Page 20 Advertisements Column 3

Otago Witness, Issue 890, 19 December 1868, Page 20

Public Notice. ! . — •■ very properly sorrects our version, and renders I the passage, " with a rod." Now, considering that our blessed Lord suffered so much, this one little particular might seem unimportant, only it happens to be the subject of prophecy in the book of Micah v. 1, "They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod \ipon the cheek." This smiting while under tidal is peculiarly atrocious. To strike a man while he is pleading in his own defence, would surely he a violation of the laws even of barbarians. It brought Paul's blood into his face, and made him lose his balance when the high priest ordered them to smite him on the mouth. I think I hear his words of burning indignation : " God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law ?" How soon the servant loses his temper : how far more glorious the meekness of the Master. "What a contrast do these gentle -words afford us— "lf I have spoken evil bear witness to the evil; but if well, why sinitest thou me?" This was such a concentrated infamy, to strike a man while pleading for his life, that it well deserved the notice both of evangelist and prophet. But now the Court are all sitting ; the members of the great Sanhedrim areall in their various places, and Christ is brought forth for the public brial before the highest ecclesiastical court; though it is, mark you, a foregone conclusion, that by hook or by crook they will find him guilty. They scour the neighbourhood for witnesses. There were feEows to be found in Jerusalem, like those who in the olden times frequented the Old Bailey, "straw witnesses," who were ready to be bought on either side ; and, provided they were well paid, would swear to anything. But for all this, though the witnesses were ready to perjure themselves, they could not agree with one another ; being heard separately, their tales did not tally. At last two same with some degree of similarity in their witness ; they were both liars, but for once the b\*o liars had struck the same note. They deilared that he said, " I will destroy this teraple bhat is made with hands, and within three iays I will build another made without [lands," Mark xiv. 58. Now here was, first, misquotation. He never said, " I will destroy the temple;" his words were, "Destroy this bemple, and in three days I will raise it up." See tiow they add to his words and twist them to bheir own ends. Then again, they not only misquoted the words, but they misrepresented the sense, wilfully, because he spake concerning ihe temple of his body, and not the literal temple in which they worshipped; and this they must have known. He said, "Destroy this ;emple" — and the accompanying action might lave showed them that he meant his own body, which was raised by his glorious resurrection ifter destruction upon the cross. Let us add, ihat even when thus represented, the witness was not sufficient as the foundation of a capital ;harge. Surely there pould be nothing worthy >f death in a man's saving, " Destroy this temple, and I will build it in three days." A person tnictht make use of these words a thousand times >ver— he might be very foolish, but he wou'd lot be guilty of death for such an offence. But where men have made up their minds to hate Christ, they will hate him without a cause. Oh ! ire that are adversaries of Christ— and there are some such here to-day— l know ye try to invent some excuse for your opposition to his holy relijion; ye forge a hundred falsehoods; but ye mow that your witness is not_ true, and your ;rial in conscience through which you pass the Saviour is but a mock one. Oh that ye were ivise, and would understand him to be what he is, md submit yourselves to him. now. Finding that their witness, even when torinired to the highest degree, was not strong jnough, the high priest, to get matter of accusation, adjured him by the Most High God to mswer whether he was the Christ, "the Son of she Blessed. 1 ' Being thus adjured, our Master would not set us an example of cowardice ; he jpake to purpose ; he s,ud, " I am," Mark xiv, 52, and then, to show how fully he knew this to be true, he added, "ye shall t,ee the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." I cannot understand what Unitarians do with this incident. Christ was put to death on a charge of blasphemy, for iaving declared himself to be the Son of God. Was not that the time when any sensible person would have denied the accusation ? If he had lot really claimed to be the Son of *God, would he not now have spoken 1 Would he not aow, once for all, have deiivered our minds from she mistake under which we are labouring, if, indeed, it be a mistake, that he is the Son of Sod? But no, he seals it with bis blood; he bears open testimony before the herd of his iccusers. " I am." lam the Son of God, and lam the sent-one of the Most High. Now, how the thing is done. They want no further evidence. The judge, forgetting the impartiality which becomes his station, pretends to be wonderfully struck with horror, rends his garments, turns round to ask his co-assessors whether they need auy further witness, and they, all too ready, hold up their hands in token of unanimity, and he is at once condemned to die ! Ah ! i brethren, and no sooner condemned, than the ' high priest, stepping down from his divan, spits n his face, aud thsn tbe Sanhedrim follow, and smite him on his cheek ; and then they turn him down to the rabble that had gathered in the court, and they buffet him from one to the other, and spit upon his blessed cheeks, and smite him; and then they play the old game again, which they had learned so well before the trial came on; they blindfolded him for a secoud time, place him in the chair, and as they smite him with their fists they cry, "Prophet! Prophet! Prophet! who is it that smote thee? Prophecy unto us!" And thus the Saviour passed a second time through that most brutal and ignominious treatment. If we had tears, if we had sympathies, if we had hearts, we should prepare to shed those tears, to awake those sympathies, and break those hearts, now. 0 thou Lord of life and glory! how shamefully wast thou ill-treated by those who pretended to be the curators of holy truth, the conservators of integrity, and the teachers of the law. Having thus sketched the trial as briefly as I could, let me just say that, throughout the 1 whole of this trial bufore the ecclesiastical tribunal, it is manifest that they did all they could to pour contempt upon his two claims to Deity and to Messiahahip. Now, friend, -this morning—this morning, as truly as on that eventful occasion— you and I must range ourselves on one of two sides. Either this day we must cheerfully acknowledge his (-rodheivl, and