never looked from heaven before with such wonder and admiration men were spectators of the final conflict on the cross, and were variously moved, some with adoration and conviction, some with bitter hate; while the people generally "that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned" (Luke xxiii. 48). Creation was a witness, and in the darkened sun, and reeling earth, and rending rocks, sympathised with the victory achieved by its Lord upon the cross. It was not a private victory, but a public triumph in which the universe was interested, and in which all men may well rejoice; for in it we have the assurance of the rescue of the world from the grasp of hell, and the redemption of humanity from the curse and condemnation of sin. The evidences of the subjugation of the hosts of hell are abundant to the eye of faith. Do not be impatient. The victory has in fact been already won; and its influences multiply and widen day by day. How many of the great victories obtained in the battlefields of the world have gradually extended their issues, and are still slowly perpetuating their results in the history of nations. England has not yet exhausted the consequences which flowed from the battle of Hastings; nor has Europe reaped all the results which accrued from Waterloo. be discouraged or doubtful because the world has, as yet, only partially felt the influences and issues of the Saviour's victory on the cross over the principalities and powers of darkness? From age to age the results of this conquest show themselves with increasing fulness and force; and the glorious kingdom of light and purity rises on the destruction and ruin of the kingdom of darkness and sin. The foundation has been laid, the personal victory has been won, the process of conquest is advancing, and by-and-by the entire territory will be regained to God, and renovated with imperishable moral beauty.

Why

III. Notice the victory-"triumphing over them in it." The words in it may be rendered, as in the margin, "in Himself," or "in Him." The question is, to what does the pronoun refer?* "In it" refers to the cross, while "Himself," the marginal reading, refers to Christ Jesus. The former seems the more natural reference, as, of course, it includes the Saviour suffering and dying on the cross, though in Him agrees better with God as the subject of all the preceding proposition. On the cross Christ proved Himself the conqueror of hell; for on it He made an end of sin, finished transgression, and brought in everlasting righteousness. The Son of God stood in our nature safe, strong, pure, and unfallen; the first man who had successfully resisted the malignant power and cunning of the devil, and succeeded in putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He overturned Satan's dominion, and won the victory for us. On the cross He died for our sins, and bore away the guilt of men, so that His death, accomplished by hellish hatred and human cruelty, is the very thing which vindicates the honour of God, upholds the claims of righteousness, and infinitely more than redresses the wrong of the fall of man. Thus, in Christ crucified, triumph is secured by God over the powers of darkness, atonement is provided for sin, reconciliation to God secured for the sinner, and the basis of Satan's empire overthrown. While the body of Christ was in the grave, Satan might still vainly think the victory was on his side; but in rising from the dead the Saviour was declared to be the Son of God with power: He led captivity captive, and proved the completeness of His Divine triumph. He came, "that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death," and by His cross and resurrection He made the most gloomy token of Satan's dominion

* ἐν αὐτῷ, or as some read ἀντῳ.

the means of accomplishing the purposes of grace, and brought life and immortality to light. Through the glorious Son of God, crucified for men, death shall be swallowed up of life.

The cross is the means of liberty and the way of life, the path of holiness, the refuge of the broken-hearted, and the very asylum of sinful humanity, where God declares to His erring creatures, "I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done." Shall we not then, each one for himself, say with St. Paul, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world"?

XXIII.

Shadow and Substance.

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."COLOSSIANS ii. 16, 17.

THE word therefore marks the connexion between these

verses and the preceding. The Apostle having declared the Christian's rescue from the consequences of a broken law and the principalities of darkness, having shown that the handwriting against him was destroyed, and that in conflict with the devil and his angels he had only to fight with a conquered foe, now asks, as it were, "With such a position of liberty and privilege, why go back to the feeble elements of a former economy for peace or hope? The errors of the false teaching which St. Paul opposed were partly, as has been said, from Judaism and partly from Gentile philosophy. In the former the distinctions in meats. and drinks, festivals and sacred seasons, were much insisted on as essential to religion; and against this notion the Apostle cautions them in emphatic language, "Let no man. judge your religion or condemn you on account of matters of mere ritual observance or ceremonial distinction; maintain your Christian liberty; remember that these things, which Jewish teachers urge upon you, are really but as a shadow: in Christ you have the substance." He would not have

them for a moment to submit to teaching which would supplant the real by the ritual, the spiritual by the symbolical, and give them a religion of ceremonial observances for one of holy liberty and divine life.

I. The first thing demanding attention here is the Apostle's admonition, urged against the assumed obligation of ritual distinctions in matters of eating and drinking, and the observing of days and seasons. This obligation was assumed and insisted on by the Judaizing teachers, as if life and godliness depended on these things. The eating and drinking have doubtless a reference to "the dietetic injunctions of the Mosaic law." In the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy there are specified catalogues of the animals which might be eaten, and of those that were prohibited. The flesh of animals that had cloven hoofs and chewed the cud, fishes which had scales and fins, and such insects as the locust, were clean and to be used for food. In the matter of drinking there were some regulations, although not so many as were connected with eating. The priests on the eve of solemn public duty were strictly forbidden the use of wine. The vow of the Nazarites required entire abstinence from the fruit of the vine. These Jewish arrangements and Levitical commands had a strong hold on the Jewish mind, of which we have a striking evidence in the manner in which St. Peter received the vision which God sent to instruct him to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles. The idea of partaking of anything that was unclean was utterly abhorrent to him. (Acts x. 9-16). The tendency among the Jews, from a certain pride of national sanctity, was to multiply these distinctions and prohibitions, and to magnify them to matters of vast moral importance. It is to be remembered also, that in the religions of the pagan world, as well as in the Jewish nation, much was always made of mere ritual.