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perfect love to His Father rising continually from the altar
of His heart. Blessed Jesus, permit me to approach Thee,
and to hear Thy voice in Thy lonely midnight retirements,
pouring out Thy heart to Thy Father in heaven ; to see Thy
beauty and to taste of the odours and perfumes of Thy love,
delight, and complacency in the uncreated, infinite beauties
of the Godhead ! Here is beauty, spiritual beauty and
excellency which unspeakably surpass all the beauty,
loveliness, and excellency of the pure angels before the
throne. But He also loved and pitied man. This He
manifested continually in His daily intercourse with the
children of men. He healed all manner of sickness and
disease, wept over sinners, over their sinful, perishing,
condition. And He continued to love and pity them when,
they hated Him, opposed Him, and sought to put Him to
death, till at last He poured out His very heart in prayer
for his very murderers. "Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do." Thus, Jesus of Nazareth surpasses
all the children of men in beauty, holiness, and dignity.
Blessed Saviour, open the eyes of these poor sinners now
before Thee, that they may see Thy beauty and glory, and
pant after Thee as the hart panteth after the water-brooks !
3. The beauty and glory of Christ appear still further in
His sufferings and death. The holiness, love, and obedience
of the man Christ Jesus were put severely i o the test in His
sufferings and death, but even here they only burst forth
with greater lustre and glory. Consider him for a little in
His last sufferings. The night in which He was betrayed
into the hands of His cruel enemies He instituted the
ordinance of the Supper as a memorial of His dying love.
At the supper He washed the disciples' feet, and after
telling them that one of them should betray Him, He
poured the balm of consolation into their distressed and
agitated souls — "Ye now, therefore, have sorrow; but I
shall see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your
joy no man taketh from you " (John xvi. 22). Follow Him
to Gethsemane, and there behold him stretched upon the
cold earth, in bloody sweat saying, "My soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death my Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from Me : nevertheless, not
as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Mat, xxvi. 38-39). Then

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