"Thou anointest my head with oil; "My cup runneth over. 5.) "Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?" (Ps. xlii. 9, 10.) "Many bulls have compassed me; strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. Dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture" (Ps. xxii. 12, 13, 16—18). "He is a reproach to his neighbours. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice" (Ps. lxxxix. 41,42). “I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me" (Ps. xxxi. 11). "Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping" (Ps. cii. 8, 9). "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink" (Ps. lxix. 21). "Thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground. The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame" (Ps. lxxxix. 38, 39, 44, 45). "Thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down" (Ps. cii. 10). "I am poor and sorrowful" (Ps. lxix. 29). "I am a worm, and no man. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws" (Ps. 6. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." xxii. 6, 15). Horror hath overwhelmed me" (Ps. lv. 5). My soul thirsteth for God" (Ps. xlii. 2). "He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood" (Lam. iii. 15). "My days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass. He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days" (Ps. cii. 3, 11, 23). "The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame" (Ps. lxxxix. 45). "Surely against me is he turned: he turneth his hand against me all the day" (Lam. iii. 3). "Waters flowed over mine head; then I said I am cut off. My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord; remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall" (Lam. iii. 54, 18, 19). "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever” (Jonah ii. 6). "When shall I come and appear before God?" (Ps. xlii. 2.) "His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon Him. For thou hast made Him most blessed for ever: thou hast made Him exceeding glad with thy countenance" (Ps. xxi. 5, 6). SOME REMARKS ON THE PARABLES. WITH the exception of some in the gospel by Luke, the mysteries, or secret things of the kingdom of heaven, are disclosed by these portions of the Word. There is no direct mention in them of the blood of Christ and the grace of God. We cannot, with exact correctness, say of the Parables, these are the glad tidings which are to be made known to all nations for the obedience of faith, in the name of the Lord Jesus-that Gospel which is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. They are the teachings of Jesus as the Prophet like unto Moses (Deut. xviii. 15-19; see also Ps. lxxviii. 1, 2), and as the Son of Man (Matt. xiii. 37, 38). As Of old, when wickedness and ruin rose to their height in Israel, and every ordained link between them and Jehovah their God, such as laws, statutes, judgments, priesthood, kingship, failed to maintain the relations He had been pleased to form with them; He interposed by the testimony of prophets, and whilst judging by His words in their mouth all that was evil, disclosed the resources of His unchanging grace, and the end He had still in view for their blessing. soon as people, priests, elders, rulers, scribes, pharisees, sadducees, and wise men, had one and all risen up against Jesus as presented to them "a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers," we find that He takes the place of Prophet, instructing the willing-hearted and His disciples; and bringing forth in His testimony, not only as a Scribe well instructed unto the kingdom of heaven things new and old, but also things hidden from the foundation of the world. An humble reverent meditation of the Word, with prayerful waiting upon God, will enable us to see plainly in these mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, which our Lord disclosed by similitudes or parables, the two points: what belong to His words as the "Prophet like unto Moses," and what belong to them as "the Son of Man." We shall not confound things that dif fer, however close their connection may be; nor carry beyond their full and just meaning these divine revelations, into what yet remained to be spoken and declared through other channels, the disclosure of which waited for other circumstances. If I connect Deut. xviii. and Ps. Ixxviii., bearing in mind the character of the former, both when and why delivered to Israel by Moses, what manner of testimony also for God and against them it contains, I see how the Lord's own place is foreshown, for Moses was but a servant in all that house, for a testimony to things which should be afterwards spoken-a poor figure, an imperfect shadow,- for we find Jesus in these Parables not only as Prophet and Servant, but also as King; and more than that, fulfilling what goes beyond the bounds of Israel, even all that is connected with Himself as Son of man. Concerning the kingdom of heaven, from the days of David and Solomon throughout the Psalms and the Prophets, it had been discoursed of, and yet not in all its bearings, in its inward and outward, its spiritual and material constitution. "The Prophet" like unto Moses brings out things new and old, things hidden in the letter of the scriptures, and yet revealed in the letter." The Servant" was, if it were possible, to raise up the tribes of Israel. "The King" would be owned in His kingdom."The Son of man " honoured in judgment.-All these are combined in the Parables and much more. I do not say the unsearchable riches of Christ, in the mystery of His person, hereby directly come forth, though everywhere He is to be seen and adored. NICODEMUS: THE SAMARITAN: THE MULTITUDE. John iii. iv. vi. To apprehend the light or truth of the Lord is needful to our safe conduct through the scene around us; but to discern His spirit, His tastes, habits of thought, sympathies and aversions, all pure and perfect as they were, so many expressions of the divine mind, gives elevation to our conduct. Something of His sympathies and aversions may be discovered from His different method with Nicodemus, the Samaritan, and the multitude, in John iii. iv. vi. There is this common purpose in all these scenes,the Lord is putting the soul upon a sinner's ground. This, however, is done in a different method in each case; and in this different method His spirit, His taste, His sympathies or aversions, as we have expressed it, manifest themselves. Nicodemus was 66 a master in Israel," a religious "ruler of the Jews." He was of the Pharisees, one therefore of a party that had set itself boldly against Jesus. But at this time there was evidently some working of conscience in him. He comes to Christ as a pupil, to learn lessons and mysteries. The Lord transfers him from that ground, and puts him under the uplifted Serpent-that is, instructs him to come to Him as a bitten Israelite, or as a poor sinner that needed life. He does this, as we might say, shortly or at once, stopping him at the first utterance of his lips. But withal patiently, and with evident interest in him personally. H |