He could stretch out his hands, one towards the east, and the other towards the west, embracing and gathering all his elect, and thus collecting together his sheep, dispersed among many regions, and throughout many ages.

We often read in Scripture, that the Lord gathers men under the shadow of his wings, and prepares them a place of refuge within his arms; and that those who seek shelter there are safe. These tender expressions of a parental love are eminently suited to this cross of our Saviour; it is there that we may receive them literally; it is at the foot of the blessed cross that we may ever seek and find that rest to our souls which proceeds from above, from Christ crucified.

XXIII.

JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED BETWEEN TWO THIEVES.

Ir was a fortunate circumstance for the Jews, which, doubtless, they congratulated themselves upon, that two criminals should be condemned to death at the same time as Jesus Christ. They did not consider that this circumstance had been foretold, and that it was intimately connected with God's designs respecting his Son; that instead of sullying the purity of his innocence, it would but add a dazzling splendour to the fact of his Divinity.

In order to give to his very degradation a dignity becoming his office of Messiah, his cross was converted into a tribunal, and he himself placed as the Judge between two criminals. Two were chosen to represent all others, and two

only, because sinners of all descriptions must be classed into two parties-those who are absolved, and those who are condemned; and thus He appeared as the Arbiter of life and death. His supreme power to dispense the one and the other, was exercised at this solemn moment.

What hand but that of God himself could have thus ordered events, keeping his own purposes unseen beneath the designs of men, and making even their guilty actions subservient to the performance of his own will concerning his Son. They wished to confound him with malefactors. He becomes their Judge. They hoped that having nailed him also to a cross, and having placed him there between two felons, he would be confounded with them; yet, from this very cross, as from a throne of justice, he dispenses mercy and judgment.

Joseph, who though innocent was cast into a dungeon among criminals, and distinguished from them in nothing but his innocence, was an eminent type of Christ. But he had not, like Jesus Christ, the power to absolve or to condemn, because he had no rightful authority to do so. In the company of two state prisoners, he foretold

to one his restoration to power and honour, and to the other the punishment of his transgressions. He was in bonds as they were; he had been falsely accused, and the charge of his accusers had been received against him; but in his prison and in his bonds he is permitted to act as a judge.

There is, however, this difference between Joseph, who was but the figure, and Christ, who was the reality. Joseph entreats the one who was to be restored to the king's favour, to remember him when he again stands before Pharaoh; while, on the contrary, he to whom Jesus promises deliverance, beseeches his Lord to remember him when he entered into his kingdom.

XXIV.

JESUS PRAYING FOR HIS ENEMIES.

Oн, what can be more worthy of our deepest admiration than those words of our Saviour"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," Luke xxiii. 34. Instead of threats of vengeance-instead even of mournful complaints, he prays! The cry of his blood is not like the cry of the blood of Abel, which cried to God for vengeance in the punishment of Cain: Christ, on the contrary, prays for pardon on his murderers; and his gentle voice disarms Divine vengeance, instead of inflaming it.