God, which must be vindicated. He who commits the sin is made, sooner or later, to discover that he requires one holding the position of an advocate to plead for him at the judgment-bar. God is the Judge of all, as He is also the Father of believers. And therefore, if any believer have committed an act of sin, it becomes him to find his refuge in this grand truth, “We have an advocate with the Father."

III. The believers' advocate Jesus Christ the righteous.

This advocate, observe, is not the sinner himself. It is a common remark about law-courts, that "he who appears as his own advocate has a fool for his client." If this be true in an earthly court of justice, it is no less true in the court of heaven. For he who is arraigned at God's bar is altogether unfit to plead his own case. Let us here consider, first, the fitness or unfitness of the unbeliever for this work. (1) He is ignorant of God's law. The wicked say unto God, "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways." (2) He is ignorant of his own sin. "Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or athirst, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?" (3) He is ignorant of the ruin which sin works. "He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity." And (4) he is ignorant of the holiness and justice of God. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself." It is manifest that the unbeliever is altogether unfit to be his own advocate, and yet this is the office which those who reject Christ try to fill for themselves. It need not surprise us, therefore, if, when sentence is executed against them and they share the doom of the fallen angels, from the abyss of hell they should impugn the wisdom, goodness, and grace of God. "Nay father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent."

But the question may now perhaps be asked, 'Does the believer really require an advocate? He is not entirely ignorant of God's law and his own sin; he feels, in some degree, the misery which sin entails; and he acknowledges that "God is Light," as much as "He is Love," Does he, then, require an advocate, seeing he knows all this?' Yes, and just because he knows all this. For he feels that his knowledge of God's nature, and God's law, and his own sin, is very imperfect, and that his statement of them must partake of its imperfection. But, what is more to the point, his knowledge of these, however imperfect it may be, is yet sufficient to show him the utter hopelessness of his case. "He putteth

his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope." He prays for a daysman who may put his hand upon Judge and sinner, and the Father Himself has provided One. "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

Now, when I consider the character and work of this Advocate, I feel it will be wise for me, not to act as the Unitarian and try to plead my own case, but to leave my case entirely in His hands. And, in approaching Jesus Christ, I do not feel, with the Romanist, any need for the intercession of the Virgin, the prayers of glorified saints, or the intervention of a human priesthood. They who, in the least degree, rely on these, cast a sinful reflection, a dark shadow, over the advocacy of Christ. Why should I require the intercession of the Virgin? Is her love for the sinner greater than Christ's love? Is she more long-suffering, or more easy-to-be-entreated? Are there any misconceptions in the mind of Christ which she can remove? Perish the thought. Christ knows us, as God the Father knows us; Christ loves us with a love that is infinite and everlasting. And who can be more easyto-be-entreated than He who gives this gracious invitation," Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest?" We say, further, that when Christ appears before the Father on behalf of a believer who has sinned, it is not as an intercessor,—at least, such an intercessor as Mary and the saints are represented by the Romish Church. Christ must not be thought of as loving us more than the Father loves us, as more longsuffering, more easy-to-be-entreated, showing us more sympathy, or knowing better the weakness of our nature. In these, as in their power and glory, the Father and Son are equal. The Father loves us as dearly as the Son. "God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son." His only Begotten Son." This was the love which the Father bore to us, one that is only equalled by the Son's, who gave Himself. And, on the other hand, Christ hates sin, even as the Father hates it. It is He who shall say, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Hence, we repeat, when Christ appears before the Judge and Father for a believer who has sinned, it is not with any weak form of intercession, but as our Advocate at God's bar of judgment.

The accuser of

To that bar throng the witnesses against us. the brethren is there, with his train of malignant spirits. Conscience is also there. The accusation is supported, possibly by the evidence of our fellow-men, certainly by the law of God and books of remembrance written in heaven. And when hell, earth,

S

and heaven have all testified against us, the Advocate begins to plead.

Does He deny the evidence, or try to tone down its effect? Does He represent the sin as a small one, unworthy to be brought before God? Does He allege that the law is too strict, or the penalty greater than the offence warrants? Does He plead the previous good character of the accused, shewing how often or how long he has observed the law? Does He attribute the sin to the force of circumstances, the strength of the temptation, or the weakness of our moral nature? No. These are the pleasin-law which sinners urge who appear as their own advocates before God. But our advocate is Jesus Christ the righteous. And because He is righteous,—a righteous Advocate in heaven as He was a righteous Man on earth,-He will neither extenuate our sin, nor seek excuses for it in our circumstances or weak moral nature; nor will He charge the law or character of the Father with undue severity. He admits the sin; He approves of the law; he acknowledges the justice of the penalty; and yet, strange to say, He obtains for the accused a discharge from the bar. And why? Because He is the propitiation for our sin.

It is this which crowns the fitness of Christ for being the believer's Advocate. It is not His righteousness alone that fits Him. The unfallen angels are righteous, yet their advocacy would be of no avail. It is not because he came to earth, and gave us a revelation of, or from the Father. The angels, Moses, and the prophets have favoured us with a revelation, given under the Holy Spirit's influence. It is not because He gave us an example, that we should follow in His steps; nor because He was self-denying, even to death upon a cross. In these points, Jesus Christ would only stand higher than, but not outside the ranks of, mere men. No, it is because He is the propitiation for our sin -the sin-offering provided by God and approved of God-the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Unless Christ be the sin-offering, bearing away, in His body upon the tree, my sin,-suffering there, in my room and stead, the punishment incurred by my sin;-then, I say,-and this with the most profound reverence,-that all the suffering He endured in life, and all the agony of His cross in death, will not fit him for being an Advocate whose work shall bring rest and peace to my guilty soul. For-and here we sum up the course of our argument-I have sinned. Sin brings me to God's judgment-bar. There I require an advocate; one who can plead that the penalty

has been paid. Otherwise, the law must take its course, and I become an eternal outcast from the presence of God. But blessed be God who redeemeth our life from destruction; He has provided for us an Advocate whom He always hears, because that Advocate is righteous and also the propitiation-priest, altar, and sacrifice for our sin. If then, burdened with sin and guilt, we are at any time ready to halt, and almost ready to despair, let us think of Jesus Christ as our Advocate with the Judge and Father, the same who, on Calvary, laid down his life for us. Thus shall we be able, with another apostle, to raise the note of triumph: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Now we must close. We have dealt with the passage as referring exclusively to believers. Thus, we believe, the apostle intended we should deal with it. Is there, then, no word here for unbelievers, for those who may be out of Christ, but are anxious to be found in Him, not having their own righteousness, but that which is of God, through faith? Yes, in the words that follow-"Not for ours only, but also for the whole world." We do not understand this clause as touching upon the debated question, 'Whether Christ pleads for all, or only for some,' at least, we do not mean at present to deal with that point. We call upon the unregenerate not to perplex themselves with that question; it is one with which they have nothing to do, so long as they are outside the kingdom. What they should now consider is, that, if they are willing to be God's children, and desirous to be free from sin's curse and power, their way is open to them. The Advocate who pleads for an offending believer is also ready to plead for an anxious sinner. And for the latter, as for the former, there is no other Advocate. There is but "one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Let the anxious inquirer after salvation, then, meditate on this last clause: Christ is the propitiation for their sins, as well as for the sins of believers who have erred. The Advocate who pleads for believers so effectually that they are kept within the kingdom, is also ready to plead for the anxious sinner, that he may be admitted into the kingdom. That you may believe this, and trust to it, and act as those who in truth so believe and trust, is the prayer of the Church on your behalf. Amen.

GOD IS LOVE:

A SERMON.

BY

REV. JAMES ORR, B.D.,

HAWICK.

"God is love."-1 JOHN iv. 16.

GOD's world might teach us to hope,—God's Word alone can give us the immoveable certainty, that He in whom we live and move and have our being, the Author of this universal frame, whose presence is manifested in every part of it,-is Love. It seems to us so simple, so self-evident a proposition, that we may wonder how the faintest shadow of doubt could ever rest upon it. Yet it is unquestionable that, as proclaimed by Christianity, now eighteen hundred years ago, this truth, God is Love, burst on the world with all the power of a grand discovery. Unaided by the disclosures of God's character made in the person and work of Jesus Christ,—as in a less perfect form in the teaching of the law and prophets, it would seem to have been beyond man's strength, we do not say to rise to a firm persuasion of this truth, but even to frame an elementary conception of it. No single religion of antiquity, no one sage unenlightened by Revelation, ever attained to it. Those who did approach it thought that this good God could not be the Creator of the existing world. The nature-worships of the East found a multitude of powers in Creation, some beneficent, some noxious, some awful and avenging. Deifying all, they loved, feared, or propitiated each, according to its character. The bright sky, the fertilising rain, the sweet influences of dawn, were figured as genial deities, and hymns sung in praise of them were like far-off echoes of the saying of this text. But what could be said of the terrific earthquake, the dread simoon, the devastating flood, the glaring sun, withering the produce of the fields? If