within men, inclining God to forgive their past sins, but the advocacy which is exerted by Jesus himself in behalf of men who are still sinners, in whom his spirit does not dwell. The propitiation which he had in mind was not merely the influence which Christ exerts upon God in favor of his own disciples, but that which he exercises in favor of all men. And it is blessedly true that there is such an influence.

It is an inestimably precious truth that Christ is not only the cause of a change in God's feeling towards us when, through his influence, we repent of our sins, but that he is also the cause of God's antecedent willingness to forgive us on condition of penitence; or, in other words, that he is the cause not only of that particular propitiousness which consists in God's actual forgiveness of our sins, but of that general propitiousness with which He regards us even before He forgives us, while we are yet in our sins, and which underlies His entire treatment of us. In short, let us not hold back from saying that, in a true and very precious sense, Christ is the cause of God's love to us, because of what he is with reference to us our spiritual Head, and the representative before God of the perfect manhood to which we shall finally come. As the first man Adam was a representative of the whole race in respect to their sinfulness and general imperfection, so Christ is the representative of all mankind in respect to their better possibilities and the perfection to which they will attain in the future; and it is because of this fact that God loves them so. In Christ God sees a realization of the divine possibilities which exist in even the worst of men; and for the sake of the Christlike man that shall be, which is prospectively in every one of them, He loves them and is willing to bear patiently with them, and not only to forgive them when they repent of their sins, but to assist them in every way which is possible. He imputes to them the perfect manhood which Jesus Christ already shows, and for the sake of that righteousness is propitiously inclined to them, just as a potter imputes to the rude clay in his hand the fair proportions of the finished vessel which serves as his model, and

therefore does not throw it away, but patiently bestows his labor on it, no matter how reluctantly it may yield to his touch; or just as a mother, bending above her cradled child, imputes to it the strength and graces of the man or the woman into whom it will grow, and for the sake of that maturity is willing to toil for it, and to educate it, and to be kind to it, even when for its transgressions she must be displeased with it and punish it. The finished vessel is an advocate for the rude clay in the potter's hand: it pleads with the potter not to throw the clay away, but to be propitious toward it. The ideal man or woman is an advocate for the ignorant, disobedient child, pleading for its education, its repeated forgiveness, its patient treatment in its parents' house. And even so Jesus Christ is an advocate with the Father for weak, imperfect, sinful men. He pleads not that he has recompensed God for their sins, not that he has borne the punishment due to their sins, nor even that he died for them on Calvary, except as that fact is involved in his history and shows his true character. He puts forward no argument based on any contract express or implied. He puts himself forward as the best of all arguments, inciting God to forgive mankind and to continue His grace to them, not in return for anything that he has done, but in consideration of what he is their spiritual representative, the exponent of their possibilities, the example of what may be finally made of them. By this living argument, this personal plea, this direct illustration of the worth of mankind, he makes God to be propitious to them, so that, even though they sin against Him, He will not cast them off forever, but though He cause grief will have compassion upon them, and provide a way for them to obtain life eternal at last.

If it be asked whether God did not love mankind before the. birth of Jesus Christ just as truly and compassionately as since that event, the answer is, Of course He did, because from the time when He created mankind, and, indeed, from eternity, He had Christ in mind as their representative. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He had glory with the Father before the world was; and then, as

now, God saw in him the perfect pattern of righteousness to which at last all human souls shall be conformed. Were it not for this fact it may fairly be doubted whether God would have ever created mankind. It may be doubted if He would have made a race of beings who would sin against Him as mankind do, a race so imperfect, so rebellious, and some of whose members are so grossly iniquitous, so vile beyond measure, unless He had had something better in view. For Christ's sake He is propitious to them. For Christ's sake He forgives them their manifold sins.

Thus it is that Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father, and the propitiation for our sins. And while he is thus the propitiation for the whole world, he is specially the propitiation for those who believe on him, and who, while he pleads for them as he pleads for all others, join their pleading to his own, holding him up before the Father as the object of their aspiration, offering him as the expression of their faith and devotion, the representative of what they wish and are striving to be. If, in our weakness and sinfulness, we take Christ as our divine example, looking unto him as the author and finisher of our faith, and sincerely trying to be like him, we can consistently present him to God as our peace offering. With him as our Lamb we can go boldly to God, and, laying him as it were upon the altar, can say, There, Lord, is my sincere expression of what I desire, and am trying, to be; I am sinful; I have as yet no righteousness of my own to offer; but I offer his righteousness as a manifestation of my heart's inmost longing. And God will so accept him, taking our will thus expressed for the performance which we cannot yet render, meeting our faith with forgiveness, and our aspiration with the assistance of His Spirit of grace. He will doubly impute Christ's righteousness to us, once, as to all men, on account of his relation to us as our Head, and once on account of our relation to him as disciples, and will be doubly propitious to us for the same double cause.

In a recent poem, entitled "My Christmas Gift," by Rose Terry Cooke, occur these lines:

"Lord, still Thou givest gifts to me;

Thy mercy, like the dew,

From day to day my glad eyes see,

Forever fresh and new.

"What shall I on Thine altar lay
From out my want and woe?
What offerings on this happy day
Within Thy temple stow?

"I, the poor beggar at Thy door,
To Thee what can I bring?
The want of all things is my store;
Shall I Thy praises sing?

"A poor and blemished sacrifice,
That Israel would not own,
How can I bring before Thine eyes,
Or cast beneath Thy throne?

"Look Thou upon Thy spotless Lamb,
Who came my sins to bear;
The feeblest of his fold I am,
Yet Thou wilt find me there.

"The smoking flax, the broken reed,
Thy mercy will not scorn;

A worthless gift, that yet can plead,
'My Lord to-day was born!'"

Qualify, if need be, a word or two in these verses; but do they not, on the whole, express a great truth, to which our Church might with profit devote more attention? The sug

gestion is offered for what it is worth.

E. C. Sweetser, D.D.

ARTICLE XVIII.

Does the Greek Article Define?

It does not become the present writer to compete, in matters of scholarship, with those who are specialists in such

matters.

"I walk with bare, hushed feet the ground

They tread with boldness shod."

But Little Barefoot may walk, though he have to take care not needful for Wellington or Blucher.

A current question seems to be, "Does the Greek Article define?" I take the hand of one shod with classical learning, and he shows me: "The Article is originally a demonstrative pronoun. . . The real Article generally corresponds to the English definite Article. It serves to set forth an object, either as a single one (the individualizing Article), or as a class (the generic Article)." The "individualizing Article " was evident to me: the "generic Article," he informs me, "indicates a whole class of homogeneous objects." - Dr. Geo. Curtius. As a specimen of the generic Article in English, we may refer to: "The horse is a quadruped; "the monkey is quadrumanous." The use of the Article here "indicates whole classes of homogeneous objects." By such expressions we mean to say that all individuals of the genus or class are severally quadrupeds, or quadrumanous, as the case may be. Referring to mankind, we omit the generic Article, in English. We say, "Man is "Man is a biped," meaning that all men are bipeds; or, "Man is mortal," meaning that all men are mortal. In Greek, however, the Article is here employed generically, as in other like cases: "the man is a biped; "the man is mortal." Thus the Greek is more consistent than the English. The generic Article is used in Greek, as in English, with nouns of the singular number.

I take the hand of another, a special student of New Testament Greek: "The Article, when employed, is usually prefixed to nouns, adjectives, or participles, for the purpose of

NEW SERIES. VOL. XXIV.

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