November 15

it in his hand, present it to his lips; but this is not eating. In eating there is an actual reception of the food into the animal system. And in believing we receive Christ Jesus the Lord. His suitableness and all-sufficiency to our case are made known in the Gospel, and all the blessings of his salvation are brought nigh; but still we perish unless we are made partakers of Christ. How often does the old and good divinity tell us, that an unapplied Saviour is a non-entity to us. In each case there is satisfaction. Medicine may be necessary, but we are not said to eat medicine—we take physic; but we eat meat because there is pleasure in it. Food is essential to our subsistence; yet when we sit down to a well-spread table, we never perform it as a duty to save us from death—There is immediate gratification in the action, and this secures the performance. The reception of Christ is not only indispensable, but free and delightful. Like Zaccheus, we receive him joyfully. We not only submit to the method of his grace, but we acquiesce, we glory in it. We love his salvation. We rejoice in his name. In each there is nourishment. This is the design and effect of food. It is thus the child grows; it is thus the man is sustained, and rendered equal to his labour. And "the just shall live by faith." "The life that I live in the flesh," says Paul, "I live by the faith of the Son of God."

Every image applied to the Redeemer fails to do him justice. We say there is no subsisting without food; yet Moses and Elijah lived forty days and forty nights without eating. But to live for a moment spiritually, without Christ, is a miracle that never has been, and never can be accomplished. Food, though necessary to life, is not sufficient to preserve it. This was the case even with what is called "angels' food," and "meat from heaven." "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Blessed Jesus! thy flesh is meat indeed, and thy blood is drink indeed! Evermore give us this food.

NOVEMBER 15.—"Nevertheless, let us go unto him."—John 11:15.

He is never too confident in his resources, nor too late in his movements. We are often mistaken with regard to our wishes and designs. We raise expectations which we cannot realize; and begin enterprises which we are unable to finish. Among men some are strong and some are weak; but the difference between them is only comparative. The one may break a larger rod than another; but when you bring them to the mast of a ship they are perfectly upon a level. But he who speaks in righteousness is mighty to save—"He is able to save unto the uttermost." Therefore he says—

"Nevertheless, let us go unto him."—Not to them, but to him—Not to the sisters, but to the brother—Not to Martha and Mary, but to Lazarus. "To what purpose? Lazarus is dead. It is now too late." It would be too late for you; but not for me. Your extremity is my opportunity. I turn the shadow of death into the morn-

ing, and can do more than you are able to ask or think. I surprise as well as succour; and love to arrive at the place of difficulty when creatures are all withdrawn, having said, Help is not in us.

"Nevertheless, let us go unto him"—"But he is not only dead, but buried; and has lain in the grave four days." Can the dead praise thee? Can they who go down into the pit hope for thy truth?—What! visit a corpse in a state of putrefaction?—He cannot receive thee, see thee, hear thee. But he can hear, and see, and receive me. Let us try what an interview will produce between death and the grave, and the resurrection and the life.

And did he go in vain? We can visit the "long home" of a friend. We can go to the grave to weep there; but were we to attempt to open an intercourse with the inhabitant we should be laughed to scorn. But Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth; and in a moment his lungs heaved, his blood liquefied and flowed again, and he came forth in newness of life! What a journey, what a character was here! Had you met him in his way to Bethany you would, in appearance, only have seen a man like ourselves. But had one of the disciples stepped back, as soon as he had passed, and said, There is Jesus of Nazareth; he is going to visit a man in his tomb; and could he have informed you of the result, would you not have followed him? Wherever I see him going I will go with him. The journey will be for his honour, and my profit—He cannot move in vain—Nothing is too hard for the Lord. When the Egyptians were pressing upon them, and the Red sea was before them, he said, "Go forward." What, into the deep? Yes, into the deep. To be drowned? No, but to go through dry-shod. They were to obey: he was to open the passage. In the first creation "he spake, and it was done." And in the second "he calleth things that are not as though they were."

Let us never despond, but trust in him. Let his all-sufficiency encourage us with regard to others. Let those who in doing good meet with unlikely materials to work upon: let ministers who seem only preaching many of their hearers into impenitence; let parents, whose hearts are bleeding over ungodly children, think of him who was taking this seemingly useless journey, and never abandon their endeavours or hope. Let them use means in his name; and by faith and prayer bring him forward—He can make these dry bones live—The Son quickeneth whom he will. And let it encourage us with regard to ourselves. Am I a sinner? I ought to feel that my case is bad; but it is not desperate. Hopeless indeed it is as to myself and all creatures; but in him is my help found. He can say to the prisoners, Go forth. He can make the blind to see, and the deaf to hear—He can make all things new. Am I a Christian? Let me bring my confidence, in every exigency and difficulty, to his power, and say, with Paul, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." "Yea, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us."

But, says one, "My wound is incurable—He will not go to the grave of my departed hope." If he keeps away it is not because he is unable to re-animate thy dead, and give back the dear treasure to thine arms; but because his power is under the direction of his

wisdom; yea, and of his righteousness and kindness too. But the truth is, that he will visit the interesting spot—Thy brother, thy mother, thy child shall rise again. The period is coming when he will look down, and say to his mighty angels, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep”—And, lo! he descends, and the dead arise, and you embrace to part no more. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

NOVEMBER 16.—“For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.”—Hebrews 2:18.

THERE can be no question of whom these words are spoken. Let my thoughts commune with him as the sufferer and the succourer.

He himself suffered, being tempted. Then a man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. In this sense the Lord Jesus was not tempted, neither indeed could be, for he “was the holy One of God.” We are tempted when we are solicited to sin. Hence Satan is called the tempter: and thus by him our Saviour was tempted to unbelief, presumption, and idolatry. But the word temptation does not always or principally in the Scripture signify attempts to draw into sin. God is said to tempt Abraham; and we read that we are to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations; and that if needs be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Here, and in many other places, the word means afflictions. These are called temptations because they are designed and adapted to try us—to prove our principles and dispositions—to evince the reality and the degree of our grace to ourselves and others. His being tempted therefore, means his being subject to all the distress, pain, and anguish, which characterised him a man of sorrows, and justified his saying, Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

But he suffered, being tempted. This attests the impression made upon him by what he endured; and shows us two things—That his divinity did not absorb his human nature, so as to render it incapable of passion: and—That as man, his patience was not a physical apathy, or a philosophical insensibility. There is no patience in bearing what we do not feel: and no resignation in giving up what we do not love and value—as there would be no virtue in fasting if we had no appetite to food. Our Lord, instead of being less susceptible of suffering than others, was more so. That which adds to the impression of pain, is the delicate and fine crasis and constitution of the part aggrieved. The composition of our Saviour’s body perfectly fitted it to receive the most quick and sensible touches of every object. And the same may be said of his mind. A being dull and stupid feels much less suffering than a man of lively conception and reflection: in the one case pain falls upon a log of wood; in the other upon the apple of the eye. Jesus groaned in spirit: wept: made supplications with strong cryings and tears; was sore amazed, and very heavy; his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood, falling to the ground—But the sufferer