When our Lord ascended to heaven, and took his station at the right hand of the Majesty on high, he did not sit down in idle grandeur, to receive homage without communicating blessedness, and to wait the restitution of all things, when his glory should be revealed to assembled worlds, without exerting himself personally with a view to this consummation; but he entered on a course of active benevolence, and on behalf of the inhabitants of the world he had just left. When expiring on the cross, he did, indeed, exclaim, "It is finished;" thereby intimating that his work was accomplished. And so it was accomplished, so far as substitution was concerned; for he had then fulfilled the Divine law, and suffered its penalty in our stead. But it was necessary that he should continue his offices for us; and to continue them for us was the purpose for which he went to heaven.

The manner in which he continues his offices for us in heaven, is that of making intercession

for us. Thus it is said, "He ever liveth to

make intercession for us ;" and, in allusion to the Jewish high-priest, who, having offered sacrifice for them, interceded for the people by burning

incense upon the golden altar, which was before the vail by the mercy-seat, Christ is represented as standing before a golden altar in heaven, and having much incense, that he may offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne.

A model of Christ's intercessory prayers we have, perhaps, in the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John, the prayer which he presented with and for his disciples, previously to his departure out of the world. In that prayer he prays that they may be kept from the evil of the world. Now as much of that evil arises from temptation, deliverance from temptation, or security against it, must form part of his intercessory prayer for us. But we have on record, in the case of Peter, a specific instance of Christ's praying for strength to overcome temptation :

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Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." The prayer which he thus presented for Peter, he may, and no doubt does, present for every individual of his people.

We are positively as

sured that he is ready to

act for us as an advo

cate with God, to procure for us pardon in case of actual sin: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Have we less reason to believe that he is ready to act for us as an intercessor, to secure for us grace to enable us to resist and overcome the influence of sin? in other words, that he is less desirous that we should altogether abstain from sin, than he is ready to procure for us the pardon of sin?

To what extent we are indebted to the intercession of Christ for successful resistance of temptation, it is impossible for us to say, because it is impossible for us, at all times, to say when we are the subjects of temptation; but it is not too much to say, that, in every instance in which we do not actually yield to temptation, we are indebted for the fortitude and courage we have exercised, and the victory we have obtained, to his intercession. And, perhaps, if it could be correctly ascertained, we should find that we were also, and to a considerable extent, under obligation to the intercession of Christ, even in those cases in which we have yielded to temptation. Grace may have been prayed for by him, and actually offered to us; but we have resisted

its operations, or abused its influence. Of Ephraim God said, "Let him alone,"-implying that his gracious influence had been exerted on his behalf, but that he had resisted it. In like manner, we may not avail ourselves of the advantage offered to us by Christ's intercession, and, on ac. count of our neglect of it, we fall into the snare of the devil.

But whether we realize the benefit to be derived from it or not, the intercession of Christ is equally valuable; and, to every one who is convinced of the evil of sin, who deplores the existence of sin in his own soul, and who is struggling to be free from sin, but who feels the enticements to it by which he is constantly surrounded; to every such individual it is a source of unmingled satisfaction, and tends much to embolden him to strive against sin-that Christ ever liveth, not only to make intercession for him, but to intercede expressly for grace to fortify him against temptation. He thus feels that, though he may be troubled on every side, he has no occasion for despair; for sin shall not have dominion over him, Christ being able to keep him from falling, and to present him faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

CHAPTER VI.

RESISTANCE OF TEMPTATION.

THE facts and circumstances of the preceding chapter must be of a most pleasing character to every individual who feels himself assailed by temptation, and is desirous of rising superior to it; for they discover to him that there is an agency in existence provided against temptation, by securing which he may himself rise superior to it. But then this agency does not act independently of us, but co-operates with us: our own previous effort it requires as an indispensable condition of acting. It seems, therefore, that, in order to our rising superior to temptation, we must resist it; the means by which it may be resisted we proceed to specify:

First, We should make ourselves acquainted with our situation as exposed to temptation. In circumstances of danger, it is of the first import