(2) And then Sacrifice. We have no need to struggle any more to make-believe with sacrifices of bulls and goats. For us there is one real and eternal sacrifice, which unites for ever God and man. The precious Blood has been shed, poured out, because we men have sinned. But more than this; the Blood is offered and sprinkled, that we men may enjoy the strength of the new, the quickened Life. His is the one perfect Sacrifice for all mankind: He is the perfect Victim, and the perfect Priest. He has borne Human Nature up into the very Presence of God, like the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies; He has fulfilled the very purpose of all sacrifice-Union with God; and God raises us up together with Him, and makes us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

(3) And Righteousness. We can approach God now in that way also. For ever since Jesus Christ has departed, and the other Paraclete has come, the work of sanctification has been going on in the Church and the men who "were enemies, but now are reconciled," are being made holy, being cleansed and strengthened and conformed to the likeness of Christ. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." So it is written in the Book of Job. But a new power can come down, as at the Incarnation, and, beginning as a germ of a new life, can work out holiness even amidst unclean surroundings. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh "-yes, but also "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

One of the chief difficulties is not indifference but the desire of so many (like that of the "foolish Galatians ") to do instead of just "receiving" to have at least a hand in saving themselves. They are like Naaman the Syrian, who was ready and eager to do "some great thing" in order to be healed, but refused indignantly to wash in Jordan and so, without paying a shilling, be clean. The Moravian missionary, Peter Bohler, whose ministry to John Wesley was the immediate prelude to his conversion and so to the great Revival which his ministry began, thought this was peculiarly true of Englishmen. "Our way of believing," he wrote to Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian leader, "is so easy to Englishmen that they cannot reconcile themselves to it: if it were a little more artful, they would much sooner find their way into it." 1

¶ "Accustom yourself," says Fénelon, "gradually to let your mental prayer spread over all your daily external occupations. Speak, act, work quietly, as though you were praying, as indeed you 1 E. A. Burroughs, The Way of Peace, 76.

1

ought to be. Do everything without excitement, simply in the spirit of grace. So soon as you perceive natural activity gliding in, recall yourself quietly into the Presence of God. . . . You will find yourself infinitely more quiet, your words will be fewer and more effectual, and, while doing less, what you do will be more profitable. It is not a question of a hopeless mental activity, but a question of acquiring a quietude and peace in which you readily advise with your Beloved as to all you have to do." 1

Thou, O Elder Brother, Who

In Thy flesh our trials knew :
Thou, Who hast been touched by these
Our most sad infirmities;

Thou alone the gulf canst span

In the dual heart of man,

And between the soul and sense
Reconcile all difference.

Change the dream of "me" and "mine,"
For the truth of "Thee" and "Thine,"
And through chaos, doubt, and strife,
Intersperse Thy calm of Life.2

4. The fountain of our peace is the Cross of Jesus Christ. "He made peace through the blood of the Cross." "We are reconciled to God through the death of the Son." In ascribing, indeed, peace to the Cross we do so in no exclusive sense. We base our reconciliation with God on no single act of our Lord's human life. Christ Himself is the rock on which we build. Christ Himself being perfect God and perfect Man is the bridge which spans the gulf between God and man; or rather, in His person that gulf has ceased to exist. But the Cross is the crowning act of the life of humiliation and suffering the life of a man amongst men. Whilst His whole life was a ing-the sacrifice and oblation of Himself for the sins of the whole world, the death on the Cross was the completion of His redemptive and atoning work. His blood was the ransom which He paid; it was at His death He "blotted out the handwriting of ordinances which was against us, and which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross." Upon the altar of the Cross He suffered to redeem our loss. It is for these reasons that our salvation is so commonly and particularly ascribed to Christ's death.

1 E. A. Burroughs, The Way of Peace, 91.

2 Whittier.

The Peace promised before the Cross and announced in the Resurrection, has its central point of realization in the Cross itself. So St. Paul says, in writing to the Colossians, that He was "to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace by the blood of his Cross," from which we see that the Cross has become oracular, it is a talking Cross, and the blood of the Cross-" the blood of sprinkling speaks better things than that of Abel"; for one reason, because sacrifice is more oracular than murder. In the same way St. Paul says in the Epistle to the Ephesians that "we who were once afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ; for he is our peace, who makes both one." Here, again, it is Christ crucified that is oracular and vocal, so that we may, if we please, imagine that the words "Peace I leave with you," spoken under the shadow of the Cross, were spoken from the Cross itself, and that He had re-opened the lips that were closed in death to give them at once the resurrection greeting, and say, "Peace be unto you." The fifth chapter of Romans also is written from the viewpoint of the Cross; it opens with, "We are justified by faith, and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." When we examine to see how this justifying faith, which is also the peaceproducing faith, is itself produced, we see from the last verse of the previous chapter that "He was delivered up for our transgressions, and raised again for our justification. Therefore. . . we have peace." The objectivity of peace is the testator on his death-bed, with the signed document in his hand, the subjectivity of peace is that we are united to him by faith and share his conditions.

My Soul, there is a countrie
Afar beyond the stars,
Where stands a winged Sentrie
All skilful in the wars.

There, above noise and danger,

Sweet peace sits, crown'd with smiles,

And One born in a manger

Commands the beauteous files.

He is thy gracious friend
And (O my Soul awake!)
Did in pure love descend,

To die here for thy sake.

If thou canst get but thither,

There growes the flowre of peace,

The rose that cannot wither,

Thy fortresse, and thy ease.
Leave then thy foolish ranges;
For none can thee secure,
But One, who never changes,

Thy God, thy Life, thy Cure.1

5. But, we must remember, it was no private act of the second Person of the Trinity as opposed to the other two. Such a thing is inconceivable in the Blessed Trinity; whatever the Son does, He does in union with the Father, and with the co-operation of the Holy Ghost. There can be no division between the Persons, no conflict of Wills, for of necessity the Three are One, and will the same thing always.

This is the gospel of reconciliation. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have met in their divine omnipotence to rescue man. It does not float in the mere atmosphere of theory. It is brought close to the heart that will receive it by all those languages which the heart knows best. The love of the Father is interpreted by all the tokens of His love which appeal to the lower lives. All nature, with her voices of beneficence, claims the Son for His Father. All the capacities of thought and feeling which are in Him assert the Father whom they echo and from whom they came. And the redeeming Son is full of pitiful and powerful appeal by the tragedy of His cross. While He is conquering man out of his rebellion, He is at the same time winning his heart by suffering for him. And the Spirit who has brought Christ to us has shed His influence out of every most familiar and appealing thing.

¶ As the sun that lightens us makes all the objects round us the reflectors and distributors of his radiance, and so brings his light to us clothed with the clearness that belongs to them, so to the Christian the Spirit of his Saviour seems to have subsidized everything to make some new and more perfect revelation of Him. The home relations and the things in nature, our books, our friends, our thoughts, have all been made interpreters of Christ. Oh, there are times when, as one sits in meditation or moves quietly about in work for Jesus-when all this seems so rich and plain. A beautiful, serene simplicity seems to come forth out of this complicated snarl. We catch the music of one great pervading purpose in all this tumult and clatter. It is all redemption working out its plans.

1 Vaughan.

God made that hillside so perfect in order that He might show me His fatherly love. Christ gave me this task to do that I might understand His self-sacrifice for me. The Spirit brought me into my friend's friendship that it might so interpret to me the friendship of my God. At such times all seems plain. The world is for the sons of God, and all that goes on in the world is reclaiming and training their sonship. The whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Those are the times when the world is ideal and beautiful and sacred.1

II.

JUSTIFICATION.

1. Peace with God is ours by our simple acceptance of it through faith. Christ Jesus "having made peace through the blood of His cross," our reconciliation with the Father is already accomplished. Faith has only to accept it and rest in it as a part of the Redeemer's finished work. Here is a matter of fact, not a matter of feeling. Faith does not create anything or change anything; it simply apprehends what is and counts it true.

The lightning's flash did not create
The lovely prospect it revealed;

It only showed the real state

Of what the darkness had concealed.

"O Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." The wondrous things are there already -atonement, redemption, peace all these peace all these are accomplished realities, standing for their support alone in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We only need sight to behold them, and a believing trust to rest in them. When after a foreign war our nation had sent ambassadors abroad to treat with the foe, and they had returned, only the one word "Peace," was shouted out from the ship that brought them into harbour, and in a few hours all the city was thrilling with joyful congratulations. It was the truth that a reconciliation had been effected that brought this happy

1 Phillips Brooks, Sermons for the Principal Festivals and Feasts for the Church Year, 105.