must we reckon our guilt in His sight great indeed, when we remember that, numberless as our positive sins are, they are only half the charge which may be brought against us; for that they are, after all, not more in number than the duties we have failed in. How is our case aggravated when we remember, that with some of our talents we have done positive harm, and that with others we have done nothing but bury them; and that for both these there is account to be given! Alas! who shall stand when these two charges shall be preferred against him? who can be clear of both? Time unemployed-property unimparted - faculties unimproved opportunities disregarded; surely "wicked and slothful servant," is the word that most among us should hear, should we hear our due! Let this thought then humble us in our own eyes more and more convince us more and more that we are indeed sinners before God, doubly sinners. drive us more and more to throw ourselves upon His mercy for his Blessed Son's sake; on whose merits alone (after such a review of ourselves) we must feel that we can rely, for that of ourselves we are utterly unclean. And further, let it stir us up to fulfil the conditions of the covenant of mercy and grace better for the time to come, by a more active exercise of our calling, by less weariness in well doing, by a higher sense of the trust reposed in us, a more lively application of God's gifts to God's service. such an application of them as we shall be able to look back upon with satisfaction when we lay ourselves down to die; when all our endowments will be only valued by us in proportion as they have been made by us means for the salvation of our souls and the glory of Almighty God.

186

SERMON XXII.

PILATE'S CONDUCT, AND THE LESSONS TO BE DERIVED FROM IT.

ST. JOHN, xix. 16.

"Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified."

Ir was Pilate who did this, as you have heard in the lesson for the day.* I will call your attention in this sermon to some of the circumstances under which Pilate thus abandoned Jesus to His persecutors, and I will draw from the whole a practical lesson well worth the consideration of you all.

You must have observed that, from first to last, Pilate is very unwilling to condemn Jesus. When the Jews brought Him before him, he went out to them and asked them what accusation they brought against Him? They reply, that "if He were not a malefactor, they would not have delivered Him up." Pilate is not satisfied with this vague charge, and would rather have nothing to do with the case: "Take ye Him," says he, "and judge Him according to your law." Their law, the legal powers which the Romans allowed them to exercise, did not extend to cases of life and death ; so that when Pilate referred them to their law, it

* Preached on Good Friday.

was referring them to a tribunal which could not touch the life of Jesus. Pilate therefore did not contemplate putting His life to hazard - wished not matters to proceed to that point against Him. Not so the Jews. Their own laws had not power to satisfy them in this case; they wanted the life of Jesus. They retort this upon Pilate, and throw the cause back upon him who had the power of the sword. Pilate's first attempt, therefore, to screen Jesus from his pursuers fails.

Still that attempt shows the disposition of the man, and accordingly he is driven to have Jesus before him in the judgment hall probably taking him in there, and not entering upon the examination elsewhere, because he would there be able to have him alone, unmolested by the importunities of the Jews, who were hunting Jesus to the death for full as their hearts were of all uncleanness and cruelty and never more full than at this moment. they would not forsooth go into this judgment hall, amongst Gentiles, lest they should be defiled, and so legally be unfit to eat the Passover, which fell out at that time. Pilate, therefore, by having Jesus before him in the judgment hall, would be freed from the presence of men who he saw were striving to warp justice and oppress the innocent, and would be able to put his own questions calmly and dispassionately to the party accused, and get at the truth. And that such was his humane object is the more probable, because there evidently was another judgment seat where he might have sat, had he been so disposed, in an open and public place, called the Pavement to which he does eventually repair, when his other attempts to save Jesus had failed him. and where the Jews might have been spectators of the proceedings of Pilate, without being defiled; the court not being in this instance a room, but an unen

closed square. We have another proof, therefore, of the reluctance of Pilate to condemn Jesus, by his having recourse in the first place to this private hearing, where His enemies could not be present to browbeat their victim. Accordingly, Pilate here puts several questions to Jesus, by which he might learn what ground there was for some of the charges which had been alleged against Him, touching His claim to be a King. The answers which Jesus gives to these questions are perfectly satisfactory to Pilate - he is quite convinced that the accusations were altogether futile and malicious; and so he comes out of the hall to the Jews who were waiting for the result of this examination without, and tells them plainly, "I find in Him no fault at all.”

Still he does not let Him go, though the whole transaction manifests his desire to do so-especially the proposal which he couples with this declaration of His innocence; for he reminds the people of a custom there was that the governor should release unto them a prisoner at the feast; and by way of inducing them to choose Jesus for that prisoner, he balances Him against one Barabbas, a notable prisoner, a rebel and a murderer; one whom, it might have been supposed, they could not possibly hesitate about rejecting when the liberation of Jesus was the alternative. He made this proposal with policy certainly, but with merciful policy, for it left the question of Jesus' guilt still in doubt, undetermined; so that the Jews would have to suffer no mortification by a decision of the judge going against them - for there would have been no decision at all-only Jesus would have been released as the prisoner to whom the annual boon of mercy was extended. Still, I say, all this shows Pilate's desire to save Jesus; for he even, we see, had recourse to stratagem and contrivance to effect it.

The Jews however, relentless men, reject this offer, and

Pilate yields and scourges Jesusa seal of punishment awaiting Him. Even yet, however, he struggles against his own concession; and leading Jesus forth, His head crowned with thorns, His person wrapped in a purple robe -both for mockery, though not devised by him but the soldiers in the midst too of hard blows and contemptuous spitting, he makes one appeal more, at once to their justice and their pity to their justice, saying yet again, "Behold, I bring Him forth to you that ye may know that I find no fault in Him," to their pity, saying, "Behold the Man!" Behold the Man, so innocent, and yet so abused! Have ye the hearts to gaze upon Him, the blood upon His brow, the defilements upon His vesture, the bruises upon His person? have ye the hearts to behold this, and still to persecute Him further? Be content, and know some touch of compassion. But this appeal also is made in vain"Crucify Him, crucify Him," is the reply which meets it. Pilate, though still goaded on to the slaughter, continues to give tokens of the unwilling step with which he moves to it; he will have nothing to do with it of himself. "Take ye Him," says he, "and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him."

There is yet a pausea pause which Pilate had interposed; for the Jews, as I have said, could not take Pilate at his word, and crucify Jesus-the Roman law not allowing it. Nevertheless they hint that a law they had, if they were only permitted to put it in force, which would demand the life of Jesus, as a blasphemer and as one who made himself the Son of God. Pilate appears to have allowed himself to be still further staggered by this new light in which Jesus' character was set; he doubted whether there were not in it something more than human-doubts which were confirmed by his wife's dream which was now reported