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the disease would immediately depart. The faith of the Gentile filled Jesus with astonishment; he turned to those who were with him, and declared that he had nowhere, not even among his own nation, found such faith; and then follow the memorable words, "And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into the darkness without." Here we may discern his prophetic inspiration. Through the faith of the centurion, as through a rent in the darkness around him, he gazed into futurity, and beheld what we all now see. This declaration has now become undisputed history. From all regions multitudes have been gathered under the Christian dispensation, brought into spiritual fellowship with the great and good-with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the righteous of all times; while those, who in the days of Jesus deemed themselves the peculiar heirs of the heavenly gift, are standing without. In these words I hear the voice of a great prophet. By the kingdom of Heaven, it is hardly necessary that I should say, is not meant the future world of bliss, but the heavenly dominion of truth-in other words, the empire of true religion. It is spoken of under the figure of a kingdom, where the patriarchs are seated as at a brilliantly lighted festival, while those who refuse to enter and partake of the feast are represented as excluded, and enduring the misery of the darkness outside. This declaration of Jesus, eminently prophetical as it is, wonderfully verified as it has been, comes in, in the most natural manner imagin

able, and has a living connexion with the passage where it occurs.

Again. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, we have the following: "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day." Is it suspected that this passage is a mere fabrication, inserted into the history with a view to invest Jesus with the character and reputation of a prophet? Every trace of such a suspicion vanishes when we observe the beautiful, because unconscious, consistency of this portion of the history with what precedes and what follows. "From that time forth," so this passage commences, "began Jesus to show his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer and die." From what time? Why, immediately after he had ascertained that his disciples acknowledged him as the anointed messenger of God. As soon as he found that they explicitly recognized his authority, he began to disclose to them what was about to take place. So that this passage comes in just where it ought to come in, in order to harmonize with the connexion. But this is not all. The disclosure of his approaching sufferings and death on this occasion is incidentally connected with a striking and most natural illustration of the character of Peter. When Jesus spake of what he must suffer, "Peter took him," we are told, "and began to rebuke him, saying, 'Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be done unto thee.' But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art a stumbling

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block to me for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.' What! Is this Peter-the Rock, as Jesus a moment before named him, saying, that upon this Rock he would build his church, and the gates of hell should not prevail against it—is this the man who is now addressed in the severest language of reproof, and pronounced a stumbling-block, a rock of offence?

O, tell me not there has been any garbling-any forgery here! If this portion of the history had not its deep foundations in truth and nature,-if it were a fiction, its author would never have dreamed of venturing apparently so gross an inconsistency, or, if he had, he would not have permitted it to go unexplained. In reality, there is here not only no inconsistency, but the most exquisite keeping, as I proceed to show.

Shortly before, as we read in the same chapter, Jesus had inquired of his disciples what the people thought of him-whom they supposed him to be. They replied, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, or one of the old prophets." He then put the question directly to the disciples themselves, "Whom do you think me to be?" Peter, with his characteristic forwardness, answers without hesitation, "Thou art the Anointed, the Son of the living God." It disclosed great openness to the truth in Peter, to have come so speedily and confidently to the conviction, that in the humble man of Nazareth he beheld the long looked-for, magnificent Messiah. There was nothing in the external appearance of Jesus which proved him to be that illustrious

personage, but much to the contrary. Since Peter then recognized him as the Christ, it could only have been through the moral, spiritual credentials which he gave in his beneficent words and works. Accordingly, Jesus breaks forth in blessing upon Peter, exclaiming, "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas,* for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven!" i.e. "it is not from men, or from any earthly source, that thou hast discovered me to be the Messiah. It has been revealed unto thee by that true Spirit in thine own soul, which is the Spirit of God." How naturally must the warm commendation of Jesus have tended to elate the ardent mind of Peter! This it was, we perceive, that emboldened him to contradict and rebuke Jesus, when the latter immediately afterwards proceeded to speak of his sufferings. Although he acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ, he was not at all prepared to believe that the Christ could suffer indignity and violence. Therefore he sought to silence Jesus, saying, "Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be done unto thee," and so drew upon himself that severe rebuke, "Away! thou enemy! Thou art a stumbling-block to me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men."

Thus we find that the prediction of his sufferings and death, which Jesus uttered on this occasion, is

* "Simon, son of Jonas." The intense fervour with which this benediction was uttered, is incidentally and strikingly displayed in this mode of address. How naturally, when a friend communicates any unexpected sentiment or intelligence, do we express our surprise in a similar way, uttering the whole name of our friend, with fervent emphasis !

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CAN YE DRINK OF THE CUP THAT I SHALL DRINK OF?" 203 vitally connected with a portion of the history bearing the deep and living impress of truth, and it is impossible to doubt that he foretold his own fate to his disciples at this time.

But it is not from those passages alone in which he expressly predicts his own death, natural and consistent as they are, that we gather the most decisive evidences of his knowledge of the future. Most incidentally, and therefore all the more impressively, does it on many occasions appear that he was perfectly aware of what awaited him, and that he saw far and clearly into the depths of futurity.

Once two of his disciples, confident that he was about to establish a glorious worldly empire, induced their mother to solicit from him the favour that they, her two sons, might sit, the one on his right hand and the other on his left, when he should commence his triumphant reign. "Can ye drink of the cup," he instantly replies, "which I shall drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ?” How fully is the knowledge of his own sufferings here revealed in the unconsciousness with which they are taken for granted! The two brethren little dreamed what the nature of that distinction was which they sought, or how it was to be obtained; and, in the unthinking simplicity of their hearts, they answer that they are able to do whatever he was about to do. Their Master observes, in return, "Yes, ye shall drink of the same bitter cup, and pass through the same fiery baptism; but to sit on my right and on my left, -to share so fully in the power and distinction thus