JOHN came from the desert in which he had dwelt in solitary communion with that Spirit which wrapped his soul from his mother's womb, into the fellowship of divine undertakings, and uttered his voice in terrible majesty and cleaving strength, like the lightning and thunder which sanctified the top of Sinai before the coming of Jehovah; for I reckon that as Christ was the great and merciful incarnation of that law which then was given, so was John, as it were, an incarnation of those sublime and piercing terrors which overawed the familiar feelings of the people, and summoned up their awe and reverence, and fear and humility for the due reception of their God; and as Moses was commanded to sanctify the people, and cause them to be washed with pure water to their very raiment, for the view of the glory of their Eternal King, so was John appointed to wash the people and baptize their souls with a baptism of repentance, in order that they might be prepared to receive the King of Righteousness who then appeared in the midst of them. When John thus was shown of the Holy Ghost unto Israel, we are told that an immense concourse, drawn together by every motive of wonder and curiosity, assembled to hear him, and having heard him, were convinced in their minds, and desired to be baptized in Jordan, confessing their sins. And the people came, and the publicans came, and the very soldiers came, and, being penitent, asked him what fruit they should bring forth meet for repentance. He straightway exhorted one class to charity and brotherly kindness, another to justice and righteousness, a third to mercy, faithful witness, and contentment; which counsels and rebukes, most pertinent to their several cases, and most offensive to the former idols of their heart, they meekly and thankfully received, in consideration of the divine sanctity which was around the man, and the piercing power of conviction with which his words were armed. Thus the very basest and most hardened classes of the people did justify God, and acknowledge his righteousness in condemning them by the mouth of His holy prophet, and did lend an ear to his voice, and repent, and submit themselves to the holy ordinances whereby it pleased Him that they should express the sense of their wickedness, and whereby He was pleased to show unto them that their sins were about to be washed away in the blood of Him that was to come. And thus a people was prepared for the Lord. To which events the Lord looking back might well say, "All the people that heard, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John."

Now mark the contrast to this of the conduct of the Pharisees, and the Scribes, and that other portion of the Jewish people who were righteous in

their own eyes, and prided themselves in keeping the law, and thanked God that they were not sinners as other men, or as these poor publicans. Mark this contrast, for it openeth one of the deepest and most cunning mysteries of human depravity, and furnished a lesson which cannot fail to be most important to many. When the Baptist began to draw the attention of the people, those pretending classes, whose pride of religion lived in the word and admiration of the superstitious multitude, to whose vulgar eye they prayed in the corner of the streets that they might be seen of them; to whose pomp-loving ear they did homage by sounding a trumpet before them when they went to do their alms; to whose ignorance and stock-like wonder they paid high respect in the phylacteries which they wore about their persons, inscribed with mystic characters and sentences of pretended holiness; when these Pharisees, who worshipped the image of their own sanctity, reflected from the foul and pestilent sink of the ignorant and superstitious people, saw these people carried away by one who belonged not to their craft, nor worshipped at their shrine, nor came amongst their confidences, they took the alarm, and sent forth a stately deputation of their number to put him to the question, and dive into his schemes, and sift his pretensions, and expose him if they could; who came in all the pomp of pride and office to where the Baptist was, and put him to the question in the hearing of all the people : "Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. then? Art thou Elias? I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Who then art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us : what sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias." And the Pharisees "asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not the Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not: he it is, who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." And so terminated this instructive dialogue. They did their proud errand, and went away as proud as they came, and somewhat more hardened than they came. They had no ways to be repented of; no sins to be forgiven. The plunderers of widows' houses, the spoilers of the orphan, the adulterers, the hypocrites, the proud revilers of love and mercy, had no sins to be repented of, because they fasted thrice in the week, and gave tithes of mint and cummin, and did no work on the Sabbath day. And they who were the generation of true vipers, who had a sting sc

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deadly and venomous as to kill the Prince of Life, had no wrath to come from which to flee, because they had Abraham for their father; and they who were like whited sepulchres, full of uncleanness and dead men's bones, had truly no need of any baptism or preparation in order to meet the Lord, upon whom in their pride they were to gnash with their teeth, and cast spite and woe from their tongues; and for their case-hardened wickedness, their diabolical pride, and most opprobrious revilings against God, were to be cast into utter darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. They truly rejected the counsel of God unto themselves, being not baptized of John. And they continued to behave towards the Baptist proudly and contemptuously as they began. For when our Lord put to them the question, "The baptism of John, was it of God, or not?" they had nothing to reply; because if they should say of God, the question followed, why did ye not receive him then? If they should say, no; they feraed lest the people should take up stones to stone them. And the poor, false-hearted, fear-ridden men were fain to hold their peace. Nay, upon another occasion they came to the Baptist, with the wondrous purpose, if they could, of kindling a spark of envy in his breast against the Lord, saying, in the true style of him who beguiled Eve, “Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come unto him." The glaring hypocrites! Rabbi, forsooth, as if they had any reverence of his learning or dignity! "He to whom thou bearest witness, the same baptizeth," taketh thy trade on hand, as if the Baptist were a craftsman in religion, like themselves. "And all men come unto him," as if the Baptist lived in the popularity and favouritism of the mob, as they did. But they made as little by that stroke of subtlety as by their former petulant inquiries, but heard that witness of Christ reiterated tenfold more strongly, and the same were fain to hear the song of his majesty and divinity lifted up, by the voice which never flattered, to the very throne of God. Thus did the Pharisees entreat the message of John. And why? what reason could they assign? The old cant of their order, "He hath a devil." And why? because he neither eateth nor drinketh like another man.

That is another feature of the self-sufficient Pharisee, who, being accustomed to place his soul's salvation in a formality and a ritual to which his heart and soul hath no conformity, doth so magnify the forms of things into unnatural importance, as to leave no room whatever in his judgment for the spirit or inward essence of things; and therefore puts all care of conscience or of conduct, of men or of things, upon probation by their outward exterior and formal circumstance. Christ did the work upon the Sabbath, therefore the work must be a work of Satan, and he who did it must die the death. John was abstemious, therefore he hath a devil. He is a melancholy, miserable hypochondriac, in whose words there is no truth, in whose actions there is no prudence, but wild extravagance and moon-struck folly. And yet these Pharisees placed their own righteousness in their fast

ings and abstemiousness; but then John did not fast by rule, or deny his appetite by the measure of time. Oh, what a thing formality is, for destroying all love of truth and all admiration of spirit! It unsouls man, and makes his body his all. It takes the fruitful and nutritious kernel out of his words, and makes them hollow sounds and husky forms of that food which they contain not. It destroys all love of simple nature, substitutes affectation for affection, ceremony for religion, conformity for worship, works for faith, and profession for love. And what an obdurate thing it is in its own conceit; you shall as soon by prophesying to the mile-stone, make it leave its rooted place, and travel with you along the high road, as by your prophesyings make these formalists take life and spirit into their hollow-hearted worship, and walk with you in the love of God's commandments. And how biting cruel it is, and scornfully malicious against the true servants of faith, who, from a convinced conscience and full heart, express unto God in the way that seemeth best unto Him, the reverence, and homage, and obedience, which He requireth. Much rather may a religious man expect justice from a scoffer, or a worldling, than from these Pharisaical formalists, who will condemn him for anything or for nothing, if he should dress his person, or wear his habit, or eat his meat in a way different from that which they have called holy. These false-hearted, ceremonious knaves have called the stones of the Temple the glory of Him that inhabiteth the Temple, and whoever gainsays them is worthy to die for sacrilege; and they have called the letter of the law the spirit of the law, and whoever saith otherwise is a blasphemer; and the forms of worship they have called the spirit of worship, and if you are not satisfied you are an enemy of Moses and the law, of God and of Christ, no friend to the church, and but an ambiguous and doubtful friend to Cæsar. And if, when they blame a spiritual one for nonconformity to their traditions and fashions of religion, he gives in to them as to matters of indifference, he is no better; because the quarrel which they have with him is at bottom his spirituality, which is a constant eyesore and rebuke to their formality, and will not let them rest in the pride of their place, or the guilt of their self-contentment. For-when Christ, taking them at their word, came eating and drinking like another man, what said they? "Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!" He did not wash his hands before meat; he did not seem to fast; when he was starving on the Sabbath, he would rub the ears of corn; he would not refuse to eat with publicans, nor even to be present at their feasts; and he allowed himself to be touched by sinners, and to receive their grateful ministry of love. Therefore he was not a prophet, said the whited sepulchres, but a friend of publicans and sinners. Blessed Saviour, who was full of mercy to the chief of sinners! Blessed Saviour, who did not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax! How my soul rejoiceth that Thou didst bear this reproach! for Thou wouldst not otherwise have been a Saviour to my most sinful soul; nor such a Saviour as I could offer to the sinners who are around me. Rejoice with me,

fellow-sinners, and be glad, that this, which was made his reproach by those opprobrious Pharisees, is the true character of your Lord; that he is a friend of publicans and sinners, our friend, and the friend of all the wretched, and of those who have no help, if they will turn unto him in the day of their distress.

But, for their other reproach, that he was a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, let it descend upon their own heads who loved the chief places in feasts; but for Him who, though He refused not to be present at a feast, and even to minister, when need was, to its innocent festivity, did yet rebuke all excess and ostentation, and instruct the master to invite the lame, the halt, the blind, and all such miserable people, that, having no return on earth, he might have a great reward in heaven,-it was an utter reproach, indicating more the whimsical malice of children than the staid judgment of men; for men generally hold themselves bound to abide by one line of discipline, either the abstemious or the indulgent; but these Pharisees blamed the abstemious in John; and when they saw the absence of any formal restraint or marked abstemiousness in Christ, they blamed that also, so that our Lord applies to them the parable, Ye are like children in the market-place amusing themselves with the sports of men; some taking the part of pipers at marriages and at funerals; others of those who danced, or who wailed aloud to their piping. But, as often happeneth with wayward children in their games, the one so discontented with the part which they had to perform, would neither dance when the others affected to pipe, as at a marriage, nor would they wail aloud when they affected to pipe, as at a funeral. To which wayward and unsatisfied children our Lord likened that Pharisaical generation, Ye are like children sitting in the market-place, and calling one unto another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ve have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, but rigidly abstained, and ye say he hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking, observing no rule nor ritual of exterior life, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of all her children; and ye are not her children, and therefore we need make no appeal unto such as

you.

Such was the discourse of our Lord delivered to that generation of men, which I would now, by the grace of God, improve to the edification of our own generation. And first, I would show you the three forms of the Pharisee which prevail amongst us, and the treatment which the children of the kingdom are to expect, and patiently to bear at their hand. First, There is the Pharisee of the intellect, who either disbelieves or makes no account of faith, but walks by the light of nature, and prides himself chiefly in his unprejudiced and enlightened and liberal mind; and if, haply, he have any charity, benevolence, or virtue, ddeth that to his boast, and with great contempt looketh down upon the children of the kingdom as Poor misguided enthusiasts, to be looked after lest they do themselves or others an injury, or at the

best to be pitied as the blind slaves of a faith which is credulous and obstinate. These were the Sadducees of our Lord's time; but to such a height had the intellectual apostasy of this age arisen, that the Sadducee, heretofore half-ashamed of himself, had gotten the pride and self-sufficiency of the Pharisee, and erects his creed against the children of the kingdom. I include in this class the supercilious Free-thinker, who boasteth that he holdeth the continent of truth within his little brain, and beareth upon his tongue the whole armory of persuasion and conviction. I include, also, the vain and boastful rationalists who abide by a profession of Faith, but have set Reason arbitress over her, and maintain a constant warfare of derision against those who hold another opinion, as if they were irrational, and not to be reasoned with at all. Then after these, there comes the Pharisee of the old school, the religious formalist, of whom we say nothing, except that it prevails in these times as much as ever it did, and will prevail to the end of time. It ariseth from using religion as a pruninghook, to trim the natural man to a shape as like to the spiritual man as he well can, instead of using it as a plough-share to plough him up with all his idle weeds and insalubrious fruits, and sow him with the seed of the divine Word, which liveth and abideth for ever. For as the earth, in virtue of the curse pronounced upon it, ceaseth not to bring forth thorns, and thistles, and briars, which can by no pruning be converted into fig-trees, and vine-trees, and olive-trees, so doth the soul bring forth a set of wild and bastard virtues at the best, which will not prune into heavenly virtues, but must be grafted into the life-nourishing vine of Christ, and waited upon by the husbandry of God; to which high honour man in his pride of heart, not being willing to submit himself, but desiring to do it by his own masterly wisdom, doth set about it, and converts himself into a Pharisee, instead of submitting himself to be converted into a child of the Spirit of God. And truly I have seen this form of the Pharisee so noble and excellent in itself and in its aims, that it would deceive the very elect; but let the elect not be deceived. Whosoever accounteth of himself, or beholdeth any beauty or excellence to be admired, in comparison with that which is in Christ Jesus the Lord, is not of the children of God. Whosoever beholdeth not the highest imaginations of the heart of man, and the most noble of his desires to be as the meanest, altogether vanity and wickedness, hath need to be taught what be the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. The gospel is not any reformation of life, nor propagation of knowledge, nor purification of the naked heart, nor ennobling of the native spirit of man, but it is the creation of a new heart, and the renewing in us of a right spirit, and the shedding light in upon darkness, and the quickening of a new life. The old must be done away. All things must become new. Every high look must be humbled, and every lofty look must be abased, and we must submit ourselves, like new-born babes, to receive the sincere milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby.

There is a third form of the Pharisee, which I would denominate the spiritual Pharisee, generated in those who believe from adopting the opinion of

In as

truly spiritual and faithful people, and walking after their rules of life, and assuming their methods of discourse, and being ruled by their judgment of men and things-of books, sermons, and other spiritual matters-all before they have had the answer of their conscience, or the conviction of the Holy Spirit, or a true abiding faith of those things which they have taken upon them. far as they value their conviction, they do affect or assume the character they are of, and are Pharisees by how much they are not true spiritual converts. And believe me, that whatever is not of the Spirit and of faith, is of nature, and therefore of sin; and if it have been assumed from a school, it will generate pride, and not the less that the school from which it is taken is built upon humility. It may be humility in them; and if it be of true faith, it will be humility; but if it be not also of the same spirit in you, it will generate pride and uncharitableness, and injustice, and hardness of heart, and every other feature of the Pharisee. Now, let me say that this is the form of the Pharisee for which we have to be most on our guard when we are turned to a spiritual life; and if we resolve to pursue the intuitions of the Spirit, and to be made free by the redemption which is in Christ, and to walk by the faith of God, not the custom of men, however good, this is the school of Pharisees from which we shall be most apt to suffer wrongfully.

The root of the Pharisee, in all its forms, is the pride which one has in himself, which, being cut down, all the fruits fall to the earth; which abiding, will bear fruit of a thousand different forms. Therefore should we be on our guard most of all for our own selves, and for the various shapes which self-love is wont to assume. It is this continual separation of ourselves from God that is the ruin of us; for being separate from God, we are joined to Satan by some of the various attachments by which he hath an easy prey of

mortals. For it is a part of his deep game, when he cannot take them with outward show, or with sensual pleasures, to take them with the inward show of their own spirit, its gifts, its graces, its talents, its purposes, or some other of its natural appearances. Nay, and if by force of will we achieve the victory over our sensual appetites and vain affections, denying the flesh, and despising the world, then in the will he takes his position, and exalts our purity, our wisdom, our magnanimity to the very skies. Oh, his arts are infinite, and his success proportioned to his infinite arts! And until you see the beauty and majesty which is in the person of the Lord Jesus, and yearn after His love and communion, and feel solitary, and insecure, and forlorn in the highest natural estate, and desirous to be joined to the Father from whom you have strayed, and to have your will sunk in His will, your desires submitted to the purposes of His glory, your mind enlightened by His Word, your life regulated by His holy laws, your whole soul, and strength, and mind occupied in immediate contact with the divine mind, it is a vain and hopeless thing to expect that you should be delivered out of the snares of the devil in one form or another. Therefore do I entreat all to seek to be delivered from that which is peculiar to themselves, to their family, to their class, to their calling, into what is common to Christ and all His members, for that is truth, universal truth, whereas all peculiarity or disagreement from Him is falsehood in some one or other of its thousand forms. There is no spiritual life but in communion with Christ. As the branches are in communion with the vine, there is no true blessedness which is not derived from Him who is the Fountain of all life and joy; there is no obedience which is not produced in us by the effectual operation of His Spirit. This is the true wisdom; and these are the true children of whom wisdom is justified in all her ways.

The narrative simple as it is, may teach those who depreciate the character of soldiers (and there are many who are apt to think they are but fighting machines), to regard them in a new light, and from a nobler point of view.

The harsh music of war had died away, the noise and smoke of battle had subsided, and the British standard was fluttering over the gorgeous palaces of Lucknow.

The thundering boom of heavy guns and the crashing blow of mortar-shells no longer reverberated amid the crumbling ruins of massive edifices. Rattling of light artillery, clanking of horsemen,

The gunner was at rest; his portfire was extinguished, and in dreams he wandered amidst the ruins he had made; the charger's saddle-girth was loosed, and the horse kept watch over his wearied rider. The strongholds of the enemy were now the resting-places of our men. But, alas! the heart-rending groans of the wounded were heard, and the last trembling whispers of a dying man fell on my ear.

I was sitting by the bed of one who had but a short time to live, and taking down, at his request, the few words that he could with great difficulty utter at irregular intervals.