ii. 9); full of grace and truth (John i. 14).  All power is committed to Him in heaven and in earth (Matt. xxviii. 18).  As maker and upholder of all things, blessings, spiritual and temporal, are in His hand (Heb. i. 2, 3); and in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. ii. 3), and “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. vii. 25).

Can we not now with reverent feeling enter into somewhat of the deep meaning of those few words of our Lord, “That thus it must be” (Matt. xxvi. 54)? and of that awful scene which had just passed in the garden of Gethsemane, when He had thrice prayed—“If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt”—when His soul was “exceeding sorrowful even unto death” (Matt. xxvi. 38, 39); and when “there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven strengthening Him (Luke xxii. 43); when His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke xxii. 44).

The words referred to were spoken when Peter had made an attempt at resistance, and smitten off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, who came with others to take Jesus, and when He had rebuked Peter, saying, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be?” (Matt. xxvi. 51–54).  “The Lord” had “sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Ps. cx. 4).  And then to show that He needed not even the legions to rescue Him, but had still all power in His hands, when about to be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isa. liii. 7), as soon as He had said to the band of men and officers who came with Judas to take Him, “I am He” they went backwards and fell to the ground (John xviii. 3–7), signifying that they had no power to touch Him until again encouraged by Jesus.  And so at each step of His trial, mocking, scourging, until by wicked hands He was crucified and slain (Acts ii. 23)—it was: “Thou couldst have no power against Me except it were given Thee from above” (John xix. 11).  At each step it was His voluntary submission to ignominy and insult, and a cruel death, that He might redeem us from death, and from the power of the grave and of hell by His own blood.

CHAPTER IV.

TESTIMONY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES TO JESUS CHRIST AS THE MESSIAH.

We have thus endeavoured to point out in how comprehensive a sense Jesus fulfilled the Law, so that one jot or one tittle should not fail or be lost.

The Apostle Peter, in the third chapter of Acts, says, “Those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled” (ver. 18).

It was the beneficent design of our Heavenly Father that so many rays of light, passing through varied channels, and spread over all past time, should concentrate upon Jesus as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, that there might be no excuse for rejecting Him.  Let us recall some of the principal passages in which the Old Testament Scriptures refer to our Lord and His kingdom.

1.  His coming was prophesied from the fall of Adam and Eve, in the Lord’s address to the serpent, thus, “The seed of the woman shall bruise thy head, but thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. iii. 15), a prophecy obscure at first, but abundantly explained by subsequent history and prophecy.

2.  The promise was made to Abraham and renewed to Isaac and Jacob, that in their seed, all the families of the earth should be blessed (Gen. xii. 3, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4).

3.  The family of Jacob was chosen to be a peculiar people to the Lord.  Laws, sacrifices, and institutions were given them to be as a schoolmaster to lead them to Christ, and it was declared the sceptre “shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come” (Gen. xlix. 10).

4.  As time progressed the covenant was further confirmed and limited to the tribe of Judah, and the family of Jesse, and, again, of David.

5.  The time of the Messiah’s advent was closely indicated by the prophecy of Daniel; seventy weeks of years, or 490 years from the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Dan. ix. 24, 25).

It was to be during the continuance of the second Temple, and when there should be a general expectation and desire in all nations for Him (Hag. ii. 6–9).  He would be preceded by a forerunner, who would prepare His way (Mal. iii. 1).

6.  The place of His birth was pointed out by Micah (v. 2) as Bethlehem of Judah.  He was to be born of a virgin, and called Immanuel—“God with us” (Isa. vii. 14).  He was to commence His teaching in Galilee (Isa. ix. 1, 2).

7.  The character of His mediatorial coming; His humble origin; His lowly, suffering life, and His cruel death—were described with singular accuracy by the Prophet Isaiah;—as well as the ultimate glory of His Kingdom and reign.  And the Psalms abound in references to the sufferings of Christ, often spoken as of David, but having their full accomplishment in Him who was emphatically “the Son of David.”

It was natural that the worldly-minded Jews, in anticipating their Messiah, and looking for one greater than Solomon, should expect to see one exceeding him, not only in wisdom, but in that outward display of wealth and grandeur which the world so much admires, as indicating the royal power and pomp of kings.  But it was not so to be: “He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”  He would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows while He was “despised and rejected of men,” and numbered with the transgressors (Isa. liii.).

He should be the mighty God, the Everlasting Father (Isa. ix. 6), whose goings forth have been from of old—from everlasting (Micah v. 2).  “A prophet like unto Moses, him shall ye hear” (Deut. xviii. 15, 18).

8.  Subsequent to the close of the Old Testament prophecy, some very remarkable incidents marked, to the believing Jews, the near approach and the actual coming of their Messiah.

The angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias as he ministered in the priest’s office, to announce the approaching birth of John the Baptist, who should “go before, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke i. 17).  This visitation was made on a very public occasion, on the great Day of Atonement, while “the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense” (Luke i. 10).  The angel Gabriel appeared also to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she should be blessed among women in giving birth to the Messiah (ver. 28), and “all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea” (Luke i. 65).

The actual birth of our Lord was next announced by an angel to the shepherds, saying, “Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke ii. 11); “and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the