Sabbath routine? Joseph, too, wishes the body of Jesus taken away before the Sabbath; but with what different treatment !—with fragrant spices, and comely burial service, and the laying of it in a sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid (John xix. 38-42).

Thus, to counteract in Pilate's mind the impression which hard-hearted hypocrisy had made, there is presented to his view an instance of truest and tenderest devotion. Pilate had been struck with reverence and awe as he gazed on the Lord's unspeakable majesty, and heard his words of gracious authority and truth; he had begun to think that this might be a divine person, and the thought had troubled him during the whole pleading by which he was at last persuaded or constrained to give him up. When he saw, however, this holy and heavenly being left alone in his dying hour, deserted, and apparently scorned, by all; when he saw, especially, that he was to be recklessly cast aside as a worthless thing by men who made a great profession of strictness in religion; when, in their usage of this Just One, he perceived the offensive and most repulsive union of bitter malice and base cruelty with the most imposing sanctity of mien and manners;-what more natural than that he should relapse into a state of hardened, indifferent unconcern?-as if all the things which had ever moved him to serious thought were to be regarded as little better than solemn mockery or imposition. But he is not thus to be given over. He is not to have such a plea or pretence for his unbelief as the conduct of these Jews might seem to furnish. He is

to have a specimen of true piety as well as of its counterfeit. He is to know that there can be such a thing as an honestly religious man, a punctual observer of the Sabbath, and, at the same time, upright, merciful, compassionate, one who can testify his love to Jesus when all else forsake him,-one giving such simple and affectionate proof of his real attachment as may well touch Pilate's heart again, and go far to awaken once more his sentiments of reverence and awe.

Great, in this view, is the value of a single Joseph of Arimathea amid a crowd of frivolous or formal Pharisees. Great the good that he may do, most precious the testimony which he may bear, and the example which he may show, by counteracting the unfavourable impressions which less consistent or less straightforward professors of religion leave on careless, and even on thoughtful minds; by reviving feelings of admiration or of love for the gospel, which the conduct of some of its disciples may have stifled or blunted; by appealing to the sympathies of men who, though not thoroughly religious themselves, can yet appreciate religious excellences and graces in others; by removing prejudices, and presenting the beauty of holiness in its own fair and honourable aspect, apart from the colourings which less hearty and ingenuous characters may manage to throw over it. Such a one may do much to keep alive salutary convictions, obviate misapprehensions, and conciliate favour; and if his testimony issues not in the conversion of those before whom it is exhibited, it serves at least to rescue the blessed gospel of Christ from those unworthy imputations under

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which the ungodly would fain seek to shelter their rejection of it. Pilate may still harden his heart and resist the striving of the Spirit of God with his conscience; but the fact is not without meaning—and it has a solemn bearing on his state of mind and ultimate responsibility-that, amid all that he saw of human wickedness and weakness in the close contact into which he was brought with those who called themselves the people of God, the first image certain to rise up in Pilate's memory, whenever he retraced these scenes, must have been the venerable look and language of authority with which the Lord himself appealed to him; and his last recollection must have been that of Joseph of Arimathea coming in to beseech him that he might take away the body of Jesus for an honourable burial.

XIX.

THE CASE OF PILATE-A WARNING AGAINST RESISTING THE SPIRIT.

WE are unwilling to leave the subject of Pilate's character and conduct, without attempting to apply it more particularly and practically than we have yet done to ourselves. For there are many Pilates still among us; and many occasions on which the Lord Jesus, if not personally, yet as represented in his cause, his gospel, and his people, comes before them for trial and judgment. And it may be interesting and profitable to observe how far, in such circumstances, our modern Pilates follow the winding track of their sorely harassed and desperately hunted predecessor of old.

Instead of Pilate,

Let us trace, then, a parallel case. let us place on the bench an individual of the present day; and let each reader conceive that "he is the man.”

Jesus comes before you to be tried; and his adversaries, the world, the devil, and the flesh, press for a sentence of condemnation. In plain language, the claims of serious religion, or vital godliness, are pressed upon you in a form and with an urgency which you find it difficult to evade. You are called upon, in a manner more peremptory than usual, to decide between God and Mammon. You are shut up to the necessity of choosing whom you will serve.

This crisis may arise in a variety of ways,-either in reference to the general question of your condition and character before God, or in reference to some particular point of practical detail which brings that question specially to an issue.

You are living, and you have been living perhaps all your days, in a state of quiet and secure indifference ;satisfied with a respectable routine of religious forms and moral decencies, and giving yourselves little concern about any deeper movement of soul, such as some might consider necessary to your being enrolled among the true followers of the Lamb. You hear, indeed, of proceedings in certain quarters, and among a certain class, which seem to indicate a very different tone of religious feeling from anything with which you are familiar. You hear and read of convictions and awakenings, of changes and conversions, of intense excitement, of extraordinary emotions both of joy and sorrow, of earnest meditation, of burning zeal,-of things, in short, which show that the question which you take so easily and settle so smoothly, is found by others to be more engrossing, more agitating, more spirit-stirring. You regard these things, however, as a mere idler might listen to the strange news of revolutions in other lands, scarcely knowing what to make of them,-scarcely caring to know; or as Pilate might superciliously catch some floating rumour bandied in his vacant court-circle, respecting Him who was creating such a stir in Jerusalem.

But something occurs to bring the matter home to you. Suddenly you find Jesus-the gospel or the cause of