Other celebrated Spanish converts were Alfonso de Gamorte, a native of that place. He was educated to be a rabbi, became a Christian through earnest and diligent study of the Scriptures. Cardinal Ximenes chose him to issue an edition of the Bible of Alcala. He wrote also a "Vocabulorum Hebr. atque Chaldaicum veteris Test.," a "Catalogus eorum, quæ in utroque Testamento aliter scripta sunt, vitio scriptorum quam in Hebræo et in Græco." He died 1530. Gonzalo Garcia was an agent of Benedict XIII. Alfonso Bueza was born at Paffrando, joined the order of the Jesuits, and wrote a work entitled "De Christo in veteri Testamento." Alfonso Spina is said to have been a Spaniard by nation, but a Jew by religion. After he embraced Christianity he joined the Franciscan order, and became the rector of the university of Salamanca. He wrote "Pugio Fidei contra Judæos, Saracenos, aliqui Christianæ Fidei Inimicos." This work was printed at Nuremberg in 1511. He wrote also a History of the Mohammedan wars. Lastly, Juan Joseph Hydeck, Prof. of Oriental languages in the Real Collegio of St. Isidor at Madrid, was a famous Hebrew Christian with whom Dr. Wolf corresponded. In bringing these short notes of the history of the Jewish mission in Spain to a close, let me say that I have purposely abstained from dwelling much on the persecutions which the Jews had undergone there during the black plague and the blacker Inquisition. We have seen that in spite of the atrocities there, God had a remnant according to the election of grace amongst Israel of Spain. Catholic Spain had its reward according to the promise to Abraham: "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee."

3

(To be continued.)

THE OFFICES OF CHRIST.

BY THE AUTHOR OF “THE TWO WORLDS.”4

I. MEDIATORSHIP.-IN THE OLD AND NEW COVENANTS. THE word Mediator in any form does not occur in the A.V. of

3 See Cave's History.

"The Two Worlds; or, Here and Hereafter." An Epic in Five Books. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.

the old Covenant. tures be pondered.

Does the office? Let the following Scrip

Exod. xx. 19. "And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us lest we die." Verse 21. "And the people stood afar off: and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was."

Exod. xxxii. 9, &c. "And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the Lord his God," &c. . . "And the Lord repented of the evil."

Verse 31. "And Moses... said, Oh! this people have sinned a great sin, . . . forgive their sin-if not, blot me out of the book which Thou hast written."

Num. xiv. 11, 12. "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? . . . . I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater and a mightier nation than they."

Verse 13. "And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians will hear it," &c.

Verse 20. "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word."

In these Scriptures we see Moses coming between Jehovah and the objects of His displeasure, and that he succeeds in turning away the wrath of God. In Ps. cvi. 23, this is confirmed: "Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them." This is further confirmed in Gal. iii. 19, 20: "It (the law) was ordained (rather, promulgated, or delivered) through (dà) angels in the hand of a Mediator. Now this (6) Mediator is not a mediator of one party but God is one" and man is another. There can be no question that Moses is meant in this passage. It remains to be considered what a mediator is in things pertaining to God and man, and how far Moses fulfilled such an office.

5 Locke comes very near the above: he only just misses what required not his genius and clear understanding to see. Of this passage, Winer says there have been 250 explanations, Jowett 430. The above is another.

The word Mediator is of Latin origin, derived from medius = middle or between. The Greek of which "Mediator " is a rendering, is peoirns, from μéσos = medius.

But what is the office of a mediator between God and man? As a general definition it may suffice to say that he is one who comes between two parties to adjust their differences. If these are circumstantial then a creature of circumstances may reduce them if the contending parties can be wrought on. The law of a country, in its righteous avengement, may admit of a mediator if the object of the law can be thus met. Thus, when one made a law and attached to it the penalty of both eyes being destroyed, his own son was the first detected offender. The lawgiver himself was the mediator by losing one of his own eyes, that some sight might be spared to his guilty son. Also, " for a good man some will even dare to die."

6

Between man and man usually a mediator interposes to effect reconciliation between the law and its victims, to effect amelioration. This mediator may suffer inconvenience, or loss, or penalty himself, or he may not. Moses, as lawgiver, as leader of the host of Israel, held a post of high honour, of critical responsibility, and, from the wayward fierceness of the people, one of direct and constant danger. As mediator he had a more solemn charge, but a deeper joy, for usually he gained eminent success. On special occasions Moses made no attempt to mediate, as in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. On one occasion alone did Moses seem to draw Divine vengeance on himself; and then it was in conjunction with the possible failure of his intercession; “forgive . . . if not . . . blot me out of the book." This is not mediatorship proper at all. The conclusion seems inevitable that the mediation of Moses was nothing more than intercession. He "stood in the breach" indeed, but it was not to receive the wrath of God instead of others, it was only to avert it from them. Elijah "made intercession against Israel." The office does not appear in its substitutional character at all in the old Covenant provisions. The reason is clear. The law was only "the shadow and not the very substance." In the perfect day this shadow disappears. Instead of the

Thus Josephus says, Ant. xvi. 2, 2, "He (Herod) was intercessor (μeolrns) with Agrippa."

tabernacle in the wilderness we have "a greater and more perfect tabernacle." Instead of a restricted priesthood, all, as many as savingly believe, are both "kings and priests unto God."

There is a uniform acceptance that Christ is the Mediator between God and man. Is there a scriptural apprehension as to the time and condition of this Mediatorship? Is He the Mediator between God and man, as man, as a sinner; or between God and man, as a saint-between God and the world, or between God and the Church?

1 Tim. ii. 5. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Heb. viii. 6. "Now hath He (Christ) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

- vii. 22. "By so much was Jesus made surety of a better Testament (Covenant).

— ix. 15. "For this cause He is the Mediator of the New Covenant, to the end that-as there was (lit. there being) death for the redemption of transgressions under the Old Covenantthey who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

xii. 24.

"And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling," &c.

- xiii. 20. “The God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant."

What is this new-this everlasting Covenant? Wherein does it differ from the Old? The terms of the Old Covenant were, "Do this and live." "My judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them" (Lev. xviii. 5). The terms of the New Covenant are, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts xvi. 31). Doubtless the power of the Mediator extended backward as well as forward. This office, as we have seen, was filled by Moses, but only as intercessor. Now all that Moses was in his day, that Jesus was in the days of His flesh, but inexpressibly more. This interposition of Christ, the Lamb of God, began when sin began; in provision before. Abel had a shadowy acquaintance with it, and “by faith offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain" (Heb.

xi. 4).

Moses, as much as others, needs this Mediator between God and man.

One who comes between two at variance in order to effect reconciliation has no other object. This is not so in re Jehovah and man, if by such interposition nothing more is meant than to appease anger and turn enemies into friends. It is true that Christ has effected this, but infinitely more besides. This Mediator must endure immeasurable woe. The violator of God's law must himself endure the awful penalty or another for him. Who shall put himself in the midst (èv μéσos)? Who shall come between the offender and the offended? Only "the MAN that is God's fellow" could do this. He has done it. There, where the bolt was speeding its course, launched by Almighty force and holy wrath, did "the Mediator of the New Covenant" interpose Himself. On Him fell that bolt, it entered His soul; then He said, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death," and further on in His dark lonesomeness came that exceeding bitter cry, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Then it was that all the waves of God's wrath (not against Him), which would justly have rolled over and submerged the sinner, were encountered by the Son of God's love. His life was the forfeit. But said He to death, "I will be thy destruction." Out of the depths He rose, "leading captivity captive."

To the office of Mediator must be attached all the suffering, all the awful endurance, which popularly has been assigned to another feature of the work of salvation. As Mediator, Christ takes the sinner's place, superseding him in the imminence of judicial wrath. He takes, therefore, the sinner's liabilities. Faith in Christ, as to this substitution-as Mediator-places all the wealth of God for appropriation by the ransomed one. God is his Father, Jesus is his elder Brother, the Spirit is his Guide and Comforter. Now let faith range through the domains of the Creator, and lay reverent hands on whatever, as a pilgrim, there may be need of. "All things are yours," says the Spirit; but says that same Spirit, "Ye are Christ's." The child may take all that is his Father's, except forbidden things.

The Mediator has received in Himself all that justice was charged with for the sinner. All righteous demands are met. There is no further claim. Is this all? Are all then righteous