with all thine heart. If Jesus takes it away, then there is no more offering for sin. (Heb. x. 26.)

Hold fast this truth above all:-"By one offering, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Heb. x.) "Ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." (Col. ii.) "Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin" (the endless reiteration of the ancient typical, or of the modern mimic priesthoods) "thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law :" (much less, when offered only by tradition and commandment of men.) "Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God......by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Heb. x.) Then there can be no literal offering of his body in the sacrament again.

"It is finished!" cries the dying Victor over death. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." The work of redemption is finished; the price by which we are bought is paid. † O weeping, trembling, penitent

sinner

"Turn to Jesus crucified!

*

Fly to those dear wounds of his."

"The God of love to earth he came, that you might come to heaven ;
Believe, believe in Jesu's Name, and all your sin's forgiven:
Believe in him that died for thee, and, sure as he hath died,
Thy debt is PAID; thy soul is FREE; and THOU ART JUSTIFIED.'

If then Jesus, amid the darkening frown of heaven, the trembling of earth, and the utter ruin and collapse of the principalities and powers of hell (Col. ii. 15.) cried, "IT IS FINISHED! —is it not sacrilege-is it not a daring reflection upon the sufficiency of our Lord's atoning sacrifice, and a flat denial of his dying words, for a man to pretend, in any sense, to repeat the act of offering for sins, and to corrupt the affectingly simple covenanting memorial of our Lord's death into a mysterious re-presentation of atone

"Father, the hour is come......I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." (John xvii.)

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's......ye are bought with a a price; be not ye the servants of men." (1 Cor. vi. and vii.)

B

ment for sin, asserting that the bread and the wine are tangibly the very body and blood of Christ, made so by the so-called priest? How brightly does the "good news of God" shine in contrast with this dark sacerdotalism of

man:

"Jesus, our great High-Priest,

Hath full atonement made:
Ye weary spirits, rest;

Ye mournful souls, be glad!"

2nd. Intercession is also a part of the priestly office of our Lord Jesus Christ. Intercession is offered on the sole basis of atonement. In no other way dare a sinner come to God. When our Lord reveals to us the words of the publican's successful prayer-" God be merciful to me a sinner"—we find, on examination that the full meaning of the plea "Be merciful" is "Be propitious to me through sacrifice." (iaooni)-(hilastheti.)

66

1. He makes intercession for the transgressors" (Isai. liii.)-for unreconciled men. Oh sinners! you little know that you owe prolonged life, every temporal comfort, and the prevenient operations of God's good Spirit on your souls to this-that that Jesus whom you neglect is pleading for you! As for his very murderers he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;" so he prays for those who by unbelief, as it were "crucify him afresh," and cry again-"Away with him; we will not have this man to reign over us.'

2. He pleads for saints-the faithful of every church, of every age, in every land: "seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Heb. vii.) "These things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: " (1 John ii.) "Powerful Advocate with God, Justify us by thy blood;

Bow thine ear, in mercy bow,

Hear, the world's atonement Thou!"

"Simon, Simon," said Jesus warningly to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have thee ". -and not Peter alone. Satan desires to have every christian (1 Peter v. 8. 9.); but how blessed is the assurance which follows-"I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." (Luke xxii.) And so("Bless the Lord for it, O my soul: and all that is within

me, bless his holy name!")-so for us the Saviour ever lives to pray-for the strengthening of our faith; for renewed assurance of pardon for our shameful short-comings and trespasses against him, upon renewed application to the cleansing blood of the Lamb *—

"Every moment, Lord, I need the merit of thy death;" for our increase in love; for the perfecting of every grace in all his saints; that we may all be HOLINESS TO THE LORD (Zech. xiv. 20. 21; 1 Peter i. 16; and see Exod. xxviii. 36-38, where Aaron is a beautiful type of our High Priest above); for our faithfulness unto death; and that we may be with him where he is, that we may behold his glory! "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

3rd. Blessing is the crowning priestly act of Jesus. It is the outcome and result of both the other acts. Atonement lays the foundation of the spiritual house. Intercession raises the superstructure upon that foundation. And then our great High Priest, in repeated, uninterrupted, kindly, and kingly acts of blessing fills the living household of faith with all manner of good things. He pours his favours on all such sinners as come in humble penitence and childlike faith to God by him-"To whom coming as unto a LIVING STONE, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood." (1 Pet. ii.) After presenting the sin-offering, "Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people and blessed them......And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out and blessed the people." So Jesus, after his resurrection from death, came to his disciples, and "shewed them his hands and his side;" q.d. "Behold

* "In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness: (Zech. xiii.)-cf. "Remission of sins....preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.' (Luke xxiv.) And the elder's statement to John concerning the great multitude in heaven, "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them WHITE IN THE BLOOD of the LAMB." (Rev. vij.)

the prints of the wounds received by me in offering atonement for your sins." "Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." So are we glad only, O Lord Jesus, when by faith we see thy face! (1 Peter i. 8. 9.) "Thou

hast ascended up on high; thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men: yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. He that is our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death!" (Psalm lxviii.)

"Array'd in mortal flesh, the COVENANT-ANGEL stands;
And holds the promises and pardons in his hands:

Commissioned from his FATHER'S THRONE

To make his grace to mortals known."

1. Pardon of sin. The insatiable hunger and thirst of the soul for a justifying righteousness, for a sense of acceptance and right standing with God, is met and fully satisfied in Jesus, who is made unto us "Wisdom and Righteousness; " for he is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS : on whose flesh and blood we constantly "feed in our hearts by faith, with thanksgiving;" crying, "He loved me; he gave himself for me: "and thus we have eternal life; and he will raise us up at the last day. (John vi. 54.) For his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed; that is to say, the atoning sacrifice of Jesu's sacred flesh and blood on Calvary, as satisfying divine justice for all sins for ever-past, present, and future,-is as meat and drink to the soul. It is our daily food, partaken of with humble joy, in devout contemplation, by appropriating faith. It is, in the higher sense, the daily bread we ask for,

even

"The BREAD of LIFE sent down from heaven."

"I am that Bread of Life," said the Lord: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." (Eph. i.) "Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things:

from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses;" (Acts xiii. 38, 39; and see the warning which follows against despising this salvation through a proud unbelief, v. 40, 41.)

Thus runs the language of the NEW COVENANT or NEW TESTAMENT made with us by God in Jesus, and sealed with his blood-made with the whole "Israel of God," "God's elect," i.e. all those, through all time, who are led of the Spirit to believe in the Saviour, "with the heart unto righteousness" these are "from the beginning chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:" (2 Thess. ii.)-"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. (Heb. viii.)

"I will be merciful" saith the Lord, who then are these that arrogate to themselves the power to pardon, asserting that the Lord has given them authority to forgive sins; which they are said to receive at ordination, in the pronouncing of these solemn words—which are either solemn truth or solemn falsehood. Here we join issue with all "priests" of any kith or kin whatever; believing that the eternal welfare of thousands of millions is at stake in the fair and full and fearless exposure of this source of all the evils of priestcraft and ritualism in the land. Men and brethren of all Christian churches, established or unestablished, hear these words pronounced by the bishop in the ordering of priests in the Church of England:

"Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the "church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our "hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven: and whose "sins thou dost retain, they are retained: and be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God and of his holy sacraments: in the name "of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

Yes; but does God say Amen to it? "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word" -(and they are charged, as above, to be faithful dispensers