part of his character, it is said of him in the text, that he "went about doing good the expression being applied, as the context shews, to the beneficence displayed in the variety of miracles which he wrought. Of these it has often been remarked, that scarcely any can be pointed out, which do not strikingly indicate the benevolence of his disposition, and his tender feeling for the sufferings and infirmities of mankind. Even in the most stupendous manifestations of his power, in creating food for the supply of multitudes, in stilling the tempestuous waves, in compelling death and the grave to yield up their victims, the occasion that called forth each miracle was not the pride of impressing a wondering crowd with amazement, but some substantial act of relief, of deliverance, of consolation, where human means were ineffectual. With very few exceptions, and those easily explained on other grounds, we shall find this to be the character of all his miracles. Men's faith were confirmed by them, as they might have been by wonders of severity and terror: but their affections. also were gained, and their dispositions softened and subdued, by the benignity which thus tempered the awful Majesty of hea

ven.

Our Lord evinced also his never-failing love towards mankind, on many occasions where no miraculous display of his power was called forth. The greater part of his ministry was occupied among mixed assemblages of friends and enemies, admirers and scoffers, poor and rich, ignorant and learned. To all, his condescension and good-will were in some way manifested; counsel and encouragement were given to his faithful followers; warning and remonstrance to the faithless and impenitent; salutary cautions to the great and opulent; topics of consolation to the indigent and necessitous; plain and elementary instruction to the ignorant and humble-minded; considerations of a higher cast to those who were better able to bear them. But most of all do we find his kindness extended towards penitent and contrite offenders. Many affecting incidents occur in which he exercised this highest species of benevolence. He did not, however, shun communication with those who were inveterately prejudiced against him; but occasionally partook of their society, as if desirous to conciliate their good-will. Nor did he adopt the prevailing hostility betwixt Jew and Samaritan; but took every opportunity of endeavouring to diminish its force, and to im

press upon each the duty of regarding the other as a neighbour. His kindness towards young children is another indication of his benevolent disposition. So are his soothing and compassionate addresses to the sick, to the mourners, to the afflicted of every description. He "wept with those that wept." He wept also for those whose stubborn and incorrigible tempers could not be softened either by his admonitions or persuasions. The warmth of his personal friendship for the Apostles is discovered throughout the whole of his affecting discourse with them on the eve of his sufferings. His filial piety, and his fraternal affection for "the disciple whom "he loved," are more feelingly shewn by the brief emphatical sentences uttered to each, during his agonies on the cross, than by all the colouring that descriptive eloquence could give. His meekness in bearing injuries, and his forgiving disposition towards those who inflicted them upon him, were conspicuous on the same trying occasion. They were no less so throughout the whole course of his ministry; nor was the warmth of his resentment ever kindled against his adversaries, except when their enmity tended to pervert others, or to arraign that Divine authority by which he acted. Their blasphemy against

Him personally as the Son of man he could forgive. But their blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; their attributing to the power of the evil one those mighty works which shewed the energy of the Holy Spirit within him; was an offence precluding in the very nature of it the hope of that repentance and conviction which might lead them to retrace their error; and therefore called forth his heaviest denunciations.

It were endless to pursue the subject of our Lord's benevolence, in all its ramifications. Some general conception of its unbounded extent may be formed by applying to it St. Paul's description of Christian charity. "It suffereth long, and is kind; en"vieth not; vaunteth not itself; is not puffed

66

66

66

up; doth not behave itself unseemly; seek"eth not its own; is not easily provoked; "thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, “ endureth all things." Who would not suppose that the Apostle was here delineating the very portrait of his blessed Master? But, without descending even to these particulars, the one great design of our Lord's coming into the world, the very purpose for which

o 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5, 6.

he lived and died, is a more stupendous proof of benevolence than all that history can parallel or human imagination can frame. To save a lost world, to reconcile sinners to an offended God, to shew them the way to eternal life, and to enable them to attain it; these were effusions of loving-kindness which could only issue from the fountain of goodness itself; and whatever indications of that disposition we discern in the several occurrences of his life are but so many subordinate parts of the main design.

Connected with this inexhaustible mercy and benevolence, another prominent feature in our Lord's character remains yet to be noticed that exemplary fortitude which enabled him to bear a weight of calamity peculiar to himself.

If this quality in our blessed Saviour had borne any resemblance to the apathy of the Stoic, the sternness of the hero, or the blind self-devotion of the enthusiast, it were unworthy of special commendation. But it partook of none of these suspicious qualities; nor do we find any thing strictly parallel with it in the annals of philosophy, heroism, or martyrdom. With an acute sense of pain and ignominy, there was manifested a calm and deliberate contemplation of the