" If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own ?"-Luke 16:12.

'This Scripture seems to reverse man's natural I thoughts, putting our own interests in the second place. We would say, if we were faithful in our own affairs we will doubtless take care of what belongs to another. Scripture reverses this. We are not really fit to care for our own interests if we have not been faithful in the concerns of others. God's interests are first, and we are His stewards. He has intrusted us with His things. Here nothing belongs to us:we have forfeited the right even to live. But God leaves us here, and intrusts us with time, talents, opportunities, means, influence,- all that comes into our life,-as His stewards. '' Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." (i Cor. 4:2.) These things do not belong to us:if we think of them as ours we will make a wrong use of them, and be harmed by them as well. Our possessions are elsewhere,- reserved in heaven for us; and though through grace that inheritance does not depend upon our faithfulness here, a neglect of God's interests here would show a failure to rightly value our possessions there. Self must not be the center, the object, but God and His glory. Faithful in His things, we can even here enjoy those spiritual blessings which are ours.

Oh, happy day when Jesus comes
To call His ransomed home!
What joy 'twill be to see that One!
O come, Lord Jesus, come!

This world to me is not a home,
I only sojourn here,
Till that blest One "in beauty" come
To greet me "in the air."

Till then His presence is my home,
The sweetest home on earth;-
A real taste of home to come,-
The home now known to faith.

And soon will faith be lost in sight,
Then I shall share His home!
No sorrow there! a home how bright!
O come, Lord Jesus, come!

Come! take me to that home of love,-
Thy blood's my title there;
Oh, take me to Thyself above,
Thou Fairest of the fair.

Oh, happy day when Jesus comes
To call His ransomed home !
What joy 'twill be to sec that One !
O come, Lord Jesus, come !

R. H.

THE CHURCH.–ITS ORGANIZATION.

We have said that one great hindrance to the apprehension of the Scripture truth as to this subject was its simplicity. Let us bear this in mind, as we seek to place side by side with the mis-conceptions of human reason the simple teachings of God's word.

1. Instead of the Babel of many names, Scripture gives us but the One Name,- a name above every name (Phil. 2:9),-a beautiful name (James 2:7, Gk.), which is put upon all God's people without distinction- the name of Christ. They arc called Believers (Acts 5:14), Disciples (Acts 9:i), Christians (Acts 11:26), and Saints (Eph. 1:i); but never is one of these names used to distinguish one portion of the body of Christ from another:on the contrary, they serve as links to bind them all together. Thus we have the answer as to the name of the Church organization. The names which God has given us in His word are enough:we need no others, and they would but divide and not unite us.

2. Next, in answer to the question to what form of doctrine the Church subscribes, Scripture answers, The word of God. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine." (2 Tim. 3:16.) "Thy word is truth."(John 17:17.) '' Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Matt. 24:35.) From these and multitudes of other passages we know that the Scriptures are inspired, that they arc truth, that they are eternal, and that they are all-sufficient. Why, then, should there be a creed? Is it to make the Scripture more plain ? "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that under-standeth, and right to them that find knowledge." (Prov. 8:8, 9.) Can man's words state truth more plainly than God's ? Is not a creed a slur cast upon the perfect word of God ? If they were used as other writings upon Scripture, for purposes of exposition, this objection could nut be urged against them; but when they tacitly accuse Scripture of being ambiguous, obscure, or not sufficiently definite for doctrinal statements, we must reject them.

3. What does Scripture put in the place of a regularly ordained clergy, taking charge of all ministry and worship ? The Holy Ghost. He it is who dwells in the Church, His temple (i Cor. 3:16.), who teaches (John 14:26; i Cor. 2:9-16), who leads our prayers (Rom. 8:26,27; Jude 20), and praises (i Cor. 14:15). If He use instruments it is never by virtue of any office they may have:He is not confined to any one man. "All these [various gifts] worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." (i Cor. 12:n.) We will enter more fully upon this when we come to consider the subject of worship. We would here, however, seek to press upon every conscience the immense importance of the presence of the Holy Ghost, the presence personally and immediately of a Divine Person who has absolute authority and control, whose delight it is to minister the things of Christ to His beloved people, to unfold the Scriptures, to quicken the spirit of prayer and praise, to press upon us the importance of doing all things "decently and in order." Baptism ill not be neglected; the Lord's Supper will have a place and a meaning it never had before; discipline will be administered; the graces of liberality to those in need, and fellowship in the gospel will abound if He is unhindered, unquenched.

Does this seem like begging the question? It is God's answer to the needs of His Church. He knew we would fall into utter confusion, that we would multiply machinery, that we would resort to every expedient which the ingenuity of man could suggest-all in vain, save to show our helplessness, so He gave us the Holy Ghost. Rome claims the Pope as Christ's vicar on earth, with absolute power of control and direction. This pretension Protestantism rightly rejects, but fails to see the true vicar of Christ, "whom the Father will send in my name" (John 14:26), and therefore lays itself open to the taunt of Rome for its independency and rationalism. If we grasp this truth of the Spirit's presence we have reached an answer as to what is the teaching of Scripture regarding the organization of the Church; and we might put that answer in the form of a definition:'' The obedient recognition of the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit, gathering believers to the name of the Lord Jesus, subjecting them to the word of God, and taking entire control of worship, ministry, and discipline." In the proper place we will enlarge upon the various features we have pointed out:at present we would call attention to the simplicity and yet sufficiency of this organization. Is anything lacking? Will contingencies arise not provided for? Impossible! The name of Christ; the presence of the Holy Spirit; the word of God to guide:- thus organized a company of believers is ready for any duty or privilege; and no emergency can arise that will call for any new machinery. The Holy Spirit is all-sufficient.

Let us dwell upon this. The distinctive characteristic of the Christian dispensation is the personal and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Faith is shown by counting on this presence. Human organizations, no matter how wisely effected and administered, are a hindrance to the manifestation of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We know this is not believed by many conscientious Christians, but can only appeal to Scripture for justification, and entreat them to make trial of God's order, reminding them too of their responsibility so to do.

(To be continued.)

A heart attracted by the Lord Jesus,-by His love, His goodness, His grace, His glory, is what delivers from self. The woman of Samaria discovering this in Christ-finding herself in the presence of the Son of God in grace, forgets her fears, her sins, her shame, her water-pot-herself, and runs to tell others whom she has found.

What I desire to say briefly on this subject is to them who are subject to God and to His word. All others view and use marriage as they do all other blessings -to gratify their own pleasure, even as the beasts which eat, drink, and enjoy life without a thought of accountability to Him who has made the provision.

To you especially, my dear young brothers and sisters who naturally and rightly contemplate marriage, do I address my words. It is the most important of all earthly events in a man or a woman's life, for it is something they cannot undo, which binds them until death, which throws them together in such intimate relations that they must either sweeten or embitter each other's existence, and which entails circumstances no less far-reaching than the endless age of eternity.

How soberly and dignifiedly, therefore, we should approach it. A pretty face is a pretty thing, but how vain to be governed in such a sober matter by a pretty thing. Earthly goods and social position have their value here, but how base and degrading to let them control such a serious act.

"Marriage is honorable in all." (Heb. 13:4.) It is God who created it (Gen. 1:27), and who instituted it (Gen. 2:24); and lest, because of the higher and better things which our Lord brought in, it should be presumed that He would look down upon marriage, He attends a marriage in Cana of Galilee (John 2:), and thus sets His seal upon it.

We need therefore not be ashamed of it, though we forget not that there are higher things, endowed
with superior honor, for "there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. "(Matt. 19:12.) They refused marriage, like Paul and others, to devote themselves more undistractedly to the service of God. (i Cor. 7:32-35.)

Being then of divine establishment let us bring God into it. Let us not treat it as a matter in which we simply consult our pleasure, our fancy, or our profit. Dare you, dear young friend, launch out on such a voyage without making God your counselor? Dare you link yourself in such a tie with one who is not a child of God? "What concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that, believeth with an unbeliever?" (2 Cor. 6:14, 15.) What an awful "yoke" that binds together an heir of God and a despiser of Christ. It would seem that if the ' heart were at all right it would make such a union utterly repulsive.

Again, even among ourselves who are fellow-heirs of the glory of God, how dare you make your own prayerless choice? – for even among the children of God there are many who would not be suited to each other in such a tie. Who knows each one to the depths but God ? Who understands fully the temperament that will match mine ? – that will be able to bear patiently with my own faults, or be a corrective to my tendencies, and thus help me on in my desire to live for Christ here? How many make a fair show at the start, but turn out miserably ? Who knows all this, and who can shield me from the host of evil but God my Father ? It is not enough, therefore, to have the approval of fathers and mothers and friends, valuable and even needful as that is for our happiness; their love is tried, but their wisdom is not far-reaching enough. The God who has created the ordinance must needs have the first and chief place in it if it is to be blest in all its length and breadth.
Oh, what mercy that even if in our lightness and the folly of ignorance and youth we have not given Him that place, His love to His dear children is such that, though we must reap what we have sown, He will yet turn all to our final blessing and profit. When our lion will is rent honey is found in the carcase.

But let me warn you in one thing:you will not find in marriage a perfect thing. Not that God did not make it perfect, but man has fallen since, and his fall has spoiled everything. The apple may still be sweet, but a worm is in it. The rose has yet. its fragrance, but thorns grow with it. Willing or unwilling, everywhere we must read the ruin which sin has brought in.

So let no one dream of those wonderful people which a diseased fancy can picture. The most godly men and women have their weaknesses and their failings; and though such be easy to bear where there is genuine love, they have to be borne. People who have fed on novels and fanciful ideas, and who have been disappointed in their own course, especially silly women, may make you think that because you have something of that sort to bear as well as to be borne with, you are one of their heroes or heroines who were unhappily married, and therefore great martyrs. Such are not your friends. Turn again to God, your best, your constant friend. Let Him speak to you:"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. . . . Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it." (Eph. 5:22-29.) Mark, He does not say, Wives, demand of your husbands that they love you; nor, Husbands, demand submission from your wives. No, for this at once would be the opposite of the grace under which we are, which never claims but gives, and finally gets its claims by ever giving. Let, then, "every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband," (Eph. 5:33); and they cannot fail to enjoy all the sweets which marriage can give in the ruined creation through which we are passing. God will be with such, and where God is there is the best of everything. There will be no " skeleton " in that house. Trials and difficulties there may, there will be, for they are an absolute necessity for our development in Christ; but where God is there is the spirit of love, of unity, of mercy, of forgiveness, of compassion and tenderness. Sweet life of companionship yet vouchsafed to us in passing through a world so full of misery. Truly "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (i Tim. 4:8.) P. J. L.

BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 164.)

The last three blessings upon character relate to that in which the children of God manifest most distinctly their divine origin. In mercy, in purity of heart, in peace-making, the character of God Himself is manifested, as Light and as Love. It is directly said of the peace-makers that "they shall be called the children of God;" and here, assuredly, is the great office Christ has Himself assumed. In the first epistle of John, where the possession of eternal life by the professors of Christianity is in question, similar things are given as the signs of it; as there indeed it is we have the statements, " God is light," and "God is love." Therefore, "whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither is he that loveth not his brother." The two things must be found, then, in the same person, as in God they inhere together:love is not truly love that is not holy; holiness is not that, that is separated from love.

In like manner these seven beatitudes are but one sevenfold blessing. Blessing cannot dwell with cursing ; nor the child of light be the child of darkness also. Such cross-checks as to reality are of the greatest possible importance, for practical use. In a world of shams there is nothing but needs testing; and with the flesh still in us, there is abundant room for self-deception. Saddest of all it is, that even Christians may not be unwilling to be a little blinded; with this additional necessity of course, that they cannot dictate as to the limit of this:the enemy to whom they capitulate will be bound by no terms.

Thus, "the merciful" must be that according to what is God's own mercy. Mercy has respect to need in any form, and in its highest to the needs produced by sin. But indifference to sin itself would rob it of its divinest attributes, and be its unspeakable degradation. In face of the opposition of the world it is the unselfishness of love that " seeketh not her own." Nearest akin to meekness, of all that has been before, it is not simply self-government as that is, though it implies it, but is more positive in character, looking not upon its own things, but the things of others. It is the first hint, in all this, of ministry, and thus the beginning of distinct Christ-likeness.

And "they shall obtain mercy:"what they sow they shall reap, according to the abiding rule of harvest. Perhaps we would expect something more than this; as, from the parallel with what has gone before, this mercy found must look onward to the coming kingdom. But all the reward there is mercy, and it is well and needful to be reminded of it. So the apostle, after speaking of the self-forgetting love of Onesiphorus, who had refreshed and ministered to him in his bonds at Rome, prays, "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day." At our best as at our worst, it is to grace that we are debtors. Grace crowns even as grace saves.

And now we have emphasized the character of God as light:"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." If we remember that the eyes are in the heart, the connection is most obvious. Indeed this must be the qualification for seeing aright any thing that is worth seeing. But the glorious vision here is not so much the crown of all as it is the sum of all. If we look on to the complete day of blessing, as pictured in the apostle's words to the Corinthians, we find "God all in all" (i Cor. 15:28.) "The eyes of your understanding," Eph. 1:18, should be rather, " eyes of your heart." If we have set before us the knowledge of the new man, as done by the same apostle (Col. 3:2:), it is "Christ all and in all." Christ being the "Word," "the image of the invisible God," these two things are ultimately one. To see God all, and to see Him everywhere, is to have the universe bathed in uncreated glory.

To see God thus implies ability for communion with Him. We must have a nature kindred with His in order to apprehend Him. When He was in the world by whom the world was made, the world knew Him not. And why ? Not because there was not abundant witness. Not because mighty works did not testify of Him. He Himself declared the reason in that pregnant question which admitted but of one answer :"How can ye believe who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" The reason for lack of faith is always a moral one. The pure in heart can alone see God.

How blessed yet it is to know that as men get to realize but the hollowness of the world,-as they find its inability to satisfy the soul made for communion with God,-as there presses upon them thus the need of what is true, and indeed good and abiding,-that with this the kingdom of God is drawing nigh to them and at the doors ! The vision is beginning to clear, even when as yet there is nothing before it but evil and sorrow manifest; and thus comes the cry to them by the consciousness of that awful distress, "If any man thirst." It is not even said for what. As yet, it may be, he knows not, even afar off, that which would satisfy. But the appeal is here to him, in all its earnestness, all its confident assurance of the abundance that is with Him to do this, '' If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink ! He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall How rivers of living water."

The Pharisee may cleanse the outside with most religious care, and sec nothing; or see indeed the very opposite of the truth :but the soul brought, in its misery, to self-judgment, with its back on the world and self, shall see the glorious Vision which lies over against these, unseen by their votaries. Then to the Voice that questions, "Will ye also go away? "there is but one possible reply, "Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." Amen.

And oh, for the bliss that lies beyond this! for the possibilities of vision beyond all that any one yet has made his own! for such is the unrealized wealth of our possession even here. Who is there among the followers of Christ to-day who does not seem rather to shun than court the glories of full vision ? To us the sanctuary is completely open; the veil is rent from top to bottom; Christ is entered in, to give us entrance. Yet we imitate so much the unbelief of those who, in days past, besought God to put distance when He was drawing nigh, and to put a creature of His, though it were a Moses, abidingly between themselves and Him.

It is not by a dreamy and mystical approach to Him that we arc brought into fellowship with Him. There must be the power of His Spirit, and for that a true and heartfelt surrender of ourselves to Him; but fellowship can only be according to the measure of acquaintance with Him, and this again through the revelation He has made to us of Himself. It is for this that the Scriptures are in our hand, and it is in the use we make of them that it will be shown how real is our desire of fellowship with Him.
This blessing of the pure in heart has even here no limit, one may well believe, that the spirit of man has ever found. The work of His Spirit in us is described by an inspired writer as '' searching the deep things of God." Words which would seem not to become the Divine Spirit, if used with regard to His separate action, are, when understood of His gracious in working in the people of God, a wondrous assurance of possibilities, to which we can put no limit. It is not, of course, that "face to face" vision that shall be. It is not a measure beyond that of Scripture:but then who has taken the measure of Scripture ? Would we not expect to find more frequently than we do, such students as could scarcely be detached from their study of the sacred writings, even at the demands of nature for supply ? And who is it that has said, "Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life ?"

Beyond this scene in the joy that cannot yet be uttered, we shall feed still upon the "manna" of the earthly pilgrimage. (Rev. 2:17.) Who, without loss that we cannot measure, can slight it now ?

The seventh beatitude fills plainly the place of rest:"Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children' of God." Only it is rest in activity, and that is truest rest:just what that of eternity will be. The "peace" here spoken of will of course be also such as fits the company in which we find it here. The peace of God sums up all peace. When it is fully come there shall be no threat of evil from any quarter. Yet now how glorious is the victory of good in being able not only to enjoy, but to minister peace, while still the world is full of confusion and violence! How wonderful to know that which is the only basis of true peace is that in which also we see evil at its worst! The world's worst crime-the bitter growth of its many centuries of hostility to God-its awful act of allegiance to the "prince" that it has chosen-has been the cross. But just its worst is that which-in the triumphing of good over it-gives absolute peace. The worst that man could do has but disclosed the infinite good in God;-nay, He has met the full power of the enemy in the weakness of a " Son of man." Goodness, in no power but that inherent in it, has defeated evil with all its accumulated strength. "Out of the cater is brought forth strength; out of the strong, sweetness."

Henceforth to despair of good is to despair of God. See, in this will-less, perfect submission of a perfect will, the obedience by which the slaves of sin are rescued, and many guilty are made forever righteous! He has made peace by the blood of His cross ! God is glorified in His love and in His holiness, and is just in justifying them that believe in Jesus. How blessed now arc the feet of those who are but the messengers of the gospel of peace ! who go forth with the trumpet of jubilee to proclaim the fruits of the day of atonement for the Israel of God ! Amen:let the voice of recall go forth, and the feeblest recount the praises of the weakness which has defeated the strong, and out of weakness brings forth strength everlasting.

Blessed, then, are the peace makers ! God is Himself that. They, then, "shall be called the children of God." The Spirit of peace belongs to every true hearer of the wondrous reconciliation. Henceforth for whatever roughness of the road, their feet are "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;" shoes like those of Israel of old that never wear out. Well may they be publishers of this grace to others! F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

CHAPTER VII. (Continued from page 158.)

Our writer, ignorant as he confessedly is of this glorious light of divine revelation, still speaks in praise of the feeble glimmer that human wisdom gives. From his point of view, wealth and wisdom are both good,- are a "defense" or "shadow" to their possessors; but still that which men generally esteem the most-wealth-is given the second place; for knowledge, or wisdom, has in itself a positive virtue that money lacks. It "gives life to them that have it," animates, preserves in life, modifies, at least in measure, the evils from which it cannot altogether guard its possessor; and, by giving equanimity to a life of change and vicissitude, proves, in some sort, its own life-giving energy. How infinitely true this is with regard to Him who is absolute infinite Wisdom, and who is our Life, it is our health and joy to remember.

The Preacher continues:Ponder the work of God, but you will find nothing in anything that you can see that shall enable you to forecast the future with any certainty. Adversity follows prosperity, and my counsel is to make the best use of both,-enjoy this when it comes, and let that teach you that God's ways are inscrutable, nor can you straighten out the tangle of His providences. Evidently he intends these vicissitudes that still follow no definite rule, so that man may recognize his own ignorance and impotence. In one word, reason as you may from all that you can see, and your reason will throw no ray of light on God's future dealings. And there again, having brought us face to face with a dense, impenetrable cloud, Ecclesiastes leaves us.

How awful that dark cloud is, it is difficult for us now to realize, so accustomed are we to the light God's word has given. But were it possible to blot out entirely from our minds all that Word has taught us, and place ourselves for a moment just by the side of our "Preacher," look alone through his eyes, recognize with him the existence of the Creator whose glorious Being is so fully shown in all His works, and yet with nothing whereby to judge of His disposition toward us except what we see, -in the physical world the blasting storm sweeping over the landscape that but now spoke only in its beauties and bounties of His love and benevolence, leaving in its desolating track, not only ruined homesteads and blighted harvests ; but, far worse, the destruction of all our hopes, of all the estimates we had formed of Him. In the world of providences the thoughts of His love, based on yesterday's peace and prosperity, all denied and swept away by to-day's sorrows and adversities,- awful, agonizing uncertainty! And, since all is surely in His hand, to be compelled to recognize that He permits, at least, these alternations "to the end that (with that express purpose) man should find nothing of what shall be after Him"! Reason, or Intelligence, with all her highest powers, stands hopeless and helpless before that dark future, and wrings her hands in agony.

But look, my beloved reader, at that man who speeds his way with fleet and steady footfall. His swift tread speaks no uncertainty nor doubt of mind. Mark the earnest, concentrated, forward look. His eye is upward, and something he sees there is drawing him with powerful magnetic attraction quite contrary to the course or path of men at large. He presses against the stream:the multitude are floating in the other direction. As with the kine of Beth-shemesh, some hidden power takes him in a course quite contrary to all the ties or calls of mere nature. Look at him,- irrespective of anything else, the figure itself is a grand sight. The path he has chosen lies through the thorny shrubs of endurance, afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, and fastings. No soft or winsome meadow-way this, nor one that any would choose, except he were under some strong conviction,- whether true or false,- that will surely be admitted. For men have at rare times suffered much even in the cause of error; but never for that which they themselves knew to be false, and which at the same time brought them no glory,- nothing to feed their vanity, or pride, or exalt them in any way. Admit, then, for a moment, that he is self-deceived, under some strong delusion, and that the object of which he is in pursuit is but a phantom. Then mark the path in which that phantom leads:it has turned him from being a blasphemer, persecutor, and an insolent, overbearing man (i Tim. i), into one of liveliest affections, most tender sympathies, a lowly servant of all; it has given him a joy that no wave of trouble can quench, a song that dungeons cannot silence, a transparent truthfulness which permits a lie nowhere; and all this results from that which is in itself a delusion,- a lie! Oh, holy "delusion"! Oh, wondrous, truth-loving, wonder-working "lie"! Was ever such a miracle, that a falsehood works truth?-that a delusion, instead of leading into marsh, or bog, or quicksand, as other will-o'-the-wisps ever and always have, leads along a morally elevated path where every footstep rings with the music of divine certainty, as though it trod upon a rock! Such a miracle, contrary to all reason, is worthy of acceptance only by the blind, childish, credulity of infidelity. Whatever the object before him, then, it is real; his convictions are soberly and well founded; he runs his race to no visionary, misty goal; but some actual reality is the lode-star of his life. Let us listen to his own explanation:"forgetting those things that are behind, reaching forth unto those that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." But Solomon, the wisest of the wise, groans no man can find out "that which shall come after him"; or, in other words, that future of which Paul sings:I have heard a voice that has called from heaven, and looking up I have seen a Light that has darkened every other. One in beauty and attraction infinite,-to Him I press. He is before me, and not till Him 1 reach will I rest. Blessed contrast !

Now, my dear reader, let us also seek to keep our eye on that same Object, for the man at whom we have been looking is one just like ourselves, with every passion that we have, and the One who drew him can draw you and me,- Who satisfied him can satisfy us, for He who loved and died for him has loved and died for us.

And since we are not now contemplating the wondrous cross, but His glory, let us sing together:-

Oh, my Saviour glorified!
Now the heavens opened wide
Show to Faith's exultant eye
One in beauteous majesty.

Worthy of the sweetest praise
That my ransomed heart can raise,
Is that Man in whom alone
God Himself is fully known.

For those clustering glories prove
That glad gospel "God is Love,"
Whilst those wounds, in glory bright,
Voice the solemn "God is Light."
Holy Light, whose searching ray Brings but into perfect day Beauties that my heart must win To the Sinless once made Sin.

Hark, my soul! Thy Saviour sings;
Catch the joy that music brings;
And, with that sweet flood of song,
Pour thy whimpering praise along.

For no film of shade above
Hides me now from perfect Love.
Deep assurance all is right
Gives me peace in perfect Light.

Find I then on God's own breast
Holy, happy, perfect rest,
In the person of my Lord,-
"Ever be His name adored! "

Oh, my Saviour glorified,
Turn my eye from all beside.
Let me but Thy beauty see,-
Other light is dark to me.

Question 7.- In Help and Food for April, page 101, It is said that Mary, the sister of Lazarus, was not at the cross, neither at the tomb. If Mary Magdalene was not the sister of Lazarus, then there is a difficulty to my mind. I have examined Scripture, and the Word seems to say she is. Are there two Mary’s who anointed the Lord ?

Answer.- Mary was a favorite and common name among the Jews,- doubtless from Moses' sister Miriam,- so much so that in the same family the name was given twice (John 19:25). Possibly, however, Mary of Cleophas was a half-sister, or even a cousin, called from intimacy a sister,- a usage not uncommon among the Jews.

Be this as it may, there is no scripture to Identify Mary, sister of Lazarus, with Mary Magdalene. Indeed it is impossible, for the one came from Magdala, a town in Galilee, and the other from Bethany, a town near Jerusalem (John 11:1,18).

There are three passages which speak of Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus – Luke 10:38-42; John 11:; John 12:1-9. Matt. 26:6-14 gives the parallel passage to this last, without her name, but only that of the town, Bethany.

Mary Magdalene had been delivered from seven devils, and had devoted herself to ministering to the Lord (Luke 8:1-3). She followed Him from Galilee, and was present at the cross (Matt, 27:55, 50). She was early at the tomb, and was the first to see the arisen Lord (Mark 16:9); John 20:1-18). Her history is therefore entirely distinct from that of the sister of Lazarus.

Neither must " the woman that was a sinner " (Luke 7:36-50) be confounded with either of the women mentioned. Her name is not given, and the summary at the head of the chapter in our authorized version which calls her Mary Magdalene has not the slightest foundation for so doing. On the other hand, the anointing by this woman must not be confounded with that by Mary the sister of Lazarus. The first was during the earlier part of our Lord's ministry in Galilee; the last was just at the close, and at Bethany. Their objects, too, were different:the first was the worship of a penitent sinner; the last the anointing for His burial, by one who had long known and loved Him and entered into His thoughts.

To recapitulate:Mary Magdalene and Mary the sister of Lazarus were two distinct persons; so were Mary Magdalene and the woman in Luke 7:; there were two anointings of our Lord.

" But without faith it is impossible to please him :for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."-Heb. 11:6.

One of the most beautiful parables of our Saviour is that in which He teaches the lesson of human dependence upon Divine care:"If God so clothe the grass which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Nature in Summer impresses this parable upon our mind. The lesson of Jesus is illustrated and enforced by the silent but eloquent beauty of the May field. An emerald rainbow of mercy is then around the warm, quickened bosom of the earth, assuring us that He who clothes the naked soil will clothe us too. Nay, we see the very process by which the Divine covenant is being fulfilled going on day after day under our eyes. We see the flax extracting from the earth the materials of those fibers which are to be woven into garments for us. We see in our pasture-lands the sheep converting, by some mysterious vital action, the grass which they eat into snowy fleeces to keep our bodies warm. Our food and raiment come from the same humble source; and the grass may, therefore, well be employed to teach us our frailty and dependence upon God for our temporal blessings. We know that the same law which regulates and limits the supply of our food from the grass, also regulates and limits the supply of our raiment from the grass. We are apt to think that, by the aid of our vast mechanical appliances, we can produce the materials of clothing in unlimited quantity, but the slightest reflection will convince us of the fallacy of this idea. Wool and flax are in reality as difficult to produce as corn; nay, more so; for, while they are equally subject to the vicissitudes of the season-to blights and storms and diseases they cannot, like the corn be produced in every country, being confined to certain regions and peculiar climates. The annual stock of clothing materials, like the annual supply of food, is sufficient only for the annual consumption of the human race; so that year after year, we have to work for our raiment as we have to work for our meat. We can no more accumulate and lay up in store our wool and flax than we can accumulate and lay up in store our corn. . . . And in all this we have a most convincing proof of the beautiful harmony that exists between the moral and physical laws of the universe. He who " causeth the grass to grow for the cattle," and by this agency brings food and raiment out of the earth for man, has commanded us to " take no thought for the morrow." And the limitations which He has imposed upon the production and preservation of our food and clothing, the only true riches of the world, teach us most impressively that "by taking ever so much thought we cannot make ourselves independent." We are brought back from all our vain efforts and covetous desires after an inexhaustible store of life's necessaries, from the faithless faint-heartedness, which is too often the principal motive in the pursuit of the phantom independence, to a simple, childlike trust in Him who hath promised to feed and clothe us as He feeds and clothes the grass of the field.- "Bible Teaching in Nature" (McMillan).

Jesus! the only One !
The One that grace has given;
My soul, trust Him alone
Of all in earth or heaven ;
He gave His life upon the tree
That I, the culprit, might go free.

Jesus, the living One!
He lives no more to die-
Full proof that all is done;
Yea, more, He lives on high;
He lives His precious blood to plead,
He lives for me to intercede.

Jesus! the absent One!
Ah, few His absence mourn-
Few "crown Him Lord" alone,
Or sigh for His return;
And yet, while He remains away,
Sin, tears, and death will hold their sway.

Jesus ! the coming One !
He waits to come again;
He'll come to claim His own,
And they shall live and reign:
My soul, be waiting for the Son-
Be watching for the coming One !

Jesus ! the judging One !
To Him all judgment's given;
To Him each knee will bow,
In hell, or earth, or heaven;
Oh, happy they who bow to grace !
All else may dread to see His face.

R. H.

BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 121.)

The "sermon on the mount " is the manifestation of the kingdom in its inner spirit and holiness, – still, of course, as a kingdom to come, and not actually come. There are seven parts :the first (vers. 1-16), fittingly, consisting of the "beatitudes," blessings pronounced by the Lord Himself upon the heirs of it:first, in view of their personal character (1-9); then as sufferers in the midst of a world hostile to them (10-12); and lastly, as ministers, in the face of that hostility, of a blessing which shall be realized in the world, when the long-expected kingdom comes (13-16).

The old covenant also had its blessings, which were conditioned upon legal obedience, in result proving only the utter hopelessness of blessing under it, so that the very "song" of the law-giver is a witness against the people, and his blessing of the tribes has to look for its fulfillment in times beyond the law:in fact, in the very times of the kingdom which the Lord here announces. How suited that the Messenger of the new covenant should begin with blessing, – blessing still upon obedience, (for in the nature of things there can be no other,) but now with a positiveness and assurance which imply the grace that the covenant, with its glorious "I will"s, so royally expresses (Heb. 8:8-12). For those under it there is no Mount Ebal, no curse or woe at all. The sweet authority of divine love constrains and restrains together. Christ is king of a kingdom like which there is no other, where the ingrafted Word is "law," yet a "law of liberty," and every individual conscience is His throne.

There are seven blessings pronounced on character, and as in most sevens elsewhere throughout the Word, the first four arc distinguished from the last three here, by being connected with what is more negative and related to outward position; while the last three give us the more specific divine lineaments which are found in all the children of God as partakers of the divine nature. The first four show us the heart set upon a blessing which is not yet come, upon the kingdom of heaven itself, and thus distressed at all that which is the moral opposite of this in the world around them. The last three give us the positive energy and activity of good amid the unceasing conflict of evil with it. But let us look at them more particularly in their order and connection with one another, all which has its meaning and importance for interpretation and spiritual application.

First, and therefore of first importance here, we have "Blessed arc the poor in spirit." This is in contrast with mere external poverty, but like it in its own sphere. When the heart is set upon things to come, present things of necessity lose their power to satisfy. There is "absence of mind," as we say; the gaze is on the unseen. And this is characteristic of faith, which is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." With this, therefore, we must begin, for '' without faith it is impossible to please God." Yet this poverty of spirit is only the negative side of faith, the emptying and not the filling. There is power in it, however,- deliverance from a world which is known as vanity,- from the vain show in which men walk and their equally vain disquiet,- from the temptations, therefore, and distractions of it. The soul's bonds are cut; it can move, it can make progress. To such an one God's word becomes a necessity, as the one link with the invisible. And such a seeking has its invitation and blessing from the Lord Himself:"theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

How much more, not less, forceful for us should this be, than for those to whom the Lord was directly speaking, or even for the people who will stand upon the threshold of the kingdom in days soon to come! True, the earth's crisis will be upon it, and Israel's travail-time of intense anguish, out of which, as in a day, a nation will be born to God. But for us is the revelation of a brighter inheritance, higher as heaven is above the earth, the meeting-place of the redeemed, the dwelling-place of God and of the Lamb. Had we divine affections, such as should be formed by the revelation, how little would mere circumstances have power over the formation of a character like this! Granted that Satan's tactics for us have changed, and that instead of funeral pyres for martyrs, there are now premiums in abundance for unfaithfulness to Christ,- a condition of things formed indeed by a compromise between the Church and the world,- should this have power to dim the eyes of faith? What would it be to say this, but to own it right and reasonable that Satan should gain his object?

Christ in the world at least must be poor in it. It was the place, without any question, of His poverty. If, then, He be the example for us, how much does this imply? If He, too, gone out of the world, is the object for our hearts, where will our hearts be ?

Approached from this direction, the next point is soon attained, the character of "the meek." Amid the lusts and strife of earth, if like others you have your portion to contend for, you must strive as they do. If you have nothing here to live for but God's will, it is sure, beyond doubt, that this will be done:you can afford to be quiet. Be sure for yourself of a Father's love and care always over you,-the infinite love and wisdom concerning itself with all your path, and such knowledge will of necessity subdue all the rashness of self-assertion, and make you careful only to give God His way, to cease from the folly of your own. Here, too, the Lord leads His own:" Learn of me," He says, "for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." There is the blessing of it now, and how great it is, "rest to your souls"! – rest from all restlessness, quiet in the knowledge that God is God:what an in-estimable joy is this.

When "the meek shall inherit the earth" is again the blessedness of that future time when judgment shall return to righteousness, the reins of government being in the hands of the Righteous One. It will be a wonderful thing in this world, whose history has been one long strife of ambition, and whose heroes have been so often made such by the hecatombs of their slain, to have the inheritance belong to the meek! Promise for the earthly people as it is, we shall still enjoy it, and in a better way. We are "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ," and shall reign with Him over the earth. We have no need, therefore, to covet Israel's promises, and should not be enriched by them in the least. Whether to them or to us, '' the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."

The third blessing is that of those that mourn; and here we are not to think, as exhaustive at least, of sorrow over our sins. Christ was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," and, necessarily, as the Son of God in a world astray from Him. '' For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up," He says, "and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." (Ps. Ixix. 9.) His tears fell over Jerusalem. The cross He bore for men was fullest witness to the intensity of His anguish upon their account, while justifying the holiness of God in all He suffered for them.

Little need to dwell upon the causes for mourning in the world, such as we know it. Its open sores are revealed enough day by day, in a time when the most hidden things are exposed as a matter of course before the public gaze, as having unquestioned right to know everything! And yet, after all, these are only specimens from the mass of evil and of misery too great to be gaged or realized. What must have been the oppression of it to Him whose eye saw through all, and whose heart had none of the callousness with which we throw off or the weakness which makes us faint under too great a burden.

But "they shall be comforted." There is a rest of God to come, a rest into which we shall enter; a sabbath-rest, where rest shall be not only allowed but sanctified. How sweet the thought of a "rest of God," where He with His holiness, He with His love, shall rest, and "rest in His love." Yes, this is possible still, and shall at last be actual.

There is yet one special form of sorrow to be noted, and it is one that men are feeling intensely to-day; not because there is more of it than in the past ages, or at least not that there is necessarily more. Rather, perhaps, because all these questions are coming up for answer, as the day of settlement nears, and the harvest of the earth approaches ripeness. '' Judgment shall " yet "return to righteousness," long divorced as they have been, but it is not yet so:still the cry of oppression goes up into the ears of God, and He is quiet, and men think He regards not. And because they think so, they are rising up to-day, to take things into their own hand, and settle them with their own hands, and after their own fashion. Yet they can never be so settled. Where are the righteous that arc fit to rule ? Arc the few who have shown their unfitness other than fair samples of the many that have never had a chance to try ? Ah, no ! ' 'As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest:for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."

There is no hope in the rule of the many, then. There is no hope but in the rule of One whom men long since rejected, and whom they reject to-day. The cry, "We have no king but Caesar," has been answered by the long reign of Caesar. Men have chosen, and to-day choose, as of old:they may say, no doubt, "rather myself than Caesar," but if that cannot be, "rather Caesar than Christ." Try experiments and politics they may, and dethrone Caesar! Christ they do not want.

Yet "blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." "Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . stablish your hearts:for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh."

This is the remedy,-the only and unfailing one :and blessed, meanwhile, is the hunger after that which only the clay of Christ will bring. There is One who can safely be trusted, only One; and He sits even now upon the throne of God, and waits till His enemies are made His footstool. While He waits, we can wait. The general state cannot be remedied until He comes; but even now abundant power is His, which He delights to use, in His way of fullest wisdom, for the good of His own. His long-suffering is salvation. He waits, not in helplessness, nor in inactivity, but to secure designs of perfect goodness, which eternity will unfold to us. Meanwhile this waiting becomes for us the discipline of faith, the opportunity to trace a little more on earth the path he has trodden, the extension of a special time of service, which He will remember. '' Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching :verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth, and serve them." (Luke 12:37.)
(To be continued.)

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 186.)

Fourth. -" For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:and the dead in Christ shall rise first."

Another sweet and holy word of comfort. We have seen Jesus putting His saints to sleep, as to their bodies; and here we see the same Lord Jesus Himself bidding them rise. No indiscriminate general resurrection this:"the dead in Christ" alone are concerned:they rise first. He who died for them knows them ; and they, too, have known His voice in life:that same voice now awakens them, and bids them rise as easily as the little damsel at the "Talitha Cumi"! How precious is this glorious word of the Lord! How perfect the order! No awe-inspiring trumpet, 'sounding' long and waxing loud," as at Sinai of old, awakening- the panic-stricken dead, and bidding them come to an awful judgment. Such the picture that man's dark unbelief and guilty conscience have drawn. Small comfort would we have for mourners were that true. God be thanked it is not. Their Saviour's well-known voice that our dead have loved shall awaken them, ringing full and true in every tone and note of it with the love He has borne them. Then the voice of the Archangel Michael, the great marshal of God's victorious hosts, shall range our ranks. This accomplished, and all in the perfect divine order of victory, the trumpet shall sound and the redeemed shall begin their triumphant, blissful, upward flight.

Fifth.- But the Spirit of God desires us to get and to give the comfort of another precious word, In no strangle unknown company shall we who are alive and remain start on that homeward journey, but "-together with them." Who that has known the agony of broken heart-strings does not see the in-finitely gracious tender comfort in those three words, "together with them"? There is reunion. Once more we shall be in very deed with those we love, with never a thought or fear of parting more to shadow the mutual joy. In view of those three words it were simple impertinence to question whether we shall recognize our dear saints who have preceded us. Not only would such a question rob them of their beauty, but of their very meaning. They would be empty and absolutely meaningless in such case. Sure, beyond a peradventure, is it that our most cherished anticipations shall be far exceeded in that rapturous moment; for we can but reason from experience, whilst here the sweetest communion has ever been marred by that which there shall not be.

How sweet the prospect, my sorrowing bereaved readers! We shall, as God is true, look once more into the very faces of those we have known and loved in the Lord on earth. They awake to recognition as Magdalene at the word "Mary;" not to a renewed earthly companionship, nor to a relationship as known in the flesh, as poor Mary thought, but to a sweeter, as well as higher; a warmer, as well as purer communion; for the tie that there shall bind us together is that which is stronger, sweeter than all others, even here,-Jesus Christ the Lord.

But stay! Does this really meet fully the present sorrow? Docs it give a satisfying comfort ? Is there not a lurking feeling of disappointment that certain relationships with their affections are never to be restored; therefore, in certain ways, "recognition"is not probable ? For instance, a husband loses the companion of his life. He shall, it is true, meet and recognize with joy a saint whom he knew on earth, but never again his wife. That sweet, pure, human affection, is never to be renewed. Death's rude hand has chilled that warmth forever. The shock of death has extinguished it forevermore. Is that exactly true ! Is that just as Scripture puts it ? Let us see.

We may justly reason that if, in the resurrection, relationships were exactly as here, sorrow would necessarily outweigh joy. To find broken families there would be a perpetuation of earth's keenest distresses. To know that break was irreparable would cause a grief unutterable and altogether inconsistent with the joy of the new creation. Marriage there is not, and hence all relationships of earth we may safely gather are not there. But the natural affections of the soul of man have they absolutely come to nothing?

That soul, connected as it is with that which is higher than itself – the spirit – is immortal, and its powers and attributes must be in activity beyond death. It is the seat of the affections here, and, surely, there too. Why, then, shall not these affections there have full unhindered play? Let us seek to gather something from analogy. Knowledge has its seat in the spirit of man, and here he exercises that faculty; nor does the spirit any more than the soul cease to exist; nor are its attributes therefore to be arrested. Yet we read of knowledge in that scene, "'it shall vanish away." And why? Is it not. because of the perfect light that there shines ? Human knowledge is but a candle, and what worth is candle-light when the noonday sun shines ? It is overwhelmed, swallowed up, by perfect light. It "vanishes away,"-is not extinguished, any more than is human knowledge, by the shock of death or change; but perfection of Light has done away with the very appearance of imperfection. Now is this not equally and exactly true of that other part of the divine nature-Love ? Here we both know in part and love in part. There the perfection of Love causes that which is imperfect-the human affection of the soul-to "vanish away." The greater swallows up the less. The infinite attraction of the Lord Jesus- that "glory" which He prayed that we might see (John 17:) – overwhelms all lower affections with no rough rude shock as of death, but by the very superabundance of the bliss. His glory! What is it but the radiant outshining of His infinitely blessed, infinitely attractive, divine nature, -Love and Light, Light and Love,- each swallowing up in their respective spheres every inferior imperfect reflection of them that we have enjoyed here in this scene of imperfection, leaving nothing to be desired, nothing missed; allowing perfect play to every human faculty and affection,-crushing, extinguishing none. Death has not been permitted to annul these faculties. The perfect love of the Lord Jesus has outstripped them, swallowed them up in warmer affections, sweeter communion. The coming of that precious Saviour is close:just as close is the fulfillment of those words, '' together with them." "He maketh the clouds His chariots," and in those chariots we are taken home "together."

Sixth.-"To meet the Lord in the air." Another word of divine comfort, again. How bold the assertion ! Its very boldness is assurance of its truth. It becomes God, and God only, so to speak that His people may both recognize His voice in its majesty and rest on His word. No speculation; no argument; no deduction; no reasoning; but a bare, authoritative statement, startling in its boldness. Not a syllable of past Scripture on which to build and to give color to it; and yet when revealed, when spoken, in perfect harmony with the whole of Scripture. How absolutely impossible for any man to have conceived that the Lord's saints should be caught up to meet Him "in the air." Were it not true, its very boldness and apparent foolishness would be its refutation. And what must be the character of mind that would even seek to invent such a thought ? What depths of awful wickedness it would bespeak! What cruelty thus to attempt to deceive the whole race! What corruption, thus to speak false in the holiest matters, attaching the Lord's name to a falsehood! The spring from which such a statement, if false, could rise must be corrupt indeed. But, oh, how different in fact! What severe righteousness! what depths of holiness! what elevated morality! what warmth of tender affection! what burning zeal, combined with the profoundest reasoning, characterize every word of the writer of this same statement! Every word that he has written testifies that he has not attempted to deceive.

There is, perhaps, one other alternative:the writer may have believed himself thus inspired, and was thus self-deceived But in this case far gone in disease must his mind have been; nor could it fail constantly to give striking evidence of being thus unhinged in other parts of his writings. This is a subject with which unbalanced .minds have shown their inability to be much occupied without the most sorrowful evidences of the disease under which they suffer. Let there be independence of the Scriptures (as there confessedly is in this case), and let man's mind work in connection with this subject of the Lord's second coming, and all history has but one testimony:such minds become unbalanced, and feverish disquietude evidences itself by constant recurrence to the one theme. Find, on the other hand, one single in-stance, if you can, in which such a mind makes mention once, and only once, of that subject that has so overmastered every other as to have deceived him into the belief that falsehood is truth, his own imagination is the inspiration of the Spirit of God!

Have you not wondered why this wondrous word of revelation occurs thus in detail once and only once ? Is it not one of the weapons of those who contend against this our hope that we base too much on this isolated Scripture text ? Not that is true, for all Scripture, as we have said, is in perfect harmony and accord with it; but what a perfect, complete, thorough answer, this fact gives to the other alternative- that the writer was self-deceived. This is impossible; or, like every other self-deceived man that ever lived, he would have pressed his one theme in every letter, forced it on unwilling minds every time he opened his mouth or took up his pen.

"No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest
Till half mankind were like himself possessed."

'Tis an attractive theme. Long could we linger here, but we must pass on; but before leaving, let us see if we were justified in saying that whilst this word is based on no previous Scripture, yet, when spoken, it is in harmony with all. First, then, is it not in perfect accord with the peculiar character and calling of the Church? Israel, as a nation, finds her final deliverance on the earth. Her calling and her hopes have ever been limited to this scene. Fitting then, indeed, it is that she be saved by her Deliverer's feet standing once more on the Mount of Olives (Zech. 14:4), and the judgment of the living nations should then take place. But with the Church, how different:her blessings heavenly; her character heavenly; her calling heavenly. Is it not, then, in accord with this that her meeting with her Lord should be literally heavenly, too? Israel, exponent of the righteous government of God, may rightly long to "dip her foot in the blood of the wicked." Nor can she expect or know of any deliverance except, as of old, in victories in the day of battle. The Church, exponent of the exceeding riches of His grace, is of another spirit; and our deliverance "in the air" permits-nay, necessitates-our echoing that gracious word of our Lord, '' Father, forgive them."

Then too, how beautifully this rapture follows the pattern of His whom the Lord's people now are following even to a dwelling that has no name nor place on earth (John 1:38, 39). The clouds received Him:they, too, shall receive us. Unseen by the world He left the world, too busy with its occupations to note or care for the departure of Him who is its Light. So the poor feeble glimmer of the Lord's dear people now shall be lost, secretly, as it were, to the world in which they shine as lights, leaving it in awful gloomy darkness till the Day dawn and the Sun. arise.

Nor is illustration or type lacking. In Enoch, caught up before the judgment of the flood, surely we may see a figure of the rapture of the heavenly saints before the antitype of the flood, the tribulation that is to try "the dwellers upon the earth," as in Noah brought through that judgment, a picture of the earthly ones.

In this connection, too, what could be more exquisitely harmonious than the way in which the Lord thus presents Himself to the expectant faith of His earthly and heavenly people? To the former the full plain Day is ushered in by the Sun of Righteousness arising with healing in His wings:for that Day they look. To the latter, who are watching through the long hours of the night, the Bright and Morning Star shining ere the first beams of the Sun are thrown upon the dark world is the object of faith and hope.

Is not the word that believers shall "meet the Lord in the air" in absolute accord with these different aspects of the Lord as Star and Sun? Most certainly it is.

More than at any other time, a solid foundation for comfort is needed in times of deep grief. Then the hosts of darkness press round the dismayed spirit; clouds of darkness roll across the mental sky; the sun and all light is hidden; in the storm-wrack the fiery darts of the wicked one fall thick as rain. Every long-accepted truth is questioned; the very foundations seem to dissolve. A firm foothold, indeed, must we have on which to stand at such a time. Faith must be seen not at war with her poor blind- or at least short-sighted-sister Reason, but in perfect accord, leading her, with her feebler powers, by the hand. But here is where the world's efforts to comfort – and, indeed, alas, the worldly Christians too – lack. Sentimentalism abounds here; and the poor troubled heart is told to stand fast on airy speculations, and to distill comfort from wax-flowers, as it were,- the creations of the imagination. How solid the comfort here given in contrast with all this. God speaks, and in the Light, that with clear yet gentle ray, exactly meets the needs of our present distress,- in the Love that in its infinite tenderness and beautiful delicacy knows how to heal the wounded spirit,- in the grand authority that rests on no other word or testimony for proof,- and yet in the perfect, absolute harmony with the whole scope of His own holy word, we, His children, recognize again His voice; for never man could speak thus, and we are comforted, and may comfort one another.

It is true. It is divine. We shall meet the Lord in the air. Happy journey that, in such a company to such a goal, – to meet the Lord! Who can picture the joy of that upward flight ? What words extract the comfort of that meeting,- the Lord,- our Lord, – alone with Him,-"together with them,"-in the quiet chambers of the air!

Seventh.-"And so shall we ever be with the Lord." There is an eternity of unmingled bliss. How short the time of separation, oh ye mourning ones, compared with this! The pain is but for a moment, whilst there is a far more exceeding and eternal weight of comfort.

What a contrast! Death is the sad, gloomy, mysterious, unknown boundary for all, groans Ecclesiastes, "for that is the end of all men." There is no end to the joy of the redeemed, says Revelation; and Faith sings "forever with the Lord." What deep need of Himself has this man's heart, that He has made. If in this sad scene we get tine ray of true comfort it is when "with Him"; one thrill of true joy it is when "with Him"; one hour of true peace it is when "with Him." We were intended, meant, created, to need Him . Let us remember that, and then see the sweet comfort in that word, "so shall we ever be with the Lord." Man is at last, may it be said, in his element. His spirit gets the communion that it needs- with Him forever; his soul, the love it needs, in Him forever; his body the perfection it needs-like Him forever! Is not this revelation self-evidently of God-worthy of Him-possible only to Him ? "

Again, let us ask what would Solomon have given for a song like this, instead of his mournful groan "for death is the end of all men" ! F. C. J.

(To be continued.)

The Levite who presided over the idolatrous worship of the house of Micah, and later of the tribe of Dan, was of the family of Gershom, the son of Moses. Judges 18:, 30, R.V.) Nabal, the churlish world-ling, was of the house of Caleb, (i Sam. 25:3.) What contrasts to their progenitors ! And do we not learn in this to "cease from man," to "let no man glory in men " ? It is not ancestry, but Christ, who saves ; not lineage, but individual devotedness, that insures faithfulness to God.

There is a spirit abroad, which, under the plea I of the grace which is the very heart and soul of Christianity, would destroy all the foundations of government in the world, in the family, and in the Church itself. Actuated by covetousness, it quotes the fruit of the Spirit, in Acts 2:44, 45, to establish a claim over what belongs to others. There it is the rich bringing" their goods to the poor,- a voluntary act prompted by the Spirit of God, who dwells in them. But here it is the poor burning with the desire to get the goods which belong to the rich. This is not Christianity, but socialism, – the very root of anarchy itself. That same spirit would forbid the king to bear the sword and use it against evil-doers, pleading the grace which God would exercise toward sinners. They utterly forget or ignore that grace itself is shown only to them who condemn themselves for their sins.

So in the family:instead of a faithful, paternal government, which does not fail to discipline the child for his wrong-doing, and thus press upon him a wholesome fear of evil and of its retribution, grace is again misused, corrupted, and degraded to a mere excuse of sin. The effects are plain enough on every hand, and the end cannot fail:The rising generation will not be Christian, but socialistic.

But in the Church itself is this corruption of grace seen in its worst forms:The circle where sin should not be found, or if found not to be excused nor covered up, but mourned over and repented of; and if not repented of cast out, though it be in sorrow, has become a hiding-place for all manner of spiritual and moral evil. Men devoid of spiritual intelligence plead grace for all this, as if the holiness which becomes the house of God were incompatible with His love.

All this only shows that the cross has lost its power over such, if ever it had any; that sin, which caused that awful cross, is lightly judged, if at all; that repentance, therefore, has ceased to be coupled with faith,- the salt lacking in the sacrifices, and corruption fast doing its work.

It is clear why "judgment must begin at the house of God," for if we judge not ourselves we compel God to do it; and though judgment be His "strange work," and delayed as far as possible, it becomes His necessary work. "I will spew thee out of my mouth" is His holy sentence upon an indifferent Laodicea. P. J. L.

THE CHURCH.–ITS ORGANIZATION.

(Continued from page 130.)

From what we have already seen, in considering the unity of the Church, it will be clear that what we have to say now regarding the organization of the local assembly, applies to the whole Body. There can be no such thing as different organizations for different localities. We are still dealing with the Church as a whole, though with local features.

We might say at the outset that Scripture gives no hint of looseness in the matter of church organization. It is becoming the habit of the times to speak with indifference of these things, and under the guise of broad-minded liberality to allow room for the greatest divergence of views on these questions. Nay, the effort is made to show that Scripture itself is, in the main, silent as to the matter, and has only given us the outline to be filled out in detail pretty much as men please, or as exigencies may arise in various places; that certain problems of organization were left to be solved by the sanctified reason of the church, which would gradually find out what plan was best suited to meet the varied and growing needs of a body, ever increasing in size and importance and whose interests would become with each year more complex. And so in this very premise men open the way for all manner of variety and of contradiction. What wonder then is it that we find sects without number, all contending for their own forms of existence and as a result dividing the one Church of Christ until it is almost beyond recognition? And then instead of being abashed by the havoc thus made, men tell us that these very divisions are a part of the beauty of church organization, intended by Providence to foster a spirit of generous rivalry and to increase by emulation the zeal of all! So far will even Christian men be led as apologists for their own. disobedience and neglect of Scripture.

The reason, perhaps, why scripture is thought to be silent as to the details of church organization, is that it is taken for granted that a varied and complicated mass of machinery is necessary. As in the gospel sinners stumble at the way of salvation, not because of any obscurity or complication in it but from its very simplicity, so saints fail to see the beauty and order of the Church as found in Scripture because of the absence of what is not only unnecessary to its well being but absolutely cumbersome. And yet does not nature itself teach us that simplicity as well as order is "nature's first law;" order, because of simplicity. All the great forces of nature-gravitation, the action of light, heat and electricity-are simple. It is man who makes machinery, but he is wise enough not to attempt to intrude it upon the domain of the great forces of nature. He does not attempt to assist them. If the Christian likewise would look for the Church and its organization apart from the machinery which he attempts to add to it, he would find it too in all its beauty and simplicity in the word of God.

It may naturally be asked what are the special hindrances to seeing the simplicity of church organization, and to this we may answer, Several principal ones.

I. The almost universal habit of giving a name to, some portion of the professing Church is one great barrier to a clear understanding of what church organization is. Of course the division lies deeper than the name, but that diverts the mind from the Scriptures and gives authority to the denomination and its rules. If we expect to find Scripture for the various forms of government prescribed by the different denominations we will be disappointed. Scripture knows neither the one nor the other, save to condemn both, (i Cor. 1:10-13; 7. 17; 2:19.)

2. Growing out of denominationalism, the next hindrance to a clear understanding of scripture teaching that we will mention is the use of creeds or confessions of faith. We need only point to the slight put upon the word of God by these human systems of doctrine, and ask can we expect them to aid in the understanding of that which they virtually displace? Take as an illustration the following definition of the Church, from the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England:" A congregation of faithful men in the which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." Here we are held to a human priesthood and all else taught by that denomination as essential to a true church. Little wonder that an important requisite for church unity in their eyes is the maintenance of "the historic episcopate."

3. But this brings us to consider a third great obstacle to receiving the simple teaching of Scripture as to the organization of the Church;-the place occupied by the clergy both in the minds of the people and in economy of the various denominations. By clergy we mean that class of men who are supposed, by reason of their office, to have a special nearness to God and special rights in the way of ministry of the Word and administration of the "sacraments." Let us say at the outset that we have the highest regard for every devoted servant of Christ, wherever found or called by whatever name. That there are multitudes of such among the clergy we would not for a moment deny. What we have to say is not against men, but against a system which we are sure is not only a hindrance to blessing for the Church of God at large, but a great burden to many conscientious men who arc galled by its yoke.

The word clergy is derived from the Greek kleros, the primary meaning of which is "lot," and it is so used in describing the division of our Lord's clothing among the soldiers who crucified Him. (Matt, 27:35. etc.) We find it used in the same way in describing the appointment of Matthias (Acts 1:26.); but in that same connection we have that use of it, which has probably been the origin of the word as we know it. "For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part (Gk. lot) of this ministry." (Acts 1:17); also, 5:25.) This use of the word approaches the derived meaning, which is inheritance or portion, and which we find applied to the portion of all the people of God. (Acts 26:18. Col. 1:12.) In i Pet. 5:3. "Neither as being lords over God's heritage," the word "God's" is not in the original. The Revised Version renders it " Neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you." But a more evident, because more accurate, rendering would be, '' Not as lording it over your possessions"* ; the thought evidently being that they were not to rule God's people as if they were their own possessions. *J. N. D.'s version of the N. T., with note.* But the translation of the Revisers is significant as indicating the bias of a clerical position. They look upon a company of God's people as their " charge," their "flock" and in a sense their personal property, that which has been allotted to them, and so translate a passage which is meant to guard against this very thing. And this is the error that underlies all thoughts of a clergy whether it be of the priests of the church of Rome and England, or the more modified forms as found in the various Protestant denominations. They form a special class with distinct privileges and special duties, who thus assume a position, gradually and unintentionally no doubt at the first, utterly inconsistent with the rights of the Church as a whole. So true is this, that it may be almost said, as the French despot declared, "The state is myself," the clergy is the Church. The clergy must preach the Word, the clergy must administer the sacraments, the clergy must make the laws. A church without a clergyman is like a body without a head. Now with such thoughts of a special class in the Church of God, it is impossible to come to a right understanding of what that Church is. In a succeeding paper on the ministry of the Church we will have occasion to take up this subject of the clergy, in connection with ordination; what has been said is sufficient to show why the very idea of a clergyman which is nowhere mentioned in Scripture, is a veil over the truth as to church organization.

4. Similarly the sacraments, so-called, have become in the hands of those who misuse them a means of darkening truth. Baptism instead of a simple initiatory act, administered by any Christian man, becomes the door into the Church, is administered by the clergyman, and too often is regarded as an essential to salvation; or on the other side is pushed into undue prominence and made the sign of a party and the test of fellowship. The Lord's Supper, from a sweet and happy memorial feast, where all the Lord's people, gathered about Himself, recall His love stronger than death, becomes a formal, too often a superstitious act, presided over necessarily by a clergyman who is compelled to usurp all the functions of the whole people.

5. This brings us lastly to note the prevailing misconceptions about worship which also prove a barrier in the way of the simple seeker after God's order. Worship is a priestly act, and all God's people are priests. To confine it to one person, would tend to put him alone in the place of priest, and this Rome does and is followed at greater or less distance by all other denominations. To confound preaching of the Word with worship is another common mistake which tends in the same direction, as well as degrading worship to a subordinate position.

To recapitulate:a true knowledge of the scripture teaching as to church organization is hindered by general misconceptions as to the necessity of denominational names and creeds; as to the clergy, sacraments, and worship. One with such misconceptions would probably define a proper church organization to be one "formed by a company of Christians gathered under some denominational name, held together by the adoption of a doctrinal creed, presided over by a regularly ordained minister who administers the sacraments and presides over the worship." Does this sound like a libel? Our sad answer must be, Look around and you will find expression of scarcely anything else. But we are bold to say that, to get a scriptural idea of church organization, we must eliminate, or change almost beyond recognition, every feature given in the above definition.

Let us then come to the Word of God and seek from Him, His thoughts as to this most important subject.

(To be continued.)

The crown here is not the priestly mitre that Aaron the high-priest wore into the sanctuary; nor the " fair mitre " put on the head of Joshua Zech. 3:); nor is it the crown which rests by faith upon the head of every saint-God's free and individual gift to every sinner saved by grace. Every saved soul is a priest before God. Ye are "a holy priesthood" (i Pet. 2:5). How sweet to think that every child of God is a priest by birth as well as a child by birth! Ah, beloved brethren, there will be no brow in heaven upon which no crown will set! ' 'And upon the four and twenty thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold."

This crown is scarcely the one alluded to in our verse.

Nor is it the crown of life promised to the faithful martyr (Rev. 2:10); nor to "them that love him" (James 1:12); nor the " crown of glory "which the prudent elder shall receive at the chief Shepherd's appearing (i Pet. 5:4); nor is it the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give unto His faithful apostle in that day, and not unto him only, but unto all who love His appearing (2:Tim. 4:8). No, it is none of these.

Indeed, there is no name given it. It is a nameless crown. "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." The exhortation tests, not so much character, as one's confidence in God. Do I know my Father ? Knowing my Father, I can then see the end from the beginning. Those sons cultivating that farm through all manner of toil, enduring all manner of weariness, bringing in all manner of fruit in its season, know their father. They know, at the end of the toil of obedience, that father's voice will be heard in fullest approval; and so, moved by this sweet incentive, they go on in simplest contentment to the end.

Cannot I trust my Father ? Ah yes, for I know His love. This was proven by the cross. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son." And now I have His confidence, and He has committed to my keeping His Name and His words ; and at the end I know He has something suitable for me. A crown it is, surely; but it is nameless. Perhaps to name it would but tarnish its luster ; and though nameless, it may for that very reason shine out far above and beyond all crowns that are named, in its resplendency.

To whom, then, is this crown given, and what order of hand is it that holds it fast ?

Notice, it is not the glamour of success according to man's measure that secures it. Some of those who have the greatest success in bringing men openly to confess the name of Jesus refuse to take the humble position His name and word would give them, not having the simple confidence blind Bartimeus had to follow " Jesus in the way " (Mark 10:52). No, beloved brethren, let us not deceive ourselves, and be carried away with the false and illusive thought that this nameless crown of our text is obtained by such success. Witness an apostle's success :He walked in perpetual triumph among men, "making manifest the savor of His knowledge in every place," being thus "a sweet savor of Christ unto God " (2 Cor. 1:14-16). And what unparalleled success he achieved! The sad record is, that '' All they in Asia be turned away from me;"and" Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world " (2 Tim. 1:15; and 4:10).It is a crown obtained, not by success, but by holding fast His name and His word. The apostle won it:Demas lost it. This present world cheated him out of it. The world became his master. He loved his master's voice; and losing confidence in his Lord, he forgot the exhortation, gave up that precious name and word, and here in this life surrendered that crown and the joy of that blessed hope. "Shall it be mine?" may we not each say. Why should we be here to-day, few and feeble as we are, were it not that He hath committed to our keeping His name and His word ?What honor is this ! Think you He is indifferent to it ?Shall our Lord ever put to shame the confidence that holds fast these things that touch His honor ? Why should the name and glory of this present world for an instant charm our souls, since His voice declares,'' I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee" (Rev. 3:9)?These are not "idle words."I know my Father; and here is one of His promises that "hath great recompense of reward" (Heb. 10:35):"Behold, I come quickly:, hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."Shall we cast it away, and lose that nameless crown, through love of this present evil world ?

How blest are they who overcome, and, as in Laodicea, sit down with Him in His throne, wearing that crown on their brow, and thus enter in fully with Him into His joy! W. H. J.

April 1st, 1894.

He never sinned, He never knew
Until from me He gently drew
The bitter dregs of that dark cup
The awful draught, and drank it up.

Yea, 'twas for me, a loathsome one,
A scoffer, scoffing at His love-
And He, God's well-beloved Son !
Adored by million worlds above.

Has Earth, with all her boasted store,
A candle to eclipse the sun ?
I stand upon the Ocean's shore,
I gaze upon th' Eternal One !

O Treasure infinite of grace !
O vast, deep, wide Eternity!
That sun may blush and hide its face,
To think that Thou shouldst die for me.

And yet 'tis so;-still bow and
weep.
For with those pierced hands of His
He stoops to wash my soil-stained feet,
And greet me with a Lover's kiss !

Thou sweet, divine, eternal Love !
To thine own ready arms I flee,
And there would nestle as a dove-
Abide for all eternity.

Here tempests break and fall away:
They cannot touch His sheltered lamb.
I'm only resting till the day
Awake me in Immanuel's land.

I beg you to think much of the younger brethren, those less confirmed in the faith, and to surround them with your care and your affection; it is just they who have need of it. God adds His blessing when one acts in charity. He Himself is in the power of His blessing, and the feeblest hearts are established.-J. N. D.

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 102.)

But whilst the King has not that most blessed light, and can get no further along this line of thought than his groan, "Who knoweth what good for man ?" yet there are some things in which he can discriminate; and here are seven comparisons in which his "unaided wisdom can discern which is
the better:-

1. A good name is better than precious ointment.
2. The day of death " " " the day of birth.
3. The house of mourning " " " the house of feasting.
4. Sorrow " " " laughter.
5. The rebuke of the wise " " " the song of fools.
6. The end of a thing " " " the beginning.
7. The patient in spirit " " " the proud in spirit.

Lofty, indeed, is the level to which Solomon has ' attained by such unpopular conclusions, and it proves fully that we are listening in this book to man at his highest, best. Not a bitter, morbid, diseased mind, simply wailing over a lost life, and taking, therefore, highly colored and incorrect views of that life, as so many pious commentators say; but the calm, quiet result of the use of the highest powers of reasoning man, as man, possesses; and we have but to turn for a moment, and listen to Him who is greater than Solomon, to find His holy and infallible seal set upon the above conclusions. "Blessed are the pure in heart,- they that mourn,- and the meek," is surely in the same strain exactly; although reasons are there given for this blessedness of which Solomon, with all his wisdom, had never a glimpse.

Let us take just one striking agreement, and note the contrasts:"It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting:for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." That is, the loftiest purest wisdom of man recognizes a quality in sorrow itself that is purifying. "In the sadness of the face the heart becometh fair." In a scene where all is in confusion,-where Death, as King of Terrors, reigns supreme over all, forcing his presence on us hourly, where wickedness and falsehood apparently prosper, and goodness and truth are forced to the wall,- in such a scene of awful disorder, laughter and mirth are but discord, and grate upon the awakened spirit's ear with ghastly harshness. Whilst an honest acceptance of the truth of things as they are, looking Death itself full in the face, the house of mourning not shunned, but sought out; the sorrow within is at least in harmony with the sad state of matters without; the "ministration of death" has its effect, the spirit learns its lesson of humiliation; and this, says all wisdom, is "better." And yet this very level to which Reason can surely climb by her own unaided strength may become a foothold for Faith to go further. Unless Wrong, Discord, and Death, are the normal permanent condition of things, then sorrow, too, is not the normal permanent state of the heart; but this merely remains question, and to its answer no reason helps us. Age after age has passed with no variation in the fell dis-cord of its wails, tears and groans. Generation has fol-lowed in the footsteps of generation, but with no rift in the gloomy shadow of death that has overhung and finally settled over each. Six thousand years of mourning leave unaided Reason with poor hope of any change in the future,-of any expectation of true comfort. But then listen to that authoritative Voice proclaiming, as no "scribe" ever could, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Ah, there is a bright light breaking in on the dark clouds, with no lightning-flash of added storm, but a mild and holy ray,- the promise of a day yet to break o'er our sorrow-stricken earth, when there shall be no need for mourning, for death no more shall reign, but be swallowed up in victory. But turn over a few pages more, and the contrast still further heightened. The sun of divine revelation is now in mid-heaven; and not merely future, but present, comfort is revealed by its holy and blessed beam. Come, let us enter now into the'' house of mourning," not merely to clasp hands with the mourners, and to sit there in the silence of Ecclesiastes' helplessness for the benefit of our own hearts, nor even to whisper the promise of a future comfort, but, full of the comfort of a present hope, to pour out words of comfort into the mourners' ears. Tears still arc flowing,- nor will we rebuke them. God would never blunt those tender sensibilities of the heart that thus speaks the Hand that made it; but He would take from them the bitterness of hopelessness, and would throw on the tears His own blessed Light, – a new direct word of revelation from Himself,- Love and Light as He is,- till, like the clouds in the physical world, they shine with a glory that even the cloudless sky knows not.

First, then, all must be grounded and based on faith in the Lord Jesus. We are talking to those who share with us in a common divine faith. We believe that Jesus died:but more, we believe that He rose again:and here alone is the foundation of true hope or comfort. They who believe not or know not this are as absolutely hopeless – as comfortless – as Ecclesiastes:they arc "the rest which have no hope." True divine Hope is a rare sweet plant, whose root is found only in His empty tomb, whose flower and fruit are in heaven itself. Based on this, comforts abound; and in every step the living Lord Jesus is seen:His resurrection throws its blessed light everywhere. If One has actually risen from the dead, what glorious possibilities follow.

For as to those who are falling asleep, is He insensible to that which moves us so deeply? Nay; He Himself has put them to sleep. They are fallen asleep [not "in," as our version says, but] through (dia) Jesus. He who so loved them has Himself put them to sleep. No matter what the outward, or apparent, causes of their departure to sight, faith sees the perfect love of the Lord Jesus giving "His be-loved sleep." Sight may take note only of the flying stones as they crush the martyr's body; mark, with horror, the breaking bone, the bruised and bleeding flesh; hear the air filled with the confusion of shouts of imprecation, and mocking blasphemy; but to faith all is different:to her the spirit of the saint, in perfect calm, is enfolded to the bosom of Him who has loved and redeemed it, whilst the same Lord Jesus hushes the bruised and mangled form to sleep, as in the holy quiet of the sanctuary.

Let our faith take firm hold of this blessed word, "fallen asleep through Jesus," for our comfort. So shall we be able to instil this comfort into the wounded hearts of others,-comforting them with the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. What would Solomon have given to have known his?

Next, the mind must be gently loosened from occupation with itself and its own loss; and that by no rebuke or harsh word, so out of place with sorrow, but by the assumption, at least, that it is for the loss that the departed themselves suffer that we grieve, It is because we love them that our tears flow:but suppose we know beyond a question that they have suffered no loss by being taken away from this scene, would not that modify our sorrow? Yea; would it not change its character completely, extracting bitter-ness from it ? So that blessed Lord Himself comforted. His own on the eve of His departure:"If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go unto my Father, for my Father is greater than I." The more you love me, the less – not the more – will you sorrow. Nay; you would change the sorrow into actual joy.

The measure of the comfort is exactly the measure of the love. That is surely divine. So here, "You are looking forward to the day when your rejected Lord Jesus shall be manifested in brightest glories:your beloved have not missed their share in that triumph. God will show them the same "path of life" He showed their Shepherd (Ps. 16:), and will "bring them with Him" in the train of their victorious Lord.

3. But is that triumph, that joy, so far off that it can only be seen through the dim aisles and long vistas of many future ages and generations ? Must our comfort be greatly lessened by the thought that while that end is "sure," it is still ".very far off,"- a thousand years may – nay, some say, must-have to intervene; and must we sorrowfully say, like the bereaved saint of old, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me"? Not at all. Better, far better than that. For Faith's cheerful and cheering voice is "we who are alive and remain." That day is so close ever to faith that there is nothing between us and it. No long weary waiting expected; and that very attitude -that very hope – takes away the "weariness" from the swift passing days. Those dear saints of old grasped and cherished this blessed hope that their Saviour Lord would return even during their life. Did they lose anything by so cherishing it ? Have we gained by our giving it up ? Has the more "reasonable" expectation that, after all, the tomb shall be our lot as theirs, made our days bright-er, happier, and so to speed more quickly? Has it made us more separate from the world, more heavenly in character, given us less in common with the worldling? Has this safe "reasoning" made us to abound in works of love, labors of faith, and in patience of hope, as did the "unreasonable" and "mis-taken" hope of His immediate coming the dear Thessalonians of old ? For look at the first chapter, and see how the "waiting for the Son from heaven" worked. Again I ask, have we improved on this ? Can we improve upon it ? Was it not far better, then, for them-if these its happy accompaniments-to hold fast, even to their last breath, that hope, and even to pass off this scene clasping it still fondly to their hearts, than our dimmed and dull faith with-it may be boldly said-all the sad loss that accompanies this ?

Hold it fast, my brethren, " We w/io are alive and remain." Let that be the only word in our mouths, the only hope in our hearts. It is a cup filled to the brim with comfort. How they ring with life and hope in contrast with the dull, heavy, deathful word of poor Ecclesiastes-" For that is the end of all men "!

Oh, spring up brighter in all our hearts, them divinely given, divinely sustained Hope! F. C. J.

(To be continued.)

THE CHURCH.–ITS LOCAL ASPECTS.

Having in the previous paper seen the unity of the Church, as taught in various passages of Scripture, we come now to a most important branch of the subject.

In speaking of the nature of the Church, and its unity, we were dealing with general features common to the body as a whole. We now leave the general and come to special features. And yet we are still dealing with the Church as a whole, with features which belong to the entire body.

We saw in our last paper that the unity of the Church was not to be invisible, but that it was organic and manifest, "that the world may believe." To be manifest in any particular place, it is evident that the Church must take some form, and this is what we must now consider.

The word Church, as applied to the body of Christ, is used in three different ways. We have first '' the Church" unlimited, meaning the whole body. "Upon this rock I will build my church." (Matt. 16:18.) Christ, the Son of God, as the only foundation for His whole Church, is the thought here. '' And the Lord added to the church daily." (Acts 2:47.) Not merely the Church at Jerusalem, but to the body. "Gaius mine host and of the whole church." (Rom. 16:23.) The hospitality of Gaius extended in heart and doubtless largely in practice to the whole Church. His care for one member tended to build up the whole body. Paul persecuted the Church (i Cor. 15:9; Gal. 1:13; Phil. 3:6). Not merely the saints at Jerusalem, but through them the whole; nay, he heard a voice asking "why persecutest thou me?" (Acts 9:4, 5.) We find the word used in the same way in other passages; as Eph. 1:22; 3:10, 21; 5:23, 24, 25, 29, 31; Col. 1:18, 24; i Tim. 3:5, 15; Heb. 12:23.

Secondly, we have "the Church" limited to some special locality, as "the church which was at Jerusalem " (Acts 8:i; 11:22), or at Antioch (Acts 13:i), Ephesus (Acts 20:17), Cenchrea (Rom. 16:ii), Corinth (i Cor. 1:2), Thessalonica (i Thess. 1:i).

Thirdly, we have the plural, "Churches," giving us the gathering's collectively in any given country; as Judea (i Thess. 2:14; Acts 9:31), Galatia (i Cor. 16:i; Gal. 1:2), Asia (i Cor. 16:19), and Macedonia (2 Cor. 8:i); or more generally including sometimes all the assemblies of God, as "other churches" (2 Cor. 11:8); "the care of all the churches" (2 Cor. 11:28); "the churches of God" (2 Thess. 1:4).

In these last two usages of the word we have the thought of local assemblies as distinct from the one body of Christ viewed in its entirety. We are now to see the relation between these local gatherings and the entire Church.

We may begin by saying that there must be nothing in the local Church to contradict the truths we have been already considering. Its nature and unity must be manifested. It must be seen that it is the body of Christ, formed by and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that all believers are members of it, united to Christ glorified, and to one another; that the Lord's coming is the hope before it, and that the name of Christ is the only one by which it is called. Furthermore, it must exhibit the unity of the body of Christ. "We have an illustration of this in the first Epistle to the Corinthians:"Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." (i Cor. 1:2.) The apostle here uses the name "church of God," which is the title of the whole body of Christ, and applies it locally, '' which is at Corinth." He describes those who are included in it, "them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints." We need not say that the term "sanctified" includes all who have a share in the work of Christ, all who are sheltered by His blood. It does not refer to personal state, but to the standing of every believer, who is also a called saint,- a saint by virtue of his calling. All then there who were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ formed the church of God which was at Corinth.

But to show that this church was not to be regarded as independent of the whole body of Christ, the apostle adds '' with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." Whatever the special needs of the particular assembly at Corinth might be, the principles which were to govern them were those for the whole church, to be applied wherever there might be the same state of things.

But more than this, the linking of the whole Church of Christ with the assembly at Corinth, as we see in the verse we are considering, shows that the whole Church was concerned in the matters to be presented to that special assembly,- that there was a responsibility which could not be evaded, and that distance from the locality did not create a severance in the Church. In other words, the truth of the one body must not be lost sight of. "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." (i Cor. 12:26.) Immediately preceding this verse, we read, 5:25, "That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care for one another." A member of the Church of Christ in Africa is just as really linked with us as one with whom we are in daily association.

This is a most important principle; for without it the various assemblies of Christ would be so many independent congregations. Corporate unity would be but the unity of "the invisible Church," and all public testimony to that held so dear by our Lord would be at an end.

The truth we are considering becomes clearer as we see the place occupied by the Holy Spirit in the whole Church and in local assemblies. As we have already seen, it is He who has formed the Church, linking believers with a glorified Head and with one another, so forming the "One Body." We are builded together for an habitation of God, through the Spirit (Eph. 2:21, 22), where the whole Church is unquestionably the subject; and in a very interesting way, linking it would almost seem the Church at large with a local assembly, we have (i Cor. 3:16) "Know ye not ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ?. . . for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." These two scriptures show that the Spirit dwells in the whole Church; that He also, because of this fact, dwells in the local assembly.

A partial illustration of this truth would be the relation of the Atlantic Ocean as a whole to any spot upon its broad surface. The ocean would mean the whole mass, and yet we would speak of a ship as being upon the ocean, not upon part of it. The characteristics of the whole are seen in each one of its parts:nay, the word "parts" can scarcely be used, so homogeneous is the whole great mass. So it is with the whole Church and a local assembly:we have simply, as it were, located a spot on the great ocean, organically linked with the whole, and in no way to be severed from it.
Nor is all this in the least inconsistent with the exercise of discipline and all other necessary functions in a local assembly:on the contrary, the right apprehension of the truth gives power and adds impressiveness to the smallest act. Witness the apostle's words to the assembly at Corinth in the matter of dealing with the wicked person (i Cor. 5:):"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here we have the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, which has been put upon the whole Church (i Cor. 1:2, 10), and His power, which is the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the whole body. We have here, then, no act of a small body, to be taken up and reviewed by some larger and more authoritative one, but the act of the Holy Ghost, through this assembly,-an act for and binding upon the whole body of Christ throughout the world. We will dwell upon the subject of discipline in a later paper, but would call earnest attention to the principle here seen,- a principle, we are persuaded, as wide-reaching and helpful in its application as it is, alas, ignored.

If what we have just stated be the truth, it will be seen at once that Scripture does not sanction the thought of an ecumenical body of representatives, no matter in what way chosen, as being necessary to give expression and authority to any decision. It is not the Church which has authority, but God the Holy Ghost; and when He speaks, no matter through how feeble an instrument, we have the authority for the whole Church. An aggregation of all the learning and piety of the whole world could not add one iota to the weight of authority the simplest expression of the mind of the Spirit would have.

Having said this, we can add some statements by way of safeguards to prevent misunderstanding. It is the Holy Ghost alone who can give weight to any judgment of an assembly. Without Him nothing "has authority, whether it be the decision of an assembly or that of the whole Church; and faith would be shown, not in obeying such a decision, but the reverse. If God has spoken all must bow:if He has not, though the whole Church had, there could be no authority in what was said. In seeking His mind it would not show faith, but the reverse, in a local assembly to refuse the counsel and prayers of their brethren at a distance. True faith is always accompanied by humility and self-distrust; and as the Lord has made His people members one of another, as well as of His body, faith gladly accepts the help that may come through these varied channels. This same faith, also, will be ever ready to submit for examination the grounds of its decision. But these things only emphasize the truth we have been considering, that the Holy Spirit is present in the local gathering, which, is but a manifestation of the one body., and that His judgment is authoritative and final. We will recur to this subject again when have come to treat of discipline. Here it has simply been our object to show the relation between the individual assembly and the whole body of Christ, and to draw from this relationship the principles which underlie it, and which must govern us if we are to be in accord with the mind of God concerning His Church.

We have been speaking of discipline, but the same principles are found where other subjects are in consideration. For instance, in the apostle's farewell to the elders of the assembly at Ephesus, not only does he give prophetic intimations as to the history of the whole Church, but he applies to them, local officers, titles which take in the whole:"Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God which He hath purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28.) Their responsibility was chiefly concerned with Ephesus, but they were to look upon their service to Christ's sheep there as ministering to the whole Church of God redeemed by the precious blood of His own Son. Ephesus was but the manifestation of the Church in that place. We have the same thought in the Epistle to the Ephesians (4:14). All gifts, whether of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers, were for the edifying of the body of Christ. Some of these gifts might never be exercised outside the limits of an assembly, yet the benefit was for the whole Church. '' There are many members, yet but one body." (i Cor. 12:20.)

One other matter demands our consideration:what constitutes a local assembly? Naturally our answer would first be all the believers in a given place, as Corinth, Ephesus, and the like; and this, in the main, would be a sufficient answer. A further question would be, when there are more Christians in one locality than can come conveniently together, and they meet separately, simply for that reason, would each such meeting constitute a local assembly, an expression of the one body, or would the several meetings collectively be required to make up the local Church ? It seems plain that the question is not one for geography to settle. The whole spirit of the passages we have been examining would show that it is simply a question of manifestation of divine principles by a gathering of the Lord's people. If those principles which we have been looking at control a gathering of Christians-principles of Church unity and obedience to the truth – each such gathering would be a local assembly, an expression of the whole Church, and there might be a number of such gatherings in a single city. Naturally believers in the same locality would be much thrown together, and such intercourse would suggest mutual prayer and consultation when any question for decision should arise. But if the Lord is in the midst (and "where two or three arc gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:20.) His authority is sufficient to bind, and the Holy Spirit is sufficient to direct.

These truths also afford us comfort in a day of almost universal departure from divine principles as to the Church of God. Principles remain, no matter how much the Church may have failed; and these principles are presented for our guidance now, as much as when they were first given to the individual assemblies addressed in the several Epistles we have been considering. Sorrow of heart we may and should have, as we compare the present ruins with the once beautiful structure which God built; but departure of the many, failure of the Church as a whole to manifest her character and her destiny can never excuse present indifference to the truths of God. Those truths stand out in clear relief against the dark background of the wreck which has been made by man's unbelief and self-rule. May the Lord, who loved the Church and gave Himself for it, speak to the hearts and consciences of His beloved people, and constrain them, out of love and devotedness to Him, to listen to His voice and to obey it.

BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER IV. (Continued from page 94.)

The manifestation of the Lord's fitness for His work is now complete. From opposite sides He is declared what even the devils henceforth own Him, the Holy One of God. He can now go forth to His appointed work; and we have here a brief summary of His preaching, after the close of John's public testimony. The herald of the kingdom was now only to seal his witness with his blood; and the Lord, too, was on the way to the cross, which for Him was contemplated from the beginning. He was to be both Priest and Sacrifice; and for Him death would be not merely the seal of His testimony, but that upon, which all blessing for man must depend. Still His life-work had also its absolute necessity, though of a very different kind:and it is of the deepest consequence to distinguish things that differ so essentially as these do. This, however, will be better left to be considered at another time.

What we have in this place is not any detailed history, but simply the fact of the announcement of the kingdom by the King Himself, with the gathering of disciples by it, and the signs accompanying it. The word is proclaimed in Galilee, from Capernaum as its center, the word of the prophet being thus fulfilled. And though Galilee was now Galilee of the Gentiles, testifying thus to the ruin of God's people, it was Israel that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. Zebulon ("dwelling") dwelt no more in Galilee; and Naphtali, the "straggler," "sat,"with-out struggling, in the darkness. In the land of Zebulon and of Naphtali, according to Isaiah's words, light was sprung up. There had come to Capernaum a dweller, in whom God on His side could dwell with man, and One who would be more than a straggler, the typical Conqueror, the woman's Seed.

Man had, indeed, failed, and lay prostrate, under that which was no mere absence of light, but a Satanic power of darkness; but another power had manifested itself,-the kingdom of heaven was at hand, though for the realization of its blessings man must repent. But the "goodness of God" was "leading to repentance." How new the word would sound on the lips that were now uttering it! How simple and plain a requirement when urged with the persuasive tones of a love so manifest, so truly seeking men!

The call of disciples follows this proclamation. Andrew and Simon, James and John, simple fishermen, chosen to be "fishers of men," illustrate the Lord's chosen methods for the salvation of souls. These first followers are certainly not men of position, or of wealth, or learning; and in this there is emphasized for us the truth, that none of these things can be essential, therefore, for even a foremost place among the messengers of the King of glory. The qualifications are spiritual, not natural; and He who sends them out is all-sufficient to them. On the other hand, the call of Christ to-day is as much needed as ever it was, and none can be a minister of His without it.

His call requires prompt, unhesitating obedience. This he emphasizes Himself elsewhere. Here we see it yielded:"immediately they left the ship and their father, and followed Him." How great a thing is promptness, when once we are assured of the Lord's will. There is, then, nothing else to be considered; while moral hesitancy may soon so cloud this assurance as to make obedience then impracticable. "Add to your faith virtue" is the exhortation of the apostle, ("virtue" being here the soldier-quality, "valor,") '' and to virtue knowledge." With bow many would the present darkness of their way be clearly intelligible, if they could face honestly their past history. And that history must, after all, be faced one day.

The gospel preached by our Lord has "signs" accompanying it. This is one of the common Scripture words (though not used in this place) for what we call "miracles." Such a word is used in Scripture also, but it emphasizes the "wonder" element only, and is of infrequent occurrence in the gospels. Important even the power to produce wonder was, as a bell to gather an audience, but the words rather chosen for the Lord's works speak of that in them which was to make its impress on the conscience and "the heart. As "signs" they spoke not obscurely, evidencing themselves as "powers"-acts of power- revealing God. The kingdom of heaven which the Old Testament prepared men to expect was, in fact, an interference of divine power on behalf of men which would free the earth from the burdens which sin had imposed on them, and from the curse which follows sin. Miracles, therefore, formed an essential part in "the kingdom and glory," and are thus called by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews "the powers of the world to come." Most suitably, therefore, did they accompany the message that the kingdom of heaven was at hand.

Yet John, its first proclaimer, had done no miracle. His simple call to repentance required none. He saw and announced the kingdom, but was not to introduce it. He emphasized the testimony and embodied the spirit of the. old dispensation, which itself pointed beyond itself for the completion which would of necessity set it aside. He was the judicial summing up of the past, though in near view of the predicted future; and men needed only conscience to be called into activity to confirm to them the truth of what he said. They needed not and were not called to have faith in John, but to judge their own condition, and thus be ready for the coming King.

But now here was the King,- the One to whom the world was to be subject, the whole realm of Nature submissive to His hand. Here miracles were the natural sign then of His presence; to Him what man called supernatural was natural:not to have manifested it would but have discredited His claim. True and needful testimony it was to Him, when "all manner of disease and all manner of infirmity" yielded to His power, showing Him thus master of the whole condition of things into the midst of which He had come. All the consequences of sin had found their remedy:to earth the long-lost paradise might be restored. Sin, therefore, itself, as presently it was to be publicly proclaimed and certified, had found in Him its conqueror also. And, not passively content with receiving all who came, this grace in Him went forth with ceaseless activity to find its objects. God's heart was pouring itself out in such a way as if to preclude all possibility of resistance. Who could refuse such ministry to need so manifest, in which the very flesh of man cried out for the living God:and how could, then, his soul be silent?

In fact, great multitudes flocked after Him from all the country round:from Galilee itself; from Decapolis, Rome's ten colonial cities, now an utter desolation; from Jerusalem, valuing itself for privileges which, misused, were bringing ruin upon all connected with it. Could, then, these various grades of a common humanity, one in the sad inheritance of the fall, which had yet so strangely divided them, find now in one Saviour-King their restoration to one another and to themselves ? So it must surely seem as if it would be. But history has been slow in justifying such a verdict. Prophecy, on the other hand, declares it shall be, and that this is the one hope for the world which shall have fulfillment.

CHAPTER V.

We shall be called back to these thronging multitudes again, to learn in detail their various needs, and the way in which God has thus provided for them. But first the inspired history bids us to listen to the Lord's own statement of what His kingdom is; not in the form it should take, but in its inner spirit. Old Testament prophets had already announced the form it would, and will yet, assume when the "promises " still belonging to Paul's "kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:3, 4) shall be fulfilled. Introduced by a coming in glory which every eye shall see, the kingdom of that day shall be established in power that shall smite down all opposition as with a rod of iron. The law will then go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, once more -and then to be acknowledged by all-the place of His special manifestation upon the earth, to which men shall come from every side to worship Him. The whole picture is one so unlike, in some of its features, that state to which Christianity has introduced us ; is, in fact, so much a retrogression when seen as coming after this, that many find it impossible to understand it except as figure; but as such no one will find it possible to understand it really. It is not Christianity, nor the heaven in which our portion is, but a future-and still not final-state of the earth. It is a last dispensation before eternity, of sight rather than of faith, and in many ways lower in character than what faith now enjoys. " Blessed " in a higher sense truly "are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Yet in perfect accordance with this the glory is then manifest and visible, as now it is not; and once more, and beyond all in the past, Jerusalem will put the light upon a candlestick, where all may see it. Granting the apostle's interpretation to be the true one, that to Israel in the flesh the promises belong,-and the prophets themselves unmistakably show this,-no other reading of the Scripture is possible than the plain and literal one.

When John the Baptist proclaimed the kingdom as at hand, he had before him no vision of Christianity, but what the prophets of old had announced. And when the Lord takes up, with more emphasis and fuller demonstration of it here, the Baptist's message, He is still speaking of the same thing. But Israel rejected Him through whom alone those promises could be fulfilled to them:"He came, unto His own, and His own received Him not." The consequence was, that, as far as Israel's blessing was concerned, the fair vision vanished. The world also, and not merely Israel, understood not the day of its visitation:"He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." Thus the predicted blessing of the earth also is delayed, and only after nearly twenty centuries are the streaks of dawn beginning to be seen on the horizon.

Yet the kingdom has come, but come in how different a way ! Grace repelled must still triumph over all hindrances; and out of that world which has taken Satan for its prince, and crucified the Son of God, God has been all this time taking for Himself a heavenly people-a people to share with Him rejection upon the earth, yet to share with Him also His reign over it, and to have with Himself a place of dearer, tenderer intimacy than even this might imply-"that where I am," He says, "there ye may be also."

These things we shall find the Lord beginning to unfold to His disciples as soon as it is clearly seen that Israel will have none of Him; and here, when He speaks of '' things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world" (chap. 13:35), we shall have no difficulty in finding our own special portion -a fullness of blessing that Israel's portion does, indeed, figure, and only figure. This-the nation's as such-is earthly; ours is heavenly. There is to be a "new earth" also, "wherein dwelleth righteousness," as well as a "heavenly city" for God's pilgrims of today.

In the " sermon on the mount" we have, then, the principles of the kingdom of heaven, with very plain reference to the millennial earth. It is the earth that the meek inherit (ver. 5), though there is also a reward in heaven," at which we shall have to look in its place (ver. 12). The first statement here is from the thirty-seventh psalm, the application of which is evident ; Jerusalem, also, is "the city of the great King" (ver. 35)-not in its disowned, desolate condition; and we shall see further indications of this nature as we go through what is here.

Yet this docs not take away from us the constant application everywhere to ourselves. The fuller revelation only completes the more partial one ; the higher blessing but transcends the lower. Through all dispensations God is the same God; even amid cloud and darkness He is still the Light. Blessed be His name that we have the manifestation in Him in whom the glory tabernacled among men, glory without a veil, save only, to dim eyes, the excess of light. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

Suggested from Numerical Bible, Vol. II., pages 93, 94.

The land of Canaan was given to Abraham by I promise, and this promise was renewed many times before Israel actually entered upon the possession of the land. Even after they had crossed the Jordan, it remained for them in the energy of faith to take possession of that which had been given to them. In the earlier parts of the book of Joshua we have the account of the conquests of the nation as a whole ; the first part of Judges narrates, with the mention of numerous shortcomings, victories of separate tribes; while in the passage before us we have the prowess of individual faith, in Caleb and Othniel. There are victories of the whole Church of God, where the mass share alike in the conflict and the spoil ; on the other hand, of times when the many were at ease and indifferent, individual faith has come to the front, and claimed the ever ready power of God, to seize what He had already given.

In Othniel we have a refreshing example of this, and the results of his victory can be duplicated, in spiritual blessings, by those who follow his faith. Kirjath-sepher is the prize to be taken. This was its original name, meaning "The city of the book":in the hands of God's people it becomes "The oracle." How significant these names are! In the enemy's hands the word of God is simply a book, the book even, but without power or life. When faith takes possession, it becomes a message from God Himself. It is now God speaking, and we see behind the book the One whose word it is. The letter killeth,"-whether it be the letter of the Old or New Testament. But when faith takes hold we have no longer the letter alone, but the word of God and from God. "For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. . . . Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." From the word of God the apostle passes to God himself, who speaks in that word. Othniel, "the lion of God," or, with Dr. Young, "God is force," suggests that energy of faith which fears nothing, meeting and overcoming all obstacles. Courage is the first accompaniment of faith (2 Pet. 1:5). It is really faith in activity, and is fittingly suggested in the name of the beast that is "comely in going,""a lion, which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any." (Prov. 30:30.) It is the righteous who is "as bold as a lion" (Prov. 28:i); and for faith to be bold-to be truly faith -it must be coupled with practical righteousness.

In his victory Othniel gains Achsah, "anklet," suggestive of the foot adorned, " How beautiful are the feet," etc. (Rom. 10:15.) And she it is who moved him to ask for a field which was granted. Faith, when linked with lowly service and true subjection, wins for itself a special portion. It is Achsah, too, who sees the need of and obtains springs of water, without which the fields would have been but barren wastes. There is such a thing as intellectual apprehension of truth, even in a sense appropriation of it, without the freshness and power which can alone make it profitable. Well is it for us to recognize this, and to claim from One who is ever ready to give not only the portion, but the power to enjoy it as well.

" We praise Thee, and would praise Thee more:
To Thee our all we owe,-
The precious Saviour, and the power
That makes Him precious too."

"But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."
(1 Peter 4:7.)

The ten tribes rebelled against authority – oppressively used-instead of turning to God for help. But, on the other hand, usurped authority is to be refused, in obedience to God. Absalom enthroned himself king, but David refused his authority, and Jonathan ignored the decree of Saul-his own father, and king by divine right. To obey God rather than men is always right. But in the church, often, both sides are ready for division, and permanent confusion results. May we humble ourselves before God, that He may lift us up!

My meat" is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.""I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished."Thus did Jesus speak of His own labor of love ; and who that professes to be a follower of Him can set a lower measure for his own life than his Master's, "who left us an example that we should follow His steps" ?Not, indeed, that he has no natural fellowship with all that charms the senses or the mind of man, but the melody of the songs of heaven is heard above the voice of earthly music; and the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, seen by the eye of faith, outshines the transient sparkle of earthly splendor. "the time is short."Most blessed word, whether for the stirring up of our diligence in our Lord's work, that when He cometh we maybe found doing His will; or for the gladdening of our souls in the prospect of the near approach whose coming shall be "as the light of the morning, when the sun ariseth, even a morning without clouds." (2 Sam. 23:)Let us try everything that the world holds dear by the glory of that day, by the power and coming of Jesus, by the joy of His saints in whom He will come to be glorified, and then let our hearts decide whether we are ready to count all as dung that we may win Christ.

Self is our greatest foe, our most dangerous enemy :we generally admit this, and yet we do not act under the influence of it :happy is the man is habitually afraid of himself.

THE CHURCH.–ITS UNITY.

We have seen in the preceding paper that the Church is the Body of Christ, united to a glorified Lord by the Holy Ghost, who came from heaven at Pentecost; that all believers are now in the Church, which will be complete when our Lord will descend from heaven, call His redeemed from their graves, and the living ones from the earth, to meet Him in the air, after which the union of the Church to Christ in glory will be consummated:the marriage of the Lamb will then take place. Such connections, and such a destiny made, we saw, the Church a heavenly, not an earthly body, a stranger here, with hopes and affections elsewhere, expressed by the longing:"The Spirit and the bride say come," "even so come, Lord Jesus."

We now pass to the examination of a truth which grows out of the nature of the church, and which is self-evident-its unity. Scripture has for us again a brief but most definite statement of this fact:"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." (Eph. 4:4.)

Unity is here connected with three words, each of which gives us a distinct view of the same truth, yet all harmoniously blended together:We have unity of the body, of the Spirit and of the hope of the church. "There is one body;" "The Church, which is His body." Who could ever, with such scriptures before him, for a moment question that the Church is one and only one? What need for efforts after unity, for alliances and confraternities? What need to endeavor to do what God has already done?

"He is our peace, who hath made both " (Jew and Gentile) "one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." (Eph. 2:14-16.) Between Jew and Gentile there was a dividing wall which separated them not merely into distinct but hostile bodies. The Jew occupied the place of nearness as to privilege ; but this only emphasized the distance of the Gentile and brought out the enmity between them.

The cross obliterated all this:the law of commandments was taken away-the Jew was condemned by it and the Gentile would perish without it (Rom. 2:12. etc.), Christ in grace bore the penalty of a broken law, and so established the righteousness of its claims. (Rom. 3:29-31.) Thus the law which kept the Gentile at a distance, while it condemned the Jew, was removed by the cross. " Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross." (Col. 2:14.) The effect of this was twofold:Jew and Gentile were both reconciled to God, but in one body, that is they were reconciled to one another also, and all previous distinctions were taken away. So in Christ there is a new man, and " neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free:but Christ is all and in all." (Col. 3:2:) The cross makes possible the manifestation of that "mystery," "That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel." (Eph. 3:6.)

To all this, it may be replied, Who denies it? Theoretically, perhaps none; but all these scriptures are applied to "the invisible Church," as it is called, and so lose their practical power over the hearts and consciences of God's people. We have nowhere in Scripture the expression, or thought of the invisible Church. Our Lord's prayer for His people was that they might be one, not theoretically or invisibly, but '' that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." (John 17:20, 21.) The Church was to manifest that divine unity which would be a witness to the world, divided into innumerable bodies, as self interest would dictate, that here was a power of which it was ignorant, a power which spake of the reality of Christ's divine mission. We cannot close our eyes to the importance of this testimony, and it sweeps away at once all thought of the invisible Church.

Passing from the cross, which has set aside man, whether Jew or Gentile, and so made unity possible, we come naturally to the resurrection, which gives us the positive side of this truth. "In Himself" is the one new man to be made. Christ only became head of a new race in resurrection. This is plainly shown as to individual fruitfulness. (Rom. 7:4) It is equally true as to His headship over the church. (Eph. 1:19-23.) As risen and ascended He has been made '' head over all things to the church which is His body." But Christ is one; He is undivided; hence His Church is also one and undivided. Who that thinks of that glorious One at Gods right hand could for a moment conceive of His Church as being anything but one? He has given His name and character to it. It is one in His eyes. It all belongs to Him.

We come now to the next phrase-"There is one Spirit," the Holy Ghost sent from heaven at Pentecost, and He has formed but one body. This is entered upon at large in i Cor. 12:" For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body:So also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." (Vers. 12, 13.) We have the oneness of the body linked in the clearest way with that of the Spirit. The very diversity of the members,-the various individuals who compose the body-is but a confirmation of the truth that the body is one. Most striking too is the expression, "So also is Christ." Reference is here made not to the person of the Lord Himself, but to Christ and the Church; He as Head and it composed of many members, yet the whole forming one body. What amazing grace in Him to give His name to His Church! And what room, we may add, is there for any other name or body alongside of His?

"Whether Jews or Gentiles" reminds us of how completely those distinctions have been removed, in order that the Holy Spirit might link us with Christ alone. Christ is all and He is enough. As risen we have done with all other ties which would in any way be the rivals of His claims. We have not only life in Him, but a living divine Person who dwells in us and unites us with Him. The Holy Spirit not merely unites us to Christ, but by that very act puts us into His body, unites us to one another.

From this we can see the unscripturalness of the thought of a Christian voluntarily joining the church. . The moment he believes, this is done; and not by himself but by the Holy Spirit. Every believer is a member of the body of Christ, because he has received the Holy Spirit. He has been made to drink into one Spirit, to partake of the precious ministry of the Holy Spirit who is in him as a well of water.

Equally clear is the teaching as to the Holy Spirit dwelling in the house of God. "And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord:in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph. 2:20-22.) "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (i Cor. 3:16.) The thought of unity is essential to the meaning of these passages. The foundation is one-Jesus Christ; and there is but One who dwells in the temple-the Holy Spirit. Every believer forms a part of this holy temple-a "living stone," as the apostle Peter says, (i Pet. 2:5.) We are not only builded upon the foundation, by faith in Christ, but are builded together, formed into a habitation of God. Each believer's body is a temple of the Holy Ghost (i Cor. 6:19), but the passages we are considering go further, and show that all believers form a unity, indwelt by One Spirit.

Before leaving this part of the subject, we need but to ask, Is the Spirit of God doing contradictory work? Is He serving diverse interests? or is His one work to glorify Christ and to secure that oneness of the church which He died to effect?

We are called in "one hope" of our calling. The oneness of the church is here again taught. When Christ left His own upon earth, He gave them the promise that He would come for them. Into the blessed fulness of this we will not now enter, save to touch upon some of the most striking features of 'that blessed hope." Christ has gone on high, having rent the veil which separated us from God. The work of redemption is completed and we even now have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." This is for faith. But our Lord does not mean to leave His Church upon the earth and He to remain in Heaven. True, He "ever liveth to make intercession for us"; He restores us if we wander, and His almighty power and everlasting love are ever engaged in our behalf. But this is only for the interval. His heart longs to have us with Himself. ' Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." (John 17:24.) He will not ^>st till the Church which He loved and for which He gave Himself that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, is presented to Himself a. glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. (Eph. 5:25-27.) This includes the changing of our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. (Phil. 3:20, 21.) "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." (1 Jno. 3:2.) This is the hope of our calling-a calling on high of God. (Phil. 3:14.) " And so shall we ever be with the Lord."

That this hope has so largely died out of the hearts of God's people is at once their loss and shame. But God's calling remains the same, and it is the common hope for all His people. There is only one hope, one destiny. And this gives additional emphasis to the truth we are considering. With but one destiny, there can be but one body-there will be but one heavenly bride. Ah! did we but have that blessed hope more simply before us, how clearly would be manifest that oneness. Was it not thus to link us together that our Lord set this hope before us? "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." (John. 17:22.)

We have thus looked at the scripture teaching upon Church unity from various points of view. Let it be remembered that we are speaking of no mere unity of sentiment or affection-but distinctly of organic unity. The church is one by its very constitution, its nature, its Head, its Life, its destiny. And this unity, as we have seen, was meant to be visible. Of our personal responsibility with regard to this, it is our purpose to speak in another paper. For the present we would submit to every thoughtful conscience that there must be wondrous privileges as well as immense responsibilities in connection with this truth. We could not, if we would, shirk these responsibilities. Let it be ours to calmly face them, asking with subject heart, "Lord what with thou have me to do? "

Anxiety reflects upon God, weakens and discourages our souls, and gives Satan an occasion against us. If God is our Father, and if His promises are true, He will provide for and supply us:why then should we be anxious ?

Smooth paths are not always safe paths ; in them we grow careless, selfish, and proud ; then a fall or an affliction has to follow. It is the rough road that makes us cautious, prayerful, and dependent on God; then we are safe.

Nature shudders at the thought of being thrown only and wholly upon God, for body and soul, for time and eternity :only grace can make us satisfied with this, and only grace upon grace can make us happy in it.

CHAPTER V. (Continued from page 77.)

Now may the Lord grant us to realize more fully, as we progress in our book, the awful hopelessness that weighs on man's sad being, apart from the blessed and infinitely gracious revelation of God. May he grant us-you and I, dear reader-to remember that when we look at the great writer of this book, we are looking at one, not only far higher than ourselves-far beyond us-but indeed any that have come after him, in his ability, wisdom, or riches! For so shall his groans of disappointment have their true weight with us, and act as light-house beacons, warning us from danger, or from spending the one short fleeting life we have in treading the same profitless pathway of groaning.

So chapter six opens, still on the same subject of wealth and its power to bless. A sore evil, and one that weighs heavily on man, has Solomon seen:riches, wealth, and honor, clustering thick on the head of one person, and yet God has withheld from him the power of enjoying it all. As our own poet, Browning, writes that apt illustration of King Saul:

"A people is thine, And all gifts, which the world offers singly, on one head combine ! High ambition, and deeds which surpass it, lame craving them all, Brought to blaze on the head of one creature-King Saul.''

So sorrowful is this in our preacher's eyes, and so thoroughly does it bespeak a state of affairs under the sun in confusion, that Solomon ventures the strongest possible assertion, Better, he says, an untimely birth, that never saw light, than a thousand years twice told, thus spent in vanity, without real good having been found. How bitter life must show itself to lead to such an estimate! Better never to have been born than pass through life without finding something that can satisfy. But this is not looking at life simply in itself, for life in itself is good, as the same poet sings:

"Oh, our manhood's prime vigor! No spirit feels waste,
Not a muscle is stopped in its playing nor sinew unbraced.
Oh, the wild joys of living ! the leaping from rock up to rock,
The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the cool silver shock
Of the plunge in a pool's living water !
How good is man's life-the mere living ! how fit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the senses forever in joy ! "

It is because man has, of all the creation of God, an awful shadow hanging over him-death and darkness and the tomb, with the solemn, silent, unknown "beyond" lying before him, robbing him of rest. Angels have present pure delight, with no such shadow possible-they die not. The beast may enjoy his pasture, for no thought of a coming death disturbs him. Life may be full of a kind of enjoyment to such; but man, poor man, when awake to the possibilities of his own being, as it surely becomes man to be (and that is just the point of this book-we are not looking upon man as a mere animal, but as a reasoning creature, and as such he), is robbed of present rest and enjoyment by an inevitable fate to which he is hastening, and from which there is no possible escape. Do not all go to one place?-that vague " Sheol," speaking both of the grave and yet the grave, not as the end, but an indefinite shadowy existence beyond ? All, all go there ; and with no light on that, better, indeed, '' the untimely birth which came in vanity and departs in darkness;" for this, at least, has the more rest. Bitter groan this, indeed!

For the Preacher continues:"Does man's labor satisfy him ? Can he get what is really ' good ' from it? " No. For never is his appetite filled so that it desires nothing more. The constant return of its thirst demands constant toil; and fool and wise must alike obey its call. This is not confined to bodily food, but covers that bitter hunger and thirst of the heart, as the use of the word soul (margin) shows. The longings of the wise may be for a higher food. He may aim above the mere sensual, and seek to fill his soul with the refined, but he fails, as indeed do all, even " the poor man who knows to walk before the living; " that is, even the poor man who, with all the disadvantages of poverty, has wisdom enough to know how to live so as to command the respect of his fellows. Wise indeed must such be; but he, no more than, the fool, has found the "good" that forever satisfies hunger and thirst, and calms to rest the wandering of the soul, which, like the restless swallow, is ever on the wing. Man is made up of desire, and one glimpse with the eyes, something seen, is at least something secured, and it is better than all mere longing, which is vanity and the pursuit of want. For everything has long ago been named from its own nature; and in this way its name shows what it is. Thus man, too, (Adam,) is, and ever has been, known from his name, from "adamah," earth; his name so showing his mortality. If thus he has been made by his Creator, how vain for him to hope to escape his fate, for with Him no contention is possible. What use, then, in many words (not things) since they afford no relief as against that end ? they only increase vanity. Then the last sad wail of this subject:'' Who knoweth what is really good-satisfying for man-during the few fleeting years of his vain life here, which he passes as a shadow; and when he is gone, who can tell him what shall be after him under the sun " ?

Let that wail sink down deep into our ears. It is the cry that has been passed, in ever increasing volume, from heart to heart-every empty, hollow heart of man echoing and re-echoing, "Who will show us any good?" Now turn and listen to One who came to answer that fully, and in His word to Mary, the sister of Lazarus, He does distinctly, in words, answer it. She had chosen the portion that He could call "good." And was that travail and toil, even in service for Himself ? No, that was rather her sister's portion ; but a seat-expressive of rest-(consider it), a listening ear, whilst the Lord ministered to her; -and that is all that is needful ! What a contrast between this poor rich king, communing with his own heart to find out what is that good portion for man; and the rich poor saint in blessed communion with infinite Love, infinite Wisdom, infinite Power, and resting satisfied ! Surely, Solomon in all his glory had no throne to be compared to hers, as she sat lowly "at His feet." And mark carefully, for thy soul's good, that word of tender grace that the Lord said, This is needful. He who had listened to the groan of man's heart through those long four thousand years, and knew its need fully and exactly, says that this good portion must not be regarded as any nigh attainment for the few, but as the very breath of life-for all. If He knows that it is needful for thee, then, my soul, fear not but that He will approve thy taking the same place and claiming Mary's portion on the ground of thy need alone.

Yes but does this really answer the root cause of the groan in our chapter ? Is the shadow of death dispelled by sitting at His feet ! Is death no longer the dark unknown ? Shall we learn lessons there that shall rob it of all its terrors, and replace the groan with song? Yes, truly, for look at the few significant foot-prints of that dear Mary's walk after this. See her at that supper made for the Lord at Bethany. Here Martha is serving with perfect acceptance no word of rebuke to her now ; she has learned the lesson of that day spoken of in the tenth of Luke. But Mary still excels her, for, whilst sitting at His feet in that same day of tenth of Luke, she has heard some story that makes her come with precious spikenard to anoint His body for the burial! Strange act ! And how could that affectionate heart force itself calmly to anoint the object of its love for burial ? Ah! still a far sweeter story must she have heard "at His feet," and a bright light must have pierced the shadow of the tomb. For, look at that little company of devoted women around His cross, and you will find no trace of the no less devoted Mary, the sister of Lazarus, there. The other Mary’s may come, in tender affection, but in the dark ignorance of unbelief, to search for Him, in His empty tomb on the third day. She, with no less tender affection surely, is not there. Is this silence of Scripture without significance, or are we to see the reason for it in that "good portion" she had chosen "at His feet"?-and there did she hear, not only the solemn story of His cross leading her to anoint His body for the burial, but the joyful story of His resurrection, so that there was no need for her to seek '' the living amongst the dead;"-she knew that He was risen, and she, as long before, " sat still in the house ".' Oh, blessed calm ! Oh, holy peace ! What is the secret of it ? Wouldst thou learn it ! Sit, then, too, "at His feet," in simple conscious emptiness and need. Give Him the still more blessed part of ministering to thee. So all shall be in order. Thou shalt have the good portion that shall dispel all clouds of death, and pour over thy being heaven's pure sunlight of resurrection; and, with that Light, song shall displace groan, whilst thy Lord shall have the still better part-His own surely-of giving; for '' more -blessed it is to give than to receive." All is then in divine, perfect harmony and order. Rejoice and sing, for singing too is also now in harmony. F.C. J.

(To be continued.)

A strange sight is the Church of God now,- divided, scattered abroad, (for the common hope which would unite them is merged in other interests, though individuals may earnestly look for it); instead of rejoicing in the truth, we see it confined by systems of theology hiding from it the true knowledge of God, and contending for doctrines, which may be done when vital godliness is gone ; minding earthly things; looking for blessing to the earth before the resurrection comes, and practically evincing the belief "that it might be a tolerable world if all would agree to make the best of it." And what is this but, as St. Augustine saith, "live such a happy life in the region of death"! Believers have need to cry for the spirit of God to raise up the hearts of His people into their true position – the apprehension of "the heavenly calling." But the eye that is not dimmed by fellowship with unrighteousness may see that the Lord is working even now. The division for the final gatherings is going on. He is separating to Himself on the one side, and Satan is concentrating his strength on the other. The conflict is between holiness and sin; and the hour is fast coming which will irrevocably fix the side taken by each individual.