LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 355 abound and grow in this Christian principle, be much conver It is obvious, that the attentive and frequent consideration of these great doctrines must have a still more direct tendency to produce and cherish in our minds the principle of the love of Christ. But on this head, so much has been already said as to render any further observations unnecessary. Much, also, has been already observed concerning the love of our fellow-creatures, and it has been distinctly stated to be indispensable, and indeed the characteristic duty of Christians. It remains, however, to be here further remarked, that this grace can nowhere be cultivated with more advantage than at the foot of the cross. Nowhere can our Saviour's dying injunction to the exercise of this virtue be recollected with more effect, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you." No where can the admonition of the apostle more powerfully affect us, "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." The view of mankind which is here presented to us, as having been all involved in one common ruin; and the offer of deliverance held out to all, by the Son of God's giving of himself up to pay the price of our reconciliation, produce that sympathy towards our fellow-creatures, which, by the constitution of our nature, seldom fails to result from the consciousness of an identity of interests and a similarity of fortunes. Pity for an unthinking world assists this impression. Our enmities soften and melt away we are ashamed of thinking much of the petty injuries which we may have suffered, when we consider what the Son of God, "who did no wrong, neither was guile found in His mouth," patiently underwent. Our hearts become tender while we contemplate this signal act of loving-kindness. We grow desirous of imitating what we cannot but admire. A vigorous principle of enlarged and active charity springs up within us; and we go forth with alacrity, desirous of treading in the steps of our blessed Master, and of manifesting our gratitude for His unmerited goodness, by bearing each other's burthens, and abounding in the disinterested labours of benevolence. "Looking unto Jesus!" He was meek and lowly of heart, and from the study of His character we shall best learn the lessons of humility. Contemplating the work of redemption, we become more and more impressed with the sense of our natural darkness, and helplessness, and misery, from which it was requisite to ransom us at such a price; more and more conscious that we are utterly unworthy of all the amazing condescension and love which have been manifested towards us; ashamed of the callousness of our tenderest sensibility, and of the poor returns of our most active services. Considerations like these, abating our pride and reducing our opinions of ourselves, naturally moderate our pretensions towards others. We become less disposed to exact that respect for our persons, and that deference for our authority, which we naturally covet; we less sensibly feel a slight, and less hotly resent it; we grow less irritable, less prone to be dissatisfied; more soft, and meek, and courteous, and placable, and condescending. We are not literally required to practise the same humiliating submissions to which our blessed Saviour himself was not ashamed to stoop; *but the spirit of the remark applies to us, "the servant is not greater than his Lord" and we should especially bear this truth in mind, when the occasion calls upon us to discharge some duty, or patiently to suffer some ill treatment, whereby our pride will be wounded, and we are likely to be in some degree degraded from the rank we had possessed in the world's estimation; at the same time the sacred Scriptures assuring us, that to the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit, purchased for us by *"If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet," &c.-John xiii. 12-17. THE CHRISTIAN TEMPER. 357 the death of Christ, we must be indebted for the success of all our endeavours after improvement in virtue; the conviction of this truth tends to render us diffident of our own powers, and to suppress the first risings of vanity. Thus, while we are conducted to heights of virtue no otherwise attainable, due care is taken to prevent our becoming giddy from our elevation. It is the Scripture characteristic of the gospel system, that by it all disposition to exalt ourselves is excluded; and if we really grow in grace, we shall grow also in humility. 'Looking unto Jesus!" “He endured the cross, despising the shame." While we steadily contemplate this solemn scene, that sober frame of spirit is produced within us which best befits the Christian militant here on earth. 66 We become impressed with a sense of the shortness and uncertainty of time, and that it behoves us to be diligent in making provision for eternity. In such a temper of mind, the pomps and vanities of life are cast behind us as the baubles of children.We lose our relish for the frolics of gaiety, the race of ambition, or the grosser gratifications of voluptuousness. In the case even of those objects which may more justly claim the attention of reasonable and immortal beings-in our family arrangements, in our plans of life, in our schemes of business -we become, without relinquishing the path of duty, more moderate in pursuit, and more indifferent about the issue. Here, also, we learn to correct the world's false estimate of things, and to "look through the shallowness of earthly grandeur;" to venerate what is truly excellent and noble, though under a despised and degraded form; and to cultivate within ourselves that true magnanimity which can make us rise superior to the smiles or frowns of this world; that dignified composure of soul which no earthly incidents can destroy or ruffle. Instead of repining at any of the little occasional inconveniences we may meet with in our passage through life, we are almost ashamed of the multiplied comforts and enjoy ments of our condition, when we think of Him, who, though "the Lord of glory," "had not where to lay His head." And if it be our lot to undergo evils of more than ordinary magnitude, we are animated under them by reflecting, that we are hereby more conformed to the example of our blessed Master: though we must ever recollect one important difference, that the sufferings of Christ were voluntarily borne for our benefit, and were probably far more exquisitely agonising than any which we are called upon to undergo. Besides, it must be a solid support to us amidst all our troubles to know, that they do not happen to us by chance; that they are not even merely the punishment of sin; but that they are the dispensations of a kind Providence, and sent on messages of mercy—“ The cup that our Father hath given us, shall we not drink it?""Blessed Saviour! by the bitterness of Thy pains we may estimate the force of Thy love; we are sure of Thy kindness and compassion; Thou wouldst not willingly call on us to suffer; Thou hast declared unto us, that all things shall finally work together for good to them that love Thee; and therefore, if Thou so ordainest it, welcome disappointment and poverty, welcome sickness and pain, welcome even shame, and contempt, and calumny. If this be a rough and thorny path, it is one in which Thou hast gone before us. Where we see Thy footsteps we cannot repine. Meanwhile, Thou wilt support us with the consolations of Thy grace; and even here Thou canst more than compensate to us for any temporal sufferings, by the possession of that peace which the world can neither give nor take away." "Looking unto Jesus! "The Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God." From the scene of our Saviour's weakness and degradation, we follow Him, in idea, into the realms of glory, where "He is on the right hand of God; angels, and princi THE BLESSED HOPE. 359 palities, and powers being made subject unto Him." But though changed in place, yet not in nature; He is still full of sympathy and love; and having died "to save His people from their sins," "He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Cheered by this animating view, the Christian's fainting spirits revive. Under the heaviest burdens he feels his strength recruited; and when all around him is dark and stormy, he can lift up an eye to heaven, radiant with hope, and glistening with gratitude. At such a season, no dangers can alarm, no opposition can move, no provocations can irritate. He may almost adopt, as the language of his sober exultation, what in the philospher was but an idle rant; and, considering that it is only the garment of mortality which is subject to the rents of fortunewhile his spirit, cheered with the Divine support, keeps its place within, secure and unassailable-he can sometimes almost triumph at the stake, or on the scaffold, and cry out amidst the severest buffets of adversity, "Thou beatest but the case of Anaxarchus." But it is rarely that the Christian is elevated with this "joy unspeakable and full of glory:" he even lends himself to these views with moderation and reserve. Often, alas! emotions of another kind fill him with grief and confusion and conscious of having acted unworthy of his high calling, perhaps of having exposed himself to the just censure of a world ready enough to spy out his infirmities, he seems to himself almost "to have crucified the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." But let neither his joys intoxicate, nor his sorrows too much depress him. Let him still remember that his chief business while on earth is not to meditate, but to act; that the seeds of moral corruption are apt to spring up within him, and that it is requsite for him to watch over his own heart with incessant care; that he is to discharge with fidelity the duties of his particular station, and to conduct himself, according to his measure, after the example of his blessed Master, whose meat and drink it was to do the work of : |