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12 THE PRESBYTERIAN
| Young People's Societies
CROSSING THE RIVER.
Topic for Sunday, December 12: Pilgrim's Progress Series.
XII. Crossing the River. 1 Corinthians 15:31-38; Hebrews
2:14-18.
DAILY READINGS.
Monday: Fear of death. Isaiah 38:1-21.
Tuesday: The Lord of death. Isaiah 43:1,2.
Wednesday: Looking beyond death. 2 Cor. 4:16-18.
Thursday: The gate to the better life. 2 Timothy 4:6-8.
Friday: An immortal heritage. 1 Peter 1:1-6.
Saturday: The promise of Jesus. John 14:1-10.
' The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
"For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his
feet." Christ is the conqueror.
He took part of flesh and blood, "that through death he
might destroy him that had the power of death?that is, the
devil."
"I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
The fear of death is born, first, of ignorance of its nature.
It is the opening of a door to new and more glorious things
just as much as it is a closing of the scenes of this life.
It is born again of consciousness of guilt. But if that guilt
is all taken away, as it is if we have the righteousness of
Christ, why should it hang over us still to shadow the pas
sage iu lue oilier siue : .
"The sting of death 13 sin, and the strength of sin is the
law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ." The Christian has the right
to sing, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory"?
Many speak of what they call "dying grace", and pray for
it. This may be well. It has been added, however, that the
best guaranty of dying grace is the presence of living grace.
If we have grace to live by, we may be right sure that we
shall have grace to die by.
The River of Death will be made passable. The Jordan
was fordable, even at floodtime, when the occasion came for
God's people to pass over it into Canaan. God's promise of
all things to his people surely includes this last scene and all
that will be needful to carry one happily through it.
The shrinking in the last hour and the dread of it must be
all physical. We believe, long before death approaches, that
ire suuuiu nuv anuw iub uiguer nature to De aominated Dy
the lower. Why should we not carry this to the very end, to
the last crisis? The spiritual nature is just as important
then as ever, and the physical nature as unimportant.
If the thought of sin, in the dying hour, unnerves the believer,
why should not the thought of his Saviour buoy him
up? That One who is a "very .present help in trouble" is as
near as ever, and he is more than a Helper, he is a Saviour.
He gave himself for the believer, and put to the believer's
credit the tulness of his righteousness. What, then, has the
dying believer to fear? His sins have been laid on Christ.
Christ passed through the grave. He is the earnest and
pledge of the believer's resurrection. He is the "firstfruit of
them that slept". Those who follow him, to share in all that
he accomplished, are to share in his victory over death and
the grave. Our faith is small if it will not grasp the Saviour
AR "n whnlo Saviour" nhlo aava "ava-n lint/, tlin .ittnnrv././.*
all who come unto God by him".
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and
thy staff they comfort me."
Away In foreign lands they wondered how
Their single word had power!
At home the Christians, two or three, had met,
To pray an hour!
?Francis M. Nesbit.
OF THE SOUTH. December i, 1909.
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Prayer Meeting
TOPIC?THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT.
Week Beginning December 5. Heb. 9:11-15.
The design of the epistle to the Hebrews is to show to the
Jewish readers, to whom it was addressed, the supreme excellence
of Christ. To impress this essential and comprehensive
truth of the gospel, Christ is compared to all those beingsand
institutions that were reearded as most snoroH anrf moot
highly esteemed by them, and his superiority to all is demonstrated
both by appeal to prophecy and to what Christ
actually did and was.
In the foregoing context the inspired writer indicates the
imperfection and temporariness of many of the rites, ordinances
and institutions which the Jews had justly revered,
but upon which they had placed far too great emphasis and
which they had come, to regard as final and permanent.
It is shown that the services of the priesthood were incomplete
and inadequate. Into the first tabernacle the priests
went continually, and the high priest once a year, indicating
that a perfect sacrifice had not yet been offered, "The Holy
Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was
not yet made manifest." There were gifts and sacrifices
offered which could not make him that did the service perfect
as pertaining to the conscience. The formal worship that was
rendered was called "carnal ordinances imposed until the
time of reformation".
In contrast with the inadequacy of this ceremonialism,
which had its value as a means of instruction and as a form
of phophecy, as well as procuring ceremonial righteousness,
Christ had become a High Priest of good things to come, by
a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this (human) building, and the offering
which he made was not "the blood of goats and calves, but
by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption". In verse 13 it is recognized
that the blood of animals and ceremonial cleansing did
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh. That is, they served
the purpose of removing ceremonial guilt and defilement,
which disqualified for accepted worship. But if these forms
of cleansing, which was external and mediate, were efficacious
for their purpose, "how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot
to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God!"
"For this cause"?that is, because through the eternal
Spirit he made a sacrifice of his perfectly holy life to God?
"he is the Mediator of the new covenant".
Having offered a sacrifice of infinite efllcacv nnri norfscMnn
being himself priest and victim and altar and temple, his
work is regarded as the seal and consummation of a new
covenant, which comprehends in Its provisions not only the
needs of those who should accept him after this new covenant
is completed in all its requirements and is ratified, but
all believers who lived under the old covenant, which was
one of promise and whose provisions were not finally fulfilled
while that covenant was in force, but only ceremonially typified.
"For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins." Christ's death was "for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first
covenant", that all that are called, both those that were before
and those that should come after, "might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance".
We are here told of a covenant. existing hotwaan n^A *~a
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man, which Is perfect In all its provisions by virtue of which
he is able to save unto the uttermost all that come to God by
him. It is true that guilty and lost man had no part in framing
this covenant. Its terms were not suggested nor assented
to by him. But it is also true that its provisions are such as
Tnake no requirements of guilty man except to receive by
faith the benefits of that covenant. He has no part in the
redemptive work other than receiving pardon and the re