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The bonds that held me down before,

In sorrow, sin, and strife,
Confine my quickened soul no more,

Now raised to light and life.

That soul, on thee securely stayed,

My Saviour God, shall fear No form of woe, nor death's dark shade,

Since thou, MY LIFE, art near.

Thus, rescued from the fowler's snare,

The lark expands her wings; Then, soaring through the greeting air,

At heaven's bright portal sings.

MEDIATOR.

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My Saviour is the “one Mediator between God and men. My carnal nature, in common with the whole of our fallen race, is at variance with God. Sin has separated me from him, and drawn over my head the naked sword of his offended justice, and the penalty of his violated law. When

my

soul first discovers this unsheathed weapon of righteous anger, I am

I filled with dismay, and am disposed to cry out, with Job, “ I am afraid of all my sorrows; I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment; neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hands upon us both.” † But all my apprehension is removed, and hope and joy take the place of dread and grief in my heart, when

* 1 Tim. ii. 5.

+ Job ix. 28, 32, 33.

the Holy Ghost reveals the Lord Jesus Christ before me, in the plenitude of his mediatorial office. I behold him standing between me and God, fully commissioned and perfectly able to restore me to a state of reconciliation with him. He uplifts his own pierced hand against the raised arm of justice; and, pointing to his own scarred side, in which the sword of the law was plunged and satiated with atoning blood, he removes all ground of enmity and opposition, bringing back the Father's alienated love to my soul, and bringing back my prodigal soul to itself and the love of God.

My Saviour is the “one, the only Mediator between God and men." Saints and angels, who, by erring mortals, are daily approached under this name, and as filling this office, shrink back from the idolatrous homage, and would as soon dare to take possession of the throne of Deity itself, as assume the title and functions of Mediator. How could angels mediate for fallen man, who were able to accomplish nothing for their own fallen companions ? How could the saints, -“the spirits of just men made perfect,"

- who are themselves indebted for all they have and are to the mediation of the Son of God ?

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Let my soul rejoice in Emanuel's all-sufficiency as 6 the Mediator of a better covenant, even the new covenant of grace, established upon better promises, and sealed with his own blood.” * What can ever break a reconciliation so dearly bought, so effectually made, and so firmly secured? My Saviour will never withdraw from his mediatorial station before the throne, until the last soul, whom he has ransomed by his blood, shall be reinstated in the divine favor, and renewed after the divine image. Then his mediatorial office will cease ; but the fruits of it will remain forever, in a perpetual revenue of glory and joy to himself, and of happiness to myself and happy millions more, who have partaken of the " reconciliation.”

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As the rock of the strand, in the face of dark ocean,

That shelters the harbor's calm basin of waves, And within, from the storm, and the wild deep's comSo my Saviour 'tween me and God's arm interposes,

motion, The bark of the mariner welcomes and saves,

* Heb. viii. 6 ; xii. 24.

And bears the dark wrath of the law on his breast; And within, 'neath his shadow, a refuge discloses,

Where peace, like the halcyon, soothes me to rest.

Now the storm has subsided — now, cloudless, serene,

The face of the heavens smiles sweetly and bright; For my God, as my reconciled Father, is seen

To own me for his, ʼmidst the children of light.

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