Jesus the Mediator

RULY the sinner, who is brought to feel something of hig unworthiness in the sight of a holy God, and can say with the Apostle, ‘“‘ The law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin’’—feels the necessity

for a mediator. But Jesus Christ is the only mediator, the only priest over the house of God, the only atoning sacrifice known in the Church of God, and made known by Divine revelation.

By Him the Spirit-taught people of God offer the fruit of their lips, giving thanks to His name, and therefore they aii are said to be a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ; and again, ‘‘a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Peter ii. 5, 9).

Nothing can possibly be required in a mediator or in a priest for a poor sinner that Jesus Christ is not. He is still a man, and better than any other man to confess to and to plead our cause; He is God as well as man. How precious and complete is the declaration of the Spirit by the Apostle, in Hebrews ii. 17: ‘‘ Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made /rke unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He 1s able to suecour them that are tempted.”

“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. vii. 25). What more can a needy sinner require than this?

22 CALVIN:

THE KEYS, OR OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

But does not James say, ‘‘ Confess your faults one to another ?”

Yes; but does this any more mean that. the people should confess to the priest than the priest to the people?

Surely the Apostle meant that we were to confess our faults to those against whom we had committed any offence..

But how can priests pardon sins unless they know what and how many there are?

We answer that priest, confessional, and absolution are altogether a human invention, without Divine right, and therefore a great fraud.;;

But did net Jesus say to Peter, ‘‘I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” etc.? And did He not breathe on His Apostles, and say, ‘‘ Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them?” (John xx. 22, 23).

Yes, certainly; but what were the keys? and how did Peter and the rest of the Apostles use them?

We ust not overlook the fact that Jesus first said, “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” and then follows, ‘ Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted,” aud turning to Acts x.43, we find Peter preaching Jesus, and saying, ‘‘ Through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins, and while he spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word.” It is therefore by the Holy Ghost blessing the preached or written - Word that the believer receives the remission of sins from his conscience, and is loosed from his burden. The whole of the sins of God’s chosen people were atoned for by the death of Christ, but the removal of guilt from the conscience is by the Spirit bearing witness with their spirits.

DOES THE CONFESSIONAL PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS?

Let those who have had experience of it speak for themselves. The Catechism, as we have heard, says, ‘‘ Nothing is so useful towards reformation of morals.”

The confessional is of pagan origin, but perhaps at the first adopted by the papacy with the hcpe that the shame of opening the secret thoughts and actions to a professedly religious minister, would check the abounding iniquity that every where prevailed soon after the Church of Rome usurped the authority over other churches. If this were so, time certainly proved it to. be a mistake. It, however, gave immense power to the clergy which they have never been willing to relinquish.

Pastor Chiniquy, the ‘‘Canadian Luther,” addressing the Popish vicar, says :—‘‘ With a blush on my face and regret in my heart, I confess before God and man, that I have been plunged twenty-three years in that bottomless sea of iniguity, through which the poor blind priests of Rome have to swim day and night. I was bound in conscience, as you are bound to-day, to put into the ears, the mind, the imagination, the heart, and the soul of females, questions of such a nature; the immediate and direct tendency of which—you know itis to fill the mind, the memory, and the hearts of both priests and females with thoughts, phantoms, and temptations of such a degrading nature, that I’ do not know any words adequate to express them. Pagan antiquity has never seen any institution more polluting to both soul and body. The confessional ts a school of perdition.”

Miss Eliza Smith, who was for five years a convert to Rome, says, ‘‘ Every delicate and better feeling prevents full delineation here. Nor am I blaming individuals; it is the system which is at fault. A system which teaches that things, at which degraded humanity must blush even at the remembrance of, should be laid open, dwelt upon and exposed in detail, to the sullied ears of a corrupt and fallen tellbw mortal, who of like passions with the penitent at his feet, is thereby exposed to temptations both dark and dangerous.

“ But what shall we say of woman! Draw a veil, oh! purity, modesty, and every feminine feeling,—a veil dark as oblivion over the sad outrages too often committed against thee..

‘‘T appeal to converts, to converts of the gentler sex, and ask them, fearlessly ask them, what was the first impression on their minds when some of the truths of the confessional struck home? Was not your first impression one of dread and bewilderment almost stunning, to be followed by a sense of humiliation and degradation, not easily to be defined or supported ?”

Let us hear the poet, and return to the more definite history of John Calvin.

“ Here sits the priest; and faint and low, Like the sighing of an evening breeze, Comes through those painted lattices The ceassless sound of human woe.

Here, while her bosom aches and throbs With deep and agonizing sobs,

That half are passion, half contrition, The luckless daughter of perdition Slowly confesses her secret shame—

The time, the place, the lover’s name! Here the grim murderer, with a groan, From his bruised conscience roll the stone, Thinking that thus he can atone

For ravages of sword and flame.

Indeed I marvel, and marvel greatly, How a priest can sit here so sedately, Reading the whole year out aniin, Naught but the catalogue of sin,

And still keep any faith whatever

In human virtue! Never! never!”

LoneFEe.tow’s Golden Legend.