seem" to have been required as the symbols of the temper of mind—the tokens of the moral feelings of those who offered them:"*

One fact alone seems to settle this question, viz., that a sacrifice was, or was not, acceptable to the Divine Being, just according to the motives, feelings, principles, and disposition of the person or persons who gave it. Hence, the same offering was sometimes approved, and sometimes rejected, from the same person; and hence, too, the same thing occurred when the offering was made by different individuals. Everything depended on the spirit and temper of the offerer, whether the service was acceptable and satisfactory.

Now, this whole Jewish system, Christ abolished. He introduced an entirely new dispensation. His blood became the seal of the new covenant, as the blood of the Jewish offerings had been the seal of the old; and his death, under the gospel dispensation, of which that of High Priest under the law was a type, was the closing up, and finishing of all the long list of sacrificial offerings.

*Rev. S. R. Smith.

This you will find fully explained in the eighth, ninth, and tenth chapters of St. Paul's letter to the Hebrews.

I do not regard this, by any means, as the main object of the death of Christ, or as furnishing the principal reason for that great event; but his death, having been called for by other good and sufficient considerations, as I shall show you, answered this purpose, also. It appropriately ended the Mosaic dispensation. All its sacrificial offerings were merged in, and swallowed up, by that of Christ.

II. I regard the sufferings and death of Christ, as, in a very important sense, those of a martyr.

This sacrifice of himself, he could not well have avoided, without being untrue to the high purposes of his mission. His publicly announcing and defending the great truths of his religion, had given mortal offence to the Jews. He had told them of the abrogation of their longcherished and dearly-loved systen..

Their splendid ritual, he had announced, must pass away. The long line of their illustrious and venerated priesthood, the gorgeous temple

worship at Jerusalem, everything which they held sacred, except merely the moral laws of God, and even their national existence, all were to be blotted out; and, like an unsubstantial pageant, faded,

"Leave not a wreck behind."

The High Priest, Scribes, and Pharisees, were almost frantic with rage. They were clamorous for his very heart's blood. And there was but one of three things before him: 1st. He must either retract the position he had chosen, give up the interests of the cause he had espoused, and leave the world in its darkness and sin, or, 2d, he must encounter his enemies by physical force, or, lastly, he must go forward like a true moral hero, bearing all, and suffering all, and sealing his mission, at last, with the martyr's blood. The first, of course, he would not do. He had fully counted the cost before he commenced his work. He had began an enterprise, from which there was to be no shrinking, no turning back. And to have adopted the second, would have amounted essentially to the same

thing. It would have been a violation of his own most noble precepts, and setting a striking example of disobedience to his own laws.

His death was the only alternative.

He chose rather to suffer and die, than to be untrue, for a single moment, to the great work of the world's redemption. He gave his life freely to the cause he loved-nobly perished in the way of duty-and, in this respect, his death was that of a martyr.

III. This brings me to remark, that the sacrifice of Christ was an attestation of the truths he taught, and of the divinity of his mission.

Had Jesus been an impostor, knowingly and intentionally, we should naturally expect to find him, at least, using some efforts to keep himself out of any very serious personal difficulty. We should hardly look for his risking much of his own comfort, or taking upon himself voluntarily much suffering.

If he were not, as he claimed to be, the long looked-for Messiah, having the basis of his authority in the express will of God, had he not perfect truth on which to rest his claims, he

would have been most likely to avoid, as far as he had ability, all those severer trials to which he submitted, and sought, in some way, his own private interest and advantage. At least, he would not have taken the cup of death so meekly and resignedly, and quaffed it to the very dregs, in the most uncomplaining submission.

Indeed, it only wanted a manifest effort, on his part, to avoid all personal sacrifice, to render powerless, in a great degree, the whole proofs of his claims to a divine appointment.

IIad the world seen him shrink when brought to the trial, had the people seen him managing with art and shrewdness, to keep out of the way of harm himself, it would have thrown suspicion on his claims in a moment. Had he endeavored to shun the officers, who were sent to arrest him,

or tried, in any way, to escape the awful doom he saw before him, it would have been said at once, especially to all except his warmest friends, that he had little sincerity or devotion to what he professed; that, after all, he was no divine messenger, who must do his duty, at all hazards; and it would have been immediately seized upon, and used to his discredit. But so far from this,