THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST

THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST

Hebrews 2:16-18; Hebrews 3:1,2; Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 5:4-10; Hebrews 7:1-3; Hebrews 7:23-28; Hebrews 8:1,2

I wish to speak, dear brethren, of the priesthood of Christ. The priesthood of Christ is for those who have faith. It says, He does not take hold of angels by the hand, but He takes hold of the seed of Abraham. That is, it is not only that the priesthood of Christ is not for angels, but it is not for all men, it is for those who are the seed of Abraham. That is, it is for those who are of faith, those who have embraced the gospel, and who, by means of the gospel have been called by God. We are spoken of in the beginning of chapter 3, as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,” Abraham typically was called with a heavenly calling, he was called to go out from the land of his birth, and to go to a land which God was going to show him, and he went out, Scripture says, not knowing whither he went. He is thus a picture of those whom God has called by the gospel, who are called with a heavenly calling and go out on the principle of faith, and marked by faith, not knowing exactly where we are going. We know the end of our journey, but the exact detail of it, that is, the road by which we reach it, may not be known. Faith gives us light for the next step, and it is well to bear that in mind, that the path of faith is not a path in which you see the whole course plainly marked out before you in all the detail of it. We know what the goal is, but as regards the detail of the path, faith has light for the next step, and that is the principle upon which a Christian has to move, that he moves in faith, God giving him light as to the next step. Well now, the priesthood of Christ is for such, it is for those who are partakers of a heavenly calling. And it is peculiarly affecting, because it brings into prominence His manhood, as something upon which He has entered, and in which He has moved, in order to be able sympathetically, and feelingly, to support His own in a similar path. Obviously a path of faith does not attach to God, but a path of faith does attach to man as having received light from God, and in order that we might be sustained in the path of faith, the Lord Himself, the Son of God, entered into manhood, and, as having become Man, entered into the circumstances proper to man, in order that in those circumstances He might move rightly according to man in relation to God; and as having completed His own course, might be able to furnish support and sympathy to those who are still in the path. Now that is peculiarly affecting. And the experience of the priesthood of Christ has the effect of attaching the hearts of the saints individually to Him, and so the pathway is peculiarly valuable in that way. It serves, as taken up with God, to deepen us in attachment of heart to Christ.

And now in the first passage we read it says, “It behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God.” That is another thing to bear in mind, that the priesthood is in things relating to God. The priesthood is a necessity because we are called to engage in this world in the service of God, and to maintain the service of God. The service of God is never to be allowed to lapse. In the old economy God was most particular to indicate what He required from His people every day and then every sabbath, and then every month, and then also on the set feasts. But what He required every day was never to lapse; the others were all additional. So He clearly indicated that His service, which He took pleasure in,

was to be maintained day in and day out, and that He looked to His people to provide it. But then, that was to be continued in the wilderness. The service of God at the present time takes form in the wilderness. It will go on eternally in heaven, where there are no conditions that are opposed to it, but the glory of the present time is that the service of God can be maintained on the earth, in the very presence of unholy conditions all around us. Although the saints are surrounded by unholy influences, the glory of the present time is that the service of God can be maintained by them in the holiness that is befitting to it, and it is in that setting that the priesthood of Christ comes in. The priesthood of Christ has not as its object the relieving us of pressure and trial merely, in order that we might be saved trials; the priesthood of Christ comes in, in order that, in temptation or in pressure, or in trial, we might not be overcome and thus rendered unequal to continuing in the service of God. The priesthood of God is in things relating to God. It has in mind that the saints should be supported, and preserved in superiority, to all that which is around them, in order that God should not lose His portion, and in order, too, that the portion that He looks for, should be rendered to Him in holiness. And so we are addressed as holy brethren, for that is what we are, dear brethren. Alas! at times our conduct might belie it, but as having been redeemed by the blood of Christ and received the Holy Spirit, we are holy brethren, we are constituted that, set apart by the death of Christ on the one hand, and by the Holy Spirit on the other, from all that is displeasing to God. We are holy brethren, constituted such, “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,” and we are called upon to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus. The epistle to the Hebrews is full of allusions to “Jesus.” That is,

the Lord is presented in the epistle to the Hebrews, not so much in an official light, although there are official positions, including that of High Priest, referred to in the epistle: but the Lord is constantly referred to by His personal Name of Jesus, and that is intended to effect in us, attachment of heart to Himself personally. Jesus is the Name by which He is known by Christians, and it is a personal Name, involving indeed, the truth of His Person - for the Name means, “Jehovah the Saviour” - but it speaks of the Man, the Man who has won and holds the affections of those who belong to Him. And so we are to consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus. And first of all it says, He is “faithful to him that has constituted him.” He is faithful to God, faithful in all God’s house; not as Moses was, as a ministering servant, but, as Son. That refers to what He is on God’s behalf, that He is set over God’s house as Son. That is, He is not a servant. He is the Son, and He is over God’s house with all the holy and jealous affections as to what is due to God, that characterise Him as Son, and so there is One in charge of God’s house, who is over it as Son. That ensures that nothing will be allowed to pass in the house of God, that is not suitable to God. Christ is over it for God’s pleasure, as Son. But then He is also officiating in the service of God, or in relation to the things of God, as Priest, and that presents what He is on our side. As Apostle He has come out from God to us; as High Priest He has gone in on our behalf, to God. Both offices unite in Christ. Typically Moses was the apostle, and Aaron was the high priest, but when it comes to Christianity, both offices are taken up by Christ.

Well now, it says in this passage in chapter 2, and also in the passage in chapter 4, that He has been tempted. “In that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted.” And then again in chapter 4, “We have not a High Priest, not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart.” It is what we have. Now the gospels are given us, in order that we might gain an impression of the way that Jesus has qualified for His office as High Priest. “It behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren.” He did not, as having become Man, assume a position in the world different from that which other men would fill: from that which those who are partakers of a heavenly calling would fill. He did not enter upon a condition as Man, in which He was free from the vicissitudes of human life, and not exposed to temptations. He did not do that. He could have done so if He had pleased, but it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren. That is, having become Man, He entered into circumstances exactly similar, sin apart, to those in which those who are the seed of Abraham would find themselves. And hence we find, that the circumstances into which Jesus entered, as having become Man, were not such as would excite the envy or emulation of others. It was not much to be desired, to live at Nazareth. It was not greatly to be desired to work as a carpenter. That is to say, these are not things that human ambition would look at as great, or desire as something to be coveted after. The Lord did not enter into exceptional circumstances as a Man here. He entered into circumstances such as would be found to be the lot of the humblest of those who should be the partakers of the heavenly calling. And in those circumstances He moved on the principle of obedience to God in all things, on the principle of contentment, finding His all in God: He moved on lines that were open to every one of us. And then we find that He was tempted. You might have thought that it was an extraordinary thing that the Creator should place Himself in a position as Man, in which His creature, the devil, could approach Him with wicked insinuations and suggestions. And yet He did. Why was that? Because the partakers of the heavenly calling would find themselves in conditions in which they were exposed to the temptations of the devil. The Lord went into the wilderness and was tempted of the devil; was tempted of the devil continuously for forty days, and during that time He hungered. He fasted and was tempted of the devil, we are told that the devil came up to Him. The devil exhausted every temptation, but we are given details of three, and only three, but they are sufficient to indicate the lines upon which the Lord met the tempter. The tempter said, “If thou be Son of God, speak to this stone, that it become bread,” because he knew the Lord was hungry. The Lord had been fasting for forty days and would be hungry, and the tempter knew it, and so he presented his temptation in a way that was calculated, with any other man, to cause him to succumb. But thank God, what came to light was, that in the Man Christ Jesus He had introduced a Man who was incorruptible. One who could not be corrupted, but at the same time He met the temptation in a way that is becoming to any man or any woman. He met it on these lines. He said, “It is written.” “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God.” That is to say, the word of God was that which regulated Him, and if the word of God indicated that man was not to live by bread alone, but by every word of God that he was to move as dependent on the word of God, and regulate himself by it, then He would move on those lines. And so the devil was foiled. The Lord said, It is written. He had the word of God in His heart. That is a most important matter, dear brethren. We are greatly exposing ourselves to Satan’s attacks if we do not continually, and assiduously, read the word of God. Because the word of God in the mind and in the heart is that which the Spirit of God can use as occasion requires. If we have never read Deuteronomy, for instance, we shall never have read these particular scriptures that the Lord quotes, save as finding them in the gospel quoted. But they are there in Deuteronomy, and hence the importance of reading all the Scriptures, and reading them consistently and perseveringly, whether we understand them at the time we read them or not, because as they come into the mind and are retained there, they become material which the Spirit can remind us of and use for our help as occasion requires. And the Lord had the word of God in His heart. And so Satan meets Him with the second temptation - I am referring to the way in which it is presented in the gospel of Luke - and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and tells the Lord that He shall have all the power and glory of them if He will bow down and worship him. That is, Satan knew well that if he presented to any other man what would so pander to the pride and ambition of man, he was sure to gain an inlet. And he approached the Lord with that which he had found successful in other men, but the Lord said, “It is written, thou shalt do homage to the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve.” Satan had said, If thou wilt bow down and worship me, the Lord said, It is written that man shall worship the Lord his God and Him only shall he serve, as much as to say, I am not going to worship you, I am going to worship Jehovah My God. I am not going to be diverted from worshipping Jehovah My God to worship anyone else. That is how the Lord answered him. It is a question of what is proper to a man in relation to God, and He met him on those lines. And then similarly when the devil suggested to Him that He should cast Himself down, and the devil subtly brought in what was written: he saw that the Lord met him with what was written, and so the devil said, Well now I can quote Scripture, I will tell you what is written! “It is written that he shall give charge to his angels concerning thee, to keep thee and on their hands they shall bear thee, lest in any wise thou strike thy foot against a stone.” But the Lord said, “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” As much as to say, it is not a question merely of what is written in the letter, it is a question of what God is saying. You need to understand what God is saying. If you take Scripture simply in the letter, you may take it out of its context. Satan can do that, and misapply it, but the point is we want to know what God is saying. And so when the devil quoted Scripture, the Lord met him by saying, “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” That indicates, dear brethren, the lines upon which the Lord met temptation. He did not meet it as God, exercising Godhead power to deal with a creature; He met him on the lines proper to a man in his relations with God, and therefore He is qualified to exercise priesthood in regard of those who are partakers of the heavenly calling. Any of us can move on those lines. The Lord is indicating the lines on which we shall be preserved, and He will support us by His sympathy and by His influence, by reminding us that He Himself has moved on those lines, that He Himself has had to feel what it was to be tempted by Satan. Not that there was anything in Him to respond to the evil, that has to be safely guarded, but at the same time He would feel intensely in His spirit, the evil of the suggestion. It would be repulsive to Him. He would suffer in His spirit as having evil suggested to Him. I doubt if we have any true sense of how the Lord suffered in spirit as going through this evil world. How repulsive everything must have been to Him! But He went through it patiently and enduringly, and governed by the principles that should govern a man in relation to God. And so we read, “Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession.” He has passed right through the heavens. He has gone into the immediate presence of God, and He is there on our behalf too. It is a good thing for us to recognise, that Jesus has passed through the heavens, and He is the Son of God, and He has gone in for us, right into the immediate presence of God, in all the acceptability of the Son of God, and the place that Jesus is filling in the presence of God marks out the place that God has set us in. So that our service God-ward is not to be marked by distance, but it is to be marked by nearness, in the consciousness that the place that Jesus fills He fills as forerunner for us.

Well now, in chapter 5, we have a further touching scripture, for it alludes to the intensity of the sufferings of Christ, and it also stresses that His being Son was one of the qualifications for His priesthood. In the first chapter He is presented as the Apostle, the Apostle of our confession, and the second Psalm is quoted in that connection in that chapter, “Thou art my son, I have today begotten thee.” That is, the Lord as the Apostle is the One who comes out from God to set out what Christianity is, what the mind of God is, and the characteristic feature of it is sonship. It is set out in Christ, Thou art my Son, I have today begotten Thee. That is the first feature of the Name that is brought out in the first chapter, and in that chapter He is presented as Apostle. That is, the light of God’s mind for us is conveyed in Christ, and the first thought that is brought to our notice is that of sonship, “Thou art my Son, I have today begotten thee.” But now in this chapter, Psalm 2 is quoted again, but quoted now as an evidence that He is marked out as Priest. It says, “Thus the Christ also has not glorified himself to be made a high priest, but he who had said to him, Thou art my Son, I have today begotten thee.” So that when God saluted Christ as His Son, He was marking Him out as the One whom He would have in His presence as High Priest, on behalf of, and as representative of, those whom God had called. Now that is most assuring to us, dear brethren. Nothing more blessed than to have the sense that the One who represents us in the presence of God is there as His Son, in all the affection and in all the nearness and liberty that that implies. That is to be before our hearts as a feature of the Priesthood of Christ. But then, in order that He might be qualified, in view of all that we are called upon to pass through, it says, Though He were Son. Notwithstanding the dignity of who He is in His Person, “Though he were Son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered.” Now it has often been said, and it is well worth repeating, that He did not learn to be obedient. He did not need to learn to be obedient. We often have to learn to be obedient, because our wills are insubject to God, and we need to learn to be obedient. But the Lord did not have to learn to be obedient, but He did learn obedience from the things He suffered. That is to say, obedience was an entirely new principle for Him. Obedience does not apply to God, obviously, and when the Lord was in the form of God, obedience did not apply to Him, obedience was an unknown experience to Him. But having become Man, then He had entered into a condition to which obedience applied, and therefore He had to learn obedience. It was a new experience for Him, one says it reverently, that having become Man, He who was God, He had entered into a condition to which entirely new experiences applied, and the governing principle of manhood in relation to God is obedience. And therefore the Lord as having entered into manhood learned obedience, and He learned obedience as fully tested. That is to say, He did not enter into manhood in conditions that were wholly congenial, but rather He entered into manhood in conditions that were extremely testing. God ordered it so, in order that obedience should be proved in its fulness and its perfection in Jesus. And so He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. It says, “who in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications and entreaties, to him who was able to save him out of death” - not save Him from death but save Him out of it. Obedience required that He should go the whole way into death, in all that death meant for Him. But He made supplication and entreaties to Him who was able to save Him out of death. He went into death in confidence that God would not leave His soul in hades, but He would show Him the paths of life. Psalm 16 tells us that. But this chapter specially alludes, I have no doubt, to the garden of Gethsemane. I do not say it is entirely limited to that, but it specially alludes to the garden of Gethsemane. We are given the account in Matthew and Mark and Luke, of the garden of Gethsemane, in order that we might be subdued in our spirits as we see what was entailed for the Lord Jesus in the path of obedience upon which He had entered. The whole will of God was in His heart, and if that was to be effectuated He must needs face the cross, and all that the cross meant to Him as the place where He would be abandoned of God, and would endure the judgment of God, He Himself being made sin. I doubt if our minds can ever compass what that involved. That He who knew no sin, should be made sin. Think of how abhorrent it would be to Christ to be made sin, and think of what was involved when He had been made sin,

that He should bear the judgment of God on sin, unsparingly, without any mitigation. He does not ask for mitigation. He says on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou far from my salvation, from the words of my groaning?” But He does not ask for any mitigation, rather, He vindicates God, for He says, “Thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel.” But Gethsemane was not the actual abandonment. Gethsemane was not the judgment of God. But Gethsemane was the anticipating of it, with Satan bringing to bear upon His spirit how dreadful, how terrible, the cross would be for Him, in order, if possible, to get Him to turn aside from it. And so we read that He cried in the garden, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,” There were His holy feelings in regard of what was involved, and liberty to desire that if it were possible, it might be removed from Him; but all governed by this, “Not my will, but thine be done.” And then a second time He prayed saying, “O my Father, if this may not pass from me except I drink it, thy will be done.” There was complete acceptance of what was involved, feeling it rightly with holy sensibilities, and having liberty to ask that if it were possible it might be removed, but as I said, entirely governed by this one consideration, “Not as I will but as thou wilt.” Mark tells us that He fell upon the earth and said, “Abba Father!” - stressing the depths of feeling that were called forth at that time. And Luke tells us that His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground, and that an angel appeared from heaven strengthening Him. So that the three accounts are given us. The Lord would give us some impression of what this means, when it says, “With strong crying and tears.” And strong crying and tears would show how real was the test which the Lord was facing, but it only served to bring out how absolutely perfect, how absolutely enduring was the obedience of Christ. He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. And now, dear brethren, if we become faced, in the path of God’s will, with something which we find to be very testing, it can never under any circumstances be comparable with that. But if we do become faced, as going along in the path of God’s will, with something which is testing to us, then you can see how effective the Lord’s priesthood can be to us. How sympathetic He can be to us. He can tells us, I have been tested, I have learned to the full what the path of obedience involves, but I went through on that principle of obedience, not My will but Thine be done, putting My trust in God. I faced death on that principle. And God has answered it and raised Him from among the dead, and set Him in the highest place in glory. And now the Lord from that place can say to any saint who is tested, who finds the path of obedience testing to him, He can say, You have all My support if you continue on the line of obedience. If you deflect from the line of obedience I cannot support you in that, but you continue on the line of obedience and you will get all My support and all My sympathy. You can see how real the priesthood of Christ is, dear brethren. And so it says, “Having been heard on account of his piety, though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered; and having been perfected, became to all them that obey him, Author of eternal salvation.” You see the link. He has learned obedience, and now it is those who obey Him who get the gain of His priesthood. We never get the gain of Christ’s priesthood if we are rebellious, or disobedient. We may have His advocacy indeed, but we will never get the gain of Christ’s priesthood so long as we are disobedient or rebellious. The priesthood of Christ is to support the saints who wish to be obedient in the path of obedience. And therefore it says, “Having been perfected, became to all them that obey him, Author of eternal salvation, addressed by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec.”

But now I wish to pass on to speak for a moment of Melchisedec. When we come to chapter 7, the Spirit of God goes back to the occasion of the introduction of Melchisedec. Melchisedec is a mysterious personage. We read of him in the fourteenth of Genesis. He is introduced abruptly in the one incident in which he met Abram returning from the slaughter of the kings, and then we hear of him no more until David writes the 110th Psalm, and in that Psalm it is said, “Jehovah hath sworn, and will not repent, thou art priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.” And then we hear no more of him again until we come to the epistle to the Hebrews. And it is only in Genesis 14, and Psalm 110 and the epistle to the Hebrews, that Melchisedec is mentioned, and yet he is such an important personage, because he is intended to direct our attention to the Son of God, and the Son of God in the glory of His Person, as having neither beginning nor end of days, and as having now taken up priesthood according to God’s will, a priesthood that is never going to fail, and never going to be surrendered, because the priesthood is now a priesthood after the order of Melchisedec, and Melchisedec represents Christ as Priest in the power of indissoluble life. Well now, this Melchisedec was priest of the Most High God, and as Abram returned from the slaughter of the kings, Melchisedec went out and met him with bread and wine, and said, “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, ...and blessed be the Most High God.” So that he typifies the Lord, not now as supporting us exactly in the presence of great pressure, but as supporting us in the sense that we belong to a heavenly system, and therefore we are not to become entangled with, or diverted by, anything on this earth. Melchisedec is presented as priest of the Most High God, and he said, “Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth,” That is, he brought before Abram, that the possessor of the heavens and earth, the Most High God, was being served. There was the priest - Melchisedec was there before Him. And he brought forward bread and wine to sustain Abram. I have very little doubt it is a veiled allusion to the Supper. Not that we speak of the wine in connection with the Supper, but there is a kind of veiled allusion, I believe, to the way the Lord would serve us week after week, in order to maintain in our souls the sense that we belong to a heavenly system of divine service. The Supper leads up to that, and it is renewed week after week, and is intended continually to remind us that we have part, through the grace of God, in the service of God in its most exalted form. We know God in a way that is greater and more blessed, than any other family. And so the Lord would sustain us in the sense of that, so that we should not be in any way entangled by what is going on around us, or in any way carried away by anything that is worldly in its nature. You can easily understand that Abram might have tended to be a little bit elated. He had taken a long journey in love for his brother, and he had won a great victory over the kings, and he had brought back his brother Lot and all the property, and the danger might be that Abram might be elated, and any of us is in danger at times of being elated: we may have served in a measure of spiritual power, but that is just the moment when we are in danger of being elated. The moment when spiritual power is experienced is just the moment when we most need support lest we should be elated, and as elated, give place in our minds and souls to some element of this world and of the devil, such as the element of pride and of self-satisfaction. So Melchisedec comes forward and gives him bread and wine, and reminds him that he, Abram, is blessed of the Most High God, Possessor of heavens and earth. And then Melchisedec blessed the Most High God, as though to suggest to Abram that that is what he is to be engaged in. He is to be engaged in the service of God. And the more we engage in the service of God, dear brethren, not formally, but in truth and in liberty which the Holy Spirit affords, the more we shall be preserved from any kind of element of pride or self-satisfaction or anything that is worldly, that is if we truly come into the presence of God. Of course, it is possible to engage in a form of service and not be true or in liberty in it. The golden calf shows that. The people could make a golden calf and proclaim a feast to Jehovah. And they danced before the golden calf and said, “This is thy god, Israel, who has brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,” and yet it was a feast to Jehovah. So they were ostensibly engaging in the service of Jehovah, and yet what they had done was to cast the gold that they had into a mould, and their thoughts of God were in that set mould, and henceforward their service would be in just exactly the same mould, nothing living about it, and that is something that we have always to guard against. But the Spirit of God is the great answer to that, the great preservative. And so, as I say, Melchisedec supported Abram in order that he might be maintained having his part in the service of the blessed God.

Well now we come on to the end of the passage, and it says, He abides a Priest continually, and then in verse 24 of chapter 7, “He, because of his continuing for ever has the priesthood unchangeable. Whence also he is able to save completely those who approach by him to God, always living to intercede for them.” We have to experience pressure, we have to know what it is to be tested of the devil, we have to experience these things. Do not let us think when we are tempted of the devil that we must give way, because there is no reason why we should give way. But we have to experience temptation, and we have to experience pressure, but the priesthood of Christ is always available to us, and let us bear in mind that we are partakers of the heavenly calling, and that what we have been called to is to serve God. The service of God in the liberty and holy conditions proper to it is what we are called to, and we must be watchful of anything that is going to disqualify us for it. And in the exercises connected with it, we shall find that the priesthood of Christ is always available to us. He always lives. It says, He is able to save completely those who approach by Him to God, always living to intercede for them, and then it says, “For such a High Priest became us.” Such a High Priest became us. It shows, if we may say so humbly, how great the saints are, that such a High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, become higher than the heavens. Then it says, “for the law constitutes men high priests having infirmity; but the word of the swearing of the oath which is after the law, a Son perfected for ever.” God has sworn. Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent, thou art Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. So that the priesthood of Christ, in the value of who He is in His own Person, abides continually for the support of the saints in the service of God. So we can well understand the writer saying, Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum, or a summary, “We have such a one High Priest”, (such a one), “who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens; minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man.” That is, we have Him as High Priest, but He is minister of the holy places, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord has pitched. That is, He is concerned with the service of God, that is what the Lord is concerned with. He is minister of the sanctuary, He is in charge of the whole service, and we have such an One, in order that we may be sustained in our own part in the service, whatever may surround us down here.

Well, may the Lord help us, dear brethren, to appreciate the priesthood of Christ more and avail ourselves of it. There is the glory of His Person as the Son of God on the one hand, filling that position in the presence of God for us unceasingly, and then there is the moral glory and great attractiveness of the way by which He has made Himself able to be a merciful and faithful High Priest, a sympathetic High Priest, in the way that He has suffered, being tempted, and He has learned obedience by the things He suffered. May the Lord bless the word to us.