lion he had emerged from, without let or hindrance. But a part of the son's design is to help his ward in avoiding such a catastrophe even in appearance; and, more than this, to shield him, if possible, from punitive visitation, which may be very severe, indeed to any degree short of the extreme measure of final banishment, which is precluded by precise terms of compact between the father and the son. The restored one is at liberty to visit the court, indeed is welcomed there; but there are certain well-understood observances that may not be neglected. The son, who is equally concerned for his father's honour and the welfare of his protégé is unceasing in his care and intercession on the occasion of any breach of the proprieties of that relationship which has been established between the king and his restored erring one. If there is confession and an honest effort to avoid offence, there is prompt and loving forgiveness, through continued interposition of the son's influence, which is acknowledged by the father to be of the most meritorious character. This gracious conduct the father and the son are never weary of, for the father loves as much as the son. But should the neglect of the servant, the defalcations of the officer, the rebellion of the subject, the ingratitude of the friend, become so gross that scandal is raised, and rebellion seems subsidized by indulgence, then forbearance must close. Repeated offences have dulled perception and fostered temerity with the insubject one; so that confession has ceased, while transgressions have. multiplied and intensified. Advocacy must stand aside. Further intercession would be injurious to the character of the son, to the real interest of the transgressor, and to the name and dignity of the sovereign. Corrective measures must be adopted.

Apply this to our great Advocate at the Father's right hand. "He ever liveth to make intercession." We may be sure that He goes to the very verge of propriety, with reverence we say almost "hoping against hope" that the wilful one-or perhaps, the thoughtless one-will pause and consider. His state may have become most perilous. "Shutting his eyes, he is blind (τυφλὸς ἐστι μυωπάζων), and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" (2 Pet. i. 9): stumbling continually, he is in such a condition that forgiveness is not sought, God is not in all his thoughts, he again loves the world and the things of the

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world, unclean pleasures are revelled in, he has lost all relish for the things of the heavenly kingdom, he is gone back to his old haunts. What is the sentence? "Let him alone"... "The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." Did not the Lord know them that are His, the poor erring one would be overlooked in the rubbish that has heaped itself around him; he would be forgotten as one of the kingdom. He will be saved, yet so as by fire. For such, advocacy is shamed. He must be suffered to feed on husks which swine eat. “Wickedness overthroweth sin" (Prov. xiii. 6, margin). Such is the divine procedure. Under certain conditions evil is a better instrument to nullify evil than good is. Two acids may make a sweet. Two poisons may make a wholesome compound.

In 1 John ii. I is the only instance of the word waρákλŋtos, being translated "Advocate." This is the primary use of the word. In the classics it has two applications: 1st, those were so called who were paid to plead the cause of the accused, but "besides the hired advocates there were friends called πаρákλητоι, whose office it was to intercede for the accused by prayer and entreaty."

In Heb. vii. 25 the word rendered "to make intercession" is évtvyxávew, and in Rom. viii. 27, 34 also; in verse 26 it is ὑπερεντυγχάνειν. The addition of this prefix seems to denote intensity. The passage in ix. 24 declares the office without the official term-" now to appear in the presence of God for us." Comparing the above passages, which refer to the Holy Spirit, with John xiv. 6, xv. 26, and xvi. 7, the word Intercessor seems a better rendering than "Comforter." The Holy Spirit fills the place here of our Advocate proper; it is only as taking the things of Jesus and showing them unto us, and so guiding us into all truth, that He is suited to us. As such, "He maketh intercessions with unutterable groanings." Oh, the deep mystery of that expression! Why those groanings? Whose are they? Why unutterable? Are the sins of the Church so grievous that the Spirit Himself groans amid the demands of holiness and the yearnings of love? Or are they the groanings of creation unwillingly subject to vanity, and of ourselves groaning

7 The verb TUYxávw is to be, to happen. So evтvyxávw, to be between, to intercede ; and iπeρevτVyXávw, to intercede on behalf of, intensive. To this verb, peoTeÚw and δαιτίθεμαι have kindred meanings.

within ourselves. troubled."

“Jesus..

"Jesus. . . . groaned in the spirit, and was

No revered doctrine of the Scriptures is thus assailed. A rectification is all that is here attempted not of a doctrine, but of its place in the grand economy of redemption. All that is currently asserted of atonement is here put to the account of the Mediatorship, and in all its integrity. The blood-shedding with all its attendant horrors for the Holy One of God, and its inexpressible value for all who believe in its efficacy, are still reiterated with increasing depth of earnestness. Woe to those who say of that "precious blood," in the daringness of their foolish reasoning, "what is the blood of one man more than the blood of another?" and again, “God cares nothing about blood." Such utterances, from what have been considered orthodox pulpits, loudly proclaim the approach of that apostasy which will distinguish the last days.

Attempt has been made, as conviction urges, to place the various ministries of our blessed Saviour to their right account. If the Word of God does not sustain this exercise, let it perish. No one is bound to receive what another advances, nor can any one be justified in rejection except after diligent searching "if these things be so."

Lowliness is becoming, knowing how liable an erring one is to err. No intellect, however subtle; no sight, however piercing; no wariness, however sleepless, no understanding, however wise; no learning, however great, can insure a limited capacity from defect. There is a more largely endowed being watching and plotting against human welfare, thwarting or aiding as it may suit his malignant aims, that must surely succeed when watchfulness is lulled, or prayer grows languid. He prevails in proportion to our unconscious weakness or fancied strength. If we know our weakness we shall lean on an Almighty arm; if we think we are strong it is well that we should know how one less than Almighty can subdue us to his will. We "know nothing yet as we ought to know," hence the becomingness of self-mistrust, of an ever-growing humility.

Again reliance on another is not humility; it may arise from incapacity; if so, it is only less blamable than blind confidence. The claims of the priest are admitted only by weak or

superstitious minds; but even a gifted and spiritual teacher is

to be no more than a help. One who is liable to err should be open to misgiving; on this ground alone he should warn his disciples or hearers against untested instructions. One would scarcely teach what he has not himself proved; but his analysis may be weak, his proofs may be incomplete, for his knowledge is still defective although fifty years may have embraced his research, and added venerableness to his wisdom. For more than two thousand years a flaw had lurked where of all places it should have been detected, searched as it had been by the acutest intellects, at length discovered by one of Scotland's gifted sons, viz. in exact Geometry. Let us then bow in lowly reverence before Him whose infinite attributes nothing short of infinity can fully exercise; whose detection nothing can elude, whose power nothing can outspan, whose wisdom nothing can baffle.

Let all doctrines have their due place. They are as the scaffolding of a building, needful to the erection of that building, but not the edifice itself. Many make more of doctrines than of that which they teach, viz. a godly life. This is as though one esteemed the scaffolding more than the structure which it helps to raise. The fact of the Mediatorship is the foundation of our hope; Atonement is the hope itself; and Advocacy ever relumes the torch of that hope. "While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be children of the light."

Here we close with a resumé of our thoughts.

I. That Christ, as Mediator, sustained all that must proceed from a holy God to alight on the unhappy violators of His law, for they are defiled and loathsome to Him.

2. That Atonement is the happy issue of this mediation for all who by faith accept it; this being a perfected oneness with the Father and the Son.

3. That hence there arises an ever-existent Advocacy by Him who has wrought these marvellous conditions-an advocacy with the same Holy God on behalf of these same redeemed ones, not to save them from their lost condition, for that He has accomplished as Mediator, but as children from the consequences of undutiful conduct that has not been confessed, forsaken, and so forgiven.

CLIFTON.

W. HOWELL.

MISSIONARY CONFERENCE AT OXFORD. THE CHURCH'S DUTY TOWARDS THE JEWS.

So the Church, at home at least, is beginning to bestir herself about her duty towards the Jews! Not before it is time! Would to God that the Church established in this realm were henceforth to give more heed to the teaching of our Lord, on this and other solemn subjects, than she has hitherto done! Her doing so would prove one of the most efficacious antidotes to the many ills which have for a long time afflicted the Church, by the teachings and traditions of fallible men; her doctors all the time wasting their precious hours in strifes and contentions about their respective "nostrums," which they respectively prescribe for "stamping out" the plague.

It is a good omen when some at least of the doctors in the Church begin to study the prescriptions of the Great Physician. Would to God that the stir on THE CHURCH'S DUTY TOWARD THE JEWS were of a more general and permanent character than it has proved hitherto! The Church has held an annual Congress in this country for thirteen successive years, but not until the year 1874-when the Congress met at Brighton-was the subject mooted; and that under the problematic heading "Modern Judaism." We cannot help thinking that that spasmodic stir was caused by our remonstrance in the previous year, which appeared in our Magazine for Nov., 1873, in the following words:

"UNGRATEFUL CHRISTENDOM.

"Both hemispheres have, in the course of last month, made no small display of their Christianity. In this country, the Church of England held an imposing Congress at Bath. In America, the Evangelical Alliance held a most enthusiastic Conference at New York. Both had our heart-felt sympathy; but both have utterly disappointed our most sanguine expectations. We are utterly at a loss how to estimate either at its right value. It is a matter of grave doubt to us whether the promoters, speakers, and habitués at the Congress or Conference put any value themselves on their meetings. We generally prove our estimation of a boon conferred upon us by the gratitude which we feel and express in acknowledgment of the boon. But the Congress and the Conference which have recently taken place, and glory in the grandiloquent designations of Church and Evangelical Alliance, have evinced an amount of ingratitude, for which even professedly worldly-minded assemblies would have been scouted. We have scanned in vain the Bath and New York programmes for an item of plan, prayer, or intercession, either in behalf of believing Israel, or in behalf of those who have not yet submitted to the righteousness of God. Ye Promoters of the Congress !-Whence have ye that Church which is justly your glory? Can you forget your own very beautiful and comprehensive prayer, in the form of the following Collect?-'O ALMIGHTY GOD, who hast built Thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner-stone; Grant