brance to which it is subject. Again, it is used in the sense of releasing a slave from bondage, or paying so much money to let the slave go free. Again, in the sense of a ransom from a vow, that is, deliverance from the responsibility of a vow that has been made. In all these cases the word "ransom" means something paid by one, that something forfeited by another may be restored to him. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, it is said here, died a "ransom" for us; that is, he took our sins, and bore the consequence; and we receive from him his righteousness, and inherit the consequence. He took upon him our fleece as tainted, fallen, stray sheep, and was offered an Atonement in it; and we receive from him the spotless fleece of his righteousness, and, arrayed in raiment white and clean, we are presented spotless and without fault before God.

What a blessed thought, that we are justified, not by anything done by us, but by something done for us; that we have not to work our way to heaven, but to accept heaven already paid for; that we are ransomed, if we are believers! The devil, sin, the world, have no right to us. We are ransomed; the price has been paid for us; the mark of God is on our brows; the seal of his adoption is on our hearts; the mortgage is gone; the slave is freed. Jesus gave his life a ransom for all that believe.

Thus then He illustrates by a precious truth the obligation he has stated in connexion with another. Thus he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister unto us in his life, and to die a ransom for all that believe. How great are our obligations to the Son of God! You are not your own; you are bought with a price. How great, I say, are our obligations to him, who redeemed

us, not with gold, or silver, or any such corruptible thing, but with the precious blood of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.

What are you doing for Him? If he has thus ministered to us in life and in death, the least that becomes us is to minister to him. selves. "I beseech you mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice." And next, wherever you can minister to them that are his, do not do it as a duty, still less as a penance, but do it as a pleasure in responsive gratitude to Him who ministered his life and his death to you, that you might live and be happy for ever.

But our ministry is first ourtherefore, brethren, by the

Brethren, this text is a meet one wherewith to close the last Sabbath of a year that now descends into its grave, and will disappear for ever. No power can recal the fifty-two Sabbaths that are gone. No words spoken on them can be unspoken; no deed done on them can be undone; no thought thought during their lapse can be unthought. But if the past be gone, the present is still ours. Oh! take the fifty-two Sabbaths of 1852, and write at their close this only truth that we dare write, and, blessed be God, that we may write, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin ;” and start from the old year's grave on the new year's road with hearts kindled with divine love, and dedicated afresh unto Him who has redeemed you, prepared to sacrifice, and suffer, and, if needs be, die for his blessed name's sake! What a noble prospect is before us! The days of 1853 are still empty; we may charge them with elements of good or evil. It may be true that 1852 has been to some one the year extra added to him by reason of the intercession which cried,

"Lord, spare him another year." It may depart; but it has not departed yet: there are six days of it yet left. During those six days let there be a new and noble purpose, that come life, come death, you will bear the name and do honour to the cause of your blessed Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus. And if we be spared through 1853, in all its ups and downs, its ills and crosses, its sunshine and shadow, its torrents, eddies, vicissitudes and trials, what thankfulness for the past! what a mercy to be here in health and strength, with the cross in the midst of us, and every one of us welcome to look and live for ever! With what praises should we close the year! With what firm, high, and heroic resolves should we begin the year that is to come! We have had mercies to remember and celebrate as individuals, as a congregation, as a nation. Let us walk worthy of them; let us remember that they will not be long possessors, or quiet possessors, of great mercies, who are not sanctified possessors of them; and let us recollect that the sharpest judgments that God sends upon a people are misused and abused mercies and privileges. It was the city that was lifted highest to heaven in privilege that sank deepest to hell in condemnation.

Let us then, my dear friends, not by ostentation, not by display, not by loud words or eloquent pretensions, but by quiet devotedness to whatsoever things are good and just, by liberality in every cause that has a fair and right claim, consecrate ourselves a ministry to Him who in life ministered to us, and in death died for us, and ever liveth to make intercession for us.

We read that the victims of one of the greatest earthly calamities, the loss of sight, earnestly desired to see the light of the sun. The blind men

prayed: “Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David!" And he who was so often prayed to, never yet refused a prayer that was presented for the right thing or in the right way; and therefore, he had "compassion on them, and touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him." What manner of man was this, who opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf! What great manifestation was this, whom the winds of passion, and the waves of prejudice, all obeyed, and they that were dead heard his voice, and came forth, and praised him, as the Lord of life and all things!

Blessed Lord, open thou our eyes, that we may see wondrous things out of thy law! Take away from our minds all prejudice, and from our hearts all passion, and dwell thou in these souls of ours, blessed Redeemer, we beseech thee.

NOTE.-The multitude appear to have silenced them, lest they should be wearisome and annoying to our Lord; not because they called him the Son of David, for the multitudes could have no reason for repressing this cry, seeing that they themselves (being probably for the most part the same persons who entered Jerusalem with Jesus) raised it very soon after. (See ch. xxi. 9.) I have before noticed (on ix. 27) the singular occurrence of these words "Son of David," in the three narratives of healing the blind in this Gospel.-Alford.

CHAPTER XXI.

PROPHECY FULFILLED MINUTELY-POPULAR WELCOME-HOLY PLACES -THE HOSANNA OF CHILDREN-THE FIG-TREE CURSE-AUTHORITY -THE VINEYARD THE HUSBANDMAN'S INTEREST IN IT.

In the commencement of the chapter we find the commission given by our blessed Lord to his own disciples to go and execute a message, the completion of which would be the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy. He did it because the circumstance arose at the time, and owing to the position in which he was at that moment placed, and not by a desire rigidly to fulfil a prophecy simply because it was prophecy. What he did, it was perfectly natural to do in the circumstances. He did it, not avowedly to fulfil a prophecy, or to make that true which otherwise had been false, but because the thing itself was dutiful and seasonable; and it came to pass, that in so doing, he fulfilled a prophecy that awaited this very crisis in order to be seen to be the inspiration and the truth of God. And hence, those passages in Scripture that frequently occur and substantially say, "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken," do not teach that the thing was done in order to be adapted to the prophecy, but that the thing was done, and thereby what could not fail, came to be accomplished, namely, a prophecy of God.

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