In this view, faith receives Christ for "wisdom;" for the supply of the first great want of which the soul becomes conscious. "What wouldst thou that I should do unto thee?" asks a compassionate Redeemer. "Lord, that I may receive my sight," is the reply of one who has been brought by Divine grace to mourn over his natural blindness to the things of God. Faith sees that "through the tender mercy of God, the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace." Faith hears the voice of the Son of God, crying, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

2. Faith sees Christ as an atoning Priest, and receives him for "righteousness." In the supply of its first want, the soul is made conscious of a second, and a greater. The fearful sound "wrath to come" is ringing in the ear of the sinner, and he knows not how to escape it. He is awakened to a sense of his guilt and danger. He feels that he is accursed of God, justly accursed, for he has broken a law that is holy, and just, and good. He cannot escape from the dreadful presence of God, which he now feels to be the great reality. Darkness cannot hide him, distance cannot separate him, death and hell cannot shield him from the power of that offended Judge,

whose goodness he has abused, whose commands he has dishonored, and whose warnings he has despised.

Conscience may so tremble before God for a little while, but faith sees that Christ has offered an infinite satisfaction and brought in an everlasting righteous ness; a righteousness which is as the waves of the sea-broad and deep as the ocean, which no creature can measure or exhaust-the emblem of immensity, the emblem of eternity.

Since it is in view of the priestly sacrifice and intercession of Christ that we receive all blessings from Father, Son, and Spirit—since it is especially upon this that the condemned soul fastens as a ground of hope, we may be more specific here.

The whole object of the ancient priesthood and sacrifice was to set forth, in living pictures, the great doctrine of forgiveness, through the substitution of another in the sinner's place. It was designed in those ordinances, to hold up before successive generations the truth, that there is no acceptance with God, except in view of a full satisfaction to his justice, offered either by the actual transgressor, or by another in his stead. There was, indeed, under the ancient law, no true priesthood, and no true sacrifice for sin. Neither could a sinful man be an efficient mediator for others before a holy God, nor could the blood of bulls and of goats take away sin. Those offerings could give comfort to the soul, only as the

faith of the worshiper penetrated the true meaning of the outward form, and saw in the bleeding victim and sacrificing priest the foreshadowing of a perfect atonement, and of an effectual mediation. In every animal whose blood streamed from the altar, or was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, there was a new proclamation that our salvation must be procured, not by works of righteousness which we have done, nor by personal suffering for sin, but by the righteousness and sufferings of some great representative, appointed and accepted for this very purpose, that he might reconcile us to God.

The same truth was significantly taught, when, on the great day of atonement, while one goat was offered as a sin-offering, the hands of the high priest were laid upon the head of another, the sins of the whole congregation were confessed over him, "putting them upon his head;" and he was then sent away into the wilderness, bearing an imaginary burden of guilt, which had thus been transferred from the real culprit to this his representative, under a dispensation of figures and similitudes.

What did it all mean, but to direct our eyes to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world;" to him who "was made sin for us though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;" to him who "bare our sins in his own body on the tree?" "Surely he hath borne

our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

And now for the relief of our fears there is exhibited to our view, not a succession of feeble and sinful men who cannot even atone for their own guilt, but one great, only High Priest, whose Divine nature exempts him from personal obligation to the law, and gives us the strongest possible assurance of the success of his mediation. We see, too, in the death of Christ, not the blood of sacrifices which " can never make the comers thereunto perfect," though repeated a thousand times, but one, sufficient, true, and eternal sacrifice "of the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." The comfort which we receive in the Gospel, depends principally upon a discovery of the glory and grace of this great High Priest and Mediator, not as giving a merely general exhibition of the wrath of God against sin, and honoring the law in its precept and penalty, but as standing in a special relation to all who believe on him, as their substitute and representative, who in their stead has satisfied all the claims of Divine jus

tice, and reconciled them to God. They may feel that in consequence of what Jesus has done and suffered for them, God is become their Father in Christ, "not imputing their trespasses unto them." If the death of Christ is any thing to us, or ever shall be, it is every thing—a finished and accepted satisfaction, a full and acknowledged payment, entitling us to an eternal discharge from all pains and liabilities arising from our transgression of the law, at whatever moment we choose to claim it. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Another important part of the priestly office of Christ, which faith regards with unutterable satisfaction, is his intercession before the throne of God in behalf of his people.

It was not enough on the great day of national sacrifice, that the High Priest should offer the victim appointed by law upon the altar in the outer court. He, and he only, must bear the blood into the holy place within the vail, that there he might present it unto God, sprinkling it upon and before the mercyseat. And what did this mean, but that Jesus Christ having, "through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God," having shed his own precious blood, and borne the punishment due to our sins in the garden and on the Cross, has now ascended on high into the heaven of heavens, the place of the immediate presence and ineffable glory of