PROPHECY. 1 Cor. 14:1-6; Num. 11:24-29.

This structure of this part of Corinthians is very beautiful and perfect. From the first to the tenth chapters we are given the fencing off of the Church from the world. The subject of Corinthians is the Church from the world. Corinth was the notorious type of the world, and the Church is here, first of all, fenced off from those influences which were already beginning to make themselves felt in it.

He begins with the wisdom of the world which was gotten at the fall, and which man loves and values so much. This is met by the preaching of Christ crucified. After this he looks at another form of evil which characterizes it – the lusts of the flesh. This is taken, up, from chapter 5:, and instruction given as to dealing with this form of sin.

Next he goes on to association with evil, and shows they cannot have fellowship with evil practices:"Ye cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils." (chap. 10:)

Beloved brethren, how necessary to us all this is. Try to keep a garden without a fence to keep out those destructive beasts that prowl around, and what sort of a garden would you have ?

Now we go inside the fence, in chapter 11:, to see what the Lord's garden is,- to see what the Church is to Him and to us. First, everything is put in its place inside, in relation to the man and the woman. Their creation place is emphasized as still to be maintained in the church, and, of course, with Christ head of all. Then we find the Lord's people gathered at the Lord's table, on the ground of the wonderful work He has accomplished for them,- to remember Him they are gathered to Him thus. Then, and not before, Christ having His place, we learn (chapter 12:) that believers are members of Christ's body, and members one of another; and this implying the ministry of each to each, as with the members of the natural body.

In the thirteenth chapter the apostle goes on to show how needed, to help and to build up, is a spirit of love which makes us servants one of another; and in the fourteenth chapter we have actual ministry in the assembly, in which love finds its voice and serves:"He that prophesieth edifieth the Church," and "speaks unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort."

Thus it is prophesying he singles out particularly; and his singling out of this puts emphasis upon it. He desires "rather that ye may prophesy." " I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied." Out of all the gifts (tongues, etc.) he singles prophesying. A "tongue" was, in the assembly, a most manifest sign of the spirit of God at work, and yet he brings this forward only to contrast it with what, in the eyes of men, is scarcely a gift at all. There was from the beginning danger in this way that there would be a slighting of it, if no more. In an earlier day to the Thessalonians he says, "Despise not prophesyings."

But what is this prophesying ? That should not need, one would think, the question. If it had not fallen into extreme neglect, it could scarcely require it. Do we, beloved brethren, think much about it ? Perhaps, as uttering predictions, and a power passed away. But to understand better its true character, let us go back to the old times of Deuteronomy, back of Christian times, and before ever God could speak plainly as He has now spoken to us. At the very beginning of the past dispensation, prophecy is instituted by God as a special thing.

In Deuteronomy 16:and 17:, judge and king and priest are provided, in view of their need in later days. The judge preserves righteousness:God is light. The priest maintains love:God is love.

Beyond both these is the prophet in chapter 18:; but this is something different entirely from either. The judges were appointed by men, and king succeeded king, while the priest had his successional place, son succeeding his father. But there was 110 such provision in connection with the prophet. Each is raised up and put in his place by God Himself, and it is his responsibility to make God's voice heard in the midst of His people. The judge would serve the people in the administration of righteousness, and the priest in the exercise of mercy and help; but the prophet testified to the living God, constantly thinking of His people and their need, and wanting to speak to them with His own voice (hedged by the warning that He would avenge His insulted majesty if a false prophet should arise and speak). God, because He loves, must utter His voice, and tell out his heart in words suited to the moment, and that voice is with the prophet.

How beautifully this is carried out! In Numbers, when the people begin to get away from God, when the manna is despised, it is the voice of the prophet that comes in to recall. Moses himself complains of the burden of the people, and part of Moses' spirit is taken and put upon the seventy elders standing around the Tabernacle, and they prophesy. Two are specifically mentioned who continue in the camp:Eldad, God loves; Medad, love; – answering – is it not? – to the love that delights to draw them to Himself. How blessed that call! Oftentimes when His people are slipping away, in a voice tender with His love (and oh how tender it is!), which feels as intolerable their slipping away, He speaks to them by the prophet, and calls them back to Himself. And so here.

In Samuel (i Sam. 19:18-24) we have a lovely picture illustrating this. Samuel is surrounded by prophets, in a minor sense; and it is in this minor sense I want to speak especially now. What a power of God there is in our being thus with God! David flees from Saul to Samuel, and Saul sends messengers to take David; but soon as the messengers come into the presence of the prophets they fall under the power of the Spirit, and "they also prophesied." Saul himself finally comes up. He will do better; but in like manner he feels the power of God, and the old saying is revived, " Is Saul also among the prophets ?"

So in the midst of Judaism itself, with all its distance, God broke through it, and if there were a fore-gleam of Christianity to be found in it, was it not there?

Now in Corinthians the apostle goes back to this prophesying as being so needed by His people, and here not necessarily in the highest sense. All could not be apostles and prophets, as laying the foundation, but there is another-a minor-kind, of which He speaks, and which he covets for them. There is no selfishness with him in this desire. You remember in that beautiful picture in Numbers, when Eldad and Medad were prophesying, and Joshua runs to Moses and would have stopped them, how fine is his reply:" Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them. Now this is really the case:"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Have not all the Lord's people the Spirit ? The Lord has given it, and with it the capacity for prophesying, at least in the sense in which the apostle speaks. If practically we do not find it, it is because we are so dull and unsanctified as not to notice or perhaps as to forbid it,- to "quench the Spirit of God."

Prophesying is a gift all may have, and it is developed out of the spiritual life of the soul. It is with him who has the mind of God at any time, for anything in living power in his soul,- and who can have the mind of God thus, and not utter it? It is the voice for the occasion,-the voice of the living God still, uttering itself at the suited moment. As Peter also says:"If any man speak, let him speak as oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him minister as of the ability God giveth; that God in all things maybe glorified through Jesus Christ." We may well covet that.

A beautiful testimony is here in Deuteronomy. The Levites had their place in connection with the tabernacle, but as to their dwelling-places, were scattered through the land. If, however, any one desired in his heart to live nearer the habitation of God, room was to be made for him, and provision found for him there:he was free to sell his patrimony, and minister there before Jehovah his God.

God says to any who desire to be near Christ, "Come near." He opens the door to them, and draws them with His tender love. The world's maxim is "There is always room at the top." God's maxim is "There is always room at the center." And the center is indeed the top, is it not ? Nothing could stop God's love to men, and that love desires nearness. He says, as to this Levite, "Does he seek after me ? Let him come:oh, let him come near." And, beloved, God speaks that way still. God forbid we should despise this prophetic ministry. There is no revelation, of course; but it is His word as the Spirit of God can apply and utter it. Not, as one mentioned recently at Pittsburgh that a man said (turning over the leaves of the Bible), "The dead leaves of a dead book," but the living words of the living God.

When Caleb claims and takes his patrimony it is Hebron (communion) he takes. He also gets Kirjath Sepher (the city of the Book). The Book of God and Communion. He drove out the sons of Anak. Just the biggest giants Satan plants there, but, as with a wave of his hand, he drives them out. No great effort or work, he just drives them out; but this is not all:he takes Kirjath Sepher, and calls it Debir; and Debir means "oracle." The city of the book becomes the oracle.

When the Word applies itself in a living way to the soul, then it is you are ready for a place among the company of the prophets; for people are never with God to find Him dumb. He is one who seeks to speak to us of all He is; and when we draw near, it is then He makes Himself known; and this is what constitutes essentially a prophet. It is this I want to speak of and press, at the present time, beloved brethren. A word from God,- a word, the fruit of communion,- a word that has burned in your heart, –a word like that which burned in the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, when He talked to them,- such words make prophets. They are words that fill the heart and overflow it,-words meant to be uttered, and that will make themselves heard.

Prophecy is the fruit of divine love seeking us. It is that which is the charm of the Psalms,-that everywhere through the book the heart is seeking God, and getting answer. Has this been true of us, beloved,- the heart and the flesh crying out for the living God, desiring to be molded by Him, and His Word speaking to us and stamping itself upon our souls ?

These chapters of Corinthians lead to this. We are members of Christ's body, and members of one another. The body is an organic thing, – part fits part. There is strict individuality, but the individual is for the whole; and yet he is the individual.

First, there is absolute need of individuality. Man to-day makes a confederacy,-a machine ; and human souls are subjected to pressure, and heart and conscience are left out. Great bodies of this kind have no heart and no conscience. Did you ever know of a corporation that had a heart or a conscience ? Why, heart and conscience are individual, and each one of us must remain that; but with God, thinking for one's self, judging for one's self, in the fullest way. The babes in i John 2:had an unction from the Holy One and knew all things, and needed not that any should teach them.

God's word speaks so that the poorest and simplest may hear and understand. His word is not for philosophers and learned people, but for those who know what it is good for practically. The simplest Christian knows this. How precious that word to him,- how good, how holy! Our sins are individual, and we have to do with God about these; and that word that says to the heart, "Thy sins are forgiven thee," who would miss the individuality of this? – those tender tones that say to the heart, "Thy sins are forgiven." Thus are we brought to rest, and thus we begin and continue to walk with Him. All this is individual. Conscience is the throne of God in my soul; and if I give up my conscience, I dethrone God in my soul. Oh, beloved, I want to insist on this,- God's authority over my soul, as if there were not another in the wide world but myself. If we die, we have to go out one by one, to present ourselves to God. And oh, I say, beloved brethren, let us be with God now,-be near him now, – accustom yourself to His voice now, – and then the way is marked out by Himself. Then, as in those old psalms, it will be true of us, "I will guide thee by mine eye." How near and how familiar we must be, to be guided by His eye. If near enough, we can act upon a look, and this implies we are by His side waiting for His look; and no matter how much we may know of His mind, we must be in the constant sense of nearness to have it for the moment.

At the mount they had learned that a man can hear God speak and not die; yet they said, "Don't let Him speak any more." They shut Him out, and didn't want to hear Him. Wouldn't you think people were speaking that way again, putting persons and things between themselves and God, lest He should come too near or they come too near to Him.

But if He must stand back, if they must not hear His voice directly, He must still speak to His people, and He says, "I will raise them up a prophet, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him." And thus His love follows them, and He speaks to them still.

But if the body were all individuals, or, as the apostle says in his illustration, were all an eye, where -what-would the body be? But spiritual life and growth are involved. If members, we are all joined together, and so members one of another, and the idea is that each individual member should serve the other.

Perhaps some one says, "I do not see that I have any gift for this." How the apostle puts all that aside! "Much more those that are feeble are necessary." So you are "necessary"-everyone of you – to one another and the whole. Do you say, "I don't know what my gift is" ? I say, it is not necessary you should know. Live your life in God's presence and to God, and you'll not need to look at yourself to find your gift. God puts you in the midst of a world full of necessities, and He presses on you, "Here are souls that need some to pity, and seek them out," and you go out with what God has given you – to seek and reach and minister to them.

As to woman, God didn't mean the head to be where the heart is, or the heart to be where the head is, and so He has given her place,- and a great place; and though He forbid her the public platform, yet He is with all to carry the word that the soul of the needy requires. There are prophetesses as well as prophets, and there is a place for the woman as well as for the man. So all God's people are free – with the ability He has given, and in the place He has put them – to tell the world the grace of God; and so all His people are free to help one another in the thing's of God, and to build one another up.

It is not an official tiring. Philip's daughters did not prophesy in the assembly. I am quite sure of that, for this very chapter makes it plain; but they did not neglect the gift in their proper sphere; and this is the very thing which is so sadly-so widely- neglected.

Let me remind you again, beloved, that God says, "If anyone [man or woman] speak, let him speak as oracles of God." This is not only "let him speak the Word," but that every word shall be uttered as a word from God. This is not beyond either your capacity or mine.

What can hinder this, but insubjection to Him ? Is there not abundant power of the Spirit of God to completely control and fill with the Spirit? And if this be not true of us, brethren, why is it but because we are filled with other things, alas ! And so the importance of self-judgment; and in the very act a bubble comes up from the fountain; and if this were habitual, beloved, what would there be in result ? The fountain of the water of life would bubble up; and isn't that what we need ? If you have the reality of this in your souls, you will be living for God, and walking with God, and serving God; and, as in the days of Samuel, if people come in as enemies even, it will result in their falling down, and owning (as the apostle says) that God is with you of a truth. And, beloved, we shall be like those of whom it is said, in the days of the apostles:"Then they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word." F. W. G.

QUESTIONS 1.-Please explain the apparent contradiction between 1 John 2:27, "Ye need not that any man teach you," and the fact that teachers were given to the Church.

Answer.- The preceding verse shows that it was human teaching the apostle was guarding them against. They had an unction from God,-divine perception,-and were therefore independent of human teachers, who after all could but seduce or lead them astray. But this, so far from casting a slight upon God-given teachers, opens the way for them. We have eyes, we need no one to see for us, but we do need to have things pointed out to us. And this is exactly the function of the teacher; he points out what is in God's word. We then can see it as well as he. A few verses above, in this very chapter, ver. 21, the apostle says he has written because they know the truth; that is, had the faculty for apprehending it when shown to them. This, so far from obviating the necessity for his writing, was the justification for his doing so.

Q. 2.-What is the meaning of the expression, "If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked "? (2 Cor. 5:3.) W. S. H.

Ans.- This third verse has evidently not the same meaning as verses 2 and 4. There the expressions are "clothed upon" and "unclothed," referring respectively to the resurrection body and the disembodied spirit. In verse 3, however, we have not "unclothed," but "naked," which seems to have a distinct moral meaning in Scripture – unfitness for the presence of God. (Rev. 3:17, 18.) Instead of "clothed upon," we have simply "clothed,"-having the "best robe"-Christ – put upon us. The verse, then, means simply that the apostle was saved, was ready to depart and be with Christ. He was already clothed, and therefore had no fear of being found naked, even if unclothed as to his mortal body. The thought seems to be suggested naturally from the second verse. He is then speaking of the natural hope of the Christian of being "clothed upon,"-having his resurrection body,- and adds, "If, indeed, being also clothed, we shall not be found naked,"-that is, if, indeed, we are saved people, and not mere professors.

THE CHURCH :MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES. (Continued from page 20.)

Having now, through the mercy of God, examined the teaching of Scripture upon the fundamental principles which underlie the Church of God, it only remains for us to note some of the applications of these principles to various questions which arise in their carrying out.

CHURCH MEETINGS.

The keynote of the Church is unity,- gathering together to the Lord. The disciples "were all, with one accord, in one place," on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:i), just prior to the formation of the Church. The three thousand new converts that were added to them on that day continued daily, with one accord, in the temple. In the joy of that first love it seemed to be one long meeting, scarcely discontinued at all. And yet, even at that time (exceptional as to many things – the immense number of visitors at Jerusalem, the great temple still open to them, the need of further leading, etc.) there were certain characteristics which serve as a guide in settling the nature of Church meetings. "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers." (Acts 2:42.) We have here indicated, besides fellowship, which would apply to all meetings and the whole life, three features which marked the Church life of these saints:Teaching, Breaking of Bread, and Prayer. We do not mean that at once separate meetings were devoted to each of these,- rather that all their gatherings were so marked. But as the Church emerged from what must of necessity have been but temporary, as the link with Judaism was severed, we find regular meetings for a special purpose. "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread." (Acts 20:7.) Here at a specified time (the Lord's day), at a specified place, together, for a specified purpose (to break bread), the disciples met. That this was their regular weekly custom is manifest from the form of expression. They did not come together to meet the Apostle, but to break bread. That this custom was universal is seen from i Cor. 11:20:"When ye come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper." (Because of their abuses. See verses 21-34.) That what he wrote for the Corinthians was for the entire Church is seen from chapter 11:16; chapter 14:33.

We have already dwelt somewhat upon the nature of this holy feast in the paper on Worship. It is only necessary to note the prominent place it occupies. Not even an apostle's presence could set it aside. No frequency could mar its freshness, when partaken of in the proper spirit. It exhibited before the saints that great foundation-fact upon which their own life and the structure of the Church rested. Christ's body and blood, His death, His love unto death, the solemn and touching circumstances of that death, the blessed and eternal fruits of that death, the adorable Person who thus loved His Church,-were and are presented before the eye of faith, to awaken the affections, arouse the conscience, renew the strength, and call forth the worship of His people. At the same time, in the one loaf was presented, ever before the saints, the one body of the Church of Christ, (i Cor. 10:16, 17.)

The Lord's Supper, then, is the chief meeting of the Church. It is the only one distinctly specified, and it occurred weekly. It naturally follows that it gives character to the whole meeting. Teaching there may be, prayer, and exhortation; but the breaking of bread should ever be the prominent feature, and all else subordinated to and influenced by that. But if the Lord Himself is before us, and our state is right, praise and worship will predominate. Each meeting will be a foretaste of that endless praise of heaven, when, gathered about Him, the whole company of the redeemed will burst forth in one eternal anthem of praise. "Till He come" may we anticipate that blessed time every Lord's day.

We must add a word as to the awful desecration of the Lord's Supper. To say nothing of the multitudes who partake of it avowedly as a mere form, how many are there who come in a careless unjudged way to the Lord's Supper. It was so in a gross way at Corinth, where gluttony, pride, and drunkenness were indulged in. It is none the less so now, where multitudes in full fellowship with the world and its ways, with no knowledge of a full salvation, nor desire for that knowledge, with sins unconfessed and unforsaken, sit down at the table of the Lord. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." How can God's children sit down with those who they know are walking in an ungodly way ? Do they not, by this very looseness, show an indifference to God's holiness which must sorely grieve the holy Spirit of God ? It is no question of salvation, but of honoring God,-a question which should be as important to us as that of our salvation. But we leave this to the exercised conscience of the reader.

But the Church requires instruction, and has its needs. It is therefore most fitting that there should be special meetings for these purposes, that the meeting for the breaking of bread may be left free for its own peculiar purpose. Love attracts us to the Lord, and therefore to one another. Meetings for prayer, and holy, happy conference, will be as frequent as circumstances and the duties of daily life will permit. We need hardly say that daily work is not to be neglected for the sake of multiplied meetings, nor the duties each one owes to his own family. This would be the disorderly walking which the apostle rebuked. (2 Thess. 3:6-12.) Still when every duty has been met, there remains for all the opportunity of attending meetings, and the exhortation "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is." (Heb. 10:25.)

A regular meeting for prayer and exhortation during the week is not only suggested by the constantly recurring needs of the Lord's people, but by Scripture as well. How many and varied are the needs of the Church, and how blessed it is to come together for this purpose,- the saints pouring out their hearts to God, interceding for one another, remembering the sick and afflicted, and pleading for blessing on the Lord's work! Ah, beloved brethren, let us never neglect the prayer-meeting:we grow cold when we fail to avail ourselves of its privileges.* * For an excellent practical paper upon this subject the reader is referred to "Prayer and the Prayer-Meeting," by C. H. M.*

One of the characteristic features of the day is shallowness,- ignorance of and distaste for the word of God. Private and prayerful study of the Scripture is the great remedy for this, and it is also a most helpful exercise for the Lord's people to come together during the week for this purpose. The reading meeting not being provided for in Scripture (though most scriptural in its spirit) is necessarily an informal gathering. It is in this meeting that the gift of the teacher is most enjoyed. Without definitely presiding, the one instructed in the Word imparts to his brethren, answering questions and unfolding Scripture. It will be found most helpful to take up and go regularly through different books of the Bible, the New Testament, and particularly the Epistles, as presenting the full light of God's truth. This meeting should be guarded from useless speculations and mere vapid commonplaces. When there are none of experience and knowledge of the Word, it will often be found best for the Lord's people to come together and read some profitable work, with their Bibles in their hands, reading the references, and turning to passages suggested. Such a practice will be found most helpful, and open the way to much profitable conference. We would not have it understood that one must be thoroughly taught in the Word to conduct a reading meeting, still a measure of familiarity with Scripture and some ability for communicating it are essential. We need hardly add that God meets and blesses His hungry people when they are looking to Him, no matter how little gift there may be among them.

In addition to this, the saints may come together to hear whatever a servant of the Lord may have to impart to them in the way of addresses on Scripture; but such meetings being entirely on the responsibility of the individual teacher do not properly come under our subject. The same may be said of the evangelist's meeting for preaching the gospel. But of that later.

Before leaving the subject of Church meetings we must look at one most important feature; and to do so we will recall the great characteristic fact of Christianity- the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Church. We have already seen, in the paper on Ministry, that Scripture does not recognize official position in the Church. If this is true as to ministry, much more is it so in worship. To have one man preside over a company of Christians and assume all the functions of worship and ministry is not only a practical denial of their priesthood, but a usurpation of the place of the Holy Ghost. This may be done ignorantly, and with the best of motives; but it is none the less an ignoring of the sovereign power of the Spirit to guide and control every man severally as He will. The fourteenth chapter of First Corinthians is the simple directory for worship, as the twelfth chapter gives the constitution of the Church. "How is it, then, brethren? When ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. (i Cor. 14:26.)While the apostle here may be pruning off the exuberance of licence, the great principle of liberty for the Spirit of God to use whom He will is established. The only check is "Let all things be done unto edifying.""For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." (5:33.) The women were to keep silence in the churches. But of this we will say a few words later.

We have then a most simple and effectual guide in our worship. We are in the Lord's presence, and the Holy Ghost is there to guide. There is no need to have a man to preside. That would only interfere with the liberty of the Spirit. It may be asked, Will not disorder come in ? And our reply must be that the Spirit of God is more able than man to control disorder. God never intended that we should get on without faith or dependence upon Him. Where there is subjection to the Lord, and a godly consideration of one another, there will be the sweetest liberty and real divine power. Let the attempt be made in the fear of God, and the blessed results will be manifest.

(To be continued.)

Jesus! Thou sum of all my joy,
For Thee I yield each earthly toy;
In Thee I have all good;
I give not up what's worth a thought,
I gain what has been dearly bought,-
The price Thy precious blood.

The joys of earth live but a day,
The meteor's flash, and haste away,
And leave a gloom behind;
Thy joy, blest One, is evermore,
It lives when earthly joys are o'er;
It is a heavenly kind.

I gladly, then, leave all for Thee,
Thy love, O Christ, hath set me free,
It's won a grief-worn heart;
Oh may I in Thy footsteps haste,
Till I have crossed this dreary waste,
And come to Thee apart.

Oh joy of joys to dwell with Thee!
From every snare and sorrow free!
And see Thee face to face!
Oh, may this hope my spirit cheer,
The moments I'm continued here,
A witness of Thy grace.

R. H.

CHAPTER XII. (Continued from page 7.)

Our last chapter concluded with the words, "For childhood and youth are vanity":that is, childhood proves the emptiness of all "beneath the sun," as well as old age. The heart of the child has the same needs – the same capacity in kind – as that of the aged. It needs God. Unless it knows Him, and His love is there, it is empty; and, in its fleeting character, childhood proves its vanity. But this makes us quite sure that if childhood can feel the need, then God has, in His wide grace, met the need; nor is that early life to be debarred from the provision that He has made for it. There are then the same possibilities of filling the heart and life of the young child with that divine love that fills every void, and turns the cry of "Vanity" into the Song of Praise:"Yea, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise."

But our writer is by no means able thus to touch any chord in the young heart that shall vibrate with the music of praise. Such as he has, however, he gives us:"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."

This counsel must not be separated from the context. It is based absolutely and altogether on what has now been discerned:for not only is our writer a man of the acutest intelligence, but he evidently possesses the highest qualities of moral courage. He shirks no question, closes his eyes to no fact, and least of all to that awful fact of man's compulsory departure from this scene which is called "death." But following on, he has found that even this cannot possibly be all; there must be a judgment that shall follow this present life. It is in view of this he counsels "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth," whilst the effect of time is to mature, and not destroy, the powers He has given thee:for not forever will life's enjoyment last; old age comes surely, and He who made thee, holds thy spirit in His hand, so that whilst the body may return to dust, the spirit must return to Him who gave it.

We will only pause for a moment again to admire the glorious elevation of this counsel. How good were it if the remembrance of a Creator-God, to whom all are accountable, could tone, without quenching, the fire and energy of youthful years, and lead in the clean paths of righteousness. But, alas, how inadequate to meet the actual state of things. Solomon himself shall serve to illustrate the utter inadequacy of his own counsel. What comfort or hope could he extract from it ? His were now already the years in which he must say "I have no pleasure in them." A more modern poet might have voiced his cry,-

"My age is in the yellow leaf,
The bad, the fruit of 'life,' is gone:
The worm, the canker, and the grief,
Remain alone ! "

His youth was no more:its bright days were forever past, never to be restored. What remains, then, for Solomon, and the myriads like him ? What shall efface the memory of those wasted years, or what shall give a quiet peace, in view of the fast-coming harvest of that wild sowing? Can Reason-can any human Wisdom – find any satisfactory answer to these weighty questions ? None!

Verses 2 to 7 beautifully and poetically depict the fall of the city of man's body under the slow but sure siege of the forces of Time. Gradually, but without one moment's pause, the trenches approach the walls. Outwork after outwork falls into the enemy's hands, until he is victor over all, and the citadel itself is taken.

Verse 2.- First, clouds come over the spirit:the joyousness of life is dulled,-the exuberance of youth is quenched. Sorrow follows quickly on the heel of sorrow, – "clouds return after rain." Those waves that youth's light bark rode gallantly and with exhilaration, now flood the laboring vessel and shut out the light – the joy – of life.

Verse 3. – Then the hands (the keepers of the house) tremble with weakness, and the once strong men (the knees) now feeble, bend under the weight of the body they have so long borne. The few teeth (grinders) that may remain fail to do their required service. Time's finger touches, too, those watchers from the turret-windows (the eyes):shade after shade falls over them till, like slain sentinels that drop at their posts, they look out again never-more.

Verse 4. – Closer still the enemy presses, till the close-beleaguered fortress is shut out from all communication with the outer world; "the doors are shut in the streets"; the ears are dulled to all sounds. Even the grinding of the mill,* which in an eastern house rarely ceases, reaches him but as a low murmur, though it be really as loud as the shrill piping of a bird, and all the sweet melodies of song are no longer to be enjoyed.

*This differs from the usual interpretation, which makes this verse a metaphor of the mouth and teeth. This has been rejected above, not only on account of the direct evidence of its faultiness, and the fanciful interpretation given to the "sound of grinding," but for the twofold reason that it would make the teeth to be alluded to twice, whilst all reference to the equally important sense of "hearing" would be omitted altogether. I have therefore followed Dr. Lewis's metrical version:-

"And closing are the doors that lead abroad,
When the hum of the mill is sounding low,
Though it rise to the sparrow's note.
And voices loudest in the song, do all to faintness sink."

Although, I might here add, I cannot follow this writer in his view that Ecclesiastes is describing only the old age of the sensualist. Rather is it man as man,-at his highest,- but with only what he can find "under the sun" to enlighten him.*

Verse 5. – Time's sappers, too, are busily at work, although unseen, till the effect of their mining becomes evident in the alarm that is felt at the slightest need of exertion. The white head, too, tells its tale, and adds its testimony to the general decay. The least weight is as a heavy burden; nor can the failing appetite be again awakened. The man is going to his age-long home;* for now those four seats of life are invaded and broken up-spinal-cord, brain, heart, and blood, – till at length body and spirit part company, each going whence it came,- that to its kindred dust, this to the God who gave it.

*The word rendered above '' age-long,'' in our authorized version "long,"-man goeth to his long home-is one of those suggestive words with which the Hebrew Scriptures abound, and which are well worth pondering with interest. To transfer and not translate it into English we might call it "olamic," speaking of a cycle:having a limit, and yet a shadowy, undefined limit. The word therefore in itself beautifully and significantly expresses both the confidence, the faith of the speaker as well as his ignorance. Man's existence after death is distinctly predicated. The mere grave is not that olamic home; for the spirit would, in that case, be quite lost sight of; nor, indeed, is the spirit alone there,- the man goes there. It appears to correspond very closely to the Greek word Hades,
"the Unseen." Man has hone to that sphere beyond human ken, but when the purposes of God are fulfilled, his abode there shall have and end:it is for an "age," but only an "age." All this seems to be wrapped up, as it were, in that one phrase–Beth-olam, the age-long home. How blessed for us the light that has since been shed on all this. That in One case (and indeed already more than that One) that "age" has already come to an end, and the first fruits of that harvest with which our earth is sown has even now been gathered. We await merely the completion of that harvest:"Christ the first fruits:afterwards they that are Christ’s, at His coming."*

Thus to the high wisdom of Solomon man is no mere beast, after all. He may not penetrate the Beyond to describe that "age-long home," but never of the beast would he say "the spirit to God who gave it." But his very wisdom again leads us to the most transcendent need of more. To tell us this, is to lead us up a mountain-height, to a bridgeless abyss which we have to cross, without having a plank or even a thread to help us. To God the spirit goes,- to God who gave it,-to Whom, then, it is responsible. But in what condition ? Is it conscious still, or does it lose consciousness as in a deep sleep ? Where does it now abide ? How can it endure the searching Light- the infinite holiness and purity – of the God to whom it goes ? How shall it give account for the wasted years? How answer for the myriad sins of life ? How reap what has been sown ? Silence here- no answer here – is awful indeed,-is maddening; and if reason does still hold her seat, then "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," is alone consistent with the fearful silence to such questions, and the scene is fitly ended by a groan.

Deep even unto the shadow of death is the gloom. Every syllable of this last sad wail is as a funeral knell to all our hopes, tolling mournfully; and, like a passing bell, attending them, too, to their "age-long home"!

Oh, well for us if we have heard a clearer Voice than that of poor feeble human Reason break in upon the silence, and, with a blessed, perfect, lovely combination of Wisdom and Love, of Authority and Tenderness, of Truth and Grace, give soul-satisfying answers to all our questionings.

Then may we rejoice, if grace permit, with joy unspeakable; and, even in the gloom of this sad scene, lift heart and voice in a shout of victory. We, too, know what it is for the body thus to perish. We, too, though redeemed, still await the redemption of the body, which in the Christian is still subject to the same ravages of time,- sickness, disease, pain, suffering, decay. But a gracious Revelation has taught us a secret that Ecclesiastes never guessed at; and we may sing, even with the fall of Nature's walls about us, "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Yea, every apparent victory of the enemy is now only to be answered with a "new song" of joyful praise.

It is true that, "under the sun," the clouds return after the rain; and, because it is true, we turn to that firmament of faith where our Lord Jesus is both Sun and Star, and where the light ever "shineth more and more unto perfect day."

Let the keepers tremble, and the strong men bow themselves. We may now lean upon another and
an everlasting Arm, and know another Strength which is even perfected in this very weakness.

The grinders may cease because they are few; but their loss cannot prevent our feeding ever more and more heartily and to the fill on God's Bread of Life.

Let those that look out of the windows be darkened:the inward eye becomes the more accustomed to another – purer, clearer – light; and we see "that which is invisible," and seeing, we hopefully sing –

"City of the pearl-bright portal,
City of the jasper wall,
City of the golden pavement,
Seat of endless festival,-
City of Jehovah, Salem,
City of eternity,
To thy bridal-hall of gladness,
From this prison would I flee,-
Heir of glory,
That shall be for thee and me!"

Let doors be shut in the streets, and let all the daughters of music be brought low, so that the Babel of this world's discord be excluded, and so that the Lord Himself be on the inside of the closed door, we may the more undistractedly enjoy the supper of our life with Him, and He (the blessed, gracious One!) with us. Then naught can prevent His Voice being heard, whilst the more sweet and clear (though still ever faint, perhaps) may the echo to that Voice arise in melody within the heart, where God Himself is the gracious Listener!

Let fears be in the way, we know a Love than can dispel all fear and give a new and holy boldness even in full view of all the solemn verities of eternity; for it is grounded on the perfect accepted work of a divine Redeemer-the faithfulness of a divine Word.

The very hoary head becomes not merely the wit-ness of decay, and of a life fast passing; but the "almond-tree" has another, brighter meaning now:it is a figure of that "crown of life" which in the new-creation scene awaits the redeemed.

If appetite fail here, the more the inward longing, and the satisfaction that ever goes hand in hand with it, may abound; and the inward man thus be strengthened and enlarged so as to have greater capacity for the enjoyment of those pleasures that are "at God's right hand for evermore."

Till at length the earthly house of this tabernacle may be dissolved. Dust may still return to dust, and there await, what all Creation awaits – the glorious resurrection, its redemption. Whilst the spirit – ah, what of the spirit ? To God who gave it ? Ah, far better:to God who loved and redeemed it, – to Him who has so cleansed it by His own blood, that the very Light of God can detect no stain of sin upon it, even though it be the chief of sinners. So amid the rains of this earthly tabernacle may the triumphant song ascend above the snapping of cords, the breaking of golden bowls and pitchers, the very crash of nature's citadel:"Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

This meets-meets fully, meets satisfactorily – the need. Now none will deny that this need is deep,- real. Hence it can be no mere sentiment, no airy speculation, no poetical imagination, no cunningly devised fable that can meet that need. The remedy must be as real as the disease, or it avails nothing. No phantom key may loosen so hard-closed a lock as this:it must be real, and be made for it. For suppose we find a lock of such delicate and complicated construction that no key that can be made will adapt itself to all its windings. Many skilled men have tried their hands and failed,-till at length the wisest of all attempts it, and even he in despair cries "vanity." Then another key is put into our hands by One who claims to have made the very lock we have found. We apply it, and its intricacies meet every corresponding intricacy; its flanges fill every chamber, and we open it with perfect facility. What is the reasonable, necessary conclusion? We say-and rightly, unavoidably say-"He who made the lock must have made the key. His claim is just:they have been made by one maker."

So by the perfect rest it brings to the awakened conscience-by the quiet calm it brings to the troubled mind-by the warm love that it reveals to the craving heart-by the pure light that it sheds in satisfactory answer to all the deep questions of the spirit-by the unceasing unfoldings of depths of perfect transcendent wisdom-by its admirable unity in variety-by the holy, righteous settlement of sin, worthy of a holy, righteous God-by the peace it gives, even in view of wasted years and the wild sowing of the past-by the joy it maintains even in view of the trials and sorrows of the present-by the hope with which it inspires the future;-by all these we know that our key (the precious Word that God has put into our hands) is a reality indeed, and as far above the powers of Reason as the heavens are above the earth, therefore necessarily-incontestably-DIVINE! F. C. J.

(To be continued.)

Christianity is the life of Christ communicated to the believer-dwelling in him-and flowing out from him, in the ten thousand little details which go to make up our daily practical life. It has nothing ascetic, monastic, or sanctimonious about it. It is genial, cordial, lightsome, pure, elevated, holy, heavenly, divine. Such is the Christianity of the New Testament. It is Christ dwelling in the believer, and reproduced, by the power of the Holy Ghost, in his daily practical career. C. H. M.

Gen. 32:22-32 ; 33:18-20; 35:1-15.

I realize, beloved brethren, I might have taken something less familiar than what I have read, but we must be led of God; and when I come to speak I feel as if the whole Bible were shut up to me, but this one portion.

The lesson of Jacob's history must be a very remarkable one, when we see how God has emphasized it. Out of fifty chapters in Genesis, Jacob's life stretches over twenty-five. Though not always in the front, yet he is noticed within these chapters. God calls Himself the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,- three names with which He is pleased to identify Himself. This is His memorial, and it is as such He speaks to Moses afterward. He has identified Himself with them, just as in the New Testament He has identified Himself with one blessed name; and He is now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now there is no other name but that. In Abraham we have, in a way, given us the Father. In Isaac we have the Son. We need one more to complete the series, and in that one more (Jacob) we have the Spirit.

Jacob is his natural name – the Supplanter, but really the heel-catcher, – the one always grasping, grasping,- always ready with his hand. Spiritually he is Israel,- a prince with God. Before he comes to be this, however, there is a long discipline,- the work of the Holy Ghost in him,- and then he comes out as silver tried in the furnace – bright for God. The worse the material, the more intractable, the better it shows the workman; and this is just what we have here. It is from a Jacob, by God's grace, an Israel is formed. This is the Holy Ghost's work low.

I want to look at these passages which are marked by two altars:the one – El-elohe Israel, God the God of Israel; and El Bethel, God the God of His own House. These two things speak of turning-points in Jacob's history. The apostle tells us that before the children were born God made His choice (Rom. 9:), laying, "the elder shall serve the younger." All that ve are, and all that we ever shall be, comes out of what God has wrought, out of what is His choice; hat is, out of His heart, and not our own. We need not wonder at this, for out of the heart of man come – what? Evil thoughts, etc.,-evil, and only evil. Out of the heart of God what comes ? Rather, may we not say, what does not come that is blessed ?

In God's will it is the energy of love always,-love hat masters, love that makes us His, and that makes is followers of Him. He is the God of judgment too, as we fully see in Jacob's case; but, beloved, judgment is his strange work.

But Jacob is born in divine favor. What has he to do but just to be in the hand of Him who would hold him ? What, but just to be quiet in the hand of God? But at the end of his life he has to say "few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." A long life, we should say ; and yet, after all, the years that count, so to speak (there are many years of ours, as well as his, that may not count, are there not ?) are few and evil. This Jacob's hand,-how many things I will lay hold of, always filling itself and never full, and so God has to let the days and months and years pass on, until at last he has to give up, and meet God face to face, and then get relief.

Let us see about this catching hand of Jacob. God had said "The elder shall serve the younger." Yet in nature Esau compares favorably with Jacob:indeed, his noble bearing stands in contrast with the supplanter,- the heel-catcher. But all comes out when Esau comes in from the chase, hungry and weary. Recklessly he would barter away his birthright, for he did not value it, which Jacob takes advantage of, and buys it for a mess of pottage. Esau is stamped as a profane man:Jacob, after all, is not a profane person. He covets a right thing. His heart is set upon what is good and what is of God; but he is mean and grasping, instead of waiting upon God.

Again, God speaks of multiplying his seed like the dust of the earth. Now the dust has to be ground up beneath your feet, and that is the way he is to be multiplied,- all this suggesting the low and groveling spirit that characterized him naturally.

Another thing:Isaac gets old, and wants to bless his sons before he dies. Without right estimate of the divine judgment, naturally he likes Esau. He is not enough with God to see what He is about, and thus he would bless Esau. That is all changed; and Jacob,-how simply he might have rested in God just now, and as surely have got the blessing. What a strange thing a man should think he can wrest from God the blessing He has to give,-is ready to give! But alas, we must pay our toll,- our tribute to Satan. Men do it, Christians do it, we do it. Don't you think we do ? Not openly, perhaps, so as to realize what we are doing; but it is done. We want His blessing, but how often, like Jacob (for we are Jacobs), we take underhand means to get it. Look at all that weary way of his. Let us take God's word for it:let us trust Him, and let Him work things Himself. He will soon carry you-just as soon as He is able-into the blessing he has for you, into the contemplation of Himself,- only lie in His hand.

But Jacob's hand is again upon his brother's heel, and the result is, he is cast out of his father's family for many years. He is cast out into a world where others do with him just what he has been doing with his brother. What you sow you shall reap, says God; but in that way you learn exactly what it is you have been sowing :you learn the evil of your own way.

Oh, beloved, that we might submit to God, and learn His way of blessing, without the long journey so often trod.

Bethel he comes to. It is the house of God. His father's house lost,- a beggarly wanderer,- God opens another home. He doesn't exactly let him in, but He lets him look in; and when His government has done its work He will let him in. When he is homeless and houseless, his head upon a stone for a pillow, then he finds what he himself calls "the house of God and the gate of heaven." And then come those tender assurances, finishing with the words, "And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." The Lord refers to this when speaking to Nathaniel in John 1:Men have their ladders, but they are all too short. Christ is the ladder that reaches to heaven itself. Jacob doesn't see all this, but he sees God at the top, who makes him those exceeding great and precious promises:"And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, . . . and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." (Gen. 28:)

Do you ask, What has Jacob done to deserve that ? Nothing whatever. He deserved much else that follows, but he certainly hadn't deserved this. How good God is, and how good to see God saying he must not be discouraged or cast down, or let his knees knock together. But how do we account for this?

In Psalm 73:the psalmist was envious of the foolish when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. He sees how many of the good things of this world men have. It was too much for him. All the day long he was plagued, and chastened every morning; but at length he went into the sanctuary, and then understood he their end. He finds out then that all these good things that men get do not bring them nearer God, but that God insists we must be ground down to the dust, and then he blesses, and there.

I don't go round the street to take up every child to chasten him, but I chasten my own. This is what God does. But, beloved, God doesn't want to do this with His children. He wants them so near Himself He will not need to do it.

So in Padan, Jacob must toil double. He reaps away at what he had sown, and all those years would seem as if they had no effect upon him at all. Had they none ?

Now when he again gets back to the border of the land, to Mahanaim, he seems to have not learned any lesson. The word Mahanaim speaks of "two hosts," – the Lord's host and his own. He sees God, but he sees Jacob also has something pretty big; but this, beloved, is never a sign of being with God. On the contrary, to be so will manifest him as a man broken to pieces. A broken and contrite heart He will not despise. Though high and lofty, and inhabiting eternity, He will dwell with such. We would rise up and be something, as Christians be something, and God must beat us down, beat us down, beat us down, until we lie down and let Him have His way; and until He lifts us up in His way and His due season. But now he is to meet his brother, and he begins to plan and plot as the Jacob of old.

At the place '' Penuel" God meets him as a stranger, – as one hostile to Him. Jacob has all this heavy load of meeting Esau, whom he had so wronged, as an enemy. He has this additional load laid upon his shoulders,- He meets God, and He is against him, and wrestles with him. Don't mistake, beloved, if circumstances are against you. It is God. Take it from His hand. Jacob's will has not been God's will, and there must be conflict; and even when right things were in question, he could not wait to get them in God's way. Do you know, the more you believe in yourself the less you believe in God, and the measure in which you fail to trust God is the measure in which you trust in yourself. You see people who have no ability to meet anything. They wrestle with God, and wrestle and gain nothing, just as Jacob wrestled and got nothing, for indeed he got nothing by the wrestling.

But how much can a man wrestle when his thigh is out of joint ? Jacob will wrestle! Very well:God will show His strength. He must break him down, and He breaks him down. The angel says-strangely says-"Now let me go." And Jacob, in another voice – no more a wrestling man, but with a dislocated thigh – says "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me." What is he doing? Clinging – not wrestling now, but clinging! Our weakness clings to God, and from that weakness God cannot drag Himself away. Oh, how blessed this ! We look at ourselves, and we force God to come in; and, at all cost, break us down. Then, and not till the wrestler is changed to a clinger,- then he prevails.

Put your arms, in ever so much weakness, around Him, and do you think He will turn away? Will the Almighty God tear Himself away from the weakness of His creature ? Oh, no! Oh, no! Let us, beloved brethren, appropriate all this, and enjoy the blessedness of such an one. The angel now says, "What is thy name?" And he replies, "Jacob. " (Supplanter.) Do you say now, " I am a poor worm, wriggling and trying to make my way along the earth." Then God says, "Now"-not till now-"thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a Prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Oh, beloved, cling – don't wrestle. Wrestle, and He is strong against you; but cling, and He is not strong at all against you, but strong for you.

Jacob now says "Tell me, I pray thee, Thy name. " But He will not. Do you want to know ? Well, Jacob didn't find out. He learned one lesson:he learned himself, in some way; but he goes on into the land when he gets through with Esau, and has escaped the wrath he so much dreaded, and at Shalem, a city of Shechem, he builds there an altar, and calls it El-Elohe-Israel, "God the God of Israel." But if we only learn God as one who shelters and cares and keeps,-that is not enough. Do you rest satisfied with knowing that God belongs to you, or have you gone on to this – that you belong to God ? How easily the child of God sets aside the word of God, and resting satisfied with getting to heaven! Getting salvation, they are indifferent as to how far they obey His word. That is making use of God,- your interests are in question. But has God no interests? Jacob has no thought beyond this – that God is something" very good for Jacob, as he says just here, I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved,- although he had only met God in the dark night, and didn't see His face at all,- asked His name and didn't get it. So, after all, Jacob remains Jacob; and after God had said "Thy name shall no more be Jacob," He has afterward to call him Jacob again. The higher critics-those very wise men-do not see that these things agree, but I tell you they do agree, and it is well if we find it out. Again, Jacob has "power with men, and shall prevail," but in the next chapter he does not prevail. Instead, he and his family are in clanger of being exterminated. At least, he expects or fears this. We shall not go over that sorrowful history, but the lesson for us is plain. We may have power in a certain sense, and not have it. An engine filled with steam might do great damage if it had not rails to run upon; and God's will is the track upon which we are to run, in the power of the Spirit of God.

And now (chap. 35:), "God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and make there an altar unto God." He had made it in the wrong place. Bethel is the house of God, and he is going there. See the effect:"put away the strange gods," etc. Now he is going to see God,- see Him in the light, and not in the darkness. God is to be the only God now,- only His will must be owned. Jacob will be Jacob so long as he doesn't own that. Oh, when the sense of that grace of God has come into his soul, how it beats him down, and what a past he had!

But he goes up to Bethel. He comes to Luz (separation). The break with his past is now complete for himself and all his, and he builds his altar. He calls it El-Bethel, – God the God of His own house. What a change! Long ago that house had opened its door; and Jacob remembered that; and now it is "God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram," and blessed him. But what about the long intervening time ? Ah, all that long time had been wasted and lost. Now God reminds him his name is Jacob sure enough, but it is to be no more practically that:"Israel shall be thy name."

Now, beloved, I want to urge that God has a house of His own, and He wants not that He should be conformed to our house, but that we should be conformed to His. Do we need power ? Then it must be power to do His will, – to serve Him. Which is best, God or we ? His will or ours ? God's will or Jacob's ? Oh, if we claim a right to our own way we may get it, but we shall prove it a bitter misery. If we know God, we shall cry night and day to Him "Don't give me ray will, give me Thine." If you have met God face to face, He will be all glorious to you, and you'll be in the dust forever:you'll be like Job, when he met God face to face, and he says "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." That was the repentance of a saint, but one learning to see himself in the light of God. This is the very secret of holiness. He abhorred himself and his ways, and now he says, like Jacob:"God is to be the God of His own house, the house that opened its doors for me when I was a poor homeless wrecked sinner, and at last brought me in there to enjoy all its blessedness."

The power of that name of Israel will never be known by you till your whole soul bows in reverence before His face. Have you really looked God in the face, and don't care how much you obey Him or do His will? There is but one place for us,- down, down in the dust, in the presence of God,-the God of His own house,-in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you want to know what power is, remember that, if you want to glorify Christ, you'll never lack power, – the power of the Holy Ghost; but if you want to glorify yourself, like the engine off the track and full of steam, you can't have power but to do evil,-evil to yourself and others.

"What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast wade him a little lower than the angels, and hast, crowned him with glory and honor. Thou modest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands:thou hast put all things under his feet:all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field:the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the seas." (Ps. 8:4-8.)

The beast was made out of existing material by a word-the earth "brought them forth"(Gen. 1:24):man was a distinct creation,- God's in breathing constituting him a living soul. Thus the formation of his body and this in breathing are directly from God, in strong contrast with the beast. Moreover, God' consults as to man:"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Gen. 1:26.)

Man represents God, and man was created Me God, however sin may have marred the image and spoiled the likeness.

Man is a triune being, having spirit, soul, and body (i Thess:5:23; Job 10:1,11,12). The spirit is the seat of the understanding,- that is, his intellect or reason, that by which he knows, (i Cor. 2:2:)

The spirit links man with God, who "is a Spirit" (John 4:24),-is "the Father of spirits." (Heb. 12:9.)

The beast has no understanding (Ps. 32:9); and man that is in honor and understands not is like the beasts that perish (Ps. 49:20; cf. 2 Peter 2:12). "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. "(Job. 32:8.) Beasts have not spirit. (Isa. 31:3.) This spirit is formed by God. (Amos 4:13, margin; Zech. 12:1:)

Soul is another thing. It is the seat of the appetites, passions,-as love, hatred, and the like. Every
beast, every fowl, and every creeping thing, has a soul (Gen. 1:30, margin), and man has it in common with them.

Spirit and soul are never confounded in Scripture. (Isa. 38:15, 16; Job 7:n; Luke 1:46, 47; Heb. 4:12.) " In whose hand is the soul (nephesh) of every living thing, and the breath (ruach, 'spirit') of all mankind." (Job 12:10.)

In one place only, where man confesses his ignorance, his vision limited to what is "under the sun," is spirit connected with beasts, and there he asks "who knows?" No answer. (Eccl. 3:19-21.) God's order is "spirit, soul, and body,"-spirit first. Had man been controlled by his spirit in Eden he would have hearkened to God and been safe, but he allowed his soul – his desires – to lead him. (Gen. 3:6.) He desired to become as God, and he became his own god:his belly is his god. (Phil. 3:19.) Soul became uppermost, and man has been soulish (or soul-led, psuchikos) ever since. See this word in Jude 19; i Cor. 2:14; 15:44, 46; James 3:15.

A good illustration of a man governed by his soul is afforded by the drunkard. A shrewd, intelligent professional man is addicted to drink. He has an excellent wife whom he loves, bright children of which he is exceedingly fond, a snug little property which he values, and all going to ruin, and he knows it as well as any one can tell him. Why does he persist in his cups ? His soul is uppermost, his appetite governs.

Death is separation of soul and body. (Gen. 35:18.) "The body without the spirit is dead." (James 2:26.) At death the body goes to the grave. (Gen. 3:19; Eccl. 12:7), and the spirit returns to God
who gave it,- that is, to hades or the unseen world. The distinction between body and soul at death is carefully maintained in Scripture. The blessed Lord's body was not allowed to see corruption, nor His soul left in hades. (Acts 2:27, 31.)

If in Ecclesiastes the view is limited to that '' under the sun," in Luke 16:19-31 the curtain is lifted, and we are allowed to look beyond. This is not a parable, as many suppose; for the Lord says "There was a certain rich man," and "There was a certain beggar." Here we see that in the unseen world some are comforted whilst others are tormented. So far as this life was concerned, of the two paths one might have preferred the rich man's, but its "end," how awful! To see this "end," however, one must be "in the sanctuary of God" (Ps. 73:17), and the gulf is fixed and impassable.

One of the two crucified thieves went at once to Abraham's bosom, for he was a child of Abraham. (Luke 23:43; Rom. 4:16.) He believed God:the other went to the place of torment, to keep company with the inhabitants' of Sodom. (Jude 7.) In hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments," and seeth "Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." At death the believer passes at once into the presence of the Lord, – he is "absent from the body, present with the Lord." (2 Cor. 5:8.) It is surely wondrous joy and blessing to serve Christ down here, as Paul did (Phil. 1:21); but there was something still better, '' far better, "and that was to be with Christ up there,- "To depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." To live and serve Christ was precious,-"to die is gain,"-gain because death would take him to be with Christ:in that sense death is a servant, as Paul, Apollos, etc. (i Cor. 3:22.) So that "death is ours," along with the other seven servants there mentioned.

The glorified body he does not receive until the Lord comes (Phil. 3:21; i Cor. 15:52), but the body is not the man, since there may be "a man in Christ, out of the body." (2 Cor. 12:2, 3.) Peter was soon to "put off" his body (2 Peter 1:14); and, as we have seen, the believer is "absent from " his body, when "present with the Lord."

Both Lazarus and the rich man, in Luke 16:, were without bodies, and both conscious, – one comforted, and the other tormented. Thus death is not ceasing to exist. These two did not cease to exist at death, but went to their several abodes, where the gulf was "fixed." "After death the judgment." (Heb. 9:27.) The wrath of God abides on the unbelieving. (John 3:36.) It is after man has killed the body, which is as far as he can go, that God can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:4, 5.). The first death ends – not in extinction, but – in resurrection. "All that are in the graves . . . shall come forth . . . they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of Judgment." (John 5:29.) "And death and hades delivered up the dead which were in them:and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire.* And this is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:13-15.) *This is in the eternal state, after earth and heaven have fled away.* The second death is the lake of fire, and not extinction, as the beast and the false prophet have already existed 1,000 years there, when Satan is cast into it. (Cf. Rev. 19:20, and 20:10); and the torment is day and night, for ever and ever, in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (Rev. 14:10, 2:) Thus it is clear that the portion of the believer and of the unbeliever are alike eternal, the same word being used as to both (Matt. 25:46),- a twofold and abiding witness to the righteousness of God (2 Thess. 1:5-10). On the one hand the eternal fire from which, as a brand, the believer has been snatched; on the other, the eternal glory which has been despised by the sinner.

All such passages as Mal. 4:i, 3, refer to the punishment of the wicked on earth, and have to do with the first death, not the second. All the subjects of those judgments must hear the Son of God, and come forth (John 5:29) and stand before the great white throne. (Rev. 20:12.) They are judged according to their works,- a discriminative judgment (Luke 12:48), which would be impossible if extinction were their common doom.

Existence is not life. The rock exists, but it has not life. The Egyptian of 3,000 years ago exists in the Smithsonian Institute, at Washington, in the form of a mummy, but he does not so live. Life really and fully consists (i) in the possession of all the faculties; (2) their exercise in the sphere God has appointed; and (3) for the purpose God intended.

The sinner has not God in view, does not live for God, so is dead in trespasses and in sins. (Eph. 2:1,5.) So is the Christian widow who lives in pleasure:"she is dead while she lives." (i Tim. 5:6.)

He who has not eaten of the flesh and drunk the blood of the Son of man has no life in him (John 6:53), while he who has the Son has life (i John 5:12), has the capacity – the nature – to enjoy life as it is before God, and perform its functions, but his environment is not yet adapted to the life he has received; he has not yet "entered into life." (Matt. 18:8, 9.)

When the blessed Lord conies the external sphere will be made to correspond with the life we have received:each will be adapted to the other,- the external and the internal, – and both perfectly suited to God. That, indeed, will be "life," according to God's original purpose. (Tit. 1:2.) Happy is he who hears Christ's word, and believes Him who sent Him. He has eternal life, and will not come into judgment. (John 5:24.) Again:"Blessed and holy is he that hath part 'in the first resurrection:on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Rev. 20:6.)

It may be added that the soul is never said to sleep. Sleep is but another term for death. (John 11:13, 14),- only applicable, however, to the child of God, as to whom death is abolished. (2 Tim. 1:10; Heb. 2:14, 15.) It is not really death to him:he really never dies. (John 11:26; 8:51.) No longer the king of Terrors, it may afford a special opportunity of glorifying God. (John 21:19; Phil. 1:29.)

"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches o his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:6, 7.) J. B. J.

As the end draws near the darkness grows more dense. Satan plies his wiles with an adroitness and a dexterity that is truly alarming. As an angel of light he passes on,-soiling, beguiling, bewildering, and deadening the consciences and hearts of the Lord's sheep. He especially presses "grace" and "love" (?), in the way of toleration; and amazingly he succeeds, and where we would least expect it. Those who yesterday were confirmed are to-day questioning; those who pressed on then with steady tread are now reeling; those who seemed to be pillars are but broken reeds.

The present vortex has whirled nearly all into a realm of vagaries, and all is uncertainty. To these no longer is church position clearly defined; and the place of separation is surrendered for a field that offers more room for the energy of nature. The man down here is taken up, and supersedes the Man in the glory . . But, if His love is grieved and disappointed in them He knows that His sheep hear His voice:hence the appeal, "Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." How solemn the thought-we are associating His name with all we are going on with. Is it a wicked world, the corrupt systems, or even a professed assembly of God:from the place in which evil and iniquity is openly allowed and tolerated we arc to "depart." "Truth faileth ; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey." (Isa. 59:15.) But what does it matter if we go up or clown in the views or opinions of men ? It is before Him we walk. And that service which is rendered purely with reference to Him will be least understood and least appreciated. (John 12:) Do not succumb to the devilish delusion that a narrow path is incompatible with a large heart. In 2 Cor. 6:no sooner does he say "Be ye also enlarged" than he adds "Be ye not unequally yoked together," and "Come out from among them, and be ye separate." Let us keep in mind God's order-"The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable."

Separation should be intense, and perpetual. "Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp." (Ex. 33:7.) When the thought of returning to that from which
God had separated him entered Jeremiah's heart, he would say "Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them." And yet he was enjoined to "take forth the precious from the vile."

Some claim the liberty of crossing the lines of separation, for the accomplishment of good. Any such might learn a lesson of poor Balaam:"I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind." Saul tried this. God had said "utterly destroy all." But he consulted his own mind as to doing good, and "spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord." But even though it was "the best," and "unto the Lord," it involved disobedience to His word, and was utterly rejected. "To obey is better than sacrifice." (i Sam. 15:) If this principle of unlimited obedience were acted upon we would not be ranging at will, nor glorying in a liberty that is license, nor seeking a large place to display what we know. We would find ourselves really "without," but with Him. (Heb. 13:13.)

Ours is the place of "His reproach," but the place of communion, sweet and hallowed; and the place where we may prevail with God, and thus accomplish results which shall be left for display at the Judgment-seat. (Gen. 18:and 19:21; Isa. 49:4.)

I know this is down, but it is the way to "the brook," where we "lift up the head."(Ps. 110:7.)
Until He comes may we walk in the power of an ungrieved Spirit,- threading our way through this labyrinth to the praise of Him "who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." F. C. B.

THE CHURCH. — ITS DISCIPLINE.

CHAPTER X. (Continued from page 336.)

5. We now come to a most important branch of our subject,-the spirit in which Discipline is to be administered. When the apostle wrote about the wickedness in Corinth, he was grieved to see the utter indifference-nay, apparent boasting-as to the matter. It maybe true they did not know what to do, but would not every right-minded saint have been overwhelmed by the shame that had come upon the Church of God, and would not He Himself have removed providentially a wrongdoer if there was no other way to be rid of him ? Their indifference snowed an entire lack of conscience. The most uninstructed spiritual person would mourn, (i Cor. 5:2.) How differently the apostle felt:"Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears." (2 Cor. 2:4.)

A case of wickedness in an assembly assuredly ought to lead to deep exercise on the part of all. True humility, instead of saying "Lord, I thank Thee," etc., will rather say "Search me, O Lord." "Considering thyself, lest them also be tempted." Frequently, too, there will be occasion for self-reproach. Had the erring one been looked after? Had he been prayed for? Had a godly example been set him ? Surely such questions as these will arise in one truly realizing the shame of such things. An undressed wound may become gangrenous, and amputation become necessary; but would not the physician who had neglected to take the proper care of his patient be ashamed of his work ? And how many cases of extreme discipline are made necessary by these neglected cases? "He that ruleth . . . with diligence."

But this sorrow and humility-this self-judgment- will only make the truly exercised the more firm in vindicating the honor of the Lord. Joshua arose from lying on his face, and executed the Lord's penalty upon Achan. (Josh. 7:) After all, His glory is the only thing to be sought. The case of the woman in John 8:is not in point here. There it was the infliction of the law by men themselves guilty; here it is the act of broken-hearted saints resorting to a last act to keep unsullied the precious name of Christ. But we may learn in what spirit we are to act. How shocking would be the thought of a judicial trial, as if we were the judges! How loathsome the gloating over the wretched details of the evil!* * It is not necessary that the whole assembly should be dragged into the particulars of a case of wickedness. A few careful, godly brothers, who have the confidence of the saints, should go thoroughly into the matter, and when all is clear report the results to the assembly, which will then act by putting away the wicked person. Occupation with evil, even when necessary, is defiling ; and as few as may be should be engaged in it, and these should wash their garments. (Num. 19:21.) Above all, should such matters be kept out of the conversation. "Let it not be named among you, as becometh saints." (Eph. 5:3, 4.)*

Nor must we forget that love-love to the offender and to each other-will fill the hearts of those truly exercised. Not love at the expense of truth, but love which mourns while it smites, like God's love, when He chastens.

We have seen in the case of the leper that the priest was to judge. The detection of evil is a priestly
function, and this means communion. Why is it that so many cases of discipline fail to command the consciences of God's people, and are the occasion of dividing them asunder instead of uniting them ? Is it not because the saints have forgotten their priestly position,- their place in the sanctuary,- and that in communion alone can they have guidance and power? Instead of this, how often is the subject the food for conversation and thought and strife until there is no power. Saints need to be much alone with God – much occupied with Christ – when evil has to be dealt with.

In concluding this part of our subject, we will see the spirit produced in the Corinthians by the apostle's faithful dealing. "For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge ! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter." (2 Cor. 7:2:)

6. But we pass from the consideration of these sad but most necessary matters to the bright side of our subject. Thank God there is a bright side, and that where there has been faithfulness in the path of duty there is the joy of seeing the wanderer restored. We can almost feel the thrill of the apostle's gladness as he wrote of the recovered brother, "I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." (2 Cor. 7:4.)

Restoration is what was prayed for, hoped for, expected. While one put away is to be let alone, this does not preclude the thought of looking after him, after the lapse of some time. Especially should this be done if he is weak and untaught, and if he has bowed to the Lord's judgment. Of course, those who put a bold face on it, or who continue in sin, can only be left in God's hands.

Marks of true recovery are very plain. There will be a sense of sin against God (Ps. 51:),- a judging of the root of it, a submission to God's governmental dealing, even when undue severity may seem to have been used by the saints, – these are some of the clear proofs of true recovery. If there was trespass against any, the wrong will be righted as far as possible,- the dishonest gains refunded,- the bitter, false accusations, withdrawn; and, we need hardly add, the sin will be forsaken. Until there is personal restoration to communion with God there can be no thought of reception by the assembly. The steps in the reinstatement of the cleansed leper (Lev. 14:) to his privileges are interesting and instructive in this connection. It was the priest who was to examine the healed man, and the various rites in his restoration are most suggestive of complete recovery.

It will be noticed that the leper, even after his restoration to the worship of God, "remained abroad out of his tent seven days," and this would suggest that even after personal recovery an interval" may elapse before the person is restored to his privileges in the assembly. There are many reasons for this:if the offense has been glaring or disgraceful, it is fitting that the world should see the genuineness of the repentance. It will not hurt, too, to deepen in the individual a sense of his sin. In addition to this, it is well to remember that the tender consciences of the saints have been sorely wounded, and the offender will gladly allow time for the healing of the shock inflicted. Anything like insistence upon his immediate reception after confession, or resentment at delay, would show that the work in his soul had not been complete.

On the other hand, the assembly needs to guard against a hard, proud, unforgiving spirit. When the consciences of all are satisfied, there should not be needless delay in confirming their love to their recovered brother. "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. (2 Cor. 2:6-8.) How gracious, how loving, and yet how holy are all these directions.

And may we not add that when the restored brother is again in his place, his sin is not to be remembered ? True, he will not forget it; but shall the others, by look or manner, betray lack of confidence ? Ah, we are too much like the world, which "forgives, but cannot forget." Neither can we say such an one must keep silence, and never again expect to be used of the Lord. It was Peter, the wandering sheep, who was made a shepherd for others. (John 21:) When David was restored he would teach transgressors God's ways. (Ps. 51:) He will walk softly the rest of his days, a chastened person, but a happy and a useful member of the body of Christ.'He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."

7. Having thus, partially and imperfectly, followed our subject through its various divisions, we come finally to the authority for Discipline,- wherein and how far it is binding upon the people of God.

"Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven:and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on. earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in [unto, Gr.] my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:18-20.) This scripture is not addressed to the apostles, as a similar one (John 20:23), nor to Peter alone (Matt. 16:19), but to the prospective Church (Matt. 18:17). It will be seen that the authority for discipline and the power of prayer are both linked with His name, and intrusted to the two or three gathered to that name.

Here, then, we have the authority for discipline, and higher there could not be. Bound in heaven! How solemn! The sanction of God Himself, and the judgment recorded in His presence! What are the decisions of the courts of men, -supreme courts and courts of appeal ? How small they seem beside that word-"bound in heaven." There is no appeal from that decision,- its authority is absolute, its judgment final. And such is the authority for discipline in the Church of God.

Let us, then, examine this scripture. Does it intrust to fallible men a dangerous power ? Can it not be misused ? And has not Rome, with this very authorization, made havoc of the Church? Our fears, however, are groundless. One passage makes all clear, '' Where two or three are gathered to my name." Can His name be linked with unrighteousness ? Could one steal, lie, bear false witness, in the name of Christ ? Gathering to His name is not a formal thing. It means that nothing is to be done inconsistent with that name. It means the most absolute, subjection to the authority of that name,- therefore the most implicit following of scripture, the most entire dependence upon the Spirit of God. Who can conceive of a wicked or unrighteous prayer being answered ? Must it not be for what is according to His will? (i John 5:14.) Just in the same way must discipline be according to His will, if it is to be bound in heaven. As well may the bandit have prayers offered for the success of his murderous attack upon the traveler, and thanks after its accomplishment, as for any number of men, no matter by what name called, to claim divine sanction for what is not God's holy will.

But this only brings out into clearer relief the absolutely binding nature of every act of righteous discipline. No one dare despise it, or refuse to be bound by it. No one dare appeal from it, for it is Heaven's decision.

The instruments of this judgment may have been but two or three unlearned and ignorant men, but they have given voice to the judgment of God! We repeat, if it has been righteous judgment. See the divine sanction in the binding" and loosing by the Corinthian assembly:"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit [present in spirit] with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ." (i Cor. 5:4.) "To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also:for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it, in the person of Christ." (2 Cor. 2:10.)

This makes simple our next proposition:that an act of discipline, according to God, of any assembly is for the whole Church, and binding upon it. Is it not bound in heaven ? To be explicit, a person righteously put away in Corinth is out of communion with the whole Church of God. He is out at Ephesus, at Philippi, at Rome. He could not go to Ephesus and have his case reopened there :that would be to appeal from the judgment of Heaven. This grows out of the truth of the one body :to deny it in word or deed would be to say there is not one body but many. Oh, how God's people have neglected this !

We cannot refrain from pointing out here the necessity of letters of commendation between the assemblies of God (2 Cor. 3:2), for those not known. The neglect of this brings in carelessness, a disregard for the Lord's honor, and may be the cause of much sorrow. Let the worldly-minded scoff. God has intrusted His people with a priceless treasure, has made them guardians of the honor of His holy name:let them take care.

But it may be asked, Is it not begging the question to say a decision is bound in heaven if it be righteous ? Is not this the very thing to be proved ? And must not every act of discipline be examined before it can be accepted ?

Our first answer must be-We cannot get on without God. We have the Holy Spirit present in the Church for the very reason that we could never get on by ourselves. We would, indeed, be like a houseful of children-orphans-without the Comforter. He being present, to guide according to the Word, will and does give confidence to the Church in those so guided. Suspicion will have no place, but fullest confidence. We will believe unless we are compelled not to believe.

It must be remembered, too, that all ordinary acts discipline are clear and their righteousness self-evident. Excommunication is not an every-day occurrence, and discipline is the exception, not the rule. Where the great underlying principles of the Church of God have been understood, as imperfectly set forth in these pages, difficult cases will not be of frequent occurrence.

But when they do occur, what is the remedy? Let us suppose that an assembly has unrighteously put away a person not really wicked. It comes to the ears of Christians elsewhere, and they are bound to take knowledge of it. But how? Not assuredly taking up the subject at a distance, and going over it. The presumption is always in favor of the righteousness of the act, and the suspected person most assuredly could not be received when under discipline. Let them go to their brethren in the assembly where the judgment has been given. They will, if in the right, be most ready to spread the case before the inquirers, and give all the reasons for their action. If mistaken they will gladly retract, on its being made plain to them.

There is, however, a possibility that the assembly acted unrighteously, when it will be the duty of the inquirers to seek to bring them to repentance, graciously and patiently, yet firmly. It will not help such an assembly to bow to their unrighteous decision :rather it would confirm them in their evil. Surely prayer, constant and fervent, with humiliation, will not be forgotten.

If the assembly persists in its unrighteousness it can no longer be recognized as an assembly of God, and the effort must be made to deliver individual souls from it. But we repeat, if the principles of the Church of God are clearly understood, rare indeed will be the need of refusing an entire assembly.

We might add that when questions of discipline have arisen in an assembly, and there is inability to come to a common judgment, it would answer somewhat to the condition of a house suspected of leprosy. (Lev. 14:) The house was to be shut up until it was manifestly denied or clean. So with an assembly where strife or discord over discipline occurs (God prevent such cases!), let the assembly be "shut up," not received from until its true condition be manifest.

Is it not true that over-severity in some act of discipline (we speak not of manifest and flagrant wickedness) is the reason why the act of an assembly does not command the consciences of God's people ?

The Lord bless these thoughts to His people, and lead them into paths of righteousness as well as of peace.

(To be continued.)

Some few years ago, in one of the Australian colonies, a man named C– was outlawed for some crime he had committed against the state. As a consequence of this the troopers were sent out on his track, as he had taken to the bush.

Not many days after they had started in pursuit, one of the troopers, who had become separated from his comrades, not suspecting he was anywhere near the man he was in pursuit of, had dismounted, and, stooping down at a water-hole, was refreshing himself. At that moment the outlaw, who was watching him from behind a tree where he was hiding, fired at and wounded him, then with the butt-end of his rifle he dashed out his brains.

Such a brutal murder, added to his other crimes, redoubled the vigilance of the police, and a liberty so diabolically purchased was but of momentary duration. The miscreant was taken, tried, and condemned to be hanged.

Just before the sentence was executed the murderer made a will, leaving all the property he possessed to the widow of the murdered man, supposing, perhaps, to make a kind of reparation for the dreadful deed he had committed. A notice of this duly appeared in the morning papers.

The next morning another announcement appeared with expressions of astonishment, in which the readers pretty generally shared, when it became known that the widow refused to receive either stick or straw from the hands of the man who had murdered her husband.

A woman of a noble mind indeed!

How could she, who was inconsolable at the loss of one who was nearer and dearer to her than any other on earth, be a debtor to the bounty of him whose hands were wet with her husband's blood? Every loving heart and every upright mind would be inexpressibly shocked at the bare mention of such a thing.

Let our beloved fellow-believers reflect that this incident exactly sets forth the relationship that exists between the world and themselves as part of the bride of Christ, together with the conduct suitable to this blessed relationship.

The world has murdered Him, around whom all the renewed affections play. It has cast Him out, and stands condemned of this act by the Holy Spirit, whose very presence here demonstrates the guilt of the world, in respect of its unbelief in rejecting the Son of man. As it is written, He shall convict the world "of sin, because they believe not on me." (John 16:9.)

One of the functions of the Holy Spirit here is thus to testify against the world; and, in fact, His very presence, as stated above, is a witness to its guilt, for He would not be here if Christ had not been murdered by the world.

The world is then, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, put into the place of the prisoner in the dock; while the Holy Spirit is as the witness in the box, upon whose testimony the prisoner's guilt is proved.

Men and women in the world are either in collusion with the world, or they are in the current of the testimony of the Holy Spirit against it.

Which is it with us, dear reader ?

Would it not be an anomaly to see the witness in the box, leaning forward and fraternizing with the prisoner in the dock, or receiving favors from him ?

Is it not equally an anomaly to see Christians eagerly seeking the favors, the honors, the emoluments of the world, whose hands are imbrued with the blood of their Lord ?

If natural affection and uprightness of mind repudiate such a thing, as in our illustration, how much more should spiritual affection, and that loyalty of heart to Christ which resents every insult offered to Him, lead the Christian to repudiate all the overtures of the world, which are only made with a view to draw away the affections from Christ ?

How wily an enemy is the devil, the prince of this world! How speciously he uses the world as an instrument in his hands to tempt the believer! Alas low frequently is he successful!

Yet, "All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (i John 2:16, 17.)

The "young men" in John, though they be strong, and the word of God abideth in them, and they have overcome the wicked one, nevertheless have need of the exhortation

"LOVE NOT THE WORLD."

We should beware of it as a thing which always appeals to us, and from which we are never free, but as we abide in Christ.

The need of the day is loyalty of heart to Christ; and this in repudiation of the claims of the world, which, as a siren, would entice the soul, and rob it of its joy, and render at the same time all testimony against itself valueless. The testimony of Lot seemed as an idle tale to the men of Sodom,-his sons-in-law. Why ? Because Lot valued and sought after the riches and honors of Sodom.

May the Lord in His mercy raise up and sustain amongst His people a band of loyal, true-hearted "young men," who shall go forward for the prize of their high calling, refusing to look back to the world or to go back in heart to it. His grace alone can accomplish this.

And surely if natural affection can sustain a true-hearted and cruelly bereaved woman in integrity of conduct toward her deceased husband, the Christian may count upon grace to be sustained by divine affection for the One who is not only dead, as far as this world is concerned, but who laid down His life for him,- sustained in quiet devotedness to Him, loyally refusing the overtures of the murderer, and testifying against him in the current of the Holy Spirit's witness in this world.

May the Lord grant it to both readers and writer. G. J. S.

CHAPTER XI. (Continued from page 324.)

We are drawing near the end, and to the highest conclusions of true human wisdom; and full of deepest interest it is to mark the character of these conclusions. Reason speaks; that faculty that is rightly termed divine, for its possession marks those who are "the offspring of God." He is the Father of spirits, and it is in the spirit that Reason has her seat; whilst in our Preacher she is enthroned, and now with authority utters forth her counsels. Here we may listen to just how far she can attain, mark with deepest interest, and indeed admiration, the grand extent of her powers; and at the same time their sorrowful limit,- note their happy harmony up to that limit, with her Creator; and then, when with baffled effort and conscious helplessness, in view of the deepest questions that ever stir the heart, she is able to find no answer to them, and groans her exceeding bitter cry of "Vanity," then to turn and listen to the grace and love, of that Creator meeting those needs and answering those questions,-this is inexpressibly precious ; and with the light thus given we must let our spirits sing a new song, for we are nigh to God, and it is still true that "none enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth." Joy and praise have their dwelling ever within those boundaries; for He inhabiteth the praises of His people.

In the first eight verses of our chapter we shall thus find man's Reason running in a beautiful parallel
with the divine, and yet in marked contrast with the narrow, selfish, short-sighted policy of the debased wisdom of this world. Their broad teaching is very clear; look forward,- live not for the present; but instead of hoarding or laying up for the evil day, cast thy bread-that staff of life, thy living-boldly upon the waters, it shall not be lost. You have, in so doing, intrusted it to the care of Him who loseth nothing; and the future, though perhaps far off, shall give thee a full harvest for such sowing. But, to be more explicit, give with a free hand without carefully considering a limit to thy gifts (" a portion to seven and also to eight" would seem to have this bearing), for who knows when, in the future, an evil time to thee may make thee the recipient of others' bounty.

Can we but admire the harmony, I say again, between the voice of poor, feeble, limited human wisdom and the perfect, absolute, limitless, divine wisdom of New Testament revelation:

"For I mean not that other men be eased and ye burdened ; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want:that there may be equality." This is very closely in the same line. But Solomon continues:Nay, see the lessons that Nature herself would teach (and he is no wise man, but distinctly and scripturally "a fool," who is deaf to her teachings, blind to her symbols). The full clouds find relief by emptying themselves on the parched earth, only to receive those same waters again from the full ocean, after they have fulfilled their benevolent mission; and it is a small matter to which side, north or south, the tree may fall, it is there for the good of whoever may need it there.* *The current interpretation of this clause, that it speaks of the future state of man after death, seems hardly in keeping with the context, and certainly not at all in keeping with the character and scope of the book. Ecclesiastes everywhere confesses the strict limitation of his knowledge to the present scene. This is the cause of his deepest groanings that he cannot pierce beyond it; and it would be entirely contrary for him here, in this single instance, to assume to pronounce authoritatively of the nature of that place or state of which he says he knows nothing.*

The accidental direction of the wind determines which way it falls; but either north or south it remains for the good cf man. In like manner watch not for favorable winds; dispense on every side, north and south, of thy abundance; nor be too solicitous as to the worthiness of the recipients. He who waits for perfectly favorable conditions will never sow, consequently never reap. Results are with God. It is not thy care in sowing at exactly the right moment that gives the harvest; all that is God's inscrutable work in nature, nor can man tell how those results are attained. Life in its commencements is as completely enshrined in mystery now as then. No science, no human wisdom has, or-it may be boldly added- ever can throw the slightest glimmer of clear light upon it. Thy part is diligence in sowing, the harvest return is God's care. " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand" is wisdom's counsel here, just as a higher wisdom teaches "Preach the word:be instant in season and out of season."

Thus human reason and divine wisdom "keep step" together till the former reaches its limit; and very soon, in looking forward, is that limit reached. For listen now to her advice, consequent on the foregoing. Therefore she says "Let not the enjoyment of the present blind thee to the future ; for alas there stands that awful mysterious Exit from the scene that has again and again baffled the Preacher throughout the book. And here again no science or human reason ever has or ever can throw the faintest glimmer of clear light beyond it. That time is still, at the end of the book, the "days of darkness." As poor Job in the day of his trial wails:"I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." So Ecclesiastes says, "let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many." Oh sad and gloomy counsel! Is this what life is? Its bright morning ever to be clouded, – its day to be darkened with the thoughts of its end? Oh sorrowful irony to tell us to rejoice in the years of life, and yet ever to bear in mind that those years are surely, irresistibly, carrying us on to the many "days of darkness." Yes, this is where the highest intellect, the acutest reason, the purest wisdom of any man at any time has attained. But

Where Reason fails, with all her powers,
There Faith prevails and Love adores.

Where the darkness by reason's light is deepest, there Love – Infinite and Eternal – has thrown its brightest beam, and far from that time beyond the tomb being "the days of darkness," by New Testament revelation it is the one eternal blessed Day lit up with a Light that never dims; yes, even sun and moon unneeded for "The glory of God enlightens it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof." Think of a Christian with that blessed hope of the coming of his Saviour to take him to that well-lighted Home – His Father's House – with the sweet and holy anticipations of seeing His own blessed Face,- once marred and smitten for him; of never grieving Him more, of sin never again to mar his communion with Him, of happy holy companionship for eternity with kindred hearts and minds all tuned to the one glorious harmony of exalting "Him that sits upon the throne and the Lamb,"-of loving Him perfectly, of serving Him perfectly, of enjoying Him perfectly,- think of such a Christian saying, as He looks forward to this bliss,''All that cometh is vanity," and we may get some measure of the value of the precious word of God.
But now with a stronger blow our writer strikes the same doleful chord:"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes:but know them, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

One would think that there could be no possible misunderstanding the sorrowful irony of the counsel "to walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes,"-expressions invariably used in an evil sense (compare Num. 15:39; Isa. 57:17); and yet, to be consistent with the interpretation to similar counsel in other parts of the book, expounders have sought to give them a Christian meaning, as if they were given in the light of revelation and not in the semi-darkness of nature. But here the concluding sentence, "know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment," is quite unmistakable.

But here is indeed a startling assertion. Where has our writer learned, with such emphatic certainty,
of a judgment to come ? Have we mistaken the standpoint whence our book was written 1 Has the writer, after all, been listening to another Voice that has taught him what is on the other side of the grave? Does Revelation make itself heard here at last ? Or may, perhaps, even this be in perfect harmony with all that has gone before, and be one step further – almost the last step – along the path that unaided (but not depraved) human Reason may tread ? In a word, does Nature herself give Reason sufficient light to enable her, when in right exercise, to discover a judgment-seat in the shadows of the future ?

This is surely a question of deepest-yes, thrilling- interest; and, we are confident, must be answered in the affirmative. It is to this point that our writer has been climbing, step by step. Nature has taught him that the future must be looked at rather than the present; or, rather, the present must be looked at in the light of the future; for that future corresponds in its character to the present, as the crop does to the seed, only exceeds it in intensity as the harvest exceeds the grain sown. Thus bread hoarded gives no harvest; or, in other words, he who lives for the present alone, necessarily, by the simplest and yet strongest law of Nature, must suffer loss:this is Judgment by Nature's law. This, too, is the keynote of every verse – "the future," "the future"; and God, who is clearly discerned by Reason as behind Nature, "which is but the name for an effect whose Cause is God,"-God is clearly recognized as returning a harvest in the future, in strict and accurate accord with the sowing of the present. This is very clear. Then how simple and how certain that if this is God's irrefragable law in Nature, it must have its fulfillment too in the moral nature of man. It has been one of the chief sorrows of the book that neither wrong nor confusion is righted here, and those '' days of darkness" to which all life tends are no discriminative judgment, nor is there anything of the kind in a scene where "all things come alike to all." Then surely, most surely, unless indeed man alone sows without reaping,- alone breaks in as an exception to this law,- a thought not consonant with reason,- there must be to him also a harvest of reaping according to what has been sown:in other words a Judgment. Although still, let us mark, our writer does not assume to say anything as to where or when that shall be, or how brought about, this is all uncertain and indefinite:the fact is certain; and more clear will the outline of that judgment-seat stand out, as our writer's eyes become accustomed to the new light in which he is standing,- the fact is already certain.

Solemn, most solemn, is this; and yet how beautiful to see a true reason-but let us emphasize again not depraved, but exercising her royal function of sovereignty over the flesh, not subject to it-drawing such true and sure lessons from that which she sees of the law of God in Nature. It is a reasonable, although in view of sin, a fearful expectation; and with exactness is the word chosen in Acts:Paul reasoned of judgment to come; and reason, with conscience, recognized the force of the appeal, as '' Felix trembled."

Thus that solemn double appointment of man:death and judgment has been discerned by Nature's light, and counsel is given in view of each. Did we say that our writer had reached the climax of his perplexities in view of death in chap. 9:when he counseled us to "merrily drink our wine," now judgment discerned, death itself even not necessarily the end, at length soberness prevails ; and with an evident solemn sincerity he counsels '' Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity." F. C. J.

(To be continued.)

At the marriage-feast of Cana, it is the servants who are in the secret and intimacy of Jesus. The Governor and guests, and Mary herself, are at a distance. " If any man serve me, him will my Father honor."

"What are ye thinking of?" we may ask ourselves again and again, day by day. Whereon are we spending our diligence? What are the calculations of our minds in moments of relaxation ? Is it the flesh or spirit that is providing food for us?

Do our affections, which stir within, savor of heaven or hell ? What a strong moral thought is proposed by the Lord here, " How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another?"

Joy is that which is primary; toil, danger, and sorrow, are only subservient.

Through earth's deepening gloom and darkness
Shines for us a cheering ray,
And it makes the longing greater
For His bright appearing day.

Long the heavens have now retained Him;
Strain we oft our wistful eyes:
"Hope deferred" makes sick hearts weary,
Till our sun's glad beams arise.

Blessed hope!-the dawn is nearing
Of that cloudless morning's light,
When together, gathered round Him,
We shall bear His image bright.

Sigh we for our absent bridegroom ;
Scattered Israel needs their king;
Groans indeed the whole creation
For the long-predicted spring.

The lord, in Matthew, meets the Jew as their Messiah; in Mark, He meets a needy world as the servant of that need; in Luke He meets the human family, to speak with them as the one only sanctioned Son of Man; and in John He meets the heavenly family as the Son of the Father, to train them for their heavenly home.

[Sickness and infirmity are often sent as preventives, as well as for chastening. "Lest I should be exalted above measure . . . there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me." (2 Cor. 12:7.) How much Paul owed to that thorn in the flesh, who can tell ? With it also he had the assurance, " My grace is sufficient for thee:for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Let us seek ever to be exercised by what the Lord sends upon us, rather than to get out of it as easily as possible.

The soul is the dwelling-place of the truth of God. The ear and the mind are but the gate and the avenue ; the soul is its home, or dwelling-place. The beauty and the joy of the truth may have unduly occupied the outpost, filled the avenues, and crowded the gates; but it is only in the soul that its reality can be known. It is by meditation that the truth takes its journey from the gate, along the avenue, to its proper dwelling-place.

Fearing God, we learn His secret-
Dwelling in the secret place,
There we lodge with Him, the lofty-
Shadow'd by Almighty grace.

As the hen her chickens covers-
With her feathers soft and warm,
Spreads her wings for them to nestle,
Free from fear and free from harm-

So God covers with His feathers
Those who trust beneath His wing;
And His truth, a shield and buckler,
Makes their hearts with gladness sing.

Give me, then, to learn God's secret,
Dwelling in the secret place-
There to lodge with Him, the lofty-
Praising His almighty grace!

A. J. K.

'' The sanctuary is our safe retreat at all times:it is the place where the world takes its true shape for us, where the entanglement with it is loosed, the darkness and mists disappear, sin is rebuked and banished, the holiness of truth is found. The peace of that serene Presence incloses us as with the glory of an eternal summer, unvexed by even the threatening of a storm. Here the head is lifted up over all enemies therefore, and the sacrifice of praise becomes the necessary relief of a full and grateful heart. "– Numerical Bible, Notes on Psalm 27.

It should be the common delight of all His saints to trace Him in all His doings. For where are we to have our eternal joys but in Him and with Him ? What, beloved, can be suited to His delight, if Jesus and His ways be not ? What is there in any object to awaken joy, that we do not find in Him ? What are those affections and sympathies, which either command or soothe our hearts, that are not known in Him ? Is love needed to make us happy ? If so, was ever love like His ? If beauty can engage the soul, is it not to perfection in Jesus ? If the treasures of the mind delight us in another, if richness and variousness fill and refresh us, have we not all this in its fullness in the communicated mind of Christ ? Indeed, beloved, we should challenge our hearts to find their joys in Him. For we are to know Him so forever. And learning the perfections and beauties of His blessed word, is one of the many helps which we have whereby to advance in our souls this joy in the Lord. J. G. B.

May our faith be strengthened to do justice to God's love ! That love claims our full and happy confidence. To render it only a diffident and suspicious trust is to treat it unworthily. May all such spirit of fear and bondage be gone ! May the true Sarah in our hearts cry out, and cry out till it prevail, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son." For when the Lord does His work He does it in a way worthy of Himself. We are not to go forth with fear and suspicion, as though we could hardly trust the Arm that was saving us, but in such a way as will declare plainly that the work is the work of Him "whose love is as great as His power, and knows neither measure nor end."

In the epistle to the Romans the law is looked at in a different way from, that in the epistle to the Galatians. In Romans it is looked at from the side of human experience of it. "That which was ordained to life I found to be death." (Ch. 7:10.) It is his own experience, what it turned out to be on trial. In Galatians, on the other hand, the question is not so much how man finds it, as how God gave it. So much the more weighty is the argument as against the Galatian heresy, that it is God who is shown to be against it.

THE CHURCH.– ITS DISCIPLINE. (Continued from page 306.)

In taking up the subject of Discipline in the Church of God, we should be impressed with its great importance on the one hand, and with the danger, on the other, of approaching it in a careless or legal way. When we consider the almost universal neglect of discipline and the corresponding weakness thus occasioned to the Church, we feel doubly the importance of examining the teachings of Scripture on the subject, and of endeavoring to impress upon all the responsibility that rests upon every member of the Church of Christ in this respect.

We are living in lawless times. The air is full of independence of all kinds of authority,- in the government, the workshop, and the home. We need not wonder then, if the same spirit characterizes the professing church. As in the days of the judges in Israel, every man does that which is right in his own eyes. Authority is scoffed at, and the idea of godly subjection to one another is resented as an insult to manhood. It seems to be a characteristic of these "last days" that a sense of responsibility is wanting, too often even among the people of God. And yet grace and responsibility go hand in hand. "There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared." (Ps. 130:4); and the grace which brings salvation also teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world (Tit. 2:11-15). A careful, godly walk is the vessel in which the grace of God exhibits itself, and where it is wanting testimony fails and shipwreck is the result (i Tim. 1:19, 20). A people may be intrusted with vast stores of precious truth; they may speak with ease and precision of "standing and state," "eternal security," "resurrection life," and all the rest of the unspeakably precious doctrines recovered for God's people in these last days; but if the walk do not in some measure correspond to the truth that is held, it is worse than useless,- it is absolutely injurious. Let it be remembered that in the epistle which most fully unfolds the grace of God and the heavenly position of the saint, there is the most ample and minute instruction as to the walk upon earth of the believer whatever relation he occupies (Ephesians, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters). The Corinthians (i Cor. 1:5-7) were enriched in all utterance and in all knowledge, coming behind in no gift, yet such was the condition of the assembly that the apostle could only speak to them as to babes, and was obliged to correct in the severest way their tolerance of awful moral and doctrinal evil (chaps. 5:and 15:). But we need say no more to justify us in examining this most important subject with care and prayerfulness.

There are seven points to be considered:the Necessity for discipline; the Object; the Occasion; the Character of it; the Spirit in which it is to be administered ; the Recovery of those who have been dealt with; and the Authority for discipline. We will briefly consider these in the order given.

I. That the Necessity for discipline exists will not be questioned by any who have eyes to see or a heart to understand the teaching of Scripture. False professors creep into the professing church unawares, while men sleep (Matt. 13:25), and when once within exhibit either in doctrine or walk the fruits of evil. It is this presence of false professors among the people of God that accounts for the warnings as to continuing in the truth which we find in the epistles to the Hebrews and Corinthians,- the "ifs" which have troubled so many of God's people. The possibility of the presence of such people among the children of God would of itself show the necessity for discipline.

But it is objected that in the very parable to which allusion has been made, wheat and tares were to grow together until harvest; and this, it is claimed, would obviate the necessity for action that might "root up also the wheat with them." When we see, however, "that "the field is the world" and not the Church, and that our Lord teaches the impossibility of eradicating evil once introduced into the kingdom or outward sphere of responsibility-Christendom-it becomes plain that He was only showing the futility of vising an arm of flesh to put down evil. Rome has failed to observe this, and in the many efforts to weed out what was thought heresy has really but persecuted the saints of God. Even had the doctrines been evil, this parable shows we cannot stamp them out. But this is no warrant for the Church to allow evil men in the midst of saints. Them that are without God judgeth; but the saints are distinctly told to put away from among themselves the wicked person (i Cor. 5:12, 13).

But alas the necessity for discipline is seen not only from the possibility of the presence of false professors, but from the fact that the flesh still exists even in the true child of God. This is not the place to discuss the two natures in the believer. It is sufficient to refer to such passages as Gal. 5:13-25 as proof that such apparently contradictory scriptures as i John 3:9 and i John 1:8 are not really so. In the one we have the normal state of the Christian when walking in the Spirit, and in the other the existence of that "flesh" which makes sin possible. Spiritual pride is a most dangerous thing, and one of the most awful and perilous forms of it is that self-complacency which claims sinless perfection for the child of God.

Not only has the believer the flesh, the old nature, in him, he is also in a world that is away from God, a very death-chamber (Numb. 19:14, 15), where, if he is not covered with a covering of the Lord, he will be defiled. The devil, with all his wiles, is ever ready to make use of the world and the flesh to lead the child of God astray. A glance at Scripture history will show how often this has been done. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David were all men of God, yet each one, at some period in his life, Ml into sin. Peter is a notable New Testament example. Surely, with these instances before us, it is needless to ask if the believer can fall into sin; and this shows the necessity for discipline.

2. We come next to inquire the Object contemplated in discipline. Our first answer must be the glory of God, the honor of His holy name. In i Cor. 5:, in connection with the case of discipline then brought before the Church, the apostle declares (5:6) "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." He does not mean that all the Corinthians would commit the same sin as that awful crime of the case in question; but he does mean that indifference to the Lord's honor, carelessness as to the conduct of those who professed His name, would, if persisted in, give character to the whole assembly. We beg the reader's earnest attention to this point. Many will say "I. have only myself to look after:I am not responsible for other men's sins." Our scripture answers most convincingly for every subject heart, and the exhortation which follows shows the path of duty (5:7):"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened." This last states what is the fact before God,- we are unleavened, sanctified by the one offering of Christ. Since this is the case, we are to maintain this unleavened condition practically by purging out the evil, that we may always be a new lump, an unleavened company. If this is not done we link the holy name of Christ, our passover, with the leaven of malice and wickedness. How solemn the thought!

But a secondary object in discipline is the recovery of the erring one and his restoration to communion with God and His people. Unjudged sin in the believer leads to death (i Cor. 11:30). God must intervene if we do not. The flesh is to be destroyed (i Cor. 5:5). If no notice is taken of sin it will go on until all are defiled. If the offender is dealt with in faithfulness we may expect to see the results. Our object should not be to get rid of a disagreeable or disgraced person, hoping never to see him again, but rather in the confidence that our firmness will be owned of God in leading him to true repentance. Such is especially the case in the minor forms of discipline which we shall presently consider, but even in the extreme of cutting off we may look for God's blessing on the offender.

3. We are ready now to see what are the Occasions for discipline. The passage we have been considering (i Cor. 5:) shows that immorality, whether of the grosser licentious kind as that which was the occasion of the chapter, or the less repugnant forms, such as maliciousness, covetousness, and railing, was a matter for the most faithful dealing. Scripture does not give us a list of all known sins; we are told in general what the works of the flesh are (Gal. 5:19-21), and we find wrath, strife, seditions, mentioned along with lasciviousness, witchcraft, drunkenness, and murder. Wickedness, no matter what form it may take, is what must be dealt with.

But there is a class of evil even more dangerous, because more subtle, than immorality. Wicked doctrine may go in company with an outwardly blameless life; indeed, such is often the case, – both Satan and his ministers are often transformed into angels of light. In all matters where there is no fundamental truth in question love will allow the largest liberty. To make, for instance, the question of baptism a test of fellowship, or views as to this or that text of Scripture, would be narrow and sectarian. The apostle rebukes it (Phil. 3:15).But when a doctrine is introduced that touches the person of our adorable Lord Jesus Christ,- His divinity, His true yet absolutely sinless humanity,- the perfection of His atoning work or His coming glory, there is no place for charity, falsely so called. In like manner, if the truth of justification by faith, freely by God's grace, be denied, or the necessity of regeneration, or the final and eternal doom of the impenitent-whether by annihilation or restorationism, in any of their forms – be denied, we are in the presence of an evil more deadly than drunkenness or immorality, for it is more deceptive. A man may hold and teach most blasphemous doctrines, and withal be as pious in his language as the most devoted child of God. Let the beloved people of God be on their guard. The enemy has ten thousand forms of deadly error with which to beguile the simple. As to doctrinal evil, as well as moral, "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." (Gal. 5:9.)

But there may be the most pressing need for discipline where the person has been guilty of neither moral nor doctrinal evil. We mean association with it. At first sight this may not seem so clear, but the scriptures we have been considering lead us up to it. If a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, then the lump partakes of the character, in God's sight, of the leaven. If a company of God's people knowingly associate with a wicked person, a drunkard, or a thief, or one who holds false doctrines, they are as defiled, in God's sight, as though personally holding or practicing the evil. For what is their state of soul ? Are they not indifferent to the holiness of God, to the honor of His name ? Could we associate with one who assailed the character of our friend, our wife, our parents ? And can we go on with one who blasphemes that name which is above every name ? Would not even the world hold us as guilty? – nay, more guilty ? For he perhaps is blinded by Satan, and may think he does no harm; but those who associate – with open eyes – with known evil are deliberately indifferent. '' If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." (2 John 10, 11.)
Let the reader weigh this matter well. When Achan had committed his trespass, it was said "Israel hath sinned" (Josh. 7:i, ii), and when the awful sin of Gibeah was committed (Judges 20:, 21:), the whole tribe of Benjamin was held responsible, because they refused to give up the offenders. The reverse is seen in the case of Bichri at Abel (2 Sam. 20:14-22). And can we not see the wisdom of God in thus holding associates with evil as responsible as the doers of it ? What guarantee would there be that evil would ever be judged ? The whole company of Christians would be defiled by the presence of unjudged sin, because of the false tenderness or indifference of some.

4. The Character of discipline varies with the nature of the evil with which it has to deal. There is no hard, fast, uniform way of dealing with it. There can be no code of laws laid down, no method of unvarying procedure adopted. We shall see, when , we come to consider the spirit in which it is to be administered, that discipline is a priestly function; it has to do with communion, and only in communion can one be guided. The punishment is not the same in all cases. Draco might make every offense punishable by death, but we cannot exclude from our fellowship every grade of wrong-doer. This will appear, however, as we proceed.

We may divide discipline into three classes,- preventive, corrective, and preservative. Preventive discipline begins with reception into fellowship. The assembly of God is responsible as to whom it receives. A person must be known to be not only a Christian, but one who is walking consistently. If a new convert, it should be clear that he has really believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he recognizes His claims upon him:if he has been some time a Christian care should be taken that he is godly in walk, association, and doctrine. Reception is by the assembly, and there should therefore be the fellowship of all with the act. An introduction by several who have examined the case and are competent to judge will usually suffice. We need hardly warn against mere human judgment. Guidance comes from God alone, and His mind should be sought in every case. Joshua and the princes of Israel seemed to have abundant evidence to justify them in receiving the Gibeonites without asking counsel of God (Josh. ix). Let us remember this. How many persons who have been carelessly received have afterwards given much sorrow, and drawn away others after them. But even where the person should be received, he may need an awakening of conscience which can best be done at that time. "Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God." (Rom. 15:7). Here we have the tempering together of grace and care, which should ever characterize discipline.

Having been received into the assembly of God's people, the person now comes under all the varied care and ministry of the Spirit of God. And here much in the way of preventive discipline may be accomplished. If there is a tone of godliness, an elevation of piety, a wholesome example set by the assembly, much evil can be prevented. How many cases of falling into open sin. may be traced to the lax tone of a gathering! Where all are worldly, it is easy for one specially so tempted to fall into covetousness. A general habit of "whispering" will open the way for backbiting and railing, while a care against the very appearance of such things will be often a sufficient check against the tendency. The Lord graciously awaken His beloved people to see their responsibility in these things. When the body is in a debilitated condition, those forms of disease to which a person may be specially liable make their appearance, which would have been kept down by a healthy vigorous tone. So is it in spiritual things:if an assembly is going on happily in the things of Christ, engaged in the work of the Lord and ministering to one another in love, sin will not likely lift its head.
Passing on now to corrective discipline, we find it necessary, when, either through our carelessness or in spite of our care, evil does arise in one or another. But it has not yet developed into actual flagrant sin. Here is where the pastor's care and wisdom is needed. A wholesome loving warning may often check the person in a course that would have led to fatal results ; a rebuke administered in all firmness, the withdrawal of our company from a disorderly brother, not counting him as an enemy (2 Thess. 3:6-15), even the public rebuke before all (i Tim. 5:20):these means may correct the evil before it goes too far, and they often will. This corrective discipline is almost entirely individual, rather than by the assembly. It is to prevent matters from coming before the assembly. It is the work of the spiritual (Gal. 6:i), and its effect is restoration. It is washing one another's feet (John 13:). Of personal trespass we do not speak here, as not properly Church discipline.

But alas, sin may fasten itself so deeply upon a person that none of these means are efficacious. The person is defiled,- he has committed a sin that cannot be dallied with. To hesitate now would be treason to the Lord. If the assembly is to maintain itself in communion with the Lord, it must purge itself from leaven, and the wicked person must be put away. All wicked persons must be so dealt with. Without enumerating the offenses, all will understand what cases are meant. Whenever evil is manifested as wickedness, there is but one word, "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." (i Cor. 5:13.)

But it must not be on mere suspicion that he is so dealt with. The evil must be manifest, or acknowledged by the person, or established "in the mouth of two or three witnesses." (2 Cor. 13:1:) If these are wanting, then there must be waiting on God and asking him to bring all to light. But the suspected person could not be allowed to go on as if all were well. The directions in the case of the leper (Lev. 13:) furnishes some needed instruction here. There were certain clear and unmistakable signs by which the disease could be recognized, and when these were present the most immediate action was demanded:the leper was put out of the camp. So there are clear cases of wickedness which need but to be seen to be recognized as such. Prompt putting away is the only thing to be done. But there might be certain symptoms which looked like leprosy,- a boil, a burn, baldness,- and which yet were too obscure to be treated as such. It would be manifest injustice to put such a suspected person out of the camp, and equally would it be unsafe to leave him at large. He was shut up seven days, until the disease should have manifested itself; and if doubt still remained he was again shut up. Even after being discharged, if the disease appeared he was at once dealt with.

Now there may be evil in a person,- some of nature's humors may come to the surface, or spiritual decay (baldness) may be manifest. Such symptoms are sad and call for attention, but unless there is the characteristic sign of real wickedness it would not do to exclude the suspect. Spiritual decrepitude is not absolute wickedness, and such a person is not defiled, but in danger. He would not be held under suspicion. The being overtaken in a fault, the rash hasty speech, the ebullition of temper,- all these sad manifestations of the flesh are not leprous, though leprosy may be developed out of them.

Where the evil is of a serious character, yet not fully developed, it will not do to let the person go on as if all were well, he must be "shut up," not allowed to enjoy the freedom and privileges of the assembly of God,- not permitted to break bread,- until his case is made plain, either by a full development of evil or by his recovery. Even where all suspicions have been removed, and the person goes in and out among the saints, if the evil reappear as positive wickedness, he must be put away. The maxim of the world, that no one must be tried twice for the same offense has no place. The Church is not a court of law. The leper was put "outside the camp," away from association with the people of God and the worship of God. So the wicked person is "put away from among yourselves." The apostle could deliver to Satan, which seems to have been authoritative act of power, (i Tim. 1:20; i Cor. 5:5.) It may be questioned whether the Church has this power, and it is immaterial. The point is that the Church has a duty to put the wicked person out, and obedience is all that is needed. When outside, the person is no-doubt in Satan's world, and may feel the power of his enmity, as did Job, for other reasons. It need hardly be mentioned that a person put away is to be let alone. How abhorrent the thought that we could have social intercourse with one too wicked to remain in the company of the saints. "With such an one no not to eat."

(To be continued.)

CHAPTER X. (Continued from page 293.)

The climax of Ecclesiastes' exercises seems to have been reached in the previous chapter. The passionate storm is over, and now his thoughts ripple quietly along in proverb and wise saying. It is as if he said " I was altogether beyond my depth. Now I will confine myself only to the present life, without touching on the things unseen, and here I can pronounce with assurance the conclusion of wisdom, and sum up both its advantages and yet inadequacy. "

The proverbs that follow are apparently disjointed, and yet, when closely looked at, are all connected with this subject. He shows, in effect, that, take any view of life, and practically wisdom has manifold advantages.

Ver. 1. The least ingredient of folly spoils as with the corruption of death the greatest wisdom. (There is only One whose name is as ointment poured forth untainted.)

Ver. 2. The wise man's heart is where it should be. He is governed by his understanding, (for the heart in the Old Testament is the seat of the thought as well as of the affections, as the same word, "lehv," translated "wisdom" in the next verse shows), a fool is all askew in his own being. His heart is at his left hand. In other words, his judgment is dethroned.

Ver. 3. Nor can he hide what he really is for any length of time. "The way," with its tests, soon reveals him, and he proclaims to all his folly.

Ver. 4. Yielding to the powers above rather than rebelling against them, marks the path of wisdom. This may be an example of the testing of "the way" previously spoken of, for true wisdom shines brightly out in the presence of an angry ruler. Folly leaves its place,- a form of expression tantamount to rebelling, and may throw some light on that stupendous primal folly when angels "left their place," or, as Jude writes, "kept not their first estate, but left their habitation," and thus broke into the folly of re-belling against the Highest. For let any leave their place, and it means necessarily confusion and disorder. If all has been arranged according to the will and wisdom of the Highest, he who steps out of the place assigned him rebels, and discord takes the place of harmony. The whole of the old creation is thus in disorder and confusion. All have "left their place." For God, the Creator of all, has been dethroned. It is the blessed work of One we know, once more to unite in the bonds of love and willing obedience all things in heaven and in earth, and to bind in such way all hearts to the throne of God, that never more shall one "leave his place."

Vers. 5-7. But rulers themselves under the sun are not free from folly, and this shows itself in the disorder that actually proceeds from them. Orders and ranks are not in harmony. Folly is exalted, and those with whom dignities accord are in lowly place. It is another view of the present confusion, and how fully the coming of the Highest showed it out! A stable, a manger, rejection, and the cross, were the portion under the sun of the King of kings. That fact rights everything even now, in one sense, to faith for the path closest to the King must be really necessarily the highest, though it be in the sight of man the lowest. Immanuel, the Son of David, walking as a servant up and down the land that was His own – The Lord Jesus, The Son of Man, having less than the foxes or birds of the air, not even where to lay his head,- Christ, the Son of God, wearied with His journey, on the well of Sychar,- this has thrown a glory about the lowly path now, that makes all the grandeur of the great ones of the earth less than nothing. Let the light of His path shine on this scene, and no longer shall we count it an evil under. the sun for folly and lawlessness to have the highest place, as men speak, but rather count it greatest honor to be worthy to suffer for His name, for we are still in the kingdom and patience of the Lord Jesus Christ,- not the Kingdom and Glory. That shall come soon.

Vers. 8-10. But then, Ecclesiastes continues, is there complete security in the humbler ranks of life? Nay, there is no occupation that has not its accompanying danger. Digging or hedging, quarrying or cleaving wood,- all have their peculiar difficulties. Although there, too, wisdom is still evidently better than brute strength.

Vers. 11 to 15 turn to the same theme of comparison of wisdom and folly, only now with regard to the use of the tongue. The most gifted charmer (lit. master of the tongue) is of no worth after the serpent has bitten. The waters that flow commend the spring whence they issue. Grace speaks for the wise :folly, from beginning to end, proclaims the fool; and nowhere is that folly more manifested than in the boastfulness of assertion as to the future.

"Predicting words he multiplies, yet man can never know
"The thing that shall be; yea, what cometh after who shall
tell?
"Vain toil of fools !It wearieth him,- this man who knoweth
naught
"That may befall his going to the city."

This seems to be exactly in line with the apostle James:"Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain:ye who know not what shall be on the morrow."

Vers. 16-18. The land is blessed or cursed according to her head. A well-marked principle in Scripture, which has evidently forced itself on the notice of human wisdom in the person of Ecclesiastes. A city flourishes under the wise diligence of her rulers, or goes to pieces under their neglect and sensual revelry. For the tendency to decay is everywhere under the sun, and no matter what the sphere,-high or low, city or house,-constant diligence alone offsets that tendency.

Ver. 19. The whole is greater than its part. Money can procure both the feast and the wine; but these are not, even in our preacher's view, the better things, but the poorer, as chapter 7:has shown us. We, too, know that which is infinitely higher than feasts and revelry of earth, and here money avails nothing. "Wine and milk, "joy and food, are here to be bought without money and without price. The currency of that sphere is not corruptible gold nor silver, but the love that gives, – sharing all it possesses. There it is love that answereth all things:- the more excellent way, inasmuch as it covers and is the spring of all gifts and graces. Without love, the circulating medium of that new creation, a man is poor indeed, -is worth nothing, nay, is nothing, (i Cor. 13:) He may have the most attractive and showy of gifts:the lack of love makes the silver tongue naught but empty sound,- a lack of love makes the deepest understanding naught; and whilst he may be a very model of what the world falsely calls charity, giving of his goods to feed the poor, and even his body to be burned, it is love alone that gives life and substance to it all,- lacking love it profits nothing. He who abounds most in loving, and consequent self-emptying, is the richest there. The words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 12:confirm this:" So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." The two are in direct contrast. Rich here – laying up treasure for one's self here – is poverty there, and the love that gives is divine riches. For he who loves most has himself drunk deepest into the very nature of God, for God is Love, and his heart fully satisfied with that which alone in all the universe can ever satisfy the heart of man, filled up, – surely, therefore, rich,- pours forth its streams of bounty and blessing according to its ability to all about. How thoroughly the balances of the sanctuary reverse the estimation of the world.

But, then, how may we become rich in that true, real sense? To obtain the money that "answereth all things " under the sun, men toil and plan. Perhaps as the balances of the sanctuary show that selfish accumulation here is poverty there, so the means of attaining true riches may be, in some sort, the opposite to those prevailing for the false-"quietness and confidence."

The apostle, closing his beautiful description of charity, says:"Follow after charity." Ponder its value-meditate on its beauties – till your heart becomes fascinated, and you press with longing toward it. But as it is difficult to be occupied with "Love" in the abstract, can we find anywhere an embodiment of love ? A person who illustrates it in its perfection, in whose character every glorious mark that the apostle depicts in this 13th chapter of Corinthians is shown in perfect moral beauty-yea, who is in himself the one complete perfect expression of love. And, God be thanked, we know One such; and, as we read the sweet and precious attributes of Love, we recognize that the Holy Spirit has pictured every lineament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldst thou be rich, then, my soul ? Follow after, occupy thyself with, press toward, the Lord Jesus, till His beauties so attract as to take off thy heart from every other infinitely inferior attraction, and the kindling of His love shall warm thy heart with the same holy flame, and thou shalt seek love's ease – love's rest – in pouring out all thou hast in a world where need of all kinds is on every side, and thus be "rich toward God." So may it be for the writer, and every reader, to the praise of His grace. Amen.

Where are we, in time, my readers ? Are we left as shipwrecked sailors upon a raft, without chart or compass, and know not whether sunken wreck or cliff-bound coast shall next threaten us ? No; a true divine chart and compass is in our hands, and we may place our finger upon the exact chronological latitude and longitude in which our lot is cast. Mark the long voyage of the professing Church past the quiet waters of Ephesus, where first love quickly cools and is lost; past the stormy waves of persecution which drive her onward to her desired haven, in Smyrna; caught in the dangerous eddy, and drifted to the whirlpool of the world in Pergamos, followed by the developed Papal hierarchy in Thyatira, with the false woman in full command of the ship; past Sardis, with its memories of a divine recovery in the Reformation of the sixteenth century:- Philadelphia and Laodicea alone are left; and, with mutual contention and division largely in the place of brotherly love, who can question but that we have reached the last stage, and that there is every mark of "Laodicea about us ? This being so, mark the word of our Lord Jesus to the present state of the professing Church:'' Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, but knowest not that thou art poor, and blind, and naked, and wretched, and miserable." Yes, in the light of God, in the eyes of the Lord, in the judgment of the sanctuary, we live in a day of poverty. It is this which characterizes the day in which our lot is cast,- a lack of all true riches, whilst the air is filled with boastings of wealth and attainment.
Further, I can but believe that we whose eyes scan these lines are peculiarly in danger here. Thyatira goes on to the very end. Sardis is an offshoot from her. Sardis goes on to the end. Philadelphia is an offshoot from her. Philadelphia goes on to the end, and is thus the stock from whence the proud self-sufficiency of Laodicea springs. If we (you and I) have shared in any way in the blessings of Philadelphia, we share in the dangers of Laodicea. Yea, he who thinks he represents or has the characteristics of Philadelphia, is most open to the boast of Laodicea. Let us have to do-have holy commerce-with Him who speaks. Buy of Him the "gold purified by the fire." But Row are we to buy? What can we give for that gold, when He says we are already poor ? A poor man is a bad buyer. Yes, under the sun, where toil and self-dependency are the road to wealth; but above the sun quietness and confidence prevail, and the poor man is the best – the only – buyer. Look at that man in Mark's Gospel, chapter 10:, with every mark of Laodicea upon him. Blind, by nature; poor, for he sat and begged; naked, for he has thrown away his garment, and thus surely pitiable, miserable, now watch him buy of the Lord.

"What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" "Lord, that I might receive my sight." "Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole." And the transaction is complete; the contract is settled; the buying is over. "Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way." Yes; there is just one thing that poor, naked, blind man has, that is of highest value even in the eyes of the Lord, and that is the quiet confidence of his poor heart. All Scripture shows that is what God ever seeks,-the heart of man to return and rest in Him. It is all that we can give in the purchase, but it buys all He has. "All things are possible to him that believeth." In having to do with the Lord Jesus we deal with the rich One whose very joy and rest it is to give; and it is surely easy buying from Him whose whole heart's desire is to give. Nothing is required but need and faith to complete the purchase. Ver. 20. The next counsel of human wisdom is to avoid a word, even in secret,-nay, even a thought,- of rebellion against those in authority. But who can thus control the thoughts ? What can check the word of chafing against authority ? Does' not the clearer light of Revelation again show us the "more excellent way"? Suppose the King has "loved me, and given Himself for me"? – has been "wounded for my transgressions, bruised for my iniquities"? His royal head crowned with thorns for me, indeed; and the "rich One for my sake has become poor," shall I – can I – curse "the King," or speak evil of this rich One? Impossible.

"No man speaking by the Holy Ghost calleth Jesus accursed." Human wisdom never could have thought of such a way to do away with that rebellion against authority which is natural to the heart of man. F. C. J.

(To be continued.)

Is "a world of iniquity."It "boasteth great things." ''an unruly evil." ''defileth the whole body." '' tamed by no man. " ' 'setteth on fire the course "full of deadly poison."of nature." '' set on fire of hell.''

" Speak not evil one of another."

These are solemn words. And which of us has not suffered in some way by this "little member."Having suffered makes us perhaps more careful for a time. But how easily we slip into the old way, when not on our guard!

If we lived in God's presence consciously, our words would be weighed by His thoughts of them, and not by our faulty human measure.

I know of no one thing which can be the cause of more misery among God's people than a wrong use of the tongue; of nothing which can rake up more filth and vileness, enmity, strife, and bitterness, or that can make the heart more sore.

God in His Word has told us of its capabilities in this direction, and we need only take the warning.

I do not speak of railing, or of open slander,- these are more tangible things,-but of the little whisperings and insinuations, the needless repetition of that which does not tend to promote love. "Love worketh no 99:" The habit of criticizing each other, we all know, is wrong, and yet how much it is done! Sometimes it may be thoughtlessly, but if so, let us wake up to the mischief it works.

It is certainly damaging to one's soul, and has a baneful influence upon others. It destroys holy affections, inevitably cripples an assembly, and ruins all testimony, if allowed in the family.

And I would here beg of you mothers (as you love the Lord, and desire, in these days of increasing evil and difficulties, to bring up your children in the fear of the Lord,) to cut it short, without mercy, in your homes, at your tables. If you do not, it will eat all the spirituality out of your house. This may seem like strong language, but not stronger than God's word would warrant.

Young and old are responsible alike to God and to each other.

We have all felt at times, no doubt, under peculiar pressure, the relief which comes in unburdening the heart to some one who we believe will add their prayers to ours; it may be in our own behalf, or that of some loved one whose good alone we seek. To this there could be no objection; but such confidences should be held sacred, and that which is confided repeated to none but God.

I see no warrant for uncovering the faults and failings of others except to carry them to God with one consent. Oh, if we could only keep this in mind, how much sorrow would be saved !

But I fear that when we allow such things in ourselves, and suffer them to pass unrebuked in others, it shows a sorrowful lack of the exercise of love. This repeating of little matters, back and forth, is contemptible, soul – withering, and not worthy of those professing godliness. It sets fire to the evil of our natural hearts, burning from one to another, driving out peace, joy, love, and all the blessed fruits of the Spirit, and wounding the hearts of those we profess to love.

As those who are called to reflect Christ Jesus in a world which is keen to mark our follies and inconsistencies, and to cast slurs on the name of our blessed Master because of them, let us examine our own hearts in the presence of God.

Remember, '' out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh," and if the heart is not filled with Christ, rest assured, it will not be empty.

The days are evil, and the character of the professing church is Laodicean. Let us watch, therefore, lest we lose our own joy, and stumble the weak.

Why prophecy? "But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, exhortation, and comfort." (5:3.)

Under "edification" comes salutary instruction, warning, admonition, reproof, correction, pruning, etc.

"Exhortation " recovers from dejection that might result from the former, and stirs up with cheer the drooping spirit; calls upon men to arise and build; fires them with a spirit of loyalty. '' Quit you like men, be strong" (1 Cor. 16:13).

"Comfort" is soothing, consolatory, binding up, sympathizing. "God of all comfort:who comforteth us in our tribulation." (2 Cor. 1:3, 4.)

Prophecy, in the Christian sense, is never a cold theological exposition of abstract truths, but an unfolding of the ways of God as applicable to the present necessity.

It knows nothing of partiality,- favors none. It sees departure from God quickly, and admonishes and exhorts. It will not pale before even an apostle. (Gal. 2:11-21.) Men are never free from the necessity of prophecy.

He who prophesies utters the very mind of God for the hour, (i Pet. 4:10, 11.)

He need not be surprised if much suffering follows his ministrations. He must practice his own preaching. As the prophets of old had to be the living exponents of their own words, so must he who prophesies. Sobriety, then, is incumbent upon those who prophesy, and a sincere godly life.

"Ye may all prophesy . . . that all may learn, and all may be comforted." (i Cor. 14:31.)

Prophecy has to do much with the negative", or human, side of things. The positive, or divine, side usually comes second and last-"comfort."

The flesh in us hates prophecy. The "spiritual" love it. (5:37.)

John was a prophet. His ministry was corrective, restoring. It was like a mighty "ax . . . laid unto the root of the trees " when it began. (Matt. 3:10.) It said "Behold the Lamb of God,"(John 1. 29,36), as it continued. It glorified the Lord Jesus as it departs:"He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30.) "They shall fail," is said of "prophecies," that is, cease (i Cor. 13:8), "when that which is perfect is come." (5:10.)

The Lord Jesus Himself was an unceasing prophecy. He is the Son of Man, Son of God. The Prophet drives them out of the temple, none the less the Son of the Father. (John 2:16, 17; Ps. Ixix. 9, etc.)

He notes everything that is wrong, and docs not try to win the self-righteous. The breach is simply widened, for He is the "Truth." (Matt. 15:1-14; 21:23-27.) Yet the sincere are instructed patiently. (ch. 15:15-20.) The obedient are graciously borne with in tenderest love. (John 16:12-15.)

Not that "His own" are always obedient, for they are exhorted to obedience, but those who are characteristically so.

Prophecy looks at that which is wrong, and rebukes it; calls to repentance; instructs by presenting the truth; exhorts to be obedient to it; comforts the truly penitent.

It is a ministry which insists upon the truth being made practical. It is, then, the ministry for all time and every emergency.

There can be no practical Christianity without it. Then let us all "covet to prophesy," not forgetting the "comfort." S. A. W.

For some years I had felt there was something wrong. Indeed, though at times earth's ambitions occupied heart and hands, yet there was an aching void – a spot within – which nothing had yet reached. The crisis had come at last. The awful truth had dawned upon me that all my past efforts had been in vain:after all, I was only a poor, helpless, incorrigible sinner. But at the same time a light, glorious as it was sweet, had shined into me. It was the revelation that Jesus had done the work which was necessary to save such a sinner. And what a revelation! What peace it gave! What assurance ! I could almost glory in being a sinner, since I had such a Saviour. If Jesus had made propitiation for my sins I was free. And indeed I was free, and praised God for it from the depths of my soul. Worship was no longer a form, confined to a place or a time,- it was "in spirit and in truth."

But sorrow was soon renewed. The company of God, my Father,- the fellowship of Christ, my Saviour, and Lord,- were the sweetest part of life now. To read the Scriptures, to sing, to pray, to meet with them who enjoyed what I did was a hundredfold more than I had ever found in anything in the world before. But, all of a sudden, while engaged in prayer perhaps, or reading the Scriptures, or other holy exercises, some unholy thought, unbidden and hateful, would pass through my heart. This startled me. The sight of Christ on the cross suffering the judgment of sin had been so vivid that nothing now could shake the assurance of the redemption which was mine through it, but how could I stay close to the God whose Presence I loved, with such unholy thoughts passing through me ? I could not, for I knew His holiness too well to think that He could allow that. If in prayer, I could only leap from my knees and flee, as a poor leper would have done had he suddenly found himself in the Temple of Jerusalem.

What could I do now? Nature perhaps was too well fed and cared for. Starve and subdue it then, and comfort will return. For one whole year that was tried, and with such austerity were its claims repressed that bones once well covered now stuck out. But all was of no effect:the sin was there at the end as at the beginning.

At the time when the case seemed hopeless I was reading the Epistle to the Colossians. Chapter III had been reached, and the first clause of its third verse had arrested my attention. It said "For ye are dead." I answered "O Lord, that I might be dead, and not be distressed any more by the sin that is in me!"

I returned to my verse, and it still said '' For ye are dead."And again I uttered the same prayer to God.

Once more, and with a strange emphasis, the verse said "For ye are dead," And now the sweet light which had broken in a year before broke in afresh. I had thought that to be "dead" was by some special experience:now it broke upon me that it Was a fact. God had put me to death in the death of Christ, and in that death I had died once and forever. So now He could say to me "For ye are dead,"-not ye ought to be, as I had thought. And if I had indeed thus been put to death in and with Christ, then had I also been raised up in and with Christ. So the first verse of my chapter spoke.

As the blessed truth of all this broke upon me, and illumined at once a vast portion of the Scriptures – indeed their great underlying mystery-I could but exclaim, What a fool I have been! Here have I been this long time trying to kill a man who was already dead.

Now I could stay on my knees, keep on peacefully in all intercourse with God despite the consciousness of sin within. That sin is the very nature of the man that God put to death on the cross of Christ – the "old man." The painful experience I had gone through had taught me to hate it, and made me thankful beyond expression at such a deliverance from it. Now, free from that dreadful self, I could "serve in newness of spirit," and "bring forth fruit unto God."

If joy, rebuke, or grief, or pain,
Thou sendest, Lord, 'tis all my gain;
For all things work for good to one
Who loveth God and His dear Son.

Each sorrow Thou hast sent to me
Has only drawn me nearer Thee-
The place where most I love to hide,
Blest Saviour, in Thy wounded side.

Each step of mine that was unmeet
Has only brought me to Thy feet,
To learn, by these my willful ways,
The deeper story of Thy grace.

Each joy Thou giv'st me by the way
But tells me of that glorious day
When joy unspeakable, divine,
Shall fill Thy heart as well as mine.

If there are those who love me here,
It whispers of a love more dear,
More deep, more infinitely blest,
Unmixed with sorrow, full of rest.

If anguish fill my breaking heart
When called from one I love, to part,
It does but loose me from this shore,
And makes me long for Thee the more.

So, Lord, whate'er my lot may be,
If only I may walk with Thee,
And talk with Thee along the way,
I'll praise Thee for it all, some day.

H. McD.

PLAINFIELD, July 15th, 1894.