'£hat shuts out all clashing of administration. As all are under the same Divine govern- ment, so all are governed on the same impartial, universal principles, and governed toward the one end of their salvation. 2. in the hands of the one Mediator. "One Media.tor also between God e.nd men, himself man, Christ Jesus." A mediator is one who acts between two. Christ Jesus is here said to be Media.tor between God and man. God, as it were, allows the administration to go out of his hands, but it does not suffer in doing so; for it passes into the hand, not of many mediators with many administrations, but into the hands of one Mediator, by which there is preserved the grand equality and universality of the administration. Christ could mediate on the Divine side, being God himself, thus carrying into the administration the whole mind of him whom he represented. The remarkable thing which alone is noted was that, to mediate on the human side, he became man, being linked not to some men, but to all awu ; so that his mediaLfon could be in the interest, not of some, but of all It is matter for solemn thought to every man that Christ is linked to him, and linked to him with a view-according to the whole spirit of the administration-to his being saved. IV. UNIVERSALITY OF THE RANSOM. "Who gave himself a Ransom for all." If the language had been that Christ gave himself for all, there would not have been excluded the idea of substitution. But emphasis is given to this idea by the word which is translated "ra.n~om." It is literally "loosing-price instead of." It is implied that we were captives, hopelessly bound in the consequences of our sins. Not able to do any- thing for ourselves, we needed to be indebted to a substitute. Tbe price our Substitute paid as ransom was himself, i.e. his life, which, bein~ the life of hi.m who was God as well as man, was more than equal to the lives of all men together. Such is the way- not to be too much literalized-in which the truth is conveyed here. The stress of the thought is to be laid on all. Time was when it was considered dangerous to say that Christ died for all. The apostle does not shrink from it, neither here nor where his language is that "Christ tasted death for every man." It adds a deep solemnity to the existence of a man, that this price has been paid for him. How shall he get rid of the obligatio.11 incurred, unless by doing as the captive does for whose ransom the stipu- lated money has been paid ? As the captive goes forth into the possession of freedom, grateful to his redeemer, so let each of us go forth into the possession of our freedom in Christ, grateful to him as having redeemed us with his blood. V. UNIVEIISALlTY OF THE TESTIMONY. .. The testimony to be borne in its own timl>a." It is generally assumed that the reference is to the universal proclnma.tion of the gospel. But there is this to be considered, that what is to he witnessed to is, that Christ Jesus gave himself a Ransom for all, i.e. all that ever lived, that live now, or shall ever live. And this does not seem to he properly witnessed to or borne out merely by the men of a distant time, or of distant times or ages, all having the knowledge of the gospel. It is better not to fix down the manner of the testimony, but to allow the verse to remain in its awn universality, to have its due weight as one of many verses that bear upon the same point. TI.Jere is suggested-not more than suggested-some great testimony to the universality of the musom. We caunot _tell what the testimony will be as it is here, for good reason, not condescemled on. It 1s not borne now, out ,t is to~ borne-it may be after long ages-yet in its own times. VL p .AtJL'B OONTRlllUTlON TO TJU tJNIVERS.ALITY OJ' TBB TESTUIONT, .. Where- 48 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. [OB. o. 1-11.
,mto I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." Paul was privileged in his day-before the o.rrivo.l of the ti.m-to help forward the demonstration of the universal ransom. For thia he w1111 appointed a preacher, literally a herald, i.e. one that cried aloud in the No.me of C~st _and spared not. He WR.S also .appointed to the high office of apostle, with which 1s connected the double asseveration," I speak the truth, I lie not." We cannot think of it being made thus strong for the sake of Timothy, but for the sake of some who were to be reached through Timothy. He was further appointed a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. In this he overstepped Jewish litnits, o.nd was entering as far as he could into the universality of the guspel. And what he called upon men everywhere to do WR.S to believe, the object of their faith being the truth that Christ died for them and for all.-R. F.