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that if his doctrine prevailed, their usurpations must cease. They had a strong but a base motive, therefore, to excite the rabble against him and his cause; and in this dark design, they met with easy and fatal success. Prejudice was heightened into rage, and rage into frenzy, till the popular tumult, impatient of any obstacles in the way of its purpose, swept down every consideration that it is natural, or humane, or decent to have regard to. We are not to suppose that the voice of the nation deliberately pronounced, or pronounced at all, the dreadful choice which the text has recorded. whole people can never have its good sentiments so at once perverted. There was passionate sorrow in the streets of Jerusalem, when he, who would have gathered her children together like young birds under the mother's wings, was held in the hands of the tormentors, while Barabbas the robber passed out free. Even the crowds that had come forth to see the sad spectacle of his condemnation, smote their breasts as they returned; and how many of the wise and the humble hearted, who sat thoughtfully at home, were remembering the instructions of the great prophet who spoke like no other, the wonder-working benefactor who conferred blessings like no other, the holy one of God, whose life had been like that of no other!

But indeed, my brethren, why should we dwell any longer with surprise on the incident before us? Do not prejudice and passion, and the guidance of wicked men, and the evil heart of unbelief, produce everywhere like consequences? Is not Christ still rejected? Is not Barabbas still preferred? Is not that scene of shame acted over again, whenever the clamor of false opinions

and bad affections is raised round the hall of our judgment, and the difference between what is the best and what is the worst of conceivable things, is undiscerned and uncared for and drowned in that swelling outcry and disorder? It is so. Do not wonder, then, at the history, as if it told you something incredible. It is repeated in a thousand versions of human unreasonableness, insensibility and guilt. Like most of the strange occurrences that shock belief, you have only to reflect upon it to find that it is no more strange than your personal experience of man. You will see resemblances to it in your own day. You may perhaps discover the interpretation of it in your own breast.

You prefer Barabbas to Christ, who extol in your hearts the oppressors and slayers, above the instructers and benefactors of your race; who are dazzled with the daring achievements of them that defy the meek laws of heaven, and desolate the fair heritage of the earth ; and who think little, in comparison with such, of the humble services of goodness and the silent victories of truth. There has always been a manifest tendency in the heart of man to admire the bold and the strong, those who have made themselves known and felt upon society, though it were only for its hurt. He has been in love with tyrants for the splendor with which his own submission has arrayed them; and worshipped the power which nothing made respectable but its spirit of lofty control. The plunderer, whose exactions have been made under lordly titles, the homicide with an army at his back, the leader even of marauders, has always been an object for him to wonder after. Success and eminence, though of the most worthless kind, have

charms for his imagination. He sympathises with the very ruin and fall of those who had forced themselves up into an evil celebrity. Barabbas was a notable prisoner,' as the evangelist Matthew calls him; and this alone was a title to vulgar interest at least, if not applause.

A few years ago, there were confined in the castle at St. Angelo, at Rome, the chiefs of a troop of brigands, that had filled that part of Italy with consternation. These persons were visited by delicate women and distinguished men. They were pitied. They were even admired. If now a public clamor had been raised against some useful citizen, who had given offence by the sternness of his integrity; or against some generous writer, who from his learned retreat was teaching truths that the low would not understand and the high would not endure; what may we suppose would have been the result of an alternative like that mentioned in the text? Is it unlikely that the bandit would have been released, while the innocent should be left to his accusation, and the reformer to his fate? If it had been otherwise, it could only have been because the popular mind was but imperfectly excited against those who deserved nothing from it but its respect.

Cease to undervalue the humble and lowly, for the master of Christians was so. Cease to exalt the evil

be, whatever his good

doer, whatever his ability may fortune, whatever his renown, into the notice and regard that should be reserved wholly for the just. Estimate men according to the excellence of their characters, and not according to the noise of their repute. Honor them for the benefits that they are laboring to

spread, and not for the mere effects, independent of moral qualities and the public good, that they may have found means to produce. Be not caught with the glare of exploits in mischief. Strip off the gilding from false fame. Consider those who contribute to the comfort or the improvement of their brethren above those who have shaken the earth with the hoofs of their ambitious battles. Then you have been trained in the right school. You have come to discern things as the Scriptures reveal them. You have learnt of Christ. But reverse all this. Make idols of the world's mighty ones. with the crowd. Join your shout where the acclaim is the loudest. Make of no account the earnestly diligent, whose works are works of utility; the meek and kind, whose views are all views of benevolence; the quiet students and simple-hearted expositors of nature and truth; the bold only for righteousness, and the conquerors only of the evil that there is in the world. Then you have in your souls rejected the Christ of God. You have preferred a malefactor before him.

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Again. Barabbas is preferred when we love our prejudices better than the truth; or a headstrong will than a sober duty; when we follow the bent of our passions instead of the commandment of the Lord, and choose to exercise wrath rather than mercy. Yet all these things are done continually. Some of us, like those bad men who made even the unjust Pilate more unjust, are prevented, by the prepossession of false principles or of unworthy inclinations, from receiving the word of the divine life. It does not accord with our wishes, or with the opinions we have adopted. And we will not examine it. We will not listen to it. We de

ny that there can be any reality in its claims. We turn away from its salvation. But to what will you go in its stead? To what will you give the advantage over its lessons of obedience, its inspirations of faith, its assurance of glory? You must take up with whatever alternative the time and chance will permit; with the caprice of the moment, or the long settled prejudice that is no more rational than that; with the wild practices of others, or some poor theory of your own. Perhaps some ignorant and fierce disorganizer like the seditious man in the gospel may be offered to you, and you may make your election of him. It is the nature of prejudice to combine obstinacy with it. They who are disposed to believe nothbut what they like, will usually be resolved to believe no more than they like. They do not so much resist

They are sure that what

evidence as refuse to hear it. ever they have no understanding for, has no foundation ; and that whatever they have no heart for, cannot be required. They have fixed themselves upon their point. They are determined that nothing shall shake them from it. There they will abide, whatever may have to be passed over and sacrificed, of the clearest prescription of resson, the plainest appointments of God.

And this obstinacy is not confined to questions of opinion. Far from it. It would then be comparatively harmless. It decides questions in practice of the most vital concern. It says, I will do thus and thus. This course must be pursued. This design must be accomplished. Nothing shall stand in the way either of one or the other. It assumes rights that nothing but itself allows. It denies principles that nothing but itself ever disputed. It will take all hazards rather than own it