SERMON IX.

THE BAND WHICH TOOK CHRIST.

JOHN XVIII. 6.

As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground.

There is a use in selecting some specimens of the human heart and holding them up as a mirror in which all may see themselves. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." For though there are small constitutional diversities, and different degrees of restraint, and different degrees of ignorance and hardness, of prejudice and infatuation, the essential character of all is the same. All lions are lions and not lambs, though there are small diversities among them. Men are alike by nature in all the great characteristics. They do not love God; therefore they love themselves supremely; therefore they hate the

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God of the law. As sure as they are governed by motives, they must hate the God who stands over them and says, If you do not love me better than yourselves, I will dash the interests you so dearly love to all eternity. They are full of pride; and selfishness and pride, separately and jointly, produce unbelief. They are enslaved by sensible objects; and when hardened by habits of sin and a resistance of the calls of God, they are proof against every thing. I have selected the text, and the story of which it is a part, in order to exhibit a fair sample of the human heart,-of your heart under the same circumstances.

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Judas, having made up his mind to betray his Master, went to "the chief priests and captains and agreed to do it for a bribe. About these captains there are different opinions. Some suppose they were officers of the Roman band which guarded the temple at the time of the passover, which officers were selected from among the Jews; others think they were officers for constructing and repairing the buildings of the temple; others think they were priests whose particular office it was to apprehend those who transgressed in sacred things. From that time the traitor "sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude." He was at the passover after this, and went out between the passover and the supper, to make ready for the infamous expedition. After supper, and after Christ had uttered those memorable words in the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th of John, he went out to the garden of Gethsemane, whither he had

often resorted with his disciples. In the mean time Judas received "from the chief priests and pharisees" "a band of men and officers." In the tower of Antonia, at the northwest angle of the temple, a Roman garrison was kept, which, from its eminence, commanded the temple, and through that, the city. A detachment from that garrison, under Jewish officers, guarded the temple at the time of the passover. This detachment, or the greater part of it, constituting "a great multitude," some say 500, others 1,000, were committed to Judas, and accompanied by some of "the chief priests and captains of the temple and the elders." The band was made so strong and armed "with swords and staves," from an evident apprehension that "the multitude" might attempt a rescue. And though it was the time of the full moon, they went out "with lanterns and torches," determined, if he should hide himself, to search for him in every corner. How active and vigilant are the persecutors, while the disciples are asleep. "Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he, hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him." Then "Jesus-went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he.-As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground." They are seized with a strange supernatural terror: they are thunderstruck and sink to the earth. Soldiers and officers, chief priests and elVol. I.

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ders, captains of the temple and the traitor Judas, all are prostrate together, according to that prophetic prayer of David, "Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt." This was a decisive proof of his divine power and that they were altogether in his hands. When he struck them down he could have struck them dead; when he spoke them to the ground he could have spoken them to hell. But he would manifest his patience towards his enemies by giving them a call and a space to repent; and he would show to all men that his life was not forced from him, but that he laid it down of himself.

When the prostrate army had recovered themselves, Jesus asked "them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth." Notwithstanding that overwhelming impression and all the proof it brought of his divine power, they immediately returned to their purpose, and with a hardiness that never quavered again, bound him and led him away to judgment and to execution. Had the impression remained they could not have done this; but when it was gone, not all the discoveries they had had of his power and majesty, could hold them back from the ensuing scene of mockery and torture.

This solemn piece of history gives rise to several reflections.

1. The power of Christ and the discoveries of him will bring down the stoutest sinner. It is no evidence that men are weak that they are thus affected. Those who fell in Gethsemane were among the stoutest and proudest minds in the Jewish na