61. At the Beginning of Holy Lent the devout Christian meditates the Sufferings of Christ

EXHORTATION.

"God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."—2 Cor. v. 21.

Among the early Christians the holy time of Lent was a time of devotion and prayer, spent in contemplating the sufferings of Jesus, as is the custom of all the true children of God to this day. Although Satan has brought the children of the world to such a pass, that they begin the holy time of Lent, not with prayer and devotion, but with drinking, masquerades, gluttony, luxury, and ungodliness, testifying that they care nothing for the crucified Jesus, yet the true children of God think otherwise, and have a dread of such abominations. CHRISTIAN MEDITATES CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS.

1. They not only commence the season with prayer and singing, but unshackle their minds as much as possible of all earthly things, so that all their joy may be in the blood of Jesus.

2. They think over all the sufferings of Jesus, his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, his appearance before the judgment seat, at Golgatha, on the cross, and in the grave, calling to mind at every scene that this was suffered for their salvation. 3. They do not allow their devotion to disappear with the season of Lent, but as they mean to be comforted all their lives by the blood of Jesus, so they remember, all their lives, the crucified Jesus, who rose again.

4. This remembrance impels them to crucify the desires of the flesh, no longer to live according to the course of this world, nor wantonly to sin, but to die to sin, and be born again in the spirit.

Jesus, my Jesus! how great is thy love, extended to me in thy bitter sufferings. Thou art the only begotten Son of God, thou art the immaculate Lamb, the Lord of Glories, the Most Holy, who has never committed a sin; and behold, thou dost commit thyself to the most disgraceful death and unto the most cruel sufferings AT THE BEGINNING OF LENT THE DEVOUT for me, an unjust one, a sinner, and a slave of death. How great is thy unspeakable mercy! The holy one takes away my unholiness, the pious one takes away my wickedness, the just one my injustice, the innocent one my guilt. My sins are laid upon thee, so that thy righteousness may fall upon me. My Jesus! in thy sufferings I can see the wrath of God against sin, the abomination of sin, the punishment of sin. For it was in chastisement of the trespasses of others, and shifted sins, that God tortured thee, innocent Lamb, on the Mount of Olives, and suffered thee to be so wretchedly maltreated by the hands of thy foes. How severely then will those be punished hereafter, who do not allow themselves to be moved, by such sufferings, to faith, to repentance, and to sanctification. Jesus! I approach thee, and believingly regard thy sufferings. Thou goest to the garden of Gethsemane, and bloody sweat drops from thee to the ground; alas! for me, that I may be delivered from the power of the devil. Thou art brought to judgment, accused, and condemned to death, alas! for me, that I may be acquitted after death, and on the last day, before the judgment seat. Thou art scourged, and thy body seamed with blood, deep furrows are drawn upon thy back; alas! for me, that I may not be punished for my sins. Thou art led to death, alas! for me, that my CHRISTIAN MEDITATES CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS.

death may be wholesome to me and a passage to heaven, aye, a journey to the Father. Thou art crucified; alas, for me: thou, the Lamb of God, hast taken away all my sins. Thou diest upon the cross; alas! for me, that by thy death I may have life. Thou art buried; alas! for me, to sanctify my grave. Is not this love, is not this mercy, that by thy bitter suffering I am to attain life, grace, and the forgiveness of all my sins? The punishment of all my sins is upon thee, so that I may have peace, and be delivered from them. These sufferings I will have before my eyes wherever I am. Thy death and sufferings, until soul and body sever, shall dwell within my heart. If Israel was free from all guilt and punishment, upon believingly sacrificing a lamb to God, and seeing its hot blood flow: I know that because thou, O Jesus, thou innocent and immaculate Lamb of God, wert slaughtered for me, and thy hot blood was richly poured out for me, that, if I receive it in faith, I am reconciled with God through grace. Thy blood is the true sacrificial blood, the blood of atonement, the blood of purification, the blood with which to sprinkle our sills and door-posts. O Jesus! I will think of thy sufferings and of thy blood when my heart is tempted to sin, I will have before my eyes thy holy image on the Mount of Olives, when thou wert scourged, and at the 37* cross, whenever the world with its evil example, would make me like itself. Into thy wounds will

I flee when my sins oppress me, thy blood I will claim as my ransom, when conscience besets me, aye, in my dying hour I will know nothing but

Jesus; thy holy name shall be my latest word, thy bleeding form my latest thought, thy last word upon the cross my expiring sigh, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" In that last hour, O Jesus, be my comfort, my joy, my refreshment, my assistance, and appear to me in thine image, a consolation in my need, how thou,

Lord Christ, didst bleed to death. I will look towards thee, and in faith clasp thee to my heart. Who dies thus, dies well. Amen.

1. My best of friends departs; my Jesus, my salvation,

Already bows his head, and leaves his high vocation;

His face is deadly pale; from the accursed tree.

He sinks into the grave; my bridegroom parts from me.

2. My best of friends departs that I may never perish,

But in eternal bliss his loved remembrance cherish;

For me, for me he dies, to clear my guilt and shame,

To bring me to the grace of God, and end all blame.

THE DEVOUT CHRISTIAN MEDITATES, ETC.

3. My best of friends departs, yet is my life unsmitten,

Deep in my soul the name of Jesus still is written;

I love him while I live, I love him when I die,

I love him on the cross, and when he sits on high.

4. I follow when my friend in his dear grave they bury,

See with believing eyes how they the ritual hurry.

My friend, here is my heart! O sink into it deep,

Let it thy dwelling be, the bed where thou dost sleep.

5. I sacrifice my heart to thee alone forever,

Thy precious death from mine no difference shall sever.

O while I live, live thou, friend of my soul, in me,

And when I come to die, let me but die in thee.

On Good Friday the Devoult Christian meditates the Death of Jesus.

EXHORTATION.

"The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come."—Isaiah lvii. 1.

Although Good Friday, the dying day of our most precious Jesus, is spent in quietness even by the children of the world, for they have ex-

440 ON GOOD FRIDAY THE DEVOUT CHRISTIAN ternal shame and fear of men, yet the true children of God have fixed upon it for their peculiar devotion.

1. They then reflect upon the sufferings of Jesus as sufferings assumed by him because of his love for men. O love beyond all bounds, that has brought thee upon these paths of suffering! Love impelled him to become a man; love moved him to give himself for us and die upon the cross. 2. They also remember that it was an undeserved suffering. For he was holy, pure, and without sin, neither has he committed sin, nor was any deception found in his mouth.

3. It was a suffering imposed by his heavenly Father, for as he suffered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, Acts ii. 23, Jesus must have known all that was to befall him.

4. The suffering of Christ was a real suffering, he having well felt the wounds, and groaned under the pains. All this a believing soul contemplates, and makes it a mirror of the divine wrath against sin, and a mirror of the divine love for the salvation of mankind. Loving and merciful Jesus! I come to thee to contemplate thy bitter suffering with heartfelt

MEDITATES THE DEATH OF JESUS.

devotion. O let thy bitter suffering ever induce me with all diligence to avoid sinful lusts, so that I may never forget how much it has cost thee that I am saved. O Lamb so innocently slaughtered! thou hast suffered that all my sins, yea, the sins of all the world, might be laid upon thee, so that thou mightst stand before the judgment seat of God as the chief of sinners. But if our sins were cast upon thee, immaculate Lamb, so did our punishment fall upon thee like torrents; contempt, revilement, and calumniation befel during the years of thy prophetic teaching; in the season of thy passion all these were doubled, then it was not enough that thou wert falsely accused and condemned to death, dragged before two judgment seats, a temporal and a spiritual one, and by both condemned to death; but after the staff was broken over thee, and the final sentence spoken, thou wert compelled to suffer grievous bodily pain. Thy holy body was wounded, scourged, torn and made to bleed. Look, ye children of men, and see whether pain was ever like the pain of Jesus! His head was crowned with thorns, his body ran with blood, and wounded by the scourge, mounted with iron hooks. At the cross his hands and feet were nailed, his side pierced with a spear, so that he could justly say, "I am a worm and not a man." But not alone was his holy body thus wretchedly ON GOOD FRIDAY THE DEVOUT CHRISTIAN abused, but his soul also was racked by the most bitter pangs. The flood of wrath and the agony of hell so seized him on the cross, that he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At last death came to his relief. O, slaughtered lamb! This hast thou borne and suffered for my good, for my peace, for my redemption, for my salvation. For if Christ had not come into the world, and assumed our fallen nature, and died willingly for our sins, we should have been damned eternally. But now, if I believe in thee, and appropriate thy holy blood to myself in the confidence of faith, I am not damned, but saved by thee; if I follow thy holy walk, and bear true fruits of faith, I am not lost, but shall have eternal life through thee; O, my Jesus, let thy bitter sufferings ever dwell before my eyes, and in my heart, so that I may be comforted, saved and made just and pious by them. Let me never spend a day in which thy holy image is not before my eyes, to withdraw me from the world: sanctify, cleanse, and purify me. My Jesus! Even as thy sufferings sustain, comfort, and edify me, so do also thy seven words upon the cross. It was for me that thou didst pray, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Forgive my soul for having sinned against thee. For me didst thou exclaim, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" MEDITATES THE DEATH OF JESUS that I might never be forsaken in cross, trouble, or death, before the judgment seat, nor at the last day. For me didst thou say, "I thirst." Grant that I may thirst after thee in faith, pant after thee as the hart panteth after the water brooks, and rejoice in thy love. For me didst thou provide, in saying to John, "This is thy mother." Though I stand under the cross in tribulation, like Mary, deserted of all men, thou wilt be heartily concerned for me, and have mercy upon me. O, in dying, let me hear thy voice, "To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." For me didst thou declare, "It is finished." Now all is done that I should have done, now all is suffered that I should have suffered. Now I have acquired peace, joy, comfort, salvation, the crown of life, and the white robe of righteousness. Thy last word upon the cross shall be a word of comfort and of joy to me: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Thus will I pray, thus will I speak after thee, as thou hast spoken before me. When, at last, I come to enter into the joys of thy kingdom, thy blood shall be my purple dress, the crown upon my head, with which I will appear before the throne of the eternal father, and appear at thy right hand, as the blooming bride of him whom I have chosen. Amen. 1. Let us do honor to the death of Jesus,

Stand at the cross, and let his image please us:

Let us devote the day to prayer and singing,

Praise and thanksgiving.

2. He dies for us, he suffers what we merit,

He dies that we salvation may inherit,

And see, when we forsake this earthly sadness,

The life of gladness.

3. He dies, the thorns upon his temples wearing,

Set on his head to mock his lowly bearing,

And all that we might wear a crown of brightness,

And robe of whiteness.

4. He dies, behold, his blood still flows in rivers,

Wherewith our souls from torment he delivers,

Wherewith he will refresh us well hereafter

In death and after.

5. O, Jesus, hadst thou fled this condemnation,

My soul and body had not known salvation!

But now I need not dread the future's curtain;

My health is certain.

THE DEVOUT CHRISTIAN REJOICES, ETC.