words haunted him, went down to see to his horses, but could not get free from the words; they brought him at last to his knees to tell his Lord, "True he had done nothing for Him; but he meant henceforward to serve his Lord with all his powers." Yes, nothing less than that is asked of us from Him Who gave Himself for us (2 Cor. v. 14, 15; I Cor. vi. 20).

the Atonement."

But the word thus rendered occurs elsewhere in the New Testament, and is translated "reconciliation," as in 2 Cor. v. 20.

2. Dr. Dale's book on the "Atonement is strongly recommended to thoughtful teachers. It is of profound interest, corrects many crude ideas about atonement, and states clearly the many collateral questions involved in this allimportant subject. It is not, happily, needful to a Christian's salvation that he should be able to explain the orthodox view of the Atonement; we are saved by a true belief in Christ, not by belief in any theory of the Atonement. The Indian explained his belief in the benefits of Christ's Passion by forming a circle of dried leaves around a poor worm, setting them alight, and then, when the little creature painfully wriggled in the heat of the near fire, he put his hand and drew the worm out, saying, "Thus had Christ rescued his soul from destruction." This faith of the Indian was a living, valid thing, such as would save the soul, though he might have no theory of the Atonement to offer. But a thoughtful Christian can hardly avoid asking himself, "How really does the death of Christ save me?" Moreover, he should be prepared to meet objections raised against this doctrine of the Atonement, and, especially, to be able to correct dangerous perversions of that doctrine. The writer will always remember the very painful impression made upon a party of people in a railway carriage by the remark of a blind man, who was, in more senses than one, in darkness. A religious person had uttered aloud what the speaker thought should be a word in season " for the benefit of those present. The blind man (seemingly an infidel), irritated thereby, declared that he could not believe in a God who let an innocent man bear punishment which was due to others, who were guilty. Unhappily, some of the illustrations used to set forth the love of Christ in dying for us have led to quite sad perversions of the truth of the Atonement; so that some have not hesitated to call it an "immoral" doctrine. The answer to the blind man is to be found :—(1) In the fact that Christ is God as well as Man; He is the moral ruler of the human race; it rests with Him, as God, to vindicate the Law of Righteousness; the penalties of sin are to be adjudged by Christ. So that, in the death of Christ, you have the Judge, Who has pronounced a just and necessary sen

tence on crime, Himself stepping down to bear the penalty in the sinner's stead. (2) In the fact of Christ's relationship to the human race, that He is Man as well as God; not simply a man, but the Head and Representative of the race-the "Second Adam.” (3) The law of self-sacrifice, and the ultimate blessedness and profit attaching thereto, is seen everywhere to ennoble those who practise it. And Christ's was a perfectly voluntary offering of Himself— and "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied."

3. "Most of those preachers who deny that there is any direct relation between the death of Christ and the remission of sins are in the habit of saying that Christ died in order to reveal the greatness of the Divine love for mankind, and that this revelation of love is intended to draw the hearts and lives of men to God." Answer: "If my brother made his way into a burning house to save my child from the flames, and were himself to perish in his heroic venture, his fate would be a wonderful proof of his affection for me and mine; but if there were no child in the house, and if I were told that he entered it and perished with no other object than to show his love for me, the explanation would be absolutely unintelligible. The statement that Christ died for no other purpose than to reveal His love to mankind, is to me equally unintelligible."(Dr. Dale.)

4. Christ dying for sinners (St. Matt. xx. 28; Rom. v. 6-18), suffering for sins (1 John iii. 16; Isa. liii. 5, 8). Bearing sins (1 Pet. ii. 24; Isa. liii. 6, 11, 12). "Made sin" for us and "made a curse for us "" (2 Cor. v. 21; Gal. iii. 13). To the death of Christ is ascribed remission of sins (Col. i. 13, 14), justification (Rom. v. 8, 9; iii. 24 -26), redemption (Heb. ix. 12; Rev. v. 9), reconciliation to God (Rom. v. 10; 2 Cor. v. 18, 19). These are only a few selected passages out of very many which speak of Christ's death as an atonement for sin.

5. "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself." Christ, the living Christ, reigns from the Cross with a dominion which knows no bounds; and the Cross itself was taken in old times as the object to which St. Paul referred when he spoke of apprehending "the breadth and length, and height and depth" in connexion with the love of Christ. "Christ stretched forth His hands in His Pas

E

sion," in the words of an early father, "and took the world in His embrace, to show even then that a great host gathered from East and West would come beneath His wings and receive upon their brows that most noble and august sign. That sign, brethren, is on our brows, the sign of Christ, Born, Crucified, Risen, Ascended. May God in His mercy grant that we may confess His Faith and live it."-(Bishop Westcott, The Victory of the Cross.")

6. "Look up to heaven and reflect on the depths below; extend thy thought on this side and that, to the ends of the whole universe; and consider what is the power which holds these together and becomes, as it were, a bond which unites the whole. Then thou wilt see how spontaneously the idea of the Divine power imprints on thy mind the figure of the Cross, reaching from the

heights above to the depths below, and stretching on both sides to the utmost bounds of space."-(Gregory of Nyssa, quoted by Bishop Westcott.)

7. The physical cause of the death of Christ is now generally believed to have been "a broken heart." Agony of mind, producing rupture of the heart, shown by a discharge of blood and water from His side, when it was afterwards pierced with a spear. Reproach hath broken My heart."-(See Treatise by Dr. W. Stroud.)

"

8. The sacrificial system, as a means of atonement, is closely interwoven with the history of the world, entering into heathen worship as well as into that of the true God, proving that its necessity was universally recognised by mankind.

Collects: First, Good Friday; Second after Easter.

131. What do we mean by a person being "dead"?

By a person being "dead" we mean that the soul has passed out from the body.

132. What did the soldiers do to our Lord's body after death?

One of the soldiers with a spear pierced our Lord's side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water (St. John xix. 34).

133. What were the blood and water from the side of Christ types of ?

The blood and water from the side of Christ were types of the two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

134. What was done with our Lord's body after death?

After our Lord was dead His body was taken down from the Cross, wrapped in linen, and laid in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathæa (St. John xix. 38 -42; Isa. liii. 8, 9).

135. What signs were there in the world when our Lord died?

When our Lord died the rocks were rent and the earth did quake, also the veil of the Temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom (St. Matt. xxvii. 51).

136. What is meant by saying, "He descended into Hell"?

By

"He descended into Hell" we mean that He went into Hades, or the place where our spirits go after death (1 Pet. iii. 18-20).

137. Into which part of Hades did our Lord go?

Our Lord went into that part of Hades where the souls of the saints of God are, called Paradise, as He said to the penitent thief, "To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise" (St. Luke xxiii. 43).

138. Is Paradise the same as Heaven? No, Paradise is not the same as Heaven. Heaven is the place into which the saints of God will pass after the Resurrection and the Judgment; Paradise is the happy place where their spirits now wait.

139. How was Jonah a type of Christ? Jonah was a type of Christ when he lay for three days inside the whale; as Christ Himself said, "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (St. Matt. xii. 40).

140. What did David say about not fearing death?

David, in the 23rd Psalm, said, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me."

Some

intensely happy, without a sorrow and looking forward to better things to come; others sad, without hope. Who are they? How many? All the people who have ever been born on the earth, except those now living, from Abel to the latest buried. We call them the 46 'dead," their bodies here in the dust, their spirits live. What that strange land called in the Creed? Hell (not the place of punishment) or "Hades." God's faithful children there are separated from others (St. Luke xvi. 26, "great gulf fixed"). What is it called where these are? Paradise. Old Persian kings had around their palaces splendid parks, enclosed; stately trees, fruits, streams, with antelopes, sheep; these called paradises. Outside them the wide world, and through these you passed to the palace. These were pictures of the land where God's children are who have passed out of this life (see St. Luke xxiii. 43). Blessed meetingplace and waiting-place. Abraham and the holy beggar (St. Luke xvi. 22). God felt to be very near; they wait for Resurrection morning; the heaven beyond, the true palace of the King (St. John xiv. 1-3). Yet these waiting spirits very near to us, looking on at our race (Heb. xii. 1). Now Who is the greatest One Who has passed into that land? Christmas night He came to earth; Good Friday afternoon He passed to Paradise.

(i.) Our Lord's passing.

(a) How He passed. With what words? "Father into," &c. (ver. 46). How was His Spirit set free from body? He died of a broken heart. His last movement? Bowed His head on bosom. Gone.

(b) The signs when He had passed away. In the world: earthquake, great cracks in rocks (St. Matt. xxvii. 51). In God's House: torn veil, Unseen Hand tore it from the top, way opened; priests

sacrificing the evening lamb could see into the most Holy Place. No pro

(c) What He left behind. perty, even His clothes taken from Him; only that which the very poorest has to leave-a body. This torn, bleeding. What cruel hands did to it. Spear thrust into the broken heart. See on. ground blood and water (St. John xix. 32-35). What kind hands did; remove it from the cross; linen clothes, ointment; new tomb in garden. Stone rolled against door, kept safe, no beast come near; night steals on; great stillness in the moonlight. World left without Christ, as the sun went down. Gone! (St. John xix. 38—42.)

"Resting from His work to-day
In the tomb the Saviour lay;
Still He sleeps, from head to feet,
Shrouded in the winding-sheet,
Lying in the rock alone,
Hidden by the sealed stone."

Look at

(ii.) His rest in Paradise. (a) Whom He met there. Heb. xi. Abel, first to die, to latest of the saints (see ver. 36-40). Simeon and Anna, who had held Him as a Babe. Moses and Elijah, who had been with Him on the Mount. Joseph and John the Baptist, myriads of faithful ones. What worship there! In Isa. xiv., one of the proud heathen kings of Babylon entering the world of spirits, they come to meet him, his pride all humbled; see ver. 4, 7, 9-12. When Christ entered all the blessed ones would recognise Him, their King, Deliverer. What worship in Paradise! Joy! Jesus there. Rev. vii. 9-17 is perhaps a picture of the joy there.

(b) What He did there. He would remember the sad ones left behind; lonely Sabbath for them; and for St. Peter especially. Would pray for them. St. Peter afterwards tells what chiefly He was doing there (see 1 Pet. iii, 18— 20). Heralding to the spirits that His great work accomplished. Outside, His blood soaking into earth, crying for our pardon. Inside, Christ telling happy souls the glad, glad news! Some there were penitents (" sometime were disobedient"), as was Peter outside. Christ's death removes the Cherubim whose flaming sword kept sinners out from Paradise and the Tree of Life (Gen. iii. 24).

One Sabbath day in Paradise; all who enter there feel He is very near to them even now (2 Cor. v. 6–8; Phil. i. 23).

Have you seen any one dead? Little brother, sister, father, mother? What really happens in that quiet room, or on that hospital bed behind the screen when one of God's children dies? Soul passes away from the body, borne by the angels to blessed Paradise, there to wait for the end (St. Luke xvi. 22). If we live as Christians there is no need to fear death, sad as it looks to those who stand by. Dean Alford lost a good son whilst yet a boy. It was at a seaside place in Devonshire. On the bed by the window lay the young sufferer; family standing round; the room so still; all so solemn; sunset from Western sky filling room with rosy light. They watched the young face; at last no movement; father, with his

III. THOUGHTS I. He descended into Hell." This clause of the Creed was not so anciently or so universally found there as the rest. Yet in the Church of Aquileia it was used before A.D. 400. After that it passed into the Roman Creed. Article iii. of the Church of England reads, "as Christ died for us and was buried, so also it is to be believed that He went down into Hell." What is the "Hell" of the Creed? Why did Christ go there? These questions will be found argued at length in Pearson on the Creed, and in Bishop Harold Browne on the xxxix. Articles. (i.) "Hades" is the word here called "Hell." Amongst the Greeks the place so-called was the place to which the ghosts of the dead went after burial. The unburied were detained on this side of the Styx, the buried passed over and mingled with the souls of other men. In Hades, on the one hand were the happy fields of Elysium for the enjoyment of the virtuous-the heroes of ancient story live again, grander than when in earthly life-on the other the gloomy realms of Tartarus, for the wicked. Readers of the Odyssey and Æneid will remember the sorrows of Ixion, Tantalus, the Danaides and others, in Tartarus. The Jews placed the souls of the righteous, till the Resurrection, in "the Garden of Eden, or Paradise"; or "under the Throne of Glory" (similar to Rev. vi. 9), or "in Abraham's bosom " (St. Luke xvi. 22). This was Sheol, Hades, or Hell, the Intermediate State. The early Christians believed in this Intermediate State. Justin Martyr says, "No souls die (that would be a Godsend to the wicked); but then the souls of good men remain in a better, of bad men

fingers, gently pressed down the eyelids. Gone. Then leaving mother alone with the body, the rest went out on the beach, hearts full of sadness; looked over rocks, where lad used to play, by the great sea rolling on; then, as the darkness came on, father asked, "Where is he now?" What a beautiful answer God has for that (see Phil. i. 23). Years passed. They came on a visit where the lad had died; as the red cliffs came in sight, tears came into father's eyes, as he said, "Sixteen years ago! What would he have been now?" He thought of his boy grown a man, but then he asked, Yes, but what is he now?" God's beautiful answer for that (see Rev. xiv. 13).

FOR TEACHERS.

in a worse, place, awaiting the time of Judgment." St. Irenæus says that the souls of Christ's disciples "go into the invisible place prepared for them, and there remain awaiting the Resurrection: after which they shall receive their bodies again, and rise complete-that is in the body, as the Lord arose, and so shall come to the vision of God." Holy Scripture on the Intermediate State (St. Luke xxiii. 43; Rev. vi. 9). Those "asleep" are never spoken of as being in heaven, yet they are not in unconscious sleep (1 Sam. xxviii. 11, 14; St. Luke xi. 27, 28; Heb. xii. 23), they feel the near presence of Christ (2 Cor. v. 1-8). (ii.) The true doctrine of our Lord's perfect humanity is strongly maintained by His descent into Hades (see Acts ii. 27-31, Ps. xvi. 9-11; also 1 Pet. iii. 19, Eph. iv. 9). The Fathers generally held that the object of this descent was to preach the Gospel to the souls of the departed. Bishop Browne sums up: (1) He went thither that He might fulfil the conditions of death proper to human nature. (2) 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19 seems to mean that He went as a herald to proclaim the completion of His work of redemption, His great victory, to the Old Testament saints. Those "who once had been disobedient in the days of Noah were probably such as had perished in the Deluge, yet because of their previous repentance had saved their souls. These penitents, who yet died in that awful judgment, would need most the comfort of Christ's presence and the consolation of His preaching.

2. It is hoped that this lesson will give the opportunity of correcting the