appear in the services of the sanctuary? And it can hardly admit of a doubt that the comparative coldness and indifference which often mark the manner of both preacher and hearer, is of fensive to God, and grieves His Spirit to withdraw those sacred influences which otherwise had exerted the most salutary and blessed effects. An incident in the life of Whitefield strikingly illustrates a truth of this kind. Near the close of an impressive discourse, which he delivered to assembled thousands, he made a solemn pause, and then addressed his numerous auditory :-" The attendant angel is just about to leave the threshold and ascend to heaven. And shall he ascend and not bear with him the news of one sinner, among all this multitude, reclaimed from the error of his ways?" To give greater effect to this exclamation, he stamped with nis foot, lifted up his hands and his eyes to heaven, and, with gushing tears, cried aloud, "Stop, Gabriel! stop, Gabriel stop, ere you enter the sacred portals, and yet carry with you the news of one sinner converted to God." He then, in the most simple, but energetic language, described what he called a Saviour's dying love to sinful men: so that almost the whole assembly melted into tears.

This anecdote is related by the infidel, Hume, who was present, and was much effected by the solemn representation; and well had it been for him had he yielded to the salutary impressions of that day, and allowed his name to be entered by the recording angel in the book of life. And it is too much to suppose that attending and witnessing angels will be called on in the great day to testify against men whom they have seen from their invisible stations, sitting under the ministrations of the Gospel, from Sabbath to Sabbath, with cold and heartless indifference? How appaling to the sinner in that day, to hear such testimony from the attending angel, who is now watching him from Sabbath to Sabbath?-Chris. Par. Mag.

"No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.-JOHN x. 18.

OUR Lord here speaks of His human life. This no man had power to take from Him; but He had power of Himself to lay it down, and take it again.

The text was one of those sayings which led many of the Jews, who listened to the discourse to which it belongs, to affirm that He who uttered it was mad. Their ideas of the Messiah were altogether earthly. When therefore the true Messiah spake of laying down his life, and taking it again, they were ready to ask, "He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?"

But the text throws convincing light upon one of the most important doctrines of Revelation,-the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. A doctrine may often be established, perhaps more convincingly, by passages which were not uttered or written expressly to assert it, but which necessarily imply it, or are even so founded upon the doctrine that they have no intelligible import if that be denied. The doctrine of the Messiah's Divinity is interwoven with the teachings of the Bible. In the text it was not the Saviour's object to assert His Divinity; but, having declared that His Father loves Him, because He lays down His life for His people, He takes occasion to make express mention of His absolute power over His human life. Now the death of Christ has sometimes been alleged as an argument against His Divinity. Indeed the difficulty of reconciling his dying with his being God probably very often occurs to some

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minds. But viewed aright, viewed in the light which the text throws upon the subject, instead of being an objection, His death becomes an unanswerable argument in proof of His being Divine.

I. First, we are to consider Christ's power over His life, in laying it down, as a proof of His being God. "No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." Now, does such a power as Jesus Christ here claims belong to mere human nature, as one of its essential properties? The question needs only to be asked; for we never feel our impotence more than in respect to preserving and prolonging our own lives, when disease commences its ravages, or the weapon of death, in the hand of an assassin or a madman, is pointed at our heart. If then we deny the Divinity of the Redeemer, does it not shut us up to the profane conclusion, that He was distinguished from other men, only by assuming a more boastful tone, and claiming higher prerogatives, by less frequently and explicitly acknowledging His dependence on God? Put such language into the mouth of a mere man or dependent creature, as we find the Saviour using on almost every page of the Gospel, and it would be profane boasting; nay, it would be nothing less than blasphemy,the very interpretation which the unbelieving Jews put upon His language, when He said, “I and my Father are one" they even took up stones to cast at Him, because they said He had been guilty of blasphemy, in claiming to be equal with God.

But it is important to look carefully at the meaning of the terms which the Saviour employs. "No man taketh it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

What is the life of which He speaks. It is unquestionably the natural or animal life, that state of being in which the soul and body are united. In regard to the word which Christ employed, which we express by the word power, it is undeniable that its primary sense is moral power. But He claims here something more than authority or moral right to part with His life, at the hands of his persecutors; he claims ability, inherent strength, or efficiency to lay it down of himself. The word He employs is used in precisely the same sense as in Luke xii. 5, where it is said "Fear Him which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell;" or as in Rev. ix. 3, "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power." There is no usage, which would permit us to speak of ourselves or of any mere man, as possessed of such power as this over life. But further, our Lord distinctly claims this as an inherent, underived ability or efficiency: "1 lay it down of myself;" i. e., of His own will, without authority or command from another; and it further means that

He might have done it without the agency or help of others. His power was most absolute and underived. In speaking of His resurrection, He uses the same term, "I have power to take it again," in which it is manifest that it can not mean authority but must mean ability, or efficiency. Power of himself can not possibly mean a derived authority, or a merely underived right; nor can it mean a delegated efficiency; but if language means any thing, and can ever be explicit, it means the most absolute ability, and control, both an innate right and an inherent efficiency or strength.

The expression, "I have power," in the text, is then clearly one which no mere man ever did, or ever could use, without the greatest presumption. It expresses the most absolute control over the union between the soul and body, as adequate to dissolve it, and re-establish it, at pleasure. Without the intervention of any second cause, without the effect of any disease, without any act of violence done to him, our Lord claimed to possess the power of parting with his life at will, and to possess this power in a more absolute sense than a man has power to lay aside a garment from his body;-for as a man is dependent on God for life and breath and all things, he cannot so much as lay aside a garment of himself. He avers that it is beyond the power of men to deprive Him of life. They could invent no means,-they could employ no weapons, by which to take away His life. The infuriated Jews might have showered missiles upon Him like hail, or beset Him with ten thousand swords, and they would have discovered no vulnerable point; they never could have succeeded in dissolving the mysterious union of the soul and body, unless He had consented to lay down His life. Even after being suspended on the cross, if He had not consented to exercise this power, instead of hanging there six hours, he might have remained a living, breathing sacrifice on the cross, six thousand years, in spite of the spears of Roman soldiers, and their barbarous practice of breaking the bones of the crucified. No man, without His permission, could take His life from Him. When therefore He laid down His life, it was His own voluntary act. It was an act of Divine power. When our Lord spake in the text, "I have power," He spake as a Divine Being. His death, therefore, when rightly viewed, instead of being a ground on which to call in question His Deity, confirms our faith in it.

If it be objected that Christ could not have possessed a real human body unless it was subject to death, by the ordinary means which produce dissolution in others, all that needs to be said in reply is, that it was rendered invulnerable only by the exercise of that Divine power which the text so clearly ascribes to Him. His body, just like ours, was subject to pain, and weakness, and death; but He possessed a power, if He had chosen to exercise it, sufficient for its complete protection against all the ills which

flesh is beir to. It is obvious enough that every human body would be invulnerable, if such a power were put in exercise for its defence. The correctness of the foregoing exposition of the text may be argued from what we are elsewhere taught respecting Christ's power over life, and over His own life in particular. I therefore proceed to observe that Christ's power over His life is evident from what the Scriptures teach in regard to His being the Author or Fountain of life. He is expressly styled the "Prince of Life," Acts iii. 16, an expression which denotes most emphatically His dominion over life, the meaning being that he is the Giver or Author of life; life being used in an enlarged sense, to denote natural, as well as spiritual life. In like manner, it is said, "In Him was life," John i. 4. The Evangelist first ascribes to Him creative power: "All things were made by Him and without Him was not any thing made that was made." Every thing was created by Him-the solid world, man, and all living things, great and small; "by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him, and for Him." The Evangelist, having affirmed that all things were created by Christ, immediately adds, “In Him was life." It was He who imparted the living principle to the products of the vegetable kingdom, to the animal tribes, and breathed into man a living soul. He is the Author and Giver of the mys terious principle of life. The Father (says this same Evangelist) hath life in Himself, and the son equally hath life in Himself. The same same attribute which is ascribed to the Father is ascribed to the Son. The Scriptures do not only ascribe to Him the creation of matter, but the still higher attribute of power to originate and impart life. What else, then, are we to understand from the expression in regard to His power to lay down and take up life of Himself, than that He who was the Author of life in man, in angels, principalities and powers, thrones and dominions, was the Author of His own human life, and maintained the most absolute control over it.

Again: Christ's perfect power over His life may be argued from its being His own voluntary act, in assuming it. He took our nature; it was not forced upon Him; it was not, in any sense, bestowed upon Him, but it was assumed, by His own free act. "He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant." He laid aside the glory which He had with the Father, before the foundation of the world. It was not wrested or taken from Him, but He laid it aside Himself. He took upon Himself the form of a servant; i. e., He gave life to a human soul and body, and veiled His divinity in this earthly tabernacle. It was a divine act, an exercise of Divine power; Christ Himself performed it. It clearly follows, then, if Christ had such power over His life in assuming it, that it does not involve a higher ex