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to answer for another's debt, in case of his failure must take it entirely upon himself. And as the creditor looks to the bondsman for payment of the debt, so God the Father looked to the Lord Jesus, and exacted the payment of that debt which, as the Surety of his people, he was bound to discharge. For this cause, then, our divine Surety was oppressed and afflicted. The punishment which God the Father exacted, was to satisfy his divine justice, and to honour his holy law which had been dishonoured by the sins of men; and therefore Jesus was afflicted, humbled, and brought very low, to answer it. But, blessed be his name, he did answer it even to the very last farthing! He paid the whole debt; he perfectly obeyed the divine law; he fully satisfied the divine justice; and in the fullest sense of the words of the Psalmist, he " stored that which he took not away." But great as our debt was, and oppressed and afflicted as Jesus was to answer it, yet he made no complaint; he patiently and silently submitted," he opened not his mouth." He did, indeed, complain of being forsaken by his heavenly Father, and said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Matt. xxvii. 46. For he felt what it was to answer for sin; but he did not repent of his engagement to pay the debt. He never said, Why is this debt exacted of me? Why did I undertake to discharge it? No; "he opened not his mouth." Therefore, to all the charges which were brought against him by his accusers, he answered not a word; and his silence seemed most unaccountable to his unjust judges, both ecclesiastical and civil. "The high priest arose and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace." Matt. xxvi. 62, 63. Again, "when he was accused of the chief priests and

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elders, he answered nothing. Then saith Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly." Matt. xxvii. 12-14. Our Lord observed the same silence before Herod: "When Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Then questioned he with him-in many words; but he answered nothing." Luke, xxiii. 8, 9. And Pilate expressed his astonishment at the silence of Jesus, by saying,

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Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?" John, xix. 10. That one who was tried for his life should make no defence, that he should not attempt to plead in his own behalf, nor make any request for his life, when a few words perhaps spoken to Pilate or Herod might have saved him from death; when they seemed even desirous that he should speak, and gave him opportunities for it: this seemed to them most strange and unaccountable. Moreover, it was different from the conduct of his Apostles afterwards, for they defended themselves when accused, and St. Paul in particular pleaded his rights as a Roman citizen; but Jesus made no attempt to plead his own cause, "he opened not his mouth;" for he stood there to answer for his people's debt; and if he had pleaded his own cause, theirs would have been lost for

ever.

Our Lord's meekness and patience upon this trying occasion are described by the Prophet under a well-known and beautiful figure; "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Both these

comparisons hold good with respect to the blessed Jesus. "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter." He was led as a lamb through the streets of Jerusalem to be slaughtered on Mount Calvary, and this not for any crime which he had done, but that he might be the spiritual food and sustenance of his believing people. John, vi. 54, 55: "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood (saith our Lord) hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." Again, a sheep is shorn for the sake of its wool, that it may be made into clothing for the use of man. Thus the Saviour was deprived for a time of his glory, that naked souls might be clothed with the robe of his righteousness. And" as a sheep before her shearers is dumb," while its fleece is taken from it; so Jesus meekly and quietly submitted to be stripped of his honour, and to be put to shame and contempt, without uttering a word of complaint. Neither the insults which were cast upon him, nor the cruelty with which he was treated, could provoke him to speak unadvisedly with his lips. In all this, he hath left us an example of perfect meekness and patience under the greatest insults and provocations; For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently; this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps." 1 Pet. ii. 19-21.

Here also we may learn how great is the sinner's debt to God, and how awful the evil of sin. If sin is a trifle, or if the debt

which we owe as sinners to God could be easily blotted out, why was it exacted of Jesus with such rigour, and why was he afflicted and oppressed when he stood to answer it? Indeed, the subject we have been now considering proves, that sin is a heavy debt; that it is not so easily paid as the careless sinner supposes; nay, that it could never have been paid, had not Jesus himself discharged it. It is calculated, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to produce in the heart deep convictions of sin, faith in Christ as the sinner's surety, and an earnest desire to flee from the wrath to come. It says, in the solemn language of our Lord, "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officers, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." Matt. v. 26, 27. For, if any man goes into the eternal world with his debt of sin unpaid, it will stand against him for ever and ever.

But believers may derive much consolation from this subject. Is their debt heavy? Jesus has answered it, for he was oppressed and afflicted to make satisfaction to God for their sins. When, therefore, they feel the weight of their sins pressing on their minds and weighing down their spirits, let them look to the Saviour, and consider how fully he has satisfied the divine justice; and as it would not be just in man to demand payment of a debt which has been already discharged, we may be sure that God will never require the debt of the penitent sinner who believes in Jesus; but, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

LITOREUS.

DEATH OF DR. JENNER.

THIS distinguished individual, to whom our country and the world at large are, under divine Providence, so deeply indebted for the discovery of vaccination, departed this life, at Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, on the 26th of January last, after a very short illness, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. The event was so judiciously noticed in the Gloucester Journal, that we cheerfully comply with the wish of a valued correspondent by inserting the following extract. Referring to a brief notice in a former paper, that Journal proceeds:

"The suddenness of this calamitous event rendered it impossible for us to dwell upon it, in our last publication, as the occasion required. We now recur to it, not with the hope of adding honour to the name of Dr. Jenner-a name far beyond our praise-but briefly to recount some few results of his most beneficent exertions in the cause of humanity, and to dwell for a short space on the peculiar and endearing qualities of his domestic life; which, when viewed in conjunction with the vastness of his renown and the magnitude of his influence, form altogether a picture of individual character, unexampled perhaps in the history of any age or nation.

There is something in the progress of the discovery of vaccination, so indicative of the surpassing genius and sagacity of the author, and, in its final developement and promulgation, so much that betokens the humility, the benevolence, and the disinterestedness of his nature, that we cannot but regard him as one of those highly favoured individuals whom it pleases Providence now and then to select, as the medium through which relief is vouchsafed to the miseries of mankind.

"The plague which he essayed to stay was universal in its ravages. Other scourges are confined to cer

tain latitudes, or rage only during particular seasons; but time nor place restrained the all-devouring enemy which it was his aim to subdue. There is reason to believe, that small-pox has existed in the East, especially in China and Hindostan, for several thousand years. It did not visit the more western nations till towards the middle of the sixth century: it then broke out near Mecca, immediately before the birth of Mahomet. It was afterwards gradually diffused over the whole of the old world, and was finally transported to the new, shortly after the death of Columbus.

"In the British islands alone, it has been computed that forty thousand individuals perished annually by this disease! It killed one in fourteen of all that were born, and one in six of all that were attacked by it in the natural way. The introduction of inoculation for smallpox was productive of great benefit to all who submitted to the operation; but though it augmented the individual security, it is a wellascertained fact, that it added to the general mortality, by multiplying the sources of contagion, and thereby increasing the number of those who became affected with the natural distemper.

"All who have not yet duly appreciated the benefits which vaccination has conferred on mankind, may do well to meditate for a while on this picture. Let them look on the loathsomeness and dangers of small-pox in its most mitigated form; let them consider, that this disease has been banished from some countries, and, with due care, might be eradicated from all: let them remember, that, notwithstanding prejudices, carelessness, and ignorance, millions now live who, but for vaccination, would have been in their graves; let them think on these things, and say, what ought to be our feelings

towards him who has been the honoured instrument of so much good. "To have anticipated such results from human agency, would at no remote period have been considered the most chimerical of all imaginations. We have, nevertheless, seen them realized. The time in which they occurred, will for ever be marked as an epoch in the physical history of man; and England, with all her glories, may well rejoice that she has to number JENNER among her sons.

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ness, his willingness to listen to every tale of distress, and the openhanded munificence with which he administered to the wants and necessities of those around him, can never be forgotten by any who have been guided and consoled by his affectionate counsel, or cherished and relieved by his unbounded charity. His sympathy for suffering worth, or genius lost in obscurity, was ever alive; and no indication of talent or ingenuity, no effort of intellect, ever met his eye without gaining his notice, and calling forth, on numberless occasions, his substantial aid and assistance.

"He was not less generous in pouring forth the treasures of his mind. A long life spent in the constant study of all the subjects of natural history, had stored it with great variety of knowledge.-Here the originality of his views, and the felicity and playfulness of his illustrations, and the acuteness of his remarks, imparted a character of genius to his commonest actions and conversations, which could not escape the most inattentive observer.

"The meekness, gentleness, and simplicity of his demeanor, formed a most striking contrast to the selfesteem which might have arisen from the great and splendid consequences of his discovery. He was thankful and grateful for them in his heart; but to pride and vainglory he seemed to be an utter stranger. On a recent interesting occasion, a short time before his death, the following were among the last words that he ever spoke to the writer of these lines. The nature of his services to his fellowcreatures had been the subject of conversation: I do not marvel,' he observed, 'that men are not grateful to me; but I am surprised, that they do not feel gratitude to God for making me a medium of good.' No one could see him without perceiving that this was the habitual frame of his mind. Without it, it never could have been, that in his most retired moments, and in his intercourse with the great and exalted of the earth, he invariably exhibited the same uprightness of conduct, singleness of purpose, and unceasing earnestness to promote the welfare of his species, to the total exclusion of all selfish and personal considerations. These qualities particularly arrest-guish a fatal and pestilential bodily ed the attention of the many distinguished foreigners who came to visit him; and they were not less the cause of satisfaction and delight to his most intimate friends.

"His condescension, his kind

"It were a just and gratifying duty to dwell at greater length on these and other kindred qualities; but the present occasion suits not for such a purpose; and we have only now to mention the last public act of his life, which, in a manner particularly interesting, harmonizes with his previous efforts in behalf of his fellow-creatures. He attended a meeting convened on the 19th of December last, at Berkeley, for forming a Bible Society, and moved the first resolution. It was a sight singularly gratifying to behold a venerable individual, whose life had been spent in successfully devising means to extin

disease, thus putting his hand to the work which has been graciously designed for arresting the moral pestilence that desolates so great a portion of the earth, and for the healing of the nations.'

REVIEW OF BOOKS.

Travels in South Africa, undertaken at the Request of the London Missionary Society; being a Narrative of a second Journey in the Interior of that Country. By the Rev. John Campbell. With a Map and coloured Prints. 2 Vols. 8vo. pp. 706. Westley.

1822.

To assert, that a love of foreign travel is an element of the English character in its higher walk, would perhaps be to generalize without sufficient warrant. It may, however, be declared, that the multitude of voyagers and itinerants, who leave the shores of their own happy island at every favourable juncture for emigration, argues a propensity most deeply seated in the national mind, and one that has been increasing from the age of Elizabeth down to that of George the Fourth.

But never was the rein given so freely to this propensity, as during the space which has intervened since the termination of the last conflict with our grand political adversary. Scientific research, commercial speculation, scholastic investigation, economical endeavour, professional rivalry, but, above all, pleasure-taking curiosity, burst forth at the settlement of the treaty of Paris; and, like so many currents which had been long confined, joined in a mighty rush, as soon as the touch of the magic wand of peace opened a sluice for their liberation, and inundated with British visitors the choicest spots of France and Italy. The movement was so great and extensive as to exceed all comparison with former instances. It excited little more surprise to encounter an acquaintance in the gardens of the Thuilleries than in the park of St. James's; in the catacombs of Paris, than in the Peak of Derbyshire; in the apartments of the Louvre, than in the Shakespeare gallery; in the Caffé des MARCH 1823.

mille Colonnes, than in a London hotel; by the Lake of Lausanne, than by Ulsmere water; in the aisles of St. Peter's, than in those of St. Paul's; while some of the more adventurous of our countrymen took a sail down the Nile, formed a party in the valley of Tempé, looked down on Athens from the height of the Acropolis, or bargained for a temporary sojourn in an uncomfortable cabin at Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, in this mass of moving intelligence, small indeed was the portion which took a direction conducive to the best interests of man as an immortal being. Of the sums expended, and letters of credit exhausted, few indeed were the pounds devoted to the acquisition of new light on the subject of our common faith, or to the spread of that Gospel on which depends all our hope of salvation. On the contrary, licentious modes of thinking, and infidel notions in religion, not unattended with moral laxity, have been imported, to the grief, it is to be feared, of many sober families. As Christian Guardians, we mourn over the waste of so much talent and power. We have been cheered indeed by the exertions of the accredited agents of our religious societies, and of those independent and benevolent philanthropists who have not merely travelled for the purpose of selfgratification, but have had in view the benefit of their fellow-creatures; of pious characters distributing tracts, or sowing the seed of life, wherever an opportunity presented itself; of the design to erect a Protestant chapel at Nice, and other religious undertakings. We were glad also to see that some thoughtful persons at home were alive to the dangers that existed, and the evils that might result from the abuse of foreign travel; and that such respectable writers as

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