XXIII.

THE WATCHERS AT THE CROSS.

ST. MATTHEW XXVII. 36.

"And sitting down they watched Him there."

THE hour is come ;-the last Passover authorized by Jehovah has been celebrated, the traitor has betrayed his Master with a kiss, the mockery of justice is finished, and Pilate, yielding, as thousands before and since have done, to present interest, delivers Jesus to be crucified. The hour is fully come;-the hour appointed, ere time was, in the secret counsels of the Father, the hour looked to with expectation by the faithful in every age, the hour calling forth wonder from the Angels of light, dread from the powers of darkness, is now fully come, the "baptism of blood" is accomplished, And it was the

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third hour, AND THEY CRUCIFIED HIM."

Be it ours to turn aside and see this great

1 The substance of this sermon (in another form) appeared in my name in the Church of England Magazine, vol. x. The prophecies which it contains, as well as other reasons, induce me to publish it in this series.

sight, and “sitting down to watch Him there.” Let our thoughts be directed

I. To Him on Whom they Gazed.

II. To the Beholders of That Scene.

III. To Ourselves as no less Interested therein.

I. Behold the Man! "wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities;" dying, and yet conqueror; spoiled, yet carrying away spoils; behold Him with the eye of faith and love, and yield yourselves afresh to His service. Behold Him,

"Search the

1. The Fulfiller of Prophecy. Scriptures," was our Lord's direction to the Jews. . . .“ for they are they which testify of Me;" and truly of Him did Moses in the law, and the Prophets write, even of Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." For, is it His betrayal of which those Scriptures speak? surely from His enemies must that betrayal come; no; for a thousand years it had been written, "Mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me,"1 and there was numbered among His disciples "Judas Iscariot

1 Psa. xli.

which also betrayed Him." Is it the price of the betrayal? They that offered large money to the soldiers to conceal the fact of the resurrection, would have been willing, doubtless, to give as largely to him who would betray Him, and the covetous Judas would be as willing to receive largely. But no! the money (the price of a slave) had been named five hundred years before, as well as the purpose to which that money should afterwards be applied, "So they weighed for My price thirty pieces of silver, and the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, a goodly price that I was prized at of them! And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them unto the potter in the house of the Lord".. .Why is He silent notwithstanding the indignities heaped upon Him? It was written more than seven hundred years before, "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth, He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.".... Where are His disciples, they who should have comforted him at such an hour by their sympathy? The prophet Zechariah had said, "Awake O sword against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is

my Fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts, smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered;" .... and again the Psalmist had said, "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none;"" even so it came to pass-"they all forsook Him and fled.".... The death itself could not be otherwise than it was, He is not stoned as Stephen afterwards, or thrust headlong from the mountain's brow, but crucified;

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They shall look on Me whom they pierced ;"3" They pierced My hands and My feet." Thus it was foretold, and thus it was done. ... That cry, "My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken Me;"—that thirst,—the thieves crucified with Him.-the garments divided,-. the lot cast for the vesture,-the legs of the malefactors broken, His bones unbroken,the rich man's tomb His sepulture ;-all, all, had been foretold, "They gave Me also gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink," He was numbered with the transgressors ;6 "They parted My garments among them, and for My vesture did they cast lots; " "A bone of Him shall not be broken;" His grave was appointed with the wicked,

but with the rich man was His tomb :" whilst Isaiah and Daniel do alike declare, that though "Messiah be cut off," it is not "for Himself, the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." 2

Well may a Bishop of our Church exclaim, "Who could foretell these things but the Spirit of God? who could accomplish them but the Son of God?.... ... We know Whom we have believed, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

We behold Him not only the Fulfiller of Prophecy but also

2. The Dispenser of gifts. Surely this was no hour to give gifts, but rather to receive them: but even then in that mortal agony, in that struggle with the powers of darkness, Jesus, as a Sovereign, dispenses gifts. To work out salvation, to finish transgression, to make an end of sins, to bring in everlasting righteousness, for these things He came, He agonized, He died; and in dying He would leave a record of the freeness and fulness of that salvation to endless ages. His breath almost spent in groans could yet pour

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Bishop Lowth's Translation of Isa. liii. 9.

* Isa. liii. 5, 6, and Dan. ix. 24, 26.

* See Bishop Hall's Passion Sermon.