But further-there was still one heart which was being overshadowed with the darkness of night, though in a widely different manner from all else besides. The night of sorrow was falling heavily on the Man of Sorrows-his soul was about to enter into that travail which wrung from him the bitter exclamation, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." How deep the shades of that night of sorrow were, we can form no adequate conception; some faint impression we may have of its exceeding darkness, and terrible gloom;Judas was betraying him,-Peter was to deny him—all were to forsake him. The tempter who had departed for a season, was about in the garden, to press him so grievously, that in his agony "his sweat was (to be) as it were great drops of blood;" and then did the mysterious darkness reach its deepest horror, when he cried on the cross, 66 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Truly as regards the faithlessness of his friends, the ruthless vehemence of his enemies, the weight of penalty voluntarily endured at the hands of his Father" it was night."

Oh ye followers of an illustrious Master, think of this night; let your souls tremble at the contemplation of its shades; and while you mourn over the bitterness of his cup of sorrows-while your souls bleed at the remembrance of his anguish, remember that he entered into the gloom of his cross and passion, that your night might be turned into day-that you might be snatched from the region and shadow of death, to be put into possession of an inheritance, of which there is this glorious record of everlasting sunshine, "There shall be no night there."

And especially let your souls be melted into the tenderest emotions of wondering love and gratitude,

when you call to mind, that it was in this your Master's night of sorrow, that " he took bread"-that it was in the moment in which his appalling sufferings were at hand, that he so thought of you, so remembered you, as to institute an ordinance for your joy and consolation -an ordinance fitted to make your soul full of lightan ordinance which, while it is traced with the precious blood and mental anguish of your Lord, is meant for your great and endless comfort. Oh brethren! when by this ordinance we find rivers of waters in a dry land, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, a refuge from the heat, and a shelter from the storm, let us not fail to remember the wormwood and the gall, the groans and the tears from which it proceeded; and while rejoicing in the light, cease not to "remember Him," who by his labour of love has taken the dimness from your eyes, quenched the bitterness of your death, in the sharpness of his own, and become a light to lighten your darkness, by passing through the gloomiest night of humiliation for your sake.

But we hasten to observe what the Evangelist informs us our Lord said, when Judas retired. "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." The traitor was gone to consummate his treason; and in the being delivered into the hands of wicked men, the Son of Man was about to be glorified. Surely it is in the very depth of the Saviour's saferings that the man Christ Jesus is at the very height of his glory. It is when he bringeth the first-born into the world, that he specially says, "Let all the angels of God worship him." By the sufferings and death of Christ we are enabled to read the glorious character of God in a way

which otherwise we could never do. We see it as in letters of gold inscribed on the anguish of the man Christ Jesus. No glory can equal the glory of Emanuel, "God with us"-suffering for us in the flesh. God is glorified in the Saviour when he submitted to take the cup of God's wrath, and drink it to the dregs. If there had been any faltering in the work of Christ, there would have been a flaw in the manifestation of God's glory-but there was none; and "if God be glorified in him "—that is, if God the Father be glorified in the Son by his work, then "God will glorify him (the Son) in himself," in a remarkable manner, and will straightway glorify him." And surely this was done, when the grave was burst asunder, and could not hold the "Holy one of God;"-surely this was in a special manner accomplished, when Christ ascended up from the midst of his disciples, with the same body which they had handled, to appear with that glorified body in the presence of God for us."

"

"Little children," adds the Saviour, "yet a little while I am with you." How affecting is this word of our beloved Master. After the one unclean, the one guilty had departed, his whole soul seems to be poured forth in its unquenchable tenderness towards his followers. Little children "-how endearing, how affectionate!" yet a little while I am with you:" and oh how this little while was spent let the following discourse of the blessed Jesus bear a glowing testimony

the little while" was not consumed in dwelling on his own sorrows, but in furnishing the most delightful and gracious and solid comfort to "his Own."

But he also prepared them for the termination of his personal intercourse with them. The short period that remained would soon pass away, and then "ye shall

seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come, so now I say to you"-I now say to you, that ye cannot come—at present ye cannot follow, but ye shall do so hereafter; and in the mean time until ye see me again—until you are finally with me where I am, I leave this to occupy your attention, to engage your thoughts, and stimulate "A new exertions. your commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

Our Lord did not mean by this that the commandment he now uttered had never been given before-far otherwise, it was coeval with creation. It was first written on the heart, then it was written on tables of stone. He meant by the expression, that an old commandment was given under new circumstances, with new motives, and new hopes; and surely if under the old dispensation the commandment of love was binding because it issued from God, surrounded with the tokens of his power and majesty, its influence must come with new force on us when it proceeds once again from the same being, with all the inducements and incentives to obedience drawn from the sympathy, the love, the sufferings and the death of Jesus. God once issued the command, and it ought to be received ;-God in Christ issued it anew; and as he did so, he pointed to his own glorious example, "As I have loved you, that ye also ought to love one another."

Thus we find John in his Epistle speaking of this commandment-" Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you." The old commandment was

made new, by being delivered in person by the man Christ Jesus-new "in him," or respecting him, and new "in you," or respecting the new and blessed motives of the Gospel, drawn from the precepts and the example of Christ.

And " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." love one another." This is the true and only genuine mark of the followers of Jesus" Their love to each other." There is ever a proportionate hollowness in our profession of discipleship, when the bonds of mutual love are not strong-there cannot be much of the spirit of our Divine Master where there is bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour. Love is the badge of Christ's service, and the law of his kingdom. If then we really desire to be his faithful soldiers and servants, let us "see that we love one another with a pure heart fervently;" thus shall all men " take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus," and be constrained to acknowledge that " God is with us of a truth."

Oh for the beauteous silvery fold of the standard of love in the Church and among the people of God; that evil-speaking, malice, hatred, envy and all uncharitableness, may flee away; and that the children of God, clustering round their “ own Lord," as "members one of another," may again have this record- -"Behold these Christians, how they love one another!"