When Peter cursed and denied his Lord, there was not a waver in the affection of Christ, not a cloud on that brow as He turned round and looked on Peter, and Peter went out with a heart broken under the power of it.

Sin had no sooner come into the world than God announced atonement for it. If God took up man, become now a sinner, in the way of blessing, He must needs, in care for His own glory, as well as mercy even to man himself, declare the terms upon which alone He could bless. And although He did not and could not yet speak with the plainness or fullness of gospel-speech, yet He did speak in such a way as that, (in spite of six thousand years of wanderings further from the light,) the broken syllables echo yet in the traditions of Adam's descendants, in witness to divine goodness, alas! against themselves.

It is in the judgment denounced upon the serpent that we find the promise of the woman's Seed; a promise indeed, as men have ever and rightly held it, though couched in such a form. To Adam as the head of fallen humanity it could not be directly given, for reasons which we have already seen; for in fact the first Adam and the old creation were not to be restored, but replaced by another. The woman also, with the man, was to share only in the fruits of Another's victory, whom grace alone has brought down to the lowly place of the woman's Seed. The announcement is therefore designedly given in the shape of judgment upon the serpent-judgment which is to be the victory of good over evil, the issue of a conflict now in full reality begun. In righteous retribution, through the woman's Seed the destroyer of man should be destroyed; but this is connected with enmity divinely "put" between the tempter and the tempted, in all Which God's intervention in goodness for the recovery of the fallen is plainly to be seen. The victory of the woman's Seed is a victory of divine goodness in behalf of man.

This victory is not gained without suffering. The heel that bruises the serpent's head will be itself bruised. The Conqueror must be the Sufferer.

Moreover, the Conqueror is the woman's Seed. We are apt to miss the force of this, just by our familiarity with it. Not yet had the mystery of human birth been accomplished upon earth. The lowliness of origin, the helpless weakness and ignorance of infancy, so long protracted beyond that of kindred bestial life around,-this, by which God would stain the pride of man, was that through which Adam and his wife had never passed. The Seed of the woman implied all this. With what astonishment we may well conceive Satan to have contemplated the childhood of the first-born of the human race; and to have thought of the word, whose certainty he could not doubt (for Satan, the father of lies, is no unbeliever), that the heel of One so born and nurtured was to be one day upon his own proud angelic head!

Not strength was to conquer here then, but weakness-known and realized weakness. Of that the promise spoke. And God, who needed not the help of creature-strength, had chosen to link Himself with weakness and with suffering to accomplish His purposes of righteousness and goodness. How and in what way to link Himself remained for future disclosures to make known.

But that bruised heel, bruised in the act of victory on behalf of others, is not left without further revelation of its nature on the spot. For when Adam's faith, bowing to the divine word, names the woman-her through whom death had entered, -Havvah (Eve) or " life;" then we read, " Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them." Thus the shame and the fact of their nakedness were together put away. It would now have been unbelief for Adam to say, as with his fig-leaf apron he had still to say, that he was naked. God's own hand had clothed him. No need for him to hide himself from His presence as before. The clothing His hand had given was not unfit to appear in before Him.

But what gave it that fitness? Clearly something apart from suitability in the way of protection of a being naturally defenseless, and now exposed to the vicissitudes of a world disarranged by sin. The nakedness which Adam realized in the presence of God was moral rather than physical, the consciousness of the working of lusts at war in the members. The covering too, then, for God must have some moral significance,-must speak at least of that which would cover, not merely from a human, but from a divine standpoint; therefore put away sin really, for how else could it be "covered" from His sight?

Now, in Scripture, "covering" is atonement- 1:e., expiation, putting away of sin. To atone is caphar, to "cover;" only in an intensive form, which is of striking significance and beauty. Atonement is covering of the completest kind.

We have not the word yet in this first page of the history of the fallen creature, but we have surely what connects with it in a very intelligible way. For death had now come in through sin, and as judgment upon it. Death would remove the sinner from the place of blessing he had defiled, and thus far maintain and vindicate the holiness of God; but in judgment merely, not in blessing. Atone for his sin in any wise such death could not:Yet here is declared the fact that the death of another, innocent of that which brought it in, could furnish covering for the sinner according to God's mind. Only the typal shadow yet was this:it was four thousand years too early for the true atonement to be made. Yet shadow it was:would not faith connect it, however dimly, with the bruised heel of the woman's Seed?

In this clothing God's hand wrought, and not man's. God wrought and God applied. Man's first lesson, which it were well if after forty centuries he had really learnt, was, that he could do nothing but submit to the grace which had undertaken for him. The fig-leaf apron had summed up and exhausted his resources, and demonstrated only his helplessness. He had now to find that helplessness made only the occasion of learning the tender mercy of God. God wrought and God applied to these first sinners the covering for their nakedness. And so it has been ever since, and so will be, to the last sinner saved by grace.

But the gospel at the gate of Eden is not finished yet. We must take in, plainly, what the next chapter gives, before we can realize how much already in Adam's days God had, though necessarily as it were in parables, declared.

Abel's offering is that by which, as the apostle says, he, being dead, yet speaketh. " By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain; by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." In him we are given to see, just at the threshold of the world's history, the pronounced acceptance of a faith which brought, not its own performances, as Cain the labor of his own hands which sin had necessitated and stained, but the substitute of a stainless offering. The character of it shows clearly that sacrifice was an institution of God:" by faith Abel offered;" not therefore in will-worship. Nor could human wit have imagined as acceptable to God what, except for its inner meaning, could have had no possible suitability nor acceptance at His hands. The coats of skin, confessedly of His own design, give here indubitable evidence that the whole thought and counsel was of Him. Here again death covers the sinner; but now in proportion to the clearness with which the sacrificial character of the covering comes out, so do we find God's voice plainly giving its testimony to the righteousness of the offerer:"God testifying of his gifts." As with one of His ministers, in a day yet far distant,-but only with regard to bodily healing-the shadow of Christ, as here in sacrifice, is of power to heal the soul.

Thus in the order of these two cases the manner and nature of appropriation are plainly seen. First, God appropriates the value of Christ's work to the soul; for faith must have God's act or deed to justify it as faith; and then it sets to its seal that God is true:It is not faith's appropriation that makes it true, as some would deem. It is the receptive nature that holds fast merely what God has put already in its possession.. To those who take shelter still under the atoning death of the great Victim, God attests its value on their behalf. It is for them to believe their blessedness on the word of One who cannot lie, nor repent.

Let us notice here, as ever henceforth, the victim is of the flock or herd, or what at least is not the object of pursuit or capture; which plainly would not harmonize with the fact of man's lost condition, or with the voluntary offering of Him who freely came to do the will of God. The blood of no wild creature could flow in atonement for the soul of man. The precise commandment as to this comes indeed much later, but to it from the first both Abel's and every other accepted sacrifice conform. Of blood no mention is made either here; of the fat there is:'"And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof;" the fat being that in which the good condition of the animal made itself apparent. Fat is always in Scripture the symbol of a prosperous condition, although, it may be, of such temporal prosperity as might result in an opposite state of soul. "Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked," says the lawgiver in his last prophetic "song;" "thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness:then he forsook God that made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." Connected with this is the Psalmist's description of the wicked:"They are inclosed in their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly." Then by an easy gradation of thought:"Their heart is as fat as grease." Where offered to God, fat is the symbol of that spiritual well-being which expresses itself, not in the energy of self-will, but of devotedness. Even in the sin-offering afterward, where burnt upon the ground, the fat is always therefore reserved for the altar; but of this elsewhere.

The "firstling of the flock" again represents Him who is the"first-born among many brethren" by Him sanctified. " 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." The consecration of the first-born sanctifies the whole.

What mind of man could have anticipated thus the thought and purpose of God as does Abel's offering? In it the lesson of the coats of skin is developed into a doctrine of atonement henceforth to be the theme of prophecy and promise for four thousand years, till He should come in whom it should find its fulfillment, and all vail be removed. Until then, prophets themselves knew but little of what they prophesied. " The Spirit of Christ which was in them " spake deeper things than they could even follow, as the apostle testifies; though we must not imagine all was dark.

That sacrifice, on the other hand, was of God's appointment, not of human device, His words to Cain are full proof.-"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, a sin-offering coucheth at the door." So, I am persuaded, this ought to be read. " Sin " and " sin-offering" are the same word whether in Greek or Hebrew; but what would be the force of " if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door"? That the last expression refers to an animal seems plain:some interpreters take it figuratively, as if sin as a wild beast were in the act to spring. Too late, surely, when one has already sinned! Rather would it not be the provision of mercy for one in need of it-an offering not far to seek, but at the very door'! and in what follows, the assurance of his retaining still the first-born's place with regard to Abel-" Unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him "?

God thus, then, declares His appointment of sacrifice. And in this way the mystery of the suffering of the woman's Seed finds its explanation in the necessity of atonement. The bruised heel of the Victor in man's behalf enlarges and deepens into the death of a victim, slain for atonement. It is not really the serpent's victory even thus far, though it may seem so:the serpent may bruise the heel, but only as the unwitting instrument of divine goodness in accomplishing man's deliverance. The bruised heel is his own head bruised:the suffering is the victory of the Sufferer.

But who is this, to whom death-and such a death!-is but the heel, the lowest part, bruised? What a thought of the majesty of His person is here! Already there is a gleam of the glory of Him whom after-prophecy, supplementing this, shall speak of as the virgin's Son, Immanuel. But the question is only raised as yet, to which Isaiah gives this answer. We can see it is the fitting and necessary one.

Do you ask me to measure sin ?I cannot:the cross alone is the answer.

True holiness," in Ephesians 4:24, is literally, as in the margin, " holiness of truth." It is a pregnant and beautiful expression, well worthy of our deepest attention. Let us look at it a little together, beloved reader, and may God give it application and power over us.

Truth is the effect of light. " The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth:" such is the acknowledged reading of chap. 5:9. For us it is the fruit, we may say, of light come into the world, not natural to it. Darkness is what is natural to us:" the light shineth in darkness,"-so dense that the light alone will not remove it, as it is said here:-" And the darkness comprehended it not." There is one darkness which no light can penetrate,-that of death:"He that followeth Me," says the Lord, " shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

But then even when alive the light is no mere internal one:" the light of the body is the eye ;" but the eye is only the door of entrance for the light; and so with the Christian, as again the Lord applies the natural figure:" If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world ; but if he walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him."

Yet, blessed be God, the Christian walks in the light, for him the " darkness is passing, and the true light already shines." Indeed, only "if we walk in the light, as God is in the light," does the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanse us from all sin. The vail being rent by that which has put the precious blood of Christ upon the mercy-seat, the circle of the light is coextensive with the actual efficacy of the blood. No Christian but has the light. How great the blessedness, and how great the responsibility! if there be in effect darkness, the eye must be evil.

In the holy place, where the priests served of old, no light of common day was permitted to come; the golden lamp alone lighted the sanctuary of God. For us too, if not in the sanctuary, we are in a world of illusion and subtle snare:" When I thought to know this," says the Psalmist, "it was too difficult for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God." Yes, His Word, in His presence, is our unfailing resource. " The knowledge of the holy is understanding." The fruit of the light is truth:our walk there becomes a walk in the " holiness of truth."

"Truly the light is sweet," says the preacher, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun! " How precious to the eyes that spiritually behold this! God known in Christ:the throne of God a mercy-seat, a throne of grace ; grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life! His Word, the word of peace, the word of reconciliation, now become the "ingrafted word," the law of my new growth and being! Is it indeed so with you, dear reader? am I but tracing out in all this what is your real and happy experience? This, then, and nothing else than this, is, holiness. To live in the place of reality, where all is assured, fixed, eternal, this is the life of faith. Faith is no overwrought enthusiasm of imagination. It is the sober estimate of things as they are:an estimate which even time will justify, where eternity will pronounce all other madness. And this, reader, if you be a Christian, is the settled and deep conviction of your heart.

And yet is it too much to affirm that the mass of Christians live as if what they know to be absolutely true were manifestly false; as if the illusions of the world were a reality, the maxims of the world the most practical truth; as if time and eternity were in reverse order of importance? Is it not true that many more seem to have at least settled it that the Word of God can not be followed fully and unreservedly; that this may cost too much; that to be exhorted to the full measure of apostolic holiness is to be unreal, dreamy, and impracticable? Alas! this truth so blessed, as in some sense every Christian must esteem and know it, by what subtlety of Satan do we act so much as if it were a yoke we were not able to bear?

Is it not in this way that it is come to be thought that after all the knowledge of the truth has little to do with real sanctification; that if the life is right, little matter about the creed? as if there could be a right life but in proportion to the reality and purity of faith, or faith could be without creed! as if it were not true that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works"! Thus the Word and the Spirit of God are alike dishonored, and infidelity finds its most convenient argument from the unbelief of Christians!

Holiness is " of truth;" sanctification by the truth; the " Word is truth." Beloved reader, are you hungering after it, rejoicing over it, receiving it unreservedly into your heart, bowing to its authority, following it out (to use men's language) at whatever cost? If not, do not plead weakness, and so misuse the blessed word. Does not God know, I ask, this weakness? Does He not know the cost of obedience, He who in the reality of manhood became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? And where should weakness be but with Him whose presence is alone unfailing strength? And where shall we find His presence but in His path ? Ponder the cost, then, if it must be, dear reader, but let it be the cost of losing for the day of realized weakness His resources and His strength. Alas! people mean willfulness, and talk of weakness. " To them that have no might He increaseth strength:" to be really weak is to be in the very place to know the might and the tenderness of His everlasting arms.

Yes, holiness is nothing else but to walk in the light and sunshine of the Eternal Presence, where every tint of the landscape has the fresh and unfading hue of that which is not corruptible; and His Word is that which gives it to our hearts. It is the tree of knowledge, which is indeed not only pleasant to the eye, but good for food, and to be desired to make one wise, and which is not forbidden; yea, it is Christ Himself, for He is the truth, and to know it indeed is to know Him.

Doctrine may be barren, as seeds may have no life; yet we none the less, and rightly, expect our harvest only from the seed.

In reading the gospels, I am very much struck with the way in which every hour of the time of the Lord Jesus is filled up. There is no " loitering " in the path of the blessed One through the world; no seeking (like we seek) for ease:life with Him is taken up with the untiring activities of love. He lives not for Himself; God and man have all His thoughts and all His care. If He seeks for solitude, it is to be alone with His Father. Does He seek for society, it is to be about His Father's business. By night or day, He is always the same. On the mount of Olives, praying; in the temple, teaching; in the midst of sorrow, comforting; or where sickness is, healing; every act declares Him to be one who lives for others. He has a joy in God man cannot understand, a care for man that only God could show. You never find Him acting for Himself. If hungry in the wilderness, He works no miracle to supply His own need; but if others are hungering around Him, the compassion of His heart, flows forth, and He feeds them by thousands.

We are going to look at the truth of atonement in the way in which Scripture develops and puts it before us; beginning with the Old Testament and proceeding, in the regular order of its books as we have them, onward to the New; except that we shall necessarily take the light of the New Testament to enable us to read the Old-Testament lessons aright, remembering that the " vail is done away in Christ." I choose this method, rather than what might seem the simpler one, of stating the doctrine after the manner of the creed or theological text-book, for many reasons.

God's method of teaching plainly has not been by the creed. He could surely have given one, not only better than any human could claim to be, but absolutely perfect, avoiding all the errors and all the incompleteness of the best of creeds, and giving what would be indeed a royal road to knowledge in divine things. It has pleased Him otherwise; and in this there must be wisdom worthy of Him, and care too for the real need of His people. God's way has been to speak to us in a far different manner. He has given us truth in fragments, which at first sight seem even to have little orderly connection,-which gleam out upon us from history, psalm, and prophecy, as well as in more detached statement sometimes in an apostolical epistle. Even here we have seldom what the systematic theologian would call a treatise; certainly nothing at all resembling the articles of a confession of faith or of a creed.

Understand me, I am not denying that such things have their place. Unfortunately they are valuable precisely when stripped of that in which to most lies all their value. As authoritative expositions of doctrine, they substitute human authority for divine; the confession, with all its admitted liability to error, in place of the unfailing, infallible Word, by which the Holy Spirit, the sure and only Guardian of the Church in the absence of Christ its Head, works in the hearts and consciences of men. Stripped of the false claim, and left as the witness of what individual faith has found in the inspired Word, they may be used of God as the voice of the living witness. However, to that Word, with all its perplexities of interpretation, as men speak, we must come for that which can alone give certainty to the soul; these very perplexities used of God to give needful exercise, to deepen the sense of dependence upon Him, and discipline us by the exercise.

The truth given in this way, moreover, only to be learnt fragment by fragment, by constant research into and occupation with the precious book in which the treasure lies, enforces its lessons by that needful frequent "putting in remembrance" of which an apostle speaks. We realize its many sides and internal relationships; we discern how little all our systems are, compared with the truth itself; that the completeness we desired was only narrowness. Finally, that God's method of teaching is divine, as the truth taught is; His way to lead us out, at least into more apprehension of the infinity of that which, cramped into the human measure, necessarily becomes dwarfed and distorted by it.

In the historical part of the Old Testament, the lessons given to us are mainly those pictured lessons which we call types. But before we come to the types of atonement proper, there is one we must consider, which, although not that, is in the deepest and most intimate relation to it, and the right or wrong conception of which will influence correspondingly our view of atonement itself. The apostle tells us, with regard to the first man, that Adam was " a figure of Him that was to come" (Rom. 5:14.);and in i Cor. 15:45, he speaks of Christ as the " last Adam." He is again spoken of by the same apostle as the "First-born of every creature," or, "of all creation" (Col. 1:15.); and speaks of Himself, in the address to Laodicea, as the "beginning of the creation of God." (Rev. 3:4) So again, "If any one be in Christ, he is a new creature [or, "it is new creation"]:old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17.); and this is insisted on as the governing principle of a Christian life; " for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation; and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy." (Gal. 6:15, 16.)

The fallen first man and the old creation are thus, according to God's thought, replaced by the last Adam and a new creation. There is no restoration of the old; it is set aside, or becomes the material out of which the new creation is to be built up; and this last is God's creation-what was in His mind from the beginning. So, when the Psalmist asks, " What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest . him ?" the answer is, " Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, Thou hast crowned him With glory and honor." This the apostle interprets for us in the epistle to the Hebrews,-" But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor."

This last Adam, true man as He surely is, is emphatically the "Second Man." "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the Second Man is of heaven [so all the editors read it now]. 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 earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Here, as elsewhere, the type is the shadow only, and therefore in many things the contrast, of the antitype; and so precisely as to what is connected with each.

Here is the great and fundamental mistake with the general mass of theological systems. They make the first man God's real thought instead of the Second, and bring Christ in to restore the first creation; to gain what Adam should have gained or kept. Thus many now think of no more than earthly blessing for the saint, while those who are not able to resign their heavenly inheritance would make this Adam's natural birthright also. The so-called evangelical creeds of Christendom put Adam under the moral law to win heaven for himself and his posterity, and write " This do, and thou shalt live " over the gate of entrance. The Lord's suffering in death, they say, puts away our sins; His obedience to the law is our title to heaven. But in this way, not only is the full blessedness of the Christian's place unknown, but Christ's work is necessarily however unintentionally degraded.

To Adam in Eden God spoke nothing of heaven, nor ever connected going to it with the keeping of the law. " This do, and thou shalt live" He did say; never, " This do, and thou shalt go to heaven." God never proposed to the creature He had made to win by His obedience a higher place than He had put him in at first. To have proposed it would have been to have made man from the start what sin has so long made him-a worker for himself rather than for God. He who has said, " When ye have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants," could never have taught him any thing so perilously like a doctrine of human merit.

Under law Adam was, as is evident; but not under the moral law, which an innocent being could not even have understood. The commandment to him was simply not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the terms, not "This do, and thou shalt live," but " Do this, and thou shalt die." He had not to seek a better place, but enjoy the place he had. Men may reason and speculate, but they cannot find one word of Scripture to justify the thought that unfallen Adam was what sin has made man now-a stranger, or what grace has made the saint-a pilgrim. He was made to abide, and his punishment not to abide, where God had put him.

It is to man fallen, not innocent, that God speaks of heaven ; and by grace, not law at all. It is the fruit of another's work, who, not owing obedience for Himself, as a creature must, could give thus to what He undertook, a real and infinite merit. Christ's work alone has opened heaven to man; the value of the work being according to the value of Him whose work it is. Apart from any question of the fall, the first and the last Adam are in this way contrasts:"the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit;" "the first man is of the earth, earthy; the Second Man is the Lord from heaven;" or rather, as the editors read it now, " the Second Man is of heaven."

Here the first man, as a type, images however the Second, where God breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. This is an essential difference between man and the beast below him:he has by the inspiration of God what the beast has not; and thus Elihu has the justification of his claim. That his "lips shall utter knowledge clearly" refers back to the original creation:" The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." In the doctrine of Scripture elsewhere we find distinctly what the breath of the Almighty has given to man which distinguishes him from the beast. It is the " spirit of man which is in him," and by which alone he knows the things of a man. (i Cor. 2. 11.) He has a spirit, as " God is spirit," and thus by creation, as Paul quotes from the Greek poet to show the general sense of man, declares, "We are God's offspring."* *See " Facts and Theories as to a Future State," or " Creation in Genesis and in Geology," for a full exposition of this.*

And yet "the first man Adam was made a living soul," as this history in Genesis itself declares- " Man became a living soul." In this he was what the beasts were. In this, Scripture anticipates all that is real in what the science of the day vaunts as its own discovery. Man is as the beast is, a being bound within the limits of sense-perception, through which all the stores of the knowledge upon which he so prides himself have to be painfully acquired. The spirit of man is in this way, by the necessity of his nature (I speak not of the fall), subjected to the soul. And the apostle connects this, in the passage before us, with the possession of a "natural body," as he does the "spiritual body" of the resurrection with the " image of the heavenly " last Adam. This " natural body" is rather, literally, a soul-body (the English language has no adjective for "soul"),- that is, a body fitted for the soul, as the spiritual body will be for the spirit. Hence it is that with the body the mind grows, and with it languishes and apparently decays; and hence in Scripture the title for one absent from the body is higher than for one in it. In the body, he is a "living soul;" absent from the body, he is a ghost, or spirit.

From hence arises an important consideration. For while ever the Second Man, and as such " of heaven," it is plain that the Lord was pleased to be subject through His life here, as man, to the conditions of man. Ever "apart from sin," save as in grace bearing it upon the cross, the limitations springing from disease and decay He could not know, of course; but of His childhood we read expressly that He "grew in wisdom and in stature,"-mind unfolding with the body as with men in general. How differently inspired Scripture speaks from what a mere human biographer would have written of the " Word ' made flesh "! But what such words decisively prove, in opposition to men's thoughts about it, is that while Second Man from the beginning of His human life, as I have said, He ever was, He did not take the place of last Adam until His sacrificial work was finished and in His spiritual body He rose from the dead. " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone," such are His own words; " but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

This explains the Lord's significant action when after the resurrection He appears to His disciples and, breathing on them, says, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost." For the first Adam had as a living soul been breathed into when quickened of God; the last Adam as a quickening spirit breathes into others. Not, of course, that it was quickening here:they had surely been already quickened; but now He puts them formally into the place of participants in a life now come through death, and to which justification attached as fruit of the death through which it had come. They are to be in a definite place of acceptance and peace with God, according to His words before He breathes on them-" Peace be unto you," twice spoken. "Justification of life " is thus assured to them, the doctrine of which the apostle develops in the fifth of Romans.

The same chapter distinctly brings forward the first Adam as the " figure of Him that was to come." The contrast between the two does not affect the comparison:it is a comparison of contrasts. In the first Adam's case, " through the offense of one the many have died," and "by one that sinned" "the judgment was by one to condemnation;" and "by the disobedience of the one the many have been constituted sinners." The point here is the bearing of the act of the one, the father of the race, upon the state of the many, his children:corruption of nature, death, the present judgment, tending to final condemnation, have come to them in this way. So in the case of the Second Adam has His obedience resulted in blessing to those connected with Him. Only," not as the offense is the free gift." God is not satisfied with a mere obliterating the effect of the first man's sin, He will go far beyond that in His grace:"If through the offense of one the many have died, much more has the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded unto the many." If many offenses have been added by Adam's posterity to the primal sin, "the free gift is of many offenses unto justification;" " if by the offense of one death reigned by one, much more shall they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life by One, Jesus Christ."

It is this "much more" of divine grace, which has been so forgotten, and which we must ever bear in mind. The value of the person of the Second Adam gives proportionate value to His work. The work itself, moreover, is such as none but He could possibly have accomplished. And the value of person and work together gives those in whose behalf it is accomplished a place of acceptance with God of which He Himself, gone into His presence, is the only measure. It is not now the time to speak at large of this, but it is essential to keep it in mind. Christ and the new creation must get their due place for our souls, or all will be confusion.

The two verses which follow in the fifth of Romans we must carefully distinguish in their scope. The eighteenth verse contemplates " all men, '' the nineteenth, the " many" who, are connected with the one or the other of these two heads. The first gives us the tendency of Christ's work; the second, the actual result. It is as impossible, to make the "all men" mean just those in effect saved, as it is to extend the "many" with whom Christ is connected into the whole human race. The tendency of the " one offense " was " toward all men to condemnation (I do not quote the common version, which has here supplied words which the original has nothing of); the tendency or aspect of the " one righteousness," " toward all men to justification of life." On the other hand, in actual result, " as by the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted sinners, so by the obedience of the One the many shall be constituted righteous."

The result contemplates all those, obviously, of whatever age or dispensation, who obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ; and it should be as evident that the connection with Christ that is spoken of is with Him as the last Adam, that is, vital connection. The many being constituted righteous gives, I have no doubt, the fullness both of imputed and imparted righteousness. For as the life communicated by the last Adam is necessarily such as He Himself is, so also it carries with it the efficacy of the work accomplished-of the death through which the corn of wheat could alone bring forth fruit. " The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord " (ch. 6:23, Greek):justification is therefore "justification of life" These go together. How completely this connection harmonizes with the apostle's argument in the next three chapters will be plain to those who are happily familiar with the doctrine there,-a doc-trine which comes in as the answer to the practical question with which they begin:"Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Upon this, however, I cannot enter here.

We are only upon the threshold of the subject which is before us yet, and all that we have done is just to indicate certain connections of atonement, which will find their development as we take up, as we have now to take up, in its gradual unfolding from the beginning, the doctrine of atonement itself.

What a discovery it is for us to make, in any measure, that the portion of Christ at this world's hands is our portion too ! It knew Him not, and, in proportion as we are simple and true as children of God, it knows us not; and we, too, know it not. We know that it exists, but we and it have nothing in common.

(1:)-Chap. vi-9:17. To Noah's life as a type, the third chapter of the first epistle of Peter is the key. His bringing through the flood is there declared to be a type of "salvation," but salvation of a fuller kind than ordinarily is reckoned such. The figure is a simple one enough to follow in the main, and will itself guide us if we cleave closely to it.

For, plainly, the ark is Christ, and the flood it saves through is the judgment of the whole world, which perished in it, while those preserved are brought through to a new world which emerges from the waters, and where the sweet savor of accepted sacrifice secures a perpetuity of blessing.

It is the third stage of new life as apprehended by the soul, resurrection therefore, as bringing in the place of which it is said, "If any man be in Christ, [it is] new creation:old "things are passed away; behold, all things are become new;"-words which remarkably correspond to Noah's position as come through the flood, making allowance for that essential inferiority of type to antitype which we have often had to refer to as a necessary principle for true interpretation.

Noah is evidently not the type of a sinner, taken up as such, nor could he be, to stand in the place he does in these biographies. He is a just man, a Cornelius rather, a type of those who, quickened and converted though they be-"fearing; God and working righteousness"-need yet to know the salvation which the gospel brings.

In the world around, corruption is total and universal. The judgment of the whole is pronounced, with one way of escape, and only one, left open to the man of faith.

The ark is built of gopher-wood. We know not this "gopher," but the resemblance is remarkably close to the " copher " or " pitch " named afterward, and the resemblance has been noticed by many. On account of it the gopher has been of old believed to be the cypress, and might well have furnished the " pitch " also for the vessel's seams.* *For there seems no scriptural proof or otherwise of "copher" being bitumen, although the Septuagint and Vulgate translate it so, and most modern interpreters follow these.*

And here, upon the ground-without an altar. The altar, as what "sanctifies the gift," is doubtless the person of the "Lord, as what gave value to His work; but in the sin-offering the altar is not seen, for the Victim stands in the sinner's place, and is treated as if He were not the Person that He really is.

The type would thus correspond more fully to the antitype, for there need be no doubt but that the gopher, like the shittim-wood of the tabernacle-ark, refers to Christ, while " copher " is the word used elsewhere for "atonement." That the tree should be cut down to provide a refuge from the waters adjudgment was not enough, the seams must be pitched with the pitch the tree supplied. And so death, as mere death, even though Christ's, would not have been enough to put the soul in security that fled to Him for refuge. The only blood, as the apostle teaches, that could be carried into the presence of God for sin, was the blood of a victim burned without the camp*.*And here, upon the ground, without an altar. The altar, as what "sanctifies the gift," is doubtless the person of the Lord, as what gave value to His work; but the sin-offering the altar is not seen, for the Victim stands in the sinner’s place, and is treated as if He were not the Person that He really is.* The place of distance due to the sinner and the unclean had to be taken by the Holy One of God, in order to our salvation. In such an ark we, with Noah, may make "nests" (for so, instead of "rooms," the margin more literally reads). The love that has provided all gives more than security; the house of refuge is not mere bare walls; amid the very storm of judgment the heart that craves may find its lodgment,.where more than a father's care, more than a mother's tenderness, are found.

The door of the ark was in the side, but the window above.* *This has been contested, but seems undoubtedly the meaning of the passage. And it is confirmed by the fact that not till Noah removed the covering of the ark could he see that the ground was dry.*

It is no new thing say that this is faith's outlook. The passengers in that rnarvelously guided and protected vessel needed not their eyes for pilotage, and were not to look out upon the solemnities' of the judgment taking effect around; while the waters, which were the grave of the world, floated them above its mountain-tops up to the blue heavens, calming as they rose. What a season for them-shut in by God, with God! and what a preparation for commencing that new life which they were to begin in the world beyond the flood!

And many may recall a not less solemn time, when they too, having fled for refuge from the storm of coming wrath, were made to pass through the world's judgment, and to find in Him who, dead for them and risen, has passed into the heavens, their own escape, not from judgment merely, but from the whole scene of it. They have come in Christ through the floods which fell on Him alone, and in Him have reached a "new creation," old things passed away, and all things become new.

For even Christ (as the apostle tells us) we know no more after the flesh. Plainly, the only Christ there is to know is one no more found among men; and if our being "in Him means any thing, it means this:identification with Him who stands as really for us in the glory of the heavens as once for us He hung upon the cross.

It must be remembered be remembered that not sense nor experience brings us there. Even Noah may have heard or seen little, if any thing, of that which he passed through; but none the less real was that eventful passage. For us, faith alone can make us realize a plan as to which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man" what nevertheless the Spirit of God through the Word has revealed to us. We are there (if in Christ) apart from all experience; and what experience we are to have of it will be the fruit of and in proportion to the vigor of, our faith alone.

The ark grounds upon the mountains of Ararat, and not long afterward occurs the well-known incident of the raven and the dove. As a type, this shows us how little is forgotten or denied in these Genesis-biographies, what we practically are, conscious as we may be of our place in Christ Jesus. Saved out of the world, and no more of it, we yet carry with us and may let out the raven. We have that in us which can take up with a scene of death from which the waters of judgment have not yet dried up, and like the unclean bird use the ark but as a means of pursuing with the more vigor its congenial occupation.* *Went forth, going and returning" (8:7, marg.) seems to indicate this.* Noah first sends forth the raven, but, as others have noted, he distrusts it and sends forth the dove; but the dove finds no rest for the sole of her feet, and returns unto him into the ark. Seven days after, she goes forth again, and returns with an olive-leaf, the assurance of peace and of the fruitfulness of the new world.

Shortly after, but at the word of God, and not at the suggestion of his own mind, Noah goes forth, and the first-fruits of the place into which he has been brought is an altar from which the smoke of a burnt-offering goes up,-a savor of rest to Jehovah. Neither altar nor burnt-offering have we had before, and who can doubt the suitability of their first mention here? for the altar is the person of Christ-that which gave its value to His blessed work, and the burnt-offering is that aspect of His work in which its value Godward is most fully shown. And here, in the new-creation scene pictured for us in this chapter, surely we know in a new way and with a new blessedness, not merely salvation, but the Savior; and not merely the human side of that salvation-its result for us, but its divine side-its Godward result. The knowledge of the salvation sets us free to be occupied with the Savior; and He who cannot be known I now after the flesh (for He is risen and with God) can only be apprehended justly when we have been brought from off the ground of the world that rejected Him, to find our true place where He is,-in the light, where He is the light, and the glory in His face is the true test and discovery of all else.

"And Jehovah smelled a savor of rest; and Jehovah said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done." Thus the hopelessness of expecting any thing on man's part, which was before the flood the reason for his judgment, is now, through the efficacy of accepted sacrifice, but a reason for setting man aside altogether as a hindrance of Messing and of establishing it in perpetuity upon an unchangeable basis. The new creation thus abides forever in bloom and beauty of which the earth under the Noachian covenant is but indeed a "shadow."

The heirs of this inheritance find next their own blessing. Their fruitfulness is certainly not more an injunction than a gift of the grace which is now manifesting itself for them (9:1:). And so in what these types speak of.

Then their authority over the lower creatures is restored:the fear and dread of man is to be upon every beast of the earth, and upon all that moves, and they are delivered into his hand. All things are his, and even death itself is now to furnish him with food. This is a fact of the deepest significance; it is death ministering to life, a principle of which God would keep us in constant remembrance. Scarcely a meal but thus testifies to us of the very basis of all real gospel, which the Lord's supper fully and formally declares. But it is only after known deliverance, and in the new place with God that this can be rightfully understood. We now go farther than the type, and overpass the restriction here imposed:we drink the blood also ; that which is God's only as atonement (for "it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul") is ours to sustain and cheer us as atonement made. " The cup which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?"

Thus are they set in the fullness of blessing:delivered, brought into a scene secured to them irrespective of their own desert, fruitfulness assured sovereignty of the whole bestowed, and death itself put into their possession and made to minister to their sustenance with all else. And now comes in, in its due and fitting place, the question of responsibility to judge the deeds of the flesh, for which before they were incompetent. When Cam shed his brother's blood, in the old world now passed away, God set a mark upon Cain, lest any one finding him should kill him; whereas now, in this new world, God speaks far otherwise:" And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man."

This is evidently the principle of all human government, which began from this date, established by God Himself. We have its history shortly epitomized for us in Noah's weakness and want of self-government, which exposes him to the "scorn of those whom he should have governed; and on the other hand, in Nimrod, high-handed power, abused to satisfy the lust of ambition and self-will. Yet the powers that be are ordained of God, while for the abuse of power, or for the inability to use it, they are accountable to Him.

On the other side of the flood also (in the typical sense) we are set in authority, for the use of which we are responsible to God. Power is in our hands from God to judge the deeds of the flesh, which before deliverance we could not judge, and to vindicate the image of God in which we have been created. And to this is appended once more the blessing of fruitfulness, which, however it be of God and of grace, is yet not possible to be attained where nature is unjudged.

Lastly, the covenant is ratified, and a token given to confirm it. The bow in the cloud is man's assurance; but it is more, it is God's memorial of the new relationship into which He has entered with His creatures. His eye, and not man's only, is upon the bow and thus He gives them fellowship with Himself in that which speaks of peace in the midst of trouble, of light in the place of darkness; and what this bow speaks of it is ours to realize, who have the reality of which all figures speak.

"God is light," and "that which doth make manifest is light." Science has told us that the colors which every-where clothe the face of nature are but the manifold beauty of the light itself The pure ray which to us is colorless is but the harmonious blending of all possible colors. The primary ones-a trinity in unity-from which all others are produced, are, blue, red, and yellow; and the actual color of any object is the result of its capacity to absorb the rest. If it absorb the red and yellow rays, the thing is blue; if the blue and yellow, it is red; if the red only, it is green; and so on. Thus the light paints all nature; and its beauty (which in the individual ray we have not eyes for) comes out in partial displays wherein it is broken up for us and made perceptible.

"God is light;" He is "Father of lights." The glory, which in its unbroken unity is beyond what we have sight for, He reveals to us as distinct attributes in partial displays which we are more able to take in, and with these He clothes in some way all the works of His hands. The jewels on the High-Priest's breastplate-the many-colored gems whereon the names of His people were engraved were thus the "Urim and Thummim "-the "Lights and Perfections," typically, of God Himself; for His people are identified with the display of those perfections, those "lights," in Him more unchangeable than the typical gems.

In the rainbow the whole array of these lights manifests itself, the solar rays reflecting themselves in the storm; the interpretation of which is simple. "When I bring a cloud over the earth," says the Lord, "the bow shall be seen in the cloud; and I [not merely you] will look upon it." How blessed to know that the cloud that comes over our sky is of His bringing! and if so, how sure that some way He will reveal His glory in it! But that is not all, nor the half; for surely but once has been the full display of the whole prism of glory, and that in the blackest storm of judgment that ever was; and it is this in the cross of His Son that God above all looks upon and that He remembers.

Still the principle is wider, and in every season of distress He does surely at last display His glory. At last the storm is banded with the brightness; and this too is a token of the covenant of God with His people that not destruction, but their blessing, His nearer manifestation and their better apprehension of it, is the meaning of the storm.

(2.)-Chap. 9:18-11:9. The story of the deliverance closes here, and we now come to a very different, in many respects a contrasted, thing- the history of the delivered people. The history begins with failure; it ends with. confusion, and from the gracious hand that but now delivered them. It is the humbling lesson of what we are, but which we have now to read in the light of what He is. This will make indeed the shadows deeper, but we can face them in the knowledge that God is light and in Him no darkness; and that for us, too, " the darkness is passing, and the true light already shines."

First, Noah fails, the natural head of all; and sin thus afresh introduced propagates itself at once in his family, and becomes the curse of Canaan and his seed. Noah's snare is the abundance of the new-blessed earth, a thing not easy to understand typically until we see (what will be more fully before us when we come to Abraham's life) that it is the earthly side of the heavenly life we have to do with in the succeeding histories. Thus Abraham is in Canaan as a pilgrim and a stranger, a thing that in our Canaan (for no one doubts, I suppose, what Canaan means) is an absolute impossibility; yet the earthly side is pilgrim and strangership, and the two things thus linked together derive a meaning from their connection they would not have alone. Just so with Noah; the earth side of the typical heavenly life is Nazariteship. and Noah falling from his Nazariteship exposes himself to his shame. The fall tests his children, as the presence of sin still tests the spirit of those who deal with it. Ham in further exposing it to his brethren reveals himself, not taking it as his own, while Shem and Japheth cover, without looking upon, their father's nakedness. " Ham " is " black,"-the unenlightened-or perhaps rather the " sun-burnt," -scorched and darkened by the very light itself; for light, if not received as light, becomes a source of darkness to the soul. And Ham is the father of Canaan,-the "trader," as his name imports. The parentage of evil in the professing church seems thus traced, even as in the world before the flood, to one who goes out from the presence of the Lord, only darkened and branded by the light in Canaan is in the professing church its fruit-the trader in divine things, who may be found in the land, and even in the "house of the Lord," but every-where true to his unhappy character:"bondsman of bondsmen," and no free-born child of light, he is finally driven out of the house which he has made a den of thieves, and finds his true place in Babylon the Great, whose " merchants are the great men of the earth."

Of Noah's two other sons we seem to read in their various blessing two tendencies which are apt to be sundered, and should not. Shem's is the recipient contemplative life, whose danger it is to run into the mystical; Japheth's, the practical, energetic life, which in its one-sidedness tends to divorce itself from faith. In the blessing of Shem, it is Shem's God, Jehovah, who is blessed, as it is indeed the highest blessedness of faith that it has God for its portion and its praise; while Japheth's blessing is in enlargement, and in dwelling in Shem's tents, for the practical life finds its home in faith alone, and true service is but worship in its outflow toward men.
Of the genealogies which follow in the tenth chapter I shall say-can indeed say-little. We may notice that the 'Egyptian (Mizraim) is also a son of Ham, the darkness of nature (as we speak) being not so much defect of, as resisted, light. The Philistines, too, are Egyptians, as we may by and by more consider. Then Nimrod, the son of Cush, the ‘rebel," as his name imports, the beginning of whose kingdom is in Babel, points too plainly to the apostate king of the last days to admit much question. Let us now proceed, however, to look at Babel itself, with the account of which this section closes. Here, without doubt, too, Babylon the Great is pictured, although not in the full development in which we look at it in Revelation xvii, 18:

The account is remarkable for its clearness and simplicity. The process by which the professing church settled down in the world, and then built up for itself a worldly name and power, could scarcely be more fully or in plainer terms de-scribed. How with one consent they turned their backs upon the sunrise (2 Pet. 1:19.), and leaving the rugged and difficult places in which they were first nurtured-too painful for flesh and blood-descended to the easier if lower level of the world,* -how settling there, ease and abundance wrought in them desire to possess themselves in security of the earth and make themselves a name in it; how Babylon thus was built, " a city," after Cain's pattern, whose builder and maker God was not, and a "tower" of strength, human and not divine; all this he that runs may read. *The meaning of Shinar is considered uncertain. Among others pos Bible is that of "waking sleep," which would at least be very appropriate.* Let us notice further, that this is a carnal imitation and anticipation of God's thoughts, and that thus the earthly city usurps the titles and prerogatives of the heavenly one. But Babylon cannot be built of the " living stone," which is the God-made material for building; they have moved from the quarries of the hills, and must be content to manufacture less durable "brick" out of the mere clay which the plain affords:they have brick for stone and slime (or bitumen) for mortar-1:e., not the cementing of the Spirit, the true Unifier, but the worldly and selfish motives which compact men together, and are but fuel for the fire in the day " the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."

This was what makes a figure in men's histories -the Catholic Church of antiquity, singularly one indeed, whether you look at it in Alexandria or Constantinople or Rome, were most fully developed. The unity whereof it boasted was not God's, and if God came down to see what man was building, it was not to strengthen, but to destroy-not to compact, but scatter. The many tongues of Protestantism are but His judgment upon the builders of Babel; its multitudinous sects but the alternative of the oppressive tyranny with which when united she laid her yoke upon the minds and consciences of men, and under which the blood of the saints ran like water. They are but a temporary hindrance, moreover, for when the antitypical Nimrod shall make it the beginning of his kingdom, Babylon shall sit as a queen, anticipating no widowhood and no sorrow. Then, however, her doom shall be at hand, " in one day shall her plagues come upon her."

Deliverance of the persecuted remnant by the exaltation of the Lord to all authority as Son of Man, set over God's works in the world to come, and making Jehovah's name excellent in all the earth,

To the chief musician upon Gittith. A psalm of David.

Jehovah our Lord! how excellent is Thy name in all the earth:who hast set Thy glory above the heavens!

2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou founded strength, because of all Thine oppressors, to still the enemy and the revengeful.

3. When I behold the heavens, the work of Thy ringers, the moon and stars which Thou hast established;

4. What is frail man, that Thou rememberest him, or the son of Man, that Thou visitest him?

5. Yea, Thou makest him a little lower than the angels, and crownest him with glory and majesty.

6. Thou makest him rule over the works of Thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet;

7. Sheep and oxen, all of them; yea, also the beasts of the field;

8. Fowl of heaven, and fish of the sea:whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas!

9. Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!

Text.-"Gittith," (?) "The Wine-vats:" which the LXX favors. The common opinion is that it is a musical instrument; according to Talmud, "A cithern from Gath." According to the subject, the reference might seem rather to the symbolic meaning of wine, as what "makes glad the heart of man."

(1, 8) "Our Lord," Adonim, a plural form, like Elohim.

(2) "Founded strength:" LXX, "perfected praise," quoted thus, Matthew 20:16 ; but the sanction here given does not show the reading of the Septuagint to be literally exact, but sufficiently so for the practical application which our Lord makes of the passage. "Thine, oppressors:" from tzarar, "straiten, distress." As used here of the Lord's enemies, does it not seem akin to Acts 9:4, 5- "Why persecutest thou Me?"

(4) There are three words for "man" commonly used in Hebrew; "Adam," generic for the race; enosh, which here as elsewhere may be translated "frailman," from anash, "to be sick or weak," and often used in contrast with Ish, implying his nobility.

(5) "A little lower than," literally, " wanting a little of." "Than the angels" has been rendered by some "than God," but the quotation in Hebrews 2:decides in favor of the rendering in the text, which is that of the LXX. Literally, it is "than the gods," and applied to the angels as sons of God, and representing Him to man; see Exodus 7:1.

The cross of Christ is the central fact in the history of man. To it all former ages pointed on; from it all future ones take shape and character. Eternity, no less than time, is ruled by it:Christ is the " Father of Eternity." (Isa. 9:6, Heb.) The new creation owns Him as last Adam, of whom the failed first man was but the type and contrast. The wisdom, the grace, and the glory of God are displayed, for the ceaseless adoration of infinite hosts of free and gladsome worshipers, in this work and its results.

The doctrine of atonement is thus the center and heart of divine truth. Unsoundness here will be fatal to the character of all that we hold for truth, and in exact proportion to the measure of its unsoundness. Again, all fundamental error elsewhere will find, of necessity, its reflection and counterpart in some false view of atonement, if consistently carried out. Thank God, this is often not the case, because the heart is often sounder than the creed; but this, while admitted fully, scarcely affects, for a Christian, the seriousness of such a consideration.

In taking up this subject for examination, we must remember the gravity of such a theme; one in which a mere critical spirit will be as much at fault as out of place; where we must be, not judges, but worshipers, yet thoroughly alive to the importance of testing by the Word of God every thing presented. The blessedness of a devout and believing contemplation of the work to which we owe our all will be at least proportionate to the gravity of error as to it; while our preservative from this will be found, not in neglect or slight treatment of so great and important a truth, but in deeper, more attentive and prayerful consideration.

Here, too, we have to avoid, as elsewhere, the opposite dangers of an independent and a weakly dependent spirit. We dare not call any man master, for One is our Master, even Christ. On the other hand, and for that very reason, we dare not despise His teaching, even were it from the babe. There is need continually to remind ourselves of this, simple as it surely is. For while the multitudinous voices of Christendom rebuke our belief in the authority which they claim, we cannot doubt that the Spirit of truth has been communicating truth in proportion to the simplicity of the faith that trusted Him. We may listen to and gain by teachers just in the measure that we realize the apostle's words, that we have an unction from the Holy One, and need not that any man teach us.

Let us take up, then, the great subject before us, and see reverently what we may be able to learn from Scripture as to it, not refusing to consider along with this, as it may seem profitable, current views, not for controversy on a theme so sacred; testing for the gold and not the dross. The failure of others, where we may have to judge they fail, should surely only serve the purpose of making us cling more humbly, but not less confidently, to the Hand that alone can lead us safely. Just as the works of God need the Sustainer still, so does the word of revelation still need the Revealer.

Before we come to consider the fact and truth of atonement, we have need, first of all, to consider the necessity that exists for it. That it was absolutely necessary, Scripture settles decisively for him that will listen to it. " For as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so MUST also the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Nothing can be plainer, nothing more authoritative, than such an announcement from the lips of Him who came into the world to meet the need that He declares. Whatever is implied in that lifting up of the Son of Man,-the cross, most assuredly,-was necessary for man's salvation:and that the cross was an atonement, or propitiation, for our sins, I need not pause to insist on now.

But while the necessity of the cross is thus put far beyond dispute for all such as I am writing for at this time, it is still needful to inquire, What is the nature of that necessity. It is to our need that God reveals Himself, and as meeting it, while more than meeting it, that He has glorified Himself forever; and to know His grace, we must know the state to which it answers. It is thus that through repentance we come to faith in the gospel. Scripture alone gives the knowledge, in any adequate way, even of man's condition; it is well if we do not resist God's judgment when He has given it.

Man is a fallen being:" all have sinned; and all are " by nature children of wrath." In the order of statement, in that epistle which takes up most fully what we are; as prefatory to the unfolding of that salvation which is its theme, the first is insisted on first, and as if wholly independent of the other. Men excuse their sins by their nature, with how little truth their own consciences are witness; for what they excuse in themselves they condemn in another, and especially if it be done against themselves. God has taken care that within us we should carry a voice which sophistry can never completely silence, and which asserts our responsibility, spite of our natures, for every sin of our hearts or lives. In that day to which conscience ever points, "the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ," He "will render to every man according to [not his nature, but] his deeds" And for which of his deeds could he excuse himself with truth by the plea that he could not help it? Surely not for one. The free-will of which man boasts comes in here to testify fearfully against him. His nature, whatever its corruption, is not, in the sense in which he pleads, prohibitory of good or obligatory to evil. Conscience, anticipating the righteous judgment of God, refuses to admit the validity of such a plea. It is the intuitive conviction of every soul that sins, that for that sin it is justly liable to judgment.

On this ground it is that the law brings in-every man for his own sins,-"all the world guilty before God." In all that part of Romans, from the first to the middle of the fifth chapter, in which this as to man is taken up, the apostle will raise no question as to his nature,-speaks as yet no word of Adam or the fall. Before he can bring it forward at all, it must be absolutely settled that as all have sinned, so "all have come short of the glory of God." That which for Israel the impassable vail of the holiest declared, is what is affirmed by the gospel as to all, without exception. It is upon this common basis of judgment lying upon all, that justification for the ungodly is proclaimed to all.

The question of nature comes in the second part of the epistle, in connection with the power for a new life. It is after man's guilt, proved to be universal, is met, for all that believe, by the precious blood of Christ, and " being justified by faith, we have peace with God," our standing in grace, "and rejoice in hope of the glory of God," that the apostle goes on to compare and contrast the first Adam and his work with Him of whom he is the type:" Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; . . . therefore as by the offense of one [or by one offense] toward all men to condemnation, so by one righteousness toward all men for justification of life. For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the One the many will be constituted righteous." (I quote this from a version more literal than our common one, which is very faulty here.) Afterward, this corruption of constitution is fully dealt with, and the remedy for it shown; but of this it is not yet the place to speak.
It is evident, however, that this increases the gravity of man's condition immensely. The apostle, following the Lord's own words to Nicodemus, calls this fallen nature of man flesh, stamping it thus as the degradation of the spiritual being which God had created, hopeless naturally, as the Lord's words imply:" That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The apostle states it thus:"The mind of the flesh is enmity toward 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."

With the many questions which spring out of this we are not now concerned; but such are the solemn declarations of Scripture, with which all the facts of observation and experience coincide. For man thus guilty and alienated from God, atonement is necessary ere there can be mercy. "Deliver him from going down into the pit" must have this as its justification:"I have found a ransom."

The penalty upon sin is the necessary expression of His essential holiness. He can neither go on with sin nor ignore it; and this is a question not alone of His government, but of His nature also. To be a holy governor, He must be a holy God. Government would be simply impossible for God that did not represent aright His personal character. If, then, in His government He cannot let sin escape, it is because the holiness of His nature forbids such an escape. This we shall find to be of very great importance when we come to the consideration of what the atonement is; but it is important to realize from the outset. Law, whatever its place, can never be the whole matter; while yet its enactments must be in harmony with the deeper truth upon which it rests.

" To men it is appointed once to die, but after this the judgment." This is the inspired statement as to what he naturally lies under. Both these things have to be considered in their character and meaning, for as to both of them many a mistake has been made.

Death entered into the world by the sin of Adam. It is not necessary "to take this as applying to the lower creatures. No express word of Scripture affirms this, and the whole web and woof of nature seems to contradict the thought. Life, without a miracle to prevent it, must be destroyed continually, apart from all question of carnivorous beasts or birds, by the mere tramp of our feet over the earth, in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the plants or fruits we consume. The herbivorous animals thus destroy life scarcely less than the carnivorous. Scripture, too, speaks of the "natural brute beasts" as "made to be taken and destroyed," and of "man being in honor and understanding not becoming like the beasts that perish." But unto the world-the human world,-by one man sin entered, and death by sin; " and so death passed upon all men [he speaks only of man], for that all have sinned." It is the stamp of God's holy government upon sin; the outward mark of inward ruin.

This death which came in through sin we must distinguish from the judgment after death, as the apostle distinguishes them in the text already quoted. This has not always been done, and yet not to do it is to make difficult what is simple, and to obscure not a little the perfection of the divine ways. The sentence upon Adam was not a final sentence, but one in which the mercy is evident amid all the severity of righteous judgment. Without the ministration of death, sad as has been the history of the world, it would have been much sadder; but upon this I do not now need to pause. The sentence on Adam is sufficiently clear from what is actually passed upon him after the transgression, and whose meaning no one can doubt:- " Until thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Of the second death this may be, and is, a type, and a warning:but no more.
Again, to confound the penalty upon sin with sin itself would seem almost impossible did we not know that it had been really done. It is true that man's sinful state is spoken of as death-a " death in trespasses and sins." But unless God could inflict sin as such, which is impossible, this would turn the penalty into a prophecy merely. The testimony of conscience should be enough in such a case; but the words of the sentence when actually given, as I have just now quoted them, should preclude the possibility of doubt.

Yet here too it is a type-the outward manifestation of the state to which it answers; for as the body without the spirit corrupts into sensible abomination, so with man away from God.

Death is judgment; to the natural man, how solemn an one! smiting him through the very center of his sensitive being, and sending him forth from every thing he knows and values into a gloom surcharged with the foulness of corruption, and with the terrors of God, to which he goes forth naked and alone.

Death is judgment, but not "the judgment." For this, the "resurrection of judgment" must have come in,-judgment claiming for this the body as well as the spirit-the whole man, in short. And here, that separation from God, chosen by the soul itself, becomes manifest in its true horror, and its definitive portion forever. This is the "outer darkness," when God the light of life is withdrawn forever.

But not in every sense withdrawn. For the second death is not only darkness, though it is darkness. The second death is none the less the " lake of fire:" a figure indeed, but none the less fearful because a figure:" our God is a consuming fire." Worse than withdrawn, the light has become fire. For God cannot forget, cannot simply ignore:where sin is, there must be the testimony of His undying anger against it. Here, "according to the deeds done in the body," there is the searching, discriminating apportionment of absolute righteousness.

Death then, and after death the judgment:this is man's natural portion; these are the two things from which he needs to be delivered. For judgment he cannot abide; if he dream of the possibility of it, it is but a dream:" Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." This is what Scripture with one voice affirms. If it were but believed, how many wrong thoughts would it not set right! how many theological systems would it not utterly sweep away!

This, then, is the portion of man as man:this is the burden that atonement has to lift from off him.

The cloud is passed Godward; and as to the persecutor, he can plead uprightness and practical guiltlessness before the righteous Judge, now ready to interfere.

Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto Jehovah, about the words of Cush the Benjamite.

O Jehovah, my God! in Thee have I taken refuge:save me from all my pursuers, and rescue me!

2. Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, and there be none to rescue!

3. Jehovah, my God, if I have done this,-if there be iniquity within my palms,- . 4. If I have recompensed evil unto him that was at peace with me, (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is my oppressor,)-

5. Let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yea, let him tread down my life to the earth, and make my honor dwell in dust. Selah.

6. Arise, Jehovah, in Thine anger! lift up Thyself amid the rage of mine oppressors, and awake for me to the judgment Thou hast commanded;

7. And the assembly of the nations shall compass Thee about; and over it do Thou return on high!

8. Jehovah shall govern the peoples:judge me, Jehovah, according to my righteousness, even according to mine integrity upon me.

9. Oh let the evil of the wicked cease; and establish the righteous; even Thou who triest the hearts and reins,-a righteous God!

10. My shield is with God, who saveth the upright in heart.

11. God is a righteous Judge; and God hath indignation every day.

12. If one turn not, He will whet His sword:He hath bent His bow, and made it ready.

13. For him hath He made ready also instruments of death:He maketh His arrows burning.

14. Behold, he travaileth with vanity; yea, he hath conceived labor, and brought forth falsehood.

15. He hath digged a pit, and holloweth it out, and falleth into the pit he is making.

16. His labor returneth upon his own head, and upon the crown of his head doth his violence come down.

17. I will celebrate Jehovah according to His righteousness; I will sing psalms to the name of Jehovah most high.
Text.-"Shiggaion" means, probably, "A Wandering Ode;" or, "An Ode composed on occasion of Wandering." DeWette gives "A Song of Lamentation ;" Conant, "A Plaintive Song ; " Gesenius, on the other hand,"A Song of Praise," and Paulus,"A Responsive Song."

(6) "To the judgment:" "to" is omitted in the Hebrew, but is not always expressed. "Thou hast commanded judgment to be executed; therefore execute judgment Thyself."

(7) "Over it:" "Take Thy rightful place of supremacy at its head." This agrees with the next verse.

(9) "And establish" is literally future, but after the imperative becomes an imperative.

(11) "God," the second time, is "El," the Mighty.

The trouble, deepening to the apprehension of death, though at the hands of enemies, felt now as divine displeasure. The plea is now for mercy alone, and it is heard.

To the chief musician, on stringed instruments, upon Sheminith. A psalm of David.

JEHOVAH, rebuke me not in Thine anger; neither chasten me in Thy wrath!

2. Be gracious to me, Jehovah, for I am wasting away; heal me, Jehovah, for my bones are vexed.

3. My soul is also sore vexed; and Thou, Jehovah, how long?

4. Return, Jehovah, deliver my soul:O save me for Thy mercy's sake!

5. For in death there is no remembrance of Thee:in hades, who shall give Thee thanks?

6. I am weary with my sighing; all the night make I my bed to swim:I make my couch to run down with my tears.

7. Mine eye is consumed with vexation; it is waxed old because of all that straiten me.

8. Depart from me, all ye workers of vanity; for Jehovah hath heard the voice of my weeping.

9. Jehovah hath heard my supplication; Jehovah receiveth my prayer.

10. All mine enemies shall be greatly ashamed and terrified:they shall return, they shall be ashamed in a moment.

Text.-(5) "Hades," in Hebrew, Sheol, the place of the departed spirit; never the grave, for which there is another word altogether. The key to the thought here is to be found, not in materialism, but in what death was to the Jew, as judgment under the divine hand. The subject is treated of at large in "Facts and Theories as to a Future State."

This psalm is the fourth of the series, a number which speaks of testing; the ten verses, of responsibility.

In the second part of this series we have a mingled story of two lives-of many individuals, but still only of two lives-essentially contrasted with one another. It is already the commencing fulfillment of that prophetic word which had spoken of the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The story belongs, not to one generation only, but to every generation from that day to this; for while it is assuredly true that the real and fundamental victory which insures every other is His to whom belongs in its full sense the title of " Seed of the woman," yet it is true, too, that in every generation the great opponents have their representatives among men, and the conflict and the victory are in principle continually repeated.

The world has been from the beginning as all history attests, a scene of unceasing strife; but its strife has been very generally a hopeless contest of evil with evil; for evil has no internal unity nor peace. Its elements may compact, but cannot concord. " Corruption is in the world through lust," lust is its essential feature, and we have had this already traced to its beginning in paradise itself; but lust means strife, means war, the conflict of jarring interests, each pursuing his own:"Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts, which war in your members?" In such a collision there can be no true victory any where. Such history may fill men's chronicles; with God it is a mere unmeaning blank.

God's history is but the tracing, amid this darkness, of one silver line of light, light come into the world, a foreign element in it. With this the record of the six days' work begins:" Let there be light, and there was light." With this, too, begins the story of that of which we have already seen these creative days to be a type. We do not know how long the earth lay " waste and empty " under darkness; we do know that for man not long was the darkness unbroken. God's word again brought in light, although light at first long struggling with the darkness which it found; yet from the first God benediction was its pledge of final victory. "Evening" might be, but not henceforth total "night;" while each "morning," as it follows, presages and brings nearer the full and perfect! day, God's Sabbath-rest, when darkness shall be| gone forever.

But here, then, is conflict, if mysterious, yet most real, where there are victories to be recorded, and where, thank God, the final victory-is sure:a conflict just where the light is, and not elsewhere; a conflict to which every human heart in which God has spoken that out of darkness light may shine, is witness, and which is seen on a far grander scale in the field of the world at large. It is to this that the chapters now before us invite our attention; and as we shall see in these two spheres, where the inner world of the heart is but the miniature representative of the world without. We may see it more plainly if we trace it first upon the larger scale.

Here the blood of righteous Abel speaks to us of what often causes to the soul such deep perplexity, the apparent prevalence of evil over good:a perplexity which is not removed until we see it as the law of the conflict we have spoken of. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head; but then the serpent shall first bruise the heel of the woman's seed. This applies first of all and pre-eminently, as already said, to Christ as the conqueror over man's mortal foe. In Abel's death we may thus see Christ, whose blood indeed speaks better things than that of Abel, but of whom Abel is none the less, as the first martyr, dying at a brother's hand, a perfect type.

If this be true, however, Cain must be a picture especially of the people, Christ's brethren, too, after the flesh, at whose hand he really died and here at once the whole type assumes meaning and consistency.

Cain, then, is the Jew, the formal worshiper of God, bringing the work of his hands, the fruit of his own toil, not doubting that it ought to be accepted of God. Not irreligious, as men would say, he ignores the breach that sin had caused between man and his Creator, but of which the very toil whose fruit he brought was witness. So coming, he is necessarily rejected of God; and such is Pharisaism, of whatever grade or time. Just persons, having no need of repentance; diligent elder sons, serving the Father, but without getting so much as a kid to make merry with their friends; self-satisfied legalists, ignorant of God and grace:such is the Lord's picture of a generation of which Cain was prototype and father. Pharisees were they, who always were most zealous for commandments and against Christ, " going about to establish their own righteousness, and not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God."

Abel, on the other hand, draws near to God, bringing nothing of his own handiwork, but an innocent victim, a life taken which no sin had stained or burdened, a sacrifice most unreasonable if it were not faith. What pleasure could God take in death ? or how could the death of a guiltless substitute atone for the guilty? Thus man still reasons. But the very folly of Abel's sacrifice [to the eye of reason should suffice to assure us that he was not following the promptings of his own mind in it. His was not will-worship, but faith; and if plainly the death of a beast could not take away sin, his eye rested upon what that substitution foreshadowed." By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain."And in this he might well speak to us of Him who, not for Himself indeed, but as Man for men, offered to God that one acceptable offering in which all others find their consummation and their end.

"Witness" and "martyr" were from the beginning one. The self-righteous heart of Cain resents the testimony to man's guilt and God's provision for it, resents the testimony of God Himself to the acceptance of Abel and his offering. In vain does God graciously demonstrate with him; Abel is slain, and Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord, not to be slain of man, but to be a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth. . How like the people who bought Aceldama with the blood of Christ-"the potter's field to bury strangers in"! for the whole earth has been to them since then a strangers' burial-ground. As a vessel marred upon the wheel, they have been witnesses for Him in their rejection that they are but as clay in the hands of Him against whom they have sinned.

Yet, though wanders upon the earth, the nation subsists; for He who has ordained their punishment has also ordained its limit. They subsist with the mark of Cain upon them, a people who strikingly fulfill the character of Cain's progeny to this day, away from the presence of Jehovah, according to one of their own prophecies, " without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim."

With Lamech and his sons the line of Cain ends:one in whom self-will and impenitent abuse of God's long-suffering reach their height. A polygamist and would-be homicide, his name speaks of the human " strength " in which he rejoices, his wives' names of the lust of eye and ear after which he goes, his sons' names and their inventions of how, then as now, a soul away from God will use His creatures so as to be able to dispense with Him.* *Lamech is "strong;" Adah, "ornament;" Zillah, "tinkling" ("music player" some interpret rather than translate it); Jabal, "the traveler;" Jabal, "the trumpet-blast;" Tubal-Cain is variously rendered, "worker in ore," "brass of Cain," "issue of Cain:" Naamah, "lovely."* This is a generation such as those of whom the Lord said, "The latter end is worse than the beginning." With Cain, seven .generations, and in the last still Cain, only developed further:progress in a race away from God, who will possess themselves of the earth in His de-spite, and be prosperous citizens in the land of vagabondage.

Happily this is not all; nor is that which is of God, though down-trodden, extinct upon earth. In Seth (appointed in the place of Abel, whom Cain slew) we have its resurrection, and hence-forth its perpetuation. The line of Cain perished with the old world in the waters of the deluge; with Seth, God begins, as it were, the race of man anew (chap. 5:), Cain and the fall being now omitted. Seth is the son of man, so to speak, in his likeness who was made in the likeness of God and blessed. With Seth, there are nine generations unto Noah, in whom once more the earth is also blessed:three triads, for God manifests Himself in as well as to His people; at the end of the second of which Enoch goes to heaven without seeing death, while Noah is God's seed, brought through the judgment to replenish and find his blessing on the earth beyond. The Church of first-born ones and Israel find here very plainly their representatives, to those who have learned from Scripture the respective destinies of each. Fittingly, therefore, does Enoch become the earliest prophet of the Lord's approach (Jude 14.), while the days of Noah are expressly likened, by the Lord Himself, to the time of the coming of the Son of Man.

The more we look, the more we shall see the force of the comparison. Infidelity has invited our attention to a correspondence between the two lines of Cain and Seth, and there is a certain correspondence which it will be well to examine. The resemblance of some names pointed out is no doubt superficial; but there are undoubtedly two Enochs and two Lamechs, and the latter close upon the end of the old world. Of the two Enochs, all that is noted is but contrast. The first gives his name to the city which Cain builds as it were in defiance of his sentence, a city whose builder and maker God is not. Enoch, one of a line which have no earthly history, walks with God, and is not, for God has taken him. The two Lamechs have more in common, for alas ! the separateness which at first obtained between the worshipers of I Jehovah and those in alienation from Him narrowed as time went on. It was when Enos was born that men began to call upon the name of the Lord, for "Enos" is "frail" or "mortal man," and those content to bear that title learn the mercies of a covenant-keeping God. But as time goes on, Lamech succeeds to Enos – strength to weakness, the world and the Church approach; and thus Lamech, like his Cainite representative, has his memorable saying also:pious, and largely true, but with one fatal flaw in it. Lamech called his son's name " ' Noah,' saying, ' This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the earth which the Lord has cursed.' "

And the comfort came, and in Noah, real blessing for the earth from God. Lamech was thus far a true prophet ; but the people to whom he spoke, or the survivors of them, with their whole posterity, save Noah's family alone, were all cut off by the flood that preceded the blessing.

Is there nothing similar now, when boundary-lines are nearly effaced, and the Church has shifted from the Enos to the Lamech-state, and peace is preached in the assurance of good days coming, while intervening judgment, universal for the rejecters of present grace, is completely ignored and set aside?

Seth's line has warning as well as comfort for us, then; yet is it after all the line to which God's, promise and His blessing cleave, and while the world profits naught by their inventions, it is beautiful to see how He numbers up the years of their pilgrimage. With them alone there is a chronology, for He who telleth the stars "numbers their steps " and " telleth " even " their wanderings."

Thus far, then, as to the interpretation of this primeval history as it applies to the larger scale of the world around. But there is a world within which corresponds certainly not less to what these types signify, and which lies apparently yet more within the scope of these Genesis biographies. In this inner world, wherever God has wrought, the same conflict is found, and subject to the same laws. Through death, life; through defeat, victory.

In this sphere of the individual experience the conflict is between two natures-the one which is ours as born naturally; the other, as born of God supernaturally:and here, evidently, the order is, "first, that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual." The law of Genesis is thus that the elder gives place to the younger. Cain | represents, therefore, that in us which we rightly and necessarily call " the old nature." His name signifies " acquisition, possession;" Abel's, " vapor, exhalation." The contrast between them cannot be questioned, and was prophetic of their lives:i Cain possessing himself of that earth on which for man's sake the curse rested, while Abel's life exhaled to God like vapor drawn up by the sun. We may be very conscious, as Christians, of these opposite tendencies:the "flesh," so designated because in it man is sunk down from the spiritual being, which he was created, into mere " body," as we may say, or dust, while the new nature rises Godward.

Not that the flesh cannot have a religion of its own. It can bring its offering Cain-wise, the fruit of a toil which should convict it as outside of paradise, and (expecting it to be received, of course,) be roused to anger by not finding the tokens of acceptance which a mere prodigal, coming home as that, obtains;-the spirit of him who was, again, "the elder son," and who, while professing, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandments," had still to add, " and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends." How many of those even in whom there is begun in the heart some true desire after God, are yet destitute of all knowledge of acceptance with Him, because they are endeavoring to approach Him after Cain's pattern, taking their own thoughts instead of His! Faith still, taught of His Word, brings Abel's offering-the surrender of a life unstained by sin, and yielded therefore on account of others, not its own; and faith is the character and expression of the new nature:we are "all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

The interpretation of the type runs smoothly so far. The difficulty will be for most that Abel should die, and by his brother's hand-a difficulty quite parallel to that which it represents, that when we have so begun to live, we should find in practical experience a law of sin overmastering, death in the place of life.-" For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died."-" For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me."
Thus, while it is surely true that the life which as children of God we partake of cannot be slain, it is nevertheless true as to experience, from which side the type presents things here, that it is after we have begun to live the true and eternal life we have to learn what death is-to pass through the experience of it in our souls, and learn deliverance from "the body of this death." '

In the struggle with evil, we too (though in a very different way from Him who alone is fully and properly the woman's seed) find victory from defeat. We need, on our own account (as He did not), the humiliation of it. Jacob, though heir of blessing, must halt upon his thigh before he can be Israel, a prince with God; and what seems on the one side to be unredeemed evil and its triumph only, shall in another be found the mighty and transforming touch of the "angel that redeems from evil."

We must have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we may not trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead. The possession of life-of the new nature-is not power over sin; and this we have to learn, that all " power is of God." Trust in a new nature which we have got is still trust in ourselves as having got it; and self-confidence in whatever shape is still a thing alienate from God, and to be broken down, not built up. We must come to the self-despairing cry, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" before we can learn, as we shall then surely learn, to answer, "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Thus Abel dies, and Cain lives and flourishes; away from God indeed, but not permitted to be slain. The flesh abides in us, though we are born again; we cannot destroy it when we gladly would. Nay, we have, before we can find the fruit we seek for, to see the flesh in its fruit, under its fairest forms, the evil thing it ever was. To its seventh generation, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh,"-from Cain to Tubal-cain, "Cain's issue." But then we have reached a new beginning, and for other fruit find another tree-Seth, appointed of God as a seed "in the place of Abel, whom Cain slew."

Just so when the fruits of the flesh are manifest, and we have proved the inefficacy of the right and good desires which come of the new nature in us:when we have failed to work deliverance for ourselves, and have had to cry in despair, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? " we find the answer in a fruitful seed bestowed in place of Abel-"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," and the " law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" makes us "free from the law of sin and death;"-not "the life," but "the Spirit of life,"-not our effort, but divine might,- not self-occupation, but occupation with Him in whom we are before God, and in whom the divine favor rests upon us full and constant as upon Him (and because on Him) it rests. " I, yet not I, but Christ in me." This is a second substitution which for deliverance it imports a soul to know:the substitution of the power of the Spirit for the power of a right will and human energy, the substitution therefore of occupation with Christ for occupation with holiness; for then and thus alone is holiness attainable.

From Seth, then, " Enos " springs.* We can take home the sentence of death; we can glory in weaknesses, that the strength of Christ may rest upon us; and His power known-the living God for us, as we find Him whom our weakness needs, we " worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."*Frail" or "mortal man."*"Then began men"-from the birth of Enos- "to call upon the name of the Lord."

And with Seth, Adam's line begins afresh as if sin had never entered, as if it had never blotted the page of human history. Like the genealogy in Luke, where, the Son of Man having come in, Adam again shines forth in the brightness of his creation as " the son of God;" so here begin once more "the generations of Adam," with no record of the fall to touch the blessed fact that " in the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him." No Cain, nor even Abel, enters here. The record is of a life in all its generations not of this world, yet the days of which in the world God numbers:a life which is fruitful, but whose fruit it is not yet the time to show; a life to which alone is appended the record of a walk with God, and which not only finds its home with God in Enoch, but with Noah also, in due time, after the long-suspended judgment is poured out, inherits the earth also by perpetual covenant of a! covenant-keeping God.

Love is the fullness of all Christian graces. The apostle urging to the complete development of the divine nature which we have received (2 Pet. 1:5-7.), ends necessarily with love, as the perfection of this, beyond which he cannot go, for God is love. At the same time it is manifestly, and for the same reason, that out of which all else is developed. How important the right apprehension of what is so vital to all practical Christianity!

Even the world does homage to it, by making it essential to good manners to assume its livery, however little it may care for the reality of service. The Christian, walking as such, is. that which the world would fain get credit for, apart from that which alone produces it, which in fact it is unable even to discern.

Even with the Christian, not only, as all would own, is there failure in practice, but a very great want of apprehension of the thing in itself. In nothing perhaps do we make greater mistakes; although I doubt not we shall find, what is so serious to find, that these mistakes are not so much real errors of judgment as self-deceptions. Alas! down in the bottom of our hearts there may be a truer knowledge which we dare not admit even to ourselves we have. The apostle's warning, " Let love be without dissimulation," may it not apply, not only to the grosser imposition practiced upon another, but also to these deeper forms of self-deceit?

Love is not rightly tested by emotion, although the consciousness of it should assuredly be ours. Love is an emotion, but we dare not take the witness of our own hearts about it; therefore he who most speaks of it in Scripture most insists on the necessity of testing it by what it produces practically in our lives:" Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." In fact, in how many ways may we mistake here! Social feeling, amiability, even the satisfaction we take in what ministers to personal gratification may all usurp the name. And even where the test is made a practical one, how often is the liberality, so called, which is mere indifference to truth and good,-liberality in the things of another, not our own,-a servant's liberality in dispensing with his master's commandments,-miscalled by this blessed name! We have therefore to test practically, and according to the Word:"This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments."

It is its character manward that the apostle is speaking of in the thirteenth of first Corinthians, and indeed especially toward the children of God, and members of Christ's body. In the chapter before, he has been speaking of that body, and of the "gifts," the several parts in their relation to the whole. In the following chapter he goes on to consider the use of these gifts for edification in the assembly. Here, he is speaking of the spirit in which alone this mutual service could be rightly carried out-the spirit of devotion to the common blessing-the love of that which Christ loved and gave Himself for. The love of God, although unnamed, characterizes it of course all through, and two properties are plain in it,- self-forgetfulness in devotion to the good of others, and holiness. Light has to come into the definition of love, or it could not be divine love.

And how clearly we see at the outset where it has been learned, as the streams bear witness of the lands in which their birth-springs are! For "the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation," and therefore "love suffereth long and is kind." Not passive merely can be what is so learned; inspired of the great sacrifice, it must have the same character. "He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren:" so says one who has learned; and that he was an apostle does not subtract from the value of the lesson. But how much shall we find of this apostolic character? It is little, as it would seem, to say after this, " Love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up:" more suited perhaps, for that reason, to these days of littleness. How can it envy the good it is ever seeking to convey? In which it must therefore rejoice wherever found. Yet here, what a wealth of joy for those who can find in every joy another has the material for their own! How easy for such to understand the Lord's words as to receiving "now, in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and lands" ? and what will heaven be, where the joy of each will be in fact thus the joy of all? The Church is God's method for the realization of this even now. Why, O why, is it not more realized? Why does such an interpretation of our Lord's words seem dreamy and far-fetched to those for whom the words of the apostle are but an unworked mine of treasure-"And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me"?

This individualizing appropriation of Christ it is which divorces from self, and which alone does. It is then " no more I that live, but Christ liveth in me;" and " what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." It is not enthusiasm, but the soberest possible estimate of "unsearchable riches." Do you not wonder at the man who has millions he can never spend, toiling to accumulate hundreds? But that is nothing to the folly of pursuing what, if gain to me, separates me in heart and interest thus far from Him in whom alone I really live.

This is our qualification for the accomplishment of the central words of this definition, " Love seeketh not her own." She has no need; she is no beggar, but a Prince's daughter, rich enough to pour out wealth with both hands. The luxury of the rich is to give:" It is more blessed to give than to receive." He who is over all, blessed forever, who, "though He was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich," has left us, not a precept merely, but an "example, that we should walk in His steps." This is path and power in one. "His steps"! Yes, but without the awful shadow to which on our account those steps of His led down! No; " the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

Sorrow? Yes, sorrow is on every path; but for them in whose heart are the ways, the valley of Baca becomes a well; the rain also filleth the pools:they go from strength to strength.

Is it necessary to argue that the love which draws its motive from such a source will be holy? Only for those who do not know what sin is, or have forgotten at what cost they were purged from it. Or is it necessary to plead that not natural conscience, but the Word alone, can give us the measure of sin? If to me to live be Christ, what is not Christ is sin. There is nothing neutral-nothing negative merely. The measure of a Christian life is, "As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk ye in Him." Love cannot possibly forget that, for it must have its object:"the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

To imitate love is vain, even though its excellence is seen; and so it is, therefore, to imitate a degree of love which we have not. Are we, then, to sit down baffled, to complain, " The good that I would I do not" ? Assuredly not. Christ is, as I have said, power as well as pattern. " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink," is our whole, our abundant resource. Thus, and thus only, " he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Healing faith," as it is commonly called, is growing into credit with many in the present day. It is no wonder if in a world so full of that which sin has caused, and where even by Christians the sin itself is so little apprehended, it should be so. Neither the flesh is known nor the new creation. Christ's work is but to restore what Adam's had destroyed; and Christianity has, in the modern sense, not the apostolic, the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Of such a state the gospel of healing, as it is developed in the little pamphlet that lies before me, would seem the full ripe fruit; and it is worth while to give it at least some brief examination just on this account. Mr. Simpson has the merit of writing clearly, and with no lack of boldness, and will be the last, as I should judge, to complain of such an inquiry into the scriptural foundations of his faith, which he proposes to us for our own, and which he believes nothing but unbelief and rationalism can oppose.

His "gospel" may be stated in few words. Man has a twofold nature; he is both a moral and spiritual being; and both natures have been equally affected by the fall; we would therefore expect that any complete scheme of redemption would include both natures, and provide for the restoration of his physical as well as the renovation of his spiritual life. Nor are we disappointed. The Redeemer offers Himself to us as a complete Saviour:His indwelling Spirit the life of our spirit, His resurrection-body the life of our mortal flesh. In the same full sense as He has borne our sins, Jesus Christ has surely borne away and carried off our sicknesses, yes, and even our pains, so that abiding in Him we need not, and we should not, bear either sickness or pain. We are members of His body, His flesh, and His bones. These words recognize a union between our body and the resurrection-body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which gives us the right to claim for our mortal frame all the vital energy of His perfect life.

This is the doctrine-stated in Mr. Simpson's own words. Of course with this there is the usual pressing of Mark 16:17 and kindred texts long pressed in a similar way by Romanists, Irvingites, Mormons, and such like; who have been always ready to produce the same host of living witnesses to the truth of their claims.

From doctrine of the kind just stated we should expect, however, miracles mightier than ever Rome claimed or apostles actually wrought; for if we may " claim for our mortal frame all the vital energy of Christ's perfect life," the resurrection of the dead itself-and we do not know that Mr. Simpson's faith reaches as far as this-should not be the limit of the power displayed. Those so gifted ought, plainly, not to die at all. " His body is ours; His life is ours; and it is all-sufficient:" for what? to heal a few sick folk? How paltry indeed such a conclusion! " His resurrection-body the life of our mortal flesh "! But how, then, can it possibly be any longer mortal? The believers in Mr. S.'s creed ought to be nothing less than a company of unsuffering immortals, or their faith has no proper fruit.

Is not Christ, then, a "complete Saviour"? and is He not the Redeemer of both natures-the mortal as well as the spiritual, the body as well as the soul? Assuredly; but " we wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." The passage which Mr. S. so little understands as to quote it in his favor contains indeed the very refutation of his doctrine:"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness; but if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Mr. Simpson actually says of this that it "cannot refer to the future resurrection ; that will be by the voice of the Son of God, not the Holy Spirit; this is a present dwelling and a present quickening by the Spirit; and it is a quickening of the mortal body, not soul; what can this be but physical restoration?" Painful it is to pursue such things, more painful to think that Christians can be deceived by them. Does not Mr. Simpson know that our Lord's own resurrection is referred in Scripture to Himself, the Father, and the Spirit of God as well (Jno. 2:19; Rom. 8:11; i Pet. 3:18.)? How could he who had just said, " If Christ be in you, the body is dead," in the same breath declare that it was quickened by the Spirit ? whereas it is plainly shall quicken, in contrast with the present condition.

So again, when Paul says, " For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal body," Mr. S. sees in this nothing but "physical experience;" "His life was a constant miracle;" "this life, he tells us (5:16), was ' renewed day by day'" ! Paul says it was his "inward man;" and he contrasts it with the'"outward man " which was at the same time perishing. What was that outward man according to Mr. Simpson?

He quotes also, the apostle's prayer for Gaius, with the same entire unconsciousness of how his witness testifies against him. For why should there be need to pray that a man might " prosper and be in health, even as his soul prosper," if that was the constant rule in divine government for the Christian?

Again, he connects i Corinthians 10:II with Exodus 15:25, 26, to make the promise apply to Christians that God will put none of the diseases of the Egyptians upon them; not heeding or knowing that the Greek says, "types," and that the apostle is speaking of such things as the passage of the Red Sea, the manna, and the water from the rock, which assuredly are not things literally made good to us. The essential contrast between an earthly" people, such as Israel, and those who are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:3.) is ignored altogether.

With most of the above texts it is hoped that few of our readers will have much difficulty. There remain some others, as to which many may not be so clear. Yet as to such passages as John 14:12-"The works that I do shall he do also," and the signs which should follow them that believe (Mark 16:17, 18.), it is plain enough that while for a time these things did follow, it would be totally false to say that they follow now. There is no hint of unbelief making this void, as it is contended. Are such things as these true of Mr. Simpson or his disciples:"They shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them"? or that he or they do the works that Christ did, which would include the raising of the dead, at any rate? If not, what folly to bring forward such cures of sick people as Romanists, Mormons, and spiritualists can boast of just as confidently, and with as much apparent truth, and make a fancied fulfillment of a small portion of what the Lord said pass muster for the whole!

But what, then, it will be asked, makes such a difference between the Pentecostal times and ours? Oh if men would only inquire into the causes, and judge honest judgment, instead of claiming by the power of their faith alone to bring back that Pentecost so long passed away! Where today is that Church with the great multitude of it " of one heart and of one soul," " continuing steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers"? Surely the sights and sounds of the day are those of predicted Babylon rather. And which of us will wash his hands and dare to say, " In this I have had no part"? Is it the time for putting-on the ornaments of the day of espousal, when God is saying, as to Israel of old, " Ye are a stiff-necked people:I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee; therefore now put off thine ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee"?

Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were among us, they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Who has shoulders to lift off from us the weight of eighteen centuries of failure? Let us own it, and take humbly what is our common shame. If this is the harder thing, it is still the more blessed, for with him who does this really God will be.

But what are we to think of Mr Simpson's wonderful discovery of the narrow channel in which it seems since the apostolic days the water of (physical) life has been flowing ? " But now the apostolic age is closing; is this to be continued? and if so, by whom? By what limitation is it to be preserved from fanaticism and presumption? by what commission is it to be perpetuated to the end of time, and placed within the reach of all God's suffering saints?" What is the answer? James 5:14 and the elders of the Church! Read the apostle's closing address to some of these very elders, beloved reader, and ask yourself what sort of preservation would be thus guaranteed, and if rather the apostle's warning does not find a fulfillment in such a pretension ?

I do not want, however, to dismiss the subject without adding a word as to what remains for us in these days. For this, we must first of all distinguish between cases which Mr. S. necessarily mixes up in confusion. Elihu, in the book of Job, shows us the chastening of a soul under God's hand, for which his flesh is consumed until he dies, or else humbles himself and confesses his sin and finds mercy. The apostle speaks in this way of a sin unto death, for which he does not say that any one should pray. In James, this case of chastening is supposed, though not exclusively. Here, the remedy is clearly not in doctors, and it is of the very greatest importance to remember it. Here still the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and " confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed" abides ever as the resource. The question of elders' and anointing is more difficult. In these days of division we have indeed many churches, and, for that very reason, no where the Church. The elders can hardly be found, if the Church is not; and official appointment (always by apostles' hands, or those of an apostolic delegate, such as Timothy or Titus) has necessarily ceased with apostles themselves. It seems to me better to own where we are than to claim any thing of which a doubt may exist. The prayer of faith surely remains to us.

All sickness does not come under the head of chastening, though discipline we may find in it, and find it needful, therefore, to that end. The apostle's thorn in the flesh had this character, and was not removed, nor could be; God taught him to acquiesce in, and to profit by it. For Timothy's weak "stomach's sake and often infirmities" he prescribes, not the prayer of faith, but " a little wine." Trophimus he leaves at Miletum sick; Epaphroditus too is sick, nigh unto death, right under the apostle's eye, but God has mercy on him, and on Paul too thus, and raises him up. Even in apostles' days, and with such as he, the gifts of healing were used, not indiscriminately, or for the personal ease of Christians, but for the glory of God, as with Lazarus' resurrection, or that healing of the sick of the palsy, " that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."

Thus stands the matter, simply taking Scripture. That we need still the admonition, " Have faith in God,"-that men may still die, because they seek not to God, but the physician, as Asa did,-that many a one may lie unhealed for whom a simpler and therefore more discerning faith would find in God the power to heal,-all this need not be doubted. On the other hand, Christians cannot be too earnestly warned against a view of things, coming up in many quarters in the present day, which ignores the sorrowful realities of the flesh and the world. It is but another fig-leaf apron,- another human invention to cover man's nakedness ; a fruit of wisdom acquired by the fall, and not divine.

Let us mark, then, first of all, this questioning of Adam on the part of God. Three several times we find these questions. He questions the man, questions the woman; the serpent He does not question, but proceeds instead immediately to judgment. Plainly there is something significant in this. For it cannot be thought that the Omniscient needed to know the things that He inquired) about; therefore, if not for His own sake, it must have been for man's sake He made the inquiry. It was, in fact, the appeal to man for confidence in One who on His part had done nothing, to forfeit it; the gracious effort to bring him to own in the presence of his Creator, his present condition and the sin which had brought him into it. And it is still in this way that we find entrance into the enjoyed favor of a Saviour-God:"we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand," the "goodness of God" leading "to repentance." Confidence!_in that goodness enables us to take true ground before God, and enables Him thus, according to the principles of holy government, to show us His mercy. Not in self-righteous efforts to excuse ourselves, nor yet in self-sufficient promises for the future, but "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

To this confession do these questionings of God call these first sinners of the human race. Because, there is mercy for them, they are invited to cast themselves upon it. Because there is none for the serpent, there is in his case no question. But let us notice also the different character of these questions, as well as the order of them. Each of these has its beauty and significance.

The first question is an appeal to Adam to consider his condition,-the effect of his sin, rather, than his sin itself. The second it is that refers directly to the sin, and not the first. This doublet appeal we shall find every wherein Scripture. Does man "thirst,"he is bidden to come and drink of the living water; is he " laboring and heavy-laden," he is invited to find rest for his soul. This style of address clearly takes the ground of the] first question. It is the heart not at rest here rather than the conscience. roused. Where the latter is the case, however, and the sense of guilt presses on the soul, then there is a Christ of whom even His enemies testify that He receiveth sinners, and whose own words are that the " Son of Mantis come to seek and to save that which is lost."

These are, as it .were, God’s two arms thrown around men. Thus would He fain by every, tie of interest. draw them to Himself,-of self-interest when they are as yet incapable of any higher, any worthier motive. How precious is this witness to a love which .finds all its inducement in itself-a love, not which God has, but which He is! How false an estimate do we make of it and of Him when we make Him just such another as ourselves,-when we think of His heart as needing to be won back to us, as if He,, had fallen from His own goodness, with our fall from innocence! How slow are we to credit Him when He speaks of the "great love wherewith He loves us, even when we are dead in sins "! How little we believe it, even when we have before our eyes " God, in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them "! And even when the feet evidence and measurement in one, manifests a grace overflowing, abounding over it,-even then can he justify himself rather than God, and refuse the plainest and simplest testimony to sovereign goodness, which he has lost even the bare ability to conceive.

In how many ways is God beseeching man to consider his own condition at least, if nothing else! In how many tongues is this "Adam, where art thou?" repeated to the present day! Ever grown of a creation subject to vanity, whereof the whole frame-work is convulsed and out of joint, is such a tongue. And herein is Wisdom crying in the streets, even where there is no speech and no word, " So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." This, man never does until divinely taught. " Wisdom is justified" only "of her children."

And Adam does not yet approve himself as one of these. His confession of sin is rather an accusation of God.-" The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." In patient majesty, God turns to the woman. She, more simply, but still excusing herself, pleads she was deceived.-"The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Then, without any further question, He proceeds to judgment, – judgment in which for the tempted mercy lies enfolded, and where, if the old creation find its end there appears the beginning of that which alone fully claims the title of "The Creation of God."

In the judgment of the serpent, we must remember first of all the essentially, typical character of the language used. We have no reason to believe that Adam knew as yet the mystery of who the tempter was. " That old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan," was doubtless for him nothing more than the most subtle of the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made. And herein, indeed, were divine wisdom and mercy shown, the tempter being not permitted to approach in angelic character, as one above man, but in bestial, as one below him; one indeed of those to which man as their lord had given names, and among which he had found no helpmeet. How great was thus his shame when he listened to the deceiver! he had given up his divinely appointed supremacy, in that moment.

So in the judgment here it is all outwardly the mere serpent, where spiritually we discern a far deeper thing. " And the Lord God said unto the serpent, ' Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed among all cattle, and among all beasts of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.'" Thus the victory of evil is in reality the degradation of the victor:he is degraded necessarily by his own success. How plainly is this an eternal principle, illustrated in every career of villainy under the sun! By virtue of it, Satan will not be the highest in hell, and prince of it, as men have feigned, but lowest and most miserable of all the miserable there. " Dust shall be the serpent's meat." "He feeleth on ashes:a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? "

But there is still another way in which the serpent's victory is his defeat:-"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel." That this last! expression received its plainest fulfillment on the' cross I need not insist upon. There Satan manifested himself prince of this world, able (so to speak) by his power over men to cast Christ out of it and put the Prince of life to death. But that victory was his eternal overthrow.-" Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

This is deliverance for Satan's captives. It is not the restoration, however, of the old creation, nor of the first man. The seed of the woman is emphatically the " Second Man," another and at " last Adam," new Head of a new race, who find in Him their title as " Sons of God," as " born, not of blood (1:e.,naturally), nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

This is not the place indeed for the expansion of this, for here it is not expanded. We shall find the development of it further on. Only here it is noted, that not self-recovery, but a deliverer, is the need of man ; and if God take up humanity itself whereby to effect deliverance it must be the seed of the woman, the expression of feebleness and dependence, not of natural headship or of power.

The first direct prophecy links together the first page of revelation with the last, for only there do we find the full completion of it,-the serpent's head at last bruised. As a principle, the life of every saint in a world which " lieth in the wicked one" has illustrated and enforced it; In the next section of this book we shall return to look at this.

The judgment of the woman and the man now follow, but they have listened already to the voice of mercy-a mercy which can turn to blessing the hardship and sorrow, henceforth the discipline of life, and even the irrevocable doom of death itself. That Adam has been no inattentive listener, we may gather from his own next words, which are no very obscure intimation of the faith which has sprung up in his soul. '"And Adam called his wife's name Eve [life], because she was the mother of all living." The "woman which Thou gavest to be with me " is again " his wife," and he names' her through whom death…had come in, as the mother, not of the dying, but the living.

Thus does his faith lay hold on God,-the faith of a poor sinner surely, to whom divine mercy had come down without a thing in him to draw it out, save only the misery which spoke to the heart of infinite love. Like Abraham, afterward "he believed God," and while to the sentence he bows I in submissive silence, the grace inclosed in the (sentence opens his lips again. Beautifully are we permitted to see just this in Adam, a faith which left him a poor sinner still, to be justified, not by works, but freely of God's grace, but still put him thus before God for justification. And we are ready the more to apprehend and appreciate the significant action following:"Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skin, and clothed them." Thus the shame of their nakedness is removed, and by God Himself, so that they are fit for His presence; for the covering provided of Himself must needs be owned as competent by Himself. And we have only to consider for a moment to discern how competent it really was.

Death provided this covering. These coats of skin owned the penalty as having come in, and those clothed with them found shelter for themselves in the death of another, and that the one upon whom it had come sinlessly through their own sin. How pregnant with instruction as to I how still man's nakedness is covered and he made !fit for the presence of a righteous God! These skins were fitness, the witness of how God had maintained the righteous sentence of death, while removing that which was now his shame, and meeting the consequences of his" sin. Our covering is far more, but it is such a witness also. Our righteousness is still the witness of God's righteousness,-the once dead, now living One, who of God is made unto us righteousness, and in whom also we are made the righteousness of God. The antitype in every way transcends the type surely, yet very sweet and significant nevertheless is the first testimony of God to the Son;-a double testimony, first to the seed of the woman, the Saviour; and then, when faith has set its seal to this, a testimony to that work of atonement, whereby:the righteousness of God is revealed in good news to man, and the believer is made that righteousness in Him.

Not till the hand of God has so interfered for them are Adam and his wife sent forth out of the garden. If earth's paradise has closed for them, heaven has already opened; and the tree of life, denied only as continuing the old creation, stretches forth for them its branches, loaded with its various fruit, "in the midst of the paradise," no longer of men, but "of God."

But I must say a word on the other-the dark side of this subject; for whatever has a bright side to the saved has a dark side to the unsaved. It cannot be said to them, Death is yours-your servant. It has to be said, You are death's-its servants. They have not availed themselves of the gracious provision of the cross, and therefore they are yet in their sinful standing, with their sins upon them. Hence, death to the unbeliever is a tyrant. The same verse which tells us that "the righteous hath hope in his death" affirms that " the wicked is driven away in his wickedness." (Prov. 14:32.) Where is he driven? Not to be with' Christ. We have His own word for this. Addressing those who rejected Him, He said, " Ye shall die in your sins:whither I go ye cannot come." (John 8:21.) Where does death take the unsaved? The same infallible One answers. After saying that " the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom," He said, " The rich man also died, and was buried, and in hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." (Luke 16:23, Revised Version?) I take this to mean just what it says, notwithstanding the efforts to explain away its obvious sense. And though the wicked will come forth from death and hades, it will be no blessing to them, for they will, come forth to judgment. The fame great Teacher said, "All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation," or judgment, according to the Revised Version. (John 5:28, 29.) Thus death, the result of Adam's sin, ends before judgment as to actual sins begins. The unsaved are brought from death to be judged. Mark, it is "they that have done evil" who come forth unto the resurrection of judgment. They have not received God's salvation ; thus they remain in the flesh or sinful standing in Adam, and the inevitable fruit is " evil." It is in the resurrection-state that, they fully meet God face to face as to their sins, and receive the sentence which is due.

Not only will the resurrection of the unjust differ from that of the just in the character of it, but also in the time of its occurrence. While all are to be made alive by having a resurrection, yet "every man," says the apostle, "in his own order:Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end." The word here rendered." then " is the same that is rendered "afterward" in the previous part of the passage, and has that meaning. "Afterward cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and .power; for He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (i Cor. 15:23-26.) Death will be destroyed in all being made alive in resurrection. Those who are Christ's are raised "at His coming; " then, at a subsequent period, designated " the end," death is destroyed, which must be in the resurrection of those who are not Christ's.

We get further light in the twentieth of Revelation. We read, " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests pf God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." John saw-that "the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." " And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison," and will go forth to " deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth," and yielding to his deceivings, they meet summary judgment, and he is " cast into the lake of fire." Then comes " the end," when death is"'destroyed, yet followed by judgment. " I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened:and another book was opened, which is the book of life:and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave, up the dead which were in it; and death and hades gave up the dead which were in them:and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire." (Revised Ver.)

Such is the solemn " end." All beyond is eternity. Such is the dreadful outcome of belonging to death, and remaining under the appointment to judgment; in other words, of remaining in the lost condition by nature, and adding sins thereto. That outcome, God says, is "the second death, even the lake of fire;" and all will come to pass just as He says.

But He who has thus spoken has " found a ransom." His own Son gave His life as that ransom. He went into death's dark raging flood, bearing the judgment in His own blessed person, that, as the ark made a safe passage for Israel through the Jordan, those who accept this salvation might, thereby, be taken beyond the dark river of death and the ocean of judgment, and be brought into a life which these waters can never touch. And the love Which has done all this,-the love which was stronger than death, (for it went through it) is ever beseeching all to accept what it has done, with the assurance that the worst one who comes is perfectly welcome, and is at once beyond death and judgment, in a new and blessed life; or, to use the Lord's own words, " hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life."

But if souls neglect so great salvation,-if they go on in their own ways, however religiously, and refuse God's Christ, as "the way, the truth, and the life," how shall they escape? Death must come as a police, to hurry them to their prison in hades, to await the coming forth for judgment. And .God entering into judgment with them, they cannot escape- condemnation, for no man living could be justified if called upon to answer for his sins; and as they would not have God's gracious way of being cleansed from them, they must answer for them before "the great white throne," and pure justice must then have its course. Oh that men were wise! Oh that they would believe God as to their deep need, and take salvation while mercy lingers! Oh that those who are saved would do more to reach the unsaved! Knowing the terror of the Lord, we are to persuade men. The love of Christ should constrain us.

"Call them In-the weak, the weary,
Laden with the doom of sin;
Bid them come and rest in Jesus;
He is waiting-call them in.

"See, the shadows lengthen round us,
Soon the day-dawn will begin;
Can you leave them lost and lonely?
Christ is coming-call them in."

May God bless His word to us; and may we, during the " little while," walk in the power of the truth that death is ours; manifesting, in our spirit and ways, the life which we have in the risen and glorified One, abounding in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Looking for judgment because Jehovah abhors the workers of iniquity – the bloody and deceitful man; but to have his own place of worship in Jehovah's house, and His way made plain before his face.

To the chief musician upon wind instruments:a psalm of David.

Give ear to my words, Jehovah! Consider my meditation.

2. Attend to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for unto Thee do I pray.

3. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, Jehovah; in the morning will I set in order [my prayer] before Thee, and will watch.

4. For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with Thee.

5. Boasters shall not stand before Thine eyes; Thou hatest all workers of vanity.

6. Thou shalt destroy them that speak falsehood; Jehovah abhorreth the bloody and deceitful man.
7. But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the abundance of Thy mercy, in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.

8. Lead me, Jehovah, in Thy righteousness, because of them that are watching me; make straight Thy way before my face.

9. For in their mouth is nothing certain; gaping depths their inward parts; their throat an open sepulcher; they make smooth their tongue.

10. Let them bear their guilt, O God! by their own counsels shall they fall; cast them out in the multitude of their revoltings, for they have rebelled against Thee.

11. But all those that take refuge in Thee shall rejoice; they shall ever sing with joy because Thou dost cover them, and those that love Thy name shall exult in Thee.

12. For Thou, Jehovah, blessest the righteous; with favor dost Thou encompass him as with a shield.

Text.-(3) "Set in order," as a sacrifice; "and watch," that is, for the answer.

(4) "God" is here El, the "Mighty One," significantly contrasted with the mighty ones of earth, who use their power for evil purposes.

(9) "Certain," literally, "established, fixed." "Gaping depths," from "havvah," to yawn, gape.

(11) Literally, "and Thou shalt cover them ; " but van is used exceptionally in this sense, as psalm Ix. 12.

Like the second, a governmental psalm of twelve verses, also divided into four threes, easily to be recognized.

Confidence, because Jehovah has set apart the godly for Himself; and joy-vainly sought elsewhere, -in the light of His countenance:a pleading with the ungodly to consider.

To the chief musician, upon stringed instruments:a psalm of David.

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! in straitness, Thou enlargedst me; be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

2. O sons of Man, how long shall my glory be a shame [with you] ? Will ye love vanity ? will ye seek after falsehood ? Selah. .

3. But know that Jehovah hath set apart the godly for Himself; Jehovah heareth when I call to Him.

4. Tremble, and sin not; speak with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5. Sacrifice sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in Jehovah.

6. Many are saying, " Who will show us good ?" Lift up on us the light of Thy face, Jehovah!

7. Thou hast given me gladness in my heart, more than in the time when their corn and their new wine increased.

8. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep; for Thou only, Jehovah, makest me dwell securely.

Text.-(2) "Man" is here not Adam, the word for the race, but Ish (vρ, vir), implying greatness or eminence. I write it with a capital for distinction.

(3) "The godly:" some would translate the word chasid invariably as "merciful," or else "object of mercy," or "favor." Neither seems the sense here. Primarily, it means, according to Schultens, "swelling, exuberant;" which, toward man, gives the meaning "bountiful, merciful;" but here it is God-ward, and "godly" seems the most suitable translation, as well as the one most accordant with the tenor of the psalm.

Connections.-With psalm 3:1, 2, 4, 5, comp. respectively verses 1, 6, 3, 8.

In the next psalm we find evil and opposition growing more intense, and the pleading with them, become hopeless now, changes into pleading against them. It is the other side of the previous psalm. He who hath set apart the godly for Himself abhors the workers of iniquity. Lingering mercy gives place to judgment, and then to plead for it is to be as much in fellowship with God as to plead for grace when God is showing grace.

Confidence in Jehovah, in view of increasing enemies mocking it as vain; the realization of Jehovah's supremacy and care.

A psalm of David, when he fled the face of Absalom his son.

How are they multiplied that straiten me, Jehovah! many are rising up against me!

2. Many are saying of my soul, "There is no salvation for him in God!" Selah.

3. But Thou, Jehovah, art a shield about me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head.

4. With my voice I call unto Jehovah; and out of His holy mount He answereth me. Selah.

5. I have laid me down and slept; I waked, for Jehovah sustaineth me.

6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. .

7. Arise, Jehovah! save me, O my God! but Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the jaw:the teeth of the ungodly Thou hast broken.

8. Salvation is of Jehovah:Thy blessing is upon Thy people, Selah.

Text.-(7) "Put" is better than "because," which indeed gives no just sense. The force is, that even while he prays the answer is given, and his prayer changes to triumph and to praise.

Connections.-"Many are saying:" contrast with psalm 4:6.

4.-In answer to more than one correspondent as to woman's place in service and in the church, it is well to remember that Scripture gives us principles of conduct, not a code of laws. In the application, spirituality is always required, and there will always be room for those who are not so to dispute the application. The remedy is not to turn the Scripture precepts into a legal code, so as to be practically Independent of the guidance of the Spirit. We all naturally like, in such matters, sharply defined edges, and to be saved the trouble of that exercise of soul by which alone we have our "senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

As to the principle, there is not the least uncertainty for those whose hearts are subject to the Word; to those who are not so, it is hard to imagine what scripture would be decisive.

The two things by which the apostle determines the woman's place are, first, the circumstances of her creation, then of her fall.-"For Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman, 'being deceived, was in the transgression." And this is the ground of what he enjoins, and with the full weight of apostolic authority.-"I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in subjection." This is in Timothy. In the epistle to the Corinthians he again appeals to creation.-"But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God."-"For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man; neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man …. Judge in yourselves:is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you . . . ?"

It is plain, surely, from all this, that it is what is becoming to the woman naturally that is insisted on. The daughters of Philip were prophetesses; women labored with Paul in the gospel; Priscilla, as well as Aquila, took Apollos and instructed him in the way of the Lord more perfectly:some would find difficulty in reconciling all this with what the apostle has insisted on as the woman's place. They ought to guard us only against too rigid an interpretation of his words. If Philip's daughters prophesied, they did it not in the assembly, we may be sure, but in a manner becoming female modesty and reserve. If women labored with Paul in the gospel, it was not public preaching, but more privately-in visitation, probably to houses where God had given them access; while Priscilla could instruct Apollos in what she herself had learned without setting up to be a teacher, or departing from the " subjection" which the apostle orders. No doubt there is difficulty in maintaining the true place in all this. Difficulties and clangers surround our path, but what is wanted is not more precise definitions, but to be before God; and that a woman should be a woman, which in these days she has assuredly temptation enough to forget. An unwomanly woman is one of those things as to which nature really most effectually teaches, although we may, of course, get dulled in this respect, as in all others, by habituation to it.

Here, as in other cases where Scripture does not sharply draw the line, there is need of watching against narrowness and readiness to form hasty judgment. It is easy for us to define another's duty, and to draw lines according to our taste, and to make Scripture responsible for mere cold criticism of what might be more devoted service than we have heart to understand. If un-womanliness is a real danger on the one side,-a danger we have no thought of diminishing,-there is, on the other hand, a danger of unmanliness which we must not forget. There is a plain word to wives to be subject to their husbands; but it is to the wives:there is no word to the husbands to enforce subjection. And while one would be very far from justifying the sadly out-of-place position often occupied by women in the present day, it is pertinent to ask, Was Deborah's judgeship a dishonor to the women, or to the men 'of Israel ? and if it were thus a sign, of what was it a sign ? Alas ! of what but of in subjection on their part to God ? Subjection to Him it is that brings every thing else right; and for the rest, patience, gentleness, and grace are signs of strength; as irritability and impatience- are of weakness only.

We may now dwell a little on the blessedness of death being thus ours.

If death be ours-our servant, then we need not pass our days here in fear of it. The fear of death is natural to the natural mind. This is observable, not only where the Bible is read and known, but where revelation has not gone. The heathen have a great dread of death. A little while ago, I saw a missionary from India, who said, " The Hindoos have an intense fear of death." He narrated how they dispose of their dead. They burn the body, and carefully preserve the ashes; and then, on a certain day of the year, take them to their sacred river, the Ganges, and having put them in a tiny boat, with a little lamp, they are committed to the stream. The missionary observing a Brahmin doing this to his dead, asked him why they put a lamp with the ashes. The reply was, " It is to give a little light; death is so dark!" And all the tapers of man, all his devices, all his religiousness, even in the most enlightened lands, can give no more true light than the little lamp of the benighted Hindoo. Christianity as taught in the New Testament,-Christianity as known in reality, can alone, in the true sense, take away the fear of death, and enable souls to pass their days in rest and peace, free from dread and uncertainty.

If death be ours, then we shall not see it or taste it should it come. Jesus said, " If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death." Those who heard Him, in repeating His statement, used the expression, " shall never taste of death." (John 8:51, 52.) Thus, the one who keeps the saying of the Lord, though he may die, shall not see, shall not taste, death. The blessed Lord Himself, taking our place, saw death in its reality,-He "tasted" it in all its bitterness. Hence, the reality-the bitterness of death is passed for faith. Nothing but the shadow remains, and there is no taste in a shadow.

"Jesus can make a dying bed
Feel soft as downy pillows are;
While on His breast I lean my head,
And breathe my life out sweetly there."

If death be ours, then, as Christ could not employ a useless servant, we cannot pass through it without being the gainers; and we are assured in . the Word of God that we do not pass through it without gaining thereby,-this servant being used to let us out of "our earthly house" that we may. go to Him who is our all. The Lord said to the dying penitent at His side, "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." (Luke 23:43.) The apostle speaks of being "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (2 Cor. 5:8.) He says, " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. . . . . For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." (Phil. 1:21-24.) These passages have, as we all know, been much tortured to make, them say what they cannot be made to say. What they do say is plain, namely, that the departed in the Lord are with Him,-that to die is gain,-that to depart and be with Christ is far better than to abide in the flesh,-in short, that death being ours, we do not pass through it without gain, the intermediate state being an advance on our present happy, though trying, lot.

If death be ours through the cross, and through being identified with the risen Christ, then, (to the praise of God's grace) it may be said that we have title to a part with Him in the resurrection of life, to the resurrection of which His own was the first-fruits. The Word plainly states this title.- " Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him" (Rom. 6:8.).-"Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. …. Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." (i Cor. 15:20, 23.) While those who have fallen asleep in Christ are thus^to be raised at His , coming-raised in the power and character of His own blessed resurrection, those who are alive and remain will not sleep, showing that death has no real claim on believers, otherwise they would have even then to die to meet the claim. " Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." (i Cor. 15:51, 52.) " For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:and the dead in Christ shall rise first:then we which are alive and remain"-being changed in the same moment in which the righteous dead are raised-" shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (i Thess. 4:16, 17.) And being ever with Him after we are caught up to join Him in the air, we shall, of course, be with Him when He appears, and every eye sees Him. Indeed the Word assures us of this.-" When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3:4.)

In short, when the day dawns and the Lord comes, death, the dark servant, must stand aside, and the righteous dead will rise in the power of a blessed life, and the righteous living be changed to immortality,-both be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and go with Him to the Father's house of many mansions, and return with Him when He appears in judgment, and to introduce His millennial reign. As no good reason can be assigned why He may not come at any moment for His saints, the proper attitude is to be watching for Him.

I may add that death being our servant, it follows that when it can be of no further service, it will be dismissed forever. In this sense, " the servant abideth not in the house forever." Of Him who rose a's the first-fruits it is said, " He dieth no more." He says, "Behold, I am alive for evermore." And are we not to be " like Him " ? Is it not said that He will " fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory " ? Is not all that is mortal of the saint to be "swallowed up of life," that is, lost in it forever? The Lord, speaking of those who " shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead," said," Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." In the moment they are raised or changed, the saying that is written,- Death is swallowed up in victory-is brought to pass as to them (i Cor. 15:54.). Henceforth death has no more power with them. They " reign in life by Jesus Christ," not only for "a thousand years," but evermore; for when the millennial age is closed, and all that may be called time is in the past, the Word assures us " there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." He who sits on the throne will " make all things new;'' and those who overcome inherit "all things;" and "they shall reign forever and ever."

" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

All this, and infinitely more than a feeble mortal can utter, or even conceive, is embraced in the truth that death is ours. Our full blessedness in heavenly kingdom, when the results of sin are wiped away forever, will be the outcome of the fact that while we were in the midst of these results, they were our servants. Our being with the Lord in glory will- tell out forever that all things during our little day of trial were jointly working for our real and abiding good.

Beloved, I would remind myself and you that we are indebted to grace, and to what it has wrought in the Lord's death, for all this. It is not of ourselves, or of works, that we have this blessed portion and this bright prospect. The praise is all due to God and the Lamb. If so, should not our hearts be won by a sight of such love ? and ought not our lives to be the outflow of hearts thus won? Oh, beloved, surely every thought should be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. He died that death might be ours, and that we might not come into judgment, yea, that we might be holy and without blame before God in love and favor forever. Let us live to Him who thus died for us and rose again. It should be our joy to do this.

The blessedness of faith in Christ, rejected of man, but exalted of God to the throne in Zion, but which is also over the Gentiles, and to the ends of the earth; and which is to be established by a power overthrowing all opposition, when the time of present patience has reached its limit.

Why do the Gentiles rage, and the nations meditate a vain thing ?

2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the princes take counsel together against Jehovah, and against His Anointed :

3. '"Let us snap Their bands asunder, and cast Their cords from us!"

4. He sitting in the heavens laugheth :the Lord mocketh at them.

5. Then speaketh Me unto them in His anger, and confoundeth them in His wrath.

6. " And I, I have set My King upon Zion, My holy mount."

7. "I will declare as to the decree:Jehovah hath said unto Me, 'Thou art My Son; I this day have begotten Thee.

8. "'Ask of Me, and I give Thee the for Thine inheritance, and for Thy possession the ends of the earth.

9. "'Thou shalt shepherd them with an iron rod; as a potter's vessel Thou shalt dash them in pieces.'"

10. And now, ye -kings, be wise! be admonished, ye judges of earth!

11. Serve Jehovah with fear and exult with trembling.

12. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way; for suddenly shall His anger kindle. Happy all they who take refuge in Him!

Text.-(6) "Set" is preferable to "anointed," because it is Jehovah's answer to the opposition of the nations. The critics are about equally divided between the two renderings.

(9) "Shepherd" is one of two possible renderings, but which the New Testament decides for, always quoting it thus.

(12) "Kiss the Son:" the Aramaic form, "Bar," used here instead of "Ben," has been the subject of criticism on the part of rationalists hostile to the rendering here given, denied also by all the ancient versions except the Syriac; but all have to change the word to translate it otherwise. " The context and the usage of the language both require "Kiss the Son." The Piel, nishek, means "to kiss," and never any thing else, and …. nothing is more natural here, after Jehovah has acknowledged His Anointed as His Son, than that Bar, which has nothing strange about it when found in solemn discourse, should denote the unique Son, and in fact the Son of God. The exhortation to submit to Jehovah, as Aben Ezra has observed, is followed by the exhortation to do homage to Jehovah's Son." (Delitzsch.) Gesenius, DeWette, and Rosenmuller, though all rationalists, agree in this rendering.

(12) "Suddenly" seems more in place than "but a little," since it refers, surely, to ver. 9.

Connections.-(1) Quoted and applied, Acts 4:25-58:the opposition manifested then has characterized the course of this world ever since; although never will it be so intense and bitter as at the final crisis in the days just preceding the appearing of the Lord.

(4) "He sitting in the heavens:" comp. Psalm 11:3, 4.

That there are twelve verses in this governmental psalm is surely significant. These divide regularly into four sections of three verses each:the first gives the attitude of the nations; the second, Jehovah's; the third is Messiah's voice; the fourth, the warning to the kings of the earth.

The Lord will give grace and glory:" this is the characteristic verse of the eighty-fourth psalm. And what is "glory," beloved reader? What does your heart connect with that word, or link with the thought of all the blessedness that is before your soul in that eternity into which we are so soon to enter? It is not a question of mere accuracy as to a word. Words mean things:and the question is really important, yea, of the deepest importance for our souls. What attraction is there in the prospect before us? What makes heaven bright? what quickens our steps toward it? That which controls our hearts, reveals them too. What then do we count glory?

It is plain that the mere deliverance from pain and sorrow and toil and care is not that; nor even from the sin which has brought in all this:It is positive blessing far beyond what is implied by freedom from all 99:What then is the blessedness before us, I again ask? "It is to see Christ and to be with Him," many of my readers will at once reply; and where it is not mere knowledge, but wells out of a full heart, thank God for that answer. Closely connected it is, moreover, with the true thought of glory. Glory is divine display.-" In His temple doth every one speak of His glory," (Ps. 29:9.)-or, as it should be rather, " doth every one say, ' Glory.' " It is to the tabernacle, not the temple, that the Psalmist refers; but whether tabernacle or temple, in the place of God's presence gold covered every thing. From the ark of the covenant to the boards over which hung the beauteous curtains, and even in the curtains themselves, gold shone every where. Outside, in the court, the brazen laver and the brazen altar had their place:inside, there was no brass, but only gold.

Gold has, I believe, its interpretation given us by the apostle, where, speaking of the golden cherubim overshadowing the mercy-seat, he calls them "the cherubim of glory." The aptness of the figure, one would think, should strike one at a glance; much more so when we consider the things themselves which were made of gold, or which it covered. All these were Christ, and Christ in that which is His distinctively, the manifestation of God to man. His glory is just Himself displayed. You cannot put glory on Him; on Him no other light can be made to shine. All true light is His light-is Himself, for " God is light."

When we speak of God seeking His own glory, or glorifying Himself, what do we mean by it? If a man seeks his own glory, it is pride or selfishness that acts in him; and do not the thoughts even of God's people sometimes almost confound man's thought in this with God's, however much they would abhor the inference? But as God is the opposite of fallen man in all things, so it is here. Man in seeking his own glory claims and craves, but God in seeking His but loves and gives; for His glory is Himself displayed, is the blessing of His creatures:His glory is His goodness; what the angels' words unite is pledged by the Babe born in Bethlehem never to be sundered -" Glory to God in the highest," and " on earth peace, good pleasure in men."

Can we add, indeed, to His infinite riches? Does He whose are the cattle upon a thousand hills demand our sacrifices because He is hungry? the voice that said "Give Me to drink" to the woman of Samaria, was it that of the poor stranger merely that it seemed ? Ah, what should make our praises matter of concern to Him with whom all the nations are counted as grasshoppers, and who taketh up the isles as a very little thing?

It is love to which we are of account,-love alone that seeks to have our hearts (and thus our praises) full of Himself. And the method of His love is to make known what He is, to display His ways, His character, His perfections, to us, that the eye opened to behold might affect the heart, and the heart satisfied might give us competency to be His witnesses, not only among men, but "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

And the glory to which we are going is a scene in which God will be every-where beheld, everywhere enjoyed, every-where adored. The madness of infidelity that scoffs at the ceaseless worship of heaven does not understand this worship to be just the witness and pledge of its endless felicity, while of the divine goodness thus revealed it is necessarily ignorant.

All man's good is in the manifestation of God thus to the soul. In a world which His hands have made, and into which, though fallen, still His mercies come continuously, where His sun shines on the evil and the good, and His rain falls on the just and on the unjust, men vainly deem that they can do without Him. Alas! with the goods of his father in his hand, man can enjoy his pleasure in a far-off country, disregarding the famine that will surely come. They can think of doing without God in a world from which, though hidden, He is not withdrawn. Once withdrawn, they will find too late what they have chosen; for as heaven is God's dwelling-place, hell is the place whence He is forever absent:if God is light, hell is the place of utter and unimagined darkness.

In this eighty-fourth psalm, it is God Himself that is the object of the soul's desire:it is for the living God that flesh and heart cry out; Jehovah's tabernacles, Jehovah's courts, Jehovah's altars, Jehovah's house. Nor is it a feeble desire after this, -the soul longs and faints:" How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord:my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God." This is the breathing of a saint in Old-Testament times, beloved reader,-one by whom necessarily Christ was seen afar off, and the glory of God was connected with an earthly tabernacle, not with the heaven opened now to faith. And we, to whom so far greater a revelation has -been vouchsafed, have our hearts gone out with even equal longings after the Father's house, after the place of His presence? Is this indeed the glory for which we yearn as we rejoice in hope of the glory of God?

That expression, " the living God," gives a connection with the second part of the psalm, which speaks of the way by which the end here contemplated is reached; as for Israel the way to Canaan was through the wilderness, so for us also our inheritance is similarly reached. And our wilderness, as theirs, barren sand and rock though it be, has yet for faith its harvests. How glorious to see, in the glister of the morning dew, the manna -the mighty's meat! How wonderful to see the flinty rock pour forth water! How blessed from day to day to realize in the constant guidance of the cloud and fire, the tender care of the Lord their Shepherd! For us, how much more blessed to see in all these things the shadows of which we have the substance! In all these, the living God it is who is discovering Himself to us; the God who, unlike the gods of the heathen, has eyes to see, and ears to hear, and heart to feel for us, and strong arm to save. The wilderness has thus its harvest of rich experiences stored up for that time in which-

"He who to His rest shall greet thee Greets thee with a well-known love."

Guided by His hand, watched over and tended by His unfailing goodness, the heart that realizes it all longs after Himself. And this one thing lacking in our cup of blessing gives us the character of pilgrims, not carried on simply by the resistless stream of time, but oared forward by their hearts,-by the faith which is not alone "the evidence of things unseen," but also "the substance of things hoped for." And thus the path of the just becomes " as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day,"-the glory awaiting us ever brightening more our path as we approach it. There alone is our home-the place of our affections, the land of rest.

" Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young." The sparrow and the swallow are here our emblems; the sparrow, the social bird,-the sparrow alone upon the housetop, the perfect figure of desolation; the swallow, " the bird of freedom," as its name implies, the restless bird, ever on the wing, but which finds too, its place of rest, tamed by the power of love.

Thus will heaven be to us:the sparrow's house, the swallow's nest. God has formed us for social affections, and in heaven they shall be fully satisfied. We may be solitary in the wilderness, in heaven never. He who "setteth the solitary in families" has prepared for us a city. Cain's" thought was not the original, and was only wrong in the endeavor to realize in separation from God, and in rebellion against Him, what can be enjoyed aright but from His hand. Of the city which hath foundations, the builder and maker is God. And that city is the heavenly Jerusalem, not a city of earth.

This city is His " for whom are all things, and by whom are all things." The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; the glory of God shall lighten it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof. How that sweet penetrating light permeating the whole place with its pure radiance tells of what the joy of the presence of God shall be! Of this glory the Lamb is the lamp; and the city is the bride, too, of the Lamb. We cannot wonder, for "for Him were all things created, and by Him were all things created." And He it is who is the "Father of Eternity,"* as the prophet calls Him:the One through whom all things get their eternal shape. *Isaiah 9:6:not the "Everlasting Father;" of which phrase, in our common version, much mischief has been made.* Such is the true David of whom that one hundred and thirty-second psalm is written:who "sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty One of Jacob; Surely I will not come into my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty One of Jacob." Yes, if Jacob's mighty One is to dwell in grace among men, Christ it is who alone, at His own personal cost, must find Him a habitation. The psalm speaks of Israel indeed, and of God's dwelling-place on earth, but how fully is it true of the heavenly city! The Son has provided a resting-place for the Father's heart; and it is the Father's voice which says, " This is My rest forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it."

But the Father's rest is the place of the Son's affection and delight-eternal delight, for He changes not. The city is the Lamb's bride, won for Himself, as the title implies, in the hour of His sacrifice, purchased by the shedding of His precious blood. Here He sees the fruit of the travail of His soul. This is the home, beloved reader, that God has provided for His own. Well may we long for an inheritance such as this. Here the sparrow will find a house. The ties of affection which unite us here will there receive their full interpretation, refined and spiritualized into links by which the redeemed will be held indissolubly to one another. The all-enveloping love of Christ to each and all will unite all in a tender and complacent delight which will be the reflection and response to that love of His. Yes, the sparrow will find a house indeed.

And the swallow will find a nest also. The bird of freedom, none the less free, held fast by the same cords of love, will spend her unwearied energy in the joy of service:she shall have a nest where she may lay her young. What man calls freedom is commonly, alas! but independence, and thus selfishness and mere unrest. The swallow's restless wing may well be its type. But the swallow serving at the nest is God's image of freedom, and of satisfaction, surely, too. Such service eternity surely will not divorce us from, or we should in one respect fail in likeness to our blessed Lord. He is a servant forever; and service never can be lacking to the kings and priests of God.

But this sparrow's house, this swallow's nest, where is it? How strange, at first sight, the answer! " Thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God!" Yet this is but the first thought, to which we return, and which puts the seal of perfection on the whole picture. God's altars were two, in those tabernacles to which of course the Psalmist refers here:there was the altar of burnt-offering in the outer court, the altar of incense in the sanctuary itself; the one was the atonement-altar, the other the praise-altar:we must look at both.

The altar, in every case, is Christ; the altar that sanctifieth the gift-all and every gift-could be no other. And it is simple that in Him the soul rests, and forever rests. But it is clear that not merely Christ in His own person is intended, but Christ in connection with that of which the altar in its purpose speaks.

First, then, the atonement-altar calls back our hearts to that which is the basis of all our blessings. If forever we are to enjoy a scene in which our hearts shall find joy multiplied as many times as we shall find others to share with us in it, we shall, then at least, forever realize how this is for us the result of that unequaled sorrow, when the accumulated sins of generations were borne by one solitary Man. The blessedness of communion with God and with one another springs out of the forsaking by God of Him whom all else had either rejected or forsaken. Upon this foundation shall we build forever, and here will our hearts adoringly and forever rest. The sparrow will find a house.

That service of love, too, will it not be the basis of all other service, even as our freedom will be the fruit of His purchase ?-" O Lord, doubtless I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds." Yes, surely, in the altar of sacrifice the swallow will find her nest.

The praise-altar is itself the fruit of the altar of atonement; in sign of which, the blood was put upon the horns of it:and this is the altar with which the priests in the sanctuary had to do. Our altar of praise is that upon which our whole life is to be offered, and this in the fragrance of the incense, which is Christ Himself. If already our life here, how much more the life to come, of which indeed the present is but the beginning! "Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; they will be still praising Thee." There we shall rest, where they rest not day or night in the chorus of universal praise. Even now, true service is that; then, it shall be the whole outcome. " To me to live is Christ," says the apostle.-" The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." If of Jerusalem below it be true, how much more of the heavenly city, shall her "gates be called Praise"!

The third chapter of Genesis is the real commencement of that series of lives of which, as is plain, the book mainly consists. It is where the first man ceases to be "a type of Him that was to come" that he becomes for us a type in the fullest way – figure and fact in one. The page of his life (and but a page it is) that treats of innocency is not our example who were born in sin. Our history begins as fallen, and so too the history of our new life in God's grace.

Figure and fact, as I have observed, are blended together here. We must be prepared for this, which we shall find in some measure the case all through these histories. Especially in this first one of all, what could be more impressive for us than the unutterably solemn fact itself? Children as we are of the fall, its simple record is the most are in what is now our native condition, and also of how this came to be such. It is the title-deed to our sad inheritance of sin. And yet what follows in closest connection may well enable us to look at it steadfastly; for the ruins of the old creation have been, as we know, materials which God has used to build up for Himself that new one in which He shall yet find eternal rest.

A simple question entertained in the woman's soul..is the loss of innocence forever. It is enough only to admit a question as to Infinite Love to ruin all. This the serpent knew full well when he said unto the woman, "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"-that is, Has God indeed said so? In her answer you can see at once how that has done its work. She is off the ground of faith, and is reasoning; and the moment reasoning as to God begins, the soul is away from Him, and then further it is impossible by searching to find Him out. Thus in Paradise itself, with all the evidence of divine goodness before her eyes, she turns infidel at once. "And the woman said unto the serpent, ' We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.' "

Notice how plain it is that she is already fallen. She has admitted the question as to the apparent strangeness of God's ways, and immediately her eyes fasten upon the forbidden thing until she can see little else. God had set (chap. 2:9.) the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and without any prohibition. For the woman now it is the forbidden tree that occupies that place. Instead of life, she puts death (or what was identified with it for her) as the central thing. The "garden of delight" has faded from her eyes. It has become to her the very garden of fable afterward* (where all was not fable, but this very scene as depicted by him who was now putting it before the enchanted gaze of his victim)in which the one golden-fruited tree hung down its laden branches, guarded from man only by the dragon's jealousy. *The garden of Hesperides.* But here God and the dragon had changed places. Thus she adds to the prohibition, as if to justify herself against One who has lost His sovereignty for her heart, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it"-which He had not said. A mere touch, as she expressed it to herself, was death; and why, then, had He put it before them only to prohibit it? What was it He was guarding from them with such jealous care? Must it not be indeed something that He valued highly?

She first adds to the prohibition, then she weakens the penalty. Instead of "ye shall surely die," it is for her only "lest [for fear] ye die." There is no real certainty that death would be the result. Thus the question of God's love becomes a question of His truth also. I do not want upon the throne a being I cannot trust; hence comes the tampering with His word. The heart deceives the head. If I do not want it to be true, to be true, I soon learn to question if it be so.

All this length the woman, in her first and only answer to the serpent, goes. He can thus go further, and step at once into the place of authority with her which God has so plainly lost. He says, not "Ye shall not surely die"-for so much the woman had already said-but "Surely ye shall not die." Her feeble question of it becomes on his part the peremptory denial both of truth and love in God:"Surely ye shall not die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

How sure he is of his dupe! and she on her part needs no further solicitation:" And when the woman saw that the tree was good"-she was Seeing through the devil's, eyes now-" that the tree was good for food"-there the lust of the flesh was doing its work-"and that it was pleasant to the eyes "-there the lust of the eyes comes o-t-"and a tree to be desired to make one wise" -there the pride of life is manifested-" she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat."

Thus the sin was consummated. And herein we may read, if we will, as clear as day, our moral genealogy. These are still our own features, as in a glass, naturally. Let us pause and ponder them for a moment, as we may well do, seriously and solemnly.

It is clear as can be that with the heart man first of all disbelieved. His primary condition was not, as some would so fain persuade us, that of a seeker by his natural reason after God. God had declared Himself in a manner suited to his condition, in goodness which he had only to enjoy, and which was demonstration to his every sense and faculty of the moral character of Him from whose hand all came to him. The very prohibition should have been his safeguard, reminding the sole master of that fair and gladsome scene, were he tempted to forget it, that he had himself a Master. Nay, would not the prohibited tree itself have proved itself still "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," had he respected the prohibition, by giving him to learn what sin was in a way he could not else have known it, as ''lawlessness,'' in subjection to the will of God?

The entertaining of a question as to God was, as we have seen, man's ruin. He has been a questioner ever since. Having fallen from the sense of infinite goodness, he either remains simply unconscious of it,-his gods the mere deification of his lusts and passions,-or, if conscience be too strong for this, involves himself in toilsome processes of reasoning at the best, to find out as afar off the God who is so nigh. He reasons as to whether He that formed the ear can hear, or He that made the eyes can see, or He that gave man knowledge know, or, no less foolishly whether He from whom comes the ability to conceive of justice, goodness, mercy, love, has these as His attributes or not! And still the heart deceives the head:what he wills, that he believes. For a holy God would be against his lusts, and a righteous God take vengeance on his sins; and how can God be good and the world so evil, or love man and let him suffer and die? Thus man reasons, taken in the toils of him who has helped him to gain the knowledge of which he boasts,-so painful and so little availing.

The way out of all this entanglement is a very simple one, however unwelcome it may be. He has but to judge himself for what he is, to escape out of his captor's hands. Self-judgment would justify the holiness and righteousness of God, and make him find in his miseries, not the effect of God's indifference as to him, but of his own sins. It would make him also at least suspect the certainty of his own conclusions, which so many selfish interests might combine to warp.

But still "Ye shall be as gods" deceives him, and thus he will judge every thing, and God also, rather than himself. And so, being his own god, he becomes the victim of his own pride,-his god is his belly, as Scripture expresses it; insufficient to himself, and unable to satisfy the cravings of a nature which thus, even in its degradation, bears witness of having been created for something more, he falls under the power of his own lust, the easy dupe of any bait that Satan can prepare for him.

It is thus evident how the fall from God-the loss of confidence in divine goodness-is the secret of his whole condition — of both his moral corruption and his misery together. For let my circumstances be what they may, if I can see them ordered for me unfailingly by One in whom infinite wisdom, power, and goodness combine, and whose love toward me I am assured of, my restlessness is gone, my will subjected to that other will in which I can but acquiesce and delight:I have " escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust," and I have been delivered from the misery attendant upon it.

To this, then, must the heart be brought back; and thus it is very simple how "with the heart man believeth to righteousness." The faith that is real and operative in the soul (and no other can of course be of any value), first of all and above all in order to holiness, works peace and restoration of the heart to God and, let me say, of God to the. heart. How fatal, yet how common, a mistake to invert this order! And what an inlet of blessedness it is thus to cease from one's own natural self-idolatry in the presence of a God who is really (and worthy to be) that! There is no such blessedness beside.

But we must return to look at man's natural condition. Notice how surely this leprosy of sin spreads, and most, surely to those nearest and most intimate. Tempted ourselves, we become tempters of others, and are not satisfied until we drag down those who love us-I cannot say, I whom we love, for this is too horrible to be called love-to our own level. Nay, if even we would consciously do no such thing, we cannot help doing all we can to effect it. We dress up sin for them in the most alluring forms; we invest them with an atmosphere of it which they breathe without suspicion. The woman may be here more efficient than the serpent. Herself deceived, she does not deceive the man, but. she allures him. The victory is easier, speedier, than that over herself:" She gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."

The first effect is, "their eyes were opened;" the first "invention," of which they have sought out so many since, an apron to hide their shame from their own eyes. Thus conscience begins in shame, and sets them at work upon expedients, whereby they may haply forget their sins, and attain respectability at least, if conscience be no more possible.

How natural such a thought is we are all witnesses to ourselves, and yet it is a thing full of danger. It was the effort to retain just such a "fig-leaf apron which sent the accusers of the adulteress out of the presence of the Lord. " Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone at her" had been like a lightning-flash, revealing to themselves their own condition. They were "convicted in their own consciences;" but a convicted conscience does not always lead to self-judgment or to God:and "they, convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest"-the one who naturally would have most character to uphold,-" even unto the last," and left the sinner in the only possible safe place for a sinner-in the presence of the sinner's Saviour. She, whose fig-leaf apron was wholly gone, who had no more character or respectability to maintain, could stay. This was what the loss of that still left to her; and so had He said to the Pharisees, " The publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." This is the misery still of man's first invention, which in so many shapes he still repeats.

When the voice of the Lord God is heard in the garden, the fig-leaf apron avails nothing. He hides himself from God among the trees of the garden:"I was afraid, because I was naked" is his own account. This is what alternates ever with self-justification in a soul:the voice of God to it. These two principles will be found together in every phase of so-called natural religion the world over, and they will be found equally wherever Christianity itself is mutilated or misapprehended, making their appearance again. Man, in short, untaught of God, never gets beyond them; for he never can quite believe that he has for God a righteousness that He will accept, and he never can imagine God Himself providing a righteousness when he has none.

Hence, fear is the controlling principle always. His religiousness is an effort to avert wrath,-in reality, if it might be, to get away from God:and even with the highest profession it may be, still "there is none that seeketh after God." Notice thus, the Lord's picture of the " elder son " in the parable, who, hard-working, respectable, no wanderer from his father, no prodigal, but righteously severe on him who has spent his living with harlots, finds it yet a service barren enough of joy. The music and dancing in the father's house I are a strange sound to him:when he hears it, he calls a servant to know what it all means. His own friends, and his merriment, are all, outside, spite of his correct deportment, and he speaks out what is in his heart toward his father when he says, "Thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends."

There the Lord holds up the mirror for the Pharisee of all time. Plenty of self-assertion, of self-vindication, even as against God Himself; the tie to Him, self-interest; his heart elsewhere; a round of barren and joyless services. This must needs break down in terror when God comes really in:indeed, the principle all through is fear, -servile, not filial.

So Adam hides himself among the trees of the garden, but the voice of the blessed God follows him. "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, 'Where art thou?'

Here, then, we begin to trace the actings of divine grace with a sinner. Righteousness has its way no less, and judgment is not set aside, but maintained fully. And herein is shown out the harmony of the divine attributes, the moral unity of the God whose attributes they are. There is no conflict in His nature. Justice and mercy, holiness and love, are not at war in Him. When He acts, all act.

Q. 1.-If one has sinned, and has it not in his power to undo or make amends for what has been done, and pressed down with a sense of failure, what ought he to do ?

A. If restitution be really impossible, and full confession have been made already, nothing more is of course possible, so far as man is concerned. The great thing is to have one's feet in the Lord's hands, without reserve, that He may show all that is amiss, and not only the sin be judged, but the root detected also.

With regard to the question as to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is sufficient to refer you to Hebrews 13:8,-"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever."

Q. 2.-Why does it say in Romans x, " If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord"?- Is it the same as "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," in principle ? or is it something special for a Jew who had rejected Jesus as the Christ? Is it Jesus as Lord, referring to His being made Lord as man, as in Acts ii, or like Peter in Luke v ? and should we make it a condition with souls that they confess Jesus Lord with their mouth, "calling on the name of the Lord," to be saved ?

A. The controversy between God and man throughout the present dispensation is as to the rejection of Christ, as in the old it was with regard to idolatry. Man has crucified Jesus; God has made Him Lord and Christ. He who bows really to the authority of the Lord Jesus-that is, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord,-shall be saved." Of course it must be real. "Confess," I believe indeed, points to this. To confess is something more than to "profess." In a day of abundant profession, the owning Christ with the lips is very little :none but an infidel would deny Him to be Lord; yet it is not in vain to press confession; but it is that sort of confession, in the face of a still really unbelieving world, which brings one out of the enemy's ranks into the ranks of those openly His. The passage connects with Acts ii, clearly; the word to the jailor does not speak of outward confession, but that would be the fruit of it. There can be no question that immense blessing to the soul flows from the full and unflinching owning of Christ before men. The world is composed of two great camps, and neutrality there can be none; the line between Christ's people and His enemies is the limit of salvation; and hesitancy between the two must undoubtedly cloud the soul and hinder peace; but "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" is true in the most absolute way:"Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of the Father with the holy angels."

In regard to another question asked, I would say that I do not believe salvation from sin is enough preached. Salvation from wrath to come is however the first necessity in order to realize the other; and thus the passover is the basis of the Red-Sea deliverance. I have touched upon some other points in another paper.

Q. 3.-Is one put away from the Lord's table handed over to Satan, as in 1 Corinthians v ? or was it only apostolic power that could do this ?

A. The formal delivering to Satan was only apostolic; the assembly can only put away from among themselves; its power is confined to the sphere of those "within," and one ceasing to be within was outside its jurisdiction. Apostolic power was not thus limited. It is of all possible importance not to exceed the strict limit of (I do not say, authority, but) duty, or lack of all true power will be the result.

"All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come,-all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." (1 Cor. 3:21-23.)

Death is here mentioned among the "all things" which belong to those who are Christ's. As the apostle is evidently speaking of privilege-of blessing, it follows that death must be understood as being that-as coming in blessing, if it come at all, to such as are addressed in these words.

It is a common thought in Christendom that when death comes, even to the household of faith, it comes as a penalty. But is this a true thought ? Did not Christ bear the whole penalty of sin on the cross? and are not believers divinely seen to be "dead with Him"? Then, are they not beyond death in the sense of a penalty? If so, should death come to such, before the Lord comes, does it not come as a servant, to take off the fetter which keeps them in absence from the Lord ?

It is worthy of remark that Grace not only bestows actual blessings-that is, things which are blessings in themselves, but it takes those things which are not blessings, but which are the results of sin, and having put away the sin through the cross, it uses those results for blessing, making them act as blessing. In this way all things work together for good to those who love God.

This blessed truth applies even to death, Grace having put a silver lining into that dark cloud,-in other words, made a road of light through the dark valley. This is clearly taught in our passage,-"All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come."

What is meant by death being ours,-how it became ours; and the blessedness of it being ours, are questions which suggest themselves. May the Holy Spirit guide and bless.

As to the first of these questions-What is meant by death being ours?-we get the answer, in part, in our text. It will be readily seen that death is here placed in company with certain things, namely, "the world," "life," "things present," "things to come,"-some of which are blessings in themselves; and all of them are represented as being in some sense blessings. It is also placed in company with persons-blessed persons, as " Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas." In. what sense could it be said to those who are here addressed that Paul and Apollos and Cephas "are yours"? The context will aid us to a true answer. The next verse reads, " Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God." In the fifth verse of the chapter before us we have these words:"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed?" Thus Paul and Apollos were ministers of Christ-that is, His servants, by whom these Christians had believed, and by whom they were being helped. In the second epistle to the same assembly, the apostle says, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." (2 Cor. 4:5.) Mark the expression, "your servants for Jesus sake." Thus Paul and Apollos and Cephas were the servants of believers for Jesus' sake. But the Holy Spirit in our passage puts death in company with these servants of Christ and His people. This being so, it may be said to those who are Christ's, Death is your servant.

This view of death, of course, can only be taken with reference to believers. To those who do not receive Christ, death is a tyrant, a king-the king of terrors; whereas to those who receive Him,- to those who are a new creation in Him, all is changed; death is theirs-their servant.

But it may be asked, Is not death an enemy? Yes, for the Word says so; yet an enemy is not always in a situation to do harm. If you are in the hands of an enemy-if he can say, You are mine, then he can harm you; but if he is in your hands, or in the hands of your all-powerful Friend, then he cannot harm you, but may be obliged to render you service. It is just so with death for those who are Christ's-a conquered enemy, retained as a servant.

It would not be well for all the household to remain awake during the long, dreary night; so this dark servant is used to put them to sleep, one by one, until the day dawn and the Lord come.

What has thus far been said will perhaps be sufficient to make plain what is meant by death being ours.

The next question which seems naturally to arise is, How did death become ours? We owe this, as well as all else of blessing, to the Lord Jesus and His death. He who knew no sin, gave His life in love as an atonement for sin,-thereby dethroning death, and assigning it a new place, even that of serving those who accept God's salvation.

We read that " our Saviour Jesus Christ . . . hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1:10.) It is not here said that He will abolish death, though He will do that in another sense in God's own time; but it is affirmed that He "hath", done it. He has abolished it as a king, and detained it as a subject-abolished it as a master, and detained it as a servant. Precious truth for faith!

These words to Timothy simply inform us that we are indebted to the Lord Jesus for this victory over death. A few passages will show that He gained this victory for us by His death.

Two in the epistle to the Hebrews are very plain and blessed on this. In the former, after a quotation from Isaiah, in which the Son is saying, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me," it is added, " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Heb. 2:13-15.) In what sense had the devil the power of death? He had not power to take life-he could not kill people; but he managed to induce man, the representative man, to sin-to disobey God, and of course the penalty previously and divinely announced must follow. This was the nature of the devil's power over man; getting him to do that which according to God must bring in death. It is as though you have an enemy who has no direct power to injure you, but who by some deep-laid plan draws you into the doing of that which is contrary to the laws of the land, thereby bringing you to grief. In this way he gains his point, and exults over you through your own misdoing and its penalty. This may aid in comprehending the sense in which the devil had the power of death.* *It may be added that the devil has the power of death in the sense of being able to portray death, even to the children of God, in a way to bring them into bondage, through fear of it. In this way he has ever actively used it since he got man to do that which brought it.*
How did God in His grace counter work the enemy? How did He foil him who had thus the. power of death? Our passage replies that " as the children are partakers of flesh and blood," the Son of God "took part of the same," being manifested in flesh, "that through death,"-His own death as an atonement for sin, "He might destroy," that is, annul, dethrone, or bring to naught, " him that had the power of death." Thus the divine Son became man, that through death He might put away from before God that which gave the devil his power. And having fully done this,- having conquered him who had the power of death, it follows that death is in the hands of the Conqueror, and therefore those who are His may say in happy confidence, Death is ours. In this way it got in company with Paul and Apollos and Cephas, yea, all things, in working for good to those who are Christ's. How mortifying, then, must it be to the great adversary to see that which he meant for evil used in grace in the service of those whom he sought to destroy! And how happily may the children of God pass their days in this scene, instead of spending a lifetime, through fear of death, subject to bondage!

In another part of the same epistle, we get the same precious truth, freedom from judgment being added.-" Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Heb. 9:26-28.) Here we have the awful situation in which "men" are,-appointed to death and judgment,-death as the result of the first sin, and judgment in view of personal guilt. How did Christ meet all this for those who believe? The answer is, "He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;" thus taking them from under that appointment; and, therefore, " unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Hence, instead of believers coming into judgment as to their sins, Christ, who bore the judgment for them, appears unto their salvation. One cannot but be reminded of His own blessed words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life." (John 5:24, Revised Version?) Instead, therefore, of mournfully singing,-"How long shall Death the tyrant reign, And triumph o'er the just ? " is it the privilege of the believer joyously to sing,- "Death and judgment are behind me, Grace and glory are before;

All the billows rolled o'er Jesus,
There exhausted all their power.

"First-fruits of the resurrection,
He is risen from the tomb;
Now I stand in new creation,
Free, because beyond my doom.

"Jesus died, and I died with Him,
Buried in His grave I lay,
One with Him in resurrection,
Seated now in Him on high."

What claim can death and judgment have on those who are thus seen of God as having died with Christ, and who are now seated in the heavenly places in Him ? Yet those who are thus saved will be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, and be rewarded according to the fruit they have brought forth. A full salvation through Christ, and Christian responsibility, are alike taught in the Word of God, and are to be alike maintained in Christian teaching and ways. But then, those who have preached a full gospel, however much they have taught and practiced holiness of walk, have ever been charged with being antinomian, and therefore we need not be surprised that it is so now.

But I must give a little more testimony from the Word, on the question, How death became ours. The apostle, in the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, after stating the gospel which he had preached unto them, and by which they were saved, namely, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again;-and after stating the blessed results, he exclaims, in the present confidence and triumph of faith, " O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Yes, Christ died and rose, that those who are His might thus exult over death and the grave. He went down into death as an atonement for sin,-went down into death to extract its sting, bearing the full curse of the law (sin's strength); and as a proof that He had done it,-that He had fully satisfied divine righteousness and holiness, that He had perfectly glorified God in finishing the work which was given Him to do, God brought Him out of death, yea; set Him at His own right hand. In this way death became ours. Its sting being gone, it cannot harm. Visiting, then, the household of faith, it must do so in grace,-it must do so in service. In any other capacity, it has no place there. This is a part of the gospel-a part of the glad tidings which Paul, with others, preached. Blessed truth to the believing soul! Precious thought-the cross endured! · and the tomb empty! Surely those who enter into the divine meaning of this may joyously exclaim, even now, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" and not wait till the resurrection-morning for the utterance of this note of triumph.

The apostle John, in telling of the sight which he had of the Son of Man in His judicial glory, in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, says, " When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead, and He laid His right hand upon me, saying, ' Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of hades.'" (Rev. 1:17, 18, Revised Version.) The One whom John saw in such glory was the One who had died in love to put away sin, and whose soul was not left in hades, nor His flesh suffered to see corruption. He is alive for evermore,-thus telling us that all is done, that the keys of death and hades are at His girdle, that through His death He has acquired full authority over them, that He, the First and the Last, has title to put His gentle hand on His own, and to say, " Fear not." Death is conquered, and coming to the believer, it comes subject to its Conqueror. All is in grace to those who are dead with Him, for such are " under grace."

In the first epistle to the Thessalonians, fourth chapter and fifth verse, we read, " If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." The word here rendered "in" is the one usually rendered through. Though the Revised Version retains in the text, it gives through in the margin as being the Greek. Mr. Darby in his translation renders it through,-"those who have fallen asleep through Jesus." Dean Alford reads the passage, "them also which fell asleep through Jesus will God bring together with Him." Those who have departed this life in the faith of Jesus owe their happy death to Him, and to His death. Having part with Him in "the resurrection of life," and in His manifestation in glory, will follow.

Thus, by the light of the sure Word, we are guided to the conclusion that death is ours, not through any thing in us, or of us, but through what grace has wrought for us on the cross. We owe all to the love of Jesus in giving His precious life for us. We may sing,-

"His be the Victor's name
Who fought the fight alone,
Triumphant saints no honor claim,
His conquest was their own.

"By weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown,
Trod all our foes beneath His feet
By being trodden down.

"He Hell's dark power laid low;
Made sin, He Sin overthrew;
Bowed to the grave, destroyed, it so,
And Death, by dying, slew.

"Bless, bless the Conqueror slain,
Slain in His victory;
Who lived, who died, who lives again,
For thee, His Church, for Thee!"

(1) "Happy the man:" comp. psalm 2:12; here, obedience ; there, faith.

(2) Contrast with psalm 2:1:here he meditates on Jehovah's law; there they meditate rebellion.

(3) Compare the fig-tree blasted for its fruitlessness (Matt. 21:19.), the figure of that generation of the Jews. The next figure of the chaff also John the Baptist uses.

(5) "Nor sinners:" see Isaiah 4:3, 4:Israel will thus become a nation all holy, according to the terms of the new covenant; none shall have need to say to another, Know the Lord.

(6) "The way of the wicked:" comp. 2:12.

BOOK I.-The Genesis of the Psalms. (Ps. 1:-41:)- Christ the basis of blessing for His people (Israel).

BOOK II.-The Exodus. (Ps. 42:-72:)-Their ruin, and redemption in grace in the latter days.

BOOK III.-The Leviticus. (Ps. 73:-89:)-The holiness of God in His dealings with them.

BOOK IV.-The Numbers. (Ps. 90:-106:)-The Perfect Man replacing the failed first man, and the earth committed to His charge. –

BOOK V.-The Deuteronomy. (Ps. 107:-150:)-The moral conclusion as to the divine ways.

BOOK I.

Section 1. (Ps. 1:-8:)-Christ rejected by man, exalted by God; this characterizing and limiting His people's sufferings,

Section 2. (Ps. 9:-15:)-Antichrist and the enemies of the people set aside.

Section 3. (Ps. 16:-41:)-Christ amongst the people:in His life and sacrificial work; the basis of all blessing.

SECTION 1.

The counsels of God as to the exaltation of Christ, rejected of man, to the throne of David and of the world; and the connection of this with the deliverance of the remnant of Israel in the latter days, suffering and persecuted during the time of His patience; but whose sufferings give them needful exercise of soul, preparing them for final blessing.

(1) Ps. i, 2:-The blessing of those obedient in heart to the law, and believing in Christ, in contrast with the portion of the wicked who reject Him and perish by judgment when He comes. ' These two things,-the spirit of obedience and of faith,-are the prerequisites for blessing, not only for Israel, but for all. See as to Israel, Deuteronomy 30:1-3 ; and 18:18, 19.

(2) Ps. 3:-7:-Exercises of the remnant during the time of Messiah's rejection and patience, in the land, amid the mass of the ungodly; exercises which deepen continually in character, until they are completely searched out in the presence of God, and brought to reliance on divine mercy alone.

(3) Ps. 8:-Deliverance of the persecuted people, by the exaltation of the Lord as Son of Man to all authority, set over all God's works in the world to come, and making Jehovah's name excellent in all the earth.

PSALM I.

The blessing of the remnant, separated from the evil around, and in heart obedient to the law; in view of coming judgment, which will completely and forever separate.

Happy the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of scoffers;

2. But in Jehovah's law is his delight; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.

3. He is even like a tree planted by the water-channels, which giveth its fruit in its season:his leaf also withereth not; and whatsoever he doeth he carrieth through.

4. The wicked are not so; but they are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5. Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6. For Jehovah knoweth the way of the righteous ; and the way of the wicked shall perish.

The body is of Christ, and He loves it as He loves Himself; and every one who would serve it will best learn to do so by knowing His heart and purposes toward it. In a word, it is Christ who serves, though it may be through us. We are but "joints and bands." If we are not derivative and communicative from Christ, we are useless. To be useful, my eye and heart must be on Christ, and not on the issue of my service. He who judges of his service by present appearances will judge by the blossom, and not by the fruit; and after all, the service is not for the sake of the Church, but for the sake of Christ; and if He be served in the Church, though the Church own it not, yet, Christ being served, He will own it.