Religious Maxims, 168, 206. John Wylie, D.D., Carluke, 289. Robert K. Monteath, Hutcheson- The late Rev. James Young, 353. Sketches of Scottish Ecclesiastical History, 11, State of our Cities and Towns, The, 169, 199, Robertson, Memoir of the Rev. F. W., 104, 139. Students, Our, and their Ecclesiastical Opinions, 249. Sufferings, The, and Punishment of our Ene- Testimony of the Rocks, Hugh Miller's, 122. Thoughts for the Last Month of the Year, 264, Unity (On)-Christian and Ecclesiastical, 58, 77. Waldensian Church, The, 312. Words of Counsel to Young Men, 7, 38, 101, 134. Wilberforce's Diary on the Indian Charter (1793), THE EDINBURGH CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE. Sermon. By the REV. ALEXANDER M. MACCOLL, Minister of Cavers. Luke xiii. 1-9. THE whole passage, brethren, which we have read, from verse 1 to verse 9, is one which we can only understand rightly when we endeavour to think about it and explain it not in detached portions, but as a whole spoken at the same time. One part helps us to understand the other. What our Lord said in answer to those who told Him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, that helps us to understand the parable of the barren fig-tree which follows, and that, on the other hand, gives the true meaning and interpretation to the first words in the chapter. Now I wish you, my friends, to look closely at this connection, because it is on that I am going to preach to-day, not that every single verse would not make a suitable subject for a sermon, but that it is generally more profitable and more reverent to seek to gather the whole meaning of a discourse of Christ, than to dwell on some particular part, however good that part may be. Just as one would very likely take a wrong meaning out of a sermon or a letter, if one only remembered a small part of it, and forgot what went before and what came after, so we are also likely to mistake the meaning of our blessed Lord's words, unless we think of 1-IX. them in the order and connection in which they were originally spoken. Look, then, at the connection between the different verses I have read. First of all-some of the people who were listening to Christ told him of some inhabitants of Galilee, whom Pilate the governor had slain, when they were offering sacrifices in the temple. Jesus then asks them if they suppose this was a mark that these Galileans were worse than the other Galileans, and then tells them it was not so. I tell you, nay, they were not greater sinners than those who did not perish, but I tell you, except you repent you shall all likewise perish. He repeats the same thing regarding some who had just been killed in Jerusalem by the sudden falling in of a building, and then He adds the parable of the barren fig-tree. The general meaning of which is, as I hope to show you immediately-the reason why you are spared-why your blood has not been mingled with your sacrifices-why the building has not fallen upon you-the reason of this is, not that you are better than others, but that God is seeking to bring you to repentance-that He wishes you to bring forth fruit to Him, and, therefore, the true lesson which you are to learn from these calamities which fall | that such an opinion was in the minds upon your fellow-men-is not this, that of such good men as Christ's Apostles, they are worse than others-not a lesson, who, when they saw a man blind from therefore, of uncharity and judgment; his birth, asked Him who did sin, this nor this, that you are better than others man or his parents, that he was born -not a lesson, therefore, of pride; but blind? (John ix, 2.) the lesson is, that God is sparing you to enable you to bring forth fruit meet for repentance, and that if you continue to sin ye must be cut down by divine justice. Such, my brethren, is the connection of the parable of the barren figtree with the words which go before, and on this, by the grace of God, we shall meditate a little for our instruction at this time. We know little or nothing about the events to which this passage refers, both of them were startling and calamitous. The first of them, the mingling of the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices, was one of a class of which, by the good providence of God, we have no experience in our own country at the present day. Pilate was, as we know, the person sent by the Romans to govern the conquered Jews, and abused his power by many acts of cruelty and oppression. This was doubtless one of them, and all that we can gather is simply this-that some inhabitants of Galilee, without any fault of their own, were slain by his orders when they were sacrificing in the temple.-The second event mentioned in the passage was the fall of a building, called the tower of Siloam, by which eighteen persons had been suddenly killed. It was simply what we would in our day call an accident-by which men's lives are lost in a sudden and distressing manner. Now, there was an opinion very common among the Jews at that time, and one which in some form continues even still that when any sore calamity fell on any man that such was a sign that he was worse than others, and that God was in this way punishing him for his sins. Even so, this seems to have been what those thought who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Their opinion seems to have been that these Galileans were worse than other men-greater sinners in God's sight, and, therefore, this great and overwhelming calamity had come upon them-as a mark that the righteous God saw their sins. And so, too, with the accident of the falling-in of the tower. They seem to have thought God would never permit such to happen to good men, and therefore that they had a right to believe that the eighteen men who perished in the ruins were worse than those who escaped. Now it is this which Christ answers. He says Nay to both. What happened to the Galileans is no mark that they were greater sinners than others. What happened to the eighteen Jews is no mark that you are better than they. No, that is not the lesson which God wishes you to draw, but except ye repent-this is a lesson which you may learn-this is, indeed, something which you may carry with you-" except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." The first lesson, then, which our blessed Saviour manifestly intends us to learn from these words-for they are spoken for us as well as for those to whom they were first uttered-is thisthat we have no right to suppose that the calamities which happen to others show that they are worse than their fellow-men. Why this is, perhaps a little meditation may teach us. It is a law of God that in this world the innocent suffer with the guilty, and therefore we are unable to say that because such-and-such calamities fall on such-and-such men, that this is a sign of their being worse than others. You will recollect that in the Old Testament this was the opinion that was in the minds of the friends of Job, and Some of you may think this is very that they thought and endeavoured to hard, but that is not now the question,impress on him that all his great suffer- the question is, whether this is true or ings came from some great sin, and again | not—whether such things do or do not happen in the world in which we live. | truth, how, by the righteousness of one, Now I say there is not one town or vil- our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, righteouslage in our country which does not prove ness and happiness shall abound unto this, and it is quite impossible that we many. I say we are enabled to undercan open our eyes on what we see going stand this by remembering that in this on around us without being aware of it. world the innocent suffer with the guilty, Thus, one man by evil-doing ruins his because we do not stand apart from one own health, and destroys his character another, but are members of the same and his property; but the evil does not great family, and therefore should restop there, but also brings starvation member, when we see calamities falling and misery on his wife and children who on our brethren, that this is not a mark have not taken part in his crimes. And that they are any greater sinners in the so in a larger way throughout the world. sight of God than those who escape. Wars sometimes arise by the wild "Suppose ye, then, that these Galileans and sinful ambition of kings and gover- were sinners above all the Galileans? I nors, and then thousands and tens of tell you, Nay." What, then, Christ disthousands of lives are lost on each side, lives tinctly tells us here is this-that in this of those who had done nothing to cause world, sore tribulation and afflictions the quarrel in which they were fighting; often do happen to those who are not and not only that, but their families at greater sinners than their fellow-men. home are plunged in mourning and dis- And so, my friends, this is a truth which tress-or then again a fever or a pesti- should fill us with very humble thoughts lence comes to a town or a village and does about ourselves. There is, indeed, much not stop with the dissipated and vicious, misery and sorrow in this world. Not but spreading from them it kills the that it is all misery and all sorrow, far good and the holy, it kills physicians from that. There are none of us who going about to cure, and kind friends has not had many blessings and comdoing their duty in attending to the sick forts in the world, and in most of our and afflicted. So you see it would never lives I think it is likely that the bright do to say, when such things happen to days have been far more numerous than our fellowmen and we are spared, it the dark ones. Thanks be unto God, would never do to say, we are better than who daily crowneth us with benefits, they, and God passes us over because he even the God of our salvation. Bless sees we are not so sinful. Why it is that the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all the innocent suffer in this world with his benefits. But still there are numbers the guilty, we may not be able altogether in the world who suffer from many to discover. Part of the reason I think miseries, which we by the grace of God we may discover, and it is this: God has have escaped. Now, it is a comforting made the human race one family-he thing to have a passage like this by has made of one blood all the nations of which to estimate their case. We are men. We therefore depend one upon not to think that God is punishing them another. High and low, rich and poor, because they are worse than others; and young and old, good and bad, savage and when we read or see the afflictions which civilised, are all of one blood as God's multitudes of our fellow-creatures suffer, children, and therefore, what happens to from plagues and diseases and accidents, one, does not happen to himself only but and the cruelties of their fellow-men, to those with whom he is connected. how some are made slaves of, and some This explains to us how it was that are persecuted, and some are oppressed, through Adam's sin sin entered into how some die by famine and shipwreck, the world, and death by sin, and so death how some lead long lives in blindness passed even on those little children who and poverty and heathen ignorance; then, have not sinned after the similitude of brethren, it is comforting to believe, that Adam's transgression; and it also explains withal we are not to think that this is a to us a far more blessed and glorious sign that they are worse than we, but that they suffer from some reason which the wise and loving God sees needful. There is not one sufferer, too, in the wide world, whose sorrows are not known to God. Not one sparrow falleth to the ground without our Father's knowledge, and we need not fear for our brethren, for they are of more value than many sparrows. But again, while that is true, there is also something else which must be borne in mind, which will bring us to the second part of my subject, and it is this, that while it is true that we have no right to say, that such-and-such men suffer because they are worse than others, that yet often men's sins do bring, in this world, punishment on the sinful. What our Saviour reproves here, is that vindictive spirit that finds matter for pride and unholy exultation in the calamities of our brethren, but he does not deny, what Scripture and nature alike teach us, that men's sins are often in this world followed by punishment. Paul tells us that some men's sins are open and manifest, going before to judgment, meaning to teach us, that the evil consequences which they bring with them, shew their condemnation and punishment even in this world. I need not remind you of instances which shew this. Every man who ruins his health by his own intemperance is an instance of what I mean, and proves to us what Paul in another place says, that if we sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption. Now what is true of some men in our world, that even here their sins find them out, that is true of the human race as a whole, and Scripture teaches us, I think, most plainly, that all the misery and suffering in the world are so many proofs of the sinfulness of the human race. The wages of sin is death. Remember, then, brethren, what we are here taught. It is this, first of all,—that we have no right to say the sufferings of particular men are proofs of their greater wickedness; that is not what we have a right to say, but what we may know is this, that the sufferings of all men come because the human race to which they belong is sinful. When, then, I see my brethren suffering and I escaping, one feeling that should come up in my mind is this,-[ deserve that punishment just as much as they, because I am a sinner agains God as well as they. Now it is this which Christ tells us should be our feeling. When we se sorrows and accidents coming on others we should not judge them and think o their sins, but we should judge ourselves and think on our own. "Except ye re pent, ye shall all likewise perish." Fot observe, it is this very point which our blessed Lord seeks here to impress upon our minds. The mingling of the blood of these Galileans with their sacrificesthe fall of the tower of Siloam on the eighteen Jews-that gives you no information about their sins, but it does give you some information; it is a message to each of you from heaven-a message of loving-kindness if ye will receive it. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Even so, from all the accidents which happen in the world, from all the sickness and distress which we see visiting our brethren, we may gather a warning for ourselves. God means us to do so, and what He wishes us to carry into our own hearts is this,—that although spared, yet, unless we repent, our sins must then be followed with punishment. Let us endeavour, then, to fix this point on our mind,-we should never judge our brethren. Even the greatest criminal, we should remember, is offered mercy through the atoning sacrifice of Christ,-but we should remember, from all the sorrow that goes in the world, to draw the conclusion, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Now it was to fix this point on our minds that the Saviour spake the parable of the fig-tree. It is a parable of mercy and repentance,-a parable which explains to us the love and long-suffering of God,-which teaches why it is He spares us amidst all our sins. Observe what the question is which our Saviour answers by this picture. Why is it, was the question, that some Galileans were killed by Herod, and |