When it had been demonstrated that man cannot save himself, Christ died for him. "Once in the end of the ages He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:26). The age of Innocence closed in lawlessness; then, left to his Conscience man's wickedness had to be wiped out by the flood; when under Government he renounced God for vile idolatry (Rom. 1:22-24) ; under the Law he was cursed for violating it; when the incarnate Son of God came He was crucified by men for whom He gave Himself in atonement for sin.

Every child of Adam arrives in this world with the seed of death in him, so that "when he begins to live he begins to die." Grace may enable one to choose death at man's hand rather than live in subjection to evil, as did those martyrs "of whom the world was not worthy;" but in no wise does it enable one to choose whether he will die or not. Man, as such, has no choice in the matter. It may take but a moment to die, or 969 years, as Methuselah, but die he must, for God has pronounced the penalty of sin in these words:"Dying thou shalt die!" Death proclaims man's forfeiture of the earth, and removes him from it ; and "after this the judgment."

Although death has no claim upon Jesus, He was made a little lower than the angels in order to die. Like the lamb taken on the tenth day, but not slain until the fourteenth, He is presented to our view for three and a half years. He asked the Jews, "Which of you convicteth me of sin?" for was not He the "lamb without blemish?" Therefore although exempt from death, He voluntarily died in obedience to the Father in the manner prophesied in Scripture. When His hour had come, He set His face toward Jerusalem and the cross; like the brazen serpent He "must be lifted up" to the view of a dying race, that those who believe might have another life, "eternal life."

Although the cross is a stumbling block to the religionist, and foolishness to the mere man of letters, it is "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God" to the believer. As the power of God He breaks the power of all that was against us; as the wisdom of God He carries out God's purpose whereby rebellious sinners become purged worshipers.

Salvation is not mediated by the offspring of "the first man." "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." Salvation is through "the Second Man." There is but "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus;" hence "there is none other name" whereby we must be saved.

"Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago."

Reader, will you take your stand with the "evolutionist" and claim Calvary as an attainment of the human race? Will you wrap yourself in the garment of mediatorship and appropriate praises that belong to the Lamb of God? Will you pretend to make a contribution to salvation by the operation in yourself of a law revealed at work "dimly" in the wolf pack, and less dimly in "parents and friends?" Or will you thankfully bow to the Saviour of sinners, the Saviour of "parents and friends"?-to Him who suffered vicariously that God might be revealed in His nature; who suffered that the throne of the universe might be unsullied; who suffered that the power of Satan might be broken, and who recovers the lawless by attracting them to Himself. R. J. Reid