successful. Be assured of this, the cause must succeed: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will carry it forward. Be it therefore your aim to be found each steadily and perseveringly pressing onward and onward in the great work, relaxing no effort after any failure, but only renewing our exertions: after any success only doubling our efforts: and then whatever portion of success we may achieve in this great and holy cause during our pilgrimage, may we be enabled at last, when we are called to quit this scene, to say, "I have fought a good fight:" and graciously and condescendingly may we hear the Savicar's voice responding Wel! done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lo

CHRIST OUR ADVOCATE.

REV. JAMES WILLIAMS A.B.

ST. ANNE'S CHURCH, LIMEHOUSE, MAY 31 1895

If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the propitiation for pur sins."-1 JOHN, ii. 1, 2.

WHEN the children of Israel were engaged in battle with Amalek they were strengthened and encouraged, amid the heat and severity of the conflict, by the sight of Moses, who stood or an adjacent mountain with hands uplifted in supplication to God for their success and victory. Christians, while traversing the wilderness of life, have to maintain an unceasing warfare with enemies numerous, powerful, and sɩ tle. Whither, brethren, shall we look in the hour of assault and danger for aid and protection? Whither, but to those holy and everlasting hills to which our glorified Redeemer has ascended to plead our cause and make intercession for us? Were the prayers of Moses—a fallen, sinful creature like ourselves-accepted in behalf of the Israelites, and shall not the pleading of Jesus have power with God and prevail? Were they animated by a remembrance of his intercession, and shall a disciple of Christ faint and be weary, when an Almighty and Ever-living Saviour has left upon record that precious promise-" I will pray the Father for you?" "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.' The look of faith, and the cry of prayer to Christ exalted to his heavenly throne, can never fail to inspire the heart with confidence in temptation's darkest

four.

But there are some seasons when the Christian finds it difficult, perhaps impossible, to exercise either faith or prayer: I mean when through infirmity he has fallen into sin. For then Satan instantly tempts the soul to despair: he represents this partial failure as an evidence that there is not, and never was, any true grace in the heart, but that the man has been all along deceiving himself: he will use his utmost efforts to keep the soul from returning to God, its rest, by whispering that it is all in vain, that our case is hopeless, that the immortal crown is forfeited for ever. "Thou shalt surely die," says the tempter. Now this is precisely the case supposed in the text: "If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He Is the propitiation for our sins,"

Let us consider, first, our danger; and secondly, our security.

We are every moment prone to transgression. It is admitted, indeed, that

he who abideth in Christ sinneth not. So long as we look unto Jesus we are safe; for while the soul hangeth upon him, his right hand upholdeth it. The prayer of faith renders the feeblest saint invulnerable. But alas! we are not always watching unto prayer: the merest trifle is often sufficient to divert us from the exercise of dependence on a Saviour's power and love; and then it is that the enemy comes in hastily "like a flood," and finds us weak and incapable of resistance. He obtains the mastery, so far as to involve us in the transgression of some known commandment, and then he is unwearied in his efforts to follow up the advantage he has gained. “If any man sin”—the matter ends not there. The successful emissary of the Prince of Darkness, flushed with the victory he has won, conveys the tidings to the gates of hell, and thence again the report is carried, with malignant triumph, to the courts of heaven, where the crime, with all its aggravations, is importunately urged, as affording just occasion for the condemnation of the sinner. The indictment is publicly preferred, the inconsistency of our lives is alleged as a proof of the insincerity of our professions, the defectiveness of our works is objected to the reality of our faith, and the accuser, maintaining upon this ground that we are not Christ's, demands, from the justice of God, that sentence be forthwith pronounced upon us, and that we be delivered over to the punishment which our sins have righteously deserved. O, my brethren, could we but take a survey of all the consequences to which every act of transgression on our part, gives birth in the unseen world, we should feel a force in these words of the Apostle, "If any man sin"-which would prepare our hearts to contemplate with admiring gratitude, the provision which, even in such a case, is made for

OUR SECURITY.

"We have an Advocate with the Father."

The law of God doth not condemn any man before it hears him; and as the accused cannot appear in the court of heaven to answer for themselves, they are heard there in the person of their Advocate. And who is this that appears to meet the charge, to rebuke Satan, and to deliver the sinner from his grasp? It is Jesus, who is engaged on behalf of his people, to confront their accuser. The sinner is convicted, his guilt is established, justice is about to take its course, when lo! an Advocate, "one like unto the Son of God," appears and claims the sinner for his own. "Is he not one for whom I laid down my life? Is he not given to me of my Father? Have I not purchased him with my own blood? Have I not made an atonement and fulfilled all righteousness for him? 1 demand his acquittal by virtue of my full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice offered upon Mount Calvary, and accepted by my Father. I have loved him with an everlasting love. He is mine. This is a brand plucked out of the fire !"

O, what an antidote have we here to the despondency of an awakened, guilty conscience! My Christian brethren, whenever you are conscious of any particular deviation from the path of duty, fly at once to the fountain ever open for sin and uncleanness. Prostrat yourselves before him who, as a merciful and faithful High Priest, espouses the cause of the trembling supplicant. Say, "Lord I am oppressed, undertake for me," and Jesus shall become your "Advocate with the Father." How encouraging it is to reflect, that he sitteth upon the mercy-seat to receive the prayers of his people, and that every petition which they lay before him he adopts and presents to the throne of God as his

own request! Well might the Apostle say, "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need!"

But the Christian's security will be yet further evident if you consider, that the qualifications of his Advocate are such as cannot fail to insure success. There are three qualifications requisite to constitute a powerful and successful advocate.

The first is zeal. If your property, your reputation, or your life were at stake, whom would you employ to plead your cause? Certainly not your enemy; nor yet one whom you even suspected of indifference to your interests. Every man who has a matter before a judge, will try to procure an advocate who is zealously affected in his favour; under the just conviction, that without some measure of zeal, his cause, humanly speaking, will be lost. Where, in this respect, will you find an advocate so admirably qualified for his office as our blessed Saviour? Think, my brethren, of his love to your souls-how free! Without waiting to be solicited," without money and without price," he stood forward as our Surety, to arrest the arm of justice, just as it was lifted up for our destruction. Then it was that " he looked and there was no man, and he wondered that there was none to redeem; therefore his own arm brought salvation." Consider, too, at how great a price he purchased our deliverance from a state of guilt and condemnation: “He redeemed us to God by his blood." And will he not value that for which he has paid so dear? Will he not plead for that for which he agonized and died? What if you had spent a long life in acquiring a property, would you be willing to have it wrested from you? What if you had expended all your money in the purchase of an estate, would you quietly submit to be deprived of it? Nay, if the lives of your best loved friends, or of the children of your bosom were in danger, could you hold your peace? No, the fire would kindle, love would make you eloquent, it would fill your mouth with arguments. O, then, my brethren, think of the love of Jesus: think of the relation in which he stands to you. It is your Shepherd, your Friend, your Brother, your Husband, who is your Advocate with the Father. How, then, can he be otherwise than zealously affected in your cause? If you knew that the power to grant your desires, to answer your prayers, were vested in the hand of some warm-hearted, earthly friend, you would assure yourself that you had only to ask in order to receive. O, why should not this assurance be multiplied a thousand times with respect to Christ? Where is the earthly friend willing to die for you? Where is the fellow mortal, however beloved, who is not subject to caprice and change? But here is " a friend that loveth at all times"-a friend who "has commended his love towards you in that while you were yet sinners" he gave himself to suffering and death for your sake. Then be not faithless but believing.

But there is another qualification for the work of an advocate no less necessary than zeal: I mean,

Secondly, wisdom. Indeed the most ardent affection, if it be not regulated and controlled by a sound judgment, will commonly prove injurious to the cause which it endeavours to support. As the ability of a general consists much in

the skill with which he chooses his position and disposes of his troops, so an advocate has need of wisdom to direct him in selecting the ground on which he may, with most advantage to his client, stand up in his defence. What consummate wisdom did Moses display in pleading the cause of Israel on that memorable occasion "when they made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the golden image." "Let me alone," said Jehovah, " that I may consume them in a moment.” "But Moses besought the Lord his God." He pleaded his past mercies, the honour of His own great Name, his promise to Abraham and his seed; and the plea was irresistible: "The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people, and he did it not." But in the text we have one greater than Moses, even Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When pleading on the cross for the pardon of his murderers, with what judicious dexterity did Jesus avail himself of the only extenuating circumstance which their case admitted: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And is it possible that he should be at a loss for arguments as the Advocate of his brethren and his friends? "Father," he will say, "these have fled for refuge to the sanctuary of my cross. They have appeared before the throne of grace and there confessed their sin. They have committed their cause into my hands. Though their feet have slipped, their faith does not fail they still trust in me, and thou hast promised that such shall never be confounded. I own them as my disciples; I confess them before thee and the holy angels; I claim for them the benefit of my cross and passion. Be thou merciful to their transgressions and remember their sins no more."

But this leads me to remark, that in order to preclude all possibility of failure, there is one more qualification requisite in an advocate; and that is, Thirdly, merit. The intercession of one who has a claim upon the person with whom he pleads, partakes of the nature of a command. It has a force which is irresistible. Had you a favour to solicit of the government of your zountry, had you to move the clemency of the Sovereign on behalf of some poor convict who, by the transgression of the law, had incurred the penalty of death, whom could you employ to carry a petition to the throne with so much probability of success as some faithful servant of the crown, whose time and talents had been entirely devoted to the service of his royal master; or some veteran soldier who had spilled his blood and jeoparded his life in leading forth the armies of his country to the conquest of her enemies? By securing the offices of such an advocate at court, you would be involving the honour of the crown in the result of the application.

It is recorded of two brothers, Eschylus and Amynias, who dwelt at Athens, that the former, having been accused of impiety by his countrymen, was condemned to be put to death. But in the moment when he was about to be led to execution, the latter, who had lost his right hand in the battle of Salamis, an occasion on which he had been signally instrumental in contributing to the success of the Athenian arms, suddenly presented himself before the judges, and drawing his wounded limb from beneath his cloak, exhibited it to their view. The remembrance of his important services was revived in the minds of the spectators; his claims upon the state were felt; and the silent eloquence of his wounds so powerfully affected the judges, that, in consideration of the exploits that Amynias had performed, and the sufferings which he had endured in fighting the battles of his country, they revoked their