did witness this awful scene, they must indeed have been struck with wonder, and a pause must have occurred in the hymnings of eternity. Surely the lyres and the harps of the glorified spirits on high, must have lain for a moment unstrung, when they saw the Son of the living God condemned to death. But while they wondered, we surely should not be unaffected, for we must all remember that the same passions that hurried the Jewish Sanhedrim to this deed of blood, belong to us all, and it is by the grace of God that men proceed not to acts of deeper violence than have ever yet been known.

Such, brethren, then, is the aspect which this morning the condemnation of our Lord presents. It suggests to us some important practical considerations, which, however, I can do little more than simply state, leaving them to your own private reflections to be more fully extended and applied. In the first place, when we look at the trial and condemnation of our Lord we are encouraged to put our trust in Him. We know that all this took place by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and that this was one of the acts in that great sacrifice which he offered for us. And what was it that gave efficacy to the sacrifice of Christ? It was the innocence of his holy life; and here that innocence is put to the proof, and awfully and triumphantly exhibited. Here is Jesus in the council standing before the Sanhedrim of his nation, where every judge to the number of seventy, was determined on his destruction, and bent to prove him guilty, and yet you see him stand before them and all his accusers, clear from every charge of guilt, the spotless holy Lamb of God. He knew no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. He was holy, harmless, separate from sinners, and it was this that gave efficacy to his sufferings and his death. In, him, then let us daily trust. When we go to the throne of mercy for pardon and acceptance, it is for the sake of the holy Lamb of God that we plead for pardon and trust for acceptance. Though he knew no sin, yet God made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

lesson in our profession of Christ. Did Christ acknowledge and proclaim his character, and shall we shrink from an open and decided confession of the Master we profess to serve? You hear him, who had death in one of its most degrading and cruel forms before him, proclaim himself the Messiah, the Son of God. Let us follow his example; "let us go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach ;" and whatever the confession may cost us-pain, sorrow, or even life itself-let it be our determination, that although all men should deny him, yet will not we. And let us glory this day in the near prospect we have of sitting down at these tables to tell the world that shall behold us, that we glory in nothing save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified unto us and we unto the world. And did Christ proclaim to the Jewish Sanhedrim his coming grandeur, and his future glory-how often is this proclaimed to us? My brethren, soon are we to close our eyes on this scene of time; soon shall these nerves be unstrung, and these eyes be dim, and our tongues cease to be heard in the society of living men.

But we are not to

be for ever in the tomb; the day is coming when these bodies shall again start into activity and life. The day is coming when the countless generations of the dead shall rise to life again; and although our eyes shall close on all created beauty here, the next object they shall behold will be the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, The last object on which our eyes shall linger will be the friends and kindred whom our hearts bleed to leave; but the next object on which they shall open will be the Son of man seated on a throne of glory. The last sound that shall fall on our closing ears will be the sighs of friendship or the sobs of love; but the next sound that shall fall on them will be the voice of the archangel, proclaiming that time shall be no more.

How then should we give all diligence to make our calling and election sure! See, then, that ye cleave, while to cleave is in your power, to that Saviour who has come to spoil death of his terrors, to hallow the grave for the slumber of all In the second place, while the examina- his followers, and to fill their spirits with tion Christ submitted to proved his inno- the hope that is full of glory. Let us then, cence, and thus furnishes to us a sure my brethren, seek God while he may be ground of trust in his merits and mediation, found, and call upon him while he is near. the open confession he made teaches us a | Amen.

GLASCOW-PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, BY EDWARD EHULL.

THE

SCOTTISH PULPIT.

No. 45.

SATURDAY, 2D FEBRUARY, 1835.

SERMON by the Very Rev. G. H. Baird, D.D., Edinburgh.
SERMON by the Rev. J. JEFFREY, Musselburgh.
ADDRESS by the late Rev. J. DICK, D.D., Glasgow.

CHRISTIAN CHARITY;

Price 2d.

A SERMON PREACHED ON THE FORENOON OF SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 1933,
By the Very Rev. GEORGE HUSBAND BAIRD, D.D.,
Minister of the First Charge, High Church, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh,

66

"Go, and do thou likewise."-LUKE X. 37.

You are aware, my friends, that these words are the application of a parable which Christ delivered, for the purpose of correcting the impression of the Jews concerning who was their neighbour. The parable is contained from the 30th verse of the chapter to that which we have now read. And Jesus answering, said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out twopence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." Now, according to the interpretation which the Jews put on the term " neighbour," it comprehended only those who belonged to their own particular community, and worshipped

God with the same form of rites and cere-
monies as they themselves did. It was to
men of this description that all the per-
sonal and national affections of the Jews
were confined. The rest of mankind they
considered strangers and aliens; and from
them they turned away, exchanging with
them no offices of mutual forbearance ot
kindness. The following are the revolting
statements of the Jewish people, as stated
by a Rabbi :-" If a Jew see a Gentile in
hazard of death, he is under no obligation
to save his life, though it be in his power
to do it; and even though he kill him, he
shall not be put to death." And why?
Their language is, because he is not his
neighbour. This is revolting doctrine,
unquestionably, and revolting language;
but it is matter of regret, I fear, that con-
tracted and shocking as such doctrine
may be, it is by no means, at least to a
certain extent, exclusively peculiar to the
Jews. This doctrine, my friends, is the
doctrine of almost all men in a certain
state of their progress, when their views
are not enlarged by liberal and extensive
intercourse with their fellow-men.
savage tribes almost universally live in a
state of hostility, or at least dislike, to
every other tribe; and, even among a
civilized people, it is only those of im-
proved and cultivated understandings who
can divest themselves of the partialities of
national prejudice, and receive a stranger
from another land with all the cordiality
and affection to which, as a brother of his
kind, he is entitled. The difference of the
stranger's appearance, and manners, and

The

religious principles, is too often permitted to conceal his virtues from the sight, and to infuse a tincture of suspicion and estrangement into the conduct of others towards him. How often, I would ask, have the polished inhabitants of Christendom treated the descendants of Abraham with a brutality and treachery that would have disgraced the character even of a Jew? What a distrust is there in their intercourse with each other! Even in the bosom of the same community, have we not seen little jealousies arising from difference of religion, destroying the best affections of the heart of man, and teaching him to make light of the misery of his brethren?

Such malevolent affections are very inimical to the spirit of the Gospel. When our Saviour appeared among men, his object was, not merely to recall them to God, and purchase for them an immortal inheritance in the heavens-he came also with this object, to proclaim peace on earth, to soften the angry passions which vice often fosters in our bosoms, and to reconcile us to one another. To remove the distinctions that keep men at a distance from each other, he has united them into one great family, and taught them to consider every individual of the human race as a brother, whose offences we are bound to forgive, whose sorrows it is our duty to commiserate, and whose happiness we are called to promote, with all the tenderness of affection. He commands us to imitate the conduct of the charitable Samaritan, to pity the distresses even of an enemy, and exert our best endeavours for his relief. In the following discourse it is proposed, first, To explain the nature and limits of this duty, to which I have now been alluding, and to which our text points the attention; and, secondly, To suggest some motives to the practice of it. And I may just, in passing, mention, that these are subjects which I have this day selected for illustration, in the humble hope, and with an earnest prayer, that the divine blessing following the illustration, may awaken and impress on you a general feeling of pious benevolence, which will prepare you for manifesting, by a kindly commiseration, and liberal countenance, your christian patronage to an appeal about to be made on your good-will and charity, in behalf of a vast, and deplorably suffering, portion of our fellow-country

*

men." I am, in the first place, then, to explain the nature and limits of the duty; and I begin by remarking, that when our blessed Saviour commanded his disciples to cultivate the principle of universal benevolence, and to open their hearts to their brethren of every description, it was by no means his intention to discourage the exercise of private affection, or to break the bond which knit friends and relations together. These bonds have been formed by the Author of our being. They are imposed upon man by the necessity of his situation. Yes, our first connexions are with individuals to whom we are attached by the ties of blood, and many nameless endearments, that give them a peculiar title to our sympathy and regard. The parent who gave us birth, and whose tender care supported us amid the weakness and wants of childhoodthe brothers who partook of the same care, and mingled with us in the amusements of youthful innocence-the friends whom we met with in more mature age

the benefactors whose bounty has rendered life a blessing to us-and the country which has protected and matured our attainments-these, all these are objects to which our social affections have been early and habitually directed, and which have obtained a hold on our hearts, before we are able to form a conception of the relation we bear to the general community of mankind. Our attachments to them are founded on the principles of our constitution, and the Gospel of Christ confirms their power. On every occasion, Jesus, whom we are commanded to follow, discovers the warmest affection for Jerusalem, the city of his Father; and when, amid the fainting of his last agony, he viewed his mother in the crowd, and committed her to the friend he loved, he consecrated for ever the sentiments and endearments of natural and of private affection. The Gospel does not, as some of its enemies have insinuated, condemn the exercise of private affection; yet its object and its tendency are to correct the irregularity of these affections, and to restrain their excesses. It teaches us, that our great obligation is to the love of our kind, that the private affections are only branches of this great duty, and that they cannot be innocently allowed to grow to such profusion as to endanger the root from

The Schools established by the General Assembly in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

of Christ, and put on that universal charity which is the bond of peace, which thinketh no evil, and which shall endure for ever. Such is the duty which our Saviour has commanded us to perform, and which our text enjoins.

which they spring. Our natural affections, every office which a generous humanity our gratitude, our friendship, our patriot- requires, delivering the poor and the ism, we are permitted to indulge within needy, and them that have none to help the bounds of innocence and moderation; them. Doing this, we shall fulfil the law but we are not permitted, with innocence, to follow them into the practice of iniquity, nor to employ them as motives for injustice to the stranger, or hard-hearted cruelty to our neighbour. You are commanded to do good to the household of faith, but not, on that account, to neglect the sufferings and sorrows of any unfortunate brother, far less to treat him with coldhearted cruelty, to injure his fortune, or mar his peace. No: you are to imitate the conduct of your heavenly Father, who views his saints, indeed, with peculiar complacency; but who makes his sun to rise on the evil as well as on the good, and his rain to descend on the just and on the unjust.

My friends, this reasoning may serve to convince you, that there are duties which we owe to our neighbour, merely as men, independent of any other bond of connexion with them, and which no accidental circumstances or situation can possibly disannul. Even the Jews themselves allowed thus far with regard to the duty of justice. But Christ raised his followers to a much higher standard. He has taught them to place in the same scale the mildness of condescension, the mercy of forgiveness, and the tenderness of sympathy and charity. The text is, therefore, to be held enjoining, that our benevolence and compassion be as extensive as are the existence and the varied condition of the human race, unconfined by any circumstance of external condition, and unpromoted by the influence of any private motive. Yes, wherever human wants and miseries appear, it is our duty to feel for the objects of them; it is our duty to exert ourselves, as far as our influence through any channel can extend, in affording relief; though the miserable should be strangers to our name, the enemies of our nation, and even the blasphemers of our faith, they are nevertheless entitled to our sympathy when their condition demands it. Their faults and errors may be objects of our detestation or pity; but let us never forget that their persons are the workmanship of our Father, which we are bound to respect. Did not He that made us make them? It is, therefore, a christian duty to sympathize with them-to pour, like the Samaritan of old, wine

In the second place, let us proceed to suggest some motives which, by the divine blessing, may recommend to you efficaciously the practice of this duty. My brethren, the motives which recommend the practice of universal benevolence and charity are numerous, and they are powerful.

At present, however, I shall confine your attention to three things: first, to the conformity of this benevolent spirit with the best principles of that nature which God has given you: in the second place, to the tendency of the spirit of benevolence to promote even the personal happiness and comfort of the benevolent individual; and, third, I would recommend it as in conformity with the spirit of the Gospel, and with the practice of Christ Jesus. With regard to the first of these, I observe, that God, as the Scriptures tell us, hath made of one blood all the nations of men that dwell on the face of the earth, and he has implanted within them principles that, when duly analyzed in their tendency and object, recognise this common origin. Every heart which has not been corrupted by selfish motives, or which has not been perverted by the maxims of a false religion, delights in the society and shares in the happiness of his fellow-mortals. Unmixed malevolence is no part of the nature of man. Whenever the good of others does not interfere with our own; wherever it is not considered as an obstacle to our own advancement or desires, it is an object of our approbation and desire. Yes, we are formed to rejoice with them that rejoice, and to weep with them that weep. Such are the reflections which every enlightened and good man delights to cherish. They are reflections on which we dwell with pleasing satisfaction, if we are conscious of indulging them; and they do contribute the purest and most lasting enjoyments of our life. We dislike the heart that is insensible to the fortunes of his brethren around him-that swells not at another's joy-that beholds without