April 28

But "if the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?" "But now are they many members, yet but one body," "that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

Christians are not only as so many members in a natural body, but as so many members in a civil or domestic state. However different and distant they were by nature from each other, an effectual method has been taken by divine grace to bring them together. They are reconciled in one body by the Cross. They are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Therefore they are one in Christ, by obligation as well as by connection and dependence. Christ, over his own house, has a right to enact a law for the well-ordering and governing of those placed under him. This law is clearly contained in the Scripture, and vain is every other proof of our belonging to him unless we obey it. And what says he? "Then are ye my disciples, if ye love one another." According to this, we must not live to ourselves; each is to live for the good of each and of all. Even a gratification harmless in itself is to be avoided, if the peace of a weak conscience will thereby be destroyed. Such was the example of Paul; such was the example of Jesus: "Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification: for even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me."

"When Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father ---" John 13:1.

"His hour" means the period of his death. In another place it is called the hour of his enemies: "This," said he, "is your hour, and the power of darkness." It is called their hour, because they seemed to have every thing their own way. They apprehended him, and mocked him, and scourged him, and nailed him to the cross. All their purposes and wishes succeeded, and they considered his cause as annihilated. But their triumph was short and foolish. What they had done was provided for, was admitted into his plan, and the very means of accomplishing his design.

It was "His hour." He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. There was nothing casual in his death. The time was appointed, and till this arrived the attempts of his adversaries were vain: "They could not lay hands on him, because his hour was not yet come." It was not only his hour by appointment, but by importance. No such hour had been witnessed since time had commenced. No hour of his own life would bear a comparison with it. It was infinitely unique, wonderful, and interesting in its design and effects. Now was the judgment of this world; now was the prince of this world cast out; now was the ceremonial law abolished; now was the moral law magnified and made honorable; now he was to finish transgression; now he was to bring in everlasting righteousness; now he was to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers; now he was to get himself a name above every name.

He knew that his hour was come. So perfect was his foresight of the event, that he knew not only the fact itself, but the incidents attending it. He knew the whole before there was any appearance of the thing, before his enemies had formed the design, before Judas had felt the thought of treason. And thus he evinced not only his wisdom, but his devotedness to his work. He saw the hour was at hand, but he seeks no hiding-place, nor attempts to escape, though he had so many means in his power. It does not affect this to say, that in another sense he was unable to have released himself, because he was bound by covenant engagement; and if he saved others, himself he could not save. For his engagement was made in the full prospect of all he was to endure; and as the tremendous suffering approached, so far was He from repenting of what he had brought upon himself, that he said, "How am I straitened till it be accomplished!"

But how is his passage through this dreadful scene expressed? "That he should depart out of this world unto the Father." Here let us think of his people as well as of himself. In all things he must have the preeminence, but they resemble him. What is here said of his death, will, in a pleasing degree, apply to their own. Their death is not indeed like his, mediatorial, neither know they the hour when it will take place; but all their times are in God's hand, and the circumstances of their death, as well as of their life, fall under his arrangement. They know they have their hour, and are immortal till it arrives. They know that enemies cannot hasten it, that friends cannot retard it. They know also that it is approaching, that it cannot be far off, that it may be very near, and therefore that it requires a constant readiness.

But was his death a "departing out of this world?" So is theirs. He was in it for three and thirty years. Many of them are in it a shorter, and many a much longer period. It was a sad world to him. It knew him not, but despised and rejected him. It hated him without a cause. It persecuted him from his birth, refused him a place where to lay his head, and could not be satisfied till it had shed his blood. And they find it a vain and deceitful world, a vexing and injurious world, a vile and wicked world. Every thing in it cries, Arise, and depart hence; for this is not your rest, because it is polluted. And are we unwilling to go? Yes;