The opening chapter of the first book of Samuel presents to my mind some most beautiful thoughts in reference to God's grace in the hearts of His children as well as the opposition of the enemy to hinder if possible that grace shining forth.

"Hannah" is said to mean grace, and that only adds the more to its beauty, as it would lead to the thought that in this case "grace" is personified.

We have it recorded that Elkanah had two wives ; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. The marked difference between the two outwardly was that Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. It is not said how many children Peninnah had, because if we look at her here as typifying the flesh, we know the evil principle in us is always ready to act, and there is no end to its fruitfulness for evil-while utterly barren in the things of God, as the apostle says, "What fruit had ye, then, in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ?" It is to be noted, not only here, but in other cases recorded in the Word, that it is when one is led to take the ground of being a worshiper that the flesh is brought out in all its hatefulness and shows its opposition to the worshiper. This is clearly to be seen where it is recorded of David in the sixth chapter of the second book of Samuel:"And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart; " and further on in the chapter it is recorded, "Then David returned to bless his house. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself." And then follows David's most beautiful reply.

Here too we find the flesh showing itself. For it was as they were going to worship at Shiloh that "her adversary provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut her womb. . . Therefore she wept and did not eat." But all the efforts of the enemy were useless. Grace, I may say, like its handmaid Charity, "is not easily provoked."

Now let us look at the next attempt of the enemy, as it were, to swallow her up. In this case it would seem more trying, for while one may be able to judge that which comes from the flesh, it would seem that in this case at least it might be a more difficult thing to resist ; for here it is her own beloved husband, one who truly loves her, who throws himself in her pathway, saying, "Am I not better to thee than ten sons ? " Surely, we need not wonder if that husband occupied a large space in Hannah's heart, but after all, he little knew the heavenly aspirations and desires of that one with whom he was so closely connected. And has not the Scripture said," Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." But where could this dear child of God get a more full presentation of the world to her heart's affections than in this instance when he says, "Am I not
better to thee than ten sons ?" However, she goes on neither listening to the entreaties of the one, nor giving heed to the frowns of the other; for she had heard the words of that One who spake in later days (for like Mary in John's gospel, love can see in the distance), saying, "There is no man who has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, but he shall receive a hundred fold now, and in the world to come life everlasting."
But still further, Peninnah had children (it doesn't say how many) whilst Hannah had no children. Just so ; and in the fifth chapter of Galatians the apostle says, " The works of the flesh are these," and then goes on to enumerate seventeen of them and ends by saying, "and such like," showing that there were others, doubtless too numerous to mention. Surely all this is practical, and we may well lay it to heart.

The work of grace is deepening in the heart of this dear child of God. And we read she was "in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Thine handmaid, but wilt give Thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head."

This is really touching. She prays not only for a child, but for a man child, and, mark it well, not that it might be a home comfort and a mother's joy to her, as we might naturally think, but that she might give it to the Lord. Oh, think of that, ye handmaids of the Lord,-ye mothers in Israel! Where, did grace before or since, I may say (except in one case), have such a worthy representative ? The poor widow woman in later days threw her two mites into the treasury, and yet the Lord could say she had given more than they all. Yes, the Lord remembers and will remember just such acts as these throughout eternity. James says," Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." But I ask who can find any trace of lust in our Hannah ? No; " the hand that struck the chord found all in tune," as was said by a dear departed saint.

But what I would notice particularly is that up to this moment no word has she been heard to utter. There was the weeping and the fasting and broken-ness of heart-("why is thy heart grieved ? ") Did the psalmist have this in his mind when he said, '' A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise" ?

But now we have Eli the high-priest brought into view, one who, as Hebrews tells us, was supposed to " have compassion on the ignorant, and on them who are out of the way." He greets her while praying, by saying, "How long wilt thou be drunken, put away thy wine from thee." But who was the "ignorant" one here ? who was the one who was "out of the way " ? Not Hannah surely, she was " filled " not with wine wherein is excess, but with the Holy Spirit. She was not at that time seeking any of natures remedies ; no, her "joy was in God," and so filled with that wondrous grace from on high, she meekly and simply said, "No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto."

How sweet, how heavenly are these words ! How they remind us of that One of whom it was said, "Grace is poured into thy lips." By way of contrast let us compare this dear disciple with Paul the great apostle of the Gentiles, as he stands before the high-priest in his day who, when, Paul said, " I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day," commanded those that stood by to smite him on the mouth," was it not an ebullition of nature that led Paul to say "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall," etc.? for he immediately on being informed who it was, judged himself by the Word saying, "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." And who will say that Paul's provocation was greater than the one whose ways we are meditating upon ? And so we sometimes sing-

" God's grace will to the end
Clearer and brighter shine."

But what about Eli's sad mistake ? for it was sad indeed, inasmuch as we see no signs of real self-judgment in the matter. It was not much for him to say what perhaps he had said many times before, "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition which thou hast asked of Him. And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight." I realize that one needs to be careful in one's interpretation of Scripture, and to learn to walk in His presence with unshod feet, lest one in anyway tarnish that glory. If we look at Samson as being in anyway a type of Christ, a very unworthy man we may say, still Scripture calls him a Nazarite from his birth. It would seem that God acts according to His own mind in choosing such representatives perhaps because He couldn't do any better.

Let us look at another case :that of Peter, where in the gospel the Lord had been speaking to His disciples in reference to His betrayal, Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Be it far from Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee." The Lord's answer was," Get thee behind me:Satan," etc., looking, no doubt, at the inward motive or principle that was governing him. It was a sad mistake in Peter's case, was it not also in the case of Eli ? Was not the enemy of souls seeking to destroy the faith of Hannah through this unmerited rebuke of the high-priest 1

What I would seek to bring out here in this instance is that we have the flesh in Peninnah, the world in Elkanah, and Satan in Eli the high-priest. All opposed to grace as seen in Hannah, who is grace. Just one thing more I would notice in Hannah's history. Her prayer to God is not only for a child but for "a man child." We might well say perhaps why not be content with what God would be pleased to give her. But here comes in the intelligence of one who was walking with God. God wanted a man. Eli had failed completely, and God was going to blot out his house from the face of the earth. He needed some one to take his place. And so we get, in this, perfection in the worshiper. Here communion is seen, or, common thoughts between the two. What a joyful scene ! God filling this dear one's heart with His thoughts, and then her desires flowing back to Him. Everything is set aside so that even the high-priest is seen only as an obstructionist. "That God may be all and in all." And now we are led to see how grace triumphant reigns, "through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

May the dear Lord give to his people more of Hannah's thoughts and ways. H. S.

"And upon His head were many crowns." (Rev. 19:13.)

(Continued from page 321, Vol. 14:)

CHAPTER III. The Word made Flesh.

We turn now from considering the deity of our blessed Lord to see how Scripture speaks of His incarnation. This, of all the Evangelists, the apostle John, the historian of His divine glory, most forcibly expresses:"The Word became flesh," he says, "and tabernacled among us." "Flesh" characterizes humanity by that which is its lowest part; and the depth of this condescension is the glory of the revelation which this expression-the "Word was made flesh"-so perfectly conveys. In His human personality Christ was Himself the gospel that He preached, as "Son of man " was the title He so loved to give Himself.

There was an uttermost depth, as we know, beyond His becoming man; but to which this was the necessary preliminary. But it was much more than this :for out of the abyss into which He descended at the cross He would again immediately ascend,- because of what He was, He could not be holden of it,-while the manhood He has assumed He retains for ever:He has assumed it into His own Person, and it is part of Himself. Upon the throne of God, with the memorials of that deepest possible descent upon Him, He will reign as the Lamb for all eternity.

What an amazing thought is this, that God should come down into the creature-place, not simply for a time, and to do a work in it which, however wondrous, would be but for a time, but of His own free choice to abide in it after this manner. God and the creature-His creature-thus permanently together:clasped in an embrace that never shall be sundered ! This in its profound significance cannot be a partial or provincial manifestation. It must as a revelation be written not merely in the common tongue of men, but address itself to all intelligences and all beings capable of responding to it. And so Scripture assures us amply that it does, and that "in the ages to come He will show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:6.)

Could the depths of divine love be shown out anywhere or any wise to creature-ken, without all creatures being affected by it ? That surely would be impossible. "Destruction and death" must say, "We have heard the fame of it with our ears." The hosts of heaven, learning it but as grace to others, even thus must recognize it as tenderest goodness to themselves, who so learn with deepening adoration their own glorious God. And the worship of the Lamb must indeed have raised the whole worship of heaven immeasurably above all that could have been before it.

We have an intimation of this, and of more than this, where the apostle tells us that "from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ* every family in heaven and earth is named" (Eph. 3:15). *Most editors leave out "of our Lord Jesus Christ" on the authority of some of the most ancient MSS.; but some have it, along with the Peshito Syriac version (of the second century) and the Vulgate, and it agrees perfectly with the connection here. We should read, "every family," as in the Revised, and not " the whole," as in the Common Version.*Every family finds its place in relationship with Him who is thus revealed as the Father of Christ. The revelation of God in Christ makes their own relationship to Him as it were a new thing.

Yet " He layeth not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He layeth hold; " and in this connection it is that the apostle speaks of the incarnation as the necessary step towards the cross. "For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings . . . Inasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part in the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:10-16).

Here we see why His taking flesh is emphasized sometimes as if it were the whole thing. The flesh was that "vessel of earth" in which the "bird of heaven" was to die, and alone could die. (Lev. 14:1-7.) Flesh is the expression used for humanity in its frailty and mutability; and thus suited to express the depth of the divine condescension, which was on this account also the full display of the glory of God. Hence, "the Word was made flesh," and "a body hast Thou prepared Me; " which last words the apostle again connects (as perfectly in the line of Hebrews) with His priestly sacrifice :"sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me."

In the quotation from the second chapter it is "flesh and blood" of which the children are partakers, and in which He therefore takes part ; and still more in i Cor. 15:50, is the present mutable condition of humanity emphasized:"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; "-not from evil in it, for as such God created it, but because of that mutability unfitting it for that which is eternal. It is of the eternal form of the kingdom that he is speaking; and blood is for the supply of waste:it is identified with change,-with the wearing out of material,-with the temporal, therefore, instead of the eternal.

Hence the body that the Lord assumed, to fulfill that sacrificial law which in the volume of the book was written of Him, was not yet in the condition suited to the new creation, though He was Himself the "last Adam " and the Head of it. The body He took was "psychical," as "natural" should rather be read (i Cor. 15:44), and not yet "spiritual." These terms are indeed little understood, and we can at best understand but little of them; yet we may understand enough to avoid some mistakes which are often fallen into. A "spiritual" body does not mean a body formed of spirit, any more than a psychical body means a body formed of psyche (or soul). The two phrases are exactly parallel in Scripture, and used so as to show this:"There is a psychical 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" (i Cor. 15:44, 45).

Here the apostle's quotation shows us the psychical body as in suited relation to man as a living soul -a term by which the beast is designated as well as man. Yet man has-as the beast has not-spirit as well as soul; but while in the present body he is not designated by that which is the higher part. Out of the body, he is a "spirit;" in it a "soul." The psychic body-it is a pity we have not a better adjective for soul – seems to veil his spirit faculties; the soul (which is the sensuous, animal-like part, though far higher than the animal) dominating so as to characterize it.

The body is thus really, according to the actual phrase in the epistle to the Philippians (chap. 3:21) "the body of our humiliation;" and that apart from the effect of the fall upon it; though the effects of the fall are not there excluded. In it the spirit is enabled to contemplate outward things only by means of the senses; and in this way it is that slowly and laboriously it gathers knowledge for the possession of the spirit. And this kind of knowledge seems to be that of which the apostle speaks (i Cor. 13:8-11) as "through a glass darkly" and to "vanish away" in that perfect condition in which we shall see "face to face." The slow waking up and slower maturing of the faculties of man, as he grows in wisdom, has much, as it would seem, to do with this apparent inversion in rank of spirit and soul.

To this condition the body of "flesh and blood " is perfectly adapted as a " body of humiliation," for the purpose of "hiding pride from man," by making him realize day by day his dependence; while the provision for and ministry to his wants bears as constant witness to the care and tenderness of God towards His creature, so as to hold him fast to the Source of blessing.

All this is apart from the fall and its consequences:being what the "first man was made;" not what he afterwards became. The fall brought in all that could give even a moment's distress in such a condition. The passage in the second of Hebrews carefully distinguishes between the "children's" equal "partaking" in flesh and blood (now in this fallen state) and Christ's limited "taking part " in it. The Greek words, if not the English, show a difference in this respect, though they do not define its exact nature. This is not difficult to realize, however, from what is added afterwards, that "it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." "In all things" declares the necessity of His taking proper and full manhood, that He might be a true Representative of those for whom He went in to God ; while for this purpose He must be absolutely free also from any personal impurity or defect. Perfect manhood must be His, without stain or fracture.

How this was secured, the Gospel of Luke bears witness for us. The power of the Holy Ghost accomplished what would otherwise have been impossible; and "that Holy Thing born of the Virgin was, even as to His humanity, the "Son of God " (Luke i- 35). This does not of itself declare what John declares:it is not equivalent to the Word being made flesh. Luke's is the Gospel of the Manhood, as John's is of the Deity of the Lord. The one presents to us the First-born, as the other the Only-begotten. And it is essential to His proper glory that both sides should have adequate statement. The power of the Holy Ghost was manifested in the "Man Christ Jesus" being "made in all things like unto His brethren," while absolutely free from all the sad inheritance of the fall. It was manifested where needed :on the human side, and not on the divine.

Thus, even as to His body, it was "a body prepared," yet "in all things made like unto " that of " His brethren," apart from the consequences of sin which, as there was no sin in Him, He could not have in His Person at all* We must carefully distinguish from this the effect of the circumstances in which He was, a paradisaic Adam in this respect, as I doubt not, but outside of paradise; no doubt, as to Adam a state difficult to conceive, and for unfallen Adam a thing impossible. Yet it may be possible in certain relations to understand and speak of it to some extent,- that is, as far as the Scripture statements carry us, and as we ourselves may be given to realize their meaning.

*(Long footnote connecting with "His Person at all" above.) These things as to the Lord we must keep in careful adjustment to one another:"a body prepared" and " made in all things like unto His brethren." The latter must not be strained so as to include any consequences of the fall:for in this we were not "His brethren"; and limitation is fully declared as we have seen) with regard to His participation in flesh and blood. On the other hand a "body prepared" must not be strained so as to make it other than fully human. It is instructive in this way to remember that this is a quotation from the Septuagint which substitutes this for the Hebrew:"ears hast Thou digged for Me." Unless we are to believe that the Hebrew text is inaccurate here, and that the correctness of the Greek is affirmed by the apostle, the latter is but a paraphrase of the former, which he accepts as giving the true meaning. But in this case the "body prepared" does not apply to any special character of the body itself, but to its being the instrument whereby as a Man, the Speaker should be enabled to hear-that is, to obey-the will of God. It is not to be supposed that the uninspired Septuagint has given us here a revelation of the nature of the Lord's humanity unknown to the inspired Hebrew.

Of course what has been said of the Lord in comparison with Adam has reference simply to his body; and the union of Godhead with Manhood in His Person, with the consequences of this, does not come before us here. We hope to speak of these in another place.*

Adam, as we see, in the body of flesh and blood, was exactly suited to the conditional relation in which he stood to all around him. Sin would bring death upon him, as in fact it did. Mortal, as yet he was not:there was no tendency to death in his nature, no subjection to it on his part, no possibility of disease, no clouding of any faculty in this way. All was in vigor, and with capacity to retain that vigor indefinitely at least. With the knowledge growing upon us, as it is to-day, of the wonderful provision even yet perceptible in the human body for the removal of injurious elements, and for the recovery from any effect of these, it is not difficult to conceive that no poison could have affected him at all. The beasts were subjected to him. If we think of the possibility of accident, I believe we should have as to this to fall back upon the certainty of divine guardianship. He was dependent; his body to be sustained by food; and the ministry of the tree of life ordained for him clearly as additional enforcement of so needed a lesson, whatever we may conceive of its real virtues.

Mutability and dependence are seen in all this, hedged round by divine care and love; by which alone suffering and death could, after all, be absolutely excluded. Thus, let the hedge be taken away, suffering and death may come. Liability to it was implied before:it needs but the circumstances to be changed, for one like this to hunger and thirst, and suffer. With the Lord Himself, in the body of flesh and blood which we know was His, all these imply neither mortality, (in the true sense,*) nor any position towards God, vicarious or otherwise, to account for them.* Mortal does not mean " capable of dying," (in which sense some have incautiously applied it to the Lord,) but "subject to death; destined to die" (Standard Dictionary).* If He in His grace be pleased to come into these conditions, this is all-sufficient. He may only feel things more exquisitely because of His perfection, and be all through in the unclouded sunshine of divine favor, as, until the significant darkness of the Cross, He ever was.

And this, being His grace, was part of that divine display which the "Word made flesh" affirms. That which looks only like the infirmity of manhood becomes in this way the glory of Godhead. "The Son of man is glorified " in this humiliation; "and God " also "is glorified in Him." F. W. G.

(To be Continued.)

" Pray without ceasing."Does not that sound like an extreme statement – one that needs a good deal of modification, and explaining away? Why should it, dear brethren? Our needs are constant, why should the expression of those needs be less constant? Are we not in danger of forgetting our helplessness, of living in our own strength, and thus becoming independent of God?

Take the personal life of each one of us. Prayer will express our sense of dependence upon God, and of our faith in Him. We "walk as men" if we do not pray. Are we growing in grace and holiness? How can we without prayer? We need not wonder if sin tempt us, if the world allure us, if Satan gain the advantage over us. Prayer brings God in:without Him our boasted strength is worse than useless. Oh, if we realized these things would we not be more constant, more earnest in prayer?

The world moves so rapidly, is so wise and strong, that it is to be feared God's people are carried with it. Business calls are so urgent that there is little time to "enter into thy closet" to have a season of communion with our blessed God and Father at the beginning of the day. At night one is so weary that there is danger of a mere form being substituted for the reality. Possibly the family is never gathered for united prayer.

Beloved brethren, if these things are not true of us we can be thankful; if in any measure they are true we can "suffer the word of exhortation." Let us beware of any distaste for prayer; let us cultivate a habit of "praying in the Holy Ghost." Let us not be ashamed of our helplessness. Have we not deep needs, longing desires about which we have not spoken to God as we should? "What is thy request?" "Does this not shame us, as we think our only limitation is not in God, but in ourselves?

When we pass to the state of the Church of Christ, and think of all its responsibility and privileges, what a field for prayer both private and corporate! How is it in our prayer-meetings? Is there much true prayer, liberty before God? Oh may He awaken us to our great need for prayer.

What joy, what freedom are suggested by these words! They were the utterance of our risen Lord as He met the women who had been to His empty sepulcher. (Matt. 28:) There is no tinge of sadness or shadow of foreboding; for were they not from the lips of the One who had been in the grave -after having borne our judgment on the cross- and who was now forever beyond its gloom? He is breathing, if we may so speak, the air of freedom, of eternal peace and joy, and from that plane sends this greeting to His beloved redeemed people. It tells us that for us too judgment and wrath have gone; that the grave has lost its victory, and death its sting. Faith sees as Christ sees-and exalts in the liberty wherewith He has made us free.

We are not of the world. In it, indeed, and often feeling the pressure of it, but these words of greeting tell us we are in the truest sense beyond all that has power to drag us down.

But if this be so, let it be a practical reality. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:i). That is not mere sentiment, but something definite and real. It tells of a treasure in heaven-something valued above everything else; it tells of truth to engage the mind and thus to bring us into communion with our risen Lord.

On the other side these words admonish us to have done with sin-"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth." If there is anything that tells of our shame, it is lofty pretension coupled with a carnal walk. The Lord give us, beloved brethren, to walk with Him. What joy, liberty, holiness that means. But do not His words invite us in such a walk ? Let the joy of this greeting stimulate us afresh to a simple, steadfast walk with Him.

The Lord had been charged with receiving sinners, as though His ministry did not secure righteousness, but gave liberty to evil.

Of course He might have pleaded various answers to this. He might have defended His grace to sinners on the ground of the necessity of the case, or on the ground of God's glory. But in Luke xv, from beginning to end, in each of these lovely parables, He vindicates it simply on the ground of the joy that He, and the Father, and all Heaven itself, were finding in it.

Only think of this, beloved. If the Lord God be asked a reason for His ways of salvation with you and me, He says He takes delight in them :they make Him and His glorious habitation to rejoice. Let us cherish the thought deeply in our souls-the gospel of our peace is the spring of joy to Him who planned and accomplished it ; that our God has done nothing less than this, laid the scene of His own happiness in our salvation, as the parables of Luke 15:testify to us. J. G. B.

An energy of love ever goes out if the Spirit of Christ is really there. I cannot see a person perishing and not feel. The Spirit of love cannot look upon perishing sinners, and not care for them. J. N. D.

Ques. 14.-It is said that Abraham by his purchase of the cave of Machpelah and his solicitude about burying his wife there, showed not only his faith that his descendants would inherit the land some day, but also expressed thereby his belief in the resurrection. Kindly explain this latter point which seems to be inference from his whole career rather than from this act.

Ans.-The significance of the act of burial seems clearly to point to resurrection. Abraham was not done with his body; He would have it laid carefully away until it was needed, not in a borrowed tomb, but in that purchased by silver-redemption money, and connected with a field, also purchased,-fruitfulness already assured, but only in resurrection.

No doubt this refers typically to Israel's resurrection-" life from the dead" (Rom. 11:15) in the last days. For Abraham himself we know there was a better than an earthly portion, "for he looked for the city that hath foundations"-the heavenly Jerusalem.

(Notes of a Lecture by F. W. G., Plainfield, July, 1897.)

These are the "thoughts" beloved brethren, about which we have been singing (Hymn 330):not small thoughts, and we need divine power to lift us up to them and fill us with them. My intention to night is not an exposition, but rather to take some main points of this epistle, as giving us from a Pisgah height if you like, to look at our inheritance. A mountain upon earth would do to survey Israel's inheritance of old, but no mountain that the earth holds will do for ours. We must be lifted up to heaven, in order to see the range of that. That of course is what we find in Ephesians. It is as we all know, the epistle of the heavenly places. We find in it, therefore, the widest range of outlook that can possibly be. Compared with the other epistles, I may say it exceeds on every side. If you look backward, you find God's purpose from the very beginning; that there are purposes which God had towards us before the world was, before its foundations even. Then again, if you look forward what do we see all the way through, as the last verse of this chapter shows us, but divine " glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end ! " Think of that glory by Christ Jesus in the Church throughout all ages,-a wonderful thing that. The Church is that in which the glory of God is to be realized in a supereminent way for ever.

Now let us look at what is contained in this,-taking up the main points, and trying to put them together, that they may dwell in company in our minds ; and may God indeed enlarge our hearts to entertain and enjoy them aright. It is the apostle's own prayer here for us, that we might be " strengthened with might by His spirit in the inner man :" for what ? for some wonderful thing, for
some ability to do some wonderful deed ? No, but to take in what God has for us. And beloved, it is perfectly evident that we need power like that,-that, alas, the constant tendency of our souls is either to drop out of God's thoughts, or to impoverish them, so as to make them defective in power and unworthy of Him. What is a common thought among Christians, but that a man's whole necessity is to be saved and go to heaven ? If he gets in at the door, it will be enough ; and his whole life must be spent in the effort; in which, after all, he may possibly fail. As to the angels, why they are far above him, "the angels that excel in strength:" nothing but pride of heart could ever make him think of angels, except as immensely superior to him. It is quite natural for us to look up to them in that way, and as we see in Revelation, and in Romish teachings, even to worship them. But if they are naturally superior to us, all the more has God displayed His grace in taking up such as we are; and that is an immense point. Our weakness, our nothingness, our very sinfulness, these things are not objections to God's wonderful thoughts towards us, but, on the contrary, what we need to take in, in order to appreciate truly the greatness of His grace. We fail to realize God's thoughts at all, unless we take in the poor, insignificant and evil creatures we naturally are. It is in a fallen world that God has shown out, all the resources of His own grace, and th^ excellence of His own wisdom, It is a fallen world in which Christ came as man ; and it is manhood He has taken up; it is the " man Christ Jesus," who is at the right hand of God.

Will you notice here that it is a first necessity that this should be believed, to apprehend the " length and breadth and depth and height ?" The first necessity is that " Christ should dwell in our hearts by faith," that He may dwell there, not that we should catch sight of Him now and then, to lose Him again quickly. We must get Him steadily before us, or we shall never be able to comprehend this that he speaks of. We must be able to keep Him steadily before us, because He is the center of all God's thoughts, and all things were created by Him and for Him.

What does that mean? That means assuredly that God created all things in order that in them there might be displayed the glory of what He is; that He might show forth Himself in His blessed nature; for that is what Christ is, the One in whom He is known; the One in whom alone He is fully displayed or can be.

Now, if we fix our eyes on Christ, at once that brings us into the very center of the scene of glory; the very center of all God's thoughts and purposes. Christ-the Son of God become man-is the divine heart opened fully to us ; in the Cross love and righteousness are displayed in a way that nothing can ever exceed or come up to again. God is manifested–is told out perfectly,- to bind for ever the hearts of His creatures to Him, to bow them in adoration before Him evermore.

But for this we too must come in. We may reverently say that for this we are necessary" to Him. Our part in Him and with Him is part of this display. Otherwise the very glory of the Cross would pale:it would be, if fruitless to bring many sons to glory, shorn of its meaning altogether. For "we" are "made the righteousness of God in Him," and in us are exhibited the "exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us, through Christ Jesus."

How marvelous a thing that we should have such a place as this in the purposes of God ! If he had not revealed it, who could have imagined it? Yet, being revealed, how sweet and suitable–how worthy of Him it is! How it fixes our hearts upon Him, and in the contemplation of our part with Him in glory, how they are drawn out to Himself! The world, what a little thing it is, and how this faith in Him overcomes it, lifts us above it! Our portion is in heaven, with Him who is the glory of heaven itself:how shall we debase ourselves by taking up with earth as if it were our home! still more, by following the aims and objects of those upon whom the light of this glory has not dawned!

Now to look at what is before us in the epistle. The first thing the apostle speaks of is God's, purpose as to us as individuals. That which is individual comes before that which is collective and corporate :for the spouse of Isaac must be already "of the kindred." Thus the first thing presented to us in Ephesians is relationship to the Father. We shall find as we go on, relationship with the Son and with the Spirit, and these are implied also in that with the Father; but corporate relationship is another thing. The Church as the body of Christ is related to Christ as man, and as the house of God is indwelt of the Spirit. Father, Son and Spirit are all engaged with us in the activity of divine love, as we well know; and the most intimate relationships in nature which God has instituted (surely that they may be to us the shadow of those higher and more wondrous things) He has taken up to convey to us what we are to the love which has sought and laid hold upon us:father and son, husband and wife, head and body,-these thing speak of relationships the nearest and most inseparable. May we enter into them more in the tender affection and intimacy which they express!

First, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, which, in contrast with Israel's portion, declares the sphere and manner of our blessings.

Then, as constantly in Ephesians, we are made to realize the absoluteness of the grace by which we have been " chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love," which is His nature. Morally, we must answer to what God Himself is, in order to enjoy His presence.

But then we come to what is simply "the good pleasure of His will," by which He has predestinated us to the position of sons through Jesus Christ. It would not satisfy Him to have us as servants, though servants we shall be of course, for ever:for love is the spirit of service, and service, therefore, the joy of love. In the whole range of the counsels of God, Christ is the Servant of His will, and as such the Spirit of God delights to present Him. The "body prepared'' Him marks Him out as this, and the human " life " which Pie lays down He takes up again, different as the condition may be, that He may serve in it forever. ''Therefore doth My Father love Me," He says, "because I lay down My life, that I may take it again.'' That is the voice of the Hebrew Servant:"I love my Master, I love my wife, I love my children:I will not go out free." The Son of God is the " Servant forever "-

" Serving in the joy of love,"-

the spirit of sonship in its display, as He has shown it to us:"But that the world may know that I love the Father, even as the Father has given Me commandment, even so I do."

Will He ever give that up ? No :He will serve in the joy and glory above, as He served in His sorrow on earth. When He meets His own with the glad welcome of eternity, He "will gird Himself and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." And when He will, as the "Father of eternity,"-the Bringer in of that which shall abide as fitted to abide, of divine order and supremacy into what will then find permanence in the rest of God,-then it is written, "the Son also shall Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him," and the ministry of love will still go on, because the love of which it is the expression will go on.

So, therefore, shall we also serve. We could not lack this likeness to the Servant-Son, we who are to be conformed to His image, sons too and servants,-associates, "fellows," intimates with Him who is "not ashamed to call " us "brethren."

To this we shall have shortly to return, But in the "Kingdom of the Father" the subjects are of course sons. Here it is said "through Jesus Christ," and thus "to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has accepted us"-or taken us into favor-"in the Beloved." Here is the relationship in its full sweetness:sons in the Beloved Son, first-born sons in Him who is the Firstborn. So the Church is called in Hebrews "the assembly of the first-born ones" (12:23) "who are written in heaven,"-because Israel are the first-born upon earth. "Accepted in the Beloved"-it is not said "in Christ" exactly, but in all that Christ is for the heart of God.

Now we are told of the inheritance:for " if children, then" we are "heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." The Son of God is the great " Heir of all things," and here we are made to realize that. It is "the mystery of God's will, according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He would head up "-as the expression really is-" all things in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth," and then it is immediately added :" in Him in whom we also have obtained an inheritance." How wonderful to be thus " joint-heirs with Christ!"
The apostle prays directly after, that we may know the "riches of God's inheritance in the saints"-a beautiful declaration of a truth of which we may find an illustrative parallel in the case of Israel and by which their land, spite of all their failure, abides for them to-day. " The land shall not be sold forever," says Jehovah to their, "for the land is Mine:" Israel might forfeit it, and as far as they could, they have done so, but the true Owner can never lose His title, nor lose the power to make His title good.

The land abides, then, His own; and being His own, He can do with it as it pleases Him. If He put Israel into it, who shall refuse His right to do so? And this is plainly declared to be the tenure of their possession. "The land is Mine," says God; "for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me." He gives them no independent right; He entertains them there as guests of His bounty merely; but thus they can never lose this right; of grace, and of grace alone, He can take them up again, as He will do, upon the same terms.

We are not strangers and sojourners indeed:we are sons and heirs. But the inheritance is God's and His title can never pass away. It is all His, even while as sons He puts us in possession. How blessed to know it is so !

Our abodes are in the Father's house; our meat is at His table; in the farthest regions of His everlasting Kingdom distance from Him shall never more be known. Distance would be as death, and there can be no death, -nothing but eternal life and incorruption. Then indeed we shall know what it is to " live and move and have our being in Him," and, eternally dependent, be filled and energized with His eternal might.

Of this the indwelling Spirit is the pledge and earnest. What more simple than that the Spirit of sonship is as such the pledge of the inheritance ? And here already we know-rather, would that we did know-the blessedness of divine power that has laid hold upon us. Indwelt of the Holy Spirit! we easily speak of it; we are familiar-in some sense, too familiar, with an amazing thought, which if we entered into it aright, would fill us with awe and adoration. Our very bodies are indwelt by divinity and held for Christ by the same power that in the beginning brooded upon the face of the waters and produced and nurtured the numberless forms of created life. For us, too, it works even in a higher activity, for more wonderful results and fruit that shall transcend all the glory of that first creation. May we yield ourselves up to Him with absolute and delighted surrender for all His blessed ends to be fulfilled in us !

But we must pass on to another thing-closely connected, indeed, with what we have been considering. For if we are sons of God and heirs of such an inheritance there is surely need of preparation for this. If we are to be companions of Christ, we must be conformed to His likeness. And now we are shown how God has provided for this, by the forth putting of power in answer to the glorious work which Christ accomplished for His people. This the apostle prays that we may know-" what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the mighty working which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might, and every name that is named." There He is set as "Head over all things to the Church which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all."
How we are still reminded, when looking at Him in the height to which He is ascended, of our relation to Him !

The body is complement to the Head, who is yet " Head over all things." The Church is the " fullness " of Him who yet "filleth all in all." We are almost alarmed at ourselves when we utter thoughts like these; and yet they are but the repetition of what is uttered here. Let us remember, while we wonder, that all the universe is to wonder at it too. It is the glory of His grace. That we wonder is no wonder.

This power wrought in us when " God for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, " quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up together, and seated us together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here is a new condition for us, answering to a new place. "Quickened" is condition; "raised" and "seated" are position. "Quickened with Christ" we are partakers of His life, His nature,-a life which is for us the result of His death, and thus carries with it the virtues of that death:" He hath quickened us together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses."

In resurrection the man made alive out of death leaves the company of the dead. Here the "with Christ" ceases; but "in Christ," we are where He is, "seated together in heavenly places." He has gone in, our Representative and Forerunner, and we are before God identified with Him-" as He is." There, within the veil, our hope is anchored.

This gives us to be here even now as men who belong to heaven, following that track of light which He has left upon the road He traveled through the darkness of this world. No shadow of death indeed-death as He knew it-darkens that glorious path; but it is through the same world, and in proportion as we grow into His likeness, we realize it in its opposition to God and to us, as He did. We have our " senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Yes, we are to be His companions-His associates; and the discipline, the sorrow, the knowledge of sin and evil, as in a fallen world we learn it, are a necessity for those who are to be with Him thus. Had we not this knowledge, how much should we lack of what He would find in us ! And all the conflict, all the sorrow, is it not worth while, that we should be the better fitted to enjoy that place, and answer to His mind who has chosen us to be with Himself in that amazing place as having part with Him ?

But we must still go on ; for there is much still before us; and at best we can only hope for a few distinct thoughts and some linking together, of glories that cluster around us as we consider the place we have with the glorious First-born among many brethren. The connection of sons with heirship we can understand, and the link of a common nature-of common experiences-with fitness for intimate companionship with Christ above:" If children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ:if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together."

We have to go on further now, as led by the apostle here; for we are, with all this members also, of His body. The Church is the body of Christ:it is that now. Is it a mere time relationship to the blessed Head we have in it ? No, surely that cannot be. Relationship to Him so near, so intimate, and given us by divine grace, must surely be eternal. As He says of our abode with Him in heaven, "If it were not so, He would have told us." He has, in fact, told us quite differently, as we shall see in a little time.
What is the thought as to the Body of Christ ? It is a figure, of course, but what does the figure mean? Taken as it is from nature, we go to nature to learn the significance of it. In Corinthians we have it dwelt upon at some length, and the natural analogy is developed for us. A human body is an organism. It is the union of parts that are different from one another, and yet planned and joined together for a common end. Were the parts not different, they would not serve the common purpose. The organs are different; their functions are different; the purpose is but one. There is individuality in each part; each does a work which no other part can do; but none is able to subsist alone :each is dependent upon the rest, each lives for the rest, and not for itself merely; to seek its own would mean prostration and death. The whole is served by the individual; and the individual also is served by the whole.

Such is the body of Christ also; in which the members are linked to one another, so that "if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it," and we are linked together by our differences and our needs. Our insufficiency as individuals is met by the ministry of others to us, to whose deficiencies we in turn may be used to minister. We are members of one another. We are meant "in love" to "serve one another."

All are under the Head, the glorious Head, and to serve the purposes of the Head, with whom we are united by the living Spirit:" he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit." And notice in this connection that the Church is never spoken of as being in heaven. It is a heavenly thing, but not yet in heaven. Although so many of the members of it have passed away from earth, that there are far more in heaven than on earth now, yet the Body of Christ is uniformly spoken of as on earth and not in heaven. Only when the Lord takes us away together will the Church at last be there where she belongs.

For the body is the instrument of the Spirit, and the link, in our present condition, with earth no less. And we are thus the instruments and representatives of our Lord on earth,-expressly here to represent Him on it, as He was here to represent the Father. So He Himself declares. Earth is for us the sphere of service, and the Church the instrument for the representation of the Lord on earth in the meantime of His absence. Thus we can understand why the Body of Christ is seen as on the earth alone.

How blessed is such a thought and yet how solemn ! How it brings home to us the thought presented in the third chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, where we have a different statement from that of the twelfth, our bodies being said to be the members of Christ. Are we to take that in connection with the other thought ? I verily believe so. It is just a carrying out as it were of the other, speaking in such terms as it would seem impossible to mistake. What does it mean-our bodies as members of Christ ?-our hands and feet. First, we belong to Him, He claims us as His representatives, the exponents of His will, to be in the activity of His love down here, the expression of it in the time of His absence. Look a little further and you will see in the sixth chapter something that will help us also:" Habitation of God through the Spirit," as we are, our bodies are here said to be temples of the Holy Ghost. God will have the body. He says I am aiming at the body-the lowest part of what man is," though he that is joined to the Lord is "-not one body, but-" one spirit." Yet God most emphatically claims the body. It is plain it is through the body we are linked to this scene. Losing the body, we are out of this scene. The body links us with the place of service. The body is the missionary of the mind. It is that by which the will of the mind is shown-the servant of that will. What about the body of Christ then ? When Christ claims these members of ours as His members, when he claims the body as His temple, He claims us in our very lowest part, but in that which connects us with this scene, a scene of misery, but in which is the display of His grace, and in which the activities of His grace are going on. The living expression of the activity of His grace, of His mind upon earth that is part of what the body of Christ means. We are to be hands and feet for our absent Lord.

Is that to be only just for the present time ? When the Body is grown, as Scripture expresses it, " into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," is the purpose then fully served ? Is the service implied at an end forever, just when the Body has reached perfection ? And in heaven is there to be nothing any more but rest ? -at least cessation from the activities of which the body is the expression ? Surely not. Have we not seen already that we are to be forever the associates of Christ, forever His fellows ? Have we not seen that His service is never to cease,-His activity never to be at an end ? How blessed to realize that the Body of Christ, up in heaven, will be the fullest and most intimate expression in the creature, of the Lord's own activity, fitted for the accomplishment of His own thoughts and purposes, the members to do His will! trained as I have said already and disciplined and grown up together into maturity,- the Body and Head making "one man" complete. Surely that is not a temporary purpose which is served, but an eternal one; it is not to vanish at the moment of its completion. The body of Christ is not to be laid aside any more than our body is; the body is never to be laid aside; and Christ's "body prepared Him" still implies service, in heaven as on earth. Is it not the same with this other which He has molded and fashioned for Himself, to be the instrument of His own will ? And this connects with our first thought:those are above all to carry out His purposes of love and grace and goodness who are " fellows " of the Servant-Son.

But we are not only members of His body, the Church is viewed also as the house of God. And, as in the Body we are in relationship to Christ, so as the house we are in relationship to the Spirit. It is " the habitation of God in the Spirit." Those in whom the Spirit dwells are the temple even now of God, as we are told in Corinthians. And in this epistle we are told that the Church is "growing into a holy temple in the Lord." What is the temple for? for God's worship and praise, and the display of Himself that man may adore Him in it! What is God going to do in us? is it not to display the exceeding riches of His grace? In the prayer with which we began, you find, I think, some of the effects of this. There it is stated that "from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, every family"-so it should be translated- " every family in heaven and earth is named." That would take in the angels and all. Angels are sons of God, as we know, but not by redemption. Christ " taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold. Yet here from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, " every family in heaven and earth is named." Can we not understand this? Surely if already by creation angels are sons of God, yet the new character of God displayed in redemption must affect this relationship. The Father is known in how much nearer and tenderer way when all that He has done for men is realized. They can say, "This is our Father too;" and the arms that are stretched out to encircle others will be felt as encircling themselves also.

Thus we can understand the expression. And if God be known better in the grace of redemption, we are told here distinctly also, that " to the principalities and powers in heavenly places is known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God." And again, at the end of the prayer before us the apostle ascribes "unto Him glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages :"-literally, " through all generations of the age of ages." What is this but to declare the Church eternally the temple of God ?

This ought to be plain, and it shows how God has purposes in the Church that reach out far beyond the Church itself. We can see the place it has in that eternal display of the glory of God which is the happiness to the full of all His creatures. It makes it simpler to realize the grace that lays hold of such as we are, while it cannot possibly make less glorious the grace itself, which thus contemplates the multitudinous hosts of God's glorious universe. We can say

" Jesus, He passed the angels by "

all the more for knowing that in another sense He did not pass them by at all, but that they will own forever adoringly how they have been enriched by that which is the salvation of others, and not their own.

But we have not even here reached the end. If the Body is to be an expression of the living activity of the blessed Head, there is yet something left out by this as expressing, as He desires, what we are to Him personally -to His heart. But He could not leave this out; He has expressed it, and in the tenderest way that the human ties which He has created can give it expression. The Church is not only the Body of Christ but His Bride :that relationship which speaks of what, in the creative design of God, speaks of unique affection and personal consecration. One man for one woman, one woman for one man, was (as seen in Adam and Eve) the primeval law of marriage. And at the very beginning of the earth's history the first man and woman typified, as Scripture assures us, the mystery of Christ and the Church. Yea, " Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." Thus will it be and thus abide for Him. And the human tie here as elsewhere must only be too feeble to express all that is meant by this. If there is a title that speaks music and gladness, it is that of the Bride. On earth the music dies and the freshness fades. In heaven all is undefiled and incorruptible and unfading. The Bride of Revelation seen at the commencement of the thousand years, had just put on her pure white robes; but at the end of them she is still " as a bride adorned for her husband." And the heart of her Husband will be well satisfied with her. The " eyes that are as a flame of fire" will search her through and through only with delight. " Behold," He will say, "thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee."

At last, at last! " He will see of the travail of His soul, He will be satisfied." How well may we be, as we look on to this!

If such, then, is our Pisgah outlook as Ephesians gives it to us, well may we look and look, until the prospect possess our souls. This is what the apostle prays for us in effect, in the passage which we have taken for our text:" that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that, being rooted and grounded in love, ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Notice here how thoroughly he would have us survey the wondrous prospect. " Breadth and length and depth and height"-he would have us comprehend all. Nor will he allow a single one to be excluded as if incompetent. His prayer is " that we may be able to comprehend with all saints." Alas, all saints have not much comprehension, have they ? but God says to all His people, do not hide yourselves from these things; do not refuse to enter into the deep things of God; do not shut out the brightness of it from your hearts. Therefore "all saints," is God's thought, that is what He would have, that is what His book is before us for and open to us all, to fill our hearts with. We are to " comprehend with all saints," -"with all saints." How much we suffer because of that intolerable division (which is still among ourselves, however little openly,) into clergy and laity:a few people on the top to throw fragments of food to people round, who cannot draw near as they can, or get very much, except as they choose to dole it out to them. But God would have all His word for all His people; and none are excluded, save by their own neglect.

Let us look on to the fourth chapter and see how this is worked out there. Christ has gone up into the heights of glory, having been down into the depths, in the unutterable humiliation of the cross, and learned by personal experience every step of the way down there. Now, gone up as Man, He fills all things. So that you can find no place of which He has not in some way knowledge. Having gone up now, the Risen Man, as Head of the Church He has given gifts to men, according to the fullness of that so painfully acquired wisdom. " He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and- some pastors and teachers"-mark now, for what:" for the perfecting of the saints "-that is the first thing. The saints are looked at individually there, and they are to be perfected-not some particular class of saints, not the special gifts, but the saints as such-"for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Would you not think that the order there would be reversed, and that it would say, "for the work of the ministry, for the perfecting of the saints ? " But no :it is to be read the other way. And that means that the whole of the saints are in their turn and measure to be ministers, if the body of Christ is to be edified aright.

Think of the apostle's words to the Hebrews:" when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again." To be taught once, was all right; but the very work of a teacher is to enable his scholars in due time to do without him, not to keep people all the time at school to them. Are they never to have learnt, so as to be out of school ? Alas, spiritually that seems seldom thought of,-still less, that every Christian school ought to be what is called a " normal school "-a school to turn out teachers. Yet every bit of truth we learn is in our responsibility to communicate to others according to opportunity.

Is it not the lack of the consciousness of this, that deprives us largely of the faculty of learning even? At least, with the consciousness of responsibility and desire to communicate, truth will be learnt more painstakingly, more fully. Every one understands that a teacher must be up in his subject. While on the other hand, there is nothing like the attempt to teach, to make us conscious of our own deficiencies. But this in the end is a most helpful thing, while the reflex influence of every hearty, honest endeavor to help another with the truth will make it more practical and helpful to ourselves also. " He that watereth shall be watered himself" is the divine rule which secures such blessing.

Do let us remember, then, that we are to seek to " comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height," and remember also that "Christ dwelling in the heart by faith "-the abiding consciousness of what He is-is the necessary basis of all such knowledge. See also what it leads on to :" that, being rooted and grounded in love"-God's nature-"we may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that surpasseth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Blessed, wondrous knowledge indeed, and as he directly tells us, the power is working in us by which it may be gained. Not learning, not cleverness, not mental capacity, can be this to us. It is the Spirit of God who alone is competent. It is He who is with us to lead us into all truth; and not the special teachers merely, but with every member of the Body of Christ! If we do not exclude ourselves, then, from it, we cannot be excluded.

But if we forget what God has put thus within our reach, there is one who certainly never does forget it. And who is this ? why, the devil. Solemn it is to see that we cannot close this epistle of the heavenly places without finding that we have foes that would deprive us of it. We have thus to stand against the wiles of the devil, and to put on the whole armor of God to resist his attacks. What! let the people of God enter into their possessions ? Let them realize the riches that are theirs in Christ? That would mean to let them escape from the dominion of the things that pass and perish, to be molded by the thoughts of God, and be the expression of the mind of Christ in a world that is dying for the lack of Him. That means fullest blessing to themselves, blessing to souls around them, glory to Christ our Lord ! Therefore they shall not, if Satan can keep them out of it. And the book of Joshua is the typical expression of the conflict which must be waged, if we are in fact to possess ourselves of what is our own. May the Lord energize us for the inevitable struggle with foes that we can only conquer in the might of the Lord! To be holy we must be heavenly. To be victorious over the world, our faith must enter into the unseen things. The Lord accomplish this in us all, in accordance with His desires for us, and for the glory of His holy Name!

It will be a matter of sad interest to most of the readers of this periodical to learn of the departure to be with Christ-"which is far better"-of Mr. C.H. Macintosh at Cheltenham, England, on November second, at an advanced age.

At the time of the great revival in Ireland in 1859, Mr. Macintosh was much used in gospel work. At that time he was engaged in a prosperous school, and the calls for service in the gospel were so urgent that it became a question whether he should give up his school or refuse to continue his preaching. Believing the Lord had opened this door to him. he gave up his school, and in simple dependence upon His Master went forth in His service. That his faith was not disappointed, may be seen from a letter written after forty years of ministry in which he looked to the Lord alone for temporal support. He wrote that during those forty years, he had been enabled to meet his obligations as they rose-although even from his own writings he received no income whatever. Surely those who trust in the Lord shall never be put to shame.

Besides being endeared to a large circle of those to whom he was personally known, and who profited by an oral ministry both in the gospel of salvation and in the unfolding of the word of God for believers, which extended over more than forty years, he reached through his written ministry thousands of Christians in every part of the world, to whom his name is a household word.

For twenty-one years he edited, being almost the sole contributor also, a monthly magazine chiefly for believers, entitled "Things New and "Old." In a singularly happy vein he treats, in this paper, a great variety of themes of a scriptural character and always, we may add, for edification. The "Answers to Correspondents" were not merely felicitous, but served as both an incentive and a key to the study of the word of God. Very many of the papers which appeared first in the pages of "Things New and Old " were subsequently reprinted, and in tract form have reached and blessed tens of thousands of readers. "The All-Sufficiency of Christ" " Abraham and Lot," " Gideon," with many more, have indeed helped to edify the Lord's people throughout the world.

But it is as the author of "Notes "on the five books of Moses that Mr. Macintosh is chiefly known. We could scarcely express too strongly the immense good that has been accomplished through those volumes. To multitudes they have been a key to the precious word of God that has opened up its treasures in a way they never dreamed of. How many have found settled peace through the pages of " Exodus"-or been guided in the path of faith through "Genesis"; or have had a glimpse down the endless vista of beauty opened up in the typical teachings of "Leviticus." The Bible has become to them a new book and they have received not merely the truth presented in the pages of the " Notes," but, what is far better, capacity to go on with the intelligent study of the word of God for themselves. It is no slight put upon the beloved author, quite the reverse, to say that in a very marked way these books carry the reader to a point where he can dispense with them-they educate him beyond themselves.

Multitudes who know nothing of him are to-day intelligently studying God's word through him. We believe "in that day" when the record is gone over, and the Master's approval given for faithful service, that the fruit from these books will for the first time fully appear-to the glory of the grace which first laid hold of and then equipped our brother for this service.
We cannot refrain from calling attention to some of the characteristics of these writings which render them so suitable as instruments of blessing. To a clear and most attractive style-singularly pleasant to the reader,-he adds the force which always marks one deeply in earnest and commanded by his subject. It is not however of the form but of the contents that we speak. The place given to the gospel of the grace of God,- its source in the love of God, its foundation in the finished work of Christ, its vital power through the accompanying influence of the Holy Spirit-was most prominent. The author not merely knew the gospel and its saving power personally, but longed to impart it to others, and eagerly seized every opportunity afforded in the book upon which he was commenting to dwell upon this.

He loved too, to unfold the various stages in the life of faith ;-the dangers, failures and difficulties of the child of God, pointing out the only and all sufficient resource for the believer in his God and Father. The lives of Abraham, Jacob and Moses are thus made to furnish most profitable lessons.

We would particularly speak of the place which our brother gave to the word of God. He had not the smallest sympathy with anything that suggested the slightest question as to the inspiration of Scripture. To him " Higher Criticism " was but infidelity under the guise of Christianity and therefore all the more dangerous. Nothing was in his mind worthy of the least respect that did not receive the entire Scripture to its least letter as the word of God. His introduction to the book of Deuteronomy, also printed as a separate tract "The Bible, whence is it? from heaven or of men?" is most clear and straightforward in its claims. We trust that in these days of looseness and weakness many may be awakened to continue the warfare against infidelity.

But we bring our remarks to a close. It is farthest from our thoughts to indulge in fulsome praise-rather to recognize the grace of God vouchsafed to His servant. The faithful are failing from among the children of men. Let those who remain be aroused to all the greater diligence, as they see one and another called home. Let us pray too that other laborers may be sent forth into the white harvest fields.

Christ abides-the Lord of all the work. Let there be the loyalty to Him which, whether there be little or much gift, is worth more than all else. Soon, very soon, the day of glory will be here, the time when the least thing done for Christ shall not fail of His notice. May His love constrain us now to live for Him.

(Mal. 3:16,17; Jude 20-25.)

In a day of closing darkness,
When the outlook is so black,
When the hearts of men are failing
And the feet of saints turn back,
When corruption spreads her mantle
O'er the minds and ways of all,
When the violent doth prosper
And men's passions rise and fall.

Then, amid the gloom and darkness,
Shines one feeble ray of light,
Some, who feel and own the ruin
Seek by faith to walk aright.
Some, who fear the Lord of glory
And who think upon His name:
Some, who often speak together
Of His glory and His shame.

Some, who often round Him gather
To exhort and sing and pray,
Some, who prove amid the darkness,
They are children of the day:
Some, who wait a coming Savior,
And who long His face to see;
Some, who wait their hopes fruition
Till conformed to Him they be.

God, who dwells in heavenly glory,
He beholds this feeble few,
He records in His remembrance
All the sorrows they pass through:
He discerns each true affection
And declares "they shall be mine;
When I gather up My Jewels,"
These shall in my presence shine.

The most casual reader of the prophets will not I have failed to noticed their minatory character. We can scarcely turn a page of the prophetic scriptures, either in Old or New Testament, without finding some solemn reminder of the righteous indignation of a holy God against sin, and threats of judgment therefor. These denunciations are directed not merely nor chiefly against the enemies of the people of God, but rather does the sword begin at His house (Ezek. 9:6). Usually it is the present condition of Israel to which attention is called-the moral state, and the corresponding results in their outward condition, under the chastening hand of God. But these-both sins and judgments-are but anticipative of what, if they continue unrepentant will be final. At the same time the mercy of God takes occasion to. offer blessing and recovery when His people truly turn to Him in the mourning that flows from godly sorrow. No matter how deep and long continued had been the revolt, when the people turned, not feignedly, to God, they found Him the same, unchanging in His love and in His thoughts. He could ever say, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil" (Jer. 29:ii).

How lovely are these glimpses into the heart of God-alas that the unbelief of His people and their waywardness, should make them but glimpses, when His desire is that we should ever bask in the full sunlight of His smile. And yet would we, if we could, have it otherwise ? Grace ever reigns through righteousness, and is always perfectly consistent with God's government. His attributes never conflict. Forgetfulness of this often works sad havoc in the life of God's people. The careful study of the prophets would be a wholesome corrective of much carelessness of mind and walk.

It need hardly be remarked that in no way does this touch the question of the perfection of the believer's standing in Christ, on the ground of His accomplished redemption. This ever remains perfect, and is, of course, brought to light in the gospel. Nothing can touch that standing, linked as it is eternally with Him who is risen from the dead. But we are living in times when the fear of God, alas, is well-nigh forgotten ; and this incapacitates for the proper appreciation of His matchless grace. The prayerful study of the prophets would correct such tendencies.

The prophet Joel furnishes a very interesting illustration of what we have been saying. In its brief compass it puts before us the sin of the people and their condition because of it, under the mighty hand of God; the further judgments that will follow if they are still impenitent, and the deliverance and blessing of the people if they even yet turn in true brokenness to Him; the full blessing in the last days when the Spirit would be poured out from on high; and the judgment upon the Gentiles who had afflicted them.

In the midst of the call to repentance we have the promise of blessing, not merely new blessing in the future but the recovery of that which had been lost. Israel's land had been devastated by the locust and the cankerworm under the judgment of God ;-now if they turned to Him, the land would not only yield her increase in the future, but the gracious goodness of God would restore that which had been consumed. "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten " (Joel 2:25).

How often do God's people, in this day, feel His chastening hand:it may not be in temporal things, but in that to which the locusts would correspond in spiritual things. For even our own follies, the fruits of our own departure from God, He uses to chasten us with. "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee:know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God" (Jer. 2:19). The locusts then may fittingly represent those fruits of our own doings which rob us of all joy and communion. What devastation can be more complete than that inflicted by the locusts, save indeed the spiritual dearth of which that was a figure ? " The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness."

How beautiful are the fruits of a soul in communion, with God:"love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." Christ has His true place and is a welcome guest. "Let my beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits" (Song 4:16). "Their soul shall be as a watered garden." Alas how quickly and completely do these fruits disappear before the devastating sons of Amalek, the lusts of the flesh, which as a swarm of locusts never end their work of destruction so long as anything green is left. The ruin is all the more manifest in contrast with the previous beauty.

We can bless God for His restoring grace, and the prophet does not leave us uncertain as to the steps in that recovery. "Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart, and not your garments" (chap. 2:12, 13). All are called to a solemn assembly for this humiliation-elders and children, the bridegroom and the bride. Even the priests were called to "weep between the porch and the altar"-the place and the true use of the laver, for practical cleansing. When there is this true-hearted and entire turning to the Lord, then He will answer them. So will it be in the day of Israel's repentance, and so is it now with every individual into whose life the locusts have come and brought desolation. Contrition, beloved brethren, real and deep, is the pledge, yea the first sprinkling, of the showers of the "latter rain." "A broken and contrite heart Thou wilt not despise." Again the barren fields put on their green, and joy and prosperity take the place of dearth and gloom.

But our blessed God does not rest with seeing mere recovery. His heart of pity goes out with desire to undo the past, so far indeed as grace can. For in a most real sense the scars of the past will ever remain, memorials at once of our folly and a grace that has risen above it. But is there not sweet, blessed comfort in the thought that the barren past can in some sense be covered over by the fruitfulness of the present ? "I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten."

"The years that the locusts have eaten." Are there such in our lives ? Let this promise cheer our hearts. If in some sense it is true individually, it is none the less so of God's people collectively. Let us look back over past years:-have not worldliness, strife, selfishness too often devoured our increase ? Whence comes the lack of growth amongst God's people, the sluggishness in gospel work and the meager results? Is this to go on? Is our brief time here to be frittered away in what profits not? Beloved, let us awake to our real condition and if there is dearth let us honestly own it and find the tender mercy of our God.

Oh for a genuine revival among the saints! Christ loved in each heart-all linked together with a common object and in a common obedience; the word of God studied as never before; the gospel preached with power, unction and large results:new fields of labor opened and laborers to enter into them. Would that we could have a reversal of the king's dream and see the fat kine eat up the lean ones. Are such things impossible? Looking at this promise, can we, dare we, limit God?

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ,. ye through His poverty might be made rich."

What, of all the world could offer,
Savior, could compare with Thee.
Thou the one enduring treasure,
Dearer than all else to me.
Time and change may leave me nothing,
Death pass over all I have;
But there is no power can sever
Me from Christ or from His love.

I am poor, I've naught to give Thee,
Lord, but what Thou'st given to me !
Yet the gift of God hath made
Rich, through Jesu's poverty.
Heir, joint heir with Christ in glory.
Loved e'en as the Father's Son !
He, the Light of Life eternal,
Dwells within the heart He's won !

Holy Spirit, guide and guardian,
Through this dang'rous unknown wild;
Faithful Counselor, Instructor,
Comforter of every child;
Holy Watcher, Dove of Mourning,
Ever bearing up on high,
What no human tongue could utter,
Heeding every prayer-breathed sigh.

Strange with such exhaustless riches,
One could ever stoop to toy
With the worthless gilded playthings
Which perhaps some passing joy
May afford, then quickly vanish;
But no more shall Satan's spell
Bind the soul that once hath tasted
Waters from the living well.

Yet how oft this Holy Watcher
Mourneth as a stricken dove,
Over sins, and frequent failings,
Want of watchfulness and love,
Till the soul in self-abasement,
Bows at Jesu's blessed feet,
In communion, joy, and wonder,
All His praises to repeat.

Wean my heart from every idol,
Lord, which would communion blight,-
Cause my pilgrim feet to falter,
Dull my soul, and dim my sight.
Let no face, however lovely,
Come between thy face and mine ; Let no heart howe'er devoted,
Come between my heart and Thine.

Let no plan of my devising',
Turn my thoughts away from Thee.
Let no earth-born blessing, hindering,
Occupy absorbingly.
Let no human voice be sweeter
Than the one by faith I hear.
Let no name my heart enrapture,
Jesus, like thine own so dear.

Let me, then, in hope rejoicing,
Still in patience Lord abide,
Though I pass through tribulation,
Thou wilt still be at my side.
Let no murmuring escape my
Lips, in moment unaware.
But instead the fervent breathing
Of the ever instant prayer.

H. McD.

Plainfield, November 21st, 1896.

(Continued from page 285.) CHAPTER II.

The Eternal Son.

That Christ is Son of God no one who believes I in Scripture can for a moment deny or question. But the moment we come to consider how and in what sense He is the Son of God, we begin to encounter, not merely the strife of tongues with which unbelief has ever assailed His glorious Person, but to experience also the mystery of it, which faith itself most thoroughly confesses. Nor only this, but we find from Scripture this title of His as Son of God to be two-fold-His title in Deity and His title in humanity; and we have got to ask ourselves its import in both ways, and to consider in what sense each scripture is speaking, if we would rightly understand what is revealed concerning Him.

This responsibility, it is plain, God puts upon us, and from it we must not seek escape,-that of understanding the word of God. People seek refuge from it in what they think simplicity, but which often is mere vacancy of thought. They believe the statements:they think it wise not to look too closely into them. They are so afraid of error that they dare not inquire as to the truth; but the truth itself is the only bulwark against error. " Thy words were found," says the prophet, "and I did eat them; and Thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." (Jer. 15:16.) The strong expression intimates the kind of reception that the word of God requires,- to be laid hold of, broken up, analyzed, not the outside of it but all that is in it assimilated and made our own. Thus is it that it nourishes us, and we grow by it, and it becomes indeed the " joy and rejoicing of the heart."

We cannot but remember that the Lord uses the same striking figure in reference to Himself. He is the bread of life:His flesh is meat indeed; and His blood is drink indeed. What a deceit of Satan has it not been to persuade the people of God that this is just the literal taking of the Lord's Supper, or what is involved in it,-turning into partaking of an ordinance (even though they may qualify this by insisting on the necessity of faith) that which is the entering into and appropriating of Christ in His fulness for us. Here there is no death for us, but only life, and the strengthening and perfecting of the life which divine love has communicated to us.

For this we must seek to know, and ever better, the truth as to Christ. We could not know Him at all but by revelation :it is by revelation we must still go on to know Him. Texts are the thoughts of God in which He is enshrined for us, – the ministry of the Spirit of God (though not independent of His direct personal energy) to make Christ practically our own. Let us then search Scripture fervently and perseveringly, better to know the knowledge in which eternal life is; and may there be given to us with deepening knowledge a deepening joy in Him which shall be fuller communion with the Father, and power to reflect the brightness that we gaze upon.

Adam was by creation a son of God; and, though the fall has marred the likeness, yet the apostle could quote approvingly to the Athenians a "prophet of their own" that "we are His offspring." (Acts 17:28, 29.) We are this, not merely because created by Him,-for He is not the Father of the beast,-but as possessors of a spiritual nature which fits us for companionship with Him who is Spirit. If " He maketh His angels spirits," they too are spoken of as "sons of God." (Heb. 1:7; Job 38:7.)

But "that holy Thing "born of Mary, the new Adam of a new creation, is affirmed to be "the Son of God " as not conceived in the ordinary way of nature, but by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:35). And as Adam, while the father of his race, was yet from the divine side but the "first-born among many brethren," so too is Christ among those "born of the Spirit" and thus "sons of God" upon a higher plane than that of nature. The "last Adam," while, as this means, the Head of a race also, is yet the "First-born among many brethren." (Rom. 8:29.)

This is not our theme at present, and I do not further dwell upon it here, except to observe that this is all the title "Son of God" implies for some when given to Christ, who "earnestly protest against its being applied to Him as a divine Person.* *For example, Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes, the commentators.* They urge that " Sonship" implies derivation and thus inferiority to the Father; and confounding the passages which speak of Him as begotten in time (Ps. 2:7) with those which we must presently consider, maintain that He is only "Son" in His official character.

But one direct text of Scripture outweighs all possible arguments; here surely if anywhere, where we know nothing but by revelation. And it is given as proof of the greatness of divine love, in one of the most familiar texts to all of us, that " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). This by the Lord Himself; while the apostle who records it, preaches upon it in his epistle:" Herein was manifested the love of God towards us, because God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins " (i John 4:9, 10).

The depth of this love is shown then in this, that the Father sent His Son into the world for this :it is perfectly plain then that Christ was the Son before He came into the world. The appeal to our hearts is simple, who know in ourselves, though fallen, something of what a father's Jove is. And if we look back to the time when God was pleased to show forth in Abraham's case something of the reality of sacrifice, we feel it as a trial beyond nature when we hear the measured words, every word an agony, "Take now thy son,-thine only son,-Isaac,-whom thou lovest; and go into the land of Moriah, and offer him up there a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains I will tell thee of" (Gen. 22:2).

We can realize a little what this meant for Abraham. Should the glory of Deity hide from us somewhat or emphasize the appeal of that love in which "God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all"? Could it make no difference to be told that "Son" is here no title of relationship; that it does not mean all and much more than it meant for Abraham?

Does not "His own Son" look as if it were meant to negative this, and to assure us that nothing less than real relationship could be intended?

But the apostle adds that it was " His only-begotten Son" whom He sent forth; and if the title "Firstborn" shows that He has "brethren," that of Only-begotten as decisively excludes them. He was this before He came forth,-eternally the Son, and thus divinely:of course, without fellows. The "Only-begotten " shows that He was Son by nature; and we must not leave out any part of that by which the Spirit of God has chosen to set Him forth.* *It has been said that μovoγεvής, "only-begotten" is the word used by the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew jachid or "only one," (in Psa. 22:20; 35:17,) "darling" in the common version. But this cannot rule as to the inspired Greek of the New Testament, which is precise and accurate, as the Septuagint is often far from being; and least of all in what relates to the Person of the Son of God.* Here the stranger the term looks as relating to the blessed Lord, the more closely must we adhere to what is certainly scripture. Here our thoughts can only follow, and not lead:we are safe under the guidance of the Spirit of God,-safe nowhere else.

Moreover the apostle John is the only inspired writer applying this term to the Lord, and he is known by all as the one whose special theme is His divinity. He introduces it also in the very place in which he speaks of the glory of God which has been now unveiled for in Christ:" The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). This is the common version; but the expressions are really stronger than these words convey. The word "dwelt" is really "tabernacled," thus carrying us back to that tabernacle or tent in which of old God had gone with His people. The tabernacle now is that "flesh" or humanity of Christ, in which the Word, who is God, was pleased to dwell among us. Thus the glory is divine glory; but with Israel of old it was veiled,- it is now unveiled:"we beheld His glory." What was it like? It was "glory as of an Only-begotten with a Father"-"from with," literally:it was just that character of glory, as of an Only-begotten come from the place which yet He never left, of perfect nearness in relationship and love to God as Father.

This in its effect for us the eighteenth verse expresses:"the Only-begotten Son who is"-literally, "the One being" or "abiding"-"in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him " (told Him out). The unchanging intimacy of the eternal relationship is here that which qualifies Him as the perfect Revealer of God; according to what He was before made known to us, to be-"the Word made flesh."

Thus we have the sweetest and most competent Witness of God that can be,-ourselves put in the place of children to the Father, that we may be fit to receive such a communication. There is thus made for us a little heaven within, as for the earth the firmament of the second day, through which the glorious Heaven beyond may shine in upon us. Not from afar off, nor in cold luster, but with the warmth with which our Sun, the Ruler of the day, blesses and gladdens us. Love which is Light:such is the revelation. How could we do without those precious words "Son" and "Father," back of all dispensations, all economic display, to show what is the nature of God in itself eternally,-the absolute verity of that which has now been revealed?

He is not "love" for an occasion, however great may be the occasion. Nor is the Son become Son for display, however glorious. The Father had no beginning as the Father; nor the Son therefore as the Son. If otherwise, then after all we have not a revelation of eternity, nor of God as He is, but only as He is pleased to become-a very different thing. Thank God, it is not so. We know how God dwelt in love eternally:we have the Object of that love made known to us; we are made to know, not eternal silence in the House which now has such glorious music for returned prodigals, but a communion into which we are now admitted, and are privileged in our measure to become partakers.

Nay, the very relationship taken up on earth, as First-born of the heavenly family, is but, as now we can see, the representation of the eternal relationship upon an earthly plane, where the "many brethren" may realize and rejoice in it. The eternal reality embodies itself in time, and is made, as far as possible, visible to us. The reaching forth of divine love to us-its eagerness to have us enter into it, how it is seen in all this.

We shall not here dwell longer upon it; but when we fully receive the blessed truth of "the Word made flesh," we shall find from this humanity of His itself divine light break forth for us,-"that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us," and "the Life the Light of men." F. W. G.

(To be Continued.)

The Holy Ghost dwells in every true Christian ; but it is another thing to be so filled with Him that He may be the source of all that is thought, of all that is done, and that all that the heart, which is His vessel, produces, may be the fruit of His presence; that there may be no doubting, no shutting up in the career of love, that Jesus may be faithfully confessed before men. The heart is set free from its own love, and loves according to the love of Christ. Liberty, true liberty, is found, and the practical life, and its fruits are the fruits of the Spirit.

What a blessed state! And whatever may be the ruin of the Church, in principle this state belongs to-day to every Christian; circumstances may hinder the form that existed in the days of the apostles; but the Spirit of God, at the bottom, is more powerful than circumstances. J. N. D.

All things earthly have an end; and Joshua, the man of faith, the true witness for God in the wilderness and the unconquered leader of the people in the land, is about to leave them-going "the way of all the earth." In the land he had been a type of a Greater than himself so completely, that his individuality had been merged into his official character, and we think of the One whom he represents. But he has conquered all, and having held the sword for many years, he lays it aside and with it his leadership, and becomes simply the man of faith, who has got a word to say for that faithful God whom he knew so well.

He appoints no one as his successor, no one who could carry on the work where he had laid it down. In His wondrous wisdom God has guarded against the very thing that the wise men of earth think the proper plan to secure order and good government- the plan of succession. No supervision could have been more complete, no authority more absolute, no care more minute, than that of the apostles. The infant Church was indeed cared for "as a nurse cherisheth her children." But there were no successors to the apostle's-save indeed the "grievous wolves" who would not spare the flock. (Acts 20:29.) The church was thrown on God and the word of His grace:to human eyes it was helpless indeed; but that very helplessness did but compel the saints to lean on God. Would that such dependence had always been realized.

It was with the consciousness that now the people were to be left without a visible head, in the midst of dangers in one sense greater than those which beset them in the field of conflict, that the departing servant spoke for the God he loved so well. With the memory of his course still vividly before them, with the conscience, too, in some measure awakened at the thought of his departure, they doubtless drank in eagerly all his words. And what words they were ! how he spoke for God ; how he pointed out their dangers, gleaning lessons from the past ; how he urged upon them faithfulness for the future.

True it is that to the Old-Testament saint was vouchsafed no such view into the opened heavens, and the world beyond, as it is our happy lot to enjoy; but who, as he listens to the calm and beautiful words of Joshua, can question that for him, as for God's people at all times, a light was shining, which made death but a dark line between this life and eternal brightness. He knew God, and that made all plain; he could speak for Him and then go to Him.

But it is our purpose, beloved brethren, to look a little closely at the words at the head of this paper, and gather from them food for profitable thought, as we draw near again to the close of another year. How swiftly the years pass-bringing us ever nearer to that eternity which, through infinite grace, has no terrors for the people of God. Well may we pause and think-taking a good look at the past ere we turn afresh to the unknown future. We do not observe times and seasons, nor would we by a single line encourage anything like lack of sobriety and circumspection at all times; but we have no sympathy with that indifference to the transiency of all about us, that can contemplate unmoved and unexercised the passing away forever of another portion of our brief life.

Who can prevent thoughts of sadness, alas ! of unavailing regret, if the memory of the past recalls wasted hours, neglected opportunities, that have fled forever. Very sobering is it to take account of how we have used our stewardship, and the close of the year is a fitting time to do this. It puts us into the spirit of that day of review when "every one of us shall give account of himself to God." It is well to live in the light of that day.

But our scripture is concerned chiefly with another and brighter side of things-even the remembrance of God's faithful love and care. In the 105th and 106th Psalms we have the same history gone over from two different points of view. The latter psalm shows the unbelief and disobedience of the people, and is therefore a record of failure :the former, on the contrary, celebrates the acts of God, and is bright with instances of His goodness, love, and care. Let us look, then, at that side, that gratitude, love, and obedience may be stirred in our hearts.

"Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you ; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof."

God had visited them while yet in the bondage and under the guilt of sin in the land of Egypt. He had promised to bring them out from that bondage, to set them free, and give them a place in the "good land and large " which He had spied out for them. Had He kept His word-spite of every obstacle, of all their unbelief? Joshua could appeal to them, with the knowledge that they could give but one answer, "Ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls."

Glance back, dear brethren, to the time when we were under the doom of our countless sins, and in the iron grasp of a despot more terrible than Pharaoh. How has the deliverance been effected ? Is it complete ? Oh, as we behold the cross of Christ, and think of His finished work,-as we sec Him risen triumphant from the grave, with sin forever vanquished, the cry of victory bursts forth "unto the Lord who has triumphed gloriously," and we know in our souls that naught has failed of His good word.

Let us pass on by faith into all that He has won for us, remembering that we are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;" that all things are ours, "whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's"-in view of the abundant blessing, do we not know in our souls that "not one thing hath failed "? Let it be clearly understood, boldly confessed ; for one of Satan's subtlest wiles is to introduce unbelief under the guise of humility. Nothing can be added to redemption; it is absolutely perfect. Our blessings are entire and complete; we wait for no "second blessing." True, our apprehension of these things is but feeble, but they are not feeble; they are before us as our portion-ours to enjoy even now.

But if we come to look at the mercies that have strewn all our way; patient love and care, temporal needs met as well as spiritual-we are still constrained to say, " Not one thing hath failed." What have we deserved ? but what have we received ?

But it is said by one and another, "My path has not been all blessing ; my past has been one of sorrow and gloom." Could such an one truly use these words ? Who has a better right ? We have never been promised exemption from trial and suffering ; in a world where sin reigns and its fruits are everywhere manifest; where our blessed Lord was " a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief";-who has the right, we might add, who the desire to escape the lot of all ? Those who suffer, who mourn, are but the companions of the great Sufferer. And in that companionship is found the fulfillment of our word. Sorrow and grief shared by the Lord ! who that has had the holy joy of His sympathy, the uplifting of His strength, would exchange it for that which, however bright, bears the stamp of change and decay ? Let the bereaved Christian, the tried saint, testify, and if he has learned his lesson well, he will gladly join with those whose path has been brighter in saying, " Not one thing hath failed."

For indeed unless this lesson has been learned there is doubt of the love of God, discontent, murmuring, and all the restlessness that speaks of an empty heart. The very best medicine for such a state is to learn God in the trial that apparently has produced it,-until the soul can say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." How all this is infinitely above the poor consolation that the world has to give of "brighter days to come," or, "others too have suffered." With the apostle we can say, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us; " and "our light affliction which is but for a moment, "worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

Grief-stricken parent, as you look into the grave of your hopes in the child you have laid away; crushed and disappointed man, as you face the ruin of your business and the threatenings of poverty-can you not as you think of the consolations of Christ say these words ?

And so will it be throughout all our days; whatever they may have for us, they cannot rob us of His love, of His promise, of His joy. And when we have reached our rest, our home, these same words will have their place, or be changed for others, as wonder fills our hearts-"the half had not been told."

What shall be the effect of this precious truth upon us? We see how Joshua used it-warning the people against a departure that would bring upon them just as surely the chastening hand of God; urging them to entire obedience, and the putting away of all that would hinder them in that path. So let it be with us. As we think of the eternal faithfulness of our God, let us arise, and, as never before, press forward in the way His holiness and His love have marked out for us.

Ques. 34.-In a reading on 2 Cor. 3:11-17 it was stated that the word " Spirit," verse 17, should be read with a small s, and not with a capital S, as in the Received Text, and that in every instance where the word occurs it should be read with a small s; in confirmation of which he affirmed that the Lord was not the Spirit, that it was simply an allusion to the ministry of righteousness in contrast to that of condemnation, of the former of which Christ was the spirit.

On verse 17 Mr. Darby writes, "when it is said 'now the Lord is that Spirit' (capital S) allusion is made to verse 6; verses 7 to 10 is a parenthesis." (Syn., second edition, page 324.) The Revised Version gives verses 17, 18 with a capital. I notice that verse 6 gives the word "spirit" with a small s.

If "in every instance where the word occurs" we are to read it with a small s, what about the following texts, namely, Rom. 8:9:1 Pet. 1-11; 1 Pet. 3:18, 19; Gal. 3:5, and other scriptures where the Spirit is spoken of?

Ans.-As to never using a capital in the word Spirit, we think there must become mistake; surely whenever it refers to the Holy Spirit it should be written with a capital. To deny it would be to question His personality. As to the passage in question, the use of the capital in verse 17 would not suggest that it referred to the Holy Spirit, but that referring to the Lord, it was so spelled. Such use might be questioned, however. The meaning seems to be that the Christian dispensation, as centering in the person of Christ, is spiritual as contrasted with the law. Of course, the second use of the word " the Spirit of the Lord" would suggest the Holy Spirit. Then, too, this whole dispensation is that of the Spirit. It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between the operations of the Spirit and the Person. This is particularly true of this passage. Its general meaning is plain.

Ques. 35.- How did the Holy Ghost speak to man? – in an audible voice? For example, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul." (Acts 13:2.)

Ans.- The matter of first importance is the fact, not the manner of the Holy Ghost's speaking to men. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Pet. 1:21.) "In the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth." " He that is spiritual judgeth [discerneth] all things." (1 Cor. 2:13, 15). We gather from these scriptures that the Spirit acts upon the mind and judgment, moving by His almighty power and wisdom the instrument He has chosen. Of course, that instrument would make known the mind of the Spirit in an audible voice, as was doubtless the case at Antioch. But the Spirit Himself would act-as God usually does-in the still quiet, unobtrusive way, so different from man's thoughts.

Ques. 36.- Who are "the rest of the dead" in Rev. 20:5? Some say it is the Old Testament saints, and that they do not rise till after the thousand years,- that is, do not rise when the "dead in Christ" rise. (1 Thess. 4:) Please give scripture to refute this, if it is error.

Ans.- The scripture already given (1 Thess. 4:) refutes it clearly,–else the Old Testament saints are not "in Christ,"- "they that are Christ's." (1 Cor. 15:) Moses and Elias ire given as types of the sleeping and translated saints partaking in the glories of Christ's kingdom. (Luke 9:30, 31.) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are in the kingdom. (Matt. 8:11.) Doubtless the Old Testament saints are at the marriage supper of the Lamb, as guests. (Rev. 19:) Our blessings and theirs are connected together. (Heb. 11:40.) Such scriptures preclude entirely the thought of their having no part in the first resurrection. And this is emphasized when we remember what is the character of the second resurrection. (Rev. 20:12-15.) It is the prelude to the judgment of the Great White Throne, where none but the ungodly stand, and is unquestionably the same as the resurrection of damnation, or judgment (John 5:29), the resurrection of the unjust (Acts 24:15). It becomes a grave error when the beloved people of God are in any way connected with the ungodly. There are, no doubt, reasons why such teaching should be advanced. It will surely be sufficient to guard our readers against accepting it.

What an awful sin pride must be to God's eyes in one of His children, for each one has cost Him the sacrifice He made in sending; His beloved Son into this world. This blessed and only Son of His had to stoop down from the throne of His glory, even to the death of the Cross to redeem each one of us. We were vile and guilty, and this awful humiliation of Christ was of absolute necessity to reach our case. How dare we then lift up ever a proud look, harbor a proud feeling, look down upon any fellow-being because he happens to be in different circumstances ?

True, sin has produced revolting and disgusting scenes, and they spread before us on every hand. They may and they do sicken the heart at times, but a meek spirit remembers it is that in himself which caused the Savior's awful cry "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me ?" Oh, who can lift a lofty look, or utter a lofty word, or entertain a lofty mind, if that dark scene of the Cross stands before the soul ?

There are joys for such; joys which the loftiest minds know nothing of; joys in resurrection, for Christ is risen; joys from another world and another scene, for Christ has returned to heaven and made Himself our Center and oar Hope there. We joy with the joys which rise out of that scene; it is a joyous scene, for death, guilt, sin, sorrow, pain, are unknown there, or if known 'tis but in remembrance, to enhance the rest and peace now enjoyed; but the joys of that scene foster no pride, do not produce one haughty thought. Eternally the spirit that proceeds from there makes its citizens proclaim in joyous meekness "Unto Him that loves us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."

It is not necessary to be rich and high in the things of this world to be proud, though humbleness of mind may find much more hindrance to its growth in that soil. The very rudeness and forwardness in some of the poor and low betray the same pride which makes the rich and high turn away with disdain. That same pride makes the poor say:I am as good as you, and I am going to make you feel it as much as I can.

The grace of Christ destroys this awful thing in both. It gives holy, chastened freedom before God our Father; and as we go from that Holy Presence to stand before men, its hallowed influence lifts us above high or mean self; the towering element of the mind is " All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field:the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:but the word of our God shall stand for ever." (Isa. 40:6-8.) P. J. L.

No. 4. SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE AS TO WORSHIP.

Thus far our meditations have brought us:and we have seen, that to worship the true and living God one must be led, guided, by the Holy Ghost into God's thoughts about His Beloved Son, and thus to present a sweet savor of Christ to God the Father. And we need but two scriptures to make this as simple and plain as possible, the fourth and sixteenth chapters of John's gospel.

In the fourth chapter, beginning with the 20th verse, we hear the woman of Samaria saying to Jesus, " Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, but ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." How sad it is, in these days in which we are living, there are so many Christian people, – I say Christian people, because they have taken that position, have put on the Christian profession, I do not say "children of God," though many of these are in great darkness, who are on no better ground as to worship than the woman of Samaria. They do not know Christ. They do not know that they are saved, and they do not believe it is possible for any one to know that he is saved now in this present time. But they do know that they have "got religion"; or perhaps this is stating their position too strongly ; but they are not afraid to say"I know that I am a professor of religion, – a member in good and regular standing" in some recognized denomination:and they expect to live and die in that faith. Nor do they seem to want anything better than that; and no one but the Lord Himself can show them anything better.

Sometimes they say it doesn't make any difference if one is only sincere and honest, for we are all going to the same place. And so the woman of Samaria might have thought; and so she might have added " Surely God ordained blessing on Mount Gerizim." (Deut. 27:12.) But let us look at His answer to her queries.

"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what:we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

And now we have before us three distinct points as to worship:First, "Our fathers worshiped." Second, "Ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Third, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

Now as to the first:"Our fathers worshiped in this mountain." What was there wrong in that? Why could not the people of Samaria build a temple in Mount Gerizim, and worship there in their own city, and according to the dictates of their own conscience ? Why could not God own and bless them there as well as at Jerusalem ? For this Mount Gerizim was the place where God commanded blessing to be pronounced when they had taken possession of the land. (See Deut. 11:29, and 12:5,6; 12-14.) "But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come:And thither shall ye bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and your heave-offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks."

Mark this, beloved reader:"the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put His name there." Notice now the eighth verse:"ye shall not. do after all that ye do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For ye are not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit. . . . Then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there." (ver. 2:) "Thither shalt thou bring all that I command you."(ver. 12.) . . . "Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offering in every place that thou seest."

In the wilderness they had been acting on the principle that so largely prevails now everywhere,- "doing that which was right in their own eyes." And this, beloved reader, is the citadel of Satan's power over men from the day that Adam succumbed to him in Eden. The citadel of Adam's strength was to abide in the will of God, but this he lost when he surrendered to Satan, and henceforth himself and his posterity became the bondslaves of Satan. This is the key to all the sorrow that the world has ever seen or felt. And there is absolutely no deliverance from this bondage except through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this fact is abundantly sustained in the teachings of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. We need only to hear Jesus saying to the Jews " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." (John 8:44.) And in the same chapter (ver.36), "If the Son therefore shall make yon free, ye shall be free indeed"; 40th verse, "And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." This is clearly illustrated in Israel's passing through the river Jordan from the wilderness into Canaan.

The waters of death were rolled back, and they took up twelve stones out of the bed of death, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, in resurrection, typically; and twelve other stones pitched in the bed of Jordan (death), as typically representing the twelve tribes dead and buried, – the end of man in the flesh, the natural man, – while the twelve stones in the heap at Gilgal represent typically the twelve tribes in resurrection life, now to go forth in the power of the Spirit to conquer the land.

And now, beloved reader, have you got the answer to those questions as to Mount Gerizim ? There was but one place on the earth where God had set His name. Mount Moriah (provided by Jehovah) at Jerusalem. "God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." (Gen. 22:8.) And so he found it, when he had, in the obedience of faith, offered up his son Isaac, – God accepting the will for the deed, – since the willing mind is first accepted. (2 Cor. 8:12.)

It is not, then, where man chooses to worship that he can be accepted, but where God has set His name. From this we see that no offering of sacrifices, however perfect and without blemish, by an Israelite, however conscientious, sincere and honest, could be accepted at Gerizim, but at the place which God had provided, and where he had set His name – Jerusalem.

But Jesus said "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." And He also added " the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

And this brings us to the sixteenth chapter of John's gospel, beginning with the thirteenth verse:" Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth." …" He shall glorify Me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you."

And now, beloved reader, do you see how this fits our theme ? The Holy Ghost dwells in the believer. What for? To guide! Yes, to guide into all truth. And what is this "all truth"? "All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you." And this leads us to worship in spirit and in truth. By the Spirit led into all truth,-not by the Spirit led according to the dictates of your own conscience, much less every man into that which "seemeth right in his own eyes." No, no! but as God appoints.

The God-appointed place where He had set His name was the only place on earth where acceptable worship could be enjoyed. This was true during the one thousand years between Solomon and Christ. It was a God-ordained system and ritual, by which man "in the flesh" could be accepted as a worshiper.

Mark this, beloved reader:"man in the flesh," in contrast with man in the Spirit. "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." (Rom. 8:8, 9.) Note also Phil. 3:3:" For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." This is New Testament ground:not man in the flesh, but a man in Christ and in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in him.

And this is God's thought of every believer in whom the Spirit dwells. This was not true in Solomon's day; not true while the ritual of the law was in order for man in the flesh.

Let us look at the first meeting held in the temple built by Solomon (2 Chron. 5:13):"It came to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."

This was man in the flesh worshiping:hence everything was suited to that state of things,-trumpets, cymbals, psalteries, and harps,- everything in the line of instrumental music. And, beloved, do we not know that the flesh in us delights in that kind of worship? And that kind of worship cannot be owned of God now, since Jesus has died and risen again, having swept away the whole scene of man in the flesh as having any standing before God. He is condemned already, judged already, root and branch; and now no man has any standing of acceptance before God but in Christ, as the head of a new creation.

In the fifth chapter of Romans, beginning with the twelfth verse, we get the two headships:Adam, as the head of the old creation, by whom sin and death came in; and Christ, the Second Man, or head of a new creation through death and resurrection. This is most important to see clearly, since there can be no intelligent service, much less worship, while this point is not understood.

In the sixth chapter we read, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death ? Therefore we are buried with Christ by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6:3, 4; also 2 Cor. 5:14-16.) "For 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 which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation); old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new! "

These two scriptures are most important, as showing the difference between Christian worship and Jewish worship. The Jew, on the ground of law, as a man in the flesh, the natural man, worshiping by proxy, through a priest and sacrifices, in a ritual of services which could only appeal to the flesh, or natural man. While the Christian, on the ground of death and resurrection, as a man in Christ, indwelt by the Holy Ghost, and entering into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, accepted in the Beloved, offering up spiritual sacrifices, in which the flesh can have no part; since the moment it becomes a fleshly thing, or even in part flesh, it ceases to be a spiritual thing, and is sin, since whatever is of the flesh cannot be of the Spirit, and that which is not of the Spirit is not of faith, and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." C. E. H.

In each of the books which have to do with Israel as a nation we have that which is appropriate to and consistent with its main theme. Thus in Exodus, which treats of redemption, by the blood of the lamb and by power, all the contents of the book are in harmony with that thought. In the first part, before the passover, we have the house of bondage, with the judgments that fall upon it:in the part after redemption has been effected, we have the house of God, which He sets up in the midst of a re-redeemed, subject people. Coming to Leviticus, we pass into a different atmosphere. It is, we might say, the internal character of redemption rather than the external; access to God, rather than shelter from judgment; holiness as contrasted with, though not exclusive of, righteousness; priestly fitness, privilege, and worship. Therefore it is in that book we find sacrifice so prominently and variedly put before us. The character of God and the grounds upon which we have access to Him are emphasized in this. In the book of Numbers, on the contrary, the world is again faced; no longer, however, a place of bondage in which we need redemption, but as a place where the Lord's free people exhibit both the power of that grace which has set them free, and the practical separation from defilement which it is now their responsibility to maintain. Thus we might say that the characteristic theme of these three books respectively is redemption, sanctification, and a pilgrim walk. It is of this last that our chapter speaks.

But if these books are of distinct and separate character, none the less are they connected together most closely, and in the order in which they stand. They represent not merely for Israel literally, but for ourselves typically, the order in which grace meets our needs, and the experience of the soul in the apprehension of that grace. For us as for them, before there can be any true knowledge of God, before there can be any true testimony or walk for Him in this world, redemption with its accompanying deliverance must be known as an accomplished fact. Where this is not the case, there will always be an uncertainty and a wavering that makes the superstructure as fragile as the foundation is unstable. Thank God, His foundation is sure. He knows them that are His, even if they do not know themselves. Alas for the weak and faulty teaching that makes such a state of things possible; but practically, if redemption is not known and enjoyed, it is as if it did not exist. Thus redemption comes first; then the truth as to access to God – the sacred privileges and joys of His holy presence-can be truly appreciated, and this in turn opens the way for the narrow path of separation that marks our pilgrim journey in this world. But we cannot thus rapidly glance over these precious and familiar truths without pausing to admire the wonders of that love that has made such full provision for us, His unworthy people. What gentleness, thoughtfulness, provision for the weakness and helplessness of His people is here represented. He calls to no hard service; He calls, from hard service. The first object that meets their eyes as they turn from the brick-kilns and the taskmasters' lash, is the unblemished lamb and its sheltering blood. What peace comes from that blessed assurance, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Again, before they set foot upon the testing part of the wilderness (for all before Sinai had been pure grace – eagles' wings), they are introduced into a Presence which, if holy is holy with the perfection of peace and love. How our God would ever remind us that we are dealing with perfect love. Well would it be for His beloved people if they were well grounded in these blessed facts before entering upon the testing experiences of a journey which will bring out every weak spot in us. Stumble we doubtless will, and learn humiliating lessons as to ourselves, but oh the joy of being able to turn to a love that is well known, to a grace which has already perfectly proven itself. We repeat, let not the familiarity of these truths deter us from making constant use of them, and let nothing be harbored that will mar the simplicity of our joy in the wonders of redeeming love. But we must not anticipate our chapter.

All has been arranged:sacrifices prescribed, the daily routine of holy services and provision for special cases; the tribes have been gathered in goodly order round the tabernacle, linked together by that center and by the Levitical ministry; the camp has been cleansed, and the dedicatory gifts of the princes have been offered. They are now facing the desert in reality, and have entered upon a new year. The chapter before us marks this new beginning in a very clear way. It lays down for their guidance certain simple but most important principles which are to mark the whole of their subsequent journey through the wilderness. For ourselves, then, this chapter is of the greatest value, for it tells us how we can truly be pilgrims in this world.

There are three clearly defined subjects in the chapter:the passover, provision for the defiled, and the pillar of cloud as their guide. These three give us in brief outline the guide for our pilgrim way. Let us look at them briefly in their order.

First, we have the passover. How different were the circumstances under which this second paschal feast was observed from those of the first. Then they were still, to outward appearance, bondmen; and that, too, in a scene where judgment reigned and where the final act of that judgment was impending. Between them and the Egyptians there was nothing to mark a difference, save what to sight seemed a small distinction. But that was everything. The blood of the lamb shielded them, while" it declared the certainty of judgment for all who were not beneath its protection. What searchings of heart there must have been among the Israelites on that eventful night, – "a night much to be remembered." The memory of their own sins and unworthiness might well make them serious; and if there were not the simplest faith in the bare word of God, – God whom they knew not very well – there might well be trembling and uncertainty until the dreaded hour was past. Even where faith was in simple exercise, the stir, the forsaking Egypt, with all the attending circumstances, would stamp as unique that one night in all their history.

And as we remember the time when we first came under the shelter of the blood of the true Lamb of God, as we think of the conviction of sin that preceded it, of the soul anxiety, the upheaval of all that seemed most solid in our life, – when we remember the fear and trembling with which we took our place beneath the shelter of the cross,- did it not mark an event which stands out in all our lives, even in our own experience; how much more when we remember that apart from all the feebleness of our apprehension of it, then we passed from death into life, from the doom of judgment into redemption.

We say under what different circumstances Israel celebrated the passover in the second year. They were now a redeemed and pilgrim people under the gracious government of God, and had learned many lessons since that eventful night. So for ourselves, we have become established, perhaps, have learned much of the word of God, and something of His ways. Will not this change in our condition be correspondingly marked by a different place, or a different order in the observance of the memorial of redemption ? God had said it was to be "the beginning of months" to them, the new year. But that was when they were a nation born in a day. Did not something else eclipse that now? Let us mark well what the answer must be for them and for us.

Nothing could displace the passover. It was to be first ever, in their thoughts and in their observances. It was to be kept "at his appointed season." Redemption was first. It was to be observed without modification, "according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof." There was to be no mutilation of it; the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the roast lamb, – all were to have their place ; forever after in their history was this to be the case. Nor is it different with us. No matter what may have intervened ; how deep and many the experiences we may have passed through, the blessed precious fact of redemption stands out in unchanged character. Time has not altered it, neither its value, blessed be God, nor the stamp of death and condemnation it has put upon the natural man. As at the first, it maintains its pre-eminent place, – nothing can supersede it. It is ever to us as to God, the "beginning of months."

This is the keynote of the wilderness walk. The believer's whole life is marked by this – the preeminence of redemption through the cross of Christ. It has the first place; no subsequent truth can displace this foundation fact. It is emphasized in the Christian feast of the Lord's Supper. We show the Lord's death till He come; and the frequency intimated in the New Testament (see Acts 20:7) is none too often for those who remember that in heaven itself the song will still be "unto Him who loveth us, and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood."

"As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." (Col. 2:6.) How did we receive Him ? What place did He occupy in our thoughts then ? So is it to be throughout the whole walk. We are to walk in Him. And so far from this checking growth, it is the one essential to all true progress. Where is there a Christian to whom the redemption of Christ is the first thing, who is not "rooted and built up in " Christ ? But this brings us to the second part of our chapter.

The world is a place of defilement. It is preeminently that, because it is away from God. Nothing alienated from Him can be truly clean. It is the cleanness of death that is in the world, the whited sepulchers of which our Lord spoke to the Pharisees. So we need not be surprised to learn that such defilement had come into the camp of Israel. We need not dwell much upon what this typifies for us. If death is everywhere present in this scene, if alienation from God is stamped upon it all, we need not be surprised if the believer is in danger of coming in contact with it. Wherever we turn, whatever we take up, there is this danger of coming in contact with death. If one goes into business, he finds it there; none the less in the proper and necessary re-relaxation from business; in the home circle, it is there; and should we retire into the inmost chambers of our hearts, there we still find this defiling influence.

But is not this overdrawn ? Does it not cast a chill over one, and check altogether the aspirations after holiness, which mark any true Christian growth? We answer no; quite the reverse, in fact, when we remember that if defiling influences are everywhere present, we are not thereby defiled. That there is danger we need to remember; that there is necessity for defilement is most untrue. Look at our blessed Lord as He passed through this death-scene. Did His holy footsteps shrink from any scene of sin and death? Were not His hands laid upon the leper,- the very bier of death, too? But what spot remained upon Him? He scattered blessing and cleansing in the very place of defilement, instead of gathering as we, alas, too often do, spots and blemishes as we pass along.

But He has "left us an example that we should follow His steps," and the power as well to keep ourselves in the midst of all that presses upon us. It was the uncovered vessel that gathered defilement from the chamber of death (Num. 19:15). Let the heart be kept covered; let Christ Himself be that covering, and there will be no possibility of defilement ; we can pass through this scene with garments unspotted.

To return now. Certain Israelites were defiled by the dead body of a man, and were therefore outside the camp (Num. 5:2), unable therefore; to unite with their brethren in the holy feast. This they feel most keenly, both as a reflection upon themselves as Israelites perhaps, and as a deprivation of their proper privileges. They demand their rights and Moses waits upon God for His answer. That answer meets both their difficulties at once, and at the same time establishes the great truth of God's holiness and His government.

They were to eat the passover. That settled the question of their being Israelites, and thus entitled to all their redemption privileges. But when were they to eat it? In the second month; and that maintained the holiness and government of God. During that interval their cleansing by means of the water of separation could and must be effected (Num. 19:), and thus neither their privileges cease nor God's holiness be violated. All this is most interesting and instructive, too, for us in these times. We are living in times when anything like order, or the maintenance of scriptural government, is considered either legal or arbitrary. Is not every believer a child of God, and therefore entitled to all privileges as such? How dare we draw a line between the people of God, and make a difference? With this portion of God's holy word before us, we need not be moved by such objections. Let it be marked well that the question of defilement does not raise the question of sonship. Thank God, that was settled once and forever for us when we came under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb. Nor is the right of the believer to all the privileges of the Christian questioned; but the holiness of God's government is emphasized, and until he is restored according to that holiness he is unfit, nay it is impossible for him to enjoy what is as truly his as the privilege of any child of God.

How significantly does this passover in the second month suggest not merely the effect but the cause of the defilement. Does not God say, as it were, You have put redemption in a secondary place? Something else has been allowed to come in and usurp the unique place which the cross should occupy in all our hearts. It may not be open sin into which the believer has fallen:it usually is not, though it might easily lead to that, did not God in mercy intervene. The complaint against Ephesus (Rev. 2:) was that she had lost her first love, – first in pre-eminence as well as in time. Oh, beloved brethren, if the love of Christ has found but a second place in our hearts, need we be surprised if our joy, our worship, our liberty, are of a secondary character as well ? Need we be surprised if defilement by death-contact has come in, and it is not possible for us to "keep the feast?"

How touching, then, does this passover in the second month remind us both of our own failure-the fruits of it-and of the patient grace of our Lord, who has stood still and waited till, restored by the "water of separation," we have returned to Himself again. The only reminder of our folly being the second month, as in Peter's recovery the only reminder of his folly was in the fire of coals and the thrice-repeated question, " Lovest thou Me?" Ah ! as we gather about our Lord in remembrance of His death ; with so much that speaks of the second month, so much feebleness of worship, so much necessity for the cleansing by the water of the Word, may tears of real shame and sorrow be ours that such is the witness, the proof of heart-departure from Himself ! Poor indeed is the excuse that pleads we were necessarily defiled,-business and cares pressed so, or we were on a journey. Rather let honest confession put us into our true place before Him, and He will then have His true place in our hearts.
" And yet to find Thee still the same,
'Tis this that humbles us with shame."

In leaving this part of our subject, we will simply notice that this passover in the second month seems to signify the restoration of the ten tribes to the Lord in the future day of Ephraim's blessing; and in harmony with this, as well as for other reasons, Hezekiah's passover was held in the second month. (2 Chron. 30:1-3.) The ten tribes have taken a long journey away from God, and have become not only defiled by the dead, but have themselves become as dead and buried among the nations. (Ezek. 37:11-14.) When they are raised up and restored back to Him, they will again enjoy all their privileges which they have forfeited through their unbelief :"Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations." (Ezek. 36:31.)

But we pass on to the last portion of our chapter. The wilderness is a journeying place; and if there is the danger of journeying away from God, there is the blessed and happy privilege of journeying with Him. The first step of their journey, even in Egypt, was taken under the guidance of the pillar of cloud and fire. And here, when the tabernacle was set up, the cloud hovered over it, moving only when the people were to journey, and returning to its station at each stage of their progress. They were to follow implicitly that unerring guide. When, it rested, whether a day, a month, or a year, they were to abide quietly in the camp; and when it lifted, whether by day or night, they were to follow unquestioningly.

How beautifully was this cloud in contrast with their surroundings. Was it in the day-time, there was a cloud, darker than the garish brightness around them, but shielding them from the heat as it came between them and the sun:was it night, the darkness did but manifest the brightness of a presence whose reality and beauty were but enhanced by the surrounding gloom. We have this blessed presence always with us in the person of the Holy Spirit, who abides with us forever. All through our journey, until we take the last step of our pilgrimage, He is pledged to be with us; "we are sealed unto the day of redemption." When all shines bright in the world about us, His holy witness may seem a cloud by contrast, yet a cloud that affords most grateful shade from the false glare about us. Ah ! did we note the cloud, did we listen to the warnings and checks of the blessed Spirit of God ! But when the gloom of this world settles about us, when all else is dark, how brightly does the presence of God shine, through the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Oh ! sorrow, pain, grief, loss, are but the foil upon which the consolations of Him " who giveth songs in the night " do but shine out all the more brightly.

This holy presence was to be Israel's guide all through the wilderness, and it is to be ours also. How simple it made their journey ! No need for anxious thought for the morrow; no restless peering into the unknown future, still less any entreaty of a child of the desert "to be to us instead of eyes" (Num. 10:31); we have the guidance of One who "neither slumbers nor sleeps," to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, and who has pledged His word "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest" (Ex. 33:14),- a word given, as the connection well shows, at a time of fearful unbelief and departure from Him. Well may we sing –

"O Lord, how blest our journey,
Though here on earth we roam,
Who find in Abba's favor
Our spirits' present home."

A blessed journey indeed, where not one step is taken ahead of our blessed Guide, where we need never leave the sweet secret of His holy presence. What a remedy for all anxiety, all restless Martha-service, all hasty Peter-warfare. It occupies us, not with the way, whether it be smooth or rough, whether it be easy or perilous. It fixes our eye upon Christ, as reflected by the Holy Spirit, and we follow as He leads. Our one, our only care is just to abide in His presence. Does that presence beckon us onward? let us move forward unfearing; does it stand still? let us learn our lesson of patience. If in the darkest hour of trial it lift and move forward it is for us simply to follow,- to follow not for the sake of mere progress, but simply to continue in communion with our blessed Lord; for if we fail to go on when He leads we lose our communion, just as we do if we press on in undue or self-confident haste. May our gracious God teach us His holy lesson, to abide in His holy, blessed presence.

We have, then, in these three portions that which is to mark our pilgrim way:-Christ and His redemption ever first in our hearts; restoration when there has been failure; and the simple abiding in the presence of God. Could anything be simpler? No intricate code of laws, no following of this or that one, simply abiding in His presence who will soon take us to be forever with Himself.

"And now little children, abide in Him."

" My Jesus! as Thou wilt!
Oh. may Thy will be mine;
Into Thy hand of love
I would my all resign;
Through sorrow or through joy
Conduct me as Thine own,
And help me still to say,
My Lord, Thy will be done.

" My Jesus! as Thou will!
All shall be well for me;
Each changing future scene,
I gladly trust with Thee :
Then to my home above
I travel calmly on,
And sing, in life or death,
My Lord, Thy will be done."

"And upon His head were many crowns." Rev. 19:12. (Continued from page 259.)

" CHAPTER I. The Deity of Christ.

Think of One who could say of Himself that He was the "Light of the world,"-excluding all other! Light-self-witnessing, as light is:so that rejection of it could only be on the part of men who "loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." And this light was not merely that of His sayings, a message that He brought, a revelation which was committed to Him, though there was that also:but He was Himself the Light, as He says, in the exactest possible way defining this,- "As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world" (Jno. 9:5).

His sayings would, indeed, live after He was gone; the revelation He made remain for other days. None the less, it would be night for the world when He was gone out of it. Nothing could replace the Sun. Of course, there are little "lights" enough – torchlights, bon-fires, here and there a calcium light:but no one of these could be confounded with the sun. Even the moon shines by its light, and nature itself bears witness which we do well to listen to, that the light of the world must be a light outside the world; nothing bred of it is competent for its illumination.

"God is light:" and here is One who claims to be in the world so absolutely that, that if a disciple express still a desire to have the Father shown to him, He can rebuke him with " Have I been so long
in His prayer to the Father for those given to Him out of the world, though seeming to have a narrower scope, only show us the same purpose in progress, now defining itself in view of human sin and its fatal consequences. To those given to Him He manifests the Father's name, and communicates the Father's words. One who had his place with them had dropped out; but he was a "son of perdition."

There is no need to entangle ourselves with the questions that arose early in the Church with regard to the doctrine of the Word or Logos. Scripture is transparently clear with regard to it; and upon such subjects not a ray of light is to be got elsewhere.

Being, then, such as we see, we do not wonder that He claims to be the self-existent One, as in His words to the Jews:"Before Abraham was I am" (Jno. 8:58). This is the incommunicable name of Deity, by which He revealed Himself to Moses and to Israel:" I am hath sent me to you" (Exod. 3:14). Being always the Word, the Revealer, this older voice was, of course, His own. He is thus the Abiding, the Unchangeable, the Eternal. Jehovah is but the synonym of this; and so the glory of Jehovah, which Isaiah saw in his day, is declared to be His glory:"these things said Esaias when he saw His glory, and spake of Him" (Jno. 12:40, 41 with Isa. 6:9, 10). The Old Testament thus, as well as the New, is full of His Presence; only that now He has taken that tabernacle of flesh to display His glory in, in which all His purpose to be near us, all His delights with the sons of men, have fully come out. He is now truly Immanuel, "God with us;" and the blessedness of that for us will fill eternity.

That He should claim equal honor with the Father Himself is in this way clearly intelligible, as it of itself also declares fully who He is:"that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father" (Jno. 5:23) is the most emphatic assertion of equality; which Thomas's "my Lord and my God" (20:28) yields Him, with full recognition on his part of the truth of his too tardy faith.
F. W. G.

(To be Continued.)

"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." " As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent." God chastises His children that they may be more and more conformed to His mind, or as the apostle expresses it, that they may "be partakers of His holiness."

There are three ways of treating chastisement mentioned in the word of God. One is to despise it. "Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord." To say in effect that we did not need what has come upon us, is really to despise it, and the One who has sent it.

A second way of treating chastisement is to faint under it. "Neither faint when thou art rebuked of him." The one who faints under chastening, does not see and own that it comes in love,-that the Hand of love has brought it for good,-and so faints under it.

The third way is to be exercised by the chastisement. "Now no chastisement for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceful fruits of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby." The person who is brought to true exercise of soul under chastisement will not be indulging in nice sentimental thoughts, but will be saying the Master's touch means something; and will be diligently enquiring what that meaning is. Is there not something in my ways, the soul will ask, which is displeasing to Him? Have I not something between myself and Him? He is a jealous God, and will not give His glory to another. The exercised one who knows God, will also say in effect, He has sent this chastisement in love, -He means it for blessing to me. He wants my whole heart and life. Oh, if this exercise goes down deep, the soul will see things as God sees them, that is according to its own little, finite measure, and thus will be finding " a path which the vulture's eye hath not seen," and which will shine with growing brightness until it enters the perfect and eternal day. In short this deep exercise is the way to real blessing. " Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby." No blessing in despising chastisement,-no blessing in fainting under it; but simply in being truly exercised by it.

Oh, happy if through chastisment we are brought down from the deceptive clouds of our own vain thoughts, to the terra firma of God's solemn realities. Full blessing is had by fully and practically getting into the current of His thoughts. Full blessing is had by taking sides with God against much that He has seen in us and our ways, deeply offensive to Him. This is self-judgment. Fruit suited to God's taste will follow. R. H.

It is the desire of the writer to call attention to one of those beautiful harmonies, which, occurring so often in unexpected places, touch up and revivify with a new beauty some familiar portion of the Word, and thus keep the reader in that expectant attitude which becomes him who at any time may find a rich treasure beneath his feet and would not pass it by unwittingly.

So many similarities have been found between the teachings of Paul and the Gospel of Luke, that some learned critics have wanted to make out that Paul referred to it, when speaking of "my gospel." However we may differ from them as to this, we may still welcome all correspondence that can be pointed out, as witness to one Master Hand, controlling and combining the music of these distant and various players into one grand symphony of praise. "He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him," but how much sweeter the song of those chanting,-

" Wondrous stories of the glories of His grace."

A verse in the tenth chapter of John, says, "When He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them," and what I want to point out is, how Paul seems to respond, in those wondrous seven platforms of grace in the second chapter of Philippians, "But when the lost sheep wandereth away, He followeth in every footstep." Luke gives the footsteps of the sheep; Paul, of the Good Shepherd. Let us ponder them together, and think as we do, of the apostle's exhortation, " Let this mind be in you."

The first antithesis is this, "Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery (a grasping), to be equal with God." Luke, "And the younger of them said unto his father, Father, give me the portion of goods which falleth to me." Here we have in a nutshell the whole course of the first Adam portrayed. What privileges he lost by his grasping spirit. Luke gives them with a touch of the pen, when he says, Adam was the son of God. Likewise the prodigal ! Not content with his happy home, an overflowing abundance, he must have something which he can point out to an admiring world as his own, as completely in his power; the title fully his, not his father's any longer. "Thus no doubt," he ponders, "I shall be respected and looked up to, as my father is; I will have power." Ah, fellow-Christian, cannot we recognize the old tempter's voice again, "Ye shall be as God, as your Father." The younger son will let his father divide his living, to gratify his own grasping spirit. How beautiful the contrast in Philippians, where we see One, with title to the whole universe, not grasping after it, but with a spirit ready to give up everything. The blessed Shepherd thus blots out the first soiled footmark of the lost sheep.

And now for the second antithesis. Luke, "And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance in riotous living." Paul, "He emptied Himself" (literal rendering). Two emptyings here:but how different ! How short an answer, but what a large field for meditation. Do not pause with the mere pittance of thought here written, but revolve it over and over, and God will bless it to you. "He emptied Himself," but how much must have been laid aside for One equal with God to empty Himself. Let us look at a few Scriptures in this connection. He was " the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person," and yet as we ponder it, we hear Isaiah's low undertone adding its soft minor chord and making both inexpressibly sweet, "We saw no beauty in Him-His face was so marred, more than any man's and His form more than the sons of men." Reverently let us respond.-

"O Head, once full of bruises,

So full of pain and scorn, 'Mid other sore abuses, Mocked with a crown of thorn."

Brethren, we tread upon holy ground. It reminds me of the words, may I not say, admonition, of a Christian upon first seeing that beautiful hymn, the seventy-first in the appendix:* *"Little Flock hymn-book."*" Oh, it seems almost too sacred to sing, does it not ? Again we are told, " He upholdeth all things by the word of His power," but the Psalmist prophetically exclaims, "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death." "All things were made by Him," and yet, "Jesus being a wearied sat thus on the well." How we might multiply quotations. He thus stripped Himself, for we had also done so, but alas! in riotous living.

Now comes the third step and third antithesis. Luke says, "And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country," and Paul answers," He took upon Himself the form of a servant." The former seeks to serve himself by serving another; the latter to serve others gratuitously. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. The gospel of Mark beautifully exemplifies this character of our Lord's life. Here we have those " immediatelys" and " straight-ways," which picture so vividly the busy Servant, having no time of His own. The people so learn the readiness of His touch that they know themselves welcome even when intruding upon His private moments. "And from thence He arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house and would have no man know it; but He could not be hid." No wonder Paul delighted to preach "the untraceable riches of Christ" (literal rendering). So many were the dark corners into which the Lord carries and has carried them, through so many "holes of the door" has His arm been lovingly stretched (Cant. 5:4), that the bewildered gaze of man cannot follow. Man's path, on the other hand, can easily be seen; he bestows his goods upon himself. Man's goodness is very patent, for he blazons it abroad with a trumpet. "How beautiful upon the mountains," have been His footsteps, blotting out once more all traces of the prodigal's soiled, self-serving path, in "joining himself to a citizen of that country."

"And was made in the likeness of men." The antithesis here is not so clear. In the next phase of our story the prodigal is seen in the fields feeding swine, and in a state of such destitution as to long for the husks which the swine eat, "and no man gives unto him." Have we not here, however, a sketch of what man really is ? He is a creature of wants, never satisfied, dependent upon others, especially in these days of "division of labor" and "co-operation." Does he not, too, sometimes yearn after husks, the food of swine, because he has wasted his Father's substance? How graciously the Lord also took a position of dependence, as at Sychar's well, for instance. He was wearied, He was hungry, He was thirsty, and in our prodigal state did we ever give unto Him ? Is not the Good Shepherd still on the track of His lost sheep ? Let us watch His next footstep.

"He humbled Himself"! This is not characteristic of man. The opposite mind has so taken hold of him, that to-day he is trying to convince himself, as hard as he can, that he never has fallen. The prodigal, however, has learned better. He goes to humble himself before His father. I don't believe his motives were all right. I think self was still an object to him. It is only because of what he is, he now steps up in stepping down. Perhaps he has heard a footfall upon the mountain. Perhaps in his destitution he has caught a glimpse of a "shining One," bending pityingly over some dark stain upon the rock. Perhaps he has heard a whispered, " Come unto Me," like a sweet strain of far off music from a father's house. Perhaps! Dear brother, can you tell me what it is now brings him home ? Does it not bow our hearts to think that the Good Shepherd's face was towards no home when He humbled Himself!

"And became obedient unto death." Is not the parallel close here ? His path is now especially emphasized as one of obedience to His Father, while in Luke it is the father that says, '' This my son was dead."

"Even the death of the cross." That death was one which involved the curse of God's law, and separation from His Father, while in Luke the death is characterized by the words "was lost." Ah, now the last stain is gone. The utmost penalty has been paid, and the music of the father's house bursts upon our ear; yet it seems amid it all we may turn back and wonder, "How He followed in every footstep." F. C. G.

It has been said that the testimony of creation may be used to convert men in heathen darkness -that is, that on the basis of the work of the cross, men may be turned to God and be saved by the testimony of creation, having never heard the gospel-that is, without the gospel.

But if this were so, what need of the gospel? Why should men imperil their lives in heathen lands? and why should Paul say, "Why stand we in jeopardy every hour ? I protest by your rejoicing, I die daily." And again in 2 Tim. 2:10, "I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

But where does Scripture warrant the thought of creation's testimony leading men to God? It says, "There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12); and again, " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." The water is the word, the word of the gospel, not the witness of creation; a word that must be believed as in i Pet. 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever . . . and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."

This being true, surely Scripture decides this question for us. To be saved a man must be born again of the word-which word can only be received by faith, " Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we might become a kind of first-fruits of His creatures" (James 1:18).

This is the teaching of Scripture that by the word, through faith, and in no other way can the soul be saved.

As to what is recorded in the first of Romans about the testimony of creation; it is recorded to show that men are without excuse, not at all to show that testimony converted any one-"For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness," and then follow details of wickedness wrought by the nations, showing clearly that as under law, so under the testimony of creation, men were only, and universally hardened, while responsible and without excuse. No one was saved of this creation-witness. That could only be by the word and the Spirit. So in the second chapter, seventh verse, those who are accepted of God, in any time and place, are supposed to know the gospel; that is, they are those who seek for glory, honor and incorruptibility. They know about the revealed glory, and the resurrection when " this corruptible shall have put on incorruption." Chap. 2:14, where the Gentiles do by nature things contained in the law, speaks of good fruit in the Gentiles, but it is not salvation; it was better to be a moral and industrious Gentile, than to be an immoral Jew. Salvation is not in question, but rather that the example of upright Gentiles was a rebuke to Jews whose ways caused the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. Therefore the conclusion of the third chapter naturally is that all have sinned, there is none righteous, no not one, none that seeketh after God. Neither the testimony of creation (as in chap. 1:) nor the law (as in chap, 2:) had brought anyone to God. They were all, without exception, simply proved without excuse and under condemnation.

But a man cannot be saved by the word, except knowingly; he must hear the word, be exercised by it and believe the gospel. All this is essential by the nature of the case, and proved by Scripture-by scriptures already quoted from James 1:and i Pet. 1:and John 3:In Acts 17:where Paul speaks, at Athens, of God's dealing with men apart from His word " that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him " we find God's goodness to men in His government, as in the testimony of creation.

But while He so governed that they might seek Him, still we know the result from Rom. 3:; not one responded to His goodness! "There is none that seeketh after God." Could we think that His voice in creation and government would do what the law, His plainly expressed will, could not ?

There may be formed wise reflections to a degree as to life and death, in the writings of Cicero, by the light of creation and government of God, but evidence of repentance will not be found, and could not. "Repentance toward God" goes with "faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," and cannot be found or thought of elsewhere-cannot be supposed apart from the gospel.

An error here would cripple zeal in the gospel; for if men can be saved without it, as before said, Paul might well have said as to this what he did as to the denial of the resurrection, "Why stand we in jeopardy every hour?" (2 Cor. 15:) And why should men hazard their lives, and deny themselves, to communicate a gospel which if this error were the truth, would not be essential. But Scripture clearly excludes this error, and shows that without the gospel no man can be saved,-that is, without hearing and believing the word of truth.

Solemn as is the condition and prospect of the world at large, of the nations of men, we must leave all that in God's hands, who " so loved the world." We can rest with perfect repose in this word, "so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Still, "they that have sinned without law shall perish without law " (Rom. 2:12); "and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law …. in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Without this gospel, men must perish. Let us be fully persuaded of this, and let us hold forth the word of life to men, and our own souls will be sanctified by the truth; while on the other hand, every error corrupts.

"Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth." Error is a wile of Satan, and he is ever
ready, we know; for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Therefore we must "put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Let us "be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might;" and having done all, we are to "stand"-"praying with all prayer and supplication." Humility is needed that we may not be a prey to the enemy. We must walk softly, or be thrown down, sooner or later. May the consolation of the truth be ours, that we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord." (i Cor. 15:50.) E. S. L.

Connect your service with nothing but God, I , not with any particular set of persons,-you may be comforted by fellowship, and your heart refreshed; but you must work by your own individual faith and energy, without leaning on anyone whatever, – for if you do, you cannot be a faithful servant. Service must ever be measured by faith, and one's own communion with God. Saul even may be a prophet when he gets among the prophets, but David was always the same, in the cave or anywhere. Whilst the choicest blessings given me here are in fellowship, yet a man's service must flow from himself,-else there will be weakness. If I have the word of wisdom, I must use it for the saint who may seek my counsel. It is "Bear ye one an-others burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ." But also, '' Let everyone prove his own work, then shall every man have rejoicing in himself alone, and not
in another."

There is no place grace brings us into but is a place of temptation, and that we cannot escape, though we shall be helped through. In every age the blessing has been from individual agency, and the moment it has ceased to be this, it has declined into the world. It is humbling, but it makes us feel that all comes immediately from God.

The tendency of association is to make us lean upon one another.

Where there is great arrangements for carrying on work, there is not the recognition of the inherent blessing which tarrieth not for the sons of men.

I do not tarry for man if I have faith in God, I act upon the strength of that. Let a man act as the Lord leads him. The Spirit of God is not to be fettered by man,-all power arises from the direct authoritative energy of the Holy Ghost, in the individual. Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:) were sent forth by the Holy Ghost, recommended to the grace of God by the church at Antioch, but they had no communication with it till they returned; then there was the joyful concurring of love in the service that had been performed. He that had talents went and traded. Paul says, "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."When there is a desire to act accompanied by real energy, a man will rise up and walk, but if he cannot do this, the energy is not there, and the attempt to move is only restlessness and weakness. Love for souls sets one to work, I know no other way. J. N. D.

Love moves under all disguises,
Seeking to be known:
Glad to be at last mistaken
For no other one;
Practicing us till no other
Voice or form or feature be
To us like to our Beloved's:
Sole among ten thousand, He.

Oh that mid the dull lack-luster
Of our common lives, the sheen
Of that glorious Presence always,
Wheresoever He moves, were seen!
Faith alone it needs that glory
Of th' Invisible to see:
His who where He is must have us,
Where we are must with us be.

Oh for need of Him that could not
Bid Him turn aside,
Still alone, among His chosen,
Stranger to abide.
Come so far to have us with Him
In the glory, on the throne:
There to be without distraction
Still and all His own:-

By the glory of that passion,
Which He could not share,
Where we could not follow,-
Standing for us there:
In the uttermost gulf abasing
All His glory for our need:
In that dread disguise of sorrow,
Night, as if it had not morrow,-
Only-evermore-unhid,
Uttermost love indeed.

Yes, from out the inner darkness
Now the Light has broken:
From the unanswering silence now
Th' Eternal Voice has spoken.
Love which now mid all disguises
Seeks but to be known;
Claims our perfect recognition,-
Claims our trust without suspicion,
Ours who once have seen, have heard
Christ the Word.

Come, Lord, make Thyself a place,
Answering to Thy matchless grace!
Set us from Thy rivals free,
Everywhere to walk with Thee.

F. W. G.

There is no solid peace when experience is fed on; there is no crop by ploughing, but no good crop without it. J. N. D.

" A few thoughts on the nature and method of Gospel work.

Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice ? She standeth in the top of the high places, by the way in the places of the path; she crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors." (Prov. 8:1-3.) Such a scripture as this shows that the truth of God has nothing to conceal. God is light, and He sends out His light and truth,-not to the few merely, but "to every creature under heaven;" "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world." (Rom. 10:18.) In beautiful consistency with this world-wide proclamation of the gospel is the scene at Pentecost, where there were representatives of "every nation under heaven," who could hear in their various languages the wonderful works of God. Peter stands forth boldly before the assembled multitudes and proclaims both the sin of man and the mercy of God. Again and again, through the book of Acts, do we hear the message of God's grace sounded out to the crowds,-at Jerusalem, Antioch, the cities of Asia Minor, and Greece; in the temple area, in synagogues, in the market-places, or on Areopagus, at Athens. Wherever there was an opening for the gospel, there the Lord's servants went, proclaiming to Jew and Gentile alike, "repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." They went everywhere preaching the word, and illustrating the apostle's statement, " I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." (Rom. 1:16.)

When we remember what that gospel is:how it has saved us; well may we long to cry it out from the very housetops, and seek in the most public way to proclaim it to a ruined world. Is it not the revelation of the very heart of God, telling out His love to lost sinners ? Does it not display His matchless wisdom, in providing a salvation consistent both with His love and His righteousness ? reaching down to the lowest depths of the sinner's need on the one hand, and on the other, rising to the very throne of God-in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ? Oh! what a gospel we have to proclaim,-its simplicity,- its suitability,-its freeness, and, above all, its divine truth ! Well may we

" sound it out so loud
That earth and heaven may hear."

It is, therefore, natural and right that the gospel should be proclaimed in the most public way; and this has usually marked any special awakening. Whitfield and Wesley preached in streets and public squares; on the hillsides in the country places; to the laborers as they went to and from their work. Form and formalism were set aside in the energy of the Spirit of God; these and hundreds of other faithful servants of Christ proclaimed Him to the crowds. What a glorious sight!-thousands drinking in the words of peace and life, and blessing God, as they will to all eternity, for such a proclamation of His grace.

Let us, then, go forth, and pray the Lord of the harvest, to send forth more laborers into this white field. Let the message be sounded forth to all:let us go into the streets with it, wherever we can find the concourse of the people, and the Lord opens the way, and tell out to thousands or to hundreds the precious words of life. May the Lord awaken His beloved people everywhere to this.
The time is short. Soon all the redeemed will be gathered home to enjoy the praise of Him who hath loved us, forever. Then there will be no further opportunity to preach the gospel, and the world will be left helpless, waiting for judgment, The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. As our hearts yearn for that, let them yearn for the salvation of souls. These two thoughts are beautifully blended in Scripture :"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17.) Here we have the cry of the Spirit in the Church, the longing cry, "Come, Lord Jesus." Whoever hears the message of love in his soul joins in that cry. But while waiting and longing for the coming of the Lord, we turn to the unsaved and say also, Come-come to Christ, ere He come to take His people away. Thus both "comes "blend together; and in proportion as we are truly waiting for the coming of the Lord will we be calling in the sinner too.

This much as to the publicity of Gospel work. Whoever will and can-as led of the Lord-may preach to as large crowds as he can get to listen to him. There need be no form-in public streets or squares of the city; in tents and school-houses in the country; let the blessed work go on.

But no mere casual reader of Scripture even can have failed to notice that much of our Lord's work,
and that of the apostles too, was with individuals. He sifted the multitudes that followed Him:" If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26.) "Ye seek Me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled." (John 6:26.) There is danger in a crowd:mere excitement may prevail, and many be induced to take a step which finds no response in their souls. Many stony-ground hearers are gathered in at these times, to fall away when persecution or trial comes. The public preacher must be faithful in his warnings, and not seek numbers, but reality.

But in the gospel of John particularly, we notice how our Lord deals with individuals. The call of disciples in the first chapter is largely that-one calling another. To Nicodemus, who comes to Him by night, the Lord unfolds both man's need and how it can be met. The need of new birth, the cross, the love of God, and faith,-what wondrous themes to be poured into the ear of one man ! The same is seen with the woman of Samaria (John iv). How tenderly and patiently does our Lord deal with that one soul. And it is in connection with His labor with that one individual that our Lord speaks of white fields and labor in them (vers. 35-38). Did each of our public meetings result in the conversion of one soul, well might we rejoice. May not our desire for meetings sometimes interfere with our desire for souls ? Two other instances in the gospel of John might be dwelt upon with profit; we merely mention them for the meditation of the reader:the woman in the eighth chapter, and the blind man in the ninth, both illustrate the blessedness of this individual work.

Passing to Acts, we have two most interesting cases in one chapter (Acts 16:). The apostle, guided by the Spirit, leaves Asia Minor, where much blessing had attended the preaching of the gospel, and goes to Europe, where he knew no one. A very striking case, similar to this is that of Philip (Acts 8:). He leaves a work of great magnitude at Samaria, where there had been much blessing, to go to a desert part, where, as far as he knew, no one was to be found. How richly was his obedience rewarded in the conversion of the Eunuch. So in Paul's case:he leaves the work in Asia, and enters upon an untrodden field. Reaching Philippi, they go out to the riverside, and talk with the women who resorted there for prayer. Doubtless they were few in number; but one of them has her heart opened to hear what the apostle tells and is brought to the knowledge of Christ. In the same chapter they are put into prison-apparently a further check upon the gospel-only to find an open door and an opened heart in the jailer himself. Well might the Philippians understand the apostle when in writing to them afterwards from Rome, in chains, "But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel."(Phil. 12.)

Let us not, then, despise work with individuals, or that which seems small in men's eyes. We would especially commend these thoughts to the assemblies of the Lord's people, where there are no special "gifts." If none feel equal to taking a public meeting, and holding the attention of a crowd, all should be able to take their Bibles and tracts and go from house to house, distributing the precious word of salvation. In this day of agents and solicitors of all kinds, can there not be solicitors for precious souls ? How often have open doors thus been found, and hearts prepared by the Spirit of God for the reception of the good seed. Many who would shrink from addressing the public meeting, find a most useful and congenial sphere of service in the modest "cottage meetings," where in close and familiar intercourse the needs of souls are met, and many an one set free.

How these cottage meetings would multiply were there prayer and simple faith to expect open doors. The Christian could invite a few neighbors into his house for a little meeting ; or his fellow workman could be induced to open his doors to such a meeting. The tract visitor at the home could find many such open doors, where two or three Christians could go and find precious souls. These are but suggestions, familiar doubtless to many readers of these lines. Many more ways of spreading the gospel might be easily thought of.

As we said, there is danger in the thought that gospel work necessarily means public meetings of large crowds. Comparatively few are gifted in addressing such; and the novice may easily be puffed up in such work. Meetings are but means to an end, not the end themselves. Oh, for more of that love and zeal which, without excitement, but in dependence upon God, take every opportunity to spread the precious gospel !

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

PREFACE.

Few prefatory words can be needed to introduce to our readers the series of papers which, if God grant time and ability, may follow this. I propose to take up, in reliance upon divine grace to enable me, the personal titles and glories of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Scripture declares them to us, for the worship of our hearts, and that, in meditation upon so fruitful a theme, we may perhaps realize more distinctly what He is to us, and, as it were, crown Him with His many crowns. For this He looks for from us, to give Him the glory which is His:in doing which our own souls will surely enlarge their possessions, and find more the wealth with which He has endowed us, living in the blessed beams of that effulgent glory, and being brightened by it:"with open face beholding the glory of the Lord," and being "changed into the same image from glory to glory."

Our study will be, therefore, above all a devotional one, if God grant the desire of my heart, as He knows it. Perilous, indeed, it would be to approach such a theme in any other than the spirit of a worshiper. To look into these divine infinities without realizing in whose Presence we stand would be profanity. Yet our safeguard is not in refusing to draw near where grace invites and welcomes us, but the opposite. The place of nearness is where alone we are safe :the sanctuary is our refuge. And while we look upon Him of whom it is written, "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father," our comfort and assurance lie in this, that, in so far as Scripture speaks of Him, it speaks to be understood; and the only thing that can be the part of faith is to seek to understand it.

We have only, then, to be humble, – to follow Scripture, not to go before it,-to stop where it stops, or where our knowledge of it fails, to own this,-and surely we shall find, here as elsewhere, that "all Scripture" is divinely "profitable." Let us be learners simply; not speculators or critics, but disciples; and at the feet of Jesus we need feel no fear.

Our study will necessarily therefore be doctrinal :it could be nothing else. We shall not be satisfied with putting together texts of Scripture:we shall ask what they mean, and what when put together they mean. It is the character of the word of God, in its apparently simple, as well as in its most difficult passages, to invite research, and to hold back something to be the reward of diligence. It is a land, never exhausted by the harvests that it yields; nay, which acts towards us as though it were enriched by them. And as God gave all His people of old title to the land He gave them, and would make agriculturists of them all; so, in a more complete way has He given every believing soul interest and title in this good land of his inheritance, which it is his by his own diligence to make fruitful.

Thus it is ours to develop from Scripture its doctrines in such a way as to get more than what is on the surface, and what as being the result of our own industry, our own work in Scripture, will necessarily provoke the question, Is it, then, after all, really what Scripture says ? It is to develop a "creed," as we say; and a human creed is never in itself authoritative, just because human. It can only point to the scriptures from which it is derived, and say, there is my authority. But that at once leaves room for and necessitates all kinds of various exercise, which the careless and slothful and timid would alike eschew, but in which lies the maintenance of true spiritual health. My creed represents for me, not my own thoughts, but the effect of Scripture upon me, as I have learned it in more or less daily intercourse with it and with the minds of others, and in the application of it to practical needs. In my own creed, gained after the manner named, it is Scripture and nothing else to which I bow, which I own as authoritative :it is the effect on me of its authority; and not to have it would be to mean the lack of living acquaintance with the living Word.

Yet here, at once, is the opening for controversy, which, whatever our dislike of it, we cannot escape, save by cowardice or indifference. So that instead of a harvest-field Scripture looks like a battle-field. The Christian centuries ring with the din of strife. And we cannot but see, moreover, that God was over all this for good. The generally accepted "creeds" which, whatever may be their defects, yet embody so much of the fundamental faith of Christianity, were won out of long conflict with successive forms of heresy. And that in which they are most defective is that as to which little or no controversy had yet arisen. Warfare we need not fear, if in it we have not the mere spirit of the warrior, but the bands of Benjamin go forth under the leadership of "fruitful" Ephraim (Num. 2:18-22). Truth has certainly to fear no conflict. Its banners never fell in a fair open field.

Is this, then, what Scripture leaves us to? Yes, to the need of having an ear to hear if we will be "over-comers ;" to be men of God, if we are to have the profit of Scripture. Truth cannot live without warfare in the midst of a world away from God; and God has not taken pains to make things so plain as that every careless soul shall, spite of his carelessness, know what is truth, but the earnest and exercised shall know:as the Lord has said, " Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice " (John 18:37). And this has its proportionate application in the case of every Christian.

The crowns upon Christ's head are either His personal glories, or at least in most direct and intimate connection with these. Hence the moment we take up these, we enter upon fields of incessant controversy. The effort of the enemy has been, in all ages, against Christ Himself, and even in the present day new forms of error have arisen, which it will not help souls to ignore, but which rather must be kept in view throughout. Nor will it do to say, "Let us keep to the words of Scripture," apart from the serious inquiry as to what its words mean. Satan's manner is to plant his batteries a long way off, and hide them from view as far as possible, but where he knows they will nevertheless do effective work; nor can we spike his cannon without unearthing his batteries. He is much more careful as to things than words; and to answer him we must show that words mean things.

But while we cannot ignore the forms of error which are in the present day so numerous, and oftentimes so much disguised; yet to put forth Christ in all His fullness, in the various glories in which the Word presents Him, this I would fain have the aim of the papers here beginning, from first to last. No higher aim can be, though one may realize all the more the poverty of attainment. Yet here, if one be true in it, the help of the Spirit of God may assuredly be counted on. He is among us to glorify Christ; to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. And the poorest and feeblest, if heartily and honestly (let us add, humbly) in His hands for this, will surely prove what is more than human energy for the attainment of it. May He grant it now.
CHAPTER I. The Deity of Christ.

For one who is in possession of the New Testament, it scarcely needs to quote a text to prove the deity of Christ. It is only will that can fail to find it there; though it would be another thing entirely to say that there are no difficulties in the comprehension of it. Of course there are difficulties. That a babe born in Bethlehem, growing in wisdom and stature in the carpenter's house in Nazareth, should be at the same time the God of all men, this is a difficulty which no one thinks of denying. The Old Testament states it, however, and draws attention to it twice over, for the wonder of it, in words that were written, as every Jew is clear, long before the day of Christ. So Isaiah (9:6):" Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder:and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of eternity, the Prince of peace." And again, Micah (5:2):"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall He come forth to Me who is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

Mystery it surely is, but no less clear that the fact is affirmed, and affirmed of One to whom from the beginning, as the "Seed of the woman," the generations of men looked forward,-to whom, since He came, the generations have looked back; and He the unique Man in human history! The marvelous explanation suits well the marvel of fact, while it concentrates every faculty of the soul upon it. He who made the world, from whom it had slipped away, has entered it again, in strange guise indeed, but so as to show the most tender interest in it. When we know Who it is, the self-abasement, the child-speech of the Eternal, learning the conditions of creature-hood, but so far removed from paradise:what a revelation is in this obscurity He has assumed!

Himself has come after us! who, after all, so likely as He? Shall we measure Him by the height of His throne-and then He is far from us indeed; or by the depths of a divine nature, which has planted even in man (capable of being seen in him still, spite of his ruin) the capacity of a self-sacrificing love, which can only be the dim reflection of his Maker?

Can it be another than He-a creature-to whom He has left it to win our hearts away from Himself by the glory of so great a work achieved for us? No, impossible! And when we realize this work, not as provincial merely, as done for a mere corner of creation, but as under the eyes of angelic principalities and powers, "that He might show in the ages to come, the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness to us,"-how impossible for it to be any other than Himself who should do this!-for it to be no manifestation of God at all, but of some creature merely; God, in His central glory of being, yet unknown !

"All things were created by Him and for Him" (Col. 1:6) is said of Christ; and such sayings are almost more positive affirmations of His Godhead than the most direct statements could be. How impossible to imagine a mere creature center for the universe to revolve about! or even an inferior God! Go back to the account of creation, and how naturally it reads now of Him who is God and with God, as the gospel of John declares Him, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." Or again, look forward in thought to where we are carried in that prophecy of Isaiah with which we began, by that title of His, not "the everlasting Father," as the text of the common version has it, but as the Hebrew and the margin of the Revised, "the Father of eternity:" the One who having made all things at the beginning, shall give them at the last their final shape.
Thus we realize that at the Center of the universe there is not merely a Power that controls and holds it together-which is again true of Him "in whom all things consist" (Col. 1:17),-but a Heart:perfectly told out as the moral Power which is manifested now as the " Beloved" of " Love" Itself. Here in the Incarnation and Atonement is it told out to us. There could be no other. It is no satellite which has become a sun, but the diffusive Sun itself, -yea, the Sun of all suns. F. W. G.

(To be Continued.)

Ques. 30.-In Phil. 2:27. Why is it called "mercy" on Epaphroditus, when Paul says "to depart and be with Christ is far better ? "

Ans.-It is in view of his sickness that the apostle says God had mercy on him-not in contrast with being with Christ which surely is ever far better. But as one sick unto death God's mercy was shown in raising him up-a special mercy to the apostle too lest he should have " sorrow upon sorrow." This does not in the least touch the greater blessedness of departure to be with Christ.

Ques. 31.-Please explain 1 Tim. 6:16, " Who only hath immortality." Does it refer to Christ glorified or to God ? and does the verse before, "King of kings and Lord of lords," refer to Christ or God, or is it the same as chap. 1:17?

Ans.-The whole connection would show that it is God in His uncreated glory who is spoken of in these clauses (as also in chap. 1:17). He it is who will manifest, at the proper time, Christ Jesus the One who had as faithfully witnessed for God before Pontius Pilate. God, who is King of kings and Lord of lords will then exhibit in all His glory, that One who took His place in lowliness, but in full faithfulness before an earthly potentate. This seems to lead the apostle on to an ascription of worship. God only hath immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; no man has ever seen Him. How blessed it is to remember that Christ was "God manifest in the flesh." "No man hath seen God at anytime; the only begotten Son which is the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (John 1:18.) While the scripture we are considering speaks then of God in His uncreated glory, it is important to note that a similar title is given to our Lord when He comes forth to reign "King of kings and Lord of lords." (Rev. 19:16.) All that God is, the Son is. As in the 102nd psalm, the words of the Lord, in suffering, to the Eternal God are in Heb. 1:applied to Himself, "They shall perish, but Thou remainest."

" All the Father's counsels claiming
Equal honors to the Son ;
All the Son's effulgence beaming,
Makes the Father's glory known."

Ques. 32. – Please explain 1 Cor. ix 19-22. How far could we carry out this principle to-day, especially ver. 20 ? How would this affect our position towards all denominations ? Did not the apostle act by the Holy Spirit ?

Ans. – The apostle surely is giving an inspired description of a God-given ministry, in contrast throughout the chapter, with the spirit of ease, pride, and self-exaltation of false ministers. It is this which makes him speak so solemnly at the close of the chapter, that a man might be a preacher of the gospel and yet a castaway. As to himself, he had not used his apostolic prerogatives, but had been content to be the servant of all, that he might win some. Therefore he took his place, so far as he could, with those to whom he ministered. He was "all things to all men " in a godly way, bearing with their weakness or their ignorance – not raising questions until God had raised them in the consciences of the people. So to the Jews he was as a Jew and as under law, in order that he might minister Christ to them. For this reason he circumcised Timothy, the son of a Jewish mother. But when Judaism had arrayed itself against the truth of God-when it was a question of the gospel and of the honor of the Lord, he gave no place to the " weak and beggarly elements."

As to the application of this principle at the present day, the greatest care would be needed, for the conditions are different. The errors of Christendom, while frequently Judaistic, are not Judaism:for that had been originally given of God, and He led His people very gently out of it into the pasture of Christianity (John 10:). But a lapse back into error is another thing. Again, regard must always be had for the effect our subsequent testimony will have upon Christians in denominations. If they receive us to preach the gospel among them-in their churches- ignorant of our testimony against much that is done among them, may they not say when these things do come out, that we deceived them? Of course we cannot lay down rules for one-another, and the Spirit of God is competent to guide in each case, but we think that in the main it is best to let persons know our position, before accepting invitations to go into their churches. On the other hand care should be taken not to antagonize needlessly, but to use all grace and gentleness-in the truth. As we said, the Lord alone can guide in each case and He will.

Ques. 33.-In "Notes of a reading on the-Epistle to Ephesians," at chap. 4:8, we have these words as interpreting "Thou hast led captivity captive" namely:"Here I apprehend is what we have in regard to the old Testament saints delivered from their captivity in Hades and going up to be with Christ-a multitude of captives they were."

I would ask whether the original will allow of such a liberal interpretation (without forcing the meaning) of the words, and if so, whose captives had they been in Hades, and in what sense now led and where-to Paradise?

May not the thought be that enunciated by the Apostle as to himself in 2 Cor. 2:14, " leadeth me in triumph" (R. V.) alluding to the custom of the victorious army leading its prisoners in triumph on its return from the decisive battle-just as it was in fact in Christ's triumph over Satan and his host when lie spoiled principalities and powers on the cross and made a show of them openly? Col. 2:15 and Heb. 2:14; Judges 5:12 would seem to be in point. I notice in your answer to question 25, page 140, Help and Food, this met in some respects; but there are points in addition that I would be glad to have met by the Word. Admitting the statement to be correct as to Old-Testament saints, what are we to understand by His assurance to the thief on the cross? Was that going into the presence of the Father with His body of glory? He says to Mary "touch Me not" etc., to the disciples, " I ascend etc." He invites them to handle Him, and eight days afterwards addresses Thomas in like manner; where was He meanwhile ? Heb. 1:speaks of His own act in taking His place on High. Psalm 8:speaks of it as the act of God. As to the saints (Old Testament,) and their present status, have Heb. 12:23 (last clause), Col. 1:12, any bearing on the subject? "Just men made perfect"-how? "Saints in light"-what is their inheritance, of which we are made meet to partake?

Ans.-We think the rendering, "a multitude of captives," though given in the margin of our Bibles, decidedly too free to express the original. We believe that the "captivity" is the power that held captive-Satan and his hosts-and not those held in captivity. To bring into the passage Old-Testament saints would be most forced. We agree with our correspondent as to all the passages he quotes except perhaps 2 Cor. 2:14. The apostle is hardly in the same position there as the " principalities " in Col. 2:15. He is a victor and not vanquished. He is being led by a victorious Christ; in fact, he is led in the Christ. We repeat again as to all this teaching about Hades and the position of the Old-Testament saints that it is grating to the spiritual sense. This we think is felt by our correspondent, and by all who look at the facts without bias. Abraham's bosom, where was it? in a prison, or in the presence of God ? If it is only remembered that until the resurrection there will be no public display of glory, and that while the state of the saved, until that time, is one of rest and blessedness it is a spiritual state-it will be seen how foreign to the subject it is to bring in the question of locality, save to remember that all blessedness is in the presence of God.

Our Lord as to His Spirit until His resurrection was with the Father, "Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit." This was in paradise, or heaven-the same thing as 2 Cor. 12:2, 4 shows; and thither went the redeemed soul of the thief; Stephen also when he was stoned. The place is not emphasized, but the Person with whom the redeemed are.

As to Col. 1:12, we think it includes all saints of all time- pre-eminently the Church, which gives character to all heavenly blessing. The spirits of just men made perfect would refer, primarily at least, to the Old Testament saints.

(Continued from page, 186.)

Personal trespass needs also a few lines ere we close this part of the subject. "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, and if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, take one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established; and if he neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church:but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven " (Matt. 18:15-18). This is the way to act in every case of personal trespass. How much trouble would often be averted if this course were adopted,-to go to such an one in the spirit of the Shepherd of this chapter (verses 12, 13), and seek to recover the offender. We are all guilty ones, and if we had been left by the Shepherd until we came to Him and owned our guilt, we would never have come. He knew our guilt, our rebellion, our pride of heart; but notwithstanding all that He sought us, the erring ones, and found us, and we were brought to confession and repentance, yea were delivered; what grace! Now our Lord Himself would by this example even teach us how we are to deal with those who do us a personal injury. " Go and tell him his fault"; go in love to the person himself. But how often instead of this, pride of heart gets the advantage. Our reputation is first, and we tell almost everyone else but the person himself; does this better matters ? surely not. For in this way a trouble which a personal talk in love might settle forever, the erring brother be thereby gained, is left sometimes for years, and roots of bitterness nourished which trouble and defile many. Oh for real faithfulness with one another in this respect.

But if after this effort fails to reach and gain the person, take one or two more; and if this second effort fails, the last effort to reach him is, " tell it to the Church." Now the desire of the whole gathering-ought to be to reach and gain the offender, get him to see his sin and trespass and seek to reclaim him. If such a course were pursued, in most cases of personal trespass, we believe restoration would follow. But how often we meet to give the offender a good lecture, instead of in love and grace seeking to soften him. How ready we are to take the judgment-seat, instead of, even as a gathering, seeking to effect restoration.

But if all effort fails, surely the state of such a heart must be lamentable, and needs now another course of action. Grace has sought his recovery; but when it has failed, righteousness must now give him the place of distance until the sin is owned, and judged. The Lord therefore adds "let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." This is the course the Lord teaches us to pursue, although it may cause sorrow of heart to do so, yet the Lord sanctions it and adds '' whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." This leads us on to the last and final act of discipline as presented in i Cor. 5:yet even in this the restoration of the offender is thought of.

Put away from among yourselves. If this chapter is carefully read, we see when evil develops in an individual, either doctrinally as in 2 Jno. or morally as here, the only course to pursue would be (verses 4, 13) when the whole assembly is gathered, "put away from among yourselves." This is not the act of one, or a few, but the action of the gathering as such. A serious and trying task; would that it was always considered so ; there would be care and caution ; each would move and act only according to the Word, and with the care and caution that they did of old in the case of leprosy (see Lev. xiii, xiv). Yet if after investigation and waiting upon God the wickedness is clearly proven, then the gathering must act with Christ's authority and the wicked person must be "put away." True, this is not evangelistic work, but which sometimes follows it. The same Lord who gives authority to His own to preach the gospel (Matt. 28:), gives His people this authority also to act (Matt. xviii; Jno. 20:and i Cor. 5:4). The evangelist seeks after the unconverted and does so by Christ's authority; the assembly cares for the holiness of God's house and does so by the authority of the same Lord. One is as much the work of Christ as the other. One is gospel work, the other righteous discipline upon one gathered in by the gospel, but whose walk, or conduct, or teaching, would not permit his continuing in the fellowship of God's people walking according to the truth. One (the Gospel) is the delightful work the heart loves to pursue; the other is the serious, yet righteous work that falls upon those who keep His word.

I Cor. 5:ii, gives some of the kinds of evil for which one was to be put away; among them railing is mentioned. We fear this is a sin thought too lightly of by many to-day. God cares too much for the peace of His people to allow such a course to continue, and when it is not judged by the individual the word abides " do not ye judge them that are within? " -" therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person."

The object of discipline we again say is care for the glory of God, the holiness of His house, and the restoration of the offender. Hence, while denied for the time all Christian fellowship in a religious and also social way, as i Cor. 5:would teach, yet we should ever be on the watch for the marks of repentance, and this not only looked for but also the burden of the heart in prayer, if the person under discipline is really the Lord's. When repentance is wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit, how beautiful it is to see grace again permitted to flow out, as in 2 Cor. iii, "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment … so that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." We have seen already how such an act as putting away, was by the Lord's authority on high-"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,"-and now if restoration is effected, the same Lord in His tender compassion also adds, "Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This we say is the object and desire in this extreme act of discipline, and we believe everything that would hinder this righteous work needs to be carefully guarded against.

How far does this discipline extend upon earth. This if understood will be a great help. We verily believe if God's people everywhere understood their relationship with one another, and their direct responsibility to the Lord, such acts of discipline would be owned everywhere. The offender would be held to be in the place of distance by every rightly gathered company of God's people, as much as in the very gathering where such discipline took place. This is an important principle to lay hold of. God's people in every place ought to seek to act together, and the same relationship and responsibility is as binding although miles separate. If this is not owned and there is not an earnest desire among all to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," then independency is the result, and all over the world we would have merely independent congregations- discipline in one not recognized in another. How could the "Holy and the True" endorse such independency? We believe seeing the truth of our oneness, and having the authority of Christ for each act of discipline, such an action is binding wherever His authority is owned. Thus the holiness of God's house is cared for, and the permanent good of offenders sought after. If gatherings are scripturally gathered, several in one town, one state or province, yet they are one in heart and ought to be one in practice. We own but one authority, one relationship, one discipline, and one body, and we have but one common object, the glory of the Lord Jesus and the permanent good of all God's people.

We are quite aware some gatherings have overstepped the mark in discipline, and in haste have acted wrongly, yet in such cases if our relationship is rightly understood it will be easy to solve this difficulty. A person is put away at gathering No. 1. Now how ought gatherings No. 2 and No. 3 to act ? Our answer would be, Without suspicion accept the action. But if facts are presented which would lead us to doubt whether such an act was right, we believe here there would be great need of caution. The remedy would not be to receive the individual, but to go to the place where he was put away and investigate carefully both sides, and if clear proof is given that it was a righteous decision, the offender under discipline could under no consideration be received at No. 2, or No. 3, for gatherings 1, 2, and 3, own the authority of the same Lord and hence act together because before God they are one, and they express this oneness by " endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

But if after investigation it is clear from facts gathered, and the Word by which we are all judged, that gathering No. 1 has acted unrighteously and they are the guilty persons, and the one or more under professed discipline innocent, our remedy would not be to stand apart on neutral ground and receive from either. Such an act, would be a serious denial of our whole relationship and gloss over evil of a serious nature. If gathering No. 1 has acted wrongly, would not the godly way be to seek to reach their consciences, and by doing so seek to get them to retrace their steps and lead them to repentance ? This might take weeks; patience and love would be required, and, where exercised, have resulted frequently in blessing and restoration. Thus fellowship is resumed according to holiness and truth.

If gathering No. 1 refused to own their unrighteous act, after, in grace, a space of time for repentance had been given, then gatherings No. 2 and No. 3 would refuse them further fellowship, and own the other or others. Even during this time of investigation the assembly might be treated as the house in which there was supposed leprosy (Lev. 14:), and of which we read "he that goeth into the house all the while it is shut up, shall be unclean until the even."

We would earnestly press upon each reader the importance of these things, because of late, we believe, the enemy has been seeking to overthrow in the minds of some this godly order and care, which should ever characterize the people of God. And we would also press upon the Lord's people in every case when the extreme discipline of i Cor. 5:is the only course, that grace and patience should ever characterize us. When this has been wanting in some places, weak believers not understanding the principles at stake, have been stumbled at the spirit and manner of those who otherwise were carrying out the government of God's house.

God's righteous requirements, in the case of sin committed by an individual, or a gathering, and dishonor and reproach brought upon the Lord's Name. We believe the righteousness and holiness that characterize God's dwelling place demands more than mere reformation-it calls for repentance and self-judgment. This is ever true in the sinner; reformation will not do for God,-a very clear principle. " God requireth that which is past," and this principle is ever true .in the lives of God's people. Years may run their course, and reformation in life and practice be effected by this circumstance or that, yet for God and those who care for the principles of truth and righteousness, repentance and self-judgment are required. True, we are not now in apostolic days, and that visible unity once so fair is not presented to our eyes; yet apostolic order and teaching ever abide. We can truly say we are in the days of 2 Tim. Yet we have a faithful God, who never for-gets His people; and hence amid all the confusion of the closing days of Christianity, He even here, in these days of ruin, provides for those who desire to walk with Him in holiness and truth. Such a path is in separation from iniquity, as 2 Tim. 2:19, 21-gathered to the Lord Jesus as a center, and following righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call upon the Lord with a pure heart. To this we would add the apostle's exhortation, "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another" (Rom. 14:19), and somewhat of the joy which will fill the hearts of God's people by-and-by will be ours even now. " Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! " (Ps. 133:) A. E. B.