palling catastrophe need ever be feared; CHRIST EVER LIVETH

TO MAKE INTERCESSION!

PROPERTIES OF CHRIST'S INTERCESSION.

6

From the character of the advocate, we may judge what will be the qualities of his advocacy. Possessed of infinite wisdom and knowledge, the intercession of Christ cannot but be eminently skilful. A skilful advocate must know well the case of his client, the character of the judge with whom he has to deal, and the law according to which he must plead. Christ's knowledge of all these is perfect. He knows perfectly all his people, and all their cases. 'He needeth not that any should testify of man; for he knows what is in man.' He searcheth the reins and hearts.' All the exercises and doings of his children are thoroughly understood by him. Their wants, necessities, sins, and infirmities, are better known to him than to themselves; even their inward breathings and secret groanings are as well understood as the well set phrase of the orator.' Nor this only in respect of his intuitive omniscience as God, but of his experimental knowledge as man. Experience must add powerfully to the skill of an intercessor; and this advantage is possessed by Christ in an eminent degree. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.' Had he no other knowledge of his people than what is derived from their own statements and prayers, he could not plead their cause with skill. They are often greatly ignorant of themselves, form the most mistaken ideas, entertain the most inadequate views of their own wants, and are unable properly to express even what they may adequately feel. Their petitions for themselves are often, from these causes, defective, erring, and stammering. But never so those of their Divine Intercessor on their behalf. By him, their thoughts, affections, and desires, are fully appreciated, and their case represented with consummate skill.

He knows too, Him with whom he has to plead. Much of an advocate's skill must depend upon this, so as to be able to adapt his manner of pleading to the temper and disposition of the judge. Our Intercessor is thoroughly acquainted with the character of God. No one knoweth the Father but the Son.' He is thus qualified to adapt his appeals to features of the divine character corresponding to their nature. Are his people weak? He goes on their behalf, to God as

the Lord of Hosts. Have they fallen into sin, and are in need of pardon? He addresses God as a God of holiness. Does he plead the fulfilment of promises? He makes his appeal to the righteousness of Jehovah.

Nor is he less skilfully acquainted with the law according to which his intercessions are to be regulated. And it is not, as is too often the case among men, by evading, or concealing, or perverting, or explaining away the law, that this advocate exhibits his skill. No; he admits its authority, vindicates its claims, and maintains inviolably the rectitude of all its sanctions. Nor does he ever attempt to make it appear that those for whom he pleads have not violated its requirements, and rendered themselves obnoxious to its punishments. But his ability is shown in skilfully pleading the fulness of his own merits, by which satisfaction has been given to the law, and every blessing secured in consistency with the claims of infinite equity. Such, in short, is his skill, that he asks whatever his people need, only what they need, what has actually been procured for them, and what it every way comports with the character and law of God to confer; so that no cause can ever fail in his hands from want of knowledge or wisdom to conduct it.

Moral purity characterizes the intercession of Christ. The necessity of this was set forth under the law, in the altar of incense being of pure gold. Both the pleader and the plea must be holy. Christ intercedes not for sin, but for sinners. The tendency of all that he asks is to purify from all iniquity, and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. No request of a contrary character could ever be presented to a holy and righteous God, or could ever possibly be granted. Nor could any thing of this kind ever comport with the character of the Advocate himself. He is no corrupt venal pleader. He is the righteous Lord that loveth righteousness. To this is the efficacy of his intercession ascribed by the apostle :He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. FOR such an high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.' Corruption in an advo cate, if detected, is sufficient to blast his cause even at the bar of man. And the slightest taint of impurity in Christ would have disqualified him for conducting a successful advocacy on behalf of his people, at the bar of God. Corruption may be concealed from an earthly judge, but no degree of it could escape undetected by the omniscient Judge of all. The intercession of Christ is as pure and sinless as his sacri

fice. Every thing about it is holy-the matter in which it consists, the plea on which it rests, the place in which it is conducted, the person by whom it is managed, and the judge before whom it is transacted. Truly may our advocate with the Father be described as 'Jesus Christ THE RIGHTEOUS.'

6

Jesus Christ is a compassionate intercessor. The advocate who is to plead the cause of the wretched must not be hard-hearted and unfeeling; he must be able to enter into their feelings and to make their case his own. Without this he can never expect to succeed; but, thus qualified, it is scarcely possible for him to fail. His language, looks, tones, and whole manner, indeed, will acquire a more melting influence, in proportion to the depth of the compassion with which he is touched. So of Christ it is said, that it behoved him to be a merciful,' as well as a 'faithful,' high priest; and, had he not been merciful, he could not have been faithful. But in him compassions flow;' the compassions, not of divinity merely, but of humanity; of a humanity, too, the sensibilities of which were exquisitely fine, from its being unaffected by the blunting influence of sin. And even the delicate sensibilities of his holy human nature were heightened by his personal experiences. He who pleads the cause of those in whose miseries himself once shared, must be admirably fitted to do it with effect. • We have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but who was, in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' He tasted of all the sorrows of human life. Of the severest afflictions, the bitterest temptations, the most pungent sorrows, the most awful privations, he had full and frequent trial. He was, not only cast into the same mould as his people with respect to nature, but into the same furnace with respect to affliction. And, although he had no knowledge of the evil of sin from personal feeling, well he knew its weight and its bitterness from having had its guilt imputed, and its punishment exacted of him. Nor let any one object, that, although this might be the case while Christ was on earth, it cannot be expected to continue now that he is in heaven. His exaltation to glory has wrought no change on his nature or his affections. He is the same in heaven that he was upon earth. He is still possessed of human nature-God-manEmmanuel, God with us. And it is not more certain that, in his exalted state, human blood flows in his veins, than that human sympathies glow in his breast. He feels more for the objects of his intercession than man or angel can do, nay, than they can even do for themselves. The pity of Christians

for themselves can never equal the pity with which they are regarded by their Saviour; for theirs is the pity of a corrupted nature, his of uncontaminated humanity; theirs the pity of mere human nature, his of human nature indissolubly linked with all the tender mercies of Deity.

Much importance attaches to the promptitude of an intercessor. The value of a bestowment often depends on the time of its being conferred. Allow the crisis to pass, and the gift loses its value. A successful advocate must seize the earliest opportunity for taking up and introducing the cause of his client. This is a property of our Lord's intercession. He is ready to receive the applications, and to present the cases of his people. He is never absent from his place; they know always where he is to be found; he is ever at the right hand of God, waiting to undertake what they may commit to his charge. Nor, after it is committed, does it run any risk of being lost through neglect. No; as he is of 'quick understanding' to perceive, so is he of prompt activity to prosecute, whatever he undertakes. The attitude in which he was beheld by the martyr Stephen, in his remarkable vision, indicates at once readiness to undertake and activity to prose cute whatever is committed to him. He was seen standing: He looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus STANDING on the right hand of God.' (Acts vii. 55.) With what promptitude, for example, does he interpose on behalf of the church, when, in the dispensations of providence, a fit time for the restoration of Jerusalem presents itself:-O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?' This gives the people of God encouragement to go with boldness to the throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Their times of need are well known to the Advocate with the Father, and not one of them will he suffer to pass unnoticed, or unimproved. Christians may themselves overlook the fit time for making application to God, but not so their glorious intercessor. They may rely on him with perfect confidence, that when they sin, he will plead for pardon; when they are accused, he will vindicate their character; when they are afflicted, he will procure them succour; when they are tempted, he will pray for them that their faith fail not; and when they perform with diligence their duties, he will give them acceptance with the Father We would not have them to expect that he will procure them comforts unless they

make application for them; for, in that case, they could neither be relished nor felt; but when they do make earnest and believing application, they will find that the blessings are already procured, and ready to be put into their hands. If they but open their mouths wide, he will see to it that they are filled abundantly. He can solicit blessings from the Father, and bestow them on his disciples, at the same time. While he presents the golden censer at the altar of burnt-incense on high, he can extend the sceptre of mercy to the humble suppliant below. The work of intercession can occasion no delay in the communication of needed benefits; for to plead their bestowment, and actually to bestow them, are the work of the same moment.

The preceding remarks prepare us to hear of the earnestness of Christ's intercesssion. His skill, compassion, and promptitude, all suppose this. This is an essential property in successful pleading, whether for ourselves or for others. It is more apt, certainly, to occur in the former case than in the latter; many, who exhibit all the warmth of animation in petitioning for themselves, being cold enough in presenting requests for others. But it is not so in the present instance. Nothing can exceed the fervour of our Saviour's intercession. The earnestness he displayed in laying the foundation of our salvation in his sufferings on earth, when he was straitened till his bloody baptism should be accomplished, and used strong crying and tears, may be taken as a pledge that he will not be less earnest in carrying out his benevolent undertaking to its completion in heaven. The specimen of intercession which he gave before he left our world, so full of holy ardour and vehemence, may serve to give us some idea of the warmth with which the same work is conducted in the sanctuary above. The affection, too, which he bears to his people, cannot but give a peculiar eagerness to his supplications on their behalf. He bears them upon his heart, as the names of the children of Israel were engraven on the breastplate worn by the high priest of old when he went into the holy of holies; and the burning coals of fire with which the incensecenser was filled, were an apt, though faint representation, of the holy ardour with which the love of the Redeemer glows when he ministers as our intercessor before the throne of God. He is no cold selfish pleader; his soul is in the work; his prayers are the prayers of the heart; love prompts all his requests, selects the best arguments, and urges the strongest pleas. Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.' Yes, Christians, your prayers

6