that He was made high priest by the oath of God. He was a sacrifice when He died, not a priest. He could not be priest and sacrifice at the same time. After His ascension He, as high priest, made atonement with His own blood which He shed as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Hence a number of facts show the utter folly of claiming that He was a priest among men. It is through Christ as high priest that we worship God. We can worship acceptably in no other way. There are no other means of access to the Father. Only through and by the priesthood can God be worshiped. Hence the worshiper must become a priest, and then worship through Christ as high priest. All pretensions to approach God in worship, without recognizing Christ as our high priest and mediator, is only an exhibition of an infidel farce. It is an insult to God, because a rejection of His Son. Hence those who do not accept Christ as their high priest cut themselves off from access to the Father. Christ Himself says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." Paul makes it a matter of rejoicing that we have a great high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; one that has been tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Such a high priest knows how to sympathize with us, and to make for us all just excuses. The earthly high priest went once a year, on the great day of atonement, into the most holy place, with the blood of others, to make atonement for the sins of Israel; but Christ, as the high priest of the good things to come, has entered the holy place on high, with His own blood, to make atonement for the sins of the whole world. The offerings made by the priests under the law pertained only to the cleansing of the flesh; but the blood offered by our high priest "cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve the living God." NEW TESTAMENT VIEWS OF CHRIST. XII.--CHRIST OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (I. Cor. i. 30, 31). In this language Paul affirms that Christ is our righteousness. This is a momentous thought. It goes to the heart of the scheme of redemption. How is Christ our righteousness? What does Paul mean by the affirmation? The very life of Christianity is involved in the answer. By one's answer we know just where to place him in regard to the vital principles of Christianity.