d, as Joseph to the Ishmaelites.

A deeper reading of Scripture has led us to a truer conclusion. There
is no such distinction there. What God permits is as equally His will
as what He appoints. Joseph tells his brethren that it was not they
who sent him to Egypt, but God. David listens meekly to Shimei's
shameful words, because he felt that God allowed them to be spoken.
And here Jesus refuses to see the hand of His foes in His sufferings,
but passes beyond the hand which bore the cup to His lips to the Father
who was permitting it to be presented, and reposed absolutely in the
choice of Him of One who loved Him with a love that was before the
foundation of the world.

Oh, sufferer! whether by those strokes, which, like sickness or
bereavement, seem to come direct from heaven, or by those which, like
malicious speeches or oppressive acts, seem to emanate from man, look
up into the face of God, and say, "My Father, this is Thy will for me;
Thine angels would have delivered me had it been best. But since they
have not interposed, I read Thy choice for Thy child, and I am
satisfied. It is sweet to drink the cup which Thy hands have prepared."

III. THE DEEP LAW OF SUBSTITUTION.--Some of the rabble crowd had
probably shown signs of a disposition to arrest some of Christ's
followers. He, therefore, interfered, and reminded them of their own
admission, that _He_ was the object to their midnight raid, and bade
them allow _these_ to go their way. Is it surprising that the
evangelist generalizes this act, finding in it an illustration of His
Master's ceaseless interposition on behalf of His own--that of those
whom the Father had given Him He should lose none.

In brief, this scene affords a conspicuous and striking illustration of
the great doctrine of substitution. As the Good Shepherd steps to the
front and sheathes the swords of His foes in His own breast, while He
demands the release of the cowering flock, He is doing on a small scale
what He did once and forever on Calvary; when, exposing Himself to the
penalty due to sin, and braving the concentrated antagonism of a broken
law, the drawn sword of inviolable justice, the sharpness of death, the
shame of the cross, and the humiliation of the grave, He said, "If ye
seek Me, let these go their way."

Christ sheltered us without reckoning the cost to Himself. He stood to
the front, and bore the extreme brunt of all that was to be borne. He
substituted His suf