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descending to the fight, may be granted to those who are struggling hard with the Accuser. At all events they will prevail at last; for God has made the death of His Son the Gospel of peace to men with Him, and the Gospel of everlasting woe and damnation to every power which would divide men from Him.

SERMON XVI.

CHRIST THE ADVOCATE.

(Lincoln's Inn, 5th Sunday after Trinity, July 16, 1854.)

1 JOHN II. 1, 2.

'My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'

I Do not know whether we ought to complain of our translators for rendering the same word 'Advocate' in this passage, which they rendered 'Comforter' in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of St. John's Gospel. It was not a sufficient reason for introducing a new word, that the subject which is brought before us here is different from the one of which our Lord is speaking to His disciples there. St. John might have thought that it was very desirable and important to denote the Spirit of Truth, who should testify of Christ, who should bring all things to the remembrance of the disciples, who should convince the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment, by the very same title

which he gives here to Jesus Christ the Righteous.

Interpreters have no business, in any case, to act as if they were wiser than their author, and to guard against confusion by departing from the course which he has adopted. But, on the other hand, the translators may have felt that the word which they had selected, not without strong warrant of reason, in the Gospel, would not convey the full sense of the Epistle. They must have reflected, that if etymology was the only thing to be considered, no word could be so accurate as Advocate-one who is called to our aid-to represent the force of Παράκλητος. But they may have reflected also that it had acquired, from use, a signification which corresponded far less happily to the description which is given of the work of the Divine Spirit; whereas, every part of that description signifies comfort or strength, which the weak, who are unable to speak for themselves, derive from the presence of a friend and helper. In the passage before us, they may have dreaded less the technical associations with the word Advocate; they may have felt that, in its primary meaning, it was what they required, and that the phrase 'Comforter' would have been quite out of place. I own I should have thought them more cautious and more reverent, if they had chosen their equivalent carefully, and then had rigidly adhered to it, at least when they were translating from St. John; but so much is to be learnt from their variations, not only respecting the

processes of their own minds and the history of theology, but respecting the truths which the Bible sets forth, that we may have possibly full compensation for their error, if error it is to be called.

I have touched upon this point, because it has an important bearing upon the meaning of the text, and also because it connects the subject upon which I wish to speak to-day with that of which I spoke last Sunday. The Accusing Spirit who is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews to have had the power of death till Christ tasted death for every man, misrepresents the mind and will of God towards us, the acts and dispositions of our fellow-creatures, our own moral condition. He leads us to suspect an enemy in our Father, an enemy in every brother, an enemy in our own heart. The more we know of these inward accusations, of their subtle complications, of the way in which they pervert the most undoubted facts, and the most authentic witnesses of our consciences into falsehoods, and arguments to evil-the more horror we feel of a power near to us, acquainted with our secrets, bent upon our ruin. We may state the conviction to ourselves in the most various forms; but we have it one and all, and we cannot shake it off. No; nor is there any emancipation from it, but in the acknowledgment of that other Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who is also with us, who is also acquainted with all that is passing in us, who knows recesses in our spirits which the other does not know, who reveals to us God as a

Father; those whom we had taken to be His enemies and ours, as belonging to a family which He has begotten and redeemed; ourselves as members of that family. To have such a Spirit ever near, ever ready to come when we call upon Him, able to lay bare the sophistries by which the Spirit of distrust and lies is urging us to despair, able to show in every fact which is the excuse for his sophistries, arguments for confidence and hope— this, indeed, is the fulfilment of the promise-'I will send you an Advocate (or Comforter), who shall abide with you for ever.

But our Lord says 'He shall not speak of Himself; He shall testify of me.' What do these words signify? The accusing Spirit forces us into the understanding of them. He says to us-'You may have good

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desires, right impulses, divine resolutions; these may 'be inspired by some gracious power. But though God 'vouchsafes all these benignant influences to you, you are not really nearer to Him than you were before. 'A chasm, which none has traversed, divides you from 'Him. Who shall ascend up on high into that myste'rious world of light where He dwells? Perhaps, the gifts which He bestows on your minds and hearts may 'have something more wonderful and celestial in them 'than the gifts of corn and wine which He bestows on 'your bodies; but they do not constitute any closer 'bond between you and Him than those do. One man 'has more of them than another, but how miserably

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