an interpreter. What makes the orator, the leader, the man that turns up a celebrated hero? His having the boldness to give utterance to the sentiment that all feel, but which none else have the courage to express. This was the case with Caiaphas: he gave utterance to the sentiment that they had not the cruel courage to express. He says, "Ye know nothing at all;' you are a people of no understanding, and no skill; listen to me. You do not 'consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people;"" he meant, "It is expedient we should put this man to death, and get rid of him—that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." Thus he dared to suggest the death of Jesus, as the great panacea for the cure of their ills; the only means of securing the constancy and continuance of their nation. In other words, he was, like many modern men, a man of expediency; he only thought of expediency. There are two classes of men we meet with in this world: some men who never will move unless their foot can be upon a principle, a fixed principle, a great truth; and whose whole conduct shall take its shape, its tone, and direction, and colouring, from the principle they stand on, or the truth they grasp; and there are other men who are not acquainted with principles, who are not much troubled with a conscience, who have no great truths to stand upon; and they merely calculate chances. They look around, and before, and above, and beneath, (or rather, not above, but everywhere else,) and they say, "If this is done, this will be the result." They suppose that men are exactly like a number of pieces upon a draught-board, and that they have only to calculate the forces and anticipate the sure movements, and the result will be so and so; forgetting that they have corrupted wills to deal with, and that they have a reigning God whom they have omitted from their calculations, and

that so great an omission vitiates all. We shall find, that what is true, and just, and holy, is always expedient; and what is not holy, not true, not just, may be vastly plausible, full of promise, very significant of good, yet, in the end, most inexpedient. The highest duty is the highest expediency. All experience proves that it is so. But it is added here, when Caiaphas made use of those words, "And this spake he not of himself; but being high-priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation." Then John adds, (not Caiaphas,) "And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." It is very remarkable, that Caiaphas should have here prophesied. It is an instance of what are called unconscious prophecies; and many such have occurred in the history of the church and of the world before. So Balaam, a bad man, prophesied. And not merely have prophecies been uttered in the shape of predictions of what will be, but I believe all facts that ever have occurred are not only results of the past, but are also prophets and seers, and earnests of what will be. Take an instance: Pilate wrote, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." The Jews said, "Why, this is just asserting what we deny. Say that he said, I am the King of the Jews?" What did Pilate reply? What I have written I have written." Did he say that of himself? No, God taught him to say so; and when he said so he uttered an unconscious prophecy, just as here the high-priest uttered an unconscious prophecy. So the purple robe, the sceptre, and the crown of thorns which they put upon Jesus-what were these? They were facts, history says: they were prophecies and types, our experience, enlightened from the word of God, says. The name Caiaphas is merely a Hebrew modification of the same word applied to Peter: Cephas, a rock. There must be something significant in

this, that the last high-priest, as if he were the last type of the true High-Priest, should be called (in mockery, if I might use the word) a rock; but a rock that was soon to be shaken and moved. There is something striking in this, that just as the priesthood of Levi passed away, never to be resuscitated, the Urim and Thummim, the lights and perfections on his breast, should be suddenly illuminated with an unearthly glory; so that as a candle, before it goes out, gives its brightest flame, the priesthood of Aaron, as it passed away and perished for ever, gave forth a dying splendour that indicated it was over, and the true HighPriest was come. So now, in the present day, facts that are taking place around us, are not bare naked facts, but significant. Every fact that occurs is a rehearsal of a greater fact that will be. The fall of Tyre, of Nineveh, and of Babylon, all facts in history, are yet declared distinctly to have been prophecies too. And all that has taken place in 1848 on the continent of Europe, is just a rehearsal of what will take place on a yet larger scale, and with more terrific and tremendous results, by-and-by.

All things indicate, as I have said, that we are passing into the last days. I am more and more confirmed in this conclusion; we shall hear and experience soon such things as have not been known upon earth before. Never was there a day, in which I solemnly believe every one was more called upon to make ready. The sailor, when he hears the first whistling of the storm amid the shrouds, begins to put his vessel in trim, and prepare her to brave the storm. Should we not also learn a lesson from the signs of the times, and be ready, knowing not what a day may bring forth? This we do know, and with this I conclude my lecture, that he died—what the priest prophesied in his ignorance-he died-what the evangelist added from his light—that he might "gather together in one the chil

dren of God that were scattered abroad." Christ is the great magnet, the great centre of attraction, the great source and bond of union, and of unity. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation," of all men, at all times, and in all circumstances, "that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," of whom you, I, may be the chief; he came to save us, even us; not because we are sinners, but in spite of our sins; not because we deserved it, but in spite of what we deserve.

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LECTURE VII.

THE GREAT TYPICAL DISEASE.

And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus, fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.-LUKE v. 12-14.

THE disease called the leprosy is one which it is not possible, perhaps, accurately to describe; nor is it neces

sary to do so. Its physical characteristics and symptoms

belong to the province of the physician, not to the discourse of the minister of the gospel. I take this disease, which so often occurs, in reference, or allusion, or judgment, throughout the Scripture, to be the great typical and teaching disease. It was selected from the rest of those diseases to which humanity has been subject, not because it was the worst of them, but in order that it should be a type, and symbol, and teacher of that more dreadful disease which has overspread the soul, the wages of which is death, and the issue of which is everlasting banishment from the presence of God.

All diseases are unnatural, monstrous, horrible. Man was never made to be diseased, nor was he meant to die. Yet there is no such phenomenon on earth as a perfectly healthy man: there is no such state. The instant we are born, such seeds and germs and elements of disease are