The times of the Judges, in the history of Israel, offered special opportunities for exhibitions of faithfulness to God. From the very fact that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes," those who would please the Lord were brought out into all the greater prominence. The sphere of their usefulness, too, instead of being diminished, was rather enlarged, there being but too few to help the multitudes, who were "as sheep without a shepherd." So we find some of the most vigorous examples of faith in the book of Judges,- Gideon, Deborah, Othniel, Shamgar, Ehud, and, as we shall see, Samson, in a certain degree.

From the fact that his birth and manner of life were announced beforehand, and the work he was to do, it is evident that Samson was to be especially prominent as a deliverer of the people. Indeed, the superhuman strength with which he was endowed, and the invariable success he met with when fighting the enemy, would confirm the thought that he was specially favored with gifts to this end. This would mean that he had special responsibilities. . How he met them, we will see as we trace his life.

Samson was to be a Nazarite. As we know from the threefold vow in the book of Numbers, such a man was to abstain from wine and from death, and was to let his hair remain uncut. Wine, with all other products of the vine is a natural as well as scriptural symbol of festivity, exhilaration and joy. Spiritually, it means the joy of earth as contrasted with the joy of the Spirit,-the animation of artificial stimulus as contrasted with the steadfast strength supplied by the Spirit,-the celebration of a rest here rather than of the time when new wine shall be drunk in the Father's kingdom. From all such stimulus the Nazarite was to abstain. How easy to apply the lesson to ourselves ! how difficult to carry it out in our lives ! The long hair tells the same thing in another way,-weakness, dependence, subjection :the woman's place is to be taken. Such a place is humiliating to the natural man. " It is a shame for a man to wear long hair." But such must be the place of one truly separated unto God.

The defilement of death is to be guarded against most jealously, not even the nearest and dearest being allowed to cause an exception to be made. Here too it is easy to read the lesson :death comes by sin, it reigns in the world, and all about us is that which is tainted by this, even in our homes perhaps is what we can "see but dare not touch-intercourse with that which is death. We have been dwelling upon the negative side of the Nazarite's life. Naturally, this is what the law makes prominent. But negatives will never form the character. Subtract all that is bad from a person, and you only have a coldness which is "faultily faultless, splendidly null." So grace gives us the positive side of the true Nazarite. In place of the wine of carnal joy, we have the "joy of the Lord," "joy unspeakable and full of glory."-"Then were the disciples filled with joy and the Holy Ghost." What earthly joy can compare with this ? what earthly pleasure with "the river of Thy pleasures"? So too the badge of shame, the relinquishment of our strength of our wills is met by that which infinitely exceeds all human strength and dignity:" I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."–"My strength is made perfect in weakness." While in place of that which has the stamp of death upon it, we have life-eternal life in and with Him who is the Life. But for the enjoyment of these blessed substitutes, there must be a denial of self. This was the key-note of the Nazarite's life-self-denial; and this brings us back again to Samson.
We have seen what manner of man it was God's will for him to be-a Nazarite, we come now to see what manner of man he was. Prominently in it stands forth the fact that there was a lack of cohesion, of unity, in it. Brilliant deeds there were, but all was desultory. Let us enumerate those acts which are recorded :Slaying a lion ; killing thirty Philistines in order to get clothes to pay a bet; catching three hundred foxes, and with them setting fire to the corn of the enemy; killing a thousand with the jaw-bone of an ass; carrying away the gates of Gaza; overthrowing the temple of the Philistines. We look in vain here for any earnest purpose running through his life. Contrast his slaying a lion merely to deliver himself, and David's act to deliver his sheep. Some of his feats of strength seem almost ludicrous, and some are so closely linked with his own sins as to serve as signs pointing to them. We are compelled to say, What a useless life ! It serves for warning, but there is but little to imitate in it. Doubtless there were many points of excellence in him, or he could not have judged Israel twenty years; but the prominent facts are those we have mentioned. The question naturally arises, Why was a life of such promise-so rich in endowment-so apparently useless ? We believe the answer lies in the subject of this paper. There was a crisis-a turning-point in his life, when he should have turned the opposite way from the one he pursued. That crisis in his life is marked by one word-self-pleasing. "Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well." The law of the Nazarite has "self-denial " written all over it:the life of Samson has "self-pleasing " written all over it. The crisis of his life was when he chose a wife from the people he was to destroy. It may be objected that the Lord thus sought an occasion against the Philistines, and so permitted it. True, He permitted it; as He did in the case of Balaam, of the twelve spies, of the selling of Joseph into Egypt, above all in the betrayal of our Lord ; but this, instead of lessening responsibility, increases it- makes the sin greater, as in the case of Judas. God permitted Samson to please himself:because that was in his own hands, it was his responsibility. He got glory out of it, spite of Samson's self-will; but this does not affect the quality of his choice. He pleased himself, and his whole after-life had the taint of this about it. He dallies with Delilah in self-pleasing until she gets the secret of his strength from him; and even in his death he seems to be seeking for revenge merely, not to please God. One is surprised to see him keep his strength so long. It only shows us the long-suffering of God, who thus would recall His poor servant by showing that He was still with him. It was only when Samson showed he no longer prized this strength-when he imparted this secret to a stranger, that he lost it. Ah ! what awful lessons are here! Doubtless he had not the remotest intention of parting with his secret; but Delilah had his heart,-he tampers with the danger, and is awakened out of his sleep of self-pleasing to find that it has at last culminated. Darkness closes in upon him, never to be lifted in this world.

What is it to tell the secret of our strength ? Is it not to be at ease with the world,-to be enjoying the world as Samson was, and then to talk about the things of God-about our own secret of strength ? The enemy is on the look-out for this :there is a time when the last act of inconsistency is done, and all power is lost. "So-and-so is a great talker, but I find he likes the world about as well as any one." Our power is gone, and it is only in the mercy of God if it is ever in any degree recovered. But let us remember that Delilah's lap was only the last step in a course of self-pleasing which began when he took the woman of Timnath to wife because she pleased him. We have spoken of this as a crisis. Doubtless there are such in all our lives-distinct turning-points -times when we took a course which has characterized us ever since. That crisis may be in itself a small matter, just as, on the summit of the Alleghenies, a rock or small rise of ground determines the direction of a stream toward the Atlantic or the Gulf. For the young Christian especially is the admonition needed, Beware of taking the wrong turn in the crisis of your life. Beware of self-pleasing, instead of meeting the enemy. It was fitting that Samson's bones should lie among his people, as a constant reminder not to misuse God's gifts and opportunities. Perhaps older Christians may feel as though they have taken the wrong turn, and their life has been, as a result, blighted. For such, God has blessing in spite of their failure even, if there is true turning to Him. Having learned where our self-pleasing has brought us, we can then find that He can bring good out of evil-that He can bring Samson's riddle to pass, "Out of the eater came forth meat." Doubtless Jacob's closing days furnished such an exhibition of God's goodness ; and no matter where His people are, if they truly bow to Him, they will find their wilderness to blossom as the rose.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII.

PART IV. THE EARTH-TRIAL. (CHAP, 14:)-Continued.

The Fall of Babylon,(5:8.)

That the message of judgment is indeed a "gospel" we find plainly in the next announcement, which is marked as that of a "second" angel, a "third" following, similar in character, as we shall see directly. Here it is announced that Babylon the Great has fallen :before, indeed, her picture has been presented to us, which we find only in the seventeenth chapter. The name itself is, however, significant, as that of Israel's great enemy, under whose power she lay prostrate seventy years, and itself derived from God's judgment upon an old confederation, the seat of which became afterward the center of Nimrod's empire. But that was not Babylon the Great, although human historians would have given her, no doubt, the palm ; with God, she was only the type of a power more arrogant and evil and defiant of Him than the old Chaldaean despot, and into whose hands the Church of Christ has fallen,-the heavenly, not the earthly people. It is an old history rehearsed in a new sphere and with other names,-a new witness of the unity of man morally in every generation.

The sin on account of which it falls reminds us still of Babylon, while it has also its peculiar aggravation. Of her of old it was said, "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunken :the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad." (Jer. 51:7.) But it is not said, "the wine of the fury of her fornication." This latter expression shows that Babylon is not here a mere political but a spiritual power. One who belongs professedly to Christ has prostituted herself to the world for the sake of power. She has inflamed the nations with unholy principles, which act upon men's passions, (easily stirred,) as we see, in fact, in Rome. By such means she has gained and retained power; by such, after centuries of change, she holds it still. But the time is at hand when they will at last fail her, and this is what the angel declares now to have come. Babylon is fallen, and that fall is final:it is the judgment of God upon her ; it is retributive justice for centuries of corruption; it is a note of the everlasting gospel, which claims the earth for God, and announces its deliverance from its oppressors. But we have yet only the announcement :the details will be given in due place.

The Warning to the Beast-Worshipers, (10:9-13.)

A THIRD angel follows, noted as that, and belonging, therefore, to the company of those that bring the gospel of blessing for the earth. That it comes in the shape of a woe, we have seen to be in no wise against this. Babylon is not the only evil which must perish that Christ may reign ; and Babylon's removal only makes way at first for the full development of another form of it more openly blasphemous than this. The woman makes way for the man,-what professes at least subjection to Christ, for that which is open revolt against Him. Here, therefore, the woe threatened is far more sweeping and terrible than in the former case ; there are people of God who come out of Babylon, and who therefore were in her to come out (chap, 18:4). But the beast in its final form insures the perdition of all who follow it:"If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink"-or "he also shall drink "-"of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever; and they have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."

It is the beast who destroys Babylon, after having for a time supported her:his own pretension tolerates no divided allegiance, and in him the unbelief of a world culminates in self-worship. Here God's mercy can only take the form of loud and emphatic threatening of extreme penalty for those who worship the beast. In proportion to the fearful character of the evil does the Lord give open assurance of the doom upon it, so that none may unknowingly incur it. Here "the patience of the saints" is sustained in a "reign of terror" such as has never yet been.

Faith too is sustained in another way, namely, by the special consolation as to those who die as martyrs at this time:"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, ' Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth.'" That is clearly encouragement under peculiar circumstances. All who die in the Lord must be blessed at any time ; but that only makes it plainer that the circumstances must be exceptional now which require such comfort to be so expressly provided for them. Something must have produced a question as to the blessedness of those that die at this time ; and in this we have an incidental confirmation-stronger because incidental-that the resurrection of the saints has already taken place. Were they still waiting to be raised, the blessedness of those who as martyrs join their company could scarcely be in doubt. The resurrection having taken place, and the hope of believers being now to enter alive into the kingdom of the Son of Man at His appearing,-as the Lord says of that time, " He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved " (Matt. 24:13),-the question is necessarily raised. What shall be the portion of these martyrs, then, must not remain a question ; and in the tenderness of divine love the answer is here explicitly given. Specially blessed are those who die from henceforth :they rest from their labors; they go to their reward. The Spirit seals this with a sweet confirming "yea"-so it is. Earth has only cast them out that heaven may receive them ; they have suffered, therefore they shall reign with Christ. Thus accordingly we find in the twentieth chapter, that when the thrones are set and filled, those that have suffered under the beast are shown as rising from the dead to reign with the rest of those who reign with Him. Not the martyrs in general, but these of this special time are marked distinctly as finding acknowledgment and blessing in that "first resurrection," from which it might have seemed that they were shut out altogether.

It may help some to see how similar was the difficulty that had to be met for the Thessalonian saints, and which the apostle meets also with a special "word of the Lord" in his first epistle. They too were looking for the Lord, so that the language of their hearts was (with that of the apostle), " We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." They had been "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven ;" and with a lively and expectant faith they waited.

But then what about those who were fallen asleep in Christ? It is evident that here is all their difficulty. He would not have them ignorant concerning those that were asleep, so as to be sorrowing for them, hopeless as to their share in the blessing of that day. Nay, those who remained would not go before these sleeping ones:they would rise first, and those who were alive would then be "caught up with them, to meet the Lord in the air." This for Christians now is thus the authoritative word of comfort. But the sufferers under the beast would not find this suffice for them; for them the old difficulty appears once more, and must be met with a new revelation.

How perfect and congruous in all its parts is this precious Word of God! And how plainly we have in what might seem even an obscure or strange expression -" blessed from henceforth"-a confirmation of the general interpretation of all this part of Revelation ! The historical interpretation, however true, as a partial anticipatory fulfillment, fails here in finding any just solution.

The Harvest and The Vintage. (10:14-20.)

In the next vision the judgment falls. The Son of. Man upon the cloud, the harvest, the treading of the winepress, are all familiar to us from other Scriptures, and in connection with the appearing of the Lord. We need have no doubt, therefore, as to what is before us here.

The "harvest" naturally turns us back to our Lord's parable, where wheat and tares represent the mingled aspect of the kingdom, the field of Christendom. "Tares" are not the fruit of the gospel, but the enemy's work, who sows not the truth of God, but an imitation of it. The tares are thus the 'children of the wicked one,' deniers of Christ, though professing Christians. The harvest brings the time of separation, and first the tares are gathered and bound in bundles for the burning, and along with this the wheat is gathered into the barn. In the interpretation afterward we have a fuller thing:the tares are cast into the fire, and the righteous shine forth as the sun in their Father's kingdom.

Here the general idea of harvest would be the same, though it does not follow that it will be a harvest of the same nature. In the harvest-time there are crops reaped of various character :the thought is of discriminative judgment, such as with the sheep and goats of Matt. 25:There is what is gathered in, as well as what is cast away, and hence the Son of Man is here as that. The vintage-judgment is pure wrath:the grapes are cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, and thus it is the angel out of the altar, who has power over the fire, at whose word it comes. The vine of the earth is a figure suitable to Israel as God's vine (Is. 5:), but apostate, yet cannot be confined to Israel, as is plain from the connection in which we find it elsewhere. But it represents still apostasy, and thus what we have seen to have its center at Jerusalem, though involving Gentiles also far and near. Thus the city also outside of which the wine-press is trodden is Jerusalem, as the sixteen hundred furlongs is well known to be the length of Palestine. Blood flows up to the bits of the horses for that distance-of course, a figure, but a terrible one.

Both figures-the harvest and the vintage-are used in Joel, with reference to this time:" Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war:stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears:let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together:hither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord ! Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat:for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe :come, tread ye, for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And the Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter His voice from, Jerusalem ; and the heaven and the earth shall shake :but the Lord will be a refuge unto His people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel."

Thus comes the final blessing, and the picture upon which the eye rests at last is a very different one. " So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain :then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord and water the valley of Shittim. . . . And I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed :for the Lord dwelleth in Zion." F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

I know He hears and answers prayer;
I know He bids us pray,
And cast the burden of our care
Upon Him day by day.
I know His power is still the same
As when He raised the dead,
And healed the sick, the blind, the lame,
And hungering thousands fed.

But I have prayed so fervently
That He would ease my pain,
And lay His gentle hand on me
And give me strength again ;
Yet here His helpless suppliant lies
Fettered in every limb,
Longing in vain that she might rise
And minister to Him.

He hears,-thy gracious Savior hears,
Beloved and chastened one :
Didst thou not whisper through thy tears,
"Thy holy will be done"?
Under the cross He gives the bow,
Whatever that cross may be :
The ministry of waiting now
Is all He asks of thee.

For thee He trod life's thorny way,
For thee His blood was spilt:
Is it too much for love to say,
"Do with me as Thou wilt"?
Then yield thy will, and plenteous grace
Upon thee shall be poured ;
The brightness of thy patient face
Can glorify thy Lord.

A smile can tell to those around
What peace and joy are thine,
And make them seek what thou hast found-
A comfort all divine.
Thus teaching what affliction taught,
A blessing thou shalt be,
So shall God's purposes be wrought
Alike in them and thee.
Then Hope shall speak of heavenly things,
And Love shall bid thee rest,
And Faith shall calmly fold her wings,
And wait to be more blest,
While gleams of glory from within
Shine through heaven's opening door,
As those thou lovest enter in
A little while before.

A little while, and thou shalt know
What now thou canst not see,
And this dark mystery of woe
Shall end in light for thee.
A little while, and thou shalt lay
Thy earthly burdens down,
And He who takes thy cross away
Will give the fadeless crown.

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of dark-'ness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels." (2 Cor. 4:6, 7.) "Among whom ye shine as lights in world, holding forth the word of life." (Phil. 2:15, 16.)

Since man turned from God, who is light, this has been a dark world, so dark that men have ceased to know there ever was a light. The only light now is that which the people of God themselves supply:"Ye are the light of the world." Recognizing this, the children of God have been, intelligently or otherwise, seeking to " let their light shine." There is one thing to remember, if we are to shine aright. All our light is reflected light. We are not suns with light in ourselves, but, like the moon, we are reflectors. The verses quoted at the beginning give us the. source, order, and means of shining.

As to the source, it is God. "God hath shined in our hearts." He who "spake and it was done," has done the same in our dark hearts. It is well to pause and dwell upon this. Do we realize that such a work has been done in us? Something every whit as wonderful; in one sense far more important, than that pouring forth of light over this world? How a sense of this subdues the soul, fills it with a holy joy; God has been near, He has sent the light into my heart. Light is given not to dazzle, far less to fill with pride. It has shined into the heart. It is not merely that the mind has become enlightened, but the whole man, from the center of his being has been visited. We have next the character of this light:" The light of the knowledge of the glory of God." God is the true center. When man fell he made himself the center. Every thing was measured by its contributing or not to his interests. All this only ends in sorrow. Man is not, can never be a center. God and His glory are what alone can be the center of all. So the shining of the light into the heart has this as its effect-it gives the knowledge of the glory of God. This shows us first, as it did Isaiah, that we have come short of it. The light first shows the disorder. Man never gets a true estimate of himself till he is thus seen by the light of the glory of God. Like Job, he now abhors himself. But, blessed be God ! the light that has shined in our hearts has done more than show us our sin. It is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That glory which we failed to exhibit, which could be found nowhere in all this world until in "God manifest in the flesh"-that glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. Here He finds one who has manifested Him. It is as risen and ascended that this glory shines in His face. This reminds us of the time when darkness gathered about that face, when the cry was, " Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And seeing the Lord thus, must remind us that it was for us He was thus forsaken. So too the glory into which He has entered is the witness not merely of the personal acceptance in which He ever was, but the acceptance of the work of redemption which He accomplished, and, as a result, of our acceptance in Him, by virtue of that work. But what thoughts are here ! God's glory, Christ's person and work, and our acceptance linked together! This is the light that has shined in our hearts. It shows us God's glory, but it is for us, nor against us; it shows us Christ's person, and we can say, "This is my Beloved ; " it shows us His work and we can say, " For me ; " it shows us ourselves, yet not ourselves, only as in Christ. And all this in such a way as not to lessen the sense of God's holiness, His righteous demands, nor our helplessness. We have the treasure in earthen vessels. It makes God, not self, the center ; His glory, and not even our salvation, the highest object. This is the light. It has shone in. Now it is to shine out. The same light.
This brings us to the order of shining. First, God hath shined in. We all admit that. But there is to be a constant shining. The light may be obstructed by things of earth. If there is to be an out-shining, there must be the constant in-shining. So the first business of the saint is to keep in communion. It is not our first business to lead others to Christ even, that and all else follows if the light shines unhinderedly in. Martha-service is the result of putting excellent things in the place of the light, and so preventing the shining in. But what care this means ! What jealous guarding of the heart, lest any thing shall come between us and that face. Our "one great business here " is this. All else is the fruit.

When the light thus fills the heart, like Moses, who wist not that his face shone, the saint is unconscious of any special excellence. Indeed, the sense is that the earthen vessel needs to be broken, to be kept out of sight. Like John the Baptist, such an one says, "He must increase, but I must decrease."

This brings us to the means of the out-shining. We have seen the order to be, first, the light shining in, and as a result, the sense that we are but earthen vessels. Now we are to shine in the midst of a dark world by " holding forth the word of life." The word is what brought the light to us ; it is that which will bring it to others. The word as known and operating in our own hearts and lives will make the light for those who sit in darkness. How simple, then, is the path of usefulness for the Christian- first drinking in the light for his own soul, he reflects that light by means of the word-both by lip and life.

May we all thus have our lives truly useful by ever walking in the light.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOLINESS.

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18.)

The case of Stephen illustrates, explains, and applies I this far-reaching statement that we may not only take in its meaning, but see that it is intended to be proved by men like ourselves, and in a sphere where all in the world, even worldly religion, is marshaled against Christ. Like a friend of the writer's, now with the Lord, each believer may pull himself up when inclined to feel depressed, and say, " There is nothing between me and the Lord on yon throne but an open heaven." Faith
sees the Lord where he is, owned in His true character as the risen Savior, and the believer is raised superior to circumstances by the transforming object on whom his eye is fixed.

A captain, called to lead a forlorn hope, conscious that the eye of his general is eagerly watching him, is so controlled and sustained as to cause him to make light of danger and death. But in Stephen's case, we have not only affectionate devotion, such as no mere soldier can feel, but with and in him, in a new way, there is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the very power and Spirit through whom the Lord Himself triumphed over death. Gideon of old could say to his tested band, "Look on me, and do likewise ;" and "As I do, so shall ye do." With him the battle had still to be won ; he could not yet be seen as one who had triumphed :he might inspire others by his courageous example, but he could not give them the strength derived from his own faith and confidence in God. It is far otherwise with the One whom Stephen saw. Jesus had triumphed over
principalities and powers, over death and him who had the power of death, and was already crowned with glory and honor. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, saw this glorified Savior, acted by the same power, and in his measure, in the same way, prayed for his murderers, and commended his Spirit to the One in obedience to whose will he laid down his life.

Blessed and wonderful as Stephen's triumph may appear, the grace and power of God, as illustrated in the life of Paul, in some respects, may present a fuller manifestation of the possibilites which lie before a Christian through realizing the deliverance vouchsafed in communion with a triumphant Saviour. Stephen, like Nelson, was victorious in death. Paul, like Wellington, lived to enjoy and prove and further illustrate the fullness of the blessing. Paul, in speaking of his own example, is careful to say, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." The perfect Man, Christ Jesus, unlike Paul or any other, had nothing to attain. He did not esteem it something to be grasped at to be on an equality with God. (Phil. 2:6.) He had his equality to begin with, and "emptied Himself," "humbled Himself, and becoming obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross." This alone is the complete, divine ideal, and hence it is said, " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus."

It is worthy of notice here again that the standard and the power for attaining conformity to the mind of Christ Jesus are mentioned close together. In the same context we find "the fellowship of the Spirit." (Phil. 3:)In all our thoughts concerning devotedness to the Lord, therefore, we cannot give too much prominence to the important truths of the Lord being now a Man on the throne in heaven, and the Holy Spirit being now a Person on the earth. Like the two pillars in the temple of old they are the Jachin and the Boaz in connection with what the Lord is doing in this dispensation. As " Jachin " means " He shall establish," it answers well to what Jesus as Lord continues to do from the throne. "Boaz" signifies "in him is strength," so no more appropriate thought could be suggested than that in the Spirit now dwelling on the earth there is power to carry out the will of the One who is on the throne in heaven. Both pillars were connected with the one temple. To have had only the one would have left it incomplete. So both truths, the glorified Man and the personal presence of the Spirit are required to give completeness and stability to any thing done for the Lord now. If we thus think of Him it is the One who has passed through death. If we think of the abiding Spirit, it is as the one who has come to maintain the interests of the Lord in the place where He was rejected and crucified. It will appear then that death is on all here that is contrary to the will of the . Whatever is of the Lord, whatever is according to will in consistent conduct, in successful service, or in acceptable worship, must be the tracing again of something of that life which was a meat-offering fit for God. Hence, in troubles, perplexities, and persecutions, the apostle speaks of " Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body." (2 Cor. 4:10.) On all that is the flesh, as connected with our Adam-life, there must |,the acceptance of death. This is not improvement or amelioration of the flesh. Its desert and doom are set forth in the dying of Jesus. The means and manner of (-deliverance are thus distinctly manifested. Jesus has |, condemning sin in the flesh, rejecting all that peril to-the first man as unfit for the presence and service God, and leaving room for the display of the life of Jesus 'in the body. The person is the same; his old nature is neither terminated nor changed ; but he has a new nature, the life of Jesus. The presence of the old nature is felt, so there must be the constant withstanding or resistance of it, by carrying in heart and mind the fact that it was, positively, and still requires to be, practically set aside by the dying of Jesus. Like the salt kept on the stump of a shrub to prevent it from sprouting in a garden-path, faith continues to reckon that the flesh was cut down by the death of Jesus; and thus, though liable to sprout, through the salt of grace, the flesh may be repudiated and kept in the place of death. Those who yield to the new life may find that every trial and hindrance met with by the way when rightly used through grace are the means of giving over to death all that is of the flesh, that the new life, the life of Jesus, may have an unhindered display in their mortal flesh. Thus there is not only the setting aside of the evil nature in the believer, but there is the possibility of the positive expression by him of the beautiful life of Jesus.

Elisha may be said to have desired to have his own life supplanted by the life of Elijah. Elisha would be the same person as to the traits of his individuality, but his life and works would henceforth be those of the prophet caught up in the chariot of fire, so that Elijah might be said to live again in the one who received a double portion of His spirit. Was the setting aside and repudiating of his own old life not set forth in the rending of his mantle? Was the taking up and expressing of the life of Elijah not betokened by the taking of his mantle when it fell from the ascending prophet ? If not, why, in returning to Jordan, does Elisha smite the waters with the mantle saying, " Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" The divided waters, as in the days of old, show that the "living God " is acting there, and the new prophet passing over makes it clear that it is much the same as if Elijah was still the prophet of Israel. So, indeed, from the life and power displayed, it appears to the sons of the prophets at Jericho as they say, " The Spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. (2 Kings 2:) Thus, in a striking and instructive way, we find in the Old Testament, the shadowing forth of how the believer might be delivered from his old life and rise to newness of life, so as to have the life of "Jesus in some measure, lived again in the body of the saint here on earth. His longings after holiness are only met or realized in proportion as Christ is magnified in his body. W.C. J.
(To be continued.)

q. 8.-" What is the difference between 'Sanctify them through Thy truth' (Jno. 17:17) and 'Sanctified in Christ Jesus' (1 Cor. 1:2)?"

Ans.-In the order of blessing, the passage in Corinthians comes first. It is a blessed fact that in Christ all our blessings are perfect. Attainment is not in question. All in Christ are sanctified, perfectly set apart to God, separated unto Him and for Him. This sanctification is perfect, it is the work of a moment, the portion of every believer. Hence our name, "saints." This is the position of all believers; but the passage in Jno. 17:is different. Our Lord is leaving His own in the world; His great desire is that they may be kept from evil, left here to represent Him. To do this, they must be holy. Hence the prayer, "Sanctify them through Thy truth." The practical walk is in question, and here sanctification is a gradual and progressive work. As the Word of God enters the heart, it shows us our unlikeness to Christ, then (by occupying us with Him,) fashions us into His image through the Spirit.

Q. 9.-"Does God own the gospel, or His Word, when preached by an unbeliever-1:e., an unredeemed person ?"

Ans.-Phil. 1:18 seems to give the answer clearly. It is His Word which God uses; and solemn as the handling of that Word by an unsaved person is, He may in His sovereign grace use it. So we can rejoice where Christ is preached, though the judgment on those who preach not sincerely will be sure.

Despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him." (Heb. 12:5.)

Sweet lessons learned in sorrow,
Our God, we dearly prize.
We would not from Thy discipline,
Our Father, hide our eyes.
E'en though the school be strict and stern,
We would the needed lesson learn.

We 're evil, weak, and foolish,
And know not how to choose.
Our God, Thou couldst not trust us-
Thy trust we would abuse.
Denial, though it break the heart,
Is e'er the faithful Father's part.

We change, and are forgetful :
Our God, Thou canst not change.
Our wanderings, our waywardness,
Thy love can ne'er estrange.
For Thine unfailing faithfulness,
Thee we learn, our God, to bless.

Grapes will yield their precious juices
When crushed beneath the press :
The sweetest songs we sing, Lord,
Are born of deep distress.
One sorrow less I would not have
Than Thou hast sent me in Thy love.

Oh discipline most holy,
That works His precious will! "
Despise not thou His chastening,
Nor faint," but rest thee still. "
He spoils the child who spares the rod."
Our Father is th' eternal God.

H. McD.

March 14th, 1891

Nothing happens without the Lord, not even the fall to the earth of one sparrow. This gives to God His proper place in all things occurrent and happening ; not only is He, in being, before all, but in all that occurs, His hand is the most important feature in the case. Satan could not act against Job or Paul without divine permission; and whatever Satan might mean in the one case or the other, God meant blessing, pure blessing, for His servants, and that eternal blessing. I hear you are depressed-it matters little what men call it-to me, as having one infinitesimal of faith, it is " of God," and for the blessing of yourself and husband. That it is, though coming through the body and mind, yet "of God," I doubt not; for that is one way in which He works, in breaking our plans of earthly joy, to make us seek our all in Him. (You know the Olney hymn, "I asked the Lord might grow.") The extent to which we are dependent upon circumstances, around and within ourselves, little know till we get stripped of them, and among perhaps of the feeling of joy which we mistook for Faith is taking God at His word, saying, " Let God true and every man a liar." The effect of this is tri-ump, often with joy, but when of the purer and deeper and without joy, and we have then sometimes to give the to our own inward feelings, as much as to the thoughts others all around us. i Peter gives us a case of it, so Cor. 12:G.V.W.

Professor Drummond has undertaken to show us what this is. "We have been accustomed," he says, "to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the keynote for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the chapter which I have just read (i Cor. 13:), to Christianity at its source ; and there we have seen, ' The greatest of these is love.' It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, ' If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have no love, I am nothing.' So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them. 'Now abideth faith, hope, love,' and without a moment's hesitation the decision falls, ' The greatest of these is love.' "

This is a fair summary, in his own language, of Prof. Drummond's views on the question he discusses. That those views are erroneous – lamentably erroneous – it will not be difficult to show. We cannot wrest any scripture from its context without altering its whole meaning; this is just what Prof. Drummond has done in this case. St. Paul, in this chapter, is speaking of the extent of the duration of love ; many other things, he says, as prophecies, tongues, knowledge, shall cease and vanish away:love never χπίπτει – falls off or ceases. Faith will fade into sight, hope into fruition; but love remains eternal. That this is the true sense of the whole chapter is further shown from the closing verse :" And now," says the apostle, "abideth (μέvει – continueth) faith, hope, love:these three, but the greater of these is love." It is to be noted that the apostle does not say, the greatest (μέγιστη), but μείςωv – " the greater," – that is, not the greatest in all respects, but greater in the restricted aspect of continuity only. It is to be noted also that in the Revised Version this distinction between the comparative and superlative is marked by the translation "greater" being given in the margin as an alternative reading.

Prof. Drummond appears to have an uneasy suspicion that the continuity of love is really the ground of the precedence given to it by the apostle over faith and hope. In his closing chapter, entitled " The Defense," he seems unconsciously to admit this. St. Paul's reason, he says, is "a very remarkable one. In a word, it is this :It lasts." But this apparent dawn of light is soon clouded over, for a few pages further on, more suo, as those who are familiar with his self-contradictions in his " Natural Law in the Spiritual World" will recognize, he says, "Some think the time may come when two of these three things will pass away,-faith into sight, hope into fruition. Paul does not say so. We know but little now about the conditions of the life to come. But what is certain is that love must last. . . . You will give yourselves to many things:give yourselves first to love."

This brings us face to face with the unscriptural error running through the whole of Prof. Drummond's address. Luther thought-inspired Paul was certain-that God's greatest gift to man was faith :to be justified by faith was the keynote of the Reformation, and has been for three centuries the central point of all evangelical teaching. When the jailer at Philippi cried to Paul and Silas, what must I do to be saved?" they replied, not Give yourself first to love, but "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." "Without faith," the apostle says, "it is impossible to please God." Neither love nor hope, nor any gift or grace, can be a substitute for faith. Faith is first of all,-the very foundation of all:love, and all other Christian graces are simply its necessary and inevitable outcome and fruit. It is very acceptable to God that we should please Him by loving Him ; but without faith first, it is impossible to please Him.
Our Lord Himself set this great truth before us in the clearest light in His reply to the lawyer who, tempting Him, asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life. "What is written in the law?-how readest thou?" said our Lord. And he, the lawyer, answering, said, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." Now, mark the Lord's reply :" Thou hast answered right:this do, and thou shalt live." And mark, also, how diametrically opposed are the teachings of our Lord and those of Prof. Drummond's address. Our Lord knew that neither the lawyer nor any other of our fallen race could keep the law; His own words tell us that "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight." He simply used the law as a schoolmaster to bring the inquirer to Himself.

This is the true gospel-the blessed evangel of Christ and the Scriptures; but Prof. Drummond preaches another gospel which is not another. Listen to his version of it :" You remember the profound remark which Paul made elsewhere,-'Love is the fulfilling of the law.' Did you ever think what he meant by that ? In those days men were working their passage to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they had manufactured out of them. Christ said, I will show you a more simple way. If you do one thing, you will do these hundred and ten things without ever thinking about them. If you love, you will unconsciously fulfill the whole law." Now, this is the mere substitution of one kind of "doing" for another. Listen further to another statement of Prof. Drummond ; speaking of the patience, kindness, humility, sincerity, and other graces enumerated by the apostle, he says, " Now, the business of our lives is to have these things fitted into our characters. That is the supreme work to which we need to address ourselves in this world -to learn to love. Life is not a holiday, but an education ; and the one eternal lesson for us all is, how better we can love. What makes a man a good cricketer? Practice. What makes a man a good artist, a good sculptor, a good musician ? Practice. What makes a man a good linguist, a good stenographer ? Practice. What makes a man a good man ? Practice. Nothing else."

Not so teaches St. Paul. He tells the Romans that the righteousness of God-that is, God's gift of righteousness-is, "by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe."

And to the Galatians he says, " So, then, they,"not those who have been long practicing the art of loving, but "they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."

Notwithstanding some isolated passages in Prof. Drummond's address which appear to be more in accord with evangelical sentiments, the general drift and tendency of the work is, to elevate love, the fruit, above faith, the cause,-to put the fruits of faith in the place of faith itself, which is the one only cause revealed to us from which love and every other grace can flow. It is none other than a complete reversal of the gospel plan of salvation.

To what straits a man may be driven to bolster up a false position, Prof. Drummond furnishes us with a singular example. "Nor is this letter to the Corinthians," he says, "peculiar in singling out love as the summum bonum. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed upon it:Peter says, 'Above all things, have fervent love among yourselves.' 'Above all things' " That is, doubtless, among the various warnings and exhortations he was giving, suited to the peculiar circumstances of that day, he gives special emphasis to that grace which the bitter opposition of heathens and unbelieving Jews would be likely to lead them to forget.
But if Prof. Drummond builds an argument on St. Peter's exhortation in this passage, what force does he attribute to that of St. James, "Above all things, my brethren, swear not at all " ? Is abstinence from swearing the summum bonum ? It must be that if Prof. Drummond's use of St. Peter's exhortation is warranted,-that is, it must be as sound an inference in one case as in the other. But it is equally unsound in both cases. Both St. Peter and St. James used that expressive form of appeal only in connection with the circumstances referred to in the contexts in which they respectively appear. There could not possibly be two gifts or graces equally entitled to the position of the highest or greatest good.

It is not probable, however, that a difficulty of this kind, springing from the incompatibility of his views with scriptural statements, would occasion much trouble to Prof. Drummond ; he has a short way of solving such difficulties. Some time since, he delivered a course of lectures on Sunday afternoons at the Duke of Westminster's residence. The subject of one was "Christianity Looked at from the Stand-point of Evolution." Now, the account of the creation of the universe in six days out of nothing-chaos-is utterly irreconcilable with the theory of Evolution. Prof. Drummond disposed of this difficulty very briefly-by sweeping away the scriptural account as a mere instructive fable. I quote from the report of this lecture which appeared in The Christian Commonwealth, and which I have never heard that Prof. Drummond has repudiated.

"In the course of his lecture, the Professor said,' Most of us have accepted the doctrine of evolution in some form or other. It cannot be proved yet, but that does not matter much (!) Great things and great thoughts fill the mind and make their impression. . . . The book of Genesis must be regarded as presenting truth to children's minds,' and the Professor illustrated this idea by George Macdonald's poem, 'The Baby,'-not literally true, but true for the child. ' So Moses gave truth in the form of a poem. If you say it is a scientific book, I give it up; but if you regard it as a poem, then I can deal with it. One great difficulty was the Fall. Theology gives us its version; and it appears, after all, not a fall, but a rise. . . .

"'Another class of difficulty was that of accepting miracles. No need of accepting any miracle but the Resurrection, and this science makes possible, and even probable.'" (!)

" Irreverence " is but a feeble term to describe such presumptuous handling of God's Word.

Can its author be trusted to teach us what is "the greatest thing in the world," or, indeed, any thing which depends upon the plenary inspiration of Scripture for its foundation ? P. Carteret Hill.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.-XXII. PART IV.

THE EARTH-TRIAL. (CHAP. 14:)

"First-Fruits." (10:1-5.)

The manifestation of evil is complete; we are now to see God's dealings as to it. These acts of Satan and his ministers are a plain challenge of all His rights in Israel and the earth ; and further patience would be no longer patience, but dishonor. Hence we find now, as in answer to the challenge, the Lamb upon Mount Zion, -that is, upon David's seat; and as the beast's followers have his mark upon them, so the followers of Christ, associated with Him here, have His and His Father's name upon their foreheads. What this means can scarcely be mistaken.

Zion is not only identified in Scripture with David and his sovereignty, but very plainly with the sovereign grace of God, when everything intrusted to man had failed in Israel, priesthood had broken down, the ark gone into captivity in the enemy's land, and although restored by the judgment of God upon the Philistines, was no more sought unto in the days of Saul. He, though Jehovah's anointed king, had become apostate. All might seem to have gone, but it was not so ; and in this extremity, as the seventy-eighth psalm says, " Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, . . and He smote His adversaries backward. Moreover, He refused the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah the Mount Zion which He loved. … He chose also David His servant." Nor was this a temporary choice :as a later psalm adds, " For Jehovah 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. 132:13, 14.)

Thus, though the long interval of so many centuries may seem to argue repentance upon God's part, it is not really so :" God is not man, that He should lie ; nor the son of man, that He should repent." The Lamb on Zion shows, us the true David on the covenanted throne, and Zion by this lifted above the hills indeed. The vision is of course anticipative, for by and by we find that the beast still exists. The end is put first, as it is with Him who sees it from the beginning, and then we trace the steps that lead up to it.

But who are the hundred and forty-four thousand associated with the Lamb ? Naturally one would identify them with the similar number sealed out of the twelve tribes in the seventh chapter, and the more so that the Lamb's and His Father's name upon their foreheads seems to be the effect of this very sealing, which was upon the forehead also. No other mark is given us as to them in the former vision, of whom we read as exempted from the power of the locusts afterward. Here, if it is not directly affirmed that these are sealed, yet it seems evident, a seal having been often a stamp with a name; and the purpose of the sealing in the former case being to mark them out as God's, this is manifestly accomplished by the name upon them. This open identification with Christ in the day of His rejection might seem to be what would expose them to all the power of the enemy, yet it is that which in fact marks them for security. In reality, what a protection is the open confession of Christ as the One we serve ! There is, in fact, no safer place for us than that of necessary conflict under the Lord's banner ; and the end is glory. Here they stand-these confessors, openly confessed by Him on His side; and their having been through the suffering and the conflict is just that which brings them here upon the mount of royalty :it is " if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him."

Another inestimable privilege they have got, though clearly an earthly, not a heavenly company:they are able to learn a song that is sung in heaven. "And I heard a voice from heaven, as a voice of many waters, and as a voice of great thunder; and the voice which I heard was of harpers harping with their harps; and they sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living beings and the elders :and no one was able to learn the song, except the hundred and forty-four thousand that were purchased from the earth."

It is clear that the company here occupy a place analogous to that of the Gentile multitude of the seventh chapter, who stand before the throne and the living ones also. The vision in either case being anticipative, we can understand that earth and heaven are at this time brought near together, and that "standing" before the throne and "singing" before the throne involve no necessary heavenly place for those who sing or stand there. Here they stand upon Mount Zion while they sing before the throne,-if, that is, the singers are primarily the hundred and forty-four thousand, as many think. What seems in opposition to this is that the voice is heard from heaven, and that the company on Mount Zion are spoken of as learners of the song. On the other side, the difficulty is in answering the question, Who are these harpers, plainly human ones, who are distinguished from the elders, yet in heaven at this time ? Remembering what the time is may help us here. May they not be the martyrs of the period with which the prophecy in general has to do,- those seen when the fourth seal is opened, and those for whom they are bidden to wait-the sufferers under the beast afterward ? two classes which are seen as completing the ranks of the first resurrection in the twentieth chapter. These would give us a third class, evidently-neither the heavenly elders nor the sealed ones of Israel; and yet in closest sympathy with the latter. It could not be thought strange that these should be able to learn their song. And at the time when the Lamb is King on Zion, this third class would certainly be found filling such a place as that of the harpers here.

This seems to meet every difficulty, indeed:for their song would clearly be a new song, such as neither the Old Testament nor the revelation of the Church-mystery could account for ; while the living victors over the beast would seem rightly here to enter into the song of others, rather than to originate it themselves.

But they have their own peculiar place, as on Mount Zion, first-fruits of earth's harvest to God and to the Lamb, purchased from among men, (grace, through the blood of Christ, the secret of their blessing, as of all other,) but answering to that claim in a true undefiled condition, in virgin-faithfulness to Him who is afresh espousing Israel to Himself. In their mouth thus no lie is found, for they are blameless:and these last words we shall surely read aright when we remember that to those who have not received the love of the truth, " God will send strong delusion, that they may believe the lie" (2 Thess. 2:ii), and the apostle's question, "Who is the liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" and that " he is the antichrist who denieth the Father and the Son." (i Jno. 2:21, 22.) The names of the Lamb and of His Father are on the foreheads of these sealed ones.

The Everlasting Gospel,(10:6, 7.)

It is a foregleam of the day that comes that the first vision of this chapter shows us :but, although the day is coming fast, we have first to see the harbingers of judgment, and then the judgment, before it can arrive. Righteousness, unheeded when it spoke in grace, must now speak in judgment, that "the work of righteousness" may be " peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." (Isa. 32:17.)

In this way it is that we come now to what seems to us perhaps a strange, sad gospel, and yet is the everlasting one, which an "angel flying in mid-heaven," preaches to the inhabitants of the earth. And this is what his voice declares :" Fear God, and give glory to Him ; for the hour of His judgment is come ; and worship Him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters."

How any one could confound this gospel of judgment with the gospel of salvation by the cross would seem hard to understand, except as we realize how utterly the difference of dispensations has been ignored in common teaching, and how it is taken as a matter of course that the " gospel " must be always one and the same gospel; which even the epithet " everlasting " is easily taken to prove. Does it not indeed assert it ?-that the same gospel was preached, of course, in a clearer or a less clear fashion, all through the dispensation of law and before it ?

No doubt the everlasting gospel must be that which from the beginning was preached, and has been preaching ever since, although it should be plain that "the hour of His judgment is come" is just what with truth no one in Christian times could say. Plain it is too that the command to worship God the Creator is not what any one who knew the gospel could take as that. In fact, the gospel element, or glad tidings, in the angel message is just found in that which seems most incongruous with it to-day-that the "hour of His judgment is come." What else in it is "tidings" at all? That certainly is; and if serious, yet to those who know that just in this way deliverance is to come for the earth, it is simple enough that the coming of the delivering judgment is in fact the gospel.

Listen to that same gospel, as a preacher of old declared it. With what a rapture of exultation does he break out as he cries,-

" Oh sing unto the Lord a new song !
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless His name;
Show forth His salvation from day to day !
Declare His glory among the nations,
His marvelous works among all the peoples !

Tremble before Him, all the earth !
Say among the nations that the Lord reigneth;
The world also is established, that it cannot be moved:
He shall judge the peoples with equity.
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice !
Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof !
Let the field exult, and all that is therein !
Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before
the Lord ;
For He cometh, for He cometh, to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness,
And the peoples with His truth !" (Ps. 96:)

Here is a gospel before Christianity; and it has been sounding out all through Christianity, whether men have heard it or have not. And it is but the echo of what we hear in Eden, before the gate of the first paradise shuts upon the fallen and guilty pair,-that the seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head. That is a gospel which has been ringing through the ages since, and which may well be called the everlasting one. Its form is only altered by the fact that now at last its promise is to be fulfilled. "Judgment "is now to "return to righteousness." The "rod" is "iron," but henceforth in the Shepherd's hand. Man's day is past, the day of the Lord is come ; and every blow inflicted shall be on the head of evil, the smiting down of sorrow and of all that brings it. What can he be but rebel-hearted, who shall refuse to join the anthem when the King-Creator comes into His own again ? The angel-evangel is thus a claim for worship from all people, and to Him that cometh every knee shall bow. F. W. G.

(To be continued.)

AND FAITH’S SUPPLY, AND THE MOUNT THAT WAS NIGH TO THE SEA. (Matt. 15:)

This chapter presents two subjects in remarkable contrast:religious hardness of hypocrisy, in the first part, teaching that a man was free from obligation to help his parents on declaration that what he might have given them was devoted as a gift, and at the same time scrupulous about eating with unwashed hands. Love and righteousness were nothing before the claims of religious formalities.

It is here the Lord says, " Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ' This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' And He called the multitude, and said, Hear and understand, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.' "

And does this plain and solemn rebuke open their blinded eyes? No; they are only offended by it. Self-complacency made them satisfied with a well of iniquity, covered with smooth words, but the Lord uncovers it. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." A sevenfold result of wickedness. "These are the things that defile a man, but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man." But so hardened were they and blind, that the Lord had to say, " Let them alone ; they be blind leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." The Lord's words only offended them.

And here is the turning point in the chapter. " Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And in contrast with the secure hardness of " the scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem," He meets at once a world of openly confessed need, and at once supplies all that need. The daughter of the woman of Canaan is " made whole that very hour." "And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus feet, and He healed them, and . . . they glorified the God of Israel." And also He had compassion on the multitude and fed them, and they were all filled.

The contrast is impressive and instructive. Hardness of heart, ignorant of its need, He turns from; but felt misery and need He tenderly compassionates and at once relieves. It is a dark shadow and a bright light. Human wickedness and human misery brought suddenly to view, to arouse, if possible, the desperately hardened, and through it all the glory of the Lord shines. The meek and lowly one exposes and denounces the heartless hypocrite; and the all powerful One tenderly cares for the distressed. This is the One who has saved us. Let us not fear to be at rest in His love, and to examine ourselves too in the light of His holiness; and let us study His character, that is, behold His glory. If the shining of the light exposes and condemns, let us welcome the exposure, for He heals also, and His grace is sufficient to enable us to follow Him.

Note that they had made the commandments of God of no effect by their traditions; and their hearts were hardened against the tenderest feelings, and that by religious decrees. Let us heed the lesson:for to-day decrees of human invention, having a fair name to give them currency, displace the Word of God, to make room for the will of man.
How pure and good is the holy Word of God, by contrast,-"Thy word is very pure, therefore Thy servant loveth it." (Ps. 119:140.) "Honor thy father and mother," the Lord quotes to them, and at once their wickedness is exposed. How good the sound of this voice to upright parents and children! It was truly the turning of the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to the parents, according to the last words of the Old Testament.

The religious Pharisees were undermining the foundations of society, and the shining of the light exposes them at it.

But let us beware! How easy to slight common obligations of love and kindness while carefully religious ! May our eyes be enlightened !

But let us turn again to the latter part of the chapter. "And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. 'And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame,'blind, dumb, maimed and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them."

The poor multitudes are better occupied than the Pharisees. They brought the needy ones to Jesus. This was good works, and the Lord was ready for them. But the locality is instructive. It is the third time He is on the mount in Matthew, in His service, and there is nothing but unhindered blessing. He is the triumphant, all-powerful One. In the chapter previous He is also on a mountain. "But," says the next verse, "the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary." At once we are reminded of the book of Exodus, the opposition of the enemy, a contrary wind, while deliverance follows, but this occasion (the third) we are, as in Leviticus, in the glorious presence of God.

The number has evidently its usual meaning. On resurrection ground divine power dispenses world-wide blessing to fourfold distress:the dumb speak, the maimed become whole, the lame walk, and the blind see. And those who saw it "glorified the God of Israel."

It is a millennial scene, and a very glorious one and a complete one. For first, the power of Christ heals them, and enables them to stand before Him. And then in the miracle of the loaves and fishes, He feeds them, and by the twelve, as Solomon had twelve to minister provision for his house,-in his kingdom that was a type of the millennium.

There are, too, seven loaves and seven baskets full of overabundance. All tells completeness and super abounding grace.

"And they did all eat, and were filled."

But where is the Pharisee? Satisfied with husks, that even the poor prodigal turns away from because he has felt his need ! Satisfied without Christ! Perishing, and ignorant of it, in the far country ! He knows nothing of this scene of glory. How dark and sad his condition, far off from and forever ignorant of this scene of joy. And yet what can be done ? No one can give supply to him who knows no need. God commands men every where to repent, and there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, and on earth weeping-the Lord's own tears- over those who would not repent. They "would not," and their house was left unto them desolate. The burning thirst will come, but too late. The fixed gulf will be there, no more pleadings of mercy.

But no needy one is turned away. " Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt, 11:) And "him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out." There was no exception. Of all that multitude of men and women and children "they did all eat and were filled." Let no one fear to come boldly to Him, saint or sinner. If convicted of sin He gives peace; if already His, and in distress, in Him there is perfect grace and love to lift above every fear, and fill with peace and joy.

No Christian is ever without a Friend, or without full supply for every kind of need. Read in the fourth chapter of i Kings the type of all this, when " Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, which provided victuals for the king and his household." And consider that " a greater than Solomon is here." And Solomon had wide dominion, and " he had peace on all sides round about him, and Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree ;" as it will be in the time when "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." (Micah 4:4.) " Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom." (2 Chron. 9:7.) They were happy, not merely that their want was supplied, but because they stood continually in the king's presence, and heard his word, as did Mary. The Lord is both our "shield and our exceeding great reward." (Gen. 15:) Let us seek Him, and we shall know both His power and His bounty. We are always in need, and in Him and at His table is always perfect supply, and fullness of joy.

The Lord never brought any one into His presence to leave them unfed or uncared for. It is a place of joy. "None might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth." (Esth. 4:2.) And Mephibosheth (2 Sam. 9:) sat at the king's table, while all the fruits of the land of Saul's house were his; that is, all that is of this world that is for our good, is ours. He hath given us all things richly to enjoy.

There is another thing to notice as to the locality of this scene. The mountain was " nigh unto the sea of Galilee." "And Jesus departed thence," it reads, "and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there." That is, the scene of all this abounding blessing in the Royal Presence was nigh unto the well-known sea of storms that witnessed the distress of His disciples and their cries of unbelief,-the sea that lay between them and the peaceful presence of the Lord on the shore beyond.

The time of sorrow we are in is not far from the millennial day. The night is far spent, and the day is at "Yet a little while [a very little while] and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." And as the groaning increases, the day is hastening. It is about to dawn. The mount is nigh to the sea. Let this be our motto to cheer the soul. There is a glory in this creation that leads the heart to God; but in a moment we shall be in the presence of a glory such as no eye has seen, and this world will be a forgotten past. We are saved " in hope" (Rom. 8:)-in an atmosphere of hope. To rest here in this world is corruption; to breathe the atmosphere of hope is revival and strength and joy. " We rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. 5:2.)

So also in the alternation of trials and consolations here the mountain is nigh to the sea, when we least think so. And by a new valley of tribulation we are led by the hand to a new hill-top of hope to get a nearer, clearer view than ever before of the heavenly city.

Who would wish to have it otherwise than He appoints? Let us leave all with Him. Only let us not seek the hilltop of pride, but the valley of humility, where Jesus walked, and the hill-top of hope ; and the lower the valley of tribulation with humility (i Pet. 5:5, 6, and Rom. 5:2-5), the higher the hill-top of hope. His grace alone can keep us.

"And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground." We must be at rest, and subject, in order to be fed. "And He gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude." We must receive first from the Lord, and then communicate to others. This the disciples did. They were sanctified, and meet for the Master's use. This we must be or He will not use us. He will not forsake us, but He will not use us unless ready to be used. And then the disciples did not keep what they received, or waste it. They gave just what they had received to the multitude-"their portion of meat in due season." (Luke 12:42.)

What is kept and not used is like the manna kept. It became corrupt. Truth not held in holy hands, and communicated-circulated-is like a stagnant pool compared with running water. How foul the one ! how clear and light the other! Life-giving and refreshing, a type or figure of the Spirit's power in the Christian. (Jno. 7:38)

May our lives be holy lives, and our service abundant for the Lord, and to His people, and to all men.

Let us remember, then, there is a time to sit down and be fed, and a time for activity in service; and if one is lacking, both are lacking. May we hasten to purify ourselves from any sin that would hinder our being fed, and ' from any sluggishness that would hinder both feeding and serving.

May we welcome both the north wind and the south wind, if only the spices of His garden flow out. E.S.L.

INTRODUCTORY-THREEFOLD NEED, THREEFOLD BLESSING.

Afar-seeing man with Dr. Talmage is one who sees into things. This is good as far as it goes, but he would be the furthest-seeing man who sees through things. This is what is wanted in philosophy, in science, or in religion. This Holiness Question, now exercising the most earnest Christians everywhere, requires seeing into and seeing through if one of the deepest needs of the Church of God is to receive a divine answer. Then let us try to see into it even if we cannot see through it. Some philosophers consider that religion takes its rise in the soil of remorse. Without accepting this altogether, it may be allowed that it expresses an important principle. It is what we call repentance, or self-judgment. Betterment of life implies that the life lived before was not only an undesirable and unworthy one, but that in some measure the whole course, and the man that lived it, are abhorred by the person himself, and he is longing after something more in harmony with the intention of his Creator. The Holiness Movement has taken its rise out of the acknowledged failure and unholiness of the great majority of professing Christians. Then even if the movement in some respects is a failure, it is an improvement on the state of things which called it into existence.

It is said that at an examination a divinity student was asked who were the heretics. To the surprise and alarm of some who would ever say, "As it was in the beginning,'' etc., the student replied, " The heretics are the life of the Church." Wiser, broader-minded men allowed that he had struck a vein of gold. Heretics and heresy mean life rather than stagnation and death. It is not necessary to go with the heresy ; but the exercise and inquiry it causes may increase the stamina and intelligence of the Christians who wake up, and, in exposing the error, bring out and emphasize the real truth. Then the controversy about holiness, in many quarters, in the light of the former indifference or stagnation, is a good rather than an evil omen for the well-being of the Church. It is a seed-time. If the Lord leaves the Church here, the harvest will depend upon how we sow at this season. Then are Christians ready to wake up and say, " Let the truth run and have free course, and win whoever is unhorsed from his hobby." Scripture must be the umpire.

We may start with this common thought, that the low state of things, individually and collectively, demonstrate the deep need that there is for a genuine movement toward whole-hearted devotedness to the Lord. But, at the outset, observe that the great tendency, even with the most earnest Christians, is, to seek for an experience, whereas God presents a Person-the Lord Jesus Christ. Holiness-advocates speak of "it," or " what:" God speaks of " Him," or the Person whom He has raised to His own right hand. Personal testimonies as to the experience of a "second blessing," have been largely used in the holiness movement; When they are modest and scriptural, they may have their place, but at best they are the blurred page of human experience. It will be necessary, if we are to have a proper standard, to see what is said in the distinct statements of Scripture on this doctrine of Christian holiness or deliverance. Experience, at the best, is like a painting of part of an extensive landscape. Scripture is more like looking on the landscape itself. You have not only the original of what appears in the painting, but much more than what was painted, and every part seen in relation to the whole landscape. To take in God's view of holiness or deliverance in any measure, it is needful to look at all Scripture. Still there are some remarkable statements where, in brief compass, the salient points
of man’s need and God's provision are presented together.

MAN'S THREEFOLD NEED.

Titus invites us to take such an extensive view when he says " The grace of God, which carries with it salvation for all men, has appeared, teaching us that, having denied impiety and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and justly and piously in the present course of things, awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Tit. 3:11-14.) Here it maybe observed that man has a threefold need, which is met by God's bringing in a threefold blessing. The sins committed require an atonement, and Jesus' Christ "gave Himself for us." Or, as said elsewhere, "Who gave Himself for our sins." (Gal. 1:4.) Then, when forgiven, as living in the world, the believer has evil within and around him. He is called to live consistently with what he is as a new man. His conduct toward others must be according to righteousness. With God before him, all his ways should bear the impress of one who was governed by the sense of the divine presence. For all such present need, he finds an adequate answer in Him who is seeking to " purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Then, though good works be maintained and holiness characterize the believer, there are longings which can only be satisfied in a scene where sin can never come, and where imperfection is unknown. The heart attracted by the Lord longs to know and enjoy its object where there is naught to limit or interfere with its communion. So there is the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. There is man's deep need and God's rich provision; each to be viewed as a whole, yet it is helpful to see that man's need is threefold, and that God meets it by a-

THREEFOLD BLESSING.

(1.) For sins committed there is forgiveness through faith in the blood of Christ.

(2.) From the power of the evil nature possessed there is deliverance through owning that our old man has been crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.

(3.) From all weakness and imperfection, even as to the body, and from the scene and sphere where sin has had sway, there is to be deliverance, by the Lord's appearing the second time, without sin, unto salvation; the creature itself also will be set free from the bondage of corruption, and brought into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. (Rom. 8:21.)

What is thus briefly taught in the passage from Titus is more elaborately explained in the epistle to the Romans. The first question, that which refers to the guilt of our sins, is taken up in chaps, 1:-5:2:The second aspect of man's need regarding the power of sin, or the evil nature, is treated in chaps, 5:12-8:10. The third and perfect answer to man's state as connected with a creation subject to corruption, is his deliverance from the presence of sin. The spirit is freed at death ; the body at the resurrection; or both together at the coming of the Lord. This is treated in chap. 8:11-27.

We must return to these central chapters of Romans again and again. Suffice it to say that they form the great scriptural basis of the doctrine of Christian holiness, or deliverance. Any teaching on holiness or sanctification which is not founded upon, and in harmony with, these chapters is likely to prove unsatisfactory, if it does not land its followers in positive error. On the other hand, if these
chapters are understood, and an experience leading up to shout of liberty and thanksgiving realized, the be-will find himself led by the Spirit along the way of holiness, and have the life also of Jesus made manifest in his body.

Another instance of the threefold character of blessing be noticed. " Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it the washing of water by the Word, that He might ''present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish." Also, " Nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. (Eph. 5:25-30.)

Here again we see that for sins Christ gave Himself in the past . To deliver from the power of sin He is occupied with His own at the present. To remove them from the presence of sin and bring in perfection He is coming again in the future.

So likewise to the Thessalonians it is said, "Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, our Deliverer from coming wrath." (i Thess. 1:9, 10). They were met where they were in their sins by the gospel announcing forgiveness. The word was received in power, and in the Holy Ghost, so that they became followers of the apostles, and ensamples of the power of grace. Then their hearts were set on the Lord to wait for full deliverance when He returned from heaven.

Once more to the Hebrews the Spirit writes on the same lines, the three appearings of Christ. (Heb. 9:24-28.) He appeared to put away sin:He appears in the presence of God for us:He will appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation.

Thus the divine answer to man's threefold need will be found linked up with three great facts concerning Christ. As we have seen, as to time, they have to do with the past, the present, and the future. As to the character and extent of the work, the gospel of God fully announced will show that Christ came and suffered for sins; that He rose from among the dead and took His seat at the right hand of God, and is there the Succorer of His people now; and that He will come again to receive His people to be with Himself in the glory given Him by the Father. Tested in this way much that is preached will be shown to come short of the gospel as preached and written by Paul.

But having now sketched the relation of the three aspects of the blessing of believers, we may turn more definitely to the middle one of the three, which is our special subject. Thus occupied particularly with holiness or deliverance, a few of the statements and illustrations of Scripture may clear the ground for a more detailed exposition and application of our theme.

By seeing the beauty of the life of Jesus as retraced again by the Spirit in the lives of devoted servants, other hearts and minds may be led to admire such a manifestation of the grace of God. When it is further perceived that men of like passions with ourselves so found and proved the all-sufficiency of the grace of God, some may venture to admit that in their own lives such grace might be illustrated. Dwelling on who the Lord is, and where He is now, and what He can and delights to do for His own, some may be sweetly constrained to so yield themselves unto God as to find that they have actually adopted His own way of having Christ magnified in their bodies. Yes, the old adage, "If in writing you would improve, you must first with writing fall in love," may be appropriately rendered, in connection with holiness, If in living you would improve, you must first with living fall in love, and nothing less than the living, or the life of Jesus, will be your ideal or you model.

Then to quicken the love for holiness it is needful to study the perfect copy, as well as the imitations of those who have followed it most successfully.

We must leave further illustrations for another paper, but just calling attention to one comprehensive scripture, we close by saying that for holiness, here is the perfect standard, the living ideal, as well as the power by which it is to be attained:"We all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unvailed face, are transformed according to the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit." W. J. C.

(To be continued.)

Q. 5.-" Please explain Jno. 20:22 in connection with Acts 1:8."

Ans.-In the passage in John we have a symbolic act. In creation, God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. In this passage we have the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit. The Lord as risen, and head of a new creation, confers that in the power of which alone we can walk according to that rule (Gal. 6:16). It is not necessary, however, to suppose that the Spirit was actually bestowed by the act of breathing, or at that time. Pentecost was the appointed time, and then they received, not till then, the promise of the Father. The blessings indicated in the gift of the Spirit in Acts and John are not different. There is no hint that the one is preliminary to the other. In both, power for service is the prominent thought, as may be seen from the context.

Q. 6.-"Explain the difference between 'fruit of righteousness' (Jas. 3:18) and 'fruit of the Spirit' (Gal. 5:22, 23)."

Ans.-The first gives us the outward manifestation-the character, the second gives us the source and power.

Q. 7._"What is the sin unto death (1 Jno. 5:16.)?"

Ans.-It is the sin of a brother, and of such a character that he must be removed under the chastening of God (1 Cor. 11:30). This of course does not mean that he is lost, but that his life here is no testimony for God, and he is taken from a scene where he fails to honor Him.

But "five barley loaves, and two small fishes,"
Among the five thousand, with all my wishes,
Seemed very small indeed.
"Two hundred pennyworth " was not enough that all "
A little" might "take." But thy gifts, however small,
Shall meet this pressing need.

"Bring them hither to Me," and with My blessing,
And with thine impotence frankly confessing,
" Give ye then? to eat."
Thy "seed " shall "multiply," thy bread shall not lack ;
And though it be but crumbs, I will bring it back-
Thy need I'll surely meet.

Then with my little I laid me at His feet,
And though it was my all, less were incomplete
For the service of love.
But hungry souls were fed with the bread of life,
While the bread for my food was " gathered " without
By strength from above. [strife

If I ate my little-brought it not to Him,
My " loaves" I would not have, nor yet to the brim
Of crumbs "twelve baskets" full!
There is, then, withholding, to poverty tending ;
But love distributes-"good works" commending,
And thus grace shall rule.

(Continued from p. 111.)
Having briefly examined the word "love" (agape), and the various connections in which it is found, we come now to one which gives character to God's love:Hagios, hagiazo, "holy, to sanctify." True love, divine love, is holy. God never sacrifices His holiness for His love. Indeed, love would cease to be truly perfect did it dim in the least the bright shining forth of that holiness. With us, alas ! it is different:love means too often the sacrifice of right principles, of faithful testimony ; it means allowing sin to be unreproved in our brother, looseness in all the relationships of life-the home, the place of business, the assembly. But this is not true love ; it is weakness. The careful examination of the word now before us will show that there is no such element of weakness in that love we have been dwelling upon. The cross, the greatest exhibition of love, is at the same time the full manifestation of God's holiness. He loved the world, and gave His Son:He was holy-that blessed One must die.

The name "saints" (hagioi) is given to His people to show what they are in Christ, and in God's mind,-what, therefore, He would have them carry out in the life :(chap. 5:3) " Let it not be named among you, as becometh saints." This is the Scripture-thought of sainthood, so contrary to all man's thought on the subject. Man says he must act in a certain way in order to be a saint; God says we should act thus because we are saints. What a beautiful name to be known by-"saints"-"sanctified ones"-"holy people"! So God looks upon us and speaks of us. "They envied Aaron, the saint of the Lord." (Ps. 106:16.) Looking at Aaron's personal life, there would not seem to be much ground for him to lay claim to sainthood. He made the golden calf, and taught the people to worship it. This at the beginning of his career. He, with Miriam, envied Moses during that career; and to close it, he had the melancholy record of anger at the waters of Meribah, shutting him as well as Moses out of the land of Canaan. Yet, failing at the beginning, middle, and end of his life, Aaron is a saint- God set him apart for Himself. The importance of the word in the epistle is seen from its frequent use- chaps, 1:i, 15, 18; 2:19; 3:8, 18; 4:12; 6:18. His people are clothed in clean raiment in His sight, let it be practically so. If this is true individually, it follows necessarily that it applies collectively. So the temple is a holy one, formed of such living stones. This work of building, as well as of sealing (the individual work), is by the Holy Spirit (chaps, 1:13; 4:30). So, looking on to the end, where God's glory will be fully manifested, holiness is "there too (chaps, 1:4; 5:26, 27). Linked with these are the kindred words "without spot" (aspilos), or "wrinkle" (nitis), and "blameless" (amomos). How blessed to know that this was God's purpose for us when He chose us in Christ,-that this purpose will be perfectly accomplished. By grace we have been freed from the guilt of sin, another having borne it; through grace we can walk free from the power of sin by reckoning ourselves to be dead to it and alive to God in Christ Jesus ; but do not our hearts yearn for that time when we shall be freed from the presence of sin, when holiness will describe our character both positively and negatively !

Chap. 4:24-Hosiotes-" holiness of truth " shows the character of this holiness, that it is no mere negative absence of evil, but according to and produced by the truth. This is most important. What is called devotion, even prayerfulness, is not necessarily holiness of truth. These may be merely the exercise of human will; but the truth is what sanctifies, and by the truth all professed sanctity must be tested.

"Hence we find the word "truth" (aletheia) prominently used. In chap. 1:13, it is that which begins the work, which lies at the foundation-"the word of the truth of the gospel." "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth." (Jas. 1:18.) Then as to the pattern of the walk, the truth as it is in Jesus (His spotless, true life down here,) is the guide. The result of learning effectually the truth as it is in Jesus will lead to truth in our life (chap. 4:25). The fruit of the Spirit (chap. 5:9) is in truth, and that which is to gird us for warfare is truth,-God's Word encircling my life, not applied here and there as it may suit, but the loins -the inner man-"the loins of the mind" girded with sober truth-the whole truth of God. " The truth in love" (chap. 4:15) gives us what we have been dwelling upon, not these two separated so as to conflict, but each acting with and through the other. Similar words follow:phos, "light;" photizo, "to enlighten." In chap. 5:8 it is used both to show the standing and walk of the saint, contrasted with his former condition of darkness (skotos) and walk (chap. 5:ii), when the works were "unfruitful works of darkness." This light is what we are in the Lord ; as we noticed before of the word "saints," we are to walk in a manner corresponding to what we are-" walk as children of light." It is this which links us with the day which will soon dawn ; even now we should be as lights in a dark place, reproving and manifesting the darkness by the light. Should any have closed the eyes, how arousing the call, "Awake, thou that sleepest! and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light"! Soon we will have nothing but light within and about us; let us have it now shining undimmed upon us and from us.

Thus from these two classes of words examined we get at that which gives character to the whole epistle -Love, Holiness, God is light, God is love. In this book we have Him thus presented. God is manifested in it. Light and love too are what should be found in us, hence the frequent use of these words in that connection.

It is interesting to notice that in the epistle to the Galatians we have not the word "holiness" at all. The contents give the reason. The saints were under law, and the law never produces holiness. The Spirit of God occupies those saints with their low state, and so there is little room for either love or holiness to be mentioned. How different in Ephesians! God's thoughts, not our perversion of them, are before us ; hence, as a natural consequence, love and holiness flow forth.

Two gentlemen went to see an exhibition of paintings. They were connoisseurs, and one of them held in his hand a catalogue of the various pictures on view. As they moved along the gallery, one of them touched his companion, and said, "Look here! Did you ever see such a daub as that? What could have induced any one to send a thing like that to an exhibition ? What a wretched production! And yet, no doubt, he considers himself an artist! What a pity that some folk should be so blind to their own deficiencies !"

The friend who held the catalogue in his hand drew back a little, and rolling it up in the form of a telescope, looked through it at one special point in the picture; and the more closely he examined it, the more he discerned the evidence of real genius. He said to his friend, handing him the rolled-up catalogue, "Just stand here, and look through this at that one spot." He did so; and after a while exclaimed, " Well, that is beautiful! after all, he is an artist."

Now this little incident conveys a most valuable lesson to us all, and one much needed in our intercourse with the Lord's people. It is a grand point, in looking at the character of any one with whom we may have to do, to look out for some redeeming feature, some good point, and dwell upon that. Too often, alas ! we do just the opposite. We take a hasty view of a person, or our eye rests upon some flaw, some defect in the temper, disposition, or conduct, and we keep perpetually dwelling and harping on that, and lose sight of some most excellent trait in the character.

This is a most serious mistake, and one in which some of us are sadly prone to fall. There are few of us who have not some weak point, some drawback, some little inconsistency, something or other which calls for patience and forbearance on the part of those with whom we come in contact in daily life. Let us all remember this, and be on the look-out, not for the weak point, but for some redeeming feature. Let us, when looking at others, "just roll up the catalogue" and concentrate our vision upon some Christian virtue, some good quality, some amiable feature. Let us dwell upon that, and speak of that, and nothing else; and we shall have to exclaim, "Well, after all, he is a Christian ! " This will help us marvelously to get on with people ; and it will minister to our own happiness in a way we have little idea of.

For example, there is a person who is naturally of a close, miserly disposition. He likes to drive a hard bargain ; he would dispute with a cabman about a few pence; he can hardly ever make a purchase without trying to get a reduction in the price. This is very miserable indeed, very sad, very humiliating, greatly to be deplored ; but just let us " roll up the catalogue" and look closely at this person's character, and we shall find him most liberal in the Lord's cause, and in helping the poor. Perhaps on the very day on which he bargained with the cabman about sixpence, he gave a sovereign to a poor family. Let us think and speak of his liberality, and draw the curtain of silence over his niggardliness.

This is Christlike. Let us cultivate this lovely habit. It is very terrible to allow ourselves the habit of dwelling upon the weak points in our brethren. It is really of Satan, and we must earnestly watch against it, and pray against it. Let us "lay aside all evil-speaking." How deplorable to find ourselves indulging in the unworthy practice of exposing the foibles and infirmities of the Lord's people, or turning them into ridicule! May the Lord deliver us from all this! May we judge it in ourselves, and then we shall have moral power to discountenance it in others. Whenever we hear any one speaking disparagingly of another, let us gently suggest to him to "roll up the catalogue," and fix his eye on what is of Christ in the person, and lose sight of all beside. C. J. D.

In that wonderful prayer of the apostle at the close of Eph. 3:, we have the knowledge of Christ's love linked with our being filled with (or rather unto,- the limit being, not the infinite resources, but our capacity,) all the fullness of God. In other words, that love is like God-infinite, inexhaustible. It is good to place the "breadth, length, depth, and height" here along side of the similar passage in Rom. 8:There, all creation is ransacked in vain to find any thing that is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord :" neither height nor depth, nor any other creature." Here we have the love measured as far as possible, only to find it surpassing all measure-it " passeth knowledge." We look at the depths-of guilt, sin, Satan's power ; it seems like a fathomless abyss; surely something in those dark depths might succeed in separating us from God's love. Here is our answer :Deeper than our guilt, than our sin, than Satan's power, is the love of Christ. It sought us when we were engulfed in those awful depths. He entered the "horrible pit," and, passing through all the realities of wrath-bearing and Satan's rage, and the hatefulness of being "made sin"-His holiness linked even in name with it,-passing through all this, He has shown a love deeper than it all. Down at the bottom, at the cross, we find His love. So we can look calmly, though not without sorrow and shame, at our past, and say, His love is deeper than it all; and, led by that love, He has taken our guilt away through His blood, annulled sin and Satan's power. Looking upward then into the heights-the region where principalities and powers are, we find His love higher, " far above all principality and power." No room, then, for them to overcome us. Mount higher-into the "holiest of all," Love is before us, and the sprinkled mercy-seat tells us it has made a way for us to enter with boldness. Even look upon the throne, and we see Him seated there. Higher we cannot rise than the throne, the Father's house, the " city prepared as a bride." But all these only witness that the love of Christ is there. Surely the soul is well-nigh lost as we think of that love "which passeth knowledge."

" Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

His love for the Church is here set before us-from the time when He gave Himself for it, to that when He shall present it to Himself in glory. The effect is seen- "sanctify and cleanse it." For a holy Lord, nothing short of a holy Church would do. He gave Himself for it. This tells of His death-His wrath-bearing on the cross. In glory, we see the Church without spot or wrinkle. No defilement-all has been cleansed away, no wrinkle-nothing that speaks of age or care or decay. If of our blessed Lord it is said, " Thou hast the dew of thy youth" (Ps. 110:3), so also will it be true of His bride the Church. Think of the earthly history of the Church,-oppressed, divided, overcome by the world,-think of her thus, and then think what the love of Christ has in store for her-reigning, glorified, associated with Himself. As of God with Israel, so Christ with the Church; He will "joy over her with singing, He will rest in His love." His love will never rest till He has His Church with Himself, to share in that love the fullness of which it will not know till then.

But a third verse gives us another application of the love of Christ. " Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.) Here our attention is called, not to the infinite fullness of His love as in Eph. 3:, nor to the Church as the object of that love, but to the fact that it is to me individually. All will agree, of course, that His love passeth knowledge; but if this is merely owned as a doctrine, it will of course have no power in the life. Even where that love is realized, there may be a vagueness and indefiniteness about it. We may think of Him as an infinitely loving Person, and yet not realize that the fullness of this love is toward each of us individually. So too with regard to His loving the Church-most blessed it is to realize this. But we might think of the Church as a great whole, and ourselves overlooked, as it were. But when we say, with Paul, "Who loved me," there is no room for vagueness, no thought of being overlooked. The bright light of His face is for the time turned upon me alone. I am loved. Every day the Israelite could see the lamb offered up as a burnt-offering, and could say, " That is for the acceptance of the whole congregation;" but when he brought a lamb for his own offering, his thought was, "This is for my own acceptance." How good it is in our God thus to give us to know, not merely the ocean of the love of Christ, but to let us hold it fast to our hearts-just for ourselves-" He loved me, and gave Himself for me." In this connection, we are reminded of two things-our lost condition and our helplessness. "He gave Himself for me." This was because I was a sinner,-because I was guilty, condemned by the law. And by His death for me, I have been, not merely delivered from wrath, but set free from that law which brought me into bondage. Instead of being under law, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me. Here Christ's love to me takes the place of the law; and, constrained by that love, we can do what under law we never could. Blessed exchange !-not under law, but able to say, "Who loved me." Now the love of Christ is something we can grasp; and with precious knowledge of it as a personal thing, we can look at the Church, realizing that we are members of that Church, each loved with the love to the whole. We look at that love which passeth knowledge, and as we search its height and depth, we can say, "For me." There is no selfishness in this. Where Christ's love fills the heart, selfishness can have no place. Have we not here, then, stepping-stones?-(i) Christ's love to me personally; (2) His love to His Church, His body; (3) The infiniteness of that love which is the fullness of God. May we mount on these stepping-stones to know more and more of that love !

But there is one step still lower for the one who is not yet a beginner. He may say, "I cannot say He loved me, for I am a sinner, and have never loved Him." Well, if you truly say you are a sinner, you can be sure of Christ's love to you if you will receive it; for He came into the world to save sinners, He died for the ungodly, and He was rightly called the Friend of sinners. Your sin, then, truly owned as such, is your first step-not a high one- into the knowledge of the love of Christ.

If these lines are read by any one still unsaved, will you not now test that love which, though it fills heaven, yearns over you, and knocks at your heart ?

Jehu had a hard task rightly to perform. To execute vengeance, which belongeth unto God, is for a soul that realizes its own shortcomings indeed most difficult. The evil house of Ahab is at last to meet its doom, and Jehu is appointed to the task. In 2 Kings 9:he does his work, and does it thoroughly. It is well to see how he recognizes God's hand and God's word in it all. We are not called upon, like Jehu, to execute vengeance, but we have often in the application of discipline to know something of that faithfulness which does not spare. We are called to bear a testimony and to declare the truth of God, no matter what names may suffer. In all this, promptness and faithfulness are necessary. In chap. 10:we see deceit in the matter of the slaying of the seventy sons of Ahab. He uses an artifice to get the elders to slay them and so to create the impression that they had shed more blood than he. In this, there seems to be a fear to stand alone, a desire to have others share with him in the responsibility and in possible defeat. There seems to be a fear lurking here, which ill becomes one who had the word of God for what he was doing. If he stood with God, he need not fear to stand alone. This deceit must have weakened him in the eyes of the people, as it surely would in the eyes of those who feared God. With us, who have a testimony to give, is there not often this lurking fear, which shows itself in the desire to associate others with us, not realizing that God and His word are our strength and that numbers often mean weakness? If God in mercy add faithful ones to declare His truth, well; but let them come with eyes open, and not be drawn by any thing that has even the appearance of deceit. Jehu thus is going to strengthen his cause in his 'own way. This is self-will; that which does God's work, not in His way, but our own. And how natural that self-will, that which is human strength, is after all weakness!

See Peter ; in self-will he will confess Christ, go to prison and to death. That self-will only takes him to the high-priest's palace and to the fire-there to deny the One who in perfect submission to the Father was witnessing a good confession.

With self-will at work, pride and self-complacency naturally have their place,-"Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord." "My zeal" is what is now before Jehu. God and His word are a secondary matter. Contrast such arrogance with Moses, on the one hand sending the tribe of Levi with drawn sword to slay the idolaters, and on the other interceding for the people. It is to be feared that " my zeal" is before us too often. Christ, not faithfulness is the object. Apart from Him there cannot be true faithfulness. Alas ! much that passes for zeal for Him, in ecclesiastical discipline, or in personal dealings with fellow-Christians is, if rightly understood, but pride at our own unflinching faithfulness. It is not the spirit of Christ, it will do no lasting work for Him. When we think of Him who was consumed by zeal for the Father's house, the most faithful, the most devoted will have little to say about his own zeal.

Next, we find that deceit, practiced at first and not since judged, bearing worse fruit. He links God's name with that of Baal. True, one may say, but in order to slay the false worshipers. This may be good Jesuitism- it is not the practice of the faithful servant of God. See how Elijah acts in a similar case. It is a question of Jehovah or Baal. He does not link himself for a moment with the false. He lets Baal be tested-then God shows His power, and the people see that none of the false prophets escape. Here, too, there is the artifice and cunning which speak of human expedients, of self-will, not of quiet confidence in God, and obedience to His Word. Baal may be destroyed out of Israel, but God is not exalted. With that inconsistency which always is manifested in self-will, even when apparently most faithful, Jehu casts out Baal, and holds fast to the golden calves of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. His zeal does not carry him back in simplicity to God, His altar, His house, His people. After a brilliant flash, the gloom deepens, for soon the Lord begins to cut Israel short, to let the enemy carry away captive those who lived east of Jordan. Thus brilliancy is no indication of lasting work. To be sure, for his measure of service, Jehu's sons for four generations sit on the throne ; but what of this when the nation is still idolatrous, still divided and fast disintegrating ?

Has not all this a word for us ? There has been much cutting off of evil, much faithfulness for God. Do we not well to ask if, while the grosser forms of evil, of insubjection to God's word have been judged and departed from, there may not yet be the holding fast to what would answer to the golden calves ?-the same, doubtless, as the one set up in the wilderness ; something visible to take the place of God-of Christ, whom, not seeing, we trust. Any substitute for Christ, His work, His person, His authority,-no matter by what name this substitute may be called, is in principle a holding fast to the golden calves. Jehu, with all his energy, never takes the place of a mourner who would draw God's people to Himself, so he comes short in his work-he is a failure. His spirit is with us to day. It may carry all before it for a time, but lasting fruit for God there is not. Even now God's people are fast disintegrating-old ties fail to bind them together, and the temptation is to act, as did Jehu, in the pride of self-will. Alas! this but hastens the crumbling. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord." What He needs now is not men like Jehu, but those who, seeing the ruin, will mourn over it, and, setting up the Lord Himself as their standard, witness in meekness for Him. Self-will works ruin.

DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF HOLINESS. (Continued from page 163.)

3. The next view we may call the Faith School, as its I members hold that they can step into a condition of holiness by an act of faith. It is said to be " a blessed, positive attainment or gift." They desire to enjoy the blessing of rest and liberty, and, at the same time, avoid either of the extremes of the Perfectionists and Evangelical Schools. Like the former, they profess to have received a positive blessing, though they differ from them in admitting in a way that the flesh still remains in the believer, and they also hold that he has received a new nature. Still, both are minimized and mystified till the advocate baffles the critic by disappearing in the region of the clouds. There need be no question as to their experience and enjoyment of blessing being beyond what the great majority of believers realize; but the Faith School do not give a consistent and scriptural account of the experience. Their definition of sin is left vague ; sin in the flesh, and acts of sinning in the life, are not kept distinct; liberty is confused with purity, and holiness with righteousness ; cleansing the source of evil is sought, rather than deliverance from the power of indwelling sin ; and the tendency of the teaching is toward self-occupation and self-adulation, rather than the utter repudiation of self and occupation with Christ. The Faith School would have Christ to stoop to meet our every need where we are, and produce a happy experience ; whereas the Spirit would teach us that we are dead, and risen, and set free to have our hearts taken up with Christ Himself, where He is at God's right hand. It is true, as they affirm, that holiness is by faith ; but it is not true that a soul can enter a region of rest, happiness, and power by an act of faith apart from the humbling experience of Rom. 7:; nor is it true that when rest and deliverance are realized that the believer has got a kind of store of power, or capital of holiness, upon which he can work without continual watchfulness, self-judgment, and positive dependence on the Lord moment by moment. They too frequently forget or overlook the exercise or pressure or the thorn in the flesh spoken of by Paul. (Acts 26:16 ; i Cor. 9:26, 27 ; 2 Cor. 4:10 ; 13:7-10.)

4. This brings us to what we may call the Scriptural School. The aim in this view, as pointed out at the beginning, is to have the life of Jesus manifest in the body. Christ Himself is the standard, and as Paul puts it, " I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."/ Overt acts, which we call sins, are clearly distinguished from the evil nature by which they are produced. This inherent bad disposition, or capacity, is called sin. The man commits the sins himself, and is responsible for them ; but he inherited his evil nature from Adam, and is not responsible for that, though he is responsible for its acts. The presence of the evil nature does not give him a bad conscience ; but the allowing it to act does, and renders him guilty. As guilty he may own what he has done, and find forgiveness through faith in Christ's blood. But as a believer, he is urged to confess his sins, and he is forgiven, and communion is restored. He is cleansed, indeed "once purged," and, if he only takes (Heb. 9:and 10:) what the Spirit has written, he may enter the holiest, and know that as to sins he is as clean as an unfallen angel. But the blood does not and cannot cleanse his evil nature. He has received a new nature :the life of Christ, the last Adam ; but that has not changed or removed the evil nature which he received from the first Adam. Cleansing cannot alter that any more than the cleansing of a sow would make the animal a sheep.

The blood indeed cleanses away the sins of the sinner who believes; but in order for him to "walk in newness of life," and "have his fruit unto holiness," he needs to be not now forgiven or cleansed, as he is that already, but he requires deliverance from the power of indwelling sin. He was cleansed by blood; he is now to be delivered by death-not the death of his body, but the death of Christ. His evil nature, sin, "the body of the flesh" (Col. 2:n) is not forgiven :it is condemned. (Rom. 8:3; 6:6-11.) He needs to know Christ as a deliverer. When he has learned painfully that there is no good in the old nature; and further still, that in the new nature there is no strength, he is led to despair of self, and to look at Christ's death in a new light. Now he sees that not only were his sins borne by Jesus and purged by His blood, but he himself was crucified with Christ, and he can reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin,,«and alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Liberty was what he required, and the Son makes him free indeed. (Jno. 8:32-36.) Though the evil nature is there unchanged, he can say, " The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The blood has cleansed him ; death has delivered him ; he has resurrection life, and the indwelling of the Spirit, and is free to be occupied with Christ where He is, and have Christ's life manifested here, where in person Christ is not. "I, yet not I ; but Christ liveth in me," and "For me to live [is] Christ;" this is deliverance, and the result is fruit unto holiness.

But learning deliverance is a reality. It may be more marked and wonderful in the experience of a Christian than was his first conversion. It is, no doubt, what some of the schools call the "second blessing," or "higher Christian life," or " sanctification ; " but they do not and cannot account for what they have received in the light of Scripture; and they miss a great deal by not being guided by its teaching. The Evangelical School, and half-hearted Christians, rather enjoy the exposure of the perfectionist view ; but they think, and really mean, that there is nothing for the Christian in the way of a positive __deliverance. With them it is simply to sin as little as you can help ; but it must be more or less sinning and repenting, and going back to sin, till delivered by death. But there is a positive deliverance, not from the presence, but from the power of indwelling sin, and Rom. 6:is the divine answer; and it indeed shows we are delivered by death-but Christ's death-and are to reckon ourselves dead, and find and enjoy deliverance now so as to have our fruit unto holiness.

But these things require to be taught, illustrated, enforced, and applied among Christians, as the gospel is pressed upon the unconverted. It has been my privilege to do this during many years, and in giving ten or twelve consecutive addresses, through the Lord's blessing, there are usually a number brought into liberty; but this is a very different thing from professing to live without sinning, or having had the evil nature changed or eradicated. If Christians could be got to look at Scripture, and would bend their minds, and yield their hearts and wills to learn the truth as the Spirit would reveal it, from the epistle to the Romans, Christian holiness, in its roots and fruits, might be understood and exemplified as never before. The principal work by those who attack holiness teaching is that of pulling down; but what is wanted is that the people should be led into the apprehension and enjoyment of the truth of deliverance as it is found in Scripture. This would be building them up in their most holy faith. W. C. J.

" Thy way is in the sea.""Thy way is in the sanctuary." "In whose heart are the ways." (Ps. lxxvii 19; 77:13 ; Ixxxiv. 5.)

Moses, when interceding for the people after their apostasy, asked God to show him his way. (Ex. 33:13.) He had seen the perverse ways of the people, and some of God's ways of patience with them, and his great desire was to know that way in its fullness! This was granted, as we read, " He made known His unto Moses." (Ps. 103:7) What can be more necessary for the child of God than to know His way ? " Can two walk together except they be agreed ?" (Am. 3:3.) We may be sure if we are to walk with God, it must be in His way. He will never walk with us in ours. He has come down in grace to meet us in our deepest need, at our greatest distance from God, come down in the person of His Son, met the need, annihilated the distance, not that He should walk in our path, but that we should walk in His. Thus only can we enjoy communion, testify for God, or in any way serve Him. Hence the absolute necessity of knowing His ways. In the three scriptures quoted we have three different views of those ways.

I. "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known." Here we have the truth stated that God's ways are past finding out. And who that has looked at the book of providence but has realized this? Here, a faithful servant of the Lord is cut off by death. There, the head of the house is removed, leaving a helpless family without any human support. Bright earthly prospects are blighted, health is lost,-yea, even to the little disappointments and surprises of each hour, we are compelled to say, " Thy way is in the sea." For surely God's ways are in all these things. There is no step of the road but is His ; no hour in which He leaves His people alone. It is just the failure to see God's ways in the affairs of each day that leaves us dwarfs and babes. The effect of learning the lesson of God's ways being in the sea is the knowledge of our helplessness. Provide as we may, all is in vain to guard us from unforeseen contingencies. Growing out of this will come a self-distrust, and a corresponding confidence in God. As long as we think we have a plain path, the eye will not be on our guide. It is in the passing through deep waters, through the sea, that all self-trust must go, and we must lean on Him alone. This is terrible to sight, even to the believer; it is impossible for the unbeliever, as the Egyptians found a grave where Israel found a way. What a sense of the reality of God's presence it gives, thus to be thrown upon Him ! How Peter learned the Lord's presence as never known before when he began to sink in the waves of Galilee. As the eagle stirs up her nest, and the young cannot understand her apparent cruelty, so we cannot understand God's ways in the sea.

II. But this brings us to the second verse, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary."The psalmist had been in great trouble-all seemed black and hopeless, so that he cries out, "Will the Lord cast off forever? will He be favorable no more ?"This is the result of being occupied with circumstances and personal trials. He sees it is his infirmity, and turns to meditate on One who never changes. He learns His way, and it is in the sanctuary he finds that way. It is only in the presence of God that we can fully learn His ways. For us how that presence shines with the glories of Jesus. He Himself has gone into the sanctuary, has opened the way for us, through the rent vail, and now we have boldness to enter also. What precious thoughts cluster about this truth !The sanctuary !the holiest! We have a right to be there, the precious blood is our title, the work of redemption is our ground. How solid ! how secure !Thus the end is secure. The sanctuary is on the resurrection-side-no death, no life on earth, no devil, no man, can work there ; it is beyond all these powers of evil. And there is our place. Ah ! what matters it if the way be rough or long, the sanctuary is our future home, our present abiding place. We must leave our loads behind when we enter there. The worshiper in the tabernacle of old had his feet on the sand of the desert as he stood in the holy place, but we can be sure that he gazed not on that, but on the splendors before and about him. So for us if by faith we are in the sanctuary, the way does not occupy us, but the one who leads us. fills our eye. Yet it is in the sanctuary we learn God's way. The light of that place must be shed on the book of providence if we are to read its pages aright. As the psalmist was well-nigh stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked, until he went into the sanctuary, so will we find much to make us wonder, perhaps to doubt, unless we go into the same quiet and holy place. Here, first of all, we learn what God's perfect love means-a love which has bridged the distance between" nat we were in our sins and what we will be in glory-bridged this distance at a cost which only God's love could or would have done. In the light of Jesus, living, dying, risen, interceding for us, coming to take us to be with Himself, we can understand how Paul could call any thing that might take place, " our light affliction which is but for a moment." In the light of the glory, how small the trials, how easy the way, to faith! But it is also in the sanctuary that we learn much of God's thoughts and of true wisdom. It is the spiritual man who discerns. He is in communion with the Father and His Son. If the companion of wise men will be wise, how much more will one who enjoys fellowship with Perfect Wisdom understand ! Many a dear child of God, with much of what is called common sense, fails to grasp the meaning of God's ways, because he does not go into the sanctuary.

III. We come now to the results. The ways are no longer only the dark ways of a providence we cannot understand, but of a Father, whose perfect love and grace we know. The ways are in our heart, loved because they are His. The path is, as it were, transferred from the outward circumstances to the heart. Our true history is heart history. We are apt to think we would do much better under different circumstances, but the state of the heart is the all-important matter. So too for usefulness; God does not ask us to do great things, but to have His ways in our heart. We may be sure our Lord had God's ways in His heart as much in the thirty years of His retirement as in His public ministry. So we may be laid aside, sick, helpless, apparently useless ; but if in the heart we say, "Thy way, not mine, O Lord," we are doing true service, which will bear enduring fruit. In this way the hostile scene around us contributes to our fruitfulness -the valley of Baca (of weeping) becomes a well.

How differently the same scene affects different persons ! Like the same soil sustaining the noxious weed and the sweet flower ; so the world contributes either to our murmuring or to our confidence in God. If His ways are in the heart, each sorrow is the means by which we grow, as the rough wind drives the ship nearer home. " Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." The word rendered "keep" is a strong one-meaning to "occupy as a garrison." What foe can come in when His peace thus fills the house and keeps the door ? Nothing is said in this precious verse of the circumstances being changed. The heart is filled with God's peace, and the circumstances will then only furnish occasion for the effects of its guard over the heart to be seen.

I’ll that He blesses is our good,
And unblest good is ill,
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His sweet will."

So sings the heart in which God's ways are. How blessed, how precious a portion, within the reach of all the Lord's people !

May we all know more of God's ways.

CONANT’S "HISTORY OF ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION."

In 1377, Wickliffe twice escaped the snares of his enemies once at St. Paul's, when summoned before the bishop of London, and again at Lambeth, where he had boldly appeared alone before a synod ; and his peaceful deliverance amid confusion and strife on both occasions reminds us of the word, "But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way." (Luke 4:30.) It was the same power that wrought in London and at Nazareth, against which all efforts of man are idle. (Ps. 2:) On the first of these occasions he was accompanied before the bishop by two powerful friends-Lancaster and Percy, magnates of the realm. This so exasperated the bishop that he rebuked them in anger, and a tumult arose, during which Wickliffe quietly withdrew. On the second occasion (at Lambeth,) the people of London became concerned about his safety, and streamed toward the place of meeting, entered the building, and burst open the door of the council-room, and demanded Wickliffe, and, in the midst of all, a royal messenger entered, and "forbad any definite sentence" by the court. Wickliffe returned peaceably to Oxford, to lecture, write, and preach against the sins of popery with more zeal than ever. The hand of God thus shielded him from his enemies, and gave him boldness to still preach the truth. We can think with what joy he must have gone on his. way through the crowded street, hearing the word of the angel of the Lord, "Fear not" (Acts 27:24), and assured afresh that man's rage could only do that which God's " counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4:. 28), and no doubt joining in the prayer, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings; and grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy Word." So at all times we can rest in the assuring word (Is. 57:17), " No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord."

Wickliffe had been one of a royal commission from England to the pope, in 1372, to remonstrate against existing evils. Like Luther on a similar occasion, he returned with a fresh impression of the corruptions of the papal system. Thus God was preparing him for the witness he was to bear. We may conclude he was not silent, since, not long .after, papal bulls against him were addressed to Oxford, to the king, to Canterbury, and London. That England had become the nurse of heresy is ascribed to " John Wickliffe, Master in Divinity-more properly Master in Error; who had proceeded to a degree of madness so detestable as not to fear to assert, dogmatize, and publicly teach opinions the most false and erroneous, contrary to the faith, and tending to the entire subversion of the church."

"Thus terrible," remarks the author, "to the kingdom of darkness is a man who gives fearless utterance to the truth."

" Contrary to the faith"!Alas ! how strong the tendency in us all to call that " contrary to the faith " which . does not please us, because subversive of error we have become attached to !If we are not willing to say, " I am wrong," we may be sure Satan has gained the mastery over us.

The parliament of England having appealed to Wickliffe for his opinion as to the pope's claim of tribute, Wickliffe's reply has the simplicity and wisdom that is always found with subjection to God's Word :-
"If thou wilt be a lord," he says to the church dignitaries " thou shalt lose thine apostleship ; or if thou wilt be an apostle, thou shalt lose thy lordship; for truly thou must depart from one of them. …. Now if it doth suffice thee to rule with the Lord, thou hast thy glory; but if we will keep what is forbidden, let us hear what He saith :' He that is greatest among you shall be as the least, and he which is highest shall be as a servant;' and, for an example, He set a child in the midst of them. So, then, this is the true form and institution of the apostle's trade':Lordship and rule is forbidden ; ministration and service commanded."

Such ministry was the shining of Scripture-light for all who were not blind. As to ministry, the office of priest was to Wickliffe simply that of one who was bound to faithfully preach the Word, and that even in spite of the prohibition of bishops ; and yet he did not quite attain to the scripture which lays upon each of us to minister according to the gift given us, and not by virtue of an "office," however truly he may have felt his own responsibility to Christ, and diligently acquitted himself to the end. Here is an eminently scriptural thought:" Every Christian should judge of the office of the clergy from what is taught in Scripture-especially in the epistles of Timothy and Titus, and should not admit the new inventions of Caesar."

"The highest service to which a man may attain on earth," he says, " is to preach the Word of God, …. and if our bishops preach not themselves, and hinder true priests from preaching, they are in the sin of the bishops who killed the Lord Jesus Christ."

He held that ministry should be supported simply by voluntary contributions of the people, according to the example of the Lord and the apostles; and that the Lord taught us to seek to be profitable to men everywhere, and not to forbear to preach to a people because they are few, and our name may not in consequence be great. We should labor for God, and from Him hope for our reward. "It was ever the manner of Jesus to speak the words of God wherever He knew they might be profitable to those who heard them. Hence Christ often preached now at meat, now at supper, and indeed at whatever time it was convenient for others to hear Him."

This reformer's instructions resulted in the going forth of a band of earnest missionaries through the country, who used occasions, (according to the author,) whether, in the church-yard, the market-place, or the fair; and we thankfully conclude the work was effectual, from the opposition aroused. The archbishop of Canterbury, bishops, and doctors were gathered together in council (See Acts 4:5), and appealed to royal authority to suppress the preachers, as men ".who were perverting the nation with their heretical and seditious doctrines."

" But these devices," says the author, " were not able to break again the ' apostolic succession' thus revived by Wickliffe. When persecuted in one place, they fled to another, and continued their work ; for the Lord was with them, and kings and prelates opposed in vain. To the poor the gospel was preached. This was to the glory of God. Wickliffe was a follower of Jesus, for he loved the poor."

"The Poor Caitiff* is a collection of short pieces. *One of humble condition.* (London Religious Tract Society.) With "simplicity, humility, and sweetness he speaks to the neglected and degraded poor these heavenly words of instruction and consolation." Here are a few passages from these little messengers of peace, which also show how the Spirit of Christ in every time leads the true servant in the path of meekness and love, that he may be able to minister the same thing to others-to the lambs and sheep of the flock :-

" To any degree of true love to Jesus no soul can attain unless he be truly meek. For a proud soul seeks to have his own will, and so he shall never come to any degree of God's love. Even the lower that a soul sitteth in the valley of meekness, so many the more streams of grace and love come thereto. And if the soul be high in the hills of pride, the wind of the fiend bloweth away all manner of goodness therefrom.

" Singular love is:when all solace and comfort is closed out of the heart but the love of Jesus alone, other delight and other joy pleases not; for the sweetness of Him is so comforting and lasting, His love is so burning and gladdening, that he who is in this degree, may well feel the fire of love burning in his soul. That fire is so pleasant that no man can tell but he that feeleth it (i Pet. 1:8), and not fully he. Then the soul is Jesus loving, on Jesus thinking, and Jesus desiring; only burning in coveting of Him ; singing in Him, resting on Him. Then the thought turns to song and melody.

"God playeth with His child when He suffereth him to be tempted ; as a mother riseth from her much beloved child and hides herself, and leaves him alone, and suffers him to cry, ' Mother! Mother!' so that he looks about, cries and weeps for a time; and, at last, when the child is ready to be overset with troubles and weeping, she comes again, clasps him in her arms, kisses him, and wipes away the tears. So our Lord suffereth His loved child to be tempted and troubled for a time, and withdrawing some of His solace and full protection, to see what His child will do, and when he is about to be overcome with temptations, then He defendeth him and comforteth him by His grace."

Note again Wickliffe's love, for the poor and his persuasion that the Word alone could supply their need in his introduction to Luke.

" Therefore a poor caitiff let from preaching for a time for causes known to God writeth the gospel of Luke in English, with a short exposition of old and holy doctors, to the poor men of his nation, which know little Latin or none, and be poor of wit and worldly chattel, and not the less rich in good will to please God!" And then referring to the hypocrisy of antichrist and his disciples (the papal system) he adds, " The best armor of Christian men against this crowned chieftain with his host is the text of holy writ."

In the year 1384, he completed the translation of the whole of the Old and New Testaments, making his translation from the Latin Vulgate;-that is, the Latin version made by Jerome from the Greek and Hebrew in the fourth century.

In the same year he was called to his rest. He had completed his task. He was seized with paralysis in the Church at Lutterworth, and after a few days of unconsciousness his soul "awoke in the joy of its Lord." E.S.L.

(To be continued.)

Box 830, Los Angeles, Cal., April 13th, 1891.

My dear Brother,-

Your letter has lain unanswered for some days, having been received about a week ago. I was very thankful to receive the enclosed-sum of twenty dollars from the "Missionary Collection," of the Sunday-School, not only, or chiefly for the help ministered in spreading the gospel among those in darkness and ignorance of God, but because of the interest it manifests in the Sunday-School in that work which brought the Son of God into the world to die, that sinners might be reconciled to God, and receive the free gift of eternal life and glory. That this interest may deepen, and grow in the hearts of all of us is our prayer surely. In this age of indifference and hardness of heart and conscience, it is a comfort to know that the Lord is stirring some hearts to an increasing interest in His work and service, and some of us who are growing old are happy in the thought that the Lord is preparing others to serve Him, it is to be hoped more simply and devotedly, if He tarry yet a little,
when we have served our allotted time and are called hence.

The Lord's work involves a self-surrender and purpose of heart; and though it calls for giving up much that the rest esteem, yet I am sure no one who has truly and in sincerity of heart gone forth to serve Him in the gospel of His Son will have at the end a single regret for any thing they have given up for His sake:but rather regrets that it had not been more a great deal.

Love to Christ is the great motive that constrains-love to the One who gave Himself for us, surrendering every thing He could, and the need required, for such as we are. And well it is if this love has laid hold of us, and leads us to serve Him in that which is the fruit of eternal love and wisdom, the gospel of God, than which nothing can be higher and greater, though with men often debased and dishonored indeed.

To-day, as you well know, the gospel is going into many places which have been closed for centuries, many fields are unoccupied where there is at least liberty of access, and Satan is busy sowing his tares where the truth has gone, indeed, more earnest in the work of destruction than the children of God are in the work of salvation. Where the seed is being sown with some diligence, there is one felt need every where almost, and that is perhaps to teach us to wait upon God for it, I mean the power and working of the Holy Spirit, convicting and converting and leading to Christ. Yet doubtless there is much more than any are permitted to know of here going on, whilst what is known gives joy on earth, as it has in heaven, even if it be but one that repents.

But great mistakes are made in putting something else before the gospel, such as education and what is called civilization and many other things. Those who do this forget that it is alone the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. They forget, too, that God is able by the preached Word to bring from darkness to light, and from death to life, the most ignorant and hardened sinner that ever lived, and just in proportion to the measure in which men give up faith in God, and His Word, will they lean on something else, a something, too, that the natural man can work with, and it is not hard to tell what the result will be. David, the man of faith, could not meet the Philistine giant in Saul's armor, and Paul says, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds," etc.

But I must close my already long letter with the prayer that the Lord's blessing may be with both teachers and taught in the Plainfleld Sunday-School, and grant through His grace much blessed fruit from His Word, and whilst thankful for the help sent for the work of the Lord, I do not doubt it will be accompanied with the prayers of those who have learned to value for themselves access to the throne of grace. I inclose a copy of an interesting letter from old Spain, a part the Lord has lately given us access to.

Affectionately in Christ,
ROBT. T. GRANT.

G., SPAIN, February 6th, 1891.

I am glad to tell you a little of the Lord's work in Spain, although speaking only of a single district, the province of L. So I will tell you a little of the blessings which I received of the Lord in my labors for His name; seeking to do what I can, scattering with a full hand in that virgin soil the holy seed of the gospel, trusting always in Him who has said, "My word shall not return unto Me void."

The journey to the mountains, notwithstanding the bad weather, snowing and raining, was for one very happy, receiving many blessings from above in all the towns I visited. In all, the power and Spirit of God were with me, strengthening me by the grace which is in Christ Jesus, that I might make known to the to the people His mercy and love. He who in His mercy chose me for it from the basest of the earth, cleansing me with His precious blood, and making me of service to the Lord, and
through the Spirit of God employing me in these towns, and, as Paul in Acts 28:31, "Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ with all liberty, without hindrance."

In the city of T. I preached Christ two days following, some one hundred and twenty persons being present. In F. de O had a meeting at night in a coffee-room where about one hundred and ninety were gathered. In this small town there is much desire for the gospel. The priest has been in charge for fifteen months, and the poor man was complaining that in all that time there had not been a burial service. People are beginning to understand that salvation cannot be bought for money, and that it is already paid for by Jesus. My visit here troubled the priest, and the day after the meeting he met the town miller in the street, and called to him, asking, "Were you not last night with the Protestants?"

" Yes, sir," answered the miller. "And what did they say?"

"Much that was bad about you for taking away from people the fear of God, and much good of God and of Jesus Christ." " Were there many there ?" "The place was full." "Were they more quiet than at mass?"

"I did not hear any but the preacher, who said things that were very good, and full of gospel truth; that is religion, not what you teach, which is all money and fanaticism."

Then the priest abashed left without another word. Afterward I went to the town of C., where also I had a meeting at night, with one hundred and twenty persons present, orderly and respectful. The day following, having to go to the town of S. S., where they were expecting me, I was called expressly by the people of a mountain town called O., where they desired to hear the Word of God; to which I gladly yielded, seeing the good will of these simple and honorable people, considering them before those of S. S., for the latter had already heard the gospel on different occasions, are visited more frequently, on account of having better means of communication, whilst those of O. were new to this. Here I passed a Lord's day-a happy day, for in it, after having spoken of the Lord in private conversations among the people, I had a meeting in a barn to which all the people came, including the town council and secretary, who at my side all the time. In so small a town and for the [me I sold four Bibles and many portions of the Word, accompanied by a large number tracts given freely. They desired should visit them again. The only enemies here are the priest and his two housekeepers. The next day I spent at the town of V. de M., preaching Christ at night to some one hundred and fifty persons, and all obliged me to remain another day, wishing for another meeting, to which I yielded, believing it to be just and agreeable to the Word of God. At this second meeting, Kiboot two hundred were present, and all seemed pleased with the doctrines of the holy gospel, asking me to return and visit them again,, at least every mouth, if it was not possible every week. These wished to honor me with a band of music from the place of .meeting to the lodging, which I protested against, saying that my mission was a lowly one, far off from the glories of the world, following in the footsteps of the humble Master Jesus , Christ. Another day I spent at the little town of M., having here a true Christian meeting, about thirty-five persons attending. In this town there is one true Christian family. At other ,. places I visited it was impossible to have meetings, taut by the ' grace of God the ground might be prepared for another visit.

I may say that in this part of Spain the Lord has opened to us a new world, in which no doubt He has much people, and already is working in many hearts. What with public meetings, approved by the local authorities, and familiar conversations in "cafes," and with groups in houses, I preached the gospel to one thousand and more souls, men and women, many being glad and favorable to the gospel, desiring we should visit them again; but for the present they must be dealt with as babes, until the Lord shall do the rest, and give them new hearts. May the Lord aid and bless us, that what we do may be for the honor and glory of Christ our great Shepherd, and may He raise up laborers fitted for this service among these isolated people.

Your affectionate servant and brother in Christ,
J. M. R.S.
CUBA.

Dear Brother,-

After saluting you I give most hearty thanks for the tracts, etc., received, by the aid of which I have been able to present the beneficent light of the gospel to thousands of persons in this my unhappy country, where the darkness of Romanism has covered all, and where they fight without ceasing to quench the shining of the Word of God; but the seed has gone on growing, and, with the help of the Spirit, to-day there are one hundred members and many sympathizers in this congregation, and we are in hopes the Lord will call many more into the knowledge of the truth.

I have just completed a visit to the interior of the Island, in company with D. F. G., who has come to visit the work, and we have preached the gospel to a multitude of persons who never have heard the kingdom of God preached to them, and we have journeyed by rail about eighty Spanish leagues. The tracts we took have been received by the people with the greatest eagerness, and may our beloved Redeemer grant that the will of God may penetrate their hearts. Now we are expecting to visit other towns, and if it were possible that you could send us more tracts, we should value them much.

May the Lord Jesus Christ shed His rich blessing upon you and this blessed work, and grant us health and self-denial, that light may be given to those which are in darkness.

Your sincere brother in Christ,
E. P. C.

Others of interest have been received, but it would make this too long to insert them.

In S. A. a priest circulated a number of New Testaments, and found it made the people Protestants, so he burned the rest.

In Peru, the agent of the Bible Society was selling Bibles on the street when the bishop passed by, the latter sent the police at once to arrest him and he was cast into prison, contrary to the constitution of the country. He was afterward liberated, and then imprisoned again, where he now is. The Protestants of the Argentine .Republic are going to undertake the expense of his defense in the courts, and this, by the blessing of God, may be used to open the door there.

Men love darkness more than light when their deeds are evil. And what else can Jesuitism do but shut out the Word of God, the principle of their system being, " Let us do evil that good may come"? Of whom Paul says, "Whose damnation is just." R.T.G.

Box 830, Los Angeles.

DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF HOLINESS.

To clear the way, it might be helpful to bear in mind that there are at least four views of the subject of holiness. The variations are numerous and diverse, but nearly all might be ranged under one or other of the views now to be described.

1. There is what may be called the Perfectionist School. An advocate of this view fairly puts what is taught by them by saying that in those cleansed or sanctified there remains " no defiling taint of depravity, no bent toward acts of sin." This is by an American. General Booth, in Britain, gives a similar testimony when he says that "the last remnants of the carnal mind may be plucked up by the roots, and the tendencies to evil taken away." Another advocate, in New Zealand, writes that the Savior " can just now extirpate the foe, expel the fiend, and extract the virus of sin from the human heart." This might be thought to be thorough enough work, but somehow it is also allowed that the sanctified man may be liable to errors of judgment, and by temptation from without he may again yield to sin, lose the blessing, and even so fall away as to be finally lost. It is said that Charles Wesley was sanctified four times, and yet held that it was possible for him to be lost after all. Others might not go so far; but they would admit that they might lose what they call the second blessing, and slip back among the great mass of believers who do not profess holiness or sanctification.

2. There is what we may call the Evangelical School It has been stated as follows by a moderator from the chair in his opening address in the Free Church General Assembly in Edinburgh, Scotland:" Christ's blood purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. We are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, in mind, in will, in heart, and sin hath not dominion over us, because we are under grace." "It cannot, however, be set forth as within the plan of redemption that perfect holiness should be ours on earth. If we wash our hand with snow-water, and make ourselves ever so clean, we are quickly plunged into the ditch again, and compelled to cry out, 'Oh wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?'" "We are not, therefore, defeated :we have learned that sin is not omnipotent over us, but that grace is omnipotent over sin." " There is no sin, no temptation, no obstinacy, no vitality of sin, which grace is not almighty to overcome, and at last to uproot it." In this view, as in the previous one, be it observed, there is no admission of there being two natures in the believer. In both views the whole man is supposed to be dealt with:the one relies upon the efficacy of the blood to cleanse from all sin, the other looks to the almighty power of grace to overcome evil. The Perfectionist holds that the cleansing is complete when he has believed for it; the Evangelical more modestly allows that sin will not be uprooted tilt death; but, being Calvinistic in his faith, he believes that he will persevere till death, and immediately be with and like Christ in glory; but both schools deny that a Christian has two natures, and fail to bring out the truth as to the first and last Adam, or the old and new creation. (Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 2:i-10; 4:22-25.) W.C.J.

( To be continued.)

NOTES OF AN ADDRESS. (2 Thess. 2:1; Matt, 18:19, 20; 1 These, 4:15-18.)

For our reading the other day we came upon the subject of gathering together unto the Lord. What was asked for then might be appropriately given now. Notice these words in 2 Thess. 1:i, "Our gathering together unto Him," and put them in the light of Matt, 18:20, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."It might help us, to look at gathering in this simple and important way. It is always best to look at that which is perfect, that we may have a proper standard. If a person had never seen a butterfly would he not have a better idea by looking at the butterfly in its perfection than by examining it in any of the stages of its development from the ovum ? Surely, it would be best to look at the perfect insect. Then in thinking of gathering, in what we have read, we have that which is perfect brought before us in " our gathering unto Him," By looking at the features of gathering in perfection, we may learn much to instruct us now in seeking to gather unto His name. To me it puts some points in such a distinct and important way that one would think if they were once seen there would be more reality when we gather together from time to time.

For instance, think of that time when we shall be with the Lord in the air. When the sleeping saints arise, and the living believers are changed, and all are caught up together, it is to meet the Lord. See with what distinctness we have our center brought before us. " The Lord Himself shall descend." His blessed Person is before every eye, and adored by every heart, in that gathering. There is nothing vague, no such thought as 'His being present by His Spirit-He is there Himself. It is "gathering together unto Him." Is this not what we need to apprehend when we gather together now ? Where gathering is real, the presence of the spirit is one thing, and the presence of the Lord is another. How often are they vaguely confused together ? The haze and mists might be scattered like clouds before the rising sun with many a saint, if he just keep the perfect gathering before his mind. Then the Lord Himself would be seen to be the center. With intelligence and joy he would see more of what it is to " gather together unto Him." Reason may cavil, unbelief may doubt; but faith, love, and hope are in their proper element when we have the Lord Himself gathering together unto him before us, and gather together and announce His death till He come.

Then who should so gather to remember Him ? If we only look at the perfect gathering, the question is settled without gainsaying. His saints alone will be gathered up around Him in the air. In Jno. 13:we read of " His own which were in the world." Further on in the same gospel, after His resurrection, we see Him m their midst We have then a real Savior, real saints, real gathering unto Him. Should not this be always so where two or three profess to gather unto His name ? A glance at what is perfect solves and settles endless questions as to who should compose the assembly of those gathering unto the Lord's name. All thought of mixed companies of saved and unsaved being together for worship is thus completely set aside when you think of those who will meet the Lord in the air. A believer speaks, and speaks only of believers like himself, when he says, "Our gathering together unto Him."

Then see the power implied in the perfect gathering. It is the same power which raised Him from the dead and set Him at God's right hand. That power will raise His sleeping saints and change living believers. Even then you might think of them as still on earth. But they are to be caught up, rapt away from earth, to meet the Lord in the air. What a display of divine power ! Does this not give us the thought of the power that gathers now ? Are any really gathered who are not the subjects of such divine power. It is no mere agreement among those who are believers, nor any such company simply bringing other saints among themselves. Real gathering is divine power at work, through grace, to so attract the heart of the saint that he is constrained to gather unto the Lord. The same Spirit by whom he was born again now works as distinctly in a new way, according to divine power, to gather the saint unto the Lord as his proper center. Should our hearts and consciences not be exercised that our gathering together may be the direct result of this grace and gathering power on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ ?

Yet again look at the perfect picture as the saints are gathered up to meet the Lord. You must of necessity think of "all saints." As to those who have fallen asleep, from Adam onward, we have that word, "they that are Christ's at His coming." (i Cor. 15:23.) Then with regard to living believers, " We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." (i Cor. 15:51, 52.) All shall be "caught up together." If we think of the Church, the Lord shall " present it to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." The unity will find perfect expression then. Ought faith ever to forget this in gathering now ? Certainly not, if " our gathering together unto Him" is to be the standard. Some may object to what is put as "the ground of the one body." Faith will hold fast the thing itself. To faith there is "the revelation of the mystery," and there is the "fellowship of the mystery," and those who gather should be exercised that they may own the oneness of the body, and answer to it, in "the obedience of faith." (Rom. 16:25, 26.) How real would gathering be if we were thus " endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." We should then indeed gather, as it is expressed, "on the ground of the one body." To those objecting to the expression, doubtless because the truth in it judges the principles on which they profess to gather, I reply, let us drop the expression, but let us hold fast the thing it is meant to express. We can then find it in Scripture language, if we think of "the mystery," the " one body," and keep our eyes, our hearts, on the perfect gathering when we shall meet the Lord in the air, and so gathering together unto him."
we may answer to these principles now, as we gather in " the obedience of faith."

But there was one part of the verse as to presenting the Church to the Lord which I did not quote. In that perfect gathering it shall be "holy, and without blemish." Separation from evil, and separation to the Lord, alike will find their perfect exemplification. The Lord is "He that is holy, he that is true," so there will not be any thing unsuitable to Him in that day. If " our gathering together unto Him" when He descends into the air is kept before us now, we cannot help being impressed with the fact that holiness should characterize the assembly of His saints. Then if the former thought of unity is borne in mind, it is not merely the individual believer being separate, nor a particular gathering of believers being careful as to the holiness which becomes God's house forever. The associations of all gathered every where have to be tested by that standard, "holy and without blemish." True, we know that in practice there is such unholiness, but are we to accept unholy principles, and give up the standard ? If so, will not the Lord give us up, as He says, " I will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." To know of evil in doctrine, in morals, or in connection with assembly judgments, and refuse to purge it out, is to give up holiness, and lose the claim to be owned as an assembly of God. If evil is connected with honored names and sanctioned at high places, it does not make it less, but greater evil in the Lord. All the pretension and boasting about having the truth in such circumstances will not add the weight of a feather, when things are weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. We must judge things in the brightness of that light into which we shall be caught up when we meet the Lord; and we ought to gather unto His name now, realizing that we have to do with him whose eyes are "as a flame of fire." Thus we shall find the true, principle of separation unto the Lord.

Finally, when that glorified company is gathered up around the Lord in the air, will it not be such a worship meeting as never before was assembled ? Do we not look on to it when in the Spirit we sometimes sing-

"What rich, eternal bursts of praise
Shall fill yon courts through endless days,
When time shall cease to be! "

See in Rev. 1:when there is the mention of "Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the first-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth." There you have the bursting forth of what will prove an eternal song,- " Unto Him that loved us, and washed in His own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." So yet again in Rev. 5:where we get that great multitude, "the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Surely, when we gather around the Lord now there should be some anticipation, according to our present capacity, of that praise and worship to be rendered .when we are forever with the Lord.

May the Lord make these principles of gathering to have life, spirit, and power in our souls, and the souls of His saints, that we even now, indeed and in truth, may gather together unto His name. W.C.J.

(Continued from p. 136.)

VII.

In Isaac shall thy seed be called." (Gen. 21:12.) Such are the words of the covenant renewed the seventh time. According to the meaning of the number, perfection is reached-the promised son is upon the scene, and has been weaned, and a great feast is made. It is the joy of Christianity-the liberty with which Christ makes free.

But Abraham is not at once weaned :like the Galatians (chap. 4:30), he cleaves to the bondwoman and her son. Ishmael mocking is Israel according to the flesh-the hostile Jew in Paul's time, making light of Christianity and of grace. Abraham's slowness, clearly the Galatian legalism so common among Christians, while Sarah's voice is the glad and entire liberty of grace which will have nothing to do with legal bondage, and will submit to no compromise and no mingling of grace and law either for acceptance of the repentant sinner or for the after-rule of life of the saint (Rom. 3:28; 6:13, 14).

" And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking." " Hagar the Egyptian"-the " under law" condition, with all its pretension, is of the world (Col. 2:20, 23; Gal. 4:3). "Wherefore she said unto Abraham, 'Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.' And the thing was-very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, ' Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman. In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice ; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.'"

Let us compare this word of God to Abraham to lift him up out of his bondage with the reasoning of the epistle to the Galatians to deliver Christians who had put themselves under law. Let us compare them for our profit, that we may be instructed, and also impressed with the exact harmony of every scripture.

"Tell me," Paul says to the Galatians (chap. 4:21), "ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law ? for it is written that Abraham had two sons-the one by a bondmaid, tho other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory; for these are the two covenants,-the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children; but Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, ' Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not …..' Now we, brethren, as Isaac are the children of promise. But as then he that was, was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? 'Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

This is very bold language, Paul, and grievous to many a saint, as Sarah's was to Abraham. It is very bold, and offensive to much that is devoutly religious and zealous for the law. Hagar the Egyptian-Mount Sinai-Jerusalem and her children-bondage,-all in line. What a pedigree ! And yet so it is. Bondage, the activity of the flesh, mocking, pride, fear of man, are the things that go with putting one's self under law (Gal. 4:21-25, 29! v-18, 19; 6:12). But with grace go gladness, liberty, love, the self-denial of the cross, and peace. "Isaac" means "laughter." And so Sarah said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me." Blessed for all who can laugh in accord with this God-given joy! It is the joy of the song of the Red Sea, the joy of the feast in the presence of the angels over the prodigal's return, shared in by us. " Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not." It is not in us, but in Him-" Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice." "All that hear will laugh with me." Have we heard? Let there be no dullness of ear. Let us say, "The Lord my righteousness ! " and rejoice constantly.

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." (Gal. 5:22.)

The epistle to the Galatians shows that those who " desired to be under the law " were heaping burdens on one another (chap. 5:15,16), and were desirous of vain glory; but by grace we can bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (chap. 6:2). May grace be manifest in us.

"The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did." Grace is the perfect thing, and to this we are brought in this seventh renewal of the covenant to Abraham.

" Sin shall not have dominion over you ; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:14.) By grace only and wholly can we have our "fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." (Rom. 6:22.) Established, comforted, and strengthened by grace-the grace that is in Christ Jesus, let us rejoice with trembling, and diligently " follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. 12:14.) We know whom we have believed. He has said, " My sheep shall never perish." His grace is sufficient for us.

VIII. 'And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham." (Gen. 22:1:) And Abraham is called upon to offer up his only son. "After these things:" this marks a new beginning; clearly it is resurrection,- like the eighth day, or the first day of the week (after the seven) on which the Lord rose from the dead. We are thus remarkably prepared for a resurrection-scene, and we get it. Isaac is offered up, and is received in a figure (Heb. 11:19) from the dead; And now the covenant is renewed for the eighth and last time. " And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, ' By Myself have I sworn,' saith the Lord, ' for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.'" (Gen. 22:15.)

" Out of heaven " the Lord speaks, and the seed are. to be multiplied as the stars of heaven, as well as like the sand by the sea-shore. This tells of heavenly blessing as well as earthly, for the millennial time, when Christ will have been known as risen from the dead, and on that new ground the national hope restored.
But what is the individual application or teaching in the line we have been pursuing? Is it not this-the lesson the believer has to learn :all hope in self closed in upon by death-by the cross of Christ; and now Christ risen from the dead our object and our strength ? This doctrine also we get in Galatians (Gal. 2:19)-"For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

In the previous covenant, we are not under law, but under grace. That is what we are taught:we are children of the promise, and Sarah's voice prevails; and Sarah is the type of grace-the free woman, as we have seen. But here nothing is said of Sarah :Abraham figures alone, and he speaks to us of faith-he was the one who believed. (Rom. 4:) What is brought before us prominently is not the condition in which we stand,-that is; grace,-but faith, by which an object is presented to our minds. "I live by the faith of the Son of God "-the One with whom I have died by the cross :"I am crucified with Christ."

Thus Sarah figures prominently in the one case and Abraham in the other; so exact is the teaching of the types, and so exact the occurrence of events that thus served as types, under the hand of God, in history. Thus the Old-Testament history is luminous with instruction and interest. Things were done and words were uttered here and there by this one and by that one as if by chance, because in the untrammeled freedom of the actors, and yet all being parts in a complete whole, which is at last unrolled to view. By this we are also taught, as Pilate was, that God's hand is upon us in each event of our lives. This solemnizes, comforts, and delights the true heart:our lives have new importance.

Abraham, then, offering up his son, and receiving him as it were from the dead, represents to us the giving up Of. self, and having Christ risen from the dead our object our joy." Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed pinto .sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:); again, "We are the circumcision who worship God the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no evidence in the flesh." As the death of the cross closed in upon the national hope of Israel according to the flesh, so it closes in upon any hope of any thing in me. And this I have to learn in Christian experience, that I may be deeply and fully persuaded that it remains true to the end of the course down here, that in me,-that is, in my flesh, there is no good thing; and more than this, that even as born of God I have no strength in myself. I am only brought, with a perfect nature, into a condition where, just because I am born again, I now for the first time realize the truth of perfect weakness, and the joy of dependence upon God,-in short, the walk of faith. As the flower opens to the sun and air, the Christian's heart rejoices in the Lord, and lives in constant dependence upon the Word and grace of Christ. Not our feelings, desires, and purposes must govern us now moment by moment; all these we are to deny-good and bad-as such, as merely our own thoughts or will. Now it is Christ living in us; we abide in Him-live by Him-as the diver in the diving-bell lives wholly by communication with the upper air. The fish may thrive in this lower element; but the diver, surrounded by an element of death, must get what sustains his life from a higher sphere. May we habitually refer all things to the Lord, in faith and love,-that is, abide in Him, and then we shall be filled with the Spirit. Let us not forget to abide in Christ, and to rejoice in Him, and all we think and say and do will be with power and effect for blessing. Let us glory in the Lord. Atonement has been made both for what we have done and for what we are naturally; thus perfect is our salvation. Let us use His grace to deny ourselves, and yield ourselves to Him. May there be no reserve by us, as Isaac was not withheld by Abraham; we shall then find our God to be to us, in all places and circumstances, " Jehovah-Jireh" (Gen. 22:14)- "the Lord will provide." E.S.L.

We readily see how this expression can be spiritually applied. The thought conveyed by it is that of earnest purpose, diligence, and prompt performance. Leaving for the individual conscience the question of literal early rising, we will take up the subject in its spiritual meaning.

God has ever manifested Himself as rising early. The great matter of our salvation was not left till the fall had brought in sin and death-or to human will. "He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." Nothing that afterward might take place could set aside that "eternal purpose which He purposed." As the objects of His grace were thus chosen, so the means were provided_"Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." Christ, the object of the Father's counsels, and His Church, were thus provided in the "early morning" of that bright eternity past, before sin had entered. Our blessed God has not been surprised by what took place in Eden. All had been foreseen and provided for. Not that this in the least interferes with or hinders human responsibility; that is something entirely separate from the subject of which we are speaking.

As to His ways with man ever since, the same diligence and earnest purpose is seen-no matter what patience was manifested,-for there is nothing like precipitancy in Him-there is no delay. In the call of Abraham, the deliverance of His people out of Egypt, and in each step of the onward way, prompt action at the proper time is ever characteristic. Specially is this seen in the sending of the prophets, "rising up early and sending them." No delay-no indifference, but early sending His messengers to rescue His people who had wandered from Him. How this increases their responsibility! They meeting His early rising to recall them, by "rising early and corrupting their doings." (Zeph. 3:7.) Coming to the New Testament, we find this same diligence in sending His Son ; and after He had ascended, having accomplished all God's purposes here, there was no delay in sending forth the Holy Ghost.

Passing now to that perfect life on earth of Him whose meat and drink it was to do His Father's will, we find the same spirit of holy promptness and zeal,-from the time when He said, " Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God," to that "early morning" of the resurrection when all that will had been perfectly accomplished. In the gospel (of Mark) which presents Him as the Perfect Servant, one of the characteristic words is "straightway." There is no lingering-no holding back, but a diligent passing from one sphere of service to another. Nor is there any shrinking from work which is not pleasant. He turns from the man out of whom He had cast the legion-parting from one who could in measure appreciate Him-to go back to those who had nothing but suspicion and unbelief. He leaves the bright glory of the " holy mount" of transfiguration to meet the demoniac child at the foot, and to steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, to meet worse than Capernaum indifference, demoniac power, or Samaritan unbelief. But, blessed be His precious name ! in all, He is ever the perfect, prompt, obedient One who could say, " He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learner." Having passed through the heavens, He is now seated on the Father's throne; but He still keeps His character as an early riser, and presents Himself to our longing hope as "the Bright and Morning Star,"-that star which rises early, before day. He will come for us at the earliest possible moment,-no delay when the last elect one is saved,-no delay but the fulfillment of that word which speaks to affection's heart, "Surely, I come quickly."

And if this is the character of the Father, of the Son, and the Spirit, we may well ask, Does it not become us also to be early risers? Turning to Scripture, we find it full of examples which if typical are none the less practical.

The manna-bread from heaven-had to be gathered early in the morning, for the heat of the sun melted it Christ is the bread of life for His people-not merely imparting and sustaining it, but giving us communion. We are to feed on Him if we are to have fellowship with Him and the Father. But this can only be done by early rising by a prompt diligence and determination to enjoy Him at all hazards. This applies equally to prayer ; just as the Lord Jesus rose a great while before day literally, we too must have the same purpose if we are to know what true prayer is. We ask amiss if we ask indolently. It is :not of set purpose, we may be very sure, that God's people lose communion with Him ; but it is by indifference and neglect-other things hindering us; "As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone," is also the reason why we lose that Manna which flees from the sun of this world's absorbing affairs. He who knocked at the door of His beloved, and who met with but a sluggish response, quickly withdrew from the door, and she found Him not (Song 5:2-7). Communion does not come unsought, does not stay with those who do not prize it sufficiently to hold it fast at all cost of ease or comfort. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." To be found, they have to be sought for, which means the diligence of early rising. The sluggard is the opposite of this. He loves his bed; self-pleasing is the rule of his life, and his garden shows it. The wall is broken down (separation from the world lost), and the nettles and briars show the fruits of the old creation under the curse, not the "peaceable fruits of righteousness." (Prov. 24:30-34.) The sluggard too has motion, but he moves in his bed ; it is like a door on its hinges-ever swinging backward and forward, but there is no progress. How different the example of that early riser, the apostle Paul -"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark"! Much of what passes for diligence among Christians is the half-awake turning in bed of the sluggard. Truth presented in an arousing way attracts their attention, wins their assent, makes them resolve to obey it; and thinking thus, they fall asleep until again awakened. Good for them is it if some pungent truth pierces the thick armor of indolence, and causes them, not to turn over to some fresh form of self-indulgence, but to leap from their bed of sloth, and do rather than talk. To obey is better than sacrifice." Good is it even if the chastening rod of a Father's love cause a smart which prevents further sleep. Do we not hear Him who says, not to the sinner, but to His own people, " Awake, thou that sleepest! and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" ?

We have been speaking of communion, and the necessity for all diligence if we are to maintain or enjoy it. This lies at the foundation ; for if there is no communion, there is no strength to do or obey. Coming on now to the fruits of communion-an obedient life-we find the same need emphasized. Never did father receive a harder command than did Abraham when God said, "Take now thy son-thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering." How does Abraham respond to this? He rose up early in the morning. "I made haste and delayed not to keep Thy words." He allows no time for nature to interpose between him and God's will. How often our slowness to obey has opened the way for dis-obedience! A lingering in the way, like the slothful man again who says, "There is a lion in the way:I shall be slain in the streets." No matter how heavy his heart, Abraham rises, and does what God had commanded, only to find, as we shall ever find, that obedience brings blessing out of the very thing we feared. He receives Isaac back as from the dead, with renewed covenant and promise on God's part, and learns more deeply than ever before the meaning of that word, " The Lord will provide." Is the reader of these lines delaying to obey God's will in some known matter? Go promptly, and obey ; rise early, deny self, and act in dependence on God ;. and, oh, what relief will come to you! and above all, what honor to God ! Do not stand shivering in uncertainty, but with promptness (not heedless haste-a very different thing,) act, and act now.

But this leads us to look at another fruit of early rising. It is only thus that great victories are won. When Joshua assaulted the impregnable walls of Jericho, he rose early, and they compassed the city. On the seventh day, they rose early-about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city seven times. Here they did very little, but they showed they were in earnest in that, by their early rising. The result is, the walls of Jericho fell flat, and victory is assured. So in our life, we have to cast down the strongholds of Satan which stand in the way of our enjoyment of our inheritance. We have little we can do to overcome the opposition, save a steadfast walk and a clear testimony ; but if there is this in true diligence, victory is assured,-the walls, whatever they may be-difficulty at home, or wherever else,-will fall. The Lord teach us this lesson also. We might refer to many such instances, where due and earnest diligence accompanied victory. David in meeting Goliath (i Sam. 17:20), Gideon attacking Midian (Judges 7:i), Jehoshaphat in meeting his foes (2 Chron. 20:20),-all rose early, and they were victorious.

See too in the exercise of discipline (as in Josh. 7:16), no delay is permitted, and the result is, the offender is discovered and dealt with, and blessing results. How often evil is winked at, or the matter neglected until it becomes a festering sore, defiling a whole assembly, or a large portion of it, and only gotten rid of with the loss of many who might otherwise have been spared !

So also, in the restoration of God's order, Hezekiah, when the temple was cleansed, made haste and offered the appointed sacrifices,-he rose early. The Lord Jesus has in these last days shown where His meeting-place is- "Where two or three are gathered together to My name, there am I in the midst." He has provided the sacrifices (forever efficacious), but where are the early risers-the devoted ones who will avail themselves aright of these privileges ? Does the reader say, " Here am I" ?

CONANT’S "HISTORY OF ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION."*

*In two parts, paper cover, 25 cents. each; bond in one volume, cloth, $1.00.*

What, of course, indicates the hand of God in history are deliverances that are wrought again and again when all is lost, as far as man is concerned.

It could not be otherwise, but it is striking and interesting to note it. It bows the Christian's mind in worship; for while face to face with the distress and sin that fill this scene with darkness, God is seen to be at work; for "the wise understand," though the wicked do not. (Dan. 12:10.)

The opening chapters of this history present this very evident truth or feature with clearly marked outlines.

As regards any prospect of a Reformation, what were the circumstances in Wickliffe's time,-that is, toward the close of the fourteenth century?

In the main, we may say, the clergy corrupt, the people degraded, cr ignorant and helpless, the king and the barons in selfish strife-both despising and distrusting the people, no doubt,-the Bible locked up and locked out, hardly to be found often, and then only in Latin- unknown to the people, and those in power ready to crush out the first attempt to read and obey the Scriptures.

Truly "man's extremity is God's opportunity:" vain is the help of man. This leaves God free to work-as in Egypt, so in England, and by means that keep before us always this, that the power is of God and not of man.

Wickliffe at Oxford receives the Word into his heart, and begins to give it forth to others; and how powerful is the truth ! Every utterance of it causes the foundations of error to shake, and the enemies of Christ are all alive.

But fasting and prayer precede the blessing. " These beautiful words, uttered in one of his sermons at Lutterworth, might fitly serve as the motto of his whole subsequent career:' O Christ, Thy law is hidden in the sepulcher:when wilt Thou send Thy angel to remove the stone, and show Thy truth unto Thy flock.' This prayer-this heart's desire went up into heaven, to His holy dwelling-place, and in due time the Lord wrought for His own name's sake and brought salvation."

In 1365, Wickliffe was summoned to aid them by his counsel as to resisting the papal claim of tribute from England,-at least there seems to be evidence that his counsel was sought in this way. Not that he turned aside from the ministry, but his counsel and his influence are among the indications of what is plainly true, that the underlying power at work for good was not political aspiration, but the effectual working of the truth in hearts prepared of God. It was not that civil liberty introduced the Reformation, but the work of God in hearts and consciences led to a faithful witness against evil in high places that men dared not and had no wisdom to withstand.-a witness to death often in martyrdom, giving a movement and a power through the country that natural men took advantage of in order to throw off political yokes and galling grievances.

As to the pope's claim of secular dominion, if he is the vicar of Christ, Christ refused all secular dominion ; He subsisted on charity, and had not where to lay His head ; and besides this, the Reformers showed the error of the clergy in seeking political office, in beautiful words, edifying and searching to us all:-

"Prelates and great religious possessioners are so occupied in heart about worldly lordships and pleas of business, that no habit of devotion, of praying, of thought-fulness on heavenly things, on the sins of their own hearts, or those of other men, may be preserved ; neither are they found studying and preaching the gospel, nor visiting and comforting of poor men."

This care for the poor, manifest here and elsewhere in this narrative, is to be noted. It affects the heart. It is the Spirit of Christ at work-of Him who had compassion on the people, who were as sheep without a shepherd.

Note again the balance of character taught in Scripture. There is tender love and mercy for the poor and needy, faithful rebuke to the proud and to the oppressor, and yet the spirit of meek subjection and submission to masters and governors-to the froward as well as to the good.

All this is not of man, but of God ; but how much is mingled with the experience or lives of Christians that is of the old leaven, when we think of this beautiful standard!

"It is the will of the Holy Spirit," says Wickliffe, "that the books of the Old and New Law should be read and studied as the one sufficient source of instruction ; and that men should not be taken up with other books, which, true as they may be, and even containing Scripture truth, are not to be confided in without caution and limitation. . . . If we follow this rule, the Scripture will be held in becoming reverence, the papal bulls will be superseded, as they ought to be."

" Such were the doctrines," continues the author, "which Wickliffe, two centuries (a hundred and fifty years?) before Luther [and Tyndale], taught openly in the halls of Oxford." No doubt his words stirred up many who are supposed to have gone out through the country as itinerant preachers. "All Christians," he said, "should be the soldiers of Christ. But it is plain that many are chargeable with great neglect of this duty, being prevented by the fear of the loss of temporal goods and worldly friendships, and apprehensive about life and fortune, from faithfully setting forth the cause of God, from standing manifestly in its defense, and, if need be, from suffering death in its behalf. …. Hence we Christians need not visit pagans to convert them by enduring martyrdom in their behalf:we have only to declare with constancy the Word of God before Caesarian prelates, and straightway the flower of martyrdom will be ready to our hand."

If at this time, as set forth in this account, the Reformer's life was peaceful, the winds of opposition were only held back for a time. " In favor with its court for the stand which he had taken against the pope, and with the university for his zeal against the [begging] friars; honored for his genius, his learning, and his virtuous life; he was at this time regarded as the chief light and ornament of Oxford."

Thus uniform is the dealing of God in His providence, for Jesus Himself experienced a time of peaceful development before Satan was allowed to raise the storm of man's hatred against Him. ''The Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon Him. …. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and' man." (Luke 2:40, 52.) E.S.L.

" Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we of Him"

A wrong impression is given in the verse as it stands in the Authorized Version quoted above. The wrong meaning is given in two words – "labor" and accepted."As it stands, it would teach that our acceptance was an uncertain thing, dependent upon our labor. Nothing can be further from the truth of the gospel and from the teaching of this verse. Our acceptance is complete and final – it is " in the Beloved ; "and God teaches us to see ourselves in Him, complete, perfect. We are made "the righteousness of God in Him."No room, then, for the uncertainty implied in the translation above. The true meaning of the word is, as given in the Revised Version, "well-pleasing." To be accepted of God is one thing ; to be well-pleasing to Him, quite another. The one is the common standing of all Christians; the other depends upon the individual walk. Alas ! God has many children who are not well-pleasing to Him:hence the frequent exhortation to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing," etc. A wrong idea, too, is conveyed in the word " labor." Its meaning rather is, as given in the margin of the Revised Version, "are ambitious;" or, perhaps, nearer yet, "make it a point of honor." So that the meaning is given if we render the verse as follows :" Wherefore also we make it a point of honor, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto Him."

The subject of the chapter is, departing to be with Christ, by death, and His coming to clothe us with our house from heaven, and to take us there. If the Lord tarry, we will go to Him, leaving our bodies here till the resurrection ; if He come for us, we shall be changed in a moment, and caught up to meet Him. In the one case, we will be "absent from the body;" in the other, we would be, "not unclothed, but clothed upon" with our house which is from heaven. To depart and be with Christ is far better, but best of all will it be when all for whom He died are gathered unto Him in glory. But in the meanwhile, whichever may be before him, the apostle makes it a point of honor to be well-pleasing to Him. Then, " whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." So we are, as it were, put on our honor to please God. Many persons act from motives of honor. The man of the world keeps his word-abides by his contracts as a matter of honor. So our God would have us understand that it is beneath the dignity of the Christian to act in any way that is not well-pleasing to Him. It should be a point of honor with us. Let us learn to be punctilious in matters which concern our God. Indeed, it is not our own honor merely which is at stake, but His. How careful we should be ! If something of value is intrusted to us by another, we make it a special point to take care of it; so it should be since we are intrusted with what concerns God. And what is there in our life that does not concern Him ? The children of Israel were told to put a fringe of blue on the borders of their garments:that which trailed nearest to earth was to speak of heaven; and as he thought of this, we can imagine how careful the Israelite would be to prevent any soil or spot from falling upon it. So it should be with us:whatever else may fail, let us see to it that we are well-pleasing unto Him. Some may strive for a reward, some for a crown, let us make it a point of honor to please God. That is the testimony which Enoch left behind;-"he pleased God." Very little is said of him, except that he walked with God and pleased Him. If we want to please Him, that is the way-to walk with Him. If we were to strive for a crown for our own glory, it would fade in our hands ; if we seek for one to lay it at Jesus' feet, it will never fade. Ah ! that is the motive- a crown to lay at His feet! Let us, then, make it a point of honor, not to glorify ourselves,-not to vindicate ourselves, but to be well-pleasing unto Him. Zealous for God, not zealous for ourselves,-that is the Christian's object.
"Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give."

What rest unspeakable!-
To lay the weary head and the more weary heart
On Jesu's breast, where John so oft reposed ;
To feel the throbbing of that mystic heart-
The only heart that comprehends my own.
For often those who're nearest do not understand,
And fail to enter into thoughts expressed,
And there's a want which cannot be described.
But here is perfect confidence :-
Not even need of words-He knows it all
Before we've time to tell. And oh, to feel
Our sorrow is His own !
Yet He hath sorrowed many times, and wept,
Without one human heart to answer.

Our weakness makes us objects of His care,
And draws out all the tenderness '
That's in the Father's heart for every child,-
The helpless babe, the tottering little one
Just learned to step; for childhood's lesser sorrows
Ever find a ready answer to each feeble call.
And deeper griefs of older hearts,
Who 've learned to measure sin by sorrow s depths-
[The awful depths of that most awful cross
On which our Savior died]
Find healing in the same sweet fount of love.

Oh, blessed storm that drives our shattered bark
Into this haven of eternal peace,
To press more closely to that hallowed breast
The hearts that sigh for rest!

H. McD.

(Ezek. 16:8; Song 2:10-13.)

In seeking to touch the heart of the nation, God goes back to the time of their first love-the love of their espousals. Hard as their heart may be now, there was a time when it was tender, when it felt the thrill of joy at knowing it was loved and of loving in return. In the Song of Solomon we have the voice of the Beloved calling away from all else to the enjoyment of Himself. The time of love for Israel had past, but for the Lord it still remained. Coming to ourselves, is it now "the time of love? or is it only as we think of the past that we see that time ?For Ephesus, it was past, and no works, diligence, and correctness could take its place with the Lord. Let us hear him telling us that it is His time of love now. He loves us just as much now as when He bore judgment for us on the cross. He would do as much again if necessary. Blessed forever be His precious name! His love knows no change. He speaks to us in love's own language, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away."Think of His calling you His fair one? Are we fair ? are our hands clean ?We are that to Him, and if not practically that, what a shame to us! He must have us with Himself. Love wishes to be alone with its object, so He says, " Come away." Whatever your heart is occupied with to the exclusion of Him-come away from it.

What a fair scene lies before the eyes of love ! "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come ; the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land." To sight, this earth is a barren waste, as far as true joy is concerned ; but if our hearts are in communion with the Lord, it is a "time of love" for us. We see the winter and rain of judgment over and gone-borne once for all on Calvary-the flowers of heaven are seen and its music heard in the soft quiet notes of the " heavenly Dove."

Dear brethren, is it thus with us-are we in our time of love ! Oh, how much we are missing if this is not true ! How much too we are robbing the Lord of, who longs for us even here to share His joy. In a little while it will be the time of love for all His people, let us anticipate that and pass on through this world with hearts filled and overflowing with His love, waiting only for one thing,-"to see His face and hear His voice."