Scriptures to prove what we have said. In St. John's Gospel the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaks thus: 'I ¹ am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep .... I am the good shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine own know me, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep .... Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from my Father.' So again, when the soldiers came to arrest Him, He said to Peter: 'Put ² up the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?' And in St. Matthew's Gospel He also said to that disciple: 'Thinkest thou ³ that I cannot beseech my Father, and he shall even now send me more than twelve legions of angels? How then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?' In the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark He said to his disciples: 'The ⁴ Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.' This He explained more clearly by the words which He uttered to Pontius Pilate: 'To ⁵ this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should

bear witness unto the truth.' It is in full accordance with all this that it is thus written in another passage of the same Gospel: 'God ¹ so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him. He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.'

It must be noted that, in order to be the mediator, the means of atonement, and the effectual intercessor for sinful man, it was necessary that the Saviour should be not only perfect man but also perfect God by nature. He must be man in order to represent men and to intercede for them, to suffer and to die for them, and by His sufferings and death to satisfy the requirements of divine justice, and thus to earn for men salvation and remission of sins. But, if He were a mere man, even were He perfect and sinless, He would not have the rank and dignity necessary to enable Him to act as mediator for men in the presence of the just and holy God. Nor could even the very highest of the angels occupy such a position in the presence of the Most