Ques. 18.-Please explain the difference between what is commonly called standing and state. Does our place in the holiest depend upon our state, or is it connected with the common standing of all believers? My impression is that our High Priest has gone in there permanently, and that all His members are where He is – seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Would you call that the holiest of all? I am aware that we only realize our standing there, when our state is right, but surely the standing remains perfect, notwithstanding the failure in the believer.

Ans.-Without entering into intricate distinctions, there are evidently two very clearly marked lines of truth in the word of God relating to believers, which may be very properly grouped under the words standing and state.

Standing includes all that is connected with the counsels of grace, the work of Christ and the place He now occupies, risen and glorified, for His redeemed people. Connected with it we have forgiveness, justification, acceptance, access to God in grace, and boldness in the holiest. Flowing from it we have the pledge of eternal security, and the glory of God as our home.

State suggests the practical work of the Spirit in us, bringing home these truths to our hearts and consciences, and producing in us corresponding fruits. It is intimately associated with the thought of responsibility.

It is of grave importance therefore that there should be kept a clear distinction between standing and state. Where this is not clone assurance will be lacking, or a pharisaic spirit be fostered; for who could ever be satisfied with his state? On the other hand, the perfection of our standing before God on the ground of a sacrifice which has perfected us forever, and in Christ risen, is as absolute as the work and Person of our Lord could make it.

Unquestionably there is a very close connection between the standing and state of the believer, and the failure to notice this may have resulted in the effort to confound them. Our state flows from our standing, and should be the expression, in ever increasing measure, of its perfection. We have absolutely no sympathy with that wretched abuse of the doctrines of grace which leads to antinomianism-which says, Let us continue in sin that grace may abound. But the remedy is not to merge state into standing or the reverse, but to give all emphasis to each in its place. We are thankful for our brother's question calling attention to this most important and elementary truth.

Ques. 19.-Please explain Matt. 15:21-28, especially verse 27, "Truth, Lord:yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters's table."

Ans.-The woman was a Gentile and in using the title "Son of David," she appealed to the Lord as though she were an Israelite. He tests her faith by His silence, and, when He does speak, emphasizes the position of Gentiles-"It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs." Is has been thought however that in the very form of word used for "dog," our Lord left an opening for faith. It was not the dog without owner, the common scavenger of the east, but the house-dog- so the diminutive form has been thought to suggest-inferior and dependent, but not despised. Be this as it may, the great faith of the woman takes the place the Lord gives her, and uses that as an argument for His mercy to be shown. " Truth Lord," I am a dog, but when was dog refused a crumb, and Thy mercy for me is but as that. Thus faith ever acts:it takes the place of nothingness, and finds the fulness of Christ for it.

Ques. 20.-Will there be any deaths among the saved upon earth during the millennium. See Isa. 65:20.

Ans.-It would seem not. There will be multitudes of mere professors during that period, and from among these all who despise the government of God in a public way will be cut off. There is no mention of the resurrection of any at the close of the millennium except the unsaved (Rev. 20:5, 6, 12-15).

Ques. 21.-Could you tell who the nations are, spoken of in Rev. 21:24? The old heavens and earth are passed away. Jerusalem is seen coming down from God out of heaven, and the nations walk in the light of it. Is this the time spoken of in 1 Cor. 12:28, where the Son delivers up the Kingdom to God?

Ans.-We believe that the eternal state is referred to in the first eight verses of Rev. 21:, and that the remainder of the description of the heavenly city, in that and the next chapter, takes more the form of a millennial scene. This would explain the mention of the nations alluded to. From ver. 9 to 21:5 seems plainly to be a separate and retrospective vision as to the millennial time.

Ques. 22.-Please explain Col. 2:16 to end. Who are exhorted not to touch taste or handle, and from what are they so carefully guarded?

Ans.-The expression is a sort of epitome of the law of ordinances. It was continually exhorting those under it not to touch taste or handle anything that would bring ceremonial defilement. The apostle hart just been telling the saints that they were dead, in Christ, to these ''rudiments of the world," and that none could judge them in "meat or drink, or in respect of a new moon, or of the sabbath days." This is the force of the expression alluded to. In place of the punctilio of legal ceremony, they were, as risen with Christ, to seek those things which are above, where Christ is, and to put to death their members which are upon earth (Col. 3:1, 5).

"Lord, oh how long, I'm weary,"
My fainting spirit cried:
"A little while, be patient,"
The steadfast Word replied.

Lord, oh how long, Thy mercy lingers still,
Over a world for which Thou'st bled and died;
Over the souls of men, whose hardened hearts
Still spurn the love of Him they've crucified.
When will they add their sorrow to Thy love-
Sorrow for sin which nailed Thee to the cross?
Why will they count the immortal soul less dear,
Less to be valued than this poor world's dross.
And right be deemed but wrong,
And evil good,-how long?

What hast thou not endured from wilful man?
Surely Thy love has suffered long indeed,
Scorn from the world, indifference from Thine own;
Yet doth that love in patience wait, and plead.
When will the last loved soul be gathered in,
When shall I leave this sorrow-stricken scene?
When shall I see Thee crowned with many crowns,
Thou, who wast once the lowly Nazarene?
Exultant then my song-
Yea, Lord, but oh how long?

When shall it be ? I'm weary waiting Lord,
Weary of. self, my childish changefulness;
When shall I lay my shield and sword aside,
When shall I be like Thee?-oh wondrous grace!-
When shall I cease my waywardness to mourn?
When shall my heart with steadfastness be fixed,
Jesus alone upon Thyself, in joy,
And satisfaction, evermore unmixed?
I question, is it wrong
To ask, Will it be long?

When shall the bolts and bars of this my flesh
Break at the touch of Thy once pierced hand?
When shall the grave its vanquished power confess,
Yielding its captive prey at Thy command?
Rough is life's sea, its waves are merciless,
Strained are my eyes for just one glimpse of home-
Brief are life's joys, each breast its sorrow hath,
Weaning the heart, and thus the cry:"Lord come.
Grief makes the night seem long-
But faith hath aye a song.

Well do I know the certain joy that comes;
Sweet the reward. Then wait. I know He will
Meet every soul that trusts Him in the dark,
And bid each doubt and question to be still.
Ah, Lord I wait, but not for aught on earth,
Yea, and I watch, but not the shadows here,
That flee my grasp at every setting sun;
And leave but disappointment's bitter tear.
Soon Saviour Thou wilt come,
And I shall be at home.

Then shall the strings of this poor human heart,
Answer Thy touch in tones of joy alone.
Then shall the wail of minor chords be hushed,
Then shall eternal song replace the groan.
Then shall I read my answered prayers aright,
Pleaded so oft, and yet so long denied.
Then shall I feast my eyes upon Thy face-
And in Thy heart of love forever hide.
Give through the night the song,
That it may not seem long.

H. McD.

The question, Will the saints be in the tribulation ? suggests itself to every one who is occupied with the hopes of the Church of God and the prophetic declarations of Scripture as to the close of this earth's painful and laborious history. Personal anxiety suggests it on one hand, and on the other it connects itself intimately with the gravest and most vital points of prophetic inquiry; or rather, of the true character of the Church of God and its condition at the close.

I cannot, in the space allowed me here, enter at large into the declarations of the Old Testament as to a remnant, nor of the New as to the Church. But a short answer to the question itself will help to throw light on the points I allude to, and on the rapture of the saints. I purpose adding a development of the true force of 2 Thess. 1:, 2:, so often introduced in the discussions which have arisen on these subjects.

And first, as to our being in the tribulation :How do I know there will be a tribulation ? I must get some revelation of it. He who would place the Church in it will answer me, I am sure the Scriptures are clear on the point. There will be at the close a tribulation, a time such as there has never been, till the Lord's coming brings deliverance. What, then, are the scriptures which tell us that there will
be such tribulation ? I am not aware of any other direct ones than these :-Jer. 30:7 ; Dan. 12:i; Matt. 24:21; Mark 13:19 (Luke does not speak of it, nor of the abomination of desolation); to which we may add the more general passages of Rev. 3:10; 7:14. The first four passages do effectively prove that there will be a time of tribulation such as never was since there was a nation, or, as it is expressed in Mark, "such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created, neither shall be." The passages from Revelation apply, we shall see, to a wider sphere than the preceding ones; but as they speak of a great tribulation, I have, of course, quoted them. There will be, then, a tribulation.

The other part of the question still remains :Shall we, who compose the Church, be in this tribulation ? The answer to this question must be sought in the passages which speak of the tribulation itself.

The first of them, Jer. 30:7, is as clear as possible in announcing those to whom it applies. "It is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be delivered out of it." This time, then, of trouble, such as never was nor will be-so that there cannot be two-is the time of Jacob's trouble. Nothing can be clearer or more distinct. The whole chapter may be read, which sets it in the clearest light. It is not merely that Jacob will be found there, but when it is said,"alas ! for that day is great, there is none like it," the trouble spoken of is Jacob's trouble.

The next is Dan. 12:1:This is also positively declared to be of Daniel's people. The whole prophecy is the description of what is to happen to Daniel's people in the last days (Dan. 10:14). Michael, also, will then stand up for that people (comp. chap. 10:21), and, as Jeremiah had said, they will be delivered (that is, the elect remnant – those written in the book). Daniel's testimony then is also quite clear. The tribulation is the tribulation of Daniel's people.

But this is the rather important because it carries us at once to Matthew, the Lord Himself declaring that He speaks of this same time and same event, using the terms of Daniel and referring to him by name as well as to the statements of the passage. (Comp. Matt. 24:15 ; Dan. 12:11.) But all the language of the passage in Matthew confirms this. Those who are in Judea are to flee to the mountains. Those who are on the housetop are not to come down to seek anything, The abomination which causes desolation stands in the holy place. They are to pray that their flight may not be on the Sabbath. False Christs and false prophets are to seduce with the hopes cherished by the Jewish people. All is local and Jewish- has no application to hopes which rest on going to meet Christ in the air. What is in question is, "flesh " being "saved " (1:e., life spared on earth). Mark relates evidently to the same event and almost exactly in the same terms.

Thus these four passages, which speak of the unequal ed tribulation, apply it distinctively to Jacob, Jerusalem, and Judea, and the Jews, not to the Church. It is entirely another order and sphere of things from the Church, and professedly so.

There are two passages which, as I have said, are more general:Rev. 3:10 and 7:14. Do these, then, apply to the Church ? The language of Rev. 3:10 is this :" Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from* the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them which dwell on the earth."*Greek, "out of."* That is, when the Church is addressed, it is with a declaration that she will be kept out of that hour which shall come to try others.

Thus far, then, the testimonies of Scripture declare that the unequaled tribulation is for Jacob ; and when the time of temptation is spoken of in addressing the Church, it is to declare that the faithful shall be kept out of it.

Rev. 7:14 may seem more difficult ; still it bears witness to the same truth. For the heavenly kings and priests (that is, the elders who have represented them from the beginning of the second or strictly prophetic part of the book) are professedly another class of persons, who have not come out of the great tribulation. One of these elders explains to John who those are, who have come out of great tribulation, as another class of persons from themselves. One of them asks John, Who are these who are arrayed in white robes, etc. ? John refers to him, and the elder then explains. That is, the crowned elders are quite a different class from them; so that, while admitting the passage to be obscure in certain points, it is clear in this:in giving us the elders and those who came out of tribulation as two distinct classes. The crowned elders are not at all represented as having been in it, but as pointing out others as having come out of it. Every element of the description of these persons confirms this distinction.

Another passage, Rev. 12:, while not using the term tribulation, yet speaking of the epoch at which it is to happen, strongly confirms this same truth. When Satan and his angels are defeated by Michael, he is cast out and comes down to the earth, having great wrath, knowing he has but a short time, and persecutes the woman. Now, what is the effect of this most important event on those who can celebrate its bearing ? That the trial of the heavenly saints is ended, and that of the inhabiters of the earth and the sea just about to begin in its most formidable shape, because Satan is cast down there. The language is this :"Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea," etc. Now I do not say that this is the moment of the rapture, for I think that is included in the man-child's being caught up. But I say this, that at the moment of the commencement of the great rage of Satan for the three times and a half, the entire deliverance of the heavenly saints from his power, and their definite triumph is celebrated; that is, they are not exposed to that last time of Satan's rage. This chapter, then, confirms, in the fullest way, the exemption of the Church from the last and dreadful time of trial. I am satisfied that the whole teaching and structure of the Revelation confirms the same truth; but this would evidently lead me into too large a sphere of inquiry. We have found that the passages which speak of tribulation first apply it directly to the Jews on one side, and then exclude the Church from it on the other. I do not see how such a point as this could be made clearer by Scripture. J. N. D.

(To be concluded in next number.)

"And upon His Head Were Many Crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

(Continued from page 258.)

CHAPTER IX. The Advocate.

The High-Priest that becomes us is, then, as the apostle has declared, One "separate from sinners," those sanctified by His blood being " perfected in perpetuity" by it, so as being '' once purged," they might have "no more conscience of sins." But this, as we know well, does not mean, "no more consciousness of sins,"-that is, of committing them, but consciousness of the efficacy of that work abiding ever before God for us. There is never a moment's intermission as to this.

But then, what about the sins which are committed after conversion ? Is there simply no notice taken of them ? That, we are sure, is impossible:both Scripture and our own experience would refute the unholy thought. That the people of God have often to suffer greatly because of their sins is known to all ; and Scripture is full of examples of this, and asserts it doctrinally in the clearest way. Thus, " if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work," says the apostle Peter, "pass the time of your sojourning here with fear:forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as with silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ" (i Pet. 1:17-19). And again he says :'' For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God ? and if the righteous scarcely "-or rather, "with difficulty"- " be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (ch. 4:17, 18.)

Thus there is even a special judgment going on of the people of God at the present time; a judgment so necessary that on account of it, the righteous are said to be with difficulty saved :not, of course, because of any uncertainty about it, but simply because so much has to be done in this way to maintain the holiness of God. And the apostle Paul also speaks in even stronger language to the Corinthians :"For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged; but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (i Cor. 11:31, 32).

This is indeed strong language as to those for whom the work of Christ avails in so full and absolute a manner as we have just seen it does. This work, then, does not set aside the need of such judgment. Nay, rather it secures it. Let us notice well that it is the Father's judgment :"if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth." In the final judgment of wrath it is not the Father who judges:as to that the "Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father " (John 5:22, 23). The Father's judgment is "of every son whom He receiveth; "so that "if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not ? " (Heb. 12:6, 7).

How blessed it is to know, and at the same time how solemn to realize, that the sin of a child of God.
is against his Father, and that it is the love of relationship that is called into exercise about it, – love which acts towards us " for our profit, that we might be made partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:10). It is impossible that He should treat it lightly; and it will be impossible in the end for any one of His own to treat it lightly either. Grace abides toward us; and because grace abides, sin cannot be permitted to have sway over the objects of it.

But because this whole matter of a believer's sin is between the Father and His child, we are not to imagine that Christ has not to do with it. His priestly work has indeed been so fully done that in this character He has nothing more to do:He sits down, because His work is accomplished. But as Son over the house of God, priesthood is not His whole work. The children of God are put into His hand, who is the First-born among brethren; and in every thing that concerns them He has His necessary place and part. So then it is here:"if any one sin, we have an Advocate"-a Paraclete-"with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins" (i John 2:1, 2).

The last is the ground and justification of the grace expressed in the former. Suited Advocate is He indeed who has been Himself this propitiation for us; and here "Jesus Christ the righteous" is very fully manifest,-love and righteousness alike displayed in Him. Here is the very character of the Advocate or Paraclete-the One "called to our side," "to our assistance," as both words mean; and this is in natural relation with the fact that we are given to Him. We being in His charge, He stands forth in our behalf, pledged and proved on both sides, God's and ours, and who has made both one. On earth, the Spirit of God is our Paraclete, and makes intercession for us, though perhaps, as far as we are concerned, in a groan that we cannot utter. In heaven, Christ our Paraclete is, as it were, similarly our voice uttering itself, but infinitely better than any utterance of our own could be. How well are we provided ! Here are two Witnesses in our behalf, each perfect absolutely, and having perfectly the ear of Him with whom they plead. How certainly effectual must be such intercession as this !

How good also it is to know that it is "if any one sin," not, if any one repent, " we have an Advocate." In Peter's case, which is surely intended as a typical one, it is before the sin that Christ intercedes for him, and how tender is the intercession, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Having need to learn himself, and to have the spirit of self-confidence broken in him, he cannot be spared the needful experience. Satan is permitted to sift him, but the Lord's gracious eye, as Peter at the critical moment was given to see it, was watching the result with unwearying care, and guiding all to the predicted issue. The knowledge of ourselves – the needful exercise as to good and evil-He cannot ask that we shall be spared; but the end is sure, and we are invited to realize the strength and tenderness upon which we may lean at all times without a shadow of fear.

The maintenance of communion is that which our Advocate continually is occupied with. For this the knowledge of ourselves is a necessity. Whether this shall be acquired as Simon Peter acquired it, it depends upon ourselves to say. I suppose we have all of us had to learn a good deal by such painful experiences ; but there is surely a better way. Peter, we may remember, had resisted, if but for a moment, that washing of his feet, for him and for us all so needful; and it is still the independency which under whatever fair appearance resists His way with us, that condemns us to such a painful discipline. The Lord is still and ever our one necessity. Wisdom is with Him and we must find it in Him; if it be in the way of the Cross, we need not wonder, though He Himself has borne all the burden there.

The Cross is indeed the fulness of all wisdom for us. It is the judgment of man; it is the manifestation and glory of God. If we accept it as the setting aside for us of self and all that self can glory in, we shall find that it has set aside at the same time all that would hinder safe and steady progress. Christ is then ours with all His fulness, to draw from for every need that can possibly arise. Take it as the apostle puts it, that "in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him we are complete "- filled up. Here is the one daily provision to carry with us, but for it the judgment of the Cross must be accepted in its entirety. Then in this Cross Christ is entirely for us,-all that God is as manifested here in Him.

This lesson is the lesson for all of us. The Advocate is with the Father, that our very failure may make for the learning of it, though it be in shame and bitter tears of repentance that we have to learn it. His advocacy is not to spare us what is needful for this, but that His end in us may be fully attained, and God glorified. Tenderest love there is in it, assuredly, and divine comfort,- tenderness, but no laxity; and no way of blessing for us except in complete surrender into His hands. We cannot but remember that they are hands that were pierced for us, and that for Him there was no way but that of the Cross. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

TRUTH THOUGH PRECIOUS AND FROM HEAVEN, THE OCCASION OF DISCORD AND BITTERNESS ON EARTH, AND WHY?
Truth must be precious, for it came from God. I The inspired Word says:"The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The Lord said to Pilate:"For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice." He could say, "I am the Truth." He was the full expression of it. He is designated, "The faithful and true Witness." And the truth that came by Him, and shown forth in Him, was divinely intended for the blessing of poor fallen man. We are assured that God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." We are saved by coming to the knowledge of the truth. The Lord said:"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." In praying to the Father for His own, He said:"Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth." The apostle tells us that "the truth is in Jesus." Surely then as truth came from God, and by the Lord Jesus, it must be a most precious boon; and being intended for the blessing of man,-man deceived by Satan, who "abode not in the truth,"-it should be gladly received by all, and at any cost. No wonder, therefore, it should be said in Scripture, "Buy the truth, and sell it not,"-that is buy it at any cost, at any sacrifice, and at no price sell it; sacrifice anything sooner than sacrifice the truth. Millions of worlds, if offered, should be no inducement to reject or give up the truth, and indeed would be none to those who truly know it; and yet they are most glad to make it known, that others may enjoy what they enjoy.

And is it so that a thing so precious, and intended to bless, and so needful as truth in a scene where all is false, should be the occasion of trouble and bitterness? Alas! it is really so. It has been thus from the days of Cain and Abel down to the present. Hence we are not to expect any thing else. Yes, the truth, as it is in Jesus, may bring a storm on those who receive it; but never mind, my dear brother or sister, it is better to be saved in a storm than to be lost in a calm. And yet it is not always that simply receiving the truth brings the storm, but taking the path which the truth points out. In these days almost any truth may be made popular as long as you will go on with the great current of profession. You may hold the doctrines of grace, full atonement through the cross, salvation simply through Christ and on the principle of faith, also the heavenly calling, and the Lord's return, and the storm may not come; but take path of truth, the path suited to these doctrines of Christ, having your back turned on that from which you are delivered through the Cross, and your face firmly set toward that into which you are brought in Christ, and you will find that you cannot make the path popular; rather you will find the winds contrary, yea these contrary winds may amount to a hurricane, carrying all before it, all of earth you have held dear. Yet, surely it is better that it should be so, than that you should purchase a calm at the expense of truth, and by dishonoring Him who bore an infinitely greater storm for us on Calvary.

But the question comes up, Why is it that this precious gift of God is thus made the occasion of trouble and bitterness? Surely the fault cannot be with the truth itself, nor with the One from whom it came, and by whom it came. The truth brings no discord in heaven where all is pure and good. Why then is the effect so otherwise on earth? Certainly it must be something very unlike heaven, and contrary to God, which it has to meet, and which is the opposite of itself. It is very clear that the coming of Him by whom truth came, was divinely meant for blessing to all. When Jesus was born, the angel of the Lord said to the shepherds:"Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people," and the multitude of the heavenly host was with the angel, praising God, saying:" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." This was what was in God's heart. His grace was toward all, and for the blessing of all. But though this was true, yet, alas, in view of the fact that, while some would bow to the truth and be saved, many would reject it, and be bitterly against those who received it,-the Lord had to present His coming, looking at the result, under a very different aspect. He said:"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." And who is to blame for this unhappy result? Certainly not those who receive the truth in the love of it, and act accordingly. They do not turn bitter against the others, but pray for them, and long for their real good. The blame is clearly with those who reject the truth, and are bitter toward those who receive it, thus taking sides with him "who abode not in the truth." He is urging them on, and will, in due time, meet his doom; but those who put themselves in his power, cannot clear themselves by casting the blame on him. We are individually responsible to receive the truth, and thus be on God's side.

Of course, there are those who are slow in understanding anything, and therefore slow in seeing and receiving truth, and yet long to know the truth. It may require patience in dealing with such; but seeing they are honest and sincere, it is pleasant work to be helpful to them; and, as the result, they see and rejoice. But with others, when the truth is presented, opposition is their first thought. The will of the flesh is up at once, and thus the great enemy can use them to his advantage, and their own injury; and, under his influence, they become awfully bitter, and their spirit and words, alas! become almost, if not really, satanic. The enemy is acting through them. You may be telling out the most important truths, plainly taught in the word of God, even the way that a poor lost sinner is saved, that is through the Cross, clung to by faith, without the deeds of the law, and which an inspired apostle designates "righteousness without works;"-or you may speak of the standing of believers, as "complete in Christ" by being seen of God, as "dead with Christ" and "risen with Him," and seated "in heavenly places in Him," and of the behavior suited to such an exalted calling,-truths which Satan must especially hate, as they magnify the riches of God's grace, and consequently those who have put themselves in his power, find it hard to invent language sufficiently hateful to express their intense bitterness against such thoughts. Should a child of God thus yield to the flesh, and so take sides with "that wicked one," the loss thereby sustained will be shown up at the judgment-seat of Christ.

Beloved, if you are called to suffer for receiving the truth and acting on it, happy are ye. God knows all about it. Besides, your treatment gives you a good opportunity of showing another thing which came by Jesus Christ, namely, "grace." It is for you to show grace, though none may be shown to you. While we are to "walk in truth," we are to "walk in love." The Lord help us to cling to the truth, and to walk in the power of the love which brought the truth; and may those who have manifested such sorrowful hatred to the truth, give evident of repentance before their little day is over, and rest simply on the grace of God, and the merits of the Lord Jesus, and so pass to that scene of blessedness where all ascribe their salvation to God and the Lamb. Yes, happy if they can say, even at the last, from a full heart.

" Vile and full of sin, I am,-
Thou art full of truth and grace."
and
" In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling."
Then in Thy blest abode, from all this weakness free,
I, through the grace of God, shall ever with Thee be.

R. H.

Ques. 15.-"There are some Christians whose experience seems to contradict the word of God in such a passage, for instance, as, "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14). They fall, are restored to fellowship, afterwards fall again, are restored again; and go up and down thus. What is likely to be the cause of such a lack of stability? and may there a contributory cause in the assembly, either in its state, or in its dealing with such an one ? "

Ans.-In such cases as are referred to, it is evident the truth as to deliverance from the power of sin is not known, in power, whatever the theoretical knowledge may be. The great secret of deliverance is, first of all, to judge sin in its roofs, to judge self. Sad and shameful fruits may grow from a secret pride which prevents one from abhorring himself. Pride of intellect, of knowledge, of sufficiency in one's self,-these may seem quite harmless, and are, alas ! too common. And yet from these so-called manly virtues may grow that which is even in the world's eye disgraceful.

The true secret of self-judgment is to realize what the holy presence of God is. So long as one is not there, he cannot truly measure sin. How comforting it is to know that, in that holy presence which discloses what sin is, we find also the perfect grace which has put it away.

No doubt, too, a general state of the assembly may contribute to individual weakness. "Ye have not mourned," says the apostle. A spirit of true contrition among all the people of God is the surest way to secure individual faithfulness. The assembly in the full exercise of its functions will care for, warn, watch, and build up those who are in special need.

Then also when the proper activities are all in exercise there is less temptation to yield to what is not of God. May God revive His beloved people, making Himself and divine things such realities, that even the feeblest, kept in His presence, built up by His word, and engaged in the loving service of His house, may be delivered from every snare.

Ques. 16.-" Scripture speaks about every uncovered vessel in the tent, where a death has occurred, being defiled. What about the covered vessel ? are they unclean too ? "

Ans.-The same scripture (Numb. 19:) distinctly declares that the covered vessel is clean. When the spiritual meaning is seen, this becomes manifest. The world is a chamber of death. If we are uncovered, in a careless state, we are defiled by being in it. If, on the other hand, we are on our guard, covered by a sense of the Lord's presence, we walk through all undefiled, and our Lord's prayer is answered, "I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil."

But deliberate, conscious contact with evil, or refusal to separate from it when pointed out, or indifference to the question of association with it, would show an uncovered vessel.

In like manner, failure on the part of one defiled by necessary contact with a dead body, to purify himself, would render him culpably defiled, and without doubt he was to be treated as such.
Ques. 17.-Please explain 1 Cor. 14:30:" If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace."

Ans.-The whole chapter is devoted to the meetings of the Lord's people, and the exercise of their gifts under necessary and divine restrictions. There was to be liberty to the Spirit, but none to the flesh. Such exhibitions as speaking with tongues were to be rigidly controlled, and in the exercise of prophecy or worship-all was to be done unto edifying. The prophets were to speak one by one, not two or three together, no matter what the apparent urgency might be. This will explain the verse. If one were speaking, he was to keep silence to permit another to say what had been laid upon him. Ordinarily, of course, the second speaker would wait until the first had finished, and, at any rate, would not begin until he had taken his seat. Possibly under remarkable circumstances he might intimate that he had a message to deliver. But at present we can scarcely imagine such a thing taking place, unless, indeed, to silence an unprofitable or disorderly speaker.

"In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth " (Ps. 90:6).

Our life, brief and uncertain as it is, seems to be long as we look upon it as a whole. A year seems a long time, and ere we are aware, it has slipped through our fingers; and so with the entire life. The scripture we have quoted gives the day, the briefest natural division of time, as the figure of that life. How quickly does morning pass to noon, and noon darken to evening. How brief is life. "We spend our years as a tale that is told."

And yet procrastination would rob us of its brief hours with the thought that "to-morrow shall be as
to-day and much more abundant." It is this that encourages the sinner to despise the offers of grace and to be heedless of the warning, " to-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts;" nor are saints less exempt from the snare. True, through grace, they have been saved, their future in heaven is assured. But this only exposes them to the snare of the enemy, who would prevent in every way their usefulness in this world.

How solemn is the thought that "we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ." With what unavailing sorrow will the Lord's redeemed ones look back upon a misspent life.

But may there not be help in the thought suggested by our subject? Our life is but a day; and each day is a sample of our whole life. Do we wish to know how we are spending our life? let us examine the history of a single day. It will be found to give a miniature of the life. Are the loins girded, are opportunities seized, are temptations resisted? What place has Christ in our hearts this day ? what place has the word of God in our thoughts? It will be found that the history of a day will give the history of the life.

Take the current of a river at any point-the direction in which it is flowing-and you will have the general course of the river. Is there not mercy in this? Does not God thus give us an opportunity of, as it were, testing our lives daily-not surely for self-complacency-but to know how our life is passing.

Dear reader, this day's record of your life tells its whole story. Is it what it should be? Do you expect at some time to make a change? Ah! to-day, not even to-morrow, is the time to let our life be what it should be. How many lives are being practically wasted by the aimless drifting that is so common.

A Lecture by S. R. in New York, Aug. 13th, 1897.

The subject of the whole epistle is Christian ministry, its sources and its character:and the first subject in Christian ministry, as to its nature, is its stability; there is nothing uncertain about the ministry of Christ as there is nothing uncertain about the person of Christ. The apostle puts it in a most forcible way:he says, Christ was not yea and nay, and therefore neither was the gospel which I preached to you yea and nay, it was the everlasting yea, the eternal certainty connected with the person of the blessed Christ of God Himself.

But if the gospel is stable and certain, so also is the truth for the people of God equally unwavering and sure. There is no yea and nay in the ministry of the word of God for the edification of the saints. There is no such thing as divers weights and divers measures,-there must be one standard-the absolute inflexible holiness of God, whether it be in the salvation of sinners, or in the building up and the guidance of the saints.

Then most beautifully we see how in spite of this absolutely inflexible character of the truth of God, when it comes to be ministered to the saints, if there were one who had dishonored Christ, but had been through grace led to see this, the grace of God could go out in all its fullness to him. He was to be restored, and the saints who in the first epistle had been told in the most forcible way to put away the wicked person from among themselves, are exhorted with equal force now to confirm their love to him and to welcome him back.

What a perfect blending there is in that way of the grace and holiness of God. His light flashes into our hearts, reveals our condition, brings us on our knees, brings us into the dust in shame and confusion of face. We say there is no more hope that the Lord will ever use us, we dare not think that we can ever be associated with His people again, when lo! the very word which smites, comforts, heals and witnesses to us of God's willingness to forgive and to restore His beloved, wandering, but penitent child.

This brings us to that wonderful third chapter, where we have the contrast between the ministry of the law and the ministry of Christ. The law could only bring condemnation and death, because it made its demands upon man-demands which he could never fulfil.

The law always put him at a distance with a veil between him and God; and this is most forcibly illustrated in the fact that Moses himself, with the glory shining upon him, had to put a veil over his face, for the children of Israel could not look upon it. They dared not look upon the glory of God, even a partial revelation of that glory. For the glory which shone in Moses' face was only a partial revelation of God, because the full glory could not be manifested in that which made a demand upon man.

Now see the lovely contrast. We look upon what? not the glory of God manifested in the law, not the glory of God in any partial way. Nay, dear brethren, we gaze into the full cloudless brightness of divine glory as it is shining out in the face of Jesus Christ, and instead of there being a veil upon that face-hiding its glory, it shines in all its wondrous effulgence, right down into our hearts, and transforms us into the likeness of Christ. Oh, what a wondrous display, and what a glorious ministry. Therefore the apostle can say "we use great plainness of speech ";-the veil is taken away, and we behold unhindered now the brightness of divine glory.

Now that brings us to our subject, the fourth and fifth chapters, which contain the kernel of this entire epistle. Here we have the great truths which are enlarged upon later on.

Let us notice at the very beginning, that you have in the opening verses of this fourth chapter, and in the closing verses of the fifth chapter, a solemn word to the unsaved. First of all the apostle says, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost;" it is hid-not because there is any veil upon the face of Christ, not because there is any partial revelation of the glory of God in the gospel, not because there is any hindrance on His side; no, if our gospel be hid, it is because "the god of this world "-the god of this age-"hath blindeth the minds of those that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God, should shine unto them." That is the only reason why there is any hiding of the glory of God.

This world ought to shine with the glory of God; it ought to be fairly resplendent; men's very faces, their lives ought all to catch the light of that glory and to reflect it abroad. Why is it not so? why are there so many dark hearts with absolutely no light in them? why are there so many lives, that instead of reflecting the glory of God below, gather the darkness out of care and sorrow in a world like this? why is it that we hear groans instead of songs of praise, cursing instead of blessing? Ask the god of this world. Ah, brethren, the veil is upon man's unbelieving heart, the veil is there, not on Christ.

But look at the close of the fifth chapter. He says there that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. These very people who are lost, upon whose hearts the god of this world has put a veil, who are blinded by Satan,-to these very people he speaks as an ambassador for Christ, '' as though God did beseech you," he prays them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. How beautiful is this ! Satan puts a veil over man's heart, and blinds him to the beauties of Christ ; the faithful minister of Christ takes the veil away if they will only let him, and entreats them to be reconciled to God. The first word of the ministry of the gospel declares man's lost condition, and the last word is one of entreaty. "Be ye reconciled to God, for he hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." That is the gospel. We speak of the glories of God, but before we go into that, let us have a word for the poor sinner. Is the veil upon his heart ? let him listen to the word of divine entreaty:Christ was made sin, Christ came for the lost, Christ came to do away with that darkness of your heart ; He says if you will but hear the word of reconciliation and accept it you will know something of that glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Is not that blessed, beloved ; is it not a precious thought ? And what a divine motive power behind the man who has all the glory of God to present to sinners with the solemn earnest entreaty for them to be reconciled to Him. Oh for hearts to hear the gospel!

Now let us take up just a few of the things in this portion for us as believers, and see how beautifully the apostle unfolds to us not only the glory of the treasure, but the earthen vessel in which the treasure is contained. He begins here, as you notice, with a contrast. He had been speaking of the darkness of those who are lost, and he passes into happiest contrast, and you will notice it here in the sixth verse " For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Do you think of the darkness of the sinner's heart ? The first word is that which God uttered on the morning of creation, when darkness covered the face of the deep ; "God said, Let there be light, and there was light." So in our poor hearts there was that awful darkness of sin ; into that darkness the voice of the living God pierced. Ah, the commanding power of that divine word in the soul, how it woke us out of our indifference, and made us feel first of all the desolation which sin had wrought! But it was the beginning of that new creation of which the apostle speaks in the next chapter, "if any man be in Christ there is a new creation." The darkness fled, the light shone. Where did it shine from? It was the glory of God, but it shone from the face of that blessed Lord who had gone into the darkness of the cross of Calvary,-a darkness just as great, just as awful as that in man's ruined heart. Into that darkness-from which God, who is light, had withdrawn-the Lord went. He bore the full penalty of sin ; and now risen and glorified at God's right hand, that Light of the glory of God shines down into our hearts, and illumines them forever with the brightness of His perfect love.

Oh what a light is that, dear brethren ! We talk about heaven being a place of light, and we say well; we talk about there being no need of the sun, nor of the moon there, and we say well, for the Lamb is the light thereof. Do you see Jesus, beloved ? then you see God's likeness. Do you see Him ? then you know what the happy secret is, of which the apostle speaks here,-the light of the glory of God, which shines in His blessed face. The Lord give us to realize that more fully, and to walk in the joy of it here, and we will be indeed lights in the world.

But I want you to notice another thing. You have here the reason why this light has shone in our hearts. It is not merely in order that our hearts may be illuminated by it. It is supposed we are illumined ; but the reason why the light is shining is " to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." And that word "to give the light" means that we are to give out the light which has shone into us.

The glory of God has come down here into my poor breast. Is it to be imprisoned there as a captive? No, beloved, you can no more imprison that light, than you can shut up a sunbeam in a closet. If it has shone in, it must shine out. That is just God's order for the carrying of the precious news of the gospel to this world. The light comes to my heart, it illumines my life, it scatters the darkness there and then shines out in my life that others may see the image of Christ and be led to Him. Oh that we may realize this, our responsibility that there should be nothing to hinder the out-shining of the light any more than there is to hinder its in-shining. And it is the same thing; you get your eye off Christ and the light does not shine in clearly, you get your eye off Christ and the light will not shine out clearly.

You are busy perhaps with your tract distribution, your visitation, your gospel work, and you say what a weariness it is, what a routine it is. So few come to hear the gospel, so few will listen to what I have to say to them, my tracts do not seem to bear any fruit. Is it the glory outshining in your life, or is it the mere effort of nature ? Is it your own puny strength ? Are you going through the forms of happy service, rather than the living reality of that constraining love of Christ ? As he tells us here, "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him who died for them and rose again." Show me a man who realizes what the love of Christ is, show me one who knows what it is for Christ to have taken his heart captive, and I will show you one who like Paul can say "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved."

The love of Christ took possession of his soul, and if saints were indifferent, nay, if they despised him, if they turned from his message, it did not change the constraining power of the love of Christ, and he would go on loving and loving ; and if he could not love in any other way, he would die for them, as he says to the Philippians " yea, and if I be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." But what was the secret of this ? Oh, the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ had shone in his heart and had shone out again, for he could not keep it in. He lived as it were only for the One who loved him, in service for His saints.

You and I can be the same in our measure, dear brethren. We are not different from Paul, for he goes on just here to tell us what kind of a vessel the treasure was hidden in. When we read in the epistles, of his saying for instance, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me,"or, I will glory in the cross, I will glory in that which has crucified me to the world, we say, oh, but that is Paul ! Beloved, that ought to be us too. If it were Paul, he tells us here that the treasure was of God, and that the vessel was an earthen vessel.

Let me give you a little illustration, which struck me most forcibly the other day. I was driving with a brother along the foot of a mountain, near sunset ; and as we looked up on the crest of the mountain, the sun had gone down below it, and was out of sight. But there were floating, just over the top of the mountain, clouds, the mists of earth, floating there in the bright pure air. Do you say, they spoiled the lovely view, they simply reminded us of the exhalations of the earth ? On the contrary those clouds looked like liquid gold, they shone with all the brightness of an absent sun. They shone because they were in the light, and there was no hindrance between them and the sun; its brightness illumined them and they illumined the valley below. We could not see the sun, we could see the clouds. Analyze those clouds. Do you say what wonderful clouds they were? They were nothing but the mists, nothing but the exhalations perhaps of some marsh in the neighborhood, or from the salt ocean, which speaks of death and desolation. What made those clouds reflect ? nothing in the nature of the clouds, but in the glory of that sunshine, in which they were bathed.

So with the Christian. He is common clay. If you think you are some precious alabaster box of ointment, you are very much mistaken; we are nothing but common clay. God formed man out of the dust of the earth ; that is unfallen man, and in addition to being formed out of the dust of the earth, we are fallen creatures as well. Is there anything to boast in ? is there anything to glory in ourselves ? Made of clay and fallen at that! But what is it that makes us different from all others ? It is the treasure, the glory of God Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. And the fact that we are poor earthen vessels only emphasizes the wonder of the glory that could display itself in us. Just as those clouds shone with the sun's brightness and beauty, so with the Christian. He is the poor vessel of earth, but if Christ's light shines into his heart, he exhibits the perfection, he exhibits the character of his Lord- he resembles Him. What a treasure ! Can he not rejoice in the fact that he is an earthen vessel ? Let us go a step further; I say it reverently. God's glory could not have been otherwise so manifested, as it is manifested in these vessels of earth.
Let us suppose an illustration, which I have heard given. Let us suppose that a person had discovered some wonderful elixir, we will say, which if one took it, would give him the power of a giant; he could overturn houses, could pluck up trees by the roots. He is going to prove the power of the elixir. What kind of a person would he select? Oh, you say, he will go to some place of athletic training, and ask for the strongest man they have there, one who can do the greatest feats of strength ; he will give him his elixir and with his natural, and imparted strength, he will be a wonderful giant. Is that what he does ? Nay, he will go to yonder hospital, and pick out the weakest, the most helpless person there; he says now, If my elixir is of any value, it will take this perfectly helpless person, and make him the giant. I will not ask him for any strength of his own, but all strength will come from what I will give him. He gives him the elixir, the man takes it, and lo! he is quickened with mighty strength, and does all that the other claimed for him. What will the people say? Will they say, what a wonderful man in yonder hospital? No, they will say what a wonderful man to have discovered that mighty power, which can use such human weakness and make it strong.

So, dear brethren, are you moaning because you are weak? are you thinking you are so helpless that you cannot do a single thing for the Lord ? I believe you are the very person He wants. I believe, that your very weakness and helplessness will give Him all the glory ; therefore you are the very one that ought to lay claim to the secret of power, which Christ will give you, for the excellency of it is of God and not of us. None can boast.

Look at Paul. Did he boast, could he boast in anything that was his own? Nay, he could not, and if you will turn to the third chapter of Philippians, you will find him there breaking the earthen vessel.

There he speaks of what he was by nature, " circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, of the stock of Israel, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless." What a beautiful vase! What is he going to do with it? Set it on his mantle and admire it?

What a genealogy I have! What rectitude of life mine has been! Is that what he does with it? He sets that vase out before us and then with one blow he shivers it to pieces. "What things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ, yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things." That is having the treasure in an earthen vessel, and as you notice, it is a broken one at that. Break that beautiful vessel? It has perhaps upon it the delicate tracery of the potter, that looks so attractive. Break that vessel ? Smash it to pieces? Do we hesitate ?

Gaze up there at that blessed Man in the glory of God; look at all the brightness of God's eternal glory shining in his face and you will rejoice to see the vessel broken, smashed to pieces, that people may see, not you, not your love, not your diligence, not your faithfulness, but see the epistle of Christ, and His love appealing in its constraining power, drawing and winning men to Himself. That is the secret of Christian ministry, and that, dear brethren, is what it is to have the treasure in an earthen vessel and the vessel broken too.

You remember Gideon's men and the light which they had. That light was to be a testimony for God; they were to hold their lamps in their hands and to cry out "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." It was not their sword that was to gain the victory, but the Lord's sword. How was the light to shine? It could not shine in the pitcher, the pitcher had to be broken, that the light might shine out. Oh, to learn that lesson, to learn that it is not I that serve but Christ that lives and serves in me.

And so if we trace on through these chapters, you will find that the precious truth is unfolded in all its beauty for us. Paul goes on to say that we, who live are always delivered-unto what? " always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Think of it, dear brethren, here is a man, who is engaged in Christ's service, he is going here and there, everywhere, preaching the gospel. People say, Paul, take good care of yourself, be careful that you do not injure that vessel, which holds the treasure. He says, do you know how it is with me ? I am delivered to death for Jesus' sake; I am bearing about the dying, the putting to death, of the Lord Jesus. It is the life of Jesus then, not my life, not my power; it is the life of Jesus manifested in my mortal flesh ; and so far from thinking that the excellency of the power is in me, it is all of Christ, and I am to reckon myself dead, and to bear about that putting to death of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be displayed.

Now, that is beautifully illustrated in the twelfth chapter of this very epistle. The apostle, you remember, had been previously speaking of the glorying of others. He was surrounded by many
who were professing to be wonderful apostles and wonderful teachers, particularly those who were bringing the saints back into Judaism. He had been saying he could compare himself with the best of them. This is in the tent hand eleventh chapters. He is glad to get through with this, so he says, It is not expedient for me to glory; Ido not want to be comparing myself with these men of earth. I have something better than that, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. He casts his eye upward and says, Fourteen years ago I had a sight of what I am in Christ. I was caught up to the glory, where I will soon be forever with the Lord, and there I saw manifestations of power and blessing that I cannot tell you of, for you would not understand it. I saw that, and it was simply a man in Christ that I saw; but if you come to what I am on earth, I cannot glory in myself; I will not compare myself with the men of this world. If you want to know what I am on earth, it is these infirmities that you see besetting me day by day. He then shows the link between these conditions. He had seen himself in Christ. It was a wondrous sight; and lest he should be exalted above measure, there was given him-what? A beautiful vessel, in which to display this wondrous man in Christ ?Is it an attendant host of angels to guard his steps ?Is it people who are saying, There is the wonderful man in Christ? No beloved; when Paul gets to earth, what he hears of is the messenger of Satan, sent to buffet him, and special infirmities, which make him realize the sentence of death upon himself. What is he to do? He says, Lord, Lord, takeaway this thing from me. Am I going to be hampered in my usefulness? Am I going to be hampered in my ministry by this messenger of Satan buffeting me? Lord remove it.

Three times he says this. But oh, the wisdom of that blessed Lord, who loved his servant too well to take from him that which was the proper vessel in which the treasure was to be manifested. It was the proper vessel to manifest His glory ; it was a vessel of earth, beset by afflictions and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. And Paul says, Is that it ? Is it my weakness that is going to let the power of Christ be manifested? Is it my nothingness that is going to let Christ be all in all ? Welcome affliction ! welcome Satan's messenger ! welcome all the buffeting of. this world ! If the power of Christ is manifested, I can rejoice in it all. Dear brethren, think of it ; our afflictions, our persecutions, the things that we groan under, these things are but the occasions for manifesting the excellency of the power of the Lord in the poor vessel of earth ! Oh, for more ministry like that, which distinctly sets Christ before us.

But I must say a word or two as to another side of this ministry ; it is an intensely practical thing. People have a way of thinking that heavenly truth is a very mysterious thing; that you live up, as it were in a cloud-land ; that you float in a sort of balmy ether without one thing to trouble you. This is quite the reverse of the truth; what does Paul speak of in connection with this?

I will mention only two things that you have in this epistle. In the sixth and seventh chapters, he speaks of the absolute necessity of separation from the world. He goes on to tell them that his heart is enlarged toward them, and that he longs to see them enlarged, and he adds, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Now, if you and I had wanted to enlarge the saints, we would not have said anything about that; we would have said, Let us feed them, let us nourish them up with the heavenly side of things. Very well, Paul says, that is just what I have been doing. I have been giving them a glimpse of the face of Jesus in the glory, but the practical effect of enlarged hearts is a" narrow path; the practical effect of a heart set at liberty in the things of Christ is to have the feet withdrawn from every way which dishonors our blessed Lord. And if you want to see saints enlarged, do not expect to find them shouting. Do not expect that people will say about them, They live in a kind of a dream land. You will find them very practical. Every one that nameth the name of the Lord, let him depart from iniquity ; or, as the apostle says, as I have partly quoted, " Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols, what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever." That is enlargement; and I think it is as practical a word as you could get. But where does the power for it come from ? How do we get power for practical separation ? Always by the glory of God.

You remember when Abraham dwelt in far Mesopotamia, in that land of Shinar, noted for its idolatry, surrounded by idolaters, perhaps an idolater himself-there a light shone into his heart, there the glory of the Lord appeared unto him; and what is the effect of it? "Get thee out, get thee out;" that is the practical effect of it, separation from evil by the power of the glory of God:and with that glory shining in his heart, Abraham can leave kindred and home and country, and be separate. Let me ask ; had not the God of glory appeared unto him, could he have left country and all that was dear to nature and have gone unto a land he knew nothing of ? No, beloved, it was the glory that told him to separate, that beckoned him on to the place where it could shine unhindered upon him. These two things go together, the light of the glory of God and the separate path upon earth. That is practical, is it not ?

Now let us note another practical thing in the eighth and ninth chapters of this same epistle. The apostle had been talking about the shining in of the glory, he had been lifting them up into heaven, what does he say next? "Take up a collection." Just about as practical and earthly a thing ; just about as commonplace as you could imagine. People would say, What a descent! In one chapter you were talking about the glory and the treasure, and then you turn round and talk about filthy lucre, and ministering to the necessities of the saints. Is that not a descent from heavenly truth ? Beloved, it only shows us that the character of a heavenly ministry is to take note of everything, to take note of our possessions, to take note of our associations, of everything, for it reaches to every part of our life. In the light of that glory of God, could there be any darkness, could there be any selfishness, any indifference ? Nay, once let that light shine and everything that is inconsistent with it must be done away. So you find throughout two entire chapters of this epistle, the most practical exhortations as to taking up a collection for the need of the saints,-yes and stimulating them too, by making them understand that others are far ahead in this matter.

So much for the practical side of a heavenly ministry. How full it is, how varied ; how it meets the need, and satisfies the craving of the heart. It lifts me up with joy, it lets me pass along in the midst of afflictions with the heart free and glad, but it keeps my feet in the narrow way, and the affections in full activity.

We have only to look at the last side of this ministry, here in the latter part of the fourth chapter, which I read. This journeying through a vale of affliction, this having the earthen vessel broken here, is it to go on through the whole life? Can we hope at last to gain some point where the vessel will not be broken ? Does Paul look forward to the time when with calmly folded hands, he can say, It is all over, and now I can glory in myself ? He does, but where ? Up there where Christ is ; he looks forward to a rest up there that he cannot look forward to here. Take the very body I live in, it is only an earthen vessel-"the earthly house of this tabernacle"; that has got to break after a while. But he does say, beloved friends, "we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." So he looks forward to the treasure being in its proper sphere, and in its proper vessel, only when we are clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. How lovely that is. I begin my Christian course by the breaking of the earthen vessel; I carry it on all my journey, through the agency of a broken vessel. I look forward through the vista of life and I see a broken vessel all through. I look to the end of this life and I see that it will end with the shattering of this frail body of clay in which I dwell, or should the Lord come, entirely changed. I look forward a little further, and what do I see then ? God's house, the building of God, a house not made with hands, a body like Christ's glorious body, who went into death for us. I see at last the place where the vessel no longer needs to be broken, but where with Christ Himself we are gathered, and show out in all its effulgence the wonder of that grace which took us poor lost sinners and set us up there in God's own light.

Oh the ministry of the gospel of the glory of God ! What a theme! Does it not indeed set the heart free ? And if we think of affliction by the way, of our circumstances, are we going to be cast down by them ? are we going to be overwhelmed by them ? In the sixth chapter Paul puts them side by side; he says "as sorrowful but always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Does he think of his afflictions ? he says they are light afflictions. They would seem to crush him down ; he says in one place, I despaired even of life ; but with his eye on Christ, he says, "our light afflictions." Was it through a long weary course ? he says, they are only for a moment. Forty years-it is only a moment, and they work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. That thing which you would wish out of your life, that trial that you would give your right hand to get rid of, that trouble, those circumstances, they are the things which, if you are exercised about them, will yield an eternal weight of joy and glory when you are risen, and at Christ's right hand. Do not then, think of your afflictions, of your nothingness, that which hampers and holds you down ; but if the heart be free, if the heart be open for Christ, dear brethren, you may have your feet in the stocks, but I defy all the powers of earth to keep you from singing the praises of God.

This joy is for us all ; not, as I was saying before, for the favored few. God has no classes of His people-no favored classes. It is for all ; and you and I, as well as Paul in his day, can even now shine with the brightness of Christ's glory.

Do yon not covet to do that ? do you not covet to exhibit His perfectness ? May our hearts indeed long for it, for so we will find that indeed it is ours, and the hindrances be removed by the grace which never disappoints.

May the Lord give us to enter into these things, and to glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon us.

What was Thy crime, my dearest Lord ?
By earth, by heaven, Thou hast been tried,
And guilty found of too much love;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified !

Found guilty of excess of love,
It was Thine own sweet will that tied
Thee tighter far than helpless nails;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified !

O break, O break, hard heart of mine !
Thy weak self-love and guilty pride
His Pilate and His Judas were;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified !

O love of God !O sin of man !
In this dread act your strength is tried,
And victory remains with love,
For He, our Love, is crucified !

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

CHAPTER VIII. (Continued from page 238.)

The Anointed Priest.

It is by His baptism at the hands of John, that the Lord, coming forth out of His thirty years of private life in which He had fulfilled His own personal responsibility as Man before God, devotes Himself to that work on behalf of others for which He had come. He is "baptized unto death," of which Jordan is the well-known figure; and this implies for Him both sacrifice and priesthood. As the Lamb of sacrifice John therefore proclaims Him, while as Priest He is anointed with the Spirit; the Father's voice proclaiming Him that which, as we have seen, marks Him as the true Priest-His beloved Son. Here then begins His ministry, which is characterized by all that grace which priesthood implies, and by those works of power which are the broad seal of His commission as the Anointed of God.

As Son of God He is now also the Prophet, God Himself now, as never hitherto, speaking among men, and as Man, which makes the intimacy of this grace complete. But His feet have to take for this the way of Calvary. Every word is in this sense an evangel; every act of power is as it were an anticipation of resurrection from the dead. The glorious Voice has to be hushed in silence, the Mighty One to be crucified through weakness, the Priest of men to offer up Himself, the Son of God to suffer as Son of man, the Seed of the woman to set a bruised heel upon the Serpent's head. It is a conflict of good with evil, in which all vantage of power is to be on the side of evil, the victory gained by suffering, in the awful place in which the fire of God also searched out all the inward parts, and no deliverance could be but on the ground of absolute perfection-a whole burnt-offering, sweet savor every whit. He was "heard for His piety." No grace could be in His case, but simple righteousness, which at last drew Him out and justified Him in resurrection from the dead.

Thus the pure white linen robe was seen to be upon Him before He entered the Sanctuary; but more,- the blood was provided:the penalty upon man was met, death and the forsaking of God,-the governmental penalty, and that which was and is the necessity of His nature,-of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and who cannot look at sin. Thus the hindrance-not to going (for He could always go) but to bringing into the sanctuary is removed:and this, of course, means His going in officially, as Priest for others. And thus it is that it is the blood of the sin-offering, (and only of that when in its fullest character,) not of any other, that opens the way into the sanctuary of God. For, sin being removed, God is free to draw near to men, free to admit men to draw near to Him:divine love is unhindered.

Thus propitiation was effected on earth, and resurrection had declared the justification of all who should believe on Him, before He ascended up to take His place for us before God. "He entered in once into the holy place, having found eternal redemption " (Heb. 9:12). In contrast with remission for a year, and annual entrances of the Jewish priests, only for the moment, He has entered in once for all, never needing to repeat a sacrifice which abides in its value before God continually.

It is as entering in thus that He is "saluted of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek;" and here several things have to be noted, which combine to make up the picture presented to us in the type.

But let us first take notice that the two words in Heb. 5:in our common version alike translated "called," are by no means the same. The second word (ver. 10) is in the revised "named," but would better be rendered "addressed" or "saluted." It does not convey the thought of calling to an office, and it was not after His work had been accomplished, that the Lord's priesthood began. Most certainly He was High-priest when He offered up Himself (Heb. 7:27), and the passage here says nothing to the contrary. But it is in resurrection that His priesthood assumes the character in which Melchizedek represents Him,-a royal priesthood, and with no shadow of death upon it.

A royal priesthood is certainly the Melchizedek order; it is doubly emphasized:in his name, "King of righteousness"; and then as "King of Salem," that is,"King of peace." This is what the apostle first of all dwells upon. It has been by some lost sight of, because the Lord's human Kingdom is not yet come; but we are in "the Kingdom of God's dear Son "(Col. 1:13), and the epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes His place as Son over the house of God (chap. 3:6). Thus He is surely a Royal Priest:with power in His hands exercised in priestly tenderness; righteousness and peace the characteristics of His rule.

Then He " abideth a priest continually"; and as Melchizedek is presented to us in the history, without predecessor or successor, without beginning of days or end of life, in this he is "made (typically) like the Son of God" (Heb. 7:3). Levi, as the apostle reminds us, gave tithes in Abraham to this greater priest; and the Levitical priesthood are thus prefigured as to their relation to the antitypical Melchizedek.

Strikingly, in the history also, Melchizedek offers no sacrifice, but "brings forth bread and wine" for the refreshment of the man of faith. This the apostle neither comments upon nor notices; but he goes on to picture Christ as the Minister of the true tabernacle, the heavenly sanctuary where, of course, no sacrifices are offered. The bread and wine cannot fail to speak to our hearts of the memorial of that once offered sacrifice, which has left us now no sacrifices save that of praise and thanksgiving. Thus every way Melchizedek represents Christ in His relation to us now. That there is an application to millennial days, and His relation to Israel, is surely true; yet the whole connection in the book of Genesis presses rather upon us the Christian one.* *"See Genesis in the light of the New Testament," or The Numerical Bible, Vol. I.* Indeed the men of Aaron's order, while they show us typically the work which opens the Sanctuary, have nothing to say of the Sanctuary open. Melchizedek may therefore fill a gap here, without in any wise displacing the Aaronic priesthood in whatever it can show us.

It is just here however that a mistake has been made in another direction which needs to be pointed out. It is that which would ascribe to the apostle a doctrine of the Lord not having been a Priest on earth, not even when offering up Himself upon the Cross; in direct contradiction of the whole typical system.

His words are very different from this:"For if He were on earth, He would not even be a priest, seeing that there are priests who offer gifts according to the law, who serve for representation and shadow of heavenly things." He does not say that the Lord was not a Priest on earth; but having set Him before us as Minister of the true (antitypical) Tabernacle, he says, if He were on earth there would be no room for Him in the earthly one:for there the sons of Aaron fill everything according to the law. Surely nothing could be much more simple than such a statement.

But the work which He did upon earth had nothing to do with the Aaronic service, and answered to the work outside the sanctuary. Now He has finished this, it is the heavenly Sanctuary into which He has entered, and to which He belongs. " By one offering He has perfected in perpetuity those who are sanctified." And in consequence, "such a High Priest becometh us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens."

All sin put perfectly away from every saint of God, our Priest in heaven is for saints, not sinners, for weakness, not for sin. His sacrifice is for sinners; His sympathy and intercession are for saints, amid the opposition and seductions of an evil world, in which He has Melchizedek-like refreshment for the tired warrior, and memorials of unutterable value for him who is exposed to the offers of the king of Sodom:food of the mighty, which makes men that, and in the strength of which they may go, like Elijah to Horeb, many days.

But our Priest keeps open the Sanctuary also, that we may have access to God, and refuge in His presence from the world through which we pass. With a veil rent, and a great Priest over the house of God, we are encouraged to draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

Unrevised Notes of an Address at Lachute, by C. C. (Matt. 5:20; Rev. 3:10).

First, we have treasure in heaven, next a crown, I link them together. First the treasure. Let us have distinct thought of what the treasure is. If I were to come to you with the question, What is the treasure, I should likely have different answers from different individuals. And again, if I ask as to the measure of the treasure possible to lay up in heaven, I think possibly we may not have thought much about it. I think most of us are satisfied with the thought that we shall have treasure there, and there is much sluggishness as to laying up.

And as to the other subject-a crown, most of us think we shall have a crown-a reward-but I find there is much indefiniteness as to the crown.

But first let us look at the treasure (Matt. 5:20). People will say this passage does not apply to us, as we are on Christian ground now, and these portions (Matt. 5:-7:) teach us the principles of Christ's Kingdom, as He came to establish it on earth, and as it yet will be when He comes again. But, beloved brethren, although the King has been rejected, and has gone into heaven again for a time, are we not subjects of this Kingdom, and in it ? Surely we are, and these Scriptures have their application to us, and we dare not set them aside; we shall suffer loss if we do. If the Word then exhorts us to the task of laying up treasures to find them in heaven, what is the treasure ? what is it we are to store up there ?

The treasure must be Christ. You say, have not all Christians got Christ ? Yes, that is true. But we
must distinguish what we have as simply believing in Christ, and what we are exhorted to here. We believe the gospel and we get Christ-life in Christ, forgiveness, a title to heaven-the Father's house; we are "made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." The weakest believer-with but a moment to live after believing-has Christ. Let us not weaken the sense of this in our souls. Our title to salvation with eternal glory is the precious blood of Christ. But then if God gives us Christ, as He does to every believer, it is true also that all there is in Christ is the believer's. He is our portion-all that He is, His wisdom, His perfections, beauties-all that He is, is for us, for we are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ." But, beloved, there is a sense in which we have to learn Christ, what He is to us, and for us. We have an illustration of this in the history of the children of Israel in connection with the land of Israel. It was theirs by promise, and they had a title to it, but while this was true, when they entered the land they had to conquer it and take possession; and wherever they put their foot it should be theirs.

There is a sense in which, then, we need to learn Christ. When it becomes a question of practical realization of what we know of Christ, all we really practically know of Him is what we have. When we get to heaven, we will find there, so to speak, just what we have learned of Christ,-what we have learned here. God is putting us through perplexities, troubles, trials, sorrows, that in these we may learn what the character of Christ is-His love and His tender care. This is our task-our lesson, as we pass through this dry and thirsty land, where no water is. As we turn our backs on this poor world and set our hearts upon possessing the glorious portion that belongs to us in Christ, we are laying up in store a good foundation against the time to come. Christ is our treasure then.
Now a word as to how we lay it up.

It is already indicated by what I have said. If learning Christ is our object-if we care more about learning what He is than anything else, it is simple enough,-that is laying up treasure in heaven. Beloved, let us challenge our hearts, where have they been to-day? where are they to-night? where will they be to-morrow? The measure in which I am devoting all the energies of my being to the enjoyment of Christ, in that measure I am laying up in store- laying up treasure in heaven. What is the measure of the treasure possible to us ? How much may we store up ? How much axe you going to have there ? Have you ever asked yourself that question ? I did once, after being long a Christian, and it had a sobering effect on me. Let us all ask ourselves the question here to-night. Do you think you are limited in your possibility ? Beloved, you will not have one bit more of the treasure when you get there, than you have learned down here. I trust our hearts will be touched and solemnized by this. We are in circumstances where we may learn much of Christ, and when we go home to enjoy the feast in the Father's house, we shall not be in the same circumstances then as here. Whatever you miss by heartlessness, indifference, or by whatever reason down here, you cannot make up for it or learn it there. Have you ever thought of it ? Think of it now, beloved ; in every circumstance, in every straight, in every trial, it is our privilege to learn more of Christ, of His faithfulness and love,-to meet it all again in the day of His glory, when we meet Him in the Father's house. And if we do not learn it here we shall not have it there. Let our hearts be exercised then. Let us see to it as we pass along, that we turn everything to account-every trial, every perplexity, every sorrow the occasion of increasing in the knowledge of Christ. Is it not a cheering thought we shall find again as treasure whatever we have gone through here with Christ and for Him.

Now let us look at the crown (Rev. 3:ii). " Behold I come quickly :hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." The figure here is a familiar one. In i Cor. 9:24, "Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize." This is just that all are in the race, but I find the thoughts of Christians are very indistinct as to the figure. For instance, they say only one receives the prize. How can this be ? Is not every Christian going to have a crown ? Yes, surely, every one. But the reason they have this difficulty is because they have neglected to note the word of the same apostle in 2 Tim. 2:5, " If a man strive for the mastery, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully,"-that is according to the rules of the race. Now then, I believe this means that people who profess to be Christians who do not submit to the rules of the race will not get a crown. But then we are not all going to have the same crown. There are different crowns-different rewards. Let us think of the race course for a moment. There are, say six persons running, all start at the word given. But as they go on they begin to separate, some going faster than the others. The first one gets nearly there, and practically the first prize is his ; the second is two-thirds of the way, and the rest each behind the other. But, look, the second one falters; he weakens and begins to loose ground, and before he is aware the third one is past him, and he loses his prize, and if he be roused from his lethargy, perhaps he may come in third. Beloved, are we in rank ? We need not stop to decide what our place is. The point is, are we "reaching forth unto those things which are before?" Then let us keep on. Don't let us lose interest, or be discouraged because of the way. Let but the least thing intervene-a straw, but perhaps, and we shall weaken and loiter, and if we do, some one else who may have been behind may pass us, and the crown that now belongs to us-shall pass to another. Hold fast your place in the ranks, beloved, don't let the affections waver, don't let them weaken, don't give up the persistent effort to push on.
God grant our hearts may be stirred to their very depths every day, and may we realize that great possibilities are before us. Let us "press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Let us seek and reach out, in the energy of faith to grasp what God is offering to us. May He grant us more earnestness, more faithfulness, more energy to lay hold of what lies before us that we may not lose our crown.

But there is another thing to be observed here, and it turns to us for searching and warning. Jesus judged righteous judgment. He did not try either persons or circumstances in reference to Himself. That is where we commonly fail in our judgments. We see objects, whether persons or things, so much in our light. How have these circumstances affected ourselves? how have these people treated us ? These are the inquiries of the heart :and in the answer they get, the judgment is too commonly formed. We are flattered into good thoughts of people, and slighted into hard ones. Jesus was not such an One. The Pharisee's complaint and good fare in Luke 14:did not affect His judgment on the whole scene in his house. The friendliness of a social hour could not relax the Tightness of His sense of things ; as Peter's recent confession, on another occasion, did not hinder the rebuke that Peter's worldliness deserved. Jesus was not flattered. Like the God of Israel in old times, His ark may be boasted in, and brought into the battle with a shout, but He is not to be flattered by this; Israel shall fall for their unrighteousness. What a lesson for us ! What reason have we to guard against the judgments of self love ! against the trying and weighing of things and persons in relation to ourselves ! This firm, unswerving mind of Jesus may be our encouragement, as well as our pattern in this ; and we may pray that neither "this world's flattering nor spite" move us from having our thoughts as before the Lord all the day. J. G. B.

The epistle to the Philippians is one to which the believer delights to turn. It is an address from the heart to the heart. It is more practical than doctrinal, and in its few chapters gives a picture of unselfish devotion such as is well calculated to cheer the heart. Surely, when characteristically, "all seek their own not the things of Jesus Christ," it is one of those beautiful spots of green in the desert which sends the traveler on with fresh hope and comfort.

Its character becomes apparent in its very opening verse, both from the title which Paul gives to himself and his companion Timothy, and from that with which he greets the Assembly. The "slaves of Christ Jesus:" "slaves" is found alone only in this letter, and in the order of the names " Christ" here, as largely throughout, occurs first; while this title indicating "anointed for service " will be found by itself, seventeen times, a great number if the size of the letter be considered.

Paul and Timothy are the slaves of Christ Jesus. Not dragged, captives in chains, behind the chariot of some mighty conqueror and shut up to compulsory service, but captives of His love, bought by the precious redemption money which He paid at Calvary, and now rejoicing to take up their crosses and follow Him. It had been given to them "not only to believe On Him but also to suffer for His sake," and they had taken His gift gladly. Brethren, do we know what it is to be slaves of Christ Jesus?

"To "all the saints which are at Philippi, with bishops and deacons." A reference to the Greek shows that before these official titles the article is omitted. In the collected writings of Mr. Darby you will find a caption on the Greek article in which he teaches that wherever it is omitted characteristic rather than fact is emphasized. At Philippi the assembly is duly officered and ready for service. This is characteristic of it, overseers " to look on the things of others," and deacons for those lowly offices, which should yet be so blessed; (diakonos is "through the dust," dia and konis).

We have now the usual introductory message:" Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," which is very striking because of its constant repetition to all the assemblies. It is a common need that they all share. In the epistles to the corporate bodies this message is unvaried. Grace (unmerited favor) is towards all, no matter how good the state. When we have done all that we can we are still to say "We are unprofitable servants," and yet withal we are not to be troubled thereby; peace, not from self contemplation, not from remembering "fellowship in the gospel from the first," but from Him who preached peace, left peace, made peace, and is our peace. How suitably too, these two things are coupled together. Sometimes we say to ourselves, when wearied out by constant short-comings, "Lord I am sick and tired of it all, when will the time come when I shall be able to please Thee unfailingly?" and then we remember the rest of Paul's message, " and. peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ;" peace from Him who is above all storm and sorrow and also from the One who bore the brunt of it. "Roll thy burden on the Lord and He will sustain thee " is the nice rendering of an old version of a very familiar verse, which, too, is often read wrongly in our practical thought as if it were "and He will sustain it." No, no, indeed! that is a great mistake! He'll throw your miserable burden into His grave where it belongs and put His arms round you, sustain you, filling your heart with that peace of God which " passeth understanding." May our lives be more characterized by it.
The apostle's heart now goes out in thanksgiving to all the Trinity:" I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing that He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until day of Jesus Christ." There are several points in this statement to which we may do well to attend. First, as we have hinted above, he thanks God, Surely Father, Son and Holy Spirit have all had their blessed part in the happy condition at Philippi and the apostle gratefully remembers their union in this work. Is there no admonition in this for our hearts? How often in our prayers we use these names indifferently and unintelligently, and yet, the Father did not withhold His Son, and the Son freely offered Himself, while the Holy Spirit having come to dwell in us has never ceased to exalt Christ, and like Him of whom He tells us, gives little testimony to His own gracious work, condescending to dwell in those who so often grieve Him. " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God!" Have you ever considered why the apostle does not say "anger not," "offend not"? If, "no" then it will be good and comforting for you to do so now.

Secondly, we may consider the constancy of his praise and the bold faith that can believe that the work here begun will reach on until "day of Jesus Christ." The article is absent before day, thus apparently putting the thought of mere time in the background and emphasizing the fact, that Jesus Christ will soon be all in all to them. The path which they are treading is, like the "path of the just," one which shines more and more unto the perfect dry." They have their faces fixed on Christ and that dawning glory is brightening as they hasten towards its source. Good is the path they tread and good is the home at the end of the journey. Among such the apostle expects no Lot's wife, no loiterer on the road, to be turned into a pillar of salt, the picture of barrenness and waste, desolating the land and rendering unfruitful the seed cast upon it. No, he cannot believe this of these gospel lovers, the Philippians, and he states the reason :" Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all because ye have me in your hearts, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in defense and confirmation of the gospel ye are all partakers with me of grace. "

Spite of their being tried warriors of God, however, the apostle does not forget that they still have need of help from the throne of grace and once more his mind goes up in prayer to God for them that they "may abound more and more in knowledge and in all wisdom, that they may approve things that are excellent, that they may be sincere and without reproach until the day of Christ."

This prayer should remind us that we must not rest on our arms satisfied with present state or past accomplishment. We must press on. To stand still is too often the beginning of retreat, and the apostle is here an example for us:"Forgetting the things which are behind . . . reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark." No staying, no stopping, better than Gideon "faint yet pursuing," every obstacle but a fresh incentive to progress, nothing satisfies but the goal. Victory defeat, suffering, sin, sorrow, he only sees Christ through them all and only rests when he can say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, and from henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give me in that day."

Before passing on we may notice a little touch in the Greek which serves to bring out the words "that ye may be sincere etc." The word for "sincere" is ειλιχριvεις and means strictly, "judged in the rays" (of the sun). They are to walk so that their conduct may be tried in the light of "the day of Christ" and be proved good; that time which the laborer should ever have before him:-" that day " as the apostle calls it in another place, expecting us to know what is meant.
The reader should also notice that the name, " Jesus," inserted in the sixth verse is here appropriately omitted.

The subject is now changed and the writer speaks of his own personal experience. He counts on their interest in the work of the gospel everywhere and cheers them up with good news. Naturally speaking there was much to discourage and dishearten him. In prison, some preaching Christ of envy and strife, seeking to add affliction to his bonds, all in Asia turned from him, he gathers only encouragement from it all. With him the clouds have not only a silver lining but he has spread it all over, and the darkness of the storm serves but to offset the light. What a pity when the Christian makes the light to offset the darkness. "They looked unto Him and were lightened " says the Psalmist, and here as in Philippi's jail rises the song of praise. Surely he says to us:

"Ye fearful saints fresh courage take
The clouds ye so much dread,
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings o'er your head."

Let us not forget that it is to us as well as to the Philippians he speaks and that we are children of the day and that the sunshine of the day should be on our faces, preaching better than all our words. Here we must guard against a mistake. Men never take candlelight to be sunshine and we should not either. Animal spirits, cheerfulness of disposition are all very nice, but they are not joy in the Lord, not exultation in Christ Jesus. The apostle's source of happiness is something solid. You will find animal spirits rather effervescent in prison atmosphere, and natural cheerfulness turn to what seems to us more natural, to grumbling. Paul can say:"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Let us ponder these words. "For me to live is Christ." What does it mean? Many translators have been puzzled by it. Does it puzzle us ? Well, intellectually, perhaps not. They tell us that Archimedes was so intent upon an experiment that in the thick of the storming of a city he knew nothing about it till the assailants were over the walls. He was absorbed, transported out of the world of events around. For him to live was that experiment. But we may illustrate by a verse from Scripture. The apostle John in his first letter says:"I write unto yon, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." This is that which has characterized their life. True, they had overcome the wicked One; true, they had passed happily through many temptations and trials, and had wide and various experiences, but what is the characteristic feature of their life, is that they know Him. It sums it all up. He is all things.

Oh that we might each be able to say:"For me to live is Christ," then the rest will be easy to add, "and to die is gain." To die will be but to fall a-sleep in His arms. Do you remember how it is said of Stephen, " He fell asleep." The Jews ran on him, gnashing their teeth, full of rage. They hurled their stones at him. A rude lullaby that, was it not ? and yet " he fell asleep." Did not God who sent His angel to care for the body of Moses, care for him ? Yes, indeed, and how his every action bespoke it. "The eternal God was his refuge and underneath were the everlasting arms," and he fell asleep! Beloved, what a triumph there is in everything for the one to whom to live is Christ and to die is gain.

How well Paul remembers it and oh! how calmly he now says:"And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all." Nero had put him into prison and nothing seemed more likely than that he, who was accustomed to gloat over the sufferings of his victims, would take this opportunity for killing the chief of the Christians; but Paul looks beyond stone walls, Roman legions and the devil's servant's will and hears the voice of his Master, and hearing, turns and quietly says:" I know that I shall remain." Such faith comes from constant daily intercourse with the Lord, from knowing His heart and the power which is ready to act for us. May we indeed turn the more longingly as we consider it, to Him who gives freely and upbraideth not, and say:"Lord, increase our faith." F. C. G.

"My Presence shall go with thee. and I will give thee rest" (Ex. 33:14).

"Jesus, . .. having loved His own who were in the world,
loved them to the end " (John 13:1).

" Behold I am with you all the days, until the completion of the
age" (Matt. 28:20).

With burning heart our song of praise begins,
Jesus, its theme, the Lamb of God, once slain,
Who drank the awful cup of shame and pain,
And in His blood has washed us from our sins;
Praise Him who did it-soon returning-
Who shall, we know, with joy of morning,
Present us to Himself without a stain.

O dawning day of full and perfect joy,
When in the presence of our Lord we'll stand,
Arrayed by Him, a holy, happy band,
With golden harps for praise without alloy!
Praise Him, who unto us has given
Thus with Himself to dwell in Heaven
Amid the glories of that Fairer Land.

Sing in the night, the night so nearly o'er,
Here, where His Name is to the children dear,
Here, where His Word makes all the pathway clear,
The path He trod Himself long, long before;
Well may we sing His praise with gladness
Amid the darkness and the sadness,
For unto us the Lord shall soon appear.

The wilderness will soon be left behind,
With all the sorrows of the needful place;
But all the way is shining with His grace,
Wherein we learn that He is good and kind;
The Lord behind, the Lord before us,
His glorious Presence watching o'er us,
While thus we learn His heart and seek His face.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

(Continued from page 224.)

CHAPTER VIII. The Anointed Priest.

Lord seen as "Last Adam " necessarily introduces us, therefore, to His atoning work. For the race of which He is thus Head, although a new creation, is a race of men,-of those involved in the fall of the first head, and who have added to this their own individual and innumerable iniquities. Here, therefore, what He is as Christ- as Messiah, the "Anointed"-comes into view:for this "anointing" has regard to His official work, and (apart from Jacob's anointing of the pillar at Bethel) the first notice that we have of it in Scripture is in connection with the priests (Ex. 28:41; 29:7); while the high priest is distinctively, even as among these, the "priest that is anointed" or Messiah-priest.

After the failure of the priesthood, it is the king who is specifically the "anointed of Jehovah;" and the union of priest and king in our Lord, as in the type of Melchizedek, we shall have attentively to consider in a little while. For Christ also, priesthood necessarily preceded kingship, the history runs parallel with the doctrine. Of the prophet who (as in Elisha's case) was sometimes anointed, but, from the nature of his call, less frequently, we need not at present speak. Christ unites, as we know, these three offices in His own Person, but the first and fundamental one is that of priesthood.

The priest, ideally, was one who presented himself to God in behalf of others:of those who could not, therefore, of themselves draw near, as he. For his office, there were two requisites:first, personal fitness to draw near himself. This was figured under the Law by that simple white linen garment in which alone the sanctuary could be entered; while, where-ever there had been sin, (and therefore for the high-priest also, as long as he was but the "figure of the true ") the blood of sacrifice was needed for atonement.

Among mere men the true Priest could not be found. The "called of God" is He to whom, though Man, God could say, "Thou art My Son:to-day have I begotten Thee" (Heb. 5:5). In Him, as " First-born among many brethren," a new humanity begins for God, open to all men to come into, but by the lowly gate of a new birth. For these as Head and Representative He stands and offers sacrifice; for these, and not for the world, He intercedes; but this of course shuts out none from blessing. Faith could at any time bring nigh the stranger and join him to the people of God. Of God's will none were ever shut out, as even the dispensation of law bore witness, and Ruth and Rahab are signal examples.

Now, under the gospel, to faith all the privileges of God's house are open. The veil is rent, and God is in the light, where the blood of Christ His Son cleanses those who enter from every stain of sin.

But we are now looking at the Priest Himself, whose call to the Priesthood is founded upon His nature as Son of God, as the apostle distinctly tells us. He "glorified not Himself to be made high-priest, but He who said unto Him, Thou art My Son:to-day have I begotten Thee." Here the owning Him Son of God,-the First-born and not the Only-begotten, or it would not be said, "to-day,"- implies, according to the argument, that God recognizes Him as High-priest also; and so the apostle adduces the passage from the hundred and tenth psalm as similar in import:"Just as also in another place, he saith, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."

It is denied, however, by some that this is the argument. "The two citations," says Moll, "do not express the same idea; nor is the former adduced to prove that Christ is a High-priest; but simply to call to mind the relation previously unfolded, that namely, which the God who has bestowed this priestly dignity on Christ, sustains as Father to this Anointed One."

In fact, the apostle's words at first sight may seem indefinite. That "He glorified Him, who said to Him," does not necessarily mean "glorified Him in saying to Him." But the apostle does, nevertheless, use the same form of speech in the seventh chapter with reference to the second quotation, which here he does to the first:" But He with an oath, by Him that said unto Him :The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever." Here, of course, no doubt could arise, nor could be supposed to do so:and this makes a difference. But it would show, at least, that the form of speech is not against the implication.

Further, that relationship of Christ as Son to God, previously unfolded, has been already shown to be in connection with His priesthood in the second chapter:for it has been told us there that the "many sons" whom God is bringing to glory "are all of one" with Him:"so that He is not ashamed to call them 'brethren.'" And because these "children that God has given Him" are "partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in the same, that through death He might annul him that had the power of death, and deliver them." Thus "it behoved Him to be made in all things like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in thing pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people."

Here is surely a long and connected argument to show the relation which Christ's being the Son of God bears to His Priesthood. For atonement, and for sympathy too (as to which the last verse of the second chapter speaks) Christ as High-priest must be made like unto His brethren. His brethren are the many sons of God He is bringing to glory; He therefore must be Son of God in human nature. To own Him this is thus by implication to own Him as the Mediator-Priest on their account.

That as Son of God He is King also, and that the quotation from the second psalm is in connection with this, does not conflict at all with such a view. The second quotation, which directly affirms His Priesthood, expressly connects the two things together. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, a priest upon the throne (Zech. 6:13); a King with priestly tenderness and succor for the sinful and needy,-a Priest with royal and more than royal authority. How sweet and fitting is the union in Him of these two things! that as the Minister of priestly grace all power should be committed to Him! But here, plainly, priesthood must come first, and lay the foundation. It must begin in humiliation and sorrow, as the apostle represents. The Son of God must learn what obedience is in a strange path of suffering. The Perfect One must be officially perfected as the Author of eternal salvation to all those that obey Him. He cries unto " Him that is able to save Him out of death," not "from " it, and is "heard for His piety " (Heb. 5:7-9). Come up out of death, He is "saluted of God as high-priest after the order of Melchizedek" (ver. 10), – hailed as Victor with the crown.

This course begins on earth and ends in heaven. On earth He made propitiation (2:17), offering up Himself (7:27) in the body prepared Him (10:5), one offering for sins, by which He has perfected in perpetuity those that are sanctified (10:14). Then, as risen from the dead, in the power of that blood whose acceptance had been thus openly declared, He entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us (9:24). But we must look more closely at the stages of accomplishment of a course for us so necessary and so fruitful. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

The inspired Word speaks of a new creation. God, in a variety of expression, has promised to make all things new. Though the new creation is thus presented as something to hope for, yet in a real and blessed sense it is already introduced, at least in its beginning, as we shall see further on. And the introduction of the new is the declared condemnation, or the virtual setting aside of the old, though we know it continues for the present, but it is only for a little time. To illustrate:in traveling through a country, you come in sight of a farm house which looks old and dilapidated; you say in your mind that its owner must have condemned it in his thoughts and words. You come nearer, and you see that the foundation of a new house is laid. You now say that the old house is condemned, not only in thought and word, but in deed. The family is yet in the old, and doubtless making themselves as comfortable as possible, but its removal is only a matter of time. So in reading the Old Testament Scriptures one cannot fail to see that God is not satisfied with the present state of things,-not satisfied with His once fair creation so blighted by sin and misery. In those Scriptures He is revealed as holy and gracious; and holiness cannot rest where sin is, and graciousness or mercy cannot rest where misery is. Indeed we may read in those Scriptures that it is His purpose to make a thorough change. He speaks of creating "new heavens and a new earth" and "the former," He says, "shall not be remembered nor come into mind."

We come to the New Testament and we see that the new creation is already introduced, at least in its beginning. He who was crucified, but brought again from the dead by the glory of the Father, is the beginning and exalted Head of the new creation, thus showing that God has set aside the old. True, those that belong to the new arc yet in the old, yet their removal from it and the fuller manifestation of the new, is only waiting God's due time.

That the risen Christ is a new beginning-the beginning of the new creation, is plainly taught in Scripture. He is designated in the first chapter of the book of Revelation as "the faithful witness, and the first-begotten of the dead," or as the Revised has it, "the first-born of the dead."

Then, in the third chapter, evidently meaning the same thing, He is styled "the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Thus in becoming the "first-born from the dead," He became the " beginning of the creation of God," that is, the beginning of the new creation, which will be in the fullest sense "the creation of God," and which will abide before Him forever.

And believers being seen as risen with Christ, that is, as risen in His resurrection, they are as a consequence, a new creation in Him. This is clearly taught in the following rich passage-"the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died ; and he died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him. who for their sakes died and rose again. Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh ; even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature [or as it is in the margin, there is a new creation]:the old things are passed away ; behold they are become new " (2 Cor. 5:14-17, R. V). Thus believers are, according to God a new creation in the risen Christ. This is clearly not experience but position,-a complete, new position before God.

It may be asked, What is meant by "knowing no man after the flesh,-even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more ?" The following passage, I doubt not, gives the true answer :ye "have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him :where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free:but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:10, ii). We do not now know Christ as a Jew, and only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but as a risen, heavenly Man, and as Head over all things, and in whom, as already seen, we as believers are a new creation. And when He comes, the bodies of His own will share in the new creation, that is, whether gone to corruption, or still mortal, they will be changed in a moment and conformed to the body of His glory,-"we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." Also the whole creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory (Rom. 8:21). Yea, God will make all things new" (Rev. 21:7); and what John saw in vision will be fully realized, " I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea."

It must be added that we are indebted to the atoning death of the Lord Jesus for all this. It is because He died that He could identify us with Himself in new creation. It is because He died that our bodies can be made like unto His glorious body. Though "the body is dead because of sin" as the Word says, yet the sin being atoned for, the body can be redeemed. Also it is because He died and bore the curse that the curse can be righteously taken from creation, yea all things be made new. Yes, in view of the cross God can take us up and make spirit, soul, and body a new creation. In view of the cross He can take up the blighted creation and pronounce it once more "very good"; its former glory, however, being no glory by reason of the glory that shall so far excel.

Surely being a new creation in Christ, with the bright and sure hope of its completion, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy behavior and godliness ! "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them " (Eph. 2:10). In another place after being told that nothing avails but being a new creation in Christ, it is added " and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:15, 16). Thus the "rule" of our walk is the new creation. We are to walk according to that into which God in grace has brought us. Our whole behavior should be governed by the principles of the new creation. Our whole heart should be with the new, not with the old. We should be building our hopes in the new, not in the old. May it be so more fully with His beloved people during the little while they are detained in this scene of sin and sorrow, and waiting for His coming, find, though as yet in old creation sorrows, new creation joys as their strength for what may remain of the way till He come. R. H.

That we are not under law, but under grace, is at once the distinguishing feature of Christianity and the emancipation from bondage of God's beloved people. The line between law and grace, between faith and works, cannot be too clearly marked, for Scripture distinguishes them absolutely. Nor does this apply to the ground of justification merely. It is a common remark that we are not under the law for justification, but arc under it as a rule of life. Most clearly does the word of God negative such a thought. In the most absolute way we are declared to be dead to the law, that we might live unto God. 'The rule by which we walk is the rule of the "new creation" (Gal. 6:15, 16). So far from being under it, the law has been done away, for him who has died with Christ (Rom. 7:4).

If it be contended that this refers to the ceremonial rather than the moral law, a glance at 2 Cor. 3:7-11 will show the contrary. It was the ten commandments that were "written and engraved in stones," of which the apostle is speaking when he calls them "the ministration of death,"-the "ministration of condemnation,"-"that which was done away.''

But is it not a very serious thing to discriminate between the commandments given of God? Where will we find such distinction in the law itself? where in any divine comment upon the law? But we cannot here enter upon a matter we would fain hope is clear at least to most of our readers, for our subject takes us in another direction.

Now the observance of the Sabbath is absolutely enjoined in the fourth commandment. It is enshrined in the very heart of the decalogue. Between its binding authority and that of the other nine commandments, there cannot be the slightest difference. Any attempt therefore to limit or modify it, to change the day for its observance is tampering with the holy law of God. Let us mark this well, for just here is the citadel of Adventism which is so rarely taken, and by which many conscientious persons are taken captive.**We say citadel, for it is the strongest point of the system, though absolutely fallacious. There are graver errors held along with this :the putting God's people under law ; the denial of any true atonement at the cross of Christ; the denial of the eternity of existence of the lost; and blasphemous doctrines as to the Person of our blessed Lord. We have no hesitation in warning our readers against it as anti-christian and most deadly.* If we are under the law, in vain do we speak of a "change of day." Rightly are we asked, Who gave you authority to change the day; and to this there can be but one true answer. The seventh day is the only one ordained in the law of God.

But how simple it all becomes when we see that we are not under the law, have been forever freed from a yoke which could only hold us captive, and be thus a badge of the old creation which it could only condemn. What relief comes to the exercised conscience when once this emancipating truth is clearly seen. Before, the very earnestness and sincerity of motive did but rivet the chains and drive them to the bone. We are crucified with Christ and thus are dead to the law, and passing out with Him into another sphere-in resurrection-we find "all things new."

Alas that we are creatures of extremes. See the soul groaning under the bondage of the law. He longs for holiness, but finds only the strength of sin. He is set free, and now lest he should go to the other extreme needs the admonition, " Shall we continue in sin because we are not tinder law but under grace? God forbid." The accusation of antinomianism is a false charge against the precious gospel of the grace of God, but doubtless the careless walk of some may have given occasion for the laying the charge at the door of any who under plea of liberty, make it an occasion to the flesh.

We believe that just here a word is needed for our consciences. Let the reader note it, we say consciences. "Holding faith and a good conscience;" "we trust we have a good conscience." An awful snare of Satan it is, to lead the newly delivered soul to think he has no further need of conscience. No need of conscience? How then is he to be led in God's ways? Where is that godly fear which should ever be the mark of the child of God? The precious place of liberty into which we have been introduced by the work of our Lord, is the true and proper sphere for the fullest activity of an enlightened, instructed conscience.

All would instantly admit the truth of this as to the general walk. They would agree that while we are dead to the law and thus freed from it, we are now in a position to carry out its spirit and produce in our lives the fruits of that holiness it demanded. "That the righteous requirement (Gk.) of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. "

But we are persuaded that there is but too little application of this principle to the observance of the Lord's day. We need scarcely recall the appropriateness of the establishment of a new day for Christians. The Sabbath was the memorial of the old creation, into which sin had brought ruin:the first day of the week is the memorial of Christ's resurrection, the beginning of that new creation into which sin can never come. Most fittingly therefore does our Lord appear to His disciples on that day (John 20:19, 26); most naturally too do they continue to make it the day of their assembling for worship, and for giving (Acts 20:7; i Cor. 16:2).

As taking the place of the Sabbath all of what was spiritual in that day came with it:-the cessation from all but needful employment, the devoting the day not to our own thoughts or words but the sweet and holy meditation upon the things of God.

We are living in days of apostasy. Farthest removed from Christian liberty is the sacrilegious trampling upon all formerly esteemed holy. The Sunday amusements, the Sunday newspaper, the open mockery of the "blue laws," do but show still further alienation from God and a ripening of things that will very soon eventuate in open and complete apostasy. We know the crisis will not come till the Church is taken away to the Lord, but how near, how very near that happy event is-for how near is the apostasy!

We easily assimilate the thoughts and ways of those about us, and thus fall into the looseness as to the Lord's day that marks the world. Let it be fully understood that Scripture gives no ground for such looseness. How unutterably sad is it to see Christians turn the day into a time for recreation, for merely social visiting with unlimited conversation upon everything but the things of Christ.

We know it may be said that we should be in the Spirit at all times, and that our speech should be always with grace, seasoned with salt, and to this of course we agree at once. But should we not be particularly careful on this day to manifest this ? We would all be shocked at one voluntarily engaging in his business on the Lord's day; is it not equally sad to devote that day to conversation or thoughts equally secular ? Should not the Lord's people, in no spirit of bondage or of sanctimoniousness, make conscience of their thoughts and words on this day ? We are persuaded that blessing would result.

On the other hand what an opportunity does it afford for all Christian activity:the quiet reading and meditation; visiting of the sick or of loved ones, seeking to speak of Christ and His things; the distribution of tracts; the preaching of the gospel. In this happy employment, together with the remembrance of our Lord, the day passes all too rapidly, and we are strengthened for the wilderness and its trials. It has been for us

'' A day of sweet refreshment
A day of holy love
A day of resurrection
From earth to things above."

Contrast with this what is alas too common among the saints of God:a mere holiday!

Beloved brethren, let us suffer the word of exhortation, and seek to use our liberty not as "an occasion to the flesh, but by love to serve one another," and to serve our blessed Lord. What a testimony it is to the world, what a badge of who we are, when the Lord's day is thus regarded. May He, the Lord of the day and of us His redeemed, make it a delight to us.

Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in
Thy presence can suffice to make;
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take;
What parched grounds refreshed as with a shower !
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower;
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear.
We kneel, how weak ! we rise, how full of power !
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this
wrong,
Or others, that we are not always strong,
That we are ever overborne with care,
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
And joy and strength and courage are with
Thee ?

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

CHAPTER VII. The Last Adam.

(Continued from page 194.)

As "Last Adam," the Lord is revealed as in connection with that "new creation" which God is perfecting for Himself out of the ruins of the old. Such a thought as this is not unrepresented in nature. The present world is thus built up out of the ruins of a previous one, which in all features of highest worth it surpasses ; according to that law of progress which we have seen written on its grades of life-development, and to which its life-history also, on the whole, conforms. But the new creation connected with the Last Adam arises out of a deeper collapse than any that preceded it,-thank God, to assume now a permanence which shall suffer no collapse again. With the first Adam, its head, the old creation fell. With the last Adam, the new creation abides in indefectible blessing.

While the title of "last Adam" is found only in the passage we have been considering, the epistle to the Romans (5:14) fully declares Him to be the Antitype of the first. His relation to the new creation is what Adam's was to the old. The results are in contrastive parallel:"as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive" (i Cor. 15:22). But here, because the new creation is brought out of the old, it is not enough to say, "shall live," but "shall be made alive."* *That the apostle is here speaking only of those " in Christ," and not, as generally believed, of all mankind, will be evident on due consideration. For the resurrection of the wicked is not an effect of Christ's redemption, but a "resurrection of judgment" simply (John 5:29); and throughout the chapter it is only of the resurrection of the saints-of those of whom Christ is first-fruits (ver. 20)-that he is speaking. The "all" on both sides (whether "in Adam," primarily, or "in Christ," eventually), are only the redeemed. It is from error as to this that some forms of restorationism have originated.* He who is to be the new Adam of a new creation brought out of the old must for this accomplish redemption

Thus it is as risen from the dead that the Lord breathes upon His disciples, and the antithesis to " in Adam" is "in Christ;" this being the official title with which His priestly sacrificial work connects itself. Eternal life for us is "in Christ:" that is, in the Last Adam, with His sacrificial work accomplished, and gone up as our Representative Head to God.

The first man was also in a very real way the representative of his race ; not, however, by any formal covenant for his posterity, of which Scripture has no trace; but by his being the divinely constituted head of it. His representative-character was grounded in what men call "natural law," and which is nothing but divine law. This is asserted in the plainest possible way in Scripture. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? " expresses the law. "What is man that he should be clean ? or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous?" "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." And the Lord affirms the principle in the most emphatic way :"That which is born of the flesh is flesh." What men now call the principle of "heredity" is thus affirmed by Him, and it is the whole scriptural account of the matter.

Sin came in through Adam. The nature of man was corrupted; by the disobedience of one the many were made sinners; and death introducing to judgment was the stamp of God upon the fallen condition. So, as the apostle says, "in Adam all die." "In Adam" thus speaks of representation, as the apostle argues as to Levi and Abraham (Heb. 7:9, 10):"And, as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham; for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." Similarly we were in the loins of Adam when he fell and sentence of death was passed upon him. Thank God, we have heard the voice of Another,- Head and Representative too of His race, which says,'' Because I live, ye shall live also " (John 14:19).

The last Adam is the head of a new race. And so, "if any man be in Christ"-set over against "in Adam " in the verse already looked at-"he is a new creature " (or "it is new creation" 2 Cor. 5:17). To be " in Christ " is to belong to the new creation and the new Head. The last Adam becomes Head of the race after His work of obedience is accomplished ; and that wondrous " obedience unto death " becomes the heritage of the new race. The connection of the Head and race is necessarily by life and nature. A corrupt nature was transmitted from the fallen head. A divine life and nature, free from and incapable of taint, is ours in the new Head, Christ Jesus. Death and judgment lay hold upon the fallen creature :righteousness belongs to the possessor of eternal life.

The life and the place go together, and are never disjoined. "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). Eternal life or the wrath of God :these are the alternatives. Solemn and wonderful alternatives they are ! F. W. G.

( To be continued.)

Notes of an Address by C. C. at Lachute, 28th March, 1897.

(John 21:15-23.)

I believe that perhaps every where at the present time, there is a great deal of despondency and discouragement-a feeling that it is almost useless to seek to go on in the path of faith, with the things which God has intrusted to us. We can understand how this feeling has settled down so widely, so generally. There have been so many things following after one another, indicating such wide-spread failure, not looking at the whole people of God only, but at ourselves, and ourselves individually also, the Lord's dear people have been staggered. How much there has been to dishearten us !

We every where need a lifting up with respect to this. It is quite easy for us to think:"Well, we have made such sad work of it, we have disappointed the Lord so sadly, we cannot expect Him to trust us; we cannot expect Him to put confidence in us." And so we easily settle down with the feeling that it is useless to take up the things of the path of faith and care for them, and undertake to go on.

In the portion read we find what will raise us out of this despondency.

First. Let us look at this disciple of the Lord- something of his history, his failure. Let us see how the Lord feels for him and deals with him and, through him, with ourselves. We do not need to dwell on the failure and sin of Peter. We all know how through self-confidence he failed sadly. He was foremost in protestations of love and fealty to the Lord Jesus. Though all the others should fail the Lord, he was ready to go through fire and sword for His sake; but when the test came he denied the Lord with cursing. Failure had an effect on the state of Peter's soul, and so it has with us. The Lord looked on him at the moment of his very worst. It was a look that went right through Peter's heart, and he went out and wept bitterly. Restoration, however, beloved brethren, was another thing. Rest and composure in the presence of Christ is another thing. The work was begun, but not ended when the Lord looked upon him. Much had yet to be done before all was right in his soul. I want to press a point:we are too easily satisfied with repentance. We ought not, of course, to think lightly of it; we should seek it earnestly,-seek for genuine repentance in the soul; but I think we often stop short in dealing with one another, and thus souls are hindered.

Just look at Peter:we all agree the work of repentance was begun from the very moment of his going out and weeping bitterly. Look at him going to the tomb; look at him after personal contact with the Lord; what do we find ? We do not find him exactly following the Lord. In the beginning of this chapter it is he who proposes to the other disciples to go fishing; and it is because he is not yet fully restored, that he is ready to return to his fishing. There has been partial recovery, but not complete, and I believe we do feel the lesson is:Peter is not entirely at ease in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the result of the fishing is, he toils all night, laboring hard and exhausting his strength, and in the morning, as he looks over the effort of the night, it has all come to nothing.

Beloved brethren, how like ourselves often ! How often we, finding uneasiness of soul, turn and spend our energies for naught, and in the end only find out all our energies are fruitless !
Peter is not at rest, and it is just here the Lord presents Himself to His disciples, and particularly to Peter, giving him a lesson he needed, and that every one of us needs also. What is it ? He is taught that the One he had sinned against in the saddest way, trusts him, puts confidence in him notwithstanding the grievousness of his sin. The Lord has such unbounded confidence in him He can put into his hand the most important interests of His heart. Think of the grace of the Lord intrusting into his hands His lambs and sheep ! How frequently we feel :"Well, we have forfeited the Lord's confidence; " and as our failures become known to others, we think the old times-the good old times of confidence in one another- are gone. We think our brethren will be thinking constantly of these things, and that they will be a barrier against their confidence, against their trusting us. As long as we fear our brethren cannot trust us, there cannot be perfect restoration. Beloved, how often we have found it so; we have said, " Our brethren do not trust us, and we do not expect it." But I believe the Lord wants us to have our failures and sins so absolutely gone, and forgiveness enjoyed in such a way, that we may have the assurance we can trust one another. It is this lack of confidence which produces these continual difficulties that have so spread among the Lord's people, and given us so much sorrow. I believe the Lord would not have it so. He wants us to learn that He trusts us, and then that we can trust one another.

Now look. The Lord speaks three times to Peter:

First:"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest them Me more than these ? " as if reminding him of his past protestation of affection and faithfulness.

"He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee."

We cannot question the reality of his love when he speaks thus, yet he had not got to the bottom of the matter. Yet in the face of this the Lord says," Feed My lambs." This is as much as to say, " Even if you have sinned worse than all, yet I'll trust you."

Still the Lord is not going to leave it there. He is going to reach the bottom, and so He says the-

Second time, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?" No comparison now. He is probing more deeply by a question far more searching than the first, one that relates entirely to the Lord; his thoughts taken away entirely from others, and fixed upon Himself.

Peter answers as before:"Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee."

Well, says the Lord, I have sheep that I love, and put a high estimate upon, that are the objects of My tenderest solicitude and care; I trust you with them; "shepherd My sheep."

The effect the Lord would thus produce in Peter's soul is very precious to contemplate; but his manner of reply, "Yea, Lord," would seem to indicate yet some self-confidence, and so the-

Third time the Lord asks the question. This time He changes it somewhat. In His first two inquiries He uses a different word for "love" to that used by Peter; but now in the third He changes, and takes up the same word for "love "as Peter had used in the reply to the first two questions, and says,-
"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me ? "

I believe the word Peter uses is one meaning strong, personal, human attachment. He was indeed specially attached to the Lord, and now it is as if the Lord were saying to him, " I am not now going to ask you if you love Me; but are you specially attached to Me.

Notice Peter now:he is grieved. At length he realizes the defect in himself. He is grieved that for the third time the Lord has pressed him. Now he does not say, " Yea, Lord,"but simply, "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee,-Thy sharp penetrating eye can look down deep beneath all the sin that every one can see, and Thou knowest that I do love Thee. The disciples may not believe it, but Thou knowest it."

Beloved, do not we feel like that often ? We feel as if our brethren could not trust us, and yet we can appeal to the Lord and say, "Thou knowest that beneath all the failure, there is attachment to Thee."

Ah, now Peter has got back to the Lord. He is fully restored now. The Lord knows there is genuine affection to Himself. There is now too the apprehension of this in his soul. If the Lord knows it, that is a blessed thing-let people-let my brethren throw my failure in my face ; let them talk of my lack of devotion and spirituality-one thing I know, I have from the lips of my Lord that He knows the reality of the love in my heart to Him.

What is the result ? We find Peter following the Lord, and in the early chapters of the Acts, you will find him standing up boldly, and charging that great company of the Jews with denying the Holy One and the Just. He is perfectly recovered to the Lord, and to the sense of the Lord's knowledge of the real love to Him that was in his heart, or he would not have been so bold.

Well, beloved, if we have failed individually or collectively, we need deeply grounded in our hearts that, notwithstanding our sins and failures, there is reality of love there for Christ-that He knows it; and this will give us confidence to go on boldly with the testimony of the Lord.

If the Lord puts all this on record here, it is that it may be ministered to us. How blessed to think that notwithstanding all the crookedness of our ways we may realize the Lord can put unreserved confidence in us. He can say to even such as we, Peter-like as we all are, " I am not going to let you off-I am not going to let you settle down into despair and despondency, I trust you, I have confidence in you. I know there is love in those hearts of yours, and I can safely entrust, to your care the dearest interests of My heart-My lambs and sheep-shepherd them, care for them. Notwithstanding all He knows of me He can trust me ! Then I can take it as a trust from His hand, and I'll seek to serve them and care for them. I'll seek to answer all His desires, and take up boldly and firmly all He entrusts to me.

May God grant we may learn this lesson-learn how He trusts us, and serve His lambs and sheep for His sake !

The God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus ; wondrous love! but an integral part of Christ's own glory, for what is a Redeemer without His redeemed ? And once I believe that the blessed Son of God has died for me as man on the cross, nothing that a creature whose life He has become, can have, is too great as the effect of it. J.N.D.

Each of the four gospels has its own purpose. Though concurring with others in general testimony the spirit of revelation has a special design by each. And all this different service of the same spirit by the different evangelists, is not incongruity, but fulness of variety. The oil with which Aaron was anointed, and which was, mystically, the fulness and virtue that rests on our adorable Lord, was made up of different odors-myrrh, calamus, cassia and cinnamon. We may say it is the office of one evangelist after another to produce different parts in this rare and sweet compound of the sanctuary, to tell out different excellencies and perfection in Jesus the Christ of God.

For who could tell out all It was sufficient joy and honor for one servant, however favored with such near revelations, to trace even one of them. The saint has the sweet profit of all together, and in language prepared for him, can turn to the Beloved and say, '' Because of the savor of Thy good ointments, Thy name is as ointment poured forth."

FRAGMENT But there is in Him all through His last journey the expression of a greatness of soul that is perfectly blessed and wonderful. He has Jerusalem, and His cup of sorrow there, full before Him; He finds no sympathy from those who were His own; He gathers no admiration from the crowd; it is the cross, and the shame of it too, that He is called to sustain; all human countenance and support being denied Him; and yet He goes on without the least abatement of His energy in thoughts and services for others. We deem ourselves entitled to think of ourselves when trouble comes upon us, and to expect that others will think of us also. But this perfect Sufferer was thoughtful of others, as He was going onward, though every step of His way only conducted Him to still greater sorrows; and He had reason to judge that not one step of it all would in return be cheered by man. His own little band understood not the sorrows about which He was speaking to them. J.G.B.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

(Continued from page 146.)

CHAPTER VII. The Last Adam.

It is the first epistle to the Corinthians alone, and in the same passage, which gives us the two important terms, so closely related as they are to one another, of "Second Man" and "Last Adam" (15:45, 47). The one looks backward; the other forward. The "Second Man" implies that before Him we have only the first man, repeated and multiplied, in his descendants; now a new type has appeared; and that this, which is the full and final thought of man, may become the true heir of the inheritance, the "Second Man " is the " Last Adam." He is the "last " not " second," because plainly there is no other to succeed Him. " The Last Adam " (in opposition to "the first man Adam," (who "became a living soul") becomes "a Spirit giving life."

The apostle does not say that the Second Man became a Spirit giving life, for an obvious reason. The Second Man, as such, brings before us the new humanity, in the likeness of which every one of the new race will be ultimately found; but the Last Adam is the Head of the new race, and to be a " Spirit giving life " is peculiar to Himself. Man as man, and not merely the first man, has the mysterious power imparted to him of propagating his kind; but the new humanity is of too high a nature to permit this to the men of it. Only the Last Adam can communicate the new "life" which is its characteristic; and He, inasmuch as He is, what they are not, above man altogether. We cannot think of the Last Adam aright without explicitly taking into account His Deity,-that He is the " Word made flesh."

Noticeable it is in this way that we who are Christ's, and to whom Christ is life, are yet never spoken of as the children of Christ. Of the first Adam we are naturally children; of the last Adam, and as implied by that very relationship, we should be children also, in a higher and so a fuller way:yet we are never taught to call Christ "Father." For this there must be reason, and therefore that in it as to which we may rightly and reverently inquire why it is.

In the Old Testament, and not the New, we come nearest to the thought of children of Christ. In the fifty-third of Isaiah, the abundant seed-field of New Testament truth, we find first of all Messiah come and cut off, without posterity. "Who shall declare His generation?" asks the prophet:"for He was cut off out of the land of the living:for the transgression of my people was He stricken " (ver. 8). Thus there seems utter failure of blessing:cut off Himself, He has none who spring from Him,-who perpetuate His name and character.

So it naturally would appear; but the question has other answer before the prophecy ends; and in that very death in which for the sins of others He has been cut off, there is at last found the secret of a blessing such as seemed to be gone without remedy:" When Thou shalt make His soul a sacrifice for sin, He shall see a seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand'' (ver. 10). This "seed" and prolonging of His days are the double answer to the question which His death had raised.
Christ really then has a seed; the Last Adam as a quickening Spirit points to nothing else:but this only makes it more certain that there is a reason for the avoidance of such expressions as we naturally look for. We are taught by Christ Himself to speak of His Father as our Father (John 20:17), though this, of course, is not inconsistent with His relation to us as Last Adam. Of the first Adam it could be said also, as has been before remarked, that he was a " first-born among many brethren," without prejudice to his relationship to these as father.

In the Gospel of John it is that the Lord is seen as the Eternal Life, the Son, to whom " the Father hath given to have life in Himself," just as the Father hath life in Himself (ch. 5:26). The words show that it is as Man He is speaking, and that thus in manhood He becomes a Source of life:"as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will" (ver. 21). Thus it is in John's Gospel also that we find Him, after His resurrection, in character as Last Adam, (so much the more as in contrast with the first,) "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (20:22). John's is the Gospel of His Deity, and yet this remarkable characteristic action is reserved for it.

So, too, in his epistle John links them :"This is the true God send, eternal life " (i John 5:20).

"As the Father . . . quickeneth, so the Son quickeneth." "The Spirit" also "is life" (Rom. 8:10). It is a divine inspiration, of which the breathing into the first Adam (Gen. 2:7) was but a significant type. Even by that, man became the "offspring of God" (Acts 17:28), and thus by creation (not position] in His " image " (Gen. 1:27), as the son is in the father's image (Gen. 5:3). Man received thus (what the beast has not) a spirit; and God is the "Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9). But this is only what is natural, and what has been debased by the fall; we need, therefore, a new begetting of God, a new communication of life :"that which is born of the flesh is flesh "-not merely human nature, but human nature degraded, as it were, to its lowest point, "flesh":as if the spirit had left it, " dead" therefore, while living.

So, with a sad harmony, Scripture everywhere asserts:man must be born again.

The breath of a new life enters into him, and he lives. This is no mere moral renewal. If "that which is born of the flesh is flesh,"-flesh has produced flesh ; there has been a real communication of nature, as shown in the being brought forth. So also " that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," partakes of the nature of that from which it is derived. Divine parentage is shown in participation in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), and we are become true children of God, with His likeness. " Passed from death unto life" (John 5:24), the life we have received is eternal life :which means, not that it will always last, for so will the wicked always live-if you call it "life"-but that it has always been also, not in us, but in God. This is the life that deserves to be called eternal; and this is the life in which we have begun to live. In us it has its beginning, its growth, its practical expression :this imperfect at the best, and varying from that in the infant to the young man and the father, it is nevertheless eternal life all through, whether it be as yet indiscernible by man or making a possessor of it a shining light amid the darkness of the world.

Much of what I am here saying is in contention by many; and there are perhaps few things of equal importance that are held more variously than what new birth is, and its connection with or disconnection from eternal life. It would carry us too far to discuss these variations :it is enough, perhaps, to say that, on the one hand, the signs of it given in John's first epistle show plainly that righteousness, love to God and to the brethren, and faith in Christ, characterize all who are born (or begotten) of God ; and on the other, that he writes to all that " believe on the name of the Son of God " that they may know that they have eternal life. I may be told indeed by some that these things are quite different; that faith in the Son is more and later than faith in Christ; but the gospel of John assures us that he that believeth not on the Son is one still under condemnation and the wrath of God. It is not the saint but the sinner who passes from death unto life; and that change, momentous as it is, cannot be a long process.

Thus, then, the "quickening Spirit" acts in every one born of God. As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, just so the Son quickens; and none the less it is of the Spirit we are born again. It is a divine work, and Father, Son and Spirit all partake in it. Thus it is manifest that we are by this birth children of God; and while the Son as Mediator is He in whom life is for us, and the Spirit is the positive Agent in communicating it, the Father it is whose blessed will the Son and Spirit alike work, and "of whom every family in heaven and earth is named " (Eph. 3:15, Gk.). "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things and we for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him " (i Cor. 8:6).

Thus, although we have been very recently told that there is no new communication of a new nature in new birth, yet the Lord Himself has taught us, on the contrary, that "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,"-that it partakes of the nature of Him who has brought it forth. And He says, "that which is born," (not "he who is born,") because the new life communicated does not as yet (as we have already seen) pervade the whole man. The body is still, in this respect, "dead, because of sin" (Rom. 8:10), even " if Christ be in you ; " and the " flesh " also thus (it must still be asserted) "because of sin," remains, even in the man delivered from its dominion, a cause for constant watchfulness and self-judgment.* *As the "thorn in the flesh," needed by a man who had been in the third heaven, and needed on that very account, will surely prove for any who have an ear to hear.* But the youngest babe born of God has nevertheless the nature of its Parent :even though here there be as much difference between the new-born babe and the man, as there is in the physical prototype. Abundant room for development must be admitted, while the development itself proves but the essential sameness of the nature in these wide extremes

The Second Man, then, is also the Last Adam ; but in the latter term much more is implied than in the former, and that the result of that union of the divine and human which faith can joyfully accept while it acknowledges the inscrutability of it. " No one knoweth the Son, but the Father." No human mind can think out the divine-human Person who is here before us; but to seek to have the value of scripture statements is another matter, and is the part of faith. It would be wronging the love which has enriched us with them, not to seek to appropriate our riches.

The connection of truth in this chapter in Corinthians which furnishes us with our present text is noteworthy. The apostle is writing to us of the resurrection, and has been contrasting the natural body as sown in the grave with the body of the saint in resurrection. "It is sown a natural body," he says; "it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening" Spirit."

The connection here is very much obscured by the translation:what connection could one suppose between "a living soul " and "a natural body"? None at least that one could argue, from the language used; and in fact, as elsewhere said, we have in English no clear way of making apparent the connection. If we were at liberty to use the word "soulual," (which is not in the dictionary,) we should be able to do this:we should then read, "There is a soulual body," . . . "the first man Adam was made a living soul; " as, on the other hand, "There is a spiritual body," and "the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit."

The first Adam had a soulual body, a body characterized by the soul its tenant:for he was himself a living soul. It is remarkable, while quite intelligible, that, though a man's spirit is his highest part, and it is by this he "knows the things of man" (i Cor. 2:u), and is in relation to God, yet while here in the body he is never called a "spirit," but only what the beast is, a "soul." On the other hand, as soon as he has left the body, he rises to the measure of his distinctly human part, and is now a "spirit." Common usage recognizes the same difference. In some sense the connection of soul and body is a shrouding of his higher nature. The same word psychical or soulual, is translated in our common version "sensual " (Jas. 3:15; Jude 19), though this, of course, is a use of it which is not due to man's condition as created but to the sin which has entered in. It is similar to the use of "flesh" for a condition in which fallen man, as if the spirit had departed from him, is characterized as "dead." Yet the psychical or "soulual "body, as in contrast with a "spiritual" one, is easily understood as that which hems in and disguises necessarily man's spiritual nature. In the babe this is sunk entirely at first in its fleshly wrappings. By degrees it emerges, with slow and painful labor freeing itself from the bonds of the material, the humbling discipline which God has ordained for it, but still "seeing as through a glass, in a riddle" (i Cor. 13:12). In the future only is to be its "face to face" knowledge.

This is what it means, as I take it,-or at least it is part of what it means,-for man to be a "living soul." It implies a life of sense, which may be yet, and should be, even on that account, a life of faith; of struggle which may be defeat or victory. Out of which we do not pass until the body is left behind, or fashioned by the last Adam into a "spiritual body," fit instrument for and no clog upon the enfranchised spirit. Only with this redemption of the body will the "sons of God" be fully manifested (Rom. 8:19, 23). F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

The more we go on, the more we shall find that most Christians will not follow. They do not give up Christ, but have not faith to go on in the path He would. The Christian world looks for great results. It is not the time. In the midst of the evil surrounding, the first point is to have what is true and solid, especially to begin thus. In a closing dispensation this is specially the case. This was the Saviour's work. J. N. D.

"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold :them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock (Gk.) and one Shepherd." (John 10:16.)

"And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." (Eph. 2:16.)

The question has been raised, no doubt with the best intentions and by godly sincere persons, whether the Jew by virtue of his birth, may not continue after his conversion to Christianity to consider himself still a Jew and to observe the ordinances, such as circumcision and the passover.

It is the object of this present paper to examine the question simply in the light of the word of God. Of its importance many we believe can scarcely be aware, for it involves the very truth of the Church of God in its corporate testimony upon earth, and, if carried to its legitimate results, in its unique and heavenly glory as well.

Let us begin by asking what is Judaism and what is Christianity, and what is the connection between the two.

Judaism is the name given to that system originally established by God in relation with His covenant-people Israel, but which, as its name implies, had come to mark the disruption of the twelve tribes, and the consequent annulment of that covenant. (Jer. 31:31-34.) Naturally this annulment was, to outward appearance at least, gradual. Practically this covenant was never fully established with the nation, for they apostatized and set up the golden calf before Moses had brought the tables of the covenant into the camp (Exodus xxxii). God's relation with the people was at that time marked by the removal of the tabernacle or tent to a place outside the camp afar off (Ex. 33:7). It will be interesting later on to connect this scripture with one in the New Testament.

After this apostasy there was a re-establishment of intercourse but upon a somewhat modified basis. God was proclaimed as merciful and gracious, yet as One who would by no means clear the guilty (Ex. 34:6, 7). The first declaration permits Him to go on with the stiff-necked people; the second shows the legal nature of the relationship. The effect is seen in the fact that Moses was compelled to veil his face (Ex. 34:32-35), showing that there was no full, complete restoration to God's favor. How could there be if law entered in as a factor ? (See 2 Cor. 3:)

The removal of the ark from Shiloh (i Sam. 4:-vii), first to the Philistine's land, and, on its restoration to Israel, not returned to the tabernacle, is but another illustration of the same truth. The relationship of God with His people was in mercy, not on the basis of mere law; and all that witnessed of standing in the flesh, such as the pre-eminence of the tribe of Ephraim, had to be set aside.

David again is an illustration of this setting aside the flesh, and a fresh interposition in mercy. Saul was king according to the flesh, but was rejected for the simple shepherd called from his flocks. The eighty-ninth psalm presents all this in a most beautiful and interesting way, which is of especial value in the study of prophetic truth regarding Israel's future.
But David was merely a type-though also the ancestor of our Lord according to the flesh-and when his throne is established under Solomon God again reasserts the principle of the uncertainty of everything under law. See the solemn statement of this after the building and dedication of the temple. (i Kings 9:1-9.)

It is significant that when Stephen reaches this point in his wondrous discourse (Acts 7:) he goes no further in the recapitulation of the people's history. The highest glory which they as a nation attained did but emphasize their own alienation from God. Paul similarly (Acts 13:) leaps from David to Christ. Nothing marked the interval save instance after instance of their enmity and of God's long-suffering mercy. The darkness ever deepened. The ten tribes-long severed from Judah-were carried captive by the king of Assyria, and to this day are hidden from view, (i Kings 17:6-23.) Deeper gloom follows as Judah also is carried to Babylon, the temple burned and the "Times of the Gentiles" introduced. The " Ichabod " pronounced long ago, when the ark was taken captive, is now finally the doom of the nation, and Ezekiel beholds the departure of that reluctant glory which took its flight, never to return until the nation as a nation is born again and restored, after the great tribulation, in peace and blessing in their land, never more to go out so long as sun and moon endure. Let the reader compare the following passages for one of the most solemnly magnificent and yet most mournful occurrences described in the word of God:Ezek. 1:1-28; 3:22-27; 8:4-18; 9:3; 10:4-22; 11:22, 23; 43:1-6.

The return from Babylon was not a setting up again of the nation as such, but a provisional restoration under Gentile protection and authority, with no glory, no Urim and Thummim (Ezra 2:63). But had there been a heart for God the promise of the prophet, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former" (Hag. 2:9), would have been fulfilled. Alas when the Lord came to the temple, it was but to find it a house of merchandise, a den of thieves (John 2:13-17; Matt. 21:12, 13* ). *It is interesting to note, as an illustration of the perfection of Scripture and its absolute inspiration, that there are two cleansings of the temple :in John it takes place at the beginning of our Lord's ministry, and in Matthew at its close. This is in entire accord with the theme of each book. In Matthew our Lord is presented as King, as it were tentatively, and it is after His rejection is fully manifested that He purges the temple; in John He is seen as rejected from the beginning and thus early pronounces judgment upon that which was called God's house.* At the close of His ministry He can but weep over Jerusalem and pronounce the doom upon an apostate nation:"Behold your house" (not God's house) "is left unto you desolate; for I say unto you ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in name of the Lord" (Matt, 23:34-39).

The cross is the people's answer to God's presentation of His Son, and their words, "His blood be upon us and our children," do but state the solemn and awful judgment upon a guilty people. Surely it is the mark of Cain who slew his brother, which while it preserved his life, forever branded him (Gen. 4:15) as the shedder of blood. Blessed be God, when the nation turns to Him with the prayer, "Deliver me from blood guiltiness" (Ps. 51:14-19), that precious blood which now witnesses against them, will then speak "better things than that of Abel," and the walls of Jerusalem will be built. But meanwhile Jerusalem is "trodden under foot of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24).

The first part of the book of Acts-the first seven chapters-presents to us the wonder of God's lingering mercy loath to depart from a people still blind and hardened. We know the descent of the Spirit marked a new epoch in God's ways-a new dispensation. The Church, into whose character and destiny we will presently look, had its beginning at that time by that Baptism of the Spirit which is its distinguishing feature and glory. But though the new era had thus dawned, one last call is made. The gospel begins at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47), and in connection with the preaching of repentance and forgiveness through the name of Jesus, His return is promised. (Acts 3:18-26.)

Alas, such patience but manifests the incorrigible hardness and blindness of the people; and when Stephen addresses them in a discourse which sounds like a judicial summing up (Acts 7:) their answer- final as in any sense a nation-is to stone him, the national method of judicial execution (Josh. 7:25). Stephen, like his Lord, prays for his persecutors, and passes into the presence of a Christ rejected on earth but glorified in heaven. Most beautiful is it to see, rising as it were red handed from the murder of the first Christian martyr, the chosen vessel who, arrested by the revelation of that rejected Jesus of Nazareth in the glory of God, becomes the apostle and minister of the Church, Christ's body. But we pause, ere entering upon the subject of the Church, to ascertain the connection of the ordinances with Israel as a nation.

If our readers have followed us thus far, they will have seen the absolute rejection of Judaism as having any status whatever before God. And we have no doubt that some may say this was already sufficiently clear without taking the time to prove what all admit. Our purpose, however, has been to show that there is nothing arbitrary in this rejection, and that with it goes the whole fabric of Judaism as a system, with its ordinances as well. Let us look at this last more closely.

"Moses gave unto you circumcision; not because it is of Moses but of the fathers, and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man " (John 7:22). We have here two of the principal ordinances of Judaism- circumcision and the Sabbath-connected with the law of Moses and yet of far earlier institution. We find the Mosaic ordinances of circumcision in Leviticus (chap. 12:3, with Luke 2:21, 22):the sabbath of course we find in the fourth commandment, where its previous observance is at least suggested (Ex. 20:8-11).

As to circumcision, it was given to Abraham as a distinctive mark of the covenant God made with him and his seed to bless them and to give them the land of Canaan for a perpetual possession. (Gen. 17:with Acts 7:5-8.) It was the ordinance of Judaism, so completely indeed as to be used as the designation of the Jewish people. (See Rom. 3:i, 30; 4:9; 15:8; Gal. 2:9, 12; Eph. 2:ii; Col. 4:ii; Titus 1:10.) Any one who failed to receive it, lost caste in the nation, was to be cut off. (Gen. 17:14, see also Josh, 5:2-9.) It was the initiatory rite in the reception of the stranger (Ex. 12:48). Other nations were stigmatized as "uncircumcised" (i Sam. 17:26, 36; Jer. 9:26). . We see thus that circumcision was woven into the very structure of Judaism as a whole. They stood or fell together.

As to the sabbath, it opens up a most needful and important line of truth into which we can enter but briefly. It was commemoration of the completion of the work of the first or old creation:it is contained in the law "written and engraved in stones," which was "done away" (2 Cor. 3:7-11). Its observance was enjoined because of Israel's redemption out of Egypt (Deut. 5:15); it was particularly made known to that nation (Neh. 9:14). The sabbaths were a special sign given as a covenant to them (Ezek. 20:12, 20 etc). Any fancied violation by our Lord, as to the observation of the sabbath, always aroused the special enmity of the Jews. (John 5:16-18, and frequently. ) It is linked with other ordinances as to meat and drink, holy days and new moons (Col. 2:16, 17). It has its place with these and when, as we have already observed, the penitent nation is truly restored, the sabbath will, with the other feasts, have its appointed place (Ezek. 45:17, etc).

The same can be said regarding all the feasts or set times. They were called, when given, "the feasts of Jehovah" (Lev. 23:2, 4, etc.); in days of decline, "your new moons and your appointed feasts" or, as frequently in John, "feasts of the Jews." Any national recovery was marked by their resumption, as the passover in Hezekiah's and Josiah's day (2 Chron. 30:and 35:); or the feast of tabernacles, after the return from Babylon (Neh. 8:14-18). These will all be resumed with the restoration of the nation. (Zech. 14:16, 18, 19; Is. 66:23; Ezek. 45:21.) Meanwhile they have been set aside with the nation to which they belong, while they serve as most beautiful shadows of things to come.* *We have but touched upon the whole question of the law and the Christian's relation to it, as a subject too large for the limits of the present paper. Its importance however in this connection is immense. Where it is not understood little successful resistance can be made against the assaults of such evil systems as Seventh day Adventism. "Are you under the law?" say they, "then keep the fourth commandment." Those who desire to look carefully at the subject will find it set forth in "The Law, the Sabbath and the Christian Ministry," "What is the sabbath and what is the first day of the week," " The Seventh day Adventists and the Sabbath"-pamphlets to be had of the publishers of this magazine.*

We pass now to consider the second question of our paper, What is Christianity.

Christianity is marked by two great and related facts:-Christ glorified in heaven and the Holy Ghost upon earth. We have already seen these as marking the setting aside of Judaism; they likewise introduce Christianity. About these two great facts cluster those precious characteristics which are the unique treasure and joy of the Church:-a present and eternal forgiveness of sins, justification, access, deliverance from sin, from the law; the sealing, unction and guidance of the Spirit, with His illumination and power for a walk in the world, to witness and to suffer for Christ; Sonship and Heirship, the hope of the glory of God and Himself our joy. Such are some of the special individual blessings characteristic of Christianity, set forth chiefly in Romans and Galatians. Coming to Ephesians we find a heavenly position in Christ and the believer quickened and raised up with Him and seated in Him in the heavenly places-in heaven already, as it were. In Galatians the believer
is seen as crucified to the world; in Ephesians as in a new world; in Colossians as quickened with resurrection life, and seeking the things which are above. (Col. 3:1:) In Ephesians the great mystery of the Church as the body of a glorified Christ is presented (chap. 1:22, 23)-a mystery till Paul's day unknown (chap. 3:i-ii). In 1st. Corinthians we have that body as upon earth, formed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, with its gifts and responsibilities set before us. Hebrews is filled with the contrasts between Judaism and Christianity, presenting, among other precious themes, the finished sacrifice of Christ, His priesthood, access into the holiest and a pilgrim walk here. We must select from such themes only such matter as bears directly upon our subject, and this can be brought out in our third and final inquiry as to the relation between Judaism and Christianity.

Our answer is brief:They are mutually exclusive. This, Scripture most abundantly proves. We will present a few reasons for this, gathered from the general character of Christianity and the Church, before taking up the specific arguments so frequently set before us in Paul's Epistles.

Judaism had to do with the old creation; Christianity with the new (2 Cor. 5:16, 17). Judaism was promised earthly and temporal blessings on condition of obedience to the law; Christianity has received spiritual blessings in heavenly places, through faith in Christ alone. Judaism had to do with shadows; Christianity with the substance. The hope of Israel is to inherit their land; the hope of the Church is to be caught up to meet the Lord, and to share His heavenly glory in the Father's house.

All are familiar with the presentation of the '' no difference" doctrine in the epistle to the Romans. Jew and Gentile are alike proved to be under sin- the one under law, the other without law. Both alike are partakers of the free grace of God through the sacrifice of Christ, for faith. The advantages of the Jew (Rom. 3:) are shown to be great, chiefly because of their having the revelation of God in His word:but this only enhanced their guilt. Abraham and David, the two chief figures in the nation, are shown to have received blessing not by law but by faith, Abraham particularly having received the promises before circumcision (Rom. 4:). The third section of the epistle (chaps. 9:-11:) is taken up with showing how the doctrines of grace, while superseding the blessings of national Israel, are not inconsistent with the promises of ultimate earthly blessing when the nation shall have repented. Chapter 9:gives us the sovereign election of God as the assurance of blessing, and not the blood of Abraham. Chapter 10:contrasts the faith, which accepts, with the unbelief which has rejected the Lord; while chapter 11:declares that even now a remnant is preserved-according to the election of grace, and therefore not of the first covenant-while in a day yet to come "all Israel," Israel as a nation, "shall be saved" (Rom. 11:26).

The passage as to the olive tree is of special interest (Chap. 11:17-25). The olive tree suggests those privileges and outward blessings connected with the manifestation of God. Its root we may say was Abraham who received the promises, and its branches his natural descendants. Israel had not continued in God's goodness and therefore were cut off from the privileges and blessings of the olive tree; the Gentiles who professed faith in Christ had entered into those privileges and were responsible as the channels of blessing to others. But it is all profession:were this not real they would be broken off. As a matter of fact the Gentiles have not continued in God's goodness and will, when the Church is caught up to meet the Lord, be broken off, as containing only the lukewarm self-righteousness of Laodicea and the blasphemous iniquity of Babylon. (See Rev. 3:16; Rev. 17:) After this the "natural branches" will be grafted in again, at the time of national restoration already frequently spoken of.

In other words this olive tree does not touch the question of nationality, but of privilege. Hence circumcision and the ordinances are not in question at all. Were they, then the Gentiles now partaking of the "root and fatness of the olive tree" would have to be circumcised.

Corinthians is largely occupied with the Christian Church and as such must be noticed later. We have already alluded to the striking passage in 2 Cor. 3:where the law is absolutely set aside for the "ministration of the Spirit," and to the fifth chapter where new creation is so strikingly spoken of. We must look for a moment at this. "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after flesh:yea though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more" (2 Cor. 5:16). Of Israel the apostle has said (Rom. 9:5):"Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever." To know Christ after the flesh was to know Him as of the nation of Israel, as their rightful king. In Christianity, the apostle knows Him only as the risen Head of the new creation.

Galatians is so full of the subject we are considering that well nigh the entire epistle might be commented upon. The first chapter shows how Paul received the gospel, absolutely independently of Judaism, even of Jerusalem:the second shows how he maintained it clear of all such influences:the third shows, like Romans 4:, how grace antedated all law and ordinances:the fourth shows us the liberty of the Spirit and sonship as contrasted with the bondage of Judaism with its "days and months, times and years" -"weak and beggarly elements," as the apostle calls them:chapter five emphasizes the walk in this liberty of the Spirit, giving amongst much else this most pungent word, "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law " (chap. 5:2, 3). After a few practical exhortations in the sixth chapter, he closes the epistle with those "large letters" (Gk.) written with his own hand, "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised:only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh" (Gal 6:12, 13; see also vers. 14 to end).

If it be objected that the apostle in all this is referring to the attempt to Judaize the Gentile Christians, the answer must be that he is on the contrary establishing the great salient features of Christianity for all. One passage of a character similar to those to which we have alluded refers exclusively to those who are "Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles" (Gal. 2:15-21).

But if we turn to the epistle to the Hebrews we find, as its name imports, a message to those of Israel's race who had professed Christianity, and the burden of it all is Christ, setting aside all else that the Jew might glory in-angels, law, Moses, and Aaron with his priesthood, the law, the sacrifices, the first covenant, the "worldly sanctuary," yea this world. As gone on high He has opened a path for those who have believed in Him to follow, and the heavenly city and the "kingdom that cannot be moved," are just in view.

Most solemnly again and again throughout the epistle are the professors warned against going back from Christ. Who could think that there was the least thought in the apostle's mind of the Hebrews going on with circumcision, the passover and the like as he wrote, "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. . . . Wherefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come" (Heb. 13:10-16).

We can but pause to notice how the death of Christ, in Colossians, has taken out of the way the handwriting of ordinances:The only circumcision recognized is the circumcision (death) of Christ, made without hands (Col. 2:11-23). Most distinctly does the apostle declare (chap. 3:10, 11), as to the new man, that there is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision."

This brings us to the similar statement in Ephesians (2:11-16) where the division between Jew and
Gentile is seen broken down, and a complete reconciliation in one body (the Church) effected by the cross; a new man created, ordinances all set aside.

This truth of the one Body we find presented with much fulness both in the epistle to the Ephesians and that to the Corinthians. It is the basis of all true apprehension as to what the Church of Christ is. In Ephesians it is presented as in union with Christ its head in heaven (chap. 1:22, 23); a body formed of both Jews and Gentiles (chap. 3:6); with gifts for all needed service in its upbuilding-bestowed by the ascended Head (chap. 4:8-13). This Church is destined to be the heavenly bride of Christ, and even now should have the affections and obedience which such an union suggest (chap. 5:22-33).

First Corinthians (chaps. 12:-14:) gives us the Church as formed by the Spirit upon earth (chap. 12:13) with gifts bestowed, energized and directed by the Holy Spirit. Love is the main spring of all activity (chap. 13:), while prophecy – speaking to edification, and exhortation and comfort-is to be earnestly desired. Directions as to meetings follow (chap. 14:). Previous to this we have (chaps, 5:, 6:) the exercise of ordinary and extraordinary discipline, and in chaps. 10:and 11:the privileges and responsibilities in connection with the Lord's supper. In short, in 1st. Corinthians we have the Church and its responsibilities upon earth, as in Ephesians we see it (largely) enjoying its privileges linked with Christ in heaven. We ask, Where is there room for any of the features of Judaism in either epistle? They are both explicitly and impliedly excluded. In both epistles the unity of the body of Christ is emphasized. How could that be where the distinction between Jew and
Gentile was preserved! We have Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the two ordinances (if we may use such a word) of the Church. How could we conceive of part of that church also observing the passover and circumcision, with all other Jewish ordinances?

But it will be replied this is just what we find in the book of Acts. We must then, ere closing, look at that book.

We have already alluded to the beauty of God's lingering over the nation, as seen in the first seven chapters, as though He would say "How can I give thee up." This gives the key to the whole book. We see the good Shepherd leading the sheep out of the fold, so gently and tenderly that even the weakest need not falter.

After Stephen's death the gospel is carried to Samaria-a step off the plane of Judaism (chap. 8:). Saul's conversion is then narrated (chap. 9:), while chap. 10:marks a most important step in the conversion of Cornelius, the first Gentile. Jewish persecution closes this part of the book (11:, 12:). Chaps. 13:and 14:show the gospel going freely among the Gentiles of Asia Minor, with the Gentile city of Antioch as a sort of center. When however the question of Judaizing is broached from Jerusalem, it is brought back there and settled by the apostles. Peter and James are prominent and while neither presents the truth as to the Church, both practically declare the end of exclusive Judaism; Peter even acknowledging that it was a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear (chap. 15:10).

Thus far we see gradual emancipation from the domination of Judaism. Yet, respect for weak consciences is most carefully enjoined. Timothy, as no necessity had been made of it, and unquestionably for the time being, was circumcised, in order that the gospel might go on unhindered. It reaches to Europe and great and wide-spread blessing is the result (chaps. 16:-19:).

We have no heart to appear as critics of that devoted servant of Christ, the apostle Paul, but simply applying the tests which he himself has furnished us in the epistles, his course as he turned himself toward Jerusalem seems to have been backward. We remember that he declared that once he wished himself accursed from Christ for his brethren's sake (Rom. 9:3, Gk.). His love for them was a passion. Gladly would he sacrifice anything to win them to the knowledge of Christ-to become as a Jew to Jews. In the face of known persecution, nay of what seems like actual prohibition (Acts 21:4), he pressed on, burning with love to Christ and His earthly people. Well did that faithful Lord appreciate the devotion, but alas, poor indeed was the reception given by the Jews. Instead of winning them, he stirred all their prejudices to the depths, and was thrown into prison.

Surely God overruled all this, and from the lonely prison came those wondrous epistles which set the distinctive truths of Christianity before us-notably Ephesians and Colossians-epistles which cast no uncertain light upon the mistakes of a love rarely equaled.

In the face of such an ending can we say the Spirit of God encourages compromise? Gently as God had led on His beloved earthly people, the break had to come at last, and we find Paul himself severing the last strand, "Be it known unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it" (Acts 28:28). Shortly after this Jerusalem was destroyed and the last step in the break with Israel was taken.

Judaism is at the present time absolutely cast off. The Jew must take his place with the Gentile as a lost guilty sinner. He finds Christ and in Him stands before God no longer in a righteousness which is of the law, but which is by faith in Christ. The apostle (Phil. 3:) describes the true circumcision, as contrasted with that made with hands. He arrays everything that he might have gloried in and sets it all aside. "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews . . . but what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ."

It is useless to urge that this was only for salvation. This is analogous to the reasoning that the believer is not under the law for salvation, but is under it as a rule of life, and both are similarly injurious. We can understand that the timid faith of the Jewish convert might cling to the ordinances of his fathers, and it is barely possible that he might escape persecution by so doing. He would, we firmly believe, be opening the way for less worthy ones to enter the same path. But, after all, these are not the things we are to consider. We may pray for our weak brother, but we should seek to deliver him from a yoke which can but mean a failure to understand God's ways, and his own privileges. To make provision for him to go on in Judaism is but to provide for the dividing of the Church of Christ into Jewish and Gentile.* *It may be argued that 1 Cor. 7:18, 19 warrants a continuance of Jewish ordinances for the new convert. Let it be noted that the apostle set aside both circumcision and uncircumcision. Grace takes one up where it finds him-and he cannot undo the past. If married he remains so; if a slave he remains so, though he was to seek freedom if possible. But he was to go on with God (verse 24). Now if his original position were contrary to the mind of God, he must abandon it. Quite a similar argument is used regarding eating meats offered to idols. In one sense it was nothing, in another it was eating of the table of devils (1 Cor. 10:16-22). The most that could be gathered from the passage we are considering is that a man remains a Jew just as a man remains married-neither having the slightest relation to God. But to go on with Jewish observances as unto God, would be going back to the flesh after having begun in the Spirit.*

But it may be asked what is the converted Israelite to do? The Church is divided, where can he go? Our reply must be, just where every Christian whose eyes are opened to the evil about him must go-to the Lord Himself. He never changes, and He is just as ready to meet those put out of the synagogue to-day, as when He found the man whose eyes He had opened, and revealed Himself as the Son of God.

Oh, beloved, to be at the feet of the Son of God- worshipers ! what place have ordinances here ?

The traveler who stops at a hotel close to a large I railway station finds little rest the first night. The constant noise in the station, rumbling of omnibus and wagon in the street disturb his rest. The second night he sleeps better, and soon, becoming accustomed to the noise, sleeps soundly until the porter knocks at his door. He awakes. His room is full of light. It is morning.

Let us leave the traveler in the hotel and look at another-a traveler to eternity. Turning the search light of the word of God on him we discover some very indistinct features of a child of God. When a child of wrath and disobedience, he was delivered from this present evil world and the wrath to come to wait for His Son from heaven. (Gal. 1:4; i Thess. 1:9.) With garments gathered up under that girdle of truth-the "blessed hope" of the coming of the Son of God-he started on the heavenly road and pressed on, through the night, looking for "the bright and morning star " that will usher in the eternal morning without a cloud. (Rev. 22:16, 17, 20.) But, alas! his eye gradually becoming dim to the glory of the coming One, and his ear dull to the words of his Guide, the Spirit of God, he touched "the unclean thing" (2 Cor. 6:17). He considered the thing touched "harmless in itself," but it defiled him, and interrupted his fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, (i John 1:3.) Again he touched, more defilement and a duller ear to the words of his heavenly Guide were the sad results. No longer a robust traveler, he dropped out of the ranks of those that are "strangers and pilgrims" who look for a city whose builder and maker is God, sat down to rest, and went to sleep in Sodom saying in his heart:"My Lord delayeth His coming" (Matt. 24:28). Like the traveler who became accustomed to the noise, his conscience gradually became insensible to defiling influences and associations, and under the power of these spiritual anesthetics, he laid his head on Delilah's knees, and went to sleep. (Judges 15:19.)

Reader, is this an imperfect portrayal of your condition? If it is, hear what the Spirit of God says to you:"Awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine on thee" (Eph. 5:14). Thank God, you are not dead in your sins, for you have been quickened together with Christ, but you are asleep among the dead in a world that "lies in the wicked one " (i John. 5:19). During the great plague in London, a load of plague smitten dead was emptied, one night, into a pit for burial. Before shoveling the earth into the pit a laborer turned a light on the dead, and saw an arm slowly lifted up by one in the pit. A feeble indication of life was there. Yes, a living man, unconscious of where he was until the light was turned on him, lay among the dead, and was pulled out from among them. Awake thou that sleepest, arise from the plague smitten heap of this world's dead, and Christ shall shine on thee. Sleep no longer. Awake now. The Lord Jesus may come before you put this paper out of your hand, and drag you out of Sodom-from the plague smitten heap of this world. What an eternal loser you will be if He comes and finds you asleep. Can you afford it? Think of the joy it would give His heart to-day to have your head again pillowing on His bosom of eternal love, love that led Him to give Himself for you. W. B.—– n.

I gladly avail myself of the opportunity which the recent Church Congress at Shrewsbury gives me to think out audibly my thoughts upon Evolution and Immortality. It is a subject, indeed, which has a grave importance for us, now that clergy and schools are getting alike infected with that which leads so palpably away from Scripture at the outset, and gives whatever is pleased to assume the garb of "science" a free hand to fashion all our most sacred convictions after its own pleasure.

I do not believe that Scripture was not intended to teach science. Most plainly, all the foundations of true science are in it, in its revelation of the relation of all things to God. Why is it, indeed, that "science," in its attempts to formulate its beliefs, manages so to run up against Scripture, but because Scripture is standing guard there to prevent man's thoughts from breaking bounds? And it does this
effectually where there is proper faith in it. What form of evolution, many as there are, could against nature bring Eve out of Adam? Certainly none. God has put there the miraculous in too definite a way for any to escape from it.

Now it was against the doctrine of special creation -which that of Eve is if it is anything-that Darwin distinctly set himself with full purpose of heart. "He tells us himself," says Prof. Mivart, "that in his 'Origin of Species' his first object was 'to show that species had not been separately created;' and he consoles himself for admitted error by the reflection that 'I have at least, as I hope, done good service in aiding to overthrow the dogma of separate creations.' "

Yet he had admitted, in that very book, "a few forms, or one," into which "the Creator had breathed life!" Yes, insincerely:to sweeten the pill that he was presenting to his readers! "I have long regretted " he says afterwards, "that I truckled to public opinion, and used the pentateuchal term 'creation,' by which I really meant ' appeared' by some wholly unknown process."

And this is the man of whom the chairman of the Church Congress says:" It maybe said of him, as of so many humble seekers after truth, in the language of the Lord through the mouth of the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, ' I have guided thee, though thou hast not known Me!'" Isaiah says "girded," not "guided;" but, apart from this, it is a strange notion of the way God guides His scientific prophets. "Science and Christ,"says Mr. Darwin, a short time before his death, "have nothing to do with each other, except in as far as the habit of scientific investigation makes a man cautious about accepting any proof. As far as I am concerned, I do not believe that any revelation has ever been made. With regard to a future life, every one must draw his own conclusions from vague and contradictory probabilities."

Alas, if the Bishop of Hereford should be right, and "so many humble seekers after truth" are "guided" in this fashion! not merely guided, but constituted guides for those who are in the full light of Christianity. But this is nothing short of blasphemy. "Everyone that is of the truth," says another and far different speaker, " heareth My voice " (John 8:37).

Spite of the "caution about accepting any proof" which science had taught him, Mr. Darwin says as to the matter of his book:"I have picked up most by reading really numberless special treatises, and all agricultural and horticultural journals; but it is a work of long years. The difficulty is to know what to trust." These are his own italics; and he again recognizes the need of caution; but that avails much more to influence him as to revelation than as to his own theories. Dr. Stirling,* from whom I am borrowing here, after quoting the son's account of his father's inevitable tendency, adds:"In fact, Mr. Darwin himself makes a stronger acknowledgment for himself than his son does for him. *"Darwinianism:Workmen and Work."By J. H. Stirling, LL.D. (P. 193).* Even on the last page of the Journal, words occur which are an undeniable confession. They are these:'As the traveler stays but a short time in each place, his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches -hence arises, as I have found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up wide gaps of knowledge by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses.' He writes to Henslowe once:'As yet I have only indulged in hypotheses; but they are such powerful ones that, I suppose, if they were put in action for one day, the world would come to an end."… For very soberest conclusion, let us bear in mind this (2:108):'I am a firm believer that without speculation there is no good and original observation.'"

Such is the man, then, and such by his own confession the style of the book which, with the aid of some powerful backing, took the world by storm. The real success of his argument, and the way in which faith had to do with it-a faith which he had lost as to Scripture-may be estimated by what Dr. Stirling remarks in closing (p. 357).

"This is strange, too – in the whole 'Origin of Species' there is not a single word of origin! The very species which is to originate never originates, but, on the contrary, is always to the fore (p. 240). Nay, as no breeder ever yet made a new species or even a permanent race, so the Darwins themselves, both Charles and his son, Mr. Francis (pp. 268, 269), confess, 'we cannot prove that a single species has changed.'"

This is the result to which this "humble seeker after truth " attained. Having found it, face it after all he would not, but took refuge in a faith as to what he could not prove, and which ended for himself, alas, in the eclipse of hope and the loss of all that could make knowledge of any value. Even in the present life this; in that which is to come, who shall sum up the loss?

The arguments for evolution are, largely, such as have been used in many different branches of science, to prove what in the end was fully dis-proved by longer and more exact investigation. They are the fruit of a partial induction mistaken for a full one:as if one measured the growth of a child, say from five years old to ten, and found that it had grown in that time three inches in the year, and from that decided that at 50 this would be a man somewhere about 14 feet high. Only one thing would hinder such a calculation being right, but that would be quite enough:sometime between 18 and 20 this growth will cease, and the knowledge of this limit would alter the whole estimate.

No one, of course, would make such a mistake, because the limit here is familiar to us all ; but such limits unknown as to planetary variations has made men fear that all the world would go to wreck. Such calculations as to the formation of the earth have carried back the age of man upon it into a fabulous antiquity. And such observations of the abundant variations that are found continually taking place in organic beings prove for the evolutionist that all things are in flux. Somehow, notwithstanding this, the world is reasonably stable; and the admissions of the Messrs. Darwin that not a single species can be proved to have changed into another is a better argument for a limit in some way, than that from the variations for such a change as none have found as yet, however willing and anxious they might be in their folly to find it.
Christians are suffering in all this for the unbelief which expresses itself in such sayings as this, that Scripture was not intended to teach science. It was intended to teach whatever it does teach; and one truth that it does teach is better than all the conjectures of all the wisest men that ever lived, and all the volumes they have ever written. "If I have told you earthly things and ye believed not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? " How Satan must laugh when Christians give up the earthly things as unreliable, while assuring themselves of the profound faith they have as to the unseen heavenly things?

True it is, of course, that our interpretations of Scripture need to be distinguished from Scripture itself, and that here we have need again to remember our human fallibility. The surer we may be that what we have is what the Word has taught us, the simpler we may be in letting it all be tested. Scripture is not like a hot-house plant, to which outside exposure may perhaps be fatal. The more we examine what we hold for truth, the more the truth itself will root itself in our convictions, and deliver us from the fear which makes the hearts of so many uneasy at the present day.

We cannot, if we would, shut ourselves off from the myriad forms of unbelief which assail us from every side to-day. Let us trust the faithful guide which has been given us, and go to it upon every question. It is able to furnish thoroughly the man of God. If we are such we shall not even regret the having to search the Word about these many questions. We shall not only be answered; we shall be enriched and built up by the answers. For this is the character of God's word:the "holiness of truth " is in it, and the unfailing spring which satisfies the thirst of all that come.

What answer shall we get, then, if we seek to learn what we may of God's method in creation ? An evolution there is, and a true one, not what has usurped its name:an "unfolding" of a divine plan, in which there is, of course, progress and development, upon principles which are uniform throughout. Looking at organic being, with which alone we need now concern ourselves, we have three stages of progress clearly marked off from one another:the vegetable; the animal, which is marked off as a new "creation" ; man, just as distinctly from the mere animal, by a "creation" also.

Each of these contains what has preceded it, with an addition. The vegetable is but matter, organized and controlled by vital force. The animal has vegetative functions connected with its own locomotor ones, which imply now the presence and rule of a sold. Man, again, is an animal, crowned with that which is absolutely characteristic of the being created in the image of God, the spirit.

There is economy of design which at the same time gives unity to the whole; while there is advance on the part of that also in which this unity is shown. The mineral absorbed into the vegetable can scarcely be recognized any more as mineral; and it is worked up into still higher forms as the '' flesh " of animal and of man. The " life " of the vegetable is in the animal so characterized by the soul with which it is now united, that "soul " and "life" become, in one aspect of soul, but equivalent terms. While the animal soul becomes again in man possessed of higher faculties than it ever had in the animal, and thus the fit companion and help-meet of the spirit.

Not only so:we can go beyond even this as led of the blessed book which God has given us, and after the present life see a similar advance made still. For, as soon as he leaves the body, the saint, though still having " soul," is now spoken of (as never while in the body) as a " spirit " ; and when he takes up the body again, this is now no longer a "natural"-which is, literally, a "psychical " body (a body characterized by the soul, or psyche)-but a "spiritual " body, the body of the resurrection.

Here is development, then, all along the line:of that there can be no question. God evolves (or unfolds) in this way the wondrous possibilities which lie wrapped up in what He has first produced. Here is true evolution, not the false thing of the evolutionists ; but how is it accomplished ? Is the soul developed out of the life of the plant ? or the spirit developed out of the soul of the animal ? No:at each step God must come in, and does; soul and spirit are separate creations. And how does the mineral rise into the plant structure? or this into the body of the animal ? or the soul develop in man spiritual characters unknown in the animal? The answer of Scripture is, they do not raise themselves; they are raised:the development in each case is accomplished by the descent (if we may say so) of a higher principle to unite itself with the lower. The lower is raised by the humbling of the higher to it, and the shadow of Christ is here already unmistakably seen in Nature :the seal is set upon this method as divine.

We need not wonder :"all things were created by Him and for Him," and this is His stamp on what He would approve to us as current money in the realm of thought. Why should not the figure of the king appear upon what is His? So is all nature in fact a witness for Him, a glorious interweaving of spiritual parables, which, if we had more ability to read them, would indeed transfigure the visible with the brightness of the unseen.

I have not yet come to the question of immortality, and am afraid, moreover, that as to the connection of evolution with it I have little to say that has not been often said, and which is not apparent on very slight consideration of the matter. As Mr. Wilson truly said at the Congress, "the doctrine of personal immortality . . . seems to me rendered much more difficult by the theory of evolution, because human life is by that theory so closely correlated with animal life. At what point in the chain does consciousness, freedom, personality, conscience, soul, immortality, come in?" Here is the effect of not permitting Scripture to teach science:in Scripture these all attach themselves to that human "spirit," upon the .immortality of which not the least cloud rests from Genesis to Revelation.

Of course, those who, even with the light of Scripture, find but body and soul in man, lose so far the comfort which the true doctrine will unfailingly be found to have; and " annihilation " in its many forms thrives upon this confusion. Scripture, however, is clear and consistent everywhere; and it ought to be even more scientific to believe its testimony than Mr. Darwin's memorandum-book of observations, which he tells us cannot be "good and original" without being tinged with " speculation "!

Prof. Bonney gives us the speculation without the observation. " Life," he tells us, " must be the result of a synthesis. Two hypotheses are possible:either it was some unprecedented combination of two or more inanimate things, or it was the action of an unknown external force on inanimate matter-which is tacitly admitted to be the more probable. In either case we must fall back upon a synthetic process."

The "observation" upon which Prof. Bonney grounds his first hypothesis is, of course, chemical, as his example from the formation of water shows. Life in this case must be an exceedingly rare chemical compound, which has the not less than miraculous properties (for any such) of organization, growth, and reproduction; or of communicating these to the protoplasmic fragments, which strangely co-operate (with a wisdom which utterly baffles and confounds all human knowledge) to weave all the tissues of all organized beings from man downwards. The chemical theory, always more marvelous than any Scriptural miracle, linked itself with the apparently homogeneous character of this matter of life or "protoplasm," in which the microscope could detect no organization, but in which the chemists found (after it was dead) a most complex constitution. This mere jelly, as it looked, structure less, and practically pretty uniform in character, being so complex, might have in this way its extraordinary properties; and Prof. Huxley, as is well-known, triumphantly held it up as " the formal basis of all life-the clay of the potter, which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature, from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod."

A thing of this sort chemical combination was competent to produce. Carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, he declares, "when they are brought together under certain conditions, give rise to the still more complex body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena of life."

"Spontaneous generation " necessarily went with this, and they thought that they had proved this by experiment. Living things were claimed to have been produced in vessels from which all life had been absolutely excluded. Apart from this, a sheet of slime which had been found at the bottom of the sea was supposed to be living matter. Prof. Huxley named it before he had captured it, very suitably in honor of the infidel Haeckel, Bathybius haeckelii ("the low life of Haeckel"?), and now the super-naturalists were bidden to tremble.

Happily for them, the bubble burst (we may note that the more brilliant a bubble is, the nearer it is to bursting):the "spontaneous generation" turned out not to be spontaneous, and the discovery had to find decent burial at the hands of the very men who most wished it success; "biogenesis," or the doctrine of "all life from life," was owned, as far as the fact was concerned, whatever the hypothesis, to be "victorious along the whole line," and so remains to-day; '' bathybius " was found to be chemical enough to suit, if it had only had the "life "-sulphate of lime or gypsum; and only protoplasm remained as a text on which to preach the chemical theory.

Alas, "protoplasm " has now failed also:its apparent innocence has been proved nothing but deception. Instead of being structure less, the microscope has shown it to be full of structure-a thing that no chemist in his wildest dreams could hope to manufacture any more. What they had now to manufacture was another hypothesis.

It is no wonder, therefore, that Prof. Bonney should prefer the second view of the origin of life that he presents to us, '' the action of an unknown external force"-creative, he calls it lower down-"on inanimate matter." But then, if life be the result of a new force evoked by divine power, and that be evolution, then that hardly differs from what we have always believed, and we have talked evolution all the time without knowing it. To call it a "synthesis" does not alter it in any wise, if you allow it to be a divine intervention of which it is the result. And if this intervention once admitted makes it now scientific to believe in others afterward, we may be very glad that science and faith can go so well together. Then, by a new creative intervention, the beast can become a living soul; and by another, man be made in the image of God. Only, if you call this evolution which allows of the introduction over and over again of new and unknown forces, we shall want to have defined for us afresh what the term means. And if you call it, as Prof. Bonney does here, "the action of laws," then one of these "laws " must be that God shall be free and sovereign in His own creation, and there all Christians will heartily join hands.

And, of course, the question of immortality will then be a difficulty no longer:it will be only a question of fact. To illustrate it by the stability of a chemical compound, such as water, is idle, unless life is a chemical compound, and then there is no new force in the case. And to object the instability of organic compounds would still make it a question of chemistry merely. Vitality uses and controls the chemical forces, and the instability of the compounds is just what makes them capable of being used for its purposes. Continual change is a necessity for life itself. When it departs, the material hastens to assume more permanent forms, though that may be a poetical way of putting it:the real fact is that, released from the control of the life-principle, chemical affinities again operate unrestrictedly in it.

But not one step has been taken towards showing life itself to be a synthesis or compound of any kind. What it is we do not know. But no one would say, even of his body, that it was a compound of matter and life. No more could one say that life was a compound of matter and creative force. All the talk about "synthesis" is a scientific way of saying nothing. And who knows how creative power work?

Organic life also comes to an end-does not become invisible and float about like the vapor of water to which he compares it. Even the soul of the beast comes to an end. Spirit abides, and the soul that is united with this. But it is Scripture tells us this.

" Science'' has not the least right to say that "a conscious personal existence after death either should be a property of all living things (in which case an embodiment of some kind seems essential) or of none, and that the latter seems more probable." It depends largely on what we call ''science." If this be merely physical science, then, of course, the witness of personality, conscience, etc., will be all ignored, and man, as man, dropped out. Nay, for aught I know, we shall be mere walking vegetables, and shall not dare to call our soul our own. The fact is, God never left man to grope in this way after Himself. The light has always shone from the beginning:men have turned away from it, and walked in their own shadow. Spite of all that, it takes all the ingenuity of the sharpened wits of civilization to find out that our hope of living after death depends upon the same possibility for "all living things"-from the gnat down to the potato! In that case, we may be sure that extinction "seems most probable." But why, then, have we been mocked and made wretched by being endowed with more than the soul of a potato ?

That science which proclaims all life to be a cheat, all science itself a brief, short-lived delusion, may in the name of reason itself be declared most unreasonable-if there be any truth, false science.

How unutterably glad may we be that we are not left to this. Nature, too, proclaims that, while we may with fires of our own kindling light up our path for a little way, yet all that can be called true light is from heaven. Alas, that even this light may shine in the darkness, and the darkness comprehend it not!

[We insert the above paper, from Words in Season, not only to put its contents before our readers, but to seek to awaken amongst us a deeper interest in the truths of nature. The word of God is full of references to the world and its wonders. We may rest assured that all speaks of a wisdom and a goodness, seen alone in its perfection in the Scriptures. We may be equally sure that if the truths of nature are neglected by Christians, Satan will all the more use them as the vehicle for such infidel theories as Evolution in its various forms. What is needed is the faith which, Bible in hand, will take up nature and find it eloquent of God – not merely the Creator-but the Redeemer-God. We need not come with theories, nor seek to formulate such. The word of God has already given us, not theory but changeless truth; and all we have to do is to "ask the earth," to "consider the heavens."

May Christians be awakened as to these things. Rationalism, whether applied to nature or to revelation, is a Christless hopeless thing. It had its origin in an anti-christian movement and its end is already in view-a Christless end.

May the Lord's people take up nature in connection with the word of God. May there be Christian observers in Geology, Chemistry, Astronomy, Physics and Biology who shall seek and find Christ everywhere. ED]

Notes of an Address by C. G. at Lachute, April 2nd.

(2 Chron. 25:)

The story of every reign in this book has its distinctive lesson. Solomon's reign gives us the beginnings of departure from God; Rehoboam's the incompetency for the things of God of one whose character was formed by wrong influences. In Abijah's reign we have contending for the faith once delivered, and so right down these sketches of these successive reigns we find a distinctive lesson in each account.

In Amaziah's story we find at the very threshold the key to its lesson. "And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart" (ver. 2). We are to read the history of his reign in the light of this. In it we find the results of not doing the things that are right in the sight of the Lord with a perfect heart. His father, Joash, in his later days trespassed against the Lord, and consequent upon his turning from the Lord we find he was outwardly attacked by the Syrians, but there was also inward trouble, some of his own servants at last conspiring against him and slaying him. Amaziah was associated with Joash during the last three years, but on the death of Joash by his servants we read of the kingdom being confirmed to him and that he slew the conspirators. There was evidently an attempt to set aside the throne, else it would not be said the kingdom was confirmed to him. The conspirators not only wanted to be rid of Joash, but of Amaziah also. But the throne is established in his hand, God coming in, in His sovereign mercy and grace, and securely settling him upon it.

Well, the first thing he is said to do after this is that he slew the conspirators, and the Spirit of God is careful to call attention to the fact he was obedient to the word of the law in Deut. 24:16. He is careful to obey it exactly, and does not put the sons to death. Looking back to Deuteronomy, largely at least, we get directions which are intended to restrain and repress. They are a curb on man's passions. Man is so prone to go too far, to be severe and harsh, to be cruel and oppressive, that God has given certain laws for the express purpose of restraining those propensities so peculiar to us. Think of it! How Amaziah's feelings must have been roused against these men; still these feelings are restrained. He does not put the sons to death. He is careful to obey the law to the letter. He keeps in check his natural resentment, as in Ephesians we are exhorted, "Be ye angry, and sin not:let not the sun go down upon your wrath." This is what we have illustrated in this. Was this not right? Yes, that is what is said here, "He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord." But looking more closely, we may believe after all it was only outward conformity, '' not with a perfect heart." Think of this! Let us apply it to ourselves, to our own actions as the people of God. May it not be said of a great deal in our lives that may appear very exemplary and may be right, that it is very much outward conformity to God's word and will? Well, beloved, if it be so, we are on slippery ground. If we are not obeying, conforming to the Word with a perfect heart, there are dangers into which we may slip before we are aware. If the will of God be not a joy and pleasure to us, if our hearts be not in the word of God, if we do not inwardly delight in it, we are standing in a dangerous place.

Now look at Amaziah (ver. 5). He numbers up his men able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield, and finds he has an army of three hundred thousand choice men. Here we are warned again of what is our danger if the will of God be not completely the object of our hearts. He is evidently intending war with the Edomites, calmly measuring his resources. After doing this he is not satisfied. Although able to raise three hundred thousand choice men he is not satisfied. Why? Because he has not faith. He cannot trust God. Had he looked back over the history of God's people, he would have been reminded of many a time when the people of Israel went forth to battle against an enemy far greater than they and the Lord gave them victory, and he would have known by faith in God that He was still the same. What does he do? He turns to the ten tribes, the revolted tribes from whom Judah was righteously separate, and hires an hundred thousand mighty men of valor-all to go down against the Edomites!

Beloved, may there not be much in us that passes as right, that is right, indeed, but still in doing it the energy of faith is wanting, and then, because it is not done with a perfect heart toward God we turn to other resources and bring them in to further the work of the Lord.

But Jehovah is very pitiful and of tender mercy, and sends His prophet, a man of God, saying:"O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel, all the children of Ephraim. But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle:God shall make thee fall before the enemy:for God hath power to help, and to cast down " (vers. 7, 8). His course is forbidden of God. Now see how far he has been strengthened in departure from God in all this. He is loth to yield, yet he does submit. He does the thing that is right when he is reproved by the prophet, but was his submission with a perfect heart? Plainly not. It is the same thing over again. "What shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give thee much more than this" (ver. 9). Amaziah sends home the men of Ephraim, but he suffers under the government of God for his wrong step, as we all do, individually and collectively. These soldiers dismissed by Amaziah "fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil" (ver. 13). Now you can see how Amaziah is reaping the fruit of not obeying the Lord with a perfect heart. If he had done so at the first, he would not have been so tested with regard to it again. But in connection with the second testing we find there is a struggle. The first time there does not appear to have been one. He obeys promptly and readily. It is not so easy to obey now. He has lost ground, and all because in obedience his heart is not perfect. He has to reason and question and be assured by the prophet that God is able to give him much more than he has foolishly squandered upon the Israelites. At last, however, after all this struggle, he submits. He obeys, but alas! his heart is not perfect.

Now he goes forth to the war against Edom. I suppose it was a righteous war. It was the proper thing to keep the Edomites down. He is doing that which is right in the sight of the Lord. He gains the victory, but he is not able to curb his feelings and righteous indignation against them. He could restrain himself when visiting the death penalty upon the murderers of his father, but he is not able to do so now. After the victory has been gained he takes ten thousand of the captives and leads them to the top of the rock and casts them down, so that they are broken in pieces. A harsh, cruel, heartless act. He is now allowing his feelings, his indignation against the Edomites, to carry him into cruelty. He is not now the man he was at the outset. How significant all this. How it bids us search our hearts and watch against the beginning of departure from the Lord. How it bids us search and see that what we do is done with a perfect heart.
But we read more about him. "He brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense to them" (ver. 15). Alas! how far he has now traveled in the path of departure and declension. Step after step he has gone on and on,
until now he can displace the worship of the true God with that of idols. Beginning with obeying while the heart was not in it, he has gradually weakened, so that now he not only throws off restraint but perverts the worship of God. What a humiliating spectacle! But let us search our own hearts, for are we not in fact reading our own histories? For "as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." We may go on for years as good, exemplary Christians, and yet end our course with God displaced in the throne of our hearts.

The Lord now mercifully sends His prophet to rebuke him. "Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thy hand?" To which the king replied, "Art thou made of the king's counsel? Forbear." The prophet does forbear, though not without warning of coming chastisement from the hand of God. "I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel." But look at Amaziah. See how passion rages. He resents the rebuke, and is ready to take the prophet's life. How, alas! we are capable of silencing the voice of God in those whom He raises up to rebuke us for our disobedience. Next Amaziah indulges in feelings of resentment towards the army of Israel. He is indignant at their desolation of his cities. He feels like wreaking vengeance upon them; so he challenges the king of Israel to meet him in battle. Elated over his triumph over the Edomites, he feels himself competent to measure strength with Israel. The king of Israel has no desire to fight him; endeavors indeed to persuade Amaziah to desist from his purpose. But, actuated by a desire to revenge a wrong, and inflated with pride and self-sufficiency, he is determined on war with Israel. The two armies meet at Bethshemesh, but Amaziah is defeated and taken prisoner. If we are not really in heart with God it is an easy thing to embark on a cause which He has not called us to. We can readily persuade ourselves that a mission of our own is His. The Israelites were divisionists and off the true ground of the people of God. Amaziah might have reasoned that it was a proper thing to go and bring them under; but God had not given him such a work. May we not also undertake to do what God has not put upon us? Indeed we are quite capable of it. But alas! when thus engaged in our self-imposed task we have met with disaster, we have become captives to the very things against which we have stood in our own strength. Through our pride and self-sufficiency we have come under the power of what we have sought to regulate or put down. But this is not all. Amaziah, a prisoner in Joash's hands, is led up to Jerusalem to see four hundred cubits of her wall broken down. When thus we are in the enemy's hand how impossible to maintain the principle of separation from evil. But again, the king of Israel despoils the king's palace and the house of the Lord of their treasures. In our captivity to the power of evil our souls are robbed, we are not allowed to enjoy our portion in Christ.

The people now make Uzziah king in the room of his father, though Amaziah lives yet for fifteen years. By the providence of God Joash, the king of Israel, dies, and Amaziah is thus delivered from his captivity. But he is a hindrance to Uzziah-a dead weight upon him. Uzziah cannot rebuild Eloth and restore it with all its wealth of commerce to Judah. If unrepentant, though God mercifully delivers us from what in our folly, pride and self-sufficiency we have brought upon ourselves, what weights and hindrances we may be to others.

The Lord give us to be sober and serious, and to challenge our hearts day by day in reference to every detail of our lives. May we ask ourselves, Are we doing the will of God with a perfect heart? If we can detect a lack of real, hearty interest in that will, a lack of real submission of heart to God, let us judge it, and seek by all means, in all our ways, reality in our souls. May God grant us His blessing and help.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:12.)

CHAPTER VI. (Continued from page 119.)

The "Second Man."

We must look on, then, to resurrection to see the Second Man in full character as that, and to see fully what humanity has gained in Him. But this will be better considered when we contemplate Him as last Adam, the Head of the new race of men. For moral perfection, as already said, He could not wait for that, but was (as even the demons confessed Him) "the Holy One of God," perfectly according to His mind, all through. There was no possible mutability of nature in Him ; and we must not pervert the idea of His full moral freedom to the admission of such a thought. Perfectly free He was, of course, in glorious holiness :it was the devil's thought that He was free to sin,-free as implying in Him a sort of balance of possibilities, and as if this were even necessary to His perfect trial and the reality of a final victory over evil :for without struggle, they would say, there can be no victory.

But struggle with Himself there was not, and victory over Himself would have been already defeat:He would be no more the Christ of Scripture, "tempted in all things as we are, apart from sin" (Heb. 4:15). The "yet without sin " of our common version, and still remaining in the revised, has done terrible work in lowering Christ in the imaginations of men. There is no justification of the "yet " possible. The Greek has nothing of it. It came in through the mere supposition that "without sin" spoke of final result, instead of an exception to the kind of temptation. Sin was no possible temptation to Him :there was absolutely no power of seduction in it. That did not touch the question of His freedom, but characterized it. The more unassailable by sin we are, the freer we are, not the less free. We are not perfected by loss of liberty. To walk with God is to walk in the consciousness of the reality of things, undeceived and unperverted.

If I say of any one, "He cannot do a dishonest act," do I think of him on that account, as less a free man ? If there is no moral certainty about his actions, do I credit him, therefore, with a firmer will and more perfect self-control ? No one can say or think so.

Nor did He who came into the world as man's Deliverer divest Himself of His necessary perfection, that He might be on more equal terms with the adversary. Had it been a necessity to do so, it is hard to see how it could have been accomplished. For how could moral perfection consent to its own debasement ? or how could its enfeeblement be other than debasement ? For even a divine Being there are impossibilities, which proceed from perfection, and which therefore are perfection. The impossibility of sinning was a necessary glory of the Christ of God.

But men object to this on the other side that it involves an impossibility of sympathy with those encompassed with infirmity such as belongs to fallen creatures. No doubt it does with everything that implies sin, or that depravity of nature which cannot be separated from it. But sympathy with this is (as has often been pointed out) as far as possible from what a Christian needs or could find true comfort in. He finds in Christ a perfect atonement for it, and, if he knows deliverance, a power in divine grace which has broken for him the dominion of sin. Walking in the Spirit, he does not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Moreover, the evil in him is that which God in His wonderful wisdom uses to turn him from self-occupation to Christ, and to hide from him all pride and self-complacency. But the evil itself he does not sympathize with, but condemns, while in all else he finds truest sympathy. But this is not the place in which to enlarge upon all this :it ought to be enough to quote here the apostle's words that " such a high-priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Heb. 7:26). But the examination of this belongs also rightly to another place.

The "Second Man" is, necessarily and emphatically "of heaven," heavenly. True, His manhood has in it promise for the earth also, gives indeed for the inhabitants of earth the sweetest possible assurance; but this too gains, and not loses, by such heavenly character. This is inseparable, of course, from His being the Son of God in humanity; but it attaches to the Second Man as such, as the text from Corinthians clearly intimates:for, in contrast with the first man being "of the earth earthy," the " Second Man is of heaven."

If we look on to the full " image of the heavenly" (i Cor. 15:49), which we are yet to bear, the glorious body which is to be our own, though the resurrection of what has been sown in the dust, or the present mortal one changed to immortality, is yet spoken of as "our house which is of heaven" (2 Cor. 5:2). "Mortality" will then, says the apostle, be swallowed up of life" (ver. 4). There will be then the quickening of our mortal bodies, now "dead because of sin" (Rom. 8:10,11), which will make them, as yet they are not, to be partakers of "redemption " (ver. 23). Thus the new life-power it is which, pervading and molding them, will make them heavenly, the "image of the heavenly" being reached in them also.

But even now, and while yet we wait for this, by virtue of the work which has begun in us, we are already "heavenly" (i Cor. 15:48). For the quickening of the Spirit we already have ; the heavenly life is begun, though amid hindrances and in obscurity, in that which is the highest part of our humanity.

When we turn to consider the Lord as among us "in the days of His flesh," we find in Him also not as yet the full heavenly character. As to His body, though in no wise (as with us) under the power of death, and with none of the penalty of sin upon it, He is yet "in the likeness of sinful flesh "(Rom. 8:3),-according to the pattern of the humanity that has failed in Adam, though without failure or any consequences of it, save as in grace He might stoop to these.

Every way He is without blemish, but more :this body of flesh and blood which He has assumed-as the vessel of earth in which the bird of heaven may die for the cleansing of our leprosy (Lev. 14:5)-is itself, all true as it is, of course, a "veil"of the higher humanity which has come in with Him, and which is not innocent and earthy, as in the first man, but holy and heavenly. In Him is manifested to us "that Eternal Life, which was with the Father" (i Jno. 1:2), and is now, without fleck of shade or moment of intermission," the light of men" (Jno. 1:4)..

This Life is "in Him,"as it could not be in any other:"for as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself " (John 5:26). He is thus the Source and Spring of it for us as the "last Adam ;" and possessing it as Man, is characterized absolutely by that "divine nature " which it implies as divine life. This touches in no way the full reality of manhood in Him-spirit and soul and body:for little as we know of the mystery of "life," we do know that it sets aside none of these, but gives them their full value and reality.

As the "First-born among many brethren," this life manifests itself in Him as a life of faith, in constant dependence upon God, nay, living (as we would not have dared to think of Him, had He not Himself taught us so to apply the scripture) "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt, 4:4). To this indeed, as we know, was His constant appeal, treading in this respect in a path in which He calls us to follow Him as "Leader" in "and Completer of faith" in His own Person (Heb. 12:2, Gk.); while this perfection He did not plead as title to escape the trials and sorrows of a pilgrim-path, but on the contrary tasted the cup of affliction fully, even to death, yea, the death of the cross. But this was His grace and our need only:for Himself He was no debtor to death at all. No one took His life from Him, but He laid it down of Himself, having power both to lay it down and to take it again.

Upon this it does not need to insist here. The word of God speaks with absolute decision about it
all :did one enlarge, how much would have to be written ! We are here, however, but attempting an outline of truth, to fill in which materials are everywhere to be found, while the full reality is unspeakable. Heaven and earth meet here together, and all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in the Man Christ Jesus. How marvelous to be told in this very connection, that "in Him we are filled up" (Col. 2:9, 10) ! F. W. G.

(To be continued.)