. The intercession of Jesus is the golden key which unlocks
the gates of Paradise to the departing soul. At a saint's dying moments
we are too often occupied with the lower _earthly_ scene to think of the
_heavenly_. The tears of surrounding relatives cloud too often the more
glorious revelations which faith discloses. But in the muffled stillness
of that death-chamber, when each is holding his breath as the King of
Terrors passes by--if we could listen to it, we should hear the "Prince
who has power with God" thus uttering His final prayer, and on the
rushing wings of ministering angels receiving an answer while He is yet
speaking--"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be
with me where I am, that they may behold my glory!"

Reader! exult more and more in this all-prevailing Advocate. See that ye
approach the mercy-seat with no other trust but in His atoning work and
meritorious righteousness. There was but _One_ solitary man of the whole
human race who, of old, in the Jewish temple, was permitted to speak
face to face with Jehovah. There is but ONE solitary Being in the vast
universe of God who, in the heavenly sanctuary, can effectually plead in
behalf of His Spiritual Israel. "Seeing, then, that we have a Great High
Priest passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, ... let us come
boldly to the throne of grace." If Jesus delights in asking, God
delights in bestowing. Let us put our every want, and difficulty, and
perplexity, in His hand, feeling the precious assurance, that all which
is really good for us will be given, and all that is adverse will, in
equal mercy, be withheld. There is no limitation set to our requests.
The treasury of grace is flung wide open for every suppliant. "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father _in my name_
He will give it you." Surely we may cease to wonder that the Great
Apostle should have clung with such intense interest to this elevating
theme--the Saviour's _intercession_;--that in his brief, but most
comprehensive and beautiful creed,[19] he should have so exalted, as he
does, its relative importance, compared with other cognate truths. "It
is Christ that died, _yea rather_, that is risen again, who is even at
the right hand of God, _who also maketh intercession for us_." Climbing,
step by step, in the upward ascent of Christian faith and hope, he seems
only to "reach the height of his great argument" when he stands on "_the
mountain