April 6

He saved others, himself he cannot save.—Matthew 27:42.

AMONG the other things with which the chief priests and scribes taunted the Saviour on the cross, we find the sentence which heads this exercise;—"He saved others." This they might intend as the language of irony, meaning that he professed so to do, obviously implying that it was mere pretence, and that he had really never done so, seeing that he did not now save himself. The language of Jewish scorn involved, however, a most notorious truth. "He saved others." Yes, thousands could attest this: for his miracles were not done in a corner; but publicly in the light of day. "He saved others." Yes, almost all the villages of Judea had been the scenes of his benevolent and almighty power. Ye sick, did he not speak to you, and ye were instantly made whole? Ye lepers, did he not command, and ye were cleansed? Ye dumb, attest how he caused you to speak? Ye blind, know one thing at least, that Jesus caused your sightless eye-balls to behold the light. Ye demoniacs, was it not by the power of Jesus that the spirits were dispossessed, and that ye sat at his feet, clothed and in your right mind? Where is the woman who had the bloody issue for so many years? Where is the nobleman whose daughter was raised from the bed of death? Where is the widow of Nain, who received back again from the bier her only son? Ye amiable sisters of Bethany, who led the Saviour to the tomb of your brother, can ye not verify the truth of the assertion, that Jesus saved others? Are there none of the officers present, who saw the bleeding ear of Malchus, have you forgotten who touched the part, and it was instantaneously healed? Yes, no fact was more public, none could have been more amply proved than this, that Jesus had saved others.