"Leaky vessels hold no water. If in Christ, you will be full of water. A vessel with no bottom to it can be kept full of water if in a fountain. Out of Christ, we are broken vessels, holding none. There is nothing in the vessel apart from Christ."

"How little our hearts love things according to their nearness to Christ! How little thought we have of the preciousness of Christians because they are dear to Christ! We ought to love good things for Christ's sake, and not only for the dew that distills from them for our refreshment." G.V.W.

I. THE PRINCIPLE.

How blessed a thing is faith ! In a world like this, where we come out of darkness, only for sight and sense to return to darkness again; where in the meantime we walk amid a strife of jarring passions, interests, elements, which at every turn beset and harass us,-the world with all its beauty yet in strange, dread isolation from the universe and its Maker;-how blessed is that which at once transforms every thing for us; by which the mouths of lions are stopped, the violence of fire is quenched, the dead are raised up, or, more wondrous still, we find strength to endure whatever evils, because of the joy before us! Surely, to man, such faith is "precious faith." And to God how precious! for faith means the heart's return to Him from whom we all had fallen. The isolation, the darkness, the evil, are no necessary parts of the inheritance designed for us, but the tokens of our shame and of our sin. The light which faith perceives is the light of a new life begun in the sovereign grace of God from out of death in trespasses and sins.

No wonder, then, if we turn with ever-fresh interest and delight to the record of faith's actings in by-gone days, in sympathy with those who lived and walked and suffered in the power of it; and to learn for ourselves, encompassed with the trials through which they have preceded us, the lesson of their conflict, and the secret of their victories. God uses them thus with us, knowing our weakness, encouraging us by those whose kinship with our weakness is that which most encourages us, as the apostle reminds us even of an Elias, that he was a man of like passions with ourselves; Scripture hiding nothing of the failure and infirmities which show how truly he was that, for the purpose of preserving for us in full power the sweetness of that assurance.

In this chapter, we have a long catalogue of things which faith wrought in the saints of old, expressly given to stir our hearts by the remembrance; and it is my purpose, if the Lord will, to take them up one by one, and see what virtue He may give to distill out of them for blessing to souls. We may not seem to have fallen upon days susceptible of some shapes in which that which we seek exhibited itself in them. Perhaps it may only serve the more to appeal to us, when our danger is that of laxity, and timid shrinking from penalties not to be compared with theirs. It is good to remember that, however circumstances alter, they do not affect the reality of that for which God is seeking as earnestly as ever, that it " may be unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

What, then, is faith ? " Faith is the substance " -or "substantiation,"-says the apostle,"of things hoped for, the evidence [or conviction] of things not seen." This was the principle of lives so dear to God, so bright to us:" for by it the elders obtained a good report." They had their eyes upon the unseen; and more, they had their hearts in it. Drawn by what was theirs beyond mortal sight, they were in the darkness of the world as stars that shone out of a black sky. Their lives were not so much better in degree than other men's, as they were different in character. And as with stars of varying magnitude, each star was yet a star, not to be confounded with any other thing.

And no less still is the life of faith entirely different from any other life. It may be found in a garret, and very often is, for "God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith ; " but wherever it is, its true character and dignity will shine out. It is like nothing else in the world, for its glory is not of the world.

The heart and life under the power of things unseen! This is not honesty, justice, uprightness, benevolence, or any or all other things in repute among men; although it will produce all this, no doubt. So too to these may be added an orthodox belief and profession of Christianity. Men may believe in Christianity and in Christ, with never a doubt intruding, and yet never faith. " Many believed in His name when they saw the miracles which He did; but Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, for He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man." It was " in man " to believe after this fashion,-all thoroughly human, and no more. But it is not to such a class I am addressing myself now, although the reminder may help to fasten inquiry upon our souls, if we do not,-although believers to whom Jesus has committed Himself,- mistake often for the life of faith a life of moralities and benevolent activities, covered with a Christian dress:a life in which, we shall discover, if God stir our hearts to look, none of the trials, difficulties, rejection by the world, which a life of faith supposes, and on the other, little of the presence of Jesus, or of the glow upon the spirit of him who said, "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God."

The light of heaven shines only on the pilgrim-path, and faith is ever :and only in this world a pilgrim. A path narrow indeed, but opening out in prospects of unutterable glory just there where for men at large rests impenetrable darkness. And then faith has, not a king's highway, and on the other hand, not merely guide-posts along the road, but a living Leader, whose word must be sought at His mouth, and followed often into strange places, where no path may be but by a rift in the sea, and every resource of our own fail us.

For the Christian, there is but one hindrance to faith in reality, for every other finds its strength in this. Faith is subjection, dependence, and so confidence; and this is the order of its development in us. Self-will is its opposite and enemy ever, the one means and method of attack of the whole power of Satan and the world. Self-judgment-the opposite of self-occupation-is that which maintains faith in simplicity and power therefore. If we complain of weakness of faith, the real reason is here, in not suffering that which God declares fully to control us. Christ, if received by us, must be sovereign in us; and the sovereign source of supply, if indeed out of our bellies shall flow rivers of living water.

Let us ask ourselves, then, as we begin these histories, and if we are satisfied that we live by faith, Do we walk by faith? Are our lives honestly surrendered to Christ their Lord ? For it is certain a path of faith can have no meaning for us if it be not so; that we cannot have faith for any thing but God's path. And for each one of us, whatever our circumstances, to take that path will individualize us, bring conscience into thorough exercise, make all kinds of difficulties for us which nothing but the wisdom and power of God can meet, cast us upon Him, therefore, in a very real way, which will not leave us in the least doubt of what is meant by a walk of faith; and what its issue will be, let faith say. Surely no saint of ancient or modern times would give a bad report of the way the Lord led him, any more than of the end to which He led. No witness here but beckons us forward. First of all, Leader of all, He who coming from the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, tells us from the depths of such a humiliation,-" My meat is to the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." ( To be continued, D. V.)

A Letter to a Friend.

BELOVED BROTHER, –

Many thanks for a sight of the letter you inclose. If I do not consider the question raised quite as important as the writer does, it is only because I think there is misapprehension in his mind as to what he is commenting on; and even then, the difference that remains is really important. I shall therefore give you my thoughts somewhat fully, and with all the simplicity of which I am capable; so that if I be in error, at least that error may be made clear, although I cannot say for myself that I have any doubt of the truth of what is stated in the paper in Help and Food which our brother quotes. I do not, of course, mean by this that every expression used is of the wisest.

Of one thing our brother may be assured at the outset, that with the doctrines with which he connects me I have no sympathy in reality whatever. I have long lamented their spread, and protested, as far as I could, against them. There is no need to dwell upon this here. Let Us see that we do not, in the earnestness of our protest, give up what is in fact true. For truth and error come oftentimes near enough together, to make this a real danger. The most specious, and so most perilous, forms of error are indeed but the exaggeration, and so the distortion, of truth; and so I believe it to be very much in the case we are speaking of. The Lord will, I trust, overrule the differences which at the present time obtain among us, to make us look the more narrowly at all that we have learned; and may we, in the matter of doctrine as all else, know how to take forth the precious from the vile, for only thus shall we be as Jehovah's mouth.

The first passage in our brother's letter which has to do with me refers to the expression in the paper on Romans in the July number of Help and Food, " Our place in natural life is ended." He asks, " Is this true either in fact or for faith? If so, what becomes of natural relationship, natural affections, eating, drinking, marriage, etc.?" He argues, therefore, we must not press our being dead with Christ beyond the Scripture-application of being " dead to sin" " to law," to the " rudiments of the world." Christ actually died and went to heaven, but we are living on earth with our natural life.

Our brother might have gone further. He might have shown, without possibility of dispute, that our constant standard of walk is " as He walked " when Himself down here, not of course as ascended; and no higher standard of walk is possible for us. To me, the supposing any higher, or any other, is really so monstrous, stands at once so self-condemned, that I did not in fact suppose it necessary to guard my language from such interpretation.

No doubt it might have been guarded, or so expressed as not to need this; but if our brother will consider once more the whole paper from which he takes those words, he will surely see that it is of place and standing I am speaking; and I think he will hardly deny, in that connection, that what I have said is truth. By our "natural life" he will surely see that our life as in the old nature-our life in the flesh-is intended. The standard of walk is nowhere in question throughout the paper. Nor is it a question of being men, but of whether identified with the first man or with the second. Christ down here in the world was always this, amid earthly relationships and responsibilities which He surely owned, and which we too are to own and walk in according to God. Our place in natural life-or in life naturally, if that be better,- was in Adam, the first man:that is ended; thank God, it is! Our brother may perhaps say, That is a condition, not a place. This I need not take up now, however, as my concern is here only to clear my meaning. It will come out more clearly still as we proceed.

The next question raised is as to the " old man," which our brother understands to be a " personification of the whole body of sin as a master, which found its complete and final condemnation at the cross of Christ," and he refuses the thought of the cross being "my" condemnation, as what would make it no better than law. He quotes Rom. 8:3 -"condemned," not me, but "sin in the flesh," and adds, "I am saved by Christ as my substitute, not condemned in my substitute." The last sentence seems little more than a difference in words, yet it has an evident bearing on the subject of the old man. But is it true that as a sinner I am not condemned-in the cross? Is there any contradiction between being saved by a substitute and condemned in one? Was it not my condemnation that Christ bore? or did He bear wrath without condemnation? Surely, the very fact of being condemned in a substitute implies my personal escape from this, does it not? And yet our brother says that it is all the same thing to be condemned by the law, and to be condemned in a Saviour!

Scripture is plain that " by nature, we were children of wrath, even as others," and that "he that believeth not is condemned already." Surely, therefore, as long as we are unbelievers, wrath and condemnation attach to us. Could there be escape for us without another taking this? In what, then, was Christ our substitute ? For the " body of sin personified " He was not a substitute, surely! Does not our brother confound the effect of substitution with the fact of it? I am sure he would contend most earnestly for both; and yet is there not a real danger of letting slip somewhat of what we all acknowledge as necessary truth?

Christ represented me upon the cross, not the body of sin in me, but me the sinner; and He represented me in death and curse, bearing my sins in His own body on the tree; and only thus could justification or deliverance come to me; and thus "our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that henceforth we should not serve sin."

Notice how the inspired word brings out the difference I am insisting on. It is our old man that was crucified with Christ:here our brother owns personification; I maintain, the person. But when that which was our master is spoken of, there is no personification:it is not "that our old man," or "that he might be annulled," but that the "body of sin " might be. Why this change in the apostle's language ? Why personification in the case in which the cross is before us, and this dropped at once where it is simply the thought of mastership, or bondage ? Does it not suit, at least, well with the thought of the cross as atonement, and of atonement as that by which deliverance necessarily comes, and has come? And that this is the fact and truth intended, the whole argument of the seventh chapter bears unmistakable witness. It is in seeing that Christ died, not for my sins only, but as my substitute in the full reality of that, putting me entirely away-sins and sinner-from the sight of God, and giving me my new eternal place wholly in another, in Christ before God,-it is this, I say, that takes me out of myself, and as the law of the Spirit, frees me from the law of sin and death. It is the law of " life in Christ Jesus " that does this, and it is of the greatest consequence to see this:it is a method, a power, a law, and a revealed law, which does this. I fear any casting of the least cloud over the revelation.
Our brother thinks that it being "our old man" shows that it is something which has to do with us still as Christians. I have shown in the paper in question, as others have done before, that it is always in Scripture spoken of as for us done with, put off, crucified, never recognized as in us, as sin or the flesh is. This, surely, is a difficulty in the way of supposing them one thing. While it is easy to understand that, in looking back upon "my" former self, I should call it " my" old man. And this falls in with the whole purport, not merely of the chapter preceding, where our connection by nature with the old head is reasoned upon and made the ground of a comparison as to our link by new nature with the new Head.

I cannot, therefore, accept that our old man being crucified with Christ means, " not the person, but the condition of sin which characterizes and governs the person; and by being judicially dealt with by God at the cross is a reason for not serving as a slave sin, as once the person did."Nor do I think it possible to take " He that has died is justified from sin" as being "discharged" from a master's service, I believe "justified" means always cleared from guilt, and that this is the great point. I do not know an instance in which it means discharged from service. And, moreover, is it not plain that to make "he that has died" to be the master, is to make it in that case the master which is discharged ? Surely this alone should be decisive as to the whole matter. If he that has died is the one discharged, and so the passage says unmistakably, then our brother, and every one else, must see that it is I, not my master, who died, as it is I, not my master, who am discharged. There can be no clearer proof that our " old man " is not our old master, but our old self.

Galatians 6:14 is not in point, however much at first sight it may seem so. When the apostle speaks of being by the cross crucified to the world, and the world to him, it is not a question of justification or of atonement at all. The shame of the cross, along with its being a final thing, as death is with us here, these are the thoughts present to him. The world has put its brand upon Christ; well then, it has branded me, he says. But it is the world that has the real brand. In slaying Him, it has slain me, and the separation is final. But here, as I have said, there is no thought of atoning efficacy in the cross, or of justification. In this case the responsibility must cease. You could not say, The body of sin has been condemned in the cross, therefore I am justified from sin. Condemning it does not justify me; the law condemns it too, but does not justify at all. But myself receiving judgment in another, my Substitute, does justify me, and that is what the apostle says.

I think I need no more dwell upon this, then; but there still remains the question of responsibility to be looked at. I agree fully with what our brother says as to this, that it attaches to the creature as such, and that the condition of the creature does not affect this. There is no-absolutely no-difference whatever as to this. And that redemption does not end our responsibility, I own fully. With all that, I do surely believe that my judicial responsibility,-for of that it is evident I am speaking only,-was so taken by the Lord as dying for me, that as to " eternal judgment" it is as if we had passed out of the body, and that in our Substitute we have done so. Is it not so ?I confess I am greatly astonished that so plain a truth could possibly be disputed by one who knows his security in Christ. Our brother must surely, some way, have missed my thought. It is no question, of course, as to our being actually in the body, nor should I have dreamt of guarding against a mistake of this kind. I was talking expressly of what substitution implies; and if it does not imply this, then, I confess, I know not how any real peace with God is possible at all. I believe, too, that this death of a substitute being the death of those for whom the substitution is the key to the expression in the following chapters, " when we were in the flesh," and " ye are not in the flesh." Not that I confound the "flesh" and the "body:" I do not. It is of course the body of sin of which the apostle speaks. Yet as we carry this with us till death, and at death escape from it, so in Christ's death being ours, we have already found our escape judicially, and are no longer identified with it before God. I trust, in this, I speak no strange language to my brethren, but what is more fully realized by them than by me. And surely our brother could not mean to deny it.

But then if, in this way, I have died with Christ, my accountability as in this sense living, is surely over; I have said, "as a child of Adam," and to this our brother objects. Of course it will always remain true that I, and all other men, have sprung from Adam. No change can possibly alter that. Men, too, we shall always be; but" the first man is of the earth, earthy ; the Second Man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly; and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." We are already heavenly-of the new race, although in the image of it we are not. And this is what I meant by our accountability as children of Adam being over. As a fact, although a fact only known to faith, we are in Christ-in the Second Man, not the first; and if it is asked, " What about the sins committed afterward?" I answer, If the death of Christ did not take them all into account, I know no way at all for their settlement. But is there any doubt it did?

Responsibility goes on, of course; for the creature is, as it has been well said, always responsible. But I am responsible, as having received Christ Jesus my Lord, to walk in Him; as maintaining in my walk always, that is, the place in which His work has set me. And the standard of my walk is His walk down here,-to walk as the Second, heavenly Man, not as the first. This, as already said, will be owning, as He did, the duties and relationships which we have to one another upon earth, yet as those sanctified and sent into the world . -therefore first taken out of it. This fully owns that we are in the world, while it emphasizes the fact of redemption. I am still a man, but a redeemed man,-a man belonging by birth as well as adoption to the race of the Second Man, not the first. I have, alas! still the old nature; I am still in the guise of the first man's family; I own fully the laws which God gave to creation when He established it in that perfection from which it has departed:but I am under another Head, and so of another family. And thus, while of course as to fact we are children of Adam yet, our place and accountability are, as I fully believe, not what this implies.

I have now, I think, taken up the points of our brother's letter, save one, to which, indeed, he merely alludes, and not in direct reference to myself,-the doctrine of new creation; too important an one to enter upon at the close of a letter, already long enough. Let me say, in conclusion, that I believe the free discussion of such points as these, in brotherly love and confidence, would do only good, and great good. Souls are exercised about them. If we seek truth, and are willing humbly to confess error wherever it may be made apparent, -if we can look at Scripture, not as desiring to maintain views of our own, but the authority of God's Word only, remembering there is no infallibility for us any where, but only there,-then, I say again, the good will be great. Soon, all thoughts of our own merely will have passed away forever. Do we not even now desire that they may be? Is it too late now, in the nineteenth century of Christianity, to look for a little company, at least, of those who in perfect freedom and faithfulness can approach each other upon topics of supremest interest and importance without forgetting the infinitely precious bonds that unite them to one another, or that dear Master whose word to us all is, "By love, serve one another."

If we seek unity of mind and judgment, it will be found in this way, not in the repression of free utterance by external authority, of whatever kind. In freedom the Spirit of God alone can find the atmosphere He wishes,-only the freedom of children in the Father's presence, whose inheritance is in the light.

It is in this spirit I have sought to reply to our brother's letter, thankful to him for the honest expression of what he feels and fears, and of his own views as he has given them. May the Spirit of truth show us each the truth where we have failed as yet to reach it, and may there be power from Him to sanctify us by it.

I am, my beloved brother,

Affectionately, in Christ,

F. W. G.

Faith is thus enabled to bless at all times; the sure government of God secures the deliverance from whatever trials of the man who fears God and departs from evil.

[A psalm] of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.

ALEPH.
I will bless Jehovah at all times; continually shall His praise be in my mouth.

BETH.
2. In Jehovah my soul shall boast:the humble shall hear thereof and be glad.

GIMEL.
3. O magnify Jehovah with me, and let us exalt His name together.

DALETH.
4. I sought Jehovah and He answered me, and rescued me from all my fears.

HE.
5. Men look unto Him and are lightened, and their faces are never ashamed.

ZAIN
6. This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, and saved him from all his distresses.

CHETH
7. The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.

TETH.
8. Taste and see that Jehovah is good; happy the man who taketh refuge in Him.

JOD.
9. Fear Jehovah, ye His saints; for there is no want to them that fear Him.

CAPH.
10. The lions do lack, and suffer hunger; but they that fear Jehovah shall not want any good.

LAMED.
11. Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.

MEM.
12. Who is the man that desireth life, that loveth [many] days, that he may see good ?

NUN.

13. Guard thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking deceit.

SAMECH.
14. Depart from evil, and do good:seek peace and pursue it.

AYIN.
15. The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous, and His ears toward their cry.

PE.
16. The face of Jehovah is against them that do evil, to cut off their remembrance from the earth.

TSADDI.
17. Men cry, and Jehovah heareth, and delivereth them from all their distresses.

KUPH.
18. Jehovah is nigh to the broken of heart, and the contrite of spirit He saveth.

RESH.
19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but out of them all Jehovah delivereth them.

SCHIN.
20. He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken.

TAV.
21. Evil shall slay the wicked, and the haters of the righteous shall be desolate.

22. Jehovah redeemeth the soul of His servants, and none of them that take refuge in Him shall be desolate.

Text.-(5, 17) "Men" is not expressed in the original; it is simply "they."

An alphabetic psalm with one letter (Vav) wanting, and a verse added at the end to make up the number:a structure exactly like psalm xxv, even to the initial Pe of the concluding verse.

"These two things are found running together through Scripture:the Word of God and prayer. Mary sat at the Lord's feet and heard His word. The Lord said, ' Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.' In the next verses, the Lord teaches His disciples to pray."

It should be joy to any one who loves the Lord Jesus to think of having His individual peculiar approbation and love ; to find He has approved of our conduct in such and such circumstances, though none know this but ourselves who receive the approval. But, beloved, are we really content to have an approval which Christ only knows? Let us try ourselves a little. Are we not too desirous of man's commendation of our conduct ? or at least that he should know and give us credit for the motives which actuate it ? Are we content, so long as good is done, that nobody should know any thing about us- even in the Church to be thought nothing of? that Christ alone should give us the " white stone " of His approval, and the new name which no man knoweth save only he that receiveth it? Are we content, I say, to seek nothing else? Oh, think what the terrible evil and treachery of that heart must be that is not satisfied with Christ's special favor, but seeks honor (as we do) of one another instead! I ask you, beloved, which would be most precious to you, which would you prefer, the Lord's public owning of you as a good and faithful servant, or the private individual love of Christ resting upon you-the secret knowledge of His love and approval? He whose heart is specially attached to Christ will respond, The latter. Both will be ours, if faithful; but we shall value this most; and there is nothing that will carry us so straight on our course as the anticipation of it. J.N.D.

Every thing that presents Christ in His own proper excellence is sweet and acceptable to God. Even the feeblest expression or exhibition of Him, in the life or worship of a saint, is an odor of a sweet smell, in which God is well pleased."

After speaking of many of the events of Israel's wilderness-journey, the apostle assures that a divine hand was over all this history, shaping it and the record of it in such a way as to convey spiritual meaning to us in these Christian times. " Now all these things," he says, " happened unto them for ensamples"-"types" is the true force of the word,-" and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world [or ages] are come." We may well believe that this is of wider application than just to the special events of which he speaks; and in fact we find other things similarly referred to in Scripture itself. Nor are these always explained as to their spiritual meaning, but quite as often left for spiritual wisdom to interpret, as are many of the Lord's own parables, where we can have no doubt that a spiritual significance there really is. The interpretation in these cases must speak for itself to him who has ears to hear, the truths which explain them being found in the plain words of Scripture elsewhere. It is thus that I am going to apply the history before us, a most striking picture of that precious gospel which in every possible way God so delights in telling out.

We read here of a famine in Samaria, the capital city of a country most highly favored, most deeply guilty in her abuse of the patience and goodness of a long-suffering God. And now the judgment that must needs overtake iniquity was falling upon her. The enemy was besieging her in her gates, and already we see her in most extreme distress:" they besieged it till an ass's head was sold for four score pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of doves' dung for five pieces of silver." In this awful strait, the words of Moses' prophetic denunciation were fulfilled, and that took place which Jeremiah records in his moan of anguish over a still greater calamity, " The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children." The king rends his clothes in agony at the terrible disclosure, and the people see sackcloth within upon his flesh; but in the depth of his despair, his heart, really unhumbled, breaks out against God in the person of His prophet:"God do so to me and more also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day." He repents indeed of this rashness, and hastes after his messenger to save the prophet's life, but it is only to break out once more in impatience against God:" Behold, this evil is of the Lord; why should I wait for the Lord any longer?"

Strange it seems to our natural thoughts that just here should come the announcement of blessing:"And Elisha said, 'Hear ye the word of the Lord:thus saith the Lord:To-morrow, about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.' "

" God's ways are not as our ways, or His thoughts as our thoughts." No, but because as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. We look at the wickedness of man exhibited here, and we ask, What possible reason could there be here for the coming blessing? and we can only answer, None, surely; absolutely none:whatever misery there might be to draw out His pity, goodness there was none to plead on man's behalf; and it was at the very time when the evil which had provoked His judgment was laid fully bare that it pleased God to bring in His mercy. Is there here, then, any exception to His ways? or is there not here rather a principle of His ways ? With an unchangeable God there is no exception. Let us look, then, and see if we can find the principle.

Of God's pity and love we may be sure,-a love that delights ever to come in and show itself,-that must be hindered by some necessity of His holiness if it do not show itself in behalf of His needy creatures, whose need should have been but the occasion of their learning more the heart of their Creator. And though sin has brought a dark cloud over all this, God has made this but the background upon which all the brighter the character of His love may be read. His Son has been the messenger and witness of a love that would clasp all in its embrace.

God is showing grace. He has title to show it, apart from any ground in man whatever. It is grace, the essential opposite of works, of any works at all as a condition :for " if it be of grace, it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace; and if it be of works, it is no more of grace, otherwise work is no more work." It is impossible, then, to mingle these two principles:if you attempt it, the one destroys the other. So also of necessity " the law is not of faith." " Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." On the other hand, the gospel principle is, "They that hear shall live." Law requires:grace gives. The obedience of the law is giving to God :the obedience of faith is receiving from God. " As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse;" but " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us . . . .; that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

But what, then, can hinder the reception of grace? Nothing, surely, but the rejection of it. And is it possible that there should be the rejection of grace? Can God's free gift woo us in vain to its reception? Alas! there is a condition here; to man, the most galling:to receive grace, he must give up self-righteousness. He must humble himself to receive what he has never earned; he must be content as a sinner to find the Saviour. And here fatal pride prevails to the ruin of how many souls! It is what makes the Lord insist so strongly upon the necessity of repentance, for repentance is just this bringing down of creature-pride to receive, as needing it, God's salvation. The "ninety and nine just persons " of whom He speaks in the parable " need no repentance:" the figure of a repentant sinner is " a sheep that was lost." Such lost ones the tender grace of Christ goes after " till He finds." Confessedly lost sinners now, they are finally never lost. On the other hand, even His lips must say, " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

Now, if we come back to Samaria, and God's bestowal of His blessing there, we can easily see how God's announcement comes in most suited order just where it does. The king stands, here, as ever in Israel, as the representative of the equally guilty people. And this king, the wicked descendant of as wicked ancestors, awakened to his danger, although not his sin, had put on the garb of repentance,-Job's sackcloth without Job's self-abhorrence. He talks piously of the Lord:" If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?" And all this, not as hypocrisy-the sackcloth is not outside for the people to see, but "within, upon his flesh." He is seeking to establish a claim upon God by that which is the sign that he has no claim. And how many, not in the least hypocrites, are doing that! They will turn their repentance itself into a kind of righteousness, when the very meaning of repentance is that we have none. And God waits, and defers the blessing which it is in His heart to give, because if He gave it, He would be putting His sanction upon what is quite untrue. The king's sackcloth was, in this way, the very hindrance to blessing. To have given it before this was stripped off would have been to have obscured His precious grace, and to have turned into wages His free gift. He delays, therefore, the blessing, lets the ungodliness of the king's heart come out, and then, when all pretension upon man's part is entirely excluded, brings in His grace as grace, without a stain upon its glory, to be a witness of the principles of His gospel to us today.

Blessed be His name! every soul that has a true sense of sin will thank Him for it adoringly. Is there not some soul that listens to me now who will now accept for the first time this free and priceless grace,-not now a temporal but an eternal salvation? "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat! yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price !"

But God has much more to speak of in this precious history, and still more will emphasize for us the riches of His grace. We have now to mark the way the blessing actually comes. For this purpose God takes up "four leprous men," outcasts even among the wretched inhabitants of the city, just as God took up once the chief of sinners, Saul of Tarsus, to preach the fullest, sweetest story of grace that has ever been published to the world. If the shadow of death had fallen on all the city, how must it have pressed upon these forlorn men! And it is out of their despair their hope arises. Who else would have found hope in going out to the camp of the Syrians? But for them death compassed them around; " and they said one unto another, 'Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall into the host of the Syrians:if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.'"

It was the very place and power of death for that besieged city, and out of it was to come that which would save alive Samaria's starving multitude. Out of the eater was to come meat; out of the strong, sweetness. And so for us also that riddle of Samson's must be fulfilled. For ourselves, our natural portion is death and judgment; and which of us has any ability to meet these? Death is the stamp of a ruined world, and if God enter into judgment with us, no flesh living shall be justified. Here is the stronghold of the enemy against us; and thus through fear of death men are all their lifetime subject to bondage. At a distance from it, although we know full well what awaits us, we may, with the incredible stolidity which belongs to man, think little perhaps about it. In Samaria for some time doubtless the dance and the song went on. Nay, even as the certain doom drew near it may be there were those who only held more frantically to the revels that for the moment could still divert them from what they dared not contemplate.

A mighty work God had been doing for Samaria, but these we may be sure knew nothing of it. It pleased God to communicate the secret of what He had done, to these four leprous men:"And they rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Syrians; and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host; and they said one to another, ' Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life." God had worked alone, and no one with Him, needing no help, and for those wholly unable to give it. And thus for faith Christ has abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel." " He has spoiled principalities and powers;" "has led captivity captive, and given gifts unto men." Alone He has done it. " Whither I go," He says to Peter," thou canst not follow me now." But the work accomplished, we are welcome to share the fruits of His victory. They are as free to us as the camp of the Syrians to those four leprous men. Absolutely free it was:"They went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver and gold and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it." How sudden the change from the death that stared them in the face to this abundance ! How surpassingly wonderful for him who finds himself reaping the spoil of death, the fruit of Christ's victory! It is all ours without reserve, nothing kept back, " silver and gold and raiment" -things which have very plain significance in the Word of God. Let us try and spell them out, and see what our riches are, although after all their value may no man tell.

It is not enough for God to deliver, He must enrich also those whom He delivers. The deliverance itself too is, in the way of its accomplishment, infinite riches to us; and of this first the silver speaks. The atonement-money was silver, the witness to redemption, which for us "is not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." Redemption is the testimony of what is in the heart of God toward us:If we needed the ransom, God has not thought even such a price too great. What infinite blessedness to find ourselves of this value to One to whom all worlds belong:" God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." Prodigals, beggars, bankrupts as we are, the whole of the universe does not equal the price that has been paid for us. Who can tell our riches, then, in this, when what we have cost Him is the measure of the love which invites and welcomes us-the " love of Christ that passeth knowledge"!

And then the "gold:" gold is divine glory, the outshining of what He is who is light, and now in the light. The darkness in which for the moment He was hidden who for us went into it is for faith past, and already the true light shines. Our inheritance is in the light. We know God-are already worshipers in the holiest of all-can worship in spirit and in truth, for we know whom we worship.

What wealth is ours in this glory which streams out upon us! In which we live; which brightens all our path, glorifying even now all the clouds which hang over it; which illuminates even such as we are to reflect it:" For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give out the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It is thus we know Him, in righteousness, in truth, in unfailing, everlasting love ; and then the light of an eternal day has risen upon us, and a wealth beyond that of unnumbered worlds is in our hands.

" And raiment:" for then, too, is the shame of our nakedness removed; we are clothed with that which not only completely covers us in the sight of God, but with the best robe even in the Father's house; for we are clothed with Christ Himself; we stand in Him, accepted in the Beloved, seen in the value of that priceless work which has maintained, in fully tried perfection, the character of God in the very place in which He suffered for the sins of men. We thus in Christ before God are made, not only the display of His grace, but of His righteousness also,-" made the righteousness of God in Him."

How sudden the change, I say again, for these poor lepers, from famine and destitution to this abundance verily theirs to lay hold of as they list! God had wrought alone for them, and they had but to enjoy the fruits; and that place of death had changed for them its character wholly; it was the place of life, and peace, and marvelous riches. But it is only, after all, the feeble picture, however blessed, of what God has done for us. Beloved, is it, through God's grace, indeed our own? and if so, how far are we realizing our infinite possessions?

But a thought strikes them in the midst of their happiness, and while after all it is in them a selfish one, we shall do well to heed the lesson of it:"Then they said one to another, 'We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace:if we tarry till the morning light, some evil will come upon us:now therefore come, that we may tell it to the king's household.' "

If we have been able to follow thus far the interpretation of this, should it be needful to make the application here ? Surely the need around should sufficiently appeal to those who by grace are partakers of an infinite treasure, which in sharing with others we only realize ourselves the more! Think of needing to be stirred up as to this! And yet we do need; and because of our lack in this respect, does not evil come upon us too under the holy government of God? If "he that withholdeth corn the people shall curse him," what is the responsibility of those who hold back from perishing souls the " word of life "-the good word that can make glad the saddest heart,-yea, make the tongue of the dumb to sing for joy?

Back, then, they go to the city, and tell the well-nigh incredible story, none the less true. I pass over the reception of it, the wisdom of the king which counts it but deceit, the need of the people which forces to test if it be not true. God invites this experimental test, beloved friends. Christianity is a religion of experiment, and if only there be lowliness and need on the part of the seeker, he shall not be turned away. But I pass on to just one final word, which we must not miss; for the Spirit of God emphasizes, by minute repetition of the sin which brought it down, the judgment of God upon the scorner of His precious grace. More solemn than any words which I could use are the words of the inspired historian, to one who died in the very midst of the abundance which the prophet had predicted;-" So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate; and the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said who spake when the king came down to him. And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, ' Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to-morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria;' and that lord answered the man of God, ' Now, behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, ' Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.' And so it fell out unto him; for the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died."

Thank God for the blessed word which says, " He that liveth and believeth on Me shall never die"!

Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father," says the apostle:solemn words of warning, which we shall do well to take with us in our consideration of the relationship of the Son to the Father. We have also to remember the Lord's own words, that "no one, save the Father, knoweth the Son." This is not intended to prevent our search into what Scripture gives us as to the person of the Lord, but only to give us reverence-a reverence which implies, surely, attentive heed to what has been written in it.

Two of the most popular commentaries of the day -that of Adam Clark and that of Albert Barnes- deny the eternal Sonship of the Lord. From this the doctrine has spread among others, and confusion and indistinctness are in the minds of many at the present time-indeed, creeping over the minds of those once apparently clear. I take up, therefore, this truth, fundamental as it is, afresh to inquire what the Word of God, ever and alone authoritative, declares. And may we, as we look, be given at least to behold more brightly, the "glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

It is not of the deity of the Lord that I am now supposing question. Those of whom I am speaking are, thank God! as clear as we can be, that Christ is in the fullest sense God,-to be honored even as the Father is honored. Nay, it is on this very account that they demur to the "only begotten Son" being His title in Godhead. 1 do not intend to take up their views or arguments, however, but simply to look at the Scripture-doctrine by itself.

Now it is His Sonship that the apostle insists upon a distinguishing the Lord even as man from the angels (Heb. 1:5):" For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee?" It is clearly as man born into the world that He is addressed; for " this day " is time, and not eternity; and so the apostle's quotation of it in the synagogue of Antioch (Acts 13:33) implies. It is the more remarkable because angels too are called "sons of God," as in Job 1:6; 38:7. Here, the sonship common to all spiritual beings created by the " Father of spirits" (Heb. 12:9) is distinguished from the real relationship of a "begotten Son." This is carefully to be marked, insisted on as it is in the announcement of the angel to Mary :" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Here is in creature-condition One who is more than creature. Men may be "offspring of God," and angels sons, and yet neither of them touch this place or inherit this name.

So, as the apostle argues, to none of the angels is it said, " I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to Me a son." This is once more spoken of Him in manhood. "I will be to Him a Father" would be of course quite impossible to be said of Him in any other character. But here also a real and full relationship is indicated beyond that of a mere creature. "Begetting" is the distinct basis of this relationship, and declares the reality of it. Such was the Lord even, as man.

This Sonship as man has been confounded by perhaps the mass of Christians with His deity. Founded upon His divine relationship it is, and yet carefully distinguished from this, as we have seen. His title in this respect is, in Scripture, the " Firstborn," as in divine relationship He is the " Only Begotten." The one title as clearly maintains what is exclusively His as the other asserts His sharing it in grace with others. The words used, we should notice too, are different. " Begotten " speaks of the Father; "born," of the mother:*-the first, alone of divine paternity; the second naturally reminds us of another element than the divine. *Μovoγεvής, "only begotten," a compound γεvvάω, "to beget;" πρωτότoκoς, "first born," from τκτω, "to conceive." It cannot be asserted that this is the exclusive force of either word. Γεvvάω is applied also to the mother, and τκτω more rarely to the father; yet the force of the words in general is undoubted, and throws light upon the constant use in Scripture. We have never πρωτόγovoς, never μovότoχoς.*

In wondrous grace there are others also, not among angels, but among men, and fallen men, who have been chosen to be born of God. Who, as born of the Spirit, are partakers of that which is spirit,-of a divine nature. It is with these, the fruit of His work, the Lord is associated as Firstborn:" For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren " (Rom. 8:29). And their link with Him as " brethren" is distinctly declared to be on account of their being " of one [origin] " with the Lord Himself:"For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of One:for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ' I will declare Thy name unto My brethren ; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee'" (Heb. 2:11, 12).

We must here remember that the title of " Firstborn" does not necessarily speak of priority in time, but of place and dignity. The actual firstborn might lose his place, and another obtain it, as we see in Jacob and Esau, Reuben and Joseph; and so God says of David, " I will make him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth " (Ps. 89:27). So with the " assembly of the first-born ones, whose names are written in heaven " (Heb. 12:23), which is without doubt the Christian assembly in plain distinction from the " spirits of just men made perfect," who are the saints of the Old Testament. Yet it is the latter who are the firstborn in time, while the former have the precedence in place and privilege. And it is thus I understand the language in Colossians 1:15, where, speaking of the Lord, the apostle calls Him the " image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature." Here, it is in manhood that He declares the Father; and He who has thus become man, yet Creator of all, as the apostle goes on to say, if He take His place, in marvelous condescension and love, in His own creation, must needs do so at the head of it. It is His pre-eminence, not priority in time, as many have thought, that is asserted. That" He is before all things," the seventeenth verse it is that plainly says.

The same passage in Colossians distinguishes also two things that are in danger now of being, by some, confounded:"And He is the Head of the body, the Church:who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence."This is stated as another thing from being " first-born of every creature," although for us the two things have now become practically one. But He was the "Second Man" before He was the risen Man, as we also are born again before the quickening of our bodies.

Between us and Him there is this plain and immense difference, that we as first-born ones even are the fruit of His work; where as His being first-born is grounded in His deity. So the apostle says explicitly." He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist."It is to this, then, His title as First-born is due; and this points clearly to incarnation, not to resurrection. Scripture is clear, therefore, as to the application to this for us so precious title of our Lord, while all through shines the glory of a more wondrous relationship to the Father, distinct and wholly divine, "the glory," as the apostle John says, " of the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father."

This title is only used by the apostle John, and by him five times, while that of "First-Begotten" is, in his gospel and epistles, never used,*-a fact at once of the greatest significance, for John's peculiar theme is the deity of the Lord. But we are not left to this, for the passages themselves exclude all possible doubt. *Once in the book of Revelation, a book of very different character, we have " the first-born of the dead.*"A truth of this kind could not be allowed to remain in the least obscure; and to those content to take Scripture as it stands, without rationalizing, there is no possibility of mistake.

The first passage is alone decisive:" And the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, (and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten with the Father,) full of grace and truth." I give what is more literal than our common version, and preserves the all-important connection with the tabernacle of old. In that, the glory of God had dwelt; in the darkness, not in the light; shut up, and inaccessible to man. Here now was a tabernacle-the flesh of Christ, in which dwelt the fullest glory of Godhead, and most accessible, -divine glory now to be approached and looked upon, because revealed in grace and truth. And what was the glory thus revealed? It was the glory as of an only begotten with the Father:that was its character; the glory of the Only Begotten is the very glory of God. Nothing could surely be plainer than this declaration. '

It is reiterated in the apostle's emphatic manner in the seventeenth and eighteenth verses:" For the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Here, we have the same contrast with the law, when God dwelt unseen in the darkness; the same grace and truth as the character in which Christ had now come. And who is it that declares, or tells out, the Father only now revealed ? It is the only begotten Son, the One being in the Father's bosom. Not "who is" now; that is not the force of the expression, but the "One being"-or who is always-there. Here, to deny His being Son forever would be as much to deny the Father being the Father forever. It would be the denial of divine relationship; the making the "Father" not the real and essential name of God, but only a character assumed by Him in time. It would lower immeasurably the whole character of the revelation. But it is the only begotten Son who is thus in the bosom of the Father; it is He, and no other:not always incarnate, but always the Only Begotten,-the divine, eternal Son.

Once more, in the third chapter, we have the truth of this divine relationship doubly pressed, according to the apostle's manner. The familiar words of the seventeenth verse embed this in the very heart of the gospel:" For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is the signal proof of this love of God that it was His only begotten Son He gave; and then all blessing depends upon the reception of this gift:"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned; he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Solemn words these for those who deny or pare down the truth of eternal Sonship! The "name" implies the doctrine-the truth of this.
It is the eternal Son that John speaks of in all his writings. This is the glory which he has told us faith sees irradiating the tabernacle of His manhood. The title of "Only Begotten" is only once used again by Him, and that not in his gospel, but in his first epistle; but there, the connection is as solemn as in this passage already before us:" In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him." Here, how plain is it that He was the only begotten Son before he came into the world; and divine love was manifested in God thus sending the object of His love.

I have done little but cite the Scripture-texts, which are so clear and plain that comment of any length could only obscure them. Our faith in this will show itself only rightly in the joy of our worship here in the presence-chamber of the God to whom we have been brought.

I. The presentation (chap. 26:1-56). And now the hour of the Lord's betrayal is at hand. He is aware of it and master of all:no one takes His life from Him, but He lays it down of Himself. Her prescient love who anoints Him for His burial brings out the traitor in the person of one of the twelve. The Lord indicates him at the final supper, where He institutes beforehand the memorial of His death, and explains its deep and blessed meaning. He predicts the scattering of the sheep, and to Peter his fall. Through all this part, nothing is more apparent than His entire control of all through which He moves.

Gethsemane (the " oil-press") has another character. His shrinking from the cup before Him was here part of His perfection. He could not take it as His own will, but only as His Father's. Sorrowful unto death, He finds none to watch with Him. The shadow of the cross is beginning to isolate Him from those who are the chosen companions of His path. The last dread isolation is yet to come, but the presence of it is already in the depths of His soul. He is perfect in entire surrender to His Father's will, while His followers only show their want of accord with it. Sleeping when they should be waking, they are fighting when He is giving Himself up. What could their swords do but dishonor Him who could have had twelve legions of angels for His defense had not the Word of God claimed His fulfillment of it? They forsake Him next and flee.

2. The offering (chap. 26:57-28:). He had now presented Himself for the offering, and it must be manifested as an unblemished one. The false witnesses cannot prove His guilt even before His enemies. He must be condemned for His own true witness, and that alone. As Son of God it is that the Jewish tribunal reject Him, without and against all evidence, and He hides not His face from shame and spitting. Peter's fall only fulfills His prophetic words. The traitor comes forward to attest His innocence-the highest witness he is qualified to give. But the Jews consummate their guilt, buying Aceldama with the price of blood :a potter's field to bury strangers in, the involuntary prediction of that to which they were self-condemned; the world has been for them ever since a burial-ground for strangers.

The charge before the Gentile governor is that He claims to be King of the Jews. His accusers again prove nothing, and He answers nothing. The double witness of the judge himself, and of Heaven in his wife's dream, is that He is a " just man." At the passover, (a beautiful intimation of its meaning,) a prisoner is released. Pilate, anxious to save Jesus, makes it a question whether He shall release Him to them, or Barabbas, a noted sinner. The people choose Barabbas, and the Lord takes the cross instead of him, another striking testimony of the meaning of His death. Pilate washes his hands and delivers Him up. The infatuated Jews imprecate His blood upon themselves. Mocked of the soldiers, gall mingled with His drink, His vesture parted, He is crucified. His salvation of others, His faith in God, is thrown in His teeth, and even by the malefactors with whom He is numbered.

But now the true and exceptional character of the cross comes out. The darkness for three hours over the land is but the type of the deeper darkness, the due of our sins, which is upon His soul. God has forsaken Him:the solitary exception in all God's ways with the righteous. Crying again with a loud voice of unexhausted strength, none taking His life from Him, but laying it down of Himself, " He dismisses His spirit."

The effects of His death are immediate. The vail which forbad access to God is rent from top to bottom. The darkness into which He went He has displayed, and God is in the light. His power raises the dead, the governmental witness, as we have already seen, to the removal of sin. The Gentile believes, but the Jews hardened in unbelief, which is soon to be the most effectual witness to His glory, seal up the stone and set a watch against the third day.

3. The acceptance of the offering (chap. 28:). And now we have the full and formal acceptance of His work made known by resurrection. Galilee, not Jerusalem, is here the appointed meeting-place with the eleven, although the women see Him and receive His message. The chief priests bribe the soldiers to tell an incredible story to their own shame. The nation is exhibited in obdurate unbelief. He whom they reject has all authority in heaven and earth, and sends forth His disciples to disciple unto His kingdom, but in the triune name, the revelation of which marks the new dispensation as now come. He Himself is with them in unchanging faithfulness and love "unto the end of the age."

I. Seen in fits relation to Israel (chap. 24:1-42). And now, in answer to the disciples' question, His coming in glory is put in contrast with His coming in humiliation. It is important to note, for the understanding of the prophecy, that Matthew, in contrast with Luke, is occupied almost exclusively with what is even yet future. A kind of partial anticipation there has been in what has already taken place, and this is after the manner of prophecy in general, which finds in the signs of the present the portents of the future. But every where in it the end is what is in the mind of the Spirit, and we misinterpret if we do not connect it with the end.

Here, the disciples' question is one which plainly speaks of His coming, and of the end (not of the world physically, but as in chap. 13:) of the age. The Lord does not speak of any destruction of Jerusalem, nor of armies encompassing it from without, but of idolatry within-the antichristian abomination of the latter days. This is the beginning of unparalleled tribulation, so severe, that if it were not shortened, no flesh should be saved. Immediately after this short time of trouble, the Son of Man comes; and therefore the taking of the city could not be it, for that by no means was the end of the trouble. Besides, He comes in the clouds of heaven with His angels, and gathers Israel His elect from their long dispersion to the four winds of heaven. Then that generation (of unbelievers among the people*) passes away; and not till then. * " This generation " is often used, as here, in a moral sense,-for a race, with certain moral characteristics,-and without the time-sense often attaching to it. Thus Psalm 12:7:"Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever." (Comp. Ps. 24:6; Ixxiii. 15; Prov. 30:11-14 ) In Phil. 2:15, " nation" is the same word. To apply it in the time sense in the prophecy above is impossible.* But the fig-tree, the figure of the nation, is putting forth leaves, and fruit is found, at that very time, in which the judgment of God, as in Noah's day, will sweep away the impenitent. 2. Seen in relation to Christendom (chap. 24:42-25:30). In the beginning of the twenty-fifth chapter, we have again a parable of the kingdom of heaven, which shows, as we have before seen, that the Lord is now once more speaking of things kept secret from the foundation of the world,-that is, of the present interval of Christendom. With this, too, the latter part of the twenty-fourth chapter is in evident connection. We have thus the Christian side of things to chap. 25:30.The blessing upon watchfulness, and the result of the heart pleading the Lord would delay His coming, are first exhibited. The assumption of lordship over fellow-servants, and association with evil, are the consequences of the latter, as they have plainly been in Christendom. In the following parable, we have the falling asleep of the whole professing church which had at first gone forth to meet Him, the cry which at midnight wakes them, and the rejection of the foolish virgins. The next parable gives us the reward of service, and the judgment of him who in the place of a servant had not the faith in his Master needed for service.

3. Seen in relation to the Gentile nations (chap. 25:31-46). Lastly, we find the judgment of the quick-the living nations, or Gentiles,-when the Son of Man is come. Christians are already with Him when He comes, and the judgment of the wicked is not till the great white throne at the end of the millennium, when the earth flees away. This is at the commencement, and of the living only. There is here no resurrection, and no examination of all deeds done. They are judged simply according to their treatment of Christ's "brethren"-the Israelitish messengers, as it would seem, of the " everlasting gospel," going forth in the interval between the taking away of the saints to be with the Lord and His coming in glory with them. This interval is the time of the quickening for blessing upon the earth.

V. the coming in humiliation. (Chap. 20:29-23:)
I. The final presentation of the King (chap. 20:29-21:17). At Jericho we find the Lord once more as Son of David, a title we do not find on the lips of Israelites from chap. 12:till now; and it is as this He gives sight to two blind men, the witnesses of His power and goodness. The willing hearts of His people answering His claim upon them, He rides into Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, " Meek, and sitting upon an ass." The evangelist omits in his quotation "just, and having salvation," as in fact the unbelief of the nation prevents the manifestation of this power in their behalf. All the city is moved; but although the words of the hundred and eighteenth psalm are upon their lips,-words with which, in a future day, they will welcome their Deliverer,-as yet, there is no real recognition of Him. He cleanses the temple, become now a place of robbery instead of prayer, and there heals the blind and the lame; but the leaders of the people reject Him, and out of the mouth of babes and sucklings only is His praise perfected. He leaves the city, and going out to Bethany, (for the first time mentioned in this gospel, linked so abidingly with the well-known glorifying of the Son of God by resurrection out of death,) He lodges there.

2. Rejection of the people for their fruitless profession (chap. 21:18-46). It was significantly from Bethphage-the " house of unripe figs,"-that the Lord had entered the city. On His return to it in the morning, a fig-tree whose promise of fruit is not fulfilled is made the type of a judgment for similar fruitlessness coming upon the guilty nation. In the temple, the chief priests question Him as to His authority, but He refuses answer till they have settled the prior question of the baptism of John. In fact repentance-the burden of John's testimony -must be the way to salvation by Christ. For a repentant sinner there is but one Saviour, and no babel of discordant teaching can drown for such the voice of Christ. But despite their seeming respect for divine authority, the publicans and harlots went into the kingdom of God before the Pharisees. The parable of the vineyard is the history of the nation which God had cared for and blessed, and admonished by a long succession of prophets. Now, after having rejected one after another the servants He sent to them, they were about to consummate their guilt by slaying His Son.

3. Rejection of the people for their rejection of the offers of grace (chap. 22:1-14). Yet patient mercy would not stop even here, as the following parable of the kingdom shows. The very death of Christ would furnish forth a table where the King could invite guests to the marriage of His Son,-guests already bidden by the voice of prophecy. But the Jews (these bidden ones) still reject, persecuting to death the messengers of grace. Then the limit of divine forbearance is reached, and the city burned up, while to supply the place of the rejecters a general call goes out to all men. This gathers many, among whom, however, when the King comes in to see the guests, some are found whose type is the man who has not on the wedding-garment,-the covering, that is, which grace provides. And indeed out of all whom grace invites the few only are chosen, not the many.

4. The trial and exposure of the leaders of the people (chap. 22:15-46). After this, the various parties among the Jews come-up before Him, seeking to entangle Him in their talk, but in fact out of their own mouths to be judged. The Pharisees and Herodians are condemned by Caesar's image on the tribute-money. They had subjected themselves to Caesar for their own gain; they must therefore accept the position in which their sin had placed them. The Sadducees are convicted of ignorance of Scripture and of the power of God. The lawyers are made to recognize as the great commandment of the law that which proved them most of all guilty. Finally, the Lord puts before them the fundamental question which convicts them of ignorance of the true dignity of their Messiah,-of David's Son,-whose enemies would yet be made His footstool.

5. Their judgment (chap, 23:). Then the Lord turns upon the convicted and silenced leaders, and denounces them as the hypocritical destroyers of the people. Jerusalem, refusing the love which would so often have gathered her children under its secure shelter, is left desolate without Him until they shall say, as yet out of their distress and misery they shall be made to say, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Then, even after so long resistance, divine grace shall save them.

…. Because many Christians have not seized the force of this truth [being "in Christ" and "not in the flesh,"] nor of the expressions of the apostle, they use Christ's death as a remedy for the old man, instead of learning that they have by it passed out of the old man as to their place before God, and into the new in the power of that life which" is in Christ. Ask many a true-hearted saint what is the meaning of, " When we were in the flesh," and he could give no clear answer; he has no definite idea of what it can mean. Ask him what it is to be in Christ:all is equally vague. A man born of God may be in the flesh as to the condition and standing of his own soul, though he be not so in God's sight; nay, this is the very case supposed in Romans vii, because he looks at himself as standing before God on the ground of his own responsibility, on which ground he never can, in virtue of being born again, meet the requirements of God, attain to His righteousness. J.N.D.

Ah, Jesus, Lord, Thou art near to me,
Great peace flows into my heart from Thee;
And Thy smile of joy fills me so with gladness,
This weary body forgets its sadness
For thankful joy.

We see Thy countenance beaming bright;
Thy grace, Thy beauty, by faith, not sight;
But Thou art Thyself to our souls revealing,
We love Thee, Thy presence and favor feeling,
Although unseen.

Oh who would alway, by night and day,
Be set on joying in Thee alway;
He could but tell of delight abounding
Through body and soul, one song resounding,-
"Who is like Thee?"

To be compassionate, patient, kind,
Thy pardon, leaving our sins behind,
To heal us, calm us, our faint hearts cheering,
Thyself to us as a friend endearing
Is Thy delight.

Ah, give us to find our all of joy
In Thee ! Thy service our sweet employ;
And let our souls with a constant yearning
In need and love to Thyself be turning
Without a pause.

And when we are weeping, console us soon;
Thy grace and power for Thy peace make room;
Thy mirrored likeness Thy praises telling;
Thine own true life in our bosoms dwelling
In love be seen.

Truthful in childlike simplicity,
Guileless, arrayed in humility,
Be the holy wounds of Thy tribulation
The fount of our peace and consolation
In joy and woe.

Thus happy in Thee till we enter heaven,
The children's gladness to us be given,
And if peradventure our eyes are weeping,
Our hearts on Thy bosom shall hush their beating.
In full repose.

Thou reachest us, Master, Thy pierced hand;
Thy faithfulness, gazing, we understand,
And shamed into tears by Thy love so tender,
Our eyes flow over, our hearts surrender,
And give Thee praise.

The great supper of Luke 14:speaks of what God has treasured up in Christ for us. He sends out an invitation to tell men they are perfectly welcome to come and enjoy it:but having in hand present things-God's things really, which they treat as their own,-they excuse themselves. Seeking enjoyment in what they claim to be their possessions, the better and higher joy God invites to they care not for and refuse.

Where, then, will God find His guests? How the answer bows the soul and heart in adoration! . There are among men some who are not enjoying present things, such as the despised man of the streets, the destitute inhabitant of the lanes, and the wretched child of poverty, who, by dire necessity, has been driven to seek shade and shelter beneath the hedge; to such God turns; it is such He seeks and finds and brings to His table,-men who have no excuses to bring but whose necessity makes them willing to be simply receivers-debtors merely to simple grace.

In the beginning of chapter xv, our blessed Lord is in the midst of a company of such people; and who can measure His joy or theirs as He eats and drinks with them ? If there are some among men who cannot be happy with sinners, God can; nay, more,-it is such, and only such, He receives. Dear reader, do you complain of this? Does your heart murmur against the grace that stoops down to meet publicans and sinners ? Are you Pharisee enough to speak sneeringly of such grace? God grant you may not be; but whether or not, He finds His joy in His love to sinners, and vindicates Himself against every murmur lurking in the heart of all who scorn to be called sinners.

The parables of this chapter show us this. The first two tell us of the joy there is in heaven, and before the angels, over a sinner who repents. In the first of these, God is a seeker, and the sinner is a wanderer, who goes on and on, and further away, until, not only the joy of his own way vanishes, but worn out by the roughness of his road, he is at last content to be served by the God of all grace; who, finding him as such-a needy one, takes him up in the arms of His love and rejoices over him with a joy immeasurable, though divinely expressed.

In the next, God is a seeker still; but we have more the means and methods used to bring the sinner where God in His grace can meet him. As walking after the course of this world he is morally dead,-1:e., he has no apprehension in his soul of God or of his true condition before God. The lighted candle of the word or testimony of God, and the broom of circumstances, which are wholly under the ordering of God, whatever agencies may be employed in producing them, brings the sinner forth a heap of dirt and rubbish, which only divine grace can meet, and in which only God Himself can find the silver-1:e., one for whom Christ died to be his redemption. As being simply that God finds him; thus we learn it is the sinner who repents that God finds; and such, and only such, are the occasion of the joy with which all heaven rings in full accord with the heart of God.

The last parable describes, for our profit and learning, the wondrous welcome and reception God gives the sinner who repents, and in connection with this we are shown what repentance is. The younger brother having received his portion of his father's goods goes to the far country. He now belongs to the class who in the fourteenth chapter made excuse. He has in his hand what he wants to enjoy:but in the far country it soon goes; all is soon squandered and lost. A famine comes, and he is in want; his hand is empty now ; he has nothing to enjoy. But why does not the father go and meet him now? Simply because he is not yet the sinner that repents. He does not yet think himself the suited object for pure grace, and so he goes and joins himself to a citizen of that country, to try and see if he can retrieve his lost fortune; but, thank God! this cannot be done. When we have spent all our goods, and lost our reputation and our character, no effort, no reformation, can possibly regain what we have lost. We have written our history, and it is irreversible; we belong now to the men of the streets, lanes, highways, and hedges. Our names as being sinners are indelibly stamped upon us, and in spite of every thing we can do we find our selves put where we do not wish to be. Happy is he who submits to it; for until then, we must remain . strangers to the welcome and reception of the God of all grace.

At last the prodigal bows; he submits to his necessity. He thinks of the grace and plenty that is with his father, and he says, That is just what I need. It just suits him now. A hungry, perishing sinner needs the grace of God. He says, " I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants." He is a sinner now-a man of the streets. He has accepted the counsel of God against himself; he will let God tell him all things that ever he did; but having bowed to this, he bows to the grace that meets it all. He renounces airworthiness of his own. Not knowing the character of the grace he submits to, he says, " Make me as one of thy hired servants;" but so saying, he shows he is willing and content to be indebted to grace. This is repentance. The prodigal is now a sinner that repents; he has risen up to go to his father.

We will now look at his welcome and reception. As soon as the prodigal has started for his father, the father is on his way to him. " When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." How wonderful! Until he repented, the father could not go to meet him; but just as soon as he repents, the father hastens to him. Beloved reader, this is a picture of the way God meets a sinner. He is not austere, demanding of sinners to cease to be sinners. He invites them to come as sinners-as being simply sinners and nothing else; and the moment they take Him at His word, and consent, in the reality of their souls, to meet Him as simple sinners, needing, by that very fact, His grace, He comes to meet them just as here,-"When he was yet a great way off," 1:e., still in the far country-a sinner in his sins, " he saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." How blessed that!

But this is not all. God not only comes and meets the returning, repenting sinner to welcome him back, but He at once, without the least delay, appropriates to him all the provision He has made for sinners in Christ, set forth here by the best robe, ring, and shoes. So fully has Christ answered before God for all the sinner's need, that as soon as a sinner takes his place with God as one of those for whom Christ died, all the fullness of the provision of God in Christ for sinners is his, and his forever; God having met and welcomed him to His bosom bears witness to him that all is his-his at once. When a sinner tells God he has no worthiness, God answers, I will clothe you with worthiness; I will put worthiness upon you; just as here, when the prodigal says, " I have sinned, and am no more worthy," the father replies, " Bring forth the best robe, and put it upon him."How wonderful! A sinner in his rags- his sins, in the full consciousness of having nothing else but his sins, in God's presence telling him so, and God at once giving him a change of raiment, even the worthiness and beauty of Christ, accepting him in His beloved, so that he is now henceforth forever before Him without blame- the blamelessness of Christ on him, in the eye of God. Oh, what grace! and how full and perfect! Dear reader, it is the grace of God, and nothing short of it, would suit him. It is a grave mistake to suppose any delay on God's part in making over to the sinner that repents the provision of His grace in Christ, as if He were waiting on sinners to cease being sinners, to become saints, ere He could give them His provision for them. God does not invite sinners to come to His great supper and then tell them when they come they cannot partake of it until they have passed through certain experiences, and made certain attainments. Such a thought is thoroughly derogatory to God. It makes the gospel only a half gospel; it falsifies the character of God, and denies His full and perfect grace. It is sinners He seeks; it is sinners He calls to repentance. " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."So too the sinner that repents He receives and rejoices over. It is the ungodly that He justifies. Those who come as ungodly-as without strength and as lost, He meets, and that, too, in the very place they take before Him; and, meeting them thus, He assures them of a full and hearty welcome, and that every thing He has provided for them in Christ is theirs. The kiss upon the cheek of the prodigal is the token of the full and hearty welcome, and the best robe, ring, and shoes speak as clearly of the unreserved appropriation to the returning one of all that God has in Christ for sinners.

Beloved reader, have you ever received God's kiss of welcome? and do you know its full meaning? And further, have you ever gone to God without any reserve in your soul to tell Him all your heart-all your care and trouble, and all your sins? Ere your tale was fully told did you not find yourself in a change of raiment, shining before the eye of God in all the beauty and brightness of Christ? Truly yes, for then it was God accepted you in His beloved. Having thus received you and robed you, how He rejoiced over you! Already, from your meeting Him-at the very moment of your reception, God-the blessed God is merry and glad over you. It is His joy to have you in His family; it is yours, too, to be in it; and the joy thus begun is without end-eternal.

May our hearts know better the reality, depth, and blessedness of it. C.C.

God for us:Creator, Governor, Disposer of all things; so as to make practically independent of the world's resources, as well as master over all that sin has caused in it.

Shout for joy in Jehovah, ye righteous:for the upright, comely is praise.

2. Celebrate Jehovah with the harp; with the ten-stringed lyre sing to Him psalms.

3. Sing to Him a new song:play skillfully with a loud noise.

4. For right is Jehovah's word; and in faithfulness all His work.

5. He loveth justice and judgment:the earth is full of the goodness of Jehovah.

6. By Jehovah's word were the heavens made; and all their host by the breath of His mouth.

7. He passeth as a heap the waters of the sea; He lath up the depths in treasuries.

8. Let all the earth fear Jehovah; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him!

9. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood.

10. Jehovah bringeth to naught the counsel of the nations; He disalloweth the thoughts of the peoples.

11. The counsel of Jehovah standeth forever; the thoughts of His heart from generation to generation.

12. Happy is the nation whose God Jehovah is, -the people He hath chosen for His inheritance.

13. Jehovah regardeth from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men.

14. From the place of His habitation He looketh close upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

15. He who fashioneth their hearts together, who understandeth all their works.

16. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host:a mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

17. The horse is a vain thing for safety, and by his great strength he shall not deliver.

18. Lo, Jehovah's eye is toward them that fear . Him, toward those who hope in His mercy;

19. To rescue their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

20. Our soul hath looked for Jehovah; our help and shield is He.

21. For our heart shall be glad in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.

22. Let Thy mercy, Jehovah, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee.

Remarks.-This is a psalm which anticipates somewhat one of the themes of the fourth book, of which the hundred and fourth psalm is a full expression. "Jehovah" is the covenant-name of God, the name by which He takes up in grace His people. But Jehovah is the Creator-God, in whose hands all His works are. The fourth book dwells upon the fact that in Christ these two are one-the breach between Creator and creation healed, and more:the Creator Himself has done this. This gives its character to the coming of Christ as Jehovah, who yet is Second Man, to take possession of all. The present psalm gives only the effect for faith now of the Covenant-God of grace being Creator and Sovereign of all.

The blessedness of one forgiven, with God his hiding-place from trouble, and guided by His eye.

[A psalm] of David, for instruction. Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

2. Happy is the man to whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

3. While I kept silence, my bones wasted, because of my roaring all the day.

4. For day and night Thy hand was heavy on me:my sap is turned into a summer drought. Selah.

5. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not covered:I said, " I will confess my transgressions to Jehovah," and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

6. On this account shall every one that is godly pray unto Thee, in a time Thou mayest be found:surely in the flood of many waters, they shall not reach unto him.

7. Thou art my hiding-place; Thou shalt preserve me from strait:Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

8. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou goest; I will counsel [thee], Mine eye upon thee.

9. Be ye not as the horse [or] the mule, which has no understanding; its ornament bit and bridle to bind fast [or] it will not come near thee.

10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in Jehovah, mercy shall compass him about.

11. Be glad in Jehovah, and exult, ye righteous ; and shout for joy, all ye upright of heart.

Text.-(9) Some would have as the Authorized Version, "lest it come near thee."

Remarks.-(Title.) This is the first of the Maschil psalms, or psalms for instruction. Now considering that the whole book of psalms looks on specially to the last days, and that in Israel in that day there are divinely raised-up teachers who are given this same name of Maschilim, (Dan. 11:33, 35, "they that understand ; " 12:3, 10, "the wise,") and considering the peculiar character of these psalms themselves, it seems to me that they are special instruction for this very class. Revelation 13:18 and xvii 9 are, I believe, distinctly marked as similar instruction :nota bene for their eyes; while of course this in no wise prevents our use and application of them. Compare the Maschil psalms lii-lv, which reveal the character of Antichrist. But then how beautiful is it to see the first page turned down for them here, in which both the blessedness of forgiveness is dwelt on, and Jehovah their hiding-place, and His guidance for them. First lessons for Maschilim of all time to receive and give!
(i, 5) When I have not covered, God covers.

(5) "I said, 'I will confess'"-not "did confess." Divine love, prompt to meet us ("he ran" anticipates the confession. (Comp. the father and prodigal, Luke 15:17, 18, 20, 21.)

(7) The "music and dancing" of Luke 15:

IV. THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM.(Chap. 13:-20:28.)
I. The kingdom of an absent King:its prophetic history (chap. 13:1-52). The mysteries of the kingdom disclosed in these parables are " things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." A parable of the kingdom supposes Israel rejected (10:13-15), and a form of it which the Old Testament did not contemplate (10:34, 35). This we find accordingly. It is a kingdom not set up in power, but the fruit of the sowing of seed, the word of the kingdom (5:19), committed to the care of men (5:25), and characterized by patience and long-suffering, until closed by a day of divine interference and discriminating judgment by angels' hands (10:41-43), a day which is the " completion of the age " (10:40, 49, Gr.) before the coming and kingdom of the Son of Man, according to Daniel's prophecy (7:13, 14). These mysteries include the whole intervening time, therefore, of the Lord's absence.

These parables give the history of the kingdom up to this:a history of perfect failure on the part of man to whom its administration is intrusted, God's purposes of course not failing. The contrast here gives us the two sections of the chapter. The first part, to ver. 35, the external history, told in the presence of the multitude; the second, God's unfailing purposes, to the disciples in the house.

The first parable gives the sowing of the good seed by the Son of Man, and its various success amid the opposition of Satan (5:19), the flesh (10:20, 21), and the world (5:22). Here, only a fourth part produces real fruit; but the second parable goes further, and shows us a counter-sowing of the enemy, not of the Word, of course, and which produces tares among the wheat,- opposers of the truth, in a Christian garb:a work which (as to its results in the field of the world) cannot be undone till the day of the harvest.

These two parables give us what is individual, although the whole is of course affected. The next two give us what is general. The character of the whole sowing, as if it were one seed, in the third ; which recalls, and is intended to recall, Daniel 4:and Babylon. Out of the little gospel-seed, so unlikely to produce it, is developed an earthly (treelike) system, in which the powers of evil (the birds, -comp. 10:4, 19,) find secure lodgment. While the fourth parable exhibits the "woman," the professing church, corrupting the word of Christ (the meat-offering, Lev. 2:ii) with the leaven of false doctrine (chap. 16:12; Mark 8:15).

The picture is one of general and progressive deterioration, and which judgment ends; and it is what has indeed taken place, the evident, open thing which scarcely needs disciples' eyes to see. Now on the other hand, three parables give us the divine purpose working out under all this failure. First, however, the secret of the tare-field, and its judgment fully, which requires anointed eyes to see. Then, the history of Christendom being closed, the parables of the treasure, the pearl, and the drag-net, containing, I believe, God's thoughts with regard to the three parties of chap. xxiv, xxv,
and in the same order,-Israel, the Church of God, and the Gentiles.

Israel is God's "treasure" (Ex. 19:5; Ps. 135:4), " hidden " indeed as such, when the Lord came and for a moment disclosed it, hiding it again, however, and going to the cross, selling all He had to buy the field of the world, in which it was and where it is yet to be displayed.
The pearl is "one,"-one Church,-brought up out of the waters (always the figure of Gentile nations,) and possessed at the expense of the life that produced it; it is the fit figure of the glory of a grace abounding over sin, of which the Church is the chief vessel of display.* *Pearls "are caused by particles of sand or other foreign substances getting between the animal and its shell; the irritation causes a deposit of nacre generally more brilliant than the rest of the shell. The Chinese obtain them artificially, by introducing into the living muscle foreign substances, such as pieces of mother of pearl fixed to wires, which thus become coated with a more brilliant material." How beautiful a picture of grace investing a sinner with the beauty of Christ!*

The net seems to me to speak of the going forth of the "everlasting gospel" to the Gentiles, after the removal of the Church, the fruit of which is seen in the sheep found among them according to Matthew xxv, when the Lord appears.

This prophetic history is now followed by scenes which (while of course real occurrences,) are designed to give us typically various features of the kingdom in its mystery-form.

2. The path of disciples (chap. 13:53-14:). In the next chapter we have, I think, essentially a twofold picture:first, of the ministration of blessing, to which, in spite of rejection in a day of evil, those who know the power and grace of Christ are called; secondly, of the individual walk of faith, the Lord being absent.

Prefatory to these, and as characterizing the scene amid which the walk is, we have the Lord's rejection at Nazareth, where He had grown up, and then the death of His forerunner at the hands of Herod. The first of these is from the pride of men, the latter from their lusts. . The Lord takes His place as rejected in the desert, where the people coming out to Him are met and ministered to by His grace. He counts upon disciples' faith to use His power for this, and in fact in spite of their unbelief employs them in this ministry. This gives us still our privilege and responsibility. In the next picture He is gone up to take His place of intercession on high, and the disciples are on the sea alone, tossed with waves, and the wind contrary; as, with Satan " prince of the power of the air," it has ever been. The boat represents the human mean's by which, when faith has not Christ personally before it, we maintain ourselves upon the waters. These means are essentially Jewish, no doubt; and the disciples, when left on earth by the Lord, were in fact at first a Jewish remnant. From this boat Peter, recognizing the Lord upon the waters and drawing nigh, separates himself to be with the Lord (the true Church-position), and the Lord and Peter return together to the boat, the wind then ceasing. Those in the boat,-a remnant of Israel, who will be by grace prepared to receive the Lord when He comes again,-own Him as the Son of God (always the test, for Israel); and the boat coming to shore, His power in blessing is made known through all the country, as the world will know it after he comes again.

3.The way of blessing (chap. 15:-16:12).The next chapter shows us God's way of blessing in opposition to man's traditional teaching, by which conscience is perverted, and the heart is cured by washing the hands! For it is the heart, alas! out of which all evil comes, and only evil. Grace alone can reach and bless in this case; and in the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, a Canaanite, of a race under the curse, finds the blessing which she seeks, not as claim, but as grace-as a dog. If man even will give crumbs, what will God not do? The safe appeal is to His heart, and grace alone is the manifestation of what is there. The feeding of the multitude follows and is connected with this:seven loaves,-a perfect provision, inexhaustible by man; seven baskets left over and above when all are filled. The Lord's warning to the disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees is the supplement to this.

4. The principles of the kingdom in its mystery-form (chap. 16:13-17:21). And now we get what Peter speaks of in his second epistle as the principles of our calling (1:3). We are called "by glory and virtue [courage] ;" glory before us, courage needed for the difficulties of the way. The cross for the Master means the cross for the disciple. To save one's life is to lose it; for Christ's sake to lose it is to save it forever.

Once more we are brought face to face with the unbelief that rejects Christ; the best natural thoughts incompetent, the Father's revelation needed to declare to us the Son of the living God. Upon this Rock, the Lord declares He will build His Church, giving Peter at the same time a name which connects him with this building (comp. i Pet. 2:4, 5). But as this also, he receives the "keys of the kingdom of heaven," for the Church administers the kingdom (see chap. 18:18).

But the King is rejected, and the Lord announces His cross, and that as marking the principle of His kingdom in its present form. Disciples too must bear their cross, His way for them to the glory beyond. But the glory is not only at the end of the way; as now revealed, it shines already upon it. Of this, the transfiguration is the testimony to the disciples, in which "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" are made known to " eyewitnesses of His majesty " (2 Pet. 1:16-18).Moses and Elias, the ministers of a former dispensation, here make way for the Son of God, to whom the Father's voice testifies out of the " bright cloud " of the "excellent glory."

From the wonder of this vision they come down to meet the devil at the foot of the mount; and here is seen the failure of disciples (through lack of prayer and fasting-dependence and self-denial,) to use the power intrusted to them. There is still resource in the Lord as there ever is.

5. The responsibilities of grace (chap. 17:22-20:28). We now come to see in detail the responsibilities of the grace declared to us. Again at the outset we are bidden to remember the cross in its character as rejection at the hands of men (10:22, 23). Then, on the occasion of the temple-tribute, the Lord teaches Peter on the one hand the place of sons, and associates him with Himself as that, and on the other not to insist on the recognition of claim in a world which "knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." (i Jno. 3:1:)

Then a little child is made to illustrate conversion and true greatness in the kingdom. With such little ones the Lord identifies Himself:for them the Son of Man came, and the Father's will is their security.

But holiness must be maintained as well as grace, and among recipients of this. For this purpose the assembly-if it be practically but two or three gathered to His name,-is intrusted by the Lord with the administration of His kingdom. Himself is in the midst to supply their need and authenticate their acts. Moreover, grace has itself an imperative claim upon the recipients of it, a claim which will be maintained finally in the judgment of those who do not manifest the spirit of forgiveness when accepted as forgiven ones. It is here, of course, of what is governmentally administered on earth that the Lord is speaking, not as if there were a question of the final safety of those absolutely forgiven in divine grace. But then in these this grace will produce its fruits.

In the nineteenth chapter natural relationships are sanctioned fully in connection with the kingdom, and freed from that which Moses had to yield to the hardness of men's hearts. Grace maintains God's order in the first creation, as it enables men, if need be, for the kingdom of heaven's sake, to walk superior to the natural instincts. Little children too are received by Christ and blessed, as those who by grace belong also to His kingdom.

The doctrine of rewards is given in the closing section of this part of the gospel (19:16-20:28). But first, we see in the case of the rich young man that salvation itself is not a reward. No purchase can be made of this, no bargaining secure it. He who would do this finds the price still too high, and however sorrowful, must give it up. A rich man-and such only could expect to buy-"can hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." But this is not a question of salvation, and when the disciples ask in astonishment, " Who then can be saved?" the Lord answers that salvation is in God's hands alone, and to Him all things are possible.

Peter then raises the question of rewards; and here, while every one who for Christ's sake forsakes aught shall receive an hundredfold and inherit everlasting life, yet the principle is," The last shall be first, and the first last." In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, those who are simply debtors to grace for whatever they might receive get proportionately much more than those agreeing for so much. The first in their own account are last in God's.

The cross and the giving up of all is what is before the Lord's eyes, the right and left places beside the Lord in the kingdom before the eyes of the disciples. They will take even the cross, if it be as the pathway to personal exaltation; but not in this can self-seeking obtain its end. When the rest of the disciples are indignant at James and John, the Lord further warns them that places in His kingdom are not such as would satisfy ambition. His kingdom is not like the kingdoms of men. The highest there is He who came to serve in lowliest fashion; " for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."

"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." (Hab. 3:17, 18.)

The doctrine of chap. 7:1-6, which is the key to all that follows, is that of the fourth verse-that "ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should belong to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God." It is the same doctrine of our being dead with Christ, dead in His death, but differently applied.

First of all, as a fundamental necessity for holiness, the spirit of lawlessness is met by the doctrine that we are dead to sin. Here, as a step further in the same direction, the spirit of legality is met by the doctrine that we are dead to the law. In either case it is holiness-fruit-bearing-that is in question ; not justification from sins, and peace with God, which the former part of the epistle has already answered. Here, it is "that we& may bring forth fruit" "that we may serve in newness of spirit."

The sixth chapter deals with the objections of unbelief, whether outside or inside the profession of Christianity. The seventh chapter deals with the objections of earnest but self-occupied hearts, ignorant of God's way of liberty and power. The objections in the one case are of those who have no experience, as we may say; the objections in the other are drawn from experience, but yet unenlightened by the Word. In the one case, the apostle can appeal to the experience of men who had found no fruit in things of which now they were ashamed (6:21); in the other, he appeals from experience to the truth of the place which God had given them, and which faith, and only faith, could receive.

We are not now to look at the whole argument, (for argument it is,) but at two pregnant expressions, which must be understood, rightly to apprehend it. " For, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwell in you; now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."

What is it, then, to be in the flesh, and what to be in the Spirit,-these two evidently contrasted and mutually exclusive conditions? In the one, (if Christ's,) we are not; in the other we are. In the One, we "cannot please God;" in the other, if we live, we have yet to walk in order to please Him (Gal. 5:25).

Turning to the doctrine of the seventh chapter, it would seem the simplest thing possible to define what is meant by being " in the flesh." To be in the flesh is to be just a living man. We have it twice applied in the natural sense-Gal. 2:20, Phil, 1:22. Here in Romans it is the condition of one who has not died with Christ. It is as " dead . . . … by the body of Christ "that the apostle can say with all Christians, " When we were in the flesh " (7:4, 5).

Condition and standing, as we have seen, are here inseparable. Condition is, in the context of the passages before us, the thing most dwelt upon; but it is the condition of one in the standing, and of no other. " When we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death," This is what we find in the sixth chapter:" What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death. But now, being freed from sin, and made servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." The man in the flesh is one on the road to death.

Again in the eighth chapter:" For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit; for the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be:so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." (8:5-8.)

They that are in the flesh are thus in a state of spiritual death, going on to eternal death. They are "after the flesh"-characterized by and identified with it. They are mere natural men:flesh, as born of flesh.

Here, then, was no fruit, while we were in this condition. The law is what applies to it, but is no remedy for it. " The law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane" (i Tim. 1:9, R.V.). Moreover, "the law is not of faith. " faith is not its principle (Gal. 3:12); and "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse"(5:10). To be "under the law" and "under grace" are things exclusive of one another (Rom. 6:14).

It is true that God had once a people under law, for His own purposes of unfailing wisdom. As the "ministration of death" and "of condemnation" (2 Cor. 3:7, 9), it was a " schoolmaster" under which in Israel even saints were "kept, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed" (Gal. 3:.23, 24). The wholesome lessons of man's natural helplessness and hopelessness were taught by it, God saving of course all the time by a grace which He could not yet declare openly. But to believers it was necessarily bondage, "added" only "till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made," and when "faith came," as God's openly acknowledged principle, they were "no longer under the schoolmaster" (5:19, 25). We are henceforth disciples of Christ and not of the law, although we have the good of the tutorship under which others were of old.

For the child of God, from the first moment of his being that, "faith" and "grace,"-the opposites of law,-are God's linked principles of unfailing blessing. The ministry of the new covenant is the "ministration of life" and "of righteousness" (2 Cor. 3:6, 9). " The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,"-a new standing and a new condition. The power of His death attaches to the gift of His life, and he who lives in Him has died with Him. This is death to sin and to law* alike.*It may be urged that God never put the Gentile under law at all. and this is true. The apostle addresses himself especially to Jewish converts. Yet the practical freedom is the same for all. And the Gentile needs the apprehension as well as the Jew, as we are witness to ourselves.*

The law was in Israel, then, that to which man was linked, a link from which fruit was looked for, nay, demanded. In fact, only "passions of sins" were "by the law " (5:5), the full account of which the apostle gives afterward (10:7-13). The law is not merely the ministration of condemnation ; it is also "the strength of sin" (i Cor. 15:56). "Sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace " (6:14).

Death to the law is therefore absolutely necessary for fruitfulness. The death of Christ is the believer's effectual divorce, that he may be free to be linked with Christ raised up from the dead, that thus there may be fruit.

But here, the doctrine goes beyond that of the sixth chapter. For the figure is that of marriage, -of union; and a divorce from the law must have come first in order that we may be united to Christ. We cannot be disunited by what unites us to another. It is not, therefore, by life in Christ that we are united to Christ, nor is this what could be figured by marriage. For this, we must go on to what really unites Christians to their Lord,-the gift of the Spirit. It is the contrast of chap. 8:9 to which this brings us. " In the flesh," the link is with law; the fruit, the passions of sins; the end, death. " In the Spirit," we are linked with Christ, the fruit is holiness, the end everlasting life. " If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

I pass over the experience of the seventh chapter entirely now to consider the statement of chap. 8:9, " But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you;" to which is emphatically added, " Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."

It seems unaccountable how any one, except by some preoccupation of the mind, should see in this the statement that we only cease to be in the flesh by the indwelling of the Spirit. To take the figure already used by the apostle:one alive in the flesh is married to the law; if by the Spirit he is now married to Christ,-does he die to the law by the new marriage ? must he not be dead to the law to be free for the new marriage? Surely it is as clear as noonday that a new marriage cannot dissolve an old one, but that the old, as long as it existed, would forbid the new!

On the other hand, what more simple than to argue that if you are in the new bond (the Spirit), you are not in the old one (the flesh), without at all implying that the new bond had destroyed the old? It only shows, and that conclusively, that the old does not exist.

The " old man "-what for a Christian is now such-is a man in the flesh, as the sixth chapter, has already shown us. He is the man " corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," and "they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Is it in such the Spirit comes to dwell? They may think so who suppose the indwelling of the Spirit to be only tantamount to being born again; but Scripture is of course clear that it is " having believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise " (Eph. 1:13, R, V.), the very form of expression showing that it is that which began at Pentecost (Acts 1:4, 5) that is referred to, and not the common possession of believers of all time.

God's order is, first, new birth, then sealing; first, the preparing of the house, and then dwelling in the house prepared; not simply a new life for us, but a divine Person dwelling in us:and this is the testimony to the perfection of the work now accomplished for us, for God's seal can only be set on perfection. Haying believed, we have already seen that we are in the value of Christ's work before God, sin and flesh completely gone from before Him, ourselves dead to sin, alive to God in Christ. It is here the Spirit of God can seal us, and unite us to Christ as His. And where one is found upon whom the value of that work is, there is but one thing for which He waits, and that is the acknowledgment of Christ as Lord and Saviour, before He takes possession of His dwelling-place, and unites that soul to Christ on high.

Hence, among those owning Christ it can be said, " If any one have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The seal of the Spirit is Christ's mark upon His own; therefore among those professing to be His, if the mark is not, it is a false profession.

Thus there is no thought in the New Testament of a class of believers in Christ who have not,-or may not have,-the Holy Ghost. It is in vain to seek elsewhere for a class of persons the existence of which the apostle here denies. To the Corinthians he writes in the most general way, so as to include all bowing really to the name of Jesus,- " To the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."And what does he ask of all these? "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (i Cor. 1:2; 6:19,)Surely, this is the prescience of the divine Word, to settle all controversy. Who will say, in face of this, that one who in heart calls on the name of Jesus Christ his Lord has not the Holy Ghost?

But then Romans 8:9 becomes simplicity itself, and the many questions raised receive their absolute settlement. Our eyes have not to roam over Christendom, lamenting that in so few of Christ's people the work of God is no more than half accomplished. That there is so little manifestation we may still lament, as even at Corinth the apostle could, and we may urge upon men still, with the apostle to the Galatians, " If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit "(5:25), for these still are different things.

Does it make less of the gift that it is so little realized? or would it be more honoring to God to suppose that He has not bestowed it, where there is so little manifestation of it? Surely, surely, it is no such thing. Let the grace, and the responsibility of the grace, be pressed upon Christians; for it is faith that works for God, not doubt. Oh for a voice of power to cry in the ears of slumberers, "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"Ye belong to Christ-ye are Christ's, and the seal of God is upon you. Lord, wake up Thy beloved people to the apprehension of Thy marvelous gift!

"Whether fallen man gets a privilege or a law, a blessing or a curse, it is all alike. His nature is bad:he can neither rest with nor work for God. If God works and makes a rest for him, he will not keep it; and if God tells him to work, he will not do it. Such is man; he has no heart for God.

Nothing can exceed the desperate unbelief and wickedness of the human heart, save the super-abounding grace of God."

There are four of the epistles of Paul which introduce us by successive steps to the height of Christian position. They are those to the Romans, Galatians, Colossians, and Ephesians. As our position before God is in the value of Christ's work for Him, we shall necessarily find in these epistles the exposition fully of the doctrine of atonement. In fact, a concordance is enough to show that only in Corinthians and Hebrews beside, of Paul's fourteen epistles, is the blood of Christ spoken of, and only in Philippians additionally is the cross. Hebrews, indeed, speaks more of the blood of Christ than any other book of the New Testament. Its doctrine we shall hope to consider at another time, however.

Of the four epistles I have mentioned, Romans and Galatians are most nearly connected together, and Colossians and Ephesians. The negative side of deliverance by the death of Christ is the topic of the former; the positive side of what we are brought into as identified with Him in life, that of the latter; although Colossians unites the "dead" and " buried with Christ" of Romans to the " quickened " and "raised up with Christ" of Ephesians.

Romans and Galatians differ mainly in this, that while Romans through the ministry of Christ's work establishes the soul in peace, and delivers it from the power of sin, Galatians takes up the moral principles of Judaism and Christianity as a warning to those made free by grace, not to entangle themselves again with the yoke of bondage. In pursuance of this end, Galatians takes one important step beyond Romans, although clearly involved in the doctrine of the latter. Romans says we are dead with Christ to sin and the law; Galatians adds that we are crucified to the world, and a new creation.

The doctrinal part of Romans is found in the first eleven chapters:the part with which we have to do here is the first eight, and these divide into two portions at the end of chap. 5:2:Up to this, we have the doctrine of the blood of Christ as justifying us from our sins. Beyond it, we have the doctrine of the death of Christ as meeting the question of our nature.

Yet the blood is the token of death, and as-this alone, has meaning. The difference is mainly in this, that the blood is looked at here as what is offered to God; the death, as what applies to us. It is, in fact, the death of our Substitute which is offered to God in the blood of propitiation. We look God ward to see the effect for us as to peace; we look at the sacrifice to realize the power and fullness of what has satisfied Him. The two are bound together in the most indissoluble way. To him for whom the blood of Christ avails, the death of Christ at the same time applies; while the order . of apprehension is undoubtedly that in which the epistle treats of these. The first question with the soul is, Is all settled forever Godward? The next is, If this be so, how is the evil in me looked at by God? Much else connects itself with this, but our theme here is the atonement, and to this I confine myself at this time.

In accordance with what has just been stated, we find in chap. 3:,23 Christ first of all spoken of as a "propitiatory," or "mercy-seat,*" "through faith in His blood." *λαστήριov, the regular word for "mercy-seat" in the Septuagint; not λασμς, "propitiation," as 1 Jno. 2:2.* Access to God is the point, with ability to stand before Him. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God "-the glory that abode upon the mercy-seat, but from which all in Israel were shut out. This language of the old types is as simple as it is profound in its significance for us. The ark with its mercy-seat was the throne of Him who dwelt between the cherubim, of whom it was said, "Justice and judgment are the foundation of Thy throne," but at the same time "mercy and truth go before Thy face." (Ps. 89:14.) How then could the reconciliation of these toward man be accomplished? Only by the precious blood typified by that toward which the faces of the cherubim looked, the value of which the rent vail has witnessed, and through which the " righteousness of God " is now " toward all," the sanctuary of His presence is become the place of refuge for the sinner. By the sentence of His righteousness we are justified according to His grace, a sentence publicly given in the resurrection of Jesus our Lord from the dead, " who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification."

" Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." This is of course His life as risen for us, as He says Himself, "Because I live, ye shall live also." This leads on to the second part of Romans, where our death with Him and our life in Him are dwelt upon. And as the first part has given us the blood of the sin-offering,-blood which alone could enter the sanctuary,-so the second gives us the burning of the victim upon the ground, the passing away in judgment of all that we were as sinners before God. " God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Thus we have a new place and standing in Christ wholly, the old relationship to sin and law being done away.

Propitiation and substitution characterize thus these two parts of Romans respectively. The connection shows us clearly what we have before looked at, that it is by substitution that propitiation is effected. The propitiation is indeed marked as for all, though of course effectual only for those who believe. The door is open for all into the shelter provided, but he who enters finds in the ' substitution of Another in his place the only possible shelter. Upon all this it does not need now to dwell, as this has been done elsewhere, and we may now pass on to look briefly at the epistle to the Galatians.

Galatians, as to the doctrine of atonement, adds but little to Romans. The apostle, opposing the introduction of the law among Christians, insists strongly upon his own authority as one raised up of God, in His grace, out of the midst of Judaism, the incarnation of Jewish zeal against the Church, called to be an apostle of the revelation of Christ which he had independently received. He was an apostle, neither from men nor through man, and had got nothing even from other apostles who were such before him, and who had been constrained to recognize the grace that had been given to him. Peter, moreover, at Antioch, had been openly rebuked by him for giving way to the legal spirit which he was now opposing; and here he repeats the doctrine of Romans which he had then maintained, that not only we are " justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law," but also that " I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God; I am crucified with Christ."

Afterward, he goes on to show more particularly the purpose of the law, and, as illustrating this, the manner in which God had given it, with its character as shown by all this. The promise to Abraham had been made four hundred and thirty years before the law, in which God had declared that the blessing for all nations should be through his Seed-Christ, and on the principle of faith. But law is not faith; its principle is that of works, righteousness through these, but therefore for man only curse for every one who was upon that principle; and that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles God had to remove this curse of the law out of the way, Christ taking it when hanging upon the tree, for the law had said, "Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree."

Two things need a brief notice here. First, that (as should be obvious, but to some is not,) the hanging upon the tree is not itself the curse, but only marks the one upon whom the curse falls. The curse itself is no external thing, but a deep reality in the soul of him that bears it. This was the wrath upon sin which Christ bare for us, the forsaking of God, which, had it not been borne, assuredly no blessing could have been for any.

Secondly, therefore, it was not for Jews alone, or those under law, that the curse of the law was borne. The words of the apostle are surely plain here:" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, … that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Clearly he says that blessing could not have been for Gentiles had Christ not borne the curse of the law, and this is as simple as possible, as soon as we see what essentially the curse is.

It is not the question whether Gentiles were under the law. It is quite true that God never put them there; and the apostle, in the passage before us, distinguishes those redeemed from its curse from the Gentiles of whom he speaks. But the law was only the trial of man as man, and Israel's condemnation by it was, " that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." (Rom. 3:19.) It is to miss fatally the point of the law not to see in it this universal reference. " As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." The condemnation of the Jew is the condemnation of all:the law's curse, only the emphasizing of the doom of all. And had not this been met and set aside, the blessed message of grace could have no more reached the Gentile than the Jew himself.

This is the very purpose of the law, for which it was " added " to the promise before given, not as a condition for it to be saddled with, but to bring out the need of the grace which the promise implies. " It was added for the sake of transgression " (5:19, Gr.); not to hinder but to produce it, ("for where no law is there is no transgression,") to turn sin into the positive breach of law, and thus to bring out its character, and bring men under condemnation for it. But it was added also for a certain time,-"till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made."

But if God were thus testing man, it was by " elements of the world " (chap. 4:3), necessarily bondage only to the believer, and the cross is that by which we are "crucified to the world" (chap. 6:14). For "in Christ Jesus, neither is circumcision any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new-creation" (5:15). And Christ "died for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." (chap. 1:4).

It is evident that Galatians takes up and completes the doctrine of Romans by adding that of deliverance out of the world to that from sin and law, as well as our place in new creation, involved already in the truth of the first Adam being the figure of Him that was to come, in whom we are.

In Jehovah's hand and not in the enemy's, however it might seem.

To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

In Thee, Jehovah, have I taken refuge:let me never be ashamed, deliver me in Thy righteousness.

2. Bow down Thine ear to me, rescue me speedily; be to me a rock of strength,-a house of defense to save me!

3. For my rock and my fortress Thou art! and for Thy name's sake lead me and guide me!

4. Draw me out of the net they have laid privily for me ; for Thou art my stronghold.

5. Into Thine hand I commend my spirit; for Thou hast redeemed me, Jehovah, God* of truth.

6. I have hated those who observe lying vanities; and as for me, in Jehovah have I trusted.

7. I will rejoice and be glad in Thee; for Thou hast seen my affliction, Thou hast known my soul in straits,

8. And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy ; Thou hast set my feet in a large place.

9. Be gracious to me, Jehovah, for I am in a strait; mine eye is consumed with vexation, [yea,] my soul and my belly.

10. For my hie is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

11. I am become a reproach because of all mine oppressors; even to my neighbors exceedingly, and a dread to mine acquaintance:they that see me without flee from me.

12. I am forgotten as a dead man, from the heart; I am like a vessel which is marred.

13. For I have heard the murmur of many,- shrinking on every side; while they counseled together against me,-they plotted to take my life.

14. But as for me, I have trusted in Thee, Jehovah:I have said, Thou art my God.

15. My times are in Thy hand:rescue me from mine enemies' hand, and from my persecutors!

16. Make Thy face shine upon Thy servant:in Thy mercy, save me!

17. Jehovah, let me not be ashamed, for I have called upon Thee:let the wicked be ashamed, let them be silent in hades.
18. Be dumb the lying lips, which proudly and contemptuously speak hard things against the righteous!

19. O how great Thy goodness, which Thou hast stored up for those who fear Thee! [which] Thou workest for those whose refuge is in Thee, before the sons of men !

20. Thou concealest them in the covert of Thy presence from the compacts of Men:Thou hidest them in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

21. Blessed be Jehovah, because He hath distinguished His mercy to me in a fenced city.

22. As for me, I said in my alarm, " I am cut off from before Thine eyes:" nevertheless Thou hast heard the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee.

23. O love Jehovah, all ye godly ones of His:Jehovah preserveth the faithful, and plentifully recompenseth the proud doer.

24. Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all ye that hope in Jehovah.

Nearly now the last stage trodden of the desert way;
All behind them lies the darkness, all before-the day.
But some hearts were weary traveling, murmuring at the
road;

Half forgetting their deliverance by the mighty God,

" Naught," they said, " there lies around us but the desert
sand ;

Oh to see once more the rivers of Egyptia's land!"

Then God's heart of deep compassion sent the message
free,-

"If the people look for water, gather them to Me."

Forty years of desert-wandering, proving man was vain;
Turning back in heart to Egypt when a pressure came.
Forty years of desert-wandering, mercies sweet and new
Every day their path surrounding, proving God was true.

Now the journey almost over, trial well-nigh past,
He would have them, as when starting, raise a song at last.
Naught but desert sand around them-not one spot of
green,

But the glory of His presence lighting up the scene.

Desert weariness forgotten by that mighty throng,
As around that springing water voices rise in song.
Not a song of "victory" only now their voices fill,
But the deeper blest experience-"God is with us still."

Nearly now the last stage trodden of the desert way;
All behind us lies the darkness, all before-the day.
Wondrous day of glowing promise, dimming all beside,
When the One who died to win us comes to claim His bride.

And while watching for His coming, waiting here below,
He would have us in the desert find the waters flow.
Streams of sweet and deep refreshment gladdening all
the throng.
Giving us, when gathered round Him, blessing and a song. A.S.O.

The heart made to rejoice in God Himself rather than in the prosperity given by His hand. A psalm; a song of dedication of the house. Of David.

I will extol Thee, Jehovah; for Thou hast raised me up, and hast not made my foes rejoice over me.

2. Jehovah my God! I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me.

3. Jehovah, Thou hast brought up from hades my soul; Thou hast revived me from among them that go down to the pit.

4. Sing psalms to Jehovah, ye godly ones of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

5. For His anger is for a moment, in His favor is life; weeping may lodge at evening, and for morning there be a song of joy.

6. And I, in my prosperity I said, " I never shall be moved."

7. Jehovah, in Thy favor Thou hadst made my mountain to stand strong:Thou hiddest Thy face; I was troubled.

8. Unto Thee, Jehovah, I cried; even to Jehovah I made supplication.

9. What profit will be in my blood if I go down to corruption? will the dust give Thee thanks? will it declare Thy truth?

10. Jehovah, hear and be gracious to me; Jehovah, be my helper!

11. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing:Thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness;

12. To the end my glory may sing psalms to Thee and not be silent:Jehovah my God, I will give Thee thanks forever.

Text.-(5) Lit, "There is a moment in His anger."

(7) Lit., "Thou hadst established strength to my mountain."

(8) Lit, "I cry," "I make supplication."

III. THE MANIFESTATION AND REJECTION OF THE KING. (Chap, 8:-12:)
I. The signs of His presence (viii, 9:34). The character of His kingdom being thus announced, the next two chapters give at full length the signs which show the presence of the Deliverer and King. And here again at the outset, in two typical cases, is exhibited His rejection by Israel and His reception by the Gentiles.

The leper, an Israelite, but whose place was forfeited (as theirs had been,) by his condition, is the significant representative of his nation. The Lord heals him by touch, as One locally present for man's need, sending the healed man to the priest, as Jehovah's ministers to certify the cure,-the witness of Jehovah's presence among them,-for a testimony to the people. To this there is no response ; but then a Gentile, the centurion, appears, whose faith, going beyond any in Israel, accredits Him with power to heal, not merely present, but absent, by His word. This is characteristically the faith of the present dispensation, and the Lord announces thereupon the nations coming and sitting down in the kingdom with the heirs of promise, while the children of the kingdom should be cast out. These two cases seem preliminary to the general account which follows of the signs which certify His power and title in the midst of the people.

We find Him, therefore, again healing by touch, in the case of Peter's wife's mother, and in the evening casting out devils by His word, and healing all the sick; fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy with a sympathetic love manifested in power for all who came. Multitudes thus come about Him, but not really to follow; and he who would do so must follow Him as One without where to lay His head. None the less is His claim to absolute obedience, nor His power to secure those who follow Him amid whatever opposition. This the storm on the Sea of Galilee bears witness of, where He is at first not actively present, but asleep. Finally, roused by their unbelieving entreaties, (how much unbelief is often expressed by our prayers!) He interferes for them, and the winds and waves subside at His word. In general, for us now, the character of power expressed for us is that which kept them while He was asleep. At His active interference when presently He shall wake up, all the fury of the storm shall cease.

This seems to me, then, parenthetical, not part of His self-manifestation in the midst of Israel, which is resumed on the other side of the sea. Here the power of the enemy is met, demonstrated, and foiled with ease. Man's terrible captor is compelled to give up his prey. Alas! the people, more alarmed at the presence of Jesus than of the devil, beseech Him to depart, and He departs. Then, in His own city, He reaches down to the deepest need of all, the sin which is at the bottom of man's helpless misery and subjection to the evil one, and He works a miracle to give them suitable proof that " the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." But here it is in answer to the accusation, "This man blasphemeth." Thus, the more He manifests Himself, and although in blessing, the more manifest is His rejection at the hands of men.

But it only compels Him, as it were, to openly declare His grace. He calls a publican to follow Him, as the witness of it, and sits down in his house with publicans and sinners. He declares Himself come to call these, not as the law which required righteousness. In truth, not only were they ignorant of who was in their midst, and strangers to the joy of the Bridegroom's presence, but would have the true righteousness He came to give merely made a patch for the holes in the rags of man's own legal one. The new wine of His grace must be put in other than the old skins of the law.

Again, most beautifully, a dispensational picture follows here. Israel, while He is on the way to heal her, is in fact discovered to be dead, as is Jairus' daughter. For Israel also He has therefore to go beyond a law which could not give life. But then upon that principle (as Rom. 3:29, 30,) God, if dealing in grace, could come in for need where-ever found, and faith could be welcomed freely to avail itself of the power in Christ. This brings in the Gentiles, who find their figure in the poor woman healed, in fact before Jairus' daughter. Yet she is raised up also, as Israel will be, in the power and grace of Him in whom alone, after all, her hope is.

Having vindicated thus His title as Son of God, (for resurrection marks Him out as this with power for man, Rom. 1:4,) He can appear as Son of David; for this title, as we have seen, He can only take as connected with the other. The blind men own Him as this, although they are forbidden, because He is really rejected, to spread His fame as. such. The dumb man who speaks when the devil is cast out seems, again, a picture of what caused the nation's silence when they should have hailed their King. But the Pharisees consummate their wickedness by imputing to Beelzebub His miracles of power and grace.

2. The messengers of the King (chap. 9:35-10:). The Lord's pity for the scattered sheep now makes Him send forth messengers throughout Israel. The testimony is distinctly for them, not to Samaria or the Gentiles, and "powers of the world to come " still attest the coming kingdom. It is a testimony which, while in abeyance during the present dispersion of Israel, will be taken up again after the Church is removed to heaven, and not completed until the Son of Man be come again (10:23). This final testimony will be above all in the face of trials and persecutions of the severest kind; but the Lord is with His messengers, to reward or punish those who, in them, receive or reject Himself:-a principle applied to the Gentiles in chap. 25:31-49, among whom a similar testimony will be given at the same time.

3. Rejected, yet grace lingering and inviting (chap. 11:). We have now the direct witness of His grace in spite of opposition and rejection. Even the Baptist seems to waver, while the people in general had rejected both John's testimony, coming in the way of righteousness, and the Lord's in grace. Wisdom has found her children only among publicans and sinners; and the cities privileged to behold His mighty works, have only used the opportunity to increase their judgment beyond that of Canaan or of Sodom.

Yet His heart rests. It is right that from the wise and prudent of this world should be hidden what the Father reveals to babes. What wisdom of man merely could pierce the mystery of the Son incarnate ? Yet into His hands the Father had given every thing, and by Him alone could the Father be revealed. Let those laboring and burdened come to Him, and He would give them rest; and learning of Him who, with all the glory of His person, trod Himself in meekness the path of obedience, they would find rest in taking the yoke He gave; for His yoke was easy, His burden light.

4. The rejection of the nation for the rejection of Him (chap. 12:). Now the guilt of that generation is summed up, and their doom pronounced. The Lord shows them that the Sabbath, the sign of God's covenant existing with them as His people, is gone for those who had broken the covenant, and lost the place of relationship with God. David being rejected, God's link with the people in his day, the holy things ceased to be such, so that his followers could partake of the holy bread. On the other hand, in the service of the temple, the priests could without blame infringe the ordinance of the Sabbath. Mercy more than sacrifice was God's own mind; and the Son of Man, greater than David or the temple, was Lord of the Sabbath day.

In the synagogue the same question arises, and the Lord convicts them of the heartlessness of their opposition to divine grace. The Pharisees seek to destroy Him. Again, the blind and dumb, made so by Satan's tenancy, bears witness to the Son of David, and again the Pharisees utter their awful blasphemy. The Lord exposes their folly and warns them as to the result of blaspheming the Holy Ghost. The bad fruit showed the whole tree bad, even the idle words for which men must give account in the day of judgment.

Finally, when they seek a sign, He tells them they shall have none but that of Jonah. Jonah, after three days and nights in the whale's belly, had appeared at Nineveh with the word of judgment. The Son of Man, rejected, and three days in the grave, would be in His day a similar sign of judgment to His rejecters (comp. chap. 24:30). The external reformation which had taken place on their return from Babylon, when the unclean spirit of idolatry had left his house, would not avail; the house was empty still, and he would return with seven other spirits worse than himself, and take possession (comp. chap. 24:15, and 2 Thess. 2:4).

The Lord closes with the solemn breaking of all fleshly ties. It was He who should do the will of His Father in heaven whom alone He could now recognize as in relation to Himself. This is a principle of Christianity, and prepares the way for that view of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,-the kingdom during the rejection and absence of the King, which the next section of the book discloses to us.

"We are bent upon doing something which God does not want us to do at all; upon going somewhere that God does not want us to go. We pray about it, and get no answer. We pray again and again, and get no answer. How is this ? Why, the simple fact is that God wants us to be quiet, to stand still, to remain just where we are. Wherefore, instead of racking our brain, and harassing our souls about what we ought to do, let us do nothing but simply wait on God."

If your honest purpose be to get on in the divine life, to progress in spirituality, to cultivate personal acquaintance with Christ, then challenge your heart solemnly and faithfully as to this. Make Christ your habitual good. Go, gather the manna that falls on the dew-drops, and feed upon it with an appetite sharpened by a diligent walk with God through the desert."

"CHRISTIAN, see carefully to it that you are not only saved by Christ, but also living on Him."

The doctrine of justification developed mainly in the first part of Romans, but extends, in a certain very important application of it, into the sixth chapter, while the latter part of the fifth, which we were last considering, connects it with the doctrine of the two Adams therein given. It is as in Christ we find it, accompanying the new life by which we are made of His race as last Adam:- "justification of life." For this reason a glance back will be here in place.

The truth is developed in this epistle in the order of application to the soul's need. And the first part accordingly begins with that which is its first conscious need, the guilt of sins committed; the second part takes up what is a later discovery and distress, the sin inherent in a fallen nature. The first of these is met by the application of the blood of Christ, justification by His blood. The second is met by the application of the death of Christ:"our old man is crucified with Christ;" " he that is dead is justified from sin " (6:6,7, marg.).

These are two different applications of the same work of Christ, which avails in all its fullness for every believer. No one can be justified by the blood of Christ who is not at the same time justified by the death of Christ. The blood is already the sign of death having taken place, and only as that could it avail for us. It is only as that that it could put away our sins, so as to give us effectual peace with God at all.

Justification is the act of divine righteousness. It is for this reason that the righteousness of God is so prominent in the first part of Romans, while it is not found at all in the second part. Righteousness is that quality in God which has of necessity to say to sin, and on account of which the soul conscious of its guilt trembles to meet Him. No one, whatever be his guilt, is afraid of God's love; but how great soever that love may be, the awakened conscience at once begins to realize that it is righteousness must have to say to sin. The glory of the gospel is this, that it takes up just this character of God to put it on the side of the believer in Jesus, so as to make it his very boast and confidence." I am not ashamed of the gospel [the glad tidings]," says the apostle; " for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." And how this power? "For therein"-in these glad tidings to guilty men,-"the righteousness of God is revealed, by faith, to faith" (chap. 1:16, 17, Rev. Vers.). It is the revelation of divine righteousness in a gospel to the guilty, faith alone being required to receive the gospel, it is this which is the power of God for the deliverance of souls. – In the third chapter it is more fully made known as divine righteousness declared by the cross "in the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God " (3:25, R.V..), and at this time, "that He might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus" (5:26). The righteousness of God is that, then, which makes Him righteous in pronouncing righteous the believer in Jesus. This righteousness of God becomes as it were a house of refuge with its door open " unto all," and its protecting roof, impervious to the storm, "over all them that believe,"-over all that have fled to the cross for refuge (5:22)*. *επι, "over," or "on." There is indeed a question of reading here, and some would leave out "and over all;" but we need not consider this now.*

It is the righteousness of God which repels every charge against the believer in Jesus. His justification is an act of righteousness, for the blood that is before God is the token of the death of his Substitute in his behalf. The penalty of his sins has been endured by Another, who, if "delivered for our offenses," " was raised again for our justification." This is the public sentence of it which declares on God's part His acceptance of the work. The ground is the blood; the sentence is the resurrection of our Surety. This sentence is God coming in to manifest Himself for us on account of the work of Christ accomplished. Faith rests in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.

This might seem all that is needed. Assuredly the work of Christ meets every need, and His resurrection is the token of complete acceptance. What is needed is not in fact something more than this, but the fuller bringing out of what is involved in it; that in our Substitute we have therefore passed away as on the footing of the first man, identified with Adam, and are in Christ on the footing of the Second Man, alive in Him to God. For faith, therefore, I am dead to sin;" because He died to it, and cannot live in what I am, -though for faith only,-dead to. This approves the holiness of the doctrine, as the seventh and eighth chapters show its power. It answers the moral question with which the sixth chapter opens.

Let us notice the way the doctrine is unfolded. The objection is started, " If then grace abounds over sin, then the more our sin the more His grace. Shall we then continue in sin, that grace may abound?" To which he answers, "We are dead to sin, how can we live in it?" This is conclusive against the abuse of the doctrine, although it is only for faith that we are dead :for then faith in it must tend to holiness, and not unholiness. The truth is ever according to godliness.

But how then are we dead to sin? He bids them think of what was involved in their baptism. Baptized to Christ Jesus,-again the order of words whose significance we have seen before,- we were baptized to His death:to have our part in this, according to the ordained testimony of it upon earth. Burial is just putting a dead man into the place of death:" we are therefore buried with Him by baptism into death." Our place in natural life is ended:upon earth we have but our part in the death of Jesus. But He is risen; the glory of the Father necessitated His resurrection from among the dead, and this is to give its character to the new life in which henceforth we are to walk; " for if we have come to be identified* [with Him] in the likeness of His death, we shall be also on the other hand in the likeness of His resurrection."*I follow the London New Translation. "United," which the Revised Version gives, does not give the full force. It is literally "grown together" (not "planted") so as to be one. " With Him" is evidently to be understood.* That is, if our baptism-the " likeness of His death "—have real meaning with us, we shall be, in the character of our walk, in the likeness of His resurrection.* *Observe the gegonamen, "we have become," in contrast with the esometha, "we shall be,"-not" become." But this is only moral "likeness," not the full being " risen with Him" of Ephesians and Colossians.* One thing will be the result of the other; " knowing this, that our old man "-all that we were in that old fleshly life-"is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,"-"nullified," rather, "brought practically to nothing,"-"that henceforth we should not serve sin."

The "knowing this" connects with the sentence before, and confirms the meaning of " the likeness of His resurrection" as a present moral result. Our old man received its sentence of shame and condemnation from God, (for this is what the cross means,) where Christ died for us. We know and have accepted its setting aside thus.

But here we must inquire the exact force and meaning of " our old man." Many take it as the expression of the "natural corruption or unholy affections of men," or "the old nature." But Scripture has a different term for the old nature, and for the principle of evil in it. It speaks of the "flesh," and of "sin in the flesh." Between person and nature there is an essential and important difference ; and if we are to take the inspired words as a perfect guide, (which we surely are,) "the old man " is person, and not nature. The importance lies in this, that responsibility (because the real activity] belongs to the person, not the nature. It is not nature that acts, although it may give character to the actions; and we as Christians are exhorted not to "walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit;" practically – though with an important difference too, which we may by and by consider, -not after the old nature, but after the new. The responsible person is distinguished as such from both natures, which are together in him.* * "Nature" (from natus, "born,") means (he character derived from birth; and we are born, and born again. The man of Romans 7:17,18, although new born, and able to distinguish himself from "the sin that dwelleth in " him, still must say, in his " flesh dwelleth no good thing."*

So, in full accordance with this, we read of " the flesh with its affections and lusts," and even of " the works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:24, 19),-1:e., fleshly works; but "doings" (πράξεις) are attributed to the "old man" only (Col. 3:9).

Moreover, the old man is never said to be in the Christian, but always to have been " put off," as in Ephesians 4:22, Gr., Colossians 3:9, or as here, " crucified with Christ" (6:6); while the flesh, on the contrary, (though he is not in it,) is always recognized as in him.* * Galatians 5:24 may be objected to this, where it is said that " they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." But this is not the same thing with Romans 6:6. There, it is " with Christ,"-the effect of His cross:here, it is they that are Christ's have done it, as accepting in heart and mind their place as His.*

The "old man" is not, therefore, "the flesh"- the old nature, but the person identified with the nature. It is myself as I was under the old head, -as a living responsible child of Adam. It is as such the Lord stood for me upon the cross, and dying, ended for me the whole standing and its responsibilities together. He died for me, not for the old man, to restore it, but for me, that as the sinner that I was, I -might find, in nature and activities together, my rightful condemnation in the cross, and have my place in Himself before God, and not in Adam. Responsibility as a Christian of course only here begins, but as a child of Adam it is over. My Substitute has died, and death ends the whole condition to which responsibility attaches. Eternal judgment is only for the deeds done in the body; and, my Substitute having died, I have died with Him-have passed out of the whole sphere of accountability in this respect.

We see how well it may be said, " Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Every thought that might raise a question is indeed for the once-justified one completely gone; and, in Christ, we live because He lives.

And what is the consequence of this crucifixion of the old man? It is that "he that is dead is justified from sin." So the Greek, and. the Revised Version rightly now. We see how truly it is a question of person and personal standing all through here. Justification is of course that, but it is a justification more complete than in the first part of the epistle. No lust, no sin of thought, no evil passions, belong to a dead man-to a corpse. And this shows in how far we are dead to sin. Nothing of all this can be imputed to one dead with Christ. " Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." The life now begun is as much involved in and dependent upon His life as the death we have been considering is involved in His death. Changeless, -eternal, past the power of death it therefore is:" knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more:death hath no more dominion over Him; for in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God."

He has died to sin, but what sin? In Him there was none, but on the cross-standing there for us- He had to say to it, and as " made sin for us" died. But thus He has passed away from it forever, to live ever to Him now from whose blessed face, when bearing the burden of it, it had necessarily separated Him. For us He died, and died to sin:this death and this deliverance by death belong to us. But in Him also we live, in the life He lives,
a life wholly to God. " Even so reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (5:ii, R. V.).

We are to " reckon" this so, not feel, find, or experience. It is not a matter of feeling or experience that Christ has died to sin. By faith we know it, and by faith also that He lives to God beyond the power of death. It is a most certain fact; but faith alone can apprehend it; and faith alone can apprehend our death with or our life in Him.

But here let us pause a little to consider some things that have been in dispute of late, and their application to what is before us. Is it condition, or standing, to be in Christ before God ? or is it perhaps both together? The doctrine already considered, if it be clearly according to the Word, will enable us, surely, conclusively to settle this.

What is meant by "standing"? Clearly it is the same as position or place*, but in a certain aspect which makes it practically somewhat narrower. *The same verb, istemi, in certain tenses means "to stand," and in certain others, transitively, "to make to stand:to set, or set up, establish, etc."* The last words are not found in Scripture in the present application, and in the New Testament in any real application to what we call Christian standing, the former possibly three times.* *Rom 5:1; 1 Pet. 5:12; Jude 24. In the last case it is in the transitive form, "present" or " make you stand." We must not confound with these such passages as Rom. 11:20; 1 Cor. 15:1; 2 Cor. 1:24; Col. 4:12, etc., the force of which is really different. The text in Peter is doubtful; many read " stand," not" ye stand.*" Two passages say it is in grace we stand; one speaks of standing " faultless in the presence of His glory." In Romans 5:I it is "this grace," referring, not necessarily to what has gone before, but to present known grace-the free and absolute favor of God. Further than this, if we insist on the direct use of the word, Scripture does not carry us.

But the force of the word is simple, and its legitimate application does not seem hard to reach. As I have said, "standing" is position in a certain aspect, namely, in view of its capability of being maintained. Thus it is used often for continuance, as in opposition to falling:" If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand"-" I continue [or stand'] unto this day." "Standing "is used, therefore, of position where there might be question of such continuance; and the question before God being as to the claim of His righteousness being met, and the claim of His righteousness being the demand of His throne, I believe "position before the throne" would fitly express what would be meant by "standing."
It does not follow that this will be negative merely, however,-a mere question of guilt. For the throne of God is surely as much that which appraises righteousness as guilt; nay, it is this which involves the other. Our standing before God is much-how much!-more than as justified from sins or sin; it is " the abundance of the gift of righteousness,"-the best robe for the Father's house.

But we do not ordinarily,-and I think, rightly- speak of standing as sons, or as members of the body of Christ. The terms of the throne we do not apply to the family, or to Church-relationship. Standing is what we call a forensic term, and does not convey the whole truth of our position.

Now if we speak of condition, it is simple that this may refer to either a fixed or a variable state. If born again, that is a condition which abides unchangeable, while there are states, as of feeling, etc., which may change in the lapse of a few moments.

In the application of this to what we have before us, what does this speak of ? standing, or state, or both-" dead to sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus"?

Now being "dead" is state-the state of one who has died. I have died with Christ to sin, as real a fact as can be; and though He lives, and death has no more dominion over Him, yet as to sin He remains still separated from it by death, to it still and ever dead:and this is my condition too as dead with Him. Though faith alone can realize it, it is a state in which I am unchangeably. So also, and of course, as to being "alive unto God:" that is unmistakably a condition contrasted with the other.

But What is implied in being "dead to sin"? The apostle answers, " Being justified from it." " Our old man is crucified with Christ." It is I myself as one standing on the old ground,-myself as identified with the old nature and its fruits alike -who have come to an end, and come to an end in deserved judgment:crucified; yes, and crucified with Christ. It is Christ who has stood for me, died for me:the old standing is gone. In this " dead to sin," condition and standing are inseparably united.

What then about the other side? If the old condition and standing are removed together, what replaces these? A new condition-"alive unto God; inseparably connected with a new standing-"in Christ Jesus." This, and this alone, is the complete answer. I have before remarked upon the order of the words. " In Christ," in contrast with "in Adam," speak of a new Head of a new race, who is at the same time the Representative of it, as Adam of his. " In Adam " we die:"in Christ we live,":-our life bound up with His life:"Because I live, ye shall live also."-"If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." This life is already begun:by faith we know, and reckon it so. We are "dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus."

This gives us the new standing, and the positive righteousness which is ours before God. As Head of His race, He stands before God in the perfection of the work He has accomplished, in the value of that matchless obedience, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. " Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God,-even righteousness." This is not merely guilt removed; it is the best robe in the Father's house. (To be continued, D. V.)

My desire is to take up and discuss as simply as possible, and yet as fully as may be necessary, some of the leading truths of the epistle to the Romans. My aim is not controversy, as I trust, but edification; yet on this very account I shall seek to remember all through the need of those who have been exercised by questions which have of late arisen. Exercise is not to be deprecated. It is well to be made thus to realize how far we have really learned from God, and our need of being taught in His presence that which cannot be shaken. There is an uneasy dishonoring fear in the hearts of many as to submitting all that they have apparently learned, through whomsoever or in what way soever learned, to be afresh tested by what seems "novel" and in some measure in conflict with it. But it will only be found, by those who in patience and confidence in God allow every question to be raised that can be raised, and seek answer to it from Him through the Word, how firm His foundation stands, and how that which seems at first to threaten more or less the integrity of our faith only in result confirms it. Difficulties are cleared away, things obscure made to take shape and meaning, the divine power of the Word to manifest itself, Christ and His grace to be better known. Much too that we looked at or were prepared to look at as fundamental difference in another's view turns out to be only the emphasizing (though perhaps the over-emphasizing) of what was really defective in our own. And so "by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part," there is made " increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love."

Let us now look at what is surely the key-note to the interpretation of what is known to many as the second part of Romans (ch. 5:i2-8:), the two , contrasted thoughts, " in Adam " and " in Christ." This is what we start with in chap. 5:12-21, though as yet we have neither term made use of. Indeed the first term occurs but once in Scripture, and that not in Romans, but in i Cor. xv, where the first Adam and the last are put in emphatic contrast.

The statements of chap. 5:12-21 are the exposition of the doctrine :-.

" By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

"If through the offense of one the many be dead."

"The judgment was by one to condemnation."

"By one man's offense death reigned by one."

"By the one offense toward all men to condemnation." (Greek.)

"By the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners."

'Sin hath reigned in death." (Greek.)

These are the statements as to the first man and the consequences of his sin. They show that his sin has affected not himself alone, but many with him; that it brought in death as a present judgment upon a fallen race, and tending to merge in final condemnation.

Two things as to present fact:a race of sinners; death as God's judgment-stamp upon this race. The final outlook or tendency for all, utter condemnation.

The first man was thus in a very real way the representative of his race; not indeed by any formal covenant for his posterity, of which Scripture has no trace; but by his being the divinely constituted head of it. As the father of men, he necessarily stood as charged with the interests of his posterity; from his fall, a corrupt nature became the heritage of the race, and thus death and judgment their appointed lot, the final issue no uncertain one. Thus in a real way he represented them before God; but, as I have said, not by any formal covenant on their behalf. His representative-character, was grounded in what men call natural law, which is nothing but divine law, and which is both evident in nature and asserted in the plainest possible way in Scripture. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one," expresses the law."What is man, that he should be clean? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?""Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."The Lord's words in the gospel fully and emphatically confirm these sayings of saints of old:"That which is born of the flesh is flesh."What men now call, The principle of "heredity," is thus affirmed, and it is the whole scriptural account of the matter. The theories of a covenant with Adam for his posterity, and the imputation of his sin to them, are simply additions to Scripture, and as such, not only needless, but an obscuring of the truth, as all mere human thoughts of necessity are.

" By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."* *The marginal reading, "in whom all have sinned," will hardly be now justified by any scholar*. Such is the apostle's statement here. It speaks of death as with every individual the result of his own sins, although his being made (or "constituted") a sinner was the result of Adam's disobedience (5:19). I know it has been argued that this could not apply to "infants, who if they sinned could only have done so in Adam. But the apostle is not speaking of infants, nor did their case need to be considered here. Sinning in Adam is not a doctrine of Scripture, and it is not allowable to insert words of such a character and importance in this place. The apostle is addressing himself to believers, to show the application of the work of Christ to such, as delivering them from all that attached to them by nature or practice. From this the case of infants may be easily inferred, but it is not his object to speak of it, and it cannot be shown that he does so at, all.* *For those "that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression" (5:14) are not infants, as many have supposed, but those who had not sinned against positive law as Adam had. For Adam's law in its nature could not be that of his posterity, who, until Moses, had none. The words "from Adam to Moses" show what is meant.*

Sin, then, came in through Adam. The nature of man was corrupted; by his disobedience the many were made sinners:and thus death introducing to judgment was the stamp of God upon the fallen condition. Adam was the representative of his race by the fact that he was the head of it, and thus, as it is put in i Corinthians 15:22, " in Adam all die."

This expression, though found but once, is of great significance, because it is contrasted with

and throws light upon another expression which is of the highest importance to us, and which the following chapters of Romans use repeatedly. " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." We are now prepared to understand how "in Adam all die." In his death was involved and insured the death of all men. As head of the race, his ruin and death was theirs, and so "in him," their representative, they die. " In Adam " speaks of place,-of representation; as the apostle argues as to Levi and Abraham (Heb. 7:9, 10):"And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham ; for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchisedek met him." We too were in the loins of Adam when he fell and sentence of death was passed upon him; and in him we die. Thank God, we have heard the voice of Another, Head and Representative too of His race, which says, " Because I live, ye shall live also." (Jno. 14:19.) In Adam we die:in Christ we live.

As in Adam, then, we are completely ruined. We are "constituted sinners"-sinners by constitution. Death and judgment are our appointed lot. This is what has to be met in our behalf, if Christ comes in for us. It is not enough for Him to be a new head and fountain of life for us from God. He must not only be our new Representative in life, but our Representative in death, and under curse also, taking the doom of those whose new Head He becomes. Hence comes a distinction which we must bear in mind. In life, He is our Representative that with Him we may live and inherit the portion He has acquired for us:in death, He is our Representative that we may not die, because already dead with Him. This last is substitution. He dies for us, and He alone:in life He lives for us, and (blessed be God!) lives not alone.

Now let us look at the apostle's statements. And first,-

Adam " is the figure of Him that was to come." (5:14.)

Thus it is that in i Cor. 15:22 "in Christ" is set over against " in Adam," and that in ver. 45 again " the last Adam " is seen in essential contrast to the "first:" "The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit."

But what, then, does a "last A dam " mean ? The head of a new race. And thus "if any man be in Christ"-set over against "in Adam" in the verse already looked at,-"it is a new creation." (2 Cor. 5:17, Gr., comp. marg. Rev. Vers.) The first Adam was the head of the old creation; the last Adam is the Head of the new. "In Christ" means to belong to the new creation and the new Head.

I merely link these terms together now. I do not propose to examine here what exactly the new creation is. The term is not used in Romans, though in Galatians (its kindred epistle, though wider in scope,) it is. But it should be obvious that the first Adam, as "the figure of. Him that was to come," figures Christ as "the last Adam," the representative Head of a new race. As such, the apostle compares the results of the obedience of the One to "the many" who stand in Him, with the results of the first man's disobedience to " the many " who fell with him.

But we must pause before proceeding with this, to make it perfectly clear to any who have a doubt that Scripture speaks of the last Adam as really the Head of a race. Spite of the term "last Adam," some have doubt of this. They say, "We are never called children of Christ, but of God;" which is true, because it is divine life that is communicated, and "children of Christ" would imply only human life. " The last Adam is made a quickening Spirit" surely proves, however, that in this character He quickens (or gives life), while at the same time it shows the character of the life communicated ; for " that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." And this action of the last Adam we find imaged by the Lord in resurrection breathing upon His disciples when He says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The first Adam was but a " living soul" into whose, nostrils God breathed the breath of life, that he might become so. The last Adam breathes upon others; He is a quickening Spirit, not merely a living soul.

Isaiah also, foreseeing the glory of the Lord, declares, " When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed" (53:10). And again, in words which are quoted and applied to Christ by the apostle, " Behold, I and the children which God hath given Me"(ch. 8:18; Heb. 2:13).

There is surely no more need to prove that Christ as last Adam, like him whose antitype He is, is the Head of a race. It is the key to all that follows in Romans 5:and the two next chapters, where "in Christ" as Corinthians gives it, is in contrast, yet antitypical correspondence, with " in Adam."

Now, as in Adam's case we have traced the results of the disobedience of the one to the many, let us trace the results of the obedience of the new Representative-Head to the many connected with Him.

"Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."

"The free gift is of many offenses unto justification."

" They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."

"By the one righteousness toward all men to justification of life." (Gr.)

"By the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous."

These are the statements corresponding to, yet contrasted with, the former ones which we considered. One thing we must remember in considering them, that these two accounts do not exhibit a mere balance of results. "Not as the offense so also is the free gift" (5:15). If righteousness be shown in dealing with sin, the " free gift," while of course it must be righteous, absolutely so, is yet measured only by the grace that has given Christ for us. Hence His work by no means merely cancels the results of sin, but lifts us into a place altogether beyond what was originally ours. Let us see what we have here, although even here the tale is not fully told.

First, we have " life;" and this in the next chapter (5:23) is expanded into "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is not merely life from another source, but life of an entirely new character and quality; not a restoration of the failed and forfeited life, but a life infinitely higher-a divine life. There is but one life which is eternal, and "in Christ Jesus our Lord" declares its source to be in a divine Person, and now become man. Nor only so, for the force of the expression is precise. It is not correctly given in our common version, but in the revised it is, as I have quoted it. It is "in," not, as the common version, "through;" and " Christ Jesus," not " Jesus Christ." Such differences, minute
as they may seem, are in Scripture never without significance. " Jesus Christ" is the Lord's personal name emphasized; "Christ Jesus" emphasizes His official title. It speaks of a place now taken through His work accomplished. In the eleventh verse it should read similarly, "alive to God in Christ Jesus." Again we have it in the eighth chapter, " no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus;" and in the second verse, "life in Christ Jesus." Elsewhere we have "sanctified" and "saints in Christ Jesus," "created in Christ Jesus," "of Him are ye in Christ Jesus," and so repeatedly. Except once-Peter (i Pet. 5:10), no inspired writer uses this order of words, but only Paul. " In Jesus," or " in Jesus the Christ," we are never said to be, but only "in Christ," or "in Christ Jesus." The special force ought to be therefore clear.

Our life, then, is not only in Him, but in Him as now having accomplished His work and gone up to God. There, as Peter on the day of Pentecost bears witness, He is made Lord arid Christ (Acts 2:36), actually reaching the place which was His already by appointment, but to be reached only in one way. The last Adam becomes Head of the race after His work of obedience is accomplished, as the first Adam became head when his work of disobedience was accomplished. And as in the one case, so in the other, the results of the work become the heritage of the race. . The head of the race represents the race before God. The ruin of the head becomes the ruin of the race. If the head stands, so does the race.

In either case, the connection of the head and the race is by life and nature, a corrupt nature being transmitted from the fallen head, a divine life and nature, free from and incapable of taint, from the new head, Christ Jesus. Death and judgment lay hold upon the fallen creature; righteousness characterizes the possessor of eternal life.

But here there is another need to be met; for these possessors of righteousness in a new life are by the old one children of Adam, and under wrath and condemnation because of manifold sins. Christ, the Son of the Father, is not stooping to take up un-fallen beings, and bring them into a new place of nearness to God, but He is taking up sinners. For these, then, He must provide, along with a new life, a righteousness which shall justify them from all charge of sin. They must not only be delivered from inward corruption by a principle of righteousness imparted; they must be delivered from guilt also by a righteousness imputed. There must be a "justification of life,"-that is, a justification belonging to the life communicated:"by one righteousness toward all men,"-God's grace offering itself for acceptance by all,-" unto justification of life."

Here, then, comes in, not representation simply, but substitution,-representation under penalty for those who had incurred the penalty. He who is our Representative-Head in life must be our Substitute in death also. He must be "obedient unto death," standing in our place, that we may stand in His,-in the place He has won and taken for us with God.

His obedience avails for much more than negatively to justify from all charge of sin:it has its own infinite preciousness before God, in virtue of which we have a positive righteousness measured by this. He " of God is made unto us righteousness" (i Cor. 1:30). We " receive abundance of the gift of righteousness," as the passage before us says, and " shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ."
Thus are the effects of the fall for us removed, and we stand in a new place under a new Head. We are in Christ, not Adam; and this, as we have seen, speaks of place in a representative,-that by virtue of headship of a race. Our connection with Christ is now, as formerly it was with Adam, by the life which we receive from Him, and of which we partake in Him,-that is, by belonging to the race of which He is head. This and its consequences are unfolded further in the following chapters, to which this doctrine of the two Adams is the key. (To be continued, D. V.)