The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-01-13

the law, and the Romans, and the writer's of
the ever blessed Gospels of God, knew no
other description for him than to call
him "robber" and murderer, "-one
who had made " sedtion and " nsurrec-
ton
But his time had not yet come to die.
He was to be delivered from prison and
from death, Notwithstanding the provocation
he had given, and the wondrous strength of
the Roman arms that held him fast 1t is,
indeed, in the means of his deliverance, that
the deepest and most solemn teachings of
his history are given to us,-teachings that
may, perhaps, convey wisdom in other ages
and other chimes. He was the tavorite of
the people, indeed but that alone would
not have been enough. Another and
greater than Barabbas was there. He, too,
was widely known throughout all Judea,
and beyond Jordan, and in Gailee, and Sa-
maria, and in the coasts of Tyre and Sdon,
and all the region round about. He, too,
had seen and known the fearful degradation
and oppression of His people, and had come
down to earth to deliver them, and offer
them true liberty. He had fed the hungry,
healed the sick, restored the halt, the MAIN
ed, the deaf, the dumb, the blind cleansed
the lepers, cast out devils, raised the dead,
and wrought innumerable wonders through
out all the land. He had given unto them
Truth-heavenly Truth,-and had opened
unto them them the fountain of everlasting
life. He spake as never man spake, and
not one in all the land could convince Him
of sin. Him the popular liberty party had
attacked again and again, and laid every
snare to entangle Him in His talk. The
liberty party, in those days, refused to be-
lieve in God or Gospel that did not
approve OF conflict of physical force, to
free them from their masters the Romans.
Every Gospel that came not up to this
standard, was to them spurious Gospel
and, short of this, every one that claimed to
be the Christ, they were ready to stone as
,'blasphemer." In their eyes, therefore, the
Lord Jesus was deeply tainted by His COM
planes with the enslaviDg power of the
Romans. His very birth took place when
Joseph and Mary went up to Bethlehem to
be taxed at the command of Roman En-
peror. He had healed the child of Roman
Centurion. He had told them to render
unto Caesar the things that be Caesars.
He had paid the trbute--that odous badge
of subjection--for Himself aud his follow
ers, by miracle. He had escaped from the
popular party, and hid Himself when they
wished to take Him by force and make Him
king; and that, too, when He claimed
all the while to be the King of Israel, the
Son of David, and the righttul Heir to
whom God had promised that He should sit
on David's throne, and that of His King
dom there should be no end. In every way,
and at every point, He had purposely,
pointedly, and repeatedly foiled the liberty
party of His day whereas: in all these
respects, Barabbas was the type and symbol
of those very things in which the people
delighted, and in which the Christ had dis
appointed them. TO make the antithesis
yet more perfect, the very name of the pop.
ular hero was parody on that of Him who
was rejected and despised for Barabbas
signifies "1he Son of the FATHER"
The coincidence, then, that led to the
delivery of Barrabas from prison and from
death, was no accident,-no mere empty
chance. Barabbas was repr esentatlve man,
as we'll as Christ. The multitude loved the
one for his crimes just as they hated the
Other, because of His intolerable and SUPER
human virtues. They desired Barabbas
to be delivered unto them, because they
were enthusiastic for the liberty that comes,
so bravely, through instruction, sedition,
robbery and murder. They cried out against
the Christ in the same breath, Cruelty
Him, Cruelty Him." because they had no
love for the more glorious liberty of the sons
of God, and treated with scorn the idea of
freedom that was to come through obedi-
ence, and suffering, and poverty, and mar
tyrdom, and every variety of earthly tribu-
lations, and spiritless submission to every
ordinance of man for the Lords sake. They
had no ears to hear, and no hearts to under
stand, the liberating power of the new Cos
pei as given unto them by the true Son of
the Father -" If the Son shall make you
free, ye shall be free indeed"
Therefore it was that they so readily fol-
lowed their evil leaders,-the chief priests,
the scribes, and rulers,-who were hypo-
critics and demagogues who were very
pious men, nevertheless, in their way, and
made long prayers, and were as happy in
| quoting the Scriptures as Satan himself -
the liberty-lovipg mob gladly followed them,
and the passions of their own hearts, in that
day when the sublime and overwhelming
Crisis of their nation was in their hands.
1t was not simply the expression of sympa-
thy for brave but unsuccessful man. They
were called to choose between two. TO
accept the one was to reject the other. They
knew it and with awful eagearness they
made their rejection of the Christ, first of
ll:-"Not this Man," shouted they, "but
Barabbas." st. Peter also, in his sermon
in Solomon's porch, places the two alterna-
tives in the same order =" But ye denied
the Holy One and the Just" saith he, and
desired murderer to be granted unto you
And when Pontius Plate, anxious still to