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in justice, whereby, under an economy of grace, every one who believes in him, the Father and the Spirit concurring, may be saved.

The most general conception of this specific work of the Son of God is expressed in the term mediation (see MEDIATOR.). His peculiar mission is to interpose, in the temper of grace and

to Media- spiritual reconciliation, between man tion. as a sinner, and the Deity against whom man has offended, with whom he is morally at variance. As a mediator, the Son of God, who was also the Son of Man (qq.v.), was amply qualified, both by inherent endowment and through official appointment; and in his work of mediation, he is actually successful in removing alienation, in restoring the lost harmony between God and the sinner, and in securing to man a complete and blessed and eternal at-one-went with his heavenly Father. This generic work of mediation is generally described by Calvinistic theologians under the three specific forms indicated in the terms prophet, priest, and king (see JESUS CHRIST, THREEFOLD OFFICE OF). It has been questioned whether this distribution is in all respects desirable; whether, by the division of the one work into these three parts or offices, our sense of the essential unity of that work is not impaired; and whether the underlying idea of mediation is not weakened by such multiplicity of particular funetions,and relations (J. J. van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, § cviii., New York, 1874). Is this central idea adequately expressed in these three forms? Do they contain neither more nor less than the underlying conception? And, where the distribution is made, are these three offices always kept in their proportionate place, and severally invested with their proper dignity and value in the one mediatorial work? Whatever answer may be given to these questions on exegetical or speculative grounds, there is no adequate reason for rejecting an analytic presentation which has gained such definite expression in current evangelical creeds (Heidelberg Catechism, Ans. 31; Westminister Confession, chap. viii.) and has been so extensively adopted as a regulative guide in modern theology.

Studying soteriology in this triple aspect, there appears first the prophetic function of the Savior, as including that entire revelation of saving truth which he, as the divine Logos, came 3. Relation among men to make. All religious,

to Christ's and especially all inspired, teachers Prophetical who were, prior to him as revealers of

through the formal enunciation of saving truths, and indirect teaching through the superadded power of example and personality. Christ, as teacher and prophet, becomes an enduring pattern also. In himself, as well as in his message, was light; and the light was the life of men. It may be queried, whether, in consequence of the strong inclination of Evangelical Protestantism to exalt the priestly work of our Lord as central, this prophetical mission has not been relatively too much ignored, and, more specifically, whether the Biblical view of him as the true norm and example of our humanity has not been surrendered too much to the uses of those who altogether reject his priestly character and mission.

Concerning this priestly function, it is needless to repeat what has been said elsewhere (see ATONEaIEnT; CALYiNISM, § 5; JESUS CHRIST, THREEFOLD OFFICE OF; PRIEST, PRIESTHOOD; SACRIFICE). The essential fact in the case is the voluntary and vicarious surrender of himself by our Lord as a sacrifice before God for sinners, on account of their sin, and in order to expiate sin, and to secure the reconciliation and restoration of man as sinful to God. As a sacrifice, Christ was inherently and judicially perfect, a lamb without blemish and without spot; as a priest, he was in every way qualified for the sacrificial work in which he was thus engaged; and his administration of the priestly office was voluntary, official, and acceptable. In him both the Aaronic priesthood and the peculiar priesthood of Melchisedec were singularly blended. He was, in his own person, the absolute culmination of the priestly as well as the prophetic order and idea. As priest and as sacrifice he was perfect.

That this vicarious intervention and offering of himself in behalf of sinners and for sin was an essential part of the mediatorial work of the Savior, is too clearly revealed in Scripture to be 4. Relation quPStioned by any who receive its testo the timony in the case as conclusive. The Atonement. exigencies of that moral government against which the sinner had rebelled, the requisitions of justice as an eternal principle in the Deity, and the needs of the soul itself in order to its spiritual recovery, alike required-as the Bible in multiplied ways asserts-such a sacrifice of himself, even unto death, on the part of the Redeemer. Without this, mediation would have been both ut admissible and ineffectual (see SATISFACTION. For differing views on the nature and the extent of the atonement see ATONEMENT). Whatever may be the 'views of believers as to either the nature or the extent and scope of this sacrificial work of Christ, all are agreed in regarding the fact itself as both unquestionable and vital. That the Lord suffered as well as taught, and that he suffered on account of sin and in order to save men from it; and that through his suffering men are actually saved from both the condemnation and the power of evil, and that this salvation is immediate and certain, and will be complete at last-these are the great facts of grace which lie at the basis of the Evangelical system, and which constitute the foundation of all Evangelical hope.