We were living in ignorance-"According to the former lusts in your ignorance;" but how in that state of ignorance we were nevertheless responsible and guilty, we learn from Eph. 4:18-."Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; " or, as in the R. V., "because of the hardening of their heart." Just as in Jno. 12:, "they could not believe,", because God had hardened them ; and then again the same passage is quoted (from Isa. 6:) in the last chapter of the Acts, to show that they had hardened themselves. " For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed."

But now it is no longer blindness and ignorance, but holiness-a holy walk before God, who is light, in all manner of living.

Three considerations are mentioned to produce in the Christian a right state-of holiness and fear. We are to be holy because God is holy to whom we now belong. And since God as our Father judges-that is, governs and chastens us without respect of persons, we are to pass the time of our sojourn in fear. And thirdly, we are to consider the cost of our redemption-"the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

The blood of Christ has redeemed me. The Father chastens me according to my ways; and God is holy.

The fear is not fear of being lost, nor does " the Father judging according to every man's work" imply that. Jno. 5:27-29 and 2 Tim. 4:i show that the execution of judgment upon sinners is committed to the Son ; but the Father's judgment is, dealing with His own in chastening and discipline in the sojourn here.

But this is a solemn reality, and is too little considered. It is "without respect of persons"-a warning, to disturb our pride and hardness of heart, and to keep alive within me the fact that I have to do each moment with One who hates sin and loves me as His child. The Corinthians had become so dull as to need to be reminded that some of them were weak and sickly, and some had died (i Cor. 11:30), " that they might not be condemned with the world." This holy fear was lacking, so that, though having many gifts, they had exposed themselves to Satan. In Ps. 107:, this government of God over His people, and over all men, is unfolded, and is called " mercy and loving-kind-ness," however great the distress it may bring us into at times, to bring us to repentance, or to give a deeper tone to our character. The refrain of this psalm, four times repeated, should be a song in the heart of every one, however sharp the chastening.-" Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men !"-even though they may go down to the depths, and their soul be melted because of trouble. "Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." (Ps. 107:43.)

When redemption is known, then the heart can be governed by the fear of God. Ps. 111:is full of this spirit of worship and holy fear. " He sent redemption unto His people:He hath commanded His covenant forever:holy and reverend is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:a good understanding have all they that do His commandments :His praise endureth forever."
We need to cultivate this spirit of fear, that we may not be rash, heedless, trifling, and self-confident.

And " it is written, ' Be ye holy, for I am holy.' " This is an exhortation which is deep and heart-searching beyond expression, and demands diligent attention lest we should trespass against God. The sixth chapter of Isaiah will illustrate this subject. The seraphim vail their faces before Him who sits upon the throne, high and lifted up, and cry, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts :the whole earth is full of His glory! " and Isaiah cries, "Woe is me ! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts."

The holiness of God is the opposite of that which so easily invades the heart, and unfits us for the presence and service of God.

By unholiness, priestly discernment is destroyed, and we have no clear judgment between good and evil, and become like the horse and the mule, to be held in by bit and bridle. It is not until after the eighth chapter of Leviticus, where Aaron and his sons are consecrated to the priesthood, that things clean and unclean are mentioned, and their obligation to discern between them; and it is in this epistle of Peter where holiness is so enjoined that Christians are called "a holy priesthood,"-as also in the epistle to the Hebrews, where our priesthood is implied, the obligation of holiness is declared with solemn emphasis.

In John's epistles holiness is not mentioned. There, the new life, as born of God, goes out in fellowship with God and love to the brethren, and overcomes the world; but here we are exhorted as having been redeemed- redeemed from a wicked world and from a life of vanity, as in Titus-"He gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

"Holy and reverend is His name." May we rejoice in Him, as He has made Himself known to us; and beware of walking heedlessly in such a presence, while resting fully in that love that first sought us and took hold of us, and that upholds us, and that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us. (Rom. 5:5.) E.S.L.

The third parable of this chapter, while it reveals no less than the former ones the heart of God, reveals on the other hand, more than these, the heart of man, and that whether as receiving or rejecting the grace that seeks him. It is in this respect the fitting close of the appeal to conscience. Publican and Pharisee are both shown fully to themselves in the holy light which yet invites and welcomes all who will receive it.

Whatever applications may be made to Jew and Gentile, it should be plain that these are but applications, however legitimate, and that the Lord is not addressing Himself to a class outside His present audience, but to the practical need of those before Him. The same consideration decisively forbids the thought of any direct reference to the restoration of a child of God gone astray from Him, an interpretation which makes of the elder son who had not wandered the pattern saint! Strange it is indeed that any who know what the grace of God does in the soul of its recipient should ever entertain so strange a notion. It is one of the fruits of reading Scripture apart from its context, as if it were a mosaic of disconnected fragments:a thing, alas! still done by so many, to the injury of their
souls. We hope to look at the elder son at another time, but the foundation of this strange view meets us at the outset.

The two who are in evident contrast throughout here are both called " sons." And so in the first parable are the ninety and nine, as well as the object of the Shepherd's quest called "sheep." But we know the Jewish fold held other flocks than those of Christ in it. When He enters it, He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. (Jno. 10:3.) The fact, then, of all being called sheep need perplex no one.

The title of "son" may indeed seem to involve more than this, because Judaism taught no " Abba, Father," and it is one of the characteristics of Christianity that we receive in it " the adoption of sons." While this is true, it is by no means the whole truth. Israel too had an " adoption " (Rom. 9:3); and it is with reference to their position in contrast with the Gentiles that the Lord said to the Syro-phenician woman, " It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." In the parable, the Lord spoke to the Jews after His solemn entry into Jerusalem ; He again speaks of both Pharisees and publicans, joining "harlots" with the latter as sons, precisely as here,-"A certain man had two sons" (Matt, 21:28). Thus, while the proper truth of relationship to God could only be known and enjoyed in Christianity, it is certain that Israel had also, as the only one of the families of the earth " known " to Him, a place upon which they valued themselves, and it was just that generation among whom the Lord stood, who did above all claim this. "We be not born of fornication" was their indignant reply to Him upon another occasion, " we have one Father, even God" (Jno. 8:.41). And though He urges upon them the want of real correspondence in their character, yet there was basis sufficient for His utterance here, while the want of correspondence comes out in the end too as fully. " I am a Father to Israel " had long since been declared.
The character of the younger son soon becomes manifest. " Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me " is itself significant. He is not content- that his father, should keep his portion, but will have it to enjoy, himself, in independence of the hand from which it comes. You do not wonder to learn that in a little while he would be freer still, and that the far country is for him an escape from his father's eye, as the independent portion had been from his hand.
It need hardly be said that this is the way in which men treat God. That which comes from Him, the Author of all the good in it for which they seem to have so keen a relish, such entire appreciation, they yet cannot enjoy in submission to Him or in His presence. God is their mar-all-the destruction of all their comfort. How many " inventions " have they to forget Him ! for the "far-off country" is itself but one of these. God is "not far off from any one of. us." Oh, what a desolation would these very children of disobedience find it, if indeed they could banish God. from His own world !

It is no wonder that in this far-off country the prodigal should waste his substance with riotous living. It is only the sign that where he is beginning to tell on him; the touch of coming" famine is already on him. The little good in any thing apart from God felt by one still not in the secret of it makes him hunt after it the more; and if there be only a pound of sugar in a ton of sap, the sap will go very quickly in finding the sugar. This is what the man is doing,-going in the company of the "many who say, ' Who will show us any good ?' " and who have not learned to say, " Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us."

So the wheels run fast down-hill. Soon he is at the bottom. He has spent all, and then there arises a mighty famine in the land. It is not only that his own resources are at an end, but the whole land of his choice is stripped and empty. This is fulfilled with us when we have not merely lost what was our own, but have come to find that in all the world there is nothing from which to supply ourselves. It is not an experience-perhaps an exceptional experience-of our own, but the cry of want is every where. How can we even beg from beggars 1 Such is the world when the eye is opened really as to it,-when the ear has come to interpret its multitudinous sounds. Every where are leanness and poverty. Every where is the note of the passing bell. " The world passeth away, and the lust thereof."

Then he goes and joins himself to a citizen of that far-off land,-one who belongs to it as, according to this story, even the prodigal did not. For men have come into this condition, but are not looked upon as hopelessly involved in it. There is elsewhere a Father's heart that travels after them:there is the step of One who goeth after that which is lost. But the citizen of that far-off land has no ties,-not even (one may say) broken ties elsewhere. Such a citizen the devil assuredly is, and the troop he is feeding and fattening for destruction speak plainly for him:"he sent him into his fields to feed swine."

These swine, alas! are men,-not all men, not even all natural men. They are those before whom the Lord forbids to cast the pearls of holy things, for they will trample them under their feet, and turn upon and rend you. They are the scoffers and scorners, the impious opposers of all that is of God. These are the company the devil entertains and feeds,-though with " husks,"- and indeed it must be owned he has no better provision. These "husks," whatever they may be naturally, are surely spiritually just what would be food to profanity and impiety. The world's famine does not diminish Satan's resources in this respect,-nay, they are in some sense increased by it. All the misery of man, the fruit of his sin, the mark of divine judgment upon it, but also the warning voice of God by which He would emphasize His first question to the fallen, "Adam, where art thou ?"- all this is what profanity would cast up against God. God, not man, it says, is the sinner; and man, not God, will be justified in judgment!

But the swine are swine evidently, rooting in the mire, men in their swinish grovelings and lusts that drive them; and those that feed them cannot after all fill their belly with that which the swine eat. For those who cannot always look down and willingly ignore what is above them, even though storms sweep through it as well as sunshine floats through it, cannot be satisfied with what, in leveling them with the beasts, degrades them below them. The beasts may be-are satisfied. They look not at death, and have no instincts which lead them beyond it:they may be satisfied " to lie in cold obstruction and to rot; " man never really. And it is more than questionable if, with all his powers of self-deception, he can ever quite believe it is his portion.

"And no man gave him." What is there like a land of famine for drying up all the sweet charities and affections that are yet left in men ? Take the awful picture that Jeremiah gives, where " the hands of pitiful women have sodden their own offspring," as a sample of what this can do. And the estimate of men as beasts, the giving up of God and of the future life, does it tend to produce the pity of men for men ? Have hospitals and asylums and refuges, and all the kindly ministrations of life grown out of infidelity, or faith? Every one knows. The charity of the infidel seldom consists in more than freeing men from the restraints of conscience and the fear of God.

But here the prodigal "comes to himself." His abject misery stares him in the face. " Adam, where art thou ?" is heard in his inmost soul; and if there be uncertainty as to all other things, here at least there is none. He is perishing with hunger. Not that he knows himself rightly yet, still less that he knows his father; but he is destitute, and there is bread in his father's house:he will arise and go to his father; he will say to him, " Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son:make me as one of thy hired servants."

This is another point of which even the infidel may assure himself, that while he is starving, the people of God have real satisfaction and enjoyment. There need be no doubt about that. If it be a delusion that they enjoy, yet they enjoy it:if it be a falsehood that satisfies them, yet they are satisfied. And then it is surely strange that truth must needs make miserable, when a lie can satisfy! Nay, that Christ spake truth in this at least, that He said He would to those who came to Him give rest:and He gives it. Bolder in such a promise than any other ever dared to be, He yet fulfills His promise. While philosophy destroys philosophy, and schools of thought chase one another like shadows over the dial-plate of history, Christ's sweet assuring word never fails in fulfillment. Explain it as you may, you cannot deny it. Between His people and the world there is in this as clear a distinction as existed in Egypt when the three days' darkness rested on the land, "but all the children of Israel had tight in their dwellings."

So the prodigal turns at last toward the light. There is bread in his father's house. He will return. Yet he makes a great mistake. He says, " How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare!" And there is not even one hired servant in his father's house ! God may " hire " a man of the world to do His will, just as He gave Egypt into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar as the "hire"for His judgment which he had executed upon Tyre. But in His house He has but children at His table:as it was said of the passover-feast, the type of it, "A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof." (Ex. 12:45.)

He too-far off as he surely is yet-would come for his hire. He knows nothing as yet of the father's heart going out after him. He wrongs him with the very plea with which he intends to come, though it is indeed true that he is unworthy to be called his son. But this confession, in what different circumstances in fact does he make it!
"And he arose, and came to his father." Here is the great decisive point. Whatever may be the motives that influence him,-however little any thing yet may be right with him,-still he comes! And so the Lord presses upon every troubled weary soul to "come." However many the exercises of soul through which we pass, nothing profits till we come to Him. However little right any thing may be with us beside, nothing can hinder our reception if we come. Him that cometh unto Him He will in no wise cast put.

So helpless we may be that we can come but in a look -"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Not "Look at Me" merely:men may look at Christ, and look long, and look with a certain kind of belief also, and look admiringly, and find no salvation in all this ; but when Christ is the need-the absolute need, and the death-stricken soul pours itself out at the eyes to find the Saviour, though clouds and darkness may seem round about Him, yet shall it pierce through all. This is "coming." It is the might of weakness laying hold upon almighty strength. It is the constraint of need upon All-sufficiency. It is the power of misery over divine compassion. It is more than this :it is the Father's heart revealed.

For, " when he was yet a long way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." How it speaks of the way in which the father's heart had retained his image that he could recognize him in the distance, returning in such a different manner from that in which he had set out. Watching for him too, as it would seem ; and when he saw him, forgetting all but that this was his son returned, in the impetuosity of irresistible affection, as if he might escape him yet, and he must secure him and hold- him fast, running, and, in a love too great for words, falling upon his neck and making himself over to him in that passionate kiss! It is god of whom this is the picture ! What a surprise for this poor prodigal! What an overwhelming joy for those who are met thus, caught in the arms of unchanging, everlasting love,-held fast to the bosom of God, to be His forever!

Not a question ! not a condition ! a word of it would have spoiled all. Holiness must be produced in us, not enforced, not bargained for. Tell this father upon his son's neck, if you can, that he is indifferent whether his son is to be his son or not. He who has come out in Christ to meet us, Friend of publicans and sinners, calls us to repentance by calling us to Himself:is there another way ? " We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation." Is not this "joy in God" the sign of a heart brought back? of the far country, with all its ways, left forever behind ?

Christ is the kiss of God:who that has received it has not been transformed by it ? Who that, with the apostle John, has laid his head and his heart to rest upon His bosom, but with him will say, " He that sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him" (i Jno. 3:6) ? That glorious vision-"the glory of that light"-blinded another apostle, not for three days only, but forever, to all other glory. "The life which I live in the flesh," he says, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20.)

Not until upon his father's bosom is the newly recovered one able to get out his meditated confession. Then in what a different spirit would it be made ! The shameful " make me as one of thy hired servants " drops entirely out, while the sense of unworthiness deepens into true penitence. " The goodness of God " it is that " leadeth to repentance." The prompt reception, the sweet decisive assurance of the gospel, the " perfect love " that "casteth out fear,"-these are the sanctifying power of Christianity, its irresistible appeal to heart and conscience. Let no one dread the grace which alone liberates from the dominion of sin ! If we have not known its power, it must be that we have not known itself. If we have found it feeble, it is only because we have feebly realized it. There is nothing beside it worthy to be trusted,-nothing that can be substituted for it, nothing that can supplement it or make it efficacious. The soul that cannot be purged by grace can only be subdued by the flames of hell!

The son may rightly confess his unworthiness, but the father cannot repent of his love:"But the father said to his servants, 'Bring forth the best robe, and put it" on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.' " He must be put into condition for the house he is coming into; but more, he must have the best robe in the house. And this, we know, is Christ. Christ must cover us from head to foot. Christ must cover us back and front. There must be no possible way of viewing us apart from Him. He it is who appears in the presence of God for us. Our Substitute upon the cross is our Representative in heaven. We are in Him,-"accepted in the Beloved." There can be no question at all that this is the best robe in heaven. No angel can say, Christ is my righteousness:the feeblest of the saved can say nothing else ! It is Christ or self, and therefore Christ or damnation.

Oh, to realize the joy of this utter displacement of self by Christ! To accept it unreservedly is what will put us practically where the apostle was, and the things that were gain to us we count loss for Christ. Our possession in Him will become His possession of us, and there will be no separate interests whatever. How God has insured that our acceptance of our position shall set us right as to condition-make us His as He is ours ! Here again too, how holy is God's grace ! We are sanctified by that which justifies us; and the faith which puts us among the justified ones is the principle of all fruitfulness as well. The faith that has not works is thus dead:that is, it is no real faith at all.

Work is thus ennobled, and this I think you see in the "ring." The hand is thus provided for, and brought into corresponding honor with all the rest. What an honor to have a hand to serve Christ with ! So the ring weds it to Him forever. We are no longer to serve ourselves. We are no longer to feed swine with husks. We are " made free from sin, and become servants to God; we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

The person clothed, the hand consecrated, the feet are next provided for. The shoes are to enable us for the roughness of the way:and the apostle bids us have our feet shod with the "preparation of the gospel of peace" (Eph. 6:15). For the peace of the gospel is to apply itself to all the circumstances of the way. Our Father is the Lord of heaven and earth. Our Saviour sits upon the Father's throne. What enduring peace is thus provided for us ! And as the shoe would arm against the defilement of the way, so it would be a guard against the dust and defilement of it. Can any thing better prevent us getting under the power of circumstances (and so necessarily being defiled by them) than the quiet assurance that our God and Father holds them in His hand ? To be ruffled and disturbed by them is to be thrown off our balance. We try our own methods of righting things, and our methods become less scrupulous as unbelief prevails with us:"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." It is clear independency,-.our will, not God's.

Thus is the prodigal furnished ! Again I say, how holy in its tender thoughtfulness is all this care! Blessed, blessed be God, grace is our sufficiency,-that is, Himself is. He is fully ours:we too-at least in the desire of our hearts-are fully His. And now the joy of eternity begins for us-communion in the Father's love. He is in heaven, we are on earth:in heaven the joy is; but we too are made sharers of it. Do we not share in what is here before us, "and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry:for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost, and is found " ?

It is the Father's joy, and over us; but Christ is the expression of it, and the One who furnishes the materials of it. The well-known figure of God's patient and fruitful Worker is before us, and the necessity, even for Him, of death, that we might live. God has wrought these things into our daily lives that we may continually have before us what is ever before Himself. And we are called to make Christ our own-to appropriate Him in faith in this intimate way, that as we abide in Him, He may abide in us. How He would assure us of our welcome to Him ! How He would tell us that we are never to be parted! The life so ministered to, so sustained, is already within us the eternal life.

And the Father's joy fills the house, making all there to share it and to echo it. No impassive God is ours. The Author of this gushing spring of human feeling no less feels. We are in this also His offspring. "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." So the music and the dance begin, and shall never end.

As we well know, the wilderness was the place of trial; and trial, whether for Israel or God's people in general, means the bringing out of weakness, sin, and failure on our part, and at the same time the manifestation of strength, holiness, and patience on God's part. It is affecting and precious to see at the close of the journey, after years of unbelief and sin on the part of Israel, the futile effort of the enemy to bring a curse upon them. As we recall our own experience, with more of folly and failure in it, perhaps, than any thing else, what a comfort it is to hear the prophet (willing enough to curse,) compelled to say, "How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed ?" " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel." In the light of that, we boldly lift up our head and say, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" Yes, with the history of murmurings, golden-calf apostasy, the great refusal at Kadesh, Korah's assumption, and the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram, to say nothing of the failure of the leader (Moses), the priest (Aaron), and the prophetess (Miriam),-with all this behind them, and with the defilement of Baal Peor just in front of them, when the enemy accuses and would bring a curse, grace answers as we have seen. How this sweeps away at once all question as to the believer's eternal security in Christ, magnifying the perfect grace of God, the value of the blood of Christ, and the work of the Spirit, while at the same time God's holiness is none the less seen in the many chastenings visited upon His erring people ! " Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions." (Ps. 99:8.) It is at this latter truth-God's ways of holiness-that we would look a little, as suggested by a comparison of the numbers in the various tribes at the beginning and at the close of their wilderness journey, seen in Num. 1:and 26:Here not less than elsewhere numbers are significant, indicating prosperity (Gen. 48:19) and strength (Luke 14:31).

Reuben (Num. 1:20 ; 26:5) heads the list,-the firstborn, and therefore entitled, according to nature, to the leadership; but because of sin, he was not to have the excellency. In these forty years' wanderings, his numbers dwindle,-at the close, we see him weaker than at the beginning. Looking at his history for a reason for this, we come to the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram, who were of this tribe (Num. 16:i). Desiring to be leaders, under pretense of claiming their rights for the people, they rebel against God's authority in Moses, turn back in heart to Egypt, and murmur at the trials of the way. Swift judgment overtakes them,-the earth opens and swallows them up, but the leaven of their example spreads among the people, and rebellion is only checked when fourteen thousand are slain by the plague. (Num. 16:49.) How many, like these children of Reuben, rebel against God's authority, in pure self-will, and murmur at the trials of the way, only to weaken themselves and their brethren, finding that, instead of being exalted by their independence, they have become abased !

In looking at Simeon, we are struck with the shrinkage from fifty-nine thousand three hundred to twenty-two thousand two hundred,-his strength but little more than one-third of what he had at the start, and we cannot help remembering that it was a prince of this tribe who was the leading offender at Baal Peor, upon whom also judgment was summarily executed (Num. 25:8); and doubtless his brethren (5:6) who were sharers in his sin partook also of his judgment, leaving Simeon's ranks woefully depleted. But what was this sin that wrought such havoc? What Balak's efforts at cursing could not effect, mixture with the Midianites did, in measure. Rebellion, the sin of Reuben, does not leave the tribe so weak as mingling with strange people does Simeon. How many, alas ! of God's people have proven, as Simeon did here, that mixture with the world saps their strength and destroys their spiritual prosperity ! It is the Pergamos state of the Church-marriage with the world, and is so described in Rev. 2:Then, too, as though in solemn warning, it was at the close of the journey that Simeon thus sinned, and there was no time for recovery. Like Solomon afterward, and Lot before, the last thing mentioned is the sin, and their lamp (of testimony) goes out in obscure darkness. David failed grievously, but there was a good measure of recovery (though he bore his scars to the grave). Let us beware of the first symptoms of coldness or worldliness, lest we too, like Simeon, find our last days here blighted by irremediable failure.

Gad also shows a weakening at the close. His outward history shows no reason for this, unless his close connection with Reuben and Simeon (Num. 2:10-16) made him a sharer in their sin and judgment. Association with evil workers, even where one outwardly is not a partaker, has a weakening effect. How we can see this all around !-a repetition of Jonathan,-upright himself, yet linked with the house of Saul. Many of God's people are growing weaker, through ecclesiastical business, social or family relationships with those who drag them into worldliness.

Secret causes sap the strength of Naphtali, and he comes out of the course weaker by eight thousand men than when he entered it. With nothing unusual laid to his charge, he has gone backward. Let us beware lest some " little foxes " spoil our vines,-lest, while outwardly blameless-with nothing positive in our conduct to be condemned as in Reuben, or in our associations as Gad, we may show even greater deterioration than either. It is loss of first love, even where there are abundant works, which brings such weakness.

Fruitful Ephraim seems to contradict his name, loosing eight thousand men. It is one thing to have a name by grace, quite another to prove it in our walk.

But this catalogue has also a bright side..Warnings alone might discourage us. Besides, it is not true that the wilderness is a place that only weakens :on the contrary, rightly gone through, the strength is renewed- "thy pound hath gained ten pounds." There is Judah, who gains nearly two thousand in those forty years of trial. Did Caleb's faith stimulate them all? (Joshua was not perhaps so closely identified with Ephraim, though of that tribe, being the companion of Moses-Ex. 33:II.) Jonathan, and David, and a host of others, show what the faith of one man can do in encouraging others. Companionship with a man of faith is helpful; unless, like Lot, we lean on him, instead of imitating his faith. Caleb, at the close of his journey, could say (Josh. 14:II), "As yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me ; as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in." So the numbers of Judah speak of vigor undiminished. May it be so with us at the close. Issachar and Zebulun, in the same camp with Judah, can bear the same testimony-that the wilderness does not necessarily weaken. Even here there is a difference,-Issachar's increase of nearly ten thousand being much greater than that of Zebulun. Those who succeed, do so in various degrees.

Manasseh reverses Ephraim's experience, and is an illustration of the fact that " many that are first shall be last, and the last first."Many a sincere, quiet, plodding Christian, with nothing brilliant, will show at the close a brighter record than his brother who apparently had so much better prospects.

Dan, already large, increases; while Asher, from being one of the smaller tribes, takes his place with the largest. " Friend, come up higher" might be said of him.
What varied results, both of failure and success! and to be explained by various reasons. Here are indications of little failures and great ones, of small progress and astonishing progress. Can we not take these two catalogues, and seeing in them a picture for ourselves, learn the lesson ? God shows us that at the close, an examination will be made-"we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." In these pictures, we can read the end from the beginning, and so be wise, and seek to gather daily gold, silver, precious stones, shunning all that would weaken us, and counting on that grace which bears us on eagle's wings.

"Though the way be long and dreary,'
Eagle strength He’ll still renew;
Garments fresh, and foot unweary,
Tell how God hath brought thee through."

S.R.

O God, and is it possible that one
So hardened, so immovable, should be
The object of Thy still enduring love ?
That yet Thou wouldst not leave me to my choice,
But sent Thy Spirit to save me from myself ? .
I've nothing to return Thee, but a heart
Sometimes with Thee, and sometimes on the earth;
Now soaring high above created things
In utter scorn of all the world calls greatest,
Pleasure or pain, and deems them all alike,
So it may rest upon a Saviour's love!
At other times-alas! why is it so?
It does but float upon this changeful world,
Like a light straw upon the ocean's bed;
Now up, now down, disturbed by every ripple:
And wilt Thou love me still, with such a poor return?
It seems impossible-but Thou hast said it,
And Thou hast proved it-oh, how much, how long!
And shall I add to the black catalogue
Of my ingratitude this closing sin,
Blackest of all, to doubt what Thou hast said? (Selected.)

And hath washed us from our sins in His own blood, . . . to Him be glory and dominion forever and
ever."

LOVED me there needs indeed a voice from heaven,
Fraught with some message of supernal potence,
To teach me, holy Father, that Thou lovest me;
For or nothing else would win me to believe it!

We love on earth-but then we love the thing
That in itself is lovely, or can pay
With kindred warmth the waste of our affection;
Or that which, by some sweet assimilation,
Can work us pleasure or requite our love.
But why, Eternal Father, Lord of heaven,
Maker of earth and of ten thousand worlds,
Ten thousand times more spacious than the earth!
Being without beginning, without end!
Sufficient to Thyself-beyond the reach
Of things create, to pleasure or to pain Thee!
Before whose spotless purity the hosts
Of most immaculate angels are not pure;-
Omnipotent, who see'st in all that is,
No more but the poor nothings Thou hast made,
And couldst unmake, if so it were Thy pleasure!
My spirit shrinks in wonder while I ask,
Eternal Father, Why shouldst Thou love me ?
The thing Thou mad'st, but not what Thou hadst made it;
More hateful to Thee than the meanest worm,
Because the worm is innocent and true-
Less grateful to Thee than the flower to me,
Because I rendered hatred for Thy love!

Thy child ? Thou call'st me so-but I had wiped
As a foul stain Thine impress from my brow,
And should have blushed that men had seen it there!
Thy willing servant ? No, not even that !
For I betook me to another lord,
And Thou in anger didst refuse my service.
Thy slave ? I should have been, but e'en the slave
Who serves unwillingly the lord he chose not
Has oftentimes been faithful, has been grateful.
What was I to Thee, then? Alas! Thy foe!
Friend of Thy foes, and leagued to do Thee scorn.
I knew Thy pleasure, but I did it not!
I felt Thy excellence, but could not love it.

CHRIST has not only delivered me from the consequences of my sins, but also from the present power of sin, and from the claims and influences of that thing which Scripture calls "the world." be it remembered that one of Satan's special devices is, of Satan's salvation to lead people to accept salvation from Christ, while, at the same time, they refuse to be identified with Him in His rejection,-to avail themselves of the atoning work of the cross, while abiding comfortably in the world that is stained with the guilt of nailing Christ thereto.

"Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." (Mark 7:9.) "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much ; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." (Luke 16:10.)

In this day of formal and professed godliness, a painfully common example of making void the Word of God by our own arguments and traditions is the frequently heard distinction between"essentials and non-essentials."

"We differ only in non-essentials" seems usually a disturbed slumberer's way of saying, "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep !" Thus, I think, has our poverty of soul "come upon us as one that traveleth," and our spiritual "want as an armed man"! (Prov. 24:33, 34.)

To the question, What are "the essentials"? there is but one response."Essential to our salvation,"-that which ministers to our security.

What supreme selfishness-to deem nothing essential that does not endanger our safety ! What insult to Him, to whom alone we are indebted for safety, to make such a classification of His holy things ! How it proves that self has not yet been dethroned that Christ might be enthroned in the heart! Should not gratitude and love make most sacred whatever pertains to the glory of God ?

Even our salvation is for His glory:"He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known." (Ps. 106:8.) "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." (Isa. 43:25.) "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ to Himself, …. to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." (Eph. 1:5, 6.)

Who, then, are we, that we should sit in judgment of His affairs, and, out of a number of matters that pertain to His glory, call this one essential and that one non-essential? Were it not better that we should pray,^'Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me ; then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from great transgression." (Ps. 19:13,)

But are not these distinctions set up to excuse ourselves from the responsibility of our many differences ? Self-willed and stubborn, we will have our own way if possible in every thing which does not affect our salvation; and so it comes to pass that, instead of humbling ourselves for our sins, and preserving in our souls the sense of the glory of God and the solemnity of His Word, we betake ourselves to this unholy principle for comfort and guidance. Our dear Lord has bidden us not to differ. Should not the slightest wish of One who has so loved us and redeemed us be to us very essential ?

Take, for instance, i Cor. 1:10 :He not only bids us be united, but lays sevenfold emphasis upon the injunction.

1. " I beseech you, brethren." We are besought, and that by one who carried in his bosom the heart of Christ toward His people, and who was suffering all things for the elect's sake. A fit instrument indeed for the Holy Spirit to use in thus beseeching us.

2. "By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." What a name to beseech by ! What recollections of love, patience, gentleness, agonizing sufferings it summons-and all for us ! The name of our Lord Jesus Christ! If that does not make us heed what the voice has to say, what will ? In Heaven's judgment, He alone is worthy, and that alone worthy which has Him for its object, and burns with the frankincense of His dear name.

3. "That ye all speak the same thing." Words are the expression of what is in our hearts. If Christ "dwells in our hearts by faith," it is Christ that we will speak, however great or small may be our knowledge of Him. The babe prattles in his weak-way, and the strong youth speaks with clearness and vigor, but they speak the same language, and they understand each other well.

4. "And that there be no divisions among you" (1:e,, among "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord; " for such are the persons addressed in this epistle, as may be seen in ver. 2). Brother, whatever name you may as a Christian be under, this request appeals to you as also, to me. It pleads for "no divisions," and that, mark, not in the ecclesiastical body in which you may be, but in relation to "all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." We may find extreme difficulties in the actual state of things, to carry this out, but we are no less responsible to do it.

5. "But that ye be perfectly joined together." Not merely agreed, notice, but "perfectly joined together." What can perfectly join a family together but absolute subjection to the one who at the head of it seeks only its good ? So here:nothing can produce such a state among us but absolute subjection to the Lord, and this is expressed in our subjection to His Word.

6. "In the same mind." Such subjection will form all our minds in one mold, so that, whatever be the diversity of tempers, of " constitution," or of gifts, they will be under "the same mind," and this will produce-

7. " The same judgment." In all things pertaining to God, and the family of God, it will find us united. Now I submit that for this blessed order of things, or for its opposite, we are, each and all, solemnly responsible; and that the idea of essentials and non-essentials is a mischievous excuse from that responsibility, making little or nothing of what disgraces our Lord, and thus hindering honest souls from seeking the way to cease from displeasing Him. O brethren, it is time to awake out of sleep, that we " may with one mind and with one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 15:6.) Thus the Lord prayed aloud for us, that we might hear what was in His heart:" Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us:that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One:I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, even as Thou hast loved Me." (Jno. 17:20-23.)

Brethren, let us carry this prayer, this desire of our Lord, in our hearts. E.C.W.

THE POWER OF AN ASSEMBLY TO BIND AND TO LOOSE. (Matt. 18:17,18.)-Continued.

2. THE DOCTRINAL LIMIT.

The passage before us says nothing explicitly with regard to the power of the assembly as to doctrine. It is simply personal trespass that is in question :"If thy brother trespass against thee." And it is striking that when we take up the first epistle to the Corinthians, in which undoubtedly we have the matter of discipline on the part of the assembly treated of, we have, with one exception that I shall presently notice, nothing but moral condition. The person to be dealt with there was an immoral person, plainly; and the apostle says, " But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat . . . therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person" (chap. 5:ii, 13). The one thing here which is not simple immorality is idolatry; but it is at any rate plain, naked evil, about which there could be no question for a Christian. He was a " wicked person " who worshiped the gods of the heathen, and a wicked person was to be put away. But this involves no decision about doctrine, no pronouncing upon truths of Scripture, plainly. "Wickedness" was not a nice question, needing much knowledge of the Word to detect. It needed godliness. And this is the one thing that could be rightly expected of an assembly of Christians:not learning, not powers of research and skill in argument, not much attainment, where the most part might be babes; but hearts true to Christ, and a real desire to glorify Him. This would be their qualification for all that was required of them. Wickedness is opposed to godliness; and the godly might be trusted to know it and to cast it out.

But the church is never the teacher, never called to utter its voice upon points of doctrine; but Christ by His Word and Spirit alone are to be heard here. Nor is the church called to authenticate His teaching, but to receive it. Her attitude is not here that of authority, but of submission. The Jezebel-church it is that calls herself a prophetess, and where this claim is made the Lord rebukes His saints for "suffering" it.

The truth is to make itself felt as that in the conscience, not established by human authority, but itself authority. " If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me ?" the Lord demanded of the Jews. Wherever the church comes in authoritatively to define, the conscience is taken away from its true allegiance, the healthful exercise of the soul is lost, the fear of God is taught by the precept of men (Isa. 29:13), and the authority of God is taken away by that which professedly maintains it. Of all this, Rome is the natural outcome. Babylon is built up by such doctrine; and it is the mercy of God if "Babel" be plainly written upon it by the confusion and scattering which results.

On the other hand, it will be asked, If the church be not the judge of doctrines, how is discipline in these matters to be carried out? I answer, the Church is the Church of Christ, and not of Antichrist; the gathering practically is "unto His name." But this " name " expresses what He is Himself. If He be not "Jesus," " Christ," and " Lord " to us, there is no gathering-point, no center of attraction, no actual gathering therefore. All is lost. There is really no church to exercise discipline. It is a deeper question than that of its acts:it is a question of its very existence.
But these fundamental truths are what every one gathered knows, what every one accepts, what does not require to be pronounced upon, but has been already by every soul that has received the gospel. He who, as an undone sinner, has trusted the blood of Jesus as his salvation from eternal wrath, knows in himself what enables himself to refuse and necessitates his withdrawal from all that is not this. He may, alas ! be seduced into another course; but it is godliness which alone he needs to keep him in the right path here. He has to make no new attainment to be qualified for his place in. the assembly, and to give judgment of what he is called upon to refuse.

Thus, to pronounce upon "wickedness" is a very different thing indeed from defining as to truths. There is a creed to maintain, but it is that which every one who can rightly be received as a Christian has accepted to ' begin with He must be faithful to it, and is not always necessarily faithful. But there are no new points to be defined. In the maintenance of a true gospel, he can be with all who are seeking to maintain it, without regard to differences which may still exist.

The church needs not, then, to define doctrine, so long as it is the Church. It needs to be separate from unfaithfulness to Christ,-that is, from "wicked persons." Those who attempt to do more do less, and in assuming authority are themselves in insubjection to it. It is evident that, to be the voice of the assembly, the discipline of the assembly must be intelligible to, and carry the conscience of, the least intelligent there. Otherwise some must act blindly, from confidence in others, and the seeing must lead the blind:in other words, the leaders must act, and the rest acquiesce; or the "assembly" practically stand for a part of it,-perhaps the most intelligent part:but who among the blind are to see this?

Foundation-truth is to be maintained, and upon this the church is founded. We need not to be told what it is, if we are on it, but we do need to be warned that we be faithful to it, and to put away from among ourselves any wicked person.

And as to all that is not foundation-truth, what do we need ? Is it not to realize the power of the Word of God, and of His Spirit, to lead us into all truth, and bring us to unity of mind and judgment? It is not a common creed and ecclesiastical decisions that can do this. The power of the Spirit can only really be known where we walk "in all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." A godly walk and a tender care for one another, and not legislation, are the way to unity. God has ordained no other. How plainly are we told so ! and how abundantly experience confirms this, where by grace we have been enabled to heed this exhortation !

"Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." So it reads, and such is the divine order and connection between these two things:not "truth and grace," but "grace and truth."

Quite true that they come together and cannot be separated from one another for a moment. This is a blessed reality, for then where grace comes truth comes of necessity; but it is grace which introduces the truth, opens the way, disposes the soul for its reception. Thus if repentance is to be preached to men, it is in the name of Jesus -that name which is in itself a gospel, of Him whose presence in the world is God's pure grace.

Find me a company of those who are living godly in Christ Jesus, but among whom the truth can only make its way by the help of ecclesiastical decisions, and I will find you hot ice, cold fire, or any similar absurdity that you can name. This were to deny the Lord's own saying, that "if a man love Me, he will keep My word." To even the babes in Christ it is said, " But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you "-you need no mere human authority for that which you receive (i Jno. 2:27). Certainly, then, they need not the church, which was never called to teach, and which cannot teach:for who are the taught, if the church teaches? All this leads directly into those Romanizing views of the church, which narrow it down to a certain number of those supposed competent ones, from whose disputes with one another the Lord's people are so often torn asunder from end to end. God would put the power for discipline into the hands of those who by their very incompetency are saved from the jangle of these disputes. For the decision of the church in any matter is to be the decision of the least as well as the most intelligent, the babe as well as the " father." How wise with infinite wisdom are the ways of God !

The church, then, must be built on the foundation, or it is not the Church. But being there, its duty is the simple one of caring for godliness, of putting away any one manifested as a "wicked person." The doctrinal limit in discipline is very plain.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.- XXII PART I.-(Continued.)

The Palm-Bearing Multitude. (Rev. 7:7-17.)

The hundred and forty-four thousand have been sealed before the winds of heaven have been let loose upon the earth. Before the next vision they have spent their violence, the great tribulation is passed, and an innumerable company of people are seen as come out of it. This expression, "the great tribulation," is one that rules in the interpretation of this scene as should be evident. When people simply read, " out of great tribulation," it was natural to think of all the redeemed of all generations as being included here, and the multitude and universality of the throng thus gathered would confirm the idea; but now it ought to be no longer possible. That it is "the great tribulation" is even emphasized in the original-" the tribulation, the great one,"-to forbid all generalizing in this way. We are reminded of one specific one, which as thus named we are expected to know; and he who will take Scripture simply will surely find without difficulty the one intended. We have already gone over this ground, and there is scarcely need to remind our readers that the " great tribulation" of which our Lord spoke to His disciples, "such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be," which is shortened by divine grace, for otherwise" no flesh should be saved," and at the close of which " they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven," must needs be that out of which the multitude before us come.

That the tribulation is thus immediately followed by the coming of the Lord from heaven makes it easier to understand another thing, that their standing before the throne, as the prophet sees them, does not necessitate the thought of their being in heaven. There is no hint of their being raised from the dead, or having died at all. Simply they are "before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple." Here again it is natural to the common habits of thought to suppose that the temple of God must be in heaven, and passages from this very book would doubtless be cited in support of this (chap. 11:19; 15:5):these will come naturally before us for consideration in their own place; but here it is sufficient to say that it is not said " in heaven," and that on earth there is yet to be a temple, as Ezekiel shows. Isaiah also declares that also of the Gentiles the Lord will "take for priests and Levites" (66:21).

With this view at least let us look at the scene before us, and see what we can gather more. That they have " white robes" shows simply their acceptance; the palms in their hands speak of rest in victory; their words ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb, but they " cry," -it does not say "sing." The angels and the elders stand "around" the throne; they simply stand "before" it.

One of the elders now raises the question with John, "Who are these?" He, unable to say who they can be, refers back the question to the speaker, and he answers it. But note the strangeness of such a question upon the ordinary view, and the greater strangeness of John's inability to answer. Plainly they were a company of saved ones giving praise for their salvation, and if it were the whole company, the very naturalness of the thought as accepted by so many would make us wonder at the question about it, still more at the apostle's speechlessness. But he had seen another company in heaven, who still kept their place before his eyes, and who had sung the new song, and at least with fuller praise. As to these, no question had been raised at all. It would seem, he might be trusted to make out who these were; and one of these elders was now accosting him ! How could he miss the thought that here was a separate class of redeemed ones, and certainly upon a lower footing than those whose rapturous thanksgiving he had heard before?

Accordingly he hears that such is the fact. He is told they are those who come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Not their sufferings have washed their robes white, but the Lamb's blood:and here again, though the expression is peculiar, they are on common ground with saints at all times.

And on this account they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; (but in the new Jerusalem there is no temple:the "Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it; ") and " He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them." So rightly now the R. V., and not, "shall dwell among them." It is like Isaiah (4:6), who similarly describes the condition of Jerusalem in the time to which this refers:"And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain." How plain that it is as protection and defense, from the words that follow here in Revelation:"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat"! How suited to men still in the world is this assurance !

But it goes on:"For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them to fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Blessed as all this description is, it seems to fall short of the full eternal blessing, and certainly short of what is heavenly. The impression given is of the earth's warfare not yet over, sin and evil not completely banished, but themselves indeed effectually sheltered. The thought of shepherd-care suits this as well as does the tabernacle stretched over them. The thanksgiving expressed also is that of those emerging out of a trial great as that out of which it is said they come, and for whom the joy of deliverance as yet allows little else to be thought of. There is not even a song-and Scripture can be trusted to its least tittle of expression-they "cry with a great voice," but do not "sing."

We may well believe, then, that these are the priestly class taken from among the nations of which Isaiah speaks (66:21). I am aware that it is a matter of dispute whether " I will take of them for priests and Levites " is to be referred to the Israelites whom the Gentiles bring back or to the Gentiles who bring them back; but, as Delitzsch well says, " God is here certainly not announcing so simple a thing as that the priests among the returned people should be still priests." He has just declared that the Gentiles " shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an offering unto the Lord … as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." The Gentiles are here, therefore, this "clean vessel;" and being thus cleansed, He further promises as to them, "And of them also will I take for priests and Levites, saith the Lord."

The passages in Isaiah and Revelation mutually confirm each other in this application, and we see who are those honored to serve in the temple of the Lord, as we see also what temple it is in which they serve. All is in perfect harmony, and the multitude of Gentiles stands here in plain analogy with Israel's hundred and forty-four thousand, and upon a similar footing to them. The two together complete the picture of blessing for both Israel and the Gentiles, through the storm which is about to burst upon the earth. Neither group is heavenly; neither is the full number to be saved and enjoy the summer sunshine of millennial days; but they are the sheaf of first-fruits of the harvest beyond, in each case dedicated, therefore, in a peculiar manner to the Lord.

Let us pause here to notice the thought so characteristic of the book of Revelation, book as it is of the throne and of governmental recompense, of " robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb." The figures of Scripture are perfectly definite and absolutely appropriate, never needing apology. Of them, as of all else in it, the words of the Lord are true:"Scripture cannot be broken." On the other hand, they are various, and with meaning in their variations, so that if we are not careful, we may easily force them into contradiction with each other and with the truth.

What, for instance, is the "robe" in which the saint appears before God ? It is easy to answer, and absolutely scriptural to quote, " He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isa. 61:10). And how beautifully does the "robe" speak of that, by which the shame of our nakedness, which came in through sin, is put away!

But what is our righteousness? Here again we have most familiar texts, " This is the name whereby He shall be called, 'The Lord our righteousness'" (Jer. 23:6); "Christ, who is made of God unto us … righteousness." And the prodigal's " best robe " reminds us here how the beauty of Christ upon us must transcend far the luster of angelic garments.

Nevertheless, if we think we have got the one idea of Scripture in this matter, we shall be sorely perplexed when we come to this text in Revelation. Could we wash this robe, and make it white in the blood of the Lamb ? Assuredly not:it would be impossible to apply this expression, in any way that can be imagined, to this robe, which is Christ.

The Revelation has its own distinct phraseology here, in perfect harmony with the line of truth which it takes up. The robe is still the symbol of righteousness, but in view of the recompense that awaits us, "the fine linen" with which the bride is clothed, "is the righteousnesses- the righteous deeds-of the saints" (chap. 19:8). It is practical righteousness that is in question,-not something wrought by another for us, but wrought by our own hands. It is a completely different thought from that in the Lord's parable, and in no wise contradictory because so different. Assuredly " we shall all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive for the things done in the body, whether it be good or bad " (2 Cor. 5:10).

For the saint, indeed, this is not to come personally into judgment. That, the Lord has assured us, personally we cannot do (Jno. 5:24, R. V.). God can raise no question as to a soul whom He has received, whether He has received him. The matter of reward is entirely distinct from that of personal acceptance; but it has its place. And here comes in this solemn and precious reminder of how the robe needs washing in the blood of the Lamb in order to be white. How else could any thing of ours find approval and recompense? Thus as the apostle tells us in his prayer for Onesiphorus (2 Tim. 1:18), that reward itself is " mercy:" " the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day !"

These saints out of the great tribulation know at least that not by tribulation, but by the work of Another, can that which is best and holiest in their lives be accepted of God. "They have washed their robes." They have renounced the thought of any proper whiteness in their robes save that produced by the blood of the Lamb. On this ground they are as we, and we are as they.

Looking back at these visions now, and their connection with the seals, we see more fully than ever the introductory character the latter have, and how at the same time the seventh seal introduces to the open book itself. The sixth seal is not final judgment, prophetic of it as it may be. It is but as a zephyr compared with the storm-blast, for the winds have not yet been allowed to burst forth as they will. So too the brethren of the fifth-seal martyrs, which are to be slain as they were, have yet to give up their lives. But because the seventh seal, in opening the whole book, brings us face to face with this last and most awful period of the world's history ever to be known, therefore before it is opened, we are summoned apart for the succession of events, to see the gracious purposes which are hidden behind the coming judgments,-to see beyond it, in fact, to the clear blue sky beyond. And we see why these are not seals nor trumpets, but an interruption-a parenthetic instruction, which, coming in the place it does, pushes as it were the seventh seal on to be an eighth section, itself filling the seventh place. If numbers have at all significance, we may surely read them here. The seeming disorder becomes beauteous order:the seventh seal fills the eighth place, as introducing to the new condition of things, the earth's last crisis; the seventh place is filled by that which gives rest to the heart in God's work accomplished, a sabbatism which no restlessness of man can disturb ! Let us too rest in thanksgiving, for these are the ways of God.

( To be continued.)

A Lecture by W. C. Johnston at the Plainfield Meeting, Monday, July 15th, 1889.

(Jno. 14:16; 16:7-13; Acts 1:, 2:)

One might say that the thought has been before us in these meetings again and again about the presence of the Holy Ghost. It only expressed what was before me, I might say, on each occasion, before the word was uttered. How we need to get back in simplicity to that thought, that the Holy Spirit has come,-to get back to what it is to own His presence ; to be so simple, so dependent, that unhinderedly He might act in power for the glorifying of Christ! In that case, there will be the ministry the saints need, there will be the ministry that sinners need. Then we read here, in Acts 1:5, "John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Again in the eighth verse, " Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."Then the second chapter, " And when the day of Pentecost was . fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."Further, in Acts 5:30:"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him." Again, what we find in Acts 7:55:"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." Again, from Acts 13:2 :"As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, ' Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.' And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus." And just again, in Acts 15:8, speaking about the work among the Gentiles :"And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us ; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." And lastly, ver. 28:"It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us."

The one thought already expressed is what one would desire to emphasize ; but what a theme ! and who is equal to so bring it out that hearts may be impressed by its reality, and that there might be that which would abide,- so abide, that whenever I open this, book alone the first thought might be that the blessed One about whom it speaks is at God's right hand, and that there is another Person nigh, even dwelling within me,-God's blessed Spirit, who wrote the book, and whose joy it is to give its meaning and its power, unfolding God's thoughts about His well-beloved Son? I might just give a fact that may lend emphasis as to why this presses upon me. When God first led me to look at some of these expressions when quite a youth, I read them and re-read them, and meditated upon them, and said, "Is there not something about the Holy Spirit in the Word that is not usually taught?" And many a time the longing came, and with it the prayer and the searching, that it might be known. Books all bearing on the Spirit, orthodox or heterodox, were looked through. Then, taking the Bible alone, I began to go through it as a whole with that one thought, that God might give the truth connected with this important fact about the presence of the Holy Ghost. What was the result? It changed the current of my thoughts ; it changed my work, my position,-yea, every thing. Deliverance, in a measure, had been seen before; but till then, I did not see things in the light altogether to have the described effect all at once. Even then, separation truth, as we may speak of it, had not come before me. The truth about the Church, as it is now taught, I knew not. The truth about the Lord's coming I was so prejudiced against that I would not have gone to a meeting if I had known there was to be a lecture given on the subject. But this I did feel:I wanted to know what God could bring out about the person of the Holy Ghost; and God met me there; and while looking at Scripture, and the very passages I have read, the thought dawned on me, "There has been a change since Christ was on the earth :-there is a Person in heaven who was here :there is a Person come to earth since Christ has gone on high." And from that point the opening out of the wonderful thought of the mystery-the Church of God-came home in a marvelous way. And next, the thought, " Why, that's the bride, and He is the Bridegroom !" and His coming was accepted as a glad reality. The thousand objections about that subject were at once swept away. And why I feel so interested in this truth about the Spirit is simply this:that it was from that point of view any little progress God vouchsafed was given,-it was from seeing and learning a little about the person and presence of the Holy Ghost.

Then look at what struck me after that in the first and second of Acts. Take the verses as they come before us, and just read what we find there in Acts 1:In the second verse, " He was taken up ;" then again in the ninth verse, "He was taken up ;" again in the eleventh verse, Who is "taken up;" again in the twenty-second verse, "He was taken up." The first of Acts is characterized by man being in a new place. That is the One who was here, and over whom heaven could open, and the Father could say, " This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The Spirit rested upon Him, and that blessed, perfect One, having accomplished the will of His Father, .is now raised from the dead, and declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness. We find then, in the first of Acts, these words, four times (surely, not repeated in vain !):He was "taken up ;" and so we get man in a new place at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Now, then, for Acts 2:2, 17, 33, 39. Though not the expression there, you have at least the fact four times, that the Holy Spirit came down. What a magnificent change ! What a new opening of the ways of God ! A Man, in whom all His desires were met, taken up and seated at God's right hand ; thence from Him, having received the promise of the Father, (Acts 2:four times emphasizes that fact,) the Holy Ghost came down. You know, if you take the earlier books and look at Jehovah, the Angel of Jehovah, and those touches so wonderful and suggestive, do they not lead the mind to the Son-to the One who in due time was God manifest in the flesh ? Yet, until that Babe was born in Bethlehem, He is not here in the sense we have to think of Him now as having been here. So, in the Old Testament, from the first of Genesis right through, you find the working and the power of the Holy Ghost. Again and again, in the most distinct way, you find what is being done under His control; but not until that Man has been "taken up" and redemption fully accomplished do you find with distinctness that the Holy Ghost has come down. That is what we see in Acts 2:, viz., the blessed presence on earth of the person of the Holy Ghost. As one (now with the Lord,) said, in a striking way, and it struck and struck as I heard him say it, " Why," he said in substance, " at the beginning, through owning the presence of the Holy Ghost as at Pentecost, there were three thousand souls converted under one sermon ; now, through overlooking or ignoring the presence of the Holy Ghost, you may have three thousand sermons for one soul." Do we not need, I repeat, though it be so well known, to have our minds stirred up by way of remembrance, to the fact that there has been a wondrous change since Jesus died and rose again? He has been taken up; thence, from Him the Holy Ghost has come down. You find that Acts 1:begins with, " All that Jesus began both to do and to teach." No thought of ceasing:the One who was at work while among men continues at work still. Who is the One specially carrying on this work ? This book, you know, is called "The Acts of the Apostles;" you also know it would be better named " The Acts of the Holy Ghost." Then let us connect what is done with the One who has gone on high, and also with the One who is actually here. Then, as with an army, you get to the right base; but, through losing the base, or through losing the sense of the presence of the One who is on the throne, as acting through the One who is now on earth, there is sure to be weakness and defeat. You will remember the terrible catastrophe in the Soudan. Hicks Pasha left what is known as the base of the army, and with his column plunged into the desert, only to be, you might say, annihilated. An army away from its base is soon rendered helpless, and hence such a catastrophe Look at the thought, and think of the professing church to-day. Does it not supply the key to what has been so manifest ? It has been like an army away from its base. The professing church has lost the sense of being linked with the Lord on the throne. Satan cannot hide the cross; he can use it to adorn people, or put it on the spire, or on the gable of a building, or on a tombstone. It is impossible to hide the cross; but mark what he does do. " The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." But " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Oh, depend upon it, it is a precious bit of truth when the devil has so set his whole strength in the way of keeping a cloud of dust between men and that One on the throne. And even with saints, he tries to blind the mind, that the light from that face should not so fill and thrill the heart as it ought. Has he not indeed succeeded to an alarming extent in keeping this truth from the saints? The fact itself he could not, but the power of it he has kept from thousands of saints of God, -the power that is known by the heart being in actual association with that One who was taken up. There has not been the knowing or realizing what it is to be associated with the Man who is at God's right hand. Next, is there any thing else he has so sadly succeeded in as this, that he has obscured and almost taken away the glorious fact of the Holy Ghost's presence on earth ? Oh, if. we want to hear what was from the beginning and walk in it, look well to these two momentous thoughts. Acts 1:gives you a Man at the right hand of God in heaven :Acts 2:gives God the Spirit among men on earth. Heaven has a Man to sit on the throne of God :earth has God from heaven to be in the hearts of men below ; and the two are linked together. And as you maintain the two facts, and your soul is brought into the power of these great foundation-truths, oh ! every thing for what is personal, for what is corporate, for what is required for service or for worship, will it not be found in its place? Surely it will.

But now just see what follows in Acts 5:, and there you find evil at once beginning to manifest itself in the Church. Yes, it is within. You find in chap. 3:the devil at work without, and they are suffering from what is around them ; but now you find the devil at work within. But what is the check ? What is that which this terrible sin is used to show up in the light? What is it that this, as it were raises a beacon of warning concerning ? Does the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, in all its terrible character, not bring out in a most momentous way this great fact, that the Holy Ghost was there, and that He must not be ignored ? We need to look at that again :the apostle speaks not of the saints, nor of the apostles ; but he shows that this has been done unto the Spirit of God. There has been One present who has been ignored, and this is so signalized that you find judgment marking it upon the spot. We need, I say, as saints, to look further at how this is stamped in the beginning of Acts 5:They are charged with having agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord. His presence was challenged, and solemnly proved by judgment.

Now look at what is put in that thirty-second verse. "We are His witnesses of these things ; and so is also the Holy Ghost." Take a court of law, and say there is a case under trial. Then you want witnesses. Will a document do? It may be admitted as evidence, but you do not think of a document as a witness ; you think of a witness as a person. Then the word "witness" at once gives distinctness, as it presents personality. A witness, properly speaking, is a person. In the case supposed, a witness is such in the place and at the time where the matter in question is being judged. Now take that thought, and you have the Spirit's person and the Spirit's presence. Think of heaven ; there is nothing in question there about the Lord Jesus Christ. The angels, the redeemed, God Himself, are agreed ; or, as we have it, "The mind of heaven is one." There is nothing in question ; then there is no witness, as there is none needed. As is well known, if judges come on circuit, and there are no prisoners to be tried, it is a maiden court:no witnesses are called. Then you find nothing in question. So in heaven :Jesus has the highest place. He was taken up ; He was seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and they delight to own Him as worthy of that place, and you do not need witnesses there. Even the Holy Ghost is not thus thought of as a witness in heaven. But, mark you, the Spirit was there, and He saw and knew what took place when that blessed One rose from among yon little company when He was nigh to Bethany. You might think of the disciples as witnesses. Well, they had to say what they knew for themselves-each for himself, in his own way. One might begin where he was met in the boat; another, where he was picked up at the receipt of custom ; another, like Philip, where he was taken up by the way, and from that point,-when he was first in company with the Lord,-right through, what he saw and heard and knew for himself. And where does it end ? In the cloud, when the cloud received Him out of their sight. Here see the source of their testimony :what each for himself witnessed,-what each for himself actually knew. It ranges from the point where they met Him to the point where they lost Him in the cloud. Now was that sufficient? Was it all of which He was worthy? Was it all the heart of God desired to be told out about Him ? No ! a thousand times No ! Above the cloud the Conqueror is still rising, until He takes the highest station at God's right hand, made Lord and Christ, God raising Him as a Prince and a Saviour. The Holy Ghost witnessed all, knew all, entered into all as God can ; and soon, down to Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, He comes, a new presence, if not a new power; though His influence may have been traced from creation, you find Him now on earth, as a witness, testifying to what the Lord had received and become, on the throne. And mark my point, if there is no controversy in heaven about the blessed person of the Lord, there was a controversy at Jerusalem ; there is a controversy still with the world who has rejected Him. There is where matters are in question ; there is where the character and claims of the Lord Jesus are being canvassed ; then, there you have the witness. He is now present in the place and at the time where and while Christ's claims are denied. The Spirit has come, and He abides as a witness.

But now what have we ? These men who saw and knew all things connected with Christ's earthly career, until they lost Him in the cloud ; now this heavenly witness, who saw and knew all that took place when He was seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high ; and now they are together, and you have a complete, wonderful testimony as to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How full and blessed is the testimony ! The Holy Ghost also is a witness. As a witness He abides on earth, while Christ is on the Father's throne in heaven. Oh to get that thought home to one's soul in power ! In a feeble way once I put it, and one who had been in fellowship some seventeen years went around amongst the saints afterward, and said, " I never so saw and felt that fact that the Holy Ghost is here." And many a testimony of the same kind could be given ; not merely getting past the fact of His being an influence, to the fact of His be-being a Person ; but grasping as by His own power what His presence means. Oh, look at it as it comes out here. Any thing, every thing, now amongst the saints is looked at with reference to the presence of the One who has come, and who is ever in harmony with the One who has gone. There is no losing of the base where that One sits commanding all, and with whom are all our supplies. These is no losing of the active power now present to guide and control. You have both vividly kept in view if you think of the One taken up and the other as having come down ; and now those who are His should be thus in harmony with Himself, to bear testimony in the world that has cast Him out. If it is the sending forth of others, you find the Spirit saith, " Separate Me Paul and Barnabas." If it is considering questions that are likely to cause trouble, or are showing that they are on the verge of division, it is that "it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us." How one might go on and multiply instances and quotations, all bringing out that fact that they have got hold of the truth that He is come, and that they act and speak and labor as those who own that the Holy Spirit is here !

Now for ourselves, let me apply it by saying, I know not about Congress so distinctly, but take Parliament, as one may speak of that with a little more certainty, and in that assembly of hundreds of members, when is there to be a hearing ? When you catch the eye of the Speaker. I suppose in Congress you have also to get the Speaker's eye, otherwise you are speaking to the wind ; it is of no account. Is there not something for us there ? In open meetings, in worship-meetings, how needful it is to catch the eye of the Speaker ! I need to be dependent, and really exercised, to be sure before God that I have something by the Spirit of God. Oh how solemn and how wonderful, when it is real! It will not be the next moment that a brother has ceased that a hymn will be given out or a word spoken. If you wait to catch the eye of the Speaker, you will think twice before you speak. A little waiting will be no loss. I said to several, after our happy time (as I believe it was such) yesterday morning, that there was a thought I never dreamed of-never had in my mind, that I remember of, in a meeting :I was about to rise once and just say, " Could we not have five minutes' silence?" Yes, " Could we not have five minutes' silence?" Oh, it is a wonderful thing when we get to that fact that we are gathered unto Him who is at God's right hand, and that the Holy Ghost is here to lead and guide ! How often do we speak without getting the eye of the Speaker! You know, the one who rises has to catch the eye of the Speaker, and so he has the floor. Every other must stand aside :the one who has thus got his eye is to be heard. We want to know a little more of this in the power and joy of being dependent on the Lord, and knowing the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit. How one might go on ! but take just a thought as to service, or as to one's path, in owning the Spirit's presence. It occurs to me that I might put it in a way that you might remember it. San Francisco is famous for its cable-roads, and any body who has seen them will not forget them soon. Along those streets, over those hills, miles and miles, runs that wonderful system of cable-cars. I will tell you what I have thought. These roads have given me the back-bone of a very good sermon. I will tell you why. Look at the track. You will not go far unless you get on to the track-the rails. Well, to me, that suggests God's will. That is what the Spirit leads along. We want the track of the divine will. Then, if you are going, you have to take your seat in the car. God has given us His precious Word, and whatever you want you will find here :if you are asking for any thing, longing for any thing, and if you haven't got the Word of God for it, you cannot sit down, you cannot rest with the certainty that thing can be accomplished ; but if you get on the track of the divine will, and can just take your seat, you might say, in the car of the divine Word, then you can have that certainty. What then ? There in the cable underground is the unseen power;-it is where you are, it is at the very end of the journey, it is all the way along, it is present every where. So is the blessed Spirit of God. As the cable works round its goal, so the Spirit moves in connection with the throne. Then you get on to the track ; just take your seat in the car, and there you will find there is connection with the cable, and you will go along according to the power there displayed. In that case, you might think even, as in San Francisco, (although as associated with that place it is not an appropriate suggestion,) yet, if you will take it for what it suggests, you can go to "the Golden Gate." Well, to see that there is what God has marked out as His will,-that is the track we want to discover each for himself. He has given us His precious Word. We want to stand, or, if you like, sit down, on that Word. We never do more than when we are resting, simply resting, on the Word of God. Then there is no effort, no worry, no hurry. We are connected with an unseen power, and that is connected with the throne. The Spirit is here; He is yonder, and all the way along; and how blessed when we find what it is practically, definitely, to own and act as yielded to the blessed Spirit of God ! W.C.J.

Ans. 22.-With regard to further questions as to the use of unleavened bread at the institution of the Lord's Supper, Scripture is clear that for the whole week beginning with the passover, leaven was, according to the law, to be put out of the house. Thus I can only say again, that I believe nothing else could have been used at the institution, unless some leavened bread was purposely introduced from elsewhere, and of which surely we should have some trace, if of the importance that this would argue. But if the Lord used unleavened bread, this would answer all questions of suitability.

But Scripture has not bidden us use unleavened bread at the Lord's Supper, and all this is inference. It would be surely going beyond Scripture, therefore, to insist upon it, or to refuse it. "Bread" is all that is said; and this covers both kinds of bread. Why, then, should we raise the question?

Q. 23.-"How do you harmonize Matt. 11:14 and Jno. 1:21?"

Ans.-John would have been Elias to them had they received him, though not in fact Elias. He came " in the spirit and power of Elias " (Luke 1:17), but was rejected.

Q. 24.-"When are those martyred during the 'great tribulation ' raised from the dead ? "

Ans.-All we know is, that they are found in the ranks of the "first resurrection" in Rev. 20:4-6; and distinctly mentioned, so that there can be no mistake; but when exactly they are raised does not seem to be stated.

Q. 25.-" Are the saints of Rev. 20:9 translated to heaven finally, or what becomes of them? "

Ans.-They are apparently some of those that are to fill the new earth of chap. 21:1. More than this one can hardly say.

It was with a young man a day of seeking, and he entered a little sanctuary, and heard a sermon from "Look unto Me, and be ye saved." He obeyed the Lord's command, and "He blessed him there." Soon after, he made a profession of faith before many witnesses, declaring his consecration to the Lord, and "He blessed him there." Anon he began to labor for the Lord in little rooms among a few people, and "He blessed him there." His opportunities enlarged, and by faith he ventured upon daring things for the Lord's sake, and "He blessed him there." A household grew about him, and, together with his loving wife, he tried to train his children in the fear of the Lord, and "He blessed him there." Then came sharp and frequent trial, and he was in pain and anguish; but the Lord "blessed him there." This is that man's experience all along, from the day of his conversion to this hour:up hill and down dale, his path has been a varied one ; but for every part of his pilgrimage he can praise the Lord, for "He Messed him there."-(Spurgeon)

The second parable of this chapter, brief as it is, is undoubtedly the most difficult of the three, and that not merely because of its brevity. The thought of the woman, and that of the house, seem to introduce elements which if intelligible from a Christian are all the less so from a Jewish stand-point. Yet we may not omit them as of no importance. Scripture is no where less than perfect, and to impute what is our own ignorance to defect in it is irreverent folly. Let us see, then, what light maybe gained by patient examination of the parable in dependence upon Him who alone can teach effectually.

It is certain that in all the three the joy of recovery is set before us,-the joy, blessed to hear of, in the presence of the angels-divine joy in the fullest sense. In the first parable, it is that of the Shepherd-of Christ Himself; in the last, it is the Father's joy who receives,-yet not only receives, for the son is yet "a long way off" when He sees and has compassion, and runs, and falls upon his neck, and kisses him. The second parable must give us, then, one would say, the joy of the Spirit, and thus the whole heart of God be manifested to us.

The central figure here-that of a woman-at first sight may present a difficulty here. A woman might well be a picture of the Church of God,-of the saints of God,- and such we have elsewhere in the Word. But then these thoughts are after all not so far asunder. The Spirit of God works through the Word ; the Word is carried by the saints ; thus indirectly He may be represented in what is directly their picture. And how else, indeed, one may ask, could He be more fitly? While most graciously thus redeemed sinners are not only themselves joyed over, but taken in to share the joy of heaven also over the salvation of others.

Thus the " woman " seems intelligible, and the figure of wisdom in the book of Proverbs may remind us that after all it is not altogether foreign to the Old-Testament Scriptures. Here, as we might expect in the gospels, the object of her search is more helpless, more absolutely dependent upon the love that goes out after it; and this does not in the least affect the suitability of the story here. Rather is it all in divine harmony.

So is it in keeping that we hear now of a lamp lighted for the search,-the figure, of course, of the Word of God as lighted amid the darkness of the world. Yet the Spirit of God must light it up if it is to manifest where the lost soul is,-often in corners dark and secret enough, and sadly covered with dust and smut of sin, so that you would not recognize it at all as having the value that it has for God. A lost piece of silver speaks of this value ; a lost soul may easily overbalance the whole world gained. The atonement-money in Israel was paid in silver ; and atonement it is that exhibits the true value of a soul gained for God-regained, for He all through is the owner of it. "Behold, all souls are Mine," He says. Ah, what diligent search would we not make if we thought of the stamp of the royal mint upon the lowest and most degraded among men, and saw the value of souls with God in the price paid for them-saw the sheen of silver glitter in the lamplight out of the dust of some neglected corner!

We must sweep the house ! But the dust will fly, and this sweeping is not a pleasant occupation. To make a stir about sin is unpleasant enough, no doubt, but the broom turns, if it be a little roughly sometimes, the king's money out of its hiding-place.
The house must be swept. It is the place of natural ties and relationships-those links by which God would bring us together and make us objects of interest to one another. It is within this circle that we shall find most profit in sweeping-most readily come across the precious coins for God's treasury. Many are ready to do street-sweeping, and testify abroad for Christ, who have no heart for it in the familiar circles in which after all are the nearest and most recompensing fields of labor. The witness of the home, of the place of business, of the familiar and accustomed life, is the most fruitful-the God-ordained first place at least of labor, which if we occupy, we may be promoted, but not else. Ah, if we would sweep the house!-nothing so marks the work of the Holy Ghost as this, in which the good work will be measured, however, not by the amount of dust that is raised, but by the pieces of silver that we find. For if " he that winneth souls is wise"," he that is wise, too, shall win them. This close and homely work God blesses :the house is cleansed by it; but more, that which has been lost is found. Oh, be sure, this woman at her housework may read us a true gospel-lesson, and every woman at her housework may thus have the joy of the evangelist, and the labor of love that fails not; for love's labor is never lost.

What characterizes the day is so much official evangelism, with so little simple natural testimony according to the apostolic order-"I believed, and therefore have I spoken:" the necessary outflow of full hearts, of those that have been in Christ's company, and cannot forbear to say to those around what it costs no education, no special gift, to say,-"Come, see a Man which told me all things that ever I did ; is not this the Christ?" A great and effectual preacher was that poor Samaritan woman! What had made her so ? What she says herself,-the company of Christ. Christ had been speaking to her. It is this that looses the tongue and gives it eloquence indeed.

Is it not striking that when the Lord would give us here the share which His people can have in the joy of heaven, that He gives us, not a crier in the market-place, but this quiet and unseen toiler in the house. "It is only an illustration," same will say. Well, it is an illustration out of which the thoughtful and the humble will get help and courage, and thank Him for it. Let the crier cry too in the market-place, and thank God for that! But if it were a choice between the two (which it is not), better would it be to have the necessary testimony of faith-" I believed, and therefore have I spoken,"-in every private Christian than the more public testimony even. Could we have this aright, how would the Old-Testament scripture be fulfilled, " The Lord gave the Word :great was the company of those that published it "-as the words imply, the "women that published it" (Ps. 68:ii). This woman-preaching would indeed be effectual work.

The joy is here as in the other parables:" And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, ' Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I had lost.' Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

And the joy of the Holy Ghost, will He not make it felt in the hearts of His people? "Friends" He must have with whom to share it. It is diffusive, multiplying itself as it travels from heart to heart, as a fire increases with fresh fuel. Such shall be the joy of eternity,-the joy of one the joy of all,-the pervasive joy of love, than which there is nothing sweeter, nothing purer, nothing higher. It is indeed the joy of God Himself, for " God is love."

The conviction of sin, and consequent confession of two men, these scriptures record. The former speaks of David, the latter, of Judas Iscariot. In this life they both confessed that which was pressing on their consciences; and the history of each has something to teach us, for whose instruction and profit they both have been recorded in the passages of Holy Writ (i Cor. 10:ii).

Turning first to the case of Judas Iscariot, ensnared by the enemy through his love of money, he was led on till he committed the sin of betraying the Lord. Peculation, it would seem, though unknown doubtless to the other disciples at the time, was not an uncommon thing with him. " He was a thief," writes John (12:6). Nettled by the Lord's rebuke administered in the house of Simon (of Bethany) six days before the passover (Jno. 12:7), he became the willing tool in the enemy's hand. That it was the rebuke then administered which incited him to turn traitor seems pretty plain from the juxtaposition, out of chronological order, of that scene at Bethany with his interview with the chief priests and scribes, as recorded by Matthew (26:3-16) and by Mark (14:i-ii). And perhaps Matthew's statement, after reciting that incident at Bethany, "Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests," etc. (26:14) may imply it. Without, however, building any thing on the adverb, then, in that passage, the events as related by Matthew suggest a motive for the treachery of Judas.

He went to the chief priests and scribes, not they to him. Sitting in conclave to determine how they could best apprehend the Lord without stirring up a popular movement in His favor, Judas appeared in their midst, and offered to effect that which they desired. Unexpected on their part was such treachery. But when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money (Mark 14:ii). The price was agreed upon- thirty pieces, or shekels, of silver-between three and four pounds of our money. Unconscious, probably, were all the parties to this infamous transaction of that passage in Zech. 11:12, prophetic of this event in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The terms arranged, within two days the compact was to be carried out, for the passover was nigh at hand. At the paschal feast with the Lord, Judas learnt that his purpose was known to the Master, though till then concealed from the rest. Whilst the others in their bewilderment were asking the Lord, "Is it I?" Judas had kept silence, it would appear, till doubtless very shame made him speak, saying, not "Lord," like the rest, but,"Rabbi, is it I ?" (Matt. 26:25.) To have remained silent would have betrayed himself to all. The Lord's immediate rejoinder, "Thou hast said," showed plainly that the plot was known to Him. Gehazi, in a past age, had learnt by Elisha's words that his duplicity and covetousness were known by the prophet. Judas must have understood that his plan, however carefully he had tried to conceal it, was not hidden from the Lord. Now, his treachery exposed, would he recoil from it? In what light the others would henceforth view him must have been apparent by their concern at the Lord's announcement of a traitor in the midst. That did not stop Judas in his career. If any thing would have done it, surely the Lord's solemn words, uttered before Judas asked the question – "It had been good for that man if he had not been born"-would have had a deterring effect. But no. Satan had put it into Judas' heart to betray Him ; and after the sop, Satan entered into him (Jno. 13:27).

Impelled by the desire for gain, he went out to fulfill his bargain, that the coveted prize he might grasp. All went on as well as he could have wished. The plan made for the Lord's apprehension was carried out without a check. No obstacle hindered its accomplishment; for Peter's stroke with the sword, though it hurt Malchus, did not further the release of his Master. Judas must that night have got his money ; clutched it, doubtless, eagerly, and carefully counted it, we can well believe, to see that it was correct. The chief priests had got their prisoner in safe custody, and quietly. Judas thus enriched, how long did he keep his money? The time might easily be counted by hours. Nobody snatched it from him. Nobody coveted, that we know of, that ill-gotten gain. With none was he asked to divide it. It was all and exclusively his own. Yet he could not keep it. That for which he had bartered away his soul he now loathed, detested, and threw from him.

Conscience, hitherto dulled, awoke and spoke. No one, do we read, reproached him ; no one accused him. He accused himself. His work as the enemy's tool was over; his service to the chief priests was a thing of the past; nobody now wanted him. And on the morning of the Lord's crucifixion-day, Judas was thoroughly wretched. He saw that the Sanhedrim had condemned the Lord:His death, then, was sure. The Roman governor would yield to the wish of the populace at such a time, and
the plans of the chief priests seemed in process of fulfillment. Now it was just at that moment, humanly speaking the most unlikely, that Judas repented himself. Humanly speaking, seeing that all was working in the way in which he had assisted, he would have persuaded himself that he had wrought a service to his countrymen, and that he had ingratiated himself with the leaders of the Jews. It was just at that time that his conscience spoke, and in tones to which he was compelled to give heed.

There is a time when conscience will exert its sway, and insist on being heard. That time for Judas had come. A solemn moment indeed it was for him-a warning now for any who need it. Conscience cannot be deadened forever. Judas proves that, and his history shows it. In his case, conscience roused up and spoke whilst he had on earth the possession of all his faculties. In some cases, it may only speak when opportunity for intercourse with others around has ended. But speak it will, assuredly, unless peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ is the individual's blessed portion. Conscience-the inward, silent monitor-will speak, and the individual at some time or other, as the Judge of all men may determine, must hearken. Surely it is for man's instruction that in the case of Judas it spoke while he was still in life, and able to confess.

Was it with him just a momentary waking up of conscience, ere the sleep of death was to silence it forever ? No ; memory is not impaired, though the body lies in the tomb in which it has been buried. Now this was taught us by One competent to teach-the Son of God. The secrets of the other world God can disclose. In both Testaments has He in measure done that, distinctly teaching us that unconsciousness and slumber are unknown in that region.

The soul does not sleep, though the body does. In this, both Old and New Testament agree. Witness the graphic, though poetical, description of the descent into the under world of the king of Babylon (Isa. 14:9, 10) and of the king of Egypt (Ezek. 32:21-31). Witness too the story of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:23-30). Figurative language, perhaps some may say, these passages present. Well, but of what ? God does not deal in unrealities, however figurative may be the language in which the truth is expressed. The Spirit of God in the Old Testament, and the Lord in the New, impress upon us that the spirit of man slumbers not when it enters the abode of the departed. Nor is the past there forgotten. "No peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isa. 57:21) will be found awfully true. But the righteous who die do enter into peace, the same prophet tells us (57:2); and the story of Dives and Lazarus illustrates and emphasizes both these statements.

Judas, now woke up to the enormity of his guilt, confesses it, and confesses it openly. " I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood" (Matt. 27:4). Only in the gospel of Matthew have we any account of that wretched man's confession. But mark, he makes it to men, not to God. Had he injured the chief priests by what he had done, confession to them would have been in place. The One he had injured he did not seek out, and make confession to Him of his guilt:to God he did not turn, and acknowledge what he had done. Confession to men without confession to God was not- is not enough. Against God he had sinned ; His Son he had betrayed :but to God and His Son the traitor was silent.

And now the money, the silver, once so precious in his eyes, has become worthless,-nay, positively hateful. He casts it from him, throws it down in the sanctuary, and would have nothing more to say to it. It could not be a salve to his conscience; it could not purchase forgiveness for his sin. All he had coveted he himself threw away, proclaiming to any one who might be tempted to act the traitor's part against God and His people, that the reward of iniquity is just like dross and clung, when contrasted with the interests of the soul for eternity. " I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood " (Matt. 27:4). Such a crime God does take notice of (2 Kings 24:4). It is an offense in heaven's statute-book which is grievous in God's eyes, and when the guilty one wakes up to that, he needs no array of witnesses to convict him; he convicts himself. Many a hardened criminal, aware of his guilt, has boldly challenged his accuser to prove it. Between the conscience and God, however, when the former is aroused, it speaks, and the person is self-condemned, and, as here, may turn to be openly his own accuser.

Most welcome must Judas have been when he first visited the chief priests, and offered, unsolicited, as we have seen, to betray his Master. They were glad, and eagerly listened to his plan for the accomplishment of their cherished object (Luke 22:5, 6). Again he visits the chief priests and elders, making full confession of his guilt, but found a very different reception. "What is that to us? see thou to that" (Matt. 27:4) was the answer they gave him. Heartless indeed was their conduct, What an opening of eyes to him ! He had not a friend on earth ; certainly he had no one to befriend him in heaven. " He departed, and went and hanged himself," is the brief record of his last act in this scene. " To go to his own place " is the significant and awful acknowledgment of his fate both in the present and in the future, of which the disciples were fully aware after the Lord's resurrection. (Acts 1:25.)

Now we have called attention to this history, not to dwell on it as mere history, but to cull instruction from it. We see in it a finally lost soul, wretched, self-condemned, compelled, as it were, to witness against itself. What caused this? Conscience spoke, and insisted upon being heard. Conscience condemns, but cannot save. Conscience too, if it works, makes its guilty possessor to feel his unfitness to be in the divine presence. The accusers of the woman taken in adultery attest that (Jno. 8:9). And Judas has left on record that a time comes when conscience speaks to the finally impenitent, and leaves them in all their nakedness without any excuse.

What would have been the prospect of any one of us, if divine grace had not wrought in us, and the atonement had never taken place? The prospect would have been black indeed-just that of Judas when he stood in the temple court. We should have been self-condemned, hopelessly condemned, without a friend to turn to in heaven or on earth. An awful position. Conscience accusing, no excuse admitted, no waiting for others to prove the guilt, nor taking the chance of a possible acquittal. The awful reality of eternity surely broke in upon him. At some time or other, that will, that must break in on the finally impenitent. Such must have been the only prospect before us had the Lord not died upon the cross.

Turning to the record of David, the resource that a guilty one needs, and its perfect sufficiency, is brought before us, and that in the language of David himself, who had proved it; for in both cases it is the guilty one who speaks and unbosoms himself, so there can be no misunderstanding about it. A bystander might of course exaggerate in the one case and minimize in the other:when those guilty speak each for himself, that is out of the question. We have heard the utterance of Judas, now let us attend to the words of David.

" Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile" (Ps. 32:i, 2). True this is. No one will dispute it. But who is the man that partakes of the blessedness ? and how can he share in it? Two important questions. David first speaks, it will be observed, of the one who is forgiven. He speaks, as we afterward learn, of that which he had found, and then enjoyed. His language, however, is in the third person at the opening of the psalm,-"The one," etc.,-though he was the illustration of it; for he writes not of himself, his words implying that the grace he had found others might also enjoy. A hope thus is held out to the reader of the psalm, if he needs it, and that at the very threshold of this inspired composition. Forgiveness can be known, the sin committed may be covered, and the non-imputation of guilt may be assured to an offender. If David had found that, others might find it likewise; for if God can righteously act in grace toward one who has sinned, He can, as far as His nature is concerned, act in grace toward all.

Why such favor can be extended to any of Adam's race the New Testament must explain. That it does in Rom. 3:and 4:, quoting in the latter from this very psalm. The blood of Christ before God enables Him righteously to justify the ungodly; and the one who believes on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification (literally, "justifying"), that one is justified by faith (4:24-5:i). Well then might the Psalmist write, " Blessed is he," etc., for others besides that king of Israel might be assured of such favor on the authority of God's Word.

Now, passing from the Old Testament to the New, we mark a change in the language, the apostle enlarging the expressions in harmony with the dispensation under which he lived. Under the law, one and another might know the forgiveness of a transgression and the covering of some sin ; so in the psalm all is in the singular. By the gospel, all believers should know the fullness of divine grace; so the apostle wrote in the plural, both of the persons blessed and of their iniquities forgiven. Dispensational teaching required the singular in the psalm :the freeness and fullness of grace proclaimed in the gospel called for the plural in the epistle. Yet it is personal blessing, and must be individually known, so the apostle goes on, " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Far and wide can such blessing extend. " Blessed are they," etc., proclaims it. Individually it must be taken up and enjoyed, so the language reverts to the singular, "Blessed is the man," etc. What Judas never knew, David had proved, and in it all believers now have part.
But how? Here David's history affords light. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me :my moisture is turned into the drought of summer." No rest had he, no rest could he have, till he had confessed to God. Till then, wretchedness of spirit he knew; no rest could he find for his soul. He did confess, and that to God -the One against whom he had sinned-and found relief. The burden was gone. "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin."

Judas confessed to men, and found no compassion nor relief; David confessed to the Lord, and forgiveness was accorded him. " Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." David, then, went to God. To Him every sinner must go if he would be forgiven. Both Judas and David have left earth, and are in the place of the unclothed, waiting for the voice of the Son of Man to call forth their bodies from the tomb. Judas has left behind him the record of wretchedness of soul without relief, a conscience burdened with unforgiven sin. David has left on record his happiness, and his enjoyment of divine forgiveness, and has told how he got it. " I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." God ready to pardon is a character of Him given in the Old Testament (Neh. 9:17). God ready to pardon is illustrated in the history of David. David's confession resulted in the divine and conscious forgiveness. " For this," he writes, his heart full, "shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found:surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him." Divine judgment, like an overflowing flood which carries irresistibly all before it, will never reach that person. He is delivered from the wrath to come. Thus wrote David in the enjoyment of the divine forgiveness.

And now to whom does he turn but to God?-"Thou art my hiding-place." Had he not sinned against Him ? Yes; but having confessed, he was forgiven. His hiding-place, his refuge, was in God, against whom he had sinned. Judas had no refuge. The sinner's refuge is in God, when truthful confession has been made to Him, the person thus showing that in him is no guile. " Thou art my hiding-place," says David. "We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ," says Paul (Rom. 5:ii). "Thou shall preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance," confidently wrote the Psalmist. "If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life," wrote the apostle.

Conviction of sin, followed by truthful confession to God, insures everlasting blessing. Conviction of sin without confession to God must land the sinner in hopeless, irremediable despair. C.E.S.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV. – XXII.

PART I.- (Continued.)

The Parenthetic Visions:-The Sealed of Israel. (Chap. 7:1-8.)

An objection may be taken to our interpretation of the convulsion under the sixth seal,-that it is not in harmony with that which we have given of the earlier ones. In these, the "earth," for instance, was assumed to be literally that; in the latter, it is taken in a figurative sense ; and it may be urged that this want of uniformity in interpretation allows us to make of these visions very much what we will,-in fact makes their alleged meaning altogether inconsistent and unreliable.

This is a mistake, though a very natural one, and it needs to be examined and shown to be such, or else a serious difficulty will remain in the way of further progress, if such indeed be possible. For the same inconsistency, if it be really that, will appear again and again as we proceed with our study of the book before us; we shall be using the same terms now in a literal and again in a figurative sense, as it may appear, arbitrarily, but in fact as compelled by necessity to do so, or according to the law of the highest reason.

Figures pervade our common speech, even the most literal and prosaic,-disguised for us often by the mere fact that they are used so commonly. We employ them, too, with a latitude of meaning which in no wise affects their intelligibility to us. They are used with a certain freedom in which there is nothing arbitrary, but the reverse. They are used rather in the interests of clearness and intelligibility, the main end sought, which governs indeed their use. It is simple enough to say that the whole art of language is in clearness of expression, and that the right use of figures is therefore for this end.

Now, in visions, such as we have in Revelation, figures, it is true, have a much larger place :the meaning of the vision as a whole is symbolic-figurative. Yet this does not at all suppose that every feature in it is so, and in no case perhaps is this really true.

Take the fifth seal as a sufficient example,-where the altar is figurative, and so are the white robes, but the killing of their brethren is real and literal. This mingling of the literal and symbolic in one vision makes it plain that they may be and will be found mingled through the whole series of visions. And if it be asked, How, then, are we to discern the one from the other? the answer will be, that each case must be judged separately,-the sense that is simplest, most self-consistent, and agreeable to the context being surely the right one. God writes, as man does, to be understood, and intelligibility gives the law, therefore, to all the rest. It is reassuring indeed to remember this:plenty of deep things there are in the Word of God, and more perhaps than any where else are they to be found in the book of Revelation, but the mystery in them is never from mere verbal concealments or misty speech, but from defect in us,-spiritual dullness and incapacity. This-most difficult of all Scripture-books God has stamped with the name of " revelation."

These thoughts are not an unnecessary introduction to the parenthetic visions between the sixth and the seventh seals, where just such questions have been asked as to the sealing of a hundred and forty-four thousand out of every tribe of the children of Israel. Is it in fact Israel literally, or a typical, spiritual Israel that we are to think of? The latter is the thought of expositors generally, though by no means all; and we are told (as by Lange, for instance,) that if we take Israel literally to be meant, then we must take all the other details,-the exact number sealed, etc., -literally also:to do which would not involve any absurdity, but which we have seen to be not in the least necessitated. We are free, as to all matters of the kind, to ask, What is the most suitable meaning? and to find in this suitability, the justification of one view or the other.

The context argues for the literal sense. The innumerable multitude seen afterward before the throne, "out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues,"shows us plainly a characteristically Gentile gathering, and that they are in some sense in contrast with the Israelitish one seems clear. Taken together, they throw light upon one another, and display the divine mercy both to Jews and Gentiles in the latter days. While the separateness of these companies, and the priority given to Israel, agree with the character of a time when the Christian Church being removed to heaven, the old distinctions are again in force. We are again in the line of Old-Testament prophecy, and of Jewish "promises" (Rom. 9:4); "the Lion of the tribe of Judah " has taken the book.

Even apart from the context, (decisive as this is), the enumeration of the tribes would seem to make the description literal enough, even although Dan be at present missing from among them, and supposing no reason could be assigned for this.* Judah too is in her place as the royal tribe:not the natural birthright, but divine favor, controls the order here. Every thing assures us that it is indeed Israel, and as a nation, that is now in the scene. *Dan and Zebulon are both omitted in the genealogical lists of 1 Chronicles.*

Let us turn back now to see how she is introduced to us,

"After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth; or on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, 'Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.' "

Here it is manifest that, terrible as have been the judgments already, far worse are at hand. The four winds- expressive of all the agencies of natural evil-are about to blow together upon the earth, under the control of spiritual powers (the angels) which guide them according to the supreme will of God. It is the " day of the Lord of Hosts upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low" (Isa. 2:12). And as nothing lifts itself up as the tree does, so the "tree" is specially marked out here:the ax is laid at the root of it. The passage in Isaiah goes on quite similarly:"And upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan" (5:13).

But this becomes, as in the Baptist's lips, a general sentence upon man as man, from which none may escape but as in the Lord's grace counted worthy. Thus the sealing becomes quite evidently the counterpart of what we find in the ninth of Ezekiel, though there the range of judgment is more. limited. "And He called to the man clothed in linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; and the Lord said unto him, 'Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.' And to the others He said in mine hearing, 'Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark.' "

The sealing is as evidently preservative as the "mark" is. They are both upon the forehead,-open and manifest. If we look on to the fourteenth chapter here, we shall find upon the hundred and forty-four thousand there (a company as to the identity of which with the present one it is not yet time to ask the question,) the name of the Lamb's Father written, and the seal marks thus undoubtedly to whom they belong.

Let us notice also that we are just approaching the time here in which the beast also will have his mark, if not always on the forehead, at least in the hands (chap. 13:16). The time of unreserved confession of one master or the other will then have come; and no divided service will be any longer possible. The beast "boycotts" (they have already invented both the thing and the expression for him,) those who do not receive his mark:those who do receive it are cast into the lake of fire (chap. 13:17; 14:9, 10).

The sealing is angelic,-a very different thing therefore from present sealing with the Holy Ghost, and from any power or gift of the Spirit. No angel could confer this, and the creaturehood of the angel here is manifest from his words, " Till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." The "we " shows that more than one execute the ministry, and they that do this speak of God as "our God." This is decisive, apart from all dispensational considerations. But in what the sealing consists it seems scarcely possible to say:the effect is, that the people of God are manifested as His, and preserved thus from the judgments which are ready to be sent upon it.

" The seal of the living God " seems along with this to imply their preservation as living men against all the power of their adversaries-His, and therefore theirs. True, that the power of the living God is shown more victoriously in resurrection than in preservation merely; true also that to the souls under the altar it has been foretold of others of their brethren to be slain as they were, and who are no less marked as His by the deaths they die for Him than any others can be :yet the " seal of the living God" may clearly manifest its power in securing preservation of natural life, and the connection seems to imply this here; while thus alone do the two companies of this parenthetic vision,-the Jewish and the Gentile,-supplement each other, as is their evident design. This also to some will not be apparent, for the Gentile multitude are commonly taken to be risen saints in heaven. But the consideration of this must be reserved for the present.

Certainly the enumeration of the tribes speaks for their connection with God's purposes for Israel nationally upon the earth, where her future is. In heaven, as a nation, she has no place, but on earth ever preserves it (Isa. 66:22). And here the connection of both these companies with a series of events on earth is evident. It may be said that the souls under the altar find similarly their place in connection with the seals, and yet are passed from earth:but these are introduced to show the prevalence of persecution, the unchanged enmity to God manifesting itself thus after the first periods of judgment have run their course; while they bring on, as it would seem by their prayers, the crash which follows under the sixth seal.
No such connection can be seen here, but the saints here are to be sheltered from the judgments coming on the earth-being themselves on it, an Israelitish company, inferring national revival, significant enough for earth, but not at all for heaven.

Leaving this for the present, we must give our attention to the number so definitely stated, and so earnestly repeated, of this sealed company. The enumeration, so held up before us, and emphasized by repetition, cannot be a point of little consequence. Of each tribe distinctly it is stated that there are twelve thousand sealed. What, then, is the meaning of this number? It is evidently made up of 12 and 10, the latter raised to its third power, the number of government and of responsibility. But we must look at these a little further.

Ten is the measure of responsibility, as in the ten commandments of the law; raised to the third power, it seems to me to be responsibility met in grace with glory; while the number 12 speaks, as I have elsewhere sought to show, of manifest government. If I read the meaning right, the two together speak of special place conferred upon this company in connection with the Lamb's government of the earth ; and this, it seems to me, is confirmed by other considerations.

That they are not the whole remnant of Israel preserved to be the stock of the millennial nation is evident from the one fact before mentioned, that the tribe of Dan has no place among them, and yet certainly has its place in the restored nation. In Ezekiel (48:i), Dan has his portion in the extreme north of the land. Thus the hundred and forty-four thousand here are clearly a special company, and not the whole of the saved people.

But the case of Dan has further instruction for us in this connection ; and we shall find it, if we turn back to the blessing of the tribes by Jacob in the end of the book of Genesis. Jacob himself tells us here that he is speaking of what should befall them in the "last days;" and it is to these last days plainly that Revelation brings us :so that the propriety of the application cannot be doubted. Let us listen, then, to what the dying patriarch has to say of Dan.

"Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so that his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord."

Abrupt, fragmentary, enigmatic, as the words are, with just this passage of Revelation before us, they startle us by the way in which they seem to meet the questionings which have been awakened by it. We are looking upon a sealed company, "a hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." But Dan is not found among them ! Can this tribe, we ask, have been suffered to drop out of God's chosen earthly family, so as to have no part in the final blessing? The voice from of old answers the question decisively :"Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel." No! the Lord's grace prevails over all failure :Dan does not lose his place. It cannot be that a tribe should perish out of the chosen people.

But more,-the company before us, if we have read its numerical stamp aright, is a company having a place of rule under the Lamb in the clay of millennial blessing; and among these, assuredly, Dan is not found. How the old prophecy comes in here once more with its assurance, "Dan shall judge his people"! The staff of judicial authority is not wholly departed ; but simply as what is necessary to tribal place he retains it, "as one of the tribes of Israel,"-nothing more.

The patriarch's first words as to Dan imply, then, a low place-if not the lowest place-for Dan, even as his portion in Ezekiel is on the extreme northern border of the land. He retains his place as part of the nation, that is all. And if we naturally ask, Why ? the answer is given in what follows :-

" Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so that his rider falleth backward."

Plainly these are characters which associate him in some way with the power of the enemy; for the "serpent," the "adder," speak of this. Jacob's words would show that in the apostasy of the mass of the nation under Antichrist, in the days to which we are here carried, Dan has a more than ordinary place. If the antichrist be, as every thing assures us, a Jew himself, what would be more in accordance with all this than the ancient thought that he will be of Dan ?

And here how natural the groan, yet of faith, on the part of the remnant which breaks out in the next words of the prophecy, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord"!

In Gad, therefore, the conflict finds its termination :"A troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last." Then in Asher and Naphtali the blessing follows, and Joseph and Benjamin show us in whom the blessing is. Upon all this, of course, it would be impossible to dilate now.

But all is confirmatory of the thought of this hundred and forty-four thousand being a special Israelitish company, destined of God to fill a place (but an earthly one,) in connection with the Lord's government of the world in millennial days. We have now to look at the Gentile company in the next vision.

(To be continued.)

10.THE "EVERLASTING GOSPEL."

In the last chapter of this final three, we find, as I believe, not another aspect of the divine dealings with the mingled crop in the field of Christendom, but a new acting, whether in grace or judgment, after the merchant man has possessed himself of his pearl, or in other words, after the saints of the past and present time are caught up to Christ. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, and cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world (or age):the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (5:47-51.)

The parable closes thus (in so far, just as the parable of the tares of the field,) with the judgment executed at the appearing of the Lord. The common application of it is to the going forth of the gospel during the present time, and the final separation of bad and good when the Lord comes. That is, the meaning is considered to be almost identical with the tare-parable. I believe there are some plain reasons against such an interpretation.

For, in the first place, the parallelism of the two parables in that case is certainly against it. There would be little in the picture of the net cast into the sea that was not simply repetition of what had already been given. And this, at first sight, would not seem natural or likely.

But beside this, it is to be considered that Scripture plainly gives us another going forth of the gospel of the kingdom, and as the result of it a discriminative judgment when the Son of Man comes, apart altogether from the present going forth of the gospel, and the judgment of the tares of Christendom. The company of sheep and goats in Matt. 25:is an instance of this. For there will be no such separation as is there depicted between these sheep and goats, of the true and false among Christian professors, " when the Son of Man shall" have "come in His glory." The true among Christian professors, on the contrary, will come with Him to judgment on that day, as we have seen both Col. 3:4 and Jude bear witness. The judgment of Christendom will not then be discriminative at all:the wheat having been already removed from the field, tares alone will remain in it. Thus in Matt. 25:neither tares nor wheat can be at all in question.

But after the saints of the present time have been caught up to the Lord, and Christendom has become a tare-field simply, a new work of the Lord will begin in Israel and among the surrounding nations, to gather out a people for earthly blessing. It is when God's judgments are upon the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. And this will be a time of "great tribulation," such as for Israel Matt. 24:depicts. Antichrist is there, and the "abomination of desolation" stands in the holy place; yet amid all the evil and sorrow of the time, the "everlasting gospel" goes forth (Rev. 14:6, 7) with its call, so opposite to the proclamation of this day of grace now being made. "Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come."

Plainly, one could not say that yet. We say it is " the accepted time, the day of salvation," not of judgment. Only after the present day is closed could the everlasting gospel be preached after that fashion,-the old "gospel of the kingdom "indeed, but with the new addition to it of the hour of God's judgment being come.

It is this proclamation of the everlasting gospel that is the key to that company of sheep and goats standing before the throne of the Son of Man when He is come.

Now, if we look a little closely, it is just such a state of things as that amid which the everlasting gospel goes forth, that this parable brings before us. A " net cast into the sea" is the picture of the gospel going forth in the midst of unquiet and commotion, the lawless will of man at work every where, the wicked "like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." (Is. 57:20.)

Moreover, if we turn to the very earliest of Scripture types-to Genesis 1:-we shall find confirmation of this view, which is exceedingly striking. In those creative days we find, day by day, the successive steps by which God brought out of ruin the beauty of a scene where at length He could rest, because all was " very good." There need be little wonder to find this but the picture and type of how He, step by step, after the misery and ruin of Adam's fall, is proceeding toward the final production of a scene in which once again, and never more to be disturbed, because of its goodness He can rest. These days in their respective meaning it is not the place here to point out. The third day, however, speaks of the separation of Israel from among the Gentiles. The waters of the salt and barren sea are the representative of man left to the lusts and passions of his own heart (according to the figure in Isaiah just referred to), or in other words, the Gentiles.* *Compare also Rev. 17:15.* Israel is the "earth," taken up and cultivated of God, to get, if it might be, fruit. The third day speaks of this separation of Israel from the Gentiles, as the first parable of the three we are now looking at speaks of her as God's earthly treasure.

This is a scene all on earth. The next creative day gives us however, the furnishing of the heavens, as we have already seen the second parable of the " pearl" does. And if the sun be a type of Christ (as it surely is), that which brings in and rules the day,-the moon is no less a type of the Church, the reflection, however feeble and unstable, of Christ to the world in the night of His absence. The present time, then, is here figured, -the time of the revelation, in testimony, both of Christ and of the Church.

And now, if we pass on to the sixth day, we have as plainly in figure the kingdom of Christ come. The rule of the man and woman over the earth,-not rule over the day or night, not the light of testimony, but rule over the earth itself,- is a picture of what we call millennial blessing.

Finally, in this series comes the Sabbath, God's own rest:He sanctifies the whole day, and blesses it; no other day succeeds.

Now between the fourth and the sixth days, the Church and the millennial dispensations, what intervenes? A period, short indeed in duration, but important enough to occupy thirteen out of the twenty-two chapters of the book of Revelation:the very time to which, as I believe, the parable of the net refers. And then, what is its type, if the fifth day represents it? Once again, the "sea," but the waters now supernaturally productive, teaming with life through the fiat of the Almighty. And so it will be in the day of Rev. 7:as the hundred and forty-four thousand of the tribes of Israel, and the innumerable multitude of Gentiles who have come out of "the great tribulation," bear abundant witness. These are the gathering out of the people for earthly blessing, as the fruit of the everlasting gospel.

These passages, then, mutually confirm each other as applying to a time characterized by Gentile lawlessness, Israel fully partaking of this character, and not yet owned of God, though He be working in her midst. Into this "sea" the net is cast, and, gathering of every kind, when it is full, is drawn to shore.

It is not till AFTER this that the sorting begins:"which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, and cast the bad away." This shows us that the sorting cannot apply to any thing which goes on during the time of the preaching of the gospel at all events, for the net is no longer in the waters when it takes place. And it is thus the same thing evidently as that which the interpretation speaks of:"So shall it be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the just." This is the clearance of the earth for millennial blessing. When the saints are removed, at the coming of the Lord for His own which i Thess. 4:sets before
us, the wicked will not be severed from the just, but the just from the wicked. The righteous will be taken, and the wicked left. Here it is the reverse of this-the wicked taken and the righteous left. Thus, with the divine accuracy of the inspired Word, which invites scrutiny and rewards attention to its minutest details, it is said in the judgment of the tare-field of Christendom, " They shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity," but not, "they shall sever the wicked from among the just" for the just have been before removed. Here, on the contrary, the righteous are those not taken away to inherit heavenly blessing, but left behind to inherit earthly.* *Parallel passages will be found in Matt. 24:37-42, and Luke 17:24, 37. In the Old Testament, the Psalms especially are lull of this severing of the wicked from among the just:e. g., Ps. 1:4, 5; 37:9-11; see also Mal. 4:l-3.*

With this glance at things which belong to that short but most momentous season-the season of the earth's travail before her final great deliverance, the sevenfold sketch of the kingdom of the absent King necessarily ends. The blessing of earth, as of Israel, necessitates His presence, and with that the close of the "kingdom and patience" the beginning of that "kingdom and glory" which will never end. Well will it be for us if we keep in mind the sure connection between the " patience" and the "glory."

" It is a faithful saying, " For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself." (2 Tim. 2:II-13.)

[Is it not time to " return to God's original plan " unreservedly, and not merely (important as that is,) in the matter of evangelizing ? "Ye shall seek Me, and find Me," saith the Lord, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). Alas! can this be so, when the writer openly advocates expediency in opposition to the truth of God? "Expediency undoubtedly restricts the exercise of certain rights"! How shall we know ? Where shall we find its shifting creed ? or where the interpreter who can speak so positively for it? Upon the same plea exactly the mass of departures from the Word of God may be excused. Dr. Pierson is too much the American here. The Church was never a "pure democracy;" it began as a theocracy, though it largely departed from it. And still "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."-ed.]

*Being the second chapter of "Evangelistic Work," by A. T. Pierson, D.D.*

When God's tabernacle was to be built, all things were enjoined to be " according to the pattern " showed to the great leader and law-giver of Israel in 'the mount.

In every spiritual crisis and practical perplexity there is one unfailing, infallible guide,-the oracles of God. For our standards of doctrine, here is the form of sound words; for the molding of character, here is the divine matrix (Rom. 6:17, Gr.); here are rules to regulate our relations to the world and to the Christian brotherhood; the principles upon which the Church is founded, and by which its activity is to be inspired and governed :for all things, here is a divine pattern. We shall not turn in vain to the Word of God to seek a satisfactory solution to the evangelistic problem.

The teaching of our Lord throughout makes emphatic the duty and privilege of every saved soul to become a saver of others. This is found, not so much in any direct injunction, as in the general tone and tendency of all His words. The conception of the believer as a herald, a witness, a winner of souls, runs like a golden thread through His discourses, and even His parables and miracles. He does indeed say to a representative disciple, "Go thou and preach the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:60); He does enjoin, "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes, highways and hedges, and compel them to come in;" but the command is one which is incarnated in His whole life, and is suggested or implied in the very idea of discipleship:"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Last words have a peculiar emphasis. It is a forceful fact that, at or toward the very close of each of the four Gospels, some sayings of our Lord are found recorded which touch at vital points of contact the great question we are now considering (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 24:45-49; Jno. 20:21, 22). Harmonizing these passages, we shall find the divine pattern for the work of the world's evangelization,-a perfect plan that is the only possible basis for the successful conduct of the work. It includes several particulars :-

1. Jerusalem is to be the starting-point for a world-wide campaign, including all nations and every creature.

2. The method of evangelization is threefold:preaching, teaching, and testifying,-in other words, the simple proclamation of the gospel, confirmed by the personal witness of the believer as to its power, and followed by instruction in all the commands of Christ, or the training of converts for Christian walk and work.

3. Attached to the command is a promise, also threefold:the perpetual presence of the Lord, the working of supernatural signs, and the enduement with the power of the Holy Spirit.

4. It is, however, to be especially noted that neither the commission nor the promise is limited to the apostles. (Cf. Matt. 28:16, 17, with i Cor. 15:6, etc.) Careful comparison of scripture with scripture puts this beyond any reasonable doubt. Christ need not have summoned the eleven apostles, whom He had already met in Jerusalem, to meet Him in Galilee; but it was there that the great body of His disciples were found, and where the bulk of His life had been spent. It is more than probable that it was on this Galilean mountain that " He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;" and to them all He said, "Go, make disciples."

Here, then, is God's solution to man's problem. Evangelization is to be in a twofold sense universal,-both as to those by whom and as to those to whom the good tidings are to be borne. all are to go, and to go to all. The ascending Lord left as a legacy to believers the duty and privilege of carrying the gospel to every living soul in the shortest and most effective way. To accomplish this, two grand conditions must exist:there must be evangelistic work by the whole Church, and there must be evangelistic power from the Holy Ghost.

Happily, the historic witness both illustrates and confirms the scriptural. Annibale Carracci deftly distinguished the poet, as painting with words, and the painter, as speaking with works. What Christ sketched in language is expressed anew in the "Acts of the Apostles." Pentecost brought to all the assembled disciples the promised enduement; then, while the apostles were yet at Jerusalem, these disciples, scattered abroad, went every where preaching the Word. (Acts 8:1-4; cf. Acts 11:19, 20.) Mark!-"Except the apostles!" The exception is very significant, as showing that this "preaching" is confined to no class, but was done by the common body of believers.

Of course such "preaching the Word" implied no necessity for special training. To many modern minds, the word "preach" always suggests a "clergyman" and a "pulpit." A "sermon" is incased, not only in black velvet, but in superstitious solemnity. There is absolutely no authority for any such notions in the New Testament. There, no line is drawn between "clergy" and "laity," and no such terms or distinctions are known.

The word "preach," which occurs some one hundred and twelve times in our English New Testament, means " to proclaim ;" it is the accepted equivalent for six different Greek verbs. Three of these are from a common root, which means "to bear a message, or bring tidings" (Εύαγγέλλω, χαταγγέλλω, διαγγέλλω) ; and this statement covers about sixty cases. As to the other three Greek words, one is used over fifty times, and means "to publish or proclaim" Κηρύσσειv); and another six times, and means " to say, to speak, or talk about" (Λαλησαι)." The other, which means "to dispute or reason" (Διαλέγoμαι), is the only one of the six which suggests a formal discourse or argument, and this is used only twice.

One word used in connection with the preaching of these early disciples is especially suggestive (Λαλέω. Acts 11:19, 20). It is close of kin to the English words "prattle," "babble,"-meaning, to use the voice without reference to the words spoken; it is one of those terms found in every tongue, which are the echoes of children's first attempts at articulate speech, and it conveys forcibly the notion of unstudied utterance. Those humble disciples talked of Jesus, telling what they knew. That was their "preaching."

There is nothing in the word "preach " which makes it the exclusive prerogative of any order or class to spread the good news. Even Stephen and Philip, who not only preached but baptized (Acts 8:9, 38), were not ordained to preach, but to " serve tables " as deacons. All Jews had a right to speak in the synagogue (Acts 13:15), and believers spoke freely in public assemblies (i Cor. 14:26-40). The proof is positive and ample that all the early disciples felt Christ's last command to be addressed to them, and sought, as they had ability and opportunity, to publish the glad news.
Upon this primitive evangelism God set His seal, confirming it with signs following, and adding to the Church daily. To such preaching we trace the most rapid and far-reaching results ever yet known in history. Within one generation,-with no modern facilities for travel and transportation, and for the translation and publication of the Word; without any of the now multiplied agencies for missionary work,-the gospel message flew from lip to ear, till it actually touched the bounds of the Roman Empire. Within one century, the shock of such evangelism shook paganism to its center; the fanes of false gods began to fall, and the priests of false faiths saw with dismay the idol-shrines forsaken of worshipers.

Subsequent history bears an equally emphatic witness, but it is by way of contrast. No sooner had evangelistic activity declined than evangelical faith was corrupted with heresy, and councils had to be called to fix the canons of orthodoxy; confirmatory signs ceased; and the evangelistic baptism was lost to the Church. Under Constantine, the Church wedded the State,-the chastity of the bride of Christ exchanged for the harlotry of this world. Via crucis-the way of the cross-became via lucis-the way of worldly light, honor, and glory. A huge hierarchy, parent of the papacy, rose on the ruins of the apostolic Church. The period of formation was succeeded by one of deformation, marked by putrefaction and petrifaction, or the loss of godly savor and of godly sensibility. And until the Reformation, dark clouds overhung the Church. Heresy and iniquity; a papal system, virtually pagan; ignorance and superstition as bad as idolatry; a nominal Church of Christ, whose lamps burned low, and whose altar-fires had almost gone out,-such was the awful sequence when habitual work for souls declined.

Too much stress we cannot lay upon this joint testimony of these two witnesses, Scripture and History, by which it is fully established that God has given us a plan for evangelizing the world, and that the plan is entirely feasible and practicable. Our Lord has left us His pattern for speedy and effective work for souls. So far and so long as that pattern was followed, the work was done with wonderful rapidity and success. So far and so long as that pattern is superceded or neglected, every other interest suffers. The promised presence of the Lord is conditioned upon obedience to the command, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." To neglect souls is treachery to our trust and treason to our Lord. No wonder evangelical soundness is lost, when the Church shuts her ears to the cry of perishing millions, and to the trumpet-call of her divine Captain.

To primitive methods of evangelism the Church of today must return. In whatever calling the disciple is found, let him "therein abide with God." Whatever be the sphere of common duties, let all believers find in it a sacred vocation; let us all take our stand upon the common platform of responsibility for the enlargement and extension of the kingdom of Christ by personal labor.

Let us not invest the term "minister" with a mistaken dignity. It never conveys in the New Testament the notion of superiority and domination, but of subordination and service. "Whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be the chief-est shall be servant of all" (Mark 10:43, 44). One word rendered "minister" means "an under-rower" (Ύπηρέτης, Acts 26:16),-the common sailor, seated with his oars in hand, acting under control of the "governor," or pilot (Εύθύvωv, Jas. 3:4).

Neander shows conclusively that Christianity makes all believers fellow-helpers to the truth, and that a guild of priests is foreign to its spirit (Neander, 1:179). Teaching was not confined to presbyters or bishops ; all had originally the right of pouring out their hearts before the brethren, and of speaking for their edification in public assemblies (1:186). Hilary, deacon at Rome, says that, in order to the enlargement of the Christian community, it was conceded to all to evangelize, baptize, and explore the Scriptures. Tertullian says that the laity have the right not only to teach, but to administer the sacraments; the Word and sacraments, being communicated to all, may be communicated by all as instruments of grace; while at the same time, in the interests of order and expediency, this priestly right of administering the sacraments is not to be exercised except when circumstances require (1:196).

The chasm between "clergy" and "laity" marks a rent in the body of Christ. The Church began as a pure democracy, but passed into an aristocracy, and finally a hierarchy. The creation of a clerical caste is a matter of historic development. We get a glimpse of it toward the close of the second century. Ignatius would have nothing done without bishop, presbytery, and deacon; and after all these centuries, this high-churchism still survives.

The common priesthood of believers is a fundamental truth of the New Testament. Expediency undoubtedly restricts the exercise of certain rights, but never the right and duty of bearing the good tidings to the unsaved. The partial purpose of these pages is, to show that only by a return to God's original plan can the work be done. After all our human resorts and devices, we are nothing bettered, but rather worse ; is it not time to reach out the hand of faith and touch the hem of His garment? A.T.P.

"As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." In Eph. 5:6 we read, "Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Thus we have the two classes spoken of in Scripture, according to their abiding and essential character. " Children of obedience," as it is in this verse in Peter (R. V.), and " children of disobedience" in Ephesians. The one class includes those who are " dearly beloved " (i Pet. 2:ii); the other class, those upon whom cometh the "wrath of God." That is, all children of God-all believers, are called "children of obedience," for this is their character as born of the Word; for it is " in obeying the truth " (5:22) they were "born again by the word of God " (5:23).

This is of course linked with their practice too. As children of obedience by nature, so also their lives were to be in holiness, not according to the former lusts. They were children of obedience by nature, they were therefore to show themselves to be such in their daily life.

That the nature and the practice are thus connected, like the tree and its fruit,-the tree good and the fruit good" (Matt. 12:33), is indorsed in Paul's doctrine in Rom. 6:15,-"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace ? Far be the thought! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" But nevertheless Paul equally with Peter declares the believer to be by nature (the new nature) a servant of righteousness and of God. "But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Now the way we became free from sin, and servants of righteousness, was by death with Christ when we believed; " our old man crucified with Him (5:6), that the body of sin might be destroyed (annulled), that henceforth we should not be in bondage to sin (as Israel to Pharaoh). For he that is dead is freed (justified) from sin." Thus the sinner is made free, like a slave set free, when converted to God. The death and resurrection of Christ have made him a free man, ended the old, and brought him into a new and perfect standing before God in Christ. Free as to his standing by Christ's work ; free as to the state of his soul when he has obeyed the form of doctrine as set forth in this chapter.

Therefore we conclude that Christians-all Christians are spoken of in these scriptures as " children of obedience " and " servants of God " and " servants of righteousness." This they are to begin with ; this they are essentially in their very nature, before practice can be spoken of, before exhortations can be given. The old nature is still in the Christian, since he is to have " no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3). And this flesh "lusts against the Spirit" (Gal. 5:17). And the new nature is there, the good tree, which constitutes him a "child of obedience," a servant of God and of righteousness, by the life (eternal) which he possesses as born of God.

Unless there can be fruit without the tree that bears it, let us not deny the two natures in the Christian. He fails-there is a nature that produced that:he loves God's people, and serves them-there is a nature that produced that. "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), but the believer, by the new nature, delights in the law of God " (Rom. 7:22). "Sin in the flesh " (Rom. 8:3) is the root of the Christian's failures ; but he is free from its power, and by the Spirit can deny its lust, and rejoice in the Lord, and obey God. But let him not forget the flesh is in him, or trust it for a moment; unless it is right for the jailer to open the prison-door for a desperate criminal, and right for the citizens to declare him king. He may have policy enough to hide his hand, but he is a criminal nevertheless, and worthy of judgment, and not of a throne.

The Lord deliver His people from doctrines that lead to confidence in the flesh, rather than to confidence in His Word-the truth that sets free !

Therefore the apostle does not mean in Rom. 6:16 that one who is a servant of God may become a servant of sin, and be on the way to perdition ; but that a certain line of life shows that some are in reality on the way to death and judgment, whereas a different line of life- "obedience unto righteousness" shows that such are "servants of God."

Such passages are often read with gross carelessness, and made to suit doctrines destructive of Christian liberty and real holiness.

And it may be well here to ask the reader's attention to this point. In this passage we have been considering (Rom. 6:16), and in many others (such as Jno. 15:, Rom. 8:13., Heb. 6:, i Jno. 1:6-8), what is presented is not two ways in which children of God may walk, but two different lines of life and conduct, manifesting two different classes of people. In the one case, whatever they profess, their life shows they do not know God; in the other, the life manifests reality. The end of the one course is judgment, the end of the other, reward and blessing. How alone good fruit can be produced (that is, by the new birth,) is not spoken of in such passages. Results-works only-are spoken of, to the end that the conscience may be reached, and the careless one aroused.

Only let the connecting verses be read, and the reader will often find the meaning to be just the opposite of what a careless reading had already gleaned.

But we are not to fashion ourselves according to the former lusts in our ignorance. And we do fashion ourselves in one way or the other, and our characters are being developed in evil or in good. The "former lusts" suggests, or calls to mind, the "old sins" from which we have been cleansed, as in the second epistle (1:9), and the "old leaven" of i Cor. 5:, and also the origin of the term "leaven" itself,-that is, what is left, what belongs to the old.

For us old things are passed away, and all things are become new. We are linked indeed with the things that are eternal and glorious, since the same words are used, in Rev. 21:45, as to the eternal state. "The former things are passed away, . . . behold, I make all things new."

We were once in ignorance and darkness, but now we have been brought to God, and into His marvelous light, and because He is holy, we are to be holy in all our life and conduct.

This is a solemn appeal to the Christian, and calls for a deep-toned character of life. Our God is a consuming fire. Let us have grace whereby we may serve Him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.

What the natural man hates-the holiness of God-the obedient heart delight sin, however conscious of daily failure.
Our God is "glorious in holiness." (Ex. 15:) May we ever remember who it is that has redeemed us, and so govern our lives. E.S.L.

I. THE MORAL LIMIT OF ITS POWER.

In the prophetic announcement of the failure of the Church which has come to us from the Lord's own lips in the addresses to the seven churches, if the root of decline is found, as it surely is, in Ephesus,-"Thou hast left thy first love,"-the formal principle of it is no less plain in Smyrna, where those are who "say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." The introduction of Jewish principles into the Church of God was that which prepared the way for clerisy, ritualism, and in due course, Romanism itself. I am not now going into the proof of this :it scarcely needs for those for whom I am at present writing. So rapid was the descent, in fact, that the Church of the New Testament never appears as such on the pages of merely human history; and ritualism appeals with confidence and success to the whole body of so-called "fathers" in its own behalf.

If, then, in the mercy of God, we have been in any measure delivered from the corruption and oppression of so many centuries,-if we have got back behind Nicene and pre-Nicene conceptions to the apostles and the apostolic Church itself, what should we expect but to find the same dangers before us which were before them, and developing only much more rapidly at the end than at the beginning, and amid the rapid developments of such a day as this?

It need not surprise us, therefore, (though it should awaken the most earnest self-inquiry,) to find in the address to Philadelphia the next reference to those who "say they are Jews and are not." If Philadelphia be in its very name an assurance that in the return of heart to Christ which is there marked there is a return of heart also to the fellowship of saints, the brotherhood of Christians, there is with this revival of true Church-feeling the revival of the old Jewish ritualistic assumptions :the New-Testament conception of the Church is again opposed by the traditional conception.

As a fact, nothing is more certain than that there has been such a revival of late years. If the Spirit of God has been drawing men to own the unity of his own producing, there has arisen in the very bosom of Protestantism what has been vaunted as the great Catholic revival, the impulse of return to unity of another type. The fact cannot be doubted :surely its significance cannot be for those who are hearing, or have an ear to hear, " what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

It will be said, and rightly, that the assurance is given to the Philadelphians, "I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie,-behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee."

While that is true, the need of overcoming, even in Philadelphia, must be seriously weighed, as well as the danger of not holding fast what they have, that no man take their crown. Is not this very Jewish revival a danger they are called to overcome ?-a danger specially pointed out, indeed, into which they may slip, and must be careful not to slip ?

Notice, what has been often remarked upon, the way in which the Lord speaks of Himself to Philadelphia as " He that is holy, He that is true," in opposition to the hollow-ness of ecclesiastical pretension. Those to whom He speaks have kept His word, not the church's; and it is this, just this, that constitutes them Philadelphia. They " follow righteousness, love, faith, peace," and thus find their company with those who "call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Their fellowship is true because it is in the truth. They are united by the center, not by the outside. They are held fast by the conscience no less than by the heart,-that conscience which is the divine throne in man, and may need enlightenment, but never repression.

These are needful remarks in commencing an inquiry as to the power of the assembly, and the limits of that sanction of its actions by the Lord, " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." Limit there must be, clearly,-some limit:otherwise, we shall be landed in Rome inevitably. And it is just in the uncertainty as to the limit that ecclesiastical pretension finds its opportunity, and the consciences of the saints are brought under its power. The whole of this address to Philadelphia is most helpful here.

For certainly the Lord has never delegated to the Church His rights over the conscience. If the Church is still "men," it will always be in order to quote as to it, " We ought to obey God rather than men " (Acts 5:29). There is always the possibility that the voice of man may not represent to us the voice of God, and that obedience to the one may be impossible to unite with obedience to the other. Absolute authority there can be nowhere, except where there is infallibility as well,-that is, with God, and not man. Nor does this set aside authority ; it only limits it.

"The powers that be are ordained of God." Here, therefore, my own will must give way, and " he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God." Yet the simple, direct, authority of God remains intact in its supremacy for my soul. There is no possible case in which duty to Him simply can be in collision with duty to Him in the power that represents Him. If I have His Word defining such and such a thing as evil, it can never be rightly a question for my conscience whether I ought to obey man in that. "The knowledge of the holy is" still "understanding;" and the dictates of that holiness are as simply to control me as if there were no delegated authority whatever existing. God nowhere, at no time, resigns the authority that He bestows on men ; no shadow of intervening power is to darken the light of His presence in which we are called to walk continually.

So with the authority of a father precisely:"Children, obey your parents in the Lord," is no license to transgress the commandments of the Lord in so doing. No one can suppose so whose judgment could be respected for a moment.

Now the principle remains the same, if we substitute the Church for the father or the magistrate. You may say the Church is indwelt by, the Holy Ghost, or that where two or three are gathered to His name Jesus is in the midst. It is true ; but He is not there to give sanction to what is not of Him,-to bind at the voice of His people what with His own voice He would condemn as evil. This would be to upset the first principles of truth and godliness,-to drag the divine honor in the dust,-to make God the Author of evil; and the direct result would be to justify in a certain class of cases those who say, " Let us do evil that good may come ;" " whose damnation," says the apostle, "is just" (Rom. 3:8).

Indeed, it might seem wholly unnecessary to insist upon this. It is, one would say, self-evident. To question it is to blur all lines of moral distinction, and to confuse the whole spiritual sight. Is it no more to be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether" (Ps. 19:9) ? Nor is it here possible to make a distinction between unrighteousness intended, and a mistaken judgment merely:"the judgments of the Lord are true" as well as " righteous," and " righteous altogether" not merely in intention!

Few are the assemblies, we may hope, of even " two or three " gathered to Christ's name, where unrighteousness in what they did could be deliberately intended. Fewer still would be the cases in which a deliberate intention of this kind could be proved against any. To judge what is in the heart is beyond us, except as it may be necessarily involved in the life and ways. It is as to what is in the heart that the Lord says, "Judge not, that ye be not judged " (Matt. 7:i). And the deceitfulness of the heart is nowhere perhaps more shown than in its power of disguising from ourselves the character of our actions. Certainly, if mistaken judgments are to escape the brand of unrighteousness on this plea, there will be few assembly-acts that can be pronounced unrighteous. If, for instance, only where one whom they know to be innocent they condemn as guilty can there be the guilt of condemning the innocent, we may practically dismiss the thought of such unrighteousness from the mind. It would be sin against love to suspect so great a crime. "From this all would shrink," says the one who furnishes the illustration. True; and if all other acts are to be considered righteous, where may we expect to find the unrighteous ones?

Practically, there maybe abundance of unrighteousness short of this:a thing of which the Lord acquits His murderers:" Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do ! " " Had they known it," says the apostle (i Cor. 2:8), "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Yet, were He not the Lord of glory, He would have been rightly condemned.

No :to condemn the innocent is unrighteousness, whatever the vail over the eyes of those who do it. These " mistakes " come from a spiritual cause, and have consequences also which no sincerity on the part of those who make them can avert. The God of truth and righteousness cannot "bind in heaven " the blunders of men on earth, nor set His seal upon injustice. This is, in the nature of things, impossible. He cannot put evil for good, or darkness for light, or bitter for sweet, or compel my assent to this, when He has pronounced a solemn woe upon those who do so. (Is. 5:20.)

Nothing, however, blurs the moral perception like ecclesiasticism:an unmistakable proof of its evil nature; and of which Rome's tariff for sin is only the ripe manifestation. Any thought of God's binding me to treat as right what I know to be wrong is of the same order as the Romish indulgences. Of course, if I do not know, I dare not act as if I did. It would be itself unrighteousness to characterize as unrighteousness what I did not know to be such. If I may be mistaken, all right to wait until am sure. But if I am really sure, I am responsible to God to act according to my knowledge, let the assembly or ever so many assemblies say what they will.

It will be answered that this is to make authority to depend upon infallibility, and that to reject it on this ground is lawlessness. Has, then, the church authority to define for me what is good or evil? Must I, with the father of Jesuitism, pronounce black what I see to be white, if the church so define it ? From no other quarter can we obtain sanction for maxims so profane. There is a range within which there may still be found sufficient room to own authority; but to compel my obedience to evil in the name of God and good, the church had never authority, and the claim of it would be itself an evil to be rejected with abhorrence.
These are as yet only first principles. The question remains, how they are to be carried out in a given case; but before considering this, we have to look at a number of other questions. Only this far have we reached at present, that " whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" must be taken with the reserve that evil cannot be bound in heaven, and that whether the evil be intentional or not does not in the least affect this, though it affects immensely the gravity of the case for those concerned in it. Power to bind evil the church has not.

(To be continued.)

an exposition of revelation IV.-XXII PART I.-(Continued.)

The Last Three Seals (Rev. 6:9-17; 8:i).

The first four seals have thus shown to us judgments poured out upon the earth,-judgments which are the necessary result of the rejection of Christ, now completed by the refusal of the gospel for so many centuries of divine long-suffering. The fifth opens to us a very different scene:here are beheld "under the altar, the souls of them that were beheaded for the word of God and for the testimony which they held." Persecution has broken out against the people of God ; for such there are still upon the earth, though the saints of the present time are with the Lord in glory. Heaven being filled, the Spirit of God has been at work to fill the earth with blessing ; and here, as we know, God's ancient people are the first subjects of His converting grace. The remnant of that time could be fitly represented by those disciples of the Lord to whom He addressed the great prophecy of His coming, Jewish as they were still in conceptions and in heart; and to these, after such warnings as had been fulfilled in the former seals, He says, " Then shall they deliver you up to tribulation, and shall kill you ; and ye shall be hated of all the nations (the Gentiles) for My name's sake." The two passages agree with one another and with nature.

Woe unto those who in a day of wrath upon the world for the rejection of Christ go into it to insist upon His claim ! And that is what is meant by " the gospel of the kingdom " which the Lord tells us " shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all the nations, and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). "Glad tidings" though it may be that the kingdom of righteousness at last is to be set up, and the King Himself is at hand,-to those who reject Him, it is the announcement of their doom. And we see under this fifth seal what will be the result. The Word of God will again have its martyrs, but whose cry will not be with Stephen, " Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ! " but with the martyrs of the Old Testament, "The Lord look upon it, and require it!" "And they cried with a loud voice, ' How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge, and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth ? ' "

The cry is now in place, as is the pleading for grace in a day of grace. Judgment is indeed to come, and the time when God "maketh inquisition for blood" (Ps. 9:12); but though at hand, there is yet a certain delay, for, alas! even yet, the measure of man's iniquity is not reached. "And white robes were given unto every one of them ; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants and their brethren, who should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."

Two seasons of persecution seem to be marked here, though with no necessary interval between them ; though the crash that follows under the sixth seal, with the terror thus (if but for awhile) produced, might well cause such a cessation of persecution for the time being. Whether this be so or not, the two periods are surely here distinguished. A much later passage (chap. 20:4) similarly distinguishes them, while it enables us to recognize the latter of these periods as that of the beast under his last head :"And I saw thrones, and they sat on them "- those already enthroned in chap. 4:and 5:,-"and the souls of those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God,"-those seen under the fifth seal,-" and such as had not worshiped the beast, nor his image, and had not received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands"-here are their "brethren that were to be slain as they were,"-"and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

The distinction between these two periods proves the introductory character of the seals, at least as far as we have gone. The time of the great tribulation is not come; just as, in Matt. 24:9, the persecution prophesied of precedes it. Thus the martyrs here, while owned and approved, have yet to wait for the answer to their prayer. Some answer, it need not be doubted, the next seal gives; but plainly, it cannot be the full one :there are decisive reasons for refusing the thought entertained by many, that it is really the " great day of the Lamb's wrath" which is come. Men's guilty consciences make them judge it to be this; but that is only their interpretation, not the divine one.

A terrible break-up of the existing state of things it is :"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great convulsion; and the sun became as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood ; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, as a fig-tree casteth her unripe figs when she is shaken of a great wind. And the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains ; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of Their wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand ? "

Well may it seem to be so; and just such physical signs are announced in Joel (2:31 and 3:15) before "the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come." Just so also the Lord speaks of what shall take place after the tribulation :" Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven ; and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:29, 30).

The sixth seal precedes the tribulation, however, as we have seen ; except this could occur between the fifth and sixth, and were passed silently over. This would be a very violent supposition in view of what we have already seen, and of what follows the sixth seal itself, as we may see presently. The rolling up the heavens as a scroll, moreover, goes beyond the language of Joel or of the Lord, carrying us on, indeed, to the passing away of the heaven and earth which precedes the coming in of that "new heavens and earth in which dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. 3:13). But this is impossible to be thought of as occurring in this place. The only other practicable interpretation, therefore, must be the true one,-the language is figurative, and the signs are not physical, though designedly given in terms which remind us of what indeed is swiftly approaching, though not yet actually come.

And in this way the general significance is not difficult to apprehend. The heavens in this way represent the seat of authority. Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that the "heavens rule" (Dan. 4:26). And they represent figuratively rule also on the part of man. In the Old-Testament prophets, we have similar pictures to that before us here (Isa. 13:10; 34:4), where the context shows that national convulsions are prophesied of. Here, it is evidently the collapse of governments, the shaking of all that seemed most settled and secure. All classes of men, -high and low, rich and poor, are involved in the effect of it, and their stricken consciences ascribe it as judgment to the wrath of God and the Lamb. In their alarm, they imagine He is just about to appear; but He does not, and the panic passes away. A new state of things is introduced, of which the features unfold themselves.

When we might now expect the opening of the seventh seal, we find instead the parenthetic visions of the seventh chapter; and there is a similar interruption in exactly the same place in the trumpet-series:the vision of the little book and the two witnesses comes in between the sixth and seventh trumpets. This exact correspondence claims our attention. One result of it is, to make the septenary series an octave, and to give, therefore, to the last seal and the last trumpet alike the character of a seventh and yet of an eighth division. Let us inquire for a moment into the significance of these numbers in this connection.

The numbers are, in their scriptural meaning, in some sense opposite to one another. "Seven" speaks of completion, perfection, and so cessation. Seven notes give the whole compass in music. On the seventh day God ended all His work which He had made, and rested. The eighth day is the first of a new week,-a new beginning. The eighth note is similarly a new beginning. The essential idea attaching to the number in its symbolic use in Scripture is that of what is new, in contrast with the old which is passed away,-as the new covenant, the new creation. As outside the perfect seven, it adds no other thought.

Now if we will remember the character of these seals, that they keep the book closed, it follows of course that the seventh seal opened opens for the first time really the book itself. This in fact introduces us therefore to what is a new thing. We were up to this time in the porch or vestibule merely. Immediately the last door is opened we are in the building itself.

Does not this account for the fact that on its opening there is simply a brief pause-" silence in heaven for the space of half an hour,"-and then come the trumpets? This is exactly according to the seven-eight character of the closing seal. One period is over, and with this we begin another. The last seal is open, and this discloses, not a bit more introduction, but the book itself.

The seventh trumpet will be found in these respects very like the seventh seal. It too is brief; and while closing the trumpet-series of judgment-in fact the three special woes,-opens into another condition of things, not woe at all, but the time long looked for, when "the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever " (chap. 11:15). Thus the seven-eight structure justifies itself in both series, of seals and trumpets.

But before the seventh seal comes a parenthetic vision, which is not a part of the seals really, but a disclosure of what is in the mind of the Lord, His purpose of grace fulfilling steadfastly amid all the strife and sorrow and sin which might seem to prevail every where. Let us now give it our careful attention.

(To be continued.)

glimpses of divine work in the mission-field.

2. france in america.-(Continued?)

We have been witness to some of Mr. Chiniquy's battles with his conscience as to the doctrines and practices of the church of Rome. They were many times repeated, and although superstition continually gained the victory, yet the memory of the conflict could not but have a certain effect. These conflicts had relation to some of the most distinctively Romish doctrines,-confession, transubstantiation, the vow of celibacy, the authority of the fathers, the mediation of the virgin Mary:the last of them indeed left a wound that seems never to have been healed until about eight years afterward he finally turned his back on the apostate church.

It was in the end of the year which witnessed this last struggle that he was called to leave Canada for a new field in the western states, which it was proposed to plant with colonies of French Canadians; on the one hand to prevent the risk to their religion which was involved by their being scattered among the Protestant population,–a considerable emigration having already begun; and on the other, to secure a fertile region for the dominion of the pope. Into this project Mr. Chiniquy threw himself with an energy that was natural to him, never dreaming that he was to be the chief cause of its failure, and that God had appointed him thus to be the leader in a great exodus from the land of bondage, whose yoke was yet upon his own soul.

He selected St. Anne, Illinois, as the beginning of his enterprise, and ten days after selecting it, fifty families from Canada had planted their tents around his, on the site of the present town of that name. In about six months after, they had grown to over a hundred families, among whom were more than five hundred adults. Six months after this, again, they came not only from Canada, but from Belgium and France. " It soon became necessary to make a new center, and expand the limits of my first colony, which I did by planting a cross at L'Erable, about fifteen miles south-west of St. Anne, and another at a place we called St. Mary, twelve miles south-east, in the county of Iroquois. These settlements were soon filled; for that very spring more than a thousand families came from Canada to join us; " during the six months following, more than five hundred more, and so the colony rapidly extended.

The exposure of the licentiousness of the priest of a parish not far off was, under the merciful hand of God, the means of introducing the Word of God among them. Many asked of Mr. Chiniquy where in the gospel Christ had established the law of celibacy. He replied, "I will do better:I will put the gospel in your hands, and you will look for yourselves in that holy book what is said on that matter." New Testaments were ordered from Montreal and from New York; and they soon began to do their work. The glorious " promises of liberty which Christ gave to those who read and followed His word made their hearts leap with joy. They fell upon their minds as music from heaven. They also soon found by themselves that every time the disciples of Christ had asked Him who would be the first ruler, or the pope, in His Church, He had always solemnly and positively said that in His Church nobody would ever become the first, the ruler, or the pope. And they began seriously to suspect that the great powers of the pope and his bishops were nothing but a sacrilegious usurpation. I was not long without seeing that the reading of the Holy Scriptures by my dear countrymen was changing them into other men."

Meanwhile, exposure came upon exposure. The burning of the church of Bourbonnais by the priest just mentioned and another, was followed by the collapse of the bishop of Chicago, whom Chiniquy had loved and revered, and after his resignation and appointment to another bishopric, one of the first things done by the new bishop was to bring his predecessor before the criminal courts, to recover $100,000 carried away by him out of the diocese.

The new bishop was much worse, and Chiniquy became the object of his bitter enmity. A suit against him undertaken by another, but with the bishop's sympathy, failed, but was the beginning of a long succession of such attacks, by which he was pursued long after he had abandoned the church of Rome forever.

The decree of the immaculate conception of the Virgin, Dec. 8th, 1854, came to increase the uneasiness already some time begun in his heart. A few days after he had read it to his congregation, he had to own to one of the most intelligent among them, in opposition to the assertion of the pope, that the doctrine was not in Scripture, but opposed to it; not in the fathers, and declared by many popes not to be an article of faith. And when the question naturally came, "If it be so with this dogma of the church, how can we know it is not so with the other dogmas of the church, as confession, purgatory, etc. ?" he could only say, "My dear friend, do not allow the devil to shake your faith. We are living in bad days indeed. Let us pray God to enlighten us and save us. I would have given much that you had never put to me these questions!"

But the questions remained, burning into his soul.

In the end of August, 1855, he was in Chicago, at a "spiritual retreat" for the clergy of the diocese, in attending which he was witness to frightful scenes of license and disorder which we shall not enter upon. He had already left when he was called back by the bishop, and charged with distributing Bibles and Testaments among his people. He owned that he thought, as he was bound to preach the Word to them, so it was his duty to give it to them, and he urged Pope Pius VI.'s approval of Martini's translation. The bishop replied that the translation by Martini which the pope advised the Italian people to read formed a work of twenty-three big folio volumes, which of course nobody except very rich and idle people could read. " Not one in ten thousand Italians has the means of purchasing such a voluminous work, and not one in fifty thousand has the time and will to peruse such a mass of endless commentaries. The pope would never have given advice to read such a Bible as the one you distribute so imprudently." And he ended with the threat, "If our holy church has in an unfortunate day appointed you one of her priests in my diocese, it was to preach her doctrines, and not to distribute the Bible. If you forget that, I will make you remember it! "

Mr. Chiniquy had again to be in Chicago shortly after this, to try and defend his countrymen from the rapacity of the bishop, but he only succeeded in enraging him more than ever against himself. As a preliminary step toward an interdict, he was sued again in the criminal court of Kankakee by an agent of his, and when the verdict of this court was given in his favor, the case was appealed to Urbana; and in this court, the spring following, he was defended by Abraham Lincoln, then practicing law in Illinois, and with whom, to the end of his life, he enjoyed the closest friendship. Mr. Chiniquy clearly proves that it was by a Roman Catholic conspiracy that President Lincoln's life was ended; and it was in the defense at Urbana that the enmity to which he fell a victim was first aroused against him.

Meanwhile the French Canadian congregation at Chicago had been dispersed by its chief shepherd, their priest interdicted and driven away, the parsonage sold, and the church removed five or six blocks, and rented to the Irish Catholics, the proceeds going into the bishop's pocket. By Chiniquy's advice, a deputation from the congregation waited upon him, to whom he answered, " French Canadians, you do not know your religion ! Were you a little better acquainted with it, you would know that I have the right to sell your churches and church-properties, pocket the money, and go and eat and drink it where I please." After that answer, they were ignominiously turned out of his presence into the street. Mr, Chiniquy himself was sent for, and ordered to leave St. Anne for Kahokia, three hundred miles away, under penalty of interdict.

A sham excommunication followed, issued without the bishop's own signature, and administered by drunken priests; but the people of St. Anne vigorously supported their pastor, and the blow fell harmless. The trial at Urbana came on shortly afterward, and a new charge on the part of an old enemy threatened him with ruin which the mercy of God averted, exposing the malice and perjury of the accuser by the introduction of a new unhoped-for testimony; and Mr. Chiniquy's deliverance was achieved.

The struggle with the bishop of Chicago, however, was not ended, but grew continually to larger proportions. It was closed at last by an appeal to the pope and the French emperor, and the bishop was ordered to Rome and disappeared from the scene, while the bishop of Dubuque was named administrator of the Chicago diocese. With him Chiniquy had still to make his peace, for his rough handling of the former bishop had raised dangerous questions of Protestantism at St. Anne. He was asked, therefore, for a written act of submission, to show to the world that he was still a good Roman Catholic priest.

Protestant he was not, but there were doubts in his soul which had never been settled and would not be bidden away. He said to himself, "Is not this a providential opportunity to silence those mysterious voices which are troubling me almost every hour, that in the church of Rome we do not follow the Word of God, but the lying traditions of men?" He wrote down in his own name and that of his people, "We promise to obey the authority of the church according to the Word and commandments of God as we find them expressed in the gospel of Christ."

It was with a trembling hand that he presented this to the bishop, but it was received with joy, and a written assurance promised him of a perfect restoration of peace. This reached him while in retirement for a short time in Indiana, and reconciliation with Rome seemed now complete. On the contrary, it was now that the breach was to become full, final, and irrevocable.

He was startled by another letter from the bishop of Dubuque, calling him thither, and on his way through Chicago learned that the Jesuits were astir, assailing him as a disguised Protestant. The administrator and the Jesuits themselves had telegraphed the submission to several bishops, who unanimously answered it must be rejected, and another and unconditional one given instead. Accordingly, when he reached Dubuque, the bishop demanded his testimonial letter from him, and having received it, threw it in the fire. He then referred to the terms of the submission which had been given him, and pressed for another. " Take away," he said, " these words:'Word of God' and 'gospel of Christ' from your present document, and I will be satisfied." Chiniquy replied,-

"But, my lord, with my people I have put these words, because we want to obey only the bishops who follow the Word of God. We want to submit only to the church that respects and follows the gospel of Christ."

In reply, he was threatened with punishment as a rebel if he did not give the unconditional submission which was required. But again Chiniquy answered, "What you ask is not an act of submission, it is an act of adoration. I do absolutely refuse to give it."

"If it be so, sir," he answered, "you can no longer be a Roman Catholic priest."

"I raised my hands to heaven," says Mr. Chiniquy, "and cried with a loud voice, 'May God Almighty be forever blessed !' " After all those weary years, deliverance had come at last.

How truly, he had yet to realize. The work had yet to be done in his soul which should make him aware of it. He had loved and honored the Word of God, and when he found that the church to which he clung was in fundamental opposition to the Word,-when he had to make his choice between the two,-he did not hesitate. But then this church, out of which he had believed was no salvation, now that it was gone, where was salvation ? A moment of dreadful darkness followed:he knew not! He, alone, forsaken of man, the link broken with every thing that he had counted dear before, seemed to himself forsaken of God as well. Prostrate, desolate, undone, Satan pressed upon him the awful relief of suicide for his despair, but God's mercy stopped his hand, and the knife fell upon the floor.

From the Word of God, to which he turned now in his distress, the answer came at length. His eyes fell upon the words, "YE are bought with a price:be ye NOT THE SERVANTS OF MEN"(I Cor. 7:23). It was the new creative word, filling his soul with light and peace. "Jesus has bought me ! " he said to himself; " I then belong to Him ! He alone has a right over me ! I do not belong to the bishops, to the popes; not even to the church, as I have been told till now. Jesus has bought me:then He has saved me ! and if so, I am perfectly saved-forever saved ! for Jesus cannot save me by half. Jesus is my God ; the works of God are perfect. My salvation must, then, be a perfect salvation ! But how has He saved me ? What price has He paid for my poor guilty soul? As quick as light the answer came:"He bought you with His blood shed on the cross! He saved you by dying on Calvary ! "

He said to himself again, " If Jesus has perfectly saved me by shedding His blood on the cross, I am not saved, as I have taught and preached till now, by my penances, my prayers to Mary and the saints, my confessions and indulgences, nor even by the flames of purgatory." The fabric of Romanism, struck by the Word of God, fell into ruin and disappeared. "Jesus," he says, "alone remained in my mind as the Saviour of my soul."

Once more, however, the darkness returned upon him. His sins appeared like a mountain, and under them he seemed crushed utterly. He cried aloud to God, but it seemed as if He would have nothing to do with such a sinner, but was ready to cast him into the hell he had so richly deserved. This lasted for a few minutes of unspeakable agony, and then the light began again to penetrate the darkness, and Jesus began to be seen once more. To his intensely aroused sensibility it seemed as if he actually saw the Saviour, and heard Him offering Himself to him as a gift,-His precious sacrifice as a gift to pay his debt of sin, and eternal life too as a gift. He saw Him touch the mountain of his sins, and it rolled into the deep, and disappeared, while the blood of the Lamb fell in a shower upon him to purify his soul.

The result was real and permanent:fear had given place to courage and strength. His longing was now to go back to his people, and tell them what the Lord had done for him. Ere he reached them, they had received a telegram from the bishop, bidding them turn away their priest, for he had refused to give him an unconditional act of submission. But they unanimously said, " He has done right; we will stand by him to the end."

Of this he knew nothing when, arriving on the Lord's day morning at St. Anne, he stood in the midst of a congregation of a thousand people, to speak to them of his new position and his new peace. When he told them he was no longer a Roman Catholic priest, "a universal cry of surprise and sadness filled the church." But he went on, giving them the full detail of his interview with the bishop, then of his darkness and desolation, then of the light and joy which succeeded this; and then he offered them the gift he had accepted, and besought them also to accept it. Finally he told them he was prepared to leave them, but not before they themselves told him to go; and closed with, " If you believe it better to have a priest of Rome, who will keep you tied as slaves to the feet of the bishops, and who will preach to you the ordinances of men, rather than have me preach to you nothing but the pure Word of God, as we find it in the gospel of Christ, tell it me by rising up, and I will go ! "

But no one stirred of all the many there; weeping as they were, they sat in silence. Chiniquy was puzzled. After a few minutes, however, he rose up, and asked, "Why do you not at once tell me to go ? You see that I can no longer remain your pastor after renouncing the tyranny of the bishops and the traditions of men, to follow the gospel of Christ as my only rule. Why do you not bravely tell me to go away ?"

But still they sat; and something in their faces shining through their tears spoke to the heart of their astonished pastor. With a sudden inspiration of hope he told them,-

" The mighty God, who gave me His saving light yesterday, can grant you the same favor to-day. He can as well save a thousand souls as one." And he closed with, " Let all those who think it better to follow Jesus Christ than the pope, better to follow the Word of God than the traditions of men,-let all those who want me to remain here and preach to you nothing but the Word of God, as we find it in the gospel of Christ, tell me so by rising up. I am your man. Rise up !

And without a single exception, that multitude arose! "More than a thousand of my countrymen," says Mr. Chiniquy, " had forever broken their fetters. They had crossed the Red Sea, and exchanged the servitude of Egypt for the blessings of the promised land."

It was the beginning of a work which has gone on ever since. "In a few days, four hundred and five out of five hundred families in St. Anne, had not only accepted the gospel of Christ as their only authority in religion, but had publicly given up the name of Roman Catholics. A few months later, a Roman Catholic priest, legally questioned on the subject by the judge at Kankakee, had to swear that only fifteen families had remained Roman Catholics at St. Anne."

About the middle of the year 1860, "the census of the converts taken gave us about six thousand five hundred precious souls already wrenched from the iron grasp of popery."

In Montreal afterward, "in the short space of four years, we had the unspeakable joy of seeing seven thousand French Canadian Roman Catholics and emigrants from France publicly renounce the errors of popery, to follow the gospel of Christ."

In the prosecution of this work, Mr. Chiniquy has had to pass through much; in the thirty years that have followed, not less than thirty public attempts have been made upon his life. Thirty-two times he has been before the courts of Montreal and Illinois; and in one case alone, seventy-two false witnesses were brought to support the accusation.

Yet, as ever, all this has turned to the furtherance of the gospel; and to day, says Mr. Chiniquy, "the gospel of Christ is advancing with irresistible power among the French Canadians, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans . . . Among the converts, we count now twenty-five priests, and more than fifty young zealous ministers born in the church of Rome."

It is much, dear friends, to say with Paul to Agrippa, "I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." (5:29.)

There is what the apostle could say from the bottom of his heart to those who surrounded him, that they might be such as he was, without his bonds. He might have answered to Agrippa, who had said to him, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian" (5:28), "Would to God that thou wert." The answer would have been good, and according to charity; but it would not have presented us with a state such as that expressed by the words of the apostle, whose heart, full of joy, overflows with this charitable wish. A happy heart does so naturally.

The apostle was pressed to say what he knew,-that is, to express what was passing in a heart which enjoyed its position in God. His soul was so happy that he could desire the same thing for others of which he had the consciousness for himself. Joy is always full of good-will; divine joy, of love. But more; this wish describes to us the state of the apostle's soul, notwithstanding his circumstances. Notwithstanding his confinement, which had already lasted more than two years, his heart was completely happy; it was a happiness of which he could render himself a reason; and all that he could desire was that those who heard him, even the king, were such as he was, except those bonds.

Such is the effect of the strange happiness that is produced in a soul wherein Christianity is fully received. It possesses a happiness which in principle leaves nothing to be desired, and which is always accompanied by that energy of love which is expressed by the wish that others were such as itself. We see, moreover, here that it is a happiness which outward circumstances cannot touch; it is a fountain of joy springing up within the soul. ….

Paul had been taken and led to the castle because of the violence of the people. He had been dragged from tribunal to tribunal. He had languished two years in prison, obliged to appeal to Caesar. And, to sum up his history, he was a man that might have been supposed to be worn, harassed as he was, pressed on all sides by all that can break the heart and daunt the courage. But there is nothing of this:he speaks before the tribunal of what he came to do at Jerusalem, and not of his sufferings. He was in the midst of all these things, as he says himself, exercising himself to keep always a conscience void of offense before God and man. All the difficult circumstances through which he passed were idle to him, and did not reach his heart; he was happy in his soul; he desired nothing but this happiness for himself and others, and the happiness which fills with perfect satisfaction is surely a remarkable happiness. True, he was bound with chains, but the iron of his chains reached not his heart:God's freed-man cannot be bound with chains. And he desired nothing else, neither for others nor for himself, save this complete enfranchisement by the Lord. All he could wish was that all might be altogether such as he was, without his bonds. J.N.D.

AN EXPOSITION OF REVELATION IV.- XXII.

PART I.-(Continued) The Opening of the Seals :The First Four Seals. (Chap. 6:1, 2.)

The Lamb having taken the book, the opening of the seals at once follows. When they are all loosed,- and not before,-then the book is fully opened. The seals then give us the introduction to the book, rather than (as many have imagined,) the complete contents. Beyond the seals lie the trumpets, contrasted with the seals in their nature :the latter are divine secrets opened to faith ; the trumpets, loud-voiced calls to the whole earth. These go on to the setting up of the kingdom in the seventh trumpet; and after that, we have only separate visions giving the details of special parts, until in the nineteenth chapter we reach again a connected series of events, stretching from the marriage of the Lamb through the millennium to the great white throne.

The opening of the seals, then, gives us events introductory, as regards both time and character, to what follows, and which have their importance largely in this very fact. The opening of them is the key to the book ; for when they are opened, the book is. Yet they only set us upon the threshold of the great events which precede the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, the time of the trumpets ; while on the other hand they contain the germ and prophecy of these, which spring out of them as it were necessarily.

In the Lord's great prophecy of Matt. 24:, which similarly sets before us the time of the end, we have, before the period of special tribulation connected with the abomination of desolation in the holy place, an order of things which has often been compared with what we find under the seals. Nor can we compare them without being struck with the resemblance. The Lord specifies here, as warning-signs of His coming, false Christs, wars, and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, and persecution of His people. In the first and second seals we have correspondingly war-that of conquest and civil war; in the third, famine ; in the fourth, pestilence ; in the fifth, the cry of the martyrs; and in the sixth, a great earthquake, though perhaps only as a symbol of national convulsion. Only the false Christs seem to be entirely omitted, and some have therefore imagined that the rider on the white horse in the first seal-coming, it must be admitted, in the right place to preserve the harmony with the gospel,-might fill the gap. But this we must look at later on. The correspondence is sufficiently striking to confirm strongly the thought that the seals refer to the same period as does the passage in the gospel, the time preceding and introducing the great tribulation of the end.

Looking again at the seals, we find they are divided, like most other septenary series, into four and three; the first four being marked from the rest by the horse and rider which is in each, and by the call of the living beings by which each is introduced. Their relation to each other is plainer (or more outward) than in the case of the last three, as may be observed also in such series generally. And how beautiful and reassuring is this rhythm of prophecy! The power of God every-where controlling with perfect ease the winds and waves in their wildest uproar, so as for faith to produce harmony where the natural ear finds only discord. Significant is it that in no other book of Scripture have we so much of these numberings and divisions and proportionate series as we have in the book of Revelation.
The call of the cherubim at the opening of the first four seals is also significant. It is to be noted that it is not addressed, as in our common version, to John, but to the riders upon the horses, who then come forth. It is not "Come and see," but "Come," as the R.V., with the editors in general, now gives it. The living beings utter their call also in the order in which they have been seen in the vision :for although in the first instance it is said, "one of the four living beings," not "the first," yet in the case of the other seals they are named in order-second, third, and fourth. And we shall find a correspondence in each case between the living being and the one who comes forth at his call.

We have seen that the cherubic figures speak of the government of God, in the hands of those who are commissioned of Him to exercise it. And thus the vail of the holiest, the type of the Lord in manhood-"the vail, that is to say, His flesh " (Heb, 10:20)-was embroidered with cherubim. To Him they have peculiar reference as the King of God's appointment; and the four gospels, as has been seen by many, give in their central features these cherubic characters in the Lord, and again in the order in which the book of Revelation exhibits them. The Lion of Judah we find in Matthew's gospel, where Christ is looked at as Son of David. Mark gives us, on the other hand, the young bullock-the Servant's form. Luke meets us with the dear and familiar features of manhood,-the " face of a man;" while in John we have the bird of heaven-the vision of incarnate Godhead. These aspects of the Gospels I may assume to be familiar to my readers:here is not the place to consider them.

Now Christ has been seen in heaven in a double character:-the Lion of the tribe of Judah is the Lamb that was slain. It is the title under which He takes every thing, for it is that which shows Him as the One who has bought every thing by His surrender of Himself unto death. He is the "man "who, according to His own parable, having found in a field hidden treasure, went and sold all that he had, and bought that field. "The field," He says again Himself, "is the world."

But the Lord's death had also another side to it. It was man's emphatic rejection of God in His dearest gift to him,-just in his sweetest and most wonderful grace. While every gospel has a different tale to tell of what Christ is, every gospel has also, as an essential feature, the story of His rejection in that character. As Son of David, as the gracious Minister to man's need, as God's true Man, or as the only begotten Son from heaven, He is still the crucified One. Man has cast out with insult the divine Saviour,-has refused utterly God's help and His salvation. What must be the result? He must-if in spite of long-suffering mercy he persist in this,-remain unhelped and unsaved. He has cast out the Son of God; and why? Because he was His essential opposite:"the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." The world which rejects Christ as finding nothing in Him naturally is the world which owns Satan as its prince. He who rejects Christ is ready for Antichrist; and so He says to the Jews, " I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not:if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive."

Thus man's sin foreshadows the judgment which must come upon him. This is no arbitrary thing. The law is the same physically and morally,-"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." In the true sense here, man is the maker of his own destiny.

And this will prepare us to understand the cherubim-call for judgment. If the living beings represent characters of God's government, and characters also which are found in Christ, we can find here a double reason why, Christ being rejected, the judgments come forth at the cherubim's call. A rejected Saviour calls forth a destroyer. The voice of the lion summons to his career the white-horsed conqueror.

This shows us, then, that it is not Christ who is thus represented. Many have supposed so, naturally comparing with it the vision of the nineteenth chapter, where Christ comes forth upon a white horse to the judgment of the earth. But the comparison really proves the opposite. We have not, certainly, under the first seal, already reached the time of Christ's appearing. And the symbol of judgment is unsuited for the going forth of the blessed gospel of peace. The gospel-dispensation is over now, and the sheaves of its golden harvest are gathered into the barn. Not peace is it now, but war. Peace they would not have at His hands:its alternative they have no choice as to receiving. Christ received would have been an enemy only to man's enemies. Power would have been used on his behalf, and not against him:that rejected, the foes that would have been put down rise up, and hold him captive.

This, then, is the key to what we have under the first seal:a few words must suffice for the present as to the other details.

The horse is noted in Scripture for its strength, and as the instrument of war:other thoughts believed to be associated with it seem scarcely to be sustained. It indicates, therefore, aggressive power, and a white horse is well known as the symbol of victory. In the rider, who of course governs the horse, there seems generally indicated an agent of divine providence, though it may be not merely unintentionally so, but even in spirit hostile. The rider here is not characterized save by his acts. His bow is his weapon of offense, which speaks not of hand-to-hand conflict, but of wounds inflicted at a distance. The crown given him seems certainly to imply, as another has said, that he obtains royal or imperial dignity as the fruit of his success, though by whom the crown is given does not appear. Altogether we have but a slight sketch of the one presented to us here, and one which might fit many of whom history speaks; but this is divine history and the person before us must have an important connection with the purposes of God, to earn for him the leading place which he fills in the beginning of these visions of earthly doom.

We naturally ask, Can we find no intimations elsewhere of this conqueror? It appears to me we may; and I hope to give further on what I think Scripture teaches as to it, not as pretending to dogmatize as to what is obscure, but presenting simply the grounds of my own judgment for the consideration of others. If it be not the exact truth, it may yet lead in the direction of the truth.

Some preliminary points have, however, first to be settled; and for the present it will be better to content ourselves with noting the detail as to this first rider, and to pass on.

The second living creature is the patient ox. True figure of God's laborer, strength only used in lowly toil for man, it speaks to us of Him who on God's part labored to bring man back to Him, and plow again the channels back to the forsaken source, so that the perennial streams might fill them, and bring again to earth the old fertility. Yet here the ox calls forth one to whom it is "given to take peace from the earth, and that they should slay one another." Civil war is bidden forth by that which is the type of love's patient ministry. Yes, and how fitly! For just as if received, God having His place, all else would have its own; so, rejected, all must be out of joint and in disorder. Man in rebellion against God, the very beasts of the earth rebel in turn. Having cast off affection where most natural, all natural affection withers. Man has initiated a disorder which he cannot stop where he desires, but which will spread until all sweet and holy ties are sundered, and love is turned (as it may be turned) to deadliest opposition.

In the third seal the third living creature calls:the one with the face of a man. At his call, famine comes. We see a black horse, and he that sits on him has a pair of balances in his hand; and there is heard in the midst of the living beings a voice which cries, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." A denarius, which was the ordinary day's earnings of a laboring man, would usually buy eight quarts of wheat, one of which would scarcely suffice for daily bread. It is evident, therefore, that this implies great scarcity.

The congruity of this judgment with the call of the living being is not so easy to be understood as in the former cases. Were we permitted to spiritualize it, and think of what Amos proclaims, "Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord, such a famine would, on the other hand, suit well:for "the face of a man " reminds us how God has met us in His love, and revealed Himself to us, inviting our confidence, speaking in our familiar mother-tongue, studying to be understood and appreciated by us; and assuredly this familiar intercourse with Him is what we want for heart-satisfaction. " Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," was not an unintelligent request so far as man's need is itself concerned. The unintelligence was in what the Lord points out, " Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip ? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."

Here, then, man's need is fully met. The hunger of his soul is satisfied. The bread from heaven is what the Son of Man alone gives, and it is meat that "endures to everlasting life." And this rejected,-the true manna loathed and turned from,-what remains but a wilderness indeed, a barren soil without a harvest ?

But this gives only a hint of the real connection:for this seal following the other two, seems evidently to give a result of these. What more simple and natural than that after conquest and civil war,-above all, the latter,- the untilled soil should leave men destitute? Still more, that the oil and the wine, which do not need in the same way man's continual care, remain on the whole uninjured? An ordinary famine seems to be intended, therefore; yet the connection has been hinted as already said:for the natural is every where a type of the spiritual, and depends on it, as the lesser upon the greater. Our common mercies are thus ours through Christ alone. Take away the one, the other goes. A natural famine is the due result of the rejection of the spiritual food. With the substance goes the shadow also.

That the third living creature calls for famine, then, may in this way be understood, and it shows how the greater the blessing lost, the deeper the curse retained. Christ rejected strikes every natural good.

And when we come to the fourth seal, and the flying eagle summons forth the pale horse with its rider Death, Hades following with him to engulf the souls of the slain, the same lesson is to be read, becoming only plainer. John's is the gospel to which this flying eagle corresponds, -the gospel of love and life and light, each fathomless, each a mystery, each divine. Blot this out-reject, refuse it, what remains? What but the awful eternal opposite, which the death here as from the wrath of God introduces to?
These initial judgments, then, are seen to speak of that which brings the judgment. The day of harvest is beginning, and man is being called to reap what he has sown. The darkness which begins to shut all in is the darkness not merely of absent, but rejected light.

This, in its full dread reality, no one that is Christ's can ever know. Yet before we leave it, it is well for us to realize how far for us also rejected light may be, and must be, darkness. We are in the kingdom of Christ, children of the light, delivered from the authority of darkness. Around us are poured the blessed beams of gladdening and enfranchising day. And yet this renders any real darkness in which we may be practically the more solemn. It too is not a mere negative, not a mere absence of light, but light shut out. And darkness itself is a kingdom, rebellious indeed, yet subject to the god of this world. To shut out the light-any light-is to shut in the darkness, and thus far to join the revolt against God and good.

And the necessary judgment follows,-for us, a Father's discipline, that we may learn, in our self-chosen way, what evil is, but learn it, that at last we maybe what we must be, if we are to dwell with Him, "partakers of His holiness." But will it-not be loss,-aye, even eternal loss, to have had to learn it so ?

Who would force the love that yearns over us to chasten, instead of comforting,-to minister sorrow, when it should and would bring gladness only? there is no mere negative. In that in which we are not for Christ, we are against Him. To shut Him out is a wrong and insult to Him. And these quick-eyed cherubim, careful for the "holy, holy, holy God" they celebrate, will they not, must they not, call forth the judgment answering to the sin ?

(To be continued.)

9.THE DIVINE COUNSEL AND PURPOSE.

The three parables which remain to be considered have found interpretations more various and conflicting than the preceding ones, and require, therefore, an examination proportionately the more careful. The former were all spoken (with the exception of the interpretation of the second one,) in the presence of the whole multitude, and they refer to a condition of things to which the world at large is this day witness. But " then," we read, these four parables having been delivered, "Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house, and His disciples came unto Him " (5:36).To these alone He speaks the parables which follow, for they contain, not external history merely, but the divine mind surely fulfilling amid all this outward confusion and ruin, which the former parables have shown Him not ignorant of who foretold it from the beginning. * *The very number of the parables tells of this. For as there are seven in all, the number from creation onward the type and symbol of completeness,-so this number seven is divided further into four and three. "Four" is the number of universality, of the world at large, from the four points of the compass, (as I take it)-east, west, north, and south "Three" is the divine number-that of the Persons in the Godhead. Here, then, the first four parables give us the world-aspect of the kingdom of heaven; the last three, the divine mind accomplishing with regard to it.*

It will not be necessary to advert to different views prevailing as to the meaning of the parables before us, but only to seek to show from Scripture itself, as fully as possible, the grounds for that which will here be considered as the true.

The first two parables we shall put together, as they invite comparison by their evident resemblance to one another:-

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which, when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it" (10:44-46).

The parables are alike in this, that they both present to us the action of a man who purchases what has value in his eyes at the cost of all he has. The question is, who is presented here? The common voice replies that it is man as the seeker of salvation or of Christ,-that we have here the story of individual effort after the "one thing needful," flinging aside all other things in order to obtain it. But is this consistent with the constant representations of Scripture, or with the facts themselves? Do we thus buy Christ at the cost of all we have? It is true we have in the prophet the exhortation to "buy" (Is. 4:i), where the " wine and milk" are no doubt the figure of spiritual sustenance. But there (that there may be no mistake in such a matter), the "buying" is distinctly said to be "without money and without price." Man is never represented as seeking salvation with wealth in his hand to purchase it. The prodigal seeks, but not until perishing with hunger. He comes back beggared, driven by necessity, and only so. And all who have ever come back really to the Father know this to be the truthful representation of the matter.

On the other hand, the real Seeker, Finder, Buyer, every where in Scripture, is the Lord Jesus Christ. The figure in both parables is most evidently His. The same Person is represented in each, and the same work too, though under different aspects.

In the first parable, it is treasure hid in a field that is the object of the Buyer. " The field," we are told in the interpretation of the parable of the tares, " is the world." It is an object in the world, then,-an earthly object,-that is sought for and obtained. So in this parable He is represented as buying " that field "-buying the world. He buys the field to get the treasure in it. Most certainly no man ever bought the world to get Christ, so that the believer is not the "man" represented in the parable.

Did Christ, then, buy the world by His sufferings? Turn to the last chapter of this gospel, and hear Him say, as risen from the dead, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth." Strictly, it is "authority," not "power." He has title over all, and that as the risen One. " Ask of Me," is the language of Jehovah to the Son begotten upon earth, " and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession " (Ps. 2:). Thus He takes the throne in the day of His appearing and His kingdom. It is because of that wondrous descent of One " in the form of God " down to the fathomless depths of "the death of the cross," that "therefore hath God highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father " (Phil. ii). It is that explains, what perplexes some, that Peter can speak of those who, " denying the Lord that bought them, bring upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Pet. 2:i). These are not at all redeemed ones, but they are "bought," for all men and all the world belong to Him as the fruit of His sufferings,- of that cross, where He, for the sake of that which had beauty in His eyes, sold all that He had.

Thus I conceive it unquestionable, that it is Christ Himself who is the central figure in these two parables. We may now compare the two sides of His work presented in them. In that of the treasure, we have seen it is the field of the " world " that is bought for the sake of the treasure in it; while in that of the pearl, no field is bought at all, but simply the pearl itself. Are these two figures, then, the treasure and the pearl, different aspects of the same thing, or different things?-the same object from different points of view, or different objects?

If we look for a moment at what has been already pointed out as to "the kingdom of heaven "of which these parables are both similitudes, we shall see that there are two spheres which it embraces, answering to those words of the Lord we have just quoted, " All authority is given unto Me in heaven and in earth" Christ is now, as a matter of fact, gathering out from the earth those who are to "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven "-not in earthly, but in heavenly blessing. But before " the appearing and kingdom," this purpose having been accomplished, and the heavenly saints caught up to meet the Lord,- He will gather to Himself, for blessing upon the earth, a remnant of Israel and an election of the Gentiles. Take the two purposes of Christ's death as expressed in Jno. 11:51, 52, you have it as the inspired comment upon Caiaphas' advice to the Jewish council,-"And this spake he, not of himself, but being high-priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only," adds the inspired writer, "but that also He should gather together in one the children of God which are scattered abroad." Now I ask, is it not significant that we find in the second of these parables the very type of unity,-the one pearl,-as that which the merchant man bought? Is it not, then, permissible and natural to turn of the other with the anticipation of finding in it "that nation" of Israel, for which also Jesus died, under the figure of the " treasure hid in the field"?

Thus would Israel on the one hand and the Church upon the other be the representatives of earthly and of heavenly blessing:the Gentile nations coming in to share with Israel the one as the departed saints of the past dispensations come in to share with the Church the other. The reason why these two alone should be spoken of, and not along with the Church the saints of former times, or along with Israel the Gentiles of the future, will, I think, be plain to those who consider the Scripture mode of putting these same things. Thus to Israel belong the " promises," as Rom. 9:4 declares. The Gentiles no more come into view there than they do in the parable of the treasure here. Yet many a scripture promises the blessing of the Gentiles on a future day. But they come in under the skirts of the now-despised Jew (Zech. 8:23). Then again, as to the Church, it is the only company of people gathered openly and avowedly for heavenly blessing. And moreover, it is the company that is being gathered now, and began to be with the sowing of the gospel-seed in the first parable of those before us.

Let us look now somewhat closer into the details of the parable of the treasure hid in a field.

Of old it had been said, " The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure." (Ps. 135:4.) But at the time when He who had so chosen them came unto His own, there was but little appearance in the condition of the people of the place they had thus in Jehovah's heart. " Lo-Ammi,"-" not My people," had long been said of them. They were even then scattered among the Gentiles. The figure of the treasure hid in the field was the true similitude of their condition, watched over as "beloved for the fathers' sake," and yet trodden down by the foot of the oppressor, to none but Him who yet longed over them known as having preciousness for God.

But there was One who recognized the value of this treasure. One who had in His birth fulfilled to Israel Isaiah's prophecy of Emmanuel,-"God with us." One to whom, so born, Gentiles had brought their homage as " King of the Jews." He found this treasure, presenting Himself among them as One having divine power to meet their condition, and bring them forth out of their hiding-place, and make manifest the object of divine favor and delight. And those who knew best His thoughts were ever expecting the time when He would bring forth this treasure and display it openly. That question which they had proposed to Him after His resurrection shows what had long been in their hearts, " Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"

And they understood not when they saw the gleam of brightness which had shone out for them when He rode in the meekest of triumphs, amidst the acclamations of the multitude, into Jerusalem, fade and die out in the midday darkness which so shortly after fell on Calvary. They understand not yet how He was in all this but the "man" in His own parable, who, finding treasure in the field, hideth it, and for joy thereof goeth forth and selleth all that He hath, and buyeth that field.

And the treasure is hidden still. Calvary is come and gone,-Joseph's new tomb is emptied of its guest,-they have stood upon the mount called Olivet, and seen Him whom they have owned King of the Jews go up to take another throne than that of David. Then they are found charging the people with their denial of the Holy One and the Just, bidding them still repent and be converted, and even now, He who had left them would be sent back to them, and the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Scenes before the council follow; one at last in which a man, whose face shines with the glory of heaven, stands and charges the leaders of the nation with the accumulated guilt of ages,-" Ye stiff-necked and un-circumcised in heart and ears, ye do alway resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye." And they cast him out of the city and stone him. Those that were bidden have been called to the marriage, and they will not come.

The city is destroyed, and the people scattered. Israel are still a treasure hid. The parable gives no bringing forth. Simply the field is bought. It is now but "Ask, and I will give Thee." All waits upon the will of Him to whom now every thing belongs.

But He waits, and has waited for eighteen centuries, as if the treasure were nothing to Him now and He had forgotten His purpose.

Then the second parable comes in as what is needed by way of explanation of the long delay. The "one pearl of great price" speaks of the preciousness to Him of another object upon which He has set His heart. " Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it"-"went and sold all that He had and bought it." Not now the field of the world, for the Church is heavenly. Israel has still the earthly " promises." We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

This Church is one-one pearl. Brought up out of the depth of the sea, and taken out of the rough shell in which it is first incased-taken out at the cost of the life of that to which it owes its being, the pearl is a fitting type of that which has been drawn out of the sea of Gentile waters, and out of the roughness of its natural condition, at the cost of the life of Him in whom it was seen and chosen before the foundation of the world. Of how "great price " to Him, that death of His may witness. The title which the Christian heart so commonly and naturally takes to be His alone, it is sweet to see that His heart can give His people. We, dear fellow-believers, are His precious pearl. Nor is there any "hiding again" here, or suspension of this purpose. This is the second meaning of the cross, " who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

SIR ISAAC NEWTON once constructed a large globe, accurately exhibiting the continents, islands, mountains, rivers, lakes, and other features of the earth's surface. An agnostic philosopher, calling to see him, greatly admired the fine mechanism, and eagerly asked who made it. " Chance," was the stinging reply.

GLIMPSES OF DIVINE WORK IN THE MISSION-FIELD.

2. FRANCE IN AMERICA

From France in France, which we have briefly glanced at, it is natural to turn to her children in foreign lands, and among these, above all, to Canada, her ancient colony, and where a large province still perpetuates her language and her religion. Is there any thing hopeful to say of this, perhaps one of the most obedient parts of the pope's dominions ? For there the shock of revolution which is yet felt in the mother-country hardly reached, and the very disaster, as it might seem, which subjected a Romanist population to a Protestant power shielded the papacy under a toleration it would never have practiced, and a faithfulness to compact it has never shown.

Rome, Cardinal Gibbons assures us, believes in toleration; and there is no doubt she does so under Protestant governments, and wherever it means toleration for herself. Such was the case in the vaunted constitution of Maryland as a British colony. But Rome has openly and solemnly anathematized " those who assert the liberty of conscience and religious worship" (Papal Encyclical, Dec. 8, 1864), and declares "the absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error, a pest of all others to be dreaded in the State" (Papal Encyclical, Aug. 15, 1854). And a prelate of her own has assured us that "religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world"(Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburgh).

That popery knows how to use toleration wisely for her own interests, no one that has inquired doubts; and Canada, now smarting under the rein corporation of the Jesuits, and compensation made to them, is witness of this to her cost. A struggle is commencing there, for which Rome has been long gathering her forces and putting them in position all over North America, with all the generalship of a profound strategist.

But we have not now to do with this, grave as is its importance. For us, the soldiers of the pope are men, and as such, of the number of those for whom Christ died, and our interest now is in what has been done or is doing among these French in Canada in the salvation of souls. In answering this, I shall draw mainly from a book now in its tenth edition, and therefore not by any means new, the history of the beginning of a movement which has been going on for over thirty years, but with which many are yet little acquainted, however well the name of the chief instrument used by God is known. I refer to "Father" Chiniquy, still familiarly so styled, and his "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome."

The book is a clear, bold, and terrible delineation of Romanism viewed from inside,-a picture which ought to rouse us, if any thing can, to a sense of the spiritual need of the millions enthralled in its fearful bondage, and to earnest and constant effort for their deliverance. They are found on every side of us, needing no journey to a foreign land to seek, and no study of a foreign tongue in order to address ourselves to them. Yet how little is done ! or attempted to be done ! The easy claim for them that they are Christians, because they profess allegiance to Christ, dulls the many into indifference, which on their side is at least not reciprocated. For them, we are outside the pale of salvation. They at least realize a difference which it is our shame, with the open Bibles of which we boast in our hands, that we can make so little of. History, too, is lost upon us, because we are simple enough to believe that with changed times Rome too is changed. And she is changed indeed, and is changing:only from bad to worse; the long descent ever steeper, till the pit swallows her up! "Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth " !

Mr. Chiniquy's book is like the opening of a sepulcher, indeed is the exposure of a living corruption, which is worse than that of death can be. Decency revolts at some of the details, and Rome, he tells us, counts upon her loathsomeness as too great to be exhibited in its full reality. But the light is not defiled by what it exposes, and there needs to be told what God permitted our author doubtless to go through his twenty-five years of priesthood, that he might thoroughly know and reveal.

These fifty years in the church of Rome illustrate indeed the strength of the system which could retain so long one lacking in neither courage nor acuteness. In his father's house the Bible even was read, and his first chapter recounts the effort of the priest, at that time useless, to remove it from it. "To the Bible, read on my mother's knees," he declares, " Thou knowest, O God, I owe by Thy infinite mercy the knowledge of the truth to-day:that Bible had sent to my young heart and intelligence rays of light which all the sophisms and dark errors of Rome could never completely extinguish."

One of the first horrors that popery had for him came, when yet a mere child, in the shape of the confessional,- a torture and a pollution both in one. Henceforth it was to be a specter dogging his heels continually. The nameless and filthy questionings as to unknown and scarce conceivable impurities, forced to be answered fully under penalty of mortal sin, and which he finally had to force on others ; the sins following too commonly, and growing out of this defilement; the malignant, devilish wickedness of a system which foreknows and provides for the iniquity which it unrelentingly presses upon its victims:all this in the most startling ways the book reveals. It can only remind one vividly of that atrocity of the canon law:"If the pope should become neglectful of his own salvation, and of that of other men, and so lost to all good that he draws down with himself innumerable people by heaps into hell, and plunges them with himself into eternal torments, yet no mortal man may presume to reprehend him, forasmuch as he is judge of all, and is judged of no one."* *Decreti, pars i, distinct, xi, can. 6:(The Papacy, by Dr. Wylie, p. 134.*

This is Rome, which deliberately sends its celibate priests into this slough of immorality, exposing them to every temptation, calculating upon their fall, insuring them what secrecy and immunity it can, until "the reign of the priest" becomes, to use the language of a Roman Catholic, " the reign of corruption and of the most barefaced immorality under the mask of the most refined hypocrisy:it is the degradation of our wives, the prostitution of our daughters " (p. 34).

Mr. Chiniquy assures us that there are multitudes of women who will rather die in what they are taught is mortal sin than answer the impure questions which are proposed in the confessional. " Not hundreds, but thousands of times, I have heard from the lips of dying girls, as well as married women, the awful words,' I am forever lost! All my past confessions and communions have been so many sacrileges. I have never dared to answer correctly the questions of my confessors. Shame has sealed my lips and damned my soul.'

As to the priests, it was the testimony of the bishop of Chicago to our author, "The conduct of the priests of this diocese is such that, should I follow the regulations of the canon, I would be forced to interdict all my priests with the exception of you and two or three others. They are all either notorious drunkards or given to public or secret concubinage. … I do not think that ten of them believe in God" (p. 559). A very similar statement he represents as having been made as to his own diocese, by the bishop of Quebec (p. 192).

And no wonder ! Read the account of their education and preparation for the priesthood, and it is easily explained. " It is the avowed desire of Rome to have public education in the hands of the Jesuits. She says every where that they are the best, the model teachers. Why so? Because they more boldly and successfully than any other of her teachers aim at the destruction of the intelligence and conscience of her pupils." The teaching of Loyola is well known :"That we may in all things attain the truth, that we may not err in any thing, we ought ever to hold as a fixed principle that what I see white I believe to be black if the superior authorities of the church define it to be so."

Liguori, a Romish saint, and an eminent teacher, adds in "The Nun Sanctified :" "Blessed Egidius used to say that it is more meritorious to obey man for the love of God than God Himself. It may be added that there is more certainty of doing the will of God by obedience to your superior than by obedience to Jesus Christ, should He appear in person and give His commands. St. Philip de Neri used to say that the religious shall be most certain of not having to render an account of the actions performed through obedience; for these the superiors only who commanded them shall be held accountable."

" To study theology in the church of Rome," says Mr. Chiniquy, "signifies to learn to speak falsely, to deceive, to commit robbery, to perjure one's self. …. I know that Roman Catholics will bravely and squarely deny what I now say. . . Nevertheless they may rest assured it is true, and my proof will be irrefutable. . . . My witnesses are even infallible. They are none other than the Roman Catholic theologians themselves, approved by infallible proofs" (p. 119). He then quotes abundantly for his purpose, but the lack of space will not permit my following him.

All through his studies he shows how reason and conscience (both stout Protestants) had to be continually beaten into submission to superior authority. The final vow, "I will never interpret the Holy Scriptures except according to the unanimous consent of the Holy Fathers," fell upon him like a thunderbolt. He had not, any more than the other students, "given a single hour yet to the serious study of the holy fathers." "I know many priests," says one, " and not a single one of them has ever studied the holy fathers; they have not even got them in their libraries. We will probably walk in their footsteps. It may be that not a single volume of the holy fathers will ever fall into our hands. In the name of common sense, how can we swear that we will follow the sentiments of men of whom we know absolutely nothing, and about whom it is more than probable we will never know any thing, except by mere vague hearsay?"

Chiniquy himself had deeper trouble in his knowledge than in his ignorance. He was aware, by what he had learned of church-history, that there were " public disputes of holy fathers among themselves on almost every subject of Christianity."

"During the months," he goes on, "which elapsed between that hard-fought though lost battle and the solemn hour of my priestly ordination, I did all I could do to subdue and annihilate my thoughts on the subject. My hope was that I had entirely succeeded. But, to my dismay, reason suddenly awoke, as from a long sleep, when I had perjured myself, as every priest has to do. A thrill of horror and shame ran through all my frame in spite of myself. In my inmost soul a cry was heard from my wounded conscience, 'You annihilate the Word of God.'"

What wonder if infidels and immoral men are thus abundantly manufactured ? It is the legitimate result of such a process; and the immorality every where he bears witness to. Led by the representations of the superior of a monastery to escape from what he saw in others and feared for himself in the ranks of the secular clergy, he enrolled himself among the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Longueuil, only to hear from one of the best among them this answer to the question, "Where is the spiritual advantage of the regular clergy over the secular?"-

" The only advantage I see is that the regular clergy give themselves with more impunity to every kind of debauch and licentiousness than the secular. The monks, being concealed from the eyes of the public, inside the walls of the monastery, where nobody, or at least very few people have any access, are more easily conquered by the devil, and more firmly kept in his chains, than the secular priests. The sharp eyes of the public, and the daily intercourse the secular priests have with their relations and parishioners,' form a powerful and salutary restraint upon the bad inclinations of our depraved nature. In the monastery there is no restraint, except the childish and ridiculous punishment of retreats, kissing of the floor or of the feet. . . . There is surely more hypocrisy and selfishness among the regular than the secular clergy. . , . Behind the thick and dark walls of the monastery or the nunnery, what has the fallen monk or nun to fear?"

Thus universal is the corruption of Rome. We cannot wonder that twice over the torch of the incendiary has reduced to ashes the electrotype plates and many volumes of Mr. Chiniquy's book. Nor have they spared the writer, as we shall see. We have now the happier task of tracing the steps by which he himself, and with him many thousands more, have been brought by God into gospel light and liberty.

( To be continued.)

So He spake peace; and from
Each heart burst forth a song
Of praise! We could not grieve:
Each aching void was filled;
For He was ours, and was not HE enough?

CHAP. I.-(Continued.)

What occupied the Old-Testament prophets was, the Spirit's testimony to the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow (5:ii). For them, history was filled up with the events of this earnest expectation. Therefore, were they living now, what would fill their minds, the cross having been accomplished, would be, the looking for the coming glories-not for what man has attained to and boasts of in civilization. Let this have weight with us. In the degree of our sympathy with the hopes of the men of this world are we out of communion with the spirit of those holy men of old who were subject to God. Eighteen hundred years of more or less of civilization and great achievement, would not their spirits have been awed by it, and have acknowledged a certain obligation to show some interest in the march of so great events ? Well, the Scripture gives the answer. There were great empires and human expectations in their day, but their minds were set upon the mystery of the cross-the humiliation and atoning death of a glorious Sufferer, and then the glory. So "Daniel also disposes of this whole age in a few words:" Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase; " but what was all that ? His whole book is occupied with other things-the purposes of God for His people, and the glory of Christ's kingdom, when man's development will have met God's power, and have been forever abased.

We pass on now to the thirteenth verse, to have our minds too set upon the same coming glories:"Wherefore gird up the loins of your find, be sober, and hope to the end (or perfectly), for the grace that is to be brought into you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." This is the opening exhortation of the epistle. It is followed by so many exhortations that it would be a labor to count them, however happy and profitable a labor it would be,- such as, "Be ye holy," " Love one another," "Laying aside all malice," " Desire the sincere milk of the Word," " I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul," " Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man," "Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands," "Rejoice," "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God," "Be sober, be vigilant," and many more; so that we may say that Peter, among the writers of the New Testament, is an "exhorter." He says, "I exhort" (chap. 5:i); "I beseech" (chap. 2:ii); "I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying" (chap. 5:12); and in the second epistle, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance;" "Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;" and "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles." In behalf of all Scripture, then,-Old Testament and New Testament,-this apostle declares himself an exhorter. With all earnestness he pleads ; filled himself with the love of Christ.

Reference to the Revised Version will show that ver. 13 is the beginning of a new paragraph, or division. Vers. I and 2 form the introductions, and from there to ver. 13 is a second paragraph; from ver. 13 is a third. "Wherefore," refers to the salvation just unfolded in the previous verses, and the example of the prophets, and of the angels. Note, now, the characters of this opening exhortation of this part of the New Testament, presented to us by the Spirit of God. In it we are exhorted to do what we have just been told the prophets did. They set their minds on the coming glory; so we are to hope for the revelation of Christ.
The revelation of Christ will be when He is revealed from heaven,-when. He will appear in glory with His heavenly saints, for the blessing and establishment of His earthly saints in the millennium,-that is, for the blessing of Israel restored to their own land, and of the Gentiles, who to the ends of the earth will share the blessings of that day, of which Jerusalem will be the center, as regards the earth.

The glory of Christ and His heavenly saints will then shine upon the earth and upon the earthly saints. " When Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). Israel-1:e., a remnant- will be waiting for Him in their own land when He appears; but we shall not then be here, for, having been caught up to meet Him before the tribulation of Israel, we shall be seen with Him in glory at its close. Christ in (or among) you the hope of glory" (Col. 1:),-that is, Christ, being the life of these Gentile Colossians, that was the assurance of glory when He came. Col. 1:5 shows it will be heavenly glory by the words "the hope that is laid up for you in heaven," and chap. 3:4, already quoted, that the glory will be at His second coming, when He will appear to all the world, and every eye shall see Him.

This is the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let us lay fast hold of it, for many reject the hope of the Lord's coming, and many who accept it have given up the hope of heaven.

The Holy Scriptures present us both. Let, therefore, the loins be girded, the thoughts gathered in from worldly purposes, and fixed upon our proper hope.

In Egypt (Ex. 12:ii), when in type they are redeemed by blood, they were to eat of the passover-lamb with the loins girded, staff in hand, and shoes on their feet. So we, having been redeemed, the first thing is, again to have the girded loins, as in Luke 12:-" Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately." The Christian must reject unbelieving and worldly thoughts by occupation with his heavenly hope, as the fish that were clean (Lev. 11:9) were those that had fins to propel themselves onward, and scales to shut out the element that surrounded them. All that had not these were to be an abomination to Israel. Such is the hatefulness of sin in God's sight. The hope of glory with Christ of necessity shuts out from the heart those things that all the world seek for with the whole heart. But this demands decision of purpose-"diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Heb. 6:ii).

Let the heart be true and firm, and let us habituate ourselves to a steady contemplation of the unspeakable joy that awaits us, and refuse all those things that so easily make inroads upon our souls when the mind has lost its steadfastness.

In Rom. 5:2-5, we find how this Christian hope is confirmed in the heart by a godly walk, and daily victory in trials :"We rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."

"Maketh not ashamed,"-that is, the Christian is not confused by the sorrows of the way, like the speculator whose dreams have been disappointed ; but in these very difficulties and distresses, the tender love of God, by His Spirit, so strengthens the heart, that future and unseen glories are made more and more real to us now. This is the joy that, as Peter says, is full of glory.

There is a very beautiful summing, or brief expression,' of this Christian experience in Rom. 2:7 :" To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory; "-that is, a beautiful way and shining path-" patient continuance in well-doing." This is the way God marks out the path to glory, and the glory at the end shines down upon us, and richly sustains on the way to it.

But impatience, unrest, the hands hanging down, the knees feeble, murmurs against God in the secret of the heart, and against man, and yielding to the lusts of the flesh,-not glory, but shame is at the end of that path.

The glory is hidden from us then, and we have taken things into our own hands, deluded by Satan.

Let us make haste to confess our sin, and cast out the intruder, and return to the Lord, and He will pardon; and glory and virtue will again sustain us, the mountain of trouble will be removed, and " every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth." E.S.L.

Oh, happy house! where Thou art loved the best,
O Lord, so full of love and grace;
Where never comes such welcome, honored Guest;
Where none can ever fill Thy place;
Where every heart goes forth to meet Thee,
Where every ear attends Thy Word,
Where every lip with blessing greets Thee,
Where all are waiting on their Lord.

Oh, happy house! where man and wife in heart,
In faith, and hope are one;
That neither life nor death can part
The holy union here begun ;*
Where both are sharing one salvation,
And live before Thee, Lord, always,
In gladness or in tribulation,
In happy or in evil days.

*This is only true of union in Christ:marriage is, of course, dissolved by death.*

Oh, happy house! where little ones are given
Early to Thee in faith and prayer-
To Thee, their Lord, who from the heights of heaven
Guards them with more than mother's care.
Oh, happy house! where little voices
Their glad thanksgivings love to raise,
And childhood's lisping tongue rejoices
To bring new songs of love and praise.

Oh, happy house! and happy servitude!
Where all alike one Master own;.
Where daily duty, in Thy strength pursued,
Is never hard nor toilsome known;
Where each one serves Thee, meek and lowly,
Whatever Thine appointment be,
Till common tasks seem great and holy,
When they are done as unto Thee.

Oh, happy house! where Thou art not forgot
When joy is flowing full and free ;
Oh, happy house! where every wound is brought-
Physician, Comforter-to Thee.
Until at last, earth's clay's work ended,
All meet Thee in that home above,
From whence Thou comest, where Thou hast ascended,
Thy heaven of glory and of love.

Spitta