March 5

Christ's Sufferings.—1 Peter 4:13.

IT was a very prevalent idea among the heathen, that men suffered in proportion to their crimes.

Hence, when the viper fastened on the hand of Paul, they who beheld it at once condemned him, as a murderer, whom vengeance would not suffer to live. Had this doctrine been true, Christ never would have been a sufferer, for he was holy, harmless, and separate from sinners. Yet it is a fact, that of all sufferers, he was the most distinguished, and the most illustrious. His sufferings are among the leading topics of revelation. All the sacrifices under the law, prefigured them. All the prophets testified before hand of his sufferings, and the glory which should follow. Among the various subjects on which Jesus spake to his disciples and to the people, his sufferings often had a striking place. When he was transfigured on the mount, and there was a conversation between him, and Moses, and Elias, they spake of the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. After his death and ascension into heaven, his sufferings formed the leading theme of apostolic preaching. Peter preached that Jesus to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, whom they had hanged on a tree. Paul determined to know nothing among men, but Jesus and him crucified. And he gloried in nothing, save the cross of Christ. And there is still no other ground of hope to the sinner, no other basis of Christian confidence, than that which is afforded by the sufferings of Christ. The Christian in all his approaches to God, in all his services, especially in all his prayers, must have the eye of faith fixed on the sufferings of Christ. And when faith shall be turned into sight, when we shall worship him in the purer regions of the celestial paradise, the grand subject of our eternal contemplations, the burden of the songs of the heavenly Zion, will be, "Unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and dominion for ever." Ten thousand times ten thousand, shall all join in the grand anthem, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." Then Christ's sufferings cannot fail to interest the true believer. Let it be the subject of our prayerful meditations. Let our souls dwell upon it, until we are inflamed with love to the sufferer: until we feel with experimental assurance, that we are crucified with Christ, and that the life which we now live, is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.