I Believe there is great blessing attending family-prayer, and I feel greatly distressed, because I know that very many Christian families neglect it. Romanism, at one time, could do nothing in England, because it could offer nothing but the shadow of what Christian men had already in substance."Do you hear that bell tinkling in the morning? What is that for?" "To go to church to pray.""Indeed!" said the puritan, "I have no need to go there to pray. I have had my children together, and we have read a portion of Scripture, and prayed, and sang the praises of God, and we have a church in our house." "Ah ! there goes that bell again in the evening. What is that for?" "Why, it is the vesper-bell." The good man answered that he had no need to trudge a mile or two for that, for his holy vespers had been said and sung around his own table, of which the big Bible was the chief ornament. They told him that there could be no service without a priest, but he replied that every godly man should be a priest in his own house. Thus have the saints defied the overtures of priest-craft, and kept the faith from generation to generation.

As children of men we are known in this world; the world can point to us and say, " His father was so-and-so; and, according to our high or low connection in that way, honor or despise us.

As children of God we are not known, for the simple reason that our Father is unknown. Let any man in any circle, high or low, of this world's society be introduced as a child of God, and see what a blank astonishment will follow such an introduction. They know not God, therefore can they not appreciate such a relationship with Him. The man who is in that relationship, therefore, is, as such, a real stranger and foreigner in this world. His being born of God constitutes him that, and according to the degree in which he himself values this wonderful relationship, so will he realize his strangership among the very people where he, as a man, is so well known; so too will it practically separate him from their company, their object, their mode of life, their pleasures and pursuits.

But there is more. The way he has become a child of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, who, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," was "lifted up" on the cross, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This blessed Jesus, therefore, becomes now the object and delight of his heart. How else could it be? It is by His suffering upon that cross that his sins are forgiven,-by His stripes that he is healed. It is by His blood that he has " boldness to enter into the holiest,"-the very presence of that holy God before whom the seraphim angels have to vail themselves. It is by His death that he is set free from the guilt and the dominion of sin,-that he escapes the visitation of the angel of death at midnight, passes out of the land of bondage, and passes into the land flowing with milk and honey.

Jesus is now, therefore, the object of his heart. " We love Him because He first loved us." As the man who, out of love, "leaves his father and mother, and cleaves unto his wife," so Christ left His Father and home in glory, and out of love to us suffered as none ever suffered. But, in return, the wife clings to her husband, and follows him all through. So with us who love Him. If He is in heaven, our hearts follow Him there, and are at home only there. If He is still rejected and despised by this world, we want naught else from the world than what they give Him. We cannot endure to be received and honored where He is refused and despised. Nay, more -we cannot even feel at home with His professed friends who give Him but a back seat, and grieve Him by their ways.

One will readily see that this is not pretending to be holier and better than this or that, but a natural outcome of a love that is true. No true wife could be at home where the husband she loves is not given the place which belongs to him. So no lover of Christ can ever be at home in this world while " Christ" is a despised name in it. Nor can he be more comfortable among those who profess His name while they have among them that which wounds the Lord. Therefore when the world has crucified Christ and cast Him out, God said to His children, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (i Jno. 2:15).

He also foresaw what His professing people would do, and how things would turn out in the end, so He said again to His people, "In the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:from such TURN AWAY " (2 Tim. 3:1-5).
Oh, beloved brethren ! children of the God of love !- oh, for such a measure of that devotedness of heart to our Lord as to make it morally impossible for us to abide with whatever dishonors Him, but will compel us to follow Him any where and at whatever cost! Thus, and only thus, shall we know the reality of our relationship with Him, even as He has said, "Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:17, 18). P.J.L.

8.SECULAR POWER AND" THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH."

Thus we have compassed the whole history of the kingdom of the absent One, up to its solemn close in judgment at His coming. The two parables now before us, take us back from this, to look at the same scenes in other aspects.

And the two parables, however dissimilar in other respects, have this in common (wherein they differ from the former two), that they speak, not of individuals, but of the mass, as such. They give us the outward form as well as the inward spiritual reality of what Christendom as a whole becomes-of what it has become, we may very simply say, for the facts are plain enough to all, whether men question or not the application of the parables to those facts.

"Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field:which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof" (Matt. 13:31, 32).

Of this parable the Lord gives us no direct interpretation. It is stated, however, to be another similitude of the same kingdom spoken of by the former ones. And as Scripture must ever be its own interpreter, and we are certainly intended to understand the Lord's words here, we may be confident the key to the understanding of it is not far off. Let any one read the following passage from the book of Daniel, and say if it does not furnish that key at once (the words are the words of the king of Babylon):-

" Thus were the visions of mine head upon my bed:I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth. The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all:the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it" (Dan. 4:10-12).

This is interpreted of the king himself (5:22):" It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong." The figure, therefore,-which we have elsewhere, and always with the same meaning, (as Ezek. 17:5; 31:3-6)-is that of worldly power and greatness. But the strange thing in Matt. 13:is, that "the least of all seeds" should grow into such a tree. For the seed, here as elsewhere, is " the Word of the kingdom " (5:19). And we have seen already how men treated that Word. The kingdom of the Crucified could have but little attraction for the children of the men who crucified Him. Human hearts are sadly too much alike for that. How could, then, a great worldly power come of the sowing of the gospel in the world ?

Granted that it has become this, is this a sign for good, or the reverse? How could " My kingdom is not of this world" shape with this ? And what proper mastery of this world could there be, -what overcoming of its evil with divine good, where three parts of the professed disciples were, according to the first parable, unfruitful hearers merely, and (according to the second,) Satan's tares had been sown broad-cast among the wheat?
But if we want plain words as to all this, we may find them in abundance; and if, on the one hand, we know by what is round us that professing Christianity has become a power in the world, we may know on the other, both by practical experience and the sure Word of God, that it has become such by making its terms of accommodation with the world. It has bought off the old, inherent enmity of the world at the cost of its Lord's dishonor, by the sacrifice of its own divine, unworldly principles. He who runs may read the "perilous times" of the latter days written upon the forefront of the present days (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

Yes, the little seed has become indeed a tree, but the "birds of the air" are in its branches. Satan himself (compare 10:4,9) has got lodgment and shelter in the very midst of the "tree" of Christendom. The "Christian world" is the "world" still; and the "whole world lieth in the wicked one" (i Jno. 5:19) (not "in wickedness." Compare ver. 18; it is the same word). The opposition to Christ and His truth is from within now, instead of from without; none the less on that account, but all the more deadly.

Rome is the loudest asserter of this claim of power in the world, and what has Rome not done to maintain her claim? Her photograph is in Rev. 17:, 18:Successor to the "tree"-like power of old Babel she is called " Babylon the Great." And she is judged as having, while professing to be the spouse of Christ, made guilty alliance with the nations of the world; " for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies" (chap. 18:2). And alas! with the power of Israel's enemy, she has inherited also the old antipathy to the people of God:"I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration" (chap. 17:6).

This is the full ripe result. The beginning of it is already seen at Corinth even in the apostle's day:"Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us:and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you. . . . We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised " (i Cor. 4:8, 10).

Thus early was the little seed developing; thus quickly did the Christianity of even apostolic days diverge from that of the apostles. Paul lived to say of the scene of his earliest and most successful labors, "All that are in Asia have departed from me." Thus wide-spread was the divergence. Men that quote to us the Christianity of a hundred or two hundred years from that had need to pause and ask themselves what type of it they are following,-whether that of degenerate Asia, or " honorable," worldly Corinth," or what else.

That is the external view, then, which this parable presents, of the state of the kingdom during the King's absence. It had struck its roots down deep into the earth and flourished. Such a power in the world is Christendom this day. Beneath its ample cloak of respectable profession it has gathered in the hypocrite, the formalist, the unfruitful, -in short, the world; and the deadliest foes of Christ and of His cross are those nurtured in its own bosom.

But we go on to the other parable for a deeper and more internal view :-

"Another parable spake He unto them:'The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened" (Matt. 13:33).

Now what is "leaven"? It is a figure not un-frequently used in Scripture, and it will not be hard to gather up the instances to which it is applied and explained in the New Testament. We surely cannot go wrong in allowing it thus to interpret itself to us, instead of following our own conjectures.

The following, then, are all the New-Testament passages:-

Matt. 16:6:" Then Jesus said unto them,' Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.'" In the twelfth verse this is explained:" Then understood they how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."

The passages in Mark and Luke are similar (Mark 8:15 and Luke 12:i).

In i Cor. 5:the apostle is reproving them for their toleration of the " wicked person" there. " Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out, therefore, the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

There the "leaven" is moral evil, as in the gospels it was doctrinal evil. In Gal. 5:9 (the only remaining passage), it is again doctrinal. " Christ is become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the law. . . . Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not from Him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."

If we take Scripture, then, as its own interpreter, it must be admitted that " leaven " is always a figure of evil, moral or doctrinal, never of good. But it is possible to define its meaning and that of the parable still more clearly.

It is Lev. 2:that furnishes us in this case with the key. Among the offerings which this book opens with (all of which, I need scarce say, speak of Christ), the meat-(or "food-") offering is the only one in which no life is taken, no blood shed. It is an offering of " fine flour,"-Christ, not in the grace, therefore, of His atoning death, but in His personal perfectness and preciousness as the bread of life, offered to God, no doubt, and first of all satisfying Him, but as that, man's food also, as He declares, " He that eateth Me shall even live by Me."

Now it is with this meat-offering that leaven is positively forbidden to be mixed (5:ii):"No meat-offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven." True to its constant use in Scripture, as a figure of evil, that which was a type of the Lord Himself was jealously guarded from all mixture with it. Now in the parable, the "three measures of meal" are just this " fine flour" of the offering. The words are identical in meaning. The flour is man's food, plainly, as the offering is, and thus interpreted spiritually can alone apply to Christ. But here, the woman is doing precisely the thing forbidden in the law of the offering,-she is mixing the leaven with the fine flour. She is corrupting the pure "bread of life" with evil and with error.

And who is this "woman" herself? There is meaning, surely, in the figure. And he who only remembers Eph. 5:will want no proof that figure is often that of the Church, the spouse of Christ, and subject to Himself. It may be also, as we have already seen, the figure of the professing body, as the "woman," Babylon the Great, is. In this sense, the whole parable itself is simple. It is the too fitting climax of what has preceded it:it is she who has drugged the cup in Rev. 17:, for the deception of the nations, adulterating here the bread also. The " leaven of the Pharisees" (legality and superstition), the " leaven of the Sadducees" (infidelity and rationalism), the " leaven of Herod" (courtier like pandering to the world), things not of past merely, but of current history, have been mixed with and corrupted the truth of God. All must own this, whatever his own point of view. The Romanists will say Protestants have done so; the Protestants will in turn accuse Rome; the myriads of jarring sects will tax each other; the heathen will say to one and all, " We know not which of you to believe:each contradicts and disagrees with the other. Go and settle your own differences first, and then come, if you will, to us."

The leaven is leavening the whole lump. The evil is nowise diminishing, but growing worse. No doubt God is working. And no doubt, as long as the Lord has a people in the midst of Christendom, things will not be permitted to reach the extreme point. But the tendency is downward ; and once let that restraint be removed, the apostasy (which we have seen Scripture predicts) will then have come.

But men do not like to think of this. And I am prepared for the question (one which people have often put, where these things have been so stated) how can the kingdom of heaven be like "leaven" if leaven be always evil? Must not the figure here have a different meaning from that which you have given it? Must it not be a figure rather of the secret yet powerful influence of the gospel, permeating and transforming the world ?

To which I answer,-

1. This is contrary to the tenor of Scripture, which assures us that, instead of Christianity working real spiritual transformation of the world at large, the " mystery of iniquity" was already " working " in the apostle's days in it, and that it would work on (though for a certain season under restraint) until the general apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin. (2 Thess. 2:)

2. It is contrary to the tenor of these parables themselves, which have already shown us (in the very first of them) how little universal would be the reception of the truth :three out of four casts of the seed failing to bring forth fruit.

3. The language from which this is argued – "the kingdom of heaven is like unto it" – does not simply mean that it is itself like " leaven," as they put it, but like " leaven leavening three measures of meal." The whole parable is the likeness of the kingdom in a certain state, not the "leaven" merely is its likeness.

Let any one compare the language of the second parable with this, and he cannot fail to see the truth of this.

Ver. 24.

" The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man, which sowed good seed," etc.

Ver. 33.

" The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took," etc.

Is it not plain that the kingdom is no more simply compared to the "leaven" in ver. 33 than to the "man" in ver. 24? In each case the whole parable is the likeness.

The kingdom, therefore, need not be bad because the leaven is, nor the leaven good because the kingdom is. And into a picture of the kingdom in its present form evil may-and, alas! must -enter, or why judgment to set it right?

There is indeed but too plain consistency in the view of the kingdom which these parables present; and a uniform progression of evil and not of good. First, the ill-success of the good seed in the first parable; then, the introduction and growth of bad seed in the second. Then the whole form and fashion of the kingdom changes into the form and fashion of one of the kingdoms of the world. This is the Babylonish captivity of the Church. And lastly, the very food of the children of God is tampered with, and corrupted, until complete apostasy from the faith ensues. Christ is wholly lost, and Antichrist is come.

Here, thank God, the darkness has its bound; and in the last three parables of the chapter, we are to see another side of things, and trace that work of God which never ceases amid all the darkness; His-

Whose "every act pure blessing is ;
His path, unsullied light."

(To be continued.)

Romans 5:i, 2 sums up in two verses the results of redemption which we now enjoy. 1. Peace with God; 2. We stand in grace; 3.Hope of glory. It is a halting-place, to sum up results. Since Christ's death and resurrection have just been mentioned, it is fitting that the entire result for us of redemption should just at this point be briefly stated.

It is natural, therefore, that in what follows we should have further unfoldings of what this grace has brought us into. This we get in chaps. 6:, 7:, and 8:

Hence, to be in Christ, as well as justification from sins by the blood, is "the grace in which we stand."

We stand, therefore, justified from what we have done (Rom. 4:), and justified also from what we are as of Adam. (Rom. 6:) The latter is by death with Christ. "I am crucified with Christ." This is the way Paul became dead-dead to the law and to sin. He does not say his old nature was crucified, but "I am crucified with Christ." That is, he, as existing in the flesh, had come to an end by the cross. He was now in Christ risen. Hence, "our old man is crucified with Him," in Rom 6:, does not say that the old nature was crucified. That would be a defective statement. But we, as existing in the old nature (in the flesh), have by the cross come to an end. We belong now to Him that was to come (Rom. 5:), of whom Adam was the figure. We were of Adam, and had an evil nature, and were in an evil condition :we are now of Christ, and have a new nature, and are in a new condition in Him.

We were in Adam by life :we are in Christ by life. Thus, the latter part of Rom. 5:is introductory to 6:and 7:It is one topic. Redemption and life are the subject, not the indwelling of the Spirit. "Alive unto God in Christ Jesus" is plain.

I am in Christ, then, by redemption-by life. But the reception of the Spirit does not redeem me. The sealing of the Spirit owns me as already redeemed as to the soul, and becomes the pledge of redemption as to the body.

But if I must receive the Spirit to be "in Christ," then redemption stopped short of putting me "in Christ," and there is no such thing as life in Christ, for the indwelling of the Spirit does not give me life. E.S.L.

The leaf of a tree is its clothing and adornment. I It is the fundamental type, as botanists tell us, of its whole structure. In a leaf, you may discern, if you look closely, a picture of the tree itself,-may see the comparative height of its stem, recognize its internal structure, measure the angle and study the pattern of its branches.

Spiritually, the leaf lies rather under reproach among us. From the fig-leaves, man's first of many inventions to cover his nakedness, to the tree which our Lord cursed for its having leaves but no fruit, they have become linked in our minds very much with the thought of emptiness and pretension-of something to be shunned rather than commended. The lesson to be enforced by them has thus come to be negative rather than positive- rather of warning than of encouragement. This is natural, perhaps, and to a certain extent right also. It is the lesson which the examples already referred to would surely impress upon us. Yet it is only a half truth and not the whole. It is an application, not the application, of this beautiful natural type, which has much more to convey to us even of warning, and from another side too, while it can speak encouragement also, and animate as well as search out the conscience.

Leaves are not unhealthy excrescences upon a tree, nor are they merely a beauteous covering. They have their use and their necessity. You may for a certain end contrast them with the fruit, and rightly, yet they are clearly in no wise adverse to the fruit, but the contrary. They imply it, and are necessary to it. Strip the leaves from a tree, and you have not benefitted the fruit; if done early and thoroughly, you have destroyed it; and the tree, if not suffered to retain its leaves, must die also. The leaves are both a glory and a necessity to it. For their use is, to expose the yet immature sap, the life-blood of the plant, as it comes up from the root, upon their broad and delicate surface to sun and air, that it may become (as only in this way it can become) fit material for its building up. Destroy, therefore, the leaf, all growth and development must stop until it be restored again. Suffer no leaf to be, the plant must die. It is thus many deep-rooted weeds can be extirpated from the surface by the continual cropping of their leaves alone.

Leaves imply fruit, though not always, as in that fig-tree which the Lord denounced. In it, the foliage fully developed-although the fig-season was not yet-was a profession that it was ahead of others of its kind, and that fruit was already there. Just so with the nation of Israel into the midst of which Christ had come-zealous for the law, and proclaiming itself Jehovah's servant, while in fact bringing forth no fruit for Him. This fruitless but leafy tree stands thus as the perfect type of empty profession.

And the leaf in its innermost meaning speaks of profession, which of course need not and should not be empty, and for which, where true, we have a better name. We call it, with the epistle to the Hebrews especially, "confession,"-a beautiful and noble word, and the value of which the leaf emphasizes for us in a remarkable way.

Look at it, as it waves its banner in mid-air, courting the observer's eye, as it witnesses to the tree upon which it grows. Not less, certainly, by its leaf than by its fruit (though there be a difference in the knowledge conveyed), is the tree known. And while the fruit is often hidden> and you must seek for it, with the leaf it is otherwise. Every branch flutters with its signals. The whole tree, from top to bottom, often shows little but the leaf. Easy enough it is thus to realize its significance.

But this place of the leaf connects itself with its office. That it may fill this aright, the sun must play on it, the breeze must fan it; the life-for "the life is in the blood," which for the plant the sap is-coming into publicity through the leaf, gains from it transforming, ripening influences. For this purpose is the breadth of the leaf, with its net-work of vessels spread over it,-the lungs of the plant, as it has been called,-for without this breathing of the fresh air continually, plant and animal alike will die.

It is surely quite possible to interpret this spiritually; and important the lesson must be too. May the Spirit of God grave it upon our hearts!

It is in the open confession of Christ that the life within ) us (that eternal life which consists in knowing the Father, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent) comes, so to speak, to the fresh air,-pronounces itself openly, and glorifies Him. You say, perhaps, that it is in the fruit rather:it is in the manifestation of Christian character, and of the graces which belong to it. Certainly I have no thought of denying the necessity of these, or that without them all profession of Christ must dishonor Him. But while this is true, what I was just saying is also true. The leaf is not the fruit, but we have seen how necessary to the fruit it is. So is the open confession of Christ to the production of properly Christian character and conduct. The "leaf" of confession is not the "root" of faith, nor the circulating "sap" of life either; but as the tree clothes itself with its foliage, so is there to be (corresponding to the internal) also an external putting on of Christ; and as the sap in the leaf meets the vivifying influence of sun and air, so will the open confession of Christ bring our lives under influences that correspond to this.

Let us listen to Scripture, and see if it does not say so plainly enough. "The righteousness which is of faith. . . what saith it ? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach; that, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:8-10).

Here, root and leaf, faith and confession, are plainly distinguished but the necessity of the latter is enforced as strongly as nature enforces her typical lesson. Who indeed would dare say so much, if the word of inspiration had not here so plainly stated it for us ? There it is :let no one take away from so solemn a statement.

Does it stand alone? No, assuredly it does not. Hear from the lips of our Lord another testimony:"Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven. And whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 10:32, 33). He repeats this in Luke 12:8, 9. The apostle in 2 Tim. 2:12 cites the latter part of this:"If we deny Him, He also will deny us." "Whosoever, therefore," says the Lord again, " shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38).

It is in heart-felt and open confession of Christ that we range ourselves with His followers, and separate ourselves from the world which has rejected Him; and the more fully and in every way this is clone,-the more completely we identify ourselves with Him, the more will He identify Himself with us. If we suffer for His name, the Spirit of glory and of God will rest upon us.

In a professedly Christian land it maybe thought there will be little of this; but that depends entirely upon how far His words are identified with Himself in our confession. Sad it is to say, and yet true, that but few proportionately of His people are out and out in their acknowledgment of their Lord. Absolute uprightness still costs much; and the fear of man, the desire of approbation, the dread of singularity, of a loss of influence, and what not, operate upon us in ways we would not like to admit to ourselves. The loss must be great, however, in real fruitfulness. And here we are prone to make the great mistake of imagining that we ourselves are the sufficient judges of what is fruit. "Let my beloved come into his garden," says the spouse of the Song of songs, "and taste his pleasant fruits." Christ is the Judge of what pleases Him, and "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

How beautiful is this open, whole-hearted putting on of Christ, when He is manifestly Lord of the whole man, and the life within us greets the air and sunshine ! " His delight is in the law of the Lord; and"-sure test and sign of it-"in His law doth He meditate day and night. And He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water which bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither,"-over his profession no blight shall come. The true confession of Christ builds up the soul in Him, confirming faith and developing fruit, as the function of the leaf it is to build up the tree, and make even the root itself strike deeper into the ground.

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

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah. (Chap. 5:)

And now, in the right hand of Him that sits upon the throne there is seen a book, or scroll, completely filled* with writing, which is, however, as to decipherment, completely hid from sight. *"According to ancient usage, a parchment-roll was first written on the inside, and if the inside was filled with writing, then the outside was used' or back part of the roll; and if that also was covered with writing, and the whole available space was occupied, the book was called opistho graphos (' written on the back-side,' Lucian Vit. Auct. 9, Plin. Epist. 3:5.)" (Wordsworth, quoted in Schaff’s Lange.)* It is the book of the future, already and completely foreknown and settled in the divine counsels :no room for any thing to be afterward supplied. Thank God, no tittle of history that the future holds will put omniscience to shame, or show the book of God's counsels to have escaped out of the hand of enthroned omnipotence.

Yet if it remain there, who can penetrate it ? The seven seals show it to be absolutely hidden from saint or angel. Let it be proclaimed with a voice mighty enough to reach all the inhabitants of heaven, earth, and the underworld, there is nowhere any answer to the challenge, "Who is worthy to open the book?"

God's counsel simply blessing. It may be indeed through much tribulation-the light checkered with shadows-evening and morning together making up the day. Even so, we name it'' day " from the light, not from the darkness. The conflict of good with evil must end in triumph, not in defeat. And who is worthy to proclaim that triumph ? Only He who can insure it and carry it out; for this only it is, as we shall see, that opens the book. It is no longer, at the time to which this change brings us, a question of making prophetic announcements, but of manifesting God's purposes by decisive acts of power. True, we are enabled, as having the prophecy, in measure to anticipate what is to come. But that, with all its value for us, is not what we see in this picture. It is not the inditing of a book, nor the uttering of a prophecy, that we have before us, but the opening it by fulfillment.* *We may note here, although it is not necessary to this interpretation, that " and to read " in ver. 4 is omitted by the editors.* Here, then, One alone can be found " worthy '' to open it. And though we know well who it is, yet we must note the character in which He is introduced to us.

The prophet weeps because no one is "found worthy to open the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, 'Weep not :behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and the seven seals thereof.'"

This is in complete and striking accord with what we have already seen as to the change of dispensation which the vision shows to be taking place. The time of gathering from heaven being fulfilled, the body of Christ completed, and the saints of the New-Testament period caught up with those of former times to meet the Lord in the air, the fulfillment of Old-Testament prophecy, long suspended, begins again, and in the forefront of the world's history Israel find their place as of old. The " Lion of the tribe of Judah" here announces One who is taking up once more their cause, to crown it with speedy and entire victory. Power is soon to manifest itself in that sudden outburst of irresistible righteous anger of which the second psalm warns the kings of the earth :" Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings! be instructed, ye that are judges of the earth ! Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with reverence. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath shall suddenly kindle."

In this title, "Lion of the tribe of Judah," the whole significance of Jacob's ancient prophecy flashes out. "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise :thy hand shall be upon the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up :he hath stooped, he hath couched as a lion, and as an old lion,- who shall rouse him up?"

From this we must not disjoin what follows:"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and to him shall the gathering of the people be" (Gen. 49:8-10).

Thus it is Christ that Jacob has in spirit before him, when he sees Judah assuming the lion-character. And when in David it actually rose up for a short time in the predicted manner, the brief glory of his kingdom only foretold and heralded the better glory of Christ's enduring one. And in this way the Lion of the tribe of Judah is not only the "Branch of David," springing out of the cut-down tree, but, as here, the Root also of David, from which David himself derives all real significance.

It is plain, then, that now the appeal of the eighty-ninth psalm is to be answered. David's throne is to be lifted up from the dust, and Judah's long-delayed hope is to expand into fruition. Strange is it to think how critics and commentators can, in the Lion of Judah opening the book of God's counsels, see only the general truth of Christ upon the throne of providential government, when it is plain, according to the undoubted reference, that the thought of Judah's Lion is inseparably connected with that of Judah taking the prey, and then couching with a front of power which none will dare to excite:" Judah, thou art a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up :he hath couched as a lion-who shall rouse him up ? "

It is not only ignorance of Scripture, but also of the perfection of Scripture, which operates in these beclouding views of the great prophecy before us, in which every expression, every nicety of utterance, is to be marked and estimated at its worth, because it has worth. If not one jot or one tittle could pass from the law, as the Lord Himself declared, till all were fulfilled, how impossible, then, for prophecy to have an irrelevant jot or tittle which can be safely disregarded ! Go on, with this character that Christ has now assumed present in the mind, and is it strange or doubtful what can be meant by the sealing out of the twelve tribes, in the seventh chapter, with the separate gathering of the Gentile multitude afterward, " come out of (not merely great, but specifically) the great tribulation ? All is clear and consistent in detail when we have correctly the general thought.

It is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, then, who prevails to open the book. The hindrance to the blessing of Israel and the earth is now removed. Christ has overcome. But how then overcome? What could be the impediment to the execution of divine purposes of goodness toward men, and how alone could evil be met, subdued,-nay, made to minister to higher blessing? This is what is now to be declared.

"And I saw standing in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth."

The Lamb is not here represented as upon the throne, but in the midst of a circle formed by the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. Lamb as He is (and the word used emphasizes the connected thought of feebleness in some way), the attribute of perfect power is seen in the seven horns as that of omniscience is seen in the seven eyes, with the still more decisive interpretation, given them. Still the feebleness is again marked, and to the extreme, in the note appended that it was "as though it had been slain." Weakness, then, we are to mark in the One depicted here as well as power, and the evident tokens of past suffering even to death, although alive out of death.

Evidently this is how He has prevailed. He has conquered death through dying, conquered it in its own domain by going into it, giving Himself a sacrifice, a vicarious offering, for the lamb was well known as that. Sin has been thus met by atonement; evil triumphed over by good, the might of pure love acting according to holiness, where power otherwise there was none, or it was against the Sufferer. This was the victory that opened the book.

But we must not read this as if it was meant to assure us that the Christian view of the Lamb has replaced or set aside or come as in a mystery to explain the Jewish conception of the Lion. This is the thought of many, but it is entirely wrong and hopelessly confusing. The Lion and the Lamb are but one blessed Person; and, moreover. One who remains, through whatever changes of position, wholly unchanging Himself,-" Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). This is true, and necessarily true, and it is our joy and consolation for all time; but it does not turn condemnation into salvation, or make the judgment of wrath a piping instead of mourning.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah is not a mere Jewish notion, but a true and scriptural conception. It is Jewish indeed-not Christian; and for that very reason cannot be the equivalent of the " Lamb as it had been slain." And yet it is in His victory over death that He acquires the power which as the Lion of Judah He displays. This is how the two views, in themselves so manifestly different, find their relation to one another.

Yet it is the Lamb that takes the book, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah who does so. As the first, He is the Interpreter of the counsels of redeeming love, as they embrace the whole circle of its objects. As the second, He takes up Israel specifically to deliver them from surrounding enemies and establish them in peace under the shield of His omnipotence. His title here has plainly to do with power displayed against the foes of His people. And this is what plainly gives the necessary stand-point from which we can see aright the meaning of the chapters which follow for the larger part of the remainder of the book.

Yet it is no wonder that up in heaven among the redeemed, it is as the Lamb slain that the myriad voices celebrate Him, and the Lion of Judah seems to be forgotten. This is not really so; nor does it show that the one title is not to be distinguished from the other. When He acts according to the latter, we shall find how intense are the sympathies of this heavenly throng. To no act of His can there be indifference. But the praise and homage of heaven are to the Lamb slain. Redemption is what declares Him to the heart, and that a redemption by purchase, though redemption by power be its necessary complement. The Lamb slain gives the one side; the Lion of the tribe of Judah speaks of the other.

When the Lamb takes the book, the redemption-song is heard in heaven. "And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sing a new song, saying, 'Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and madest them unto our God a kingdom and priests, and they shall reign over the earth."

In this " new song," the living creatures and the elders are united. The angels we find in the verses succeeding these, worshiping in a circle outside and in other terms. This surely is another sign of what is taking place, and where the vision brings us. The symbols of administrative government, which the living creatures present to us, are now connected with redeemed men, and no longer with angels. " Unto angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, ' What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor; Thou didst set him over the works of Thy hands'" (Heb. 2:5-8).

This is, of course, spoken of the Lord Jesus, but in Him man, according to the will of God, comes to the place of authority in the world to come, in which, in the book of Daniel, we find the angels. It is when the Son of Man takes His own throne that the saints reign with Him. Thus, in this song of redemption we have now "they shall reign over the earth." It is plain, then, that the vision here brings us to the eve of the millennial day.

Not only are the heavenly saints seen as about to enter on their reign over the earth; they are already in their character as priests, " having golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." It is not said that they are offering them :they are, in fact, at that moment in another attitude; and this seems pointed out as to them, as if to be another of the marks of the period which is now beginning. Observe, they are never looked at as themselves interceding. They are charged with the prayers of others, but add nothing to them. There are no supererogatory merits that they have acquired, to give efficacy to what they present; and the prayers themselves are the incense, not incense is added to them. Romanism finds here no atom of justification, such as some have alleged; but the statement of the text is plain, and we must abide by it. The risen saints are priests and kings to God. In the former capacity, they have the incense-prayers in their hand; in the latter, they are presently to reign over the earth, so that the cherubic living creatures and the elders are now seen together.

Thus the period of the vision is made as plain as possible, and the song of the redeemed is thus a "new " song, not because redemption itself was yet a new thing, but because it was now, as far as heaven itself was concerned, accomplished. Resurrection, the redemption of the body, was now accomplished, and the Lamb about to commence what He alone could undertake-the redemption by power of the earth also. At this point, the song of praise celebrates the completion of all as to the singers save the reign over the earth involved in what He is now taking in hand to do. Thus the song is new.
But is it their own redemption they are celebrating? The text as it used to be read made no doubt of this; but it is abandoned by the general consent of the editors, who accept substantially what the R. V. gives, except that, as to the last clause, there is still dispute whether it should be "they reign " or "they shall reign." I prefer the latter, as most according to the fact, authorities being divided. The result as to the whole is that the elders do not say, "Thou hast redeemed us, and we shall reign," but " Thou hast redeemed a people, and they shall reign." Instead of being specific, it is general, as to who the people are, although the last clause limits it to the heavenly family of the redeemed. The millennial saints do not reign over the earth. They inherit it in peace and blessing, but it is they who suffer with Christ who shall reign with Him (2 Tim. 2:12).

The change puts emphasis upon the redemption, rather than upon the persons who are partakers of it; and this commends itself to spiritual apprehension. The Lamb and His wondrous work fill the souls of His own with rapture as they fall before His feet:"thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God." But there seems to me no ground for what some allege from this change of text, that the heavenly saints here are celebrating the redemption of others and not their own ! Why should this be ? The language does not necessitate it; for if we say, " Thou hast redeemed a people," even though we are speaking of ourselves, it is quite in order to say, keeping up the third person all through, "and they shall reign." I agree with those who hold the view with which I cannot agree, that there is a company of martyrs after this who are, as such, to be joined to this heavenly company, and who are seen in this way as added to them in chap. 20:4-6. But to think that in the vision before us the saints are praising Christ solely for the redemption of another class than themselves, is, I venture to say, extreme and incongruous. Surely we should not think, in praising Christ for redemption, of wholly omitting the thought that we ourselves are among the subjects of it! Every consideration here, moreover, would forbid the supposition.

Outside the circle of the redeemed, the angels have now their place and their praise. It has been often and justly remarked that they do not "sing." Their peaceful lives, not subject to vicissitude, nor touched by sin, furnish no various tones for melody. The harps which we have above are tuned down here, where the Davids, signalized by their afflictions, are the sweet singers of Israel. Wondrous and eternal fruit of earth's sorrow, though by divine grace only, the redeemed among men will be the choir of heaven ! Blessed be God !

"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying as with a great voice, ' Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.'"

Redemption has thus added to the angels' praise. It is not to the Creator only. And in this new praise, a new element of blessing, a new apprehension of God, has entered into their hearts. They are nearer, though in this outside circle, than they ever were before. In truth, though in some sense outside, our earthly idea of distance fails to convey the thought. Larger and smaller measures of apprehension there may be and will be, but true distance of the creature from the Creator is in heaven the one impossibility, where of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ every family is named. "Whither shall I go from Thy presence? "is never whispered; and the whisper of it, even in heaven, would make it hell.

And now, in a wider sweep again,-

" Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, even all that are in them, heard I saying, ' Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped."

This is the voice of the lower creation in echo to the praise of heaven. It is such a response as many of the psalms call for in view of the coming of the Lord; and is another mark of the time of the vision. The earth under the desolation of the fall has for the time lost its place, as it might seem, and wandered as a planet from its orbit into the starless silence around. Christ, as her central Sun, has come back to her after the long polar darkness, and her voices wake up as the spring returns. Blessed it is to realize (so simple and natural as it is) the response to this response on the part of the human elders, as this sound is heard. The governmental powers of earth-the living creatures-utter their glad "Amen" to it. Earth is to repay the long labor and service of rule at last. And the elders, with their own memories of sin and darkness (now forever but memories, though undying), hear it in a thrill of sympathetic joy that (as all the joy of heaven) melts into adoration :"The elders fell down and worshiped."

(To be continued.)

7. TARES AMONG THE WHEAT. (Matthew 13:)

Thus it is plain that the kingdom in its present form is not to be a universal one. From that which the prophets of the Old Testament picture, it is widely distinguished. Left to man's reception of it, and not set up by the right hand of power, it is received by some, rejected by many ; and even where outwardly received, in many cases no real fruit Godward is the result. There are thus "children of the kingdom" who in the end, like those among Israel, are cast out of it; and that where there is no fault with the seed or with the sowing of it, but the fault is entirely in the nature of the soil in which the seed is sown.

But that is not the whole picture by any means. We are now to see not merely the ill-success of the good seed, but the result of the introduction of seed of another character, and sown by another hand,-the positive sowing of the enemy himself, and not simply his opposition to that sown by another. "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way " (10:24, 25). Thus, in the very midst of that which the first parable has shown us springing up-good wheat, although there may be many barren and blighted ears-the enemy sows, not wheat at all, but tares. In this case, it is not the Word of Christ that is sown, clearly, but Satan's corruption of it. The springing up of the good seed could not produce tares, nor the father of lies preach truth. Hence, the test of a man's speaking by a good or evil spirit could be, " Every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come in the flesh * is not of God; and this is that spirit of antichrist," etc. (i Jno. 4:2, 3.) *This is more literal as a translation than " that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," of the common version.* The enemy of Christ ("His enemy," 5:25), even "as an angel of light," will not hold up Christ, for he knows too well what Christ is for souls. On the other hand, when Christ was preached, even of envy and strife, the apostle could rejoice for the same reason. (Phil 1:) But here, not the " corn of wheat," (Jno. 12:24) which would bring forth wheat if it sprang up at all, but "tares" are sown; and "tares" and nothing else spring up. The word " sown," in imitation yet in real opposition to the truth, produces under a Christian name and dress a host of real enemies to the truth and to Christ, " children of the wicked one" (5:38), not mere children of nature, however fallen, but the devil's own,-begotten by his word, as God's children by His.

And here, alas, we read of no hindrances, no opposition of hard-trodden ground, or underlying rock,-no catching away by the birds of the air,- no choking by thorns. All circumstances favor this seed and its growth. It needs no nursing; will thrive amid " cares of this world," and grow up in companionship with the " deceitfulness of riches." It is at home every where, and the soil every-where congenial, for its "wisdom" is not "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God:" it " descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish" (Jas. 3:15).

So it prospers. And even the children of God,- nay, " the servants " (5:27), are slow to discern the true nature of what is being sown, and growing up amongst them. Sad and solemn it is to see how lightly we think of error; for it is but another way of saying how lightly we value truth. Yet by the word of truth are we begotten, and by the truth are we sanctified (Jas. 1:18; Jno. 17:17). It is this by which we alone know either ourselves or God. It is of the perversion of this that the apostle said, " Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8); words that he emphatically repeats, that we may be assured that it was no hastiness of ill-tempered zeal that moved him, but the true inspiration of the Spirit of Christ.

The seed springs up, then, and there are now tares among the wheat. How soon that began in the professing church! Judaism, legalism, ceremonialism, and even the denial of the resurrection itself, the key-stone of Christian doctrine, you may find again and again among the churches of the apostolic days; and in the sure Word of God what solemn warnings as to the future,-a future long since present. "Even now are there many antichrists," wrote the last of the apostles, "whereby we know it is the last time."

But for the sowing of these tares, those are responsible to whom the field has been intrusted. " While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." There was the failure. In the case given in the first parable, they had not power to prevent the ill-success of the Word of truth in men's hearts, or the hollowness of an external profession of the truth, which yet had no proper root in the man who made it. All who "gladly received the Word upon the day of Pentecost" were baptized "the same day." There was no waiting to see if, when tribulation came, they would endure, and yet that was the real test for the stony-ground hearer. Such would "immediately with joy" receive the Word, and so baptism, and be added to the disciples. It was not failure on the part of the baptizers, if such there were, for the heart they could not read. There each man stood on his own responsibility to God.

But it was a different thing when that which was not the Word, but Satan's corruption of it, began to be sown, and that in the very midst of disciples. And, once again I say, how soon that took place! and how soon it became needful to write even to the little babes about Antichrist; and to exhort men " earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints;" and that, because of " certain men, crept in unawares,-ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 3, 4). Thus were the tares already manifested. " The children of the wicked one " were there. Christ was denied in His own kingdom. The question of His actual sovereignty was raised, and He must come in sovereignty and in judgment to decide that question. The servants are not competent to decide it. " The servants said unto him,' Wilt thou, then, that we go and gather them up?'"-these tares. "But he said, 'Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.'"

A solemn lesson, from which we may, if we will, learn much; while it does not teach what so many seem disposed to learn from it. For plainly, communion at the Lord's table is not at all the question here, and it is nothing less than willful blindness to persist in this application of it in the face of the manifold scriptures which contradict it. What meaning could " Put out from among yourselves that wicked person," addressed to the church at Corinth, have for those who here learn from the lips of the Lord Himself, as they say, that tares and wheat are to grow up together in the church, and that it is vain and wrong to attempt any such separation ? And what mean even their own feeble efforts to put out some notorious offenders, if this be so? If this be to gather up tares, why attempt it in the case of even the worst, when the principle they maintain is not to do it at all ?

On the other hand, this passage does teach us that it is one thing to know and own the evil that has come in, and quite another to have power or authority to set things right again. Men slept, and the tares were sown. No after-vigilance or earnestness could repair the mischief. The gathering up must be left for angels' hands in the day of harvest. " Let both grow together until the harvest ; and in the time of harvest I will say unto the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."

Jude's remedy for the state of things is just the same. Of the ungodly men of whom he speaks as having crept in among the disciples, he says, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, ' Behold, the lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.' " Thus alone in the wheat-field of Christendom is the separation of the evil from the good effected. It is quite another thing to purge ourselves, according to the apostle's word to Timothy (2 Tim. ii,), from the vessels to dishonor in the house; and this we are bound to do. The purging of the house itself the Lord alone will and can do.

Meanwhile, tares and wheat do grow together. The dishonor done to Christ in Christendom no means of ours can ever efface or rectify. No, not even the most zealous preaching of the gospel, however blessed the result of that, will ever turn the tares of Unitarianism, Universalism, annihila-tionism, popery, and what not, into good wheat for God's granary. Nor can we escape their being numbered with us as Christians in the common profession of the day. If we meet them at the Lord's table, as if it were no matter, or we could not help it, we should proclaim ourselves "one bread, one body" with them (i Cor. 10:17); for " we, being many, are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." But while refusing to link ourselves with them to the dishonor of our Lord and Master, we cannot put ourselves outside the common profession of Christianity to avoid companionship with them there. Nor if we had power, have we skill to separate infallibly the Lord's people, many of them mixed up with most of the various forms of error. " The Lord knoweth them that are His" is alone our comfort. He will make no mistake. And " Behold, the Lord cometh," is the only available remedy which faith looks for, for the state of things at large.

The separation, which men's hands are thus declared incompetent for, remains for angels' hands in the day of the harvest of Christendom. They are the reapers then. The field is to be cleared of wheat and tares alike; and at one moment it is bidden both to gather the tares in bundles to be burnt, and to gather the wheat into the barn. Thus solemnly the day of Christian profession ends. But let us look a little more closely at the order and manner of it, which is of the greatest importance in order to understand it rightly.

" Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them." There is no actual burning yet, and there is no removal from the field. It is a separation of the tares in the field, so as to leave the wheat distinct and ready for the ingathering. In what manner, we must refrain from conjecturing; whether it will be gradually or suddenly effected, we do not know. The separation will be, however, made, and the true people of the Lord will stand in their own distinct company at last when that day is come. There will follow then, not the removal of the tares, but of the wheat. The tares are left in bundles on the field; the wheat are gathered into the barn.

We know what that is very well; and how many joyful hopes are crowded into that brief sentence. The scene is pictured for us in I Thess. 4:The descent of the Lord into the air; the shout; the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God; the resurrection of the dead in Christ, the myriads fallen asleep in Him through the ages of the past; the change of the living saints throughout the earth; the rise of that glorious company; the meeting and the welcome; the henceforth "ever with the Lord,"-all these are the various parts and features of that which these words figure to us:"Gather the wheat into My barn." Suddenly, we know, this will be. " In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," this change will be effected ; every living saint will be gathered out of the length and breadth of Christendom,* and it will be left but a tare-field simply, with its tares gathered and bound in bundles, ready for the burning. *There is a notion current among many who believe in the Lord’s coming, that only those who are in a certain state of preparation among the saints then living will be caught up then, and the rest will be left on earth to be purified by the tribulation that follows. I cannot do more than allude to this just now:but it is completely contradicted in the words of the parable before us.*

And where are the barren and blighted ears of false profession ? Where is he of the stony ground ? where the man in whom the good seed of the Word was choked with the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and brought no fruit to perfection? We have seen that the "tares" are not simply such, but the fruit of Satan's perversion of the Word. They are not those of whom the apostle speaks as " having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof;" but rather they are those, whether teachers or taught, to whom apply the words of another apostle, concerning "false teachers, who shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them," and whose "pernicious ways" many shall follow, "by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." (2 Pet. 2:) These are the tares of the devil's sowing, and it is important to distinguish them from the mere formalist and unfruitful professor of the truth. It is on account of these, as both Peter and Jude tell us, that the swift and terrible judgment which ends the whole comes. " Enoch," the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, ' Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all.'"

And yet the formalist, the man of mere profession, will not escape. In the judgment of the dead before the great white throne they will receive according to their deeds as surely as any, but that is long after the scene before us in this parable. Here is a simple question of good wheat for the granary or of tares for the burning. Nothing else is in the field at all. There is no middle class, no unfruitful orthodox profession; all seem to have taken sides, before the solemn close of the time of harvest, either manifestly for Christ, or as manifestly against Him. Is this indeed so? and have we warrant for such an interpretation of the language of the parable?

The answer to this is a very solemn one; and we shall find it in the second epistle to the Thessalonians. In the first epistle, the apostle had spoken of " the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him." He had assured them that even the sleeping saints would be brought with Christ when He should come again (i Thess. 4:14); and that in order to accompany Him so on His return to earth, they would be raised from the dead, and together with all the living ones of that day, be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Thus, when He "appeared" to judge the world, they would appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). He could therefore in His second epistle beseech the Thessalonian Christians, by their knowledge of this coming, and this "gathering," not to be shaken in mind, or troubled, as supposing or being persuaded that the day of the Lord had already come. * * Chap. 2:2:The word rendered "is at hand" in the common version, is the one rendered "present," in opposition to "to come, in Rom. 8:38 and 1 Cor. 3:22; and so Alford renders it here. It is the only proper rendering. The generality of editors also read "the day of the Lord instead of "the day of Christ."* That day (as all the prophets witness) is the day of the Lord's taking the earth from under man's hand and into His own, the time in which His judgments are upon the earth, and the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. That day, he assures them, shall not come unless there come a falling away (an apostasy) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped.

Now, my object is not any special application or interpretation of this. So much is manifest, that this " man of sin," whoever he may be, is one who heads up an, or rather "the," apostasy of the latter days. The evil, the mystery of iniquity, was already at work even in the apostles' days (5:7). There was, however for the present, a restraint upon it. When that should be removed, the wicked one would be revealed, who was to be destroyed alone, mark, by the Lord's coming (5:8).

Thus we are evidently in view of the same period as that contemplated in the parable before us, as well as of the judgment which Jude warns of. The passage in the Thessalonians exhibits, however, the " man of sin " as the distinct head and leader of the latter-day apostasy, and, moreover, declares to us how far this apostasy shall extend. The coming of the " wicked one" is declared to be with a terrible power of delusion which will carry away captive the masses of the unconverted among professing Christians until none of that middle or neutral class remain. " Whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they may believe a lie, that THEY ALL might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (10:9-12).

Thus terribly shall close the history of Christendom. The true saints once taken out of it, the door of grace will be closed forever upon those who have rejected grace. They will be given over to – become, as they speedily will become, from being unbelievers of the truth, believers of a lie. The wheat being gathered out of the field, tares alone will be found in it.

The actual burning of the tares is not found in the parable itself, but in the interpretation of it which the Lord afterward gives to His disciples. "As, therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this age. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire:there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (10:40-43).

This is when the Lord comes as Son of Man to take that throne which He has promised to share with His people. Then, when the time of "patience" is over, and the rod of iron shall break in pieces all resistance to the King of kings. Then "judgment"-long separated from it-"shall return unto righteousness," and the earth shall be freed from the yoke of oppression and the bondage of corruption. It is the time of which the thirty-seventh psalm speaks, when evil-doers shall be cut of:but those who wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth" (5:9); when "yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be,-yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be; but the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace" (10:10, 11).
Some time before will the gathering for heaven have taken place, and the saints have met their Lord, as we have seen. Now, in this day of the judgment which prepares the way for the blessing of the earth, they are seen in their heavenly place. " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun." Blessed words! which speak of their association with their Lord in other ways than simply as sharers of His rule with the "rod of iron." For " unto you that fear My name," says the Word by Malachi to Israel, " shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings." Who bears that name, we know; and how it speaks of earth's night-time passed away. But " when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." So, as the Sun, shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of their Father. With Christ, like Him, they shine; themselves subject in one sphere, if rulers in another; but subject with all the heart's deep devotion, where service is fullest liberty, serving as sons Him whom they call, at the same time, God and Father.

Q. 13.-Does Matt. 13:19, as to the way-side hearer, indicate that all who have heard the word are in the kingdom? Does the message from the King make all to whom it comes subjects, even though rebellious, so that the rejecter of Christianity, the infidel, is in the kingdom of heaven? If not, are there these three spheres of responsibility:that of the kingdom, that of the rejecter of the truth in Christianity, and that of the heathen? Does it not rob the King of His majesty if one may reject His message and yet have no kingdom-responsibility-that is, not be in the kingdom? Such an one would be unbaptized, it is true, but because rebellious.

Ans.-The word is the "word of the kingdom" (5:19), and therefore, I apprehend, the word must be in some sense received, in order to being in the kingdom. The unbaptized opposer of Christianity is an enemy simply, not a subject. He is responsible fully for his opposition, and in this way the authority of the King is fully maintained. It is on account of this case of the way-side hearer, as I take it, that the first parable does not begin as the rest do-with "the kingdom of heaven is like," and we only learn, in result, that it is of the mysteries of the kingdom He is speaking.

I should not say there are three spheres of responsibility. In the kingdom, the responsibility is the same for all. The knowledge of grace alone enables one for its fulfillment.

Q. 14.-If asked for scripture for connecting baptism with the kingdom as the formal entrance, is it not that when the kingdom was announced as at hand baptism began? If it is not connected with the Church, can it be with the house of God? When the Church, the house of God, is taken from the earth, the kingdom will continue, and baptism also:does not this show that it is entirely with the kingdom baptism is connected, and not with the house of God, which is the Church (1 Tim. 3:15)?

Ans.-The baptism into the Church is by the Spirit, not water (1 Cor. 12:13), and in God's thought, as we have seen elsewhere, the body and house are co-extensive. It is true that the house of God is become as a "great house," but this is through man's failure. Neither "living stones" nor "members of Christ" can be made by baptism, nor has man ever received authority to introduce into the number of these.

It is true that man builds (1 Cor. 3:), and that thus it is that the professing church has become enlarged so much beyond the true Church; but building is by the Word, through winch the Spirit of God acts, and the living stones are produced and put in place. Baptism neither produces them nor puts them in place. As to the first, there can be no right question; as to the second, whatever may be asked can be speedily answered; for we have seen that baptism is burial-deals with men not as members of Christ, nor even children of God, but as sinners under death, to whom is announced indeed the forgiveness of sins, and whom as a " figure " it " saves " (1 Pet. 3:21). This is abundant proof, for those who will consider it, that it has nothing to do with the Church as such, which does not begin until men are saved, and by a further act of divine grace-the baptism of the Spirit. Water-baptism does not, then, bring into the Church, whether (as men say) visible or invisible:that there is an invisible one is again due only to man's sin.

As to baptism going on after the Church is removed, I suppose it will, but it is hardly certain enough to me to be pressed as an argument. That it accompanied the first announcement of the kingdom is plain in the case of the Baptist, but this was not Christian baptism, nor could it be into the kingdom, which did not begin till Pentecost, or at least till Christ was glorified and enthroned.

Briefly, the arguments for the connection of baptism with the kingdom I would give as follows:-

1. That the kingdom is the sphere of discipleship, discipling is into it,-" Every scribe discipled unto the kingdom of heaven" is the expression in Matt. 13:52; "made a disciple to," says the R.V.

2. That introduction to it, or discipling, is twofold:there are "keys." And one of these is plainly the "key of knowledge" (Luke 11:52; Matt. 23:13).

3. That the two keys, or methods of discipling, are given, in Matt. 28:, by Him who, with all authority in heaven and earth, sends out His servants to "disciple all nations, baptizing them and teaching them."

4. That baptism is therefore "to the name of the Lord Jesus " (Acts 8:16; 2:36-38; 10:48), as owning His authority in the kingdom. "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord " (22:16).

5. That it belongs, therefore, to the commission of the twelve, who are connected with the kingdom (Matt. 19:28), and not to Paul's, the minister of the Church (Col. 1:24, 25; Eph. 3:2-7) ; who, although he did baptize, was "not sent to baptize" (1 Cor. 1:17).

Other arguments might be given, but these are the plainest, and (I believe) decisive.

Q. 15.-Pages 26, 27, of this volume, we read, "This very chapter" (Col. 2:) "speaks of our not being subject to ordinances." Are we to suppose that baptism is among the ordinances Which we are exhorted by Paul not to be subject to? That is the apparent teaching.

Ans.-I do not put baptism among these " ordinances; " but if we attached to it the virtue of which I have been speaking there, it Would be one of the most stringent kind. The ordinances of the law itself never made spiritual blessing so dependent upon a material opus operatum-a "work done"-as this would imply. Sacramentalists, in fact, out-judaize Judaism.

Q. 16.-Page 28, we have," Baptism actually introduces into the body." Also it is said to be the authoritative key of admission. If so, evidently salvation must come through baptism, which does away with personal faith for souls' receiving Christ. Or do yon make salvation come only to infants through it, as "the child and the adult are held to be on different footings? "

Ans.-Our correspondent has made a very strange mistake. The passage first quoted says, "into the body of disciples upon earth." This has been confounded with the body of Christ,- the Church! a very different thing surely. Baptism does not in any sense admit into the Church, nor does it "save," except as a figure. It is admission into the Lord's school on earth-that is, to the body of disciples,-scholars.

Q. 17.-How does the Word of God divide between soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12) ? and in what consists the necessity for its doing so? If "between joints and marrow" is figurative, are "soul and spirit" likewise so? and is "discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart" making them manifest to ourselves?

Ans.-If the spirit be synonymous with mind and conscience- the mental and moral judgment-and the soul with the affections and emotions, then there is plain need for " dividing"-or distinguishing-between them. How often do we need to distinguish between conscience and sentiment, intelligence and feeling? And the Word dividing between these implies, of course, that it is forming the mind and enlightening the conscience. Thus the division would practically be between what is natural and what is spiritual.

"Between joints and marrow" is clearly figurative, and the "marrow" of a thing is used in Greek for the " inmost part." The difference between what is external and what is internal seems here the point. I do not think that this figurative expression involves the one before it being figurative ; nor do I see how soul and spirit could be used in this way, in connection with one another.

"A discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" is what first of all the Word is, but of course it is for us that it detects and pronounces on them.

Q. 18.-Scripture clearly teaches that people may evangelize without being evangelists, just as they may teach, and teach well, without being teachers. Whatever we have, we are not only permitted but responsible to use-in what way exactly we most learn from God, and as subject to the Lord only in it, though if the assembly's room is used, they of course must be consulted. What edifies and has the divine blessing in it is what love seeks, and wisdom will not in general be lacking where real love to souls is the motive power.

An "open meeting"-such as 1 Cor. 14:speaks of-is not suitable for the gospel. It is an assembly-meeting only, as the chapter in question shows, and in character quite different from those for the gospel, where all the world is invited in. These are the definite responsibility of those who feel they have a message to give, and undertake to give it. In this, two or three may unite together, but we do not invite people to come and see if the Lord will give somebody a word for them, but to hear what we are pledged to give them. The assembly does not preach:individuals do.

As to the question about the hymns in assembly-meetings, I do not think that the raising of tunes would come under the prohibition of 1 Cor. 14:34. The general rule, as indicated by the question, "Is it seemly?" must decide (chap. 11:13). "Let all things be done decently and in order."

Q. 19.-Would unleavened bread at the Lord's table misrepresent His body given for us? Can there be any modification from the teaching of the Word itself of the statement that "He bore our sins in His own body"?

Ans.-At the first institution of the Lord's supper unleavened bread must have been used, as no other could be in the house at the time of the passover. The use of it still would therefore be quite suitable, and in its meaning preferable to what is ordinarily used. There is no direction as to it in the Word, and we have no right to enforce any tiling, therefore; but if all were agreed, the unleavened bread might suitably remind us of Him who knew no sin, and of how we too should keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The second question I may not rightly understand; but the bearing of our sins by the Lord in His body on the tree simply means that the sufferings of the cross were due to our sins being borne by Him there. "In His body" means that He suffered in His body, a living Man, yet on to death, in which this suffering for us terminated. The sins being borne means that their due was borne-their weight. It is a form of what grammarians call metonymy, in which one word is put for another closely related to it, as, for example, in this case, the cause for the effect.

Q. 20.-What is the scriptural meaning of the term "repentance"?

Ans.-The word metanoia means "an after-thought; " and, as used in Scripture, speaks of a changed way of thinking, implying a judgment of the past. It is the self-judgment of a renewed soul accepting the divine judgment of his sins and of himself. It is not, as some have put it, a change of mind about God, though Godward-having reference to Him,-" Now mine eye seeth thee; therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Q. 21.-Can an assembly as such, if in arrears for rent, etc., scripturally minister to a brother in need?

Ans.-Certainly not, unless it were a need so urgent as to justify the diversion of funds to this purpose, and then with the purpose of replacing them as soon as possible. But this is not, I suppose, the case referred to, and, unless in cases of very exceptional circumstances, such a state in an assembly implies a spiritual condition as low as the funds. If "owe no man any thing" is the rule for the individual, how much more should it be for an assembly, where poverty to this extent can be hardly ever pleaded, and where the honor of the Lord is much more compromised! Many words cannot be needed surely about such a matter.

[ While, confined in Bedford jail (12 years) visited by his wife and blind child.]

After a few tender inquiries in reference to the blind child, Bunyan briefly recounted the incidents of his arrest, then ended as follows :-

"On the morning after, we sent to Justice Compton of Elstow, but he refused to release me, though I had broken no law whatsoever; still I am content that, if my lying here will serve the cause of God, I will lie here till my flesh drops from my bones. Let it be as God will.

"True, beloved, but we will do our utmost; the house is so dull without thee. Thy little Mary sits pining for thy voice, and the other two are often crying for father. It goes to my heart to see them craving for thee. And some that I thought better off will not pay what they owe thee. William Swinton, the sexton of St. Cuthbert, owes thee a matter of five pounds, ye know; now he says not a penny will he pay thee. Yet I am proud of thee. Yield not, John, for we will beg from door to door before thou shalt yield for our sakes, to do what ye feel to be wrong in the sight of God. I pray much that we may see thee again by our fireside, and I look through the stone lattice often, longing to see thy brave face through the pane; but I pray more that thou mightest stand fast, like David against the giant, that thou shalt one day too conquer. Think not of us, but be firm."

"Ay, that I will," said Bunyan, who had nestled the blind girl in his arms; "but what will my Mary do if her father has to die for the truth?"

"Do, father? why, love thee all the more, and pray for them that shall kill thee, and come as quickly as I may to be with thee. Oh, father ! I shall look upon thy dear face in heaven. How I strive to picture thee ! but I should like to see thee as thou really art. When I feel thy warm breath upon my cheek, and rest in thy arms, I feel I fear naught and want naught. But oh, father! my mother taught me that thou art Christ's servant, and I am proud that thou art called to suffer, while the great ones deny the Lord."

" My little maiden, then, loves my Lord ?" asked Bunyan, bending with tearful eyes over the clear, white face radiant with love the eyes could not speak.

"Ay, father! I have loved Him a little for a long time, but I have loved Him, I cannot tell how much, since these dark days began. When mother and I sat trembling, and wondering how thou wert faring when from home in the time of trouble, how I prayed for thee, and I felt thy God was my God, and I would serve Him too."

" But 'tis not enough, darling, to 'say that ye love Christ. What about thy sins ?"

" Oh, father, I have confessed them all, and repented of them, and I do accept Jesus as my Saviour. I feel more certain every day that He has forgiven my sins. Is it not sweet to feel this-we are tied together by a bond that nothing can ever break?"

"Ay, it is, dear one; and in thy love and the love of thy mother, I feel brave and strong. Ye help me not a little to stand without blenching in the time of trial."

(2 Cor. 4:17.)

Oh, these glorious moments !-
With the Father's love
Beaming down upon us
From out the heaven above.

Oh, these glorious moments !-
Jesus, Lord, with Thee
Yoked, for the deeper lessons
Of holy liberty.

Oh, these glorious moments !-
With the Holy Ghost
Taking the things of Jesus,
Teaching us how to boast.

Oh, these glorious moments !-
Sinners being gathered in,
Angels in heaven rejoicing
In the triumphs over sin.

Oh, these glorious moments !-
Waiting, our Lord, for Thee;
Catching the shining of Thy face,
Joy of eternity.

J.F.G.

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

The Living Ones (chap. 4:5-11).

As I have said, the character of the throne as a throne of judgment is not seen until the saints are seen upon their thrones around it. In fact, we may say, it does not assume this character until they are there. For the "lightnings and voices and thunders" which now proceed from it are plainly not the announcement of any special judgment, but of the throne as a judgment-throne. This entirely accords with the fact that the dispensation of grace is at an end, the Christian Church complete, and with the saints of past ages glorified.

On the other hand, when the kingdoms of the earth shall have become the kingdom of Christ, the throne will not be characterized as here it is. Righteousness will reign, but the fruit of it will be peace, and the effect, quietness and assurance forever (Isa. 32:17).

Thus we have in the lightnings and thunders proceeding from the throne neither the attributes of the day of grace nor those of the kingdom of glory, but rather of that interval of time which we have been already considering, in which, God's judgments being upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isa. 26:9). The bow of promise encircling the throne tells of the storm when it shall have passed -the effect designed from the beginning.

And before the throne, the seven lamps of fire bear witness of its action as suited to the character of Him who sits upon it. They are the sevenfold energy of the Spirit of God, who ever works out the divine purpose in the creature, whether it be in creation as at the beginning-when He brooded over the waters, or in sanctification-when we are new born of the Spirit, or in resurrection-when the work of grace ends in glory. And these seven spirits rest upon the Branch of Jesse when the government of the earth is put into His hand; "the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon Him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah; and He shall be of quick understanding in the fear of Jehovah :and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked one" (Isa. 11:2-4). Here is the same perfect character of government. In both we see "man's day" ended and the "day of the Lord" commencing its course, Nor shall its sun ever go down.

Before the throne, also, is "a sea of glass like unto crystal" Before the typical "heavenly places" among the shadows of the law, there stood in Solomon's clay a " sea" of water, at which the priests washed their hands and feet before they went in to minister in the sanctuary. But the priests are now gone in; the defilements of earth are over, and there is no longer need of cleansing. The sea is therefore here a sea of glass. Abiding purity has succeeded to constant purification. No wind can henceforth even ruffle it. The lightnings and thunder cannot disturb its rest,-to it are as if they were not. Thus the elders rest upon their thrones in peace.

Below, we shall find the meaning of the judgment-character assumed by the throne. The conflict between good and evil is nearing its crisis; the power of evil is rearing itself in gigantic forms; open blasphemous defiance of God is succeeding to secret impiety; men are loudly saying, " Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us," and it is time for God to put to His hand, and to meet His adversaries face to face. As, therefore, the cherubim and the flaming sword united to bar fallen man from paradise,-as, when Israel had reached the limit of divine forbearance, Ezekiel saw the infolding fire and the cherubic forms of judgment,-so now once more, but without the wheels within wheels of providential use of earthly instruments (God not to speak by a Nebuchadnezzar, but in plain wrath from heaven), the cherubim are seen.

"And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second living creature like a calf, and the third living creature had the face as of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, having each of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within; and they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

The living creatures are in the midst of the throne, yet round about it,-identified with it, yet distinct. To picture this, as some have tried to do, may be difficult, and yet the idea involved in it is not difficult at all. The government of God is carried on, as Scripture represents it to us, largely at least, through created instruments. The Old Testament shows us thus angelic ministries in sway over the earth; the New Testament speaks of " thrones and dominions and principalities and powers" (Col. 1:16). They are thus creaturely, yet identified with the divine. Thus were the judges in Israel called " gods," and our Lord says, " He called them 'gods' unto whom the word of God came " (Jno. 10:35). Here we have the idea which the words as to the living creatures " in the midst of the throne and round about the throne "seem intended to convey.

The "living creatures" certainly show that they are "creatures;" although no stress can be laid upon this word as used by the R. V. here, in place of the objectionable one, "beasts," in the older translation. The Greek word is, " living ones," though generally used as the equivalent of our word, from the Latin, "animal," which literally means the same thing. But the forms are those of the heads of the animal creation,-the lion, of wild beasts; the calf or ox, of cattle; the eagle, of birds; and man, of all. Such symbols could not be-. were forbidden to be-used of God Himself. Their six wings are intended, surely, to lead us back to Isaiah's vision of the seraphim, who cry, "Holy, holy, holy," also, just as these; and here "with twain they covered their face, and with twain they covered their feet," the suited reverence of creatures in the presence of God. They are not, then, direct symbols of God Himself.

That they are the angels as a class is more like the truth, as is plain from what we have already seen; yet in the fifth chapter they are broadly distinguished from the angels, who are seen in a separate company round the throne; while, if the elders represent the redeemed, they are in our present one distinguished from these also. That they are a distinct class among the angels has in itself no scriptural probability, though it is the favorite traditional view. That they are symbols can scarcely be doubted; hardly of a race of beings of whom elsewhere we have no trace. Lastly, that they symbolize the Church, as distinct from other bodies of redeemed, is negatived by all the Old-Testament passages.
The view which alone harmonizes all that is conflicting in these is, that they are symbols of that government of God over the earth which may be exercised by angels, will be over the millennial earth by the redeemed associated with Christ Himself. The transition we shall find, in fact, in these very chapters of Revelation; while cherubim were, as we know, upon the tabernacle-vail, which the apostle declares to be the " flesh," or human nature, of Christ (Ex. 26:31; Heb. 10:20).

Hence also-as having reference to the government of the earth-the living creatures are four in number, 4 being significant of earthly completeness, as in the "four corners of the earth." Their six wings speak of restless activity,-perhaps of restraint upon evil, for 6 speaks of this limit imposed by God. The eyes within and around show regard to God-for "within" is toward Him that sits upon the throne-and perfect, not partial, knowledge of things on every side. For the simple complete obedience of the creature would keep it free from displaying the short-sightedness of the creature.

Now, if we look at the appearance of the living creatures themselves, we shall find that each one furnishes us with some view of the divine government which supplements and balances the rest, and that the order also is significant, as in Scripture every thing is. What the Lord teaches us as to every jot and tittle of the law is true no less of the whole inspired Word.

How significant that the first form is that of a lion, the symbol of royal and resistless power! This is the first necessity for government, in which feebleness is only another name for failure. Christ's own name in the chapter following is, "Lion of the tribe of Judah," and when He acts in that character, no one will be able for a moment to resist Him. It will be the most absolute sovereignty that the world has ever seen.

But then, by itself, assuredly, this symbol would mislead. When John looks for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he sees a "Lamb as it had been slain;" and when even wrath is ready to be poured out upon men, it is spoken of as the "wrath of the Lamb." Indeed, that is what makes it so terrible. It is the wrath of love itself. It is the judgment of One with whom judgment is a "strange work." It is judgment which is so unsparing because love energizes the arm and guides the blow. It is judgment for which there is no remedy,-which can alone fulfill the counsels of perfect wisdom and goodness; judgment which prayer cannot be offered to avert, but for which prayer is made and accepted by God.

Slow indeed it has been in coming ! So the ages of misrule and evil, of oppression and wrong, would say. So murmur the down-trodden; so scoffs the infidel. The prophet cries, " How long ? " The wicked, pursuing his successful wickedness, says, "God hath forgotten:He hideth His face; He will never see it." All are expecting from the government of God the rapid and decisive action which they think alone suited to Him in whose hands all power is.

Hence, the slow ox* follows the lion here; with strength equal to his, but used how differently! *"Moschos," translated in our version "calf," is so used in the Septuagint (Ex. 21:33; 22:1, 9,10, 30; Lev. 4:10; 9:4, etc.), which uses it in Ezek. 1:10, the parallel passage to this in Revelation. The idea is of a young, fresh animal, not galled yet with a yoke, nor jaded with over-labor, the fitted type, therefore, of divine working.* The ox is the symbol of patient labor, and which has man's good for its end. So the apostle uses it (i Cor. 9:9, 10). It is the mystery of apparent slowness that is here explained. "God is not slack, as some count slackness," but in all His government works out unfailingly counsels of wisdom in which man's blessing will surely at last be found. Not in the lion is the highest type of sovereignty. The lion's is brute force at the bidding of impulse merely. The ox works under the control of mind.

But there is more than this, which the next cherub speaks of:for now a human face greets us-"the third living creature had the face of a man." And what strikes us first in this? Not mind merely, though there is mind, and in it lies the power he has-power which both the ox and lion own. But that only completes the thought which we have had already presented. Surely beyond this, and rather than this, what strikes us in a human face in the midst of such surroundings, is its familiarity. Here we have what we can understand in a way we cannot the lion or the ox; and as a symbol of divine government, it forces upon us irresistibly the conviction that in it God seeks to be known by us. Not only is He working out blessing in the end. He is meeting us also now, and giving us to know Himself. He is cultivating intimacy with us. And this every soul of His own can better understand in His personal dealings with himself, than in His ways at large-His public government of the world.

Here in our little world we can find, at least, if we will, how "tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience, and experience hope." Here the darkness and the sorrow, the night and the storm, yield (at least afterward) their "peaceable fruits." Here, if we "go down to the sea in ships, and have" our "business in the deep waters," we but the more " see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep." And how sweetly assuring is this knowledge of a living God, for whose care we are not too little, and from whom no circumstance of our lives, no need of our souls, is hid. Would that we all knew this better, which the most exercised among us knows best! We shall find in it, what this "face of a man " may well prepare us for. that it is not necessarily in great and out-of-the-way occurrences that God most manifests Himself. He has here as elsewhere a way of taking up and magnifying what is little by putting Himself into connection with it; and thus (as in all His works) the microscope will convey as much to us, it may be more, than the telescope. For He is every where:"One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all."

Yet because He is God, there will be that every where which will remind us in whose presence we stand. No where can we escape from the mystery which attends His presence. Nor would we if we realize this as its meaning. A God always comprehensible by us would be only such an one as ourselves:but magnify man into God you cannot. Still there will be the " light inaccessible, which no man can approach unto." Yet this is light, not darkness, and it makes nothing really dark, as men profess; rather in this light we see light,-the knowledge of God illuminates all other things.

And this is what is intimated, I believe, by the last of these living ones :"The fourth living creature was like a flying eagle"-an eagle on the wing. For the "way of an eagle in the air" is one of the four things of which the wise man speaks as "too wonderful" for him (Prov. 30:18, 19). And this is to be joined with what the eagle in itself conveys to us as a "bird of heaven,"-a type of what is heavenly; especially with its bold, soaring flight, for which the ancients assigned it to the apostle John as his emblem.

Thus, then, these cherubic figures speak to us, and in their praise they celebrate the holiness, power, and un-changeableness of the covenant-God. The Old-Testament names, as all the way through this part, come up again. It is this God who is our Father, but not as Father do we find Him here. He is our God, if Father :and as such the elders worship Him. For " whenever the living creatures give* glory and honor and thanks to Him that sitteth on the throne, to Him that liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall* down before Him that sitteth on the throne, and worship* Him that liveth forever and ever, and cast* their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou hast created all things, and because of Thy will they were, and were created." *These are all strictly futures, but the force seems better expressed in English by "whenever" with the present.*

How blessed is this worship ! The constraint is that of the heart alone:the spirit of praise dictates the praise. They are intelligent, and give the reason of it; not here redemption, but creation. By and by they celebrate redemption also, but one theme does not displace another :all that God is and has done is worthy of Him, and they express their adoration as dependent on the will of Him who, for His glory, had created them. This perpetual worship of heaven is the witness of the perpetual freshness of abiding blessing traced by the happy heart to God as its source. May we learn better on earth this song of praise !

(To be continued.)

Resurrection, called by the Lord "the power of God," or, at least, one of the ways of that power (Matt. 22:29), has been made known, through different witnesses, and in divers manners, from the very beginning. And connected as it is with redemption, the great principle of God's way and the secret of His purposes, it must have been so.

It was intimated in the creation of the beautiful scene around us, for the world itself was called forth from the grave of the deep. The material was without form, and darkness was upon the face of it, but light was commanded to shine out of darkness, and beauty and order were caused to arise (See Heb. 11:3).

It declared itself in the formation of Eve. Then again in the earliest promise about the bruised Seed of the woman. It was kept in memory in Seth given in the place of Abel whom Cain slew; and then again in the line of the fathers before the flood. But still more illustriously was it published in Noah. "Every thing in the earth shall die," says the Lord to him, "but with thee will I establish My covenant; " thus disclosing the secret, that the earth was to be established according to the purpose of God, as in resurrection, stability, and beauty.

So, after these earlier fathers, Abraham was to have both a family and an inheritance on the same principle. He and his generations after him were taught resurrection in the mystery of the barren woman keeping house. The covenant-blessing was linked with the risen family. Ishmael may get possessions, and promises too, but the covenant was with Isaac.

And more marvelously still, not to pause longer over other witnesses of it, we see resurrection in the blessed history of "the Word made flesh." We might indeed have forejudged that it would have been otherwise. For in Christ, flesh was without taint. Here was "a holy thing." But even of such we have now to say, "Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." Christ known by us now, is Christ in resurrection. And this is enough to let us know assuredly that resurrection is the principle of all the divine action, and the secret of the covenant.* *All orders of His creatures in all places of His dominions witness Him as the living God; but in the history of redeemed sinners He is witnessed as the living God in victory. This is His glory; and resurrection should be prized by us as the display of it. The sepulcher with the grave-clothes lying in order, and the napkin which had been about the head, are the trophies of such victory (Jno. 20:6, 7). The history of redeemed sinners celebrates Him thus. To hesitate about resurrection is to betray ignorance of God, and of the power that is His (see Matt. 22:29; 1 Cor. 15:34).*

But resurrection has also been, from the beginning, an article of the faith of God's people; and, being such, it was also the lesson they had to learn and to practice, the principle of their life; because the principle of a divine dispensation is ever the rule and character of the saints' conduct. The purchase and occupation of the burying-field at Machpelah tell us that the Genesis-fathers had learnt the lesson. Moses learnt and practiced it when he chose affliction with the people of God, having respect to the recompense of the reward. David was in the power of it when he made the covenant, or resurrection-promise, all his salvation and all his desire, though his house, his present house, was not to grow. (2 Sam. 23:) The whole nation of Israel were taught it again and again by their prophets, and by and by they will learn it, and then witness it to the whole world, the dry bones living again, the winter-beaten teil tree flourishing again; for " what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead." The Lord Jesus, " the author and finisher of faith," in His day, I need not say, practiced this lesson to all perfection. And each of us, His saints and people, is set down to it every day, that we "may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings."

By the life of faith the elders obtained a good report. And so the saints in every age. For " without faith it is impossible to please Him;" that faith which trusts Him as a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, which respects the unseen and the future. They of whom the world was not worthy practiced the life of faith, the life of dead and risen people. (Heb. 11:) Stephen before the council tells us the same. Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, in his account, were great witnesses of this same life; and he himself, at that moment, after the pattern of his master, Jesus, was exhibiting the strength and virtues of it through the power of the Holy Ghost, and apprehending, through the same Spirit, the brightest joys and glories of it. (Acts 7:)

Now, I believe that the leading purpose of the book of Job is to exhibit this. It is the story of an elect one, in early patriarchal days, a child of resurrection, set down to learn the lesson of resurrection. His celebrated confession tells us that resurrection was understood by him as a doctrine, while the whole story tells us that he had still to know the power of it in his soul. It was an article of his faith, but not the principle of his life.

And a sore lesson it was to him, hard indeed to learn and digest. He did not like (and which of us does like ?) to take the sentence of death into himself, that he might not trust in himself, or in his circumstances in life, or his condition by nature, but in God who raises the dead'. " I shall die in my nest," was his thought and his hope. But he was to see his nest rifled of all with which nature had filled it, and with which circumstances had adorned it.

Such is, I believe, the leading purpose of the Spirit of God in this book. This honored and cherished saint had to learn the power of the calling of all the elect, practically and personally, the life of faith, or the lesson of resurrection. And it may be a consolation for us, beloved, who know ourselves to be little among them, to read, in the records which we have of them, that all have not been equally apt and bright scholars in that school, and that all, in different measures, have failed in it, as well as made attainments in it.

How unworthily of it, for instance, did Abraham behave,-how little like a dead and risen man-a man of faith-when he denied his wife to the Egyptian ! and yet how beautifully did he carry himself as such when he surrendered the choice of the land to his younger kinsman. And even our own apostle, the aptest scholar in the school, the constant witness of this calling to others, and the energetic disciple of the power of it in his own soul, in a moment when the fear of man brought with it a snare, makes this very doctrine the covert of a guileful thought (Acts 23:6).

Encouragements and consolations visit the soul from all this. Happy is it to know that our present lesson, as those who are dead, and whose life is hid with Christ in God, has been the lesson of the elect from the beginning -that on many a bright and hallowed occasion they practiced that lesson to the glory of their Lord, that at times they found it hard, and at times failed in it. This tale of the soul is well understood by us. Only we, living in New-Testament times, are set down to learn the same lesson in the still ampler page, and after the clearer method, in which it is now taught us in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is some difference, let me observe, nay, I would say, distance, between a righteous and devoted man. No saint is a devoted one who has not been practicing this lesson of which I have been speaking. The measure of his devotedness may be said to be according to his attainment in it,-according to the energy he is exercising as a man dead and risen with Christ. At the beginning of this history, Job was a righteous man. He was spoken well of again and again, in the very face of his accuser. But he was not a devoted man. The whisper of his heart, as I noticed before, was this :" I shall die in my nest." Accepted he was, as a sinner who knew his living and triumphant Redeemer, godly and upright beyond his fellows, but withal, as to the power that wrought in his soul, he was not a dead and risen man.

Such also, I might add, was Agur in the book of Proverbs. He was godly, and of a lowly, self-judging spirit. He makes a good confession of human blindness and pravity, of the unsearchable glories of God, the purity and preciousness of His Word, and of the security of all who trust in Him (Prov. 30:1-9). He was a man of God, and walked in a good spirit. But he was not a devoted man. He did not know how to abound and how to suffer need. He dreaded poverty lest he should steal, and riches lest he should deny God. He was not prepared for changes. Neither was Job. But Paul was. He had surrendered himself to Christ, as they had not. According to the power that wrought in his soul, Paul was a dead and risen man. He was ready to be "emptied from vessel to vessel." He was instructed both to be full and to be hungry. He could do all things through Christ strengthening him. See that devoted man, that dead and risen man, in the closing chapters of Acts 20:-28:He is in the midst of a weeping company of brethren at Miletus, and in the bosom of a lovely Christian household at Tyre. But were those the greenest spots on earth to a saint, where, if any where, the foot of the mystic ladder is felt to rest, and the fond heart lingers and says, Let us make tabernacles here, able to detain him? No. Even there the dear, devoted apostle carried a heart thoroughly surrendered to Christ. " What mean ye," says he, "to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." He would not be kept. And on from thence he goes, along the coast of Syria up to Jerusalem, and then for two long years, apart from brethren, in perils by sea and land, under insults and wrongs, a single heart and devoted affection bearing him through all.

A good conscience alone is not up to all this. Mere righteousness will not take such a journey. There must be that singleness of eye to Christ, that principle of devotedness, which reckons upon death and resurrection with Jesus. Job was righteous, but he was not prepared for such shifting scenery as this. He loved the green spot and the feathered nest. Changes come, and changes are too much for him. But God, in the love wherewith He loved him, as his heavenly Father, puts him to school to learn the lesson of a child of resurrection, to be a partaker of "His holiness," the holiness not merely of a right or pure-minded man, but the holiness that suits the call of God,-the holiness of a dead and risen man, one of the pilgrim family, one of God's strangers in the world (Heb. 12:9, 10).

Job was chastened to be partaker of such a holiness as this. Not that trials and troubles like his are essential to the learning of this lesson. A very common method it is indeed with our heavenly Father in His wisdom. But Paul set himself daily to practice that lesson, without the instructions of griefs and losses in either body or estate. (Phil. 3:) In the fervent laborings of the spirit within, he exercised himself in it every day. And so should we. We are to dread the Laodicean state, satisfaction with present condition or attainment. The Laodicean was not a Pharisee, or a self-righteous man of religion. He was a professor, it may be, of very correct notions and judgments, but in a spirit of self-complacency he did not cherish increasing freshness and vigor in the ways of the Lord.-(" The Patriarchs,"p. 295.)

6. THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM:SEED-SOWING AND ITS RESULTS.

We have now seen what the kingdom is, and learned the general principles by which to interpret that parabolic teaching in which the Lord was pleased to convey to us most of the instruction which we have concerning it. Of these there are first to be considered the seven parables of the thirteenth chapter, in which we have its prophetic history from its commencement in the seed sown by the Lord Himself, until the mystery-form is ended by His appearing in the heavens. It is plain that this alone will close it, as it is that this is what is contemplated in the parables themselves; but we shall have to look at it fully at another time in answering some objections which have been raised to what I believe the true interpretation of the last parable.

In the twelfth chapter, the Lord, in announcing His death and resurrection, has declared the rejection of Israel. No sign further should be given them but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for as Jonah had been three days and nights in the whale's belly, so the Son of Man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And thereupon He shows what would be the result to that wicked generation which had rejected Him (chap. 12:41-45). His new relationships would be with the doers of His Father's will, and with these alone (10:46-50). This manifestly would exclude the nation of Israel in their unbelief, while it would bring in any and every believing Gentile. Judaism, with its narrow restrictions, was therefore gone.

A significant action on the Lord's part introduces the parables of the thirteenth chapter. He leaves the house, to sit by the seaside. Let any one compare the picture of the woman that "sit-teth upon many waters" in Rev. 17:i, and he will find the meaning of this. The angel interprets it for us in that chapter:"The waters where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues" (y. 15). So here the Lord is leaving the house, the place of recognized natural relationship, to take His place, as it were, in the highway of the commerce of the world, which the sea is. And there, to the multitude upon the shore, He begins His parable with " Behold, a sower went forth to sow."

But Israel had been His vineyard, long ago planted, fenced, and cared for, according to His own words at another time (chap. 21:33). From it He had looked for fruit, not as a fresh field to sow it for harvest. From Israel He had to "go forth" elsewhere, with that " word of the kingdom " already by them rejected, to get fruit for Himself with it in the field of the world at large. For "the field is the world," as He Himself interprets to us, -not a chosen nation, but the whole earth.

We are at once, then, brought face to face with what has been going on during the whole of the history of Christendom. The results, as the Lord gives them here, are before our eyes.

The seed is "the word of the kingdom" (5:19), the declaration of the authority and power of One rejected and – crucified as "King of the Jews." Raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, He sits upon the Father's throne, all authority in heaven and earth being given unto Him, who is exalted to be at the same time "a Prince and a Saviour."This is the seed He sows, and the sowing is always His, though He may use others as His instruments. The form the kingdom takes, therefore, is not as it will be yet-set up by almighty power, to which every thing must needs give way. It is offered for man's acceptance. It may be rejected. Faith is still to prepare the way of the Lord, and it is seen in result that "all men have not faith."In the kingdom predicted by the Old-Testament prophets, and yet to be upon the earth, a "rod of iron " will break down all opposition. Here, on the contrary, it shows itself at once in its three fundamental forms-as devil, flesh, and world. Three parts of the seed fail thus of fruit. Not only is there distinct and open rejection, but also men may receive the word outwardly, and thus become subjects of the kingdom, and yet be quite unfruitful and merely self-deceived. Thus in some of its general features the world of profession all around us is portrayed.

The first class represented here comes before us in the way-side hearer. In him the power of Satan is seen, though in such a manner as to leave the man himself fully responsible. It is solemn to read even of such an one, that the word was "sown in his heart" (5:19).That does not imply conversion. He does not even "understand." But why? Be cause, as with the way-side, the ground on which it is sown is too hard-trodden for the seed to penetrate ; and it lies exposed to the birds of heaven, tempting, as it were, the tempter to "catch it away."Of such souls there are many:preoccupied with what hardens and deadens them to other influences-be it business, be it pleasure,-lawful or lawless:it is the effect here that is noted, little matter how produced.

Still the word is "sown in the heart." Marvelous power of the Word of God, which, wherever it speaks, carries with it something of its divine authority. The "inner man of the heart" is reached, and made aware of that which brings with it its own evidence and claims. " By manifestation of the truth," says the apostle, " commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Not every man will own how he winces under the truth. But he does wince. " Light" is there, consciously to the soul that turns away from it even, but turns away because conscious it is light, and loving darkness rather, the fit cover of evil deeds.

These moments of conviction, who that has ever listened to the Word can be a stranger to them? Nor does it follow that the Word is understood in any proper sense. It is felt as light, detecting the thoughts and intents of the heart; and the one who feels, and turns away from it because he feels it, falls thus under the devil's power. The impression made is soon removed. The seed sown is caught away. The poor dupe of Satan learns perhaps even to laugh at the momentary conviction, and to congratulate himself upon the wisdom of his present indifference.

In the next class of hearers, the stony ground illustrates the opposition of the flesh. And for this end it is pictured, not at its worst, but at its best. This man " heareth the word, and immediately with joy receiveth it; yet has he not root in himself." Here is not the natural man's rejection of the Word, but his reception of it; though there is no more real fruit than in the first case. The seed has rapid growth, the rocky bed forming a sort of natural hot-bed for it, so that it springs up quickly with abundant promise. But the very thing which favors this ready development forbids continuance. The seed cannot root itself in the rock, and the sun withers it up.

It is easy to see what is wanting here, and that the picture is of the stony heart of unbelief, unchanged, denying the Word admittance, where seeming most to receive it. Many such cases there are-where the gospel is apparently at once and with joy received, but where the immediate joy is just the sign of surface-work, and of unreality at bottom. With such, the plowshare of conviction has never made way for the seed to penetrate. The work is mental and emotional only, not in the conscience. There has been no repentance, -no bringing down into the dust, in the consciousness of a lost, helpless, undone condition, which nothing but the blood and grace of Christ can meet. There, has been no coming out of self- self-righteousness and self-sufficiency-to Him.

Thus there is no root in the man himself, Christ is not his real and grand necessity. So "when tribulation or persecution raiseth because of the word, by and by he is offended." This is the religion of the flesh, of sentiment, of unreality, and this is its end. It lacks the sign and seal of a work truly divine-permanence. It " dureth for awhile!' " I know that what God doeth, it shall be forever" (Eccles. 3:14).

It should admonish every workman who goes forth with the precious seed of the Word of God, that there is such a hasty springing up of the Word he carries, which (in. souls unexercised before) is not to be caught at and rejoiced in, but just the contrary. An easy passage into joy and peace, without any deep conviction,-any real taking the place of a lost sinner before. God. It is not that experiences are to be preached, or trusted in by souls, for peace. Christ alone is our peace, most surely. But we should nevertheless be admonished, that if Christ came "to seek and to save the lost" (and that is the gospel-"good news"-if any is), men must know that they are lost in order to receive this gospel-message. This is the Scripture truth and necessity of repentance; and this is its place:" Repent ye, and receive the gospel."

We come now to the third class of these hearers, to him "that received seed among the thorns." The Lord interprets for us what is figured here as the opposition of the world; "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."

It is a more solemn warning, perhaps, than either of the others. For the Word here seems to have deeper hold, and it is not the violent assault of persecution that overthrows this faith, but the quiet influence of things in one form or another about us all. No one of us but proves more or less how occupation with needful and lawful things tends to become a "care" that saps the life of all that is of God within us. Soul-care is not despised, but just crowded out. We all feel the tendency; and who does not remember cases such as this, of those in whom the seed of the Word apparently was springing up, and where, by no sudden assault or pressure of temptation, but just in the ordinary wear and tear of life, perhaps along with the unsuspected influence of prosperity so called, like seed among thorns, the promise of fruit was choked?

But in all three cases, let us carefully mark that, however fair the appearance, there was, at the best, no "fruit." It was, in all, "faith," which, "having not work," was dead, being alone. It wrought nothing really for God in the souls of those that had it. It brought about no judgment of sin, no brokenness of heart, no turning to God:where these are, there is fruit and real faith, and eternal life. Such shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of His hand in whom they have believed.

Of the fourth class alone is it said, " He heareth the word and understandeth it" This is the character of him who " received seed into the good ground." And this man also "beareth fruit." The understanding of the Word is thus the great point here. And what puts us into a condition for understanding the gospel is just the understanding of ourselves. Our guilt, our impotence, our full need apprehended by the soul, opens the way to apprehend the fullness and blessedness of the gospel-message. If I am a sinner, and powerless by any effort of my own to get out of this place, how sweet and simple is it that Jesus died for sinners, and that through Him God "justifieth the ungodly." If I can do nothing, how that word, " to him that worketh not, but believeth," shines out to my soul! I understand it. It suits me. It is worthy of God. There is no good ground, prepared to receive the seed of the gospel, save that which has been thus broken up by the conviction, not of sin only, but of helplessness. " When we were without strength " came the " due time " in which " Christ died for the ungodly."

The lessons of this parable are plain enough. It teaches that the kingdom is not established by power, but by the reception of the Word, which in an adverse world is not only not universal, but often unreal where nominally it exists. It shows that the kingdom is not territorial,-that in its nature it is a kingdom of the truth, whose subjects are disciples, and the introduction to which is discipling, and which grows by individual accretions. So much is plain; and it is the foundation of all that follows.

(To be continued.)

My attention has been drawn to the use of "walking worthy."In Ephesians, we see clearly its connection with the force and character of the epistle. This treats of the Christian and then of the Church's privileges; and the saint is to "walk worthy of his vocation" here, especially in Church-place, and the worthiness to be of that.

In Colossians, where the glory of the person of Christ is brought out, as they were slipping away from the Head- I do not say His headship, but the glory of Him who is Head-they are to "walk worthy of the Lord." It is in this part that God and Father, the Lord, and the Spirit are brought out.

In the Thessalonians, who, from being heathens, had been brought to know the one true God, the Father, "The assembly of the Thessalonians. which is in God the Father" having not intermediate, and indeed demon powers, but being in direct immediate relationship with the one true God, they are called to "walk worthy of God who has called us to His own kingdom and glory;" so they were " turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God."

Philippians, in which we have the experimental condition of the Christian, and the gospel is spoken of as in conflict in the world (Paul being in bonds for it), they were to "walk worthy of the gospel." So Paul was "set for the confirmation and defense of the gospel," – he speaks of the "beginning of the gospel,"-Timothy had served with him "for the gospel,"-the woman had "contended with him in the gospel,"-Paul was set " for the defense of the gospel,"-they had fellowship "in the furtherance of the gospel." So it will be seen that when they are called to walk worthy of it, conflict is also spoken of, for which a right walk was needed, but they were not to be terrified by their adversaries.

The true gospel was as a cause, as a person in conflict in the world; they who stood by it as one they contended along with, were to walk worthy of it. They were " striving together with the faith of the gospel," contending along with the faith of the gospel in the world-not " for " the faith, but "with" it, as an associate with it in its conflicts.

There is thus in the three " walkings worthy," I think, a practical difference, though essentially the same. In Thessalonians, it is the essential measure and its nature- " worthy of God," imitators of God as dear children, "who has called us to His own kingdom and glory." Then the manifestation of what this is in a divinely perfect expression of it in Christ-" worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing." In Eph. 4:, we have more our own present place in it by the Holy Ghost,-"the vocation wherewith we are called"-all our privileges and place being known to us through the Holy Ghost, sent down when Christ was glorified,-the place we are in connection with Him glorified now. J.N.D.

The words which are in our common version, " the glorious gospel of Christ," should be rather (as now in the revised) "the gospel of the glory of Christ." This is not only the literal translation, but also the one required by the context, whether we glance back at "the glory of the Lord" in chap. 3:18, or forward to "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," in the verse but one following. In either case, it is the Lord Himself in glory, risen from the dead, and at the right hand of God, that is spoken of. It is His glory there as man, although much more than man, and even as man the "image of God," which is "gospel"-that is to say, " good news "-to fallen man.

To Paul himself, let us remember, the first revelation of the truth had been the revelation of Christ in glory. With a brightness which eclipsed the glory of the noonday sun, it had shone down upon the persecutor, lighting, up the depths of his soul, and bringing him face to face with One upon the throne of heaven whom he knew not, -face to face with himself, whom he never yet had really known. What a meeting! What a discovery! The Lord, his Lord, Lord of heaven and earth, unknown up to that moment; he in that moment stricken from the heights of Phariseeism into a deeper "ditch" than Job's, but now "touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless," a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and now sinner among sinners-the very chief of sinners !

What effected this mighty change ? Just what will do it equally for you, reader, or for any one in his position,- one moment's sight of the glory of the lord. You may have heard abundantly before :so had Job,-" I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;" how different when he could say, "but now mine eye seeth Thee"! Then alone it is, "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Aye, no flesh can glory in His presence, whether revealed in vision as to Paul, or simply by the entrance of the Word in the power of the Spirit bringing divine light into the inner man of the heart. If one might have whereof to glory, yet " not before God." The true test of whether a soul has been before God is here.

And let it be noted well, the hinge of the controversy between God and man is now the God-man in the glory. Why there ? It is where He belongs, you say. True; He had left that which He had with the Father before the world was, to be in the world the Minister of Christ to it. All power in His hand to turn back into paradise again the ruin man had caused on earth. The sick healed, the deaf hearing, the dumb tongue loosed to sing, the lame whole, the devil's captives with a word delivered, the dead with one mighty word raised up,-He is attested by all this the Son of Man with power on earth to forgive sins,-to reach down to the very bottom of man's condition, and set all upon a new footing of grace and blessing before God. He was in the world, by whom the world was made, by whom the world could be again restored :what was the issue? The death of agony; the cross of shame; and so out of the rich man's tomb, not to be holden of death, up to the place from which He had descended.

What, then, of the world ? " O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee" (Jno. 17:25). That is still its characteristic. He that has known Christ has known the Father. He who owns Christ passes by this out of the world; the world is crucified to him, and he unto the world. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also." Yea, "whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God" (i Jno. 2:23; 4:15). Once more:"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). Surely there is "good news " in a glory which, when revealed to the soul, is the salvation of him to whom it is revealed !

But let us not mistake the matter :there is an essential difference between receiving a tradition, or accepting a belief in which one has been educated, and the in shining of the light of which the apostle speaks,-just as much difference as between beholding the sun shine, and accepting, like a blind man, the warrant of others as to it.

Have you ever beheld His glory, beloved reader? Have you "believed with the heart unto righteousness' ? Is there heart-interest in the matter with you at all ? Have you ever confessed Jesus Lord ? Does your soul own Him as its Lord indeed? It is a question of life and death; for "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

But what direct "good news" does "the glory of Christ" bring?

What would it be to you if, in the pinch of poverty and famine, you suddenly heard of the exaltation of one whom you had known, and well known-a companion, a friend, an intimate-to the throne of the land ? Need I ask?

Just such a friend-aye, a friend of sinners-has been Jesus. None such ever trod this earth beside. When He says, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," is there no good news there? Ah, the more power His, the more help mine. I am rich if He is,-at least, if. He be the same Lord Jesus that was once the Man of sorrows for us here.

But that is not all. Suppose the friend I just now spoke of had taken for me the burden of my sins upon himself; suppose I had actually seen him sign the bond and assume the responsibility of them all. Multiply all that a thousandfold. Let it be sin, not debt. Let the cross be the place of the assumption of my responsibility,- the death he died, my actual penalty. This is the simple, literal fact for the believer. What, then, to him the resurrection, ascension, and glory of the Son of God in the heavens?

The glory of Christ-of a Man:"the Man Christ Jesus." , Manhood in Him, not drawn merely out of the slough of degradation and damnation of sin, but taken up to God and glorified with the glory which He had before all worlds !

Not only, then, is condemnation gone, penalty endured, justice satisfied; there is infinitely more,-a positive and not a negative blessing only. For as man He is gone up; as man He is in glory, He has conquered and won for man; for man earned and deserved; for man acquired and possessed. " The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them."

Moreover, it is " the glory of Christ, who is the image of God"

That completes the blessedness.

He is "the image of the invisible God." If "no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him " (Jno. 1:18). We are not left to ask, with Philip, "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." The Father is not one God and He another :He and the Father are One.

Nor are His attributes divided; as if justice were the Father's, love the Son's; as if the Father merely received what the Son offered; as if the cross of the Son were but a shield from the wrath of the Father. No; God loved and gave,-" so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jno. 3:16).

If God gave Him up to die, He raised Him also from the dead,-took the side of those for whom He suffered, whether He gave Him up for them in love, or took Him up for them from the dead in righteousness. Thus His righteousness is on our side as well as His love, and whether I look up to Him who is on the throne of glory, or remember Him in His unparalleled humiliation upon earth, it is God I see in the man,-God-man as He must be, for who but God could thus show forth God?

All this the "gospel of the glory of Christ" preaches to me-to all who believe in Him. How is it has been so much forgotten ? May no reader of this be blinded by the god of this world, so that the light of it should not shine in upon his soul.

' Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you" (Jno. 16:23).

What liberty is given here, my brethren! "Whatsoever " ! Were it alone, it would be boundless, and the Lord would thus have opened the door to all the desires of unbroken wills among His people, But He adds, " in My name." This is His limit-the barrier He sets up.

If we apply to God for any thing in the name of Christ -and He will accept no other,-it must needs be in keeping with what Christ is. It is as if Christ Himself were asking it of His Father. He does not want us to make Him the messenger, as if we had not the liberty to approach. We have the same blessed liberty which He has, for grace has made us sons, and we are loved of the Father with the same love wherewith He is loved. He wants us to realize that holy liberty, and go ourselves with our request straight to the Father in His name,-that is, as if it were Himself presenting it-He who is always heard, because He always does what is pleasing to the Father. How could Christ present any request to His Father in any thing inconsistent with His own character and ways which were ever within the circle of the Father's will ? To pray in His name, then, involves our presenting to God only that which Christ could and would present. It calls for a real setting aside of our own wills, and for moving only within the circle of God's will, where Christ always was and is. Setting up our own plans, then making use of Christ's name with God, as if He were pledged by it to obey us, is an awful mistake, which He will rebuke to our shame.

But oh, for more of that lowly, broken spirit which finds its home in the Father's will, its delight in Christ's interests here, and which, burdened with that, knows how to plead with God, and never give up! And though He tarry long, victory is as sure as His throne. " Scripture cannot be broken," and He has said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you."

But, alas ! how much more earnest we are apt to be when our will is at work than when it has been surrendered! How much more earnestly men will work in a business of their own than in the employ and interests of others ! It but reveals that in us (that is, in our flesh,) dwells no good thing. Yet, though we be only servants as regards our service here, and, as such, owe absolute obedience to our Lord and Master, and should perform our service as pleasing Him and not ourselves, are we not sons too ? are we not going to be sharers of His glory, and partakers of every fruit of His obedience and of ours? Does He not call us "friends"? Does He not mingle with us ? And while we call Him " Master and Lord," and rightly so, is He not even our constant Servant? Surely, surely ! Let us, then, take courage. Let us lay hold of His business, carry it in our hearts, make it our own, plead with God about it according to the measure He has given. If Christ be our object, let us ask of God-ask much-and we will receive much, and our joy will be full here, and our reward great there. P.J.L.

A Well-known type of Christ. Take, for example, Jno. iv 6. Why is it mentioned, " Now Jacob's well was there "?Surely to arrest our attention in some special way, and Gen. 49:22 discovers the secret. Joseph, we read, is a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.

In this wearied Man, therefore, who in that noontide heat sat by the well of Sychar, we see the true Joseph; and even while we gaze upon Him we behold His branches running over the wall of Judaism, and reaching, with their goodly fruit, this poor woman of Samaria. And if not actually, yet morally (for this characterizes this gospel), the archers had sorely grieved Him, and shot at Him, and hated Him; but His bow abode in strength, etc., as is shown by the deliverance He wrought that day for this poor captive of Satan.

We cannot help recalling that name given by Pharaoh to father Jacob's best beloved son-" Zaphnath-Paaneah " (Gen. 41:45). None can say positively whether it is a Hebrew or an Egyptian name, but strangely enough (and probably there was a divine overruling in the choice of the name, however little conscious Pharaoh might be), in the one tongue it signifies " The Revealer of Secrets," in the other it means "The Saviour of the World."

To the woman, He was indeed " the Revealer; " it was as though He had told her all things that she had done. To the Samaritans, He was "the Saviour of the world;" from among the Jews indeed, as He had said, but, like that " fruitful vine by a wall," of which Jacob spoke, "whose branches run over the wall," He had brought life and blessing and joy for them, for it was not possible that His love could be restrained by any Jewish limitations.

(Selected.) E.F.B.

SUPPLEMENTARY.

I am thankful to have received objections to the preceding papers:thankful, not of course that there should be objections, but that being existent they should be made known, and fully examined. The difference of view itself the Lord would use for various blessing, that, exercised by His Word, we may be ruled by it,-not blindly follow one another, or any special teacher, however gifted. Persuaded as I am, that whatever may be our hindrances to receiving it, yet the truth once clearly known would have the allegiance of all, I am encouraged to take up what has been urged against me, not doubting that there will be blessing in it, on whichever side the truth may appear to be. And first, it has been said that-

" if we want to understand about the making of atonement, we must turn to Lev. 16:for information; for there only, in the ritual appointed for the day of atonement, shall we fully learn-as far as typical teaching can illustrate it-what is comprised in the thought of making it. . . . What was required to make atonement is the subject of God's communication to the lawgiver on that occasion. The noun "atonement" is not once met with therein. The verb only is used, to call attention by typical teaching to the making it."

Is this correct ? No doubt the day of atonement is exceedingly important for the doctrine of atonement :one could not dispute that. But is it the fact that we may limit ourselves to the sixteenth of Leviticus in order to see what is involved in making it? And what is the force and value of the fact that the noun is not found in the chapter, but only the verb?

First, as to the word "atonement:" the noun is found but eight times in the Old Testament. Three times we have the expression, " sin-offering for atonement" (Ex. 29:36; 30:10; Num. 29:ii). Once we have "the ram of atonement " (Num. 5:8). Once, " the atonement-money" (Ex. 30:16). And in the remaining three occurrences (Lev. 23:27, 28; 25:9) the application is to the "day of atonement" itself!

It is surely remarkable enough, if the omission of the noun in chap. 16:has the significance said to attach to it, that three out of the eight occurrences should actually be found to apply to the day of atonement!

If I understand the argument aright, "atonement" as a noun (kippurim) being used, would direct our attention to what in itself atonement is, the use of the verb to that which makes it. What, then, about the "day of atonement"? Would not that direct our attention to what atonement is, as much as the sin-offering, or the ram, or the money of atonement ?

On the other hand, in all the detail of the offerings in the first seven chapters of Leviticus we have equally no use of the noun "atonement," while the verb occurs no less than thirteen times ! How, then, does the argument apply here ?

And must we not in fact go to those earlier chapters in order to know the meaning of the day of atonement itself? What are sin-offering and burnt-offering here without the previous detailed explanation? Are these not the very means by which atonement is made ?

Coming now to the making of atonement, it is further said –

" Now, to do that, four things were absolutely necessary. I. An offering must be found which God could accept (Lev. 16:6) ; and that offering must die, because It is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul (Lev. 17:11). 2. A substitute must be found to which the sins of the guilty should be transferred, and by it carried away into the land of forgetfulness:This was foreshadowed by the scape-goat (Lev. 16:10). 3. Blood of the sin-offering must be presented inside the vail, by sprinkling it on and before the mercy-seat,-an act done by the high-priest, and by him only, and when alone with God (Lev. 16:14-16; Heb. 9:7). And 4. Divine judgment must be endured by the victim, typified by the consuming of the burnt-offering, and the appointed parts of the sin-offering on the brazen altar (Lev. 16:24, 25). These are essential elements of atonement, without which it could not be made."

Again, I am compelled to make serious objections to this. If we are to take the day of atonement as our pattern, why should the work at the altar before the Lord be omitted (10:18, 19) ? Five essential elements may be thus reckoned instead of four; and with better reason.

A more serious objection still with regard to our present subject is, that for the priestly house, as is well known, there was no scape goat. For them, not a goat but a bullock was offered, and one bullock only. Was complete atonement made for them ? None surely can doubt that. Yet one of the four elements deemed essential is not found in it!

And this touches nearly some common thoughts about propitiation and substitution. There is no doubt that for the priests these two are found together in the one bullock of the sin-offering. The blood of propitiation is in this case the blood of the substitute; or to which of the goats, the Lord's lot or the people's lot, does this bullock answer ?

And this shows that what is essential in atonement may be implicitly contained in what explicitly does not teach it. Thus, Job's burnt-offering could be accepted for sin; and blood could ordinarily make atonement at the altar (Lev. 17:ii), which on the day of atonement was carried within the vail. The priests' bullock went beyond the two goats in reality, as the bullock was in typical meaning beyond the goat; while what was expanded indeed in the latter was yet contained in the former.

As a fact, was there no atonement made in Israel except upon the day of atonement ? Yet if the objection be rightly made, this must have been the case.

And again, is it not dangerous to take for truth our interpretation of a type, rather than the plain teaching of the New Testament? Would so important a matter as what constitutes atonement (or propitiation either) be left for the shadows of the law to unveil ? But to go on with the objections:-

" So far, then, we can all see what were essential elements of atonement-the death of the victim; substitution both in sin-bearing and bearing divine judgment; and the dealing with the blood inside the vail by the high-priest. In the making atonement, then, substitution, as this chapter shows, was an essential element, as well as the high-priest's work inside the sanctuary. Had either been omitted, atonement would not have been effected. Now, were these two services the same? Clearly not. Wherein did they differ? In the scape-goat, or in the service at the brazen altar (Lev. 16:24), we see typified One who was a substitute for others. In the picturing the blood on the mercy-seat, nothing of that was delineated, though it was the blood of the substitute which the high-priest presented to God."

Why "substitution both in sin-bearing and bearing divine judgment"? How can you separate between these? Was not sin-bearing really wrath-bearing? Or, if you speak of the scape-goat, were not the sins borne away by the very fact of the victim's death for them ? Why make differences in the work itself of what were only different aspects of the work? It is just this modeling of the truth by the type instead of interpreting the type by the truth, which has made propitiation a different work from substitution, whereas the one is but the Godward side of that of which the other is the manward.

But the type itself refuses this by the fact that for the priestly family (which represents the Church) there was no scape-goat. Yet the truth conveyed in it is ours surely (Heb. 10:17).

The service at the brazen altar (5:24) is, then, classed with the scape-goat as substitution, and not propitiation ! Necessitated as it is by the argument, it is indeed remarkable that it should not be seen how completely the argument is broken down by it. For the burnt-offering, although for man indeed, and substitutionary as every sacrifice was, went up directly to God, the whole of it, as a sweet savor! It was thus expressly denominated the olah, "that which ascends," as it is also said, " to make atonement for " the offerer, and to be " for his acceptance." (5:3; see R. V.) Yet this, which actually typifies all the preciousness of the work for God,-the glorifying of God in it,-is simply substitution in contrast with propitiation ! Does not this show how merely technical is the meaning given to "propitiation" in this reasoning?

It is settled otherwise that there is no propitiation but in the holiest; therefore, of course, the burnt-offering is not propitiation. Yet-if there is any meaning in words -it propitiates! But no :the burnt-offering is but substitution, the sin-offering glorifies God in " His holiness and righteousness" above the burnt-offering,-sweet savor though the latter is, in contrast to the former.

Let us look at things, not words merely, and the mists will surely disappear. The New Testament must interpret the Old, the antitype the type, and there is then no difficulty.

But again:in the blood on the mercy-seat "nothing of that"-substitution-"was delineated, though it was the blood of the substitute " ! But if it was, how shall this thought be kept out? Notice that, according to this, the whole work below-sin-offering, burnt-offering, and all- was substitution. Yet in presenting it to God upon the mercy-seat, an element is somehow found in-for we must not say, "introduced into"-the work below, which all these types of it fail to present! It would indeed scarcely be too much to say that one work was done outside the holiest, and another work presented inside !

Or shall we say, the burnt-offering was substitution, the sin-offering was not ? No, we may not that, for it has been acknowledged that the blood presented to God is the blood of a substitute. Does God, then, when it is presented to Him, not take notice of the substitution ?

But to go on :-

"And a marked difference-which helps us greatly in the understanding the character of the service within the vail-was this, that the blood was carried in to God because of the uncleannesses of the people, as well as for their transgressions in all their sins; whereas over the scape-goat Aaron confessed their iniquities, and their transgressions in all their sins, but not their uncleannesses. Not only, therefore, was there a substitute required to bear in the sinner's stead what he had deserved, but the holiness and righteousness of God had also to be met by blood for the uncleannesses as well as for the sins. Now, this last service is meant when we speak of making propitiation. An essential part of atonement it was, but not the whole of it, and markedly different from substitution. In this last the sinner's deserts and needs were portrayed. In the other, God's nature was first thought of and cared for."

Here, then, we are to find the meaning of propitiation. " The blood on the mercy-seat met the uncleanness of the people, as well as "-mark-"their transgressions in all their sins." Notice, then, this latter first. The blood did meet their "sins." Yes:"He is the propitiation for our sins."

But this last is the effect of substitution, is it not? The confession of the sins over the scape-goat is said to mark the substitutionary character. Why not here, then, in the holiest of all ? The addition of something else cannot take away this, at least. Addition is not here subtraction- like adding the law to grace; for there is here at least no essential contradiction.

Propitiation is, then, (so far, at any rate,) by substitution. The blood on the mercy-seat, whatever else it is, is surely-admittedly-the sign of an accomplished substitutionary work. And it is not according to Scripture to say that "nothing of that was delineated" in it.

But the uncleanness of the people-the meeting that -is the peculiar feature of propitiation. Strange, then, that in the New Testament we find nothing of this! "He is the propitiation for our sins." Precisely that which we are told is not the distinctive feature of propitiation is the very thing and the only thing which the New Testament insists on ! Will not our brethren now awake to the unscripturalness of all this? What is stated to be the peculiarity of propitiation is absolutely not found in the New-Testament use of it at all. And what is found is exactly that which it is attempted to distinguish from it !

Yet we are getting now upon the track in which we shall find, not indeed what propitiation is in the abstract idea of it, but what this propitiation in the holiest of all implies. It is expressly said to be an atonement for the holy place (10:ii, 17, 20, 23). That is its peculiarity; and that is the reason why "uncleannesses" are spoken of as well as "sins." " He shall make an atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins; and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation (tent of meeting) that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness."

What is "uncleanness" in this connection? Is it not tendency to defile the holy dwelling-place of Jehovah among them? What would defile it ? Any thing else than sin? Are not their sins just in another aspect their uncleannesses? What else ?

You may say, perhaps, there were ceremonial unclean-nesses, as in the fifteenth chapter, which were not sins. True; but you will hardly say that the great peculiarity of the work in the holiest was to provide for these. To say so would be to remove the whole matter from having any significance for us, such as is contended for, at least; and we need not wonder if the New Testament does not even notice it.

But the "purification of the heavenly things" the epistle to the Hebrews does notice (chap. 9:23), and I have elsewhere referred to it. It need scarcely be taken up again.

Now, if the blood on the mercy-seat be for uncleanness and sins, even if these should be considered different, how is "God's nature" more in question by the first than by the last? If you conceive of difference, would not even the reverse of this be true? And is not God's nature vindicated and glorified by the burnt-offering or the peace-offering, or the sin-offering whose blood never came into the holiest of all? Did the fire of the burnt-or sin-offering not vindicate God's nature ? How can it be that the blood itself-the very same blood-did not vindicate God when outside the sanctuary, and did as soon as it was brought in ?

No, it was the blood itself-the work implied in it- which glorified God, and made propitiation, and the bringing in once a year maintained (for Israel) God's holiness in dwelling among them; for us, throws open the glorious sanctuary in the heavens.

Now, as to propitiation in the New Testament, we need not go into so much detail. The objections made have been mostly met. The breadth of substitution and propitiation has been more than once examined. Substitution is not for the world as such, true; and propitiation is " through faith" only for it (Rom. 3:25). There is no difference here; and none, therefore, can show a difference.

As to the Septuagint, it is not at all a question between verb and noun, which could not make any essential difference of meaning. Indeed, the noun is more variously rendered than the verb, and so more loosely. But it is true that the Septuagint uses exilaskomai and exilasmos, while the New Testament in both cases omits the ex. The force of ex here being merely intensive, and the words given in the lexicon with precisely the same meaning, I did not apprehend any difference which could affect the argument; nor do I. As for Gen. 32:20, the passage seems to speak for itself. Translate it literally all through, allowing the correction, it will be:"I will cover his face with the present going before, and afterward I will see his face. Peradventure he will accept my face." It will surely be seen that there cannot be here the idea of hiding from his sight, and that " his face " may, as in other places it does, stand for "him."

A more serious question is, whether God can be said to be "propitiated" or "appeased." With Luke 18:13 before us, in which the Lord Himself puts into the lips of the publican what is literally "God be propitiated (hilastheti) toward me, a sinner," it seems strange that we should be bidden to " remember that God is never said in Scripture to be propitiated or appeased." The verb only occurs once beside (Heb. 2:17), so that it is not so strange that the expression should occur but once. Can it be supposed that the Lord puts a wrong thought into the mouth of one who is in designed favorable contrast with the Pharisee of the same story ?

And what, then, is propitiation ? and to whom is the propitiation offered ? God is not said to be reconciled in Scripture, true :for He never was man's enemy; but was there not righteous and necessary wrath to be appeased ?

As to propitiation being made outside the sanctuary, it needs to be shown that it cannot. And it is not contended that it could be completed without blood. But that God was really thus far propitiated when the wrath-cloud passed from the cross, has not been met, nor can be. Death surely had still to be endured, and that I have always said. But if propitiation had any meaning that we can recognize, it was accomplishing, not accomplished, before the Lord's actual death. If you say, No, the blood must be shed, your type-teaching will lead you farther than you wish; for you will have to say that the work was not completed till after death, and that there was no blood of atonement until the soldier's spear had brought it forth.

We want things, not words merely:all these truths are the deepest realities for the soul. What does propitiation mean? what is its power ? tell me. If it is not appeasal, what is it? for I want to know. If it is wrath removed,- if it is death borne by Another-precious and efficacious before God, then we shall surely soon agree about it.

Now for the question of the priesthood:"We learn that the priests were consecrated in connection with death, and as that having previously taken place-for the ram of consecration had to be killed for Aaronic priests to be consecrated to their office" (Lev. 8:22, 23). True; but the previous anointing of the high-priest alone without blood (5:12), has that no meaning? The high-priest, when associated with the priests, was a sinful man like them, and even on the day of atonement offered for his own sins. Alone, and simply the type of Christ, he is anointed with the oil without blood.

"We learn, too, that in their sacrificial service they normally had nothing to do till the victim had been slain." One of two exceptions to this is found, strange to say, in the very place to which we have been directed to look to see how atonement was made ! It is "the case of the high-priest on the day of atonement, who in the capacity of offerer, it would seem, killed the victims." No remark is made upon this, and I shall make none. But the trouble is all through that it is the type teaching (or supposed to be teaching) the truth, not the truth making plain the type.

What about the work at the altar? That must be confessed priestly. Does it typify what took place in heaven, or on earth ? Will the former be contended for, because it was after the death of the victim ? Surely not. But then the argument is gone, or rather it is on the opposite side; for the priest is then typically a priest on earth. Let us go on.

"Further, we learn that propitiation was made by the high-priest alone, and that in the holy of holies, not at the altar."

According to the type, which is the first view, where do we learn this? As we have seen, the word "propitiation " is not found, except we take the Septuagint, and then it is found where, according to this view, it should not be ! How, then, is this propitiation exclusively in the holy place to be made out ?

But the Lord, it is said, was " perfected through sufferings," and some would render this " consecrated." In the first place, it has the undoubted meaning of "perfected," and the apostle is speaking directly of the Captain of salvation, not the Priest:"to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

We have no need, then, to "limit these" to sufferings short of death; and His entrance upon His Melchisedek priesthood was actually after this, as I believe, and have said elsewhere. What has been said before as to Heb. 8:4 is simply not noticed. Should it not be ? There is, I believe, no thought of "getting over" it at all; and the argument should be met.

The paper which I am reviewing was printed before my last one on "Priesthood," and naturally fails to answer what is there said. But it is strange to read-

"Now bring in His death between the commencement of His priesthood and His present exercise of it, and He ceases to be Priest after the order of Melchisedek."

If it had been stated that the Lord had been all through Melchisedek Priest, this would perhaps be true. I say "perhaps," for I read, "having neither beginning of days nor end of life, abideth a Priest continually." Now, if this apply to His human life simply, it had "beginning of days;" if to His divine nature, that had no "end of life." Any way, it does not affect the position which I believe to be the scriptural one.

But now, how, if death could interrupt His priesthood, could it possibly begin in death,-the view contended for against me? The argument that would affect the one side must surely equally affect the other. How strange to begin in death a priesthood taking character from an uninterrupted life !

Lastly, it is quite true that, as ministering in the sanctuary, the Lord would not be a priest on earth, and that there are only two sanctuaries,-the earthly and the heavenly. The service in the heavenly sanctuary begins only after resurrection.* *I have no need of the argument as to the cross not being on earth, although I had used it on a former occasion. Longer thought and deeper exercise in relation to this subject has led me to a different judgment on some points to that expressed in the letter I speak of. But I do not on that account accept the argument from Deut. 21:as to one hanging on a tree. The question cannot be so settled. The cross was not merely a malefactor's death. But I have raised no question of this in the preceding papers, as I am assured a broader ground must be taken as to the Lord's priesthood.*

So far from this view " bristling with difficulties," then, it is alone, as it seems to me, free from the difficulties which beset all others. Let brethren judge. The Word is open to all; the Spirit, blessed be God, given to us all.

Q. 1.-In Help and Food, 1888, p. 270:" Suffer little children to come unto Me," is no authority for their baptism, but must refer, as all "coming" does, to an act of faith in the child, which baptism expresses.

Ans.-You will find that the circumstances of the case contradict this common idea. " Suffer them to come " was said to the disciples who were hindering the children being brought. They had not " come" of themselves at all.

Q- 2.-How can you say, there is no resisting will in children, when all naturally are at enmity?

Ans. This is spoken of such as were there, young enough to be taken up in His arms; it does not at all imply the absence of an evil nature, but an undeveloped state simply. But it is plain also that in putting the child under the authority of the parent, the training of the will is a main point, and it is not considered as yet established. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The child and the adult are held to be on a different footing.

Q. 3.-Page 271:" As far as it goes, it is baptism unto death, not life." Scripture never severs baptism from resurrection, never leaves the one in death. (Rom. 6:; Col. 2:; 1 Pet. 3:) Where would the "good conscience" be to leave the child in death?

Ans.-On the contrary, I believe it will be found that baptism never goes farther than death. It is burial, contrasted as such with resurrection. Only it is " to Christ," and " to His death," which thus, as it were, pleads for him who is baptized. But the baptism in itself goes no further.

Take the passage in Col. 2:, which seems most favorable to the other thought, and indeed, as it reads in every translation that I know, really necessitates it; but in this case, how are we raised up with Christ in baptism? In figure only? That cannot be, for it goes on to say, "through the faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead." But faith is not necessary to make a figure a figure:it would not do to say, " raised up with Him in figure, through faith.''

If not figurative, it must be real, however. Are we, then, really raised up with Christ in baptism? That would be to attach virtue to an ordinance in a way contrary to all scripture elsewhere, and to the whole spirit of Christianity. This very chapter speaks of our not being "subject to ordinances; " and for my readers I need perhaps scarcely pursue that.

Read now, as the Greek gives undoubted right to do, "in whom," instead of "wherein," and the thought is clear:"In whom ye are raised together "-there is no "him"-"through the faith of the operation of God, who raised Him:" how evident that "through faith " is just what is needed here. It is by faith we pass into this condition,-not by baptism.

In the passage in Rom. 6:, there is no difficulty. All that is said is (I read it according to J. N. D.'s translation), "If we are become identified with [Him] in the likeness of His death, so also we shall be of His resurrection." If the meaning of baptism has been fulfilled in us, our walk will show the consequence-we shall "walk in newness of life." Happily true it is, as our correspondent says, that Scripture does not leave the baptized one in death. So far, true:but only the grace of Christ, and that not in an ordinance, can carry him beyond it.

No good conscience can be where the child-or adult either- is left in death. But a good conscience does not come through baptism. Baptism is the "demand" of one,-"request" would perhaps be better. "Answer" is generally admitted to be wrong. In baptism, Christ is owned, that a good conscience may be the result. But this is actually given, not by baptism, but "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ," as the passage itself (1 Pet. 3:21) clearly says.

Q. 4.-Page 272:Circumcision is nowhere a type of baptism, but " a seal of the righteousness of the faith, being yet uncircumcised." Does not circumcision figure the private or individual faith toward God (the Romans' side), while baptism figures James' earthly or kingdom side? Col. 2:11, 12 shows both, and a distinction between them, not that they are the same thing. And both are true of a believer now; on which ground 1 Cor. 7:14 shows wife and children are holy-" in a place of privilege, etc.-the kingdom, I take it, without their being baptized,- grace outstripping law.

Ans.-"Circumcision is nowhere a type of baptism;" there are no types of it:it is simply analogous as the Jewish, as baptism the Christian, mark. Nothing more has been claimed for it than this. Moreover, although "the seal of the righteousness of the faith," which Abraham had, " being yet uncircumcised," it was by God's express command performed upon the child of eight days old. Should not this be weighed?

Circumcision does not figure faith, but sealed it (in Abraham). It figures, according to Col. 2:, the " putting off the body of the flesh;" and "we are the circumcision who . . . have no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3). Nor does baptism figure the earthly or kingdom side, by which I suppose is meant the introduction into the kingdom. It actually introduces into it. Baptism figures burial with Christ, according to Rom. 6:4. The two are thus very nearly allied in meaning. A great difference is, that while circumcision simply speaks of the judgment of the flesh, the Christian rite, as burial, shows death (and Christ's death) as what sets it aside for us, and all hope for us in a resurrection from the dead.

"On what ground," I do not understand. The wife and children of 1 Cor. 7:14 are not alike said to be holy:only the children are. The wife is sanctified only " in the husband," not in herself. As one flesh with her husband, she is covered by this:that is all. But the holiness of the children is different:it is a recognized thing, and thus proves the wife to be sanctified in the husband. The acknowledgment of the relationship is shown by the acknowledgment of the fruit of it, which surely implies that there was some open acknowledgment. Of course the holiness is not renewal of nature, but whatever is dedicated to God is, in the Scripture-sense, "holy." But this cannot show that there was no way of dedication (as by baptism). Rather, it argues for it.

Q. 5.-Page 236:" Two keys . . . admits into the body of the disciples." Thus also in Eph. 4:5, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," are found together." How is it true of unconscious infants?

Ans.-In the passage from which the first words are quoted, it is said, "Here there are two keys:'baptizing' and 'teaching' are the joint-methods of discipling. In the one, we have the key of knowledge; in the other, that which, as the outward part, authoritatively admits into the body of disciples upon earth."

Our correspondent will see that only baptism is the authoritative admission–one key, not two; but that to be in the kingdom in its full thought, the key of knowledge also must introduce. Therefore the word " Bring them up in the nurture and discipline of the Lord."

As to the rest, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," are joined together in the kingdom in God's thought of it, and thus again the previous exhortation.

"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord." (Luke 12:35, 36.)

(Rev. iii, 4.)

Wondrous theme for contemplation,
"They shall walk with Me in white" !
Wondrous hope and expectation,
They are now the sons of light!
Wondrous day in which we're living,
God's free grace to magnify!
Wondrous love! Our God is giving
All! His Son to glorify.

Wondrous work, the work of saving
Contrite ones on every hand!
Wondrous Word, the Spirit using
God's good news for every land!
Wondrous power, the Spirit quickening
Sinners dead in nature's night!
Wondrous grace from heaven descending,
Gathering with Jehovah's might!

Wondrous care our God is taking
Of His loved ones here and there!
Wondrous hopes in them awakening,
Soon to meet Him in the air!
Wondrous patience and long-suffering,
Saints are failing one and all!
Wondrous mercy, never failing,
From their wanderings doth recall!

Wondrous Captain of salvation-
Jesus Christ, the glorified!
Wondrous succor in temptation,
All their needs He hath supplied!
Wondrous death and resurrection,
Heaven now is opened wide!
Wondrous joy in tribulation,
Suffering saints-His waiting bride!

Wondrous journey they are taking
Through this desert waste and wide!
Wondrous pilgrimage they're making
To a home beyond the tide!
Wondrous place the many mansions,
With the blood-washed gathered in!
Wondrous song of all the ransomed,

"Thou hast washed us from our sins"!
Wondrous glory then unfolding,
Mystery of ages past!
Heaven and earth with joy beholding
Him the first and Him the last!
Wondrous joy! 'tis God's salvation,
Satan vanquished, peace restored!
Wondrous name of exultation,
Jesus, Saviour! Jesus, Lord!

C.E.H.

It is our thought in this paper to consider briefly, in the light of the above text, the attacking of those who differ from us, both in a public and private way. For, after all, it is the " word of truth" that sanctifies.

The Lord's every act was perfect. Every thing was in due season. Each step He trod, there went up an odor of sweet incense unto the Father. Many, in their would-be zeal for God, undertook to rebuke Him; but He was not to be corrected. There was no dross to be consumed; He was (and is) the light of the sanctuary which required not the use of the golden snuffers. In and out among men on God's behalf, He sought their welfare, but not apart from the glory of God. He testified that their works were evil, uttering the words given Him of God; and He could say of His ministry among them, "They hated Me without a cause." He gave them no cause to hate Him.

In this, as in other things, it is ours to learn of Him. A much needed lesson, we may all readily admit. How often we reap our own sowing in regard to this! Giving those with whom we come in daily contact, and those to whom we may seek to declare the gospel in a public way, ample cause for hating us. It may be they refuse to hear the precious Word, and we grow weary in " well-doing."

Frequently resorting to carnal weapons to fight the flesh in others-manifesting the spirit of the disciples who " knew not what manner of spirit they were of," and would call down fire from heaven to consume them. The blessed Lord passed on to "another village,"shook the dust of their city from off His feet, "leaving us an example, that we should follow in His steps."

While we may marvel over our scanty fruit-bearing, so much apparent sowing needed to reap however small a harvest, how prolific are the results of our sowing to the flesh, springing up in congenial soil.

We may taunt and ridicule those Christ-rejecters, provoking them to envy and strife; but we ask, Is it the "wisdom that cometh from above," which is "first pure, then peaceable"? "He that winneth souls is wise." Is it wise to use scurrility? Is not such a course rather building towers and high walls? rearing obstacles which many years of "patient continuance in well-doing" can not efface ? We are persuaded that we create a vast deal of the prejudice we complain so bitterly about. It is largely our doing. We would not write to blunt the keen edge of "the truth," or that the "whole counsel of God" should not be declared. May the "gospel of Christ" be "fully preached," the present grace and the coming judgment; but do not needlessly rouse the flesh. Let them, if they must, hate you "without a cause."

The preaching of the gospel may, through the mercy of God, gather out precious souls in a locality; but where the close of the work is wound up by such needless provocation as we have described, what opposition those who abide there have to stem! And they also, true to their teaching, resort to the preacher's weapons of carnal warfare, and are perhaps made, in after years, to learn that they have been driving souls away where they cannot reach them. Alas, for our evil ways! We fail to have a "good report from them that are without"-think too lightly of what the world has to say of us. Is there not, alas! too much truth in their sayings?

May we learn not to be "buffeted for our faults," but for "well-doing," which is "acceptable with God." "Not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing, knowing that we are thereunto called that we should inherit a blessing."

We are told not to marvel that the world hates us. But may we seek so to live that they may hate us "without a cause" following in the gracious footsteps of our blessed Lord and Saviour, who "came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

"And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation." (Heb. 13:22.) M. Clingen.

From "D'Aubigne's History of the Great Reformation" p. 395 .–" There are two tendencies which equally lead us into error. The one exaggerates diversity; the other exaggerates unity. The essential doctrines of salvation are the unit between these two courses. To require more than these doctrines is to infringe this diversity; to require less, is to infringe unity.

"The latter excess is that of rash and rebellious minds, who look beyond Jesus Christ to form systems and doctrines of men.

"The former exists in various exclusive sects, and particularly in that of Rome.

"The Church should reject error, and unless this be done, Christianity cannot be maintained. But if this idea " were carried to extremes, it would follow that the Church should take arms against the least deviation. . . . Faith would thus be fettered, and the feelings of Christians reduced to bondage.

" Such was not the condition of the Church in the times of real catholicity,-the catholicity of the primitive ages. It rejected the sects that attacked the fundamental truths of the gospel, but these truths once received, it left full liberty to faith. Rome soon departed from this wise course, and in proportion as the dominion and teaching of men arose in the Church, there sprang up by their side a unity of man.

"When a merely human system had been once invented, coercion increased from age to age. The Christian liberty, respected by the Catholicism of the earlier ages, was at first limited, then enslaved, and finally stifled. Conviction which, according to the laws of human nature and of the Word of God, should be freely formed in the heart and understanding of man, was imposed from without, completely formed, and symmetrically arranged by the masters of mankind. Reflection, will, feeling,-all the faculties of the human being which, subjected to the "Word and Spirit of God, should work and bear fruit freely, were deprived of their liberty, and constrained to expand in shapes that had been determined upon beforehand. . . Doubtless there still existed many souls that had been taught direct of God, but the great majority of Christians from that time received the convictions of others only. A faith peculiar to the individual was rare; it was the Reformation alone that restored this treasure to the Church.

"And yet for some time there was a space within which the human mind was permitted to move. There were certain opinions that might be received or rejected at will. But as a hostile army day by day presses closer to a besieged city, compels the garrison to move only within the narrow boundary of its ramparts, and at last forces it to surrender, so the hierarchy from age to age, and almost from year to year, contracted the space that it had temporarily granted to the human mind, until at last this space, from continued encroachments, had ceased to exist. . . . The faithful were relieved of the fatigue of examining, of reflecting, of contending. All that they had to do was to repeat the formularies they had been taught.

" From that time, if there appeared in the bosom of Roman Catholicism any one who had inherited the Catholicism of the apostolic ages, such a man, feeling his inability to expand in the bonds in which he was confined, was compelled to snap them asunder and display again to the astonished world the unfettered bearing of a Christian who acknowledges no law save that of God."

We need to be upon our guard against an overwhelming tendency-namely, that unspiritual sensitiveness that would allow but the very smallest liberty for the discussion of any doctrines except those upon which we are agreed.

Unawares we shape our thoughts and utterances more and more to comply with this imperious tyranny until we arrive at, in a measure at least, a creed and communion with one another rather than the truth and communion with God.

Then it becomes a chief merit to comply, a demerit that puts one under a shadow of distrust to differ from the common sentiment that has thus gained its miserable sway. Thus Satan gains power to undermine character, and to cause us to bow down to and cling to our own poor thoughts in place of the sanctifying truth of God. Moderation, gentleness, and humility are dishonored and little esteemed, and high thoughts and high utterances carry the day, and are esteemed as a mark of spiritual discernment.

All this, as says Robinson's farewell to the Plymouth pilgrims, "is a misery much to be lamented." It is a hideous evil, which, if we are wise, we will tread under foot,-not nourish and cherish as we are so prone to do.

We rightly object to certain tendencies in controversy, yet often-rather, commonly-is not objection to controversy found on the side of sloth and superficiality, impatience and inability? And the end is, to be carried with the tide rather than won by the truth. I am not bound to have ability to argue, but I am bound to have faith in God, with patience and love.

Exercise in this school develops depth and fortitude which otherwise we miss, and drift in the weakening current of complacency with those with whom we can agree.

Even truth held in this latter condition of soul must be shorn of much of its proper sanctifying power; and error is accredited by human influence, and holds firm lodgment against attack. "I hate argument," often means, as has been said, " I don't want to be reasoned with;" and so also, " I hate controversy " as often means, " I lack tone and character to bear it, and I take credit to myself for what is really an unspiritual condition."

Controversy is accompanied generally by utterances that stir ill-feeling. Even so. This let us deplore, and humble ourselves, and pray about; and yet not be too sensitive on this score, for sincerity and sharpness may be at times in place, but let us deplore the tendency to err, and be warned against it, and seek help from God not to speak unadvisedly with the lips,-and how great a victory is this ! But shall we be so weak as to turn away from a conflict that may concern important points of truth because there is that is painful to the feelings, and that the careless scoffer or the superficial Christian will easily profess to be scandalized by?

There is a spirit abroad that has led the Church in every age to sacrifice truth to sloth, self-complacency, and intolerance, so that we may boast of peace and unity when spiritual power is gone, and we have arrived at the end of inquiry into the fathomless depths of the treasury of God's Word.

Let us never be weary of having all we hold exposed to the light, and tested anew by Scripture. It will do us good, and not harm, we may be sure. The truth will be dearer each time it comes off conqueror. We need not fear for results, and we will not, if holding the truth in communion with God.

May we avoid a rough handling of the Word and of one another; but above all, may we be preserved from the deathlike complacency of human agreement. And yet, may we desire to be of one mind.

And even in a periodical for general circulation, if at times a difference in judgment appears, may there not be this valuable lesson, aside from the truth involved, namely, that all may learn that it is possible to differ and yet forbear one another in humility and love?

Much of controversy would not be suitable, but to entirely exclude it, would it not be morbidness of the kind referred to in this article ? not a true, spiritual judgment.

Let us see to it that our thoughts, conclusions, and utterances in this are in the line of true, and not false and injurious principles, for we all contribute to that common sentiment among us that tends to sway and govern our lives. And such power has a principle,-that I may be sin-cere and yet in error, because the principle that governs 'me is false, as a devout Romanist is sincere, but his principles (such as subjection to his church,) are often darkness itself; and then how great is that darkness !

Let us be careful and prayerful that we may judge rightly, and speak rightly, lest we should hinder when we seek to help.

I add below a suggestive extract from " D'Aubigne's Reformation." E.S.L.

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

Thrones Around the Throne. (Chap. 4:4.)

This rainbow-girdled throne is a throne of judgment:" Out of the throne proceeded lightnings and. voices and thunders. " Mercy may and does restrain judgment within fixed limits, or use it sovereignly to fulfill purposes of widest, deepest blessing. None the less is it plain that the "throne of grace," to which it is the part of faith now to "come boldly, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need," is not here before us. Even the bow of promise itself speaks of a " cloud over the earth," which might seem to threaten ruin as by another deluge. The promise to Philadelphia warned of an "hour of trial" which was to "come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth," while it assured the overcomers there that the Lord would keep them out of this. And now before the lightnings are seen to issue from the throne, before the peal of judgment startles the world from its security, we find " round about the throne four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and on their heads crowns of gold." The promise has been fulfilled, and the " kings and priests " of God are around the throne of God.

That these are " thrones," not seats merely as in the common version, is not contested, so far as I know, by any one. That they are men, not angels,* who sit upon them, should be plain by many considerations. Their very title of "elders" speaks for it, and in Israel these were the representatives and rulers of the people. *E. H. Bickersteth, the author of ''Yesterday, To-day, and Forever," and Dr. Craven, American editor of Lange's Commentary on Revelation, are among those who advocate the angelic interpretation in the present day. The arguments of the latter are based entirely on the confusion of the multitudes of the redeemed in chaps. 7:and 14:with the heavenly saints of the present and the past dispensations.*

They are therefore saints, not angels, as the general consent of interpreters acknowledges. There are "thrones" indeed among angelic powers, but no priests :for priesthood speaks of mediation and of sin which requires it, and no provision of this kind is needed by the holy or exists in behalf of the fallen angels. No doubt the angel-priest of the eighth chapter will be urged by some, but here it is in behalf of men he offers, and there is but One to whom it belongs to add to the prayers of the saints that which gives them efficacy. Christ, therefore, though presented in a mysterious manner, must be the Priest in this case. No where else in Scripture is there the most distant thought of angelic priesthood.

But if the elders are saints, how are they represented to us in this picture? Not, plainly, as departed spirits, but as glorified beings, raised or changed, and evermore beyond the power of death. Not till Christ gets His human throne do His people get theirs (chap. 3:21). All rewards proper wait till the day when we shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and receive for the things done in the body (2 Cor. 5:10). Thus it is clear that the scene at which we are looking supposes resurrection come, and the voice of the Lord to have called us to Himself. Thus alone could the thrones around the throne be filled.

For the same reason we cannot conceive of any representation here of the position of Christians as now known to and enjoyed by faith. We are indeed " raised up together, and seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6); but this is a question of acceptance, not of reigning. Christ reigns, it is true, but in no wise has He taken that place as our representative. Seated upon the Father's throne, we are not seated in Him, nor ever shall be with Him there. Thus such a thought is absolutely forbidden to us, as that of a positional application of the vision before us.

More plausible would be the thought of anticipation,-a pledge and assurance for our encouragement of what is to. be only at the end enjoyed. Such anticipations there are in the book before us. The multitude out of all nations, who are seen in the seventh chapter as already " come out of the great tribulation," present us, in fact, with such an anticipatory vision. The woman of the twelfth, clothed with the glory of the sun, is in some such features similarly anticipative. Thus the principle is one we cannot refuse, and which might apply in this case. We have only to ask, Is there any thing which in fact would prevent our so applying it ?

Now, if we look at the white-robed multitude of the seventh chapter, which is the nearest in resemblance to the vision of the elders, if the latter be anticipative, we find one very marked difference between the two. The former is a complete whole, separated from the other visions which surround it, and not an integral part of the prophetic history. It forms no part of the events of the sixth seal, as it plainly forms none of the seventh, but, with its kindred vision of the Jewish remnant sealed, is inserted parenthetically between them. It interprets the course of the history, rather than forms part of it; and here the moral purpose of the interpretation is quite evident.

But suppose we had found, on the contrary, this company associated with the course of the prophecy throughout; present and worshiping when the Lamb takes the book; interpreting some of the after-visions; mentioned as present when other events take place:should we not look at it as strange and incongruous indeed to be told that it had no existence as such during this very time ? that it was only anticipatively brought before us,-an encouraging vision, not an actual fact?

Such is the relation of the elders to the prophecy before us until the nineteenth chapter closes with the appearing of the Lord. They sing the song of redemption when the Lamb takes the book; they interpret as to the white-robed multitude; they worship again when the seventh trumpet sounds; in their presence the new song is sung which the one hundred and forty-four thousand alone can learn; and when Babylon the Great is judged, they fall down once more before the throne, saying, "Amen, Halleluiah." It is not till after this that the Lord appears.

Thus the elders in heaven are no transient vision, but an abiding reality all through this long reach of prophecy. We must accept the fact of glorified saints enthroned around the throne of God from the commencement of the " things that shall be." With this, many other things are implied of necessity. The descent of the Lord into the air; the resurrection of the dead ; the change of the living saints; the rejection of the rest of the (now merely) professing church; the close of the Christian dispensation. All this we have already found in Scripture to take place before the incoming "end of the [Jewish] age,"-the last week of Daniel's seventy. The internal evidence harmonizes completely with what is derived from the general consent of prophecy, in proving to us to what point in the dispensations we have here arrived.

Daniel had long before this spoken of thrones around the throne. " I beheld," he says, "till thrones were placed (R.V.), and One that was. Ancient of days did sit" (chap. 7:9). But he can tell us nothing more as to the occupants of these thrones. The earthly, and not the heavenly side is given to him to unfold. John not only shows us the occupants, but his vision antedates that of Daniel, and raises the thrones themselves to a higher elevation. We must pass on to the twentieth chapter of this book to find the scene which the Old-Testament prophet depicts, and there the character of rule is limited every way both as to time and place. " They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." This is earthly rule, and not yet the new earth; but it is just as plainly said of Christ's "servants" in the New Jerusalem, "they shall reign forever and ever." Here the limitation is gone, and the heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, are fully manifested.

The idea of a millennial reign, true and scriptural as it is, tends to get too large possession of the thoughts of those often styled "millennarians," a word which answers to the early " chiliasts,"-both derived from this " thousand years "of rule. And these, as shown in Papias, Justin, and Irenaeus, conceived" of it in a Jewish and earthly fashion, seriously conflicting with the Christian's heavenly hope. To this Old-Testament expectation many in the present day have swung round again, and we cannot too earnestly protest against it.

The truth is, that to those whose hope is the millennium, it is quite natural and necessary to go to the Old Testament for their views of it. But then they are in the line of Jewish promises, and an appropriation of these to a greater or less extent is to be looked for. This is the mode in which have been produced some of the most heterodox and evil systems of the day.

If we would "rightly divide the Word of God," it can be only by respecting the divisions which the Word itself has established for us. And if we ask ourselves, What has the New Testament to say of the millennium? for how much of our knowledge of it are we indebted to its pages? the answer will be impressive and should be enlightening.

In the New Testament we find, first of all, that it is a millennium,-that is to say, that it is limited as a period. It belongs not to eternity. It precedes the " new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;" closes with the judgment of the great white throne, and passing away of present things.

It is not, therefore, as so often represented, Sabbath-rest, but only the last day of man's work-day week, the last of the probationary dispensations. Its true type is the. sixth day of the creative week when man and woman are put at the head of earthly government, and not the seventh day, which God hallows because He can rest. The merest glance at Rev. 20:,-the merest reference to the Old-Testament prophet, ought to make this so plain that there should be no need to spend another word in its defense.

But what, then, must be the effect of substituting for what is everlasting that which is temporal and transient merely? Certainly, it cannot be a light one. With many, it has perverted the whole future before them, and introduced into it elements destructive to Christianity. To any, it must be hurtful, just in proportion to their occupation with it. For the truth it is that sanctifies. Error demoralizes and despiritualizes. How much, if it touch that in which the heart is called to rest, as it were, looking forward and entering into it as that in which God shall rest eternally? What indeed we hope for, we practically reach after, and are controlled and fashioned by it.

The New Testament speaks of the binding of Satan during these thousand years, and of the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. It speaks also-and this is the positive feature which it adds to the Old-Testament picture,-of the reign of the saints with Christ over the earth. This is expressed in the Lord's promise to the apostles that they should " sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28); in the authority given over ten or over five cities (Luke 19:16-19); in the promise of the rod of iron (Rev. 2:26, 27); and of sitting with the Son of Man upon His throne (3:21). In the twentieth chapter of this book, it is the one thing we find as to the millennium besides the fact of its being such, and the binding of Satan. These things are significant. The New-Testament blessings are "in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:3), and thus the book of Revelation adds but the heavenly side to the earthly picture. It shows us beyond the judgment of the dead the new heavens and earth, and the tabernacle of God with men; and then the prophecy closes with the description of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city.

The millennial rule, characterized by the rod of iron which dashes in pieces the opposition of the nations, is a special, exceptional kingdom for a great purpose, which being accomplished, it is given up. Christ sits now at the right hand of God until He makes His foes His footstool; and this subjecting of His enemies goes on until death, the last enemy, is subdued. This is preparatory to the judgment of the great white throne, and after this Christ delivers up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all (i Cor. 15:24-28).

The special kingdom closes, but this does not and cannot touch the blessed truth that the throne in the heavenly city remains, past all changes, the "throne of God and of the Lamb;" nor this, that "His servants shall serve Him . . . and shall reign forever and ever." The thrones around the throne abide forever. The joint-heirship with Christ-wonder of divine grace as it is-on that very account can be no passing thing. The rod of iron passes away. All that speaks of sin as present passes necessarily
The glory of the grace remains. In the ages to come He will show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7).

(To be continued.)

MOTTO FOR 1889.
"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ."

Not only are the mines of Scripture yet little worked, there is a wealth of precious things yet upon the surface which we have never made our own for all the centuries we have had the fields in our possession. What are we more familiar with than the parables of this chapter ? They are the constant theme of the evangelist; they are among the most prized treasures of faith every where. They are sung in hall and in street, lisped by childhood and studied by youth, and often link for the dying the most precious memories of the past with the joys into which they are entering. And yet, even among so-called evangelical Christians, how often do we find contradictory conceptions of these very parables ! If we ask, Who are the " ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance"? who are the two "sons" of the last parable ? how is it that the father says to the elder son, "All that I have is thine"? we shall find very different answers given by different persons of at least the average intelligence in spiritual things.

It is no purpose of mine to take up these differences, but rather to look at the parables themselves for what the Lord in His grace may grant us out of them for edification and blessing; only making the diversity of view the argument for closer examination of their meaning and design. One thing is sure :however often we may have come to these divine springs, we shall find still that there is fresh and living water. Blessed are they only that hunger and thirst:they shall ever be filled.

The occasion of the three parables was a common one, and they are so manifestly linked together in subject, all the more clearly because of their individual differences, that scarcely a question can be raised on that score. In each case, what has been lost is found; in each, the joy- the basis- and the crowning joy-is, blessed be God, in the one who finds what he ,has lost. The threefold story of the love that seeks and finds suggests (what a further view confirms abundantly) that here it is the heart of the whole Godhead that is told out to us. Father, Son, and Spirit are all occupied with man. Around him revolves an interest that makes all things its witnesses and servants for its blessed purposes.

The occasion is this, that there "were drawing near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him." And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them."

Our common version says, " Then drew near," but the words do not speak of what merely happened at a certain time, but of what was habitually taking place. We see that every where through the gospels, from the day at least in which He called Levi from the receipt of custom, and Levi made Him a feast in His own house, " publicans and sinners" flocked around the Lord. They had gone out largely to John's baptism before that, when through the gate of repentance they were invited to come to find remission of their sins. Now, when grace sought them more openly, it was to be expected that they would beyond others welcome it. And they did. "Verily I say unto you," were Christ's words to the Pharisees, "that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not, but the publicans and the harlots believed him; and ye, when you saw it, did not even repent yourselves afterward, that ye might believe him" (Matt. 21:31, 32).

The Pharisees resented the grace that welcomed such ; for this grace makes its own demand, and, with the inflexibility of law itself, will abate nothing. " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," is harshness indeed to "just persons who have no need of repentance;" and this is how the parable itself describes those to whom, as murmurers against His ways, He is replying. Surely it is evident that if in the last parable alone this murmuring is distinctly found in the person of the elder son, the first no less pictures the two parties to whom alike they were uttered.

People look around to find a class who have no need of repentance, and some who cannot find them on earth apply our Lord's words to the angels ! A common hymn we sing speaks of the same class as-

"The ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold,"

but of this the parable says nothing. The mistake is in making a reality out of what is but the image in a mirror which the Lord puts before His audience that they may recognize themselves. And from this He necessarily pictures them according to their own estimate of themselves,-an estimate which He uses at the same time for the purpose of conviction on the one side, of encouragement on the other. Had he pictured them other than their own thought, the arrow would have missed its mark. How could they fail to apply aright these righteous men whom He exhibited to them in contrast with this wandering sheep,-"lost,"or self-destroyed? How could they interpret wrongly this "elder son" serving his father in the field, indignantly pleading against the free reception of his unworthy brother his own ill-requited years of toil? Yet after all, in what seems to admit their fullest claim, they find themselves convicted and exposed, their argument refuted, and their heartlessness and distance from God laid bare.

Yet withal God Himself is at the same time so wondrously revealed, that when the scene closes with that direct appeal upon the father's part-"Then came his father out and entreated him;"-you listen involuntarily for the sudden sob which shall tell of another heart, no less a prodigal's, broken down into confession and return.

The scribes taught much in parables. The Lord will have them listen to parables in turn. We feel, in the style in which He addresses Himself to them here, that the reason is not that which He gives upon another occasion to His disciples :" Therefore speak I unto them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." No doubt, here as elsewhere, the parable would, like the seed of which He was speaking in the former case, test the receptive character of the ground upon which it fell. Yet the pleading in them cannot be mistaken either. Did He not, as just now said, Himself picture the Father as entreating even the Pharisee? Could He do less, or hide from them in words hard to be interpreted, that very entreaty?

The gentlest, most persuasive, winning form of speech is undoubtedly the parable. There is the attractiveness of the story itself, as the lips here could tell it, taking possession of one before even its meaning might become plain, and then detaining the soul to listen to that meaning. There is the hold upon the memory which we all realize, by virtue of which it might, like incorruptible seed, lodge in the frozen ground until a more genial time should give it leave to expand and root itself. With how many has it not been so since ! and how great a harvest may we not be sure will yet be seen to have sprung from this sowing ! Sow it in some hearts afresh even now, blest Sower, Son of Man, for Thy love's sake !

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

"And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing.

" And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.

" I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance."

They have assailed Him for His love, and the Lord first of all, therefore, answers for Himself. He will afterward, though in a more covert way, show how the Spirit, and then openly how the Father, is of one mind with Him. Are they not too ? He asks. If it were only a sheep that was in question, there would be no doubt. Alas, that doubt could only come in where men were concerned! Would they indeed value a man lower than a sheep? But these were His:put them upon that low level, who should forbid His interest in them ?

He does not compare Himself to the shepherd here. He might act as that, but He was much more than that- even the Owner of the sheep. We see that he makes the loftiest claim here. They are His,-even these poor publicans and sinners. He who made them and fashioned them is He who is in pursuit of them. Will they question His right ?

It is a first principle for faith that God is the seeker; that there is heart in Him,-goodness in Him. We are not bid to batter at closed doors. We have not to soften Him to pity, or turn Him toward us. We feel our hardness toward Him, and we think Him hard. We listen to our consciences that accuse us, and we think we hear His voice in them, who yet "upbraideth not." What a revelation of God is this, when Christ, down here among men, becomes His true and only representative !

Conscience is not the voice of God to us. It is the voice of self-conviction, of the moral nature within us, pronouncing upon ourselves, and which makes us rightly anticipate a judgment to come. But even here, while it is the eye to see, there is no less required the light to see. In the twilight darkness in which so many are shrouded, what is unreal is oftentimes confounded with the real. If a poor Romanist omits his worship of the virgin, conscience may smite him for it. If he gets his absolution from the priest, he feels relieved and happy. Of many, Scripture says, " Even their mind and conscience is defiled" (Tit. 1:15). It may have its fools' paradise or its fabled purgatory. As the light comes in, reality succeeds to the unreal, Andy in the day that comes there will be nothing hid.

But conscience can never take the place of revelation. God only can tell me what He is, or what Christ did for me, or how my soul can be at peace with Him. For all this, I must listen to the Word alone. It alone can bring in the true eternal light in which conscience and heart alike can find their rest and satisfaction forever.

God reveals Himself then as Seeker. It is He whose the sheep are who is come after them. In this character He is for the lost, the wanderer, though it be, as with these publicans, that worst wandering, heart and mind astray, and astray hopelessly, without power of self-recovery. A bottomless word, this " lost" ! Not even the Pharisees would have uttered it of these publicans; for they believed in an inherent power in man by which, though by painful effort and perseverance, the crooked might be straightened yet Were there not legal sacrifices and prescribed restitutions, ablutions, and purifications ?

Divine love saw lost ones,-saw in its full extent the misery which it alone was adequate to relieve, and that misery, so hopeless otherwise, brought it down on their behalf. The Creator becomes the Saviour. He " goeth after that which is lost until He find it." With the divine power and wisdom in pursuit, there is no uncertainty here as to success. Help is laid upon One who is mighty, with whom to fail would be indeed irretrievable disaster, convulsing heaven and earth in universal ruin. But there is no fear :the cause of the helpless is become the cause of the Almighty, "to the praise of the glory of His grace."

Pharisees, publicans, and sinners alike knew who were these lost ones thus made the objects of God's special interest. No one of them needed to inquire, as so many to-day are found inquiring, " Is this for me?" It was a definite gospel addressing itself without any possibility of question to those whose hearts claimed so great salvation, and whose consciences put them in this strangely privileged class. They had but to take the divine estimate of them to find themselves enrolled among the heirs of salvation. And here, marvelous to say, communion with God begins for the poor sinner who thus is at one with God as to his condition and his need.

Light has shone in upon the soul, and though it be but upon ruin, yet here also, as in the six days' work, God sees the light that it is good. It is the proof of a work begun which shall end only in the rest of God when at last all is good. The soul is in His presence whose presence yet shall be fullness of joy to it. We are new-born, as born naturally, with a cry.

"Until He find it." He has made the responsibility of that His own. Blest news for the consciously helpless,- the work is His. The effect of this sweet assurance, where it takes hold, is that Christ is revealed in it. The lost are found :the everlasting arms are realized to be about them. Not more surely are they disclosed to themselves than He is disclosed to them. This is rest begun. He has given it.

"He goeth after that which is lost until He find it." Then these lost are found. Infinite power and love are on the track and cannot fail. It is plain, then, that the Lord is speaking, not of all men as in a lost condition (for all men are not found), but for the ear and heart of these who were flocking now around Him. His words are no mere generalities, powerless to minister to the need of souls, but divine seed finding its own place, and rooting itself in the furrows of the plowed-up ground, where the work of the Spirit gives it entrance.
It is a blessed thing to be able to give a free and general offer of salvation,-to say, "Christ died for all :come to Him, and He will give you rest." Yet there are those who need even a closer individualization. There are those who lie wounded by the road-side, needing, not merely the call of the gospel, but the grasp of the strong, tender hands, and the binding up of the gaping wounds. There are those to whom, if they cannot appropriate Him, Christ would appropriate Himself,-those who dare not thrust out leprous hands to Him because of their pollution, and who can only be liberated and brought out of their isolation by that direct touch of His, in which a new, undreamed-of life for them begins.

" He goeth after that which is lost." How much do those quiet words involve !

" But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night which the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep which was lost."

The cross was the only place in which He could overtake these wanderers. It is only as we realize what the cross is that we find the arms of this mighty love thrown round us. Here indeed He has come where we are. Here is the place in which, without rebuke, we can claim Him,-our place, the place of our doom,-our substitute and sin-bearer He who takes it. The awful cloud which has shadowed His glory has destroyed forever the distance between us. The crucified One is ours; for the death and judgment He has borne are ours. These are our due,-our penalty; and we have them in the cross borne and borne away from us. He has found the lost; and immediately we are freed and up borne by the might of this redemption and by the living power of the Redeemer :"He layeth it upon His shoulders rejoicing."

How blessed is this! What can be the force of such words, but to assure us of the complete triumph of divine love in the poor sinner's salvation! There is to be no trusting him to himself again; no possible forfeiture of all the toil and pains of divine love in his behalf. The joy is His who brings back His own. The loss now would be indeed His loss. The failure clearly, as represented here, would be His. Failure, then, there cannot be. Put all the weakness, folly, waywardness of the now recovered one in the strongest way, and prove them by the most conclusive of arguments, what does all this do but furnish the most satisfactory reason why the sheep should be where it is, upon the shoulders of the shepherd, and not upon its own feet ?

This, then, is salvation in the Lord's thought of it in this parable. It is salvation "to the uttermost" (Heb. 7:25), -complete, eternal (chap. 5:9) salvation. This alone suits the case; alone gives peace to the conscience, alone gives rest to the heart. And it is here assured to every one who, looking to the Saviour, finds himself in this company of lost ones, after whom is His special quest. And how beautifully, in this freest of gospels, is repentance thus insisted on as inseparable from saving faith ! "And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them, ' Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.' I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."

Here the moral is plainly reached, and the application is easy. Who is the sinner that repenteth? Beyond all possible doubt, the sheep which was lost. Who are the just persons that need no repentance? As plainly, those who have never been thus consciously and hopelessly astray. It is to the consciousness of those before Him the Lord appeals; and upon this depends the force of that appeal. These publicans and sinners who as such flocked to hear the message of grace, were those in whom was repentance; and so the gospel, with all its real freedom, selects (so to speak) its recipients. The ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance have, on this very account, no need of and no taste for grace. No less certainly than the needle follows the magnet do these convicted sinners follow and cleave to Christ.

There are many teachers,-there are many and conflicting teachings,-there were at that time, there have been ever; yet we are not left to this confusion and uncertainty. Nor are the simplest and most ignorant left to be the dupes of those subtler than themselves. No, there is a rule of God's moral government which forbids such a result. For, let a man but face his own convictions,-let him only admit the sin which his conscience, if not hardened, witnesses against him, and realize the helplessness which soon discovers itself to those in earnest to be delivered,-there is but one voice that can be authoritative for him any more. The jangle of contending voices is hushed; scribes, doctors of the law, names, and parties, and schools of thought become utterly insignificant. Faith hears only Him who says, with calmness and assurance, "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." ' It is the Lord; and He who invites to rest, Himself rests in the rest He gives. It is that for which He has labored. "Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel . . . the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty:He will save; He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will joy over thee with singing." (Zeph. 3:17.)

I would follow Jesus
Wholly in the way;
Doing all He pleases,-
Loving to obey;
At His feet be sitting,
Resting on His Word,
Daily lessons learning
Of my risen Lord.

Learning in the desert
Lessons of His grace,-
Catching, through the portals,
Glimpses of His face,
Shining from the glory
Of ray home above,
Shedding sunshine o'er me,
Telling of His love.

Knowing Jesus only,
Setting man aside,
Taking Him who's worthy
As my only Guide;
Resting 'neath His shadow,
Where no earth-mists come,
On His arm be leaning
Till I reach my home.

Gently to the haven
Nearing day by day,
Walking with my Saviour
In the narrow way;
I would follow Jesus
Wholly in the way,
Doing what He pleases,
Loving to obey.

The subject of "life" is one which needs much care I in its consideration, and this on various accounts. No one can define life, even natural life. The acutest minds have either declared the impossibility of it, or done what they could to demonstrate this by their own failure. Its admitted different applications increase the difficulty. And when to this is added the use of terms hardly accurate, and at least not well understood by those who use them, it will be perceived that the need of care is abundantly evident.

I propose now only a very brief inquiry into the meaning of terms which are not, indeed, found in Scripture at all, but which are in frequent use among many students of Scripture, to express truth which I have no doubt it teaches, and truth which is important also, though it may be, and is, in fact, strange to many Christians. Naturally, our first endeavor will be to understand the statements of the Word itself, and then we shall have the truth which these terms are intended to express, and thus ability to see what, if they are rightly to be used, must be conveyed by them, and to guard against confusion and abuse.

The first scriptural statement is "that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (i Jno. 5:ii). It is the "divine nature" of the child of God, by virtue of which he is that:a real communication to the soul, "that which is born of the Spirit" being "spirit" (Jno. 3:6) as that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

But this new birth is also spoken of as quickening from the dead (Eph. 2:5), and a quickening together with Christ. Thus our life is connected, in its beginning, with Christ being quickened from the dead. Our quickening is identified with His, plainly because our life is in Him, and that He is the " last Adam "-head of the new race of men.

The Lord's words unite with this :" I am the resurrection and the life :he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and he who liveth and believeth on Me shall never die" (Jno. 11:25, 26). It is plain that the Lord lays stress here not upon His being the life only, but the resurrection also, and that the resurrection is a present power for the life. So He says, not life and in due time resurrection, but resurrection and so life. And to this agrees the distinction made between the present and the past. He who had believed and died should live again; the power of death should yet be broken for him. In the present time, Christ having come as resurrection, there was no death for the believer on Him to meet:"he that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die." The life he gives is thus resurrection-life, the power of death left broken behind it.

Again, in the twelfth chapter He says, " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Here life for us springs out of the Lord's death :we are the fruit in resurrection, quickened with Him.

The scriptural basis of the term "resurrection-life" is evident, then.

But here is the difficulty. If the life we receive is divine life-life that was in Him before ever He came upon earth, or took up human life at all,-how could this divine life be resurrection-life as well ? It surely was not divine life that the Lord gave up on the cross, but His human life. It was this also He took up again in resurrection. Eternal life could know no interruption, nor the divine nature die. How, then, do we receive resurrection-life?

Confusion is in the minds of many upon this point; and it has led, I doubt not, to the mistake that some are making as to the Old-Testament saints not possessing eternal life. Does not eternal life begin for us with Christ's quickening from the dead ? Is it not resurrection-life ? How, then, could the Old-Testament saints possess it ? Then if it be resurrection-life, how can you distinguish it from the human life of " the Man Christ Jesus " ? And then, still more plainly, is not a communication of life to those living before impossible?

We have only to make some plain distinctions, and the confusion will begin to clear. In the first place, eternal life in its very nature admits of no cessation or interruption; neither death nor resurrection can be strictly predicated of it. Nay, the life strictly eternal-that is, divine life-knows no beginning any more than end. It begins for us, of course; we. are brought, one after another, into the participation of it. The life in itself never began, and that is the sense in which it is called "eternal life."

It was, of course, His human life that the Lord laid down, and which He took again in a new condition. In this He was alone; it is not this which He has communicated to us, although by and by we shall be in the image of the heavenly, our bodies change into the likeness of His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). " We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (i Jno. 3:2). This involves no communication to us of His human life, or reception of His heavenly humanity,-a thing which ritualism dreams of being effected by sacraments, and to which some who are by no means ritualists seem to be getting back. His own resurrection-life we have not received.

The life communicated to us is eternal life, and this from the "last Adam" who "is a quickening spirit" (i Cor. 15:45). But by it we are children of God. It is never said "of Christ," but of the Father, and thus distinctly it is intimated what is the nature of the life received. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

But how, then, is it resurrection-life ?

Only in this way, that, as communicated to us now by One who has been in death, and come up for us out of it, the virtue of this is connected with the reception of life. If He was "raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25), we, with the life received, have "justification of life" (chap. 5:18). We are not only children of God; we have an acknowledged right to the place of children. We have the "adoption," the sons' position, and so can have the "Spirit of adoption." These are the immense and special privileges of believers of the present day.

It is not that the life is higher or other than that which those born of God have possessed from the beginning. What can be higher than divine life ? " Except any one be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" and if born again, "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It must be either denied that Old-Testament saints were born again, or acknowledged that they had the divine " spirit "-nature, which is "eternal life."

It has been asked, " How, then, could the Lord say, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone,' if in fact there were already multitudes of those who had received this life ?" To this it seems easy to answer that He could have said as well, " Except the Son of Man be lifted up, no man can be saved," while yet myriads had been saved before He said it. But only through His being lifted up, though it might be many generations before it. The stream of blessing flows backward as well as forward from the cross; and that is all such texts as this insist on.

And we are " quickened together with Christ," not because we are quickened with the life which He took back again from the dead, but because His death (which resurrection demonstrates as accepted for us) is that out of which alone comes to us this unspeakable blessing of a life by which we pass from under judgment into the place and relationship of children with the Father-sons of the living God.

He leads us on
By paths we did not know,-
Upward He leads us, though our steps be slow;
Though often we faint and falter on the way,-
Though storms and darkness oft obscure the day,
Yet when the clouds are gone,
We know He leads us on.

He leads us on
Through all the unquiet years,-
Past all our dream-land hopes and doubts and fears
He guides our steps. Through all the tangled maze
Of sin, of sorrow, and o'er-clouded days,
We know His will is done;
And still He leads us on.

And He, at last,
After the weary strife,-
After the restless fever men call life,-
After the dreariness, the aching pain,
The wayward struggles which have proved in vain,-
After our toils are past-
Will give us rest at last.

Q. 6.-Do we have eternal life immediately " through His blood," or "redemption" only?

Ans. – Life is the fundamental blessing for every one, and all spiritual life is eternal life. . Justification is attached to this :it is "justification of life." So with redemption. It is the possession of life that puts us among the people for whom atonement has been offered and accepted. The work done in us and the work done for us are thus inseparably connected.

Q. 7.-Did the Lord "take again" the life-" in the blood"- that was poured out on the cross?

Ans.-When He says, "I lay down My life that I may take it again," it does not follow that it was life in the same condition as before, and indeed it was not. "The life of all flesh is in the blood " (Lev. 17:) applies, of course, only to the natural life of man which he shares with the beast. But " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption " (1 Cor. 15:50). Blood is the supply of the waste of the body, the means of change and repair-necessary only in this way. The Lord, in resurrection, speaks of Himself as having "flesh and bones" (Luke 24:39), not "flesh and blood." In a body no longer subject to waste and renewal, the presence of blood would seem to have no meaning.

Q. 8.-Did He bear His own blood into the holiest, or only enter Himself?

Ans.-He entered by, not with it (Heb. 9:12). I suppose no one contends for the latter literally.

Q. 9.-Did He "give" (as "the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep ") eternal life? or is eternal life through quickening?

Ans.-Eternal life could not be given up, or laid down, at all. It is not the life in the flesh, but the divine nature,-a thing totally distinct from what was laid down or taken again. I have dwelt on this in a separate place under the head of "Resurrection-life."

Q. 10.-Is the "corn of wheat" (Jno. 12:24) the "incorruptible seed"-"the Word" of 1 Pet. 1:23? and is it by this, through the Spirit, that "you hath He quickened"?

Ans.-The "Word" in 1 Pet. 1:is stated (5:25) to be that which is preached in the gospel. It is not Christ Himself, but the word of the gospel, and which God makes, by His Spirit, effectual to souls (1 Thess. 1:5). This is incorruptible seed in the soul that receives it. (Comp. 1 Jno. 1:9:"his seed remaineth in him.")

Q. 11.-Is eternal life communicated otherwise than in being "born of the Word"? and is "in Him was life" true for us, except as the "Word made flesh," and as "His own Son in the likeness of-flesh"?

Ans.-The first question has been already answered in the negative; but the capital letter to "Word" suggests that perhaps Christ is meant here. It is never said that we are born of Christ, or of the Word in that sense, though He is indeed the "last Adam"-head of the new race of men. A paper on "New Creation," in the fourth volume of Help and Food, may help as to this.

The last question has been often discussed, and very seriously. Only through incarnation and atonement could life be ours, of course; but it was possessed by the saints of the Old Testament before the Lord had actually come. Otherwise they would not have been children of God at all. The paper on "Resurrection-life " may help also here; also "Life Abundantly," in vol. 3:, printed as a separate tract.

Q. 12.-Does 1 Cor. 5:teach that the whole assembly at Corinth was leavened? If so, with what sin was it leavened? Could those in fellowship there be leavened with a sin they had not committed, or with a doctrine they had not received? Would it be correct to say that the assembly was leavened and defiled with the sin of disobedience to the commands of the Lord, springing out of the original sin of the wicked person or false teacher?

Ans.-The assembly was certainly leavened :the apostle says so, in fact, when he bids them purge out the old leaven, that they might be a new lump. The lump, the whole mass, then, was leavened. It was not "new," since the "old" had corrupted it. "Ordinary leaven consisted of a lump of old dough in a high state of fermentation, which was inserted into a mass of dough prepared for baking." This is the key to the terms "old leaven" and "new lump."

Objection has been made from the words which the apostle concludes:"that ye maybe a new lump as ye are unleavened.'' But it is simple enough that he does not say, " as ye are an unleavened lump," nor could he say it:for how would it be consistent to say, "purge out the old leaven that ye may be an unleavened lump, as ye are"? Yet a "new lump" means a lump not characterized by what is old, and the old is the leaven. It is plain, then, that he never means to say they were an unleavened lump. Corporately, they were leavened; but in their individual status in the life which they had in Christ, they were as the loaves of the showbread which represented Israel before God-unleavened. He would have their corporate condition correspond to this.

No one beside, that we know, had committed the sin which the one among them had, but their going on with the offender was guilty disregard for the glory of God, as if He could go on with that with which they went on. And this was worse, if possible, than the heady passion which leads into sin, cool passionless indifference to it. An individual and an assembly are here on similar ground, and it may help to compare them. In the individual case, it is true that "in many things we offend all;" and so self-deceived may we be, that even an apostle could say, "I know nothing by"-that is, "against"-"myself; yet am I not hereby justified, but He that judgeth me is the Lord." There was with him a conscience exercised, that he might be alway void of offense toward God and toward man; and yet there might be undetected evil:he could pray still, " Cleanse Thou me from secret faults."

Here, however, there was no leaven. Communication with God could be maintained, as is evident. Now, if the conscience were not exercised, even though there were no known sin, would it be the same in this respect? Surely not. Indifference to sin, is it not already sin? and can a conscience be void of offense without the exercise which the apostle believed necessary to maintain it? It was here that Israel sinned in the case of Achan. They did not know of what was in their midst, but they were held responsible nevertheless. Had they been with God, they would have known.
How much more, then, when there is known sin to be judged, and it is not judged? The assembly and the individual are on the same footing here, just because sin is the same abominable thing With God, and His attitude toward it, wherever it may be, the same. People inquire for the warrant for judging assemblies:do they need, or will they ask for, warrant for judging sin? If a man has identified himself with evil, so that he cannot be separated from it, we must at all costs separate from the sin, therefore from him who persists in it. Just so with an assembly, or any number of assemblies:we must separate from sin. But they say, We will not separate from the evil, and you must not separate from us who shelter it!

Power to judge assemblies! let them speak rather of responsibility to "judge them that are within." Is sin less sin when an assembly shelters it? Of course, we must show patience, and separation is only the last resort; but the principles are not different with regard to the individual or the assembly. "The knowledge of the Holy is understanding."