Satan is constantly endeavoring to awaken or strengthen within us a high opinion of ourselves, knowing that this will weaken our sense of dependence on Jesus, make us uncharitable toward each other, and put us off our guard.

God's school is the school of the Cross. Jesus Himself, the spotless Son of God, "learned obedience by the things which He suffered." Not a child of God can there be without passing through the same school. True happiness comes out of our readiness to go through it, knowing well that Love is master in that school, and alone holds the rod. Nor shall we be excused till we have no more lesson to learn.

Speaking evil of one another, and complaining of one another is sadly common, and being a habit it is done in the presence of children in the family circle. The injury must be great. In politics men are covered with reproach by opponents, and so in the Church, one who is "on the other side" appears at the worst; note how one who has forsaken Rome gets a name of infamy. It tries us that some should differ from us and forsake us, and it is the same in smaller circles, and more private matters. But whatever be the circumstances or the case, vigilance is needed to escape this snare of Satan-"evil speaking."

The soul that is finding rest in the love of Christ, will not be harsh or impatient towards others. The heart will not be filled up by degrees, so as to overflow at Satan's opportunity, producing evil results; but will be occupied with what is lovely and of good report.

Such an one will minister what is edifying to the hearer.

In the one case we destroy one another. In the other we love one another, and build up one another.

May the love of Christ constrain us, and brotherly love. But these are fruits of God's planting, and of a deep root, that can be traced back through godliness, patience, temperance, knowledge, virtue, faith. "If these things be in you and abound," etc.

Divine power produces lovely results. In view of this, let us give " all diligence! "

A Friend once turned to me and said, ''
"Why is the sun so dim to-day ? "
He held a glass of deepest red
Before its ray.

I answered not. He surely knows
Its glorious light is never dim;
When, to my wonder and amaze,
He asked again.

And then he strangely looked at me,
While, vivid, flashed across my mind
The meaning of the mystery,
So hard to find !

A fairer Sun, a brighter Light,
Had paled before my careless eyes,
And I had asked, "Why does the night
So dark arise ? "

O Saviour ! revelation bright
Of God's own glory and His grace,
Thou art not changed, but pleasure's blight
Has hid Thy face.

Remove the veil that dims my sight,
These earth-born wishes, floating round;
And let me learn, 'tis never night
Where Thou art found !

F. C. G.

We might say at the outset that for one who knows and loves Christ as a personal Savior, Christian Science can have no charms, and few dangers. If this should sound harsh, let it be remembered that this system completely subverts the whole of Christianity ; so that he who accepts the one, must give up the other. It is an application of our Lord's words, "No man can serve two masters." That we are justified in making such a statement will be seen in a moment as we compare a few of the teachings of Scripture on fundamental truths with the doctrines of Christian Science (a most misleading name).

I. As to the Person of Christ:" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "All things were made by Him." (John 1:i, 3.) "Who is the image of the invisible God." (Col. 1:15.) "Being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power." (Heb. 1:3.)

Here we have the divinity of the Son of God taught in the most absolute way.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14.) " He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. 2:7.) "Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." (Rom. 1:3.) Here we have "the man Christ Jesus"-His humanity. "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (i Pet. 2:22.) "Holy, harmless, undefiled." (Heb. 7:26.)

These and such scriptures teach His absolute sinlessness.

Compare with these precious truths the following statements:* "Jesus Christ entered upon our false and terrible dream, experienced our evil conditions. . . . He put off everything derived from the mother. . . . He denied, rejected, overcame, and cast out, all our race-errors, . . . race-evils, including sin, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and death, derived through Mary. *Quotations are from a pamphlet entitled "Condensed Thoughts about Christian Science."Purtz Publishing Co., Chicago.*

He thus became the divine truth, one with the Father, or the divine love. To follow Him in the regeneration is, like Him, to be delivered from the illusions of sense, the bondage of error, the false claims of matter, the promptings of self-hood-to be reunited to God" (page 15).

Such language teaches the mere humanity of Christ, that He was defiled (so far as such a thing as defilement can be said to exist), that He derived all that is evil in nature through His mother, and then rejected it, thrust it off, thus becoming, what He was not before, divine truth. No comment upon such blasphemy is needed.

II. As to the work of Christ. "By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." (Heb. 10:14.) "Made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:13.) " Being justified by faith.". . . "justified through His blood." (Rom. 5:i, 9.) The truth of atonement by substitution, of wrath-bearing for our justification, is here taught.

Contrast with these texts the following :'' The whole question of salvation depends upon ourselves, upon when, and how soon, we see our follies and errors, renounce our delusions, disrobe ourselves of our false opinions, accept the divine truth (that there is no such thing as evil), which is the light of heaven, awake from our dream of evil, and enter into the life of Christ" (page 22).

We extricate ourselves from an evil which has no existence, imitating Christ, who did the same; and this is redemption!

III. The existence of sin and death. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." (Rom. 5:12.) "Death reigned." (Rom. 5:14.) "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John 8:34.) " The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23.)

'' I deny that evil has any real existence or actual power in the presence of divine truth. I deny that sin, sorrow, suffering, sickness, or death, are realities or entities, or have any ground or reason to be" (page 32).

And this includes a denial of the personality of Satan and evil spirits, of hell, of responsibility before God.

IV. The word of God.'' All scripture is given by inspiration of God." (2 Tim. 3:16.)"The scripture cannot be broken." (John 10:35.)"Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." (Ps. 119:89.)

Christian Science says, '' The Spirit clothes itself with the letter, sometimes a tissue of appearances only (such as that God is angry, hell is eternal, etc.)." '' The Bible or word of God was written from this standpoint of mortal mind (the unreal state of human thought, with its misconceptions of the existence of sin, evil, suffering), and its letter often needs correction from the higher reason" (pages 14, 25).

V. The Lord's coming, heaven, etc. "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven:. . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first:then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:and; so shall we ever be with the Lord." (i Thess. 4:16, . 17.) " The hour is coming in the which all that .are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." (John 5:28, 29.) "In my Father's house are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you. … I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3.)

"The second coming of the Lord is a descent, from the heavens within us, into the body of humanity, (several lines missing from p. 331)

… placing side by side these statements of light and darkness, illustrating afresh each time what we said at the beginning, that the one is the exact opposite of the other. There is an appearance of piety in some phrases, an apparent approach to truth in some, and frequent quotations of Scripture misapplied. But any simple-hearted person can see that the whole thing is antichristian. It leaves us nothing–no personal God, no atonement, no Saviour, no heaven, no Word of God. It would take from the wicked the fear of hell and of the wrath of God.

The hold it has taken upon some is its claim to cure disease. This it does by denying the existence
of sickness, suffering, pain, or death. They are only imaginations. The poor, restless heart of the suffering one, who is ignorant of the grace of Christ or blinded by Satan, grasps at every straw. And so error spreads. Man will believe anything, everything, but God's truth. The times show how quickly is hastening on that hour when those who will not receive "the love of the truth that they might be saved," "shall believe a lie."

" But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, an hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle" (2 Thess. 2:13-15).

(Continued from page 243.) CHAPTER IV.

But we must follow our Preacher, who can only turn away with bitterness from this closed door of Death, once more to take note of what is "under the sun." And sad and sorrowful it is to him to mark that the world is filled with oppression. He has already, in the previous chapter, noted that "wickedness was there in the place of judgment and iniquity in the place of righteousness," and the natural consequence of this is oppression. Wherever men have power they use it to bring forth tears; therefore far better, cries Solomon, to be out of such a scene altogether; yea, better still, never to have come into it at all. Have we no sympathy with the Preacher here? Does he not give expression to one sad "touch of nature that makes the whole world kin"? Do we not recognize that he, too, was traveling through exactly the same scene as we find ourselves to be in? That tears were raining on this crust of earth in that far-off time, exactly as they are to-day? Yes indeed, it is a tear-soaked earth he trod, as well as we. But then that other man was also in the same scene exactly, who said, too, that it was certainly "far better" to be out of it; but – precious contrast! that was because of the loveliness and sweet attraction of One known outside of it; whilst the very needs of others in the scene – those "tears," in away, of which the wise man speaks, and which he knew no way of stopping – alone kept him in it, and made him consent to stay. For Paul had "heard a sweeter story" than Solomon had ever in his wisdom conceived; had "found a truer gain" than all Solomon's wealth could give him; and his most blessed business it was to proclaim a glad tidings that should dry the tears of the oppressed, give them a peace that no oppressor could take away, a liberty outside all the chains of earth – a spring of joy that tyranny was powerless to affect.

Now let us, by the grace and loving kindness of our God, consider this a little closer, my readers. We have concluded that we find this book included in the inspired volume for this very purpose, to exalt all "the new" by its blessed contrast with "the old." We may too, if we will, look around on all the sorrows and tears of this sad earth, and groan "better would it be to be dead and out of it; yea, better never to have been born at all." And a wise groan, according to human wisdom, this would be.

But when such wisdom has attained to its full, it finds itself far short of the very "foolishness of God"; for, on the other hand we may, if we will, praise God with joyful heart that we are at least in the only place in the whole universe, where tears can be dried, and gladness be made to take their place. For is there oppression, and consequent weeping, in heaven? Surely not. Tears there are, in plenty, in hell; for did not He who is Love say, "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"? But, alas! those tears can be dried-never. But here Love can have its own way, and mourning ones may learn a secret that shall surely gild their tears with a rainbow glory of light, and the oppressed and distressed, the persecuted and afflicted, may triumphantly sing, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." Ah, is there not, too, a peculiar beauty in those words "more than conquerors"? What can be more than a conqueror? A ship driven out of its course by the tempest, with anchor dragging or cable parted, is no "conqueror" at all, but the reverse. That ship riding out the gale, holding fast to its anchorage, is truly a conqueror; but that is all. But the vessel being driven by the very tempest to the haven, where it would be, is better off still, and thus "more than conqueror." So it is with the saint now; the tempest drives him the closer to Him who is indeed his desired haven, and thus he is more than conqueror. Is not, then, this earth a unique place?- this life a wonderful time ? A few years (possibly a few hours) more, and we shall be out of the scene of sorrow and evil forever; nor can we then prove the power of the love of Christ to lift above the sorrow either ourselves or others. Oh, my soul, art thou redeeming the time – "ransoming from loss" (as it might literally be worded) the precious opportunities that are around thee on every side, "because the days are evil" ? The very fact that the days are evil – that thou art in the place of tears – gives thee the "opportunities." When the days cease to be evil, those special opportunities, whatever may be the service of the redeemed, will be gone forever.

But the Preacher still continues his search '' under the sun," and turns from oppression and tears to regard what is, on the surface at least, a comparatively happy lot-"right work," by which a man has attained to prosperity and pre-eminence. But as he looks closer at a case which, at first sight, seems to promise real satisfaction, he sees that there is a bitter sting connected with it,-a sting that at once robs it of all its attraction, and makes void all its promise of true rest,- for "for this a man is envied of his neighbor." His success is only cause of bitter jealousy, and makes him the object not of love, but of envy, to all about him. Success, then, and a position of pre-eminence above one's competitors, gained by skill-ful toil, is rather to be avoided as vanity and pursuit of the wind,-a grasping at an empty nothingness.

Is the opposite extreme of perfect idleness any better? No; for plainly the idler is a fool who "eateth his own flesh"; that is, necessarily brings ruin upon himself. So human wisdom here closes the meditation with – what human wisdom always does take refuge in – the "golden mean," as it is called, " better a single handful with quiet rest, than both hands filled only by wearying toil and vexation of spirit." And true enough this is, as every man who has tested things at all in this world will confirm. Accumulation brings with it only disappointment and added care,- everything is permeated with a common poison; and here the wisdom of the old is, in one sense, in full harmony with the higher wisdom of the new, which says "godliness, with contentment, is great gain," and "having food and raiment, let us be therewith content."

If we look "above the sun," however, there is a scene where no sting lurks in all that attracts, as here. Where God Himself approves the desires of His people for more of their own, and says to them with gracious encouragement, "covet earnestly the best gifts." Yes; but mark the root-difference between the two:the skillful,. or right labor, that appears at first so desirable to the Preacher, is only for the worker's own advantage,- it exalts him above his fellows, where he becomes a mark for their bitter envy; but these "gifts "that are to be coveted are as far removed from this as the poles. In that higher scene, the more a gift exalts "self," the less is that gift. The "best"-those which God calls "best"- are those that awake no envy in others; but bring their happy owner lower and ever lower to the feet of his brethren to serve them, to build them up. The Corinthians themselves had the lesser gifts in the more showy "tongues," and "knowledge"; but one family amongst them had the greater,-"the household of Stephanas," for it had addicted itself to the service of the saints.

But let us not leave this theme till we have sought to set our hearts a-singing by a sight of Him who is, and ever shall be, the source as well as the theme of all our songs. We but recently traced Him in His glorious upward path till we found Him resting on the throne of the Majesty on high. But "he that ascended, what is it but that he also descended ?" So, beloved readers, though it may be a happily familiar theme to many, it will be none the less refreshing to look at that "right work " of our blessed Lord Jesus, "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." That is the glorious platform – as we might, in our human way of speaking, say -upon which He had abode all through the ages of the past. He looks above-there is none, there is nothing higher. He looks on the same plane as Himself-He is equal with God. There is His blessed, glorious place, at the highest pinnacle of infinite glory, nothing to be desired, nothing to be grasped at.

He moves; and every heart that belongs to that new creation awakens into praise (oh, how different to the "envy" of the old!) as He takes His first step and makes Himself of no reputation. And as in our previous paper we followed Him in His glorious upward path, so here we may trace His no less glorious and most blessed path down and ever lower down, past Godhead to "no reputation"; past authority to service; past angels, who are servants, to men; past all the thrones and dignities of men to the manger at Bethlehem and the lowest walk of poverty, till He who, but now, was indeed rich is become poor; nay, says of Himself that He has not where to lay His head. No "golden mean" of the "handful with quietness" here! Yes, and far lower still, past that portion of the righteous man, endless life,- down, down to the humiliation of death; and then one more step to a death – not of honor, and respect, and the . peace, that we are told marks the perfect man and the upright, but the death of lowest shame, the criminal slave's death, the cross! Seven distinct steps of perfect humiliation! Oh, consider Him there, beloved ! Mocked of all His foes, forsaken of all His friends! The very refuse of the earth, the thieves that earth says are too vile for her, heaping their indignities upon Him. "Behold the man," spat upon, stricken, and numbered with transgressors; and, as we gaze, let us together listen to that divine voice, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus," for that is our "right work," and there is no fear of a man being "envied of his neighbor" for right work of that kind.

But time and space would fail us to take up in de-detail all these precious contrasts. All Solomon's searches "under the sun" tell but one story:There is nought in all the world that can satisfy the heart of man. The next verse furnishes another striking illustration of this. He sees a solitary one, absolutely alone, without kith or kin dependent on him, and yet he toils on, "bereaving his soul of good" as unceasingly as when he first started in life. Every energy is still strained in the race for those riches that satisfy not at all. "Vanity" is the Preacher's commentary on the scene. This naturally leads to the conclusion that solitude, at least, is no blessing; for man was made for companionship and mutual dependence, and in this is safety. (Verses 9 to 12.)

Verses 13 to the end are difficult, as they stand in our authorized version; but they speak, I think, of the striking and extraordinary vicissitudes that are so constant '' under the sun." There is no lot abiding. The king on his throne, "old and foolish," changes places with the youth who may even step from the humiliation of prison and chains to the highest dignity:then "better is the poor and wise youth than the old and foolish king." But wider still the Preacher looks, and marks the stately march of the present generation with the next that shall follow it; yea, there is no end of the succession of surging generations, each boastful of itself, and taking no joy in- that is, making little account of-that which has gone before. Each, in its turn, like a broken wave, making way for its successor. Boastful pride, broken in death, but still followed by another equally boastful, or more so, which, in its turn, is humbled also in the silence of the grave. It is the same story of human changes as " the youth " and " the king," only a wider range is taken; but'' vanity " is the appropriate groan that accompanies the whole meditation. In this I follow Dr. Lewis's version:-

Better the child, though he be poor, if wise,
Than an old and foolish king, who heeds no longer warning;
For out of bondage came the one to reign-
The other, in a kingdom 'born, yet suffers poverty.
I saw the living all, that walked in pride beneath the sun,
I saw the second birth that in their place shall stand.
No end to all the people that have gone before;
And they who still succeed, in them shall find no joy.
This, too, is vanity,- a chasing of the wind.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from page 261.) Heb. 12:22-24.

Mount Zion is the center of earthly blessing, and in connection with an earthly people. We share in its glories, inasmuch as being associated with Christ we, the Church, shall reign with Him (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 3:21). But earth and earthly blessing is not our goal, so our passage rises from earth to heaven, to show us our true place and portion. " The city of the living God " (as contrasted with the city of the great king, Jerusalem) "the heavenly Jerusalem." God has prepared for us a city of habitation, and it is where He dwells – His home, the Father's house. God is omnipresent, He fills immensity, but He dwells in heaven; the spirits of little children redeemed, do there behold His face. (Matt, 18:10.) The throne of God and of the Lamb is there; and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face (Rev. 22:3,4). This is our eternal home, and how soon may we enter it! But even now we have come to it. We have '' boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." "Whom He justified, them He also glorified." In Christ we are already seated in the heavenly places. Heaven has been opened to us through the entrance of Christ into it. And while it is not meant that the passages from Ephesians and Romans just quoted are parallel with what we have before us, they are views of the same subject from another point.

What has one to do with an earthly priesthood, with carnal ordinances, with the law as being under it, who has come to the heavenly Jerusalem ?

(3.) We naturally come next to the inhabitants of this heavenly home; and the lowest grade is mentioned first:the innumerable company of angels, a universal gathering-a pan-angelic assembly. Such clearly seems to be the meaning of this clause, the general assembly describing the angelic host and not the Church. Angels foretold and announced the birth of Christ. They ministered to Him after His temptation; one strengthened him in the garden; two announced His resurrection; and again His second coming (Acts 1:) They are "all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation." (Heb. 1:) They excel in strength; they desire to look into the precious mysteries of the gospel (i Pet. 1:12). Of their nature and character we know now but little, comparatively. Their home, however, is ours; and we shall doubtless know them fully when there, and they will share with us in our divine worship, though they can never know the sweetness of redemption. For He took not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:).

(4.) Round about the throne, nearer than the angels (Rev. 4:ii) are the company of the .redeemed- kings and priests unto God. Of one part of this company our next clause speaks:the church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. The first-born has the place of dignity – of priority over all the other children. So, in His amazing grace, God has put the Church. He has given it to be the Bride, the Lamb's wife, to share His glory, to be forever united to Him in the closest intimacy. To be the exhibition of God's kindness, the vessel of His glory throughout all ages! (Eph. 3:21.) Soon will the Lord present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And even now we have by faith come into association with that heavenly church,- nay, through grace we are a part of it. What a position! How small do the things of earth seem in comparison with these holy, happy associations.

(5.) But we are brought to God Himself, who, if He be the Judge of all, God over all blessed forever, is also our Father. Sin resulted in departure from God, hiding from Him; and all the sacrifices and ceremonies could not bring us back to Him. But Christ has brought us to God, we are made nigh. "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Rom. 5:2:) We have peace, access and standing in grace; we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and can even glory in tribulations. As a crown upon it all the living God is now our joy; we can look into His face, by faith, and say Abba, Father. Praises be to His wondrous grace!

(6.) Those who have fought the good fight and have kept the faith, saints of all dispensations who have gone home to the Lord, are now set before us. Not in an unconscious sleep, but in happy rest they are shown to us for our encouragement. They are waiting for their glorified bodies, but are even now perfect. They have reached their home, they sin no more. Here are Abraham, the man of faith; Jacob, the tried and failing one ; David, the man after God's own heart. They have done with earth – its sins and its joys. We belong to that goodly company. Their joys are ours, their rest is ours. How cheering it is, amidst the sorrows, trials, and temptations of the way, to remember that we have come to the spirits of just men made perfect. We see some of them in the eleventh of Hebrews; but the time would fail to speak of all, and we hasten on to look at Him who is set before us in the twelfth chapter.

(7.) Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. In the midst of the angels, of the church, of the spirits of just men made perfect,- upon the very throne of God is One who has drawn our hearts to Himself. He who died for us now lives for us, interceding in the presence of God for us. The old covenant was the law. Under it man engaged to obey the commandments of God as a condition of blessing. How man failed under that covenant, presented under its most attractive forms and appealing to all motives of self-interest and gratitude, it is needless to say. The cross is at once the witness of the doing away of the old covenant, and the introduction of a new one with Jesus as its mediator. He has fulfilled its conditions, and secured its blessings to us. As nothing depends upon us in it, all upon Him, it can never be done away; it is "ordered in all things and sure." It is to this blessed person we have come,- not to Noah with his renewed earth, not to Moses with his legal covenant. Could we ask more ?

(8.) And upon what does all this blessing rest? What is the ground upon which we, as Christians, stand ? It is " the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Abel's blood cried for vengeance upon his guilty brother; the blood of Christ sprinkled upon the mercy seat, and seven times before it, tells of an accomplished redemption – God's righteousness fully vindicated, every demand of justice met by the sacrifice of our Substitute and God for us. We now, through grace, boldly stand before that blood-sprinkled mercy-seat. Who shall lay anything to our charge? How solid, how firm a standing,- how eternal. On the ground of the blood we are introduced into the holy society and position we have been looking at.

And what is the object of this unfolding of the completeness of the Christian's position ? " See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh " (5:25). Christianity had succeeded upon Judaism. The shadow had given way to the substance. And should they return again to the '' shadow of good things to come," when the good things themselves were before them ? But it is said we are in no danger of going back to Judaism. Let us not be too sure of that. A reformed earth, instead of a returning Lord; a legal gospel of works, instead of an accomplished redemption ; ordinances, seasons, a human priesthood between God and His people,- these are the characteristics of the religion of the day – going, gone back to – yea, beyond Judaism, into self-culture, universal brotherhood of man, with God and His word largely left out. His own, to His praise be it said, are and will be preserved through all this, but how needed is the admonition we have just quoted! And as the Christian's position is laid before us with all its holy associations, its wondrous nearness to God, its blessings, do not our hearts, with Peter, say "Lord, to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life " ?

As the year closes upon us, and another, darker as far as the world is concerned, opens, let us see what a goodly heritage we have, and stand fast in our lot "till He come."

(Continued from p. 287.)

CHAPTER III.

Gospel of Matthew has seven primary divisions. The two chapters we have been considering form the first of these, in which our attention is fixed upon the person of the King. That which commences with the third chapter presents the kingdom. It occupies five chapters, to the end of the seventh, and has five subdivisions, although these are not at all marked out for us by the chapters. The first subdivision has in fact, as I believe, only six verses, in which we have set before us the herald of the kingdom, John the Baptist, a remarkable person, both in himself and in the place he fills. "Among those that are born of women," is our Lord's testimony of him, "there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist." And yet He adds, (and this connects itself with the place he fills between two dispensations,) "Nevertheless, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

It is not yet the place to consider this. We have first to see what the kingdom itself is, and what is the meaning of the expression for it, the "kingdom of heaven," which is peculiar to and characteristic of this gospel. In all the others we have only the "kingdom of God." Matthew has both terms, but predominantly the former.

The difference is implied in the terms themselves. "Heaven "is a place; " God " is a Person:"heaven" naturally suggests "earth" as the sphere of the kingdom; "God" suggests "man." God might reign upon an earthly throne, as He did in Israel, when He dwelt between the cherubim. All that had long
ceased; the glory had left its earthly tabernacle, and the kingdom upon earth had been put into the hand of the Gentile. The throne, so to speak, removed to heaven, the way is prepared for the coming of a " kingdom of heaven."

Heaven had always ruled upon earth in fact; it was a fact which probably would have been any time admitted even by Nebuchadnezzar, though his pride might forget it, that " the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men."But this was not the truth of the "kingdom of heaven"; for it meant a government of secret forces, and according to principles which might be themselves unknown. This kingdom, on the other hand, meant something open, God in this way drawing near, not even faith requisite to realize the fact. For we are not now speaking of the kingdom of heaven as it exists at present, with the King absent and the prevalence of evil upon the earth:that is for the first time made known, and then in parables, in the thirteenth chapter:where they are declared to be " mysteries of the kingdom of heaven."The very manner of speech was in accordance with this, as the evangelist applies the words of the prophet:"I will open my mouth in parables ; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world."

Of such hidden things the Baptist could therefore know nothing. He was not a prophet of the Christianity so soon to come, but the last voice of the dispensation passing away, which could not pass until it had pointed to Him in whose hand were the ages beyond it. He was the voice of the past in the present, the law in its moral significance, its testimony to its own insufficiency, its reference to Him that was to come. "Repent," says the Voice, crying in the wilderness, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Prophets had long before announced the kingdom and the king; always in connection with Israel, with the law going forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. It is the same kingdom that the Baptist declares to be "at hand," though now for the first time spoken of under this peculiar title. Yet Daniel had seen " One like the Son of man come in the clouds of heaven " to receive it, and Zechariah had announced that His feet should "stand" in that day "upon the mount of Olives, . . . and the Lord my God shall come, and all the holy ones with Thee."

Since then but one prophet had spoken, and he to show that the remnant brought back out of the captivity in Babylon were but filling up the measure of their fathers' sins. Priests and people were alike gone astray from God. There remained but a remnant of a remnant. The day that was to come would therefore have to discriminate, and be in judgment as well as mercy. But "Behold," says Jehovah, " I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare My way before Me ; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple."

The voice dropped, and the centuries had run on. Now, after a long interval, the messenger had come, with the express warning of his Master's feet behind him. The years had brought no recovery, and the promise had to come as warning still. The new "voice" cried in the wilderness, not in the cities of Israel :there where Jehovah remembered still the kindness of her youth, the love of her espousals, when Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of her increase (Jer. 2:2, 3), and where again He will have to allure her, in order to speak comfortably to her (Hos. 2:14). There the cry of "Repent" was in its place.

The people were in fact being brought into the wilderness, whether or not they would accept the warning and return to God. They were under the heel of the Gentile fully. Even the bastard rule of the Herods was now over for Judea, (although it was destined to a brief revival,) and there was a Roman governor over the land. The sanctuary throne had long been empty; Lo-ammi, "not my people," had long been the verdict against them ; there was no Urim and Thummim by which God might be consulted ; for centuries no prophet had spoken for Him. God was outside, and the messenger of God had to deliver his message from a place outside. The son of a priest, John, exercised no priestly function. We never find him at Jerusalem. His clothing is of camel's hair-such as spoke of the desert, with a leathern girdle about his loins. His food is locusts and wild honey. Everything with him speaks of separation; as if he had heard (as he had) the word to Jeremiah:"Let them return to thee, but return not thou to them."

His baptism confirms his preaching. He baptizes to repentance, and in Jordan, the river of death; baptizes thus to death, the people confessing their sins, of which death was the just due. This is repentance :not a vain promise of reform, not the reform itself, but what is primary and antecedent to all this, the taking of true ground before God as hopeless and undone, with such an one as Job, who, though the best man of his day, and so pronounced by God, found his place here in self-abhorrence. " I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear," he cries to God, "but now mine eye seeth Thee:therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Were repentance the same as reformation, or '' doing better," as is more vaguely said, we might well despair if the best man on earth, so declared by God Himself, had yet to repent in this sense. On the other hand, it is not hard at all to realize how the very perfection, comparatively, of his life and ways might hinder the apprehension of the evil in him, till he had measured himself fairly in the presence of God. This is his own account of it, as is evident. He had found in such light, deeper than his outward life, a self from which he turned in shame and loathing. Repentance was with him, at least, not doing, in any shape, but turning from all that he had done "and been, to cast himself upon mere mercy. And that mercy in God met him there and then with full deliverance and lifting up from all his sorrows.

Thus, then, was the way of the Lord to be prepared into His kingdom. As Isaiah renders it,- though the quotation is only found in Luke, not here,- the mountain was to be leveled, the valley filled, pride abased, the lowliest exalted, grace in God realized as needed alike by all, sufficient for any. So would He have His way.

John preached, and there was power in his word:"there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins."

We come now to the second subdivision, which contains only six more verses:and here we find the opposition of the heart to God revealing itself, and John emphasizing, therefore, the division that would have to be made between men when the King should come. For now, among the multitude, whether merely to be in the fashion, or moved by the power which yet they would not yield themselves to, many Pharisees and Sadducees came to his baptism. They were the religious leaders of the people, though far enough apart from one another, types of the two directions in which men turn away from God. The Pharisee was the legalist and formalist; the Sadducee, the rationalist and infidel of his day. Apart as they were, they could show their essential oneness by the way in which they could combine against the followers of the Lord, and John treats them as one, essentially:"O generation of vipers," he exclaims on seeing them, "who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" He could not credit them with having felt the sting of such an incentive. They must prove the reality of it:" Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance"; and here self-judgment would show itself first of all:"and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."

Natural birth, outward participation with the people of God,- it is possible for men even yet, and under a very different dispensation, to attribute to such things an extraordinary importance. With the Jew, the promises to Abraham's seed, taken in the crudest way and with the grossest misconception, made him value himself exceedingly upon the connection with the "friend of God." John's language, therefore, attacked his most cherished expectations. Not only might all the promises fail him upon which he had built, but God could by His power bring into the enjoyment of them those who had no natural claim or birth-relation at all! To us who enjoy, in fact, a place so given, this is simple. For the Jew it would be an overwhelming thought. It did, indeed, show that the axe was being laid at the root of the trees. All turned upon the fruit that manifested the tree. If the fruit was bad, what matter though it might come of the finest stock ?

The sinner, as such, whoever he was, was under the wrath of God. Once the limit of forbearance reached, the tree cut down was destined for the fire. Very simple truth indeed, but no man loves it. Because he does not love it he will invent every possible way of escape; or, rather, hide from his own eyes that from which there is none. How terrible is the power of self-deceit in all of us; and what need for the plainest possible speaking where this is the case! For, thank God, there is a way of escape; not indeed from the need of repentance, but by its means. Repentance is only the back side of faith:he who turns his back on himself finds grace from Him to whom he turns.

All John's aim, therefore, was to bring man to repentance. For this he baptized with water:he mentions the "water," expressly to free them from the idea that there was anything in this, apart from the significance which it had as a baptism to repentance. Water is only water, can only produce a material effect, and not a spiritual. Nor does God ordain it to a magic use, perverting the nature of what He created. On the contrary, He takes up what is in itself nothing, in order that men should not lose sight of the spiritual by what might seem capable of inherent virtue. Baptism with John, as with Paul, was simple "burial"; not life, not resurrection, but the very opposite of these. The confession of death, – of the sinner's "need and helplessness,-that Another may be seen and known and trusted in; accordingly he turns to that Other' now:-

'' I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance:but He that cometh after me is mightier than I; whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."

(To be continued.)

God's saints have journeyed long
The promised rest to gain;
And still, through grace, their hope is strong
That they with Christ will reign.

They started on the way
Six thousand years ago;
And oft, without one earthly stay,
Have passed through scenes of woe.

But God has been their stay,
And not a fleshly arm;
And they have trod the desert way,
Where foes have sought their harm.

Now they are almost home!
They know the rest is near, –
To Canaan's border they have come,
The Lord will soon appear!

He'll greet them with a smile,
And bid their wandering cease, –
He'll place them in a heavenly clime,
And give them endless peace.

They give all praise to God,
And glory to the Lamb;
They trust alone His precious blood,
And don't deny His name.

They joy before the Lamb;
They worship and adore
Him who was so humbled here, –
In grace their sorrows bore.

R. H.

The dark picture in the Epistle of Jude is enough to overwhelm one with" an awakened conscience, did not the closing verses give us the bright side for faith. Everything else has gone to ruin; corrupters have come in, defiling the church; and we cannot be blind to it. What can we do? Reform the evil? go on with it? Neither. "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." Here we have a fourfold word, the wilderness number, and that of our walk through it. The darkness could not oppress us with its gloom, did we follow this divine exhortation.

Then, too, we would have discernment and compassion for others caught in the snares which, through mercy, we may have escaped-teaching with pity the ignorant, and snatching others with fear from what, as a fire, would consume.

In the midst of all the peril, Jude ("praise") can lift his heart in worship; and surely we should be able to join in it-"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

All Scripture combines in teaching us our need of constant watchfulness and dependence upon God, if we are to be here for Him in a true way, and of any real service to others.

The Lord's people so often think (or appear to) that they know better ways of serving His interests, they easily turn aside to their own way, only, alas! to prove in the end the bitter misery of it. This only betrays where we really are, and how far and how fast we depart at times from the way of faith and patience and true waiting upon God.

Absalom had sinned (2 Sam. xiii). He had sinned with deliberate and wicked purpose; and, as a consequence, was outside the privileges of Israel, and away from all the happy associations of his father's presence. He dwelt in Geshur, among a judged people, (i Sam. 27:8.) His sin was against the throne of David, as well as against his brethren; yet David's heart was toward him,-open, we may surely say, clay and night, for the repentance and return of the self-willed wanderer. This was right, and like God Himself, so far as it was a desire for a return upon a basis that should be for the glory of his throne, and the real blessing of Absalom as well as for the whole people.

Joab now conies before us as one who would fain help to right things, but being evidently a man without faith,- though with remarkable natural energy, which at times appeared to carry him on in such a path,- and having no wisdom from God, he works for a restoration that would be a dishonor to David's throne, and which would, in its turn, surely work – except the mercy of God intervene – its destruction, as well as that of David and Absalom too. In the carrying out of his scheme, through the wise woman of Tekoah, the basis of righteousness which sustains the throne of God is wanting; and David, failing to maintain this, opens the door to Absalom's return to Jerusalem. It is only a very distant and very partial restoration. There is much still wanting, for he is not permitted to see the king's face. Does this not evidence there is more than a doubt in the king's mind ?

Absalom, in whom there is no realization of his sin, cannot long remain satisfied with this. He has now a record of five years and more since the day of his judgment, and there has been no continuation of the sin for which he had been excluded. The blot in the past is there all unjudged, as well as the state of soul that produced it. But his present record,- what about that ? And so he must appear as one fully justified, and must stand in all the favor of the king. The unjust knoweth no shame, and he un-blushingly asks, Where is my sin ? " Let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me let him kill me." There is profusion of apparent humility, "and the king kissed Absalom." It was, indeed, a fatal kiss. How much for the sinning one, and all concerned, as well as the Lord's name, is involved in having the true mind of God in such circumstances. David had not been watching, 'and he slips easily into the fault of having too open a heart, and too much tenderness for one under a righteous sentence.

Perhaps it was pressed upon David that a change had come over Absalom; that the five years that had elapsed had not been marked by any distinct outbreak of the flesh, in what any mere natural judgment would distinguish as wicked. Any way he is at length restored to the fullest enjoyment of all the privileges of the court, as well as the favor of David; and this without one word of acknowledgment of his guilt, or judgment of his past.
The sequel shows the result of this lack of loins girt about with truth. " It came to pass after this." These words are full of meaning. " After this " Absalom exalts himself, and becomes a great man in his own thoughts. He will become popular also, evidencing, in the way he goes about it, the awful lack of principle that displays as surely his corrupt state as his original unveiled sin, although to the uncircumcised eye he is the opposite – everything that is good. But the moral condition is there, betraying not only that there is no wisdom and no fear of God, but also that there is a moral obliquity that infects others, corrupting and blinding them to what should seem to call for little eyesight to see. He flatters and kisses, and would be the friend to them that David is not; and at last he stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

One step leads on quickly to another. Many become defiled and an easy prey to the conceit and deceit of Absalom. Ahithophel comes forward to assist in a way kindred to Absalom's own; and now David suffers the consequences of his unwatchfulness and lack of salt in his dealings with Absalom. Who can estimate the far-reaching results of such a lack in ourselves as David shows ? Those judging by the sight of their eyes might point to the years of agreeableness which Absalom had shown, and the diligence which marked him in every good work and kindness to others; and if they at all acknowledged at length that blot in the remote past, by the later years they would judge and pass it all over. So David, but not so God. He cannot overlook that unjudged past; and in a fuller way this lesson is taught us in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men may forget, or attempt by many ways to blot it out of the world or the mind of the world. Centuries may roll away, but for God and for the faith of His people that cross still stands, and speaks as surely of coming judgment as of present grace for every repentant soul. And if David be overtaken in a moment of unwatchfulness, God will take care of him and restore him again, but the results of his unfaithfulness fall more heavily on Absalom, whose cup is at length full, and who now brings down upon his own head the judgment of an accumulated lifetime of scheming and of sin.

David's grief has poignancy added to it (has it not ?) by the remembrance of his own failure in relation to one who was very near and very dear to his heart; by the remembrance, too, of what might have been, if he had been firm in the moment of testing, even though it should be thought by the Joabs and others that he was narrow and severe and lacking in love.

God's principles remain always the same, from beginning to end; and these scenes, drawn by the finger of God, are there for our warning; but also, in His goodness, "that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope"; and He is "the God of Hope." So we may take fresh courage,-looking for a bright end, but remembering the journey is not yet over. Shall we not, then, earnestly seek to be not too fast and not too slow, but only and always to be imitators of God as dear children, walking thus in line toward one another and toward all. This love will be according to truth, and magnify God, and result in our truly serving the interests of Christ in His people here.

We need hearts as well as heads, perhaps even much more; and to let patience have her perfect work. The Lord helps us in these graces that we may abound in them, and that we judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. W. B.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.- Ps. 32:1.

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. . . . out his delight is in the law of the Lord.- Ps. 1:1, 2.

Blessed is he that considereth the poor.- Ps. 41:1.

All the world is in pursuit of happiness. Some are seeking it in wealth; others in power and a great name; while the vast proportion think they will find it in pleasure. This pursuit of happiness is an unconscious confession on man's part that he does not possess it; " for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" So, what a man possesses why does he yet seek for? Ah, beneath all the hurry of business, the rivalry of contending parties, and the shout of merry-making, there is the hungry heart that longs to be satisfied, and is not. In bright contrast to the hunger-a hunger too proud to turn to One who alone can satisfy it, – we have the happiness of the child of God set before us here, its fullness suggested and its fruits manifested in this threefold view. Though taken from the Psalms,
Israel's book, this blessedness is the common portion of all the people of God, brought out indeed into clearer relief through the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

We have first the blessedness of forgiveness. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." This comes first, whether we look at God's desire to bless, or man's need of blessing; for as to the former, His love is always in holiness, and how can a holy God bless a guilty sinner without a sacrifice of His righteousness, unless all the claims of that righteousness have been perfectly met? As to the need of the sinner, what would be a blessing if forgiveness were withheld? Would possession of all earthly and heavenly things satisfy a guilty soul ? Nay, would not all other blessings apart from this but aggravate his misery ? So when God begins with a soul, this is the first blessing He bestows. It is the kiss with which He meets the repentant prodigal "when he was yet a great way off." Of the fullness of this forgiveness, there is perhaps little need to speak here, save for the joy it ever brings to the heart. " Having forgiven you all trespasses." Who can go behind that all? Satan with his ingenuity to suggest, and our poor hearts with their willingness to receive doubts, are both silent before that word. Nor does its fullness apply to sins in number merely, but to time as well. As to the past, all trespasses have been forgiven ; as to the present "being justified by faith, we have peace with God"; as to the future, "he shall not come into judgment,"-he is in a forgiven state, in a position to which forgiveness attaches.

All this is the more clearly understood and enjoyed when we look at the grounds of this forgiveness. The word for "covered" is also that for making atonement – the true and only covering. When man covers sin, it only brings misery:"When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, . . . my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." How different when God covers it! It is done on the ground of righteousness, of expiation by Another. The blood upon the mercy seat-"the covering"-told of a sacrifice which had been offered and accepted. Upon that ground the priest, as representing the people, could enter into God's presence for them, and not die; and come out of that presence as God's representative to bless. The reality of all this is blessedly familiar to us, who know that Christ now appears in the presence of God for us, as our representative, having first as that been made sin for us; nay, that we ourselves have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus"; who also know that the Holy Ghost has come out to us the witness of our acceptance and the bearer of heavenly gifts to us. Truly we may say " blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

But God does not leave a man merely forgiven, as we well know, nor does salvation make us fit for heaven while leaving us unfit for earth. In days of looseness we need to guard all points. The freeness of the gospel is attacked, but there are also not wanting those who would "turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness." But how careful is God's word to guard against any such misuse of grace. '' The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, . . . of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:19-21.) "For this ye know that no whoremonger, nor unclean person . . . hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words." (Eph. 5:5, 6.) "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (i Cor. 6:9, 10.) Here we have a solemn and concurrent testimony from three epistles most unlike in their contents and points of view. Galatians was written to those in danger of going back to law; Ephesians to those "faithful in Christ Jesus," who could appreciate the fullness of blessing, both for the individual and the church, which is unfolded in that epistle; while Corinthians treats of disorders in a church where grace was known and gifts enjoyed, but all was abused. Yet from whatever viewpoint, the judgment is the same, the testimony identical. And so it is with all Scripture:the walk in this world is of the utmost importance.

Now in our second Scripture this is pressed. '' Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. . . . but his delight is in the law of the Lord."

The child of God is here described in two ways – negatively and positively. He is separated from evil-"cease to do evil"; then occupied with good-"learn to do well." It is a familiar truth that we are formed by our associations:it needs no proof, only exhortation that we take it to heart. In all its forms, intercourse with the ungodly is forbidden,- whether walking, standing, or sitting, indicating the various grades of intimacy. Christ is our example. If he was "the friend of sinners," He was also "separate from sinners." We need not add that heart separation is meant. There is no conceivable way in which God's children can break down the wall of separation between them and the world, without peril to their souls. No link of business or religion, social or political, between God's children and the world is contemplated in Scripture. We can be and should be kind, helpful, and gracious; but "the plowing of the wicked is sin," and the unequal yoke will sooner or later gall the neck of him who wears it. We cannot too strongly impress this upon the young Christian. How many bright lights have grown dim through neglect of it! How many happy hearts have grown heavy!

But God does not deal in mere negations. If we are to free ourselves from that which denies, it is that we may be engaged with that which is good. And what a place is here given to the Scriptures; "his delight is in the law of the Lord." In a day when God's word is being attacked and doubted, we need to be recalled to it. "Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name," above all else that declares God – His works, His providence, His judgments. God's word is God speaking to us, showing us His mind and the thoughts of His heart. Do we delight in it ? Is it a constant and growing pleasure to dwell upon it ? Is it our one book, studied, held up in every light, fed upon, meditated upon ? The danger is not so much that we will know the Bible intellectually only, as that we will not know it well. . Let us read it as never before. Let our thoughts be upon it "day and night," our opinions formed by it, our path marked by it. What do we know of it as yet ? The best instructed will reply, "but little." And, yet it lies open to us, inviting our search into it and assuring us that we will be most richly rewarded.

Of the results of this delight in God's word and the fruits of meditating upon it, we need only look at the tree planted by the rivers of water – fresh in leaf and yielding seasonable fruit. Is it thus with us ?

Man was made for God, and can never be truly at rest until he is with God. We know what a sense of loneliness comes over us if we have man only before us. Not even the word of God, did it not bring us into intimate fellowship with Himself, could do away with this sense of loneliness. The heart craves an object, and that object must be a living person. We are reminded of this by the last quotation at the head of this paper, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."

In the psalm just preceding this (Psa. 60:), and which unquestionably refers to the Lord Jesus, who came to do God's will by the sacrifice of Himself, and who was brought low, even into the '' horrible pit and miry clay,"we hear Him saying, "I am poor and needy." "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich" (in glory and in honor) "yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich." Christ is the poor Man whom it is blessed to consider. Are we tempted to murmur ? Consider the poor Man, stripped of all,-poor in life, infinitely poor in death, as deprived of the smile of God,- consider all that He was deprived of, and can we murmur ? Are we tempted to be envious, vainglorious ? Again the divine remedy is in the consideration of that poor Man who did not clutch at that which was His right – to be equal with God – but resigned it all and took a servant's form; and where is the vainglory? If the Son of God has taken the lowest place, who dare take a higher? Oh, as we "survey the wondrous cross," envy, vainglory vanish; we learn, in the light of that self-abasement, to "pour contempt on all our pride."

Would not we realize more what true blessedness is did we have our adorable Lord more constantly before our souls ? Beds of languishing would be turned into places of worship did we thus consider the poor.

How full a blessing we thus have – forgiveness to give peace and liberty; the word of God and a narrow path to enjoy it in; and above all a precious Savior and Lord, who has come very near to us, and would constantly be drawing our hearts nearer to Himself. May He give all His dear people to know increasingly what a blessed portion we have.

(Continued from p. 277.)

CONCLUSION.

I have now traced some of the features of the moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He represented man to God-man as he ought to be, and God rested in him.

This moral perfectness of the man Christ Jesus, and God's acceptance of Him, was signified by the meat-offering, that cake of fine flour, which was baked either in oven, pan, or frying-pan, with its oil and its frankincense. (Lev. 2:)

When the Lord Jesus was here, and thus manifested as man to God, God's delight in Him was ever expressing itself. He grew up before Him in human nature, and in the exhibition of all human virtues; and He needed nothing at any one moment to commend Him but Himself, just as He was. In His person and ways man was morally glorified, so that when the end, or perfection, of His course came, He could go "straightway" to God, as the sheaf of first-fruits of old was taken directly and immediately, just as it was, out of the field, needing no process to fit it for the presence and acceptance of God. (Lev. 23:10.) The title of Jesus to glory was a moral one. He had a moral right to be glorified; his title was in Himself. John 13:31, 32 is the blessed setting forth bf this in its due connection. " Now is the Son of Man glorified," the Lord there says, just as Judas had left the table; for that action of Judas was the sure precursor of the Lord's being taken by the Jews, and that was the sure precursor of His being put to death by the Gentiles. And the cross being the completeness and perfection of the full form of moral glory in Him, it was at this moment He utters these words, "Now is the Son of Man glorified." Then He adds, "and God is glorified in Him."

God was as perfectly glorified then as the Son of Man was, though the glory was another glory. The Son of Man was glorified then by His completing that full form of moral beauty which had been shining in Him all through His life. Nothing of it was then to be wanting, as nothing from the beginning up to that late hour had ever mingled with it that was unworthy of it. The hour was then at hand when it was to shine out in the very last ray that was to give it its full brightness. But God was also glorified then, because all that was of Him was either maintained or displayed. His rights were maintained, His goodness displayed. Mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, were alike and equally either satisfied or gratified. God's truth, holiness, love, majesty, and all beside were magnified in a way, and illustrated in a light, beyond all that could ever have been known of them elsewhere. The cross, as one has said, is the moral wonder of the universe.

But then, again, the Lord adds, " If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself; and shall straightway glorify Him." This is His recognition of His own title to personal glory. He had already perfected the full form of moral glory through life and in death. He had also vindicated God's glory, as we have seen. Therefore it was but a righteous thing that He should now enter on His own personal glory. And this He did when He took His place in heaven, at the right hand of the majesty there, as in company with God Himself, and all that at once, or "straightway."

God's work as Creator had been quickly soiled in man's hand. Man had ruined himself; so that it is written, "God repented that he had made man." (Gen. 6:) A terrible change in the Divine mind since the day when God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good! (Gen. 1:) But in the Lord Jesus the Divine complacency in man was restored.

This was blessed! and the more acceptable, as we may say, from the previous repentance. It was more than first enjoyment, it was recovery after loss and disappointment; and that, too, in a way exceeding the first. And as the first man, upon his sin, had been put outside creation, as I may say, this second man (being, as He also was, "the Lord from heaven "), upon His glorifying of God, was seated at the head of creation, at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Jesus is in heaven as a glorified man because here on earth God had been glorified in Him as the obedient One in life and death. He is there, indeed, in other characters. Surely we know that. He is there as a Conqueror, as an Expectant, as the High Priest in the tabernacle which God has pitched, as our Forerunner, and as the Purger of our sins. But He is there also, in the highest heavens glorified, because in Him God had been here on earth glorified.

Life and glory were His by personal right and by moral title. One delights to dwell on such a truth, to repeat it again and again. He never forfeited the garden of Eden. Truly indeed did He walk outside it all His days, or amid the thorns and briers, the sorrows and privations, of a ruined world. But this He did in grace. He took such a condition upon Him; but He was not exposed to it. He was not, like Adam, like us all, on one side of the cherubim and the flaming sword, and the tree of life and the garden of Eden on the other. In His history, instead of angels keeping Him outside or beyond the gate, when He had gone through His temptation they come and minister to Him. For He stood where Adam failed and fell. Therefore, man as He was, verily and simply man, He was this distinguished man. God was glorified in Him, as in all beside He had been dishonored and disappointed.

In one sense, this perfectness of the Son of man, this moral perfectness, is all for us. It lends its savor to the blood which atones for our sins. It was as the cloud of incense which went in to the presence of God, together with the blood, on the day of atonement. (Lev. 16:)

But in another sense this perfection is too much for us. It is high; we cannot attain to it. It overwhelms the moral sense as far as we look at it in the recollection of what we ourselves are, while it fills us with admiration as far as we look at it as telling us what He is. The personal judicial glory, when displayed of old, was overwhelming. The most favored of the children of men could not stand before it, as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; and Peter and John experienced the same. And this moral glory, in like manner exposing us, is overwhelming.

Faith, however, is at home in the presence of it. The god of this world blinds the mind to the apprehension and joy of it; but faith welcomes it. Such are the histories of it here among men, In the presence of it Pharisees and Sadducees together asked for a sign from heaven. The mother, through vanity, mistakes it, and the brethren of the Lord through worldliness. (John 2:7.) Disciples themselves are under constant rebuke from it. The oil-olive beaten for this light was too pure for any; but it was ever burning in the sanctuary, or "before the Lord." The synagogue at Nazareth strikingly lets us learn the unpreparedness of man for it. They owned the gracious words which proceeded out of the Lord's lips ; they felt the power of them. But quickly a strong current of nature's corruption set in and withstood this movement in their hearts, and overcame it. God's humbled, self-emptied witness, in the midst of a proud, revolted world, was discovered; and this would not do for them. Let "Joseph's son " speak as He may, good words and comfortable words, He will not be accepted-He is a carpenter's son. (Luke 4:) It is wonderful-wonderful witness of the deep, inlaid corruption. Man has his amiabilities, his taste, his virtues, his sensibilities, as this scene at Nazareth, in Luke 4:, may tell us. The gracious words of Jesus raised a current of good feeling for a moment; but what was it all, and where was it all, when God tested it ? Ah, beloved, we may still say, in spite of this, our amiability and respectability, our taste and emotions, that in us (that is, in our flesh) "dwelleth no good thing ! "

But again, I say, faith is at home with Jesus. Can we, I ask, treat such a One with fear or suspicion? Can we doubt Him ? Could we have taken a distant place from Him who sat at the well with the woman of Sychar ? Did she herself take such a place ? Surely, beloved, we should seek intimacy
with Him. The disciples who companied with Him have to learn their lessons again and again. We know something of this. They had to make discovery of Him afresh, instead of enjoying Him as already discovered. In the fourteenth of Matthew they had to cry out, " Of a truth thou art the Son of God!" This was discovering Him afresh. Had their faith been simple, they would have slept in the boat with Him. What a scene it was, to their shame and His glory! They spoke insultingly or reproachfully to the Lord, as though He were indifferent to their danger:" Master, carest Thou not that we perish ? " He awoke at the sound of their voice, and at once set them in safety. But then, He rebukes them, not, however, for the injustice their hard words had done Him, but for their want of faith.

How perfect was this ! How perfect, surely, was everything; and each in its generation!-the human virtues, the fruits of the anointing that was on Him, and His divine glories. The natures in the one Person are unconfused; but the effulgence of the divine is chastened, the homeliness of the human is elevated. There is nothing like this, there could be nothing like this, in the whole creation. And yet the human was human, and the divine was divine. Jesus slept in the boat:He was man. Jesus quelled the winds and the waves :He was God.

This moral glory must shine. Other glories must give place till this is done. The Greeks, who had come to worship in Jerusalem at the feast, inquire after Jesus, desiring to see Him. This savored of the kingdom, or of the royal glory of the Messiah. It was a sample of that day when the nations shall come up to the city of the Jews to keep holy day, and when, as King in Zion, He shall be Lord of all and God of the whole earth.

But there was a secret deeper than this. It needs a juster sense of God's way than simply to be expecting a kingdom. The Pharisees needed that, when in Luke 17:they asked the Lord when the kingdom should appear. He had to tell them of another kingdom, which they did not apprehend-a kingdom within, a present kingdom, which had to be entered and known ere the glorious manifested kingdom could appear. The disciples needed it in Acts 1:, when they asked their Lord if He would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel. He had to tell them, also, of another thing ere the restoration could take place-that they were to be gifted by the Spirit for testimony to Him all the world over.

So here in John 12:The Lord lets us know that moral glory must precede the kingdom. He will surely shine in the glory of the throne by and by, and the Gentiles shall then come to Zion, and see the King in His beauty; but ere that could be, the moral glory must be displayed in all its fullness and unsulliedness. And this was His thought now, when the Gentiles had inquired after Him. "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." This was His moral glory, as we have said before, in John 13:31, 32. It had been shining all through His ways, from His birth hitherto; His death was to be the completeness of it; and therefore the hour was then at hand when it was to shine out in the last ray that was to form it and give it perfection. The Lord thus supplies or introduces on this occasion, as He did, as we have seen, in Luke 17:and in Acts 1:, the truth, the additional truth, which needs the richer, juster sense of God's ways to apprehend. The moral glory must be fully displayed ere Messiah can show Himself in royal glory to the ends of the earth.

It is, however, His, and His only. How infinitely distant from one's heart is any other thought! When the heavens opened, in Acts 10:, the sheet was seen descending ere Peter was commanded to have fellowship with it, or ere it ascended and was lost or hid again on high. The contents of it had to be cleansed, or sanctified. But when the heaven was opened, in Matt, 3:, Jesus on earth needed not to be taken up to be approved there, but voices and visions from on high sealed and attested Him just as He was. " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

And when the heavens were opened again, as in Matt, 27:, that is, when the vail of the temple was rent in twain, all was finished, nothing more was needed, the work of Jesus was sealed and attested just as it then was. An opened heaven at the beginning shone out in the full acceptance of His person; an opened heaven at the end shone out in full acceptance of His work.

And let me close in saying that it is blessed and happy, as well as part of our worship, to mark the characteristics of the Lord's way and ministry here on the earth, as I have been seeking in measure to do in this paper; for all that He did and said, all His service, whether in the substance or the style of it, is the witness of what He was, and He is the witness to us of what God is. And thus we reach God, the blessed One, through the paths of the Lord Jesus, in the pages of the evangelists. Every step of that way becomes important to us. All that He did and said was a real, truthful expression of Himself, as He Himself was a real, truthful expression of God. And if we can understand the character of His ministry, or read the moral glory that attaches to each moment and each particular of His walk and service here on earth, and so learn what He is, and thus learn what God is, we reach God, in certain and unclouded knowledge of Him, through the ordinary paths and activities of the life of this divine Son of man.

These three prepositions give us in the fullest way the place of the Son of God in relation to creation, so that every whisper of unbelief as to His divine dignity and glory must be hushed. "All things were created by Him." (Col. 1:16.) Here the source of all creation is given. It is divine, and Christ is the creator-therefore divine. It was in His own power that this was done; His self-existence and sufficiency are here asserted. This creation includes all beings and all worlds, things visible and invisible ; thrones, dominions, and powers. This is God.

"All things were created through Him." He was the divine instrument used in creation. God the Father and the Spirit were undoubtedly associated with the Sou in that work. The Son, however, was the executor of it all. "Without Him was not anything made that was made." Knowing His absolute divinity, we are in no danger now in learning His share in the work. He was not the highest of created beings, who was the mouthpiece of God; but God Himself.

"All things were created for Him." He who was once crucified, who is still rejected by the world, will one day be manifested as Lord over all. All creation will own Him then. The whole universe exists for Him.

And it is of this blessed, adorable One that we can say, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins," and "This is my beloved, and this is my friend." For He has become man, died, and risen again, that He might be that to us.

(Continued from page 261.)
2. The Announcement of the King (Chap. 2:).

The magi are warned of God, in a dream, not to return to Herod; and they depart into their own country another way. Then Joseph is similarly warned of impending danger, and flees by divine direction, with the young child and his mother, into Egypt. There is no manifest display of power made. The angels that appeared to announce a Savior do not now reappear to guard the infant King. Everything marks that He has come to take no exceptional place in this way, as distinct from the common lot of men. Nay, it is a necessity of the work which He has come to do that He should stoop to this; and in subjection to these human conditions manifest His exaltation above fallen man. Prophecy, however, has marked Him out all through; and it is that it might be fulfilled that He goes down to Egypt.

But just here we have what calls for special examination. The prophecy to be fulfilled is that of Hosea (ch. 11:i):"Out of Egypt have I called my Son." But this, at first sight, does not seem to be a prophecy at all; and certainly not a prophecy of Christ. Any one looking at it would say it was simply a rebuke of Israel as a nation, for repaying with apostasy and Baal-worship the love which God had shown in their redemption of old. He had taken them out of their bondage and misery, and called them to adoption as His own family among the families of the earth. But how had they repaid it ? "As [the prophets] called them, so they went from them:they sacrificed to Baalam, and burned incense to graven images." This, of course, could only speak of Israel as a nation.

And yet the application to the Lord of the first verse is no mere application. It is not that such a thing took place now in relation to Him who was Son of God by a fuller title, to that which had taken place in regard to His "first-born" Israel. The manner of quotation is much too precise for that. Evidently there is here a far deeper view of prophecy than we are accustomed to. It is common to say that there is here an example of typical prophecy; but we must understand what we mean if we say this. For certainly it could be only in fragments of the national history that there could be any typical reference to the Lord; and what follows in the prophet indicates only entire and emphatic contrast, as we have seen. We must have, therefore, some guiding truth to enable us to distinguish, with any certainty, what is typical and what is not.

Now in Isaiah 49:we have such a principle:for of whom is it written, "Jehovah has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has He made mention of my name, . . . and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified " ? This, one would say, must be the nation; but immediately we hear a Voice that is not the nation's:"Then I said, I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God."

Now notice the claim:"And now, saith Jehovah, that formed ME from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in Jehovah's eyes, and my God shall be my strength. And He said, It is a light thing that thou shouldst be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel:I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation unto the ends of the earth."

Here, to a Christian, there can be no doubt of the application. It is Christ alone who fulfills this. But thus He is also the true Servant, formed from the womb, and the Israel in whom God will be glorified. Here Christ and Israel are both identified and distinguished at the same time. Israel, that had failed utterly,- failed even in hearing this glorious Person when He came,- Israel comes to fulfill its destiny only in and through Christ, who comes of Israel; who is (according to the prophetic language) the lowly "Shoot" from the cut down "stem of Jesse," the "Branch" that should "grow out of his roots"; and upon whom, in full complacency, and in sevenfold power, "the Spirit of Jehovah " was to "rest." (Isa. 11:) In Him, the "Son born " to them, Israel nationally is yet to revive. His glory involves their blessing. He begins anew for God their history, purged of its failure and its shame, and thus the necessary application of such passages as that in Hosea, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son."

Yet how differently is it fulfilled in these two cases? For Him there could be no captivity, no "house of bondage." For them this had been the discipline needed, the furnace because of the dross that the Refiner must purge out. Typically, for us all, it speaks of the bondage to sin in our natural state, out of which a divine voice alone can call us. For Him, of all this there was nothing,- could be nothing. Egypt shelters, not ensnares, nor takes captive. He had no natural state to be delivered from. The world of Nature, had He desired it, would have yielded Him all it had. The Voice that called Him out of it, called Him but to the work for which He had come; and so the "favor" even "with man" (Luke 2:52) was exchanged for rejection, as also for one dread hour the "favor with God" was eclipsed in the darkness of abandonment, only to shine out, however, immediately, in the glory of the resurrection and return to heaven.

All, then, should be clear as to the application of Hosea. The next quotation in this chapter, that from Jeremiah, which speaks of Rachel's weeping over her dead, is introduced after a very different manner, then was fulfilled," not " that it might be,." This is really but an application. When Bethlehem mourned her babes slaughtered by Herod, then it was as if Rachel, from her grave close by, were repeating her lamentation. But Rachel must be comforted here also, in a deeper way than in the prophet. He had escaped, who by and by would freely offer Himself to redeem from the power of the grave, and bring back to a better life.

But the days of the Edomite were drawing to an end; and soon the angel of the Lord appeared once more in a dream to Joseph, with words that brought back those that set the face of Moses, the deliverer, toward the people to whom he was commissioned:"they are dead that sought the young child's life." But only one tyrant had succeeded another, so that they do not return to Judea, where Archelaus had begun his short but cruel reign, but into Galilee; and they came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. In this, too, prophecy was fulfilled,- not a specific one, but the tenor of the prophets generally:"He shall be called a Nazarene."

Galilee means "circle,"or "circuit"; and here was the place in which, though but for a short time, through the unbelief that rejected Him, Israel's lost blessings were to return more gloriously. It was called, as elsewhere stated, "Galilee of the Gentiles," because so full of Gentiles. There the ruin of the people, therefore, was most plainly to be seen; and thus it was the fitting place for grace to be shown. It would be most manifestly grace. So when the child returns, the land is as it were claimed once more – the only place in the New Testament where the expression is used – as "the land of Israel." Such it shall be yet, when it shall be owned as "Immanuel's land."

And this connects with what we had before; and that to which our attention is once again, and more distinctly called, in this summing up of various prophecies:" He shall be called a Nazarene. " This was, of course, a name actually given the Lord; and generally in scorn, from the place in which so large a proportion of His life on earth was spent. Nazareth was in no good repute, especially among the Pharisees and traditionalists. It had no memories, no history, was consecrated by no great names; and its own name-which seems to have been but a feminine form of netzer, a "sprout," or "shoot,"-may even refer to this. It was thus expressive of lowliness, if yet of life, and identical with the word in Isaiah 11:i, where Messiah is spoken of as the "rod" or "shoot out of the stem of Jesse"; and here His greatness and His lowliness are seen together.

The stem is cut down:it is better characterized as that of Jesse than of David; and thus the Son of David comes into no outward state or glory, but the opposite. Yet He comes to revive, and more than revive. He is the "righteous Branch" of Jeremiah (23:5, 33:15), and Zechariah's Branch, Jehovah's Servant, who builds the temple of Jehovah, and bears the glory (ch. 6:12). His stooping is in love and service,- even to death, because His work is resurrection. How great and wonderful is this lowliness, when once we penetrate his real character! – how necessary when once we have understood the need to relieve which He came!

Here, then, is the key to His whole position:for this Branch is to reign, and be a Priest upon His throne. Not Israel's burden only is He lifting, but our own. For Israel, in their long probation, in which they failed so utterly, were only the representatives of men,- of all men,- our's; and therefore ours also is the royal Savior. And this expression-"the Nazarene "-implies all this. Thus He is "called" this, from opposite sides, for opposite reasons. Those who would dishonor Him, those who would honor Him, here unite together. The cross is a death of shame; but it is His glory. Up in the glory of heaven, amid the universal homage there, stands "a Lamb as it had been slain." F. W. G.

-Sir:The writer is pleased to see that there is at least one great newspaper that has formed correct views of the " Parliament of Religions," and was not afraid to express them, as shown by an article in last Sunday's issue of THE SUN. Permit me to add that this hydra of religions, brought together at the earnest request of so called Christians, is not an evidence of growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ; but the contrary. It is manifestly a retrograde movement, and a falling away from "the faith once delivered to the saints." The blind leaders are turning away the hearts of the people from the truth, and they are being turned unto fables. They are even by word and conduct denying the foundation of all that is Christian, that is. the cross of Christ. For I speak advisedly when I say that the conditions of admission to this so-called Parliament of Religions are that the death of Jesus on the cross as a satisfaction to justice for the sins of the world should not be mentioned.

The offence of the cross has not ceased then, for we have the pitiable spectacle of men while professing to be Christians denying their Redeemer. The heathen and Mohammedan religions represented will not be slow to think that Christians themselves regard the vicarious atonement of Jesus as too foolish to be mentioned, and they will reason that Jesus is no more to the Christian than Buddha to the Buddhist or Mohammed to the Mohammedan. But if Jesus be no more than these or more than all other such, He was an imposter ; for He said He "came into the world that the world through Him might be saved." He said further, "I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the Father but by Me." "He that climbeth up any other way is a thief and a robber," and further, He was " the good Shepherd that layeth down His life for the sheep."

Then to Christians worthy of the name there is but one way. There is but " one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Therefore they cannot fellowship with or compromise with any other system of religion ; but must reprove and enlighten them. S. O. Blunden.

987 Hancock Street, Brooklyn.

[We gladly insert the following from the New York Sun on the Parliament of Religions now In session at the World's Fair, Chicago;-a well deserved rebuke, even from the editor of a newspaper.]

If the so-called Parliament of Religions at Chicago is for any other purpose than to be a sensational side show to the big Fair, it is a purely agnostic purpose. It is to destroy the old conviction that there is a single absolute true and perfect religion revealed from God, and to substitute for it the agnostic theory that no religious belief is more than an expression of the universal and ceaseless effort of men to discover the undiscoverable. It is that men's Gods are of their own making, and that they are improved and finally discarded according as the manufacturers grow in enlightenment.

How, then, can Christians consistently join in any such polytheistic symposium as that now proceeding at Chicago ? If Christianity is not the sole true and perfect religion, and if all others are not consequently false and pernicious, it is based on delusion. If it is not merely the best, but also the only religion whereby men can be saved, it is an imposture. If it contains only a part of the truth, sharing that priceless possession with many other religions, its source is not as it proclaims itself to be. Christianity is either the sole and complete revelation of divine truth from God Himself, and hence the only and absolute truth, or it is a fabrication of men, the more worthless because it seeks to bolster itself up by false pretenses. If God did not come down from heaven and take on the form of a man in order to show man the only way to salvation, thereby making all other religions false and profane, Christian theology is a sham :it is built on fiction.

That being so, Christianity cannot argue with other religions and compromise with them, accepting something and giving something. It can only say, This is the truth of God, uttered by God Himself, and there is no other religious truth possible. Accept it or reject it at the peril of your soul. God does not argue with men. He commands and they must obey :and Christianity is that divine command, or it is no more than a delusion and a superstition. If it is not divine and absolute, but uncertain human groping for truth like other religions, the story of the incarnation and the resurrection is a fable and the doctrine of the atonement is a myth.

How, then, can Christians come together with Buddhists, Brahmans, Mohammedans, Jews, and Zoroastrians to discuss their religion with them on equal terms? How can they treat them otherwise than as infidels who are the surer of damnation because they have seen the light of heaven and turned away from it?

In Chicago hospitality to all religions indicates agnostic indifference to them all.-(New York Sun.)

Oh, the Believing mind,
That sets the Lord above
The failure of my heart and hand
In constancy of love:
Impart it, Lord, to me;
Each moment may it reign,
In all its calm and brightness there,
My spirit's realm within!

Should busy memory wake
The slumbers of the past,
And o'er a present cloudless sky
Some gloomy shadow cast,
Then let believing thought
Arrest for Thee the place;
Fill the whole region of my soul
With glories of thy grace!

Should fear, with fruitful skill,
Image my days to come,
And bear my trembling footsteps on
Through dangers, snares, and gloom,
My faith, then eye the bow
Which spans the distant cloud,
And pledges safety to the end,
Though tempests surge around!

Let faith, with clear, calm light,
Thus measure all my days;
Keep my whole soul in constant peace,
And give it thoughts of praise:
In converse, Lord, with Thee,
My Savior, Guardian, Friend,
While onward still to glory's home
My guided footsteps tend! –

J. G. Bellett.

(Continued from p. 237.)

This knowledge of the Lord is truly blessed! It is divine! Flesh and blood does not give it, His kinsfolk had it not. They said of Him, when He was spending Himself in service, " He is beside Himself." But faith makes great discoveries of Him, and acts upon such discoveries. It may seem to carry us beyond due bounds at times, beyond the things that are orderly and well measured; but in God's esteem it never does. The multitude tell Bartimeus to hold his peace, but he will not ; for he knows Jesus as Levi knows Him.

It is His full work that we are not prepared for, and yet therein is its glory. He meets us in all our need, but, at the same time, He brings God in. He healed the sick, but He preached the kingdom also. This, however, did not suit man. Strange this may appear, for man knows full well how to value his own advantages. He knows the joy of restored nature. But such is the enmity of the carnal mind against God, that if blessing come in company with the presence of God, it will not receive a welcome. And from Christ it could not come in any other way. He will glorify as well as relieve the sinner. God has been dishonored in this world, as man has been ruined in it-self-ruined; and the Lord, the repairer of the breach, is doing a perfect work-vindicating the name and truth of God, declaring His kingdom and its rights, and manifesting His glory, just as much as He is redeeming and quickening the lost, dead sinner.

This will not do for man. He would be well taken care of himself, and let the glory of God fare as it may. Such is man. But when, through faith, any poor sinner is otherwise minded, and can indeed rejoice in the glory of God, very beautiful is the sight. And we see such a one in the Syrophenician. The glory of the ministry of Christ addressed itself to her soul brightly and powerfully. Apparently, in spite of her grief, the Lord Jesus asserts God's principles, and, as a stranger, he passes her by. "I am not sent," he says, "but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. … It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." But she bows, she owns the Lord as the steward of the truth of God, and would not for a moment suppose that He would surrender that trust (the truth and principles of God) to her and her necessities. She would have God be glorified according to His own counsels, and Jesus continue the faithful witness of those counsels, and the servant of the divine good pleasure, be it to herself as it may. "Truth, Lord," she answers, vindicating all that he had said; but, in full consistency with it, she adds, "yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs."

All this is lovely-the fruit of divine light in her soul. The mother in Luke 2:is quite below this Gentile woman in Mark 7:She did not know that Jesus was to be about His Father's business, but this stranger knew that was the very business He was always to be about. She would let God's way, in the faithful hand of Christ, be exalted, though she herself were thereby set aside, even in her sorrows.

This was knowledge of Him indeed; this was accepting Him in His full work, as one who stood for God in a world that had rebelled against Him, as well as for the poor worthless sinner that had destroyed himself.

It is not well to be always understood. Our ways and habits should be those of strangers, citizens of a foreign country, whose language, and laws, and customs are but poorly known here. Flesh and blood cannot appreciate them, and therefore it is not well with the saints of God when the world understands them.

His kinsfolk were ignorant of Jesus. Did the mother know Him when she wanted Him to display
His power, and provide wine for the feast ? Did His brethren know Him when they said to Him, "If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world." What a thought! an endeavor to lead the Lord Jesus to make Himself, as we say, "a man of the world! " Could there have been knowledge of Him in the hearts which indited such a thought as that ? Most distant, indeed, from such knowledge they were, and therefore it is immediately added by the evangelist, "for neither did His brethren believe in Him." (John 7:) They understood His power, but not His principles; for, after the manner of men, they connect the possession of power or talents with the serving of a man's interest in the world.

But Jesus was the contradiction of this, as I need not say; and the worldly-minded kindred in the flesh could not understand Him. His principles were foreign to such a world. They were despised, as was David's dancing before the ark in the thoughts of a daughter of king Saul.

But what attractiveness there would have been in Him for any eye or heart that had been opened by the Spirit! This is witnessed to us by the apostles. They knew but little about Him doctrinally, and they got nothing by remaining with Him-I mean, nothing in this world. Their condition in the world was anything but improved by their walking with Him; and it cannot be said that they availed themselves of His miraculous power. Indeed, they questioned it, rather than used it. And yet they clung to Him. They did not company with Him because they eyed Him as the full and ready storehouse of all provisions for them. On no one occasion, I believe we may say, did they use the power that was in Him for themselves. And yet, there they were with Him- troubled when He talked of leaving, and found weeping when they thought they had indeed lost Him.

Surely, we may again say, what attractiveness there must have been in Him for any eye or heart that had been opened by the Spirit, or drawn by the Father! And with what authority one look or one word from Him would enter at times! We see this in Matthew. That one word on the Lord's lips, "Follow me! "'was enough. And this authority and this attractiveness was felt by men of the most opposite temperaments. The slow-hearted, reasoning Thomas, and the ardent, uncalculating Peter, were alike kept near this wondrous center. Even Thomas would breathe in that presence the spirit of the earnest Peter, and say under force of this attraction, " Let us also go, that we may die with Him."

Shall we not say, What will it be to see and feel all this by and by in its perfection! when all, gathered from every clime, and color, and character, of the wide-spread human family-all nations, kindreds, peoples, and tongues, are with him and around him in a world worthy of Him! 'We may dwell, in memory, on these samples of His preciousness to hearts like our own, and welcome them as pledges of that which, in hope, is ours as well as theirs.

The light of God shines at times before us, leaving us, as we may have power, to discern it, to enjoy it, to use it, to follow it. It does not so much challenge us or exact of us; but, as I said, it shines before us, that we may reflect it, if we have grace. We see it doing its work after this manner in the early church at Jerusalem. The light of God there exacted nothing. It shone brightly and powerfully; but that was all. Peter spoke the language of that light, when he said to Ananias, "While it remained, was it not thine own ? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power ? " It had made no demands upon Ananias; it simply shone in its beauty beside him or before him, that he might walk in it according to his measure. And such, in a great sense, is the moral glory of the Lord Jesus. Our first duty to that light is to learn from it what He is. We are not to begin by anxiously and painfully measuring ourselves by it, but by calmly, and happily, and thankfully learning Him in all His perfect moral humanity. And surely this glory is departed ! There is no living image of it here. We have its record in the evangelists, but not its reflection anywhere.

But having its record, we may say, as one of our own poets has said, " There has one object been disclosed on earth That might commend the place :but now 'tis gone :Jesus is with the Father.''

But though not here, beloved, He is just what He was. We are to know Him, as it were, by memory; and memory has no capacity to weave fictions; memory can only turn over living, truthful pages. And thus we know Him for His own eternity. In an eminent sense, the disciples knew. Him personally, It was His person, His presence, Himself, that was their attraction. And if one may speak for others, it is more of this we need. We may be busy in acquainting ourselves with truths about Him, and we may make proficiency in that way; but with all our knowledge, and with all the disciples' ignorance/they may leave us far behind in the power of a commanding affection toward Himself. And surely, beloved, we will not refuse to say that it is well when the heart is drawn by Him beyond what the knowledge we have of Him may account for. It tells us that He Himself has been rightly apprehended. And there are simple souls still that exhibit this; but generally it is not so. Nowadays our light, our acquaintance with truth, is beyond the measure of the answer of our heart to Himself. And it is painful to us, if we have any just sensibilities at all, to discover this.

"The prerogative of our Christian faith," says one, "the secret of its strength, is this:that all which it has, and all which it offers, is laid up in a person. This is what has made it strong, while so much else has proved weak:that it has a Christ as its middle point ; that it has not a circumference without a center; that it has not merely deliverance but a deliverer; not redemption only, but a redeemer as well. This is what makes it fit for wayfaring men. This is what makes it sunlight, and all else, when compared with it, but as moonlight; fair it may be, but cold and ineffectual, while here the light and the life are one." And again he says, "And, oh, how great the difference between submitting ourselves to a complex of rules, and casting ourselves upon a beating heart, between accepting a system, and cleaving to a person. Our blessedness-and let us not miss it-is, that our treasures are treasured in a person, who is not for one generation a present teacher and a living Lord, and then for all succeeding generations a past and a dead one, but who is present and living for all." Good words, and seasonable words, I judge indeed, I may say these are.

A great combination of like moral glories in the Lord's ministry may be traced, as well as in His character. And in ministry we may look at Him in relation to God, to Satan, and to man. As to God, the Lord Jesus, in His own person and ways, was always representing man to God, as God would have him. He was rendering back human nature as a sacrifice of rest, or of sweet savor, as incense pure and fragrant, as a sheaf of untainted first-fruits out of the human soil. He restored to God His complacency in man, which sin, or Adam, had taken from him. God's repentance that He had made man (Gen. 6:6) was exchanged for delight and glory in man again. And this offering was made to God in the midst of all contradictions, all opposing circumstances, sorrows, fatigues, necessities, and heart-breaking disappointments. Wondrous altar ! wondrous offering ! A richer sacrifice it infinitely was than an eternity of Adam's innocency would have been. And as He was thus representing man to God, so was He representing God to man.

Through Adam's apostasy, God had been left without an image here; but now He gets a fuller, brighter image of Himself than Adam could ever have presented. Jesus was letting, not a fair creation, but a ruined, worthless world, know what God was, representing Him in grace, and saying, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." He declared God. All that is of God, all that can be known of "the light" which no man can approach unto, has now passed before us in Jesus.

And again, in the ministry of Christ, looked at in relation to God, we find Him ever mindful of God's rights, ever faithful to God's truth and principles, while in the daily, unwearied actions of relieving man's necessities. Let human sorrow address Him with what appeal it may, He never sacrificed or surrendered anything that was God's to it. " Glory to God in the highest" was heard over Him at His birth, as well as "on earth good-will to man;" and according to this, God's glory, all through His ministry, was as jealously consulted as the sinner's need and blessing were diligently served. The. echo of those voices, " Glory to God," and "Peace on earth,' was, as I may express it, heard on every occasion. The Syrophenician's case, already noticed, is a vivid sample of this. Till she took her place in relation to God's purposes and dispensations, He could do nothing for her; but then, everything.

Surely these are glories in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, in the relations of that ministry to God.

"Then as to Satan. In the first place, and seasonably and properly so, the Lord meets him as a tempter. Satan sought in the wilderness to impregnate Him with those moral corruptions which he had succeeded in implanting in Adam and the human nature. This victory over the tempter was the needed righteous introduction to all His works and doings touching him. It was therefore the Spirit that led Him up to this action. As we read, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Ere the Son of God could go forth and spoil the house of the strong man, He must bind him. (Matt. 12:29.) Ere He could "reprove" the works of darkness, He must show that He had no fellowship with them. (Eph. 5:2:) He must withstand the enemy, and keep him outside Himself, ere He could enter his kingdom to destroy his works.

Jesus thus silenced Satan. He bound him. Satan had to withdraw as a thoroughly defeated tempter. He could not get anything of his into Him; he rather found that all that was there was of God. Christ kept outside all that which Adam, under a like temptation, had let inside ; and having thus stood the clean thing, He can go, under a perfect moral title, to reprove the unclean.

" Skin for skin," the accuser may have to say of another, and like words that charge and challenge the common corrupted nature; but he had nothing to do, as an accuser of Jesus, before the throne of God. He was silenced.

Thus His relationship to Satan begins. Upon this, He enters his house and spoils his goods. This world is that house, and there the Lord, in His ministry, is seen effacing various and deep expressions of the enemy's strength. Every deaf or blind one healed, every leper cleansed, every work under His repairing hand, of whatsoever sort it was, was this. It was a spoiling of the goods of the strong man in his own house. Having already bound him, He now spoiled his goods. At last he yields to Him as the One that had "the power of death." Calvary was the hour of the power of darkness. All Satan's resources were brought up there, and all his subtlety put forth; but he was overthrown. His captive was his conqueror. By death He destroyed him that had the power of it. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The head of the serpent was bruised; as another has said, that " death and not man was without strength."

Thus Jesus the Son of God was the bruiser of Satan, as before He had been his binder and his spoiler. But there is another moral glory that is seen to shine in the ministry of Christ, in the relation it bears to Satan. I mean this :He never allows him to bear witness to Him. The testimony may be true, and, as we say, flattering, good words and fair words, such as, "I know Thee who Thou art, the holy One of God," but Jesus suffered him not to speak. For His ministry was as pure as it was gracious. He would not be helped in His ministry by that which He came to destroy. He could have no fellowship with darkness, in His service, any more than in His nature. He could not act on expediency, therefore rebuke and silencing of him was the answer he got to his testimony.* *As far as the Lord's ministry in the gospel goes in relation to Satan, He is simply, as we have now seen, his hinder, his spoiler, his bruiser. In the Apocalypse, we follow Him in further relations to the same adversary. There we see Him " casting him down from heaven;" then, in due season, " putting him in the bottomless pit; " and afterward " leaving him in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." (Rev. 12:, 20:) Ye thus track His conquest over him from the wilderness of the temptation to the lake of fire.* Then as to man, the moral glories which show themselves in the ministry of the Lord Jesus are bright and excellent indeed.

He was constantly relieving and serving man in all the variety of his misery; but He was as surely ex-posing him, showing him to have a nature fully departed from God in revolt and apostasy. But further:He was exercising him. This is much to be considered, though perhaps not so commonly noticed. In His teaching He exercised people in whatever relation to Himself they stood-disciples or the multitude, or those who brought their sorrows to Him, or those who were friendly, as I may call them, or those who, as enemies, were withstanding Him. The disciples He was continually putting through exercises of heart or conscience as He walked with them and taught them. This is so common that it need not be instanced. The multitude who followed Him He would treat likewise. "Hear and understand," He would say to them ; thus exercising their own minds as He was teaching them.

To some who brought their sorrows to Him He would say, " Believe ye that I can do this ?" or such like words. The Syrophenician is an eminent witness to its how He exercised this class of persons.

Addressing the friendly Simon in Luke 7:, after telling him the story of the man who had two debtors, "Tell me," says He, "therefore, which of them will love him most ? "

The Pharisees, His unwearied opposers, He was in like manner constantly calling into exercise. And there is such a voice in this, such a witness of what He is. It tells us that He was not performing summary judgment for them, but would fain lead them to repentance :and so, in calling disciples into exercise, he tells us that we learn His lessons only in a due manner, as far as we are drawn out, in some activity of understanding, heart, or conscience, over them. This exercising of those He was either leading or teaching is surely another of the moral glories which marked His ministry. But further :in His ministry toward man we see Him frequently as a reprover, needfully so, in the midst of such a thing as the human family; but His way in reproving shines with excellency that we may well admire. When He was rebuking the Pharisees, whom worldliness had set in opposition to Him, He uses a very solemn form of words:"He that is not with Me is against Me." But when He is alluding to those who owned Him and loved Him, but who needed further strength of faith or measure of light, so as to be in full company with Him, He spake in other terms:" He that is not against us is for us."

We notice Him again in this character in Matt, 20:, in the case of the ten and the two brethren. How does he temper His rebuke because of the good and the right that were in those whom He had to rebuke ? And in this He takes a place apart from His heated disciples, who would not have had their two brethren spared in any measure. He patiently sits over the whole material, and separates the precious from the vile that was in it.

So He is heard again as a reprover in the case of John, forbidding any to cast out devils in His name, if they would not walk with them. But at that moment John's spirit had been under chastening. In the light of the Lord's preceding words, he had been making discovery of the mistake he had committed, and he refers to that mistake, though the Lord Himself had in no way alluded to it. But this being so, John having already a sense of his mistake, and artlessly letting it tell itself out, the Lord deals with it in the greatest gentleness. (See Luke 9:46-50.)

So as to the Baptist:the Lord rebukes him with marked consideration. He was in prison then. What a fact that must have been in the esteem of the Lord at that moment! But he was to be rebuked for having sent a message to his Lord that reproached Him. But the delicacy of the rebuke is beautiful. He returns a message to John which none but John himself could estimate:"Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me." Even John's disciples, who carried the message between him and the Lord, could not have understood this. Jesus would expose John to himself, but neither to his disciples nor to the world.

So further, His rebuke of the two of Emmaus, and of Thomas after the resurrection, each has its own excellency. Peter, both in Matt. 16:and 17:, has to meet rebuke; but the rebuke is very differently ministered on each occasion.

But all this variety is full of moral beauty; and we may surely say, whether His style be peremptory or gentle, sharp or considerate; whether rebuke on His lips be so reduced as to be scarcely rebuke at all, or so heightened as almost to be the language of repulse and disclaimer; still, when the occasion is weighed, all this variety will be found to be but various perfections. All these His reproofs were "earrings of gold, and ornaments of fine gold," whether hung or not upon "obedient ears." (Prov. 25:12.) "Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness:and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head." (Psalm 141:5.) Surely the Lord gave His disciples to prove this. J. G. B.

(Concluded in our next.)

May God Himself expound this precious word to our hearts! Does He lead the flock to green pastures? Yes, but that is not the thought here. You do not lie down to feed, but to rest. He first serves the needy soul, then maketh him to lie down, because he is satisfied.

He knows my restlessness, and the strength and the activity of nature.

The blood of Christ has set you down in God's most holy presence,-not as a beggar, but as a worshiper. Here, then, it is not standing, for that would speak of service; nor walking, for that would tell of journeying; nor sitting, that would be to learn; but you lie down, happy and contented; it is the figure of calm, quiet, full repose.

Then He leads the sheep beside still waters, or waters of quietness, for it is the joy of the Shepherd to conduct the troubled hearts of His own into peaceful scenes of communion. There, the flock, under the watchful eye, and guided by the skillful hand of the Shepherd, are led along the banks of that river where neither wave nor ripple disturb the ransomed of the Lord. Yet a little while, and the banks of the river of life, with its ever-summer fruit, will be trod by the unwearied feet of the flock. "They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy."

From very familiarity with them, we may grow so accustomed to truths which '' many prophets and kings desired to see and did not see," that they lose their power over us, and we forget we are dealing with things that will fill heaven with praise and all intelligent creation with wonder. Oh, how it shames us that we can go over a long list of blessings, brought to us through the sufferings of Christ, with our cold hearts but little moved by them! Could we have a better proof of our nature than this, and at the same time a more touching illustration of that "patient and forbearing love that never turns aside "?

Such thoughts are suggested by the subject before us. We can enumerate the blessings attached to the Christian's position, but how do they affect us ? Not, let us trust, like Laodicea, saying, "I am rich;" rather like David, "Who am I?" The Father seeketh worshipers, and all the matchless grace shown to us is to end in that.

In the passage before us, we have an eightfold view of the Christian's position. The number is significant. It reminds us of new creation. "If any man be in Christ, it is new creation." We are on new ground, with new objects before us. These objects mentioned here are, (i) Mount Zion; (2) The
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; (3) An innumerable company of angels, the general assembly; (4) The Church of the first-born, who are written in heaven ; (5) God the Judge of all; (6) The spirits of just men made perfect; (7) Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant; (8) The blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

(i) Mount Zion is in contrast to Mount Sinai, the mount that might be touched; and if touched by beast or man, death was the penalty. Covered by blackness, darkness, and tempest, burning with fire, it was a fitting place for the giving out of that law which could only condemn the guilty. The awful trumpet announcing the presence of a holy God, the voice of words declaring what He required of man for obedience-no wonder even Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake." The effect of Sinai was, to drive the people away. The voice of God struck terror to their guilty souls, they did not want to hear it again. And that fear was but a sample of that more awful terror that shall fill the hearts of all who stand before the great white throne. On the other hand, Mount Zion was the place where David dwelt. The man whom God raised up to be king of His people when they had failed under the judges and under Saul. He was the man after God's own heart, a beautiful and striking type of Him who alone could give unmingled delight to God. Zion suggests grace and blessing in contrast with the law and cursing of Sinai. God might come to Sinai, He did not dwell there. Of Zion it is said, " In Judah is God known, in Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion." (Ps. 76:) "The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her, and the Highest Himself shall establish her." (Ps. 87:) " Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. . . . Walk about Zion, and go round about her:tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks." (Ps. 48:) "For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever:here will I dwell, for I have desired it." (Ps. 132:) These, from among many scriptures, show that Mount Zion is the center of God's gracious dealings on earth. The prophet Isaiah dwells much upon the future glories of that now apparently forsaken and rejected place. We are said to have come to Mount Zion in contrast to the law. We are in the place of grace, where blessing is centered in Christ and dependent upon Him. It is earthly blessing that is first contemplated. Zion is the earthly center. But how can Christians be said to have come to the place of earthly blessing ? First, as we have seen, grace in contrast to law. Then, too, there is a real sense in which we of this dispensation shall share in the joys and glory of the earthly scene, though our portion is above.

(2) So we come next, most naturally to what is distinctive of us as Christians. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.-

(To be continued.)

*For Chapter I., see " Help and Food," Vol., 1890.*

2. The Announcement of the King (Chap. 2:).

It is now happily familiar to many that, as we have seen, the four Gospels have four different stories to tell us of the Lord Jesus Christ – give us four different views of Him. In the Gospel of Matthew He is the King (in relation to Israel especially, still of the kingdom of heaven, therefore wider and higher far than merely Israel's King):in Mark He is the Servant, the minister to human need:in Luke, the Man; and in John, the divine Person, the Word made flesh. In saying this, of course, it is not meant but that we have all these four in every Gospel, more or less ; but we merely speak of what is emphasized in each one. Thus, for instance, while we have in the first chapter the Lord looked at as Son of God (John's theme), yet, at the same time, as there, this is in direct connection with the theme of Matthew, because God's kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, would not be fully that unless He who ruled was a divine Person. So again, when you take the Gospel of Mark, what you find is the Lord's humiliation in a most distinct way, beyond any other Gospel. He is not even called Lord by His disciples till the resurrection ; yet it opens with, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." And why? Because, surely, the very thing that makes His ministry so precious is the apprehension of who it is that came down to serve in such a way, and therefore, that expression, though not characteristic of the book, coming in the place it does, is not only consistent with, but deepens our apprehension of its character.

Now, looking back to the end of the first chapter before we pass on, let us notice afresh that the King here is no less than divine, the living link between God and men, Immanuel, "God with us." To be that, He must be "Jesus," and save His people from their sins; yet in His very Person, Godhead and manhood are bound together in an embrace that is eternal, and implies all that is revealed in the gospel.

The connection of this, of course, is with the first chapter, where we rightly find it. Yet there is a connection, alas, of a very different kind with the second, to which we are now come, and which gives us the announcement of this divine King in His own world, and to His own people, and the results of that announcement. He has not only as a stranger to be announced ; but more, if exceptionally there are found a few to welcome, the mass are only troubled at the announcement.

Not only so:we shall find as we go on that it is, above all, for this pre-eminent glory of His that He is rejected. What man most of all needs, he most emphatically refuses. God's most wonderful grace he most stubbornly disbelieves.

The people were, already crying out, so to speak, for a Christ, for Messiah, but not such a Christ as Christ was, the Son of God. This is what they would have stoned Him for, and for which they condemned Him in the high priest's palace; and only as the con-sequence of this was he delivered up to Pilate, the Roman governor, with the charge that He made Himself King in Israel. The rejection of the King was in truth the rejection of a divine Person come into their midst:as the Lord says of them, "Now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father."
It is not, of course, inconsistent with this, when the apostle says, "Whom none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

They would not have dared; nevertheless, they had, consciously or unconsciously, looked into the face of the Son of God, and had therefore "seen the Father;" and had seen Him only to hate Him. What an awful thing it is to realize that this is the world we are living in, and the same world to-day, except where grace has made a difference!

Aye, and have we – we who have in measure owned His grace, and the necessity of His work for our salvation-have we cleared ourselves altogether of this deepest sin, so as, looking upon the face of God's Beloved, to have opened our hearts and lives to Him according to what is implied in this tide, Immanuel, "God with us"? Would we have Him "with us" as His desire is to be with us? Do we keep back nothing from this glorious Visitant ? do we deliberately keep back nothing ? Have we flung the gates wide open, in joyous response to the wondrous condescension of the King ?

In the details of our life, which of us can answer for himself as to this ? The things that so much, and not in the way of duty but of choice, engage us, and crowd out the things in which He is interested;-the comparative occupation of our time with His word and perhaps a newspaper;-such things, and many like them, how do they speak in regard to the way in which we have accepted indeed this blessed title of His-"God with us"?

How He would fulfill it to us, if we would but permit it! "We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." These are His own words; and what do they imply? Rather, may we say, what do they not imply ?

How solemn it is, too, to realize, beloved, that when the Lord of glory comes into the world, He comes into it in the most humble form ; not as a King at all, but disguised as the son of a carpenter, in the utmost poverty! But was it not, after all, that which became Him ? Think of the Son of God coming among us born in the "princes of this world's" purple ! Would not that be but the real disguise ? What another picture we would have had of Him, had He been brought up in kings' palaces, rather than where He was ! How blessed for Him to come down to the very lowest, so that there should not be one who cannot find Him, so to speak, in a place lower than himself! The world is upside down with sin; and this voluntary lowliness it is that proves and sets Him highest. It is the only thing suitable in Him, who, because the foundations of the world are out of course, is to bear up the pillars of it.

In this second chapter, then, we have the Lord announced, and having to be announced among His own people by men from afar-by Gentiles. Yet we know that not only by Daniel had God predicted almost the exact time of Messiah's coming, and by Micah, as the Scribes could unhesitatingly tell the place of His birth, but that heaven had given its witness to Him as actually come. Zecharias and Elizabeth had announced His forerunner. The angelic vision had brought the shepherds to the manger where He lay. Simeon had blessed God for His salvation come; and with Anna had spoken of Him in Jerusalem itself. And yet the city is only startled into recognition when "magi from the east" come with their inquiry, "Where is He that has been born King of the Jews ? for we have seen His star in the east, and have come to worship Him."
Upon the star itself it is perhaps useless to speculate. It naturally connects itself with Balaam's prophecy of the "Star to arise out of Jacob," and which was, as we know, the prophecy of a Gentile among Gentiles. Prophecy had evidently spoken to them, or they would hardly have so definitely understood the object of their search to be a King of the Jews. The magi were, as we know, the great natural observers of those days, and here we have the witness of nature to the Lord. Nature is not rebellious to her Maker, and still gives plentiful witness- few as they may be who realize or care to read it. The star may not have been in the strict sense miraculous, although a miracle would, after all, seem most consonant with the wonder of the time, and miracle is that in which God has reserved for Himself a sphere in which to show Himself outside and above those fixed natural laws which form the necessarily stable world through which our daily path is. The disappearance and reappearance of the star, and its guiding them to just where the young child was, look, spite of all attempted explanation, like something very different from an object in the far-off heavens. At any rate, the love in it was not far off, and it spoke in no uncertain way to these glad pilgrims journeying at its word.

They come to Jerusalem expecting, doubtless, to find all the city ready for the inquirer with a gospel message. They come to find the Edomite on the throne, and with all the old Edomite hatred in his heart, craftily though he may hide it, and gather the chief priests and elders together to hasten them on the way. Of course, these can tell all about Christ's birth textually; and how the words must have stricken the old blood-stained tyrant to the heart! "And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall be Shepherd to My people Israel."

Such, literally, are the words they use:and one might suppose that in using them they meant to inflict a wound that Herod should not be able to impute to them, but should come home to him as the voice of God Himself. And so it was, though the words are not found in Micah just as they quote them here. For Hebrew was not any more the language, even of Israel as a whole; and it was quite customary to paraphrase-rather than give literally a Scripture appealed to. The Hebrew, besides other differences, does not give "shepherd " in this passage, but simply "ruler." The Septuagint Greek follows the Hebrew:so that the variation is their own. And yet who can deny that the one word is God's thought as to the other? He who had sent Moses to the sheepfolds to learn how to guide His people in the wilderness-He who in the land had chosen David, and taken him '' from following the ewes great with young" to feed and guide with no less tenderness the flock of His pasture,-He had indeed consecrated the "shepherd " to be the picture of the Ruler whom He had appointed and would raise up. And we all know how the Lord has filled out this picture.

The scribes, then, show in their variation from the letter their acquaintance with the character of Messiah as prophecy reveals Him. But we hear no more of them. They cite the text for Herod; and they do it well; but they have no heart for the One they testify to. They are like sign-posts upon a road on which they do not move an inch. They pass on the word to those who value it; Herod himself, also, becoming the instrument in guiding worshipers to the feet of Jesus. They only, obedient to the Word, turn their faces toward Bethlehem; and as they do so, the star appears again, and goes before them. Nor does it leave them now till they are face to face with Him they seek.

Then they worship. It is but a humble house, we may be sure, and there are in it but a young mother and her babe. But they worship,-and worship, not the mother, but the babe. Divinely taught, they pour out their gifts at His feet, "gold and frankincense and myrrh:" gifts which, no doubt, have meaning. The Church of old seems almost unitedly to have interpreted them as, in the gold, the recognition of His royalty; in the frankincense, the acknowledgment of His Deity; while the myrrh, used afterward at His burial, is taken thus to be the anticipation of His death. To some of these things, as we know, His disciples were long after strangers; nor could we argue, if there were no doubt about the correctness of the symbolism, that the magi knew the whole significance of what they did. God governed all here in a peculiar way; a way which, indeed, in Scripture is the rule, however. Here there is nothing unmeaning. Here, if prophets searched their own writings to find how much the Spirit of Christ which was in them had guided them beyond their knowledge, so words and deeds speak commonly with a divine intelligence, quite apart from those who are the speakers and the doers.

It is the shadow of the future that is passing before us:the Gentiles worshiping while Israel rejects, -a dispensational picture quite in keeping with the character of Matthew. If we turn to the Gospel of Luke, and put it side by side with what we have here, worshipers though there may be in both cases, how many points of contrast we shall find! Luke is the gospel of the manhood of Christ; and with this, no wonder if we find a nearness, a meeting of God and man, which Matthew has very little of indeed. Be it that we have seen in Israel's King Immanuel, "God with us," this is at present more a prophecy than a real fulfillment, even as the salvation which He is come to effect is, all through, prevailingly a thing to be worked out before it can be plainly spoken into man's ear and heart. We shall see a fuller statement and proof of this as we go on. But in Luke, even from the beginning of it, salvation is come. Zacharias, before the birth of the Lord, testifies of it as at hand. Simeon, with the babe in his arms, sees it as already here. And instead of great men coming a long distance to find the King of the Jews, no star, but rejoicing hosts in an open heaven preach of a Savior which is Christ the Lord, of peace on earth, and God's delight in men.

Nor is it afar off, but nigh at hand-a gospel for the poor, free and available for all that come. Men need not to labor after it, but only to receive it-as in the offerings for atonement, where no wild nor hunted animal was used, but the sin-offerings couched at the door. Thus spoke God's grace before, as yet, it could be plainly uttered. Now the hidden things are gone, and God is in the light forevermore. F. W. G.

TO THE EDITOR OF HELP AND FOOD:

My dear Brother,-Since our parting at B. two months ago, A. E. B. and I have been journeying together in fields altogether new to me, and, at different points, not lacking in interest. One feature has been especially cheering :Save in some places where circumstances, unconcern, or opposition, closed the doors against us, we had access to many, and invariably got the best possible attention. Under such circumstances it is a delightful task to sow the seed in "the morning" and in "the evening," for one is assured that He who has bidden us so to do will not leave it fruitless.

In the majority of places a lengthening of the stay daily increased the attendance and the interest, and it was in some occasions a trial to leave them. In a section of the country extending for many miles, we found a few godly men who had scarcely left a corner within reach of them without having preached the gospel to the people there. Nor were they men of leisure ; they were men of toil, caring lovingly for their families by their labor but lovers of men as well and constrained "by the love of Christ. How easy is one's service among such men! Yearning after the souls of the lost and conscious of their weakness in meeting the need they hail with gladness the help of fellow-workers and are but too happy to see others reap where they have sown. May God raise up such everywhere.

In certain places there were marks of another kind of work, one which mars that of the Spirit of God wherever it obtains. It consists largely of a combative kind of gospel which seems more inclined to expose evil than to weep over it and to make Christ precious to the souls of men. It savors of a craving after adherents rather than of a holy purpose to edify the people of God, and its inevitable and sad result is, to leave souls in a barren, dwarfed condition, without power for prayer or spiritual development.

To speak of individual cases might lead one to more length than one cares to go into here ; but it is where the refreshment is as you well know. One instance was an elderly gentleman. Upon nearing his residence we met him walking out.

Sir, he said, I once opposed much the things you preach, but it is another thing now. God has been showing me what I am in His sight, and it has been a dreadful pass I have gone through. In all my life, though a professing Christian, I never had an idea of being such a sinner as I now see myself to be. I therefore understand and value the grace you proclaim; but O tell me, is it truly possible that a man like me should be allowed to appropriate the wonderful riches declared in that grace?

What a mercy to have the Word of God! And what joy to minister it to such.

A most interesting feature of the journey has been the Roman Catholics. It is evident there is a movement going on among them. Their clergy is losing some of its power over them, and they are more easily persuaded to read the Scriptures, In one case it was a poor laborer who could not read, nor any of his family, but he had received a French Testament and found in his employer one who could read in that tongue and who loved the Scriptures. He got him to read some portions to him, and such became his interest in the book that he ever carried it with him. Now read to me, he would say, while opening his red handkerchief in which the Testament was carefully wrapped up ; and when some passage especially struck him he would beg to have it read again to him even to the third time so that he might be able to communicate it to his family. Often did it so operate in him as it was being read to him that he would sit in an adoring attitude :he was hearing the voice of God.

In another case a Testament had been given to an intelligent, sturdy farmer who was in some difficulty with his priest. After reading it a little he saw there was abundant material there with which to fight the priest and he began to read in earnest. Soon, however, the battle changed front, and his own soul became the object instead of the priest. He cried to God and found mercy.

Spending an afternoon among the French families who have been blessed as the result of this has increased the desire to labor among that teeming French population who seem to be opening to the Word of God.

May it please the Lord, if He tarry yet a little, to so give grace and peace to His beloved people as to leave more freedom to carry the light in the parts which need it.

Ever yours in Him, P. J. L.

"Oh! there is a preciousness in Jesus that, if we saw it fully, would dazzle our eyes for discerning glory in external things; we should be unable to distinguish the great from the small, the bright from the dark…Do you feel what I mean ? that if Christ were apprehended, we should cease to know what the world calls little or great. The pursuit of an empire or of a butterfly would be to us alike little."

" I do not regret any of the trials I have had. Pilgrims must expect trials on a long journey:we cannot expect either good roads or good weather all the way; but the Lord Jesus has sanctified it all- foul and fair and made all to work together for our good. Whatever purposes are in your heart let them be high and heavenly ones for Christ and His kingdom:the world will soon pass away and all its glories, but that kingdom shall endure. Keep close to the simplicity of Christ; nothing will keep us from extravagances but talking with Him. He always moved so seriously to the object He had in hand-the fulfilment of His Father's will."

"The more the sense of my Lord's love presses upon me, the more does it make my heart mourn to think He should have been, served so much from cold principles, instead of that holy service of the heart He so desires and values."

'' I have learned much of the powerlessness of man to direct his own ways when in difficulty and perplexity. I know no resource, nor do I desire any, except to throw off my trials upon God, leaving it with Him to bring light out of darkness, and awaiting His time to do it. It is not that our Father has pleasure in our being in straits and difficulties that He thus permits them to try us, but He knows that our real life is hid with Christ in Himself, and whatever makes us feel this connection with Jesus necessary to our comfort, and constrains us to more close intercourse with Him, and makes the hope of final deliverance and rest more precious, is clearly to the happiness of our spiritual life, however mortifying it may be to the natural man."

'' In connection with these views, the state in which the Church is, is particularly affecting; for while the heart has individual experience of the need it has of these very trials of the cross to pull it out of the snare of the world, it has to mourn over the Church, not only as fallen in the dust, but as being more than ever reluctant to be raised up; and instead of following the revelation of God in all doctrine and practice, she gets rid of her difficulties in carrying them out, by weaving to herself various little texts of doctrine suited to the various sects of the day; and puts zeal for them in the place of zeal for God's holy and blessed truths, as His, without exception or innovation. Oh! who does not long that the warfare was accomplished, and the Church glorified together ? "-(Correspondence from the East, 1834.)

"Then said one unto Him, Lord are there few that be saved? And He said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate:for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." (Luke 13:23-28.)

Some persons seem constantly occupied with religious questions. Their inquiry is not, "Am I saved?" but, "Are others saved?" Sometimes we find a fond parent solicitous about the future state of a dying child, a kind master anxious about his afflicted servant's spiritual condition, and others manifesting concern for the ignorant and poor around them, without laying to heart what their own state before God really is. It was so in the days of our Lord. "One said unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved?" to which Jesus replied, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." Thus He sought to lead him away from the consideration of others, to ponder the all-important question of his own soul's salvation; and exposed the folly of appearing concerned for others, while he himself was in the broad road to destruction. So weighty, so essential, is the point, and so fatal would a mistake be, that He commands them to "strive (or agonize) to enter in at the strait gate."

I. WHAT IS THE STRAIT GATE? There could have been no way of escape for sinners from the wrath to come, had not Jesus died upon the cross. " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." It is the cross of Christ that speaks to us of sin put away, redemption accomplished, and of the sinner's only way to God. Christ crucified, then, is the " strait gate." Jesus lifted up on the cross is the door of access. "I am the door," said He:"by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." The cross of Christ, therefore, becomes the point of separation between the saved and lost. Not to enter into God's presence through this gate is still to tarry in the place of death and judgment; but to enter into the Father's presence through the atoning work of His dear Son is present peace and eternal salvation. The gospel thus presents to us a door of escape, and it is still wide open ; it welcomes all guilty sinners that "enter in" by faith, thus sheltering them for ever from the wrath of God, and shutting them into the peace-speaking presence of the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort.

2. IT IS A STRAIT GATE. True Christianity is an individual thing. The gate is so strait, so narrow, that all who enter go in one by one. Many long to take others with them, but each person is accountable to God for himself; every one must be exercised before God on account of his own sin. The gospel appeals to the individual conscience. "He that believeth on the Son"- "He that hath the Son "-"He that believeth and is baptized," &100:Paul said, "I know whom I have believed"-"I obtained mercy"-Christ "loved me!' This is very weighty, and shows us the deep necessity of each one asking the all-important question, "Am I saved?" We may be members of religious bodies, and outwardly appear consistent; but those only who have entered in at the strait gate are saved.

3. STRIVE TO ENTER IN. This solemn subject calls for earnestness. The eternal importance of the work of Christ demands it. God cannot bear indifference. Embracing views merely is a poor thing. Learning a few religious ways and phrases will not do for God. All the world are guilty before Him. Judgment is quickly coming. The wrath of God is soon coming, and fall it must upon all Christless souls. His almighty arm and perfect love have made a door of escape, and His gracious voice exclaims to sinners, " Strive, or agonize, to enter in at the strait gate !" Do not be content at having serious impressions, or good desires. Rest not till you have entered in at the strait gate. Be in real earnest. Let not formal duties suffice ; let not a little concern satisfy you ; let not the credit of being religious among men be enough for yon. Oh, no ! Have real concern, for eternity is at hand. Your life is short ; many will miss the strait gate; many will be deceived ; many will find out their mistake when it is too late. Strive, then, agonize to enter in at the strait gate ; escape for thy life, flee from the pit, turn to the Savior; on no account miss His great salvation.

4. The door will be shut. "When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door." The gospel is not always going to be preached. God will not always send forth the message of peace. He is the God of judgment as well as the God of peace, and Christ is a Judge as well as a Savior. He is now seated on the right hand of God, but He will ere long rise up and shut to the door. The preaching of the cross will then cease ; the seeker will not find, the knocker will be disappointed, the asker will be refused; the gospel testimony will close, the church be removed to glory, and the hypocrite and unbeliever left for judgment. Men will discover their mistake then. The folly of putting off salvation will be made manifest. The door will be shut, and man's doom eternally settled. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still." How imperative, then, is the necessity to " strive to enter in at the strait gate."

5. The eternal torment of the lost, "He that believeth not shall be damned," and "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him," are words of the God of truth which must have their fulfilment. Not to "enter in at the strait gate" for salvation, is not to believe in that Savior whom God hath sent, but to be a "worker of iniquity," living in rebellion against the God of love and peace. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." They will have the consciousness that others are saved, but themselves for ever lost; they will know that others are for ever happy through the redemption-work of Christ, and they themselves cast into the lake of fire, into everlasting punishment; "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." How powerful were the Savior's appeals! How simple, yet how thrilling, were the reasons He assigned why persons should " strive to enter in at the strait gate! "

(Continued from page 207.) CHAP. II.

This then brings us to the 12th verse of chapter 2:, which already, thus early in the book, seems to be a summing up of his experiences. "I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly:" that is I looked "full face," or carefully considered, these three things that I had now tested; and whilst each gave me only disappointment and bitterness as to meeting my deepest needs, yet "I saw that there was a profit in wisdom over folly, as light is profitable over darkness." This then is within the power of human reason to determine. The philosophy of the best of the heathen brought them to exactly the same conclusion. Socrates and Solomon, with many another worthy name, are here in perfect accord, and testify together that "the wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness." Not that men prefer wisdom to folly; on the contrary; still even human reason gives this judgment:for the wise man walks at least as a man, intelligently; the spirit, the intelligence, having its place. But how much further can reason discern as to the comparative worth of wisdom or folly? The former certainly morally elevates a man now; but here comes an awful shadow across reason's path:"but I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all. Then said I in my heart, as it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me:and why was I then more wise ? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity." Ah! in this book in which poor man at his highest is allowed to give voice to his deepest questions, in which all the chaos, and darkness, the "without form and void" state of his poor, distracted, disjointed being is seen; Death is indeed the King of Terrors, upsetting all his reasonings, and bringing the wisdom and folly, between which he had so carefully discriminated to one level in a moment. But here, death is looked upon in relation to the "works" of which he has been speaking. Wisdom cannot guarantee its possessor's enjoyment of the fruits of his labors. Death comes to him as swiftly and as surely as to the fool, and a common oblivion shall, after a little, swallow the memory of each, with their works. This thought the Preacher dwells upon, and, as he regards it on every side again and again he groans, "this also, is vanity" vs. 19, 21, 23. "Therefore I hated life, yea, all my labor which I took under the sun," and "therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all my labor which I took under the sun." For what is there in the labor itself ? Nothing that satisfies by itself. It is only the anticipation of final satisfaction and enjoyment that can make up for the loss of quiet and ease now; prove that to be a vain hope, and the mere labor and planning night and day are indeed "empty vanity." Thus much for labor "under the sun," with self for its object, and death for its limit. Now for the contrast again in its refreshing beauty of the "new" as against the "old" "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know your labor is not in vain in the Lord." "All my labor vanity" is the "groan" of the old, "for death with its terrors cuts me off from my labor and I leave it to a fool." "No labor in vain" is the song of victory of the new, for resurrection with its glories but introduces me to the precious fruit of those labors, to be enjoyed for ever.

Oh my brethren, let us cherish this precious word, "not in vain;" let us be indeed "persuaded" of it, and " embrace " it, not giving up our glorious heritage, and going back, as the Christian world largely is in this day, to the mere human wisdom that Solomon the king possessed above all, and which only led then, as it must now, and ever, to the groan of "vanity!" But "not in vain" is ours. No little one refreshed with even a cup of cold water but that soon the fruit of even that little labor of love shall meet its sweetest recompense in the smile, the approval, the praise of our Lord Jesus; and that shall make our hearts full to overflowing with bliss; as we there echo and re-echo our own word:it was indeed, "not in vain."

The chapter closes with the recognition that, apart from God, it is not in the power of man to get any enjoyment from his labor. Our translation of verse 24 seems quite out of harmony with the Preacher's previous experiences, and the verse would better read (as in Dr. Taylor Lewis' metrical version.)

''The good is not in man that he should eat and drink
And find his soul's enjoyment in his toil;
This, too, I saw, is only from the hands of God."

Chapter 3:may be paraphrased, I think, somewhat iii this way:Yes, life itself emphasizes the truth that nothing is at one stay here;-all moves. There is naught abiding, like the winds and waters that he has noted in chap. 1:; man's life is but a wheel that turns:death follows birth, and all the experiences between are but ever varying shades of good and evil, evil and good. (Let us bear in mind this is not faith's view, but simply that of human wisdom. Faith sings a song amidst the whirl of life:

" With mercy and with judgment,
My web of time He wove;
And aye the flews of sorrow
Were lustered with His love."

But then if nothing thus rests as it is, it becomes a necessary deduction that, if wisdom has collected, and labored, and built, folly will follow to possess and scatter, what profit then in toiling ? For he sees that this constant travail is of God who, in wisdom inscrutable, and not to be penetrated by human reasoning, would have men exercised by these constant changes, whilst their hearts can be really satisfied with no one of these things, beautiful as each may be in its time. So boundless are its desires that he says, "Eternity "has been placed in that heart of man, and naught in all these "time-changes" can 611 it. Still he can see nothing better for man, than that he should make the best of the present, for he cannot alter or change what God does or purposes, and everything he sees, speaks of His purpose to a constant "round," a recurrence of that which is past (as verse 15 should probably read.)

But still man's reason can make one more step now one further deduction from the as soon as God, even though He be known only by nature's light, is introduced; and that is, the present wrong and injustice so evident here, must in some "time" in God's purposes, be righted; God Himself being the Judge. This seems to be a gleam of real light, similar to the conclusion of the whole book. Yes, further, this constant change-is there no reason for it ? Has God no purpose in it ? Surely to teach men the very lesson of their own mortality:that there is naught abiding-men and beasts arc, as far as unaided human wisdom can see, on one level exactly as to that awful exit from this scene. It is true there may be-and there are strong grounds for inferring that there is-a wide difference between the spirit of man, and the spirit of beasts, although the bodies of each are formed of, and return to the dust; but who can tell this absolutely? Who has seen and told what is on the other side of that dread portal? None. So then, again says the wise Preacher, my wisdom sees only good in enjoying the present, for the future is shrouded in an impenetrable cloud, and none can pierce it.

Precious beyond expression becomes the glorious bright beam of divine revelation, as against this dense and awful darkness of man's ignorance on such a question. How deep and terrible the groan here, "For all is vanity." Yet the pitch-dark background shall serve to throw into glorious relief, the glory of that light that is not from reason, or nature; but from Him who is the Father of Lights. Yes, He bids us look on this picture of the wisest of men, tracing man and beast to one end and standing before that awful door through which each has disappeared, confessing his absolute inability to determine if there be any difference between them. Death surely triumphs here. It is true that there may be a possible distinction between the "breath," or vital principle of each; but this uncertainty only adds to the mystery, and increases a thousand fold the agonizing need for light. God be thanked that He has given it. The darkest problem that has faced mankind all through the weary ages, has been triumphantly solved; and the sweetest songs of faith ever resound about the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus- nay rather, about the glorious person of that risen Christ Himself, for He is Himself the leader of the joy. "In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee."

So then, in sharp and blessed contrast to the wise man and his groaning, let us lift our eyes up and ever up, past the tombs and graves of earth; yea, past thrones and principalities, and powers in the heavens; up and still up, even to the "throne of the Majesty on High" itself; and look on One sitting ever there, a Man-oh mark it well, for He has been of woman born-a Man,-for of that very One it was once said, "Is not this the carpenter?"-now crowned with glory and honor; and listen, for He speaks:"I am He that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore." Consider Him! And whilst we look and listen, how does that word of the Preacher sound, "a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast!" And this is our portion, beloved reader. He might indeed have had all the glory of that place, without the agony of the garden, without the suffering and shame of the cross, had He been content to enjoy it alone. But no-He must have His own with Him; and now death has been
abolished as to its terror and power, so that the of old is replaced by the triumphant challenge :O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?"

The resurrection of Jesus not only makes possible _ not only makes probable – but absolutely assures, the glorious triumphant resurrection of His own who have fallen asleep:"Christ the first fruits, afterward they are Christ's at His coming." But further, is this "falling asleep " of the saint to separate him, for a time, from the conscious enjoyment of his Savior's love? Is the trysting of the saved one with his Savior to be interrupted for awhile by death? Is his song

"Not all things else are half so dear
As Is His blissful presence here"

to be silenced by death? Then were he a strangely conquered foe, and not stingless, if for one hour he could separate us from the enjoyed love of Christ. But no, "blessed be the Victor's name," not for a second. "Death is ours" and "absent from the body" is only "present with the Lord." . So that we may too, in our turn, answer the Preacher's word "A man hath no pre-eminence above a beast," with the challenge, To which of the beasts said He at any time, " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise ? " Let the Preacher groan "For this is vanity;" the groan is in perfect-if sorrowful-harmony with the darkness and ignorance of human reason; but "singing" alone accords with light; "Joy cometh in the morning" and if we but receive it, we have in "Jesus Risen" light enough for perpetual, unending, song. F. C. F.

(To be continued.)

(Continued from p. 187.)

As a humbler, lowlier witness of His full fidelity to all His pledges, we may observe, He meets His people in Galilee, as He had promised them. As a larger expression of the same, I may also observe, He takes them to the Father in heaven, as He had also promised them, sending a message to them, that He was ascending to His Father, and to their Father, to His God and to their God. And thus, whether it was in our Galilee on earth, or in His own home in heaven, that His presence had been pledged to them, both are alike made good to them. And well we may meditate on the condescendings, the faithfulness, the fullness, the simplicity, the greatness, the elevation, of all that forms and marks His path before us. The Lord had very much to do with Peter, beyond any of the disciples while He was ministering in the midst of them, and we find it the same after He rose from the dead. Peter is the one to occupy, as I may say, the whole of the last chapter in St. John. There the Lord carries on with him the gracious work He had begun ere He left him, and carries it on exactly from the point where He had left it. Peter had betrayed special self-confidence. Though all should be offended, yet would not he, he said; and though he should die with his Master, he would not deny Him. But his Master had told him of the vanity of such boasts ! and had told him also of His prayer for him, so that his faith should not fail. And when the boast was found to have been indeed a vanity, and poor Peter denied his Lord even with an oath, his Lord looked on him, and this look had its blessed operation. The prayer and the look had availed. The prayer had kept his faith from failing, but the look had broken his heart. Peter did not "go away," but Peter wept, and "wept bitterly." At the opening of this chapter, we find Peter in this condition-in the condition in which the prayer and the look had put him. That his faith had not failed, he is enabled to give very sweet proof; for as soon as he learns that it was his Lord who was on the shore, he threw himself into the water to reach Him; not, however, as a penitent, as though he had not already wept, but as one that could trust himself in His presence in full assurance of heart; and in that character his most blessed and gracious Lord accepts him, and they dine together on the shore. The prayer and the look had thus already done their work with Peter, and they are not to be repeated. The Lord simply goes on with His work thus begun, to conduct it to its perfection. Accordingly, the prayer and the look are now followed by the word. Restoration follows conviction and tears. Peter is put into the place of strengthening his brethren, as his Lord had once said to him ; and also into the place of glorifying God by His death, a privilege he had forfeited by his unbelief and denial.

This was the word of restoration, following the prayer which had already sustained Peter's faith, and the look which had already broken his heart. He had in the day of John 13:taught this same loved Peter, that a washed man need not be washed again, save only his feet; and exactly in this way He now deals with him. He does not put him again through the process of Luke 5:, when the drought of fishes overwhelmed him, and he found out that he was a sinner; but He does wash his soiled feet. He restores him, and puts Himself in His clue place again. (See Jno. 21:15-17.)

Perfect Master! the same to us yesterday, to-day and forever; the same in gracious, perfect skill of love, going on with the work He had already begun, resuming, as the risen Lord, the service which He had left unfinished when He was taken from them, resuming it at the very point, knitting the past to the present service in the fullest grace and skill!
And a little further still, as to His redeeming His pledges and promises. There was a very distinguished one which He gave them after He had risen. I mean, what He calls "the promise of the Father," and "power from on high." This promise was made to them in the day of Luke 24:, after He had risen, and it was fulfilled to them in the day of Acts 2:, after He had ascended, and was glorified.

Surely this only continues the story and the testimony of His faithfulness. All witness for Him,- His life ere He suffered, His resurrection intercourses with His disciples, and now what He has done since He ascended,-that no variableness neither shadow of turning is found in Him.

And I would not pass another instance of this, which we get again in Luke 24:The risen Lord there recognizes the very place in which He had left His disciples in His earlier instructions. "These are the words," says He, "which I spake unto you when I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me." He thus reminds them that He had already told them, that Scripture was the great witness of the divine mind, that all found written there must surely be accomplished here. And now what does He do ? That which is the simple, consistent following out of this His previous teaching. "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." His power now knits itself with His instructions before. He is making good in them what He had already communicated to then.* *To our comfort I may add, that after He had risen, He never once reminded His disciples of their late desertion of Him in the hour of His sorrow.*

But even further, in some sense, the very style and spirit of this intercourse with His disciples during that interval of forty days is still the same. He knows them then by name, as He had before. He manifests Himself to them by the same methods. He was the host at the table, though bidden there only as a guest, a second time, or after, as before, His resurrection (Jno. ii; Luke 24:); and in the deep sense and apprehension of their souls they treat His presence as the same. On returning to Him at the well of Sychar in Jno. 4:, they would not intrude, but tread softly. And so on their reaching Him after the drought of fishes, in Jno. 21:, they tread softly again, judging a second time from the character of the moment, that their words must be few, though their hearts were filled with wonder and joy.

What links, tender and yet strong, are thus formed between Him who has been already known to us in the daily walks of human life, and Him who is to be known to us forever! He came down first into our circumstances and then He takes us into His. But in ours we have learnt Him, and learnt Him forever. This is a very happy truth. Peter witnesses it to us. I have looked at this scene already with another intent. I must now give it a second look.

At the drought of fishes in Luke 5:, or before the resurrection, Peter was convicted. The fisherman Peter, in his own eyes became the sinner Peter. "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." The drought of fishes (giving proof that the stranger who had asked for the loan of his boat was the Lord of the fulness of the sea) had brought Peter, in spirit, into the presence of God, and there he learnt himself. We never, indeed, learn that lesson anywhere else. But the Lord at that moment, as from the glory, spoke comfortably to him. He had said, "Fear not," and Peter was at ease. The glory or the presence of God had now a home for him as well as conviction, and Peter is in full quietness of heart before the Lord. And accordingly, at the second drought of fishes, in Jno. 21:, after the resurrection, Peter was still at ease, and had only to practice the lesson which he had already learnt. And he does so. He experiences the presence of the Lord of glory to be a home for him. He proves in himself, and witnesses to us, that what he had learnt of Jesus he had learnt forever. He did not know the Stranger on the shore to be Jesus; but when John revealed that fact to him, the Stranger was a stranger to him no more, but the sooner and the nearer he could get to Him the better.

What further consolation is this! If it be joy to know that He is the same, whether here or there,- whether in our world or in His own world,-in our ruined circumstances, or in His own glorious circumstances,-what further joy is it to see one of ourselves, as Peter was, experiencing the blessedness of such a fact in his own spirit!

Jesus-the same, indeed-faithful and true! All the pledges He had given them ere He suffered, He makes good after He rose:all the character He had sustained in the midst of them then, He sustains
now.

The Lord was continually giving, but He was rarely assenting. He made great communications where He found but little communion. This magnifies or illustrates His goodness. There was, as it were, nothing to draw Him forth, and yet He was ever imparting. He was as the Father in heaven, of whom He Himself spoke, making His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending His rain on the just and the unjust. This tells us what He is, to His praise-what we are, to our shame.

But He was not only thus, as the Father in heaven, the reflection of such a One in His doings, but He was also in this world as "the unknown God," as St. Paul speaks. The darkness did not comprehend Him; the world, neither by its religion nor its wisdom, knew Him. The rich aboundings of His grace, the purity of His kingdom, the foundation and title upon which the glory He sought in such a world as this alone could rest, were all strangers to the thoughts of the children of men. All this is seen in the deep moral mistakes they were continually making. When, for instance, the multitude were exceedingly hailing the King and the kingdom in His person, in Luke 19:, "Master, rebuke Thy disciples," the Pharisees say. They would not brook the thought of the throne belonging to such a One. It was presumption in Him, Jesus of Nazareth as He was, to allow the royal joy to surround Him. They knew not-they had not learnt-the secret of true honor in this false fallen world of ours. They had not learnt the mystery of " a root out of a dry ground," nor had they in spirit perceived "the arm of the Lord." (Is. 53:) It was where His own spirit led, that discoveries were made of Him, and such are very sweet, and various too, in their measure.

In Mark 1:His ministry, in its grace and power, is used by many. People under all kinds of diseases come to Him, congregations listen to Him, and own the authority with which He spake. A leper brings his leprosy to Him, thereby apprehending Him as the God of Israel. In different measures, there was then some knowledge of Him, either who He was, or what He had; but when we enter chapter 2:, we get knowledge of Him expressing itself in a brighter, richer way:we get samples of the faith that understood Him; and this is the deeper thing.

The company at Capernaum, who bring their palsied friend to Him, understand Him as well as use Him; understand Him, I mean, in Himself, in His character, in the habits and tastes of His mind. The very style in which they reach Him to get at Him tells us this. It was not approaching as though they were reserved, and doubtful, and overawed. It was more:"I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me"-a thing more welcome to Him, more according to the way that love would have us take. They ask no leave, they use no ceremony, but they break up the roof of the house, that they may reach Him; all this telling us that they knew Him as well as use a Him; knew that He delighted in having His grace trusted and. His power used by our necessities without reserve. So Levi, shortly afterward, in the same chapter. He makes a feast, and seats publicans and others at it, in company with Jesus. And this, in like manner, tells us that Levi knew Him. He knew whom he entertained, as Paul tells us he knew whom he believed. J. G. B.

(To be continued.)

Having been made of late afresh to realize the prevalence in certain quarters, of an insistence upon experience in such a way as to obscure and adulterate the grace of the gospel, I am induced to take it up briefly now. It will be allowed that whatever does this is important enough to claim examination at our hands. And alas, our minds are naturally so legal, that which under one form we have renounced and done with, under another we are but too prone to receive and welcome. Thus it can never be in vain to go back to first principles and to review what Scripture teaches upon a matter of so deep interest and value for our souls.

The doctrine to which I refer is this, that, in order to vindicate our claim to be Christians, we must be able to put our finger upon a certain date in our past history, and to say, "that was the moment of my conversion to God." It ought to be at once clear that Scripture makes no such demand upon any, and that therefore we have no right to add to Scripture. It ought to be clear moreover, that such an addition really obscures and perverts the gospel, changing the foundation upon which the soul rests from Christ to an experience:making many a heart sad that the Lord would not make sad, and rendering that insecure for all, which it is sought to establish.

John the Baptist, "filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb," would under such a test be declared an unconverted man:and this is alone sufficient to stamp the whole theory as false and tin-scriptural. How many may there not be, in these Christian days, in whom God has wrought from the very beginning of life in such a way as to make it impossible for them to say when they were not converted? while for how many others has conversion been so slow a process as to make them unable with any certainty to point to the time and steps of it! Souls are not always born to God amid the throes and agonies of intense conviction; and it is as great a folly to refuse the evidence for the present time of a Christianity which is otherwise distinct and trustworthy, as it would be to decide that the young man who stands in life and vigor before you was not alive, because he could not from his own experience, satisfy you as to the day of his birth.

But I go further than this, and ask in the conversion of a soul, as instantaneous and indubitable as that of Saul of Tarsus, upon what is it made to rest for peace? upon Christ Himself and the value of His work, is it not? and that entirety apart from anything in oneself whatever. Or does the convicted and repentant sinner rest upon the satisfactory nature of his conviction or repentance ? Are these the objects of faith, or is Christ the object ? And have not these their real value in forcing him outside of himself, to rest on Christ alone? This surely every one knows who knows the gospel aright. All is darkness until God reveals His Son in us; and the death of Christ, the precious blood shed, was shed for our sins and nothing else in us. As sinners, we rest in Him. "'When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

How important is it that we should be dislodged from all confidence in ourselves! how many are kept from peace just by a morbid self-occupation which, if it can find no rest in good deeds that we have done, will try and make something out of groans, and tears, and experiences ! But these lose all their value just by the effort to make value out of them. And how anxious is the Lord to assure us of how freely He receives all who come to Him,-how him that cometh unto Him He will in 110 wise cast out! " Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." Is there room here for doubt? Is not the remedy for self-deception, never to trust self?
Now, if in a true experience one has found Christ thus for one's need, is it necessary ever to turn back to the past to assure myself of title to this Christ that I have found? I need no title but His own perfect grace. I trusted Him as a sinner, when I could have no other; have I now as a saint need to reinforce this confidence by a trust in what then I renounced as trust ? Have I need of the past at all to build upon, when Christ is here and now in the present for me ?

Scripture never turns me back to past experiences to build upon, never tests things in that way. If it says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life," the proof is in the present, not the past:it is "because we love the brethren." And this is such a proof as comes from a previous and joyous confidence that we belong to the family of God,-it is the love of kinship:not anything that brought me there, or was my title to be received. Such fruits may be, and should be, pressed upon those who profess faith in Christ. More real and severe as tests than any appeal to a past history-possibly misread-they bring one face to face with his actual condition. "Faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone." "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace." Every sweet and holy assurance, such as this last is, becomes a real test for the soul. Yet we would not escape from them. They are holy, but they are not legal. They do not show the ground of confidence, but they confirm it for the man who does confide, pointing him to results of which he will be conscious, -the holiness of grace, the fruitfulness of faith. Of such things, however feeble he may be, the true believer will be conscious. Faith and grace are what is pressed, and conscience it is that responds to the appeal :how different from the raking up of past experiences in order to question the right of present confidence! The tests used in Scripture are but the fruits and results of faith in Christ, and, rightly understood, can never shake but only confirm in it. Conscious of what faith has wrought, my rest in Christ becomes more profound. I do not need to ask if I have come honestly by what all are welcome to and besought to have.

The root of all the evil is that, in all this which I am speaking of, Christ is not really seen as offered to sinners but to saints, or at least to those who have gone through a certain quantum of preparation and fitting for Him. New birth is looked at as the ground of assurance, instead of the reception of Christ by the sinner being that ; whereas it is "to as many as receive Him, to them He gives right to be-come the children of God," while the divine explanation of how this can be is in what follows, "which were born again . . of God" (Jno. 1:)

New birth is the accomplishment of divine power in the soul,-absolutely needed for the Kingdom of God; but Christ is the Life, without the reception of which there is no birth possible. God's order then is not birth for life, but life for birth and the consequences of any other order are disastrous. Christ is then not for sinners in the full unreserved royalty of His grace, but for a class of them already begun to be changed, and finding in that change their title to Him. Assurance is the result of "introspection" therefore,-satisfaction as to this needful process, of new birth. But in this way the result is scarcely absolutely ever without doubt, and Christ is hindered from being the full occupation of the soul.

But in Scripture, new birth is never put as the gospel, or confused with it. The Lord speaks of it to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, to lay the ax at the root of his self-righteousness, and bring him to the foot of the cross; to the woman of Samaria He says nothing of it, but encourages her to the reception of God's gift of living water. Nor is it recorded that He spoke of it to any other, except as it might be involved in that eternal life which he who believed in the Son already has. And how often is that door set open!

In the epistle of John, to those who were already Christians, the moral characters of new birth are insisted on. As a means of peace or assurance to the soul it is never presented, but Christ Himself is made this, known by a faith which, as such, unites with repentance to exalt Him alone. If conversion be a "turning round" of the soul, repentance is the back turned upon self, that faith may have the Lord of glory in unobstructed vision. F. W. G.

IN ITS APPLICATION TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION. (Daniel 5:)

[No apology can be needed for putting forth at this time a reprint of this tract, from the pen of a servant of the Lord now gone to be with the One who loved him, and whom he loved.

The tract was originally written to call attention to what was being made manifest of the world's tendencies at the Great Exhibition in London (1851). That the "World's Fair," now opened to. the public, is a great advance on the original needs no proof, and the principles and truths set forth in this tract are of increasing importance as the end draws near. No one doubts that the world has advanced with rapid strides since 1851:but in what as to real moral value? Certainly not in peace and order, but assuredly in the reverse of all this, and of all that is estimable.

The growling of the storm soon to burst upon a deceived world, when the Lamb in the midst of the throne takes the seven-sealed book of judgment out of the hand of the thrice-holy God, may almost be heard:whilst faith looks with increased longing for the One whose promise is, "Behold, I come quickly."

May the reader of these pages be able to say unfeignedly, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

If this tract is used of the Lord to help some of His beloved people, who may have been carried away by the infectious spirit of the age, to discern the path of separation that befits them, the object of its re-issue will be attained.-R. T. G.]

While Jeremiah was left at Jerusalem to witness the course of moral corruption there, and to warn of coming judgments, and while Ezekiel was among the remnant in the place of discipline or of righteousness on the river Chebar, Daniel is set among the Gentiles, even at Babylon, to learn the history and the ways of the Gentile, or the world.

We may see in this his first six chapters, which constitute the first part of the book. In chap. 1:we see the Gentile, or the world, set up. Then, in chap, 2:, we get the same system-the world, in its political career onward to the kingdom, figured in the great image, seen in all its parts, from its head of gold to its toes of clay-iron ; and judged, in the appointed hour, by the stone which becomes a mountain, to occupy the scene of power all the world over with an untransferable kingdom. Then, in the four following chapters, the stories of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius give us the moral course of the world. In Nebuchadnezzar, we get a persecuting power, connected with human religion or idolatry. The king sets up an image and demands the worship of it on pain of the fiery furnace. The righteous refuse and suffer. In Belshazzar, we get the easy, worldly, self-indulgent thing, with contempt of religion. The king makes a feast, worshiping all that which ministered to his pleasures. The righteous are utter strangers to it all. In Darius we get a persecuting power again, but it is in connection with self-exaltation. The king makes an interdict, that none are to be treated as God but himself, for so many days, on pain of the lion's den. The righteous again refuse and suffer.

These are plain and sure distinctions in the progress of Gentile iniquity. And it may strike us, I judge, very clearly that we are at present rather in the day of Belshazzar. Persecution and idol-service gave character to the preceding day, and persecution and the deification of man to the day which followed ; but all was easy indifference, with thorough satisfaction in the present things of the world, in the day of Belshazzar. Refusal and consequent suffering form the path or history of the righteous in the times of the idolatrous, persecuting Nebuchadnezzar, and of the self-exalting, persecuting Darius ; but in the times of Belshazzar, perfect and thorough separation is the place of the saints of God.

There is a voice for us in all this. Daniel is not seen at the feast. And there is one, though not in his strength yet much in his spirit, who is absent also-the queen, the king's mother. The king is ignorant of the man of God who was then in his dominions. He is also unmindful of the doings of God which had been in the same dominions in the days of his father. But the queen has recollections and knowledge of these things, and she is a stranger to his feast.

Is not the question, then, with us to be this :Who is the separated one now? Who is going to the king's feast ? or who, in the light of the Lord, is separated from it? The present is an easy, self-indulgent, worldly moment. The gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of wood, and of iron are praised. All the capabilities in the world to make a feast are produced, and displayed and gloried in. Social accommodation and social delights are the great object. Man's works, the fruit of his skill and the resources of his country, adorn and furnish the scene, and are the host of the feast, that which gathers and entertains. Man is providing the joy of this awful hour in the world's history-awful indeed, not in the judgments or sorrows which are upon it, but in the moral principles which are quickening it. The captivity of Zion was heedlessly forgotten by Belshazzar, and the vessels of God's temple were profaned. The operations of His hands were not considered, but the wine and the tabret were in his feast. So now ; the rejection of Christ is by common consent forgotten, that man may meet his fellow, greet him with a common joy and with a common welcome, because they are all of one earth, of the same world, of kindred flesh and blood ; and all God's claims on His elect and testimony against the world are thrown together, as what for a season must be passed by till the feast-day is kept.

Where, then, again I ask, is the separated one ? Where is Daniel? Where is the king's mother? The feast does not attract either of them, though they may be in different measures of strength. Daniel knew the character of it before the judgment of it was pronounced. He does not wait for the fingers of the man's hand to put him into his place in relation to it. He is not moved by the mysterious writing on the wall. Sudden destruction, as a thief in the night, does not come upon him. He and his companion, though "a weaker vessel," are, in the spirit of their minds, in the place from whence these fingers were sent-they were ''children of light and children of the day." The judgment upon the feast had no terror for them, for they were not at the feast. They had judged it already. Their separation was not sleep. " They that sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night." But they were no more indifferent to it than taking their pleasure at it. Their separation, therefore, as I said, was not sleep. In a divine sense they watched and were sober, (i Thess. 5:3.) In the separated place Daniel knew the judgment of God about it all, long before the writing on the wall announced it to the world. All this is full of meaning for us.

I am not going to say that the form of evil which Belshazzar's day presents is the worst. Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol before that day, and Darius set up himself after it. The fiery furnace was heated for the saints in the former reign, and the lion's den was open for them in the latter. The day of Belshazzar witnessed nothing of this. The abomination in the plain of Dura did not demand worship then, neither did the royal statute forbid worship toward Jerusalem then. But still there is something in Belshazzar himself, if not in his day, which especially provoked the Spirit of the Lord. Daniel can feel for Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar is brought to a right repentant mind, and the judgment of God is reversed. Daniel too can feel for Darius, and Darius is seen in humbled gracious meltings of soul, and we can all pity him-pity him when we see him unwittingly involved in results which a moment's vanity and easiness of nature had led to. But from us Belshazzar gets no kindly movement of heart, from the Spirit of God in Daniel nothing but stern rebuke, and from the hand of God nothing but swift destruction, the fingers on the wall announcing it, and the sword of the Median executing it. " In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain."

He was the easy man of the of the world. He despised all religious fear. What he worshiped was his pleasures, the gods of silver, of brass, and of gold, the vessels which could fill out his entertainments and make provision for his lusts. He did not summon the world to either his idol or himself, but to his board and to his holiday. Nebuchadnezzar makes an image, Darius a royal decree, Belshazzar a feast. But Jerusalem and her sorrows are forgotten, the temple and its furniture despised. The wonders which the God of Jerusalem and of the temple had freshly wrought in the land were all a dream or a fiction with him, and the very spoils of His house he can use in making merry with his friends.

This was easy worldliness-the heartless way of man who can forget God's wonders, and the rejection and humiliation of Christ. And all this is terrible. The harp, and the pipe, and the tabret are in such feasts; but the operations of God's hands are forgotten. Till now the vessels of God's house had been held in some fear and honor. But now they are profaned and made to serve the lusts of the king. God had ordained them to witness the separation of His priestly nation, and His own worship in the midst of His people; but the king makes them the instruments of his sport.

And what, I ask, is the effort to deck out the world, to enjoy it. and to boast of it, while Jesus is rejected by its citizens? Is it not a thing in kindred spirit with this? The rejection of Christ is forgotten, yea, despised-for that is gloried in and displayed which continues the word, "We will not have this Man to reign over us." Is not this somewhat of taking of the choice vessels of God's house, in the very day of their captivity, to make merry with them ?

The present moment may surely thus remind us of Belshazzar's feast. Gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, and of wood are praised ; the resources and capabilities of the world are displayed, thoughtless of its rejection of Christ. And are any of the captivity at the king's feast? Israel was captive together with the vessels of the temple. Would any of them be so thoughtless as to make merry with the king who was despising the spoils of that house ? Would any of the servants of the rejected nobleman take part with the citizens in setting forth the wonders of their blood-stained land? (See Luke 19:)

The mind turns with these thoughts to the present moment. It cannot refuse to give itself, in some sort and in some measure, to the subject of The Great Exhibition. It would not be fit that it should be indifferent to it-for it is no common sign of the time and ought to be morally judged.

It will be pleaded for. No doubt of it. It will be said that it is designed to encourage brotherhood among the nations, and to promote the great business of social comfort and happiness as wide as the human family. But, I ask, are these God's objects ? God has scattered the nations, and never proposes to gather them till He gathers them to Shiloh. God would have us strangers here, "content with such things as we have," without making it our business to increase or improve them. God would have us testify against the world in its present condition, and therefore neither flatter it nor reconcile it to itself, nor glory in its capabilities. The Exhibition is therefore in full collision with the mind of God. Christ exposes the world; the Exhibition displays it. Christ would alarm it, and call it to a sense of judgment; the Exhibition makes it on better terms with itself than ever.

It is indeed a mighty advance in all the apostate reprobate principles of man. Efforts of a like kind we may be familiar with, but they are commonplace in comparison with this. As prophets speak, touching advance in the ways of evil, this is indeed "adding drunkenness to thirst."

I regard all admiration of it as a step in the way to "wonder after the beast." That will be but a further expression of the same mind ; and how serious, if evangelical religion be sending its contributions to it, or becoming one of the exhibiters at it ! Deep must be the infatuation. To tell the world one day what it is in God's esteem, and the next day to become one of the wonderers after its resources and capacities ! Admiration like this savors of worship.

Like the old prophet at Bethel, when a saint is in a place or a position unwarranted by the call of God, the enemy will find easy occasion to use him. Still I own, when I think of it, it is to me wonderful that a Christian should find satisfaction in this thing. That it is an awful advance in the development of those evil principles which are to mark the day of Christendom's ripened iniquity, I have not the least doubt.

The Lord of old scattered the nations. (See Gen. 11:) This was judgment on a bold attempt of theirs, when they were of one speech and one language, to make themselves independent of God. And has He reversed that judgment? There is an appointed time when it shall be reversed. Jerusalem shall be a center, and Shiloh a gathering-object. The nations will flock to Zion, there to see the King in His beauty. And none of them there, we may say, shall appear before the Lord empty. The tributes of all the lands shall beautify the place of God's sanctuary. The fruits of Midian and of Ephah shall be there-gold and incense from Sheba, the flocks of Keclar, and the rams of Nebaioth, the glory of Lebanon, the forces of all the Gentiles. All shall flock there, like doves to their windows, and kings shall minister there. Gold, too, shall be for brass, silver for iron, brass for wood, and iron for stones. All shall be for glory and beauty in the earth then. But this is still future. This is for "the world to come," after the Redeemer has come out of Zion, and turned away ungodliness from Jacob. See Is. 59:and Rom. 11:

The reversing of the judgment of scattering at Babel is left for the kingdom of God at Jerusalem. He that scattered must gather. He is Lord of the nations. "The powers that be are ordained of God." It is His pleasure that they should be scattered nations still; for one universal monarchy is appointed of God for Jesus only-as it is written, " Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." " His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."

The name of Jesus was, indeed, proposed as a gathering-object in the day of Pentecost. Tongues were then cloven, as they had been at Babel; but it was to reunite what had been already severed. But this proposal, like every other on God's part to man, was disappointed. The hard unbelieving heart did this. And what is man now proposing? He who refused God's proposal to gather to Jesus, in the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, is proposing to gather to himself. He will exalt himself as at Babel. He will be independent of God.' He will be like the Most High. The beast will issue his decree on pain of death, his mark will be received on the forehead, and all the world will wonder after him. (Rev. 13:) This is in the prospect of the world's history. He who will not let Christ be exalted will seek to exalt himself. And such an one is man.

Isaiah, anticipating in the Spirit the last days, warns the people of God against saying, "A confederacy," in common with the world around them. (Chap, 8:) And I ask myself and others, Do we, in deed and in faith, receive these notices from the prophets? Do we judge that man will thus exalt himself and confederate-thus gather round himself ? And if we treat these warnings of the character of the last days as divine, can we doubt, from all we see and hear, that man has already begun to practice his hand in kindred attempts, in efforts which shall issue in all this?

The facilities and the speed in linking the nations one with another is now well known. It is used and gloried in. And what is this " Great Exhibition " but another trying of his skill in forwarding the main leading purpose of man's heart? No doubt it suits the spirit which is moving all this to have it under the sanction of religion. When he can use it for his own ends, nothing suits the devil better. He would fain have had Christ exalt Himself under the sanction of Ps. 91:And again and again he would have acknowledged Christ had He allowed it, as the spirit of divination would have witnessed to Christ's servant had he received it. (Acts 16:) But this could not be. The beast, however, will have his false prophet. He will use religion for his own ends. But divine religion takes us only into God's ends ; and it teaches us this (with the authority of the real intrinsic holiness of such a principle):we can have no fellowship with that against which we are called to testify. (Eph. 5:2:)

Nor can we say that the judgment we form on this matter is a small or an indifferent thing. It is not so. The subject is well fitted to exercise the judgment of a saint of God. It is eminently so, I believe. His mind generally will be much affected by his sense of this thing and his decision respecting it. The mind can become dull; the eye gets dim betimes ; and if such a process as that be going on, the next attempt of the enemy finds us less prepared. And, I ask, is not all that dangerous, when delusions are multiplying as they are and as they will?

We are counseled to buy eye-salve of Christ, that we may see. That is something beyond or beside faith and confession of the gospel. Laodicea had the common faith, and in a sense boasted of it, but Laodicea wanted eye-salve. And sure I am that let this great shop of the world's ware expose what it may, that eye-salve is the very thing which will not-cannot be had there. It is the article which would detect the whole character of the place, and it could not, therefore, be had there. It is a palace. Man is not enthroned there as God, it is true. Things among the children of men are not quite ripe for that yet. It is not a temple where man sits, showing himself as God (2 Thess. 2:); but man's works are displayed there. Man's art is enthroned there, and man expects to be admired and wondered at there, and thousands enter it (as another has observed) in the spirit of doing homage to man. It is a mirror in which the world is reflected in a thousand attractive forms, and the unworldly, humbled, earth-rejected Jesus is forgotten. Jesus may be named there, it is true, but an unworldly Jesus is practically forgotten there.
It is, indeed, as I surely judge, solemnly, awfully significant. It is full of the spirit of the last days. This palace for man's productions to be gazed at is but a stage before the temple for man himself to sit in, and admiration of it is getting a generation ready, morally ready, to "wonder after the beast." One is amazed that any Christian can find the least satisfaction in it.

This Exhibition (for it calls itself by that significant name) in its way shows all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. It does not hide this. It professes to do this. Like John Bunyan's Vanity Fair, there is the Italian row, and the German row, and the English row. It has human skill and resources in all variety, and from all lands. It presents the kingdoms of the world, and "the glory of them." And who, I ask, was it that did this before ? The Spirit led the Son of God into " the wilderness "-a place of strangership and pilgrimage, but the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.

The world, according to the Scriptures of God, is a lost and a judged thing. It is incapable of recovery. The Word of God does not, in a single passage of it, warrant the thought that it can be advanced or cultivated for God. He has judged it-though in grace the judgment tarries, and the long-suffering of God is salvation. But the world is a system past all hope of recovery, till the judgment be executed. But confederacy is an attempt to fix the world in its present condition, to settle it, though it be in departure from God and in enmity against Christ. This was the thought at Babel of old.

Separation of His own out of the world is God's way now. And this separation is the deepest and most thorough judgment that could be passed upon the world. This is a more complete judgment of it than by the waters of the flood, or by the plagues of Egypt, or by the sword of Joshua. The withdrawal or separation of all that God owns bespeaks final thoughts about the world, and not merely a purifying of it from present corruptions, as by the waters of Noah, in order to put it on a fresh trial. The trial of it is over, the judgment of it is pronounced, and the delay is but for the salvation of the elect. The attitude of the Church,-that is, separation from the earth, and heavenly calling, tells us of the full moral condemnation of the course of things here. And thus the Church judges the world. Her position and calling does so.

The " servants " of the departed " nobleman " very well know that the country of the "citizens" has very great resources and very great capabilities ; and they know that in due season such will be both used and displayed. But they cannot allow this thought while that country is as it is now-stained with the blood of their rejected Master. The cry, "We will not have this man to reign over us," is ever in their ears. And with that cry from the land, can they, in company with the "citizens" who raised it and still keep it up (for the character of the world, as we have said from Scripture, is unalterably fixed), be occupied in investigating and producing the treasures of their country and the skill of its people, and glory in the thought of the common advancement?

They cannot, when alive to the character of the place where they are, and awake, as they should ever be, to the cry which followed the rejected Jesus as He left it- they cannot. The cup of the Lord's indignation is to go round the nations, and they must drink it. An awful reverse this will be from Belshazzar passing the wine among his courtiers and concubines in the cups of the Lord's house. And solemn it is in those nations feasting and praising the gods of gold, and of silver, of iron, of brass, and of wood, while such a handwriting as that is on the wall against them. If not on the walls of the palace, it is in the books of the prophets. (Ps. 75:; Jer. 25:)

Incorruption, I may say, cannot inherit corruption. The spotless Jesus cannot hold an unpurged dominion. The woman of Rev. 17:glorifies herself, and lives deliciously in the earth during that very time in which the judgment of God is awaiting it; but the bride of Rev. 21:does not become manifested in the earth till it has been cleansed and is ready, not for the judgment of the Lord, but for the presence of the glory.

There is infinite moral distance there. The world must be judged ere it can be adopted of God. The earth must be purified before it can be furnished and adorned for Him. This has been again and again transacted in the progress of the divine government. Noah, God's saint and representative, took the earth to rule and to enjoy it, but it had previously passed through the purifying of the flood. Israel, God's people and witnesses, took the land of Canaan to possess and enjoy it, but it had been judged by the sword of Joshua. And according to these types, the earth is to be cleansed ; out of the kingdom is to be taken all that offends and does iniquity ere Jesus will take the power.

Ornament and furniture well becomes it, for it is the Lord's footstool. Eden had not only its plants, and trees, and fruits, and flowers ; but its gold, its bdellium, and its onyx stones. Solomon, in typical days of glory, trafficked in all desirable riches. And the millennial Jerusalem will receive all the treasures of the provinces. (Is. 60:) But the present age is not millennial; the earth is not yet an extended Eden. Corruption is not judged; the things that offend and do iniquity are not taken away, nor is there any divine commission to that end. The field of tares is not to be cleansed now-it waits for the angels and the time of harvest. The saint submits to "the powers that be," knowing that "God" will stand in the congregation of them for judgment in due season. (Comp. Rom. 13:i with Ps. 82:1:)

It is despite of the holiness of God, we may therefore say, to be presenting this evil world in its ornaments and furniture, in its resources and capabilities, as this exhibition is doing. And it is also despite of the wrongs and sorrows of Christ. The citizens who have cast outside their city and country the blessed Son of God, are exhibiting what their country can produce, and what their hands can skillfully weave and fashion. I ask, could a servant of such a rejected Master aid and encourage such things ? Could he be a servant a moment beyond the time that he thus practically forgot his Lord's rejection here ? He could not. He might, indeed, be a useful member of society, and serve his generation in their generation well ; but a servant of Christ (properly speaking) he could not be if once he forgot the world's rejection of Christ ; and acceptance of the invitation of the citizens (see Luke 19:) to come and rejoice with them in the resources of their country and the skill of their people, would at once be such forgetfulness.

The sorrow and humbling of a saint is that he remembers the rejection of his Master so coldly, and acts on that great fact so poorly. But to have it estranged from the soul so as to consent to take part with the citizens from one end of the world to the other, in a great confederated effort to display the world as a wealthy and desirable place-to do this in full and hearty fellowship with all, on the ground of the common humanity, is confounding light and darkness, Christ and Belial. The language of the whole thing is this,-We will forget, at least for a season, the claims and sorrows of Jesus, and have a holiday with the world that has rejected Him.
Has so little "eye-salve" been bought of Christ as to leave the saints in such a blinded condition of soul as this? "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." When Daniel and his companions entered the place of the Gentiles, they carried one purpose of heart with them, that they would not defile themselves with the king's meat. (Dan. 1:8.) He knew not what this might cost him, but this was his purpose. He had bought this eye-salve of Christ, ere he stood among the uncircumcised. And in the strength of the Lord, he and his dear companions stood. The fiery furnace and the lion's den witness the victory of men strengthened by Christ; "nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." And so at Belshazzar's feast. Daniel entered it as a conqueror, as he afterward entered the lion's den. He had no affinity with the feast-not a bit. He was, in the day of it, as we have seen, a separated man. But he was called to it, and he entered the banqueting hall as a conqueror. The king who was there promised to make him "the third ruler in the kingdom." " Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another," said the servant of Christ. He was as much a conqueror in the day of the feast, as he was in the day of the lion's den.

Noble attitude of a saint of God ! Could such a man have accepted an invitation to the feast? Morally impossible. And "the eye-salve" which Christ had supplied him with, disclosed its further virtues, as he stood in that palace of the world's enjoyments. There was nothing in the language of the writing on the wall beyond the astrologers of Babylon more than beyond Daniel. Not so much, I might say. At least the words were as familiar to a Chaldean as to a Hebrew. But the wise men of Babylon, the scribes of Belshazzar's court and kingdom were not equal to interpret them. They were morally incapacitated. A single eye to Christ alone can do so to this day-the " eye-salve." If we test a thing by any test but Christ, we shall misinterpret it. It will "appear fair and good and desirable, if we try it by its relationship to the welfare of society, or to the advancement of man and the world; but if we look at it in the light of a rejected Jesus, its bloom will be found to be corruption. Standing in the festive hall, Daniel traces the whole scene in Babylon at that hour in relation to God. He rehearses before Belshazzar God's way with Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar's way with God, and then Belshazzar's own hardness and infidel pride in defiance of Him who had wrought the wonders. This was Daniel's key to the writing-of course, I know, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But still this was the prophet's moral apprehension of the king's feast. He judged it in reference to God-and what could the end be, but awful and sudden destruction ? The writing must speak of judgment, though the lords and the captains, the wives and the concubines, sport themselves in the king's hall.

" Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see." It is blessed so to do, but it is hard. We judge of things in reference to ourselves, and not in reference to Christ. We think rather of the world's improvement than of his rejection. We talk of human capabilities rather than of human and incurable apostasy. We want the eye-salve, without which we cannot see-we cannot discover the feast, or read the writing on the wall.

The disciples wanted it on the Mount of Olives, as they looked on the temple. They saw the building,"but not with the eye of Christ, not as anointed with the eye-salve. He had seen it, and all that surrounded it, with the eye of God ; and costly as it was, and beautiful beyond comparison, He had written the judgment of it; yea, on the very wall He had written the judgment of "that beautiful house." "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, behold, your house is left unto you desolate." This was writing with the same divine authority which had sentenced Belshazzar and his feast. But the disciples still eyed the beauty of the stones, and Jesus., in patient grace, but because of their demand, and unanointed eye, had to re-write the doom of that place :"Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down."

Sad to tell of it then, sad to see it now, sad to know, in our own worldly hearts, the secret of all this darkness. We may be sorry to find it thus among disciples, though prepared to get it plentifully among the children of men. The kings of the earth, the merchants, and the mariners bewail the fall of Babylon, and we wonder not. They judged Babylon in reference to themselves-they had lived deliciously with her. How could they have eye-salve to know her, and to see her with the mind of heaven? God "remembered her iniquities," but they remembered her as one " wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness." They therefore bewail, when heaven rejoices. The lords at the feast tremble, when heaven traces its doom. But sad it is that saints should be admiring the "costliness" which the mind of heaven has already judged.

What words in our ears, beloved, are these!-what writings under our eyes ! Oh, for the anointing which Christ has for His saints ! Oh, for power in our souls to judge the king's feast, the Gentile's greatness, the world's advancement, the jubilee of Babylon, in the light of the rejection of the Son of God, in the hearing of that cry, " We will not have this Man to reign over us." Then let us ask ourselves, if we have a pulse of affection or allegiance to Jesus, can we glory in this present moment with all its costliness and pleasures? J. G. Bellett.

(Continued from page 173.) CHAP. II

The wise man, having found that wisdom brought with it but increased sorrow, turns to the other side-to all those pleasures that the flesh, as we speak, enjoys. Still, he gives us, as in chap, 1:, the result of his search before he describes it, "I said in my heart, ' Go to now ; I will prove thee [1:e., I will see if I cannot satisfy thee,] with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure:' and behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, 'it is mad;' and of mirth, 'what doeth it ?' " For he now has tried wine, the occupation of laying out of vineyards, gardens, parks, the forming of lakes, and the building of houses, all filled without stint, with every thing that sense could crave, or the soul of man could enjoy. The resources at His command are practically limitless and so he works on and rejoices in the labor, apparently with the idea that now the craving within can be satisfied, now he is on the road to rest. Soon he will look round on the result of all his work, and be able to say, "All is very good; I can now rest in the full enjoyment of my labor and be satisfied." But when he does reach the end, when every pleas-tire tried, every beauty of surrounding created, and he expects to eat the fruit of his work, instantly his mouth is filled with rottenness and decay. "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do ; and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit; and there was no profit tinder the sun." Thus he groans again:a groan that has been echoed and re-echoed all down the ages from every heart that has tried to fill the same void by the same means.

Ah! wise and glorious preacher, it is a large place them art seeking to fill. "Free and boundless its desires." Deeper, wider, broader than the whole world, which is at thy disposal to fill it. And them mayest well say, "What can the man do that cometh after the king ?" for them hadst the whole world and the glory of it at thy command in thy day, and did it enable thee to fill those "free and boundless desires"? No, indeed. After all is cast into that hungry pit, yawning and empty it is still. Look well on this picture, my soul; ponder it in the secret place of God's presence, and ask Him to write it indelibly on thy heart that thou forget it not. Then turn and listen to this sweet voice:" If any man thirst" (and what man does not ?) "let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water " Thirst not only quenched, but water to spare for other thirsting ones-the void not only filled, but running over with a constant flow of blessing. Who can express the glories of that contrast!

Pause, beloved reader; turn your eyes from the page and dwell on it in thy spirit a little. What a difference between "no profit under the sun" and " never thirst " !-a difference entirely clue simply to coming to Him-Jesus. Not a coming once and then departing from Him once more to try again the muddy, stagnant pools of this world:no, but to pitch our tents by the palm-trees and the springing wells of Christ's presence, and so to drink and drink and drink again of Him, the Rock that follows His people. But is this possible ? Is this not mere imaginative ecstasy, whilst practically such a state is not possible ? No, indeed ; for see that man, with all the same hungry longings of Solomon or any other child of Adam; having no wealth, outcast, and a wanderer without a home, but who has found something that has enabled him to say, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound:everywhere, and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."
What, then, is the necessary logical deduction from two such pictures but this:The Lord Jesus infinitely surpasses all the world in filling the hungry heart of man.

Look, oh my reader, whether thou be sinner or saint, to Him-to Him alone. F. C. J.

( To be continued.)