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THE TWO IMAGES.

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have I done it and by my wisdom, for I am prudent. And I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a mighty man. And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one that gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth. And there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped." The other prays for His poor family upon earth," that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they all may be one in us."

you, that

Yes, brethren, we have here the Babylonian power and the Jerusalem power, that parody of human and divine greatness which is seen in an earthly tyrant, that perfect reconciliation of divinity and humanity which is seen in the Redeemer. Consider both images well. Both are presented to us; we must admire and copy one of them. And whichever we take, we must resolutely discard the other. If we have ever mixed them together in our minds, a time is at hand that will separate them for ever. One was marked on your foreheads in childhood when you were signed with the sign of the cross, and the prayer was prayed for you might not be ashamed to confess the faith crucified against sin, the world, and the devil. the Babylonian mark and image, your own evil nature, a corrupt society, the evil spirit, have been stirring to stamp you with, ever since. Each hour you are tempted to think a man less precious than the gold of Ophir. The current maxims of the world take for granted that he is; you in thousand ways are acting on those maxims. Oh remember that in them, and in the habits which they beget, lies the certain presage of slavery for men and nations, the foretaste

of Christ

The other,

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NO KING BUT CESAR.

[Serm. of decay and ruin, which no human contrivances can avert, which the gifts and blessings of God's providence only accelerate. And think this also. When once this disease has penetrated into the vitals of a people, it may be very decorous and very religious; but it cannot believe in the Son of Man. "How sayest thou that the Son of Man must be lifted up?" asked the religious, gold-worshipping Jew of our Lord; "Who is this Son of Man ?" He had answered that question by stooping to the lowest state of men, by living with fishermen, by eating and drinking with publicans and sinners. But this answer only confounded them the more. "Such a one cannot be Christ the King," they said. And so when Pilate brought forth Jesus crowned with thorns and said, "Behold the Man, behold the King," and "Shall I crucify your King?" the high priests, those who spoke the voice of the people, those who represented their belief, cried out, “We have no king but Cæsar." A Man-God is our choice, the God-Man shall not reign over us.

Brethren, may God in His mercy grant that our English faith may never express itself in the same way, or give birth to acts differing only in form, not in essence, from that which the Jewish nation perpetrated. May God grant us power to cast Babylonian principles out of our hearts, that when they come before us embodied in some person, sustained by some mighty physical force, we may despise them and laugh them to scorn, knowing that not against us, but against the Holy One, our enemy is exalting himself and lifting up his voice on high. God grant that in that day we may be able to sing the song which the prophet said should be sung in the Land of Judah. "We have a strong

XVI.]

STRENGTH IN GOD.

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city. Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

NOTE.

"In the time of Sanherib (Sennacherib)" says Niebuhr, "Babylon acknowledged the supremacy of Assyria and had, perhaps, even been compelled to submit to Shalmanassar. Hagisah, a brother of Sanherib, was king of Babylon, but that kingdom revolted and Hagisah was slain. Merodach Baladan then raised himself to the throne."-Lectures on Ancient History. Vol. I. pp. 31, 32.

SERMON XVII.

THE SUFFERING KING AND PEOPEL,

LINCOLN'S INN, PALM SUNDAY.-APRIL 4, 1852.

ISAIAH, XLII. 1—3.

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

THE burden of Babylon of which I spoke last Sunday, is said to have been in the year that Ahaz died. In that year Isaiah warned the whole of Palestine that it must not rejoice because the rod of him that smote it was broken; for out of the serpent's root should come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit should be a fiery flying serpent. Yet he tells his countrymen that the poor shall feed and the needy shall lie down in safety. The Lord hath founded Zion; the poor of his people shall trust in it.

I said that Isaiah evidently expected that this new calamity would soon overtake the land. He tells Moab

Serm. XVII.] WOES APPROACHING OR ARRIVED.

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that in "three years its glory shall be contemned with all its great multitudes." He goes barefoot three years as a sign to the Egyptians and Ethiopians that the young and old should be led captives by the Assyrians. He says that Kedar shall be wasted within a year. The desolation will be a very sweeping one. The prophet looks to see the whole earth turned upside down, the land emptied, the master and the servant perishing, money lenders and money borrowers, all classes of men, cast into utter ruin.

There were two great invasions of Palestine in the reign of Hezekiah; that which took place under Shalmaneser in his fourth year, that of Sennacherib in his fourteenth. I apprehend that most of the calamities which are spoken of in the twenty-fourth chapter were fully realised in the former.

I have spoken already of the hopes which dawned upon the prophet's mind in the midst of its gloom, of his assurance that the time of discomforture and overthrow to all surrounding nations, of terror to his own, would nevertheless be in some respects a better and more blessed time than most which had preceded it. The confidence grows brighter and firmer as the cloud becomes nearer and more portentous. The prophet does not merely trust that light will follow when the darkness is scattered. He sees the light present in the midst of the darkness. The depth of the night makes him know that there is a dayspring from on high which will visit his land and all lands. It is difficult to say whether the song of trust and thanksgiving in the twentyfifth chapter is one of anticipation or whether it was uttered in sight of a ruin which had already more than fulfilled all his saddest forbodings. The visions of a prophet, concerning that which is to be, are so full of present force and reality; his contemplation of that which has happened is so ne