"  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him."

THE  world  begins  this  day  with  glad  greetings,  and  words
of  hope,  and  preparations  of  joy,  and  undefined  looking  and
longing  for  future  excitement  and  greater  joy  in  store.  Its
Saviour  begins  it  with  Suffering  and  Humiliation,  the  first
Shedding  of  His  Redeeming  Blood,  foredating  Its  full  Out-
pouring on  Calvary,  and  His  Humbling  Himself  to  the  Death
of  the  Cross.  Bom  under  the  law,  to  redeem  us  from  the
curse  of  the  law,  He  not  only  fulfilled  it  as  One  Righteous,
but  in  the  seeming  of  a  sinner.  Aweful  words  they  are  to
speak.  Yet  the  Humiliation  of  the  Circumcision  is,  in  one
way,  greater  than  the  Humiliation  of  the  Cross,  in  that
the  Cross  seemed  laid  upon  Him  by  the  malice  and  envy  of
sinful  men,  and  even  Pilate  knew  that  "  the  Chief  Priests
for  envy  had  delivered  Him  ;"  the  Circumcision  was  laid
upon  Him  directly  by  the  Father.  At  the  Cross,  dumb
nature  bore  witness  to  His  Majesty  in  His  Humility  ;  "  the
very  stones  cried  out."  His  timid,  unjust  judge,  unknow-
ing, even  on  the  Cross,  confessed  His  Kingly  Title.  He  who,
in  the  judgment-hall,  had  said  to  Him — "  Art  Thou  a  king


92  Joy  out  of  Suffering.
then?"  himself  placed  on  His  Cross,  in  three  languages,
His  Name  of  King,  acknowledging  His  Universal  Sway,  and
confessed  in  action,  what  had  been  foretold  in  words,  that
He  should  "reign  through  Death."  Earth  and  Heaven,
sin  and  death,  owned  Him  as  their  Lord,  when  Crucified.
